Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE EVILS IN THE EXTERNAL MAN CAN BE PUT AWAY BY THE LORD ONLY THROUGH MAN'S INSTRUMENTALITY
• The English hold the doctrine of faith alone, and yet in their exhortation to the Holy Communion they plainly teach self-examination, acknowledgment, confession of sins, repentance, and renewal of life; and those who fail to do this are threatened in these words that unless they repent the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas, and will fill them with all iniquity, and destroy both body and soul.
• The Germans, the Swedes, and the Danes, who also hold the doctrine of faith alone, have the same teaching in their exhortation to the Holy Communion, threatening also that all such will be subject to infernal punishments and to eternal damnation for mixing the holy and the profane. This is read by the priest with a loud voice before those who are about to come to the Holy Supper, and is listened to by them with full acknowledgment that it is so.
And yet when these same persons listen on the same day to the preaching of faith alone, and at the same time that the law does not condemn them because the Lord fulfilled it for them, and that they are not able from themselves to do any good except what is meritorious, and thus works have nothing saving in them, but faith only, they return home entirely forgetful of their former confession, and discarding it so far as they give their thought to the preaching about faith alone. Which of these, then, is true; this or that? For two things contrary to each other cannot both be true,
as on the one hand —
that without self-examination, recognition, acknowledgment, confession, and renunciation of sins, thus without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins, thus no salvation, but eternal damnation;and on the other hand —
that such things contribute nothing to salvation, because the Lord by the passion of the cross has made full satisfaction for all the sins of men, for those who have faith; and that those who have faith only, with confidence that it is true, and with a trust in the imputation of the Lord's merit, are without sins, and appear before God like those with washed and bright faces.From all this it is clear that it is the common religion of all the churches in the Christian world that man should examine himself, should see and acknowledge his sins, and afterwards refrain from them; and that otherwise there is not salvation, but damnation. Moreover, that this is the veritable Divine truth is evident from the passages in the Word, where man is commanded to repent; as the following:
John said, Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. Even now is the axe laid unto the root of the tree; every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Luke 3:8, 9).
Jesus said, Except ye repent ye shall all perish (Luke 13:3, 5).
Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Repent ye and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14, 15).
Jesus sent forth His disciples, and they went out and preached that men should repent (Mark 6:12).
Jesus said to the apostles that repentance and remission of sins should be preached unto all nations (Luke 24:47).
John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3).Think of this with some understanding; and if you have religion you will see that repentance from sins is the way to heaven, that faith separate from repentance is not faith, and that those who are not in faith because they do not repent are in the way to hell.
Those who are in faith separate from charity, and have confirmed themselves in it from Paul's saying to the Romans,
That a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law (Rom. 3:28),adore this saying like men who adore the sun; and they become like those who fix their eyes steadily on the sun, by which the sight is so blurred that they can see nothing in ordinary light. For they do not see that "the works of the law" there mean, not the commandments of the Decalogue, but the rituals described by Moses in his books, which are there always called "the law." Lest, therefore, it should be thought that the commandments are meant Paul explains by saying,
Do we then make void the law through faith; God forbid; yea, we establish the law (verse 31 of the same chapter).Those who have confirmed themselves by this saying in faith separate from charity, from gazing at this passage as at the sun, fail to see where Paul enumerates the laws of faith as being the very works of charity; and what is faith without its laws? Nor do they notice where he enumerates evil works, and declares that those who do them cannot enter into heaven. This shows clearly how great is the blindness that has been induced by a wrong understanding of this single passage.
Evils in the external man can be put away only by man's instrumentality, because it is of the Lord's Divine providence that whatever man hears, sees, thinks, wills, speaks, and does, seems to him to be wholly his own.
• Without this appearance, there could be in man no reception of Divine truth, no determination towards doing good, no appropriation of love and wisdom or of charity and faith, and therefore no conjunction with the Lord, consequently no reformation and regeneration and thus salvation.
• Without this appearance repentance from sins, and faith even, are evidently impossible.
It is also evident that
• Without this appearance a man would not be a man, but would be devoid of natural life like a beast.
Let anyone who will consult his reason and see, when a man thinks about good and truth, spiritual, moral, or civil, whether there is any other appearance than that he thinks from himself; let him then accept this doctrinal, that everything good and true is from the Lord and nothing from man; and will he not acknowledge this consequence,
• that man must do good and think truth as if of himself, and yet must acknowledge that he does it from the Lord;
and furthermore,
• that man must put away evils as if of himself and yet must acknowledge that he does it from the Lord
Many are not aware that they are in evils, inasmuch as they do not do them outwardly because they fear the civil laws and the loss of reputation, and thus from custom and habit fall into the way of shunning evils as detrimental to their honor and profit. But when evils are not shunned from a religious principle, on the ground that they are sins and antagonistic to God, the lusts of evil with their enjoyments still remain, like impure waters confined and stagnant. Let such examine their thoughts and intentions, and they will find these lusts, provided they know what sins are.
This is the state of many who have confirmed themselves in faith separate from charity, who, believing that the law does not condemn them, do not even think about sins; and some question whether there are any sins in them, or if there are, whether they are sins before God, since they have been pardoned.
In a like state also are natural moralists, who believe that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes everything and Divine providence nothing.
Such also are those who strive with great eagerness after a reputation and name for honesty and sincerity for the sake of honor or gain. But those who are of this character, and who have also despised religion, become after death spirits of lusts, appearing to themselves as if they were men, but to others at a distance like treacherous forms (priapi); and like birds of night they see in the dark and not in the light.
(from Divine Providence 114 - 117)