imputation of righteousness to begin with ; a process of sanctifica- tion carried forward by the help of proper spiritual machinery brought to bear on the soul, including perhaps, as its basis, the notion of an abrupt creation ' de novo,' by the fiat of the Holy Ghost ; and finally, to crown all, a sudden unprepared refabrica- tion of the body, to be superadded to the life of the spirit already complete in its state of glory." The doctrines of justification by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ ; of the regenera- tion and sanctification of the soul by the supernatural power of the Spirit, and the resurrection of the body by the power of God at the last day, are rejected and despised ; and the doctrine sub- stituted for them is, that the divine-human life of Christ, as a new organic law, develops itself in the Church, just as the life of the acorn develops itself in the oak and in the forest, by a natural, historical process, so that the members of the Church, in virtue of their participation of this life, are justified and sanctified, and their bodies (since the life of Christ is a human life actualizing itself outwardly in a body as well as inwardly in a soul), ulti- mately raised from the dead, are fashioned after the glorious body of Christ. The resurrection of the body is as much a natural process as the development of a seed into a flower, or of a grub into a butterfly. This is Dr. Nevin's own illustration : " The birth of the butterfly, as it mounts in the air on wings of light, is comparatively sudden, too ; but this is the revelation only of a life which had been gradually formed for this efflorescence before, under cover of the vile, unsightly larve." " The new creation," he says, " is indeed supernatural ; but as such it is strictly conformable to the general order and constitution of life. It is a new creation in Christ Jesus, not by Him in the way of mere outward power. The subjects of it are saved, only by being brought within the sphere of his life, as a regular, historical, divine-human process, in the Church. The new nature implanted in them at their regeneration, is not a higher order of existence framed for them at the moment out of nothing by the fiat of God, but truly and strictly a continuation of Christ's life over in their persons." 1
This is the modern view of Christianity introduced by Schleier- macher, modified more or less by his disciples, and which has passed over into England and into this country. Humanity as revealed in Adam as a generic life was too feeble. Its devel- opment failed and would have ever failed to reach the ideal.
1 Mystical Presence, pp. 228, 229.
212 PART III. Ch. XVTL — JUSTIFICATION.
Therefore God interposed and interrupted the process of natural development by the production of a new ideal man containing in himself a generic life, a seed, a principle, an organic law, which develops itself in the Church by a historical process, just as the life of Adam developed itself in his posterity. We, therefore, are justified, not by what Christ did, but by his life in us, which is as truly and properly our life, as the life we derived from Adam is our own life. We must stand before God to be justified or con- demned, accepted or rejected, on the ground of what we are. We have nothing to offer but our own subjective, inherent char- acter such as it is. The man is to be pitied who dares to do this. It is surely better to agree with Paul, who renounced his own righteousness, his own goodness, everything pertaining to him- self, everything subjective, and trusted only and confidently to the righteousness of Christ received by faith.