Concerning Man's Freedom (Part 3)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(continued)

The Lord flows in through man's inmost with good, and there conjoins truth with it: their root must be in the inmost. Unless a man is in freedom interiorly as to all his affections and as to all his thoughts, he can never be so disposed that good and truth may take any root.

Nothing else appears to a man as his (or what is the same, as his own) except that which flows from freedom. The reason is that all affection which is of love is his veriest life; and to act from affection is to act from life, that is, from himself, and thus from what is his, or what is the same, from his own.

In order therefore that man may receive an Own that is heavenly, such as have the angels in heaven, he is kept in freedom, and through freedom he is introduced into it.

It may be known to everyone that to worship the Lord from freedom appears as if it were from one's self, or from one's own; but that to worship Him under compulsion is not from one's self, but from a force from without, or from some other source, compelling him to do it; thus that worship from freedom is worship itself, and that worship under compulsion is no worship.

If man could have been reformed by compulsion, there would not be any man in the universe who would not be saved; for nothing would be easier for the Lord than to compel man to fear Him, to worship Him, and indeed as it were to love Him; the means being innumerable. But as that which is done under compulsion is not conjoined, and thus is not appropriated, it is therefore the furthest possible from the Lord to compel anyone.

So long as a man is in combats, or is one of the church militant, it appears as if the Lord compels the man, and thus that he has no freedom; for he is then continually combating against the love of self and of the world, thus against the freedom into which he was born and into which he has grown up; hence comes the appearance just referred to.

But that in the combats in which he overcomes, the freedom is stronger than when out of combats (a freedom not from himself, but from the Lord, and still appearing as his), may be seen in Arcana Coelestia no.s 1937, 1947).

Most of all does man believe that he has no freedom from the fact that he has learned that he cannot do good and think truth of himself. But let him not believe that anyone ever has or ever had any freedom of thinking truth and doing good of himself, not even the man who, from the state of perfection in which he was, was called a "likeness and image of God;" for the freedom of thinking the truth of faith, and of doing the good of charity, all flows in from the Lord. The Lord is Good itself and Truth itself; and is hence their fountain. All the angels are in such freedom, and indeed in the very perception that what we have just stated is the truth. The inmost angels perceive how much is from the Lord, and how much from themselves; and so far as it is from the Lord, they are in happiness; but so far as it is from themselves, they are not in what is happy.

In order therefore that a man may receive an Own that is heavenly, he must do good of himself, and think truth of himself; but still must know, and when reformed must think and believe, that all the good and all the truth are from the Lord, even as to the very least of all (and this because it is so); while its being given to man to think that it is from himself, is in order that the good and truth may become as his own.

(Arcana Coelestia 2879-2883)

Concerning Man's Freedom (Part 2)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(continued)

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

The good of life, or the affection of good, is insinuated by the Lord by an internal way, without man's knowing anything about it; but the truth of doctrine, or faith, by an external way, into the memory, whence it is called forth by the Lord in His own time and according to His own order, and is conjoined with the affection of good. This is done in man's freedom; for as before said, man's freedom is from affection. Such is the insemination and inrooting of faith.

Whatever is done in freedom is conjoined, but that which is done under compulsion is not conjoined; as may be seen from considering that by no possibility can anything be conjoined except that by which we are affected: affection is the very thing that receives; to receive anything contrary to the affection is to receive it contrary to the life. Hence it is manifest that truth of doctrine, or faith, cannot be received except by the affection of it. But such as is the affection, such is the reception. It is only the affection of truth and good that receives the truth of faith; for they agree, and because they agree, they conjoin themselves together.

As no one can be reformed except in freedom, therefore freedom is never taken away from a man, insofar as the appearance is concerned; for it is an eternal law that everyone should be in freedom as to his interiors, that is, as to his affections and thoughts, in order that the affection of good and truth may be implanted in him.

Whenever the affection of truth and the affection of good are insinuated by the Lord, [which is done without man's knowledge], he then imbues himself with truth and does good in freedom, because from affection; for when anything is done from affection, then as before said there is freedom; and the truth of faith conjoins itself with the good of charity. Unless a man had freedom in everything he thinks and wills, the freedom of thinking truth and of willing good could never be insinuated by the Lord into anyone; for in order that a man may be reformed he must think truth as of himself, and do good as of himself; and what is done as of one's self is done in freedom. Unless this were so, there would never be any reformation or regeneration.

