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ARTES
1837
SCIENTIA
LIBRARY
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
US UHUM
SALFLURIBUS
TUEBOR
QUÆRIS-PENINSULANYAMŒNAM
CIRCUMSTICE
from:
.
1
THE BIBLE AND THE AGE.
BS
511
07

THE
BIBLE AND THE
AGE
OR
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF
A CONSISTENT AND VERIFIABLE INTERPRETATION
OF SCRIPTURE.
BY
CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD
M.A. AND B.M. OXON, &c.
(C
NEW STUDIES
AUTHOR OF
IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY,"
A VISION OF CREATION," ETC., ETC.
“ ου γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος· τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτείνει,
τὸ δὲ πνευμα ζωοποιεί.. 2 COR. iii. 6.
JAMES
New York
POTT AND CO.
14 AND 16, ASTOR PLACE
MDCCCLXXXVII

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The false attitude assumed towards the Bible by Science and Criticism.
CHAPTER I.
First Principles, or the Philosophy of Creation; being an aid to the solution
of philosophic doubt
CHAPTER II.
The possibility of a Revelation, or Divine communication, demonstrated:
and its necessary character indicated
PAGE
13
31
55
CHAPTER III.
The final and conclusive vindication of Genesis I.
•
71
CHAPTER IV.
Proofs and illustrations of the foregoing positions
CHAPTER V.
Application of the principle to the primary elucidation of Genesis I.
Rise
CHAPTER VI.
Primary explanation of Genesis II. 2. The Summit
374324
95
I. The
121
153
6
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
Primary interpretation of Genesis III. 3. The Fall
PAGE
. 189
CHAPTER VIII.
The Jewish Church; and its place in the Old Testament
CHAPTER IX.
221
An elucidation of the subject of the Miracles of the Old and New Testaments 267
CHAPTER X.
The same subject, continued
CHAPTER XI.
The origin and meaning of Sacrifices in the Old Testament
CHAPTER XII.
The application of the foregoing principles to the New Testament, in an
inquiry into the question: Why are there four Gospels?
CHAPTER XIII.
The authority of the Bible as an Inspired Record .
CHAPTER XIV.
Illustrations of the ultimate nature and character of the Holy Scriptures
Conclusion
CHAPTER XV.
APPENDIX.
I. On German criticism of the Old Testament
II. Remarks upon the Revised Version as far as it affects the first three
chapters of Genesis.
293
321
•
345
353
339
401
407
·
411

PREFACE.
T
HE subject of the present volume requires no
apology. The author believes it to be one which,
more than any other, possesses a permanent and
intense interest to the vast majority of men and women
of all ranks. The doubts and difficulties which have of
late years accumulated as the effect of what are called
broad views, and the incumbency which certain men of
high culture feel binding upon them to free themselves.
from what they have been accustomed to consider the
trammels and enchainments of a misunderstood and
debased theology, have rendered necessary some effort
to stem the torrent which is, to all appearance, in danger
of producing a lasting injury to men's minds, since they
are tending to lose their hold upon principles which we
believe to be of the most vital importance, and the
absolute parting from which would be fatal to all the
best interests of humanity.
But the difficulty has hitherto been to discover and
to present something better than the old and worn-out
dogmas, by which it has been so long sought, but un-
successfully, to support the failing credit which has
hitherto attached, with ever-weakening force, to the
Scriptures to supply the void which the man of science
and culture has so keenly felt, that, by reason of it, the
Bible is slowly, but surely, slipping from his nerveless
grasp. This want, with all her desire to arrest the
8
PREFACE.
catastrophe, the Church has not hitherto been able to
supply. No departure from the beaten track, the com-
mon rut of ordinary interpretation, has yet been seriously
attempted, of such a nature as to arrest the attention.
of the educated, by its logical, consistent, and rational
character, so that it may be felt that an altogether new
light is thrown upon subjects of so absorbing an interest
and of such immense importance.
The author feels convinced, however, that could such
an intelligible principle be fully set forth, explained, and
illustrated, not a few would welcome it, and lay hold upon
it with eagerness and satisfaction. His own belief is
that not only many, but all, will ultimately do so, although
he is well aware that it is not to be expected as the work
of a single generation. But that there exists an irrepres-
sible tendency to endeavour to elicit the true Scripture
meaning, to the quieting of the ever active and exacting
intelligence, is shown by the interchange of ideas upon
the subject between the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone
and the late President of the Royal Society, which lately
appeared in the pages of the Nineteenth Century. The
result of that passage of arms seemed, however, to us
eminently unsatisfactory, both from the absence of an
intelligible principle on the one side, and, on the other,
from the exaggerated claims put forward, in the name of
Science, to set aside as fantastic all such ideas as could
not be strictly embraced in the scope of her inductions
and inquiries. But the repeated recurrence of such at-
tempts to explain the meaning of the Bible Record prove
incontestably both the keen desire to understand the true
meaning of Scripture, and the evident fact that up to this
time that keen desire has not been gratified.
Attention is also directed to the fact that what is called
the Mystical Interpretation of Scripture gains much more
support in this day than it has ever previously done. It
seems to be felt that the old belief in the purely literal
interpretation was in process of being discovered to be
PREFACE.
9
thoroughly unsatisfactory,-utterly inadequate to the ob-
jects in view; and that some modification, at least, of this
old-fashioned dogma was desirable, if not absolutely ne-
cessary. The article upon this subject in the Church
Quarterly Review for April, 1886, is a striking and sig-
nificant sign of the times; and although the innovating
principle therein advocated is scarcely carried to its logical
and legitimate results, it is a great step in the right direc-
tion. The present work was written long before either of
the articles above referred to had appeared; but it will be
seen that the subjects of both are largely treated in it,
and in fact constitute its entire burden.
What is wanted," says the Church Quarterly, “is to
find the basis of a reasonable mystical exegesis. . .
Thoughtful students of Holy Scripture feel the want of
some intelligible principle upon which to base such inter-
pretations." Such an intelligible principle and such a
reasonable basis we believe will be found in these pages,
and we therefore confidently hope that they will be recog
nized as affording an important contribution to biblical
knowledge. Not that we desire to make any boast-very
far from it; but it is only our sincere wish to make known
the Truth which leads us to set a due estimate upon its
value, and to emphasize our belief in its importance.
A sketch of the plan adopted by the author in this work
may not be out of place here. After pointing out that
the antagonistic attitude assumed by Science and Criti-
cism, and especially by the former, is an entirely false
one, and based upon entirely false assumptions, a scheme.
is unfolded, which affords a view of the Philosophy of
Creation, in which it is shown that there must exist a
definite relation between the Creator and His Universe;
and further, what the character of that relation probably is.
This is the key to the whole subject, and demands careful
attention. From it is deduced an argument that a Divine
Revelation or communication from the Deity is distinctly
possible, and even absolutely necessary; and that, accord-
IO
PREFACE.
ing to the principles laid down, that communication must
take a certain form-viz., that of the Holy Scriptures. It is
then shown that the scope and aim of the Bible have been
entirely overlooked or misunderstood, and the difficulties.
which have so long beset the interpretation of Genesis i.
are totally dispelled and swept away. Copious proofs and
illustrations are then given of the soundness of the prin-
ciple of interpretation based upon the relations of the
natural to the spiritual, as already expounded; after
which the first three chapters of Genesis are word by
word elucidated, and illustrated by comparison with all
parts of the Old and New Testaments.
In order to comprehend the scope of the Old Testament
generally, the Jewish Church forms the subject of the
next chapter, and the fallacies which lie at the foundation
of recent destructive criticisms are exposed. The true
nature of that Church is clearly stated, and its essentially
representative character pointed out, as affording the clue
to those difficulties which have led the modern critic to
reduce to chaos writings in which, as we possess them,
perfect order reigns. The precise position in the spiritual
economy of the human race which the Jewish Church.
occupied is defined, and the two special and dominant
characteristics of that Church, Miracles and Sacrifices, are
elucidated. Miracles are put upon a rational basis, and
their raison d'être explained; and Sacrifices are shown to
be consistent and reasonable modes of worship, of an
entirely different nature and superior character to that
claimed for them by the scientific ethnologist.
In order to embrace the New Testament in the Scrip-
tural Unity by the application of the same principles, the
question, "Why should there be four Gospels?" neither
more nor less, is elucidated, and the reasons of the ap-
parent discrepancies which have been remarked in the
records of the four Evangelists exhibited. And in the
concluding chapters the subject of Inspiration is touched.
on; weighty arguments in favour of the superhuman
PREFACE.
I I
character of the Scriptures are adduced, and their vast
importance, and indeed their essential necessity to man-
kind at large, are absolutely insisted on.
The present volume is thus confined as much as pos-
sible to the purely theological aspects of the subject; and
these, as the most important, are first laid before the
reader. But the subject has also its scientific side; and
should this work be found to merit attention, the author
proposes to follow it with a sequel, which, starting from
absolutely the same premises, develops the great questions
of Matter, Energy, Life, Immortality, Evolution, and other
kindred subjects, in a manner which he hopes will be
found to cast a new and suggestive light upon these and
kindred topics. Such a work is already in great part
written.
UPPER NORWOOD,
Midsummer, 1886.
C. C.
1
Religion, which certainly ought to put Truth at the highest, is charged
with refusing to acknowledge Truth that has been proved. And Science,
which certainly ought to insist on demonstrating every assertion which it
makes, is charged with giving the rein to imagination and treating the merest
speculations as well-established facts. To propose to reconcile these oppo-
sites would be a task which hardly any sane man would undertake. It would
imply a claim to be able to rise at once above both, and see the truth which
included all that both could teach."
•
BISHOP TEMPLE'S Bampton Lectures, p. 5.
"The most terrible form of enmity against God is not that which breaks
out in foul oaths or passionate fits of disobedience, but that which deliberately
drives the intellect to ignore all evidence of His existence, and to refuse an
ear to any voice that speaks for Him, whether within the soul or without.”
WM. ARTHUR, Physical and Moral Law, p. 225.
→

INTRODUCTORY.
THE FALSE ATTITUDE ASSUMED TOWARDS THE BIBLE
T
BY SCIENCE AND CRITICISM.
HE progress of scientific discovery, and the step
by step method of research by which alone a
satisfactory scientific edifice is reared by in-
dustrious workers, have contributed results in the form
of propositions which are greatly at variance with those
which have for so long been held as deeply rooted and
fondly cherished beliefs. Nature, the domain of Science,
has lured onward her exponents by her sensible attrac-
tions, and has granted them the satisfaction of feeling
assured that they have made secure advances, while yet,
like good generals, keeping a firm hold on communication
with their bases. For the clue to scientific progress is
tangible, and therefore it can be steadily kept in view, and
any apparent advance which for a moment loses sight
of this tangible and sensible clue, is at once prudently
abandoned as illusory and deceptive. Hence, Science
can take no cognizance of matters which lack the definite
kind of proof which she uncompromisingly demands for
everything, and it results that the material, the visible,
and the sensible only, in other words the natural, alone
is admitted as within the scope of her inquiries and
investigations.
The effects of this strictly observational and deductive
character of Science are various upon different classes
I 6
INTRODUCTORY.
of minds. In some it has resulted in a denial of anything
beyond visible and tangible matter, and the forces which
are observed to be associated with it, and these are
claimed to be the sum-total of the Universe, and capable
of producing all the phenomena of which they are
cognizant; although it is admitted that there is yet a vast
field with which they are not, and cannot be, acquainted
-the Unknowable. Another class of minds is content.
with affirming its ignorance of all matters not appertain-
ing strictly to visible and tangible Nature, or that are not
amenable to direct observation and experiment; but at
the same time they are careful not to deny the existence
of what they only fail to comprehend. Others, again,
distinctly admit their belief in the existence of a First
Cause, of an intelligent and even personal character, and
see nothing derogatory to the majesty of science in the
admission of activities and influences outside and beyond.
the pale of her strict domain. And there are yet others who
refuse to give up their faith in an Omnipotent and Omni-
present God, the existence of a spiritual world, and the
immortality of the soul; but they argue that these are
altogether untouched by scientific investigations, which
apply only to, and are bounded by, visible and material
Nature alone. The belief of the first two classes is
limited to the natural and the physical, while that of the
latter two embraces also the existence of a super-natural,
or a super-physical.
It would seem, however, that the attitude of the typical
scientific mind of the present day is a somewhat anoma-
lous one, in that it either altogether distinctly denies the
existence of the super-natural, or holds itself in such
a neutral position that it refuses to affirm either its
existence or its non-existence, but falls back upon a
declaration of ignorance-or Agnosticism, on the ground
that it has no bases of belief which are capable of scientific
verification. Yet surely no one can hold any, even the
most attenuated form of Theism, without thereby to
THE SUPER-NATURAL RESIDUUM.
17
some extent admitting the existence of the super-natural
or super-physical, although he may certainly profess that
he is totally ignorant of its nature and its influence,
inasmuch as Science, to which alone he trusts, is incapable
of throwing any illustrative light upon it. And those who
can brook no form of Theism whatever, if they be trained
men of science, are fain to admit that, besides and beyond
the Known, there is a far vaster field of the Unknown, of
which not a small proportion is even characterized as
the Unknowable. Yet if there be so vast a field which he
despairs of Science ever unveiling-Science, which is the
unfailing key to Nature-what, it may be asked, is this
vast Unknowable but the extra-natural or super-natural?
And even if it were contended that this Unknown was
all amenable to science, it will not be denied that the
Unknown is Infinite; nor will it be claimed for man that
he is more than a finite being. How, then, can the finite
ever compass the Infinite! There must ever remain a
vast residuum-the Super-natural.¹
The Atheist, then, absolutely denies the existence of
any such thing as Spirit, on the ground that positive and
exact Science affords, in his opinion, no bases for such
a belief, and to Science only is his appeal. Science is the
alembic in which everything must be tested, and nothing
for which Science fails to afford any foothold is worthy
of rational credence. The facts of science must be
capable of distinct verification, and nothing which cannot.
be shown to be thus verifiable can be admitted as tenable
by any properly constituted mind. But yet the Atheist
fails to offer any proof against the existence of Spirit, or
the super-natural: the powerlessness of Science to verify
the conception, or to offer any arguments in its favour,
is for him sufficient evidence for its non-existence. Yet it
must be allowed that it is but negative evidence at the
best, and that the argument derivable from it gains no
¹ The accurate definition of what is to be understood by the Super-
natural will be given farther on.
2
18
INTRODUCTORY.
strength from anything of the nature of proof. But the
mere absence of any evidence from the source indicated
is, to some minds, sufficient disproof, and by them the
super-natural is abandoned, denied, and even ridiculed.
The scientific Agnostic is equally unsuccessful in
establishing any laws but those of Nature by means of
his science. He does not, indeed, deny the super-natural,
but he feels strongly that Science is for him a touchstone
which, in the long-run, never deceives him; nevertheless
he cannot discover that it advances him one jot towards
the super-natural. He takes, therefore, the more philoso-
phical attitude of nescience. He refuses adhesion to that
towards which his science does not appear to conduct
him, but at the same time he does not deny it, because to
do so would be tantamount to asserting that for which he
had no grounds in knowledge or experience—a proceeding
which in his eyes would be immoral. He therefore
contents himself with saying, "I do not know."
Meantime, the fact that the exact methods of scientific
research fail to conduct the inquirer beyond the limits
of the natural and the material, and in fact have never
led the natural student to any realms other than those
of Nature, is a significant one, which must be further
dwelt upon. He assumes that if there be a super-natural,
it should be approached, nay, discovered, by the avenues
of natural science, and by natural methods of research-
an assumption which seems to be parallel to that of one
who would demand to traverse the air by the ordinary
methods of terrestrial locomotion. If air and earth were
of one and the same character, and stood upon the same
plane, then indeed he could do so. He is at liberty to
travel over the terrestrial plane throughout its whole
expanse and by similar methods, but to rise into the air
he must employ other methods suited to the difference
of medium; he must frame some aërostatic machine,
useless indeed for terrestrial locomotion, but indispens-
able for exploring the air.
NO DIRECT AVENUE FROM SCIENCE.
19
For the spiritual-if we may at present postulate its
existence-is the region of the super-natural, and not the
prolonged natural. It must lie above the natural, as the
atmosphere lies above the earth, and no methods of
research applicable to the one can be conceived of as
applying equally to the other. It is not correct to say
(as did the authors of "The Unseen Universe,” p. 211),
"There is undoubtedly an avenue leading from the one
to the other, but unfortunately it has been walled-up,
and ticketed, 'No road this way.' There can be no
avenue leading directly from the natural to the super-
natural, and the man of science has erred, not by walling-
up an imaginary avenue, but by rejecting all approaches
which do not start immediately from his own domain.
He has proved satisfactorily that through the avenues
of the material and the natural he cannot directly
approach the immaterial and the super-natural; but he
has not disproved the existence of the latter, nor has he
attempted to indicate any other method of approach to it,
but simply acknowledges the profound ignorance he feels
upon the subject.
But the remarkable fact remains, that although pro-
claiming this ignorance concerning the super-natural, he
argues as though its existence were absolutely disproved.
That is to say, the man of science, although it is contrary
to his principle to assert positively that there exists
nothing beyond Nature, nevertheless studiously ignores
the possibility of any such super-physical sphere, and
ostentatiously leaves out of his calculation all reference
to it—and thus, practically, denies it. However great
may be the difficulty which he experiences in his en-
deavours to discern adequate causes for the phenomena
of Nature, he is content to enlist what he regards as
purely natural causes as all-sufficing, and to strain them
beyond what they will legitimately bear in his fixed
determination to exclude the action of anything higher;
never for a moment admitting the bare possibility, far
20
INTRODUCTORY.
less the probability, of a superior sphere of Cause, or using
such probability hypothetically, as he often enough does,
and does legitimately, with assumed natural causes. The
consequence of this mode of proceeding is a dogmatism
which is the opprobrium of Science, and an antagonism.
with minds less under the control of sense, and, if we
may without offence make use of such an expression,
more highly-pitched, which is equally injurious to the
real interests of science and to the credit of its ardent
and somewhat intolerant high-handed supporters.
And yet it might be imagined that there existed con-
siderations which could not fail to point distinctly to some-
thing beyond the merely material and tangible in the
world around us. Our material bodies are doubtless in
all respects fitted to be in direct connection with the
natural world, upon which they act and re-act; and thus
the structure and functions of those bodies are legitimate
objects of purely physical scientific research. Biology,
whether animal or human, is one-it is a science which
runs continuously from the one into the other; for the
human body is indisputably in all respects on the same
natural plane as that of the animal races. But it is
otherwise with the faculties. Thoughts and ideas are in
themselves immaterial abstractions, which, although they
are asserted by some to have a material basis, yet cannot
be themselves material. Even those who hold, in the
name of Science, the fantastic dogma that thought is a
secretion from the nervous tissue of the brain, cannot
reasonably assert that the thoughts, ideas, and con-
ceptions so secreted have any analogy to the material
secretions of the true glands, such as saliva or bile. It is
true that the brain as known to the anatomist is as
much a material organ as the liver, but who will affirm
that bile and thought have anything in common? Ideas
and thoughts, moral and intellectual faculties, belong
surely to a vastly higher grade of manifestations than the
mere white and grey matter of the brain, which even in
1
NATURE AND SPIRIT NOT CONTINUOUS.
2 I
their ultimate elements are indistinguishable, whether as
appertaining to man or to the lower animals. But if any
one should really hold that the brain stands in the relation
of a cause to thoughts and ideas, we have the marvel of
an effect being of an immeasurably superior quality to its
cause; whereas we all know that, in the nature of things,
the reverse must be the case.¹
And this superiority of mind to matter is the cause
which renders it so difficult to trace the connexion between
the two. We can observe and experiment upon the
phenomena of mind-but only on mind as such, and in-
dependently of its correlative medium; for no physical
processes are of any service whatever in this study. It
is indeed true that we may go so far as to ascertain that
morbid mental phenomena are sometimes accompanied by
morbid lessons of the mind organ; but for the elucidation
of the healthy development and normal phenomena of
mind, it is vain to appeal to the mere physical structure
of the brain. The two are doubtless correlative, but we
must learn vastly more concerning the intimate structure
and physiology of the brain, before we shall attain to the
full significance of the correlation which we admit. There
is no direct avenue from physics to metaphysics, from
physiology to psychology—from brain structure to corre-
lative mental phenomena. They are not continuous; like
the subjects of purely physical science, but they are like
the earth and the air, upon different planes, of which mind.
occupies the upper, its physical organ or instrument of
manifestation the lower.
I
We are glad to observe that some advanced evolutionists are.
teaching the untenability of this extreme doctrine. Thus, Mr. Fiske
says: "By no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense the
products of matter. Nothing can be more grossly unscientific than
the famous remark of Cabanis, that the brain secretes thought as the
liver secretes bile. It is not even correct to say that thought goes on
in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an amazingly complex
series of molecular movements, with which thought and feeling are in
some unknown way correlated, not as effects, or as causes, but as con-
comitants" ("The Destiny of Man," p. 109).
;
22
INTRODUCTORY.
It has been so far endeavoured to point out that there
is an antecedent probability in favour of the existence of
something else besides visible and tangible physical nature,
and that this something is of a kind altogether different in
quality from matter, which cannot be regarded as an effect
of matter, although it may coexist with it, and use it as a
medium of manifestation, but which is something superior
to matter in other words, super-physical or super-natural.
But whatever its quality, it is certain that it cannot in
any case be the same as, or identical with, matter or visible
nature. And therefore physical science can never expect
to reach the realms and laws of spirit, and scientific men
should not be surprised and rendered sceptical at the fact
of its eluding the ordinary methods of scientific research.
Other methods must be adopted.
The man of Science has many things entering into his
calculations which he not only cannot see nor touch, but
whose very existence he is unable definitely to prove.
Such are molecules and atoms, and the presumed universal
ether. He finds these things necessary for the advance-
ment of his researches, and he therefore postulates them,
and adopts them as hypotheses upon which to base his
observations. Sometimes such hypothetical postulates
turn out to be solid foundations upon which a super-
structure of real advance may be built; and sometimes
they are found deficient, untrustworthy, and even essen-
tially false-and then the fabric falls, and they have to be
abandoned. In either case the time arrives when the
hypothetical bases become, in the progress of discovery,
verified, or the reverse-that is, they not only serve as
foundations on which to build the edifice of science, but
that edifice, by a kind of reaction, aids in a retrospective
discovery as to the truth of the original postulate. There
are other hypotheses which are in the nature of things
unprovable, yet, from the cohesion of the deductions
derived from them, they are assumed as true, take a
definite place in science, and are as serviceable and as
S
ADMISSIBLE POSTULATES.
23
useful as though they were indubitably proven. There
are also many phenomena whose causes appear to be
absolutely unsearchable, and yet by the constancy of their
behaviour they admit of being included in certain formulæ
(loosely called laws) which are found to unite and
embrace them all in such a satisfactory nexus as to throw
at least some little superficial light upon their nature and
character.
"
But all such phenomena are ultimately reduced to a
physical basis; and therefore it is that when the observer
arrives at the highest of all phenomena, the manifesta-
tions of mind and soul, he assumes that they also must
be physical. But he has not yet succeeded in adducing
any proof whatever of this position; on the contrary, in
the absence of success, he has only involved the subject
in a scientific gloom, which has been fain to take the place
of the highest beliefs, hopes, and aspirations of the world
at large for all time past. Let the man of science give
reasons for his dogma that the phenomena heretofore
called spiritual (by which we would not be understood
as in the slightest degree referring to the so-called
Spiritualism") are purely natural, and continuous with
the material-reasons, that is, equivalent to those which
he offers for the existence and functions of an universal
æther, and we will admit that he is within his province,
and may use the belief as a hypothesis so long as it will
stand. But no such proof is forthcoming. Æther, hypo-
thetical and shadowy as it is, is yet, in the outcoming
phenomena for which its existence is relied on, amenable
to, and resolvable by, the powers of numbers. Mathe-
matics may freely be applied, and will unfailingly solve
the relations of the phenomena; but what most simple
phenomena of mind can be approached by mathematical
analysis? or can any power of numbers in the smallest
degree solve the simplest problem of mental or moral
life?
We therefore feel that we are legitimately at liberty tc
24
INTRODUCTORY.
adopt the hypothesis that the reverse of this is the case,
viz., that there exists something which we call spirit or
the super-natural, which is not in any respect identical
with the natural and the material, nor continuous with
it, nor in any direct or immediate relation to it, but that
it is only correlative or correspondent to it-something
which exists upon a higher or superior plane, which
therefore no more can touch the plane of matter than can
two parallel lines touch one another. Further, that from
this higher plane it acts upon matter as a superior and
prior influence; that is, as a cause of which the material or
natural is an effect; and that the mode in which it acts
upon matter can never by any possibility be direct or
immediate, but must be indirect and mediate, by virtue of
that relation between the subjective and the objective,
admitted by all, and which we may most properly desig-
nate under its true name of Correspondence.
Of course, with a vast number of minds, including many
men of science, the postulate of Spirit will be at once
granted. We have put it in this form of a hypothesis for
the sake of those who are unwilling at present to admit
its validity; and we hope in what follows so far to main-
tain the probability of our hypothesis as to justify its
submission. Meantime the Bible, rejected by them
because they cannot verify it, maintains the pregnant
statement that "God is a spirit.”
But before passing on to the bearing of what we have
submitted upon the Bible and its meaning, we must place
upon record some other considerations relative to this
debated subject. Since the votary of positive and exact
science finds that no avenue is discoverable from its
deductions to the existence of those things which are
mainly treated of in the Bible, viz., the super-natural and
the spiritual, how then can we approach these subjects
with any hope of arriving at some definite conception of
them, and some satisfactory and verifiable argument deriv-
able from them? We reply, plainly by the aid of that
F
›
I
1
INDICATIONS OF THE INDIRECT AVENUE. 25
correspondence with the natural which constantly and
invariably obtains in things spiritual-that definite rela-
tion which subsists between the plane of the natural and
that of the super-natural, that necessary adjustment which
for ever exists in the very nature of things between the
objective and the subjective, by virtue of which, in the
absence of any possible direct or immediate influence, the
one corresponds in every, even the minutest particular,
with the other. This (which we have simply put on
record as a preliminary suggestion) we hope to make
perfectly clear in the first chapter of this work, in which
the precise nature of this correspondence is explained.
The world of Nature, the Bible tells us, was created by
God. The man of science takes exception to this postu-
late at the very outset, and either denies the statement
outright, or refuses credence to it as something which is
positively unthinkable-in other words, unapproachable by
scientific methods. To create is generally assumed to
mean to make out of nothing, and "Ex nihilo, nihil" is
an axiom scientifically unassailable. But it may be
asked, where does the Bible assert or imply that God
created the visible universe out of nothing? Nowhere;
but it does give indications, when read intelligently, of
the source of that material world-indications which, we
venture to believe, when our Argument is further unfolded,
will be generally recognized and appreciated. But if the
visible universe were made at all, whether by God or by
blind forces, it must, unless made out of nothing, have
been made out of something pre-existent and as pre-existent,
therefore superior, and moreover, as adequate to such vast
results, so also causative.
Now if we could conceive it possible that matter could
be the cause of matter, then must matter necessarily be
eternal, and there is an end of all thought or argument
upon the question. But to produce effects, the cause
must be necessarily more potent in character, more subtle
in influence, than the effects it produces, so that it is not
26
INTRODUCTORY.
conceivable that one kind of matter can stand in the
relation of cause to another kind of matter. But it will
be said, There is Force. True, there is Force associated
with matter as an invariable law; but what is Force?
None have answered that question, though we hope yet
to throw some light upon that recondite subject. But
to say that Force is the cause of matter would be a mere
sounding phrase, signifying nothing, because at present at
least nothing is known concerning the nature of Force, or
of the Law of its relation to matter.
But we have shown that there is an antecedent proba-
bility in favour of the existence of spirit, as something
superior, prior, and causative, and thus fulfilling the
conditions indispensable to the requisite demanded for
the production of material objects. And although the
man of science may urge that matter is tangible and
visible, and therefore real, while spirit, even if it could
be believed to have any existence, must be shadowy, in-
tangible, and unsubstantial, he so urges without due
consideration, and with a very incomplete grasp of the
subject. For if matter be the product of something
anterior and superior, which bears to it no immediate
relation, but only a mediate relation of correspondence, it
follows that matter, or the natural world, is but the
comparatively unsubstantial correlative of something
which is essentially substantial and actual-far more
potent, far more effective, far more real, than the matter
which has sprung from it, as an effect from a cause.
word, matter must be but the correspondent effect of that
which produced it. Matter, instead of being the only
substantial entity, must in reality be but an unsubstan-
tial phenomenon, the mere unreal shadow of a pre-
existing and vastly superior real causative existence and
potency.
In a
And, indeed, matter must be so far inferior to the
pre-existing cause from which it was produced, as that,
while it is fixed, hard, solid, inflexible, and unyielding—
SUPERIOR REALITY OF CAUSE.
27
in a word, conditioned-the hypothetical cause would be
in the highest degree subtle, plastic, and adaptable-in
fact, unconditioned. And this fixed and unchanging
character of the effect would render it subject to laws.
from which the mobile causative influence would be
entirely free. For just as the matter itself (or the natural
world) only bears a relation of correspondence or corre-
lation to the spiritual cause, so would the Laws of matter
bear also a relation of correspondence or analogy only to
those of spirit, or the super-natural. And although the
world of causes must necessarily be subject to Law, no less
than the world of effects (for without law there must be
chaos, no less in spirit than in matter), nevertheless the
world of causes must be held together by a code of Order,
as immeasurably transcending the Laws of the material
world, as must that same spiritual world of Causes in all
things transcend the natural world of effects.
But now let us turn from this aspect of the subject
to the Records which are impugned. Positive and exact
Science, finding that no avenue is discoverable by its aid
which leads from the seen to the unseen-from its dis-
coveries and researches in Nature to the verification of
those questions with which the Bible ostensibly occupies
itself—it evidently offers no encouragement to its followers
to place any confidence, from the standpoint of Science,
in the statements and declarations made in its pages.
For not only does Science fail to throw any light upon the
subjects of faith and belief set forth in the Bible, but,
moreover, whenever anything tangible in the way of
natural knowledge is displayed in its pages, it is found
that it will not bear minute investigation, such inquiry
always resulting in the discovery that the alleged facts
are either erroneous or untrustworthy. In a word, not
only does Science throw no light upon the Bible, but also
the Bible throws no direct light upon science. Science
there is, occasionally set forth in a categorical form (as for
instance in Genesis i.) which would seem to invite belief
28
INTRODUCTORY.
}
and trust, but when closely examined by the light of real
Science it is found to be unsatisfactory and illusory. The
man of science, therefore, however unwillingly, feels him-
self bound to reject the Bible as an authoritative docu-
ment, since he finds that it runs counter to that which he
knows, and therefore (he argues) cannot be trusted in.
matters which he does not know; and with the Bible he
rejects also all the beliefs derived from it. For nothing
can be esteemed worthy of scientific faith which cannot
be reached step by step, and deductively approved; any-
thing short of this is mere unscientific lumber which only
clogs progress and must be thrust aside. And in this
category, he says, the Bible stands, and must be rejected
in toto. No half measures will avail-either it is all true,
or all false; and the latter is the judgment recorded.
And in this verdict Criticism concurs. For criticism has
reached a development analogous to scientific progress, so
that, by a rigid application of its canons to the sacred
books, grave doubts are cast upon their value as standards
of belief and faith-nay, even upon their very authenticity.
They are asserted to be mere remnants of superstition,
well adapted perhaps to a primitive, simple, unscientific,
and illiterate age, but for the culture of the nineteenth
century mere fairy-tales, and no longer worthy of the
advanced intelligence of cultivated races. Their message
is impugned, their science scorned, their history regarded
with a superior smile, and their framework of the super-
natural is loftily set aside as being no more worthy of
attention or consideration than a fantastic dream. And
the reasons for this critical fiasco are not far to seek. A
minute and scientific study of the latter, according to strict
philological and grammatical methods, has afforded results
which its investigators have judged sufficient to cast doubts
and discredit upon its historical trustworthiness; and such
a scientific examination has led to the rejection of many
parts of the Scripture documents, as well as to an extra-
ordinary bouleversement of the chronological order of the
}
!
SCIENCE AND CRITICISM CONCUR.
29
Scripture books. But such a jealous attention to literal
testimony on merely grammatical grounds has had the
effect of utterly obscuring the true meaning of those
documents: their spirit has been passed by and lost, from
the slavish punctilio which offers worship to the letter.
The mere casket of the words of truth has been micro-
scopically examined with the eye of an artificer, but the
contained gems of wisdom have been entirely overlooked.
The minute pattern has obscured the grand and com-
prehensive plan. The letter has killed, and the spirit
which gives life has been missed and is denied.
It seems to be fully and conclusively settled by the
upholders of these destructive doctrines that it is not
possible that any sources of fallacy can have crept in to
vitiate these conclusions, which are by a large number of
persons adopted as final. To them it does not appear to
be conceivable that there may yet be some mode, un-
dreamed of by the world at large, of vindicating these
writings, or of rehabilitating on rational grounds the faith
and belief which have been the jealously guarded heritage
of mankind at large for ages. Nor does it seem to enter
into the scientific conception that the popular presentations
of faith and belief of the present day may be to a great
extent but ignorant perversions of the real and genuine
teaching of a Book so venerable and so long reverenced;
but these very popular beliefs are indeed taken as the
basis upon which to pass judgment on the Book in ques-
tion. But because upon their surface these writings.
present difficulties, and offer points of unusual complexity
and startling statements not at once to be readily solved
by exact science, or freely accepted by modern criticism,
it is, without that due caution which would be deemed
indispensable in a purely scientific inquiry, somewhat
hastily assumed that there can be no other interpretation
of them than that which is put upon them by men who
are confessedly unable to enter into their spirit, and are
not in harmony with their genius.
30
INTRODUCTOR Y.
But we hope conclusively to point out, in what follows,
that the true scope and meaning of these sacred writings
have not yet been recognized, and that their true position
and bearing have not yet been seized. And we trust to
be able to show that, before finally rejecting them, there
are certain weighty considerations which cannot easily be
overlooked, or indifferently be slighted or set aside, when
once they have been fairly stated and plainly laid before
the intelligent and candid student, whether of literature
or of science. For it is easy to assert that the Bible is
untrue simply because it has hitherto been considered
unverifiable; but if that be all, let any one only demon-
strate that there exists a means of verifying it, and that
argument must necessarily fall to the ground. And we
doubt not that there are very few who would not rejoice
to discover that it may not be necessary to fling away all
one's cherished beliefs and future hopes at the bidding of
an austere and tyrannical Science, or a cold intellectual
Criticism, but that something, of which Science herself is
but the minister, may be shown to dominate both, and to
afford a clue to the mysteries of Nature, as well as of the
super-natural, and above all of the Bible.
Such a basis of verification we believe to exist, and to
be demonstrable; and this we shall proceed to explain
and to illustrate.
POSTSCRIPT.-The advocates of the theory of Monism say that
"the probability points towards the external world being of a character
non-mental, and that although the whole universe is composed of
'mind-stuff,' the Universe as a whole is mindless." Nevertheless the
Monistic theory would seem to admit the suggestion of a "hyper-
physical," which is only another word for the supernatural. (See
Nineteenth Century, July, 1886, p. 45.)
Language is full of metaphor,—that is, the whole structure and architec-
ture of language consists of words which transfer and apply to one sphere of
investigation ideas which have been derived from another. . . . All the
analogies of human thought are themselves analogies of Nature, and in pro-
portion as they are built up or are perceived by mind in its higher attributes
and work, they are part and parcel of natural truth."
DUKE OF ARGYLL, Unity of Nature, p. 308.
"Truth so far, in my book ;-the truth which draws
Through all things upwards,—that a twofold world
Must go to a perfect cosmos.
Natural things
And spiritual,-who separates these two
In art, in morals, or the social drift,
Tears up the bond of nature and brings death,
Paints futile pictures, writes unreal verse,
Leads vulgar days, deals ignorantly with men,
Is wrong, in short, at all points.
Aurora Leigh, Bk. 7.
}

CHAPTER I.
FIRST PRINCIPLES, OR
BEING AN AID TO
DOUBT.
Τ
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION;
THE SOLUTION
THE SOLUTION OF PHILOSOPHIC
HERE is no philosophical question of greater
interest, we might even say which possesses.
greater fascination for the cogitative mind, than
that which has reference to the relations of the external
world to our subjective state; and there are not many
subjects upon which so much metaphysical argument has
been expended, with so little solid result in affording a
satisfactory solution of the difficulty, as upon the rival.
speculative theories concerning this great question. Ever
since Berkeley propounded the purely idealistic view,
philosopher after philosopher, thinker after thinker, has.
taken up the subject, and the names of the best-known
modern writers are found arrayed on one side or the
other as Idealists or Realists-unless, indeed, it may be.
sought to discover some middle way which may be hoped.
to solve more easily the vexed question.
The common-sense objections evoked by the theory of
Berkeley, pure and simple, have been felt to be over-
whelming by minds widely differing in constitution. The
intangibility of the results obtained by Science, when
viewed from a standpoint which denies an objective exis-
tence to the Matter, with whose Laws Science is almost
exclusively interested-the very grave difficulties in deal-
3
34
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
ing with scientific reasonings and deductions from a purely
ideal standpoint-these are obstacles to the adoption of
the Berkeleian speculation which very many would find to
be serious enough to hinder its reception, and at the same
time would offer a strong incentive to the endeavour to
excogitate some more adaptable hypothesis-one which
would not be open to these, we may say, overwhelming
objections. And although some form of Idealism seems
absolutely necessary to meet the requirements, when the
ground is carefully explored, and a gross Realism would
appear as untenable and as philosophically unsound as a
pure, unpractical Idealism, a via media, it would yet ap-
pear, does not so generally commend itself to our meta-
physical and psychological inquirers as might at first
sight be supposed probable.
But to attempt a comparison of the views which have.
been set forth in the writings of Berkeley, Hamilton, Mill,
Spencer, and others, would be only to occupy space which
we hope may be more usefully employed, as well as to do
over again what has already been so ably done by others.
The object of the present chapter will be to endeavour to
contribute something to the discussion, believing, as we
do, that there are considerations which have hitherto
been overlooked, but which may help to throw some light
upon this abstract question, and which may also afford
grounds for entertaining the hope that the via media
which has been referred to may really exist, and may
be satisfactorily defined.
The problem with which we are confronted is, in fewest
words, to ascertain the precise mutual relation which
exists between mind and matter, so as to be in a position
to argue from the one to the other, and to effect a satis-
factory balance or reconciliation between the two. This
has scarcely been attempted by the philosophers, except
in so general a way as to afford no practical test for the
question at issue. States of consciousness have been care-
fully inquired into by the psychologist, and the mode in
THE REAL AND THE IDEAL.
35
which these states of consciousness are affected by the
stimulus of external or material objects has exercised the
skill of the metaphysician. And again, Matter, which is
used in all scientific arguments and processes as though
it possessed an undoubted objective existence-an exist-
ence which, if it could be proved not to possess, would by
its absence cause the immediate and utter collapse of
science,--matter is attempted to be handled as an in-
dependent entity, but in the very attempt it seems per-
petually to elude the senses, and to slip away from the
grasp, leaving apparently no objective solidity, no real
mentally tangible existence.
If any
But what is really required for the solution of this
problem is, we would submit, not so much an unchallenge-
able definition either of matter, or of those states of con-
sciousness by which we are apparently able to perceive its
existence, but rather a due appreciation of the inherent
relations subsisting between the two-the mutually inter-
acting bonds which at once connect and dissever Matter
from Spirit-the objective from the subjective.
Law of Mutual Relation could be formulated, if it could be
shown that Matter, or the objective external world, and
what we call states of consciousness, spiritual perception,
or subjective conditions, were in any way definitely cor-
related, it appears to us that we should be in a position
to apportion to each its proper share in the phenomena of
which we are cognizant in the external world, and to
ascertain the value of our impressions, and how far that
which is without ourselves may be rescued from the sus-
picion of a purely idealistic fantasy, and be shown to
possess a real objective, and yet subordinate, value.
Now we believe that such a test exists, and that such
a Law may be formulated; and we shall, in this chapter,
endeavour to make it clear, and thus help to place the
subject upon a sound practical basis.
The discussions upon this question have at all events
well established one cardinal fact, viz., that matter is
36
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
cognizable to our perceptions in a manner which to the
unthinking appears not a little startling; and no fact is
more clearly demonstrated than that our impressions of
matter—that is, the methods by which natural objects
affect our perceptive faculties—are not direct or immediate,
but indirect and, as it were, roundabout; so that those
material objects, to all appearance so visible and tangible,
in other words, so real, are not truly so. They are visible,
inasmuch as they affect our minds through our eyes; they
are tangible, because they present to our minds certain
impressions through the medium of the sense of touch
which lies in the superficial nerves, or nerve extremities;
further, they are audible, because of the mental change
they induce through or by the ears. But whatever they
are, and however they are conveyed, one thing is certain,
viz., that these external objects have not the remotest
direct likeness or similarity to the impressions they con-
vey, and absolutely no identity. We do not realize them;
we do not, and cannot, know them as they really are; but
we only recognize them according to certain ideas which
alone we are capable of forming concerning them. The
things themselves are as utterly unknown to us as if they
belonged to another world.
And yet Science, which has to do solely and entirely with
the substances and the changes belonging to this external
world, is able to raise her structure of facts and deduc-
tions, and to act in all things as if the materials of which
it is constructed were the realities which they seem to be.
And this fact proves one of two things, either that we live
in a world of illusions, and that we are ourselves but
puppets, fooled to the top of our bent by spending our
life and our energies in the classification and arrange-
ment of dreams which are nought, and which at any
moment may
"Dissolve, and like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wrack behind ;
>>
or, it proves that the relations between mind and
RELATION OF MATTER TO MIND.
37
matter are so nicely and so delicately adjusted, that
we can treat the realities of matter as solid truths,
or the idealities of matter as though they were sober
realities;-in any case, that the interaction of the real
and the ideal is absolutely stable and permanent, as
well as admirably and perfectly balanced. But the very
expressions we find ourselves obliged to use concerning
the real and the ideal, and the relation between them, viz.,
by, and through, and through the medium of, &c., prove
that our external perceptive organs are especially adapted
for intercommunication, and must partake more especially
of the nature of one of the factors between which they
are called upon to act or to communicate, while they are
so adjusted as to be capable of interpreting for the benefit
of the other factor. And the factor in whose nature they
participate is necessarily the objective or external, while
they are yet in communication with, and interpret to, the
subjective or internal; and thus they are specially and
carefully adjusted to both.
It is plain that Man cannot, in any sense, be held
responsible for that external Nature to which he stands in
such an ambiguous relation. For Man is no Creator, but,
on the contrary, he is created, no less than other Nature,
whether animate or inanimate. And since he shares so
much of the character of the created Nature, or the
external world with which he is surrounded, the pre-
sumption certainly is that he shares also the same.
parentage as the Nature he sees around him. And if this
is the case, which surely no one will venture to gainsay,
then must Man and Nature necessarily be the product
of the same mind. For we will not hold out the barren
and unprofitable suggestion that either Man or Nature is
the product of any merely blind force, devoid of intel-
ligence or reason; but rather that the Visible Universe,
full as it is of deep significance, and governed by unerring
Laws, is the work of Intelligence of the supremest and
most consummate order.
38
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
Now, since Man and Nature are the product of the
same Intelligence-and by Man we do not mean only his
animal organization, or his animal Life, but his whole
collective faculties-then however curious and inexplicable
the relations between the human mind and external
Nature may appear to be, they must have some bond
of connection; they must have some general combining
Law which correlates them; there must be some common
ground for both; they must all be parts of some great and
comprehensive plan. And if we could discover that
connection and discern the common ground, if we could
but catch a glimpse of that great and comprehensive
plan, we should then be in some position to formulate the
Law of the Relation existing between the two. And it is
this which we propose to endeavour to effect.
Man, we have said, is no creator. And yet this state-
ment demands a certain qualification. We are apt to
say of an artist that he creates certain results. It is
in reality transformation which he effects, but it is trans-
formation of such a kind that it may be said to approach
or simulate Creation. For when a Man from a shapeless
block of marble produces a perfect form, he transforms
crude matter into a shape of ideal beauty. His abstract
idea of the beautiful has assumed a concrete form, which
has taken the place of the shapeless block which by itself
conveyed no idea but of hardness and solidity. He has
fixed and perpetuated his idea in a material form, and
that is the nearest approach to creation of which he is
capable. But his ideal thus presented, is capable of
becoming also the ideal of the onlooker, because his
subjective impression is so fixed as to permit of its con-
veying the same subjective impression to others. So also
in painting. By the aid of crude colours, and upon a flat
surface, he is able to transform his ideal in such fashion.
that it may become the ideal of others under whose eyes
it may fall; for his conception has assumed a form which
has the power of imparting to others the same subjective
QUASI-CREATIONS OF ART.
•
39
impressions and ideal conceptions as those which domi-
nated the artist's mind in its production; but which,
nevertheless, until expressed in colour or in form, must
have remained hidden in the recesses of the artist's con-
sciousness, without any possible opportunity of outlet.
For ideas cannot communicate themselves as ideas-they
must first be expressed in material and visible forms. We
cannot see ideas, although we know them to exist: but we
can only see and appreciate what is embodied in form and
substance, and through the medium of these alone we
can receive our impressions of the ideas of others.
But why is Man, and Man alone, capable of expressing
ideas of beauty in material forms? Why is he able to
produce shapes of ideal beauty from a block of marble,
or effects of light, colour, and the natural contours of a
landscape, in such a manner as to excite admiration and
sympathy in the beholder? Man did not create the
human form or the natural landscape, and yet he, and he
alone, is capable of being moved to feelings of admiration
and delight at beauty, whether of the human or of the
natural form; he alone is capable of imitating it, and not
only of expressing ordinary rude and familiar forms, but
also of idealizing known forms in such a manner that
they represent by common consent something higher and
more noble than anything which falls under his everyday
observation.
If Man and Nature are indeed alike the creation of a
lofty Intelligence, and Man (and Man alone) is in complete
sympathy with the forms so created, can imitate them,
and, so to speak, improve upon the everyday presentment
of those forms (not indeed upon Nature itself, for every
true artist would be the first to admit his own immeasur-
able inferiority), it follows that man must possess in him-
self similar, although inferior, powers-powers, that is, of
the same kind, however vastly differing in degree-as
those existing in the Intelligence from which Nature
sprung. He is in sympathy with Nature, therefore he is
40
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
in sympathy with the Creator of Nature;—and he alone
is capable of loving and admiring the ideal of Nature,
therefore must he be as to his mental and spiritual facul-
ties, cast in the mould, as it were, of the Author of Nature,
he must be endowed with powers similar in kind to those
pre-existing, and doubtless self-existing, in the Creator
of Nature and of himself. For, inasmuch as man is
himself a part of Nature, and thus a product of the same
Intelligence as that from which Nature generally springs,
it follows that the Intelligent Author of Nature must have
imparted to man some reflexion, at least, of the powers,
faculties, and energies with which He is Himself endowed,
or by virtue of which the Nature which He has created
is instilled with those ideal forms of beauty which Man
is thus rendered capable of recognizing, and from which
he is able to derive the highest and the purest delight and
satisfaction.
But there is another quasi-creation of Man's which is
more universal than those which we commonly recognize
as forms of art, and on this as well as on other accounts
more adapted to illustrate the question at issue; and that
is the art of Writing. Every Language has its written
character, and there is almost as great a diversity of such
characters as there is of tongues; and every form of
writing is more or less understood and practised by those
who use the corresponding language. But what is Writing,
and what does it really signify? If we go to its root and
foundation, and examine into its raison d'être, we shall find
that it throws a very decided light upon the question of
the relations which subsist between the material and the
immaterial, between the objective and the subjective.
Language, the great characteristic gift which dis-
tinguishes Man from the animal races, is of two kinds—
spoken and written; one, that is, appealing to the ear, the
other to the eye. A deaf man is cut off from the one, a
blind man from the other; but to either blind or deaf one
or other form is open. And, indeed, if both avenues to
1
:
1
ANALOGIES OF WRITING.
4I
internal consciousness be closed, there still remains the
more generalized tact or touch through which, by the use
of a new form of images, impressions may be conveyed.
And both the ordinary forms of Language, Speech and
Writing, are of the same essential kind, viz., objective—
the one affecting our states of consciousness by means
of the vibrations of ether, the other by means of the
vibrations of air. But both the one and the other are
essentially material in their character, and are existences
apart from ourselves, whose domain is purely external-
phenomena belonging exclusively to the external world.
And yet they both equally affect our states of conscious-
ness. But how?
Let us take Writing as the most useful for illustration.
In writing we combine certain signs, which we call Letters
of the Alphabet, into certain definite forms, which we call
Words; and these words we arrange into sentences, which
sentences convey to our minds a certain definite meaning.
Let us first place ourselves in the position of the Writer.
We have certain immaterial ideas evolved from our con-
sciousness—ideas which are spiritual in their nature, and
to which we otherwise seek in vain to give expression.
We put them into Words-that is, we translate our ideas
into written words; or, to put it more accurately, we
reduce our ideas to material symbols. We bring down our
immaterial ideas to the level of material signs, and fix
them in material forms. But the words or signs which
we use, and which thus perfectly express our ideas, are
totally different in nature and character from those ideas
themselves; the objective forms in which we have ex-
pressed them have not only absolutely no identity with
those ideas, but bear to them no direct similarity what-
ever, but only a certain indirect relation-the relation of
Analogy.
But not only do we thus reduce our ideas to writing,
and thus fix the fleeting and impalpable conceptions in
solid objective forms for our own use; but, like ourselves,
42
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
others are equally capable of using them. If we hand
over such writing to another man, he also can understand
the signs, he also can re-translate the material symbols.
into ideas, he also can unfix the objective forms and con-
vert them into immaterial ideas and conceptions-he can
educe therefrom the subjective meaning. He can, in a
word, by the medium or instrumentality of the eye, bring
himself under precisely the same subjective conditions ast
we ourselves were under when forming the characters.
Nay, more: the same characters may be transferred to
any distance, and may fall beneath the eye of one whom
the writer has never seen, and never will see; and they
are capable of producing identical results, viz., of effecting
a communication between his mind and the mind of him
whom he thus addresses.
A person who thus communicates his mind or subjective
condition to another by means of written or objective
symbols is said to correspond with him, and the written
symbols are called correspondence; because, while these
symbols have no kind of direct similarity to the ideas which
they represent and which they are competent to convey,
they have yet a certain definite relation of analogy which
we call Correspondence. They answer, or correspond, to
ideas in the first instance, and in the second our ideas
are found to answer or correspond to the symbols; so that
by translation and re-translation, by reduction first and
afterwards by construction, objective signs act as a
medium between mind and mind-between mind and
symbol, and symbol and mind, respectively-the one
precisely and exactly corresponding to the other.¹
I
It is perhaps desirable that in this place the author should make
the following observation. Ever since the instructive analogy of
Writing occurred to him, he diligently inquired for any evidence of the
use of that analogy by any writer in illustration of these subjects. He
was, however, surprised at finding no allusion to it in any work, until
quite recently he met with the following passage taken from Helmholtz,
in Herbert's "Assumptions of Modern Realism,” p. 54 :— Perhaps,"
observes Helmholtz, "the relation between our senses and the external
(C
1
CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMUNICATION. 43
Here, then, we have a definite clue to the precise
relation which objects bear to ideas-in the case of those
objects, or arbitrary symbols created by Man, which we
term letters, and which constitute the Art of Writing. The
letters have a real objective existence, for we ourselves
have formed them, but we do not realize them; they differ
essentially in kind from the ideas which they represent;
they have no similarity, no likeness, no identity, but they
yet bear a precise and definite relation to those ideas—
they are their true and inviolable correspondents.
—
We have next to inquire: "If the arbitrary signs which
we are able ourselves to create are of such a character,
how does this throw light upon the nature and objective
existence of the external world in general?" And first we
would ask, what essential difference is there between the
writing in a book, the book itself in which we write, and
the natural materials from which the book is manu-
factured the natural objects which produce those
materials? Clearly there is not that difference between
these things which there is between the characters or
symbols of the writing, and the states of consciousness
with which these symbols so precisely correspond. On
the contrary, the symbols, the book, the rags of which the
paper is made, and the vegetable flax from which the
rags are manufactured, as well as the materials of the ink-
all stand upon the same objective level. They are con-
tinuous, they are all objects, outside ourselves, one as much
so as the other-the ultimate vegetable, or rather mineral
which feeds the vegetable, as much so as the characters.
traced on paper with material solid pencil or with material
fluid ink. Nature, and things manufactured from natural
materials, are equally objective entities belonging to the
world may be best enunciated as follows: Our sensations are for us
only symbols of the objects of the external world, and correspond to
them only in some such way as written characters or articulate words
to the things they denote. They give us, it is true, information
respecting the properties of things without us, but no better informa-
tion than we give a blind man about colours by verbal description."
44
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
external world. And therefore it follows that, as the
objective characters or symbols of writing are capable of
producing a subjective condition which accurately cor-
responds to those characters, so also must other objects
be equally in the same relation to mind: that is to say, all
the natural objects of the external world must bear a
relation of correspondence to the subjective conditions of
the internal world within us.
But what is the true nature of this Correspondence as
between purely natural objects and our states of conscious-
ness? And how comes it that it must resemble the cor-
respondence we have shown to exist between the artificial
or arbitrary material objects of our own creation and our
subjective states? To answer this question we must
recur to what we have said about forms of beauty, and the
power we possess of imitating them and taking delight in
them. We have pointed out that our appreciation of the
forms we have the power of producing-notably in sculp-
ture and painting, and only in perhaps a secondary or
more remote degree in architecture, and in every other
Art-must be due to the fact that we possess faculties
which are the same in kind as those which exist and
subsist in the Intelligence or Mind from which all Creation
emanated, differing indeed immeasurably in degree, but
being radically similar in character or kind.
And we
have also shown that we could have derived these faculties
from no other source, because we are ourselves members
of the natural world, and in perfect harmony with it, and
therefore products or creations of the same Mind which
produced or created the rest of external Nature. Never-
theless, Man is the only form of Life possessed of faculties
which are capable of inquiring into, and of admiring and
loving, those works-the only being who is in sympathy
with them; and he must therefore have been so endowed
by special favour and for special reasons. For this
sympathy with Nature, and this power of entering into its
beauties and perfections in a limited and finite degree, is
MAN ALONE IN UNISON WITH NATURE.
45
universal among mankind. It is not confined to the
sculptor, the painter, or the architect. The man of science,
generally, is equally in harmony with Nature. The in-
quirer into the laws of Light and Heat, of Electricity and
Magnetism, is a lover of a department or province of
Nature into which he pours all his affections, and to which
he dedicates all his intellectual powers. The Astronomer
sees in the stars and their courses the objects which
chiefly affect his mind, and to which he is content to
devote the hours which others give to ease and rest. The
Chemist loves to observe the attitude of inorganic sub-
stances toward one another, and delights to investigate.
their powers of combination and the inherent forces they
possess of attraction or repulsion. The Zoologist is at-
tracted by living Nature, and his mind is strongly affected
by the relationship between the animal families, and the
delicate complexities of their organization. The Orni-
thologist is only more restricted in his sphere of admiration,
and finds sufficient in the tribes of Birds to occupy all the
energies of his mind, as the Entomologist does in the
tribes of Insects; and there is no zest in life, no occupa-
tion with which a man by choice employs himself, no
genuine gratification which any man experiences, but is
derived from some form or other of the study of Nature,
the love and satisfaction which springs from the observa-
tion of the world around him, whether of men or things.
And this is so from the fact that he is not only in
harmony with Nature, but also draws his greatest and
chiefest satisfaction in life from the exercise of the
power which he possesses of investigating, or in placing
himself to some greater or lesser extent in unison and
accord with some section or other of the external world of
Nature which environs him. The coarsest and most un-
cultured and brutalized loves his dog, or his bird, or his
pot of flower, and this love is the redeeming feature and
bright spot of his otherwise darkened life.
If such is the attitude of Man to the world of Nature--
46
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
not of external man, for that aspect he shares with the
animals themselves, but of internal man, which is his sole
prerogative and characteristic-then let us next inquire
what must be the relations of the world of Nature to the
Mind or Intelligence which produced or created it-let us
say at once, to God.
A man may be known or unknown to his fellow-men,
according to whether or not he shall have produced some
work by which other men may form their judgments con-
cerning him. Multitudes of men live and die utterly
unknown, having left no sign of their existence which we
can interpret in such a way as to afford us the faintest
insight into their characters or acquirements. And again,
there are other men the details of whose ordinary life are
almost or quite unknown to us, but who yet have produced
works which have survived them, and have handed down.
to us such vivid pictures of their mental quality that there
are none with whose inner life we are more familiarly
acquainted-as examples of which Homer might be quoted,
or indeed our own Shakspere. We know these men, not
because we have seen them, or have even read their
biographies, but because by the study of those ideas and
conceptions which they have fixed in the material forms
of their writings they have left the impress of their souls,
and have enabled us to read therein, not only their work,
but also the vivid reflex of their minds. For every man's
work must be the reflex of his mind; every man concerns
himself with that which he loves, that with which he is
chiefly in sympathy, that which chimes most in unison.
with his faculties; the Astronomer with Astronomy,
the Chemist with Chemistry, the Artist with Art. And the
wider are his sympathies, the more expanded and exalted
his faculties, the more general and extended will be the
scope of his affections and his intelligence. And thus the
Poet is gifted with more universal and more comprehensive
views, not only of objective, but also of subjective, existence;
and his works declare at once the versatility, the many-
MAN'S WORK A REFLEX OF HIS MIND.
47
sidedness, the sublimity of his conceptions of Nature, and
of his estimate of Man. But in the most comprehensive
among mankind some bias is traceable, which we can
appraise for good or for evil, and in it we recognize the
man. The tree is known by its fruit, and the man by his
work.
We have seen, too, how Man must of necessity follow
afar off in the footsteps of the Intelligence from which he
sprung, and which has dowered him with faculties the
same in kind as those which he himself possesses, and
which make Him what He is. Is God Love? So also is
Love the most prized possession of Man. Is God Wisdom
and Understanding? So also is there Wisdom and Under-
standing in man which is effective to the discovery, within
limits which are yet undiscovered, of the works which His
Wisdom and Understanding ordered and made. Is God
righteous and just? So also may Man become righteous
and just, if he will take those steps to righteousness and
justice which he believes have been placed before him of
set purpose for that end. Is God pure, pitiful, benevolent,
good, and holy? So may Man be all these, and it is the
end and object of his life to become so; instructions and
exhortations to the pursuit of these virtues are constantly
pressed upon his attention, and it is his gain, and to the
advantage of the world at large, if he strive with all his
might to attain to these perfections.
Now, if this Intelligence (which we call God) is the
Author of Nature, then must His Creation stand in a certain
definite relation to Himself. It would be quite impossible
and incredible that a supreme Intelligence could produce
an adequate and comprehensive work without that work
carrying with it the impress of its authorship. Such a
work proceeding from such an Intelligence could by no
possibility be a hap-hazard jumble of fortuitous and
irreconcilable parts, any more than the work of a great
Poet could be disjointed, inconsequential, and destitute
of arrangement or congruity; for in that case it must
í
48
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
also be void of beauty and without meaning. But such is
not the World of Nature; nor would the boldest materialist.
claim that it is otherwise than orderly and beautiful,
however many things there might be which he failed fully
to comprehend. But the Intelligence which is Order itself
would impress that Order unmistakably upon His work;
and, that "Order is Heaven's first Law," is a profound.
inspiration of the Poet, and an ultimate fact in Nature.
Such primal Divine Order could only find its outcome in
the Universal Law which indeed we find ruling everywhere
—unerring, inviolable, and unassailable.
Again, the Universe is, like its Author, Infinite-infinite
as a whole, infinite in its parts. For neither could the
Universe, on the one hand, be the work of an Infinite Mind
without being itself infinite; nor, on the other, could the
producing mind be infinite without the resulting work
being also infinite; for the work must be like the mind
which produced it. But not only is the Universe an
infinite whole, but it is also made up of an infinity of
parts-just as the Mind from which it sprung must be
made up of an infinity of virtues, qualities, and attributes
which arise from the infinite subordinate train which have
their spring and origin in the two great cardinal attributes
of Love and Wisdom. For it could be by no other than by
these great attributes that the Universe could be in the
beginning created. For as all effects must have a cause,
so that Cause must also be adequate and proportionate
to the effects. But there must be, in the first place, a
moving or impelling Cause, and, secondarily, an effective
or efficient Cause; and such a moving Cause is Love,
and such an efficient Cause is Wisdom, and the Power
resulting from these must take the form of perfect and
inviolable Order.
Just, then, as the qualities and attributes of the great
Creative Intelligence must of necessity be infinite, so must.
the parts which go to form the great whole of Creation
be also infinite. And since nothing could be formed or
RELATION OF CREATION TO THE CREATOR. 49
designed by Supreme Order which was fortuitous or indefi-
nite, or inconsequential, it follows that every such part
of the great whole-be it a mineral, a vegetable, or an
animal (if good or useful)-must of necessity bear a definite
and exact relation to some one or other of the infinite
virtues, qualities, and attributes which primarily constitute
and inhere in the Intelligence which gave them birth. So
that while the whole Universe must be a faithful reflection
of the infinite Intelligence from which it was produced-
a book in which we ought to be able to read the great
Author's mind as truly and as accurately as we can read
the man's mind in the work of an artist or a poet-so also
must each individual part be in orderly relation to the
individual integral qualities and attributes which constitute
the vast and comprehensive whole of the Divine Mind.
But the faculties and attributes of God, like the mental
conceptions and ideas of Man, which are their finite
reflexions, are immaterial; while the world of Nature is
wholly material or objective. Between the two there is
a great gulf. How, then, is it to be bridged? We reply:
By the consideration of the analogies of human work we
shall find the key to the enigma. For as a man, in his
artistic creations (or quasi-creations), and more illus-
tratively by the Art of Writing, fixes his finite ideal con-
ceptions in material substances and forms, by which, and
by which alone, he can make his ideas known to others
similarly constituted and endowed, and thus communicate
to others what would, but for that, be utterly incommuni-
cable, unknown beyond himself, and locked up in the
recesses of his own individuality-so has the original
Creator of the Universe fixed His infinite archetypal ideas.
and conceptions in material forms, which constitute at
once the framework of the material world and its living.
freight of vegetable and animal life, every substance and
every individual of which (if good or useful) has its ante-
type in the Infinite Mind from which all alike primarily
sprung, and from which they are, as it were, out-births.
4
50
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
Nothing in the visible world of Nature has any likeness,
similarity, or identity with the faculties and attributes from
which they were originally produced; but, just as letters
and words correspond with human ideas to which they also
have no likeness, similarity, or identity, so does every
object of the material world correspond to some idea in the
Divine Mind, which is thus reduced to material form, so
that His reasoning creatures may have ever before them
the impress of which He is the seal, and that thus He
may not be absolutely hidden, as it were, behind a for-ever
impenetrable veil, but may be known to those who seek
Him-may, in a word, be in communication with them
through the medium of the objects of the natural or
material world, so that men may thus truly be enabled to-
"Look from Nature up to Nature's God."
Moreover, to proceed further with the Analogy,-when
Man reduces his thoughts and ideas to writing, and fixes
them in material objective images, he expresses these
subjective conceptions in their ultimate forms. They are
the ultimate boundaries of matter, into which ideas or
spiritual conceptions are, as it were, projected. So also
when Love, Wisdom, and Power combined to transform the
primary attributes and qualities of the Divine into fixed
material forms, the natural or visible universe, so pro-
duced, became the ultimate expression, or the expression
in ultimates, of the Divine Mind; and the Divine Order
which ruled over the effectuating of that Creation found
its ultimate expression in Natural Law. And while nothing
in Nature is identical with the faculties and attributes
which inhere in the Divine, but everything corresponds to
those attributes and faculties, so also it follows that no
Law of Nature is identical with any of the Laws of Divine
Order, or in other words with the Laws of the Spiritual
World of which they are the ultimate expression, but that
the former (the Laws of Nature) are truly in strict corre-
spondence only with the latter.
DIVINE IDEAS IN MATERIAL FORMS.
5 I
Thus it would appear evident that the natural or mate-
rial world was the product of that great self-existent
Intelligence which men, with few and rare exceptions,
recognize as having been also the Founder of the human
no less than of the animal races; and that His Creation-
whether at any time direct, or in every case by an in-
telligently-guided Evolution (to which alternative we
ourselves adhere)-is the expression, in ultimate forms,
and fixed in substances which are in all particulars pre-
cisely correspondent to them, of qualities which are
embraced under the general and comprehensive Divine
Attributes of Love, Wisdom, and resultant Power-the
motive, efficient, and active causes of Creation. And thus
every inorganic substance, and every organized form, is
the exact representative of some one or other of the in-
finite and countless attributes and qualities which make
up the Divine. And by the fixing of these Divine qualities
in ultimate forms, expression is given to what would
otherwise be incommunicable-precisely in the same
way as, by arbitrary forms which we, in a manner,
create, we can fix our own ideal conceptions in ultimate
forms which render these conceptions capable of being
communicated to others similarly endowed as ourselves.
Hence the whole natural or material world is a vast
storehouse of symbols, which are so arranged as to have
a definite relation to ourselves, of a twofold nature.
First, a direct relation to our external selves, which are
in immediate contact with external Nature, and which are
thus enabled to make external Nature subserve to the
well-being of our bodies, which are in direct communi-
cation with it. And, second, an indirect relation to our
internal selves, which are only in mediate relation to
external Nature, but which ought thus to be able to (as
it is intended we should) make external Nature a medium
of communication with that Infinite Intelligence which
external Nature represents, and with which it is in
direct correspondence-and without which we should be
-
52
ર
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
as utterly cut off from such communication as a person
is cut off from his fellows who is deprived of the pos-
session of the faculties of sight, hearing, and touch, and
is therefore utterly isolated and totally unable to expand.
We should in such a case be in precisely the same con-
dition as are the animal races, which, being destitute of
any perception of the mutual relations existing between
themselves and other Nature, are thus totally unable to
hold any communication with that great primal Intelli-
gence from which they spring.
For the great essential of communication is that the
beings with whom we communicate must be similarly
endowed with ourselves. If animals were similarly en-
dowed with ourselves, therefore, they too could be in
sympathy with Nature, and could comprehend the mutual
relation existing between themselves and the external
world—an endowment which no one can possibly claim
for them. And on the other hand, if we were not similarly
endowed as the Intelligence which we recognize as the
Author of Nature, it would be quite impossible that we
should be in a position to perceive that relation, or to
hold any communication, howsoever unconsciously, with
Him, through the medium of the ultimate forms of ex-
ternal Nature, which expressly correspond to His qualities
and attributes.
Man admires and loves Nature, and spends his strength
and his intellectual energies in unveiling its secrets, be-
cause he finds in Nature the reflexion and shadows of his
internal self. For Man is in the image of God, who is
also the Author of Nature, and therefore, from however
afar off, Man is able to trace the conjunction between
Nature and God, because, in so doing, he is tracing, how-
ever dimly, the conjunction between God and himself.
It is not without reason that Man has been called the
Microcosm for if the world of Nature corresponds to the
mind of God, so must the world of man's inner nature
also correspond to the world of external Nature with
*
THE DIVINE COMMUNICATION IN NATURE. 53
which he is surrounded; and every faculty with which
he is endowed must be in unison with something without
it, to which he clings, and which is the object of his more
especial love.
It may be objected that we do not, in point of fact, hold
communication with the Author of Nature through His
works, inasmuch as many men cannot see God, although
surrounded by Nature, and that even to the best inten-
tioned the communication is involved in doubt. All this
is true enough; but that we do not see God in it, is no
fault of Nature's. The fault lies in ourselves. The same
Sun brings forth the fragrant scent of the lily and the
noxious odours of the carrion-plant; but it is not the
fault of the Sun-it is the result of the internal processes
of the plants. And it is the bias and direction given to
the internal life, and which is always more or less under
our own control, which makes the difference in our capa-
bilities of perception of the message borne into our minds
by the external world and its lessons. The communica-
tion is there, for those who seek it, and it would not be
difficult to point out its nature and definite character,
whether in generals or in particulars. But until the fact
is recognized, as it must infallibly be some day, little or
no progress can be made in interpreting the symbols of
Nature. But if what has been said in the foregoing
pages be true (and we fancy it would be difficult to con-
trovert it, in fact we are fearless of the result of any such
attempt), until then we would leave the lesson to do its
work silently, as we do not doubt it will in the end do it
effectively.
NOTE. It may of course be objected to the foregoing
Argument that there are many things in Nature which
are of such a character that they cannot conceivably be
regarded as correspondent to any of the Divine quali-
ties. We admit. the existence of evil creatures, noxious,
harmful, and void of use. But it must be borne in mind
54
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
that just as the Scriptures treat not only of Good and
Truth, which are of God, but also of evil and falsity,
which are of man,-so in Nature are there found re-
presentatives of both. But the latter-those things in
Nature which are representative of the evil and false,
while they correspond to nothing in God, yet do they
correspond to something in man. For man, who in his
normal and orderly condition is an image of God, and a
reflection of the Divine qualities and attributes, in his
abnormal and disorderly condition-the effect of sin,—is a
perversion of the Divine image, and an inverted reflection
of the Divine qualities and attributes. But we have not
thought it desirable to complicate the Argument of this
Chapter by entering upon this phase of the subject, which
we have reserved for treatment in a more appropriate place
in a succeeding volume.
1

¡
"The assumption that there is a great personal First Cause, the moral and
intelligent Governor of the Universe, and that from Him the Bible derives its
authority, can never be verified. Here then is the problem: to find for
the Bible a basis in something which can be verified, instead of in something
which has to be assumed."
•
•
MATTHEW ARNOLD, Literature and Dogma, pp. x. xi.
"It is impossible to express abstract ideas except by metaphor, and it is
not too much to say that the whole dictionary of ancient Religions is made up
of metaphor."
Max Müller, Science of Religion, p. 267.·
This seeing of Spiritual Truths mirrored in the face of Nature rests not on
any fancied, but on a real Analogy between the natural and the spiritual worlds."
They are, in some sense, which Science has not ascertained, but which the vital
and religious imagination can perceive, counterparts the one of the other."
PRINCIPAL SHAIRP, Poetic Interpretation of Nature.
1
1

