284.人的觉知是善与恶和真与假的接受者, 但他的意愿不是, 因为意愿必要么在恶里, 要么在善里, 它不可能在两者中, 因为意愿就是人自己, 他的生命之爱就在其中. 然而, 在觉知中, 善与恶是分开的, 如同内在之物与外在之物. 因此, 人可以内在居于恶, 而外在居于善. 不过, 当人正被更新时, 善与恶就会相遇, 然后引发冲突与斗争. 若激烈, 就是所谓的诱惑, 但若不激烈, 所发生的一切则如同葡萄酒或烈性酒的发酵. 如果此时善得胜, 恶及其假就被移至边缘, 打个比方, 就象渣滓沉到瓶底, 而善则如同发酵后的陈年葡萄酒和酵后清澈的烈性酒. 然而, 如果恶得胜, 那么善及其真就被移至边缘, 且变得浊臭, 就象未发酵的葡萄酒与烈性酒. 用发酵来作比喻, 是因为在圣言里, 酵象征恶之假, 这种比喻可见于(何西阿书7:4), (路加福音12:1) 以及其它地方.

第15章 天命平等对待恶人与善人

892. "And murderers, the sexually licentious, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars." This symbolizes all those people who have no regard for the Ten Commandments, and do not refrain from any of the evils named there as sins, and therefore live caught up in them.

What is symbolically meant on three levels, natural, spiritual and celestial, by these four of the Ten Commandments - namely, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness - may be seen in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, 62-91. Consequently there is no need to expound them here again.

However, in place of the seventh commandment not to steal, listed here are sorcerers and idolaters, and sorcerers symbolize people who seek truths, which they falsify in order to use them to defend falsities and evils, as those do who take this truth, that no one can do good of himself, and use it to defend faith alone. For this is a type of spiritual theft. Moreover, what enchantments are may be seen in no. 462 above. Idolaters symbolize people who institute worship, or take part in worship, not from the Word, thus not from the Lord, but from their own intelligence (no. 459), as those do also who, on the basis of a single statement of Paul's, ¹ wrongly interpreted, and not on the basis of any of the Lord's words, have fabricated the whole doctrine of the church; and this, too, is a type of spiritual theft. Liars symbolize people caught up in falsities arising from evil (no. 924).

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