(LJ) - The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed, Showing That at This Day All the Predictions of the Book of Revelation Have Been Fulfilled - From Things Heard and Seen

LJ 39

Remove Highlights | Highlight Search Terms

NEXT | PREVIOUS | FIRST | LAST | NEXT BOOK | PREVIOUS BOOK 

39. But since it is not known in the Christian world that there is no faith if there is no charity, nor what charity towards the neighbor is, nor even that the will constitutes the man himself, and the thought only in as far as it is derived from the will, therefore, in order that these subjects may come into the light of the understanding, I will adjoin a collection of passages concerning them from the Arcana Coelestia, which may serve for illustration.
FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.
FAITH.
They who do not know that all things in the universe refer themselves to truth and good, and to the conjunction of both, in order to the production of anything, do not know that all things of the church refer themselves to faith and love, and to the conjunction of both (n. 7752-7762, 9186, 9224). All things in the universe refer themselves to truth and good, and to their conjunction (n. 2452, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555). Truths belong to faith, and goods to love (n. 4352, 4997, 7178, 10367).
They who do not know that each and all things in man have relation to the understanding and the will, and to the conjunction of both, in order that man may be man, also do not know that all things of the church have relation to faith and love, and to their conjunction, in order that the church may be in man (n. 2231, 7752-7754, 9224, 9995, 10122). Man has two faculties, one of which is called the understanding, and the other the will (n. 641, 803, 3623, 3539). The understanding is dedicated to the reception of truths, or of those things which belong to faith; and the will to the reception of goods, or of those things which belong to love (n. 9300, 9930, 10064). Hence it follows, that love or charity makes the church, and not faith alone, or faith separated from them (n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 5826).
Faith separated from charity is no faith (n. 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783). Such faith perishes in the other life (n. 2228, 5820). Doctrinals concerning faith alone, destroy charity (n. 6353, 8094). They who separate faith from charity are represented in the Word by Cain, by Ham, by Reuben, by the firstborn of the Egyptians, and by the Philistines (n. 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093). As far as charity departs, in so far prevails a religion respecting faith alone (n. 2231). The church in process of time turns aside from charity to faith, and at length to faith alone (n. 4683, 8094). In the last time of the church there is no faith, because there is no charity (n. 1843, 3488, 4689). They who make faith alone saving, excuse a life of evil; and they who are in a life of evil, have no faith, because they have no charity (n. 3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094). They are inwardly in the falsities of their own evil, although they do not know it (n. 7790, 7950). Therefore good cannot be conjoined to them (n. 8981, 8983). Also in the other life they are opposed to good, and to those who are in good (n. 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313). The simple in heart know better than the learned what the good of life is, and thus what charity is, but not what separated faith is (n. 4741, 4754).
Good is the esse, and truth the existere derived from it, and thus the truth of faith has its own esse of life from the good of charity (n. 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154). Hence the truth of faith lives from the good of charity, or charity is the life of faith (n. 1589, 1947, 1997, 2571, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729). Faith is not alive in man, when he only knows and thinks of the things of faith, but when he wills them, and from willing, does them (n. 9224). The conjunction of the Lord with man is not by faith, but by the life of faith, which is charity (n. 9380, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10648). Worship from the good of charity is true worship, but worship from the truth of faith, without the good of charity, is merely an external act (n. 7724).
Faith alone, or faith separated from charity, is as the light of winter, in which all things of the earth are torpid, and nothing is produced; but faith with charity is as the light of spring and of summer, in which they all bloom and are made productive (n. 2231, 3146, 3412, 3413). The wintry light, which is that of separated faith, in the other life is turned into dense darkness, when the light of heaven inflows; and they who are in that faith, then come into blindness and stupidity (n. 3412, 3413). They who separate faith from charity, are in darkness, and thus in ignorance of truth, and thence in falsities, for falsities are darkness (n. 9186). They cast themselves into falsities, and hence into evils (n. 3325, 8094). The errors and falsities into which they cast themselves (n. 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224). The Word is closed against them (n. 3773, 4783, 8780). They do not see and attend to all the things which the Lord so often spoke concerning love and charity, which see (n. 1017, 3416). They neither know what good is, what heavenly love is, nor what charity is (n. 2517, 3603, 4136, 9995).
Charity makes the church, and not faith separated from charity (n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844). How much of good would exist in the church, if charity were regarded as primary (n. 6269, 6272). The church would he one, and not divided into many, if charity were its essential; and then it would be unimportant if men did differ on the doctrines of faith and of external worship (n. 1285, 1316, 2385, 2853, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452). All in heaven are regarded from charity, and none from faith without it (n. 1258, 1394, 2364, 4802).