CHAPTER II.
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION, OR DIVINE COM-
MUNICATION, DEMONSTRATED; AND ITS NECESSARY
CHARACTER INDICATED.
H
AVING now established certain principles which
go to the very root and origin of things, and
which, we would hope, cast some, if but a faint,
light upon the relations between Cause and Effect in
Creation, we have next to inquire how these principles
affect that Book which we have received as an ancient
and precious legacy of Truth, the Scriptures—which have
been handed down with reverence as a sacred deposit
through so many ages; the Bible-which this present
enlightened age vainly imagines that it is beginning to
discover to be in reality something quite different from
what it has been believed to be in all past ages. And
we hope to show that the estimate placed upon it by
many of the leaders of thought in the present generation.
is an erroneous
erroneous one, formed upon entirely mistaken
grounds, and in ignorance of facts and considerations of
the very utmost interest and importance.
And in order to lay these considerations fairly and
candidly before the Reader, let us commence by inquiring
briefly, What object is the Bible believed to be intended
to serve? and to what end was it written? The common
consent of mankind points to a special and paramount.
object which has little or no direct reference to our
58
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
ordinary temporal or natural life and well-being. We are
not taught in the Bible any lessons of worldly wisdom
or prudence-unless they may be extracted from such
passages as "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," &c., and
even such passages are not numerous; while the injunc-
tion to "take no thought for the morrow" exhibits the
more wonted character of the admonitions it contains.
(See, for example, Matthew vi. 19 to end.) For these
admonitions and instructions are all directed to a part
of man's nature which the Bible universally assumes,
but whose existence in these days is extensively ques-
tioned and largely doubted, and even indeed, by many,
denied. The Bible is, if it really be what it professes to
be, an authoritative statement or résumé of the relations
subsisting between the human race and its Creator and
Sustainer. And in order that our race may be in no
manner of doubt concerning its own origin, that origin is
therein first touched upon, and a brief yet comprehensive.
account is given of our first estate, and our earliest
advances towards our present condition-not physically,
but mentally and morally.
The primary ostensible object of the Scriptures is, then,
evidently to appeal to Man's higher and inmost life-to
be a message from Him who declares Himself the Creator
of our race, addressed especially to that inner conscious-
ness which distinguishes us from the brute animals. It
professes to be the link which binds us to the unseen-
the assurance that there is a God who cares for us, and
is persistent in His interest in our behalf; and it offers
what purports to be a pabulum and support for that
inmost part of us which is made up of the higher emotions.
and aspirations, the endeavours and strivings after the
highest attainable ideal.
But it will be admitted that all these are apart from
the mere business of earth. Food, and drink, and sensual
impulses have nothing in common with these. Earth is
indeed itself no fitting home for these, which in and for
•
PRIMARY OBJECT OF SCRIPTURE.
59
their perfect development would demand a sphere more
adapted to their requirements, and proportionately ele-
vated above the sordid touch of Earth.
But if this be the primary ostensible object of the
Bible, and the object which has been universally recog-
nized as such by all who have received it in past ages,
why should we expect to find in it a statement of author-
itative scientific facts, or look to it for a verification of
mere natural knowledge? True, there is an appearance
of Science in the Bible, which we have to explain; but if
the primary object of the Bible be in reality such as we
have indicated, then it follows that that primary object
could never have been to teach natural science. And if so, it
is thus far relieved from the onus of any profession of
posing as a record of accurate scientific truth. And how-
ever important for our material well-being science may
really be, it is not our material well-being which the
Bible professes to aid and to improve. Quite the reverse,
indeed for does not the Bible teach "He that loveth his
life shall lose it" (John xii. 25); and not in one passage
only, for this is its burden throughout.
And yet it is true we make our first appearance on
earth, and in bodies suitable for contact with what is
earthly and material. For every organism must be
adapted to its surroundings; and the human body, for
whatever ultimate reason it may have been placed here,
must necessarily be so placed as to be in a certain stable
and intimate relation with the material world of which
it is at all events a temporary inhabitant. For on the
harmony of those relations depends entirely the perfect-
ness with which the ends and uses of our mundane state
shall be carried out. Since, therefore, we are placed in
a material world, our bodies must be formed of material
substances, in order that the one may act and re-act upon
the other; and under such circumstances we are neces-
sarily restricted by certain laws and limits which govern
matter, space, and time.
60
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
But we have already pointed out that this same Bible
claims for God the Creator that He is a Spirit; and we
have pointed out that Spirit, as the superior and discon-
tinuous Causative of matter, must not only be free from
all these limitations, to which matter indeed is subject,
but must also be something of an altogether higher
quality, not being continuous with matter, but existing
upon a higher plane, thus rendering impossible any direct
or immediate communication with the material world or
its inhabitants. And if such may reasonably be claimed
as the essential quality of Spirit-a claim which will
be supported by other important considerations as we
proceed—it may no less reasonably be demanded: By
what means, then, is it possible that the Creator, who is
a Spirit, can hold communication with the creature, who
is an inhabitant of a material world? How is it con-
ceivable that He could impart to us a knowledge of His
interest in our well-being and progress? how convey to
man that message which the Bible professes to contain?
how express His will, by following which, His creature,
Man, may obtain safe guidance?
How
This is the difficulty which so many feel. Even if there
be a God, say they, how could He reveal Himself?
is it possible that He could make Himself known to Man?
No; even if He exist, He is and must be inscrutable, and
undiscoverable; and we must for ever grope in vain in the
darkness of the Unknowable, and in the obscurity of the
Infinite; for there is no hope of finding a resting-place for
our feet, or an anchor for our hope. The quest is vain,-
why trouble ourselves? Let us keep to those things
which we know; let us pursue the path of scientific dis-
covery and be content, and not disturb our minds with
shadowy and intangible gropings after what must be for-
ever concealed from the domain of real and positive
knowledge.
But if we have carefully weighed the argument stated
in the preceding chapter, we shall be able to perceive that
{
1
t
7
CREATION A VISIBLE SYMBOL OF GOD. 6[
this hopelessness is not final; and that, although a purely
natural Science cannot point the way to the relation in
which the Creator stands to His creation,-in which God,
who is a Spirit, stands to His human creatures, who are
inhabitants of a material world,—that inability need not
discourage us, far less lead to the assumption that no such
relation is definable. For we have shown that the visible
Universe is a complex arrangement of innumerable parts,
knit together in a strict and intricate bond of interwoven
relationship, and governed by wise and unerring Law.
And as His created Universe, His material outbirth, His
ultimate expression, is, so must He who made it be multi-
form, even to Infinity, in His aspects, qualities, and at-
tributes,—yet none the less final and complete in His
all-embracing Unity, acting in all things according to a
Perfect Order, from which He can never, under any cir-
cumstances, possibly deviate, since it is the expression
of Perfect Wisdom and an essential part of His very
Self.
And if such be the relation in which Nature stands to
its Author, then must the Universe in general, viewed
from the highest intelligent standpoint, not only bear the
distinct impress of its supreme origin, but it must also in
every part, even to ultimates, be the express symbol or
image of the Divine Mind. Every such part, even to in-
finity, must be the outward and visible sign, symbol, or
antitype, of one or other of the great typical qualities or
attributes which unite to constitute the primordial Spirit
from whence the Universe proceeds. In a word, every-
thing in external Nature possesses, and maintains a con-
nection with, its antecedent Cause in some ultimate quality
which has ever existed as an integral of the inherent vir-
tues, faculties, and powers, which endow the Divine Being.
And thus the saying of the Apostle (Romans i. 20) is
borne out logically and scientifically: "For the invisible
things of Him from the Creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made." And
62
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
also that cognate passage in Hebrews xi. 3, that "things
which are seen were not made of things that do appear.”
Again, if Man bears to God the relation which we have
shown cause to believe that he does bear-endowed as
no other terrestrial animal is, with the power to enter
into sympathy with Nature, and to love Nature as the
work of One whose faculties and attributes he reflects
afar off, and in a finite degree-it follows that the
relation is not of a temporary or transitory character,
dependent upon the will or choice of a derivative being.
If the solar influences should be cut off from a plant
or animal, it dies, nor can it carry on any of its vital
functions without their aid. And what the Sun is to
the natural world, the great arch-attributes of Love and
Wisdom are to the world of spirit, and to the spiritual part
of Man. They must flow in, if the spirit is to live-other-
wise it must perish of inanition-of the privation of that
warmth of heart which is essential to the activity of the
Affections and Will, and of that light of intelligence which
equally nourishes the mental processes of the Intellect and
Understanding. For these are the spiritual analogues or
correspondents of solar heat and light, and as necessary
to the soul as those are to the body. The spiritual part
of man can no more continue to live without its appro-
priate food, than can the merely animal part.
It follows, therefore, that Communication with its
Source must always exist; and such communication could
not for a moment cease without involving a spiritual
catastrophe parallel to that which would happen in
the natural world could the sun be blotted out of the
heavens. And therefore, ever since Man has been Man,
the Power which made him so by special endowments
of a spiritual kind, and which enabled him to overtop
the mere animal races, must also have maintained him
in his superior position by a ceaseless communication
of appropriate spiritual energy.
But we have shown that every particular of external
COMMUNICATION ALWAYS HAD IN VIEW. 63
Nature stands in such a relation to its Divine Author as
to form a mediate chain of communication between Him
and His creatures whom He has so endowed as to be
like-minded with Himself-in a position, that is, to be
capable of comprehending the analogies existing between
the material and the immaterial, the natural and the
spiritual. For the Creator, in His desire to communicate
with Man, to inform him of His will, and to impart to him
the necessary instructions for his guidance, having de-
signed everything for a foreordained end, could evidently
by no means lose His hold upon either His natural or
His spiritual creation, but could use as His medium
(prepared by supreme wisdom and foresight for that pur-
pose) the natural symbols which correspond with the spiritual
ideas He wished to impart-in a mode, in fact, similar to
that by which any man can communicate his ideas to his
fellow-man at a distance, or when oral or direct commu-
nication was not practicable-viz., by written signs which
represent, or correspond to, his ideas. Only this difference.
is observable—that God employs in His exalted communi-
cation with man the multitudinous, nay, infinite, fixed and
established symbols of the world of Nature; while man, a
finite being, has invented a limited series of artificial and
conventional signs for his purposes of communication with
his fellow-man, as sufficient for his finite and limited
affairs, as the infinite variety of the natural symbols in
the world of Nature is adequate for all the infinite and
lofty requirements of the Creator in the government of the
Infinite Universe.
It need hardly be observed, however, that in an age
when students of Nature for the most part either entirely
deny, or in their hearts entertain serious doubts concern-
ing the very existence of Spirit, it is impossible that this
correspondence between Nature and Spirit should be appre-
ciated, or in any adequate measure understood. But that
it exists we conceive that we have shown good reason to
believe and if it exist, then must it always have existed
64
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
from the very beginning and foundation of things. And
we shall further give reasons for believing that the language
of Analogy was universally understood in the most primitive
and simplest ages of our race, and that men could once
read as in a written volume the spiritual lessons every-
where veiled in the visible objects of the external world.
It is no mere poetical license which speaks of
Tongues in the trees; books in the running brooks ;
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
They were and are absolute sober facts, with the qualifi-
cation only that time was when the tongues spake
audibly to the soul, and the books were legible to the
spiritual eye; but now, alas! they are for the most part
dumb and blurred, so that the message fails to reach men's
minds.
Time was, therefore, when oral communication was all
that was necessary, and writing perhaps unknown and
indeed superfluous. But the necessity for it arose in
proportion as the power of reading the natural symbols
themselves became enfeebled and gradually lost. Then
would the artificial embodiment of the symbols in visible
signs by degrees succeed-the first attempts at so doing
having probably arisen from the impulse to transfer the
symbols of nature into symbols of art in some form of
corresponding writing. And we have clear evidence of the
remains of some such a system of symbolic transfer in the
ancient hieratic writing (or hieroglyphics) of Egypt, which
is evidently much more nearly related to the natural
symbolism referred to than are any of our modern forms.
of writing; and probably also in other forms of ancient
writing.
For it is plain that both speech and writing must have
undergone considerable modifications and vast changes
since the primitive times when both were more purely
symbolic than they are in these degenerate days. For just
as writing is (as has been shown) a material symbolism in
CORRESPONDENCES OF SPEECH & WRITING. 65
accordance with the laws of Correspondence, so also must
Language be. For Language is spoken Writing, as Writ-
ing is visible Speech: the former appeals to the ear as
the latter does to the eye, and both equally to the organs
of sense. Just as the symbols of Writing are objective
appearances which affect the mind through the eye, so
also are the sounds of Language objective impressions which
affect the mind through the ear; both are vibrations of
material media which effect the common purpose of reach-
ing the mind by the instrumentality of the senses. They
are precisely parallel. The eye and the ear are equally
channels of communication between Nature and Spirit,
and it follows of necessity that the subjective condition
induced by the sense of hearing must be of a similarly
correspondential character to that induced by the sense of
sight. If writing is correspondence, so also as surely is
speech.
""
But speech, which follows and gives expression to ideas,
must have preceded writing, and is characteristic of a
simpler and more unsophisticated condition of mental pro-
gress. To "hear" in Scripture always means "to obey,"
and to "see" equally invariably signifies "to understand. '
It is not necessary to adduce proof of this. But obedience
is what is required of the child, who does not yet see why
he is called upon to obey; while understanding is the
man's prerogative, who uses his intelligence to compre-
hend the dictates of his conscience, and the exhortations
for his good. And when men were in their first state of
innocence it was the Will which was in subjection to Good;
the sway of the understanding followed afterwards. So.
that voice in the Bible always corresponds to Affection,
either the affection of Good from Love (in its highest sense),
or of Truth from Wisdom; while Writing is for the purpose
of conveying to posterity, not affection or love, so much as
the truths of wisdom-for these only can be conveyed by
writing. Nor is there, it will be remembered, any absolute
similarity between speech and writing.
5
66
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
But as we have observed, the time must surely have
come when thought and speech alone would not suffice to
carry down the true meaning of the symbols or correspon-
dences of Nature. It then became essential that they should
be committed to writing, and thus fixed in permanent
forms, which could never be totally lost. However low
Man might sink in spirituality, however deeply he might
be immersed in love of self and the world, which are the
antagonistic influences to spirituality, the symbols would
then be preserved, their outer body at least remaining, and
awaiting an age when their inner life should in God's own
good time be resuscitated and restored.
The
Hence it is that while we may perceive, on the one
hand, that there is a method of communication left open—
purposely and wisely arranged and expressly and admirably
suited to the object for which it was designed-a method
which depends upon the strict and orderly correspondence
between spiritual and natural things, as between antecedent
causes and resultant effects-so, on the other hand, the
only other requirement for the formation of a written word
has also in the Divine Providence been fulfilled.
World of Nature is a vast system or series of symbols,
capable of every possible degree of combination and
utilization; but requiring for the fulfilment of its purpose
and design one all-important condition, viz., that it should
be understood by him who would use it. But whereas
while, in a state of soul in which Man was very near to God
(as we shall hereafter show good reason to believe men
were, in the condition signified by their being inhabitants
of Eden), the mere existence of these symbols surrounding
him was sufficient to effect this communication; the
communication would have become weakened and ulti-
mately lost, had not steps been taken by the Divine
Providence to fix that communication in the ultimate
and permanent form of writing, in order that a means
of conjunction should be provided, not for one age, or for
one spiritual state, but for all ages and for all people,—for
PERMANENCE OF THE RECORD ESSENTIAL. 67
all stages of spiritual decay or of spiritual restitution or
development.
Such a permanent Record, communication, and means of
conjunction is the Bible-a Book dictated to Man, and
written in the strictly correspondential language of Nature;
in which Spiritual Truth in all its completeness and ful-
ness is conveyed to us under the definite and accurate
symbolical, analogous, or, in other words, absolutely
correspondential, language of the world of Nature. By
virtue of this strict correspondence exists inviolable
communication; the golden links which inseparably con-
nect Nature with Spirit, as effect with its cause, are
preserved in all their perfection of integrity through all
the devastating phases of man's spiritual life, through
descending Dispensations, through decay almost to extinc-
tion of all that distinguishes him as man. Through all
this the Bible shines like a beacon-the great preservative,
the great bulwark and mainstay of his higher nature, the
potent means of his ultimate restoration and rehabilitation.
Such is the Bible-a communication from Him who is
at once the Author of Nature, and the Creator and Father
of mankind; couched in the language of what might
loosely indeed be called Allegory-but it is Allegory of
a remarkable kind, and definitely constructed upon the
symbols which inherently exist in Nature, and are invio-
lably correspondent to the goods and truths of spirit, or
the evils and falses which oppose them. And this com-
munication is fixed in the ultimate material form of writ-
ing—the litera scripta which remains and endures through
all material and spiritual changes: which embodies the
symbols in a connected series, and renders them intelli-
gible to every mind capable of interpreting them. But
this condition is not precisely like the conditions of in-
terpretation of any merely human book. The Grammar
and the Lexicon alone will not suffice for the interpretation
of the Divine Language-something more is required.
Facility for reading the communication aright is depen-
68
THE POSSIBILITY OF A REVELATION.
dent to a large extent upon a perception of, and faith in,
the unseen or spiritual world-a perception and faith
which imply a certain condition of spirituality of mind
and heart. For without this,-in the absence of not merely
a due perception of the things of Nature (which is Science),
but also of a fit appreciation of the things relating to
Spirit (which is Religion), no one can read aright the Book
of Creation, or can see in the objects and qualities of the
things of the material Universe the virtues and attributes
which inhere in the God of Nature, and with which, in a
finite degree, Man is dowered by His gift.
We do not mean to imply, however, that no one is
capable of understanding the correspondential symbols,
according to which we propose to show that the Bible
was written, without a certain amount of faith and
spiritual-mindedness. We are quite ready to admit
that the mere interpretation of those symbols may be
regarded as a Science, or form of systematic knowledge,
which may be pursued, like any other kind of science, by
the aid of the Intellect alone. But we would be understood
as insisting that the true and beneficent points of the
spiritual lessons intended to be conveyed by the symbols
of Nature cannot possibly be seized, or even understood
with any degree of fulness, by one who is not so endowed;
so that to read spiritually the Book of external Nature
can never be learned by dictionaries alone, or be mastered
upon mere critical or philological grounds. Such a student
may skim the surface and be satisfied with the soundness
of the theory, but that is all.
We have thus, we would submit, exhibited in a newer
and clearer light the first and initial desideratum for the
reception of the Bible, and have established the possibility
of Revelation, as well as shown cause to believe its pro-
bability, nay, even its necessity, and the Form it would be
likely to assume. It is no longer inconceivable or un-
thinkable, not even improbable; but, on the contrary, is
a rational consequence of enlarged and enlightened views
CORRESPONDENCE VIEWED AS A SCIENCE. 69
of the relation which must subsist between the Creation
and its Author. In subsequent chapters we propose to
follow this elucidation to its logical and legitimate con-
sequences, which are of wider scope and higher import
than has ever yet been conceived of.

1
"A Divine Revelation of Science admits of no improvement, no change,
no advance. It discourages as needless, and indeed as presumptuous, all new
discovery, considering it as an awful prying into things which it was the inten-
tion of God to conceal."
J. W. DRAPER, Conflict between Religion and Science.
"Two great fundamental ideas, common also in the non-miraculous theory
of development, meet us in the Mosaic History of the Creation with surprising
clearness and simplicity, in the idea of separation and differentiation, and the
idea of progressive development and perfecting. We can therefore bestow our
just and sincere admiration on the Jewish lawgiver's grand insight into Nature,
and his simple and natural hypothesis of Creation, without discovering in it a
so-called Revelation."
HAECKEL, History of Creation, vol. i. p. 38.
ما

CHAPTER III.
THE FINAL AND CONCLUSIVE VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
B
EFORE proceeding further, we are desirous of
establishing, once and for all, an important and
unchallengeable principle. To the reader who has
followed the Argument thus far, it is not improbable that
the term Correspondence, in its most general sense-as
signifying some loose sort of relation between spiritual
and natural things-is not new. It is, indeed, quite true
that the expression is a familiar one, with that familiarity
which too often breeds contempt. For many have heard of
it, some few have looked indifferently into it; but still fewer
have had a clear perception of its real bearing. The cir-
cumstance may be illustrated by the history of the scientific
doctrine of Evolution. For the idea of Evolution was one
which had presented itself to the mind of the philosopher
as a possible, nay, even a probable, principle, centuries
back. St. Augustine had hinted at it even in the fourth
century; and, in more modern times, De Maillet and
Robinet had contributed, according to the knowledge of
their times, to keep it alive. Later, Lamarck did all in his
power to recommend it, but upon unscientific principles;
and in our own day the author of the "Vestiges" added
his fascinating volume to the pleas in its favour, but with
a science yet unripe. It was felt by many that Evolution
was a philosophical conception, yet no one accepted it,—
and why? Simply because none of the writers mentioned
had established or even suggested a rational principle, or
74
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS 1.
indeed any principle which could be recognized as adequate
either to explain it or to serve as a hypothetical basis for
observation. The conception of Evolution, in default of
this, remained in embryo, and failed of any power of
development. And all previous writers, for want of such
a practical principle, had fallen into palpable errors which,
instead of advancing, only served to discredit the idea.
But when the "Origin of Species" appeared, all this
was immediately changed; the hitherto abused and neg-
lected principle of Evolution assumed a new meaning, and
entered upon a new phase. And why? Simply because
Darwin and Wallace enunciated a workable hypothetic
basis from which it could be approached, and by which
the facts could be tested. Henceforth (although the basis
in this case was but hypothetical, and, as we believe,
needed much correction) Evolution was accepted as a
practicable Theory, and the face of the scientific world has
been changed by its influence.
So is it also with "Correspondence." It has long been
presented as a Truth, and has been backed by proofs; but
it has never as yet met with general acceptance, as it
most assuredly will, in time. By scientific men, indeed,
it has been totally neglected, as too intangible,—too un-
scientific, let us boldly say,-to have any force, or to be
considered worthy of notice. And the reason of this is,
first, that it has not been understood; and, second, that
it has never been advanced in such a form as to arrest
attention. No correct practical principle has, up to this
time, been formulated to make it a workable hypothesis;
no philosophic basis has been suggested upon which its
results may be tested. But that principle is now supplied,
and that basis has been exhibited in the previous chapter.
For in it is indicated, first, why there should be such an
agreement existing between the visible things of Nature
and the invisible things of Spirit; and this view has been
clearly illustrated by pointing out what and of what nature
must be the relation between the Creator and His Creation;
75
A WORKABLE PRINCIPLE ESTABLISHED.
and, second, it has been therein shown why that agreement
must also be of the nature, not of similarity or identity,
but of Correspondence, illustrated by the parallel phenome-
non of the known and recognized correspondence which
exists between our (conventional) material signs and our
(mental) ideas. This illustration not only places the sub-
ject of Idealism in its true position and correct light, but
it also proves what is the real character of the corre-
spondence between mental (spiritual) ideas and material
(natural) objects-viz., not one of likeness or similarity,
but of analogical resemblance of a definite kind, constant
and invariable, and only differing in the cases of man and
of God, in respect that the finite ideas of man are repre-
sented by conventional signs, established by common con-
sent, and mutually comprehensible; whereas the Infinite
Ideas of God are represented by the Infinite and immutable
symbols of the world at large of visible Nature. These last
symbols represent the Mind-that is, the numberless (infi-
nite) Ideas of God from Whom they proceeded, just as our
own written characters represent the finite ideas of Man,
from whom also they proceeded. But in neither case are
they identical, because the ideas and the resultant symbols
equally in both cases are not continuous, and therefore can-
not pass the one into the other; but they are discontinuous,
because they lie upon distinct planes of being, the spiritual
ideas occupying a plane above the natural symbols (like
two parallel lines which can nowhere meet); and thus,
while the latter are natural, the former are super-natural,
-or, if it is preferred so to call it-hyper-physical.
Here, as in an infinite number of cases, our language is a
true guide, and the metaphors it contains really constitute
a great storehouse of spiritual symbols, from which we
might, if we would, derive endless profit and guidance.
In the previous chapters, then, we have endeavoured to
present reasons (of such a character as might be con-
sidered competent to establish the results arrived at on a
foundation of rational hypothesis) to assume-
76
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
I. That besides the Natural, there exists also a Super-
natural, above the plane of the natural-superior, prior, and
causative to Nature and its phenomena.
II. That the Super-natural (or Spiritual) is related to
the Natural, not directly or immediately, but only by the
medium of an analogical resemblance of a definite and
immutable kind, called Correspondence.
III. That the considerations resulting from an inquiry
into the meaning of the first verse of the Bible present
us with a solution of the rationale of this Correspondence
between the material and the immaterial, as between
Nature and God.
IV. That the possibility of a Revelation is thereby
demonstrated, and the nature of spiritual communication
explained.
V. Finally, that the primary object of the Bible was
not to teach natural science.
Let us now proceed to inquire what, then, is the mean-
ing and significance of the presentation of Science in the
Bible, and how it comes that natural science, although
distinctly not its primary object, appears in the Bible at
all; as, for instance, in the first chapter of Genesis. To
understand this, and what relation this show of natural
science bears to the real science of Nature, we must recur
to what has already been stated concerning the real cor-
respondence between Nature and Spirit. Nature and
Spirit, we have contended, occupy two distinct planes of
being, which nowhere directly meet; but the latter exerts
a mediate influence upon the former by virtue of its cor-
respondential relation to it. And we have also shown
that spiritual communication is effected through the in-
strumentality of the objects of the world of Nature, which
are symbols or correspondents of the spiritual causes from
which they sprung, and can be used in combination, like
any other material symbols, and can also be interpreted
in their spiritual analogies by any mind which holds the
1
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL PROCESSES.
77
key to them; just as a series of arbitrary signs, such as
written words, may be interpreted by one who similarly
holds the key-that is, who is, first (and generally), of a
similarly constituted mind; and second (and specially),
acquainted with the language of the writer.
It follows, therefore, that natural symbols must not
only be largely used in the Biblical writings, but also that
every spiritual idea whatsoever is capable of being, and
indeed must be, conveyed (as the only mode by which it
can be conveyed) through the medium of such symbols,
which are the letter of the word, in contradistinction to
its spirit. Not only are natural symbols employed in an
isolated or sporadic manner, but when occasion serves, or
necessity arises, they are combined in a sequential form,
of which the most striking instance, as far as external
scientific aspect is concerned, is to be found in Genesis i.
For while the natural OBJECTS themselves are each correspon-
dential to a spiritual quality, the PROCESSES of Nature, also,
bear a similar analogy to spiritual processes,—they correspond
the one to the other, just as the Laws of the natural
world, as has already been pointed out, correspond to the
Laws, or Order, of the spiritual world.¹
Now we are all well aware that the first chapter of
Genesis is, in its external and superficial signification, a
description of the process of origination and development
of the natural creation, briefly and tersely related in a
few verses, which describe epochs of Creation under the
¹ We say advisedly that the Laws of the natural world correspond to
the Laws, or Divine Order, of the Spiritual world. For it is not possible
that they can be identical, as some contend-since, as we have shown
reason to believe, there is no real identity between Nature and
Spirit, but only a relation of correspondence; so that the latter can
only exercise a mediate and indirect influence upon the former through
the channel of correspondence. But if two kingdoms have absolutely
no points of identity, it is impossible that the Laws which govern them
can be identical; but those Laws must bear a relation to each other
of a similar kind to the relation which exists between the two king-
doms which they regulate-a relation, that is, of correspondence.
78
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
Ι
form of "days," each of which is summed up by a con-
nective form of words to the effect that the several "days"
were made up of "evening and morning." The general
agreement of the sequence of events therein described
with that which Science affirms to have been the pro-
cesses of development or evolution of the earth and its
inhabitants, has been remarked by every one who has
paid attention to the subject; I but where seriously or
scientifically examined, this verisimilitude has ever seemed
to fade away, and become intangible and illusory. And
moreover, although the epochs agree in their general fea-
tures, the connective form of words is utterly at variance
with sober fact. Science has satisfactorily proved that
the world and its inhabitants were not made in six natural
days; and also no reasonable explanation has hitherto
been offered of the unusual expression, "the evening and
the morning were the first day," &c., throughout,-inas-
much as the natural day begins with morning and ter-
minates with evening, and no ordinary day can be said
to commence in the evening and end with the morning.
Therefore the Scriptural account of the Creation, once
firmly believed, and relied upon as a record of purely
natural truth, has, with the progress of discovery, lost its
authority, and men have discarded it as a mere childish
tale, fit only for a primitive and unscientific age, but no
longer tenable in the brightening light of advancing natural
knowledge.2
¹ Thus Clodd (“Childhood of Religions," p. 51) says: "It is interesting
to note that Science confirms in the main what is said in Genesis i.
about the order in which Life appeared on the earth."
2
² The following passage from Clodd's "Childhood of Religions "
illustrates the contemptuous kind of tolerance which is extended
towards the Scriptures by this class of critics. "It is not wise or
well to cast aside the Bible story. We can afford to be just to
the past. However childish the ancient explanations of things may
seem to us, they were the best that could be had. They were the
work of honest men, who, were they living now, would gladly correct
their narratives by the great discoveries of these latter days" (p. 21).
{
ફ્
+
NO REVELATION OF NATURE NEEDED.
79
But let us pause a moment and recall what has already
been pointed out with respect to the primary object of all
Scripture, viz., that that object was assuredly not the in-
culcation of the truths of natural Science. Natural
Science can take care of itself. "It needs no ghost" to
aid the progress of scientific discovery. The human
intellect has been found equal to its needs, and by the
exertion of the intellectual powers, and by these alone,
all the truths of Science which constitute the stones of
the great scientific edifice have been collected and fitted
together to form a symmetrical structure. What need of
a super-natural revelation for these? Such a revelation
would have been unintelligible to the age in which it was
made, and superfluous in the present. Scripture, as itself
tells us, is not of any benefit to the advance of any branch
of science whose scope is bounded by the material, or
whose domain is the visible mundane world of matter;
but Scripture "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of
God (not the man of Science) may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. iii. 16-17).
What remote connexion has this avowed aim with
Science? Where is the parallelism between the man
of God, and the man of Science? or between the ex-
ercise of the mathematical or physical faculty, and doc-
trine, righteousness, and perfection through good works?
It is clear there is none whatever; and our position must
claim the force of an axiom,-that the primary object of the
Bible was in no case intended to be the inculcation of any form
of natural science.
Yet we admit the introduction therein of a form of
Science as a secondary and subordinate feature; not a
subordinate object, however, but simply a medium for the
conveyance of that which it has for its primary object.
For the real and sole object of the Bible is, as we have
seen above, something which has reference to our inner
and higher nature-to righteousness, to moral perfection,
80
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
to like-mindedness with God. These are questions ex-
traneous to mere external visible nature, and superior to
it. They have reference to the super-natural,-to that
plane on which God dwells, who is a Spirit. But, as we
have already pointed out, the only method, either con-
ceivable or possible, of establishing communication with
this plane of Spirit is through the medium of its cor-
respondences with matter; and we have moreover shown
that these correspondences are fixed and permanent, and
co-extensive with the world of Nature. Therefore, since
the Bible, to be according to Order, must begin by deal-
ing with man, with reference to his earliest stages of
mental and moral, i.e. spiritual, development, it can only
illustrate these, and make them appreciable and cogni-
zable to our minds by means of the correspondences of
the earliest and successive processes of the world of
Nature, that is, of natural development.
Man has been called, and justly, the microcosm, because
those who have had the greatest insight into his inmost
nature have recognized in it greater or lesser analogies
with the phenomena of the world at large; and in the first
chapter of Genesis this idea is grandly shadowed forth,
shorn of all the fantastic accompaniments of the philoso-
phers of the sixteenth century. For the conception, how-
ever carried to extremes by those who were unable to
distinguish effects from causes, is based upon the inherent
relations existing between Nature and Spirit, and the cor-
respondence and equilibrium which subsist between the
external and the internal,-between the material develop-
ment of the world of Nature, and the unfolding of the
moral nature of Man. And this is so, originally and
essentially, because the moral nature of man itself par-
takes of the prime character of Him from whom Nature
itself proceeds, and who is Himself the supreme spiritual
Cause of all phenomena, whether external or internal,
whether material or moral. For if, as we have endeavoured
to point out, the world of external nature is an outbirth
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT. 81
from the spiritual qualities and attributes of God,—and if,
also, the intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature of man
be at the same time finitely derivative from, and continent
of, the activities of the infinite faculties of the same
nature in God-then must the development of the one
correspond with the development of the other, as having
a common origin, and bearing the one to the other the
precisely definite relation of analogy or correspondence,
which we have shown to be inherent between Nature and
Spirit.
Therefore are the spiritual development of man, and his
intellectual and moral growth, described under the material
symbols of the growth and development of the natural cosmos—
the one answering or corresponding in all particulars to
the other; commencing with that chaotic or formless
condition in which both the soul and the world, its corre-
spondent, alike primally originated, before homogeneity
had given place to that heterogeneity or differentiation
which is the progressive accompaniment of all improvement
and development, whether in the moral or in the material
world. And however sceptical the man of science may
feel with regard to such a possibility, it is not only pos-
sible to trace the close analogy between the natural
symbols employed in Genesis i., and the psychological
development of the intellect and soul, but it is even a
simple and a comparatively easy task, when once the key
is seized, and the meaning of the symbols fairly and can-
didly recognized-which may be done by any one who
does not wilfully close his eyes to it. The proof of this
will form the subject of illustration later on in this
work.
But it follows from this, that the appearance of Science
as such in Genesis i. is an appearance only, which possesses
but a secondary motive and character. As we have already
remarked, it is not even to be regarded as a secondary
object of the writing, but simply as a necessary medium
for the expression of the spiritual ideas intended to be
6
82
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
conveyed, and which could not otherwise be conveyed at
all. But inasmuch as the spiritual ideas are so conveyed,
and so conveyed because of the analogy or correspondence
which exists between them and the natural arrangement
of the purely material symbols, it follows that the natural
vehicle must, in the main (and in a secondary sense), be
a true record of those natural principles of development,
and of that natural sequence of events which truly cor-
responds with the spiritual sequence and development.
Therefore the Science of the first chapter of Genesis must be
(although not given with that object), in its broad features
at least, a correct record of the order of Nature, but yet lack-
ing in that scientific method, and positive accuracy, which
would be demanded of a document which professed scien-
tific teaching, or whose primary and avowed object was
the impartment of scientific facts. For it is introduced not
with any object, either primary or secondary, of exhibiting
or presenting scientific truth, but simply as a vehicle for
what is intended; and therefore no care is taken to present
it with that kind of accuracy which alone could recom-
mend a Revelation of scientific truth. It is the letter only,
necessary indeed for the conveyance of the Spirit, but
which nevertheless is held with a loose hand, as it were
—in order that the contained spirit should be in no way
hampered and confined by an unnecessarily strict attach-
ment to what is of purely secondary importance. In a
word, the scientific or secondary side of the first chapter of
Genesis must be a true account of the cosmogony, as far
as that cosmogony can be employed as a correspondent
to spiritual development, and having due regard to the
exigences of the primary and paramount object for which
it was avowedly written.
But in a writing having a special and all-important
aim, everything secondary must be purely subordinate,
and must bend to the demands of what is primary and
of sovereign importance. That cannot be permitted to
suffer in the very slightest degree, however the secondary
NECESSARY GENERAL ACCURACY OF GEN. 1. 83
or merely mediumistic signification may be varied to higher
purposes. And hence we have, in the main, a remarkable
agreement in Genesis i. with the facts of Science-an
agreement which we have no hesitation in saying may be
demonstrated for each period (termed "day's" work) with
modern discovery-an agreement which, the closer it is
examined into, with strict reference to the original text, the
more remarkably it becomes manifested.¹
Nevertheless, there are certain expressions used which
science cannot assimilate, because they have reference to
the higher signification, and are only explicable upon
higher grounds; whereby their presence is not only easily
accounted for, but is proved to be essentially necessary.
These expressions are two in number: First, the word
'day" used for each period of development, which gives
the narrative the aspect of describing a creation effected
in six natural days; and, second, the anomalous expres-
sion at the end of each day's work to the effect that “the
evening and the morning were the first (second) day," &c.
(6
The man of science takes exception to these expressions.
because he cannot reconcile them with exact science. He
argues that whatever else may seem true, the whole ac-
count is vitiated by these complications, which appear to
him but inexplicable vagaries. He cannot accept all, and
since he has no standard by which he can select, he there-
fore rejects all; and the same process he applies to the
Bible in general, with the same result. He does not hold
the key, and therefore he cannot unlock the enigma. But
he who does hold the key accepts all, because he cannot
dispense with any portion of the narrative, which, thus
illuminated, becomes a connected and rational whole.
First, then, with regard to the word "day." It was
This agreement does not fail to strike even those who are opposed
to it as a Revelation. Thus Sir George Airy ("Hebrew Scriptures ")
says, “It is the production of a writer who seems to possess an
acquaintance with Natural History, and might almost be suspected of
knowing some facts in Geology." And Haeckel obligingly compliments
Moses on "his grand insight into Nature."
84
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
required of the word that it should be one which should
be equally applicable to a stage of terrestrial development,
and also to one of spiritual progress, and therefore it could
never have been intended to mean literally a day of twenty-
four hours. We ourselves use the word in the sense of an
epoch, as when we speak of our day, when alluding to the
present, or of that day, when referring to the past or the
future; and no one hearing us would for a moment think
of a diurnal period of so many hours. In Genesis it evi-
dently refers to an epoch marked by the characteristics
indicated, and of indefinite extent; while in the higher
and primary sense it signifies a spiritual state. A single
passage from the Old Testament, and one from the New,
will sufficiently illustrate the uniform meaning of the ex-
pression in the Bible. Thus, Jeremiah (vi. 4) exclaims,
"Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, and the shadows
of evening are stretched out;" and again, Christ says
(John ix. 4), "I must work the works of Him that sent
me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can
work." In both of these passages is signified, not a natu-
ral diurnal period, but a spiritual state; and so also in
Genesis-not a thousand years, or any other arbitrary
space of time is indicated, but a stage of terrestrial pro-
gress on the one hand, and a state of spiritual advance on
the other—both of which could not be perfectly embraced
by any other word.
The other expression is even more puzzling on ordinary
grounds, and has given rise to endless discussion; and
yet, on the principles already indicated, it will be per-
ceived that it offers no real difficulty, but is simplicity
itself; and on the other hand it affords a strong confir-
mation of the correctness of what has been advanced.
We have already seen that each of the stages of progress
in the natural creation corresponds to a stage of advance
in spiritual development, and that each DAY figures a state
of spiritual advancement under the correspondent image
of a stage of terrestrial progress. So far all is clear;
THE EVENING AND THE MORNING.
85
but the question is, why should the evening and the morning
be represented as constituting the day, in the place of the
ordinary parlance of morning and evening. But the ex-
planation of this curious expression only bears out and
places in a clearer light the beautiful analogy we have
been pursuing. In the original it reads thus, "And there
was evening and there was morning, day one." And the
phrase is evidently based upon, and significative of, the
fact that all spiritual progression is from what is obscure to
what is relatively more clear and bright; not from night to
morning, because progress having been already made, the
blackness of night (which is the correspondent of the
darkness of ignorance) can no longer be predicated of
what is already to some extent illuminated; but each
successive advancing state passes from the shades of
evening to the clearer light of morning; each evening
being less obscure, and each morning more bright, until
at length the soul emerges fully equipped and thoroughly
furnished into the perfect light of the morning of the
sixth day. This mode of speech is further illustrated by
the Prophet Daniel, who uses it (viii. 26) with the same
symbolic meaning: "And the vision of the evening and
the morning which was told is true, wherefore shut thou
up the vision, for it shall be for many days." And again
the Psalmist exclaims (Psa. lv. 17), "Evening, and morn-
ing, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall
hear my voice;" thus describing the progress of his mind
from a state of obscurity to one of full illumination.
No better illustration could be given of the principle
that in all these writings verbal scientific accuracy is
made to subordinate itself to the hidden spiritual lesson
veiled beneath the letter.
In what has been so far advanced, we have endeavoured
to show that the exact form of the first chapter of Genesis
is precisely what we might suppose it would assume were
our views of its correspondent character correct. For,
first, we should reasonably imagine that a communication
}
86
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS 1.
made to men for objects such as we have indicated would
commence with the very beginning of things, whether in
the world of Spirit (as far as it concerned man), or in the
world of Nature. But the world of Spirit cannot be adapted
to man's comprehension, as an inhabitant of a material
world, except through the medium of the analogies or
correspondences which exist between it and the world of
Nature. But these correspondences, we have seen, are
exact and definite, and the origin and progress of man's
spirit (or soul) bear a definite and precise relation to the
origin and progress of the natural world. The one is
therefore shadowed forth under the symbols of the other.
But the one is the real primary object of Revelation; the
other but a secondary or mediate form of narrative, of no
real or absolute importance in itself, and is therefore
allowed to retain a certain colouring, inconsistent with
the requirements of exact science.
And yet this colouring, which has proved such a
stumbling-block to the man of science, does not involve
the details of the narrative itself to any great extent,
but only the connective expressions. For the correspon-
dence being perfect, the narrative, to be true to the
spiritual meaning, must also be true to the natural
meaning; and we venture to affirm, after long and close
examination, that due regard being had to the wording
of the original Hebrew, and in the absence of the preju-
dices which have been implanted in our education by the
imperfect translation of our Authorized Version, the accor-
dance will be found more and more perfect the more
closely it is studied. And we are told therein how the
I
I
Surely no stronger confirmation could be offered of the truth of
what we are advancing than the fact (for it is a fact) that while there
are certain difficulties of reconciliation according to the commonly
received translation, a correct interpretation at once disperses these
difficulties, and effects a perfect agreement. We doubt not that be-
fore these sheets are printed, the Revised Version will be in the hands
of the public, and we trust it will result in establishing juster and more
unprejudiced views. [We need hardly say that this was written before
GEN. I. AND II. CONTINUOUS NARRATIVES. 87
external world of Nature originated, and by what stages it
was developed, not because such knowledge is of any use
or value to the man of God on the road to perfection, but
only in order that by means of such a narrative we may be
in a position to understand how the internal world of man's
intellectual and moral nature, with all its accompaniments,
was also originated and developed.
Nor is this true alone of Genesis i. It is indeed plain
that the succeeding chapters have a different construction,
although formed of the same, and other precisely similar,
symbols. But the spiritual history of man's development
having been told through the correspondential language of
the development of the natural world, the further progress of
man till such time as he is represented as a denizen of
"Eden" could not be told by correspondents which em-
braced further physical developments-for no such further
physical developments yet existed. Another form of con-
struction therefore was necessary, and has been adopted,
in consonance with the spirit of the remote time to which
these early chapters refer, and at which they were origi-
nally composed, if not written. That form of construction
was not, however, the historical, which could hardly then
have existed, but the mythical; that is to say, the symbols
were arranged in the form of a consecutive narrative,
whose external meaning was not history, but only such a
form of story as was suitable for conveying the spiritual
meaning of the symbols employed. The early chapters
of Genesis, therefore, with the exception of the first, are
neither chapters from Nature nor from History, but a
simple vehicular narrative of a kind suited to the genius
of the age—(something rather of the nature of parable)—
but having no further import to us in this secondary sense
than in so far as it expresses outward truths of doctrine or
the appearance of the Revised Version. That Version is now in the
hands of every one, and some remarks upon it as regards the early part
of Genesis, pointing out some inaccuracies which still demand cor-
rection, will be found in an Appendix at the end of this work].
1
88
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
instruction ;—such as may be found in verses 3 and 24
of chapter ii.
For it is to be observed that the Bible was written for
all ages, for an age when the simplicity and genuine
moral condition of Man rendered him competent to read
the symbols with accuracy and ease; and also for an age
like the present, when the very existence of the symbols
as such is unknown or denied. Therefore, in the external
meaning of the Bible is to be found all such true doctrine,
reproof, and instruction in righteousness as are sufficient
to keep mankind in the right path, if they will diligently
follow it in the right spirit,-not by inquiring too curiously
into its mere secondary meanings, and rejecting it if
they be not found to fit in exactly with their prejudices
or ignorances, but by the endeavour to put into practice
those precepts which they find inculculated from beginning
to end of the Sacred Volume. In other words, not by
applying to the mysteries of faith and of internal spiritual
things the test of the mere natural science of external
things, always remembering that there is no community
between the two, and that such a process must inevitably
result in a darkening of spiritual knowledge, and a con-
fusion of spiritual ideas (cf. Job xxxviii. 2). But in any
case, one who merely gathers doctrines is in but a low
state of spirituality,-if indeed he may be called spiritual
at all,-unless he bring them forth or illustrate them by
his life. Therefore, although such doctrine may be learned
from the external sense of the Bible, it is not enlightened
and rendered practical without at least some aid from the
internal sense, and the more aid it so receives, the more
living it becomes.
The earliest chapters therefore do not purport to be
History, although written in the narrative style as though
recording the rise and fall of peoples; for the style of con-
struction is simply that most convenient for the convey-
ance of the spiritual truths correspondent to the symbols
used. The Prophetical books are not even cast in the
SECONDARY NATURE OF THE LETTER. 89
form of narrative, but rather in that of poetical exhorta-
tion and denunciation, expressed however, of course,
under strictly correspondent symbols. Real History
steps in with the call of Abraham; for then the primi-
tive Dispensations having closed with the Flood, and
been epitomized in the early chapters,—the heritage of a
long past age,-a new Dispensation, on a new basis,
commences with the selection of Abraham, as the best
or most representative man who could be anywhere dis-
covered by Him who knew all men, to be the Founder
of a New Dispensation, or Church, on earth.
But although we have said that real History begins
with the call of Abraham, we must not for a moment lose
sight of the principles we have already laid down as to the
primary and secondary significations of the Bible. The
letter, whatever its form, can be nothing more than the
vehicle of the primary meaning,-the arrangement or con-
struction of the natural symbols which convey the corre-
spondent spiritual teaching. Therefore, as far as regards
external or superficial structure, the Historical books
must stand in precisely the same category as the first
chapter of Genesis, which we may call the Scientific
book; only, instead of being based upon a connected
chapter of natural phenomena, they are founded upon
the extended historical basis of the acts and fortunes of
the Jewish people, dating from the very first vocation of
Abraham, their Founder.
For the Jews were the expressly raised or appointed
representative people of God, not so much selected or
chosen by Him, as raised up and established with the
object of keeping alive upon earth a Church. For it is
absolutely essential that a Church of some kind should
always exist, and when one Church, in the ever steadily
declining condition of mankind as to spirituality and
purity of life and doctrine, ceased to exist, another must
take its place, more suited to the mental and spiritual
capacities of the then existing phase of the human race.
9༠
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS 1.
Dispensation after dispensation, age after age, had been
consummated, each on a lower platform than the last, and
now the Jews were raised up-not so much to be a Church,
as to be representative of a Church, which spiritually no
longer existed: the only practicable and possible Church of
which that age of the world admitted. For in the Jewish
age, a Church could only exist mediately, through corre-
spondences and representatives, and the History of the
Jews, from first to last, was a representatively-ordered
History, in which every event, every circumstance, and
every regulation, every minute detail, from the beginning
to the end, was of a solely and purely representative
character. For the Jewish Church, as we have said, was
not a genuine Church, but only the representative of a
Church, kept alive, in default of anything better being
possible, until the epoch should arrive when a real and
genuine Church could be established in the fulness of
time, and on a basis altogether new. The Jewish worship
was of an exclusively external character: for they were in-
capable of worship from any interior principle, and there-
fore they could only represent ;-but as they were solely
and exclusively immersed in externals, they could there-
fore represent as well, and indeed even better, than other
nations.
But it is a mistake to suppose that the Jews were
chosen because they were better than other nations, which
they were in no sense; but while it was possible for them
to keep alive a kind of worship by representatives, they
were in total darkness and profound ignorance of the real
character of the God they worshipped, on account of their
utter obscurity of mind as to spiritual things (Isa. xxix.
10-14 and 18; Jer. iv. 22). Hence spiritual truths were
not vouchsafed to them;-they could be instruments of
representation, but they could not recognize the interior
meaning of the representatives of which they were the
instruments. Thus Isaiah at the very outset of his
prophecy (i. 3) exclaims, "The ox knoweth his owner, and
HISTORY ALSO MERELY SECONDARY.
91
the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider." I Their God could only manifest
Himself to them in accordance with their low and debased
spiritual quality, and hence He appeared to them as angry,
jealous, wrathful,-in the smoke and clouds and darkness
of Mount Sinai,—in lurid lightnings and consuming fire,
—appearances which accorded with their own mental
state of evil and falsity. Therefore no real spiritual truths
were entrusted to them, for they could not have understood
and assimilated them, and therefore they must necessarily
have violated and profaned them; and for this reason the
immortality of the soul was never mentioned, nor was
the hope of a future state ever held out to them. Their
spiritual faculty was firmly closed. But yet, since what
was external in the representatives of a Church among
them was in all things specially and minutely ordered and
kept in perfect correspondence by God Himself, and was
therefore holy,-spiritual communication of a phenomenal
kind could and did take place by virtue of that corre-
spondence (cf. Numb. xvi. 38, and 46-50, &c.) 3
2
From all this it follows that the History of the Jews was
a purely representative History, ordered in every particular
with a special view to such representativeness, through
the medium of correspondence between each and every of
its acts, and true worship. And if it be asked, What is
true worship? we reply the activity of the inmost
I (6
-
Only those who have carefully read the Pentateuch, the
Historical Books, and the Prophets, with the express view of ascer-
taining the extent of this element, can have any adequate idea of the
space occupied by invective, rebuke, and reproaches addressed to the
nation, though mingled, it is true, with the most inimitable touches of
pathetic remonstrance on their wilfulness, wickedness, and folly."
H. ROGERS.
2“But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon
their heart" (2 Cor. iii. 15).
3 This question of the representativeness of the Jewish Church is
more especially dwelt upon in Chap. viii., and in the second chapter
on Miracles: in which chapters ample proof is afforded of the correct-
ness of the statements here advanced.
7
92
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
affections of love and truth towards the Deity, which
bring a man into conjunction with Him, and thus conduce
to his salvation,-which is God's glory.
Therefore, we should not read the Historical Books of the
Bible for the purpose of perfecting ourselves in Historical
Study, any more than we should read the first chapter of
Genesis with a view to perfect ourselves in Scientific
Study. The History, it is true, is there, in the one case,
as the Science is there in the other. But the spiritual
lessons conveyed by the correspondences of Jewish
History are the primary and paramount object of that
portion of the Bible. The History of the Historical books
is as secondary and as unimportant to the Man of God
seeking perfection, as is the Science of Genesis i. The
Bible is, in fact, no more a Book of History than it is a
Book of Science.
I
The proof of this lies not only in its own consistency
and reasonableness, but may be found in the Bible itself.
St. Paul (Gal. iv. 24), in referring to the narrative of
Abraham and his two sons, adds, "which things are an
allegory;" and in Heb. x. i. we read of "the law (of
sacrificing) having a shadow of good things to come."
But the strongest confirmation, amounting to absolute
proof, of this view, is afforded by the Seventy-eighth
Psalm, which opens thus: "Give ear, O my people, to
my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings
of old; which we have heard and known, and which our
fathers have told us." But what is this parable, and what
are these dark sayings of old? The whole long Psalm of
seventy-two verses which follows this exordium consists of
a summarized history of the Jews, commencing with Jacob
(or Israel) and ending with David, or contemporary history.
There is nothing beyond this. And thus we may fully
perceive that all God's dealings with Israel, His repre-
sentative people, were not merely, like the history of
other nations, of only a temporal historical value (1 John
THE BIBLE NOT A BOOK OF HISTORY.
93
ii. 16, 17), but that they were verily parables, dark sayings-
lessons of spiritual correspondence, recorded therefore for
the instruction of the mankind of all after ages, in all
things belonging,-not to this world only, or even chiefly,
-but to the human soul, to Heaven, and to God. And
this indeed naturally and inevitably follows from the view
we have given of the representativeness of the Jewish
Church, of which it was said (Matt. v. 18), "Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled." For that Law was or-
dained in every jot or tittle as a shadow and correspondent
of spiritual things. Hence David says, "Open Thou mine
eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Law
(Psa. cxix. 18).
"
If further proof were needed, it is amply supplied
by the Book of Revelation. That book,-written long
after the period of Jewish History as recorded in the
Historical Books of the Old Testament, and referring
prophetically to events which, in the opinion of many, are
even still unfulfilled,-is yet however interspersed with
references to incidents and characters from those historical
Books which evidently possess an important representative
meaning. For it is to be observed that places of ancient
importance are incorporated in the prophecy under the
same meanings as are attached to them in the Old
Testament, such, for example, as Sodom, and Egypt, and
Babylon,-names which once played their part among the
nations, but which (the first and last most evidently) will
not again, materially, at all events, be brought into the
prominence anticipated for them. And not only such
names of places, but also names of persons, good and bad,
which occupy niches of importance in the Historical
Books, are found again in the Revelation,-such as Jezebel,
Balaam, and David. These names in the Revelation are
evidently purely representative, and have not the remotest
direct reference to the individuals who once bore them.
And they are representative, in the Revelation, of precisely
t.
94
FINAL VINDICATION OF GENESIS I.
-
the same principles which they represent in the Historical
Books, and are introduced into this last Scripture to
represent certain principles which by their lives they
represented in the Old Testament, under a dispensation.
in which everything was representative. For everything
relating to the Jewish people in its minutest particular
was under the direct representative governance of God,
who had raised up this people to represent on earth a
Church which was no longer capable of really and spiritually
existing, but yet which it was absolutely essential for the
existence of the human race should be supported (repre-
sentatively, in default of any other possible mode), until, in
the fulness of Time, Christ should come to establish the
Church in Spirit and in Truth.
Hence we may realize the grave error into which those
have fallen who have applied the strict canons of his-
torical criticism to the Bible-History, and especially to
the early History, of the Jews; and have been unneces-
sarily astonished and alarmed to discover that certain
external, or literal, statements will not bear the test,-a
test which they were not only never intended to bear,
but which it is at once useless and mischievous to attempt
to apply to them,-since it does not so much as touch in
the smallest degree the primary and essential object of the
writings, that object which is at once vital and para-
mount. The failure of the attempt has in many cases
been ruinous, not only to the critic himself, but also to his
followers, who have taken his lucubrations for gospel,
unwitting that he was but a blind leader of the blind, and
that his deductions instead of being words of wisdom were
mere fallacies of ignorance. And hereby is afforded a
most apt illustration of the too much forgotten aphorism
of St. Paul which it is the primary object of this Work to
emphasize "For the letter killeth, the spirit giveth
Life" (2 Cor. iii. 6-comp. John vi. 63).
:
"Spirit of beauty,-thy presence confessing,
God can we see in a sparkle of ore,
Flowers and shells to our heart are expressing
Love like its own, but transcendantly more.
T. T. LYNCH.
"On this rests the possibility of a real, and not a merely arbitrary teaching
by parables,—that the world of Nature is throughout a witness for the world of
Spirit, proceeding from the same hand, growing out of the same root, and
constituted for that very end. All lovers of Truth readily acknowledge these
mysterious harmonies. To them the things on earth are the copies of the
things in Heaven.”
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH, On Farables, p. 13.

CHAPTER IV.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FOREGOING
POSITIONS.
T
HOSE who have endeavoured to apply the canons
of criticism and the arguments of Science to the
purpose of undermining the authority of the Bible,
and its authenticity as a Revelation, cannot fail, if they
have followed the Argument thus far, to perceive that they
may have been somewhat hasty. Ignoring all the lessons
of History, and all the deep-seated and cherished beliefs
of Christendom, they have waited till this age of enlighten-
ment to use the authority of culture and Science to bring
discredit upon truths which mankind have for ages held
sacred. They have denounced as superstition that which,
not having felt it themselves, they refuse to admit to have
any foundation in others. They look down as from a
pinnacle of intellectual pre-eminence upon those less
highly endowed, and loftily waive aside their simple con-
victions with the ex-cathedrâ assurance that they are base-
less and unverifiable. They have never realized the
significance of those words of the Apostle, "For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, have part
therein; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty," &c. (1 Cor. i. 26, 27). They have in fact
7
98
PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
attempted to apply the test of the mere external things of
Nature to the verification of the internal things of Spirit,
-and not having succeeded (as it was utterly impossible
that they should), they have denied the Truth, and hastily
made proclamation that where they have failed it is
impossible that others should succeed!
But although Truth may be denied, happily it cannot
be destroyed; and it will yet shine forth to confound the
wise, and to teach the prudence of a sober reticence and
a discreet forbearance in matters of such high import.
Those who have so boldly used their intellect and culture
for the purpose of destroying the Bible, are, for the most
part, just those who most loudly claim to do battle in the
interests of Truth. What if they should be found in arms
against it, and in the ranks of its direst enemies!
But we must now proceed to offer further evidence of
what has been advanced concerning the nature and struc-
ture of the Scripture writings, and the true key to their
interpretation and meaning. For it will doubtless be
asked, Where are the proofs of all this in the Bible itself?
How can these views be established in such a manner as
to carry conviction,-the kind of conviction which the man
of scientific training will alone deem sufficient to satisfy
the intellectual faculties with which God has endowed
him? For although we believe that there is a kind of
faith which is both desirable and necessary to be brought
to bear upon spiritual things, nevertheless we think that
we are not called upon to receive as articles of religious
belief anything of which our reason and intelligence abso-
lutely disapprove. For they are God-given faculties, and
are doubtless meant to aid us in all such inquiries, and
not to throw a stumbling-block in the way of Truth.
They are not sufficient of themselves for the discovery of
spiritual Truth, but they should assent, and not be out-
raged by arbitrary and unreasonable dogmas. Nor would
we desire to advance anything which, if not absolutely
proveable, was yet in the least degree opposed to reason.
THE BIBLE NOT A HUMAN BOOK.
99
On the contrary we believe that, to a mind divested of
educational prejudices, the views herein inculcated are
unassailable, and must carry conviction.
It is the somewhat singular doctrine of the day, not
confined to the Agnostic alone, that it is contrary to sound
critical principle to judge the Bible by any other standard
than that by which we should judge a book written by
any of ourselves. Of course, if there exist no reason
beyond those ordinarily given to feel that the Bible is of
Divine origin, it may be so. The views usually held
concerning inspiration are so vague and unsatisfactory,—
so wanting in any sound and rational foundation, that it
is not much matter of surprise that the advanced critic
should attach to them but little weight. Only one thing
can really justify the consideration that the Bible ought
not to be judged by the ordinary canons of human criti-
cism, and that is, the assurance that it is not a human
book. The common views of inspiration afford no such
assurance, because they have no sound basis of such a
character as to give any solid or permanent satisfaction.
Practically the Bible is, even by many good Christians,
regarded as a purely human book, and subject to the
imperfections and fallacies of a human production. They
are willing to believe there is good in it, but not that it is
all good, and the difficulty is to discover a standard by
which to distinguish what is good from what is worthless.
In the absence of this standard the Bible is regarded even
by some good men with doubt and distrust, and is allowed
to be criticized by the ordinary canons.
But this standard we have here supplied. We have
shown that the Bible is written upon a special, extra-
ordinary, and peculiar plan, which has no parallel in any
human book, but is absolutely unique; and that its object
and its character alike separate it from every other cate-
gory of writing, and give it a place apart. If it be shown
that the Bible is written upon a definite principle, by
virtue of which it differs from every other known book-if
100 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
the principle upon which it is written is one admirably
adapted to convey spiritual lessons, and to appeal to the
highest and inmost nature of Man,-to inform him of
matters which otherwise, and of himself, he could not
know, and by means which even now are undreamed of
by the world at large;-and if, further, those means imply
an absolutely perfect knowledge in the writer, or dictator,
of the analogies and relations subsisting between the
world of Nature and the world of Spirit,-then, indeed, it
must be conceded that the Bible is something more than
a mere human book, and that the reverence with which
it has been for ages regarded is explained, and fully
justified. And if it be of such a character, it certainly
cannot be judged by the canons of ordinary criticism,
which must be entirely inadequate, since the critic, who-
ever he may be, must learn from it the standard by which
only it is capable of being judged. And such a Book is
the Bible.
As a corollary to this claim to judge the Bible by
common standards, it is assumed to be both unreasonable
and dangerous to suppose that the Bible contains any
other meaning than that which lies upon its surface.
This assumption of unreasonableness is based upon the
alleged amenability to criticism of which we have been
speaking;—the danger has been supposed to lie in the fact
that if we once allow a hidden meaning, we thereby open
the door for every variety of private interpretation,-a
result certainly to be deprecated, and the bizarre effect
of which has, in more than one instance been unfortu-
nately displayed. But if it can be shown that there exists
a definite standard of interpretation, such as that which
we have given fair reason to believe really does exist,-
the established correspondence between the natural and
the spiritual, and the application and use of the former
as the symbol of the latter,-both the unreasonableness
and the danger disappear, and in their stead we have
a perfect reasonableness, and a path of absolute safety,
J
GOD'S WORD COMPARED WITH HIS WORKS. ΙΟΙ
the Bible itself, owing to its uniform consistency, being
a court of appeal by which any part may be tried or
tested by comparing it with any other part.
But the denial of the claim for the Bible of any other
meaning that that which lies upon its surface, may be
placed in its true light by a simple reasoning. We call
the Bible the Word of God,-it claims itself to be the
Word of God,-and if our Argument be correct it is
proved thereby to be the Word of God. Let us, then,
compare it with the Works of God. We well know the
perfection of structure arrived at in those works. We
know how vastly they differ from, and transcend the
works of man, more especially in their internal structure.
Compare for instance a statue-man's handiwork, with
a living and breathing human being; the handiwork of
the Creator. The statue has a beautiful exterior, and if
tinted, might almost be imagined to be instinct with life:
but scratch below the surface, and it stands confessed as
structureless and dead. Whereas the living and breathing
man possesses not only a fair exterior, but within, he is
found to be a complicated and exquisite piece of work,
which, the more minutely it is examined, the more
wonderfully complex and delicate are found to be its
organization and adjustments. When the unaided eye
can detect no more, the microscope will reveal a new
world of minute and beautifully adapted arrangements
and exquisitely balanced infinitesimal parts which sub-
serve to the general purpose of the whole, and afford
endless employment and study for the philosopher and the
student. And even when the
when the microscope fails, we
know there are problems and marvels still hidden which
we cannot solve, depths which we cannot fathom.
Mystery within mystery, we peer in as far as we are
able, and are at length forced to admit that we lose
ourselves in the contemplation,—that far more remains
unknown than all that we have discovered, and that we
have only succeeded in unveiling the grosser portions, as
102 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
it were, while the finer and more ethereal elements evade
our finite powers, and we stand wrapt in amazement at
the contemplation of the wondrous and unsearchable
secrets of the Infinite wisdom of the Creator.
And as the works of God are, so should His Word be.
Not, like the mere writing of a Man, which lies all upon
the surface, but containing depths of profound Wisdom,
lying depth within depth, not to be deciphered by the
careless and superficial, but such as may afford endless
scope for the spiritual student, as His works do for the
natural student; and which must yet, after the pro-
foundest study of which we are capable, leave still a
residuum which angels desire to look into, but which
even they must fail finally to exhaust.¹
But in order to
afford proof of this internal meaning,
we must go to the Bible itself, for if its internal evidence
do not afford such proof of the truth of the rational pro-
positions which have been advanced, then can such proof
nowhere be found. The Author of "Literature and
Dogma,”—than whom perhaps no one has more con-
tributed to sap the claims of Scripture as an authoritative
statement of the Divine will towards man, because he
reduces God to a mere impersonal abstraction, and the
Bible to a tolerably moral fairy-tale,-assures us, "that
from Him the Bible derives its authority can never be
verified." He goes on-" Here then is the problem: to
find for the Bible a basis in something which can be verified,
instead of in something that has to be assumed" (Pref. p. xxxi.).
And this is what we are now supplying, and what can no
longer be reasonably characterized as an impossibility.
We feel convinced that were the Author in question to
apply the acumen of his critical intellect to the internal
examination of the Bible on the principles here laid down,
I
'Now I must tell you a great and awful truth, which ignorant
Christians fear to confess; The Scripture is like a man's body,
where some parts are for the preservation of the rest. So the sense
is the soul of the Scripture,—the letter is but the body.”—BAXter.
CANONS OF INTERPRETATION.
103
he would no longer wander hopelessly in the quest of
something that can be verified. But the misfortune is that
prejudice is so strong in many minds that it is most
difficult to uproot it, which however must be done, before
Truth can spring up in its place.
We claim then, for the Bible, that it is written upon
certain plain and definite principles,-viz., that the
symbols of the world of Nature are applied to their
correspondences in the world of Spirit. And since these
natural symbols are perfect and unerring correspondences
of spiritual ideas, there can be no chance or arbitrary
selection of words for the purposes intended. It follows
therefore that the Bible is thoroughly consistent through-
out, as far as regards those books which are written upon
this principle. For it is true that all the Books of our
Authorized Version are not so written, though to one who
has made the subject his study, it is by no means difficult
to distinguish at once between such as have a correspon-
dential basis, and such as have not; and the former alone
are authoritative, although the latter may indeed have
been, and probably were, to some extent written under
the influence of the Divine Spirit, and are certainly
profitable for instruction in righteousness.
It may be laid down therefore as the first canon of
interpretation, that the same word or form of expression has
always the same general signification in whatever part of the
Bible it may be found, if it be written in correspondential
language. But in every writing the precise meaning we
are to attach to any word may vary within certain limits
with the context, and the same rule will apply to the
meaning of the symbols used in the Bible. It need hardly
be said that in a highly complex work like the Bible,
which exceeds in subtlety and complexity every other
book, the combinations of symbols are infinite, and the
modus of interpretation is not confined to a simple ex-
planation of uncombined symbols, but the student must
be prepared to exercise his faculties with the disentangle-
104
PROOFS OF THe foregoing POSITIONS.
ment of figures of various degrees of complexity, which
yet may be mastered with a facility and a certainty which
will be in direct proportion to the diligence and whole-
heartedness which he brings to the task. But we main-
tain from long experience that no fantastic or deceptive
tricks of language will be anywhere found in the Bible,
but that, any of the symbols having been once mastered,
they will be found to throw more or less light upon every
passage in which the same symbols are met with; and
moreover, they will never be found to mean something
distinctly different. In this perfect consistency lies the
inherent proof of the Truth of the method we are advoca-
ting-the verification desired,—and the basis in the Bible
for something that can be verified, instead of in something
that has to be assumed.
Something may here be said concerning a remarkable
and characteristic feature of the Bible which has struck
all who have critically studied it,-viz., what is called
parallelism," which has been described as "a mode of
speech by which similar or contrasted ideas, and, indeed,
ideas related in many other ways, are expressed in various
forms of antithesis. . . . The prodigious extent to which
this occurs in the Bible beyond every other, even Oriental,
book, has been a puzzle to commentators, who have seen
in it a substitute for the metres which are such essential
adjuncts to poetry in general.'" (Henry Rogers.)
But this remarkable feature of the Bible has a deeper
meaning than any mere poetical exigency, and really
arises from the subjects with which the Scriptures deal
throughout, viz., Good and Truth. These two essential
foundations of Order, which are the universal projections,
as it were, of the primary Divine attributes of Love and
Wisdom, are, however, entirely distinct from one another,
and although there can be no genuine Goodness without
Truth, or genuine Truth without Goodness, nevertheless
Goodness takes precedence of Truth-as the heart (or
Will) takes precedence of the head (or Intellect). Still
SIGNIFICANCE OF "PARALLELISM."
105
they are complementary the one to the other, and should
act in perfect accord. And in the Bible, as a rule, the
first part of the verse refers to Good, and the second to
Truth. This rule is not however absolute, and it some-
times, though by no means frequently, happens, that
Truth occupies the first place.
The parallelism in question, therefore, arises from the
balance of these two great principles-one half the verse
relating to Good and the other to Truth:-a fact which
may be easily demonstrated when the symbols are under-
stood. Thus, there are certain expressions which are in-
variably used in combination,-run in couples, so to speak,
-because they complement one another, and unite Good
with Truth. Such are joy and gladness,—justice and
judgment,-wood and stone,-peoples and nations,-gold
and silver, bread and wine,-purple and fine linen,-and
endless others. If, however, we were to attempt to select
passages in illustration, we might quote the greater part
of the Bible. One may be taken at random to illustrate
our meaning. "Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man,
preserve me from the violent man" (Psa. cxl. 1 )—where
the violent man refers to those who violate Truth,—as the
evil man is he who perverts Good.
Perhaps, however, the most satisfactory way of illus-
trating the whole subject, and of affording presumptive
proof of the views we have been advancing, will be to
take some of the common symbols at random, and see
how they are handled in the Bible,—with what consistency,
and with what meaning, and at the same time with what
eminently beautiful result;-a result not even confined in
its importance and illustrative light to the Bible alone.
But before doing this, a second canon of interpretation must
be borne in mind, and that is the following. No one will
deny that the Bible, addressed to Man, and leading him
in the way of Goodness and Truth must deal, not only with
these two great subjects, but also with their opposites, viz.,
with evil and falsity. For it is from these that men must be
106 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
withheld, and against these must they be guarded, and of
these the evil example must be held up as a warning.
And therefore the same natural symbols are used sometimes in
a good sense, and sometimes in the opposite sense ;—and in this
respect only do the symbols seriously vary in their signifi-
cation. But when this does happen, the reader can have
no manner of doubt as to whether good or evil, truth or
falsity, is implied. In illustration of this let him refer to
the use of the word "mountain," for instance (which
corresponds, in general terms, to the highest love, of the
Lord,—and in its opposite sense, to the love of self and the
world), in Psa. xxx. 7 and Ezek. xi. 23; and compare them
with the use of the same word in Isa. xl. 4; Jer. li. 25;
and Zech. iv. 7. Or, further, take the expression "high
mountain," in Isa. xl. 9, and compare it with Isa. lvii. 7.
It would not be difficult to multiply such examples indefi-
nitely which illustrate this characteristic feature of the
Bible; but these will suffice.
But for internal evidence from the Bible itself of the
truth and consistency of its correspondent symbols, and in
proof of all that we have previously set forth with regard
to the mode in which the Bible has been written,-in a
word, to find first a basis in something that can be verified, we
will take certain correspondences, the first which occur to
us, and illustrate, as briefly as is consistent with per-
spicuity, their meaning in various parts of the Bible. Let
us, for example, inquire into the treatment of the natural
object "stone," and see how it is employed-an exami-
nation which will also necessarily entail a reference to
other and subsidiary symbols.'
Stone," then, in its primary sense, represents ultimate
Truth. Although, of course, all materials have their repre-
¹ It is not unfrequently charged upon those who quote passages
from Scripture to confirm their views, that they select those texts
which suit their purpose, and omit others which tell against them.
That charge cannot be brought in the present instance. We assert,
without fear of contradiction, that if, for the elucidation of the subject
USE OF "STONE" AS A SYMBOL.
107
sentative meanings, there were certain commonly-known
substances which were correspondently arranged in a
descending scale of excellence. These were gold, silver,
brass, iron, wood, and stone. Gold signified the highest
Good, as being the noblest, most beautiful, and most
indestructible of metals,-while silver denoted the highest
Truth, as only second in excellence to Gold. A second or
middle degree of Good was represented by brass, while
iron answered to the same degree of Truth;-and the
lowest or ultimate form of Good had for its correspondent,
wood, and the ultimate form of Truth, stone. Hence we
read in Isaiah (lx. 17, 18), where the Prophet is speaking
of the future kingdom of the Lord, and His glorified
Church—“ For brass I will bring gold, and instead of iron
I will bring silver; and instead of wood, brass, and instead
of stone, iron . . . and thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
and thy gates Praise" (comp. Deut. viii. 9). In Gen. xi. 3,
we read that the profane builders of the Tower of Babel
said, "Let us make brick . . . and they had brick for
stone,"-i.e., they had the false instead of the true; for brick
being a base and artificial substitute for stone, signifies
what is false. Thus "to burn incense upon altars of
brick" (Isa. lxv. 3) means to offer up worship upon a false
foundation.
In the most ancient times stones were used as landmarks,
and witnesses of what was true, the bounds or terms of
which defined peoples and families, and were held inviolable
according to primitive law (Deut. xxvii. 17, &c.). For the
erection of such stones, see Gen. xxxi. 45-53; comp. also
Gen. xxviii. 22 and xxxv. 14, and Joshua xxiv. 26, 27.
In later times however, when the original meaning had
been lost, a degenerate age, by a perverted veneration,
we have selected, every single passage were referred to in which it is
mentioned, the meaning would be found to be invariably the same
within the limits indicated in what we have termed Canons of
Interpretation. And the same is true of any other symbol. This we
distinctly affirm, and fearlessly challenge its disproof.
108 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
worshipped the stones themselves under the name of
Termini. But in their original use we see the rationale of
their correspondence, for as the boundaries or ultimates of
Order, they signified also Truth in ultimates.
We have just remarked that brick denoted a false
foundation for the altar. For the altar represented worship,
and the stones of it, the holy truths of worship. But there
were two kinds of Altar (Exod. xx. 24, 25)—an altar of
ground, (not properly earth (éretz), but ground (adamah')-
for the difference between the two, see Gen. ii. 6, illus-
trated in Chap. vi.)—the good ground of the parable of the
sower, significant of the good as distinguished from the
true, which latter the altar of stones represented. But not
alone of earth and stone were altars made. An altar of
brass is mentioned in Ezek. ix. 2; an altar of wood in
Ezek. xli. 22, &c.; an altar of gold, which was also the
altar of incense, as in 1 Kings vii. 48, and Rev. viii. 3.
The significance of these substances has been alluded to,
but the altar of stones was the one in ordinary use.
(Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 32.) Of such an altar of stones it
was distinctly ordered that "thou shalt not build it of
hewn stone, for if thou liftest up thy tool upon it, thou
hast polluted it." (Comp. Deut. xxvii. 5, and Josh. viii. 31.)
For hewn stones aptly represented the truths derived
from self-intelligence, which have no life in them,—the
stones must be whole stones, or as we might call them,
living stones. But hewn stone is characterized by its
proper quality in Isa. ix. 9, 10, and Amos V. II.
(C
So also the Law of the ten commandments was written
on tables of stone" (Exod. xxxi. 18), for similar reasons;
for the Tables are said to have been written "by the
finger of God," signifying Divine Truth from the Lord
Himself; and on stone, because the commandments were
the whole Law in complex, the Divine Word in the ulti-
mates of Truth (John xvii. 17). And David went to meet
the Philistine with only five smooth stones,-pure truths
of the Word, and with such a stone he prevailed to over-
IDOLS OF WOOD AND STONE.
109
come Goliath, who typified the false doctrine of a barren
faith uncombined with the fructifying principle of Charity,
-for such a doctrine did the Philistines I represent,-
wherefore the Israelites, who denoted the real spiritual
Church of Jehovah, were always at war with them: and
for the same reason the Philistine God, Dagon, fell to
pieces before the ark of the Lord.
And like as the altar, so was the Temple—at least the
later temples-built of stones (Mark xiii. 1, 2); though, as
there was an altar of ground, signifying Good, and an altar
of stones, signifying Truth,—so also was there a Tabernacle
mainly of wood (in which stone is not mentioned), and a
later Temple of Solomon built of stones, covered with
cedar (internal Truth)-2 Kings vi. 7, 18. For as stones.
represent Truths, so does wood denote a form of good,
whence wood and stone are so often spoken of in con-
nexion, idols of wood and stone referring to perversions of
the good and the true (Jer. iii. 9). For wood bears the
same relation to things of the will, as stone does to things
of the understanding (Ezek. xxvi. 12; Hab. ii. 11). The
Temple at Jerusalem in its highest sense represented the
Humanity of our Lord, whence He said (John ii. 19, 21),
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up . . . but he spake of the temple of his body." And the
stones of which the Temple was built were sometimes put
for the Temple itself, and spoken of moreover as the stone.
Hence the Stone which the builders refused, the same
is become the head of the corner" (Matt. xxi. 42). And
Christ is called the "stone of stumbling" (Rom. ix. 33),
and again by Peter (1 Pet. ii. 4) "a living stone, dis-
allowed indeed of men."
I Nor was this an arbitrary correspondence, for nothing herein is
arbitrary or disorderly. The correspondence of geographical names,
as well of names of persons, is based upon a distinct and beautiful
Order, which, however, space forbids our diverging to dwell upon in
this place. Some allusions to it, however, will be found in the remarks
upon Genesis ii. II (the rivers of Eden), and in the chapter on the
Jewish Church.
ΙΙΟ PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
And as stones themselves are but fragments of the
living rock,-so God, the Fountain of Divine Truth, is
called "the Rock." "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God
(sings Moses, Deut. xxxii. 3, 4). He is the Rock, His
work is perfect." "The Lord is my Rock" (says the
Psalmist, xviii. 2). 'Who is a Rock save our God? "
(ver. 31). It was from the Rock, representative of all
Truth in complex, that the waters (living water-repre-
sentative in all cases of knowledge) poured (Exod. xvii. 6.
Comp. Isa. xlviii. 21). And in another form we see it in
Jer. xlviii. 28, "Leave the cities, and dwell in the Rock,"
-where cities mean false doctrine, for city always means
some form of doctrine, as the "city of Zion," "city of
Truth," "city of Jehovah," &c.-but in this case the
opposite, or false doctrines.
Even the punishment of stoning, so common among the
Jews, partook of the correspondent quality attaching to
the word (or object). There were two forms of capital
punishment among them: hanging upon a tree—or wood
(Deut. xxi. 22, 23), “for he that hangeth upon a tree is
accursed of God,"-and stoning with stones. Wood, we
have seen, is a correspondent of good, and therefore the
punishment of "hanging upon wood" was apportioned
to the evil-doer; while stoning with stones was the lot of
him who perverted Truth. In Exod. xvii. 4 we read that
Moses cried, "What shall I do unto this people? they be
almost ready to stone me." Just before, we read "there
was no water for the people to drink” (ver. 1). They were
without knowledge of truth, and, not recognizing Truth in
Moses, they were now ready to stone him, i.e. to bring
violence on the principle of Truth, which Moses repre-
sented.
Further most important and interesting uses of the
natural symbol "stone" will be found in the chapter on
Sacrifices, to which subject they will be found more
properly to belong. But it is of course impossible in this
place to illustrate every passage of the Bible in which
PRECIOUS STONES.
III
"stone" is a prominent object: and we can but offer a
brief and imperfect sketch of the correspondential aspects
of this important symbol. Yet must we by no means quit
the subject without a reference to precious stones. The
expression "precious" is applied in the Bible to many
and various things, as precious seed, precious fruit,
precious things of the hills, or of the earth, precious
substance, &c., and it always represents the spiritual
quality of things good and true. But "precious stones,"
still so designated by us, were in an especial manner
correspondents of spiritual truths, because of their greater
or less translucent properties, denoting the splendour of
Truth shining in or from them. Hence the breastplate
worn by the High Priest consisted of twelve precious
stones (Exod. xxviii. 17), one for each of the tribes.
Each precious stone had its special significance, and their
arrangement in four rows of three was also highly
suggestive. By the Urim and Thummim they revealed
responses of Divine Truth, by means of the correspon-
dences of the manifestations in the stones, and hence it
was called the "Breastplate of Judgment.'
So also in Revelation (xxi. 19, 20) we read that the New
Jerusalem was to have its foundations "adorned with
every precious stone," and twelve are also here specified,
by which are in like manner signified the Divine Truths,
upon the basis of which the future Dispensation was to be
established. For Truth, like every great spiritual prin-
ciple, exists in three degrees—inmost (i.e. Divine or
celestial), inner (or spiritual), and outer or exterior
(which we have called Truth in ultimates). The true
symbol of the first is Light itself; of the second, precious
stones, within which Light seems to shine, and which
represent various kinds of Truth according to their
brightness and their colouring; and of the last, opaque
substances, such as stone, rock-or in other places white
linen garments-are the appropriate emblems.
But it would require a dissertation to do even slight
II2
PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
justice to the beautiful significance of these precious
stones and their arrangement. But one remark suggests
itself. Those who have no conception of these matters,
nor even the faintest idea that they have any meaning at
all, have fallen into a serious error. They have ignorantly
imagined that this correspondence of the most precious.
material things as illustrative of the highest spiritual
matters, was but a coarse, sensuous, and vulgar imagery,
signifying nothing beyond, and therefore worthy only of
the gross conceptions of the money-loving Jew. And thus
a brilliant and popular writer charges the Jew with
sheltering his Deity in a golden tabernacle, building in
his altars with ceilings of cedar,-and believing that he
would tread streets studded with gems, and find eternal
life in mansions blazing with precious stones."
But we
are now in a position to see that this picture arises from a
mere want of knowledge of the subject upon which such
strictures are indulged in; and that these expressions in
the Bible are no more intended to picture a coarse material
realism, than, according to the same principles, should
we expect to meet with the crude reality of Hell-fire in a
world of Spirit. These things are material correspondents
of the spiritual quality they represent; and by means of
such images alone can such spiritual truths be conveyed.
And gold forms so large a part of this imagery, not
because it is here sought for as the foundation of worldly
opulence, and source of material luxury,—but because,
being at once the most beautiful, valuable, and indestruc-
tible of material substances, it is the fit correspondent to
spiritual riches, "which neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt," and spiritual blessings (Matt. vi. 19-21),—and
the true representative of the highest GOOD (Rev. iii. 18).
In further illustration of the subject, and as cumulative
proof that the correspondences we have referred to not only
really exist, but also form the sole and entire basis of
Scripture-writing, and therefore, of course, of Scripture
interpretation, let us select some symbols from the organic
IMPORTANCE OF TREES.
113
world, as we have already done from the inorganic.
These symbols will be found further illustrated in their
place in the elucidation of the First Chapter of Genesis.
But still, it will be convenient somewhat more fully to
illustrate the subject at this stage by bringing out the
signification of the leading features of the natural crea-
tion, and see how they convey ideas concerning certain
elements of the human soul and its faculties. These
features are Trees, Fishes, Birds, and Beasts. First,
then, with regard to Trees. On the third day, the dry
and barren Earth (or external nature of Man) was to be
fructified, which was first effected by the insemination of
the "green herbage of grass," then by the production of
"the seeding seed," and lastly by the springing up of the
“fruit-tree making fruit."
Here we may benefit by our Lord's own illustration:
"So is the kingdom of God, as if a man cast seed into the
ground (or prepared earth), and should sleep, and rise night
and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he
knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of
herself (spontaneously), first the blade, then the ear, after
that the full corn in the ear" (Mark iv. 26-28). And
from other passages we learn that it is the Lord who sows,
—the seed is the word,—and the ground is the world; i.e.
the inhabitants of the world, or Man. The trees which
ultimately arise in this ground are significant of all kinds
of knowledge, chiefly of Truth, while the fruit of a tree
denotes the knowledge of good. The meaning of Trees on
this line is everywhere evident in the Scriptures, but may
be best illustrated by Ezekiel xvii. 24. “And all the trees
of the field (i.e. the Church) shall know that I the Lord
have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree.
have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to
flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it."
The trees, it is said, shall know this, thus showing that
trees signify knowledge; and the illustration evidently
renders it plain that by "bringing down the high
8
114 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
✓
tree" is meant the humiliation of intellectual pride, and
so on.
For the same reason groves of trees were used as spots
suitable for worship. For as a mountain signified the
highest principle of good in worship, so a grove of trees
signified the spiritual things of truth; and true worship
was offered in mountains and groves,--as we read of Abraham
that he "betook himself to a mountain on the east of
Bethel . . . and there he built an altar unto the Lord,
and called upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. xii. 8). And
again, "Abraham planted a grove (or tree), in Beersheba,
and called there on the name of the Lord" (Gen. xxi. 33).
Such worship in groves was, however, afterwards forbidden,
-because, in later times, the corrupt Israelites imitated the
idolatrous nations around them, who only possessed the
symbols in a perverted form, and made high places (instead
of worshipping on mountains) and graven groves,
"under
every leafy tree" (Judges iii. 7; 1 Kings xiv. 15, 23, &c.).
That such was the case we are expressly told, 2 Kings
xxi. 7, " (Manasseh) set a graven image of the grove that he
had made" in the Lord's House. Again, "neither shall
he respect what his fingers have made, either the groves,
or thy solar statues" (Isa. xvii. 7, 8).
Such graven groves (or trees) are commonly noticeable
on Assyrian sculptures; from which it is evident that
these, and a multitude of other heathen idols, were but
perversions of the natural symbols, the true correspondences
of which had once been known, but had become lost; and
thus the external came to be worshipped instead of the
internal;-i.e. Nature instead of God,-the letter, as it were,
instead of the spirit. But when the groves were not
graven, but natural, as at the beginning, they signified
ascriptions of worship made in them according to the
trees which composed them. Thus Olives (as also oil)
signified the highest Good-Vines (as also wine) the
highest Truth-hence they are usually coupled together;
I Our Lord called Himself the true Vine because He was the Truth
(or the Word), made flesh.
1
SIGNIFICANCE OF BIRDS.
115
while Fig trees (and figs) represented natural good. (See
Gen. iii. 7, explained in Chap. vii.)
Of other trees, Cedar represented the higher Truth, for
internal purification,-and hence is antithetic to Hyssop,
or the lower Truth, for external purification (Numb. xix.
6; see also ver. 18 and Psa. li. 9). Hence also of Solomon
it is said that "he spake also of trees, from the cedar tree
that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out
of the wall" (1 Kings iv. 33). Similarly, Oaks signified
external, or mere natural perception; and hence Abram,
on his first arrival in Canaan--that is, on his first entrance
into the Church of the Lord-came "unto the oak (or
oak-grove) of Moreh" (Gen. xii. 6; see Revised Version),-
thus receiving his first and earliest perceptions of the
knowledge of God in an external manner. That this is
the meaning of Oaks, a reference to their employment by
the Prophets confirms. "They who forsake Jehovah shall
be consumed, because they shall be ashamed of the oaks
which ye have desired. And ye shall be as an oak
casting off its leaves, and as a garden which hath no
water” (Isa. i. 29, 30)—i.e. as a mind without knowledge.
So also with other trees, but these illustrations must
suffice.
"Fowl let fly in the
They therefore were
Again, let us glance at Birds.
expanse of Heaven" (Gen. i. 20).
significant of something connected with the internal man,
and they represent the rational and intellectual truths,
and perceptions of such truth, and the soaring freedom
and aspiring nature of such perceptions. Thus when
Jeremiah laments the degradation of the Jewish Church,
after proclaiming the earth as once more without form and
void, he exclaims, "I beheld . . . and all the birds of the
heaven were fled" (iv. 25). And Hosea, as the messenger
of the Lord, declares (ii. 18), "And in that day will I
make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and
with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things
of the ground." Does any one imagine that such a cove-
116 PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
nant was to be literally made with such animals? and can
any one fail to perceive that they are used as representa-
tives or correspondents of such qualities in man as we
have described?
Trees signifying in the highest sense the spiritual
perceptions of internal truth, they represented therefore
the mental perceptions of the spiritual man,—and thus
the man himself; and the birds which made their nests in
the branches signified the rational and intellectual truths
with which he is furnished. Thus also in Psa. civ. 16, 17,
the trees of the Lord, and the cedars of Lebanon, signify
men spiritually endowed in the higher degrees, and the
birds which make their nests in them are the truths with
which they are stored. See also Ezekiel xvii. 23, and
Daniel iv. 12, where the tree is spoken of as a shelter for
the beasts of the field (good affections), and for the fowls of
the air (rational and intellectual truths).
"The moving creature that hath life, which the waters.
brought forth abundantly," were of course fishes, and the
great sea-monsters (hattanninim')-not whales, but trans-
lated in other parts of Scripture "dragons." These all
signified living principles of various kinds, advancing
ideas, and moving thoughts and affections in the external
man. For they were inhabitants of the waters, which we
have already spoken of as signifying the knowledge of
truth, whose home was in the intellect. These waters,
however, now in their collected form of seas, and beneath
the firmament of Heaven, be it observed, represented the
body of knowledge of a moral kind accumulated in the
memory of the external man. And it is called seas, not
only as an accumulation of waters, but because of the
conflict which is ever liable to arise from such accumula-
tion, and which occasionally disturbs the otherwise placid
surface of the mind, as waves disturb the surface of the
sea.
The moving principles therefore in these seas are
correspondent to fishes and monsters of the deep, the
MEANING OF BEASTS AND CATTLE.
117
more vitalized and the more important the more they
are recognized as coming from the Source of Life. And
by this means we come to understand the words of the
Psalmist (Psa. cxlviii. 7-10), "Praise Jehovah from
the earth, ye dragons and all deeps, beasts and cattle,
creeping things and flying fowl." Not that the
Psalmist calls upon the unreasoning animals to praise
the Lord, but upon those principles and affections
of man, whose development is here described under
those symbols.
Finally, with regard to Beasts and Cattle. As we might
naturally suppose from their appearing on the last day,
and the same day as the perfected man, they signify
higher qualities than those we have hitherto referred to.
They symbolize indeed the various affections of spiritual
goodness in their degree. Our lowest affections corre-
spond with the "creeping things of the ground," while
those of the higher nature are represented by the stately
"cattle of the plain," and "beasts of the earth." For as
animals may be arranged in two classes-the docile and
harmless, and those which are fierce and hurtful; so are
our affections of two kinds-those which are of a gentle
and useful character, and those which, although necessary
as parts of our complete human nature, are yet liable,
if unchecked, to obtain a mastery over us, and, like the
fierce beasts of the earth, must therefore be kept in
subjection. Such affections, repressed and kept in their
proper place, are useful, and play a definite rôle in the
aggregate of the faculties; but otherwise, like fire, they
prove violent masters, and, if permitted, would overpower
the better affections, and hold a tyrannous sway over
them. The passages already quoted from Hosea ii. 18,
and Psa. cxlviii. 2-10, prove the signification of such
animals when used in Scripture, and their representative
meaning is confirmed by other passages. And this is
indeed the reason why wild beast, cattle and bird, as well
as man, all enter into the formation of the composite
?
118
PROOFS OF THE FOREGOING POSITIONS.
66
living creatures" which were about the throne in the
Old Testament (Ezek. i.), and in the New (Rev. iv).¹
It was also on account of the characteristic correspon-
dences of the former of these classes that such animals
were used in sacrifices, thereby representing the offering
up or sanctification of the good affections to which they
corresponded. And it is not improbable-nay, it is evi-
dently the fact that the same circumstance was the
efficient cause of the animal-worship which has so largely
prevailed among the most widely separated nations, and
for so long a period of time. Were it not that we are
desirous to confine the present work to the illustration of
the Scriptures and their connexion with their Author, we
should like to have dwelt upon these subjects; but we
must defer what we have written on them to a future
opportunity.
The full elucidation of these latter (organic) symbols
will be found in their place in the next chapter on
Genesis i.-but they have been anticipated here in
order to afford greater confidence to the reader who is
about to follow us to the test of the Bible itself, in the
elucidation, verse by verse, of the first three chapters of
Genesis.
Space forbids us to pursue the subject further, and we
shall therefore proceed to the more systematic vindication.
of the Scriptures, in proof of the truth of the propositions.
we have submitted. But we must premise, however, that
the study of these analogies and correspondences, followed
to its legitimate conclusion, not only pours a flood of light
upon these writings, but also leads to considerations of the
highest importance, which throw more or less illustration
upon problems of the utmost interest to the biologist, the
physicist, and the ethnologist. The true conception of
These mysterious forms, which have given rise to so much dis-
cussion and controversy, are perfectly explicable on the principles
here laid down; but, as they do not come strictly within the scope of
our subject, we cannot here dwell upon them.
J
CORRESPONDENCE A MASTER-KEY.
119
the nature of the correspondence between the spiritual
and the natural, when once fully grasped, will be found to
be a master-key which unlocks not a few of the most secret
mysteries of Nature-mysteries which have heretofore
been deemed beyond the reach of scientific induction.
་

