being healed but by faith alone? What can our works contribute towards this? Who can do any good work from himself,-who can purify, forgive, justify, and save himself? Does there not lurk, in every work that man does from himself, merit and self-righteousness? And if, haply, we should do any thing that was good, could we do all, and fulfill the law? Besides, if any one sins against one commandment, he sins against all, because they cohere. Why did the Lord come into the world, and suffer so grievously on the cross, but to take away from us damnation and the curse of the law, to reconcile God the Father, and become merit and righteousness alone, which might be imputed to man through faith? otherwise, what good end could be answered by his coming? Since, then, Christ, suffered for us, and fulfilled the law for us, and took away its right of condemnation, can evil, in this case, any longer condemn, and can good save us? therefore we who have faith, are at full liberty to think, will, speak, and do whatever we please, provided we do no injury to our reputation, honor, and interest, nor incur the penalties of the civil law, which would be a disgrace and hurt to us." Some, who wander further north, said, "That good works, which are done for the sake of salvation, are hurtful, pernicious, and cursed;" among these, also, there were some presbyters. These things are what I heard, but they mumbled and muttered many more, which I did not hear. They spoke, also, indecently with all licentiousness, and were lascivious, both in words and actions, without fear for any wicked deed, except out of pretence, for the sake of appearing honest. Such are the interiors of the mind, and thence the exteriors of the body of those, who place the all of religion in faith alone. But all those things, which were uttered by them, fall to the ground, if the Lord himself the Saviour is immediately approached, and believed in, and good is done, each for the sake of salvation, and by man as from himself, with a belief, however, that it is from the Lord: unless these things are done as by man, neither faith nor charity can be given at all; nor, consequently, can religion nor salvation.

450. "Having breast-plates of fire, and of jacinth, and

of brimstone," signifies, their imaginary and visionary argumentations from infernal love and self-derived intelligence, and the concupiscences thence proceeding. By breast-plates, are signified argumentations, by which they fight for faith alone, n. 436; by fire, is signified celestial love, and, in the opposite sense, infernal love, n. 452, 465, 495; by jacinth, is signified intelligence from spiritual love, and, in the opposite sense, intelligence from infernal love, which is self-derived intelligence, of which below; and by brimstone is signified concupiscences derived from that love through self-intelligence, n. 452: hence it follows, that by breast-plates of fire, of jacinth, and of brimstone, such things are signified. The reason why their argumentations in favor of faith alone are thus described, is, because all they who believe themselves justified, that is, absolved from sin, by faith alone, never think of repentance; and an impenitent man is in mere sins, and all sins are derived from, and thence partake of the nature of infernal love, of self-intelligence, and the concupiscences springing from them; and they who are principled in these things, not only act from them, but also speak, yea, think and will, and consequently reason and argue from them; these constitute, indeed, the very man, because they are his very life; but then a man-devil, and an infernal life. They who live a moral life, only for the sake of themselves and the world, do not know this; the reason is, because their interiors are infernal, whilst their exteriors are similar to the exteriors of those who live a Christian life: let them know, however, that every one when he dies, comes into his interiors, because he becomes a spirit, this being the internal man; and then the interiors accommodate the exteriors to themselves, and they become alike: wherefore the morality of their life in the world then becomes as the scales of fishes which are wiped away. The case is quite different with those who hold the precepts of moral life to be divine, and then those also of a civil nature, by reason of their having relation to love towards the neighbor. A jacinth, signifies intelligence derived from spiritual love, because its color partakes of the redness of fire and the whiteness

of light; and by fire, is signified love; and by light, intelligence: this intelligence is signified by blue in the coverings and vails of the tabernacle, Exod. xxvi. 31, 36, xxvii. 16; in Aaron's ephod, Exod. xxviii. 6, 15; by the cloth of blue or hyacinth which was placed over the ark, the table, the candlestick, and the altar, when they journeyed, Numb. iv. 6, 7, 9, 11, 12; by the fringe of blue thread on the borders of their garments, Numb. xv. 38, 39; and by the hyacinthine or blue color, in Ezekiel xxvii. 7, 24. But intelligence derived from the affection of infernal love, is signified by blue in Ezekiel : Aholah, or Samaria, played the harlot, and doted on her lovers the neighboring Assyrians, clothed in blue, horsemen riding upon horses, xxiii. 4, 5, 6: hereby the church is described, which, by reasonings from self-derived intelligence, had falsified the truths of the Word. And in Jeremiah: "But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, the work of the workman and of the hands of the founder, blue and purple is their clothing, they are all the work of the wise," x. 8, 9. The work of the workman and of the hands of the founder, and all the work of the wise, signify, in this passage, that they were the offspring of self-derived intelligence.

