i*" 5^^ OF THE ♦^ Name of Book and Volume, /l/^V Division %Jl Range.. Shelf.... Received. 1 87 n> , i Digitized' by tine Internet Arcinive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/antedeluvianhistOOrendrich THE ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, NARRATIVE OF THE FLOOD; AS SET FORTH IN THE EARLY PORTIONS OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS. CRITICALLY EXAMINED AND EXPLAINED. BY 31EV. E. D, RENDELL, Q^ PBESTON. '^H* tbat hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Rbt. ii. 29. FBOM THE LONDON EDITION. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY OTIS CLAPP, 23 School Street. 1852. CONTENTS rAOB Preface 5 Chapter I. Introduction. — General Structure of the Narrative 15 Chapter II. General Structure of the Narrative — continued 30 Chapter III. Original State of Man — The Successive Development of his Mental and Spiritual Powers — His Duty and Prerogative as an Image of God — The Excellency of Every Thing that was Made 39 Chapter IV. The Seventh Day, a Celestial State of Man 60 Chapter V. Adam a Religious Community — Eden, with its Garden and Eastern Situation — How to be Kept 65 Chapter VI. The Trees of the Garden : specifically the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil 79 Chapter VII. The River of Eden, and its being Parted into Four Heads 87 Chapter VIII. Adam Naming the Living Creatures 97 Chapter IX. Its not being Good that Adam should be Alone — His Deep Sleep — The Taking of a Rib from Him and Building it into a "Woman. . 106 Chapter X. The Serpent and its Deception 115 4 CONTENTS. Chapter XI. The Eating of the Forbidden Fruit and Expulsion from Eden 132 Chapteb XII. The Curse upon the Serpent — The Sorrows of the Woman — And the Curse upon the Ground for Man's sake 141 Chapter XIII. Cain and Abel, with their Occupations 152 Chapter XIV. The Offerings of Cain and Abel : why the Offering of Abel was Re- spected, and that of Cain Rejected 167 Chapter XV. The Death of Abel — The Curse on Cain ; His Fugitive and Vaga- bond Condition 176 Chapter XVI. Cain's Complaint and Apprehensions — The Mark set upon Him for his Preservation 189 Chapter XVII. The Land of Nod — Cain's Son — The Building of a City and calling it after the Name of his Son, Enoch 202 Chapter XVIII. The Birth of Seth — The Longevity of His Descendants — And the "Translation" of Enoch 217 Chapter XIX. The Corruptions of the Antediluvian "World — The Sons of God taking to themselves Wives of the Daughters of Men 232 Chapter XX. The Giants that were in the Antediluvian World — and the Repent- ance of the Lord that he had made Man 248 Chapter XXI. The Ark — Noah and his Family Entering into it — The Beasts # Preserved therein 261 Chapter XXII. The Deluge, and the Death of all Flesh but those who Entered into the Ark 284 . r PREFACE A SATISFACTORY explanation of the early chapters of Genesis, has become a desideratum in the church ; for there is no fact in its history better established, than that the Mosaic accounts of the creation and the deluge are no longer considered to express those sentiments, which, for many ages, they have been supposed to do. What used to be regarded as " orthodox " upon those subjects, has been compelled to recede before the light of rational investigation and scientific discovery. This is admitted by men with first-class minds, — minds stored with erudition and piety, — persons whose veneration for, and belief in, revelation are far above suspicion ; — professors in our national universities, and other institutions for the dissemination of religion and learning. A decree, therefore, has gone forth against the old notions upon these subjects : the old vessels have been efiectually broken ; and all, who carefully examine the fragments, are convinced that it is impossible to repair them. It is true, that several new ones have been attempted to be made, on some modified ideas of the literal sense of those an- cient writings ; but an intelligent inspection of them has shown that they also are marred and full of flaws, so that there has ceased to be any authorized interpretation of those extraordinary documents. In this dilemma, the old opinions continue to be taught to the ■ rising generations, by which their minds must be prejudiced in favor of a mistaken judgment This, doubtless, produces no little uneasiness and alarm among those, who know them to be untrue. The influences, which have exposed the errors, have not yet be- come sufficiently powerful to check their progress. This is to be lamented ; but it is one of the consequences of not having sup- plied such new interpretations of the subject, as may be safely adopted in their place. The old errors may as well be taught as any new one, if teachings must be enforced on the subject, before any more satisfactory views can be established. But why the teaching of demonstrated errors should be persisted in, it is diffi- cult to determine. It is admitted, that the work of him who would instruct society, is not completed by pulling down the building, 1* 6 PREFACE. which he has discovered to be dangerous, — he is not to make a ruin, and then to leave it. In the case before us, the materials remain ; and he is required to erect with them another building, which shall be more sound and useful, in every particular. The distinguished men above alluded to have not neglected this duty ; but they have not been successful in its performance. This is evident from the circumstance of their respective views not having satisfied each other or the public. The reason of this failure, it is believed, is traceable to a misunderstanding of the structure and purpose of those remarkable narratives ; i. e., to the supposition that they treat of mundane things. The following work is constructed on an entirely different prin- ciple. It has no pretensions to a complete exposition of the sub- jects. The writer is sensible of many of its deficiencies, both in that and in other respects. His aim has been to indicate a course of thinking, which, if pursued by abler minds, may lead to a more satisfactory treatment. A general outline of the meaning of those remarkable documents is all that he has intended to present ; and this, of course, may be filled up with such light, shade, and color- ing, as the intelligence and experience of the reader are capable of supplying. He holds that the real divinity of those extraordinary portions of revelation can be most satisfactorily maintained, without mak ing any concessions to opinions, which are offensive to judicious and rational thinking. The adoption of new sentiments concern- ing them need not decrease piety, or weaken faith ; if they expel error and destroy superstition, their uses will be great. They who abandon a prejudice, which they had thought to be an opin- ion, when some new truth is demonstrated to Jthem, come thereby' into greater liberty and purer light. The interpretation of the first seven chapters of Genesis, which IS presented in this work, is founded on the following general principle ; namely, that the letter of the Word of God contains within it a spiritual sense, which is as its life and soul. This principle, it is believed, will commend itself to the soundest judg- ment and best feelings of religious and thinking men. Evidences of the existence of this principle can be produced from every page of the sacred volume ; and it is rationally confirmed by the cir- cumstance, that, as a work of God, it must, to be in analogy with all other of His works, contain, within it, something more, and something different from tliat, which appears upon the surface. PREFACE. 7 It is plain that tihere must be a connection between the natural and the spiritual worlds, and that all things in the former derive their existence, more or less remotely, from some condition and activity in the latter. Now, as God's primary object in making a revelation to man is to furnish him with the means of knowing something concerning spiritual things, it is conceived, that he has caused to be employed, in the writing of His Word, the visible objects of nature, to express the spiritual things to which they have some relation. Thus, that the earth in general, as the dwell- ing-place for man's body, is the appropriate symbol of that state in general, which is the residence of his soul ; and that all the various productions of the earth, which the Scriptures mention, whether of the animal, the vegetable, or the mineral kingdoms, are the types of some .corresponding principle of aifection and thought belonging to such state, and, consequently, that they are significant of them. Besides this law of correspondences, according to which it is believed the Scriptures are written, and from which their character, as a revelation, and their quality, as to inspiration, derive the most ample and satisfactory evidence, there are also employed, in their structure and composition, representatives, which also signify. Among these representative objects, persons are very conspicu- ous ; such, for example, as the sons of Jacob, the Priests, the Kings of Israel and Judah, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Prophets, and others. All these are considered to be mentioned in the Scrip- tures, and to have their histories therein related, because they were designed to represent something pertaining to the Lord's church and kingdom. This idea is, in some measure, acknowledged in the circumstance of many of these persons being commonly spoken of as types. Every one, for instance, is aware that Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, in consequence of certain remarkable inci- dents in his life, was representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, during His manifestation in the world. The law under which those representatives were selected, did not at all regard the qual- ity of the person representing, but solely the thing to be repre- sented by him ; all the objects, therefore, which corresponded to divine and spiritual things, are also representatives of them, and what is represented is likewise signified. The distinction between correspondences and representatives is, that correspondence consists in the mutual relation, which prevails between an efficient cause and its orderly effect. Thus, whatso- 6 PREFACE. ever exists and subsists in the natural world from the spiritual, is called correspondence. But representatives are all those external things which exist in the natural mind, and which are the suitable appearances of all such internal subjects as are presented to the spiritual mind. For instance, when the viscera and structure of the face are permitted to act in unity with the affection and senti- ments which exist in the mind, there is a correspondence ; but the aspect of the face, under such circumstances, is the representation. The kings, priests, and prophets, are said to represent divine and holy things, because, in their governmental, priestly, and prophetic characters, they were, to the natural minds of the Israelites, what they conceived of such things. Such are the principles, which are believed to have presided over the construction of the literal sense of God's most holy Word, and of which illustrative examples are presented in the following work. If the things mentioned in the Scriptures were not representative, and thence, significative, of holy and spiritual subjects, it would not be easy to see how a rational idea of their divine character can be formed ; but with such a view of them, man may have some perception of their great sanctity and spirit- ual uses. Indeed, it seems difficult to see how divine ideas could have been enunciated in any other way than by means of those human ideas, worldly objects, and expressions, which are in cor- respondence with, or the representatives of, spiritual and heavenly things. But, while this is regarded "as a feature peculiar to God's Reve- lation, and, in our opinion, necessary to the ideas of its divine origin and inspiration, it is to be observed that it is a principle which will admit of a diversity of literal structure ; and conse- quently, that such a structure has always been employed as was in agreement with the characteristics of the people, to whom it was originally vouchsafed. Hence has arisen that variety of style according to which different portions of the Sacred Scriptures are written. This circumstance is more or less conspicuous, in all the different books of the Word. There are, however, four great dis- tinctions of style by which the Scriptures now in our possession are distinguished. These are, — First, that which is intended to express spiritual and celestial things only, through the instrumentality of an appropriate selec- tion and arrangement of terrestrial and worldly objects. This we regard as the orimitive divine style, and consider it to have taken PREFACE. 9 its rise with the perceptions of the ahori^nes of our race, during the periods of their religious integrity. To them, at that time, it is believed that the objects of the visible world were as an open book, in which they could perceive divine and holy things repre- sented, and who, therefore, when treating of spiritual things, would arrange their thoughts concerning them into a kind of his- torical series, in order to render them forcible and vivid. This, doubtless, is the style of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, or rather up to the fourteenth verse of the eleventh chapter ; and it is in consequence of men, in later ages, not having attended to this most remarkable genius of the most ancient people, that those early portions of the book of Genesis, have been considered so exceedingly difficult to understand. The second style is historical, and treats, in the letter, of such facts and occurrences, as, from the time of Abram, are re- corded in those books commonly called historical. Nevertheless, this style, like the former, is replete with an internal or spiritual sense. Historical circumstances began to be employed for the purpose of representing spiritual things, when mankind, and es- pecially the descendants of Abram, to whom those documents, with the exception of the book of Job, were originally voucli- safed, had sunk into a merely sensual and selfish state. Job is evidently a more ancient book, produced, in all probability, upon the plan of the factitious history of the first style of revelation, though it does not appear to be so complete and regular in its structure. The third style is the prophetical. This, also, appears to have derived its condition from the factitious histories of the prim- itive people : not that it puts on a historical aspect, or that it is, like them, connected in a historical series ; for it is well known to be much broken and interrupted, and likewise to contain many statements in the literal sense which are scarcely intelligible ; still, in their internal sense throughout, there are expressed, in an orderly series, sentiments of eC purely spiritual character. The fourth style is the Psalms. These, as may be easily seen, partake of an intermediate form between the prophetical and that of ordinary speech, and they treat of the internal states and religious experience of all those who are within the pale of the Lord's church. That these are just views of the style of the Psalms, with the prophetic and historical portions of the Holy Word, we think can 10 PREFACE. hardly be disputed ; and although what is stated to be the style of those parts of it which precede the time of Abram is equally true, yet, because that may not be so readily perceived, it was deemed requisite to dwell a little on that point, in the introductory chapter of the following work. To what is there stated, we are desirous to add one or two other considerations. It seems evident that the Lord, in causing a revelation to be made to man, of spiritual and heavenly wisdom, has had respect to the genius and disposition of the people, to whom it was vouch- safed. We gather this view from the facts which are apparent in what are emphatically called the Jewish Scriptures. From them it is plain that the letter of the revelation relating to that people, and of which they were made the depositories, was constructed, as we find it to be, in consequence of their remarkable condition. They were a most external and sensual people ; and therefore, the revelation, which, in its external form, is peculiarly theirs, partook of that historical and worldly character by which we see it is distinguished. This was all that they appreciated. Of spiritual things they had but little conception, and scarcely any care. Now, if it be true that the literal structure of revelation has always been in conformity with the genius of the people, to whom it has been made, — if it be true that the most external style of revelation to be found in the Bible was adopted in consequence of the sensual condition of the Jewish people, to whom it was first committed, then it will follow that the revelation granted to a superior people could not have been of so external a character. If the genius of the people, among whom the early portions of the book of Genesis were produced was eminently spiritual, and if the narratives are constructed in conformity with such character, then it is plain that the literal sense of that revelation ought to be differently understood from that which has been vouchsafed to the descendants of Abram. It seems contrary to all just criticism, to suppose that the literal form of the revelation which was granted to a people who were acquainted with spiritual things, is the same as that which was given to a community who were utterly ignorant of them. We therefore hold, that their external structure must be differently understood, nor can we perceivd the reasonableness of any contrary conclusion. It is admitted, that the first eleven chapters were produced among a people, who flourished lonp^ anterior to the time of Abram ; and PREFACE. 11 thei-e is much reason to believe, that they originated in those pe- riods, which poets and philosophers liavc spoken of as the silver age, — an age in which an Asiatic people were spiritually intelli- gent, because they studied interior truths, and were acquainted with those outer things in nature, Avhich were the symbols of them ; — an age, therefore, in Avhich mankind would speak of spiritual subjects, by means of those things which they knew to be their representatives in the world. Without extending these remarks, it is evident, that the earliest narratives of antiquity were written in a style that was highly figurative ; and this was a peculiarity belonging, not to the history of one nation merely, but to all which have any pretensions to a record of their origin. Upon what principle, then, can this char- acter be denied to that early history in the Bible, which precedes the time of Abram ? It cannot be because the literal sense of those documents is plain and easily to be comprehended : for when viewed as actual history, they are full of great and astound- ing difficulties, which no learning that has hitherto been exercised upon them, has been capable of satisfactorily explaining. If the genius of the people who lived in remote antiquity, was such as we have indicated, and if those narratives were produced among them, then they must have partaken of that genius ; if they did not, they could not have been serviceable to them, nor instrumental in transmitting to posterity any just notions of that disposition and general turn of mind, by which they were distinguished. Every one admits, that the minds of mankind during the purity of the Adamic periods, were influenced by very interior and ele- vated sentiments : the affections of their wills were, doubtless, directed towards the Lord, and their understandings were enlight- ened by thoughts concerning Him. In such an intellectual condi- tion, nature must have been a sort of mirror, reflectmg internal and spiritual ideas. It is easy to conceive, that such minds would regard the worldly things by which they were surrounded, as the symbol of some internal state, spiritual experience, or heavenly ideas, belonging to the Lord and his kingdom. This, indeed, would enable them '* To look through Nature up to Nature's God ; " and behold, in all its objects, the expressive types of spiritual realities. To such minds, creation must have been a rich display of objects, representing interior things pertaining to the Creator. 12 PREFACE. When the people, distinguished by such a state, spoke of natural things, their ideas concerning them would, as it were, recede, and give place to spiritual conceptions. When they undertook to describe spiritual and holy subjects, they would select and arrange, for that purpose, such temporal and natural objects, as they knew would accurately represent them. If these views are correct, and we think they are admissive of satisfactory proof, then, it is evi- dent, that the literal sense of documents, constructed on this prin- ciple, was only a kind of vehicle for the signification of something- else, and that their genuine meaning must have laid within it, as a jewel within its casket. If such a people undertook to record the moral and spiritual things which they experienced, according to the successive series in which they had transpired, it seems plain, that they would do it by the arrangement of representative objects into a historical form. Such, we conceive, to have been the genius of the people, among whom the first eleven chapters of Genesis were produced, and such the circumstances which influenced their construction ; those documents, therefore, are not to be understood according to their literal sense, they being factitious history, intending to express, by correspondence and representation, only internal and spiritual things. Distinguished authority for these views could be cited, and much corroborative evidence and reasonings proceeded with ; but it is not convenient to lengthen these remarks. Enough may have been said, to commend the subject to the careful consideration of those who may be interested in such an inquiry. It shows the principles on which the following work has been written, and to that the reader is respectfully referred for additional testunony and illustration. The religious connections of the writer, will know the source whence these opinions have been suggested ; to them, therefore, no explanation on this head is necessary ; and, it is presumed, that those who may be favorably impressed with them, after the perusal of the work, will find no difliculty in going directly to the same spring. It may, perhaps, be necessary to oflEer some explanation of the circumstances which have led to this publication ; and, also, to apologize for defects, which might not have occurred, if it had been produced independently of them. The materials for this work were, for the most part, originally collected and arranged in the form of eight lectures, which were PREFACE. }3i delivered in Preston, to crowded audiences, with some advantages to the church of which the writer is a member. These circum- stances led to a request for redelivering them in an adjoining town, which, on being done, excited there also, favorable atten- tion. Parts of them were afterwards delivered in the metropolis, and in two of the largest provincial towns in the kingdom. In all these cases, intimations of approbation were conveyed to him, and a desire expressed for their publication. But as they were written only for the purpose of oral publicity, and doubtless owed much of the indulgent reception with which they met, to the " living voice," he did not think them adapted for the press, and, on that account, waived the suggestion for printing them. But the request having been renewed on two or three occasions, and urged upon him by several judicious friends, he was induced to entertain the subject; he was, likewise, encouraged to yield to those solicita- tions from other causes. He knew that they had been instru- mental in rescuing from disbelief, some who had long been doubt- ing the truth of revelation ; also, that they had afforded others more satisfactory evidence of the divine origin and character of the early chapters of Genesis, than they had previously possessed ; and also, that they had assisted many, in consolidating their faith in the holiness and sanctity of God's Holy Word. As these ad- vantages, under the Divine Providence, had arisen from their oral delivery, he was induced to hope, that their publication might be followed by some further usefulness, and therefore, consented to the suggestion of his friends. He is not aware that there is any similar publication extant ; and this led him to think that such a work might be generally acceptable to his own religious connec- tions, as well as being, in some measure, serviceable to the public at large. Such are the circumstances which have led to the pres- ent publication, and it is hoped, that it may supply, however feebly, something for an unoccupied niche in the edifice of true religious' literature. But as to the execution. It was felt that their character, as lectures, and in some cases, their sermon-like structure, would not be so attractive, or so generally acceptable, as some other form that might be adopted. Hence it was determined to avoid, as far as convenient, the preaching portions of the discourses, and re- arrange the matter into the shape in which it now appears. But to do this was not unattended with difficulties. For the sake of the judgments of those, at whose suggestions the publication was 3' 14 PREFACE. undertaken, the original features of the work could not be entirely sacrificed, and yet, with the view of providing something that might survive a mere temporary interest, some change was neces- sary. To accomplish both these objects, he has been compelled to admit some blemishes in arrangement, some peculiarities of treatment, and a few repetitions : for these, the indulgence of the reader is requested. The notes are fresh matter, which it is hoped will add to the usefulness of the work. For the general scope and design of this publication, he has no apology to offer, no indulgence to ask, no solicitude to express : feeling assured, that a plain enunciation of spiritual truth has been aimed at, and sincerely believing in the religious soundness of the grounds which have been taken for it, he is content to leave the result in the hands of that wise Providence, which, in superintend- ing the greatest things of the universe, does not overlook the minutest efforts of men. In conclusion, it may be observed, that if this work had been written for his own religious connections merely, the author would, in many instances, have adopted another mode of treatment and expression ; but as it wSis designed for more general use, he has considered it proper to avoid, so far as convenient, all the appear- ances of technicality, and to present the subjects in as popular a form, as he thought their recondite character would permit. The Postdiluvian History to the call of Abram, is eminently interesting, and should this work prove acceptable, the author will feel encouraged to undertake its elucidation in a similar volume. Preston, November 25, 1850. ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. — GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE NARRATIVE. "As to the particular form in which the descriptive narrative (of crea- tion) is conveyed, we merely affirm that it cantiot be History — it may be Poetry." — Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford. Art. " Creation" in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia. In order correctly to understand the written documents of an- tiquity, it is necessary to know something of the genius of the people, among whom they were produced. Without this informa- tion, we are liable to great mistakes. Very different styles of writing have prevailed among the same nations, at different pe- riods of their existence ; and the deeper we penetrate into their mental history, the less literal and more-poetic shall we find their methods of expression to have been. This fact is not to be disre- garded, in prosecuting the inquiry we have now before us. It bears forcibly upon the point. And this leads us to ask, Whether Antediluvian History, as contained in the Bible, was written in accordance with that historical and grammatical criticism, with which it has been common, in modern times, to interpret it ? We think not. The record of creation has been found to give way before the discoveries and demands of science. The genius of a matter-of-fact people, is not the precise thing, by which to judge of the literary productions of a period essentially interior and poetic. ' And therefore, we may again ask. Whether this peculiar condition of mind, whicH prevailed during the early periods of our race, when these remarkable documents were originally produced, may not have induced them to describe mental existences and moral processes, in a historical form ? May not the rise of the human mind, out of inactivity and darkness, and its successive advancement into a state prolific with intelligence and virtue, have been described by such a people as the creation of a world ? May not the intellectual sentiment and living affection, which are suc- cessively developed during such a process, have been considernd by them, as so many days of the Divine Work ? We think it higl J / 16 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. probable : we can evea now perceive a certain general resem- blance between the description, and the process we have indicated and every one is aware that it was usual, in after-times, to speak of the mind of man as a microcosm — a little world, while the Greek fabulists commonly represented his various sentiments, by numerous objects selected from animated nature. This style did not originate with the Greeks, it prevailed long before they existed as a nation, and it can be historically traced among people of much higher antiquity ; — the Egyptians, for instance. If then, the early portions of Genesis should prove, as we be- lieve they will do, not to be a history of physical things, but the history of mental processes and phenomena, expressed in a pe- culiar way, it will follow, that long and large mistakes have been made concerning them, and that most of the valuable information, they were written to convey to posterity, has been entirely over- looked by them. We are aware that there are those, who have great hesitation in attaching any other meaning to the words of the Bible, than that which they ordinarily bear. They seem to think, that in giving up their physical sense, or natural application, they must relin- quish their real and solid signification. But, as it is evident, that there are multitudes of instances in the Bible, in which words are employed in a sense widely different from that, in which they are commonly used, that hesitation cannot be well founded. The fact which it supposes, cannot be maintained. Moreover, those who consider the words to be significant of spiritual things, regard such things to be much more real, solid, and enduring, than any thing which the physical sense attached to them can express ; and therefore, the setting aside their ordinary signification, does not deprive them of a meaning, having relation to reality. The " bending " of the language of God's Book to any other than its obvious meaning, is said to be an " impiety." * But is it not the circumstance of the meaning not being always obvious, which necessitates the commentary ? That which is plain needs no interpretation : the clear signification is brought out by the "bending," {. e. the interpretation, since, without it, there are numerous instances, in which there would be either no sense, or something exceedingly ambiguous. There cannot be any impiety * E. B. Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew in Oxford. Letter to Dr, Buckland, in his Bridgewater Treatise, Geology and Mineralogy, p. 25. INTERPRETATION NECESSARY. 17 in the honest endeavor, to render God's Book intelligible and in- structive to its thinking readers. Impiety lies upon the other side, — in permitting ideas to be cherished, under the supposition that they are contained in God's Book, when in reality, they are not to be found therein, but are crude inductions, arising from erroneous meanings being attached to its language. The very fact, that it is God's Book, implies that it contains more than what immediately appears upon the surface, and thus, that the words are but the outer vehicle of some more interior thought, which interpretation is required to eliminate. The narratives before us are conceded to be a Divine produc- tion ; we believe that they, together with the whole Scriptures, contain within themselves much fuller evidence of this fact, than any which merely verbal or historical criticism can ever reach. Our inquiries then, do not involve any thing touching their authenticity and genuineness as a revelation from God : that to which our in- vestigation relates, is the sense in li^hich the Church should under- stand them. That they do require interpretation seems evident from the extensive commentaries, which, from time to time, have been written for their elucidation. The design of those produc- tions has been, for the most part, to uphold the literal sense of these documents : and yet how very unsatisfactory is much that has been written on this side of the subject, when compared with wliat a free and philosophical inquiry will demand. When such writers have reached points, which have come into collision with the suggestions of reason, they have insisted on the necessity of faith, and pleaded the inexplicability of omnipotence. A becom ing piety is always proper in such investigations, but it was never intended to direct us from the path of enlightened investigation. We freely admit the value of faith, and at once concede the in- comprehensibility of the Divine Power. This admission and concession ought to induce us to approach Scripture investigation, with humility and caution, but surely, they do not require us to relinquish the endeavor to rightly understand any thing, that has been delivered to us as a Revelation from God. Reason, consid ered as a faculty of our nature, is as much the production of God, as is the revelation of the Scriptures. They are designed mutu- ally to assist and illustrate each other : and whensoever they are brought into collision, it is the result of some perversity on the part of man. When he is in order, the Scriptures will harmonize Avith his highest wants and perceptions. 2* 18 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTOHY. Most persons are aware, that there are many serious difficulties, in the literal sense of the early portion of the Word, which remain unsolved, and that bright minds and deep learning have been em- ployed upon the inquiry, without a successful issue. There are large numbers in the Professing Christian world, who are not yet convinced, that a right path has been chosen for this pursuit, and many will be glad and free to have the opportunity of considering some new views on the whole subject. These, in the course of this work, it will be our endeavor to provide ; offering, as we pro- ceed, such confirmation from revelation, evidence from history, and responses from the living sentiments of humanity, as our acquaint- ance with them will enable us to supply. To doubt the truth of certain human interpretations of tlie Scripture, is one of the immunities of Protestant Christianity; and, notwithstanding religious differences have sprung out of this freedom, more generous and enlightened views have been pro- moted by its exercise. We are about to employ this privilege in another department of biblical inquiry ; but for no other purpose, so far as we know our own hearts, than to advance the interest of what we believe to be the general scope, rational meaning, and religious design of the early chapters of the Book of Genesis. We believe those documents to be descriptions of spiritual phe- nomena only, and think that men did not begin to attach a natural meaning to them, until they had descended from an ancient state of intellectual eminence, a;id suffered their faith to pass into the obscurities of sensual apprehension. We hold, that it could not have been the intention of the Sacred Writings, to communicate to man instruction concerning physical truths. These were open to the Scientific investigation and common understandings of nat- ural men : and the progress of science, in disclosing the monu- ments of the past ages of terrestrial existence, has established facts, which are utterly repugnant to the popular interpretation of the first chapter of the Hebrew Scriptures. The evidences, which geology has brought to light, carries us back into an unutterable period of time. They prove a duration to the earth ; demonstrate the existence of living structures, of great diversity and interest, belonging to both the vegetable and animal kingdoms ; they pro- claim the operation of phenomena, and certify to innumerable events, all of which are plainly inconsistent with the notion, which regards the first chapter of Genesis to be a circumstantial narration of the primordial creation. THE DEMANDS OF GEOLOGY. 19 These facts are now very generally acknowledged by learned men of all parties ; not that they have abandoned the idea of ihe Mosaic history giving an account of the creation, but that they have relinquished those long-standing opinions, which it was sup- posed circumstantially to indicate. The lapse of immense periods of time, which geology proves to have taken place before the creation of man, also, those evi- dences which show, that before that event, there had come into being successive orders of animal and vegetable life, differing from existing species, and all of which had as gradually become extinct, are discoveries which affect, in their consequences, the -entire view to be taken of the whole subject. These facts, being inconsistent with what, for centuries, had been considered as the obvious meaning of the Mosaic cosmogony, demand, either that the narrative should no longer be considered as a description of physical creation, or, that it should be so interpreted, as to harmon- ize with the unquestionable discoveries of science. The former course was too serious a matter to be attempted. The notion of this record being a description of creation, in some sense, had become too venerable a prejudice to be suddenly put aside ; the latter, therefore, has been undertaken by learned men. But after the display of much effort in that direction it has been said, that the object of Genesis " was not to state in what manner y but by ichom the world was made." * This is cutting the difficulty shorter, but it does not explain it. A summary statement of this nature could not have been satisfactory to the authors of it : the details of the narration are too many to have permitted such a result. It certainly does state by whom the world was made ; but is there not also a precise description of the order of the process, and are there not some indications of the manner ? Every one knows, that all things are distinctly said to have been spoken into existence : and there are few, who have not noticed the manner in which the making of woman was begun. Into what palpable dilemmas will the adoption of erroneous premises conduct us ! If it is once clearly perceived, that an explanation of physical crea- * Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 33. Art, Creation, Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblicul Literature. Eusebius also says, " It was not the intention of Moses to detail a philosophical account of the formation of the world, but to signify only that it did not exist of itself or by chance, but was the production of an all-wise and all-powerful creator." Oracles of Reason^ 1. 4, p. 186. Etiseb. Pnep. Ev. 2, 7. 20 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTOKIT. tion does not properly belong to a system of theology, then it will soon be acknowledged, that the Mosaic description, considered as a revelation from God, must refer to other phenomena. The natural explanations which have been offered, are too vague and general to be received as the true meaning of those ancient writings, neither have those views taken any hold upon the public mind. These expositors have not been agreed on any precise theory of the earth's existence and phenomena ; and therefore, they have not succeeded in squaring up the narrative for popular acceptance. Hence, while the old ideas, which used to be re- garded as the obvious sense of the history, are thoroughly exploded by scientific discovery, the new interpretations which have been attempted, are received with distrust, so that popular Christianity is left in complete uncertainty, as to the real meaning of the nar- rative. It may not be unacceptable, to notice what have been the prin- cipal views of the Mosaic record, Avhich those scientific discoveries have led biblical students to adopt. At the very outset, it is de- manded, that the literal interpreter of the Scriptures should make concessions — that he should give up much of the usual and ordi- nary signification attached to the language. The precise amount of yielding is not defined, but it is evident that a considerable quantity is required. It was long a customary thing, to look upon the stratified con- dition of the earth, as the result of the Noetic deluge. But it is now admitted upon all hands, that this could not have been the cause. The vestiges of animals, belonging to extinct genera and distinct periods, with which the strata abound, prove that they had lived at incalculable distances of time ; and also, that the strata, in which they are found, had been very gradually deposited. This, therefore, sufficiently proves, that the few months' continu- ance of the Deluge, could not have been the cause, by which those wrecks were produced. Another hypothesis was, that the earth's strata were formed at the bottom of the sea, during the time which intervened between primordial creation and the flood ; at which period, it is supposed, that the antediluvian continents were submerged, and the bottom of the sea raised to supply their place. This, however, is a mere conjecture, at which there is not the slightest hint in all the narra- tive, and against which thsre is this scientific fact, — namely, the roinains of land anhnals of distinct geological periods. HYPOTHESES WHICH HAVE BEEN HELD, Sl These two views, in which it has been attempted to maintain the literal sense of the Mosaic cosmogony, by referring geological phenomena to the catastrophe of the deluge, have now no weight with scientific men. The next opinion which has been offered to the acceptance of the world is, that the " days," in which Moses describes the crea- tion to have been accomplished, are to be understood as great intervals of time ; and this interpretation, it is asserted, will render his account consistent with the long successive periods which sci- ence demands. It is true, that the terra " day " is frequently men- tioned in the Scriptures to denote, not twenty-four hours merely, but an undefined period ; still, this fact does not meet all the con- ditions which the problem before us demands. Moses describes the vegetable kingdom to have been produced before the animal, whereas, geology shows them to have been contemporaneous. This however, cannot well be urged against the view under con- sideration, because the mineral substances, which enter into the composition of the osseous structure of the animal] is less destruc- tible than vegetable fibre. The points fatal to this view of the case are, that those periods of time are not only spoken of as days, but also as the alternation of evening and morning, to which the speculation attaches no significancy. Moreover, those who take this view of the subject, when they come to the seventh day, abandon their own interpretation of that term, and insist upon the ordinary sense of it, on the ground of a statement made in the fourth commandment relating to the sabbath. It is a view, there- fore, which is not consistent with itself : neither does it reconcile the facts of animal deaths and vegetable ruin, which preceded the existence of man, with the scope of the narrative, which is, plainly, a description of the successive bringing into existence, and the merciful preservation of, various orders of life ; and, at the same time, wisely keeping out of sight every thing of a contrary nature. Surely, that can hardly be said to be a circumstantial account of the natural creation, during some periods of which, and long before the completion of the whole, extensive destructions were effected, and concerning which, not the least intimation has been given in the record, but all of it carefully concealed. The force of such, and kindred objections has been felt, and another conjecture has been ventured. It has been argued, that the first verse of Genesis, or the first and second, should be considered distinctly from what follows, and 22 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. that all the physical phenomena of geology should be refened ta the period indicated by the " heginning ; " since it was in the beginning that God made the earth ; that not being included in the work of the first day. * It is said that the Divine operations in the oeginning, not being in any way connected with the history of our race, are passed over in silence, because the purpose of Moses is only to inform us of the progress of creation at the last great change which affected the surface of the earth, together with the production of its present races of animal and vegetable inhabitants. Under this view of the case, the narrative of Moses is not con- sidered to be the history of the actual beginning of the universe at all ; but only as a statement of the origination of a certain epoch ; it having been preceded by many others, each of immense duration, and all distinguished by a great abundance of organic life. This, certainly, is a very forced exposition of the subject ; but if it be admitted to settle swne of the difficulties which geol- ogy proposes to the more common view of the narration, it leaves others untouched which are equally formidable. Some of these it undertakes to deal with in general terms, and others more circum- stantially, by supposing the existence of phenomena which maif come within the meaning of the Mosaic history. For instance, it is' there asserted that light prevailed tliree days before the sun, the moon, and stars, f When, then, it is asked, if those lumina- * See Dr. Buckland's Inaugural Lecture : Oxford edition, pp. 31, 32, and I>r. Chalmers' Evidences of the Christian Rerelation, chap. vri. t This objectian has been freqiiently urged : the following is among the most accredited replies of theologians. " A difficulty has arisen in the minds of some critics and commentators, to account for the produc- tion of light, before the creation of the sun, which has been considered as its source ; and they have indulged in vai'ious conjectures on the sub- ject. Some have supposed, that it was caused by an imperfect sun, in which the elements of light and fire were not yet collected in sufficient quantities to illuminate the earth. Others have imagined, that though the sun existed, his rays could not penetrate through the dense atmos- phere, ^ as to render the surface of the terraqueous globe visible. A third conjecture is, that this first-created light was only a lucid cloud, of the same nature as the Shechinah, which guided the Israelites by night in their journeyings through the wilderness. But this difficulty has arisen from adopting, with implicit confidence, a mere hypothesis of modern philosophy ; a hypothesis, which the recent improvements in science serve to render every day more questionable. Instead of the great elementary body of light emanating from, the sun, there is reason, to be- NO HISTORY OF THE BEGINNING. 23 ries were among the conditions of the " beginning," in the sense which is claimed for that term, how it happens, that they are de- scribed as first coming into being on the fourth day, in the narra- tive which is considered to relate, not to the " beginning," but only to an order of things, which began myriads of years after- wards ? The answer given is founded on a conjecture, namely " that the darkness described on the evening of the first day, was a temporary darkness, produced by the accumulation of dense vapors upon the face of the deep ; " and that " an incipient disper- sion of these vapors may have readmitted light to the earth upon the first day, whilst the exciting cause of light was still obscured ; and the further purification of the atmosphere, upon the fourth day, may have caused the sun and moon and stars to reappear in the firmament of heaven." * We can conceive some idea/ of the phenomena here indicated ; but they are the mere hypotheses of science ; and certainly they do not come within that fair meaning of the narration which they ought to do, if it is to be received as the description of natural creation. We hold, that if it had been designed as a revelation of the process, by which the present or any other order -of physical nature had its commencement, that it would have been written, so as not to have presented the embarrassment which learning encounters and piety experiences, from taking such a view of it. lieve, that light itself is an inconceivably subtle fluid, pervading all space, and wholly independent of the sun, which may be considered as its prin- cipal excitor ; or the great agent in nature which gives it motion, and renders it the medium of vision. The late experiments in chemistry and galvanism have served to render such a fluid more familiar to us. Far- ther, we know that there are many substances capable of emitting light independently of the sun. Among others_ may be mentioned, besides culinary fire, the different kinds of phosphori, the diamond, the glow- worm, the Bologna Stone, the fire-fly, ignis fatuus, putrescent fish, &c., and frequently the waters of the sea are seen to emit light." — Commeri' taries and Annotatimis on the Holy Scriptures : By the Rev. John Hewlett, B.D. "We do not see how these statements meet the difficulty. The theories adverted to can have no weight, before they are proved to be truths : this they have not been ; and even i'f they had, may not the prior existence of the sun have contributed to the result ? Moreover, the facts selected, seem to tell against the argument they were intended to sustain. The light emitted hy " culinary fire, the different kinds of phosphori," &c., is not displayed independently of the sources predicated: nor does philosophy know of any light — the light requisite to illuminate the uni- verse — independently of the sun. * Dr. Buekland's Bridgewater Treatise. Second edition, pp. 29, 30. 24 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. Another opinion has been put fortih, more recent than thos^ which have been noticed. This, somewhat similar to that which immediately precedes, regards the initial verses of Moses to be an announcement altogether independent of the descriptions which follow. Tliey are considered to " express posteriority, without defining the separating interval ; " and during that interval, those vast changes are considered to have taken place in the structure and productions of the earth, which science so abundantly demon- strates. This, of course, is urged to meet the conditions of geo- logical facts. It is next contended, that the term earih, employed subsequently to the first verse, and throughout the whole descrip- tion of the six days' work, means only a limited portion of the earth's surface, that was to be adapted for the residence of man, and the animals connected with him. This portion is fixed in a. certain geographical locality of Asia, which, having been brought into general ruin and disorder by geological causes, was also over- spread with darkness, similar to that which has been known to accompany the disasters of an earthquake. This was the chaos, and that was its locality ! * These speculations being premised, the creation of the existing species of things, the reintroduction of light by the removal of the local darkness, and thereby the manifestation of the heavenly bodies, together with all the other particulars of the description, are said to have taken place literally, according to the Mosaic language, in six natural days. These opinions are elaborately set forth, and their critical defence ably undertaken, f Nevertheless, to me, the argument has failed to be convincing. It would be foreign to our purpose, to discuss any of the details. It is sufficient, for the general design we have in noticing these views, to observe, that they suggest physical senses to the terms, and ideas to the sentiments which they express, which never could have sprung out of the narrative itself; and also, that those senses and sentiments owe their origin to scientific conclusions, and not to the unbiased study and general tenor of the record. We put it to the fair judgment of the reader, and ask, Whether it is not * " There are no traces of any such catastrophe as must be supposed, even over a limited portion of the earth's surface, subsequent to the latest tertiary formation." — Rev. B. Powell, M.A., &;c. Art. ^' Creation," Kitto's Biblical Cyclopeedia. f The Relation between the Holy Scriptures, and some Parts of Geo- logical Science. By John Pye Smith, D.D., F.R.S., and F.G.S. Second edition, p. 268, onward. AIM OF TtiE HYf*OTilESES> ^ •80 ? — whether it is rational to stippose, that the Mosaic descrip- tion of creation, refers merely to certain local phenomena which were occurrent in Asia, and that the command for the appearance of light, with the declaration of making the sun, the moon, and stars, meant only the causing of those luminaries to reappear upon that locality, by removing the darkness which aqueous vapor, an earthquake, or some other geological causes, might have produced ? We think not. We do not understand the authors of the several schemes of interpretation adverted to, as designing to make Moses speak the sentiments of modern philosophy, of which indeed he could have known nothing. This it would be impossible to do, to say nothing of the irreverence of such an attempt. Their principal aim seems to have been to show, that his narrative of the creation is admis- sive of an explanation, not inconsistent with such new discoveries ; and so to maintain its position, as a portion of the Word of God, which it most certainly is. We highly appreciate and most sin- cerely value this excellent motive, though we think the means which have been adopted by it, are unsatisfactory and erroneous. We believe that the whole difficulty, which these several interpre- tations have been invented to remove, lies entirely in mistaking the real design of the early chapters of Genesis ; and specially, in supposing the initial portion of them, to treat of the physical creation at all. The old, and what used to be received as the pure and sunple sense of this portion of the Divine Word, has been entirely up- rooted, so that the great mass of the professing Christian church, is, as we have before remarked, actually without any settled or authoritative opinion upon the subject : and enlarged minds have well perceived, that nothing satisfactory can be offered to its in- telligent acceptance, so long as it is considered tospeak of mun- dane things. These circumstances have originated the opinion within that church, and which is making favorable advancement among its people, that " it cannot be history — it may be poetry." The facts to which, as " poetry," it may be considered to relate, have yet to be unfolded. We concur with the sentiment that " it cannot be history : " — that is, it cannot be the history of the origination of the outer world with its physical inhabitants : nevertheless we think that it is history, . — the history of certain processes of the human mind (as intimated at the outset) by which it has succes- 3 26 ANTEBlLtrVUN illStORf. sively risen from darkness into light, — by which its feeble be^ft-» mngs of intellectual life, were developed into rnoro vigorous ac- tivity and greater excellence — by which a numerous and diversi- fied series of living affections, was brought into active existence ; and that finally, the whole process resulted in the production of that spiritual structure, which is described as having been in the image of God. It is, we most sincerely believe, the particulars of this general process, of which tiie first chapter of Genesis is the history : — a history of the rise and progress of those spiritual things, connected with the development of man into the Divine Image ; but written in a symbolical style, agreeably to the method prevalent among the ancients — a style founded in the relationship, which a high state of human excellence perceived to exist, between spiritual and natural things, and which general style has been adopted by God, as the true vehicle for all his revelations. The communication of spiritual intelligence is tlie chief end of God's Word. And, although the disclosure of certain information concerning the beginning of mundane things, may be considered as coming within the province of revelation, because without it, no absolute knowledge of such things can be attained ; yet the main purpose of the revelation vouchsafed to us is, not to teach God's arrangements in the laws and productions of outer nature, but to announce to us the order and operation of an inner life, — to furnish information concerning spiritual things, — to point out the wisdom, show the benignity, and exhibit the love of God for the souls of men. The Bible contains the moral and spiritual his- tory of our race, — that is, the history of the interior and undying things of man, and it speaks of other things in subordination to this object, and uses them solely for that purpose. The natural cosmogony of the universe is not given therein. Although this idea may be reluctantly received, science and criticism leave no choice in the matter. How, then, it may be asked, are we to understand the reasons which are given, for the ordination and keeping of the Sabbath ; namely, " In six days, the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it ? " (Exodus xx. 11.) This point deserves a moment's attention. The Israelitish people, at the time the commandments were given, had sunk very deeply into a gross and sensual condition. THE SEVENTH DAY. 2t They had scarcely any conception of spiritual truth, and were withheld from the wickedness and ignorance of open idolatry, more from the fear of consequences, than from any real knowl- edge, or love of God. The interior truths, expressed under the symbols of six days' creation, had even then long been mistaken for a matter-of-fact history ; and therefore, a reference to it (for some writing or memorial declaring it, was evidently known to them) as an apparent, and not as a genuine truth, became service- able and useful to a people circumstanced as they were j and who clung with such pertinacity, as all their subsequent history proves them to have done, to documentary and traditional sentiments, however erroneous, provided they had some association with their own antiquity. * Besides the reason for alluding to the six days' work in the commandment, founded on an apparent truth, and adopted in ac- commodation to the prejudices of the people, there is another cause founded on genuine truth, and suited to the intellectual dis- cernment of studious minds. The Sabbath was instituted for a sacred purpose ; it was to be a day in which spiritual things were to receive special and distin- guished attention on the part of man, because (as all the institu- tions essentially Israelitish were representative) it represented the peace and holiness of the Lord, in having .accomplished the work to which the first of Genesis relates, considered in its internal, which is its genuine, sense. When we see, what by and by we shall endeavor to prove, that that work was a spiritual process, by which, through six successive stages, humanity was developed into the image of God ; and when we farther remember, that such development must have been the Lord's own merciful work, then we shall be able to see the force and reasonableness of the argu- ment, which the commandment asserts. It refers to a process, * That the Scriptures contain a great variety of statements, which are mere adaptations to the prevailing ideas of the times in which they were produced, is well known. That this is the case in the matter referred to, seems evident, because it will hardly be pretended, that God had so to work during the six days of creation, as to experience fatigue and require repose upon the seventh. Moreover, in the repetition of the command- ment, given in Deuteronomy v., the above reason for the institution of the Sabbath is altogether omitted, and instead thereof, the sons of Israel were told, that it was to be kept, in remembrance of their having been delivered from servitude in Egypt ; which reason, historically, is a piu:e Accommodation to the ideas of the Israelites in respect to that event. 28 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, through which it had pleased the Lord to raise man into a state of spiritual excellence, and at the same time, regards this process as essential to the security of all the privileges, which the Sabbath not only represented, but which, as a selected portion of time, wa» to be employed as a means for upholding. The literal structure of the above reason, then, is in conformity with the literal struc- ture of the first of Genesis, because they both relate to the same spiritual fact, and conduce to the internal rest, peace, and sanc- tity of man. The people, at the tirate of the Exodus, had long- mistaken the outer sense of this latter document for its actual meaning ; but the reason adverted to was not written to confirm them in that error ; its true object was to recognize its spiritual design, and therefore, it is referred to in a suuilar style of expres- sion, — a style which inspiration, — considered as the utterance of tliose living sentiments, which were to have responses in per- petuated humanity, — preferred to adopt. These considerations show very satisfactorily, that the Mosaic description is not to be received as a circumstantial history of physical creation. The best minds have been compelled, by irre- sistible evidence, to abandon, as erroneous, the popular and long- standing view which has been cherished concerning it : and al- though great efforts have been made to sustain the idea of its cosmogonal character in some sense, yet it is evident, from the specimens of those efforts which have been adduced, that such senses are not those which Moses intended. But the giving up of such an interpretion of the narrative, by no means involves any impeachment of its Divine authenticity : that fact concerning it stands upon other grounds, and it is indicated, rather by the intel- lectual experiences of mankind, than by any agreeiii^nt of its statements with mundane phenomena. But rational investigation, and the appliances of science, have not only disturbed the erroneous interpretations, which liave so long weighed upon this portion of God's Word ; they, also, bring considerations, which extensively affect the supposed historical character of several succeeding chapters. For instance, how difficult is it to conceive, that Eve was really made from a rib, taken from Adam, during a deep sleep, induced upon him for the purpose ; — that a tree could produce the knowl- edge of good and evil ; — that a serpent was capable of speech^ and reasoned so sucqessfuUy with the woman, as to induce her to violate the command of God L DIFFICULTIES OP THE LITEHAL SENSE. 29 Moreover, in the fourth chapter, there is an indication of the existence of another race of men, besides those described as the descendants of Adam, and who are popularly regarded as the first progenitors of the human race. When Cain went forth from the face of the Lord, it is said that a mark was set upon him, lest any, finding him, should slay him. At that period, Cain was the only surviving descendant of Adam, who, with his mother. Eve, made only three, then in existence. Why then set a mark upon him, to prevent others from slaying him, if there were no other persons than his father and mother to perpetrate the deed ? Surely, the circumstance of imposing a mark for such a purpose, plainly indicates, to historical criticism, the existence of another race besides that of Adam. There is, also, another fact, leading to the same conclusion, related in the same chapter. Cain is de- scribed to have possessed a wife ; but there is no intimation of her origin : he also had a son, and built a city in the land of Nod ; which circumstance plainly indicates, that a number of persons must have been there collected, that some of them must have been acquainted with the arts, and many of them industriously employed in erecting required habitations. Further on, it is related, that the sons of God, who are commonly understood to have been angels, or at least, beings of some superior nature, fell in love with the daughters of men, and thereby originated a progeny that was mighty and valiant. We are also informed, that the ordinary pe- riod of human life extended over several hundred years, and that the Lord repented that he had made man upon the earth. These, and many other statements which could be easily selected, forbid both science and criticism to approach them, if they are to be received as real and credible history. This, however, was not its purpose. The meaning of these relations will be discussed in their proper place ; we can here only generally observe, that they, with all the other peculiarities recorded in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, were never in- tended to convey to mankind, any information respecting the nat- ural world, or the earthly history of its inhabitants. We believe that their true intention was to describe the moral and spiritual states, which distinguished the people of primeval times ; and that they are related in a historical form, because that was the method of speaking of such things, common to those early periods of civilized life. 3# W ANTEtHLUVlAN HISTORT. CHAPTER II. GEWERAL STBUCTURE OF THE NARRATIVE — CONTINUEDf. *' All who have treated of divine subjects, whether Greeks, or Barbarians^^ industriously involved the beginning of things, and delivered the truth in enigmas, signs, and symbols, in allegories and metaphors, and other Bvtch figures." — Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 1. v. p. 658. Gx. Ed. There are few facts better established by learned criticismy than that the histories, pretending to describe the commencement of the eastern and western nations of antiquity, are of a singii^ larly allegorical kind, partaking more of the spirit of mythology than history, and leaning rather to the character of poetic imagery than historic truth. The first written intimations which we have of the beginning of society, in India, Persia, and Egypt, are all of a mythological kind. If we examine the documents, which have come down to our own time, relating to the commencement of the Scythian, Celtic, and Scandinavian nations, the same fact is observable. And every one is aware how peculiarly applicable these remarks are, to what is said of the origin of the more recent nations of Greece and Rome. The city of Boetia, in the former^ is related to have been built by men grown from dragons' teeth, which Cadmus had sown for the purpose : and Rome is said to have been founded by Romulus, who, with his brother Remus, were rescued, in infancy, from the Tiber, and subsequently, suckled by a wolf. Nor are the statements made in connection with the beginning of our own country entirely freed from mythos : but no one regards them, and the others referred to, to be historically true, and yet every one must admit, that they had a significancy well understood, at the time they were originally conceived. It was evidently the genius of the people, in those times, to express some facts in fable. The fables, however, have remained, from their having acquired a permanency in writing, but their signifi- cance has perished, because this was not recorded, and also, be- cause the genius to which it was perceptible, has passed away. These facts are incontestable, and we are led from them to conclude that the documents of Genesis, popularly regarded as a description of the origin of the world, the beginning of humanity, and the first constitution and progress of society, are somewhat of a similar character, and that they describe the moral sentiments and religious conditions of men, through their corresponding images in nature. ANCIENT HISTORY ALLEGORICAL. 31 The peculiar genius of the people, by whom the mythological history of nations was constructed and understood, was but the remains of a very superior condition of human character. Their mythic narratives were, for the most part, expressed through the fanciful selection of arbitrary and conventional images. But in a more remote antiquity — nearer those times which the poets have described to be the golden age — men lived under the influence of more enlightened perceptions and sounder views. Their supe- rior states must have enabled them to see, in natural objects, the actual symbols of those divine and spiritual sentiments, out of which they had originated : and under the influence of such a fact, it is easy to imagine, that they would be led to express their own thoughts and sensations, by means of appropriate images drawn from the theatre of nature. And we conceive that it was in such times, and by men of this genius, by whom, under the Divine auspices, the early chapters of Genesis were produced. Even Josephus, Pharisee as he was, informs us that Moses " spoke some things wisely, but enigmatically, and under a decent alle- gory : " and in another place, he asserts, that after the description of the seventh day, " he began to talk philosophically," * that is, to express his history in some symbolical manner. The more deeply we look into ancient history, the more cer- tainly shall we be convinced, that the style of writing which then prevailed, was of an allegorical character, and that the outer things narrated can only be considered as the vehicles, employed for the expression of some inward sentiment and thought. Concerning this, many authorities could be produced from the " Fathers " and others, if it were needful for so clear a truth. Origen, however, plainly asserts, that the narratives, describing the making of woman and the conversation of the serpent, were allegories ex- pressive of some oth^ facts than what appear, f The period of actual history, apart from that contained in the Bible, cannot be traced, with any certainty, far beyond the period of the first Olympiad. The narratives produced before that time, whatever might have been their precise meaning, are found to be pregnant with marvellous relations. Subsequently, this method of expression fell into disuse. The genius of the people in after-ages, Decame less poetic and niore matter-of-fact : and every one now * See Antiquity of the Jews, Preface, sec. 4, chap. 1, sec. 1. T Cont, Cels. 1. iv. p. 187, Ed. Sp. Referred to by the Rev. S. Noble, Plen. Ins. p. 659. .^, 32 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. perceives that the wonders, indicated in the fragmental writings of antiquity which have come down to us, are not to be received in their literal sense. This has been the fate of those profane documents, because, not having been hallowed by the sentiments of religious respect, they have been subjected to other thinking. Yet the statements which are contained in the Bible narrations, before the time of Abram, are not less amazing; and mankind would long ago have ac- knowledged their mythic character, but for the powerful influence of a traditional opinion to the contrary. But this can have but little real weight, when it is remembered, that such traditions were originated by ecclesiastical authority, at a time when the true sig- nification of those writings had long been overlooked. It is well known, that there is a remarkable resemblance in points, between several events mentioned in acknowledged mythol- ogy, and some of the circumstances related in the early portions of Genesis : * as, for instance, between the flood of Deucalion, and that of Noah ; and between the Gigantes and Titanes of the Greeks, and the giants and mighty men spoken of in Genesis, vi. 4. It has been usual to regard such points of Attic and Oriental mythol- ogy as resemble the scripture narrations, to have been derived therefrom, and that the other descriptions, with which we find them associated, are the legendary embellishments of the respec- tive nations where they exist. This might have been the case. But if so, it may be considered as offering some proof, that the people esteemed such narratives (whether derived to them from traditional or documentary sources, matters not) as embodying some other idea than what is literally expressed. They would hardly have chosen what they believed to have been the actual facts, pertaining to a more ancient people, to express the mytho- logic history of themselves. They must have seen, in some meas- ure, the isoteric meaning of what they so selected, and thence its suitability for being incorporated into their own mystic relations. The extravagances of those relations, of course, render them in- credible as facts : nevertheless, they must have been designed to express som6 ideas and sentiments, readily understood at the time of their origination. The adoption of points to be found in scrip- ture narratives, into the fabulous relation of later times, evidently suggests that they were considered of a figurative character. * See Analysis of Ancient Mythology, by Jacob Bryant. And the Dis- sertations of Sir Wm. Jones in the Asiatic Researches. MEMORIALS OF THE DELUGE. 33 It is readily admitted, that mythological and traditional intima- tions of the deluge, are to be found among all nations. Sculptures among tiie Egyptian antiquities, and pictures among the more re- cent nations of Mexico and Peru, have been discovered, which are interpreted to be the memorials of that catastrophe. It is also said, that ceremonies and sacrificial rites were instituted for its commemoration among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Phcenicians, Greeks, Celts, and Scythians.* Inscriptions are collected, and even an ancient medal and a vase have been produced, having upon them objects allusive to the deluge, f These circumstances are commonly referred to, as affording the most triumphant proofs that the Noetic deluge was a flood of waters, in agreement with the literal sense of the narration. But we contend, that all these facts may be granted, and yet that conclusion be consistently denied. It is evident, that the narrative of the flood, points to a very awful circumstance, brought about by the wickedness of man. But the language, in which it was originally described, may still be figurative, and the evidences referred to, nothing more than the traditional indications of the event so related. All those legends and historical notices must have sprung from one locality and the same description; they, therefore, do not prove that the literal sense of such description is to be received as credible history : they only preserve some general reminiscences of the mode, in which the circumstance was originally related ; they do not ex- hibit its signification. That stands upon other ground, and has to be deciphered by other means. There cannot be any reasonable doubt, that the early portions of Genesis were the productions of a period, in which it was cus- tomary for mankind to express their religious states and sentiments in the form of allegory. If, then, those documents really did be- long to such a period, and were the performances of such a genius, it is evident that they must have partaken of such a style ; X and * Dr. Pye Smith, on Scripture and Geology. Second edition, p. 101. See also, Records of Creation. By John Bird Sumner, M. A. Second edition, p, 39. t Dr. Wiseman's Lectures on the Connection between Science and Re- vealed Religion. Second edition, pp. 321, 336, where engravings are inserted. X This argument is very beautifully stated in the following passage : *' Let it, for a moment, be supposed that it had pleased the Divine Majesty, 34 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. therefore, they are not to be understood in the sense which the letter conveys ; that would be a certain distortion of their true meaning. In referring the production of those remarkable documents, to the period in which that peculiar genius prevailed, we do not mean to insinuate that they are the mere fanciful results of that genius. We regard them as containing the inspiration of the Almighty, and venerate them as portions of the pure Word of God. What we intend by this reference is, that God was pleased to adopt, as the vehicle for his communications, the mode and style then prevalent with men, yet so regulating the expressions and mar- shalling the narrative, that it should contain no word, indicate no sentiment, declare no story, but what was the exact counterpart of some spiritual things. This characteristic, indeed, must be acknowledged to pervade the whole Word of God, though the representations that were se- lected, in those remote times, appear to have been more recondite, than those which were adopted at a latter period, in consequence of mankind having began to mistake their sense, or falsify their meaning. The Scriptures, peculiarly Israelitish, commence with the history of the house of Abram ; that, indeed, contains real facts as they are described; nevertheless, they are to be considered as the mediums for containing, and representatively expressing, those interior sentiments and spiritual ideas, which are proper to them as a Revelation. The mere literal facts and history can hardly, in themselves, be viewed as revelations : it would be unsatisfactory, to grant an immediate revelation of his authority and his grace to the Athenians, in the age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and for their use ; we may reverentially believe that, in such a case, the communication would have been expressed in the terms and phrases to which they had habituated themselves, and moulded upon a system of references to the natural scenery around them, to their modes of action in social life, and to their current notions upon all other subjects. Not only would the diction have been pure Greek, but the figures, the allusions, and the il- lustrations, of whatever kind, would also have been Attic, The He- braized style which was adapted to the people of Israel, would have failed to convey just sentiments to the men of Greece ; for though it would not have been absolutely unintelligible, the collateral ideas would have been misapprehended, false bye-notions would have insinuated themselves, and the principal sentiments, to inculcate which was the object of the whole process, would have been grievously distorted." — Dr. Pye Smith. Scrip-' iure and Geology, p. 239. I;- TH£ KAftilAfiVfi INSl^iREC. 35 i6 suppose that any other divine interference with their production took place, than what Was requisite to determine the particular points, which were to be stated as the true representations of spirit- ual realities, the disclosure of which must been their main object, considered as revelationa from God. But the character of the Bible narratives, anterior to the time of Abram, though equally divine, is observed to be very different in their literal structure, and some critics, from an apparent irreg- ularity in the arrangement, have considered them fragmentary selections, and others pronounce them to be distinct composi- tions. * However this may be, they are plainly the productions of another hand, than that which has written the history of the house of Abram ; and there is some reason to believe, that they formed a portion of a more ancient revelation from Gpd, than that which is now extant. Moses himself has intimated, that there were books of divine authority among mankind, antecedent to his time. He has referred to them by name, cited passages from them, and embodied them in his own Pentateuch. Thus, after describ- ing the several joumeyings of the sons of Israel, and particularly their removal from "Zared to the other side of Arnon, he writes : " Wherefore it is said, in the Book of the wars of Jehovah, what he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and the streams of the brook that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab." f And again, after announcing the conquests of the Israelites over the Ammonites and the villages of Heshbon, he writes, " Wherefore say the Enunciations, [Hammoshtlim, i. e., the books of the Enunciations, as we say Prophets, for the books of the Prophets, which idea is obscured by the common translation, " They that speak in proverbs,") " come unto Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared : for there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the city of Sihon ; it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon." (Num- bers xxi. 14, 27.) These passages announce the existence of two * See Vater's Fragment Hypothesis : Eichhorn's Document Hypoth- esis, and Dr. P. Smith's Geology and Scripture, Note, p. 202. t Numbers xxi. 13. As a fact, bearing upon the great antiquity of the Book here cited from, Dr. Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi College, Cam- bridge, has remarked " that in this short passage, we find a verb (vahab) which occurs no where else in the Bible." — Hebrew Hieroglyphics, p. 9. It is considered to have been a word obsolete in the time of Moses, and thus that the book in which it occurs, must have been a production long anterior to his time. 3d antediluvian HtStORt. books, and that one of them was distinguished by a historical, and the other by a prophetical character. In other portions of the Word, we find citations from another work, called the " Book of Jasher," and the writers apply what they have quoted from it, to events which were then in the course of being accomplished. (Joshua X. 12, 13 ; 2 Sam. i. 17, 18.) That those ancient books were produced under divine superin- tendence, and designed for the spiritual guidance of the people to whom they were originally vouchsafed, seems evident, from the formal manner in which they are referred to, and the authority con- ceded to them. That one of them was constructed on the prin- ciple of expressing mental things in a historical manner, plainly appears from the passage that is quoted from it. As, then, it is certain, that the early portions of Genesis are distinguished by a peculiarity of composition, proving them to be documents of an en- tirely different character from those to which they are prefixed, there can be little doubt of their having originally formed a part of those more ancient divine records, the once-existence of which is certain from the fragments which remain.* But this conclusion does not rest merely upon the probabilities of rational inference : there is some scriptural attestation of the fact. The fifth chapter of Genesis commences with the declara- tion, " This is the Book of the generations of Adam," and there- upon follows, in a style agreeable to those times, a record of all his descendants up to Noah and his sons. Doubtless this Book of Generations was a written document, containing the circumstances which the author of the Pentateuch has cited, and acknowledged in this instance, as we have seen he did in others. As, tlien, there is testimony sufficient to show that the Antedilu- vian History in the Bible, was produced among a people whose genius led them to express their perceptions of interior and spirit- ual truth, by means of external and natural symbols, occasionally arranged in the form of historic narrative, we think we may most fairly and reasonably arrive at the general conclusion, that those documents were never intended to record the origin of mundane things, to express the phenomena of matter, or to deliver the social, civil or political history of the first men. Their true purpose is of * •' We have no slight reasons for supposing that Moses compiled the chief parts of the Book of Genesis, by arranging and connecting ancient memoranda, under the divine direction." —Dr. Pye Smith. Scrip, and Oto. Second edition, p. 202. ONLY THE COMMON VIEWS OBJECTED TO. 37 «L much more sacred and religious cliaracter, which we shall en- deavor to show. We shall, also, in addition to the general re- marks which have now been made, venture to adduce, in their proper places, such other particular reasons for the conclusion ar- tived at, concerning the figurative structure of the Antediluvian History, as the specific points may seem to require. It is, however, always to be borne in mind, that those reasons are designed to weigh only against the yulgar apprehension of its literal sense ; and also, that in no case, are they to be considered as questioning the divine origination of the documents, or suggesting doubts as to their spiritual value and purpose. We have deemed it requisite to make these statements, because there are some minds, who suppose that the rejection of a long standing interpretation, is the same thing as throwing discredit upon the documents. Against this we solemnly protest, We renounce nothing concerning those narratives, but that common opinion concerning them, which every sincere student has found it difficult to hold. We receive them as a genuine portion of the veritable Word of God, and therefore, we regard them as a Divine Revelation concerning celestial and spiritual things, and look upon every single expression they con- tain, to be significant of some interior affection and thought proper to man, in the process of his religious development, or attendant upon him during the calamity of his fall. The style, in which these documents ai-e composed, is the fir^t of which we have any account, and perhaps it is the best adapted for the embodiment of divine communication ; because it appears to have been a method of expression, which prevailed among an orderly and illuminated people, who enjoyed the advantages of in- terior perception, and displayed an activity of intellectual principle, very superior to any who have lived in subsequent ages. This was plainly referred to by Hannah, when she said, " Speak ye what is high, let what is ancient come forth from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge ;" (1 Sam. ii. 3 ; Improved Transla- tion :) and also, by the Psalmist, when he said, " Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable ; I will utter dark sayings of old ; which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us." (Psalm Ixxviii. 1, 2, 3.) TJj^ere are two modes of speaking of the Scriptures, frequently adopted, to which, in concluding these remarks, it will be useful to refer. The first is, that the statements of the Scriptures must be im- 4 3» ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY* plicitly and reverentially received, whether we understand thena or not ; and that it is mere presumption for man, with his carnal mind and puny intellect, to attempt to comprehend those wonder- ful things which it has pleased God to deliver, rather for his faitJs than his knowledge ! This may be a pious submission to divine authority, taking its rise in religious feeling, but it is certainly mistaken in its application* We have no doubt that such obedi- ence is very becoming, provided it be ficcompanied with intelli- gence ; but in the case before us, it wants the ingredient necessary to enlighten and give it value. Those who can satisfy themselve^? with such notions, are, therefore, beyond our reasonings. We can render them little service. They have faith for any thing — but that free and sensible inquiry into the legitimate meaning of God's Word, which we regard to be the duty and prerogative of man. The second mode, is that which asserts, that the Scriptures aye " very simple in their structure ; " and describes them as being for " simple minds," " plain readers," " the common people," " the un- learned," and so forth : thereby insinuating that those explanations are to be suspected which require labor, research, and intellectual culture for their discovery and comprehension. It is readily granted, that the Scriptures are so written, as to be serviceable even to the lowest states of human apprehension, but we do not believe that such a state apprehends the whole truth, contained in Siny one passage that may be presented to it.* There is just so much seen as the intellectual condition will admit of, and no more. The highest disclosures of divine wisdom, are not to be discerned by the lowest states of the human mind. The simple may receive the Word in simplicity, but the wise man understands it in wisdom, and the latter makes the nearest approaches to its true meaning. The apostle declared the rule when he said, " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Cor. xiii. 11.) The word is rightly viewed when it is regarded, not only as capable of improving the heart, but also of enlightening the un- derstanding : and therefore, its wisdom must be adapted to all the advancing conditions of the human mind. It is the wise and friendly character of revelation, not only to assist man in his in- tellectual elevation, but likewise to accompany him in his progress, * " Of those who actually read the Scriptures, multitudes are very im- perfectly able to understand most of what they read." — Timothy Dwigh^^ LL. D. Sermon 152, MAN IGNOBANT BUT INNOCENT. 39 and urge him onwards by calling attention to superior heights not yet attained. If we do not regard the Word in this light, we over- look much that is solemn and interesting in its objects : in such a case, its reality vanishes like a meteor, and its spirituality perishes like a dxeana. CHAPTER IIL ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. — THE SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. — HIS DUTY AND PREROGATIVE AS AN IMAGE OF GOO, — THE EXCELLENCY OF EVERY THING THAT WAS MADE, ** The foundations of religion and virtue being laid in the mind and heart, the secret dispositions and genuine acts of which are invisible, and knovm only to a man's self ; therefore, the powers and operations of the mind can only be expressed in ^^?s to come. Moreover, the Lord has told us that " His words are spirit and life," (John vi. 63,) a sentiment applicable to the whole Word, and not merely to the context in which it occurs ; and con- sequentlyy to the antediluvian narrations. The internal or spiritual sense of those ancient documents is their only sense, — at least, we have not succeeded in discovering any other: that sense agrees with the designs of revelation, to disclose ideas upon spiritual subjects, and its truths are felt to be so, because they reach our human consciousness — they echo to the voice of intuition and express the sensations of experience. We have stated that the development — the spiritual creation * Adam was so called, as critics and commentators suppose, from the red earth of which it is imagined he was formed. — Robert807i's Clai\ Pent. p. 16. t *' Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and prov- idence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable ; yet they are not sufficient to give that knowl- edge of God and of his Will, which is necessary unto Salvation." — Westminster Confession of Faith, Art. I. SPIRITUAL SENSE THE ONLY SENSE, OSI of tlie human principles of religious life and actions, treated of under the figure of a natural creation, was a reality possessed and enjoyed by the man of the most ancient times.* The narrative teaches us not only the order by which, from being "void" and dark, he was filled with spiritual principles and gifted with Intel lectual light, but it chronicles a fact which distinguished him as an early inhabitant of our world. It is historically true, understood in reference to his internal state. He was actually raised into that spiritual and celestial eminence, so forcibly expressed by being in the image and likeness of God. But in what sense are we to view this man ? Is he to be con- sidered merely as an individual, or to be regarded as a community .'' We think that the latter and not the former is the true idea con- nected with this subject ; and we believe this idea to be clearly recognized in verbal expressions, as well as in more general state- ments. Although the history is not to be taken in its literal sense, yet its language and intimations are constructed on the idea of extant society, and they may fairly be referred to, as affording evidence upon this question, which must be received as important by those who insist upon the literal sense only. There are several circum- stances so mentioned, as to imply the existence of society apart from that of Adam, or his posterity. When, according to the common reading of these narratives, there were only three inhab- itants upon the earth, we find that Cain, after the fratricide he had committed, said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear — and it shall c«me to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. — A mark also was set upon him, lest any one finding him should kill him." (Gen. iv. 13, 14, 15.) These statements evidently imply the existence of society : why should Cain fear every one that found him, if there had been none to find him but his parents ? and of what use could have been the mark set upon him, if there had been none but Adam and his wife to see it and be warned by it.f They must have known him without such sign. These cir- * "When you talk of a man, I would not have you tack flesh and blood to the notion, no, nor those limbs neither which are made of them ; these are but tools for the soul to work with : and no more a part of the man than an axe or a plane is a piece of a carpenter." — Collier. t This difficulty has long been acknowledged ; but it is usually met by supposing that Adam might have had other sons and daughters, before this time, whose births are not mentioned, and from whom such a popu- lation might have descended. — See Dodd, Bishop Patrick^ Rev. J. Hew- 70 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, cumstances show, not only that society then existed, but also, that it was influenced by a moral sentiment, which could reject and condemn a felon's crime. But there is another fact equally strong, bearing upon this point. When Cain went into the land of Nod, he is said to have had a wife and built a city, which he named after his first-born son, Enoch. (Gen. iv. 17.) If there had not been society, where could he have obtained his wife, or procured the workmen necessary for such erections ? Moreover, of what use could have been such a. city, if there had been no society to inhabit it ? From these facts, adverted to before, (page 29,) it is fairly to be inferred, that a peo- ple were now in existence, for whom no relationship can be traced to Adam, and of whose origin we have no history. The employ- ment of Abel, as a keeper of sheep is, also, favorable to the same conclusion : for what else but the existence of society could have originated such an occupation. Now, if there were such a people, and of this we thinlc there can be no well-founded doubt, why may not Adam indicate the exist- ence of a community, who had been gradually separated from the general mass, and had induced upon them those excellences of character, to which we have adverted. That which is apparently predicable of an individual, may with equal propriety, be said of a number of persons: and therefore, the narratives relating to Adam, instead of being the personal history of one man, may be the spiritual history of a Iiighly cultivated people, with whom a church existed ; and, because it is the oldest of which we have any record, may be called the most ancient church. There is surely nothing irrational in this inference. But is there any more direct proof of such an idea ? We think there is^ and that it is aiforded by the very name. When the Lord said, " Let us make man;" the proposition could not refer to the individual, but to the lett, r. Pye Smith. Scrip. § Geo. Sec. ed, pp. 93, 94. 