Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/103

Rh which we call the first Christian church?—for all his words, rightly interpreted, have reference to the spiritual things of heaven and the church. And when the truths and goods of heaven are no longer received by the men of the church, but falsities and evils instead, then its vitality is gone—the essential things of the church are no longer there. That church is at an end.

By the end of the church, or the consummation of the Age, therefore, is meant its spiritual consummation, the loss of genuine charity and faith which are the essential things of the church, and not the abandonment of its places and forms of worship, its rites and ordinances, or any of the externals of religion. When the leading doctrines of Christianity—doctrines concerning the Lord, the Atonement, the Sacred Scripture, Redemption, Regeneration, the Resurrection, Heaven and Hell—have become so misunderstood and falsified that they darken rather than enlighten the human understanding; and when, reading the Scriptures under the influence of such darkening doctrines, people no longer receive therefrom genuine truth but truth falsified; and when the internal states or ruling loves of the church are consequently as evil as its accepted dogmas are false, then the church is consummated. And we submit to every thoughtful mind that nothing less than a new Revelation from God out of heaven could then be