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We are so constituted by creation, that it is inconceivable that this should not be true
everywhere and at all times. And further, we are also sure that these things are so
inherently, and that they have not merely been willed so by almighty power. If seven is
multiplied by seven we have forty-nine. Can any one imagine that God, by the mere
arbitrary exercise of His will and power, could make this product either more or less? In
such simple basic things lies the germ of all righteousness, and their acknowledgment is
the test of our conception of righteousness.
Bishop Pearson writes:
"God cannot be known unto us otherwise than by relation to creatures, as for example,
under the aspect of dominion, or of cause, or in some other relation."
Hamilton writes:
"It is indeed only through an analogy of the human with the Divine nature that we are
percipient or recipient of the Divinity."
To quote again from Bishop Browne:
"Though we know not God in His own nature, yet are we not wholly ignorant of Him,
but may attain to imperfect knowledge of Him through the analogy between human
things and divine."
So God made man in His likeness, and by reason of the fact that human things
resemble, on a lower plane, things that are spiritual and divine, He could speak to man
concerning Himself, giving him a sufficient revelation to fulfil all his present needs, and
at the same time creating a desire to know more in God's good time. Man was made "for
a little lower than the angels", but was destined to be raised above them when God's time
came.
The discernment of good and evil belongs to the angels, as is made clear in
II Sam. 14: 17, and in Heb. 5: 14 this discernment is said to be characteristic of
adulthood. The temptation in Eden was vitally concerned with this question of good and
evil:
"Ye shall be as gods (angels), or as God (Elohim), knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3: 5).
"Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3: 22).
Satan tempted man sinfully to anticipate that which would have been his in God's
appointed time; to throw aside the revelation by analogy, and to attempt to know "even
as we are known". The attempt proved disastrous, and has left its mark upon man and his
world ever since.
The Scripture reveal truth to us "as in a glass, darkly". In resurrection glory, when
made higher than the angels, we shall see "face to face". When we possess "spiritual"
and "heavenly" bodies in resurrection (I Cor. 15: 40, 44) there will be no need for the
analogies that are necessary in our present limited condition. Seeing "through a glass,