all the rest are with equal wisdom contrived, situated, and provided with accommodation for rational inhabitants; for although there is almost an infinite variety in the parts of the creation which we have opportunities of examining, yet there is a general analogy running through and connecting all the parts into one scheme, one design, one whole."*

That it is its great Proprietor's blessed and unerring will that we should conceive aright of its immensity, may be deduced from the simile He has himself been pleased to employ for the purpose of conveying the idea of infinite numbers: "Even so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand on the sea-shore innumerable." (Heb xi. 12.) The glory of his greatness being the glory of that goodness on which the eyes of all do wait, the hopes of all do centre; and as we have found the sublimest regions of the boundless universe clearly ordained to specific purposes, there is, we think, good ground to infer that our lower starry one is so also-though this is a question which would not be propounded, were not a right judgment on this point likewise an essential preparatory toward the elucidation of further important particulars. The way by which we can here alone discover truth, is by deducing probabilities from certainties. When, therefore, we reflect on all our heavenly luminaries having been unquestionably called into existence in the same week which placed our small globe in the etherial firmament-on all the worlds, suns, systems, ge* Guthrie.

nerations,* with which our heavens teem, having been formed from the same chaos, composed of like materials as our terraqueous residence-(review our observations as to the exact resemblance they bear to one another, pp. 57-59,)-pondering the general analogy which so conspicuously pervades Almighty operations throughout these nether heavens-(scan our remarks on their invariability, p. 57,)-embracing always with these wondrous recollections the remembrance of their manifest infinitude, keeping in mind the essential requisition for probationary states, (which was, we think, fully established by the result of former researches, p. 48;) knowing, as we do, that the express use of this our little globe is for a place of trial;-from these combined considerations, there is, we think, good ground for concluding, not only that these our lower heavens are solely devoted to a definite purpose, but that that purpose is, the reception and education of probationary beings.

As this appropriation of the subordinate district of infinite space to a specific purpose, gives a precision and completion to the signification of those emblematic charts delineated by the Mosaic institution, and which most certainly were given for our learning; as we conceive that the justness of our conclusions will be further illustrated by our inspection of them, and be

* "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." (Gen. ii. 1, 4.)

found most in conformity with the regularity, uniformity, and magnificence of the great Creator's plans and ordination of the invisible and remoter regions of the boundless universe to express glorious uses, leaving that only which speaks much for itself on which to form conjectures; as the strong intimation, if not positive assertion, contained in the Scriptures concerning the final dissolution of these lower heavens and the powers that therein are, (Matt. xxiv. 29,) declares that by the same commandment which formed them together, they will be alike adjudged to be dissolved together; (Heb. xii. 26, 27;)—we have presumed to state conclusions which are not altogether steadied by our usual support, but which have resulted from inquiries entered into for the reason premised, as being nearly connected with our present contemplation, and furthermore as questions which will be necessarily involved in our intended observations on that great and notable day of the Lord, (Acts ii. 20,) when the elements will melt with fervent heat, the sun be darkened, the moon of course not give her light; the stars fall from heaven, as a fig-tree casteth her untimely leaves,* and the powers thereof be shaken, and all these things be dissolved. When

The simile employed by our heavenly Instructor, when comparing the destruction of the stars to the casting away of a fig-tree's untimely leaves, the scriptural passages just inserted, with a mass of information on this subject interspersed in the prophetic writings, all conspire to show that the great and notable day of the Lord will comprise a work infinitely surpassing in magnitude that of merely annihilating our solar system, a system which, if now destroyed, would be, as we have just seen, no

"that voice which shook the earth hath now promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven; and this word 'once more' signifieth the removing those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” Now, the ensuing passage does most explicitly ascertain what those things are which cannot be shaken; namely, that they are the things con. tained in that immoveable kingdom, the third and highest heaven, (Heb. xii. 28,) where all who overcome, He will firm fix for pillars in the high heavenly temple; (Rev. iii. 12;) and they shall not go out.

We shall here request a careful re-inspection of the Mosaic patterns, in which we find, that like as the holy place is placed immediately under the most holy one, so in like manner the outward sanctuary is placed immediately under the secondary or intermediate one, rendering a passage through the first sanctuary as essential to the obtaining an entrance into the secondary one, or holy place, as is a passage through the holy place to the obtaining admission into the third, or most holy one. By noticing the figurative chart

more missed than would a grain of sand from the sea-shore. And when we reflect upon the infinite infinitude of the great Author of all things, how could the predictions imparted to us denominate the last and awful day-the great and notable day of the Lord—if no greater events were to be then accomplished than the annihilation of our solar system? But the prophecies pre-show the fulfilment of events every way commensurate with the infinite infinitude of almighty operations, and which are all commensurate with their infinite Former.

of that infinite site, our lower starry heavens, we shall perceive many different entrances into the outward sanctuary: it is open of access to all the various orders of inhabitants who occupy the vast out-buildings which surround the sacred heavenly temple; for the court in which the temple stood, "and that without it, called the court of the women, were built round with stately buildings and cloisters, and the gates entering thereinto were very beautiful and sumptuous; and the outer court, (or court of the Gentiles,) which was a large square, encompassing all the rest, of 750 feet on every side, was surrounded with a most stately and magnificent cloister, sustained by three rows of pillars on three sides of it, and by four on the fourth."* But the matter of most important observation is, that the holy and most holy place are both enclosed and barricaded by an impenetrable wall; and that though so many are the entrances into the outward sanctuary, yet there is but one gate, one entrance, one way of gaining admission into that secondary one, which leads into the third and highest heavens, save the little wicket through which the frail precurser of the high heavenly Priest alone did enter, "to unbar the gate on the inside, for the opening of it in the morning, and for coming out after having barred it in the evening;"† when he pre-figured Him, who alone has opened the little wicket, the strait gate, which leads to endless life-who keeps the keys of hell and death,

* Prideaux.

+ Prideaux.