understanding when they read the Word, clearly perceive that God never turns Himself away from man; and because He never turns Himself away from him, that He deals with him from good, love and mercy. In other words, that He wills his good, that He loves him and is merciful to him. Hence also they see that the literal sense of the Word which teaches such things, conceals within itself a spiritual sense, according to which those expressions are to be explained, which, in the sense of the letter, are spoken in accommodation to the apprehension of man and according to his first and general ideas.
Moreover, they who are in a state of illustration see that good and evil are two opposites, as contrary to each other as heaven is to hell; and that all good is from heaven and all evil from hell. And because the Divine of the Lord makes heaven, therefore nothing but good flows in from the Lord with man, and nothing but evil from hell; and thus the Lord is continually withdrawing man from evil and leading him to good, while hell is continually leading him into evil.
Unless man were between both he would have no thought, nor any will, still less any freedom and choice; for man enjoys all these in consequence of the equilibrium between good and evil. Therefore if the Lord were to turn Himself away and man were left to evil alone, he would no longer be a man.
From these considerations it is evident, that the
