4432. CONCERNING ORDER, AND THAT ON ACCOUNT OF ORDER THEY THROW THE BLAME OF EVILS UPON THE LORD. Nothing is more common with spirits than to think that all blame, nay, punishment, thus evil, is of the Lord, because he permits; but I spoke with them on the subject, saying that so indeed it appears, but that in reality from the Lord is order itself, that evil punishes itself, thus that evil and the false return to the perpetrators in innumerable ways; that this is of order and the laws of order, and that because they act against order and think against order, and consequently esteem it just to love themselves and their own, they thus throw the blame of evil upon the Lord, when yet they themselves are in fault. That it so appears to them is a fallacy; for everyone wishes to have order observed, according to the order in which he himself is; whereas the order from the Lord is, that it may be well with all; it is like the case of one who acts against just laws, who, as he wills against them, is indignant and angry at them, and throws the blame upon the legislator because he has so made the laws, consequently one otherwise than another; when yet with the legislator, there was no other end than the common good, wherefore he who sins against the laws is the one in fault; he cannot look beyond himself [or know] how much of the common good there is in his conduct, but only how much particular good agreeable to himself.