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 minds, than at any previous time, giving them new enlightenment on subjects of transcendent interest. (Ap. Ex. n. 1217. L. J. 74. Con. L. J. 11, 13, 30.)

VIII. And while the several churches or sects of to-day, viewed externally or in respect to ritual, creed and discipline, are found to be substantially as they were in Swedenborg's time, we believe that their internal quality is very different, on account of that great and beneficent change in the World of Spirits, and the increased light and liberty resulting therefrom. (L. J. n. 73.)

IX. We believe that in this New Church, as in the heaven of angels, there exist degrees—that is, more or less interior states of life; and that those who constitute the external or lowest grade, are "a great multitude" who are "in the good of life," though "not in genuine truths"—many of them "in falsities of doctrine from ignorance" (A. R. n. 363, 744. Ap. Ex. 455); for, in respect to all such (and their number is undoubtedly very great), the falsities they believe are not imputed to them, but are accepted by the Lord as truths, and made the mediums of heavenly influences to the believers' souls. (A. C. n. 3452, 7887, 9192, 10,109. Ap. Ex. 443, 625.)

X. We believe that this "great multitude," distributed throughout all the religious sects (and many outside of them all) constitute by far the