2410. And he lingered. That this signifies opposition arising from the nature of evil, is evident from what was said above (n. 2406); for the evil which is in man continually reacts against the good which is from the Lord. Evil from what is hereditary and from what is actual adheres to man in each of his thoughts, nay, in the least things of his thoughts. This drags him downward (but the Lord, by means of the good which he instills, withholds him, and uplifts him, so that the man is held suspended between evil and good), and the consequence of this downward tendency is that if even for the least moment the man were not withheld from evils, he would of himself rush downward; and this he would do more in the state in which is the man of the church now represented by Lot than in the former state. This state is that he is beginning to think and to act not so much from good as from truth; thus at some distance from good.