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HIS LETTER TO DR. MENANDER. 165
strated in The Apocalypse Revealed, that this faith has destroyed the church, and
that it has abolished religion, and that consequently it has so entirely laid waste
and consumed everything that constitutes divine worship, that there is no longer
any genuine goodness and truth in the church, and that the works which are
called the fruits of this faith are nothing else but the ’
eggs of the cockatrice’ men-
tioned in Isa. lix. 5. They, therefore, who have confirmed in themselves this
faith with its ’
spidefs web,’ and who believes that the good works which they
do, are the fruits of this faith, are grossly deceived, and are in a kind of deli-
rium from which they cannot be withdrawn but by renouncing the confirma-
tions of this faith, and by adopting the genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the only Object of love and worship, in whom is the Father, for ’
whoso
seeth Him, seeth the Father: But concerning this faith, I refer you to the little work
entitled The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Faith, 34-37.
" The falsities of the faith prevailing at the present day are the following
:
L That the Lord has taken away the damnation of the law : whereas he has not
taken away a single point, indeed, every one will be judged according to his
works, as Paul asserts in Rom. ii. 13, and in 2 Cor. v. 10, and in other passages.
But the Lord has taken away damnation in general, that is, subjugated the pow-
ers of hell, by His coming into the world, without which ’
no flesh could have been
saved: II. That the Lord has fulfilled the law is, indeed, a truth, for by that
means He alone has been made justice and righteousness, but by that he does
not deliver man from the obligation of the law [of the ten commandments],
for the Lord fulfils it daily in those, who shun evils as sins, and who in worship
address Him alone ; for those who shun certain sins, Vv/hich they discover in
themselves, are kept in the intention of shunning all sins as soon as they come
to their knowledge. III. That the merits of the Lord are imputed to man, which
doctrine is maintained at the present day, is an entire impossibility ; the merits
of the Lord are in general two—first, that of having subjugated the hells, and,
second, that of having glorified his humanity, or of having made it divine ;
these merits could not possibly be imputed to any man, for they are infinite
and divine ; but by them the Lord has acquired the power of saving all who
come unto Him, who address their worship and prayers to Him, and who ex-
amine themselves, and shun all evils they experience in themselves as sins
against God. IV. It is an error to address God the Father, and to supplicate Him
to have mercy for the sake of his Son, and to send His Holy Spirit; this mode
of worship and of supplication is directly contrary to the truth, for the truth
teaches us to address the Lord alone, in whom dwelleth the Father, and through
whom only can the Father be approached and w^orsliiped ; moreover, the com-
mon mode of supplicating the Father for the sake of the Son, involves a clear
and distinct idea of three gods, and gives rise to the belief that the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit are three separate and distinct divine beings ; if also it is asserted
that by the Son His Humanity is understood, then concerning the Lord a di-
vided idea is entertained, or an idea of two distinct beings. V. The assertion
that man is justified by this faith alone, provided he have it with assurance and
confidence, is absolutely false; a plain proof of this, without adducing any
others, may be seen in Romans ii. 10. In such a faith there is neither truth nor
goodness, and consequently nothing of the church, nor of religion ; for it is the
truth of doctrine which makes the church, and the good of life which constitutes religion
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