1017. So great an earthquake. That this signifies that the church was no more, is evident from what has been said, so far, in this chapter concerning the church, and before concerning faith alone, which at this day constitutes the church.
Continuation concerning the Seventh Precept:-
When a man abstains from hatred, and turns away from it, and shuns it as diabolical, then flow in through heaven from the Lord, love, charity, mercy, and clemency; and then, for the first time, the works which he does are the works of love and charity, whereas the works which he previously did, however good they might appear to be in the external form, were all works of the love of self and of the world, wherein hatred lurked on that account if not rewarded. So long as hatred is not put away, so long a man is merely natural, and such a man remains in all his hereditary evil. Nor can he become spiritual before hatred, with its root, which is the love of ruling over all, is removed. For the fire of heaven, which is spiritual love, cannot flow in so long as the fire of hell, which is hatred, opposes and shuts it out.
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