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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

ing the universe if possible for the sake of themselves, of taking and appropriating to themselves the property of others. When they are in the indulgence of these and similar lusts, they are in their freedom, because in the enjoyment of their delight. In this freedom consists their life, insomuch that if it is taken away from them, they have no more life remaining than a newborn child. This has been also proved to me by experimental testimony.


HEAVENLY FREEDOM.

But heavenly freedom is that which is from the Lord; and all the angels in heaven are in this freedom. It is grounded in love to the Lord and mutual love, consequently in the affection of good and truth. Its nature and quality may appear from this consideration, that every one who is in it communicates his own blessedness and happiness to others from an inmost affection, and that it is a blessedness and happiness to him to be able to communicate. And this being the case with the universal heaven, it follows that every individual is a centre of the blessedness and happiness of all, and that all together are the centre of the blessedness and happiness of each.


HOW IT DIFFERS FROM ANOTHER KIND.

How far heavenly freedom which is grounded in the affection of good and truth, is distant from infernal

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