blind; but it is a sufficient reason why the divine truth now revealed, is not received by those who in heart and life are nearest to its spirit.
The second class in the Christian Church who are impenetrable to the rays of the new light, consist of those whose affections are more external; who love their Church as an outward organization, its ritual, its ministers, its people, its history, its learning, its influence and the whole sphere that emanates from it. This feeling is near akin to party feeling in politics, and to national feeling in different countries; a feeling that weakens if it does not destroy all genuine catholic and cosmopolitan sentiment. It has indeed a certain necessity and a certain use, as political parties and separate nationalities have; but its inordinate sway leads to bigotry and narrow-mindedness. People of this type are utterly averse to the consideration of any spiritual matters outside of their traditional sphere of thought and feeling. The bare suspicion that Swedenborg may be right, never crosses their minds.
Each of these types is an enemy to the spiritual truths taught in the internal sense of the Word of God. Sometimes two of them or even all are combined in the same character. Imagine a man
