4569. About freedom
So that I would know that human life has freedom because freedom is part of affection, I was once led into a state of compulsion, that is, of not acting out of freedom but out of a sense of compulsion that was slipped into my thought. Then, because they are able to see how much life and what kind of life a person has, the angels said that I did not have life. From this it was evident to me that life consists in freedom and that life is lacking in the degree that action is produced by coercion, thus that a person cannot receive a new life, that is, be regenerated, except in freedom. This means that it must be a matter of his affection, and an affection close to him, which does not exist unless the evils which bring about the opposite of freedom have been removed.
4569. CONCERNING FREEDOM.
In order that I might know that man's life consists in freedom, because freedom is of affection, I was once on a time brought into coercion, to wit, into such a state that I could not act from freedom, but [only] from coercion. This was insinuated in the thought. Then the angels said that I have no life; for they are able to see the quantity and quality of the life that is with man. Hence it was plain to me, that life consists in freedom, and, that, in proportion to the deficiency of life is the amount of coercion, consequently, that man cannot receive the new life, that is, be regenerated, except in freedom - in order, that is, that it [the new life] may be of his own affection, and of an affection akin to that, which is not possible unless the evils which constitute an opposite freedom are removed.
4569. De Libero
Ut scirem quod in libero sit vita hominis, quia liberum est affectionis, quondam perducebar in coactum, quod nempe facerem non ex libero, sed ex coacto, hoc insinuabatur cogitationi, tunc dicebant angeli, quod mihi non sit vita, illi cum videre possunt quantum vitae et quale vitae est homini, inde patebat mihi quod in libero sit vita, et tantum non vitae quantum ex coacto, ita quod homo novam vitam accipere nequeat hoc est regenerari nisi in libero, hoc est, ut sit affectionis ejus, et affectionis quae prope a se, quod non datur nisi remota sint mala quae faciunt liberum oppositum.