32. Love and faith are first called 'the great lights', then love is called 'the greater light' and faith 'the lesser light'. In reference to love it is said that it will have dominion over the day, and in reference to faith that it will have dominion over the night. Because these are arcana and have become hidden, especially at this end of an epoch, in the Lord's Divine mercy let the whole subject be opened up. The reason they have become hidden, especially at this present end of an epoch, is that now is the close of the age, when love is almost non-existent, and consequently faith too, just as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospels with these words,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' is used to mean love, which is 'darkened', 'the moon' faith which does not give its light, 'the stars' cognitions of faith which fall from heaven, and which are the various 'powers of the heavens'. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself; celestial angels as well do not know what faith is except faith which stems from love. Love pervades the whole of heaven, for in the heavens no other life is found except the life that belongs to love. This is the source of all happiness in heaven, a happiness so great that no aspect of it can be described or in any way captured in human concepts. People in whom this love is present love the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet they realize, say, and perceive that all love, thus all life, which belongs exclusively to love, and so all happiness, come from the Lord and nowhere else, and that they derive not one trace of love, life, and happiness from themselves. The Lord's being the source of all love was again represented by the greater light, that is, the sun, at the Transfiguration, for His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. What is inmost is meant by His face, and what emanates from the inmost by His garments. Thus His Divinity is meant by the sun or love, and His Humanity by the light or wisdom coming from love.

1017. That the nature of the multiplying depends on the character of the affection, let the person serve as an example who accepts the basic assumption that faith alone saves somebody even when he does not perform any charitable action, that is, has no charity, and so separates faith from charity. Such a person separates faith from charity not only because he has accepted that assumption since earliest childhood, but also because he really does think that if anyone were to say that charity, or the works of charity, were the essential constituent of faith and led a devout life on those grounds he would inevitably be placing merit in works, which however is a falsity. Thus he rejects charity and considers the works of charity to be worthless, and so keeps solely to the idea of faith, which is no faith at all when devoid of its essential, which is charity. As long as he confirms himself in that assumption he in no way acts from an affection for good but from the affection inherent in the delight of being able to live without any restriction on his evil desires. And anyone among those like this who relies on many different facts to confirm that assumption does not act from an affection for truth but from glory of self, in order that he may consequently appear greater, more learned, and more eminent than everybody else, and so be promoted to the ranks of the distinguished and wealthy. Thus he acts from the delight accompanying the affection, and this delight causes things of a confirmatory nature to multiply, for as stated, the character of the affection determines that of the multiplication. In general, if a basic assumption is false, nothing but falsities can possibly result from it. In fact everything conforms to the basic assumption. Indeed, as I know from experience, which in the Lord's Divine mercy I will describe elsewhere, people who confirm themselves in such basic assumptions concerning faith alone and who have not been governed at all by charity, pay no attention to, and so to speak do not see, all that the Lord has said so many times about love and charity, as in Matthew 3:8-9; 5:7, 43-48; 6:12, 15; 7:1-20; 9:13; 12:33; 13:8, 27; 18:21- end; 19:19; 22:35-39; 24:12-13; 25:34, 40, 41, 45; Mark 4:18-20; 11:13-14, 20; 12:28-34; Luke 3:8-9; 6:27-38, 43-end; 7:47; 8:8, 14-15; 10:25-28; 12:58-59; 13:6-9; John 3:19, 21; 5:42; 13:34-35; 14:15, 21, 23; 15:1-17; 21:15-17.