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ယေဇကျေလ 26

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1 သက္ကရာဇ်ဆယ်တခု၊ ပဌမတရက်နေ့တွင်၊ ထာဝရဘုရား၏နှုတ်ကပတ်တော်သည် ငါ့ဆီသို့ ရောက် ာ၍၊

2 အချင်းလူသားတုရုမြို့က၊ အေ့ဟေ၊ တိုင်းနိုင်ငံ တို့၏ တံခါးဖြစ်သော ယေရုရှလင်မြို့သည် ပျက်စီးသည် ဖြစ်၍၊ ငါ့လက်သို့ ရောက်လိမ့်မည်။ ထိုမြို့ဆိတ်ညံသော ကြောင့် ငါစည်ပင်လိမ့်မည်ဟု ယေရုရှလင်မြို့တဘက်၌ ဆိုမိသောကြောင့်၊

3 အရှင်ာဝရဘုရားမိန့်တော်မူသည်ကား၊ အိုတုရုမြို့၊ သင့်တဘက်၌ ငါနေ၏။ သမုဒ္ဒရာလှိုင်းတပိုး တက်သကဲ့သို့၊ လူအမျိုးမျိုးတို့သည် သင်ကိုတက်၍ တိုက်စေမည်။

4 သူတို့သည် တုရုမြို့ရိုးကိုဖျက်၍ ပြအိုးတို့ကို ဖြိုချကြလိမ့်မည်။ မြေမှုန့်ကို ငါခြစ်ခွာ၍ ရှင်းလင်းသောကျောက် ကဲ့သို့ ဖြစ်စေမည်။

5 ပင်လယ်အလယ်၌ ပိုက်ကွန်လှန်းရာ အရပ် ဖြစ်လိမ့်မည်။ ငါပြောပြီဟု အရှင်ထာဝရဘုရားမိန့်တော် မူ၏။ လူမျိုးလုယူရာဖြစ်ရလိမ့်မည်။

6 လယ်ပြင်၌ရှိသော သမီးတို့သည် ထားဖြင့် သေ၍၊ ငါသည် ထာဝရဘုရားဖြစ်ကြောင်းကို သိရကြ လိမ့်မည်ဟု မိန့်တော်မူ၏။

7 တဖန် အရှင်ထာဝရဘုရား မိန့်တော်မူသည် ကား၊ ဘုရင်တို့၏ဘုရင်တည်းဟူသော မြောက်မျက်နှာရှင် ဘုရင်နေဗုခဒ်နေဇာကို၊ မြင်းထားရထား၊ မြင်းစီးသူရဲ၊ လူများအလုံးအရင်းနှင့်တကွ တုရုမြို့သို့ ငါဆောင်ခဲ့ မည်။

8 သူသည်လယ်ပြင်၌ရှိသော သင်၏သားသမီးတို့ကို ထားနှင့်သတ်လိမ့်မည်။ သင့်တလက်၌ ရဲတိုက်ကိုတည်၍ မြေရိုးကိုဖို့ပြီးလျှင်၊ ဒိုင်းလွှားတို့ကို ချီကာလိမ့်မည်။

9 သင်၏မြို့ရိုးတဘက်တချက်၊ ဝက်ခွတိုင်၌ တုံးတို့ကို ဆွဲထား၍ သင်၏ရဲတိုက်တို့ကို တူးရွင်းနှင့် ဖြိုချလိမ့်မည်။

10 မြင်းများသောကြောင့် မြေမှုန့်သည် သင့်ကို ဖုံးလွှမ်းလိမ့်မည်။ တိုက်ဖျက်သော မြို့ထဲသို့ဝင်တတ် သကဲ့သို့ သင်၏မြို့တံခါးသို့ ဝင်သောအခါ၊ လှည်းရထား မျိုးမြည်သံ၊ မြင်းစီးသူရဲတို့ အသံကြောင့် သင်၏မြို့ရိုး လှုပ်ရှားလိမ့်မည်။

