1. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Containing THE UNIVERSAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

This faith is presented at the outset in its general and in its particular form. It is so presented that it may serve as a preface to the whole work which follows, as a gateway, as it were, by which entrance is made to a temple, and as an epitome in which the subsequent details are duly summarized. It is said to be "The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church" because heaven, where angels are, and the Church, in which men are, act as one like the internal and the external with man. Hence it is that the member of the Church, who is in the good of love from the truths of faith, and in the truths of faith from the good of love, is an angel of heaven as to the interiors of his mind. Thus he enters into heaven after death, and there enjoys happiness according to the degree in which those principles are united in him. It should therefore be known that this faith in its summary form is the index and gateway of the new heaven now being formed by the Lord.

688. VII. BY THE BAPTISM OF JOHN A WAY WAS PREPARED THAT JEHOVAH THE LORD MIGHT DESCEND INTO THE WORLD AND ACCOMPLISH THE WORK OF REDEMPTION.

It is written in Malachi,

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in... But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?" Malachi 3:1-2;

and again,

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord... lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" Malachi 4:5-6;

and the father Zacharias, prophesying of his son John, says,

"Thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare His ways," Luke 1:76;

and the Lord Himself says of that John,

"This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before my (A.V., thy) face, which shall prepare thy way before thee" Luke 7:27.

From these passages it is evident that John was the prophet sent to prepare the way for Jehovah God, so that He might descend into the world and accomplish the work of redemption; and that he prepared the way by Baptism, and at the same time by proclaiming the Lord's coming; and that without such preparation all in the world would have been smitten with a curse, and would have perished.

377. (3) Charity alone does not produce good works, still less does faith alone; but good works are produced by charity and faith together. This is because charity without faith is not charity, and faith without charity is not faith, as was shown above in Nos. 355-358; therefore charity cannot exist by itself, nor faith by itself. Thus it cannot be said that either charity or faith by itself produces any good works. The same is true of the will and the understanding. It is not possible for the will or for the understanding to exist by itself, and therefore neither by itself produces anything; but all production is the result of both acting together, and is effected by the understanding from the will. This similarity arises from the fact that the will is the seat of charity, and the understanding of faith. The proposition states that faith alone produces good works still less than charity alone, because faith is truth, and its function is to produce truths; and these illuminate charity and its exercise. This the Lord teaches in the words,

"He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" John 3:21.

So long, therefore, as a man does good works according to truths, he does them in the light, that is, intelligently and wisely.

The conjunction of charity and faith is like the marriage of a husband and wife. From the husband as a father, and from the wife as a mother, all natural offspring are born. Similarly, from charity as a father, and from faith as a mother, are born all spiritual offspring, which are the knowledges of good and truth. From this may be understood what is meant by the generation of spiritual families. In the Word also, in its spiritual sense, husband and father signify the good of charity, and wife and mother, the truth of faith. From this again it is evident that neither charity alone, nor faith alone, can produce good works, just as neither a husband alone, nor a wife alone, can produce children. The truths of faith not only illuminate charity, but they also determine its character, and moreover nourish it. A man therefore who has charity and not the truths of faith is like one walking in a garden at night, who plucks fruit from the trees without knowing whether it is good or bad. Since the truths of faith not only illuminate charity, but also determine its character, as was just stated, it follows that charity without the truths of faith is like fruit without juice, or like a parched fig, or like grapes from which the wine has been pressed. Further, since truths nourish faith, as has also been stated, it follows that if charity is without the truths of faith, it has no more nourishment in it than one would receive from eating burnt bread, and drinking with it polluted water from a stagnant pool.