115、人们所说的属于信并被称为得救之信本身的信心或信靠，只要唯独来自信，就不是属灵的信心或信靠，而是属世的信心或信靠。属灵的信心或信靠从爱之良善，而非从与仁分离的信之真理那里获得它的本质和生命。来自分离之信的信心是死的；因此，真正的信心对那些过着邪恶生活的人来说，是不可能的。得救是由于主在父那里所拥有的功德，无论一个人的生活是什么样，这种信心并非来自真理。所有处于属灵之信的人都拥有这样的信心：他们靠主得救，因为他们相信，主降世将永生赐给那些相信祂所教导的诫命并照之生活的人；还相信主使他们重生，把他们变得适合天堂；祂独自出于纯粹的怜悯如此行，没有人的帮助。
115、当人因为得到救助，而产生了所谓的信心或信靠，并宣称其为信仰时，那不是属灵的信心或信靠，而是属世的。 属灵的信心或信靠，要从爱之善获得其本质特性和生命力，而不会出自没有良善的宗教真理。对信仰的信心若失去良善就是死的。因此真信心不赐予那些生活邪恶的人。如若相信得救是因为主为人类向天父代求而得，而不论此人的生命光景如何，这样的信心距离真理太远。所有拥有属灵信仰的人，确信他们已得主拯救。因为他们相信主来到世上，把永恒的生命赐给那些相信祂，并照祂的教导生活的人。他们知道是主重生了他们，为他们适应天堂做预备。并相信主做这一切纯粹出于祂的怜悯，人在这过程里无任何功劳。
115. The assurance or trust which people say faith provides, and which they call a "truly saving faith," 1is not a spiritual assurance or trust but an earthly one when it is based on faith alone. Spiritual assurance or trust derives its essence and life from good actions done out of love and not from the truth that belongs to religious faith apart from those good actions. The assurance provided by a faith separated from good actions is dead; therefore real assurance is not possible for us when we are leading evil lives. An assurance that we are saved because of the Lord's merit with the Father no matter how we have lived is a long way from the truth as well.
All who have spiritual faith, though, have an assurance of being saved by the Lord, because they believe that the Lord came into the world to give eternal life to those who both believe and live by the principles that he taught. They know that he is the one who regenerates such people and prepares them for heaven, doing so all by himself without their help, out of pure mercy.
Footnotes:
1. With this reference to a "truly saving faith," Swedenborg is taking issue with an essential corollary of the Protestant doctrine of faith alone (Sola Fide; see note 1 in New Jerusalem 4). According to Martin Luther (1483-1546) and later Protestant theologians who extended his thought, prospective Christians must first enter into a state of faithful assensus (assent or agreement) with the truth of God's promises as they appear in the Scriptures; this means believing that Christ has already received the punishment for all human sin by dying on the cross, making him "righteous" and "meritorious" in the eyes of God the Father and thus worthy of salvation, and that this salvation is also promised to those who believe in Christ's saving work. Once new Christians achieve this state of assensus, the merit and righteousness Christ has already achieved is "imputed" to them by the Father for the sake of their faith in Christ the Son, and they thus achieve the "state of grace" or salvation. This produces a corresponding state of fiducia (trust, confidence, assurance) that the believer has already been saved, regardless of any good works or acts of love that she or he may perform thereafter (Beeke 1991, 22-26). Martin Luther placed enormous stress on the idea that true fides (faith) contained fiducia within itself, developing the theme extensively in his 1535 Lectures on Galatians:
Now Christ is completely certain that in His Spirit He is pleasing to God. Since we have the same Spirit of Christ, we, too, should be certain that we are in a state of grace, on account of Him who is certain. (Luther [1535] 1955-1986b, 26:378-379)
John Calvin (1509-1564) maintained and extended this emphasis on certainty of salvation within the context of his doctrine of predestination: "The elect [those predestined to be saved] have been given the Spirit by whose witness they know for a certainty that they have been adopted to the hope of eternal salvation" (Calvin [1546] 1960, 2:59). For a survey of attitudes among the early Reformers toward the question of assurance, and an account of the intense debates surrounding the doctrine in the Dutch and English Reformed churches of Swedenborg's day, see Beeke 1991. In this and the following sections, Swedenborg presents his rebuttal of and alternative to the Protestant doctrine of assurance. [DNG]
115. When the trust and confidence called “faith” is only faith by itself, it is a materialistic trust and assurance, not a spiritual one. (I am talking about the kind of faith that is called “saving faith.”) Spiritual trust and confidence gets its essential nature and its life force from the goodness of love, not from the true ideas in faith disconnected from love. Trust in a faith that is not connected with love is a dead trust. So when we live a destructive life, we cannot have a genuine trust. Trusting that we will be “saved” because the Lord has earned it from the Father for us, no matter how we have lived, is not a genuine faith either.
