nate to the end, then, as everything is related, every inferior law must sustain a relation of subordination to every higher law of the Manifestation.

XVII.

That the whole process of manifestation be conducted uniformly, as far as the end requires, or according to the operation of laws.

(By law is meant a constant relation, or an order of sequence, according to which, if one event occur, another will follow.) This, the great reason requires, for it supposes that every event will be, in some sense, an effect, (which is itself a law) : and that divinely originated effect will, when traced back to its origin, be found to express something in the Divine nature.

The Great Purpose requires it: for it is only by the uniformity supposed that the immutability of the Divine nature, or even the Divine existence, could be evinced; or indeed, that proof of any kind could be made possible. Farther, the Great Purpose necessarily supposes a series of effects: and that as often as God should will, the same effect would follow from the same volition; otherwise He could not be certain that the end would ever be attained. Besides which, as the purpose of an infinitely perfect being, it is pursued on a plan, and a plan supposes the orderly arrangement and concurrent operation of distinct sequences of events, for the attainment of a certain end. It was only on the same supposition, of the operation of general laws, as far as the end requires, that the Mediator could assume the great Relation, or undertake to discharge the Obligation, or calculate on the enjoyment of his exalted Right. Indeed, the proposition that the manifestation will be conducted by general laws, is involved in the statement of all the preceding laws; for each of these statements is an attempt to define them.

XVIII.

That every part of the manifestation be analogous to every other part, or according to a plan.

(By analogy is here meant, generally, a similarity of relation between things in some characteristic respects, when in other respects, the things are different.)

The truth of this proposition may be inferred from the per

vading operation of general laws: from the primary relation, according to which he who is to conduct the great process sustains his office expressly as the Logos or manifestation of God; so that everything else can answer the end of manifestation only as it is analogous, according to, or, in some respect, resembling the Logos: from the Great Purpose; for, if the whole creation is to be, in some sense, an analogue of the Divine nature, (and in no other way can it manifest God) then, every separate portion of it must be similarly related to every other part, otherwise the whole will not resemble Him. If the first act be an act of manifestation, and every subsequent act be a counterpart to all that has gone before, then the last of any given series will, to some extent, correspond to the first each will be a measured resemblance of all, that the whole may be a manifestation of God. If the whole is to be a manifestation, it must be known; if known, classed; (for only a very few things could be known if each were isolated and unlike everything else) and if classed, possessing similarity of relation.

XIX.

That the law of ever-enlarging manifestation be itself regulated by a law determining the time for each successive stage and addition in the great process.

The time for the change in any given department of the Divine manifestation, will of course be determined in a manner, and for a reason, differing with the particular nature and design of the department:- by each existing stage passing through all the combinations and changes of which it admits, before another begins; or, by its existing long enough to show that it involves all the necessary possibilities for answering such and such ends, if its continuance be permitted; or, until it has sufficiently taught the specific truth, and attained the proximate and particular end, for which it was originated.

But, whatever the particular reason for determining the period of change may be, it is evident that the law of the time and the occasion for every change must harmonize with the Great End of the whole- the manifestation of the Divine Allsufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifestation to be recalled or replaced a moment before it had, in some way, demonstrated the all-sufficiency of God for that particular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered.

From which it follows that no such change or interposition takes place arbitrarily; but, as the laws of progression, and of the end, require it.

And that the length of the time which may be allowed to elapse, after the introduction of one law or change, before the introduction of another, so far from growing into an objection against any further addition or change, becomes, in a progressive system, an ever-increasing ground for expecting it.

XX.

That the beings to whom this Manifestation is to be made, and by whom it is to be understood, appreciated, and voluntarily promoted, must be constituted in harmony with these laws; or, these laws of the objective universe will be found to have been established in prospective harmony with the designed constitution and the destiny of the subjective mind which is to expound and to profit by them.

The truth of this proposition, if not self-evident, will receive abundant illustration when, in a subsequent volume, it comes under consideration.

THIRD PART.

ORGANIC NATURE.

The First Stage of the Manifestation.

POWER.

1. Order of the Manifestation. The great end of creation, then, is supposed to be the gradual manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency. Now, travelling back, in thought, to the eve of creation," Here," we might say, "here is an infinite expanse of unoccupied space in which the great end is to be realized; what will be the first step? or with what will the manifestation commence? In what order, and at what rate, will it proceed? What extent of space will it occupy? What possibilities will it involve? Of how many parts or stages will it consist? Will it, or will it not, have any special scene or scenes of operation?"

That these are subjects which occupied the Divine mind not, indeed, as questions which admitted of hesitation - but as parts of His one great purpose, is evident; for they are actually suggested by the fact of what He has done; and He does nothing which He has not purposed to do. Now, imagining ourselves in the situation supposed, and taking along with us the laws which we have derived from the Scriptural view of the Nature and Purpose of God, we might have justly reasoned that if the Divine purpose requires that the creation be progressive, it might be expected to determine also the order of the progression, or what perfection of the Deity shall be first displayed, as well as the act or means by which the display shall be made. In the nature of the case, there is nothing, ab extra, to determine either with what the manifestation shall begin, or how it shall proceed. Even if there were, inasmuch

as the great object of creation is the manifestation of the Divine perfections, the order of the process must be regulated by the order prescribed by the object of the Divine purpose - the means must be made subservient to the end. But there is nothing ab extra, so that there is a necessity as well as a reason, why the order of the manifestation should take the order best adapted for the attainment of the Divine purpose, and prescribed by it.

Whether there is any order, then, in the Divine purpose, and, if so, what that order is, are among the very things to be manifested. Now, according to the constitution of the human mind, we are led to the conclusion that such order exists; and that the earliest display of the Divine Nature will be that of a perfection fundamental to all the rest, namely, Power. It may here be proper to observe, though it is only, in effect, the repetition of a remark in our first Part, that by the Divine perfections we do not understand "a congeries of separate and separable attributes, like the members of an organized body," one of which may be exercised at one time and another at another; but the same one unitive perfection, exhibiting itself in a variety of phases and aspects with a view to entire manifestation. And according to the constitution of our minds, there is a certain order in which these different aspects may be viewed; by which we gain sight of an additional characteristic or perfection at each view; and are prepared by each foregoing perfection for the contemplation of each succeeding

one.

Now the first and the only simple attribute of whose manifestation we can conceive is that of Power. The display of every other attribute supposes the co-existence and manifest co-operation of this in order to its display. But the exercise of this does not necessarily suppose the manifest co-operation of any other. For although, in the case of an infinitely perfect Being, we can never conceive of power exercised apart from intelligence, we can conceive (and the case before us is one in which we are conscious of the conception) of an act of combined intelligence and power, of which, while the power should be so self-evident and awful as suddenly to fill us with

Indeed, if this were the place, it might be shown that even the inference of design, is subsequent to the observation of the adjustments and adaptations of nature, as that again must necessarily be subsequent to the production of the things adjusted.

R*