air with gold, and sung the songs of ether, in gay eddies on the wind. Thither she was attracted to enjoy with nearer eyes the splendor of the place, and departed, unknown to Adam, who stood still gazing on the ceaseless plunge of the head waters of the Euphrates, as that was the stream, delighted with its roaring music, and heeded not that Eve was gone. But as he viewed the passing waters, there sprung a fish from its bosom, and glittered in the sunny rays a moment, and then was hid again beneath its waves, and then another. This was a new discovery, a creature which had not passed before him on the day in which he had named the animals and fowls, had now leaped suddenly up from an unknown element, asking for a name; when turning to Eve to know whether she had seen this creature, found she was not there, nor any where in sight. He now followed down the stream, nothing doubting but soon to find her; yet he found her not, till passing by a grove of oranges, he saw far to the left, his Eve, descending from a gentle slope, having in her hands the very fruit of the forbidden tree, of which she so soon prevailed on him to taste; which was ten days, including the Saturday of his creation, till he fell-if we have conjectured rightly.

But we have wandered from our subject, which was of the proof of spiritual beings and of angels having first been created, but we will now return, and say, that as strange as it may appear, many Universalists disallow of the being of spiritual angels; although the Bible is full of accounts of such beings, which they say were nothing but men, or messengers of men, and not spirits, as commonly supposed. But to go with them as far as we can, we do not dispute but the term angel, does in some places in the Scriptures, signify ministers of religion, mere mortals, and extraordinary messengers of this cast, not unfrequently; yet we must contend, that the word as found in a mltitude of other places in the Bible, signifies, beyond all contradiction, supernatural beings, and spirits of the eternal world, who have at various, and on a multitude of occasiens, appeared to the human race, as sent by him who governs all. If not, then what are we to do with the account in the book of Luke, chap. ii. 9, 13, where it is said that while certain shepherds of the Jews were attending on their flocks by night, there appeared to them the angel of the Lord, whose presence was accompanied by a shining splendor, far above their heads; a circumstance not belonging to the race of man. But this angel of the Lord had scarcely announced his message, when there burst forth from the skies a host of angels, a multitude of heavenly beings, who poured forth strains of music, such as no mortal ears had ever heard on earth; corroborating that which the first angel had stated, which was that a Saviour, who was Christ the Lord, was that night born in the city of David, who, when they had thus declared their message, vanished out of sight, and went away into heaven: look at the

text. Could all this have been said of mere men? never, as the whole transaction took place in the skies, over their heads, a situation in which men are not often found, on account of the principle of gravitation, unless we suppose some of the rogueish fellows of the city, had made themselves a balloon, and having ascended to that height, set it on fire while they cried out in the midst of its blazing glories, as it is said the angels did, announcing the birth of the Son of God, &c. But we believe the balloon is a modern invention, and was unknown in those early times. If then spirits were the first beings which were created, when as yet there existed no system of nature-nature was not yet produced-was not born into being-had not spread out her fields of suns, of globes, of oceans, of rivers, of fountains of water, of forests, of herbage, of animals and of men:-what therefore could have furnished those newly created spirits with subjects of observation, and mental employment; as intellect without employment, can be considered nothing less than a defect in the economy of things in the very outset of existences. In relation to this, would it be amiss, were we to imagine, that notwithstanding the high intellectual state in which the angels were undoubtedly created; that first of all, the mystery of their own being, could have been an inexhaustable source of conjectural employment, till such time as some revelation should be made on the subject by the Creator.

If no revelation-no communication, between our first parents and their Creator, had taken place; how long, we may enquire, would it have been, before they would have found out whether they were created or not, or by what means they came into being, or whether they were not eternal and without a cause or commencement of being? could they ever have solved the mystery? we think not. So with the first spirits; they found themselves existing in multitudes, active in their powers of mind; glorious. in appearance, and exceedingly happy, surrounded on all sides. by a blissful heaven; so created, as was adapted to their spiritual state of being; but not consisting of gross matter, as belongs to our condition, but of a pure and rarefied description, so as to be above ponderosity and the tangibility of such senses as we possess. If it is said of man, that he was created in the likeness and image of his Creator, should it be thought strange that his place of dwelling, his beautiful Paradise, should in some sense, correspond to his mental condition; and likewise be a faint type or shadow of the great and sublime heaven of the angels, and final home of all the good.