451. "And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions," signifies, phantasies concerning faith alone, as if it were in power. By heads, are signified the imaginary and visionary notions about faith alone, with those who are here treated of collectively, which are called phantasies: by horses, are signified the reasonings of the interiors of their minds, which are such, n. 449; by lions, are signified power, n. 241; but then it is power from fallacies inasmuch as they are sensual, and the sensual reason from fallacies, by which they persuade and captivate, n. 424. That their arguments in favor of faith alone are imaginary and visionary, any one may see, who elevates his mind a little. What are faith in act and faith in state, as conceived by them, but visionary things? Who is there among them that knows any thing concerning

faith in act; and what avails faith in state, when no good enters from man into faith in act? What is remission of sins and consequent momentaneous salvation, but a result of visionary thought? That it is the fiery flying serpent in the church, see The Wisdom of Angels concerning the Divine Providence, n. 340. What is the conceit of immunity, merit, righteousness, and sanctification by imputation, but a visionary thing? see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, n. 18. What is the Divine Operation in internals, without man's coöperation in externals as from himself? For to separate the internal from the external so that there can be no conjunction of them, is merely visionary, see below, n. 606. Such a visionary thing is faith separated from charity; for charity in works is the very foundation and continent of faith; it is its ground and soil, also its essence and life; in a word, faith from charity constitutes a man; but faith, without charity, is a spectre, and a creature of the imagination, like a bubble of water floating in the air. But perhaps some may say, If you remove the understanding from faith, you will not see visionary things; but be it known, that he who can remove the understanding from faith, may obtrude a thousand visionary things upon every religious tenet, as has been done for ages past by the Roman Catholics.

452. "And out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone," signifies, that in their thoughts and discourses, viewed interiorly, there is nothing, and from them there proceeds nothing but the love of self and of the world, which is the proprium or selfhood of the will; the pride of self-derived intelligence, which is the proprium of the understanding, and the concupiscences of evil and falsity, which is the common proprium springing from the two former. Out of their mouths, means out of their thoughts and discourses; by fire is signified the love of self and of the world, which love is the proprium, of man's will, n. 450, 465, 495; by smoke is signified the pride of self-derived intelligence, which is the proprium of his understanding, proceeding from the love of self and of the world, as smoke does from fire, n. 422;

and by brimstone is signified the concupiscence of evil and falsity, which is the common proprium flowing from the two former. These things, however, do not appear from their discourses before men in the world, but manifestly before the angels in heaven; therefore it is said, that when viewed interiorly, they are such. Fire signifies infernal love; and brimstone, the concupiscences flowing from that love through the pride of self-derived intelligence, in the following passages: I will cause it to rain fire and brimstone upon him, Ezek. xxxviii. 22. "Jehovah shall rain upon the wicked fire and brimstone," Psalm xi. 6. "For it is the day of Jehovah's vengeance and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever," Isaiah xxxiv. 8, 9, 10. "But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven;- -even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed," Luke xvii. 29, 30, Gen. xix. 24. "If any man worship the beast and his image, he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone," Apoc. xiv. 9, 10. "And the beast, and with him the false prophet and the devil, were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," Apoc. xix. 20, xx. 10, xxi. 8. "The breath of Jehovah like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it," Isaiah xxx. 33. "And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt and burning, that it is not sown, neither shall it bring forth any grass like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah," Deut. xxix. 21, 23. Brimstone shall be scattered over the habitation of the wicked, Job xviii. 15.

453. "By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths," signifies, that from these it is, that the men of the church perish. A third part of men being killed, signifies that the men of the church perish by the three things just now mentioned, n. 452; for by being killed, is signified to be killed spiritually, which is to perish as to the soul; and by a third part, is signified all who are principled in those falses, which have been frequently enumerated above; what is