975. Verse 6. For they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, signifies because they have falsified the truths of the Word and of doctrine from the Word. This is evident from the signification of "blood" as being the Divine truth (See above, n. 30, 328, 329, 476, 748); also from the signification of "pouring it out," as being to do violence to the Divine truth, which is to falsify it (See n. 329; also from the signification of "saints," as being those who are in the Divine truth from the Lord (See n. 204; but in the abstract sense Divine truths from the Lord. n. 325); and as holy things mean Divine truths in the Word, so they mean the Word. Also from the signification of "prophets" as being those who teach doctrine from the Word; and in the abstract sense truths of doctrine from the Word (See n. 624). Therefore "to pour out the blood of saints and prophets" signifies to falsify the truths of the Word and the truths of Doctrine from the Word.

(Continuation respecting the Fifth Commandment)

[2] It has been said that so far as a man shuns and turns away from evils as sins he does goods, and that the goods that he does are the good works which are meant in the Word, for the reason that they are done in the Lord; also that these works are good so far as man turns away from the evils opposed to them, because so far they are done from the Lord and not from man. Nevertheless, works are more or less good according to the excellence of the use; for works must be uses. The best are those that are done for the sake of the uses of the church. Next in point of goodness come those that are done as uses of one's country; and so on, the uses determining the goodness of the works. The goodness of works increases with man according to the fullness of truths from affection for which they are done; since the man who turns away from evils as sins wishes to know truths because truths teach uses and the quality of their good. This is why good loves truth and truth loves good, and they wish to be conjoined. So far, therefore, as such a man learns truths from the affection of them so far he does goods more wisely and more fully, more wisely because he knows how to distinguish uses and to do them with judgment and justice, and more fully because all truths are present in the performance of uses, and form the spiritual sphere that the affection of them produces.