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:

149. Freedom comes from the equilibrium between heaven and hell; if we did not have this freedom we could not be reformed. This has been shown in Heaven and Hell; see the discussion of the equilibrium itself in §§589-596 and of the freedom that arises from it in §§597-603. To provide information here about what freedom is and about the fact that it makes our reformation possible, I would like to quote the following from that source. ¹

I have just described the balance between heaven and hell and have shown that the balance is between goodness from heaven and evil from hell, which means that it is a spiritual balance that in essence is a freedom.

The reason this spiritual balance is essentially a freedom is that it exists between what is good and what is evil and between what is true and what is false, and these are spiritual realities. So freedom is the ability to intend either good or evil and to think either truth or falsity, the ability to choose one instead of the other.

The Lord grants this freedom to every individual, and it is never taken away. By virtue of its source it in fact belongs to the Lord and not to us, because it comes from the Lord; yet still it is given to us along with our life as though it were ours. This is so that we can be reformed and saved, for without freedom there can be no reformation or salvation.

Anyone who uses a little rational insight can see that we have a freedom to think thoughts that are good or evil, honest or dishonest, fair or unfair, and that we can say and do things that are good, honest, and fair, although we cannot say and do things that are evil, dishonest, and unfair, because of the moral and civil laws that keep our outward nature in restraint.

We can see from this that this freedom applies to our spirit, which does our thinking and intending, but not to our outer nature, which does our talking and acting, unless our outer nature is following the aforementioned laws.

The reason we cannot be reformed unless we have some freedom is that we are born with evils of all kinds, evils that need to be laid aside if we are to be saved. Yet they cannot be laid aside unless we see them within ourselves, admit that they are there, then no longer will them, and ultimately reject them. Only then are they laid aside. This cannot happen unless we are exposed to both what is good and what is evil, since it is from goodness that we can see evil, though from evil we cannot see goodness. As for the kinds of spiritual goodness we can think about, from early childhood we learn them from the reading of the Word and from sermons. We learn the kinds of moral and civic goodness from our life in the world. This is the primary reason we need to be in a state of freedom.

The second reason we cannot be reformed without freedom is that nothing becomes part of us unless we engage with it with love. True, other things can enter us, but no deeper than into our thought, not into our will; and anything that does not enter all the way into our will is not ours. This is because our thinking is derived from our memory, but our will is derived from our life itself. We never experience a sense of freedom unless our feelings, which are extensions of what we love, are engaged, because whatever we intend or love, we do with a sense of freedom. This is why our freedom and the feelings we have from our love or our will are one and the same. So we also have freedom in order to be able to be moved by what is true and good, or to love them, so that they become like part of us. In a word, anything that does not enter us while we are in a state of freedom does not stay with us because it does not belong to our love or will; and anything that does not belong to our love or will does not belong to our spirit. The reality underlying our spirit is love or will.

So that we can be in a state of freedom for the sake of our reformation, we are joined in spirit to heaven and to hell. With each of us there are spirits from hell and angels from heaven. By means of the spirits from hell we encounter our evil, while by means of the angels from heaven we encounter the good we have from the Lord. As a result, we are in a spiritual equilibrium-that is, a state of freedom. On the fact that angels from heaven and spirits from hell are present with all of us, see the chapter on the union of heaven with the human race (Heaven and Hell 291-302).

Poznámky pod čarou: