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OP THE

Theological Seminary,

BL 225 .H4 1870 c Harris, John, 1802-1856 The pre-Adamite earth

Book, "•^' -•■■■

THE

P RE-ADAMITE EARTH

CONTRIBUTION

TO

THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.

JOHN HARRIS, D. D.,

AUTHOR OF "THE GREAT TEACHER," ETC.

SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

BOSTON:

&OXJIjD ^N33 LINCOLN,

59 WASHINGTON STREET.

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.

CINCINNATI : G. S. BLANCHARD & CO.

18 70.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface . 7

FIRST PART. Primabt Truths 13

SECOND PART. Principles deduciblb from the preceding Truths . 50

THIRD PART. Inorganic Nature «4

FOURTH PART. Organic Life 129

FIFTH PART. Sentient Existence 176

CONTENTS.

Note A, referred to in paga

B li u a

Q (( U ((

D «

E " " "

Q U u i

H " " "

NOTES.

PAGE.

13 271

75 273

77 282

131 283

180 287

218 290

213 , , . . . 291

231 292

*^* It may save the reader some trouble to be apprised, that the order in which the Principles are stated in the Second Part is not the order in which they are subsequently illustrated. The order in which they are illustrated in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Parts, is the same.

PREFACE.

The present volume is intended to be the first of a short series of Treatises — each complete in itself — in which the principles or laws hereafter deduced, and applied to the succes- sive stages of the pre- Adamite earth, will be seen in their his- torical development as applied to individual man; to the family to the nation ; to the Son of God as " the second Adam, the Lord from heaven ;" to the church which he has founded ; to the revelation which he has completed ; and to the future pros- pects of humanity. It would not be difficult to state the rea- sons which have induced me to adopt this particular method of exhibiting theological science ; to specify the points in which it differs from those methods which may be considered most nearly to resemble it ; and to enlarge on the advantages, di- rect and indirect, which it is proposed to secure by it. But, besides that such topics, if introduced at all, would require to be treated at considerable length, I would rather that the method adopted should, as it is gradually unfolded in the suc- cessive Treatises, be allowed to speak for itself. If any ex- planatory remarks respecting it are deemed necessary, they will, it appears to me, be more in place at the close of the Se- ries than at the commencement.

This first volume consists of five parts. Of these, the first par*^ contains those Primary Truths which Divine Revelatioi)

8 PREFACE.

appears to place at the foundation of all the objective manifes- tations of the Deity ; the second, presents the Laws or Gene- ral Principles, which are regarded as logically resulting from the preceding Truths ; and the third, fourth, and fifth parts, are occupied with the Exemplification and Verification of these Laws in the inorganic, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms of the pre-Adamite earth, respectively. From this statement it will be seen that the first two parts are here as introductory, not to the present volume merely, but to the entire series ; and that, as exhibiting the process by which the method has been arrived at, they will not require, except in substance, to be subsequently repeated.

As Revealed Theology is here seen in organic connection with natural science, a few remarks explanatory of that con- nection will not be deemed irrelevant. Of the theology itself, I will only say, at present, that it is that which I believe ; but, inasmuch, as it is exhibited in mere human forms of thought and language, I can, of course, expect that others will accede to it only as far as they believe it to be in harmony with " the true sayings of God." Nor can I be insensible that the laws deduced from it will be prejudiced in some minds, by the no- tion that the adoption of them involves the reception of the theology. But as views deducible from the highest grounds are generally found to be inferrible also from lower and ana- logical premises, it should be considered, in the present in- stance, whether these laws might not be accepted on such in- ferior grounds without committing the recipient to any ulterior views. Even less than this, however, is necessary. For, if the reader should demur to adopt the Laws as they are de- duced from the Primary Truths of the first Part, he has to consider whether he is not called on to admit them, as they are sustained and inductively verified by the facts adduced in the three concluding Parts. These facts, I may remark in pass- ing, admit of almost indefinite multiplication, but it has been my aim to adduce only such and so many as appeared essen- tial to the verificaiion of the laws.

PREFACE. 9

Of the connection between theology and natural science generally, it may be assumed that every one who admits that there is a true theology and a true science of nature, will ad- mit also that there is a sense, whatever it may be, in which the two are related. The mind which elicits and embraces both, is one ; so that, however distinct the process by which it ar- rives at the knowledge of each, and however different the sources and kinds of evidence on which that knowledge rests, both branches evince their inherent unison, in the unity of the knowing mind itself. On this conviction it is that men no sooner begin to think, than they next proceed to examine the laws of thought ; if they collect facts, they next inquire for the causes of those facts ; and when they have succeeded in developing any of the sciences, they then look for the internal bond of union which makes them all one. And for such a nexus they seek under the unquestioned conviction that it exists; for the conviction simply implies that, as reasoning concerning each separate science is possible, so reasoning con- cerning collective science must be possible.

Well had it been for theology and philosophy if the bond which unites them had been clearly ascertained, and never dis- severed. But the erroneous views which some have enter- tained respecting the relation of the two, have originated evils only less than those flowing from their unnatural separation. The error of Descartes and his followers consisted, not in mak- ing theology the point of their philosophy, but in regarding their metaphysical deductions as adequate to explain all physi- cal phenomena. By reasoning only, a priori, or proceeding continually downwards from cause to effect, they were, not questioning Nature, but answering for her; legislating, in effect, where God had legislated already ; and so " building a world upon hypothesis." i There is, however, a wide inter- val between the extreme which makes everything of a prin-

' Introduction to Butler's Analogy, &c.

10 PREFACE.

ciple, and that which seeks security from it, by abandoning the principle altogether.

As surely as the mind is one, the truth to which the mind is preconfigured is one. On this ground it is that we argue from the known to the unknown ; approach a subject of inquiry under the guidance of an antecedent probability as to what we shall find in it ; and employ analogy and hypothesis as instru- ments of scientific discovery. " How," inquires Plato, " can you expect to find unless you have a general idea of what you seek ?" " The mind," says Lord Bacon, " must bring to every experiment a ' precogitation,' or antecedent idea, as the ground of that ' prudens qusestio,' " which he pronounces to be the prior half of the knowledge sought — " dimidium scientias." Indeed, is not the Novum Organum itself of hypothetical origin? "When Newton said, ' Hypotheses non fingo,' he did not mean that he deprived himself of the facilities of investigation afforded by assuming, in the first instance, what he hoped ultimately to be able to prove. Without such assumptions, science could never have attained its present state ; tKey are necessary steps in the progress to something more certain; and nearly everything which is now theory was once hypothesis. Even in purely experimental science, some inducement is necessary for trying one experiment rather than another."^ These hypotheses, as the language impHes, are only provisional. They must be of a nature to admit of verification ; and be actually subjected to a test which shall confirm or explode them.

In the same provisional manner might principles derived from the domain of revealed theology be advantageously carried into the province of nature. There is a true deductive method in science as well as a false ; and there is a right method of employing theological principles in philosophy, as well as a wrong. Everything depends on the manner in which they are employed. The inductive conclusion must be kept distinct from the speculative assumption. However fruitful the de-

* Mill's System of Logic, vol. ii. p. 18.

PREFACE. 11

ductive principle may be, it can be used only for suggestion,' not for demnostration ; the froof of the view suggested must be of the samenature with that of the subject investigated or discussed.

In the following pages, the principles introduced are to be regarded as employed only in this conditional manner. The reader is to view them, as far as their application to nature is concerned, as entirely tentative or provisional, until their applicability has been tested. If on a comparison of the in- ductive truth adduced, with these deductive principles, their applicability is apparent, let the obvious inference be accepted, that there is a theology in nature which is ultimately one with the theology of the Bible — that there are principles of varied but universal application.

The attempt which is here made to deduce such principles, and to apply them to the successive stages of creation, proceeds on the assumption that the whole process of Divine Manifesta- tion, including nature, is to be viewed in the light of a sublime argument in which God is deductively reasoning from princi- ples to facts, from generals to particulars. With the great synthetic Whole ever present to His mind. He is seen unfold- ing the parts of which it consists. In order that man may feel the force of this reasoning, his mind, equally with the Divine IVIind, must pre-suppose, or be prepared to admit, the primary truths on which the reasoning depends. But besides these, the Great Argument implies (as in every case of ordinary rea- soning) that there are certain ideas or truths in the mind of God, which are not yet in the mind of man, and which it is the design of the argument to convey. For example — whatever exhibits marks of design must have had an intelligent author; the world exhibits marks of design, therefore the world must have had an intelligent Author. Here, the major is assumed alike by God and man ; the conclusion is, at first, in the mind of God alone, and the design of the great argument is to con- vey it into the mind of man also ; but the attainment of this

12 PREFACE.

end depends on the truth of the minor — that the world does exhibit marks of design ; and how is this proposition to be established except by induction? To the infinitely blessed God, then, the entire process of Divine Manifestation is, in its reference to man, a sublime syllogism, of which the last object and the remotest event are already included potentially in the major ; the unfolding of which is destined to occupy the coming eternity. While man, appointed to find the sphere of his activ- ity and improvement in the intermediate space between the Necessary and the Contingent, and unable to rest but in the felt junction of the two, shall derive perpetual accessions of enjoy- ment as he ascends from the Particular to the Infinite with whom it has originated, and in whom is it contained.

THE

PRE-ADAMITE EARTH

FIRST PART.

CHAPTER I.

The Great Reason; or, why God is, and must be His own end from everlasting to everlasting.

God is not nature ; nor is nature God. Before nature, before any part or being of the objective universe existed, the God of the Bible had existed from eternity in his own self-sufficience. And the absolute perfection which that self- sufficience implies, determines that it shall be, in some sense, tlT!e chief reason and last end of everything created ; so that He will continue to inhabit his self-sufficience through the eternity to come. We beHeve, indeed, that, while He su- premely regards His ^wn glory. He really regards the well- being of the created universe for its own sake ; that this well-being is regarded by God a§ an end — in the sense of being an object desirable on its own account ; and that He delights in it as such ; but that the ultimate, chief, and all- comprehending end is His own glory.i

1. Had there ever been a period when nothing was, nothing would still have been. Then the Creator of all things is himself uncreated, unoriginated, eternal. " He is from everlasting." Far b^ck, in thought, and beyond the

\ See Note A. 2

14 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

limits of time, as we may be able occasionally, and for a single moment, to go, we are ever accompanied by the humbling conviction that we have made no approach whatever to the understanding of His eternity. The discoveries of science lead back our imagination to a period incalculably remote ; but even if each of the countless stars had been formed in succession, and if the time which elapsed between the forma- tion of each had equalled that entire period, the mind which could span the whole — wliich could dart back a thought to the moment in which the first star beamed on the regions of space, would feel that it had only reached the starting point for the preceding eternity. For if then it should ask, " Where dwelt the Deity before that?" — the answer of the Oracle is, " He inhabited eternity ; " and that star of which it had caught a glimpse, could only be regarded as the first lamp that was lighted up to guide the way back to His dread abode.

2. Then must His mysterious existence be necessary and independent ; i for as there has never been anything, ab extra, to necessitate it, had it not been necessary of and from itself only, it could neither have been, nor have continued to be. Th^ great parent truth, therefore, which He may be regarded as silently repeating, through all the solitudes of space, and through every point of duration, is the sublime affii-mation, " I AM — underived, self-existent, absolute Being ; in which sense there never has been, never will be, never can be, any Being besides." All other being can only be derived and dependent.

3. In harmony with the dictates of enlightened reason, the Bible authenticates the deduction that the Being whose exist- ence is eternal and independent, is also absolutely perfect. The power of God must be omnipotence ; His knowledge, omni- science ; His holy benevolence, unlimited by anytliing incom- patible with perfection. 'No one kind of excellence can be unlimited unless it be associated with every other kind of excellence ; so that the possession of any one unlimited excel- lence implies the existence, and involves the necessity, ot absolute perfection.

4. But if the infinite nature of the Divine Being precludes the existence of another independent and unlimited Being, the existence of a second would necessarily involve mutual

^ See Gillespie's Necessary Existence of God.

THE GREAT REASON. ., 15

limitation ; which would amount to a self-contradiction. In every sense, therefore, consistent with perfection, He has ever existed alone. Were He to break the silence of eternity, He might demand, " Is there a God besides me ? yea, there is none ; I know not any.i I, who know all the possibilities of being, know not of such a being ; I, who at this moment am everywhere present throughout illimitable space, find such a being nowhere ; I, who have thus inhabited immensity from eternity, have never, in any point of past duration, beheld the least manifestation of such a being; I, who am unlimited Being, exclude, by that very necessity of my nature, the pos- sibility of another unlimited being."

5. But what finite mind can conceive the conditions in- cluded in Absolute Perfection ! To evolve these will require eternity ; for could they be evolved in less they would not be unlimited. All that we can say, therefore, or shall ever be able to say, is, that whatever the amount of mystery included in the objective universe may ever be, the probability is, that the proportion which it bears to the mystery of the Divine nature will be that of the limited to the unlimited ; that if infinite perfection implies infinite mysteriousness, which it cer- tainly does, then infinite mysteriousness must ever form one of the distinctive excellences of that perfection ; that if the operation of infinite activity (either of love, of power, or of any other excellence) be essential to infinite perfection, and if such activity could not be agent and object at the same time, and in the same act, and yet no object, ad extra, existed from eternity, then must it have existed in the Divine nature itself; in other words, the Divine nature must include a plurality of distinctions, and include it as one of its necessary conditions, or essential perfections ; 2 that if no exercise of the Divine effi- ciency, ad extra, can ever be adequate to its infinite perfection, and yet such adequate exercise, in some way, must always be necessary to infinite perfection, then must it be one of the ex- cellences of the Divine nature, not only that it should include a plurality of distinctions, but that the adequate sphere of its infinite activity should be its own infinite perfections ; that if a

' Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8.

2 See Howe's Calm Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead. Professor Kidd on the Trinity. Storr and Flatt, B. ii \ 46. § 44. 111. 8. Dr. J. P. Smith's Testimony of the Messiah, (Second Edition,) v. i. c. iv. \ 35, v. iii. app. iv.

16 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

God in unity, without internal distinctions, or diversity of modes, be incapable of moral affection, because having had nothing, ad extra, from eternity to love, then such internal dis- tinctions must ever have existed as elements of reciprocal, social, self-sufficient perfection ; and that if such plurality be an excellence, and if unity be an excellence also ; and if there be any respect in which this pluraUty of one kind can consist as an excellence with this unity of another, then it will cer- tainly be included in absolute perfection. And further, this perfection implies not only that all the excellence which it includes is simple, uncompounded, one, but that God and it are identical : that it is not an adjunct of His being, but His being itself.

6. But for the same reason that His perfection of being and character is unlimited, it must ever have been unchangeable also. Besides which, it must be of the essence of Absolute Perfection that in everything belonging to that perfection, it can neither require nor admit of a change. Though an eter- nity has passed, the Deity is now what He ever was ; " without the shadow of a turning." The past has stayed with Him, the future has ever been present to Him : the one could not diminish his perfection, nor the other augment it. " Who by searching can find out God ! "

7. Then the Deity has existed from eternity as His own end. By supposition, nothing as yet has been brought into ex- istence. No ground therefore exists, no occasion has yet been given, for raising the great question as to who or what can be that end. No creative fiat has yet gone forth. Time has not counted its first revolution. In imagination, we are standing in the solitudes of the past eternity. Never has this stillness been broken. No ray of created light has ever penetrated this darkness. This infinite space has never owned a world. No seraph bows before His- throne. If these solitudes shall ever be peopled with finite beings, the purpose is shut up in the mind of God. Boundless as His capacity for happiness must always have been, the consciousness of His own excel- lence, and the contemplation of His own perfections, have ever been sufficient to fill it. Unlimited and unceasing as must have been His activity. His own nature has l)een sufficient to exercise and contain the whole. Dateless in His duration, tlie postponement of creation for ten thousand thousand ages would not increase that duration, nor would it have been diminished had the fiat gone forth ten thousand thousand ages

THE GREAT REASON. 17

before it did. Unshared by anything, ab extra, as His eter- nity, and lonely, in the same sense, as His immensity must ever have been, His self-communion has been sufficient to occupy and replenish the whole with happiness. And incon- ceivably great as the end answered by this infinity and immensity of perfection must have been. His own enjoyment and glory are amply commensurate to the whole.

8. But if he has always been His own end, it follows that He must ever continue to be the same. For on the supposi- tion of any other object becoming that end, then all that had gone before during the past eternity could only be regarded as its own end in a subordinate sense ; while in reference to this other end since developed, it has been only the means. " That which exists merely as a cause, exists merely for the sake of something else — is not final in itself, but simply a means to- wards an end ; and in the accomplishment of that end, it con- summates its own perfection." From which it would follov/, that, during a whole eternity. Infinite Self-sufficience stood in the subordinate relation of means to beings not yet in exist- ence ; that during that eternity Infinite Perfection was imper- fect as the means without the end ; and that the addition of imperfect and dependent being was necessary to give perfec- tion to that imperfection.

9. K to be His own end be an antecedent right, antecedent to creation by an eternity ; and if, after enjoying that right for an eternity. He choose to exercise another right — the right of creation — the exercise of tliis subsequent and inferior right cannot affect the primary eternal right. The display of Divine perfection can never impair the original prerogatives of that perfection. That He should lose his right, because of his perfection, is revolting to reason. Render his prerogji- tives more evident it may, but destroy them it cannot. For glorious as that display may be, and after it has been augment- ing ten thousand ages, His absolute perfection will remain the same as it was before that display began. That manifestation will not have increased it ; for it will be only the objective ex- istence of that which was His subjectively from eternity. Lofty as may be the natures, and countless as may be the myriads which will encircle His throne, He must ever continue to dwell as perfectly alone, in a sense, through the eternity to come, as He did through the sublime and appalling solitude of the eternity past. On account of His incomparable greatness and excellence, never will He be able to bring himself within

2*

18 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

their comprehension. However exalted their natures and attainments may be, the universe will still exhibit the infinite distinction of the One unlimited being, and of orders of limited beings entirely dependent on Him. Retired within the depths of his own immensity, they will never be able to approach and behold Him directly. For all they know of Him, they will ever feel that they are indebted to a medium of His own devising ; and that, without that medium, the whole created universe including themselves, would only have constituted a living altar with this inscription, " To the unknown God."

10. Whatever excellence, natural or moral, the created uni- verse may ever contain, was contained previously in the Divine Nature. Surely His impartation of it cannot give away his right in it ! Rather, He will be laying the recipients under an obligation to love Him as its Giver, and to adore Him as its Source. However vast the amount of excellence may be, it will still be limited, so that they will have to remember at any given moment of their unending befeg, that they are still infinitely short of His excellence. However vast and various the displays of His glory may be, they will ever have to remember that the universe wliich displays it leaves more unevolve-d and undisplayed, by an infinite amount. However much they may be able to comprehend of what He is, from what He has done since they came into be- ing, they will ever have to remember that all the eternity of His past glory remains unexplored. And unless they could exhaust the mystery of the Divine perfections during every moment since they came into being, they will ever have to remember that the mystery is every moment augmenting in their hands ; that time is adding its mystery to the mystery of the past eternity ; and that the mystery of both is to be carried forwards to the still greater account of the eternity to come. However various the orders of their intellect may be, here they will all find themselves on a level ; here they will all and ever find that to reflect is to be lost ; that the very choicest terras which they may employ to denote their knowledge of God, will be only so many tacit confessions of their igno- rance, and escapes from difficulty ; since to speak of Him as eternal, is only to say that His duration had not, like theirs, a beginning ; and to speak of Him as infinite, that His nature is not, like theirs, bounded by limits.

11. Nor will they ever cease to be entirely dependent on riim. Suppose their creation had yet to connnence, and we

THE GREAT REASON. 19

may ask, How can they be ever otherwise than dependent ? During the eternity past, that question has never by possibihty been raised ; for He has existed, and, as to anything ad extra, still remains alone. By what possibility, then, can it ever be raised in the eternity to come ? The fact that God has been His own end in all the past determines the question for all the future. Whence could ever come the principle or the power which should invade, even in thought, this Divine prerogative, unquestioned and undisturbed as it has been from eternity ? Surely not from any being of whom it is true that he has yet to be ; and as to whom the question whether he shall ever be or not, depends entirely on the Divine pleasure; and who, even if it be the Divine pleasure that he shall be, will be as entirely dependent on the same pleasure for every successive moment of being, as he was for the first moment ! The idea of such a being, or of any number of such beings, entering into, and taking possession of the place which for an eternity had been occupied by God, as constituting his own end, is revolting to reason. The necessity of their own nature will forbid it. The only relation Avhich that necessity will sustain to Him is that of dependence more profound, universal, and absolute, than they will ever be able to comprehend ; while the relation of His own nature to that end will always be, what it ever has been — that of self-sufiicience.

12. And as His infinite self-sufficience necessitated that He should be His own end during the eternity past, the uiKihange- ableness of His nature secures the same result during the eternity to come. What He was. He is, and what He was and is, He ever will be. However many worlds or systems He may create, they will never do more than display the na- ture of His perfection, they can never be the measure of its amount, much less limit that amount. Now, were He to make only a solitary being, that being could never think that Go<l existed, and had existed from all eternity, for him — and why .? because he would ever feel that God is infinitely above him. But no multiplication of mere finite beings will ever make an infinite being ; and consequently can never affect the right of God to be the end of all things. On the contrary, the greater their multiplication, the more evident his claim, because they would feel the more vividly that the difference between them, the limited, and Him, the unlimited, is still infinite ; and that after they shall have continued to advance through intermina- ble a"-es from throne to throne, and shall have come nearer to

20 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

Him at every such advance, the distance between Him and them is still infinite — that God is all in all.

And thus we reach the conclusion, from the eternal self- sufficiency of God, that He must ever be His own End ; or that His nature and glory form the Great Reason of the uni- verse. For there was no reason ivhy it should be, nor what it should be, but what existed in Himself.

CHAPTER n.

The Ultijiate Purpose ; or, the manifestation of the Di- vine all-sufficiency the last end of creation.

The preceding Chapter showed that for the great reason of His eternal self-sufficience, God will ever be, what He always has been, His own end. But if He be thus absolutely self- sufficient and infinitely perfect, it follows that He is all-suffi- cient. By which we mean, generally, that, from eternity. He has included in himself all that is or ever will be necessary to impart (consistently with infinite perfection) existence and ever-advancing excellence, and happiness, to a created uni- verse. And the object of the present Chapter is to show that the manifestation of this glory, by which we mean all-suffi- ciency, is the great purpose or ultimate end of creation.

I. Such a manifestation appears to involve the following conditions : —

1. That the manifestation be progressive. For surely a system wliich is always in progress both in its own develop- ment, and in the powers of the beings to whom it is made known and who form a part of it, must, by the endless com- binations which it involves, furnish an inconceivably severer test of Divine all-sufficiency, than one which should be in every respect stationary from the beginning. _ And this anticipates and answers the plausible but incon- siderate inquiry, " If the manifestation of the Divine all-suffi- ciency be infinitely desirable, would it not be er^ually desirable

THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 21

that the greatest possible extent should be given to the crea- tion, and be given at once ; since, until that be done, how can it be known that God is all-sufficient ? " In other words, an infinite cause should produce an infinite effect.

We reply, that an exercise of the Divine perfections prop- erly "infinite can only take place in the Divine nature itself; and possibly involves the mystery of a plurality of distinctions in the unity of the Godhead, to and by which that display is mutually made : that were such an infinite manifestation to be nmde, ad extra, unless the mind of the creature were adequate to its comprehension — i. e. were infinite — the manifestation to the creature would be limited, limited to the measure of his understanding : and that hence, for aught we know, the manifestation of God made in an atom, while to us it is extremely limited, to Him who sees the end from the begin- ning may be virtually and potentially infinite. So that, (if the hypothesis may be allowed,) were it possible to present such a particle to Him from the hand of another maker, He could say, " The being from whom this came is infinite, eternal, self- existent, and absolutely perfect. His titles are here all writ- ten out at full length, and his perfections embodied. He is all-sufficient. This atom-point is the type and promise of an ever-enlarging and unbounded universe. It contains poten- tially all that the material universe will ever exhibit actually. No additions to this atom-world could ever add to my knowl- edge of him. To me the manifestation is complete." We reply further ; the inquirer is evidently thinking of an all-suffi- ciency of power only, whereas we are speaking of an all- sufficiency of perfection, including wisdom, holiness, and benevolence, as well as power. As to the production of an unlimited effect, ad extra, the supposition of such a thing, as far as it can be understood, is an impossibility. For, first, it would involve the contradiction of two infinities — the infinite cause and the infinite effect; in which case, the one must limit the other, so that neither would be unlimited ; or, second- ly, it would imply the contradiction of an unlimited something brought within limits, the hmits of time ; and, thirdly, it would involve the absurdity of an independent dependence — of an effect not dependent on any cause — for if dependent, in that respect, the most vital of all, it would be limited.

2. But to say what would be necessary to the full manifes- tation of all-sufficiency, is a task to which none but all-suffi- ciency itself can be competent ; since it supposes a manifestation

22 THE PRE-ADAanTE EARTH.

continued through eternity. Here, then, is another condition of the manifestation, that it be unending. For if it should terminate at any given point in futurity, the proof of all-suffi- ciency for an eternal manifestation would terminate with it ; and then the suspicion might be justly awakened, that if the manifestation had gone on, a crisis might have arrived for which the Deity might not have been sufficient. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, requires infinity and eternity in which to be developed, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than that. And it requires the same, from the very nature and constitution of those to whom the mani- festation is to be made; for they are capable of interminable progression. To the objector then who should call for an un- limited effect in proof of Divine all-sufficiency, we would simply reply, that when he shall have existed for an unlimited dura- tion, he may consistently expect to behold it.

Considering the constitution of the beings to whom the manifestation is to be made, in connection with the infinite per- fection of the Bemg who is to make it, such a manifestation, then, would seem to require that it should be progressive and unending ; in order that they might be able to go along step by step with the great development ; to hang over tlie mighty process, and mark how the attainment of one end attains a number of inferior ones placed in a line with it ; how part is linked to part ; how the evolution of one part tends to the evolution of another part, contains the promise of it, leads to It, and predicts another and another yet ; so that all-sutRciency is perpetually making fresh demands on itself, and illustrating Itself by perpetually meeting those demands in a way demon- strative of all-sufficiency, constraining them to acknowledge that it has no limits.

The remark, then, that the manifestation, not being object- ively completed at once, cannot be regarded as worthy of God, admits of the most satisfactory reply ; for, to aUege no other reason, it is a manifestation for a purpose — ^o he understood; and Its gradual development is that wliich especially adapts it to this end. The objection would hold only on the supposition tliat the manifestation was not made rapidly enough for the rapid mental and moral progress of the beings for whom it was made — did not keep pace with their advancing powers of comprehension and appreciation. For if it does meet those demands, to them, in efiect, it will be always unHmited and virtually inlimte. Had such a thing been possible, then, that

THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 23

it could have been completed at once, man would not have known more of it ten tjiousand ages hence, than he will at the same distant point of time, now that it is progressive. While, at every stage of his knowledge, to him, in effect, the display will have been infinite and complete ; for the limits of his comprehension will be always unspeakably within the limits of the manifestation at its every stage. We have said that, in the case supposed, he would not have known more ten thou- sand ages hence than he will now by a progressive manifesta- tion. But we advance further, and remark, that one of the reasons of this progressiveness is that, in the case supposed, he would not have known so much. Nor, as we shall hereaf- ter show, would his knowledge have equally availed him, for it would not have been the knowledge of observation and ex- perience. Experience supposes a process, and a process requires time, and implies advance from one stage to another. 3. And a third condition of this manifestation appears to be that it be all-comprehending — including the revelation of every- thing essential to the Divine nature, and provision for every crisis in the onward history of the creature, as well as the union and cooperation of all orders of being to the one great end. If there be distinctions as well as perfections in the Godhead, and if it would be for the glory of God to reveal them, sooner or later they must be disclosed ; otherwise the manifestation would not be sufficient in this infinitely impor- tant particular. Again, if this all-sufficiency implies the power of meeting every crisis ; and should the creature ever come by some dreadful possibility to question the Divine all- sufficiency — which would be sin — the Deity, by the very fact of being able to meet that moral crisis, would be demon- strating the all-sufficiency called in question. And still further would this Divine perfection appear to be illustrated, if, in an- swering one end, it accomplished many, in sketching before- hand the great outlines of the Divine procedure ; and should there be different orders of accountable beings, in including and uniting them together as voluntary and organic parts of the one great system.

n. Here, however, it may be asked, whether this does not imply that, until this all-sufficiency be made manifest, there must be something wanting to the Divine glory which that manifestation is necessary to acquire for it ; and that as that all-sufficiency was not displayed for an eternity, therefore

24 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

something was eternally wanting to the completion of that glory? We reply, that the display of'tliis all-sufficiency is no actual augmentation of God's essential glory, but only the objective manifestation of excellence which existed and acted subjectively from eternity ; and that the fact that He should have existed from eternity without manifesting it to the creature, arises solely from the infinite perfection of His own nature which is uncommencing, and from the unavoidable im- perfection of created natures which necessarily imply a begin- ning. His all-sufficience was necessary to the idea of his self-sufficience, and was included in it. The objection, then, can acquire force only by erroneously supposing that, having purposed to manifest His all-sufficiency, there was yet (as is often the case with human purposes) a doubt as to whether or not it would be carried into effect : but let it be remembered that we are speaking of all-sufficiency, and the objection turns into absurdity. Further, if the objection have any force with respect to the eternity past, it has the same still, and will have the same through all the eternity to come ; since the manifes- tation of all-sufficiency can never, from the very nature of all-sufficiency, come to an end — and herein consists its perfec- tion. Moreover, there is not a particle of being or of excel- lence in existence now more than existed potentially from eternity, since the whole objective universe is the manifestation of the Divine being and excellence. Great and real as is the satisfaction of the Deity in the existence and happiness of his creatures, the perfection of His nature forbids that it should ever have had to begin. There can never have been a point in past duration in which His purpose has not made such existence and happiness certain, or in which His om- niscience has not made it present to His mind as an object of ineffable delight. Besides which, however much of the Divine excellence be made objective, such manifestation must always fall short of the reality to an infinite amount. And, then, the infinite desirableness, of such a manifestation includes and supposes the infinite desirableness of all the conditions of the manifestation ; so that any alteration would be not only infinitely undesirable, but would be so for this very reason, that it would not be a manifestation of Divine all-sufficienee.

in. From the preceding section, and from what has been advanced in the preceding cliapter, it is evident that if a crea- tion take place, it can be only by the voluntary act of the

THE ULTIMATE TURPOSE. 25

(jfodliead. To say tliat God creates })y a natural and unavoid- able necessity, is to deny His self-sufficience, and to make Him dependent for perfection on an external object ; whereas we have seen that He has existed from eternity in a state of in- finite perfection.

Hypotheses of fate and necessity have not been wanting, indeed, from the time of Anaximander downwards. Accord- ing to him, the infinite is necessarily an ever-producing energy, and, as such, is in a constant state of incipiency. The neces- sary spiritualism of Leibnitz, and the necessary materialism of Spinoza, are alike hostile to the Divine free-will. Hegel and M. Cousin, have defended substantially the same tenet. According to the latter, " the distinguishing characteristic of the Deity being an absolute creative force, which cannot but pass into activity, it follows, not that the creation is possible, but that it is necessary." Now as the necessity here contended for, is not that moral necessity or determination which arises from the choice of an infinitely perfect Being, but a physical or natural necessity, it has been ably answered that " to what extent a thing exists necessarily as a cause, to that extent it is not all-sufficient to itself; for to that extent it is dependent on the effect, as on the condition through which alone it real- izes its existence ; and what exists absolutely as a cause, exists, therefore, in absolute dependence on the effect for the reality of its existence. An absolute cause, in truth, only exists in its effects ; it never is, it always becomes" ^

The God of the Bible, on the contrary, is subject neither to the necessity of acting, ad extra, nor to the necessity of not acting. The universe has been created for his " pleasure ; " not from a necessity which He could not physically resist. And whatever takes place in it of a beneficial nature, takes place " according to the jnirpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will." The only neces- sity, therefore, which can be regarded as obliging Him in respect to a creation, is the moral necessity, that having freely determined to create, He should propose an adequate end, and employ the appropriate means for its attainment.

IV. Accordingly, if the Deity create, it seems infinitely desirable that the chief and ultimate design of the creation

^ From a searching and masterly review .of Cousin's Cours de Phi' losophie, in the Ediu. liev., vol. 1. p. 213. 3

26 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

should be the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency — hy which the Divine glory should appear equal to all thing-s, even for the greatest — that of being its own end.

1. For, first, in the very nature of things, all thd being, ex- cellence, and happiness, which can ever exist, ad extra, and by which alone the Divine manifestation can be made, virtually existed from eternity, ad intra.^ It is only in this way that they can manifest Him ; and it is only so long, therefore, as they remain what they are — the means of the manifestation of Himself — that they answer their end ; and the more of them there is in the creature, the more do they answer that end. All the relations which may ever bind created beings together ; the laws which may prescribe the duties of these relations ; the excellence whicli, by obedience to these laws, they may ever possess or be able to acquire ; and the happi- ness which, as the result of this excellence, they may ever enjoy — all potentially existed from eternity in the character and mind of God, and existed there as the expression of His mind and character. His nature is the fountain of the whole. So that every authoritative tmnouncement which He may make that such and such is His will, must be founded in the fact that such and such is His nature. From the all-compre- hending perfection of the Divine nature, then, the manifesta- tion of Divine all-sufficiency must have been the chief and ultimate design of creation.

2. But, secondly, as God does nothing which He does not purpose, and as the manifestation of a cause is necessarily the first end answered by an eiiect, so the purpose of making this manifestation must have been, in its own right, the first pur- pose in the mind of God. To speak, indeed, as if the purposes of God observed an order of succession in the Divine mind, is a metaphysical inconsistency ; but it is one which arises from that necessary constitution of our nature by which we can conceive of but one subject at a time ; and by wliich we con- ceive that that wliich is the first in the order of importance should be, with a perfect Being, the first in the order of in- tention. On this account we conclude that the Divine purpose relative to the design or end of creation must have been the first in the mind of God, since every other purpose could only

^ Admirable remarks on this subject may be found in Howe's Living ' 'mple, part i. c. iv., and part ii. c. ii. ; and in Hooker's Eccles. Po'., b. 5. •

THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 27

relate to tlie means for the accomplishment of that end. What we call the various purposes of God, indeed, are, properly speaking, only parts of the same all-comprehending purpose ; so that what we denominate His first purpose, in- cluded the reason of all His other purposes, and determined the order of their successive development.

When we say, therefore, that every other purpose could only relate to the means, we do not intend that God had only one end in view absolutely, or in every sense. ^ It seems to be necessary, in order to satisfy our idea of all-sufficiency, that, in accomplishing one end, it should be answering many. For instance, that the very creation of the beings to whom the manifestation should be made, should involve in itself a grand part of the manifestation ; that even the globe prepared to receive them, and to be the theatre of the majiifestation, should contain in itself some of the elements of that manifes- tation ; that the well-being of the creature should furnish the chief occasion for displaying that all-sufhciency ; and that the very questioning of that all-sufiiciency, and the first obstruc- tion offered to it, should bring with it the very occasion wanted to evolve and demonstrate that all-sufficiency, and to augment the happiness of the creature : so that the well-being of the creature should be as secure of attainment as if it were the chief and only end aimed at, since it is coincident with that end ; — all these are designs worthy of Divine all-sufficiency. Although, then, in relation to the chief end, every other end is subordinate and a means, viewed apart from that chief end, many of the means themselves become important ends ; and it seems, we repeat, worthy of Divine all-sufficiency that in answering its own great end, it should be accomplishing many subordinate ones.

3. And, thirdly, the well-being of the creature required that the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency should be the ultimate design of God in creation. JNext in importance to this design, is that well-being itself. And hence, some would incon- siderately regard that as the ultimate end of creation. But if, as we have seen, the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency must be, in its own right, the chief end of creation, the very Avell-being of the creature required that no other end, not even his own well-being, should be that end. For if the creatur(j

' Sec President Edwards's Treatise on God's chief End in Creation. — IntroducLorij Paragraphs.

28 THE PRE-ADA3IITE EARTH.

be himself a part of that manifestation, he is, in so far, a means to that end His excellence consists in that resem- blance to God by which he is constituted a part of that mani- festation ; and if he be an intelligent being, his happiness consists in his perceiving that resemblance, and in being con- scious that he is answering that end of his existence. The character of his every act depends on its correspondence with that end. The value of every being is to be estimated by its capabilities for answering that end. And the truth of every system or theory, is to be tested by the fact whether or not it contemplates that end, and attaches to it the same importance which God does. For if that end be infinitely greater than all the subordinate ones taken together ; then that theory of things which takes no note of that end, or which assigns it only an inferior place, must be faulty to a much greater de- gree than any arithmetical calculation which professes to give the sum total of a number of figures, but which casts up only the fractions and omits the integers.

A holy intelligence, therefore, could not be happy under an arrangement which should make his own happiness the chief end of creation, unless he were quite ignorant of the infinite perfection of God. But however happy he might be in that ignorance, it would be only necessary to disclose to him a sight of that perfection in order to render him unhappy ; for he would clearly see that he could be his own end only at the expense of right, and that would render him, as a righte- ous being, miserable. His own happiness, then, would re- quire that he should be subordinated to the higher end — the manifestation of the Divine glory ; for he would see that his well-being consisted in it — that he was made for it. So that could the great question be referred to the arbitration of the holy universe, with one voice they would instantly exclaim, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things ; to Him be glory for ever. Amen." Thus the verdict of the intelligent universe coincides with the primary purpose of the Infinite Mind — that the manifesta- tion of the Divine all-sufficiency ts the ultimate end of cre- ation. The work is dedicated to Himself : ^^AU His works praise Him."

And thus, from llie Eternal Self-suificience, we reach the grand conclusion that God must be His own end, or thai His

THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 29

infinitely-perfect nature is the great reason of the universe ; and from a consideration of His all-sufficiency, that His glory, in creation, consists in the manifestation of His all-sufficiency, and that His display of this is His primary and all-compre- hendinof design.

CHAPTER HI.

The Fundamental Relation ; or, the manifestation of the Divine all-sufliciency, mediatorial.

God having determined on the display of His all-sufficiency as the end of creation, the next part of His purpose related to the constitution of a medium, or system of mediation, as the only condition on which and through which the manifestation was to be made.

