102 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



conclude, that it is but a very small portion of 

 the works of God which has been disclosed to 

 our view. &quot; Could you soar beyond the moon, 

 (says a well-known writer) and pass through all 

 the planetary choir ; could you wing your way 

 to the highest apparent star, and take your stand 

 on one of those loftiest pinnacles of heaven, you 

 would there see other skies expanded, another 

 sun distributing his beams by day, other stars 

 that gild the alternate night, and other, perhaps 

 nobler systems established in unknown profusion 

 through the boundless dimensions of space. Nor 

 would the dominion of the universal Sovereign 

 terminate there. Even at the end of this vast 

 tour, vou would find yourself advanced no farther 

 than the suburbs of creation, arrived only at the 

 frontiers of the great Jehovah s kingdom.&quot; 



It is highly probable, that, were all the two 

 thousand four hundred millions of worlds to which 

 we have adverted, with all the eighty millions of 

 suns around which they revolve, to be suddenly 

 extinguished and annihilated, it would not cause 

 so great a blank in creation, to an eye that could 

 take in the whole immensity of nature, as the 

 extinction of the pleiades, or seven stars, would 

 cause in our visible firmament. The range of 

 material existence may, indeed, have certain 

 limits assigned to it; but such limits can be per 

 ceived only by that Eye which beholds, at one 

 glance, the whole of infinite space. To the 

 view of every finite mind, it must always appear 

 boundless and incomprehensible. Were it pos 

 sible that we could ever arrive at the outskirts of 

 creation, after having surveyed all that exists in 

 the material universe, we might be said, in some 

 measure, to comprehend the Creator himself; 

 having perceived the utmost limits to which his 

 power and intelligence have been extended. For, 

 although we admit, that the perfections of the 

 Creator are infinite ; yet we have no tangible 

 measure of these perfections, but what appears 

 in the immense variety and extent of material 

 and intellectual existence. And we may hence 

 conclude, that the highest order of created intel 

 lects, after spending myriads of ages in their re 

 search, will never come to a period in their inves 

 tigations of the works and the ways of God. 



Even although we could conceive certain li 

 mits to the material universe, and that, after the 

 lapse of millions of ages, a holy intelligence had 

 finished his excursions, and made the tour of the 

 universal system which now exists, yet. who 

 can set bounds to the active energies of the Eter 

 nal Mind, or say, that, new systems of creation, 

 different from all that have hitherto been con 

 structed, shall not be perpetually emerging into 

 existence ? By the time a finite being had ex 

 plored every object which now exists, and ac 

 quired a knowledge of all the moral and physical 

 revolutions which have happened among the 

 worlds which, at present, diversify the voids of 

 space a new region of infinite space might be 



replenished with new orders of material and in 

 tellectual existence: and, were he to return to 

 the point from which he at first set out, after 

 numerous ages had elapsed, he would, doubt 

 less, behold new changes and revolutions in 

 many provinces of the Creator s dominions- 

 new heavens and new earths and new species 

 of sentient and intellectual beings, different from 

 all those he at first contemplated. 



That such is the plan of the Creator s opera 

 tions, is not a mere conjecture or surmise, but is 

 warranted from observations which have been 

 made on the phenomena of the celestial bodies. 

 New stars have, at different periods, appeared 

 in the heavens ; which are plain indications of 

 the continued exertion of creating power. Some 

 planets have burst asunder into different frag 

 ments, and stars which had shone for ages have 

 disappeared, and their existence, in their former 

 state, cannot now be traced.* Such facts evi 

 dently show, that some important revolutions 

 have taken place in relation to the bodies which 

 have thus been withdrawn from our view. Hav 

 ing forages run theirdestined course, either theii 

 constitution has undergone an essential change, 

 or they have been removed to another region of 

 immensity, to subserve other purposes in the 

 magnificent arrangements of the Sovereign In 

 telligence. The observations made by Sir Wil 

 liam Herschel on the nebulous appearances in 

 the heavens, and on the changes and modifica 

 tions which they undergo, lead to the conclusion, 

 that new systems are gradually forming in the 

 distant regions of the universe. And, if the crea 

 ting energy of the Omnipotent is at present in 

 constant operation, and has been so for ages past, 

 who shall dare to affirm, that it shall ever cease 

 its exertion through all the ages of eternity? 



Here, then, we have presented to our contem 

 plation, an assemblage of material and intellectual 

 existence, to which the human rnind can affix no 

 boundaries, which is continually increasing, 

 and still an infinity of space remaining for per 

 petual accessions, during the lapse of endless 

 ages, an assemblage of beings, which, in point 

 of number, of magnitude, and of extent, seems 

 to correspond with a boundless duration. So 

 that, we have no reason to doubt, that &quot; the 

 saints in light&quot; will be perpetually acquiring new 

 discoveries of the divine glory, new prospects 

 info the immensity of God s operations, new 

 views of the rectitude and grandeur of his moral 

 government, new accessions to their felicity, and 

 new and transporting trains of thought, without 

 the least interruption, as long as eternity endures. 



Stars which are marked in ancient catalogues, 

 are not now to be found, and others are now visible 

 which were not known to the ancients. Some have 

 gradually increased in brilliancy. Some that were 

 formerly variable, now shine with a steady lustre, 

 while others have been constantly diminisning in 

 brightness. 



