202. 2. No one can have charity from the Lord unless he shuns evils as sins.

By charity, here as above, is meant the good a man does to the neighbour. Everyone is able to do good to the neighbour, an evil man as well as a good man; but no one is able to do it by reason of good in himself, except from the Lord, and unless he shuns evils as sins. That no one is able to do good to the neighbour by reason of good in himself, except from the Lord, has been shown just above. The reason no one is able to do it unless he shuns evils as sins, is that the Lord cannot inflow into anyone with good so that it is received, unless the evils in him are removed; for evils do not receive good, they reject it. For it is the same with a man who is in evils, as it is with devils in hell. With devils, the Lord inflows with good, in just the same way as He inflows with angels in heaven; but the devils do not receive it, they turn the good into evil, and the truth into falsity, for their life's form is such, and everything that inflows is turned into a likeness of the form; just as the pure heat of the sun is turned into putrid and noisome smells when it inflows into urine that has been stagnant, into dung, and into corpses. In the same way, the pure light of the sun, inflowing into objects in which all things are disordered, is turned into hideous colours. It is the same with heavenly heat, which is Divine Good, and heavenly light, which is Divine Truth, in the case of a man whose life's form is inverted, and so is opposed to the heavenly form. From this it is evident that, as long as a man is not shunning evils as sins, he cannot be doing otherwise than loving evils; and the love with everyone makes the form of his life. It is comparatively like a bad tree, which receives heat and light from the sun just as a good tree does, but still can only produce fruit that is a likeness of its own form, and therefore bad. It is, too, comparatively like malignant and noxious plants, which derive from the sun's heat and light the life by which they grow, just the same as good and useful plants, and yet can produce nothing but what agrees with their own form. Every man is the form of his own love. Nothing else forms a man in respect of his spiritual part, but his love. If he loves evils, he becomes a form of evil, which is an infernal form; whereas if he loves goods, he becomes a form of good, which is a heavenly form. From this it is evident that unless a man shuns evils as sins, the form of his mind [mens] becomes, in respect of its spiritual things, an infernal form, which in itself does not receive any good from the Lord, and consequently does not bring forth any good that is in itself good. The Lord can bring forth good through any man, and He can turn the evil that an evil man brings forth into good. He can rouse an evil man to do good from selfish and worldly considerations; but in that case the Lord does not inflow into the evil of the man himself, but round about it into the surrounding things in him, thus into his external, by means of which the man wants to appear like a good man. That good, therefore, is good so far as the surface goes, but intrinsically is evil. With hypocrites, it is like gilded dung, so that scarcely anyone thinks it to be other than pure gold; nevertheless, if it is brought near to a sensitive nostril, the smell of the dung in it is perceived. These things, however, are fully shown in THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM, in the section where it is shown that, in so far as a man shuns evils as sins, he does goods, not from himself, but from the Lord, nos. 18-31; to which I will add only this, that every one can see this from merely general influx out of heaven. Take anyone you like, servant, farmer, workman, ship-captain, or merchant, provided only he has something rational, and tell him only that he who hates evil does good, and all of them will see it clearly. And, inasmuch as they know that all good is from God, tell them that, in so far is a man hates evil because it is against God, he does good from God; and they will see it. But say the same things to someone who has confirmed himself in faith alone, and accordingly at the same time in the idea that no one can do good from himself, and he will not see it; for false things have closed his rational sight or understanding, but not that of the others.