58 PRINCIPLES OF SYN-THESIS. 



I 



This seven-fold classification of the principles of the Divine 

 constitution, is probably what the inspired seer St. John had 

 reference to when he spoke of the " seven Spirits of God which 

 go out into all the earth." And it was undoubtedly the out- 

 goings and efficient operations of these which produced the 

 various seven-fold Divine antitypes which were shown to the 

 same inspired seer under the forms of the seven churches of 

 Asia Minor ; the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes ; the 

 book with seven seals, and their successive openings at seven 

 different epochs ; the seven angels with seven trumpets ; the 

 seven thunders ; the seven last plagues, etc.* 



If it be true, then, that there are these seven natural 

 divisions in the constituents of the one Divine Being, it is 

 obvious that any system of creation or operation which 

 presents a complete reflex of what is contained in the 

 Divine Source from which it sprang, must contain a re- 

 presentation and outer expression of each one of these Di- 

 vine constituents, and must therefore, as a whole, be also 

 seven-fold. 



But we have seen that Nature, as a Whole, is divided into 

 many Systems, Kingdoms, or more properly speaking, Dis- 

 creet Degrees, rising one above another. Each one of these 

 Kingdoms or Degrees (as will gradually be illustrated in what 

 follows) contains within itself the seven-fold series of parts, 

 as the natural evolution, and reproduction, on a higher scale, 



* The number seven appears to have been anciently recognized as a general number 

 of completeness, and as such it appears to have been habitually employed by the 

 sacred writers. Thus, in their classifications, there were seven days (or periods) of 

 creation ; seven days of the week ; seven years from one sabbatic year to another ; seven 

 tunes seven years from one jubilee to another, etc., (see by the aid of the concordance, 

 the numerous instances in which the number seven occurs in the Old and New Testa- 

 ments). Some of the ancient heathen nations, also, adopted the seven-fold classifica- 

 tion as of extensive application, especially- to spiritual and Divine things ; and it waa 

 introduced by Pythagoras from India into Greece. 



