The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained/Chapter2
II.—The Central Doctrine.
The Central Doctrine in every theological system must needs be that concerning the proper Object of religious worship. This doctrine, whatever be its nature, will determine the character of the whole system. All subordinate doctrines are the legitimate offspring of this, and are modified, shaped and colored by it, as surely as the earths in our solar system are warmed, enlightened, electrified and held in their orbits by the central luminary which gave them birth, and around which they all revolve.
When, therefore, we have learned what any system of theology teaches concerning the supreme Object of worship, we have mastered the central doctrine of that system; and from this we may draw a pretty just conclusion in regard to all the rest. For when the central doctrine is wrong, the others growing out of it, adjusted to it, modified and colored by it, cannot be right; and when this is right, the others cannot be very far wrong.
Besides, the doctrine concerning the proper Object of religious worship is intensely practical. It exerts a mightier influence on the character of the believer than any other doctrine. We cannot escape its plastic power. We cannot help becoming conformed, in some measure at least, to the character of Him whom we worship, or rather to our conception and cherished idea of his character. Our souls are gradually and unconsciously moulded into the likeness of our cherished ideal. If partiality, self-seeking, arbitrariness or vindictiveness enter into our conception of the Divine character, our own character will inevitably be affected by such conception. If we think of God as stern, haughty, selfish and tyrannical, we cannot fail to make these characteristics our own. If we think of Him as acting from a selfish love of glory, we shall feel that we most closely resemble Him when we are acting from a similar love; and so the love of glory will become the ruling principle in us. But if, on the contrary, we conceive the Object of our adoration to be noble, generous and unselfish in his nature, then shall we, through the plastic power of such conception, grow to be noble, generous and unselfish in ours. If we conceive Him to be supremely tender, compassionate, wise and good—supremely patient, loving and forgiving—then will these same graces gradually become more and more our own.
Common observation and universal experience justify these conclusions. We are naturally inclined to imitate those to whom we look up with a feeling of respect and veneration. We fall unconsciously into their habits of thought, feeling, speech and action. We adopt their sentiments; we assume their tones; we imitate their manners; we often copy their follies and weaknesses—sometimes even their vices. The love and veneration we feel for them blind us to their faults and foibles, or give to these an air of comeliness, and create in us a desire to be like them; and this desire is perpetually stimulating our growth in that direction.
Now since the tendency of all worship is to bring the soul of the worshiper into sympathy with and likeness to the Being or his conception of the Being worshiped, therefore it is of primary importance that we have a correct idea of that Being's character. No other idea exerts so tremendous an influence on our own character, as the idea we habitually cherish of the supreme Object of worship. People do not, as many imagine, worship the same Being merely because they call Him by the same name. In reality each one worships the God that he inwardly looks up to or thinks of. A thousand persons may agree in calling the Object of their worship, Jehovah, God or Lord; yet their conceptions of his character may differ so widely, that it may with truth be said that each of them worships a different God. The same name may be, to each of these different minds, the sign of widely different qualities; for the kind of God one thinks of, is the kind he worships.
It becomes, then, a matter of supreme moment what idea we form and habitually cherish of the Divine Being or his character. If our thought on this central doctrine is wrong, it can hardly be right on any subordinate ones. As the navigator on the pathless ocean determines his geographical position by an observation of the sun, so does each one's intellectual apprehension or moral observation of God determine his spiritual status.
Prevalent Beliefs prior to 1757.
Now, if we go back to the year 1757, and inquire into the then prevalent beliefs of Christendom, we shall find that every just conception of the character of God was well-nigh blotted out. We shall find that the generally accepted theology of that day made the Supreme Being partial, unjust, selfish and vindictive. And we shall find, too, that this false conception of the Divine character was faithfully reflected in the creeds and the general character of professed believers. We shall find that the Christian nations and churches of that day were animated by the same partial, unjust, selfish and vindictive spirit which the generally accepted theology imputed to the Divine Being. Christendom was immersed in very thick darkness. There was a general and deep eclipse of faith, and the charity for which the primitive Christians were distinguished, had quite departed from the church. And along with the extinction of true charity and a living faith and a just conception of the Divine character, all knowledge of man's higher life and the way to its attainment, as well as of the nature and reality of heaven and hell and all things spiritual, had well-nigh perished. And thus was fulfilled, in its spiritual sense, that Divine prediction: "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven."
This (according to the belief and teachings of the New Church) was "the consummation of the age" foretold in the Gospels,—the end of the first Christian Dispensation or Church. This was the day which the Lord foresaw and foretold, when "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet," would be seen "standing in the holy place;" the day when "false Christs and false prophets" (fundamental and congenital false religious doctrines) should arise, deceiving, "if it were possible, even the elect."
