101. A Person Must Refrain from Evils as Being Sins and Fight Against Them as Though of Himself
It is of Divine order that a person act in freedom in accordance with his reason, since to act in freedom in accordance with one’s reason is to act of oneself.
However, these two faculties of freedom and reason are not properly a person’s own, but are the Lord’s in him. And insofar as he is human, they are not taken from him, since without them he cannot be reformed. For without them he cannot repent, cannot fight against evils, and cannot then produce fruits worthy of repentance.
Now because a person has his freedom and reason from the Lord, and acts in accordance with them, it follows that he does not act of himself, but as though of himself. 1
അടിക്കുറിപ്പുകൾ:
1. [Swedenborg’s Footnote] That a person has his freedom from the Lord may be seen in nos. 19, 20 in the book Heaven and Hell, nos 589-596 and 597-603. What freedom is may be seen in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), nos. 141-149.
