DP 232
(4) Therefore the Lord admits a person
no more interiorly into
truths of wisdom
and at the same time goods of love
than the extent
to which
the person can be maintained in them
to the end of his
life.
We must proceed to demonstrate this clearly
for two reasons:
one, because it is important for human salvation,
and second,
because on a concept of this law
depends a concept of laws of
permission,
which we take up in the next chapter.
DP 233 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13]
FIRST, that the interior constituents in a person
cannot contain
evil and good at the same time,
and thus neither the falsity of evil
and the truth of good at the same time:
By a person's interior
constituents
we mean the inner core of his thought . . ..
A rational person can see without explanation
that evil with its
falsity cannot exist
in a person's interior constituents
at the same
time as good with its truth.
For evil is opposed to good,
and good
is opposed to evil,
and two opposites cannot exist together.
Inherent also in every evil is a hatred of good,
and inherent in
every good
is a love of protecting itself against evil
and of
removing it from itself.
It follows from this
that one cannot exist
together with the other;
and if they were to exist together,
first a
conflict and battle would arise
and then destruction ensue.
SECOND, that the Lord cannot introduce
good and the truth of good
into a person's interior constituents
except to the extent that evil
and the falsity of evil
have been removed there:
This is the
inevitable consequence
of the preceding considerations.
For as evil
and good cannot exist together,
good cannot be introduced
before
evil has been removed.
We say into a person's interior constituents,
and we mean by this
the inner core of his thought.
It is these constituents we are
discussing,
which must have in them either the Lord or the devil.
The Lord is present there
after the person's reformation,
and the
devil is present there before that.
To the extent
that a person
allows himself to be reformed,
therefore, to the same extent the
devil is cast out.
But to the extent
that he does not allow
himself to be reformed,
to the same extent the devil remains.
. . . For the Lord is inwardly present in all good,
and the devil inwardly in all evil.
THIRD, that if good with its truth
were to be introduced sooner
or
to a greater extent
than evil with its falsity has been removed,
the person would turn away from the good
and go back to his evil:
That is because the evil would be stronger,
and that which is
stronger wins out,
if not right away, still later on.
it is the utmost delight of a person's life
to love himself and
the world above all else.
This delight cannot be removed in a
moment,
but only gradually.
Yet the greater the measure of this
delight
remaining in a person,
the more evil prevails in him.
And
this evil cannot be removed
except as self-love becomes
a love of
useful endeavors,
or as a love of ruling exists not for its own
sake
but for the sake of such endeavors.
FOURTH, that when a person is governed by evil,
many truths may be
introduced into his intellect,
and these be stored in his memory,
and yet not be profaned:
That is because the intellect
does not
flow into the will,
but rather the will into the intellect.
And
because the intellect does not flow into the will,
many truths may
be received by the intellect,
and these be stored in the memory,
and yet not be commingled with evil in the will,
so that sacred
things are not profaned.
FIFTH, but that the Lord
through His Divine providence
provides as
much as possible
that the will accept nothing from there
sooner or
to a greater extent than a person
as though of himself
removes
evil in his outer self:
For whatever comes from the will
enters
into a person and is adopted by him
so as to become part of his
life.
And at the core of that life,
which a person has from the
will,
evil and good cannot exist together,
for then he would
perish.
SIXTH, that if it were to do so sooner
or to a greater extent,
the
will would then adulterate the good,
and the intellect falsify the
truth,
by mixing them with evils and the resulting falsities:
Love of self, which is at the head of all evils,
excels all other
loves in its talent
for adulterating goods and falsifying truths,
and it accomplishes this by abusing the rationality
that every
person, both evil and good,
has from the Lord.
Indeed, through its
justifications
it can make evil appear altogether as good,
and
falsity as truth.
Love of self excels in its talent for affirming what it will,
because its outward facade consists of
a certain radiance of light
variegated into an assortment of colors.
This radiance is that
love's glory in being wise,
and so also in excelling and ruling.
SEVENTH, that the Lord therefore admits a person
no more
interiorly into truths of wisdom
and into goods of love
than the
extent to which the person
can be maintained in them to the end of
his life:
The Lord brings this about
to keep a person from falling
into the most serious
kind of profanation of the sacred . . ..
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