AC 5729 - Temptation and Willing Submission; AC 5746 - Evil; AC 5747, 5749 - Spiritual Theft

AC 5729

The conjunction 
of the external man with the internal
is not accomplished
without temptation and willing submission.

AC 5746

. . . evil is nothing else than a turning away from good . . .

AC 5747 [2]; 5749
 
The truth which is bestowed by the Lord
is first received as if it were not bestowed;
for before regeneration
the man supposes that he procures truth for himself,
and so long as he supposes this
he is in spiritual theft.
To claim good and truth to one's self
and to attribute them to one's self
for righteousness and merit,
is to take away from the Lord that which is His.

The reason why man ought not to claim to himself
anything that is from the Lord,
thus not truth and good,
is that he may be in the truth;
and in so far as he is in the truth,
so far he is in the light
in which the angels are in heaven;
and in so far as he is in this light,
so far he is in intelligence and wisdom;
and in so far as he is in intelligence and wisdom,
so far he is in happiness.
This is the reason why man ought
to acknowledge from faith of the heart
that nothing of truth and good is from himself,
but all from the Lord,
and this because it is so.