In order therefore, that spiritual beings may continue to come into existence, and thus that heaven may be perpetually increased, it is manifest that the natural world must continue to exist. The question, therefore, in regard to the continual existence of the natural world, may be most certainly answered, if we can determine whether the number of the inhabitants of heaven is to be perpetually increased. Is it the purpose of the Lord to give eternal happiness to a certain definite number, and then to close the doors of heaven, and, at the same time, destroy the natural world, as being no longer necessary? Such a supposition would be entirely incompatible with the very nature of infinite love. For, that love can demand nothing less than that not only those who dwell in heaven should be eternally progressing in happiness, but also that the number of those spiritual beings who can be eternally happy, should be perpetually increased. The full demands of divine love must of course be infinitely more than any finite mind can conceive of; but, so much as this, even we may clearly see, must be demanded by that love. We infer, therefore, that the natural world will perpetually exist. It is the effect of spiritual causes. Those causes exist from the divine love; that love demands that the number of the inhabitants of heaven should be perpetually increased; and such continued increase cannot take place without the perpetual existence of the natural world.
I have thus presented the reader with a brief outline of an argument, designed to show that the permanent continuance of the natural world must be a necessary consequence of the divine love. In a former part of this little work, I remarked that in a subsequent section I would endeavor to show that though the word of the Lord teaches nothing directly, in regard either to the destruction or the preservation of the natural world, yet that the doctrine of its permanent existence is a just and rational inference from certain truths contained in that word. The reader has seen the way in which I have endeavored to redeem this promise. I have
