Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/109

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VII.

THE ACCEPTED CREED NO SURE TEST OF THE BELIEVER'S CHARACTER.

THAT there is at this day so great darkness throughout the Christian churches, that the sun gives no light by day, nor the moon and stars any light by night, is occasioned solely by the doctrine of justification by


FAITH ALONE.

For this doctrine inculcates faith as the only means of salvation; of the influx, progress, indwelling, operation and efficacy of which no one has hitherto seen any sign; and into which neither the law of the decalogue, nor charity, nor good works, nor repentance, nor desires after newness of life, have any entrance, or are in the smallest degree connected with it; for it is asserted, that they spontaneously follow, without being of any use either to preserve faith or to procure salvation.

The above doctrine likewise teaches that faith alone imparts to the regenerate, or to those who are possessed of it, full liberty so that they are no longer under the law; moreover that Christ covers over their sins before God the Father, who forgives them as though they were

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