Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/139

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THE THREE ESSENTIALS.
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THREE ESSENTIALS OF THE CHURCH.

There are three essentials of the church — an acknowledgment of the Lord's divinity, an acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word, and the life which is called charity. Every man's faith is conformable to his life, that is, to his charity. From the Word he has a knowledge of what his life ought to be, and from the Lord he has reformation and salvation.

If these three had been held as essentials of the church, intellectual dissensions would not have divided it, but only have varied it, as the light varies colors in beautiful objects, and as a variety of jewels constitutes the beauty of a kingly crown. (D. P. 259.)

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