11 မြင်းခွာတို့ဖြင့် သင်၏လမ်းရှိသမျှတို့ကို နင်း လျက်၊ သင်၏လူတို့ကို ထားနှင့်သတ်၍၊ သင်ခိုလှုံစရာ ရုပ်တုဆင်းတုတို့သည် မြေတိုင်အောင် ပြိုလဲကြလိမ့်မည်။

12 သင်၏ဥစ္စာကို လုယူ၍သင်၏ကုန်များကိုလည်း သိမ်းယူကြလိမ့်မည်။ သင်၏အုတ်ထရံတို့ကို ဖြို၍ဘုံဗိမာန် တို့ကို ဖျက်ပြီးလျှင်၊ သင်၏ ကျောက်၊ သစ်သား၊ မြေတို့ကို ရေထဲမှာ ချပစ်ကြလိမ့်မည်။

13 သင်ဆိုသောသီချင်းသံကို ငါငြိမ်းစေ၍၊ သင်တီး သော စောင်းသံကို နောက်တဖန် အဘယ်သူမျှမကြားရ။

14 သင်သည် ရှင်းလင်းသောကျောက်ကဲ့သို့ ငိုက်ကွန်လှန်ရာ အရပ်ဖြစ်ရလိမ့်မည်။ နောက်တဖန် မတည်ပြန်ရ။ ငါထာဝရဘုရားပြောပြီဟု အရှင်ထာဝရ ဘုရားမိန့်တော်မူ၏။

15 တုရုမြို့ကို ရည်မှတ်၍ အရှင်ထာဝရဘုရား မိန့်တော်မူသည်ကား၊ သင့်အလယ်၌ ကြီးစွာသော လုပ်ကြံခြင်း အမှုဖြစ်၍၊ ထိခိုက်သော သူတို့သည် အော်ဟစ်သောအခါ၊ သင်ပြိုလဲခြင်း အသံကြောင့် တကျွန်းတနိုင်ငံ အရပ်တို့သည် တုန်လှုပ်ကြလိမ့်မည်။

16 သမုဒ္ဒရာမင်းအပေါင်းတို့သည် ရာဇပလ္လင်ပေါ် က ဆင်း၍၊ အင်္ကျီတော်ကို၎င်း၊ ချယ်လှယ်သော အဝတ် တော်ကို၎င်း၊ ချွတ်ပယ်ပြီးမှ၊ တုန်လှုပ်ခြင်းအဝတ်ကို ဝတ်လျက်၊ မြေပေါ်၌ ထိုင်လျက် ခဏခဏတုန်လှုပ်၍၊ သင်၏အမှုကြောင့် မိန်းမောတွေဝေကြလိမ့်မည်။

17 သူတို့ကလည်း၊ အိုကျော်စောသောမြို့ပင်လယ် သားနေပင်လယ်၌ အားကြီးသော မြို့ပင်လယ်သား အပေါင်းတို့ ရိုသေဘွယ်သော မြို့သားနှင့် ပြည့်စုံသော မြို့၊ သင်သည် အလွန်ပျက်စီးလေပြီတကားဟု သင့်အား ဆိုလျက်၊ သင့်အတွက် မြည်တမ်းကြလိမ့်မည်။

18 သင်ပြိုလဲသောနေ့တွင် တကျွန်းတနိုင်ငံ အရပ် တို့သည် တုန်လှုပ်၍၊ သင်ကွယ်ပျောက်သောကြောင့် ပင်လယ်၌ရှိသော ကျွန်းများတို့သည် ထိတ်လန့်ကြလိမ့် မည်။

19 အရှင်ထာဝရဘုရား မိန့်တော်မူသည်ကား၊ လူမနေသောမြို့ကဲ့သို့ ငါသည် သင့်ကိုဆိတ်ညံစေလျက်၊ ပင်လယ်ကိုသင့်အပေါ်သို့ ဆောင်ခဲ့၍၊ လှိုင်းတံပိုးတို့သည် သင့်ကိုလွှမ်းမိုးသောအခါ၊

