Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/119

This page needs to be proofread.
A SEEMING PARADOX.
113

FALSITIES ADMISSIVE OF GOOD.

Evils with man are of various kinds. There are evils wherewith goods cannot be mixed, and evils wherewith they can be. The case is the same with false principles. Unless it were so, it would be impossible for any man to be regenerated.

The evils and falsities wherewith goods and truths cannot be mixed, are such as are contrary to love to God and love towards our neighbor, such as hatreds, revenges, cruelties, and consequent contempt of others in comparison with ourselves; also the persuasions of what is false thence derived. But the evils and falsities wherewith goods and truths can be mixed, are such as are not contrary to love to God and love towards our neighbor. As for example; if any one loves himself in preference to others, and under the influence of that love studies to excel others in moral and civil life, in scientifics and doctrinals, and to be exalted to dignities and opulence above others, and yet acknowledges and adores God, performs from his heart duties towards his neighbor, and does from conscience what is just and equitable, the evil of that self-love is such as to admit good and truth to be mixed with it; for it is the evil which is proper to man, and is in him by inheritance; and in case it were suddenly taken away from him, the fire of his first life would be extinguished.

So again, he who believes that man is saved by virtue of believing what is good, and not by virtue of willing

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.