598.  Man cannot be reformed unless he has freedom, for the reason that he is born into evils of every kind; and these must be removed in order that he may be saved; and they cannot be removed unless he sees them in himself and acknowledges them, and afterwards ceases to will them, and finally holds them in aversion.  Not until then are they removed.  And this cannot be done unless man is in good as well as in evil, since it is from good that he is able to see evils, while from evil he cannot see good.  The spiritual goods that man is capable of thinking he learns from childhood by reading the Word and from preaching; and he learns moral and civil good from his life in the world.  This is the first reason why man ought to be in freedom. [2] Another reason is that nothing is appropriated to man except what is done from an affection of his love.  Other things may gain entrance, but no farther than the thought, not reaching the will; and whatever does not gain entrance into the will of man does not become his, for thought derives what pertains to it from memory, while the will derives what pertains to it from the life itself.  Only what is from the will, or what is the same, from the affection of love, can be called free, for whatever a man wills or loves that he does freely; consequently man’s freedom and the affection of his love or of his will are a one.  It is for this reason that man has freedom, in order that he may be affected by truth and good or may love them, and that they may thus become as if they were his own [3] In a word, whatever does not enter into man’s freedom has no permanence, because it does not belong to his love or will, and what does not belong to man’s love or will does not belong to his spirit; for the very being [esse] of the spirit of man is love or will.  It is said love or will, since a man wills what he loves.  This, then, is why man can be reformed only in freedom.  But more on the subject of man’s freedom may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia in the passages referred to below.

599.  In order that man may be in freedom, to the end that he may be reformed, he is conjoined in respect to his spirit both with heaven and with hell.  For with every man there are spirits from hell and angels from heaven.  It is by means of hell that man is in his own evil, while it is by means of angels from heaven that man is in good from the Lord; thus is he in spiritual equilibrium, that is, in freedom.  That angels from heaven and spirits from hell are joined to every man may be seen in the chapter on the conjunction of heaven with the human race (n. 291-302).