it is a true and living church it will be, an image of heaven. And Paul, in the passages referred to, plainly teaches that the church of Christ is in the human form; that its various parts or members, in their mutual relation and dependence, correspond to the différent parts of the human body. And if many persons on earth—all of them disciples of the Lord—are "one body in Christ, and every one members one of another," should not the same be true in heaven? Should not the diversity be even greater there than in the church on earth, and the harmony and union at the same time more complete? and the form or order of heaven, therefore, more perfectly human than that of the church?
What, now, are the practical considerations suggested by this disclosure?—for it has important practical bearings. What is its legitimate tendency? Plainly to enlarge and liberalize the mind that accepts it, and to impart to the affections something of that breadth and expansiveness which characterize the Lord's all-encircling love. It shows us that there are innumerable kinds and degrees of good and truth in heaven, all derived from the infinity of the Divine Goodness; endless diversity of character and state even among the angels, and consequently a place somewhere in the abodes of the blessed, for every one who has within him anything of the life of heaven, however humble in quality or limited in degree. It is opposed, therefore, to everything like narrowness, bigotry, sectarianism, or exclusiveness. It encourages us to look chiefly at the essential things of religion,—the spirit and the life of heaven,—and to regard as of comparatively small consequence whatever does
