Heavenly Doctrine (Tafel) n. 152

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152. Those who do good for the sake of reward, do good not from the Lord, but from themselves; for they have respect primarily to themselves, because to their own good; the good of the neighbour, that is, the good of the fellow-citizen, of human society, of the country, and the Church, they regard only as a means towards an end. On this ground it is that in the good of merit there lurks the good of self-love and of the love of the world; and this latter good is from man, and not from the Lord and all good that is from man is not good; nay, in proportion as self and the world are latent in it, it is evil.


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