90. V. MAN IS THE SUBJECT OF CHARITY, AND SUCH AS IS THE CHARITY WITH HIM SUCH A SUBJECT OF IT HE IS; AND SUCH IS THE CHARITY HE EXERCISES TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOUR. ¹

Let these things be explained in this order:

1. Man was created to be a form of love and wisdom.

2. At this day, for a man to be man, he ought to be a charity in form.

3. A man ought to be a charity in form, not from himself but from the Lord; thus he is a receptacle of charity.

4. A man is a form of charity of such a quality as, with him, good of the will is conjoined to truths of the understanding.

5. Whatever proceeds from such a man derives from that form that it is a likeness of it; thus it is charity.

6. The neighbour can be loved from what is not charity; and yet this, regarded in itself, is not loving the neighbour.

7. He is loving the neighbour, who loves him from the charity in himself.

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