1194. [John vi. 30.] The evidence of facts related in Scripture, either sensitive or rational, is not properly faith, but knowledge; and the rational knowledge of such facts men either have, or may have if they please, after the same manner they now come by the knowledge of other transactions related in profane history. And as for those revealed truths which are deduced from them, and which are properly the objects of our faith, such as Christ's being the Son of God and true Messiah, his having almighty power, and being truly our Lord and our God; it is plain they are of such a nature as not to admit of any immediate sensitive evidence. Had these mysterious doctrines and truths been in themselves capable of immediate sensitive evidence either to the Jews or us, they would then become knowledge, as was that of the facts and miracles; and such evident knowledge as would necessarily exclude all faith. So that though our modern unbelievers had actually seen all the miracles wronght by our Saviour, yet still on their principles they must have continued void of all faith in those mysterious doctrines to which the miracles were designed to procure our assent.

Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 219.

1195. [Heb. xi. 6.] No divine revelation concerning God and his attributes, the mysteries of christianity, and all things supernatural and spiritual, reaches any farther than as to their existence only, and that lively symbol and analogy under which they are represented to the mind of man; which is as plain, and obvious, and intelligible as any thing in nature and common life. The very idea of existence, which is the most direct and immediate one we have with respect to immaterial beings, is from the senses; in the knowledge of which the intellect proceeds thus: As from the existence of one thing material actually perceived, I infer the possible and even probable existence of other things material which were never the objects of any of my seuses; so from the known existence of things material I draw this consequence, that other things may and must exist which Were it not for our actual sensible perception of bodily substance, we should not know what it were to have a being, nor could we be conscious of even our own existence. Ibid. pp. 276, 387.

are not matter.

1196. [Rom. i. 20.] There is a mutual sympathy and fast connexion between the truths of Nature, and those of Religion; they fall in together, and close whenever they meet, so as to communicate light and strength to each other.When, therefore, we stoop in our Analogies as low as the Earth, it is that from thence we may with more vigor take our flight even to Heaven itself, for the contemplation of all the glorious objects of another World. Ibid. p. 57.

1197. [1 Cor. xiii. 12.] As by the help of a looking-glass we see the resemblance only or similitude of a man, but nothing of the substance or reality of human nature; so God in his revelations gives us a view of himself, and of all other divine things which have any relation to us, in the mirror of this world: which, though it can afford us no direct or immediate idea of the real true nature and substance of those divine objects as they are in themselves; yet exhibits to us such a semblance and representation of them as serves all the ends of morality and religion in this life. These images are what we now can directly discern and give our assent to; they are the immediate objects of our knowledge, and of that faith which is built upon it.

1198.

Bp. BROWNE's Divine Analogy, p. 58.

Now, in this life, we see by means of a mirror reflecting the images of heavenly and spiritual things, en ainigmati (Grk.), in an enigmatical manner, invisible things being represented by visible; spiritual, by natural; eternal, by temporal: but then, in the eternal world, face to face; every thing being seen in itself, and not by means of a representative or similitude.

PARKHURST.

1199. [Heb. xi. 1.] Those things which appertain to the thought and will of the mind, do usually so beam forth from the face as to manifest themselves in its countenance; especially the affections, such as are of an interior nature discovering themselves from and in the eyes. When the things appertaining to the face act in unity with those which appertain to the mind, they are said to correspond, and are correspondencies; as the looks of the face represent, aud are representations. Thus, the things which appertain to the mind being spiritual, while those which appertain to the body are natural; it is evident, there exists a correspondency between things spiritual and things natural; and that there is a representation of things spiritual in things natural. (SWEDENBORG's Arcana, nn. 2988,—9.) In this way of Correspondency is that Faith formed, which is the Evidence of things not seen.

1200. [John iii. 11, 12.] When the mind perceives any idea, not immediately, it must be by the means of some other idea, which is itself perceived: Thus, we often see shame or fear in the looks of a man, by perceiving the changes of his countenance to red or pale; but if we do not perceive such redness or paleness themselves, it is impossible we should perceive by them the passions which are in his mind. BERKELEY'S Theory of Vision, §§ 9, 10. p. 226.

