Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church/Chapter4
IV
FURTHER STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD
As Assessor Extraordinary Swedenborg received no salary except when in actual service, of which little was required after the death of Charles XII; and accordingly in June, 1720, he presented a petition to the Royal College of Mines stating that he had spent all his time and money in perfecting himself in what would be of service to his country, and therefore begging the College graciously to provide him with some salary or other support by virtue of his appointment. A year later he wrote to the President and College—
"As I am about to undertake a new journey abroad, it is my duty to make it known to your Excellency and to the Honorable College in writing; especially as my only object is to collect more minute information respecting the condition of the mines abroad and the processes which are followed there, and also to make inquiries respecting commerce, so far as it relates to metals."
Of this visit abroad we have the following summary from his Itinerary:—
"In the spring of 1721 I again went abroad, going to Holland by Copenhagen and Hamburg. There I published my Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium, and several other short treatises in octavo. From Holland I travelled to Aixla-Chapelle, Liège, Cologne, and other adjacent places, examining the mines there. Thence I went to Leipsic, where I published my Miscellanea Observata. Leaving that town I visited all the mines in Saxony, and then returned to Hamburg. From Hamburg I returned to Brunswick and Goslar, and visited all the mines in the Hartz Mountains belonging to the houses of Hanover and Lüneburg. The father-in-law of a son of the Emperor and of a son of the Czar, Duke Louis Rudolph, who resided at Blankenburg, graciously defrayed all my expenses; and on taking leave of him he presented me with a gold medal and a large silver coffee-pot, besides bestowing upon me many other marks of his favor. I then returned to Hamburg, and thence, by way of Stralsund and Ystad, to Stockholm, having been absent one year and three months."
The two Latin treatises, the publication of which is here briefly mentioned, have been translated and published in London under the respective titles of "Some Specimens of a Work on the Principles of Chemistry," and "Miscellaneous Observations connected with the Physical Sciences." In the first-named volume are included also three other publications of Swedenborg, of the same year, New Observations and Discoveries respecting Iron and Fire; A New Method of Finding the Longitudes of Places; and A New Method of Constructing Docks and Dykes. These essays give a fair specimen of Swedenborg's manner of treating scientific subjects. He first collects the observations and experiments of others, adding a few of his own, and then, with geometry for a guide, searches for the hidden causes and operations of nature. His theory of matter, as well summarized by one of his ablest translators, Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, is "that roundness is the form adapted to motion; that the particles of fluids, and specifically of water, are round, hollow spherules, with a subtile matter, identical with ether or caloric, in their interiors and interstices; that the crust, or crustal portion, of each particle is itself formed of lesser particles, and these again of lesser, and so forth—water being in this way the sixth dimension, or the result of the sixth grouping of the particles; that the interstices of the fluids furnish the original moulds of the solids, and the rows of crustal particles forced off one by one by various agencies, furnish the matter of the same; that after solid particles are thus cast in their appropriate moulds, their fracture, aggregation, the filling-in of their pores and interstices by lesser particles, and a number of other and accidental conditions, provide the units of the multiform substances of which the mineral kingdom is composed. According to this theory, then, there is but one substance in the world, namely, the first; the difference of things is difference of form; there are no positive, but only relative, atoms; no metaphysical, but only real elements; moreover, the heights of chemical doctrine can be scaled by rational induction alone, planted on the basis of analysis, synthesis, and observation."
To the above may be added that Swedenborg's crustal particles bear to the interior and interstitial space the ratio in volume of one to two, and in weight that of eight to one—a coincidence with the ratios of the later discovered elements that is highly suggestive. Dumas, in his Chemical Philosophy, remarks of Swedenborg, "It is then to him we are indebted for the first idea of making cubes, tetraedrons, pyramids, and the different crystalline forms, by grouping the spheres."
