Faith ~ According to the Love

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The conjunction of good with truths in the natural ... Good flows in through the internal man into the external, and there conjoins itself with the truths that have been instilled through the external man. For the good that flows in through the internal is of love, because there is not any spiritual and celestial good that is not of love, from this it is, and from this it is called good in man.

The love itself which is in good and with good is that which conjoins.

Unless love were within and present, there could not possibly be any conjunction; for love is nothing else than spiritual conjunction, because this is effected by it. The love is from no other source than the Lord, for He is the fountain and origin of all celestial and spiritual love, consequently of all the good thence derived. This love is twofold-celestial and spiritual. Celestial love is love to the Lord, and spiritual love is love toward the neighbor, which is called charity. It is these loves from which is all celestial and spiritual good, and which conjoin themselves with the truths which are called the truths of faith

the truths of faith regarded without love are only words without life; but through love, and thus through conjunction with the good of love, they receive life. It may be seen from this, that there is never anything of faith except with those who are in the good of love, and that the faith is according to the love.

And as there is never anything of faith except with those who are in the good of love, therefore neither is there any confidence or trust.

With all those who are not in love and charity, the trust or confidence which is called the trust or confidence of faith, is either spurious, or such as is also possible with diabolical spirits when they are in a state of fear or of anguish, or in a state of persuasion from the love of self and of the world.  But because at this day men have made faith saving without the goods of charity, and yet see from afar that the truths of faith cannot save, because these exist also with the wicked, therefore they acknowledge confidence and trust, and call this faith, not knowing what it is, and that it is possible even with the wicked, and that there is no spiritual confidence except that which flows in through the good of love and charity - not at the time when the man is in fear and anguish, or in persuasion from the love of self and of the world, but when he is in a state of freedom; and not with any but those in whom good has been conjoined with truths, and inrooted by the previous course of life; thus not in sickness, misfortunes, perils of life, or when death is at hand.  If this confidence or trust which appears in a state of compulsion would save a man, all mortals would be saved; for to this kind of confidence everyone is easily reduced, and there are none to whom the Lord, who wills the salvation of all, would not impart it.

(Arcana Coelestia 4352)

Can God Do Just Anything?

A Memorable Relation from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

I saw at a distance a number of persons gathered together with caps on their heads, some with caps bound around with silk - these had belonged to the ecclesiastical order; others had caps with borders ornamented with golden bands - these were civilians; they were all learned and accomplished. I also saw others with turbans; these were not learned.

I drew near, and heard them talking together about the Divine power, as being unlimited, and saying that if it were to proceed according to any established laws of order it would not be unlimited, but limited; and would thus be a power, but not omnipotence. "But who does not see," they said, "that there can be no coercion of law that would compel omnipotence to do thus and so and not otherwise? Certainly, when we think of omnipotence, and at the same time of laws of order in accordance with which it is obliged to proceed, our preconceived ideas of omnipotence fall like a hand when its staff has been broken."

When they saw me near, some of them ran up, and said with some vehemence, "Are you the man who has circumscribed God by laws, as by chains?  How insolent!  Thus also you have torn to pieces our faith, upon which our salvation is based, in the center of which we place the righteousness of the Redeemer, and over this the omnipotence of God the Father, and add as an appendix the operation of the Holy Spirit, with its efficacy depending upon the absolute impotence of man in things spiritual; so that he only needs to speak of the fullness of justification which is in that faith by virtue of God's omnipotence. But we have heard that you see in our faith nothing but emptiness, because you see in it nothing of Divine order on the part of man."

Having heard this, I opened my mouth, and speaking with a loud voice, said

Learn the laws of Divine order, and then lay open that faith and you will see a vast desert, and in it the long and crooked Leviathan, and round about it nets tangled in an inextricable knot. But do as it is said Alexander did when he saw the Gordian knot, that he drew his sword and cut it apart and thus loosed its entanglements, and then dashing it upon the ground trampled its strands under foot."

Reciprocity Required for Covenant

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

So far as man refrains from evils and shuns and turns away from them as sins, good flows in from the Lord.

The good that flows in is the affection of knowing and understanding truths, and the affection of willing and doing goods. But man cannot refrain from evils by shunning and turning away from them of himself, for he himself is in evils from his birth, and thus from nature; and evils cannot of themselves shun evils, for this would be a like a man's shunning his own nature, which is impossible; consequently it must be the Lord, who is the Divine good and the Divine truth, who causes man to shun them. Nevertheless, man ought to shun evils as if of himself, for what a man does as if of himself becomes his and is appropriated to him as his own; while what he does not do as if of himself in no wise becomes his or is appropriated to him. What comes from the Lord to man must be received by man; and it cannot be received unless he is conscious of it, that is, as if of himself. This reciprocation is a necessity to reformation. This is why the ten commandments were given, and why it is commanded in them that man shall not worship other gods, shall not profane the name of God, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery, shall not kill, shall not covet the house, wife, or servants of others, thus that man shall refrain from doing these things by thinking, when the love of evil allures and incites, that they must not be done because they are sins against God, and in themselves are infernal. So far, therefore, as a man shuns these evils so far the love of truth and good enters from the Lord; and this love causes man to shun these evils, and at length to turn away from them as sins. And as the love of truth and good puts these evils to flight, it follows that man shuns them not from himself but from the Lord, since the love of truth and good is from the Lord. If a man shuns evils merely from a fear of hell they are withdrawn; but goods do not take their place; for as soon as the fear departs the evils return.