William Law · 8 of 14

The Second Dialogue · Part 1

Part II The Second Dialogue

Theoph. Let us now speak of Adam in his first perfection, created by God to be a lord and ruler of the new-created world, to people it with an host of angelic men, till time had finished its course, and all things were fitted to be restored to that state, from which they were fallen by the revolt of angels.

For the restoration of all things to their first glorious state, by making the good to overcome evil, was the end which God proposed by the state and manner of this new creation.

Adam was the chosen instrument of God, to conduct this whole affair, to keep up this new-made world in the state in which God had created it, not to till the earth, which we now plow, but to keep that, which is now called the curse of the earth, covered, hid, and overcome, by that paradise in which he was created. For this end, he was created in a twofold nature, of the powers of heaven, and the powers of this world. Inwardly, he had the celestial body and soul of an angel, and he had this angelic nature united to a life and body taken from the stars and elements of this outward world. As paradise overcame, and concealed all the wrath of the stars and elements, and kept that evil, which is called the curse, from being known or felt, so Adam's angelic, heavenly nature, which was the paradise of God within him, kept him quite ignorant of the properties of that earthly nature that was under it. He knew, and saw, and felt nothing in himself, but a birth of paradise, that is, a life, light, and spirit of heaven: for he had no difference from an angel in heaven, but that this world was joined to him, and put under his feet. And this was done, because he was created by God to be the restoring angel, to do all that in this outward world, which God would have to be done in it, before it could be restored to its first state. And therefore he must have the nature of all this world in him, because he was to act in it, and upon it, as its restoring angel; and yet with such distinction from it, with such power upon it, and over it, as the light has upon and over darkness. Does not now the whole spirit of the Scriptures consent to this account of Adam's first perfection? Do not all the chief points of our redemption demand this perfection in Adam unfallen? How else could his fall bring on the necessity of the gospel-redemption of a new birth from above, of the Word and Holy Spirit of God? For had he not had this perfection of nature at first, his redemption could not have consisted in the revival of this birth and perfection in him. For had it been something less than the loss of an angelic and heavenly life, that had happened to him by his fall, had it been only some evil, that related to a life of this world, nothing else but some remedy from this world, could have been his redemption. But since it is the corner-stone of the gospel, that nothing less than the eternal Word, which was man's creator, could be his redeemer, and that by a new birth from above, it is a demonstration, that he was at first created an angel, born from above, and such a partaker of the divine life, as the angels are; and that his fall was a real death or extinction of his angelic life.

Now the letter of Moses is express for this first perfection of Adam. God said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." How different is this from the creation of the animals of this world? What can you think or say higher of an angel? Or what perfection can an angel have, but that of being in the image and after the likeness of God? But now what an absurdity would it be, to hold that Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, and yet had not in him so much as the image an likeness of an angel? Again, was not paradise lost, was not evil and the curse awakened in all the elements, as soon as Adam fell? And does not this prove, beyond all contradiction, that Adam was created by God, as I said above, to be the restoring angel; to have power over all the outward world; to keep all its evil from being known or felt; till the fall of angels from heaven had been repaired by a race of angelic men born on earth? But how could he do, and be all this, for which he was created by God, how could he keep up the life of heaven and paradise in himself, and this new world, unless the life of heaven had been his own life? Or how could he be the father of an offspring that were to have no evil, nor so much as the knowledge of what was good and evil in this world? Could anything but an heavenly man bring forth an heavenly offspring? Or could he be said to have the life of this world opened in him in his creation, who was to bring forth a race of beings, insensible of the good and evil in this world? For everything that has the life of this world opened in it, is under an absolute necessity of knowing and feeling its good and evil.