1202. [Matt. viii. 10.] Faith necessarily includes an assent of the mind to the truth and reality of things incomprehensible, and of the nature whereof we can have no conception or idea, otherwise than by semblance and analogy with the things of this world; whether we come to the knowledge of their existence by reason or revelation. —So far is faith from being confined to the mysteries of the Gospel, that it was of the very essence of religion from the days of Abel; and the most noble acts of faith (See Heb. xi.) were exerted by him, and by Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and the succeeding Patriarchs, and Moses before any of the inspired Writings appeared in the world. Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 461.

1203. [John vi. 69.] Belief, or faith, should be well distinguished, into that assent of the mind which is properly knowledge; and the concurrence of the heart and will which completes and improves it into a religious faith, con

sequent to that knowledge and founded upon it. The assent of the intellect, or judgment of the mind, must be first fixed or determined, in relation to any proposition whatever in religion; the proposition must be perfectly intelligible, and the truth of it must appear from a moral evidence, sufficient for a full conviction of the strictest reason: So that it must be a point of knowledge, before that full consent of the will and closing of the heart with that point of knowledge, which renders it both faith and knowledge at the same time, nor can there be an immediate assent of the intellect, or concurrence of the will to any proposition containing what is inconceivable or incomprehensible; whatever is so, cannot be a direct and immediate object either of knowledge or faith. Ibid. p. 254.

1204. [Heb. xi. 1.] Faith and the twilight seem to agree in this property, that a mixture of darkness is requisite to both with too refulgent a light, the one vanishes into knowledge, as the other into day. BOYLE, on the Style of the H. Scriptures, p. 99.

1205. [Rom. i. 17.] Faith, in the strict propriety of the word, is as necessary in natural religion, as in revealed; for though we have the utmost proof and moral evidence for the existence of a Deity, which is so far knowledge only yet still because the intrinsic nature of God and his essential attributes are utterly incomprehensible and ineffable, and can be no immediate objects of our understanding ; men must indirectly, and by the mediation of their substitutes, give the assent of the intellect here, as well as the consent of the will, to the truth of things as mysterious as any in all revealed religion; and which they are obliged to conceive and apprehend by the same analogy we do all the mysteries of christianity.

Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 247.

1206. [Matt. xvi. 17.] It is that faith alone, which is the operation of God's spirit, that is capable of crediting supernatural things. Dr. A. CLARKE.

1207. [Acts xvii. 27.] The devout man does not only believe but feels there is a Deity. He has actual sensations of him; his experience concurs with his reason; he sees him more and more in all his intercourses with him, and even in this life almost loses his faith in conviction.

ADDISON.

1208. [Matt. xviii. 6.] The true scriptural meaning of the word, Faith, seems nothing more than a docility or promptitude to receive truth; and of Christian faith, to believe the divine

:

authority of that religion, and to obey its precepts; in this sense surely too much inerit can never be imputed to it but since this denomination has been so undermined, that no two ages, nations, or sects, have affixed to it the same ideas; and so abused, that under it every absurdity that knavery could cram down, or ignorance swallow, have been comprehended; since it is still capable of being so explained, as to mean any thing that an artful preacher pleases to impose on an illiterate audience; the laying too great stress upon it must be highly dangerous to the religion and liberties of mankind but the proposing it as a composition for moral duties is of all others the most mischievous doctrine; as it unhinges all our notions of divine justice, and establishes wickedness upon a principle; and it is the more mischievous, as it cannot fail of being popular, because, as it is usually inculcated, it is, in fact, nothing more than offering to the people a licence to be profligate, at the easy price of being absurd; a bargain, which they will ever readily agree to. JENYNS' Works, vol. i. p. 219.

1209. [Jas. ii. 14.] Man has two faculties, called understanding and will; and they, who admit truths not further than into the memory, and thence in some slight degree into the understanding, but not into the life, that is into the will; as they cannot be in any illustration or interior sight from the Lord, say that things are to be believed, or that a man ought to have faith. Such also reason concerning things whether they be true or not; being unwilling they should be perceived by any interior sight or understanding. They say thus, because truths with them are without light from heaven; and to those who see without light from heaven, falses may appear as truths, and truths as falses. Hence so great a blindness has seized several at this day, that, though a man do not the truths of faith or live not according to them, still they say he may be saved by faith alone.

SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 10,786.

1210. [Rom. i. 25.] Such as is any one's life, such is his faith, and such his doctrine; because a life forms to itself a doctrine, and a faith. SWEDENBORG's Divine Prov. n. 101.