At the same time with these deep investigations he was also engaged with all earnestness in promoting the working of mines and metals, and on his return home he attempted to introduce an entirely new method of reducing copper ore, as described in his treatise on Copper published twelve years later. In the spring of 1723, though not yet an Ordinary Assessor, he became a regular attendant at the sittings of the College, except when abroad or engaged in the sessions of the Diet, of which by the ennoblement of the family he now became member. In place of speeches at the Diet, none of which have been preserved, we have memorials presented by him not without interest at the present day. The following was perhaps his first address, read to the Diet, February 7, 1723:—
"The chief cause of a country's increase in wealth is the balance of commerce: if its imports are greater than a country can pay with its own products, it follows that it loses annually considerable sums by leaving them in the hands of foreign nations; besides, it diminishes the capital which it collected under more favorable circumstances, and which it should hand down to posterity. As soon also as a country by an imprudent course suddenly falls into poverty, it unavoidably sinks in the estimation of other nations, and they refuse any longer to trade with it, although in former times they may have enriched themselves by its wealth and sucked out its substance and marrow. Yea, more serious consequences still may ensue; for unless a watchful eye is kept on the balance of a country's trade, a general want may be caused thereby which makes itself felt in the private circumstances of every one; fortunes and possessions in the land are diminished in value; no means are forthcoming for the support of the navy and army; the defence of the country becomes weak and impotent; the public servants must be satisfied with small salaries; manufactures and agriculture together with all the moneys invested in them depreciate in value; besides other contingencies which in such a case overtake the higher as well as the lower ranks, and especially the business men, who must suffer most heavily from it."
He then presents two computations: the first showing the average imports and exports during the reign of Charles XI, when Swedish commerce was most flourishing; and the second showing the balance of trade at the time of the memorial. In the first case the balance of exports was four and a half million florins in favor of Sweden, and in the second case the balance was from two and a half to three millions against the country. "From which," he says, "it follows that the rich products of Sweden are no longer sufficient to pay the excess of imported goods and merchandise, but that annually a part of the cash property of the country has to be employed to adjust the difference. . . . As every one now is left in freedom to express his well-meant thoughts, and to suggest how the common weal is likely to be best helped, it is hoped that it will not be unfavorably received if I insist, in all humility, that there is nothing the present Diet can do of greater importance than to examine and to assist and promote all propositions which have for their purpose to infuse new life into Swedish commerce, so as to make our balance even; and this for the sake of the private welfare of every one of us and also for that of our whole posterity." Next he shows that Sweden has lost, first, the revenues formerly derived from various provinces that have been conquered by Russia and Denmark; second, the freighting business which she formerly enjoyed, but which during her wars and by the decay of her shipping has gone into foreign hands; third, her former profitable commerce with the now lost provinces. Finally, he points out Swedish iron and copper mining interests as the most important in the balance of trade, and most worthy of attention, and concludes with recommending careful inquiry how the mercantile marine may be built up, unnecessary importation checked or cheapened, and domestic manufactures developed and protected.
On the 18th of the same month Swedenborg memorializes the Diet against the rule and law of the country which requires the mining of a baser metal to give way to that of a more noble, even when, as he shows, the fining of the baser by its greater abundance may be many-fold more valuable.
In the following May he had occasion to present another and longer memorial to the same purport, in consequence of instructions given by the Diet to the Royal College of Mines to pay special attention to the mining of silver and copper. He showed that the yearly production of iron in Sweden was equivalent to fifty tons of gold, and that of copper was equivalent to less than fifteen tons. While then he would have the copper mines cherished and protected, he would not have it done at the expense of the iron mines. Yet he seems to have been opposed in these commonsense views by his own colleagues of the Royal College of Mines, on what ground we do not know.
