Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/122

 really is—that is, more than a sect—more than a part, and not the whole, of the specific church on earth. True, it begs the Convention to "assume a more fraternal attitude toward other religious bodies;" but this is quite a different thing from expressing the hope or desire that it will "seek fellowship with them," as is more than intimated in this Report.

Now I do not believe that this committee really meant to impute to the Memorialists any of the things here denied; but the language of their Report could hardly fail, I think, to produce an erroneous impression upon the mind of a stranger.

But what is the platform of the Memorialists, and that on which they earnestly plead that the Convention, "the most conspicuous representative of the New Church at this time," would openly plant itself? It is not one of their own framing, but one revealed by the Lord from heaven. It is embodied in eleven brief, but clearly defined postulates, each commencing with "We believe," etc.; with more than fifty references to the heavenly doctrines wherein are distinctly taught the very things in regard to the nature and whereabout of the Lord's New Church, which the Memorialists say they believe. And so completely do the teachings in the passages referred to sustain the several postulates, that the committee have not ventured to call any of them in