Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/161

And Martin Luther who first formulated this faith-alone dogma, says:

"A Christian cannot, if he will, lose his salvation by any multitude or magnitude of sins, unless he ceases to believe; for no sins can damn him, but unbelief alone. Everything else ... is absorbed in a moment by that faith."—Luther de Captiv. Bab. II., 264. Comp. Duspu. I., 523.

The New Church Doctrine.

But very different is the doctrine of the New Church. According to its teaching, there are two parts or faculties of the mind—understanding and will; the former being the receptacle of truth (or its opposite), and the latter the receptable of love (or its opposite); for man has no life of his own; he is merely an organized form capable of receiving life from the Lord. These two faculties are related like light and heat, or like the lungs and the heart. Spiritual truth, such as the Lord has revealed concerning Himself and his kingdom, including all the laws of the soul's higher or heavenly life, may be received into the understanding and believed. But this belief or mere intellectual apprehension of truth, is not faith; it is simply a persuasion, or knowledge of faith,—a something belonging to the outermost region of the mind, the memory. The truth becomes faith only when it is united to love (which is its vital ele-