1211. [Acts xxvi. 18.] Man is born natural; but in proportion as his understanding is elevated into the light, and his love into the heat of heaven, he becomes spiritual and celestial in this case he becomes like a garden of Eden, which is in verual light, and at the same time in vernal heat. The understanding is not made spiritual and celestial, but the love; and when the love is so, it makes the understanding spiritual and celestial. The love becomes spiritual and celestial from a life according to those truths of wisdom, which the understanding teaches and shews. The love imbibes them through its understanding, and not separately of itself; for the love cannot elevate itself, unless it know truths, and these it cannot know but through an understanding clevated and illustrated. Then so far as it loves truths by doing

them, so far it is elevated; for it is one thing to understand, and another thing to will, or one thing to say, and another to do. There are some who understand and speak the truths of wisdom, yet do not will and do them. Thus when the love does the truths of light which it understands and speaks, it is then elevated. SWEDENBORG's Div. Love, n. 422.

CHARITY.

1212. [John xiii. 35.] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Charity consists in such an amiable disposition of mind as exercises itself every hour in acts of kinduess, patience, complacency, and benevolence to all around us; and which alone is able to promote happiness in the present life, or render us capable of receiving it in another. JENYNS' Works, vol. iv. p. 48.

1213. [1 Cor. xiii. 1.] Charity is every work of duty, which a man does sincerely, uprightly, justly and faithfully from the Lord; and he then acts from the Lord, when he shuns evils as sins.

SWEDENBORG's Divine Love, nn. 253, 431.

He

1214. [Coloss. iii. 14.] A statuary, in the forming of a human figure, first carves one limb, and then another; but in the works of nature it is otherwise; a plant or animal is always formed at once, in the first rudiments of them, as appears from the seed; so in virtue, the mind is best formed to it, by learning such a principle, as will give an aptitude, not to any particular virtue, but in general to all virtue. that learns temperance, does not thereby learn fortitude: But he that has once impressed upon him that true principle of all virtue, is thereby equally disposed to do all kinds of virtuous actions, as he has opportunity. This the Apostle does effectually, by inculcating Charity on the minds and hearts of men; which is here very properly called the bond of perfec tion, because it collects and fastens all virtues together. Lord VERULAM.

1215. [Rom. xiii. 9.] "If our selfish principles were so much predominant above our social, as is asserted by some philosophers, we ought, undoubtedly, to entertain a contemptible notion of human nature. That species of self-love, which displays itself in kindness to others, you must allow to have great influence over human actions, and even greater, on many occasions, than that which remains in its original shape and form.

For how few are there, who, having a family, children, and relations, do not spend more on the maintenance and education of these than on their own pleasures? This, indeed, you justly observe, may proceed from self-love, since the

prosperity of their family and friends is one, or the chief of their pleasures, as well as their chief honor. Be you also one of those selfish men, and you are sure of every one's good opinion and good will; or, not to shock your nice ears with these expressions, the self-love of every one, and mine among the rest, will then incline us to serve you and speak well of you.

In my opinion, there are two things which have led astray those philosophers that have insisted so much on the selfishness of man. In the first place, they found that every act of virtue or friendship was attended with a secret pleasure; whence they concluded, that friendship and virtue could not be disinterested. But the fallacy of this is obvious. The virtuous sentiment and passion produces the pleasure, and does not arise from it. I feel a pleasure in doing good to my friend, because I love him; but do not love him for the sake of that pleasure.

"In the second, it has always been found, that the virtuous are far from being indifferent to praise; and therefore they have been represented as a set of vain-glorious men, who had nothing in view but the applauses of others. But this also is a fallacy. It is very unjust in the world, when they find any tincture of vanity in a laudable action, to depreciate it on that account, or ascribe it entirely to that motive. The case is not the same with vanity as with other passions. Where avarice, or revenge, enter into any seemingly virtuous action, it is difficult for us to determine how far it enters; and it is natural to suppose it the sole actuating principle. But vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that the passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former. Accordingly we find, that this passion for glory is always warped and varied according to the particular taste or sentiment of the mind on which it falls. Nero had the same vanity in driving a chariot that Trajan had in governing the empire with justice and ability. To love the glory of virtuous actions is a sure proof of the love of virtuous actions."

HUME.

1216. [Matt. xxii. 37, 38.] Love towards God is the supreme and most exalted of all loves: Oh! that every individual possessed it! How would their souls and minds be conjoined! Then of a truth should we have a transcript of heaven upon earth, and the kingdom of God would appear! SWEDENBORG.

