e
does from the Lord is good. The neighbor to him then is not the person,
but the good in the person. To love the Lord above all is to do no evil
to the Word, for the Lord is in the Word, or to the holy things of the
church, for He is in these, too, and to do no evil to the soul of
another, for everyone's soul is in the Lord's hand. Those who shun these
evils as monstrous sins against the Lord love Him above all else. None
can do this except those who love the neighbor as themselves, for the two
loves are conjoined.

95. In view of the fact that there is a conjunction of the Lord with man
and of man with the Lord, there are two tables of the Law, one for the
Lord and the other for man. So far as man as of himself keeps the laws of
his table, the Lord enables him to observe the laws of the Lord's table.
A man, however, who does not keep the laws of his table, which are all
referable to love for the neighbor, cannot do the laws of the Lord's
table, which are all referable to love for the Lord. How can a murderer,
thief, adulterer, or false witness love God? Does reason not insist that
to be any of these and to love God is a contradiction? Is not the devil
such? Must he not hate God? But a man can love God when he abhors murder,
adultery, theft and false witness, for then he turns his face away from
the devil to the Lord; turning his face to the Lord he is given love and
wisdom--these enter him by the face, and not by the back of the neck. As
conjunction is accomplished only so, the two tables are called a
covenant, and a covenant exists between two.

96. (vii) _In all the procedure of His divine providence the Lord
safeguards the two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred._ The
reasons are that without those two faculties man would not have
understanding and will and thus would not be human; likewise that without
them he could not be conjoined to the Lord and so be reformed and
regenerated; and because without them he would not have immortality and
eternal life. The truth of this can be seen from what has been said about
the two faculties, liberty and rationality, but not clearly seen unless
the reasons just given are brought forward as conclusions. They are,
therefore to be clarified.

[2] _Without those two faculties man would not have understanding and
will and thus would not be human._ Man has will only in that he can will
freely as of himself, and to will freely as of oneself is from the
faculty called liberty,