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The Ten Commandments

The Ninth Commandment

The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house," is now to be treated of. There are two loves from which all lusts spring and flow forth perpetually like streams from their fountains. These loves are called the love of the world and the love of self. Lust is love continually willing, for what a man loves, that he continually longs for. But lusts belong to the love of evil, while desires and affections belong to the love of good. Now because the love of the world and the love of self are the foundations of all lusts, and all evil lusts are forbidden in these last two commandments, it follows that the ninth commandment forbids the lusts that flow from the love of the world, and the tenth commandment the lusts that flow from the love of self. "Not to covet a neighbor’s house" means not to covet his goods, which in general are possessions and wealth, and not to appropriate them to oneself by evil arts. This lust belongs to the love of the world. AE 1021