230. The profanation of what is holy is meant in the second commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not profane the name of thy God"; and that it ought not to be profaned is meant by these words in the Lord's Prayer, "Hallowed be thy name." Scarcely anyone in the Christian world knows what is meant by the name of God. The reason why this is not known is that in the spiritual world names are not as in the natural world, but everyone has a name according to the quality of his love and wisdom; for as soon as anyone enters a society or into association with others he is named there according to his character. This naming is effected by spiritual language, which is such that it can give a name to everything, because there each letter signifies one thing and the letters combined into one word, forming a person's name, include the entire state of what is named. This is one of the wonderful things of the spiritual world.
Hence it is clear that by the name of God in the Word is [2] signified God with all the Divine that is in Him and that proceeds from Him; and as the Word is the Divine proceeding, it is the name of God; and as all the Divine things which are called the spiritual things of the Church are from the Word, they, too, are the name of God. From these considerations it may be seen what is meant in the second commandment of the Decalogue by
Thou shalt not profane (A.V. take in vain) the name of God (A.V. the name of the Lord thy God). Exod xx. 7;
and in the Lord's Prayer by
Hallowed be thy name. Matt. vi. 9.
The name of God and of the Lord has a like signification* in many places in the Word of both Testaments, as in Matt. vii. 22; x. 22; xviii. 5, 20; xix. 29; xxi. 9; xxiv. 9, 10. John i. 12; ii. 23; iii. 17, 18; xii. 13, 28; xiv. 14, 15, 16; xvi. 23, 24, 26, 27; xvii. 6; xx. 31; besides in other places, and in very many places in the Old Testament.
[3] He who knows this signification of name may understand what is signified by these words of the Lord:
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple ... shall in no wise lose his reward. Matt. x. 21 (A.V. 41, 42).
He who by the name of a prophet, of a righteous man, and of a disciple here understands only a prophet, a righteous man and a disciple does not know in that passage any other sense than only the sense of the Letter. He does not know what is signified by the reward of a prophet, or by the reward of a just man, or by the reward for a cup of cold water given to a disciple; when yet by the name and the reward of a prophet is meant the state and the happiness of those who are in Divine truths; by the name and the reward of a righteous man is meant the state and the happiness of those who are in Divine goods; by a disciple is meant the state of those who are in some of the spiritual things of the Church; and by a cup of cold water is meant something of truth.
[4] That the nature of the state of love and wisdom, or of good and truth, is signified by name is also made evident by these words of the Lord:
He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. John x. 2, 3.
To call his sheep by name is to teach and lead everyone who is in the good of charity according to the state of his love and wisdom. By the door is meant the Lord, as is evident from the ninth verse,
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. John x. 9.
From this it is clear that the Lord Himself must be approached in order that anyone may be saved; and that he who approaches Him is a shepherd of the sheep; and that he who does not approach Him is a thief and a robber, as is said in the first verse of this chapter.
* Original Edition has "similia . . . significatur."