109 
Continuity and the doctrine of pure Creation out of The present 
nothing is inadmissible). The atoms of the Visible tears the look 
Universe bear, when we come to examine them, all tur e , m a n™was 
the look of “ manufactured articles” (p. 168). Life ofthe°fofmer; 
proceeds only from life ; and there is a uniformity forme^hati* 10 
of atomic structure. And so the Visible Universe J ‘fe. 1 1 
being what we thus find it, Ave naturally conclude that it was 
first developed out of the living though unseen, and not from 
the dead. 
For is not a dead Universe preceding the present inconceiv- 
able ? Does it satisfy the Principle of Continuity ? 
That principle rather demands an endless develop- pie of com!.' 
meat of the conditioned, and never a proceeding from u^^ncon. 01 " 1 
the conditioned to the unconditioned, for that would ditioned - 
bring us at once to an intellectual barrier. We must think 
the Great Whole to be infinite in energy, and that it will last 
from eternity to eternity (p. 172). 
The need of the case seems then actually to demand an 
intelligent agency in such a Universe, This infinitely 
energetic developing Agency is in some sense in re- aitSie^un!! 
lation with the conditioned, and so is Himself “ con- is eter - 
ditioned.” And this is precisely a want met, our na It dernan(ls 
authors conceive, by their vieiv of the Christian a conditioned 
dispensation. mmd ‘ 
The belief of the vast majority of Christ's folloivers, they 
imagine, has always been— not that the Godhead, Father, 
Son, and Spirit, is unconditioned, or in equal and perfect 
relation with the Absolute, but that the essence of unapproached 
Deity, is the Father and Absolute — (“'Whom no man hath 
seen or can see”),— while “the only Begotten Son, who is in 
the bosom of the Father, has always been ‘ condi- 
tioned/ ” and so has been able to communicate with po^tik? of Shc 
us. All things were developed “ by the only Be- Swedenbor s- 
gotten,” who is of “ One substance Avith the Father” (p. 174), 
“Who is the image of the Invisible God — the First-born of 
every creature,”— always Himself “ conditioned.” 
31. The Christian and Jewish records, they think, all con- 
firm this view ; which science itself, on the very 
Principle of Continuity, requires. “Christ repre- nate h God? C the 
sents_ that conditioned, but infinitely powerful de- °{?& ®ver wc 
veloping Agent, which the Universe leads up to.” know - 
He is the developer of various Universes (p. 175), sen ^ c th g ei J e ' 
and Himself becomes the type and pattern of each personal, 
order, and the Representative of Deity. He in this objective Z i 
sense “ creates,” and He will judge. Possibly, other verse - 
conditioned beings, as angels, co-operated with Him in this 