About the same time he presented another memorial to the Diet, setting forth the fact that Swedish iron was then exported in pigs to Holland, whence it was re-shipped inland to Liège and Sauerland, where it was puddled and rolled into bar or sheet iron, then carried back to Holland and exported at great profit to various countries. This profit, he declares, with small expense and industry might be kept at home. He accompanies his memorial with drawings and details of the puddling furnaces and rolling-mills abroad, and simply submits the expediency of encouragement by the Government to those who will undertake the manufacture in Sweden.
The treatment which this eminently reasonable and practical memorial received at the hands of the Diet and the Royal College of Mines goes far to convince us that Swedenborg had reason to complain of the want of response to his genius in his own country and home. The memorial was read before the Committee on the business of the Diet, April 20, 1723; by them it was referred to the Committee on Mining and Commerce, where it was read May 7th. By the Diet it was referred to the King, by whom it was submitted to the Royal College of Mines and to that of Commerce, Aug. 10, 1725. It arrived in the Royal College of Mines, Aug. 23, 1725, and was filed for future reference, Sept. 1, 1726. In the course of three years and a half, a matter which would properly have commended itself for instant action is filed away for future reference! So slow were the Swedes to manufacture the Swedes iron, now in demand throughout the world.
On the 15th of July, 1724, a Royal warrant was issued by King Frederick appointing the well-born Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg a regular Assessor in the Royal College, with a salary of eight hundred dalers[1] in silver. This was not the full salary of the office, which was twelve hundred dalers, but was increased to it six years later. Of the following ten years employed in public duties we have no details, but know from his later publications that together with his official duties Swedenborg was diligently pursuing the course of study he had adopted. Early in the year 1733 he asked from the King leave of absence for nine months, in which to go to Germany and see through the press his great work entitled as a whole, Opera Philosophica et Mineralia. Of this there were three noble folio volumes, printed at the expense of his friend the Duke of Brunswick. The first volume had the special title of Principia Rerum Naturalium, or First Principles of Natural Things; the other two treated of the working of iron and copper. Of the Principia its English translator, the Reverend Augustus Clissold, says—
"The First Part treats of the origin and laws of motion, and is mostly devoted to the consideration of its first principles; which are investigated philosophically, then geometrically, their existence being traced from a first natural point down to the formation of a solar vortex, and afterwards from the solar vortex to the successive constitution of the elements and of the three kingdoms of nature. From the first element to the last compound, it is the author's object to show that effort or conatus to motion tends to a spiral figure; and that there is an actual motion of particles constituting a solar chaos, which is spiral and consequently vortical.
"In the Second Part the author applies this theory of vortical motion to the phenomena of magnetism, by which on the one hand he endeavors to test the truth of his principles, and on the other by application of the principles to explain the phenomena of magnetism; the motion of the magnetical effluvia being as in the former case considered to be vortical.
"In the Third Part the author applies the same principles of motion to Cosmogony, including the origination of the planetary bodies from the sun, and their vortical revolutions until they arrived at their present orbit; likewise to the constitution and laws of the different elements, the motions of all which are alleged to be vortical; likewise to the constitution and laws of the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral: so that the entire Principia aims to establish a true theory of the vortices, founded upon a true system of corpuscular philosophy."
The Principia is too deeply mathematical and reasoned with too subtile intuition for common readers to follow. For this reason, in part, it has been neglected by later scientists; but also because they with more perfect instruments have devoted their attention chiefly to experimental observation. For a century the atomic theory sufficed them, but now they are going far deeper and are closely approximating Swedenborg's theory of matter as compounded of first finites—as he calls them—in intense vortical motion. Not that this theory was originated by him. It was held in a way by the old Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras, and was revived by Descartes. But Swedenborg elaborated it beyond his predecessors, and beyond our ability to follow. To him also is now ascribed the nebular theory of the solar system, and the position of this system in the visible universe. In his Principia is to be found an elaborate, and, we are persuaded, true theory of phenomena of light and of electricity or magnetism, with calculation of coming variations of the magnetic needle for a century. We are not at the end of his philosophic and inventive anticipations, the correctness of which may serve to give confidence that even in these pursuits Swedenborg was being led in the path of truth. But after he found himself engaged in his true mission of unfolding the genuine meaning of the Scriptures, he made no attempt to display his discoveries in science or philosophy, regarding all the insight he had obtained into the mysteries of creation as a training and basis for understanding the mysteries of the Divine providence in the care of human souls.
