Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/37

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use of such separate organization. We believe it has an important and sublime function to perform in the economy of the church at large—the Grand Man on earth. At the same time we believe it will perform that function more effectually by claiming to be nothing more than an organ or part of this Man. We would not object to having it regarded (by virtue of the abundant heavenly truths it inherits) as the great ganglionic centre, from which radiate the nerves of celestial life and intelligence to the other parts or organs; but we think its usefulness, would be greatly impaired by denying or repudiating everything like a vital connection with the other organizations, and assuming to be itself the whole of the New Jerusalem, or the Lord's true church—the Grand Man—on earth.

That the organization has failed adequately to exemplify the spirit and teaching involved in the heavenly doctrine we have been considering, none know better than the members of this organization themselves. Nor is this any more to be wondered at, than that the spirit and teachings of the New Testament should have been so feebly illustrated by the lives and practices of professing Christians generally. But in the movement of the churches toward a truer charity, a grander catholicity, a larger liberty, and a higher unity, foreshadowing the ultimate attainment of a form