And is it strange that, at such a juncture, a wise and loving Father should have vouchsafed to men a further revelation of Himself and the things of his kingdom? It would have been far more strange if He had not. Especially as the same inspired prophecy which proclaims the great darkness that was to fall upon the church, foretells also a glorious illumination that was to follow—another coming of the Lord himself "with power and great glory." And this second coming of the Son of Man, we observe, was to be "in the clouds of heaven;" which, in the symbolic language of Scripture, means a coming or revealing of Himself in the heavenly sense of the Word, through the obscurity or cloud of the letter.
And at the hour of the church's great darkness and the world's great need, a new revelation (such is the belief and teaching of the New Church) was vouchsafed—the very thing to have been expected when we consider the paternal character of God—his deep concern and tender care and boundless love for the children of men.
The Character of God as revealed for the New Church.
And what is the character of the Heavenly Father as disclosed in this new revelation? To answer this question briefly, it is:
That He is a Being of infinite wisdom, tenderness, mercy and love. All that is highest, purest, noblest and loveliest in human character is from Him, and exists in Him in a measureless degree. He not only loves, but is Love itself; and this is Life itself. Love is his very substance and esse. All the love there is in heaven and on earth is from Him, as all life is from Him. And his love is infinite in all its attributes; infinite in its sweetness, its purity, its amplitude, its power. We can form but a faint conception of God's love, because we can receive or experience it only in a feeble degree. The love of a wife for her husband, of a mother for her child, of a lover for his betrothed, is, in respect to its sweetness, tenderness and unselfishness, a faint image of the Divine Love; but in point of intensity, amplitude and power, it is as the feeble glimmer of the fire-fly compared with the splendor of the noon-day sun.
God's love, too, is altogether unselfish in its nature. It is the love of others out of itself. It is infinitely expansive, diffusive, communicative. Its ceaseless desire is to impart itself and its delights to others. Such is the unchangeable nature of true love; for it all comes from God. It never seeks its own, never thinks of itself. Its glory and its delight is to communicate itself with all its joys, without a thought of recompense. In doing good and blessing others, it finds its abundant reward. And of this it never wearies any more than the sun wearies of imparting light and heat to revolving worlds.
It was from the love of imparting his own life, and so making other creatures happy, that God created man to be an image of Himself and a finite receptacle of his love. For the great end in creation was a heaven of angels from the human race;—a host of intelligent and rational beings, bright and joyous, and forever growing brighter and more joyous, in the reception and exercise of the Creator's love. And this beneficent end He has pursued with infinite wisdom and undiminished ardor from the beginning until now. He has followed our race through all its wanderings; followed it with his patient, yearning, pitying love; followed it with outstretched arms of mercy into thickest darkness and lowest depths of degradation and sin; followed it with remonstrance and warning and rebuke and correction and instruction and tender entreaty, yet never infringing man's proper freedom, but forever guarding that as the apple of his eye.
And the same deep, tender, patient love which has pursued our race through ages past, pursues it still;—pursues peoples and states and individuals from hour to hour. Nothing can turn it from this pursuit. Nothing can alienate it. Nothing can quench or diminish its ardor. We may be deaf to its remonstrances; we may despise its warnings; we may mock at its counsels; we may be heedless of its chastenings; we may trample on its laws; we may even crucify that love again and again in our hearts; yet for all this and spite of this, it patiently waits the hour when it may rise from its tomb and make its gentle pleadings heard.
Yes: God loves and cares for us, says the New Theology, even when we forget and turn away from Him. He loves and cares for us in our follies and our sins. With pitying eye and outstretched arms and ceaseless longing to save and bless. He pursues the vilest of his rational creatures; pursues them into the lowest haunts of degradation and vice; goes down with tender yearning to the most sinful and abandoned—yes, down to the very lowest of the hells,—and, veiling his ineffable brightness in merciful accommodation to their states, forever strives to save them from a lower depth, and to promote their greatest comfort and best welfare.
Such is the nature of God's love—forever seeking the highest good even of those who are enemies to Him by wicked works. Nor is his love a mere blind impulse. It is infinitely wise. It is united with supreme intelligence as the sun's heat is united with light. It therefore knows what is best for every human being; knows how to bring good out of evil, light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, success out of disaster, and ultimate triumph out of temporary defeat. Infinite love permits nothing to befall us, which infinite wisdom cannot in the end convert into a blessing. The sternest discipline of life, its most wearying vexations, its sorest disappointments, its hardest trials, its bitterest griefs—they are all permitted and overruled for our own or others' ultimate good. No cup of sorrow is proffered to our lips, but the hand of Infinite Love is there, ready and eager to make the bitter draught contribute to the best welfare of our own or others' souls.
Such, briefly, is God's character as disclosed in the revelations made for the New Church. Very different is it from that proclaimed from the pulpits, depicted in the creeds and reflected in the life and conduct of Christendom a hundred years ago. We see in it all that is worthy the supreme homage of men on earth and angels in heaven; not a shadow of imperfection—nothing but purest, sweetest, tenderest love, and this forever guided in its operations by infinite wisdom.
