THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



may have previously acquired. Such informa 

 tion would neither annihilate the knowledge we 

 had formerly attained, nor prevent our further 

 progress in intellectual acquisitions. On the 

 contrary, it would enlarge the capacity of the 

 mind, invigorate its faculties, and add a new 

 stimulus to its powers and energies. On the 

 basis of such information, the soul could trace 

 new aspects, and new displays of Divine wisdom, 

 intelligence, and rectitude, and acquire more 

 comprehensive views of the character of God 

 just as it does, in the mean time, from a contem 

 plation of those objects and dispensations which 

 lie within its grasp. To such researches, inves 

 tigations, and intellectual progressions, no boun 

 dary can be assigned, if the soul be destined to 

 survive the dissolution of its mortal frame. It 

 only requires to be placed in a situation where 

 its powers will be permitted to expatiate at large, 

 and where the physical and moral obstructions 

 which impede their exercise shall be completely 

 removed. 



It may be farther remarked, on the ground of 

 what has been now stated, that all the knowledge 

 which can be attained in the present state, is hut 

 as a drop to the ocean, when compared with 

 &quot; the treasures of wisdom and knowledge&quot; that 

 may be acquired in the eternal world. The pro 

 portion between the one and the other may bear 

 a certain analogy to the bulk of the terraqueous 

 globe, when compared with the immensity of the 

 worlds and systems which compose the universe. 

 If an infinite variety of designs, of objects, and 

 of scenery, exist in the distant provinces of cre 

 ation, as we have reason to believe, from the 

 variety which abounds in our terrestrial system, 

 if every world be peopled with inhabitants of 

 a different species from those of another, if its 

 physical constitution and external scenery be 

 peculiar to itself, if the dispensations of theCre- 

 tor towards its inhabitants be such as have not 

 been displayed to any other world, if &quot; the ma 

 nifold wisdom of God,&quot; in the arrangement of 

 its destinies, be displayed in a manner in which 

 it has never been displayed to any other class of 

 intelligences; and, in short, if every province 

 of creation exhibit a peculiar manifestation of the 

 Deity we may conclude, that all the knowledge 

 of God, of his works and dispensations, which 

 can be attained in the present life, is but as the 

 faint glimmering of a taper when contrasted with 

 the effulgence of the meridian sun. Those who 

 have made the most extensive and profound in 

 vestigations into the wonders of nature, are the 

 most deeply convinced of their own ignorance, 

 and of the boundless fields of knowledge which 

 remain unexplored. Sir Isaac Newton had em 

 ployed the greater part of his life in some of the 

 sublimest investigations which can engage the 

 attention of the human mind, and yet he de 

 clared, a Hi tie before his death, &quot; I do not know 

 vhat I may appear to the world, but to myself I 



seem to have been only like a boy playing on U 

 sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then 

 finding a pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, 

 while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscover 

 ed before me.&quot; And is it reasonable to believe, 

 that after a glimpse of the boundless treasures 

 of divine science has flashed upon the mind, it 

 is to pass only a few months or years in anxious 

 desire and suspense, and then be extinguished 

 for ever ? 



It may be farther observed, in connexion with 

 the preceding remarks that the creation of such 

 a vast universe must have been chiefly intended to 

 display the perfections of the Deity , and to afford 

 gratification and felicity to the intellectual beings 

 he has formed. The Creator stands in no need 

 of innumerable assemblages of worlds and of 

 inferior ranks of intelligences, in order to secure 

 or to augment his felicity. Innumerable ages 

 before the universe was created, he existed alone, 

 independent of every other being, and infinitely 

 happy in the contemplation of his own eternal 

 excellences. No other reason, therefore, can be 

 assigned for the production of the universe, but 

 the gratification of his rational offspring, and that 

 he might give a display of the infinite glories of 

 his nature to innumerable orders of intelligent 

 creatures. Ten thousand times ten thousand 

 suns, distributed throughout the regions of im 

 mensity, with all their splendid apparatus of 

 planets, comets, moons, and rings, can afford no 

 spectacle of novelty to expand and entertain the 

 Eternal Mind ; since they all existed, in their 

 prototypes, in the plans and conceptions of the 

 Deity, during the countless ages of a past eter 

 nity. Nor did he produce these works for the 

 improvement and information of no being. This 

 amazing structure of the universe, then, with all 

 the sensitive and intellectual enjoyments connect 

 ed with it, must have been chiefly designed for 

 the instruction and entertainment of subordinate 

 intelligences, and to serve as a magnificent the 

 atre on which the energies of divine power and 

 wisdom, and the emanations of divine benevo 

 lence might be illustriously displayed. And can 

 we suppose that the material universe will exist, 

 while intelligent minds, for whose improvement 

 it was reared, are suffered to sink into annihi 

 lation ? 



Again, it cannot be admitted, in consistency with 

 the attributes of God, that he will finally disap 

 point the rational hopes and desires of the human 

 soul, which he himself has implanted and cherished, 

 If he had no ultimate design of gratifying ration 

 al beings with a more extensive display of the 

 immensity and grandeur of his works, it is no - 

 conceivable, that he would have permitted them 

 to make those discoveries they have already 

 brought to light respecting the extent and the 

 glory of his empire. Such discoveries could not 

 have been made without his permission and di 

 rection, or without those faculties and mean* 



