SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS ALL KINDS OF THEFT AS SINS, SO FAR HE LOVES SINCERITY

By stealing, in the natural sense, is meant not only to commit theft and robbery, but also to defraud, and under any pretence to take away from another his goods. But by stealing, in the spiritual sense, is meant to deprive another of the truths of his faith and the goods of his charity. In the supreme sense, by stealing is meant to take away from the Lord what is His and to attribute it to oneself, and thus to claim for oneself righteousness and merit. These comprise all kinds of theft; and they also make one, as do all kinds of adultery and murder, spoken of above. They make one, because one kind is involved in the other.