Secondly, that Adam, when he first entered into the world, had the nature and perfection of an angel, is further plain from Moses, who tells us, that he was made at first both male and female in one person; and that Eve, or the female part of him, was afterwards taken out of him. Now this union of the male and female in him, was the purity, or virgin perfection of his life, and is the very perfection of the angelic nature. This we are assured of from our Lord himself, who, in answer to the question of the Sadducees, said unto them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, and the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven." Or, as in St. Luke, "for they are equal to the angels of God." Here we have a twofold proof of the angelic perfection of Adam: (1) Because we are told, that that state in which he was created, neither male nor female, but with both natures in his one person, is the very nature and perfection of the angels of God in heaven. (2) Because everyone who shall have a part in this resurrection, shall then have this angelic perfection again; to be no more male or female, or a part of the humanity, but such perfect, complete, undivided creatures, as the angels of God are. But now this perfection could not belong to the humanity after the resurrection, but because it belonged to the first man before his fall: for nothing will be restored, but that which was first lost; nothing rise again, but that which should not have died; nor anything be united, but that which should not have been parted. The short is this: man is at last to have a nature equal to that of the angels. This equality consists in this, that as they have, so the humanity will have, both male and female nature in one person.

But the humanity was thus created first, male and female in one person, therefore the humanity had at first a nature and perfection equal to that of the angels. Thus is the letter of Moses much more plain for the angelic perfection of Adam in his creation, than it is for the resurrection of the dead; and yet we have our Lord's word for it, that Moses sufficiently proved the resurrection of the dead. What say you, Academicus, to this matter?

Acad. I will here just mention what my good old tutor says: The author of the Appeal, says he, founds all his scheme of regeneration or redemption on a supposed threefold life, in which Adam was created. His sole proof of this threefold life is taken from this text of Moses: "God breathed into man the breath of lives, and man became a living soul." From this phrase, "the breath of lives," the Appeal, without any authority from the text, observes thus; "Here the highest, and most divine original is not darkly, but openly, absolutely, and in the strongest form of expression, ascribed to the soul," &c. A vain assertion, says my tutor; for the breath of life or lives is used by Moses only as a phrase for animal life. This is plainly seen, Gen. vii. ver. 21. "And all flesh died," all in "whose nostrils was the breath of lives."

Behold, says he, the very phrase, which the Appeal takes to be so full a proof of the high dignity, and threefold life of God in the soul, here made us of to denote the life of every kind of animal. And therefore, says he, if this phrase proves the soul of Adam to be a mirror of the Holy Trinity, it proves the same of every breath in the nostrils of every creature.

Theoph. To make short work, Academicus, with your tutor's confutation, as he thinks, of the capital doctrine of the Appeal, I shall only quote the whole period, as it stands in the Appeal. "God breathed into him the breath of lives (spiraculum vitarum) and man became a living soul. Here," says the Appeal, "the notion of a soul, created out of nothing, is in the plainest, strongest manner, rejected by the first written Word of God; and no Jew or Christian can have the least excuse for falling into such an error: here the highest and most divine original is not darkly, but openly, absolutely ascribed to the soul. It came forth as a breath of life, or lives, out of, and from the mouth of God; and therefore did not come out of the womb of nothing, but is what it is, and has what it has in itself, from, and out of, the first and highest of all beings." Here, Academicus, behold the falseness and weakness of your tutor's observation. The Appeal, as you plainly see, proves only from the text of Moses, the high original of the soul; and only for this reason, because it is the breath of God, breathed into man. The Appeal makes no use of the expression, "breath of lives," takes no notice of it, deduces nothing from it, but solely considers the act of God, as breathing the spirit of the soul from himself; and from this act of God, the high birth and dignity of the soul is most justly affirmed. And the Appeal makes this observation solely to prove, that the soul is not created out of nothing. This is the one, sole, open, and declared intent of the Appeal, in all this paragraph. But your tutor, overlooking all this, though nothing else is there, makes the author of the Appeal to affirm the threefold life of God in the soul, merely from the phrase of the "breath of lives," when there is not one single word about it. For the Appeal not only has not the least hint in this place of any such matter, to be proved from the "breath of lives," but through the whole book there is not the smallest regard paid to this expression, nor any agreement ever deduced from it. How strange is all this in your good old tutor!

The matter is plainly this; the author of the Appeal looks wholly to the action of God, breathing his own Spirit into Adam; and from this breathing, he justly affirms the divine nature of the soul; all his argument is deduced from thence. Now if your tutor, or anyone else, could show, that God breathed his own Spirit into every animal, and with this intent, that it might come forth in his own image and likeness, then the distinction and high birth of the soul, pleaded for by the Appeal, would indeed be lost. But till then, the Appeal must, and therefore will forever, stand unconfuted in its assertion of the dignity and divine birth of the soul.

