Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/115

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GOOD OF LIFE MODIFIES FALSITIES.
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dence of the Lord, that there are but very few such. (A. E. 233.)

They within the church are in falsities and at the same time in good, who are in heresies and in the life of good. And all out of the church [are in falsities and at the same time in good] who are in good; but falsities with these do not damn, unless they are such falsities as are contrary to good and destroy its very life.

But the falsities which are not contrary to good, in themselves indeed are falsities, but in respect to the good of life which they are not contrary to, they almost put off the character of the false, which is effected by application to good. For such falsities can be applied to good and to evil. If they are applied to good, they become mild, but if to evil, they become hard; for falsities can be applied to good just as truths can to evil; for truths of every kind, by application to evil, are falsified. To illustrate this by an example:

It is said that faith alone saves; which in itself is false, especially with the evil, who thereby exclude the good of charity, as if this contributed nothing at all to salvation. But this false grows mild with those who are in the good of life; for they apply it to good, saying, that faith alone saves, but that it is not faith unless together with its fruit, that is, unless good is also present; so in other cases. (A. C. 8311.)

There are some who make a profession of faith [alone],

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