nearly everyone; yet everyone does know it, as may be seen above
(n. 258). Nearly all are ignorant of it because faith separate has
obliterated knowledge of it. For this faith declares that it alone saves
and not any good work, that is, any good of charity; also that men are no
longer under the yoke of the law, but are free. Those who have frequently
heard such teaching no longer give thought to any evil of life or any
good of life. Everyone, moreover, is inclined by nature to embrace such
teaching, and once he has done so he no longer thinks about the state of
his life. This is why it is not known that shunning evils as sins is the
Christian religion itself.

[2] That this is unknown was disclosed to me in the spiritual world. I
have asked more than a thousand newcomers from the world whether they
knew that to shun evils as sins is religion itself. They said that they
did not and that it was a new idea which they had not heard before, but
had heard that they cannot of themselves do good and that they are not
under the yoke of the law. When I inquired whether they knew that a man
must examine himself, see his sins, repent and begin a new life and that
otherwise sins are not remitted, and if sins are not remitted, men are
not saved; and when I reminded them that this was read out in a deep
voice to them each time they observed the Holy Supper, they replied that
they paid no attention to that but only to this, that they have remission
of sins by the sacrament of the Supper and that faith effects the rest
without their knowing it.

[3] I asked again, Why have you taught your children the Decalog? Was it
not that they might know what evils are sins to be shunned? Was it only
that they might know and believe, but do nothing? Why is it said that
this is new? To this they could only reply that they know and yet do not
know, and that they never think of the sixth* commandment when they