Again; behold, Academicus, a still further weakness chargeable upon your tutor. You have seen, that his reasoning upon the "breath of lives," is meddling with something that the Appeal meddles not with, makes no account of: but your tutor has conjured it up for his own use; and yet see what a poor use he makes of it. He affirms that Moses uses only the "breath of lives," as a phrase for animal life. How does he prove this? Why, truly from this reason, because Moses uses the same phrase when he speaks of the lives of all animals.

Now does not every Englishman know, that we make use of the same four letters of the alphabet, when we say the "life" of a man, the "life" of a beast, and the "life" of a plant? That we use the same five letters, when we say the "death" of a man, the "death" of a beast, and the "death" of a plant? But will it thence follow, that the life and death of men, and beasts, and plants, are of the same nature and degree, and have the same good and evil in them? Yet this is full as well, as to conclude, that the breath of life in man, and the breath of life in animals, is of the same nature and degree, has the same goodness and excellence in it, because the same words, made up of the same letters, express them both. Your tutor therefore, Academicus, and not the author of the Appeal, is the person that reasons weakly from the phrase of "the breath of lives": for that author never so much as offers to argue from it. His proof of the threefold life of God in the soul, so far as it is deduced from the text of Moses, lies wholly in this; that it is the breath and Spirit of the triune God, breathed forth from this triune Deity into man. This, sure, is no small proof of its having the triune nature of God in it. And this threefold life of the soul, thus plainly deducible from the letter of Moses, is shown to be absolutely certain, from every chief doctrine and institution, nay, from the whole nature of our redemption: and all the gospel is shown to set its seal to this great truth, the threefold life of God in the soul. Nay, everything in nature, fire, and light, and air; everything that we know of angels, of devils, of the animal life of this world; are all in the plainest and strongest manner, from the beginning to the end of the Appeal, made so many proofs of the threefold life of the triune God in the soul. Thus says the Appeal; "No omnipotence can make you a partaker of the life of this outward world, without having the life of this outward world born in your own creaturely being"; the fire, and light, and air of this world, must have their birth in your own creaturely being, or you cannot possibly live in, or have a life from outward nature. And therefore no omnipotence can make you a partaker of the beatific life, or presence of the Holy Trinity, unless that life stands in the same triune state within you, as it does without you. Again: search to eternity, says the Appeal, why no devil or beast can possibly enter into heaven, and there can only this one reason be assigned for it, because neither of them have the triune holy life of God in them. But enough of this mistake of your good old tutor. Rusticus will I am afraid chide you for being the occasion of this long digression from the point we were speaking to.

Rust. Truly, sir, I do not know what to make of these great scholars; they seem to have more love for the shadow of an objection, than for the most substantial truths. I think I here see a great reason, why our savior chose poor and illiterate fishermen to be his apostles. St. Paul was the only man that had some learning, and he was a persecutor of Christ, till such time as God made as it were scales to fall from his eyes; and then he became a powerful apostle. But let us return to your account of the first created perfection of man, and the degree of his falling from it. It is one of the best doctrines that I ever heard in my life. It not only stirs up everything that is good, and makes me hate everything that is evil, in me; but it gives so good a sense, so sound a meaning to every mystery of the gospel, that it makes everything our savior has done for us, and everything he requires of us, to be equally necessary and beneficial to us. But suppose now our fall not to be a change of nature, not a death to our first life, but only a single sin or mistake in the first man; what a difficulty is there in supposing so great a scheme of redemption to set right a single mistake in one single creature? Again, what could man have to do with angels and heaven, if he had not, at his creation, had the nature of heaven and angels in him? But pray, sir, begin again just where you left off.

Theoph. I was indeed, Rusticus, at that time just going to say, that Adam had lost much of his first perfection before his Eve was taken out of him; which was done to prevent worse effects of his fall, and to prepare a means for his recovery, when his fall should become total, as it afterwards was, upon the eating of the earthly tree of good and evil.

