2457. Whatever is acquired by bringing it into act cannot be dishabituated, but one can become better through the Lord
Whatever of evil a person acquires or contracts appears sometimes as if it can cease as a habit, that is, as if the person can become better. But the truth of the matter is that what has once been acquired remains, and the fact that the person seems to become better and the evil thus to be wiped away so that one is no longer prone to that evil, is not due to the person, nor does it mean that the evil has been wiped away, but that the Lord is working goodness or giving the ability for goodness, whereby the evil is as if covered over, so that one seems to oneself better. For whatever there is of goodness, whatever of improvement, whatever of regeneration, is of the Lord. 1748, 30 June.
2457. WHATSOEVER IS ACQUIRED BY ACTUALITY CANNOT BE ERADICATED, BUT MAN MAY BECOME BETTER THROUGH THE LORD.
Whatsoever evil is acquired or contracted [through] actuality by man, appears sometimes as if it can be eradicated, to wit, that man may become better, but the case is different; what is once acquired remains, and that man seems to grow better, and thus as it were to forget evil, so that the man is no longer prone to evil, this does not come from man, nor [is it true] that evil is obliterated, but the Lord covers over evil, or gives the faculty of good, whereby evil is as it were covered over, so that the man seems to himself [to be] better; for everything belonging to the good man, everything of the reformed man, and everything of the regenerated man is of the Lord. - 1748, June 30.
2457. Quicquid actualitate acquisitum est, non potest desuesci, sed [homo] 1
fieri melior per Dominum
Quicquid mali actualitate acquisitum seu contractum est ab homine, id apparet quandoque quod desuesci possit, nempe quod homo melior fiat, sed aliter se res habet, quod semel acquisitum est, remanet, et quod videatur homo meliorescere, et sic malum quasi obliterari 2
, ita ut non magis ad id malum pronus sit homo, id non est ab homine, seu quod malum obliteratum sit, sed quod Dominus operetur bonum, seu dat facultatem boni, qua obtegitur quasi malum, ut videatur sibi homo melior; nam quicquid boni, quicquid emendati, et quicquid regenerati, est Domini. 1748, 30 Junius.
Footnotes:
1. sic in J.F.I. Tafel's edition
2. The Manuscript has obliterari sed in J.F.I. Tafel's edition obliturum