Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/134

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administered, read of in the \Vord or mentioned, the angels who are present do not understand bap~ tism, but regeneration." Do the angels see in the ordinance anything more or better than this, I wonder, when it is administered by a professed and recognized New Church minister? or anything less or worse in it, when performed by a Methodist, Episcopal or Congregational minister?

The committee refer more than once in their Report to the Roman Catholics, as if for the purpose of weakening the force of some portions of the Memorial. I had supposed that where the church or churches in Christendom are alluded to in that document, intelligent New Churchmen would understand that the same was meant as is meant by Swedenborg when he speaks of "the churches in the Christian world"—including under that designation only Protestant churches. But as the committee seem not to be aware of any such distinction in the Writings, and have, therefore, been led into some apparent misapprehension of the Memorial, I will refer them to the following passage in N. J. D. n. 8:—


"When I use the phrase 'the churches in the Christian world,' I mean Protestant churches, and not the Popish or Roman Catholic Church, since that is not a Christian church; for where the church is, the Lord is worshiped and the Word is read. Whereas, among Roman Catholics, they worship themselves instead of the Lord, forbid the