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 members of one and the same body. Spiritually regarded, they are one. They may profess belief in different doctrines; they may have subscribed different religious creeds; they may belong to various external organizations, and be known by different names—and some of them by no name or outward sign whatever: All this matters not nor does it interfere at all with their divinely organized form, whereby they all appear before the Lord as one man. They are really and truly "one body in Christ;"—a body quite distinct and visible to Him, but not to the eyes of men. Many who are "members in good standing" of visibly organized religious bodies, may form no part of this invisible "body of Christ," having no internal fellowship or vital connection with it; while others may enjoy the closest union with it—having their names "written in the Lamb's book of life"—whose names were never enrolled in the list of "church members" by the vote or with the consent of any ecclesiastical body.

That this invisible church is what Swedenborg means by "the communion of saints" in the passage just cited, is placed beyond doubt by the general tenor of his teaching respecting the church, and especially by the following in his Arcana Cœlestia, n. 7396. Speaking of those who constitute the Lord's true church on earth he says:—