by John Thomas

“ Had He required a necessitated obedience, He would have secured His purpose effectually by at once filling the earth with a population of adults, so intellectually organized as to be incapable of a will adverse to His own -- who should have obeyed Him as wheels do the piston rod and steam by which they are moved -- the mere automata of a miraculous creation. ”

“ This inquiry we make as the spectators of the wonders of creation, providence, and redemption. We behold the materials of these departments of Eternal Wisdom, and we ask to what are all things tending? What temple, or edifice, is the Divine Architect raising for His own pleasure and glory? If we turn our thoughts within us, there is no voice there which unfolds the philosophy of His doing; if we soar into the heavens, or descend into the sea if we search through the high places of the earth -- we find no answer ”

“ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ”

“ The ulterior is the comparative; the ultimate, the transcendent excellency of the design. The Almighty Builder of all things intended not to translate the whole human race from a state of sin and death at once into a state of unmingled good and glory. ”

“ The principle laid down in the scripture is that MAN HONOURS GOD IN BELIEVING HIS WORD AND OBEYING HIS LAWS. There is no other way in which men can honour their Creator. This honour, however, consists not in a mechanical obedience; in mere action without intelligence and volition, such as matter yields to the natural laws; but in an enlightened, hearty, and voluntary obedience, while the individual possesses the power not to obey if he think best. There is no honour, or glory, to God as a moral being, in the falling of a stone towards the earth's centre. ”

“ Now, as the very existence of God upon His throne depends upon the suppression, and therefore punishment, of sin (which is sorrow and pain so long as life lasts) , the greatest possible good to all men, in the universal sense of the word, was no part of His design, being incompatible with the principle and end in view. "The greatest possible good of the whole creation", then, being no part of His purpose, it is a mere conceit, the idea that God wills the immortalization and glorification of every member of the human family. ”

“ Now the carrying out of this principle necessarily involves great loss of human, or animal life; for if virtue be the subject of reward, vice must also be of punishment. Because, if vice were unrestrained, it would gain the ascendancy; eradicate virtue from among men as before the flood; and defeat the principle upon which it is proposed to effectuate the work, and thus destroy the original design.
The mere fact of dust, by the power of God expressed in creation and the physical laws, assuming the form of men, does not, therefore, entitle them to the glory of the Future Ages ”

“ If we would ascertain what God designs to elaborate out of the past, the present, and the future, we must be content to assume the attitude of listeners, that He may reveal to us from His own lips what He intends to evolve in the consummation of His plans.
God, then, has caused a book to be written for our information as to His design -- His ultimate purpose in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, which are the three grand divisions of His labour; and which are all tending to the development of one great and glorious consummation. ”

“ The creation of the six days, and the peopling of the earth with nations of mortal men, is the mere preparation and collection together of the raw materials for a great, glorious, and magnificent display of wonders upon the earth. ”

“ Now, as the scripture saith, the Great Builder of the heavens and earth is God. "His hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, and his right hand hath spanned the heavens." The Builder of all things either left the elements of the world to a random and accidental aggroupment, or, He "ordered them in all things". Where is the man among "philosophers" who will stultify, or idiotize himself by saying that the Creator permitted chance to elaborate the terrestrial system? ”

“ Have they had no trials to endure; no probation to pass through for the refining of their faith as gold is tried? It is credible, rather, that they were once animal men of other spheres; that in a former state, they were "made subject to vanity not willingly"; that while in the flesh they believed and obeyed God with the self sacrificing disposition afterwards evinced by Abraham; that their faith was counted to them for righteousness; that they succumbed to death as mortal men; that they rose from the dead, and so attained to incorruptibility and immortality as the Elohim of the Invisible God. ”

“ But, let a man by his excellencies command the willing services of free men -- of men who can do their own will and pleasure; yet voluntarily obey him, and, if he required it, are prepared to sacrifice their lives, fortunes, and estates, and all for the love they bear him; would not such a man esteem himself honoured, and glorified, in the highest degree by such signal conformity to his will? ”

“ The eternal King is the only being who is originally immortal in any sense, hence it is written that "He only hath immortality". The immortality of all other intelligences is derived from Him as a reward for the "obedience of faith". Just men at the resurrection of the First Fruits will be equal to Elohim.
Shall we say that these "Morning Stars and Sons of God" did not attain to the spiritual nature by a progression similar to man; seeing that he "who was made so much better than they", even Jesus, the "Bright and the Morning Star", was "made perfect through sufferings"? ”

“ It will doubtless be admitted, that upon whatever principle God might determine to operate, it would certainly be such a one as would redound most to the glory of His wisdom, justice, and sovereign power, This being conceded, we would enquire, would it have been to the glory of God, if He had made man a mere machine? ”

“ Here was voluntary disobedience; hence, the opposite to this is made the principle of life namely, belief of whatsoever God saith, and voluntary obedience to His law. This is the principle to which the world is reprobate; and to a conformity with which all men are invited, and urged by the motives presented in the scriptures; even all who would inherit the kingdom of God, and afterwards inhabit the earth for ever, on an equal footing with the angels of the universe. ”

“ But, saith an objector, this principle of the enlightened voluntary obedience of a free agent is incompatible with benevolence; it would have prevented all the misery and suffering which have afflicted the world, if the globe had been filled at once with a sufficient number of inhabitants, who should all of them have been created perfect. ”

