Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/104

 seventh chapter of the Apocalypse. The first part of this chapter gives the number that were sealed out of the twelve tribes; and these tribes, we are told, "signify those who are in genuine goods and truths." (A. E. 452.) They, therefore, belong to or constitute "the Lord's internal church." (A. R. 363.) Accordingly, "by the twelve thousand sealed out of each tribe are meant all of the New Christian Heaven and the New Church who will be in truths of doctrine derived from the good of love through the Word from the Lord." (Ibid. 348.)

But this "internal Church" must have an external also; and the external is as truly a part of the Church, and as indispensable to its completeness, as the skin is a part of the human body and necessary to its completeness. Accordingly the Writings teach:—

"There are some who are in the internal of the Church, and others who are in its external. The former are few, but the latter are numerous. Nevertheless, where the internal Church is there must be an external also, for the internal Church cannot be separated from its external." (A. C. 6587.)

And who are this "numerous" class that constitute the external of the New Church, and where are they? The Writings leave us in no doubt on this point. They are none of them persons who