1028. For the plague thereof was exceeding great, signifies the total destruction of genuine truth. This is evident from the signification of "the plague of the hail," as being the falsification of the Word (as above); therefore "the plague thereof was exceeding great" signifies more grievous falsification, which is that the Word is falsified even to the destruction of all genuine truth. How the Word is falsified even to the destruction of genuine truth, and heaven is thereby closed against man, may be seen above (n. 719, 778, 888, 914, 916, 950).

(Continuation: The Commandments in general)

[2] It is said by some that he who sins against one commandment of the Decalogue sins also against the rest, thus that he who is guilty of one is guilty of all. It shall be told how far this is in harmony with the truth. When a man transgresses one commandment, by confirming with himself that it is not a sin, thus without fear of God, he commits it; because he has thus rejected the fear of God he does not fear to transgress the rest of the commandments, although he may not do this in act.

[3] For example, when one does not regard frauds and illicit gains, which in themselves are thefts, as sins, neither does he regard as a sin adultery with the wife of another, hating a man even to murder, lying about him, coveting his house and other things belonging to him; for when he rejects from his heart in any one commandment the fear of God he denies that anything is a sin; consequently he is in communion with those who in like manner transgress the other commandments. He is like an infernal spirit who is in a hell of thieves; and although he is not an adulterer, nor a murderer, nor a false witness, yet he is in communion with such, and can be persuaded by them to believe that such things are not evils, and can be led to do them. For he who has become an infernal spirit through the transgression of one commandment, no longer believes it to be a sin to do anything against God or anything against the neighbor.

[4] But the opposite is true of those who abstain from the evil forbidden in one commandment, and who shun and afterwards turn away from it as a sin against God. Because such fear God, they come into communion with the angels of heaven, and are led by the Lord to abstain from the evils forbidden in the other commandments and to shun them, and finally to turn away from them as sins; and if perchance they have sinned against them, yet they repent and thus by degrees are withdrawn from them.

719. It is said that the sensual falsifies and adulterates the truths of the Word; but it needs to be known how it can falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word, for those who do not know how this is done and what is the nature of the Word, might think that because the truths of the Word are truths, and are plainly extant in the sense of its letter, they cannot become falsities. But to illustrate this take an example from nature, such as the natural man can clearly perceive. It appears before the eyes as if the sun were each day carried about the earth, also at the same time once each year; therefore it is said in the Word that the sun rises and sets, which causes the day, noon, evening, and night, also the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and thus days and years; and yet the sun stands unmoved, while the earth revolves daily and is carried about the sun yearly, and the progression of the sun is only an appearance and thence a fallacy. Now when this truth is known and accepted that it is not the sun but the earth that moves, both become true, namely, that the sun stands unmoved in the center of its system, and also that it has its progressions; that it stands unmoved is true for the rational man, and that it has its progressions is true for the sensual, thus both become true, true actually for the rational man, and true apparently for the sensual. And yet if the rational man does not illustrate this phenomenon the falsity is believed that the sun actually progresses, and thus the truth that the sun is not moved out of its place but that it is the earth that moves becomes falsified; but it is not falsified when the rational illustrates it. It is the same with every particular of the Word in the sense of its letter; because this is the ultimate sense it is natural, and is adapted to the comprehension of the sensual man, thus of children and the simple; for this reason most things in it are appearances of truth, and unless these are perceived at the same time from a spiritual, that is, from an enlightened understanding, they become falsities; for they are then believed to be actually true and not merely apparently true. But it is otherwise when they are perceived understandingly and spiritually; then all things of the Word become true, in the genuine sense actually true, and in the sense of the letter apparently true, as was said above respecting the sun. From this it can be seen how innumerable things in the Word are falsified and adulterated; as that God tempts, that He is angry, that He does evil, that He casts into hell; likewise, that at the day of the Last Judgment the Lord is to come in the clouds of heaven, that the sun and the moon will then withdraw their light, and the stars will fall from heaven; also that the world with the earth will perish, and a new creation of all things take place; with other things that are truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, but which become falsities if they are not perceived at the same time from an enlightened understanding. But in what follows it shall be told how faith alone, which is faith separated from charity, falsifies all things of the Word.