1017. Such an earthquake, so great, signifies that the church was no more. This is evident from what has been said thus far in this chapter about the church, and before about faith alone, which at this day constitutes the church.
(Continuation respecting the Seventh Commandment)
When a man abstains from hatred and turns away from it and shuns it as diabolical, then love, charity, mercy and clemency flow in through heaven from the Lord, and then first the works which he does are works of love and charity. The works he had done before, however good might be their appearance in the external form, were all works of the love of self and of the world, in which hatred lurked whenever they were not rewarded. So long as hatred is not put away so long man is merely natural; and the merely natural man remains in all his inherited 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, stands in the way and shuts it out.
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