This is no new thought, for it has been conjectured in ages past, by the immortal Milton, that our earth, as well as all worlds, resemble, in variety of hills and vales, of mountains and plains, of sun and shade, of streams and fountains, of forests and savannas, of fruits and flowers of ocean and dry land; that great

resting place of happy beings. Matter, as even known to mortals, is found capable, under the all modulating hand of God, of being exceedingly rarefied, as in the instance of light, the odor of flowers, &c., which are the produce of matter, and consequently can be termed nothing more or less than matter, but not subject, as the crude originals are to ponderosity or gravitation. Heaven therefore, so far as relates to identity and location, may, if we may so express ourselves, be in some such sense the beautiful and all perfect prototype of all systems of matter, which the Great Eternal has or may cause to come into being. Upon this hypothesis, may we not allow fancy a little latitude, and suppose heaven as a location, adorned with forests, with herbage, with all trees of fruit, with all flowers, with all landscapes, varied in beauty, such as even angelic taste could never devise; traversed by streams of waters as liquid silver, rushing over pebbles of gold and diamonds, with hills and vales, adorned with fountains, such as no Greek, or lavish Chaldean, ere caused to shower the dry and sparkling air, from marble fonts, to make glorious a place of rest. Mountains of God, cataracts of the skies of heaven, pouring from the pearly summits of beauteous hills, and projecting ledges of silver, their cooling volumes of flood, to adorn this palace of the universe, in which all that is beautiful in all other worlds, is here found in the aggregate amplified and exceeded. Appearing, however, in some such fashion, as would a universal christalization, being a world of light, yet retaining all that immensity of light and shade, a trait of variety which now distinguishes, beautifies and adorns such parts of creation, in other worlds, where sin has not yet blasted their primeval glories, as in this. Such, may not heaven be, but ten thousand times more in extent than a thousand systems like ours, suited to the purity and pursuits of a spiritual state of being, so far as location and a sublimated state of tangibility can do even under the husbandry of the Creator, and will perhaps be an item in those pleasures, which in the Scripture are aid to be at God's right hand forever more. To give the reader some idea of our meaning about a sublimated state of tangibility; we have only to suppose that all the substances of the earth, with the earth itself, in a state of perfect crystalization; while each condition of matter, whether earth, stones, ores, minerals, waters, oceans, forests, animals, fowls, men, cities, towns, houses, with eyery article of the globe, should retain, nevertheless, their respective differences, so they could as easily be distinguished, one from another, as they now are. In such a case, there could be no obscurity, all would be bright and wonderful; as when the sun shining on such a world, the mingled hues of different substances would blend and mingle their ten thousand dies, so as no rainbow was ever adorned, glittering through the entire mass of the earth, and over its entire surface. The same in the night would be the case-with this difference

however-which would be the difference there is between the shining of the sun in his strength, and that of the moon and the stars--producing a less gogeous splendor, chastened and softened by the night, but not obscured. Such a state of things, as it respects heaven, is even alluded to by the Revelator,-see chap. xxi. 11,-where the city of the new Jerusalem is compared to a most precious stone, even like Jasper, clear as crystal. And in the course of the chapter, it is again said: verse 18, that the walls are of Jasper, and the city, pure gold, like unto clear glass: and that its foundations were laid of twelve different kinds of pelucid stones-blending their hues together. Also Rev. iv. 2, 3: God himself is said to appear in splendor, like a sardine stone—which is a blood red and that round about the throne on which he sat, in sight or at a great distance, there was a halo, in form like a rainbow, whose color was that of the sapphire-which is a most brilliant blue. The very throne of God is said by Ezekial, i. 28-to be in color as the sapphire-while deep within, there was the color of amber-like fire-which shot off its splendors in the distance, causing the halo above noticed by the Revelator. Also in Exodus, xxiv. 10-the same idea is advanced, where the body of heaven in its clearness, is spoken of, with paved work of sapphire stones:-a sparkling blue.

