discern the design and tendency of many of these events, neither do we know the agents and operations by which they are effected. But though we know not what invisible agents may be engaged, nor in what manner they interpose, in human affairs; yet we know from the authority of Sacred Writ itself, that such are employed in the execution of the divine purposes with men ;* and from the same authority we also know, that to the Redeemer, for the administration of his Mediatorial Government, all the Angels of God, all the Powers in heavenly places, are subjected: that either in his own person, or by subordinate agents, he may order and accomplish whatever be necessary may in the progressive execution of the Important Purpose,

* See Daniel x. 5—10—12, 13-20.-Then I lift up mine eyes and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, &c. &c. and behold an hand touched me; and he said unto me-Fear not Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo! Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia, &c. &c.—and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I am gone forth, lo! the prince of Grecia shall come. Ch. xi. 1.—Also I, in the first year Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. Ch. xii. 1.—At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, &c. &c. It is evident the personages alluded to in these passages are all Spiritual, or, as we would say, Supernatural agents.

the Great Design, of finally establishing universal peace, order, and happiness, through all the works of God.

It is perhaps deserving of observation, that in the account of the production of the world, in the first chapter of Genesis, the absolute term God is constantly used; but when the account of the administration of the new-created world begins, the term The Lord God is introduced. And in all the intercourse and converse between the Deity and the first inhabitants of the world, this appellation is constantly given to the Divine Person whom we find administering the affairs of the new creation, and seems to denote a distinct person and character, and is probably always to be understood of the Son. And in the several conversations betwen this Divine Personage and Adam, Eve, Cain, &c. as recorded in the third and fourth chapters of Genesis, it seems plain that he presented himself in some personal form, or visible appearance. And whether or not this might have any relation to the assumption of Humanity in the Mediator, there is, I think, no doubt but it is to be referred to the same person, and relates to his mediatorial character, being part of the administration of that important government, which was from eternity ordained to be laid upon his shoulders; and which comprehends, not only, as the Jews fondly believed, the protection and restoration of their nation, but of all the human race;

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nor only of the human race, but of the whole creation of God. We are certainly far from having an adequate conception of the Glorious Mediator's undertaking, and character, when we represent him merely as the institutor of a particular system of religion, and the author of salvation to only a few of those who profess that religion. How much more worthy and exalted is the idea which St Paul gives, of the dignity of his character, and of the importance and extent of the design of his mediatorial office, in the following passages:" That in all things he

might have the pre-eminence, it pleased the "Father that in him should all fulness dwell; “and, having made peace by the blood of his

cross, by him to reconcile all things unto him"self; by him, I say, whether they be things in "earth, or things in Heaven." And again, “That " in the dispensation of the fulness of time, he "might gather together in one all things in "Christ, both which are in heaven, and which "are in earth, even in him."* We, even Christian Divines, are, I believe, too much accustomed to consider the Son, the second person in the Sacred Trinity, as constituted Mediator and Restorer with respect only to the lapsed race of mankind. But, to a right conception of his office and character, it seems essential to consider him not only as the Saviour of men; but as the universal Agent of Omnipotence: acting in the same character of Mediator between an Infinite

* Col. i. 18, 19, 20.

Deity and all Finite Beings eternal ages before our system existed; and to do so eternal ages after it shall exist no more: though only what we are in some degree concerned in, is particularly communicated to us. He himself speaks of the glory which he had with the Father before the world began.

The Gospel by St John commences with the expression-In the Beginning was the Word and the book of Genesis with-In the Begin ning God created the heavens and the earth. In both these expressions it is evident the word Beginning may be referred-must be referred

to a period myriads of ages before the commencement of our system. With respect to the words of St John, this is clear from the context. And it is no less clear with respect to the expression in Genesis, both from the description there given of the earth, and from the discoveries every day making of its structure, composition, and remains.*

*There cannot be a doubt but the two first verses of the book of Genesis refer to a period infinite ages before the creation described in the subsequent verses. Whoever attends to the internal structure and composition of the earth, even to the small depth that men have been able to penetrate, must be convinced that it has been forming myriads of years beyond the period ascribed to our system-something short of six thousand years. A strange period to limit the productive operations of an eternally existing, and an eternally operating God!

When the Canonico Recupero, attempting to ascertain the time that mount Etna had been volcanic, from the number of

Thus it is clear from. Scripture, and from the nature of the subject, that the effect of the interposition of the Universal Redeemer, and the influence of his mediatorial character, not only concerns all the human race, but extends to the whole system of Beings, from the first production of finite existence to eternity; and that this extent of influence and power is delegated to him for the purpose of universal mediation, redemption, and restoration. He himself declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven "and in earth;" where the word given plainly implies some particular delegation of power and authority distinct from his eternal essential supremacy. And wherever this delegation of authority, this subjection of Principalities and Powers unto him, this sovereignty and dominion over all Beings in heaven and in earth, is mentioned, it is mentioned as a branch or consequence of his mediatorial character. It is in relation to this character, that Daniel represents

successive strata, and the time that a stratum of lava took to pulverise he was admonished, I believe (for I quot at present only from memory)-by the Archbishop of Palermo, to take care that he did not make his mountain older than the Epoch of Moses. A caution which shews the Archbishop to have been neither a very deep Geologian nor Theologian. Some pious persons are alarmed at the discoveries of modern geologists as incompatible with Sacred Writ; but they may safely banish their fears on that account. The two first verses of Genesis will acquit our geologists to the utmost extent their imaginations can carry them.