Chapter VI

. treats of Faith. Faith, it is said, is first in regard to

time, and charity is first in regard to end; that is, the use of faith is to lead to charity. A saving faith is a faith in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, because He is the visible God in whom is the invisible. Faith, in general, consists in a belief that the Lord will save all who live a good life and believe aright; and a man receives this faith in consequence of approaching the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living a life in conformity with them. Faith without charity is not faith, and charity without faith is not charity; and neither faith nor charity has any life in it but from the Lord. Although a man has power given him to procure for himself faith and charity, and the life of faith and charity, yet nothing of faith, charity, or the life of either, is from man, but from the Lord alone. Charity and faith are together in good works; for charity consists in willing what is good, and good works consist in doing what is good, from and under the influence of a good will; and both charity and faith are merely mental and perishable things, unless they are determined to works, and coexist in them, whenever there is opportunity. The wicked have no faith, because wickedness is of hell, and faith is of heaven, and all the truth of faith is derived from heaven. Faith cannot dwell with evil, for evil is like fire,—infernal fire being the love of evil, which consumes faith like stubble, and reduces it and all that belongs to it to ashes. Evil dwells in darkness, and faith in light; and evil by means of the falsehood which it loves, extinguishes faith, as darkness does light. And because the world is at this day full of evil, (notwithstanding the morality of life, and the rationality with which faith is spoken and written about,) of true faith there is almost none, because of goodness there is almost none.

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