Doc. of Life (Dick) n. 24

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24. 1. IF A MAN WILLS AND DOES WHAT IS GOOD BEFORE HE SHUNS EVILS AS SINS, THE GOOD THINGS WHICH HE WILLS AND DOES ARE NOT GOOD. This is because before that he is not in the Lord, as was said above. For example: if he gives to the poor, brings help to the needy, endows churches and hospitals, does good to the Church, his country and his fellow-citizens; teaches the Gospel and converts souls, acts justly in giving judgments, with sincerity in business transactions and with uprightness in his work; and yet makes light of evils as sins, as the evils of fraud, adultery, hatred, blasphemy and the like; in these circumstances he cannot do any good but such as is inwardly evil, for he does it from himself and not from the Lord. Consequently, he himself is in it and not the Lord; and good deeds in which man himself is are all defiled with his evils, and have himself and the world as their end in view. Yet these same deeds enumerated above are inwardly good if a man shuns evils as sins; as the evils of fraud, adultery, hatred, blasphemy and the like, for he does the from the Lord and they are said to be wrought in God. John iii 19-21


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