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5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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INCARNATION OF SPIRIT
A symbol of the embodiment of Spirit in Matter,
or of the Soul or Self in the lower nature (flesh). Involution of
the qualities (spirit) is the process which precedes the express
functioning of the Divine Life (the Self) upon the several planes of
existence. Incarnation completes involution, and is the point where
evolution commences. Incarnation is the completion of the Archetypal
Man (Christ),—the perfect "image of God," or spiritual-human pattern
within the soul. In the involution of the Self, Christ "sheds his
blood," i.e. involves his life (blood). In the Self's evolution,
"the blood of Christ taketh away all sin," i.e. the Divine Life
welling up as an inner fountain, constantly brings Wisdom, Love, and
Truth to the struggling souls as they realise their deficiences and
yearn for perfection.
"Schelling laid down the proposition, -the incarnation of God is an
incarnation from understood eternity :- he under the incarnate Son
of God' the finite itself in the form of the human consciousness,
which in its contradistinction to the Infinite wherewith it is
nevertheless one, appears as a suffering God subjected to the
conditions of time." - D. F. STRAUSS, Life of Jesus, p. 432.
May not the love which conquers the demon of selfishness, which
raises the individual soul above the narrow world of self-interest,
and in society transforms the natural struggle for existence into
the endeavour to realise the moral solidarity of all men,-may not
this love be rightly conceived as a supernatural power revealing
itself as a divine all-attracting force in the souls of men, like
the force of gravitation in the material world? . . . Love is the
fulfilling of the law, since it transforms the external compelling
command into the free impulse and active force of the heart; why
then may we not perceive in love the incarnation of the divine
Logos,' which was consummated not once only, but ever comes to pass
where love unites the hearts of men and consecrates society so that
it becomes the kingdom of God?" - O. PFLEIDERER, Early Christian
Conception of Christ, pp. 164, 165.
"Human nature did not begin to be with Adam, but existed forever in
the eternal Christ. I hold, then, that the Incarnation was God's
commentary on that verse in Genesis, In the image of God created He
man.' Yes, from the beginning there had been second person in the
Trinity,-a Christ, whose nature included the man-type. In due time
this man-type was copied and incorporated in the special exhibition
of a race. There it degenerated and went off into sin. And then the
Christ, who had been what he was forever, came and brought the
pattern and set it down beside the degenerate copy, and wrought
men's hearts to shame and penitence when they saw the everlasting
type of what they had been meant to be, walking among the miserable
shows of what they were. Suppose I find in Revelation this sublime
truth, that the man-type for which I am so anxious has had an
eternal existence as a part and parcel of the Deity; that, however,
this manifestation of it has been reached, there is manifest in
every man the image of a pattern-life that is in God. Let me carry
away from Revelation the supreme truth of the eternal humanity of
Christ, and then my moral life, my reverence for the nature which I
share, my high ambition after its perfection, all this is
unimpaired. Let science show me my affinities with the lower life: a
mightier hand points me to my connections with the higher." -
PHILLIPS BROOKS, Mystery of Iniquity, pp. 314, 316.
“God becomes incarnate through the underlie eternal principles that
conscience and the affections of man : in his reason and his faith,
organized into character as intellectual light and noble love." - S.
JOHNSTON, Oriental Religions, Vol. II. p. 77.
"Incarnation, then, is the ethical process by which the Divine Logos
becomes one with a morally pure human person.' ." - O. PFLEIDERER,
Develop. Of Christianity, p. 63.
"Man, conscious of inherent weakness, longs for union with God. In
the incarnation, God and man become one. Man feels himself exposed
to a strange fascination which attracts him towards evil and draws
him away from God. In Christ he meets, baffles, and overcomes the
personal agent of all temptation. Man feels that he is a slave to
nature, over which a sure instinct tells him that he was destined to
rule. In Christ he exercises that dominion, making all physical
forces subservient to his will. Man fears disease, affliction, and
bereavement. In Christ all sorrows become medicinal, and conduce to
the perfection of our renewed nature. Man has two great foes-sin,
and death, the penalty of sin. Christ crushes sin, and expels it
from His dominions; death He converts into the last best friend, the
opener of the portals of eternal life." - F. C. Cook, Aids to Faith,
p. 143.
"There can only be one reason why eternal spirit should ever consent
to become imprisoned within material forms, and that is that its
latent powers may declare themselves. Undifferentiated unity must
become endless variety; the unmanifest must split up to utter
itself. There could be no such thing as a human soul if boundless
spirit did not deliberately put some portion of itself in a ring
fence, so to speak, that it may be cultivated and made to body forth
its hidden riches. Every soul is thus a point through which the
infinite expresses itself, declares a divine idea, absolutely
separate and distinct from every other, though closely related
thereto and destined to rich fulfilment in a wondrous whole which
shall include all the good of all the race." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm.,
God's Life in Man.
“Birds and beasts, equally with our selves, are the incarnation of
an indestructible life whose greatest manifestations have yet to
come, and the whole creation is a solidarity with man in the
expression of the Divine Idea." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Evolution
of the Spiritual Man.
Christ is that perfect Humanity within us, from which man feels
himself getting loose by sin, but to which he also feels that if he
can only return and cling, he will once more be re-united to God.
The Incarnation is the supreme manifestation of this." - J. G.
ADDERLEY, Serm., The Symbolism of the Mass.
"The Incarnation, which is for popular Christianity synonymous with
the historical birth and earthly life of Christ, is for the mystic
not only this, but also a perpetual Cosmic and personal process. It
is an everlasting bringing forth, in the universe and also in the
individual ascending soul, of the divine and perfect Life, the pure
character of God, of which the one historical life dramatised the
essential constituents. Hence the soul, like the physical embryo,
resumes in its upward progress the spiritual life-history of the
race." - E. UNDERHILL, Mysticism, p. 141.
“The suggestion of an Incarnation is the supreme potential
excellence of human nature. The Gospel prohibits any doubt as to the
moral competence of men to rise to the perfection exhibited in the
Incarnate." - H. HENSLEY HENSON, The Value, etc., p. 270.
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