What is the Great Chain of Being?

Christ is the truth absolutely — the Scriptures in a written form: there can be no development in these, though there may be in individuals the increasing in the know ledge of the truth, the "growing up to Christ in all things." But whatever is opposed to Scripture is error, and no development of truth at all. It is true that Scripture does not profess to teach science, and as little to teach, what it does teach or narrate, in a scientific way; its language in this respect is generally phenomenal. As connected with nature, science has its use; Scripture is concerned with an infinitely more momentous object and subject, the glory of God where sin is in question; — still any conclusions of science which contradict Divine revelation are necessarily and at once judged by it. If the upholders of science venture to deny the omnipotence of God, or to assert the eternity of matter, God's word, i.e. Divine authority, judges such conclusions as untrue and dishonouring to God. We think it is to be regretted that a Hebrew scholar of no little weight in this country, himself no doubt a Christian man, should deny that in Genesis 1:1 bara means to create out of nothing. It is true that it does not in all cases mean so, but in the above text it certainly means to create in the most absolute sense, i.e. out of nothing, or an argument is thus unintentionally given for the ungodly notion of the eternity of matter. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This alludes to the very origin of matter, not to formation, but to creation. Is it conceivable that nowhere in the Bible is God spoken of as having in the absolute sense created matter? and where should it be asserted that He did so, but in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis? He is the absolute Creator of matter as of life, as also the organiser of nature in its different kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal. These different kingdoms are constituent parts of, so to speak, one imperial whole. The Schoolmen, following Aristotle, state four universal causes of existing things: 1, the Material; 2, the Formal; 3, the Efficient; 4, the Final. The material cause was supposed to be that common substance or nature out of which things are made; the formal, that by which one object is made to differ from others produced out of the same common matter; the efficient, or motive cause, that which originates the motion or change from which the particular thing results; the final, that tendency or end to which the whole process of formation has reference, and in which it is completed. Corresponding with this, there are four words in Hebrew signifying to create, make, or form, and of these Bara refers to the Efficient cause.

For the purpose of the present paper we do not enter upon the question of whether the responsible creation failed in its responsibility. All that is considered in the chapter, and the difficulty met from the same inexhaustible Fulness. But in our verse we find that the whole creation, and all the authorities that were constituted in it in heaven and in earth, were created and ordered by Him with the impress of His Personality upon them. Himself the Image, the Representative, of God. These subordinate thrones and dominions and principalities and powers were created by Him, each to act in its own sphere and within its appointed scope, but all in dependence upon, and taking their character from, Him. "There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God." They are not supreme in themselves, nor is any one of them self-sufficient so as to be independent of Him. We may feel how small we are in comparison of them; even earthly potentates seem inaccessible by reason of their greatness; but there is One higher than the highest; and they are all dependent upon and responsible to Him. Nor are we to think only of earthly powers; there are potentates in heaven of whom we know little or nothing. We read of them, "principalities and powers in heavenly places"; but though we know next to nothing of them, we learn that they are created to bear the impress of Christ's character, and are equally responsible to Him with their earthly compeers. But consider the greatness of the One on whom such a vast system of glories can hang, and upon whose fullness all may draw without turning to another! All resource is in Him, wisdom, power, love, and boundless good. All that is represented by thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, — the rulers and the ruled, — may come and come again to this inexhaustible Person, and receive all nourishment, all support, all direction, without troubling to seek it from another or elsewhere. Such is the One who is available too for the church; but this is digression so immense that it must be left.

The created "all things" in the which they serve, and the form and character of their service and authority, and the measure of their power, are all amenable to His law; He is supreme among them all, Firstborn of all creation, because He created all. He is the Former of all things; however far back they may be dated in time, be it perhaps millions of years, He is before them all; and in Him they all hang together. We are carried back before the times of all authorities and powers, lordships, and principalities, and find one great Figure, outstanding and glorious, the Son of the Father's love. We admit that disorder and even enmity has come into the time scene; but He it is who is entrusted by the Godhead to bring about deliverance from Satan's power, and to reconcile things to Itself. But before the disorder came in, whether in the visible or invisible world, He it was Who, in Godhead glory, was Subject of His Father's eternal affection. He it was Who, being designated Head of all things in manhood, created all the spheres of authority in which His supreme sway and infinite Godhead fulness might be (and in the redeemed creation will be) fully realized. He will impart His own character to the whole creation, and bring everything into subjection to, and accord with, God, in heaven and in earth.

Yet Scripture, in its own brief way, has a more thorough classification implied in it than mere science can suggest, inviting research, not taking away the need of it. We see the distinctness and the relationship of the different lines to one another as parts of one perfect whole, the last dependent on the first, yet so that the first without the last would be a mere abortion. Life thus takes up the inorganic dust to lift it into a higher sphere, and enable it to serve in nobler ways than it seems naturally destined for. Here is a first step of progress, which shows the manner of the whole — a creature that cannot lift itself up, but must be lifted, and is lifted only by the uniting of a higher nature with it. Here is, for a spiritual mind, a gospel already, Christ already, and not very dimly, foreshadowed. With the creation of the soul, (which is marked out as not a development, but a distinct creation — God created the living soul,) the organization itself is raised to a higher level. The vegetable functions remain, and are incorporated in the animal, but now, besides this, there are self-directing and instinctive powers which need to be and are provided in it; and thus we have what is now for the first time called the "living creature." Life displays now its value in it Finally, by a new creation, man crowns this ascending series, in whom all former elements are combined, but reach a higher development. In him there is the dust of the ground, organization, a soul-life, but all this informed by a spirit in which we find now the image of its Maker, able to look up to Him upon the one hand, and, upon the other, down upon the lower ranks of creature-hood in communion with the glorious Creator. Adam thus fittingly gives names to all. And in man, as the image of God, a spirit from the Spirit, what a prophecy is before us, (incompetent as any one might be to understand it yet,) of Him who was to be, in a brighter and incomparable way, the true Image of the invisible God in manhood; in whom manhood itself shall find a higher plane than that for which it seemed destined, and God be seen in His place as God, yet stooping down in infinite tenderness to lift up the creature to Himself. Here is the Scriptural, the divine evolution in its whole extent; and must we not see the end, in order to appreciate rightly the beginning?

