9224. 'The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me' means also all the matters of faith that [are acquired] through them - that they are to be ascribed to the Lord and not to self. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn of sons' as all matters of faith the Church possesses, dealt with in 2435, 6344, 7035, 7039, 7778, 8042; and from the meaning of 'giving to Me' as ascribing to the Lord, 'Jehovah' being used in the Word to mean the Lord. All matters of faith, meant by 'the firstborn of sons', are beliefs which spring from the good of charity; for faith comes into being from this good. Whether truths are acquired from the Word or from the teachings of the Church, they cannot by any means become matters of faith without the presence of good in which they can be implanted. The reason for this is that the understanding part of the mind is that which receives truths first, for it sees them and introduces them into the will; and when those truths are in the will they are in the person, the will being the person's true self. Anyone therefore who supposes that faith is faith with a person before the person wills it, and does it because he wills it, is very much mistaken. Nor before this do the truths of faith themselves have life in them. All that which belongs to the will is called good, because it is loved; thus truth becomes good, or faith becomes charity, when it is in the will.

[2] There are two controversies which have bothered the Church since earliest times. The first is whether faith is the firstborn of the Church or whether charity is; and the second is whether faith separated from charity brings salvation. The reason why these two controversies arose was that before a person has been regenerated he discerns the truths that are to become matters of faith but not the good that is the good of charity. For the truths of faith enter by the external route, that is to say, through hearing; they deposit themselves in the memory, and from there they appear in the understanding. But the good of charity flows in by the internal route - through the internal man from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven. Therefore it does not come to be discerned until the truths called matters of faith start to be loved for the sake of performing good and useful service and leading a good life, which happens when they come to belong to the will. This now explains why faith was declared to be the firstborn of the Church, and also why people attributed to it the rights of the firstborn, that is, the rights of priority and superiority over the good of charity, when in actual fact the good of charity is prior and higher, and the truth of faith only apparently so, see 3325, 3494, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 4977, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6272, 6273.

[3] The reason why those who belong to the Church have been in the dark in regard to these matters is that they have failed to perceive that all things in the universe have connection with truth and good, and to be anything must have connection with both. They have also failed to perceive that in the human being there are two mental powers, the understanding and the will, and that truth has connection with the understanding and good with the will, and that without the connection with both nothing is made a person's own. Because these considerations have lain in the dark, and yet the ideas composing a person's thought are based on such considerations, the error could not be made plain to the natural man. Yet if it had at some time been made plain, members of the Church would have seen from the Word as in broad daylight that the Lord Himself had countless things to say about the good of charity, that this good ranks first in the Church, and that faith does not exist anywhere else than within that good. The good of charity consists in doing good because one wills it. They would also have seen the errors that teachings upholding faith separated from charity bring in with them. One such error is the idea that a person is able to will evil and believe truth, consequently that truth is in agreement with evil. Another is the idea that faith can cause the life of heaven to exist with a person who has the life of hell in him, therefore that one life can be transformed into the other, so that those in hell can be raised to heaven and lead among angels a life contrary to their former life. People entertaining such errors do not take into consideration the fact that if anyone leads a life contrary to the life already acquired in the world he is deprived of his life. Anyone who tries to do so is like those who are in the throes of death and end their life in dreadful torment. Errors like these and very many others are what the teachings upholding faith separated from charity bring in with them.

8701. 'You are not able to do it yourself alone' means without any truth from good flowing in from another source. This is clear from the meaning of 'doing it alone' - when said of God's truth, represented by 'Moses' - as the influx of truth from it alone, and not at the same time from any other source. The situation here may be recognized from what has been stated above in 8685 about the direct influx of God's truth, and the direct and at the same time indirect influx of it. There it is shown that direct influx of God's truth occurs in a person's first state when he is being regenerated, but that influx direct and indirect occurs in the second state, that is to say, when he has been regenerated. When the influx is direct the Lord flows in indeed with good and truth, but the good is not perceived then, only the truth. During this time therefore he is led by truth, and not so much by good. But when the influx is at the same time indirect, the good is perceived; for indirect influx reaches down into a person's outward, sensory level of awareness. So it is that then the Lord leads the person through good.

[2] In general it should be recognized that not until his actions spring from an affection for good has a person been regenerated, for then his will desires what is good, and he finds delight and bliss in doing it. When he attains this state his life is a life of good, and he is in heaven since good reigns throughout heaven. Truth however that composes faith leads a person towards good, and so towards heaven; but it does not place him in heaven. The reason for this is that in the next life all are formed into different communities according to the life of the will, not according to the life of the understanding; for where the will is, there the understanding is, but not vice versa. This is so in heaven, and it is so in hell. Those who are evil are not sent to hell until the evil of their life takes control of them; for when this takes control of them, so too does the falsity accompanying their evil, even as those who are governed by good are also governed there by the truth accompanying their good. All in the next life are brought at last into a state in which their mind is single, that is to say, the intentions of their will are in tune with their thoughts and not at variance with them. The situation is different in the world. There what a person thinks, indeed sees in his understanding, can be at variance with his intentions. But this enables him to be reformed; that is to say, he can understand what good is even though he intends evil, and so can be led by means of his understanding to intend what is good. But in the next life each person is led in accordance with the intentions he acquired when in the world.