“Hence now it is that those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, enjoy an internal acknowledgment of it. As the angels are in that affection, they utterly reject the tenet that the understanding ought to be kept in subjection to faith: for they say, ‘How can you believe a thing, when you do not see whether it is true or not?’ And should any one affirm that what he advances must nevertheless be believed, they reply: ‘Do you think yourself a God, that I am to believe you? or that I am mad, that I should believe an assertion in which I do not see any truth? If I must believe it, cause me to see it.’ The dogmatizer is thus constrained to retire. Indeed, the wisdom of the angels consists solely in this, that they see and comprehend what they think.
“There is a spiritual idea of which few have any knowledge, which enters by influx into the minds of those who are in the affection of truth, and dictates interiorly whether the thing which they are hearing or reading is true or not. In this idea are those who read the Word in illumination from the Lord. To be in illumination is to be in perception. Those who are in this illumination are said to be taught of Jehovah, and of them it is said in Jeremiah: ‘Behold, the days come that I will make a new covenant:—this shall be the covenant,—I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord; for they shall all know me.’ xxxi. 31, 33, 34.
“From these considerations it is plain that faith and truth are one. This also is the reason that the ancients, who were more accustomed to think of truth from affection than the moderns, instead of faith used the word truth: and for the same reason, in the Hebrew language, truth and faith are expressed by one and the same word, amuna, or amen.
“If any one thinks with himself, or says to another, ‘Who can have that internal acknowledgment of truth which is faith? I can not.’ I will tell him how he may. Shun evils as sins, and apply to the Lord; then you will have as much as you desire.”
Such then is the New Church doctrine of faith. Faith is the perception and acknowledgment of truth from a right understanding of it. True faith is something that grows. It is not the gift of a moment. It is attained by leading a good life, and through obedience to the truth so far as we know it. In the course of time we find that a pure life is clearing our spiritual vision, and extending its range. Spiritual truths which we had laid up in our memories, and perhaps fancied that we had believed, are brought forth, are seen in new and striking light, are elevated into the understanding, and are in reality believed. Thus a living faith is attained. This doctrine finds a Divine seal in these words of the Lord: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” John vii. 17.
The remainder of this little treatise is taken up with an exposure of the fallacies involved in the common doctrines of faith prevailing in the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. Faith separated from charity, is proved to have no existence, because evil can by no possibility love truth. Spiritual and Divine Truth may, it is true, be reasoned upon, defended, and expounded, by wicked men, for the promotion of their own selfish ends; but internally they are in deep hatred and denial of them, and in the other life their detestation of them causes them to cast them forth even from the memory. Thus the wicked have no faith and no truth.
4. The treatise on the Doctrine of Life is a brief and compendious exposition of the nature of that life which leads to heaven and happiness. In the first place, it asserts that all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good; agreeable to the Lord’s saying: “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” John xiii. 17. It is then shown that no one can do good, which is really good, from himself, as is taught in John, where we read: “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven,” iii. 27; and again: “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing;”—“He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit,” signifies that all good is from the Lord; fruit signifies good: “without me ye can do nothing,” signifies that no one can do good from himself.
Now, it may be asked, “Why can a man not do good of himself?” For this simple reason, that, as there is no goodness out of the Lord, if man does good, his power and disposition to do it must, in all certainty, be derived from the Lord alone. Man, in his highest state, is but a medium for the manifestation of the Divine Life or Goodness. Yet while only a medium, he must act in freedom, as of himself. The appearance is that the good he does is self-originated, and born of his own will; and this appearance can never be removed, because on it depends his freedom of action. Man must subdue all tendencies to spiritual pride arising therefrom, by habitual reference to the truth that the Lord is all in all; and that if he has done good, or been useful, he has been indebted for the motive as well as for the wisdom, to the Divine Mercy alone; as Paul said to the Philippians: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” ii. 15. While thus saved by the Divine Mercy, through a good life, and brought into spiritual health by obedience to divine laws, man has no reason whatever to boast, or to take credit to himself for his bliss and salvation. The advocates of justification and salvation by faith alone, charge spiritual pride and merit, as a necessity, upon all who believe that heaven and its happiness are attained through the regenerative influence of a good life; but this accusation falls to the ground when it is acknowledged that the power to lead a good life is the continual gift and inspiration of God. If man would only think truly, he would see that humility is the acknowledgment of the grand primal truth of existence, that nothing we have or can do that is good, is of ourselves, but solely of the Lord; and that just as we are left to ourselves and our own wisdom, we do evil, and perpetrate folly and mischief. Salvation through a good life, when thus rightly stated and understood, is seen to involve nothing of merit, but only the strongest reasons for gratitude, humility, and worship.