SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS ALL KINDS OF MURDER AS SINS, SO FAR HE HAS LOVE TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOUR

By all kinds of murder are meant also all kinds of enmity, hatred, and revenge, which breathe a murderous purpose, for in them murder lies concealed, as fire in wood beneath the ashes. Infernal fire is nothing else; and hence come the expressions, to be inflamed with hatred and to burn with revenge. This is murder in the natural sense. But in the spiritual sense, murder means every method of killing and destroying the souls of men; and these methods are varied and manifold. In the supreme sense, however, by murder is meant to hate the Lord. These three kinds of murder make one and are closely linked together; for whoever wills to kill the body of a man in the world, wills also to kill his soul after death. He also wills to kill the Lord, for he burns with anger against Him and desires to blot out His name.