6663. 'And according as they afflicted them, so they multiplied' means that in the measure that there were molestations, so the truths increased. This is clear from the meaning of 'afflicting' as molestation, and from the meaning of 'multiplying' as increasing in truths, dealt with above in 6656. Since people at the present day cannot, without experience of what goes on in the next life, know what such molestations are like, something must be said about them. The majority of spirits who come from the world and have led a life in keeping with the Lord's commandments are subjected to molestation before they can be raised to heaven and become attached to communities there. The molestation is caused by the evils and falsities residing with them and takes place for the purpose of removing those evils and falsities, see 6639; for they are impurities which those spirits acquired during their lifetime and are wholly out of keeping with heaven. The molestations come about by engulfing those spirits in their own evils and falsities. While they are engulfed in them other spirits steeped in similar evils and falsities are present, and these others strive in every way to lead them away from what is true and good. Yet they are not engulfed too deeply in their evils and falsities for the Lord's influence coming by way of the angels to prevail. What happens is controlled precisely, as if weighed in a balance, to the end that the one who suffers molestation may appear to himself to be in freedom and so to be fighting on his own against the evils and falsities, yet acknowledging - if not at the time, then subsequently - that all power to resist has come from the Lord, see 1937, 1947, 2881, 5660. While all this is going on, not only are previously implanted truths and forms of good made stronger but also more are introduced. This is how it is with all spiritual conflict in which the one involved becomes the victor.

[2] The truth of this is also evident from everyday experience, for anyone who defends his opinion against others attacking it becomes all the more convinced of his opinion and also at the same time discovers further ideas which he has not previously taken note of that strengthen it, as well as many that refute opposing ideas. He thus becomes more firmly established in his opinion and also illuminates it with further ideas. The same applies but in a far more perfect way to spiritual conflicts, because that kind of conflict takes place in the spirit and has to do with forms of good and with truths, and especially because - since the conflict is over eternal life and salvation - the Lord is present and leads by means of angels. As a general rule in such conflicts the Lord turns all evils intended by the hells into good, and therefore the hells are not allowed to evoke evils in excess of or different from those which can be turned into good appropriate for the person involved in the conflict. The reason why things happen in this way is that the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of usefulness, and therefore nothing can take place there unless good can come out of it. From all this one may now see how to understand the idea that truths increase in the measure that there are molestations, meant by 'according as they afflicted them, so they multiplied'.

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.

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