God, and Nature is Nature"; but what follows from this fact? Are we to suppose that, on this account, the Deity is entirely separated from his creations, or that He stands apart in solitude, and acts upon his works only by the force of a changeful will? No. God can not be disconnected from the Universe. The Spirit on whose sustaining presence all forms and beings are dependent, must pervade the minutest particles of every substance, and pour its life through the throbbing heart of Nature. What could animate the body but the sonl?—and what could stir the mighty pulse of Creation but the breathing God? Then, if there can be no action in external matter without the presence of an internal force, the particular direction which that action takes must necessarily correspond with the movement of the force by which it is caused; and consequently, if the apparent action is found to be definite, regular, and systematic as in the visible world, we may infer that the movement of the invisible cause is of a corresponding character,—so that, wherever an established law is indicated in outward things, it may be known that that law is primarily seated in the operating Power. Let us now view this subject in another light. Deity, it should be observed, is self-existent, and consequently did not create himself. The organization, therefore, which He possesses, including all the qualities, properties, and characteristics thereof, did not result from his own will or choice, but existed by an eternal necessity. Did the Deity create motion? No Why? Simply because this could not be created without the action of a cause identical with itself—because, in short, motion must first exist in order to produce motion, and accordingly it must be recognized as an independent and eternal principle. Again, did Deity create his own intelligence? No. Why? Because that intelligence must exist eternally as a primary principle, since there is no cause either superior or ancerior to itself by which it could be produced. Then if Deity did not create the motion or intelligence within his own being, it would be obviously impossible for him to give laws to that motion and intelligence; for even omnipotence itself can not change the inherent qualities of that which exists by necessity. Thus, if it is asked how the established laws of Nature came to exist in Deity, they being uncreated, it will appear in answer that these laws were the essential and indwelling principles of his own self-existent constitution. The laws that govern any substance are simply the modes of action or definite tendencies which that substance manifests; and consequently, in case the substance is primitive and uncreated, these modes of action or tendencies must be likewise primitive and uncreated. And this, being a general and absolute truth, will apply to the Deity himself. As He did not create the substance of his own being, He could not have created the inherent properties of that substance; as He did not create the motion to which his very nature is forever subject, He could not have created the tendencies of that motion, and as He did not create the intelligence which is the crowning attribute of his perfect organism, He could not have created the principles by which that intelligence is governed. Hence the final conclusion is-and the writer hesitates not to express it in its full force—that the Divine Mind exists by necessity and acts by necessity, the fixed laws which govern all the movements of the external world having their established seat in the depths of his own eternal structure. What, now, in the light of this philosophy, is the principle of Divine Action as connected with the process of creation? The general character of this principle may be easily determined with the aid of our previous investigations. If Deity acts by necessity, in obedience to certain laws which are the inherent properties of his being, then the principle of that ac tion must necessarily be fixed, regular, and eternal. It is not, therefore, within his capacity either to create or to suspend the laws by virtue of which the Universe was born. The Great Spirit could not remain in a state of inactivity, because this would be contrary to his nature; and this activity tended inevitably to the production of certain results, which results were the natural and outflowing expressions of the beauty, order, and harmony, which are the unchangeable characteristics of the Divinity. We are to regard the great Germ of being as the sun of supreme intelligence, whose resplendent glories flow out into immensity as naturally and as inevitably as the rays of the material sun go forth to the distant worlds. This Divine Germ maintains a positive relation to all other parts of the infinite space; and accordingly it attracts toward itself those portions of this refined substance which are most congenial in their nature, and these, tending to a common point, give consciousness to the Central Being,—while, at the same time, the radiant emanations which are constantly thrown off from this Germ by virtue of the same positive relation, constitute the unchanging Will and Wisdom, which now as forever reign over all created forms. Thus it appears that the free will of Deity. "Is but NECESSITY in play,-- The principle on which God moves and acts is not foreign to, or independent of, himself; but it is the unalterable tendency of the very substance which makes his being, and this tendency is the power by which all physical results have been accomplished. It will seem to some minds to be dishonoring the Supreme Ruler to suppose that He is controlled by necessity, but it would not seem thus if such minds were enlightened by the philosophy of nature, instead of being obscured by theological prepossessions. To say that God acts by necessity is really no more dishonoring than to say that He exists in this manner, which is an undeniable truth; and it is surely less dishonoring to suppose that his volition is fixed and unalterable, or, to use the sentiment of the Primitive Record, 'without variableness or the shadow of turning,' than to suppose that it is fickle, wayward, or governed by circumstances, like the will of man. The Universe is sublime in the beautiful order and settled uniformity of its movements; the sun is glorious in the outflowing of its rays with an unvarying equality from age to age; and the Divine Mind is not less sublime and glorious than these, because the principle of its action is in accordance with the changeless and undisturbed harmony of Creation. It seemed necessary to dwell at some length on this part of the great subject under consideration, in order to unfold a true basis for subsequent investigations, and prepare the way for the revealment of ulterior realities. In inditing the thoughts which have apparently emanated from a sphere of wisdom, the writer has not been unmindful of their disagreement with the popular teachings of the day, but at the same time has sought, without fear of these teachings or their advocates, the unfolding of immortal truth. Let the reader employ the divine gift. of reason in the solution of the great problem presented in this chapter; and in the freedom and sublimity of heaven-born thought, the soul shall soar above the dark atmosphere of earthly error, to realize the hight, the expansiveness and immutability of that principle, by which the soul of God has been enshrined within the body of the Universe. Then will be interiorly seen and realized the truthfulness of the sentiment uttered by the Prophet in the following language: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." |