803. And there was given to him authority over every tribe and tongue and nation, signifies domination over all the truths and goods of the church, and over the doctrine of faith and love. This is evident from the signification of "authority," as being domination; also from the signification of "tribe," as being the truths and goods of the church in general (See above, n. 39, 330, 430, 431, 454, 657). Also from the signification of "tongue," as being the doctrine of the church, also confession and religion (See above, n. 330, 455, 625, 657), here the doctrine of faith; also from the signification of "nation," as being the good of love, likewise the doctrine of love, and thence of the church (See above, n. 175, 331, 625, 657). From this it can be seen that "authority was given to the beast over every tribe and tongue and nation" signifies domination over all the truths and goods of the church, and over the doctrine of faith and love. And as "the beast" signifies faith separated from the life, corroborated and established by reasonings from the natural man, it follows that to such a faith domination is given over all things of the church and its doctrine. It is evident that domination was given to this faith, since faith alone is the universal prevailing principle in the churches; for it has been taken to be the essential means of salvation, as is clearly evident from the doctrines of the churches, as well as from the verbal profession of the men of the church, and in general from their lives; also from this, that they do not know what charity and love are, consequently what works are. And as such is the domination of faith separate, so it has domination over all the truths and goods of the church, and extinguishes them by falsifying, perverting, and adulterating them; for where that faith rules there is no longer anything good, and thence no truth.

[2] It is known that faith from love is the essential means of salvation, and thus is the principle of the doctrine of the church; but since it is important to know how a man can be in such enlightenment as to learn the truths that must constitute his faith and in such affection as to do the goods that must constitute his love, and thus can know whether his faith is a belief in truth and his love a love of good, this shall be told in its proper order, as follows: 1. Let him read the Word every day, one or two chapters, and learn from a master and from preachings the dogmas of his religion; and especially let him learn that God is one, and that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth (John 3:35; 17:2; Matthew 11:27; 28:18), that the Word is holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death.

2. Let him learn from the Word, from a master, and from preachings, what works are sins, and that they are especially adulteries, thefts, murders, false witness, and the others mentioned in the Decalogue; likewise that lascivious and obscene thoughts are also adulteries, that frauds and illicit gains are also thefts, that hatred and revenge are also murders, and that lies and blasphemies are also false witness; and so on. Let him learn all these things from childhood to youth.

3. When man begins to think for himself, which is the case after he has grown up, it must be to him the first and chief thing to refrain from doing evils for the reason that they are sins against the Word, thus against God, and for the reason that if he does them he will gain, not life eternal, but hell; and afterwards as he grows up and becomes old he must shun them as damned, and must turn away from them in thought and intention. But in order to so refrain from them and shun and turn away from them, he must pray to the Lord for help. The sins he must refrain from and must shun and turn away from are chiefly adulteries, frauds, illicit gains, hatreds, revenges, lies, blasphemies, and elation of mind.

4. So far as man detests these evils because they are opposed to the Word, and thence opposed to God, so far there is granted him communication with the Lord, and conjunction is effected with heaven. For the Lord enters, and with the Lord heaven enters, as sins are removed; since these and their falsities are the sole hindrances. The reason is because man has been placed in the midst between heaven and hell, wherefore hell acts from the one side, and heaven from the other; therefore so far as evils that are from hell are removed, so far goods from heaven enter; for the Lord says:

Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hear and open the door, I will come in to him (Revelation 3:20).

But if man refrains from doing these evils for any other reason than because they are sins, and are opposed to the Word and because thence to God, no conjunction of heaven with him is effected, because his refraining is from self, and not from the Lord. The Lord is in the Word, even so that He is called the Word (John 1:1-4), because the Word is from Him; consequently the conjunction of heaven with the man of the church is by means of the Word, as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 303-310.

5. So far, then, as man detests these sins so far good affections enter. Then so far as he detests adulteries so far chastity enters; so far as he detests frauds and unlawful gains so far sincerity and justice enter; so far as he detests hatred and revenge so far charity enters; so far as he detests lies and blasphemies so far truth enters; and so far as he detests elation of mind so far humility before God and love of the neighbor as oneself enter; and so on. From this it follows that to shun evils is to do goods.

