XXIV.—Freedom.
There are several kinds of freedom which it is important to distinguish. There is natural freedom and spiritual freedom—freedom of the body and freedom of the soul; civil freedom and religious freedom; intellectual freedom and moral freedom; the freedom of heaven and the freedom of hell. But there is only one kind of true spiritual freedom; and this is freedom from the controlling influence of the selfish and evil proclivities of the unregenerate heart; freedom from the dominion of passion, appetite, avarice, hatred, love of self, and lust of power for selfish ends; a complete mastery over all the lower and selfish propensities of our nature, and a positive delight in the free and healthy exercise of our higher and nobler faculties. In other words, the true freedom is to yield ourselves willingly and joyfully to the prompting influences of heaven; to be led and governed in all our feelings, purposes and conduct, by the Lord and his angels, and not by self or the spirits that are imbued and swayed by the love of self. The true freedom, therefore, differs from the spurious, as hatred differs from love, good from evil, heaven from hell.
Such is the declared doctrine of heaven, and such the teaching of the New Church on this subject. Accordingly Swedcnborg says—and the
