Faith from Charity

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A church is internal when charity is the principal of it, from which it thinks and acts. The first offspring of charity is none other than faith; for faith is from it, and from no other source.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1228)

Being in External Things Without What is Internal

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man has an internal and an external, for the internal is his thought and his will, and the external is his speech and his action; but the internal with the good differs very much from the internal with the evil. Each has an internal which is called the internal man, and an external which is called the external man; the internal man being formed according to the image of heaven; but the external man according to the image of the world. With those who are in the good of love and in the truths of faith, the internal man is open, and by means of it they are in heaven; but with those who are in evils and in the consequent falsities, the internal man is closed, and by means of the external they are in the world only. These are they of whom it is said that they are in external things without what is internal.

These indeed also have interiors, but the interiors with them are the interiors of their external man which is in the world, and not the interiors of the internal man which is in heaven. These interiors (namely, those of the external man when the internal is closed), are evil, nay, filthy, for such persons think solely of the world and of themselves, and wish for those things only which are of the world and of self; and think nothing at all about heaven and the Lord, nor do they wish for them. From this it can be seen what is meant by being in external things without what is internal.

(from Arcana Coelestia 10429:2,3)

True • Spurious • False - Conscience

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Conscience, in general, is either true, spurious, or false.

• True conscience is that which is formed by the Lord of the truths of faith. When a man has been gifted with this, he fears to act contrary to the truths of faith, because he would thus act contrary to conscience. This conscience no one can receive who is not in the truths of faith, and therefore there are not very many in the Christian world who receive it, for each one sets up his own dogma as the truth of faith. But still those who are being regenerated receive conscience together with charity, for the very ground of conscience is charity.

• Spurious conscience is that which is formed with Gentiles from their religious worship into which they have been born and educated, to act contrary to which is to them to act contrary to conscience. When their conscience has been founded in charity and mercy, and in obedience, they are in such a state that they can receive true conscience in the other life, and they also do receive it; for they love nothing before and beyond the truth of faith.

• False conscience is that which is formed, not from internal but from external things, that is, not from charity but from the love of self and of the world. For there are those who seem to themselves to act contrary to conscience when they act against the neighbor, and also seem to themselves to be then inwardly pained; and yet it is for the reason that they perceive in their thought that their life, honor, fame, wealth, or gain, is thus imperiled, and therefore they themselves are injured. Some inherit such a softness of heart, some acquire it; but it is a false conscience.

(Arcana Coelestia 1033)