Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/237

This page needs to be proofread.
THE NEW CHURCH NOT A SECT.
231

described as to its various particulars, by tbe seven churches, in what follows. (A. R. 66.)


NOT A SECT.

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number," signifies, all the rest who are not among the above recited, and yet are in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church; being those who compose the ultimate heaven and the external church, whose character no one knows but the Lord alone.

But who they are in particular who are meant by those that are called a great multitude, cannot be known without first revealing an arcanum, which is this: The universal heaven, together with the church on earth, in the sight of the Lord is as one man. And because it is as one man, there are some who constitute the head, and thus the face with all its organs of the senses; and there are some who constitute the body with all its members. Those who are enumerated above [that is, the twelve tribes] constitute the face with all its organs of the senses; but these now mentioned, are they who constitute the body with all its members.

The Lord's church is also internal and external; they who are meant by the twelve tribes of Israel are such as constitute his internal church; but they who are now mentioned are such as constitute the external church, and cohere as one with the above recited, as inferior things with superior, or as the body with the head.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.