RANGE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



tcforned with majestic mountain scenery, and 

 others seem to have great changes occasionally 

 taking place in their atmosphere, or on their sur 

 faces. There are four planetary bodies lately 

 discovered, which, there is every reason to be 

 lieve, once formed the component parts of a large 

 globe ; but by some mighty catastrophe in the 

 dispensations of heaven, it appears to have been 

 burst asunder into the fragments we now behold. 

 If the general proposition illustrated in section 

 2. of the preceding chapter be admitted, such a 

 fact would seem to indicate that a moral revolu 

 tion has taken place among the intelligent beings 

 who had originally been placed in those regions ; 

 and that their fate was involved in the dreadful 

 shock which burst asunder the globe they inha 

 bited ; just as the fate of the antediluvians was 

 involved in the shock by which the solid crust of 

 our globe was disrupted, at the period of the uni 

 versal deluge. 



These are some outlines in the economy of 

 Providence which we can trace with regard to 

 the arrangements of other worlds ; but beyond 

 such general aspects we are not permitted to pe 

 netrate, so long as we sojourn in tabernacles of 

 clay. But even such general views afford some 

 scope to the contemplative mind, for forming en 

 larged conceptions of the grandeur and diversity 

 of the dispensations of God, in the worlds which 

 roll in the distant regions of space. 



With regard to their moral economy we may 

 rest assured that the prominent outlines of it are 

 materially the same as of that economy which re 

 lates to the inhabitants of our world. The fun 

 damental principles of the moral laws given to 

 men, and which it is the great object of revela 

 tion to support and illustrate, are, &quot; Thou shalt 

 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and un 

 derstanding,&quot; and, &quot; Thou shalt love thy neigh 

 bour as thyself.&quot; On these two commandments 

 hang all the law and the prophets. Now, we 

 must admit, from the nature of the Divine Being, 

 and from the relations in which rational beings 

 stand to Him and to one another, that the Cre 

 ator has enacted these laws, as the great govern 

 ing principles by which the actions of all intel 

 ligences in heaven, as well as upon earth, are to 

 be directed. For the Governor of the world can 

 never be supposed to issue a law to any order of 

 rational creatures, which would permit them to 

 hate their Creator, or to hate those whom he has 

 formed after his own image. Such a supposition 

 would be inconsistent with the eternal rules of 

 rectitude, and with the perfections of Deity and 

 the fact supposed, (if it could exist,) would in 

 troduce confusion and misery throughout the 

 whole intelligent universe. And, therefore, we 

 must necessarily admit, that the laws to which I 

 now advert, are binding upon all the rational in 

 habitants which exist throughout Jehovah s do 

 minions ; and that it is by these that the moral 

 Older of all the principalities and powers of hea 



ven is preserved and directed. In those worlds 

 where there is no change in the succession of 

 their inhabitants or, inothei words, where there 

 is no death, or where they are not produced by 

 any process analogous to generation, but have a 

 fixed and permanent residence, there will be no 

 need for moral precepts corresponding to the fifth 

 and the seventh commandments of our moral law 

 and in those worlds where property is common, 

 and the bounties of the Creator are equally en 

 joyed by all, there will be no necessity for a law 

 corresponding to the eighth commandment; but 

 the general principles on which these laws are 

 founded, will be applicable to all the other cir 

 cumstances and relations which actually exist ; 

 so that the principle, and spirit, and essence of 

 our religion must be common to all the holy in 

 habitants of the universe. And, therefore, it 

 will follow, that every intelligent being that is 

 animated and directed by such principles and af 

 fections, will be qualified for holding delightful 

 intercourse with all holy beings throughout the 

 universe of God, in whatever province of the 

 Creator s empire he may hereafter be placed ; 

 and, to qualify us for such harmonious and af 

 fectionate intercourse, is one great end of the 

 salvation exhibited in the gospel. So that, al 

 though we cannot, in our present state, acquire 

 a minute and comprehensive knowledge of the 

 moral history of other worlds, of the special in 

 terpositions or manifestations of Deity in rela 

 tion to them, or of the means by which they are 

 carried forward in moral and intellectual improve 

 ment yet we can trace the general principles or 

 laws which form the basis of their moral and re 

 ligious economy. For as the laws of optics, and 

 the principle of gravitation, pervade the -whole 

 material system, as far as the universe is visible 

 to our assisted vision, so the principle of su 

 preme love to God, and sincere affection to fel 

 low-intelligences, must pervade the intellectual 

 universe, wherever it extends ; and, if any in 

 telligent agents besides men, have violated these 

 laws, they must experience pain, and misery, 

 and disorder, analogous to those which are felt 

 by the inhabitants of our apostate world. 



Thus I have endeavoured to show, that the 

 combination of science with religion would tend 

 to expand our views of divine providence 

 in the various arrangements of God, in rela 

 tion to the human race, and to the subordinate 

 tribes of sensitive beings and in reference to 

 some of the prominent features of his adminis 

 tration in distant worlds. And, therefore, though 

 the Christian ought never to overlook the ways 

 of Providence in relation to himself, and to his 

 spiritual and domestic concerns, yet it would 

 argue a selfishness and a sottishness altogether 

 inconsistent with the noble and expansive spirit 

 of Christianity, to overlook all the other parts 

 of the theatre of divine dispensations, when 

 a very slight degree of labour and research 



