9224. 'The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me' means also all the matters of faith that [are acquired] through them - that they are to be ascribed to the Lord and not to self. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn of sons' as all matters of faith the Church possesses, dealt with in 2435, 6344, 7035, 7039, 7778, 8042; and from the meaning of 'giving to Me' as ascribing to the Lord, 'Jehovah' being used in the Word to mean the Lord. All matters of faith, meant by 'the firstborn of sons', are beliefs which spring from the good of charity; for faith comes into being from this good. Whether truths are acquired from the Word or from the teachings of the Church, they cannot by any means become matters of faith without the presence of good in which they can be implanted. The reason for this is that the understanding part of the mind is that which receives truths first, for it sees them and introduces them into the will; and when those truths are in the will they are in the person, the will being the person's true self. Anyone therefore who supposes that faith is faith with a person before the person wills it, and does it because he wills it, is very much mistaken. Nor before this do the truths of faith themselves have life in them. All that which belongs to the will is called good, because it is loved; thus truth becomes good, or faith becomes charity, when it is in the will.

[2] There are two controversies which have bothered the Church since earliest times. The first is whether faith is the firstborn of the Church or whether charity is; and the second is whether faith separated from charity brings salvation. The reason why these two controversies arose was that before a person has been regenerated he discerns the truths that are to become matters of faith but not the good that is the good of charity. For the truths of faith enter by the external route, that is to say, through hearing; they deposit themselves in the memory, and from there they appear in the understanding. But the good of charity flows in by the internal route - through the internal man from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven. Therefore it does not come to be discerned until the truths called matters of faith start to be loved for the sake of performing good and useful service and leading a good life, which happens when they come to belong to the will. This now explains why faith was declared to be the firstborn of the Church, and also why people attributed to it the rights of the firstborn, that is, the rights of priority and superiority over the good of charity, when in actual fact the good of charity is prior and higher, and the truth of faith only apparently so, see 3325, 3494, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 4977, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6272, 6273.

[3] The reason why those who belong to the Church have been in the dark in regard to these matters is that they have failed to perceive that all things in the universe have connection with truth and good, and to be anything must have connection with both. They have also failed to perceive that in the human being there are two mental powers, the understanding and the will, and that truth has connection with the understanding and good with the will, and that without the connection with both nothing is made a person's own. Because these considerations have lain in the dark, and yet the ideas composing a person's thought are based on such considerations, the error could not be made plain to the natural man. Yet if it had at some time been made plain, members of the Church would have seen from the Word as in broad daylight that the Lord Himself had countless things to say about the good of charity, that this good ranks first in the Church, and that faith does not exist anywhere else than within that good. The good of charity consists in doing good because one wills it. They would also have seen the errors that teachings upholding faith separated from charity bring in with them. One such error is the idea that a person is able to will evil and believe truth, consequently that truth is in agreement with evil. Another is the idea that faith can cause the life of heaven to exist with a person who has the life of hell in him, therefore that one life can be transformed into the other, so that those in hell can be raised to heaven and lead among angels a life contrary to their former life. People entertaining such errors do not take into consideration the fact that if anyone leads a life contrary to the life already acquired in the world he is deprived of his life. Anyone who tries to do so is like those who are in the throes of death and end their life in dreadful torment. Errors like these and very many others are what the teachings upholding faith separated from charity bring in with them.

3610. 'Behold, Esau your brother is consoling himself concerning you [by planning] to kill you' means, the intention to invert the state and to remove from truth the life from itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'consoling oneself concerning somebody' as calming a turbulence of mind with a hope concerning some person or thing - the pronoun 'you' embodying an inversion of the state of truth; and from the meaning of 'killing you (Jacob)' as removing from truth the life from itself, dealt with just above in 3607, where it has been shown that removing from truth the life [from itself] is not destroying that truth but giving it life. For the situation with the life of truth is that when people with whom truth or the affection for truth is present do not live according to the truth they know and have an affection for, there is in that case a certain satisfaction and delight, stemming from self-love or love of the world, which attaches itself to the affection for truth. That satisfaction and delight seems to be like good, but it is not good except if considered in relation to the use it serves of enabling truths to be brought in and learned, which subsequently can be of service to good itself and to the life of good. When this is the state in which truth dwells, that is, when the affection for truth exists with people, truth is said to have life from itself. But this is not life, as is clear from the fact that life does not dwell in self-love and love of the world, that is, in the satisfaction and delight that goes with these loves, but in celestial and spiritual love and the delight and satisfaction that belongs to that love. Consequently when truth is removed - that is, when those with whom such an affection for truth is present have that life removed from them - then for the first time they receive life, that is, are given life.

[2] These matters cannot be grasped at all by those whose affection is for themselves and the world, for they believe that no other kind of life can possibly exist, and consequently that if that life were removed they would have no life at all. For people possessing that life cannot by any means know what spiritual and celestial life is. But the truth of the matter is that when that life is removed, that is to say, the life belonging to an affection for self and the world, life flows in from the Lord such as is angelic and heavenly, bringing with it wisdom and intelligence that are beyond description. From the point of view of this life from the Lord, the previous life seems to be none at all or to be like the abject life of beasts, for it entails nothing Divine at all apart from being able to think and to talk, and so to have an outward form like everyone else has.

[3] As regards the intention on the part of good to invert the state and to remove from truth the life from itself, meant by the words 'Esau is consoling himself concerning you [by planning] to kill you', the position is that with someone who is being regenerated good intends constantly to bring about an inversion of state and to produce that order in which truth does not occupy the prior position but, in conformity with the state of heaven, the secondary position. This intention however lies concealed deeply within it and is not discerned until it is actually carried into effect. It is like conjugial love, which does not show itself in infancy and childhood but nevertheless lies concealed within, and does not emerge until every single thing has been properly ordered to enable it to manifest itself. During all that time however it is producing all the means suited to it, that is, they are produced from it. Something similar may be seen in the vegetable kingdom in which within every tree and young plant there lies concealed inmostly the effort to produce fruit or seeds. But that effort cannot manifest itself until all the means have been produced first, that is to say, shoots, leaves, and blossom; and when these have been produced, that effort comes into act.

[4] It is the same with those who are being born anew. The conjugial relationship which exists between good and truth lies concealed for a long time but is nevertheless present as the effort within the efficient cause and from this within the effect itself. But it does not appear until everything has been properly ordered, and once everything has been properly ordered only then does it emerge and manifest itself. This effort is what is meant by the intention to invert the state and to remove from truth the life from itself. From this it is evident that the note which is sounded in the internal sense is altogether different from that in the sense of the letter; that is to say, it speaks of truth being brought into order and receiving life, not of the destruction and removal of life from it.