Let it be observed, that we do not here restrict the meaning of the term mediation to the principal or evangelical sense. We now employ the term as equivalent to medial, or that which intervenes between the purpose of God and its accom- plishment, as the means of that accomplishment. While v/e regard the Atonement, therefore, as the great distinctive act of moral mediation, and as that to which all preceding acts of creation and providence were only introductory, we now employ the term in reference to these preparatory acts as well as to that great act of moral mediation.

I. And we find, first, that the constitution of the universe is mediatorial. The creation is represented in Scripture as owing its actual existence and well-being from first to last, not to the invisible and absolute God directly, but indirectly, on account of the assumed relation and voluntary agency of one who stands medially or mediatorially between Him and the dependent universe. " He created all things by Jesus Christ according to the eternal purpose which He pur- posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." " By Him (the Mediator) were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or do- 3*

30 THE PRE-ADA?.IITE EARTH.

minions, or principalities or powers ; all things were created by Him and for Him ; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."

II. Accordingly, we find, in the second place, that the insti- tution of the medial, or mediatorial relation, preceded the first act of creation, and was the medium of it. . For, " in the be- ginning was the Word, (or Logos,) and the Logos was with God, and the Logos Avas God. This (Logos) was in the be- ginning with God. All things were made by Ilim, and with- out Him was not anything made that has been made." In verification of our second proposition we remark that it is here stated,

1. That the Logos is. in some sense distinct from o Oi-bg,for He was with 6 Geog. Besides which, His personal subsist- ence is manifest from the attributes of intelligence and active power which are here ascribed to Him.

2. That He sustained a relation of peculiar intimacy and union with 6 Osog, for He was TiQog top Otov ; nQog^ equiva- lent here to naqa, governing the dative, and denoting rest in a place or an object. But we are by no means dependent on a single proof. Passages to the same effect are so numerous as to require selection. Such, for instance, is the language — " the glory which I had, Tiuoa aol, with Thee, before the v/orld was." And the compound term }JoroyEVi)g — the only-hegotten Son — which occurs lour times ; and " the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father ; " denoting a relation abso- lutely unique and exclusive, and a state of the most perfect conjunction of knowledge, happiness, and nature. i

3. That He was Himself God, for (->£o.v ijv 6 loyog. The connection of this clear affirmation with the preceding clause may be expressed thus — "The Word was with God, in such a manner, that, in fact, the Word was God." Other proofs to the same effect might be easily adduced.

4. That of everything brought into existence. He, in dis- tinction from 0 (:)tog, was the actual Maker. "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." The allh-mation is here followed by the ne- gation, after the Hebrew manner, in order the more emphati-

* Autlioritics corroljorative of these views might be cited to almost any extent ; and some of them by no means unfriendly to Neologist doc-

THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 31

cally to declare that every created thing originated with Him ; and, to create, is the scriptural demonstration of Deity.

5. And therefore that the relation or office in virtue of which He created all things preceded the tirst act of crea- tion. For Iv (iQxfi — ^'^ f^i^ beginning — equivalent to the Hebrew n'^ii'S'ia — even then He already riv — was. The as- sertion of His pre-existence is included alike in uQiri and in //y. For when every created thing had yet to be, He already tvas. He comprehends every beginning in Himself.' As passages, parallel, in this particular, we might refer to Prov. viii. 23, where to be " from the beginning " is made equivalent with being " from everlasting, or ever the earth was," and to Isaiah xliii. 12, 13, and Hab. i. 12, where to be Jro?/^ the begin- ning is regarded as the peculiar prerogative of the eternal and self-existent God. And yet, this ante-beginning, or unbegin- ning existence is here predicated of the Logos, not once only ; in the second verse it is repeated — " this (Word) was in the beginning with God." As if He had said, " This is a truth of the lirst importance, and I therefore repeat it, that when creation had yet to begin to be, the Divine Logos existed in a state of perfect union with the Divine Nature."^ For, " He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Thus In- spiration, leading us back to the beginning of all created things, points us to the existence of that medial relation which preceded creation, and was the means of its actual origin.

III. And, thirdly, as the primary purpose of God is the manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency, this primary official re- lation is represented as in coincidence with, and subservience to, that purpose. This is indicated by the very meaning of the appellation Logos, whether examined philologically, histori- cally, or exegetically.

1. It might be asked, "May not o Xoyog stand philologicallT/, as abstract for concrete, for 6 Ib'yoov — the speaker or teach- er ? " To which we reply that )Jy£(v does not signify directly to teach ; and Xoyog has only in an indirect manner the mean- ing of doctrine. Much more proper would it be to understand

^ Qui in pvincipio erat, intra se concludit omne principium. — Aug. Serm. vi. — De Temp.

^ Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, v. iii. c ii. b. iv.

82 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

Xoyoi^ according to the phraseology of Philo, who distmguisnes in God the state oi ehat — bemg, and that of liyEod'ai — re- vealing Himself. According to which the Logos would be the Divine Revealer.i

2. But that which is much more important to determine, here, than its grammatical, is its historical sense. For the Evangelist speaks of the Logos as of a conception already knowq, and which he takes for granted his readers will imme- diately connect with the word.^ Now, it is matter of history that by the Logos was then understood, He who is the medium of Divine manifestation. The idea of such a medium appears to have early obtained among the students of the Hebrew Scriptures ; and from them to have extended to other lands, till in one forn»or another, the idea had become very generally incorporated with Oriental theology. Traces of it are to be found scattered, with more or less distinctness, in the Apoc- rypha, in Philo, in the Cabalistic Writings, and in the Chal- dee Paraphrasts. Li the last of these especially it is taught that God never appears acting immediately upon the world, but always through the m'^dium of another. * This medium of the Divine acts is called the Memra of Jali — - the Word of Jehovah. And although the phrase is sometimes employed idiomatically, to signify merely the Divine Voice, at others, it can denote nothing less than a distinct personal subsistence. While in Philo the doctrme is taught that the Deity has de- veloped His essence through His highest Reveaier, the Lo- gos, who is the express image of God — the name and the shadow of God — a representative God.

The Evangelist, aware of this famihar doctrine of Jewish theology, declai-es that the true Logos — He who in the ca- pacity of Logos had made the world as a part of the Divine manifestation, has really and historically appeared with a view to a yet further manifestation.

3. To have selected so unusual a word as Logos in order to express so simple an idea as that of a teacher only, would have been, exegetically considered, most inappropriate. Besides, the idea conveyed is, that the Being intended had, in His ca- pacity of Logos, or, of the Divine Reveaier, created the uni- verse; and that He who had done this had now Himself

' See Professor Tholuck, in loc.

^ See Professor Burton's Bampton Lecture.

THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 33

appeared to carry on the process of Divine manifestation. Thus understood — and we know no other sense in which we can understand it — how admirably descriptive is the appella- tion, the Logos, of Him who is the medium of the Divine manifestation. AVhat speech is as a means of rational com- munication between one mind and another, that is the Divine Logos between the Invisible Essence and all created minds. He is the utterer of His thoughts, the discloser of His pur- poses, the manifestation of His character.

Now the Being who sustains this relation must in every respect be co-equal with God. To be in any sense inferior would be to be infinitely inferior ; in which case, the manifes- tation itself would be limited to the capacity of the medium through which it came, and consequently, be infi^iitely inferior to the Divine original. Accordingly, we have seen, that the Divine Logos is, in perfections, as in name, co-equal with the Father ; he has been with Him, and has so been with Him as to be one with Him, from eternity. To the same effect are those passages of Holy Scripture which describe Him as the Image of the Invisible God ; as the Brightness of the Father's Glory, and the Exj)ress Representation of His Essence. For as the internal being and character of a man are expressed in his face, so God hath given us the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. The doctrine which gives to these and parallel phrases all their force is, that He to whom they relate is the great medium of Divine manifestation.

And this prepares us to expect that the manifestation will not be verbal merely. For how can the imperfect medium of speech convey an adequate idea of the invisiUe God? Besides, the intelligent creatures to whom the manif^tation is to be made, had first to be created, and the world they should inhabit to be called into existence ; and, as He performed these works in his medial capacity, it might be expected that He would begin the manifestation even in these. This is the right key to the volume of the universe. Properly un- derstood, every material particle is impressed with His seal. Every atom is a letter, and every work a word. Every element lectures on his attributes, and each _globe is a mes- senger ever moving in His service. Man himself was made' in His image. The stars come forth nightly on their solemn embassy to " proclaim the glory of God." And the earth daily alhrms with voices innumerable the "eternal power and Godhead." In harmony with this representation, the

34 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

Divine Logos is represented as having come into the world, not so much to promote the Divine manifestation by verbal instruction, as by embodying and manifesting Himself in ac- tions. He came to be the manifestation of God. " He that hath seen Me," said He, " hath seen the Father also." He claimed for Himself the exclusive power of revealing the father ; and affirmed that to make this revelation was the great end of His own coming. And, when about to depart from the world, He was heai-d to say to the Father, " Having declared unto them Thy name, and having thus glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest to me to do." While His disciples subsequently declared, that the Life had been mani- fested, and that they had seen it ; that that which was from the beginning they had handled and seen, even the Word of Life ; that though no man had seen God at any time, the only- begotten Sou had come from the bosom of the Father to de- clare Him, and that they had beheld His glory.

And thus, be it observed, the very means of external mani- festation became itself the manifestation of a mysterious plu- rality of subsistencies in the Godhead. Li the very first step taken to give the universe an economy ad extra, a mysterious economy ad intra was disclosed ; and- which became the ground and means of every subsequent disclosure.

Here, then, are the basis and the medium of the Divine Man- ifestation ; for, in relation to God, as we shall presently evince more clearly, it is constituted the ground on which such mani- festation is made ; and is itself, perhaps, to His eye, the mani- festation already and ever perfect. While, in respect to the subs^uent creation, it is the means by which the process will be ^er conducted. Thus, while the reason of this Re- lation is laid, proximately, at least, in the Divine Purpose, and the reason of the Divine Purpose lies in the Divine Nature, the reason of everythmg else will be found to be laid in this Re- lation.

THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 35

CHAPTER IV.

The PrTmart Obligation ; or, Duty arising from the Me- diatorial Relation.

If tlie manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency be the object for which the mediatorial relation exists, and if the Being sustaining the relation be infinitely perfect, or equal to the relation, it follows that by voluntarily assuming it. He comes under obligation to do everything which may be ne- cessary for the full attainment of the object pro230sed.

I. For what is obligation but the necessary link which, in a moral sequence, connects the antecedent with its consequent ; or, the indispensable necessity of employing the means proper to attain a requisite end ? Now every relation brings with it certain appropriate obligations ; and these obligations vary in character and amount according to the character of the relations. A relation may be voluntary, or involuntary, and nat- ural. If it be voluntary, he who assumes it is bound to fulfil the obligations which it imposes ; always providing that he either knew, or had the means of knowing, the nature of the rela- tion ; and that he is not physically unable to discharge its du-

ll. Now He who sustains the mediatorial relation, not only possesses, as we have seen, all the requisites for accomplishing the great purpose, but His fitness is the special reason why He sustains that relation ; the relation therefore hinds or obliges Him to do everything necessary to the attainment of the end for which it exists. Thai end nlay be immeasurably distant, but let the first creative fiat be once issued, and never can His eye be with- drawn from the process which leads to it. Vast as the theatre may be which that process may, in the course of time, come to occupy. His presence must, in some sense, pervade the entire space. Innumerable as the parts belonging to the process may speedily come to be, and receiving as they may innu- merable accessions at every moment after, all of them must be known to Him in their natures, relations, and remotest

36 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

effects. Yarious, and formidable to finite apprehension, as maj be the apparent obstacles to the attainment of the end, arising from the ever-varying combinations of circumstances ; from the junctures of events which had their respective causes in flitierent ages of creation, and in different departments of the universe ; and, especially, from the voluntary actions of free agents ; not merely must He be prepared to meet them all, but (as an illustration of all-sufficiency) to render them all condu- cive, as parts of His plan, to the attainment of His ultimate end. Ever receding, and even unattainable (in an absolute sense) as that end, owing to its perfection, must necessarily be, yet as long as there are aspects of the Divine character to be manifested, new creatures must continue to be formed for the purpose of displaying and appreciating them ; or, which would seem to bp better still, those already formed must be placed by Him in new situations for beholding it in fresh aspects, and have their powers enlarged for appreciating such enlarged dis- closures ; or — that which would seem to be still more worthy of all-sufficiency — both these conditions might be made to meet in the same order of creatures ; that is, besides taking up into their constitution all that is most important in the consti- tution of the creatures preceding them, they may be made to exliibit something more excellent of their owai in addition, and be placed in circumstances favorable to the ever-advancing exercise and development of the whole. And thus the glories which creation may display at any period indefinitely distant from the first moment of the opening manifestation, and the power which the creature may at such period possess for ap- preciating it, will only be the means, in the hand of the Medi- ator, for entering on a new career of Divine manifestation as immeasurably distant, and incomparably more glorious still; and the attainment of that be only the bare preparation for another beyond, so m^uch more glorious than the preceding that the eye which had gazed on all the splendors of the past, and the ear which had heard all the speculations and conjec- tures to which that past had given rise, and the heart which had been occupied ten thousand ages in putting all these together into every imaginable form of ideal glory, Avill yet have to confess that it had never seen, nor heard, nor even imagined, anything to be compared with it — and so on ad injinilum. So that as the manifestation will never have reached a j)oint beyond which it cannot be carried further still, the mediatorial office can never, absolutely, and in every sense,

THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 37

cease ; in other words, the reLation which the Mediator sustains in the great purpose of manifestation binds or obliges Him to do everything which may be necessary to the full attaiimient of the great end — and therefore to continue the manifestation for ever.

This view of the mediatorial obligation harmonizes with, and is suggested by, that numerous and important class of Scriptures which appears to take such obligation for granted ; and which represents even the self-denial and sufterings of the Mediator, as events which "behoved him " — and which " ought " to take place. The proximate obhgation implied in these Scriptures, indeed, may be that which bound Him to the employment of suitable means for the attainment of a particular end. That particular end w-as the recovery of a race wdiich by voluntarily obstructing the great process of manifestation, and by thus for- feiting all right to the happiness attending it, could be restored to it again only when such restoration could be made as safe to the great process, and as conducive to the great end, as their abandonment to the consequences of their sinful defection would be. And the Mediator, having undertaken to effect that resto- ration, had brought himself under obligation to do all that was necessary to render this particular end consistent wdth the attainment of the great end. The event showed that suffering and death were the necessary means — and therefore even suffering and death " became Him " and He " ought " to endure them.

But this view accounts only for the proximate obligation. It leaves unanswered the natural and momentus inquiry why such an obligation was incurred? Whereas, the right answer, I apprehend, would show that this proximate obligation, great and wonderful as it is, resolves itself into one higher ^and more comprehensive still ; and that to this the class of Scriptures referred to ultimatehj relates — namely, the all-comprehending obligation to which His mediatorial relation binds Him, of doing everything essential to the great §nd. In virtue of that relation. He was bound from the beginning, not only to keep the great process in constant activity, but to keep it ever advanc- ing and enlarging ; and this, as we have seen, involved the re- quirement that He should meet every exigency wdiich might arise, and even turn it to the account of the final result. His eartCly humihation, indeed, is, probably, on many accounts, the central wonder and most amazing part of that duty to ^vhich His mediatorial relation can ever oblige Him ; but still it is

38 THE PEE-ADAMITE EARTH.

only one of an unbroken series of acts, which, beginning with the lirst liat of creation, can never end, unless the great manifest- ation itself, on account of which the relation exists, could ever arrive at completion.

HI. This view seems to place us in an advantageous position for gaining an insight into the very reason of the medial rela- tion — disclosing, not merely what it is, but partially, at least, why it is so. That tliis subject should be felt to be profound, might have been expected, if for no other reason than that it appears to involve, in some degree, the very nexus which unites the internal economy of the Divine nature with the external economy of the dependent universe. Even in the philosophy of our own minds, the mode in which the thinking principle within is related to the world without — how that which is I, can come to know that which is not I, is the great, and, com- paratively, the only difficulty. So that every theory on the mind derives its character from the view which is taken of this starting-point: — one denying that there is any subjective; another, that there is any objective; another affirming that they are identical ; and a fourth, that they are not identical but inexplicably related. Precisely in like manner, some have denied that there is any Originating Mind, and regard the universe as eternal ; others have affirmed that there is no material universe, but that God alone exists ; others, that God and nature are identical ; and others, that they exist distinctly, but are inexplicably related. Now Divine revelation discloses the vital fact that they are related, and that the relation is, properly understood, not direct but medial.

1. B-ut what is the reason of the fact ? Is it a natural rea- son merely ; one, that is, arising from the disparity of nature between the created and the infinite Invisible ? Such was the theory of many of the emanative systems of the East ; indirectly derived, but perverted, from the Hebrew Scriptures. They taught that as the Highest Being is, in himself, incomprehensi- ble and unapproachable, there can be no immediate transit from Him to a world of created existences ; that, consequently, it became necessary that there should be found in God some transition-point to make His fulness comprehensible and com- municable ; and that this was found in Himself from eternity in a Being like Himself, through whom the concealed God was manifested. And this opinion, slightly modified, and repro- duced in some of the early Christian creeds, has continued to

THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 80

exercise a powerful influence on the theology of this, subject down to the present clay. That it involves some truths v/e readily admit ; but, if it is to be regarded as the whole truth, the reply to it is obvious — namely, that if the supposed medi- um be infinite, the natural chasm intended to be filled up be- tween God and the creature remains, for one infinite is as un- approachable as another ; and that if it be not infinite, it no less remains, for a finite medium necessarily leaves the gulf as it was — infinite.

2. Is the reason, then, a moral one ; and, if so, what is its specific nature ? The general reply would doubtless be in the affirmative, aiil^to this eifect — that the constitution of a uni- verse worthy of an Infinitely Perfect Being involved the exis- tence of free agents, and therefore of a moral administration ; that under such an administration righteously administered, for- giveness, in the event of sin, would be impossible, unless such a compensation should be provided as would render forgiveness as safe and honorable to the administration as the infliction of the merited punishment would be ; and that God, therefore, foreseeing such an event, and determined on the illustration of His infinite grace, devised a system of mediation, at once safe for His government, suited to the exigency of the sinner, and glorious for His own character. Now, not only is this true — it is inestimable truth. To a sinful world it is Gospel. But to regard this as the whole of the reason, would be to limit the reason to a single act or class of actions ; whereas, if our pre- ceding views are correct, that reason is to be found in the pur- pose of Divine manifestation, just as the ground of that is to be found in the great Reason of all — the l3ivine Nature.

3. For the sake of distinguishing the original ground of the mediatorial relation, then, from that just named, and yet avoid- ing the employment of a term liable to misinterpretation, we would designate it simply as the priniary moral reason, in con- tradistinction from the last, which we regard as the proximate moral reason ; and this primary reason we conceive to be, be- cause nothing else than the institution and voluntary assumption of the subordinate office, understood by the mediatorial relation, would have adequately numifested the infinite Holiness and Love of God, or His cdl-sufficiency for the well-being of an i7itelUge7it and accountable universe.

