The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained/Chapter18

by Benjamin Fiske Barrett

 

XVIII.—Charity, Faith and Works.

According to the belief and teaching of the New Church, these three cardinal doctrines of Christianity are so intimately connected, that it is impossible for either to exist in its genuine form without the other two; as impossible as it is for the heart, lungs and their joint activity to exist in the human body, except in vital union with each other. The heart could not perform its functions, and therefore could not exist as a heart, without the lungs, nor the lungs without the heart; nor could there be any operation or resultant activity without the union of these two. Hence these three doctrines, though they may be thought of separately, are really one, because incapable of a separate and vital existence.

 

The Old Doctrine.

At the time Swedenborg wrote, the doctrine of salvation and justification by faith alone was held as fundamental in all Protestant churches. The meaning of which was, that the sinner has only to believe that the full penalty of his transgressions has been paid by the suffering and death of Christ—the wrath of God thereby appeased and his pardon secured. This was "laying hold on salvation" through faith alone—charity and works being utterly excluded as necessary factors. To quote a few passages from the Formula Concordiæ which contained the accepted Protestant creed of that day:

"Justification by faith alone, is remission of sins, deliverance from damnation, reconciliation with the Father, adoption as sons, and is effected by the imputation of the merit or righteousness of Christ."—"Good works have nothing to do with justification by faith."—" The business of justification is between God and us, and is to appease his wrath."—"If any one, therefore, believes he can obtain the remission of his sins because he is possessed of charity, he brings a reproach on Christ by an impious and vain confidence in his own righteousness."—"Good works are to be utterly excluded in treating of justification and eternal life."—"The position that good works are necessary to salvation, is to be rejected, because it takes away the comfort of the gospel and gives occasion to doubt of the grace of God."—"That good works are necessary unto salvation, ought not to be taught and defended, but rather exploded and rejected by the churches as false."—Pp. 87, 89, 589, 704, 70S, Leipsic edition, 1756.

And Martin Luther who first formulated this faith-alone dogma, says:

"A Christian cannot, if he will, lose his salvation by any multitude or magnitude of sins, unless he ceases to believe; for no sins can damn him, but unbelief alone. Everything else ... is absorbed in a moment by that faith."—Luther de Captiv. Bab. II., 264. Comp. Duspu. I., 523.

The New Church Doctrine.

But very different is the doctrine of the New Church. According to its teaching, there are two parts or faculties of the mind—understanding and will; the former being the receptacle of truth (or its opposite), and the latter the receptable of love (or its opposite); for man has no life of his own; he is merely an organized form capable of receiving life from the Lord. These two faculties are related like light and heat, or like the lungs and the heart. Spiritual truth, such as the Lord has revealed concerning Himself and his kingdom, including all the laws of the soul's higher or heavenly life, may be received into the understanding and believed. But this belief or mere intellectual apprehension of truth, is not faith; it is simply a persuasion, or knowledge of faith,—a something belonging to the outermost region of the mind, the memory. The truth becomes faith only when it is united to love (which is its vital element) in the will; and it becomes united to love only when the belief of the truth is so thorough and devout, that the individual regulates his thought, purposes and conduct by it—lives it day by day—shunning as a sin whatever evil the truth condemns, and doing whatever good and useful acts it approves or enjoins. And these acts, whereby faith becomes wedded to charity, or truth in the understanding becomes married to love in the will—if done (as the truth requires) in the hearty acknowledgment that the power and disposition to do them, are every moment given by the Lord—are the good works which consummate the heavenly marriage of good and truth in the soul. Works are the ultimate acts in which love in the will guided by truth in the understanding, terminates and rests as on a secure foundation, and without which it would have no permanence—no real existence in the soul beyond that of a shadow or a dream. Hence the reason why so much importance is attached to works in Scripture, and why it is said that in the Hereafter every one will be judged and rewarded "according to his works."

Thus the New Church teaches that charity, faith and works are united like heart, lungs and their resultant action, or like will, understanding and their joint operation in man; and that neither is genuine, or can have any real existence, apart from the other two. It teaches that love or charity is of paramount importance, and that faith without charity is like the sun's light without its invigorating warmth; that "the Lord is not conjoined with man by faith [or mere belief], but by the life of faith which is charity;" that "charity constitutes both heaven and the church, and not faith separate from charity;" that "the church would be one and not many, if charity were regarded as the essential thing;" that "true charity is to act justly and faithfully in the office, business and employment in which a man is engaged, and with those with whom he has any dealings;" and that "charity and faith are only mental and perishable things, unless they be determined to works and co-exist in them when it is possible." A volume might be filled with passages from Swedenborg illustrating the truth of what is here said. But we will only add four or five brief extracts.^[1]

"There is no other faith than that which is grounded in charity. He that has no charity cannot have the smallest portion of faith. Charity is the very ground in which faith is implanted. It is the heart whence faith derives existence and life. Therefore, . . . for any one to endeavor to form to himself the life of faith without charity, is like endeavoring to continue bodily life by the lungs alone, without the heart." (A. C. n. 1843.)

"To have faith is nothing else than to live according to it [that is, according to truth in the understanding]; and to live according to it is not only to know and think, but also to will and do; for faith is not in a man while it is only in his knowledge and thought, but when it is also in his will and deeds. Faith in man is a faith of the life; but faith not yet in him, is a faith of the memory, and of the thought derived therefrom," (Ap. Ex. 250.)

"The intellectual principle is what first receives truths, since it sees them and introduces them to the will; and when they are in the will, they are in the man, for the will is the man himself. Whoever supposes, therefore, that faith is faith with man until he wills those truths, and from willing does them, is very much deceived; nor have the truths of faith any life until man wills and does them." (A. C. 9224.)

"Heavenly life is contracted from all those ends, thoughts and works which are grounded in love toward our neighbor; this is the life to which all those things called faith have respect, and it is procured by all things appertaining to faith. Hence it may be seen what faith is, viz., that it is charity; for all things called the doctrines of faith lead to charity; they are all contained in charity, and are all derived from charity." (A. C. 2228.)

"By the works according to which a man is judged [in the hereafter] are not meant such works as are exhibited merely in the external form, but such as they are internally also. For every deed proceeds from man's will and thought; . . . therefore a deed or work in itself considered, is nothing but an effect which derives its soul and life from the will and thought, insomuch that it is will and thought in an external form. Hence it follows that the deed is such as are the will and thought which produce the deed." (H. H. 472.)

 

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1. For a more complete elucidation of this doctrine, the reader is referred to Vol. V. of the "Swedenborg Library," which treats of "Charity, Faith and Works."