20 ရှေးလူဟောင်းတို့ နေရာမြေတွင်းထဲသို့ ဆင်း သော သူတို့နှင့်အတူ သင့်ကိုငါ နှိမ့်ချ၍၊ သင်၌လူမနေစေ ခြင်းငှါ မြေတွင်းထဲသို့ဆင်းသောသူတို့နှင့်အတူ၊ ရှေး ကာလမှစ၍ဆိတ်ညံရာအရပ်၊ မြေအောက်အရပ်တို့၌ ငါချထားမည်။ ထိုအခါ အသက်ရှင်သောသူတို့၏ နေရာ ၌ ငါ့ဘုန်းကို ငါဖွင့်မည်။

21 သင်မူကား၊ ကြောက်မက်ဘွယ်သော အရာဖြစ် ၍၊ နောက်တဖန် အဘယ်သူမျှရှာ၍ မတွေ့နိုင်အောင်၊ ပျောက်ကုန်ရာသို့ရောက်လိမ့်မည်ဟု အရှင်ထာဝရ ဘုရားမိန့်တော်မူ၏။

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3727

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3727. As regards the meaning of 'a pillar', the reason why it means a holy boundary and so the ultimate degree of order is that in most ancient times people used to place stones where their boundaries ran which separated one person's property or inheritance from another's. These served as a sign and witness to the existence of the boundaries there. The most ancient people, who in every object and in every pillar thought of something celestial or spiritual, 1977, 2995, thought, when they saw these stones set up as pillars, of the ultimate things present in man, and so of the ultimate degree of order, which is truth in the natural man. And it was from those most ancient people who lived before the Flood that the ancients who lived after it acquired this custom, 920, 1409, 2179, 2896, 2897, and began to regard the stones they set up on their boundaries as sacred, for the reason, as stated, that they meant holy truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order, and also called those stones 'pillars'. This was how it came about that pillars were introduced into their worship, and why they erected them where they had their sacred groves and subsequently their temples, and also anointed them with oil, a point to be dealt with shortly. Indeed the worship of the Ancient Church consisted of things that had been perceived and things that had carried a meaning among the most ancient people prior to the Flood, as is evident from the paragraphs that have just been referred to. Since the most ancient people talked to angels and were in their company while still on earth, they received it from heaven that 'stones' means truth and 'wood' good; see just above in 3720. This then is why 'pillars' means a holy boundary, and so truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order with man. For good which flows in from the Lord by way of the internal man terminates in the external man, and in the truth that is there. Man's thought, speech, and activity, which are the ultimates of order, are nothing else than truths stemming from good. In fact they are the images or forms which good takes, for they belong to the understanding part of the human mind, whereas the good that is within them, and from which they spring, belongs to the will part.

[2] The fact that pillars were erected as a sign and a witness, and were also introduced into worship, and that in the internal sense they mean a holy boundary, or truth within man's natural, which is the ultimate degree of order, becomes clear from other places in the Word, as in the following verses where the subject is the covenant made between Laban and Jacob,

Now come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you. And Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar. Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have erected between me and you. This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. Genesis 31:44-45, 51-52.

Here 'pillar' means truth, as will be seen in the explanation of those verses.

[3] In Isaiah,

On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak with the lips of Canaan and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth. On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to Jehovah, which will be a sign and a witness to Jehovah Zebaoth in the land of Egypt. Isaiah 19:18-20.

'Egypt' stands for facts which belong to the natural man, 'an altar' for Divine worship in general, for in the second Ancient Church that began with Eber the altar became the first and foremost representative in its worship, 921, 1343, 2777, 2811. 'The midst of the land of Egypt' stands for the primary and inmost aspect of worship, 2940, 2973, 3436. 'Pillar' stands for truth as it exists in the ultimate degree of order in the natural. The fact that it stood at the border as a sign and a witness is quite evident.

[4] In Moses,

Moses wrote down all the words of Jehovah and rose up in the morning and built an altar beside Mount Sinai, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Exodus 24:4.

Here similarly 'an altar' was the representative of all worship, and indeed was the representative of good present in worship. 'The twelve pillars' however were the representative in worship of truth that stems from good - 'twelve' meaning every aspect of truth in its entirety, see 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3272; and the twelve tribes likewise meaning every aspect of truth in the Church, as in the Lord's Divine mercy will be shown in the next chapter.

