Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 492which is faith. The knowledges themselves that precede, and thatappear to the natural sight as if believed, do not until then come tobe of faith; consequently this seeing the knowledges, that is thoughtto be of faith, recedes step by step from man as he begins fromwilling evil to think evil, and also recedes from him after deathwhen man becomes a spirit, if the knowledges have not been rootedin his life, that is, in his will or love.[4] This may be illustrated by a comparison with the stomachs ofbirds and beasts of the earth that are called ruminating stomachs.Into these they first collect their food, and afterwards by degreestake it out and eat it, and thus nourish the blood; food thusbecomes a part of their life. With man the memory corresponds tothese stomachs; and man is endowed with memory instead of thesebecause he is spiritual; into this he first gathers spiritual foods,which are knowledges, and afterwards he takes them out by a sortof ruminating, that is, by thinking and willing, and appropriatesthem, and thus makes them a part of his life. From thiscomparison, although trifling, it can be seen that knowledges,unless implanted in the life by thinking and willing them and thendoing them, are like food that remains unconsumed in ruminatingstomachs, where it either becomes putrid or is vomited out.Moreover, the circle of man’s life is to know, to understand, to will,and to do; for man’s spiritual life begins with knowing, passes nextto understanding, then to willing, and finally to doing. From this itis clear that so long as knowledges are in the memory they aremerely in the entrance to the life, and that they are not fully in manuntil they are in acts, and the more fully they are in acts the morefully they are in the understanding and will.242b. [5] It was further shown that the faith of knowledgesbefore it becomes the faith of life is historical faith, the nature ofwhich is well known, namely, that it is believed because another hassaid it; until this has been made man’s own it is an alien thing, orsomething with oneself belonging to some one else. Historical faith,moreover, is like a belief in things unknown, for it is said thatthings must be believed though not understood, yea, that they mustnot be searched into by the understanding; and yet spiritual faith is