In such a world as this, whose soil is golden earth, forming the base of heaven's diamond quarries, jutting out on the ranges of eternal mountains, which give rise to perpetual rivers, the waters of life-the drink of angels and the spirits of the just made perfect; were the first habitations of the first intelligences of omnific power. Along these streams of heaven, cluster in endless profusion, all groves of delight, laden with fruit, varied in shape, in flavor, and in perfumes, beyond all the visions of the sons of the mount of Apollo, and the Elysian fields. From cleft to cleft, on the sides of the mountain ridges, descend in broad showers, vines laden with clusters of such grapes as grew not in old Canaan, nor in the fields of Adam's principality, before his fall; from which flows the wine of the kingdom of which the Son of man and his disciples shall drink in heaven. See Math. xxvi. 29," But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine till that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Among these groves which never fade, whose leaves never lose their verdure, nor cast untimely fruit, but wait the pressure of seraphs' fingers; there sing all birds of celestial song, with sounds of sweetest melody, so that ever is sounding in the ear of heaven some note of other worlds, yet so as not to tire, ever seeming new and born each moment fresh into life. Everywhere were glorious beings in sight, some viewing from the mountains the boundless horizon of that world, while beneath, there was heaven's broad savannas spread out in their vastness; others walked by the streams beneath, amid the foliage, now hid

now seen, breathing the pure air of that sinless clime, while they discoursed things unutterable to mortals. As yet no traveller had arrived from other worlds, as at that time none were made. The great centre of all succeeding creations, had but newly bloomed in the midst of eternity, and this was heaven, around which it was intended the unending works of God should spread out their circles of suns, of planets, and of satelites. Where is the impropriety of supposing heaven, the first residence of the first spiritual beings, as the mighty centre of the universe, the grand nucleus of all worlds, to which all are attracted; yet repelled so as to produce celestial revolutions of the great yet increasing universe? none that we can see, as it presents no objection to a state of spiritual happiness; but is suited to such a state; as location, and association, are essential to the happiness of all finite exstences.

That heaven is a location is easily proven from the Scripture, from a multitude of places and circumstances, a few of which are as follows:-Deut. x. 14, "Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens, is the Lord thy God's; the earth also, with all that therein is." What is meant by the heaven of heavens, if it is not this great centre of all being? Now unless the heaven of heavens, so expressed by way of eminence, has a real existence and a location, as well as the earth, how can it be said to belong to God, if there is no such place? If there is no local heaven of heavens, then there is no local earth; for the one is as much alluded to in the text, and identified, as the other; and as belonging, both of them, to God: if one, therefore, is not pointed out by that Scripture, neither is the other. To the same doctrine, bears the Psalmist witness: chap. xx. 6, “Now know I that the Lord saveth his annointed: He will hear him from his holy heaven." Also in another place in Deuteronomy, xxvi. 15, the ownership, and consequently the locality, of heaven is brought to light: "Look down (or forth) from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel." Also Isaiah, lxiii. 15, "Look down (forth) from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of glory." Luke xv. 7, "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." St. Luke in another place speaks of this same heaven: chap. ii. 15, " And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them (the shepherds) INTO HEAVEN." But if there is no heaven besides that which is commonly called the firmament, in which the stars are situated, and the atmosphere of the earth, how could it be thus written? how could the angels go away into a heaven which has no existence, and no location? But this fact can be shown from another circumstance, which is the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord. No person will disallow, that the Saviour's body, while on earth, was as local, tangible and real as the bodies of other men, and as such