"LET US MAKE MAN;" OR, THE LORD'S MERCIFUL COOPERATION WITH ANGELS AND MEN IN THE WORK

OF SALVATION.

THE relation in which man stands to God, how he receives life from Him, and in what manner he should live so as to enter into communion and conjunction with his Maker, is one of the most important and interesting problems in Theology. Unless some light be thrown upon this subject, it is impossible to enjoy any intelligence in religious and spiritual things. Those who have studied the doctrinal history of the church, well know, that this has been a vexed question from time immemorial. That all life and consequent action come from God cannot be doubted, and that consequently man in himself has no life and no power of action but what he receives from God, is equally evident. But in what manner can we so live as to be responsible beings, to enjoy the peace and happiness arising from living well, or in harmony with God's precepts, and to avoid the sin, guilt, and misery which arise from an opposite conduct, is a deeply interesting problem. At an early period, about the beginning of the fifth century, this subject much engaged thinking minds. The question soon assumed two forms; one was, that man by creation has every thing necessary to his salvation placed in his own hands, and that he must himself employ the means by which his salvation is accomplished. Pelagius, who [Enl. Series.-No. 28, vol. iii.]

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represented this side of the question, regarded every man as a moral agent who is complete in himself, and separate from all others. Hence sin necessarily appeared to him as the free act of the individual, and in his opinion there could be no other connection between the sin of Adam and the sin of his posterity, than that which exists between the example on the one hand, and voluntary imitation on the other. Every infant is accordingly in the same condition in which Adam was prior to the fall. Neither sin nor virtue is inherent, but the one as well as the other developes itself, when a man comes to make use of his liberty for which he himself is alone responsible. "All good and evil (says Pelagius) by which we become either praiseworthy or blameworthy, is not born with us, but is acted out by us; for we are born capable of each, but not imbued with either; thus, we are born both without virtue and without vice; and before the action of our own will, that only is in a man which God himself has planted there."*

The other side of the question, which was maintained by Augustine, assumed this form of expression :-" As all men have sinned in Adam they are justly exposed to the vengeance of God, because of this hereditary sin and guilt of sin." This became the so-called orthodox doctrine, which still maintains its sway in nearly all Christian communities, and it forms the basis of the prevalent doctrine of the Atonement.

The New Church doctrine on this subject shews what is true and what is false both on the Pelagian and Augustinian side of this great question, and by the light of new truths clears up, both rationally and Scripturally, this important problem of human intelligence. Pelagius is in error when he says that men are now born as Adam was, exempt from evil or from hereditary tendencies to evil; but he is in the truth when he maintains that we have not inherited either the sin of Adam or its guilt. Whereas Augustine is true when he says that we have hereditary evil; but he is not true in asserting that this hereditary evil and its guilt are derived from Adam. He is also in error when he supposes that there is any vengeance in God.

To have a clear Scriptural and rational view of this subject, it is necessary to see that life and the organic forms of man's spirit and body which receive life are not both created, nor must they be considered as inseparably one. For life is not creatible, but only the forms

* Omne bonum ac malum, quo vel laudabiles, vel vituperabiles sumus, non nobiscum oritur sed agitur a nobis; capaces enim utriusque rei, non pleni nascinur, et ut sine virtute, ita et sine vitio procreamur, atque ante actionem propriæ voluntatis id solum in homine est, quod Deus condidit.-Lib i. de lib. art. c. 13.

receptive of life; these forms are created; but not the life from God which actuates them. God first created man as the highest form receptive of life, signified by His image, and then He breathed into him the breath of life. What God once does, He always does, and He is now constantly breathing life into every man, and universally into every created thing. It is by this inbreathing, or influx of life from God, that every thing is perserved. It consequently follows that forms receptive of life are propagated and not life itself. But the form propagated assumes a quality according to the form from which it is propagated. Of whatever quality the parent form is, that quality will be propagated in the offspring; that is, the offspring will have tendencies to the same qualities, and when grown up and developed those qualities will become manifest. Thus, if a man's parents and progenitors have contracted, and, by repeated acts, have confirmed certain dispositions in themselves, tendencies to similar dispositions will be ingenerated in their offspring. This necessarily results from the law of propagation, which is, that “ every seed shall bring forth fruit after its kind." If a man's parents and progenitors have contracted an avaricious, a sensual, a proud, covetous, envious, malicious, or ambitious nature, tendencies to the same evils will necessarily be ingenerated in their children. This is hereditary evil, but it is not actual guilt or sin; and therefore no child is condemned on account of its hereditary evil. When, however, the evil disposition, as the child grows up into youth and manhood, is not resisted and subdued, but indulged and practised, then hereditary evil becomes actual sin, (see James i. 14, 15.) and condemnation ensues,-" for this is condemnation (or guilt) that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil,". &c. (John iii. 19.) Although a man brings with him, from the law of hereditary propagation, a corrupt nature into the world, yet, of the Lord's mercy, everything is provided to counteract this nature, and to change its tendencies. This change is signified by "being born again." Thus, "as sin abounded grace did much more abound;" that is, means are abundantly provided to counteract all sinful tendencies in order that man may be saved. Redemption involves the aggregate of these means.

