The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

in grace, between God the Creator, and Christ the Redeemer.
2. It presupposes a sound definition of man, as God's last and highest
earthly creature, consisting of body and soul, having personality, freedom,
moral accountability, and immortality. It rests upon the old idea of man
expressed in the definition of Hollazius: "Man is an animal, consisting of a
rational soul and an organic body, formed by God, endowed with his
image, in the first creation, that he might unfeignedly worship his Creator,
might live in holiness, and attain eternal blessedness."
3. It presupposes that the Biblical History of man's creation is
literally true, that the first pair were the direct immediate creation of God,
and that all mankind have sprung from this one pair. All the dignity and
possibilities of humanity rest upon its derivation in an extraordinary
manner from God. The creation of the first man is narrated in general, in
Gen. i. 26 seq., and more fully delineated in Gen. ii. 7 seq. The seeming
diversities of the account arise from the difference of their objects. The
derivation of all mankind from a single pair, is distinctly taught in the
Holy Scriptures, and we find nothing whatever in the facts of natural
science to render it doubtful. Science establishes the fact, that the whole
human race is of one species. It of course cannot say whether the race has
sprung from one pair or not, but science demonstrates that the race might
have sprung from one pair, inasmuch as they all belong to one species;
what science shows to be possible, revelation distinctly teaches. Science
moreover exhibits the following facts:
i. That nature is economical in its resources; that there is no waste of
means, and as, one pair is sufficient to have originated the population of the
globe, the scientific presumption is strong, that there was but one pair.
ii. Natural science shows, that only animals of the same species
produce a permanently fertile offspring. Where animals, though not of the
same species, are sufficiently near in species to have offspring, that
offspring is invariably either absolutely sterile, or the power of propagation
runs out speedily. Thus, to take a familiar example, the mule is the
offspring of the horse and