Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 520is acting well and faith is believing well, and that believing wellapart from acting well is impossible; thus that there can be no faithapart from charity; as also that charity is the esse of faith and itssoul; consequently faith alone is faith without a soul, thus a deadfaith; and as such faith is not faith, so justification by such faith is athing of naught.251. I will come in to him, signifies conjunction. This is evidentfrom the signification of “coming in,” as being, in reference to theLord, to be conjoined with Him (see Arcana Coelestia, n. 3914,3918, 6782, 6783). The Lord is conjoined with those who receiveHim in heart and life, because the Lord enters or flows in into life;He enters or flows in only with those who are in a life of spirituallove, or in a life of charity; for charity is spiritual love. When thatlove makes a man’s life, the Lord enters or flows in through it intothe truths of faith, and causes man to see, or to know them; fromthis man has the spiritual affection of truth. It is a great mistake tosuppose that the Lord enters or flows in into faith alone or intofaith separate from charity with man; in such a faith there is no life,for it is like the breathing of the lungs without the inflow from theheart, which breathing would be only a lifeless movement, for thebreathing of the lungs is made alive by the inflow from the heart, asis well known. This makes clear by what way the Divine proceedingfrom the Lord is admitted, namely, by the way of the heart, that is,of the love; whether you say the heart or the love, it is the same asthe life of the spirit therefrom. Love makes man’s life, as anyonemay know and see if he is only willing to give thought to it; forwhat is a man without love? is he not a stock? Therefore, as the loveis so is the man. Love is willing and doing, for what man loves hewills and does. An idea of the good of charity and of the truth offaith may be formed from the sun’s light and heat. When the lightthat proceeds from the sun is conjoined with heat, as in spring andsummer time, then all things of the earth bud and blossom; butwhen there is no heat in the light, as in winter time, then all thingsof the earth become torpid and die. Spiritual light also is the truthof faith, and spiritual heat is the good of charity. From this an ideamay be formed of the man of the church; that when faith with himis conjoined to charity he is like a garden and a paradise; but when