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THEOLOGY IN 1743 AND 1744. 1111
beginning, thinking, understanding, believing, willing, operating or
co-operating anything from his own power in matters of a spiritual
and Divine nature; or of applying and accommodating himself to
grace; but that his natural will is only for those things which are
contrary to God, and displease him; therefore, that man in spiritual
things is like a stock, but that still he has a capacity, not active
but passive, whereby he can be turned to good by the grace of
God." With this doctrine Swedenborg had never any sympathy, not
even in 1743 and 1744, although he then spoke much of the necessity
of "having grace," and of "taking refuge in the merit of the Saviour
Jesus Christ," and continually says that "there is nothing sound and
whole in man."
That, on the contrary, he was then fully convinced of man’s
freedom of will, and that he believed in the necessity of man’s co
operating with the Lord in the work of reformation and regeneration,
is clearly taught by him in the last volume of the Old Series of
the Regnum Animale, written in 1743 (Document 313, no. 67), and
published by Dr. Im. Tafel as Part VII of that work, under the
title De Anima. We read there, "Every one acknowledges that
our mind has the power of choosing or of thinking freely, and unless
prevented by impossibilities also of willing and acting freely. Without
the freedom of thought, and of action in conformity with thought ,
there would be no understanding and no will, and the very term
’will’ should be expunged from our vocabularies, because we
no longer know what is meant by it. Without the freedom of
choice man could neither affirm nor deny; nor would there be any
virtue nor any vice, nor consequently any morality. There would
be no religion and no Divine worship ; for these demand a mind
endowed with freedom. Besides, there would be no granting of
prayers and no imputation, because nothing could be regarded as
our own; for who holds responsible a mere machine, or a person
who acts under compulsion and not from himself? And if we, as
men, regard actions from the will alone, which must not be in a
state of compulsion, how much more will this be the case with Divine
justice ! In short without the gift of freedom we should not be men,
but mere animals ; for the human principle and our individuality
consist in the power of thinking, willing, and acting in a state of
freedom; and he who has the power of thinking in a state of freedom,
has also the power of acting in such a state, because will or deter
mination and action follow thought. Wherefore the truly human
principle consists not only in being, but also in the power [of willing
and doing] from ourselves" (p. 167). On p. 190 Swedenborg says,
"The freedom of the mind consists entirely in this, that it may obey,
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