Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/34

 after he had heard of the number sealed from each of the twelve tribes,—that great multitude, he says, "signifies all the rest who are not among the above recited [that is, not among the one hundred and forty-four thousand], and yet are in the Lord's new heaven and New Church, being those who compose the lowest heaven and the external Church." (A. R., n. 363.) And in their number are included "all who are in the good of life according to the doctrinal tenets of their religion," which "they believe to be truths and goods," although they are not such; and all "who are in falsities from ignorance and from various religions," but who, nevertheless, "live well according to their religious dogmas;" for "what is false is not imputed to any one who lives well according to the dogmas of his religion." (A. E., nos 454, 455.)

From this we learn that people may be in falsities from ignorance, or from instruction received from those whose opinions they revere, and yet be "in the good of life." And we learn, further, that all of this class are "in the Lord's New Church," and are "numerous"—"a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues."

It is plain from the passages above cited (and many more of a kindred nature might be added), that there is, or is to be, the same endless diversity