802. (Verse 7) And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. That this signifies combat with those who are in truths from good, and are not a match for combinations owing to appearances, is evident from the signification of war, as denoting spiritual combat, which is that of truth against falsity and of falsity against truth (concerning which see above, n. 573, 734); hence to make war is to fight from truths against falsities, and from falsities against truths, in the present case from falsities against truths; and from the signification of the saints, as denoting those who are in truths from good (concerning which also see above, n. 204); and from the signification of conquering them, as denoting to cause them to be of their doctrine and consequently of their religion. And they accomplish this by reasonings, whereby they induce upon falsities the appearances of truth and also by passages from the sense of the letter of the Word, by which they confirm their reasonings; therefore, by those words is also signified, those who are not match for, or have not understood, their reasonings concerning how faith can be conjoined with good works, by reason of the appearances of truth induced upon falsities. From these things it is evident, that by its being given to the beast to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, is signified combat with those who are in truths from good, and are not a match for combinations due to appearances.
[2] In several places above we have treated of the reasonings by which the defenders of a faith separate from life have induced upon falsities the appearances of truth, by which they seem to themselves to have removed its disagreements with the Word; but that those disagreements were not removed, and that they have woven, as it were, an invisible spider's web, and this with the view of inducing a faith in falsities, is evident from what has been adduced above (n. 780, 781, 786, 790); and also from these things:- That in their doctrine, preaching, and writings, they labour hard to show, that faith was given as the means of salvation, because man cannot do good of himself; and that still God operates the goods in man, he being ignorant of it, by which operation the evils that the man does who is justified by faith, are not sins but natural infirmities; and that deliberate or voluntary evils are remitted either immediately, or after some repentance of the lips; and hence it follows, that by works and by doing, in the Word, is meant faith, and to have faith.
[3] This is their web, by which they induce the simple to believe that out of the treasures of wisdom or interior perception that are entrusted only to the teachers and the learned, they have drawn powerful arguments for the establishment of the doctrine of faith separated from any manifest endeavour, which is the will, of doing goods on the part of man. Thus, both with respect to themselves and the entire body of the church, they remit and relax the reins, in order that they may act and live in the indulgence of all kinds of lusts, according to their pleasure and the particular bent of their inclinations. And because this dogma is pleasing to the flesh and to the eyes, the common people easily receive it. This therefore is what is here signified by its being given to the beast to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.
But lest the rulers of the church - who are initiated into that dogma when they are initiated into the priesthood - and, by their means, the people of the church, should be infected by such poison prepared by crafty reasonings, of which they cannot but die, I desire to take up again the subject of the arguments just mentioned concerning the separation of faith from the good to be done by man, and concerning the conjunctions fallaciously contrived to connect them together, by which they proceed from something to nothing, or from truth to falsity; and I desire to place clearly before the understanding, enlightened in any degree, the detestable falsities of evil, and also the evils of falsity contained in that more than heretical dogma, and continually flow from it.
[4] 1. That faith was given as the means of salvation, because man cannot do good of himself. That a man cannot do good of himself is true. And because a man cannot have any faith from himself, it follows that, as he cannot do any thing from himself, so neither can he believe any thing of himself. For what man of the church does not acknowledge that faith is from God, and not from man? Just the same things may be said of faith as of works. Concerning works it is said, that if they are from man, and as long as they are from man, they do not justify. It is the same in respect to faith, if it is from man, and as long as it is from man. And yet every one believes from himself, for he evidently thinks, and wills to think in himself, as of himself, that which is of his faith. If therefore it is the same with faith as it is with works, it follows, that the elect only can have faith and be saved. This involves predestination, as a result of which the wicked are heedless, and there is a deprivation of all hope - from which comes despair among the good. When, nevertheless, all are predestinated to heaven; and those are called the elect who learn truths and do them. But as the case is the same with faith as with good works, it also follows on this doctrine that a man cannot and ought not to act differently from an automaton, or a thing which has no life, waiting to be moved by influx from God; and so may go on thinking nothing and willing nothing that is commanded in the Word, when, nevertheless, such a man is continually willing and thinking something from himself.