The twelve disciples of the Lord represented the church, as to the all of faith and charity, in one complex, as in like manner did the twelve tribes of Israel (n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397). Peter, James and John, represented faith, charity, and the goods of charity, in their order (n. 3750). Peter represented faith (n. 4738, 6000, 6073, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580). And John the goods of charity (Pref. to chap. 18 and 22 of Genesis). In the last times, there would be no faith in the Lord, because no charity, was represented by Peter's denying the Lord three times, before the cock crew twice; for Peter there in a representative sense is faith (n. 6000, 6073). "Cockcrowing," as well as "twilight," signifies in the Word the last time of the church (n. 10134). And "three" or "thrice," signify what is complete to the end (n. 2788, 4495, 5159, 9198, 10127). The like is signified by what the Lord said to Peter, when Peter saw John following the Lord:
What is it to thee, Peter? Follow thou Me, John; for Peter said of John:
What is he (John 21:21, 22; n. 10087)?
John rested on the breast of the Lord, because he represented the goods or charity (n. 3934, 10081). All the names of persons and places in the Word signify things abstracted from them (n. 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329).
CHARITY.
That heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and the other the spiritual; love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, and is called celestial love; and love in the spiritual kingdom is charity towards the neighbor, and is called spiritual love (n. 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961). Heaven is distinguished into those two kingdoms, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28). And the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him, and charity towards the neighbor (n. 13-19), in the same work.
It is not known what good and truth are, unless it he known what love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor are, because all good is of love and charity, and all truth is of good (n. 7255, 7366). To know truths, to will truths, and to be affected by truths for truth's sake, that is, because they are truths, is charity (n. 3876, 3877). Charity consists in an internal affection of doing truth, and not in an external affection without it (n. 2429, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8033). Therefore charity consists in performing uses for the sake of uses, and its kind is according to the uses (n. 7038, 8253). Charity is man's spiritual life (n. 7081). The whole Word is the doctrine of love and charity (n. 6632, 7262). Men at this day do not know what charity is (n. 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632). Still it may be known from the light of reason, that love and charity constitute man (n. 3957, 6273). Also that good and truth agree together, and one belongs to the other; therefore charity and faith do the like (n. 7627).
In the supreme sense the Lord is the neighbor, because He is to be loved above all things; hence all that is the neighbor which is from Him, and in which He is; therefore good and truth are the neighbor (n. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124). The distinction of neighbor is according to the quality of good; thus according to the presence of the Lord (n. 6707-6710). Every man, and every society, also our country, and the church, and in the universal sense the kingdom of the Lord, are the neighbor; and to do well by them, from the good of love, according to their several states, is to love the neighbor; thus the neighbor is their good, which we ought to consult (n. 6818-6824, 8123). Civil good, which is justice, and moral good, which is the good of life in society, are also the neighbor (n. 2915, 4730, 8120-8122). To love the neighbor is not to love the person, but that in him which makes him the neighbor, that is, good and truth (n. 5028, 10336). They who love the person, and not that which makes the neighbor in him, love the evil as well as the good (n. 3820). And they do service to the evil as well as to the good, when yet to serve the evil is to injure the good, and this is not to love the neighbor (n. 3820, 6703, 8120). The judge who punishes the evil to amend them, and lest they should corrupt the good, loves the neighbor (n. 3820, 8120, 8121).
To love the neighbor is to do what is good, just, and upright in every work, and in every function (n. 8120-8122). Hence charity towards the neighbor extends itself, both in general and in particular, to all that a man thinks, wills, and does (n. 8124). To do good and truth for the sake of good and truth, is to love the neighbor (n. 10310, 10336). They who do this, love the Lord, who in the supreme sense, is the neighbor (n. 9210). A life of charity is a life according to the Lord's precepts; so that to live according to Divine truths, is to love the Lord (n. 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).
Genuine charity is not meritorious (n. 2027, 2343, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). Because it is from an internal affection, thus from the delight of doing good (n. 2373, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). They who separate faith from charity, in the other life make a merit of faith, and of the good works they did, as matters of external form (n. 2373).
The doctrine of the Ancient Church was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity (n. 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628). The ancients, who were of the church, arranged the goods of charity in order, and distinguished them into classes, giving names to each, and this was the source of their wisdom (n. 2417, 6629, 7259-7262). Wisdom and intelligence increase immensely in the other life, with those who have lived a life of charity in the world (n. 1941, 5859). The Lord inflows with Divine truths into charity, because into the very life of man (n. 2363). Man is as a garden, when charity and faith are conjoined in him, but as a desert when they are not conjoined (n. 7626). Man recedes from wisdom in proportion as he recedes from charity (n. 6630). They who are not in charity, are in ignorance of Divine truths, howsoever wise they may think themselves (n. 2417, 2435). The angelic life consists in performing the goods of charity, which are uses (n. 454). The spiritual angels are forms of charity (n. 553, 3804, 4735).
