Scriptures, and in the Church which distinctly recognizes God the Father, God the Son as the only-begotten of the Father, and God the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son. And here we would remark, that, although we are obliged to describe a succession of events in forming our conception of tripersonality in God,—it being the process by which this tri-personality is realized that gives to this conception all its vitality, and its competency as a ground for Absolute Science,—it is not necessary that we should conceive them as happening in time, but only as the order of realization in God, which is to be regarded as an eternal or perpetual generative process. It is in this way that the ancient philosophers always regarded such descriptions; and even the world was not conceived by them as having been created in time, but as being "ingenerate or unmade." Thus Proclus, in speaking of the generation of the gods, says, "We call it the generation of the gods; meaning thereby not any temporary production of them, but their ineffable procession from a superior first cause." This external sphere of Absolute Existence must have been developed in a natural condition, or as a discordant dual representative of infinite and finite principles, as a preparation for the realization of a Spiritual Individuality, or the Son in God, in the same way that the internal sphere of Absolute Existence was developed as a preparation for the realization of a Divine Individuality, or the Father; and this individual must have been realized as a Sphere of Spiritual Life, or as a spiritual tri-unity of Wisdom, Love, and Power, as soul, body, and spirit, and have been made one with the Father and with the Infinite Life, by realizing the same kind of experiences, and therefore the same sacrifice of Individual Life and regeneration of the natural form, that was realized in the Father as the condition of Divine Life and union with the Infinite; because we have already shown that it is only through crucifixion, or self-renunciation, that Spiritual Life, or at-one-ment with the Infinite, can be realized. The Son is therefore spoken of in the Scriptures as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" for this language is not to be understood in a prospective sense, or as having reference to his subsequent incarnation and crucifixion, as it has been common to do; because it is obviously a literal statement that has reference to the formation of tri-personality in God, which alone made "the * Aristotle. foundation of the world" possible. It is therefore more definitely stated in the following words of St. Paul: "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself: by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." For although the reconciliation to God of "the things in earth" here relates to the subsequent formation of a divine-human sphere of life by the incarnation of the Son, which was consummated by a sacrifice of which his visible crucifixion was only a symbol or type, the reconciliation to God of the "things in heaven" by the blood of his cross evidently relates to the formation of that heavenly sphere which attended the consummation of tri-personality in God. When Jesus prayed to the Father, therefore, that he would glorify his name, "then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." That these words relate, first, to a past glorification consequent upon the reconciliation to the Father of the things in heaven by the sacrifice of "the Lamb of God," and next to a promised glorification consequent upon the reconciliation to Him of "the things in earth" by the sacrifice of "the Son of Man," may be known, because Jesus afterwards says, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." That the account here given of the Son corresponds with the teaching of the Scriptures, may also be seen from the following words of St. Paul: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things; by whom also he made the worlds; who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? Of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." We have now demonstrated the fact of tri-personality in God, by a legitimate course of reasoning from the conception of the Infinite as a Universal Sphere of Indefinite Life; all the conclusions to which we have here arrived being legitimate deductions from this single premise. It is true that this conception could not have been realized separate from the consciousness of an external world, because all production in the mind is from the union of opposites, as a representative of the absolute production here conceived; and Thought, which is a conception of Truth, results from the union of Inspiration and Sensation, which are the intuition of Law and the perception of Phenomena. It is in view of Existence as an absolute fact, and also of the phenomena of Creation as representative natural facts, combined with the intuition of Spiritual Law, that we arrive at the conception of Infinite Life; and it is in view of these that a second Universal Cause, which is a complete inversion of Infinite Life, is demanded. Tri-Personality, as here conceived, is not a trinity of elements, related as intellective, affective, and active, but is a trinity of persons, each one of which includes such a threefold form, and constitutes a separate Individuality and a different consciousness; and these three Persons constitute three several Spheres of Absolute Being, which are One in Essence, in the relation of spirit, soul, and body. The Father, as the Soul of Deity, therefore becomes conscious through a Divine Sphere of a definite form of the Infinite Life, which is the Spirit of Deity; while the Son, as the Body of Deity, becomes conscious through a Spiritual Sphere, which is related to the Divine as external to internal, of a more external form of the Infinite Life; it being therefore written, "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Bodily:" so that, although distinctly Three, they are at the same time inseparably One. Neither is this Tri-Personality conceived as absorbing the Finite, but as being outside of and opposite to it; it being necessary that this universal sphere of Indefinite Death should forever remain as a means of realizing, through perpetual generation, a definite consciousness in God,as the source of finite material in a perpetual Creation,—and as the cause and support of an Infernal Sphere of Existence opposite and antagonistic to God. It will readily be seen, that from the point of view here established, instead of finding it difficult to conceive three distinct persons as constituting One God, we cannot rationally conceive God except as including Three Persons, because we see that all these three are necessary to constitute a definite individualization of Absolute Life as Creating Cause; an individualization of which Man is made the image or representative. As these three persons bear to each other the relation of spirit, soul, and body, a perfect unity or substantial individuality in God is conceived; while the character of each of these persons, their relationship to each other, and the kind of intercourse that must take place between them, are made perfectly comprehensible. They are made thus comprehensible because they correspond with the three spheres of the Universe, of which we can obtain a definite conception, with the three spheres of the Mind, where the higher spheres become incarnated in, and definitely expressed and manifested through, the lower, - and with the three spheres of Universal Law, of which we may observe in Creation the greatest variety of illustrations. Each one of these spheres may be seen to possess an individuality and a consciousness that is peculiarly its own, while they are at the same time calculated to act together as one, in the relation of spirit, soul, and body; thus constituting a perfect representative of the three descending spheres of life which have here been described as constituting the tri-personal form in which God exists, and of which Man is the image. The Universal Science here constructed offers a familiar illustration of tri-personality in God; because its Ontological, Theological, and Psychological Systems, although belonging to three distinctly different spheres of thought, are here brought under the same governing laws, and realized as One Science in a perfect individuality of spirit, soul, and body. Having demonstrated the existence of God as a Tri-Personality, or his existence in three Spheres of Absolute Being made one, as spirit, soul, and body; and having shown the manner in which this tri-personality becomes realized, -this being the great fact which communicates to this conception all its vitality, and gives to us the principal foundation both for Philosophy and for Theology, the next step pointed out to us is, that we should realize a conception of the laws of Phenomenal Being, and of the nature of the substances which furnish to God the Material for Creation, and describe the character of this creation; while the next is, that we draw from these conceptions of absolute and phenomenal being the Universal Laws which we apply in the construction of Philosophy as Absolute Science, and in the explanation of all the phenomena of natural and of spiritual life. |