724、此处“七对”也表示它们是神圣的，这在前面（716节）已经说明。但此处它们是神圣的真理，之所以神圣，是因为它们来自良善。若非来自良善，任何真理都绝无神圣可言。一个人能从圣言，因而从记忆中说出许多真理；但除非它们是爱或仁的产物，否则神圣决不会归于它们。然而，如果爱和仁在那里，那么在这种情况下，他会真的承认和相信它们，并且是发自内心的。信也一样，论到它，许多人说唯信得救；信若不来自爱或仁，就决不是信。使信成为圣的，是爱与仁。主存在于爱与仁中，但不存在于分离之信中。人自己则在分离之信中，而人里面只有不洁之物。当信与爱分离时，他就出于内心的意图说话，而这意图是他自己的名声或利益。谁都能通过亲身经历认识到这一点。如，当他告诉某人说，他爱他，喜欢他胜过其他任何人，认为他是最好的人，等等，然而心里想的却完全不同时的情形。他只是嘴上这么说，心里却否认，有时甚至取笑这个人。信也是如此，我通过大量经历已经充分认识到这一点。有些人活在肉身时一直称颂主与信，并且口才了得，同时又表现得很虔诚，以至于令他们的听众大吃一惊。但他们并非发自内心如此行；在来世，他们就在那些最恨恶主并逼迫忠信者的人之列。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]724. The symbolism of seven each as what is holy has also been demonstrated [716]. Here, though, it symbolizes holy truth, which is holy because of its origin in goodness. There is no such thing as holy truth except for the truth that comes from goodness. We can speak all manner of truth from the Word and so from memory, but unless love (love for our fellow humans) is what brings it to our lips, it can by no means be described as holy. If love and charity are indeed the qualities that bring it forward, on the other hand, we then acknowledge and believe what we are saying, and so it comes from the heart.
The case is the same with faith, which so many people claim is the only thing that saves.{*1} Unless love or charity is what gives rise to faith, it is not faith at all. Love and charity are what consecrate faith. The Lord is present in love and charity, not in faith separated from them. Detached faith has our own selves at its core, and in us there resides utter filth. When we separate faith from love, what we privately seek in speaking is either to hear ourselves praised or to profit monetarily.{*2} We can all recognize this phenomenon from our own experience. When an individual claims to love another, to prefer that other to anyone else, to acknowledge that other as more noble than anyone else, and so on, and yet thinks otherwise privately, that individual makes such a claim with the lips alone, denying the words at heart and sometimes even mocking them. People do the same with faith. Here is something I have come to know extremely well from frequent experience: Some of those who most hate the Lord and persecute the faithful in the other life are people who preached about the Lord and faith during bodily life with such eloquence and such a devout facade as to astound their listeners, although they were not speaking from the heart.
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg here refers to the Protestant doctrine of the justification by grace through faith alone. The doctrine holds that God forgives people's sins and saves them from damnation through the grace he bestows because of their faith, not through any merit they have won by doing good works for others; it was particularly, though not exclusively, held by Lutherans. For further discussion of the doctrine by Swedenborg, see True Christianity 355-377 (and also his 1763 work Faith 44-72); for a recent, brief overview adding significant historical nuance, see Erwin 2006, 90-92. [SS]
{*2} This was written in a time and place in which the outward show of piety was a prerequisite for public office and a career in the church could be quite lucrative. The subversion of religion for private advantage is a prevalent theme in Swedenborg's theological writings (see, for example, Secrets of Heaven 2027:3, 2261:2, 2329:1, 2354:2, and Revelation Unveiled 784, 799, to mention just a few passages), though it is often stated obliquely, as here. [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 724
724. Likewise that "sevens" signifies things that are holy, and here holy truths, which are holy from the fact that they come from goods. No truth is holy unless it comes from good. A man may utter many truths from the Word, and thus from memory, but if it is not love or charity that brings them forth, nothing holy can be predicated of them. But if he has love and charity, then he acknowledges and believes, and this from the heart. And it is the same with faith, of which so many say that it alone saves: if there is no love or charity from which the faith comes, there is no faith. Love and charity are what make faith holy. The Lord is in love and charity, but not in faith that is separated from charity. In faith separated is the man himself, in whom there is nothing but uncleanness. For when faith is separated from love, his own praise, or his own advantage, is the moving cause that is in his heart, and from which he speaks. This everyone may know from his own experience. Whoever tells anyone that he loves him, that he prefers him to others, that he acknowledges him as the best of men, and the like, and yet in heart thinks otherwise, does this only with his mouth, and in heart denies, and sometimes makes sport of him. And it is the same with faith. This has been made very well known to me by much experience. They who in the life of the body have preached the Lord and faith with so much eloquence, together with feigned devoutness, as to astonish their hearers, and have not done it from the heart, in the other life are among those who bear the greatest hatred toward the Lord, and who persecute the faithful.
Elliott(1983-1999) 724
724. Here too 'sevens of each' means that they are holy. But in this case they are holy truths, which are holy because they stem from goods. No truth is in any sense holy unless it does stem from good. A person can utter many truths from the Word, reciting them by heart, but unless they are the product of love or charity holiness is no way attributable to them. If however love and charity are there, in that case he really acknowledges and believes them, doing so from the heart. It is similar with faith, which so many people speak of as that which alone saves; unless faith stems from love or charity it is in no sense faith. It is love and charity that render faith holy. The Lord is present within love and charity, but not within faith that has been separated. Separated faith is a peculiarity of man himself, who has nothing but uncleanness within him. For when faith has been separated from love, he speaks from the intention that is in his heart, that intention being his own renown or his own profit. This anyone may recognize from personal experience, as when he tells somebody that he loves him, likes him more than anybody else, rates him the best of all, and so on, and yet in his heart he thinks something completely different. He is doing this only with his lips while denying it in his heart; and sometimes he is even making fun of that person. The same is true of faith, as I have been made fully aware through many experiences. Some during their lifetime have extolled the Lord and faith in words so fine, and at the same time with all the appearance of being devout, that their hearers have been dumbfounded. But they have not done it from the heart, and in the next life they are among those who utterly hate the Lord and persecute people who have faith.
Latin(1748-1756) 724
724. Similiter, quod 'septena' significent sancta; sed hic sancta vera, quae sancta sunt ex eo quod veniant ex bonis; nusquam aliquod veram sanctum est nisi veniat ex bono; homo potest multa vera ex Verbo, et sic ex memoria, loqui, sed nisi amor sit, seu charitas, quae producit, nusquam de illis praedicari sanctum potest; si vero amor et charitas, tunc agnoscit et credit, ita ex corde; similiter ac fides', de qua tam multi loquuntur quod sola salvet, nisi amor sit, seu charitas, ex qua fides, nusquam est fides; amor et charitas est quae sanctificat fidem; Dominus est in amore et charitate, non autem in fide separata, sed in fide separata est ipse homo, in quo nihil nisi spurcum; nam cum fides separata est ab amore, est vel suae laudis vel sui lucri causa, quae in corde ex qua loquitur: hoc unusquisque ex propria experientia scire potest, qui alicui dicit quod amet eum, quod praeferat aliis, quod agnoscat pro optimate prae aliis, et similia, et tamen aliter corde cogitat; is non nisi quam ore hoc facit et corde negat, quandoque etiam subsannat: ita quoque se habet cum fide, quod notissimum mihi per plures experientias factum est: qui in vita corporis Dominum et fidem praedicarunt cum tali eloquio, et simul ficta devotione, ut obstupuerint auditores, et non ex corde, ex iis in altera vita sunt qui maxime Dominum odio habent et fideles persequuntur.