how spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of heaven, is
acquired.

It shall now be told how that life is destroyed by the faith of the
present day. The faith of this day is that it must be believed that God
the Father sent His Son, who suffered the cross for our sins, and took
away the curse of the law by fulfilling it; and that this faith apart
from good works will save everyone, even in the last hour of death. By
this faith instilled from childhood and afterward confirmed by
preachings, it has come to pass that no one shuns evils from religion,
but only from civil and moral law; thus not because they are sins but
because they are damaging.

Consider, when a man thinks that the Lord suffered for our sins, that He
took away the curse of the law, and that merely to believe these things,
or to have faith in them without good works saves, whether this is not
to regard as of little worth the commandments of the Decalogue, all the
life of religion as prescribed in the Word, and furthermore all the
truths that inculcate charity. Separate these, therefore, and take them
away from man, and is there any religion left in him? For religion does
not consist in merely thinking this or that, but in willing and doing
that which is thought; and there is no religion when willing and doing
are separated from thinking. From this it follows that the faith of
this day destroys spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of
heaven, and is the Christian life itself.

Consider further, why the ten commandments of the Decalogue were
promulgated from Mount Sinai in so miraculous a way; why they were
engraved on two tables of stone, and why these were placed in the ark,
over which was placed the mercy-seat with cherubs, and the place where