Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/58

is only a thing of the memory. And a thing of the memory only, is dissipated like everything disunited from the judgment, and perishes because of its obscurity. Hence it is that they are blind leaders of the blind. "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch," Matt. xv. 14. And they are blind because they do not enter in at the door, but some other way. For Jesus said: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture," John x. 9. To find pasture is to be taught, enlightened and nourished in divine truths; for all who do not enter in through the door, that is, through the Lord, are called thieves and robbers; but they who enter through the door, that is, through the Lord, are called shepherds of the sheep in the same chapter, v. 1, 2.

Do thou, therefore, my friend, approach the Lord, shun evils as sins, and reject the doctrine of faith alone, and then your understanding will be opened, and you will see wonderful things and be affected by them.

In the New Church the tenet that the understanding is to be kept in subjection to faith is rejected, and in its place it is a received maxim that the truth of the church should be seen in order that it may be believed. And truth cannot be seen otherwise than rationally. How can any man be led by the Lord and conjoined with heaven, who shuts his understanding against such things as relate to salvation and eternal life? Is it