99、我说过（98节），自由本身和理性本身无法被赋予那些否认主的神性和圣言的神圣之人，或那些确认支持自然界，反对神性的人，很难被赋予那些坚信虚假的宗教原则之人。然而，这些人无一丧失这些官能本身。我曾听说，那些已经成为魔鬼和撒旦的无神论者跟天使一样，也明白智慧的奥秘，但只有当他们听见别人谈论它们时才明白。一回到他们自己的思维，他们就不再明白了，因为他们不想明白。然而，他们被指示，他们若不受对邪恶的爱和它所带来的快乐迷惑，也可以有想要明白的渴望。他们听到这话也明白，甚至明确肯定，他们可以，但他们不想能够这样，因为这会使他们不能想要他们真正想要的东西，也就是随其欲望的快乐而来的邪恶。在灵界，我经常听说这类奇事，完全确信，每个人都拥有自由和理性；也确信，每个人都能获得自由本身和理性本身，只要他避恶如罪。不过，成年人若在世上没有获得自由本身和理性本身，死后就决不能获得它们，因为那时，他们的生命状态将永远保持它在世上的样子。
99. We said that genuine freedom and rationality are not possible in the case of people who have denied the Lord's Divinity and the holiness of the Word, or in the case of those who have confirmed themselves on the side of nature in opposition to the Divine, and that they are possible only with difficulty in the case of people who have by many considerations confirmed themselves in falsities of religion. But still, none of these people have lost those faculties themselves. I have been told in the case of atheists who have become devils and satanic spirits that they have understood secrets of wisdom as well as angels - but only when they have heard them from others. However, when they returned to their own thoughts, they did not understand them, the reason being that they did not wish to. Yet they were shown that they could also wish to, if their love of evil and consequent delight in evil did not keep them from doing so. When they heard this, they understood it, too. Indeed, they affirmed that they were able to understand, but did not wish to be able to, because then they could not will what they wished to, namely evil, because of the delight of their lust for it.
I have quite often heard of such astonishing occurrences in the spiritual world, and I have been fully convinced by them that every person has freedom and rationality, and that everyone can come into genuine freedom and rationality if he abstains from evils as being sins.
It is never possible, however, for an adult who has not come into genuine freedom and rationality in the world to come into them after death. For the state of his life then remains to eternity such as it had been in the world.
99. I have mentioned [98] that real freedom and real rationality are impossible for people who deny the Lord's divine nature and the holiness of the Word and for people who opt decisively for the material world and against Divinity, and also that they are difficult for people who have to a large extent convinced themselves of false religious principles. Still, none of these people actually loses these abilities. I have heard atheists who had become demons and satans understand mysteries of wisdom just as well as angels do, but only when they heard someone else saying them. As soon as they turned back to their own thoughts, they stopped understanding. This was because they did not want to understand.
Still, they were shown that they would want to understand if they had not been led astray by their love for evil and the pleasure that it brought them. They understood this, too, when they heard it. They even agreed that they could want to, but said that they did not want to be able to, because then they would not be able to want what they really wanted, namely, the evil that followed from the pleasure of their compulsions.
I have often heard remarkable things like this in the spiritual world, and am completely convinced that everyone does have freedom and rationality. I am convinced that everyone can attain to real freedom and real rationality simply by abstaining from evils as sins. However, any adult who does not attain to real freedom and real rationality in this world will never do so after death, since then the state of life we had while we were in the world lasts forever.
99. It was stated that liberty itself and rationality itself cannot be given to those who have denied the Divinity of the Lord and the sanctity of the Word; or to those who have confirmed themselves in favour of nature against the Divine; and that it can with difficulty be given to those who have by much reasoning confirmed themselves in falsities of religion; but still they have not all lost these faculties themselves. I have heard that atheists who had become devils and satans understood interior truths (arcana) of wisdom as well as angels, but only while they heard them from others. When they returned into their own thoughts they did not understand them, because they had no desire to understand. They were shown that they could desire to understand these truths if the love and consequent delight of evil did not mislead them. This also they understood when they heard it, and they even asserted that they could have the power, but that they had no desire to have it, for they would in that case be unable to desire the present object of their desire, which was evil from the delight of its lust.
Such strange things I have often heard in the spiritual world; and from them I was fully convinced that every man has liberty and rationality; and that everyone can attain to liberty itself and rationality itself if he shuns evils as sins. But a man who has reached maturity and who has not attained to liberty itself and rationality itself while in this world can in no wise enter into these faculties after death; for then the state of his life remains to eternity such as it had been in the world.
99. It has been said that liberty itself and rationality itself cannot be given to those that have denied the Lord's Divinity and the holiness of the Word, or to those that have confirmed themselves in favor of nature against the Divine, and scarcely to those that have strongly confirmed themselves in falsities of religion. Yet none of these have lost the faculties themselves. I have known atheists who have become devils and satans to understand the arcana of wisdom as well as angels, but only while they heard them from others; and when they returned into their own thoughts they did not understand, for the reason that they had no desire to. But they were shown that they, too, might have the desire if they were not misled by the love and consequent enjoyment of evil; and this they understood when they heard it, and even asserted that they might, but that they had no wish to be able, since this would make them unable to will what they had willed, which was evil, from enjoyment in its lust. I have often heard such wonderful things in the spiritual world, by which it has been fully proved to me that every man possesses liberty and rationality; and that every one can come into liberty itself and rationality itself provided he shuns evils as sins. But a mature man who does not come into liberty itself and rationality itself in the world can in no wise come into them after death; for his state of life then remains forever such as it had been in the world.
99. Dictum est, quod ipsa Libertas et ipsa Rationalitas non dari queant apud illos qui negaverunt Divinum Domini, et sanctitatem Verbi; tum apud illos qui confirmaverunt se pro natura contra Divinum; et aegre apud illos qui se multis confirmaverunt in falsis religionis: at usque omnes illi non perdiderunt ipsas illas facultates: audivi atheos, qui facti sunt diaboli et satanae, intellexisse arcana sapientiae tam bene sicut angeli, sed solum cum audiverunt illa ab aliis; at cum in suas cogitationes redierunt, non intellexerunt; causa erat, quia non voluerunt; at ostensum est illis, quod etiam potuerint velle, nisi amor et inde jucundum mali illos abduxerit; hoc quoque cum 1audiverunt, intellexerunt, imo affirmaverunt quod potuerint, sed quod non voluerint posse, quia sic non potuissent velle quod volunt, quod erat malum ex jucundo concupiscentiae ejus: talia mirabilia in Mundo spirituali saepius audivi: ex quibus plene confirmatus sum, quod cuivis homini sit libertas et rationalitas; et quod quisque in ipsam Libertatem et ipsam Rationalitatem possit venire, si fugit mala ut peccata. Sed adultus, qui non in ipsam Libertatem et ipsam Rationalitatem venit in Mundo, nusquam in illas venire potest post mortem, nam tunc status ejus vitae, qualis fuerat in mundo, manet in aeternum.
Footnotes:
1 Prima editio: cnm