145. 5. Self-compulsion is not inconsistent with rationality and freedom. I have already explained [103-104] that we have inner and outer thought processes and that these are as distinct from each other as prologue and consequence, or as height and depth. I have explained that because they are so distinct, they can act separately as well as together. They act separately when we talk and act on the basis of our outer thought in ways that differ from our deeper thought and intent; and they act together when we say and do what we think and intend inwardly. This latter state is characteristic of honest people, while the former is characteristic of dishonest people.

[2] Since the inner and outer processes of our minds are distinct, then, the inner can even fight against the outer and forcibly make it consent. The struggle starts when we think of evils as sins and therefore try to refrain from them; since to the extent that we do refrain a door is opened for us. Once this door has been opened, the Lord expels the compulsions to evil that have kept our inner thought processes penned in. In their place, he plants desires for what is good, again in the inner levels of our thought. However, since the pleasures of our compulsions to evil that have been besieging our outer thought processes cannot be expelled at the same time, a fight starts between our inner and outer thinking. The inner thinking wants to expel those pleasures because they are pleasures in evil deeds and are incompatible with the desires for goodness that the inner thinking now enjoys. It wants to replace the pleasures of evil with pleasures in goodness because they are in harmony with it. The "pleasures in what is good" are what we refer to as the benefits that arise from our caring.

The struggle begins with this disagreement; and if it becomes more severe, it is called a temptation.

[3] Since we are human because of our inner thought, which is actually the human spirit, it follows that we are compelling ourselves when we force our outer thought processes to consent, or to accept the pleasures of our inner desires, the benefits that arise from our caring.

We can see that this is not inconsistent but in accord with our rationality and freedom, since it is our rationality that starts this struggle and our freedom that pursues it. Our essential freedom, together with our rationality, dwells in our inner self, and comes into our outer self from there.

[4] So when the inner conquers (which happens when the inner self has brought the outer self into agreement and compliance) then we are given true freedom and true rationality by the Lord. Then, that is, the Lord brings us out of that hellish freedom that is really slavery and into the heavenly freedom that is truly, inherently free.

The Lord teaches us in John that we are slaves when we are in our sins and that the Lord liberates us when we accept truth from him through the Word (John 8:31-36).

2173. That 'Sarah' here is the Lord as regards truth is clear from the representation of 'Sarah' as intellectual truth allied to good, and here as rational truth, for the same reason as has just been stated in reference to 'Abraham'; for 'Sarah' represents truth, see what has been stated already in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065. In the historical sections of the Word good and truth cannot be represented by anything other than a marriage, for they go together as two that are married. Indeed a Divine Marriage exists between celestial and spiritual things, or what amounts to the same, between the things of love and those of faith; or what still amounts to the same, between things of the will and those of the understanding. Those of the will are forms of good, those of the understanding forms of truth. Such a marriage exists in the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and such also exists in the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church. Such a marriage exists in every individual, and in each part of him, indeed in the most individual parts of all. That which does not have its existence within such a marriage has no life. Indeed from this Divine Marriage such a marriage exists in the entire natural order and in each individual part of it - though it does so under a different shape and form - otherwise nothing would ever continue to exist there. Because such a marriage exists in each individual part, everything is described in the Prophets, especially in Isaiah, by a pair of expressions. The one expression has to do with that which is celestial or with good, the other with that which is spiritual or with truth, dealt with in 683, 793, 801. As regards the likeness of a marriage being present in every individual part, see 718, 747, 917, 1432. This explains why 'Abraham' represents the Lord's good, and 'Sarah' His truth.