when the law was promulgated, had nothing of charity, but were governed by self-love and the love of the world, consequently by evils and falsities, therefore He appeared to them [from Mount Sinai] as smoke and fire, when at the same moment He appeared to the angels us a sun, and as celestial light. That He appeared thus to the Jews by reason of their evil nature or quality, is plain from the following passasges (Ex. xxiv. 16, 17: xix. 18: Deut. iv. 11, 12: v. 23-25). The case would be the same if any other person who lives in hatred and its defilements, should see the Lord. He would only be able to see Him from the principle of hatred and its defilements, which, receiving the rays of goodness and truth from the Lord, would change them into such fire, smoke and darkness."
XXI.—What is it to Love God?
The Bible teaches that, to love God with all the heart, and the neighbor as one's self, is the sum and substance of all the divine precepts. For it says that, "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." But the meaning of this precept, simple as it appears, was but dimly apprehended by Christians a hundred years ago. And not many, even at this day, seem to have any clear idea of what it is to love the Lord supremely. Few seem to understand that it is
