Page:Apocalypse Revealed Vol I.djvu/22

10 that he might reconcile the Father to us, and become a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, as well original as actual; that he was incarnate of the substance of the Holy Spirit, but that his human nature was produced from the Virgin Mary, which, as the Word, he assumed and united to himself; that he sanctifies those who believe in him, by sending the Holy Spirit into their hearts, to guide, comfort, and vivify them, and defend them against the devil and the power of sin. That Christ descended into hell, and destroyed hell for all believers; but in what manner these things were effected, he doth not wish them to scrutinize too curiously, but that the knowledge of this matter may be reserved for another age, when not only this mystery, but many other things also shall be revealed." These particulars are from Luther; the Augustan Confession; the Council of Nice; and the Smalcalden Articles. See the Formula Concordiæ.

"Some of the Reformed, who are also treated of in the Formula Concordiæ, believe, that Christ, according to his human nature, by exaltation, received only created gifts and finite power, therefore that he is a man like any other, retaining the properties of the flesh; that therefore as to his human nature he is not omnipotent and omniscient; that although absent he governs, as a king, things remote from himself; that as God from eternity he is with the Father, and as a man born in time, he is with the angels in heaven; and that when it is said, in Christ God is man and man God, it is only a figurative mode of speech: besides other things of a like nature.

"But this disagreement is adjusted by the Athanasian Creed, which is received by all in the Christian world, where these words occur; 'The true faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the world, and man, of the substance of the mother,born in the world; perfect God and perfect man: who,