Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/160

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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

WHAT IS GENUINE SPIRITUAL FAITH?

There are many who say that man is saved by faith, or as they express it, if he only have faith. But among these the greatest part'do not know what faith is. Some suppose it is mere thought; some that it is an acknowledgment of somewhat to be believed; others that it is the whole doctrine of faith which is to be believed; others again think differently on the subject. Thus they err in the bare knowledge of what faith is, consequently in the knowledge of what that is by which man is saved.

But it is not mere thought, neither is it an acknowledgment of somewhat to be believed, nor a knowledge of all things appertaining to the doctrine of faith, which constitutes true faith. By these things no one can be saved, inasmuch as they can take root no deeper than in the thinking principle; and the thinking principle does not save any one, but salvation comes from the life which man has procured for himself in the world by the knowledges of faith. This life remains. Whereas all thought which does not accord with man's life, perishes and becomes as if it had never existed.

Heavenly associations are formed according to the kinds of life, and by no means according to the kinds of thought which are not connected with life; such thoughts are grounded in hypocrisy and pretence, and are altogether rejected.

In general, life is of two kinds; one infernal, the

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