. . . Until They Exist In Works

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

CHARITY AND FAITH ARE ONLY MENTAL AND PERISHABLE THINGS
—UNLESS—
THEY ARE DETERMINED TO WORKS AND COEXIST IN THEM WHEN POSSIBLE.

Has not a man a head and a body which are joined together by a neck? And in the head is there not a mind that wills and thinks, and in the body is there not power that performs and executes? Therefore if man merely wills well, or thinks from charity, and does not do good and thus perform uses, is he not like a head only, and thus like a mind only, which apart from a body cannot continue to exist? From this is not anyone able to see that charity and faith are not charity and faith so long as they are merely in the head and its mind but not in the body? For they are then like birds flying in the air without any resting-place on the earth, or like birds ready to lay, but having no nests, in which case they would drop their eggs in the air or upon the branch of some tree, and the eggs would fall to the ground and be destroyed. There can be nothing in the mind that does not have some correspondent in the body, and its correspondent may be called its embodiment. So when charity and faith occupy the mind only, they have no embodiment in the man, and may be likened to those aerial beings called specters, like Fame, as painted by the ancients with a laurel about her head and a horn in her hand. Being such specters, and still being able to think, they must needs be disturbed by fantasies, which are caused by reasonings from various kinds of sophistry*, almost as reeds in marshes are shaken by the wind, while beneath them shells lie at the bottom and frogs croak on the surface. Who cannot see that such things come to pass when men merely know from the Word some things about charity and faith, but do not practice them? Moreover, the Lord says:

Everyone who heareth My words and doeth them I will liken to a prudent man who built his house upon a rock, and everyone who heareth My words and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, or upon the ground without a foundation (Matt. 7:24, 26; Luke 6:47-49).

Charity and faith with their factitious ideas when not put in practice may be compared to butterflies in the air, which a sparrow darts upon and devours as soon as he sees them. The Lord also says:

The sower went forth to sow; and some fell upon the hard way, and the birds came and devoured them up (Matt. 13:3, 4).

That charity and faith do not profit a man so long as they remain only in one part of his body, that is, in his head, and are not fixed in works, is evident from a thousand passages in the Word, of which I will here adduce only these:

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matt. 7:19-21).

He that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the Word and attendeth, who also beareth fruit and bringeth forth. And when Jesus had said these things, He cried, saying, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. 13:3-9, 23, 43).

Jesus said, My mother and My brethren are these who hear the Word of God and do it (Luke 8:21).

Now we know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth (John 9:31).

If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them (John 13:17).

He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him; and will come unto him and make My abode with him (John 14:15-21, 23).

Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit (John 15:8, 16).

For not the hearers of the law shall be justified by God, but the doers of the law (Rom. 2:13; James 1:22).

In the day of wrath and of righteous judgment God will render to every man according to his deeds (Rom. 2:5, 6).

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he hath done, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).

For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father, and then He shall render unto everyone according to his deeds (Matt. 16:27).

I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow with them (Apoc. 14:13).

A Book was opened, which is the Book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Book; every man according to his works (Apoc. 20:12, 13).

Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according to his work (Apoc. 22:12).

Jehovah, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give to everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his works (Jer. 22:19).

I will punish him according to his ways, and will recompense him for his works (Hos. 4:9).

According to our ways, and according to our works Jehovah does with us (Zech. 1:6).

So also in many other passages. From this it can be seen that charity and faith are not charity and faith until they exist in works, and that while they exist only in the expanse above works, that is, in the mind, they are like appearances of a tabernacle or temple in the air, which are nothing but a mirage, and vanish of themselves; or they are like pictures drawn on paper which moths consume; or they are like an abode on a housetop where there is no sleeping-place, instead of in the house. All this shows that charity and faith are perishable things so long as they are merely mental or unless they are determined to works and coexist in them when possible.

(True Christian Religion 375-376)

* sophistry - a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone.