As If Of Self
Arcana Coelestia 8497… goodness and truth which flow in from the Lord are joined together and so to speak made the person’s own. This is what the joining of heaven, that is, of those in heaven, to the Lord is like. The words ‘as if from what was their own’ are used because the good of faith and charity can never be imparted to man or angel to be actually his own, for men and angels are merely recipients, or forms properly adjusted to receive life from the Lord, and so goodness and truth from Him. True life comes from no other source; and since life comes from the Lord it cannot be more than what seems to be a person’s own. Those who abide in the Lord however clearly perceive that life flows in, consequently that goodness and truth do so since these are contained in that life. The reason why life seems to be a person’s own is that in His Divine Love the Lord wishes to impart and join to a person all that is His, and so far as it can be done He does join it. What is then the person’s own, yet is imparted to him by the Lord, is called a heavenly self or proprium,
Heaven and Hell 591… the angels in the heavens are all withheld from their proprium, and are kept in the Lord’s proprium, which is Good Itself. But the spirits in the hells are all in their proprium, and everyone’s proprium is nothing but evil; and because it is nothing but evil, it is hell.
Heavenly Freedom
Divine Providence 145[2] … Combat arises when a man thinks that evils are sins and therefore resolves to refrain from them; for when he refrains a door is opened, and when it is opened the Lord casts out the lusts of evil that have occupied the internal of thought, and implants affections for good in their place. This is done in the internal of thought. But as the enjoyments of the lusts of evil that occupy the external of thought cannot be cast out at the same time, a combat arises between the internal and the external of thought, the internal wishing to cast out these enjoyments because they are enjoyments of evil and not in accord with the affections for good in which the internal now is, and to bring in, in place of these enjoyments of evil, enjoyments of good that are in accord. The enjoyments of good are what are called goods of charity. From this contrariety a combat arises; and when this becomes severe it is called temptation.
….. [4] When, therefore, the internal conquers, as it does when the internal has reduced the external to acquiescence and compliance, the Lord gives man liberty itself and rationality itself; for the Lord then withdraws man from infernal freedom, which in itself is slavery, and brings him into heavenly freedom, which is in itself real freedom, and bestows upon him fellowship with the angels.
Overcoming The Belief That The Appearances Are True
Divine Providence 158. With the angels, especially the angels of the third heaven, this truth is established, not by reasons alone but also by living perceptions. They perceive the influx of Divine love and Divine wisdom from the Lord. And because they perceive that influx, and from their wisdom know that this inflowing love and wisdom is life, they say that they live from the Lord and not from themselves; and not only do they say this, they love and wish to have it so. Nevertheless, to all appearance, they are as if they lived from themselves; and the appearance is even stronger with them, than with other angels; for as has been shown above (42-45), The more nearly any one is conjoined with the Lord, the more distinctly does he appear to himself to be his own, and the more clearly does he recognise that he is the Lord’s.