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FIRST PART.

THE DIVINE METHOD.

CHAPTER I.

A NEW STAGE OF THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION.

Man's first sin a

By the creation of man the earth itself may foreshadowing. be said to have been transfigured; for its new inhabitant consciously radiated the Divine image. In his constitution, his dominion, and his far-reaching relations, he stood forth the embodiment of a Divine idea-"the type of Him that was to come." His probation raised the earth into a scene of moral government. Sinai itself was anticipated and even surpassed in him; for his constitution was a living court of Divine judicature. His temptation announced that he had joined the solemn march of events in the government of God at a period when the great conflict between good and evil had already begun; and that, as a moral agent, he could not but take part in it. His first sin may be regarded as a foreshadowing, for all time, of the kind of contest which he would be likely to wage;-presuming on his sufficiency for himself, he brought his will into selfish collision with the Supreme will. And the first great lesson taught him by experience-that the well-being

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