Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/292

196 In the spiritual sense, the name of God means all that the church teaches from the Word, and through which the Lord is invoked and worshipped. All these things in the complex are the name of God. To take the name of God in vain means to take anything therefrom in frivolous conversation, in speaking falsely, in lying, imprecations, sorceries, and enchantments; for to do this also is to revile and blaspheme God, thus His name.

In the celestial sense, to take the name of God in vain means what the Lord said to the Pharisees, that "All sin and blasphemy shall he remitted unto man, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not he remitted" (Matt. xii. 31, 32). By blasphemy of the Spirit is meant blasphemy against the Divinity of the Lord's Humanity, and against the holiness of the Word. (T. C. R n. 297-299. See also p. 84.)

Since the name of God means that which is from God and which is God, and this is called Divine truth, and with us the Word, this because it is in itself Divine, and Most Holy is not to be profaned; and it is profaned when its Holiness is denied, as is done when it is contemned, rejected, and opprobriously treated. When this is done heaven is closed and man is left to hell; for the Word is the only medium of conjunction of heaven with the church, and therefore when from the heart it is rejected that conjunction is broken, and man being then left to hell no longer acknowledges any truth of the church. There are two things by which heaven is closed to the men of the church; one is the denial of the Lord's Divinity, and the other the denial of the Holiness of the Word. The reason is, that the Lord's Divinity is the all of heaven; and Divine truth, which is the Word in the spiritual sense, makes heaven. Hence it is evident that he who denies either the one or the other denies that which is the all of heaven, and from which heaven is and exists; and that he thereby deprives himself of all communication, and hence of conjunction, with heaven. To profane the Word is the same as the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is not remitted to any one; and therefore it is said in this commandment also, that he shall not be left unpunished who profanes the name of God. (A. E. n. 960.)

Because by the name of God Divine truth or the Word is meant, and the profanation of it means the denial of its sanctity, and therefore contempt, rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of God is inwardly profaned by a life against the commandments of the decalogue. For there is profanation which is inward and not outward; and there is profanation that is inward and at the same time outward; and there may also be something of outward profanation and not at the same time inward. Inward profanation is caused by the life; outward, by the speech. Inward