Doc. of Life (Dick) n. 44

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44. It was shown above, Nos. 27, 28, that a man may know, think and understand many things, and yet not be wise; and since it is of faith to know and to think, and still more to understand that a thing is so, it is possible for a man to believe that he has faith, and yet not to have it. Such a man does not have faith because he is in evil of life: and the evil of life and the truth of faith can never act as one. Evil of life destroys the truth of faith, because evil of life has relation to the will and the truth of faith to the understanding, and the will leads the understanding and causes it to act in unity with itself. Therefore if there is anything in the understanding that is not in harmony with the will, when man is left to himself and thinks from his evil and its love, he either casts out the truth which is in his understanding, or by falsification forces it into unity. It is otherwise with those who are principled in the good of life. They, when left to themselves, think from good, and they love the truth which is in the understanding because it harmonises with the will. Thus there is effected a conjunction of faith and life, like the conjunction of truth and good, each resembling the conjunction of the understanding and the will.


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