he
thinks from hell. He likewise grants him to think of the means by which
he can escape from hell and not think from hell, but enter heaven and in
heaven think from the Lord, and He grants man the freedom to choose. From
all this it may be seen that man can think evil and falsity as if from
himself and also think that this or that is evil or false; consequently
that it is only an appearance that he does so of himself, an appearance
without which he would not be man. To think from truth is what is human
itself and consequently angelic itself; it is a truth that man does not
think from himself, but is granted by the Lord to think from himself to
all appearance.

[6] Third: _So to believe and think is impossible to those who do not
acknowledge the divine of the Lord and that evils are sins, but possible
to those who make the two acknowledgments._ It is impossible to those who
do not acknowledge the divine of the Lord, for the Lord alone gives man
to think and will; and those who do not acknowledge the divine of the
Lord, being separated from Him believe that they think for themselves. It
is impossible also to those who do not acknowledge evils to be sins, for
they think then from hell, and in hell everyone supposes that he thinks
from himself. That it is possible, however, to those who make the two
acknowledgments can be seen from what was set forth fully above (nn.
288-294).

[7] Fourth: _Only those who live in the two acknowledgments reflect on
the evils in themselves, and so far as they shun and are averse to them,
they send them back to hell from which they come._ All know or can know
that evil is from hell and good is from heaven. Who then cannot know that
so far as man shuns and is averse to evil he shuns and is averse to hell?
He can know then, too, that so far as he shuns and is averse to evil, he
wills and loves what is good, and consequently is so far released from
hell by the Lord and led to heaven. Every rational person may see these
things provided he knows that heaven and hell exist, where good and evil
have their respective origins. If, now, he reflects on the evils in him,
which is the same thing as examining himself, and shuns them, he
disengages himself from hell, puts it behind him, and brings himself into
heaven, where he beholds the Lord before him. Man does this, we say, but
he does it as of himself and from the Lord now. When a man acknowledges
this truth out of a good heart and in a devout faith,