Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/174

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XII.

ESSENTIAL DIVINE WORSHIP.

MANY people suppose that they worship the Lord by faith when they believe the things appertaining to the doctrine of the church; and that they worship Him by love when they love Him. But the Lord is not worshipped by merely believing and loving, but by living according to his precepts; for only persons of this character believe in and love Him. Others say they believe in Him, and yet they do not; and they say that they love Him, and yet do not.

The reason why they alone believe in the Lord and love Him, who live according to his precepts, is, that the Lord is not in the understanding of truth without willing it, but is in the understanding of it and willing it. For truth does not enter into man and become his until man wills it, and from willing does it; for the will is the man himself, but the understanding is only so far the man as it partakes of the will. The Lord also is present with man in his truths which are from good; and the truths which are from good are those which man wills and thence does, but not those which he understands and does without willing them; for to do a thing without willing it is hypocrisy, since

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