God had declared to Abraham , 'I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant , to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee,' Genesis xvii. It was proper, therefore, to show this stiff-necked people that the threatenings of God and his promises were not contradictory. These suppositions, which are reasonable, being granted, we shall have no difficulty to perceive the sense of this celebrated vision. We will begin with the First Cause which gives motion to all that happens, traces out the plan, and procures the execution, according to the rules of his ineffable wisdom , and agreeably to the nature of those creatures which are the object of his agency. Next, we will proceed to consider the effects of this universal Providence, and the intelligent secondary causes which he frequently employs in the administration of the government of the universe.
Man is the symbol of intelligence.
The mind of man, with respect to his knowledge and wisdom , is a weak sketch of that mind which knows all things, and whose wisdom is unbounded. And yet, of all sublunary beings, there is none that approaches so near to the Divine nature as man. Under this emblem also it is that God , considered as seeing all things and directing all, would be represented. This resemblance of man was seated upon a throne to show that God governs all things as Lord and that without agitation and without labour. The Jews acknowledged that there was a Providence which governs the whole universe with infinite wisdom .