35. It is known from the Word, that the end of the church is, when faith no longer exists within it, but it is not yet known, that there is no faith, if there is no charity; therefore something shall now be said upon this subject. It is predicted by the Lord that there is no faith at the end of the church:
When the Son of Man comes shall He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8); and also that there is no charity then:
In the consummation of the age iniquity will be multiplied, the charity of many will grow cold, and this gospel will be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come (Matt. 24:12, 14). "The consummation of the age" is the last time of the church. The state of the church successively decreasing as to love and faith, is described by the Lord in this chapter, but it is described there by mere correspondences, and therefore the things therein predicted by the Lord cannot be understood, unless the spiritual sense corresponding to each expression there is known; on which account it has been granted me by the Lord to explain in the Arcana Coelestia the whole of that chapter and a part of the next, concerning the consummation of the age, His advent, the successive vastation of the church, and the Last Judgment; see in the Arcana Coelestia (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4424, 4635-4638, 4661-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071).
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