Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/99

Rh who acknowledge the Lord, and are in possession of his Word. This will admit of illustration by the analogy, which subsists between the church universal and the human body. The church in particular, where the Lord is known, and his Word received, may be compared to the heart and lungs in man, because in them the life is more central and active, than in the other parts of the body. But still, as by their means the blood is circulated throughout the whole frame, and thus life is communicated not only to the adjoining parts, but even to the extremities, where the circulation is almost imperceptible; so in the great society of mankind at large, the divine truths and influences of the Lord and his Word flow, in a spiritual manner, from the true church to all parts of that spiritual body, which forms the Lord's church universal; and thus by an interior communion of saints, or good men, in every nation and kingdom of the earth, they are all united in the bonds of love and brotherly affection, and in the sight of the Lord are regarded as one angelic form, of which he himself is the very life and soul. In general, the church is both internal and external; it's internal consisting in love to the Lord and charity towards our neighbour, and it's external in worship from a principle of obedience and faith. Or, in another point of view, the knowledge of truth and good, together with the practice thereof, constitutes the external of the church; while the desire and love of truth and good, together with the life thereof, constitutes the internal of the church. Both, however, ought to unite together, to the completion and perfection of the church, whether it be considered as existing among societies at large, or with individuals in particular.