:
"There does not appear the least intimation in Scripture or tradition, that
Religion was first reasoned out but the whole of History and Tradition makes
for the other side, that it came into the world by Revelation. Indeed, the
state of Religion in the first ages of which we have any account, seems to
suppose and imply that this was the original of it amongst mankind.
•
""
BUTLER'S Analogy (Part ii., chap. ii.).
"The moral progress of the religion of the Bible, and the scientific tendency
of the Bible taken together, indicate a great historical process of revelation.
There seems to be a historical development of something which is not given
by history itself. Within the natural, there are signs of a supernatural evolution.
A divine life is in the world, working through history, and in a special and
unique manner in Israel, for far-off ends. We have seen thus far, the signs of
its workings; we have still to behold this divine power in its perfect historical
manifestation, and to follow this supernatural evolution to its last and highest
consummation."
NEWMAN SMYTH, Old Faiths in New Light, p. 184 (Scribner).

CHAPTER V.
Tou||||||
THE PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I:-I. THe rise.
T
HE Arguments and illustrations already laid before
the Reader give strong confirmation of our position,
which is, that the Bible is a communication made
to man from an All-wise Being, written—that is, reduced
to a material form-upon an immutable system of material
symbols which accurately and in every particular correspond
with the spiritual meanings intended to be conveyed.
Enough has been said to place the subject on such a
footing that no one can henceforth pretend to treat it
with contempt or neglect, nor can any one who professes
to use the weapons of criticism or Science against the
Bible, henceforth pass it by in silence without incurring a
charge of prejudice and disingenuousness.
We propose now still further to push the proof, even to
demonstration, of the absolute truth of that position, by a
close and searching examination of a connected portion of
the Scriptures, and that without doubt the most generally
interesting portion; since it will be found not only to
illustrate our subject, but also to throw most important
light upon some of those topics on which the opponents of
the Bible chiefly depend. For the portion we propose to
examine by the aid of the key which we have indicated, is
the early part of Genesis, which contains what purports
to be an account of the visible world and its inhabitants,
and of the primæval history of the human race.
124
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
We are all well aware what is the external or apparent
signification of these first three chapters of Genesis, and
it is on the strength of that external or superficial meaning
that they are rejected by the man of science and the
advanced critic. Let us endeavour to point out what
further signification they are intended to convey.
As the natural, apparent, or literal reading evidently
applies to the beginning of the natural and external
Creation, and to the development of the natural and visible
world,—so does the correspondent primary and internal
meaning refer also to a beginning, but of another kind;—
of something, that is, which must be related to the
natural world purely through the channel of correspon-
dence, or exact mutual relation or Analogy. But we have.
seen that natural things in general correspond to spiritual.
The first chapter of Genesis, therefore, must enshrine,
veiled under the correspondence of natural truths, a precise
reference to matters having a purely spiritual signification.
And as the outward and natural expressions describe the
progress of organic life on the Earth through all its stages
in an orderly manner, until Man appeared upon the scene
complete in the image of his Maker;-so must the
correspondent spiritual meaning have reference to the
gradual progress, which must have been no less of the
nature of a development, of that spiritual Life of man
which is correspondent to the natural truths.
That these things are so we shall now proceed con-
clusively to exhibit, always having regard to the perfect
consistency which we claim for the method of Scripture
interpretation which we shall adopt. And we shall make
each successive verse of these three most interesting
chapters the subject of a special examination, in as brief a
manner as is consistent with clearness, and with the
object we profess to have in view. Every article of inter-
pretation will, moreover, be compared with collateral
passages from other parts of Scripture, certain passages
being preferred to others for this purpose, not because
1
CREATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.
125
they are those only which tell for a preconceived theory,
but simply because they are most genuinely illustrative,
and will be most readily understood by a student who
approaches the subject for the first time. For we have
already remarked, and we confidently reiterate it, that
the closest examination of the Scripture writings will only
result in demonstrating their unity and consistency, and
such close study we invite and plead for without any fear
of refutation. In this manner we believe it will be made
clear to any unprejudiced mind that the principle of inter-
pretation is no arbitrary one, but rather of the nature of a
master-key which opens the most widely-separated Books
of the Bible with equal facility and certainty.
The first chapter, then, commences with these words:
"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the
Earth." It may be remarked in passing that the real
opening of the chapter, and the grand exordium of the
whole Bible, lies in the first four words, which indicate at
once the limits of Revelation on the one hand, and of
scientific and rational induction on the other. They are
these: "In the beginning, God." Beyond this, Revelation
does not inform us, and further than this no finite Reason
can ever penetrate. The natural meaning of the verse is
obvious, and will be accepted by every one who admits in
any form the existence of God. But no less plain is the
correspondent spiritual meaning. For what is meant by
Heaven in the Scriptures but the Kingdom of God? And
our Lord declares to us, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is
within you"-èvтòs vµŵv-(Luke xvii. 21). It is there-
fore, as indeed we might have judged by analogy, corre-
spondent to the internal nature of man; and everywhere in
Scripture it bears that meaning. Whereas, Earth-the
antithesis of Heaven-corresponds to man's external nature.
For every man possesses an internal and an external nature,
-the one complementary to the other, and both equally
essential to the perfection of his being, as a Man. It
cannot be imagined that the prophet Jeremiah was alluding
126 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
to the physical creation of the external world when he
exclaimed, "I beheld the Earth, and it was without form
and void; and the Heavens, and they had no light"
(Jer. iv. 23). And yet he uses the identical words em-
ployed in the second verse of Genesis i. But he uses the
same language of correspondence to express the same
spiritual idea; and under the natural symbol of a formless.
and void earth and dark heavens, he evidently refers to
the ruined condition of the Jewish Church of his day,-
both as to its external and its internal quality.
Now this internal nature and life of a man, called
Heaven, is that which has relation to unseen and spiritual
things, that is, the Soul: while his external nature and
life, called Earth, have reference to material or mundane
things. The Heaven and Earth, therefore, can only refer,
correspondentially, to that internal and external nature,
which together constitute the whole Man.
Hence the Prophet Isaiah commences his prophecy with
these remarkable words, " Hear, O Heavens, and give ear
O Earth!" (Isa. i. 2). But the Prophet was not really
addressing the whole visible Universe of Nature, but Man,
whose whole being was thus summed up and symbolized.
(See also xiii. 12, 13; xlix. 13; Deut. xxxii. 1, &c.) And
again in Isa. li. 13-16, we find this most illustrative
passage, "And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath
stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the
Earth... I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have
covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may
plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and
say unto Zion, Thou art my people." This fundamental
truth or principle will hereafter be much insisted upon, and
might be much more largely illustrated from the Scriptures.
Now it is evident that before the Soul (or Heaven) could
advance to any perception or consciousness of its own
existence, or its destiny, the external nature (Earth) must
rise above the level of brute nature. But in the second
verse we are told that "the Earth was without form, and
DARKNESS ON THE FACE OF THE DEEP.
127
void" (or wasteness and voidness): that is, that the
external nature was as yet unpossessed (dispossessed, in
Jeremiah's words) of that orderly arrangement of faculties
which, in a later stage, characterized it,—and was empty
of all those graces and excellences which were afterwards
to distinguish it. The external nature of man was, in fact,
as yet like empty and barren earth,-a condition which
receives further illustration in that it is later on (Gen. i.
25, and ii. 6) called ground, as having then become fit for
the planting of good seed.
"And darkness was upon the face of the deep." The
word deep here signifies an abyss, such as the mind of man
was immersed in at a time when he was without any
knowledge of good or truth;-without spiritual life, and
therefore dark, since no light had as yet shined into his
soul. "So He led them through the depths, as through
the wilderness" (Psa. cvi. 9). And when Ezekiel is
describing the desolation and corruption of the Jewish
Church, reversing the process, he says (xxvi. 19-21),
"Thus saith the Lord God, When I shall make thee
a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited;
when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great
waters shall cover thee . I will make thee a terror,
and thou shalt be no more."
In this early condition of humanity, our race might be
compared to an infant, in whom indeed Heaven (or the
Soul) already exists, but in a rudimentary condition. The
infant is merely corporeal,-unconscious of its endowment,
and even of its faculties; and unable to advance its own
life, until those faculties have been not only first awakened,
but also so arranged and educated by progressive in-
telligence as to afford a leverage, as it were, for the soul's
growth. This state, indeed, as here exhibited, presented.
a virgin page, as to spiritual things, upon which, in the
succeeding verses, is described the gradual unfolding (or
development) of capabilities which were destined to cul-
minate in the work of the sixth day.
128
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS 1.
For in the primal state of man's nature, the Heaven,
(or internal man) indeed existed, but merely existed-
as a germ, rudimentary, dormant, and without any
perception which should yet indicate its existence. It
existed truly,-but as in a man in whom the SECOND birth
has not yet begun; and it was, therefore, as yet destitute
of spiritual knowledge. He was indeed capable of
acquiring knowledge by observation and instruction (as
an infant is), but such knowledge was as yet ungained,
-for darkness was on the faces of the deep.
We may diverge here for a moment from the strict
purpose of this Chapter to point out some most important
views which this mode of regarding the text suggests as
to the rise of our race when thus endowed (with soul).
There is every reason to believe, both on physiological
grounds, and in accordance with the Record, that the first
rudimentary forms of Life on the earth were coincident
with the first faint ray of Light, which indeed only then
rendered them possible; and that successively higher
forms of Organization resulted from gradually advancing
powers of reception of higher degrees of Life. These were,
however, only degrees of animal life,-and the forms
investing them were purely animal forms. But these
animal forms all pointed towards a higher form, which
should also result from a yet higher degree of Life,—this
higher form being the Divine form, and the higher Life
from which it should result being the Divine, or Spiritual,
Life. When therefore organization, by a slow develop-
ment, had reached that point that it was at the apex, as it
were, of the purely animal kingdom, it required only the
rudiment of the spiritual Life to effect that transition in
organization which should result in the Divine form.
But since the outward material conditions remained un-
changed, the animal life, still in rapport with the external
world, was not abolished, but instead thereof, further
developed ;-while the spiritual life, in the form of the
rudimentary soul, would tend more rapidly to develop the
RUDIMENTARY SPIRITUAL LIFE.
129
organization from the merely animal to the human. And
as human faculties gained strength and development, in
the same proportion the purely animal instincts and
characteristics (that is to say, those instincts which now
specially characterize the animal races, and distinguish
them from Man) would decline and fade away.
This process was doubtless a slow one; but the soul, or
faculty for a higher life, must have commenced in a no
less rudimentary form than the commencing rudimentary
animal life of the primary organism. The Law of Con-
tinuity demands this-for this Law, as we understand it,
would have the effect of precluding, first, any suddenly-
reached perfection; and, second, a sudden change of any
kind that had not previously been prepared for,—it may
be by processes whose action was silent and invisible until
in due time their results demonstrated their previous
working. And not only the Law of Continuity, but also
Analogy, which, alone, would not, perhaps, be a safe
guide, concurs; while the statement of the Bible that
the Earth (or external Man) was at first "wasteness and.
voidness," proves that the internal man, or soul, was at
that period, although existent, nevertheless in so primitive
(or rudimentary) a condition that as yet it had no appre-
ciable influence upon the faculties of the external man.
The possession, however, of even the rudiment of a soul,
will have raised the recipient to a higher pinnacle or
plane of Life than the mere animal; and the new Life
being spiritual in its essence must have placed its
possessor in rapport with its Creator of a much closer
kind than its mere animal life could ever have done,-in
fact in spiritual rapport. It follows then, that just as being
before a form of Order, the Divine could flow into him
by a natural or mediate correspondence, so now, being
possessed of soul, albeit but in a rudimentary. condition,
the Divine could henceforth flow into him by an imme-
diate (and ever increasing) spiritual activity or operation.
And thus, by this spiritual operation, Good and Truth (of
9
130
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I
which indeed all spiritual Life consists) could flow into
the rudimentary soul, nourish it, and remain hidden there-
in until drawn out afterwards by the advancing progression
of the spiritual part and its high faculties-in other words,
when Light sprung up.
Now spiritual knowledge, such as this primary inflow
really represented, is always spoken of in Scripture as
water of some kind, to which it corresponds. Thus in
John iv. 10-14 we read that Jesus answered the woman of
Samaria saying, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and
who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee
living water." (See also Jer. ii. 13.) It was these waters,
thus derived, upon whose face the Spirit of God is said to
have moved at this early stage of human development.
And the word moved (Heb: m'rahkhe'pheth) signifies.
hovered, or incubated, (cf. Matt. xxiii. 37),-as though for
the purpose of bringing forth something from them in
due time, when circumstances should so permit of their
development, as to vivify them, and to make them pro-
ductive, so that they might be converted into the earliest.
germ of spiritual Life. The waters are indeed the cradle
of Life, and the first organisms were those formed in them
by the inflow of spiritual activities, through correspon-
dence and thus was now repeated, on a higher plane, that
process of vivification which had been first used by the
Creator to people the earth with Life.
:
But these were so far but initiatory stages of the soul,
just as they are represented by initiatory stages of prepara-
tion for the earthly Life that was to be. We now come
to the real work of progress, as set forth in the six days of
creation. Of the true meaning of this word "day" we
have already spoken-but at this point let it be remem-
bered that the favourable conditions for the development
of Life in these waters began to arise with the first great
change in this primordial state of things, when God said,
"Let there be Light." The meaning of this is tolerably
THE CREATIVE “WORD.”
131
obvious; but there are yet points in connexion with it
which deserve especial attention.
It will be remarked that each of these creative pro-
cesses is prefaced by the words "God said; " and this
well illustrates the consistency and deep meaning of the
sacred writings, if we compare this expression with the
opening verses of the Gospel by St. John, wherein the
Word is described as the Creator of all things; and then
this remarkable verse follows (John i. 4), “In Him (the
Word) was Life, and the Life was the Light of men."
So this beginning of conscious Life of the higher kind in
man, sprang from the Light of the creative Word. And so,
also, in the natural correspondent, the first dawnings of
terrestrial Life (in the waters, over which brooded the
Divine influence) were, there is every reason to believe,
coincident with that epoch when the first struggling
beams of dawning Light penetrated to the earth's surface,
and rendered life and organization alike, and (except for
the conditions of prior and posterior) simultaneously
possible in their primary forms. To the subject of this
operative power of the Word, or Divine Truth, we shall
have again to recur.
But the phrase, "Let there be Light," in its higher
meaning expressed, not only let some illumination be
shed upon this darkness (or ignorance), which so over-
shadows all the yet only rudimentary interior life as to
prevent any perception of the good and the true,-this
abyss possessing as yet neither good nor truth (the deep);
-but also something more. For it is further said that
God therewith divided the Light from the Darkness.
This natural result points to the correspondent fact that
the inflow of Light brought with it perception. What the
man in his mere ignorance possessed of mind,-which
(C
'For
1 The Apostle well illustrates this passage in 2 Cor. iv. 6 :
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God."
"Thy Word is Truth "—and Truth is Divine or Spiritual Light.
2 (6
F
132
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I
must have been at least as much as previous (or lower)
animals possessed,-was mere darkness; and its very
darkness was illustrated by the first influx of Divine
Light,―for that Light illustrated its own higher qualities
as coming from above. Hence it from that time distin-
guished the day (or Heaven-derived illumination) from the
night (or earth-derived knowledge). For day is the time
of Light, and Light is correspondent with Truth,—while
night is the bygone period of darkness, and its correspon-
dent, Ignorance. And when a man walks in the light of
spiritual intelligence, he walks in the day; but if in his
own earthly self-derived light, he walks in the night.
Thus our Lord says, "I am the Light of the world; he
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the Light of Life" (John viii. 12).
We need not repeat here what has already been said
with respect to the meaning of the word "day" in
Chapter III., beyond reminding the reader that we
explained it as a term which equally embraced its
external signification of a stage of terrestrial progress,
and its internal meaning of a state of spiritual advance.
Also the connective "expression," which has given rise.
to such volumes of controversy-" the evening and the
morning were the first day," &c., has been fully eluci-
dated, and shown to signify the advance from a state of
comparative (spiritual) obscurity to a higher state of
comparative (spiritual) illumination, each successive
evening being less obscure, and each successive day
more bright, until at length the full illumination of the
sixth day was arrived at, when the soul emerged equipped
and furnished, "in the image of God."
No better illustration could possibly be afforded of the
principle laid down in Chapter I. that in these writings
verbal literalness is in every case made subordinate to the
hidden lesson veiled beneath the natural writing; and
thus is a mythical cast given to that which, when
disentangled from it, shines out as natural Truth.
ད
133
THE SOUL's recognNITION OF ITSELF.
But when, it may now be asked,-since the Heaven of
a man's nature already exists, and some illumination is
now given,-when does this Heaven begin to assert
itself? When did the internal nature of man first begin
to become conscious of its own existence? When did man
begin to recognize that he had something within him of a
higher nature than he had previously conceived? The
Record, as might be expected, supplies the answer to this
question, and this brings us to the work of the second day.
And this is the Record: " And God said,-Let there be
a firmament (or expanse) in the midst of the waters, and
let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made
the firmament (or expanse), and divided the waters which
were under the expanse from the waters which were
above the expanse " (vers. 6, 7). The waters beneath the
expanse signified of course (as before) knowledge of some
kind, and in this case that body of knowledge which man
had gained concerning natural things, or those which refer
to the earth and time, gathered by the external man ;-
while the waters above consisted of the collection of
spiritual knowledge, accumulated in the soul by the
internal man. Both these classes of knowledge had been
progressing, but now is first made the distinction
between the two; for now, for the first time, are they
discriminated by means of an endowment which affords
a recognition of the higher powers of the soul. This
endowment is the expanse, which God called Heaven-
that Heaven, indeed, which existed at the first day,-but
is now first recognizable as such by man, owing to the
advancing orderly arrangement of the knowledge acquired
by, and springing out of that first illumination of the dark-
ness which had once been upon the face of the deep. When
the Psalmist exclaims, "Praise Him, ye heaven of
heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens" (Psa.
cxlviii. 4), he is not invoking the senseless cloudy
reservoirs; but under the names of sun, moon, stars,
waters above the heavens, &c., he is calling upon the
134
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
love, faith, intelligence, and knowledge in man to unite in
praises to the Lord,-under the same natural symbols as
those used in the first chapter of Genesis.
Thus man, at this stage, discovered that he was
possessed of an internal Life (or internal man) which
must be nourished by suitable food,— not bodily or
natural food, but spiritual food, even Good and Truth
from above.
The next state of spiritual advancement, typified by a
stage of physical development, is expressed in vers. 9, 10,
which read thus: "Let the waters under the heaven be
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land
appear. And God called the dry land Earth, and the
gathering together of the waters called He Seas." Both
the seas and the earth, it will be remembered, are beneath
the firmament of Heaven, and therefore belong to the
external man. In the preceding state was gained by man
the first recognition of his internal nature, from and
through which, as from within to without, God was really
working in him. A faculty was thereby opened,—the
spiritual faculty,-through which flow into a man the
Good and Truth which come from above. But Man
does not yet recognize the source of this knowledge,
which is therefore stored up in the external memory,
while the real external nature is recognized as unpro-
ductive and barren-dry land, or Earth. The body of
knowledge of a moral and religious kind thus accumu-
lating in the memory of the external man is called seas,
—spiritual knowledge being, as before mentioned, spoken
of as waters. And it is called a sea, not only, as previ-
ously observed, because it is an accumulation of waters,
but because of the conflict which is liable to arise from
such accumulation, and which occasionally disturbs the
otherwise placid surface of the mind, as waves disturb
I
I
It will always aid the comprehension of this gradual development
of the higher faculties of our race, to apply the process to the
individual.
GRASS, SEED, AND FRUIT.
135
the surface of the sea. Meantime the external nature
itself, or earth, is recognized as barren and dry, for the
reason just suggested. But it may be observed that this
is necessarily the succeeding stage to the last, for the last
was the recognition in himself by man of an internal nature,
and it was the cultivation of this nature (necessarily
from within) which resulted in the due appreciation of the
inferior character of his external_nature.
Moreover we see here how deeply the analogies are
carried. We have already pointed out that the waters
were the nursery of organic Life,—that the first organisms
appeared therein, when Light struggled through sufficient
to impart the rudiments of organic form; and now we
perceive that, in the development of that microcosm, the
human soul, it was in the seas that the first vivification of
the higher life commenced-while as yet the land was still
dry and barren.
But the same day's work clothed this dry land with
verdure ;—for it was no less necessary that the land, or
external nature, should be cultivated, than the internal;
only the internal, or spiritual nature, necessarily takes
precedence of the external, or merely intellectual nature.
The "green herbage of grass," the "seeding seed," and
the "fruit-tree making fruit," have to be in turn inseminated.
into the good ground. The intellectual nature must be
utilized as soon as possible, and be made to produce those
results for which it is fitted, in an orderly manner, and to
fulfil that end which the Eternal God requires of every
person as well as of every thing, viz., use. But by the
Law alike of Development and of Continuity, this must
be performed gradually, and from less to greater, in an
ascending series. Consequently a beginning is made by
the tender herbage of grass (Heb. root-to sprout forth),
of slight and limited use; but yet which leads to other
uses of a more vigorous nature,-the "seeding seed,"
whose seed is in itself. Here is a great advance,—for
sced is capable of indefinite reproduction. But this is not
136
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
all, for the fruit-tree yielding fruit in time succeeds,-
plainly speaking of successively and accumulatively pro-
gressive powers of insemination and production exhibited
by the ever-developing moral and intellectual nature, but
which yet only shows forth possibilities of the fifth and
sixth days. Our Lord Himself more than once (Matt.
xiii. 37; Mark iv. 31) makes use of the figure of a
germinating seed as illustrative of development in the
soul; and we would here draw attention to the marked
insistence (in the secondary or scientific sense) of the
expression the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself; because it appears to counte-
nance development by the reiterated assurance that every
precaution and provision had been made in the All-wise
Providence of God that not only the Good and Truth in
the mind, but also their analogues, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit-tree yielding fruit on the earth, could never
be permitted to die out by failure of succession, but, on the
contrary, should be always developing to higher results
and ends—as a necessity of the virtue originally implanted
in them by their Maker.
Again, as after each day's work there has been a progress
from a state of comparative obscurity to a state of com-
parative light,—-an advance has been made from the shades
of evening to the brightness of morning. "And there was
evening and there was morning, day (stage) third."
The fourth stage of spiritual development corresponding
to the appearance of the Sun, moon, and stars, is one
which perhaps requires less explanation than some of the
preceding, because it commends itself to the judgment as
comparatively simple and obvious. If there be any truth
in Correspondence at all, there is one correspondence which
above all others is at once grand and comprehensive, and
yet plain and intelligible. It is this, viz., that as God
Himself is the Source of all the Goodness and Truth
which exist in, and in a sense constitute, the Universe,-
so the Love and the Wisdom, of which these are respect-
1
THE LIGHTS OF LOVE AND FAITH.
137
ively the expression, are the grand and all-embracing
qualities of Him who has founded and sustains that
Universe. But Love is eternally associated in our minds
with warmth and heat, while wisdom is equally immutably
associated with brightness and light ;—that is, material heat
and material light are the true correspondents of the two
great fundamental qualities of the Divine. As the world
of Spirit is governed by One whose attributes are com-
prehended in the great spiritual and eternal qualities of
Love and Wisdom, so is the material world presided over
by a material Power, whose primary influences are em-
bodied in Heat and Light. Hence the Sun is the natural
sign and symbol of Divinity, the absolute representative
of, or correspondent to God. For without the Sun, this
world could not exist. Withdraw its heat and light, and
all the recesses of our system would be cold, and darkness,
and death. And so, in like manner, without the Love and
Wisdom of Him who is the Sun of Heaven, all spiritual
Life would be reduced to a similar condition, and annihi-
lation would be the lot of all.
The first dim light which penetrated the cloudy veil of
earth was sufficient to permit of that faint illumination
which was absolutely necessary for the primary awakening
of our spiritual and moral faculties. But it was only now,
that the source of this Light could be recognized,—that
the awakened soul which was filled with the accumulations
of knowledge (referred to under the name of seas), and the
intellectual sense, primarily bare and void, had been
instilled with an orderly development of results and uses;
-like a barren land clothed with a fruitful vegetation.
It was only now that the spiritual and mental powers had
become sufficiently developed to be capable of taking to
themselves that real internal principle of Divine Love
which had been leading them tenderly, but as yet invisibly.
And so also, the moon,-a complementary luminary,-
evidently corresponds to Faith (or truth derived from love),
just as the light of the moon is directly reflected from the
138
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS 1.
Sun, but without its heat. Hence these two luminaries
are said to have been set in the firmament of Heaven (or
the internal man); and their object was to rule, the one
the day, and the other the night ;—the Sun, or Love (that
is) to rule when a state of clear illumination existed,-and
the moon (or Faith) when that illumination was obscured;
as it is said, "For we walk by faith, not by sight
(2 Cor. v. 7).
It was these two great Lights which were appointed to
divide the day from the night,-to distinguish between
states of illumination, and states of comparative obscurity;
and also to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and
for years. In other words, to be the sources of all those
infinite varieties and mutations of spiritual condition
which give a zest to our spiritual progress, such as all
who have happily awakened to the knowledge and develop-
ment of these faculties, recognize and appreciate.¹
"The stars also." This brief passage comprehends all
the Universe not included in sun, moon, and earth: and
prove, if anything could prove, that only such things are
treated of in the Scripture as really concern man, primarily
¹ It may be remarked in this place that the difficulties which some
have raised, even with the best intentions, with respect to the presence
of Light on the globe before the unveiling of the Sun, appear to be
easily explicable, both on natural principles, and on those of spiritual
Analogy. According to the theory of the primitive condition of the
Earth most generally accepted, the Sun must have been a luminous
body, although not, perhaps, so perfect in its development as now,-
while the Earth was undergoing condensation and radiation;—and
therefore there can be no question of the existence of the light-giving
globe even at the time that "darkness was upon the face of the Earth"
-that darkness having been solely due to the inability of the solar
rays to penetrate through the thick vaporous envelope which en-
shrouded the nascent globe.
So also, spiritually, although the state of man which corresponds
to it was without form, and void, and dark;-yet the Sun of Heaven
no less existed, and by degrees made its presence perceptible upon
the hitherto unenlightened soul. The parallelism is as complete as it
is beautiful. The spiritual processes are truly correspondent to the
material.
“THE END OF THE WORLD” EXPLAINED. 139
But
in a spiritual sense, and only secondarily in a scientific.
(or temporal) sense. The mediæval astrologer would find
little consolation or encouragement in this passage.
the stars, here, as elsewhere (being light without heat),
mean some kind of intelligence,-or rather intelligences (to
pluralize the word), as diverse and as numerous as they
are themselves—of changing aspect and hue,-of varying
clearness and brilliancy;—all those intelligences, in fact,
such as a development which had reached this fourth
stage could be conceived capable of accumulating. And
here occurs another of those delicate agreements such as
we have before had occasion to refer to. The dissipation
of the clouds which would be sufficient to render visible
the sun and moon, might yet leave sufficient of their veil
to obscure the stars; and hence we find their appearance
distinctly announced after that of the sun and moon, and
in what might be legitimately imagined to be a later
epoch,—just as we might suppose these varied phases of
intelligence to have rapidly increased in diversity and in
strength, after the direct and immediate reception of the
interior lights of Love and Faith, freed from the inter-
vention of obscuring clouds.
A passage in St. Matthew which has given rise to great
discussion is rendered clear by this elucidation. Christ
is prophesying the "end of the world "—which simply
signifies the consummation of the age as a Church or dis-
pensation; and He says, "The sun shall be darkened and
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken" (Matt. xxiv. 29). The prophets Isaiah (chap.
xiii. 10), Ezekiel (chap. xxxii. 7), Joel, and Amos, in more
than one place, all use the same expressions, and they are
also found in Rev. vi. 12. Some of their prophecies were
fulfilled at the coming of Christ, without, however, the
occurrence of that physical disturbance and ruin foretold
by the prophets. The reason of which evidently is, that
they were not meant to be literal or scientific teachings,
140 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
but they refer in these passages, as elsewhere, to spiritual
facts under material correspondent symbols; and their
interpretation is, that, in the generation spoken of, there
should be an eclipse almost to extinction of heavenly Love
(the sun darkened), a withdrawal of the Light of heavenly
Truth (the moon shall not give her light),-and a gradual
decadence of those heavenly intelligences which marked
the advanced condition of the internal man (the stars
falling from heaven): so that the result would be that the
age (or Church) should undergo such a spiritual cataclysm
as would be equivalent to the powers of the heavens being
shaken.
The fifth stage of spiritual progress now follows, when we
are told-"God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath Life; and fowl let fly upon
the face of the expanse of Heaven." "And God created
the great sea-monsters, and every living thing which
moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after
their kind; and every winged fowl after his kind.” We
see here at once the result of the vivifying power of the
Love and Faith, symbolized by the Sun and Moon, whose
unveiling, as it were, was the work of the previous day.
The waters, gathered together into seas, became animated
with numberless living creatures, which represented living
principles of various kinds. The waters truly existed before,
-next they were collected together-now they are peopled
with a crowd of advancing ideas, and moving thoughts
and affections. For at first the external man was in-
seminated with principles having correspondents in the
vegetable kingdom, of low, unconscious vitality, as it
were, for these principles were believed to be self-derived,
and there was therefore no consciousness of their true
source-since the full rays of the Sun had not yet exhibited
them in their true light. But now, when it is discovered
that they are of heavenly origin, that very knowledge
vivifies them, and makes them productive. And be it
observed, that springing from the waters, all these ideas
THE BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS.
£41
represented truths of religion, whose home was in the
intellect; —for the intellect always acts as the precursor
which gathers knowledge, though that knowledge remains
upon a lower stage or plane, until it is grasped and acted
on by the will, and planted in the heart, when it becomes
internal.
The moving creatures that have life, therefore, which
the waters brought forth abundantly, represent those new
thoughts and ideas, chiefly relating to Truth, which
stirred the external man through the internal;—the more
vitalized, the more they are recognized as coming from
the source of Life. These ideas and principles vary, from
the comparatively simple-described as the moving creature
that hath life-to the more complex, the great "sea-
monsters." And here be it observed, that the word trans-
lated "great whales" does not mean so,-but is usually
in other parts of Scripture translated dragons. And by
this we come to understand the words of the Psalmist
(Psa. cxlviii. 7-10), "Praise Jehovah from the earth, ye
dragons and all deeps, beasts and all cattle, creeping
things and flying fowl." Not that the Psalmist calls upon
the unreasoning animals to praise the Lord,—but upon
those principles and affections of man whose development
we are here describing under these symbols or corre-
spondences.
But winged fowl were not included among those animals
already spoken of, which naturally would be fishes and
reptiles;—for fowl distinctly follow after,-and moreover
have a different sphere: "Fowl let fly above the earth
in the open expanse of heaven." They are therefore more
associated with the internal man. For while the fishes
and reptiles produced by the waters represent the lower
plane of knowledge, birds represent the rational and in-
tellectual perceptions. And they were to fly in the open
expanse of heaven, to signify the soaring freedom of such
rational and intellectual perceptions as were characteristic
of this advanced stage of Man's spiritual development.
142 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
That such is their signification we may gather from
Jeremiah, who laments their degradation, saying, "I
beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of
the heavens were fled" (iv. 25). And Hosea (ii. 18)
exclaims, as the message of the Lord-" And in that day
will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the
field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping
things of the ground." Does any suppose such a covenant
was to be really made with such animals? and can any
one fail to perceive that they are representative of such
qualities as we have here described?
We have now arrived at the last of the Creative Days,
when God said, "Let the Earth bring forth the living
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and
beast of the earth" (ver. 24). The distinction between
this and the fifth day is evidently in the source of its
productions; the fifth day deriving moving things, and
great sea-creatures, from the collection of waters or seas,
-the knowledge stored up from within in the memory of
the external man. Now we find moving creatures, and
cattle, and beasts of the field, springing not from the dry
(or barren) land, but from the cultivated earth, which was
therefore now becoming good ground, having been primarily
furnished with sprouting grass, herb, and fruiting trees.
And here it must be mentioned that the whole faculties of
man may be divided into two great groups,-those con-
stituting the will, and belonging to Love or Goodness
(springing as it were from the Heart)-and those con-
stituting the understanding, and belonging to Wisdom or
Truth (springing as it were from the Head). Every
faculty we possess may be referred to one or other of
these great groups, but of them the Understanding, or
Intellect, is subordinate in importance to the Will or
Affection. They may act separately and antagonistically,
but it is when they are in the most complete accord that
the man becomes perfect; because the Understanding, in
which Truth reigns, is capable of recognizing that Truth
CATTLE, AND BEASTS OF EARTH.
143
as an abstraction, without the co-operation of the Will:
and hence the mere knowledge of Truth is useless, unless it
be also felt and acknowledged in the heart, as the guide
of action.
Now the waters or seas, as follows from what we have
said, are really correspondent to the Understanding, as
being collections of various kinds of knowledge,—while
the ground, which we have seen to be gradually insemi-
nated with good things corresponding to the productions
of the vegetable world, represents the Will or Affection.
That Will we have traced from the time that it was
barren and unproductive, till the present stage, when we
find it bringing forth, as it is expressed in verse 24, "creep-
ing things, cattle, and beasts of the earth." By these
living productions are symbolized the various affections of
spiritual goodness in their degree. Our least affections
are vivified, and are represented by the creeping things
of the ground,-while the higher affections in general
correspond to the stately cattle of the plain, and beasts of
the earth. For as animals may be ranged in two classes,
the docile and harmless, and those which under certain
conditions are fierce and hurtful,—so are our affections of
two kinds, those which are necessarily of a gentle and
useful character (the cattle), and others again which,
although necessary as parts of our human nature, are yet
liable to attain a mastery over us, like the fierce beasts of
the earth. Such affections, kept in proper subjection, are
useful, and play a definite rôle in the aggregate of the
faculties; but otherwise, like fire, they are bad masters,
and if permitted, overpower the better affections, and hold
sway over them. The passages already quoted from
Hosea (ii. 18) and Psalms (cxlviii. 2-10), prove the signi-
fication of such animals in the Bible; and it is confirmed
by others; and hence it is that wild-beast, cattle, and
bird, all enter into the formation of the composite living
creatures which were about the throne of Jehovah in the
Old Testament (Ezekiel) and the New (Apocalypse).
144 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
But now comes the crowning act—or rather, now follows
that crowning result which is the outcome of all that has
gone before. For "God said, Let us make Man in our
own image, after our likeness,-and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. So
God created Man in His own image, in the image of God
created He him; male and female created He them "
(vers. 26, 27). This is indeed the result aimed at through-
out, but which could only be achieved by a process of
slow development,-through all the successive circum-
stances of strict continuity. From the period when the
first illumination of light pierced the darkness of the
primitive soul, how great a change has taken place!
not only in the heavenly or internal nature, but in the
great twin faculties of understanding and will. Both have
been furnished with thoughts and affections of a gradually
ascending order, and in a continuous series,-both have
been, step by step, raised above the mere animal plane to
which they were originally most nearly allied, until at
length the time had arrived, when the orderly arrangement
of Man's faculties, both as to his external and internal
being, was complete and perfect, and the Heaven and
Earth of his nature, once dormant, formless, and void,
were alike furnished with every spiritual and moral endow-
ment which constitute and characterize a Man,-both as
to his understanding and intellect (male), and his affections
and will (female). For such a Man the Prophet Jeremiah
looked in vain (and not merely for a specimen of a male
human being), when he exclaims (iv. 25), "I beheld, and
lo, there was no man; "-and again (v. 1), "Run to and
fro, and seek if ye can find a man,"-at an epoch when
the Jewish Church, the last representative of true man-
hood, was perverted and ruined. Such a Man was in the
image of God, a correspondence, that is, of the ideal of
Divine Order, not only as regards physical organization
(which would result in physical or mundane Life)—but also
THE IMAGE OF GOD: MALE AND FEMALE. 145
as regards that spiritual completeness and perfectness,
which result in the fulness of the higher Life of the Soul.
Thus then Man became an image of God,-though not
yet His likeness; for it will be remarked that though it
was said (ver. 26), "Let us make man in Our image, after
Our likeness," the succeeding verse only verifies half
this resolve-"So God made man in His image"
(ver. 27). How this happened will be explained in due
course. Meantime, we will just advert to the fact that
the man thus formed was perfect in his degree as far as
regarded spirituality :-but there is a degree yet beyond
that, to which man may attain, just as the spiritual is a
degree in advance of the natural. But this will appear
more clearly as we proceed to the explanation of the
second chapter of Genesis.
Meantime, this spiritual Man in the image of God was
not single and alone, but "male and female created He
them." In the secondary sense this is but what the
occasion demanded, since they were commanded to be
fruitful and multiply; but the primary sense must mean
something more recondite. It refers indeed to those two
complementary endowments, under which all the faculties
range themselves, the Understanding and the Will. Who
does not recognize that the special characteristic of the
male sex is the Intellect and Understanding,-of the
female, the Affections and Will? These two should be,
in their true and properly-balanced condition, in a state
of accord, and then, and then only, does each fulfil its end.
To the Understanding is given to know, and to the Will to
do. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them "
-though it is, unhappily, possible to know and yet not
to do, when the Understanding and Will are, as they too
often are, at variance. United, they are married and
fructify, apart, they are barren and unfruitful.
But the command was, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it." Let the things
belonging to Good fructify, like the fruiting tree in the
ΙΟ
146 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
good ground: and let the things belonging to Truth
multiply and increase; and thus let the Earth (or
external man) be filled with everything that springs from
Goodness and Truth (or virtue and intelligence)—and let
it be brought into subjection by the higher principles of
the internal man. "And have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
The man is now spiritual, and his spirituality is the state
in which the things of truth,-wisdom, understanding,
and intelligence, are predominant; and through these are
developed the things of good,-affection, virtue, and love.
Hence this domination proceeds in the direction from the
external to the internal man,-from the fish to the bird,—
and from the bird to the beast, in ascending order. And
that this is so is proved by Psalm viii., where David
describing prophetically the Lord, under the figure of the
supra-spiritual or celestial man, refers to the same figure
in the reverse order; because in such a man the domina-
tion alluded to proceeds from internal to external, or to
Faith and Truth from Love and Goodness. "Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hand;
thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and
oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air,
and the fish of the sea; and whatsoever passeth through
the paths of the sea" (Psa. viii. 6-8). And by having
dominion, evidently is signified the power of placing in
their due subordinate position the lower things belonging
to external knowledge or scientific truth (fish of the sea),
or mere intellectual ideas (birds of the air), or appetites
pertaining to the external man (creeping things of the
earth).
But man, having now arrived at such a degree of
spiritual perfection as to be in the image of God, it follows
that he must be kept in it by means correspondent to
those which would be used to keep the body in health;-
and this would be by suitable and wholesome food. And
FOOD OF THE SPIRITUAL MAN.
147
so the soul must be nourished by good and truth, which
constitute the spiritual pabulum necessary for its support
and growth. Hence it is further said, "Behold I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face
of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." It
will be remembered that the living things of the vegetable
world were divided into three categories-the green
sprouting herb,-the herb bearing seed,-and the fruit-
tree yielding fruit. The herb bearing seed has, as before
remarked, reference to the productions of use,-but the
seed is after all but the first stage of the ultimate use itself,
or fruit; the first being more especially predicated of
Truth, the latter (and the highest) of Good, which is at
the summit of all, especially if it be conjoined with Truth.
Similarly, the beast of the earth, the fowl of the air,
and the creeping things of the earth,-which we have
already seen to represent the moral, intellectual, and
natural affections of the man,-are to be nourished by
every green herb,-the general expression for simple truth
and good-which shall hereafter develope to the seeding
seed and the fruiting tree.
We have thus completed the survey of the first chapter
of Genesis, in its primary sense; which is now seen to
give us a sketch of the upward progress of the spiritual,
moral, and intellectual faculties of man, from the time
when they began first to be awakened, to their ultimate
developments in the man, made in the "image of God."
It might at first sight be imagined that the first three
verses of the second chapter had been inadvertently cut
off from the first, as appropriate to the commencement of
a new one. And yet, when it is fully understood what is
the primary meaning of the Record, it will be found that
whoever placed them in their present position exercised.
a sound discretion, and had a full perception of their
meaning. For the first chapter, as we have seen, is a
narrative of the progress of man to a spiritual state, or
148 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
the image of God. It yet remained to advance him to
the likeness of God. In other words, it was necessary that
he should rise to the supreme degree, which represents
the highest. For as there are three heavens,¹ so are there
three degrees of the mind,-the natural, the spiritual, and
the celestial: each degree, as the word implies, being a
step above the last,—not, that is, capable of being, by any
possibility, developed one out of or into the other on the
same plane, but discontinuous, like parallel lines, which
nowhere touch. The germs of these three degrees exist
in the soul of every one of us; but they must be
awakened and brought to life, one after the other in
orderly succession.
The second chapter, then, begins by simply indicating
this third degree, and then, at the fourth verse, com-
mences an orderly description of the stages by which this
degree was reached after the complete development of the
second, or spiritual, degree. Hence it is that the second
chapter bears the aspect of a new creation, and that it has
been imagined to be of the nature of a repetition of the
first,—or a modified story developed from the first under
succeeding influences of race or age. It is really nothing
of the kind;—but the second chapter is an orderly con-
tinuation of the first, written under the form of symbols,
correspondences, or representatives,-but having this
important difference.
The first chapter refers to the development of the
spiritual in man,-the natural and orderly evolution of
the spiritual faculties which arose out of his possession of
soul. That orderly development corresponded to the
orderly development of the Earth and its freight of life,
culminating in the human form, as the image of his
Maker. And therefore that development was recorded
¹ See 2 Cor. xii. 2. It may here be remarked that the original word
used in the first verse of Genesis is not singular, as usually translated,
but plural (hash-shã-ma'-yim),—as is the Heaven of the Lord's Prayer,
as every student of Greek knows (ἐν τοῖς ουρανοῖς).
THE SPIRITUAL AND THE CELESTIAL.
149
under those symbols, and the record went pari passu with
terrestrial development; so that the complete unfolding
of spiritual development corresponded with the orderly
record of natural development. Thus the external (or
scientific) narrative of the Creation became the vehicle of
the internal (or spiritual) history of the human soul.
I
But that with which we have now to do is something
above this and on a higher plane. It has no longer any
correspondent in terrestrial things as a whole, or as a
development, but it is a matter, not of earth at all, but
entirely heavenly in its nature. It could not therefore be
told under the symbols of a natural development, but only
under the form of a mythical or allegorical narrative,
formed of independent and non-consecutive symbols.
The myth takes, indeed, the form of a narrative of the
garden called Eden, with its rivers and trees, and the
formation of man, and of woman from his rib (or bone),
culminating in the perfect celestial condition of innocence
I
¹ Let us make clear, before proceeding further, certain peculiarities
of terminology which we are constrained to use. Man in his earliest
condition is natural, like the beasts, and the process described in the
first of Genesis is that through which, from being natural, he became
spiritual—i.e., the Divine life was instilled into him, and his spiritual
faculties were awakened and developed. This was done up to a
certain point, but not the point of ultimate possibility or perfection.
When a man does that which he knows to be just and right from a
principle of Truth, he does it worthily, and is thereby sanctified. He
has become spiritual, and is in the image of God. But yet there is a
stage beyond. God is not only Truth, but also Love; and Truth
(wisdom) alone operates in the first chapter. A man does right from
a sense of inviolable duty, because he understands that it is right, and
he cannot do otherwise than follow his sense of Truth. But the time
comes when in his further progress he comes to love good and truth
for themselves. He no longer acts from truth alone, or from a sense
of responsibility and duty only, but from an interior principle of Love,
the highest and inmost principle. He would not have it otherwise.
The cross to him is a cross no longer, but a crown. Jehovah, the
Father, who is Love, now works in him--he has attained the highest
point of development, he is in the likeness of God,-he has become
celestial. In such a man the highest or inmost degree of Life is
opened. Truth no longer compels Love, but Love embraces Truth.
{
¢
150 PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
when" They were both naked, the man and his wife, and
were not ashamed."
Here was achieved ultimate and complete perfection.
But every one acknowledges that we are a fallen race;
and the third chapter describes the process of that Fall
under a similar narrative form, and terminates with the
consequent loss of that Eden which, in their condition of
perfection, they had worthily occupied. Thus the first
three chapters of Genesis occupy a vast space in the
history of the human race,—from the time when Man's
bodily evolution from pre-existing forms had rendered him
capable of being endowed with a rudiment or germ of
soul, all through the process of the development of that
soul to a state of (spiritual) perfection, of the first degree,
in the image of God. Then a further large space of time
must be allowed for the greater and superior development
of that spiritual man to the celestial or heavenly, the
highest degree,-when Man was not only in the image of
God, but also after His likeness. And then once more,
his gradual decline from this celestial condition to a state
in which he was no longer a dweller in Eden must have
occupied no small period, until Paradise was closed upon
him for ever upon earth-only to be regained in Heaven
hereafter. Truly a vast space of time is here embraced!
What ages must have rolled over this development,
first of a spiritual and then of a celestial state,—in the
maintenance of this celestial condition, and lastly in
its gradual decline and Fall-who can tell! But all is
tersely and grandly told in the Sacred Record in three
brief chapters of seventy verses ;-and so told (such is the
perfect character of the symbols employed) as to leave no
gap, no deficiency, which is in the nature of a wanting or
even a defective link, in the whole inspired chain.
It seems necessary for the consecutiveness and finality
of this work that these two chapters should also be
elucidated in proof of what we have advanced. No doubt
it is possible that some who may be unwilling to admit
THE BIBLE VERIFIED FROM ITSELF.
151
the truth of the principles here advocated, may cry out
that the explanation which, it is here asserted, affords the
clue to these hitherto obscure and utterly misunderstood
chapters of Genesis, exists nowhere but in the fertile brain
of their inventor. But surely no one who brings to the
study a mind in the least degree unfettered, can be satis-
fied with any such arbitrary and foolish dismissal of the
subject. The Bible coheres together throughout, and the
only way to prove the Bible is from the Bible. And such
proofs we have brought from one part-and will yet bring
them for the illustration of another part, that the onus.
of disproof clearly rests with those who would cast doubt
upon its consistent, rational explanation. Magna est
veritas, et prævalebit,—and no amount of carping or
adverse criticism, either by agnostic or sceptic, can
summarily dispose of, or thrust aside, the inherent beauty
and truth of the system we are endeavouring to elucidate.
If men have hitherto given up the Bible, and delivered
themselves over to Epicurean doctrines because they have
lost faith through default of intelligent scrutiny, now
indeed they are bound to return and see whether they
have not erred, in throwing aside a pearl of great price,
and of more value than all the purely exoterical science
which the hardest self-dependent intellectual exercise ever
heaped together.
Moreover, the absolute truth of the past history of this
Development and Fall under the representative symbols
which have been partly, and will further be continuously,
explained, give the key to much that is interesting in the
primitive history of other races, into whose hands these
symbols have fallen, and have become the special property
of a caste set apart for their guardianship, and whose
business it was to unveil them to a chosen few of the
initiated. We see now how the various legends of a
golden age of innocence, of a garden of Eden, and of a
serpent, so universally diffused through all nations: of
the trees of the garden, and in later times of a Flood, an
152
PRIMARY ELUCIDATION OF GENESIS I.
ark, and a dispersion, have arisen. We may now be in
a position to understand that all these remarkable stories
could have had no other source than this original Reve-
lation to mankind which we call the BIBLE-from which,
in process of time, the narratives handed down orally
from generation to generation have become corrupted and
debased their meaning lost-and only some few of the
details of the myth correctly transmitted, thus giving
origin to mythology after mythology--degraded and re-
constructed, and again reconstructed and degraded,—
built upon as a foundation by sages and philosophers,
until little or nothing is left of the original pure and sound
representative myth, beyond its bare outlines, by which
we may recognize its Divine origin and foundation, and
its identity with what we have constantly at our side,
but yet have never properly valued, or even been able
intelligently to read, or consistently to understand.

66
Among many peoples we find that in old times, belief was far purer than
it is now. According to the legends collected by the negroes, heaven was
then nearer to man, and the supreme God made Himself known to them,
while He is now silent."
WAITZ, Anthropology, vol. ii. p. 168.
"The study of the ancient Religions of mankind I feel convinced, if carried
on in a bold, but scholarlike, careful, and reverend spirit, will remove many
doubts and difficulties, which are due entirely to the narrowness of our
religious horizon; it will enlarge our sympathies, it will raise our thoughts
above the small controversies of the day, and at no distant future evoke in the
very heart of Christianity a fresh spirit and a new life.”
Max Müller, Lectures on the Science of Religion, Preface.
"In extraordinary and wonderful actions, which require some supernatural
impulse and enthusiastic movement Homer never introduces the Deity as
depriving man of freedom of will, but as moving the will. He does not re-
present the heavenly Power as producing the resolution, but ideas which lead
to the resolution. The act, therefore, is by no means involuntary, since
occasion only is given to free operations, and confidence and good hope are
superadded. For either the Supreme Being must be excluded from all causality
and influence upon our actions, or it must be confessed that this is the only
way in which He assists men and co-operates with them; since it is not to be
supposed that He fashions our corporeal organs, or directs the motions of our
hands and feet to the purposes He designs, but that by certain motives and
ideas which He suggests, He either excites the active powers of the will, or
else restrains them."
PLUTARCH, Life of C. Marcius Coriolanus.