Of the other two volumes of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, on Iron and on Copper, there is little to be said of general interest, since they are practical treatises on the mining and working of these metals. In his own preface Swedenborg says —
"I intend to distribute the treatise upon each metal, as here upon iron, into three divisions. The first division will comprise in particular the processes and methods of smelting that are in use in various parts of Europe; and as the methods in vogue in Sweden have come more under my own observation than those employed in other countries, so I dwell upon them longer in proportion. The second division will give the various methods of assaying; by which the ore is tried in small fires, or assaying furnaces, and its composition examined, in order that it may be the better proceeded with on a large scale. The third division will embrace an account of all the different chemical processes that have fallen under my notice, with the characteristics of each; and will deliver numerous experiments and observations which have been made on one and the same metal in the course of solution, crystallization, precipitation, and other chemical changes."
The great learning and practical value of the volumes on metallurgy was at once admitted. The Academy of Sciences at Paris translated and published the treatise on Iron. In England the work was cited as of the highest authority. In Russia its author was elected corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences; and at home he became Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Fifty years after its publication, on the report of a commission to the unfortunate Louis XV, that there did not yet exist any theory of the magnet, the Marquis de Thomé responded indignantly and at length, declaring that the Opera Philosophica of Swedenborg was held in high esteem in all Europe, and that the most celebrated men "had not disdained to draw materials from it to assist them in their labors;" that "the theory of the Swedish author is a true theory of the magnet, and of all magnetism;" and that M. Camus, who performed such surprising things with the magnet before their eyes, admitted that he had "derived from this author almost all the knowledge he exhibited on the subject." To this we may add that some practical electricians of the present day are finding in this theory explanations of results which they do not find explained by any other.
For completing the publication of the Opera Mineralia et Philosophica Swedenborg obtained an extension of his leave of absence, but in July, 1734, was in his seat again, examining candidates for the post of Assay Master, and was constant in attendance till the middle of January, 1736, when he requested the Royal leave to attend the burial of his father in West Gothland. But these practical duties of the College of Mines could not long satisfy his aspirations for the advancement of human knowledge, and in the following May he again petitioned King Frederic to grant him three or four years' leave of absence, on half pay, for the elaboration and publishing of works he had undertaken requiring "long and deep thought and a mind unencumbered with cares and troubles." This request was referred by the King to the Royal College and received its approval, whereupon Swedenborg thanked the College, and especially for the continuance of half his salary "in consideration partly of the well-intentioned and useful design I have in view, and partly because I have been an Assessor in the Royal College for twenty years. It will both cheer me on and be an assistance in my proposed undertaking, which will be sufficiently expensive."
On the 3d of July he took his leave of their Majesties, who were very gracious, and on the 10th of the Royal College, to which he did not return till November, 1740. Proceeding to Hamburg he called on Pastor Christopher Wolf with letters from Benzelius, as we learn from a letter of Wolf's to Benzelius, dated Sept. 1, 1736:—
"I received recently your most welcome letter, which was handed to me by your relative, the most noble Swedenborg, who was known to me by name already. I value his most celebrated work in mineralogy so much the more, because in the present age scarcely any one can be compared with this most excellent and clear-headed man in this department."
