Faith1.如今，人们将信仰理解为纯粹的思想，即思想事情就是如此，因为教会就是这么教导的，还因为这种思想并未显明给理解力。因为我们被告知，只要信，不要怀疑。我们若说不理解，就会被告知，这就是信的原因，或说这就是为何我们要信。结果，当今的信仰是对未知之物的信仰，可称作盲目信仰；它是一个人传给另一个人的指令，故是从过去传下来的历史性信仰。稍后会看到，这不是一种属灵的信仰。
1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Faith
Faith Is an Inner Recognition of Truth
NOWADAYS, people understand “faith” to mean nothing more than thinking that something is true because the church teaches it and because it is not obvious to the intellect. In fact, the common saying is, “Believe, and don’t doubt.” If someone replies, “I don’t understand it,” people say, “That’s why you have to believe it.” The result is that today’s faith is faith in the unknown and can be called “blind faith”; and since it involves a decree from one person to another, it is faith handed down from the past.
It will become clear in the following pages that this is not a spiritual faith.
1. THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM REGARDING FAITH
Faith is an Internal Acknowledgment of Truth
Faith today is taken to mean no more than the thought that a thing is so because it is something the church teaches, and because it is not evident to the intellect. For we are told, "Believe and do not doubt." If we reply, "I do not understand," we are told that that is why it should be believed.
Faith today is therefore a faith in the unknown and may be termed a blind faith. Moreover, because it is one person’s assertion received by another, it is an inherited faith. We will see in what follows that that is not a spiritual faith.
1. Faith is an internal acknowledgment of truth.
By faith at the present day is understood nothing more than the mental presumption that a thing is so, because it is taught by the Church, and because it is not evident to the understanding. For it is said: Believe, and do not doubt. If you answer, I do not comprehend it, you are told that this is the reason why it must be believed. The faith of the present day, therefore, is a faith in what is not known, and may be called a blind faith; and as it is the dictate of one person passed on to another, it is an historical faith. That this is not spiritual faith will be seen in what follows.
1. FAITH IS AN INTERNAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TRUTH.
At the present day the term Faith is taken to mean the mere thought that the thing is so because the church so teaches, and because it is not evident to the understanding. For we are told to believe and not to doubt, and if we say that we do not comprehend, we are told that this is just the reason for believing. So that the faith of the present day is a faith in the unknown, and may be called blind faith, and as it is something that somebody has said, in somebody else, it is a faith of hearsay. It will be seen presently that this is not spiritual faith.
1. DOCTRINA NOVAE HIEROSOLYMAE DE FIDE.
(I.) QUOD FIDES SIT AGNITIO INTERNA VERI.
Per Fidem hodie non aliud intelligitur, quam cogitatio quod ita sit quia ecclesia docet, et quia non patet coram intellectu; dicitur enim, "Crede et non dubita." Si respondetur, "Hoc non comprehendo," dicitur quod ideo credendum sit. Quare hodierna fides est fides ignoti, et vocari potest fides caeca: et quia est dictamen alterius in altero, est fides historica. Quod haec non fides spiritualis sit, videbitur in sequentibus.