Heavenly Doctrine (Tafel) n. 149

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149. That freedom arises from the equilibrium between heaven and hell, and that unless a man has freedom, he cannot be reformed, is shewn in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the chapters concerning Equilibrium itself, nos. 589-596, and concerning Freedom, no. 597 to the end: but for the sake of showing what freedom is, and that through it a man is reformed, I will quote here from the above as follows: "It has been shewn, that the equilibrium between heaven and hell is an equilibrium between the good which is out of heaven, and the evil which is out of hell; that, therefore, it is a spiritual equilibrium which, in its essence, is freedom. Spiritual equilibrium, in its essence, is freedom, because it exists between good and evil, and between truth and falsity, and because these are spiritual: wherefore freedom consists in any one being able to will good or evil, and to think truth or falsity, and to prefer the one to the other. This freedom is given by the Lord to every man, and is never taken away from him. By virtue of its origin, it indeed belongs to the Lord, and not to the man, because it is from the Lord; nevertheless, together with life, it is given to the man as his own; and indeed to this end, that he may be reformed and saved; for apart from freedom there is no reformation and no salvation. Every one, from some rational insight is able to see, that a man is free to think either ill or well, sincerely or insincerely, justly or unjustly; and also, that he has the ability of speaking and acting well, sincerely and justly, but not of speaking and acting ill, insincerely, and unjustly, on account of the moral and civil laws, by which his External is kept in bonds. From this it is evident, that a man's spirit, which does the thinking and willing is in freedom; but not a man's External, which does the speaking and acting, except so far as it is in conformity with the above-mentioned laws. That a man cannot be reformed, unless he is in freedom, is on account of his being born into evils of every kind, which have to be removed, in order that he may be saved. These evils, however, cannot be removed, unless the man sees them in himself, and acknowledges them; and afterwards no longer wills them, and at length shuns them; it is then only that they are removed. This cannot be brought about unless the man is in good as well as in evil; for from good, he is able to see evils, but from evil he cannot see goods. The spiritual goods which a man is able to think, he learns, from the age of childhood, by reading the Word and hearing sermons; and moral and civil goods he learns by his life in the world. This is the first purpose for which a man should be in freedom; the second is, that nothing is appropriated to a man, except what is done by him from an affection belonging to his love. The rest, indeed, may enter into the man, but not beyond his thought, and hence not into the will; and that which does not penetrate into a man's will, does not become his own; for thought derives its substance from the memory, but will from the very life [of the man]. Nothing, except what proceeds from an affection belonging to the love, is ever free; for what a man wills, that is, what he loves, he does freely. On this account a man's freedom, and the affection which belongs to his love, that is, to his will, are a one: wherefore, a man has freedom, in order that he may be affected by truth and good, that is, that he may love them, and that they consequently may become as it were his own. In a word, whatever does not enter with a man in freedom, does not remain, because it does not become a part of his love, that is, of his will; and whatever is not a part of a man's love, that is, of his will, does not belong to his spirit: for the Esse of a man's spirit is love, that is, will. In order that a man, for the sake of his reformation, may be in freedom, he is conjoined, as to his spirit, with heaven and hell; for with every man there are spirits from hell, and angels from heaven. Through the spirits from hell the man is in his own evil; but through the angels from heaven he is in good from the Lord. In this wise he is in a spiritual equilibrium, that is, in freedom. That angels from heaven and spirits from hell are adjoined to every man, may be seen in the chapter on the "Conjunction of Heaven with the Human Race" (nos. 291-302).


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