That this error, and others intimately associated with it, respecting the person and work of Christ, should have arisen and been perpetuated in the manner specified, cannot reasonably be regarded with surprise. The nature of the case, and the lights of the intervening history, are at war with the supposition that the true doctrines upon these subjects, concerning which the governments, hierarchies, and people of the whole heathen world were in utter darkness and error, were preserved by the Jews after their return from Babylon, and after their rejection of Christ, and by the apostate hierarchy of the Romish system imbued with the spirit and degenerated to the level of Paganism, in all but the name. If, as is notorious, they did not truly teach the doctrines of Scripture upon other subjects, least of all can it be believed that they taught the truth concerning these. NOTE. Concerning the Work of Creation and its completion at one Epoch. It is clear from Colossians, chap. i., that the work of creation, there and elsewhere ascribed to the Christ, included the invisible as well as the visible worlds and all creatures; that they were called into existence by him and for him, for the purposes he was to execute and the ends which were to be accomplished by him. He is accordingly referred to as upholding and governing all things, as having all power in heaven and earth, as heir and Lord of all. Angels, principalities and powers are subject to him; and to him in his official character (as visibly manifested "the Son of Man") all judgment is committed. Now these comprehensive ascriptions to him in his delegated character, and in express connection with his work as Mediator and Redeemer, as in the passage above referred to, and in Heb. i., render it preposterous to suppose that worlds and creatures invisible to us, or any portion of the works of creation, were brought into existence prior to that creation which is described in the Mosaic narrative. For if they were, what conceivable connection or relation could they have had with his person or character as Redeemer, Messiah, God-man? Did he sustain that official character or exercise any of its offices ages prior to the creation of man?