A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 6
VI. The Origin of Evil, and the Fall of Man.
MAN, when formed into the image and likeness of his Creator, was in the just and full exercise of two original faculties, called rationality and liberty. By rationality is meant the faculty of understanding what is true and false, also what is good and evil: and by liberty is meant the faculty of thinking, willing, and acting, in a state of perfect freedom. These two faculties were implanted in man at his creation; they are still in him at his birth into the world; and they are never absolutely taken away from him. But they are not, properly speaking, his own; they are only lent or continually communicated to him, being of and from the Lord in him, insomuch that they may be said to be the dwelling-place or residence of God with every man, enabling him to think and speak, to will and act, in all appearance as of himself. These faculties, thus appealing in him as his own, constitute his capacity of entering into reciprocal conjunction with his Creator, and consequently of living for ever. By these also he is capable of being reformed and regenerated; and by these he is distinguished from the brute beasts.
Man then being thus created and formed into an image and likeness of his God, and feeling in himself the life imparted to him in all respects as if it were his own, his integrity consisted in perpetually acknowledging from his heart, that all he had was the Lord's in him. But it is plain, that, while this derived life appeared to be in him as his own, though in reality it was not so, he must necessarily have had the power either of ascribing it to the Lord, according to the real truth of the case, or to himself, according to the mere appearance. For without this possibility he could not have existed a single moment as a rational and free agent; in other words, he could not have been a man, but would have been a kind of automaton, an intellectual machine, or at best a dignified brute. While he thought, willed, and acted, in and according to the truth, notwithstanding the appearance, he remained in the order to which he was created: but as soon as ever he yielded to the appearance, and by reasonings from the senses confirmed himself therein, he then abused those faculties, with which he was endued, and by turning to himself departed from his Creator. Thus, instead of standing in the true order of his life, which consisted in the perpetual acknowledgment, that he was only a recipient of life from God, he erroneously confirmed himself in the appearance that such life was his own: and thus, by the abuse of his two faculties of rationality and liberty, he formed in himself the origin and beginning of evil.
All this is described in the Sacred Scripture in a way peculiar to the genius of the most ancient people. The language used for this purpose may be called parabolical, or, as the apostle Paul expresses it, allegorical: but in truth every word is significative of, and correspondent with, some specific matter of contemplation included in the general subject. In language of such a character the serpent, which deceived the woman, and through her the man, denotes the sensual principle, which by fallacious appearances, and plausible but false reasonings, flatters and seduces first of all the will or selfish propensity, represented by the woman, and afterwards the rational faculty itself, represented by the man. For the man, the woman, the serpent, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the garden of Eden itself, all represented and signified states of affection, thought, and life, in each individual member of the church, and at the same time in that collective body of men, of whom consisted the first or most ancient church on this earth. The way, in which that church fell, was the same as that in which every succeeding church has fallen: each church, when arrived at maturity, has had it's man and it's woman; each has been placed in a garden similar to that of Eden, though not so highly cultivated, nor so rich in product; each however has had it's tree of life in the midst, it's tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's delicious fruits, and it's seducing serpent. And if we trace the progress of evil, we shall find, that all these successive churches, all the individuals composing them, and all who have descended from them, or in any way been related to them, in short, all the families of mankind, all, all have eaten of the forbidden fruit; they have all, more or less, suffered themselves to be deceived by the delusive pleasures of self-love and the love of the world.
From the preceding observations it evidently appears, that man, by the abuse of his faculties of liberty and rationality, with which he was originally endued, perverted the order in which he was created, confirmed himself in states of infidelity and moral depravity, and at length plunged himself into unspeakable miseries and calamities, from which there could have been no recovery, but by the interposition of the divine mercy, wisdom, and omnipotence. The Creator himself, therefore, compassionating his helpless, fallen offspring, immediately announces to them his purpose of effecting their restoration; and in the mean time makes a true faith in the future Messiah the condition of their present acceptance with him, and of their eternal salvation hereafter.