CHAPTER VI.
PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.:-2. THE SUMMIT.
T
HE second chapter of Genesis differs from the
first, then, as to its vehicle. It is no longer
correspondent with creation or development upon
this earth, because it refers to matters of a higher import,
relating to the higher education or development of the
spiritual faculties and powers of Man. The vehicle used,
therefore, is the narrative form of myth, every symbol
being definite and used with the strictest consistency
throughout.
It will be remembered that in Chapter i. verse 26 it
is written, "Let us make Man in our image, after our
likeness "—and in verse 27 we further read,
"So God
created Man in His image "—but nothing is here said of
His likeness; though that too must follow. The second
chapter differs from the first in that God having already
made man (in general) in his image, now proceeds to form
what in the secondary (external) sense would appear to be
a special man, who is spoken of several times as the Man,
and afterwards called Adam (ver. 19), from whose rib Eve
was said to be made. Moreover, in Genesis v. I we read,
"This is the book of the generations (or nativities) of
Adam. In the day that God created Man, in the likeness
of God made he him." We may therefore perceive that
though the race of Mankind, made in the first chapter,
was made in the image of God (as is there distinctly
156 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
stated), he must subsequently have been made in the
likeness of God; and this is the process described in this
chapter, immediately consecutive to the first in the
primitive history of mankind. We have seen that to be
made “in the image of God" signified to be raised to the
perfection of spiritual life by a gradual development of the
soul, at first implanted as a rudiment or germ. To be
made in the likeness of God, then, signifies a still further
development to a higher degree than the spiritual-viz.
the celestial, the highest,
the highest, and bearing the same
relation to the Divine Love and Goodness, which the
Spiritual Man bore to the Divine Wisdom and Truth.
The second chapter therefore is not in any sense a
repetition of the first,-but a continuation of the subject
under the (from one point of view) entirely different style
of writing necessitated by it. And the subject is intro-
duced by a statement occupying the first three verses, to
the effect that man having been made spiritual, and a
certain work in him having been accomplished, he was
blessed and sanctified. After which (in ver. 4) commences
the description of the various stages of progress to the
celestial life of Love, until at length the consummation
was reached in the perfection of goodness and innocence
which characterized the dwellers in Eden.
After this introduction, we will proceed to the text of
Chap. ii., “Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished
and all the host of them." Man's nature, internal and
external, was completely furnished, and balanced in a
spiritual perfection. And on the seventh day God ended
His work which He had made, and thus was described
its holiness. For nothing is more assured than the
sacredness of the number seven,-as numerous passages
in the Scriptures amply prove. Thus the Ark rested, after
the flood, on Mount Ararat in the seventh month, on
the seventeenth day of the month: and the meaning is
parallel with that which we are now considering. And
again, in Isaiah xxx. 26 we read, "Moreover the light of the
MEANING OF THE SABBATH.
157
moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the
sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the
day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people,
and healeth the stroke of their wound," the Sun here
also representing Love, and the moon, Faith, precisely as
in Gen. i. 16. In fact, such passages as Psa. cxix. 164;
Rev. i. 13, xv. 1, 7, 8, and numberless others, which
even a glance at a concordance will supply, prove incon-
testably the sacredness and completeness of the number
seven.
Six days were taken to complete the work of the
spiritual man, a work equivalent, as before said, to the
new-birth, i.e. regeneration. But we all know that for
such new-birth, or regeneration, temptations must be
overcome, battles with evil must be fought, combats with
error and falsity surmounted; and when these were
completed at the end of six days, God is said to rest from
the work which He had effected. Hence the seventh day
is a sabbath, a day of rest; and hence God is said to have
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that
day man became not only the image of God as on the
sixth day, but also His likeness. Hence "the Son of Man
is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark ii. 28)—being indeed
that Lord in whose likeness man became on the seventh,
or sabbath day, and therefore at once its type, its founder,
and its master. And for the nature of that sabbath, and
a true view of its sanctity, we may turn to Isaiah lviii. 13,
14, where to keep the sabbath is expressed as signifying the
doing of the will of the Lord in preference to one's own,—
and the reward, internal and external tranquillity and
peace, the state and reward of the truly regenerate.
And it was God who rested when man was rendered
perfect for although we may "work out our own salva-
tion with fear and trembling," "yet it is God that worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure
(Philip. ii. 13), or as it is expressed under the same symbols
in Isaiah (xlv. 11, 12, 13, 18): "Thus saith the Lord, the
158 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, . . . I have made the
earth and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have
stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I com -
manded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I
will direct all his ways.
For thus saith the Lord
that created the heavens; God Himself, that formed the
earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it
not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord,
and there is none else."
•
The next verse (4) begins the description of the process
of change by which man, from being spiritual, became
celestial. The six days of his regeneration or formation
in the image of God have been described under the
natural symbols of six stages of terrestrial creation or
development. What follows is the description of what
has but little echo in our own experience, a higher state.
to which we cannot now reach-when the battle was
over, rest attained, and a condition corresponding in
holiness to the sabbath, only remains to be effected. The
second chapter, then, from the fourth verse, relates
entirely to this seventh day, and shows under identical
symbols, but in a form no longer corresponding to natural
processes, the course of development from the spiritual to
the celestial state of innocence. Instead of a correspond-
ing natural narrative, then, we have a purely mythical
vehicle, but equally readable with the same key. Let us
proceed to apply it.
In this elucidation of the earlier chapters of Genesis,
full as they are of difficult questions and long debated
controversies, we desire not only not to shirk any knotty
points or apparently unintelligible expressions, but rather
to search for them and bring them into prominence with
a view to showing how completely the key we are afford-
ing illustrates and explains them. And here let us first
notice a remarkable change of expression. All the events
of the first chapter, and up to this time, were said to have
been effected by God (Elohim')-henceforth it is Jehovah.
ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH.
159
God (Y'hōvah' Elōhim') who acts. This difference be-
tween the Elohistic and Jehovistic portions (as they are
called) of the creative history has been much commented
upon, and has even been supposed to denote a different
authorship or a different age of writing. But this has
arisen solely from an entire misconception of the scope
and meaning of the whole narrative. We will endeavour
to point out what this peculiar variation of expression
really signifies, and how it accurately falls in with and
strongly confirms the view we are expounding.
There are two things which require notice in this
remarkable change of expression;—and first, the fact that
throughout the first chapter the word translated “God”
(Elohim) only is used,-whereas in the second chapter,
the expression "Lord God" (Jehovah Elohim) is uniformly
applied to the creative power. The reason of this will be
more apparent when the whole account is properly under-
stood. The first chapter, as we have already indicated,
describes the spiritual development of the human race
through all the stages correspondent to the development
of the terrestrial and organic world. This is said to be
effected by God (Elohim), because the spiritual degree
has chiefly relation (as has already been observed) to
Wisdom and Truth, i.e. to the Intellect. But the second
chapter describes the further development of the spiritual
man to the celestial degree, in which Love and Goodness
are predominant-i.e. the Affections and Will, wherefore
it was effected by Jehovah God; or, as translated, the
Lord God. Man, before being made spiritual, did not
exist as a Church (which is the bond of conjunction of
Man with the Lord), and under such circumstances God
(Elohim) is spoken of, as being a name less Holy than
Jehovah. And wherever things of Truth and Faith only
are referred to, the rule is invariable, that God (Elohim)
is said to be the agent,-whereas, whenever the higher
things of Love and Goodness are the subject, Jehovah is
the name applied. For, as we have already pointed out,
160 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
the Creation was impelled by Love, but effected by
Truth. "By the word of the Lord (i.e. Divine Truth)
were the heavens made." Wisdom is the efficient cause,
of that of which Love can only be the moving cause. For
so it is with ourselves-our Will impels-but it is the
Understanding which carries into execution.
This is the reason of this change of appellation. But
there is more that needs to be explained. The word God
is in the original a plural word (Elohim), and signifies
Gods or Powers. But in all these writings there is a won-
derful consistency and coherency, and whenever anything
occurs which appears remarkable, it is inevitable that the
more attention is directed towards it, the more reason
becomes apparent for what at first appeared strange.
The use of the word Elohim in other parts of the Bible
fully illustrates its meaning in the first chapter of Genesis.
Although a plural word, it is there usually conjoined with
a singular verb, but in the making of man it is said, "Let
us make man in our image after our own likeness. And
God (Elohim) created man in His own image." God is
El, or Elohim, as to His power and might,-as may be
seen from such passages as Psa. lxxxix. 6, " Who among
the sons of the mighty (Elohim) can be likened unto the
Lord"? (Jehovah); Psa. xviii. “My God (El) my strength"
(ver. 2). "It is God (El) that girdeth me with strength
(ver. 32). “My God (El) shall be my strength" (Isa.
xlix. 5). But the term Elohim is applied occasionally to
what cannot be directly and immediately God Himself,
as in the Eighty-ninth Psalm, above quoted. And in
Psalm lxxxii. 1, we read, "God standeth in the congre-
gation of God (El),-he judgeth among the gods" (Elo-
him). And in ver. 6-"I have said, ye are gods (Elohim),
and all of you children of the Most High ";-a passage
quoted by Christ Himself in the New Testament (John
X. 34, 35): “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in
your Law,—I said, Ye are gods? If he called them
gods unto whom the word of God came," &c. Now
SIGNIFICATION OF ELOHIM.
161
here is the key to the difficulty. Those to whom the
word of God came, refers to angels in whom the power or
strength of God dwelt. And the Apostle, in Hebrews i.
13, 14, says, “To which of the angels said He at any time,
Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits?" Thus
those endowed with special power are called Gods
(Elohim), be they angels or men, as in the case of
Moses, who, when he was ordered by the Lord to go
before Pharaoh, was told, "See, I have made thee a god
(Elohim) to Pharaoh" (Exodus vii. 1).
Thus every
angel, or appointed messenger filled with power from the
Lord, was an Elohim.
God is, or exists as, primarily two great attributes,
Love and Wisdom, as has already been explained. Of
these, Love is the moving cause of things, while Wisdom
is the energetic agent. Love, the impeller, cannot act
of itself, it requires the agency of Power, which comes
through Wisdom. See an important passage in Jer. li. 15.
So also in ourselves, whose faculties are faithfully re-
flected from the Divine source, determination to action is
the result of the operation of the will and understanding
combined. For the outcome of Wisdom is Truth, and
the Word is Truth. It was by the Word that the
Heavens and Earth were framed, through the subordinate
agency of those "unto whom the Word came,”—that is, the
Powers (or Elohim) through whom it pleased Jehovah's
Love to perform the creative processes, at least as far as
the building not only of the material and organic Uni-
verse, but also of the spiritual internal man, in whom Truth
rules, and faith. But when the spiritual man has to be
further developed to the celestial, then it is that Love comes.
into play-Love is the ruling impulse; and Jehovah, who
is God more especially as to Love, alone forms the celes-
tial man.
This important distinction has been a great stumbling-
block to those who, having no perception of its real mean-
II
162
PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
ing, have seen in it only a human arbitrary phraseology;
and has led not only to futile arguments against the Bible
as a Revelation, but also to erroneous theories,—such as
that this portion of the Bible was a collection of fragments
by various authors; and to all the apparent difficulties
raised by critics who had not a true intelligence of the
subjects they were discussing, however great may have
been their eminence in their several branches of natural
Science. Thus the late Astronomer Royal speaks as
follows, "The first chapter, ending at chap. ii. ver. 3, is
entirely Elohistic. It ascribes the Creation to the Gods,
or Great Powers. The striking feature in this account is
the division of the work of Creation into six days, and the
resting of the creating Gods on the seventh day." And
Professor Max Müller even deduces from the plural form,
Elohim, the theory, so little supported by reason or
analogy, that true Monotheism could not have arisen
except upon the ruins of polytheistic faith. But such
theories melt like snow before the sun, when the real
basis is understood.
Let us now begin, at ver. 4, the narrative of the second
chapter. And it will be remarked that an entire change
of form and expression accompanies the change in the
designation of the Creator. Here, instead of God creating
the heaven and the earth, we read that Jehovah God made
the earth and the heavens,-instead of the expression earth,
only, we now read of the field and the ground; and instead
of man being spoken of as the last formed, we now read
first of man, and afterwards of trees, beasts and fowl. For
all these changes in the narrative there are essential
reasons. They have long been puzzles to the commen-
tator, who has hitherto found no reasonable clue to them,
but if it can be shown that they are reasonable and con-
sistent, it will go far to prove for the Scripture a claim to
consideration which few in these days are disposed to
admit for it. Let us then inquire into the reasons for
these changes.
CHANGES OF EXPRESSION IN CH. II. 163
In the primal development of the internal man, known
as the Heaven, the external man (or earth) played an
important part; for this development commenced, as we
have seen, from without. But now that is so far com-
pleted, and an accord is at length established between
the two; henceforth the further advance is begun and
continued from within. For, as before said, that Man
had become an image of God on the sixth day was due to
the influences of Divine Wisdom and Truth proceeding
from without to within-but now, on the seventh day, his
likeness was effected by the impulses of Love and Good-
ness proceeding from within to without, and thus in-
fluencing the external man from the internal. Hence,
what was before dry Land (Earth), now fertilized and
productive, becomes the field and the Ground—“ He took
also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful
field." (Ezek. xvii. 5). And the Ground, ǎ-dā-māh',
specially means the Church as to true worship,-as
receiving and nourishing the seeds of faith. Hence of
Noah (Gen. ix. 20) it is said "And Noah began to be a
nan of the ground." And this is especially in contradis-
tinction to Earth, wherein no real Church could exist.
Thus (Jer. xxiii. 8): "He brought the Seed of the house
of Israel from the northern Earth, from all earths whither
I have driven them, and they shall dwell on their own
ground"-translated, land. And in Joel i. 10, "The field
is wasted, and the ground mourneth, because the corn is
wasted."
But to proceed:-" And (the making of) every bush of
the field before it was in the earth, and every green herb
of the field before it sprung up" (ver. 5).
(ver. 5). The narrative
still refers to the time when man was yet but spiritual,
although now upon the road to become celestial. This
verse, therefore, is, so far, but a statement of the pre-
liminary condition of the external man, when as yet it
was still in the condition of earth, and not converted into
ground, — unfurnished with that which would make it
164 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
ground;—as it is expressed in our Bibles, "before it was
in the earth," and "before it grew." For "Jehovah God
had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was
not a man to till the ground."
The objections that rain must have fallen upon the
literal earth before this,-and that man had already been
formed in the first chapter, will now be seen to be due
to a slavish following of the letter to the entire neglect of
the real primary spiritual meaning. For we have already
said that this second chapter is written in the purely
mythical narrative style, and is, in its true and primary
meaning, an orderly continuation of the first (in the sense,
however, of being consecutivc rather than continuous. For
the degrees of the soul-advancement they refer to are not
continuous, but grades, starting from new principles).
The first chapter is complete in itself, in the correspon-
dential natural style, which could not be adapted to the
second chapter, which treats of things to which natural
phenomena have no direct or consecutive analogies, such
as were suitable to the first.¹
"I will cause the shower to come down in his season;
there shall be showers of blessing" (Ezek. xxxiv. 26).
This is the key to the passage in question, which evi-
dently means that the state of tranquillity spoken of as
following the perfection of the spiritual, and the com-
mencement of the celestial, state, had not been arrived at,
until the "watering of the faces of the ground," which
immediately succeeds. "My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small
rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the
The reader will perhaps pardon the repetitions in certain places of
important principles, such as here stated. The Author is quite aware
of them, and has admitted them, because he well knows from experi-
ence that the emphasizing of these principles by re-iteration will greatly.
aid the comprehension of the whole subject. Such essential principles
are liable to be missed if only cursorily stated, and the Author is con-
tent to sacrifice literary style to some extent to the more important end
of the reception and recognition of these fundamental ideas.
FROM SPIRITUAL TO CELESTIAL.
165
grass'
" (Deut. xxxii. 2). That there was (as yet) no man
to till the ground, then, does not neutralize the statement
of the first chapter that man had been already created;-
but to till the ground, required something more,-viz., a
man, so complete in his spiritual development as to act
from within, by those impulses of love which only affect
the celestial man, whose preliminary condition we are yet
considering, and concerning which this is the last state-
ment. For we now read that "a mist (or exhalation)
went up from the earth, and watered the faces of the
ground ” (ver. 6), which surely signifies the result of that
peace and tranquillity which followed the final cessation
of the combats and temptations of the external man, when
the first stage of celestial progress is secured.
And now follows the important step (ver. 7)—“ And
Jehovah God formed the man, dust from the ground; and
He breathed in his nostrils the breath of lives; and man
became a living soul" (or, soul of life). As it was said
(ver. 5), “there was not a man to till the ground,”—so a
man (or man) in this sense is now made,-complete accord
being thus indicated between the will and understanding.
For now for the first time is the external man in complete
subjection to the internal,-and the time has arrived
when that external part becomes truly living; for he had
received the breath of lives (dual), i.e. the life of faith in
the understanding, and the life of love in the will. And
thus was completed the celestial state of man. The
spiritual man had attained a high state of balance, in
which his thoughts and acts proceeded from what is
external to what is internal,-to love and goodness,
through faith and truth. But to act from the moving
principles of love and goodness is a higher condition than
when the moving principle is faith and truth; and when
a man attains to this, his thoughts and acts proceed from
what is internal to what is external,-and his state is
truly celestial. Henceforward he is in the enjoyment of an
exalted state of tranquillity and peace,-a mental, moral,
166 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
and religious environment which are indicated by what
follows in the succeeding verse.
For we read (ver. 8), "And Jehovah God planted a
garden Eastward in Eden; and there He put the man
whom He had formed." Many have been the fruitless
inquiries as to the geographical position of this (sup-
posed) once favoured spot,-inquiries which have arisen
from a total misconception of the meaning of the verse,
and a vain belief in the literal meaning of the narrative.
As a literal narrative it either conveys no meaning, or
a false one; for from it men have deduced all manner
of vague and useless theories; and from that part of
it which is contained in the succeeding chapter has
sprung that erroneous belief in "the visiting on Adam's de-
scendants, through hundreds of generations, of dreadful
penalties for a small transgression which they did not
commit." And even if the story of a garden and trees,
and a rib-made woman, and the subtlety of a talking
serpent-if all these were literal truths, what benefit could
we derive from such simple old-world tales, in their
merely literal sense? Would they be worthy of their
position in the very forefront of the Scriptures? Not so-
but they are merely the vehicle of Divine Truth, the
symbols of an exalted wisdom,-the continent of matters
of the deepest interest to the philosopher, and of the
highest importance to the man.
I
We may reasonably suppose that a garden has a definite
place in the symbolical language of the Bible. In
Isaiah (li. 3) we read-" Jehovah shall comfort Zion, He
will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of
Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanks-
giving and the voice of melody." In such a passage as
this, if we did not recognize the representative meaning
of garden, and of Eden,-we could not fail to be struck
with the identity of the symbols in such widely removed
I
• Herbert Spencer, in Nineteenth Century, January, 1884.
EDEN, AND ITS GARDEN.
167
parts of the Bible as Genesis ii. and Isaiah li.:-for it
distinctly shows that the plainly mythical narrative of
unknown age, and the prophetical utterance of Isaiah of
Jerusalem, some seven centuries before the Christian era,
were based upon the same external lines, for the convey-
ance of analogous ideas. When, too, the prophet Amos
says (i. 5), "I will cut off him that holdeth the sceptre
from the house of Eden," it is plain that in the concep-
tion of Eden there was something more than a mere
literal garden filled with trees and flowers. But in
Ezekiel, Eden is mentioned several times, and in xxviii. 13
is called the "garden of God," as by Isaiah the "garden
of Jehovah." Ezekiel, in the above passage, exclaims,
"Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been
in Eden, the garden of God."
A garden, then, evidently 'means intelligence, or a
well-ordered mind,-as we have already seen (Gen. i. 12)
that the herbs, plants, and trees (of which such a garden
is composed), refer to the various forms of good arising
from knowledge. And when we notice how Isaiah says
in the above passage-" He will make her wilderness like
Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah,”—and
thus places the garden as an antithesis to Eden, we recog-
nize the meaning of Eden as love or goodness,-the garden
being intelligence or knowledge. And the difference
between the garden of God, and the garden of Jehovah,
also distinguishes the understanding, knowledge, and faith
of the spiritual man, from the same qualities in the
celestial man-which constitutes one of the many proofs
I
I
This dual or antithetic form of expression is (as we have already
remarked) one of the most marked features of the Scripture writings.
One half the verse seems nearly always an echo to the other; and
this always has reference to these two great attributes—the one part
refering to Love, or Goodness (that is, to the Will)—the other to
Wisdom, or Truth (that is, to the Understanding). This may be
easily verified in numberless cases.
1
168 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
of the consistency of Scripture writing, and of the truth
of our principle and method of interpretation.
And that "Jehovah God planted a garden castward in
Eden" where He placed the now celestial man, is
explained by the words of Ezekiel (xliii. 1, 2), "After-
wards he brought me to the gate, even the gate that
looketh toward the East; and behold the glory of the God
of Israel came from the way of the East," &c. The East
is where the Sun rises,-the spiritual sun is in the East,
as the natural sun is; and the spiritual sun being the
emanation from the Lord, it follows that the East means
The Lord. Hence it is, though without knowing why,
that we turn toward the East in our churches, and that
the churches themselves are built east and west with the
altar at the East end. So that the whole verse (8)
signifies that the newly-made celestial man was gifted by
Jehovah God with the intelligence which flows in by love
from the Lord,—(from the internal to the external, as
before said).2
And Jehovah God caused to spring up from the
ground every tree desirable for sight and good for
food; and the tree of life (the lives) in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of the knowledge (or Science) of
good and evil" (ver. 9). Here we learn that all these
productions of the garden of Eden were not, as it were,
in the garden when the celestial man was placed in it,
but were formed by Jehovah God out of the ground—that
is that ground or external man in which the seeds of faith
and love had been planted, and from which spring all
trees (or all kinds of Knowledge, in a spiritual sense,-
but here perceptions, being in the higher or celestial sense),
¹ Here indeed is a survival worthy of the name-a survival from
the very earliest epoch of our race; and we may plainly see of what
it is a survival-a remnant of a long past age when these correspon-
dences were generally known and understood.
2 A full elucidation of this subject will be found in Chapter XII. on
"The Four Gospels."
THE TREES OF THE GARDEN.
169
either pleasant to the sight (i.e. perceptions of truth) or
good for food (i.e. perceptions of good). The general
meaning of trees has already been dwelt upon towards the
end of Chapter IV. and is best illustrated by Ezekiel
xvii. 24. The trees, it is said, shall know that I, the Lord,
do this, showing that they signify perception :—and it is
clear that, bringing down the "high tree," signifies the
humiliation of intellectual pride, &c. Again (Ezek. xxxi.)
the Assyrian is compared to a cedar of Lebanon, and it is
said (ver. 9) "all the trees of Eden that were in the
garden of God, envied him." And Assyria, as we shall
see presently, (v. 14) symbolizes the rational principle.
But two trees in this garden of Jehovah claim our
special attention, viz., "the tree of lives (dual, two lives)
in the midst of the garden,--and the tree of the know-
ledge (or science) of good and evil." The first of these
signifies the perception of love, and truth (or faith)
springing from love. These are the lives breathed into
the external man to make it truly living like the internal,
when the man became celestial. In the natural man the
will is mere desire,-but when in exalted states that will
is in subjection, the Lord takes possession of it, and it
becomes the most important part of a man's nature,
through which He acts and performs that good which
no man can do unaided. It is the man's central prin-
ciple, and thus is said to be placed in the midst of the
garden-though its position will be found hereafter (in
chap. iii. ver. 3) changed, not arbitrarily, but in accord-
ance with the hidden wisdom of the whole narrative.
This Tree appears again at the other extreme of Scrip-
ture, in Rev. ii. 7, where we read, "To him that over-
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the paradisc of God"-where the meaning is
obviously, that to him who faints not in the hour of trial,
who resists manfully, shall be given to be imbued with
the highest good, that good which springs from the
inmost principle of love to God, which can only be
170 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
granted to such as are in full delight of heavenly
wisdom.
But while the tree of lives denotes love and faith derived
directly from the highest source, the perception of good,—
the other tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, has
a very different meaning. There is a knowledge which
is essentially of earth,-a knowledge necessary, in its
subordinate position, to the equal balance of our facul-
ties. It has its uses, or it would not be in the garden-
but its fruit is deadly to eat.
We have seen that all the faculties of the mind and
soul of a man have been originally placed there by God,
who has also nurtured and developed them within us. He
made man a receptacle of the activities or operations of His
own arch-attributes of Love and Wisdom; and all that
man possesses is from Him.
A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven" (John iii. 27) and
"Do not err, my beloved brethren: every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of Lights" (James i. 16, 17). But although this
is the case and cannot be gainsaid,-no less is it true that
for the performance of all the complex functions of our
moral and spiritual life it was necessary that man should
feel as though he acted from himself. In other words, we
are to act, not as under dictation, but as having freedom
of choice as from ourselves,—but always with the reserva-
tion that we are to recognize that we possess absolutely
no self-existent life or power of our own, but that we
derive all from God. As long as we recognize this we are
safe, but once forget it, and we cannot fail to go astray,
-by transferring our dependence from God's omnipotence
to our own weakness. The tree may grow in the garden,
and subserve its useful, nay, its essential purpose in our
nature, but we must abstain from plucking the fruit of it,
for it would lead us astray to our spiritual destruction and
death. It is the spiritual and celestial mind which recog-
nizes most distinctly this dependence,-the natural or
THE RIVERS OF EDEN.
170
carnal mind is wont to rebel, and imagine itself a god.
And the Apostle but echoes the warning given with
respect to this tree, when he says (Rom. viii. 6), " For
to be carnally-minded is death, but to be spiritually-
minded is life and peace."-But we anticipate.
In the further description of this garden of Jehovah, or
garden of delight, which was eastward in Eden, we read
of its being watered by a river which divides into four.
“And a river was going forth from Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was divided, and became (or
was) to four heads" (ver. 10). Eden is Love, and a river,
wisdom;—the garden of intelligence was therefore watered
by wisdom proceeding from love :—and waters, we may
remember, always signify knowledge. To water the
garden, therefore, denotes to supply the intelligence with
wisdom and truths. In Psalm lxv. 9 we read, "Thou
visitest the earth and waterest it, thou greatly enrichest
it with the river of God"—the river of God here meaning
the Word of God, which is the fountain of wisdom;-more
clearly illustrated in Rev. xxii. 1, where is described "a
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out
of the throne of God and of the Lamb"-denoting the
day when that Word is to be received and understood
in its pure and genuine spirit. And the whole subject.
is amply illustrated in a remarkable passage of Ezekiel
(xxxi.), "The waters made him great, the deep set him up
on high with her rivers running round about his plants,
and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the
field, and his branches became long because of the multi-
tude of waters, when he shot forth."
The names of these four rivers, and their environment,
are the subjects of verses 11 to 14. Because one of these,
Phrath, is identified, in form, as the name Euphrates,
well known geographically, numerous attempts have been
made to include this stream as one of the boundaries of
the garden of Eden-with what result need hardly be here
172 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
stated. But geographical as well as proper names have
their definite correspondent meaning in Scripture, and
each of these rivers conveys an idea, which combined,
assumes a highly complex character, and is scarcely to
be translated into a language which would be appreciable
to the minds of the present age. Pishōn is nowhere else
mentioned in the Bible; Gi-khōn and Khiddékel occur
but rarely; but Euphrates is not unfrequently mentioned.
The first two possess no geographical reality, while
Khiddékel has been imagined to be identical with the Tigris.
Briefly, however, we will endeavour to explain the
meaning of these verses (11-14). Let it be observed
that the original or parent-river is not distinguished by
name-for it is really the infinite Wisdom which springs
from the Divine, and waters the garden of the soul,-into
which it enters by four streams, each of which perform
definite offices in rendering productive the various facul-
ties whose perceptions they awaken, or, in other words,
fertilize and render fruitful. Thus we can recognize the
scope of each head, and classify them under definite
names. And there are four heads, because there are
four degrees of the mind, viz., the celestial, the spiritual,
the rational, and the natural, - although strictly the
rational is an intermediate degree, no less necessary
however, inasmuch as it opens downwards, as it were,
into the natural, and upwards to the spiritual. It is
that degree which is the intermediate between the two
planes of spirit and matter.
As we should expect from this classification, the first
river is the one which specially influences the celestial
man, in which the intelligence is inspired from the highest
source, viz., love from the Lord. This is further proved
by the addition, that there is gold in that land of Havilah
(the mind), and that the gold of that land is good. Gold
corresponds, as the most precious and incorruptible of
earthly metals, to good ;—and good (or pure) gold, to the
highest celestial good, as silver means intelligence or
VARIOUS SYMBOLS OF TRUTH.
173
truth. Thus says Ezekiel (xxviii. 4), “By thy wisdom
and intelligence thou hast gotten thee riches; thou hast
gotten gold and silver into thy treasures." "I counsel thee
(Rev. iii. 18, the Lord is speaking to the Church of the
Laodicæans) to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich." And once more, Jeremiah, deploring
the failure and decadence of good, exclaims (Lam. iv. 1),
"How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold
changed!
And as gold corresponds to good, so do precious stones
correspond to truth,-as do stones of all kinds in their
degree-and especially the Rock, of which stones are
fragments. This is well illustrated in Ezekiel (xxviii.
12, 13), “Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the
sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been
in Eden, the garden of God,-every precious stone was
thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold." And in Exodus.
xxviii., we read likewise of twelve precious stones arranged
in threes and set in pure gold to form the breastplate of
the high-priest: whereby was signified every essential
particular of truth and faith.
I
It may be objected that there appear to be many symbols of the
same principle, and some have even gone so far as to characterize
them as "a mere series of tautologies" (Kellogg, "The Jews,” p. 94).
It is doubtless the case that, of the two great and prime principles of
good and truth the symbols are very numerous, especially of truth,
which is more multiform than good. We may illustrate the subject
by comparing Truth with its correspondent, Light. How many kinds
and varieties of Light are there! How complex are their Laws! How
wonderfully intricate are the mathematical processes by which they
are elucidated by the Optical philosopher! And if this is the case
with Light, which is the mere natural correspondent of Truth, how
much more must it be the case with Truth itself, the spiritual ante-
type of Light,-how many symbols must be necessary to express the
infinite varieties of Truth,-all signifying Truth, yet no two having
identical meanings. Now it is water, as a purifier,—now a sword, as
a piercing discerner, now blood, as the vivifying principle carrying
174 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
And as the first river was as a stream of Good, watering
the celestial man,-so the second, Gīhōn, is as a stream
of Truth flowing into the spiritual man,-divine wisdom
which gives him power to think correctly and clearly
about spiritual things. The word translated Ethiopia is
Cush. It has not any definite geographical meaning, any
more than the rivers have. It implies blackness, and refers
to the understanding, which is mere darkness and black-
ness without the encompassing or inflowing stream of
divine wisdom which is symbolized by the second river,
Gihōn. "And the name of the third river is Khiddékel,
that is it which goeth toward the East of Assyria" (ver.
14). We have already indicated that the third degree
referred to is an intermediate degree between the spiritual
and the natural, viz., the rational. This is signified by
Asshur, or Assyria, while Egypt corresponds to the
scientific, or knowledge of the merely external or
natural. A conscientious study of the Bible will prove
that these correspondences are not arbitrary, but genuine,
as clues to the internal meaning. In Isaiah xix. 23-25,
we read: "In that day shall there be a highway out of
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt,
and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve
with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third
with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst
of the land, whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be the Egyptian, My people, and the Assyrian,
the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance." In
this passage it is evident that nations are not meant,—but
it refers to the time when these three great faculties or
degrees of the mind, the natural or scientific (Egypt), the
Life through the Body as Truth does through the soul,-now silver, as
the paler counterpart of the precious gold-white, as gold is red,-now
the moon, as that representative of the truth of faith which affords its
light by a reflection from the sun in states of obscurity,—now stones,
as the truths of which the temple of worship is built-or precious
stones in which shines the translucent light which represents spiritual
or internal Truth, &c.
spiritual geOGRAPHY.
175
rational (Assyria), and the spiritual (Israel), should each
occupy their true relative position, and due order,—the
lower in subordination to the higher,-when the result
would be the inflow of Divine blessing, and the perfect
performance of their respective duties and functions in
harmony, and according to order. And the third river
going eastward has reference, as before, to the Lord, to
show that the clearness of reason symbolized by Hiddekel
is of the Lord, and flows from him through the internal,
into the external rational principle.
We have already insisted upon the canon that external
science, whether physical, historical, or geographical, is not
an object of Scripture, beyond being a vehicle for the real
primary or spiritual meaning. And also that names,
whether personal or geographical, represent, not persons.
or places, but principles. Yet must it not be imagined
these are used at random, but only according to a strict
and wise Order. This Order, as it affects geographical
names, may thus be briefly indicated. If the relation
of the various faculties were completely perceived, we
may understand that they might be so arranged and
presented as to be pictured to the mind as a map in which
the inmost principles should form the central portions-
while other principles of the mind might be grouped
around in their various relations as to direction, and
relative proximity or distance, according as they were
more internal or external. Now of such a map, Israel
would be the centre,-because Israel always represents
the Church as appointed by the Lord, in which alone was
true worship offered-(as, in that dispensation, the repre-
sentative of worship ordained among the Jews was the only
real form of worship existent on earth). And the land of
Israel is Canaan, and the centre of that land is Jeru-
salem, where the temple was-and the Temple always
represents worship,- for there God dwelt. But grouped
around Canaan were certain countries constantly referred
to in the prophetic books, not because of their geo-
176 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
graphical position, but of their spiritual relation. The
river Euphrates was the boundary of Canaan in the direc-
tion of Assyria, and therefore had a distinct representative
signification of the external knowledge, or scientific
principle of the memory, which principle is equally the
boundary of the rational principle in that direction,
signified by Assyria; as the river of Egypt signifies the
boundary of the external scientific principle, which Egypt
represents (see Gen. xv. 18). For both Assyria and
Egypt are external to Canaan, each as it were beyond
its river, and each therefore represented principles
external to the inmost spiritual principle, represented
by Israel or Canaan. Yet these principles are good, if
kept in their subordinate places, and without them man
is not man. Therefore they may be sanctified, and
rendered serviceable to man's highest ends, as shown
in the passage quoted in the text-but if allowed too
great predominance, they tend to overwhelm and destroy
his spiritual life.
;-
"And the fourth river is (Phrath) Euphrates ";—
representative of the outermost or lowest principle of
the mind, the scientific or merely natural knowledge of
matters relating to religion,—such matters as are gleaned
from mere historical studies in the Bible, without any
reference to their application. Thus the land given to
Abraham was to extend from the river of Egypt to the
great river, the river Euphrates (Gen. xv. 18)--to signify
that the two boundaries of the spiritual principle were in
the natural mind. And thus the four interdependent
qualities of the mind, which successively impart their
activity from the higher to the lower, and which all flow
from the main stream of divine wisdom, are represented
as four rivers irrigating the "garden of Jehovah," and
filling the celestial man "with the Spirit of God (as it
is expressed of the builder of the Tabernacle and the
Ark, in Exodus xxxi. 3), in wisdom (inmost), and in under-
standing, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work-
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.
177
manship": i.e. external or outward manifestations of
science.
In ver. 15, we read that the man so furnished was
placed in Eden, to dress it and to keep it,-to act in it
(that is) not as though it were his own, but to use it as a
talent, for the proper employment of which an account
would be required. And then comes the critical com-
mand, “ Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat ;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it, for in the day of thy eating thereof,
thou shalt surely die" (vers. 16, 17). Of what is signified
by eating of the tree of knowledge we have already spoken.
As to eat naturally, is to take in and assimilate for nourish-
ment-so spiritually it means, to know intimately and gain.
perception of a thing. Therefore all the trees, representing
the various forms of good arising from knowledge, were
freely left at man's disposal,—he was at liberty to acquire
perceptions of good to any extent;-but the prohibition
only referred to the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, whose representative meaning has been already ex-
plained. For the effect of partaking of such a tree is
shown by Ezekiel xxix. 3: "Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, and
which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made
it for myself": and again at ver. 9, "And the land of
Egypt shall be desolate and waste, and they shall know
that I am the Lord: because he hath said, The river is
mine, and I have made it."
Another entirely new and most important phase of the
subject now follows. In ver. 18 we read: "And Jehovah
God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I
I
I
It is worthy of remark that this is the first false note in Eden. In
the first chapter God saw everything, and it was good. But now the
time has come for an important change-"And God said, It is not
good." What was not good, why the crisis had arrived, and how it
was to be met, are all fully explained in the text.
I2
178 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
will make him an help meet for him." The man placed
in the garden, was, as may be safely supposed, not a
single human individual, but a race thus represented.
The time when God had created man in His own image,
male and female, was already far distant in a past age,
and even that consummation left the first physical creation
of Man far behind. But the spiritual man had been
further developed, as to his soul and intelligence, into that
celestial type which occupied the garden of the Lord.
Such men, as we have seen, desired only to live alone,
that is, to be guided solely by their Maker. Ignorance of
evil, and dependence upon a strong hand, are not the
highest states of life. To avoid evil simply because we
are ignorant of its existence is the condition of the child;
the innocence of ignorance has, however, in the process
of time, to be put off, and another and superior kind of
innocence to succeed,-viz., the innocence which knows,
but still will not do evil-the innocence of knowledge.
As the child advances to years of discretion, he learns
the existence of sin and evil, the innocence of ignorance
is put off, and he, by degrees, learns to avoid the evil
he sees and knows, and remain innocent,-not indeed in
his own strength, but yet with a certain freedom of choice
which relieves him from entire dependence upon an in-
visible guidance. This freedom of choice or free-will, is
what the celestial man is now to be endowed with,
dangerous but essential gift,-in order that he may as-
sume a responsibility, and learn to choose the good and
avoid the evil. Thus the Lord saw the time had come
when it was no longer good that man should be under His
sole and undivided guidance. "I will make him an help
as with him," or "I will make for him a helper, as in
his front," as it may be translated,—the root of the word
meaning to surround, to help. "Lo, the people shall dwell
alone (we read in Numbers xxiii. 9), and are not reckoned
among the nations." And in Jeremiah (xlix. 31), the
same idea is thus expressed, "Arise, go up to the quiet
ADAM NAMING THE ANIMALS.
179
nation, that dwelleth confidently, which have neither
gates nor bars, which dwell alone." The help meet for
him to obviate this, was to endow man with a feeling of
possession, with a sense that although the Lord was
acting in him as before, nevertheless he had himself
some ownership of himself, as it were, so that he could
by his own self choose what he would do. As it is ex-
pressed by the Apostle (Philip. ii. 12, 13): "Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling—(still, how-
ever, never failing to remember that) it is God which
worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
More will be said of this anon.
'And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every
beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and
brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them
(ver. 19). There are few conceptions of the earliest records
of Genesis more grotesque than that of the animals being
all marshalled before a first man to receive names from
him. The onomatopoietic theory of nomenclature de-
duced from this fancy is sometimes ingenious, but will
not bear serious examination. The story is but the
vehicle of more important truths. We have already seen
that by beasts of the field are signified things relating to
the will or affections; and by birds of the heavens, things
relating to the intellect and understanding;- and by
bringing these unto the man to see what he would call
them, is signified, to enable him to recognize fully the
nature of those celestial and spiritual qualities with
which he was endowed, in order that he might understand
how he was gifted, and what was the nature of the
guidance by which he was kept in his lofty state of good-
ness and intelligence.
In Scripture much importance is given to names, simply
because by a name much was learned concerning the
inward quality of a person or thing. And to call by name
meant to be deeply and thoroughly acquainted with a
person's nature. Thus Isaiah says (xliii. 1): "But now
180 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He
that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine."
It is here to be remarked that in this verse we first read
(in the Authorized Version) of the name Adam, usually
applied as to the father of all living. But this is
thoroughly misleading to the unlearned, for the word
translated Man in the creative record thus far, is always.
Adam in the original; and it first appears in chap. i. ver.
26; where it is said, "Let us make Man (Adam) in our
image." Consequently the race created, male and female,
at the first was Adam, no less than the man, or race, after-
wards placed in the garden of Jehovah; and wherever
man has been mentioned, Adam is the word in the ori-
ginal. From this it necessarily follows that the idea that
Adam was a single and special man, the father of all living,
is an erroneous misconception, arising out of the caprice of
the translators in giving the same word two different inter-
pretations; and interpreting the word Adam as man, nine
times, and then at the tenth, retaining the Hebrew word
Adam, as though it were a proper name. This has done
infinite mischief, inasmuch as it has produced a rooted
belief that Adam was a person, which is not what the
Bible represents. But unless we suppose (which is im-
possible) that the events from the sixth day of creation,
all through such time as the word Adam (or man) is.
used, were the ephemeral transactions of a single life,
instead of the events of a vast epoch of human develop-
ment, Adam (or, the man) could not have been an in-
dividual man, but the race of mankind, whose spiritual
history is here traced in Revelation.
In Genesis v. 3, we read that Adam was 130 years
old when Seth was born. But Cain and Abel were born
much earlier, say within the hundredth year of Adam,
according to the apparent (or natural) chronology. But
it is utterly incredible that all the events of these two
chapters (ii. and iii.) should have occurred in the space of
ADAM NOT AN INDIVIDUAL.
181
a hundred years, embracing as they do, the elevation of
man from the spiritual to the celestial condition,-the
events of the garden of Eden, the Fall, and the expulsion
from Paradise. Some good people imagine all these
circumstances to have been the work of two or three days;
but they must have a strangely inadequate idea of the
importance and indeed the very nature of the subject.
The "mills of God," we may be sure, do not grind so
rapidly as this would seem to demand.
Verse 19 goes on to say, "And whatsover Adam (or,
the man) called every living creature, that was the name
thereof." And further (ver. 20) "The man (or Adam) gave
names to every beast (or cattle-i.e. tame) and to the fowl
of the heaven (not air, but the same word as in Genesis i. 1),
and to every (wild) beast of the field; but to man found he
not a helper as with him" (lit., as in his front). The sig-
nification of these verses evidently all depends upon the
meaning of giving names to the animals in question. The
beasts, tame and wild, correspond, as aforesaid, with the
affections of a higher or lower character, all such
affections having a definite rôle in the mind of man, but
that the lower require to be kept in subjection by the
higher; while birds we now know to signify intellectual
thoughts.
To follow the strictly correct classification of Genesis-
the (tame and docile) cattle represent the highest affec-
tions (celestial, from love), the birds of the heaven, the
intellectual affections, (spiritual, from wisdom)—while the
(wild) beasts of the field, are the lower affections of the
merely natural man, which must be tamed and brought
into subjection.
But here it will be noticed is one of those apparent
(literal) inconsistencies, which, properly understood, prove
the record to have the lofty origin and deep meaning we
claim for it. For the birds were said (chap. i. ver. 21) to
have sprung from the waters, whereas now we read that
Jehovah God formed them out of the ground. But in such
182 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
are
apparent discrepancies lies the very consistency of the
spiritual history, and of its plan and symbols. For it has
been more than once mentioned that the first chapter re-
ferred to the elevation of the soul from the natural to
the spiritual, in which process the intellectual affections
(birds) sprang from the waters in accordance with the
correspondence of Nature; that is, from the external
knowledge of truth;-whereas we are now describing the
higher or celestial developments in which these in-
tellectual affections sprang, as has often been said, from
the higher and more interior principle of love in the
regenerated man, and hence the "fowls of heaven
now recorded to have been formed out of the “ ground."
But the signification of man giving them names is best
illustrated (and herein lies the proof of the genuineness of
these symbols, that they are all capable of being exactly
illustrated from the Bible itself) by such passages as
Isaiah xlv. 3-4: "That thou mayest know that I, the
Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have
even called thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee,
though thou hast not known me." Such calling by name
then signifies the acquisition of a true perception of their
intimate nature and quality. "He telleth the number of
the stars (truths or intelligences-as wandering stars are
falsities), he calleth them all by their names" (Psa. cxlvii. 4) :
that is to say, He who implanted these various grades and
categories of mental and spiritual intelligence fully com-
prehends the quality of each and every one of them. And
again, in Isaiah xl. 26:-the same idea. "Lift up your
eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things,
that bringeth out their host by number, He calleth them
all by names." And thus is better understood such a
passage as that in Rev. iii. 4, 5: "Thou hast a few
names even in Sardis which have not defiled their
garments; and they shall walk with me in white for
they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be
IMPORTANCE OF SCRIPTURE NAMES.
183
clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name
out of the Book of Life." This real internal quality,
signified by names, is the reason why in early Scripture
History persons were always called by some names indi-
cating such quality, and having such meaning; and is
also the reason why, throughout Scripture, names are so
largely employed as representative symbols in a way
similar to the use of natural objects.
"But to man found he not a help meet for (or, as with)
him." For none of these affections and thoughts afforded
the man that sense of ownership which was desirable for
him, and necessary for the exercise of his free will. And
therefore such a sense is specially given to him. And the
manner of the gift is symbolized in the following verses:
"And Jehovah God caused to fall a deep sleep upon the
man, and He took one from his ribs, and He closed the
flesh instead of it. And Jehovah God builded the rib (or
bone) which He took from man to a woman, and He
brought her unto the man" (vers. 21, 22).
This is perhaps one of the most cherished passages of
the literalist, who thus accounts to himself for the close-
ness and dearness of conjugal relations. And indeed we
are not intending to deny that such was the intention of
the record, in its outward sense. But while the bare
literal sense is merely a portion of the mythical vehicle,
the contained spiritual sense, on the plan of all that has
preceded, beautifully and accurately describes that great
change in man's nature which marked this epoch. For
such it was; for before this, the man knew that he lived
and moved from Jehovah God alone, but when he began
to believe that he lived and acted, as it were, from himself,
it is as though a deep sleep fell upon him; out of which
he seemed to awake, when at length he recognized that
this ownership with which he was now endowed was only
an appearance to enable him to act with freedom of will,
and consequent responsibility. For while he had actually
a new faculty, involving a more specific and definite in-
184
PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
dividuality, which made him free to act and think as it
were of himself; he was always bound to remember that
this ownership was but a gift and not to be abused. For
every man holding under another, must, however in-
dependent, give something in fee as a recognition of
suzerainty, the refusal of which would be an act of
rebellion.
Now in this sleep it is represented that a bone, and a
bone of the breast (rib) was taken from him with a special
object. A bone,-because a bone possesses but a low
vitality,—and a bone of the breast, because, being near
to the cart (the seat of affection) it was yet dear to him.
And so, in this ownership, dear as it was to the man,
there yet was but little true vitality. And this use of the
word bone for this purpose is illustrated by the vision of
dry bones in Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-10. We need hardly quote
the words of this well-known passage, but simply point
out that the bones have the same meaning as in Genesis
ii. for this self-hood, or feeling of ownership in man, is, as
we have said, not a self-existence, but as viewed by God, a
dead thing, and like bones, very dry. It is God's power
alone which can vivify it by putting into it that real life
which it does not of itself possess.
"And the rib which Jehovah God took from the man,
builded He into a woman, and brought her to the man."
Woman was already created, when God made man in His
own image, male and female: but here a woman is said
to have been builded out of the rib, and evidently no
literal statement is intended to be conveyed, whereas
what is intended under the figure of a woman is evident
from the history of the same woman in the third chapter,
-by whom, indeed, the man fell. The rib was the bare,
dry, and dead, self-hood of man,-to make which useful
and safe for the service for which it was intended, it was
necessary that it should be vivified by the Lord,-in other
words, recognized as from the Lord, the only source of
Life. "Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built,
185
THE WOMAN BUILT FROM THE RIB.
O Virgin of Israel,” says the Prophet Jeremiah (xxxi. 4)—
to build meaning to raise up to a higher state; for this self-
hood or ownership-was akin to and afterwards degenerated
into a love of self and the world, to the exclusion of higher
things. So that when Jehovah God vivified this self-
hood, he raised it, or builded it, as though to a woman.
And in the same chapter (Jeremiah xxxi. 22) we read
thus, "How long will thou go about, O thou backsliding
daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the
earth, A woman shall compass a man,”—as the rib com-
passed the heart, as the flesh, with a higher vitality,
substituted for it, compassed the seat of the will and
affection in man,—so shall a woman, the self-hood vivified
by the Lord, compass (or flow into, Gen. ii. 11) a man,-a
man, that is, spiritualized (Jer. v. 1)—a man who recog-
nizes that he does not live for himself,-that his self-hood
is derived from, and vitalized by, Jehovah. "And He
brought her unto the man"-i.e. gave the man to possess
this gift or endowment of ownership or self-hood.
"And the man said, This now is bone of my bone, and
flesh of my flesh; therefore she shall be called woman (or
wife), because she was taken out of man" (ver. 23).
Literally, "This is bones from my bones and flesh from
my flesh; this shall be called woman, because from man
this was taken." Moreover, the word man in this last
case is not Adam, but ish', and the woman, ish-shah' (see
margin)—and the same word is again used for man in the
next verse; but in the last, Adam once more. The differ-
ence is that Adām is equivalent to homo, or mankind;
while ish' answers to vir, a male human being, character-
ized by wisdom or understanding :-Eve (chap. iii. ver. 20)
being in Hebrew, Khav-vāh', which signifies Life. But it
is not the woman built from the rib of the man (ish) who
is so called, but the wife of the man (ādām').
+
We have already seen what bone and flesh signify,-
bone, the self-hood, natural and dead,-flesh, the same
vivified by the Lord through the recognition of its source
186 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
and origin. The change in the word which signifies man
is important, since vir, to which it is equivalent, implies
a man in the highest sense,-therefore the internal man,
full of wisdom and goodness. It is the same word as is
used by the Prophet Isaiah (xli. 28) where he says, "I
beheld, and there was no man." But the self-hood we
have spoken of was a property of the external man; and it
had already been promised as a help meet for him,
something to which he might become attached. The
self-hood had been given him, endowed with spiritual
life, although it had been something lifeless when taken
from him; and thus presented to him as something he
might love and cherish, it is represented as a woman or
wife. In all men must this process be effected as the
basis of what is known as regeneration. The self-hood
naturally coils round the heart (as a rib), but in its
natural state it is devoid of life or spirituality. It must
therefore be removed, and raised to a higher condition,
and be endowed with another and superior life, so that we
may by its aid acquire wisdom and learn and practise
goodness as though of ourselves. It is a privilege which
we may love and cling to, so long as it is not abused,—a
beautiful and loving helpmate in our spiritual advance and
progress.
"Therefore shall a man (vir) leave his father and
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be
one flesh" (ver. 24). It is evident that from the time
when it was perceived that it was not good for man to be
alone, a germ of danger to the stability of the perfection
of his celestial condition had begun to develope itself,-
from which ultimately resulted the Fall, described in the
third chapter. From the time when man was no longer
altogether under the Divine guidance, a disturbing element
began to appear, which gradually developed to a destruc-
tive magnitude,-of which this verse begins to give us
some indication. For the power of acting and thinking
as from self, bore as its first fruit an inclination to retire,
SIGNIFICANCE OF MARRIAGE.
187
as it were, from the security of the internal man, and to
act from all that was good and true in the external man.
This is the signification of leaving father and mother, and
cleaving to the self-hood which is represented by the wife.
Marriage is here indicated and founded; and in Matthew
(xix. 4-6) our Lord quotes this account in these words:
"Have ye not read that He that made them from the
beginning, made them male and female, and said, For
this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave
to his wife; and they twain shall become one flesh ?
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." Man
was created homo (Adam) male and female (Gen i. 27)—
and in a subsequent stage of his history, woman, repre-
senting the self-hood, was said to be made out of the man
(homo), who thus became vir (ish), a male only-and
thus there is a continual desire for reunion,—for the vir,
thus reunited, becomes again the homo, or complete man.
Therefore shall a man (ish, or vir) cleave to his wife
(isha), and they shall become one flesh,-the expression
one flesh signifying one man, as all flesh means all men.
"All flesh shall know that I the Lord, &c." (Isa. xlix. 26);
"I am the Lord, the God of all flesh" (Jer. xxxii. 27), and
in many other places.
And in this stage the conjunction between the man and
his wife having been effected according to order, it was
good, as ordered by the Lord; the loss of innocence by
the infraction of the laws of the garden of Jehovah related
in the next chapter had not yet taken place. Therefore
the man and his wife are said to have been “naked and
not ashamed,” to represent that innocency: as is evident
from the fact that, when they had lost that innocence
by the abuse of their privileges, shame came upon them,
and they covered their bodies, and concealed themselves
among the trees of the garden.
L
NOTE. In the Introduction to François Lenormant's
"Book of Genesis" we are told that
many attempts
188 PRIMARY EXPLANATION OF GENESIS II.
have been made to invalidate the conclusions of criticism;
but, to select a few instances, no one has ever been able
to explain how it is that man and animals are created by
Yahveh in chap. ii., after having been created by Elohim
in chap. i.; how it is that the name of Yahveh is said in
Gen. iv. 26, to have been known to men ever since a period
before the Deluge, when, in Exod. vi. 3, it is said to have
been unknown to the patriarchs," &c. The first of these
difficulties has however been fully explained in the fore-
going chapter; and the second will be found completely
illustrated in Chap. VIII. The remaining instances men-
tioned in the same paragraph would have been equally
clearly explained on the same principles, but that they do
not fall within the scope of the present work.

"The chief purpose of the mystery, we venture to suggest, is to give in a
concrete form,—as far as the nature of the things and human capacity allow,
—an account of man's departure from the Almighty If the whole be
counted an allegory, the underlying truth is not the less intense or real."
C. W. GOODWIN (in Essays and Reviews).
• •
•
"The visiting on Adam's descendants, through hundreds of generations, of
dreadful penalties for a small transgression which they did not commit; the
damning of all men who do not avail themselves of an alleged mode of
obtaining forgiveness, which most men have never heard of; and the effecting
a reconciliation by sacrificing a son who was perfectly innocent, to satisfy the
assumed necessity for a propitiatory victim,-are modes of action which,
ascribed to a human ruler, would call forth expressions of abhorrence; and the
ascription of these to the Ultimate Cause of things, even now felt to be full
of difficulties, must become impossible. So too must die out the belief that a
Power present in innumerable worlds, throughout infinite space, and who,
during millions of years of the earth's earlier existence needed no honouring
by its inhabitants, should be suddenly seized with a craving for praise, and
having created mankind, should be angry with them if they do not perpetually
tell him how great He is.
Herbert Spencer (Nineteenth Century, Jan. 1884),
Religion; a Retrospect and a Prospect."
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
I COR. XV. 22.

1
د
CHAPTER VII.
PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.:-3. THE FALL.
L
ET us now advance our inquiries to the third
chapter of Genesis; and here we find a continua-
tion of the narrative in the mythical form which
which was begun at verse 4 of the second chapter, and
continued until the introduction of the real historical
character, Abram, in the eleventh chapter. But as the
second chapter contains under this mythical exterior an
account of the rise of the human intelligence and soul to
the highest of which they are capable upon this sphere of
earth, so the third tells how from that exalted pinnacle
they fell, and forfeited their possession of the garden of
Jehovah in which they had been symbolically placed.
This Fall and forfeiture took its rise from the gradual
abuse of that self-hood, or feeling of ownership, which we
saw in the second chapter given to man, as a help with
him, to enable him to accumulate knowledge, and to act
as though from himself,-in order that he might thus be
possessed of a freedom of will and consequent responsi-
bility; and moreover of a power of truly reciprocating the
love poured into him from the Divine Love, and using the
wisdom flowing into him from the Divine Wisdom, for
their true and proper end, which is what is to be under-
stood as the glory and praise of Jehovah. The manner
in which this important change came about in man's
internal and external nature and condition, can only be
I
192 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
known from the spiritual meaning contained under the
natural symbols of these chapters, which are of much
greater antiquity (in all probability) than the other
portions of the Bible,-chapters which were probably
originally handed down by oral tradition from persons
who had at first a true perception of their genuine mean-
ing and origin; and as this perception was gradually lost
they were reduced to the most ancient form of writing, in
order that the symbols might be handed down to posterity.
The universality of serpent-worship receives illustration
from this chapter, wherein we learn the true meaning of
the serpent as a natural symbol; and it is not difficult,
when this is understood, to apply it to the vast number of
instances in which the worship of the serpent is known to
have occurred in different ages, and in various parts of
the world. The third chapter begins thus-"Now the
serpent was subtle (or crafty) above every beast of the field
which Jehovah God had made" (ver. 1).
We have alluded elsewhere in this work to the paral-
lelism between the order of the unfolding of the faculties
in the individual and in the race. The infant at birth is
merely corporeal ;-beyond the power of sucking at the
breast, nothing is possessed, excepting only the power of
breathing and of sleeping. And succeeding to this, before
the acquisition of intellectual ideas, a sensual life is
unfolded in its turn, depending upon the development and
use of those external adjuncts which are the gates, as it
were, of the body, and usually (and correctly) designated
the senses. These senses have their value as preludes
or avenues to the development of the reasoning faculty,
which comes by observation and comparison, based upon
previous experience of a lower kind. The period next
succeeds when the new birth is possible-when it is pos-
sible for a regeneration or reconstruction of the fallen
nature to take place, by the opening up of an interior
nature, or spiritual degree,-founded chiefly upon a know-
ledge and application of the truths of religion. And this
THE THREE DEGREES OF LIFE.
193
stage may still further progress to a yet higher degree,
which we have called the celestial, in which love or good is
the moving principle, rather than truth,-in which, that
is, the heart, the will, and the affections, are the deter-
mining cause of action, rather than the head, the under-
standing, and the intellect alone.
Thus there are three degrees of Life ;-the merely
natural or sensual, the spiritual, and the celestial;-the
rational, as we have elsewhere explained, being inter-
mediate between the natural and the spiritual,-the ante-
chamber between that which is merely of the body, or
of the external man, and that which is of the soul, or
spiritual (viz. the internal) man. Now all these degrees
exist in, or constitute the nature of man, and are therefore
each, in their turn, and in their degree, essential to the
proper balance of every mind: and each one, even the
lowest, performs a necessary function in the aggregate of
our nature, provided only that it is kept in subjection and
in its proper subordinate place,—not unduly exalted and
permitted to rule, where it is only intended to serve. Our
first and lowest nature is natural (on the level of external
Nature)-corporeal, and sensual;-our second nature is
intended to be rational, intellectual, and above all spiritual,
-and ultimately celestial. Hence the Apostle justly says,
"Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural; and afterward that which is
spiritual" (1 Cor. xv. 46).
But even our sensual nature, that which has relation
to the senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, taste, and touch,
-is no less good in its degree than are those higher
faculties dependent on intellect and soul. And when God
had completed what we have shown to be not only out-
ward Nature, but the whole external and internal nature
of man, we are told "God saw everything that He had
made, and behold it was very good" (Gen. i. 31). For
we are permitted to "use this world, as not abusing it "
(1 Cor. vii. 31),-for these things all have uses which we
13
194 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
are no less bound to develop than other and higher uses.
But yet every one will agree that the gratifications of
sense are of all things most liable to take too firm a hold
upon our minds,-that the delights of the corporeal senses
are of such an insidious and subtle character that they
require constant watching in order that they may not over-
power us, and destroy us by a too ready yielding to their
blandishments; if we pay too much heed to the voice of
the charmer. For "their poison is like the poison of a
serpent " (Psa. Iviii. 4).
Hence this sensual principle is most aptly symbolized
by the serpent-a "serpent more subtle than any (wild)
beast of the field which Jehovah God had made." And
inasmuch as all evil arises from the abuse or undue ex-
altation of the sensual principle, the various forms and
modifications of evil are represented in Scripture by
various kinds of serpents-asps, cockatrices, fiery serpents,
&c. At first the term serpent was applied (as in the first
verse) to a sole reliance on that knowledge which de-
pends entirely on sense; which is also the meaning of
the passage in Jeremiah xlvi. 22—“ The voice (of Egypt)
shall go like a serpent "-for we have already remarked
upon the meaning of Egypt being external or merely
sensual science. But in its general meaning, the symbol of
the serpent refers, as above indicated, to an undue exaltation
of the sensual principle, which is equivalent to an inor-
dinate love of self; because the mastery of this principle
drove out the love of God and of others, and concentrated
the affections upon self-indulgence and self-gratification.
And yet in its properly subordinated position it was a
valuable adjunct to man's nature:-the things of sense,
placed under the government of the rational faculty,
conduce to circumspection and discretion: and it is
possible to be as our Lord exhorted His apostles to be,-
"wise as serpents, and (yet) harmless as doves." And it
was this (or such a) serpent which said unto the woman
(insinuated, that is, to the self-hood), "Yea, hath God said,
THE SERPENT.
195
ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden" (ver. 1).
And thus were subtly instilled the first doubts in those,
who, no longer implicitly trusting to the revealed, began
to admit into their minds the influence of unaided sense as
more worthy of credence.
And here be it observed there is no word whatever of
the Serpent being the Devil, or the Devil being even in
the Serpent. The idea of a rival power of Evil, as such,
is not presented by the narrative in any conceivable form;
but the catastrophe of the Fall of man is distinctly traced
to the undue preponderance of the lowest or sensual
principle, and its subtle whisperings to the self-hood. The
conception of a power of Evil antagonistic to God is but
a corruption of the genuine Revelation, which arose in
later times, when the true import of the sacred symbols
or correspondences began to be lost,-while no counten-
ance whatever is given to the idea in the original Record.
The reference to the dragon "that old serpent called the
Devil and Satan" in the Apocalypse (xii. 9), evidently
has the same meaning as here in Genesis. In verse 3 of
Revelations xii., he is spoken of as "a great red dragon."
It would too much diverge us from the present subject to
enter here upon an explanation of the import of the
Dragon of the Revelations,--but we would simply point out
that the symbol or expression serpent everywhere has the
same signification, and "that old serpent called the
Devil and Satan" refers to those who have raised the
sensual principle into undue prominence, with all the
consequent evils,-those who are in the love (or lust) of
Evil being known by the term Devil, and those who
confirm themselves and errors and violations of truth and
faith, being called Satan. For in all cases in Scripture,
the continual duplication of the phraseology has reference
to the double or dual attributes of God,—not of Good and
Evil-but of Love and Wisdom, or their opposites, Evil
and Falsity, and the double or dual faculties of man-
the will and the understanding.
196 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
And, be it observed, as indeed has been already noted,
that the key to what is known as the Fall is not in the
first verse of this third chapter of Genesis, but is found
earlier; and the first discordant note is struck in chapter
ii., verse 18. Throughout the first chapter, God saw
everything that He had made, and called it good,-and on
the sixth day, He declared it very good. But when man
had been finally perfected and established in Paradise,
their descendants by degrees conceived an impatience of
living alone, and lusted for freedom,-a freedom which
God, knowing that liberty was in the end necessary, was
pleased to grant them. But it is there for the first time
said (ver. 18), "It is not good"—and from that moment
the decline commenced. Neither is this the place to
vindicate the wisdom of God in granting that liberty
which was so disastrous to the spiritual condition of the
race as it then existed. We have here only to explain
the first rise and fall of humanity as recorded in these
three chapters. A careful study of the Scriptures in
general, upon the same principle, supplies the full expla-
nation which here we can at the best only faintly outline.
But yet it seems desirable to hint in this place at the
evident purpose of God, and to give a clue to that great.
and long-debated question-the Origin of Evil. We have
shown how from the first, the mental, moral, and spiritual
faculties of man were evolved in him under the special
guidance and control of his Creator. This development
was carried out, and could have been carried out in no
other way, than by the agency of Divine Wisdom (or
Truth, called the Word), never leaving man wholly to
himself, but working in him to the full capacity of his.
finite powers as a recipient and continent of the operations.
and activities of the Divine faculties of Love and Wisdom.
These faculties were instilled into man for a special
purpose,-viz, that a being might exist endowed with
powers transcending those of the merely animal races and
capable of appreciating and of finding his chief happiness
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
197
in inquiring into the marvels of the Universe, and also
following afar off the steps of and reciprocating the Divine
Love. Hence was man endowed with wisdom,-of the
same kind as his Creator's, only finite in degree. And, to
be capable of sharing in the higher degrees of happiness
and blessedness, he was also endowed with Love from the
Divine Source. Love, as we have already observed, was
the moving Cause of all this, as Wisdom, or Divine
Truth (the Word), was the efficient Cause. But Love
requires—nay, imperiously demands, a return. Up to the
time that man was in Eden, he had never been left
absolutely free to act. It was essential that every step
of his advancing life should be directed by God,-and
therefore at the same time impossible that man should
have an independent share in his own development. His
love and his wisdom were therefore dependent on God.
He loved God-but, although not precisely on compulsion,
still without a freedom of will to do otherwise.
He was
like a child who, innocent from ignorance of evil, has had
no temptation, and has never conquered from strength of
resistance. But this state of things was but preliminary.
The child learns in time that there is evil to be known
and avoided. He falls from his innocence, only to be
reconstructed upon a higher principle-that of freedom
of choice and selection of good in spite of the blandish-
ments of evil. So with man,-his love to the Lord, and
performance of good from the absence of knowledge of
evil, was not that kind of love and goodness which could
satisfy the Divine Love. So man having been first fully
stored with good and truth, which he could never wholly
lose—(for a remnant was always left), was then at length
endowed with a freedom of choice,—a free will, which has
been described under the name of a self-hood (woman).
God well knew the danger of the gift,-the fall which
would result, the terrible depths to which mankind
would be precipitated in the struggle, before he could be
reinstated upon the new and permanent basis:—but it
198 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
was inevitable, and in His wisdom it was effected. God
alone also knew what it would cost Himself. He did not
condemn man to ages of suffering from sin, with no regard
to Himself-but even when man fell, he made known the
way of escape in which Himself was to be the sufferer,-
to suffer for man's sake. Free-will was given,-man
chose the evil way-he suffered, almost to extinction; but
in the critical hour, as he had promised, God Himself
stretched out an arm of flesh and lifted man from the
abyss,—into which he can now never again be plunged.
"And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of
the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die" (vers. 2, 3). We have seen that the fruit of the trees
of the garden symbolized perceptions of truth (trees
pleasant to the sight), and perceptions of good (trees good
for food). But we must notice here a change of consider-
able import; for in chapter ii. verse 9, we read that the
tree of lives was placed in the midst of the garden, whereas
now the woman places the forbidden tree (of knowledge of
good and evil) in the midst.
But this is exactly as it should be, for it must be remem-
bered that a change has come over things, and the state
of the soul in which the sensual principle (the woman)
is unduly exalted,—has undergone an alteration. So that
whereas the tree of lives was at first in the midst, that is,
it was the central point of interest and attraction in the
soul;—now, the tree of knowledge occupies that position
and is spoken of as the tree which is in the midst of the
garden.
We have here a most instructive illustration of the
spiritual nature of these symbols. If it could be under-
stood by persons who are only accustomed to regard
natural and corporeal things that spirit is something
far higher, and upon a different plane, it would be seen
that neither time nor space rule in the spiritual world,
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL CREATIONS.
199
-but state or condition only; and that the state of the
soul determines its surroundings. Hence everything
which appears to the soul is in correspondence with its
affections of good and truth; and as these states vary,
the surroundings vary accordingly. Thus the creations.
of the spiritual world are instantaneous and ever-changing;
while it is in the natural world of matter only that the
creations being fixed in hard and unyielding matter, they
are settled and unchanging from year to year, and from
age to age;-variation only taking place by slow degrees,
and any improvement or development necessarily assuming
the character of an evolution.
Thus the Tree which was at first in the midst of the
garden, and which, if a real Tree, must have remained in
that position, was now displaced, and the subordinate
Tree occupied its place, in accordance with the change of
spiritual state experienced. The Tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was the most prominent in their minds,
and herein lay the danger.
That they should not touch this Tree, then, signifies
that they were not only not to believe, but not even to
think, that the good and truth of faith originated from
themselves, but to acknowledge God as their true source.
And the penalty was, that they should surely die. But
this death did not consist, as insinuated by the serpent,
in the death of the body;-but it was really something
far worse, the death of true wisdom and intelligence,
the death which follows the indulgence of the external
nature, or carnal mind. "For to be carnally-minded is
death" (Rom. viii. 6). In other words, not natural, but
spiritual death would be the penalty.
"And the serpent said to the woman, ye shall not
surely die" (ye shall not, dying, die). "For God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods (Elohim), knowing
good and evil" (vers. 4, 5). The careful consideration of
these chapters sets aside entirely and finally the erroneous
200 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
idea that they refer to a single pair of human beings,
placed for a brief period in a garden; for every verse,
almost, indicates a change of state of the race or com-
munity (and in truth the earliest Church on earth)—
which changes could only have been brought about
then, as now, slowly and in protracted periods of time.
At first a doubt arose in men's minds, insinuated by
the sensual principle, whether what had been handed
down to them concerning matters of religious faith and
truth, were really as represented;-then the question
cropped up, whether they could not be made matters of
inquisition by the external principle or carnal nature.
Now, this restlessness was still farther fed by self-
love, which desired to act under its own guidance rather
than the Lord's. All these changes must have occupied
long periods of time,-and concerning these long periods
we could have no conceivable information, but for that
contained in these three early chapters of Genesis.
To know good from evil is in the eyes of most people
a highly-prized gift. It is just that kind of worldly
knowledge on which most persons pride themselves, and
by the possession of which they claim to exercise power,
-or to be as gods (powers, Heb. Elohim). And those
who see only natural things, but are blind to spiritual
things, are just those who claim the greatest wisdom as
theirs, and look down, as from a higher pinnacle, upon
those, really better endowed, but at the same time truly
humble, who distrust their own knowledge and guidance,
—who, for the simple reason that they have perceptions
of higher things, refuse to bow down to things seen only.
Such men do not exist in the present age only,—but have
been in all ages, and no less in that early age of our race
described in the third chapter of Genesis.
And many
men who in this day refuse, as untenable, the outward
narrative of the tree and the serpent, and seeing nothing
more, set aside the Scriptures with it, can never bring
themselves to imagine that they are, in their own persons,
DISTINCTION BETWEEN ADAM AND ISH. 201
living instances of that process which is symbolized
under the myth they despise because they cannot com-
prehend it. And if there be such, the more their eyes
are closed to spiritual things, the more would they aver
that their eyes alone are open; and so indeed it seems to
them, but merely seems.
"And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
cause to understand; and she took of the fruit thereof, and
did eat; and she gave also to her man (not Adam, but ish
—vir) with her, and he did eat" (ver. 6). It will be recol-
lected that the state of man was elevated in the first
chapter to the spiritual, and in the second to the celestial
degree, in which degree all things act from the highest
interior principle of Love, or goodness, whose seat is in
the will or affections (the heart). Of this the woman is
representative,-and this more clearly indicates why it
was the woman who first partook of the fruit of the tree.
The tree was first good for food,-an expression already
remarked, as having relation to the will;-but it was also
pleasant to the eyes, in which expression, however, percep-
tions of truth are meant, for although chiefly symbolical
of the will, woman has of course no less, in her degree,
the faculty of understanding also-just as the man
symbolizing the latter, possesses also the former in a
subordinate degree. And regarding the woman as the
self-hood looking with longing eyes at what was forbidden,
the expression good for food signifies a perversion of love
(lust), and pleasant to the eyes, a perversion of truth (phan-
tasy). And that it seemed to be a tree to be desired to
cause intelligence, therefore evidently does not mean in-
telligence of a true kind, but that false or deceptive
knowledge with which one regards the delights of the
world and the flesh,—the fallacious wisdom of the serpent.
She did eat therefore, and she gave to her man (vir)
with her, and he did eat. In other words, the rational
principle concurred, and confirmed the delusive reasonings
202 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
of the sensual principle, and the seductive allurements of
the self-hood.
And what was the natural consequence? "The eyes.
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were
naked" (ver. 7). The expression, their eyes were opened,
is always used in Scripture for that unveiling of the in-
ternal perception which consists, not in seeing with the
outward natural eye, but with the mental or spiritual vision.
The natural eye may be without light, and yet the soul
be illuminated, and, on the other hand, the natural eye
may be keen, and yet the spirit may be darkened. And
as the man and his wife were formerly naked, and not
ashamed,-now that they perceive their nakedness, they
recognize that their innocence has departed, and their
conscience clearly proclaims their guilt. The self-hood,
in whose interest they acted, finds itself deserted by
higher faith and intelligence, and left naked and alone.
To be naked, and ashamed (or conscious of evil), means.
therefore to be stripped of the truths of faith,-such truths
of faith being represented by garments; for such spiritual
things clothe the things of love (or charity) as garments
clothe the body. Such garments, therefore, always
signify truths relatively inferior, as the "body is more
than raiment ;" and hence to use one out of many illus-
trations, we may point to Rev. iii. 18, "I counsel thee
to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be
rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear:" where
gold tried in the fire signifies, as always, the good of love,
-and white raiment, the truth of wisdom, or faith,
without which truth or faith is nakedness, with shame.
"And they sewed the leaves of the fig-tree, and made
themselves girdles" (ver. 7). The fig-tree is always.
mentioned complementary, as it were, to the vine;-for
as the vine signified spiritual good, so the fig-tree, natural
good, either conjoined with spiritual good, or separate
from it, as when the figs fall untimely (Rev. vi. 13).
THE LAST TREE IN THE GARDEN.
203
Here it means that those who had lost their spiritual
innocence took refuge in natural good, concealing what
they had acquired of evil under the covering of natural
good, the felt necessity of which was of the nature of an
excuse.
"And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking
(or going to itself) in the garden in the breeze (or air) of
the day, and the man and his wife hid himself from the
face of Jehovah God, in the midst of the tree of the
garden" (ver. 8). We note here some words inaccurately
translated, which have in the original their significant
meaning. The fallen race still retained some of their
perception which resulted in an impression,—the voice
of Jehovah God going to itself-in the breeze of the day;
-the expression referring to the dulled perception which
alone was left to them in this extremity.
Nevertheless this impression or dictate caused them to
fear-for they hid themselves; or, as the original has it,
the man and his wife hid himself, for the race and its self-
hood were one (ish, not Adam). And they hid themselves
-not in the midst of "the trees of the garden "-(as our
Bible has it), but amongst "the tree (etz sing.) of the
garden." For this garden of the soul in which God's
voice was heard as an internal dictate, was no longer a
paradise with many trees good for food and pleasant to
the eyes. These had disappeared with the state of which
they had been the representatives and accompaniments,
and their present changed state could boast only of so
much of perception (tree) as was to be found in their
natural goodness,-a single poor tree in which alone they
could now take refuge.
And this impression or dictate-the voice of conscience.
-they feared, knowing their guilt. "And Jehovah God.
cried unto the man, and said unto him,-Where art
thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden;
and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself"
(vers. 9, 10). These verses are so plain by the light of
204 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
what has gone before, that they need no further illustra-
tion, and we may pass on to the next verses. "And He
said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? hast thou
eaten of the tree whereof I commanded that thou
shouldest not eat?" (ver. II). Nothing but the loss of
innocence and the consciousness of guilt (the Lord well
knew) could lead to the discovery that they were naked;
—and but one command had been given, by disobedience
to which such guilt could have been incurred, and such
knowledge acquired. The seduction of the self-hood,
arising from the ascendancy of the sensual principle,
had indeed opened their eyes; not, however, to the good
things promised, but to doubt and scepticism, and to a
desire to weigh the things of faith in the balance of the
external senses, to the dulling of spiritual perception by
the denial of truth, and the consequent lapse into falsity
and evil living. "And the man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat (ver. 12). And Jehovah God said unto the
woman, Why hast thou done this? And the woman
said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat " (ver. 13).
The rational principle (man) here admits that it has been
seduced by the self-hood, which it so much prized;-and
the self-hood confesses that it had yielded to the entice-
ments and allurements of the sensual principle, which
had got the upper hand, and by its subtlety and specious-
ness had become the ruler, where it should have been
kept in subordination and dependence.
The curse which Jehovah pronounced upon the serpent
next follows, and requires more attention than the last
three verses, which have been sufficiently explained by
what went before. "And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life" (ver. 14). The serpent was first
addressed, as the original cause of the evil; and the
THE DOOM OF THE SERPENT.
205
perception that the sensual principle was at fault is
meant by God speaking to it. We have already dwelt
upon the significance of cattle and beast of the field,
as affections of good, the highest qualities of the
spiritual, and, in turn, of the celestial, principle. But
when we read that God cursed the serpent, we must
bear in mind certain principles which will be laid down
in another place. God the Maker and Sustainer of all
things neither curses man, nor any other of His works.
He is infinite Love, and whatever quality he possesses,
he possesses in an infinite degree. To curse any one or
any thing would imply anger or hatred, which are incom-
patible with infinite Love. To say that God is angry
with the wicked simply means that the wicked place
themselves in such an attitude towards Him, that they
cannot avoid the feeling that they are hated of Him
whom they have themselves set at nought. "For God
is kind (even) to the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke
vi. 35), but they know it not, nor can be easily induced to
believe it,-vainly imagining that He is even such an one
as themselves. And therefore when it is here said that
God pronounced the serpent cursed above every beast,
and every wild beast of the field, the meaning is that the
sensual principle turned itself from the higher affections, and
found its most appropriate association with what was
lower and merely corporeal, and thereby condemned itself.
In Psalm xliv. 24-25 we have an illustration of this
verse, by which may be readily understood the true.
meaning of the curse of the serpent. "Wherefore hidest
thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our
oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust,
our belly cleaveth unto the earth." Here also it is man
averting himself from God, and fondly believing that the
reverse is the case; and under such adverse circumstances
his belly is said to cleave unto the earth. So the ser-
pent's condemnation was that it should go upon its belly,
to indicate that henceforward the sensual principle having
206 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
&
severed itself from the higher principle of good, could no
more look upward, but must grovel with downward aspect,
directed only to what was earthly and low-pitched. A
real serpent, as we know, naturally crawls with belly to
ground-and must have done so before its so-called
curse ;—but the sensual principle, which it represented,
was at first an orderly principle of the nature of man, and
therefore erect. It was only when it became the enemy of
good and truth-the too presuming dictator where it
should have remained simply the modest subordinate
and minister, that it lost its erectness, and became prone,
and kindred to earth. I have broken the bands of your
yoke, and made you go erect," says the Lord in Leviticus.
xxvi. 13-as a man may yet walk, if he overcome the
bonds in which he is held by sensuality, and becomes no
longer a slave, but more than conqueror.
This utter depravity of the sensual man is still further
illustrated by the serpent eating dust all the days of its
life. A real serpent lives not now on dust, nor ever did;
but the heathen, those not of the church of Jehovah,-
who were yet in bondage to this principle, were they who,
in the words of the Prophet Micah "shall lick the dust
like a serpent, and like creeping things of the earth they
shall move out of their holes; they shall be afraid of
the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee "
(Micah vii. 17). For what more appropriate symbol of
the utterly corporeal, all that is vile, and useless, and
accursed than dust; wherefore, as at the first, so in all
ages, and in all states, "Dust shall be the serpent's
meat" (Isaiah lxv. 25).
And further it was said, as to the serpent, " And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed: it (he) shall bruise thy head,
I
The reader of our Authorized Version (and we may now add of
the Revised Version also) may perhaps stumble slightly at the word
it" in this place. The Hebrew word is a demonstrative pronoun,
masculine singular,—and is used in chap. ii. ver. 11, where it is the
(C
MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH.
207
and thou shalt bruise his heel" (v. 15). This verse has
always been believed to bear the earliest reference to the
future coming of a Messiah, and justly so-though the
true grounds for the belief have hardly been understood.
The serpent, which is addressed, is, we have seen, the
symbol of that sensual principle which has by its undue
exaltation become our bane,-that principle which is an
orderly factor in the constitution of the human mind so
long as it is kept in subordination to the rational and
spiritual principles, but which otherwise exhibits its.
disorderly preponderance in all the odious forms of self-
indulgence and self-love. Therefore, the seed of the serpent
is representative of those very evils of every kind which
are thus begotten ;-for indeed all evil has its rise from
this source, inasmuch as self-love casts out those other
loves of God and one's neighbour, upon which, we are
told, hang all the Law and the Prophets. Hence the
reference to that old serpent who deceiveth the whole
world, in Rev. xii. 9.
We have seen, moreover, that the woman symbolized
that self-hood or sense of ownership, dear to the man,
which in its first introduction was vivified, as it were, by
Jehovah, and therefore innocent and pure. These pre-
viously advancing, and now declining, states of man were
evidently the work of long periods of time,-and this self-
hood had, at this period, fallen from its original purity,
and become worldly and perverted. But when the woman
was first formed in her integrity, marriage was instituted
between her and man. Now marriage itself is a great
symbol of the union of the eternal principles of wisdom
and love-of truth and goodness-of faith and life. And
another great principle is thus symbolized by marriage,
namely, the union of the Church on earth with the Lord
in Heaven, by which union alone the Church has been
word that occuring after Pishon. It here refers to one of the heads
into which the river was divided. But both head and river are in
Hebrew masculine substantives.
208 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
maintained in all ages. Hence the Church is always
designated as a bride, or a wife-a virgin or a woman.
"Thy maker is thine husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His
name" (Isaiah liv. 5); and when the new Jerusalem, the
Church of the future, was seen in the Apocalypse, de-
scending from Heaven, it appeared “prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband" (Rev. xxi. 2).
And what the seed of the woman signifies is illustrated
by the passage in Revelations (xii. 17), where we read
"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went
to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus.
Christ." Thus the seed of the woman are those of the
Church who keep the commandments of God,-who keep
their faith in God in spite of difficulties, and persecutions,
and fallings away. But when the Lord came in the
Humanity, He came as the seed of the woman. Hence,
the woman's seed is called He in the verse under dis-
cussion, and that He should tread upon the serpent's
head, is now seen clearly to have implied, that He, in
the fulness of time, should crush the very root and source
of the dominion of evil. Thus (Psa. lxviii. 21), we read
'God shall wound the head of His enemies." For the head
denotes the highest principle, the most interior,—as the
feet the lowest and most exterior: the head is the seat of
intelligence, to which the body is as it were the servant
to carry out its behests; and to which again the feet are
the supports and carriers.
Hence also the heel signifies the lowest or outermost
material principle-i.e. the life which our Lord laid down
under the persecution of evil men, the corporeal life
of the natural humanity, thus bruised by the seed of the
serpent. And thus is explained such an obscure passage
of the Psalmist (xlix. 5), “The iniquity of my heels shall
compass me about," signifying the tendency of the
evils which flow in from the lowest natural principle to
overcome higher mental states the fact which the
Apostle deplores in Romans vii. 24.
FALL OF THE SELF-HOOD.
209
We now address ourselves to the curse (so-called) upon
the woman.
"And to the woman He said, Multiplying,
I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow
shalt thou bring forth sons ; (bā-nīm'-masc.-plural) and thy
husband shall be thy desire, and he shall rule over thee "
(ver. 16). To those who vainly imagine that this was a
literal curse upon a primæval woman, there are many con-
siderations which should arrest their judgment. Do they
imagine that there were no women before this? and if so,
why should this woman's conception be greatly multiplied?
Moreover, all physiologists are aware how little some
races suffer in child-birth, so that the curse would appear
to be very partial,-while the progress of science would
seem to have modified it yet more. But while it is a
general law that conception and child-birth should ever
be accompanied with some physical pains and dangers,
the so-called curse (which is, however, no curse), merely
takes this general natural law as a basis for spiritual cor-
respondencies and representatives.
For the fallen and perverted self-hood, in its original
purity had been turned towards the Lord, and readily
followed the highest dictates, so that what proceeded from
it was holy and good, and the orderly manifestations of
an accordant will and intellect were brought forth with
the accompaniments of delight and happiness. But now
the case was different: the character of the self-hood was
changed, the perception of the higher and more internal
principle was become difficult and laborious; and the
out-births of truth and faith (sons-not daughters, and
therefore not children, as in the Authorized (and Revised)
Version) could henceforth only be accompanied, not with
pleasure but with struggle and temptation. That sons
represent things of truth, and daughters things of good is
everywhere apparent in the Bible. For the natural birth
is but a type of the spiritual birth. "That which is born
of the flesh (said our Lord to Nicodemus) is flesh; and
that which is born of the spirit is spirit" (John iii. 6).
14
210 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
Our souls have to be born as well as our bodies, and the
great principles of understanding and will develop them-
selves later: and not until these have become established
can they beget sons and daughters, that is to say,
thoughts and affections. And of these thoughts and affec-
tions, these goods and truths of the Spirit, there are
generations succeeding generations, just as there are
generations succeeding generations of the natural man.¹
That the desire of the woman should be to her husband,
seems at first sight a singular item of the condemnation,
inasmuch as that would appear to be the natural and
proper course of things, and one on which the happiness.
of the marriage-tie must be in great part dependent. But
the word husband or man (vir, not homo) in the original,
affords the clue. For while Adam (translated homo) sig-
nifies the complete man, male and female,—that is, the
united intellect and will, when ish (translated, vir)
occurs, it always means the rational principle alone,-and
therefore the signification of the desire of the woman to
her husband is plainly, that real intelligence having
suffered a paralysis, as it were, from its having consented
to the action of the self-hood, the rational principle alone
remained as a substitute for spiritual wisdom; and to this
rational principle the self-hood was henceforth subject,
looking to it alone for guidance; and such guidance and
control is meant by the man ruling over her.
"And to the man he said, Because thou hast hearkened
to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of
it, cursed is the ground for thy sake;-in pain shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth for thee, and thou shalt eat
the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face (nose)
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for
out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return" (vers. 17, 18, 19). Here again it
I "New Studies in Christian Theology," p. 5.
P
THORNS AND THISTLES.
21 [
is hardly possible to conceive that the earth was cursed
with a barrenness which it did not possess before. For
although some regions of the earth are naturally sterile,
there are others again of a surpassing fertility. Nor is it
necessary to imagine that such is the real meaning of the
words, beyond the indication of that necessity for labour
which must have been the lot of man in every age. But
on the principle which we have found so satisfactorily to
solve all the phases of this most remarkable record, we
may also read these passages with profit and advantage.
No curse is indeed here intended as proceeding from God,
but the ground, so represented as cursed, it will be remem-
bered in all cases represents the external man, throughout
this and the second chapter. And we know that he is
called ground in this chapter, because the man, formerly
called simply carth, has herein become regenerate, and
like ground in which good seed (seeds of love and
goodness) has been sown. And as the self-hood, which is
the source of the evil by which he has fallen, is proper to
the external man, therefore the ground suffers. Not how-
ever as cursed by God, but as the result of turning away
itself from good and from God,-in the assent given by
the rational principle to the deceptive influence of the
self-hood. And that he should eat of it in sorrow all the
days of his life, signifies,—that as long as that dispensa-
tion lasted, the effects of the evil would be felt: and, that
man should live (eat) in the fruition of sorrow, anxiety,
and unhappiness, consequent upon the loss of innocence,
and the descent from a higher to a lower ideal.
Doubtless natural thorns and thistles were not unknown
in the primitive floras of the globe, but the thorns and
thistles here alluded to are those signified by Isaiah
(xxxii. 13): “Upon the land (ground) of my people shall
come up thorns and briers "-and by Hosea (x. 8) "The
high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed:
the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars.”
The "high places of Aven" are evidently here significant
212 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
to the evils of self-love, and the thorns and thistles are
explained by our Lord Himself (Mark iv. 18, 19) in the
Parable of the Sower; "These are they which are sowed
among thorns. And the cares of this world, and the deceit-
fulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in,
choke the word." And Ezekiel tells of a time when man
should once more turn to the Lord, and reverse his own
self-condemnation,-and says-" And there shall be no
more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any
grieving thorn of all that are round about them that
despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord”
(Ezek. xxviii. 24).
And what is it to "eat the herb of the field "--but to
live a life of the world, worldly-the life of a beast; which
has forfeited some at least of the spiritual privileges of
man;—as we read in the Prophet Daniel, of Nebuchad-
nezzar, king of Babylon, "They shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the
field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and
they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven” (iv. 25).
The last part of this denunciation reads so naturally
that it might be superficially imagined to have no deeper
meaning, but while man does and always did earn his
bread more or less by the sweat of his brow, as it were,
and certainly always must return unto the dust;
other and more internal significations are contained as
the real spiritual kernel of which the letter is but the
external husk. To eat bread means, not only to assimilate
bodily food, but also to nourish the soul with that which
similarly builds it up and strengthens it, viz., with good,
-spiritual and celestial good. "He that eateth of this
bread shall live for ever" (John vi. 58). For "Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth
out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4). This is spiritual
bread-this is that bread of Life. But when Mankind had
declined from its former state of good and truth,—when
Man was fallen and had turned himself from God, and
DUST UNTO DUST.
213
become the slave of his sensual and corporeal principle,
he loathed this bread, as the Israelites loathed the
Manna when they began to speak against God (Numb.
xxi. 5). It was no longer easy to eat of the bread of life,
-it could only be obtained laboriously,-by the sweat of
the brow. It could be offered him as before, but when
man turns himself from God, he cuts himself off from the
blessings he before enjoyed, and which flowed into him.
like the air around him. And thus they eat bread in the
sweat of the face,—until they return to the ground,—the
ground as it was before, the ground, regenerated, from
which man had wandered, and unto which he must
sooner or later return. "For dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return." Dust-the most useless, defiling
of substances,—the fit emblem of what is corporeal—nay,
infernal. Corporeal had man become in his desires and
affections. He had averted himself from God,-and
God's face seemed to be hidden from him; he was like
those referred to by the Psalmist (civ. 29), “Thou hidest
Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their
breath, they die, and return to their dust."
The closing scene of this unhappy narrative occupies.
the remaining verses. "And the man called his wife's
name Eve, because she was the mother of all living
(ver. 20). The proper name Eve (khav-vāh') signifies
Life, and the name was applied to the woman (or wife)
but not as the primeval woman from whom all the human
race is descended. The narrative does not pass from
spiritual to literal in any such arbitrary or inconsistent
fashion as this would imply. We know what the woman
symbolizes, and we have seen what is meant by Life in
this narrative. The living are not simply those living in
the body, but those in whom spiritual life is established.
Such alone are the truly living-"to be spiritually-minded
is life and peace"-but "to be carnally-minded is death."
We have seen that a distinction is made between man
(Adam, Lat. Homo) and man (ish, Lat. vir). Whenever
214 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
man (Adam) and his wife are spoken of, man signifies
the essential good which belongs to, or constitutes the
Church; and the woman, faith, which is the Life of the
Church, and thus the Church itself;-but when man.
(ish) and his wife are the subject, the man signifies the
Intellect, and the woman the Will,-the two together
constituting the whole man. Now it is the man (Adam)
who calls his wife Eve, or Life; and she represents the
first Church on Earth, the mother of all those who
possess living truths of faith; for those alone who possess
such faith can be said to be living. That a woman and a
wife have a similar signification, and that both mean the
Church may be seen from Isaiah liv. 5, 6, "For thy
Maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is His Name;
and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of
the whole earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath
called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and
a wife of youth "-wife of youth referring to this first early
and original Church.
"And Jehovah God made to the man and his wife
coats of skins, and clothed them" (ver. 21). We do not
see any necessity for the literal belief that God Himself
supplied the man and his wife with garments. Those
who could sew fig-leaves together, could also doubtless
have made coats of the skins of kids and lambs-sheep
and goats. But the internal meaning refers to the signi-
ficance of these symbols when used as raiment. That
which is highest and most interior requires no clothing,
hence the (celestial) man and his wife were at one period
naked;—a step lower does require it-that is, things
spiritual, and à fortiori, things natural, are clothed,—the
former with white raiment (Rev. iv. iv.),-beautiful garments
(Isa. lii. 1),—broidered work (Ezek. xvi. 10), &c.,-and the
latter, the natural, as inhabitants of this world, with skins.
For skin denotes what is external, though it takes its
special meaning from the animals whose skin is referred
to-kids and sheep signifying, as before said, things
NAMES OF GOD.
215
relating to good and charity (or love). Now, although
this primitive Church of which we are speaking had
fallen from its first estate, as we all do after the innocence
of childhood is put off or lost,-yet, like us, it was no less
principled in good both spiritual and natural; and there-
fore were they clothed in skins, which signify this spiritual
and natural good, as the exterior garments of those so
endowed.
In the next verse, we have again the expression which
has given rise to so much discussion, where Jehovah God
speaks of Himself in the plural number, which some
have vainly imagined to be an indication of a plurality
(i.c. Trinity) of persons. "And Jehovah God said, Lo, the
man has been as one of Us, to know good and evil; and
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of lives, and live for ever"—(ver. 22). It is no mere
caprice that God calls Himself by several names in the
Scripture, but each one has a definite meaning, according
to the word spoken, or the act done; and it would too
greatly enlarge this work, nor would it come quite within
its scope to fully explain all the distinctions implied,-
for which a separate treatise would be necessary. But
we have already, when pointing out the difference between
the so-called Elohistic and Jehovistic divisions of the
creative Record, shewn that that which, read without
knowledge, gave countenance to the Fragmentary Hypo-
thesis, when intelligently studied, confirms the Divine
character of the whole, and shews the consistency and
coherency of the whole as a great primæval revelation.
We shall not therefore here further dwell upon the ex-
pression "one of us"-than to say, that the word Elohim,
translated God when applied to the Lord-and sometimes.
gods, when (as in Psa. lxxxii. 1, and lxxxix. 6) it is applied
to men (or angels) always expresses power, as the
creative Power in the first chapter of Genesis. In other
places it is applied to strength generally, as in Isaiah xlix.
4, 5; lv. 7, &c.;-whereas, Jehovah signifies that One
216 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
Power from which all other powers are derived; and
Jehovah God, the One only God of Heaven and earth.¹
Man, by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, had learned the evil art of believing
that he lived and was intelligent from himself alone,
without the aid of Jehovah, from whom all his life and
intelligence were really derived. He had become like
that one referred to in the 2 Thess. ii. 4, "Who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that
is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of
God, shewing himself that he IS God." He had become
Ι
-
Adonai-
The names El (God, pl. Elim);-Eloah (pl. Elohim-very often
used);—Elohim (Gods, or Powers); Helyon, or Helyonin (Most High,
and Most Highest, plural); Adonim, (pl. Lord);-Shaddai (Almighty);
—Jah, (I am, Exod. xv. 2; Psa. lxviii. 4); and Jehovah-the tetra-
grammaton,—the unspeakable Name,-signifying "I am that I am,"
and denoting Him as self-existent, and the Source of Life :—and their
combinations, El-Elim (God of gods, Dan. xi. 36);-Jehovah-Elohim,
(Gen. ii., &c.); — Jah-Jehovah (Isa. xii. 2, and xxvi. 4);
Elohim ;-Adonai-Jehovah (Gen. xv. 2 and 8);-El-Shaddai (God
Almighty, Gen. xvii. 1);-and Jehovah-Sabaoth (Jehovah of Hosts),
&c;-all have definite significations, and are applied, not arbitrarily,
but in every case with especial and exact reference to the occasion on
which they are used. But a name possesses in Scripture a far higher
significance than it does in these days,—and the Name of God most
especially attaches to it a sacred character which is constantly referred
to in the Bible.
Hence we meet with such expressions as, "Blessed be Thy glorious
Name"-"They shall hear of Thy great Name "-" We will call upon
Thy Name"- "How excellent is Thy Name in all the earth "-and
numberless other passages, in which name is put for quality; and the
Name of God signifies His inmost nature and character. By His
name He revealed Himself to His people in ancient times-in pro-
portion as they could receive Him,-and this is meant by that passage
(in Exod. vi. 3): "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob (as) God Almighty" (El-Shaddai)—not by the Name of El-
Shaddai, as our Bibles suggest the meaning to be, for these words
do not exist in the original-" but by my Name JEHOVAH was I not
known to them." For He had not revealed Himself to the earliest
patriarchs as the Jehovah of Love,-the Father, but as the God of
Faith only-but to Moses He had made Himself more fully known
by His Name, JEHOVAH.
DANGER OF PROFANATION.
217
over wise-wise with the wisdom of the foolish-wise in
his own conceit.
But there was worse behind. A man may know
too much, too much, that is, for his condition; and
Truth is of such a nature as not to be lightly handled
without danger. There are many passages in the Bible
which would be incomprehensible, but for this knowledge.
When a man receives Truth intelligently into the mind,
he may either act according to his knowledge, or other-
wise. If he does so act he is one of those blessed who
hear the Word of God, and keep it. But this is not
possible in the case of those who, under the subtle
influence of the serpent, found their reasoning concerning
spiritual truth in externals, who argue from the self-
hood, and the mere scientific perception, whether the
truths of faith are as represented in the Bible, or no.
Such reasoning cannot fail to result in negative (agnostic)
views, and it is well if they are no worse than merely
negative or agnostic. The danger is that such truths
should become despised, and an attitude assumed, first
of indifference, then of contempt, and ultimately of
blasphemy and profanation. For Truth cannot be
blasphemed with impunity, and its quality is such that,
if profaned, it acts on the soul as a virulent poison,
instead of a refreshing draught. It becomes the polluted
spring of death, instead of the water of Life. And its
result as indicated by this verse is illustrated by Ezekiel
(xiii. 17-19), “Set thy face against the daughters of thy
people which prophesy out of their own heart; and
prophesy thou against them. . . . Will ye hunt the souls
of my people, and will ye save the souls alive unto you?
(or, will ye cause the souls to live unto you?) And will
ye pollute me among my people, to slay the souls that
should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not
live, by your lying towards my people that hear your
lies?"
Man was meant to live for ever, and therefore a pre-
218 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
caution taken against his living for ever can only refer
to a life which is not truly life, the life which, as mere
existence, cannot be blotted out, but which yet is but the
life of death. But although God does not take pre-
cautions against man living for ever, which would be but
to defeat His own designs,-He does take precautions
against his so living that his life would be a mere inver-
sion of that order which He has established. In later
times, when the Jewish Church was founded as a mere
outward and representative Church, it was expressly
ordained that they should not know the Truth directly
or immediately, but only mediately through signs,
symbols, and correspondences, to the end that they
should not be able to profane it. For of so external a
nature were they, as the last stage of descent and
decadence from the primæval pure Church that they could
no longer comprehend internal things; and therefore, if
they had been instructed in them, they would inevitably
have despised them, and profaned them, and brought
themselves to utter destruction and ruin. This is the
reason that all spiritual Truths were so involved in dark
sayings as to be incomprehensible to them at the time,
though valuable later on as confirmations when their ful-
filment had arrived. It was better that they should
reject the truth with a darkened understanding (though
that was bad enough), than that they should, with their
eyes open, despise, and ultimately (as they assuredly
would) blaspheme and abuse it. Hence we read in
Isaiah vi. 9, 10, "Go and tell this people, Hear ye
indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see
with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and
convert, and be healed."
The next verse (23) need not detain us,-for its expla-
nation will be evident from what has preceded. It is this,
"And Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of
MEANING OF CHERUBIM.
219
Eden," deprived him (that is) of the intelligence and
wisdom of which he might now make so dangerous an
use," to till the ground from whence he was taken," by
which is meant, restored him to that natural condition
from which he was previously raised.
"And He drove (or cast) out the man, and He placed
at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming
sword, (or, a flame of a sword), which turned every way,
to keep the way of the tree of lives." This is the con-
cluding verse of the history; which we will proceed to
explain. To be cast out from the garden of Eden,-"the
garden of the Lord,"-evidently signifies an awful fall
from intelligence and goodness, a separation from the
celestial good in which the earliest Church was nourished.
For that Church, we have seen, was celestial, which signi-
fies that it was ruled by love,-and no succeeding Church
has been of such a character, for from that period until
the coming of Christ in the flesh there was a gradual
degradation through the descending degrees of celestial,
spiritual, and natural. And this renders it the more
difficult for us to recognize the nature of this most
Ancient Church, for it was principled in qualities which
we of these days do not, and cannot yet, share. But as
man had now fallen from his pristine condition, it
became more and more necessary to keep from him those
profound truths which he was capable of receiving into
his intellect, but which would inevitably, if received,
have been profaned in the will. To prevent this it is
figuratively stated that Jehovah placed "cherubs, and
a flame of a sword," as guardians of that tree of lives,
whose signification has been already explained.
We have here a great light thrown upon a subsequent
circumstance of importance in the worship of the Jews.
It will be remembered that the ark of the covenant
containing the testimony was guarded by two cherubs—
(Exod. xxv. 22)-and this was the chosen habitation of
"who dwelleth between the cherubim." The
God,
220 PRIMARY INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS III.
presence of God here signifies the same as the tree of lives,
viz., those things belonging to the Lord, which were most
holy; and to protect them from being profaned, it was
guarded by two cherubim of beaten gold, representative
by their figures of those cherubim which kept the way of
the tree of life. "The Lord reigneth, (saith the Psalmist)
-let the people tremble; He sitteth between the cherubim ;
let the earth be moved" (Psa. xcix. 1). "Thou that
dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth" (Psa.
lxxx. 1).
And, lastly, the flaming sword (or, lit., the flame of a
sword) has a similar meaning and use;—for flame is
always representative of love of some kind, and a flame
of a sword is an inverted or destructive love, such as is
self-love, which so blinds the mental eyes that all attempt
to reach the mysteries of faith through it becomes abor-
tive; as in Ezekiel xxi. 15, "I have set the point of the
sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint,
and their ruins (or offences) may be multiplied." And this
verse indeed may serve as a gloss upon all that has gone
before, inasmuch as it throws light upon that very con-
cealment of the spiritual sense which we have been at
pains to unfold. The literal sense of the Scripture acts.
as a guard over the spiritual sense. No evil consequences
of importance follow the various reception of the letter,
for that which it conceals and guards remains intact,
whatever doctrines may be founded upon the literal sense;
but to violate the internal sense, when known,-to wrest
it to evil and falsity for the purpose of confirming evil and
false lives, is to profane it,-to offend the Holy Spirit of
God, and to commit that sin against the Holy Ghost
which cannot be forgiven a man: since it drives away
that operation and influence by whose aid alone can
regeneration be effected.
"What connexion is there between a history of hard facts belonging to the
real world of actual human life, and a set of ecclesiastical doctrines which
appear to be read into them? If we could answer this question we should
probably be able to deal with the other difficulty to which we have referred.
If we could get at a reasonable principle on which Mystical Interpretation
could be based, we could better judge whether any given piece of patristic
exegesis conformed to it or not.
And indeed we can hardly suppose in any case that the history of peoples
or of individuals was modified merely in order to furnish types of other things
for our edification. Men,' as Messrs. Jennings and Lowe say, 'are not
appointed by God to lead good or bad lives in order that the life of Christ or
Judas may be symbolized.' We must evidently take a larger and deeper view
of the whole question if we are to rest the Mystical Interpretation of the Bible
upon a truly rational basis."
“The Mystical Interpretation of Holy Scripture.”
(Church Quarterly Review, April, 1886.)

