opening pages of Revelation we are led to infer that, prior to the creation of man, an order of intelligent beings had been called into existence, whose generic name, as known to us, is "angels"-a name descriptive, not of nature, but of office. And the nature of their connection with the system to which man belongs will hereafter form the subject of our consideration. For the present, we have to regard his creation as the introduction of a new stage of the Divine procedure-as the completion and crown of all the preceding stages of the terrestrial economy.

4. Let us imagine, as an analogous case, that one of the planets on which, in the stillness of evening, our eye has often rested, and which for untold ages has been pursuing its silent course through the heavens, were about to become, for the first time, the habitation—not of existence from other worlds — but of a new race of intelligent beings; creatures of a kind hitherto unknown to the universe of God; that they are to go on multiplying for ages; that, as their history advances, it is to be marked by unprecedented events; to be the means of developing new principles of the Divine government, new aspects of the Divine character; and that the first of the race about to be created, is to sustain, in some way, a relation to all that shall follow, which shall shed a peculiar influence on the whole, through all duration. The knowledge of such an event impending there, would be calculated to draw to it the interest, and to rivet on it the attention of the universe. Yet such was the profound interest-however unexciting the subject may have become to us through familiarity—which attached to the introduction of the first man upon the earth.

5. In proceeding to expound the sources of this interest, we propose to take up the laws of the Divine Manifestation in the same order as that in which they were illustrated in the treatise on "The Pre-Adamite Earth," and we therefore begin with the great principle that "every divinely originated object and event is a result, the supreme and ultimate reason of which is in the Divine nature."

6. In our first imaginary visit to the ancient earth, we beheld, in the origination of matter and its planetary formation, an expression of Power. The bare existence of the new dependent substance presupposed the existence of the independent and infinite Substance. The laws which the planetary motions exhibited were His laws, and proclaimed Him to be "the God of order." The first objective effect — the creation of matter

MAN.

irresistibly awoke the conviction of the First Cause; it was the solemn utterance of the Deity on causation. We beheld the universe of matter in motion: it was the great practical lesson of the Deity on dynamics-the doctrine of force producing motion. Every idea which can be supposed to have been then truly suggested and represented, expressed a spiritual correspondence, infinitely greater, in the Divine Creator. But that which the whole - every property of matter, every process by which its properties were developed, every law which regulated these processes, every elementary particle, and every revolving planet combined pre-eminently to indicate, was, the all-sufficiency of the Power of God.

7. All this, however, was only the play or conflict of inorganic matter. Each form we beheld was lifeless, and each motion compelled, or impressed by a force from without. After the lapse of an incalculable period, therefore, we supposed ourselves permitted to revisit the earth, in the expectation that, during the mighty interval, another fiat had gone forth, and another effect had been produced as wonderful as the first, and by means of it. And, imagining ourselves in the situation of beings to whom nothing of the kind had been previously disclosed, we beheld in the new and sacred principle of organic Life, in which innumerable pre-existing phenomena were now for the first time employed as means, for the development of this mysterious principle as an end, the display of Wisdom. We admitted, indeed, that whatever illustrations of taste in arrangement, elegance in form, beauty in color, and majesty in magnitude and waving motion, the botanical kingdom now for the first time exhibited, were to be regarded as indications of the Divine complacency in the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime. As effects, they pointed to correspondences infinitely greater in their Cause. But, even the manner in which each of these effects is produced, is a proclamation of the amazing wisdom of the Maker. Nor could we have looked intelligently on this new, organized, living kingdom of nature, when first it came into existence, without feeling that we were in the presence of a Wisdom to us unlimited.

8. A survey of this advanced stage of the Divine operations prepared us to expect, that, in the revolution of ages, the period might come when forms of organized being might not only live, but move, and be happy. Accordingly, another supposed visit to the scene of our meditations being permitted to us, a spectacle opened to our view which compelled us to exclaim, “How

great is his Goodness!" In the introduction of animal life, we beheld a being constructed for enjoyment; each of its movements yielding it gratification; each of its senses an inlet to pleasure; and the whole preparing the way for greater enjoyment still, and finding happiness in the occupation. If the reason for the existence of this kind of life is to be sought in the Divine Creator, so also must be the reason of its enjoyment. As every effect must be, in some sense, like its cause, the origination of even a single creature would be, not indeed formally, but virtually, a manifestation of some property of the Divine Nature. But here was not merely an individual animal designed for enjoyment, nor a single species, but a world—a succession of worlds, filled with animal enjoyment. What fact of the Divine Creator could this display be supposed to manifest, but that He, "the Happy God," is good, or delights to impart happiness! And as we took our last look at the Pre-Adamite Earth, we felt convinced that no intelligent being could have cast back a mental glance to the remote antiquity when the first creative fiat went forth, and then have called before his mind the long series of creation on creation, with extended intervals between, which had since then taken place, without admitting, long before he had arrived at the close of his retrospection, the all-sufficiency of God for the indefinite enlargement and continuance of similar manifestations; and that long before he had deciphered every symbol, and bowed at every altar, sacred to the Perfections already manifested, he would have been prepared for the unveiling of another aspect of the Divine char

acter.

