805. (Verse 8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. That this signifies the necessity of acknowledgment by those who are born within the church, is evident from the signification of worshipping, as denoting to acknowledge and believe that a thing is so, and thence to receive it in doctrine and worship. That these things are signified by worshipping, is evident from what was said above (n. 789, 790), where it was explained what is signified by worshipping the dragon which gave power to the beast, and by worshipping the beast. That they acknowledge from necessity, is evident from what has been said and shown in the preceding article; from the signification of them that dwell upon the earth, as denoting by those who are born within the church; for by the earth is signified the church, and by those who dwell upon it are signified those who are and live there. The reason why those are meant who are born within the church is that the religion of every one, at first, is that of his country. For he is introduced into it by education, and is afterwards confirmed therein from preachings; and principally because there are but few that study the doctrine of the church and the interior meaning of the Word, supposing that such things are beyond their capacity, and also that they are not to be seen and understood, but only to be believed. This is why those who are born within the church are under a necessity of acknowledgment, which is signified by all those who dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast.

[2] That this is the case is especially evident from the accepted faith which alone is called saving, "That God the Father sent His Son into the world, that by the passion of His cross He might effect propitiation, redemption, and salvation." This faith, if understood according to the ideas of those who defend faith separated from life, and according to the preachings from doctrine therefrom, is no faith; as is evident from all the particulars of this faith and which follow from it, which are:

1. That there is propitiation; to wit, the propitiation of God the Father by the passion or by the blood of His Son.

2. That there is the mercy or compassion of God the Father for the sake of His Son.

3. That there was a bearing of our iniquities by the Lord, and thence liberation from them.

4. That there is granted what is imputative; and thus that there is an imputation of the Lord's merit by which we are saved.

5. That there is intercession of the Lord with the Father.

6. That there is redemption and salvation without the means of life and faith, and therefore of immediate mercy.

7. That in such a faith there is no religion, but that it is empty and void.

8. That neither is there in it any faith in the Lord, nor acknowledgment of His Divine in His Human.

9. Consequently that the trust and confidence of that faith, which is at this day accepted as the only saving faith, is an empty sound.

10. That saving faith is altogether different.

But because it is the confession of almost all who belong to the church that the Lord suffered on the cross for our sins, and that He transferred them all to Himself and bare them, and thereby not only reconciled the Father, but also redeemed us from hell; and that by this merit of the Lord we may be saved if we only believe it from trust and confidence it is necessary that, in the first place, examination be made as to whether such things are to be understood according to the general opinion. In the first place, therefore, what is meant by this:

[3] 1. That there is propitiation, to wit, the propitiation of God the Father by the passion or by the blood of His Son. This involves a rejection or alienation of the human race through some kind of anger or vindictiveness which is called vindicative justice, which was laid upon the Son by God the Father, in order that, by the passion of His cross, He might be reconciled to the human race, and so be rendered propitious. But who does not see, that to cast away from Himself the human race, or from justice to revenge their alienation, is contrary to the Divine Essence, which is love itself, mercy itself, and good itself? Indeed such vindictiveness is not possible to any angel, and scarcely to any well-disposed man, much less to God. Who does not also see, that it is hard to think that such vindictiveness was laid upon the Son by His Father, or that He took it upon Himself; and that, from considering and remembering it, God the Father has mercy, and not from the Divine Love itself, which in its essence is infinite, eternal, and immediate to all mankind? I do not know, therefore, how any one can think from God, and with God, that he is rejected of God, and that therefore by the will of the Father the Son became accursed and was thereby made a propitiatory and throne of grace. Besides, justice is a Divine attribute, but not vindictive justice, and still less is it in one for the sake of another. If it is not justice, neither is it according to Divine Order, for one to be saved for the sake of another or by another. Nor can God be reconciled by any other means than by the repentance of man himself. That to be saved through the Lord, and also by the passion of His cross, and so by the Lord, is propitiation and expiation, will be seen in what follows.

