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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

It is a false notion to suppose that faith consists in the mere knowledge of things celestial and spiritual, separate from charity; for sometimes the very worst men are eminently distinguished for such knowledge, who live in continual habits of hatred, revenge and adultery, consequently who are infernal, and after the life of the body become devils. Hence it may be seen that knowledge is not faith.

But faith is an acknowledgment of the things that belong to faith; and acknowledgment is by no means external, but internal, and is the operation of the Lord alone, by charity, in man. Acknowledgment belongs not to the lips, but to the life; and by the life of every one it may be known what is the nature and quality of his acknowledgment. The sons of Ham are all those who are intellectually skilled in the knowledges of faith, and have not charity. Such persons, whether they are intellectually skilled in the interior knowledges of the Word, and in its very mysteries; or in the knowledge of all things contained in the literal sense of the Word; or in the knowledge of other truths, by whatever name they may be called, from which the former may be viewed; or in the knowledge of all the rituals of external worship; if they have not charity, they are the sons of Ham. (A. C. 1162.)

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