As you can see on the basis of these few examples, the sun in our
world, along with its heat and light, is just as present in one object as it is
in another, but the forms that receive it vary its effects; likewise the Lord is
equally present to all, shining down from the sun in heaven, in whose
midst he is, along with his heat (which is essentially love) and his light
(which is essentially wisdom). It is our form as shaped by the state of our
life that varies his effects. Therefore the Lord is not responsible for our fail-
ure to be reborn and saved; we ourselves are.
(d) If we separate the Lord, goodwill, and faith, however, instead of being 367
a form that accepts these qualities we are a form that destroys them.If we sep-
arate the Lord from goodwill and faith, we separate the life from goodwill
and faith. Then goodwill and faith either cease to exist or become
deformed. (See above, § 358 , on the point that the Lord is life itself.) If we
acknowledge the Lord but we leave out goodwill, we acknowledge the
Lord only with our lips. Our acknowledgment and confession of him is
something frozen that has no faith, because the spiritual essence of faith is
lacking. Goodwill is the essence of faith. If we practice goodwill but do
not acknowledge that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth and is one
with the Father, as he himself teaches, then our practice of goodwill is
only earthly and has no eternal life within it.
People in the church know that every good thing that is truly good is
from God, and therefore from the Lord who is “the true God and eternal
life” ( 1 John 5 : 20 ). The same is true of goodwill, because goodness and
goodwill are one.
[ 2 ] Faith separated from goodwill is not faith, because faith is the
light of human life and goodwill is its heat. Therefore if goodwill is sepa-
rated from faith, the situation is the same as when heat is separated from
light. Our state in that case is like the state of the world in winter when
everything on earth dies away. For goodwill to be goodwill and faith to
be faith, they cannot be separated any more than will and intellect can be
separated. If will and intellect are separated, the intellect becomes noth-
ing, and the will soon follows. The same is the case for goodwill and faith
because goodwill dwells in the will and faith in the intellect.
[ 3 ] Separating goodwill and faith is like separating essence and form.
The learned world knows that an essence without a form and a form
without an essence are nothing. An essence has no quality without its
form, and a form has no underlying reality without its essence. There-
fore nothing can be attributed to either of them if they are separated
from each other. Goodwill is the essence of faith and faith is the form of
§367 faith 437