shall look up to the Holy One of Israel, and not to altars -the work of their hands, and which their fingers have made, Isaiah xvii. 7, 8, xxxi. 7, xxxvii. 19, Jerem. x. 9. That the work of men's hands is his selfhood, and thence evil and falsity, may appear manifestly from this consideration, that on this account it was forbidden to build the altar and temple with hewn stones, or to lift up an iron tool upon them, for this would signify the work of men's hands: "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it," Exod. xx. 25. Joshua built an altar of stones, over which he did not lift up any iron, Joshua viii. 30, 31. The temple of Jerusalem was built of "stone made ready, so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard, while it was building," 1 Kings vi. 7. All things which are done by the Lord are also called the works of his hands, which are proper to him, and in themselves are goods and truths, as in these passages: The works of Jehovah's hands are truth and judgment, Psalm cxi. 7. "Thy mercy, O Jehovah, endureth for ever, forsake not the works of thine own hands," Psalm cxxxviii. 8. "Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come, concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me," Isaiah xlv. 11. 66 Thy people shall be all righteous,the branch of my planting, the work of my hands," Isaiah lx. 21. "But now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand," Isaiah Ixiv. 8.

458. "That they should not worship demons," signifies, that thus they are in the evils of their concupiscences, and make one with their like in hell. By demons are signified the concupiscences of evil springing from the love of the world; the reason is, because in hell they are called demons who are in those concupiscences; and men also, who are in the same, become demons after death; there is also a conjunction between them and such men; for every man is conjoined with spirits as to his affections, even to their making a one; from which circumstance it

is evident, that to worship demons, is to sacrifice to those concupiscences from the love of them. Therefore he who invokes faith alone, as the head of his religion, or as his idol, remains in evil, by reason of his not searching out any evil in himself which he considers a sin, and consequently is not desirous of removing it by repentance; and as every evil is composed of concupiscences, being nothing but a fascicle or bundle of them, it follows, that he who does not search out any evil in himself, and shun it as a sin against God, which can only be done by repentance, becomes a demon after death. Nothing but such concupiscences are signified by demons in the following passages: "They sacrificed unto devils, not to God," Deut. xxxii. 17. The children of Israel no longer sacrificed to the devils, after which they went a whoring, Levit. xvii. 7, Psalm cvi. 37. "The wild beast of the desert and of the islands (Ziim and Ijim) shall meet, and the demon of the woods shall cry to his fellow," Isaiah xxxiv. 14. "But the wild beast of the desert (Ziim) shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, (Ochim,) and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and the demons of the woods shall dance there," Isaiah xiii. 21. By Ziim, Ijim, Ochim, and the daughters of the owl, are signified various concupiscences; wood demons are such concupiscences as appertain to priapuses and satyrs. Babylon is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, Apoc. xviii. 2. The demons which the Lord cast out, were such concupiscences, when they lived in the world, concerning which, see Matt. viii. 16, 29, ix. 32, 33, x. 8, xii. 22, xv. 22. Mark i. 32, 33, 34, Luke iv. 33-38, 41, viii. 2, 26-40, ix. 1, 37-44—50, xiii. 32.

459. "And idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood," signifies, that thus they are in worship grounded in mere falses. By idols, in the Word, are signified the falses of worship, and therefore to worship them signifies worship from falses; and by adoring idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, is signified worship from falses of all kinds, and, taken collectively, worship from mere falses; moreover, the materials of which idols were