That other reasons for this amazing arrangement are dedu- cible from Scripture, is gladly admitted. There is that great proximate reason, to which we have just adverted. There is

40 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

also the reason, that we might not he discouraged, hy a sense of God's ineffadle majesty^ from approaching Him. And there is the weighty reason of the moral influence arising from the Ife- diator's example of ivilling subordination to the Father. That He should be seen standing in the view of tlie universe — seen by his own creatures — in a station of obedience ! Who else can refuse to obey? That He, of his own free-"\vill, should consent to serve ! — what creature- will but must feel constrain- ed to yield ? That He should find glory in this subordination ! — does it not point the intelligent universe the only way to perfection — namely, by its coincidence with the Divine will ? But these reasons, and others which might ]^ named, are all included in that which I have designated as the primary moral reason. And I venture to repeat, that, not only is the mani- festation of the Divine all-sufficiency that primary reason, but that nothing else than the mediatorial relation can be conceiv- ed of as furnishing an adequate manifestation of that all-suffi- ciency. That the Divine Being might have abstained, had He so pleased, from all external manifestation, I believe to be a doctrine of Scripture ; but I believe also that, having deter- mined on the manifestation, nothing less than the voluntary subordination of one of the persons in the Godhead could ade- quately express the resources of all-sufficiency. Had the suf- ficiency of God been hmited ; or had He designed that the manifestation should have been of any amount of His excel- lence short of all-sufficiency — i. e., had He himself been im- perfect, or had He determined on an imperfect manifestation — an arrangement inferior to that of the system of mediation might have sufficed ; but if God all-sufficient is to be revealed, this would appear to be the adequate and only exponent. And still farther, so effectually does the mediatorial arrangement provide for the purposed manifestation, that the mere willing- ness of the Mediator to sustain the relation, apart from all that He has done in consequence, and, hypothetically speaking, even short of His actually sustaining it at all — His mere luill- ingness to sustain it, could that have been signified to the uni- verse, would have given us a deeper insight into the character of God, and have furnished a brighter illustration of His all- sufficiency, than it could ever have entered into the mind of man or angel to conceive. The wonder is, then, not so much that He should fulfil every condition to Avhich His mediatorial rela- tion obliges Him, as that He should be found sustaining the relation at all from which that obligation takes its rise. To

THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 41

say that He foresaw these conditions, is only saying that He is equal to the relation which He sustains. And to say that He yet voluntarily undertook that office, is only saying that He who is at the head of a system of free agency is Himself a free agent. But that He should have done this, I repeat, that He who had known no necessity but that of being, and of being what Pie was, should have brought himself under obli- gation ; that He who had known no relation but that of the ineffable union of the Godhead, should oblige Himself to sus- tain a relation to a created universe — to become the centre of an ever-enlarging system of such relations ; and to do every- thing necessary to the well-being of such relations ; that the cause of all things, ad extra, should have voluntarily assumed that office as an effect of a previous purpose ; that " the Be- ginning of Creation " should range Himself in a line with His own creatures — subjecting Himself to His own laws — as the first term in a series of means, for the accomplislunent of the end which that purpose contemplated ; — this can be account- ed for only by supposing that the end is the illustration of the Divine all-sufficiency.

Nor is this final reason unfrequently or obscurely adverted to in the word of God. To this effect, ultimately, are those pas- sages to which reference has been made already. So also is the inspired declaration, that in the most self-denying acts of the Mediator, the eternal Father vv^as allowing or appointing that which " became Him ; " but, then, the capacity or relation in which it became Him is distinctly stated, as " Him, by whom are all tilings, and for whom are all things," — as Him who is His own end, and the end of everything else, even of the sys- tem of mediation, with all that it includes. And to this view the Mediator Himself sets His seal in all those passages, cited in the last chapter, in which He declares, that whatever He said, did, or suffered, the whole was for the disclosure of the Divine glory.

(1.) Then, it is to be inferred, that the character of the Father is perfectly free from that unlovely and invidious light vvdiich some views of mediation are charged with unjustly casting on it. The object of the Father in appointing, and of the Son in voluntarily assimiing the relation, is one — the ful- filment of the great purpose. So that the arrangement is re- quired by a principle rather than by a person ; is rendered, on the one hand, for the very same reason that it is required 4*

42 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

on the other — namely, that the full manifestation of the Divine glory to the universe might be made possible.

(2.) That as the appointment of such an arrangement ar- gues no deficiency of benevolence on the one hand, but the reverse, so the accession to it, on the other, argues no absolute loss of original prerogatives, or entire renunciation of ante- cedent rights. These, as they belong to the Divine nature, can never be detached or diminished, but are as unchangeable as the nature to which they belong. Besides, these preroga- tives constitute the fitness of the Mediator, or His infinite ade- quacy, for the mediatorial office, and enable Him to discharge it ; and surely His rights are not to be regarded as annulled because of His perfections. And it is because of His retain- ing these original prerogatives, as well as on account of His manifestation of God, that He is often spoken of in Scripture, interchangeably, as acting both in His original and in His offi- cial capacity.

(3.) That the mediatorial obligation v.dll never terminate. As its sole design is the manifestation of God, its duration must run parallel with the manifestation ; so that unless the universe Avere to be blotted out, or the perfections of Deity to be exhausted, it can know no end. Commencing prior to the introduction of sin, it will continue, in some sense, after all the probationary perturbations of the moral system have ceas- ed, as the indispensable and everlasting proof of the Divine all-sufiiciency. And what a view does this wonderful economy afford us of the all-comprehending glory of that end which could justify the adoption of such means in order to fulfil it !

(4.) And how inevitably does the arrangement suggest that if the primary relation gives rise to obligation, every subordi- nate relation will do the same ; that the Creator will not be the only being under obligation ; that all His creatures, in propor- tion to their relation to Him and to each other, will be under oblisration also.

thp: supresie right. 43

CHAPTER V.

The Supreme Right ; or, Mediatorial Authority and Happi- 7iess commensurate with the discharge of Obligation.

If tlie primary oblio;ation be commensurate with the media- torial relation, it may be expected that the discharge of that obligation will be associated with corresponding rights, so that if the Being discharging it, do everything necessary to a con- stant approximation towards the great end, it will follow that he should meantime enjoy, or possess a right consistently witli that end, both to whatever is necessary to the prosecution of his object, and to whatever flows from it. Here is a two-fold right ; the first part, presupposing obligation, and the second, presupposing its discharge.

I. Independently of His original and unalienable rights, the nature of the Great End invests Him with a right of the highest order in relation to whatever may be included in the mystery of the Godhead. For example, if there be a distinc- tion or subsistency in the Divine nature, designated the Holy Spirit ; if the attainment of the end require the disclosure of tills mysterious fact ; and if this disclosure can be only effected, consistently with the end, by His employment of the agency of this Divine subsistency, His office entitles Him to avail Him- self of that agency. His right is commensurate with His obli- gation. The end at which He aims being unlimited, all limita- tion must be removed from the means ; so that all the resources of the Divine nature are to be considered as at His disposal.

II. 1. If He call any order of intelligent creatures into ex- istence, with a view to their subordination to the great end, (and for no other purpose can they exist,) He has a right to their proper activity and service. If He Himself be under obligation to attain a certain end ; and if that obligation in* elude the production and employment of appropriate means, the same obligation rests on the means, provided they are capable of obligation, as necessary steps to the attainment of the end ; for without them, the end cannot be attained. This is the very condition of their existence ; for had it not been

44 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

for that end they would not have been called into being ; had it not been for the mediatorial constitution on which that end is pursued, they could not have existed ; and were it not that they are intended to serve as means to that end, they would not have been constituted what they are. They hold exist- ence, therefore, and their particular constitution of existence, on tho prime condition that they answer the great end for which they have received both ; and to do this is at once their excellence and their "happiness. He who has imparted both, has in no sense parted with His right in either. The excel- lence and happiness now found in the creature, existed poten- tially in the Creator before they came into the creature ; but in imparting them to the creature, the Creator intended, not that His own glory ghould be thereby left unaffected, but that they should answer an end by which both they should be in- creased, and the Divine glory be thereby augmented.

2. If, then, any of the creatures are so constituted that their activity increases their power of subserving the great end of their existence. He has a right to the whole of that increase ; for it is owing entirely to His having constituted them as they are, that they are capable of such increase ; and the great rea- son why He did so, is the same as that for which He constituted them at all — to subserve the great end of the Divine mani- festation.

3. If, again, owing to the providence or plan on which the end will be sought, and the consequent relationships in which successive creatures will stand to each other, their power of subserving that end should be augmented. He will, for the same reason, have a right to the whole of that augmentation. For, as the great system of means advances from one stage of development to another, it will be only the gradual unfolding of a plan which had always existed in His infinite mind. And as it existed there only with a view to the end, so whatever may be gained by the accomplishment of a preceding part of the plan, is so much gained for the part succeeding, and so on to the end.

4. If, again, owing to any of the free agents, which the plan contemplates, abusing their free agency, and withholding their power, and thus violating the condition of their existence, the progress of the plan and the attainment of the great end should be thwarted, or, in any sense, endangered ; and' if, then, owing to his interposition in any way, the derangement of the system should be remedied, and be even turned to the account of the great end, He would have a right to all the advantage which

THE SUPREME EIGHT. 45

that gracious interposition would give Him. Absolute as His right to their activity and devotedness was before, He has now established a new right of peculiar cogency. Before, He had called them from nothingness into happy existence, now he has called them from misery to happiness. But for the first act, they would never have been ; but for the second, they would never have been ought but miserable. Whatever may be the amount of their new obligation, therefore. He is entitled to the result of it ; — of all the additional moral influence which it gives him over their minds, of all the new motives to obedi- ence which it should call into existence, and of all the increase of power arising from the stimulating influence thus shed over the great system of means.

III. The Mediator has a right also to whatever satisfaction ' can arise from the contemplation of His own conduct in its re- spective relations to God and to the creature.

1. There is the happiness of beholding His ideas or designs ohjectively realized — He has a right to that. Accordingly, He is represented as having contemplated the first objects even of the material world, as they came forth from His hand, with Divine complacency. He looked on them as visible re- alizations of eternal types. On comparing them, so to speak, with the archetypes in His own infinite mind, He beheld the perfect resemblance, and was satisfied. He regarded them as exponents or signs of certain corresponding qualities, infinitely greater in the Divine nature. And He beheld them in their prospective application ; serving as indexes or memorials of that infinite greatness to myriads of minds which He purposed to create, and so to constitute that each of all these things should operate on them suggestively. He knew, therefore, all the lofty thoughts which these objects would ever suggest, and all the exquisite delight those thoi%hts would occasion, and all the holy admiration which the perception of this relation between things that differ would ever produce.

He looked on those objects also as the first in an endless series yet to come. In His first acts of creation, the great architect was laying the foundation of an all-comprehending and eternal temple ; and His infinite mind is to be regarded as having embraced, by anticipation, all the sublime results. The worshippers, the homage, the temple filled with the glory of the Divine manifestation — all were present to His mind — and He rejoiced in the glorious prospect.

46 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

2. There is the happiness of prospectively beholding the activity, enlargement, and progress of the whole system of creation and providence — He has a right to the enjoyment of that. Not more certainly is the earth perpetually speeding on its destined course through space, and carrying with it all the momentous interests of humanity, than His plan, freighted with an eternal weight of glory for the creature, and with a weightier revenue of glory to God, is in constant progress. Never for a moment does it retrograde — never pause — never linger. Look on it when He will, He beholds it arrived at that stage where, a thousand ages ago, He foresaw it would be ; and look forward to what distant age He will, He beholds it, in anticipation, already there arrived. Hence, He is often represented in Scripture as foretasting the happiness arising from the contemplation of this progress. Out of the depths of eternity, He looked onward to the period when creation should commence. '' From everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, when there were no depths, no fountains abounding with water, when as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world," i He anticipated the period when all these would be. Beyond this. He looked on to the remote period when the earth should be prepared for the reception and sustenance of animal life. He saw its forests wave ; its waters roll ; its surface clothed with verdure ; and the whole replenished with various orders of sentient beings. Ages' beyond, and when, by successive creations and mighty intervals of change, the earth should have been slowly prepared for the reception of a being such as man, His eye fixed on the time when, in order to that event, He should " prepare the heavens, and set a compass upon the face of the deep ; when He should establish the clouds above ; and v^^hen he should give to the sea His decree that the wa- ters should not pass His •commandment." Already, in His prescient view, the sun had received its final commission to shine, and earth had received its general outline of Alp and Apennine, and Himalaya — of Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediter- ranean. Ah-eady Eden bloomed, and " a river went out of it to water the garden." Man's mansion was prepared, but where was the great inhabitant ? The theatre was ready — where was the being on whose introduction the mighty drama should begin? Already, in intention, He saw that creature come,

> bnPl n'Tn^? ^IJ!}^^ — Prov. vii. 26. Rendered by Gcsenius the first (earliest) clod' of the earth — i. e. which was the first fonued,

THE SUPREME RIGHT. 47

radiant in h.s own image — the crown of creation : and, os He saw, He already heard " the morning stars sing together ; " saw earth's first sabbath dawn ; beheld man's earliest act of adoration; and pronounced the whole to be "good." Even then, though existing only in His Divine purpose, "He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men." He foresaw His blessing enlargin.:^ Japheth, and causing him to dwell in the tents of Shem. His purpose had formed the great continents of the earth, had smootlied the valleys where nations should be cradled, and given direction to the course of the rivers whose banks should become the seat of empire. 'The actual distribution of Canaan among the tribes of Israel was only the transcription of an eternal plan. " Remember the days of old, consider the years of many gen- erations ; ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance ; when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the num- ber of the children of Israel." Before Moses — before Pisgah itself, from which Moses looked down on the promised land, existed — - His eye had looked down from the height of His sanctuaiy, and hdd beheld prospectively that Sinai whence His law should be given ; that Zion which should be crowned with His temple ; that Calvary which should sustain the mystery of the cross.

Now that the prospect of the development of His great plan affords him profound satisfaction is evident, not only from the Scriptures already quoted, but from the fact that he has sought, at times, to inspire His church with an ecstasy of de- light by affording them glimpses of its onward course. All the eublime disclosures of prophecy are merely revelations of that future on which His eye is perpetually fixed ; and by the pros- pect of which He would fain admit the faithful to a fellowship in His own delight. And all the satisfaction those disclosures have ever yielded to an Abraham, who " saw His day, and was glad;" to a David, an Isaiah, an Ezekiel, a Paul, a John, en- tranced with the vision — to the whole church, which " having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, and embraced them," and died in exulting faith — all this is only a particle of the boundle-ss "joy which they have ever set before him."

3. To Him also belongs the happiness of prospectively be- holding the effects of His gratuitous interposition for human salivation. If, owing to no defect iu the original constitution

48 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

of the threat plan of Providence, any part of that plan be vio- lated by man ; and if, owing to no original defect in man. but owing to an abuse of his necessary free-agency, that viola- tion take place ; and if, therefore, without any claim on the interposition of the Mediator, He yet determined to remedy the evil, to take advantage of it in a way which shall accrue to the infinite good of the very beings who had introduced the evil, and to the furtherance of the great end of Divine mani- festation — surely He has a right to the happiness arising from a view of the effects of His own interposition. Accordingly, there is a class of Scriptures w^iich represents Him as rejoic- m^- in the prospect of this interposition. And the satisfaction which He derives from the contemplation of that prospect, is heightened by the vivid contrast in which it ever stands before his°view with what must have been the dreadful alternative if He had not interposed. And w^hen He anticipates the day in which " He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and ad- mired in all them that beheve," He " sees of the travail df His soul, and is satisfied."

4. Then He is entitled to the grateful homage of all whc share the effects of His gracious interposition. Hence His own language, " that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father."

5. The happiness flowing from the fact that on account of His mediatorial work. He is the object of the Father's infinite delight, is greater still. For He estimates that complacency at its proper worth, which is infinite, absolutely infinite ; and therefore greater than the intelligent creation, though its capa- city be ahvays enlarging, w^ill ever be able to experience.

G. And then there is the happiness derivable from knowing that He is attaining the greatest of all ends — the manifesta- tion of the Divine all-sufficiency. Now, if this end be so great, that every other s-tands to it only in the relation of means ; if this is infinitely greater than all other ends combined, the hap- piness arising from the attainment of it must be infinitely greater also. The happiness flowing from the spectacle of a redeemed and happy creation must be great ; for He knew not only what would be the exact measure of its happiness at this moment, but how happy it will be ten thousand ages hence, when its capacity for happiness will be increased ten thousand- fold — with all the hai)piness it will have enjoyed in the inter- val, and so on for ever. But inconceivably high as He values that complacency, more highly still does He value that glory

THE SUPREME RIGHT. 49

on account of the manifestation of wliicli that complacency is accorded to Him, He estimates everything as the eternal Father does ; so that if the manifestation of the Divine glory be so dear to the Father that He pours His complacency on the Son for undertaking it, the Mediator Himself regarding it in the same light, must derive from the contemplation of its attainment His highest delight. The prospect of beholding a universe of dependent beings hanging on independent all-suffi- cience ; every heai^t a channel through which a fulness of de- light is constantly streaming from the great central source, and every moment enlarging to receive more ; every sin forgiven, every evil remedied, every want supplied ; the whole reflect- ing, and replenished with, the Divine glory — this is the con- summation of that glory which is set before Him. Much as He may delight in the favor of Deity, He rates tlie glory of the Deity higher still : for it is that which gives even to His favor all its value ; so that to be the means of manifesting it to the universe is the crown of His mediatorial happiness, as it is the end of creation.

And thus by a circularity in the nature of the mediatorial constitution we are brought back to the point from which we set out — that the glory of God is the chief end of creation. It must necessarily have been so independently of all appoint- ment ; and even had there been (supposing an impossibiUty,) an appointment to the contrary. For even if a decree had appointed that the ultimate end of all things should be the well-being of the creature, the infinite capacity for enjoyment of the Divine Being would not have allowed it to be the greatest end ; since God in beholding, that well-being and the manifestation of the Divine glory which it carried along with it, would by right and necessity of nature, enjoy more than all the creatures together — infinitely more. And if God, and not the creature, would thus have been, by necessity of nature, the great end of all things, we are to suppose that He is so by choice ; or that He approves of, and proposes to himself, as an end, that which the infinite excellence of His nature conditionally necessitates. The great reason, then, accounts for the primary purpose ; the purpose originates the medial relation ; the relation imposes the great obligation ; and the obligation is followed by the right of the being discharging it ; that is, the last ensues on the attainment, or, in proportion to the attainment of the first : and thus the Mediator, as such, firids His own end in attaining the great end.

SECOND PART

Principles deducihle from the preceding Lectures ; or, Laim of the Manifestation.

From the preceding scriptural views of that which is predi- cable of the Deity, considered as prior to the manifestation of the divine all-sufficiency, and in order to it, the following general deductions seem logically to result. Certain other intermediate principles, indeed, might with equal clearness, be inferred ; but, for the present, it is proposed to deal only with general truths.

I.

That every diviyiely originated object and event is a result, of which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine Nature.

