895. And the faith of Jesus, signifies the implantation of truth by the Lord, and acknowledgment of Him. This is evident from the signification of "the faith of Jesus," as being the implantation of truth by the Lord (See above, n. 813). It means also acknowledgment of the Lord because truths cannot be implanted unless the Lord is acknowledged, namely, that His Human is Divine, and that He is the God of heaven and earth. It is to be known that truth and faith in their essence are one, since faith must be of truth and truth must be of faith; consequently the men of old time did not speak of faith, but of truth instead of faith, while the men of the present day speak of faith instead of truth, and for the reason that the men of old time declared that nothing was to be believed except what they saw to be true, thus what they comprehended by the understanding. But the men of the present day declare that a thing must be believed even when they do not see it or comprehend it by the understanding. This makes clear how the old faith differed from the present faith, namely, as what is seen differs from what is not seen; but the very truth itself that is seen or comprehended by the understanding is not to be named faith, but only that which is not seen or not comprehended by the understanding. For this reason the angels in the higher heavens are unwilling even to mention faith, for they see truth from the love of good and the light of truth which are in them from the Lord; and they say that it is folly to have faith in anyone's saying that this or that must be believed when it is not comprehended by the understanding, for this would be to think a thing to be true whether it be true or false, and to believe what is false is hurtful. Moreover, what is believed and not seen enters into man no further than the memory, and this cannot be appropriated to him.

[2] From this it follows that it would be better to give up the use of the term "faith" and to use the expression "the truth" in its stead. And yet what is believed and is not seen may be called faith, although such a faith is mere knowledge [scientia]. But as soon as a man becomes spiritual, (and he becomes so when his internal which communicates with heaven is opened), then that which is known, which is called faith, becomes truth, for it is then seen from the light of heaven. It is to be known that all angels and all good spirits see the truths of heaven as the bodily eye sees the objects of the world, for the objects of heaven are truths to those who are spiritual, for the reason that their understanding is their spiritual sight. The term truth should be used in place of faith, because all intelligence and all wisdom exists by means of truths, while all ignorance, that is, in spiritual things, exists by means of faith, especially faith separated; consequently the angels of the higher heavens turn themselves away when they hear faith mentioned, because their mind is turned away from what is thought by them; which thought is that the understanding should be held captive in obedience to faith; also because not to see truths would be to extinguish the light of heaven, in which those angels are and which is in them. Moreover, they are surprised that some believe that the faith that understands is not spiritual faith, when in fact such faith is truth; while a faith that is destitute of understanding is historical faith, because it is from another, and this regarded in itself is mere knowledge [scientia].