made, their forms, and their garments, among the ancients, represented the falses of religion, from which their worship was performed; idols of gold signified falses concerning divine things; idols of silver, falses concerning spiritual things; idols of brass, falses concerning charity; idols of stone, falses concerning faith; and idols of wood, falses concerning good works. All these falses exist in those who do not do the work of repentance, that is, shun evils as sins against God. Graven images and molten images, which were idols, have this signification, in the spiritual sense, in the following passages: "Every man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors in the time of their visitation they shall perish," Jerem. x. 14, 15, li. 17, 18. Graven images are the work of the hands of the workman, they speak not, they are altogether brutish and foolish, the wood is a discipline of vanities, the whole a work of cunning men, Jerem. x. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10. "What profiteth the graven image, that the maker and a teacher of lies hath graven it, that the maker of his work trusteth therein; and there is no breath at all in the midst of it," Habak. ii. 18, 19, 20. "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats," Isaiah ii. 18, 20. "And have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, the work of the craftsmen," Hosea xiii. 2. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols," Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Clean water is truth; idols are the falses of worship. "Ye shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold, thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth, thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence," Isaiah xxx. Nor is any thing else but the falses of religion and thence of worship, signified by the gods of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, which Belshazzar, king of Babylon, praised (worshiped,) when he drank wine with

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his princes, his wives and his concubines, out of the vessels of gold, and of silver, from the temple in Jerusalem, Dan. v. 1-5, and following verses; besides many other places; as in Isaiah x. 10, 11, xxi. 9, xxxi. 7, xl. 19, 20, xli. 29, xlii. 17, xlviii. 5, Jerem. viii. 19, 1. 38, 39, Ezek. vi. 4, 5, xiv. 3-6, Micah i. 7, v. 13, Psalm cxv. 4, 5, Psalm cxxxv. 15, 16, Levit. xxvi. 30. By idols the falses of worship from self-derived intelligence are strictly signified; the manner in which man fashions. them, and afterwards accommodates them, so as to appear like truths, is fully described in Isaiah xliv. 9, 10.

460. "Which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk," signifies, in which there is nothing of spiritual and truly rational life. The reason why this is said, is, because idolaters believe that their idols see and hear, for they make them gods: still this is not the meaning of these words; but, that in the falses of worship there is nothing of spiritual nor truly rational life, for by seeing and hearing, is signified to understand and perceive, n. 7, 25, 87; and by walking, is signified to live, n. 167; therefore by these three things, is signified spiritual and truly rational life: this is signified, because by idols are signified the falses of worship, in which there is nothing of spiritual and rational life. That idols do not see, and hear, and walk, is a thing too obvious to be here mentioned, were there not some inward signification involved within it. The like is also said of idols in other parts of the Word, as in these passages: "They have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes-that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand," Isaiah xliv. 18, 20. They speak not, neither do they walk, Jerem. x. 3-10. "They have mouths, but they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not," Psalm cxv. 5, Psalm cxxxv. 15, 16; by which like things are signified, because by idols are signified the falses of worship; and in falses of worship there is nothing of life which is really life.

461. "Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts,' signifies, that the heresy of faith alone induces on their hearts stupidity, tergiversation, and hardness, so that they

do not think any thing of the precepts of the decalogue, nor indeed of any sin, that it ought to be shunned because it is in favor of the devil and against God. What murders, adulteries, and thefts, signify in every sense, may be seen in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem from the Precepts of the Decalogue, where it is explained; therefore it is unnecessary to repeat it here; but what is signi fied by sorceries, shall be explained in the following article. Faith alone induces stupidity, tergiversation, and hardness of heart, in those who are in the reformed church, because the good of life does not constitute religion where faith alone prevails; and if religion does not consist in good of life, then the second table of the decalogue, which is the table of repentance, is like a blank, whereon nothing is written. That the second table of the decalogue is a table of repentance, is evident, because it is not there said that good works are to be done, but that evil works are not to be done, as, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods; and if these things do not constitute religion, the result is as here stated: "Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." That good of life does not constitute religion where faith alone prevails, will be clearly shown in what follows.

462. Since at this day it is not known what is meant by sorceries, it shall briefly be explained. Sorceries are mentioned in the above passage, in place of the eighth precept in the decalogue, THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, for the three other evils, which are murders, fornications, and thefts, are there named. To bear false witness, signifies, in the natural sense, to act the part of a false witness, to lie and defame; and, in the spiritual sense, to confirm and persuade that what is false is true, and that what is evil is good; from which it is evident, that by sorcery is signified to persuade to what is false, and thus to destroy truth. Sorceries were in use among the ancients, and were performed in three ways; first, by keeping the hearing and thus the mind of another con