Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/166

160 one-half of his mind; but when he keeps his commandments, he approaches Him with his whole mind; and this is to believe in Him." (T. C. R. n. 151.)

"To believe in God is to know and to do; but to believe those things which are from God, is to know and yet not do. They who are really Christians, both know and do, that is, they believe in God; but they who are not truly Christians, know and do not." (A. C. 9239.)

"Man supposes that, although he lives wickedly, he can still have faith to believe at least that there is a God, that the Lord is the Savior of the world, that there is a heaven and a hell, that the Word is holy, and so on; but I can assert that, if he does not shun evils because they are sins, and thence look to the Lord, he does not believe in those things at all; for they are not of his life and love, but only of his memory and knowledge; and they do not become of his life and love before he fights against evils and overcomes them. This has been made evident to me from many after death, who supposed that they had at least believed in the existence of God, and that the Lord was the Savior of the world, with other things of a like nature; but still they who had lived in evil, had in reality no belief at all." (Ap. Ex. 839.)

One of the important and instructive spiritual laws revealed for the New Church, is, that every