The Spiritual Aspect of the Visible Creation

John Treble, in 1841, posited the fascinating idea that every natural thing that we perceive in life has its spiritual counterpart in the invisible and the natural is a shadow of it. He wrote about this in "On the Mysticism Attributed to the Early Fathers of the Church, Tract 89." Here is a portion of it:

"If one were to call these latter, of the sun and stars, examples of a symbolical or sacramental view of nature, it would perhaps be no improper mode of expressing the fact here intended; viz. that the works of God in creation and providence, besides their immediate uses in this life, appeared to the old writers as so many intended tokens from the Almighty, to assure us of some spiritual fact or other, which it concerns us in some way to know. So far, therefore, they fulfilled half at least of the nature of sacraments, according to the strict definition of our Catechism: they were pledges to assure us of some spiritual thing, if they were not means to convey it to us. They were, in a very sufficient sense, Verba visibilia. . .

"But further: as the mention of the Sanctuary and Tabernacle, the Ark and certain other particulars, must of course lead reflecting minds, even without further information, to the surmise, that in regard likewise of other points not specified, and in short in its whole range and detail, the Jewish economy was typical of the Christian; so when the True Light and the True Vine are named, we are naturally carried on to say to ourselves, 'What, if the whole scheme of sensible things be figurative? What, if all aisqhta [sensible, material things] answer to nohta [non-sensible, or "thinkable" things] in the same kind of way as these which are expressly set down? What, if these are but a slight specimen of one great use which Almighty God would have us make of the external world, and of its relation to the world spiritual?'

"Certainly the form itself of speaking, with which these symbols are introduced would seem to imply some such general rule: 'That was the True Light;' 'I am the True Vine;' 'who will give you the True Riches?' taking for granted in a manner the fact, that there was somewhere in the nature of things a true counterpart of these ordinary objects, a substance of which they were but unreal shadows; and only informing us in each case, with authority, what that counterpart and substance was.

". . . let it be considered, whether there are not, on the face of Scripture itself, other obvious appearances in its favour. In the first place, there is the broad fact, that the revealed oracles deal so largely, I had almost said so unreservedly, in symbolical language taken from natural objects: and next, what is equally obvious, that the chosen vehicle for the most direct divine communications has always been that form of speech, which most readily adopts and invites such imagery; viz. the Poetical. These are undeniable and surely most significant circumstances, and hardly to be accounted for by the sayings of those, who would reduce all Mysticism to the mere workings of human fancy. Let us reflect, distinctly and at large, on each of them.

"And first, as to the symbolical language of Scripture, is there not something very striking, to a thoughtful reverential mind, in the simple fact of such language occurring there at all? This is not meant of merely metaphorical and figurative language, expressing one human and temporal matter by another; but the case intended is, when truths supernatural are represented in Scripture by visible and sensible imagery. Consider what this really, comes to. The Author of Scripture is the Author of Nature. He made His creatures what they are, upholds them in their being, modifies it at His will, knows all their secret relations, associations, and properties. We know not how much there may be, far beyond mere metaphor and similitude, in His using the name of any one of His creatures, in a translated sense, to shadow out some thing invisible. But thus far we may seem to understand, that the object thus spoken of by Him is so far taken out of the number of ordinary figures of speech, and resources of language, and partakes thenceforth of the nature of a Type . . .

"[The text] of St. Paul to the Romans, 'The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.' This would seem to lay down the principle or canon of mystical interpretation for the works of Nature, as the other texts . . . for the Mosaic ceremonies and the history of the Jews . . .

"Poetry, traced as high up as we can go, may almost seem to be God’s gift from the beginning, vouchsafed to us for this very purpose: at any rate the fact is unquestionable, that it was the ordained vehicle of revelation, until God Himself was made manifest in the flesh. And since the characteristic tendency of poetical minds is to make the world of sense, from beginning to end, symbolical of the absent and unseen, any instance of divine favour shewn to Poetry, any divine use of it in the training of GOD's people, would seem, as far as it goes, to warrant that tending to set God’s seal upon it, and witness it as reasonable and true. Much might be said on this head: but it is enough now to have just indicated it, as one among the many reasons for thinking that Christian Antiquity was far more scriptural, than at first we might be apt to imagine, as in many other things, so in the deep mystical import, which it unreservedly attributes to the whole material world, and to all parts of it."

Fourteen years prior to writing this tract, Treble composed a beautiful hymn on the same theme called "There is a book, who runs may read":

There is a book, who runs may read,
which heavenly truth imparts,
and all the lore its scholars need,
pure eyes and Christian hearts.

The works of God above, below,
within us and around,
are pages in that book, to shew
how God himself is found.

The glorious sky embracing all
is like the Maker's love,
wherewith encompassed, great and small
in peace and order move.

The moon above, the Church below,
a wondrous race they run,
but all their radiance, all their glow,
each borrows of its Sun.

The Savior lends the light and heat
that crowns his holy hill;
the saints, like stars, around his seat,
perform their courses still.

The saints above are stars in heaven
what are the saints on earth?
Like trees they stand whom God has given,
our Eden's happy birth.

Faith is their fixed unswerving root,
hope their unfading flower,
fair deeds of charity their fruit,
the glory of their bower.

The dew of heaven is like thy grace,
it steals in silence down;
but where it lights, the favored place
by richest fruits is known.

One Name above all glorious names
with its ten thousand tongues
the everlasting sea proclaims,
echoing angelic songs.

The raging fire, the roaring wind,
thy boundless power display:
but in the gentler breeze we find
thy Spirit's viewless way.

Two worlds are ours: 'tis only sin
forbids us to descry
the mystic heaven and earth within,
plain as the sea and sky.

Thou, who hast given me eyes to see
and love this sight so fair,
give me a heart to find out thee,
and read thee everywhere.