freedom to will and act as if of
himself, and such a freedom that man does not know otherwise, when he is
thinking about truth and doing good, than that the freedom is in himself
and thus from himself. There is this return on man's part in order that
conjunction may be effected. But as this freedom is from the Lord, and
continually from Him, man must by all means acknowledge that thinking
about and understanding truth and willing and doing good are not from
himself, but are from the Lord.

Consequently when man through the last six commandments conjoins himself
to the Lord as if of himself, the Lord then conjoins Himself to man
through the first three commandments, which are that man must
acknowledge God, must believe in the Lord, and must keep His name holy.
These man does not believe, however much he may think that he does,
unless the evils forbidden in the other table, that is, in the last six
commandments, he abstains from as sins. These are the things pertaining
to the covenant on the part of the Lord and on the part of man, through
which there is reciprocal conjunction, which is that man may be in the
Lord and the Lord in man (John xiv. 20). (A.E., n. 1027.)

It is said by some that he who sins against one commandment of the
Decalogue sins also against the rest, thus that he who is guilty of one
is guilty of all. It shall be told how far this is in harmony with the
truth. When a man transgresses one commandment, assuring himself that it
is not a sin, thus offending without fear of God, because he has thus
rejected the fear of God he does not fear to transgress the rest of the
commandments, although he may not do this in act.

For example, when one does not regard as sins frauds and illicit gains,
which in themselves are thefts, neither does he regard as a sin adultery
with the wife of another, hating a man even to murder, lying about him,
coveting his house and other things belonging to him; for when he
rejects from his heart in any one commandment the fear of God he denies
that anything is a sin; consequently he is in communion with those who
in like manner transgress the other commandments. He is like an infernal
spirit who is in a hell of thieves; and although he is not an adulterer,
nor a murderer, nor a false witness, yet he is in communion with such,
and can be persuaded by them to believe that such things are not evils,
and can be led to do them. For he who becomes an infernal spirit
through the tra