4783. 'To comfort him' means to provide explanations based on the sense of the letter of the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'comforting' as calming a turbulence of mind with a hope concerning some thing, dealt with in 3610, in this case a turbulence or mourning over lost good and truth. And because this mourning cannot be subdued except by means of explanations based on the Word, and because reference is being made at this point to Jacob's sons and daughters, who mean those governed by falsities and evils, 4781, 4782, 'comforting' means explanations based on the sense of the letter. For the sense of the letter of the Word contains general ideas which, being like vessels, can be filled with truths or else with falsities and so can be given whatever explanation suits one's own point of view. And because they are general ones they are also obscure compared with other ideas, receiving light from nowhere else than the internal sense. For the internal sense exists in the light of heaven because it is the Word as angels know it, whereas the sense of the letter exists in the light of the world because it is the Word as men know it before they come to the light of heaven received from the Lord, by which light they are then enlightened. From this it is evident that the sense of the letter serves to introduce the simple to the internal sense.

[2] This use of explanations when one is expounding the Word - explanations which are based on the sense of the letter and which fit in with one's own point of view - is quite evident from the fact that all religious ideas, including heretical ones, are substantiated by such explanations. For example, the accepted teaching about faith separated from charity is substantiated by the following words spoken by the Lord,

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

From these words and other places people deduce that eternal life is acquired through faith alone without works. And once these people have become convinced of this they no longer pay any attention to what the Lord said so many times about love to Him, and about charity and works, 1017, 2373, 3934. Thus they pay no attention to the following in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

If they are told that no one can believe in the Lord except him who has charity, they instantly take refuge in explanations like these: The law has been abolished; people are born in sins and so cannot do good of themselves, and those who do do it cannot do other than claim merit for it. These explanations too they substantiate from the sense of the letter of the Word, for example from what is stated in the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke 18:10-14, and from other things that are stated. But these statements have an altogether different meaning from the explanations they resort to.

[3] Also, the adherents to faith separated from charity can have no other belief than that everyone is able by grace to be admitted into heaven, no matter what kind of life he has been leading, so that it is not a person's life but his faith that awaits him after death. This too they substantiate from the sense of the letter of the Word. But from the spiritual sense of the Word it is clear that the Lord has mercy on everyone, so that if a person reached heaven by mercy or grace irrespective of whatever life he has led everyone would be saved. The reason the adherents to faith separated from charity believe the way they do is that they have no knowledge at all of what heaven is because they do not know what charity is. If they knew how much peace, joy, and happiness is present within charity they would know what heaven is; but this is entirely hidden from them.

[4] Nor can the adherents to faith separated from charity have any other belief than that they will rise again with the physical body, though not until judgement day. This too they substantiate from many places in the Word, explained according to the sense of the letter. They give no thought at all to what the Lord said - many times in addition to the following - about the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:22-31, or to what He told the robber,

Truly I say to you, Today you will be with Me in paradise. Luke 23:43.

The reason the adherents to faith separated from charity believe the way they do is that if they were told that the body is not going to rise again they would refuse to believe in any resurrection at all, for what the internal man is they neither know nor have any conception of. Indeed no one can know what the internal man is and the internal man's life after death is except him who has charity; for charity is an attribute of the internal man.

[5] The adherents to faith separated from charity can have no other belief than that the works of charity consist solely in giving to the poor and helping the distressed. This belief too they substantiate from the sense of the letter of the Word. But in fact the works of charity consist in each person doing what is right and fair in his employment, from a love of what is right and fair, and of what is good and true.

[6] The adherents to faith separated from charity do not see anything in the Word apart from what substantiates their own accepted teachings, for they have no real insight. Indeed people who are not moved by the affection belonging to charity have merely external sight, or an inferior insight. With this no one can possibly behold higher things, for higher things are seen by him as darkness. Consequently such people see falsities as truths, and truths as falsities, and so by explanations based on the sense of the letter they ruin the good pasture and pollute the pure waters of that sacred spring which is the Word, as accords with the following in Ezekiel,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture and tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures; you drink the water that has settled down ¹ and stir up the rest with your feet. You butt with your horns all the weak [sheep] till you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:17-18, 21.

