1947. 'Because Jehovah has hearkened to your affliction' means since it was submitting itself. This is clear from what has been stated above in 1937 about 'humiliating oneself and flinging oneself down' as meaning submitting oneself beneath the controlling power of the internal man, which submission was discussed there and was shown to consist in self-compulsion. It was also shown that in self-compulsion there is freedom, that is, what is willing and spontaneous, and that this distinguishes self-compulsion from being compelled. It was also shown that without this freedom, or willingness and spontaneity, a person cannot possibly be reformed and receive any heavenly proprium; also that though the contrary seems to be the case, there is more freedom in times of temptation than there is outside of them. Indeed at such times freedom increases as assaults are made by evils and falsities and it is consolidated by the Lord in order that a heavenly proprium may be given to the person. For that reason also the Lord is closer in times of temptation. It was shown as well that the Lord in no way compels anybody. No one who is compelled to think that which is true and to do that which is good is reformed, but instead thinks all the more what is false and wills all the more what is evil. This is so with all compulsion, as may also become clear from all the experience and lessons of life, which when learned prove two things - first, that human consciences will not allow themselves to be coerced, and second, that we strive after the forbidden.

[2] Furthermore everyone who is not free desires to become so, for this is his life. From this it is evident that nothing is in any way pleasing to the Lord that is not done in freedom, that is, spontaneously or willingly. For when anyone worships the Lord under circumstances in which he is not free he worships Him with nothing of himself. In his case that which moves the external is the external, that is, it is moved under compulsion - the internal being non-existent, or else incompatible, and even contradictory. When a person is being regenerated he compels himself from the freedom the Lord imparts to him, and humbles, and indeed afflicts, his rational, so that it may submit itself, and in consequence he receives a heavenly proprium. This proprium is then gradually perfected by the Lord and it becomes more and more free, so that as a result it becomes the affection for good and for truth deriving from that good, and possesses delight. And in that affection and delight there is happiness such as the angels experience. This freedom is what the Lord Himself is referring to in John.

The truth makes you free. If the Son makes you free, you are truly free. John 8:32, 36. ¹

[3] What this freedom is, is totally unknown to those who do not have conscience, for they identify freedom with feelings of being at liberty and without restraint to think and utter what is false, and to will and do what is evil, and not to control and humble, still less to afflict, those feelings. Yet this is the complete reverse of freedom, as the Lord again teaches in the same place,

Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. John 8:34.

People acquire this slave-like freedom from the hellish spirits who reside with them and who inject it into them. When the life of those hellish spirits takes possession of them so do the loves and desires of those same spirits; for an unclean and utterly disgusting delight blows upon them, and being carried away so to speak in a stream they imagine themselves to be in freedom; but it is hellish freedom. The difference between this hellish freedom and heavenly freedom is that the former spells death and drags them down into hell, while the latter, that is, heavenly freedom, promises life and lifts them up to heaven.

[4] That all true internal worship springs from freedom, not from compulsion, and that unless it springs from freedom it is not internal worship, is clear from the Word, from the sacrifices - free-will, votive, and peace or eucharistic - which were called offerings and oblations, mentioned in Numbers 15:3 and following verses; Deuteronomy 12:6; 16:10-11; 23:23; and elsewhere. In David,

With a free-will offering I will sacrifice to You; I will confess Your name, O Jehovah, for it is good. Psalms 54:6.

From the thruma, ² or the collection which the people were to contribute towards the Tabernacle and sacred vestments, referred to in Moses,

Speak to the children of Israel and let them receive for Me a collection; from every man whose heart makes him willing you shall receive My collection. Exodus 25:2.

And elsewhere in Moses,

Everyone who is willing in heart shall bring it, Jehovah's collection. Exodus 35:5.

[5] The humbling of the rational man, or affliction of it - as stated, from freedom - was also represented by the affliction souls underwent during festivals, referred to in Moses,

It shall be a statute to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls. Leviticus 16:29.

And elsewhere in Moses,

On the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall afflict your souls. Every soul who does not afflict himself on that very day shall be cut off from his peoples. Leviticus 23:27, 29.

