man does this. And the life of such a man appears exactly the
same in external form as the life of one who shuns these evils because
they are contrary to the Divine laws; but in internal form it is wholly
unlike it. The one acts from natural freedom only, which is from man;
the other acts from spiritual freedom, which is from the Lord; both
acting from freedom. When a man is able to shun these same evils from
natural freedom, why is he not able to shun them from spiritual freedom,
in which he is constantly held by the Lord, provided he thinks to will
this because there is a heaven, a hell, a life after death, punishment
and reward, and prays to the Lord for help?

Let it be noted, that every man when he is beginning the spiritual life
because he wishes to be saved, fears sins on account of the punishments
of hell, but afterward on account of the sin itself, because it is in
itself abominable, and finally on account of the truth and good that he
loves, thus for the Lord's sake. For so far as anyone loves truth and
good, thus the Lord, he so far turns away from what is contrary to
these, which is evil. All this makes clear that he that believes in the
Lord shuns evils as sins; and conversely, he that shuns evils as sins
believes; consequently to shun evils as sins is the sign of faith.
(A.E., n. 936.)

But as all the evils into which man is born derive their roots from a
love of ruling over others and from a love of possessing the goods of
others, and all the delights of man's own life flow forth from these two
loves, and all evils are from them, so the loves and delights of these
evils belong to man's own life. And since evils belong to the life of
man, it follows that man from himself can be no means refrain from them,
for this would be from his own life to refrain from his own life. An
ability to refrain from them of the Lord is therefore provided, and that
he may have this ability the freedom to think that which he wills and to
pray to the Lord for help is granted him. He has this freedom because
he is in the middle between heaven and hell, consequently between good
and evil. And being in the middle he is in equilibrium; and he who is
in equilibrium is able easily and as of his own accord to turn himself
the one way or the other; and the more so because the Lord continually
resists evils and repels them, and raises man up and draws him to
Himself. And yet there is combat, because the evils which belong to
m