Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/71

tain; and in such case the truths are appropriated to him from the Divine. (A. C. 5402.)

The truths of faith which are called doctrinals, when they are first learned, are apprehended and committed to the memory the same as other scientifics; and they remain as scientifics until the man begins to view them from his own sight, and to see whether they be true; and when he has seen that they are true, is willing to act according to them. This view and this will cause them to be no longer scientifics but precepts of life, and finally life ; for thus they enter into the life to which they are appropriated.

They who have arrived at adult age, and especially they who have arrived at old age, and have not viewed the truths of the church, which are called doctrinals, with their own eyes, and seen whether they be true, and have not been willing in the next place to live according to them, do not retain them otherwise than as other scientifics which are only in their natural memory, and thence in the mouth; and when they speak them, they do not speak them from their interior man, or from the heart, but only from the exterior man, or from the mouth.

When a man is in this state, he cannot possibly believe that the truths of the church are true, however it may seem to himself that he believes. The reason why it seems to him that he believes them to be true, is, that he has trust in others, and has confirmed in himself