Divine Love and Wisdom (Harleys) n. 68

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68. Concerning the elevation of man's interiors which belong to his mind, the following should also be known. In everything created by God there is reaction. In Life alone there is action, and reaction is caused by the action of Life. This reaction appears to belong to the created thing, because it comes into being when the subject is acted upon. Thus in man it appears as if it [reaction] were his because he has no other feeling than that life is his, when yet man is only a recipient of life. It is because of this that man, by reason of his hereditary evil, reacts against God. But as he believes that all his life is from God, and that all the good of life is from the action of God, and all evil of life from the reaction of man, to that extent the reaction becomes [part] of the action and man acts with God, as if from himself. The equilibrium of all things is from action and reaction together, and everything must be in equilibrium. These things have been said lest man should believe that he himself ascends to God by himself; but he does so by [the power of] the Lord.


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