They say, "What is faith? for I perceive
and see that a thing is so." This they illustrate by comparisons; for
example, that it would be as when any one with a companion, seeing a
house and the various things in it and around it, should say to his
companion that he ought to believe that these things exist, and that
they are such as he sees them to be; or seeing a garden and trees and
fruit in it, should say to his companion that he ought to have faith
that there is a garden and trees and fruits, when yet he is seeing
them clearly with his eyes. For this reason these angels never
mention faith, and have no idea what it is; neither do they reason
about Divine truths, still less do they dispute about any truth
whether it is so or not.{1} [3] But the angels of the first or
outmost heaven do not have Divine truths thus inscribed on their
interiors, because with them only the first degree of life is opened;
therefore they reason about truths, and those who reason see almost
nothing beyond the fact of the matter about which they are reasoning,
or go no farther beyond the subject than to confirm it by certain
considerations, and having confirmed it they say that it must be a
matter of faith and must be believed.
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