[2] Because the subject treated of in this verse is blaspheming and as blasphemy signifies the falsification of Divine truth or the Word, by those who separate faith from life, I desire in the explanation of this verse to say who they are and what is the quality of those amongst them who so falsify the Word as entirely to close heaven against themselves; also who they are and what is the quality of those who do not so falsify the Word as to close heaven against themselves; and afterwards who they are, and what is the quality of those who do not falsify the Word, and with whom, therefore, heaven can be opened or is opened.

In this article those shall be dealt with who so falsify the Word, as altogether to close heaven against themselves; in the following article we shall speak of the rest in order.

All those close heaven against themselves entirely who confirm themselves in the doctrine, and at the same time in the life, that faith alone without good works justifies and saves. The reason is, that they so falsify the Word as to make it contrary to the Divine truth which is in heaven and from which heaven exists. For the Word may be falsified to this extent, or it may not. But that it is falsified to this extent by such persons is evident from the following reasons.

[3] 1. The goods of life, which are good works, they consider to have nothing to do with doctrine, and consequently make no account of life, when, yet, the whole heaven is in good; for good belongs to love, and love to life. All the wisdom and all the happiness of the angels of heaven is from good by means of truths; and the quantity and quality of wisdom and happiness with every one there are in proportion to the quantity and quality of the good from which truths are. Good, therefore, is the very essence of angelic life, and consequently the essence of heaven itself. Those, then, who regard salvation as depending entirely on faith alone and not the least on good works, cannot but shut heaven against themselves. For good, in which is heaven, they account as nothing at all. And where good is not, there is evil; and where evil is, there is hell.

[4] 2. Those who place everything of salvation, and thence everything of heaven and the church in faith alone, and nothing of these in the goods of charity, which are good works, make light of love to God and love towards the neighbour, and regard them as of no importance; when yet the Lord teaches, that on those two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matt. xxii. 34-38). The Law and the Prophets denote everything in the Word. And the Lord also said to the lawyer, concerning those two commandments,

"This do and thou shalt live" (Luke x. 29).

And to love God, and to love the neighbour is nothing else but to do good. For love, in its essence, is to will, and in its existence is to do. For what a man loves, this he wills; and what he wills from love, this he does. Therefore also the Lord thus teaches:

"He who hath my precepts, and doeth them, he it is who loveth me; but he who loveth me not, keepeth not my precepts " (John xiv. 21, 24).

It follows, therefore, that those who in thought make nothing of good works, which are the goods of love, the goods of charity and the goods of life, called in heaven uses, close heaven against themselves. For they neither love God nor the neighbour. And yet heaven is heaven from those two loves. It is by this, chiefly, that the Word is falsified, even to the destruction of Divine truth, which is in heaven from the Lord and which is the Lord there.

[5] 3. Those who confirm themselves in doctrine and in life, that faith alone without good works justifies and saves, close heaven against themselves by making excuse for evil works. And they do this by saying and believing that evils are not seen by God; or that they are remitted in the case of those who have faith, or (according to some) with those who have the confidence of faith; and (according to others) with those who are justified by faith. Many of them, therefore, think insanely in this way, "Of what importance is it to do goods when goods do not save me; and what does it matter if I do evils, when evils do not condemn me? I am in grace because I have faith." And so they live to themselves and the world, neither abstaining from evil because it is evil, nor doing good because it is good. And if they do abstain from evil, it is from fear of the civil law, and of the loss of reputation, and not from any fear of the Divine Law, and of the loss of life eternal. And if they do good it is from the love of reward, and not from the love of God; and yet as is the quality of the life such is the man. For the Lord says:

"Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matt. vii. 16).

Such a man does not know what a good life is or an evil life. If he lives as a citizen of the world, he believes that he lives a good life; although if he does not live such life as a citizen of heaven, it is an evil life. Neither does he distinguish the one from the other, because they both appear alike in externals. The reason why he cannot distinguish them is, that good works, which make the life, are regarded as of no account. It now follows, therefore, that those who confirm themselves, in doctrine and life, that faith alone without good works justifies and saves, shut heaven entirely against themselves.

[6] 4. Those also shut heaven against themselves by this, that although their life is a merely natural one, deriving everything belonging to it from the love of self and of the world, still they ascribe the Lord's merit to themselves, saying in their hearts, "If I can only believe with trust and confidence, that the Lord endured the cross for me, and so redeemed me, I may have eternal life, because that justice and that merit are imputed to me by faith, and nothing thereof by the deeds of life." When, yet, the imputation of the Lord's merit is not possible; nor, consequently, can life be thence imputed to man. But life from the Lord is given, according to what was said above in its own article. Therefore to impute to themselves the Lord's merit, and not to live according to His precepts in the Word, and so to live from Him, is blasphemy; because this involves the possibility of living solely to themselves and the world, thus wickedly, in the Lord.

[7] 5. Those also close heaven against themselves by this, that they acknowledge for faith what is not faith; or for a saving faith that which is merely historical, thus what is natural for what is spiritual, what is dead for what is alive. And so also in regard to the confidence of their faith. For such persons believe that to know and to think opens heaven, and not to will and do at the same time; nevertheless, the latter are primary, and the former only secondary. For the life of man's thought is from the affection of his will.

[8] 6. Those also close heaven against themselves by this, that, because man cannot do good from himself, which is good, and which is not merit-seeking, they omit to do good, and implore the gift of faith; and yet there can be no faith which is real, except from charity, consequently from good. The faith which is then allowed to exist in consequence of their imploring it, is a faith of what is false from evil, for where good is not, there evil is; and where evil is, there falsity is; and the faith of what is false from evil is the faith of hell - which is called dead faith and this closes heaven.

[9] 7. But heaven is particularly closed to them by their application of the Word to confirm all these things; for they so falsify it as to destroy the Divine truth which is in heaven. For our Word, in its spiritual sense, is Divine truth such as it is in heaven; and if the sense of the letter is falsified to the destruction of the spiritual sense, heaven is closed. For the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord makes heaven, indeed, is heaven; the angels there being angels by the reception of it.

[10] 8. It was said that those entirely close heaven to themselves, who, both in doctrine and life, make good works of no account on the principle that faith without good works justifies and saves. It shall now be briefly explained how this is done by doctrine, and how by life. Doctrine closes heaven by consent, affirmation, confirmation, and persuasion that it is so; for then a man not only thinks but also wills it to be so. And if he still does goods because they are commanded in the Word, he does these simply as moral goods from the natural man; and these goods are from himself, and are also merit-seeking. For every thing which a man does is from his will, and according to his will, a deed being nothing else but the will in act. Therefore when a man thinks and also wills that there should be nothing of salvation in works, the goods he does must be according to their origin. Such are many of the learned, who have confirmed faith alone in themselves by their preaching and writing. The minds of these persons in the spiritual world appear as if covered with a veil, or as inclosed in a dense cloud which prevents the light or truth of heaven from entering, and so heaven is closed to them. But life according to such doctrine as this closes heaven entirely, because they believe that the goods of life do not save nor evils of life condemn.

9. It is the same thing whether it be said that heaven is closed to man, or that the higher mind of man, which is called his spiritual mind, is closed; for the spiritual mind of man is his heaven, therefore a man has conjunction with heaven; and the natural mind is his world; therefore by means of this he has conjunction with the world. But how the spiritual mind is opened and communication and conjunction thereby becomes possible with heaven was explained above (n. 790).