"It is not good that man should be alone," saith the Scripture: this shows, that Adam had altered his first state, had brought some beginning of evil into it, and had made that not to be good, which God saw to be good, when he created him. And therefore as a less evil, and to prevent a greater, God divided the first perfect human nature into two parts, into a male and a female creature; and this, as you shall see by and by, was a wonderful instance of the love and care of God towards this new humanity. It was at first, the total humanity in one creature, who should in that state of perfection, have brought forth his own likeness out of himself, in such purity of love, and such divine power, as he himself was brought forth by God: the manner of his own birth from God, was the manner that his own offspring should have had a birth from him; all done by the pure power of a divine love. Man stood no longer in the perfection of his first state, as a birth of divine love, than whilst he loved himself only as God loved him, as in the image, and after the likeness of God. This purity of love, and delight in the image of God, would have carried on the birth of the humanity, in the same manner, and by the same divine power, as the first man was brought forth: for it was only a continuation of the same generating love that gave birth to the first man. But Adam turned away his love from the divine image, which he should only have loved, and desired to propagate out of himself. He gazed upon this outward world, and let in an adulterate love into his heart, which desired to know the life that was in this world. This impure desire brought the nature of this world into him. His first love and divine power, had no strength left in it; it was no longer a power of bringing forth a divine birth from himself. His first virginity was lost by an adulterate love, which had turned its desire into this world. This state of inability, is that which is called his falling into a deep sleep: and in this sleep, God divides this overcome humanity into a male and female.

The first step therefore towards the redemption or recovery of man, beginning to fall, was the taking his Eve out of him, that so he might have a second trial in paradise; in which if he failed, another effectual redeemer might arise out of the seed of the woman. Oh my friends, what a wonderful procedure is there to be seen in the divine providence, turning all evil, as soon as it appears, into a further display and opening of new wonders of the wisdom and love of God! Look back to the first evil, which the fall of angels brought forth. The darkness, wrath, and fire, of fallen nature, were immediately taken from them, and turned into a new creation, where those apostate angels were to see all the evil that they had raised in their kingdom, turned against them, and made the ground of a new race of beings, which were to possess those thrones which they had lost. Look now at Adam brought into the world in such angelic nature, as he, and all his redeemed sons, will have after the resurrection; an angel at first, and an angel at last; with time, and misery, and sin, and death, and hell, all of them felt, and all overcome betwixt the two glorious extremes. When this first human angel, through a false, impure love, lost the divine power of generating his own likeness out of himself, God took part of his nature from him, that so the eye of his desire, which was turned to the life of this world, might be directed to that part of his nature which was taken from him. And this is the reason of my saying before, that this was chosen as a less evil, and to avoid a greater; for it was a less degree of falling from his first perfection, to love the female part of his own divided nature, than to turn his love towards that, which was so much lower than his own nature. And thus, at that time, Eve was an help, that was truly and properly meet for him, since he had lost his first power of being himself the parent of an angelic offspring, and stood with a longing eye, looking towards the life of this world.

But the most glorious effect of this division into male and female is yet to come. For when Adam and Eve had joined in the eating of the tree of good and evil, and so were totally fallen from God and paradise, into the misery and slavery of the bestial life of this world; when this greatest of all evils had thus happened to these two divided parts of the humanity; when all the angel was lost, and nothing but a shameful, frightened animal of this world, was to be seen in this divided male and female; then in, and by, and through this division, did God open and establish the glorious scheme of an universal redemption to these fallen creatures, and all their offspring, by the mysterious seed of the woman.

Had Adam stood in his first state of perfection, as a birth of divine love, and loving only the divine image and likeness in himself, this love would have been itself the fruitful parent of an holy offspring; no Eve had been taken out of him, nor any male or female ever known in human nature: all his posterity had been in him secured, and the earthly tree of good and evil had never been seen in paradise. But though he lost this first generating power of divine love, and stood as a barren tree, yet seeing God's purpose of raising an offspring, God took from him that, which is called the female part of his nature, that by this means, both a posterity, and a savior, might proceed from him: for through this division of man, God would, in a wonderful manner, do that which Adam should have done, before he was divided.

For out of this female part, and after the fall, God would raise, without the help of Adam, that same glorious angelic man, which Adam should have brought forth before and without his Eve; which glorious man is therefore called the second Adam: 1. As having in his humanity that very perfection, which the first Adam had in his creation. 2. Because he was to do all that for mankind, by a birth of redemption from him, which they should have had by a birth of nature from Adam, had he kept his first state of perfection. What say you, Academicus, to all this?

