DP 43
Hellish freedom is one thing,
and heavenly freedom another.
It is an exercise of hellish freedom
to think and will evil,
and so far as civil and moral laws do not hinder,
to speak and do it.
It is an exercise of heavenly freedom,
on the other hand, to think and will good,
and so far as opportunity is given,
to speak and do it.
Whatever a person thinks, wills,
speaks
and does in freedom,
he perceives as attributable to him,
for to everyone all freedom accords with his love.
Consequently people caught up in a love of evil
perceive no otherwise
than that hellish freedom is real freedom,
whereas people impelled by a love of good
perceive that heavenly freedom is real freedom,
so that each regards the opposite as enslavement.
. . . to be led by good is to be led by the Lord,
whereas to be led by evil is to be led by the devil.
Now because everything
that a person does in freedom
appears to him to be attributable to him -
for it accords with his love,
and to act from one's love is,
as we said above, to act in freedom -
it follows that conjunction with the Lord
causes a person to appear to himself free
and so to be his own person,
and the closer the conjunction with the Lord,
the freer, and so the more his own person.
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