34. Love and faith cannot possibly be separated for they constitute one and the same thing. This is why, when first the [great] lights are dealt with and they are taken to be one, it is said [using a singular verb with a plural noun], 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens'. Let some marvels relating to this be mentioned here. Since celestial angels possess from the Lord that kind of love, they possess by virtue of that love every cognition of faith, and by virtue of that love the kind of life and light of understanding that almost defies description altogether. On the other hand spirits who without love have a knowledge of the doctrinal matters concerning faith live such cold lives and are in such dull light that they cannot approach even the outer gateway to heaven before running off in the opposite direction. Some claim to have believed in the Lord, but they have not lived according to His teaching. The Lord refers to these people in Matthew as follows,

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does My will. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and so on. Matthew 7:21-22-end.

[2] From this is clear that those who have love have faith as well, and so heavenly life, whereas those who claim to have faith and yet have none of the life inherent in love do not. The life of faith devoid of love is like sunlight devoid of warmth, as is the case in wintertime when nothing grows and every single thing is inactive and dies off. But faith deriving from love is like the sunlight in springtime when everything grows and blossoms, for it is the warmth of the sun that brings it out. It is similar with spiritual and celestial things, which are normally represented in the Word by the things found in the world and on earth. An absence of faith, and faith devoid of love, are also compared by the Lord to winter where He foretold the close of the age in Mark,

Pray that your flight may not happen in winter, for those will be days of affliction. Mark 13:18-19.

'Flight' means the final period, also the time when a person dies; 'winter' is life which is destitute of love, 'days of affliction' his wretched condition in the next life.

3855. 'That Leah was hated' means that the affection for external truth was not so dear because it was further away from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'hated' as not dear, and from the representation of 'Leah' as the affection for external truth, dealt with already. The fact that external truths are more remote from the Divine than internal truths are may be seen from the consideration that external truths are manifestations of internal ones, for external truths are images and forms made of many thousands of internal truths which are seen as a simple whole. And because this is what external truths are like they are further away from the Divine; for the Divine is above what is inmost, that is, the Divine is in the highest. The Lord flows in from the highest into the inmost parts of man, and through these into his interior parts, and through these in turn into his external parts, and so is flowing mediately as well as immediately. And because external things are further away from the Divine they are also for that reason lacking order when compared with internal and do not allow themselves to be brought into order in the way that internal ones do.

[2] It is like seeds, which are more perfect inwardly than they are outwardly, so perfect inwardly that from within they are able to bring forth a whole young plant or a whole tree in its own ordered way, together with leaves and fruit, whose outward forms can easily suffer all kinds of damage, more so than the internal and inmost forms of the seeds which are by their very nature more interior and perfect. It is similar with the internal and external parts of man. Consequently when a person is being regenerated, the rational is regenerated before the natural, 3493. The regeneration of the natural comes later and is more difficult because many things remain unordered there and are subject to damage from the body and the world. That being so, it is said that these are not so dear. But to the extent that they agree with internal things and contribute to the life and to a sight of the internal things within them, as well as to the regeneration of man, they too are dear.