Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/204

 It is knovvn from the Word that the end of the church is when faith no longer exists in it; but it is not yet known that faith is not, if charity is not; therefore something shall now be said upon this subject. It is foreshown by the Lord that there is no faith at the end of the church: "When the Son of Man comes shall He find faith on the earth" (Luke xviii. 8); and, moreover, that there is then do charity: "In the consummation of the Age iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold, and this gospel will be preached in all the world; and then shall the end come" (Matthew xxiv. 12, 14). The consummation of the Age is the last time of the church. The state of the church successively decreasing in regard to love and faith, is described by the Lord in this chapter, but by mere correspondences; and therefore the things therein predicted by the Lord cannot be understood without a knowledge of the correspondent spiritual sense in each expression. ..

There is no faith if there is no charity. It is supposed that faith exists so long as the doctrinals of the church are believed; or that they who believe, have faith; and yet mere believing is not faith, but willing and doing what is believed, is faith. When the doctrinals of the church are merely believed, they are not in a man's life, but only in his memory, and thence