CHAPTER VIII.
THE JEWISH CHURCH; AND ITS PLACE IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT.
N order to understand the unity of the Scripture
writings, it is absolutely necessary that a reasonable
and coherent conception of the nature of the Jewish
Church, and of the historical position of the people called
Jews should be entertained,-not such an erroneous and
chaotic view as that arrived at by the tortuous road of
German critical scholarship; but upon principles demon-
strated in this volume as at once rational and consistent.
How much has been written upon the subject of Jewish
History, and to how little purpose! Volumes, essays,
prolegomena, historical studies, criticism learned and
profoundly studied, or rather over-studied and over-
strained,—have from time to time appeared,—all having
for their avowed end and aim the disentanglement, as it
is termed, of the historical from the mythical, the elimi-
nation of difficulties and inconsistencies from the Hebrew
records, and the piecing together and bringing into an
imaginary consecutive accord, the supposed fragments of
the so-called Jehovistic, Elohistic, and priestly docu-
ments, which, it is asserted, are all jumbled together in a
sort of chaotic heap; --or which resemble a labyrinth, to
which it is imagined that Criticism, and chiefly German
criticism, alone holds the clue.
224
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
And yet what is the result of all this learned web spun
around the Old Testament with an accumulated weight of
ponderous verbosity which buries the subject fathoms
deep, and which, while it redounds to the literary
ingenuity and academic honour of the learned critics,
nevertheless utterly destroys the primitive significance
of the Records thus ruthlessly handled? What is it but
a darkening of counsel with words without wisdom?-we
repeat it advisedly, words without wisdom, because the
words by which the brilliant critic and schoolman fondly
imagines that he is illustrating the subject and unravelling
its difficulties, are words which, in reality, fail to do any-
thing but to obscure it, annihilating it beneath the
accumulations of a new and ungenial literature, from
which it could never be capable of emerging, were it of an
ordinary nature, and did it not shine through the superin-
cumbent mass by its own inherent brightness and lustre.
The great alleged discovery of modern German criti-
cism is what is known as the Grafian hypothesis, viz.,
the hypothesis that the Levitical Law, and the connected
parts of the Pentateuch were not written until after
the fall of the kingdom of Judah; and further, that the
Pentateuch itself, in its present compass, was not publicly
accepted as authoritative until the reformation of Ezra.
In other words, the German school of advanced criticism.
teaches that the precepts of the Law were not, as they
profess to be, Divine institutions given from Jehovah by
the hand of Moses, which regulated the life of the
Israelites during their wanderings through the wilderness,
but that they belonged to, and were the characteristics of,
a much later and a comparatively recent age;-that the
Mosaic ordinances, as we read them in the Books of the
Pentateuch, were not written by Moses at all, but that
they were a growth which developed itself a thousand
years or so subsequent to the age in which Moses existed.
This extraordinary and monstrous bouleversement of the
Sacred Scriptures, and of the record of Jewish History
UNJUSTIFIABLE CRITICISM.
225
which they hand down to us, is founded upon what
modern criticism styles internal evidence,—and is largely
accepted by scholars. But let not the Bible Christian be
alarmed at the portentous proportions of the innovation,
which is, it is true, sanctioned by high names in scholar-
ship and criticism, yet is, we dare affirm, the result of an
utter and entire misconception of the whole scope and
meaning of the History which it so ruthlessly attempts to
overturn. Nothing could in the slightest degree justify
such a sweeping and destructive criticism of documents
so venerable, short of the distinct discovery of a compre-
hensive clue, of a character and importance which should
suffice to shed an illumination over the whole subject.
And further, such a clue ought to be capable of rendering
it in the highest degree probable--not only that the
writings in question were but a medley of incoherent
fragments of different ages and by different authors, which
had been carelessly edited by one who was utterly incom-
petent to the task, and who had so inextricably mingled
the documents that the combined and resultant work
shewed neither sense nor meaning;-but also that a
careful and ingenious re-arrangement of them was capable
of restoring to them their true and original significance,
and of bringing into prominence a genuine and hitherto
unknown key which should infallibly unlock their acknow-
ledged difficulties and mysteries.
But we contend that the bold assumption that any such
clue is held by the German critics, however learned, is
utterly illusory, and that it is they who have so hopelessly
entangled the Jewish documents as to present a mere
chaos where formerly reigned the most perfect and super-
human order. And it is because they have utterly and
entirely missed the great underlying principle of these
writings, that they have lost themselves in a maze of
fond speculation and a labyrinth of misleading theory,
spun from their own brains, and by which they have
striven to supersede the noble and stately order of the
15
226
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
grandest documents the world possesses or ever did possess.
In their endeavour to cast discredit upon these, they have
merely blinded themselves to the majestic significance of
writings which are not for any one age of the world, but
for every age, past, present, and to come.
It will be our endeavour in this chapter to present con-
siderations which shall place the Jews and their history
in what we believe to be their undoubtedly true light;
and to point out the gross misconceptions which have
arisen concerning their genius and economy, their signifi-
cance in the march of human progress, and their meaning
in the sacred records. And further, to elucidate a great
underlying principle constant in these writings, entirely
overlooked or set aside not only by the German, but by
other hostile critics nearer home,-a principle, without a
comprehension of which, no one can approach the Old
Testament with any other than a mischievous result,-
but yet a principle which, once understood, renders the
whole Record clear, and divests it of all those obscurities
and mysteries with which it has been enshrouded by those
who would demand a wholesale transposition of its orderly
elements.
The leading questions which confront us in our endea-
vours to understand and to elucidate the scope and cha-
racter of the Old Testament as the pioneer, or germ from
which was evolved the Christian religion, and to bring it
into actual and reasonable reconciliation and accord with
the New Testament, as parts of one great Whole, are,-
first, Why should the acts and doings of a Semitic race,
still existent, but existent apart from Christians, occupy
so large a portion of the Books which we have so long
been in the habit of reverencing, as not merely ancient
and historically interesting, but also as the inspired Word
of God,-spoken, not to the Jews alone, but to all
mankind? Why should what so many believe, and justly,
to be the Divine Message, take the form chiefly of a
History, full of revolting details, and abounding with
ENIGMAS OF JEWISH HISTORY.
227
records of deeds which shock our modern sense as mere
history, which appear to be discordant with Christian
morality, and which describe the acts of a people so
perverse, so evil-disposed, so ungrateful, and so full of
iniquity, as were the Jews of old? And, again,—How
does it happen that these records, whether simply histori-
cal, or in turn monitory or minatory, of a single people
should act as the link which connects the Old with the
New - the
the avenue of the Divine Providence which
conducts from the most ancient peoples, whose history
would appear to survive only in the form of mere myths,
to the comparatively late times when the great message
of Christianity heralded peace and good-will, prosperity
and progress to the entire human race?
To furnish any satisfactory reply to these questions, we
must rehabilitate the Old Testament, and afford some
consistent view of the Jewish people, and of the precise
nature of their position and presentment in Old Testament
History; and for that end we must not only enter upon
some examination of the character and genius of the
Jewish nation as it is set before us in these Books, but
we must also go back to their very origin and commence-
ment, an origin which lies far back beyond the epoch of
their reputed founder, the patriarch Abraham. In an age
long anterior to Abraham, when, after the Noachian flood,
a new covenant had been established to replace the old,
which had been consummated;-in other words, when a
new Church had been founded upon earth, in succession
to that primitive one which had been devastated,-upon
an entirely new basis, and raised upon those remnants of
good and truth which had survived the fearful disruption
of the first great Church begun with Adam;-then were
those remains of the good and truth of the precedent
Church (which were represented by Noah and his family)
appointed to be the depositaries of the promises of God
and of the knowledge of the sacred things of the Church
But this new foundation was necessarily upon a lower
228
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
platform than that on which the first Church had been
builded, for there had been a great falling away; and the
Noachian Church could only view things from a lower
standpoint than its more spiritual predecessor. For at
the catastrophe of the flood, nearly all love and faith had
been annihilated upon earth, and the human race was
in danger of losing altogether that connection and com-
munication with God, which are absolutely essential to
its moral and spiritual well-being,-to all, that is, which
constituted humanity. Animal races could exist without
such conjunction; for they possess no special faculties by
which they can communicate, or be conjoined, with the
spiritual nature of their Creator. But with Man it is
different for it is by virtue of such communication and
conjunction that Man is Man: and if they ceased, Man
would cease to be Man, and would become once more a
beast. Therefore that communication and conjunction
has never for a moment ceased,-never, that is, has been
for a moment entirely lost, from the time when Man was
innocent in Paradise until the present day. But with
every successive re-establishment of the interrupted con-
junction, or at the consummation of every effete age and
the re-founding of every new dispensation, each new
dispensation has necessarily occupied a lower platform, in
proportion as the past age had been devastated of that
which made it a Church,-viz., spiritual knowledge,—
goodness and truth, charity and faith. These were not
dead indeed, but they had become lowered, debased, and
displaced,-first, from more internal to less internal, then
from internal to external, and lastly from external to more:
external.
Now Noah, who was representative of the quality of
this new and less spiritual Church or dispensation, is said
to have had three sons. And these three reputed sons.
represent the three great streams or divisions of doctrine
and worship which characterized the descendants of the
Church which was founded in Noah. Of these three it is
HEBREW DESCENT OF THE FEWS.
229
evident from Gen. x. that one, Shem, excelled the
other two in quality, signifying indeed that true internal
worship, and (comparatively) pure doctrine which were
more or less wholly wanting in both Japhet and Ham.
But let it be carefully observed how this Shem is intro-
duced (in ver. 21),—not like "the sons of Japhet," "and
the sons of Ham," but thus:-"Unto Shem also, the
father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the
elder, even to him were (children) born." But Eber
was not the immediate descendant of Shem, since inter-
mediate children are mentioned; and then Eber, (ver. 24)
to whom were born two sons, Peleg, (or division) and
Joktan-and in his son's days was the earth divided. In
the next chapter (xi.) the genealogy of Shem is carried
through Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, and Peleg only, down to
Nahor, Terah, and finally to Abram, who was thus the
immediate ancestor of the Jews.
In Gen. xiv. 13 Abram is designated "Abram the
Hebrew." So that the term Hebrew is one which is
applicable to the Jews by virtue of the descent of Abram,
their founder, from the family of Shem, whose third
descendant was Eber. And as Shem was the father of
all the children of Eber, so was he the primary progenitor
of the Jewish race, who were descended from this Eber,
through Abram. And the distinction was allotted to Eber,
not as a mere descendant of Shem, like Arphaxad, Salah,
and the rest, but as it is at the outset expressed by the
passage, "Shem was the father of all the children of
Eber," which evidently refers to the similarity of quality
between the two. Thus, therefore, as Shem was the
representative of one great branch of the Noachian
Church, and that the best of its day,-so was Eber also
representative of another, but necessarily lower and less
spiritual Church, which was the Hebrew Church, whose
posterity constituted the Hebrew nation,-a nation deve-
loping long afterwards into the Jewish in the person of
Abram.
239
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
But the age of Abram was greatly posterior to that of
Eber, and that which had been in the age of Eber a com-
paratively pure worship became gradually degenerated, and
was so far lost in Abram's day that it was as though
it scarcely existed. Hence the necessity for a new
Dispensation. In the age of Abram, who was a real
person,—and probably the first real person mentioned in
Holy Writ,—the Bible gives us no reason to suppose that
there existed any internal worship or any true knowledge
of God. In the days of Eber, indeed, God had been known
and worshipped as Jehovah, as we learn from Exod. iii. 18,
"Ye shall say unto Pharaoh, Jehovah, the God of the
Hebrews, cometh to meet us." (And again in Exod. v. 2.)
Now this Hebrew nation, whose founder had been the
patriarch Eber, the descendant of Shem, occupied the
land of Canaan, as we learn from Gen. xl. 15, and that
land, even long afterwards, was known as "the land of the
Hebrews." It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that
there still lingered in that country some slight knowledge
of Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. Thus we read of
Balaam that he was a Syrian (Numb. xxiii. 7) and he knew
the Lord as Jehovah (see Numb. xxii. 18, &c.), which is
corroborated by Jonah (i. 9), "I am an Hebrew, and I
fear Jehovah, the God of Heaven." Yet Abram, who had
been brought up in Ur of the Chaldees, did not know God
as Jehovah till long after, when it was specially revealed
unto him. He knew God as El Schaddai (see Exod. vi.
3). For Abram was an idolater, as is distinctly stated by
Joshua (Josh. xxiv. 2): he served other gods, the gods of
"those who were beyond the river." And not only
Abram, who was brought out of Ur of the Chaldees, and
from an idolatrous nation and family,-but also his imme-
diate descendants, Isaac and Jacob, had their own gods,
and knew but very little of Jehovah. The God whom
Abram had worshipped in Chaldea was El Schaddai or
the God Schaddai; and he was not suddenly torn from all
his old beliefs and miraculously converted to Jehovah, but
ABRAHAM DID NOT KNOW JEHOVAH.
231
he was led by slow degrees and by Divine instruction to
entertain clearer notions of Jehovah, the true and only
God. Even Jacob only acknowledged God as his God, on
condition that He would bring about certain events to his
(Jacob's) satisfaction; and all three, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, held in their hearts to the gods of their fathers,
acknowledging only by name the God who was leading
them to such great issues.
But although there may have existed some few in that
age who acknowledged Jehovah, and were better ac-
quainted, intellectually at least, with the true God who had
once been worshipped by the now corrupt and degenerate
Church, it did not please Jehovah to select any of these as
the nucleus of His new Church and dispensation on earth.
He preferred rather to choose a man who, although, in-
tellectually, he was more ignorant of the true God, yet
was one living in charity and faith, and who worshipped
from the heart. Such a man was Abram, and him He
called from Ur of the Chaldees, and from his idolatrous
family, in order that, under the Divine leading, he might,
through his posterity, found the nation which should be
the medium of the establishment of the new Dispensation.
God did not, as we have already remarked, forcibly con-
vert him from his external idolatry, but He allowed the
change to be wrought slowly, so that the work of educa-
tion was the charge of generations; and it was not till He
sent Moses, four hundred years later, that He declared
Himself to the Jews, through him, as the One God who
was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob (Exod. iii. 15); and further as the "Lord God of
the Hebrews "and ultimately in a remarkable passage
(Exod. vi. 3) as JEHOVAH,-that supreme Name by which
He had been worshipped in the most ancient times of
pure and genuine internal worship. "I appeared unto
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Schaddai,
but by My Name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."
Abram, then, was a Hebrew, and the Founder of the
232
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
nation and Church of the Jews; but it was as Jews, not
as Hebrews, that they were to become representatives of a
Church on earth. Although, however, Abram was thus
called, and was himself of pure Hebrew descent, the
Jewish people were of a descent which corresponded with
the character they developed, and with the evil and stiff-
necked generation which they approved themselves later
upon every occasion, through centuries of years. It will
be remembered that the first-born of the twelve patriarchs,
or sons of Jacob, Reuben, as well as the second and third,
Simeon and Levi, were cursed by their father on his death-
bed (Gen. xlix. 3-7), and the fourth son, Judah, became
the head of the family" thy father's children shall bow
down before thee" (ver. 8)-as to the posterity which was
to constitute the Jewish nation. Judah, then, was the
acknowledged father of the Jews, properly so called; and
when the ten tribes (of Israel) were carried away captive,
lost and absorbed among the Gentile nations (1 Kings xii.
20), Judah alone remained to carry on the destinies laid
upon the race of Abram the Hebrew. For although
the Jews of our Lord's day always claimed to have
Abraham for their father, they were no less descended
from Judah; and from him they not only derived their
name, but from him also began the increase, prosperity,
and enlargement of the Jewish family.
Now there were three stems in the Jewish nation
arising out of Judah, (Numb. xxvi. 20),—one from Shelah,
one from Perez, and a third from Serah. The first of
these, Shelah, was the son of Judah by a Canaanitish
woman (Gen. xxxviii. 2, 5),—an union strictly prohibited
on many occasions (Gen. xxiv. 3; Exod. xxxiv. 16, &c.),
and therefore eminently unlawful: while the second and
third, Perez and Serah, were the fruit of an even more
abominable intrigue, namely with Judah's own daughter-
in-law—an act emphatically cursed in Leviticus xx. 12.
Moreover Judah himself "thought her to be an harlot ;"
and it is therefore plain that when the Jews, the descend-
THE REPRESENTATIVE OF A CHURCH. 233
ants of the tribe of Judah, declared to our Lord—“ We be
not born of fornication,"—they asserted that which was
not correct, ignoring, whether wilfully or not, the true facts
of their primitive history. And this impure origin of the
Jews, as distinguished from the Israelites, has its corres-
pondent interior meaning, a meaning which has a most
important bearing upon their position as a people whose
rôle it was to represent a Church-a bearing to which we
shall have occasion to recur.
In still earlier times, while there had yet remained with
the men of a more ancient Church and dispensation much
of real spirituality and of interior goodness, the Church
had been representative;—that is, the worship conducted
by it was animated by a genuine principle of interior
holiness; and their ritual was possessed of an internal
which was perceived by the worshipper, who looked
beyond the mere formula to that which the formula
spiritually signified. Under these circumstances a truly
representative Church existed; but in the ever steady
declension of the spiritual condition of mankind, such a
truly representative Church could exist no longer. Instead
thereof, the only substitute which could be found possible
at this stage of the world's history was a form of worship
and a race of people who, while they could not represent
a Church; could yet be representative of a Church. That is,
that the worship which they practised should be of such
a nature that it should be perfectly and accurately repre-
sentative of true worship, and yet that those who practised
it should not do so from any interior principle, which
indeed they no longer possessed,—or if they did, it was in
so weak and degenerate a form, that had they used it as a
guide to their representative of worship, they would only
have marred its beauty and perfection. But it is obvious
that those who practised such a form of worship would
be utterly incapable of initiating it themselves, or even
of regulating it,-still less of perfecting it, by their own
unaided powers.
1.
་
234
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
It was requisite therefore for the fulfilment of these
conditions that a people should be appointed for the
performance of these functions. A Church must exist,
but such was the condition of mankind that only the
lowest form of worship was possible,-that, namely,
which was representative of qualities which no longer
existed in the human mind. Since therefore these
spiritual faculties were decayed almost to extinction, the
representatives which were to be the medium of worship
could be best exhibited by a people in whom such spiritu-
ality was altogether extinguished,—a people immersed in
exterior and corporeal love,-a people utterly blind to the
genuine interior principles of goodness and truth. For
had there remained any glimmering perception of true
spiritual things, there would have been a pressing danger
lest the meaning of these representatives should be at first.
accepted, and then rejected after imperfect inquiry, and
finally abused and despised,-a course of action which
would have amounted to profanation of the worst and
most fatal kind,—and such as would have brought spiritual
destruction on those who practised it. For a truly repre-
sentative Church, such as had formerly existed, required
a perception of internal things. The Church could not
represent internal or spiritual things unless those who
formed that Church had a true perception of such things.
But it was different in a later age. Such perception of
spiritual things was fast dying out,—had not indeed abso-
lutely died out when Abram was called, or otherwise no
Church could then have been founded. But inasmuch as
it was in the mind of God to establish a representative of
a Church in the place of what had been a truly represen-
tative Church, it was necessary that there should remain
no half perception of the Truth, which would have been
far worse than no perception at all. Therefore in the
early days of the descendants of Abraham, the glim-
mering perceptions of good and truth which they at first
possessed were gradually eliminated, in order that, in the
THE FEWS DISPOSSESSED OF TRUTH. 235
people who were to form the representative of a Church,
there should be no internal at all. The representatives
were to be external representatives of internal things, and
those who practised worship by these external represen-
tatives must be themselves solely external, having no
appreciation of spiritual or internal things;-from which
it follows that the representatives must necessarily be of
Divine appointment, since only the Ruler of the spiritual
world could comprehend and thence order and appoint
the true and accurate external or natural representatives.
or correspondents of what was internal and spiritual.
From these considerations we can understand how it
happened that the early history of the descendants of
Abraham was equivalent to a dispossession of all internal
truth, in order that they might more completely and
perfectly conduct worship by means of solely external
representatives, of the internal meaning of which, ulti-
mately, they were totally ignorant. How this dispossession
was effected we shall indicate in what follows; and its
effect was that they came to be under the belief that
worship consisted solely in externals; and consequently
the system of worship by external representatives of
internal things was carried on safely and effectively under
the Divine supervision. Thus the Jewish people are
characterized in Deut. xxxii. 28 as "a nation void of
counsel, neither is there any understanding in them."
But a
most singular and extraordinary impression.
seems to prevail with certain critical schools as to the
character and morale of the Jewish nation. They are
represented as constantly and ardently striving after
righteousness, -as ever persistently tending to that
holiness which was indeed inculcated by their spiritual
teachers, prophets, and ambassadors bearing the message
of Jehovah ;-as ever, through evil and through good
report, attached to the God of their fathers, ever faithfully
adhering to Jehovah and His Laws, and as being,
through all their backslidings, unalterably steadfast to the
236
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
One God and His commandments. Some even, with a
perfectly incomprehensible perversion of the plain reading
of History, go so far as to affirm that the Jews elaborated
a system of monotheism out of the polytheistic elements
into which they were born, and which constantly sur-
rounded them, and would even have us believe that they
possessed an instinct for monotheism! It is in vain that
Isaiah declares that "their land is full of idols-they
worship the work of their own hands" (Isa. ii. 8); and
Ezekiel denounces them in that "ye pollute yourselves
with all your idols, even unto this day" (Ezek. xx. 31);
and that "Israel went astray from me after their idols"
(Ezek. xliv. 10), &c., &c. The deliberate statements of
some of these critics, who it is to be supposed are not
ignorant of what they are criticising, are simply astound-
ing. What reader of the Old Testament is there who
cannot see the glaring fallacy contained in such a
statement as this, taken from Mr. M. Arnold's "God and
the Bible"? "Through progress and backsliding, amid
infectious contact with idolatry, amid survival of old
growths of superstition, of the crude practices of the past,
amid multiplication of new precepts and observances, of
formalism and ceremonial, amid the solicitation of new
aspects of life, in material prosperity and in material ruin:
-more and more the great governing characteristics of
the religion of Israel accentuated and asserted themselves,
and forced themselves on the world's attention: the God
of this religion with His eternal summons to keep judge-
ment and to do justice, the mission of this religion to
bring in everlasting righteousness. And this native,
continuous, and increasing pressure upon Israel's spirit
of the idea of conduct and of its sanctions, we call the
Eternal that makes for righteousness,-the revelation to
him of the religion of the Eternal. Really we do not
know how else to account for the evident fact of the
pressure, than by supposing that Israel had an intuitive
faculty, a natural bent for these ideas,-that the truth was
PERVERSE NATURE OF THE FEWS.
237
borne in upon him, revealed to him. How else are we to
explain this pressure on him? We put aside all the
preternatural," &c., &c.
Really the simplicity of the question and of the
assumed explanation would be even more surprising,
were it not for the apparent determination to look no
farther than the surface, and the persistent refusal to
accept all rational explanation.
In view of the facts of History, no passage in all the
literature of the subject strikes us as being so surprising,
or so remarkably illustrative of the anomalous attitude
of the critical mind which in the face of all evidence
seeks to support an assumed theory. If such was the
intention of the Jews,-if such was their natural bent-
how is it that we meet with such passages as the
following, so repeatedly throughout the Jewish Record?
"Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these
abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that
the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made
Judah to sin with his idols: Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God of Israel, Behold I am bringing such evil upon
Jerusalem and Judah, that whoso heareth of it, both his
ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the
line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab,
and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping
it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the
remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the
hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a
spoil to all their enemies. Because they have done that which
was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since
the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, EVEN UNTO THIS
DAY" (2 Kings xxi. 11-15). Had the critic never re-
marked this and numberless other passages to the same
effect? For this is but one of a thousand, such as we
may find on nearly every page of the Old Testament, in
which the persistent disobedience, self-will, ingratitude,
idolatry, and general wickedness of Israel are lamented
238
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
and threatened with dire punishments, threats which
were not empty words, but which ultimately resulted in
the dispersion of ten out of the twelve tribes, while the
remainder were reserved to consummate their iniquity by
the denial and crucifixion of their Lord, and to bring
down a perpetual self-invited curse upon themselves and
their remote posterity. Let us open the Bible absolutely
at random in the pages of the three great prophets, and,
without turning a page, we read thus: "O that thou
hadst hearkened unto My commandments" (Isa. xlviii. 18).
"Ah! sinful nation,-a people laden with iniquity,—a
seed of evil-doers,-children that are corrupters; they
have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked the Holy
One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away back-
ward!" (Isa. i. 4). Again, "For I earnestly protested
unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out
of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and
protesting, saying, Obey My voice. Yet they obeyed not,
nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagi-
nation of their evil heart" (Jer. xi. 7, 8). And once more
in Ezekiel," Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of
the Land of Egypt, and I gave them My statutes, which
if a man do he shall even live in them. But the house
of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they
walked not in My statutes, they DESPISED My judgments;
their HEART went after their idols" (Ezek. xx. 10-13, 16).
Where, in these and numberless other passages, is
there the faintest support to the critic's baseless assertion
that the Israelites must have had an intuitive faculty,-
a natural bent for ideas of righteousness and the worship
of the One Jehovah? Where is there the least excuse
for confounding the hortatory and minatory utterances
of the messengers sent from time to time for that pur-
pose, and the acts and deeds of the people called Israel.
The message was persistent, powerful, and persuasive,—
the effect was null;-the people, the great mass of the
nation, increasingly despised it and set it at nought,
1
THE FEWS RADICALLY EVIL.
239
utterly reversing the verdict of the critic, and falsifying
his ex cathedrà dictum. But the explanation of this
perversion of history evidently lies in an inability to
understand the source whence the Prophets derived
their inspiration. It would be indeed a marvel if they
alone stood out, in their own power and strength, and
denounced such judgment against their stiffnecked and
backsliding fellow-Jews,-if by them, as mere men, the
unbending and unswerving course of righteousness and
holiness should have its inflexible way through and above
the festering mass of Jewish corruption. While the
critic is forced to admit a something, he knows not what,
which makes for righteousness, his refusal to admit what
he contemptuously terms a preternatural cause, lands
him in inconsistencies and errors which utterly vitiate his
whole theory, and reduce it to a mere tissue of assump-
tions of the most dangerous kind.
But the misapprehension concerning the place of the
Jews in Sacred history, and their attitude as an ancient
Church is absolute and universal,-just as the misappre-
hension of the whole scope and meaning of the Old
Testament is general and most misleading - the one
proposition indeed embracing the other. The Jews are
represented by nearly all writers to have been God's
chosen people, in the sense of being His favourites-His
Elect-whom He condescended to conduct from the
very beginning of their racial existence through a series
of wonderful scenes, events, and victories over their
enemies, solely in virtue of certain advantages which He
had promised, for no particular reason, to Abraham,
their progenitor,—some would say because of their in-
tuition of righteousness, their natural bent for holiness,
or their instinct for monotheism. But nothing can be
more purely gratuitous than such crude suppositions.
The Jews were indeed the descendants of him whom
Jehovah had called from the far distant country of
Chaldea to come and dwell in that region wherein the
240
THE FEWISH CHURCH.
Church had formerly flourished, before it had decayed and
had become almost totally devastated by the evil and
falsity which had gradually usurped the place of the
good and the true of which the Church was (as every
genuine Church must be) composed. Abram had still
some remains of this goodness and truth, and he was
called to be the progenitor of a race which was destined
to carry on the representative of a Church which it was
in the Providence of Jehovah to establish on earth, as a
last link between Himself and mankind,—a last dispensa-
tion between a fallen Church and that restoration which
should finally take place through the Divine agency of
Christ.
For it will be evident to every thinking person that it
is essential to the growth and cultivation of the spiritual
faculties in Man,-those sublime faculties which distin-
guish him from the brute,-that conjunction with the
spiritual source of those faculties should never cease to
exist, and that they should be kept in exercise by the
acknowledgment of that Source and of their dependence
upon it.
Could it be possible that such conjunction.
should be totally cut off from mankind, they would cease
to exist as such, and would once more be indistinguishable
from the beasts which perish. But from the very first
such a conjunction has been effected and sustained (as
has been shewn in the early chapters of Genesis) by
means of the establishment and continual maintenance
of a Church upon earth;-and at no time has such a
Church been absent or extinguished. It has decayed-
become perverted and devastated by the growth and
ascendancy of evils and falses which were the direct
opposites of the good and the true originally implanted in
man; and this decay has been the source of all the ills
and miseries of decadent nations. For since the Fall,
there has been a constant tendency downwards,
inability in our race to raise itself, or to recover its lost
position of spirituality and holiness. From time to time
an
DEGENERATION OF ABRAM'S DESCENDANTS. 241
a crisis has occurred when the Church has been in danger
of being extinguished ;-and that crisis has been the
consummation of the age, and the beginning anew of a
dispensation more suited to the successive conditions of
our race. Therefore, we repeat, each successive dispen-
sation has been on a lower platform than the last-for
in each there has been a gradual but sure decay of
spirituality, and an equally gradual but sure growth of
sensualism and materialism. From Adam to Noah,-
from Noah to Abram, - were epochs marking the
gradations of such a decadence ;-and when the last
named was called to be the founder of a new Church,
it was already so far ruined and devastated that its
spiritual basis in man had all but faded away, and a new
system was necessary as the only practicable foundation
for the requirements of the age. This new system was a
system of representatives the representation of qualities
which no longer existed-a system in which genuine.
worship of a direct kind was no longer possible, and as a
substitute for it, a representation only of such worship
could be practised under Divine teaching,-the last stage
of Man's protracted fall from holiness, and the determining
cause of the great central event of Human History-the
coming of Christ in the flesh.
But those who descended from Abram were not an
exemplary race, they were not necessarily good men
because they boasted of being a chosen people. Their
history sufficiently testifies this. They were born and
multiplied in Egypt, and there were special and provi-
dential reasons why it should have been so. Abram as
we have said was possessed of remains or remnants of
the good and the true which had once been the preroga-
tive and characteristic of a Church. This much was
necessary, in order that he might be a recipient of the
promises of Jehovah, and on behalf of his coming de-
scendants, might incorporate them, as it were, into their
heritage; that he might be a depositary of the purposes
16
242
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
1
of Jehovah, and of his intentions in the coming race.
But the great principle which governed mankind in-
exorably and universally before the coming of Christ,
and the new and glorious dispensation of rehabilitation,
was a principle of decadence. Every nation and every
Church had begun with a knowledge of spiritual things,
and ended by their perversion and extinction, and the
replacement of them by purely natural and material
conceptions;—until now so little was left that there was
not spirituality enough anywhere through the length and
breadth of this earth to suffice for the foundation of a new
spiritual Church. Still, in Abraham and his immediate
descendants, there was yet too much remnant of that
spirituality to be suitable for the establishment in them
of a mere representation of such a Church. For the
absolute success of such a representation of a Church it
was necessary that the people who were to be the repre-
sentatives of it should be utterly external in their ideas
and modes of thought,-utterly destitute of spiritual
insight. Had they possessed any remains of such insight,
or insight only in a slight degree, they would inevitably
have so treated the representatives as to examine into them,
and attempt to guage them by the aid of merely external
faculties, to test them by mere material ideas,-a course
which could but have one result in a decadent race, viz.,
first, after acceptation, a denial, and subsequently a con-
tempt of them,—in other words, pure and simple profana-
tion, which would have been equally pure and simple
destruction to the race, on behalf of which they were
entrusted with the representation of a Church. This
could never be,-for the counsels of Jehovah were in
behalf of mankind, and could not fail. It was therefore
essential that the coming Jewish people should first be
so divested of that scant remnant of interior knowledge
and genuine spirituality that they might be utterly
external and material. And this is what is signified by
the passage in Isaiah (vi. 9, 10): "Go, and tell this people,
ABSENCE OF SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION.
243
Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed,
but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed:" a passage
in part quoted by our Lord Himself (John xii. 40). (See
also Jer. v. 21, &c.) Then indeed could Jehovah teach
them, by the mouth of their leaders and prophets, the
details of representation, and they could accept them of
these leaders and prophets; and although without any
knowledge of their interior signification, they could practise
them under Divine guidance, and yet being at the same
time utterly immersed in externals, they could neither pry
into them by the low standard of their merely natural
minds,-nor deny them, and thus could not profane
them.
Thus, the people, whose destiny it was to carry on
worship by representation in the days of the final ruin of
the Church on earth, were not necessarily a good people,
-but on the other hand they were necessarily a bad
people. For no people could ever be a good people which
possessed no interior insight—no spiritual perception.
For it follows from this deficiency that they must be
totally absorbed in mere material or purely natural
things, and especially in the love of self and the world,
which is enmity against God, and therefore they must
necessarily have been evil. And this, not only because
they were the last remnant of the men belonging to a
fallen and ruined Church, but also because they were the
men who were required to practise a grand system of
representatives with an unfailing diligence and an unin-
quiring readiness. Not with faith-for faith there was
none; but a task essential to the existence of the human
race having to be performed, those who were appointed to
perform it must by no means be in a position to mar, and
ultimately to ruin, it by an ignorant and wicked profana-
tion. The human race was come to such a pass, that no
244
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
Church of humanity was able to keep it alive by the
agency of a genuine and direct worship. It had passed
out of Man's hand, and must henceforth be kept in the
hand of God alone, and under His sole control, unaided
by Man's co-operation except in the form of a blind
obedience until in the fulness of time He should
establish that new and upward Dispensation which Christ
should inaugurate, when the Jewish Dispensation itself
-that of mere representation-was consummated, had
become effete, and was even, low as it was, now no longer
possible.
:
Now Abram was not such a man as the later Jews
became, nor was Isaac,-nor indeed was Jacob; though
each in succession was possessed of less spirituality than
his progenitor. And while Abram was called from Ur of
the Chaldees, back to that Canaan wherein the former
Churches had flourished, it was not in the Providence of
God that his immediate descendants should remain as
dwellers upon that sacred soil. Before the representation
of a Church could be founded, it was essential that the
descendants of Abraham should become, first, a nation,—
and, second, that that nation should be divested of any
remaining interior spirituality which they might have
inherited from their founder. Therefore, in the Provi-
dence of Jehovah, they were led into Egypt (the
representative of external or natural science) in the
third generation from Abraham, before their numbers
had greatly increased, and were detained there for four
hundred years,-increasing in numbers, but at the same
time decreasing in goodness and truth, until at length
they emerged, a numerous and a stalwart race, but an
unbelieving and a stiff-necked people, utterly external and
materialized,—a people who required a leader, and for
whom Jehovah had already prepared such a leader to be
his instrument in the foundation and establishment of
the representation of a Church. And through this
instrumental leader, Moses, He indoctrinated the people
1
NO SPIRITUAL TRUTH COMMITTED TO THEM. 245
who were to be the representatives of His Church on
earth, with all those representative symbols which made
up the great structure of representative or ceremonial
worship. And the Jews, without knowing the interior
meaning and significance of the external representative
symbols, nevertheless listened to Moses as the mouth-
piece of the great God who, as they could not fail to
perceive, was conducting them, and who was equally
clearly the Author of the utterances of their leader; and
who confirmed His supremacy and authority by signs and
wonders which appealed to their material and external
minds, and kept them at once in awe, and in the sem-
blance of an enforced and unwilling obedience.
-
Hence it was that while the Jews were most fully and
accurately informed of the external character of the
representative symbols by which every detail of their
worship was to be regulated, as well as of those upon
which their tabernacles, their temples, their priestly
ordinances, and their instruments of worship, were to be
scrupulously modelled, they were not taught their
interior meaning; they were not gifted with any insight
into the signification of any of the numberless symbols
and countless niceties of detail which were enjoined upon.
them, and which they were commanded to carry out with
such precision and exactitude, and the smallest deviation
from which invariably brought down swift and condign
punishment, as an effect invariably follows its cause so
that Jehovah was a terror whom they feared, rather than
a benevolent Being whom they loved.
For the same reason, also, and as a necessary corollary,
no internal spiritual truth was, or could be, entrusted to
them—for no knowledge or appreciation of real internal
and spiritual things was possible to them. It has often
been remarked how scant are the references to a future
state in the Old Testament, and, in fact, that immortality
is never mentioned, and the sceptic has indeed used this
fact as a confirmation of unbelief in himself and others.
246
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
But it will be seen from this view of the case that it
would have been impossible to have instructed such a
people in the meaning and the hopes of immortality and a
future state. They were incapable of entertaining so
spiritual a conception, and it would only have contributed
to imperil them still more, from their tendency to a gross
materialism, which would inevitably have led them
further into the depths of a fatal profanation.
In like manner also no true conception of God was
vouchsafed to them, for they were totally incapable of
comprehending His spiritual qualities. Jehovah there-
fore appeared to them according to the quality or power
of reception possessed by their own souls, as it were the
reflection of their own sensual and material ideas,—and
in no other way was it possible that He could appear.
The Goodness and Truth which flowed from the Divine
Love and Wisdom in rays of spiritual Heat and Light,
became to their eyes the burning and consuming fire and
the blinding and lurid lightnings of Mount Sinai,—their
spiritual influences undergoing distortion in the gross
Jewish mind, and thus becoming perverted into destruc-
tive agencies. The genial warmth of Divine Love was to
them a devouring fire, and the illuminating Light of
Divine Truth was to their perceptions obscured and
converted to smoke and thick darkness. Hence we read
(Exod. xix. 18) "Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke,
because Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace."
again) Exod. xxiv. 16-17), "The glory of Jehovah abode
upon Mount Sinai and the sight of the glory of Jehovah
was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain.
before the eyes of the children of Israel." And once more
(in Deut. v. 23-25) we read, "It came to pass when ye
heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and the
mountain was burning with fire, ye came near unto me,
and said, .. Why shall we die, for this great fire will
consume us.'
And
THEY SAW GOD WITH EVIL EYES.
247
All these striking appearances were correspondent
natural phenomena to the great spiritual events which
were taking place-as everything in the representative
Jewish Church was strictly correspondent or representative.
No one can see Goodness and Truth with the eyes of evil
and falsity—for Goodness becomes perverted and distorted
when viewed through the medium of an evil mind,-
Truth becomes error to one who regards it with the eyes
of falsity,—as chastity itself becomes smirched in the
eyes of an adulterer. David exclaims (2 Sam. xxii. 26, 27),
"With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful,
and with the upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself
upright. With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure;
and with the froward Thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury."
Nothing can be clearer than this to the thoughtful mind;
and the different aspects which Jehovah seemed to wear
to the rebellious Jews and to their more devout leaders
are thus explained, and fully suffice to prove that which
in the nature of things is self-evident. Thus it happens
that certain apparent contradictions have arisen in the
Bible, such as occur when in one place it is said that
"God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm vii. II);
and in other places that He is "slow to anger and
plenteous in mercy,”—the burden of the whole Psalm ciii.;
or, as more clearly expressed in Isaiah xxvii. 4, “ Fury is
not in Me." Or again when the expression is found, “It
repented the Lord" (Gen. vi. 6); while in another place
we read, “God is not a man that He should lie; neither
the son of man that He should repent" (Numb. xxiii. 19).
In each of these cases qualities are attributed to Him.
which existed only in the perverted or obscured imagina-
tions of the speakers. Only when he speaks Himself does
He vindicate His Eternal Love and His infinite Wisdom
against the querulous misrepresentations of His rebellious
people.
Thus, the perceptions which the Jews had of the
attributes of Jehovah were altogether tinged with their
248
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
own wickedness, sensuality, instability, and rebellion.
They had no power to see Him as He really is, but their
estimate of Him was distorted by being formed through
the medium of their own evil hearts. Moreover they
were strongly addicted to idolatry, in other words, to the
worship of visible images, and they conceived of Jehovah
as of no other than one of their own images, idealized,
indeed, to the height of their own powers of imagination,
but yet not in the faintest degree spiritualized. Thus they
could think of him no otherwise than as what Mr. M.
Arnold terms "a magnified and non-natural man,"-His
mere external form being all that they could realize-a
notion unspiritualized by the least conception of Holiness,
Sublimity, or of any of those lofty Divine attributes which
characterize the Supreme Being.
It was for a similar reason that things were permitted
to them which to us appear to have been, and indeed
were, immoral and abominable. It is not that the
standard of morality varies from age to age, and that
there was a time when that which is now abominable was
not so, and was even virtuous. Righteousness and justice
are eternal principles, but it is man's power of perception.
and appreciation of these eternal principles which varies
according to the quality of his mind, and the relative
virtues and vices of civilized and savage man may be so
divergent as to be almost antithetic. But the mistake is,
to suppose that such enormities as were committed by
the Jews were commanded, whereas they were only per-
mitted as being in accordance with the nature of those
who perpetrated them. Such deeds were the cruel and
outrageous destruction of the Amorites, which agreed
with the perverse and wicked character of the Jews, of
whom Moses their great leader said when about to leave
them, "Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel
venom of asps" (Deut. xxxii. 33). Their diabolical treat-
ment of the Canaanitish nations was indeed representa-
tive of the unsparing war between the spiritual principle
1
THEIR INNATE SELFISHNESS AND CRUELTY. 249
which the Jews, it is true only externally, represented,
and those infernal and wicked principles which were repre-
sented by the fallen and perverted Canaanitish Church.
And the Jews merely followed the bent of their own
depraved tastes and appetites, and satiated their lust for
cruelty in so ruthlessly destroying them. But the
mistake is to suppose that they had it in commandment
from Jehovah to act in this manner. For Moses said to
them, "Speak not thou in thine heart after that the Lord
thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For
my righteousness the Lord had brought me in to possess
this land, but for the wickedness of these nations the
Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy
righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart dost
thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness of
these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from
before thee. Understand therefore that the Lord thy God
giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteous-
ness, for thou art a stiffnecked people" (Deut. ix. 4, 5, 6).
So utterly evil indeed were they that when they had
been delivered from the bondage of Egypt, their conduct
was so ungrateful and abominable that God ordained that
only two of that host should enter into the promised land,
-their children only should inherit it. Not that the
children were any better than their parents had been,-
they were presumably worse-but they had not yet rebelled,
they had not yet proved stiffnecked, idolatrous, and un-
grateful. They had good leaders,-noble, God-sent and
God-fearing prophets and teachers, who ever strove to
keep alive the promises held out to the steadfast and the
righteous. But these last were the few exceptions; the
great mass of the people were wicked, gross, unstable.
And the character of their descendants was but a repe-
tition of that of their progenitors. "Ye be witnesses.
unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which
killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your
fathers," says our Lord to them (Matt. xxiii. 31, 32). And
tu
250
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
again, when the Jews answered Him, We be Abraham's
seed, "Jesus said unto them, Ye are of your father, the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John
viii. 44). And further, in Matthew xii. 39, He calls.
them "a wicked and adulterous generation" in accord-
ance with their representative origin; and their especial
characteristics in His day were those of the Jews of old,
viz., cruelty, avarice and unbelief.
Notwithstanding all this, however, there was nothing
incompatible-however it might appear so to a cursory
or uninformed observer-with their role as handers-on
of the representative of a Church. A Church was with
them, although there was no Church in them. They
were able to be representative of a Church,-—and even the
more able, inasmuch as they were solely in externals,-for
they could thus carry out the external representatives
without giving a thought to their internal signification,
which was thus allowed and enabled to rest secure and
sacred, enshrined in symbols whose inner meaning was
safe from prying curiosity and wicked profanation. But
the very position of the Jewish people as the final race of
the decadent human family,-the consummation and end
of the old Dispensation,―necessitated their being as bad
as human nature could be, as low as it could fall. It was
destined indeed to fall so low as to need Divine intervention
to arrest its destruction and to avert its final doom;—and
the last and lowest depth of human degradation was
necessarily the worst-the darkness before the dawn. To
these indeed, vile as they were, was entrusted the most
sacred of deposits,-the Word, which conjoined man with
his Maker, and kept his soul above the level of brute
nature. But while they paid a superstitious reverence to
the letter, they were grossly ignorant of its spirit-and
thus it became possible to them to fulfil this all-important
part of their trust,-the handing down of the Divine Word.
They entertained moreover exaggerated notions of their
own importance, imagining that as the chosen of Jehovah
THEIR EXAGGERATED SELF-IMPORTANCE. 25º
(as they believed) they must surely be worthy of such
exalted choice. Yet did this not prevent them from being
only with the utmost difficulty withheld from the grossest.
idolatry. For being altogether natural-minded, and with-
out a particle of spirituality, they utterly failed to appre-
ciate their own position, or the issues to which they were
being led. Of the spiritual nature of the Church of which
they were representative they were utterly ignorant.
That God was a Spirit, and that they that worship Him
must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth-was a new
revelation made by Christ to the woman by Jacob's well.
The Jews only regarded their religion as a potent engine
for their national and individual aggrandizement. It was
to them a distinguishing badge of which they were proud
with a selfish and egotistic vanity. It was their "being
separated (or rendered excellent) from (or above) all the
people that are upon the face of the earth" (Exod. xxxiii.
16) of which they were proud, and which made them
acknowledge Jehovah in name, while at the same time
they hankered after golden calves, and the abominations
of Moloch. There was neither love nor charity, truth nor
faith in them,-for these things are internal; but instead
thereof only a hollow and fatal self-love, and a perversion
of everything which tended to Goodness or to Truth.
And so it was also in later days when Messiah had
come to them only to be rejected. They wanted a
Messiah who should lead them to material victory. They
"trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed
Israel "—not from sin and spiritual death, but from the
hated Roman yoke; and they could ill brook a deliverer
who to their clamours to be led to victory calmly replied,
"My kingdom is not of this world." For they knew not
their need, the vail was upon their hearts, they were
I
I "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the
same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament: which
is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read,
the vail is upon their heart" (2 Cor. iii. 14, 15).
252
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
the imaginary whole which needed not a physician,-
graspers after the worldly shadow, while they ignored and
made light of the real spiritual substance.
We are now in a position to afford a reply to the
questions which suggested themselves in the early part
of this chapter. Why should the acts and deeds of a
Semitic race, still existent, but existent apart from
Christians, occupy so large a portion of the Books which
we have so long been in the habit of reverencing, not merely
as historically interesting, but also as the inspired Word
of God,-spoken, not to the Jews alone, but to all man-
kind? Why should that which so many believe, and we
maintain, justly, to be the Divine Message, take the form
chiefly of a History, full of revolting details, and abound-
ing in records of deeds which shock our modern sense as
mere History,-which appear to be discordant with the
canons of Christian morality, and which describe the
acts of a people so perverse, so evil disposed, so ungrate-
ful, and so full of iniquity as were the Jews of old? And,
again, How does it happen that these records, whether
simply historical, or, in turn, monitory and minatory, of a
single people, should act as the link which connects the
Old with the New,-and be in fact the avenue of the
Divine Providence which conducts from the most ancient
peoples, whose history would appear to survive only in
the form of mere myths, to the comparatively late times
when the great message of Christianity heralded peace
and good will and prosperity to the entire human race?
The explanation of the phenomenon may now be more
clearly understood.
From the remote period described in the second chapter
of Genesis, when Man was placed in a condition of lofty
spiritual endowment in the garden of the Lord, a con-
tinuous and unbroken era of decadence had passed, with
results the most disastrous to our race. The Fall,
described in the third chapter, was the outcome of that
great mental revolution which had enabled man to cease
COURSE OF THE DISPENSATIONS.
253
to remain in absolute dependence upon Jehovah for the
integrity of his very thoughts, and had left him endowed
with a freedom of will and of action which was ultimately
to place him upon the far loftier pinnacle of a higher
grade of perfection; but which was nevertheless destined
to work to that consummation through difficulties and
trials of the most supreme and agonizing character.
The first speedy result of the gift of freedom of choice
was a perversion of the endowment, of a kind which was
almost inevitable when man was left in any measure to
himself, and which divested him of the bloom of that
spirituality which had been stamped upon him with the
impress of Jehovah Himself. The gift quickly began to
be abused owing to the inherent tendency which he dis-
played to use the new acquisition as a means for exalting
the sensual faculties as inquisitors over the higher and
spiritual; and the necessary and primary result was, that
the former obtained an undue influence and preponder-
ance which was greatly to the disadvantage of the latter,-
the lower began to triumph over the higher. That
spiritual insight which had hitherto characterized them,
and which had kept them in close communion with their
Maker, gradually became obscured and enfeebled; and
instead of the full and direct intercourse which had
hitherto been their privilege, they were reduced-first,
to a weakened communion, then to a lower grade of
communion of a more or less indirect character,-and
ultimately to a communication of a merely indirect and
mediate character, and of a purely representative kind,
through the intervention of the symbols of external Nature,
with whose signification they continued indeed for a long
period to retain a certain limited comprehension and
appreciation.
But once entered upon the downward road, there was
nothing in Man which was capable of self-restoration. It
was absolutely necessary that he should go on to the
bitter end, until, in Jehovah's own good time, He could
254
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
Himself intervene, and determine the critical moment for
the turning point of the depressed scale. Thus one Dis-
pensation was closed, and another opened, more than once
in the long course of ages, for the time must come sooner
or later when each one in succession could no longer be
carried on on the same lines, and a re-arrangement became
absolutely necessary. Therefore was each Dispensation
founded on a lower platform, as it were, than its
predecessor, for each in succession was more material-
ized than the one which had been closed, each in turn
more nearly approaching that final consummation beyond
which it could not pass without absolute peril to the
whole human race, regarded as a race distinct from, and
superior to, the mere animal races, as endowed with inter-
nal and spiritual qualities, or soul.
When the first great Dispensation was closed through
the overwhelming of the first decadent Church by a flood
of evils and falses; as is also expressed by Daniel (ix. 26)
who, when he is speaking of a time of the destruction
and corruption of truth and good, says, "and the end
thereof shall be with a flood" (compare also Psa. Ixix.
15, Isa. lix. 19, Jer. xlvi. 7, &c.); which swept it off the
earth, and brought it to utter destruction, the small
remnants of good and truth, providentially left as a spark
from which to rekindle anew the flame (Isa. xlii. 3),-and
represented in this instance by Noah and his family,-
were collected together to re-establish the Church upon
earth on a lower basis. But this in turn became de-
moralized and effete, and in the end the adoration of
Jehovah had everywhere given place to a perverted wor-
ship of mere material idols; and the spiritual mysteries.
of Heaven and its King had been utterly profaned and
polluted by a base service of infernal powers and of gods
which were no gods. Spiritual darkness involved man-
kind in a fatal obscurity, and the knowledge of God was
almost totally lost and obliterated from the human mind.
Now, once more, had a supreme moment arrived in
,[
THE JEWISH LOWEST AND LAST.
255
human history, and such was the condition of our race
when God in His Providence once more, in the person
of Abram, established a new Dispensation. For although
the spiritual condition of mankind was at so low an ebb,
and the whole earth was dark and idolatrous, and no
longer capable of the perception of internal things, there
was yet one last way left by which an acceptable worship
could be rendered,—one final step or degree of descent
before reaching the abyss,-and that step must yet be
taken, that final stage must yet be passed through,
before the final consummation could be effected. No
longer could worship be of the direct character which had
been possible in the golden age of the world, when man
could converse immediately with a spiritual Jehovah,
using His material creation as
creation as a primary means of
communication with Him: nor could that worship be
carried on through the indirect and secondary medium
of symbols whose significance was known, though less
perfectly, and appreciated, though more obscurely, than
heretofore, this age of silver was also past. But there
yet remained a way-a dead way, it might be called-a
way adapted to this third age, of iron,—and that way
was the application of the material symbols as represen-
tatives of spiritual things,-representatives without a
key,-uncomprehended,-yet which, nevertheless, if used
in strict accordance with a definite sequent arrangement,
and in furtherance of a certain accurately prescribed
ceremonial order, could be accepted as an external form
of worship in lieu of that internal spiritual worship or
genuine conjunction which in this degenerate age was no
longer possible.
To effect this necessary, and, under the unhappy cir-
stances, desirable end, the Jews were specially adapted
from their origin and character,-a corrupt race in which
all genuine good and truth, charity and faith, were at the
lowest ebb, a people in whom interior wisdom and
spirituality of mind had become extinguished, and had
256
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
given place to a hard materialism, and a purely sensual
intellectualism. This people having been first prepared.
for the role they were destined to perform by a series of
experiences, the tendency of which was to still more
completely empty them of all interior perception,—were
at length fully fitted to the task of carrying on the only
kind of Church possible to this era of human history,-
a shadow only of the reality, viz., the representative of a
Church. For this indeed the Jews were admirably adapted,
having been specially prepared for it by unerring Wisdom
-yet no less also was this representative of a Church
always under the law of continued descent and decadence.
For this shadow of a Church could no more continue to
hold its ground than could the precedent superior
Churches, but must, like them, gradually sink to an ever
lower level, and indeed now to the lowest; so that
nought could henceforth arrest its final doom but a special
Divine intervention, and an extreme measure, the failure
of which was an absolute impossibility. That Divine
intervention and that extreme measure was summed up
in the birth, ministry, and death of Christ, the new and
living way, which has turned the scale of descent, has
caused the retrograde to become the progressive, and has
converted the inevitable decline, against which man alone
was powerless, into a sure and certain and steadily-
advancing course of progressive ascent and elevation.
But it is a self-evident proposition that if it were owing
to the total absence of interior perception that the Jews
were so perfectly and admirably fitted to be the visible
agents of this representative of a Church, the representa-
tives, of the significance of which they were so profoundly
ignorant, could neither have been originated nor regulated
by themselves, but must have been the outcome of some
far higher Intelligence. For it is utterly impossible that
any man at that darkened age of the world could have
had any acquaintance at all with the representatives of
spiritual things, far less any familiar acquaintance with
THEOCRACY A NECESSITY.
257
them; and still less was it possible that any human
being then existent could have been so intimately
informed concerning them, unless from a higher source,
as to permit of his ordering all the niceties of sequence
and delicate shades of ceremonial ordinance in so perfect
a manner as to effect that communication which could only
flow in as the result of the most accurate and infallible
correspondence. Such a task would require universal
knowledge, such as no man ever did or ever could possess.
No man could have availed to effect this, however skilled
in the wisdom of the wisest of the ancients-nay, not
even the wisest of the golden age of mankind could have
been so apt or so perfectly instructed as to be capable of
such profound and all-embracing wisdom, not only in
material, but also in spiritual things. Jehovah alone
could be the dictator and the director of this vast and
perfect system of representative correspondences. He
alone, who had raised up such a people for such an end,
could so regulate and guide their representative of
worship, by indoctrinating their leaders with every minute.
and special detail of the vast subject, as to secure the
result which was so essentially important, viz., the
perfect conduct of an external ceremonial worship by a
people who were ignorant and incapable of any interior
knowledge or perception. For by such ceremonial and
representative of worship was it necessary to bridge over,
as it were, the lowest spiritual dispensation of decline and
decadence, by the instrumentality of a people absolutely
incapable of helping themselves, until the fulness of time
should arrive for the inauguration of the Dispensation of
rehabilitation by Christ the Lord.
And this brings us to a very important consideration,
which is indeed the key-note of the whole Jewish Story
as it is related in the Old Testament. For, since God,
the Author of external Nature as the outcome and reflex
as it were of His own great internal or spiritual attributes,
could alone be perfectly conversant with that external
17
258
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
Nature in its representative relation to spiritual things, it
follows that He alone could give those minute directions
to the Jewish leader which should suffice to forge an
absolutely perfect and effective chain of correspondence
between Nature and Spirit-between the external and the
internal, an inviolable link of communication with
Himself by the medium of the representatives afforded
everywhere, and in all their inalienable integrity, by the
world of Nature. Hence His careful and minute direc-
tions to Moses with respect to the construction and orna-
mentation of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances, the
instruments and utensils of ceremonial worship, as well
as with regard to the conduct of the ceremonial ordi-
nances by the priests and Levites. Each and every of
these, in every detail had its own representative meaning
which alone could render perfect and available that link
of communication with spiritual things which was
essential to the union of the Church, however imperfect,
with Jehovah, its Head and its Life. The smallest
deviation from the prescribed order would have sufficed to
snap the link asunder, and to disconnect, as it were, the
symbol from its meaning, the type from its antitype,-to
cut off the spiritual inflow which alone could keep the
Church from absolutely perishing.
And not only were visible things thus representative,
but also the invisible-such abstract matters as law and
commandments, which were all framed upon a similar
principle of representatives of such an inviolable nature
that it was said of them that "not one jot or tittle could
pass from the Law, till heaven and earth pass, until all
be fulfilled" (Matt. v. 12). For nothing was internal with
them; but, in default of this, the external form of internal
things was absolutely and scrupulously essential. What-
ever was commanded, whether as a rule of conduct, a cere-
monial ordinance, or a material aid to worship, was in
every case strictly and inalienably representative,—being
the natural symbol of something spiritual and Divine.
EACH MINUTEST DETAIL REPRESENTATIVE. 259
Israel itself represented in the abstract that Spiritual
Church which it alone could represent, (but which it
could only represent); and Mount Zion, the holy Jeru-
salem, signified the kingdom of the Lord; the centre of
that Spiritual Church, to which all other peoples and
places bore a definite reference, according to their re-
spective distances, and relative positions to that central
and sacred spot. For it was in that land that the first
spiritual Church was raised. It was in that land that
the Church of Noah had flourished in its day. It was to
that land that Abram was called, there to found the repre-
sentative of a Church;—and there finally the Lord Jesus
made His appearance in fulness of time to establish upon
that same sacred soil the true spiritual Church which
should ultimately embrace the whole world, and last for
ever.
Hence the Israelites were necessarily led by God
Himself, and hence that Theocracy, so long recognized
but so little understood. Jehovah, from the very first
installation of Abram as the progenitor of the race which
was to be representative of a Church, until the end, was
necessarily the Director, Conductor, and Guide of the
Jewish people in all their affairs, small or great—for great
or small alike were of equal importance as representative
of higher things. A leader having been selected from
among them, he was carefully instructed by representative
means as to the revelation with which he was to indoc-
trinate his people, and he thus became the medium of
communication between Jehovah and His representative
race. In all their affairs every detail was effected by
means of representatives, and without representatives
nothing whatever could be imagined to take place or to
exist. For Jehovah was a Spirit who thus and thus only
could hold any sort of communion with His people. And
in order that that people might be the instruments of His
high purposes, every act of their existence, whether
political or social, whether public or private, had a repre-
260
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
sentative meaning, and was guided by their Supreme
leader, Jehovah, upon the lines of correspondence, or
representative symbols. So that the whole history of the
Jews from beginning to end had a representative signifi-
cation in general and in particular; and their entire sum
possesses an internal meaning which can only be fathomed
by keeping this cardinal fact always fully in view. From
beginning to end their acts and deeds were ordered by
Jehovah, in the sense of being based upon a grand and
orderly series of representatives, as being not only the
sole available means of communication and conjunction
with Himself, but also the only possible medium by
which He could, as it were, keep touch of His people, (or
His Church), and guide them to their destined and
necesssary consummation.
This conception may strike some as singular from its
novelty, and to others it may appear overstated, until the
full significance of the Jewish Church is thoroughly
mastered; but when it is, there can be not a moment's
hesitation in accepting it as the only possible solution
of the question. We have in other parts of this work
alluded to the importance of the subject of this represen-
tative History, and its bearings upon the Divine character
of the Scriptures; and it is only by a general and com-
prehensive survey of the whole subject, that the unbiassed
mind will be enabled satisfactorily to grasp the pregnant
significance and sublime unity of the whole.
Moreover, it is for these reasons that Miracles, those
utterly misconceived stumbling-blocks of the sceptic, were
not only possible, but characteristic of this dispensation.
The subject is too extensive and important, as well as
interesting, to be dismissed in the closing paragraphs of
this chapter and in the succeeding chapters special
attention will be found to be devoted to their elucidation,-
a course which seems not only desirable, but is absolutely
necessary to the unity of the whole subject. We would
here only draw attention to their significance and appro-
SPIRITUAL FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.
261
priateness in the representative dispensation of the Jewish
Church. For Miracles were in all cases purely represen-
tative in their nature. That communication which could
only be effected by this perfection of the correspondence
between outward and spiritual things took on a phenomenal
aspect in an age when this correspondence through purely
representative symbols became the regular order of things.
For by the very perfectness of this correspondence, and the
dominant usage of representative symbols, special and
remarkable results of abnormal influence, or influence of
abnormal intensity, arising from high potentialities of
spiritual communication, were rendered possible, and re-
sulted in phenomena to which in these days we are totally
unaccustomed, and which we call miraculous. These
phenomena lasted as long as the Church was representa-
tive, and even until shortly subsequent to the time of our
Lord, who came to consummate this external, material
dispensation, and to inaugurate a new one upon purely
internal and spiritual principles. During His ministry
they not only remained in force, but constituted a re-
markable feature of that ministry, inasmuch as the causes
just referred to were heightened by the lofty and com-
pelling influence of His personal presence. But after that,
they died out-not suddenly, but gradually,—just as the
dispensation itself did not come abruptly to an end, nor
a new one as suddenly commence; but like everything
else which is under the sway of the Divine Order, a
gradual change from the one to the other slowly ex-
tinguished the conditions and possibilities of miraculous
phenomena.
Not a few persons, failing to read the Scriptures aright,
and entirely ignorant of the representative character of
the Jewish Church, vainly imagine that the Jews shall
one day return to Palestine, rebuild their city and temples,
and arrive at great material prosperity. They base this
idea upon the literal interpretation of the promises of the
Bible; and their belief is strengthened by the particular
262
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
topographical specifications met with in such passages.
as Jer. xxxi. 38-40. But in no instance do the promises
of Scripture refer to material prosperity; the soul, not
the body, is the object of its solicitude. Moreover, names
of persons and places have no reference to the persons
and places themselves, but to the principles which they
represent, as is evident from the occurrence of such names
as Balaam, Jezebel, Sodom, &c., in the Apocalypse. They
are all purely representative. The material prosperity
of Israel' is a thing of the long past, gone for ever-the
world cannot go back to it. But under the symbols of
material prosperity, the ultimate triumph of the genuine
Church of God, the New Jerusalem, is signified-that
spiritual Church of the future which was faintly shadowed
forth by the purely external representative Church of old.
The Scriptures do not hold out mere mundane triumphs
as the prize to any man or set of men,-still less to those
who were representative of this Church on earth, and
whose rôle it was to be the protectors and guardians of
the Word, as the medium of conjunction between God
and man. The Jews will never return to Jerusalem on
earth, but those who are faithful to their trust will indeed
ultimately be gathered to that one fold over which there
is but one Shepherd, even Christ the Lord: who reigns
supreme in Mount Zion, the spiritual Jerusalem.
Thus it may be clearly seen that the Jewish Church
was an integral portion of the orderly series of events.
which were factors in the providence of God to keep alive
those principles of good and truth which are essential to
the integrity of the spiritual nature of Man, and without
which he could rise to no higher level than that of the
brute creation. And it was Semitic, because it descended
through Shem, that one of the descendants of Noah who
represented those highest spiritual principles of charity
and faith which alone could avail to constitute a Church.
The whole course of human history as related in the
Bible has been dictated by perfect wisdom, and guided
EPOCHS OF DECADENCE.
263
by a supreme Order through its various epochs; and
those epochs may be briefly characterized as follows:-
I. An epoch of ascent from the germs of spiritual life
to its perfection in the image of God, described in Gen. i.
under the representative symbols of natural creation.
II. The further advance of man to the highest develop-
ment of celestial character grounded upon the dictates of
Divine Love in the Heart and affections, as distinguished
from the lower ground of Truth in the Intellect: and
this occupies chap ii. up to ver. 17.
III. Up to this point it had been the directing hand of
the Lord alone which had raised Man and kept him in
his high state of perfection; but now a new epoch begins,
inaugurated by the gift of a power of choice between good
and evil (chap. ii. ver. 18 to end)-a gift which resulted
in what we know as the Fall, which occupies chap. iii.
to ver. 21; a Fall due to the improper use of the choice
afforded, and the unrighteous subordination of the
spiritual to the sensual, the internal to the external.
IV. The gradual decadence of the first Church from this
starting point occupies the succeeding early chapters of
Genesis, from chap. iv. to the end of chap. vii.; wherein
this first Church or Dispensation is consummated by a
flood-not of material waters, but of their perverted re-
presentatives, ruins of Truth and Faith-and thence of
Love and Charity,-in other words, a devastating Flood
of evils and falses (Isa. lix. 19). And the whole record of
this epoch in the Bible is written in a mythical or symboli-
cal form, with no pretension to real history,—but, as
it were, in spiritual cypher, epitomizing events which
occurred in the early ages of the human race, the language
used being the language of the Church which then existed,
but now long since lost, extinguished and buried in the
long past.
V. The same may be said, further, of the language
used in the description of the next epoch, beginning with
chap. viii. and ending at chap. xi. ver. 26, and
264
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
depicting a new Church or Dispensation, founded in
Noah, upon a lower basis, and upon the remains of
spiritual Good and Truth which had escaped the devasta-
tion which had overtaken the first truly spiritual Church.
It was an intermediate stage of human decadence between
the primary stage of declension and the epoch of the wor-
ship of the golden calf in Horeb: and at its consummation.
a new adjustment of human affairs was rendered necessary,
though no longer possible upon the basis of the old.
VI. In this new arrangement Abram comes upon the
scene (chap. xi. ver. 26), and the remains of good and
truth, which were in him, indeed, little more than
traditions, were utilized as the foundations of a new dis-
pensation, which should be based upon lines of representa-
tion only of that which itself indeed no longer existed.
This is the Jewish Church, of which we have been
speaking,—and whose history occupies the entire re-
mainder of the Old Testament; a Church which was
indeed no Church, but only representative of that which
could no longer possibly survive; the last weak link
between Man and his Maker;-a link which, ever
weakening, ultimately snapped, and left mankind adrift
upon a sea of mere unmixed evil and falsity, helpless,
hopeless, and despairing.
VII. Thus closed the era of decadence, and with the
opening of the New Testament comes the era of regenera-
tion, to be accomplished by the agency of Christ. The
Gospels record His birth, life, ministry, and death; and
the Epistles are their commentaries, written by those who
lived nearest to the days of His presence.
VIII. And lastly: the Apocalypse reveals the manner
of putting the seal upon the dispensation of Christ, by
showing how the days would surely come when all those
things which it was impossible that He could teach to the
benighted Jews should be made known in the process of
time to more enlightened and succeeding peoples, when,
in the progressive education of the world they should be
DR. ARNOLD ON PROPHECY.
265
able to hear and to understand. So that the great be-
nevolent designs of God should henceforth advance un-
checked; and the Truth which makes men free should
go on with His sword upon His thigh, conquering and
to conquer, to the ultimate establishment of Man in a new
Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness;
-not the enforced righteousness of an infantile state, (as in
Eden) but the mature innocence grounded in the highest
Wisdom of those who can refuse the evil and choose the good.
NOTE.-Dr. Arnold, with a far-reaching insight, which
has not been shared by some of his successors and critics,
has indicated that he comprehended, at least to some
extent, the true nature of the Scriptural writings, in the
remarks which may be found in various parts of his
"Sermons on the Interpretation of Prophecy,"-from
which we extract the following passages: "Prophecy"
(and the same may be said also of other sacred writings
not strictly prophetic) "is busied with general principles;
and, inasmuch as particular nations, persons, and events,
represent these principles up to a certain point,—so far also is
it concerned with them." "Generally the language of
prophecy will be found to be hyperbolical as far as regards
its historical subjects, and only corresponding with the
truth exactly, if we substitnte for the historical subject
the idea of which it is representative."
"But if it be asked,
Why then was the language of Prophecy so strong, if it
was not meant to be literally fulfilled? I answer, that
the real subject of the Prophecy in its highest sense is
not the historical, but the spiritual Babylon." "And it will be
found, I think, a general rule in all the Prophecies of
Scripture, that they contain expressions which will only
be adequately fulfilled in their last and spiritual fulfilment.”
These, and many other passages of a similar character,
show that Dr. Arnold, although not possessed of the full
clue to Bible interpretation, yet held views which the
Arguments of this Work show to have been founded on
just conceptions of the scope of the Bible records-
266
THE JEWISH CHURCH.
views which have, however, excited a sort of pitying.
wonder in those who were unable to look so far, or to see
so clearly as he evidently did.
We have shown reason to believe that names of persons.
and of places in the Bible are not always strictly
historical, but are always strictly representative; and the
application of this principle will be found at once to
remove many of the difficulties which have led the critic
to entertain a fixed opinion adverse to the authenticity of
the Bible.
3

"The particular case of Miracles, as such, is one especially bearing on
purely physical contemplations, and on which no general moral principles, no
common rules of evidence or logical technicalities, can enable us to form a
correct judgment. It is not a question which can be decided by a few trite
and commonplace generalities as to the moral government of the world and
the belief in the Divine Omnipotence,—or as to the validity of human testi-
mony, or the limits of human experience. It involves, and is essentially built
upon, those grander conceptions of the order of Nature, those comprehensive
primary elements of all physical knowledge, those ultimate ideas of universal
causation, which can only be familiar to those thoroughly versed in cosmical
philosophy in its widest sense."
PROFESSOR BADEN POWELL "On the Study of the Evidences
of Christianity "(in Essays and Reviews, p. 133).

