101. A MAN OUGHT TO SHUN EVILS AS SINS AND FIGHT AGAINST THEM AS OF HIMSELF.
It is in accordance with Divine order that man should act in freedom according to reason, because to act in freedom according to reason is to act from himself. And yet these two faculties, Freedom and Reason, are not proper to man, but are the Lord's in him; and in so far as he is a man they must not be taken away from him, because without them he cannot be reformed, for without them he cannot perform repentance, he cannot fight against evils, and afterwards bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. Now as it is from the Lord that man possesses freedom and reason, and as man acts from them, it follows that he does not act from himself, but as from himself.*
* That man has freedom from the Lord, see above (n. 19, 20); and in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 589-596, and n. 597-603). What freedom is, see the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, published in London in 1758 (n. 141-149).