former, by the appearance of Him who was greater than the temple, whose mission was distinguished by more numerous miracles, and by sublimer and more important truths than had been before manifested to the world. Behold a higher dispensation still, when, after the state of grace ends, the state of glory shall commence; where all knowledge shall be imparted and all truth unvailed, where imperfection and sin shall no more adhere to us, and where, after the experience of millions of ages spent in the enjoyment of heavenly happiness, we shall be still advancing in glory and felicity, and attaining to higher measures of the increasing strength and ever-growing splendor of the sons of God. These analogies may be extended. The wisdom and goodness of a God, for example, equally appear in the late and partial promulgation of Christianity, which is sometimes considered an objection against its truth, but which, in fact, is in perfect accordance with the same principle of progression which we have been illustrating in the general economy and arrangements of all God’s proceedings. The gifts of nature are not imparted universally, nor in the same measure to all. The discoveries of science are the result of long and patient investigation. Herbs have been allowed to run waste for centuries upon centuries, of which the medicinal virtues have only recently been discovered. Through how many ages had mankind been left in ignorance of the properties of the magnet, and the simple apparatus of the compass-box, braving all the perils, and tossed about on the unknown wastes of the ocean? How much did the progress of knowledge and education suffer, during the lapse of so many generations, for want of the printing-press? What oppressions and cruelties have been practiced upon the different nations of the earth, through means of bad laws and bad government, of which even yet many are learning but the elements? And how is it that of one and all these things—the truths of science, the art of healing, the principles of navigation, the discipline of wholesome instruction, the enactment of good laws, and the various blessings of civilized life—more than two-thirds of the human race are in these latter ages still entirely destitute? God governs both in the kingdom of nature and in the kingdom of grace, and any objection, therefore, against the truth of revelation that may be built upon these grounds, goes equally to dethrone the Almighty from any share of interest in the government of the universe. But the Gospel, in fact, would have been premature before the actual time of its appearance; the history of providence in former ages could not have been appealed to, the sacrifice of the Redeemer had not been understood without the legal sacrifices preceding, the prophesies would have been unfulfilled, and the world would have been unprepared for a worship so pure and spiritual, a morality so searching and uncompromising, and a faith so lofty and exalted, had there not been