Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/164

 Lord flows-in with good into every man, the bad as well as the good; but with this difference, that He is continually withdrawing the bad man from evil, and continually leading the good man to good; and that the cause of such difference is with man, because he is the recipient.

Hence it may be seen that man does evil from hell and good from the Lord. But because he believes that whatever he does he does from himself, therefore the evil which he does adheres to him as his own. Hence it is that man is the cause of his own evil, and not the Lord. Evil with man is hell with him; for whether we speak of evil or of hell, it is the same thing. Now since man is the cause of his own evil, therefore also he leads himself into hell, and not the Lord. So far is the Lord from leading man into hell, that He delivers him from it as far as man does not will and love to abide in his own evil.

All of man's will and love remains with him after death. He who wills and loves evil in the world, wills and loves the same evil in the other life; and then he no longer suffers himself to be withdrawn from it. Hence it is that the man who is in evil is tied to hell, and is actually there as to his spirit; and after death he desires nothing more than to be where his own evil is. Therefore man after death casts himself into hell, and not the Lord.

How this is done shall also be told. When man enters the other life, he is first received by angels