Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/126

 earth." "By Babylon, here," says the Doctrine of the New Church, "is signified the Roman Catholic Religion, as to its interior hidden quality; that by reason of its originating from the love of dominion, grounded in self-love, over the holy things of the church and of heaven, thus over all things of the Lord and his Word,—it defiled and profaned the things that relate to the Word and thence to the church."

It may here briefly be explained what is meant by adulterating the good and falsifying the truth of the Word. "To falsify the Word, is to take truths out of it, and apply them to confirm what is false." For instance, the Lord says, "Without me ye can do nothing:" now, if this passage be taken to confirm the false doctrine that man cannot keep the commandments, then that passage of the Word is falsified. To adulterate the good of the Word is still worse than to falsify its truth. To adulterate the good of the Word, is to make use of those holy teachings which command good actions, and turn them into a means of gratifying evil loves, as the love of riches and of power. This the Romish Church does, when she perverts the true meaning of such passages of the Word as teach to give to the poor, or to ascribe all things to the Lord, and makes them the means of drawing in wealth to herself; or when she translates the word signifying "Repent," by the expression "Do penance," thus making this Divine command a means of keeping her members under the power of the priest, and so securing dominion over