True Christian Religion #490
490. It is plain from the first chapter of Genesis that everything created by God was good. It says there that 'God saw that it was good' (verses 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), and at the end 'God saw everything that He made, and behold, it was very good' (verse 31). It is also plain from man's primeval state in paradise. Evil, however, arose from man, as is plain from Adam's second 1 state, that is, after the fall, by his being expelled from paradise. It is clear from these facts that if free will in spiritual matters had not been given to man, God Himself, and not man, would have been the cause of evil; in this case God would have created both good and evil, and it is wicked even to think that God created evil too. The reason why God did not create evil, since He bestowed on man free will in spiritual matters, and never puts any evil into his mind, is that He is good itself, and in good God is omnipresent, continually urging and demanding to be received. Even if He is not received, still He does not go away. For if He did, man would instantly die, or rather dissolve into non-existence, since man gets his life, and the continued existence of all he consists of, from God.
[2] Evil was not created by God but introduced by man, because man turns the good which continually flows in from God into evil, by turning away from God and turning towards himself. When this happens, the pleasure given by good remains, but it now becomes the pleasure given by evil; for without an apparently similar pleasure being left man would cease to live, since it is pleasure which makes up the vital principle of his love. These two pleasures are still diametrically opposed, though a person is unaware of this so long as he lives in the world. After death, however, he will know this and indeed feel it plainly, for then the pleasure given by the love of good is turned into heavenly blessedness, but the pleasure given by the love of evil into the torments of hell. These arguments prove that everyone is predestined to heaven, and no one to hell; but it is the person who commits himself to hell by misusing his free will in spiritual matters. As a result he embraces the ideas wafted from hell, since, as was said above, everyone is held mid-way between heaven and hell, so that he can be in equilibrium between good and evil, and consequently have free will in spiritual matters.
Imibhalo yaphansi:
1. Reading secundo for secundum.
Matthew 23
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Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
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Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
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All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
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For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
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But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
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And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
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And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
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But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
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And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
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Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
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But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
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And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
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But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
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Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
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Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
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And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
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Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
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Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
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And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
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And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
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Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
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Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
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Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
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And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
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Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
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Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
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Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
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Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
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That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
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Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
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Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
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For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
