Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/145

Rh The end of creation is the formation of an angelic heaven out of the human race, which; as an image of the Creator, may bear some respect to his infinity, his immensity, and his eternity. But this respect to infinity, immensity, and eternity, would cease, were the habitable earth to be destroyed at the day of the last judgment: for then by a period being put to the procreations of mankind, the extent of heaven, together with the number of it's inhabitants, would be limited. Whereas it is highly reasonable to suppose, that, as the human mind, which is a heaven in it's smallest form, increases in perfection according to the plurality of it's knowledges, so the angelic heaven will likewise advance in perfection, and thus more and more resemble it's Creator, according to the perpetually increasing number of it's inhabitants. Hence the doctrines, which ascribe to the Divine Being an end worthy of himself in the creation of the world, by making provision for the perpetual generations and eternal successions of mankind, must be the most rational in themselves, as well as most conformable to divine revelation, when properly understood.

It is most clearly predicted in the Word, especially in the Gospels and the Apocalypse, that another judgment was to take place, after that which was accomplished by the Lord while on earth; and that, such judgment, together with the second advent of the Lord, was to form the first step to the introduction of a new dispensation. In the 24th chapter of Matthew the Lord describes the successive declension of the Christian church, until it should arrive at it's full period or consummation. He then foretels, that he will come again in the clouds of heaven in the character of Son of Man; by which is meant, as already stated, that he will appear as divine truth, and make his Word comprehensible and intelligible to the