When it is seen that man is a receptacle of life from God, which every moment flows into him, it will be seen that all man's reactive power is solely from God, and that he, as of himself, acts from Him who is the only fountain of life. Hence by the knowledge of this fact we can avoid the error of the Pelagian system, which supposes that life is inherent in man by creation, and that it is created together with

man. We may thus see the true relation which man sustains to his Maker, and can ascribe to Him all Life, all Good, all Truth, all Power, and all the merit of every thing that we do. To constitute man a likeness of God, it is necessary that he should have within him apparently and finitely, what God has in reality and infinitely,-that he should have life and all the predicates of life, as love, truth, power, &c., as though originating in himself, but in reality received every moment from God. This is the first characteristic feature of man as created in the likeness of God. This great truth was first separated from its appearance, and presented in a rational and Scriptural form to the thinking mind by Swedenborg. In vain you look for it in the intelligence of the past. We learn that man, as the most perfect recipient form of life from God, has neither good nor evil inherent in himself by creation;—but by living according to God's laws he receives His Goodness together with His Life, and by not so living he perverts God's Goodness, and receives evil from hell. Thus not only his life but his freedom and rationality, which life brings with it, are the Lord's constant gift to man. But by the power of reaction, which in man is called coöperation, he can freely choose and determine which course, whether good or evil, he will adopt; and as he chooses and determines he contracts a nature either heavenly or infernal, which is peculiarly his own or his proprium, which he loves, in which he delights, and which he defends, confirms, and establishes as his own free choice, possession, and enjoyment. If this nature, at the time of death, is "holy and righteous it will be holy and righteous still;" but if "filthy and unjust it will be filthy and unjust still;" (Rev. xxii. 11.) that is, no change can be effected as to its governing principle, but it will remain unchanged to eternity. And this not because God desires it to be unchanged, or that "He hath any pleasure in the death of a sinner," but because man has made it his life's love, and will not have it changed. Those who think that man's evil nature after death will be changed, and that eventually hell will cease to exist, only consider one side of this solemn question. They derive all their arguments and their grounds of thought from God, and conclude, that because God is infinite love He can design nothing but the happiness of His creatures, and especially of man; this conclusion is most true and just. Again, they conclude that because God is infinitely wise, He can provide the means of salvation and happiness. This conclusion is also not to be doubted. And finally, they conclude that because God is all-powerful, therefore He can accomplish His design in making man happy. This also is true. Nevertheless, the other side of the problem must be con

sidered. For this question must be seen in relation to man as well as to God. Man is created free to choose and form his own life, and he is by creation endowed with rationality to justify and confirm the determinations of his free choice. These laws of man's constitution, as being free and rational, are as unchangeable as the laws of creation itself, and God is the last being in the universe to infringe these laws of man's constitution, because they are the laws of His own order, which is unchangeable. If, therefore, man chooses evil for his life's love, and says," Evil, be thou my good,"-and delights in the pleasures of evil, who can deprive him of it? To force him out of it against his will would be a cruelty infinitely greater than that of forcing the owl or the bat, whose organs of vision are so formed as to prefer darkness to light, out of the obscurity in which they love to dwell.

We hence see the necessity whilst in this world, where all radical changes in man's nature can be effected, of being regenerated, or of being transformed into the image and likeness of God. This is the great end of creation, and to accomplish this all the mercies and powers of God's redeeming love are directed. Many means are employed by Divine Providence in effecting this adorable purpose. But these means may be summed up, 1, in the Word; 2, the ministry of angels; 3, the ministry of men; 4, the coöperation of man himself, as the subject in whom the work is effected; and lastly, the subserviency of evil and unclean spirits.

Of these agencies in effecting the salvation of mankind, the Word is the primary and most essential; because the Word is the esssential Divine Truth, without which nothing can be done. The Word is thus the Lord Himself coming forth to instruct and save mankind, in a manner corresponding to that in which light and heat came forth from the sun to preserve and bless the earth.

The second agency which the Lord employs is the ministry of angels. It was never seen in any degree of clearness what is meant by the declaration in Genesis,-" And God said, let us make man," &c., until the light of the New Theology expounded it. Some have supposed that the plural form is here employed to denote the three Persons of the Godhead, who it is alleged were all three concerned in the making of man. But this idea was only entertained by some after the erroneous doctrine of three Persons in the Godhead was established, and it has long since been abandoned by all first class theologians. "Angels, we know, are ministring spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." (Heb. i. 14.) We likewise know "that angels rejoice over every sinner that repenteth." Hence it is, that