Charity #90
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.
Footnotes:
1. In the MS. this heading has been deleted. Cf. 4a in the "Order and Arrangement" in number 1a, and V in "The sections in their series" in number 199.