When we have a spiritual faith, we do have confidence that we will be saved by the Lord. We believe that the Lord came into the world to give eternal life to people who believe and live according to the principles he taught, and that this is how we are reborn and become fit for heaven. We also realize that the Lord does this for us out of pure compassion, with no help from us.
115. The confidence or assurance which faith is said to confer, and which is called the really saving faith, is not a spiritual confidence or trust, but a natural one, so long as it comes from faith alone. Spiritual confidence or trust gets its essence and life from the good of love, but not from the truth of a faith separated from charity. The confidence that comes from separated faith is dead. For this reason true confidence is impossible for those who live an evil life. No more is truth the source of the confidence that a person is saved by the merit the Lord possesses with the Father, whatever a person's life has been. All those in a state of spiritual faith are confident of being saved by the Lord, for they believe that the Lord came into the world to give everlasting life to those who believe and live in accordance with the commandments He taught. They believe that He regenerates them and fits them for heaven; and He does this by Himself without any help from the person, entirely out of His mercy.
115. So long as that confidence or trust which is said to belong to faith, and which is styled very saving faith, belong to faith alone, it is not spiritual, but merely natural, confidence or trust. Spiritual confidence or trust derives its essence and life from the good of love, but not from the truth of a faith that has been separated. The confidence of a faith that has been separated is dead; and therefore, true confidence is impossible with those who lead an evil life. Neither does the confidence that salvation is due to the merit of the Lord with the Father, irrespectively of the quality of a man's life, flow from truth. All those who have a spiritual faith, are confident that they are saved by the Lord; for they believe that the Lord came into the world to give eternal life to those who believe, and who live according to the commandments which He taught; further, that He regenerates them, and renders them meet 1for heaven; and that He alone does this, out of pure mercy, and without the help of man.
Footnotes:
1. suitable
115. The confidence or trust, which is said to be of faith, and is called saving faith itself, is not spiritual confidence or trust, but natural, when it is of faith alone. Spiritual confidence or trust has its essence and life from the good of love, but not from the truth of faith separate. The confidence of faith separate is dead; wherefore true confidence cannot be given with those who lead an evil life. The confidence also that salvation is on account of the Lord's merit with the Father, whatever a man's life may have been, is not from truth. All those who are in spiritual faith have confidence that they are saved by the Lord, for they believe that the Lord came into the world to give eternal life to those who believe and live according to the precepts which He taught, and that He regenerates them, and renders them fit for heaven, and that He alone does this from pure mercy without the aid of man.
115. Confidentia seu fiducia, quae dicitur fidei, et vocatur ipsa fides salvans, non est confidentia seu fiducia spiritualis sed naturalis, cum est solius fidei. Confidentia seu fiducia spiritualis essentiam et vitam suam habet ex bono amoris, non autem a vero fidei separatae; confidentia fidei separatae est mortua; quapropter vera confidentia non dabilis est apud illos qui vitam malam agunt: etiam confidentia quod salvatio sit propter meritum Domini apud Patrem, utcunque vita hominis fuerat, nec est ex vero. Omnes qui in spirituali fide sunt, confidentiam habent quod salventur a Domino, credunt enim quod Dominus in mundum venerit ad dandum vitam aeternam illis qui credunt et vivunt secundum praecepta quae docuit, et quod hos regeneret, et aptos reddat caelo; et quod hoc faciat Ipse solus absque ope hominis, ex pura misericordia.