Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/296

200 In the celestial sense, our Lord Jesus Christ is meant by father; and by mother the communion of saints, by which His church is meant, scattered over the whole world. (T. C. R, n 305-307.)

"Thou shalt not kill." This commandment not to kill, in the natural sense means not to kill man, and not to inflict upon him any wound of which he may die, and also not to mutilate his body; and it means, moreover, not to bring any deadly evil upon his name and fame, since with many fame and life go hand in hand. In a wider natural sense murder means enmity, hatred, and revenge, which breathe the spirit of murder; for murder lies concealed within them, as fire in wood beneath the ashes. Infernal fire is nothing else; hence one is said to be inflamed with hatred, and to burn with revenge. These are murders in intention and not in act; and if the fear of the law and of retaliation and revenge were taken away from them, they would burst forth into act; especially if there be treachery or ferocity in the intention. That hatred is murder is evident from these words of the Lord: "Ye have heard, that it was said hy them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is rashly angry with his brother, shall be in danger of hell-fire" (Matt. v. 21, 22). This is because all that is of the intention is also of the will, and thus in itself is of the act.

In the spiritual sense murder means all modes of killing and destroying the souls of men, which are various and manifold; as turning them away from God, religion, and Divine worship, by throwing out scandals against them, and by persuading to such things as excite aversion and also abhorrence.

In the celestial sense, to kill means to be rashly angry with the Lord, to hate Him, and wish to blot out His name. It is those who do this of whom it is said that they crucify Him; which they would even do, as did the Jews, if as before He were to come into the world. This is meant by "the Lamb standing as it had been slain" in Rev. v. 6, xiii. 8; and by "the crucified" in Rev. xi. 8; Heb. vi. 6; Gal. iii. 1. (T. C. R. n. 309-311.)

Since all who are in hell are in hatred against the Lord, and therefore in hatred against heaven,—for they are against goods and truths,—therefore hell is the very murderer, or the state whence murder itself proceeds. The reason is that man is man from the Lord, by virtue of the reception of good and truth, and therefore, to destroy good and truth is to destroy the very human, and thus to kill man. That those who are in hell are of such a