Poznámky pod čarou:

5351. 'And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh' means a new area of will within the natural, and the essential nature of it. This is clear from the representation of 'Manasseh' in the Word as spiritual good within the natural, and so a new area of will there, dealt with below. This name also implies the essential nature of that good or new area of will. The fact that the name implies the essential nature of this may be recognized from the names given to other people. An explanation of the essential nature accompanies each name, like that given for Manasseh in the following words, For God has made me forget all my labour and all my father's house. These words describe the essential nature of what is meant by 'Manasseh'. What is more, when the phrase 'he called the name' is used, the meaning is that the actual name too contains that essential nature, since 'name' and 'calling the name' mean the essential nature, 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3421.

[2] The reason why the firstborn who was given the name Manasseh means spiritual good within the natural, or a new area of will there, is that good is in actual fact the firstborn in the Church. That is, with someone who is in the process of becoming a Church, truth is not the firstborn, though it appears to be so, see 352, 367, 2435, 3325, 3494, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930. The same may also be recognized from the consideration that a person's will takes precedence over his understanding; for the desires in a person's will are the primary constituents of his life, while the ideas in his understanding are secondary to them; and he acts in accordance with the desires of his will. What goes forth from the will is called good in the case of those who through regeneration have received from the Lord a new will; but it is called evil in the case of those who have had no wish to receive such. What goes forth from the understanding however is called truth in the case of the regenerate but falsity in the case of the unregenerate. But because no knowledge of a person's will is possible except through his understanding - for the understanding is the outward form that the will possesses or the outward form taken by the will which enables it to be known - people therefore imagine that truth which goes forth from the understanding is the firstborn. But this is nothing else than the appearance, for the reason that has been stated.

[3] This explains the controversy that existed in former times over whether the truth which is the essence of faith was the firstborn of the Church or whether good which is the essence of charity was such. Those who based their conclusions on the appearance said that truth was the firstborn, whereas those who did not base theirs on the appearance acknowledged that good was. This also explains why at the present day people make faith the primary and absolutely essential constituent of the Church, but charity the secondary and non-essential element. But by supposing that faith alone is what saves a person they have sunk into far deeper error than the ancients. (In the Church faith is used to mean all the truth of doctrine, while charity is used to mean all the good of life.) They do, it is true, call charity and the works of charity the fruits of faith. Yet does anyone believe that those fruits make any contribution to salvation when the belief exists that someone can be saved by faith in the final hour of his life, no matter what kind of life he led before then? More than this, does anyone believe that those fruits contribute in any way to salvation when people use doctrine to set faith apart from works that are the product of charity, saying that faith alone saves without good works, or that works which are matters of life contribute nothing to salvation? Dear, dear! What kind of faith is that, and what kind of Church is it when people cherish faith that is dead and reject faith that is living? For faith without charity is like a body without a soul. But a body without a soul is removed from sight and put away because it stinks, as everyone knows; and in the next life faith without charity is just like this. All who possessed faith so-called which was devoid of charity are in hell; but all who had charity are in heaven. For everyone's life remains with him, whereas doctrine does so only insofar as it draws on that life.

[4] It is less easy to show from other places in the Word that 'Manasseh' means a new area of will within the natural - or what amounts to the same, spiritual good there - than it is to show that 'Ephraim' means a new area of understanding within the natural, or spiritual truth there. Even so, inferences can be drawn regarding the meaning of 'Manasseh' from what is said about 'Ephraim', because in the Word when two are mentioned together in the way these are, one means good, the other truth. Therefore Manasseh's meaning - spiritual good within the natural, which is the essence of the new will there - will be seen in what follows shortly where Ephraim is the subject.