in man, and yet the works that are done by the Lord in man appear in
outward form like those done by the man himself and cannot be
distinguished even by the man who does them. For the works done by the
Lord in man are done by man as if by himself; and unless they are done
as if by himself they do not conjoin man to the Lord, thus they do not
reform him. (A.E., n. 933.)

But for works to be done by the Lord, and not by man, two things are
necessary: first, there must be an acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine,
also that He is the God of heaven and earth even in respect to the
Human, also that every good that is good is from Him; and secondly, it
is necessary that man live according to the commandments of the
Decalogue, by abstaining from those evils that are there forbidden, that
is, from worshipping other gods, from profaning the name of God, from
thefts, from adulteries, from murders, from false witness, from coveting
the possessions and property of others. These two things are requisite
that the works done by man may be good. The reason is that every good
comes from the Lord alone, and the Lord cannot enter into man and lead
him so long as these evils are not set aside as sins; for they are
infernal, and in fact are hell with man, and unless hell is set aside
the Lord cannot enter and open heaven. This is what is meant by the
Lord's words to the rich man:

Who asked Him about eternal life, and said that he had kept the
commandments of the Decalogue from his youth; whom the Lord is said to
have loved, and to have taught that one thing was lacking to him, that
he should sell all that he had and take up the cross (Matt. xix. 16-22;
Mark x. 17-22; Luke xviii. 18-23).

"To sell all that he had" signifies that he should relinquish the things