DP 320 - If a Person Were to Believe

DP 320

If a person were to believe, as is the truth,
that all goodness and truth originate from the Lord,
and all evil and falsity from hell,
he would not assign goodness to himself
and make it deserving of merit,
nor assign evil to himself
and make himself guilty of it.
This, however, is contrary to the belief of people
who have affirmed in themselves the appearance
that wisdom and prudence originate from mankind
and do not flow in
in accordance with the state of the organization
of people's minds, as discussed just above in no. 319.
Therefore we must demonstrate it,
and to do so clearly,
we must demonstrate the several points
in the following sequence:

1. Someone who affirms in himself the appearance
that wisdom and prudence originate from mankind,
and that they are therefore in him as his,
cannot but have it seem to him
that he would otherwise not be human,
but would be either an animal or a statue,
when in fact the opposite is the case.

2. To believe and think, as is the truth,
that all goodness and truth originate from the Lord,
and all evil and falsity from hell,
seems to be an impossibility,
when in fact
it is something truly human and thus angelic.

3. To believe and think in this way is impossible for people
who do not acknowledge the Lord's Divinity,
and who do not acknowledge evils to be sins,
whereas it is possible for people
who do acknowledge these two things.

4. Insofar as they refrain from evils as sins
and are averse to them,
people who possess these two acknowledgments
simply reflect on the evils in themselves
and cast them away from themselves
back to hell from where they came.

5. Thus Divine providence does not assign evil to anyone,
nor good to anyone,
but it is a person's own prudence
that assigns the one or the other to him.