528. To this I shall add the following. There is a saying in the church that no one can fulfil the law, and he is even less able to do so because anyone who offends against one of the Ten Commandments, offends against them all. However, this manner of speaking is not what it sounds like. For it should be understood to mean that anyone acting of set purpose or by assent contrary to one commandment is acting against the rest, because acting of set purpose or by assent is to deny utterly that it is a sin, and anyone who denies that it is a sin treats acting contrary to the rest as a matter of no consequence.
Everyone knows that, if a man is an adulterer, he is not therefore a murderer, thief or false witness, nor does he want to be. But anyone who is of set purpose and by assent an adulterer treats as of no consequence every religious scruple, and so equally murder, theft and bearing false witness; and he does not refrain from these actions because they are sins, but because he is afraid of the law and of losing his reputation. Adulterers of set purpose and by assent pay no heed to the injunctions of the church and religion; see above 490-493, and in the two accounts of experiences, 500, 521, 522. It is much the same, if anyone of set purpose or by assent acts contrary to any other Commandment; he acts contrary to all the rest, because he does not consider any of them to be a sin.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church