Of this and other journeys and sojourns in foreign lands we have many notes of his own hand, mentioning places, persons, churches, and libraries visited, with interesting comments on the manners and customs of the people, and with an occasional remark on what he then had in hand. It was no longer metallurgy and the material elements that he was studying, but man—body, mind, and soul—and his relation to the Supreme Being. For some years he had given close attention to the study of Anatomy, and to this he now devoted several years' labor, yet with the soul always in view. Already in September in Paris he notes, "I made the first draught of the introduction to my new treatise [Economy of the Animal Kingdom], namely, that the soul of wisdom is the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Supreme Being." Here in Paris and in Italy he found the best opportunities for anatomical studies, and in Amsterdam for printing his Œconomia Regni Animalis, on the completion of which he returned home in November, 1740. This quarto volume of 582 pages represents, however, but a small part of the author's labors during these four years. Very much more is contained in the great pile of notes, observations, and deductions which he brought home in manuscript, from which important treatises have since been and are still being published.
Not simple phenomena, but their hidden causes Swedenborg was always seeking. The philosophy of his century was leading to negative results, to disbelief in the power of reason to conclude anything in regard to the Divine Being, however clear to moral sense may be His existence. Kant's results, as summed up by Lewes, are these:—
"The attempt to demonstrate the existence of God is an impossible attempt. Reason is utterly incompetent to the task. The attempt to penetrate the essence of things—to know things per se—to know noumena—is also an impossible attempt. And yet that God exists, that the World exists, are irresistible convictions. There is another certitude, therefore, besides that derived from demonstration, and this is moral certitude, which is grounded upon belief. I cannot say, 'It is morally certain that God exists,' but I must say, 'I am morally certain that God exists'"[2]
Swedenborg himself wrote in his Principia—
"When therefore the philosopher has arrived at the end of his studies, even supposing him to have acquired so complete a knowledge of all mundane things that nothing more remains for him to learn, he must there stop; for he can never know the nature of the Infinite Being, of His Supreme Intelligence, Supreme Providence, Supreme Love, Supreme Justice, and other infinite attributes. He will therefore acknowledge that in respect to this supremely intelligent and wise Being his knowledge is nothing: he will hence most profoundly venerate Him with the utmost devotion of soul; so that at the mere thought of Him his whole frame, or membranous and sensitive system, will awfully, yet sweetly tremble, from the inmost to the outermost principles of its being."
But in the same year with the Principia Swedenborg had continued his investigation of the questions of his time in his Sketch of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite and the Final Cause of Creation; and on the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body. In this essay his unswerving faith in Revelation is conspicuous all through, and with it a recognition of something higher than merely natural reason. In the Preface he says—
"Philosophy if it be truly rational can never be contrary to Revelation. . . . The end of reason can be no other than that man may perceive the things that are revealed and those that are created: thus the rational cannot be contrary to the Divine, since the end why reason is given us is that we may be empowered to perceive that there is a God and to know that He is to be worshipped. If reason be the mean, endowed with the faculty and power of perceiving, and if the actual perception be the end, then the mean, in so far as it is correctly rational, cannot be repugnant to the end. The very mysteries that are above reason cannot be contrary to reason, although reason is unable to explain their grounds." Thus begins the first chapter:—
"In order that we may be favored and happy in our endeavors, they must begin from the Infinite, or God, without whom no undertakings can attain a prosperous issue. He it is that bestows on all things their principles; from whom all things finite took their rise; from whom we have our souls, and by whom we live; by whom we are at once mortals and immortals; to whom in fine we owe everything. And as the soul was created by Him and added to the body, and reason to both, in order that the soul might be His, so our thoughts, whether we revolve them within, or utter them in words, or commit them to writing, must always be so directed as to have their beginning and end from Him; whereby the Deity may be present with gracious favor as the First and the Last, in either end as well as in the means."
