2228. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. That this signifies that all who are in charity will be saved by Him, is evident from the signification of being "blessed," as being to be endowed with all goods which are from a heavenly origin (as explained n. 981, 1096, 1420, 1422). They who are endowed with goods from a heavenly origin, that is, with both celestial and spiritual goods (concerning which just above, n. 2177), are also endowed with eternal salvation, that is, are saved. By "all the nations of the earth" are meant in the internal sense those who are in the good of love and of charity, as is evident from the signification of a "nation," as being good (n. 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849). That all men in the whole globe are not meant by "all the nations of the earth," is evident to everyone, because there are very many among them who are not saved, but only those who are in charity, that is, who have attained the life of charity.
[2] That none may be unaware how the case is with the salvation of men after their decease, it shall be briefly stated. There are many who say that man is saved by faith, or, in their words, if he only has faith; but for the most part they are those who do not know what faith is. Some suppose that it is mere thought; some that it is an acknowledgment of something to be believed; some that it is the whole doctrine of faith, which is to be believed; and others otherwise. Thus in the bare knowledge of what faith is they wander in error; consequently in the knowledge of what that is by which man is saved. Faith, however, is not mere thought, nor is it an acknowledgment of something to be believed, nor a knowledge of all things which belong to the doctrine of faith. By these no one can be saved; for they can take root no deeper than in the thought, and thought saves no one, but the life which the man has procured for himself in the world by means of the knowledges of faith. This life remains; whereas all thought which does not accord with the life perishes, even so as to become none at all. The heavenly consociations are according to lives, and by no means according to thoughts which are not of the life. Thoughts which are not of the life are counterfeit, and such are altogether rejected.
[3] In general, life is twofold, being on the one hand infernal, on the other heavenly. Infernal life is acquired from all those ends, thoughts, and works which flow from the love of self, consequently from hatred against the neighbor; heavenly life, from all those ends, thoughts, and works which are of love toward the neighbor. The latter is the life to which all things that are called faith have regard, and which is procured by all things of faith. All this shows what faith is, namely, that it is charity, for to charity all things lead which are said to be of the doctrine of faith; in it they are all contained, and from it they are all derived. The soul, after the life of the body, is such as its love is.