9. But what will that next perfection be? If Power, Wisdom, and Goodness are not to perpetuate their manifestation by multiplying physical creations alone, some other perfection must now appear which shall render the continuation of such additions to the mere material world unnecessary. And if all which Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness have done already is not to exist in vain as a revelation of God to the creature, a being must yet be formed capable of recognizing these perfections in what they have already done. The same reason which made it infinitely desirable that the glory of God should be made objective as all-sufficiency, clearly implied that, when displayed, there would be beings to understand it. That race, indeed, whenever it shall arrive, may be expected, in harmony with what we have found to be an already established law of the manifestation, to assume into its nature, under certain qual

ifications, the distinguishing principles of the physical, the organic, and the animal creations which have preceded it, and thus to form a part of the actual means of the manifestion. But the great end and object of the whole require, in the case supposed, that the new race of creatures, besides displaying the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, in common with the pre-existing creations, should be intelligent beings, capable of understanding the display. Such a capability will, of course, be associated with the power of appreciating what is understood of the manifestation; for to understand, and yet not to appreciate it, would be to defeat the very design of the manifestation. But the system requires that beings capable of understanding and appreciating the Divine perfections, and who are thus constituted a part of the manifestation, should be capable also of consciously and voluntarily promoting the objects of the great system, and should be held responsible for understanding, appreciating, and intentionally promoting it, to the utmost extent of their means. Now this is only saying that man, besides having a physical, organie, and animal nature, will be also an intelligent, moral, and accountable being, and this will bring to light the moral perfection of the Deity — that Holiness of nature, or subjective excellence, by which He has complacency in all moral goodness; and that Justice, or objective excellence, by which he exhibits His holiness in retributive In other words, the earth, sooner or later, will become the scene of moral government.

acts.

10. But as mighty intervals have separated the stages of the Divine Procedure hitherto, will similar intervals separate the coming manifestations? Will holiness, after imprinting its image on man, reign on earth, and rejoice in its likeness, for an unaccountable period, before punitive Justice follows and kindles its fires? Will Justice then burn for ages, converting earth into a place of punishment, before Mercy comes, if it come at all, to soothe and to save? Will all these perfections be displayed in the history of the same race? Or, will there be a race for the display of Holiness, to be succeeded, when removed, perhaps, nearer to the palace of the Great King, by a second race for the display of Holiness and penal Justice? And are these again to be succeeded, when removed and banished afar from God, by a third race for the display of Holiness, Justice, and some other attribute - say, Mercy? Or have either of these attributes been elsewhere displayed already? displayed by beings who, though not inhabitants of this world,

are yet members of the great system of manifestation, of which this world, and all that it contains, form a part? And if so, is it not in harmony with all the past history of the Divine conduct to expect that the introduction of the new race, essentially differing from all the past, will involve, or be attended with, a new manifestation? that, besides the Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, and Holiness, and Justice of God, already displayed, the history of man will be made the occasion of a new display of the Divine Character?

11. That these are not unimportant nor irrelevant questions is evident, for God has answered them both in His works and in His word. A race of angelic beings, as already intimated, had come on the field of the Divine manifestation bright with the lustre of holiness. Some, but only some of them, failing to keep their first estate, (wherever and whatever that may have been,) occasioned the manifestation, for the first time, of the Divine Justice.

12. Now, let it be supposed that, on our revisiting the earth, we had known this; that, in one part of the universe, Holiness was glowing with more than its original radiance; and that, in another part, the punitive Justice of God still maintained its awful terrors. On the principle of progressive manifestation we should have expected that, if a new race is to be formed, and if another attribute remains to be developed, that new race will be made the medium of its revelation. Coming as that new race will on the stage of Divine Procedure, at a period when Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, and Holiness, and Justice, are already made manifest, we might have expected that the great design of another stage of creation will be the display of another Divine perfection.

13. But, according to that law of creation already ascertained, which requires that each successive addition shall unite with all that precedes by embodying its elements, and thus display in its own individual nature all the perfections which are already manifested, we may expect that all the Divine perfections already known will be exhibited again, in the history of man, before the new display will take place, and preparatory to it in other words, that the coming creation, besides its own peculiar additions, will be an epitome of all that has gone before. The impending stage of the Divine Procedure, then, may be expected to exhibit the attributes of Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, and Holiness; and of these, Holiness, as expressed in a system of Moral Government, may be looked