126.
(vii) Therefore there is no correspondence of the husband with the Lord and of the wife with the church in angelic marriages in the heavens or in those of human beings on earth.
This follows from
what has just been said. However, it needs to be added that truth appears to play the leading part in the church, because it comes first in time. It is this appearance which has made the leaders of
the church give the prize to faith, which relates to truth, rather than to charity, which relates to good; and likewise scholars rate thought, a matter of the intellect, above affection, a matter of the
will. For this reason the nature of the good of charity and the affection of the will are buried away as in a grave, and some people throw earth on them to prevent them rising again, as they do on
the dead. Yet it is the good of charity which plays the leading part in the church, as can be seen with fully open eyes by those who have not shut off the route from heaven to their intellect by finding
proofs that it is faith alone which makes the church, and it is thought alone which makes a person. In fact, the good of charity is from the Lord, and the truth of faith is for a person as if it were
from him, and these two bring about the kind of linking of the Lord with a person, and of a person with the Lord, which is meant by the Lord's saying that He is in them and they are in Him (John 15:4,
5). From this it is plain that this linking is the church.
This page was taken from HeavenlyDoctrines.org
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church