5758. 'And how could we steal from your lord's house silver or gold? means, Why should we lay claim to truth or good that comes from the Divine celestial? This is clear from the meaning of 'stealing' in the spiritual sense as laying claim to what is the Lord's, dealt with above in 5749; from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954, 5658; and from the meaning of 'gold' as good, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658. The whole of this chapter has as its subject spiritual theft, which consists in laying claim to good and truth that come from the Lord. This is a matter of consequence so great that after death a person cannot be admitted into heaven until he acknowledges in his heart that nothing good or true originates in himself, only in the Lord, and that whatever does originate in himself is nothing but evil. The truth of this is proved to a person after death by means of many experiences. The angels in heaven perceive quite clearly that everything good and true comes from the Lord, in addition they perceive that the Lord is the one who withholds them from evil and maintains in them what is good and therefore what is true, which He does with great force.
[2] I too have been allowed to perceive the same things quite plainly for many years now, and also to perceive that to the extent that I have been left to my proprium or on my own I have been swamped by evils, but to the extent that I have been withheld from this by the Lord I have been raised from evil to good. Laying claim therefore to truth or good as one's own is the opposite of the attitude of mind that reigns universally in heaven. It is also the opposite of the acknowledgement that all salvation is due to mercy, that is, that a person left to himself is in hell, but the Lord in His mercy pulls him out of there. Nor can a person have humility or consequently accept the Lord's mercy - for mercy can enter only where there is humility, that is, into a humble heart - unless he acknowledges that left to himself he produces nothing but evil and that the Lord is the source of all good. Moreover he otherwise thinks that the deeds he performs earn him merit and eventually righteousness; for to claim as one's own truth and good which come from the Lord is self-righteousness, from which many evils well up. Thinking in that way a person sees himself in every specific deed he performs for his neighbour; and when he does this he loves himself more than everyone else, whom he thus holds in contempt which, though he may not express it verbally, is nevertheless present in his heart.
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