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 and it is by these that introduction into the church is effected." For it is by means of truths or the knowledges of truth from the Word, and α life according to them, that men are brought into a state of internal union with the Lord, which is a true church state.

We are repeatedly and plainly taught in the Writings, that all "who believe in the Lord, and live according to his commandments in the Word," and no others, constitute the New Jerusalem. And can all these people, while on earth, be distinguished and separated from other people?—Can they be so parceled out—so segregated—that they can be organized into a distinct and visible body, and every person of tolerable discernment feel an assurance that they, to the exclusion of all others, are the Lord's peculiar people or church on earth? No one doubts that his people are all seen and known of Him. But are they known of men? Are men on earth endowed with any such power of discernment or discrimination, that they can separate the tares from the wheat, or the children of the kingdom from the children of the wicked one? If so, then the Lord's true church may exist as a visible organization; then the limits of his kingdom on earth may be accurately defined; then we may have his new and true church in a form as distinctly visible as a railroad corporation or a bank directory; and may point