இல்லை
CHAPTER IX.
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE SUBJECT OF THE MIRACLES
OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.
UNNING all through the Scriptures, old and new,
there is a vein of the marvellous, which, chiefly
because it is so little understood, is apt to cause
no little suspicion in the minds of not only the professed
critic, but also of many in this day who imagine that the
observed invariability of natural Law leaves no room for
phenomena which it cannot be made to embrace in the
terms of the man of science. In a hard intellectual age
like the present, Miracles offer a stumbling-block not
easily surmounted; and although some will admit their
possibility as forcible invasions of natural Law by a supe-
rior Power, the majority refuse to give them credence,
and look upon them as fatal to the acceptance of the
Bible as an authoritative Record.
Much argumentative skill has been shown on both
sides and especially on behalf of the opponents,—and
not a little logical acumen has been exhibited, and much
scientific testimony applied to the object of discrediting
these alleged Miracles; and if it is the opponents who
have shown the greatest intellectual ingenuity in the
controversy, it will not appear surprising when it is borne
in mind that the things relating to the doctrines of Faith
must of necessity be more firmly grasped by those in
whom the intellect, although far from being unduly weak,
270
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
has yet not acquired a disproportionate ascendency over
the things of the will. For the very preponderance of,
and perfect reliance upon, the intellect, pure and simple,
in such cases unfits men from entertaining such a
comprehensive and unprejudiced view of the subject as
shall enable them to grasp it in all its bearings with the
probability of arriving at a true perception of what is due
to either side of the Argument.
For man is not made up of Intellect alone. A mere
cold, calculating, unemotional Intellect is liable to reduce
its possessor to the character of a machine. Who is it,
for instance, that best typifies the man of pure intellect
but the profound mathematician whose ideas are abso-
lutely enchained and bounded by theories and calcu-
lations illustrative of the marvellous, if somewhat
mechanical, powers of numbers,-who is incapable of
receiving into his mind anything which may not be
demonstrated by the aid of mathematical formulæ ? And
yet this kind of exclusive genius for numbers has abso-
lutely been imitated by an ingenious mechanism. The
power of combining numbers and of producing infallible
numerical results can be imparted to a complicated
arrangement of wheels, pulleys, and indices, which
combine to form a calculating machine capable of work-
ing mathematical problems, and of effecting a vast saving
of what would otherwise be purely intellectual labour.
And who can doubt that such a machine, the product of
one man's ingenuity, may yet be rendered vastly more
perfect, comprehensive, and embracing, by the accumula-
tive improvements of succeeding mechanicians!
The contention is, we need hardly say, not that a
profound mathematician is a calculating machine,—but
that a cold, bright, and keen intellect,-which is that
alone, is utterly inadequate for the exploration of
matters taught in the Scriptures. For the Scriptures
testify of God and the things of the Spirit, and these are
totally beyond the ken of the intellect pure and simple,-
3
UNAIDED INTELLECT AN UNSAFE GUIDE. 271
the science of Nature alone is utterly incapable of affording
any solution to these questions. For they introduce a
factor with which the intellect alone cannot cope, and in
the presence of which it is paralyzed and dumb.
A man whose intellect is exclusive,-whose intellectual
faculties have been cultivated to the total neglect of those
which have relation to the Will and affections,-is men-
tally imperfect, and by implication may become, and in
all probability will ultimately become, also morally defi-
cient. For Man possesses two twin faculties, the
cultivation of neither of which can be neglected with
impunity. The Will and affections are as necessary to
the complete and perfect mental constitution of man as
the Understanding and intellect; and if one must be,—as
not unfrequently happens from force of circumstances,
-hindered in its development, it were better that it
should be the Intellect than the Will. And this for two
reasons. For in the first place, as has been already
urged, the undue predominance of intellectual develop-
ment, unleavened, or inadequately leavened, by the Will
and affections, leads to a coldness and hardness of heart
which is not only a most undesirable possession in itself,
but is besides a serious stumbling-block to spiritual
growth, if not absolutely destructive of it. And, se-
condly, we hold that, believing as we do in a life to come,
a belief which the pure intellect is apt to discard as a
fond and enthusiastic fable,-the development of the Will
and affections, as goodness acquired here, will go to our
account, while the deficiency in intellectual advancement
will be readily made good; but we do not apprehend that
the converse of this will be the case.
Our object thus far has by no means been to underrate
the Intellect, or the votaries of intellectual training, so
long as that training is not made too exclusive, but to
point out that although, in the controversy on the subject
of Miracles, it may perhaps be conceded that the weapons
of the mathematical and scientific polemic have some-
272
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
times appeared to be more keen than the arguments of
those who are mainly guided by their love and trust in
that which in their hearts they are convinced to be the
Word of God,—nevertheless, the arguments of science
are in reality but superficial and apparent, because
science and mathematics cannot really touch the ques-
tion at issue. For science and mathematics deal purely
and solely with the seen, whereas the subject of Miracles
is a part of that spiritual science which has reference to
the unseen,-which ordinary science, indeed, too often
ignores and even denies. Mathematics, and science in
general, are all the while using weapons as powerless and
ineffective as a sword which cleaves the air. But there
are considerations, on the other hand, which, like
Ithuriel's spear, are
not of natural, but of celestial
temper, and which are much more likely than mere
material weapons to elucidate the difficulties, and to effect
the solution which we have in view.
It is therefore unnecessary that we should attempt to
combat all the objections which have been so confidently
urged against the credibility or possibility of Miracles.
The task would be endless and thankless, it would be but
a repetition of what has been said over and over again.
We conceive that those objections have been urged upon
false grounds, the deceptive nature of which will become
apparent as we proceed. But we propose to devote this
chapter to some views which we trust may place the
subject in a new light, and may suggest reasons for
believing that what are known as Miracles only require to
be somewhat better understood in order to be removed
from their present equivocal position in religious belief,
and placed upon a rational basis such as their opponents
may recognize, so that these latter shall no longer occupy
the antagonistic attitude they have so long held,—but may
discover a mode of agreement or consent which shall at
once disarm their intellectual scepticism and vindicate
the Sacred Record which asserts their reality.
DIVINE ORDER AND NATURAL LAW, 273
But to do this, we must, as a preliminary, refer to
principles enunciated and illustrated in the earlier portion
of this volume,-principles which are based upon the pro-
position that the natural world and the spiritual world
occupy distinct planes of being, which are discontinuous,
and, like parallel lines, can nowhere directly meet.
And, further, that the higher or spiritual plane stands
in the relation of a pre-existent cause to the phenomena
which are apparent to us as exhibited on the natural
or material plane. Moreover, while the natural world
corresponds in all its manifested phenomena with the
spiritual world from whence it is derived, which phe-
nomena are governed by unerring and inflexible Law,-
this Law is also correspondent to a Divine Order which is
the very idea of God; being that Universal Power which
controls all things in the world of causes, and is the direct
expression of the nature and character of its Author and
Sustainer. The essentials of this Order are Love, Wisdom,
and Power,—or the moving, efficient, and determining
causes of things; and these three are the essentials of the
idea of God. Thus, altogether independent of the natural
and visible Universe, there is a Supreme Order, centred in
the idea of God, which is the very foundation of the
spiritual world which He rules, and by virtue of which
He could effect the creation of this physical Universe.
But it follows as a self-evident proposition that that
Divine Order is pre-existent to, and embracive of, all
Natural Law, which is indeed in no case identical with
Divine or Spiritual Order, but is its mediate and indirect
outcome, effect, and inviolable correspondent.
It is not however to be argued from this that Divine.
Order is capable of subverting Natural Law; for if the latter
is the outcome of the former, to subvert Law would be to
nullify Order. Divine Order is, however, of such an
inviolable quality that even Law may be regarded as
unstable in comparison,-in the same sense that snow
may be said to be less white than some abstract concep-
18
274 AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
tion of whiteness; and indeed it is certain that there are
degrees of whiteness in this most typical of substances.
For Law is liable, as Babbage has shown, to distant and
subtle variations to which it is impossible that the Divine
Order could be subject, the superior and causative
character of Spirit placing it upon a plane distinctly above
matter, which is a mere subordinate effect.
In a word, just as the natural world is a mere transitory
shadow, in reference to its relations to the spiritual world
from which it was produced, and which is alone permanent
and substantial, so the Laws impressed on the natural
world are all embraced in, and dominated by, the laws of
that Spiritual World which we have described as being
themselves the Divine Order or idea of God expressed in
Love, Wisdom, and Power. For as God is the centre of
the Universe of Spirit from which proceeded the Universe
of matter, as the ultimate expression of His Divine
qualities and attributes, so the Divine Order is the
central idea which governs and controls the Universe of
Spirit, and finds its ultimate or circumferential expression
in the Laws of the material world.
Now all the scientific objections to what is termed
Miracle are based upon the assumed stability of the
material world, and the imagined absolute sovereignty of
Natural Law. If there were no other world but the
natural, then would these arguments be overwhelming,
and Miracle would be indeed impossible; for the miracu-
lous would be inconceivable, there would be no Power
which we could imagine as modifying, comprehending, or
in the smallest degree affecting Natural Law. But
although the scientific man may choose to assume that
the spiritual is non-existent, to effect which he must of
course totally deny the existence of God,—that assumption
is, after all, not only no proof, but becomes no argument
until it can be proved: and that, we venture to affirm, will
never happen. The materialist indeed, can discover no
avenue from the seen to the unseen, and therefore he
MIRACLES NEVER BREACHES OF LAW. 275
ignores the latter; the fact being that there exists no
direct avenue from the one to the other. But when this is
understood and admitted, the way becomes cleared for the
perception and the comprehension of that indirect or
mediate avenue which does exist, and which is practicable.
Meantime, let us consider what will be the effect of the
admission that there is a Divine Order which embraces
and comprehends, and thus dominates Natural Law.
We have already pointed out that such a view does not
demand that Divine Order should in any way interfere
with Natural Law, in the sense of opposing it, turning it
aside, or changing it,-in other words, in breaking Natural
Law. And we may here say that when our Argument is
further unfolded, we shall point out that of all the known
Divine Miracles, none are breaches of Natural Law. For
there are some things which Omnipotence itself cannot
effect, because Omnipotence can only act by Order, and
therefore what is directly opposed to Order, as a direct
breach of Law would be, is absolutely impossible. An
omnipotent Power which had no regard to Order would
be a malignant Fiend, but the Divine Beneficence springs
from its inviolable Order. And God who is Divine Order,
will not stultify Himself by acting in opposition to His
own Order,--and some things described as miraculous
which appear to be contrary to this Order, appear so only
because they are imperfectly understood. Of these we
shall speak later.
But it must be evident to any thinking mind that if
Divine Order expresses itself, as it were, in ultimates,-as
a centre radiating to its circumference,-in Natural Law;
that primary central Divine Order acts by a higher and
more subtle method at its centre than in the ultimates,
which are as it were prolonged from it; in a manner which
corresponds to the radiation of Light and heat from the
Sun (which are the true correspondents of Divine Order)
and which diminish with the distance according to a
definite ratio. Law is thus but one out of the many
276 AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
methods of Order, dependent upon the nature or character
of the material upon which it acts, or which manifests its
effects. But it is not by any necessity the only method.
Law itself is thus subject to Order,-Law is embraced by
Order,—Law is capable of being modified by Order, under
definite, and, so to speak, orderly conditions, which may
indeed not be understood by us, but which can no less be
conceived as existing. Certain unusual combinations of
material manifestations may attract to themselves a wider
embrace of Law,-may penetrate, as it were, nearer to the
centre of Order, and thus the ordinary Law may be
apparently modified. But since we can only recognize
Law by its effects,-the dominance of superior Law is
made manifest to us by the fact that other effects, new to
our experience, result. Or, again, where Power is
present and active, Order, it may be conceived, may be
projected beyond its ordinary limit, and thus may
apparently supersede Natural Law,-not by breaking it,-
but by dominating it by a higher manifestation of Power.
But what is precisely signified by these ideas will be
elucidated later on.
Meantime the fact remains, that one kind of law may
be dominated by another kind,-general laws by par-
ticular laws,—laws of comparatively slender application
by others more special and definite. We can recognize
that this is the case without having the least idea of their
mode of working. For a law can only be known by its
effects. Those effects we can see and appreciate, but
we cannot see or appreciate the steps that conduct from
the cause to the
to the effect, these are hidden from us,
and therefore if the effect varies, we are apt to imagine,—
not that the result is an ordinary sequence,—but that an
impossible marvel has happened.
An illustration of what is meant may be afforded by the
following not imaginary episode. A poor, good, but not
learned man is sick. He lies upon a bed from which he
does not expect that he shall rise any more, and he is
son.
THE SUBJECT ILLUSTRATED.
277
desirous that his absent children may be made aware of
his condition. The clergyman visits him, and to him he
confides his wish that a certain son, living, say, two
hundred miles away, should be informed of his sickness,
and he asks the clergyman to write to him. The clergy-
man bids him be of good comfort, and leaving him,
proceeds to a telegraph office and despatches a message
to the distant son. To this in a couple of hours he has
a reply with which he repairs again to the bedside of the
dying man. The latter, who knows that it is at least a
day's post to his son, and possibly a day and a half, and
who also, being a poor and illiterate man, knows nothing
about the telegraph, anxiously inquires if the letter has
been written and despatched, in reply to which, the
clergyman reads him the telegraphic message from his
The astounded sick man is incredulous and scep-
tical; to him a miracle has been worked. He sees the
end attained, which to his mind is contrary to the consti-
tution and course of Nature; but he does not perceive or
understand the means by which the orderly sequential
result has been secured. These means are to him a
mystery. He does not know that the ordinary Law of
transmission by post-that is, the ordinary progression.
through space of muscle or iron,-has been superseded
by the law of the immeasurable swiftness of the electric
current. The ordinary Law of transmission or pro-
gression has been—not broken, but—superseded, by a higher
law of electric conduction, of which he is totally ignorant,
-as ignorant as most persons are of spiritual activities
and the Laws of Divine Order. The Law of Electric
conduction, although still a natural law, is a higher
and more central law than that of mere material pro-
gression. The latter is not suspended by it, or interfered
with by it in any way whatever,—but it is superseded,
dominated, and rendered unnecessary. It is a case
strictly analogous to what we understand by a miracle.
For the Laws of the Divine Order are the central
278 AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
principles of the central or spiritual (i.e. superior and
interior) world, and the Laws of Nature are the circum-
ferential projections of that Order, manifested in ultimates,
or in the ultimate sphere of material creation, which is on
a lower plane, correspondent only, and not continuous,
with the higher plane.
So also if we examine more closely the illustration just
adduced, we shall find that there is an analogy only
between the two modes of progression: as there is an
analogy only between Divine Order and Natural Law.
For the railway or coach journey is the ultimate and
lowest form of progression, by which a body is carried
through space laboriously and uncompromisingly, a work
of corresponding length of time and tedious prolixity.
But the electric current, which supersedes this process, is
not a progression through space at all, but a higher or
more central law of conduction, in virtue of which
particles of matter are successively influenced, and betray
their effect or result at the extreme end of the line. It
will be seen that it is a transmission of energy rather
than a projection of matter, and therefore a higher and
more central manifestation of Law, of which indeed the
human mind has only quite recently become cognizant;
whereas of ordinary progression there can scarcely have
been a time when it was not cognizant. And can we
suppose that we have reached the very centre and apex of
such knowledge? Rather, must we not be convinced that
there are yet higher and more central principles which
we shall hereafter reach, as well as others still higher, to
which we can never attain ?
And hence we can never be in a position to assert that
such or such a miracle is impossible, unless indeed it be
contrary to Divine Order,-unless, that is, He who per-
formed these miracles shall have, to all appearance, stulti-
fied Himself by the perversion or even suspension of the
Laws of Nature; by the breaking of those salutary bounds
which He has set alike upon Nature and upon Spirit.
LAW A PROJECTION FROM ORDER.
279
We do not intend to complicate the subject of Miracles
by unnecessarily introducing elements which the man of
science would regard as ambiguous or debatable; but no
discussion on Miracles would be complete if we were
entirely to omit one aspect of the miraculous which is not
so palpable, but which is yet in reality of even greater
interest and importance than that which is popularly
included under that term. For as there are two worlds,
of the seen and the unseen, so are there miracles worked
in both. The Spirit of God acting immediately upon the
spirit of man, may, as every spiritually-minded person
must be conscious, effect changes and developments which
are alone within the scope of Divine Love, Wisdom, and
Power. The New Birth is itself of this character, and the
spiritual development of the soul in the path of righteous-
ness and truth-the uphill work against the natural
propensities and affections of the human mind, is equally
so. But such spiritual miracles, beyond the conception
of the human mind as to their rationale, and their modus
operandi, may be here passed over with this brief
indication, in order that the attention may be concen-
trated upon the real object of this Argument, viz., the
miracles which affect physical matter and natural Law.
For the miraculous manifestations which here concern
us are produced in respect of matter,—that is, it is in
material changes that the results are visible which are
claimed as miracles by those who believe the statements
of the Sacred Record, and which are objected to by those
who are firmly convinced of the pure conservatism of
matter, and the impossibility of any higher laws super-
seding the established physical laws of Nature.
But since the alleged miraculous manifestations are
produced in respect of matter, the very rigidity of which
is the difficulty to be overcome, it is evident that the only
mode by which such modifications or results could be
imagined to be effected must be in strict accordance with
the relations in which matter stands to that which is
280 AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
superior to it,—and which is its primary cause,—viz.,
Spirit. All such unexplained manifestations must be due
to a higher-that is, a spiritual, agency; and that agency
must work in a definite manner-a manner in which
there must be nothing arbitrary or irregular, but which
must be in every particular, strictly in accordance with
the Divine Order which is the very spiritual expression of
God.
Now, since God is the Author of Nature (or the physical
world)—since the world of Nature, that is, has proceeded
from Him, that very proceeding must have been according
to Divine Order. The Love, which suggested or impelled,
and the Wisdom which effected through the agency of
Power, must all be thus projected from the spiritual
source from whence they sprung, and must be represented
in ultimates in the world of Nature. Thus, the world of
Nature can be no meaningless, hap-hazard work, but
must have a strict reference to the qualities of the Divine
from which it sprung. But the world of Nature is
altogether different from the world of Spirit,-just as the
objective material has no direct similarity or identity with
our ideas of that material. Objective matter produces a
certain subjective effect upon our minds, and we thereby
apprehend matter; but the ideas (i.e. the spirit) and the
objective (i.e. the matter) have neither similarity nor
identity. What they really possess is an analogy—a
relation of correspondence-the one corresponding or
answering to the other; the material on a lower plane,
and the spiritual on a higher. In a word, the attributes
of God, from whom matter exists, are crystallized, as it
were, in forms which represent or correspond to those
qualities, that matter being the ultimate or circumferential
expression of the spiritual causes which exist primarily,
and, as it were, centrally, in God.
But not only so, but while every material substance,
or the Universe at large as to its material framework,
is in strict correspondence with the Divine, as a vast
IDEAS CRYSTALLIZED IN MATTER.
281
series of outbirths or projections from the Divine qualities
or attributes,—and is therefore a comprehensive image
of the Divine (or God) both in general and in particulars,—
so also the physical processes which are constantly at work,
changing, modifying, and developing natural substances,
are in equally strict correspondence with the spiritual
processes which, of an ineffable nature, are equally and
continuously at work in the spiritual world, moulding,
weaving, and evolving the purposes of God in that
infinite and transcendant sphere of spiritual causes over
which He rules.
Hence, as natural processes act in the material images
of spiritual things by the agency or under the control of
Laws which bear the same relation to spiritual Laws that
the objects of Nature bear to the spiritual Causes from
which they sprung, therefore must these natural Laws be
equally subordinate to the Divine Order of the spiritual
world as the objects themselves are but the ultimate
projections, or objective shadows of the realities of the
unseen. In other words, natural processes or activities,
to the end that they may be according to Order, must
be correspondent to the spiritual processes which they thus
typify or express in strictly conditioned images.
It follows, therefore, that every apparent change in
material Order, involving the supersession of Natural
Law, such as is termed a Miracle, must have some
relation to the more subtle changes of the spiritual world,
with which we cannot be acquainted, but which we may
yet recognize as active and efficient ;-changes which are
in strict accordance with Divine Order, or otherwise they
could not be productive of correspondent effects in the
subordinate world of Nature. For Nature can do nothing
of itself, it is inert and dead without the sustaining
activities of the spiritual world from which it sprung, as
an effect from a Cause. And therefore every change in
the material world, whether normal and according to Law,
or apparently abnormal and independent of Law, is equally
282
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
a correspondent effect of changes and variations in the
spiritual world,-changes strictly according to Order,
which therefore may, in obedience to higher Laws, (as in
the case of Electric conduction) become, under favourable
conditions, cognizable to our minds by manifestations
made visible in the external world.
If there is reason in this Argument, which to our minds
is both reasonable and consistent, it follows that all the
genuine manifestations which have appeared to set aside
or supersede Natural Law, related in the Old and New
Testaments, and termed Miracles, would, if their true
nature were fully understood, and their quality duly re-
cognized, bear a signification which is correspondent to
some orderly spiritual manifestation or process which
they have strictly followed as effects arising from spiritual
causes. Such spiritual manifestations due to occult
chains of causation are doubtless infinitely more subtle
and plastic than anything which can be exhibited in
matter, which is conditioned by inflexible and unyielding
substances and forms. And therefore the latter usually
follow the law of their inflexible forms. But by a further
projection of the Divine Order into the ultimate sphere
of matter, or by an elevation of the material into a higher
region of spiritual Law (or Order) under the supervision of
Him who is Order itself, results may be conceived as
producible which may be apparently at variance with
what we know of physical Law. And thus, every genuine
miracle recorded should bear a distinct relation to some
spiritual process, perhaps little understood, but which
may nevertheless not be beyond the limits of human
inquiry. Every such miracle should contain a distinct
spiritual signification, dependent upon the correspondence
between the natural processes hastened or superseded,
and the spiritual processes which were the moving and
efficient causes of the phenomenal result. And this,
which should be the test of a genuine miracle, we shall
presently show to have been really the case.
TEST OF GENUINE MIRACLES.
283
But before proceeding further, there is a fact which
which must be explained, and a source of error which
must be eliminated. For besides the miracles recorded
as being effected by Divine Power, both in the Old and in
the New Testament, other miraculous effects are said to
have been produced by men,-opposers of God. Thus
in Exod. vii. 10, we read that when Aaron cast down
his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent, "the
magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their en-
chantments." And we also read in more than one place
of enchantments and witchcrafts as practices common in
ancient times, although uniformly condemned. We shall
better understand these occurrences and practices when
we shall have said something concerning the raison d'être
of Miracles, and have given an indication of the mode in
which they were effected. But having called attention
to these unauthorized workers of miracles, we will content
ourselves here with remarking that such manifestations
were produced by persons who had preserved certain lore
relating to the correspondence between the spiritual and
the natural, and used the correspondence for the purpose
of perverting the Divine Order, and producing effects
which on their surface appeared to be of the same nature
as the Divine manifestations, or miracles. But such
miracles, differed from true or Divine miracles, in that
the latter possess a representative spiritual or interior
form, which, in the unauthorised, is entirely absent. For
the Divine miracles are according to Order, while the
enchantments of the magicians were perversions or
abuses of Order; externally, they resembled one another,
but there the resemblance ceased: internally they were
totally opposed to one another. We shall return to this
later.
But we are so wedded to the idea of Law, and that
Law narrowed and confined within the limits of our own
finiteness, that an outcry is raised if any operation which
we are not able to understand, appears to be free from the
284
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
restraint of such Law. And yet what is Law? Is Law,
such as we know it, a finality? Is it not simply the bond
which seems to unite our very limited and most imperfect
observations upon the phenomena of the natural world?
If we are (as some, with, it is to be feared, a mock
humility, are wont to admit) but children picking up a
few shells upon the shore of the great ocean of the infinite,
we may know where certain ordinary shells most abound,
we may recognize the law of their distribution, but
shall we bind the Ocean of Infinity beyond by the limita-
tions which we have discerned upon the narrow fringe of
its shore? Not so: it is the Ocean which casts up the
shells, and we are but as children in our knowledge of its
modes of operation, and of its fathomless storehouse of
wonders from which they are produced,-its inexhaustible
resources, its infinite varieties, modifications and adapta-
tions; yet if we hear of a rare and wonderful shell being
cast up which has never been seen before, we cry-A
miracle! an inconceivable impossibility! It is contrary
to experience-contrary to our knowledge of the Law of
the shore, it is inadmissible, and out of Evidence!
But let us look a little more closely into the Miracles
alleged to have been performed by the Saviour, and see
whether they possess that interior form or spirit which
we have indicated as being the test of Divine miracles,
as contradistinguished from those unauthorized miracles,
if we may so call them, which were within the power of
certain men whose character and actions show them to
have been evilly-disposed. And when we have done this,
we will further inquire whether we can afford any clue to
the action of miracles, regarded as a projection of Power
from the interior sphere of Order to the more exterior
sphere of Law.
With regard, then, to the first question,—we have
stated that every genuine or Divine Miracle must bear a
distinct spiritual signification dependent upon the corres-
pondence between the natural processes hastened or
RESTORING SIGHT TO THE BLIND.
285
superseded, and the spiritual processes which were the
moving or efficient causes of the phenomenal result. And
we affirm that every miracle related in the Gospels bears
this character, and is capable of this explanation. Every
miracle related in the New Testament is an external form
of an internal principle. And the internal principle clearly
discernible in each is that which vivifies and attests
it as a genuine result or superior expression of Divine
Order, projected, as it were, into the ultimate forms of
matter, controlling, by spiritual agencies of a higher kind,
the processes of natural Law; and, without contra-
vening natural Law, yet subordinating it to superior and
more interior principles,-which principles and agencies
having been the original causes of material manifestations,
were and are evidently adequate to modify those mani-
festations, so as to produce results, which, inasmuch as
they do not fall within the range of our experience of
natural Law, we call Miracles. But once admit that they
are included in a higher range of Law, or Order, and they
are no longer Miracles (in the marvellous sense) but
simply exhibitions of Power, wonderful indeed, yet
scarcely more wonderful than many others which we pass
serenely by from mere use and custom.
Of course we cannot in this place attempt to examine
every recorded Miracle, but it would be an equally simple
task as to explain one upon these principles. We will
select some instances, not because they are more easy of
explanation, but solely because they appear to be more
usefully illustrative of the subject. Let us first take the
case of the blind man restored to sight, as related in
Mark viii. 22-25. "And He cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to
touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and
led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his
eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he
saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as
trees, walking. After that He put His hands again upon
286 AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
his eyes, and made him look up; and he was restored and
saw every man clearly."
Now we have selected this miracle for illustration
rather because of its difficulty, and because there are
incidents in it which seem at first sight capricious and
unnecessary; and even, so to speak, circuitous or round-
about. Nevertheless, every little detail of the narrative.
has a representative meaning, which, when properly
understood, carries a definite and important signification.
Why, for instance, in the first place, did He lead the man
out of the town before performing the Miracle? Why
did He, apparently, fail to succeed in the first instance,
and complete the cure, as it were, by a second trial?
And what is the meaning of the expression, "I see men
as trees, walking"? These questions are absolutely
unanswerable on any ordinary reading, but fall rea-
sonably within the scope of the explanations we are
urging.
The blind man, then, represents one spiritually blind,-
unable to perceive spiritual truth: one whose eyes were
not opened to see things out of the law of God: and the
opening of his eyes by Our Lord was representative of
that spiritual opening which David prayed for (Psa.
cxix. 18), and which Elisha prayed for on behalf of the
young man (2 Kings vi. 17). The occurrence, it is said,
took place at Bethsaida,- an accursed place, which refused
to accept the Messiah, in spite of the mighty works done.
by Him therein (Matt. xi. 21), and against which place a
heavy woe was pronounced by Him. And therefore
before this representative opening of the spiritual sight
could be effected, it was necessary that the man should
quit the town, which was, as it were, a City of Destruc-
tion. When, after anointing his eyes, He put His hands
upon him, it signified Divine communication, which,
when applied to the eyes themselves, more particularly
represented spiritual enlightenment. But the first essay
at sight, resulted only in his seeing men as trees, walking.
VARIOUS FORMS OF BLINDNESS.
287
For trees, throughout the Bible represent various kinds
of knowledge, or perception of truth, or intelligence
(comp. Gen. ii.; Ezek. xvii. 24), and by walking is
signified life, that is, principles brought into action, as in
Gen. xvii. 1, &c., "Walk before me, and be thou perfect."
The expression, therefore, means that in the commence-
ment of his restoration to spiritual sight, the man had
but obscure and general perceptions of truth. Such
obscure perceptions are derivable from the externals of
the Word, when read without a due appreciation of its
spirit, and is the kind of insight which is first obtained
by the study of the Word of God, before the more interior
mind is opened "to perceive the wondrous things out of
Thy Law," as the Psalmist expresses it. When however
the eyes were touched, and illumination granted, then
"he saw every man clearly." He was able, that is, to
distinguish not only the mere external of truth, but its
internal, and could perceive the Spirit which animated
the letter, which Spirit is the very interior form of Truth
itself.
Now there are several instances of blind men being
restored to sight in the Gospels. In each case the
circumstances are different, and in each case the mode of
healing differs. And this is so because spiritual blindness
is of various kinds, and the modes by which it is overcome
by Divine Power are equally various, and adapted in
every instance to the circumstances of the case. But
every instance has a representative meaning, and that
representative meaning is the internal Spirit which
stamps the Miracle as a genuine manifestation of Divine
Power, an extension of the laws of Divine Order into
the ultimates of natural Creation, in accordance with the
correspondence which exists between the two.
In one
case the man is blind from his birth (John ix. 1), repre-
senting those who, though possessing faculties for spiritual
sight, have yet never had them brought into action, as was
the case with those who were remote from the sources of
288
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
Truth, for example, the Gentiles. In another case
there were two blind men restored, representing the
defective opening of those great dual faculties of the Will
and the Understanding, and the deprivation of those two
great principles of Good and Truth which constitute the
entire burthen of the Bible. Again, in some cases He
directly touched the eyes, when faith or a rightly-founded
belief was present,-while in others He used the grosser
medium of clay (representing the lowest principle of
truth,-see Dan. ii. 33), before finally restoring the sufferer
from what was evidently a grosser form of blindness.
Second only to blindness were dumbness and deafness,
among those maladies which our Lord went about
healing. Speech is the outcome of thought, and to be
spiritually dumb signified to be divested of the power of
exercising the spiritual principle of thought, so that, one
thus dumb is incapable of raising his thoughts to spiritual
things, and unable to elevate them above the things of
mere earth, to be, as the Apostle expresses it, carnally
minded-which is spiritual death. And with regard to
deafness, to hear, and to hearken, always signifies to obey.
Hence" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt.
xi. 15, &c.). Consequently deafness (Mark vii. 37) repre-
sented inability to hear, that is to perceive Truth, which
resulted in the absence of the power to live according to
it, or to be obedient to it. Therefore in Isa. xliii. 5, 8,
9, we read, "Fear not, for I am with thee. Bring
forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that
have ears. let them hear, and say, It is Truth."
•
Another not infrequent miracle of Our Lord was the
cleansing of the leper. Leprosy was representative of
that utter spiritual uncleanness and demoralization which
was the result of the profanation of holy things. This
was a besetting sin of the Jews at the time of the advent
of Our Lord; for they had had much good and truth
bestowed upon them in the earlier stages of their Church,
which they had then reverenced, but which afterwards they
CLEANSING THE LEPERS.
289
despised and cast behind them,—and this is profanation;
and the spiritual evil had its counterpart or true corres-
pondent in the common bodily malady. Perhaps the
most remarkable instance of healing this disease was in
the case of the ten lepers, who stood afar off (Luke xvii.
12). Ten signifies something inclusive and complete,--
hence there were ten commandments, which contained or
included the whole Law; and many other uses of the
number ten confirm this. Consequently the ten lepers
signified the whole inclusive evil of the Jewish Church,
corrupted by the abuse of what had been at a former time
held sacred. By standing afar off, they proclaimed their
own unworthiness; and in lifting up their voices, they
raised their thoughts to God, and supplicated mercy.
Our Lord, however, did not directly heal them, but said,
"Go, shew yourselves unto the priests." For the priests
in the Jewish Church represented the Divine Goodness,
as kings did the Divine Truth. Hence Melchisedec was
priest and king, and in Rev. i. 6 we read, "Jesus Christ
hath made us kings and priests to God and His father."
By showing themselves to the priests, therefore, was sig-
nified placing themselves in direct communication with
the sources of Divine Good; and by this newness of life
they became delivered from the burden of their grievous
sin :—“ and it came to pass, as they went they were
cleansed."
It would unduly lengthen this chapter did we adduce
further illustrations of the subject from the miracles of
Our Lord. Those which have been given are sufficient
to illustrate our meaning: and it can be shown that every
miracle of Christ, without exception, bore a represen-
tative meaning,-which is the spiritual principle or
interior form of the truth which is outwardly expressed in
the material phenomena, and which stamps the miracle
as genuine or Divine.
But it may be urged that while such things as the
healing of the sick, and the enlightening of the blind are
19
290
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
in truth exercises of Power, according to Order, being
indeed the restoration of Order where it has been dis-
turbed, there is yet another category of alleged Miracles
which are distinctly contrary to Order, and therefore
condemnatory of the view here taken-that every miracle
must be strictly in accordance with the Divine Order,
however it may dominate or supersede natural Law. Is
not, it may be said, the raising from the dead a contra-
vention of Order, since it is appointed unto all men once
to die? We answer that it is indeed perfectly true that
it would not be according to Order that a man whose soul
has once entered the world of spirits should be again cast
upon the shores of mortality, and permitted to renew his
life upon earth. It becomes then a question how far the
three recorded cases in which Our Saviour is alleged to
have raised the dead to life are in accordance with the
test we have demanded.
In two of these cases we have the testimony of Our
Lord Himself that death in the absolute meaning of the
term had not taken place. Of Jairus' daughter He said,
"The maid is not dead, but sleepeth (Matt. ix. 24). It is
true that they laughed Him to scorn, but that only proves
that to human experience she was dead, and beyond
human aid. It showed too that they were incapable of
understanding the distinction between that thorough,
complete, and wilful immersion in worldly-mindedness
which constitutes spiritual death, and the numbness and
torpor of the spiritual faculties which, however apparently
complete, are yet capable of being aroused into life and
energy by the spiritual Power of the Divine activities.
And again, in the case of Lazarus, He said,
"This
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God"
(John xi. 4). And further, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep" (ver. 11).
And although He afterwards said, “Lazarus is dead,”
it is evident from what went before that He did not attach
to the word the same absolute meaning as that held by
F
RAISING THE DEAD.
291
the rest. A man may be to all appearance dead,—and
utterly beyond the reach of human aid and restoration,-
and yet it is quite conceivable that such a man may not
yet have absolutely passed to the world of spirits; and
further, that an exercise of a higher than human power
might be capable of restoring him to earth. If he had
really entered the spiritual world, it would undoubtedly
be contrary to the Divine Order that he should return.
But who shall say that he had done so, or even that his
entry into that world beyond might not be purposely
retarded, if necessary? All physicians know the differ-
ence between somatic and molecular death; and all know
also, that of two men, both to all appearance irrecoverably
dead (as by drowning), one may perhaps be restored by
human means, while no such means suffice for the resto-
ration of the other. Yet even the latter might still not
have been beyond extra-human aid, and his restoration
by such means might be equally according to Order.
Two things are to be remarked-first, that in no case is
there the faintest intimation that the restored person had
become acquainted with "the secrets of the prison
house;" and second, that in the case of Lazarus,
although it was suggested by Martha that, having been
dead four days, "by this time he stinketh," no corrobora-
tion of this supposition is to be found in the Sacred
Record: nor have we in fact any valid reason to imagine
that decomposition had really commenced.
In each of these cases the contention is, that, although
the subject of the miracle was not dead in the absolute
sense of the word, he was yet dead so far as human aid
was concerned,-as irrecoverable by any known or human
means, as any one is, five minutes after he has drawn his
latest breath; and therefore that his restoration to life
was an exercise of Divine Power, according to a higher
sphere of Law,—such as we term a Miracle.¹
I
¹ See the chapter on the Raising of Lazarus, in "New Studies in
Christian Theology."
จ
292
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE MIRACLES.
But the restoration in every case was correspondent to
that restoration from spiritual death of which the Apostle
speaks, when he says (Ephes. ii. 1) "And you hath He
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Yet it
is evident that even here the expression dead must be
qualified,—for if the soul, no less than the body, be
absolutely dead (we do not mean extinct or annihilated,
but dead in the sense of being carnally minded), it cannot
be revivified. It is true that "He will not quench the
smoking flax "--but if the last faint curl of smoke be
vanished, how shall it be fanned again into a flame?
And the Bible makes a distinction between those who
are apparently spiritually dead, and thus are capable of
restoration,—and those whose death is absolute and irre-
coverable,—as we may learn by comparing the passage in
Ephes. v. 14, "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light," with that in Jer. li. 57, " And they shall sleep
a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose
name is the Lord of hosts." The restoration to spiritual
life of the one is possible by an orderly effort of Divine
Power; that of the other is impossible,-for it is con-
trary to the Divine Order.

"We regard Miracles as integral parts of Revelation, and not as bare
arbitrary signs, like the change of a pen into a pen-wiper. And we know
of no miracles of that sort; on the contrary, we regard such prodigies as
the kind of miracles which the Jews desired Jesus to work, but which He
resolutely refused to work. Had the miracles of Jesus been like Mr. Arnold's
imaginary one, I am afraid they would not have had the effect of gaining for
Him implicit credence, even in affirmations palpably at war with common
fact and experience. They might indeed have won for Him a temporary
popularity, but only to insure a Nemesis of ultimate contempt and oblivion,
the fate which awaits all professors of thaumaturgic arts. But the miracles,
neither of Jesus nor of the Bible generally, are of that sort; and unless for the
purpose of bringing into discredit the traditional mode of putting the argument
from Miracles, the supposition of a pen changed into a pen-wiper in connection
with this topic is an irrelevance, I had almost said an impertinence."
The Chief End of Revelation, by A. B. BRUCE, D.D., p. 172.
"There is one miracle, peculiar to John, of so singular and apocryphal
a character as to call for notice. The turning of water into wine at the
marriage-feast in Cana of Galilee has long formed the opprobrium and per-
plexity of theologians, and must continue to do so as long as they persist in
regarding it as an accurate historical relation. None of the numberless
attempts to give anything like a probable explanation of the narrative has
been attended with the least success. They are for the most part melancholy
specimens of ingenuity misapplied, and plain honesty perverted by an origi-
nally false assumption. No portion of the Gospel History, scarcely any
portion of the Old Testament, or even of apocryphal narratives, bears such
unmistakable marks of fiction. It is a story, which, if found in any other
volume, would at once have been dismissed as a clumsy and manifest inven-
tion."
W. R. GREG, Creed of Christendom, vol. ii., p. 54.

L
CHAPTER X.
MIRACLES (continued).
ET us review our position. Miracles, such as those
recorded in the Gospels, are exercises of Divine
Power, effected, not arbitrarily or without purpose,
but according to a fixed and inviolable Order,-an Order
which is the central pivot, as it were, of the Universe
of Causes. The phenomena appear to us to transcend
the sphere of Order with which we are acquainted, because
we are here in material forms and in a natural or material
Universe of Effects,-effects which we see, and feel, and
measure, but which are nevertheless effects whose Causes
are more interior, and thus hidden from our grosser
perception, so that we are unable to trace these effects
to their causes, or to discover the relation between them.
Inasmuch as the whole Universe is perceptible to us
as an Universe of matter, whose very existence is depen-
dent upon some higher Power, pre-existent and potential
in every particle, it is evident that there are two classes
of entities-the one fixed in material forms, and bound by
strict and limited conditions, as the world of Nature,-the
other not so bound, but free and plastic, not conditioned
by the Laws of matter,—not fixed in solid and unyielding
substances, yet at the same time not absolutely uncon-
ditioned. For while material substances, and therefore
the whole natural Universe, is bound, as it were, in
296
THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
material fetters from which it cannot for a moment escape,
and the phenomena of that Universe are strictly embraced
in certain orderly groupings to which we give the name
of natural Laws,-the phenomena of the higher Cause
from which the Universe is traceable are subject to the
conditions of a higher Law, which is, as it were, the
central idea of God Himself,-and to which we have
applied the name of the Divine Order.
This Divine Order is the supreme Law of the spiritual
world, as natural Law is the expression of the processes
and phenomena of the natural world. But the two are
not continuous, any more than the orbit of the Earth is
continuous with the central Sun. For while the natural
world is an effect proceeding from the Spiritual world,
in which God the Creator dwells, the natural world
possesses in itself no single atom or combination of atoms
which is in any sense identical with anything which exists
or subsists in God. For the natural world is the effect,
in ultimates, of the central Divine qualities which pro-
duced or created it,—not out of nothing,--but out of the
potencies of spiritual Cause. And therefore spiritual
causes must be far more subtle than material effects,
or Nature. They are not, as has been said, in any sense,
identical; but Nature corresponds to its prior cause in the
same sense in which letters correspond to ideas. For
in letters, and in words formed of letters, there is abso-
lutely nothing even remotely of the same nature as
Thought, but the material letters correspond to the spiri-
tual Ideas, and between the two there is no direct rap-
prochement whatever. For the spiritual and the material
differ as to their essence, in toto. They are not on the
same plane, but on corresponding planes,-the one interior
and the other exterior,-the one central, and the other
circumferential.
Hence it follows that, although it has been so confi-
dently asserted, it is yet impossible that the Natural Law
which embraces material phenomena can be in any respect
SPIRITUAL & NATURAL LAW NOT IDENTICAL. 297
identical with the Spiritual Law, or Divine Order, which
rules the central Universe of Causes. For the matériel
of the natural world and that of the spiritual world being,
as we have said, in no respect identical, and having abso-
lutely no capability of direct rapprochement between them,
but in every particular corresponding only, as material
written letters correspond to conceived spiritual ideas
-(and hence the true meaning as among ourselves of
corresponding and correspondence)—it is utterly impos-
sible that the Laws governing these diverse elements can
be identical. The Laws of matter are one thing, and the
Laws of Spirit, which we have called the Divine Order,
are another. But there can be no question which are the
prior and superior. For matter is the effect, conditioned
in time and space,-while Spirit is the cause, uncondi-
tioned by either. Therefore the Divine Order, as the
infinitely superior, finds in natural Law its strict and
perfect correspondent, and subordinate. And as material
Nature is the projection upon another and a lower plane
of central, prior, and superior spiritual energies in corre-
spondent substances and forms, so is Natural Law the
projection, into these correspondent substances on a lower
plane, of the ultimate expression of the central Divine
Order..
Hence we have endeavoured to show, in the last
chapter, that the natural Law, with which we, as inhabi-
tants of a material world are alone cognizant, is not
the be-all and end-all of Order, but that it is in reality
only a subordinate governance, suited to this lower sphere,
which is the ultimate or circumferential manifestation of
the Divine Power; and that the higher and more compre-
hensive embrace of Divine Order dominates it, and may,
under certain circumstances even supersede it, not by
contravening or subverting it, but by bringing to bear
upon it, under certain orderly conditions, more interior
and higher principles, which may thus flow in and pro-
duce results, not immediately, but mediately, according
L-
298 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
to the Law of the Correspondence which exists between
the planes of spirit and matter. For this reason we
pointed out that the miracles of Jesus Christ, to be
proved genuine, must be shown to possess the interior
form of correspondence, in virtue of which they are images
of some spiritual manifestations of Divine Order, of which
they were truly representative, and from which repre-
sentativeness they derived their capability of being pro-
jected into the natural sphere. And such we saw to be
the case in the miracles of healing blindness, deafness,
dumbness, leprosy, &c., which we examined;-and even
in what at first sight might appear to be contrary to
the Divine Order, viz., the raising from the dead.
Hence it was, too, that all our Saviour's miracles were
miracles of beneficence. He went about doing good. Sin,
or the perversion of good and truth, had corrupted
the moral nature of man, and his material nature had
suffered in consequence ;-for sickness of body is the effect
of those evil material conditions which have their true
correspondents in the circumstances which give rise to
sickness of soul. Evil, the result of self-love, and of the
exclusive attachment to the things of sense,-in other words,
the carnal mind of the Apostle,—could not exist in the soul
without producing its correspondent effect upon the body:
and the afflicted with all manner of diseases whom Jesus
healed, represented the multiform evil effects of sin upon the
soul, which He thus representatively chased away, usually
coupled with the injunction, "Go, and sin no more." For
every disease was a departure from Order; every case of
sickness, disease, or death was a representation of the
inflexible Law, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die,”—and
every case of healing by Our Lord was, in effect, a restora-
tion to that infringed Order, manifested in its correspondent
effects upon the material body. Nowhere do we read of
any miracle by Our Lord which disturbed or violated Order,
or brought evil. For although it might be imagined that
the narrative of the barren fig-tree was an exception to
THE BARREN FIG-TREE.
299
this rule, it will be found when carefully examined that it is
in reality not so.
It may perhaps not at once be conceded that the fig-tree
as used in the Bible has any special and consistent signifi-
cation, because few persons are willing to admit any
signification to the Bible which does not lie palpably upon
its surface. And yet, if we read such passages as
Jer. viii., 13, where the Prophet is denouncing the per-
verted Jewish Church in these words-"I will surely
consume them, saith the Lord, there shall be no
grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf
shall fade,❞—as well as other passages in which the fig-tree
is inentioned in conjunction with the vine,-we cannot fail
to perceive that while the vine signifies the highest
spiritual good, the fig-tree is antithetic, and represents a
lower principle of good-or rather, the good existing in a
lower principle of our nature-as explained at the conclu-
sion of Gen. iii. (see Chap. VII). So, also, in this narrative,
Our Saviour coming to the fig-tree and finding upon it
nothing but leaves, represented that the Jewish Church,
already devoid of any real internal spiritual principle of
good, had now also lost even the external principle of
good, owing to its persistent profanation, or contempt and
falsification of Truth. When therefore He said, "Let no
fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever," it did not
signify any outburst of disappointment or vexation on the
part of Our Lord, but the denunciation of an inevitable
woe upon the barren Jewish Church, which henceforth
would remain as it then was, devoid of inner life, and for
ever debarred from spiritual growth and development.
Let us now, however, turn to the miracles related in
the Old Testament in illustration of this subject, and let
us examine them with a view to inquire if similar
principles may be discovered in them, by which they may
be elucidated or explained. And here first, we must bear
in mind that the Old Testament, from the time of
Abraham until the end, relates to the history, of the Jewish
300 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
Church, a Church which in its scope and character was
unique. For the government of the Jews is represented
as a Theocracy,-that is to say, that the complicated
ceremonial by which every particular of their daily life
was regulated, was arranged for them by the Divine
Ordinance (see Chap. VIII). Not only the Church, but the
State was similarly ordered ;—and in the earlier and more
flourishing days of the Jewish constitution, the Church
and the State were absolutely one. The ruler and leader
of this combined polity was the mouthpiece and delegate
of Jehovah, and received directly from Him all the
ordinances by which the worship of the Tabernacle and
the government of the people were alike regulated. It was
only as the people degenerated and fell away from Jehovah,
refusing His rule, and disobeying his messengers, that the
political State became more or less assimilated to other
States, and more and more separated from worship. But
so long as the Jews existed as a nation, the same principles
obtained among them as at the first,-only with an ever
decreasing intensity of spiritual application, and a con-
stantly diminishing personal intervention on the part of
the Divine Being in the affairs, whether of the nation or
of the individual.
But the fact that the Jewish rule was in any sense a
Theocracy implies that that rule was never exercised on
the principles which obtain in ordinary States. For we
have seen that between God, who is a Spirit, and man,
who is an inhabitant of a material world, there can be no
immediate intercourse or communication. The communi-
cation between them could only take place in one way,-and
that was by virtue of the correspondence which inherently
exists between Spirit and matter. Every ceremonial
ordinance—every jot and tittle of the Law,-whether moral
or civil,-must have been representative of the spiritual
principles by which Jehovah desired that His people
should be influenced. And not only must the ceremonial
worship of the Church, but also the acts and deeds of the
THE JEWISH THEOCRACY.
301
people, have been a series of analogies, corresponding in
their signifiance and meaning with the spiritual order by
which they were led and governed. In a word, the Jewish
Church, from beginning to end, was a representative of a
Church (though not a real Church) in which worship could
be offered only in an external manner, by a strict obedience
to those minute regulations laid down expressly by the
Divine command; and which were of such a subtle and at
the same of such a perfect nature, that a strict and
inviolable attention to them alone could suffice to effect
that communication which was necessary to enable
Jehovah to maintain His connection with, and to conduct
His people as a personal Ruler and Guide. As long there-
fore as the Jews maintained this ceremonial and ritual
intact, and followed it obediently, so long was God among
them; but when they began to neglect it and despise it,
in the same proportion He was farther off from them,
until in the last centuries before the advent of Christ they
had entirely lost all perception of the living spirit of the
Law, holding solely to the dead letter,-and for four
hundred years after the final words of Malachi they were
as far removed from Jehovah as if a representative of a
Church had never existed.
Thus the History of the Jews, particularly in all its earlier
stages while it was a pure Theocracy, was a continued
miracle, that is to say that it was a sustained exercise of
Divine Power effected by the agency of the correspondences
between spirit and matter,-and manifested in the acts and
deeds of an entire people, extending over a long series of
years. It is therefore not difficult to explain how certain
special exhibitions of Power set forth the more salient
phases of the divinely directed drama, and the miraculous,-
that is to say, the higher exercise of the Divine Order,-was
no unusual phenomenon. In fact, it will appear to any
thoughtful person self-evident that such a government by
God Himself, effected through the medium of such men as
Moses or Joshua, must inevitably have demanded the
302 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
continual agency of supernatural Power on the one hand,
while if the principles here laid down are duly understood,
it will be seen that such an exercise of the Divine Power,
or, to express it otherwise, such projections of the higher
Law of Divine Order into the sphere of the visible ma-
terial world, according to the Laws of correspondence,
were necessitated by the very circumstances of the case.
It would be irrational to suppose that a Theocracy could
be carried on upon purely natural lines, or by the
rigid material laws of an ordinary monarchy; but if a
Theocracy be granted, as it universally is (except indeed
by the pure materialist or the so-called advanced critic),
then must that Theocracy have been expressed by the
higher laws of Spirit acting upon and influencing the affairs
and objects of the material world in the only way they
could act upon them,-viz., by the mediate method of cor-
respondence, that is, by purely analogical representatives.
We have examples of this, for instance, in the series of
plagues which are described in Exodus as having been
sent upon the land and people of Egypt, for the purpose.
of inducing Pharaoh to send away the captive Israelites.
As usually understood, those miracles or exercises of
Divine Power, effected by Jehovah through the agency
of Moses, were unmeaning and arbitrary curses launched
by an angry and vindictive God upon an unbelieving
nation which set Him at defiance. But He could doubt-
less have effected His purpose at once by His mere Will,
had that course been in accordance with His Divine
Order. But without presuming to suggest what might
or should have been His mode of action, we do affirm
that it can be shown that the mode He chose was strictly
according to Order, and that the miracles exhibited in
the various plagues inflicted upon Egypt were strictly
representative, and contained the interior form of spiritual
signification which we have already claimed to be the true
and only test of genuine Miracles. In point of fact these
exhibitions of Divine Power, including the remarkable
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
303
prologue or introductory sign of the great epic drama,-
viz., the conversion of Aaron's rod into a "tannin " or
water serpent, was a grand series of significative corre-
spondences, representative of the gradual recession from
truth and good through regular stages or degrees,—first,
of mere neglect,-then of falsification (the water (Truth)
turned into blood)—then, of the confirmation of the false
by reasonings grounded in fallacies (when the waters
brought forth frogs),—after that, of the external infesta-
tions of evil (signified by the lice);—and so on, to the
end, which is mere destruction and spiritual death.
By the plagues, then, are symbolized the gradual pro-
cess of disintegration, commencing from the first careless
indifference to the claims and sanctity of Truth, which,-
by successive gradations, and by a process of elimination
and consequent weakening and undermining of truth and
good, and subsequent resultant strengthening of the prin-
ciples of evil and falsity,-must infallibly eventuate in
ultimate and final damnation. This is the process which
is signified by those fearful words of condemnation
Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even
that which he seemeth to have" (or thinketh that he hath
-Luke viii. 18).
66
Unfortunately it would lead us into far too lengthened.
a disquisition to prove this in all completeness and ful-
ness,—as however is quite capable of being done,—from
the Bible itself. The object of this allusion to these
remarkable narratives is to show that what is generally
and unintelligently regarded as a mere curious narration
of overdrawn wonders, only suited to the mental calibre
of the credulous and superstitious, is in reality a great
body of spiritual truth, acted, as it were, by virtue of cor-
respondence, in the affairs of the Egyptian and Israelitish
people,—and handed down as an infinitely important and
salutary lesson to succeeding ages, and to future God-
fearing nations.
Let us now endeavour to discover whether what has
304 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
1
thus far been advanced upon the subject of miracles
offers any solution of their possibility, probability, and
mode of operation,-as well as their necessity, object,
and desirability. For all these questions hang together
and are interdependent. The old idea that Miracles are
mere arbitrary breaches of natural Law we have seen to
be untenable; and again, that they were necessary for the
establishment of a Revelation is only half a truth, which
does not by any means express their full significance.
Again, that they are to be accepted by faith without any
reference to the consent of our reasoning faculties,—that
they must not be too curiously inquired into, because with
God everything is possible, is not a conception in unison
with the knowledge, science, and active inquiring intelli-
gence of the nineteenth century.
But also, on the other hand, the conception that the
History of the Jews and the narratives of the Gospels
must be subjected to the rigid criticism which a Niebuhr
or a Mommsen would employ in the analysis of the pro-
fane histories of the ancient world is equally fallacious:
because the Bible Histories are upon a totally different
footing from those of Greece and Rome. The latter are
purely secular, teaching us nothing beyond the letter of
the histories they profess to set forth,-whereas the Bible
Histories are sacred histories, not only teaching us vastly
more than those histories (as mere histories) disclose,-
but the sole primary object of the Bible is, avowedly, not
the teaching of history at all, as such; or indeed of any-
thing of an external or scientific character relating to this
lower world,—but, to point the way to eternal Life, and
to testify of Christ (John v. 39). Therefore the real
truth must be looked for in a mean between those two
views. Miracles must be inquired into,—not accepted on
a mere faith which many do not really feel, and which is
therefore to them only a superstition and a stumbling-
block. But they must be inquired into, not with the
critical weapons of a Graf or a Kuenen, but with the
RATIONALE OF MIRACLE.
305
higher aids of spiritual intelligence, and a truer concep-
tion of the scope and significance of the sacred writings.
We have dwelt upon the relative position of spiritual
agencies and material manifestations, and have pointed
out that the two are not continuous, but only correspon-
dent; and we have illustrated this correspondence by
that process to which we commonly and correctly apply
the term correspondence as among ourselves,—viz., the
agency of material signs which represent, or correspond
to (but have no identity with), thoughts and ideas,-by
means of which signs a communication is effected between
mind and mind. To savage and untutored minds this
correspondence and communication is a miracle, because,
without instruction, the bases of such correspondence are
unintelligible. And so in like manner, without due in-
struction, the bases of the correspondence between the
spiritual and the material world are incomprehensible,-
still more so the communication which is effected by the
agency of that correspondence.
Now, all Creation is a manifestation of the Divine
Power effected by the Divine Wisdom on the basis of
correspondence;—that is, the material effect corresponds
to the spiritual Cause, which is Wisdom and Power com-
bined. It is slow of operation, because the correspondent
effect, unlike the plastic cause, has to be crystallized, as it
were, into solid and unyielding forms. But none the less,
spiritual communication (or Power) flows into the material
effect, in virtue of this correspondence. And we have
shown that no communication (or power) can flow into
the effect if the correspondence be faulty or imperfect. Just
the same thing obtains in our own correspondence,—for
if the letters which are the material correspondents are
altered or misplaced, the power of communication ceases
and is destroyed, since experience teaches us that the
alteration, substitution, or transposition of a single letter
often entirely changes or utterly destroys the sense. If
for letters and words (as among ourselves) details of cir-
20
306 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
cumstances and events, or arrangements of natural
objects or processes,-which are the materials for Divine
or spiritual correspondence and communication,—are the
subjects considered, we shall see that the orderly arrange-
ment of these are as necessary for them, as that of
letters in words is necessary to effect human correspon-
dence and the resulting communication between mind and
mind.
Now we have expressly pointed out that the Miracles.
both of the Old and New Testaments contain the orderly
arrangement of spiritual ideas correspondent to a certain
definite and necessarily orderly arrangement of material
phenomena. But inasmuch as Spirit is essentially pre-
existent to matter,—and indeed we have claimed for
matter that it is not only post but propter Spiritum,-
therefore the orderly arrangement of certain spiritual
sequences may be perceived to be the potent and efficient
cause of certain corresponding material phenomena. Thus,
in the hands of a Divine Being, acting according to an
inviolable Order, Spiritual Order may flow into and heal
material disorder, by effecting a material correspondence,
-according to the Laws of original creation :-recreating,
as it were, by the agency of spiritual cause, that which is
correspondent to it in material effect.
The same Law may be conceived of as acting in an
inverse (though not inverted) way. That is, material
sequences, which are strictly correspondent to spiritual
processes, having been induced by one acquainted with
the exact character and laws of correspondence (not
perhaps necessarily universally, but in certain definite
cases) may draw into them, as into a prepared channel,
a more than ordinarily powerful manifestation of spiritual
communication, which, reacting upon the corresponding
material arrangements or sequences, may result in phe-
nomena which are not explicable upon the ordinary
principles of natural Law,-being in fact higher deve-
lopments of Law from the sphere of Divine Order, which
1
CONDITIONS OF A TYPICAL MIRACLE.
307
is drawn down into ultimate, and precisely corresponding,
forms.
In this manner, we conceive, were the Miracles of Our
Lord effected, as well as those on the vast scale recorded
in the Old Testament. When once the idea is mastered,
there is but little difficulty in applying it to all genuine
cases of miraculous manifestation. And since a valid
Argument becomes greatly enhanced in value by plain
illustration, let us take one of the most familiar miracles.
of Our Lord as illustrative of that which we desire to
convey. The miracle of turning water into wine (John ii.)
will excellently serve for this purpose, and is moreover
doubly suggestive and interesting as "the beginning of
miracles" according to the testimony of the Evangelist.
In this chapter, then, we have, in its outer sense, a
narration of the circumstances under which we are told
that water was converted into wine, under certain mate-
rial conditions, and concomitants. We need not here
dwell upon the familiar fact that by the processes of
Nature water is transformed into the juice of the grape,
and thence into wine, but it is well to bear it in mind
in considering the miracle. The material conditions and
circumstances of the miracle are familiar to every one.
They were the marriage feast,-its celebration in Galilee
(Galilee of the Gentiles, as it is called in Matt. iv. 15,
quoted from Isa. ix. 1),—the presence of Christ, His
mother, and His disciples,-the failure of wine at the
feast,—the availability of "six waterpots of stone," after
the manner of purifying of the Jews, (itself a represen-
tative ceremonial). All these circumstances are repre-
sentative or correspondent material conditions, forming
a combination of correspondences, which only needed
the presence of Divine Power, in the person of Our Lord,
to cause a higher manifestation of Divine Order to flow
into them, to result in the production of the phenomenal
effect.
For a marriage is always representative of the union
308 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
of good and truth,-or more interiorly, the union of Christ.
(the Bridegroom) with the Church (His Bride). The
wedding-feast being in Galilee, signified the establishment
of the Church among the Gentiles,-the very result He
had come to effect; inasmuch as the Jews had proved
unfaithful to their trust. The presence of Jesus was
the immediate presence of Divine Power, without which
no Church can take root or flourish. The further pre-
sence of His mother and His disciples represented the
active aid of other important principles, viz., the affection
of good arising from Love, and all that complete series
of grand principles of good and truth from Himself, which
His disciples separately and collectively signified. The
running short of wine represented, that in this Jewish
Church the true internal spirit was utterly lost and gone;
the stone water-pots used for the symbolical purification
from evils and sins, symbolized the external Word, or
continent of the higher spiritual truth of God. For stone
and water both are put for forms of truth; viz., stone, for
ultimate Truth,-hence altars were built of stones, and
the words of the Law, which was Divine Truth, were
written upon Tables of Stone;-and water, for spiritual
truth,—that living water which He promised to give to
those who asked it. Consequently when He, by His
Divine Power, and in accordance with His Divine per-
ceptions of Order and its correspondences, directed that
the water-pots should be filled with water, the chain of
material representation, and of correspondent spiritual
causation, was completed,-and the truth of the external
Jewish Church through Him became converted into the
highest spiritual Truth of the internal Church, which
He came to found-and thus representatively the water
became wine. For "God is a Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.”
The Jewish Church was without this Spirit, but the
dawning Christian Church was to have this Spirit as
its leading characteristic.
CHANGING WATER INTO WINE.
309
And the governor of the feast knew not whence was the
wine, neither do we know whence is the Spirit,-for
it is "like the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and
no man knoweth whence it cometh." And he remarked
in surprise, “Every man at the beginning doth set forth
good wine-and when men have well drunk, then that
which is worse, but thou hast kept the good wine until
now." For every Church begins with good principles and
sound truths, which have a tendency gradually to dege-
nerate, until they have lost all their spiritual vitality ;-
but the Church which Our Lord was come to found was
the best wine, the highest truth-founded in the highest
good, which could no more deteriorate, but although
locally and temporarily it may suffer, it must in the
end go on to perform that for which it was sent.
We read further that "this beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory."
But how did He manifest forth His glory? it may be
asked. Surely not by the simple fact that He had con-
verted six pots of water into as many jars of wine. But
the two parts of the sentence hang together. It was the
beginning of miracles,—and it shadowed forth the great
object of His mission,-the consummation of the old
Jewish representative Church. And His glory was showed
forth,—not materially, by the changing of water into
wine, but spiritually, by the great, comprehensive, and
most important acted parable, which displayed the vast
blessings which the world was on the eve of receiving
from His advent into it, in the flesh.
And this leads us to make some remarks upon those
manifestations which were not of this genuine kind,-
which were in fact not authorized, and which may be
called false miracles. If we accept the testimony of the
Sacred Record, the vindication of which is one of the
most important objects of this work, we find that such
unauthorized miracles were by no means uncommon, and
were not confined to any one period, although we would
од
310
THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
not be understood as affirming that they were not charac-
teristic of one especial epoch of history, extending over a
long series of centuries; we refer to the age of the
Jewish Church. Perhaps the first indication of them
appears in Exodus, in the case of the magicians who
withstood Moses, and to whom we shall have occasion.
to recur. But we would point out that such practices
are repeatedly mentioned in the Bible, and always with
reprobation. In Levit. xix. 26 we read, “Neither shall
ye use enchantments," and in Deut. xviii. 10-12, we
find a recognition of several species of magic arts. "There
shall not be found among you any one that useth divi-
nation, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a
witch, or a charmer, a consulter with familiar spirits,
or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an
abomination to the Lord." Similar prohibitions may be
found 700 years later in Isaiah (xlvii. 9-14) where the
Chaldæan enchantments and sorceries, the astrologers,
the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, are men-
tioned. It was always a test of the genuine obedience
and goodness of the Jewish kings, whether they endea-
voured to exterminate the dealers in magical arts, or,
on the other hand, encouraged and even made use of
them. Thus Manasseh "used enchantments, and dealt.
with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards"
(2 Kings xxi. 6), while Josiah "put away all such per-
sons" (xxiii. 24). And Saul after doing his best to
exterminate all such, ended by himself seeking to one
in secret, having discovered one with difficulty in con-
sequence of his own edicts.
What the nature of their practices was we cannot
always with certainty define; but from the names given
to them, witches, necromancers, enchanters, sorcerers,
&c., we may pretty fairly judge of the nature of their
doings. We have, however, two specific cases so circum-
stantially described as to leave the matter in no manner of
doubt. One of these is the visit of Saul to the witch of
FALSE MIRACLES EXPLAINED.
311
Endor, and the other is that of the magicians who stood
before Pharaoh, and who, up to a certain point, imitated the
miracles performed by God's command by Moses and
Aaron. To this latter case, the former in point of time,
we will briefly direct our special attention.
It would appear that when Aaron cast down his rod
before Pharaoh and it became a tannin or water-serpent
(which is the true meaning of the word) (Exod. vii. 10),
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and
they "cast down every man his rod," and they became
water-serpents. Now, the first thing which here strikes us
is that Pharaoh had in his kingdom certain wise men who
were able to perform extraordinary signs and wonders.
There are two kinds of wisdom, however, which we must
be careful to distinguish-viz., that wisdom which is alone.
true wisdom, and which springs from the pursuit of the
goodness which is of love and charity-the wisdom, that
is, which is from above; and the "wisdom of the wise," or
that self-derived, so-called wisdom, which is of no avail,-
and of which it is said that God will destroy it, and make
it foolishness (1 Cor. i. 19, 20). In what true Wisdom
really consists, we may, however, learn from the Book
of Proverbs, especially chap. viii. In Job xxviii. 28, we are
told that the "fear of the Lord, that is wisdom," and this
is explained further by the conclusion of the verse, “and
to depart from evil is understanding." Similarly,
Proverbs ix. 10, declares, "The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom;" while chap. viii. 13 explains that
the fear of the Lord is to hate evil." The true rank of
genuine wisdom moreover is shown in Exod. xxxi. 3, where
it is said of Bezaleel, who constructed the ark, &c., that
'he was filled with the spirit of God in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge (scientia) and in all
manner of workmanship." The first two of these have
reference to the superior or internal qualities, the last two
to the lower or external. By unthinking persons no
distinction is made between wisdom, and understanding,
312 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
and knowledge. But it is evident that a most important
distinction really exists; and in the Scripture sense he only
is wise who is filled with spiritual truth and goodness.
But mere external science, which is good in its degree,
cannot be on the same level with spiritual or genuine
wisdom, and if such science exist without the latter, it
offers for it only a bare and bald imitation and substi-
tute.
It was this science in which the Egyptians excelled, and
this was in their eyes true wisdom. Thus, in the Burden
of Egypt (Isa. xix.) we read: "How say ye unto Pharaoh,
I am a son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings?"
The wise men whom Pharaoh called before him were
adepts in natural science, and they are classed in
Exod. vii. II with the sorcerers, and both are made
synonymous with magicians. In Egypt, the higher wisdom
we have previously referred to was unknown, for Egypt
was the very type of external science, and therefore
Pharaoh sent for them to withstand, and if possible, to
annul, the portents of Moses and Aaron, who represented
that higher Wisdom, but in bondage to the lower-the
internal in bondage to the external.
The second point which claims attention is the expres-
sion, "for they cast down every man his rod," from which
we gather that as Aaron bore a rod or staff of office or
authority, so also the magicians carried, every one of them,
a rod, symbolizing their power-for such is the representa-
tive signification of a rod or staff. The rod which Aaron
used was called the "rod of God" in Exod. iv. 20. For in
every case the right hand signifies the source of power-
outstretched, the exercise of power-and the staff, the
instrument by which the power was made efficient. Now
the Egyptian wise men, called magicians, were a body of
priests, presumedly, who were not only skilled in what we
call natural science, but also lived in an age of the world
when the correspondences between the spiritual and the
natural, which in these days are forgotten and for the most
THE MAGICIANS' ENCHANTMENTS.
313
part denied, not only to some extent survived, but were
cultivated as a source of material power; and the primary
or initial act of bearing a staff, universal among the
magicians, was such a correspondence, signifying the
possession of power. The magicians, being acquainted
with the nature of correspondences, could, by such
representative and significant acts, induce superior powers,
and effect signs and wonders which were, strictly speaking,
miracles, although without interior Order;—just as we
have seen that a higher sphere of spiritual power could
be drawn in, as it were, to material correspondents arranged
in a certain series according to Order.
Thus the magicians with their rods could imitate the
initial miracles of Moses and Aaron, but there was this
difference that the acts of the latter were strictly repre-
sentative of spiritual acts and processes, and were there-
fore possessed of that interior spiritual form which
distinguished them as genuine Divine miracles. Whereas
the acts of the magicians sprang from a knowledge of
these correspondences, indeed, but used in a perverted
sense, for the sake of mere material power, and con-
trary to Divine Order,-possessing no interior spiritual
form, but simply effected for the sake of obtaining evil
advantages grounded purely in self-love, and the desire for
dominion and rule over others. They were thus pure
and simple perversions of Order, and although they
outwardly mimicked the Miracles of Omnipotence, they
were, in spirit, utterly opposed to them-the one were
Divine, the other infernal. This was the case with all the
acts of enchanters, magicians, and sorcerers, and this
is the reason why they were so strictly forbidden and so
heavily denounced.
I Even these false miracles of the Egyptian magicians were, how-
ever, vastly superior to the aimless test-miracle suggested by Mr. M.
Arnold, of turning his pen into a pen-wiper ! ("Literature and Dogma,"
p. 128.) Such a suggestion only serves to point the utter absence.
of true appreciation of the subject in the mind of this great critic.
314 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
C
It may be asked, what then was the cause of the
limitation of the power of the Egyptian magicians, which,
while it permitted of their turning their rods into serpents,
of their imitating the conversion of water into blood,
and the invasion of frogs, yet did not allow them to
proceed further in the series of plagues, so that they were
unable to effect the plague of lice, but were constrained to
say-"This is the finger of God." Now the arguments
we have advanced thus far, while they rationally explain
very much that has hitherto been considered inexplicable,
and that has been rejected because it did not fall within the
horizon of our knowledge, possess also the advantage of
thorough consistency. And in the orderly pursuit of these
arguments we can perceive reasons why the magicians
could not by their enchantments proceed in their imitations
beyond the plague of frogs.
We have said in an earlier portion of this chapter that
the whole series of plagues from first to last had an in-
terior and sequential meaning, showing forth the gradual de-
parture from truth and good which takes its insidious rise in
an undervaluing of truth, thence in falsification of it, and
thirdly, through a confirmation of falsity by means of
delusive reasoning, founded upon perversions and fallacies.
So far, externals only, as it were, were concerned,-for
Truth is more external than Good, and external Truth
may exist, and even be loved, without any reference to
good; although such an attitude of Truth is a dangerous
and unstable one, because Truth and Good should be
always united, or as we have before said, married. A very
wise man (as wisdom is valued) may possess little or no
real good, and such indeed was the case with the magicians
themselves.
Now, in the process,-whether of the new birth, or in
the case of devastation from a state of spirituality (as of
a Church, for instance)—it is the externals which are first
affected, and afterwards the internals-first Truth and then
Good. A regard for Truth, then a desire for it, and finally
"THIS IS THE FINGER OF GOD.“
315
a love for it-this is the order of progress by which Truth
is gained. And when it is thus loved, it leads to the
bringing forth of interior principles grounded in that love.
So also, a disregard for Truth, then a temptation to falsify
it, and lastly the application of specious reasonings on
false principles in confirmation of error,-these are the
primary retrograde steps of the fall. The magicians derived
their power from the pursuit of what was called wisdom-
a form of Truth, although a very external and easily-
perverted form. They were able to exercise their power
of perversion only as far as truths were concerned, and in
these first three stages they were able to exhibit a perverted
image of the Divine Order. But the next stage referred to
good, and not to truth, and was significant of the beginning
of those evils which inevitably result from the perversion.
and falsification of Truth; for the lice were representative
of evil lusts, or the perversion of good, either interiorly,
signified by being on man, or exteriorly, on beast. And
here the powers of perverted wisdom and falsified Truth
ceased, they were powerless to effigy these further and
more internal representatives of spiritual decline and deca-
dence, but were forced to bow their heads, and admit,
"This is the finger of God.”
What is called Superstition is a wonderfully tenacious
principle, and if we are to believe our philosophers, it
clings to the human mind age after age, and generation.
after generation, without any ground-work or foundation
whatever beyond the unsubstantial substructure of pure
imagination. But we would urge that it is impossible
that mere imagination should not only exist, but should
endure for ages, and be almost as strong now as ever it
was, unless there were some solid ground for it to rest
upon. The belief in magic, sorcery, and witchcraft has
descended to our own day; and although in our highly
civilized, and hard intellectual age it is weakened, as far as
we ourselves are concerned, there are abundance of other
races and peoples among whom the belief is as strong as
316 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
ever it was. But if the magicians of Egypt were able to
act as recorded, is it not inevitable that remains of the
power they derived from their "wisdom," their science,
and their knowledge of correspondences and representa-
tives, must have been handed down to succeeding genera-
tions, and, secretly perhaps, practised by many votaries of
occultism? And at the risk of a smile from some “wise
men" of this age, we would suggest that the sorcerers,
witches, enchanters, and necromancers of all ages have
been those who have handed down some, however slight,
vestiges of the powers once possessed to a greater extent
by the ancient magicians of Egypt, as well as by those of
Chaldæa and Babylon; and who by the agency of cor-
respondential acts, movements, and appliances,
"The charm
Of woven paces and of waving hands,"
have to some extent availed to "compel from powers
unseen" manifestations of forbidden phenomena which
have puzzled all ages, and have called forth the universal
reprobation of the well-disposed.
The Miracles whose nature we have endeavoured to
explain have however ceased to be a characteristic of the
age. And it is partly because for hundreds, nay for
almost thousands of years past no genuine Miracle has
been recorded, that we of this age are so unwilling to
admit even their possibility in a past age, or the credibility
of their history. But if the age of Miracles has ceased,
it is for a very good and orderly reason. It is because the
Dispensation has changed. It is because the circum-
stances which rendered Miracles not only possible-but
even desirable and useful, have ceased. The Jewish
Church, which commenced with Abraham and was con-
summated by Christ, existed under conditions which were
essential to the development of manifestations out of the
common,—of phenomena which were dependent upon the
close mutual relation between things seen and unseen.
USES OF MIRACLES.
66
317
came
For nearly two thousand years the Church was repre-
sentative, and every detail of worship and conduct,
whether political or social, had a representative meaning.
When our Saviour came as a Jew to the Jews, he
under the Law," but He fulfilled the Law by establishing
the Gospel, and the age of representatives ceased. Since
that time miraculous manifestations gradually diminished
in frequency, and quickly came to an end. Should a
further revelation of Divine Truth be vouchsafed in the
present age, we do not imagine that it would be supported
by Miracles; and although we hear even up to the present
day stories of miraculous interventions of various kinds,
they will not bear the test we have shown to be essential,
and we are forced to reject them as vain and foolish
imaginations.
But while they lasted they had their use. Indeed,
during the existence of the Jewish Church they were not
only possible, but desirable, and even necessary. For as
we have more than once observed, the Jews were a totally
external Church, which could do no more than represent
the truths of a Church, being themselves, as to their
interiors, entirely closed (Isa. vi. 9, 10). Persons thus
closed as to their interiors could not perceive interior
things, but only exterior things ;-hence they could not
on the one hand be profited by interior teachings which
could not reach them, nor, on the other hand, could they,
by the aid of exterior teachings, profane interior truth,—
for it was hidden from them, and they could not know it.
All their teaching therefore was by external channels,-
by parable and miracle. A person whose interior spiritual
faculty is open to the perception of genuine truth must be
able to exercise freedom of will;-he can venerate, or he
can profane that which he perceives, at pleasure; but if
that interior faculty is closed, he cannot easily do either,
and therefore freedom is not so essential to him, in fact,
is unnecessary and undesirable. Hence the Jews could be
compelled by visible signs in a manner in which the
318 THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
Christian cannot, and hence Miracle was a recognized
motive in the Jewish Church.
But such miracles were only temporarily useful, and
could never make more than a transitory impression. For
real permanent conversion it is necessary that there
should be a deliberate choice of good and truth arising
from an unfettered will. But the Jews were only required
to keep the external laws and ordinances, and so long as
they did this with a single mind, they performed and
offered an acceptable worship. For the inducement to keep
these external ordinances Miracles were an aid, and hence
their frequency. They were signs in confirmation of Truth.
But all Miracles, inasmuch as they were material mani-
festations of a phenomenal kind, were merely sensual con-
firmations, of that kind which Thomas demanded, and
which drew from Our Lord the rebuke, "Because thou
hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that
have not seen and yet have believed" (John xx. 29).
Therefore it would appear that miracles, which among
the Jews were correspondences which enabled their
external minds to obtain some conjunction with Divine
things by means of representatives, would be positively
injurious to those of a higher and more interior character,
since they would tend to compel belief against the will,
and infallibly lead to profanation. There was this differ-
ence between the miracles of Moses and those of Christ,-
that the former were addressed to the minds of the stiff-
necked Jews who were neither convinced nor desirous of
being convinced by them;-while the latter were con-
firmations of the faith of those who already believed, or
were desirous of believing, upon Him.
There is, further, a distinction to be noticed between
signs and miracles (wonders) for they are not mere
synonyms and tautologous expressions, as cursory readers.
may imagine. Although Our Lord was continually doing
miracles, yet was he frequently asked for a sign. A miracle
indeed appeals to the will and affections, which are struck
SIGNS AND MIRACLES.
319
with wonder at the prodigy,-while a sign addresses itself
to the understanding, and tends to persuade to belief.
Miracles, therefore, although they were in one sense signs,
were only so to those who were principled (as the disciples
were) in good in the will,-while signs were demanded
and accepted by those who were not principled in good,
but only affected by some form of truth, in the under-
standing, which might be confirmed by such witness to
truth. It was "an evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign" (Matt. xii. 39).
What then, in conclusion, are we to understand by.
those words of Our Saviour which we read in Mark xvi.
17, 18? "These signs shall follow them that believe;
in My name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak
with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if
they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." We
have already observed that the age of miracles is past,
and that the value of such signs and wonders in this
present epoch is greatly inferior to that of those which
were done under the régime of the representative Jewish
Church. In this day we do not feel called upon, as
Joshua Davidson is supposed to have imagined he was, to
attempt to remove mountains by an exercise of faith, or
to make the issue of such an attempt the guage of our
advance in spirituality of mind, or of success in the
endeavour to follow Christ. Our Saviour must have well
known that His followers would not be called upon to
exercise miraculous gifts of the material kind, or to show
forth signs and wonders in the natural world. Indeed
when He said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that
I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall
he do" (John xiv. 12), He evidently referred to something
of higher quality than the effecting of mere material cor-
respondent phenomena; and He really referred to those
spiritual works of which the miracles or material works
were but subordinate representatives.
320
THE MIRACLES FURTHER EXPLAINED.
For a man, to work out his own salvation, must co-
operate with Him, and aid His influence by doing those
spiritual works which bring him within the sphere of His
Divine influence and operation. And thus when, in the
name of Christ, he conquers the evils of his own natural
self-love, he really casts out devils;-when from his heart
he" acknowledges that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father (Phil. ii. 11), then he speaks with a new
tongue; when he learns to subordinate his lower sensual
appetites to those higher faculties and principles to which
they ought to subserve,-as for instance, when he learns
that he eats to live, and does not live to eat,-to use these
things as not abusing them-then does he harmlessly
take up serpents;-when he, perchance, admits into his
understanding beliefs, which, although fallacious, are not
suffered to withdraw him from good, or evilly to affect his
life and conversation, then does he drink of deadly things,
and they do not hurt him ;-And, finally, when he exhorts
and comforts, and strengthens the sinner by precept and
example, if haply he may save some, then does he lay his
hand upon the sick, and they recover. These are the
representative types of the miracles of Christ, but
greater than were those, since they are restoratives not to
natural, but to spiritual, Order,—the glorification of God
by the salvation of Man.

