1021. And great Babylon came into remembrance before God That this signifies that hitherto the church with the Reformed, and its devastation, was treated of; but that what follows is concerning the church with the Papists, and concerning its devastation, is evident from the signification of Babylon, as denoting the church with the Papists, because as by Babylon is signified the love of ruling over heaven and earth by means of the holy things of the church, and this is a dominating love with the Papists, principally. That by those words is also meant, that hitherto the church with the Reformed, and its devastation, was treated of, is evident from the things that precede and follow. In those which precede, the subject treated of is the dragon and the two beasts, by which the church with the Reformed was described; and by the seven angels pouring out the seven vials its devastation was described, as is also clear from the thirteenth verse of this chapter. In those which follow, the church with the Papists is described, in chapter xvii., by the woman sitting upon the scarlet beast, and in chapter xviii., its devastation. It is therefore evident, that by great Babylon coming into remembrance before God, is signified that hitherto the church with the Reformed, and its devastation, was treated of, and that what follows is concerning the church with the Papists and its devastation.
The Ninth Precept, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house," is here to be treated of:
[2] There are two loves from which all lusts, like streams from their fountain, spring and perpetually flow. Those loves are called the love of the world and the love of self. Lust is a love continually willing; for what a man loves, this he continually covets. But lusts pertain to the love of evil, whereas desires and affections pertain to the love of good. Now because the love of the world and the love of self are the fountains of all lusts, and all evil lusts are forbidden in these two last precepts, it follows that the ninth precept forbids the lusts flowing from the love of the world, and the tenth precept, the lusts from the love of self. By not coveting a neighbour's house is meant not to covet his goods, which, in general, are possessions and wealth, and not to appropriate them to oneself by evil arts. This lust is of the love of the world.
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