8909. Verse 17 You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world, and so one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the preceding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it.

10301. 'Pure' means devoid of evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'pure' as devoid of evil. Because all evil is impure, and all good is pure, the expression 'being purified' from sins and from iniquities is used. And it has regard to the heart, that is, the will; for the will is meant in the Word by 'the heart', 2930, 7542, 8910, 9300, 9495, since love is meant by it, 3883-3896, 9050.

928. 'The imagination of man's heart is evil from his childhood' means that the will part of man's mind is totally evil. This is clear from what has just been stated. 'The imagination of the heart' has no other meaning. Man supposes that he has a will for good, but in this he is utterly mistaken. When he does good, he does not act from his own will but from the new will which is the Lord's, and thus from the Lord. Likewise when he thinks and utters what is true, he speaks from the new understanding deriving from that new will, and so again from the Lord. For one who has been regenerated is an entirely new person who has been formed by the Lord. This also is why he is said to have been created anew.