Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Among the many reasons why the mere lip-confession of being a sinner is not repentance, is this, that everyone, an impious man or even a devil, may make that declaration, and this with external devotion, when he thinks of the torments of hell, either those present or impending. But who does not see that this is not from any internal devotion, consequently that it is imaginary and therefore a matter of the lungs, and not a matter of the will from within, and thus of the heart? For an impious man and a devil still burn inwardly with the lusts of the love of doing evil, by which they are moved like windmills given by strong winds; therefore such a declaration is nothing but a contrivance to cheat God for the sake of deliverance or to deceive the simple. For what is easier than to compel the lips to cry out, and the breath of the mouth to adapt itself thereto, to turn up the eyes and raise the hands? This is the same as what the Lord says in Mark:Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you, hypocrites, This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me (7:6)and in Matthew:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full with extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter that the outside may be clean also (23:25, 26; and more in the same chapter).In a like hypocritical worship are those who have confirmed in themselves the faith of the present church, that the Lord by the passion of the cross took away all the sins of the world, meaning thereby the sins of every man, if only they pray according to the formularies about propitiation and mediation. Some of them can pour forth from the pulpit, with loud voices and apparently burning zeal, many holy utterances about repentance and charity, while they deem both of these useless in respect to salvation; for by repentance they mean no other than lip-confession, and by charity that charity only that pertains to public life; but this they do to please the people. It is such who are meant by these words of the Lord:
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name? and in Thy name done many mighty works? But then will I profess unto them, I know you not; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity (Matt. 7:22, 23).In the spiritual world I once heard a man praying after this manner: "I am full of sores, leprous, unclean from my mother's womb; there is not a sound spot in me from my head to the sole of my foot; I am not worthy to raise my eyes towards God; I am deserving of death and eternal damnation; have mercy upon me for the sake of Thy Son; purify me in His blood; on Thy good pleasure depends the salvation of all; I implore mercy."
Hearing him pray thus, the bystanders asked, "How do you know that you are such?"
He replied, "I know it because I have heard so."
But he was then sent to angelic examiners, before whom he spoke in the same way; and these, after examination, reported that he had spoken the truth about himself, and yet without knowing a single evil in himself, because he had never examined himself, but had believed that after lip-confession evils were no longer evils in the sight of God, both because God turns His eyes away from them, and because He has been propitiated. In consequence of this he had not come to a sense of any evil, although he was a willful adulterer, a thief, a wily detractor, and intensely revengeful; such he was in heart and will, and therefore would be such in word and deed did not the fear of the law and of the loss of reputation restrain him. After he was found to be such, he was judged and sent away to the hypocrites in hell.
The character of such may be illustrated by comparisons:
- They are like temples where only the spirits of the dragon, and those who are meant by "locusts" in the Apocalypse, are congregated; and they are like the pulpits therein, where the Word is not because it is put beneath the feet.
- They are like plastered walls with the plaster beautifully colored, but within them when the windows are opened, owls and direful night birds are flying about.
- They are like whitened sepulchres which contain dead men's bones.
- They are like coins made of the dregs of oil or of dried dung covered with gold.
- They are like the bark and wood fiber covering rotten wood
- Like the garments of Aaron's sons about a leprous body
- Like ulcers containing pus covered over with a thin skin, and supposed to be healed.
But it must be remembered that those here spoken of are not to be confounded with those who do well and believe rightly, nor with those who repent of some sins, and when worshiping, and still more when in spiritual temptation, speak within themselves or pray from a like oral confession; for such a general confession both precedes and follows reformation and regeneration.
(True Christian Religion 517-519)