Page:God Manifest.djvu/241

Rh light. But still the eye is not light: its being correspondent to it, does not make it identical with, or the same as, light. Here, then, is the difference between being correspondent to a thing, and being the same as that thing.

Now, this is a most important difference and distinction, and one that needs well to be understood—for it is just this which constitutes the difference between the Creator and His creation—the distinction between God and man. Were any part of God's creation the same as, or identical with, God the Creator, then it would plainly be Divine. But this is not the case: all created things, from the highest to the lowest, are simply forms and substances, either spiritual or material, which correspond to the Divine nature; the effect of which correspondence is, that they can receive the life flowing every moment into them from the Divine Being, and so, if animate, be good and happy,—or, if inanimate, serve as means to the happiness of the animate. This is true of all things in the created universe, whether spiritual or natural, whether in heaven or earth. All are mere receptacles or recipients of the Divine life, and are not that life itself. Even man's soul or mind is not in itself in the least degree Divine, or partaking of the Divine substance; for, if it were, then man would be God:—for, as his soul is a part of himself, then, if his soul were Divine, he would be so far Divine. But, to say this, is as contrary to right reason as to Divine Revelation. Every thing Divine is infinite: but man's soul is not infinite; then it cannot be Divine. And the Scripture says, "there is none good but one, that is, God:" and it also declares that there is but one God; but if man's soul were