296 ON UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



have perfectly conduced to the end purposed. The perfect simplicity of 

 this system is evident, and the greatness of the wisdom and of love dis- 

 played therein will be more apparent in proportion as it is more deeply 

 studied. The Bible comprehends the outline of nature and of the history 

 of mankind from the beginning to the end, and both it and creation and 

 human history are full of figures and illustrations of the whole system, or 

 of the present life and creation as the middle part, and of the eternal life 

 as the beginning and the end, by which and for which nature exists, and 

 to which it will be transferred. 



The system or ordaining of creation commenced with the distinction of 

 the eternal life from the source, and will end with their re-union, and 

 some part of the present creation will then be in the place of eternal life 

 with relation to the source. The next process was the predetermination of 

 the suppression of the eternal life, and the whole order of the creation 

 which ensued is dependent on or in subjection to this previously-formed 

 plan, and all the parts and occurrences in creation, past, present, and 

 future, were wholly foreseen, and are all conducive to the end of the 

 suppression of the eternal life. The term "suppressed," or "slain," may 

 be better understood by describing the eternal life as converted or changed 

 into the natural life, and then assimilating or organizing matter for the 

 various forms in which it appears. The bodies of all living visible 

 creatures are adapted to and organized, by this spirit in its natural state, 

 which may be termed a divergence from the eternal life, the latter con- 

 tinuing suppressed in it. By this suppression the creature is wholly 

 distinct from the Creator, who alone opens the communication whereby 

 the suppression ceases, or the conversion of the natural life into the 

 eternal life begins. 



All creatures (plants, r animals, man,) have a common origin, from 

 whence they are gradually distinguished by their organism or acquisition 

 of character, and all divergences and their consequent degradations are 

 necessary for the development of higher degrees. The structure of all 

 kinds of creatures is alike at the beginning of their existence, and the 

 difference^between the highest and the lowest in their perfection consists 

 in the structure of the highest being wholly undeveloped and invisible in 

 the lowest, while the structure of the lowest is wholly degraded and 

 partial in the highest. As all the early epochs of creation were subser- 

 vient and necessary for the establishment of the later periods, and all 

 of them requisite for the present one; so also all the epochs of mankind, 

 and the successive progress and removal of nations have conduced to 

 raise man to his present level. 



As before observed all nature is full of more or less complete illus- 

 trations of the whole system of creation, and the beings of each epoch 



