Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/33

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THE DIVINE LEADINGS.
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so far as external restraints which are the fear of the law and of the loss of life, reputation, honor and gain, do not hinder, He keeps him in the freedom of doing. But by freedom He bends him away from evil, and bends him to good, leading man so gently and tacitly that he knows no otherwise than that the leading all proceeds from himself. Thus the Lord in freedom inseminates and inroots good into the very life of man, which good remains to eternity. This the Lord thus teaches in Mark: "The kingdom of God is as a man who casteth seed into the earth, which germinates and grows while he himself is ignorant of it; for the earth beareth fruit of her own accord," (iv. 26, 27, 28.) The kingdom of God is heaven in man, that is, the good of love and the truth of faith.

What is inseminated in freedom, remains, because it is inrooted in the very will of man which is the esse of his life: but what is inseminated in a state of compulsion, does not remain, because what is of compulsion is not from the will of man, but from the will of him who compels. Hence it is, that worship from freedom is pleasing to the Lord, but not worship from compulsion; for worship from freedom is worship from love, inasmuch as all freedom is of love.


HEAVENLY AND INFERNAL FREEDOM.

There is heavenly freedom and there is infernal freedom. Heavenly freedom consists in being led of the

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