That the Lord is called Lord in the Word from Divine Good may be seen above (n. 685); and God from Divine truth (n. 24, 220, 688).

Continuation:-

[2] It is known that man's internal must be purified before the good which he does is good. For the Lord says,

"Thou blind Pharisee, purge first the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also" (Matt. xiii. 26).

Man's internal is purified only as he desists from evils, according to the precepts of the Decalogue. Those evils, so long as he has not desisted from them, and does not shun and turn away from them as sins, constitute his internal, and are like an interposed veil or covering; and it appears in heaven as an eclipse, by which the sun is obscured and the light intercepted; it is also like a fountain of pitch or of black water, from which nothing emanates but impurity. What does emanate from it, and appears before the world as good, still is not good, because it is defiled by the evils from within; for it is Pharisaical and hypocritical good. This good is good from man, and it is also merit-seeking good. The case is different when evils are removed by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue.

[3] Now because evils are to be removed before goods can become goods, therefore the Ten Precepts were the primary things of the Word; for they were promulgated from Mount Sinai, before the Word was written by Moses and the Prophets. And in them the goods that are to be done are not contained, but the evils that are to be shunned. Therefore also these precepts are taught first in the churches; for they are taught to the boys and girls, in order that a man may commence his Christian life by means of them, and by no means forget them as he grows up; as, nevertheless, does take place.

Similar things are meant by these words in Isaiah:

"What to me is the multitude of sacrifices? Your meat- offering, your incense, your new moons, and your stated feasts, my soul hateth. Also though you multiply prayer, I will not hear. Wash you; make you clean; remove the wickedness of your works from before mine eyes: cease to do evil. Then, though your sins were as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they were red as crimson, they shall be as wool" (i. 11- 18).

By sacrifices, meat-offerings, incense, new moons, and feasts, also by prayer, are meant everything of worship. That they are altogether evil, even abominable, unless the interior is purified from evils, is meant by, wash you; make you clean; remove the wickedness of your works; and cease to do evil. That, afterwards they are all goods, is meant by the words which there follow.