43. There is hellish freedom, and there is heavenly freedom. Our ability to think and intend what is evil, and to say and do it to the extent that civil and moral laws do not restrain us, comes from hellish freedom. Our ability to think and intend what is good, and to say and do it when circumstances permit, comes from heavenly freedom. Whatever we think, intend, say, and do freely we feel is truly ours because all the freedom we have comes from our love. This means that if we are caught up in loving what is evil, we cannot help feeling that hellish freedom is freedom itself; while if we are caught up in loving what is good, we feel that heavenly freedom is freedom itself. As a result, each freedom regards the other as slavery.
No one, though, can deny that one or the other must be real freedom. Two kinds of freedom that are opposite to each other cannot both be true freedoms. Further, we cannot deny that being led by what is good is freedom and being led by what is evil is slavery, since being led by what is good is being led by the Lord and being led by what is evil is being led by the devil.
Now since anything we do freely seems to be our own because it comes from our love (acting from our love is acting freely, as already noted), it follows that union with the Lord makes us feel that we have freedom and therefore identity; and the closer our union with the Lord, the greater our freedom and our identity. The reason our identity seems clearer is that divine love by its very nature wants to give what it has to others, which means to us on earth and to angels. All spiritual love is like this; divine love most of all. Further, the Lord never forces anyone, because anything we are forced to do does not seem to be ours and anything that does not seem to be ours cannot become part of our love and so be accepted as our own. This is why the Lord is always leading us in freedom, and reforming and regenerating us in freedom.
There will be more on this later, and you may also refer to 4 above.
