from him that we are begotten anew, and thus become truly the "sons of God." Thus Jesus Christ is the one and only Lord and Father of all.
But now, in the next place, if the Lord is our Father, then the Church is our Mother; for the Church is called, in Scripture, the Lord's Bride and Wife. The Church is our Mother, because she spiritually nourishes and feeds us: she is our mother in the same sense in which it was shown before that Divine Truth is our mother. In explaining the spiritual sense of this Commandment, it was shown that Love or Good is our spiritual Father, and Truth our spiritual mother; for it is only from these united that we are born anew or regenerated. So the Church is our Mother, because by the Church is meant a System of Doctrinal Truth, revealed from the Lord. By the Church, in a true sense, is not meant merely a building or place of worship; nor does it mean merely an external institution, or a system or forms and ceremonies by which worship is conducted: nor does it mean the persons who compose the outward and visible body of members. These are not the Lord's Bride: the Lord is not wedded to these, any further than they are in genuine goodness and truth: and how far that may be, is known to the Lord alone: visible membership does not necessarily constitute true membership: a man may seem to be a part of the church, who is no part truly in the Lord's sight: he may be, as to his spirit, among the wicked, a hypocrite. None of these things then constitute the true Church of the Lord. By the Church Proper is meant the System of Doctrinal Truth revealed from the Lord out of heaven.