1217. To love the Lord, is to love the precepts which are from Him; or, to live from love according to them. To love the neighbour, is to will and do good to a fellow-citizen, to a man's country, to the Church, to the Lord's kingdom; not, on account of self, to be seen or to merit; but from the affection of what is good.

SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n, 10,787.

1218. [1 Cor. xiii. 1, &c.] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal: and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing, that is, in regard to my attainment of the kingdom of heaven; because there neither eloquence, nor prophecy, nor theological knowledge, nor faith, nor martyrdom, nor bounty to the poor, are wanted; but only such a meek, humble, patient, peaceable, forgiving and benevolent temper and behaviour, as is here specified under the denomination of charity, which alone can enable us to communicate and participate happiness, either in the present or a future state. JENYNS' Works, vol. iv. p. 267.

1219. [1 Cor. xiii. 8.] Your heart shall live for ever. Ps. xxii. 26. -The Christian doctrine inculcates love and charity above any other doctrine in the whole earth; but there are few who live according to it.

SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 2596.

1220. [Matt. xxii. 39.] The famous sentence of Solon "Know thyself," so celebrated by writers of antiquity and said by them to have descended from Heaven, however wise it may be, seems to be rather of a selfish nature; and the author of it might have added "Know also other people." But the sacred maxims of the author of Christianity, "Do as you would be done by," and "Love your neighbour as yourself," include all our duties of benevolence and morality ; and, if sincerely obeyed by all nations, would a thousandfold multiply the present happiness of mankind.

DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto iii. l. 483.

1224. [Acts xxiii. 1.] And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before GOD until this day.

Conscience is twofold, interior and exterior: interior conscience is that of the spiritual good and true influences; exterior conscience is that of justice and equity. The latter is at this day given with a considerable number of persons; but the interior, with few. Nevertheless they who enjoy exterior conscience, are saved in the other life. SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 6207.

1229. [John v. 40.] Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

If it were possible for man to be reformed by compulsion, there would not be a single man in the universe but what would be saved; for nothing would be more easy to the Lord than to compel a man to fear Him, to worship Him, and, as it were, to love Him, the means of doing so being innumerable. Yet, as what is done in a state of compulsion, is not conjoined with, consequently is not appropriated to man, therefore nothing can be further from the Lord than to compel any one.

SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 2881.

1225. [Ephes. iv. 30.] There is a Holy Spirit within us, that treats us as we treat him.

SENECA.

1226. [John iii. 3.] They who are regenerated of the Lord, admit truths (from above) instantly into the life, and come into interior perception concerning them. But they who receive truths (from below, progressively upwards) first in the memory, next in the understanding, and lastly in the will; are they who are in faith, acting from a faith, which in such case is called conscience.

SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 10,787.-Compare 2 Tim. iv. 7. with Acts xxiv. 16.

1227. [1 Cor. viii. 10, 12.] What I believe to be right, and practice accordingly, constitutes faith; what I believe to be wrong, and avoid accordingly, constitutes conscience.

1228. [Rom. ii. 6-11.] "In all modes of religion which subsist among mankind, however subversive of virtue they may be in theory, there is some salvo for good morals; so that, in fact, they enforce the more essential parts, at least, of that conduct which the good order of society requires. When, under the pretence of conscience, men disturb the peace of society, and are guilty of a breach of the laws, they ought to be restrained by the civil magistrate. If a man commit murder, let him be punished as a murderer, and let no regard be paid to the plea of conscience for committing the act; but let not the opinion which led to the act be meddled with." PRIESTLEY.

1231. "The principle of all action lies in the will of a free being; we can go no further in search of its source. It is not the word liberty that has no signification; it is that of necessity. To suppose any act or effect which is not derived from an active principle, is, indeed, to suppose effects without a cause. Either there is no first impulse, or every first impulse can have no prior cause; nor can there be any such thing as will without liberty. Man is there fore a free agent."

1233. [John v. 19.] A man is led to believe that he has no freedom, chiefly from this consideration that he knows he has no power of himself to do what is good, or think what is true. Let him, however, believe that no one has or ever had any freedom of thinking what is true, or of doing what is good, of himself; not even the Man who, in consequence of the integrity in which he was principled, was called (Gen. i. 26.) a likeness and image of GOD. But all the freedom of thinking the truth which is of faith, and of doing the good which is of charity, flows in from the LORD; He being the essential good and the essential truth, conse quently, the fountain of what is good and of what is true.

SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 2882.