AC 2261 - The Life of Salvation

AC 2261

It may be supposed that a person cannot but be saved
if truths are full of goods.
But be it known
that there are very few truths with a person,
and that if there are any,
they have no life unless there are goods in them;
and that if there are goods in them,
he is saved,
but from Mercy.
For, as before said,
the truths with a person are very few;
and the goods which are in them
have their quality in accordance with the truths,
and the person's life.

Regarded in themselves,
truths do not give life.
It is goods that give life.
Truths are only recipients of life, that is, of good.
And therefore no one can ever say
that he can be saved by truths
(or as the common expression is, by faith alone),
unless there is good in the truths which are of faith,
and this good that must be in the truths
must be the good of charity;
so faith itself, in the internal sense,
is nothing else than charity.
As regards people's saying
that the acknowledgment of truth
is the faith that saves,
be it known that with those
who live in things contrary to charity,
there cannot possibly be any acknowledgment
but only persuasion,
to which there has been adjoined
the life of the love of self or of the world;
thus in the acknowledgment they refer to there
is not the life of faith, which is that of charity.
The worst people of all --
from the love of self or the world,
that is, for the sake of being eminent above others
in what is called intelligence and wisdom,
and thus of winning honors, reputation, and gains --
can learn the truths of faith,
and confirm them by many things;
but still with them these truths are dead.

The life of truth, and thus of faith,
is solely from the Lord, who is life itself.
The Lord's life is mercy,
which is that of love toward the universal human race.
In the Lord's life
those can in no wise have part
who although they profess the truths of faith
despise others in comparison with themselves,
and who, when their life
of the love of self and of the world is touched,
hold the neighbor in hatred,
and take delight
in his loss of wealth, of honor, of reputation, and of life.
But the case with the truths of faith
is that by means of them a person is regenerated,
for they are the veriest vessels recipient of good.
Such therefore as are the truths,
and such as are the goods in the truths,
and such as is their conjunction
and the consequent capability of being perfected
in the other life,
such is the state
of blessedness and happiness after death.