It may be that
the _form_ so conceived and drawn in Nature's book by the Divine
Designer is a final form, up to which development shall lead, and beyond
which (at least in a material sense) it shall not go; or it may be that
it is a type intended to be transitory;[1] but _both the intermediate
and final forms must take their origin first in the Divine Mind, and be
prescribed from the Heavenly Throne,_ before the obedient matter and
forces and the life-endowment could co-operate to result in the
realization of the forms and the population of the globe.
[Footnote 1: The idea which I am endeavouring to make clear is well
illustrated by another passage in one of the Mosaic books--the account
of the Tabernacle. Moses had no idea of his own of the structure, its
furniture, implements, or the forms of these. The narrative expressly
states that the Divine power originated the designs, and caused Moses to
understand them. In a human work the designer would have drawn the
objects with measures and specifications, and given the papers to the
workmen. With the Divine work, where the design is in the Divine
Thought, and the workmen and builders are forces and elementary matter,
the process is a mystery, but in its practical bearing is understood
from analogy. The Tabernacle was truly God's _creation_, because it was
all commanded in design and "pattern" by the Almighty before Moses put
together the materials that realized the pattern in the camp of Israel.
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