Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/113

 are consociated, as to their spirits, with hell—with that Evil One, who "was a murderer from the beginning." On this point, the Doctrine of the New Church thus speaks: "All who are in evils as to life, and thence in falses, are homicides or murderers, for they are enemies and haters of goodness and truth; for evil hates good and the false hates truth: but an evil man does not know that he is in such hatred, till he becomes a spirit; in which case hatred is the very delight of his life. Wherefore from hell, where all the evil are, there constantly exhales a delight of doing evil from hatred; but from heaven, where all the good are, there constantly exhales a delight of doing good from love. Hence two opposite spheres meet each other in the midst between heaven and hell, and combat each other. In this mid-region, is man, as to his spirit, while he lives in the world. If he is then in evil, and thence in falses, he goes over to the side of hell, and thence comes into the delight of doing evil from hatred: but if he is in good, and thence in truths, he goes over to the side of heaven, and thence comes into the delight of doing good from love. The delight of doing evil from hatred, which exhales from hell, is the delight of killing: but because they cannot kill the body, they wish to kill the spirit, and to kill the spirit is to deprive it of spiritual life, which is the life of heaven. From these considerations, it is manifest, that the precept, 'Thou shalt not kill,' involves also that thou shalt not hate thy neighbor, likewise that thou shalt not hate the good of the church, and its truth; for he who hates goodness and truth hates his neigh-