Acad. Truly, sir, there seems to be so much light, and truth, and Scripture, for all this account that you have given of these matters, as must even force one to consent to it. But then all our systems of divinity, to which learned men are chained, are quite silent of these matters. I never before heard of this gradual fall of Adam, nor this angelic state of his first creation, and power of bringing forth his own offspring, and therefore can hardly believe it so strongly as I would, and as the truth seems to demand of me.

Rust. Pray, sir, let me speak to Academicus: he seems to be so hampered with learning, that I can hardly be sorry, that I am not a great scholar.

Can anything be more punctually related in Scripture than the gradual fall of Adam? Do not you see, that he was created first with both natures in him? Is it not expressly told you, that Eve was not taken out of him, till such time as it was not good for him to be as he then was, and yet God saw that it was good when he created him? Is it not plain therefore, that he had fallen from the goodness of his first creation, and therefore his fall was not at once, nor total, till his eating of the earthly tree? Again, as to his being an angel at his first creation, because of both natures in him, is it not sufficiently plain from his being designed to be an angel of the same nature at last, in the resurrection? For this is an axiom that cannot be shaken, that nothing can rise higher, than its first created nature; and therefore an angel at last, must have been an angel at first. Do you think it possible for an ox in tract of time to be changed into a rational philosopher? Yet this is as possible, as for a man that has only by his creation the life of this world in him, to be changed into an angel of heaven. The life of this world can reach no further than this world; no omnipotence of God can carry it further; and therefore, if man is to be an angel at the last, and have the life of heaven in him, he must of all necessity, in his creation, have been created an angel, and had his life kindled from heaven; because no creature can possibly have any other life, or higher degree of life, than that which his creation brought forth in him.

Theoph. Marvel not, Academicus, at that which has been said of the first power of Adam, to generate in a divine manner an holy offspring, by the power of that divine love which gave birth to himself; for he was born of that love for no other end, than to multiply births of it; and whilst his love continued to be one with that love, which brought him into being, nothing was impossible to it. For love is the great creating fiat that brought forth everything, that is distinct from God, and is the only working principle that stirs, and effects everything that is done in nature and creature. Love is the principle of generation from the highest to the lowest of creatures; it is the first beginning of every seed of life; everything has its form from it; everything that is born is born in the likeness, and with the fruitfulness, of that same love that generates and bears it; and this is its own seed of love within itself, and is its power of fructifying in its kind.

Love is the holy, heavenly, magic power of the Deity, the first fiat of God; and all angels, and eternal beings, are the first births of it. The Deity delights in beholding the ideal images, which rise up and appear in the mirror of his own eternal wisdom. This delight becomes a loving desire to have living creatures in the form of these ideas; and this loving desire is the generating heavenly parent, out of which angels, and all eternal beings are born. Every birth in nature is a consequence of this first prolific love of the Deity, and generates from that which began the first birth. Hence it is, that through all the scale of beings, from the top to the bottom of nature, love is the one principle of generation of every life; and everything generates from the same principle, and by the same power, by which itself was generated. Marvel not therefore, my friend, that Adam, standing in the power of his first birth, should have a divine power of bringing forth his own likeness. But I must now tell you, that the greatest proof of this glorious truth is yet to come: for I will show you that all the gospel bears witness to that heavenly birth, which we should have had from Adam alone. This birth from Adam is still the one purpose of God, and must be the one way of all those, that are to rise with Christ to an equality with the angels of God. All must be children of Adam; for all that are born of man and woman, must lay aside this polluted birth, and be born again of a second Adam, in that same perfection of an holy angelic nature, which they should have had from the first Adam, before his Eve was separated from him. For it is an undeniable truth of the gospel, that we are called to a new birth, different in its whole nature, from that which we have from man and woman, or there is no salvation; and therefore it is certain from the gospel, that the birth which we have from Adam, divided into male and female, is not the birth that we should have had, because it is the one reason, why we are under a necessity of being born again of a birth from a second Adam, who is to generate us again in that purity and divine power, in and by which we should have been born of the first angelic Adam.