world) stands in connection with these fundamental views,

1 Comp. the views entertained by Michaelis and others in the work of Herder (note 2.); for further particulars see Bretschneider, Entwickelung p. 450 ss. Silberschlag, Geogonie, oder Erklärung der mosaischen Schöpfungsgeschichte, Berlin 178083. 3 voll. 4°.

2 Herder in his: Die älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlectse Eine nach Jahrhunderten enthüllte heilige Schrift. 1774 ss. Comp. the review in the allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek xxv. p. 24. xxx. p. 53. Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. ii. p. 303 ss. Geist der hebraeischen Poesie i. p. 139 ss.

3 Comp. Bretschneider p. 451. Supranaturalists also, such as Reinhard (p. 167 ss.) and others, held less rigid opinions.

4 The idea of a creation out of nothing is founded on theistic views of the world. These views are deistic when the creation and preservation of the world are too much separated from each other, and the connection existing between them is destroyed; they become pantheistic when creation appears as a mere part of preservation. Comp. the passages from the works of Fichte, Hegel, and Marheinecke, collected by Hase, p. 179, and Schleiermacher, christliche Glaubenslehre i. § 40. Further, the idea of providence is theistic, and intimately connected with the idea of a personal God; it is wanting in the schemes of Deism and Pantheism.

5 Blasche, C. H., das Böse im Einklange mit der Weltordnung dargestellt, Leipz. 1827. He has revived the earlier notions, that evil is necessary in order to form a contrast with good, etc.

§ 294.

THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING ANGELS AND DEMONS

During this prosaic age the belief in the existence

and agency of angels had almost wholly disappeared, and the Supranaturalists themselves, who, on the authority of Scripture, continued to believe in their existence, knew not what functions to assign to them.1 On the contrary, Swedenborg pretended to a higher knowledge of the nature of angels, but most arbitrarily substituted the notion of glorified men for the Scriptural idea of angels, and denied the personal existence of the devil. 2 The devil had become a subject of derision with the advocates of what were called the enlightened views of the age. Semler explained (after the example of Bekker) the demoniacal possessions by a reference to empirical psychology. But even those Supranaturalists who, on exegetical grounds, believed in the reality of the demoniacal possessions recorded in the New Testament, were far from asserting their possibility in our age. In the present century, however, the belief in demoniacal possessions as affecting the body, which had continued to obtain among the lower orders of the people notwithstanding the progress of civilization, was revived among the educated classes of Protestants themselves, and for the most part brought into connection with the phenomena of animal magnetism and visions.5 The doctrine concerning the devil was again prominently brought forward. Schleiermacher showed its importance in a poetic aspect, viz, as regards sacred poetry, while Daub endeavoured to assign a kind of personal existence to the author of evil; the latter, however, introduced some Manichæan elements into this doctrine. 7 Many theologians are now of opinion that where the doctrine concerning evil is rightly understood, the belief in metaphysical existence of the devil is of subordinate importance, inasmuch as he, according to Scripture, belongs to that order of finite beings by whom

Christians, may be tempted, but ought not to be overcome.8

1 Thus Reinhard, p. 176 ss. He does not venture to decide which office they have in the present time (p. 191.) Storr. § 49. (quoted by Hase, Dogmatik p. 237.)

2 Göttliche Offenbarung i. p. 87: "Men are always surrounded by spirits and angels of God, who understand everything spiritually, because they themselves possess a spiritual nature. After death men are also instructed by angels," p. 102. Comp. ii. p. 102. 126. 178. 226. In many places Swedenborg relates his discourses with angels who, in his opinion, are human beings. Angels breathe as well as men, their heart also beats; they breathe according to the measure of Divine wisdom which they receive from the Lord; their heart beats according to the measure of Divine love which they receive from the Lord, p. 112. comp. p. 220. Angels and spirits are also men; for all the good and true which proceeds from man is, according to its form, man; but the Lord is the Divine-Good, and the Divine-True itself, hence he is the man himself from whom every man is man, i. p. 112. Because angels are angels on account of the degree of love and wisdom which they possess, and the same is the case with men, it is evident, that on account of the good connected with the true, angels are angels of heaven, and men are men of the church, p. 157. The wisdom of angels consists in the power to see and to apprehend what they think, p. 213. All that takes place in the spiritual world, is correspondence; for it is corresponding to the tendencies of angels and spirits, p. 250. In opposition to the doctrine of the church, that the angels were created at first, and that the devil is a fallen angel, Swedenborg professes (p. 180) to be taught by the angels themselves that in the whole heaven there is not one single angel who was created at first, nor in the whole hell one single devil who was created as an angel of light, etc., but that all angels, both in heaven and in hell, derive their origin from the human race. Hell and devil are one thing, and angels and heaven are one thing, comp. p. 303. That which is in man, viz., his spirit, is, according to its true nature, an angel, p. 281, therefore man is created to become an angel, p. 289. In some places Swedenborg understands

the Scriptural term: angel in a symbolical sense. Comp. vol. ii. p. 6. 16. 18. 52. 307.

3 De Dæmoniacis, 1760 (4th edit. 1779.)-Versuch einer biblischen Daemonologie, Halle 1776.

4 Reinhard p. 195 ss. p. 206, speaks only of those diseases which the devil is said to have caused in the times of Christ and his apostles. Comp. p. 211. "We admit such corporeal possessions in the narratives of the gospel only on the testimony of Christ and his apostles. Accordingly, when such an authentic testimony is wanting in modern times, no man is justified in maintaining that a diseased man is truly possessed with a devil." Comp. Storr § 52. (quoted by Hase p. 238.)

5 The exorcisms practised by Gassner, a member of the Roman Catholic Church (from the year 1773.) See Walch, neueste Religionsgeschichte, vol. vi. p. 371. p. 541 ss. Justinus Kerner, (who belongs to the Protestant Church): die Scherinn von Prevorst, Stuttg. 1832, 2 voll. Ueber das Besessensein, Heilbr. 1833. Geschichte Besessener neuerer Zeit, nebst Reflexionen von Eschenmayer, Karlsruhe 1836.

6 Glaubenslehre i. § 45. p. 243.

7 Judas Ischariot, oder das Böse im Verhältnisse zum Guten betrachtet, 2 parts in 3 sections. Heidelb. 1816-19. (Comp. Kant, Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft, p. 99 ss.)

8 Kant, I. c. p. 66. Twesten, Dogmatik ii. p. 331 ss. comp. p. 358-360.

426

THIRD SECTION.

ANTHROPOLOGY.

CHRISTOLOGY. SOTERIOLOGY

AND THE ECONOMY OF REDEMPTION.

§ 295.

THE DOCTRINES CONCERNING MAN, SIN, AND LIBERTY.

We may expect as a matter of course, that in an age in which philosophical and theological works were full of "philanthropy and humanity," much would be said concerning the nature, dignity, and destination of man.1 In opposition to Augustine's views, the excellency of the human nature was extolled, and (after the example of Rousseau) many indulged in fanciful representations of the ideal state of man.2 The rationalistic theologians erased the doctrine of original sin from their systems. 3 On the contrary, Kant himself pointed out the innate evil in man, but did not understand by it original sin in its ecclesiastical sense. The adherents of later speculative philosophy were also far from believing that the natural state of man is the normal one, they admitted that he had fallen from his original state, and a reconciliation had become necessary, and attached little importance to the Pelagian idea of liberty, upon which Rationalists laid great weight. But after a closer examination of their theory, it appeared that the kind of original sin they established was identical with the