ion is
actually in progress towards a foreordained perfect consummation. For
the purpose of illustrating this view by way of contrast, I may mention
that I once heard a sermon in which the preacher, who was regarded in
his day as a leader of religious thought, advanced the theory that the
word "remedy" expressed the central idea of the divine scheme of
salvation. According to this theology, which looks backwards rather
than forwards, the prevalence of sin and mortality, and the need of a
remedy for the many ills and errors that beset humanity, were
contingent on Adam's transgression. It may be granted that this is so
far true, that sin and death entered into the world because Adam was
not made incapable of sinning. But this theory overlooks the
possibility of there being a _final_ cause for the actual facts of
humanity, and seems to be a substitution of _propter hoc_ for _post
hoc_. The analogy of the natural creation points to a different, and
apparently a juster, view of the divine [oe]conomy, according to which
the reign of sin and death in Adam and all his posterity is a necessary
part of a prearranged scheme, now actually in progress, which is
destined, by its completion hereafter, to make, not one man only, but a
countless multitude, incapable of sinning and meet for immortality. On
this point, however, after what has been already said (see p. 57),
there is no occasion to say {78} more here. I proceed, therefore, to
the next step, which is to indicate certain inferences that may be
drawn from the character of progressiveness which pertains at present
to the spiritual creation.

It may, in the first place, be asserted that "the law of opposites,"
referred to in pp. 69 and 70, is a necessary accompaniment of that
general law of progression. The author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus,
who certainly put on record many wise sayings, has thus stated the law
of opposites: "Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is
the sinner against the godly. So look upon all the works of the Most
High, and there are two and two, one against another" (xxxiii. 14, 15).
Now, evidently this duality will cease, and unity be universally
established, when, as argued in the preceding paragraph, the
predestined consummation is reached, and the purpose of the whole
creation, external and spiritual, is fulfilled. This doctrine of the
termination of evil appears to have been understood and proclaimed by
the writer of the fou