Faith (pt.37)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 37)

VIII. CHARITY AND FAITH ARE TOGETHER IN GOOD WORKS.

(2) 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).

(True Christian Religion 375)

To be continued...

When Charity Grows Cold and Vanishes Away

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

When a church is raised up by the Lord, it is in the beginning blameless, and the one then loves the other as his brother, as is known from the case of the primitive church after the Lord's coming. All the church's children then lived together as brethren, and likewise called one another brethren, and loved one another; but in process of time charity grew cold and vanished away and as it vanished, evils succeeded, and together with these falsities insinuated themselves. Hence came schisms and heresies, which would never be the case if charity were regnant and alive, for then they would not even call schism schism, nor heresy heresy, but a doctrinal matter in accordance with each person's opinion; and this they would leave to each person's conscience, provided such doctrinal matter did not deny first principles, that is, the Lord, eternal life, and the Word; and provided it was not contrary to the Divine order, that is, to the precepts of the Decalogue.

(Arcana Coelestia 1834:2)

Faith (pt. 36)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 36)

VIII. CHARITY AND FAITH ARE TOGETHER IN GOOD WORKS.

(1) Charity is willing well and good works are doing well from willing well.

Charity and works are distinct from each other like will and action, or like the mind's affection and the body's operation; consequently like the internal man and the external; and these two are related to each other like cause and effect, since the causes of all things are formed in the internal man, and from this are all effects produced in the external. Therefore-

charity, since it belongs to the internal man, is willing well; 

and works, since they belong to the external man, are doing well from willing well.

Nevertheless between the good willing of different persons there is infinite diversity; for while everything that one person does to favor another is believed or appears to flow forth from goodwill or benevolence, yet no one knows whether the good deeds spring from charity or not, still less whether they spring from genuine or from spurious charity. This infinite diversity between the good-will of different persons originates in the end, intention, and consequent purpose; these are inwardly concealed in the will to do good, and from them is derived the quality of everyone's will.

The will also searches the understanding for the means and modes of attaining its ends, which are effects, and in the understanding it comes into the light which enables it to see not only the reasons but also the opportunities for determining itself to action in the proper time and manner, and thus producing its effects, which are works; and at the same time in the understanding it brings itself into the power to act. From this it follows that works belong essentially to the will, formally to the understanding, and actually to the body. Thus does charity descend into good works.

This may be illustrated by comparison with a tree.

Man himself, in all that belongs to him, is like a tree. 

In the seed of this tree there are concealed, as it were, the end, intention, and purpose of producing fruit; in these respects the seed corresponds to the will in man, which contains these three things, as stated above.

Again, the seed from its interiors shoots up from the earth, clothes itself with branches, branchlets, and leaves, and so provides itself with means to it, end, which is the fruit;
in all this the tree corresponds to the understanding in man. 

Finally, when the time comes and there is opportunity for determination, the tree blossoms and yields fruits, these corresponding to good works in man, in that- 

evidently they are essentially from the seed, formally from the branchlets and leaves, and actually from the wood of the tree.

This may also be illustrated by comparison with a temple.

Man is a temple of God, according to Paul (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21, 22).

As a temple of God, man's end, intention, and purpose are salvation and eternal life; in these there is a correspondence with the will, which contains these three things.

Afterwards he acquires doctrinals of faith and charity from parents, teachers, and preachers, and when he comes into the exercise of his own judgment, from the Word and doctrinal works, all of which are means to the end; and these there is a correspondence with the understanding.

Finally there comes a determination to uses, according to doctrinals as means, and this is effected by bodily acts, which are called good works. Thus the end through mediate causes produces effects,

which are essentially of the end, formally of the doctrines of the church, and actually of the uses.

Thus does man become a temple of God.

(True Christian Religion 374)

To be continued...