657. That evil and a faith in the one and true God cannot exist together, anyone can see from reason; for evil is opposed to God, and faith is for Him; and evil pertains to the will, and faith to the thought, and the will flows into the understanding and causes it to think, and not the reverse, the understanding merely teaching what is to be willed and done. Consequently the good that an evil man does is in itself evil; it is like a polished bone with a rotten marrow; it is like a player on the stage impersonating a great man; it is like the painted face of a worn-out harlot; it is like a butterfly with silver wings, flying about and depositing its eggs on the leaves of a good tree, whereby all its fruit is destroyed; it is like a fragrant smoke from a poisonous herb; it is even like a moral robber or a pious cheat; and in consequence his good, which in itself is evil, is in the inner room, while his faith, walking about and reasoning in the vestibule, is a mere chimera, specter, and bubble. From all this it is clear that faith determines the verdict in accordance with the good or the evil that is conjoined with it.