We shall not attempt to prove that the character of the Heavenly Father is such as is here delineated. There is no need of that. It is written on every page of the created universe; written in the experience, constitution and moral government of our race; seen everywhere in the Volume of inspiration also, when its true spiritual meaning is fully apprehended.
The Divine Personality.
The next question, scarcely inferior to that of the Divine Character in its practical importance, is that of the Divine Personality. Does God exist as a Divine Person, or only as a formless and universally diffused essence? And is He to be thought of and adored as one Person, or more than one? And has He ever revealed Himself personally to his intelligent creatures? Swedenborg has given a distinct answer to each of these questions.
It was the accepted belief of Christendom a hundred years ago, that there are three Divine Persons existent in and constituent of the one God. And a different character was ascribed and a different office assigned to each of these Persons. And this tripersonalism entered into the whole system of the then reigning theology. It moulded the entire faith of the church into strict conformity with itself. It shaped and colored all its doctrines. The accepted "scheme of redemption," or "plan of salvation," grew by strict logical sequence out of the tripersonal theory. The same may be said of the doctrine of "vicarious atonement," the most important factor in this "scheme." And the mental confusion and distraction produced by this theory, have been frankly confessed by competent witnesses; and the angry controversies to which it has given rise, constitute no mean part of ecclesiastical history. One of the profoundest thinkers on Theology that our country has produced, as well as one of the noblest and saintliest of men—himself a prominent and esteemed minister in an orthodox church—writing upon this subject some thirty years ago, said:
"No man can assert three persons, meaning three consciousnesses, wills, and understandings, and still have any intelligent meaning in his mind, when he asserts that they are yet one person. . . .
"There are too many signs of the mental confusion I speak of, not to believe that it exists. Thus if the class I speak of were to hear a discourse insisting on the proper personal unity of God, it would awaken suspicion in their minds: while a discourse insisting on the existence of three persons, would be only a certain proof of orthodoxy; showing that they profess three persons, meaning what they profess, and one person, really not meaning it."The same distinguished writer further remarks, and in a similar vein:
This, from a man of profound thought, reverent feeling, close observation, deep experience and rare candor; and one whose long and extensive acquaintance among the churches professing the tripersonal doctrine, enabled him to speak with confidence on the subject. And more recent writers of the orthodox school, have borne similar testimony—some of them not hesitating to characterize tripersonalism as tritheism. Thus a correspondent of the Christian Union, as late as December, 1880, writes to that paper:
And in their reply to this inquiry, the thoughtful and accomplished editors of that paper say:
"This conception of God is so pervasive of Christian literature and Christian teaching that it poisons minds least aware of it. . . . Oh, what a misreported, maligned, ill-treated God is ours! Idolatry still flourishes; and in Christian presses, pulpits, books and Sunday-schools. The idols are sometimes grotesque, sometimes horrible; only they are no longer of wood and stone.
"How can you avoid confusion of thought? By taking your thought of God, and your whole thought of God, from the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Tell your boy friend that the 'Jesus-God' is the only God; that there is no 'other One.' You cannot teach him this lesson in a sentence; you cannot so teach it to yourself. Go constantly, habitually, to the life of Christ for your conception of God. . . . Worship only the God you see in Christ."Here we have the frank confession of honest and intelligent men, long and still connected with the orthodox school. And what is it? Why, that the "generally accepted" doctrine of to-day concerning God—the doctrine which "most Christians believe," is "the error of Tritheism, the doctrine that there are three Gods." And that this conception or misconception of the supreme object of worship, "is so pervasive of Christian literature and Christian teaching, that it poisons minds least aware of it." And Dr. Bushnell. (who certainly ought to have known) declares that this "generally accepted" doctrine "often produces a painfully bewildered state," involving the mind of the believer "in a dismal confusion which we cannot think of without the sincerest pity."
Such a confession as this from distinguished ministers of the orthodox school, is valuable as showing the need there was of a New Theology at the time Swedenborg wrote—a need that still exists, and grows more and more imperative with the increase of intelligence and the progressive development of the human mind. If an error so fundamental as the one here confessed respecting the supreme Object of worship, early invaded the Christian church, it is not to be wondered at that all the other doctrines of Christianity should have been perverted and falsified, and a new revelation have been required to disperse the darkness. It would, indeed, have been a wonder, had this not happened. And Swedenborg, in perfect agreement on this subject with the authors just quoted, declares the prevailing belief of the church in his day to be a belief in three Gods; and he traced the numerous errors and corruptions of Christian theology to this fundamental falsity. Quoting the words of the Athanasian creed, and showing that "there arises thence no other idea than that there are three Gods unanimous and agreeing together," he proceeds:
And among the propositions affirmed in the same treatise, and briefly analyzed and demonstrated, are the following:
"VII. That then the true and saving faith, which is a faith in one God, united with good works, may be acknowledged and received.
"IX. That the faith of the present day has separated religion from the church, since religion consists in the acknowledgment and worship of one God from faith grounded in charity.
