798. To blaspheme his name. That this signifies, by falsifying all the quality thereof, is evident from the signification of blaspheming, as denoting to falsify the Divine truth, thus the Word, which is from the Lord and which is the Lord (concerning which see above, n. 797); and from the signification of name, as denoting the quality and state of a thing (concerning which see above, n. 148, 676); in this case, all the quality of Divine truth or the Word, because it is said His name, or the name of God. That by the name of the Lord, in the Word, is meant all the good of love, and all the truth from that good, from which He is worshipped, may be seen above (n. 102, 135, 696). From these considerations it is evident, that by blaspheming the name of God is signified to falsify all the quality of Divine truth or the Word, also all the good and truth by which the Lord is worshipped.

That those who separate faith from good works, both in doctrine and life, falsify all the quality of Divine truth, or all things of the Word, was shown in the preceding article. This may be concluded from what has been said in many places above, that is, that they exclude love and charity, from which works become good, and from which faith derives its essence, so as not to be, together with faith, a means of salvation. Consequently they not only falsify those parts of the Word where love to God and love towards the neighbour are taught, but also all those where works, deeds, working, and doing, are mentioned. And when those parts are falsified, everything in the Word is also falsified; for the other parts of the Word which are called its truths live by virtue of the former; and when life is taken away what remains is dead. And besides, everywhere in the Word there is a marriage of good and truth, as has been frequently said and shown above. Therefore when good is taken away, the truth which remains is falsified; and truth falsified is falsity. That by reasonings confirming faith alone or faith separated, everything in the Word as falsified will be illustrated by several examples at the end of this chapter where the signification of the number 666 will be explained.

[2] Because in the various Christian churches, in which faith alone is received as the chief point of their doctrinals, there are the learned and the simple; and also those who separate faith from the goods of life, also those who conjoin faith therewith, thus those who falsify the Word much, and those who falsify it little; and because, in the preceding article those are treated of who so falsify the Word as to entirely close heaven against themselves, we shall now speak of those who do not so falsify the Word as to close heaven against themselves. These are they who confirm in themselves, that the faith which justifies and saves produces goods of life as a tree does fruits. With those who confirm that doctrine in the life, heaven is not closed, but its ultimate is open, where entrance is given. The following are the reasons.

[3] 1. They invert the Divine Order that charity produces faith, and not that faith charity. But still with those who confirm that conjunction in doctrine and life that inverted order can afterwards be reduced to order; and, being so reduced, they enter heaven in its ultimates. The reason why they do not enter interiorly is, that their faith, by which they believed themselves to be justified and saved, is derived more from falsities than truths. And those are in the ultimates of heaven who are in falsities from their doctrine and religion but still in good of life. Their falsities are appearances of truth from the sense of the letter of the Word, all of which have life for their end. The case is almost the same with every one who is to be reformed. He first forms for himself doctrine from the Word and therein separates the things which are to be believed and done. Those that are to be believed he calls faith, and those that are to be done he calls charity. But because order with every one is inverted from birth, he regards faith as in the first place and charity in the second. If, however, he lives the life of faith, which is charity, the order is gradually restored; and then from charity he lives faith. In that case so far as his faith is from genuine truths so far he enters heaven. For, as said above, Divine truth proceeding from the Lord makes heaven and is heaven. From these things it is evident why it is that faith, at this day, has become the chief and primary thing of the church - because they have followed the order that is inverted from birth; and because they are pleased with the life of the world; and because they have been led by pride in their own intelligence. This is why they remained in the first degree of reformation.

[4] 2. The second reason why they do not close heaven against themselves is, that good works are love and charity in act, and from these heaven is heaven. For all angels and all spirits are affections and thoughts therefrom, or, what amounts to the same, are loves and intelligences therefrom. There are also two loves that are the universal and fundamental of all loves - love to the Lord, and love towards the neighbour, which is called charity. All those are in these loves who do goods from the Word; for every good is from love. Now because those who confirm themselves in the doctrine and life that faith produces good works as a tree does fruit, look from faith to good; hence they have conjunction with heaven, not however with the spiritual, but with the natural heaven, which is in ultimates, and may be called the entrance [into heaven]. The reason why they cannot be admitted more interiorly is, that faith, before it becomes charity in form, is natural; and the natural can produce only the natural. It is different when faith becomes faith from charity. Then faith becomes spiritual, because charity, from which it is derived, is spiritual. With the latter the spiritual mind is opened, but with the former only the natural mind is opened, but this more deeply and interiorly according to the quality of the faith and of the life therefrom. The mind of such persons when seen in the light of heaven appears snowy, such as rational light is; and the Rational is the medium between the spiritual mind and the natural.

