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.
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