"XI. That from the faith of the present church there results a worship of the mouth and not of the life; yet the worship of the mouth is accepted by the Lord only in proportion as it proceeds from the worship of the life.
"XIV. That the doctrine of the faith of the present church ascribes to God human attributes; as that He regarded man from anger, and required to be reconciled; that He is reconciled through the love He bore his Son and by the intercession of the latter; that He required to be appeased by the sufferings of his Son, and thus to be brought back to mercy; and that He imputes the righteousness of his Son to an unrighteous man who supplicates it from faith alone.
"XV. That from the faith of the present church monstrous births have been and may still be produced; such as instantaneous salvation by an act of immediate mercy; predestination; the notions that God has no respect to men's works, but to faith alone; that there is no connection between charity and faith; that man in conversion is like a stock; with many more heresies of the same kind; ... and that the heresies from the first times of the church to the present day, have sprung from no other source than the idea of three Gods.
"XVII. That the infestation from falsities and the consequent eclipse of every truth, or the desolation which at this day prevails in the Christian churches, is what is meant by the great affliction such as was not from the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be, Matt. xxiv. 21.
"XXII. That the opening and rejection of the faith of the present church, and the revelation and reception of the tenets of the faith of the New Chtirch [with a life conformable thereto], is what is meant by these words in the Apocalypse: 'He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new, xxi. 5.' "
The New Doctrine of the Trinity.
Now, contrary to the old tripersonal doctrine, and contrary also to that dreary pantheism which doubts or denies the Divine Personality, the New Theology as expounded by Swedenborg, teaches the strict personal unity of God. It teaches that He exists as one Divine Person, in whom nevertheless is a Trinity represented in Scripture by Father, Son and Holy Spirit: This, however, is not a trinity of persons, but of the great essentials in the one Divine Being—Love, Wisdom and their Proceeding Operation—corresponding to the trinity in the natural sun, of heat, light and their proceeding operation, and illustrated also by the trinity in man who was created in the image and likeness of God; the trinity, that is, of soul, body and their resultant activity, or of will, understanding and their joint operation.[1]
How perfectly this new doctrine of the Divine Trinity is illustrated by the trinity in the sun of our world, may be seen from their correspondence. The heat of the sun corresponds to the Divine Love, which is the all-begetting principle signified by the Father; for love is spiritual heat. The light of the sun corresponds to the Divine Wisdom or Truth, which is the form or manifestation of love, and is what is signified by the Son; for truth is spiritual light. And the proceeding operation of the sun's heat and light corresponds to the proceeding and constant operation of the Lord's Love and Wisdom, which is what is signified by the Holy Spirit.
This Trinity finds an illustration, also, in the will, understanding and action of every regenerate man. For man is regenerate in the degree that he is created anew after the Divine likeness; or in the degree that the love in his will is an image of the Divine Love; the truth in his understanding an image of the Divine Wisdom; and the sphere of his activities, an image of the sphere of the Divine Beneficence. Man, therefore, when he becomes through regeneration a living soul, is a perfect image of the Divine Trinity. Hence, we read that "God created man in his own image." If, then, a true man is an image of the true and living God, he must needs be an image of the trinity in God. And we can best learn the nature of the Divine Trinity, therefore, by contemplating its image in man.
This new doctrine is seen to be at once rational and intelligible; and it will be found, on careful examination, to be equally Scriptural. It enables us to see clearly what is meant when it is said that the Father and the Son are one. They are one as heat and light are one in the sun, or as the soul and body are one person. We see, too, that the Son brings the Father forth to view (John i. 18) as light is the visible manifestation of heat or as the body brings to view the otherwise invisible soul. And we can understand what is meant when it is said, and why it is said, that no one Cometh unto the Father but by the Son (John xiv. 6); for no man can approach or contemplate the absolute Divinity (the Father), except in or through the medium of something suited to his finite capacities—something accommodated to his state and needs; and this among Christians is the Divine Humanity (the Son).
Moreover, it presents God to us as a divinely human Being or Person—as a Divine Man. It affirms that the attributes of love, wisdom, mercy, holiness and the like, imply personality, and cannot be predicated of anything but a person. We cannot even imagine love or wisdom to exist apart from the person who loves, thinks and is wise. Nor should we think of applying the adjectives, righteous, holy and just, to gravitation, heat or electricity—to anything, in short, but a self-conscious and rational being or person.
The personality, then, but not the tripersonality of God—his absolute oneness in essence and in person, in Whom, nevertheless, are three inseparable essentials—this, coupled with the assumption and glorification of the human by the Divine, is the central doctrine of the true Christian religion, according to the teachings of the New Church.
The Incarnation of the Divine.
