Inasmuch as good makes heaven with man, and evil makes hell, it is of the utmost importance to know what good is, and what evil is. It has already been said that good is that which belongs to love to the Lord, and to charity toward the neighbor; and that evil is that which belongs to the love of self and the love of the world. Hence it follows that it is from the loves, and from these alone, that it can be known what good is, and what evil is.
All things in the universe which are according to Divine order have relation to good and truth; and all things in the universe which are contrary to Divine order have relation to evil and falsity. The reason is that the good and truth which proceed from the Divine make order, insomuch that they are order.
The good which is of love to the Lord is called "celestial good," and the good which is of charity toward the neighbor is called "spiritual good." What the difference is, and how great, between the celestial good which belongs to love to the Lord, and the spiritual good which belongs to charity toward the neighbor, will be told in what follows.
The doctrine of celestial good, which is that of love to the Lord, is the most ample and at the same time the most secret; but the doctrine of spiritual good, which is that of charity toward the neighbor, is also ample and secret, but less so than the doctrine of celestial good, which is the doctrine of love to the Lord. That the doctrine of charity is ample can be seen from the fact that charity is not the same with one as with another, and that one is not the neighbor the same as another.
As the doctrine of charity was so ample, the ancients, with whom the doctrine of charity was the very doctrine of the church, distinguished charity toward the neighbor into many classes, which they also subdivided, and gave a name to each class, and taught how charity was to be exercised toward those who are in one class, and how toward those in another; and in this way they reduced the doctrine of charity into order, and also the exercises of charity, that these might fall distinctly under the view of the understanding.
The names which they gave to those toward whom they were to exercise charity, were many; some they called blind, some lame, some maimed, some poor, also miserable and afflicted, some orphans, some widows; but in general they called those hungry to whom they were to give to eat, those thirsty to whom they were to give to drink, sojourners whom they were to gather in, naked whom they were to clothe, sick whom they were to visit, and in prison to whom they were to come (as to which see above, n. 4954-4959).
These names were given from heaven to the ancients who were of the church, and by those who were so named they understood those who were spiritually such. Their doctrine of charity taught who these were, and what kind of charity there was to be toward each.
Hence it is that these same names are in the Word, and signify those who are such in the spiritual sense. In itself the Word is nothing but the doctrine of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, as the Lord also teaches:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from all thy heart, and in all thy soul, and in all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In these two commandments hang the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40);
"the law and the prophets" denote the whole Word.
(Continuation
respecting THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY −
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