THE WILL AND THE UNDERSTANDING.
Man has two faculties, one of which is called the understanding, and the other the will (n. 35, 641, 3539, 10122). Those two faculties make the man himself (n. 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284). The man is such, as those two faculties are in him (n. 7342, 885, 9282, 10264, 10284). By them also man is distinguished from the beasts, because the understanding of man may be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine truths, and his will may be elevated equally, and perceive Divine goods; and thus man may be conjoined to the Lord by those two faculties, which make him man; but that it is not so with beasts (n. 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9232). And since man, in that faculty, is above the beasts, he cannot die as to his interiors, which belong to his spirit, but he lives to eternity (n. 5302).
All things in the universe refer themselves to good and truth; thus in man to the will and the understanding (n. 803, 10122). For the understanding is the recipient of truth, and the will of good (n. 3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). It amounts to the same whether you say truth, or faith, for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith; and also whether you say good, or love, for love is of good, and good is of love; for what a man believes, he calls truth; and what he loves, he calls good (n. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367). Hence it follows, that the understanding is the recipient of faith, and the will is the recipient of love (n. 7179, 10122, 10367). And since man's understanding may be receptive of faith towards God, and his will of love towards God, that he may be conjoined to God by faith and love, and whoso can be conjoined to God by faith and love, can never die (n. 4525, 6323, 9231).
The will of man is the very esse of his life, since it is the receptacle of love or good, and the understanding is the existere of his life derived form it, since it is the receptacle of faith or truth (n. 3619, 5002, 9282). Thus the life of the will is the principle life of man, and the life of the understanding proceeds from it (n. 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110). Just as light proceeds form fire or flame (n. 6032, 6314). The things which enter the understanding and the will at the same time, are appropriated to man, but not those which enter the understanding alone (n. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9133, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110). Those things become properties of man's life, which are received by the will (n. 3161, 9386, 9393). Hence if follows, that man is man from the will, and form the understanding thence (n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110). Every man moreover is loved and esteemed by others, according to the good of his will and the understanding thence; for he who wills well, and understands well, is loved and esteemed, but he who understands well, and does not will well, is rejected and despised (n. 8911, 10076). Man also after death remains as his will, and the understanding thence (n. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153). And those things which belong to the understanding, and not at the same time to the will, then vanish away, because they are not in man (n. 9282). Or, what amounts to the same, man remains after death as his love, and its derivative faith are, or as his good and its derivative truth are; and the things which belong to faith, and not at the same time to love, or the things which belong to truth, and not at the same time to good, then vanish away, because they are not in man, and thus not of man (n. 553, 2363, 10153). Man may receive in the understanding what he does not do from the will, or he may understand what he cannot will, because it is against his love (n. 3539). The reason why man scarcely knows the distinction between thinking and willing (n. 9995).
How perverted is the state of those whose understanding and will do not act in unity (n. 9075). Such is the state of hypocrites, of deceivers, of flatterers, and of dissemblers (n. 2426, 3573, 4799, 8250).
All the will of good, and all the derivative understanding of truth are from the Lord; not so the understanding of truth, separated from the will of good (n. 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153). It is the understanding which is enlightened by the Lord (n. 6222, 6608, 10659). The understanding is enlightened as far as man receives truth in the will, that is, as far as he wills to do according to it (n. 3619). The understanding has light from heaven, as the sight has light from the world (n. 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128). The understanding is such, as are the truths from good of which it is formed (n, 10064). The understanding is that which is from truths from good, but not that which is from falsities from evil (n. 10675). The understanding is the seeing, from matters of experience and science, truths, the causes of things, connections, and consequences, in series (n. 6125). The understanding is the seeing and perceiving whether a thing be truth, before it is confirmed, but not the being able to confirm every thing (n. 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780). The seeing and perceiving whether a thing be truth before it is confirmed, is given to those only who are affected with truth for the sake of truth, and are thus in spiritual light (n. 8521). The light of confirmation is natural light, communicable even to the evil (n. 8780). That all dogmas, even false ones, may be confirmed, until they appear like truths (n. 2243, 2385, 4647, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7950).

NEXT | PREVIOUS | FIRST | LAST | NEXT BOOK | PREVIOUS BOOK 



User-Contributed Related Pages

Be the First to Find a Related Page!


Add a Related Page


Translate This Page

Add Small Canon Search to Your Website

Add a Small Canon Search™ button to my Google Toolbar

Add Small Canon Search™ to my Firefox Search Bar!

Add to Google

Daily Bible Verse

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Green Hosting

5 FREE Domains with Select Hosting Plans. Get yours!