784 
AN ESSAY ON THE FUTURE EXISTENCE 
We envy not the man that would convert the prophecies which 
we have quoted into metaphor, and deprive them of all literal ap- 
plication ; for who shall presume to say to the Omniscient and the 
Almighty, that the past and present races of animals can answer no 
other purpose hereafter! May they not be reserved as forming 
many of the customary links in the chain of being, and, by preserv- 
ing the chain entire, contribute there, as they do here, to the gene- 
ral beauty and harmony of the universe 1 Such a conclusion we 
are warranted in coming to, as the following passage from the vision 
of St. John plainly reveals the whole of God’s innumerable family 
praising their great and Almighty Father before his throne. 
“ And every creature which is in heaven , and on the earth , and 
under the earth , and in the sea , and all that are in them, I heard 
them all saying , — To HIM that sitteth on the throne and to the 
Lamb is the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the power 
for ever and ever." 
We will not weaken the words of the apostle by any observa- 
tions of our own. “ This praise,” says the Rev. J. Wesley, “from 
all creatures, begins before the opening of the first seal, and con- 
tinues from that time to eternity.” 
Our subject is now brought to' a close, and the principal facts 
connected with it are before you, on which you may exercise your 
own judgment, and form your own conclusions. The conclusions 
to which we have arrived are, in our opinion, warranted from all 
that we know of the Deity, as they exhibit in a striking point of 
view the depths of His wisdom and intelligence, and the infinite 
boundlessness of his mercy, in a “ golden chain of providence,” 
from the ranks and orders of the blessed in heaven to the lowest 
organic being of this nether world. There seems no limit to his 
wisdom, power, and greatness ; for the farther we inquire, and the 
wider our sphere of observation extends, they open upon us in in- 
creasing abundance — the study of one preparing us to understand 
and appreciate another. Refinement follows on refinement, won- 
der on wonder, till our faculties become bewildered in admira- 
tion, and the intellect falls back on itself, in utter hopelessness of 
arriving at an end. “ The character of the true philosopher,” says 
Herschell, “ is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all 
things not unreasonable.” There is something in the contempla- 
tion of the general laws that regulate the universe that power- 
fully persuades us that the opinions which we have advanced are 
far from unreasonable; whilst the calm, energetic regularity of 
Nature, the immense scale of her operations, and the certainty with 
which her ends are accomplished, tend irresistibly to assure us 
that they are actually probable. Every thing that we see below 
us, around us, and above us, breathes of immortality. If we de- 
