The Lord imputes good to everyone and hell imputes evil to everyone,

It is news to the church that the Lord imputes good and never evil to a person, and that the devil (by which is meant hell) imputes evil and never good to him. The reason this is news is that we read in many passages in the Word that God is angry, takes revenge, hates, condemns, punishes, throws someone into hell, tempts him, all of which are the actions of a wicked person, and so are evils. But, as was shown in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, the literal sense of the Word was composed out of what are called appearances and correspondences. This was in order to link the externals of the church with its internals, and so to link the world with heaven. The same chapter also showed that when such things are read about in heaven, the appearances of truth in their passage from man to heaven are actually changed into genuine truths. These are that the Lord is never angry, never takes revenge, hates, condemns, punishes, throws anyone into hell, or tempts him; thus He never does evil to anyone. I have often observed this transmutation and change in the spiritual world.