819. Verse 12. And all the authority of the first beast he exerciseth before him, signifies the connection of the reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word, by which the religion of faith separate is strengthened. This is evident from the signification of "the beast coming up out of the earth," which exercised all the authority of the first beast before the dragon, as being confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word in favor of faith separated from life, and the consequent falsifications of truth (see above, n. 815), also from the signification of "the first beast," as being reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from the life (see above, n. 774); also from the signification of "the dragon," before which this beast exercised all the authority of the first beast, as being in general, faith separated from the life of faith, which is charity. From this it can be seen that this beast's "exercising all the authority of the first beast before the dragon" signifies the connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word, by which the religion of faith separate is confirmed. [2] The connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word is meant, because nothing false can ever be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word except by means of reasonings from the natural man. For the Word in the letter consists of appearances of truth and also of correspondences, and both of these in their bosom, that is, in their spiritual sense, contain genuine truths; consequently when any falsity is confirmed by the appearances of truth that correspond to genuine truths the Word is falsified; and the falsification of the Word can be effected only by reasonings from the natural man. This is why "the dragon," which signifies the heretical dogma of faith alone, is further described by two beasts, by the first of which reasoning from the natural man in favor of faith separated from its life, which is charity, is described; and by the other, confirmation from the sense of the letter of the Word, and thus corroboration of it, also the falsification of truth, are described; from which it is again evident that this beast's "exercising all the authority of the first beast before the dragon" signifies the connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word. But these things shall be illustrated by examples. (1) [3] The dogmatists who contend for faith alone pay no attention to any of those passages of the Word where "works," "deeds," "working," and "doing," are mentioned; and yet these are so plain as to admit of no contrary reasoning; nevertheless by reasonings they wrest these passages from their genuine meaning and bend and turn them away from the genuine truth that is in the heavens, and that is contained in their spiritual sense. For they reason by saying that faith alone includes deeds and works, because those who are in faith are also in these, thus they are wrought by faith; when in fact, faith without deeds or works is a dead faith, by which nothing can be wrought. If this is said to them they argue that deeds are nevertheless present by a secret Divine operation, although they exclude them from being a means of salvation, thus that they may be present and not be present, as can be seen from justification by instantaneous faith, and also in the hour of death, even in the case of evil men. (2) It is a reasoning from the natural man that faith separate from goods of life is also spiritual, and yet the goods that are of love are what give life to faith, and make it spiritual. For love is the very soul of faith, and love is doing, for what a man loves he wills, and what he wills he does. And this the Lord teaches in John:
He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; but he that loveth Me not keepeth not My words (14:21, 24). Thence it is clear that faith without works is not spiritual; for it is without its soul, and faith without its soul is a dead faith. (3) It is also a reasoning from the natural man that faith was made the means of salvation because man cannot do good of himself. (4) It is also a reasoning from the natural man that those who are merely in faith are in God and in a state of grace, even so that nothing can condemn them. From this it is believed by many that it is not necessary to live a Christian life, which is according to the Lord's commandments; for they say to themselves, Why should I give any thought to works, when good works do not save and evil works do not condemn? I have faith that the Lord suffered the cross for the sins of the world, and delivered us from the condemnation of the law; what more is necessary? (5) It is a reasoning from the natural man that faith alone is like a seed from which all kinds of salvation spring forth like shrubs and trees from seed in gardens; and yet in faith alone there is no seed of life except what is from the spiritual life of man. (6) Moreover, all those things that are taught by the learned dogmatists of this religious principle respecting the progression to justification through faith alone are reasonings from the natural man; as, that the trust of that faith must be acquired from the Word, from preaching, and from the authority of teachers, without intellectual sight; and if the understanding enters into it faith does not become spiritual. And yet when the intellectual sight is excluded man is blind, and before a blind man falsities can be confirmed as well as truths, and even better than truths, because with one who is blind fallacies which are darkness avail more than truths themselves which are in light. Shut up the understanding, bring forth reasonings, and cite confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word, and you will persuade yourself of anything you wish, especially in theological matters that ascend into the interior of the rational mind. [4] These are called reasonings from the natural man, because the natural man is in the delights of the love of self and of the world; and these delights, when they prevail, cause man to believe only such things as agree with them, which in themselves are falsities. They also induce darkness in everything spiritual, even to the extent that man shuns heavenly light, and thus rejects all enlightenment of the understanding. The reason is that the natural man, separated from the spiritual, regards only self and the world, and not the Lord and heaven; and thus he is conjoined to hell, which is the source of all falsities; and these can never be dissipated except by the prevalence of heavenly love and by genuine truths which are from that love. This, then, is why these are called reasonings from the natural man, and why reasonings from the natural man are what falsify the Word; for the Word cannot be falsified except by reasonings from the natural man.
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