And because what is from the man himself is not from God but from hell - and yet to think and will from hell is to be opposed to God, and two opposites cannot exist together at the same time - such a man becomes either foolish or an atheist. If any one after this should say that faith, because it is given to be the means of salvation, can be received by a man as of himself, he would say what is true. But to have faith, that is, to think that a thing is so, and thence to speak as of oneself, and yet not be able to will a thing because it is as of oneself, is to destroy faith; for one without the other is a nonentity. But if it be said, that justifying faith is only to believe that God the Father sent the Son in order that, by the passion of the cross, He might become our propitiation, redemption, and salvation, and that this does not involve any thing to be done, because it is imputation that saves; this - inasmuch as there is no heavenly truth in such belief, as will be demonstrated in its place - is the same as to say that a faith of falsity, which is a dead faith, justifies.
[5] 2. That still God works good in man, whilst he is ignorant thereof. That God works good in a man is true, and also for the most part whilst man is ignorant thereof; but still God gives man the power to perceive those things that are necessary to salvation. For God works in order that a man may think and speak the things that belong to faith, and may will and do those things that pertain to love; and when a man thinks, speaks, wills, and acts in this way, he cannot but think, speak, will, and act, as of himself. For God operates upon those things in a man that are from Himself in him; that is, into the truths of faith, and into the goods of love. Wherefore when God causes the former to exist in the understanding, and the latter in the will, they appear to man as his own, as it were, and as his own he brings them forth. No one can think and speak, will and act but from God; it is sufficient for a man to know and to acknowledge that these are from God. The very Divine operation frequently takes place without a man being aware of it, but he is conscious of the effects. This is meant by the statement
That a man cannot take any thing, unless it be given him from heaven (John 3:27); and by Jesus saying, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
If man were not conscious of thinking truths and doing goods, lest they might be regarded as his own goods and truths, he would be like either an animal, or a stock, and so would not be able to think and will any thing of God or from God; consequently he could not be conjoined with God by faith and love, and live for ever. The difference between animals and men is, that animals cannot think and speak truths, and will and do good from God, but that men can; and thus they can believe the things they think, and love the things they will, and this as if of themselves. Were it not as of themselves, the Divine influx and operation would pass through them and would not be received; for a man would be like a vessel without a bottom, which retains no water. Man's thought is the receptacle of truth, and the will is the receptacle of good; and there can be no reception unless a man is conscious of it. And if there is no reception, there can be no reciprocity; for it is this which causes what is of God to be as if it were of man. Every acting thing that desires to conjoin itself with another, must necessarily have somewhat, as it were, belonging to that other with which to conjoin itself, otherwise there could be no re-action. And where there is neither action nor re-action, no conjunction is possible. The things in man with which God, the sole activity, conjoins Himself, are the understanding and the will. These faculties are man's; which, although from God, cannot but act as of themselves. It now follows, therefore, that truths and goods that do not so act, are nothing. But this shall be illustrated by examples.
It is commanded in the Word that man shall not commit adultery, shall not steal, shall not kill, shall not bear false witness. Now it is known that a man can do all those things of himself; and also, that he can also desist from them because they are sins. But still he cannot desist from them of himself, but from God. When, however, a man, from God, desists from them, he still thinks that he wills to desist from them because they are sins, and thus he desists from them as of himself. And when this is the case, then because he calls adultery sin, he lives in chastity and loves chastity, and this also as of himself. And because he calls theft sin, he lives in sincerity and loves sincerity, and this also as of himself. When he calls murder sin, then he lives in charity and loves charity, and this as of himself. When he calls false testimony sin, then he lives in truth and justice, and loves truth and justice, and this as of himself. And although he lives and loves these things as of himself, still he lives and loves them from God. For whatever a man does as of himself from chastity itself, from sincerity itself, from charity itself, and from truth and justice itself, he does from God; and hence they are goods. In a word, all those virtues which a man does as of himself, evils being removed, are from God, and are good. But all the things that a man does before evils are removed, although they are works of chastity, sincerity, charity, truth, and justice, still they are not good because they are from man.
Because all works, both those that are done from God as those that are not done from God, can be performed only by man, or as it were by him, it is evident why works, deeds, working, and doing, are so frequently mentioned in the Word, which would not have been mentioned and commanded at all, if they were done by God without a man being aware of it, according to the interior meaning of the doctrine of those who separate faith from good works.
