101. We Need to Abstain from Sinful Evils and Fight against Them As Though We Were Doing So on Our Own
IT is part of the divine design that we act in freedom and according to reason, because acting in freedom according to reason is acting on our own.
However, these two powers, freedom and reason, are not our own. They are the Lord's within us; and since we are human they are not taken from us, because we cannot be reformed without them. That is, we cannot practice repentance, we cannot fight against evils and as a result bear fruit that is consistent with repentance [Matthew 3:8; Luke 3:8].
So since we are given freedom and reason by the Lord and we act from them, it follows that we are not acting on our own but as though we were on our own. 1
Notas a pie de página:
1. [Swedenborg's Footnote] On our being given freedom by the Lord, see 19, 20 above and 589-596, 597-603 in Heaven and Hell. On what freedom is, see The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Teachings (published in London in 1758) .
