6. 4. Before repentance, good is spurious good. It is the same with charity, because good is of charity.
For there is evil inwardly with the man, because it has not been opened, and therefore not healed; and genuine good cannot spring from evil. The fountain is impure. The good which springs from evil may, in its outward form, appear good; but within it, is the man, such as he is inwardly. All that the man does thence is an image of him. Before the angels he himself appears in his own image, indeed, outside himself; which I have seen a thousand times. On this account the good which anyone does with the body may appear good before those who see only the external; but within there lies hidden the will and intention, which may be that he wishes to be thought sincere and good, so that he may impose on others for the sake of honour and gain. In a word, it is good that is either merit-seeking, or hypocritical, or diabolical, which is in order to deceive, revenge, kill, etc.; but this good is taken away at death when he is let into his interior things, and it becomes openly evil.