202. (II.) No one can have charity from the Lord unless he shuns evils as sins. By charity, here as above, is meant the good that a man does to the neighbor. Anyone can do good to the neighbor, an evil as well as a good man; but no one can do it from good in himself unless from the Lord; nor unless he shuns evils as sins. That no one can do good to the neighbor from good in himself, unless from the Lord, has been shown just above. And that no one can do it unless he shuns evils as sins, is because the Lord can flow into no one with good, so as to be received, unless the evils in him are removed; for evils do not receive good, but reject it. For it is the same with a man who is in evils as with the devils in hell. The Lord flows into them with good, just as into the angels in heaven; but the devils do not receive it, but turn the good into evil, and the truth into falsity. For such is the form of their life, and everything that flows in is turned into a like form, -- just as the pure heat of the sun, when it flows into stagnant urine, excrements, and dead bodies, is turned into noisome and malignant odors; and as the pure light of the sun, flowing into objects where all things are disordered, is converted into ugly colors. It is the same with heavenly heat, which is Divine good, and heavenly light, which is Divine truth, in a man the form of whose life is inverted, and opposite to the heavenly form. It is plain therefore that so long as a man does not shun evils as sins he cannot but love evils; and the love in anyone makes the form of his life. It is comparatively as a tree, which if evil it receives the heat and light of the sun equally with a good tree, and yet cannot produce fruit except after its own form, and so produces evil fruit. And it is comparatively as with noxious and poisonous plants, which, equally with good and useful plants, derive the life of their growth from the heat and light of the sun, and yet they can produce nothing but what is in agreement with their own form. Every man is the form of his own love. Nothing but his love forms a man, as to his spiritual part. If he loves evils he becomes a form of evil, which is an infernal form; but if he loves what is good he becomes a form of good, which is a heavenly form. It is clear from this that if a man does not shun evils as sins, the form of his mind, as to what is spiritual, becomes an infernal form, which in itself does not receive any good from the Lord, and consequently produces no good that is good in itself. The Lord can produce good through every man, and can turn to good the evil that an evil man produces. He can incite an evil man to do good for the sake of himself, and for the sake of the world; but then the Lord does not flow into the evil of the man, but around it into his circumferences, thus into his external, by which the man desires to appear as good. This good, as far as it is good, is therefore superficial; and intrinsically it is evil. With hypocrites it is like gilded dung, so that it is scarcely believed to be other than pure gold; but yet, when it is brought near to a keen-scented nostril, the smell of its filthiness is perceived. But all this is fully set forth in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, in the section where it is shown that so far as a man shuns evils as sins, he does goods not from himself, but from the Lord (n. 18-31). To which I shall add only this, that everyone may see it, merely from general influx from heaven. Take whomsoever you will, a servant, a farmer, a workman, a shipmaster, or a merchant, if only there is something rational in him, and merely say that he who hates evil does good, and they will see it clearly. And, as they know that all good is from God, say, that as far as a man hates evil because it is against God, so far he does good from God, and they will see it. But say the same things to one who has confirmed himself in faith alone, and at the same time in the doctrine that no one can do good of himself, and he will not see it; for falsities have closed the rational sight of understanding of this one, but not of the others.