Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/132

 vention as a representative of the New Church, and a hindrance to the spread of the heavenly truths. Can there be the slightest doubt, therefore, that the speedy abandonment of this attitude would gladden the hearts of angels, and promote the interests and progress of the New Church on earth?

Look, again, at the second use of baptism, which is: "That the Christian may know and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour, and follow Him." (T. C. R. 681.) And we are told that the true acknowledgment and worship of the Lord is "to live according to his precepts" (A. C. 9193); that "acknowledgment belongs not to the lips but to the life" (A. C. 1162); that "the church is not in those who acknowledge the Lord in doctrine but not in the life" ' (ib. 4899); that "no others form any part of the church," but those "who from the heart acknowledge the Divine of the Lord, learn truths from Him by the Word, and do them" (Ap. Ex. 388); and that "the church is only where men live" according to the precepts of the Word, since a man "first becomes a church when he acts from charity," not when he first "knows and thinks according to doctrine," however true and heavenly the doctrine may be. (A. C. 916.)

Now, can anything be further from the truth than the belief or assertion that Swedenborgians