Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/70

have only heard sounds that are for the most part dissonant. (A. R. 224.)

HEREDITARY BELIEFS TO BE SCRUTINIZED.

There are two ways of procuring the truths which are of faith, viz., by doctrinals, and by the Word. When a man procures them only by doctrinals, he in such case has faith in those who have concluded those doctrinals from the Word, and he confirms them as true because others have said so; thus he does not believe them from his own faith, but from the faith of Others. But when he procures them from the Word, and therefrom confirms himself in their truth, he then believes them because they are from the Divine [Being], thus from a faith derived from the Divine.

Every one within the church first procures to himself the truths which are of faith from doctrinals, and also ought to procure them thence; because he is not yet endowed with sufficient strength of judgment to enable him to see them himself from the Word; but in this case those truths are nothing else but scientifics. But when he is able to view them from his own judgment, if in such case he does not consult the Word to the intent he may thence see whether they be true, they remain with him as scientifics; but if he consults the Word from an affection and end of knowing truths, he then, when he has found them, procures to himself those things which are of faith from the genuine foun-