Cll INTRODUCTION. 



circumstances attending upon it should be 

 carefully examined. If we consider the pas- 

 sages in the Apocalypse here alluded to, we 

 shall find that when praise is to be rendered 

 to God as Creator and Upholder of the uni- 

 verse, they then are stated to proclaim his 

 Triune Deity, by saying Holy, Holy, Holy, 

 Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and 

 is to come. This they do as the physical 

 powers, under God, upholding the universe, 

 especially as fire, light, and air ; all of which, 

 in passages of Scripture above noticed, 2 ap- 

 pear to represent the Three Persons of the 

 Holy Trinity. But when they are introduced 

 as representing the governing Powers of the 

 universal Church, as they are when they fall 

 down and worship the Lamb, the case is 

 altered ; for those they then represent are 

 amongst the redeemed. 



One of my objects in treating so much at 

 large upon this mysterious subject, was to 

 counteract that tendency, often observable in 

 the writings of philosophers, to ascribe too 

 much to the action of second causes, and the 

 mechanism of the heavenly powers ; as if 



1 Revel, ubi supr. * See above, p. xcii. 



