couvrir son corps glorieux de notre chair niortelle, qu'il voulut prendre dans le sein d'une Vierge." " Le corps de J^sus Christ, se revetant de la chair et da sang de la bien heureuse Vierge, fera aussi pen un compose de deux corps difFerents, qu'un habit blanc et lumineux plonge dans un vase de couleur chargee et ob- scure, ou il se charge de la mati^re, qui produit cette opacite, ne devient pour cela un habit double ou deux habits, au lieu d'un." ^
4. Christ's redemptive work does not consist in his bearing our sins upon the tree, or in making satisfaction to the justice of God for our offences. All idea of such satisfaction Swedenborg rejects. The work of salvation is entirely subjective. Justification is par- don granted on repentance. The people of God are made in- wardly righteous, and being thus holy are admitted to the presence of God and holy spirits in heaven. His peculiar views of the state of the departed, or of Heaven and Hell, do not call for considera- tion in this place. 2
Isaac Watts.
No one familiar with Dr. Watts' " Psalms and Hymns," can doubt his being a devout worshipper of our Lord Jesus Christ, or call in question his belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. Yet on account of his peculiar views on the person of Christ, there is a vague impression that he had in some way departed from the faith of the Church. It is, indeed, often said that he was Arian. In his woi'ks,^ however, there is a dissertation on " The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity : or, Father, Son, and Spirit, three persons and one God, asserted and proved, with their divine Rights and Honors vindicated, by plain evidence of Scripture, without the aid or incumbrance of human Schemes. Written chiefly for the use of private Christians." In that dissertation the common Church doc- trine is presented in the usual form, and sustained by the common arguments, with singular perspicuity and force.
1 CEconomie du Reiahlissement apres V Incarnation de Jesus Christ, chap. ii. §§ 11, 1% Quoted by Domer, Person of Christ, div. ii. vol. ii. p. 328.
2 Swedenbor^'s doctrines are most clearly and conciseh' presented in his book, Vera Christiana Religio, Amsterdam, 1771. It has been frequently translated. An English ver- Bion was published in Boston in 1833, in one volume, 8vo, pp. 576. As an illustration of the way in which Swedenborg speaks of his intercourse with the spirit-world, a few sen- tences may be quoted from the thirtieth page of the work just mentioned. He saj-s that when he was astonished at the multitude of persons who merged God into nature, an angel stood at his side and said, " ' What are you meditating about? ' and I replied, ' About the multitude of such persons as believe that nature is of itself, and thus the creator of the uni- verse.' And the angel said to me, ' All hell is of such, and they are called there satans and devils; satans, who have confirmed themselves in favour of nature, and thence have de- nied God; devils, who have lived wickedly, and thus have rejected from their heart* all Rcknowledgment of God.' "
a Watts' Works, edit. London, 1753, vol. vi. pp. 413-492.
424 PART m. Ch. III. — THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
His peculiar views on the person of Christ are brought out m three discourses on " The Glory of Christ as God-man," ^ pub- lished in 1746. In the first of these he refers to tlie " visible ap- peai'ances of Christ, as God before his incarnation," and brings into view all the texts in which He is called Jeiiovah, God, and Lord, and those in which divine attributes and pi'erogatives are ascribed to Him.
In the second, he treats of the " extensive powers of the human nature of Christ in its present glorified state." In a previous essay he took the position that the " human soul of Christ is the first, the greatest, the wisest, the holiest, and the best of all created spirits." 2 He argues this point from all those passages of Scrip- ture which speak of the exaltation of Christ and of the gift to Him of absolutely universal dominion. As the divine nature of Christ does not admit of exaltation or of receiving anything as a gift, he inferred that these passages must be understood of his human nature, and therefore that Christ as a man must be regarded as exalted over all created beings. To the objection, " How is it possible that a human spirit should be endued with powers of so vast an extent?" he answers, first, that the power in question is not infinite ; and secondly, that if the doctrine of the infinite divisibility of matter be true, we cannot fix the minimum of small- ness, and how then can we determine the maximum of greatness. " Why," he asks, " may not the human soul of Christ be as well appointed to govern the world, as the soul of man is appointed to govern his body, when it is evident the soul of man does not know one thousandth part of the fine branchings of the muscles and nerves, and the more refined vapour or animal spirits which are parts of this body ? " ^ Thirdly, we can hardly set a limit even to our own capacity ; and yet the " soul of Christ may be reasonably supposed in its own nature to transcend the powers of all other souls as far as an angel exceeds an idiot, and yet be but a human soul still, for gradus non mutant speeiem''^ Fourthly, if the powers of the soul of Christ were not in his state of humiliation sufficient for the purposes (.f government and judgment, that does not prove that they are not now sufficient in his glorified estate. " Who knows what ' amazing enlargement may attend all the natural powers of man when advanced to a state of glory ? ' " ^ Fifthly, and mainly, this supreme exaltation of the power of the human
1 Watts' Works, ut supra, vol. vi. pp. 721-855. « Ibid. p. 706.
« Jbid. p. 786. « Jbid. p. 787
• Jbid. p. 789.