1, 22).

What then will the Lord not do, who is mercy itself?

281. (iv) _Thus the permission of evil is for the sake of the end,
namely, salvation._ It is well known that man has full liberty to think
and will but not to say and do whatever he thinks and wills. He may think
as an atheist, deny God and blaspheme the sanctities of Word and church.
He may even want to destroy them utterly by word and deed, but this is
prevented by civil, moral and ecclesiastical laws. He therefore cherishes
this impiety and wickedness inwardly by thinking, willing and even
intending to do it, but not doing it actually. The man who is not an
atheist also has full liberty to think many evil things, things
fraudulent, lascivious, revengeful and otherwise insane; he also does
them at times. Who can believe that unless man had full liberty, he not
only could not be saved but would even perish utterly?

[2] Now let us have the reason for this. Everyone from birth is in evils
of many kinds. They are in his will, and what is in the will is loved.
For what a man wills inwardly he loves, what he loves he wills, and the
will's love flows into the understanding where it makes its pleasure felt
and thereupon enters the thoughts and intentions. If, therefore, he were
not allowed to think in accord with the love in his will, which is
hereditarily implanted in him, that love would remain shut in and never
be seen by him. A love of evil which does not become apparent is like an
enemy in ambush, like matter in an ulcer, like poison in the blood, or
corruption in the breast, which cause death when they are kept shut in.
But when a person is permitted to think the evils of his life's love,
even to intend doing them, they are cured by spiritual means as diseases
are by natural means.

[3] It will be told now what man would be like if he were not permitted
to think in accord with the enjoyment of his life's love. No longer would
he be man, for he would lose his two faculties called liberty and
rationality in which humanness itself consists. The enjoyment of those
evils would occupy the interiors of his mind to such an extent that it
would burst open the door. He could then only speak and commit the evils;
his unsoundness would be manifest not only to himself but to the world;
and at length he would not know how to cover his shame. In order that he
may not come into this state, he is permitted to think and to will the
evils of his inherited nature but not to