104. Verse 4. But I have against thee that thou hast left thy first charity, signifies that they do not make such a life as those lived who were in the church at its beginning, the essential of knowledges. This is evident from the signification of "first charity," as being a life according to the knowledges of good and truth, such as those lived who were in the church at its beginning (of which presently); and from the signification of "leaving that charity," as being not to make it the essential of knowledges; for those who are eager for the knowledges of truth and good, and who believe that they are saved thereby, make knowledges essential, and not life, when yet a life according to knowledges is the essential. But as this essential of the church and of salvation is treated of in what follows, more will there be said about it. Charity is life, because all life in accordance with the precepts of the Lord in the Word is called "charity;" therefore to exercise charity is to live according to those precepts. (That this is so, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, in the chapter on Love to the Neighbor or Charity 84-106; and in the small work on The Last Judgment 33-39.) The life of the church at its beginning is here meant by "first charity;" for every church begins from charity, and successively turns away from it to faith alone or to meritorious works. (On which subject, and on charity, see what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that every church begins from charity, but in process of time turns away from it, n. 494, 501, 1327, 3773, 4689; thus to falsities from evil, and at length to evils, n. 1834, 1835, 2910, 4683, 4689; commonly to faith alone, n. 1834, 1835, 2231, 4683, 8094. A comparison of the church in its beginning and in its decline, with the rising and setting of the sun, n. 1837; and with the infancy and old age of man, n. Arcana Coelestia 10134; that the church is not with man until the knowledges of good and truth have been implanted in the life, n. 3310; that charity constitutes the church, n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1844, 1894; that the internal of the church is charity, n. 4766, 5826; that there would be one church, and not many, as at this day, if all were regarded from charity, although they might differ in respect to doctrinals of faith and rituals of worship, n. 1286, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2385, 2982, 3267, 3451; that worship of the Lord consists in a life of charity, n. 8254, 8256; that the quality of worship is according to the quality of charity, n. 2190.)

494. 'He died' means that this kind of perception existed no more. This is clear from the meaning of the expression 'to die', which means everything that ceases to be what it once was, as in John,

To the angel of the Church in Sardis write, These things says He who has the seven spirits and the seven stars, I know your works; you are said to be alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen what remains and is at the point of truth, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of God. Revelation 3:1-2.

In Jeremiah,

I will hurl your mother who bore you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die. Jeremiah 22:26.

Here 'mother' stands for the Church. For the course of the Church is such, as stated, that it declines and degenerates, and the perfection of earlier days is lost, chiefly because of the increase in hereditary evil. For every parent adds further evil to that which he has inherited. All evil of their own doing residing with parents takes on a kind of intrinsic nature, and when such evil is frequent in its recurrence, it does become part of their nature. It is added to what they have inherited and is handed on to children and so to descendants. In this way hereditary evil becomes more and more enormous in descendants. This anyone may recognize from the evil inclination in children being just like that in their parents and grandparents.

[2] The opinion of people who imagine that no hereditary evil exists beyond that which, they assert, has been implanted in us from Adam, is utterly and completely false; see 317. In reality everyone is producing hereditary evil through the sins of his own doing, and adding this to what he acquired from his parents. In this manner it mounts up and remains in all his descendants. Nor is it ever moderated except in people who are being regenerated by the Lord. This is the chief reason why every Church degenerates, including the Most Ancient.