Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/21

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FREEDOM, RATIONALITY,

AND

CATHOLICITY.

I.

HUMAN FREEDOM.

FEW persons know what freedom is, or what it is not. It appears to be whatever is agreeable to any kind of love and the delight thereof; and whatever is contrary to any kind of love and its delight, appears to be not freedom. The indulgence of self-love and the love of the world, and of the lusts thereof, appears to man like freedom, but it is infernal freedom; while the indulgence of love to the Lord and neighbourly love, consequently of the love of good and truth, is essential and heavenly freedom.

Infernal spirits are unacquainted with any other freedom than what relates to self-love and the love of the world; that is, to the lusts of bearing rule over, of persecuting and hating all who are not subservient to them, of tormenting every one about them, of destroy-

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