This Church further believes and teaches that the Divine Being did, in the fulness of time, come and reveal himself personally unto men. From love toward his human offspring, He came down into our natural human conditions and relations according to the laws of his own divine order—just as every babe is born. He assumed our finite nature with its vast accumulation of hereditary evil proclivities; had experience of its weaknesses and trials, its doubts and fears, its darkness and conflicts, its poignant griefs and agonizing sorrows; bore the assaults of all the hells by which humanity was ever assailed—and conquered them while glorifying or making Divine his assumed human. And this, in order that He might come nearer to the children of men, and enter into more full and perfect sympathy with them; might more effectually redeem them from their spiritual thraldom; might communicate to them more abundantly of his own unselfish love; might more surely draw and more securely hold them within his own tender embrace.
Here, then—according to the New Theology—in the divinely-begotten and glorified Man of Nazareth, the infinite Father stands revealed. He came, as He said, to bring the Father forth to view. He declared to Philip: "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;" "I am in the Father, and the Father in me." He was the visible manifestation of the Divine Being here on earth; the Infinite revealed in the finite; "God manifest in the flesh;" Divinity in such vital and organic union with humanity as to have experience of all its obscurity, weakness, want and woe, and so be able to deliver it from its spiritual thraldom and fill it with a richer, sweeter and nobler life.
Some Scripture Testimony.
Look at this divinely human Being as He stands revealed in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse! Study his extraordinary character. Read the history of his advent and brief sojourn on earth. On every page, from the manger to the cross—yea, from his miraculous conception to his glorious ascension—we trace the footprints of Divinity. He announces himself as the One whose advent the inspired prophets had foretold. He is declared to be the eternal Word which, from the beginning, "was with God and was God;" as the Maker of all things, having life in himself; as "the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world;" as "the Word made flesh," and thus dwelling among men; as the personal manifestation of the infinite and everlasting Father; as "the bread of God that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world;" and as endued with "all power in heaven and on earth." And how fully his teachings and conduct agree with and justify all this! He spoke the words, and did the deeds, and displayed the love and wisdom and power of God. He healed the sick, raised the dead and cast out devils with his word. At his rebuke the winds ceased and the waves subsided. And in that memorable prayer for his murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," we have the clear outshining of God's own, tender, long-suffering, forgiving and redeeming love.
And, added to all this, we have the corroborative testimony of the beloved disciple to whom "a door was opened in heaven;" and who was thus introduced, as it were, into the very presence- chamber of the Almighty, and permitted to view things in the bright blaze of that great splendor which surrounds the Throne. And from this high plane of spiritual observation—seeing, not in the obscure lumen of the natural mind, but in the crystal light of the celestial realms—he ascribes to the Lord Jesus Christ the attributes and prerogatives which belong to no one but the supreme Being. "Unto Him that loved us and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood ... to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever," is the opening ascription in this sublime Apocalypse. Next, the seer beholds Him in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, encircled with a celestial radiance, "his countenance as the sun shineth in his strength;" beaming with love and wisdom all divine, and illumining the churches with his matchless splendor; at the same time declaring Himself "the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Afterwards he sees Him seated on the throne, and the angels bending in adoration and casting their crowns before Him, and with glad voices chanting, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." And of that white-robed worshiping throng who "came out of great tribulation," and had "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," it is further said: "And He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; . . . for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."
Here we have the proper Object of worship clearly revealed in the person of the glorified Christ. Here we behold Divinity in organic union with humanity; the Infinite brought within the range of our finite conceptions in merciful adaptation to our needs. Here we see the living God graciously bending to our infirmities and wants; coming to us as a friend and brother; sympathizing with us in our hardest experiences; going down with us into the deepest hells, shielding and succoring us there; pointing us the way to a higher life—yea, becoming to us THE WAY by treading every inch of it Himself.
Where else within the records of history, or the realms of imagination even, do we behold such another divinely human Being?—such a wise, tender, compassionate, loving and life-giving Father? In Jesus Christ alone do we see God in that relation to humanity which is most intimate and tender, and which reveals Him as the almighty Saviour ever ready to impart the light and life and strength needful for the soul's salvation as well as its grandest growth. And by humbly looking to and reverently following after Him—by loving and truly worshiping Him, we become internally and gradually moulded into his likeness; become more and more receptive of that Divine Humanity which alone is our true life and peace and our eternal joy.
But it is not easy, I know, to fully grasp this central doctrine of the Christian religion—the doctrine of the Divine Humanity. Nor is it easy to clearly convey it in words. It is a doctrine which unfolds with ever-increasing clearness to the inner consciousness, as the Christ-life is received or formed within us by following the Lord in the regeneration. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine."
Need of the Divine Incarnation.
God cannot reveal Himself as He is in his own infinite perfections; for men are incapable of receiving such revelation. And when a revelation is not received or comprehended, nothing is really revealed. Relatively viewed, it is no revelation.
What can finite minds comprehend of absolute Divinity? To see or know God as He is in his Infinity, we must ourselves be infinite. Our finite capacities, by the very fact that they are finite, limit us, hem us in, and render our comprehension of God in his essential Divinity absolutely impossible. Those who imagine that they can know God as He is in his infinite perfections, are much mistaken. Such ability is not vouchsafed to men or angels. Its possession would imply both divinity and infinity in its possessor. Only the Infinite can comprehend the Infinite. Hence the Scripture declaration: No one hath seen God [the absolute Divinity] at any time: the only begotten Son [the humanity] which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath brought Him forth to view."
