pious
books. But those who renounce the world and live in the spirit in this
manner acquire a melancholy life, unreceptive of heavenly joy. To
receive the life of heaven a man must by all means live in the world
and engage in its duties and affairs and by a moral and civil life
receive the spiritual life.

That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven, as some
believe, may be seen from this: when a matter presents itself to a man
which he knows to be dishonest and unjust, but to which he inclines,
it is only necessary for him to think that it ought not to be done
because it is opposed to the Divine precepts. If a man accustoms
himself to think so, and from so doing establishes a habit of so
thinking, he is gradually conjoined to heaven. So far as he is
conjoined to heaven the higher regions of his mind are opened; and so
far as these are opened he sees whatever is dishonest and unjust; and
so far as he sees these evils they can be dispersed--for no evil can
be dispersed until it is seen.

--_Heaven and Hell, nn._ 528, 533

THE DECALOGUE

"Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual
covenant that shall not be forgotten."

--_Jeremiah_, L, 5

The conjunction of God with man, and of man with God, is taught in the
two Tables which were written with the finger of God, called the
Tables of the Covenant. These Tables obtain with all nations who have
a religion. From the first Table they know that God is to be
acknowledged, hallowed and worshipped. From the second Table they know
that a man is not to steal, either openly or by trickery, nor to
commit adultery, nor to kill, whether by blow or by hatred, nor to
bear false witness in a court of justice, or before the world, and
further that he ought not to will those evils. From this Table a man
knows the evils which he must shun, and in the measure that he knows
them and shuns them, God conjoins him to Himself, and in turn from His
Table gives man to acknowledge, hallow and worship Him. So, also, He
gives him not to meditate evils, and, in so far as he does not will
them, to know truths freely.

--_Apocalypse Explained, n._ 1179

As one views the two tables, it is plain that they are so conjoined
that God from His table looks to man, and that in turn man from his
table looks to God. Thus the regard is reciprocal. God for His part
never ceases to regard man, and to put in operation such things as