82 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. been felt by large and pious minds ; and commentators wIh> have been wishful to explain, have been compelled to apologize. It is therefore necessary, to take some other ground — ground that may be more fertile in spiritual thought and rational satisfaction. Trees are frequently mentioned in the Word, in a purely figura- tive sense. They constantly refer to man, or to the things per- taining to him. It is said of the righteous man, .that " he sliall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season^" (Psalm i. 3;) but of the ungodly, that tliey are as " trees whose fruit withereth." (Jude 12.) Now, a man Is either good or bad by virtue of such principles, and it was of the operation of these, and their production in the characters of men^' that the Lord said, " Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt. vii. 17, 20.) But the principles of good and evil are very various ; and therefore, we find some of them particularized by trees of a specific character. Tims, the Lord said, " All the trees of tlie field 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." (Ezek. xvii. 24.) Here, by the " trees of the field," are denoted all the living perceptions of genuine truth; hence it is said of them, that they should know such things. To " bring doAvn the high tree," denotes the humiliation of intellectual pride ; to " exalt the low tree," signifies the elevation of unpretending knowledge ; to " dry up the green tree," is to bring desolation upon faith alone ; and "to make the dry tree to flourish," is to render tlie. solid knowledge of truth fruitful in all manner of good works of love and use. It was because the fig-tree was merely green with leaves and destitute of fruit, representing faith without charity, that the Lord said, " Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for- ever. And presently the fig-tree withered awuy." (Matt. xxi. 19.) And mere truth in the mind is as a dry tree, when it exists only as an intellectuality : without the moisture and flexibility of love, it is severe and hard, nevertheless, it contains witliin itself tlie elemental properties of spiritual fruitfulness ; and thus the capa- bilities of realizing the declaration of the Psalmist, that "the trees of the Lord are full of sap.'''' (Psalm civ. 16.) It is because trees in general, signify such mental things as belong to the inte- riors of the mind, and because both the one and the other are so various, that so manv species of trees are mentioned in the Word, jOTHAm'^S PARABLfi. ^3 GYCTy species signifying somewhat different. Of this we have a striking- and beautiful example in the parable of Jotham, in which the trees are described as going forth to anoint a king over them. (Judges ix. 8-15.) The proximate historical sense of that paralile 1-elates to the circumstances, in which the people of Israel had then placed them- selves. The trees in search of a king, represented the people in their selection of a ruler. The refusal of the olive, the fig, and the vine-trees, denoted that superior men had declined to accept the government of such a stiff-necked and rebellious people ; while its reception by the bramble, was designed to express the consent of Abimelech, who was a base-born and treacherous man. But this could not be all that was intended to be stated by a parable, which owed its origin to inspiration, and was designed to be a revelation. That sense only connects it Avith the outer and worldly history of a bygone people. As such it can only be the vehicle for bringing down some more interior truths, which may apply, and be instructive, to all future ages of the church. Viewed under this aspect, the trees which were in search of a king to anoint over them, represented the natural state of man, mentally acknowledging that some principle ought to reign in the mind and rule the conduct. The application made to the olive, the fig, and the vine-trees, denotes its confession of the fitness of celestial, spiritual, and doctrinal truth, to perform this duty : but their refusal of that office, signifies that the natural state of man is such, that however much he may make a mental acknowledg- ment of the fitness of such principles to rule him, he has as yet no spiritual state really capable of submitting to their mild and valuable laws. The only government which can be brought to bear, effectually, upon such a condition, consists in- those appear- ances of truth, which the letter of the Word exhibits, and in which God is spoken of as being fierce and angry, forbidding and unlovely : and these appearances of truth are the bramble. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, (bramble,) to represent those appearances of truth in the letter of the Word, by which natural men were to be led and governed. Thus, we see, that all the trees referred to in the parable, sig- nify different classes of mental perceptions ; and so it is with innumerable other cases, which could be readily cited from the Word. But enough may have been said to prepare us for admit- ting, that the trees of Eden must have been mentioned, to repre- 84 ANrEDlLt/VIAN HISTOfir. sent those varied and beautiful perceptions of truth, which filled with light and loveliness the minds of the people of the most ancient church. By perception is here meant that interior capa- bility by which the men of those times were enabled to aeknowl- edgfe, that truth is truth and good is good, as soon as such things were presented to their thought, and so to dispense with those reasoning processes, which, as it is well known, the men of after- times have been compelled to use, in order to procure such Imowl- edge. This perceptive state was that referred to by the Lord, when he said, " Let your communications be, Yea, yea ; nay, nay ; " the reasoning state, is intimated in that other declaration, " Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil," (Matt. v. S7.) Reasoning is the result of an obscurity of thought, which is among the evils of the fall ; perception perished in that calamity ; true Christianity is adapted to restore the blessing, and re-plant the trees which were its ancient subjects. The trees of the garden of Eden, then, were the perceptions and principles proper to the high intelligence of those ancient people. The trees " pleasant to the sight," denoted the internal perceptions of heavenly truth ; because all such truth is pleasant to the intellectual eye : and the trees which were " good for food," signify the internal perceptions of heavenly good: because all such good is the food and nutrition of spiritual and celestial life. These were among the distinguished inheritances of those supe- rior men. But their most remarkable perceptions are described to us as " The tree of life in the midst of the garden,* and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." It never would have been said that the Lord planted these two trees in the garden, one of which was to prove, a stumbling block to its inhabitants, unless the cir- cumstance had been intended to sustain some spiritual representa- tion, consistent with the true order of divine providence, in respect * At the 3rd verse of the 3rd chapter, the tree of knowledge is spoken of as being in the Tnidst of the garden. The reason for these different statements is this. So long as Adam continued in his integrity, the tree of life — the perception of love, was his inmost principle; but when he declined therefrom, as the third chapter describes him to have done, then the tree of knowledge — the perception of truth, — became his inmost principle. The change which had taken place in his state altered the position of the trees, and so indicates the gradual manner in which he fell. TREES OF LIFE AND KNOWLEDGE. 85 to the interior things of men. It is easy to see that the life," * which is here referred to, must mean the mmost influences of holy men ; and the " knowledge " spoken of, must be that very knowl- edge which had contributed to raise them into that elevated condition. Life is an invisible, intangible possession, evidencing its exist- ence by the production of consequences upon our organization ; it is a growing and fruit-bearing principle in man, in which respect it may be called a tree ; faint, indeed, and feeble in its begin- nings, but successively sending out more vigorous developments and powers. So, the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil is a mental acquisition, gradually putting forth its tender shoots, and stronger limbs, attain- ing greater height, and showing more luxuriance, both in its utter- ances and its acts ; in which respects it, also, is most aptly likened to a tree. Now, those inmost influences, which are here denominated the tree of lives, consist in love, — love to God, and love to man, — loves which derive their essential quality from the Lord, and so induce an intellectual faith concerning Him. Every one, who will seriously reflect upon this subject, must conclude, that such loves are not only the life of a religious man's will ; but also, the life of his understanding. Love is the primary life of such a man ; without this, there could be no living faith ; man could not think, if he were not first influenced by love to do so ; he could not act, if the love of action were removed. What- soever a man thinks, believes, and does, proceeds from love, as its living cause. He is senseless, thoughtless, inanimate, and dead, to every thing he does not love. As his love grows cold, his thoughts wax torpid ; but if his love inflames, his imagination is illuminated, his utterances become forcible, and his action ener- getic. Whatever a man loves pre-eminently, he thinks contin- ually, and it will more or less display itself in every act. The reason for all this is, because human love is the very life of the human character. The love of God, by man, is the first great duty of all religion, and it is plainly intended by Him to be in the midst of every other excellence ; and thus it is a tree of life in the midst of the garden — a tree, because of its growing and fruit-bearing * Chaiyim — lives. The plural form is used in the original, because the religious life of the man, here treated of, was displayed under a two- fold aspect, viz., the life of his affections, and the life of thought. 8 86 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTOKY. qualities, and a tree of life, because it imparts animation to every thought and every duty.* It is reasonable to suppose, that the love of God is the ruling life of angels ; and if so, how proper is it to be spoken of as the central life of celestial men — the life that was in the midst of their intelligence — their intellectual garden. That this is a cor- rect view of the subject is evident, not only from its approving itself satisfactorily to our reason, but from the circumstance of the tree of life being yet extant, and the fruit thereof, conditionally, offered to the acceptance of universal man. In the Revelations it is written, that the Lord said, " To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the para- dise of God." (Rev. ii. 7.) To " overcome " means the success- ful resistance of what is evil ; and then, " to eat of the tree of life," plainly denotes, to be filled with the good of love, which is said to be in the midst of the paradise of God, to denote, that it is the inmost principle -of all heavenly intelligence and truth. Seeing, then, that the tree of life was significant of the good of love to the Lord, as it existed in the most ancient church, we are the more readily prepared to accept the idea, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was representative of all the truth of faith respecting him. The proposition, that the truth of faith is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, at once affects us as a lucid fact, which reasonings could not brighten, but might obscure. The solid knowledge of the pre-eminently religious man is, gen- uine truth, and this is the foundation of his faith ; so, that while his love of God is his " tree of life," his faith in God is his " tree of knowledge." These are the two essential things of true reli- gion with the human race, and thus we learn, as it were in the compass of a nutshell, the bright and practical ideas intended to be represented to man by those two trees. The reason why the eating of one of them was prohibited, we wiU show in another place. * Philo says, ** By the tree of life is metaphorically meant love to God, the greatest of virtues, by which the soul is rendered immortal ; " and by •* the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is signified that prudence which discriminates between things that are by nature opposite and contrary." — De Mundi Opifcio. Maimonides calls the law, " a tree of life." — De Pcenitentia, ix. sec. 2. THE RIVER OF EDEN, ETC. 87 CHAPTER VII. THE RIVER OF EDEN, AND ITS BEING PARTED INTO FOUR HEADS. " The fairest test of a theory is its a'Rplication to the solution of a Phe- nomenon." — John Bird Sumner, M.A., Records of Creation. Second Edition, p. 235. If Eden and its garden were not intended to express geo- graphical positions of the earth, and if the trees of the garden did not mean productions of the vegetable kingdom, but that all these things are mentioned to signify internal states and principles, belonging to a highly cultivated condition of religious humanity ; then, it is easy to infer, that by the river and its partings, are not to be understood natural waters, but the source and order, whence the several degrees of their intelligence were to be preserved in growth and fruitfulness. They, who could compare a highly cultivated mind to a skilfully planted garden, and clearly perceive the general analogy existing between them, could, also, easily describe the more particular con- dition of such a mind, by some other more particular circumstances, which such a garden would require for the maintenance of its fer- tility and beauty. When such a people t9,lked of lands and rivers, in connection with the spiritualities of religion, it was for the pur- pose of giving them a representative significance of internal things. They spoke of the geography of nature to express the conditions of intellect. They knew that the world of nature was in corre- spondence with the world of mind. Nor has this idea entirely vanished from the church. How common it is for Christians to speak of Zion, Canaan, and Jordan, to signify some internal and religious things. In such cases they do not think of the moun- tain, land, or river, but some spiritual state, which they are con- ceived to signify. They to whom the magnificence of nature was as a theatre, representing the gorgeous things of spiritual and heavenly life — they who could " Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing," would not only speak of the general condition of the mind, by some general resemblance in the world, but they would represent its particular states, by some particular features of physical nature. To such a people, a river, with its streams, Avould be eminently suggestive. In after-times, the beauty which they confer upon OO ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. the landscape, the fertility which they induce upon their banks, their gentle flow, and sky-reflecting qualities, have originated poetic thought and writing: but the men of the most ancient times, saw in such things something deeper than the modern poet ; they beheld in such objects tliose interior and spiritual realities, which are the soul and origin of poetry. With them, the thought of a natural river was instantly changed into the idea of wisdom, and the varieties of wisdom they would indicate by giving names to its streams.* We need not descend into secular history for evidence of this fact ; it is plentifully recognized in the Sacred Scriptures, there being numerous passages constructed on the cir- cumstance of such a relationship being perceived. Those who are in the satisfactions arising from divine instruction, are said " to drink of the river of God's pleasures." (Psalm xxxvi. 8.) The waters, also, which the prophet saw issuing from the house which he beheld in vision, are described to have successively deepened, until they became a river that could not be passed, (Ezekiel 1 -5,) to show how the divine truths, which are proper to the Lord's church, are continually heightening, until they attain that eleva- tion of wisdom, which no man can pass. Again, the Psalmist says, " There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God : " (Psalm xlvi. 4 :) where, by a river, is meant the divine wisdom of the Holy Word, and the " streams whereof," the nu- merous truths which descend therefrom ; and these are said to " make glad the city of God," because they are productive of delight and happiness to the church. There is a remarkable similarity, in general idea, between this passage and that which says, " A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." (Gen. ii. 10.) "The garden" is as "the city of God;" the "river" and " streams," as the " wisdom and truths " which impart gladness and refreshing. It is likewise written, that " the earth is watered with the river of God," (Psalm Ixv. 9 ;) which spiritually means, that the external man is rendered fertile, in his works of use, through the inflowings of divine wisdom from the Word. John said that he was shown " A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God." (Rev. xxii. 1.) Here, the * The fables concerning the river Styx, Charon crossing the Stygian Lake, and the consecration of the fountains of Pindus, Helicon, and Parnassus to the Muses, with many other mythological intimations referring to rivers, their sources, and results, all took their rise from this perception. SPIRITUAL MEANING OF A RIVER. 89 *^ pure river of water of life," plainly denotes the genuine truths of the Holy Word. It is these which impart spiritual life to man : Hence the Lord said, " The water, i. e., the truth, tliat I shall give him, (the man who comes to him,) shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John iv. 14.) Every one may perceive that it can be nothing else but divine wisdom which proceeds as a river from the throne of God, and also, that its pur- poses must be to secure salvation and eternal life to all who will receive it. It is said to be clear as crystal, to denote that it is as pure as spiritual illumination can perceive it. Now, it will be observed, that the river of Eden is without a name : yet, as its uses were to water the garden and keep it in fertility, it may reasonably be considered as the river of life, which was the inflowing of wisdom from the Lord, in order to maintain, among the most ancient people, their state of religious eminence in its integrity and greatness. The reason why this river is spoken of without a name is, probably, because it repre- sented the divine wisdom, as it is in itself, and which, as such, is inexpressible to finite thought. It is only when this river of wis- dom becomes parted, by entering into the human mind, and there presenting itself to the distinct faculties by which it is distinguished, that it will admit of nominal description, because it is only then that we obtain distinct perceptions of it. Hence, it was only when the river entered the garden that it was " parted," it was then that it " became into four heads," which were respectively called, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrat. It must be admitted, that divine wisdom, as it is in itself, cannot fall into finite apprehension ; and every one must see, that, in order tx) its being understood at all by man, it must enter into some degree of his mind. These degrees are several ; and divine wis- dom is designed for all these, and to affect them all in the way of rendering them fertile in the things of use. These degrees, in general, are spoken of as three, and they consist of celestial, spir- itual, and natural ; but, there is also the rational degree, which exists between the spiritual and natural': this is a medium princi- ple, which communicates between the scientific things which act upon the mind from without, and the intellectual perceptions which operate from within ; and thus, in some measure, it belongs to both. The celestial, pertains to the udll and its affections ; the spiritual, to the understanding and its thoughts ; the natural, to sdentifics and such common knowledges as are observable from 8* 90 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. the light of the world. The rational belongs to each of the latter two, and its office, in religious things, is, as it were, to open a door to let in spiritual influence upon the natural mind. These, then, are the degrees or principles of mind, which the river of divine wisdom is intended to affect with its fertilizing power. The will, so as to preserve in it the orderly affections of love ; the understanding, with the view of keeping in it the il- luminated intelligence of truth; the reason, for the purpose of keeping it pure and open for the descent of interior thought into exterior cognizance ; and the sdentijk, in order to exalt its purposes of use. This, also, is the order in which divine wisdom descends into celestial men, and so exercises its benign purpose upon their whole character ; and these are the things signified by the river after it entered the garden, and then became parted into four heads, the streams from which are called Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrat.* These names, as Hebrew expressions, are, in their literal sense, significant of ideas which bear very closely upon the spirit- ual meaning they were intended to sustain. Thus, by Pison is literally meant a changing or extending stream ; but spiritually, it denotes the influence of divine wisdom upon the will and its affections : through this the will is continu- * Fison and Gihon are utterly unknown to geography, and the best scholars, in oriental languages, now consider them only as appellations signifying a stream in general : in this sense they may easily be seen as a beautiful figure of the inflowing of different graces into the human mind. Hiddekel, is commonly believed to be the Tigris. But about this there is no certainty. Scientific geography cannot reconcile the features of that river with the scriptural account of Hiddekel. Etymological resemblances, rather than geographical features, have led to that opinion. It is thought to be the Tigris, because this river in Aramaean is called Digla, in Ara- bic Diglat, in Zend Teger, in Pelvi Tegera, whence it is said have arisen both the Aramaean and Arabic form to which is to be traced the Hebrew DeJcel, divested of its prefix Hid, which means rapid, so that Hid-dekel signifies the rapid Tigris. Phrat is said to be the Euphrates, for similar reasons among others, into which we need not enter. The scriptural ac- count however of Hiddekel and Phrat is, that they were but branches of another river that flowed in Eden, and which was divided in the garden. The geographical facts concerning the Tigris and Euphrates, are that they take their rise in the mountains of Armenia, fifteen miles apart, and so do not answer to the sacred description. The reason is, because the scriptural account is not given for geographical purposes. It was written among a very ancient people, with whom, there is much evidence to prove, it was customary to compare wisdom to a river, and to represent its par- ticular influences upon the mind by streams with descriptive appellations. PISON, HAVILAH AND ITS RICHES. 91 ally changing its quality by an upward ascent in holy things, and so directing its affections in the way of performing more extended uses. Every one sees that these must be the results of such an influence, and also, that information concerning it, comes within the scope and purpose of revelation to disclose. The will is the inmost of the human faculties, and it was created for the reception and throne of love or goodness. But love or goodness requires illumination from a stream of wisdom, in order to direct its im- pulse, regulate its attachment, and disclose its duties. Love with- out wisdom would be a blind feeling. It is by truth that good is taught and led into its activity. Good could not be developed, if truth did not teach us what it was. We learn what is virtuous by the precepts which inform us ; but truth completes its work, only when it fixes the good which it inculcates, as an enlightened af- fection in the will. This, then, is what is meant by the influence of divine wisdom upon the will and its affections, of which Pison is significant. Hence it is said to have encompassed the whole land of Havilah,* where there is gold, to inform us that it includes all the characteristics of the vnll that are genuinely good. Every excellence of the human character arises out of the divine influ- ences upon the human will, when disposed to love, and love is spiritual gold, more or less pure, according to the exalted nature of the objects towards which it is directed ; in this case, the gold is said to have been good, to express that its direction was tovrards the Lord ; it, therefore, may be taken as a precise definition of its meaning. But, besides gold, there were also " bdellium and the onyx-stone," f to represent the truth and the faith that were in cor- respondence with that love. Every one must have noticed that gold and precious stones are frequently mentioned in the Word, to represent the spiritual riches of goodness and truth. There is a perceptible analogy between such natural and spiritual things. Pure gold is among the most valuable of worldly possessions, and so it is a fit representative of that genuine good, which is the most precious of all heavenly gifts. * There is nothing known Of this land beyond conjecture. The word Havilah means to bring forth ; this is what the divine wisdom is intended to accomplish : — to bring forth whatever is good and lovely. t Dr. A. Clarke says, " That it is impossible to say what is the prefiise meaning of the original words ; and at this distance of time and place, it is of little consequence "(! !) — of little consequence to know the precise meaning of what God has caused to be written in his Word for our in- struction ! 92 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. It is on this account that the Lord said, " I council thee to buy of me, gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich." (Rev. iii. 18.) And the Prophet, when describing the decline of good among the people, said : " How is the gold become dim ! how is the most fine gold changed ! " (Lam. iv. 1.) The genuine church, the New Jerusalem, is described to be a City of Pure Gold, for no other reason than to represent the genuine good, by which it will be in- fluenced, and of which its establishment will be productive. So, likewise, precious stones, because of the difference in their resplendence, are significant of truths in their diversified brilliancy. The twelve precious stones, which were the urim and thummim on Aaron's ephod, represented the divine truth in all its vast and magnificent variety, and they were set in gold, and worn upon the breast, to signify that they originated in love. (Exodus xxviii.) The foundations of the New Jerusalem were " garnished with all manner of precious stones," (Rev. xxi. 19 ;) to signify that the real Church of God is grounded upon every pure and genuine truth. So that, by the gold and precious stones, which were in the land of Havilah, are denoted, the aflfection of love with its correspond- ing truths, implanted in the interiors of the mind. 'This is particu- larly confirmed by the statement of the Prophet, who, when treating of man in the possession of heavenly riches, says, " Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God ; every precious stone was thy covering ; " (Ezekiel xxviii. 12, 13 ;) such, then, is the condition of the will of the celestial man or church, treated of under the generic name of Adam. Again, by Gihon is literally meant a stream or valley of grace ; but it spiritually signifies the influence of divine wisdom upon the understanding, and through which it attains intellectual perception as heavenly graces. But what is the purpose of this influential grace ? Certainly, it is the purification and enlargement of human thought. It is when a stream of divine wisdom descends into our understanding, that we are enabled to think with clearness and perspicuity upon things of a spiritual and heavenly nature. In this, we are at once enabled to perceive ^lat truth is truth and good is good, when they are presented to our consideration and accept- ance : and when this is effected, Gihon is said to compass the whole land of Cush,* to inform us that it includes all the characteristics of * Cush, the Hebrew. Our translation has it Ethiopia, because the Sep- tuagint rendered it by AlQionla, and the Vulgate by EtJiiopia, which has been followed by most all succeeding versions. But there is no satisfac- HIDDEKEL AND ITS INFLUENCES. 93 the understariding, and renders it fertile in thought and knowledge. The land of Cush is here mentioned, to signify the faculty of un- derstanding, much in the same way that Zion and Canaan are sometimes referred to, in the sense of holy and spiritual things. This faculty, before it comes under the influence of the divine wisdom, is dark ; and Cush, by which it is here represented, literal- ly signifies what is black ; it is, therefore, an appropriate symbol of that faculty, requiring to be surrounded with a stream of spirit- ual light, and which is described to have taken place. But thirdly, by Hiddekel is literally meant a sharp voice, and thus it becomes an apt representative of that stream of divine wis- dom which illuminates the reason. Reason, considered in itself, is an obscure principle, which requires to be sharpened by the light of revelation before it can know any thing of spiritual things. The Sages of Greece and Rome never discovered by it, any of the genuine truths of religion, immortality, or heaven ; it attains such knowledges only so far as it is illustrated by revelation. The very process of reasoning implies, that the objects we would discover by its means, are not self-evident and clear to the more inward perceptions of the understanding. Doubts and difficulties stand in the way of every thing which is to be reached, only by an effort of reasoning, and even when it has done its utmost, the result is, not unfrequently, far from being either satisfactory or convincing. What one man pronounces to be reasonable and believes to be so, is, by another, denounced as a tissue of mistakes. This is the ground on which has arisen such varieties of religious sentiment and faith. Doubtless, every one believes his views on such mat- ters to be reasonable, and that they have been set forth and de- tory evidence to show, and, consequently, some reason to* doubt, whether the ancient Cush is really the Ethiopia of modern times. Great disputes exist among scripture geographers, upon this subject. Bochart places it in Arabia, Gesenius in Africa, Michaelis and Rosenmuller, have supposed It in both places. Others have sought for it in more northerly regions of Asia, as in the Persian provinces of Susiana, in Cuthah, and a district of Babylonia. Indeed, this inquiry is interminable, just because the name, in those ancient writings is used in a figurative sense, and not to express a geographical locality. Ethiopia, so far as it expresses the idea of a country inhabited by the sable portion of our race, is the appropriate rendering of the Hebrew word Cush, as denoting blackness, and, on this account, Ethiopia is afterwards employed in the Scriptures, with the same spiritual signification. Cush, is the same with Ethiopia, only in the way of symbol ; they cannot be shown to be the same geographical locality. 94 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. fended with what are considered to be reasonable arguments, and yet, after all, it is evident, from the opposite conclusions which have been arrived at, that the reason has been defective somewhere. This brief intimation of a common fact, which may be easily ex- tended by the thoughtful, at once shows to us how necessary it is, that reason should be illustrated with revelation, which is one of the streams of divine wisdom : we cannot attain the knowledge of any spiritual things without it. Heaven, with the internal things of the church and spiritual futurity, are beyond its reach, and all that the truly rational mind knows about them is derived from the divine wisdom affording it illustration. The stream, Hiddekel, is said " to go towards the east of Assyria," to denote the progression of divine wisdom, in the way of enlightening the rational mind. The enlightening is the east, whence all illumination comes ; and the rational mind is here Assyria, as the understanding was Cnsh, and the yill Havilah, as explained above. Assyria derived its name from Asshur, the son of Shem, and not from the son of Hezron ; and the word properly means beholding, which circum- stance well fitted the land so called, to be employed as the repre- sentative of such a seeing principle as that of the rational mind. It is on account of this signification, that Assyria, like Israel and Egypt, is sometimes mentioned in the Scriptures without any nat- ural application. One instance will be sufficient to produce. The prophet says, " In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying. Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." (Isaiah xix. 25.) This is plainly a prediction concerning a state of the church, in which its natural, (Egypt,) rational, (Assyria,) and spiritual (Israel,) principles, should exist in their proper order, and each be open to the divine blessing. But the fourth river was Phrat, which literally means to make fruitful ; and this represents the influence of divine wisdom upon the scientific principle of the mind, so as to render it prolific in the works of benevolence and use. The knowledges which exist in the natural mind are merely of an external and scientific kind. The natural mind is scientific, and adapted for scientific things merely. By these are not meant philosophical scientifics, but the external knowledge of religious things. Thus the doctrinals of the church, its rituals, and their modes of administration ; indeed, all things which are expressed SUMMARY OF THE MEANING OF THE RIVERS. 95 in thii letter of the Word, are mere scientific things, adapted to the natura-l mind, and as such they will remain, until, from some more interior light, man begins to see their spiritual origin and use. Most professing christians know many things about the literal histories in the Word. They know something of the Histories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; also, about the House of Israel, in Egyptian bondage, their deliverance thence, and their subsequent establishment in Canaan; likewise, of the Government of the Judges, the rule of the kings, the denunciations of the prophets, and many other facts which the Word contains. But how few are they, who can see from any interior ground, that all these things are but external scientifics, which, nevertheless, include within them celestial and spiritual principles, which proves the letter to be divine. This is a desideratum in the church. We may believe these scientifics to be divine, because we have been tauglit that they are so, either by tradition or authority : but it is important we should see its truth from some interior conviction of our own ; yet, this is accomplished only so far as our natural mind is influenced and illuminated by that stream of divine wisdom denominated Phrat. This may serve to show the meaning of that river, as mentioned in connection with the most ancient church. From these considerations, we learn that the river of Eden denoted the divine wisdom proceeding from the divine love, and that its division into four heads, upon entering the garden, was signified its diflferent influences upon the celestial, spiritual, ra- tional, and scientific principles of holy and intelligent men. That nothing natural could have been intended by those de- scriptions, must be evident to every one, who will venture to think above a common prejudice. Viewed in that light, it is full of dif- ficulties, which neither ingenuity nor learning can remove. For instance, who does not know, that it is physically impossible a river should divide itself into four heads or sources of rivers. For if two or more channels are presented to a running stream, it will not divide itself distributively, but pour its whole mass into the deepest furrow — it will naturally take the lowest level : and, moreover, there is no position known to scientific geography which at all answers to the Scripture narrative. Those which are sup- posed to come nearest to the description, and which indeed are very distant, necessarily place the locality of Eden in Armenia, which is not mentioned in the Scripture at all. A garden into 96 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. which one river ran, and which was then to be distributed into four other rivers, necessarily suggests the idea of a large tract of country, which we cannot rationally suppose the Lord would have required to have been " dressed and kept " by an individual, Adam. We conclude, then, that these things were ^vritten, not to point out a geographical locality, but to represent the streams of divine wisdom entering into the minds of a wise and happy people, to irrigate their mental soil, and render it prolific in all that is good and estimable in his divine sight. By the divine wisdom of which we have been speaking, is meant, that interior dictate which we believe can and does flow from the Lord, into the will and perceptions of highly cultivated humanity. This, indeed, was the state of the most ancient people during the time of their integrity. They thought of nothing but what they loved, so that their intellectual and voluntary principles must have been in the closest connection, and, as it were, one in every thought and act. This is one of the reasons why that peo- ple were called Man^ a dignity which does not appear to have been attained by any other community mentioned in the Scrip- tures ! Some remains of this primeval excellence seem to have been recognized by the apostle, who, when speaking of the Gen- tiles, said, they "do by nature the things contained in the law — which shows the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness." (Romans ii. 14, 15.) It is also declared that the " Lord would put his law in the inward parts of men, and write it upon their hearts, so that he will be their God, and they shall be his people." (Jer. xxxi. 33.) It is therefore evident, that there can be such an influx of intelligence from the Lord as is mentioned above. The means, however, which are to be employed for its communication, in the case referred to, are the written Word. But such a medium does not appear to have existed among the Adamic people, nor could it have been neces- sary, so long as they remained in love to God above all things. The law and the prophets were given after this love was lost, with the view of assisting in its restoration: they "hang upon it." (Matt. xxii. 37 - 40.) In such a state they would receive instruc- tion, in the way of internal dictate, immediately from the Lord. This would be inscribed upon their hearts, and from thence there would be an influx of truth into their spiritual minds, next into their rational, and finally, into their natural minds, and consequent- ly, into the natural scientifics which there existed; this would AMM NAMiN^G T5IE LIVING CREATlORKS. 97 enable them to see the absolute distinction between spiritual and natural things, and also, to perceive the correspondence which subsisted between them. Hence may be seen what is meant by the divine wisdom, spoken of above, and its respective inflowings into the several orderly principles of human chaxacter which then existed. With such a people, internal and heavenly things would be perceived in purer light, than those which were external and worldly, because such things would occupy their chief attention. If such a people had read the Word which we possess, the internal sense of it would, doubtless, have been presented to their minds with greater clearness than the letter, because their states, as it were, lay entirely upon the heavenly side of this revelation. But in after-times this condition became reversed. Man, having descended from this elevation into external and terrestrial loves, can now see internal and spiritual things only in obscurity and shadow ; and so the external sense of the Word appears to him in better light than its spiritual meaning : he has passed to the worldly side of revelation. This side of it has been mercifully provided for his state, and designed, by its peculiar construction, to raise and conduct him into the light and enjoyment of the other, CHAPTER Vni. ADAH NAMING THE LIVING CRBATUKE8. ** Any theory, on whatever subject, that is really sound, can never be inimical to a religion founded on truth ; and the part of a lover of truth is, to follow her, at all seeming hazards, after the example of Him, who came into the world, that He might bear witness to the truth." — Richard Whateley, D.D,, Archbishop of Dublin, The circumstance of naming the living creatures is one of religious importance, and it involves matter of peculiar interest. It is thus related : — " Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof (Gen. ii. 19.) The careful reader will observe it is here stated, that " out of thR ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air ; " but if he will turn to the 20th verse of the first chapter, he will there find it written, " And God said. Let the 9 98 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORr, ivaters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life*, and fowl that may fly above the earth, in the open firmament of heaven." Thus, in the one case the ground is said to have been their source, and in the other, the water. Whence arises this disr crepancy ? It may be admitted, that the command for the waters " to bring forth the moving creature that hath life," ought to be understood as referring only to the piscatory tribes, for we find that purely land animals are spoken of as liaving been created on the following day. The difficulty more particularly adverted to is this, that in the first statement the waters are distinctly said to have brought forth every winged fowl, whereas in the second it is as plainly written, that " Out of the ground the Lord God formed every fowl of the air." Now, what can be the reason of those apparently hostile statements, occurring as they do, so exceedingly close upon each other ; and upon what principle are they to be reconciled ? There is plainly a disagreement in the letter, which requires to be removed. The " Fragmental Hypothesis " would, perhaps, attempt it by supposing that they are merely tlie records of two different traditions of the same general circumstances, in which we are not to look for particular niceties of expression. But surely, this cannot be satisfactory ; under such a view of the case, what is to become of the fact of both being equally a reve- lation, and consequently a divine composition ? Some higher ground than the literal sense must be taken, because some supe- rior truth is meant to be expressed, and we have mentioned the circumstance, not because we think it a difficulty, but chiefly, to draw attention to the truths intended to be stated. It was observed above, that the first chapter of Genesis treated of the creation, or development, of the spiritual man, and all the living affections and thoughts which are proper to his condition ; and also, that the second chapter treated of the celestial man, and all the living affections and thoughts which are proper to him. Some reasons for those distinctions were likewise given ; among others, that the man, in the second chapter, was no longer spoken of as " earth," but as " ground," and that the name of the Supreme Being was extended from " God " to " Lord God." Thus, the two chapters treat of two different states, which distinguished the most ancient people. To both of those states, there belonged an affec- tion for the intellectual things of an exalted religion, but they took their rise in different sources, and therefore, their origination is differently described. In the first case, the affection for intel- A DISCREPANCY RECONCILED. 99 lectual things (which are the winged fowls) arose out of the general knowledge of religion, and therefore, it was commanded that " the waters " should bring them forth ; (see page 53',) but in the second case, the affections for intellectual things (now called fowl of the air) sprung out of the prolifications of love, and hence they are described to have been made by the Lord God, out of "the ground." Every one must know, that differences of religious character exist, and that they arise from differ^t sources. It would not indicate the distinction to say, that the inferior state sprang from the same source as the superior ; to describe them accurately, we must employ distinctive terms, and this is precisely what revela- tion has done, in declaring the intellectual things of the spiritual man, to have been created by God out of the watery and those of the celestial man out of the ground. There is, then, no actual discrepancy between the two statements, because they do not relate to the same, but to different circumstances. In speaking of the fifth day's creation, it was observed, that the objects of animated nature were chosen, and frequently employed in the Word, to represent the living affections of men ; further evidences of that fact were likewise promised: an occasion is here presented for this purpose. It is evident, that some idea of the spiritual representation of animals must have been the reason, why they were so extensively employed in the sacrificial worship, which, independently of that established among the Jews, was spread throughout the continent of Asia, This, also, must have been the source, whence the Greeks and Romans adopted certain animals for sacrifices, during some of their public festivities. We do not suppose these people to have attached any spiritual notion to such sacrifices ; what we mean is, that if they are traced through the sources whence they were derived, that will be found to have been their origin. Sacri- fices, considered in themselves, are most irrational modes of wor- ship,* nor could they have been adopted, until men had sunk so low in the scale of religious intelligence, as to suppose that the offering up of an animal to the Lord, was the same thing as the dedication of that principle to His service, which it was originally understood to signify. The animal was mistaken for the principle which it represented, and the dedication of the principle to spirit- ual use was corrupted into a sacrifice. Their origin cannot be * See Archbishop Magee on the Sacrifices and Atonement. 