37.在当今教会，信如此罕见，以至于可以说它几乎不存在。这一点从对许多人，无论有学问的还是简单人的检查明显看出来，死后，他们作为灵人受到检查，以查看他们在世时持有什么样的信。结果发现，他们每个人都以为信仅仅是相信，并说服自己相信事实的确如此。比较有学问的人则认为信就是对他们因主的受难和代求而得救的完全相信、信靠和信心。他们当中几乎没有一人知道，没有仁或爱，就没有信。事实上，他们不知道什么叫对邻之仁，也不知道思考和意愿之间有什么不同。他们大多数人都背对仁，声称仁没有用，唯独信成就一切。当被告知，仁与信为一，如同意愿与理解力为一，仁居于意愿，信居于理解力，将仁与信分离，如同将意愿与理解力分离时，他们听不懂。我由此清楚看出，如今信几乎荡然无存。
这一点也活生生地被证明给他们。那些被错误地说服相信自己有信的人被带入一个拥有真正信仰的天使社群；当他们与它交流时，清楚发觉他们没有信，后来他们也当着许多人的面承认了这一事实。这一点也以其它方式被证明给那些标榜信仰，以为他们已经信了，却没有过信仰的生活，也就是没有仁爱的人。他们每个人都承认他们没有信，因为当他们活在自然界时，其灵的生命就没有信；相反，信还在他们的生命之外，仅在某种外在思维中。
37. I have been shown that faith nowadays is so rare within the church that you could call it nonexistent. This was demonstrated by many individuals-scholars and commoners alike-whose spirits were examined after death to see what kind of faith they had had in the world. It turned out that all of them believed that faith was nothing more than believing and convincing themselves that something was true. The more learned among them believed that it was simply having a trust or assurance that they were saved by means of the Lord's suffering on the cross and his interceding for them. 1Hardly any of them realized that there is no faith if there is no caring or love. They did not even know what caring about one's neighbor is or what the difference is between thinking and willing. Most of them had gotten rid of caring, saying that caring does nothing for us, and that faith is all that is required. When they were told that caring and faith are one, just as willing and understanding are one, and that caring dwells in our will and faith in our understanding, and that separating one from the other was like separating our will from our understanding, they could not understand it. This told me that there is hardly any faith nowadays.
They were shown this very convincingly as well. The ones who were utterly certain that they had faith were brought to an angelic community where there was real faith. As soon as communication was established they clearly perceived that they themselves had no faith, and even admitted it publicly. The same thing was shown in other ways to the ones who professed faith and thought of themselves as believers but did not live according to faith, which means caring. One by one they admitted that they had no faith, because there was none of it in the life of their spirits. It was only on the outside, in some of the thinking they did while they were living in the physical world.
Footnotes:
1. The exact referent of Swedenborg's characterization here is not certain, but for one example of the belief of many Christians that faith is “having a trust or assurance that they [are] saved by means of the Lord's suffering on the cross and his interceding for them,” compare the Lutheran Augsburg Confession of 1530, article 4: “[Our churches] teach that human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits, or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith when they believe that they are received into grace and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. God reckons this faith as righteousness” (Kolb and Wengert 2000, 39, 41). [RS]
37. In the church to-day faith is so rare that it can hardly be said to exist. This became plain from the examination of many people, educated as well as simple, who after death were as spirits examined to see what faith they had had in the world. It transpired that each had assumed that faith was simply believing and being persuaded that it was so. The better educated had assumed that it was trusting and being confident that they were saved by the Lord's passion and His intercession. Hardly any of them knew that there can be no faith without charity or love. In fact, they did not know either what charity towards the neighbour was; or what is the difference between thinking and willing. Most of them had turned their backs on charity, saying that it did not achieve anything, but only faith did. When they were told that charity and faith are one, like the will and the intellect, and that charity resides in the will and faith in the intellect, so that separating one from the other was like separating the will from the intellect, they found all this incomprehensible. From this it became plain that there is hardly any faith to-day.
They were given a vivid proof of this. Those who were falsely persuaded that they had faith were brought to a community of angels who possessed real faith; and when they could communicate they perceived clearly that they had no faith, a fact which they then admitted before many witnesses. The same proof was given in other ways in the case of those who professed faith and thought they had believed, but who had not lived a life of faith, which is charity. Each of them admitted that he had had no faith, because the life of his spirit was devoid of faith, but it had remained outside his life as something thought about, while they lived in the natural world.
37. That within the church at this day, faith is so rare, that it can scarcely be said to exist at all, was made evident, from many both learned and simple, whose spirits were explored after death, as to what their faith had been in the world; and it was found, that every one of them supposed faith to be merely to believe, and to persuade himself that it is so; and that the more learned of them placed it entirely in believing, with trust or confidence that they are saved by the Lord's passion and His intercession, and that scarcely one among them knew that there is no faith, if there is no charity, or love yea, they did not know what charity to the neighbor is, nor the difference between thinking and willing. For the most part they turned their backs upon charity, saying that charity effects nothing, but faith only. When it was said to them, that charity and faith are one, like the will and the understanding, and that charity has its seat in the will, and faith in the understanding, and that to separate the one from the other, is like separating the will from the understanding, this they did not understand. Whence it was made evident to me that scarcely any faith exists at the present day. This also was shown them to the life. They who were in the persuasion that they had faith, were led to an angelic society, where genuine faith existed, and when they were made to communicate with it, they clearly perceived that they had no faith, which afterwards moreover, they confessed in the presence of many. The same thing was also shown by other means to those who had made a profession of faith, and had thought they believed, without having lived the life of faith, which is charity; and every one of them confessed that they had no faith, because they had nothing of it in the life of their spirits, but only in some thought extrinsic to it, whilst they lived in the natural world.
37. Quod hodie intra ecclesiam tam rara fides sit ut vix dici queat aliqua, patuit a multis tam doctis quam simplicibus, qui, post mortem spiritus explorati qua fide fuerunt in mundo; et compertum est quod unusquisque autumaverit fidem esse solum credere et sibi persuadere quod ita sit; et doctiores esse solum ex fiducia seu confidentia credere quod salventur per passionem Domini et intercessionem Ipsius; et quod vix aliquis noverit, quod nulla fides sit nisi sit charitas seu amor; immo nec sciverunt quid charitas erga proximum; nec quae differentia est inter cogitare et velle. Plerique ex illis a tergo rejecerunt charitatem, dicentes quod charitas nihil faciat, sed solum fides. Cum dictum est illis, quod charitas et fides unum sint, sicut voluntas et intellectus, et quod charitas resideat in voluntate et fides in intellectu, et quod separare unam ab altera, sit sicut separare voluntatem et intellectum, hoc non intellexerunt. Inde patuit, quod hodie vix aliqua fides sit. Hoc quoque illis ad vivum ostensum est: adducti sunt illi, qui in persuasione fuerunt quod fidem habuerint, ad societatem angelicam, ubi genuina fides erat, et tunc data communicatione clare perceperunt, quod illis nulla fides; quod dein quoque coram pluribus fassi sunt. Idem etiam ostensum est aliis modis penes illos qui professi sunt fidem, et putaverunt se credidisse, et non vixerunt vitam fidei quae est charitas; et quisque ex illis fassus est quod nulla eis fides fuerit, quia nihil ejus fuit in vita spiritus eorum, sed solum extra illam in aliqua cogitatione cum vixerunt in naturali mundo.