97. 'But are a synagogue of Satan' signifies because as to doctrine they are in untruths. 'Synagogue' is said because the Jews have been mentioned, and as they used to teach in synagogues, by 'synagogue' is signified doctrine; and since by 'Satan' is understood the hell [formed] out of those who are in untruths, therefore 'a synagogue of Satan' is said. Hell is called 'the Devil' and 'Satan', and by the hell that is called 'the Devil' those are understood who are in evils there, properly those who are in the love of self; and by the hell that is called 'Satan' those are understood who are in untruths there, properly those who are in the pride of their own intelligence. Those hells are termed 'the Devil' and 'Satan' because all who are in them are called devils and satans. From these things it can now be established that by the fact that they 'are a synagogue of Satan' is signified that as to doctrine they are in untruths. [2] But as it treats here of those who are in good as to life but in untruths as to doctrine, and these do not know otherwise than that they are in good and that their untruths are true, something will be said about them. Every good of worship is formed by means of truths, and every truth is formed out of good, and therefore good without truth is not good, while truth without good is not true. They appear indeed in external form to be so, but they are not. The conjunction of good and truth is called the heavenly marriage, out of which there is the Church with a man, and heaven with him. If therefore there are untruths instead of truths with a man, then he does the good of untruth, and this is not good, for it is either pharisaical, or for the sake of recompense, or it is connate natural good. [3] But let there be examples for enlightenment. He who is in the untruth that he believes himself to be doing good of himself because he has the faculty of doing good: his good is not good, because he himself and not the Lord is in it. He who is in the untruth that he is able to do a good that is good without acquainting himself with what evil is with him, thus without repentance: he while doing good is not [really] doing good, because without repentance he is in evil. He who is in the untruth that good purifies him from evils, and does not know anything about the evils in which he is: he is doing no other than a spurious good that has been contaminated within by his evils. He who is in the untruth that there are many gods, and confirms himself therein: in his case the good that he is doing is a divided good, and a divided good is not good. He who is in the untruth that he believes that the Lord's Divine is not in His Human as the soul is in the body, is unable to do good out of Him, and a good not out of the Lord is not good, for it is contrary to these words of the Lord:-
Except anyone abide in Me and I in him, he cannot bear any fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Except anyone abide in Me, he is cast out of the house as a withered branch, and is cast into the fire and is burned John xv 4-6.
Similarly in many other instances. For good draws its own quality from truths, and truths draw their being (esse) from good. [4] Who does not know that a Church is not a Church without a doctrine, and the doctrine will teach how a man will think about God and out of God, and how he will act out of God and with God? The doctrine will therefore be [formed] out of truths and to act in accordance with these is what is called good. It follows from this that to act in accordance with untruths is not good. It is believed that in the good that a man does there is not anything out of truths or untruths, when yet the quality of the good is from no other source, for they cohere like love and wisdom, and also like love and foolishness. It is the love of the wise that does good, but it is the love of the foolish that does what may be alike in externals, but is altogether unlike in internals. The good of the wise, therefore, is like pure gold, but the good of the foolish is like gold wrapped round about dirt.
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