It is often urged as a reason against believing in an overruling and universal Divine Providence, that the world is full of evil and wickedness; and if there be an omnipotent God, he would surely never suffer such things to exist. Swedenborg enters very fully into this question. The reasons why Adam was permitted to fall, and Cain to slay Abel; Solomon to establish idolatrous worship, and many kings after him to profane the holy things of the church, the Jews to crucify the Lord; why impiety is allowed to exist, and the impious and profligate to be promoted to riches and honors, while the worshipers of God and the doers of righteousness remain in contempt and poverty; why wars are permitted, men slaughtered, the property of the innocent destroyed, and victories go with force and not with justice; why the earth is permitted to remain covered with idolatries, and the Christian religion to occupy so small a place, and even there to be deeply corrupted and devastated with heresies,—are stated at length and most satisfactorily. It is made plain, that, were the Lord to interfere and prevent such evils by force, it would defeat the end for which He created man, namely, salvation and eternal life in heaven. Now as man can only be regenerated and enter heaven through the free exercise of his understanding and free choice of his will, any external interference of the Divine Providence with outward circumstances would suspend the action of man’s faculties; would, in short, dehumanise the race, and leave only animals to be dealt with. It is not of the Lord’s will, indeed, that evil should exist; and His Providence is unceasingly exerted to modify and mitigate it, alike in its origin and in its effect; but, since to prevent its manifestation would be to take from man all that makes him man, its permission is a necessity.