[6] 3. That the evils that a man does who is justified by faith, are not sins, but infirmities of his nature; and that voluntary or deliberate evils, are remitted either immediately or after some repentance of the lips. This is the confession of those who have deeply scrutinised and investigated the mysteries of the separation of faith from good works, variously according to the keenness of the faculty that reasons and draws conclusions; they are inferences. For those who attribute everything of salvation to faith alone, and separate salvation from good works, say that they are in grace, and some that they are in God. If in grace, they conclude that evils are not seen, and if seen, that they are immediately remitted; if in God, nothing can condemn them, thus that evils are not sins, because sins condemn, these are infirmities of nature. And as evils done from the Voluntary - which in the Word are called sinning with a high hand - are not infirmities of nature, they say that they are remitted either immediately, or after some penitential expressions of the lips; because he who is in good by justification of faith has no need of repentance of life; and some also add, because they are done by permission.
These things also follow from the fact that they believe that he who is justified by faith is redeemed, purified before God, and regenerated; and that because he cannot do good of himself, the Lord's merit is ascribed and imputed to him, by virtue of which imputation, and also of redemption and regeneration, he is adopted as a son of God, and is led of God the Father and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, consequently his works are accepted, because his evils not being evils like those of others; but they do not condemn, they cannot be called sins, but infirmities, which adhere to every one, being inherited from Adam, and which, as soon as they arise, are remitted and cast out. These and various other opinions besides, are entertained by those who hold the dogma of faith alone, according to their ideas concerning the essence of faith, and the separation thereof from the goods of life, or concerning the conjunction of faith with those goods.
But to enter into a particular examination of each of these is not important, for they are all streams flowing from a false principle, from which nothing but falsities in a continual series can possibly flow. Who does not know and acknowledge, when he thinks about it, that a man should examine himself, confess his sins before God, abhor them, and afterwards lead a new life, in order that he may inherit life eternal? These things are taught in the prayers used in the churches, especially in those which are preparatory to the sacrament of the Supper; they are taught in the Word, and in all preachings from the Word; and reason, in the least degree enlightened, declares the same. But still the light of this truth is extinguished as soon as any one studies the mysteries of the doctrine [of faith alone], and thence desires to attain fame for erudition. For being led by the love of self, and the arrogance of his own intelligence, he recedes from the faith of the general body, and embraces the falsity, which destroys all the truth of the Word, and all the truth of heaven. And because such a man is believed to be learned, he attracts and seduces many; and thus he scatters the sheep which he ought to bring together, by teaching that no evil condemns him who can think and declare with confidence that Christ suffered for him, and thereby redeemed him. But that there is nothing of life in such a faith will be seen in what follows.
Such persons are not unlike those whose sight is perverted, who when they see men believe them to be spectres, and when they see phantoms believe them to be men. Thus they see truths as falsities, and falsities as truths, especially if the imagination under a false light forms images in agreement with such light. They see wisdom in the delirium caused by their mysteries, not knowing that, in the world to come, those who are ignorant of these things have a better lot.
[7] 4. That by "works," and by "doing," in the Word, is meant faith and to have faith. By this they desire to persuade others that they prove everything in the Word, although they falsify everything in it. For to form a conclusion of this kind is to be inconsistent and speak falsely. It is inconsistent to say that by doing goods is meant to have faith, when nevertheless the faith received not only separates, but also excludes good works from being a means of salvation; and what is separated and excluded from anything, thus from the faith which is said not only to be something but also every thing, cannot possibly exist in it, and, consequently, cannot be understood by it. It is inconsistent also to say, that by what is saving and spiritual, which is said to belong to faith, is meant at the same time, what is not saving and not spiritual; for they call faith saving and spiritual, but works not saving, and, consequently, not spiritual. It is a false mode of speaking to say, that the Divine operation, without any co-operation on the part of man, is meant by works and by doing in the Word, when nevertheless a man is commanded to do them. It is also a false mode of speaking to say that by good works is meant the faith that is received, and is called saving, when nevertheless, that faith belongs to the thought alone and nothing thereof to the will. They say also, that works and deeds are mentioned in the Word for the sake of the simple, who do not grasp the mysteries of faith. It is, however, to be observed, that it is one thing to believe [in the existence of] any one, and another to believe in any one; as to believe that there is a God, and to believe in Him. To believe in God or in His name, signifies both to do and to have faith, as in John:
"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12, 13).
Those who are born not of blood, are those who do not falsify the Word. Those who are born not of the will of the flesh, are those who are not in lusts from the love of self. Those who are born not of the will of man (vir), are those who are not in falsities from the arrogance of their own intelligence. Those who are born of God, are those who by truths from the Word, and by a life according thereto, are regenerated by the Lord. These are they who believe in the name of the Lord, and thence are called the sons of God. Such a faith is not that of the teachers of the church at this day.
