Merit and justice belong to the Lord alone, nos. 9715, 9979. The merit and justice of the Lord consist in this, that He saved the human race by His own power, nos. 1813, 2025-2027, 9715, 9809, 10019. The good of the Lord's justice and merit is the good that reigns in heaven and this good is the good of His Divine Love by virtue of which He saved mankind, nos. 9486, 9979. No man can of himself become justice, nor claim it to himself by any right, no. 1813. The quality of those in the other life who claim justice to themselves, nos. 942, 2027. He is called just in the Word, to whom the justice and merit of the Lord are ascribed; and he is called there unjust to whom self-justice and self-merit are ascribed, nos. 5069, 9263. He who has become just from the Lord once, is just from Him continually; for justice never becomes a man's own, but is the Lord's continually, no. 9263. Those who believe in justification [as taught] in the Church, know little of regeneration, no. 5398. A man is wise so far as he ascribes all goods and truths to the Lord, and not to himself, no. 10227. As all good and truth which is good and true, are from the Lord, and as nothing is from man; and as good from man is not good, it follows that merit does not belong to any man, but to the Lord alone, nos. 9975, 9981, 9988. Those who enter heaven put off all merit of their own, no. 4007; and they do not think of reward on account of the good they have done, nos. 6478, 9174. Those who think from the idea of merit, so far do not acknowledge that all things are of mercy, no. 6478, 9174. Those who think from the idea of merit, think of reward and remuneration; for the desire to acquire merit, means desiring to be remunerated, nos. 5660, 6392, 9975. Such persons cannot receive heaven in themselves, nos. 1835, 8478, 9977. Heavenly happiness consists in the affection of doing good without having any regard to remuneration, nos. 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984. So far as any one in the other life does good without any regard to remuneration, so far the feeling of blessedness, in an increasing ratio, flows in from the Lord: and when remuneration is thought of, this feeling is immediately dissipated, nos. 6478, 9174. Good ought to be done without any regard to remuneration, nos. 6392, 6478; illustrated, no. 9981. Genuine charity is without any idea of merit, nos. 2343, 2371, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393; because it flows from love, and thus from the delight of doing good, nos. 3816, 3887, 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984. By reward in the Word are meant the delight and the feeling of blessedness experienced in doing good to others without any respect to reward; and this delight, and this feeling of blessedness, are felt and perceived by those who are in genuine charity, nos. 3816, 3956, 6388. Those who do good for the sake of reward, love themselves, and not the neighbour, nos. 8002, 9210. By hirelings in the Word, are meant in the spiritual sense those who do good for the sake of reward, no. 8002. Those who do good for the sake of remuneration, in the other life desire to be waited upon [by others], and are never contented, no. 6393. They despise the neighbour, and are angry at the Lord Himself, because they do not receive a reward, saying that they have merited one, no. 9976. Those who have separated in themselves faith from charity, in the other life, ascribe merit to faith, and also to the good works which they have done in an outward form, thus for the sake of themselves, no. 2371. Further statements concerning the quality of those in the other life who have placed merit in works, nos. 942, 1774, 1877, 2027. They are there in the lower earth, and appear to themselves to cut wood, nos. 1110, 4943, 8740; because wood, and particularly shittim wood, signifies specifically the good of merit, nos. 2784, 2812, 9472, 9486, 9715, 10178. Those who have done good for the sake of remuneration, in the Lord's Kingdom, are subservient [to others], nos. 6389, 6390. Those who place merit in works fall in temptations, nos. 2273, 9978. Those who are in the loves of self and of the world, do not know what it means to do good without any regard to remuneration, no. 6392.