Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/291

Rh xxii. 35-37, and Luke x. 25-28. For to him who loves any person or thing above all things that person or thing is God, and is Divine. For example, to him who loves himself or the world above all things himself or the world is his God. This is the reason why such do not in heart acknowledge any God. They are conjoined with their like in hell, where all are collected who love themselves and the world above all things.

The spiritual sense of this commandment is that no other God than the Lord Jesus Christ is to be worshipped; because He is Jehovah who came into the world and wrought the redemption without which no man nor any angel could have been saved.

The celestial sense of this commandment is that Jehovah the Lord is Infinite, Immense, and Eternal; that He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent; that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; who Was, Is, and Will Be; that He is Love itself and Wisdom itself, or Good itself and Truth itself, consequently Life itself; thus the Only One, from whom all things are. (T. C. R. n. 291-295.)

"Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain." In the natural sense this means the name itself, and the abuse of it in various kinds of conversation; especially in speaking falsely or lying, and in oaths without cause, and for the purpose of exculpation in one's evil intentions (which are cursings), and in sorceries and enchantments. But to swear by God and His Holiness, the Word, and the Evangelists, in coronations, in inaugurations into the priesthood, and inductions into offices of trust, is not taking the name of God in vain, unless the swearer afterwards casts aside his solemn promises as vain. And the name of God, because it is Holiness itself, must continually be used in the holy things pertaining to the church; as in prayers, psalms, and in all worship; and also in preaching, and in writing on ecclesiastical subjects. For God is in all things pertaining to religion, and when rightly invoked by His name He is present and hears. In these things the name of God is hallowed. . . . The name Jesus is likewise holy, as is known from the saying of the Apostle, that at that name every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth; and moreover from the fact that no devil in hell can speak that name. The names of God are many, which must not be taken in vain; as Jehovah, Jehovah God, Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit.