in this cup, and once inebriated the soul has lost its desire for the sober clearness of the divine
Word. To escape from the witchery of these pantheistic charms, one needs to be aroused
by bitter experience. And once awakened, the soul is alarmed at the fearful danger to which
this siren had exposed it.
No; the contrast between God and man must not cease; the contrast between heaven
and earth may not be placed upon the same line with that of Jew and Gentile; the contrast
between the infinite and finite must not be effaced by the Mediator; time and eternity must
not be made identical. There must be brought about a reconciliation for the sinner.That is
all, and no more. “To bring about reconciliation” is the work assigned to the Mediator, and
that alone. And this reconciliation is not between time and eternity, the finite and the infinite,
but exclusively between a sinful creature and a holy Creator. It is a reconciliation that could
not have occurred if man had not fallen, necessitated only by his fall; a reconciliation not
essential to the being of Christ, but His per accidens, i.e., by something independent of His
being.
And since the essence of true godliness is based not in the removal of the divinely ap-
pointed boundaries and contrasts, but in a deep reverence for the same; and on this ground
the creature as distinguished from the Creator may not feel himself one with, but absolutely
distinct from Him, it is clear that this error of the Ethicals affects the essence of godliness.
329The early Church discovered this same principle in Origen, and subsequently in Eu-
tychus; and our fathers of the last century found it in the Hernhutters and sharply opposed
it. And only because we lack knowledge and penetration have these Ethical doctrines been
able to spread so rapidly here, in Germany, in Switzerland and even in Scotland, their pan-
theistic tendencies undetected.
And how does this evil affect their Christology? It affects it to such extent that it is entirely
different from that of the Reformed churches. Tho they tell us; “We disagree in our views
on the Scriptures, but agree in our confession of Christ,” yet this is absolutely untrue. Their
Christ is not the Christ of the Reformed churches. Christ, as the Reformed Church according
to the Scripture and the orthodox Church of all ages confesses Him, is the Son of God,
eternal Partaker of the divine nature, who in time, in addition to the divine nature, adopted
the human nature, uniting these two natures in the unity of one person. He unites them in
such a way, however, that these natures continue each by itself, do not blend, and do not
communicate the attributes of the one to the other. Hence two natures are united most in-
timately in the unity of one person, but continuing to the end, and even now in heaven, to
be two natures each with its own peculiar properties. “He is one not by conversion of the
Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God” (Confession of Athanasius,
article 35). And again: “He is one not by mixture of substance, but by unity of person”
(article 36).
XXV. Not a Divine-Human Nature