There is nothing new to me in the subject you wrote about. I had to discuss it twenty-five years ago in Switzerland. It was the ground the dissenters took against me then, that it was a thing to be formed. In Switzerland the comparison of an army was presented, that when one corps was passing men said the army was passing, but nothing was really the army but the whole. I took up the simile, and said it was like recruiting and passing out into the reserve, or freedom from service and new recruits coming in, but it was always the army. I see now you have used a similar one; but the question is not here. This is plain: the Holy Ghost being down here, the body as recognized of God is down here too. The deceased saints do not enter into account as of the body at present, but I said of course they were finally of the body-of it now in the mind and purpose of God, though not actually, as having passed out of the scene where the body was formed by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. My expression I remember was that those who have passed away n'entrent pas en ligne de compte as regards the church actually. Thus the substance of the tract is an old settled truth for me.
I do not know that I should have used the word "perfect" body, though I believe the intention of it is sound. The danger is to deny that anything is ever the body but the present thing on earth; that is, that there will be no body of Christ when He is Head over all things de facto, so that the body is a temporary thing. I should at present shrink from this. It is quite clear to me that the body recognized now is on earth, united to the Head by the Holy Ghost come down here, but does union with Christ by the Holy Ghost cease when the saints all go up to meet the Lord? When they die they are individually with the Lord, but are lost, so to speak, not being raised to their actual connection with the body which is here, where as to personal place the. Holy Ghost now is. I have often said the Holy Ghost does not teach by my negatives. But supposing a living saint changed when Christ comes, does he lose his union with the Head, lose the Holy Ghost as making him one with Him, and cease to be a member of the body? This I cannot think Negatives are always dangerous things. The church is His body, and He is to be glorified in the church throughout all ages world without end. It would be a sad thought to me to cease to be a member of Christ or that that should cease. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." I insisted on the present actuality of the body from 1 Cor. 12 largely. "He hath set in the church," &c. There are no healings in heaven. That the body is a present thing by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven is as clear in scripture as possible, and to give it up at any time is to give up Christ's care of His members as a man of his own flesh.
But further, Eph. 1:22, 23 is an abstract statement for me. Now He has put all things under His feet. This we know is not accomplished. So it is as to the calling and inheritance (vers. 4, 5, 11); it is what is in the mind of God, with a statement of what is already accomplished, as verses 13, 14, 20, 21, but both parts look at the mind and purpose of God-the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints; and then the Spirit gives the complete thing of the mind of God in verses 22 and 23, not merely what is now fulfilled. Is it not natural to hold fast that the thought of the body may not lose its importance by being only a temporary thing? As to the tract itself, I think it clear, and calculated to be very useful. I should not perhaps have used the word "perfect." It is not in scripture.
In chapter 3:6 of a joint-body; the "of" is questionable- σύσσωμα a joint-body (with the Jews). As to chapter 4:13, you can hardly say ἄνθρωπον τέλειον, because ἄνθρωπος is the genus, τέλειος is simply full-grown: a full-grown man at once gives the idea of an individual, and a man-not a woman. The ἄνθρωπον is the nature and race necessarily in verse 21. But you have assumed that ἄνδρα τέλειον refers to the whole, which, to say the least, I very much doubt, and have put a great deal more into both than I believe is there. The ἄνδρα τέλειον is the state of the soul at any rate, as verses 14, 15 clearly show. The apostle looked for all to be brought together in this full knowledge of Christ. We must remember that the apostle never looked for a long continuance of the church, but for the Lord's coming, and all was viewed as contemplating this, though prophetically ruin might be predicted and felt as it came in. The Puseyites have this doctrine of the body, but connect it of course with the sacraments, not merely; in the figure of the Lord's supper, but as forming it. I have been a little occupied with them lately, and have been writing on their points, but do not know yet what I shall do with it.
I expect to leave here this week for Ottawa and Montreal on my way to New York.
May the Lord abundantly bless you, dear brother, in all your service.
Ever affectionately yours.
October, 1867.