368 HEAVEN and HELL §603
Heavenly freedom comes from heavenly love, or a love of what is
good and true: 1947 , 2870 , 2872 , and since a love of what is good and
true comes from the Lord, we are truly free only when we are led by the
Lord: 892 , 905 , 2872 , 2886 , 2890 , 2891 , 2892 , 9096 , 9586 , 9587 , 9589 ,
9590 , 9591. The Lord brings us into heavenly freedom through regenera-
tion: 2874 , 2875 , 2882 , 2892. We need freedom in order to be regener-
ated: 1937 , 1947 , 2876 , 2881 , 3145 , 3146 , 3158 , 4031 , 8700. Otherwise the
love of what is good and true could not be sown in us and become so
much a part of us as to seem to be our own: 2877 , 2879 , 2880 , 2888.
Nothing is united to us that happens under compulsion: 8700 , 2875. If
we could be forcibly reformed, everyone would be saved: 2881. Compul-
sion in matters of reformation is destructive: 4031. All worship offered
in freedom is worship, but not what is offered under compulsion: 1947 ,
2880 , 7349 , 10097. Repentance needs to happen in a state of freedom,
and if it happens in a state of compulsion, it does not work: 8392. Just
what a state of compulsion is: 8392.
[ 3 ] We are allowed to act from the freedom we have as rational beings,
so that good may be provided to us; we therefore have a freedom of think-
ing and intending evil as well, and even of doing it to the extent that the
laws do not prevent it: 10777. The Lord holds us between heaven and hell
and therefore in a balance so that we can be in freedom for the sake of our
reformation: 5982 , 6477 , 8209 , 8907 [ 8987 ]. What is sown in freedom stays
with us, but not what is sown under compulsion: 9588. So freedom is never
taken away from anyone: 2876 , 2881. The Lord does not compel anyone:
1937 , 1947.
To compel oneself stems from freedom, but being compelled does
not: 1937 , 1947. We ought to compel ourselves to resist evil: 1937 , 1947 ,
7914 ; and to do good as well, apparently on our own, but still recog-
nizing that it comes from the Lord: 2883 , 2891 , 2892 , 7914. We become
more solidly free in those temptation struggles in which we win, because
then we are inwardly compelling ourselves to resist, even though it does
not seem that way: 1937 , 1947 , 2881.
[ 4 ] Hellish freedom is being led by love for oneself and love for the
world and by their cravings: 2870 , 2873. This is the only freedom people
in hell know: 2871. Heavenly freedom is as remote from hellish freedom
as heaven is from hell: 2873 , 2874. Hellish freedom, which is being led by
love for oneself and love for the world, is not freedom but slavery: 2884 ,
- So slavery is being led by hell: 9586 , 9589 , 9590 , 9591.
[ 5 ] On Infl ow. Everything we think and intend fl ows in; [learned]
from experience: 904 , 2886 , 2887 , 2888 , 4151 , 4319 , 4320 , 5846 , 5848 , 6189 ,