LECTURE III.

MAN'S ORIGINAL STATE;-THE DOMINION THEN GIVEN TO HIM OVER THE EARTH;-THE LOSS OF THAT DOMINION BY SIN, AND THE PROMISE OF FULL RESTORATION BY THE SEED OF THE WOMAN.

BY THE REV. HENRY RAIKES, M.A.

CHANCELLOR OF CHESTER.

PSALM viii. 4.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

WHAT a scene must this world of ours exhibit to those higher, purer intelligences, which we have every reason to believe are occupied and delighted in contemplating it! What asystem of wonders must this material fabric exhibit to those, whose sight is capable of comprehending at once the greatest and the most minute of the operations that are being carried on here! Limited as we are by position, as well as in power, pinned down to a point on the vast expanse around us, seeing imperfectly and partially what we do behold, and beholding but little

of that which is to be seen; we still feel our minds overwhelmed by the wonders we discover. Every step in advance opens fresh fields of observation. Above, below, on one side or the other, the light in which we walk diverges from the line we followspreads itself over an abyss which we cannot penetrate, till the mind is lost in the immensity that is revealed.

It thus has happened, that the most powerful intellects, the men who have seen most, and known most, of that system of which they form a part, have felt most of their own insufficiency to comprehend it; and no one thinks that he knows anything of the world around him, but he who knows nothing as he ought to know. But if this be the effect produced by the view which man can take, limited and circumscribed as man must naturally be; what must be the view exhibited to those, whose faculties, transcending ours as much as the angelic nature exceeds the human, grasp at a glance the whole system of these wonders; and see at once what we have only learnt to conjecture by centuries of combined investigation and endeavour? What must this globe of ours, for instance, appear to those, who can see at once the power by which its atoms are retained in their places, and the power by which the whole performs its annual and diurnal revolutions; who can observe the

influence by which its orbit is maintained, and can at the same time discern the fluid which is propelled through an insect's veins, or the process of vegetation in a seed too minute to be discerned?

If there was a day when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, at beholding the fabric of our globe launched into space and entering on existence, is it reasonable to suppose that their wonder has ceased, or that their praise has been lessened, in watching its subsequent proceedings? Must we not rather think, that every succeeding day has increased this wonder, and added fervour to their adoration; and has not the steady unaltered continuance of the system, only served to write a law of gratitude on the hearts of those, who rejoiced in its first appearance?

But whatever may be the wonders belonging to the material world; we know and feel that they are nothing, if compared to those which the spiritual world includes. This earthly tabernacle is but the envelopment, the disguise, the incumbrance, and veil of the spirit that lies within; and little do they know of the real wonders of God's providence, of the depth of the riches both of his wisdom and knowledge, who, occupied with specu lations on material things, dwell continually on them, and refuse to penetrate into those nobler

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mysteries which are hidden in the world of spirits. There are discoveries there, which not only surpass our power of comprehension, but which exceed our nature. There are things to be studied there, which it is not lawful for man to utter. There are things to be seen there, which angels desire to look into; things to which those blessed spirits turn, in order to refresh and strengthen their own devotion; where they delight to learn more of the goodness of God, than can be known in a world which has remained unaltered; where allegiance has been uniform, and obedience perfect; amidst spirits who have never fallen, and angels who have kept their first estate.

Such, I say, is the scene which the world exhibits, when viewed as a spiritual object, and contemplated by spiritual beholders. They see it rising from the unexplored eternity which preceded its existence; they see it made the field on which an exhibition of the character and being of God is to be displayed. They see a plan begun developed, extended, and carried on; which is to illustrate, in a manner that never was done before, and with a power that was never employed before, the qualities and resources of Deity.

We may reasonably suppose, that the plan originally formed in the Divine Mind, and shared in its conceptions with none," for who hath been his coun

sellor?"--was viewed with astonishment and wonder, in its first development, by the hosts of heaven whom we consider as its contemplators. They saw man formed-formed by the hand of God, and formed in the very likeness of God. They saw the breath of God convey a spiritual existence to a material body. They saw a new order of beings added to creation; and they must have wondered at the lavish profusion of bounty which was poured upon this last-born of the children of God. Could their pure and holy nature have been capable of jealousy, and could they have seen anything but cause for love and adoration in the blessings provided for man, they might have borrowed the language of the Psalmist in another sense to express their own emotions; and they might have cried with different feelings from his: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" and might have questioned the justice which prepared such an abode for a being unknown and unproved by trial. Such then was the object, my brethren, that must have met their eyes, while the six days of creation were successively rolling on; and each successive day brought some new distinction, some fresh accession of honour, some increase of enjoyment to the being who was placed over all. The Creator looked down on that which He had made, and behold it was