DP 100 - Good and Evil Can Not Be In the Same Vessel; DP 107 - Trees and Spiders

DP 100

Everyone can see from reason alone that the Lord,
who is good itself and truth itself,
cannot enter into a person
unless the evils and falsities in him are put away.
For evil is opposed to good, and falsity to truth,
and two opposites can never be commingled.
Rather, when one approaches the other,
a combat ensues,
which lasts until one gives way to the other,
and the one that gives way,
goes away,
and the other takes its place.

In such an opposition are heaven and hell,
or the Lord and the devil.
Can anyone reasonably suppose
that the Lord can enter where the devil reigns?
Or that heaven and hell can exist together?
Who does not see
from the rationality granted to every sane person
that for the Lord to enter,
the devil must be cast out?
Or that for heaven to enter,
hell must be removed?

DP 107

Heavenly love with its affections
for good and truth and consequent perceptions,
together with the delights of those affections
and their consequent thoughts,
may be likened to a tree
adorned with branches, leaves and fruits.
The life's love is the tree itself.
The branches with their leaves
are affections for good and truth
with their accompanying perceptions;
and the fruits are the delights of the affections
with their accompanying thoughts.

In contrast,
hellish love with its affections for evil and falsity,
which are lusts,
together with the delights of those lusts
and their accompanying thoughts,
may be likened to a spider and its surrounding web.
The love itself is the spider.
Its lusts for evil and falsity
with their interior cunning and guile
are the threads of the web
immediately surrounding the spider's abode,
and the delights of those lusts
with their crafty schemes
are the threads further out,
where flies flitting about
are caught, wrapped up, and devoured.