Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/164

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158
The Doctrines of the New Church.

"To have faith is nothing else than to live according to it [that is, according to truth in the understanding]; and to live according to it is not only to know and think, but also to will and do; for faith is not in a man while it is only in his knowledge and thought, but when it is also in his will and deeds. Faith in man is a faith of the life; but faith not yet in him, is a faith of the memory, and of the thought derived therefrom," (Ap. Ex. 250.)

"The intellectual principle is what first receives truths, since it sees them and introduces them to the will; and when they are in the will, they are in the man, for the will is the man himself. Whoever supposes, therefore, that faith is faith with man until he wills those truths, and from willing does them, is very much deceived; nor have the truths of faith any life until man wills and does them." (A. C. 9224.)

"Heavenly life is contracted from all those ends, thoughts and works which are grounded in love toward our neighbor; this is the life to which all those things called faith have respect, and it is procured by all things appertaining to faith. Hence it may be seen what faith is, viz., that it is charity; for all things called the doctrines of faith lead to charity; they are all contained in charity, and are all derived from charity." (A. C. 2228.)

"By the works according to which a man is judged [in the hereafter] are not meant such works as are exhibited merely in the external form, but such as they are internally also. For every deed proceeds from man's will and thought;