AC 5758, 5759 - Claiming Truth and Good; AC 5773 - A Turning About

AC 5758 [2], 5759

. . . to claim truth and good to oneself
is contrary to the universal that reigns in heaven,
as well as contrary to the acknowledgment
that all salvation is of mercy,
that is, that man of himself is in hell,
but is of mercy drawn out from there by the Lord.
Man cannot be in humiliation,
nor consequently can he receive the Lord's mercy
(for this flows in
only in humiliation or into a humble heart),
unless he acknowledges
that there is nothing but evil from himself,
and that all good is from the Lord.
Without this acknowledgment
a man attributes to himself as merit,
and at length as righteousness,
whatever he does;
for to claim to himself the truth and good
which are from the Lord
is to make himself righteous.
This is the source of many evils;
for he then regards self in everything
that he does for the neighbor,
and when he does this
he loves himself above all others,
whom he then despises,
if not in word, yet in heart.

Moreover everyone ought to do
what is true and good as of himself,
yet believing that it is from the Lord;
and when he does so,
then as he grows up and increases
in intelligence and faith
he puts off that fallacy,
and at last acknowledges at heart
that his every effort
of doing good and thinking truth
was and is from the Lord.

AC 5773

. . . a turning about takes place
with those who are being regenerated,
namely, that they are led to good by means of truth,
and afterward from good they are led to truth.
When this turning about takes place,
or when the state is changed
and becomes the inverse of the former one,
there is mourning;
for they are then let into temptation,
whereby what is of their own proprium
is weakened and broken down,
and good is insinuated,
 and with good a new will,
and with this a new freedom, thus a new proprium.
This is represented by
Joseph's brethren returning in despair to Joseph,
and offering themselves to him as servants,
and their being kept in that state for some time,
and by Joseph's not manifesting himself
until after the temptation;
for when the temptation is over,
the Lord shines on them with comfort.