12. О свободе

141. Вся свобода принадлежит любви, ибо что человек любит, то он делает свободно. Следовательно, свобода также принадлежит и воле, ибо что человек любит, то он и хочет; а так как любовь и воля образуют жизнь человека, то и свобода образует его жизнь. Из этого ясно, что такое свобода, а именно: она есть то, что принадлежит любви и воле, и, следовательно - жизни человека. Поэтому все, что человек делает свободно, ему кажется происходящим из его собственного.

142. Свобода делать зло кажется свободой, но на самом деле она - рабство, потому что эта свобода происходит из себялюбия и любви к миру, а эти роды любви - из ада. Такая свобода после смерти действительно обращается в рабство, ибо человек, имевший такую свободу, становится тогда в аду подлым рабом; свободное же делание добра есть сама свобода, потому что она происходит из любви к Господу и любви к ближнему, и эти оба рода любви - с неба. Эта свобода остается свободой и после смерти, и делается тогда истинною свободой; ибо человек, имевший ее, становится на небе как бы сыном дома. Господь учит сему так:

Всякий делающий грех есть раб греха; но раб не пребывает в доме вечно; Сын пребывает вечно. Итак, если Сын освободит Вас, то истинно свободны будете. Ин. VIII. 34. 35. 36.

Но так как все добро от Господа, а все зло из ада, то из этого следует, что свобода состоит в том, чтобы быть ведомым Господом, а рабство - быть ведомым адом.

143. Человек свободен мыслить, а также делать злое и ложное, насколько его не удерживают законы, ради того, чтобы он мог быть преобразован; ибо добро и истина, чтобы стать его жизнью, должны быть насаждены в его любовь и волю, что может произойти только тогда, когда он свободен мыслить, как злое и ложное, так и доброе и истинное. Эта свобода дается Господом каждому человеку. Поскольку человек мыслит доброе и истинное, постольку же он не любит злого и ложного, и постольку же Господь насаждает добро и истину в его любовь и волю, следовательно, в его жизнь, и таким образом преобразовывает его. То, что сеется в свободе, пребывает; а что сеется в принуждении, не пребывает; ибо принуждение не проистекает из воли человека, но из воли того, кто принуждает. Поэтому Господу приятно богослужение, происходящее из свободы, но не из принуждения; ибо богослужение, происходящее из свободы, есть богослужение из любви; богослужение же из принуждения не таково.

144. Несмотря на то, что свобода делать добро и свобода делать зло внешне могут казаться сходными, они столь же различны и далеки друг от друга, как небо и ад. Действительно, свобода делать добро происходит с неба и называется небесной свободой; а свобода делать зло происходит из ада и называется адской свободой. Поскольку человек находится в одной, постольку он вне другой:

Ибо никто не может служить двум господам Мф. V.24.

Это ясно видно из того, что находящиеся в адской свободе считают рабством и принуждением то, что им не позволяется по своему произволу хотеть зло и мыслить ложь; тогда как находящиеся в небесной свободе боятся хотеть зло и мыслить ложь, и если бы были принуждены к тому, то ощущали бы мучение.

145. Так как действовать из свободы кажется человеку происходящим из его собственного, то небесная свобода может быть названа небесным собственным, а свобода адская может быть названа адским собственным. Адское собственное есть то, во что человек родится, и есть зло; а небесное собственное есть то, во что человек преобразовывается, и есть добро.

146. Из этого ясно, что существует произвольная воля, а именно: она есть делание добра из произвола или по собственной воле; а также что те, которые ведомы Господом, находятся в такой свободе; ведомы же Господом те, которые любят добро и истину ради их самих.

147. Человек может узнать, какова его свобода, из услады, которую он испытывает, когда мыслит, говорит, делает, слушает и видит; ибо вся услада из любви.

148. From the Heavenly Arcana.

All freedom belongs to the love or affection; for what a man loves, he does freely, 2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591.
Since freedom belongs to the love, it is the life of every one, 2873.
There is heavenly freedom and there is infernal freedom, 2870, 2873, 2874, 9589, 9590.
Heavenly freedom belongs to the love of good and truth, 1947, 2870, 2872.
And since the love of good and truth is from the Lord, freedom itself consists in being led by the Lord, 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 9096, 9586-9591.
Through regeneration a man is introduced by the Lord into heavenly freedom, 2874, 2875, 2882, 2892.
A man ought to be in freedom, in order that he may be regenerated, 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3158, 4031, 8700.
Otherwise the love of good and truth cannot be implanted in a man, and appropriated to him, so as to appear his own, 2877, 2879, 2880, 2888, 8700.
Nothing is conjoined to a man which is done under compulsion, 2875, 8700.
If a man could be reformed by compulsion, all would be saved, 2881.
Compulsion is hurtful in reformation, 4031.
Worship from freedom is worship, but not worship from compulsion, 1947, 2880, 7349, 10097.
Repentance ought to be practised in a free state; what is done in a state of coercion is of no avail, 8392.
What states of coercion are, 8392.
A man is permitted to act from the freedom of reason, that good may be provided for him; and on that account he is in the freedom of thinking and willing, and even of doing evil, so far as the laws do not forbid it, 10777.
A man is kept by the Lord between heaven and hell, and thus in a state of equilibrium, that he may be in freedom for the sake of his reformation, 5982, 6477, 8209, 8987.
What is inseminated in freedom remains, but not what is inseminated under compulsion, 9588, 10777.
Wherefore freedom is never taken away from any one, 2876, 2881.
No one is compelled by the Lord, 1937, 1948.
How the Lord through freedom leads a man into good; namely, through freedom he turns the man away from evil, and inclines him to good, so gently and quietly that he does not know otherwise than that all proceeds from himself, 9587.
Compelling one's self comes from freedom, but not being compelled, 1937, 1947.
A man ought to compel himself to resist evil, 1937, 1947, 7914.
He ought also to compel himself to do good as of himself, but still to acknowledge that it is from the Lord, 2883, 2891, 2892, 7914.
A man is in greater freedom in the temptation combats in which he conquers, because he then compels himself interiorly to resist evils, although it appears otherwise, 1937, 1947, 2881.
In every temptation there is freedom, but this freedom is with the man interiorly from the Lord; and therefore he struggles and desires to conquer, and not to be conquered, which he would not do unless he had freedom, 1937, 1947, 2881.
The Lord does this through the affection of truth and good, which is impressed on the internal man, the man himself being ignorant of it, 5044.
Infernal liberty consists in being led by the loves of self and of the world, and by their lusts, 2870, 2873.
Those who are in hell do not know any other freedom, 2871.
Heavenly freedom is as far removed from infernal liberty as heaven is removed from hell, 2873, 2874.
Infernal liberty in itself is bondage, 2884, 2890.
Because being led by hell is bondage, 9586, 9589-9591.
All freedom is like a man's Self, and according to it, 2880.
Through regeneration a man receives from the Lord a heavenly Self, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891.
The quality of the heavenly Self, 164, 5660, 8480.
This Self appears to the man as his own Self; but it is not his, but the Lord's with him, 8497.
Those who are in this Self, are in true freedom, because true freedom consists in being led by the Lord and by His Self, 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 4096, 9586, 9587-9591.

149. That freedom arises from the equilibrium between heaven and hell, and that unless a man has freedom, he cannot be reformed, is shown in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the chapters concerning Equilibrium itself, 589-596, and concerning Freedom, 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 shown, 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" (291-302).