[5] Because altars were representative of all good in worship, and the Jewish Church was established so as to represent the celestial Church which acknowledged no other truth than truth stemming from good, which is called celestial truth (for the celestial Church was totally unwilling to separate truth from good, so much so that it was unwilling even to refer to anything of faith or truth without thinking about good, and doing so from good, see 202, 337, 2069, 2715, 2718, 3246), truth was therefore represented by the stones of the altar. And they were forbidden to represent it by means of pillars lest in so doing they separated truth from good and by representation worshipped truth instead of good. This accounts for the following prohibition in Moses,

You shall not plant for yourself a grove of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah your God which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates. Deuteronomy 16:21-22.

For worshipping truth separated from good, or faith separated from charity, is contrary to the Divine since it is contrary to order, meant by 'you shall not erect for yourself a pillar, which Jehovah your God hates'.

[6] Despite this they did erect them and so represented things that are contrary to order, as is clear in Hosea,

Israel, according to the multiplying of his fruit, multiplies altars; according to the goodness of their land they make well their pillars. But He will overturn their altars, and lay waste their pillars. Hosea 10:1-2.

In the first Book of Kings,

Judah did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and they built for themselves high places and pillars and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree. 1 Kings 14:22-23.

In the second Book of Kings,

The children of Israel set up pillars for themselves and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. 2 Kings 17:10.

In the same book,

Hezekiah removed the high places, and broke down the pillars, and cut down the grove, and smashed the bronze snake which Moses had made, because they had been burning incense to it. 2 Kings 18:4.

[7] Since gentile nations too derived through tradition the idea that the holiness of worship was to be represented by means of altars and pillars, and yet they were under the influence of evil and falsity, the altars among the nations therefore mean the evils of worship and the pillars the falsities. This was why the command was given for them to be destroyed. In Moses,

The altars of the nations you shall overthrow, and you shall break down their pillars and tear down their groves. Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3.

In the same author,

You shall not bow down to the gods of the nations, or worship them, or do according to their works, for you shall utterly destroy them, and utterly break down their pillars. Exodus 23:24.

'The gods of the nations' stands for falsities, 'their works' for evils, 'breaking down their pillars' for destroying worship arising out of falsity.

[8] In Jeremiah,

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will break down the pillars of the house of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Jeremiah 43:13.

In Ezekiel,

By means of the hoofs of his horses Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel will trample all your streets, slay the people with the sword, and cause your mighty pillars to come down to the ground. Ezekiel 26:11.

This refers to Tyre. 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel' stands for that which lays waste, 1327 (end). 'The hoofs of horses' stands for the lowest form of intellectual concepts, such as facts based on mere sensory impressions - 'hoofs' meaning lowest concepts, as will in the Lord's Divine mercy be confirmed elsewhere. 'Horses' stands for matters of the understanding, 2760-2762, 'streets' for truths, and in the contrary sense for falsities, 2336. 'trampling' on them is destroying cognitions of truth, which are meant by 'Tyre' - 'Tyre', the subject here, meaning cognitions of truth, 1201. 'Slaying the people with the sword' stands for destroying truths by means of falsity - 'people' being used in reference to truths, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, and 'sword' meaning falsity engaged in conflict, 2799. From this one may see what 'causing your mighty pillars to come down to the ground' means - 'might' being used in reference either to truth or to falsity, as is also clear from the Word.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine # 121

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121. Faith separate from love or charity is like the light of winter, in which all things on earth are torpid, and no harvests, fruits, or flowers, are produced; but faith with love or charity is like the light of spring and summer, in which all things flourish and are produced (n. 2231, 3146, 3412-3413). The wintry light of faith separate from charity is changed into dense darkness when light from heaven flows in; and they who are in that faith then come into blindness and stupidity (n. 3412-3413).

They who separate faith from charity, in doctrine and life, are in darkness, thus in ignorance of truth, and in falsities, for these are darkness (n. 9186). They cast themselves into falsities, and into evils thence (n. 3325, 8094). The errors and falsities into which they cast themselves (n. 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224). The Word is shut to them (n. 3773, 4783, 8780). They do not see or attend to all those things which the Lord so often spoke concerning love and charity, and concerning their fruits, or goods in act, concerning which (n. 1017, 3416). Neither do they know what good is, nor thus what celestial love is, nor what charity is (n. 2517, 3603, 4136, 9995).

