what belong to man), so far love to the Lord enters.

These eight commandments include the evils that must be shunned, but the
two others, namely, the third and fourth, include certain things that
must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that
parents must be honored. But how these two commandments should be
understood, not by men of the Jewish church but by men of the Christian
church, will be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 949).




Part Second--THE COMMANDMENTS

I. The First Commandment

"Thou shalt not make to thee other gods" includes not loving self and
the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is
his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love
to God, also love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself
loves his own (proprium); and as a man's own (proprium) is nothing but
evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil
hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things
sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own
(proprium), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when
one is sunk in the body and in his own (proprium) he is in corporeal
ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in
thick darkness in respect to higher things; while he who is raised up by
the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick
darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as