The Lord, charity and faith make one, just as in a person life, will and understanding do; if they are separated, each of them is destroyed, like a pearl collapsing into dust.

We shall begin by relating some facts which have up to now been unknown to the learned world, and so to the ecclesiastical establishment. They are as unknown as if they had been buried in the earth, although they are treasuries of wisdom, and unless they are dug up and made public, men seek in vain to arrive at a proper knowledge of God, faith, charity, and of the state of their own lives; they do not know how to control it and to prepare for the state of everlasting life. The following facts are unknown. A person is nothing but an organ of life. Life together with all it entails flows in from the God of heaven, who is the Lord. There are two faculties which give men life, called the will and the understanding, the will being a receiver for love, the understanding a receiver for wisdom. The will is also thus a receiver for charity and the understanding a receiver for faith. [2] Everything a person wills and everything he understands flow in from outside; the kinds of good which belong to love and charity, and the truths which belong to wisdom and faith come from the Lord; but on the other hand everything opposed to these comes from hell. It has been arranged by the Lord that what flows in from outside is felt by the person in himself as if it belonged to him, so that he can bring it forth from himself as if it were his own, although nothing of it belongs to him. However, it is reckoned as his on account of the free will enjoyed by his faculties of will and thought, and on account of the knowledge of good and truth granted to him, from which he can freely choose whatever is for the benefit of his temporal or everlasting life.

[3] Anyone looking at these facts crookedly or askance can reach many crazy conclusions from them. Anyone who looks at them straight in the eye can reach many wise conclusions from them. So as to achieve the latter instead of the former result, it has been necessary to state as a premise judgments and dogmas about God and the Divine Trinity, and after this to establish judgments and dogmas about faith, charity, free will, reformation and regeneration, and about imputation, as well as about repentance, baptism, and the Holy Supper, which act as means.