100 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. reasonably accounted for upon any other ground. This, alsc, explains why it was, that several animals among some of the older nations, became objects of such peculiar attention and respect. This circumstance was very remarkable among the ancient Egyp- tians. Herodotus says, (Euterpe, Ixv ;) " both those which are wild and those which are domestic are regarded as sacred. If I were to explain the reason of this prejudice, I should be led to the discussion of those sacred subjects, which I particularly wish to avoid." Here, the historian distinctly connects their reverence of animals, with some isoteric and religious views ; and, although he does not inform us what these were, there can be no reasonable doubt, that at some period of Egyptian history, thg animals had been understood as the representatives of certain moral qualities, and that it was not until after a succession of corruptions, and when their proper signification was lost, that veneration began to be attached to them. The worship of certain animals was a per- version of the respect, once paid to the human principles of which they were significant. It is impossible to read with care, those portions of the Scrip- tures in which beasts and animals are mentioned, and not perceive that they have a symbolical meaning; they are spoken of both generically and specifically, under circumstances in which it is evident spiritual things, and not natural existences, are implied. For example, the Prophet, treating of the peaceable character of the Lord's kingdom, says, " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together ; and the lion shall eat straAv like an ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice* den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." (Isaiah xi. 6-9.) Here we have no less than fourteen different animals, besides children, referred to, every one of which is certainly intended to represent some internal affection. There are, how- ever, two classes of them, one tame and harmless, the other fierce and dangerous ; the former plainly denote the affections which are good and innocent, and the latter those which are wicked and dostructive ; and by their all dwelling together, must be meant a state, in whicji the influences of the good, will have subdued the pernicious tendencies of the evil, and kept them in subjection to THE SIGNIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 101 Its superior sentiments. It is also written, that the Lord would " make a covenant with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven." (Hosea ii. 18.) That "the beasts of the field would cry unto Him;" (Joel i. 20;) they are also exhorted not to be afraid ; (Joel ii. 22 ;) in which passages, by beasts cannot be meant beasts, but certain human affections, which they are mentioned to represent These are the things with which the Lord effects his covenants ; these are the principles which can cry unto Him, and may be benefited by His merciful persuasions. Ezekiel was com- manded to " say unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come : gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel." (Ezek. xxxix. 17.) Here, likewise, it ia evident that natural beasts and fowl are not meant, but, instead thereof, the affections of religious life, and the senti- ments of religious thought, since it is these alone which can attend the invitations to a religious act So, in the Psalms, it is written, "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps. Beasts and all cattle ; creepmg things, and flying fowl." (Psalm cxlviii. 7-10.) It is plain that we are not here to under- stand the irrational animals which are mentioned, but certain liv- ing affections and thoughts of men, to which they correspond ; for every one must have observed, that there is a conspicuous analogy between the natural qualities of some animals, and some of the moral sentiments of the human character.* Evidences of this kind could be extended to a considerable length, but these are sufficient ; they suggest, somewhat impres- sively, that to maintain the statement, that " Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and every beast of the field," (Gen. ii. 20,) in a literal sense, is to mistake its meaning. There are certain facts and considerations, in relation with such an idea, which are exceedingly embarrassing to those who will hazard ap independent reflection upon the subject ; and we conceive the real meaning of the apparent history is to be sought for in its spiritual sense. If we look upon the statement of Adam naming the creatures, to signify the high character of that ancient people, impressing a peculiar quality upon those internal affections and sentiments, to which the objects of animated nature correspond, * Clement of Alexandria, quotes verses from Xenophanes, the Colo- phonean, which state that every species of animal supplies metaphor to aid the imagination in its ideas of superior things. 9* 102 ANTEDILtrvlAN HISTORY, we have at once presented to us both an intelligible and religiocw idea ; and this can hardly be said of the notion, which contem- plates him as a zoologist. It is said that all cattle and fowls, and every beast, were named by Adam. If the merely literal sense be insisted on, to be the true and only design of this statement, then we are, at the very outset, compelled, by science, to curtail the signification of words, which are employed with an unlimited meaning. For, it is plain, from the discoveries which geology has made, that there were whole classes of animals which had existed at immense intervals of time, and successively became extinct, long before there were any traces of humanity discernible. It is therefore demonstrable, that Adam could not have named all and every creature. To this it may be replied, that we ought not to interpret all and every beast to mean any more than those which were contemporary with him ; but if so, at what point are we stop, in putting a limited meaning on terms of unlimited signification. Such a view, if pressed with difficulties, may refuse to admit their application to the whole ani- mal world then extant, and successively shrink them up to mean only those that were in Palestine, or Eden, or perhaps the garden only. It may be said, that we should receive those documents as popular statements, and not expect to find them couched in lan- guage technically correct. To this we wish only to observe, that we do not believe them to have been loosely written, as the word popular would seem to imply ; we regard the language of revela- tion to have been chosen with a care and deliberation, over the preservation of which the Divine Providence has been peculiarly watchful. If we take a religious view of the intentions of God's Word, we must be led to see that this narrative, concerning naming the creatures, was intended for some spiritual instruction, altogether apart from the statement of the letter. For surely, it is difficult to* see Avhat religious act could be involved in calling a lion, a lion ; a bear, a bear ; a sheep, a sheep ; or a lamb, a lamb ; nor is it easy to perceive how such an employment consisted with a religious state of mind, so extensively cultivated, and highly developed, as was that of Adam's. If we suppose it to have been given him as an intellectual exercise, which is among the highest grounds that can be pretended for it, still we must inquire, what possible relation could it have to spiritual and heavenly uses ? To give a name to a thing that is without one in the world, may bo ANIMALS WHICH ADAM DID NOT NAME. 103 useful to distinguish it, and thereby to provide a verbal means for suggesting the idea of it to the mind ; but it has very little con- nection with uses that are essentially religious. This is evident from experience, for it has happened that in these days of discov- ery, men have not unfrequently been required to give names to extinct species of animals, which it is certain Adam never saw, and yet in giving those names they have neither felt, or intended, more than is included in the common sentiment attending the selection of an appropriate appellation. It will hardly be pretended that the names, whether popular or scientific, of the animals which are now extant, are those which were pronounced by Adam. There is not the least evidence to show, that society at any time, or among any people, adopted his supposed zoological vocabulary. To what purpose then was it given, if it did not come into use and obtain a currency ? Ac- cording to the common view, there was no co-eval society, and therefore, it could not have been for their use and information ; nor is there the slightest intimation of his having instructed pos- terity in the names, which a mistaken view of this narration has led men to suppose, he gave to the creatures. But supposing it could be satisfactorily proved, that the Hebrew names of the various beasts mentioned in the Scripture, were really those which had been given to them by Adam; and supposing that we conceded, which indeed we do, that those names, were founded on a knowledge of some prominent feature, or remark- able characteristic of the creatures to which they are applied, then. we should possess some evidence of the man, having been distinguished by a superior genius in respect to this particular department of nature. But why in this department only ? if the circumstance of giving names to all cattle, fowl, and beasts were a display of intellectual pre-eminence, why was it not also exhib- ited in respect to the fish ? If all the creatures of the earth could have been collected in the garden, with the view of receiving their names, why might not all the fishes of the sea have been gathered in the river of that garden, for the same purpose ? What was possible in the one case, could not have been impossible in the other. But why were the objects of vegetable nature omitted to be named ? Surely, a knowledge of the distinction between different plants and trees, must have been a subject of much concern to Adam, particularly as his attention had been distinctly drawn to the subject, through the naming of two trees by the Lord himself: also, by his having been commanded to dress and 104 ANTEDILtJVIAN HISTORY. keep the garden, and told that he might freely eat of every tree but one. Certainly, if names for any objects were of importance to distinguish them, they must have been so in the vegetable depart- ment of nature. But to these, we do not read of any names being given by Adam. If the giving of names to animals was an intel- lectual exercise, the giving of names to vegetables could not have been otherwise. There must have been some reason for this omission, and what other reason can be offered besides this, — That they were not suited to the representative purpose of the narra- tive, which treats of a higher state of interior and intellectual life, than what the fishes or the objects of the vegetable kingdom, were adapted to represent ? We see that the whole subject, viewed from a literal aspect, is full of difficulties, — difficulties of a religious, moral, and scien- tific nature, — difficulties not of that class which industry and research are capable of removing, but of a character which nei- ther learning nor ingenuity can surmount. The source of them is, that erroneous ground of interpretation, which consists in mistak- ing the descriptions of a figurative narrative for their literal sense. The creatures, agreeably to a style of expression which pre- vailed among the ancients, and which originated in a perception of the correspondences which exist between natural and spiritual things, are significant of certain classes of aff*ection and thought which distinguished celestial men. Of this, some examples and expositions have b^en given from the prophetical writings, the style of which took its rise from that which existed with a more remote and superior people. The order in which the creatures are mentioned is, cattle, fowl, and beasts. The word rendered "cattle," should have been beasts, implying, indeed, those of a peaceful nature, and tliat which is translated beast," should have been wild beasts, to indi- cate such as were of a less pacific character. These creatures are frequently spoken of in the prophetical Word, and they are, in all cases, most carefully distinguished. Now, by beasts, — the tame, the peaceful, and pacific, — are represented the good affec- tions of the will, or celestial man ; by the fowls of the air, are denoted the true perceptions of the understanding, or spiritual man ; and by the wild beasts, are signified the general affections of the natural man, which, from their greater remoteness from the Lord and closer adjacency to the world, always require the influ- ence of superior principles to preserve them innocent and harm- less. These particulars could be proved by numerous citatiopa NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF QUALITIES. 105 from the Word; we, however, will only adduce, for each, one confirmatory instance. That beasts represented the good affections of the celestial man, is evident from its being said, that " beasts were in heaven," and that " four beasts fell down and worshipped God, saying. Amen ; Alleluia." (Rev. xix. 4, and vii. 11.) These circumstances cannot be predicated of natural beasts, but only of the good affections of celestial men which they represent. That fowls denote the true perception of the spiritual man, is plain, for similar reasons. An " angel cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the Great God." (Rev. xix. 17.) This invitation was not delivered to irrational, irresponsible birds, but to the intellectual perceptions of the spir- itual man, of which they are significant. And that by the tvild beasts are signified the general affections of the natural man, wliich are preserved in order by the influence of superior examples, ap- pears from this declaration ; " The wild beasts of the field shall honor me, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in tlie desert, to give drink to my people." * Wild beasts give no honor to God on account of the blessings which he bestows upon mankind ; but they are said to do so, on account of the represen- tation they are selected to sustain. Now the living creatures which were brought to Adam, were of three descriptions : they consisted of celestial affections, spir- itual perceptions, and natural delights ; and the Lord is said to have formed, and brought them unto him, to reveal that he is the author of their existence, and the giver of them to men. But they were brought to Adam for a particular purpose, — to see what he would call them ; that is, to observe the quality which he, in the exercise of his freedom and responsibility, would impress upon them. To call by a name, and to give a name, are forms of expression which frequently occur in the Scriptures, but they do not always mean to pronounce a vocable ; their design is to indi- cate a quality. Thus the angel who wrestled with Jacob, said unto him, " Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel." (Gen. xxxii. 28.) This change of name was intended to express a change which had taken place in the quality of his character, hence * Isaiah xliii. 20, This passage, in the authorized version, has simply beasts ; but the original word here, and in several other places where it is translated beasts only, properly means wild beasts, as, indeed, the context commonly shows. 106 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. it is immediately added, " for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." So, again, when the Lord said of the church, " I have called thee by thy name, I have sur- named thee, though thou hast not known me," (Isaiah xlv. 4 ;) the meaning is, that a new quality had been imparted, and yet its ad- vantages had not been appreciated. The Lord said he would write his new name upon him who overcometh, (Rev. iii. 12 ;) to show that a new quality will be given to the spiritual character of those who conquer in temptations. And those " whose names are not written in the book of life," (Rev. xiii. 8 ;) are plainly those whose internal qualities are such as to exclude them from the heav- enly kingdom. Hence, it is evident, that to give a name, denotes to impress a quality upon the object of which it is predicated ; and this, also, is its meaning in the case of Adam naming the creatiort. The circumstance will admit of illustration from experience. It frequently happens that some good affections and true ideas are suddenly introduced into the human mind. They come under cir- cumstances in which we did not expect them, and we are enabled fjo perceive their excellence. Doubtless, these spiritual beasts and fowl, are of divine origination, and surely they are brought to us by infinite wisdom to see what we will call them, that is, to give us the opportunity of receiving, and impressing upon them, such a quality as we, in the exercise of our freedom, may choose to adopt, and which quality, when so impressed, remains upon them so far as our own individuality is concerned; a circumstance which the representative history thus expresses, " whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." Such, we conceive to have been the meaning of the narrative of Adam, naming the living creatures. Under this view, it is brought home to the business and bosoms of religious men. It is beauti- fully consistent with the Word of God, and eminently practical. The experience of men presents a counterpart of it, and so a ra- tional interpretation. CHAPTER IX. ITS NOT BEING GOOD THAT ADAM SHOULD BE ALONE : — HIS DEEP SLEEP :^ — THE TAKING OF A RIB FROM HIM AND BUILDING IT INTO A WOMAN. " It requires but little attention in any one, to discern that woman was not formed out of the rib of a man ; and that deeper arcana are here implied." — Swedenborg. Arcana Ccelestia, n. 152. It is written, that " The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone ; I will make him an help, meet for him. And the CREATION OF THE WOMAN. 107 Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam ; and he slept : and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, builded he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." (Gen. ii. 18, 21, 22, 23.) These statements are remarkable, not only on account of their apparent singularity, but for other circumstances, when considered as a literal history. In that point of view, there are several diffi- culties which could not have existed, if the narrative had not been constructed with some more recondite design than what appears upon the surface. As already remarked, the first chapter of Genesis informs us, that the female was created upon the sixth day, and at the conclu- sion of that day's work it is said, that " God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good." But in the second chapter we find, that after the seventh day, when Adam had been placed in the garden, it was discovered " not to be good that he should be alone," and that this circumstance originated the woman. For the solution of these discrepancies, it is requisite to admit that the two chapters treat of two different conditions of the man of the church in these early times. Of this we have already spoken. But these different descriptions have led to curious re- sults. Some have considered what is said of the creation of man, namely, " male and female created he them," to mean that Adam was originally distinguished by both sexes ; and this was thought to derive confirmation from the peculiar circumstance of Eve's creation, afterwards related. Others have conjectured, that man and woman were, indeed, created upon the sixth day, but by some means fastened sideways to each other, so that she was as a rib to him ; and that her separation from him during a deep sleep, with her subsequent presentation to him as a separate individual, are what are meant by taking from him a rib, and making it into a woman. (Cruden, Art. Woman.) All this is curious enough, and doubtless, the literal sense will admit of these and other equally ridiculous conjectures, which, surely, are sufficient to suggest the duty of taking other grounds from which to view these narratives. It is indeed popular to consider the statement as " wise, benign, and simple ; " and with a view to the maintenance of its literal character, it is asked whether the " imagination can frame a m«de 108 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. of origin, so well adapted to endear her to her conjugate, as that the creative power should form her out of his actual bodily sub- stance." (Dr. Pye Smith, Scrip. Geo., Sec. Ed. p. 285.) We could have understood this argument, whatever we might have thought of it, if it had been employed in reference to the first child, but what it has to do with the first conjugate, it is difficult to con- jecture. Such a method of defending the history, suggests the idea of Adam being the mother of Eve rather than her husband ! But if this mode of origination were really intended to supply the motive for endearment, which is assumed, what has become of it ? When was it lost ? Why has it not been perpetuated ? How has it happened that such myriads of attachments are formed and con- tinued, irrespective of such a motive to their existence? It is gone, and whensoever the statement is adverted to, there is felt more of the buoyancy of a smile, than the solemnity of belief. The supposed argument has no foundation in truth. The question, however, is not whether the imagination can form a more suitable idea of the origination of woman, but whether that which is com- monly understood to be the description of it, is really so. We may fail in a conjecture of this sort, but that would not prove the literal sense of such a description true, and therefore, the narrative re- mains just where it was. It must be judged of from other grounds. We have traced the rise and progress of the Adamic church, into the full enjoyment of Eden, with all its blessings. We have seen that that garden, and those felicities, consisted in the religious intelligence, high principles, sound virtue, and distinguished char- acter of that people. We have ascertained that they received in- strnctions in duty from their Maker, and there can be no reason- able doubt but what they were, for a time, carefully and happily obeyed. How long the people continued in their integrity there is no record. We are only informed of the fact and not of its dura- tion. It is highly probable that it might have been maintained for several generations : but this is a matter with which we have not to deal : we find that in process of time, while they were yet in the garden, the discovery was made that it was not good for the man to be alone. Now, we hold that this cannot be reasonably construed to mean, that he was the only existing human individual. If the literal sense is to be received as evidence, the male and female are of the same age, and Adam is their generic name. (Gen. v. 2.) The woman is distinctly declared to have been created in the same day TTlE GERM OF THE FALL. 109 as the man, (Gon. i. 27 ;) nor is there any thing in the statement to preclude the idea, that it was at the same moment. Moreover, n. command was given to them to "he fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, he/ore they wtre placed in the garden ; " (Gen. i. 28 ;) it is therefore plain, that Adam could not have been there alone, in the sense commonly understood by that term. Besides, she knew the command of God concerning the forbidden tree ; (Gen. iii. 2, 3 ;) there is no intimation of Adam having communi- cated it to her ; and therefore, it is to be infen-ed, that she was present at its delivery, which was before the time he is stated to have been alone : and which, therefore, requires that this expres- sion should not be understood to mean, that there was no woman then in existence. That statement is intended to furnish us with information, relating to the internal condition of a posterity of the most ancient church. It is an intimation concerning their decline from innocence and purity ; in the record, that a period had arrived in that remote dispensation, when it was not good for man to be alone, we have presented to us the germ of that catastrophe, called the Fall. That circumstance was not a sudden calamity, it was the result of successive downward steps. They who had been gradually raised into the possession of every blessing, and so gifted with experimental evidences of their value, would not be instantaneously precipitated into flagrant guilt : that catastrophe was small in its beginning, and therefore, it is delicately spoken of, as not being good to be alone. It is expressive of an incipient disinclination to remain under the exclusive guidance of God. That is what the Scriptures treat of, when they speak of man being alone. They who submit themselves wholly to the divine guidance are said to be alone, because they are governed solely by the Lord. Hence Balaam's prediction concerning some future happy state of Israel was, "Lo, the people shall dwell alone." (Num. xxiii. 9.) Moses, also, in speaking of a similar circum- stance, said, " Israel shall dwell in safety alone." (Deut. xxxiii. 28.) The prophet likewise said, "Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone." (Jer. xlix. 31.) Now the Adamic people, during the period of their integrity, had dwelt in " safety alone." They had been led, and influenced solely by the Lord : but with some of their posterity there arose an inclination to selfhood — a desire to possess an individuality apart from the Lord. This was necessarily attended by the Qxpa- 10 110 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. rience of influences from two different sources ; tltose which come from the Lord, and those which spring- from the selfhood of n)an : and so they clearly prove that a cessation had been put to the nngle leading of the Lord. This was the state which he beheld, and said of it, " It is not g-ood that man should be alone." It is not a sentence expressing deficiency in God's creation, but a reve- lation to ns, tiiat men had then began to pervert its excellence. They desired not to be alone, and it was permitted, because, to have prevented it, would have required an interference with that liberty of man, which God holds inviolable in order to preserve him responsible. But although, for this reason, God allowed them to descend into such a state, he did not abandon them. He is ever merciful, and always grants what the state requires. Hence, when Adam ceased to be content under his exclusive influence, be said, " I ^vill make a help, meet for him," which is afterwards described to have been " a woman : " because she represented the selfhood to which he had inclined, and which had now become dear to him. This selfliood may be described as that individuality, or proper- self,* which man as a finite creature, necessarily possesses. It belongs to his highest nature, and is inseparable from every other condition of his existence ; it will be ^ood or evil, according to the quality of his character. By the most ancient people, during^ the period of their integrity, it was inherited as a genuine good : but it was not intended that they should love it ; this, however, they begun to do, when they were not content to be alone. This new circumstance of man, brought into activity new mercies on the part of the Lord. As the selfhood of the man at this time was of such a quality, it was not only permitted him to love it, but it was afterwards provided, that it should be a^eeable to order, for him to do so. The statement, "I will make a help meet for him," f was a promise to render the selfhood a resemblance of all his other excellences, so that it might be proper for his attach- ment. Hence this suitable help was subsequently represented by a woman. It is to be observed, that between the time of this promise and * The Latin vrord proprium, or the French lepropre, but especially the former, best expresses the idea here intended to be conveyed. The above definition is adopted, that the general reader may not be embarrassed by the use of a word not yet Anglicised. f The original, ezer kenegdo^ strictly means a help as with him ; and this, with the context, implies a new assistance frqm within hini. THE HELP MEET FOR ADAM. Ill the period of its fulfilment, there are related three remarkable circumstances, — the naming of the creatures, the sleep of Adam, and the taking from him a rib and building it into a woman. The creatures were brought to Adam to be named, when he began to incline towards himself, that he might review the quality of all his interior affections and thoughts, and so remember their origin and value. They were all pure graces communicated from the Lord, and therefore, the man could not find among them that which is spoken of as the help, meet for him. Nothing of the selfhood was discoverable ; his inclination led him to look for it among them, but it was not found. And this circumstance beautifully reveals to us, that all the virtues and graces of a genuine religion acknowl- edge God to be their exclusive author, and eschew every thing of mail. But the disposition not to be alone, and the inclination to con- sider that self had something to do with the production of those excellences, had made some inroad upon men's character, and the result, in process of time, was, that they were led into great ob- scurity and darkness of thought concerning it This state was represented by the deep sleep that fell upon Adam. And now the time had come for the Lord to realize his promise. The manner of it is thus described. " The Lord God took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he built into a woman and brought her cinto the man." * Now, if we remember that it is the religious, and not the physical condition of the man, which is here treated of, the difficulty in perceiving the true meaning of these state- ments will be considerably lessened. The leading ideas so ex- pressed, are, that something was taken from the man, raised into a new condition, gifted with new life, and then presented to him, as an object that might help him, and to which he might be affection- ately attached. That which was taken from him, is called a rib, because it represented selfhood, without spiritual life ; this is said to have been built into a woman, to denote, that it was afterwards raised into the condition of such a life ; it is then declared, that she was * Gen. ii. 21, 22. The common version is, " made he a woman," but ** built into a woman " is the more correct rendering of the original, and indeed recognized in the marginal readings. It is used in contradistinc- tion to the terms^ creating and making, as previously employed in refer- ence to the development of man^ in order to indicate the idea of raising up something that had fallen. 112 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, bronght unto the man, to signify, that selfhood thus vivified and introduced to his affections, would help to sustain his character and maintain his happiness. In other words, this sigiiificant his- tory means, that when this posterity of the most ancient church, began to think holy things might have arisen with themselves, and thus fell into states of obscurity (deep sleep) about tlieir genuine origin, the Lord, during its continuance, mercifully effected the removal of that unspiritual selfhood (rib), and endowed it with a new capacity, by which it was enabled to know truth, and do good,. as from self, still always preserving the acknowledgment and belief that they are from the Lord : under this aspect, selfhood became an object that might be loved and cherished ; and iliere- fore, it is represented by the woman brought unto the man; whereas, under its condition as a rib, it was separated and taken away from Mm.* These facts will admit of some degree of illustration frcan the state of human selfhood now. This, with merely natural men, is such, that they regard it to be the chief thing of their existence.f They think that all they know of truth, or feel of good, has come frcMn self, and thus they are in a deep sleep as to the real truth, that all such blessings descend from the Lord. This selfhood, like the hard and bony structure of man, is scarcely possessed of any spiritual life ; it, as it were, suiTounds his heart, and so it is repre- sented by the rib which is adjacent thereto. Before bis elevation can be effected, this rib must be taken away. It must be raised into a new condition, and be animated by another life ; it must come to see that truth and good are to be believed and done by man as of himself, yet always under the acknowledgment that they are from the Lord. When this takes place, it is soft and yielding, fair and lovable, and hence compared to a woman, beau- tiful and innocent. That bone, which the rib is afterwards called, denotes the self- hood of man, may be made evident from many passages of the Scriptures. The Psalmist says, " Make me to have joy and glad- * " This part of the history, where Eve is said to have been made from the rib af Adam, might have been a hieroglyphical design of the Egyptian Philosophers." — Dr. Darmin's Temple of Nature. Additimial Notes, 10. t Rochefoucault, Esprit, and their disciple, Mandeville, have con- tended, that self-love was the origin of all those virtues mankind most admire ; and teach, that the highest pretensions to disinterestedness, are only the more artful disgmses of self-love 1 SlGNlFlCAtlON OP BONES iLLtTStRATED. 113 nerss, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice ; " (Psalm li. 8 ;) where, the bones which are broken, denote the selfhood dejected, when spiritual happiness may be obtained. It is to be observed, that the breaking of the bones is here somewhat analo- gous to the removal of the rib -^ that separation implying the idea of a breaking — a breakmg, however, only in the sense of humil- iation and dejection, with a viev/ to subsequent exaltation. Again, it is written ] " Hear me, O Lord, for my bones are vexed ; " (Psalm vi* 2 ;) " all my bctoes are out of joint ; " {Psalm xxii. 14 ;) " my bones are consumed ', " (Psalm xxxi. 10 ;) " neither is there any rest in my bones ; " (Psalm xxxviii. 3 ;) all of which sentences imply states of anxiety and trial, which the selfhood was under- going. But when this selfhood is made somewhat alive, by an infusion of the Divine spirit, it is said, " all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee ; " (Psalm xxxv. 10 ;) and, for a similar reason, it is promised that " your bones shall flourish like an herb.'* (Isaiah Ixvi. 14.) Passages of this nature could be extensively increased ; they not only show that the term bones, was employed by the ancients in a figurative sense, but they also show that figure to be the selfhood of man, from the intelligibility which the sen- tences acquire on the application of that idea to the word. The vivified bones, spoken of in the two passages last ad- duced, are not called woman, as in the case of the animation given to Adam's rib, because the quality of both the selfhood and vivification treated of, is of a different nature : they relate to what is spiritual, that of Adam's to what is celestial. Never- theless, the prophetical Word does furnish some approximation even to that idea. Ezekiel, relating his vision of the valley of bones, teaches that the bones heard the Word of the Lord, received his breath, and became alive, and thereupon they are declared to be the whole house of Israel. (Ezekiel xxxvii. 4, 5, 11.) Thus bones are distinctly said to have been raised into a whole people, consequently some of them into women. Of course, this inference from the vision, like the vision itself, will not be understood in a natural sense ; the vision was designed to repre- sent the impartation of a new principle and character to the self- hood of a degenerated people. Viewed under that aspect, it is somewhat parallel to the narrative of Moses : he is treating of a people who were not content to be alone, and upon whom a deep sleep had fallen ; and therefore, it was mercifully provided' to remove the selfhood, which had attended this condition, to infuse into it a 10* 114 JINTEDILUVIAN HISTOKr. new life, and give it a new form, which is described as taking' a rib from the man and building it into a woman. This is perfectly consistent with the circumstance of Adam's stating, that it was bone of his bone ; it was a new selfhood in the external man, raised out of that which the internal man had furnished as the basis. Hence, it is said to have been taken out of man, and then called woman, because she represented its weaker character, but still displaying a lovely aspect. In consequence of the change of state, that was now induced upon this posterity of the Adamic church, it was permitted them to recede from internal things, and attach themselves to what was pure and good in external. This is what is meant by man " leaving father and mother and cleaving to his wife." The father and mother who might be left, Avere those internal things from which they had receded ; and the wife that might be cleaved to, was the selfhood to which celestial and spiritual influences were now adjoined. It is then said, that they were both naked and not ashamed, to teach, that the wisdom which constituted the man, and the selfhood, represented by the woman, were still in innocence and free from blame. Thus it is a figurative, and not a literal history : it proceeded from a peculiarity of intellectual genius, some remains of which are traceable in the mythology of after-times, and in which there are some apparent histories of a similar kind. Thus, Venus is said to have risen from the froth of the sea; Gigantes to have sprung out of the blood, which issued from the wound of Coelus their father ; and Minerva from tlie brain of Jupiter, whose head was opened by the axe of Saturn. Surely every one may see, that it is no less diffi- cult to receive these relations as literally true, than that which states a woman to have been built up from the rib of a man. Those Greek fables were framed by men, who possessed merely the wreck of that exalted genius, which had been employed in the construction of the divine narrative ; nevertheless, a sufficient amount of the original remained, to assure us that its written utterances are singularly figurative. It is plain, that the ideas and circumstances of primeval man, were very different from those which subsequently existed ; and also, that their method of ex- pressing them, must have been less literal than that which was afterwards adopted. It is therefore evident, that we cannot arrive at correct notions concerning the written sentiments of the former, by tne same kind of judgment, as that which we bring to decipher the productions of the latter. What they wrote was from internal THE SERPENT AND ITS DECEPTION. 115 perception; what has subsequently been written has been from external observation. The one relates to internal things figura- tively expressed, the other to external things literally described. By overlooking this distinction, and judging of the documents of the former, by a standard proper to be applied only to the writings of the* latter, a meaning has been claimed for them, which they never could have been intended to express. We are aware, that the long standing of such a meaning may raise a difficulty in the way of its being relinquished. The mind, when once familiarized with an inconsistent notion, does not readily fasten upon its per- plexities. It is like a vicious habit, the disorder of which is hid from the perpetrator by long continuance. But the question is not, whether the literal interpretation of the narratives is of long standing, but whether it is true : if it is not true, its antiquity can have no claims upon our respect, and the sooner it is abandoned, the better will it be for the interest of an enlightened and spiritual religion. The narrative is commonly spoken of as an artless statement : this we believe to be a mistaken idea. As a divine composition, it must be looked upon as a work of God ; it cannot, therefore, be an artless production : it must be the result of the most consummate skill, and so correspond with every other work that is divine. CHAPTER X. THE SERPENT AND ITS DECEPTION. *' Inquire no longer, man ! who is the author of evil ; behold him in yourself. — Take away every thing that is the work of man ; and all the rest is good." — Rousseau. The subjects treated of, under the representation of a serpent and its deception, are of deep and melancholy interest to human- ity. Great difficulties have always been experienced in the way of a satisfactory understanding of them. The letter has been contemplated, and the spirit overlooked. We shall endeavor to avoid that course, and present the truth which lies beyond it. The meaning is not that which at first appears. We cannot believe in the existence of a talking serpent ; we do not think that God ever endowed a reptile with the capability of reasoning ; nor can we conceive that mankind were seduced from their propriety by the utterances of a snake. At these views, prejudices may be shocked ; we cannot help it ; reason will rejoice ; error may be alarmed, but truth will be strengthened and advanced. Truth will find her responses in the inner sensations of humanity, if they 116 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. are fairly permitted to unfold themselves. We appeal, with our interpretation of the Word, to the consciousness and intuition of rational nature, as to the very counterpart of revealed and spiritual wisdom. There is such a phenomenon as feeling a thing to be true, even though there may be difficulties in the way of its clear utterance and demonstration. This we call perception, — a faculty superior to reason, for it is the response of nature and not the cogitations of art ; and there is a harmony existing between those responses in man, and a right exposition of God's Word. It requires care and erudition to comprehend and grasp an argument intended to elaborate a truth, for those who are not disposed for its acceptance ; but the honest and good heart, which loves truth for its own sake, will perceive it more clearly in the proposition than the argument. If men would only give their hearts and consciences fair play, they would soon be delivered from many of those fetters which have so long bound them to a misunder- standing, both of revelation and themselves. Let us then, attend to those approving impulses which arise, and strive to retain the impressions which they make upon our minds, as we proceed in the examination of the subjects before us. In preceding chapters, we have traced the progressive develop- ment of human excellence, and ultimately found mankind raised to the very pinnacle of religious greatness. It was from thence they fell. The manner of this calamity, together with its imme- diate consequences, are thus detailed. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman. Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto 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. And the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when 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 make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. — Therefore, the I^ord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the gr^iid from whence he was taken." * * Gen. iii. 1-7, 28. Dr. Adam Clarke remarks on this narrative, " That VARIOUS PRINCIPLES IN MAN. 117 To understand this account of man's fall, we must remember, that the eminent condition from which he descended, had been Buccessively procured. His primeval state is declared to have been as of the earth, and without form and void ; and also, as of darkness being upon the face of the deep : thus, that his original condition was the lowest degree of human life, and that it was from thence he was gradually elevated into the highest degree of human excellence. That low degree of life, in which he origi- nally stood, was doubtless of a sensual nature, but not of an evil quality: for evil had not yet come into existence. It was an orderly degree of life proper to man, it had the capacity of eleva- tion latent in it, and it is this, upon which the higher degrees of life had a foundation. This is the life into which man now first comes, though its quality, in consequence of the fall, is more or less tainted with hereditary evil. Nevertheless, man, as an infant, is the mere creature of sensation, and the life of the senses is first developed, and must be so, before the higher degrees of intel- lectual and moral life can be unfolded. Thus Adam was not constituted by one principle merely, but by several.