When we observe an animal possessing that physical form and construction
peculiar to its species, we expect to find it practically exhibiting
the nature, character, disposition, and habits peculiar to that class of
animals. If it possesses, for example, the conformation of a sheep, we
infer at once that it has the disposition of a sheep, and we are never
disappointed in this conclusion. And when we encounter an animal with
the tiger form, we expect to see exhibited the tiger spirit. If it
possesses the well-known physical conformation of the tiger, we are
never deceived or misled when we assign it a predatory disposition. If
it is a tiger form, it is sure to be a tiger in character and habits.
And so of all the genera and species of animals that range upon the face
of the globe. We may travel through the whole field of animated
nature, and observe the infallible operation of this beautiful law
of correspondence till we come, however, to the crowning work of God,
called Man. Here we find this law, this beautiful chain of analogy,
broken by the doctrine of the "divine incarnation." God becomes a man,
at least is made to exhibit every external appearance of a man. All
external distinction between God and man is thus obliterated. So that
the very first being we meet in the street or on the highway possessing
the form, size, and physical conformation of a man, and presenting every
other external appearance of being a man, may nevertheless be a God. And
no less is this objection practically exemplified, and not less is the
infraction of this beautiful law of analogy observable in the case of
Jesus Christ, than in the numerous other incarnate Gods and demigods of
antiquity. Being in appearance a man, how was he to be, or how could he
be, visually distinguished from a man? Or how could those men who
were cotemporary with him, know, as they approached him, or as they
approached each other, whether they were meeting a man or a God? Seeing
that "he was found in fashion as a man" (Phil. ii. 8), either he might
be mistaken for a man, or they for a God. They were constantly liable to
be confounded. If, then, the infinite deityship was lodged in the person
of Jesus Christ, it is evident that that important fundamental law of
nature--"as is the form, so is the character"--was utterly annulled,
prostrated, annihilated, and banished from the world by the act. So
that all was, and is henceforth and forever, chaos, confusion, and
uncertainty. For if the principle can be violated in one instance, it
may be in another, and in thousands of cases, ad infinitum. If one case
could be allowed to occur, the principle is established, and nature's
universal chain of analogy is broken and destroyed; for to intercept the
law is to "break the tenth and ten thousandth link alike."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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