“We have some little difficulty in our times in comprehending the extreme
importance which sacrifices assumed among polytheists and idolators. . . We
must not carry back to the origin of sacrifice the metaphysical and moral
ideas which did not really appear until much later. And since the necessity
of eating, and the pleasure of eating choice food, take a foremost rank in the
estimation of infant peoples, it is not surprising that the food-offering was
the most frequent and the most important among them, so as in some sort to
absorb all the rest. And the constant traces of primitive sacrifice of human
victims show that cannibalism, which is now restricted to a few of the
savage tribes, who have remained closest to the animal life, was once universal
to our race. (!) For no one would have conceived the idea of offering to the gods
a kind of food which excited nothing but disgust and horror among men.
• •
"It is simply the idea that by offering the gods the things they like,—that
is to say, whatever will satisfy and gratify their senses, it is possible to secure
their good-will, their protection and favour."
Albert RevilLE, D.D.-Hibbert Lectures (pp. 87 and 246).
"When we consider sacrifices as appointed by God in order to assist the
religious instruction, improvement, and consolation of man, we must conclude
that the Most High would in the first place explain every part of that institu-
tion; otherwise it could not answer its proposed ends. In untutored man,
reason is weak, the mental feelings are heavy and rough, while sense, imagina.
tion, and passion are the leading avenues both to the understanding and heart.
To man thus situated, the appointment of sacrifices is peculiarly adapted; for
these convey a most pathetic and awful address to his very senses, and thus
rouse him to the most serious and impressive reflections. The frequent
spectacle of bleeding and smoking victims, suffering and atoning for the guilty
offerers, would give them the deepest impression of the purity, justice, and
majesty of God, of the evil of transgression, of their own ill desert, and of the
necessity of some adequate atonement, and of the readiness of the Deity to
pardon the penitent."
Rites and Worship of the Jews, p. 98 (Published by
the Religious Tract Society).
21

CHAPTER XI.
THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF SACRIFICES IN THE OLD
T
TESTAMENT.
HERE are few things which are less intelligently
apprehended than the place which Sacrifices oc-
cupied in ancient religious worship; and this is
especially the case with respect to the part which they
played in the representative religious worship of the Jews.
A rite which, when properly understood, becomes full
of significant meaning as practised in its original purity,-
and the perversions of which have given rise to some of
the greatest evils characteristic of heathen nations, has
been so thoroughly misinterpreted even by those who are
placed in the front rank of teachers of philosophy, history,
and religion, that not only has the subject been reduced
to be a mere chaos of error and unreasonableness, but the
false views and misrepresentations have reacted upon
even the Christian religion in such an injurious manner, as
to tinge its highest ideals with a grossness of misconcep-
tion which has resulted in driving into scepticism and
agnosticism not a few who have been misled by those
whose opinion upon the subject they publicly profess has
been taken as the final expression of our knowledge upon
these matters.
No stronger illustration can be afforded of the gratuitous
assumption which, ex cathedra, pronounces upon such
324
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
subjects without the slightest perception of their true
bearing, and of the errors into which the man of science
falls through the ostentatious refusal to accept any light
from an intelligent reading of the Bible-than is given in
the Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and growth of Religion
as illustrated by Mexico and Peru:-a characteristic quo-
tation from which heads this chapter. The Author,
after discoursing upon the frightful abuses of human
sacrifice which came to light in Mexico when discovered
by Cortes, assures us that Sacrifice "is simply the idea
that, by offering the gods the things they like (that is to
say, whatever will satisfy and gratify their senses),—it is
possible to secure their good-will, their protection and
favour," &c. And then he goes on to assert, that "It
is only at a later stage that the extreme importance
attributed to this rite, the very essence of the worship
rendered to the gods, leads to the association of mystic,
and ultimately of moral, ideas with the circumstance of
the pain inseparably connected with sacrifice” (p. 246).
Such purely gratuitous assumptions coming from one.
who is a public Professor of these subjects, naturally
mislead ordinary readers, who are acquainted with no
better explanation of the remarkable records. But they
are the crudest expressions of the mere superficial aspects
of the phenomena; and they not only afford no adequate
clue to the real facts, but also lamentably undervalue the
common instincts of our race, and yet are the necessary
outcome of a philosophy which teaches, that “it is
absolutely superfluous to search elsewhere than in America
itself for the origin of American civilization" (p. 243); and
further, that therein "we may discover a certain dissatis-
faction with the established polytheism, striving to raise
itself higher in the direction of a spiritual monotheism.
(p. 249).
The whole question of Sacrifices indeed, of all questions
bearing upon ancient religious thought as embodied in
customs and ceremonies, has given rise to abundant false
UNWORTHY AND ERRONEOUS VIEWS.
325
criticism and erroneous judgments, arising from such
utterly materialistic misapprehensions concerning their
origin. The modern scientific mind, which discards the
Bible, and makes Religion a superstition, or at the best
a mental emotion, thereby throws away the clue, and fails
to catch a glimpse of what lies behind these customs of
antiquity, and hence it becomes entangled in absurdities
which are mere baseless individual speculations, and
which avail nothing but to darken knowledge.
There is undoubtedly much upon the surface in the
Mosaic ordinance of Sacrificial rites which is repugnant
to our sense of what is either satisfactory or just, and
those who entirely divorce the spirit from the letter of
the Scriptures, necessarily fall into many and serious.
errors upon this important subject.
For it is most important, not only because sacrifices
are made mention of so early in Bible History (Gen. iv. 1.),
and extend in practice from the beginning to the end of
the Old Testament-and even to the present day,—but also
because the erroneous views necessarily extend themselves
from the Jewish sacrifices to the great Christian Sacrifice,
of which they were types,-and which therefore cannot
be duly understood unless the true meaning of Sacrifices.
in general is fully appreciated.
So puzzling, indeed, to professed theologians are the
facts connected with sacrifices and their institution, that
one great dignitary of the Church (Archbishop Magee)
penned a Dissertation "On the Natural Unreasonableness
of the Sacrificial Rite," and in this section of his great
work on the "Atonement," he actually uses the argument
that sacrifical worship must have originated from God,
because it is too irrational to have been invented by Man!
It is to be hoped that in the judgment of the great body of
men of the Church at this day it is scarcely necessary to
vindicate the Divine Wisdom from such a dishonouring
and fantastic notion; nevertheless it seems necessary in
these days to show briefly how far sacrifices can be
326 SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
claimed to be of Divine ordinance, and what was their
origin and mode of development, and underlying significa-
tion.
The sacrifices of Cain and Abel are usually quoted for
the purpose of illustrating the idea that sacrifices com-
menced from the very beginning of our race, and that
therefore, although not so stated in Genesis, they must.
have been divinely appointed. But to those who will use
the key we have supplied for the elucidation of the true
meaning of the Bible, it will be evident that Cain and
Abel were not the two first-born children of an original and
sole pair of human beings, but that, like the names Adam
and Eve, they must be significant of stages of the decline
of the original primitive Church of the human race, when
Mankind, having been slowly rationalized and spiritua-
lized under the very supervision of Jehovah, had fallen
from that state of perfection, and descended through all
the various stages of declension and degradation to utter
moral and spiritual decadence. We have pointed out
that these first three chapters represent and include vast
spaces of time, and that the word translated Adam really
means the human race,- so that when the fourth chapter
commences with that posterity of the original Church
called Cain and Abel (representing the absence and the
presence of Charity (or Love) respectively) -an indefinite
vista of Time had intervened since the primæval epoch
when Man had been innocent and perfect in the garden
of the Lord.
It was doubtless during that period of decadence that
sacrifices were originated; and by common consent it
has been assumed and believed that they were originated
or ordained by God. And some indeed, seeking for a
cause, have concluded that they were so ordained by God
I
CC
Abel, a feeder of sheep," signifies one who exercises the good of
charity (see Isa. xl. II; John x. 14, &c.), while Cain, who " was tilling
the ground," represents one who cultivates mere natural things-a
condition to which the fallen man was reduced when he had forfeited
Paradise (Gen. iii. 23).
SACRIFICES ONLY PERMITTED BY GOD. 327
in a desire to be glorified and magnified by His creatures;
still more dishonouring him by the crude supposition that
He could be personally gratified by such rites in the same
sense as a Roman Emperor might have been-such an
one as was Domitian. In so doing, however, they not
only dishonour the Divine Being, but they entirely falsify
the direct testimony of the Scriptures themselves,-and
at the same time fall into a real anthropomorphism of
a kind as gross as that of the most corrupt Roman mytho-
logists-an anthropomorphism which in others they are
the first to condemn. Nothing can be plainer than that
Sacrifices were not regarded by Jehovah as anything, in
themselves, good or even desirable,- but that they were
simply permitted by him, on sufferance (as it were),-and
in fulfilment of certain principles hereafter to be explained.
Thus the Psalmist says (Psa. li. 16, 17) Thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it Thee,-Thou delightest
not in burnt offerings; the sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt
not despise ";-thus clearly intimating that while such
a form of worship might be received from those who knew
no other, they could only be remotely acceptable to God
as indicating desires, and ascribing worship to the best
of their ability,—but that real and direct spiritual worship
was infinitely more acceptable to Him.
Again (Psa. 1. 8) we read, "I will not REPROVE thee for
thy sacrifices which have been continually before Me
(ver. 10); for every beast of the forest is Mine, and
the cattle upon a thousand hills (ver. 14). Offer unto
God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High."
And the Prophet Hosea (xiv. 2) exhorts Israel to return
to the Lord, and urges them to "say unto Him, Take
away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we
render the calves of our lips "-that is to say, not a burnt
offering of calves, but the offering of the heart through
the lips; or as it is expressed in the Epistle to the
Hebrews (xiii. 15), "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise
328
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
to God continually; that is, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to His name." Hosea himself explains himself
elsewhere (vi. 6) where he says, "For I desired mercy
and NOT sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than
burnt offerings." And so also the Apostle leaves no doubt
of his meaning, when he goes on to say (Heb. xiii. 16),
"But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased." These then
are the sacrifices which God desires,-the real and entire
dedication of the heart to Himself, and the results in
the outward and inward Life, which such a dedication
entails.
But there are not wanting passages in the Scriptures
which give an express contradiction to the idea that God
Himself ordained sacrifices,-passages which have been
strangely overlooked by those divines who have so erro-
neously attributed their institution to Him. Thus in
Jer. vii. 22, 23-the Prophet declares the Word of the
Lord, saying, "I spake not unto your fathers, nor com-
manded them in the day that I brought them out of the
Land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices;
but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice,
and I will be your God, and ye shall be to Me a people."
What can be more definite than this disclaimer of the
authorship of sacrifices; and who shall dare, in the face
of this denial, to assert that sacrifices were of Divine
origin! Nor is this all, for in Ezekiel xx., we read at
the 11th verse," And I gave them My statutes, and
showed them My judgments, which if a man do he shall
even live in them "-a passage evidently relating to the
real spiritual worship indicated above by the words,
"Obey My voice," &c. But further on, at vers. 24-27,
the other aspect of the matter is again referred to in these
words, "Because they had not executed My judgments,
but had despised My statutes. . .
Wherefore I gave
them also statutes that were not good, and judgments
whereby they should not live; and I polluted them in
•
ORIGIN OF DESIRE TO SACRIFICE.
329
their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the
fire all that openeth the womb," &c. The meaning of
which passage evidently has reference to the laws of
ceremonies, which were given after the laws of the deca-
logue had failed to keep the stiff-necked Israelites in the
path of righteousness.
That Sacrifices were not of Divine ordinance, then,
is sufficiently evident. How then did they arise?
That they were of human origin necessarily follows,
but the question still remains, What was really signi-
fied by them, and on what grounds did Man of himself
adopt this mode of ascribing worship? The answer to
this will be more fully understood by those who have
followed the arguments of this Work.
All changes of human thought have ever been slow and
gradual, and hence the events of the first three chapters
of Genesis must have covered a vast space of time,—a
most powerful argument against the common and base-
less idea of the personal individuality of Adam and Eve.
The construction, perfection, and subsequent fall of the
human soul occupied long periods of human history, just
as the reconstruction is occupying similar long periods.
And as such changes are necessarily slow and gradual,
it results that the remembrance, or tradition of former
conditions or states of goodness and spirituality could not
die out but by very slow degrees,-and indeed, finally
and entirely, never, as long as man is man. Hence the
race of mankind, which had lost its pristine holiness and
perfection, still retained a keen perception of its own
decline, and of the necessity, or at least the desirability,—
now that it could no longer worship Jehovah in the
original purity,-of using some means of approach to him.
The feeling which must have possessed our fallen race
even at the time when the fourth chapter of Genesis
opens, was one of conscious sin, and the need of its
acknowledgment, and of some atonement or reconciliation.
Hence in very early ages of our race such acknow-
339
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
ledgment was made, and that it assumed the form of
Sacrifice we learn from Gen. iv. 3, 4. Moreover, it must
be borne in mind that, in these comparatively early ages,
the knowledge of the mutual Relation which exists be-
tween the spiritual and the natural,-by which knowledge
a true worship of Jehovah was carried on by Man in
his innocence in Eden,-was still comparatively fresh
in their minds, although doubtless considerably dimmed
and impaired, and no longer available as a perfect way
of approach to God. That is to say, the Man of the
age of Cain and Abel could no longer directly worship
God, on account of the cloud of materialism which came
between his soul and Jehovah,—so that he could only
use the natural representatives of spiritual things, and
not absolutely the spiritual things themselves as before.
Thus, while in the most ancient Church its people knew
by an intuitive perception that useful and clean beasts
(or cattle) signified affections of celestial good after their
kind, they became in later and degenerate times repre-
sentative of such good affections; and as representatives,
therefore, they were offered, in sacrifice, by a less spiritual
people. To sacrifice therefore was to ascribe to the Lord,
and thus it was worship,-worship from faith and charity
(or Love), which are from the Lord, and therefore accept-
able to Him. Burnt offerings and sacrifices signified,
therefore, purification from all that was evil and false;
and this purification was distinguished as external or
internal, natural or spiritual, by the representative quali-
ties of the various animals used. Bullocks and he-calves
denoted the natural or external man, and rams the spiri-
tual, or internal man, &c.
In the first sacrificial transaction described, we find
that Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice, and Cain one
which was not acceptable. For the sacrifice of Abel was
the "firstlings of the flock." In the representative Church,
the first-born were holy to the Lord (Exod. xiii. 2). And
the flock denotes interior good affections (Ezek. xxxvi.
SACRIFICES OF ABEL AND CAIN.
331
37,38, &c.), while fat (and marrow-marrow and fatness) are
always used as representatives of the highest (celestial)
things-"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and
fatness (Psa. Ixiii. 5). Compare also Deut. xxxii. 14,
for the various kinds of celestial good, under various
representatives of fatness. Abel's sacrifice therefore was
representative of the highest affections of good (and Love)
which were thus acceptably dedicated to the Lord, being
in accordance with a true and genuine spiritual corre-
spondence.
But the sacrifice of Cain was the fruit of the ground.
Now we have already shown that the ground signifies the
cultivated external man,-(see chap. on Gen. ii.),—and
the fruit of the ground (alone), is representative of that
faith which springs from externals,-faith, that is, sepa-
rated from love or charity,—and is therefore dead, being
alone. Hence it was not true representative worship, and
was not acceptable to Jehovah. Thus at the very
outset of the history of sacrificial worship, its signifi-
cation is apparent, when intelligently considered in the
light of the Scriptures-and clearly carries within it
something of far greater importance than the mere letter
conveys.
Now, there is in mankind generally this feeling of a
necessity for worship, and for union with God, arising from
the remains of that original goodness from which man has
fallen. "The sufferings and the aspirations of mankind
alike prove that in the mysterious past he has gone astray
from God" (De Pressensè:-Study of Origins). And this
meaning of sacrifice has been handed down from the
earliest ages to times when the practice indeed has
remained, although the truc perception of its real meaning
has been lost.
In the earliest ages, then, men worshipped Jehovah in a
purely spiritual manner, and directly through the mutual
relation and analogy existing between things spiritual and
things natural. Such men had no need of offering representa-
332
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
tive worship, inasmuch as from their own affections of love
and charity a pure and acceptable devotion and worship
would have flowed, rendering superfluous and unnecessary
any other mode of a less spiritual kind. But when the Earth
had become altogether corrupt, and a new Dispensation.
had been established, after the Flood, and represented by
Noah, the succeeding Church which he represented no
longer possessed those principles of internal spirituality
which had characterized the earliest condition of mankind.
represented by Adam,-and worship of an indirect and repre-
sentative character had already fully taken the place of the
first near and free intercourse between man and his Maker.
And although we read nothing concerning sacrifice from
the time when Noah left the ark, and took of every clean
beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings
on the altar,—until the command came to Abraham to offer
up his son Isaac, we can readily believe, from the very
example of Noah, that sacrifice was the order of the
Church which he represented, as we well know it was of
the representative Church of Abraham which succeeded.
But when Moses was raised up as the great law-giver of
the Jews, it became his duty to codify, as it were, all that
had been handed down from a less corrupt age with
respect to the rites and ceremonies connected with
sacrifice. Thus the sacrifices directed by the Levitical
law were neither ordained by God, nor originally instituted
by Moses, but were the long accumulating series of details.
which had grown more and more external in their
character, as the Church represented by Abraham had
degenerated from internal to external, lost more and more
of its spirituality, and became more and more outward and
purely representative in its character. The only innova-
tions of Moses consisted in the strict and definite
limitation of the species of animals that might be offered in
sacrifice, with constant and definite regard to their repre-
sentative meaning; and a careful revisal of the ceremonial
details in conformity with the definite spiritual analogies.
REVISION OF CEREMONIALS BY MOSES. 333
which they were intended to shadow forth, and which had,
no doubt, in process of time, become considerably corrupted
and impaired. All these details were corrected and
arranged by Moses, directly under the Divine sanction and
authority. Hence the passage in Ezekiel xx. 32, before
quoted.
For although the Prophet repudiated, on behalf of
Jehovah, the origination of sacrificial rites, there can be no
doubt that they were permitted, as spontaneous efforts at
worship in the only manner in which worship was possible
by men who had lost the power of real spiritual
communion. For they were at first truly representative
(as used by Cain and Abel)—introduced, indeed, in an age
when the knowledge of the mutual relation between the
spiritual and the natural was far from having been lost,
but only dimmed. But in later ages, when the merely
natural Jewish Church had taken the place of the
preceding dispensations, the true representative value of
sacrifice was endangered by the absolute ignorance concern-
ing this mutual relation which had fallen upon the age. It
was consequently necessary that the rules and ceremonials
of the sacrificial rite should be revised, as it were, and
placed upon a truly representative basis, which could only
be effected by Divine direction. And hence not only was
Moses carefully instructed in all the minute details, but it
was even insisted that everything should be carried out in
precisely the prescribed way, and in no other. For the
mutual relation or Analogy (which we have called corres-
pondence) between natural and spiritual things is not
variable or hap-hazard,—but fixed, definite, and invariable ;
and arises from the mutual influence between the seen (or
natural), and the unseen (or spiritual). In the unseen, or
spiritual, world is a vast and boundless source of influence
which definitely affects every particular of the seen, or
natural, world, a source which is causative, and from which
results flow. Such results we see and feel around us
objectively; and inasmuch as we are here chained, as it
334
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
were, by our material bodies to the natural world, it is by
these analogies or correspondences alone that the im-
prisoned soul can keep in communication with the spiritual
world.
By the light of these correspondences, then, sacrifices
and burnt-offerings, otherwise so apparently unreasonable,
assume order and intelligibility; and we are enabled to
perceive that, various as are the objects, animate and
inanimate, which were offered,—and innumerable as were
the conditions of time and place, and the manner or mode
of offering them,-all these details carried significant
lessons, so that the chain of spiritual communication
would have been vitiated by the omission of any link,
however insignificant it might have appeared to be. They
formed a line of communication, by which, as long as its
perfect integrity was preserved, the spiritual could flow
into the natural, and man could be kept in an assured
communion with Heaven, and in the reception of spiritual
life and blessing from the Almighty.
Thus then, in truth, all the sacrifices prescribed by the
Levitical iaw represented the true worship of the Lord,
from all the affections and sentiments of a heavenly nature
that can be implanted as seed by the Lord into the human
heart and mind. And the offering them upon His altar
was expressive of the heartfelt acknowledgment that they
are all from the Lord, and from Him alone. This acknow-
ledgment is the true meaning of praise and glory, and in this
ascription all true worship essentially consists.
So that, while the men of the earliest Church knew by
an intuitive perception that useful and clean beasts
signified various forms of celestial good, after their kind,
they became in after times representative of such forms of
good, and as representative, they were offered in sacrifice by a
less spiritual people. To sacrifice, therefore, was to ascribe.
to the Lord, and thus it was worship -worship from faith
and charity combined, and therefore acceptable to Him.
But the slaughter of innocent animals-of lambs, the
1
HUMAN SACRIFICES
335
very type of innocence-was not, as we have seen, a
Divine ordinance, but rather an effort made by a natural-
minded and degenerate race of mankind, to represent their
aspirations after spiritual things. By degrees it became
the only way known to mankind, by which they could
worship the Deity, not immediately, but mediately or
representatively, by external rites and ceremonials. And as
such it was permitted by God, and accepted by Him as a
link between Him and His creatures, a link too precious
to be lost, a link which the fallen condition of man
rendered it of vital necessity to be preserved, until the
fulness of time should arrive, when Christ Himself should
appear—“ but now, once, in the end of the world hath He
appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"
(Heb. ix. 26).
If, then, God did not, of His own act, institute the rites.
of sacrificial worship,-if indeed He took no pleasure in
sacrifice, as such, but only permitted it in His purposes of
mercy, how can we for a moment imagine that He
would allow of human sacrifices, or in any way sanction
the shedding of human blood as a deed acceptable to
Him. We cannot, indeed, conceive that such could
have been the case,-such a deed would have been
abominable in His sight, and contrary to His own
express law that "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God
made He man" (Gen. ix. 6)—an interdiction announced
immediately after the sacrifice by Noah.
But that human sacrifice was practised, and to a very
considerable extent, in ancient times cannot possibly be
denied, as no reader of Homer or Virgil can be ignorant.
And there can also be no doubt whatever that it took its
rise in a perversion of a truth. As we have already seen,
it was only the representativeness of the act which saved sacri-
fice from condemnation, and that it was permitted by God
solely on account of its signification. But the slaughter
of an animal, we have seen, in its genuine signification,
336 SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
represented the dedication to the Lord of certain affec-
tions and principles of a heavenly character; and there-
fore, inasmuch as it might naturally be imagined that,
the more choice and highly-prized the gift, the more
acceptable it would be to the Deity, as the more highly
representative of the best feelings and affections,-so, by
a sad perversion, it came to be imagined that the sacrifice
of children would in the highest degree represent the
dedication of a man's supremest motives, and his entire
abnegation of self. And this indeed, within certain limits
and reasonable restrictions, was undoubtedly the case.
Hence it was that, among the Jews, all the first-born
were dedicated to the Lord. "And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Sanctify unto Me all the first-born, what-
soever openeth the womb among the children of Israel,
both of man and beast: it is Mine" (Exod. xiii. 1, 2).
This command had, however, two aspects. The first-
born of man were to be sanctified, or dedicated to the
service of the Lord; while the firstlings of the flock were
to be those animals which alone must be offered in sacrifice;
and thus it was understood as intended. But, in process
of time, notwithstanding the saving clause to be found in
ver. 13,-" all the first-born of man among thy children
shalt thou redeem" (see ver. 15),—the Jews, ever becoming
more and more external and unspiritual, lost the spirit or
prime signification, and acted up to what appeared to be
the letter of the original command, and henceforward
involved the first-born of man and the first-born of beast
in one common and indiscriminate sacrificial slaughter.
And hence the fires of Moloch,-the abominations of the
children of Ammon; and the other fearful human sacri-
fices which, by a horrible and degrading superstition,
to be substituted for a harmless representative
worship effected by the offering up of bulls and goats upon
the altar of the Lord;-a superstition which appears to
have reached its culminating point of horrors in the
fearful scenes of the Mexican teocalli.
ABRAHAM'S SACRIFICE.
337
And this process which took place in the historic period
in the unspiritual Jewish nation, as the result of the rapid
perversion of their representative worship,-had already,
in the long past pre-historic age, been the process which
had brought about similar abominations in other and
more ancient nations which surrounded, or radiated from,
the seat of the first Church, owing to the gradual decay
and perversion of the truths of correspondence which had
been their glory. For the basis of all religious worship,
all over the world, is the primitive revelation made to
man what time he was formed, by a slow development of
his faculties, in the image and likeness of God. The
spiritual correspondences which thus became his rich
possession, and the knowledge of which in later times.
becaine ever weaker and weaker, were never wholly lost.
Wherever the human race has since spread, they have left
their mark. Their remnants are perceptible everywhere;
and the community of custom, and more especially
religious custom, all over the globe, is due to the com-
munity of the original possession, and the similarity of
the mode and process by which that common possession
has been perverted and corrupted. Hence everywhere we
find sacrifices,—and very widely, human sacrifices;—as a
rule, the latter being found to run pari passu with the ever
widening interval from the centre both of physical origin,
and of moral development.
There is however one instance, it will be said, in which
a human sacrifice was distinctly ordered by God. How are
we to reconcile with what has been advanced concerning
the abomination of human sacrifices, the command given
to Abraham to offer up his only son Isaac? For although
this command was neither carried out, nor intended to be
carried out, why should it,-since human sacrifices were
so vile and abominable,-ever have been suggested?
We may rest fully satisfied that God had sufficient
reason for His mode of action, though we would not here
rest satisfiedly upon that plea, which would have no
22
338
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
weight with the unbeliever. For in no case are we
content to make bare assertions-but are desirous to
support every statement with consistent and rational
corroboration of the nature of proof. Now it is to be
remembered that it is a general principle of all tempta-
tions and trials that they most usually affect us in matters
to which we are ourselves naturally most inclined. It is never
any temptation to us to do that to which we are in any
respect averse, but it is our besetting sins which are the
forms in which our chief temptations assail us. Abra-
ham, coming from a far country in Mesopotamia, and with
but a very imperfect knowledge of Jehovah, was most
probably in all respects tinctured with the religious and
social customs of the people among whom he dwelt, and
of these customs, human sacrifice was undoubtedly a
prominent one. It is highly probable that he was himself
inclined to human sacrifice, and hence it was the source
of his temptation. A great trial of his faith was
necessary, that his trust in God might be firmly estab-
lished. It was the crowning act of Abraham's career;
and in order that the moral effect it was intended to pro-
duce upon the patriarch might have its full weight, it was
necessary that he should be convinced that the Lord
required this sacrifice of him,-and that he should proceed
so far in the act as to stretch forth his hand to slay his
son-but no farther. So far the sacrifice had a holy
signification,-beyond that,—to carry it out into mur-
derous action-would have been profane. Abraham's faith
consisted not only in his willingness to dedicate his best
to God according to his light, however imperfectly
developed but, also, as expressed in the Epistle to the
Hebrews (xi. 19) in his "accounting that God was able to
raise him (Isaac) up, even from the dead." But the very
expression, “God did tempt Abraham" (Gen. xxii. 1), in-
contestably proves that the transaction was an exceptional
one, of the character explained above.
Among the curious questions upon which light is
USE OF STONE KNIVES FOR SACRIFICING. 339
thrown by this elucidation of the significance of Jewish
sacrifices, is one of considerable interest to the man
of science, a solution of which can be derived from
no other source. And that is, the employment of stone
knives for purposes of sacrifice, and also notably for
the rite of circumcision, by a people who were in
possession of iron instruments, which might at first
sight have been supposed to be more suitable for the
purposes in question. This remarkable and undoubted
preference shown for stone, for certain ceremonial pur-
poses, has greatly puzzled the ethnologist, who has been
fain to regard it as a survival of the stone age, in which
expression there is apparently believed to lie some explan-
ation of the curious custom. The use of stone knives
for sacrificial purposes is certainly a curious anomaly,
and frequently met with; and it is, moreover, a fact, not
only that "a recognition among the Jewish ordinances of
the practice of slaughtering a beast with a (sharp) stone”
is found in the Mishna, where it is said, "If a person has
slaughtered (a beast) with a hand-sickle, a (sharp) stone,
or a reed, it is clean," (or, fit to be eaten),—but also in
Western Africa to this day the worshippers of the god
Gimawong sacrifice an ox to him, killing it, not with a knife,
but with a sharp stone. Mr. Tylor, from whose "Early
History of Mankind" (pp. 216-222) these instances are
taken, regards them and all analogous instances, as cases
of superstition, in its true etymology of the standing over of
old habits into the midst of a new and changed order of
things; of the retention of ancient practices for cere-
monial purposes long after they had been superseded for
the commonplace uses of ordinary life. Such a view (he
adds) "takes in every instance which has been mentioned,
though the reason of iron not being adopted by the
modern Jews in one case (circumcision), as well as in
another (sacrifice) is not clear" (p. 218).
But we believe there is a meaning in this survival (which
it truly is) which is much deeper and more noteworthy,—
340
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
a meaning which is explicable by what we have already
stated concerning the correspondent signification of stone
(see Chap. III.)-and which shows us of what this is a
survival,—viz., of the remnants of that ancient spiritual
knowledge which has been so entirely overshadowed in
these latter days. When Abraham journeyed, to offer up,
as he believed, his son Isaac-we read (Gen. xxii. 6) that
he "took in his hand fire and a knife." Fire was (as we
shall hereafter specially show) the representative of Love
-but what of the knife? The word means a little
dagger or short sword; not of metal, but of stone, as also
is the case with the circumcision knives commanded to
Joshua (Josh. v. 2, 3), which were called "daggers of
flints." Cutting instruments such as daggers, lancets,
knives, or swords, all had a similar signification, as may
be illustrated from many passages of Scripture. Thus we
read (Psa. xlv. 3, 4), " Gird thee with thy sword upon thy
thigh, O mighty One . . . ride prosperously because of
Truth." Again (Rev. i. 16), of Him that was like unto
the Son of Man it is said, "And out of His mouth went
a sharp two-edged sword," the sword of the spirit which
is the IVord of God. And in Rev. ii. 16, it is said, "I
will fight them with the sword of my mouth." And from
the mouth of Him that sat upon the white horse," whose
name was called the Word of God" (Rev. xix. 13),—
went forth a sharp sword.
This sword, in all these cases evidently signified the
Divine Word, which is Truth (John xvii. 17)—as also we
read in Heb. iv. 12, "For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a disccrner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart." Therefore does every such cutting
instrument represent the Divine Truth in general, in
certain of its phases,—and it is two-edged because aimed
against both evil and error (i.e. perversions of good, and
perversions of truth. Thus the sword (of truth) cuts and
ANIMAL-WORSHIP.
341
divides, pierces and discerns, the waters (of truth)
cleanse and purify,—the light (of truth) illuminates and
enlightens. But in the present instance a dagger, or
short sword of flint (or stone) doubly emphasizes its
signification as a representative of Truth.
This is the meaning which was at the foundation of the
use of the stone knives with which sacrifices were offered,
and circumcision performed. And instead of these being
either mere survivals of a stone age—or a simple super-
stition, or standing over of old habits into a
new and
changed state of things, with no meaning beyond an
arbitrary and capricious one, they are really relics or
remnants of that most ancient knowledge of the corres-
pondences existing between natural and spiritual things,
by which men in the earliest times, at first directly, and
afterwards mediately and representatively, worshipped
God. And thus "daggers of flints" were used in sacrifice
(which signified the ascription of worship by the offering,
representatively, to God, of animals which corresponded to
the highest and purest affections of love and faith);—and
in circumcision (which signified purification from evil
loves-self-love and the love of the world);-in both
equally, for the reason that this ascription and offering,
and this purification from evil, were alike effected by the in-
strumentality of the truths of faith, which, in the language
of spiritual analogy, were represented by sharp stones.
And for long after the knowledge of the analogy had
ceased to exist, the symbol was remembered and rever-
enced.
There is also another subject of the greatest interest
which bears upon the question of Sacrifice, and con-
cerning which we must at least make a passing allusion
in this place. And that is the subject of the Animal
worship which was so extensively practised by various
nations of antiquity, and which claims its votaries even
among certain peoples of the present day. Any one who
has followed the remarks upon the origin of the sacri-
342
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
ficial rite will be almost prepared to anticipate the bearing
of the evidence we have adduced as to the relation once
apprehended as existing between certain Animals and the
higher affections of the mind,-upon this curious subject.
For this relation, which has been especially dwelt upon
in Chapter IV., when elucidating the primary meaning of
the creation of Animals on the sixth day,-affords the
evident clue to the raison d'être of animal worship in all
ages.
The people of very ancient times were, we have shown,
well acquainted with the representative signification of
every animal, as a part of that symbolical language of
Analogy or Correspondence upon which we have so much
insisted. And even when much of this language was
lost, as it must have been at a period when so great a
perversion or demoralization prevailed as to admit of
offering worship to the mere animals instead of to
Jehovah, there still survived no inconsiderable remnants.
of this knowledge. But just as some peoples retained a
knowledge of the representative significance of the
animals proper for sacrifice, and accordingly used them
for that purpose,-so others more remotely divergent from
the primitive centre, would gradually (in the process of
materialization which we have seen to be so universal)
put these animals, not only in the place of affections to
be dedicated to God, (as in sacrifice), but in the very place
of God Himself,-as representing qualities which they
attributed to Him, and which therefore they adored under
the form of the animals which represented them.
Thus there can be no doubt that in Egypt the young
ox was worshipped under the name Apis or Mnevis from
very ancient times; and not unnaturally the example was
followed by the perverse Israelites under Mount Sinai,
who, in the absence of Moses, bowed down to the calf of
gold made by Aaron. The Israelites must have been
doubtless familiar with the Egyptian rites, and it well
illustrates the utter naturalism and want of spirituality
CALF WORSHIP IN EGYPT.
343
which characterized them, that they forsook the prescribed
representative worship of Jehovah for the gross material-
ism of a molten calf. But the calf occupies a prominent
position in the Bible as a spiritual emblem, as it does
among idolatrous nations as an object of worship,-at
least among the vulgar. It signified the good of inno-
cence, but as there are three degrees of innocence as of
other virtues,-viz., inmost, interior, and exterior, the
calf shared with other animals the representative meaning
of such good with the lamb (signifying inmost)—and
the kid (interior);
(interior) ; — meaning, indeed, the good of
innocence in the natural or external man.
But before a people became reduced to the low level of
animal-worship, they must without doubt have been
dethroned from that internal (celestial or spiritual) good
in which they had been originally principled; and when
there is no internal principle in activity, men are simply
in externals, and to such, representatives had a changed
meaning. A calf to them signified something corrupted
from its original significance of the good of external
innocency, and represented nothing higher than natural
and sensual delight: their highest good. Consequently
this natural and sensual delight, which we have seen from
Genesis iii. consists in the delight and love of self and
the world, becomes the ruling passion of such persons.
So was it with the Egyptian animal-worshippers, who at
first doubtless by the worship of the calf denoted that
external good by which they were affected, and which was
the highest to which they could attain. But later, when
they still further degenerated, according to the law of the
decadence of nations, their calf became the symbol of
their evil loves of self and the world, which were indeed
their ruling loves, and therefore their objects of adoration
and worship,-as are all things we most dearly cherish ;-
and were moreover worshipped with rites as corrupted as
was the object of worship itself.
By this degenerating process may be explained the
344
SIGNIFICATION OF JEWISH SACRIFICES.
worship of other animals in still more corrupt religious
systems,--even of animals whose primary signification
was of a purely evil nature; as well also as of certain
composite creatures formed of combined parts of animals,
as in the Hindoo and other mythologies. For there is
scarcely any conceivable limit to the degradation of the
human mind, when the guidance of the internal principle
has ceased; and men under such circumstances have
undoubtedly changed their representative ideas of what
was at first good and true, and have fallen so low as to
bow down to symbols which have no other signification
than of what is diabolic and infernal.
From what we have advanced in this chapter on the
subject of sacrifices, it will be clear to every thinking
person that those who, while professing to speak ex
cathedra as public instructors, yet ignore the considera-
tions we have here brought forward, rest their arguments
upon, to say the least, but very precarious and insecure
foundations. The whole literature of the subject requires
revision, and the entire professorial opinion upon it will
necessarily have to be remodelled; and with no other
feeling than a reverence for truth, we would urge that
the rational, consistent, and suggestive view of the
subject here briefly presented, must be the basis for that
revision, and will afford the data for that remodelling of
opinion.

"Precisely at that epoch (some thirty or forty years from the death of our
Saviour) the Gospels made their appearance. Not simultaneously, not in
concert, and not in perfect harmony with each other, yet with the error
distributed skilfully among them, as in a well-tuned instrument, wherein each
string is purposely out of tune with every other. Their divergence
of aim,
and different authorship, secured the necessary breadth of effect when the
accounts were viewed together; their universal recognition afforded the
necessary permanency, and arrested further decay. If I may be pardoned
for using another illustration, I would say that, as the roundness of the stereo-
scopic image can only be attained by the combination of two distinct pictures,
neither of them in perfect harmony with the other, so the highest possible
conception of Christ cannot otherwise be produced than through the dis-
crepancies of the Gospels."
The Fair Haven, by SAMUEL. BUTLER (Author of Erewhon), p. 210.
"We have to consider the fixed number of the twelve sons of Jacob: and
our inquiries can only properly begin with the consideration of the funda-
mental meaning and application of this number. It becomes evident on
closer investigation that this cannot be looked upon as an isolated historic fact
—a circumstance as casual as the number of children in this or that private
family. On the contrary this number, only slightly varied in its combinations,
is repeated, both in the small circle here constituted by it, and in other
regions touching upon it from without, so frequently and persistently, that it is
impossible not to suspect the influence of some more general law." (And again,
speaking of the Plagues) "It is self-evident that this round number ten is
here selected with deliberate art.”
EWALD, History of Israel, vol. i. p. 363, and vol. ii. p. 62.

CHAPTER XII.
THE
APPLICATION OF THE
FOREGOING
PRINCIPLES TO
THE NEW TESTAMENT, IN AN INQUIRY INTO
QUESTION: WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
Τ TH
THE
HE principles which up to this point we have
applied, and we hope successfully, to the eluci-
dation of the Old Testament must not be sup-
posed to lose their power or appropriateness when brought
to the test of the New Testament. We have claimed,
and shall further claim in the remaining chapters of this
work, that the whole Bible is embraced in the same unity,
and that all parts of it alike may be shown to be the
work of the same mind, although extending over so many
centuries of time. And it has appeared to us that the
best way to demonstrate this important fact will be to
apply the key which we have fitted to the Old Testament
to the New also in such a manner as may exhibit clearly
the claim of the latter to have been written upon prin-
ciples identical with those which have been shown to
lie at the foundation of the Old.
A question of immense interest and importance may
be at the same time solved, by making our inquiries.
tend to the elucidation of the above question: Why are
348
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
there Four Gospels-neither more nor less? I Why was
not one sufficient? Why do such apparent discrepancies
appear in those different accounts of the Life and Work
of Christ, and what is their significance ? For these
Records bear not only the mark of distinct authorship,
but they carry with them certain apparently discordant
statements, which have, unhappily, led some to the con-
clusion that their writers were but imperfectly informed
men, whose authority on the subject of the events they
describe is perceptibly weakened by the variation in their
testimony, if, indeed, it be not entirely destroyed.
Moreover, although the three synoptical Gospels, and par-
ticularly the first two, have so much more of the external in
their whole construction and contents than that of John, it
is this last which has been the most sharply attacked and
upon which the most serious onslaughts of criticism have
been made, with a view to determine it spurious,-
onslaughts, which, however subtly made, and keenly
advocated, have in the end left it pretty firmly rooted
in its ancient place.
Matthew, who wrote A.D. 60, appears to have been
translated into Greek, and put into its present form about
A.D. 63. He delights in exhibiting Christ as the Messiah
of the Prophets, whose predictions in all things He ful-
filled. He is the Evangelist of the past. Mark differs
from him in this particular altogether; but like Matthew
he was evidently an eye-witness of what he relates. His
¹ Of course we are well aware of the existence of Apocryphal
Gospels. Such spurious writings were inevitable, and are harmless,
inasmuch as they are universally regarded as spurious. But the
four genuine Gospels of our New Testament are no less recognized
as genuine, in spite of all the attempts of critics to throw discredit
upon them. The discrepancies in these Gospels, which the critics
fail to reconcile, are indeed sources of honest doubt with many;
but while they have not been found of sufficient importance to set
aside the verdict as to their authenticity, those very discrepancies.
disappear, as such, under the test we are applying,-and in fact
are seen to be necessary results of the origin and structure of the
Four Gospels according to the principles here laid down.
THE EVANGELISTS.
349
Gospel was written later, but is believed to have been
dictated by the Apostle Peter, who died A.D. 64. He is
particular in giving details of the customs of the Jews,
and is remarkable for having embalmed many of the
passing emotions and expressions of feeling, such as none
but a spectator could have noted. His Gospel is full
of familiar narrative; and he represents the Evangelist
of the present.
Luke, who also wrote the Acts, possessed more of
literary style than his predecessors, as is amply shown
in both his compositions, which are written with a greater
regard to definite form, and orderly arrangement of the
historical facts. He probably had the same kind of con-
nexion with St. Paul as Mark had with St. Peter; and
his Gospel more especially depicts the human side of
our Lord. It is the Gospel, not of the past or the
present, but of the future. But there is an essential
difference observable between these three synoptics and
the Gospel of the beloved disciple, John. Throughout
this last is breathed an atmosphere of spirituality not
found in those. While they expatiated on His more
external aspects, John saw by special insight into His
Divine character. Doubtless he had access to the pre-
viously written Gospels, and omitted mention of many
things already described in them (see xx. 30). And
his object is distinctly stated in the following verse (31).
It was, to shew that the Divine Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us,-but that, being flesh, it was subject
to mortal weaknesses: and so He wept, and He was
wearied, even as mortals. But the discourses of Our
Lord, which he collates and edits, are spiritual utterances
which stamp this Gospel as a spiritual Gospel, written,
not for the past, or for the present, or for the immediate
future,—but for all time, and for the Eternity which shall
transcend time.
Each Gospel, therefore, being written with a somewhat
different aim, and from a somewhat different standpoint,
350
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
they must necessarily to some extent vary. But not only
do they vary, but some of their variations are of a kind
which, on a superficial view, at least, appear to be
inconsistent, and indeed in opposition one to another.
And if the Gospels are, as we believe, inspired writings,
and the foundations of the authority by virtue of which
we regard Our Lord as a Divine Person,-then, any real
inconsistency in them assumes an overwhelming im-
portance, in view of the fact that, if established, such
inconsistency must of necessity undermine, and ultimately
destroy, that authority.
""
It is not uninteresting to observe in what light the
opponents of Revelation regard the Evangelists and their
writings; and perhaps the following interesting passage,
remarkable for its insight, may be taken as typical of
their mode of viewing the subject in question. It is
quoted from the recently published "Life of George Eliot,”
and is the summary which that writer gives of Mr. Charles
Hennell's "Inquiry concerning the Origin of Christianity,'
a work which was destined to exercise so important an
influence on all her future life. She says-"He discusses
first the date and credibility of each Gospel, and concludes
that, while Matthew has many marvellous stories, incon-
gruous in themselves, and not only unsupported, but
contradicted, by the other Evangelists, he nevertheless
presents the most comprehensible account of the career
of Jesus; that in Mark, evidently more remote in time
and circumstances, both from his events, and from his
Jewish modes of thought, the idea conveyed of Jesus is
much vaguer, and less explicable;-that in Luke there
is a still further modification of his character, which
has acquired a tinge of asceticism;-while in John, the
style of his teaching is wholly changed, and instead of
the graphic parable and the pithy apothegm, he utters
long mystical discourses in the style of the first epistle
bearing the name of the same Evangelist. Mr. Hennell
however adheres to the conclusion that the substance
APPARENT DISCREPANCIES.
351
of this Gospel came from the Apostle John at an advanced
age, when both the events of his early manhood, and the
scenes of his native land lay in the far distance " (Vol. I.,
p. 99). The passage is quoted in George Eliot's words,
because it so tersely summarizes Mr. Hennell's views.
There is great discrimination in this sketch, however
unfortunately misapplied, and we shall have hereafter to
allude to some of these distinctions. It might indeed
be said, that had there been but one Gospel, of such a
character as to harmonize, as it were, the four narratives,
there would have been no difficulty either in understand-
ing or in receiving it; and the apparent discrepancies.
would thus have been avoided. But only those who but
superficially examine the subject will imagine that we,
as Christians, should have been gainers by such an
arrangement. We have as a matter of fact four Gospels,
with neither one nor the other of which can we dispense,
for in one is depicted a phase of Our Lord's character
which in another is handled less fully, or perhaps scarcely
at all; and one Evangelist dwells largely upon important
spiritual truths which another but scantly touches. One
seems to understand and to sympathize with His purely
human side only,-another appears to have been in closer
communion with His Divine nature;—with one He was
above all the Messias of the Prophets-with another
He was rather the head and corner-stone of the Church
that was to come. One wrote especially for the Jews,
another for the Gentiles;-one describes His doings,-
while another occupies himself chiefly with His sayings.
But each would be imperfect unless supplemented by
the others, and we could but ill afford to lose any one
of them.
But yet it must be admitted that there are certain
passages in which one Evangelist appears to some extent
to contradict another-sometimes in matters of compara-
tively slight importance, at others in definite statements
concerning which they are directly at variance. Any
352
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
disagreement in books of such importance, and which
purport to be independent narratives of the same events
must have the effect of producing a sense of uneasiness in
some who would fain hold them as inspired writings;
while with those who are unwilling to admit their
authenticity, the discovery of such discrepancies cannot fail
to strengthen their unbelief, and to place in their hands
weapons, by means of which they may seriously endanger
Truth in the estimation of the weak and wavering.
Why then should there be Four Gospels? Is it a mere
chance that just four writers of the primitive times should
have penned independent narratives of the wonderful
works of Him who went about doing good, and of the
words of Him who spake as never man spake? Or, is it
a mere chance that of perhaps more than four such genuine
narratives which may once have existed, just four should
have been handed down to us, and be found embalmed in
the Book we call the Word of God? Surely such things
do not happen by chance. No thoughtful mind can believe
that such things are left to mere hazard. But if there is
design in the works of God, surely there must à priori be
design in His Word; and we may therefore dismiss the
idea that so important a circumstance has happed by a
mere chance. There must be à reason, and a wise one,
if recondite. Let us see if we can by any means unravel
it, as we delight in endeavouring to unravel the design of
His works, or at least humbly attempt to obtain some
glimpse of its meaning.
It is not the question that there are several Gospels
extant in our Sacred Books, but it is that there are just four.
What we have to inquire is, why Four? It is evident that
if we are to discover any clue to the subject, we must first
endeavour to get some idea whether any special meaning
attaches to the number Four in the Scriptures. There need
be no surprise at such a conception, however it may strike
some by its novelty. No one doubts that there is some-
thing sacred in the number seven; the seventh day was
SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS.
353
the day of God's rest, and was thenceforth to be kept
holy, and its significance is dwelt upon in Chap. V. of this
work, and the use of the number seven throughout the
Scriptures everywhere indicates a sanctity attaching to it
which is recognized by all students of the Bible. But if
one number has a definite meaning in the sacred writings,
why should not another? And indeed, as we have before
observed, why should we suppose there to be any such
thing as chance in the construction of the Scriptures, in
which, if they be the Word of God, everything should have
a meaning containing depths of wisdom?
The number three is as remarkable in its applications as
the number seven. Thus Our Lord was three days in the
tomb, as Jonah was three days in the fish's belly. Three
days, three months, and three years are expressions of
constant occurrence. If there were no significance in the
number three, why should the Israelities, in their repre-
sentative of a Church, have gone a three days' journey to
sacrifice (Exod. iii. 18),-or Jehovah have descended upon
Mount Sinai on the third day (Exod. xix. 11),—or why was
it that no flesh of the sacrifice should be left to the third day
(Lev. vii. 17, 18),—or that Elijah stretched himself three
times upon the widow's son, or that the cock crowed
thrice,—or that in innumerable circumstances the number
three is an essential feature? Nor is the number four, with
which we are at present specially interested, less remarkable
in its applications. We find it combined with three in the
arrangement of the stones of the breastplate, which were
in four rows of three each, and also in the often-used
expression, "the third and fourth generation."
Let us glance at the cases in which four is an essential
element, and they commence at the very threshold of the
Bible, viz., in the description of Eden, the garden of the
Lord (Isa. li. 3; Ezek. xxxi. 8, 9, 18), from the East of
which issued a river, which became parted into four heads
(Gen. ii. 10). The four winds of Daniel vii. 5, the four
horns of Daniel viii. 8, and Zech. i. 18),—the four quarters
23
354
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
of heaven (Jer. xlix. 36), the four beasts of Daniel and
the Revelation, the four angels, standing at the four
corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth
(Rev. vii. 1), the four horses of Rev. vi.-the four sore
judgments upon Jerusalem,-and, lastly, the four-square
arrangement of the new Jerusalem in Rev. xxi.,—all these
show that some definite meaning must be attached to the
number four in the Bible. And in the Gospels, Lazarus
was four days in the grave, our Saviour significantly
pointed out that there were but four months to harvest
(John iv. 35). And finally there were four Evangelists, and
four Gospels.
Now why should four be a number so frequently made
use of in the illustrations of the Word? This is the
problem we have to endeavour to answer. The analysis of
the number is simple enough-for it consists of two twos
-that is of two pairs; and beyond this we cannot advance
at present. But what, in those things of earth which are
a shadow of heaven, is the most familiar use of the number
four? Clearly, we answer, the four winds (Ezek. xxxvii. 9;
Dan. vii. 2, and xi. 4), which themselves derive their
names and significance from the four cardinal quarters of
the earth or sky,-viz., East, West, South, and North.
These likewise are in pairs,—viz., East and West, South
and North.
Let us then inquire whether any rational connection
can be traced between these four quarters of the heavens,
and matters of spiritual import, such as those with which
the Bible exclusively occupies itself. For the prophecies of
Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, which have so much in
common, where these four quarters are referred to, must
have some meaning, the explanation of which, however
difficult, may yet not be intended entirely to elude inquiry
and research (John v. 39).
In Psalm 1xxxiv. 11, it is said "The Lord is a Sun"
(see also Mal. iv. 2), and the idea is one which evidently
derives its meaning from the fact that He is to our souls
THE FOUR QUARTERS OF HEAVEN.
355
and to spiritual things what the Sun is to our bodies and
to the things of earth. For thus indeed does His love
warm our hearts, and His Truth enlighten our under-
standings, even as the natural Sun warms and enlightens
our bodies. Thus Isaiah says, "The sun shall be no more
for a light by day
but the Lord shall be unto
thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory" (lx. 19).
But this analogy, that the Lord is a Sun, is evidently
intended to be carried further. As the Sun rises in the
East, so is the Sun of Righteousness spoken of as rising
(Mal. iv. 2), but that Sun never sets, it is always rising,
and hence the importance of the East in the Bible, as
signifying the very spring and source of Divine Love.
Behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the
way of the East" (Ezek. xliii. 2). Hence it was that Ezekiel
says, When the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt-
offering or peace-offering voluntarily unto the Lord, one
shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the
East" (Ezek. xlvi. 12). And hence also it is that to this day
in our churches the congregation turns towards the East
in certain important parts of worship.
(C
The West, also, which is the place of the going down
of the Sun, has an important significance, for it is the
antithesis of the East, and just as the East is in the
fulness of Divine Love, so is the West in comparative
poverty of it; though being directly over against the East
it is but in comparative obscurity. The same applies also
to the South and North, for while the South represents
the highest state of illumination, as the place of the Sun
at noonday, the North, where the Sun never comes, but
which is only over against the South, represents the lowest
state of enlightenment. Hence Isaiah says (xlix. 12),
“Behold these shall come from far; and lo, these from the
north and from the west," signifying that those in these
quarters are far removed from the Love and Wisdom of
the Lord, but that nevertheless they shall be brought to
Him. So also Jeremiah (iii. 12) says, "Proclaim these
L
2
356
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
--
words towards the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding
Israel" (also ver. 18). But by far the most comprehensive
passage in the Scriptures, in which each of the four
quarters plays an important part, is to be found in Dan. xi.,
the whole of which chapter will receive elucidation by
bearing in mind the general principle that the East
signifies a state of Love from the Lord, and West, a state
of obscurity or comparative ignorance of that Love,—or in
some cases opposition to it ;—while the king of the South
denotes those who are principled in Truth, which illumines,
and king of the North those who are in comparative
darkness, or in some cases even opposed to Truth.
It would occupy too much space to enter more fully
upon this interesting inquiry, of which this slight sketch
has been rendered necessary for the elucidation of the
subject. We gather from it the important truth that
there are in the mind of man four great stages of
spiritual development which thus correspond with these
four quarters of the heavens. In his lowest state a man
is merely natural. His knowledge is then derived from
an external science which belongs to the memory, and is
unillumined by the true light of intelligence. He is in
the North quarter. By the warmth of the Divine Love,
even in its least developed form, this natural knowledge is
vivified, and becomes truly rational; and he is in the
West. Thence he passes, by regeneration, into the in-
telligence of spiritual wisdom, from Divine Truth, and is
in the brightly illumined Southern quarter. And finally
he may rise thence to be principled in genuine wisdom.
from Divine Love, having thus arrived at the highest
and inmost,—at the East and the rising sun. This order
is distinctly pointed out in the case of Bezaleel, who con-
structed the Ark (Exod. xxxi. 3), where it is said that he
"was filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom (East),
and in understanding (South), and in knowledge (West),
and in all manner of workmanship' (North): repeated
XXXV. 31.
3
NO SINGLE PORTRAITURE SUFFICIENT.
557
Another illustration will further explain our meaning.
The East, or sunrise, signifies the highest (or inmost)
state of good and truth from love;-the West, the lower
and external of that state. The South represents the
highest (or inmost) state of truth and good from wisdom;
-the North, the lower or external of the same.
man is, as the infant is, at first natural, then rational;
afterwards (if born again) he becomes animated with
good from a principle of truth, and finally from a
principle of Love.
For a
Now, our Lord, when He was made man, "took not on
Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed
of Abraham; wherefore in all things it behoved Him to
be made like unto His brethren" (Heb. ii. 16, 17). And as
all these states are human states, He must have passed
through them all. We do not mean to say that He was
at any time in a merely natural external state, unless
indeed in the first dawnings of infantile consciousness;—
but that His human nature, like that of every one of us,
had a corresponding natural side, or it would not have been
human. No single portraiture of Him, therefore, could
have adequately expressed to us His true character; nor
could any single writer have made us acquainted with the
multiform aspect of His qualities, of His deeds of love,
or of His words of wisdom. For every mind, however
inspired, could not, without violence, have been rendered
fit to chronicle all the phases of His spiritual life; and
even if these phases be reduced to the four typical stages
or states above referred to, they could not have been
satisfactorily set down in a single continuous narrative,—
still less by a single writer. The authors of the Gospels
were men of most various genius, and scarce could any two.
men be conceived more widely separated in mental calibre
than the simple Matthew, and the spiritual-minded John.
In fact, each of the Evangelists is a typical character,
whose fitness for his task was absolutely in accordance
with the internal character of the respective Gospel he
358
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
penned. We cannot conceive of John having written the
Gospel of Matthew or of Mark, any more than we can
conceive of Matthew or Mark having written John's
Gospel, or of Luke as the writer of either of the other
three. And this consideration gives weight to the view
we are endeavouring to set forth.
And that view is, that we have four Gospels written by
four different Evangelists, not by any mere chance, but by
a wise and providential design, to the end that we should
be in a position to attain a perfect insight into the
character of Jesus by means of a comparative study of all
four of them, as complementary parts of a great and
perfect whole. Each of the four Evangelists was specially
chosen to write, in accordance with the genius of his
individual mind;-and each wrote his narrative, having
special regard to the four leading spiritual states which
our Lord's Humanity represented, and which, existing
in every man, in Him were representative of the human
soul in particular, and of His Church in general. If we
compare these characteristics of the four Gospels with
those four states, and with what we have previously said
with respect to the four corners of the earth and the four
winds of heaven, we may perceive that, while Matthew
presents (according to Mr. Hennell) "the most compre-
hensible account of the career of Jesus," he does so
because he describes that side of our Lord which cor-
responds most closely to the natural mind, and is there-
fore best apprehended by one who is not in spiritual light.
This is the lowest or most human side; the side which
exhibits Him in His most external relations, such as are
represented in the human mind by natural or merely
external truth, seen only in natural light, and therefore
spiritually obscure. Here we may see the significance of
the workmanship of Bezaleel, the ultimate or circumfer-
ence, as it were, of the three preceding principles. Such
a condition, of which Matthew and his Gospel are repre-
sentatives, corresponds, then, to the Northern quarter.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EVANGELISTS.
359
Again, in Mark, Mr. Hennell tells us, "the idea con-
veyed of Jesus is much vaguer and less explicable." For
Mark, as we have seen, wrote at the dictation of Peter,
who was the Apostle of Faith, as John was of Love.
Mark's Gospel is written from a standpoint which, like
that of faith, is somewhat obscure, as opposed to spiritual
sight, or clear perception; yet at the same time nearer to
the full blaze of the meridional South. It represents the
faith which is from love, by which a man may walk when,
instead of being in the glorious beams of the Eastern or
rising sun, he is in the comparatively obscure, and dimmer
and colder West,-the lower or more external state of
truth from love, the knowledge, which is of a lower
grade than that intelligence which is fully illumined by
spiritual light. The West is to the East as the Moon is
to the Sun.
Thirdly, in the Gospel by Luke, we recognize a higher
production. Mr. Hennell describes it as exhibiting a
still further modification of His character, which has
acquired a tinge of asceticism." For in Luke we have
something further removed from the earthly or natural;
we find indeed the truly spiritual,-the internal of that
which in Matthew is merely external. It was St. Paul
who was the great exponent of the significance and im-
portance of Charity,—and this Gospel was written under
his influence, and inculcates lessons of Charity (as for
example chap. xv.) together with far clearer views of
spiritual truth, than either of the preceding. For Luke
represents the full light of Divine Truth from Love,—
that state of clear perception which is called in Scripture,
intelligence. He is removed from the obscurer and
colder West and North into the light and warmth of the
South, and is advanced nearer to the day-spring.
Lastly, although we have but one place left, no one
would for one moment hesitate as to the position which
the Gospel by John claims in the arrangement we are
considering. The "long, mystical discourses" of this
360 WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
Gospel are highly spiritual lessons, little understood
probably by His immediate hearers, but handed down for
the instruction of a later age in that goodness and truth
which the same Evangelist was permitted to be the
medium of describing under the symbol of the New
Jerusalem. John was that disciple whom Jesus loved;—he
was himself the Apostle of Love, by which he announced
that God is Love (1 John iv. 8), to which he also added
that God is Light (1 John i. 5)-as Peter was the Apostle
of Faith, by which he declared, "Thou are the Christ, the
Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi. 16). John describes
our Lord as the Divine Man, one with the Father,-the
Word, or Divine Truth, made flesh,-the sympathizing
and loving Saviour, who was at once the Good Shepherd
of His sheep, and the Fount of living waters,—the Source
and spring at once of Love and of Wisdom. John re-
presented the inmost and highest quality of genuine
wisdom which is principled in love to the Lord. This is
the supreme internal state of conjunction with the Father
(Jehovah) who is Love, and corresponds to the East or
rising Sun. "Arise, shine, for thy Light is come, and the
glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee" (Isa. lx. 1).
It will thus be seen that the East directly represents
the Lord in His glory (see Ezek. viii. 16),-where the
Divine Love is pre-eminent, though of course associated
with Wisdom, from which, indeed, it cannot be dis-
sociated. The West signifies the same in a lower degree,
-that Faith by which we are content to walk when we
are (comparatively) absent from the Lord. For "we
walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. v. 7). The South is
the quarter of full meridional illumination,-the highest
principle, in which the light of Truth is in the ascendant,
but in which Love is only secondary to Wisdom, and
which exhibits itself in love to the neighbour, or Charity,
-second only to Love to the Lord. While the North is
that state of comparative natural obscurity,-the ultimate,
which exhibits itself outwardly in works. And these
LOVE AND CHARITY: FAITH AND WORKS. 361
four quarters correspond to that categorical arrangement
of goods and truths which distinguished Bezaleel, who
"was filled with the spirit of God, in Wisdom (East), in
understanding [or intelligence] (South), in knowledge
(West), and in workmanship (North) (Exod. xxxi. 2).
These great principles, then, are in two pairs;-the
first two, internal, viz., Love and Charity;-and the
second two, external, viz., Faith and Works. But since
one cannot exist without the other, Love to the Lord
cannot stand alone, without love to the neighbour. Nor
can Faith any more exist alone without Works,-nor
Love without Truth. And the more complete a man is
in the perfection of his spiritual Life, the more perfectly
does he exhibit all these four great principles in their
fulness and abundance.
It is not practicable in the compass of the present
Volume to develop this subject so fully as to point out
the clue it affords to all the apparent discrepancies of
statement which are met with in a comparison of the
writings of the Four Evangelists. To do this would
worthily fill a volume of itself, so wide is the subject,
and so subtle will be found the shades of distinction be-
tween the various Records. For example, at the very outset,
in the genealogies of our Lord as recorded in Matthew
and Luke, there are such important variations as seem
absolutely inexplicable to the general reader. But these
variations have their meaning, although this example of
discrepancy is by no means the simplest to be found in
the Evangelists.¹ But that we may show that even
these are capable of explanation, we would refer (if per-
mitted to mention another work by the present Author)
to "New Studies in Christian Theology," the first two
I
Indeed, some would assert that there can be no possible spiritual
knowledge conveyed in what on the surface appears to be a mere list
of names: and one writer has suggested that the account in Genesis
of the Dukes of Edom gives it the character of a sort of " Almanach
de Gotha!"
362
WHY ARE THERE FOUR GOSPELS?
chapters of which are devoted to such an explanation..
A number of other divergences in the parallel Records
will be found in time and by further study to receive
their solution in an intelligent handling of the clue here
presented: and we doubt not for a moment but that when
candidly thus examined every difficulty which now im-
pedes their reception in the minds of some will be
satisfactorily removed.
In conclusion we will make the following important.
and carefully considered remark,—a remark which not
only follows as a necessary corollary from all that has
been advanced in this work, but also a remark which
we believe to be capable of verification. And it is this:—
Just as the History of the representative Jewish people
was in all particulars representative of spiritual principles.
and processes, so also is the History contained in each
of the Four Gospels strictly representative. For Christ
came to consummate the Old as well as to inaugurate
the New. As a Divine Person He must needs act by
representatives in order to convey spiritual truths,-just
as Jehovah of the Old Testament must have acted by
representatives in His conduct of the Jewish people.
Hence each and all of Our Lord's acts were representative,
just as His words were spirit (John vi. 63). The parables
were symbolic of spiritual truths, and His miracles were
acted parables, and as we have seen, contained an inner
or spiritual form which is the test of their genuineness.
The same principle is inviolable all through the sacred
writings; and the Gospels as well as the Revelations.
possess the same internal correspondential meaning as
the purely correspondential books of the Old Testament,-
whether Genesis-Kings-or the Prophets.
"As to the interpretation of the Scriptures solute and at large, there have
been divers kinds introduced and devised; some of them rather curious and
unsafe than sober and warranted. Notwithstanding, this much must be con-
fessed, that the Scriptures, being given by inspiration, and not by human
reason, do differ from all other books in the author: which, by consequence,
doth draw on some difference to be used by the expositor. For the inditer of
them did know four things which no man attains to know; which are, the
mysteries of the kingdom of glory, the perfection of the laws of nature, the
secrets of the heart of man, and the future succession of all ages."
BACON, Advancement of Learning.
"Now I must tell you a great and awful truth, which ignorant Christians
fear to confess; and by overdoing tempt men to infidelity. The Scripture is
like a man's body, where some parts are but for the preservation of the rest.
So the sense is the soul of the Scripture-the letter is but the body."
BAXTER, The Saints' Everlasting Rest.
"Read your Bible as you would any other book, with strictest criticism—
frankly determining what you think beautiful, and what you think false or
foolish."
RUSKIN.
"Which things we also speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii. 13, 14)

