The Radical Fault of the New Orthodoxy [pp. 353-367]

364 THE RADICAL FAULT OF THE NEW ORTHODOXY. [Dec.,
sonal consciousness. Each one must be specially cared for by
God, and its moral discipline adjusted carefully to the conscien'ce
in each single individual, which is the criterion of forddal right
and wrong, that is, the szubjctive, though the material and objfctive
rightand wrong may be different both in extension and comtpre hension. Conscience is the interpreter and minister and judge of
the natural law wxvritten within the heart; and God pronounces
judgment in accordance with the testimony which conscience
renders. St. Paul teaches this explicitly
"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or
else excusing one another."
"For as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law, and
as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;... in the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." *
Cotnscience anticipates the judgment of God. The judgment
of God sentences and consigns to punishment each single criminal for sin.s of \vWhich his conscience accuses him. A correct conscience docs not accuse any man of sin except for acts knowinigly
and wilfuily committed against his own subjective interior ilaw
and standard of right and wrong, with freedom of choice and
power to the contrary. Therefore, God does not and cannot
impute to any individual any but his own personal, actual sins.
No one can blame himself, can feel remorse or contrition, orirepent for the sin of Adam or of his intermediate ancestors, or
for the weakness and fragility of his own nature, or fo)r the sillns
of any other person, or of mankind or any part of mankind inll
general.
The doctrine that mankind is lost and ruined in the mass, under a helpless and hbpeless doomrn, in the sense that it has become
dehumanized and alienated from its essential, natural relaition to
God, is utterly false and abstiurd. It is impossible, therefore, to
show that fo-r such a reason the Inicarnation and Redemption are
necessary for the rescue and restoration of the huimain race.
Repairing damages in a merely natural order, andc bringing the
rational creation to the perfection which is due to its essence in
a final state which is in a merely natural order, are not an end
worthy of the Incarnation. It is like putting the dome of St.
Peter's on the wooden meeting-house of a New England village.
It is impossible to prove that God cannot show mercy and for * Rom. ii. 12-16, King James's Version.