[4] 2. That, there is no mercy or compassion of God the Father for the sake of the Son. The customary supplication in the churches, and by the men of the church, at home and abroad, when they are in pious worship, is, That God the Father would have mercy upon them for the sake of the Son, and for the sake of the passion of His cross. This supplication flows from the accepted faith concerning the propitiation or reconciliation of the Father by the Son, as mentioned above; also from the doctrine of the church concerning justification by faith alone without good works. And because the defenders and upholders of that doctrine separate the life of good works from faith, they could not acknowledge any other for saving faith, than that God the Father sent His Son, and that by the passion of His cross He is moved to mercy. Hence this supplication is at this day received by the general body as the only voice that can enter heaven and move God, although a man not earlier than the hour before death, declares it with an acknowledgment of trust. That nevertheless such a supplication possesses nothing of life from truth and good, is evident from what has been said above concerning propitiation and reconciliation; and the Father's mercy originating therein; and also will be evident from what will be said presently concerning the bearing of our iniquities by the Lord, concerning the imputation of His merit, concerning intercession, concerning salvation and redemption apart from the means of life. Here we shall merely observe, that it is never granted to any man of the church to approach God the Father directly, and to entreat Him for the sake of the Son; for it is the Lord who is to be approached and entreated, because no one comes to the Father except by the Lord and in the Lord; and the Lord equally as the Father is God, infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipotent, and neither of them is first nor last, nor greater nor less, but they are altogether equal. That no one comes to the Father except by the Lord, He Himself teaches in John:

"No one hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath brought him forth to view" (1:18).

Again:

"Ye have never heard the voice of the" Father "nor seen his shape" (5:37).

And in Matthew:

"No one knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (11:27).

And in John:

"Not any one hath seen the Father, save he who is with God, he hath seen the Father" (6:46).

And again:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh to the Father but by me" (14:6).

The reason why no one cometh to the Father except in the Lord is, that the Father and He are one, as He also teaches in John:

"If ye know me, ye know my Father also; he who seeth me, seeth the Father"; Philip, "believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (14:7, 11).

And again:

"I and the Father are one, that ye may know and believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me" (10:30, 38).

Add to this, that the Lord is God of Heaven and earth, as He teaches in John (3:35; 17:2; Matthew 11:27; 28:18); and that so He is to be approached.

It is also to be observed, that unless the Lord is approached, a man cannot think with the angels, because all angelic thought concerning God is concerning God-Man. They cannot think otherwise concerning God, and consequently concerning things Divine, because their thoughts proceed according to the form of heaven; and heaven is a heaven in the form of a man. But on this subject more will be said elsewhere.

[5] 3. That there was a bearing of our iniquities by the Lord, and our consequent deliverance from them, was not according to the common faith. This is that the Lord transferred to Himself the sins of the world, and cast them into hell, and so took them away. This they conclude from the words of John concerning Jesus:

"Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).

And from Isaiah, where, treating of the Lord, it is written:

"He hath borne our diseases and sorrows, and carried our iniquities" (53:4, 11).

But what is signified by carrying iniquities has not yet been understood in the churches; it shall therefore be explained. It was according to Divine Order that the prophets should represent the state of their church, in order that the people might thence learn what their true nature was, as is evident from the following instances. Isaiah was commanded

"To go naked and barefoot three years, for a sign and a prodigy" (20:2, 3);

whereby he represented that there were no longer any truths in the church; for this is signified by going naked and barefoot. Hosea was commanded

"To take to himself a woman of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, because the earth had committed whoredoms" (1:2 and following verses).

By a woman of whoredoms was signified the church which falsified the truths of the Word. And Ezekiel was commanded

To take to himself a tile and portray Jerusalem upon it, and lay siege to it; and to lie upon his left side three hundred and ninety days, and afterwards upon his right side forty days. Likewise to eat a cake of barley, etc., made with the dung of an ox; and it was said, that so should they want bread and water in Jerusalem, and pine away for their iniquity (4:1 to the end).

This signified that the church would be without goods and truths, and be in mere falsities from evil. And it is said,

"That thereby he should bear the iniquity of the house of Israel" (vers. 4, 5).

Yet he did not thereby take away their iniquities, but only represented them, for the reason that a prophet signified doctrine from the Word, thus the church as to doctrine and worship therefrom.

The same is also meant by bearing iniquities where it is spoken of the Lord, who was the Grand Prophet; for He represented in Himself how ignominiously the Jewish Church treated the Divine truth or the Word, for He was the Word itself. Wherefore their scourging Him, spitting in His face, smiting Him with a reed, setting a crown of thorns upon Him, giving Him vinegar to drink, dividing His garments, and, lastly, crucifying Him, were all representatives of the state of that church, as may be seen above (n. 83, 195 at the end, 627 at the end, 655). This is therefore signified by bearing iniquities; and similarly also by the temptations far more grievous than those of others which He sustained. But to transfer the sins of others to Himself, and by admitting sorrows and punishments to take them away, is contrary to the nature of the blotting out of sins. For sins cannot be blotted out except by repentance of the life on the part of him who has sinned. To remove them by taking them upon Himself from another, is a dogma of the Papists in which there is no truth.

