would work them for all men without help from man. But, on the contrary, Swedenborg shows throughout, and by every fact and reason of Divine Providence, "that the Lord does not without the use of means, teach man truths either from himself, or through the angels; but by means derived from the Word, from preaching and reading, from conversation and intercourse with others, and from private reflections arising out of them; and man is then enlightened according to his affections grounded in use, otherwise he would not act as if from himself,[1] The only way, therefore, in which one can plant genuine truths in a human soul is by instruction and appeal to his affection and the conscious determinations of his own will and life. It is "to teach truth and lead by truth to good," not blindly, but as one leads another through his understanding.
Another fallacy in this principle of "truth-cure" as it is called, is that divine truth "works from center to circumferences." It leads to the supposition that if implanted in the center of the soul, or awakened there, it will work from within out, secretly and even "unconsciously" to the individual. The Doc-
- ↑ Athanasian Creed, n. 67.
