e Lord?

117. Many are unaware that they are in evils since they do not do them
outwardly, fearing the civil law and the loss of reputation. Thus by
custom and habit they practice to avoid evils as detrimental to their
standing and interests. But if they do not shun evils on religious
principle, because they are sins and against God, the lusts of evil with
their enjoyments remain in them like impure waters stopped up or
stagnant. Let them probe their thoughts and intentions and they will come
on the lusts provided they know what sins are.

[2] Many such, who have confirmed themselves in faith separated from
charity and who believe that the law does not condemn, pay no attention
to sins. Some doubt there are sins, or if so, that they exist in God's
sight, having been pardoned. Such also are natural moralists, who believe
that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes all things and
divine providence nothing. Such are those, also, who strive with great
care after a reputation and a name for honesty and sincerity for the sake
of standing and preferment. But those who are such and who at the same
time have spurned religion become lustful spirits after death, appearing
to themselves like men indeed, but to others at a distance like _priapi;_
and they see in the dark and not at all in the light, like night-owls.

118. Proposition v, that _a man ought to remove evils from the external
man of himself,_ is substantiated then. Further explanation may be seen
in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ under three propositions: 1.
No one can flee evils as sins so as to be averse to them inwardly except
by combats against them (nn. 92-100); 2. A man ought to shun evils as
sins and fight against them as of himself (nn. 101-107); and 3. If he
shuns evils for any other reason than that they are sins, he does not
shun them, but only keeps them from appearing to the world.

119. (vi) _The Lord then purifies man from the lusts of evil in the
internal man and from the evils themselves in the external._ The Lord
purifies man from the lusts of evil only when man as of himself removes
the evils because He cannot do so before. For the evils are in the
external man and the lusts in the internal man, and they cling together
like roots and a trunk. Unless the evils are removed, therefore, no
outlet offers; they block the way and shut the door, which the Lord can
open only with a man's participation, as was shown just above. When the