Anyone can see from reason alone that the Lord who is good itself
and truth itself cannot enter man unless the evils and falsities in him
are removed. For evil is opposed to good, and falsity to truth, and two
opposites cannot mingle, but as one approaches the other, combat arises
which lasts until one gives way to the other; what gives way departs and
the other takes its place. Heaven and hell, or the Lord and the devil,
are in such opposition. Can anyone reasonably think that the Lord can
enter where the devil reigns, or heaven be where hell is? By the
rationality with which every sane person is endowed, who cannot see that
for the Lord to enter, the devil must be cast out, or for heaven to
enter, hell must be removed?

[2] This opposition is meant by Abraham's words from heaven to the rich
man in hell:

Between us and you a great gulf is fixed, so that those who would cross
from us to you cannot, nor those over there cross to us (Lu 16:26).

Evil is itself hell, and good is itself heaven, or what is the same, evil
is itself the devil, and good itself the Lord. A person in whom evil
reigns is a hell in least form, and one in whom good reigns is a heaven
in least form. How, then, can heaven enter hell when a gulf is fixed
between them so great that there is no crossing from one to the other? It
follows that hell must by all means be removed for the Lord to enter with
heaven.

101. But many, especially those who have confirmed themselves in faith
severed from charity, do not know that they are in hell when they are in
evils. In fact, they do not know what evils are, giving them no thought.
They say that they are not under the yoke of the law and so the law does
not condemn them; likewise, that as they cannot contribute to their
salvation, they cannot remove any evil of themselves and furthermore
cannot do any good of themselves. It is these who neglect to give some
thought to evil and therefore keep on in evil. They are meant by the Lord
under "goats" in Matthew 25:32, 33; 41-46, as may be seen in _Doctrine of
the New Jerusalem on Faith,_ nn. 61-68; to them it is said in verse 41,
"Depart from Me, you accursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels."

[2] Persons who give no thought to the evils in them, and who do not
examine themselves and then desist from the evils, cannot but be ignorant
what evil is, and cannot but love it then from delighting in it. For one
who is ignorant of it loves i