SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
tinction- which I had pursued. All these I saw to be vain; and I discovered that he who is without them and is contented, is happier than he who possesses them. I therefore smiled at all arguments by which I might be confirmed, and with God's help made a resolution. May God grant His help! . . . I further noticed that faith is a sure confidence which is received from God, which nevertheless consists in every man's acting according to his talent for doing good to his neighbor, and continually more and more; that a man must do so from faith, because God has so ordered it, and must not reason any more about it, but do the work of love from obedience to faith, even though this be opposed to the lusts of the body and its persuasions. Wherefore faith without works is not the right kind of faith. A man must in reality forsake himself."
Thus we find Swedenborg learning by experience, from his own needs and under Divine guidance, what saving faith is. From another dream he learns "that God speaks with me, and that I comprehend only the least portion of what He says, because it is in representations, of which I understand as yet but very little; and further
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