belief universal throughout the world. Now because it is unquestionably true that there is a God, it certainly by no means follows, that all the notions which all nations and religions have taught respecting him, are true likewise: but most assuredly it does not follow, because most nations and religions have erred in their notions of God, that, therefore, there is no God at all: on the contrary, the general belief, in some shape or other, in the existence of a God, however superstition and ignorance may have clouded the pure truth respecting his nature and the mode of his existence, has always been regarded as an insuperable argument in favour of the sentiment, that the existence of a Divine Being is certain, beyond dispute. Equally strong is the argument, from the general belief of there being a spiritual sense in the Scriptures, that there really is such a sense: and inconsistent or unfounded notions respecting the nature of that sense, no more prove that there is no such sense at all, than similar errors attending the belief in the existence of a God, can prove that there is no God.

I. Now what has been wanting to recommend the spiritual sense of the Word of God to the acceptance of the calm, reasoning mind, has been, a certain rule by which it may be decyphered. Could such a rule be shewn to

exist, the objections drawn from the tendency of the admission of a spiritual sense to introduce uncertainty and confusion into the explanation of Scripture, would, as stated in our last, fall at once to the ground: and the existence of such a sense, which multitudes have acknowledged by a kind of intuitive perception, would then be bottomed upon the clearest rational induction;-would indeed admit of demonstration not less convincing, though of a somewhat different kind, than that which evinces the truth of any problem in mathematics.

Such a rule, then, it is conceived, is afforded, in the Mutual Relation which exists by creation between things natural or material, spiritual or moral, and divine; which is such that the lower order of objects answers to the higher, as certainly and immutably, as the reflection in a mirror answers to the substance producing it.

But, alas! though this was a subject well understood in the times of remote antiquity, it now is not only generally unknown that the Holy Scriptures are written according to this Relation, from which, therefore, we may obtain a Universal Rule for their interpretation; but it is even far from being generally known that any such relation exists. Approximations have indeed been recently made towards its re-discovery, as will be noticed in the sequel; and there is reason to expect that, ere long, it will

seriously occupy the attention of the scientific and religious public. In the hope of promoting this desirable event; and because all that is to follow in these Lectures will refer to it as a first principle; a slight attempt shall here be made to give a general idea of its Nature.

II. That there exists, by the laws of creation, a Mutual Relation between things natural or material, spiritual or moral, and divine, may be concluded from the indisputable fact, that every thing in a lower sphere of existence is produced for the sake of something in a higher; and if so, every higher thing, for the sake of which any object of a lower kind is produced, is the proximate cause, by derivation from the First Cause, of the existence of the latter and there must be an uninterrupted series of such causes and effects, each intermediate effect becoming, in succession, a proximate cause of existence to something beneath it, from the First Cause itself, to the lowest effects of all. Every proximate cause, also, by the urgency, and for the sake of which, something beneath it was produced, is, likewise, the real essence, or ground of being, of such lower production, which, on its part, is thus an outward form, manifesting the existence of such distinct essence. This will lead us to see, that the lower orders of objects must answer to the higher, as certainly and immutably,

as the reflection in a mirror answers to the substance producing it. Thus, for example, every lower thing that exists is produced to serve, either more nearly or remotely, to the use of man this being the second cause of its existence, the thing itself is actually an image, under a different form, of something that is in man and man himself was produced to satisfy the divine love of God-thus for the sake of God, that there might be a being in the world capable of receiving, in a conscious manner, gifts from God, and of returning them to Him in love and adoration: and God himself thus being to man both the proximate and First Cause of his existence, man must be, in a certain manner, an image of God; and the most immediately so of any thing that the world contains. We accordingly are assured by divine Revelation, that man was created in the image and likeness of God. And if man, altogether, is, in a certain manner, an image of God, it follows evidently, that every particular thing which exists in man, (so far as he stands in the order of his creation,) is an image of something that exists in God: and, indeed, every thing in him which is not in the order of his creation, but which he has introduced by the abuse of his faculties, still has reference to something that exists in God, though not as an image, but as an opposite. In short, as God is

the Origin and First Cause of all things, it is evident, that nothing whatever can exist which has not some sort of reference to something that is in Him; which reference is nearer or more remote, in proportion as the sphere in which it stands is nearer to the divine centre or to the extreme circumference of the universe. Thus things natural and material bear a secret Relation to things moral and spiritual, and these again to things divine.

1. This will be seen yet more evidently when it is considered, that the proper mode of viewing the creation, is, to regard it as an Out-birth from the Deity;-as a production essentially distinct from the Producing Cause, but necessarily bearing, through all its parts, to that Infinite Cause, and to the infinite essential properties and attributes existing in that Cause, a constant and immutable relation. Among the objects of the visible creation, man, the acknowledged image of his Maker, stands in the highest degree of this relation, and the inert substances of the mineral kingdom in the lowest. This truth is not invalidated by the fact, that the latter came first into existence. It must unquestionably be true, that, in the creation of the world, the globe of earth and water, or the unorganised parts of its composition, though lowest in rank, must have been the first that were formed: but why?