308 
VII . — The Meaning of Nature. 
According to our Eevelation^ the Universe is represented as 
< the wondrously wrought and splendid rohe of the Almighty, 
such as the kings were accustomed to array themselves with 
when they sat down on their thrones of royal majesty. All 
creation is represented as the handiwork of God, and as 
having for its primary object His own pleasure. Heaven 
records this as a worthy object. The four-and-twenty elders 
fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him 
that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the 
throne, saying, ^ Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory 
and honour and power : for Thou hast created all things, and 
for Thy pleasure they are and were created.^ 
Eebel spirits and rebel man may object, but all must admit 
that the statement gives a logical explanation of the meaning 
of Nature. All is represented as made by the A070C, the 
Word who was in the beginning with God, and from this 
wondrous source the archetypal ideas must have arisen, — the 
thoughts of that mighty Mind, if we may so speak reverently, 
clothing themselves with objective reality. Hence the distinct- 
ness of type. Everything is brought forth by the earth and 
waters after its kind."’^ Jehovah Elohim made every plant of 
the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field 
before it grew (Genesis i., ii.). The (pseudo) Zoroaster, and 
the Platonists in general, had the same conception, traditional 
apparently, and not derived from our Eevelation. The Father 
is represented as understanding by mature counsel ideas of 
every form ; these spring forth to sight flowing out of one 
fountain. For the Almighty Euler set before the world an 
imperishable intellectual pattern {vospov tvttov a(p0iTov) or 
original model, the print of whose form was made to appear 
through the world, which hence is beautiful with all kinds 
of ideas {TravToXaig i^iaig) of which there is one fountain. 
This, according to Cory, is Sabaean Philosophy in a Greek 
dress, and if so, it must, according to Dr. Chwolson, reach 
far back in the worldA history into the dim ages of the past, 
when Abram was brought into conflict with these sectaries, 
who boasted of deriving their religion from Seth. 
If all invented by the Greek mind (however), this notion of 
embodied divine ideas will stand advantageous comparison 
with the notions of our scientists. If there is no determination 
on the part of the Almighty Euler to preserve these types, 
what reason can be assigned for the unspeakable disgust at 
the violation of those certain boundaries which he will not 
have overpast ? — Whence the world-wide conviction that 