The infinite God, therefore, descends and reveals Himself (so far as that is possible) under finite conditions and in a finite human form. Divinity comes down, and speaks and acts and prays and labors and agonizes and suffers, and thus reveals Itself in humanity,—the Divine in the human, the Infinite in the finite, the Father in the Son; and this, in infinite condescension to our human wants and finite capacities. It is something like what a great and good man does, whose wisdom is beyond the comprehension of a little child, but who nevertheless comes down to the child's infantile state; accommodates himself to its feeble capacities; renders himself approachable, intelligible, helpful and lovable to the child in and through the medium of his body; that is, by the gifts he bestows, and the lessons he teaches, and the feelings he expresses, and the things he does for the child through the body's instrumentality. In this and in no other way can the great man reveal himself to the little child.
To pursue the illustration a step further.—No person of mature age can impart his knowledge and experience to a little child. He may tell the child in simplest language all he knows of geological, astronomical, physiological and chemical science; he may give utterance to his highest conceptions of the character of God and the grandeur of the universe; he may tell of his religious experiences, of his internal and agonizing conflicts with infernal spirits, and the sweet and serene peace that bathed his soul when those conflicts were ended; he may tell the child all this, but how much of it will be received or comprehended? Imagine yourself the teacher, and what, after all, have you revealed to that child, of your higher knowledge and deeper experiences? Nothing—absolutely nothing. Nor is it in your power or the power of language to convey to him an idea of your higher mental operations and spiritual states. You cannot reveal yourself to him as you really are interiorly—in your advanced stage of intellectual and spiritual development. And the simple reason is, that the child is incapable of receiving such revelation. He can form no conception of the knowledge or mental states you speak of. Your words are meaningless to him, for there is nothing within him to interpret their meaning. The receptacles for such knowledge are not opened in him yet. The attempt, therefore, to impart it to him, is like attempting to teach the beasts of the field moral philosophy; or like chanting sweet melodies in the ears of the deaf, or exhibiting lovely pictures to the eyes of the blind.
No: You can reveal to a child only so much of yourself as he is capable of receiving. You must bring your wisdom down to his state of comprehension before he can receive it. You must meet him on his own plane, and adapt yourself to his infantile capacities. You must enter feelingly and sympathetically into his little plans and pastimes. You must help him over his difficulties, and assist him in overcoming his fears which may be very many, and to you, no doubt, very foolish. As yet he has but little understanding; therefore he can receive but little instruction, and this chiefly through the medium of the five senses, and concerning the sensible objects immediately around him.
Now if you fully understand this infantile state, if you know precisely all the little child's wants and fears and limitations, you can adapt yourself perfectly to his needs. You can come down to and sympathize with him in his feeble state; you can enter into his childish thoughts and feelings, can instruct and inspire him, can lift him up mentally and morally, and lead him along little by little to the state of mature and robust manhood.
But how could you do this without the requisite knowledge of the child's weakness and wants? And how could you obtain this knowledge if you had not once been a child yourself? You remember how you felt and thought when you were of that feeble age; therefore you can understand and sympathize with the child. You have yourself had the same infantile experience that he is now having. You have passed through all the states of childhood from infancy to mature years. And if your recollection of these states were full and perfect, you would be able to come still nearer to the child; to enter more fully and with more perfect sympathy into all his states; and so be to him a wiser counsellor, a better friend, a more efficient. helper and guide.
This may serve to illustrate in some measure the importance and use of the Divine Incarnation. For in respect to Jehovah God, all mankind are as little children—very little, very weak, very ignorant, and of very feeble understanding.
God Accommodated to our Needs.
Then in what capacity or relation do we, in our selfish and sinful state, most need to know God? Not as Creator, Preserver and Governor of the material universe, but as our spiritual Illuminator, Regenerator and Saviour. True, the devout mind sees God in the external world. The visible universe proclaims his wisdom, his majesty and his power. We see Him in the grandeur of rivers and mountains, of oceans and cataracts; in the glory of the night and the splendors of the morning; In the flowers of spring, the luxuriance of summer and the golden fruits of autumn; in the beautiful procession of the seasons and the wild magnificence of the storm. But here we see Him only in his vastness, his majesty and his might. We are overwhelmed and lost amid such manifestations of his greatness. Yet we behold not here the God that is suited to our spiritual needs. It is a God far off, not graciously near to our souls. Not here do we see Him in any tender or vital relation to humanity. In all the beauty and magnificence of the material cosmos—in the grandeur of the ocean, the lightning or the star-lit sky—not here do we behold Him ministering to the soul's deepest wants. Not here do we see Him living, laboring, battling and suffering for us; freely giving Himself—his unspeakable love and wisdom—for us; resisting and overcoming selfishness and every inherited tendency to evil; working out a glorious redemption for us; developing the grandest and divinest life under adverse conditions; revealing that sweet and tender, yea, that divine humanity which is our solace and our hope, and is to be our heaven and joy and crown of rejoicing.
