STARRY SYSTEMS. 



87 



Heaven ; and although it were, the material splen 

 dours of that body, however august and asto 

 nishing, cannot be supposed to afford new and 

 varied gratification, throughout an endless suc 

 cession of duration. He will be chiefly recogni 

 sed as the Head of the redeemed family of man, 

 &quot; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom 

 and knowledge,&quot; who will gradually reveal the 

 secret counsels of God, and direct his saints to 

 those displays of divine glory which will enligh 

 ten and entertain their mental powers. This 

 seems to be intimated in such representations as 

 the following, &quot; The Lamb that is in the midst 

 of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead 

 them to living fountains of water.&quot; By direct 

 ing their attention to those objects in which 

 they may behold the most august displays of 

 divine perfection, and teaching them in what 

 points of view they ought to be contemplated, and 

 what conclusions they ought to deduce from them, 

 &quot; he will feed&quot; the minds of his people with divine 

 knowledge, and &quot; lead them&quot; to those sublime 

 and transporting trains of thought, which will fill 

 them with &quot;joy unspeakable and full of glory.&quot; 

 Thus it appears, that neither the mysteries, 

 nor the leading facts connected with the plan of 

 redemption, when considered merely in relation 

 to human beings can be supposed to be the prin 

 cipal subjects of contemplation in the heavenly 

 state, nor sufficient to produce those diversified 

 gratifications which are requisite to insure per 

 petual enjoyment to the expanded intellects of re 

 deemed men in the future world though such 

 contemplations will undoubtedly be intermingled 

 with all the other intellectual surveys of the saints 

 in glory. 



I now proceed to the principal object in view, 

 namely, to inquire, what other objects will em 

 ploy the attention of good men in the world to 

 come, and what light the material works of God, 

 which have been unfolded to our view, tend to 

 throw upon this subject. 



The foundation of the happiness of heavenly 

 intelligences being laid in the destruction of every 

 principle of moral evil, in the enjoyment of 

 moral perfection and in the removal of every 

 physical impediment to the exercise of their in 

 tellectual powers they will be fitted for the most 

 profound investigations, and for the most enlarged 

 contemplations. And one of their chief employ 

 ments, of course, will be, to investigate, con 

 template, and admire the glory of the divine 

 perfections. Hence it is declared in Scripture 

 as one of the privileges of the saints in light, 

 that &quot; they shall see God as he is&quot; that &quot; they 

 shall see his face&quot; and that &quot; they shall behold 

 his glory,&quot; which expressions, and others of 

 similar import, plainly intimate, that they shall 

 enjoy a clearer vision of the divine glory than in 

 the present state. But how is this vision to be 

 obtained ? The Deity, being a spiritual uncom- 



pounded substance, having no visible form, nor 

 sensible quantities, &quot; inhabiting eternity,&quot; and 

 filling immensity with his presence his essen 

 tial glory cannot form an object for the direct 

 contemplation of any finite intelligence. His 

 glory, or, in other words, the grandeur of his 

 perfections, can be traced only in the external 

 manifestation which he gives of himself in the 

 material creation which his power has brought 

 into existence in the various orders of intelli 

 gences with which he has peopled it and in his 

 moral dispensations towards all worlds and be 

 ings which now exist, or may hereafter exist, 

 throughout his boundless empire. 



It is in this point of view, that our knowledge 

 of the material universe assists our conceptions 

 of the scenes of a future state, and throws a re 

 fulgence of light on the employments, and the 

 uninterrupted pleasures of the redeemed in hea 

 ven. By the discoveries of modern science, in 

 the distant regions of space, we are fully assured, 

 that the attributes of the Deity have not been 

 exercised solely in the construction of our sub 

 lunary sphere, and of the aerial heavens with 

 which it is encompassed, nor his providential 

 regards confined to the transactions of the frail 

 beings that dwell upon its surface, but extend to the 

 remotest spaces of the universe. We know, that 

 far beyond the limits of our terrestrial abode, the 

 Almighty has displayed his omnipotence in fram 

 ing worlds which, in magnitude, and in splendour 

 of accompaniments, far surpass this globe on 

 which we dwell. The eleven planetary bodies 

 which, in common with the earth, revolve about 

 the sun, contain a mass of matter two thousand 

 five hundred times greater, and an extent of sur 

 face sufficient to support an assemblage of inha 

 bitants three hundred times more numerous than 

 in the world which we inhabit. The divine wis 

 dom is also displayed in reference to these vast 

 globes, in directing their motions, so as to pro 

 duce a diversity of seasons, and a regular succes 

 sion of day and night in surrounding some of 

 them with moons, and with luminous rings of a 

 magnificent size, to adorn their nocturnal hea 

 vens, and to reflect a mild radiance in the absence 

 of the sun in encompassing them with atmos 

 pheres, and diversifying their surface with 

 mountains and plains. These and other arrange 

 ments, which indicate special contrivance and 

 design, show, that those bodies are destined by 

 the Creator to be the abodes of intellectual be 

 ings, who partake of his bounty, and offer to him 

 a tribute of adoration and praise. 



Although no other objects were presented to 

 our view, except those to which I now allude, 

 and which are contained within the limits of our 

 system, yet even here within this small pro 

 vince of the kingdom of Jehovah a grand and 

 diversified scene is displayed for the future con 

 templation of heavenly intelligences. But it is 

 a fact which cannot be disputed, that the sun and 



