(Continuation)

The law of the Divine providence, that so far as a man can be withdrawn from evils he does good from the Lord that is good in itself, but so far as he cannot be withdrawn from evils, he does good from himself, and such good has evil in it, may be illustrated by the commandments of the Decalogue. Take for example the commandment not to steal. Those who resist as if from themselves the lust of stealing and thus the lust of gaining wealth dishonestly and unjustly, saying in their hearts that this must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine law, thus contrary to God, and is in itself infernal, thus in itself evil, such after some brief combats are withdrawn from that evil, and are led by the Lord into the good that is called integrity, and into the good that is called justice; and then they begin to think about these goods, and to look upon them from them, to look upon integrity from integrity, and upon justice from justice; and afterwards as they shun and turn away from the evil of this lust, they love the goods, and do them from love and not from compulsion. Such goods are from the Lord, because they are goods that are good in themselves. It is otherwise when the lust of gaining wealth dishonestly and unjustly remains with man; then he cannot act honestly from honesty or justly from justice, thus not from the Lord, but only from self. For he acts honestly and justly only that he may be believed to be honest and just with a view to securing greater gain and honor; these ends are in his goods, and from the end is the whole quality of the good. Such good has evil in it, since its quality is from the end to make gains dishonestly and unjustly. Everyone can see that such good cannot become good in itself until the evil has been removed. It is the same with all the other commandments of the Decalogue.