AE 701 - He Gifts Us With His Light and Freedom

AE 701

The Lord continually flows into all people
with light that enlightens,
and with the affection
of knowing and understanding truths,
also for willing and doing them;
and as that light and that affection
continually flow in from the Lord,
it follows that a person becomes rational
to the extent that he receives of that light,
and he becomes wise and is led by the Lord
so far as he receives of that affection.
That affection with its light
draws to itself and conjoins to itself
the truths that a person from infancy
has learned from the Word,
from doctrine out of the Word, and from preaching;
for every affection desires to be nourished
by the knowledges that are in harmony with it.
From this conjunction
a person's spiritual love or affection is formed,
through which he is conjoined to the Lord,
that is, through which the Lord conjoins man to Himself.

But in order that that light
and that affection may be received,
freedom of choice has been given to a person,
and as that freedom is from the Lord,
it is also a gift of the Lord with a person
and is never taken away from him;
for that freedom belongs to a person's affection or love,
and consequently also to his life.
From freedom a person can think and will what is evil,
and can also think and will what is good.
So far, therefore, as from that freedom,
which belongs to his love and thence to his life,
a person thinks falsities and wills evils,
which are the opposites of the truths and goods of the Word,
so far he is not conjoined to the Lord;
but so far as he thinks truths and wills goods,
which are from the Word,
so far he is conjoined to the Lord,
and the Lord makes those truths and goods
to be of his love,
and thence of his life.
From this it is evident that this conjunction is reciprocal,
namely, of the Lord with a person
and of a person with the Lord;
such is the conjunction
that is meant in the Word by "covenant."

He greatly errs who believes
that a person is incapable of doing anything
for his own salvation
because the light to see truths
and the affection of doing them,
as well as the freedom to think and will them,
are from the Lord,
and nothing of these from a person.
Because these appear to a person to be as if in himself,
and when they are thought and willed
to be as from himself,
a person ought, because of that appearance,
to think and will them as if from himself,
but at the same time acknowledge
that they are from the Lord.
In no other way
can anything of truth and good or of faith and love
be appropriated to a person.
If one lets his hands hang down and waits for influx
he receives nothing,
and can have no reciprocal conjunction with the Lord,
thus he is not in the covenant.
That this is so is clearly evident from this,
that the Lord in a thousand passages in the Word
has taught that a person
must do good and must not do evil,
and this the Lord would by no means have said,
unless something had been given to a person
by which he has ability to do,
and unless that which has been given to a person
might seem to him to be as if his own,
although it is not his.
Because this is so the Lord speaks thus in John:

I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hear My voice and open the door
I will come in to him,
and will sup with him and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:20)