10284. 'And as to the composition of it, you shall not make any other like it' means no imitations produced by human endeavour. This is clear from the meaning of 'as to the composition, making some like it' - that is, making a similar oil with similar spices - as making a preparation in imitation of it by means of human endeavour. This meaning of these words follows from the train of thought in the internal sense; for first it says, 'It shall not be poured onto the flesh of a person', which means no imparting [of what is the Lord's] to a person's proprium or self, and finally, 'it shall be holy to you'. But anything done by a person, by his own endeavour, begins in his proprium or self and is unholy. The reason is that any endeavour a person makes from his proprium consists entirely of falsity arising from evil, since it has self and the world, not the neighbour and God, as its end in view, which also explains why it is called an imitation.

[2] The implications of all this are that everything which comes from the Lord is good and true; but anything good or true produced by man in imitation of it is neither good nor true. The reason for this is that everything good and true has life within it by virtue of the end in view. An end that begins in man is entirely selfish; but that which is good and true, coming from the Lord, exists for the sake of goodness and truth themselves as ends in view, and so for the Lord's sake, because the Lord is the source of everything good and true. With man the end in view is himself, since it constitutes his will and his love; for what a person loves and wills he has as his end in view. All the love in a person that originates in himself is self-love and a selfish love of the world; but the love in a person that originates in the Lord is love towards the neighbour and love to God. The difference between the two kinds of love is as great as that between hell and heaven. Furthermore self-love and a selfish love of the world reign in hell and constitute hell, whereas love towards the neighbour and love to the Lord reign in heaven and constitute heaven. Also a person's character is such and remains forever such as his love is; for love composes the whole of a person's will, and consequently of his understanding since the love that constitutes the will flows unceasingly into the understanding, kindling it and illuminating it. So it is that when those who love evil think within themselves, their thoughts consist of falsity that is in keeping with the evil they love, though they are moved by hypocrisy to express different ideas to others; some are moved by faith that is no more than persuasion, for the nature of which, see 9364, 9369.

[3] It should be recognized that by his own endeavour a person is able to simulate what is actually Divine and to present himself before others as an angel of light. But what is seen by the Lord and by angels is not the outward form he presents but the form that exists inwardly, which is foul when the proprium is the source of it. With people like this everything within them is merely natural and not at all spiritual. They see everything in natural light alone and nothing in the light of heaven; indeed they do not know what the light of heaven is, nor what anything spiritual is. All their inner powers are turned to things of an external nature, in almost the same way as those of living creatures are; nor do they allow themselves to be raised by the Lord to anything higher. Yet the human being, superior to animals, has a special ability, namely the ability to be raised by the Lord towards heaven and the Lord, and so be led by Him. All those are raised in this manner who love goodness and truth for their own sake, which is the same thing as loving the neighbour and God since in a general sense the neighbour means that which is good and true, and in a lower sense that which is right and fair; and also God constitutes what is good and true, and what is right and fair, since God is the source of them.

[4] From all this it may be seen what imitating Divine things by human endeavour is. In places throughout the Word 'Egypt' and 'Pharaoh' are used to describe people such as this; for factual knowledge belonging to the natural man is meant by 'Egypt' and 'Pharaoh'. 'Asshur' too, meaning reasoning based on factual knowledge, is used to describe them. Regarding 'Egypt', see in the places referred to in 9340, 9391; and regarding 'Asshur', 1186. Among spirits there are very many who by their own endeavour and cunning can imitate what is Divine; for they counterfeit sincerity, uprightness, and godliness, so cunningly that good spirits would be led astray unless the Lord enlightened them and enabled them to see what the interiors of those other spirits are like. And when these interiors are revealed the good spirits are filled with horror and run away. But such spirits are stripped of their outward pretences and brought into a state in which their devilish interiors are laid bare; and in this condition they sink automatically into hell. For more about these spirits, see paragraph 10286 below.

5786. 'behold, we are my lord's slaves' means that they are to be deprived for ever of their own freedom. This is clear from the meaning of slaves' as being without any freedom of their own, dealt with in 5760, 5763. What is meant by being deprived of the freedom of one's own has also been stated in the paragraphs that have just been mentioned; however, since it is an extremely important matter, let it be restated. A person has both an external man and an internal man. The external man is the means through which the internal man acts; for the external man is merely the organ or instrument of the internal. This being so, the external man must be made wholly subservient and subject to the internal; and when the external man is subject to the internal, heaven acts on the external man by means of the internal man and makes the external man conform to things such as are of heaven.

[2] The opposite occurs when the external man is not the servant but the master. The external man is the master when a person has the pleasure of the body and the senses as his end in view, especially when the objects of his selfish and worldly love and not the things of heaven are his end - to have as his end in view being to love one and not the other. For when a person has those objects as his end he no longer believes that there is any such thing as an internal man or that within himself there is anything that will be living when his body dies. In his case the internal, since it does not hold the position of the master, is merely the servant of the external, employed to enable thought and reasoning against what is good and true to take place; for in this person's case no other kind of influx by way of the internal is available. This is also the reason why people like this utterly despise, indeed recoil from the things of heaven. From all this it is plain that the external man, which is the same as the natural man, ought to be wholly subject to the internal or spiritual man, and consequently should exist without any freedom of its own.

[3] Freedom of one's own consists in giving oneself up to every kind of base pleasure, despising others in comparison with oneself, and making them subject like slaves to oneself. Or else it consists in persecuting others, hating them, being delighted when bad things happen to them - especially things done to them by one's own designs or by the use of deceit - and wishing to see them dead. These are the kinds of things that come from indulging one's own freedom. From this one may see what a person is like when he exercises this type of freedom, namely a devil in human form. But when he loses this freedom he receives a heavenly freedom from the Lord, the nature of which is completely unknown to those exercising the freedom of their own. They imagine that if the freedom of their own were taken away from them no life at all would remain. But in actual fact this is when true life has its beginning and when true delight, blessing, happiness, and wisdom arrive, because this freedom comes from the Lord.