113. Let this be added to the above. It is said in the Church that no one can fulfil the law; especially as whoever offends against one commandment of the Decalogue, offends against all. But this form of speaking is not what it appears to be; for it is to be understood in this way, that whoever acts against one commandment from set purpose or from a confirmed mind acts against the rest, inasmuch as to act from purpose or from confirmation is altogether to deny that such action is a sin, and whoever denies the sin thinks nothing of acting against the rest of the commandments. Who does not know that whoever is a fornicator is not therefore a murderer, a thief or a false witness, nor even willing to be such. But whoever is an adulterer from set purpose and confirmation regards all religious matters as nothing, thus also murders, thefts and false witness; abstaining from these evils not because they are sins but from fear of the law or loss of reputation. Similarly, if anyone from set purpose or confirmation acts against any other single commandment of the Decalogue, he also acts against the rest, because he does not regard any action as sin.

[2] The same principle applies to those who are in good from the Lord. If they abstain of their own will and understanding, thus from set purpose and confirmation, from one evil because it is a sin, they abstain from all. Still more is this so if they abstain from several evils. For as soon as anyone abstains from any evil from set purpose and confirmation because it is a sin, he is kept by the Lord in the purpose of abstaining from the rest. Wherefore, if he commits an evil through ignorance or some predominant lust of the body, still it is not imputed to him, because he did not intend it of himself, neither does he confirm it in himself. A man comes into this kind of purpose if he examines himself once or twice a year, and repents of the evil he discovers in himself. It is otherwise with the man who never examines himself.

[3] I am allowed to confirm these observations by the following account. I have met several people in the spiritual world who have lived like others in the natural world, dressing well, feasting sumptuously, engaging in business like others for profit, going to the theatre, joking as if lasciviously on love topics, with other things of a similar nature; and yet the angels denounced such things as sinful evils with some, whilst not imputing them as evils with others, declaring the latter to be innocent and the former guilty. On being asked why they made this distinction when yet both parties had done similar things, they replied that they regard everyone according to their purpose, intention and end, and distinguish them accordingly. Therefore they excuse or condemn those whom the end excuses or condemns, inasmuch as good is the end with everyone in heaven, and evil is the end with everyone in hell. From all this it now plainly appears to whom sin is imputed and to whom it is not imputed.