6. So far as a man is in these good affections he is led by the Lord and not by self; and so far as he acts from them so far he does what is good, because he does this from the Lord and not from self; and then he acts from chastity, from sincerity and justice, from charity, from truth, in humility before God; and from these no one can act from self.

7. The spiritual affections that are granted by the Lord to him who is in them and who acts from them, are the affection of knowing and understanding the truths and goods of heaven and the church, together with the affection of willing and doing them; also the affection of combating with zeal against falsities and evils and dispersing them, both with himself and with others. From this man has faith and love, and from this he has intelligence and wisdom.

8. Thus and in no other way is man reformed; and so far as he knows and believes truths, and wills and does them, so far is he regenerated, and from natural becomes spiritual. The like is true of his faith and his love.

[3] If evils have not been removed because they are sins nothing that a man thinks, speaks, wills, and does, is good or true before God, however it may appear as if good and true before the world. The reason is that they are not from the Lord but from man, since it is the love of the man and of the world from which they are, and which is in them. Most people at this day believe that they will come into heaven if they have faith, live piously, and do goods; and yet they do not turn away from evils because they are sins, consequently they either do them or believe them to be allowable; and those who believe them to be allowable do them when opportunity is given. But let them know that their faith is not faith, that their pious things are not pious, and that their goods are not goods; for they flow from the impurities that lie inwardly concealed with man; and externals derive everything that they are from internals. For the Lord says:

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside may become clean also (Matthew 23:26).

From this it can now be seen that if a man were able to fulfill all things of the law, if he should give much to the poor, if he should do good to the fatherless and the widow, and if he should also give bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, take in the strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and go to them that are bound in prison, if he should earnestly preach the Gospel, convert the Gentiles, frequent temples, listen devoutly to preachings, observe the sacrament of the Supper often every year, spend his time in prayer, and other things; and his internal has not been purified from hatred and revenge, from craftiness and malice, from insincerity and injustice, from the filthy delight of adultery, from the love of self and the consequent love of rule, and the pride of self-intelligence, from contempt of others in comparison with oneself, and from the other evils and their falsities; still all these works would be hypocritical and from the man himself, and not from the Lord. And yet these same works, when the internal has been purified, are all good, because they are from the Lord with man, and since the man is in the faith and in the love of doing these works he will do them as a matter of course. This has been proved to me by a thousand examples in the spiritual world. I have there heard that it has been granted to many to recall the actions of their life in the world, and to enumerate the goods they had done; but when their internal was opened it was found to be full of every evil and the falsity therefrom; and it was then disclosed to them that the goods they had enumerated had been done from self, because for the sake of self and the world, and that they were full of evils from their interiors; and on this account they appeared either as if scorched with fire, or as if sooty.

[4] But it was otherwise with those who from the Word had abstained from doing evils, and had afterwards shunned them and turned away from them because they were sins and were opposed to love to God and to charity towards the neighbor. Although there was a similar perception to them that their works were done as if from self, yet they were all good, and appeared in the light of heaven like white snow and wool (Isaiah 1:12-18). These are the works that are meant in the Word by the works that can in no wise be separated from faith; for faith separated from them is dead, and a dead faith is a faith in falsity from an evil love; or it is the thought that a thing is true, while the life is still evil.

That abstaining from evils for any reason whatever except from the Word does not purify the internal man is evident from the origin of evil works and from the origin of good works. For example, he that abstains from adulteries from fear of the civil law and its punishments, from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honor, from fear of deprivations arising from poverty, parsimony, or avarice, from fear of consequent illness, from fear of brawls at home with the wife and the consequent intranquility of life, from fear of chastisement by the servants of the injured husband, from infirmity arising from abuse, or age, or impotence, or even from natural goodness and consequent moral goodness, that is, as not being proper and honorable, and so on, and if for such reasons only he lives chastely still he is interiorly unchaste and an adulterer, so long as he does not abstain from these evils from spiritual faith, which is a belief that adulteries are infernal because they are contrary to the Divine Law, and thus contrary to the fear of God and to love of the neighbor. And so in all other cases.

[5] From what has now been presented it can be seen what the internal and the external are, also what faith and love are, namely, that faith and love are with man when his internal has been purified from evils in the manner just described, and that they are not in him if it be not purified, and that where faith and love are, there is heaven, and where faith and love are not, there is hell. More on this may be seen hereafter n. 825.

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.