* His highest or inmost was celestial, the next was spiritual, and after these man is in a fallen state, the history of the world, with that of the life and miseries of every human being, establishes beyond successful contradic- tion. But how, and by what agency, was this brought about ? Here is a great mystery ; and I may appeal to all persons who have read the vari- ous comments that have been written on the Mosaic account, whether they have ever yet been satisfied on this part of the subject, though con- vinced of the fact itself. Who was the serpent? of what kind? In what way did he seduce the first happy pair ? These are questions which remain yet to he answered. The whole account is either a simple narrative of facts, or it is an allegory." With this opinion we readily concur. The Doctor, however, considered it as a " narrative of facts," and, after the use of much Hebrew and Arabic learning, arrived at the conclusion, that the serpent was an ourang-outang, and that the chattering and babbling, of which it is now capable, are the remains of the speech with which it was once endowed, and of course the evidences of the curse. From this we dissent. He, however, was not quite certain that this opinion was correct, nor do we wonder at his doubt. Speech is the exclusive endow- ment of humanity, and it is attributed to the serpent only in the way of figure. But the Doctor further says, "if it is an allegory, no attempt should be made to explain it." Indeed ! no attempt to be made to explain what God has allegorically revealed ! what a commentary on commen- tators and himself. * "It cannot be doubted that the first man was created with a great variety of instinctive or inspired knowledges." — Sir H. Davy. 118 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. came the natural and sensual. The existence of these several principles in him, is proven by the fact that they are all, in some measure, capable of being re-developed in us ; and also, in the circumstance, that they are more or less in activity in every mind, which cherishes respect for truth and virtue. The internal princi- ples of human life called celestial and spiritual, are superior to those more external principles denominated natural and sensual ; the former belong more to the things of heaven, the latter relate more to the things of the world : and this is as true of man in his primeval state as it is of his condition now : though then the exer- cise of his lower principles was only instrumental to the purpose of his higher ones ; but in after-times this instrumental purpose became perverted ; the delights of the sensual principle began to be cultivated, irrespective of superior ends, and their perceptions of spiritual and heavenly things were successively closed. This distinction of principle in man, is of the utmost importance to be known, if we would attain to any clear comprehension_of the subject before us. The men of the most ancient dispensation, had not only the higher principles of celestial and spiritual life, but they had also the lower principles of natural and sensual life. So long as the people continued in their integrity, and maintained their innocence, so long all those principles existed in their proper order, the lower contributing to the purposes of the higher ; but when man fell into disobedience and guilt, a disruption took place among them, and the lower principles began to usurp the places of the higher, and thereby to paralyze their functions. Hence it is very easy to see, that the quality of man's sensual nature before his fall, was very different from that which it became after it. Before the fall, it was such that it yielded willing obedience to the dictate and impulse of the higher principles of his inner life. It was as a servant, ministering to the attainment of superior ends, always acknowledging its subordinate position ; but after that catastrophe, men began to prefer the sensual things of the body, to the intellectual and spiritual things of the mind, and thus the instrumental became the principal, so that the whole order and series of life, which had been successively developed, were changed. This is the state of man now ; sensual things are uppermost with him, and the design of religion, its influences, and leadings, is to regain the order which has been lost. The senses are but inlets for certain knowledges — doors, through which information concerning the outer things of the SENSUAL PRINCIPLE BEFORE AND AFTER THE FALL. 119 world pass into the mind. The elevation and enlargement of the mind, are ends, for the accomplishment of which, the senses are among the appointed means. Some persons hear, see, and taste, merely for the sake of hearing, seeing, and tasting ; they live a long life, with a very limited extent of intellectual acquirements, because they have scarcely proposed to themselves any higher object than the gratification of their senses. Whereas, they who have em- ployed their sensual powers as the ministers to higher uses, and with a view to produce superior ends, are found to possess enlarged and comprehensive knowledges of men and things. These circum- stances may, in some faint degree, enable us to form an idea of the diflference, between the quality of the sensual principle of man before, and after his fall. But the distinction is admissive of illus- tration and explanation by other facts known to general experience. For instance, when we are earnestly endeavoring to understand the meaning of a speaker, the words give us but little concern : we hear the words, indeed, and yet they affect the sense of hear- ing very little, because of the interest we are taking to collect the sense : nor is this all, for if we think a little more interiorly, and pay attention to what is really transpiring in our mind, it will occasionally be found, that we do not always gather the meaning as intellectual sentiments, in consequence of our chief aim being to catch and comprehend the feeling which urges the discourse. Some persons hear the words, but do not grasp the sentiment, they say the language was good and the discourse powerful, but can scarcely give an idea of what it was about ; with such, the sensu- ality of hearing is the chief. Others hear the words, but listen to them only as the instruments for communicating the ideas of the speaker ; with them the activity of the sensual principle is directed to a higher use : but with others, the sense is but imperfectly col- lected, in consequence of the attention being so deeply engaged to comprehend the feeling of the utterer : with such the sensual principle is directed to a nobler end. This was a use, which the men 'of the purest times made of their sensual principle, while the former are characteristics which it has engendered in later periods. We call attention to these distinctions, because the Scriptures have presented both conditions of the sensual principle to us, under the emblem of a serpent. When the sensual principle is circum- spect, and employed as a means for the acquisition of useful knowledge, then is fulfilled the divine injunction, " be ye wise as serpents, (Matt. x. 16 ;) but when it is used merely for the purpose 120 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. of securing sensual gratification, then it is declared to be the " ser- pent more subtle than any beast of the field." (Gen. iii. 1.) There are few facts better attested by historical evidence, than that the serpent has, by all the nations of antiquity, been regarded and employed symbolically. It is conspicuous in their history, it stands out in their fables, and it is visible in their religion. Herod- otus informs us that it was sacred at Thebes ; (Euterpe. Ixxiv ;) and the hieroglyphics which have been brought to light in our own times, abundantly show that it must have been used in an emble- matical way, among the ancient Egyptians. Bryant, also, asserts, that in the first ages, the serpent was extensively introduced into all the mysteries that were celebrated ; and that, wheresoever the Ammonians founded any places of worship, there was generally some story of a serpent. , There was a legend about it at Thebes, at Colchis, and Delphi. Even the Athenians had a tradition that the chief guardian of their Acropolis was a serpent.* It is some- times presented under a variety of ideal forms, nor is it uncommon to find it represented with a human head.f It is impossible, ration- ally to contemplate these circumstances, and doubt that the ser- pent sustained some symbolical character. The facts at once sug- gest, that such must have been the design of the serpent, said to have been more subtle than any beast of the field : and here we raise the question, of what was it significant ? The various nations, by whom it was symbolically used, do not appear to have viewed it under the same aspect. Uniformity of idea in this respect, would not long continue, after that knowledge had perished, which originally directed its selection for a symboli- cal purpose, and when men were left, with no other guide than a fallen fancy, and no sounder principle than caprice, to conduct them in the profound matters of religion and its objects. The ser- pent is said to have been worshipped, from the circumstance of its having been mentioned and set apart, as one of the objects asso- ciated with the religion of Egypt. This was the opinion of Euse- bius and others ; and it might have been the case in the most cor- rupted periods of Egyptian learning. That is, it might then have become the symbol of something to be worshipped ; but, although it was always a symbol, that was not always the object of it. The serpent came to be spoken of as sacred, only from the circumstance * Bryant on Serpent Worship. Vol. 1, p. 476, &c. t See Montfaucon's Antiq. by Humphreys. Chimsera is said to have been a black-eyed nymph in her upper part, but downwards a frightful serpent. — Hesiod's TJieogony. THE SERPENT AS A SYMBOL. 121 of its having been associated with religious sentiments ; it was not at first set apart to be worshipped, nor for any good it could be- stow, but rather to be dreaded for the mischiefs it might originate. It was the symbol of something that might, if not guarded against, be disastrous to mankind. Hence we find it so frequently referred to in the legends of remote antiquity, as having exercised an un- favorable influence upon the destinies of the people. Every one knows that the figure of a serpent biting its tail is very ancient ; it is conmionly regarded as the emblem of eternity : but is it not rather a representative of evil punishing itself? In Phoenician Mythology, we read of a serpent surrounding an egg, plainly im- plying the danger of sensuality, with which life is beset from its very beginning. Among that of the Greeks, we are informed of the hair ^f Medusa being transformed into serpents, because she had violated the sanctity of the Temple of Minerva. The serpents are evidently employed to represent the evil she had perpetrated. The serpent, Python, which is fabled to have sprung' out of the mud left by the deluge of Deucalion, was an emblem of the evil occasioned to Greece by the overwhelmning of Thessaly. The serpents which the infant Hercules strangled in his cradle, were, unquestionably, a representation of innocence conquering the blandishments of sensuality ; and the Hydra, which he afterwards overthrew, was a representation of those evils which the labors of energy and fortitude may overcome. So also, the Caduceus, which was a rod entwined by serpents, and with which Mercury is said to have conducted souls to the infernal regions, plainly symbolized the evils which cling to power and so conduce to misery. Escula- pius, the medical attendant on the Argonauts, is always represented with a serpent entwined about his staflT, to denote, the power of the physician over the diseases of humanity. Many other instances of the emblematical use of the serpent, could be easily collected from the writings of the ancients, but these are suflicient for our pur- pose : they plainly show, that the emblem of that, whereby man fell, was preserved among mankind, for a long time after the reminiscence of its definite signification had passed away. They retained the emblem, with some general idea of its meaning, but had lost sight of its precise signification. For this we must go to analogy and the Scriptures. These are the only sources, whence satisfactory information can be drawn, and these will show us that the serpent was the sensual principle of man.* * The Rev. J. Hewlett, B. D., in his " Annotations," observes; •' St. 11 122 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTOHY. " Of all the objects of the animal kingdom, the reptile tribe is the lowest, of which serpents of various kinds and species are the most conspicuous. Of all the degrees of man's life, the sensual and corporeal are the lowest ; because they are nearest to the earth and are actuated by merely earthly appetites, influences, and causes. These lowest degrees in man's nature partake the least of what is truly human in man, and the serpent, their corresponding emblem, is of all animals the most remote from the human form. As the serpent crawls upon the earth, so the sensual principle in man is nearest akin to the earth, which, if not elevated by the rational and spiritual principles of his nature, may be said to crawl upon the earth in like manner. As sensual things have a tendency to fasci- nate and charm the mind, because sensual delights are more vividly experienced than any others, so certain kinds of serpents, espe- cially the more malignant, are said, by naturalists, to fascinate and charm their prey before they devour it." * The general analogies, so satisfactorily presented in this extract, assist us in perceiving certain general resemblances between the serpent and the sensual principle of man. Now the serpent f which was in Eden, we believe to have been the sensual principle, that was connected with Adam's character. For a time, there was with him a realization of the Lord's injunc- tion, to be "wise as serpents." The sensual principle, at first, was right and orderly, because it stood in its proper relation to the Paul, in addressing himself to the Corinthians, says, * I fear, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be cor- rupted from the simplicity which is in Christ.' Now the city of Corinth was notorious, even to a proverb, for its devotion to pleasure, for the grossest sensuality and voluptuousness ; and as the holy apostle draws a parallel between them and the temptation which seduced Eve, it may be supposed that he favors the allegorical interpretation of those who consider the serpent as the well-known emblem, or symbol, of sensual pleasure." * A writer under the signature of "Minus," in the "Intellectual Re- pository," for 1843, p. 53. f The Hebrew word here translated serpent, is Nachash. Much learn- ing has been bestowed upon this term, with the purpose of determining who or what the serpent was, but without any very satisfactory results. The principal reason is, because a sense has been sought for it which it was never intended to express. Forbes, in his *' Oriental Memoirs," says, " A great nuisance at Benares is, the number of Yogees, Senassees, and Nanghas, or religious mendicants, who go about entirely naked : we oc- casionally meet with a few of these people at other places, but here they abound." (Vol. iv. p. 86.) THE WISDOBI AND SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 123 dictates of his higher nature. It was among the objects, upon which the Divine approbation had been pronounced : for the Lor4 declared the creeping things to be "good," yea, "very go«j|.'* This then, was a characteristic of the serpent, or, more literally, of the sensual principle of Adam, as declared of it by the Lord himself. So long as it was employed instrumentally, to promote the ends of spiritual use and order, so long it was wise, but when it was directed principally, to secure the gratifications of corporeal nature, it became most subtle. The loisdom of the serpent is the circum- spection and prudence of the sensual principle of man ; the subtlety of the serpent is its artifice and deception. In neither case was a literal serpent meant. The very circumstances of the narrative having given to it speaking and reasoning powers, ought to have preserved mankind from the belief of such a crudity. If it once could speak, when and how did it lose the power ? The Scriptures furnish no answer. Theology has suggested, that it was the devil and not the serpent who spoke. But the Scriptures do not say so. They express no idea about the then existence of 'the devil : * how could he have come into being before evil had been perpetrated ? The Scriptures most distinctly assert that it was the serpent which spoke : nor is there, throughout the whole narrative, the slightest intimation that it was any other being. The faculty of speech is attributed to it, because it is significant of the sensual principle of man ; which is, indeed, a speaking principle, uttering wisdom when it is used as the instrument of spiritual order, but discours- ing artifice when separated therefrom and directed to the world. Man is formed, not by one principle only, but by many ; he has not lost any of them by the fall : that calamity destroyed their * '* This question may be asked : If such be the case, how came the opinion so general respecting fallen angels, and whence was it derived ? There can be no doubt respecting the source whence it was obtained. The first notion of the existence of a fallen angel is found in the Zendavesta. The later Jews became conversant with the Persian mythology, and in- troduced this, with various other notions, into their writings, and it seems to have been adopted by the early Christians, without any inquiry into the scriptural authority upon which it rested. Our immortal country- man, Milton, by clothing this fiction of the Persian mythology, in all the beauty and attractions of poetry, has so recommended it to our imagina- tion, that we almost receive it as of divine authority; ' and we feel a reluctance to be convinced that all his splendid fabric is based on false- hood." — John Lamb, D. D. Hebrew Characters derived from Iliero- glyphics. Pp. 118, 119. Sec. ed. 124 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. quality, and perverted the order of their existence, but it obliterated none. Hence humanity, in its primitive perfection, must have had principles distinguished by higher and lower degrees of excellence, the interior being allied to the things of spirituality and heaven, and the exterior to the objects of corporiety and earth. Now, one of the distinguished characteristics of the Adamic people was, their freedom. When placed in the garden, they had a choice given to them, to obey, or transgress, the divine com- mands. It was said to them, " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it." This freedom must have been very perfect, because their condition is pronounced to have been very good. From this state they must have known the truth, and it is a law, that they who know the truth, " the truth shall make them free." (John viii. 32.) Moreover, the spirit of God was present with them, and the apostle has declared, that " where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor. iii. 17.) They had been raised to the summit of their excellence, by the use of freedom in that direction. But this did not compel them to remain there. They did not forfeit their freedom by the attainment of their superiority : it was enlarged and perfected as they ascended. While the men of the most ancient times, employed this free- dom in co-operating with the Lord to develop the interior re- sources of their orderly humanity, it was exercised in a wise and right direction ; but by that very freedom they could again descend the mountain they had climbed : yet to do so would necessarily be attended by a curtailment of their freedom. " He who doeth sin is the servant of sin." (John viii. 34.) Freedom is rightly used, when it causes all the principles of men to look inwards and on- wards to the attainment of superior states : but it is abused, when it permits them to look outAvards and backwards to the delights supplied by inferior things. Now the tendency of man's lower sentiments and disposition is towards the world, while the impulses of his spiritual nature and inclination are towards heaven : and, so long as the former remain under the influences of the latter, so long order is preserved, and all their respective relationships are good : but who does not know, that the inferior principles strive to relax the vigilance of the supe- rior ? Who has not occasionally experienced the lower principles of their nature, proposing doubts, as to the reality of tliose objects, which the higher principles believed and sought after ? Who has THE SENSUAL PRINCIPLE. 125 not sometimes permitted their judgment to be formed only by the testimony of the eye, or the evidence of some other sense, and yielded belief only to those things which they could see and touch, and cherished doubts about those interior subjects which are to be known only to the inner convictions, by means of the mental sight and higher feelmgs of our nature ? These are no uncommon cir- cumstances. They come home to the general experiences of men : and surely, it is easy to see, when our sensual nature is endeavor- ing to separate itself from the light and guidance of our spiritual nature, that the serpent is attempting to deceive us. The sensual principle endeavors to persuade us, that the objects of the outer senses are more real than the things of intellectual perception ; and thus, it would induce us to prefer the pleasures of the world to the excellences of heaven. And do we not, in this fact, even now, experience the temptation of the serpent ? Does it not make an effort to weaken our regard for God's commandments, and is it not frequently insinuating, that the gratification of the passions of our lower nature is preferable to the delights anticipated by our higher principles ? Is not this fact the common experience of men, and does it not suggest a reasonable exposition of the serpent, saying " Ye shall not surely die ? " The serpent of natural his- tory cannot say this, but the sensual principle of man practically does so, whenever it begins to act independently of higher pow- ers ; and this, we conceive to have been the very serpent, by which Adam was seduced from his propriety, and the circumstances under which he was led into transgression ! The serpent is said to have been " more subtle than any beast of the field," not to teach that it has any remarkable sagacity beyond what is common to the instinct of animated nature, for no such fact is known to naturalists ; but this is said of it, to inform us, that the sensual principle is the lowest, and the least to be depended on, of all the other affections belonging to our external man: it is requisite to watch over it by the higher powers of our minds, and to direct it by superior principles, or it will be sure to lead us into a forgetfulness of our highest duty, and finally plunge us into disobedience. The reason is, because it dwells as it were upon the outer extremes of hUman life. It thus readily receives impressions from the external world, by which the memory is fur- nished with information, which it can wield with a persuasive art in favor of the delights and pursuits of worldly things. It reasons with shrewdness and dexterity, because its thoughts are so near the 126 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. tongue : it thinks that intelligence consists in speaking from the memory, concerning things collected from without, and views the understanding of things, implanted by the Lord, with doubt and disrespect. There is nothing so deceptive as the senses. If we trust to them only for information, our judgment and conclusions must be full of error. There is a proverb, that " seeing is believing ; " but it is not always so. We have to correct the impression which we receive from without, by the higher faculties of our minds, in order to reach the truth. How various are the fallacies of vision ! The sun appears but a small body, to rise and set upon the earth, which seems immovable. The stars, also, appear to be fixed in the same extended plane, and moving from east to west in the vast expanse ; but these things are not really so ; they are mere falla- cies of the sight, which we correct by another and superior power ! If the sensual principle is not so corrected, it remains in fallacies, and it will be found to appeal to the testimony of the senses for evidences, that the appearance is the reality. The subtlety of the serpent consists in the fallacies, which sensuality induces. AU its reasonings are grounded in worldly things : and by these, it would lead us to believe, that there is nothing worthy our attention or attachment, but what we can see and feel, or taste : and there is a force and plausibility about such reasonings, which fit them for the purposes of seduction. Any one, capable of seeing how the higher powers of the mind correct the fallacious impressions, which outward and worldly things make upon the lower senses, will readily perceive how it was, that all the faculties and powers of Adam, during his integ- rity, existed in harmony and order. For a time, his sensual princi- ple was as wise as a serpent, because it admitted into it the cor- recting light of spirituality and intelligence. Still it was not removed from the influences of the world ; and he possessed both the power and freedom, if he chose to incur the responsibility, of listening to its suggestions. This, according to the history of the temptation, was actually done ; thereby the light, by which his sensual natuia had been previously illuminated, began to be dimin- ished in its force, and the consequence was, that fallacies were received and believed as truths, and thus the way was opened for evil to begin its deadly work. The fall of man, as thus effected, was a gradual event. It began by his commencing to love the good of his inferior princi- FALL COMPLETED WHEN JESUS WAS MANIFESTED. 127 pies, in preference to the good of his superior ones ; successively- descending, until he finally sunk into the persuasions and delu- sions of his sensual nature. This was the circumstance in which evil had its origin, and men will obtain a tolerably correct idea of that disastrous event, if they will but carefully attend to the begin- ning of their own actual guilt. Every one knows, that this had its commencement in freely yielding to the suggestion of his sen- sual nature, to gratify some selfish love. It was near to them, and promised immediate satisfaction, whereas, those* which were of a superior nature, seemed to be at a greater distance, and to exert a feebler influence. The serpent which seduced the inhabitants of Eden from their innocence and wisdom, is the same as that by which transgression and guilt have been perpetuated. Man is its exclusive author, and not any thing extrinsic to him. The attempt to charge it upon some other being, is only another act of self- delusion. It is an endeavor to excuse his own misconduct, by heightening the criminality of another, which other could not have existed until aftei the perpetration of his own guilt. But Adam did not sink into every evil : his, like the guilt of men in subsequent ages, was a progressive work. The first intimation of it is giveft in the preceding chapter, where it is said, that " it was not good for man to be alone," of which we have already spoken. At first, he only inclined towards the impulses of his sensual nature ; he afterwards began to inquire, whether it was not lawful to prefer its desires and suggestions, and at length, he yielded to its solicitations. Nevertheless, the evils into which he fell were mild and few, compared with those which were perpe- trated in after-times. His transgression was only the beginning of that catastrophe, by which the fall of man was made complete. Successive ages added to the enormities which he began, but the atrocity of the fall could not have reached its depth, until the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world,* in order to bruise the * It may be a matter of surprise to some, to hear that the fall of man was not completed, before the time of the Lord's manifestation. This, however, we think is very plain, from a careful consideration of the Scriptural History of man. Still, the state of Rome in respect to its refinements in literature, the ^rts, and general civilization ; its successful and extensive conquests, together with the circumstance of its having been the Augustine age, when peace was so settled with all the world, that the temple of Janus, (Patulcius,) was shut up, may be urged as facts difficult to reconcile with the above statement. But no condition of merely natural civilization, however eminent, if it be destitute of true 128 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. head of the serpent which had occasioned that calamity. In the acts attendant upon that coming, he fulfilled that prediction which Avas delivered immediately after the temptation became successful. But how did he fulfil it ? Was it by bruising any natural serpent's head ? Certainly not. As the prediction was not fulfilled by the bruising of any natural serpent's head, is it not evident that it could not have been any natural serpent which caused the tempta- tion ? The serpents of that time were the sensualities of fallen humanity, for the Lord distinctly asserted the Jews to be " serpents, and a generation of vipers." (Matt, xxiii. 33.) The Lord's bruis- ing the serpent's head, then, consisted in his subduing the power and ascendancy, which the sensual principle had obtained with men. He did this by opening out fresh influences from Himself, which are called " a new and living way," (Heb. x. 20 ;) and from that time, men have been capable, as all history attests, of thinking and acting from higher grounds than they had previously done, and thereby of discovering and exposing the frauds and deception, which the merely sensual nature would impose upon us. This is what is implied in the promise made unto believers, namely, " T will give you power to tread on serpents," (Luke x. 19 ;) " they shall take up serpents." (Mark xvi. 18.) Power over these things naturally, was originally vouchsafed ; nor is there any intimation religious grounds, can be of any weight in an argument of this kind. That the civilization of Rome, or any other of the nations, had no ground in genuine religion, is the uniform testimony of all history. The fall of man was complete when he was separated by pride, ambition, selfishness, and all their attendant evils, from Divine and heavenly influences : and there is evidence to prove, that these features distinguished the nations, at the period of our Lord's manifestation, more than at any other time in the history of our race. The awful character which Jesus draws of the Jewish nation, is a representation of the church as it then existed with mankind at large. Sismondi, in his history of the *' Fall of the Roman Empire," speaking of the Julian family, says, " it is that of * the dictator Caesar ; ' his name was transmitted, by adoption out of the direct line, but always -within the circle of his kindred, to the five first heads of the Roman Empire ; Augustus reigned from the year 30, B. C. to the year 14 of our era ; Tiberius from 14 to 37, A. D. ; Caligula from 37 to 41 ; Claudius from 41 to 54 ; Nero from 54 to 68. Their names alone, with the exception of the first, concerning whom there still exists some diver- sity of opinion, recall every thing that is shameful and perfidious in man, — every thing that is^ atrocious in the abuse of absolute power. Never had the world been astounded with such a variety and enormity of crime ; never had so fatal an attack been made on every virtue, which men had been accustomed to hold in reverence." — Cabinet Cyclopcedia. Vol. 1, p. 28. POWER TO TREAD ON SERPENTS, ETC. 129 of its having been lost by man's transgression : on the contrary, we find savage nations to display it with the greatest energy. The Lord did not come into the world for such a purpose. The power to tread on serpents, which he then conferred, was a power to subdue our sensual nature : and the power to take up serpents, was the ability to elevate our sensual nature, by placing it under the purifying influences and directing energies, of the loftier prin- ciples of spirituality and religion. There are several historical narratives, in which serpents are mentioned in a truly literal sense. In those cases, however, their representation is the same as that which they sustain in the history which is factitious, and, consequently, they may be cited as afford- ing confirmatory evidence of it. For instance, the rod of Aaron, on the occasion of his interview with Pharaoh, is stated to have been cast down, and it became a serpent. (Exod. vii. 10 - 12.) Because the rod of Aaron denoted the power of spiritual good, by casting it down, was signified its presentation, and by its becoming a serpent, was represented, that such power, with the Egyptians, was become altogether sensual. The circumstance of the rods of th^" magicians also becoming serpents, was a confirmation of that truth, which the transaction of Aaron had representatively re- vealed : and the rod of Aaron, swallowing up those of the magi- cians, was a further representative revelation, that such disorderly power would be taken away from them. When the people of Israel "spake against God and against Moses, fiery serpents were sent among them, so that much people of Israel died." This was done to represent the sensual loves with which they were beset, and through the influences of which many of mankind spiritually perished. Moses, complying with a Divine command, " made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole : and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived." (Numb. xxi. 5 - 9.) Every one must perceive that this was done for a representative purpose. It is evident from the circumstance of the Lord having said, concerning it, " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- ness^ even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." * * John iii. 14, 15. This passage is commonly regarded as a pre-figura- tion of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which men are to believe was a suffering, substituted for that which is due to their own guilt ! But the student, whose mind has not been pre-occupied with that idea, will find 130 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. The Lord Jesus Christ, as to the good of his sensual nature, was signified by the brazen serpent. He was so represented before the Israelites, because they were merely in a sensual state, and did not elevate their thoughts concerning God above that low condition. Its being lifted upon a pole, signified the glorification of the Lord's sensual nature. And for those who were bitten by the serpent, to look upon that which was of brass, and receive a cure, denoted, that those who feel the stings and wounds inflicted by sensual loves, and look up to the Lord for deliverance, will be sure to receive the communication of spiritual life for effecting it Other cases could be easily adduced, and, like the above, sum- marily explained ; but what has been observed, must make it evident, that the serpent of Eden was tlie sensual principle of the Adamic people, and that its temptations consisted in presenting before their higher faculties, the fascinations of worldly objects and delights ; so that, in process of time, their higher principles and powers were seduced to favor them, and, being lulled into a for- getfulness of superior duties, they gradually sunk into the gratifi- cations of their lower principles, irrespective of a higher guidance, and therefore, lost possession of their intelligence, which was their expulsion from the garden. This view of the subject presents the narrative to us in an intelligible form. It comes home, in a considerable measure, to our experience : we see its reasonableness ; and at once recognize the subtlety * of the serpent in the occasional experience of its suggestions, and the fallacious aspect under which it presents worldly and selfish loves. We perceive that its influence must be attended with afatal withdrawing from all spiritual good, unless it be vigilantly watched and carefully resisted. It reasons falla- ciously, because the materials of its argument are drawn from the it difficult to establish any analogy between such a supposed type and antetype. Surely there is no correspondence between Moses, who lifted up the serpent, and the wicked authorities who crucified Jesus ! nor can any thing but fancy find any resemblance between the pole and the cross. There is nothing answering to the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, ike. &c. The reason is, that it was not such a type. The raising of the brazen serpent related to the glorification of the Lord, but the crucifixion, to the humiliation of the Lord : these were two distinct acts connected with his manifestation in the world, for the redemption of mankind. * The original word translated " subtle," though it may denote insid- iousness and craft, yet here it rather means the power to insinuate and ingratiate. EXAMPLES OF SENSUAL REASONINGS. 131 things of time and sense. It does not consult the inner dictate and superior suggestions of the mind. The sensual man says, " This is my nature, why should I resist its propensities, and not enjoy the pleasures which they promise ? God, if there be such a being, must have given them to me, and certainly I cannot sin agauist him when I use them." These deceptive reasonings, illustrate the serpent saying, " Ye shall not surely die." But how transparent is the subtlety of such suggestions. Although God has given to man a sensual nature, because he was to be a resident in a physical world, yet it was given in connection with superior powers, and was intended to be employed under the direction of a higher impulse than itself. Again, the serpent is reported to have said, " In the day tliat ye eat of the forbidden fruit, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." To eat of the forbidden fruit is plainly to transgress a given law. The tree of knowledge is a divine gift, by which men are enabled to perceive the truths of faith : the fruit of this tree is the good of life. When men, from sensual persuasions, are led to think that any virtues they may possess are self-derived, they eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge : they believe their eyes are open, because they can see with approbation the delights of the world ; and they conceive that they are as gods, knowing good and evil, because they think they guide themselves in the prudences of life : but these are fallacies, utterly destructive of all genuine faith in spiritual and celestial things ! Look at the effects of such reasonings, as they are exhibited in merely worldly and sensually guided men. Who are so strongly persuaded as these, that their eyes have been opened by having abandoned the teachings of religion, and plunged into the fascina- tions of the world ? " They think that as gods they are wise, knowing good and evil, because they may be capable of distin- guishing between the pains and pleasures of sense ; and yet who, in reality, are as blind as they, to all the knowledges which relate to spirituality, futurity, and heaven ? They do not acknowledge an eternal life, for they believe that when they die, they end: neither do they acknowledge the Lord, but worship only them- selves and nature. Those amongst them who wish to be guarded in their expressions, say that there is a Supreme Being, of whose nature they are ignorant, and who rules over all. These are the principles, in which they confirm themselves, by numerous sensual and scientific arguments, and if they dared, they would openly 132 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. proclaim these views before all mankind. Such persons, although they desire to be regarded as gods, or as the, wisest of beings, would, if they were asked what it was not to love themselves, reply that it was the same thing as to have no existence. The idea of living from the Lord, they conceive to be a mere phantasy ; and if inter- rogated as to their knowledge of conscience, tliey would say, it is a mere creation of the imagination, which may be serviceable in keeping the vulgar under restraint: if interrogated as to their knowledges of perception, they would laugh at your question, and call it enthusiastic. Such is their wisdom, such open eyes they have, and such gods they are : on these principles, which they imagine clearer than the day, they ground all their reasonings and conclusions concerning the mysteries of faith, and what can be the result but an abyss of darkness ! These are the serpents, above all others, who seduced the world." (Arcana Coelestia, 206.) And this principle, having gained successive dominion over Adam, caused his fall. It may be questioned, whether that generation of the Adamic people, with whom it commenced operations, descended into all the enormities contemplated in the above extract, though there can be no doubt of its having been fearfully realized in their posterity before the flood. CHAPTER XI. THE EATING OF THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT AND EXPULSION FROlf EDEN. " ' Twas man himself Brought Death into the world : and man himself Gave keenness to his darts, quickened his pace, And multiplied destruction on mankind." Dr. PoRTEUS, Bis/iop of London. From the considerations which have been adduced, we learn that the people, treated of under the collective name of Adam, w.ere distinguished by a variety of principles, the whole of which, during their integrity, existed in order and operated for happiness. The sensual principle was among the lowest of this variety ; the circumstance of its existing upon the outermost range of the mind, and, as it were, dwelling so close upon the world, is the reason why it is described as being more subtle than any beast of the field. Hence it was seen, that the tendency of this principle was outwards and downwards, in like manner as the desires of the Mgher principles were inwards and upwards, and that man, by the THE BATING OF THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, ETC. 133 freedom of his nature, was capable of giving ascendancy to either, by cultivating one in preference to the other ; and that the success of the serpent's temptation, consisted in man's sensual nature favoring the excitement induced upon it from Avithout. It has, also, been intimated that this catastrophe was not a sudden, but successive work ; that it began by inducing inclination to prefer the outer pleasures of the world, to the inward delights of heav- enly things ; then by insinuating doubts as to the existence of things spiritual, because they could not be seen or handled by the physical senses : next, by suggesting that natural things might be the only realities, because they only came under the cognizance of the eye and touch ; and, at length, by producing the consent of the inner powers to the indulgences of sensual love. Such, we conceive, to have been the general process of the temptation and the transgression finally induced. The period which was occu- pied in this decline and fall, is not announced. Still there can be no reasonable doubt that it was the work of several generations. It is the existence of the fact, rather than the period occupied in its production, which it is of importance to know. Having these general views of the superior state of man, and the way of his decline and fall, before us ; we can now proceed to investigate the nature of the law, he is stated to have broken by that transaction. It is thus written : " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. ii. 16, 17.) The manner in which it was transgressed, though cited in the preceding chapter, for the sake of having the whole transaction then before us, was not there explained : for this purpose it is now again produced. " When 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 make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. — Therefore the Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground, from whence he was taken." (Gen. iii. 6, 7 - 23.) Eating is the act forbidden, and we think it much more natural to regard it, as the interdiction of some irregular process of the mind, than as the prohibition of a particular act of the body. If a physical act were intended by the prescription, surely, we may fairly ask why the tree was placed in the garden ? Wliy it should have appeared so good for food, 12 134 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise ; if, after all, it was not to be tasted ? The common answer to these inquiries is, that it was planted in the garden with a prohibitory law, to test the fidelity of the parties who beheld it. But who does not perceive, that this idea makes the tree a stumbling-block, and God the tempter, for having put it there.* It plainly repre- sents the tree as a temptation, and supposes God not to have fore- seen its consequences. Surely, the Lord does not try the con- stancy of his people, by giving them a law to observe upon the one hand, and then, upon the other, to place in their way a temp- tation to transgress it. The supposition is shocking, and should be avoided. The whole notion about God trying the fidelity of his people, by placing them in difficult circumstances, requires revision. It is an apparent, and not a genuine truth. God is essential goodness, and he has always watched over the welfare and happiness of men, with the utmost care : he would have removed the fruit out of Adam's reach, and hindered the serpent from persuading him to eat it, if they had been things extraneous to his nature. But they were not : they were things which belonged to him as a man, and to have removed them, would have been to have taken away his manhood. This sensual princi- ple was necessary to complete his nature, and fit him for residing in the world : the knowledge of good and evil, was necessary to encourage him in the way of obedience, and to act as a hindrance to his transgression. Freedom was indispensable to employ those knowledges agreeably to his own choice. How bould a man be man, without a sensual principle ! How little would man have been distinguished from the brute, if he had been deprived of the knowledge of good and evil ! and without freedom, he* would have been a mere creature of impulsive instinct. But Adam was endowed with all those excellences. He pos- sessed knowledge of the highest kind. He was in the life of obedience, and so in the knowledge of good ; thence, he would have a perception of its opposite, and so acquire the knowledge of evil. This was a tree distinguished among the other intelligences * Byron, in his terrible poem, " Cain," makes him say, in reference to the temptation of Adam : — " The tree was planted, and not for him ? If not, why place him near it, where it grew, The fairest in the centre ? They have but One answer to all questions, • 'twas his will, And he is good.' " SIGNIFICATION OF EATING. 135 of his intellectual garden. It was an enlarged possession of gen- uine knowledge, proper to his high condition. But he was not to eat thereof. Eating was the prohibited act. Why was this, v/hen he was so freely permitted to eat of every other tree ? We shall find the answer to this interrogatory, if we consider the significa- tion of the term. That it does not mean natural eating is evident, because taste is the chief species of knowledge which it is capable of inducing, and that is among the lowest class. The notion of the fruit hav- ing possessed some property, that was capable of exciting the mind to greater action, and so to procure additional knowledge, we think to be unworthy of a serious thought. Stimulants will inflame the imagination, but they do not increase the knowledge ! They may excite and disorder it, but they cannot increase and strengthen it. Surely, knowledges, superior to those which Adam in his integrity possessed, were not to be procured by the eating of some peculiar fruit ! ' If so, Adam could not have been so wise as is supposed, because there were certain knowledges withheld from him, and which the fruit of some remarkable tree was capa- ble of furnishing. But what dreams are these ! (See pp. 80, 81.) Eating is a term of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures, and, in the really historical portion of them, it literally denotes what it expresses ; but there are many occasions on which the word is used without such meaning ; yet in every instance it has an inter- nal sense. We select the following examples. The Lord said, " I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever." "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." " He that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John vi. 51, 54, 57.) In these sentences, it is plain, that by eating is not meant eating, but that internal act of the mind, by which it appropriates, in an orderly way, the good things of religion, and thereby acquires spiritual nutrition for the sustenance of the soul. It was for the same reason that the Lord said by the prophet, " Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." (Isaiah Iv. 2.) The Lord also said, " to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God:" (Rev. ii. 7:) where, by the tree of life, is meant the perception of love ; for love is a fruit-bearing principle with men ; and this is said to be in the midst of the paradise of God, when it is made the centre of 136 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. all the religious duties of the church ; while to eat of the tree, clearly means to appropriate the perception of love to our s piritual use and benefit. The act of eating, as of natural food for the nutrition of the body, is named, — because it corresponds to the act of appropriating spiritual good for the sustenance of the soul. There is a food for the mind, as well as for the body. The soul must be fed with the good of love, in order that it may live in spiritual health, in like manner as the body must be supported with the bread of nature, in order to maintain its physical vigor. The love of what is good, and the perceptions thence arising, were the food by which Adam was instructed to sustain his emi- nent condition : this is what is meant by that portion of the law which says, " of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : " the reason for the exception will presently appear. Every one is, as to his internal quality, precisely what his love is : it is this, with its consequent perception, which constitutes the individuality of every one. Man's character springs from his love, and he is judged and estimated according to the nature of its quality and developments. This love and perception, as to the individuality which they form, are man's own : they distinguish every man from every man. In this respect each one is himself alone. He has a distinctiveness of nature which belongs to no one else, and this is acquired by his having appropriated, incorpo- rated, cherished, or spiritually eaten of some peculiar love. If it were not so appropriated, it would pass away and vanish. It is only by such appropriation that his individuality remains. As he appropriates good in any of its varieties, the distinctiveness of character thereby imparted, cannot perish. So that he may " eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he must not eat of it ; " this is forbidden, for reasons which regard his truest welfare. The knowledge of the spiritual things of faith, duty, and heaven, is not of man ; it is the Lord's. It is communicated to the world by revelation, either through an internal dictate to its immediate subjects, or by means of a written Word. Without such revela- tion, man must have been utterly ignorant of such knowledge. Every one may be sure, if he is so disposed, that all his knowledge of such things has come to him from a source superior to himself. He feels that he is incompetent for such discoveries, and therefore, that he ought to live under the continual acknowledgment, that his knowledge of holy and religious things is not from himself, but from the Lord. CAUSE OF THE PROHIBITION. 