[6] 4. That there is not granted what is imputative, and thus that there is no imputation of the Lord's merit. That there can be no such thing as this imputation is evident because salvation by imputation is contrary to the laws of Divine Order described in the Word; which are that a man should learn what the sin is that he is to shun, and what the truth is that he is to do; and that if he is living contrary to truths he must do the work of repentance. These and all the particulars which the doctrine of the churches teach from the Word, would be superfluous, if a man could be saved by uttering certain expressions with the confidence of belief; such as that God would have mercy on him for the sake of His Son, and through the passion of His cross, and so impute to him the merit of the Lord. Were it so, a man might live in evil, commit adulteries, steal and act fraudulently, practice hatred and revenge, slander, and many other things, because he cannot be saved by good works, but by faith alone, which is altogether separated from life. And yet it is blasphemy to say that a man can live wickedly, and yet live from the Lord. It is also a contradiction that a man must shun evils and do goods, and yet be saved only by the faith of an imputed merit.

The merit of the Lord is, that from His own power He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human, and by this means put Himself in the power of saving all who believe in Him, and do what He taught. This merit cannot be attributed or imputed to any one, still less by the Father, because it is the Lord's own merit; and salvation is also from the Lord, thus by the Lord, and not for the Lord's sake. In a word, no one can have attributed to him the merit of another with whom he is not in agreement by his life, according to which every one is either rewarded or punished; but life from the Lord follows as a consequence from His merit. The imputation above mentioned is also contrary to the essence of the Divine Love, which extends to all; for to impute implies to love one and not another except for the sake of another; and it is also contrary to justice, which requires that every one is rewarded in proportion as he lives from the Lord.

[7] 5. That there is intercession of the Lord with the Father. This falls indeed into the ideas of men who are altogether simple, and who think only of the three Persons of the Divinity as of three sitting and discoursing together concerning what is to be done, and one moving the other to be merciful for His sake which is to intercede. But the more learned see that by intercession is meant perpetual remembrance from love; inasmuch as the same essence or substance belongs to one Person as to the other, and the same love, consequently the same mercy; and this is not to be excited or recalled to memory by any kind of entreaty.

[8] 6. That there is redemption and salvation without the means of life and faith, and thence immediate mercy. It is known that truths pertain to faith and therefore goods to life, and that without truths there can be no faith. As for example, without the following truths: that there is a God, that the Lord is the Saviour of the world, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, that the Word is holy, that the things that are in the Word are to be believed and done, that the Holy Supper is the most holy thing of worship, and other things of a like nature; all of which are necessary to faith. Similarly that without goods there cannot be any life of faith; for the Lord says that he who heareth and doeth not is like a foolish man, who buildeth his house upon the ground without foundation; but he who heareth and doeth is like a prudent man who buildeth his house upon a foundation of rock.

These and similar things besides, so far as they are to be believed, are means, and are said to belong to faith; and, so far as they are to be done, are means, and are said to belong to the life; without which man cannot be saved. But such things would be all vain, if only this one thing which is called faith were substituted for them; that is, that a man is saved by the sole mercy of the Father for the sake of the Son, and by the imputation of His merit. That immediate mercy is not possible, but only mediate; and that yet a man from pure mercy is led by the Lord from infancy to his old age, and afterwards to eternity, may be seen in the work concerningHeaven and Hell 521-527. Thus neither is immediate salvation possible. Whence it follows that redemption consists solely in the Lord redeeming those from hell who believe in Him, and who do what He has commanded. Nevertheless without His coming into the world they could not have been saved, because without His coming they could not have believed in Him, nor have done what He has commanded, and so have lived from Him. That these are they who are meant by the redeemed in the Word, will be seen elsewhere.