It is for this reason that unleavened bread in which no fermentation has taken place is called the bread of affliction in Deuteronomy 16:2-3. Affliction is referred to in David in the following way,

O Jehovah, who will sojourn in Your tent? Who will dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks blameless and performs righteousness, who swears to the affliction of himself and changes not. Psalms 15:1-2, 4.

[6] That 'affliction' is the taming and subduing of evils and falsities rising up from the external man into the rational man may become clear from what has been stated. Thus it is not any reduction of oneself to poverty and misery - not a renunciation of bodily enjoyments - that is meant by affliction. No taming and subduing of evil can result from doing that; indeed it may give rise to an additional evil, namely the desire to receive merit for such a renunciation; and what is more, man's freedom suffers, in which alone, as its ground, the good and truth of faith is able to be sown. Affliction also means temptation; see what has been said already in 1846.

Poznámky pod čarou:

897. Verse 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, signifies consolation by the Lord after temptations. This is evident from the signification of "a voice saying" as being what follows, which are consolations after temptations (See below); also from the signification of "saying from heaven," as being from the Lord; for what is declared from heaven is Divine truth; and while this is spoken by angels from heaven, yet it is spoken by the Lord through angels. For angels, like men, cannot think any truth from themselves nor do good from themselves, but only from the Lord; and this is why "angels" signify in the Word Divine truths from the Lord, and "heaven" signifies the Lord. Those are greatly mistaken who believe that angels were created immediately, and in such a state of integrity that they could do good from themselves; for all angels throughout the entire heaven have been men, and therefore they have what is their own [proprium], the same as men have, and this is wholly evil. But while they lived in the world as men they were regenerated by the Lord, and thus could be withheld from evils and their falsities and be held in goods; and when they are withheld from evils and held in goods by the Lord it seems as if they are in goods from themselves, and yet they know and perceive that this they have from the Lord and not from themselves. From all this it can be seen why the whole angelic heaven, as to intelligence and wisdom and as to the affections of good and truth, is the Lord. And this is why "a voice saying from heaven" signifies such things as are from the Lord, and here consolations after temptations, and this because the preceding verse treats of the patience of those "who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," and "patience" here signifies temptations.

[2] Something shall now be said about consolations after temptations. All who are being regenerated by the Lord undergo temptations, and after temptations experience joys. But the source of the temptations and of the joys that follow, which are here meant by consolations, is not yet known in the world, because there are few who experience spiritual temptations, for the reason that there are few who are in the knowledges of good and truth, and fewer yet who are in the marriage of good and truth, that is, in truths as to doctrine and at the same time in goods as to life; and no others are let into spiritual temptations; for if others were let into temptations they would yield, and if they yielded their latter state would be worse than their former state. The true reason why only those who are in the marriage of good and truth can be let into spiritual temptations is that the spiritual mind, which is, properly, the internal man, can be opened only with these; for when that mind is opened temptations exist, and for the reason that heaven, that is the Lord through heaven, flows in through man's spiritual mind into his natural mind; there is no other way of heaven, that is of the Lord through heaven, into man; and when heaven flows in it removes the hindrances, which are evils and falsities therefrom, which have their seat in the natural mind, that is, in the natural man; and these can be removed only by a living acknowledgment of them by man, and grief of soul on account of them. This is why man is distressed in temptations by the evils and falsities that rise up into the thought; and so far as he then acknowledges his sins, regards himself as guilty, and prays for deliverance, so far the temptations are useful to him. From this it is clear that man has spiritual temptation, when his internal, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, thus when man is being regenerated. When, therefore, man's evils and falsities are removed temptations are brought to an end; and when they are ended joy flows in through heaven from the Lord and fills his natural mind. This joy is what is here meant by consolations. These consolations all those receive who undergo spiritual temptations. I speak from experience. After temptations man receives joys because after them man is admitted into heaven; for through temptations man is conjoined to heaven and is admitted into it, and consequently has joy like that of the angels there.