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50 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES.

heavenly doctrines. So fully did he enter into and so thoroughly comprehend their large and catholic spirit. So clearly did he see that the New Jerusalem is not a visible body, and can never be identified, therefore, with any organization or sect. And scores of passages might be cited from Swedenborg, showing how fully his teachings sustain those of Mr. Clowes as here quoted.* (See A. C, 402, 940, 8938 ; N. J. D.. 95.)

• Although Mr. Clowes was quite correct in his understanding of the nature and whereabout of the Church signified by the New Jerusalem, it is to be said in justification of the new and separate organization, that the state of nearly all the churches a hundred years ago, was such as to render that step almost if not quite unavoidable. So great was the prevailing intolerance and so intense the spirit of sect, that persons known to be readers and receivers of the New-Church teachings, would not be received into many of the churches of that day; and if already members, would be required to renounce their belief in these

teachings, under penalty of excommunication if they refused. Though some of the old intolerance still lingers, it is far less intense than it was a century or even a half century ago. — B.