Page:Arcana Coelestia - Volume I.djvu/30

16 sequence of the sun's fructifying heat. It is precisely similar in regard to spiritual and celestial things, which are usualty represented in the "Word by such as exist in the world, and on the face of the earth. No faith, and faith without love, are also compared by the Lord to winter, where he speaks of the consummation of the age, in Mark: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, for in those days shall be affliction," &c., (xiii. 18, 19.) Flight means the last time, which, when applied to each particular person, is the time of his-death; winter is a life destitute of love; the day of affliction is man's miserable state in another life.

35. Man has two faculties, the will and the understanding. When the understanding is governed by the will, they then constitute together one mind, and thus one life, for then what a man wills and does, he also thinks and intends. But, when the understanding is at variance with the will, as with those who say they have faith, and yet live in contradiction to faith, then one mind is divided into two, one of which desires to exalt itself into heaven, whilst the other tends towards hell; and since the will rules in every act, the whole man would plunge headlong into hell, unless he were prevented by the Lord's mercy. 36. Such as have separated faith from love, do not even know what faith is. When thinking of faith, some imagine it to be mere thought, some that it is thought directed towards the Lord, few that it is the doctrine of faith: but faith is not only a knowledge and acknowledgment of all things which the doctrine of faith includes, but it is especially an obedience to all things which the doctrine of faith teaches. The primary point insisted on in the doctrine of faith, and recommended for obedience, is love to the Lord, and love towards our neighbor, by which if a man be not influenced, he is not in faith. This the Lord teaches so plainly as to leave no doubt concerning it, in these words of Mark: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment; and the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: there is none other commandment greater than these," (xii. 29—31.) In Matthew, the Lord calls the former of these the first and great commandment, and says, that On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, (xxii. 37—41.) The law and the prophets are the universal doctrine of faith, and the whole Word.

37. It is said, that the luminaries shall be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. In these words are contained more arcana than can at present be unfolded, although in the literal sense nothing of the kind appears. Suffice it here to observe, that there are changes relative to things spiritual