201. (I.) No one can have charity except from the Lord. Here, as in the following pages, we name only the Lord, because the Lord is the only God; for He is the God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches. He and the Father are one, like the soul and body, as He also teaches. And He and the Holy Spirit are the same, as the Divine in Himself, and the Divine from Himself. So that He Himself is the one and only God; and the Divine Trinity is in His Person, and is named the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now because the whole church and all religion is founded upon the idea of God, and upon the idea that God is one, and as this idea can in no wise exist unless God is one in Essence and in Person, and unless this unity of trinity and trinity of unity is in the Lord alone, therefore here now at the beginning, and in what follows afterwards, we name the Lord only. (See also the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, from the beginning to the end, and Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence, n. 263.) The reason why no one can have charity except from the Lord, is that by charity every good is meant that a man does to others, and the good that a man does to others, though it be good to those to whom it is done, is not good in him by whom it is done, unless it is from God. For no good that itself is good and is called a good or charity, and that in its essence is spiritual good, can flow out from man, but it is from the Lord only; for in order that a good may be of charity or spiritual good, the Lord must be in the good, yea, must be the good. For it proceeds from Him; and what proceeds from one derives from him its essence, for he himself is in it. If, therefore, the Lord were not in the good that a man does to the neighbor, or what is the same, unless the good that a man does to the neighbor were from the Lord, it would not have the essence of good, but the essence of evil in it. For the man would be in it, and a man in himself, and in what is his own, is nothing but evil. This evil must first be removed, in order that the good which proceeds from a man may not be of the man, but of the Lord. Man is only a recipient of life, not life, in himself. For if he were life in himself he would be God. Man is therefore only a recipient of good; for good is of life, because love and wisdom are life, and good is of love and truth is of wisdom. This life cannot be ascribed to man as his. For man is finite and created, and the Lord cannot create and finite Himself in another; for thus He Himself would no longer be, and the whole human race, and each one by himself, would be God, to think which is not only irrational but abominable. Such an idea of God and of man, in the spiritual world, stinks like a carcass. It is evident from all this that there can be no good which in itself is good, and is called the good of charity, from man, but from the Lord, who alone is good itself, and so, good in Himself. The Lord does indeed produce this from Himself, but through man. There is no other subject through which the Lord produces good from Himself than man. And yet the Lord has given to man the capacity to feel it within himself, yea, just as if it were from himself, and therefore as if it were his own, in order that he may do it. For if he should feel that it was not from himself, but from the Lord, he would not do it; because he would then believe himself not a man, yea not alive, and even scarcely different from an automaton. And I know from experience that a man would rather die, than live from another in himself even to the sense. Yea, if a man did not feel as if the good that he does was from himself, good would not remain in him, but would flow through as water through a perforated bottle; and thus he could not be formed for heaven, that is, reformed and regenerated, and thus saved to live to eternity. But lest man, from this appearance, should attribute to himself the good of charity that he does to the neighbor, and so appropriate to himself evil, instead of good, - believing that he lives from himself, and therefore does good from himself, and should ascribe to himself what is the Lord's, it has pleased the Lord to reveal this in His Word, and teach it. For the Lord says: