Man Primeval, Or, The Constitution and Primitive Condition of the Human Being

1, He takes his place in the great system. 2, Present existence of
sin assumed. 3, The first law-a test of character still. 5, Implied the
harmony of man's constitution with itself and with the universe. 8, The
arrangement combined the minimum of liability with the maximum of
advantage. 9, Reasonableness of the law-three-fold adaptation. 11,
The temptation of a counterbalance. 12, The particular test selected.
14, Personal consequences of the Fall. 15, The outward act indicative
of a state of mind. 16, How sin began - how it depraves. 18, Deprava-
tion-guilt-changed condition-special provision withdrawn-ex-
emption from dissolution repealed. 23, Nothing arbitrary. 24, Effect on

posterity. 27, Breach of moral, worse than of material law. 28, Princi-

ple of the probationary law universal. 29, Was evil foreseen? - could it

have been prevented?-power and danger of sinning, distinct. 32, Evil,

subordinated to good- and to a further proof of the Divine resources.

34, God's subjective hatred to sin. 35, The great Lesson of man's trial -

still pursued, as a leading principle of Divine procedure

1, Proofs of, brought forward-ever increasing. 3, Man himself a

power-enabling him to apprehend the power of the Creator-and to

reason from a limited cause to the unlimited. 6, His influence over mind

gives him the profoundest conception of power

SECTION II.- Wisdom.

419

1, Proofs of, brought forward. 2, New evidences of, in man's means of

knowledge-power of classification-emotions will and conscience.

6, In his internal relations successively existent. 8, Various illustrations

of design. 9, Estimated numerically. 10, Tests of. 11, The first man

exhibited all these illustrations of. 12, Man finds his wisdom in searching

after God's

SECTION III. - Goodness.

422

1, Past proofs of, repeated in man, and exceeded. 2, A constitution

for enjoyment-ever-increasing. 4, His primitive condition corresponded

-activity without toil-a help-meet-a sabbath-progressive develop-

ment consulted-Divine instruction-exemption from death. 10, Pro-

bation, benevolent-its result made the occasion of good. 12, As mere

proof of, all this in excess-prospectively, greater still

SECTION IV. - Holiness.

428

1, Already proved, by another race. 2, In addition, man organized for

virtue. 3, His instincts subservient to it- his reason-himself a self-

judicature — virtue made pleasurable—and progressive. 8, External

arrangements

correspond-physical-instinctive-social-sympathetic

-infantine-tasteful-useful. 17, His mind an image of the Divine -

subject to limits. 19, His probation illustrative of Divine holiness-and

his failure-and its results. 22, Angelic conceptions of that holiness.

23, Possible conjunction of the two economies-conjecture falls short of

reality. 25, Man may well wait for results. His first crisis

436

453

460

1. MAN was not made for the earth; the earth, from the first, had been preparing for man, and we are to suppose that now, at length, the hour of his creation had arrived. Often, we believe, since the material of the earth was at first called into existence, had vast spaces on its surface become "formless and waste," and "darkness" had hung "on the face of the deep." And as often had the creative will recalled it from chaos, and restored it to order and beauty. But even each of these successive wrecks of the earth had looked on beyond itself, and had a respect to the coming of man; and each of the new creations which followed had formed part of a system of means of which he was to be the subordinate end. For him, volcanic fires had fused and crystallized the granite, and piled it up into lofty table-lands. The never-wearied water had, for him, worn and washed it down into extensive valleys and plains of vegetable soil. For him, the earth had often vibrated with electrical shocks, and had become interlaced with rich metallic veins. Ages of comparative quiet had followed each great revolution of nature, during some of which the long-accumulating vegetables of preceding periods were, for him, transmuted into stores of fuel; the ferruginous deposits of primeval waters were becoming iron; and successive races of destroyed animals were changed into masses of useful limestone. The interior of the

earth had become a store-house, in which everything necessary was laid up for his use, in order that, when the time should come for him to open and gaze on its treasures on "the blessings of the deep that lieth under,"*-on "the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the lasting hills," he might gratefully recognize the benevolent foresight of the Being who had prepared, selected, and placed them there. Many of those great facts which we are accustomed to regard as alone constituting the "laws of nature," because the uniformity of their operation extends through ages of duration, had repeatedly given place for a time, and had owned their subjection to a principle more comprehensive still-the principle that, not the uniformity of ten thousand years, but the change which then breaks up that uniformity, is the grand controlling principle of the universe, itself, perhaps, of uniform recurAnd, for him, many of these successive changes of the earth had been commemorated by geological monuments, which, when uncovered and deciphered, should convince him that all its revolutions had been conducted under the superintending eye of Infinite Wisdom. All this may be said to have taken place for him; not, indeed, exclusively and supremely, but in the sense that, as every end to be answered by creation must be supposed to be included in the Divine purpose, and as the coming of man was calculated to answer the highest end at that time attained, every preceding end may be regarded as a means in order to its attainment.

rence.

2. The appearance of man on the terrestrial stage, therefore, is to be regarded as the great event of the Adamic creation. Geologically speaking, more remarkable physical changes and organic creations had signalized preceding epochs. The outburst of vegetable life in the carboniferous series, and the animal forms of the mammaliferous period, attest creative interpositions on a larger scale than any of the same kind which have distinguished subsequent epochs.

3. And there is ground to believe also, that while the earth, as the scene of inorganic change, of organic life, and of animal existence, had, for unknown ages, exhibited successive displays of power, and wisdom, and goodness, other parts of the universe were not unvisited by sublime disclosures of Divine Perfection. Reasoning from analogy, philosophy assumes the probability that the heavenly bodies are not all uninhabited. From the

*Gen. xlix. 25.

† Deut. xxxiii. 15.

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Man Primeval, Or, The Constitution and Primitive Condition of the Human ...