Week 2    Day 6

    Listen:

Necessity of Shunning Sins in the External

Divine Providence 111

The internal cannot be cleansed from the lusts of evil so long as the evils in the external man are not put away, since these obstruct. This follows from the preceding statement, that the external of man’s thought is in itself of the same character as its internal; and that the two cohere, like things that are not only one within the other but also one from the other. Consequently, one cannot be set aside unless the other is also. It is so with everything external that is from an internal, and with everything posterior that is from a prior, and with every effect that is from a cause.

[2] Since, then, lusts with their wiles constitute in the evil the internal of thought, and the enjoyments of lusts together with their machinations constitute their external of thought, and the latter and the former are joined together as one, it follows that the internal cannot be cleansed from lusts so long as the evils in the external man are not put away. It should be understood that man’s internal will is that which is in the lusts, and the internal understanding is that which is in the deceitful wiles, and that the external will is that which is in the enjoyments of the lusts, and the external understanding is that which is in the machinations from the wiles.

Anyone can see that lusts and their enjoyments make one, and that deceitful wiles and machinations make one; also that these four are in one series, and together make as it were one bundle. And from this again it is clear that an internal that consists of lusts can be cast out only by putting away the external that consists of evils. Lusts through their enjoyments produce evils. But when evils are believed to be allowable, which comes from the agreement of will and understanding, the enjoyments and the evils then make one.

It is acknowledged that this agreement is equivalent to doing the thing; and this is what the Lord says: “Whoever looks on another’s woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). It is the same with other evils.

Divine Providence 112

From all this it can now be seen that evils must surely be put away from the external man, in order that man may be cleansed from the lusts of evil. For until this is done there is no possible exit for lusts. And if there is no exit, the lusts remain within and breathe out enjoyments from themselves, and so they urge men on to the consent, thus to the doing. Through the external of thought, lusts enter the body. When therefore there is consent in the external of thought, the lusts are at once present in the body; and the enjoyment that is felt is there.

That as the mind is, such is the body, thus the whole man, may be seen in the work The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, 362- 370. This may be made clear by comparisons and also by examples.

[2] By comparisons: Lusts with their enjoyments may be likened to fire. The more a fire is fed, the more it burns; and the freer the course given it, the further it spreads, until in a city it consumes the houses, and in a forest the trees. In the Word, the lusts of evil are likened to fire, and their evils to its burning. Moreover, in the spiritual world, lusts of evil with their enjoyments appear like fires; hell fire is nothing else. Lusts may also be likened to floods and inundations of water when dikes or dams give way. They may also be likened to gangrenous sores and ulcers, which, if they run their course or are not cured, bring death to the body.

[3] By examples: It is made clear that unless the evils in the external man are put away, the lusts and their enjoyments grow and multiply. The more a thief steals the more he loves to steal, till at last he cannot refrain; so it is with the defrauder, the more he defrauds. The same is true of hatred and revenge, of extravagance and intemperance, of whoredom and blasphemy, and the like. Everyone knows that the love of ruling from the love of self increases as rein is given to it; equally the love of possessing from love of the world; these seem to be without limit or end.

All this makes clear that so far as the evils in the external are not put away, their lusts multiply, and that lusts increase to the extent that evils have loose rein.

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