201. As regards the FIRST, No one can have charity except from the Lord.

Here, as in what follows, we name only the Lord, because the Lord is the only God; for He is God of heaven and earth, as He himself teaches. . . ¹ He and the Father are one, like soul and body, as He also teaches .... ² He and the Spirit are the same, like the Divine in Him, and the Divine from Him. ³ Thus He Himself is the One Only God; and thus the Divine Trinity is in His Person, and is named the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, because the whole Church, and all religion, is founded upon the idea of God, and upon the idea that God is one, and because this idea exists to no purpose unless God is one in Essence and in Person, and unless this unity of the trinity and trinity of the unity is in the Lord alone, therefore here at the very beginning, and afterwards in what follows, we name the Lord only. See, besides, THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD, from beginning to end; also ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, nos. [157, 262-263]. ⁴ The reason no one can have charity except from the Lord, is that by charity is meant every good a man does to others; and the good a man does to others is indeed good for those to whom it is done, but it is not good in him by whom it is done, unless it is from God. For no good that is in itself a good, and is called a good of charity, and in its essence is a spiritual good, can flow forth from man, but from the Lord only. For, in order that a good of charity, or a spiritual good, may exist, the Lord must be in the Good, must indeed be the Good; for it proceeds from Him, and what proceeds from anyone derives its essence from Him; for He Himself is in what is His Own. If, therefore, the Lord were not the Good a man does to the neighbour, or, what is the same, unless the good a man does to the neighbour were from the Lord, it would not have an essence of good in it, but an essence of evil, for the man would be in it; and a man in himself and in his proprium is nothing but evil. This evil must first be removed, in order that the good proceeding from the man may not be the man's but the Lord's. A man is only a recipient of life: he is not life in himself, for, if he were life in himself, he would be God; and therefore, man is only a recipient of good, for good is of life, because love and wisdom are life, and good is of love, and truth is of wisdom. This life cannot be made over to man as his own; for man is finite and created, and the Lord cannot create and finite Himself in another. In that case, He Himself would no longer exist, and then the entire human race, and each individual by himself, would be God. To think this is not only irrational, but abominable also. In the spiritual world, such an idea about God and man stinks like a corpse. From all this it can be taken as established that there cannot be any good, which is in itself good, and is termed a good of charity, from man; it must be from the Lord, who alone is Good itself, thus is in Himself Good. This, the Lord does, indeed, produce from Himself, but through man. There is no subject through which the Lord produces good from Himself, other than man. Nevertheless the Lord has given man the faculty of feeling it in himself, indeed, as from himself, and therefore as his own, to the end that he may do it. For if he felt it was not from himself, but from the Lord, he would not do it; for he would then believe himself to be not a man, not even alive, and at length scarcely otherwise than like an automaton. And, from experience, I know that a man would rather die, than live perceptibly from another in himself. Indeed, unless a man felt the good he does as being from himself, the good would not remain in him either, but would flow through, like water through a water-skin all full of holes; nor could he then be formed for heaven, that is, reformed and regenerated, and so, being saved, live to eternity. Lest, however, a man, owing to this appearance, should attribute to himself the good or charity he does to the neighbour, and thereby appropriate evil to himself, in place of good, through believing he lives from himself, and consequently does the good from himself, thus attributing to himself what is the Lord's, it has pleased the Lord to reveal this in His Word, and to teach it. For the Lord says, "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5, and elsewhere).

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