By which we mean that, not only is a reason for it to be found there, — this would only acquit the Maker from a charge of folly — but, that the ultimate and adequate reason why it is, and what it is, is to be found there. For, if the origin of everything which may exist must be traced to him as the great fii'st cause, everything will, in some sense, be Hke him ; i. e., ii will be, and will be what it is, when it proceeds from him, because he is what he is ; for before it was produced, it was potentially included in him. Additional reasons may be found in itself, and in other parts of creation, to account for its exist- ence. And of vast significance may many of these reasons be to the creature. Yet all these will be found subordinate and traceable to that infinite reason which includes, but is inde- pendent of them all, as belonging to the infinite nature of God. These subordinate reasons may be only coexistent with the respective natures in which they are found, — beginning and ending, therefore, in some cases, within the space of a few short

LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 5l

hours — soon, and perhaps forever, to be forgotten by all the rest of creation : but the infinite reason of their being at all existed from eternity in the nature of God, and can never cease to exist. However insignificant, comparatively, any given creature may be, not only is the reason of its existence to be sought in God, as prior to, in the order of time, and causative of, that existence ; but as a reason which approved itself to, and, in some sense, expressed a property of the divine nature. So that even if there were no purpose of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency, — but the creation were to be limited to the pro- duction of a single creature — still, as every effect must be in some sense like its cause, that single effect would be, (not formally but virtually,) a manifestation, pro tanto, of the Divine Nature : in other words, its ultimate reason would be found in God.

And on the same ground, every expression of His will, however it may be made, whether by word or act, will be a manifestation of somethinor anterior, viz. of the Divine Nature.

n.

TJiat everything sustains a relation to the great purpose^ and is made subservient to it.

If our view of the Divine purpose be correct, it will follow, that besides the former law of the creature's existence, by which it is what it is, because God is what he is, and which law can never be superseded ; there is another law, arising from the Divine purpose, which makes it a primary condition of the creature's existence that it should contribute in some measure to the Great IManifestation. We can conceive, then, of a two- fold reason for everything, ac? extra: — the one, ari.dng from what God w, the other from what he purposes — the former a natural reason, the latter a moral necessity or reason of Divine appointment — the former looking back to its origin, the latter looking onward to its end. For if the design of the whole be to manifest the Divine All-sufficiency, every part of the whole must of course combine to the same end. And as nothing which may exist, can have a separate, exclusive, and indepen- dent end of its own, everything will find its own end, in answer- ing His.

52 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

III.

Tliat the Manifestation will he carried on by a system of means, or medial relations.

If our view of the great relation be correct, we maj expect, that that relation, as constituting the medium of the Divine JManifestation, will itself be manifested ; or that, in harmony with that primary relation, the whole manifestation will consist of, or be carried on by, a system of corresponding medial rela- tions, (relations rising with the rising nature of the being sus- taining them ; ) otherwise, that great relation itself will be but partially disclosed, if it be not even entirely, and for ever unknown.

Another reason for the medial constitution of the Creation, is, that the Great Relation is not merely the medium of the manifestation, but an important part of it ; just as the sun, besides being the medium of vision, is also the most glorious object of creation. Now as everything exists for the Divine Manifestation, of which that relation itself is a vital part, everything may be expected to manifest that Relation by itself sustaining a medial relation.

And, as everything is to express something of the Divine nature, and the Great Relation involves an infinite disclosure of that nature, everything may be reasonably expected to bear, in some respects, the stamp of that Relation.

And further, — if, as we have shown in a previous chapter, the Great Purpose requires that the Manifestation should be progressive, it follows that it must consist of a succession of events, in wdiich each part will necessarily hold a relation to all the parts preceding, and following ; just as the Primary re- lation is medial t^tween the purpose and the end. For we can neither conceive of an event which must not be conceived of, as being, in some sense, an effect ; nor of a succession of events which must not be conceived of as medially dependent and related. So that viewed in connection w^th the second law, which determines that everything shall subserve the great end, this determines the mode or form in which that subser- viency shall be rendered — by everything sustaining a relation, not merely to that end, but to everything else contributing to that end — a relation of mutual dependence and influence.

LAWS OP THE MANIFESTATION. 53

IV.

That everything will he found either^ promoting, or under an obligation to promote, the great end commensurate with its means and relations.

If our view of the Great Relation be correct — that it brings him who sustains it under obligation commensurate with his means of answering the great end — we may expect to find, that every subordinate relation will be accompanied by obHga- tions corresponding in their number and amount with its pow- er of promoting the end.

For, according to the first law, it will necessarily express sometliing of the Divine nature ; and according to the second law, it receives existence on the condition of manifesting that resemblance, and of contributing towards the Great End ; and according to the third, it is placed in a system of Medial Relations, in order that such manifestation may be made pos- sible.

V.

That everything will he entitled to an amount of good, or of well-being, or will he found in the enjoyment of it, proportionate to the discharge of its obligations, or, to the degree of its con^ formity to the laws of its being.

For as, according to the first law, everything will necessarily express something of the Divine nature ; and acco^;ding to the second, will come into existence in order to express it ; and according to the third, will receive and sustain a relation in which tQ fulfil this law of its being ; and according to the fourth, will be held under obligation to this effect ; it will fol- low, according to the fifth, that it cannot fulfil this law of its being without enjoying well-being. For, to manifest whatever its nature is calculated to exhibit of God, is to stand related on one side to the greatest of beings, and on the other to the greatest of ends ; so that to fulfil the law of its being, or to find its own highest end, is to answer the Great end ; nor could it be supposed to be in any way deprived of its right, while thus fulfilling the law of its being, without the great end itself being, in so far, defeated. And here is the coincidence of the creature's happiness with the Creator's glory.

For example ; if the intelligent creature can do the same thing in obedience to different laws, his happiness can never 5*

54 THE TRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

rise above the law which lie fulfils ; and if that law be a lower one, v.'hen it might, and therefore ought to be a higher one — i. e. if the higher be sacrificed to the lower, — though obedi- ence to the lower may not be unattended with reward or grat- ification, — the painful sense of having violated, or disregarded the higher, will more than counterbalance the gratification.

According to these five laws, then, everything may be viewed, in its origin ; its ultimate design ; the way in which it answers that design ; its obligation to do this as the necessary means to an end ; its consequent share in the great end. Or, in it- self, as a separate and isolated product of the Divine Being ; in its intended subserviency to the great end ; in the nature of that subserviency, or the relations which it sustains in the great system of mutual dependencies ; in the obligatory fulfilment of this great conditional law of its existence ; in the natural and necessary results of such fulfilment, in its own well-being. The jirst law determines that it shall he — bear a resemblance to God. The second, why it shall be — as a manifestation of that resemblance, in subserviency to the Great End. The third, hoiu \i shall do this — as a part of a great system of means. The fourth, the indispensable necessity of doing it — as means to an end. And the ffth, what shall result to it from answering that End.

According to the first law, it may be said, that everything looks back to its origin. — According to the second, forwards to its ultimate end. — According to the third, around, to its medial relations. — According to the fourth, on the duty consecpient on these relations. — And according to the fifth, ivithin, on its own well-being, or particular end, as the result of ans^vering the Ultimate End.

VI.

That everything will le found to involve the existence of neces- sary truth.

By necessary trutli is meant that of which the proposition not only is, but must be true, and of which, therefore, the ne- gation is not only false but impossible ; so that it exists neces- sarily, and therefore universally, independently of the exist- ence of the individual intellect which contem})lates it. The origin of our knowledge of it, whether by induction, or other- wise, is a question ibr sej)arate consideration.

The possibility of the manifestation, for example, pre-sup-

LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 65

poses tlie Bxislence of certain necessary truths. It pre-supposes the existence oi space and duration in which this manifestation is to be made — pre-snpposes them as conditions of the mani- festation. For, as nothing outward can be conceived of, with- out space — and notliing existing, without time in wliich to exist, it follows that everything 7nust be, in some sense, related to space and time, or be included in them ; and therefore space and duration must have existed prior to, and independently of, the manifestation. It pre-supposes also the possibility of caus- ation, for it involves the necessity that every event shall be, in some sense, an effect ; and this proposition, therefore, would have been true, even if the manifestation had never taken place. It pre-supposes, then, the existence of the Great First Cause or Being to be manifested, whose absolutely unlimited perfection, suppose infinite space and infinite duration ; and, consequently, whose existence would have been a truth even if the manifestation had never been made. And thus as the purpose refers us to the Great Reason of which it is simply and necessarily the expression, and as the Great Reason is all that it is necessarily, or independently of everything ad extra, so every event included in that purpose, being an effect or ex- pression of that reason, will sustain some relation to the neces- sary and the independent.

vn.

Tliat everytJdng will he found to involve the existence of con- tingent truth.

By contingent truth is meant that of which the existence is not necessary, but conditional — true, because something else is true ; or dependent for its truth on something else.

As the possibility of the manifestation pre-supposes the ex- istence of necessary truth, so the purpose of the manifestation implies the existence of contingent truth — contingent, that is, in the sense already explained, as opposed to absolutely neces- sary. For had the manifestation been necessary in any other sense than that of being infinitely desirable, or morally neces- sary, no purpose of manifestation needed to have been formed. And then, as the great purpose itself was contingent on the Sovereign will of God, so every part of the internal arrange- ments of the plan {provided they secure the fulfilment of the purpose, or the manifestation of divine all-suf^ciency,) must be contingent also, or dependent on " the good pleasure " of that

5G THE PRE- AD AMITE EARTH.

will in which the purpose itself originated. For if, in the sense described, the whole be contingent, the parts must be also ; nor could such contingency remain unknown, without defeating the ultimxite end of the manifestation.

vni.

Thai everything iviU he found, hy necessity of nature, and as a relative perfection essential to the manifestation of Divine all- sivfficiency, to involve truth surpassing the perfect comprehension of the finite mind — i. e. there will he ultimate facts.

For if it were absolutely and in every sense comprehensible, it could be only, to created minds, the representation of some- thing absolutely finite and limited. But such a thing is incon- ceivable. For as everything must be related, in some respect, to time, space, and causation, as well as to every other thing included in the plan, — in consequence of these relations, if in no other respects, it will stand connected with the infinite, and incomprehensible. So that wliile the Great Purpose requires that it should manifest something of God, its relation to the Great Reason will leave it involved, in some respects, in the necessary and the universal.

And thus it will at once proclaim its origin and answer its end.

IX.

That the manifestation he progressive ; or, that the production ofneio effects, or the introduction of new laws, he itself a Law of Manifestation.

For were it to terminate at any given point, the proof of all-sufiiciency for unlimited manifestation would terminate with it. ^ Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, re- quires infinity and eternity in which to be developed, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than these. But if tlie development of the Great Purpose, or the attainment of tiio Great End, be in its very nature progressive, this is only say- ing that the process must ever be kept open to receive the addition of new effects, or the superinduction of new laws. So that the law of uniformity itself will always be subject to, or bounded by, this more general law of Progression : just as this more general law itself will always be Subject to the law of the end, to which all particular lawb owe thoir existence,

LAAVS OP THE MANIFESTATION. 57

and from wliicli they derive their authority. And this again is only saying that the end shall not be subject to the means r but that the Great Purpose shall be carried into effect.

So that, that which is commonly regarded as miraculous in- terj^osition may be itself a law of the manifestation — not the exception, but the rule — or if the exception to us wdio view things only on the scale of a few days, to Him who views them on an unlimited scale it may be the rule.

X.

That the manifestation^ besides being progressive, will be con- tinuous ; or will be progressive by being continuous — leaving no intervals of time, or of degree, but such as the modifying influence of other laics rnay require or account for.

For were it to leave such intervals, except on such condi- tions, the proof of all-sufficiency for fdling them up w^ould be vvanting. Besides which, if all-sufficiency requires infinity, and eternity, in which to be developed, intervals in the mani- festation of time and of degree are inadmissible ; unless on the supposition that such intervals or pauses in the manifesta- tion would themselves contribute to the manifestation of all- sufficiency.

It may be expected that it will be impossible to lay one's finger on the line which separates any one province of knowl- edge from that which lies next. To complain of a theory, therefore, that it combines and synthesizes, is to complain that it treats of things as they are ; or, as God has made them. Since it belongs to the perfection of these things, that they should not admit of isolation ; if they did, they would not and could not belong to a system of progressive and continuous manifestation.

XL

That the Continuity of the manifestation requires that all tht laws and j'csidts of the past should in some sense, be carried for- wards ; and that all that is characteristic in the lower steps of the process shoidd be carried up into the higher — as far as it may suhservc the great end ; or unless it shoidd be superseded by some- thing analogous and superior in the higher, and tJie future.

For if it w^ere not, the manifestation would be neither pro- gressive, nor continuous, but would be every moment begin-

58 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

ning de novo. Everything would be isolated. After the man- ifestation had continued for untold ages, all the past v/ould be unknown and lost to the present, and to all the future. And the proof of all-sufficiencj, for such a continuity of manifesta- tion as that expressed in the proposition, would be forever wanting.

xn.

That everything luill he found to manifest all that it is calcu- lated to exhibit of the Divine Nature, by developing, or working out its oxen nature.

For as, according to the First law, we are to expect that everything, per se, and separately considered, will exhibit some- thing of God from mere necessity of nature — just as the purpose of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency brought to light necessarily, and independently of all intention, the Divine self- sufficiency, so, according to the Second law, we are apt to ex- pect, that as it is only by the activity of the Divine Nature, that that nature is made manifest, every being will be found to manifest all that is calculated to exhibit of God's nature, by properly manifesting, or, working out its own. The mere formation of the purpose implies the acting of the Divine ]\Iind ; the accomplishment of that purpose, especially as it is a purpose of self-manifestation, clearly supposes self-activity also ; — the manifestation of Divine all-sulficiency evidently requires that that activity should be constant, unending, and all-comprehensive. A creation, then, devoid of regulated ac- tivity, could be no manifestation of an everliving and ever- active God. Such a creation (were its existence possible) would less represent him than would the absence of all external ob- jects ; for, as a Divine manifestation, it would essentially mis- represent him. For how could that which neither moved uor was moved — which evinced no adaptation of means to an end — no capacity of enjoyment — that which couM receive nothing from without, and which involved nothing from within — that, therefore, which knew nothing, did nothing, and, in effect, was nothing— -do anything but misrepresent Him who is AH in All ? The existence of such a universe is inconceivable. It is only by a universe of activity, then, that He can be manifest- ed to whose activity the universe owes its existence.

Still more may an active niiture be expected in that order of creatures wliosc distinction it is to be, that not only by them,

i.\\V3 OF TUJ. :iTAXTFF,STATTON. 59

but to them, the manilestation will be made. For such activity may be looked for in thciu if only to hclj) them to understand, hy sympatJiy, i\\e same property in the Divine Nature. And still more complete would this resemblance to their Maker be, if certain possibilities of active excellence could be stored up in them, and if these could in some way be put at their dispo- sal, or under the power of their will ; so that, as the Divine activity, ad extra, has been voluntary, their activity might resemble his in this essential respect — that it be voluntary also.

The grounds which the other laws afford for the same ex- pectation of activity in the intelligent creature are too obvious to require extended notice. For if the first provides for it by imparting to him a measure of Divine resemblance, and the second by making his manifestation of that resemblance the condition of his existence, the third enables him to fulfil that condition, by placing him in a constitution of medial relations, where his activity will be felt, the fourth makes such activity obligatory, and the fifth rew^ards it in his own well being, or attainment of the Great End.

XIII.

That the same property or characteristic which existed in the ptreceding and inferior stage of the manifestation, he superior in the succeeding and higher stages, or else be applied to additional or higher purposes, (if it be not altogether superseded by some- thing superior ;) or, that it he in the power of the succeeding, and the higher, so to render or to apply it.

For as, by the great law of the Manifestation, everything is in alliance and dependence ; and as everything looks on to an end beyond itself, its nature, or its relations and results, may be expected to advance, the further it proceeds from its original starting-point towards the distant end, for the sake of which it exists.

XIV.

That as every law will have an origin or date, it will coim into operation on each individual subject of it, according to its priority of date in the great system of manifestation.

For as, by the law of continuity with pi'ogression, every law has come into operation in orderly succession, that order of

CO THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH-

succession is itself a, law : and as laws operate uniformly Ibi tlie same reason that they operate at all — viz., for the pur- pose of manifestation — the order of their introduction at first into the general system, could not be dispensed Vvith in any of the subsequent stages or parts of the manifestation, without defeatins: the desis-n of their introduction at all.

XV.

That everything will occupy a relation in the great system oj means, and possess a right in relation to everything else, accord- ing to its power of subserving the end; or, everything will hring in it and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it — a reason for the degree in which they shoidcl be influenced — and for the degree in which it, in its turn, shoidd be influenced hy everything else.

For if, according to the first law, everything, by necessity of nature, expresses some property of the Divine Nature : — if, according to the second, it possesses that resemblajice on the sole condition of manifesting it in subserviency to the Great End . — if, according to the third, it is medially related to every- thing else, that it may be able to make the manifestation : — and if, according to the fourth, it is bound to fulfil the Great Pur- pose, according to its means and relations, then everything will sustain an active and a passive relation, or will have a right tc influence everything of inferior, and a susceptibility of being influenced by everything of superior, subserviency to the Great End.

So that (according to the all-connecting purpose) co-exist- ence implies co-relation, co-relation involves mutual obligation or subserviency, determinable as to kind and degree, in every instance, by the subserviency of the subjects of it to the Great End.

XVI.

Tliat every law subordinate in rank, though it may have been trior in date, be subject to each higher law of the Manifestation, IS it comes into operation.

This, indeed, is a corollary from the preceding, and is only raying, in efiect, that in no case sliall the means be put in the place of the end. But if the means are to be always subordi-

LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 61

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.

xvn.

That the whole process of manifestation he conducted uniform- ly^ 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) : anc^ that divinely originated effect will, when traced back to its or- igin, be found t© express something in the Divine nature.

The Great Purpose requires it : for it is only by the uniform- ity 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 Pur- pose 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 piM-pose of an infi- nitely perfect being, it is pursued on a plan, and a plan sup- poses 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.

xvm.

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

(By analogy is here meant, generally, a similarity of rela- tion 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- 6

62 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

vading operation of general laws : from tlie pri7nary relation^ according to wliich lie who is to conduct the great process sus- tains 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, re- sembling the Logos : from the Great Purpose ; for, if the whole creation is to be, in some sense, an analogue of the Divine na- ture, (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 luhole 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 manifesta- tion, 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 re- lation.

XIX.

That the law ^ ever-enlarging manifestation he itself regulated hy a law determning the time for each successive stage and ad- dition in the great process.

The time^ for the change in any given department of the Divine manifestation, will of course be determined iri a man- ner,^ and for a reason, diflTering 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 possibiHties for answering such and such ends, if its continuance be permitted ; or, until it has sufficiently taught the Specific truth, and attained the proxi- mate and particular end, for which it was originated. _ But, whatever the particidar reason for determining the pe- riod 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 All- sufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifestation to be re- called or replaced a moment before it had, in some way, demon strated the all-sufficiency of God for that particular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered.

LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 63

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 progres- sive system, an ever-increasing ground for expecting it.

XX.

That the beings to whom this Manifestation is to he made, and by whom it is to be understood, appreciated, and voluntarily pro- moted, must be constituted in harmony with these laws ; or, these laws of the objective universe will be found to have been establish- ed 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 comea under consideration.

THIRD PART. ORG ANI C NATURE.

TTie 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 manifesta- tion commence ? Li what order, and at what rate, will it pro- ceed ? ^ What extent of space will it occupy ? What possibil- ities 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 actu- ally 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 pro- gressive, 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 tlie nature of the case, there is nothing, ah extra, to determine either with what the manifestation shall begin, or how it shall proceed. Even if there were, inasmuch

INORGANIC NATURE. G5

as the great object of creation is the manifestation of the Divine perfections, the order of the process must be reguhited by the order prescribed by the object of the Divine purpose -7- the means must be made subservient to the end. But there is nothing ah extra., so that there is a necessity as well as a rea- son, 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 tlie 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, tlie 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 mani- festation. 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 character- istic 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 mani- festation 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-oj)eration of any other. For although, in the case of an infinitely per- fect 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, 1 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 infer- ence 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 tlic tilings adjusted.

66 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

amazeme;.!, the intelligence which it involved, owing to V^ very depth, should be completely hidden from our view, air.d require the lapse of ages for its development. In this case we should contemplate power in its simplest form — that of causa- tion ; — a mighty moral cause producing a stupendous elfect.i

2. Antiquity of the Earth. — If, according to our first law, every divinely-originated event is a result' of which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine Nature, it might have been expected that the order of the Divine perfections, or else the nature of the Divine Purpose, would determine the order of the creative process, and that the opening act would be %, dis- play of power. But if, by one law, we arrive at the conclu- sion that the first act of manifestation will be a display of power, the law of progression suggests that that display will be made by an act to which we can conceive no act antece- dent; one which is not merely introductory to every other, but preparatory to the whole — first in the order of nature as well as of time.

Now revelation and science harmonize with reason, and are decisive on the subject that, as far as the visible universe is concerned, the formation of its material preceded the forma- tion of everything else. Turning first to the inspired record to ascertain the origin of things as they now are, we learn, of our earrii, that it assumed its present state a few thousands of years ago, in consequence of a creative process, or of a series of creative acts concluding with the creation of man, which extended through a period of six ordinary or natural days. Possessed of this fact respecting the date of man's introduc- tion on the earth, we proceed to examine the globe itself. And here we find that the mere shell of the earth takes us back through an unknown series of ages, in which creation appears to have followed creation at the distance of vast intervals be- tween.

But though in the progress of our inquiries we soon find that we have cleared the bounds of historic time, and are mov-

^ I believe that we derive the idea of causation — vohmtaty or efficient causation — from consciousness: that besides the constant connection which we obsei-ve between pliysical causes and eifects, we are conscious of exerting a power in the et]^■ccts which we ourselves produce on matter subject to us ; that this consciousness awakens the idea of voluntary causation ; and that tliis idea leads to the belief in the existence of a First cause. But the psyc-hological views to which the discussion of tliis question would lead, belong to another treatise.

i:?fOKGANIC NATURE. G7

ing far back among the periods of an unmeasured and immea- surable antiquity, the geologist can demonstrate that the crust of the earth has a natural history. That he cannot determine the chronology of its successive strata is quite immaterial. We only ask him to prove the order of their position from the newest deposit to the lowest step of the series ; and this he can do. For nature itself — by a force calculable only by the God of nature — lifting up in places the whole of the stupen- dous series in a slanting, ladder-like, direction to the surface, has revealed to him the order in which they were originally laid, and iuvites him to descend step by step to its awful found- ations.

Let us descend with him, and traverse an ideal section of a portion of the earth's crust. Quitting the living surface of the green earth, and entering on our downward path, our first step may take us below the dust of Adam, and beyond the limits of recorded time. From the moment we leave the mere surface-soil, and touch even the nearest of the tertiary beds, all traces of human rem.ains disappear, so that let our grave be as shallow as it may in even the latest stratified bed, we have to make it in the dust of a departed world. Formation now follows formation, composed chiefly of sand, and clay, and lime, and presenting a thickness of more than a thousand feet each. #lS we descend through these, one of the most sublime fictions of mythology becomes sober truth, for at our every step an •age flies past. We find ourselves on a road where the lapse of duration is marked — not by the succession of seasons and ©f years, — but by the slow excavation, by water, of deep val- leys in rock marble ; by the return of a continent to the bosom of an ocean in which ages before it had been slowly formed ; or by the departure of one world and the formation of another. And, accordingly, if our first step took us below the line which is consecrated by human dust, we have to take but a few steps more, before we begin to find that the fossil remains of all those forms of animal life with which we are most familiar, are diminishing, and that their places are gradually supplied by strange and yet stranger forms ; till, in the last fossiliferous formation of this division, traces of existing species become extremely rare, and extinct species everywhere predominate.

The secondary rocks receive us as into a new fossiliferous world, or into a new series of worlds. Taking the chalk form- ation as the first member of this series, we find a stratification upwards of a thousand feet thick. Who shall compute the

68 THE riiE-AD AMITE EARTH.

tracts of time necessary for its slow sedimentary deposition ! So vast was it, and so widely different were its physical condi- tions from those which followed, that scarcely a trace of animal species still living is to be found in it. Crowded as it is with conchological remains, for example not more than a shell or two of all the seven thousand existing species are discover- able. Types of organic life, before unknown, arrest our atten- tion, and prepare us for still more surprising forms. Descend- ing to the system next in order — the oolitic — with its many subdivisions, and its tliickness of about half a mile, we recog- nise new proofs of the dateless antiquity of the earth. For, enormous as this bed is, it was obviously formed by deposition from sea and river water. And so gradual and tranquil was the operation, that, in some places, the organic remains of the successive strata are arranged with a shelf-like regularity, re- minding us of the well-ordered cabinet of the naturalist. Here, too, the last trace of animal species still living, has vanished. Even this link is gone. We have reached a point when the earth was in the possession of the gigantic forms of Saurian reptiles, — monsters more appalling than the poet's fancy ever feigned ; and these are their catacombs. Descending through the later red sandstone and saliferous marls of two thousand feet in thickness, and which exhibit, in 'their very variegated strata, a succession of numerous physical changes, our subte» ranean path brings us to the carboniferous system, or coal for- mations. These coal strata, many thousands of feet thick,-, consist entirely of the spoils of successive ancient vegetable worlds. But in the rank jungles and luxuriant wildernesses wliich are here accumulated and compressed, we recognise no plant of any existing species. Nor is there a single convincing indication that these primeval forests ever echoed to the voice of birds. But between these strata, beds of limestone of enor- mous thickness are interposed ; each proclaiming the prolonged existence and final extinction of a creation. For these lime- stone beds are not so much the charnel-houses of fossil organ- isms, as the remains of the organisms themselves.i

The mountain masses of stone which now surround ug, ex- tending for miles in length and breadth, were once sentient

' See a memoir " On some of the Microscopical Objects found in the Mud of the Levant, and other deposits : with Remarks on the Mode ot Formation of Calcareous and Infusorial Siliceous Rocks." By W. C,

Williamson, Ks([.

INORGANIC NATURE. 69

existences — testaceous and coralline, — living at the bottoin of ancient seas and lakes. How countless the ages necessary for their accumulation ; when the formation of only a few inches of the strata required the life and death of many generations. Here, the mind is not merely carried back through immeasur- able periods, but, while standing amidst the petrified remains of this succession of primeval forests and extinct races of ani- mals piled up into sepulchral mountains, we seem to be encom- passed by the thickest shadow of the valley of death.

On quitting these stupendous monuments of death, we leave behind us the last vestige of land-jDlants, and pass down to the old red sandstone. Here, too, we have passed below the last trace of reptile life. The speaking foot-prints impressed on the carboniferous strata, are absent here. The geological char- acter of this vast formation, again, tells of ages innumerable. For, though many a thousand feet in depth, it is obviously derived from tlie materials of more ancient rocks, fractured, decomposed, and slowly deposited in water. The gradual and' quiet nature of the process, and therefore its immense dura- tion, are evident from the numerous " platforms of death," i which mark its formation, each crowded with organic struct- ures which lived and died where they now are seen; and which, consequently, must have perished by some destructive agency, too sudden to allow of their dispersion, and yet so subtle and quiet as to leave the place of their habitation un- disturbed.

Immeasurably far behind us as we have already left the fair face of the extant creation, while travelling into the night of ancient time, w^e yet feel, as we stand on the threshold of the next, or Silurian, system, and look down towards '* the foundations of the earth," that we are not half way on our course. Here, on surveying the fossil structures, we are first struck with the total change in the petrified inhabitants of the sea, as compared with what we found in the mountain lime- stone ; implying the lapse of long periods of time, during the formation of the intervening old red sandstone which we have just left. But still rfiore are we impressed with the lapse of duration, while descending the long succession of strata, of which this primary fossiliferous formation is composed, when we think of their slow derivation from the more ancient rocks ;

^ Mr. Hugh Miller's " Old Red Sandstone," (1841,) p. 234; a work of peculiar interest.

73 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

of their oft repeated elevation and depression; of the long periods of repose, during which hundreds of animal species ran through their cycle of generations, and became extinct ; and of the continuance of this stratifying process, until these thin beds had acquired, by union, the immense thickness of a mile and a half. Next below this, we reach the Cambrian system, of almost equal thickness, and formed by the same slow process. Here the gradual decrease of animal remains admonishes us that even the vast and dreary empire of death has its limits, and that we are now in its outskirts. But there is a solitude greater than that of the boundless desert, and a dreariness more impressive than that which reigns in a world entombed. On leaving the slate-rocks of the Cambrian and Cumbrian formations, we find that the worlds of organic remains are past, and that we have reached a region older than death, because -jlder than life itself. Here, at leastj if life ever existed, all trace of it is obliterated by the fusing power of the heat below. But we have not even yet reached a resting-place. Passing down through the beds of mica schist, many thou- sand feet in depth, to the great gneiss formation, we find that we have reached the limits of stratification itself. The granitic masses below, of a depth which man can never ex- plore, are not only crystallized themselves, but the igneous power acting through them, has partially crystallized the rocks above. Not only life, but the conditions of life, are here at an end.

Now, is it possible for us to look from our ideal position, backwards and upwards to the ten miles height — supposing the strata to be piled regularly — from which we have descend- ed, without feeling that we have reached a point of immeasur- able remoteness in terrestrial antiquity ? Can we think of the thin soil of man's few thousand years, in contrast with the suc- cession of worlds we have passed through ; of the slow form a tion of each of these worlds on worlds, by the disintegration of more ancient materials and their subsidence in water ; of the leaf-like thinness of a great proportion of the strata; of the consequent flow of time necessary to^tbrm only a few per- pendicular inches of all these miles ; or of the long periods of alternate elevation and depression, action and repose, which mark their formation, without acknowledging that the days and years of geology are ages and cycles of ages ! Let us conceive, if we can, that the atoms of one of these strata have formed the sands of an hour-glass, and that each graui count-

INORGANIC NATURE. 71

ed a moment, and we may then- make some aj^proximation to the past periods of geology ; periods in the computation of vvliicli the longest human dynasty, and even the date of the pyramids, would form only an insignificant fraction. Or, re- membering that only two or three species of animals have, so far as we know, died out during the sixty or seventy cen- turies of man's historic existence upon earth, can we think of the thousands, * not of generations, but of species, of races, which we have passed in our downward track, and which have all run through their ages of existence and ceased ; of the re- currence of this change again and again, even in the same strata ; and of the many times over these strata must be re- peated in order to equal the vast sum of the entire series, without feeling that we are standing, in idea, on ground so im- measurably far back in the night of time, as to fill the mind with awe ? " How dreadful is this place !" Here, at as incalculable a secular distance, probably, from the first creation of organic life, as that is from the last creation — here, silence once reigned : the only sound which occasionally broke the intense stillness being the voice of subterranean thunder ; the only motion (not felt* for there was none to feel it) an earthquake ; the only phenomenon, a molten sea, shot up from the fiery gulph below, to form the mighty framework of some future continent. And still that ancient silence seems to impose its quelling influence, and to allow in its presence the activity of nothing but thought. And that thought — what direction more natural for it to take than to plunge still farther back into the dark abyss of departed time, till it has reached a First, or Efficient Cause ?

3. The earth not eternal. — But, although we seem to be thus conducted almost into the frontiers of eternity, the moment we glance our eye in that direction, all the cycles of geology dwindle to a point. In the presence of Him, with whom a thousand years are as one day, we recover ourselves to per- ceive that these cycles are immense only in relation to our- selves. Accordingly, every step of our downward path has been suggestive of a beginning ; for everything speaks of deri- vation. Each rock, for example, points downwards to its source. We can trace the lineal extraction of each successive stratum. And even noAv, having reached the crypt of nature, and standing at the bases of her gneissic columns, should the question be asked, — "Whence their derivation?" geology points to the older granitic masses, of whose waler-worn crys-

72 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

talline particles they are evidently composed. " But whence that granite ?" Mineralogy shows that it is composed of three very distinct mineral substances. Crystallography demonstrates, next, by cleavage, or mechanical division, that each of these three substances is compounded of atoms or molecules inex- pressibly minute, and each of these again of others still more minute, and so on to an indefinite extent ; yet that each of these possesses a determinate geometrical figure, and combines in fixed and definite proportions. Chemical analysis now takes up the process of reduction, and shows — taking the carbonate of lime, for example — that each of these integrant molecules is divisible into two compound substances. And, still farther, it shows that even each of these is a compound body. But here the process of decomposition ends. The elementary molecules thus obtained — of calcium, carbon, and oxygen, — are three of the fifty-four or fifty-five substances which, to us, are indivisible and ultimate ; and which, as it has been beauti- fully expressed by Daubeny, deserve to be regarded as the alphabet, composing the great volume which records the wisdom and goodness of the Creator.!

The ancient atheistic theory of b. fortuitPas concourse of atoms is thus exploded ; since it is demonstrable, as we have seen, that all crystalline mineral substances exist only under fixed geometrical forms, and unite only in unchangeably definite proportions. Fortuity has no existence here. We are in the region of law ; and law implies a lawgiver.

Here, too, the sceptical theory which would substitute an eternal nature for an eternal God of nature, stands exposed and condemned. To say nothing of the logical absurdity which the theory involves, in professing to account for the ex- istence of a vast magazine of exquisite contrivances without a contriver ; we have only to recall the fact, that in our subter- ranean descent we passed the actual beginning of species after species, down to a state of the globe in which life was impossi- ble. Thus Nature herself, disclaiming the honor thrust upon her at the expense of her Maker, emphatically declares, " It is not in me." The compounded state of the inorganic masses, down to the crystalline granite, joins also in affirming the same truth ; and it is with the argument from inorganic matter that we have, at present, to do. Now, it cannot be affirmed that matter has always existed in a compounded state ; for, unless

1 Sec Dr. Bucklantrrf Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i., c. xxiii.

INORGANIC NATUIlll, 73

it could be proved that its compound is its necessary state, it would follow that, at some period or other in past duration, it must have been in a simple state. But chemical analysis de- Qonstrates that a compounded state is not a necessary condition )f its existence ; for it can be analyzed and exhibited in its elements. From which it follows, either that there was a period when matter existed in its uncompounded simple ele- ments — and then the questions arise, whence the existence of these mysterious substances ? and whence the multiplied laws by which they began to combine in so varied, definite, and complex a manner, that, to bring one of them to light, immor- talizes the discoverer for his sagacity and wisdom ? or else, that matter has never existed otherwise than in a compounded state, and has thus always confessed itself a made, originated thing.

Indeed, the non-eternity of the planetary system, or the fact that the present order of things had a commencement, might be argued from the admitted existence of a resisting medium in space. The argument is mathematical, and may be regarded as the continuous summation of infinitely small quantities. For, only admit that planetary motion encounters resistance ; and though it be so small as to be inappreciable within a thousand millions of years, still, if it had been from eternity, the motion resisted must have come to an end. Now, the motion of Encke'a comet, as well as that of the comet discovered by M. Biela renders the existence of such a medium almost certain. True, its effect even on the wisp-like vapor of a comet may be so small as to require between twenty and thirty thousand years to reduce the cometary motion to one-half its present value. To reduce the present velocity of Jupiter by one-half might require a period of four hundred and ninety millions of years. Still, as that reduction has not taken place, the planet cannot have existed from eternity. Its motion must have had a be- ginning. The chronometer of the heavens must have been wound up within a limited time, for it has not yet run down.

The object of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace — which supposes the earth, and the system to which it belongs, to have arisen from the gradual condensation of a diffused, vaporous, nebula — professes to take us back to a beginning, but only a beginning of existing motions. Its immediate design was merely to suggest analogically the possible origin of the motions of the solar system. It says nothing whatever — it can say nothing --«^n disproof of the Divine origination of matter. It may '' ' "' " 7 - ' '

74 PRE-ADAMTTE EARTH.

trace back tlie mass to an anterior state, which " was itself preceded by other states, in which the nebulous matter was more and more diffuse. And in this manner we arrive," says Laplace, " at a nebulosity so diffuse, that its existence could scarcely be suspected. Such is, in fact, the first state of the nebulae, which Herschel carefully observed by means of his powerful telescopes." Superior telescopic power, indeed, has recently thrown discredit on the hypothesis, by resolving many of the supposed nebulae into clusters of stars ; a fact suggest- ing the probability tnat a still superior telescopic power would resolve other nebulous appearances and bring new ones to light ; and so on without end. So on at least, until we possess that which we have not at present, nor are likely to obtain, a telescope — an instrument for viewing the end or limit.

But even allowing the hypothesis to become a demonstra- tion, it has only removed the origination of matter to an epoch farther back in past duration. Having professedly conducted us back to its earliest nebulous condition, the hypothesis leaves us. This is the ultimatum of physical science. Respecting the anterior, the primitive, state of matter, we are still left in ignorance. Transferring our inquiries into those depths of past time to which the hypothesis would conduct us, we still have to inquire, whence came that nebula ? Why is it where it is ? Whence the cause of its condensation, separation, col- location, and motions ? — processes which, under the circum- stances, no laws we are acquainted with are sufficient to ex- plam. Having traced the history of the earth back through numerous changes to its supposed nebulous state, we ask, with the confidence that we are so much the nearer to the beginning, what was the primary change — the fii'st effect ? The very fact, that our examination has disclosed to us the proximate beginnings of previous states of the earth, suggests the idea of a primary beginnin'g, and prepares us^ to hear of it.

We do not expect, be it remarked, that science will ever le able to conduct us knowingly to such a commencement.! Even if permitted to gaze on the primordial elements of things, science could not of itself be certain of the fact. If, while the astron- omer was searching the depths of space with his instruments, a nebulous body were to be strictly originated under his gaze, his science could not assure him that the body has come wan-

' See Dr. Whewell's excellent Treatise qu the Judications of the Crea- tor, pp. 150— 171.

INORGANIC NATURE. 75

dering thither from some distant quarter, where it had existed under other conditions. The fact that it must sometime have had a beginning, might be instinctively felt by liim as a truth of reason ; but, in the nature of things, the fact could be made known to him only as an authoritative announcement, and that announcement could come to him only from another and a iiigher. source — from the Divine Originator himself All that \YQ look for at the hands of science is, to admit the analogical evidence which the natural history of the earth affords of a true and real beginning ; and to satisfy the intellectual neces- sitj^, the imperative requirements, of reason, by admitting that such a commencement there must have been preparatory to the due reception of the sublime and inspired affirmation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

^ 4. From a careful consideration of the subject, my full con- viction is, that the verse just quoted was placed by the hand of Inspiration at the queuing of the Bible as a distinct and in- dependent sentence ; that it was the Divine intention to affirm by it, that the material universe was primarily originated by God from elements not previously existing ; and that this ori- ginating act was quite distinct from the acts included in the six natural days of the Adamic creation.!

5. Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be proper to notice two objections to the great antiquity of the earth, although they are not of a directly Biblical nature. The first relates to ih.^ geological evidence of that antiquity, and may be expressed thus : Why might not God have created the crust of the earth just as it is, with all its numberless stratifi- cations and diversified formations, complete ? And the anal- ogy for such an exercise of creative power is supposed to be found in the creation of Adam, not as an infant, but an adult ; and in the production of the full-sized trees of Eden. To which the reply is direct : the maturity of the first man, and of the objects around him, could not deceive him by implying that they had slowly grown to that state. His first knowledge was the knowledge of the contrary. He lived, partly, in order to proclaim the fact of his creation. And, could his own body, or any of the objects created at the same time, have been sub • jected to a physiological examination, they would no doubt iuive been found to indicate their miraculous production in their very destitution of all the traces of an early growth ;

* Scu Nolo B

76 THE PRE-ADAMITE EAKTH.

whereas the shell of the earth is a crowded storehouse of evi- dence of its gradual formation. So that the question, express- ed in other language, amounts to this : Might not the God of infinite truth have enclosed in the earth, at its creation, evi- dence of its having existed ages before its actual production ? Of course, the Objector would disavow such a sentiment. But such appears to be the real import of the objection ; and, as such, it involves its own refutation.

6. The second relates to the long period during which the earth was, according to geological disclosures, comparatively unoccupied, and amounts to this : Is it likely that so long a period would have been allowed by the Almighty to elapse, after the creation of the earth, before the production of the hu- man race ? Now, if this be said from a regard to the relative importance of man, as if all created time were lost till he ap- peared, it is sufficient to reply, that he has still an eternity before him ; and that had he been cJi^ted a myriad of ages earlier than he was, there would yet have been an eternity behind him. If it be said, in the spirit of homage to the Cre- ator, it should be remembered that to Him " who inhabiteth eternity," there can be neither early nor late ; that to Him " a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years." Besides which, the pre- Adamite antiquity of the earth is not, as the objection seems to imply, useless to man. On the con- trary, he is indebted to the processes which were then taking place, for all the principal means of his material civilization. And, then, as a creature in whose mind ideas succeed each other, how eminently calculated is the mere attempt of open- ing his imagination to let a procession of ten thousand ages pass through, or of the events of such a period, to subserve his highest interests, by elevating his conceptions of the Being who has superintended the whole. Other beneficial results might easily be specified. And unless the objector knew all the ends which were answered by the long periods of the earth's existence, prior to the Creation of man ; and all which will be derived from it in the eternity to come, he is not in a situation to pronounce on the subject. For aught he knows, a disclosure of all those ends would convert his present scepti- cism respecting the antiquity of the earth, into a feeling of wonder that the periods of geology had not been of longer du- ration than they were.

INORGANIC NATURE. 77

I.

Tlie First Effect — Assuming, on the grounds stated, then, the great antiquity of the earth, let us go back in thought to that " beginning " when God created the material universe. Up to the 'moment of its origination there had been only one substance ; for " God is a Spirit." Not more amazing, there- fore, as a display of power, would the origination of a third substance now be, differing from the two already existing as much as these two differ from each other, than was the origina- tion of matter as the opening act of the visible creation. Here, according to our first law, was an effect of which the supreme and ultimate reason must he in the Divine Nature.

1. It is by no means important for us to inquire, whether or not the Being who spake this immensity of matter into ex- istence and activity, separated it from the first into masses, and distributed those masses into the places and proportions and harmonious relations which prevail at present ; or, whether he merely produced a vast central and aggregate chaos, as the material from which stars and systems should subsequently issue, by a series of distinct creative acts. If it should appear that the first was the fact, it might indeed be considered that the collocation and adjustment of the celestial mechanism, by furnishing a grand display of the knowledge of God, impeached our general proposition that the primary act of creation was chiefly a manifestation of power. But to this it would be suf- ficient to reply, that the knowledge which such a distribution of matter would have displayed from the first, would only show that the power was intelligent and not a blind fate ; that it was a knowledge distinct from i\\e wisdom displayed in the second or organic stage of creation ; ^ that itr would not the less, but the more, illustrate the power which effected it — " knowl- edge," in this instance, would be " power ; " that we do not claim for the first stage of the manifestation a display of power exclusively, since every act of an infinitely perfect Being must virtually include the efi'ect of every attribute of which that per- fection consists ; that such a virtual inclusion of wisdom and goodness in power, as well as of power in wisdom and goodness, is essential to that continuity of divine manifestation which it is our aim to illustrate ; but that we claim for it the exhibition of power principally and supremely ; and that God himself 'mi

' See Note C. 7*

78 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

often fo -ind to appeal to the work of creation as his own chosen proof of power.

2. According to the nebular hypothesis, however, such a distribution of matter was not simultaneous with its origina- tion. Now, whatever may be the merits of this Hypothesis in relation to the whole universe of matter, it is certain that tlie shape of our own planet — that of an oblate spheroid, or a sphere flattened at the poles — is precisely that which a fluid body would assume by rotation about an axis. And, on exam- ining the constitution of the primary rocks, it is, as we have seen, found to be the result of a state of fusion. They are all crystallized ; and many of the series above them are found to be almost as crystalline in their texture.

3. Now, let us suppose that we had been admitted, not only to contemplate the first act of the Divine manifestation, but to study that display in the whole of this first stage, distinguished as it must have been by elemental conflicts and volcanic ex- plosions beyond all human conception, in what other light could we have regarded the phenomena than as signs or expressions of unknown power ? We are not now to speak of the extent of the power to be inferred from the supposed scene — whether it be limited or unlimited. This view belongs to a subsequent part of the subject. At present we have to do only with the origination of matter and its planetary formation, as an expres- sion of power. Every property, indeed, which was now brought to light, and every idea which can be supposed to have been truly suggested and represented, expressed a spiritual corres- pondence in the Divine Creator. Thus, the bare existence of the dependent substance, matter, pre-supposed the existence of the Independent and Infinite Substance. The laws which the planetary motions exhibited were His laws ; and proclaim- ed him to be " the God of order." For, no being can impart that which he does not, in some sense, possess. But even the origination of the substance, and the prescription and main- tenance of the laws, were preeminently demonstrations of power. Here was the first objective effect — the origination of matter ; irresistibly awakening the conviction of the First Cause : the solemn utterance of the Deity on the subject of causation. Here was the universe of matter in motion, awa- kening the idea of force ; it was the great practical lesson of the Deity on dynamics — the doctrine of force producing motion. Every property of matter, every process by which its proper- ties were developed, every law which regulated these pro-

INORGANIC NATURE. 79

cesses, every elementary particle and every revolving planet, was lecturing on the power which imparted that force. Nor could we have looked on the geological, planetary, and astral motions — the systems of motion — the complicated and bound- less whirl of motion, in its multitude, variety, velocity and extent, and have referred the whole to its origin and support, without feeling the deep emphasis of the declaration, " Power belongeth unto God."

n.

The past hrought forward. — One of our principles requires that the laws and results of the past be carried forwards ; and that all that is characteristic in the lower steps of the process be carried up into the higher as far as it may subserve the ultimate end ; or unless it be superseded by something analo- gous and superior in the higher and the future. (As we are only, at present, in the first stage of creation, it is obvious that our means of illustrating this law can be derived from nothing antecedent ; but are restricted to the earlier operations of this : pining stage, as related to its later periods.)

Thus the law o^ attraction had collected matter around a centre. But it knows nothing of selection ; holding the most heterogeneous masses together by the one common bond of gravitation. But having brought the particles of which the masses are composed so near together, another law — that of chemical affinity — appears. Two of the leading principles of chemical affinity are, that it is elective — passing by one par- ticle to coalesce with another ; and definite or constant^ — each element uniting only with a certain fixed proportion of the element elected.

And, then, as chemical affinity is an advance on attraction, crystallization is an advance on chemical affinity ; and to this we are indebted for the granitic foundations of the earth, and all the ten thousand symmetrical forms which matter assumes. The first of these laws does not more prepare the way for the second, than the second for the third. For " bodies never crystaUize but when their elements combine chemically ; and solid bodies which combine, when they do it most completely and exactly, also rrystallize." ^ The matter which was merely

* Professor AYhcwell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i p. 353.

80 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

held together by attraction — is sorted by chemical affinity — and, in crystallization, according to Berzelius,i it assumes its definite forms by a presupposed effort of the particles, not simply to unite, but to unite at certain points. But when the perfect crystal is formed, be it remarked, no law is repealed. It is no less in the all-gi'asping hand of attraction than it was at fii'st.

m.

Progression. — One of our principles is, that the production of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, will be itself a law of the manifestation ; in other words, that the system will be progressive. Accordingly, when we reach the second stage af the process, we shall be able to show its advance as com- pared with the first. But as we are now merely entering on that first stage, we have nothing prior with which to compare it. We can only regard inorganic matter as something, an existence ; and, as such, an advance on nothing, or on non- existence. In this light, we have simply to speak, first, of its constitution. But if, then, taking our stand at a jDcriod to- wards the close of tliis stage, we look back on the succession of changes which the material system is supposed to exhibit ; we may speak also oi progression in relation to these changes.

1. Over the physical constitution of every planet except our own, there hangs a deep obscurity. We may be able to weigh them, and to measure their volumes ; but this is nearly the sum of our knowledge concerning them. Here, however, we find ourselves in contact with matter ; it courts and compels our attention. To the observant mind the earth is a vast laboratory, in which the great processes of chemistry are in constant operation. Accordingly, the researches of science have brought to light between fifty and sixty forms or modifi- cations of matter. Each of these, having hitherto resisted all endeavors to resolve them into any others, is termed a simple or undecompounded body. It is deemed probable that these bodies exist ultimately as atoms or indivisible particles. And easy as it may be to change, in any given instance, their state and appearance, they are, as far as we know, indestructible.

2. The properties of matter have been divided into the primaiy and secondary. The first, including extension, impen-

* Essay on the Theory of Chemical Properties, p. 1 13.

INORGANIC NATURE. 81

etrability, and inertia, are such as belong to all kinds of mat- ter, and without which we cannot conceive of its existence. The second, are those bj which one kind of matter is distin- guished from another. To this class belong light, heat, elec- tricity, magnetism, molecular attraction, crystallization, and gravitation.

3. These properties are developed, and operate according to laws. Viewed as merely existent, or in relation to space, matter presupposes a cause ; viewed in its fixed relations, and its uniform successions, it exhibits laws, and therefore presup- poses a lawgiver also. Thus, the most general law, with wliich we are at present acquainted, in the chemistry of Na- ture, is, that all the elementary bodies of which we have spoken, besides exhibiting what may be called preferences, enter into combination with each other, not arbitrarily, but only in fixed and definite proportions, by weight. So that luiving discovered a new elementary substance, and ascertain- ed its chemical properties, we can foretel all the proportions in which it can enter into combination with all the others. Into some of these combinations, it may have never yet entered. But our knowledge of the law respecting it enables us to fore- see what the Author of Nature has ordained that it shall do in such circumstances. The law governs our anticipations. " This use of the word law, has relation to us as understand- ing, rather than to the materials of which the universe consists as obeying, certain rules." Our mind discovers the mind of the Creator on the subject, even before the thing created has been made, in the particular case, to illustrate His will. And thus we obtain a view of the constitution of matter which effectually destroys the idea of its eternal and self-existent nature, " by giving to each of its atoms the essential characters, at once, of a manufactured article, and a subordinate agent J^^

4. The laws which regulate the changes and combinations of matter are brought to light by those changes themselves ; such as solution, evaporation, rarefaction, decomposition, and combustion. The combinations of which the elementary sub- stances are susceptible are endless. The principal forms, in- deed, in which matter is found at the surface of the globe, are, the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous. Into the composition of the solid earth there enter but eight or ten of the elementary substances in any large quantities. The water, which covers

' Sir J. Herachel on the Study of Nat. Phil., §§ 27, 28.

82 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

about tliree-fcurtQS of the earth, is made up cliiefly of two of these substances. And the atmosphere, which envelops both the earth and the water, is composed principally of two also. Indeed, there are grounds to beheve that all inorganic sub- stances unite bj what is called the binary principle of combin- ation ; so that, however numerous the inorganic elements in union, in any instance, may be, they will be found to exhibit a progressive combination of pairs of substances, si^nple and compound. But, we repeat, the combinations of which the fifty or sixty elementary bodies admit, are inconceivable ; like the letters of the alphabet, whose union in words and senten- ces admit of a diversity which no speaking or writing can ever exhaust. In the great laboratories of Nature, every descrip- tion of chemical process is doubtless in activity, by v/hich compounds of every kind are continually forming. By far the greater part of the rocky crust of the globe is made up of the fragments and powder of an incalculable variety of sub- stances, mingled together in all degrees of proportion, and in such a manner as to defy separation. Nor can it be doubted that this round of change has been going on from the begin- ning-

6. This brings us to remark, secondly, on ih2ii progr^ession in the state of the primitive earth, indicated by its mineral and chemical changes. If, for the sake of illustration, we adopt the nebular hypothesis, we shall admit that there was a time when the original planetary material was yet circulating in diffused and undetached masses around the sun. Then came the period when the planets, aggregating into separate bodies, occupied their respective orbits, and received their appropriate imjDulses ; impulses involving j^henomena so traceable to the hand of the Creator, that Laplace has said, respecting a cer- tain class of them, " It is infinity to unity that this is not the effect of chance." 1

7. Or if, dispensing with the nebular hypothesis, we sup- pose the planetary bodies to have existed in their assigned orbits from the first, our imagination will yet take us back to the dateless period when the earth was passing from its vapor- ous form to that of incipient consolidation. The phenomena exhibited by certain comets — especially by that of 1744, and by Halley's comet, on its last appearance in 1835 — have been supposed to justify the inference, that they are passing through

' Syst., vol. ii. p. 3(56.

INOT^aANTO NATTUK. S-'?

a rapid sncocssioii oi' formalivc processes. The sccnlar cool- ing down of the insufferably high temperature of the earth was followed by the formation of its shell, or the crystalliza- tion of its rocks ; and this again by their decomposition by mechanical and chemical means. Then came the period when, as the process of consolidation went on, the volcanic forces began the transformation of the older strata, and produced new and strange admixtures — gneiss, and mica slate, and granular limestone. — Every repetition of the process was fol- lowed by new combinations of old materials. The vast rifts and chasms in the crust of the earth closed up, or gave room for the elevation of mountain chains. The external signs of volcanic activity, if they did not contract in range, diminished in intensity. The central heat given off" from the surface of the earth was greatly reduced ; life became possible ; and the earth approached nearer and nearer to its present configura- tion. And thus, on each imaginary visit we make to the an- cient earth, we find it in progress. The activity we behold is not in reality chaotic. Every change is only the result of a new chemical combination, or the evolution of a new law, or the effect of a force newly come into operation.

IV.

Continuity. — According to another of our hypothetical laws, it may be expected that the manifestation, besides being pro- gressive, will be continuous, or will be progressive by being continuous, leaving no intervals of time, or of degree, but such as the modifying influence of other laws may require or account for.

1. I am well aware of the metaphysical, as well as mathe- matical, universality which has been ascribed to the law of continuity ; and of the errors and evils arising from such an imqualified extension of its application. It was first applied I o motion. Galileo ^ — referring the idea to Plato — affirmed that a body cannot pass from a state of rest to a certain de- gree of velocity without passing tlu-ough all tlie intermediate degrees of motion. Leibnitz not only asserted the law in a more general form,'^ but carried it on from matter into the domain of mind; adducing it to demonstrate that the mind never ceases to think, even in sk^ep ; and that death, in an

' Dialog, iii. 150; iv. 32. ^ Opera, i. 366.

84 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH,

absolute sense, is an impossibility.^ Bonnet, in harmony Avitli the maxim, Natiuri non operatur per saltu/u, deduced from the law of continuity the conclusion — not indeed entirely unknown to philosophy before — that creation must consist of a scale of being, graduated downwards, without any saltus, or leap, from the Creator to the unorganized atom. And, subsequently, Helvetius applied the law to the progress of human improve- ment.2 Nor have writers since been wanting to press it still farther — to the illustration of that doctrine of necessity, ^bich regards all the phenomena of human life as concatenated in a chain of iron mechanism. And even beyond this, it has been made to countenance a theory of development, according to which, an unbroken chain of gradually advanced organization has been evolved, from the crystal to the globule, and thence, through the successive stages of the polypus, the mollux, the insect, the fish, the reptile, the bird, and the beast, up to the monkey and the man.3

2. But while, on the one hand, we avoid being led away by a dazzling generality, or being offended by a wild speculation, reckless alike of inductive facts and of moral consequences, let us not, on the other, reject a principle which, when viewed in subservient relation to other principles, may prove to exist, and to have a place in the reality of things. Such a view I have expressed generally in the announcement at the head of this section. The actual modifications to which I believe it to be subjected will become apparent as we advance, from stage to stage, in our examination of its history. For the present, we have only to do with its application to unorganized matter.

3. What was the primordial constitution or condition of the material universe ? That it existed, at first, in a gaseous, dif- fused, and nebulous state, is only an hypothesis ; and an hypo- thesis, as has been remarked already, employed by Laplace, chiefly for the purpose of accounting for the motions of the solar system. And the fact that the space-penetrating power of Lord Rosse's telescope has resolved many of the supposed nebula into starry systems, requires us to keep the hypothesis still at a wide distance from the realities of science. Indeed, it awakens the conviction that, in the present life, we can never arrive at certainty respecting the nebulous formation of systems; for were our telescopic power to be multiplied a

* lb. 11. 51. 2 De I'Esprit, dis. iv. c. i.

^ Among such speculators may be named the author of the " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation."

INORGANIC NATURE. 83

thousand-fold, so that we could resolve all the nebulae within the extended range of our present observation, we could not be sure that nebulous bodies did not exist beyond ; and were our power of observation to be then doubled, we should pro- bably still behold in the horizon of space other nebulous ap- pearances— realms of apparent star-dust — defying our utmost powers of resolution. All that we can hope for is an approx- imation to the truth.

Now such an approximation, however far it may be from the actual attainment of the truth, does appear to be made by the nebular hypothesis. It harmonize* with what appears to be the formative processes, going on at present in certain com- etary bodies. It hypothetically accounts for the motions of the planetary bodies, as masses thrown off from the central body. It agrees with the geometrical form of the earth ; its oblate- ness seeming to reveal the pristine fluidity of the body ; for such is the figure which it would assume as the consequence of a centrifugal force operating on a soft rotating mass. So that " its figure is its history ;" for it indicates the mode of its origin as formed, under the conditions supposed, by gradual condensation. And " surely the vision of these unfathomable changes, of the solemn march of these majestic heavens from phase to phase, obediently fulfiUing their awful destiny, will be lost on the heart of the adorer, unless it swells with that humility which is the best homage to the Supreme ! Between us and the Highest there is still vastness and mystery. To take wing beyond tJIrestrial precincts, perhaps, is not wholly forbidden, provided we go with unsandaled feet, as if on hqlj ground. An order hanging tremblingly over nothingness, and of which every constituent fails not to beseech incessantly for a substance and substratum, in the idea of One who liveth

FOR EVER !" i

It has been affirmed, indeed, that the planets show " a pro- gressive diminution in density from the one nearest the sun to that which is most distant ;" that the motions of the solar sys- tem are " all in one direction — from west to east ;" and that " the distances of the planets are curiously relative."^ But

Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens. ^ Vestiges of Creation, pp. 9, 10. The period of the newly-discovered planet Neptune is now ascertained to be 166 j'ears, and its mean distance 30 terrestrial radii, instead of 38. So that Bode's empirical law of the *' curiously relative" distances of the planets, has failed with regard to Neptune.

86 THE PKE-ADAMITE EARTH.

such continuity iias no existence in nature. The density of the sun itself is only about a fourth of tliat of the earth. The densities of Venus, Earth, and Mars, are nearly equal. While the density of Uranus is greater than that of Saturn, which is nearer the sun. The jnotion of the satellites of Uranus is retrograde — from east to west. And the relative distances of Mercury and Venus, and of the only satellites which admit of comparison, — those of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, — from their primaries, exhibit no such uniform disposition as the statement implies. The collocation and motions of the sys- tem cannot be referred to chance, because of its calculated uniformity ; nor to natural law, owing to its departures from uniformity.

4. The law of continuity, in a modified form, has been ap- plied, not only to the formation of material systems by passing from a fluid state through all the intermediate stages to that of the separation and solidification of their parts, but also to the subsequent history of the earth as one of these parts. Thus, Macculloch and others employed it to show that the rocks called trap rocks were not of sedimentary origin, but that, as they were found in all the intermediate stages between the igneous and that most nearly resembling the sedimentary form, they constitute a connecting link between these two extremes, and form a transition series. Lyell has employed this principle of gradation, in opposition to the catastrophists, who suppose that the present state of the earth has been rapidly attained by violent changes and paroxysms, to slftw that all geological phenomena have been produced slowly, by causes which are still acting on the surface of the earth. According to this view, the present condition of our planet has been reached, not by the wide leaps of geological causes, but by their con- tinuous and gradational operation.

5. The true view, probably, is that which reconciles both methods ; and which sees alike in the steady operation of laws leading, in the lapse of ages, to a geological catastrophe, and in the catastrophe preparing the way for the resumed and steady operation of these laws, the uninterrupted progress of the great design. Thus interpreted, science joins with In- spiration in asking, " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ?" No pause occurred through all the unmeasured periods of the geological process ; no revolution, which rendered it necessaiy to begin the work airain.

INORGA.NIC NATURE. 87

6. Descending even to the chemical properties of matter, we find a gradation in the nature of its elementary substances. For convenience, indeed, these fifty or sixty substances are divided into the metallic and the non-metallic. But there is no such a break in their characteristics as to justify this divi- sion. Arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, selenium, sulphur, con- stitute a connecting chain between the two series.

V.

Activity. — Another of our laws prepares us to find the uni- verse of matter in a state of activity.

1. Accordingly, even the present repose of nature is only apparent. Not an atom, not a world is at rest. The simplest and minutest body is the subject of internal movements among the particles composing it. The interior of the earth is inces- santly reacting on the exterior. Waves of motion pass through it. The bursting forth of hot springs, jets of steam, mud volca- noes, the up-heaval of dome-shaped mountains, the appearance of new eruptive islands, the processes of rock formation, and the steady rising in its level of Sweden and other portions of the earth's surface, proclaim the constant action of an elastic vapor within. " Could we obtain daily news of the state of the whole of the earth's crust, we should, in all probability, be- come convinced that some point or another of its surface is ceaselessly shaken ; that there is uninterrupted reaction of the interior upon the exterior going on."i

By the operation of the various forces and modifications of the law of attraction, everything is changing its relations or its place ; the granite itself yields ; and nature is kept in mutual action and reaction. " Electricity, as a chemical agent, may be considered not only as directly j)roducing an infinite variety of changes, but, likewise, as influencing almost all which take place. There are not two substances on the surface of the globe, that are not in difierent electrical relations to each other ; and chemical attraction itself seems to be a peculiar form of the exhibition of electrical attraction ; and wherever the atmos- phere, or water, or any part of the surface of the earth, gains accumulated electricity of a different kind from the contiguous surfaces, the tendency of this electricity is to produce new ar- rangements of the parts of the surfaces."^

^ Humboldt's Cosmos, p.221.

^ Sir Humphrey Davy's Consolations in Travel^ p. 271.

88 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

All is in motion around and beyond the earth. Climate is the aggregate result of an unknown variety of agents and laws in constant play. The comparative repose of the complicated atmosphere depends on the incessant activity of its elements. The northern light is a magnetic storm — "a terrestrial activity raised to the pitch of a luminous phenomenon," — as lightning is evolved by an electrical storm. The fall of meteoric stones indicates the forces which are at work in the regions beyond our planet. A solitary star shooting across the blue vault of heaven tells us that the realms of space, calm and dream- less though they look, are realms of all -pervading, burning activity. But, at times, these " fiery tears " of the sky are seen to fall in showers, and even streams ; awakening the idea of an ever-circulating ring composed of myriads of luminous meteoric bodies, intersecting the orbit of the earth. The zodi- acal hght circles round the sun. The pulsations which tremble through the tail of a comet millions of miles in length, are probably only apparent, and produced by our atmosphere ; but the nuclei of those comets " bind, by their attractive power, the very outermost particles of the tail that is streaming away at the distance of millions of miles from them." The motions of the double stars reveal the presence of the gravitating force, in the remotest regions of space. The solar system changes its place in the universe. Stars appear and disappear. The astral universe moves. " If we imagine, as in a vision of the fancy," says Humboldt, " the acuteness of our sense preternatu- rally sharpened even to the extreme limit of telescopic vision, and incidents, which are separated by vast intervals of time, compressed into a day or an hour, everything like rest in spacial existence will forthwith disappear. We shall find the innume- rable hosts of the fixed stars commoved in groups in diflTerent directions; nebulae drawing hither and thither, like cosmic clouds ; the milky way breaking up in particular parts, and its veil rent ; motion in every part of the vault of heaven."

2. Now this ideal picture may help us to conceive of scenes which actually existed in the earlier stages of the material universe. If matter first appeared at the Omnipotent call, in nebulous masses, or if the heavenly bodies generally have pass- ed througli changes similar to those of our own planet, space must have been the theatre of dynamic activity and conflict beyond all our present powers of illustration. The crust of the earth tells its own eventful history. Time was when that solid but still thin crust ever quivered and undulated with the concussive

INORGANIC NATURE. 89

forces within. Earthquakes shattered and rifted it, and opened, in all directions, volcanic communication between the molten interior and the surface. Tlirough the yawning and abyss-like fissures which traversed it, mountain chains were uplifted ; or else eruptive matters were poured forth from unknov/n depths

— granite, porphyry, and basalt — an ocean of rock. Sedi- mentary formations took place, through mechanical and chem- ical action of an intensity incomparably greater than that which obtained in later eras. Subterraneous forces repeatedly lifted these ever-thickening strata from the beds of the primi- tive waters, and allowed them to sink back again. But besides unheaving these masses, dislocating and rending them asunder, the eruptive rocks chemically transformed them into new species of rocks. In the great subterranean laboratory, the metamorphic process was ever proceeding on a scale immeasu- rable. And while this mighty action from within was penetrat- ing outwardly and changing the nature of the older strata, causes of equal potency without were maintaining the antag- onist process of stratification. Vast beds of alluvium or drift were formed ; and inland lakes and pent-up seas, displaced by the upheaval of some new range of Alps or Apennines, rushed tumultuously down, displacing, in their turn, the mountain masses which obstructed their course, and hastened to resume their office of chemical deposition.

The history of all these changes, we say, is legibly incribed in the earth itself. It is only by beholding the etfects" of such activity, as preserved from the morning of time, and still con- tinued in our presence, that we know anything of the laws and properties of matter. A dead, motionless expanse of matter

— if such a thing were possible — would be a petrifying blank It would reveal nothing of itself, and could say nothing of its Maker. But such an anomaly is unknown. Matter is full of the life of motion. Geology admits us into the laboratory of the past ; and we behold, laid up for our inspection, the results of activities and powers, which fills the mind with awe to imagine. We see that the great antagonist processes of sedi- mentation and crystallization have never paused. The endless admixtures of matter have maintained its forces in ever-vary- ing play. And still its multifarious chemical diversity evokes the spirit of change and motion. Its particles essay to arrange themselves in regular forms. In its ever-shifting restlessness, it discloses relations to light, to heat, and to the phenomena of electro-magnetism. In a v/ord, its activity reveals its laws

90 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

and develops its properties ; and the record of these is the record of the Power wliich originated and keeps them all in motion.

^•

Development. — Here, also, according to another law, the same property which existed in the preceding, or inferior part of the stage, is not only carried up to the higher, but is there applied to a new and a higher purpose. Cohesion finds its complement in affinity ; and affinity finds its perfection in crys- tallization. This appears to be the highest state of mere inor- ganic matter. It involves the idea of numerical and developed symmetry. A body perfectly crystallized, and exhibiting not merely geometrical symmetry of outward shape, but showing, by its cleavage, its transparency, its uniform and determinate optical properties, that the same regularity pervades every por- tion of the mass, is an object for the production of which every great physical law and element of nature appears to have com- bined — suggesting to the imagination a beautiful pre-intima- tion of the coming flower.

VII.

Relations. — Another of our laws warrants us to expect that every object and event in the material universe will be found to be variously related. Accordingly, not an atom floats apart in isolation ; no change, however slight, is self-originated, or terminates with itself.

1. Matter has relations internal and coexistent; — by the attraction of cohesion, for example, the particles of masses are kept together even when in violent motion. It has also rela- tions external and coexistent ; for, by gravitation, these masses themselves are bound to each other. " When we contemplate," says Sir John Herschel, " the constituents of the planetary sys- tem from the point of view wliich this relation affords us, it is no longer mere analogy which strikes us — no longer a gen- eral resemblance among them, as individuals independent of each other, and circulating about the sun, each according to its own peculiar nature, and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The resemblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness ; they are bound up in one chain — interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious agreement — subjected

INORGANIC NATURE. 91

to one pervading influence, which extends from the centre to the farthest limits of that great system, of whicli all of them, the earth included, must henceforth be regarded as members." i

2. Matter has relations internal and successively existent ; chemical changes which take place in all inorganic bodies by motions which are not sensible, or at least not measurable. And it has relations external and successively existent ; and which proclaim themselves in the sensible and measurable mo- tions of bodies. If, instead of confining myself to the bare illustration of the law now under consideration, it were my object to enlarge on the relations of inorganic nature scientiil- cally regarded,'-^ this would be the place for their introduction and methodical distribution ; for the coexistent phenomena of matter belong to natural history, or are related to space ; and its successively existent phenomena to natural philosophy, or are related to time.

3. Among the relations more obvious and interesting to a dweller on the earth, I would merely advert to the relative quantities of land and sea, a relation which, as it was often changed in the early geological periods, must have produced corresponding changes npon the distribution of temperature ; lo the relation between the velocity of the earth's rotation on its axis, and the degree of its mean temperature ; and, to the geological relations between the interior and exterior of the earth — between the aqueous formations without, and the igne- ous processes within, by which rocky masses, granitic, porphy- ritic, and serpentine, forcing up their way from below, have burst through the sedimentary strata, hardening, changing, or variously commingling them.

4. In fine, every object and event-in the material universe is all-related. Action and reaction, relations of coexistence and of sequence, are everywhere. In the process of generaliza- tion, science discovers that the relations of physical cause and effect are only secondary, or phenomenal ; that they are pro- perly medial, referring it back to something higher, more gen- eral and comprehensive still. The discovery of the law of attraction, enabled man to generalize many inferior laws, and to point out their subordinate place and their relations. But does not attraction itself sustain a relation to something prior and more general still ? To ascertain this is the office, and

^ Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopedia.

^ See Mrs. Somcrville's Connection of the Pliysicul Sciences, passim.

92 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

the present occupation of science. Man only knows — as a fact of reason — that, generaUze the relations of matter as he may, there must be a point at which the whole coexistent series merges in the will of the great Originating Cause ; and that, of the whole series of sequent relations, there is no point from which that agency is absent. The most absolute, comprehen- sive, and profound, of all the relations of matter, is that of the dependence on the will of God.

vin.

Order. — As each of the physical laws to which we have adverted may be supposed to have come into operation, in the opening stage of creation, in succession ; so, according to anoth- er of our laws, in the same order of succession they operate still The crystalline state of the body may be destroyed, and yet the affinity and the gravitation remain ; the affinity may next be destroyed, and yet the gravitation remain. Each prior law acts, in so far, independently of that which succeeds it ; each sub- sequent law is dej^endent on pre-existing laws, or is generated by them, and yet harmonizes with them, or subordinates them to itself. This is seen alike in the formation of the crystal, in the laboratory of the chemist, and in the granite masses which we find thrust up from the subterranean laboratory, through the crust of the earth.

IX.

Influence. — We may expect also that everything will bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all otlier things should be influenced by it ; a reason for the degree in which they should be influenced by it ; and for the degree in v/hich it, in its turn, should be influ- enced by everything else. The manner in which one law may be said to wait on another, we have seen. And the way (tak- ing our example from gravitation) in which the lighter mass may be said to be subordinated to the heavier, is equally evi- dent ; for matter attracts directly as the mass, and inversely as the squares of the distance. So that it does not follow, from the superior gravity of the earth, that the niote floating near the surface has no weight. The earth and a gossamer mutu- ally attract each other, in the. proportion of the mass of the earth tc the mass of the gossamer, but only in that proportion.

INORGANIC NATURE. 93

Every mass finds a place, and every action produces reaction ; but, for the same reason that the one is rehited to space at all, and the other to motion and time, the relation of each is pro- portioned, definite, regulated by law.

X.

Subordination. — In harmony with the last named law, we are led by another of our principles to expect that everything subordinate in rank, though it may have been prior in its ori- gin, will be subject to each higher object or law of creation. The facts adduced under the two laws immediately preceding will, it is presumed, sufficiently exemplify this principle. Illus- trations of it, as applied to organic nature, will be found in their proper places, in the subsequent part of this treatise.

XL

Uniformity. — According to another of our principles, nat- ural laws, though originally contingent, as opposed to absolute- ly necessary, are, as far as we know them, uniform and uni- versal. "Not one faileth."

1. The same law which fonns the tear into a globule, pro- duces the spherical form of the vast masses which people space. All the phenomena of the material system, as far as we know them, are reducible to mathematical laws. The rotation of the earth in twenty-four hours has not varied by the one-hundredth part of a second, since the age of Hipparchus — full two thou- sand years ago. Newton, indeed, inferred that the irregulari- ties arising "from the mutual actions of comets and planets upon one another will be apt to increase, till the system wants a reformation." i He left these perturbations to be calculated by his successors. And Lagrange and Laplace, by a profound analysis, established the great principle that these variations are limited within certain periods, and that they alternate with periods of restoration. This has been called " the stability of the planetary system." And thus laws, originally contingent on the will of God, are made, by the same will, permanent and universal.

2. In affirming the invariableness of the laws of nature, then, it is to be distinctly understood ; first, that this constancy

* Optics, Query 31.

94 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH.

involves no idea of eternal or independent existence, but the contrary. " The question, — what are the laws of nature ? may- be stated thus : what are the fewest and simplest assumptions, which, being granted, the whole existing order of nature would result? . . . When Kepler expressed (he regularity which ex- ists in- the observed motions of the heavenly bodies, by the three general propositions called his laws, he,, in so doing, pointed out three simple volitions, by which, instead of a much greater number, it appeared that the v.hole scheme of the heavenly motions, so far as yet observed, might be conceived to have been produced." i Laws of nature, then, strictly speak- ing, is a phrase denoting only the uniformities existing among natural phenomena. To speak of these uniformities as if they were producing or regulating powers, is obviously absurd. They simply presu23pose such powers or volitions, and are their manifestations. The first sequence was a thing produ- ced, and proclaimed a producer. Secondly, the regularity of the laws of nature is quite compatible with the numerical in- crease of their manifestations, and even, conditionally, with the numerical increase of the volitions which they manifest. Un- less the universe was flashed into existence, entire and com- plete, at once, the phenomena of nature must have become more complex and multiform, as time has advanced. Nor, thirdly, is the stability of nature inconsistent with apparent de- rangements and partial perturbations ; for these very pertur- bations are only manifestations of other created laws. Still, however, it must be admitted that they are of a kind to inti- mate, that all which is now understood as included in the sta- bility of creation, may prove to be included in a still more comprehensive law of change. And hence, fourthly, the reg- ularity of nature for unnumbered ages, is quite compatible with subsequent changes in its constitution. As its laws were originally contingent on the Divine appointment, so may be their continuance. Its present stability may be only provi- sional. And they who would abandon its phenomena to ca- price, are but little more blameworthy than they who deem its laws for ever unalterable. The laws of nature are uniform and universal, but only conditionally so.

^ Hill's System of Logic, vol. i. p. 384.

INORGANIC NATURF. 95

XII.

Obligation. — One of our laws prepares us to expect that everything belonging to the great system of creation will be found, either promoting, or existing under an obligation to promote, the great end, commensurate with its means, and re- lations.

1. Of course, obligation can be predicated of inanimate matter only in a metaphorical sense, similar to that in which the same material nature is said to be governed by laws. Now laws, strictly speaking, are moral rules ; " rules for the conscious ac- tions of a person ; rules which, as a matter of possibility, we may obey or transgress ; the latter event being combined, not with an impossibility, but with a penalty. But the Laws of Nature are something different from this ; they are rules for that which things are to do and suffer ; and this by no con- sciousness or will of theirs. They are rules describing the mode in which things do act ; they are invariably obeyed ; their trangression is not punished, it is excluded. The language of a moral law is, man shall not kill ; the language of a Law of Nature is, a stone will fall to the earth." Here " all things are ordered by number, and weight, and measure. ' God,' as was said by the ancients, ' works by geometry;' the legislation of the material universe is necessarily delivered in the lan- guage of mathematics ; the stars in their courses are regulated by the properties of conic sections, and the winds depend on arithmetical and geometrical progressions of elasticity and pres- sure." 1

2. As " the laws of nature," then, can only properly denote those rules by which God is pleased to regulate the phenomena of nature — rules revealed by the mode of His own w^orking in nature ; so, if obligation be predicated of nature, it can only denote the necessity which He is pleased to incur to operate uniformly in harmony with those rules, in order to the attain- ment of a proposed end. Thus, if the planetary system is to be maintained as it is, certain conditions must be fulfilled. With a perpetual tendency to fly off in a straight line from its solar centre, the physical well-being or continuance of the sys- tem depends on its mechanical obedience to an opposite law. The stability and physical progress of the whole depend on the perfect balance of laws apparently opposed to each other ;

* Professor Whewell's B. Treatise, chap. ii.

96 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH.

and accordingly the balance is allowed to know no material disturbance. " For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They con- tinue this day according to thine ordinances : for all are thy servants." '

xin.

Well-being. — By another of our laws we are led to expect that everything will enjoy an amount of good, or exhibit a degree of well-being, proportionate to the degree of its con- formity to the laws of its being. Here, again, our language, in its present application, must be understood metaphorically. We are still in a domain in which obedience is only mechan- ical, and from which the possibility of transgression is ex- cluded.

It might, indeed, be remarked, that even here we meet with many things which are at once suggestive of an ideal physical perfection, and which yet exhibit departures from it — orbits elliptical, motions with perturbations, spheres bulging, depress- ed, and even the surface of such a sphere rising and sinking with Himalayan irregularities. But all this is according to prescribed law