ij6 The Plan of the Ages.
on a lower plane of being than another ; thus, a perfect horse would be lower than a perfect man, etc. There are various natures, animate and inanimate. To illustrate, we arrange the following table :
��Grades of
�Grades of
�Grades
�Grades
�Heavenly or Spiritual Being.
�Earthly or Animal Being.
�in the Veg- etable Domain.
�in the Min- eral Domain.
�Divine.
�Human.
�Trees.
�Cold.
� �Brute.
�Shrubs.
�Silver.
�-
�Fowl
�Grasses.
�Copper.
�Angelic.
�Fish.
�Mosses.
�Iron.
��Each of the minerals mentioned may be pure, yet gold ranks the highest. Though eachof the ordersof plants should be brought to perfection, they would still differ in nature and rank. Likewise with animals : if each species should be brought to perfection, there would still be variety; foi perfe&ing a nature does not change a nature,* The grades of spiritual being, also, though perfect, stand related to each other as higher and lower in nature or kind. The di- vine nature is the highest and the superior of all spiritual natures. Christ at his resurrection was made "so much better" than perfect angels as the divine is superior to the angelic nature. Heb. i : 3-5.
Note carefully that while the classes named in the above table are distinct and separate, yet a comparison between them may be instituted, thus : The highest grade of min- eral is inferior to, or a little lower than, the lowest grade of vegetable, because in vegetation there is life. So the high*
- The word nature is sometimes used in an accommodated sense, as, for
instance, when it is said that a dog has a savage nature, or that a horse has a gentle nature^ or is bad Matured. But in using the word thus It signifies merely the disposition of the one described as compared with others, and does not, strictly speaking, relate to nature.
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