Joseph Smith:
“Intelligences exist one above another, so that there is no end to them.”
“The intelligence of spirits had no beginning; neither will it have an end.”
“The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-equal [co-eternal] with God himself.”
“Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.”
I think Dick's book provides striking similarities with Joseph Smith theology. I divided up six different areas I thought worthy to note. Unlike Smith, Dick provides an enormous amount of commentary on this subject. I jotted down about 45 references and I doubt I covered even a third of what was in his book.
Thomas Dick:
1. The fundamental infinite aspect of our spiritual makeup is defined as intelligence. Life on other planets: Intelligences will become people on some world or another:
delightful association with all the holy intelligences that people his immense empire. –p.132
And in other systems, in the distant regions of space, we perceive, that it is one great end of the Creator, to diffuse light and splendour throughout all the provinces of his immense empire, in order to unvail his glorious works to the eyes of unnumbered intelligences. – p.65
intelligences which occupy those distant provinces of the Creators empire. –p.154
2. God’s moral law is universal throughout the Universe and it is our actions of kindness and affection that bring us joy:
angels and other superior intelligences proceed on the same general principles. - p.161
Now, we have every reason to conclude, that moral action extends over the whole empire of God, that Benevolence exerts its noblest energies among the inhabitants of distant worlds, and that it is chiefly through the medium of reciprocal kindness and affection that ecstatic joy pervades the hearts of celestial intelligences. - p.66
he who is devoted to the practice of holiness, who loves his Creator with supreme affection, and his neighbour as himself, who adds to his faith "virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly-kindness, and charity," is, by such graces, rendered fit for everlasting communion with the Father of spirits, and for delightful association with all the holy intelligences that people his immense empire. –p.132
3. Those who have moved on from mortal life progress in knowledge and virtue:
there are moral intelligences who are insensible to the displays of the Divine glory, and altogether indifferent, whether or not they make progress in the knowledge of their Creator. – p.139-140
the grand aim of celestial intelligences will be, to increase in the knowledge and the love of God; and in proportion as their views of the glories of his empire are enlarged, in a similar proportion will their conceptions of his boundless attributes be expanded, and their praises and adorations ascend in sublimer strains to Him who sits upon the throne of the universe, who alone is " worthy to receive glory, honour, and power," from every order of his creatures. – p.169
intelligences of the highest order who have attained the most sublime heights of knowledge and virtue. –p.243
The indispensable necessity of love to mankind, to every class of holy intelligences, as a preparation for heaven, will appear when we consider, that we shall mingle in their society, and hold intimate fellowship with them in the eternal world. –p.267
4. Some will progress more than others:
in the various orders of intelligences. –p.202
superior intelligences, such as angels, and redeemed men, in a future state, must have their attention directed to the science of numbers, unless we suppose, what is contrary to Scripture, that their knowledge and capacities of intellect will be more limited than ours are in the present state. – p.157-158
5. Intelligences are infinite and eternal:
his perfections are recognized by infinite intelligences… -p.147
his glory contemplated by unnumbered intelligences.- p.165
the minds of redeemed intelligences from this world will find ample scope for the exercise of all their powers, and will derive from their investigations of them perpetual and uninterrupted enjoyment, throughout an endless existence. –p.250
6. Intelligences come to their assigned worlds to receive physical bodies but the anthropomorphic form is their natural eternal state:
what intercourse he has with the spirits of just men made perfect, with Enoch and Elijah, who are already furnished with bodies, and with other orders of celestial intelligences – p.200
When any of the angelic tribes were sent on embassies to our world, we find that, though they generally appeared in a shape some what resembling a beautiful human form. – p.215
To what is here stated respecting angels, it will doubtless be objected, "that these intelligences are pure spirits, and assume corporeal forms only on particular occasions." This is an opinion almost universally prevalent; but it is a mere assumption, destitute of any rational or Scriptural argument to substantiate its truth. - p.216
The fact is we know Joseph Smith owned a copy of this book and we know he felt it was important enough to cite in an 1836 issue of Messenger and advocate. Joseph Smith's "intelligences" doctrine would later appear in 1842. LifeonaPlate has insisted that the two men used the same word but had two entirely different concepts of it.
So what do you think?