4322. THAT NO ONE BECOMES GOOD WITHOUT MEANS, OR IN A MIRACULOUS MANNER. I conversed with a certain spirit (:it was Paul:) affirming that no one could become good miraculously. Some wondered that they could not be taken immediately into heaven, and be reduced by the Lord's omnipotence into a state in which they could become angels. But it was answered that evil cannot be made to be good, nor can anyone come thither before his evil is dissipated or subdued, and that this is effected only by foreseen divine means, and not miraculously. It was said also that if evil were taken away [from the evil] there would be but little of life remaining, and that this would be to work miraculously, though it may be done in the other life by the removal of societies. As he thought in this manner, the societies were removed, and he was then as an infant sprawling with its hands and it was said that he neither knew how to speak or to think, but only to move his arms as a new-born babe. Thus would it be with the evil if they sought to be miraculously made good. - 1749, July 10.