44. BRIEF ANALYSIS.
This is the faith of the New Church in its simple form, which will appear more fully in the Appendix, and in its full form in the work itself, in its First Part; where we shall treat of the Lord God the Saviour, and of the Trinity in Him; of love to God, and love towards the neighbor; of faith and its conjunction with those two loves; and also in the other parts, which will follow in order there. But it is necessary that this preliminary concerning that faith should here be briefly illustrated. Its first, namely, That there is one God, in whom there is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ, is summarily illustrated in the following manner. It is a certain and established truth, that God is one, and His essence is indivisible, and that there is a Trinity; since, therefore, God is One, and His essence is indivisible, it follows, that God is one Person, and when He is one Person, that the Trinity is in that Person. That this is the Lord Jesus Christ, appears from this, that He was conceived from God the Father (Luke 1:34, 35); and thus as to His soul and life itself He is God; and therefore, as He Himself said, that:
The Father and He are One (John 10:30).
He is in the Father, and the Father in Him (John 14:10, 11).
He who seeth Him and knoweth Him, seeth and knoweth the Father (John 14:7, 9).
No one seeth and knoweth the Father, but He who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18).
All things of the Father are His (John 3:35; 16:15).
He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one cometh unto the Father but by Him (John 14:6);
thus from Him, because He is in Him, and thus is He Himself; and according to Paul that:
All the fulness of the Divinity dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9).
And according to Isaiah:
Unto us a Boy is born, unto us a Son is given, whose name is God, Father of Eternity (9:5).
And again, that:
He hath power over all flesh (John 17:2).
And:
He hath all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).
Thence it follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.
Second, That saving faith is to believe in Him, is illustrated by these:
Jesus said, he that believeth in Me, shall not die to eternity, but shall live (John 11:25, 26).
This is the will of the Father, that everyone who believeth in the Son may have eternal life (John 6:40).
God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:15, 16).
He that believeth in the Son, hath eternal life, but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36).
The three remaining propositions, namely, That evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil; and that goods ought to be done, because they are of God and from God; but that it is to be believed that they are from the Lord, with him and through him. There is no need to illustrate and demonstrate these; for the whole Sacred Scripture, from beginning to end, proves them, and, in short, teaches nothing else but to shun evils, and do goods, and to believe in the Lord God. Besides, without these three there is not any religion, for religion is of the life; and life is to shun evils and do goods, and man cannot do goods and shun evils except as of himself. Wherefore if these three are removed from the church, the Sacred Scripture, together with religion, is likewise removed at the same time: which being removed the church is not a church. For a further account of the faith of the New Church, in its universal and particular form, see below (n. 116, 117); all which will be demonstrated in the work itself.