Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/277

264 and requires no proof. Whatever the theologians may say, none of these four great truths rest at all on the theological method for their support. I shall take seven dogmas, which are certainly no part of natural religion, and are claimed to be very important; parts of the miraculous revelation. Here they are:—

1. The existence of the devil, a personal being, totally and absolutely evil, with immense power, which he uses to thwart God and ruin men.

2. The total depravity of man: the first man was created good, but fell from his innocence, and "In Adam's fall we sinned all,"—so that we are totally depraved, and the human race has turned out just as God meant it should not turn out. 3. The wrath of God : He is in a state of continual indignation against this totally depraved mankind, and is "angry with the wicked every day."

4. The eternal torment of the immortal soul: the wrathful God has prepared an everlasting hell, where the absolutely evil devil will act as his lieutenant-governor and torment sinful mankind, the immense majority of the human race, for ever.

5. The incarnation of God: God is one and yet three—the Father, who is eternally the Father; the only begot- ten Son, who is eternally the Son; and the Holy Ghost, who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. By God the Holy Ghost, God the Father—who is also God the Son and God the Holy Ghost—overshadowed Mary, the spouse of Joseph, and she bore God the Son, who was successively God a baby, God a boy, God a youth, and God a man, eating, drinking, dying, was sacrificed, raised again, and ascended to heaven, and all the time was still God.

6. The atonement, the death of God : He was killed by wicked men, and rose again, taking away the sin of part of the totally depraved mankind, through the mitigation of God's wrath, so that a certain portion are destined to eternal happiness, while the rest must go down to eternal woe, prepared for the devil and his angels.

7. The salvation of men by belief: you must believe all these six doctrines, or else perish everlastingly. Now, there is no circumstantial, no personal evidence