Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 396
either heavenly or infernal. Works and deeds of moral and civil
life, when they are done from heavenly love, are heavenly; for
what is done from heavenly love is done from the Lord, and
everything done from the Lord is good. But the deeds and
works of moral and civil life when done from infernal love are
infernal; for what is done from this love, which is the love of
self and of the world, is done from man himself, and
everything that is done from man himself is in itself evil; for
man regarded in himself, that is, in regard to what is his own,
is nothing but evil. 272
272. Man’s own consists in loving himself more than God, and the
world more than heaven, and in making nothing of his neighbor in
comparison with himself, thus it consists in the love of self and of the world
(n. 694, 731, 4317).
Man is born into this own, and it is dense evil (n. 210, 215, 731,
874–876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283,
10284, 10286, 10732).
From what is man’s own not only every evil but also every falsity is
derived (n. 1047, 10283, 10284, 10286). The evils that are from what is
man’s own are contempt for others, enmity, hatred, revenge, cruelty, deceit
(n. 6667, 7370, 7373, 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742). So far as what is man’s
own rules, the good of love and the truth of faith are either rejected or
suffocated or perverted (n. 2041, 7491, 7492, 7643, 8487, 10455, 10742).
What is man’s own is hell in him (n. 694, 8480). The good that man
does from what is his own is not good, but in itself is evil (n. 8480).