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Arcana Coelestia 5664. [2] It is known in the church that truth is instilled and given by the Lord; for it is taught that faith is not from man but from God; thus not only confidence, but also the truths of faith are from Him. Still it appears as if the truths of faith were procured by the man, for he is profoundly ignorant that they flow in, because he does not perceive it. The reason why he does not perceive it is that his interiors are closed, so that he cannot have perceptible communication with spirits and angels; and when the interiors are closed the man can know nothing whatever about influx.
[3] Be it known, however, that it is one thing to know the truths of faith, and quite another to believe them. They who merely know the truths of faith, charge their memory with them just as they do with the facts of any other branch of knowledge. These truths man can procure for himself without such an influx, but they have no life, as is plain from the fact that an evil man, even the worst, can know the truths of faith just as much as an upright and pious man. But as before said with the evil these truths have no life; for when an evil man brings them forth he regards in everyone of them either self-glory or gain; so that it is the love of self and of the world that inflates them and makes a sort of life; but it is such life as there is in hell, which is called spiritual death. Hence it is that when he brings them forth, he brings them forth from the memory, and not from the heart, whereas he who believes the truths of faith brings them forth from the heart at the same time as from the lips; for with him the truths of faith are so deeply rooted in as to have their root in the outer memory, and to grow from there toward what is interior or higher, like fruit-bearing trees; and like trees they deck themselves with leaves, and at last with blossoms, for the sake of the end of bearing fruit. So it is with such a man.
[4] He also aims at nothing else through the truths of faith than uses, which are the practices of charity, which to him are the fruits. These are the truths which man cannot procure for himself, even in the smallest degree; but they are gratuitously bestowed on him by the Lord, and this in every moment of his life, nay, if he will believe it, without number in every moment. But as man is of such a nature as to have no perception of their flowing in, for as before said if he had the perception he would resist, because he would believe that he would then lose his own, and with his own his freedom, and with his freedom his delight, and would thus become a thing of nought, it is therefore brought about that man does not know but that he procures truths of himself. This then is what is meant by saying that it will seem as truth procured by them. Moreover, in order that a heavenly own and heavenly freedom may be bestowed on man, he must needs do good as of himself and think what is true as of himself; but when he reflects he should acknowledge that these are from the Lord (see n. 2882, 2883, 2891).
Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 40. The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in part not naked truths, but appearances of truth, and are as it were likenesses and comparisons taken from things such as exist in nature, and thus accommodated and adapted to the apprehension of the simple and of little children. But being correspondences they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth; and are like enclosing and containing vessels, as a crystal cup encloses noble wine, and as a silver plate holds palatable food. They are also like garments which clothe, as swathings do an infant, and a pretty dress a maiden. They are also like the memory-knowledges [scientifica] of the natural man which contain within them perceptions and affections of truth of the spiritual man. The naked truths themselves which are enclosed, held, clothed, and contained, are in the spiritual sense of the Word; and the naked goods are in its cel...
[3] Be it known, however, that it is one thing to know the truths of faith, and quite another to believe them. They who merely know the truths of faith, charge their memory with them just as they do with the facts of any other branch of knowledge. These truths man can procure for himself without such an influx, but they have no life, as is plain from the fact that an evil man, even the worst, can know the truths of faith just as much as an upright and pious man. But as before said with the evil these truths have no life; for when an evil man brings them forth he regards in everyone of them either self-glory or gain; so that it is the love of self and of the world that inflates them and makes a sort of life; but it is such life as there is in hell, which is called spiritual death. Hence it is that when he brings them forth, he brings them forth from the memory, and not from the heart, whereas he who believes the truths of faith brings them forth from the heart at the same time as from the lips; for with him the truths of faith are so deeply rooted in as to have their root in the outer memory, and to grow from there toward what is interior or higher, like fruit-bearing trees; and like trees they deck themselves with leaves, and at last with blossoms, for the sake of the end of bearing fruit. So it is with such a man.
[4] He also aims at nothing else through the truths of faith than uses, which are the practices of charity, which to him are the fruits. These are the truths which man cannot procure for himself, even in the smallest degree; but they are gratuitously bestowed on him by the Lord, and this in every moment of his life, nay, if he will believe it, without number in every moment. But as man is of such a nature as to have no perception of their flowing in, for as before said if he had the perception he would resist, because he would believe that he would then lose his own, and with his own his freedom, and with his freedom his delight, and would thus become a thing of nought, it is therefore brought about that man does not know but that he procures truths of himself. This then is what is meant by saying that it will seem as truth procured by them. Moreover, in order that a heavenly own and heavenly freedom may be bestowed on man, he must needs do good as of himself and think what is true as of himself; but when he reflects he should acknowledge that these are from the Lord (see n. 2882, 2883, 2891).
Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 40. The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in part not naked truths, but appearances of truth, and are as it were likenesses and comparisons taken from things such as exist in nature, and thus accommodated and adapted to the apprehension of the simple and of little children. But being correspondences they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth; and are like enclosing and containing vessels, as a crystal cup encloses noble wine, and as a silver plate holds palatable food. They are also like garments which clothe, as swathings do an infant, and a pretty dress a maiden. They are also like the memory-knowledges [scientifica] of the natural man which contain within them perceptions and affections of truth of the spiritual man. The naked truths themselves which are enclosed, held, clothed, and contained, are in the spiritual sense of the Word; and the naked goods are in its cel...
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