Faith (pt. 9)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 9)

Man Acquires Faith -
By going to the Lord, Learning truths from the Word, and Living according to them.

Before proceeding to show how faith originates, namely, by going to the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living according to them, it is necessary first to set forth the summaries of faith ... for faith enters into all parts and each part of a system of theology, as blood flows into the members of the body and vivifies them. What the present church teaches respecting faith is known in the Christian world generally, and particularly in its ecclesiastical class; for the books treating solely of faith and faith alone fill the libraries of the doctors of the church, and almost nothing beyond this is regarded as properly theological at the present day. But before what the present church teaches respecting its faith is taken up, considered and examined (which will be done in an Appendix), the general principles which the New Church teaches respecting its faith shall be presented. They are the following:

• The Esse of the Faith of the New Church is: 1. Confidence in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ. 2. A trust that he who lives well and believes aright is saved by Him.

• The Essence of the Faith of the New Church is: Truth from the Word.

• The Existence of the Faith of the New Church is: 1. Spiritual sight. 2. Accordance of Truths. 3. Conviction. 4. Acknowledgment inscribed on the mind.

• The States of the Faith of the New Church are: 1. Infantile faith, adolescent faith, adult faith 2. Faith in genuine truth and faith in appearances of truth. 3. Faith of the memory, faith of reason, faith of light. 4. Natural faith, spiritual faith, celestial faith. 5. Living faith, and faith founded on miracle. 6. Free faith, and forced faith.

• The Form itself of the Faith of the New Church, in its universal view, and its particular view, may be seen in the first two numbers of the work True Christian Religion.

As the constituents of spiritual faith have been presented in a summary, so also shall those of merely natural faith, which in itself is a persuasion counterfeiting faith, and a persuasion of what is false, which is called heretical faith. It may be designated as follows:

1. Spurious faith, in which falsities are mixed with truths. 2. Meretricious faith from truths falsified, and adulterous faith from goods adulterated. 3. Closed or blind faith, which is a faith in things mystical that are believed, although it is not known whether they are true or false, or whether they are above reason or contrary to it. 4. Wandering faith, which is a faith in several Gods. 5. Purblind faith, which is a faith in some other than the true God, and among Christians in any but the Lord God the Savior. 6. Hypocritical or Pharisaic faith, which is a faith of the lips and not of the heart. 7. Visionary and distorted faith, which is falsity made to appear like truth by ingenious confirmation of it.

(True Christian Religion 343 - 345)

To be continued...