whilst he wills anything from freedom, I will to think this, I will to speak this, and I will to act this. Moreover, from the freedom of the will man has the faculty of thinking, of speaking, and of acting, for the will gives this faculty, because it is free. Inasmuch as freedom is the will of man, it is likewise of his love, since nothing else appertaining to man constitutes freedom, but the love which is of his will; the reason is, because love is the life of man; for man is of such a quality as his love is, consequently, what proceeds from the love of his will, this proceeds from his life. Hence it is evident, that freedom is of the will of man, is of his love, and is of his life, consequently, that it makes one with his proprium, and with his nature and temper."
It is also very fully shown that the freedom in which man is, while he remains in the natural world, is very intimately connected with the fact that he is constantly subjected to the opposite influences of good and evil spirits. In the Ar. Cel., No. 5982, it is said that:—
"The Lord places man in an equilibrium between evils and goods, and between falses and truths, by evil spirits on one part, and by angels on the other, that man may be in freedom; for man ought to be in freedom, that he may be saved, and he ought in freedom to be drawn away from evil, and led to good; whatsoever is not done in freedom, does not remain, because it is not appropriated: this freedom is a consequence of the equilibrium in which he is held."
This freedom is constantly given to man by the Lord, and constitutes the reciprocal principle on the part of man, by which a conjunction can be effected between him and the Lord. The true and orderly exercise of this faculty, consists in the voluntary rejection of evil and falsity, and the reception of the divine goodness and truth. But the very existence of such a faculty shows that it is liable to abuse. The power to choose is also the power to reject. And this brings us at once to the origin of evil. It is the voluntary abuse of goodness and truth. In other words, it is the abuse of those faculties of freedom and rationality, which the Lord gives to man in order to enable him to receive the divine goodness and truth. It is these faculties which give man the power of being conjoined to the Lord, make him capable