Faith separate from charity is no faith (n. 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783). Such a faith perishes in the other life (n. 2228, 5820). When faith alone is assumed as a principle, truths are contaminated by the falsity of the principle (n. 2335). Such persons do not suffer themselves to be persuaded, because it is against their principle (n. 2385). Doctrinals concerning faith alone destroy charity (n. 6353, 8094). They who separate faith from charity were represented by Cain, by Ham, by Reuben, by the firstborn of the Egyptians, and by the Philistines (n. 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093).

They who make faith alone saving, excuse a life of evil, and they who are in a life of evil have no faith, because they have no charity (n. 3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094). They are inwardly in the falsities of their own evil, although they do not know it (n. 7790, 7950). Therefore good cannot be conjoined with them (n. 8981, 8983). In the other life they are against good, and against those who are in good (n. 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313). Those who are simple in heart and yet wise, know what the good of life is, thus what charity is, but not what faith separate is (n. 4741, 4754).

All things of the church have relation to good and truth, consequently to charity and faith (n. 7752-7754). The church is not with man before truths are implanted in his life, and thus become the good of charity (n. 3310). Charity constitutes the church, and not faith separate from charity (n. 809, 916, 1798-1799, 1834, 1844). The internal of the church is charity (n. 1799, 7755). Hence there is no church where there is no charity (n. 4766, 5826). The church would be one if all were regarded from charity, although men might differ as to the doctrinals of faith and the rituals of worship (n. 1285[1-3], 1316, 1798-1799, 1834, 1844, 2385, 2982, 3267, 3451). How much of good would be in the church if charity were regarded in the first place, and faith in the second (n. 6269, 6272). Every church begins from charity, but in process of time turns aside to faith, and at length to faith alone (n. 1834-1835, 2231, 4683, 8094). There is no faith at the last time of the church, because there is no charity (n. 1843). The worship of the Lord consists in a life of charity (n. 8254, 8256) The quality of the worship is according to the quality of the charity (n. 2190). The men of the external church have an internal if they are in charity (n. 1100, 1102, 1151, 1153). The doctrine of the ancient churches was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity, and not the doctrine of faith separate (n. 2385, 2417, 3419-3420, 4844, 6628, 7259-7262).

The Lord inseminates and implants truth in the good of charity when he regenerates man (n. 2063, 2189, 3310). Otherwise the seed, which is the truth of faith, cannot take root (n. 880). Then goods and truths increase, according to the quality and quantity of the charity received (n. 1016). The light of a regenerate person is not from faith, but from charity by faith (n. 854). The truths of faith, when man is regenerated, enter with the delight of affection, because he loves to do them, and they are reproduced with the same affection, because they cohere (n. 2484, 2487, 3040, 3066, 3074, 3336, 4018, 5893).

They who live in love to the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbor, lose nothing to eternity, because they are conjoined to the Lord; but it is otherwise with those who are in separate faith (n. 7506-7507). Man remains such as is his life of charity, not such as his faith separate (n. 8256). All the states of delight of those who have lived in charity, return in the other life, and are increased immensely (n. 823). Heavenly blessedness flows from the Lord into charity, because into the very life of man; but not into faith without charity (n. 2363). In heaven all are regarded from charity, and none from faith separate (n. 1258, 1394). All are associated in the heavens according to their loves (n. 7085). No one is admitted into heaven by thinking, but by willing good (n. 2401, 3459). Unless doing good is conjoined with willing good and with thinking good, there is no salvation, neither any conjunction of the internal man with the external (n. 3987). The Lord, and faith in Him, are received by no others in the other life, than those who are in charity (n. 2343).

