hell, and is
angry with him on account of his evil; and some believe also that God
punishes man and does evil to him. In this opinion they establish
themselves by the sense of the letter of the Word, where such things
are declared, not knowing that the spiritual sense of the Word, by
which the sense of the letter is made clear, is wholly different; and
consequently that the genuine doctrine of the church, which is from
the spiritual sense of the Word, teaches otherwise, namely, that God
never turns away His face from man, and never casts man away from
Himself, that He casts no one into hell and is angry with no one.{1}
Everyone, moreover, whose mind is enlightened perceives this to be
true when he reads the Word, from the simple truth that God is good
itself, love itself, and mercy itself; and that good itself cannot do
evil to any one, and love itself and mercy itself can not cast man
away from itself, because this is contrary to the very essence of
mercy and love, thus contrary to the Divine Itself. Therefore those
who think from an enlightened mind clearly perceive, when they read
the Word, that God never turns Himself away from man; and as He never
turns Himself away from him He deals with him from goodness, love,
and mercy, that is, wills good to him, loves him, and is merciful to
him. And from this they see that the sense of the letter of the Word,
in which such things are declared, has stored up within itself a
spiritual sense, and that these expressions that are used in the
sense of the letter in accommodation to man's apprehension and
according to his first and general ideas are to be explained in
accordance with the spiritual sense.

{Footnote 1} In the Word anger and wrath are attributed to the
Lord, but they are in man, and it is so expressed because such
is the appearance to man when he is punished and damned (n.
798, 5798, 6997, 8284, 8483, 8875, 9306, 10431). Evil also is
attributed to the Lord, although nothing but good is from Him
(n. 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7679, 7926, 8227, 8228,
8632, 9306). Why it is so expressed in the Word (n. 6071, 6991,
6997, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7926, 8282, 9010, 9128). The Lord
is pure mercy and clemency (n. 6997, 8875).

546. Those who are enlightened see further that good and evil are two
opposites, and are therefore opposed as heaven and hell are, and that
all good is from heaven and all evil from hell; and as it is the
Divine of the L