Chapter VII

. discourses of love towards our neighbor, and good works. It

is introduced by the statement that there are three universal loves, the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self. These three loves, when they are in right subordination, make a man perfect; but when they are not in right subordination, they pervert and invert him. The love of self and of the world are not in themselves evil. When the love of heaven, that is, the love of God, of goodness and truth, is supreme in the mind, and the world is loved as a means to do good, and self is cared for that uses to the neighbor may be performed,—then the love of self and of the world are orderly and justifiable. But when the love of God and heaven is dethroned, and the love of self or of the world rules, and a man is religious and just only so far as religion and justice conduce to self-interest and thus God and justice and all things holy are put to vile uses, then the soul of man is inverted,—is a form of hell; and in the light of heaven appears bestial, ugly, and deformed.

Every individual man is the neighbor whom we ought to love, but according to the quality of his goodness or his life. Man considered collectively, that is, as a lesser or larger society, and considered under the idea of compound societies, that is, as our country,—is the neighbor that ought to be loved. The Church is our neighbor, to be loved in a still higher degree, and the Lord’s kingdom is our neighbor to be loved in the highest degree. To love the neighbor is not to love his person, but the good which is in him. Charity itself consists in acting justly and faithfully in whatever office, business, and employment a person is engaged, and with whomsoever he has any connection. Eleemosynary acts of charity consist in giving to the poor, and relieving the indigent, but with prudence. There are public, domestic, and private duties of charity. Public duties of charity are, more especially, the payment of imposts and taxes. These are paid with different feelings by those who are spiritual and by those who are natural: those who are spiritual pay them out of good will, because they are collected for the preservation and protection of their country and the church, and as a provision for the proper officers and governors, who must receive their salaries out of the public treasury, therefore those who consider their country and the church as their neighbor, pay such debts cheerfully and with a willing mind, and consider it a wicked act either to withhold them or to use any deceit in the payment; whereas those who do not esteem their country and the church as their neighbor, pay such debts with a reluctant and unwilling mind, and, as often as they have an opportunity, withhold them, or use some fraud in the payment; for they regard only their own house and their own flesh as their neighbor. The domestic duties of charity are of several kinds, as those of a husband to his wife, and of a wife to her husband; of parents to their children, and of children to their parents; likewise of a master and mistress to their servants, and of servants to their master and mistress. There are so many duties relating to the education of children, and the government of families, that it would require a volume to enumerate them. As to what particularly regards the duties of parents to their children, there is an intrinsic difference in this respect with those who are under the influence of charity, and with those who are not, although externally the duties may appear similar. With those who are under the influence of charity, parental affection is joined with love toward their neighbor and love to God, and such parents love their children according to their morals, virtues, pursuits, and qualifications for the service of the public; but with those who are not under the influence of charity, there is no conjunction of charity with parental affection; the consequence is, that such parents frequently love wicked, immoral, and crafty children, more than those who are good, moral, and prudent; and thus prefer such as are unserviceable to the public, before such as are serviceable. Private duties of charity are also of several kinds, such as paying wages to workmen, returning borrowed money, observing agreements, keeping pledges, and other transactions of a like nature, some of which are duties grounded in statute law, some in civil law, and some in moral law. These duties, also, are discharged from different motives by those who are under the influence of charity, and by those who are not; by the former they are discharged faithfully and justly, for the law of charity requires that a man should so act in all his dealings, with whomsoever he may have any connection; but these duties are discharged in a totally different manner by those who are not influenced by charity. Then there are convivial recreations of charity, which consist of dinners and suppers and social intercourse. Every one knows that dinner and supper

## parties are in general use, and are given to promote various ends; by

many on account of friendship, relationship, mirth, gain, recompense, and for party purposes of corruption; among the great they are given on account of their dignity; and in the palaces of kings, for the display of splendor and magnificence. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only by those who are influenced by mutual love grounded in a similarity of faith. Among Christians in the Primitive Church, dinners and suppers had this end alone in view, and were called feasts, being instituted that they might meet together in cordial joy and friendly union. At table, the guests conversed together on various subjects, domestic and civil, but

## particularly on such as concerned the Church; and as these feasts were

feasts of charity, their conversation on every subject was influenced by charity, with all its joys and delights. The spiritual sphere which prevailed on such occasions, was a sphere of love to the Lord and toward the neighbor, which exhilarated every mind, softened the tone of every expression, and communicated to all the senses a festivity from the heart; for from every man there emanates a spiritual sphere, derived from the affection of his love and corresponding thought, which inwardly affects those in his company, particularly at the time of convivial recreations.

The first part of charity consists in putting away evils, and the second in doing actions that are useful to our neighbor. It is believed by many, at the present day, that charity consists only in doing good, and that while a man is doing good, he does no evil; consequently, that the first part of charity is to do good, and the second not to do evil: but the case is altogether the reverse, it being the first part of charity to put away evil, and the second to do good. For it is a universal law in the spiritual world, and thence too in the natural world, that so far as a person wills no evil, he wills what is good; consequently, so far as he turns himself away from hell, whence all evil ascends, he turns himself toward heaven, whence all good descends; and, therefore, so far as any one rejects the devil, he is accepted by the Lord. In performing the exercises of charity, a man does not ascribe merit to works, so long as he believes that all good is from the Lord. Moral life, if it is at the same time spiritual life, is charity. The friendship of love, contracted with a person without regard to his spiritual quality, is detrimental after death. The friendship of love, among the wicked, is intestine hatred toward each other. There is spurious charity, hypocritical charity, and dead charity. There can be no such thing as genuine charity, which is living, unless it make one with faith, and unless both in conjunction look to the Lord. Spurious charity is such as is the charity of those who hold to faith alone for salvation, and who say charity is of no account in leading to heaven. Such charity as these may have is spurious, because not spiritual, and merely performed from selfish and worldly motives. Hypocritical charity is predicable of those who, in public or private worship, bow themselves almost to the ground before God, pour forth long prayers with great devotion, put on a sanctified appearance, kiss crucifixes and bones of the dead, and kneel at sepulchers, and there mutter words expressive of holy veneration toward God, and yet, in their hearts nourish self-worship, and seek to be adored like so many deities. Dead charity is predicable of those whose faith is dead, since the quality of charity depends on the quality of faith. Faith is dead in all who are without works, and in those who believe not in God, but in living and dead men, and worship idols as if they were holy in themselves, after the practice of the old Gentiles.

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