Arcana Coelestia volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 166of faith devoid of charity are works of no faith, being in themselvesdead, for they are solely of the external man. Of such it is written inJeremiah:Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Thou hast plantedthem, they also have taken root; they have gone on, they also bear fruit;thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins; how long shallthe land mourn, and the herb of every field wither? (Jer. 12:1–2, 4).“Near in the mouth, but far from the reins” denotes those who areof faith separated from charity, concerning whom it is said that“the land mourns.” In the same prophet such works are called the“fruit of works”:The heart is deceitful [supplantativum] above all things, and it isdesperate, who can know it? I Jehovah search the heart, I try the reins,even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to thefruit of his works (Jer. 17:9–10).In Micah:The land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, forthe fruit of their works (Micah 7:13).That such “fruit” is no fruit, or that the “work” is dead, and thatboth fruit and root perish, is thus declared in Amos:I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like theheight of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed hisfruit from above, and his roots from beneath (Amos 2:9).And in David:Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed fromthe sons of man (Ps. 21:10).But the works of charity are living, and of them it is declared thatthey “take root downward, and bear fruit upward”; as in Isaiah:The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again takeroot downward, and bear fruit upward (Isa. 37:31).