Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/51

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

and with them, falses also, in a long series, and all conjoined or connected together. Such is the spiritual sense of the passage, and we see how different it is from the literal sense.

The text concludes, "And doing mercy to thousands, with those that love me and keep my commandment." By "doing mercy" is meant doing good to,—conferring blessings upon. "To thousands" means forever and ever; for the expression "thousands," in the spiritual sense, signifies indefinitely or very much, and when spoken of the Lord it signifies infinitely or forever. Thus, the meaning is, that with those who worship the Lord and keep his commandments, truth and good and blessedness will continually increase, even in this life, until they become regenerated and fitted for heaven, and then after death they will be gifted with life eternal and all its endless joys.