Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 223conceit of self-intelligence, but the former is done by those wholove truths and are affected by them because they are truths, andwho make them uses of the life, for these persons are enlightenedby the Lord, and see truths by the light of the truths; whereas theothers are enlightened by themselves and see falsities by the light ofthe falsities.92. That appearances of truth, which are truths clothed, may becaught at out of the Word as naked truths, and that whenconfirmed they become falsities is evident from the many heresiesthere have been and still are in Christendom. The heresiesthemselves do not condemn men, but an evil life does, as also dothe confirmations from the Word, and from reasonings from thenatural man of the falsities that are in the heresy. For everyone isborn into the religion of his parents is initiated into it from hisinfancy, and afterwards holds to it, being unable to withdrawhimself from its falsities through being engaged with his business inthe world. But to live in evil, and to confirm falsities even to thedestruction of genuine truth, is what condemns. For he whoremains in his own religion, and believes in God, or if inChristendom, in the Lord, regarding the Word as holy, and from areligious principle living according to the ten commandments, doesnot swear allegiance to falsities, and therefore as soon as he hearstruths and perceives them in his own way, can embrace them andso be led away from falsities; but not so the man who hasconfirmed the falsities of his religion, for confirmed falsity remainsand cannot be rooted out. For after confirmation a falsity becomesas if the man had sworn to the truth of it, especially if it chimes inwith his own self-love [amor proprii], and the derivative conceit ofhis own wisdom.93. I have conversed with some in the spiritual world who hadlived many ages ago, and had confirmed themselves in the falsitiesof their religion, and I found that they still remained steadfast inthe same. I have also conversed there with some who had been ofthe same religion as they, and had thought as they did, but had notconfirmed themselves in its falsities, and I found that after beinginstructed by angels these had rejected the falsities and had imbibed