the beginning of the universe, and before the first weekday of the Mosaic narrative; that strata were successively formed, and upraised from the depths of a primitive ocean, and races of plants and animals, now extinct, were formed in their due season by Divine power, and rose and flourished in luxurious abundance, and have left their long buried relics to be witnesses, even to the latest age, of these wonders of God. We shall assume further, that after the latest or pleiocene formations, some great convulsion or change occurred, by which animal and vegetable life were once more destroyed, and firmament, sea, and dry land, all mingled in a dark and chaotic confusion. After this catastrophe, when darkness covered the face of the deep, the Creative Spirit moved once more on the face of the waters, till light arose out of the darkness, order out of confusion, and life and beauty were spread once more over the dreary waste of former desolations.

Now this view, derived from modern discovery, does also suggest a deep and simple analogy, which runs through the various stages of Divine Providence. For there is a threefold gradation of being, the irrational, the rational, and the Divine. There is also a threefold perfection, of natural order, of moral integrity, and of spiritual and heavenly glory. On the view above proposed, the course of Providence will also be a continual progression, rising upward and still upward towards the throne of the Most High.

The first stage, in this vast and stupendous scheme, will consist in those long ages of animal life, which Geology reveals. When the heavenly orbs had been launched in space, and their complex and intricate dance determined by that law, which presides, with such majestic simplicity, over their various motions, the Maker

was pleased to people these desolate heritages of creation with lower forms of animal and vegetable being. At each stage of organic change, He spake the word, and new species of plants and animals received their birth, exactly suited by His wisdom to the natural elements which then surrounded them-myriads of under-workmen, to prepare the planet, by successive steps, for man's future habitation. But after all these displays of creative power, and this unexhausted fertility of Divine wisdom, the downward course of mere animal instinct displayed itself more and more clearly, and the issue of the whole was only mutual destruction, confusion and darkness.

And now a second and nobler stage began in the Divine counsels. The animal creation was repaired and restored; but a moral head and governor was provided, to control its wayward instincts into order and harmony, and to render the fuller and higher tribute of a reasonable service to the God of heaven. Man was created, in the image of his Maker, to be at once the conscious and grateful worshipper, and the earthly vicegerent of the Most High. “And God looked upon all the work that He had made, and behold, all was very good; and the evening and morning were the sixth day."

But reason itself, like mere animal instinct, is a feeble and insufficient stay for the harmony, peace and happiness of God's universe. Creatures, the higher they rise in natural dignity, are only liable to a deeper and more grievous fall. It is true of the living God, and of Him alone, that He cannot be tempted with evil. This moral creation soon proved its own weakness, and man, its appointed head, fell into sin, and ruined once more the harmony of creation. The golden link was broken which bound him, and all the lower

creatures with him, to the throne of God. Death entered into the world with every fearful aggravation, for it was not a natural death alone, but one which ate like a canker into the core of the whole moral being, a death in trespasses and sins. The creatures themselves were made subject to vanity, and a moral chaos ensued, more fearful than that of old, which had brooded over God's lower universe.

Till, at His second bidding, darkness fled,
Light rose, and order from disorder sprung.

And now, to the eye of angels, mankind became a wide universe of wrath and desolation. The earth was, in a still fuller sense, without form and void, and darkness was upon the great and mighty deep of man's fallen being. Age after age revealed the same gloomy sea of strife and passion, the same wilderness of sin, where all was vanity and vexation of spirit; each child of man, like a sea-weed, tost on this mighty. ocean of rebellious spirits, "having no hope, and without God in the world."

And now the time was come for a higher stage in the great mystery of the Divine counsels. Instinct and reason, each in turn, had been tried and failed; they were too weak and frail to be the pillars of a universe. The early creation, with its innumerable forms of animated life, had sunk into total ruin, and become its own sepulchre, a monument to be sealed for long ages, and then opened only to teach the mournful lesson of desolation and decay. Man, created in the image of God, had been appointed the moral head of a restored universe; but then had forsaken the God who made him, and sunk himself, and the creatures placed under him, into the bondage of vanity, in the deeper ruin of moral and spiritual death. And now, what hope remained, or who

should bear up, a third time, the pillars of the dissolving and sinking universe? One was needed, possessed of a higher nature, and endowed with nobler gifts than instinct and reason alone. A link never to be broken, a covenant of indefectible grace, a spiritual head, incapable of fall,-were really needed, to bind anew the creature to the Creator, and out of this moral ruin and chaos, to build up, in everlasting beauty and glory, the new creation of God.

Thus, according to the views which Geology unfolds, there is a manifest harmony and continual progress in the works of creation and redemption. We have first a creation of merely animal life, tried perhaps for ages, under various forms of being, but still issuing ever in confusion and decay. Reason, a higher power, is now tried in its turn, and a moral creation higher than the first, is raised, in the birth-week of mankind, out of those chaotic ruins. But man himself, though endowed with reason, and made lord of the creatures, falls from his allegiance, and the curse enters into the moral universe of our world, with all ghastly varieties of sin and death. Then a nobler work of grace is announced, and a nobler Head provided, in whom, and through whom alone, a redeemed universe may abide for ever in fellowship with its Maker. The seed of the woman is promised; a Redeemer, who is one with the creature and one with the Creator, and in whom the reason and the instincts of humanity are crowned by the large and full inheritance of Divine perfection. Under this new and glorious Head, the fallen creation will rise, like a phonix from its own ashes, and shine forth in perpetual beauty. He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Be hold, I make all things new." And he saith, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." Such is the

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simple and glorious climax of Providence, first the natural, next the moral, and last of all, the spiritual and truly Divine.

And does not this view, besides its internal simplicity and grandeur, disclose also a secret emphasis in the Divine record, which would otherwise be unobserved ? The work of the six days on this hypothesis, until the creation of man, was no absolute novelty, but the full reparation of the earth, to a state, the same in kind, though more perfect in degree, as that which had existed in previous ages. Hence, accordingly, the work proceeds without remark or consultation, by a simple fiat of Divine power. But when the animal creation, and the lower universe, has been restored in more than its previous order and beauty, the question might well arise —how shall a remedy be found for the perpetual recurrence of destruction and decay? How shall the instincts of these lower animals be held in such due control, as may enforce them to minister to the general beauty and harmony of the whole system? Here, at this point, of the sacred history, for the first time there is a Divine consultation revealed. And what is its purpose and design? We must not speculate too curiously on these depths of God's wisdom, where to see dimly is our highest attainment. But still, whatever further reasons might exist for this change in the description, and for that celestial council which it sets before us, the one which the present view suggests, is also that which results most easily and naturally from the words of the narrative. An animal creation has endured for ages, but has, in successive eras, become a charnel -house of destruction, till the wreck of the elements seemed only the fit sepulchre for its murderous or murdered tenants. Up to its former standing, creation is now repaired, and