Good is in the perpetual desire and consequent endeavor of conjoining itself with truths, and charity with faith (n. 9206-9207, 9495). The good of charity acknowledges its own truth of faith, and the truth of faith its own good of charity (n. 2429, 3101-3102, 3161, 3179-3180, 4358, 5807, 5835, 9637). Hence there is a conjunction of the truth of faith and the good of charity, concerning which (n. 3834, 4096-4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 8530, 9258, 10555). Their conjunction is like a marriage (n. 1904, 2173, 2508). The law of marriage is that two be one, according to the Word of the Lord (n. 10130, 10168-10169). So also faith and charity (n. 1094, 2173, 2503). Therefore faith which is faith, is, as to its essence, charity (n. 2228, 2839, 3180, 9783). As good is the esse of a thing, and truth the existere thence, so also is charity the esse of the church, and faith the existere thence (n. 3409, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9145). The truth of faith lives from the good of charity, thus a life according to the truths of faith is charity (n. 1589, 1947, 2571, 4070, 4096-4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729). Faith cannot be given but in charity, and if not in charity, there is not good in faith (n. 2261, 4368). Faith does not live with man when he only knows and thinks the things of faith, but when he wills them, and from will does them (n. 9224).

There is no salvation by faith, but by a life according to the truths of faith, which life is charity (n. 379, 389, 2228, 4663, 4721). They are saved who think from the doctrine of the church that faith alone saves, if they do what is just for the sake of justice, and good for the sake of good, for thus they are still in charity (n. 2442, 3242, 3459, 3463, 7506-7507). If a mere cogitative faith could save, all would be saved (n. 2361, 10659). Charity constitutes heaven with man, and not faith without it (n. 3513, 3584, 3815, 9832, 10714-10715, 10721, 10724). In heaven all are regarded from charity, and not from faith (n. 1258, 1394, 2361, 4802). The conjunction of the Lord with man is not by faith, but by a life according to the truths of faith (n. 9380, 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645, 10648). The Lord is the tree of life, the goods of charity the fruits, and faith the leaves (n. 3427, 9337). Faith is the "lesser luminary," and good the "larger luminary" (n. 30-38).

The angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom do not know what faith is, so that they do not even name it, but the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom speak of faith, because they reason concerning truths (n. 202-203, 337, 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786). The angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom say only yea, yea or nay, nay, but the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom reason whether it be so or not so, when there is discourse concerning spiritual truths, which are of faith (n. 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786), where the Lord's words are explained:

Let your discourse be yea, yea, nay, nay; what is beyond these is from evil (Matt. 5:37).

The reason why the celestial angels are such, is, because they admit the truths of faith immediately into their lives, and do not deposit them first in the memory, as the spiritual angels do; and hence the celestial angels are in the perception of all things of faith (n. 202, 585, 597, 607, 784 1 121, 1387, 1398, 1442, 1919, 5113, 5897, 6367, 7680, 7877, 8521, 8780, 9936, 9995, 10124).

Trust or confidence, which in an eminent sense is called saving faith, is given with those only who are in good as to life, consequently with those who are in charity (n. 2982, 4352, 4683, 4689, 7762, 8240, 9239-9245). Few know what that confidence is (n. 3868, 4352).

What difference there is between believing those things which are from God, and believing in God (n. 9239, 9243). It is one thing to know, another to acknowledge, and another to have faith (n. 896, 4319, 5664). There are scientifics of faith, rationals of faith and spirituals of faith (n. 2504, 8078). The first thing is the acknowledgment of the Lord (n. 10083). All that flows in with man from the Lord is good (n. 1614, 2016, 2751, 2882-2883, 2891-2892,2904, 6193, 7643, 9128).

There is a persuasive faith, which nevertheless is not faith (n. 2343, 2682, 2689, 3427, 3865, 8148).

It appears from various reasonings as though faith were prior to charity, but this is a fallacy (n. 3324). It may be known from the light of reason, that good, consequently charity, is in the first place, and truth, consequently faith, in the second (n. 3324-6273). Good, or charity, is actually in the first place, or is the first of the church, and truth, or faith, is in the second place, or is the second of the church, although it appears otherwise (n. 3324-3325, 3330, 3336, 3494, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 3995, 4337, 4601, 4925-4926, 4928, 4930, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6272-6273, 8042, 8080, 10110). The ancients disputed concerning the first or primogeniture of the church, whether it be faith or whether it be charity (n. 367[1-2], 2435, 3324).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.