The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
FAITH
(pt. 10)
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
FAITH
(pt. 10)
Faith is persuasive, when the Word and the doctrine of the church are believed and loved, not for the sake of truth and of a life according to it, but for the sake of gain, honor, and the fame of erudition, as ends - wherefore they who are in that faith, do not look to the Lord and to heaven, but to themselves and the world.
They who in the world aspire after great things, and covet many things, are in a stronger persuasion that what the doctrine of the church teaches is true than they who do not aspire after great things and covet many things: the reason is, because the doctrine of the church is to the former only a means to their own ends -
and so far as the ends are coveted, so far the means are loved, and are also believed.But the case in itself is this: so far as they are in the fire of the loves of self and of the world, and from that fire speak, preach, and act, so far they are in that persuasion, and then they know no other than that it is so; but when they are not in the fire of those loves, then they believe little, and many not at all.
Thence it is evident, that persuasive faith is a faith of the mouth and not of the heart, thus that in itself it is not faith.
(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 117)
• In the manuscript, the author, Emanuel Swedenborg, annexed to each section of the doctrine extracts from the Arcana Coelestia, because in the Arcana Coelestia the same things are more fully explained. Arcana Coelestia is available in print or online.