Then alluding to the desire of human reason to be convinced in order to accept theology, he shows at length the impossibility of the reason's concluding anything in regard to the nature of the Infinite, by comparison with the finite. But, not abandoning the matter so, he proceeds to inquire as to the producing cause of what is finite, even of its first and least particular. Showing that it cannot have its existence of itself, nor of any other finite thing, since then the question would be removed but one step backward, he concludes that reason must admit an infinite producing cause. But of these there cannot be many, only One. Now taking this Infinite as the cause of all creation, he deduces the entire variety from the same Cause, in all its intricacy and order. Then citing examples of this order and intricate beauty—especially in ample detail from the construction and operation of the organs of the human body—calling forth our admiration, he seeks to transfer this and transform it into adoration for the Deity. But this full acknowledgment, he admits, must come partly on self-evidence, springing from the human soul, and partly as a consequence from the arguments adduced.
"There is in fact," he says, "a tacit consent, or a tacit conclusion of the soul, to the being as well as to the infinity of God. This is dictated, I say, partly by the soul in its own free essence, partly by the soul as instructed and advised by the diverse innumerable effects presented in the world. . . . It cannot be denied that there is that in man as man, provided he enjoy the use of reason, which acknowledges an omnipotent God, an omnipresent and all-provident Deity; it seems therefore to be innate, and to be a power or action of reason, when not on the one hand troubled too much by its own ideas, nor on the other hand too destitute of all cultivation and development. But we care not whether it be spontaneous or the contrary, if it be admitted that there is no one living, provided he be not over or under rational, but acknowledges the existence of a Deity, however ignorant he be of the Divine nature. Hence it is that after man has exerted his powers and whetted his reason to find out this nature, he falls into strange darkness and ideal conclusions. He knows indeed that there is a Deity, that there is an omnipotence, but he has been unsuccessful in eliciting the nature of either from any dictates of reason. . . . In truth mankind is always desirous to imagine the qualities of God, to bring Him within the bounds of reason and rational ideas, and to finite and fix Him in something, by something, or to something. For this reason the above investigation has all along been the issue and offspring of reason and philosophy. And though the philosophers have heard that He is infinite, yet on behalf of poor reason, which is always bounded by finite limits, they imagine the infinite as finite, being unable to perceive at all apart from the finite. We now therefore see why reason has failed, and that the cause is the same in the common people as in the learned."
Proceeding then to point out in detail the errors of many theories, all of which are owing to the judging of the Infinite from the finite, he concludes that—
"Beyond our finite sphere there are verily infinities, to the knowledge of which it is useless to aspire, and which in the Infinite are infinitely many and can be known to no one but the Infinite. In order that these may in some measure be conceived by the soul introduced through faith into communion with the Infinite, it has pleased God to discover by Revelation much whereby the mind can finitely conceive and express Him: not however that finite perceptions or expressions are similar or adequate to Him, but only that those made use of are not repugnant."
Returning to what has been granted, that the Infinite exists as the cause of the finite world, Swedenborg next questions whether or no there must be a nexus, or means of influence, between the Infinite and the finite. Showing by argument that a nexus is indispensable, he then shows that the nexus itself must be infinite, not finite. Assuming this to be within our knowledge by proof of reason, he asks whether if any one can tell us more about this nexus that shall agree with what we already know, we shall not listen to it. And then he alleges, what he says has been taught by Revelation, that this nexus is the Son of God, begotten from eternity,[3] to be the means of communication from the Infinite with the finite. But, from what he has already shown, he declares this nexus itself to be infinite; and as there cannot be two infinites, the nexus, or the Son of God, is none other than the Infinite, God Himself.
