102. From what has just been said it may be evident that it is a law of the Divine Providence that evils should be removed by man, for unless they are removed the Lord cannot be conjoined to man, and cannot from Himself lead man into heaven. But as it has not been known that man ought as of himself to remove the evils in the external man, and that unless man does so as of himself the Lord cannot remove the evils that are in his internal man, therefore these propositions will be presented to reason in its own light in the following order:
I. Every man has an external and an internal of thought. II. The external of man's thought is in itself of the same nature as its internal. III. The internal cannot be purified from the lusts of evil as long as the evils in the external man are not removed, because they form an obstruction. IV. Evils in the external man cannot be removed by the Lord except through man's instrumentality. V. Therefore man ought as of himself to remove evils from the external man. VI. The Lord then purifies man from the lusts of evil in the internal man, and from the evils themselves in the external. VII. It is the continual endeavour of the Divine Providence of the Lord to unite man to Himself and Himself to man in order that He may be able to bestow upon man the felicities of eternal life; and this can be done only so far as evils with their lusts are removed.
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