HH 302 - If We Only Believed . . .

HH 302

If a person only believed,
as is really true,
that all good is from the Lord
and all evil from hell,
he would neither make
the good in him a matter of merit
nor would evil be imputed to him;
for he would then look to the Lord
in all the good he thinks and does,
and all the evil that flows in would be cast down
to hell from which it comes.
But because a person does not believe
that anything flows into him
either from heaven or from hell,
and therefore supposes that all things
that he thinks and wills are in himself
and therefore from himself,
he appropriates the evil to himself,
and the good that flows in
he defiles with merit.