Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/30

This page needs to be proofread.
24
THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

They believe that, in case they were deprived of those lusts, there would be nothing of life remaining. Yet the real truth is, that they then first begin to live when they have lost the life of the lusts of evil and of the persuasions of what is false; and that before this the Lord is not received with good and truth wherein life alone consists; but that then intelligence and wisdom, consequently the most essential life, flows in, and afterwards is immensely increased, and this with delight, blessedness and happiness, and thus with inmost joy and inexpressible variety to eternity.


TO BE LED OF THE LORD IS FREEDOM.

Wicked spirits attendant on man, through whom he has communication with hell, regard him as a vile slave; for they infuse into him their own lusts and persuasions, and thus lead him whithersoever they desire. But the angels by whom man has communication with heaven, consider him as a brother, and insinuate into him the affections of good and truth, and thus lead him in freedom, not whither they desire but whither it pleases the Lord. Hence may be seen what is the nature and quality of the one leading and the other; and that to be led by the devil is slavery, but to be led by the Lord is freedom.

Spirits lately deceased find it hard to conceive that no one can do good nor think truth from himself, but from the Lord, imagining that thus they should be like

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.