3178. CONCERNING THOSE WHICH [BELONG] TO THE WILL [BUT] NOT TO THE ACT. Certain spirits, as was previously the case, wish to be justified because they have done no evil, although they have thought [it]: wherefore it was insinuated into me, that the matter stands thus, that whatever comes into [enters] the thought [and] not into the will, this is not a sin: then if [it comes] [enters] into the will or [what is] like the will, and he thinks that this is a sin, contrary to the Lord's word, [and] will burden [his] conscience, and so shakes it off: this also cannot be a sin, but [is] a temptation. But if anything comes into [enters] the thought, and the will, so that he desires to cause only that external bonds may not hinder, this is a sin: like as the Lord says, he who looks on a girl with lust, has already committed whoredom. - 1748, September 16.