290 FINAL CAUSES : THEIR BEARING 



than that on which they now stand, and sank by their own 

 act, it was yet part of the original design, from the beginning 

 of all things, that they should occupy the existing platform \ 

 and that Redemption is thus no after- thought, rendered ne- 

 cessary by the Fall, but, on the contrary, part of a general 

 scheme, for which provision had been made from the begin- 

 ning ; so that the Divine Man, through whom the work of 

 restoration has been effected, was in reality, in reference to 

 the purposes of the Eternal, what he is designated in the re- 

 markable text, "ifAe Lamb slain from the foundations of the 

 worlds Slain from the foundations of the world ! Could 

 the assertors of the stony science ask for language more ex- 

 press 1 By piecing the two records together, — that revealed 

 in Scripture and that revealed in the rocks, — records which, 

 however widely geologists may mistake the one, or commen- 

 tators misunderstand the other, have emanated from the same 

 great Author, — we learn that in slow and solemn majesty 

 has period succeeded period, each in succession ushering in a 

 higher and yet higher scene of existence, — that fish, reptiles, 

 mammiferous quadrupeds, have reigned in turn, — that re- 

 sponsible man, " made in the image of God," and with domi- 

 nion over all creatures, ultimately entered into a world ripened 

 for his reception ; but, further, that this passing scene, in 

 which he forms the prominent figure, is not the final one in 

 the long series, but merely the last of the preliminary scenes ; 

 and that that period to which the bygone ages, incalculable 

 in amount, with all their well-proportioned gradations of 

 being, form the imposing vestibule, shall have perfection for 

 its occupant, and eternity for its duration. I know not how 

 it may appear to others ; but for my own part, I cannot avoid 

 thinking that there would be a lack of proportion in the series 

 of being, were the period of perfect and glorified humanity 

 abruptly connected, without the introduction of an interme- 

 diate creation of responsible imperfection, with that of the 