"To say then," he continues, "that the finite came forth mediately through the Son, is exactly tantamount to saying that it came forth immediately through the Father, or immediately through the Son; since the Father and Son are alike the Infinite, and the Infinite is the immediate cause of the finite." Then showing that in creation there must be a Divine, or infinite, final end; that this end is to be reached through the whole chain of creation, of which man is the last link, the crown of all, he declares that in man therefore for the fulfilment of the Divine end, there must be something that can partake of the Infinite:—
"Not certainly in the fact that man is an animal and has senses provided him to enjoy the delights of the world; nor in the fact that he has a soul, for his soul is finite and can contain nothing of the Infinite. Neither in reason, which is the effect of the coöperation between the soul and the body; which, as they are both finite, so the effect of both is also finite: therefore it does not lie in reason. So far we find nothing Divine in man. Where is that, then, which appears to be nowhere, and yet is necessary to realize the Divine end? . . . It lies in this, that man can acknowledge and does acknowledge God; that he can believe and does believe that God is infinite; that though he is ignorant of the nature of the Deity, yet he can acknowledge and does acknowledge His existence, and this without the shadow of doubt. And especially does it consist in this further privilege, that by this undoubting faith he is sensible in love, or delight resulting from love, of a peculiar connection with the Infinite. But where he doubts, he does not acknowledge and the Divine is not in him. All Divine worship proceeds from this fountain of faith and love. . . . Thus the true divinity in man, who is the final effect in which the Divine end dwells, is none other than an acknowledgment of the existence and infinity of God . . . and a sense of delight in the love of God, although human reason cannot do this of itself, inasmuch as man, with all his parts and his very soul, is finite; notwithstanding which he may be a fit recipient, and as he is in the finite sphere he may concur to dispose himself for reception."
Now comes the crowning effort in this argument. It being granted that the Divine sought this final return of creation to Itself, the question is asked, how it is to be secured through the various stages from first to last. The answer being given that it is to be secured by means of the soul, which from its altitude is designed to rule the body, it is asked by what means the true order is to be restored when, as must have been foreseen, the body refuses to obey the instincts of the soul and fails to serve its true purpose. And the triumphant answer is given that "God provided against this by His Infinite, only-begotten Son, who took on Him the ultimate effect of the world, or a manhood and a human shape, and thereby was infinite in and with the finite, and consequently restored the nexus in His own person between the Infinite and the finite, so that the primary end was realized. . . . The Infinite . . . thus Himself became the last effect—at once God and man, the Mediator between the finite and the Infinite. . . . Without Him there would be no connection between the last effect and the Infinite; whereas through Him somewhat of the Divine may dwell in us, namely, in the faculty to know and believe that there is a God, and that He is infinite. And again through Him, by the use of the means, we are led to true religion, and become children of God, and not of the world."
Observing now that this is not the place to explain the nature of the connection by the nexus, he stops to consider the difficulty which may be felt as to the condition of those who have not learned and believed in the Messiah. He concludes that though the coming of the Messiah is the essential means of salvation, yet "those who did not know and do not know that He has come, could and can become partakers by the grace of God through His coming; for otherwise we should suppose something in God that would seem at variance with His Divine nature and end. But as for those who know the Messiah, or have the opportunity to know Him, we say that they too are made partakers through His coming; but the knowledge also of His coming is necessary to them in order to their faith, for the quality of faith is determined by knowledge, and its perception rendered distinct and full; and therefore where knowledge is given, it and faith are inseparable."
The summing up of our author's argument is as follows: "Observe what we have gained. We have the affirmation of reason for the existence of God, and also for His Infinity; and as this is now positive knowledge, together with that other truth of the existence of a nexus between God and man in the Person of the only-begotten Son, so we may legitimately advance, not indeed to inquire into the nature or qualities of Deity, because He is infinite, and His qualities therefore we can never penetrate, but to inquire what there can be in man to lead to this primary end; what there can be in him that does not repugn the infinite and the nexus; how a confessedly infinite Deity may best be expressed in finite terms that shall not be repugnant to the occasion; what befitting worship consists in; what is the peculiar efficacy of faith proceeding from a true acknowledgment of God; with innumerable other subjects, which cannot be settled briefly, but require to be rationally deduced in a volume by themselves. And as by the grace of God we have all these matters revealed in Holy Scripture, so where reason is perplexed in its apprehensions we must at once have recourse to Revelation; and where we cannot discover from Revelation either what we should adopt or in what sense we should understand its declarations, we must then fly to the oracle of reason."