“ That they will all then be the sons of God, a community of glorious, honourable, incorruptible, and living beings; who will constitute the abode of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, the glory of whose presence will evolve a brilliancy surpassing the splendour of the sun. ”

“ But then they would have been without character, neither virtuous nor vicious; and, like themselves, their world would have been without a history. God is not merely an intellectual, He is also a moral, being. "The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" ”

“ From these testimonies, it is manifest to all minds, unspoiled by a "vain and deceitful philosophy", that, in the Economy of the Future Age, all kingdoms, states, and empires; and all people, nations, and languages, are to be gathered together into one dominion under Jesus Christ. These are the "things in the heavens", and the "things on the earth", which, grouped together into one imperial dominion, will constitute an economy of things that will be wonderful and glorious. ”

“ In ascertaining, therefore, the ultimate design of eternal wisdom in the creation of all things, we turn to the end of the Bible to see what God hath said shall be as the consummation of what has gone before; for what He has said shall be the permanent constitution of things, must be the end which He originally designed before ever the foundation of the earth was laid.
Turn we then, to the last two chapters of the Book of God. What do we learn from these? We learn from them, that there is to be a great physical and moral renovation of the earth. That every curse is to cease from off the globe ”

“ Wilson observes that the phrase " 'Let us make man' is an expression of consultation, and marks a difference in man's creation from that of other creatures in point of importance." To this I have no objection, and I believe that the "subtle serpent" overheard the consultation, and was, therefore, able to tell Eve that there was a particular in which she should be like the Elohim, ka-elohim, by eating the fruit, in which she could not resemble them unless she did eat -- viz., in "knowing good and EVIL". In this point, man was unlike the Elohim when pronounced "very good". ”

“ This old creation, with its temporary mediatorial constitution, then, is but a grand system of means, elementary of a still grander and inconceivably more magnificent creation, which will be of an unchangeable and eternal constitution. The old Mosaic physical heavens and earth are to the new creation as the accumulated materials of a building are to the edifice about to be built: and hold the same relation to the new heavens, as the natural system does to the spiritual. ”

“ Our mundane system is but the pattern of things in other worlds, which may ere this have attained to that perfection which awaits the earth; and probably an illustration of what may even now obtain in other planets where the inhabitants have not yet progressed beyond the animal and probationary era of their history. Our angels, or Elohim, those I mean of the heavenly hosts, to whose superintendence terrestrial affairs are consigned, until the Lord Jesus shall assume the reins of government ”

“ But there are others who understand the theory of the truth to a considerable extent, but have only that spirit of liberty and sense of justice in them which the truth inspires; without that disposition to suffer patiently and unresistingly for it, which it inculcates. ”

“ He divided their posterity into nations by the confusion of tongues; determined the times of their self-dominion; and set limits to their territorial extension -- that, in the fulness of time, the materials of A KINGDOM AND EMPIRE OF NATIONS might exist, which He would confer upon a king, and such other regal associates as in His own good and Sovereign pleasure He should think proper to appoint.
The segregation of mankind into nations, then, is not accidental, or the result of mere human policy. It is a divine appointment. Human wisdom was opposed to it in the beginning ”

“ Multitudes have embraced that truth in whole or part; vastly more, however, in part than as a saving whole. According to their apprehensions of it, they have resolved themselves into party groups. A minority -- a great minority, so great as to be styled "a few", have seized upon it in letter and spirit. ”

“ The obedience of man would have been similar had God created and placed him under a physical law, which should have necessitated his movements, as gravitation doth the stone.
Does a man feel honoured, or glorified, by the compulsory obedience of a slave? ”

“ The globe a glorious dwelling place, and its inhabitants an immortal and glorious people, with the indwelling presence of the Eternal Himself -- is the consummation which God reveals as the answer to the question concerning His ultimate design. ”

“ Universalism, a wide-spreading upas in the world, which teaches that all human beings, of whatever age or character, shall dwell with God eternally, is based upon a mistaken notion of God's purpose in the formation of the animal world. ”

“ Because he would make the cause of all things, a mere physical disposition in matter, destitute of all intellectual and moral attributes, in order that he may get rid of all responsibility to such a Being. He hates truth, righteousness, and holiness, and therefore he vainly strives to persuade himself that there is no God of a truthful, righteous, and holy character. ”

“ Why do men not do so with the Bible? God is admitted by all sensible persons to be the author; Moses, the apostles, and the prophets, are but His amanuenses to whom He dictated what to write. If then the questions be put, what end had God in view in the six day's work of the creation? in His subsequent providential arrangements in relation to men and nations? ”

“ Men of this class take the sword for liberty and the rights of men; and contend against all who would destroy them with a courage which strikes terror into their enemies. By such agency as this, by action and re-action, by agitating the truth revealed, and the warlike conflict it produces among the nations, things have been shaped into the civil, ecclesiastical, and social constitution of things, which prevails upon the earth in the present age ”

“ To lose sight of this is to remain in hopeless ignorance of the faith and hope, which God has graciously set before us in His word; and to lay ourselves open to every species of delusion that the carnal mind, so fertile of evil fruits, may enunciate in opposition to the "mystery of the divine will". ”