[5] 3. If the state of the mind and life of those who believe that faith produces good works and who also do them were interiorly examined, it would be seen that they are interiorly natural; for their faith is only a knowledge of the precepts of the Word, into which when the interior natural sight, which is called rational, enters, there is an acknowledgment that those precepts are Divine; and when love operates upon such acknowledgment, it becomes obedience. But the love which operates upon that acknowledgment can be no other than the love of reward for the sake of the goods which they do; and reward is to them eternal life. And because the love of reward comes not from God but from man - for in reward man regards his own good, and not that of his neighbour - it follows, that that love is natural, consequently that the state of the mind and life of those who believe that faith produces good works, and who do them according to their faith, is natural. But if they do not perform them from a spirit of obedience, it is the love of glory springing from erudition, or the love of the fame that may raise them to honours, or that they may become rich, that leads them. Such persons, however, say that they acknowledge and believe, while in heart they do not; therefore they are in the lowest natural and to them heaven is closed altogether.

[6] In order that it may be known that to do good from a spirit of obedience is from the natural man, it shall be briefly explained what is meant by doing good from charity. No one can do good from charity but he whose spiritual mind is opened; and the spiritual mind is opened solely by a man abstaining from doing evils, and shunning them, and at length holding them in aversion, because they are contrary to the Divine precepts in the Word, thus contrary to the Lord. When man so shuns and holds evils in aversion, then everything that he thinks, wills, and does is good, because from the Lord. For the Lord is continually present, knocks at the door, is urgent, and wishes to enter, but evils oppose. Man, therefore, must open the door by removing evils; for these being removed, the Lord enters, and there sups (Apoc. 3:20). It is said that a man opens and removes; for a man does evil from himself. And because the Lord is continually present, knocks at the door, and is urgent, as said, therefore a man has the faculty of desisting from evils as of himself. This faculty is given to every one. Hence then it is that as a man can of himself close heaven against himself, so he can as of himself open heaven, provided only he thinks and wills to cease from evils, looks unto the Lord, and when he does so cease, acknowledges that it is from the Lord. Evils therefore being removed, whatever a man then does is good, because it is from the Lord; and whatever a man does from the Lord, is not natural-moral but spiritual-moral. Now, because charity consists in doing good from love for the sake of good, thus from good, consequently from the Lord, it follows that to do good from charity is spiritual; but to do good from a spirit of obedience, because it is from the love of reward, is natural. This is the natural in which those are who are in the entrance to heaven; whither those also come who do good only from a spirit of obedience; and these are such as confirm themselves in the doctrine and life that faith produces good works as a tree does fruit.

[7] 4. Moreover, it should be known that those who believe that faith produces good works as a tree does fruit, also believe that heaven is allotted them before evils are removed, and yet so long as evils are in man, the goods that he does are not good; for from an evil tree only evil fruits are produced. The one only way to heaven therefore is for a man to abstain from evils, from the Word, because they are sins; unless these are first removed the Lord cannot enter and impart heaven.

[8] 5. The fifth reason why those who confirm themselves in the doctrine and life that faith produces good works as a tree does fruit, do not shut heaven against themselves is, that they do not falsify the Word like those who believe in justification and salvation by faith without good works. For those who believe that faith justifies without good works, falsify all those parts of the Word where love, charity, goods, works, deeds, working, and doing are mentioned and commanded, and this to the destruction of the Divine truth in the heavens. They understand by those expressions either faith, or the moral and civil good of the world, or that they are mentioned only for the common people, because of the simplicity of their faith. They thus destroy Divine truth itself by arguments drawn from man's inability to fulfil the law, because a man's good is not good, and because merit is inherent in it. But those, who, in simplicity, adjoin good works to faith do not falsify all those parts of the Word, and consequently they do not separate faith from love to God; and in this way they admit the Divine operation in every thing that man has to do, as well as in every thing that he has to believe. For they think and say that good works are to be done as from man; for he who does not act and believe as of himself, believes nothing and does nothing, and can have no religion. But still, because they are not in genuine truths, though they do not indeed close heaven against themselves, they cannot come nearer than the threshold of heaven. Still to such of them as have loved truths for the sake of truths, heaven is opened when Divine Order in them is restored, which takes place when charity and its good is in the first place and faith and its truths in the second; for they are then like those who go on in a straight way with the faces looking before, while previously they were like those who go with the faces turned backwards.

[9] 6. There are also many who make charity the essential means of salvation, as others do faith, and yet do not live the life of charity. But since their charity is only a lip-confession, and thus it is merely their faith, it follows that their charity, similarly, is not alive but dead. Therefore they differ but little from those who confess faith alone; for they are like in heart but unlike in soul. Nevertheless, they both close heaven against themselves.