But in the person of Jesus Christ, God is revealed in a form perfectly adapted to our condition and needs. Here we behold Him in the most intimate and vital relation to mankind; clothed in our frail, finite and perverted humanity; Himself a man among men; yet, as to his internal, the supreme and only God. Here we behold Him in a form that we can approach and understand, and that our affections can lay hold on. Here we see Him living and acting in our human conditions and relations, laden, too, with all our hereditary proclivities to evil; "God manifest in the flesh;" feeling as we feel, tempted as we are tempted, suffering as we suffer, and triumphing over death and hell as it is now possible (through his Divine assistance) for us to triumph. We see Him born of a woman as we were born; clothed with a body like our own; passing through the various states from infancy to manhood, through which we have to pass. And then we see Him consecrating his life to deeds of love and mercy; forgetful of Himself, and thoughtful only of other's good; not anxious to be served, but only to serve; continually going about doing good; healing the sick; feeding the hungry; befriending the friendless; strengthening the weak; enlightening the ignorant; compassionating the poor; sympathizing with the sorrowing; comforting the mourners; and helping all who needed help and were willing to receive it. We see Him meek and gentle under persecution; patient and resigned in suffering; forbearing when assailed with bitterest taunts; the constant friend of truth and right; the uncompromising foe of hypocrisy and wrong; "kind to the unthankful and to the evil;" loving and forgiving towards his enemies; and breathing out that ever-memorable prayer for his murderers with his last expiring breath.
Subjected to Human Conditions.
What a display of Divinity in humanity is this! We here see how God lived when He subjected Himself to our human conditions. This is the way He felt and thought and spoke and acted and suffered and forgave here in this ultimate sensuous realm. It was ever the same benignant spirit—love speaking, love acting, love suffering. Christ was the visible embodiment in human form, of the perfect Divine Love. He was God come down to earth and subjected to our earthly conditions and limitations; God brought into states of darkness and suffering and fierce temptation,—an experience made possible only through his organic connection with our sin-laden humanity.
And here is precisely where we, as weak, erring and sinful creatures, need to see and know God. We need to know Him in his humanity; that is, we need to know what He would do if placed in our circumstances and invested with our finite and grovelling nature; made to feel the fire of evil passions and the cravings of selfish and worldly loves; subjected like us to the malignant assaults and terrible goadings of infernal spirits. And in Jesus Christ He has shown us just what He would do—just what He has done, indeed. Here we see the true God, not as He is in his Infinity or absolute Divinity—for in this He is unapproachable and incomprehensible by finite minds—but in his tender and beautiful and comprehensible, yea, in his Divine Humanity. Here we see Him ministering, weeping, sorrowing, praying, suffering, tempted, struggling, like ourselves—but never sinning, never yielding to the tempter. Here, therefore, our God is brought graciously near and into closest sympathy with us, and we into closest sympathy with Him. He is able to be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," because, as saith the prophet, "He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."
Humanity Glorified.
Nor is this all. While God was coming into closer sympathy with humanity by living and suffering as He did in the flesh; while He was displaying his infinite compassion down on the lowest plane of human life, ministering to bodily infirmities and wants, working miracles of mercy and healing in the natural sphere. He was at the same time performing still more stupendous miracles in the sphere above nature. He was doing deeds of mercy yet more sublime and wondrous in the spiritual realm. He was cleansing his assumed humanity (which, by inheritance, was prone to all kinds of evil) from its corrupt inclinations and depraved tendencies. He was eradicating from that humanity every germ of selfishness—purging it of every foul hereditary taint. In his assumed humanity were included all the tendencies and depravities of universal humanity. Therefore He was able, through the medium of such assumed human, to touch the hells at all points. He came in conflict with every class of infernal spirits; had experience of all their craft and subtlety and dire malignity; and through his own consummate wisdom and power He subdued them all, and reduced the hells to a state of order unknown before in that dark realm. As the prophet Isaiah again says: "Therefore his own arm brought salvation unto Him; and his righteousness, it sustained Him."
And while He was reducing the hells to order, and purging his assumed humanity of its evil hereditary taints, He was at the same time filling that humanity with his own absolute Divinity. In this way He successively put off all that was imperfect and finite pertaining to his assumed humanity, and put on that which was infinite and perfect. He thus glorified that humanity by imbuing it with his own Divine life. He exalted it to a perfect union with the Divinity that was in Him from conception. He made it a Divine Humanity; that is, a humanity endued with all Divine powers, gifts and graces. Therefore He says: "As the Father [the essential Divinity] hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son [the humanity] to have life in Himself." "I and the Father are one."
The process whereby this oneness of Divinity with humanity was effected, was a purely Divine process; and can be comprehended only in the degree that one experiences the likeness of it in himself; that is, in the degree that he "puts off the old man" that Paul speaks of, and "puts on the new man" by regeneration from on High; thus "making in himself of twain one new man, so making peace."