CHAPTER XIII.
TIIE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
E suppose that it must unfortunately be con-
ceded that there is a small section of mankind
who proclaim their entire disbelief in the exist-
ence of God, and in the Bible as an authority not only in
Science or in History, but also in Morals,—who refuse
any assent to it or its doctrine,—and who profess for it
not only indifference, but by a parade of irreverence
declare that they hold it in contempt.
With such we have nothing in common; and although
we would gladly win them from what we regard as fatal
errors, we have but little hope of overcoming prejudices
so unhappily confirmed. The processes of reasoning by
which they have fallen into this pit are described in other
parts of this Volume, which show that such unbelief is
not a characteristic of the present age only. Yet even
now it is fortunately an exceptional state of mind, and the
numbers of those who have taken the trouble to express
and offer reasons for their total unbelief are so small as to
be phenomenal. Bearing in mind the vast majority of
those, scientific and unscientific, who are at no pains to
conceal their belief, not only in the existence of God, but
also in the responsibilities which such a belief involves,
the few whom we have thus indicated only serve to point
the universality of the belief as a factor in the human
366 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
mind, and places the strange and abnormal scepticism
of the very small minority in the light of a species of
impertinence, offensive alike against every canon of
modesty and good taste, as well as against the universal
opinion and belief of mankind at large.
We cannot however too strongly insist that those to
whom we refer are the singularly limited number who
absolutely deny the existence of a Divine Power, personal
or otherwise, and in this denial include a host of other
matters cherished as beliefs by mankind in general,—a
number indeed small to insignificance, yet who, by con-
stantly obtruding their creed (or no-creed), before the
world, are a standing offence to the great body of their
fellow-men. So greatly do they outrage the feelings of
the vast mass of mankind in all ages, that we cannot
avoid the conviction that this small knot of men should
be most charitably placed in the category of those un-
fortunates whose faculties are incomplete, and whose
powers of discrimination between right and wrong, be-
tween truth and falsehood, are radically defective. With
the same data for observation, they utterly fail in judg-
ment, and constitute a little, happily insignificant band,
apart, morally imperfect, and spiritually dead.
Between these and the ordinary sceptic there is a vast
gap. For the ordinary sceptic is the man of culture, of
whom science has become the master, and who is carried
away in spite of himself from his early beliefs by the rigid
pursuit of an unbending and uncompromising material
ideal-a horseman whose steed has taken the bit between
his teeth, and carries his rider whither he will. We do not
intend to assume that such a form of scepticism is harm-
less, because we conceive that Truth can never be out-
raged, or neglected and despised, with impunity, or
without the production of results, the evil of which it
is impossible to calculate. But although such Sceptics,
or so-called Agnostics, perceive that they cannot know
matters relating to spiritual things in the same positive
CAUSES OF SCEPTICISM.
367
way in which they feel that they do know the facts of
science, we doubt not that most of them would be glad
to learn to know and believe, if it were possible,—if, that
is, a rational basis could be supplied for their knowledge
and belief,-though there may be, it is to be feared, a few
of a more aggressive and purely unbelieving nature, who
deny the possibility of knowing (and thereby put forward
an unwarrantable claim to superior knowledge) and
refuse to admit, either proximately or remotely, any of
the tenets of religious faith as influencing either their
conclusions or (in any direct manner at least) their lives.
Such men live for science alone,-and for a vague shadow
which they style Humanity;-and it is to such that the
caustic words of Mr. W. L. Courtney would really seem
to apply" He was an ape-he is a man-he will be dust."
But the Agnostic generally is not altogether responsi-
ble for the error into which he has fallen. He has
indeed been brought up in certain views of religion and
spirituality, the teaching of those whose duty and whose
profession it is to promulgate sound and rational doctrine,
-but when the time arrives for him to test these
esoteric doctrines by the exoteric truths of science,
he finds the former signally to fail,-for the simple reason
that they are radically erroneous, and for the most part
mere perversions of the teaching of the Scripture from
which they are supposed to be derived.
The man of Science, then, naturally rejects them,-
with more or less of regret ; but, too often, with no lurking
suspicion that the premisses may be fallacious, or that the
interpretations on which they are based may be forced or
erroneous. He naturally expects from his spiritual guides
a foundation of truth for their dogmas; and his science
teaches him that on such a foundation could not be erected
a superstructure of error. He discovers that he has been
led by guides who themselves are but too often blind,
and he not unnaturally concludes that the sources from
which they derive their teaching must be untrustworthy;
368 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
otherwise, why do these learned men, whose sole profession
it is to discover and promulgate Truth, so notably fail?
Hence the man of Science learns to reject the Bible.
He argues naturally enough that in Science, he must
proceed from fact to fact upon sure ground, until he
arrives at a sound induction, hypothesis, or discovery,—
that thus his progress is assured, and his conclusions.
unassailable. Why cannot his spiritual teachers do the
same, if their documents possess that trustworthiness
which is claimed for them? The man of Science cannot
also, in most cases, be a theologian, and therefore he must
depend upon others for his religious guidance. If there-
fore he finds that guidance to fail, and become untrust-
worthy, he casts it off,-he learns to walk alone, or by
the light of Science, he becomes an Agnostic.
We do not mean to assert that there are no men of
science who examine for themselves the sources from
which doctrines are derived and preached. Far from such
being the case, there are instances enough and to spare of
men of science and culture who devote much attention to
the critical examination of these sources. And the adverse
verdict of such men is the more harmful with the wavering,
because no good reason is at once perceptible why they
should not be received as authorities, and their verdict
accepted as final. But intellect and faith are not always
the best companions or mutual helpers. And by faith
we do not mean blind credulity, which we are far from
advocating, but that evidence of things unseen which is
not a characteristic of the pure intellect, and is, indeed,
hardly admitted as a possibility by the purely critical
mind. The canons applied by such minds to spiritual
things have not the almost infallible result which they
have when so skillfully applied to natural things, and
the successful critic of a Greek or Latin poet may, and
I
I Sir William Hamilton goes so far as to say that the study of
natural science diverts the mind from the phenomena of moral liberty,
and disqualifies the intellect from appreciating their import.
STAGNATION OF THEOLOGY.
369
probably will, utterly miss success when dealing similarly
with the Bible. Hence the verdict pronounced upon the
Bible by such men we have no hesitation in affirming to
be erroneous, insufficient, and premature ;-erroneous,
because they have no real key to the meaning of that
which they are striving to analyse, insufficient, because
they utterly fail to seize the spirit of the writing they are
criticizing,—and premature, because they authoritatively
pronounce upon a text with defective means of information,
and, ex cathedrá, deny the universal beliefs of mankind, in
ignorance of their true nature and origin.
Those who apply natural science to the destructive
criticism of the Scriptures have still less excuse, because
a careful study of these writings should demonstrate that
such natural science, however large a part it occupies,
in appearance, in the Bible, is everywhere of a secondary
nature, and is, in the very nature of the case, adapted to
the perceptions of the primitive and unscientific age in
which they were written.
Doubtless, however, the mainspring of the scientific
scepticism of the day is unsound and irrational religious
teaching,-old worn-out dogmas, which might pass at a
time when the intellect was under spiritual thraldom, and
men's minds were kept in the subjection of mediæval
gloom. But now that the thraldom has been removed
and the night of darkness has ended, they are exposed to
the light of freedom and day, and are found insufficient
and unsatisfying, and often unreasonable and false. This
is necessarily intolerable to educated science, where all
must be reasonable and capable of proof; for science has
advanced into enfranchisement and light, while for the
most part religious dogma has remained in trammels and
in darkness. The theologian, in other words, has not
advanced with the times; while the intellect of mankind
generally, so long repressed in passive obedience to an
exacting ecclesiasticism, at length finding itself free, has
flown backward, like an uncoiled spring, in the opposite
24
370 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
direction, and an epoch of scepticism is the inevitable
result.
This nineteenth century is truly an age of wonders.
Since its dawn there has been an amazing awakening of
the intelligence of our race, which during the dark ages
would seem to have slumbered as in an intellectual night.
Not that preparations for awakening had not been visible
to those who could observe the signs of the times. The
invention of printing,-the great religious emanicipation
produced by the energetic protest of Luther,—the evident
decay of the papal power which had enthralled the souls
of men for centuries, and kept the spirit and the intellect
alike in chains,-each of these in turn were like the
opening of the seals,—deliverances from the despotism of
ignorance and error,-stages in the enfranchisement of
the intellect of mankind at large for the reception of Truth.
The chaotic throes of the French Revolution were suc-
ceeded by a great reaction,—the final wave of evil and error
which threatened to overwhelm the nations was thrown
back by a strong arm,—and once more it would seem as
though a new command had gone forth, "Let there be
Light! And there was light,—and light has ever since
increased, and we believe will go on increasing even more.
and more unto the perfect day.
No one will deny this fact,—no one will fail to admit the
immense superiority of this as an age of intelligence.
beyond all that have preceded it. But while intellectual
progress has been so remarkably manifested, that which
is at least of equal importance (at its lowest estimate)
would not appear to have shared in the advance made by
the intellectual faculties. The knowledge of spiritual
things would seem to have in fact declined. Instead of
the spiritual faculty having been enlightened in the same
proportion as the intellectual, we are assured that the
growth of intelligence has extinguished the belief in which
man has existed in all previous ages! This idea is equally
unnatural and erroneous. That the access of intellectual
THE BIBLE LIKE A STEADY BEACON. 371
light has had for its first effect a dimming of the spiritual
light is an explicable result, seeing that we are here in a
natural state, and therefore natural light seems the brighter
of the two; and, moreover, men in all ages have been
tempted by any access of natural light to endeavour to
explore spiritual things by the aid of that natural light,
which process is truly a "darkening of counsel by words
without knowledge" (Job xxxviii. 2). But we affirm, and
we pledge this book in truth of the assertion, that spiritual
light is not withheld, but goes hand in hand with the
access of natural light, although the first effect is that we
have indicated, and that which we really see around us,
viz., the apparent temporary extinction of spiritual light;
-but since it is the extinction of the higher light by the
lower-of that which is eternal by that which is only
temporal,—it cannot in the nature of things be enduring;
-the phase will pass,-and men will know that with
clearer beams of intellectual light is accorded also the
brighter lustre of spiritual illumination.
And yet the Bible, which should be the source of all
doctrinal teaching, remains firmly seated. The Bible,
which was the spring of early Christian faith and hope,-of
medieval works of piety and charity,-the moral guide and
mainspring of all the goodness, virtue, unselfishness, and
love of truth and justice which hold together the civiliza-
tion of our own day,-the Bible remains as it was,-
unchanged through all the changing phases of men's
minds,—like a lighthouse founded upon a rock, around
which have beaten the waves and storms of the centuries.
The light shines, now bright, now dim, now almost or
quite rendered invisible by the mists and spray of clashing
opinions and controversies; but still it is ever there, ever
shining like a steady beacon-fire, ready to succour and
guide all who truly desire its aid. But while itself bright
and shining, men have too often glossed and obscured it
in continual mis-directed efforts to illustrate it,-not by
its own inherent brightness, but through the gloomy
372 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
medium of human authority; and they have by degrees
rendered thorny and difficult a path in which, but for this,
those who run might read; they have rendered cloudy and
obscure that which of and in itself shone with a clear
lustre; they have dimmed its pure radiance with the
breath of human fallibility; they have incrusted the
stones of the Divine Temple of Truth with a disfiguring
stucco of human traditions and incomprehensible dogmas.
But can those who refuse allegiance to the Bible, and
demand its verification, explain this most significant and
remarkable fact? viz., that,-bearing in mind what we
have said in the earlier part of this work concerning the
unique principle and method on which the Bible has been
written, we have nevertheless shown that principle to be
equally true for the first as for the last Book. We have
here the marvellous spectacle of a series of writings,-
beginning from Genesis, which contains those early
chapters whose history is lost in the mists of a hoar
antiquity, and terminating with the Apocalypse, which
dates at the close of the first century A.D.,-while
between these extreme dates we find books which must
have been composed some, upwards of fifteen centuries
before Christ,-others, twelve, ten, seven, six, five, and
four hundred years B.C., and yet all are composed strictly
upon the same principle, and all are capable of the same mode
of interpretation. If the principle of interpretation which
we have expounded be correct, which we may with perfect
safety challenge any one to disprove, then it is a fact
unparalleled in the annals of human literature, that these
books, whose composition extends over at least sixteen
hundred years (and probably a vastly longer period) should
be absolutely continuous-not only in motive and inten-
tion, but also in construction and method. It is absolutely
unaccountable on any theory of mere human authorship.
To say that it is an unique example of its kind is not to
say much—for it is an absolutely inexplicable mystery upon
any theory of human workmanship ;-and if further proof
UNITY OF STYLE THROUGHOUT.
373
of their super-human origin were necessary, it is hereby
afforded.
For the Bible is so written from first to last, and
yet it is not servilely tautological, nor monotonous;
there is no sameness of style arising from this identity of
its basis of composition, but, on the contrary, we find in it
the most marvellous terseness, the most wonderful variety,
-the most extraordinary versatility. What can be more
distinct in style than Genesis and Revelation,—the Books
of Samuel or of Kings, and the four Gospels,—or the five
Books of Moses from either? How different is the poetic
style of the Psalms from that of the major or minor
Prophets; and how distinctly characteristic is the style
of each major or minor Prophet,-Isaiah or Daniel,-
Jeremiah or Ezekiel,-Micah or Malachi! And yet every
one of these books is demonstrably based upon the same
plan,—every one is written upon the principle of the con-
veyance of spiritual lessons and spiritual ideas under
natural symbols,-symbols which correspond to those
ideas in the world of nature. So that, whether we regard
the mythical form of narrative of the early chapters of
Genesis, the historical Books of Moses, with their minute
regulations and instructions for representative worship,—
the narrative historical Books of Joshua and Judges,
Samuel and Kings,-the devotional poetry of the Psalms,
-the Prophetic style of the major and minor Prophets,-
the personal narrative style of the Gospels, or what we may
call the Visional style of the Apocalypse,-all alike form
one perfectly uniform and continuous volume, whose stores
of spiritual wisdom may all, without any exception, be laid
under contribution by the medium of the same clue, and
their secrets unlocked by the aid of one and the same key.
This alone we may safely affirm to be sufficient to prove
that they have a claim to more than human origin,
however difficult to be reconciled with the foregone con-
clusions of science and criticism,-and however loudly
they may concur in declaring such a claim to be outside
374 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
their comprehension, and above their powers of explana-
tion.
It will be noticed that we have not specified all the
books contained within the covers of our authorized
version; and indeed we have advisedly omitted certain
books, which still keep their place as canonical. There has
always been a difficulty in deciding what books were really
inspired (according to the ordinary views of inspiration)——
and what were not. It is not a very long time since the
books which are called the Apocryphal books, authorized
by the Council of Trent, were included in our Bibles, being
recognized by the Church of England "for example of life
and instruction of manners," although not available "to
establish any doctrine." And when these were relegated
to the limbo of a kind of Appendix, there was no real and
sound reason why certain others, still retained, should not
have accompanied them. The excellent society by whose
influence those were removed, and these retained, had
however no decisive tests by which to judge of the
genuineness of one book, and the apocryphal character of
another. While they removed many, they yet retained
Esther and Ezra, Ruth and the Song of Solomon,
Nehemiah and the Chronicles-yet any one who is versed.
in the discrimination of writings based upon correspon-
dential analogies cannot fail to perceive at once that these
latter books have not the same quality as those placed in
the first category. They are indeed not written upon
those principles which we have shown to be universal in
the other books, and upon which principles of writing we
base the claim for their supreme authority as the veritable
Word of God. Doubtless these latter books contain
much that is worthy of study, and are early writings
which inform us of much that is pure and good, but they
are not written upon the principle of correspondence, and
therefore cannot be inspired. More especially would we
insist upon this with respect to one of them, the Canticle,
or Song of Solomon, which, however beautiful and pleasing
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE BOOKS. 375
as an amatory idyll, is out of place in a collection of
Sacred Writings which are embraced under the common
title of the Word of God.
Of two other books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, it may
be said that they occupy a higher position, inasmuch as
they undoubtedly contain a compendious body of doctrine
which is of the highest value. They have, it is true, but
little of that internal wisdom which is the essential
characteristic of the really inspired books, yet they are
evidently summaries of the best and highest outcome of
the representative teachings of the Jewish Church, and as
such are worthy of study and attention. Yet another
book has to be mentioned, namely, the highly poetical
Book of Job;-a book of very ancient date, evidently
written at an age when correspondences had not been
forgotten, and mainly based upon them; but in such an
inconsecutive manner as to lead one to believe that that
book, while of high value, does yet not possess the abso-
lutely authoritative status of the Prophets or the Psalms.
It is but once quoted by the Apostles; while of the other
books referred to as wanting in the true elements upon
which we found the clear and definite claim for inspiration,
the Proverbs alone are there cited, a circumstance
which confirms the view that this book was, to say the
least, a recognized code of Jewish doctrine. But when we
compare this reticence concerning the mass of the
Hagiographa with the numberless citations from the
"Law and the Prophets "-we cannot fail to perceive
that these New Testament writers and expositors did not
regard the books in question with the same veneration, or
with the same degree of interest as those which constitute
the true Scriptures.
In the New Testament, the Gospels and the Apocalypse
stand by themselves. Every sentence in them is corres-
pondential: and although it may not have occurred
to the great mass of readers, it is nevertheless a demon-
strable fact, which study will elicit, that the narrative of
376 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
the Life and sayings of Our Lord are as strictly corres-
pondential as we have elsewhere given reasons for
believing the Historical books of the Old Testament to
be. And this will not surprise any thoughtful person
who has grasped the subject so far; for the Jewish
Church being a purely representative one, the record of
its history must be written by representatives;—and Our
Lord, who came to consummate that Church, being
Himself a Divine Person, must, if what we have through-
out insisted upon be reasonable and just, not only in all
his words and discourses use the strict language of
Spiritual analogy,-but also, in all His acts, both of His
daily life, and in the incidents which accrued in the
foundation and development of His new (Christian)
Church, must necessarily have been guided by that strict
and inviolable Order, which is itself Truth, and which is
the very basis and significance of His words and deeds
alike.¹
But it is different with the Apostolic epistles. Admirable
and invaluable as are these commentaries upon Christian
doctrine, written in an early and untainted, uncorrupted
age, by men who were, some of them, directly under the
teaching of Our Lord Himself, and all under the imme-
diate influence of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost; it is
nevertheless the fact that they are not inspired writings
in the same sense as the Law and the Prophets,-the
Gospels and the Revelation. For not only is the corres-
pondential style absent from them throughout (with such
slight exceptions as only prove the general rule),—which
is the test, and the only test, by which we can distinguish
the Word of God from the word of man, however aided,
and secondarily inspired,—but it must be patent to every
I
¹ Well may we, indeed, marvel at the verdict of criticism in the
person of M. Renan, who informs his readers that Jesus "had not
the least idea of a natural Order, regulated by Laws" ("Vie de Jésus,"
p. 25); a sentence well calculated to hand down its Author to a won-
dering posterity!
THE EPISTLES NOT INSPIRED.
377
student of the Epistles that there is conspicuous in them
a human tinge, or acknowledgment of fallibility, which
is utterly foreign to the truly inspired Books. The
expressions," Perhaps," "I suppose," "I know not," "I
hope," "I think," &c., so abundantly employed by St.
Paul, will prove to any thoughtful person that his
writings, however excellent, make no claim to the same
positive authority as those written by correspondence and
proclaimed by "Thus saith the Lord"!
"Thus saith the Lord"! Indeed, when
St. Paul says "I speak as a man," I speak "after my
judgment," he evidently disclaims such absolute au-
thority as must pertain to an inspired writing, and places
his own epistolary exhortations and instructions upon
their true bases,-as invaluable, though fallible, commen-
taries, written under absolutely the most advantageous
circumstances (short of inspiration) for their truth and
accuracy, for the edification of the infant Christian
Church, and for us who live in an age when that truth
has undergone centuries of active and passive neglect and
perversion.
But returning to the Ante-Christian era,-that long
series of centuries over which we have seen that the
Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures were spread;-we
have an overwhelming Argument (if any still were needed)
against the mere human character and origin of those
writings. How is it that the Bible, originating with an
Asiatic people, should have exercised such an unparalleled
and overmastering influence upon all the succeeding ages?
How is it that the Bible has, spite of its oriental origin,
become the pioneer of Western Civilization, the very
embodiment of Western thought? How is it that the
Bible, the book of the despised Jew, has been pro-
ductive of such marvellous developments in Christian
or Gentile peoples? How is it that the Bible,-in spite
of all attacks from science, from criticism, from rampant
and unreasoning Atheism,-nevertheless at this day is
the greatest Book of the age? How is it that this
378 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
comparatively small collection of old Hebrew treatises, is
the most read, the most honoured, the most widely dis-
persed, by far and away, of any Book the world ever saw?
How is it that, notwithstanding all the jeers, the irony,
the arguments, the denunciations, and the active hatred
of its enemies, the Bible has never lost its ground, but in
this nineteenth century of enlightenment, it is yearly
printed by millions,-circulated over the wide world,-
translated into two hundred languages, and carried.
everywhere, in the slums of heathen London, and to the
dark and distant lands of the idolatrous nations,-as the
great purifier the unequalled Teacher, the only true
civilizer? How can these phenomena be accounted for
on any vain pretence that the Bible is a merely human
book, worn out, discredited, and effete! Those who
would tell us this would offer an insult to the collective
human understanding,-they would falsify all the lessons
of History, they would set up their private judgments
against the judgment of the whole human race—they
would disfranchise their intellect and proclaim at once.
the renunciation of their birthright, and the poverty of
their own souls.
But yet further: this collection of Hebrew writings,
which has been the lever of the world, is the produc-
tion of a people otherwise without a literature. What
other writing has emanated from them which is worthy
of remark, or has exercised any, even the most infini-
tesimal, influence upon human affairs? This Bible, which
has proved for ages the most potent instrument of human
progress ever conceived of, is, we are expected to believe,
the one literary production of the Jewish race; this
unique Book among Books, as the Jews among nations,
is the sole word of a race, which thus, according to their
own showing, never themselves profited by it, never
carried out its humanising precepts, but systematically
neglected and despised them, and are to this day suffer-
ing the penalties which they themselves denounced against
CLAIM TO INSPIRATION.
379
themselves, if they did not keep its laws, its ordinances,
and its commandments! Stranger still,-to this day,
they still honour and revere above all books, that book
which is full of rebukes, upbraidings, and denunciations
against themselves,-they still hold sacred above all
others that Book which places their own nation and
themselves in the most contemptible light, as a stiff-
necked race, a backsliding people, an evil and adulterous
generation! Can any reasonable argument of a merely
human origin reconcile these monstrous anomalies, or
justify their presentation to the intelligence of this age?
We answer, None; and their arraignment clenches and
emphasizes in the strongest possible manner the deduc-
tions we had already arrived at by a rational series of
arguments as to the true and lofty nature of these all-
important writings.
For be it remarked, not only does all that we have
urged concerning the Bible accumulatively confirm the
estimate we have formed of it, and tend to prove it a
truly inspired Book; but the Scriptures themselves, while
they speak with an authority which no human being or
beings could presume to arrogate, and with a power
which myriads on myriads of human beings have felt
and confessed,-they themselves distinctly put forth a
claim to a higher origin,-a claim, it is true, disallowed
by certain self-constituted judges, but which is by no
means thereby invalidated.
We repeat that the Bible itself, throughout, claims
to be the Word of God. The laws and ordinances
given to Moses are always prefaced by the words, "The
Lord spake unto Moses, saying,"-and the Prophets con-
tinually use the same expression as their credentials,
"The Word of the Lord came unto me, saying," &c.
Moreover, if we compare the passages of the New Tes-
tament in Mark vii. 13, and John x. 35, we find Our
Saviour Himself expressly calls the Law of the Old Tes-
tament the “Word of God." And the two great Apostles,
380
THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
Peter and Paul, distinctly assert the same fact ;-Peter
in 2 Peter i. 21, where he says that " Holy men of old
spake as they were moved (pepóµevoi—carried away) by
the Holy Ghost "-while Paul (2 Tim. iii. 16) maintains
that "All Scripture is God-breathed" (@EÓTVEVOTOS)—
(θεόπνευστος)—
which signifies the same thing, viz., that the writers
were under a Divine control independent of, and even
contrary to, their own will.
For such, indeed, was, in at least one instance, the
case; and the example may illustrate the manner in
which, as the Apostle Peter expresses it, men were
carried away by the Divine influence to serve as instru-
ments of the Divine Will: and to give utterance to
sayings which should convey the Divine message of
spiritual things under natural correspondent symbols.
We refer to the narrative of Balaam in Num. xxii.-xxiv.,
where we read that Balaam was tempted by self-interest
to utter certain maledictions against Israel, but was
unable to do so, being overruled (by a Power against
which he found it impossible to resist), to say the con-
trary of that which it was in his mind to say. For,
said he, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver
and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the
Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but
what the Lord saith, that will I speak (xxiv. 13). Balaam
was in fact both φερόμενος and θεόπνευστος; he was
carried away out of his own mind, and impelled to say
certain things, not of himself, but which were God-
breathed into him, and to which he gave utterance, under
the influence of a Divine inspiration. And just as he,
so were the appointed utterers of those sayings which
constitute the Law and the Prophets, the divinely in-
spired Scriptures ;-they were the human instruments,-
the mouthpieces of God.
For Spiritual Truth, in order to reach our minds, must
be possessed of a body and a form. Just as the spiritual
truths which have their correspondents in natural objects,
A BASIS OF COMMUNICATION.
381
are thus created into material forms, in order that we,
as inhabitants of a material world, may look to them
as aids to the comprehension of that which is adapted
to our spiritual necessities, and without which we should
possess no link between our material and our spiritual
parts, our external and our internal natures;-so is it
no less necessary that any message or communication
of Divine or Spiritual Truth should be reduced to a
form in order to be conveyed to our minds. For here
again the analogy of human communication steps in.
We are incapable of communicating, mind with mind,
in our present earthly state, without first reducing the
communication to a correspondent form, either of writing
or of speech, or of some kind of visible or audible signs or
signals. Without this,-without also a mutual agree-
ment of ideas,—we cannot hold communication with our
fellows. Two persons mutually ignorant of each other's
language can only very imperfectly communicate, because
the fundamental basis of communication does not exist.
Nor can we communicate, except in the most imperfect
and rudimentary manner, with animals, because they
have so little mentally in common with us, and the
basis of communication is narrowed to the straitest
degree. It is indeed only because in one aspect we
are ourselves animals, that we can communicate with
them at all; for they are incapable of recognizing in
us, or in any way responding to, our moral and spiritual
qualities, for the simple reason that they do not them-
selves in the slightest degree possess them; and we have
therefore no common ground,-and their communication
with us is limited to a sole reference to matters which
have regard to their sensual, corporeal, bodily life and
instincts.
And hence it is also that we can hold communication
with God, because we are spiritual beings, endowed with
faculties of like nature with His. We are capable of
understanding His language, if we have duly opened in
382 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
us that faculty which exists in us all, and the opening
of which brings us into conjunction with Him. A man
may find himself in a country where another tongue is
spoken, which would be utterly incomprehensible to him,
unless he has taken the trouble to learn the language.
He may not yet have taken that trouble from various
motives,—but he has no less always the power of doing
so;—but not having availed himself of it-not having
opened up the faculty-he finds himself at a loss, and
misses equally the pleasures and the benefits of such
communication. So do some of us,-by obstinately keep-
ing closed the faculty of spiritual reception which exists
in every one of us, and which alone can place our spiritual
natures in conjunction or communication with God,—shut
ourselves out from the supreme advantages and immea-
surable benefits which become ours by a reception of the
Truth conveyed by the Word of God.
For just as on our lower or animal side we can hold
limited communication with the lower animals, so on
our higher, or spiritual side, we can hold spiritual com-
munication with God, because the basis of communication
exists, that is to say, a community of nature,—without
which it would be impossible. And the Scriptures afford
us that medium of communication, and are the sole
method by which such a communication could be effected
and sustained. The receptive (and not merely critical)
study of the Scriptures opens that spiritual faculty which
the cold critical spirit, alone, serves merely to close,-
and these Scriptures are therefore the medium of commu-
nication between God and man,-not with the lower and
external, but with the higher and internal faculties, which
are the image and should be the likeness of Him. There-
fore, as we are here placed, with external natural bodies,
and internal spiritual souls, that we may be at once
inhabitants of a natural and a spiritual world,—so is His
Word, or bond of conjunction and communication, also,—
in order to be adjusted to similar exigencies,-possessed
THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT.
383
of an external part, or body, which we call the letter,
which is Nature, or the symbols of Nature, and an
internal part or soul, which is Spirit, being the spiritual
correspondences of Nature, and which we call the spiritual
or inner sense. But without the body or the external
letter, no spiritual communication could be effected,—
any more than we could among ourselves communicate
without the medium of some external body, or code, of
visible (or audible) signs and symbols.
So long therefore as man is in that purely natural state
which is the result of a closure of the spiritual faculty,
he is in the condition to which the term carnal mind is
applied in the New Testament,—and which is justly said
to be at enmity against God (Rom. viii. 7); for he is
unwilling to believe the things which can only be learnt
through the spiritual faculty, and he denies the things
relating to God, because the natural mind, or external
rational faculty alone, cannot perceive or learn them.
Far less is he capable of entering into the Divine
communication, or of effecting a conjunction with the
Divine through the instrumentality of His Word. And
this condition, so far removed from that of men such
as those who were in "Eden,"-when this communica-
tion was known and read of all men-has carried with
it in its progress and development a gradual loss of those
perceptions of the analogies between nature and spirit,
upon the basis of which that communication was effected.
Consequently in these days, it is a lost science-though
a science which it is essential that men should regain.
How they have begun to regain it need not now be
entered upon,-suffice it to observe that proof has been
afforded that they have made that beginning, and will
continue to increase in that knowledge, in proportion as
the doctrines of Christianity are received and welcomed
in the heart, and brought forth into life.
But meantime it will perhaps be said— "Of what use
then are the Scriptures, if their meaning has been so
384 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
long hid?" We reply—of every use. Not only their
very existence among us affords a certain conjunction and
communication to all who read them with reverence,-
but also it is to be observed that nothing is to be received
as true and pure doctrine which is not contained in, and
confirmed by, the letter alone. It is true that the letter
may be abused by a servile following without any regard
to the evident spirit-as is done by the Jews, who
pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, but omit the
weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith
(Matt. xxiii. 23), or, the letter may be elevated to the
position of sole content of the Word, as by the vast
majority of the present Church, and thus be inevitably
perverted to meanings which it was never intended to
bear. But the student who searches with humility and
faith, may find in the letter all that is necessary for his
guidance here, and be thereby prepared for the further
instruction in its spirit which he will indubitably receive
hereafter.
For, if the Bible is all that we claim for it, and which
claim we have supported and shall still further support
in the next chapter by valid reasons, it follows that it
is Divine, no less in the external letter than in the in-
ternal spirit; and the study of it by any one who aproaches
it in the proper spirit,—not of carping criticism but of
desire for light and guidance,--brings him into such con-
junction with Him whose Word it is, that illustration
is afforded, and the Light of Truth flows into the devout
reader. Thus are truths of doctrine taken into the mind
by means of that interior perception which comes from
interior affection. By a similar process, those who are
in a contrary spirit equally miss those truths; the absence
of interior affection disqualifies their minds from the per-
ception of interior truth, and from the same source they
draw erroneous conclusions, which they will assuredly
confirm by the same process,-to the infinite injury of
their souls. Just as the same sun shining upon two
22
INTRODUCTORY.
It has been so far endeavoured to point out that there
is an antecedent probability in favour of the existence of
something else besides visible and tangible physical nature,
and that this something is of a kind altogether different in
quality from matter, which cannot be regarded as an effect
of matter, although it may coexist with it, and use it as a
medium of manifestation, but which is something superior
to matter-in other words, super-physical or super-natural.
But whatever its quality, it is certain that it cannot in
any case be the same as, or identical with, matter or visible
nature. And therefore physical science can never expect
to reach the realms and laws of spirit, and scientific men
should not be surprised and rendered sceptical at the fact
of its eluding the ordinary methods of scientific research.
Other methods must be adopted.
The man of Science has many things entering into his
calculations which he not only cannot see nor touch, but
whose very existence he is unable definitely to prove.
Such are molecules and atoms, and the presumed universal
ether. He finds these things necessary for the advance-
ment of his researches, and he therefore postulates them,
and adopts them as hypotheses upon which to base his
observations. Sometimes such hypothetical postulates
turn out to be solid foundations upon which a super-
structure of real advance may be built; and sometimes
they are found deficient, untrustworthy, and even essen-
tially false-and then the fabric falls, and they have to be
abandoned. In either case the time arrives when the
hypothetical bases become, in the progress of discovery,
verified, or the reverse-that is, they not only serve as
foundations on which to build the edifice of science, but
that edifice, by a kind of reaction, aids in a retrospective
discovery as to the truth of the original postulate. There
are other hypotheses which are in the nature of things
unprovable, yet, from the cohesion of the deductions
derived from them, they are assumed as true, take a
definite place in science, and are as serviceable and as
386 THE BIBLE AS AN INSPIRED RECORD.
and glory of sunlight is tempered by clouds. And thus He
maketh the clouds His chariot."I And it is in the clouds
that He was to come "in power and great glory," when
He should restore this knowledge of the internal sense of
the Word.
This concealment of the unclouded Light of Truth is what
is signified throughout the Bible by Cherubim. Cherubims
and a flaming sword were placed as a guard to keep the
way of the tree of Life (or of access to spiritual things) as
explained in Chapter VII. And it was between two
Cherubs of beaten gold that the presence of the Lord, or
the brightness of Shekinah, was manifested on the mercy-
seat. This is also what is signified by that passage of
Psa. xviii. (9, 10), "He bowed the heavens and came
down. He rode upon a cherub "-and also by the
covering cherub of Ezekiel xxviii. 14, 16. The letter may
be turned every way to suit men's views, like that sword
of a flame which we have referred to,-but however it is
perverted, and however injurious may be the perversion,
it is a far less serious evil than the profanation of its
spirit. This is that sin against the Holy Spirit which
cannot (not will not) be forgiven a man.
•
The written letter of the Word then is Divine Truth in
ultimates-the ultimate or exterior sphere of Truth-the
waters which surround and enclose the land, the body
which includes the soul. So also was Our Saviour, "the
Word made flesh," incarnate Truth in the ultimate
sphere, the body which contained the Divine Soul,—the
external and visible manifestation in which dwelt all the
fulness or glory of the Godhead, bodily.
In concluding this chapter let us refer to what we have
already urged concerning the Bible as the means of con-
junction between God and His creature, man,-the
Divine Light which is communicated through its instru-
mentality to the soul; thus, and thus alone, keeping it
1 Chariots throughout the Word signify doctrine; a horse repre-
senting knowledge of the Word, from which doctrines are drawn.
NATURAL RELIGION ALONE, VALUELESS. 387
illuminated, and lighting up the way of the tree of Life,
or in other words the means of access to God. In what
other way, it may be asked, can man approach God? In
what other way can man recognize his own endowments,
and perceive his relationship with the Divine ? Can
Nature aid him? The light of the sun is but as darkness
to the soul,—and the light of Nature is but as a glimmer-
ing taper compared with the blaze and glory of the
spiritual light. It keeps alive our natural life indeed, as
it does the life of the animal races, but for our spiritual
life it is valueless and nought. And Natural Religion, so
called, alone, is equally valueless. It is a mistake to
suppose that a man may be his own priest and his own
temple-and casting aside the Word as superfluous, may
worthily worship under the open sky in his own eclectic
fashion. We do not deny that thoughts of good and
truth may spring up in him under their influences-but
they will be but natural good, and natural truth,—and
ultimately valueless, unless vivified by what is spiritual,
and illuminated by the light of heaven, in ever so faint
a degree. And that life and that light can only come
from the Word, which is the appointed and only possible
means of communication and conjunction,—so that if it
be superciliously cast aside and despised, we must take
heed lest the light that is in us be not darkness (Luke xi.
35). "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!" (Matt. vi. 23).

"The decay of old civilizations, one of the perplexing phenomena of History.”
GREG, Enigmas of Life, p. 117.
"We know, and may guess something more of the reason why this mar-
vellously gifted (Greek) race declined. Social morality grew exceedingly lax :
marriage became unfashionable or was avoided; many of the more ambitious
and accomplished women were avowed courtezans, and consequently infertile.
. . . In a small sea-bordered country where emigration and immigration are
constantly going on, and where the manners are as dissolute as were those of
Greece at the period of which I speak, the purity of a race would necessarily
fail. It can therefore be no surprise to us, though it has been a severe mis-
fortune to humanity, that the high Athenian breed decayed and disappeared."
F. GALTON, Hereditary Genius, p. 342.
"And this is the condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil” (John iii. 19).

CHAPTER XIV.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ULTIMATE NATURE AND
CHARACTER OF THE SCRIPTURES.
TH
HE Arguments which have been hitherto adduced
on behalf of the lofty character claimed for the
Scriptures, and the untenability of the doctrine
that they are merely human and fallible writings, will
doubtless be regarded as sufficiently convincing, even if
they should not be pursued further. But in addition to
what has been said in their behalf, and to the internal
evidence which they afford of inspiration, we must not fail
to suggest some views of their ultimate nature which will
tend to raise them to a yet higher pinnacle, and place
them in the exalted attitude which is plainly their due.
For there are yet other and more important and
momentous considerations which are entirely unperceived
by those who would sink the Bible to the level of a
merely human treatise, and these we will now endeavour
briefly to present. We have shown and illustrated the
principle that the only available method of communica-
tion between Heaven and Earth, or between God and
Man, is a mediate or representative method. God is a
spirit,-upon a different plane of being from that on which
Man stands in his bodily condition,--and written truths
of a spiritual nature cannot be conveyed to Man unless
they are clothed in corporeal forms, suited, that is, to
392
ULTIMATE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
faculties also clothed in similar forms. But however they
are conveyed, one thing is absolutely essential—namely,
that they must be conveyed according to Order, and not
in any promiscuous or uncertain manner. And the Order
they must fulfil is the Order of Analogy or the Mutual
Relation between things Spiritual and things natural:
-and when thus according to Divine Order, the Divine
illumination of Truth illustrates the Word, and enlightens
the minds of those who can see in it the Wisdom which
is concealed under the veil of the letter, the spiritual
Truth of which the letter is but the clothing, or con-
tinent.
But the Bible is for all mankind and for all ages of the
world. It is, we have shown, the Word of God, that is to
say, Truth revealed; and Truth revealed is Divine Light
shed abroad in the world. The Bible is in fact the Divine
Light which is given from Heaven to illuminate the souls
of men. For this character, too, the Bible distinctly
makes claim, when it says, "In the beginning was
the Word" and further that "that was the true Light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world" (John i. 1, 9). Of Jehovah himself we read
(Exod. xxxiii. 20), "there shall no man see Me and live,"
and St. Paul says of Him that He is "dwelling in the
Light which no man can approach unto; whom no man
hath seen or can see
But our
Saviour, who was the "Light of the World"-the Word
made flesh-became a new and living way, and through
Him, the Deity becomes accessible; for He is the Way,
the Truth, and the Life,-and the Life which was in Him,
was the Light of men (John i. 4), or, as Luke expresses
it, He was to be a "Light to lighten the nations"
(Luke ii. 32). And when He came, we are assured "that
Light is come into the world"-and "he that doeth Truth,
cometh to the Light" (John iii. 19, 21).
(I
(1 Tim. vi. 16).
Nothing then can be clearer than that the Word of God
is Truth, absolute and pure, and that such Truth is
THE WORD, OR TRUTH, IS DIVINE LIGHT. 393
Divine Light. Without such Light, the souls of men
would be in profound darkness-the darkness of spiritual
ignorance-and darkness means Death. But man, since
his first estate, has never been altogether in darkness;
there has always been a Divine Word to guide mankind,
and to diffuse heavenly Light in the souls of men.
That
Word, in the earliest times, was probably not a written
word, but an orally transmitted possession. But never
has the world (or man) been without it,-for without it
man, as man, could not exist. It is the link which keeps
man, while on earth, in connexion with Heaven; and the
spirit of man could no more exist without the influence
of heavenly Light (which is Divine Wisdom and Truth)
than His body could live without earthly Light, which is
the resplendent illumination of the Sun.
For man, we have seen, was developed from lower
creations by means of the Light of Divine Truth dispelling
the darkness which at the beginning brooded over his
dawning soul. But if that Light were withdrawn, or if
there were no mode of exhibiting or imparting it, man
must necessarily soon return to that darkness out of which
he was raised at the beginning. In other words, he would
revert once more to an infra-human condition, and become
once more a mere grovelling beast.
But it may be objected that the Scriptures are but
partially known, and for centuries were unknown, except
to a small and insignificant race;-which is all historically
and perfectly true. The Jews were for nineteen centuries,
-from the time of Abraham to the Christian era,-the
depositories of this written Word: and it was this very
fact which gave them their importance as a nation, and
their prominence in the sacred books. God singled out
Abram in the designs of His Providence, in order that he
might be the founder of a race which should be under His
peculiar guidance, and should be the holders and trans-
mitters, under Him, of that Divine Word, which was the
Ark of His presence among the human race.
This was
394
ULTIMATE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
their mission, a mission which in one sense they
performed: for with all their shortcomings, and all their
gross defects, they carefully cherished the written letter of
the Word, keeping it pure and transmitting it down to the
time when, in the accomplishment of His designs, Christ
came, and fulfilled and illustrated the Law; and the epoch
was ripe for its diffusion among the Gentiles.
Meantime, it is true that there were nations which
possessed it not, or more correctly, only possessed it by
a sort of reflection, to an extent of which they were
themselves scarcely conscious. But they did possess it,
-mutilated, corrupted, and imperfect. They possessed
fragments and traditions of an ancient Revelation,-ı
lingering glimpses of spiritual Analogies, which main-
tained a flickering light among them, and kept them alive
and flourishing, in proportion as they acted in accordance
with their scanty knowledge, and sought, not to extinguish
it in the love of self, in the lust of evil, and in the
exaltation of what is false and debasing; but rather to
elevate their Life up to the principles they dimly perceived
and valued. The Babylonians and the Assyrians had this
flickering light, as is testified by their clay tablets and
cylinders,—the Egyptians handed it down in the hierogly-
phics of their temples and papyri,—the Greeks possessed
it in the teachings of their philosophers,-for among each
nation were some souls, highly endowed, in whom it shone
more brightly-who, like Confucius, "handed it on," and
who, under its influence, inspired their countrymen with
I
¹ On a future occasion we propose to offer proofs that the mytho-
logies of the ancients were founded upon remnants or corruptions of
the ancient Revelation,—the symbols being in many instances.
precisely the same, and only slightly veiled. They arose from an
ancient time when these symbols were, as we have seen, understood
of all men ; but as, in process of time, the human race spread from
its primal seat of civilization, they carried with them more or less of
this knowledge, which the wiser of them incorporated in myths, which
survived the knowledge of their meaning ;-but which are in many
instances capable of being unravelled by the clue, and unlocked by
the key, we have presented in this work.
DIVINE LIGHT THE ONLY CIVILIZER.
395
their own intuitions and aspirings, and kept alight the
Sacred torch, which it was not their lot to see in all its
brilliancy and glory, "For I tell you, that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see,
and have not seen them; and to hear those things which
ye hear, and have not heard them" (Luke x. 24).
But even though they might be so far removed from
Truth as to be like the nations which sat in darkness, yet
none the less were they under its rule and governance;
none the less were they linked in the great family of
mankind, and recipients of the Divine Wisdom, though
in a lesser degree. For just as life will exist, and to
some extent flourish, under the perpetual shade of some
mountain mass which for ever screens its dwelling-place
from the direct rays of the Sun,-so are the races of
mankind enabled to exist, and in their degree to flourish,
although it may be but in degrees of barbarism, when
they no longer possess in any direct manner this link with
Heaven. It is enough that it exists, that men some-
where bask in its light,—and those who are in the shade
partake in their measure of its benefits and its effects.
Missionary effort has everywhere incontestably proved that
barbarous nations, when lifted into this Divine Light by the
preaching to them, and their acceptance of, the Gospel,
are thereby raised out of barbarism;-and the very lowest
(take for instance the Fuegians) have demonstrated the
fact that all they need to prove them men, in the Bible
sense of the word, is the inflow upon them of the more
direct light of Heaven. It is not the mere contact with a
civilized people, but it is Evangelization, which has
produced the marvellous effects we see in our own
generation.
Moreover, in proportion as any nation has been under its
direct influence-in proportion to their reception of the pure
Light of Divine Revelation,-in such proportion only has
any nation ever been great. And in proportion as they
have abandoned it, and superseded it, replacing it by
396 ULTIMATE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
corrupt and profaning dogmas, and following evil courses
as the result of their failure of belief and faith,-in the
same degree they have fallen into the dust, to rise no
more. Herein lies the secret of the rise and fall of nations,
otherwise perplexing and incomprehensible ;-for however
great and powerful any nation has been, the time has
inevitably arrived when it has become corrupt and
degraded, and its moral decadence has been the herald of
its political extinction.
To take an illustration from the Ancient Greeks, whom
Mr. Galton speaks of as "magnificent human animals,"
at the same time regretting "that the high Athenian
breed decayed and disappeared, for if it had main-
tained its excellence, and had multiplied and spread over
large countries, displacing inferior populations (which it
might well have done, for it was exceedingly prolific), it
would assuredly have accomplished results advantageous
to human civilization to a degree that transcends our
powers of imagination" ("Hered. Genius," page 342).
But man proposes and God disposes; and the plans of
God differ from those of men in being far-seeing and all-
wise. Mr. Galton himself does not wonder that the
Greeks disappeared. "We know (he says), and may guess
something more of the reason why this marvellously
gifted race declined. Social morality grew exceedingly
lax marriage became unfashionable, and was avoided;
many of the more ambitious and accomplished women
were avowed courtezans, and consequently infertile;
and the mothers of the incoming population were of a
heterogeneous class. In a small sea-bordered country,
where emigration and immigration are constantly going
on, and where the manners are as dissolute as were those
of Greece in the period of which I speak, the purity of a
race would necessarily fail. It can be therefore no sur-
prise to us, though it has been a severe misfortune to
humanity, that the high Athenian breed decayed and
disappeared." (Op. cit.)
DIVINE LIGHT AND MATERIAL PROSPERITY. 397
But where Mr. Galton thinks he sees causes, we see
only effects of such pre-existing causes as we have pointed
out. The decline of morality and looseness of the
marriage tie were but results of that slackening of the
hold upon the Light under whose influence they rose to
be a great nation. The teaching of their great Philoso-
phers, which had been rays of that great Divine Light of
which we have spoken, as long as it was loved and
reverenced, was their source of greatness-but when it
began to be despised in the intellect and outraged in life,
then did the nation sink into depravity and decadence-
and in proportion as they quenched the light, they sank
into insignificancy and decay. Precisely the same in-
fluences acted in Rome for the decay of its empire and
its greatness.
This Light was the glory of the Jewish kingdom,—this
was the source of the greatness of David and the magnifi-
cence of Jerusalem,—and this also, as they fell away
from their God, and profaned His Truth,-as they lost
all interior perception of its spirit, as they refused to
acknowledge the Messiah when He came,-this extinction
of Light was the cause of their declension and ruin.
They became unfaithful to their trust. Light had been
given to them, but they loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth
evil hateth the light. (See John iii. 19.)
Neither would any of the nations have perished had
they retained the Light they possessed, and lived accord-
ing to it.
It is the history of every great nation-of
Assyria, of Babylon, of Egypt, of Greece, and of Rome,-
that they arose into greatness in the days of their sim-
plicity and comparative innocence;-and they fell, when
luxurious indulgence and moral corruption had crept into
and marred their social and political life. They had each
of them their time of trial, and each in turn was found
wanting,—each had more or less of light at the beginning
of their career, which, in the end they had extinguished
398 ULTIMATE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
and ultimately entirely quenched, and when the Light
was quenched the nation also was blotted out from the
face of the earth.
For the Law of Human development, both of the indi-
vidual and of the race, has ever been-first, an ascending
step to primal innocence, and then a Fall;-a Fall
which was continuous and complete,-a Fall which has
involved every nation in succession, and every race in its
descent; until it reached its crisis on the eve of the Birth
of Christ-the one event rendering necessary the other :-
from which moment the era of rehabilitation was begun,-
to continue henceforth for ever. But the fate of every
nation before the Christian era has been the same,-in its
turn decay and death; for every nation without exception
gradually loosened its hold upon so much of the Heavenly
Light as it once possessed. And when the Light was
extinguished, then was the nation extinguished also: for
Light is Life, and darkness is death.
But in these days we have more hope. The coming of
Christ-the great central event of human history-has once
and for all arrested the Fall, and prevented its being final
and irrevocable. Now is Mankind on the road of advance,
forward and upward; and the Light of Revelation shines
with a new and manyfold lustre. Units deny it, and walk
in their own darkness ;-but the darkness is theirs, and
does not quench the Light, in which walk tens of
thousands. What nations, it may be asked, are those
which lead the van in modern civilization and culture?
Where do we find the greatest development of humanity,
of justice, of knowledge, of truth, of virtue, and of nobility
of soul? Where do we find most to flourish Art, and
Science, and Literature? Is it not in those countries.
which possess the Bible,-and chiefly in those countries,
which not only possess, but also cherish and reverence
it, who are willing to take it as the guide of their lives,
and trust in it as a faithful Revelation of, and Message from,
their Maker? They may not as yet fully understand it,
NATIONAL REVERENCE FOR THE BIBLE. 399
but they honour it, and draw much true doctrine from the
letter. And where the Bible is honoured, it is received
and welcomed-and those who thus receive it are in the
Light of Heaven.
And where is the Bible more honoured than in our own
country, which stands at the head of the civilization and
progress of the world?1 Nowhere (however great our
shortcomings in this respect may still be, and however
evil an example may be set by some leading lights of
science and criticism), is it understood more reasonably,
or read more intelligently, than among ourselves. And
although we are far from wishing to claim for ourselves a
monopoly of heavenly Light, or to say to any of our
neighbours, "Stand by thyself, for I am holier than
thou," still we do maintain that in no country,-not-
withstanding the atheism, the scepticism, the positivism,
the agnosticism, the dogmatism,-which obtain so large
a following, in no country, and by no nation, is the Bible
so deeply enshrined in the hearts of the people, so widely
read, or so generally held in honour and esteem as in our
And we venture to say further, that, so long as this
feeling of reverence for the sacred Scriptures is the main-
spring of our national character,-so long as England
shall lead the van in the spread of the sacred volume
broadcast over the civilized world,-so long will England
remain at its head,--so long will she flourish, a great and
wise nation, so long will she march forward as though
led by a pillar of fire, which shall, as time advances,
search out all her dark places, and amply and clearly in-
dicate her onward path to her great and glorious destiny.
Own.
I
It is curious to note how others, even though inclined to scoff,
see us in this respect. In the recently popular work entitled "John
Bull and his Island," we read as follows-"You will see the walls of
all waiting-rooms covered with sheets of Scriptural texts printed in
large type. Go into the most private places, and you will see in
front of you, 'God sees thee,' or, 'Make haste, God waits for thee.'
Turn which way you will, Bible here, Bible there, Bible everywhere
<page 239).
400
ULTIMATE NATURE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
But yet one word of warning. We have said, so long;
but we must add, no longer. Let those who, in the name
of Truth, use the knowledge and culture they possess for
the purpose of undermining the Volume of Truth, beware
of the consequences, less to mankind in general, than to
themselves;-let those who teach that the Bible is a mere
harmless superfluity, have a care lest the time may come
when their puny intellects shall collapse, lightning-struck,
by the dazzle of the brilliancy of Truth Divine ;-let those
in authority lay to heart the solemn warning, and neither
forget nor despise the lessons of History!
}


I
CONCLUSION.
N the pages of the foregoing work, we have, as we
believe, proved certain positions, as far as in the
nature of the case they are capable of proof,—and
quite far enough to satisfy most persons who are not
blinded by prejudice, and who are impelled to pursue the
matter further. We have been careful not to assume
more than necessary, and indeed we have assumed
nothing excepting only, and that hypothetically, the first
four words of our Bible: "In the beginning, God.":
We have shown that, as derivative and infinite beings,
we can have no real conception of God as self-existent (or
Eternal) and infinite,—still, we may see that it is so,
without being in the least degree capable of fathoming or
explaining it and the positions we have laid down with a
reasonable amount of proof show, at all events, that it can
be no otherwise. Moreover, of the positions which we
shall presently summarize, while some, as we claim, are
unassailably proved, others, which depend upon them,
are proved by them, and the whole is so coherent and so
entirely in unison with the facts which we have adduced
¹ Some may object that this is a large assumption. But it will
be remembered that it is the starting point of the Record we are
vindicating. And if our vindication is felt to be successful, this
exordium becomes no longer an hypothesis, but a necessary Truth.
26
402
CONCLUSION.
in vindicating the Bible as a Divine Revelation, that
there can be not the slightest doubt that the Theses
which follow are absolutely true. If we have not
succeeded in placing them all in an impregnable position,
the fault is in us and not in the Truths: and we have no
doubt that any attempt to disprove them will result in
their being more strongly entrenched.
For the following Theses, then, more or less illustrated.
in the foregoing pages, we claim that they have the force
of axioms. They are these:-
1. That there exists a Supernatural, or Spiritual World,
which, as its name implies, is above, or superior, to
Nature—that is, upon a higher plane, which bears no
direct or immediate relation to visible and tangible
Nature, the natural and the supernatural being to one
another in the same relative position as two parallel lines,
which can nowhere by any possibility meet.
2. That this supernatural or spiritual world is the
World of causes, from which has proceeded visible Nature,
as a world of effects.
3. That a self-existent and infinite God, who is a Spirit,
created, as an outbirth, or projection from His pre-
existent and infinite causative qualities or attributes, the
natural world, in general, and in particular.
4. That the visible and tangible world of matter (or
Nature) is therefore but a temporary and comparatively
unstable collocation of effects, resulting from a cause (2)
which is, in itself, stable and permanent ;-in a word,
that Nature is but a shadow (in Time) of Spirit, which
alone is substantial (in Eternity).
5. That, inasmuch as Spirit and matter are upon two
distinct planes, which are like parallel lines (1) there can
be no direct and immediate influence exerted by the one
upon the other.
6. That their relative quality, on the other hand, is
such, from their respective origin (3) that there exists a
AXIOMATIC PROPOSITIONS.
403
mutual relation of Analogy between everything in the
natural world and some quality or virtue in the spiritual
world,—even to the minutest particular.
7. That the true name of this Analogy is Correspon-
dence; being of the same nature as what we familiarly
term correspondence among ourselves; the interchange,
(that is) of written, or material, signs, which stand for
mental, or spiritual, ideas.
8. That thence it follows that the World of Nature is
a vast storehouse of symbols, which definitely represent,
answer to, or correspond with, the infinite qualities,
faculties, and attributes of God, who is Himself a Spirit,
and from Whom the Creation is an outbirth, (3) or
material projection, or shadow (4).
9. That therefore there can be no direct or immediate
avenue from Nature to Spirit (or from Science to God);
but only a mediate or indirect avenue,-by means of this
mutual relation, or Analogy, whose right name is Corres-
pondence (7).
10. That by such an avenue of Correspondence there-
fore, communication may be effected from Spirit to Nature,
and from Nature back to Spirit;-just as we ourselves
can establish communication between one and another,
through the medium of correspondence (7, 9).
II. That hence it follows, that the possibility of a
communication from God to man, such as we call a
Revelation, is demonstrated.
12. That such a communication or Divine Revelation
must be effected by the medium or agency of the corres-
pondences of all things in the natural world with all
things in the spiritual world, of which they are the strict
and inviolable symbols (8).
13. That the Bible is the Revelation, or communi-
cation from God to man; as may be proved by a
comparison of the symbols and their consistent signifi-
cation throughout the genuine Books.
14. That hence the Bible is written in the only possible.
404
CONCLUSION.
way in which it could be written,-viz., in the form and by
the medium of the correspondences which inherently exist
between the world of Nature and the world of Spirit.
15. That such a Divine communication must of neces-
sity be clothed in a material form, in order to be placed
within reach of our mental faculties,-as an objective
which may be capable of influencing us subjectively;-
just as, among ourselves, writing (and language) are the
material forms, or objectives, by which we are subjectively
influenced through external appeals to the eye (and ear) (7).
16. That the natural symbols (8) used in this Divine
communication form this necessary body, or objective, of
which the spiritual correspondents constitute the soul, or
subjective.
17. That the Bible, in all its genuine (i.e., inspired)
portions, is of such a character,-viz., that it has an
external body or form, (15) called the letter, whose object.
is at the same time both to convey and to guard the
internal meaning, or spirit.
18. That the external body, or letter, may be in the
form of myth, of science, or of history; but in every case
such external body is but the necessary, though secondary,
clothing of the spirit, or internal meaning.
19. That the Bible has but one single aim and object-
viz., to appeal to our inner and higher, or spiritual, life—
and in no case to our outer and lower, or merely mundane
life, or the things of time and sense.
20. That therefore the Bible can in no sense be
regarded either as a book of Science, or as a book of
History.
21.
That the apparent body of Science in Gen. i. is.
but the outer clothing of the Revelation of the spiritual
development of Man, narrated under the form (or symbols)
of the development of external Nature, with which it is.
in strict correspondence.
22. That therefore the cosmogony of Gen. i. is in
general accordance with natural science, but so far only
AXIOMATIC PROPOSITIONS.
405
as it has been possible with absolutely perfect accuracy
to convey the spiritual communication (19, 20).
23. That the Historical books are, similarly, vehicles
for the conveyance of spiritual lessons-so that Historical
accuracy is entirely subordinate to the perfection with
which the spiritual lessons are conveyed.
24. That the reason why the historical books are thus
capable of being made vehicles of spiritual truth is that
the government of the Jews was a pure Theocracy, while
the Jews themselves constituted, purely and simply, the
representative of a Church, in which every particular was
minutely ordered by God as undeviatingly representative
of true worship. Consequently, the whole history of the
Jews, both in generals and in particulars, bore the same.
relation to spiritual processes and truths, as the history of
the processes of natural creation of the earth bore to the
processes of the spiritual creation of the human soul (21).
25. That the Bible therefore exists as the medium, and
the only possible medium, between the spiritual and the
natural, between Heaven and Earth, between God and
Man; without which, Man would be cut off from God,
and spiritually dead.
26. That the Bible is the Word of God, and that the
Word of God is Divine Truth, and that while Truth is
Light, Divine Truth is Spiritual Light-which performs
to the inner and higher nature, or life of the soul, functions
which are strictly correspondent to those functions which
the material light of the sun performs to his outer and
lower nature, viz., his mundane or organic life, of the body.
27. That the light of Nature, or the mere knowledge of
the external science of visible things, is no substitute for
spiritual light, or the internal knowledge of spiritual
Truth; for natural light alone is but darkness, unless
illuminated by some rays of spiritual light. Hence, that
Natural Religion (so called), unless illuminated and vivi-
fied by some spiritual Light, possesses no vitality, but is
worthless and dead.
406
CONCLUSION.
28. That the demonstrated possibility of Divine com-
munication, illustrated in the foregoing Theses concern-
ing the nature of the Bible as the Divine Revelation,
proves a community of nature between God and the
creature He was pleased to make in His own image;
since the communication would be meaningless and un-
intelligible unless there existed common bases of under-
standing between God and Man.
29. That such common bases do exist, and owe their
validity to the fact that Man was formed to be a re-
cipient of the activities of the great Divine Arch-attributes
of Love and Wisdom.
30. That in order that they might so flow into a fit.
recipient, the archetypal Divine form, signified by the
"image of God," is that in which He has been pleased
to create Man.
These Theses, which are consecutive and interde-
pendent, by their consistency and coherency go far to
prove one another; and taken all together, form a body
of Truth (or, as we are willing to call it, until accepted,
a Theory), which renders perfectly intelligible a vast
number of debated and controverted questions in Theo-
logy and abstract science: and if pursued to their logical
results,—if followed up loyally upon their strict lines
without carping or prejudice,—will be found to afford a
key to nearly all the difficulties which have hitherto been
felt concerning the Bible and Theology on the one hand,
and Science and Evolution on the other, in all the re-
lations which subsist between them.
Finally, these Theses establish two great fundamental
propositions in that Philosophy which combines all Re-
ligion and all Science,―viz.,
I. Nothing in the Universe, be it great or small, but
has a definite and specific Cause.
II. Nothing in the Universe, be it great or small, but
has a definite and specific Meaning.

APPENDIX I.
ON GERMAN CRITICISM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
L
ET us endeavour to realize what is the German
critic's reading of the first three chapters of
Genesis, and try to discover in what it betters
the ordinary views of the meaning of those chapters; in
what, that is, the high school of criticism improves upon
the long received views, and more especially how it will
compare with those laid down in virtue of the principles
explained in this work.
The reading of the German school of criticism as set
forth by Wellhausen ("History of Israel") is briefly as
follows:-The Bible opens with the statement of a com-
paratively late writer, the author of the "Priestly Code,"
as to the Beginning; and the Elohistic writer, succeeded
by the Jehovistic, follow, at first in a very orderly
manner, but later on they become strangely intermixed.
In the narrative of Creation, the elements are represented
as having been successively formed, and are subsequently
peopled in the same order; Light becomes lamps, fishes
appear in the water, birds in the heaven, and other crea-
tures on the land. The waters above the firmament signify
"heavenly water, out of which there grows the world
above the firmament, which is withdrawn from our gaze."
The author of the chapter means to give a cosmogonic.
theory, and not mainly a religious one. Chaos being first
408
GERMAN CRITICISM:
imagined, all the rest is spun out of it. The frame-
work only of Creation is given, and there is indicated a
"natural" way of looking at Nature: nothing merits
the name of invention, save the chronological order. In
this account we stand before the first beginnings of sober
reflections about Nature: and the chapter concludes by
God making Man, at first, in His own image, and after
His own likeness, and announcing that he is to have rule
over the whole earth.
I
No
In the second chapter the Jehovistic writer takes up
the narrative; but the Reviser has cut off his introduction 2
[It was all a dry waste] "in the day that Jehovah made
the earth and the heavens " (ver. 4). In this chapter
there is no effort after rationalistic explanation, but a
contempt for every kind of cosmological speculation.
regard is paid to any sequence of the acts of creation.
Man, the most helpless of all beings, appears first, and
finds himself placed in a world entirely bare, without tree
or bush, without the animals, without woman. We are
on the ground of marvel and myth,-nevertheless the
rivers of Eden are real rivers. Three of them, the Nile,
the Euphrates, and the Tigris, are well known to us as
they were to the Jehovistic writer, and if we only knew how
the narrator conceived their courses to lie, it would be
easy to determine the position of their common source,
and the situation of Paradise. The man is utterly alone
in his garden, he calls the beasts by their right names,-
ox, ass, bear, &c., thus expressing the feeling that he finds
nothing in them related to himself; and Jehovah has to
seek other counsel. He planted the garden, and waters
it. He forms man and builds woman out of his rib,
having made a previous attempt, which was unsuccessful, to
provide him with company, the beasts are living
witnesses of the failure of His experiment.
In the third chapter Man is virtually forbidden to lift the
¹ A distinct inaccuracy-for man is here made in His image only.
² A pure and simple assumption, to suit the view of the critic.
DOES IT RAISE OR LOWER THE SENSE? 409
veil of things-contrary (?) to the first chapter, where he is
ordained to have rule over the whole earth. Seduced by
the serpent, Man stretches out his hand after the food
which is forbidden him, in order to become like God, and
eats of the tree of knowledge. Jehovah does not descend
to Paradise from Heaven, but goes out walking in the
garden in the evening, as if He were at home. He then
discovers, by chance, the transgression which has taken
place, and holds an investigation, in which He makes not
the least use of His Omniscience. The sentence of the
Judge completes the investigation. The Serpent is to
creep on its belly, to eat dust, and to perish in the unequal
contest with man.¹ The woman is to bear many children
with sorrow, and to long for the man who yet will be her
tyrant. The principal curse is directed against the man.
Then turning to the celestial company-" Behold," He says,
"the man is become like one of us to know good and
evil," &c.
Further, the critic asks, What is Good and Evil? The
narrator means (?) that when man stretches out his hand
towards knowledge, he is transcending his limits, and
seeking to be as God. The prohibition of knowledge is
not relative, but absolute. It is manifestly assumed that
man knew in paradise that obedience to Jehovah was
good, and disobedience evil. But it conflicts with the
common tradition of all peoples to represent the first man
as a sort of beast: he is regarded as undeveloped only in
outward culture. The first consequence of his eating of the
tree of knowledge is the beginning of dress,—the first step
in civilization (!).
Finally, Genesis i. possesses points of superiority over
Gen. ii. and iii., which are without doubt signs of progress.
in outward culture. In its view of God, nature, and man,
Query, how did the serpent walk previously? does the serpent eat
dust? and has its race perished in the unequal contest with man?
Are not serpents as numerous as ever, and even more so—and do not
they slay their thousands of human beings yearly in tropical countries?
410
GERMAN CRITICISM.
Gen. i. stands on a higher, and certainly on a later, level.
"I assert that Gen. ii., iii. is prior to Gen. i."
It may seem surprising that a grave and sober critic
should be moved to sit down and pen such a childish
travesty of the grand and stately chapters which serve as
the exordium of the Bible and the introduction of mankind
to the knowledge of its origin. Still more wonderful that
men with their heads full of a kind of learning, should
venture to bolster up these burlesque views by such
baseless assumptions, and unwarrantable and presump-
tuous assertions, as if they had become as gods them-
selves, and from their professorial chairs were at liberty
to overturn the noble annals of our race at their own good
pleasure. We anticipate from posterity a little enviable
verdict upon what we will not ourselves venture
characterize save by reference to such passages as may be
found in 1 Cor. i. 19—to end.
to


APPENDIX II.
REMARKS UPON THE REVISED VERSION AS FAR AS IT
AFFECTS THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS OF GENESIS.
TH
HE present work having been entirely completed
before the appearance of the Revised Version
of the Bible, the Author has naturally felt much
interest in the questions,-How have the Revisers dressed
these three important chapters? and what improvements
will be found in the text, which may avail to aid the
reader in a correct estimate of its true meaning? In
reply to these questions it has been thought desirable
to append the following Remarks.
It could hardly happen but that the Revised Text
should be more true to the Original than the Authorized
Version, and that at least some ambiguities and errors
of translation should be found corrected in a Version
which has been the fruit of so much labour, and so much
combined learning. And indeed we do find such improve-
ments; and we should be glad if we could say that the
errors were all amended, and that in no case could the
preconceived opinions of the Translators be discerned in
the rendering before us. But while we welcome this
instalment of progressive improvement, we still regret
to have to record deficiencies, which would scarcely make
their appearance were the principles laid down in this
work understood and appreciated.
412
THE REVISED VERSION.
But we will refer seriatim to the emendations which
we notice in these chapters, several of which are the
same as those already adopted in the text of this work.
To begin with, then,-in verse 2, we have the correct
translation of thō'-hû vā-vò'-hû, although adjectively
expressed as "waste and void; " but the word translated
"face of the deep (and waters)" is plural (p'ney), and
should be faces. In verse 5, and succeeding like passages,
we have now the correct translation: "And there was
evening, and there was morning, one day," &c. This
is a great step in the right direction. It is literal, and
nothing is allowed to stand in the way of its obvious
meaning, although the translators may not have per-
ceived the bearing of the alteration.
In verse 6, the word " firmament" (rā-ki'-ă) is retained,
although it carries an erroneous impression, and conveys
the old false doctrine of a solid or crystalline sphere,
which first led to the use of the word. But in the margin
we read the alternative and superior (as more correct)
word expanse. A slight alteration appears in verse II,
tad-sheh' being translated "put forth" instead of "bring
forth," the Root being to sprout;-also "after its kind"
instead of after his kind (repeated).
In verse 16 the definite article is correctly prefixed to
(the) two great lights. But in verse 20 the old version.
is retained, but two marginal emendations are given,
showing the more literal meanings of the expressions,
the word face here being plural as in verse 2. The word
previously translated great whales by unscientific Hebraists
in verse 21, now receives its proper interpretation, viz.,
"(the) great sea-monsters" (hat-tan-ni-nīm)—a word whose
root, signifying "to stretch out or extend," probably points
to elongated reptilian forms, as it certainly does not
represent the only other monstrous oceanic forms with
which we are acquainted, (or whales).
We now first meet in verse 25 with the distinction
between the earth (ha-ā-retz) and the ground (hā-ădā-māh')
GENESIS 11.
413
-the latter word being in the Authorized Version incor-
rectly translated also earth.
Let us next proceed to the second chapter; and here
we at once notice that "heavens" has become, in the
Revised Version, "heaven." For consistency sake cer-
tainly one or other form should be used. In each case
(i. 1, 14, 15, 20, &c.) the word is the same, viz., hash-shā-
ma'-yim, a plural noun, (with the definite article pre-
fixed) and ought therefore in every case to be translated
(as in the Lord's Prayer, Matt. vi. 9, 'ev tôis oupavôis)
heavens as it stands in the Authorized Version, ii. 1, 4.
In this verse the important fact is noticed in the margin
that Jehovah God (here first appearing) is signified when
Lord God is put in capitals. The significance of this
change has been much dwelt upon in this work.
ي
The revision of verse 5 gives a more correct view of
the original than before, though the text may evidently
bear both interpretations. In verse 10 the prefix to
the numeral (four) is left out, probably as complicating
the sense. But we are sorry to have to complain in this
place of a gratuitous note with respect to the rivers of
Eden (ver. 14): "And the name of the third river is
Hiddekel," where in the margin we read, "That is,
Tigris." Now we maintain that there is no real reason
to believe that Hiddekel and Tigris are the same,-Hid-
dekel is only once more mentioned in the Bible, viz.,
in Dan. x. 4, where the Prophet says, "I was by the
side of the great river, which is Hiddekel "--but this is
the only apparent reason for identifying it with Tigris,
except the desire of the Revisers to define geographically
the site of the garden of Eden,-a kind of definition which
we do not believe to be admissible, and for which we have
given good reasons in the body of this work. We repeat
that we regret that the Revisers should have recorded
the tinge of their preconceived views in this marginal
note.
The old expression "a helpmeet for him" in verse 18,
414
THE REVISED VERSION.
is retained; but the margin says, "or answering to.” The
phrases, "a help as with him" or "a helper as in his
front," are alternative renderings, all of which combined
perhaps convey a truer conception of the real meaning
than any one singly, though we prefer "a help as with
him." But here we notice an innovation which the
Revised Version introduces, which it would have been
well to carry further. In the Authorized Version we read
(ver. 19) for the first time the name Adam, although the
word is the same as had already nine times been trans-
lated man, or the man,-and henceforth ha-a-dam' is usually
translated Adam, though still sometimes (as in vers. 21,
22, 23 and 25) it is rendered by "the man." But in the
Revised Version, Adam is not mentioned in this chapter
at all, nor in chap. iii. until verse 17, when the so-called
curse is pronounced: and where the word has not the
definite article prefixed,-and thus signifies "And to Man,
he said," &c. The word a-dām' has no plural, being a
noun of multitude, as is expressly evident when first used
(i. 26), and certainly not a true proper name. But it
seems a pity that the Revisers, having avoided the use
of the proper name in the second chapter, should have
fallen upon it at last for no particularly obvious reason I
in chap. iii. verse 17. The distinction īsh' and ish-shāh' is
for the first time pointed out in the margin of verse 23;
and finally we may note in this chapter, the expression
"made He a woman," is in the margin more correctly
rendered,"builded he into a woman" (ver. 22).
وو
¹ Unless indeed it is the re-appearance of the word Adam after the
episode in which the man is called "ish," and the woman "ish-shah."
But this we have fully explained-“ Adam” signifies mankind, male and
female (i. 27), and “ish a male human being, characterized by
rationality or intellect-while "ish-shah "stands for the female, marked
by Will and affection. The introduction of this episode, not being
understood by the Revisers, has acted as a disturbing influence; and
after it, Adam re-appears in the new version as an individual human
being; as though he were the same as in chap. ii. ver. 23 ; whereas the
word has really the same meaning as in chap. i. ver. 27.
GENESIS III.
415
It is to be noted moreover, although not strictly occur-
ring in the chapters under consideration, that in chap. v.
verse 1, no variation whatever is made from the Autho-
rized Version, but the word is indifferently translated
Adam and man,-thus keeping up the confusion which
exists in the opening of this chapter. Nevertheless, a
marginal note informs the reader that "called their name
Adam" should be "called their name man "-thus admit-
ting the erroneous contradiction. For be it observed that
He called their name (the male and the female) man-
showing beyond question that it is not an individual that
is referred to, but the collective human race.
66
Passing now to chapter iii. we find a word which
requires notice. In verse 2 we have the expression "any
tree of the Garden" for
every tree in the Authorized
Version, and in the margin we read, "or, all the trees."
And in the next verse, we read, "the fruit of the trees of
the Garden," also following the Authorized Version. But
in both cases the word is etz (singular)-the plural form
of the word is not found in these three chapters. We
have "every tree," "the tree" (for trees in general)—and
special trees are mentioned; but the word is in every
case, ētz, and never D'Y (plural). This is comparatively
unimportant when all the trees is put for every tree, but
there is a verse in which it is inadmissible. In verse 8 we
read that "the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
Garden." The Authorized Version is here followed, but
erroneously, for the word is singular, and the Revisers,
as well as the original translators, not knowing any
reason why it should be singular, have sacrificed accuracy
for what seemed to them the sense. But they have really
lost the sense by the inaccuracy, as will be seen by refer-
ring to our remarks upon this verse in the text.
In verse 5, “ye shall be as God," is put for gods,”—a
retrograde step, in which the Authorized Version is by far
the best. For the word is kēlōhīm'—the prefix signifying
416
THE REVISED VERSION.
similitude,—and Elōhīm' signifies Powers, as particularly
explained in the text,-a word not applied to the Lord
alone, but used in several other cases there specified.
The signification is not, as the Revised Version puts it,
"ye shall be like God (the Creator) "--but ye shall be full
of power and might, like the mighty ones of Psa. lxxxii. 6,
and John x. 34, 35, and other places. At the same time,
if the word be considered as really equivalent to God, it
would be in the sense of being a god unto one's self, that
is, in an evil sense. Otherwise the expression gods,
applied to mighty men, is analogous to the Nephilim, or
giants,—that is, men puffed up with their own high and
mighty opinion of themselves. In vindication of these
remarks see iii. 22, where the Lord God says, "Behold
the man is become as one of us-an Elōhīm, that is—but
not God.
曲
​Verse 7 still retains aprons as the rendering of khăgō-
rōth', and in the margin girdles. We think it would have
been better to have put girdles in the text, as more
correct, the word being derived from a root, signifying to
bind around. Again in verse 8, the voice of the Lord.
walking in the Garden in the cool of the day" is corrected
in the margin by the sound and the wind respectively.
The first word, voice of the Lord, kōl, is from the root to
call; and we think voice expresses it better than sound..
But the other word, "cool of the day" (wind in margin)
might be translated breeze, or air, rû'-ăkh. It is the same
word as is used in i. 2, and translated the spirit of God
which moved (margin, was brooding upon) the face of the
waters. The root means to breathe and it evidently is
synonymous with the Divine afflatus. Again, the presence
of the Lord is p'ney, a plural noun, signifying faces, as in
the faces of the deep (i. 2). See also Psa. iv. 6, "Lord,
lift thou up the light of thy faces (countenance) upon us."
In the curse of the serpent (ver. 15) the word bruise
twice repeated,-with different suffixes-(shû-ph’chā' and
shû-phen'-nû)-usually translated bruise, is emended in the
GENESIS III.
417
margin by the words, “or, lie in wait for." We do not
know on what principles this new rendering is suggested,
-and certainly do not see that anything is gained by the
suggestion. Also, without finding fault with it as an
absolute error, we would call attention to the word it as
applied to the "seed of the woman," retained from the
Authorized Version. This word is somewhat misleading.
as applied to the future Messiah: and the word is, as we
have in its place remarked, a demonstrative pronoun, not
neuter, but masculine, as is also the preceding noun,
translated seed.
Again in verse 16, "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
children." Here also the Authorized Version is followed,
and an inaccuracy perpetuated. The word is bānīm', that
is, male children or sons; and the strict rendering is that
alone which can be accepted, as is explained in its place.
Any looseness of interpretation, however it may suit the
general story as a mere external myth, is at once detected
when it is applied to and tested by the real internal mean-
ing, which is definite and exact, and admits of no carelesness
or inaccuracy of translation.
In verse 17, Adam is first mentioned as a name,
although always before translated as the man-we do not
see what is gained by delaying the appearance of the
imaginary first man, Adam, (as an individual) from verse 19,
of chapter ii., to this period. And, finally, the last word of
these chapters demands attention-" to keep the way of the
tree of LIFE.” In the original it is khay-yīm'—not singular
(life) but plural (? dual) lives. And it is so in several in-
stances,―viz. chapter ii., verse 9 (where the tree is
again referred to)-and in ii., 7. "He breathed in his
nostrils the breath of lives-but in the next line "the
man became a soul of life: (singular). A clear distinction
is here made, and is explained in its place. The word
thus occurs also in i. 20: and in the name Eve, iii. 20.
• Dr. Tregelles feels the difficulty, and suggests that the plural
form perhaps implies continuity or extension.
27
418
CONCLUSION.
But in the Revised Version, in every instance it is translated
life, following the Authorized Version. Of course, with
no satisfactory reason to give for the plural form, the
singular has been adopted, as best agreeing with the
external sense: but we have given reasons for understand-
ing that the true meaning of the word in this or in any
other instance cannot be tampered with without impairing
the spiritual sense.
On the whole we can only regret that this Revised
Version has been the work of Hebraists, who, to their
linguistic and philological acquirements had added no
knowledge of the correspondential significance of the
Holy Scriptures. Such an opportunity will probably be
long before it again occurs.
Meantime the Revisers have
allowed themselves "a reasonable freedom," which it
may be feared has sometimes, at least, been enlisted in
producing a phrase rather in accordance with an external
intelligibility than with the more important internal sense,
which is thereby liable to be sacrificed. We do not say
that it is so, since we are not in a position to judge of
more than these three chapters, which form so important
a basis of the present work.

का
MAY 5 1921
UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND London.