4730. And we shall see what his dreams will be. That this signifies that the preachings concerning it would thus be false and would appear so, is evident from the signification of “dreams,” as being preachings (n. 4682); and as in their eyes these appeared as falsities (n. 4726, 4729), therefore by “dreams” here are signified preachings concerning Divine truth, especially that the Lord’s Human is Divine, which preachings in their opinion were false. That they also appeared to them as falsities, is signified by their saying, “We shall see what his dreams will be.” That the preachings concerning the Lord’s Divine Human appeared and still appear as falsities to those who are in faith alone, may be seen from what was said just above (n. 4729 at the end); for what is confirmed from a life of cupidities has no other appearance.
[2] That falsities are confirmed from a life of cupidities is also from this cause, that they do not know what heaven is, nor hell, neither what love toward the neighbor is, nor the love of self and the world. If they knew these things, and even if they were but willing to know them, they would think very differently. Who at this day knows otherwise than that love toward the neighbor is to give what one has to the poor, and to assist every man with one’s wealth, and to benefit him in every way, without distinction as to whether he is good or evil? And because by these means one would be stripped of his wealth, and would himself become poor and wretched, he therefore rejects the doctrine of charity, and embraces that of faith; and then he confirms himself against charity by many things, as by thinking that he was born in sins and hence can do no good of himself, and that if he does the works of charity or piety, he cannot but place merit in them. And when he thinks thus on the one hand, and from a life of cupidities on the other, he betakes himself to the side of those who say that faith alone saves. And when he is there, he confirms himself still more, until he believes that the works of charity are not necessary to salvation; and when these are excluded, he falls into this new notion-that because such is the nature of man, a means of salvation has been provided by the Lord, which is called faith; and at last into this, that he may be saved if even at the very hour of death he says with confidence or trust that God has mercy upon him through looking to the Son as having suffered for him, making nothing of what the Lord has said in John (1:12-13), and many other places. It is for this reason that faith alone has been acknowledged in the churches as the essential; but that it has not been everywhere acknowledged in this manner, is because the parsons cannot gain anything by preaching faith alone, but only by the preaching of works.
[3] But had these men known what charity toward the neighbor is, they would never have fallen into this falsity of doctrine. The fundamental of charity is to act rightly and justly in everything which belongs to one’s duty or employment-as for example, if one who is a judge punishes an evil doer according to the laws, and does so from zeal, he is then in charity toward the neighbor; for he desires his amendment, thus his good, and also wills well to society and his country, that it receive no further injury from the evildoer; thus he can love him if he amends, as a father the son whom he chastises; and thus he loves societies and his country, which are to him the neighbor in general. It is similar in all other instances. But of the Lord’s Divine Mercy this will be shown more fully elsewhere.