137 Now, as eating is significant of mental appropriation, to eat of the tree of knowledge, denoted that mental appropriation of it, by which men were led to believe that it was the result of their own self-derived intelligence. Adam was forbidden to eat of it, in order to guard against this consequence. We, therefore, cease to wonder at the prohibition. We see that it was done for a wise and merciful purpose, and designed as a medium for preserving man in the humble acknowledgment of the Lord, as the soGrce and giver of all intelligence and truth ; and also, ta teach him, that if he ceased from such acknowledgment, he would necessarily fall into transgression. And is it not so ? Do not those who are wise in their own conceits, who pride themselves upon their pre- sumed intelligence, and consider it as a meritorious acquisition of their own, reject the Lord, and so transgress his law ? But there is another important reason, why the eating of the tree of knowledge was prohibited. Knowledge is a means to an end. It is given for the improvement and formation of character. The more eminent the knowledge is, if applied to life, the more exalted is the man. All knowledge has respect to life, and it is mtended for the promotion and establishment of good. But to eat of the tree of knowledge, is to appropriate information for the enlargement of the understanding merely, without due regard to its holier uses. How frequently is that which is denominated genius, found to be disorderly ? How often are clever men dis- covered to be crafty ? Does it not sometimes happen that men, with enlarged understandings, have narrow souls and selfish hearts ? Is it not a fact that wise men are sometimes wicked : — that they perpetrate their ills with sagacity — "plate their sins with gold ? " Every one knows these truths : but why are they so ? simply because they have eaten of the tree of knowledge : they have devoured information with a greedy appetite, regarding knowledge as the end, desiring to be clever rather than to be good. The mischievous tendency of such a course is evident. It places the perpetrator in the position of "that ser\'ant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did accord- ing to his will ; (and who therefore) shall be beaten with many stripes." (Luke xii. 47.) How wise, then, is the command, " ye shall not eat of it ;" and if men do so, how certain is their fall — a fall into a criminal neglect of the laws of order, propriety, integrity, and virtue. Does not experience prove, that this is just the course which 12* 138 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. the sensual appetites of men suggest ? It desires to separate itself from superior guidance, and to be left to its own control. It strives to prevent knowledge from exercising its salutary influences upon the lower affections : it would persuade us, that its only province is the head ; that men are wise in many things, because they may happen to know something of a few, and so leave the heart untouched to mistake its way. Thus, we conclude, that the prohibition was founded in such good reasons as men may see tlie value of. The prohibition is as binding upon us as it was upon Adam ; and a violation of the command will also be attended with fatal consequences. It is lawful to see the tree of knowledge — to comprehend wjiat is wise — God planted it for this purpose, but to EAT of it was forbidden, because to do so, would be to regard intellectual sustenance as the end of it, and so induce a falling that would permit the heart to grow corrupt. But the tree was eaten of, and this consequence resulted : still, as it has been said, it was not accomplished by the first sallies of the tempter. Men who have attained to any eminence in virtue, do not fall into evil on the first excitement. They think upon the subject, revolve it in their minds, and for a period they, to some extent, resist it : but, bye and bye, they incline towards, and after- wards look at it with desire, whereupon the suggestions of the higher sense are weakened. Then they experience a struggle between desire and duty, and give way, only when the exciting object appears to the affection, as the tree of knowledge did to the woman, namely, " as good for food, pleasant to the sight, and to be desired to make one wise." Men do not partake of that which is forbidden, until they have been persuaded it is good : thoy do not plunge into transgression, until the delights thereby pro- posed to be obtained, appear somewhat pleasant to the eye — that is, agreeable to the illusion under which they labor : neither do they enter upon a career of guilt, until they have begun to cherish it as a means to something that is wise ! These are the circumstances, under which men in general pass into the perpetration of crime in these our days, and they serve forcibly to illustrate the narrative which describes the process of Adam's guilt. His fall was, in its general nature, somewhat sim- ilar to that of ours, when we are tempted into transgression. The principal differences lie in the degrees of its enormity. He fell into evils with a larger amount of knowledge than it is our lot to possess : he began to decline with a purity of character which PROGRESS OP GTTILT ILLUSTRATED. 139 does not belong to us. He transgressed with more open eyes, and sunk into an abyss from a loftier summit than we have ever gained* Hence his posterity, in a few generations, perished in that terrible calamity described as a flood. Having descended into evil by the process we have indicated, he must needs have begun to view all moral things under a perverted aspect : and finally, he would have misgivings as to the existence of spiritual and heavenly things, because they could not be con- ceived of sensually and scientifically : the result of this incredulity was the inversion and overthrow of all his excellence. Evil was thought to be good, and falsehood truth, to describe which the for bidden fruit is, under the influence of the temptation, said to have appeared " as good for food, pleasant to the eye, and to be desired to make one wise." The consideration of these facts aid us in seeing the rationale^ and tracing the process of Adam's fall. We at once see that it was not accomplished by a talking reptile that was out of man, but that it resulted from the fallacious reasonings of the sensual prin- ciple, the existence of which was proper and necessary to his being. These fallacious reasonings consisted in confirming ap- pearances to be realities. They were small in their beginnings but fatal in their consequences. It was like a particle of dust falling upon the pupil of the eye, and preventing it from seeing the things of nature with certainty and clearness : self-guidance was preferred to a dependence on the Lord, concerning which the prophet says, " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight." (Isaiah v. 20, 21.) Such was the state brought about by a series of perverse sen- sual reasonings. We do not consider it to have been the work of one man, or of the first generation, but as a result consummated by some of their posterity during the age of the Adamic people. But this state led to other consequences, the painful nature of which may be illustrated by the common experience of mankind. All know that there was a period, in their personal history, when they had not fallen into the actual perpetration of those sins, which now so easily beset them, and that the first effect of having done so, was to awaken them to a sense of the danger they had incurred. The act, which first succeeds a deed of guilt, is timidly t» look about to ascertain whether it has been watched by others. 140 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, Conscience, also, by its pangs in after-times, effectually proves to them that their innocence is gone. These experiences, like that of Adam's, open their eyes and let them know that they are naked. To open their eyes meant, that they now saw their guilt ; and to know that they were naked, denoted a consciousness that their innocence was departed. It is well known that the Scriptures speak of " nakedness " in the sense of degradation. (Rev. iii. 17.) It was said of them before they fell, tiiat " they were naked and not ashamed," to teach, that they were innocent and felt no guilt : but after their transgression, they saw the disaster they had in- curred and became ashamed. Where there is no innocence, nakedness is a scandal and disgrace : but it is not so where inno- cence exists, as in the case of infants ; hence it is the symbol of innocence. But to know it shamefully, as in the case of Adam, implies the presence of a sense of guilt ; and therefore, he was sent "forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." To be sent forth from Eden, was not an arbitrary act of the Almighty : he does not deprive man of any felicity which he is qualified to enjoy ; and therefore, his expulsion from paradise was a natural consequence, arising from the unfavorable change which had now taken place in his character. His position in Eden, as shown in the preceding chapter, denoted the pleasure and delight which arose from an orderly love ; but of these, his transgression, necessarily deprived him. It was his own act. By listening to the suggestions of his sensual nature, and misusing his freedom, he withdrew himself from the sacred influences of genuine good- ness : in like manner as the vicious are still known to keep aloof from virtuous society. But although Eden is necessarily lost to every man, who transgresses the rules and discipline of virtue, yet he is watched over with unabating diligence by the divine mercy of the Lord. " Though a good man fall," says the Psalmist, " he shall not be utterly cast down : " (Psalm xxxvii. 23, 24 :) he was preserved in a condition to " till the ground from whence he was taken." Prov- idence does not abandon the sinner : it is always wisely kind and merciful : it reminds him that all the virtues which he might have possessed, were communicated graces, and that they were sown into his nature, specially created for their reception, by teaching and training. Man is lifted into spiritual eminence, by cultivating the moral ground in which he may be placed : if he fall from such THE CTJRSE UPON THE SERPENT. 141 elevation, that is the ground to which he descends. This was the ground from whence Adam had risen into the distinction he at- tained : he fell, and so passed into it again : but he was not then forgotten; he was taught a duty — he was "to till the ground from whence he was taken." In other words, he was to cultivate the ground from which he had risen, and to which he had de- scended, b J inseminating into it the seeds of truth, to watch over their growth with solicitude and care, to be attentive to the fruits they were intended to produce, and thus strive to regain the emi- nence he had lost. The capacity to do these things was still pre- served to him, and perpetuated to his whole posterity. CHAPTER XIL THE CTJRSE TJPOIf THE SERPENT — THE SORROWS OF THE WOMAN — AND THE CURSE UPON THE GROUND FOR MAN'S SAKE. ** God made not death : neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things that they might have their being : and the generations of the world were healthful ; and there was no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon them. But un- godly men with their works and words called it to them." — Wisdom of SoloTtion,. Chap. i. 13 — 16, The circumstances of the fall of Adam and his expulsion from Eden, were attended by other calamities, to which it is requisite to refer. A curse was pronounced upon the serpent, the sorrows of the woman, in conception and parturition, were to be multiplied, and the ground was cursed that man might eat of it, in toil and sorrow all the days of his life. These subjects are thus set forth in the sacred narrative : — " 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 : and upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception : in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto 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 sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it 142 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground." (Gen. iii. 14 - 19.) The leading- idea presented in this narrative, is the curse. In what sense is this to be understood ? That disastrous consequences followed the transgression, cannot be doubted : but were they tlie natural result of disobedience, or the specific infliction of the Al- mighty ? The latter is the common idea, though the history does not say so. To the serpent God said, " Thou art cursed above all cattle," and to the man he said, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake : " thus it simply represents God as declaring its existence, and not as producing it. He mercifully revealed the state, but did not inflict it. Calamity follows sin, as death does poison, but as God does not originate the sin, or administer the poison, he cannot be chargeable with the calamity or the death. And although he is described as saying to the woman, " I will greatly multiply thy sorrows," under certain events ; yet, it was not the sorrow, con- sidered in itself, but the multiplication of it, which was the evil an- nounced. Sorrow, it would appear, attended these events under the best condition of humanity, but it was now to be increased ; and God is represented as its author : but, under the circumstances, may not this have been a blessing ? We can easily conceive a wise Providence placing difficulties in the way of attaining, what a degenerate mind thinli;s to be desirable, in order to promote some genuine good. Pains and trials are no proofs of God's displeasure ; we know that they tend to soften and humiliate, and so to bless ; and, therefore, the multiplying of the woman's sorrows may come within the scope of mercy rather than malediction. An idea that God became angry with the human race, wlien the first man transgressed, very extensively prevails. The above pas- sages are considered to declare it. But this cannot be correct. Anger is no attribute of God; it must bethey import most of what they use, and in seasons of scarcity, are obliged to mix the ground bark of trees with their bread. (Goldsmith's Geography.) These facts show, that the differing conditions of the land render manual labor, for the production of food, very unequal in its amount : which is very difficult to understand, if the universal ground were cursed, in order to exact a laborious toil from man, to render it productive. THORNS AND THISTLES. 151 Why should it not have been uniform in its action ? There is no hint given, that it was to be partial in its operation ; which we think would have been the case, if the literal sense had been intended for our faith. Moreover, these differences are traceable to natural causes,* and the labor which an inferior soil requires, may be considerably reduced by the appliances of art.t But the ground was to bring forth " thorns and thistles," and it does so. But when was it otherwise ? It cannot mean, that it was then, for the first time, to do so. The species are not named : but geology shows us the existence of some that must have flourished long anterior to the creation of man. We feel it difficult to reconcile these facts with the common notion of God having, six thousand years ago, pronounced a curse upon the ground, for the punish- ment of his people. It is a shallow inference, and not a divine truth. The idea of God having, upon the one hand, taken from the ground that which had rendered it luxuriant in the production of human food ; and, upon the other, to have imparted that which was to make it fertile in whins and briars, cannot be rationally sustained: nor is it requisite to uphold the character of God's justice, or to maintain the divine purpose of the narrative. It was written with an entirely different design, | which we will endeavor briefly to explain. By the ground is denoted, that orderly external of man, by which he was distinguished, when the development of his religious character became complete. (See page 65.) By the fall, its ex- cellence was necessarily impaired, and so it became less prolific in the good things of use. " To eat of it in sorrow," denotes, to live from it unhappily ; " to eat," is to partake of, and so to live ; and every one may see, that to appropriate the false sentiments and evil affections, which had now taken hold of the external man, must needs have been attended with anxiety and sorrow. Expe- rience shows that it is so, and satisfactorily explains the passage. The ground was now to bring forth "thorns and thistles," to denote, that the external man would now engender evil and false * It may be said that God is the authol of those natural causes : so far as this is the case, he operates in the way of general blessing, and never in the way of partial curse. t Consult Professor Johnson's Work on Agricultural Chemistry ; also Liebeg's. X St. Austin says, " No Christian will venture to affirm that these things are not to be taken in a figurative sense." — Pre/ace to his Twelve Books on thejirst three chapters of Genesis. 152 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. principles. Evils are the thorns, and falses are the thistles. Hence the Lord, when treating of the distinction between the good and the evil, and the faithful and disbelievers, said, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " (Matt. vii. 16.) To " eat the herb of the field," signified, that he would live low and vilely ; and " to eat bread in the sweat of the face," was to partake of celestial things, only through toil and exertion. These ideas could be easily proved by citations from the Word, but we cannot dwell on the detail. The reasonableness of these views, brief as they are, will commend themselves to the thinker ; they Avho will not think need not expect to know. From what has now been stated, it will be seen, that by the condemnation of the serpent, is denoted, the evils which the sen- sual principle had brought upon itself: by the sentence upon the woman, was signified, the evils to which the voluntary selfhood had become attached ; and by the anathema upon the man, was represented, the evils to which his intellectual part had consented ; these respective evils were the curses ; and, as man brought the evils, so he must have been the author of the malediction ; and hence his sufferings therefrom. CHAPTER Xm. CAIN AND ABEL, WITH THEIK OCCUPATIONS. •" It is consonant to the history of Moses to suppose, that God wished him to give mystical representations of the more subUme subjects of theology ; because that style of writing was suited to the hieroglyphical learning in which he had been instructed." — Dr. Spencer, De Legibus Hebrceorum. The history by which we are informed of the births of Cain and Abel, with their occupations, is exceedingly simple and com- pendious. " Adam knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother, Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." (Gen. iv. 1, 2.) If we were to regard this as literal history, it would, nevertheless, be reason- able to think, that, as a revelation, something more was designed by it than what first meets the eye ; and this it would be our duty to inve'«tigate and endeavor to learn. Although there might have been, m early society, such individuals as Cain and Abel, engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, yet it is difficult to suppose them to be referred to, any otherwise, than as affording ground for CAIN AND ABEL. 153 tJie construction of a symbolic history, relating to matters of a much more extensive and serious nature than the mere letter can possibly express. As the history, which precedes that of Cain and Abel, is only representative, we think that their history is of a similar character. The manner in which those histories are con- nected, seems to us to establish this opinion. As Adam is a generic name, expressing the idea of a community, then the names of Cain and Abel, who are described to have descended from them, must be similarly construed ; for a community of persons cannot be said to give birth to individuals, in their general ca- pacity. The people of one generation originate the people who succeed them ; but each individual springs from his own partic- ular parents. It would be absurd to say, that all the inhabitants of Rome were the father and mother of Julius Caesar ; and yet this is very like supposing the societies, called Adam and Eve, to have been the personal parents of Cain and Abel, considered as individuals. One generation, called Adam, gave birth to other generations, called Cain and Abel ; but, as the former were a collection of men, so were the latter : as the former constituted a church, which afterwards fell, so the latter constituted separate communities, which distinguished themselves by different religious sentiments and life. It is no uncommon thing for a single name to be employed, to express the idea of a whole people. It was customary among the ancients, it is found in the Scriptures, and occasionally, it is had recourse to in modern times. Thus, in countries, whether mo- narchical or republican, the king, or president, is named to express the acts and opinions of a whole cabinet. France, England, and other countries, are sometimes mentioned, not to signify their geographical existence, but to denote their living populations. In the Scriptures, Egypt, Judea, Philistea, Sidon, Jerusalem, and many other places, are mentioned, not to indicate locality, but their inhabitants. Every one knows that the single names of Jacob, Esau, Joseph, Benjamin, and other descendants of Abra- ham, are frequently employed, not to express individuals, but a whole people, who were influenced and directed by certain views of a religious or economical character. The following instances will suffice. " I will visit Jacob according to his ways ; " " Jacob shall rejoice and Israel be glad ; " " He leadeth Joseph like a flock." Multitudes of cases of this kind may be found in the Scriptures : and those of Cain and Abel are to be classed among 154 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. them. They do not signify individuals, but communities, in Avhom were developed certain features of religious sentiment and feeling. They descended from the people called Adam, and the principles by which they were morally influenced, were derived from the same source. These statements will appear remarkable to all, who have been accustomed to regard those names as significant of individuals only. Nevertheless, it is evident, that at this time, more than four persons were in existence. Indeed, it is usual to concede this fact, by supposing that there might have been other descend- ants of Adam, whose births are not recorded. But apart from this idea, society must have been considerable. Some reasons for this opinion have been adduced above ; others may now be added. The occupations assigned to Cain and Abel, if understood in a literal sense, require the admission of this idea. Tilling the ground, and keeping sheep, were distinctive employments that must have sprung out of the requirements of society. Although the cultivation of a little land might have been required for the maintenance of four individuals, yet it is difficult to see why the keeping of sheep should have been requisite for so limited a number. Such dis- tinction of employments would scarcely have been recorded, if there had not been society sufficiently extensive to require their uses. But Cain's attention was not wholly directed to agriculture. We find that he had acquired some knowledge of the art of build- ing ; for he is afterwards described to have erected a city in the land of Nod : both this knowledge and the city, must have been called into existence by the requirements of society. It must have been such society that provided him with his wife ; for there is no account of her origination. But, for what purpose were the sheep to be kept ? it does not appear that they were used as food. To suppose that they were kept for the sake of their wool, implies the existence of much larger society, than that with which the letter of the history brings us acquainted, and to which' its uses, in the way of being converted into articles of clothing, must have been well known. If we con- jecture that it was for sacrificial purposes only, that, obviously im- plies the prevalence of a religious community for whose offerings they were preserved. The offering of Cain, was of the fruit of the ground. What was this ? was it brought in a natural or prepared state ? The original word, minchah, is thought to be explained in Leviticus, to be an offering of fine flour, with oil and frankincense. THE OCCUPATION OF CAIN AND ABEL, RELIGIOUS. 155 (Lev. ii. 1. See Dr. A. Clarke.) If Cain's offering were really of this description, hOAv^an we reasonably account for the existence of those arts, by which fine flour and oil were prepared, but on the sup- position of society being more numerous than is usually thought of? The very circumstance of offerings being spoken of, unaccom- panied by any command enjoining them, is presumptive evidence, that the idea of such a practice had been derived to these brothers, from a church or people, previously extant. Sacrificial worship was not commanded by God, nor is it any spontaneous offspring of the human mind. It must have originated out of the perver- sion of some divine law or institution, for it is most unreasonable, considered in itself; * and therefore, granting tlie offering of Abel to have been a natural sacrifice, that fact implies the perversion of some holier things that had been known to his predecessors, of whom the letter furnishes no information. Both Cain and Abel brought offerings unto the Lord : this in- dicates a publicity in their worship, which idea, the notion of the presence only of the two parents and two sons, is not sufficient to supply. " The Hebrew word rendered brought, is never used with respect to domestic or private oblations; but always for public sacrifices." (Bishop Patrick.) The circumstance then, of their having brought offerings, obviously denotes the existence of society, and consequently, that there were two classes of them, each of which was most attentive to its own views concerning them. But the unquestionable fact, that Adam was a people, and not a single person, renders it unnecessary to dwell upon merely collateral cir- cumstances, to prove that it is the religious state of society, and not the worldly vocation of individuals, which, is represented by the occupations of Cain and Abel. The Adamic church having fallen, in the transgression of its members, different views of faith and 'duty would, in the process of time, obviously arise among them. Having eaten of the tree of knowledge, they would begin to think and act from self. Self is not a uniting, but a dividing principle. Under such circumstances, sectarianism would break out among them ; these, with their dif- ferent branches, would, for a considerable period, be capable of being traced to the original stock. The fallen Adamic church was * See Dr. Magee on the Atonement. Bishop Patrick says, "It is not probable that Adam would have presumed to invent a way of worship, by killing beasts and burning their fat ; especially as we cannot perceive any inclination to it in nature." _ 156 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. the parent whence they all descended. It was customary, in an- cient times, to speak of one event of the church as being conceived and born of another, and so to form a sort of genealogy concern- ing its successive states, and to give them names accordingly. This is the principle involved in the description of Adam's descend- ants. There is the conception and birth of religious opinion, as well as of persons. Every one who is at all acquainted with the history of the Christian church, knows when the principles of Prot- estantism were born, and who were their parents : and we have now only to look abroad into society, and we shall behold their progeny in a hundred sects. In the church, one thing is, as it were, conceived and born of another in the way of spiritual generation. The apostle says, " Now abideth faith, hope, and charity ; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor. xiii. 13.) Charity, then, ac- cording to this authority, is the first-born principle of the Christian life, faith is next, and hope succeeds. If charity become extinct among a people, the life of faith is necessarily endangered ; and then, how feeble and precarious must be their hopes. It is easy to see how one imperfect state of the church may, as a parent, beget another : the idea is distinctly expressed in the Revelation, which describes a woman as the mother of harlots : (Rev. xvii. 5 :) it plainly means a false religion, originating abandoned principles. Now, if the narrative of Cain and Abel is viewed under this as- pect, we shall perceive, that they are names expressive of two dif- ferent classes of religious principles, which descended from the Adamic people, after they had partaken of the forbidden tree. The like view is to be taken of their other descendants.* This is some- what evident from what is stated of the age of Adam. He is said to have lived eight hundred years after he begat Seth ; a circum- stance that may be doubted, Avhen interpreted of an individual man, but which is very rational when it is supposed to treat of the con- tinuance of a religious dispensation. Considered in this light, parallel cases can be adduced from religious history. The Jewish economy has lasted for nearly three thousand years ; and Abraham may, in a certain sense, be said to have lived all this time, in the religious principles and physiognomy which have been perpetuated to his descendants. But we must not here anticipate what we have to say on the longevity of the Antediluvian patriarchs. It * " All the personages whose histories are so earnestly related in East- ern Countries, never existed, and are nothing more than the ancient sym* bols personified." — Abbe Plucfie's History of the Heavens, vol. I, p. 142. REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTERS OP CAIN AND ABEL. 157 is sufficient now to observe, that the nine hundred and thirty years recorded as the duration of Adam's life, were significant of the states and periods of the dispensation so denominated ; but that it, like the Protestant religion during the three hundred years of its existence,* was broken into a variety of sects, among whom Cain and Abel were the first and most distinguished. So long as the Adamic dispensation continued in its integrity, all the faculties of its people acted as one. The will loved what the understanding perceived to be true, and they worked harmoni- ously in promoting the virtues of a holy life. But when the people lell, those two faculties ceased to be united. This condition of them is one of the legacies which that event has bequeathed to pos- terity ; and experience proves it to have been faithfully transmitted. We have a distinct consciousness that the will and the understand- ing act separately from each other. We think one thing which may be true, that is of the understanding ; we love another, which may be opposite thereto, that }S of the will. These two faculties, in our unregenerated state, do not act in unison : they, so to speak, turn their backs upon each pther and look in opposite directions. This fact is a proof that man has broken in upon the harmony of his moral creation, and destroyed the unanimity which it originally possessed. Every one is aware that in religious things there are some persons who know truth much better than they do it ; and also, that there are others who feel truth, much more correctly than they know it. The understanding of the former are always on the alert to seize on any information, which is likely to increase their power. The will of the latter will be found docile, and responsive to certain qualities of good. These distinctive classes are among the results of that separation, which has taken place in those two faculties of humanity, and they were first displayed under the rep- resentative characters of Cain and Abel. By Cain was represent- ed those who intellectually knew their master's will but did it not : by Abel was denoted, those who felt goodness to be superior to knowledge, and so cultivated it with the greatest ardor. Such classes have always prevailed within the pale of a declining church. The Lord informed us of their existence among the Jews, by the * Protestantism is referred to for illustration, because the facts con- cerning it are better known in this country. History ^shows the Roman Catholic religion not to have been exempt from similar divisions. "What is called the Eastern Church is separated into three great parts, the Greek, the Roman, and those who diflFer from both.— Mosheim, Cent. xvi. cMp. 11. 14 158 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. cases of the pharisee and the publican. (Luke xviii. 10 - 14.) They both went up to pray, but the pharisee, in the pride of his intellect, tlianked God that he was not as other men are ; while the publican, in the humility of his heart, said, Lord be mercifm to me a sinner ; and this man was justified rather than the other. Traces of similar characters are to be found in Christendom. It is well known to observers that there are those who are self- satisfied with their intellectual possessions ; who can converse with fluency about the things of religion; who can argue its positions with acuteness, and defend them with sagacity and power ; but who, nevertheless, show, by their conduct and beha- vior, that they have hard hearts and questionable morals. And who is not aware that there are others, who are but slightly acquainted with the doctrinal sentiments of religion ; and who can only converse imperfectly about the spiritual truth of revelation, but who, nevertheless, have about them that simplicity of char- acter, which assures the observer, that they love and cherish what is good ? The former strive to conceal the deformity of their character by the brilliancy of their intellect ; the latter, possessing no such talents, at once let you behold their hearts, and you see that they have respect for order and for virtue. Now it was two classes of sentiments of this description, and consequently, of persons by whom they were respectively held, who came into existence in the Adamic church under the two names of Cain and Abel. They both professed to serve the Lord, but each from a different principle, and therefore, with different results. But we will endeavor to investigate the character of each, under the light of true Christian teaching. And first of Cain. As the Adamic people, by eating of the forbidden tree, chose knowledge in preference to obedience, and so placed the cultiva- tion of intellect above the purification of the heart, it is easy to see, that the first results of such a course, must have been the conception and birth of faith, — yea, faith only, as a means of acceptance with God. Cain was the representative of tliis princi- ple ; and consequently, of all those persons who acquired and possessed it. The name, as a Hebrew word, denotes acquisition or possession. They believed that the possession of religious knowledge, was more necessary to secure the divine favor, than the excellency of virtuous life. They knew much, for they were tillers of the ground, — the planters of knowledge in the intellect: THE ERROR OF FAITH ONLY. 159 but they went to the Lord with their understanding chiefly, and so attempted to serve him with only one half of their minds. They neglected the duty required by the invitation, " My son, give me thy heart." (Proverbs xxiii. 6.) They overlooked the important circumstance of knowledge being only a means to virtue as an end, and thus they rested their salvation upon the faith of thought, rather than upon the purity of life. They did not sufficiently attend to the fact, that, as light without heat produces no fruit, so faith, without charity, can effect no acceptance. A doctrine, somewhat of this character, was propounded in the Christian church, at the time of what has been called the Refor- mation. It is thus expressed: "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ, by faith, and not by works and deservings ; wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort : " * but there is no such doctrine as this taught in the Sacred Scriptures. They, indeed, inculcate the necessity of faith, as one of the ingredients of the Christian character ; but they never, like the above Article, represent it as the exclusive virtue : and herein lies its error ; which the apostle sufficie;itly exposes, when he says, " What does it profit, my brethren, if a man say he has faith. Can faith save him ? Faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. Ye see how that by works is a man justified, and not hy faith only. The Devils believe and tremble." (James ii. 14-19.) The doctrine o^ faith only has been very dis- astrous to the church, and contributed very extensively to the dangers by which she has been assailed. Although it is now, happily, becoming a mere theory, which most sensible persons are abandoning, yet it was not always so. Luther said, " The ten commandments do not belong to us, Christians, but only to the Jews : we will not admit that any the least precept of Moses be imposed on us. Therefore, look that Moses, with all his law, be sent a packing, in malam rem — with a mischief : "f and the * Book of Common Prayer, Eleventh "Article of Religion." The plain meaning of this article is felt by the learned to be opposed to the plain teachings of the Scriptures ; and therefore, Dr. Burnet, says of it: "By faith only, is not to be meant faith as separated from the other evangelical virtues ; but faith as opposite to the rites of the Mosaical law." — Exposition of the xxxix. Articles. This, though not very clear as an explanation of the article, is satisfactory as a renunciation of the wicked doctrine which it expresses. t Luther's Works, vol. 1. published at Wirtemburg, p. 147, cited in the 160 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. church sometimes acts as though it still believed this abomination: it is conspicuous in the case of great criminals, who, having for- feited their lives by a transgression of those commandments, are told to have faith, and expect salvation. A regard to faith, as the chief thing of the church, was the first heresy of the Adamic people. It was conceived when the woman ate of the tree of knowledge, and born when Eve said, " I have gotten a man, Jehovah." There are two things which belong to a church, its wisdom and its love. With the good, wisdom is as a husband, and love as a wife. The church, at the time here treated of, was, as to its wis- dom, represented by Adam, and, as to its love, by his wife. But we are informed, that " Adam called his wife's name Eve," that is " life." (Gen. iii. 20.) The word Eve is a contraction of the Hebrew chavah, (see Marginal Reading,) and answers very closely to the word Zoe, by which it is rendered in the Septuagint, both of which signify " life." Now, why was she so called ? It will be replied, " Because she was the mother of all living : " but surely something more is meant by this than what is so expressed. There is only one fountain of life, who is the Lord : it is because He lives, that we live : (John xiv. 19.) it is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being. (Acts xvii. 28.) In a merely lit- eral sense, there is no more reason why she should be called lifej from the circumstance of being the first mother, than that Adam should have been so called on the ground of his having been the first father, and, for other reasons, if the literal sense had been meant, it might have been equally appropriate.* The fact of this name having been given to her, shows that something more recondite is intended. Adam called his wife's name lijl, because the church as to wisdom, knows that the church as to love or affection, is life ; it is a living thing with men, and so the spiritual mother of all its living excellence. It is well known that the Scriptures speak of the church as a mother : the apostle distinctly asserts, that it is " the Mother of us all : " (Gal. iv. 26 :) so that the " Intellectual Repository," of 1828, p. 80. And in continuing the para- graph, he says, that Moses *' should be held suspected for a heretic, cursed and damned, and worse than the Pope or the Devil." * Swedenborg states, " that the soul is from the father, and the body from the mother ; for the soul is in the seed of the father, and is clothed with a body in the womb of the mother ; or, what amounts to the same, all the spiritual part of man is from the father, and all the material part from the mother." — Trtie Christian Religion, No. 92. WHAT IS UNDERSTOOD BY CATN. KJl idea which Moses, in respect to Eve, has symbolically indicated, the apostle has literally expressed. Now, a church can give birth to nothing but such things as per- tain to faith and charity, but the quality of those descendants will depend upon the character of the parent. A corrupted fountain must send forth a turbid stream. Grapes do not grow on thorns, nor figs on thistles. Eve had fallen, and her first offspring was Cain, or faith, concerning which she said, " I have gotten a man, Jehovah," to express the idea, that faith, without charity, was now considered to be sufficient for the purposes of the church. Before this time, faith had not become a separate object of thought ; it was united with love and formed one with it. But now it began to exist as a distinct principle in the mind, and also, to be espoused by a people as the essential thing for their salvation. The church, having acquired the doctrine of faith, is described as " getting a man," and to indicate its relation to the Lord, the term " Jehovah '* is appended thereto.* By Cain, then, is to be understood, the doctrine of faith sepa- rate from charity, and consequently, a people by whom this tenet was held as being suflScient for eternal life. In this we discover what was the first heresy, and who were the first heretics. This doctrine was an enormity, and therefore, God is recorded to have had no respect to its offerings. That which constituted their faith * The authorized version represents Eve as saying, upon the birth of Cain, " I have gotten a man frovi the Lord." The original does not ex- press the idea " from the Lord : " there is nothing answering to the word from. It is eth Jehovah, i. e. the Jehovah : and not meeth Jehovah, i. e. from the Jehovah. The passage is considered to be one of great difficulty. The former sentence is thought to have been an elliptical mode of ex- pressing the latter idea, so that the whole is interpreted to mean, that Eve had gotten a man through the blessing of the Lord. The septuagint and Vulgate so render the original. This construction might be satis- factory, if the premises on which it rested, were not suppositious ; but, that being the case, we are at liberty to doubt. Besides this conjecture, it has been said, because the name Jehovah is sometimes applied to places, (see^Gen. xxii. 14; Exodus xvii. 15; Judges vi. 24, &c.) and is also admissive of being represented by the term Lord, which is frequently ■applied to men; that Eve's statement, " I have gotten a man from the Lord," is a mere acknowledgment to her husband of Cain's paternity: but this notion has no foundation in true criticism. The correct trans- lation is, "I have gotten a man, Jehovah ; " in this sense it might indi- cate an acknowledgment in the form of, ** Jehovah, I have gotten a man." Under this view it agrees with the spiritual sense given above. 14* 162 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. was actual knowledge. They saw the objects, in which it was necessary to believe, with certainty and clearness, but they rested in their knowledge as an intellectual possession, considering it the all of religion, and so allowed the aflfections to go astray and revel in their lusts. But the doctrine of faith only, which has sprung up in the Christian church, is not precisely of this character. Its members do not see, that the objects in which they are taught to believe, are really true. Indeed, it is openly stated, that they are myste- ries for faith, and not matters for comprehension : thus it is the dictate of authority, and not the result of knowledge. If it be not understood, how is it known to be true ? What assurance is there that it is not false ? To say that God has said so, and that, therefore, it is to be believed, is assuming the very point in ques- tion. Has God really said what is generally required to be be- lieved ? Has He declared unintelligibilities for the faith of man ? That which is not rationally seen to be true, does not contribute any thing to the development of affection or enlargement of thought: and hence, we find religions society at a stand-still, in every situation where it has been touched with the paralyzing wand of faith only. But though this doctrine in the Christian church (because arising from an obscurity, under which the things of faith are contemplated,) is less malignant in its nature, than that which was represented by Cain, %till it is the same in kind, and must be fatal in its results. Much ingenuity has been exercised in the defence of this extra- ordinary tenet. But the inventions of talent cannot successfully maintain what is essentially false. It is possible, by avoiding some main point of an inquiry, to make a show of argument in favor of any falsehood, and so, for the moment, to embarrass even truth itself. Men who are disposed to believe the worse to be the better cause, will find assertions to defend their notions. It is possible to make black appear white, by looking at the feathers of a raven in a certain angle with the sun. But all such courses are delusive, and they will terminate, like the offering of faith alone, in disappointment and rejection. That doctrine is similar to the light of the sun without its heat ; like summer without its fruits : like winter, cold, and fierce, and chilling. And here, by faith alone, we do not merely mean the tenet as it is propounded by certain branches of the professing Christian world; because we can see that it may practically exist within TRUTH ALONE NOT AN ACCEPTABLE OFFERING. 