3951. 'For I have surely hired you with my son's dudaim' means that this had accordingly been seen to and agreed beforehand. This is clear from the meaning of 'surely hiring' as an agreement, as well as its being evident from what is said prior to this. The reason why it had been seen to beforehand is that the joining of truth to good or of good to truth in a person is something seen to beforehand, that is, seen to by the Lord in His providence. For at present the subject is the joining of good to truth and of truth to good, and so the subject is the good which is made a person's own. Indeed good is not good with anyone until it has been joined to truth. And since all good comes from the Lord, that is, all good is made a person's own through the joining of that good to truth, the expression 'seen to beforehand' is used here. The Lord's providence is concerned first and foremost with that joining together of the two. It is good and truth thus joined together that makes a person human and marks him off from animals, making him a human being insofar as he accepts that providence, that is, insofar as he allows the Lord to achieve the objective. This therefore is the good that exists with a person. No other kind of good exists which is spiritual and lasts for ever.
[2] Furthermore, forms of good with the external man, which are the delights of life while a person lives in the world, are truly good only in the measure that they hold that spiritual good within them. Take for example the good served by riches. In the measure that riches hold spiritual good within them, that is, in the measure that a person regards the good of his neighbour, the good of his country or the public good, and the good of the Church, as the end in view to be served by riches, they are truly good. But people who come to the conclusion that the spiritual good spoken of here and material opulence do not go together, one within the other, and who therefore become convinced that to make room for heaven they must renounce riches, are much mistaken. For if they renounce them or divest themselves of them they are not then in a position to do good to anyone and they themselves cannot live in the world in anything but misery. Thus they are not able any longer to have the good of their neighbour and the good of their country, or even the good of the Church, as their end in view, only their own salvation and their becoming greater than others in heaven. What is more, when they renounce worldly possessions they also throw themselves open to contempt, which makes them of little value in the sight of others and therefore useless for rendering service and the performing of duties. But when they do have the good of their neighbour, country, and Church as their end in view, they also have as their end in view, or the means to it, the conditions in which they will be able to attain that end.
[3] It is exactly the same with a person's food, for the end in view with food is that he may have a healthy mind in a healthy body. If someone deprives the body of its food he also deprives himself of the conditions necessary for the attainment of that end. Consequently no one who is a spiritual man despises food or its pleasures. He does not however regard it as an end in itself but the means to an end. From this as an example one can work out the situation with all other forms of such good.
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