Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/440

 And further, speaking of the types of Leviticus,—"Though Christ in His work is the sum and substance of these types, it is Christ as discerned by one who already knows the certainty of redemption; it is Christ as seen by one who, possessing peace with God and deliverance, is able to look with joy at all that Christ has so fully been for him, . . . Exodus gives us the blood of the Lamb, saving Israel in the land of Egypt. Leviticus gives us the priest and the offerings, meeting Israel's need in their access to Jehovah."

, first after Swedenborg, sought a philosophic reason for the Incarnation:—

"Mankind is by the exertion of its freedom to destroy an antagonistic condition, and to form itself into a kingdom of God, into a world in which God alone is the principle of all activity, and in which nothing is done without Him from whom all human freedom proceeds, and to whom it is surrendered. This must indeed take place in detail through each individual, and that power of freedom which determines him. But for this purpose there was needed an example of this determination to self-immolation and self-surrender. Whence was mankind to have this? ''It could only have it by means of a previously possessed freedom, and yet in its present state it can only obtain freedom by means of this example. Thus a circle arises: freedom presupposes the example, the example presupposes freedom. This circle is only to be abolished by the fact that the example should once be actual reality, absolutely original, beginning from the very roots, and realizing itself in a person. Now this did take place in Jesus. He is unique through His originality. All who enter the kingdom of heaven attain it only through Him, through the example which He sets up in Himself for the whole race; for all are to be born again through Him, while He is the first and the firstborn Son''. Thus does Fichte endeavor to infer from an à priori law the necessity of the Person of Jesus."

So also, later, says Dr. Dorner himself,—

"The form and contents of Revelation only attain their consummation in the Divine Incarnation, and in such a way that