163 the pale of a genuine church. Persons may join her community, and learn her truths so as to know them with a rational persuasion, and yet they may not love them so as to realize the virtues to which they point. It is this practical view of the case, rather than the mental postulatum, which is the real antitype of Cain. Faith cannot bring an acceptable offering to God, unless it be conjoined with charity ; and charity is not a theory, but an act. Faith is the knowledge and consciousness that certain things of religion are true ; for if they are not true, they are not worth believing. If men believe, without a persuasion from such sources, their faith is blind : and if, in such a state, they should happen to rely upon something that is false, it must, necessarily, exercise an injurious influence upon their intellectual life. Faith, then, considered in its solitary character, is the mere knowledge of truth ; and this faith is more or less expansive and enlightened, a9 the truths which form it are more and more abundantly in- creased. Here it may be inquired. If the knowledge of truth is one of the constituents of faith, why are its offerings not acceptable to God, seeing that, as truth, it must have originated in him ? The answer is, that although truth does originate in God, yet it does not descend from him as a solitary principle. In him it is eternally associated with good, and with this it comes from Him to man ; man has separated them. He has put asunder what God has joined together, and, in rejecting the principle of good, on which the quality of truth depended for its excellence, it can form only a dead, and not a living faith. Moreover, the truth which is necessary to the formation of faith, is only a means to an end, and the end cannot be secured by a mere belief in the means. All believe that a good day's work may be done by industry and dili- gence : this is believed because experience has proved it true ; yet it is certain that mere belief will not do the work. , Anfl the case is similar in religious things. We must employ the truths we know, to obtain the goods they teach, before they can become an acceptable offering to God. A further reason why mere faith cannot present an acceptable offering to Him, is, because it is not morally beneficial to us. Nevertheless, faith is the first principle to which the church gives birth — like Cain, it is first-born: — man must first learn to speak and think, then to investigate and know the things of religion ; but to stop at this point is to consider that religious principles are formed, when, in fact, they are only 164 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. known ; and this is to resuscitate the character of Cain. Faith, without charity, is nothing ; for the apostle has most eloquently said, " Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor. xiii. 2.) Much difficulty has been experienced by the church, in deter- mining whether faith or charity was the primary principle. This is a consequence of not distinguishing between faith as being the first in respect to time, and charity as being chief in respect to end. It may now be easily removed, and the facts familiarly illustrated. For example : in building a temple, the first thing, in respect to time, is to lay the foundation, erect the walls, cover them with a roof, and afterwards provide the altar and raise the pulpit ; but the chief thing in respect to end is, that God may be worshiped therein. So, again, with regard to the building of a house : the first thing in regard to time is to build the external parts of it, and then to provide the requisite conveniences within ; but the first thing in regard to end, is a commodious dwelling for the master and his family. Illustrations of this kind are abundant. They show, most conclusivelyj that faith is first with respect to time, because it is a means to charity as an end : and hence Cain, by whom this faith is represented, is described to have been first-born. This representation of Cain is further sustained by the occupa- tion he is said to have been engaged in. He was a tiller of the ground; and by this is spiritually signified a planter of knowl- edges in the understanding merely. That this was the character of Cain — that is, of all those people of that most ancient time who received the heresy of faith separate from charity — appears from all the circumstances which are related of him, and espe- cially from these, that his offering was rejected, and that he slew his brother. And this brings us to inquire concerning Abel. Ancient writ- ers abound in observations on his mystical character,* and he has very commonly been regarded as the representative of the pastoral * Chrysostom, Horn, in Gen. xviii. 5. Augustin, De Civitate Dei, xv. 1, and Irenaeus, Contra Hceres. iii. 23, so speak of him. Dr. Darwin, in his Botanical Garden, Art. Portland Vase, speaking of the opinions which have been held concerning the early personages of the Bible, says, "Abel was the name of an hieroglyphical figure representing the age of Pas- turage, and Cain the name of another hieroglyphical symbol representing the age of Agriculture." ABEL THE TYPE OF CHARITY. 165 tribes, in like manner, as Cain has been considered the author of the nomadic life. Thus, his representative character seems to be admitted, though some obscurity may be felt as to what he signi- fied. From what is written concerning him in the Word, we think it is evident that he was the representative of charity. Abel, as a Hebrew term, denotes humility, and also, weakness : humility, to denote a characteristic of charity, and weakness, to express its modesty and sAveetness ; as well, perhaps, as to indicate the lim- ited number of society by whom it Avas loved and practised. Abel is said to have been the brother of Cain, to inform us that charity is a near relative to faith. The Scriptures continually speak of the intimate connection betAveen these tAvo principles of the church, and man has been mercifully gifted Avith tAA^o faculties for their reception : the AA'ill for charity, the understanding for faith. But, although there is a spiritual brotherhood subsisting betAveen these tAvo principles, the universal experience of mankind is, that the things of faith are more forAvard and uppermost than the affec- tions of charity. Charity, though the sAveeter and more gentle excellence of the church, is too frequently lorded over by the more daring and presumptuous influence of faith. The affections of good are Avell knoAvn to be more feeble than the perceptions of truth. Abel is modest and retiring, Cain is bold and confident. Faith struggles for command and mastery, and it is too frequently inattentive to the Aveaker but inner sensations of charity. Most persons have felt a desire to do good Avhen a suitable opportunity has been presented, but hoAv many have had it set aside by the influence of some selfish persuasion ? Hoav frequently does tal- ent endeavor to place itself as a substitute for virtue ? Cleverness has sometimes been mistaken for goodness. These facts are too common to have escaped the attention of those, Avho observe what is taking place around them. But, it may not have occurred to them, that in these phenomena, they were beholding the struggles of two spiritual brothers : the efforts of faith to secure an ascen- dency over charity : the sternness of Cain displaying its proAvess to subdue the modesty of Abel : and which circumstance, in afler- times, was also represented by Jacob taking away the birthright and blessing of his brother, Esau. (Gen. xxvii. 36.) By Pharez gaining the primogeniture from his brother, Zarah, (Gen. xxxviii. 27 to the end,) and by Epbraim obtaining the position which be- longed to his brother, Manasseh. (Gen. xlviii. 18 to the end.) It is because Abel represented charity, and consequently, those 166 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. who were pnncipled in it, that the Lord called him " the righteous Abel," (Matt, xxiii. 35 ;) and that the apostle spoke of his offering as being the "more excellent sacrifice." (Heb. xi. 4.) His occu- pation, as a " keeper of sheep," will further exemplify this fact. The Scriptures very frequently employ the idea, as well as the expression, shepherd, to denote one who exercises the good of charity. It is on this account that the Psalmist said, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." (Psalm xxiii. 1.) He is essen- tial charity ; and from this principle he is perpetually engaged in watching over the welfare, and providing for the wants of man- kind : hence, also, it is written of Him, " He shall feed his- flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs into his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead them that are with young ;" (Isaiah xl. 11 ;) a passage beautifully expressive of the Lord's affectionate tenderness for the people of his pasture, and his charitable solici- tude for the sheep of his hands. Peter was contemplated as a shepherd, when the Lord directed him to feed his sheep : (John xxi. 16 :) he was expected to exercise an enlightened charity in the apostolic office to which he was appointed. Ministers of the Gos- pel are sometimes called pastors, that is, shepherds, for the same reason. He who leadeth and teacheth what is good is called a shepherd, and they who are led and taught, are called the flock. The Scriptures represent the good shepherd to love his sheep, and to care for the safety and unity of the flock ; but the hireling shep- herd is described as one who leaveth them, and in times of danger fleeth, so as to allow them to be scattered. The Lord Jesus Christ said, " I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine : " (John x. 14 :) and the church he called a sheepfold. (John X. 1.) The reason for these descriptions is, because a shep- herd is an emblem of that charity, which carefully watches over the things of innocence, gentleness, and purity, in the human mind : and this is said to have been the occupation of Abel, because he was a representative of this excellence. Thus we learn, that by Cain, as a tiller of the ground, was denoted faith, engaged in planting knowledge in the intellect merely ; and that by Abel, as a keeper of sheep, was signified charity, chiefly employed in promoting the good things of use : and consequently, that they represented two classes of persons, in the most ancient church, to whom those principles respectively belonged. These conclusions will be corroborated by other evi- dences to be adduced in the succeeding chapter. THE OFFERINGS OF CAIN AND ABEL. 1&7 CHAPTER XIV. THE OFFERINGS OF CAIN AND ABEL : WHY THE OFFERING OF ABEL WAS RESPECTED, AND THAT OF CAIN REJECTED. •* Truth is like the dew of heaven ; in order to preserve it pure, it must be collected in a pure vessel." — St. Pierre. The offerings of Cain and Abel are the first intimations of divine worship that are recorded. The subject is thus related: " In process of time, it came to pass, that Cain brought, of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the I^ord had respect unto Abel and his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." (Gen. iv. 4, 5.) Now, whence could the idea of divine worship have originated ? It can be only satisfactorily accounted for by admitting, that a church existed to which a knowledge of that duty had been communicated. It is true, we do not read of any command having been given upon this subject ; this was not requisite, because we think it was neces- sarily included in the process by which the church was developed, and of which we have previously treated. The worship of the Lord must have been one of its conspicuous features ; it naturally belonged to the Paradisiacal state of the Adamic people. Their fall would induce a neglect of the essential things of this duty, but not a complete forgetfulness of it : that calamity would, also, lead to a difference in the quality of the worship, but not to its entire abandonment. Cain and Abel, therefore, must have learnt the duty of divine worship from the church that was extant, and the difference in these offerings, must have originated in the dif- ferent perceptions of that duty, then in the process of being manifested. But how are we to understand their offerings ? Are they to be interpreted as meaning the physical things described, as was after- wards the case in the Jewish church, or are they mentioned, only because they are the symbol of certain things of the mind, by which all worship must be performed ? We think the latter, and not the former, is the view which ought to be taken of the case. Although men had fallen, they had not forgotten, that natural things were the emblems of spiritual sentiments and love : nor had they yet ceased to speak of them as such ; these were subse- quent occurrences. A really ceremonious worship did not come 168 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. into existence, until men had lost all spiritual ideas of it : when this took place, they began to worship the Lord with those objects, which their ancestors had only spoken of, as the symbols of those mental affections and thoughts, with which they worshiped. Hav- ing lost sight of the spiritual reality, they began to worship with the natural representation ; and this was the origin of that cere- monial worship, subsequently arranged among the descendants of Abram. It was then instituted, not only as the shadow of better things to come, but also, as the types of those precious things which had perished. At the time of Cain and Abel, the people had not sunk into so low a condition, as that which afterwards required the establish- ment of a ceremonial religion : worship of the Lord, from some interior principle, still prevailed among them ; and as all such prin- ciples were known to them, to have their correspondence in natural objects, such objects would be mentioned in connection with their worship, to signify spiritual things only. If they spoke of the first- fruits, or of a lamb, as offerings to the Lord, it would not be to indicate those natural things, but symbolically to express some internal sentiment of truth and love : this we conceive must have been the case with the offerings of Cain and Abel. It is well known that offerings, under the ceremonial law, were acts of worship, that is, not worship in themselves, but types of those spiritual and heavenly principles from which it must arise. This must be obvious to every one who will reflect. The offering, apart from the sentiment which it represented, could be of no religious value. In such a case, it would be an external without a corresponding internal, like a soul without a body, or a dumb idol. External acts of worship are mere ceremonies, unless they are sanctified with the adoration of the heart. What are the prayers of the lips but mere babbling, unless the affection of the mind is in them : all such acts are valuable only so far as there is a corresponding intention in them : they must be attended with an internal love, to give them sanctity and render them acceptable. The offerings, then, as forms of worship, were significant of mental and spiritual things, in which the real virtue and efficacy of the worship consists. Offerings are presents : this is the idea which the word literally expresses ; and the original may with propriety be so translated. But presents, in general, are intended to testify the esteem, which we entertain for those to whom we give them ; and the will, or THE REPRESENTATION OF OFFERINGS. 169 intention, is regarded by him who receives them, as of greater value than the thing presented. If this be true, then the things which are presented to God, must be tokens expressive of such sentiments of gratitude and love, as are cherished by the offerer ; and God must be considered to receive them, not for the value of the things themselves, "for the world is his, and the fulness thereof," (Psalm 1. 12 ;) but wholly for the sake of the affections, by which they are accompanied. It is upon this principle that the Lord said, " If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem- berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way : first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." (Matt. v. 23, 24.) Here, it is plain, that the offering was considered as the symbol of an inward sentiment of love and charity, because reconciliation with a brother was necessary to render it acceptable. Seeing, then, what an offering to the Lord involves, we may readily perceive, that the things which were arranged for this pur- pose, under the representative law, were intended to signify par- ticular states of the affection and thought of those who worshiped. We find that lambs and rams, sheep and oxen, goats and calves, doves and pigeons, and flour and oil, were directed to be presented to the Lord. Moreover, some of them were to be offered under special circumstances. There were sin-offerings, meat-offerings, drink-offerings, heave-offerings, wave-offerings, peace-offerings, and trespass-offerings, to each of which, specific ceremonies were at- tached. • These various offerings were evidently intended (or why else were they so many, and one thing selected for their celebration in preference to another ?) to show forth, in a representative man- ner, the several states of affection and thought, which, under various circumstances, become characteristics of the worshiper. The offerings under the Levitical law, seem, generally, to include the ideas of death and consumption by fire. These, however, were the results which attended the introduction of sacrificial worship^ rather than the natural concomitants of the primitive offerings ; they did not involve those circumstances, and therefore, they are not mentioned in connection with those of Cain and Abel ; this may be taken as evidence, that they are stated only for the sake of the symbol which they afforded. We are merely informed of what they consisted, but not of the manner in which tliey were presented : it is, then simply the meaning of those offer- ings, into which we have to inquire. And first, of Cain's. 15 170 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. Cain, or the religion of faith without charity, has its ofTeringg, tiiat is to say, its modes and principles of worship. It was in the process of time " that Cain brought, of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord." From this it would appear, that the characteristics of the worship which now distinguished Cain, were not developed all at once : they were results brought about in the process of time. Thus it wels not so far separated from charity, in the beginning, as it afterwards became. The last state was worse than the first : it was about this period, when " Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord." What, then, is meant by the fruit of the ground ? It will be remembered that Adam, when sent forth from the Garden of Eden, was to till the ground, whence he was taken ; and, in treating of that circum- stance, in a preceding chapter, it was shown that the ground was significant of the external man. That, is the ground on which the spiritual and celestial things of the internal man rest, as a house upon its foundation. It is compared to the ground, because it is, to the things of the mind, what the earth is to the body. The apostle says, " That which is first, is not spiritual but natural ; " and then of this first, he says, it is " of the earth, earthy." (1 Cor. XV. 46 - 49.) The Lord said, " The kingdom of heaven is as if a man should cast seed ihto his ground ; " (Mark iv. 26 ;) and, also, in ex- planation of the parable of the sower, he said, " He that receiveth seed into good ground, is he that heareth the word, and under- standeth it ; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some a hundred fold." (Matt. xiii. 23.) In these instances it is plain, that by the ground is meant the external man, and to sow seed therein, denotes, to implant truths that they may grow up and produce the leaves of faith and fruits of love. Now, it is to be remarked, that Cain did not bring for an offer- ing, the fruit of those seeds. Although he was a tiller of the ground, yet he only brought of the fruit of the ground, and not of the fruit of the seeds, which, as a tiller of it, he had sown there. This is a distinction of the highest consequence, to be carefully observed, in order rightly to understand the subject. The senti- ments of revelation are couched in choice expressions ; and the fruit of the ground is spoken of, as the offering of Cain, because it denoted tha works of the merely external man. But what is the external man ? It is not the physical structure, but all those knowledges and affections which are gathered thereby from the outer world, and whi(^ then form, as it were, the ex- WHAT THE FRUIT OF THE GROUND DENOTED. 171 ternal of his spirit. The natural body is only the outermost cover- ing, Avithin which, the external of which we are speaking, and the spiritual man, reside, during its locality in the world. The internal man is so constituted that it can perceive and love tlie things of heaven, and the external is such that it can learn and delight in the things of the world. With the good, these two act as one, the internal illuminating and guiding the external, as the efficient cause of all its works of use and order. But witli those who are not good, it is not so. In that case, the internal is more or less closed, according to the quality and extent of the evil that is loved, and the external man only remains in activity, and this it derives from the love of self and the love of the world. A man, in such a state, is not necessarily deprived of religious infor- mation : he may store his memory with its doctrines, become ac- quainted with its duties, and acquire the ability of speaking of them with fluency and force, but his motives in doing these things, will wholly arise from the loves of self and the world. The quality of the external man, when separated from the internal, is neces- sarily worldly, and all that it produces is with a view to selfish ends. Such, then, is the ground, and such is the fruit thereof. The religion of such a man is, obviously, nothing more than its knowl- edge and its forms : it has no soul from above, its life is from be- low. How can the fruits of this ground be acceptable to God ? We see at once, that it cannot be respected. It rejects the great principle involved in the invitations, " My son, give me thy heart ; " *' Let thy heart keep my commandments." (Proverbs xxiii. 26 ; iii. J.) These circumstances, then, fully explain the case of Cain's offering not being respected. But it may be asked, what evidence there is to prove that. Cain was merely an external* man ? The apostle says, he was of the wicked one. (1 John iii. 12.) It is also presented, in all the cir- cumstances which are related of his character, and from which it has been seen that he represented faith only. The tendency of that doctrine is, to produce such a result upon the human charac- ter. When a man believes faith to be the principal thing of the church, he will gradually recede from charity, which, in the pro- cess of time, will perish ; in this case he will, as it were, have lost the kernel and merely retained the husk, which also is endangered. Faith is an external principle, of which charity is the internal, and therefore, it is plain, that they who are in faith only, must be external men only, whose faith is not even faith, but mere science 172 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. and persuasion. Confidence, which may be called faith in an em- inent degree, cannot be given to those who are not in charity. How can they have genuine confidence, who have lost the good, by which it is inspired and made alive ? Charity is as a flame, and faith the light which it emits : when the flame expires the light perishes, or, if any remains, it is dim and doubtful. These, then, are the reasons why the Lord had not respect to Cain, or to his offering. Faith only is no object of the divine regard, neither are its offerings, they being nothing else than the self-derived intelli- gence of the external man. By these representative descriptions, we are informed of the moral state and spiritual danger, of all those persons, among whom the heresy of Cain prevails ; which is confirmed by the divine declaration made to him, namely, " If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." It is plain that he did not do well, and that therefore, both he and his offering were rejected. But why had the Lord respect to Abel, and to his oflfering ? To Abel, because he was the representative of charity, which pre- vailed with another community, and which is an internal and sancti- fied principle, inducing all that is good and lovely in the human character. This view is recognized by the apostle, who, speaking of Abel's works, says they were righteous. (1 John iii. 12.) But of Avhat were his offerings significant? Under the ceremonial law, the sacrifices were supplied from two sources, the flocks and the herds. Those of the flock consisted of lambs, sheep, rams, and goats ; and those of the herd, of oxen, heifers, and calves. By those of the flock, were represented the good aflfections of the in- ternal man, and by those of the herd, were denoted tlie good affections of the external man : or, in other words, by the former were denoted the good things of love and charity, and by the lat- ter, the good things of truth and faith. Hence arose the proverb, "Know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thine herds;" (Proverbs xxvii. 23 ;) and also, the declaration concerning back- sliding Israel, namely, " Shame hath devoured their flocks and herds." (Jer. iii. 24.) The Lord, likewise, called those who af- fectionately followed him, a " little flock," and said unto them, "It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke xii. 32.) Now Abel's offerings were of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof; which may be taken, in the representa- tive sense, to mean a lamb, and the fattest thereof. A LAMB THE EMBLEM OF INNOCENCE. 173 The significant character of a lamb is abundantly shown to us in the Scriptures. The Lord's command to feed His lambs ; (John xxi. 15 ;) His sending forth the disciples as lambs among wolves ; (Luke X. 3 ;) and the circumstance of His Humanity being called the " Lamb of God ; " (John i. 29 ;) sufficiently prove that they are used in a symbolical sense ; and the same facts clearly intimate, that they are employed as the representatives of innocence. The truth of this idea is perceived, almost by intuition ; and from this circum- stance, has grown up the aifectionate custom of speaking of chil- dren as lambs, and declaring their innocence to be like them. Innocence is of two kinds : the innocence of infancy, and the innocence of manhood. By manliood, we mean that sound condi- tion of humanity, which is induced by religious influences and teachings. The innocence of the infant is the innocence of ignorance ; it is of a mere negative quality, arising from the unconscious presence of any guilt, and thus it is merely the ground, on which all the future states of religious life are raised. It is not a possession which the infant can appreciate : it is a necessary result of his condition, and towards which, neither his intellectual nor his voluntary powers have at all contributed. But the innocence of the man is the innocence of wisdom : it is, as it were, the innocence of the infant grown into a man, developed, and made alive by the instructions of truth and good. In this case, it becomes an appreciable possession ; so that the distinction between the quality of the innocence with the infant and the man, is, that with the former, it is an inheritance of which he is uncon- scious, but with the latter, it is an enlightened and sensible pos- session. Thus, the state of infancy, is not a state of religious innocence, because, with the infant, it does not exist as a spiritual quality, perceptible to the subject : but the innocence of the man, is a religious principle, implanted as he receives good and becomes wise. Goodness and wisdom are essential innocence. It was on this account, that the Lord Jesus Christ, as to His Humanity, was called the " Lamh of God," and described to have " grown in wis- dom and favor with God." The disciples are called lambs, for a similar reason. Such, then, being the signification of a lamb, it is easy to see, that the offering of it to the Lord, meant the worship of him from the good of innocence, and a consequent acknowl- edgment that it had come from him and was properly his. Every one must perceive, that in all good, there must be inno- cence ; it is that which makes it good, for if innocence be removed, 15* 174 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. then, in comes guilt. Charity without innocence, cannot be char- ity : as, then, Abel was the representative of charity, and conse- quently, of all those in whom it exists, it is plain, that innocence must have been a quality essential to its existence. If, then, a lamb really denoted the quality of religious innocence ; and, if by the firstling of the flock is meant a lamb, then it follows, as an irresistible consequence, that the offering of Abel was designed to signify the worship of the Lord by, and from, that innocence. It is called the firstling of the flock, because innocence is among the first things of man, which is afterwards made alive by the insemination of religious good ; and the fat thereof, is intended to express the superiority of its quality, and the beauty of its developments. The fat of the lamb, represented the essential things of innocence, which is the principle of celestial good itself. Hence, the Lord said, " Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, that your soul may delight itself in fatness ; " (Isaiah Iv. 2 ;) and, again, " I will fill the soul of the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness." (Jer. xxxi. 14.) It is plain, that in these passages, fat does not mean material fat, but that which is essentially good from the Lord. With these views before us, we can be at no loss to discover why it was, that the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering. Charity, and the good of innocence with which those who are principled in it, worship the Lord, are acceptable things to him. They involve a faithful obedience to the laws and duties of revela- tion, and whosoever cherishes and observes them Avill be sure to obtain admission into the heavenly kingdom, and so realize those blessings which are associated with the divine respect for them. But, by what evidences were Cain and Abel made acquainted with the results of their respective offerings ? There is no state- ment given, by which they were to be guided into such knowledge. It has been conjectured that fire came down from heaven and con- sumed Abel's offering, but passed by that of Cain's, in like manner as it is recorded to have done on two or three other occasions, after the establishment of the Levitical law.* This supposes the offerings of Cain and Abel to have been identically similar with the Jewish sacrifices. Whereas, in their offerings there is no * See Lev. ix. 24. 1 Kings xviii. 38. Also, Judges vi. 21. To support this idea, Theodotian has translated the Hebrew shoah (have respect) into Greek, by the word, enepuriseti, he set on fire. — Baijle's Diet. Hist.f Art. Egnatia. THE RECEPTION AND REJECTION OF WORSHIP. 175 intimation of sacrifice, in the way of killing an animal, and pre- senting it upon an altar. But, if any weight were attached to this notion, we should still have to inquire, how they knew that burning of the victim was a sign of the divine approbation ? Had they learnt it by experience, or were they taught it by revelation? There is no written information by which these questions can, sat- isfactorily, be replied to ; nor need they be urged, when it is known that their offerings are not mentioned to be understood in a physical sense : the whole difficulty arises from that view of the case, and it can only be removed by other considerations. It is plain, that both Gain and Abel must have known, by some means, the divine estimate of their respective offerings ; as there is no information of any external token being given of the circum- stance, it seems certain that it must have been afforded them, by means of some internal evidence. And is not that the only real evidence which a man can have of his position in the church of God ? The divine acceptance or rejection of human worship, is made to the internal sensations of the worshiper, rather than by any external signs. Those people must have known, from the satisfactions and delights which attended their worship, whether it was acceptable or otherwise. So far as it was genuine, it must have been admissive of a holy influence fi-om the Lord, and so, of an indication of his respect : but when it was not genuine, that influence could not enter into it, and surely that would evidence its rejection. The worshiper is still gifled with some tokens of this description, which testify the sincerity or imperfection of his love ; and his experiences, in these respects, will serve to show how Cain and Abel must have known the estimation, in which their offerings were held. If a man's heart be not set right towards God, he is made to know, by his consciousness of that fact, that his offerings cannot be regarded. He feels his affections tending outwards rather than upwards : he knows that his thoughts wander in the world, while his words may be expressing the sen- timents of holiness : he is fully aware that he dwells in nature only, and offers nothing but the fruit of the ground. And the experience of this consciousness, on the part of Cain, is thus described : " He was very wroth, and his countenance fell." This circumstance unfolds his character : it shows that charity was gone, anger could not otherwise have possessed him. It proves that a gloomy state was induced upon his mind, or his countenance could not have fallen. The feeling of wrath is 176 ANTEDILtrvIAN HISTORr. opposed to the sentiment of charity, and a falling of the counte- nance only takes place, when some unfavorable change affects the interiors of its subject. Anger is aroused when self-love is op- posed, and that love is contrary to the love of God. The existence of the former proves the absence of the latter : so also, the coun- tenance, which is bright and pleasing, when enlightened and influenced by a benignity within, becomes sad and falls, when the consciousness of impurity is felt. Such was the character of Cain ; and by his history we are informed of the internal state and spiritual danger, of all those people among whom the heresy of his religion prevails. That his state was of such a quality is fur- ther confirmed, by its being said to him, " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at tlie door : " he did not do well, therefore, he was not accepted ; his offering was the form of worship without the essence : and similar disappointment and rejection await all those, who, like him, know their master's will but do it not ; who know the way, but walk not in it ; who think they shall be heard well, because they speak much ; who have enlarged minds, but guilty hearts ; who have tha faith of knowledge, but not the charity of love. CHAPTER XV. THE DEATH OF ABEL — THE CURSE ON CAIN ; HIS FUGITIVE AND VAGABOND CONDITION. " During the first eight centuries the Greek and Roman churches were in communion with each other ; but, in the ninth century, their dis- putes became so violent, that a final separation took place between them. A Patriarch was elected for Constantinople, as the head of the Greek church ; he was soon excommunicated by the Pope, as the head of the Romish church ; the Pope in return was excommunicated by the Patriarch." — Jones' Dictionary of Religiom Opinions, p. 76. The circumstances recorded to have constituted the successive decline of the Adamic, or most ancient church, are, as to kind, very similar to those which have produced the corruptions of other religious dispensations mentioned in the Scriptures. They are, also, illustrated by facts, which history assures us, have brought about the extinction of various institutions of a religious charac- ter, and which, at the time of their origination, were intended to promote some general good. For a period, they have satisfacto- rily flourished in the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were establi'shsd ; but, by and by, their quietude has been THE WORD OF GOD FOR ALL TIME. 177 disturbed : some persons, influenced by the love of pre-eminence, have sought to rule, and they have rudely broken in upon the order and the happiness which previously existed with such institutions. Having partaken more largely of knowledge than humility, they sought to be as gods, and in the prosecution of their designs, they have originated dissensions and divisions : one party has obtained ascendency over another: temporary success has stimulated the arrogance of selfishness, until it has wickedly attempted to crush the modesty of right and justice, in which it has too frequently been successful. In such historical facts, we have -the general counterpart of those events, which brought about the catastrophe of Abel's death ; and, viewed under this aspect, we perceive, in the antedi- luvian narrative, a history of the development of human passions, when once evil had introduced its unhallowed presence among them. The narrative, in having responses in after-history, not only treats of the lawless activity of man's fallen nature among an ancient people, but it may also be regarded as describing cir- cumstances, which have been enacted over and over again, in- the wide domain of religious society : it is not only the written picture of events which have frequently distinguished society, but it is, also, a caligraphic portrait of the states of individual men. Do we not find them abusing the privileges they are permitted to enjoy, and so preferring personal gratification to religious obedi- ence ? Do not our experiences assure us, that we have produced a separation between our knowledge and our duty ? and have we not acted, as though we considered them to be distinct things, instead of regarding them as one? Religious knowledge exists for the purpose of conducting men to spiritual obedience: but every one knows that he has permitted the love of information to acquire an ascendency over the love of duty ; and it is no uncom- mon case to find, that the desire of duty has been extinguished in the pursuit of knowledge : and thus, that Cain has slain his brother Abel. It is only when we can see the Word of God to have a uni- versal, continual, and particular application to the moral experi- ences of men, both in their collective and individual conditions, that we possess the genuine evidence necessary to convince us that it is what it professes to be — a revelation from God. It must have been the Divine Mind which caused the construction of the narra- tive we are considering, because it describes, in a consecutive 178 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. series, facts, which, when viewed in their internal sense, have their counterparts in the experiences of religious men. None but God knoweth what is in man: none but He could have looked into* futurity, so as to have beheld the workings and displays of dis- ordered humanity, and thereupon, have caused the production of a work, which should describe them with the minutiae and accuracy which His book can be proved to do. His Word is for all time and for all men. To suppose that it was merely the history of a particular period and of a peculiar people, is to take away from it the majesty and eternity of its purpose, as well a& to overlook the infinity and spirituality cA' its origin. It is written of Grod, that without a parable spake he not ; (Matt. xiii. 34 ;•) the most marvel- lous and accomplished parable of revelation, is that which is called the Antediluvian History : and we now come to that podnt of it, which informs us- of the death of Abel, by the hand of Cain. The catastrophe is thus related : — " And Cain talked with Abel hi** brother, and it came to pass, when they Arere in the field, that Cain rose up aguinst Abel his brother, and slew him.*' (Gen. iv. &) This result sufficiently indicates, that their talking together is to be understood as expressing the idea of angry disputation. This was tlie natural consequence of two different sects, which had branched off* from the most ancient church, one of whom was seeking an ascendency over the otlier. It is no uncommon circumstance for rival parties in religion to be found in the bitterness of controversy. Although they may be in the same field together ; or, what is thereby signified, — although they may profess to belong to the same general religious dispensa- tion, yet the particular views, Avhich each has talf en of some of its doctrines and discipline, have brought them into collision, and tliey have not imfrequently conducted their controversies, more in the spirit of conquest and the world, than under the influence of truth and heaven. The history of the Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Armin- ian parties in the Christian church, displays these facts with sufficient clearness. They have talked together, but they have talked vehemently. Luther denounced Erasmus as a vain, inglo- rious animal, because lie exposed some of the religious crudities which " the reformer " liad published : * Calvin caused Servetus to be put to death, because he dared to differ from him in religious * His words are, "That exasperated viper, Erasmus, has again attacked me ; what eloquence will the vain inglorious animal display in the ovei throw of Luther." llKLlGlOtJS DISPUTES. V79 «pinion.* The controversies founded on the doctrines of Armin- ius, involved Switzerland in years of discord : and otlier branches of the professing Christian church, which have had greater power and more audacity, have not scrupled at any means, by which they . No, bxii. n 481. VIEWS OF THE DELUGE IN A TRANSITION STATE. '287 page 90, note.) While such a view can require no aid for its sup- port, from geological science, it need not fear any difficulties aris- ing from its discoveries. It may be said to be unique, but it is hardly satisfactory. But the prosecution of geological studies, has shown, with the utmost clearness, that what was once understood to have been •diluvial action, is not the result of one universal or simultaneous submergence of the earth, but the consequences of many distinct local watery forces ; and produced, not by a gradual inundation of only three hundred and sixty days' duration, but by the continued action of aqueous forces for periods of incalculable extent. More- ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein ? and it shall rise up wholly as a jlood^ and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the fiood of Egypt." (Amos viii. 8.) Where, by the land rising up as a flood, is denoted the church, inflated by its false persuasions ; and, for it to be cast out and drowned, as by a flood, signifies the desolation which their temp- tations would induce. Many other illustrations of this idea could be produced from the Scriptures ; we will, however, just advert to another. The Apocalypse, treating of the Man-Child, born of the woman in heaven, clothed with the sun, by which was represented the birth of genuine truth in the church from heavenly affection, says, " And the serpent cast out of his mouth loater, as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the faod. And the earth helped the woman ; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth." (Rev. xii. 15, 16.) Here, by the serpent, which is also called a dragon, is represented the sensual condition of a per- ishing church ; by the waters, which issued out of its mouth as a flood, is denoted, the abundance of false reasonings and persua- sions which it produces, especially with the view of overwhelming the good and truth, by which it is about to be exposed. By the earth, which helped the woman, is denoted, the new church, which receives and cherishes heavenly affection ; and by its opening its mouth, and swallowing up the flood which the dragon cast forth, are denoted, that the understanding of the people of this new church, will be so enlarged by truth, that they will be capable of resisting and dissipating all the temptations which sensual reason- ings may produce. It is, then, very evident, that the Scriptures employ the idea of a flood, to represent the infestation of false principles, with their evil consequences, and that those who resist them will be enlightened and saved, while those who yield to them, are benighted, and must perish. It was a flood of this description in which the antediluvians perished. The mere circumstance of being drowned as to the body, is no corresponding consequence for the sins of the soul. Many good men have so died : many wicked men have not so suffered. There is no connection between such a natural catas- trophe and the spiritual state of the people. It is the soul, and its condition, of which the Scriptures treat. The principles which give it everlasting life, and the perversities which produce its eternal death, are the things which God has condescended to reveal, and which men should strive to know. THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN. 307 But these conclusions will have their certainty brought out with greater clearness, if we inquire into the meaning of what are described to have been the sources of this catastrophe. These sources are two : The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, and the opening of the windows of heaven. (Gen. vii. 11.) Surely, every one, whose mind is not entirely pre-occupied with the idea of a physical occurrence being intended, must see that these sentences were not constructed with a view to express it. The style is highly figurative, and resembles, very closely, that which is employed by the prophets, of which one instance will suffice : " He who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit ; and he that cometh out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare : for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake." (Isaiah xxiv. 18.) Neither the Mosaic statement, nor this of the prophet, refers to any natural phenomena. " Fountains of the great deep ! " What is there, in mundane things, answering to these expressions ? Conjectures on this subject were abundant a century or less ago,* but they have vanished before the progress of philosophy, and now, nothing that can, with any reasonableness, be said to answer the descrip- tion, is known to science. And " windows of heaven ! " What are they ? f Surely the phrase ought not to be understood to mean the clouds of the earth, from whence it is known the showers descend : to open these, when they prevail, is to disperse them, and so let in the sunshine, and not pour down their rain. More- over, the clouds are watery vapors originally derived from the earth, and the densest of them will not contain more water than would cover, very slightly, the locality in which it may be dis- charged. If the whole atmosphere surrounding the earth, were * It was long thought to be a vast abyss of water in the centre of the earth. Many speculations upon the matter may be seen in King's Mor- sels of Criticism, vol. ii., pp. 355, 417. Englefield, with a view to find a sufficient quantity of water to cover the whole earth fifteen cubits,, sup- posed the globe of earth to consist of a crust of solid matter one thou- sand miles thick, inclosing a sea or body of water, two thousand miles deep ; within which was a central nucleus of two thousand miles in di- ameter ; and then concluded that he had found about one hundred and thirty-seven times more water than would have been required for the sub- mergence of the earth. We have nothing to say about these calculations : it is requisite, in the first place, to inquire for the facts. The conclusion is arrived at on supposititious grounds only, for which there are no phi- losophical data. Dr. P. Smith considers the phrase to mean merely the general collection of oceanic waters. t This is thought to be a Hebrew phrase for the skv. It -- 308 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. saturated with water to its fullest capacity, and then precipitated, the result, according to Mr. Rhind, would not deluge the earth more than seven inches. (Rhind's Age of the Earth, p. 100.) Rain can only contribute to the production of a flood, in a com- paratively small district. Numerous destructive instances of this kind are well known ; they were occasioned by continued evapo- ration from the ocean, with successive and long-sustained dis- charges of rain. But this could not be universal. The laws of evaporation, and the capacity of the atmosphere for holding water in solution, render it impossible, but by a miracle ; and that we have no right to invent, in the absence of all proper authority for so doing. But, as the earth supplies the clouds with all the rain that ever descends from them, they, as the windows of heaven^ cannot be considered as any source separate from the fountains of the great deep, supposing them to mean the oceanic waters : nevertheless, the different sentences must be intended to express some distinction. If the phrase, windows of heaven, is regarded merely as an orientalism, denoting the clouds and their rain ; and if it is remembered, that those clouds can have no water to pre- cipitate but what is first raised, by evaporation, from the earth, then we are compelled to say, the flood was produced by the breaking up of tlie fountains of the great deep only ; because the deep was the only source whence the water was supplied, the rain being merely a means for its distribution : but this we hold not to be in agreement with the design of the narrative, which plainly presents tivo distinct sources of the catastrophe, and thus shows us, tliat natural things are not intended to be described. When it is remembered, that the flood is significant of tempta- tions in general ; and it is known that they arise from two specific to observe the frequency with which modern critics endeavor to remove the difficulties of expression, with which the Scriptures are considered to abound, by referring them to oriental genius. It is found to be exceed- ingly convenient so to do ; but it does not explain the matter. We have still to ask. Why was that mode of expression so peculiar to eastern genius ? and, Whence did it arise ? That there is much propriety and good judgment in ascribing many expressions to that source, may be readily admitted ; nevertheless, their figurative character remains ; nor is the circumstance of their having been originally employed, representa- tively, to denote spiritual thijigs, at all disturbed by it. Therefore, in referring peculiarities of expression to be found in the Scriptures, to the genius of the people, or to the idiomatic character of the language spoken by them, and from which such expressions are derived ; and considering them to mean certain natural things, poetically expressed, their spiritual, which is their chief design, must not be overlooked. FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP. 309 causes, which are evil in the will, and falsehood in the understand- ing ; it will not be difficult to find the proper relatives for those two phrases, namely, — fountains of the great deep being broken up, and windows of heaven being opened ; for by the former, it will be seen, is denoted extreme temptation arising from evil influ- ences upon the will ; and by the latter is signified, severe tempta- tion operating by falsehood upon the understanding. The will of man is compared to the deep, because it is so in reference to the things of love. In our own language, it is em- ployed as a figure with that signification. They in whom intense affection is excited are said to deeply love. It matters little wheth- er the object of it be good or not, it is the depth of the love, and not the character of the object, which is spoken of. A like mode of expression is frequently employed in the Scriptures : great sin is called deep corruption, (Hos. ix. 9 ;) and the rebellion of Israel is said to have been a deep revolt. (Isaiah xxxi. 6.) The will, as the seat and receptacle of affection, is influenced by a variety of conflicting sentiments and feelings, which keep it in continual agi- tation, and, in this respect, it is also as the deep, considered as an ocean : sometimes, those feelings are more tranquil and subdued, and at others, they are more tumultuous and fearful ; and in this, likewise, it presents an analogy to the deep. It is in consequence of this signification, that the prophet, speaking of the Assyrian, says, " The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high ; " (Ezek. xxxi. 4 ;) because, by the Assyrian, is denoted the rational principle ; the waters are declared to make him great, because truths regenerate and make it good, and the deep is declared to set him up on high, to signify the elevation which is attained by the activity of the will. The deep, before us, is called great, to denote that it had been good, for greatness is goodness in a spiritual sense : and the fountains thereof, refer to, and signify, all those affections by which that characteristic had been procured. Every one sees, that affection is a spiritual fountain, through which arise innumer- able joys. But we are informed, that all these were broken up ; the will, as a will for good, was now disrupted, and had become a lust ; and the affections, as the fountain through which had arisen orderly delight and blessedness, were now entirely destroyed. And therefore, it is evident, that the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, denote extreme temptations, arising from evil influ- ences upon the will. But while the fountains of the great deep signify the affections of the will, the windows of heaven denote the perceptions of the 310 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. understanding. It is by those perceptions that we are enabled to behold any thing of spiritual truth, and the understanding, when enlightened thereby, is as heaven, by virtue of the wisdom that is present. They are the windows through which the mind derives all its illustrations ; and they are the windows of heaven, when they are turned to heavenly things, and admit the light of heavenly truth to illustrate the understanding. This had been the case with them in previous and better times, but it was not so at the period which is before us. The will, having become a lust, would needs corrupt the understanding also. It is a law, that where the deeds are evil, darkness will be preferred to light. (John iii. 39.) Those windows are said to have been opened, yet not for a good, but a destructive purpose. This opening implies, an unguarded expo- sure, and so, a carelessness as to what may enter, in which case falsehood is sure to find its way. Though they were open, it was not to receive heavenly light, but to admit some destructive influ- ence : this is plain from the whole tenor of the narrative. The nature of that influence must have been false reasonings and per- suasions, and these produced extreme temptations and delusions in the understanding. It was when the things of the will and understanding were so entirely disarranged and perverted, that the rain is said to have been upon the earth forty days ; because, by the rain, is here not meant rain, but the influx of evil and false principles into these two faculties of the human mind. This must be evident to all who can see the flood to have been an inundation of wicked per- suasions and delights, which the Psalmist calls the floods of un- godly men which made him afraid. Rain, when mentioned in a good sense in the Scriptures, de- notes, the influence of holy enjoyments from the Lord : hence they are called " showers of blessing;" (Ezek. xxxiv. 