Page:The Gist of Swedenborg.djvu/70

54 If a man thinks to himself or says to another, "Who can have that inward acknowledgment of truth which is faith? I cannot," I will tell him how he may: "Shun evils as sins, and go to the Lord, and you will have as much as you desire."

—Doctrine Concerning Faith, n. 12

OT only is the individual man the neighbor, but the collective man, too. A society, smaller or larger, is the neighbor; the Church is; the Kingdom of the Lord is; and above all the Lord Himself. These are the neighbor, to whom good is to be done from love. These are also the ascending degrees of the neighbor; for a society consisting of many is the neighbor in a higher degree than is the individual; one's country in a still higher degree; the Church in a still higher degree than one's country; in a degree higher still the Kingdom of the Lord; and in the highest degree the Lord Himself. These degrees of ascent are like the steps in a ladder, at the top of which is the Lord. —Heavenly Doctrine, n. 91