]
To those who make the objection, I shall describe the proposition which
has been stated above, in different terms. I shall leave out the words
"Spirit of God," and I shall wholly substitute the term "Christ." This I
shall do upon the authority of some of our best divines.... The
proposition then will run thus:
God, by means of Christ, created the world, "for without him was not any
thing made, that was made."
He made, by means of the same Christ, the terrestrial Globe on which we
live. He made the whole Host of Heaven. He made, therefore, besides our
own, other planets and other worlds.
He caused also, by means of the same Christ, the generation of all
animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.
He occasioned also by the same means, the generation of reason or
intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.
Man, however, had not been long created, before he fell into sin. It
pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in
creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiritual
faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to
obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin. And this inward
striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all
would be inexcusable and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.
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