26 ;) and among many features of His divine care for the church, is that of " mak- ing it soft with showers ; " (Psalm Ixv. 10 ;) and he himself is said to " come down like rain upon the mown grass." (Psalm Ixxii. 6.) These blessings are compared to rain, because there is an analogy between the natural efiects of gentle and seasonable showers, and the spiritual results of orderly and refreshing influx. In a literal sense, it irrigates the soil, increases its fertility, and renders it capable of producing the food which is requisite for our physical sustenance ; in a spiritual sense, it softens the asperity of man, improves his docility, and enlarges his power of bringing fortli the meat necessary for promoting life eternal. RAIN SIGNIFICANT OF INFLUX. 311 But when rain is spoken of in an opposite sense, and from which disastrous consequences ensue, as in the case of the subject before us, then it denotes the influx of impurity from the infernal world. The context will always determine which is the character of the influx treated of. While some rains are gentle and eminently useful, others are violent and lamentably destructive ; and the latter are frequently employed in the Scriptures as the emblems of spiritual desolation. As for instance, it is written, " The taber- nacle shall be for a covert from storm and from rain ; " (Isaiah iv. 6 ;) where the tabernacle is mentioned for the church ; and this, con- sidered in reference to its wisdom and virtue, was to be a protec- tion from the storm, because by that, in respect to wind, is denoted a tumultuous influx of false persuasions : it was, also, to be a shelter from the rain, because by that is represented a destructive influx of evil connected therewith. Ezekiel, speaking of those who daub the wall with untempered mortar, — by which is to be understood, all such as confirm themselves in false ideas of reli- gion, by the fallacies of appearances, — represents the Lord as saying, "There shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hail-stones in my fury to consume it ; " (Ezek. xiii. 13 ;) where, by an overwhelming shower, is denoted a destructive influ- ence. So also, in his prophecy against Gog, it is declared, " I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain ; " (Ezek. xxxviii. 22 ;) where, again, by an overflowing rain, is plainly meant, an inundation of pernicious influences, by which they would be destroyed. The Lord said, "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened to a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell : and great was the fall of it." (Matt. vii. 26, 27.) Here, the building of the house is another form, under which the development of the church with man, is represented. When this is grounded on gen- uine truth, represented by the permanent rock, it is capable of resisting and outliving any storm of temptation by which it may be assailed; but when it has its foundation in shifting false- hood, denoted by the unsteady sand, then, when storms of temp- tations arise, it is eminently unsafe, and it will be sure to perish, when the rains thereof descend, the floods come, and the winds blow. Other passages could easily be produced, to show that rain, when spoken of in a destructive sense, is significant of those 312 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. dangerous influences, which overwhelm those in whom the will for good has been disrupted, and the understanding of truth un- cared for : but these are sufficient. They will convince the re- flecting, that temptations, and their desolating consequences on the souls of men, and so the complete destruction of the most ancient church, are the subjects treated of under the figure of the deluge. This, indeed, is still further evinced, by the circumstance of its be- ing said, that " rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights ; " for that number, in the Scriptures, is continually associated with subjects in which temptations are conspicuous features. Of Scrip- ture numbers, considered in the abstract, we have already spoken ; (see page 224 ;) and many instances might be adduced, in which it is evident, that natural computations are referred to, merely for the sake of their spiritual sense. The " Molten Sea," is said to have been " ten cubits from one brim to the other, and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about ; " (1 Kings vii. 23 ;) but the number of the circumference does not geometrically answer to that of the diameter. So, also, it is written, that '* the sojourn- ing of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hun- dred and thirty years ; " (Exod. xii. 40 ;) but this period does not agree with the Scripture chronology, and it is mentioned, only because it was requisite to the correct expression of the spiritual sense ; * and the forty days and nights continuance of the rain, is intended to denote, the severity of the temptation, rather than the time of its duration. That the Scriptures employ the number forty, in connection with the subjects of temptation, is remarkably evident. Of the children of Israel, it is said, that they should "wander in the wilderness /or<^ years, untU the carcasses of their fathers were wasted. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days (each day for a year) shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." (Numb. xiv. 33, 34.) And the Lord is said to have been grieved forty years with that gene- ration. (Psalm xcv. 10.) It is written of Egypt, that it should be * This is shown by the Rev, R. Hindmarsh, as follows : '• Moses sprang from Amran, Amran from Kohath, and Kohath from Levi, and Kohath went with his father Levi into Egypt. Gen. xlvi. 11. Now the age of Kohath was a hundred and thirty-three years (Exod. vi. 18;) the age of Amran one hundred and thirty-seven years (verse 20 ;) and the age of Moses, when he stood before Pharaoh, eighty years, (Exod. vii. 7.) All these years, added together, make only three hundred and fifty, which are considerably short of four hundred and thirty, and therefore, it is impossible the children of Israel, could have been four hundred and thirty years in Egypt." Letters to Dr. Priestley. Sec. edit. p. 160. TWO-FOLD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION ILLUSTRATED. 313 " utterly waste and desolate from the toAver of Syene even unto tlie border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years." (Ezek. xxix. 10, 11.) Jonah cried, and said unto the Ninevites, " Yet forty days and the city shall be overthrown." (Jonah iii. 4.) The prophet was directed to lie upon his right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. (Ezek. iv. 6.) Moses " abode in the mount forty days and forty nights ; neither did he eat bread nor drink water," praying for the people lest they should be destroyed. ' (Deut. ix. 9.) And it is said, that the people "were led forty years in the wilderness to humble them, and to prove them." (Deut. viii. 2.) In all these instances, we find that the number forty is associated with some afflictive circumstance ; and when it is further remembered, that the Lord Jesus Christ " was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan ; and was with the wild beasts," (Mark i. 13 ;) men can no longer have any scepticism about the number forty denoting the severity of temptation : and consequently, that the rain for forty days and forty nights, in the cases of the deluge, represented the painful sufferings of temptation in every state, whether of light or dark- ness. This was the circumstance, in which we conceive the wicked antediluvians to have perished: they yielded to its ur- gency, and so were finally overwhelmed : but, the people called Noah were saved, because they resisted and overcame it. These different effects of temptation, which may be easily con- ceived, are represented to us by other circumstances, recorded in the Scriptures. Those which attended the journeyings of the children of Israel in the wilderness, towards the land of Canaan, afford a remarkable example. Their looking back to Egypt, and murmuring for its flesh pots ; their idolatry and backslidings ; their vicissitudes and disasters ; their plagues and desolations, are all plain evidences of their having sustained temptation. But the history of those events, viewed in its complex, is intended to show forth, the two diflferent and general effects of temptation upon dis- tinct classes of mind and character, namely, the exaltation of some, and the destruction of others. The salutary eflfects of temptation, are exhibited to us in those, who, having endured and overcome the hardships of the desert, were finally introduced into the prom- ised land : but their destructive consequences are disclosed, in the distresses which befel those who perished in the wilderness. All who were above twenty years old on their departure out of Egypt, died, with the except! on of Caleb and Joshua. Those who entered 27 314 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, into Canaan were either a new or more obedient race. The ex- tinction of the former, represented the destructive effects of temp- tation, on those who yield to them : the preservation of the latter, and their introduction into the land of promise, exhibit the exalting results of temptation, on those who resist and overcome them. They produce death on those who follow their own heart's lusts, and they induce a superior degree of spiritual life, in all who en- dure and conquer them. One class perished in the disasters of the wilderness, another class were rescued from them, and entered into Canaan. There are, then, several parallelisms between the circumstances which attended the formation of the Israelitish church in Canaan, and the establishment of the ancient church with Noah. The difference is more in^ outward form, than in es- sential things. Thus, the land of Canaan was, to the Israelites, who were saved from the dangers of the wilderness, what the ark was to Noah, who was preserved from the inundation of the flood. The death of those who died in the desert, was, to the formation of the church in Canaan, what the destruction of the antediluvians was to the establishment of the church with Noah. Caleb and Joshua, being the only surviving adults who were delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, and the trials of the wilderness, were, to the planting of the Israelitish church in Canaan, what Noah and his house, as the only parties who escaped from the rains and the flood of the ancient world, were to the covenant then established. And these parallelisms arise, as we have said, from the similarity of essential ideas intended to be included in both narrations, though the outward structure of the one be a real, and that of the other, only a figurative history. Concerning the deluge, as a temptation from which the Noetic people were delivered, Peter says, " The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure* whereunto even baptism doth now save us." Here the apostle * 1 Peter iii. 20, 21. The original word here used, is avriTvnop, antitype. The theological meaning of the terms type and antitype, is, that the type is an impression, image, or representation of some model, which is termed the antitype. But there is some reason to ask, whether this is not an in- version of the true Scriptural sense ? If the water by which Noah was saved, was the antitype of that by which baptism saves us, then, the waters of baptism were the type. Thus, that which succeeds an impres- sion and proceeds from a model, is really the type. In John xx. 25, it is said, Tbv rbnov riov jJXwf, — which literally means, the type of the nails. GOD NOT A DESTROYER. 315 calls the circumstance of being saved by water a figure of bap- tism, because, by the waters of baptism are signified, purification effected by means of temptations sustained and conquered. Call- ing the deluge a figure, affords no evidence as to the real character of the event. Things purely spiritual can be types, equally with things natural. Moses was shown the pattern of the tabernacle in a vision on the mount. (Exodus xxv. 40 ; Heb. viii. 5.) The apos- tle, then, in affirming that the waters of Noah were a figure of the waters of baptism ; and as the waters of baptism are a symbol of purification, acquired by overcoming temptation ; it follows, upon his evidence also, that such was the signification of the deluge from which Noah was saved. Those who perished in it, were those who yielded to the abominations to which they were incited. The "death which they suffered, as being that which is primarily treated of, was of a spiritual kind, being induced by the love and life of evil. This is the death of which the Scriptures speak as the event to be avoided : " Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ; but I will forewarn you, whom ye shall fear : fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell : yea, 1 say unto you, fear him." (LukO' xii. 4, 5.) He who killeth and casteth into hell, is the devil, that is, evil ; for this, in its complex, is so personified : to fear him, is to oppose evil influences, wherefore, it is written, " Resist the devil and he will flee away from you." (James iv. 7.) The antediluvians did not so fear and resist : their wickedness was great in the earth, and every thought of the imagination of their heart was evil continually, and hence, they perished. It is to be observed, that it was every living substance which the Lord had made, that was about to be destroyed. This it is impor- tant to remark. It is, indeed, said, that the Lord would do it, be- cause it appears to the wicked, when, by ignorance and misdoing, they bring calamity upon themselves, that the Lord is its author : on this mode of speaking of the divine character, we have already treated. All that the Lord made, was pronounced to have been very good : there is no intimation of the animal or vegetable world having departed from their original excellence ; nor is there any reasonable ground to "suppose, that any of those who may have survived the flood, would have regarded the extermination of their predecessors as a calamity. It was man alone who had strayed from the ways of purity and knowledge, and he alone could con- template death as a terrible catastrophe. The destruction of the insentient and irresponsible objects of nature, cannot be reasonably 316 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. attributed to God, from whose wisdom and goodness they have pro- ceeded. As the creator of all that is good, he cannot, also, be the destroyer ! His continual efforts are, according to the Scriptures, to preserve and bless, to remove the evil and increase the good. He therefore, cannot destroy what he has really made ; such an act would imply a condemnation of his own wisdom. It is evil which the Lord is solicitous to remove, so far as it cap be done consist- ently with man's freedom and responsibility. This evil he did not make, although there have been men who have so believed and taught.* Wicked persons, so far as they confess a God, believe Him to be the author of the calamities they bring upon themselves. Such a false position, is a consequence of the inverted state of their mental, character. Job's wife, so regarded the affliction of her husband, and bade him " curse God, and die," but she talked as one of the foolish women. (Job ii. 9.) Nevertheless, the prov- idences by which the Lord hinders the manifestation of particular evils, and so causeth their cessation and removal, are, by such per- sons, considered as the destruction by God, of what he himself has made. The passage then, which represents the Lord, as saying, " Every living substance that I have made, will I destroy," refers to the dissipation of those evil principles, which had gained a fierce ascendancy over society, and so far as it could not be effected with- out it, the permission of means by which society itself was to be dissolved. It was not the things of orderly nature, but the prin- ciples which had disordered humanity, which had to be destroyed. These had become living substances with men ; and men, in the midst of their wickedness, regarded them as God's creation : and this is the reason why He is predicated to have made them. They were opposed to his merciful design in our creation, and therefore, the permission of means, for the removal of obstacles which stood in the way of manifesting his good providence, is perfectly con- sistent with that clemency and wisdom, which regard eternal ends in all they do. But what were the means so permitted ? They were the waters of temptation. Evil, having become an infixed principle in man, attracted corresponding influences from the infernal world. These * "If God foresaw that Judas would be a traitor, Judas necessarily became a traitor, nor was it in his power to be otherwise." — Martin Lu- ther. See De Servo Arbitrio,fol. 460. " God not only foresaw that Adam would fall,. but ordained that he should." — Calvin. Inst. B. 3, Chap. 23, bee. 7. " God is the author of every action which is sinful, by his irresis- tible will." — Dr. Twiss, Part iii. p. 21. What shocking and detestable sentiments ! THE HIGH HILLS COVERED. 817 influences destroy all those who give themselves up to their im- pulses and suggestions ; but when they are resisted, and conquered, good enters into man, and he becomes exalted. For, by tempta- tion, man is brought acquainted with his evils, since he cannot be tempted to any thing, unless he is, in some measure, previously inclined to it : thus, temptations act as a sort of revelation to man, as before observed, informing him of the evils which he loves. If he does not resist them, then, of course, they triumph, and he falls ; this was the case with the antediluvians who perished : but if he repulses them, and conquers, then his evils are so dispersed, that goodness and truth from the Lord can flow into his affection and thought, and so produce salvation. This was the case with Noah, and it became the ground on which the Lord could establish a covenant with him. When " the waters increased,''^ " the ark went up ; " that is, when temptations were urgent, the men of the church acquired, by their resistance, a spiritual elevation ; but when " the waters prevailed," " the high hills were covered ; " by which, we are informed of the destructive influence of temptation, with those who did not oppose them, and thereby, the inundation of every good. The inundation of every good from the Lord, is represented by " the covering of all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven." Hills denote elevated principles : hence, we read of the hill of the Lord, and the mountain of his holiness : (Psalm xxiv. 3 ; xlviii. 1 ; Isaiah ii. 3 :) and that to cover them, signifies to over- whelm them, is evident, without further explication. How fearful was this state of temptation ! Yea, how awfully destructive was its character ! For, in obtaining an ascendancy over the moral sentiments, and spiritual hopes of men, we are informed, that " All flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowls, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of every creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth, and every man." (Gen. vii. 21.) This serial statement of the death of all animated nature, is intended to express the ex- tinction of all those spiritual principles of evil and falsehood, which had become living things with the antediluvian people, and which gave to them a peculiar malignity of character. It is exceedingly difficult to conceive, how the death of all nat- ural creatures should have been involved in the transgression of man! What had the irresponsible beasts done that they must perish ? It does not remove the difficulty to say, that God willed it so : He could not have willed it without a sufficient reason ; for all He does, proceeds from intelligence, and regards a moral. The 27 # 318 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. narrative gives no reason ; and reason finds it difficult to see what moral could be inculcated by such a course. Some may say, it was to display the terribleness of God's anger ! We have no sym- pathy with such a notion : He creates to preserve, by laws of pres- ervation and perpetuation, and in no case to destroy. The change and dissolution to which material things are subject, arise from the action of laws peculiar to their existence, and they do not, prop- erly, come within the meaning of the word, destroy, as it is here employed. There is no perceptible connection, between the in- fliction of death upon the beasts of the earth, and the punishment of man's iniquity, unless, perhaps, in cases where they are vieAved as property, which will hardly be pretended for the case in question. But why should this infliction have been upon the terrestrial crea- tures only ? Why were the marine animals to escape ? which they must have done, as the means adopted for the supposed destruction of others could not have exterminated them. If terrestrial beasts must die in consequence of man's transgression, why were the fishes spared ? It is said, that all the fowls perished ; but as there is a large amount of aquatic birds, which the rising of the waters would scarcely have affected with destruction, is it not highly probable that they escaped the danger ? Interrogatories of this nature may be indefinitely extended, because they are founded on the idea of the narrative describing a physical circumstance, which, we think, these investigations show to be a mistaken view of it. The fact, that it is not a literal history, but the description of spiritual phe- nomena, at once disarms science and philosophy of all their diffi- culties, and enables us to contemplate it on spiritual, which is its proper, grounds. It has been shown, on several occasions during the progress of this work, that various orders of animated nature are mentioned, in the Scriptures, as types, or symbols, of certain moral senti- ments and intellectual principles of man. It was adverted to, when speaking of the fourth and fifth days' creation ; also when, treating of Adam naming the creatures ; and likewise, in noticing their introduction into the ark. We therefore, need not dwell upon further illustrations. The principle involved in those expla- nations is applicable to the case before us. It leads us at once to see, that the animals which are mentioned to have perished at the deluge, were significant of certain principles of life, which were extinguished through the inflowing of those false persuasions and evil loves from which the flood resulted. It is, however, of importance to observe, in what those principles OF THE BEASTS WHICH PERISHED. SW of life consisted. The people had been, for many generations, descending deeper and deeper into the mire and filth of their cor- ruptions, and the posterity now treated of, had become the sink of all that was vile in perversity and lust Now, it is the various principles of degenerate life belonging to this abandoned con- dition, which are specifically referred to, by the animals which perished in the flood. All man's noble affections and elevated sentiments, had previously passed away, in the degeneracy which had set in, and those which now remained were low and sensual merely. The unhallowed nature of these perversities and loves, had closed the interiors of that people against the reception of all heavenly influences, so that, in addition to their own vicious incli- nations, they were acted upon by urgent impulses from the infernal world, through the inundations of which, they finally perished from the earth, carrying with them all those fallen appetites and persuasions which were peculiar to the race. And these, we say, were represented by the general description : " All flesh died that creepeth upon tiie earth, as to fowl, and as to beast, and as to wild beast, and as to every reptile, creeping upon the earth ; and every man." It is to be remarked, that the animals described to have perished, are called "creeping things." The fowls, the beasts, and wild beasts, are all included in the general statement, that *'all flesh died that creepeth upon the earth." This is said of them, to indicate the earthly persuasions and delights of men ; and, in order to represent the dispersion of their peculiar enormi- ties, these creeping things are said to have died. That flesh is mentioned in the Scriptures to denote man in general, is well knowm ; and therefore, it is easy to see, when he is spoken of, as Jlesh that creepeth upon ike earth, that his corporeal and earthly condition is described. The fowls of this state, represented his perverted reasonings and false persuasions ; the beasts were sig- nificant of lusts of various sorts, toUd beasts, denoted the inordinate delights of the sensual man, and reptiles, meant all those pursuits which are grovelling, earthly, and disgusting. The interior prin- ciples of those people, had become altogether vile ; the life of their understandings was a mere animus of false persuasions ; the life of their wills had degenerated into abandoned lusts, and they perished in following the wickedness to which they were impelled. To show that the peculiar kinds of false and evil principles which' had been developed in society, were to be extirpated, it is said that all flesh died that creepeth upon the earth, as to fowl, and as to beasts, and as to wild beasts, and as to every reptile "320 ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY. creeping upon the earth, and which, in one complex, are callecJ " every man ; " man, here denoting, the profane character which he had become. Such, we conceive to have been the horrible nature of the flood, that is, of the inundation of false principles and evil loves into the minds and hearts of men, which not only overwhelmed the spirit- ual lives of all those who had not prepared to resist their sugges- tions and impulses, but which, also, promoted a disastrous termi- nation of their natural existence.* It may not be so easy for some to see how tiiose evil influences, * At page 127, it was stated, that man's fall was not completed until the Lord's coming in the flesh : and some general reasons for this idea are given in a note, to meet an objection, which, it was supposed, might arise from that circumstance having taken place, in what has been, by way of eminence, called the " Augustine age," &c. It was, however, omitted to be noticed, that the atrocities which brought the antediluvian church to its end, may, by some, be considered to have been equally great, if not more so, than those Avhich prevailed at the Lord's advent ; and from this, it may be argued, that the fall must have been completed then. However plausible this may, at first sight, appear, it is not the right conclusion. It is plain, that in divine proceedings, the extremesi measures for redemption were adopted only when extremest necessity arose ; and that the Lord's assumption of humanity was the extremest, or most ultimate, effort for this purpose, is well known. The fact of the antediluvians having perished through the evils which obsessed them, is no more evidence that the fall had reached its greatest depth, than the crucifixion of the thief, is a proof that he was the worst of men. The extinction of the antediluvians, shows, that there were some circum- stances peculiar to their case, and not the completeness of the fall. Their minds were originally constituted for the reception of heavenly influences by an internal way, and it was the efiectual closing up of that way, and so preventing the entrance of those influences, which brought about the deluge ; when men ceased, as it were, to respire with heaven, they perished; but there was another, or more external way, for the admission of holy things into the human mind, which not being opened out with the antediluvians, they could not pervert ; and, as this perver- sion is requisite to the idea of the completeness of the fall of man, it is plain, that it was not effected in the antediluvian age. This more exter- nal way for the entrance of spiritual things into the human mind, began to operate with the Noetic people, and belonged to the new covenant that was established with them ; and it was only when this external way for the Lord's admission into man, was about to be closed, which was the case at the period of His advent into 'the world, as the internal way had previously been by the antediluvian people, that the fall became. com- pleted. The enormities of the ancient world, therefore, oppose no real vdifficulties to the doctrine, which maiatains the fall to have reached its reatest depth when God became manifest in the flesh. EVIL SPIRITS POSSESSING MANKIND. 381 operating upon the mind, were capable of producing such a phys-, ical result, because we live under an economy, in which the Re- deemer has mercifully provided against the return of events, which might have afforded illustrative evidence and examples. Yet they are not entirely without a witness, as we shall presently see. The first means which were adopted to prevent the recurrence of such a calamity, was the reconstruction of the human mind, by the separation of the will from the understanding, and thereby making provision for the security of remains. This means, al- though, up to a certain period, it realized the promise that " All flesh should not be cut off any more by the waters of a flood," yet it was not a full and complete preventive against its possibility. For we find that evil influences from the infernal world did again obtain an ascendancy over, at least a certain portion, of the human race, at the time of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, since it is written, " For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ; " (1 John iii. 8 ;) and he said, " I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John x. 10.) At this time, the Gos- pels inform us of several instances, in which evil spirits had not only taken possession of the minds, but had obsessed the very bodies of mankind, so as to endanger their physical existence. We will only advert to two examples. When Jesus went "into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way ; " these were cast out, and they entered into a herd of swine, which ran " into the sea and perished in the waters." (Matt. viii. 28-32.) And again, one of the multitude brought unto Jesus his son, who had a dumb spirit, " and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tore him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming ; — and oft-times it cast him into the fire, and into the water to destroy him." (Mark ix. 17 - 22.) These facts, taken in connection with the circumstance, that the Lord was manifested to destroy such works ; they being phenomena which were peculiar to the time, and of considerable prevalence, (for the apostles state, as one of the consequences of their minis- try, that the devils were subject to them through the Lord's name,) afford us historical evidence of an unquestionable kind, that infer- nal influences were capable of compassing even the physical ex- tinction of society, when it has voluntarily sunk into perversities and lusts. But by the redemption which the Lord effected, and by the glorification of His Humanity, which was accomplished in 322 ANTEDILirVIAN HISTOEr. the process of that work, a safe provision and complete bamer has been raised, against the return of such a state of things, and therefore it is, that they are happily not within the experiences of Christian society. But that it was, in some measure, suffered by society at the period of the Lord's coming, is very evident, and we adduce this circumstance merely to illustrate the idea of dire- ful persuasions opening in man, channels for tlie reception of that malignant and suffocating influx, by which we conceive the ante- diluvians to have perished. Surely, every one may see, that when men are so separated from the Divine principle, that they possess no spiritual life therefrom^ but are merely in" ^^nced by natural impulses, similar to those of beaoL^, ..iiat no society can he formed and governed by the laws of use and order ; because when men are of suc^ ":.,ture, and so without heavenly influences, they become, as it were, insane, and rush openly into the commission of every evil one against another, acquiring stimulus thereto from an infernal origin, in which case tiie human race must perislu This, indeed, is going directly to the root of the catastrophe ; but, upon more general principles, it must be conceded, that " evil will slay the wicked," at least, as to all spiritual hopes and happi- ness ; (Psalm xxxiv. 21 ;) and surely, it is easy to conceive that this, when manifested in the life with mirestrained malignity, must bring- about the physical destruction of the society Avith whom it prevails. The truth of this idea is known and acknowledged. Most jTersons are acquainted with cases, in which individuals have brought on their own death, by the pursuit of criminal indulgences. How many of our race perish annually from drunkenness and other enor- mities I How much more extensive would this calamity become, if it were not for counteracting influences ? That which can sweep away an individual, may carry off a connnunity. And has it not done so? What says autlientic liistory upon the subject? It shows us many cities, yea, whole nations, which have been s.wept out of the map of existence, and of which, nothing but tlie scanty vestiges of ruin, remain to mark their profligacy, or chronicle their end ! How many lands have been depopulated through the de- pravity and ignorance of its inhabitants \ How has Nineveh bo- come a waste, and Babylon a desolation ? The prophets answer, and say, it was the wickedness of their inhabitants. (See Jcr. chaps, xlix. and 1. ; ^nd Nahum throughout.) The blinding of their eyes, and the hardening of their hearts, having led them to a for- getfulness of God, and a disregard to tlieir neighbor, also o|)ened out innmnerable channels for the admission of principles and the performance of acts, by which destructions came. While, then, Ave hold that the flood consisted in the direful influences of evil and false principles, by which the light of religion Avas extinguished, and the emotions of virtue destroyed ; we also conceive that they were productive of characteristics and proceedings, Avhich were dangerous to personal safety, and consequently, that they were, as external causes, the means of sweeping from natural existence a peculiarly profligate and abandoned race. The manner in Avhich lese causes operated to dissolve society and terminate its existence, doubtless, very various. Evil is diversified in all its kinds, and CONCLUSION. 323 displays its malignity in a multitude of ways, all of which are tnore or less fatal in their results to the people in whom they inhere. The narrative, however, does not deal with external causes ; it treats qf those which are primary in such results ; consequently, of man having ceased to live according to the order of heaven, and thereby, of his hayii-.. '"^ecome the subject of temptations, in which his moral sentimpiit- nd religious life were finally over- whelmed. Hereby, "/ :I itv^ hose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." (Gen. vii. 22.) Those, in whose nostrils wa3 the breath of life, were the people who had -constituted the most ancient church during the time of its integrity. They it was, of whom it is written, the Lord God breathed into their nostrils the breath of lives ; (Gen. ii. 7 ;) which means, the implantation of love, and faith originating therein : these principles, as we have seen, were successively abandoned and destroyed, and now, the seeds thereof, which had been hereditarily transmitted to the last posterity of the antediluvian community, were, by them, entirely extinguished. Wherefore it is said, every thing died in whose nostrils was the breath of lives : and hence it follows, that all who were in the dry land, perished, because, thereby is repre- sented those who had become, as it were, parched with lusts, and in whom there were none of the remains of celestial and spiritual life. Every thing of this character passed away, and thereby the cessation of the people with whom it took place. " Npah only re- mained alive, and they that were with him in the ark : " (Gen. vii. 23:) the reason is, as previously intimated, because the Noetic people found grace iij the eyes of the Lord, and were righteous in his sight. The grace denoted ,that they retained some truth, their righteousness shows that they possessed some good ; and these were the principles which enabled them to erect the ark, collect the fowls and beasts, rise above the waters of temptation, and receive the covenant which God established, for the purpose of commencing an entirely new dispensation of divine things, as the Adamic or most ancient church had, after innumerable corruptions, divisions, and perversities, passed away in the manner we have described. And here we terminate our exposition of the most remarkable events recorded in the first seven chapters of Genesis. We have endeavored to show, that they were not written to express that literal sense, which they are commonly understood to do. We have regarded the history as purely figurative, not only because such a mode of expressing spiritual and intellectual subjects, was common to mankind in the early ages of enlightened society, but also, because such a method of indicating internal and spiritual things of the church, is in agreement with the divine style of com- munication evinced throughout the whole Word; and likewise, because this kind of composition, is eminently adapted for portray- ing those invisible principles, by means of appropriate represen- tatives and correspondences, chosen from the world of nature ■ — the figures employed not being the analogies of human rhetoric, but types of the divine selection. This being the ground we have taken for the explications wo 324 ANTEDILUVIAN HlSTOPtr. have not hesitated to produce many of the difficulties, which ob- vioiisly surround the common views of the subjects discussed, be- cause we were desirous of showing- to those who hold such views, the inconsistencies they have to encounter, and the contradictions they must believe, if they will retain them. These difficulties, however, are not to be understood -as beinjr ur^ed against the narratives themselves ; but only ag-ainst thil wliich we conceive to be their erroneous interpretation. We repeat this, that the reader, in drawing his conclusions, may discriminate between our belief in the divine character of tlie documents them- selves, and our disbelief of those opinions, which they have been supposed to express. The path which we have pursued in this in- vestigution, effectually avoids all their difficulties, and nmintiiins throughout a rational consistency and religious character. We have seen, that those early portions of the Word, treat of the rise and perfection of the most ancient church, which was pre- eminently Man, in the enjoyment of the intelligence of love. We next contemplated the existence of the sensual principle, pointing" out the nature of its seduction, and the decline of the people. Then, in the people of Cain and Abel, we saw the separation of faith from charity, with their respective characteristics ; also, the death of charity, by which faith became a fugitive and vagabond principle in the church ; and that this likewise perished in the time of tlio first Lamech. Afterwards, it was shown that those histories reveal the rise of heresies in a variety of forms, and disclose the enor- mities of the imagination and heart, of which they were productive among mankind, and finally, that they announce an awful inunda- tion of false persuasions and evil influences, by which all branches of society were overwhelmed, Avith the exception of the Noetic peo- ple, who were saved from the catastrophe, because they resisted and conquered those temptations, in which others fell and perished. The narrative therefore, is a consecutive history of the states, through which has passed the most distinguished church which has ever existed upon this earth, during the process of its rise, fall, and extinction — the extinction of a celestial church, whose primeval name was Adam, and which was succeeded by another, of a spirit- ual quality, under the appellation of Noah. Being deeply impressed with the truth of these views of the general subject, I venture, humbly, to urge them upon the serious attention of the reader, and earnestly to solicit him carefully and religiously to think upon them, for the purpose of adopting some rational and consistent conclusion ; for, most certainly, a period is advancing, in which will take place, a complete revolution and thorough change of popular opinion, concerning the meaning of those early portions of the Lord's most Holy Word. May that change be effected under the Divine influence, and mankind have their eyes opened to the enjoyment of a purer light, and intellec- tually appreciate the wonderful things contained in His law. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1 00 per volume after the sixth day. , Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. ^r=^==== ?£5 8 im DEC 1 tiSO VB 21566 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES COOtOSflEbD 'f^6r-C UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY