246 UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



the end of the present creation, and will appear only in Nature, which is 

 His image, and especially in man. Adam, and what is recorded of him, 

 is said to be figurative of Christ, and thus the incident towards the end 

 of the second chapter of Genesis, is said in the latter part of the Bible, 

 to represent both the present state and the eternal life. 



All creatures will retain their individuality in the future state, though 

 they will be all filled in various degrees with the same eternal life; and 

 in like manner it will be remembered, that all creatures on earth have one 

 source of existence, that one power is common to them all, whether good 

 or bad, high or low, and that this power is eternal life, which as such, 

 is restrained or powerless during the present life, but is manifest by all 

 creation. 



The whole history of the earth and of man, from the beginning to the 

 end of the Bible, is filled with comparative figures of the present and of 

 the eternal state, or rather the earthly existence is continually limited, or 

 diminished, or shortened, by the future life; and this is in exact accordance 

 with the same law as prefigured in all natural objects, for the diminution 

 of the inferior state in each of these objects, is accompanied by the partial 

 transfer of its substance to the higher state. In other words the beginning 

 and the end are in all instances figuratively or really brought nearer 

 together, by the diminution or removal of the means, or of the intermediate 

 part and state. In nature we find one law hidden in an endless variety 

 of objects, and therefore continually varying in its expression. So in the 

 Bible one law is concealed throughout, but the images under which it 

 appears, are always differing from the beginning to the end. 



The present or natural existence is figurative of the future or eternal 

 one, and in Nature as a whole and in every one of its divisions or parts, 

 and throughout the Bible the two states are typified by various figures, and 

 the separation of the one from the other is everywhere inculcated, the 

 two not being consistent, or co-existent, or to be combined. The eternal 

 state is the beginning as well as the end; the present state is only inter- 

 mediate, and the former is involved in the latter. Thus Nature, or the 

 visible creation, is the means of the infinite increase of Christ, or of the 

 eternal creation, and throughout nature every kind of creature, and innu- 

 merable combinations of creatures, and all of them collectively, are ex- 

 pressive both of Christ and of Nature; that is, of the whole visible creation, 

 from beginning to end, and the eternal creation. As the present and the 

 eternal creation cannot co-exist, the first must cease before the manifestation 

 of the latter, and this can only be effected by Him in whom the present 

 creation begun, and whose power is concealed in every part of it. He, 

 therefore, representing all creation, both natural and eternal, combined the 

 former with Himself, in order that it might be destroyed, that is, changed 



