A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 35
XXXV. The Church.
THAT which constitutes heaven in man, constitutes also the church: and as it is love and faith, or good and truth, which constitute heaven, so the same also constitute the church, whether it be with an individual, a society, or a multitude of societies. Wheresoever the Lord is truly acknowledged, and his Word received as divine, there is the church: for the essentials of the church are love and faith directed to the Lord; and the Word teaches how man must live, in order to obtain such love and faith from the Lord. But since the Word, as a regular system of divine truths, is in many respects unintelligible without doctrine, it is therefore necessary, that genuine doctrine be drawn from the Word, and so applied as to form a true church. Yet doctrine alone does not constitute the church with man, but a life according to doctrine. Hence it follows, that the church is not formed by faith alone, but by the life of faith, which is charity. Genuine doctrine is the doctrine of charity and faith united, and this is properly the doctrine of life.
They, who are out of the pale of the church, as the gentile nations are, and who yet acknowledge one God, and live in charity towards their neighbour, according to the precepts of their various religions, that is to say, according to the best light they have received, are in spiritual communion with the members of the true church, and will finally be saved: for the Lord is merciful to all, and requires no more of man, than to use or improve the talent committed to his care, however inconsiderable it may be. Hence we conclude, that the Lord's church universal is planted in every part of the globe, although in a more particular sense it is only to be found among those, who acknowledge the Lord, and are in possession of his Word.
This will admit of illustration by the analogy, which subsists between the church universal and the human body. The church in particular, where the Lord is known, and his Word received, may be compared to the heart and lungs in man, because in them the life is more central and active, than in the other parts of the body. But still, as by their means the blood is circulated throughout the whole frame, and thus life is communicated not only to the adjoining parts, but even to the extremities, where the circulation is almost imperceptible; so in the great society of mankind at large, the divine truths and influences of the Lord and his Word flow, in a spiritual manner, from the true church to all parts of that spiritual body, which forms the Lord's church universal; and thus by an interior communion of saints, or good men, in every nation and kingdom of the earth, they are all united in the bonds of love and brotherly affection, and in the sight of the Lord are regarded as one angelic form, of which he himself is the very life and soul.
In general, the church is both internal and external; it's internal consisting in love to the Lord and charity towards our neighbour, and it's external in worship from a principle of obedience and faith. Or, in another point of view, the knowledge of truth and good, together with the practice thereof, constitutes the external of the church; while the desire and love of truth and good, together with the life thereof, constitutes the internal of the church. Both, however, ought to unite together, to the completion and perfection of the church, whether it be considered as existing among societies at large, or with individuals in particular.
There have been four general churches upon this earth since the creation of the world; namely, the first or Most Ancient Church, called also the Adamic Church, the rise, progress, and end of which are described in the first seven chapters of Genesis;—the second or Ancient Church, called also the Noahtic Church, commencing with Noah and his sons after the flood;—the third or Jewish and Israelitish Church, which was rather the representative of a future Christian Church, than a real church of itself, and a kind of continuation of the Ancient Church;—and the fourth or Christian Church, which was founded by the Lord when on earth, but has, like all the rest, degenerated, and at length expired.
These four general churches were represented by the statue, which was seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, whose head was of gold, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and thighs of brass, and his legs and feet of iron mixed with clay; see Dan. ii. 31 to S5. They were again represented by the four beasts rising up out of the sea, Dan. vii. 3 to 8. The same were also alluded to by the ancients, when they spake of the four ages of the world, and compared them, in reference to their different qualities, to the four chief metals, calling the first the golden age, the second the silver age, the third the copper age, and the fourth the iron age. But the wisdom of the ancients appears to have been incompetent to the anticipation or prediction of a fifth age, which should succeed the four former, and comprise in it's character all the valuable properties of the iron, the copper, the silver, and the gold. This could only be made known by that divine wisdom, which embraces at one view all future states of human society, which dictated, chiefly for the use of that fifth age, the Sacred Scriptures, and which has plainly revealed therein, that on the destruction and removal of the aforesaid image, on the full determination of the aforesaid ages, and on the commencement of a new and eternal age, "the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed;" that he will himself appear "in the clouds of heaven," as "the Son of Man" and at the same time as "the Ancient of Days;" and that in this double character he will claim to himself, and triumphantly receive, "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and whose kingdom shall not be destroyed," Daniel ii. 44; chap. vii. 13, 14. This kingdom, this age, this church, is already begun; and it's name, which was first pronounced in heaven, and is now repeated on earth, is New Jerusalem.
