Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/171

Rh to love truth, sincerity, justice, benevolence—all those divine and heavenly principles which come from God, and which, when received by men, make them angels—images and likenesses of the Heavenly Father. Nor has it been, nor is it now, generally known that these divine principles are truly loved, only so far as they are carried into practice—ultimated in our daily lives—made governing principles of action in all our intercourse and transactions with our fellow-men. But the teachings of the New Church are explicit on this subject. Let two or three passages from the Writings suffice for illustration:

"So far as a man shuns and is averse to unlawful gains acquired by fraud and craft, he wills what is sincere, right and just; and at length he begins to love what is sincere because it is sincere, what is right because it is right, and what is just because it is just, for the reason that they are from the Lord and the love of the Lord is in them. For to love the Lord is not to love his person, but it is to love those things which proceed from Him, for these are the Lord with man; thus it is to love what is itself sincere, what is itself right, what is itself just; and since these things are the Lord, therefore in proportion as a man loves them and acts from them, he acts from the Lord; and in the same proportion the Lord removes things insincere and unjust, even as to the intentions and will wherein they have their roots." (Ap. Ex. n. 973.)

"By loving the Lord is not meant to love Him