44. The more distinctly a man appears to himself to be master of himself the more clearly he perceives that he is the Lord's, because the more nearly he is conjoined to the Lord the wiser he becomes, as was shown above (n. 34-36): this wisdom teaches and also perceives. The angels of the third heaven, because they are the wisest of the angels, also perceive this; and, moreover, they call it freedom itself; but to be led by themselves they call slavery. They give this as the reason, that the Lord does not flow immediately into what belongs to their perception and thought from wisdom, but into their affections of the love of good, and through these into the former; and that they perceive the influx in the affection from which they have wisdom; and that then all they think from wisdom appears to be from themselves, and thus as their own; and that in this way a reciprocal conjunction is effected.
