Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/145

 society will consist, which is called the kingdom of God, we seem also able to conclude; for every variety, even spiritual, involves an order, with subordination and coordination. . . . For when the form of rule is most perfect, it is of necessity that all societies should produce a general harmony together, as the individual members produce a particular harmony in each society.

"This is called in heaven the kingdom of God, but on earth the seminary of that kingdom, the very city of God, which is not joined to any certain religion or church, but is distributed through the whole world; for God elects His members out of all, that is, of those who had actually loved God above themselves and their neighbors as themselves. For this is the law of all laws: in this culminate all laws, Divine and natural; all the rest are but means leading to this.

"Such a society cannot exist without its Head or Prince; that is to say, without Him who has been man, without blame and without offence, victor over all affections of the mind, virtue itself and piety itself, and the love of God above one's self, and the love of the companion and neighbor, and thus Divinity in Himself—in whom the