[9] 7. That in such a faith there is no religion, but that it is empty and void. What is religion unless it be that a man live well, in order that he may come into heaven, and also to know how he must live? To know this is called doctrine; and to believe and live according thereto is called religion. From doctrine man will know not only what things are to be thought, but also what things are to be done; for he ought to think in order to act, but he ought not to think of that which does not involve action. Whereas the faith here referred to consists in thinking without doing, so that it may be called a faith consisting of mere thought, as is the case when a man implores mercy alone, because the Son of God suffered for him, and, by taking upon Him the sins of the world, redeemed and delivered him from hell, he believing at the same time, that the merit of the Son of God is attributed to him. Let any one willing and able to think, consider whether this faith contains anything of the Word, where believing and doing are so often mentioned together; consequently, whether there is anything of the church or of religion in such faith. For in the things here adduced, where are the truths pertaining to faith, and the goods pertaining to life, which can alone constitute genuine doctrine from the Word, and thence theology in the Christian world? And because these things are not in that faith, it follows that it is not only a faith empty and void, but also a belief in what is not true. It is a matter of wonder to many in the spiritual world, and to all in heaven, that the theology of the Christian world is reduced to such emptiness and vacuity, that at length the whole of it consists in utterance of thought only, which also is the case with the evil from the fear of hell in the hour of death. Hence the same theological emptiness prevails among many of the reformed in the Christian world as with the Papists. But let any one consider whether such persons can be among the angels of heaven, whose intelligence is from the truths in the Word, and whose wisdom is from truths in act, which are called goods. This is also what is meant by the words of the Lord:

"When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

[10] 8. That in it there is neither any faith in the Lord, nor acknowledgment of the Divine in His Human. For he who prays to the Father to have mercy for the sake of His Son approaches the Father and not the Lord; although the Lord must be approached, for He is the God of heaven and earth. And the Word teaches that the Father cannot be approached except by the Lord and in the Lord, as shown above; also that there must be faith in the Lord; for the Lord says:

"He who believeth in the Son hath eternal life, but he who believeth not in the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

Also:

"This is the will of the Father who sent me, that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40).

And again:

"Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, he shall live; but every one who liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die eternally" (11:25, 26).

And elsewhere. To believe in Him and not to approach Him, but to ask the Father for His sake, is not believing in Him; for all faith approaches Him in whom the man believes. Wherefore to approach and see the Father was denied to Philip; and it was told him, that to see the Lord is to see the Father (John 14:7-11). Hence also all were healed of their diseases who asked the Lord to have mercy upon them, and who had faith in Him. And the children of Israel, who looked unto the brazen serpent, were also healed in the wilderness. The serpent represented the Lord as to the ultimate in His Human, which is called the sensual.

Moreover, in the spiritual world all sight and thought from acknowledgment conjoins; but sight directed to the Father conjoins no one; for the Lord says:

"Ye have neither heard the voice of the Father, nor seen his shape" (John 5:37).

[11] Add to this, that he who prays to the Father to have mercy for the sake of the Son, thinks of the Lord as an ordinary man; for he regards Him as inferior to the Father, and as a man born of the mother Mary, who suffered on the cross, and, on that account, procured mercy. Any one who thinks in this way separates the Lord's Divine from His Human, when yet the doctrine of the Nicene Council concerning the Trinity does not separate them;

[12] for this teaches, that the Divine and the Human of the Lord are not two but one Person; and that they are like the soul and body in man. But those who look to the Father, though they acknowledge the Divine of the Lord, do not approach it; for they regard it as being near the Father and above His Human, and so they see His Human without His Divine which, nevertheless, is His soul. This is why many at this day confess the Divine of the Lord with the lips, but why few acknowledge it in heart. And he who does not acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and pray to it, cannot have conjunction with heaven.

From these things it follows, that in the belief that the Father shows mercy for the sake of the Son, there is no faith in the Lord, nor any acknowledgment of His Divine in His Human. This also is what the Lord predicted to Peter, that at the end of the church He should no longer be acknowledged.

[13] 9. Consequently, that the trust and confidence of that faith, which is at this day accepted as the only saving faith, is an empty sound. For the trust reposed in such faith is a natural trust in which there is nothing spiritual, because nothing of the truth and good pertaining to faith and life. If therefore it is confirmed by the learned, the truth of heaven may be destroyed by such confirmation, and a man excluded from heaven as a result. Such is the emptiness of the faith alone accepted in the churches, or the faith separated from the goods of life. This faith, notwithstanding its emptiness, still constitutes the whole theology of the Christian world. This is why the learned of the church, when, after death, they enter the spiritual world, are so filled with falsities as scarcely to know a single genuine truth. But the case is different with those who have not confirmed such falsities in themselves, and have at the same time lived, in some degree, the life of faith, which is charity. These are capable of being instructed in the truths of faith, and when so instructed, they can be received amongst the angels in heaven. For it is one thing to believe such things with a faith confirmed with the heart, and quite another to believe them with a faith not confirmed.

10. That a saving faith is altogether different. This shall be treated of presently in what follows.