A New Spiritual Force Manifest.
And still further: By the assumption and glorification of our human nature, God placed Himself in a new and more intimate relation to universal humanity. He could thenceforward and forever draw graciously near to all men as He could not before. He could impart unto them his quickening influence and his renewing grace as never before. He could enlighten them in their darkness, sympathize with them in their trials, strengthen them in their weakness, shield them in temptation, and so exert or make operative for them his redeeming love, as He could not before. From the hour when it could be said—was said—of that sublime work of glorifying the human, "It is finished," a new spiritual force became manifest among men. A new and Divine energy began to pervade the moral universe. A new light began to be diffused, and new life to pulsate in the hearts of men, especially of those who looked to Him in humble and confiding faith; and this, too, in fulfilment of the Divine promise. For the Lord, while yet in the flesh, spoke of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit or Spirit of truth, which He would send after his departure, but which could not be sent before. "It is expedient for you," said He to his disciples, "that I go away: For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." And again: "When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." "He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." "He will guide you into all truth." And still more conclusive in John vii. 39, "For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified;" a declaration showing that the procession of that divine-human sphere or effluence called the Holy Spirit, was a consequence of the assumption and glorification of the humanity.
God in Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, is the infinite God brought down to our finite comprehension and accommodated to our human needs. The Divine Trinity expressed in Scripture by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is all in Him. This is the teaching of the New Theology, as it clearly is that of the great Apostle to the Gentiles.
But although the fulness of the Divinity dwells in Jesus Christ, yet as to the human side of his nature He can be approached, comprehended and loved even by a little child. For a child can see Him in imagination, and be made to understand something of his sweet and tender humanity. His affections can be drawn out toward Him by the simple recital of his deeds of mercy and compassion, his gentleness, forbearance, integrity, courage, sincerity, his patience in suffering, his unbounded forgiveness and his unselfish love. And in learning about Christ, the child is learning about God. He is acquiring a genuine knowledge of the Divine character. In learning to love and obey Christ, he is learning to love and obey God. And although it is only the external humanity—the mere clothing of Divinity—that the child sees and learns about, the knowledge is none the less important for all that. It becomes in him the solid and enduring basis of the kingdom of heaven. It is like learning the literal sense of the Word. As this sense is the foundation and containant of all the higher senses, so the knowledge and love of the man, Jesus—the Lord's mere external humanity—are the foundation and containant of that higher knowledge and purer love to be unfolded in maturer years.
And as the child advances toward maturity and is able to comprehend more and more of true humanity, the Saviour's character in its higher and holier aspects, unfolds itself to him with ever increasing fulness. And still later, when the burdens and sorrows and responsibilities of life press heavily; when the foes of his own spiritual house-hold rise up in their strength and fierceness; when the spheres of infernal spirits invade and darken his moral firmament, shutting out the light of the sun, moon and stars; oh! then it is that this knowledge of God in Christ—of Divinity in organic union with humanity—comes to him with consoling and strengthening power. In the clear light of this heavenly doctrine he sees that there are no. abysses to which his soul can sink, where Christ Himself has not been; no darkness which can overshadow him, that is more appalling than that known to Christ; no states of temptation more agonizing, no assaults from hell more fierce, than those which Christ experienced. And seeing and knowing all this, and realizing that in and of himself he has no power to resist the assaults of infernal spirits, but that the Divine Humanity—the eternal and almighty Saviour—has "all power in heaven and on earth," he looks to Him, and prays to Him, and confides in Him, and so (with his own voluntary co-operation) receives from Him the succor that he needs.
And thus through all our journey from the cradle to the grave, Divinity in organic union with humanity; God in the person of Jesus Christ; God invested with our infirm nature; God living and laboring and suffering as man among men; God as Enlightener, Redeemer, Regenerator and Saviour,—the very embodiment on earth of all human and all divine excellence; God in a form approachable and comprehensible by finite minds; God able to come to us through the medium of his Divine Humanity, as the invisible soul of your friend comes to you through the medium of his visible body; and, coming in this comprehensible and lovable form, able also to enlighten and quicken and strengthen us by his grace, and lead us upward in the heavenly paths;—this is the God we most need to know. This is the God exactly suited to our condition, capacities and spiritual wants. And throughout the eternal Ages, the wondrous wealth of his redeeming love will continue to unfold more and more in accommodation to the ever advancing states of all his humble followers.
Such is the belief and teaching of the New Church respecting the Central Doctrine of the Christian religion—the true and only proper Object of religious worship. Its supreme importance is our sufficient excuse and justification for dwelling upon it at considerable length.
"Lo! this is our God! We have waited for Him, that He may save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isa. xxv. 9.)
- ↑ For an extended and exhaustive treatment of this subject, with proofs from reason and Scripture, see Barrett's "Letters on the Divine Trinity addressed to Henry Ward Beecher."