1017. Let the following example serve to illustrate the idea that the kind of affection we have determines how things multiply in us.
Some people adopt the principle that faith alone saves them, even if they have never done a charitable deed — that is, even if they possess no charity — and in this way they detach faith from charity. It is not only because they took up such a principle in childhood that they think like this. It is also because they imagine that if we were to claim charitable acts, or neighborly love, to be the essential ingredient of faith and for this reason lived devoutly, we could not help viewing good deeds as earning us credit. (This is untrue, though.) Accordingly, they reject charity and consider acts of charity worthless. They restrict themselves exclusively to the concept of faith, which is nothing without its essential ingredient — charity.
When they corroborate this principle in themselves, it is never from a desire for goodness but from a desire for pleasure; they like being able to follow freely a life devoted to their appetites. The ones who use many arguments to defend the principle do so not because they love truth but for the sake of their own glory. They want to appear more important, scholarly, and profound than others and so to be elevated to the ranks of the influential and rich. So it is the pleasure afforded by their predilection that drives them. This pleasure makes them multiply supportive arguments, because, to repeat, the kind of affection we have determines how things multiply in us.
[2] In general, when the premise is wrong, only falsity can result from it, because everything conforms with the premise. As a matter of fact — and I learned about this through experience, as will be reported elsewhere, 1 with the Lord's divine mercy — those who confirm themselves in principles of this kind concerning faith alone, and who have no charity, lack any interest in the many things the Lord so often said about love and charity. They seem not even to see those statements. Examples are Matthew 3:8-9; 5:7, 43-48; 6:12, 15; 7:1-20; 9:13; 12:33; 13:8, 23; 18:21-22, 23-end; 19:19; 22:35-40; 24:12-13; 21:34, 40-41, 43; 2 Mark 4:18-19, 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; 14:14-15, 20-21, 23; 15:1-8, 9-19; 21:15-16, 17.
Footnotes:
1. Although Swedenborg makes similar assertions in many later doctrinal passages, none of the accounts of his spiritual experiences stands out as fulfilling the hope expressed here. [JSR]
2. It is unclear why these references from Matthew 21 appear after references from Matthew 22 and 24 in the first edition. [LHC]