Man is the most richly endowed creature in the universe, so far as Scripture speaks. While the possession of soul and body allies him to the brute creation, his higher faculty — the spirit — assimilates him to the angels. Yet man's position is more wonderful than even that of the heavenly host, in that he is the divinely constituted head and centre of a system. For everything in this world is dependent upon, and revolves around, man.

Man was the first and great thought of God, but as all things were to be placed in relationship with him as head, the lowest and most distant of the creatures must bear some affinity to him, some more and some less; but not until man had his place as supreme was everything by the Creator pronounced “very good.” Everything beneath Adam looked up to him as centre, as bearing rule, and in whom was seated the wisdom that was necessary for such a place of supremacy.

We must mark the difference between the physical creation and the moral order of life placed therein. The first gives the sphere in which God's eternal counsels are worked out and the latter those whom those counsels concern. The higher intelligences — angels — are purely spirit beings, but man is complex in his being, partaking of both spirit and matter. Immortal in his spirit and mortal as to his body, he joins in himself both the moral and the physical parts of creation. Man is unique in the creation of God. As a spirit being he is the lowest in the scale of the moral order, the higher intelligences being much greater in power and glory. As to his physical being he is above the whole range of the animal creation.

But if it be necessary for the understanding of God's ways to view the place of our Lord in connection with the house of Israel as distinct from the rest of mankind, it is also incumbent upon us to distinguish between His relation to man and the earth as distinct from the hosts of other and higher intelligences. Different from these in his constitution, and coming upon the scene probably much later, there is yet much that man shares with these ranges of creation, both as to moral obligation and duration of existence. Spirit beings under moral obligation and capable of being affected both by good and evil may be said of each, both taking intelligent account of the working out of the plans of God in His creation. In rank, however, man is much less than the other class and stands in the moral scale at the bottom.

If a good and great king demands order to rule throughout the realms, and unto the uttermost borders of his kingdom, he will certainly and most particularly insist on order in his family and at his court. And do you think that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named, could, in His heavenly courts above, and in His church tolerate that which would be inconsistent with His holiness and derogatory to His majesty? Was His great apostle of the Gentiles and of the church indifferent to the confusion and disorder in the church at Corinth? He told them, that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, i.e., of that order, without which there can be no true peace. It is on the same principle, that the inspired apostle commands Christian women in the assembly, to have a cover (the symbol of subjection to another's authority) on their heads, "on account of the angels," because they are accustomed, to see in the heavenly courts above, everything and everyone in their proper places, and therefore would be grieved, if they saw a woman without that symbol of authority on her head in the church, where those heavenly principalities study the wisdom of God.

And as to the heavenly courts above, we find in those passages of the Old and New Testament wherever the Holy Spirit draws the curtain to permit us a glimpse into those heavenly scenes, perfect order pervading the whole; i.e. everything and everyone in their appointed place; and moving in their appointed sphere and time, in perfect harmony of action; be it as to divine government in the Old, or in connection with redemption in the New Testament. Even Satan with his wicked spirits must submit to that order, whenever they are permitted to make their appearance there. I need only to point out such passages as Job 1:6, (order as to time); 1 Kings 22:19, (order as to place); further Isa. 6 (besides the above mentioned half heavenly, half earthly scene in Ezek. 1) and further Rev. 4 and 5, to show how God wills his own immutable principle of divine order to bear sway throughout the whole of His creation, from the highest, down to the lowest. Now by the word "order," we understand such a condition of things and persons, where everything and everybody is found and moves or acts in the proper, appointed place, sphere, and time. Even the children of this world agree that order is one of the essential requisites for human happiness, prosperity, and success. "A place for everything, (and, let us add, "everybody,") and everything (and everybody) in its place," is a well-known adage, the truth of which is generally owned and acted upon, from the surroundings of royalty, down to the lowest employees in a manufactory. How infinitely more important (because divinely required,) is the principle of order for the relationships of the Christian, may they be those in the church or in the family, and how much more ought order to characterize everything in the individual believer's life and action.

God is a God of order. He "is not the author of confusion." Disorder and confusion belong to the kingdom of Satan and darkness; but, He that is clothed with honour and majesty, who "covereth Himself with light as with a garment," cannot permit disorder in His kingdom. It would be utterly inconsistent with light, and derogatory to majesty. And as to His divine wisdom, it expresses itself in that perfect order which characterises all His counsels and works. It is this principle of divine order that pervades the universe. May we consider the heavens, which declare the glory of God, and the firmament, which showeth His handiwork, where He has set a tabernacle for the sun, and ordained the moon and the stars though there is no speech nor language with them, and though their voice is not heard, yet "their line is gone out through the earth, and their words to the end of the world." And to what, next to the glory of God, does their silent language testify? That God is a God of order.