acter and attributes to exist apart from the human form, were contrary to all reason and all analogy.
Christians also believe that the world which every good man enters after death, is a higher and more perfect world than the one in which we are now living. If this be so, then the good man should be a better man—should be in a higher state as to affection and thought—in the other world than he is or has been in this. He should be more perfectly human in disposition and character, more wise, kind and loving; therefore he should be more truly human in form. In short, he should be in all respects a more perfect man than he was while on earth. In other words, he should be an angel. Otherwise there would not be that perfect agreement between himself and the increased perfections of the other world, which might reasonably be expected.
The new doctrine that angels are from the human race, and that good men are embryo angels, has the undeniable testimony of reason and analogy in its support. For no law is more clearly revealed in the volume of nature, than that of progress from the imperfect and rudimental to the perfect and mature;—from the lower and simpler to the higher and more complex forms of being. Where among all the works of God, do we find any living thing created full-formed and perfect in the beginning? There is no such thing. Every creature that swims, walks or flies, and every tree and plant that springs from the bosom of the earth, commences its existence in a comparatively simple and imperfect form, and goes on increasing in complexity and perfection as it advances towards the end for which it was created.
