Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/86

80 combined armies of hell; overcoming the gigantic power of legions of devils; antagonizing and driving back the malign influence of falsity and evil which invaded the souls of men, and threatened to destroy their power of discerning and their liberty of choosing between good and evil.

And surely no finite, human, or merely delegated power was adequate to a work like this. Nothing less than the arm of Omnipotence was equal to such a task. "Therefore," as saith the prophet Isaiah, "his own arm brought salvation unto Him, and his righteousness, it sustained Him." The Heavenly Father, forever watchful over the welfare of his children, veiled Himself with our infirm humanity borne down with its accumulated weight of evil; for in what other conceivable way could He have met and overcome the influence of the hells, but by placing Himself in a condition to be approached and assailed by them? He must descend to the devils place of sojourn—to the citadel which they had invested and whose ruin they threatened. Spiritually regarded, the human race were enslaved—were in bondage to infernal spirits; and the Lord assumed humanity for the purpose of releasing them from that bondage. He came to break their fetters and "let the oppressed go free." The redemption He wrought was purely spiritual. It was a redemption from the