Selection from The Doctrine of Faith ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Continued (pt 2)
... It is knowledges[cognitiones*] of genuine truth and good that constitute faith, and by no means knowledges of what is false, for faith is truth, and as falsity is the opposite of truth, it destroys faith. Neither can charity come forth into being where there are nothing but falsities, for charity and faith make a one just as good and truth make a one.From all this it follows that an absence of knowledges of genuine truth and good involves an absence of faith, that a few knowledges make some faith, and that many knowledges make a faith which is clear and bright in proportion to their abundance. Such as is the quality of a man's faith from charity, such is the quality of his intelligence.
(The Doctrine of Faith 29)
To be continued...*The term cognitiones, here used in the Latin, is translated “cognitions” to distinguish these knowledges from those that are meant by the Latin scientifica also used in the Writings of Swedenborg. Two of the meanings most commonly associated with cognitiones are, (i) a particular species of knowledge, as knowledges of the Word, of good and truth, or of spiritual things; and (ii) a higher type of knowledge which is from understanding and perception.