EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
"God's will be done; I am Thine and not mine."
"April 11 and 12. . . . There is not a single thought which is not very much alloyed with uncleanness and impurity. It is therefore best that man should every hour and every moment acknowledge that he is deserving of the punishment of hell, but that God's grace and mercy which are in Jesus Christ overlook it. I have indeed observed that our whole will into which we are born, and which is ruled by the body and introduces thought, is opposed to the Spirit which does this; wherefore there is a continual strife, and we can by no manner of means unite ourselves with the Spirit, which by grace is with us; and hence it is that we are dead to everything good, but to everything evil we are inclined from ourselves. For this reason we must at all times acknowledge ourselves guilty of innumerable sins, because our Lord God knows all and we only very little about them: we know only so much as enters into our thoughts, and only when it also enters into the actions do we become convinced of it.
"April 12 and 13. . . . God's grace thus showed me that I had to strive after salvation
156