There are innumerable causes from which and on account of which a man loves to learn truth and to will good (very many from the world, and also very many from the body); and sometimes these things are not done for the sake of heaven, and still less for the sake of the Lord.

A man is thus introduced by the Lord into truth and good by affections, and one man altogether differently from another, each one according to his disposition, innate and acquired. And as he is continually being introduced into truth and good by affections, and thus continually by freedom, and at length into the affections of spiritual truth and spiritual good, the Lord alone knows the times and the states, and He alone arranges and governs them in application to each one's genius and life. This shows why man has freedom.

(Arcana Coelestia 2875-2878)

Concerning Man's Freedom (Part 1)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Few know what freedom is, and what non-freedom is.

All that which is of any love and its delight appears to be freedom, and that which is contrary to these, non-freedom. 

• What is of the love of self and the love of the world, and of their cupidities [yearnings], appears to man as freedom, but it is infernal freedom.

• What is of love to the Lord and of love toward the neighbor, consequently of the love of good and truth, is freedom itself, and is heavenly freedom.

Infernal spirits do not know that there is any other freedom than that which is of the love of self and the love of the world; that is, of the cupidities [yearnings] of commanding, of persecuting and hating all who do not serve them, of tormenting everyone, of destroying the universe if they could for the sake of self; of taking away and claiming to themselves whatever is another's. When they are in these and similar things, they are in their freedom, because they are in their delight. Their life consists in this freedom to such a degree that if it were taken away from them, nothing more of life would remain to them than that of a newborn infant. This was also shown by living experience.

A certain evil spirit was in the persuasion that such things could be taken away from him, and that in this way he could come into heaven; consequently that his life could be miraculously changed into heavenly life; on which account those loves together with their cupidities [yearnings] were taken away from him (which is done in the other life by dissociation), and he then appeared like an infant paddling with his hands, which he could scarcely move; and he was at the same time in such a state as to be less able to think than any infant, and unable to speak anything at all, or to know anything. But he was soon restored to his delight, and thus to his freedom. 

From this it is manifest that it is impossible for anyone to come into heaven who has procured a life for himself from the love of self and the world, and consequently who is in the freedom of these loves; for if that life were taken away from such a person, he would not have anything of thought and will remaining.

But heavenly freedom is that which is from the Lord, and in it are all the angels in the heavens. 

As before said this is the freedom of love to the Lord and mutual love, and thus of the affection of good and truth. The quality of this freedom may be seen from the fact that everyone who is in it communicates his blessedness and happiness to another from inmost affection, and that it is a blessedness and happiness to him that he is able to communicate it. And because the universal heaven is such, it follows that everyone is a center of all forms of blessedness and happiness, and that all these belong at the same time to each angel. The communication itself is effected by the Lord, by wonderful inflowings in an incomprehensible form, which is the form of heaven. This shows what heavenly freedom is, and that it is from the Lord alone.

How far distant heavenly freedom (which is from the affection of good and truth) is from infernal freedom (which is from the affection of evil and falsity), is evident from the fact that when the angels in heaven merely think about such freedom as is from the affection of evil and falsity, or what is the same, from the cupidities [yearnings] of the love of self and the world, they are immediately seized with internal pain; and on the other hand, when evil spirits merely think about the freedom which is from the affection of good and truth, or what is the same, from the desires of mutual love, they at once come into anguish; and what is wonderful, so opposite is the one freedom to the other, that the freedom of the love of self and the world is hell to good spirits; and on the other hand, the freedom of love to the Lord and mutual love is hell to evil spirits.

Hence all in the other life are distinct according to their kinds of freedom, or what is the same, according to their loves and affections, consequently according to the delights of their life, which is the same as according to their lives; for lives are nothing else than delights, and these are nothing else than affections which are of the loves. 

From this it is now evident what freedom is, namely, that it is to think and will from affection, and that the freedom is such as is the affection; also that the one freedom is infernal, and the other freedom heavenly, and that infernal freedom is from hell, whereas heavenly freedom is from the Lord. It is also evident that they who are in infernal freedom cannot come into heavenly freedom (which would be coming from hell into heaven) unless the whole of their life is taken away from them; also that no one can come into heavenly freedom except by reformation from the Lord; and that he is then introduced into it by the affection of good and truth, that is, by the good of life in which the truth of doctrine is being implanted.

(Arcana Coelestia 2870-2874)