mother," is the mediating commandment, for in it "father" means the
Father in the heavens, and "mother" means the church, which is the
neighbor. (A.E., n. 1026.)

Something shall now be said about how conjunction is effected by means
of the commandments of the Decalogue. Man does not conjoin himself to
the Lord, but the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and this He does
by man's knowing, understanding, willing, and doing these commandments;
and when man does them there is conjunction, but if he does not do them
he ceases to will them, and when he ceases to will them he ceases also
to understand and know them. For what does willing amount to if man
when he is able does not do? Is it not a figment of reason? From this
it follows that conjunction is effected when a man does the commandments
of the Decalogue.

But it has been said that man does not conjoin himself to the Lord, but
that the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and that conjunction is
effected by doing; and from this it follows that it is the Lord in man
that does these commandments. But anyone can see that a covenant cannot
be entered into and conjunction be effected by it unless there is some
return on man's part, not only in consent but also in acceptance. To
this end the Lord has imparted to man a freedom to will and act as if of
himself, and such a freedom that man does not know otherwise, when he is
thinking about truth and doing good, than that the freedom is in himself
and thus from himself. There is this return on man's part in order that
conjunction may be effected. But as this freedom is from the Lord, and
continually from Him, man must by all means acknowledge that thinking
about and understanding truth and willing and doing good are not from
himself, but are from the Lord.