105. Verse 5. Be mindful therefore of whence thou hast fallen, and repent, and do the first works, signifies the remembrance of former things, and the remembrance of having deviated from the truth; and this, in order that the good of life of the church at its beginning may come into mind. This is evident from the signification of "be mindful," as being here the remembrance of former things; from the signification of "whence thou hast fallen," as being deviation therefrom, thus deviation from the truth; from the signification of "repent," as being that it may come into mind; and from the signification of "doing the first works," as being the good of life of the church at its beginning. (That "works" mean all those things of life that proceed from love and faith, see n. 98; and that "first works," which are of charity, are those of the church at its beginning, see just above, n. 104.) That a life in accordance with knowledges is the essential of the church, and not knowledges apart from such a life, can be seen by everyone who thinks about it; for knowledges, so long as there is no life according to them, reside in the memory only; and so long as they reside there only they do not affect man's interiors; for memory is given to man to be a receptacle, from which may be taken what will be serviceable to the life; and things are serviceable to the life when a man wills them and does them.

[2] The whole spirit of man is nothing but his will; when, therefore, man becomes a spirit, he is unable to resist anything that is favored by his will, for the whole man strives after it. That this is so is well known in the spiritual world; and I have occasionally seen the trial made, whether a spirit could do anything contrary to his will, from which he exists, and it was found that he could not. From this it was clear that man's will is what gives form to his spirit, and that man's spirit after it has left the body is his will. Whether you say will or love it is the same, for what a man loves he wills; so whether you say that the spirit of man cannot resist his will, or that it cannot resist his love, it is the same. The knowledges of good and truth, before they enter a man's will or love, contribute nothing whatever to his salvation, because they are not within the man: but out of him. But still knowledges are necessary, for without them man can know nothing of spiritual life, and he who knows nothing of spiritual life cannot become spiritual; for that which a man knows he can think, can will, and can do, but not that which he does not know. But yet if knowledges enter no deeper than into the memory and into thought therefrom, they do not affect him, and consequently do not save him.

[3] It is believed by many in the world at this day, especially by those who make faith alone the essential of the church, that to know doctrinals and from mere knowing to believe that they are true, saves man, however he may live; but I can affirm that no one is saved by these alone. I have seen many, even the most learned, cast into hell; but on the other hand, those who have lived according to the knowledges of truth and good from the Word I have seen raised up into heaven. From this it is clear that knowledges are of no avail, but a life according to them; and that knowledges merely teach how man ought to live. To live according to the knowledges of truth and good is to think that one must do thus and not otherwise because it is commanded by the Lord in the Word. When man thus thinks and thus wills and does, he becomes spiritual. Yet it is necessary for those within the church to believe in the Lord, and when they think of Him to think of His Divine in the Human, since from His Divine Human everything of charity and faith proceed.

4683. 'And he told it to his brothers' means to the adherents to faith separated from charity. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph's brothers' as the Church which turns aside from charity to faith, and in the abstract sense as things that are matters of faith, dealt with above in 4665, 4671, 4679. In this case the adherents to faith separated from charity are meant because the statement that follows about them hating him all the more means still greater contempt and aversion. The position with that Church is that when it first comes into being its members proclaim charity. But they are led to do so solely on the basis of doctrine and thus of factual knowledge, not of actual charity nor thus of affection or what is in their hearts. In course of time, as charity and affection are blotted out in their hearts they proclaim faith, and at length when no charity exists any longer they proclaim faith alone, saying that this faith without works enables one to be saved. At this point also they no longer call works the works of charity but those of faith, naming them the fruits of faith.

[2] Members of that Church do, it is true, link faith and works together in this way, but doctrine, not life, is the basis on which they do so. And because they do not make salvation depend in any way at all on the life of faith, which is good, only on faith - even though they know plainly from the Word, and their own understanding also tells them, that doctrine is nothing without life, or that faith is nothing without its fruits - they make the saving power of faith depend on confidence. As a result of this they also forsake the fruits of faith, unaware that all confidence owes its existence to the end in view which is life, or that true confidence cannot possibly exist except in good, and that spurious and also false confidence rest in evil. And to set faith and charity even further apart they also declare persuasively that the confidence of only a moment's duration, engendered even in the final moment of life, can save a person, no matter what his life had been prior to that. Yet for all this they know that the life which is his own awaits everyone after death and that each will be judged according to the works he has done in life. These few remarks make clear the nature of faith separated from charity, and therefore the nature of the Church which makes faith essential and not the life of faith. The falsities which flow from this as their fountainhead will in the Lord's Divine mercy be mentioned further on.

4665. Genesis 37

1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, a son of seventeen years, was pasturing the flock with his brothers; and he, still a boy, was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's womenfolk; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

3. And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, for he was the son of his old age; and he made him a tunic of various colours.

4. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

5. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him all the more. ¹

6. And he said to them, Hear now this dream which I have dreamed.

7. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it and bowed down to my sheaf.

8. And his brothers said to him, Are you indeed going; to reign over us? Or are you indeed going to have dominion over us? And they hated him all the more ¹ for his dreams and for his words.

9. And he dreamed yet another dream, and he recounted it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream again, and behold, the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

10. And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?

11. And his brothers envied him; and his father kept the matter ² [in mind].

12. And his brothers went to pasture the flock of their father, in Shechem.

13. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing [the flock] in Shechem? Go, and I will send you to them. And he said to him, Behold, here I am.

14. And he said to him, Go now, see the peace of your brothers and the peace of the flock, ³ and bring back word to me. And he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15. And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field and the man asked him, saying, What are you looking for?

16. And he said, I am looking for my brothers; tell me now, where they are pasturing [the flock].

17. And the man said, They have travelled on from here, for I heard them saying, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18. And they saw him from a distance; and before he drew near to them they plotted against him, to put him to death.

19. And they said, a man to his brother, Behold, that dreamer ⁴ is coming.

20. So now come, and let us kill him, and let us throw him into one of the pits, and let us say, An evil wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what his dreams are going to be.

21. And Reuben heard it and rescued him out of their hands, and said Let us not strike him, [as to his] soul. ⁵

22. And Reuben said to them, Do not shed blood; throw him into this pit in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him - so that he might therefore rescue him out of their hands, to return him to his father.

23. And it happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of various colours that was on him.

24. And they took him and threw him into the pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

25. And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, and their camels bearing spices, and resin, and stacte, ⁶ taking them down to Egypt.

26. And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in our killing our brother and concealing his blood?

27. Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, because he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers hearkened.

28. And men passed by, Midianites, who were traders; and they drew Joseph out and caused him to come up out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they led Joseph to Egypt.

29. And Reuben resumed to the pit, and behold, there was no Joseph in the pit; and he rent his clothes.

30. And he resumed to his brothers and said, The lad is no more; and I, where do I go?

31. And they took Joseph's tunic and killed a he-goat of the she-goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

32. And they sent the tunic of various colours, and brought it to their father, and said, We have found this; recognize now whether this is your son's tunic or not.

33. And he recognized it, and said, My son's tunic! An evil wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has been torn to pieces.

34. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned over his son many days.

35. And all his sons rose up, and all his daughters, to comfort him; and he refused to comfort himself, and said, For I will go down to my son, to the grave mourning. And his father wept for him.

36. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant, the chief of the attendants.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the eventual rejection, within the Church, of Divine truths received from the Lord's Divine Human, and the acceptance at length of falsities instead. Specifically the chapter deals with the opposition to the Lord's Divine Human of those governed by faith separated from charity.

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