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 The tree of the knowledge oi 
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THE 
 
 TREE OE TEE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 OF 
 
 GOOD AND EVIL 
 
 BY 
 
 J. H. M’lLVAINE. 
 
 ssm sia din^n 
 
 ITT /‘“II * I” V * I 
 
 “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, CORNER OF PARK ROW AND SPRUCE ST., 
 
 Opposite the City Hall. 
 
 JV1DCCCXLVII. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 
 
 JOSHUA H, r ILVAINE, 
 
 the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Northern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 
 112 FULTON STREET. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writer of this little volume would gladly apologize for its 
 publication, but he well knows that the only apology which 
 can be satisfactory must be found in the book itself; that, if it 
 be not found there, it were vain to offer it here. Yet, perhaps, it 
 may be of advantage to know something of the character and 
 object of the following pages before they are read. 
 
 To some the views presented in this brief treatise may bear 
 an appearance of originality to which they are not entitled ; 
 others may be offended by a seeming novelty in that which is not 
 new. For they exhibit those events in the Scriptural history of 
 man which are connected with the fatal “ tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil,” not merely as facts, but also as facts which are 
 immensely significant. But it must be remembered that there is 
 hardly any commentary, ancient or modern, in which it is not as¬ 
 sumed that most of those events have a symbolical and significant 
 character. Every Christian child is taught to regard the curse 
 pronounced upon the serpent as a symbol under which is set forth 
 God’s judgment upon “ that old serpent, that is the deviland 
 under which is given the first promise of redemption through the 
 “ Seed of the Woman.” In the following pages an attempt is 
 made to justify upon acknowledged principles this way of view¬ 
 ing those events; and at the same time to vindicate their claim 
 to be facts which actually occurred as they are recorded. 
 
 But this little volume is principally the fruit of an earnest de¬ 
 sire to relieve the minds of sincere people from difficulties in 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE* 
 
 respect to some of the mysteries of the Word of God—difficul¬ 
 ties from which the writer himself has greatly suffered, and from 
 which so many suffer in this age of rationalistic and infidel phi¬ 
 losophy. This he has sought to do, not by explaining them 
 away, but by exhibiting as clearly as he could, the principle by 
 which they are to be justified as mysteries. The fundamental 
 idea of all the views presented is that the wisdom of man, as a 
 criterion of distinction between good and evil, is, of itself, fool¬ 
 ishness ; and that the Wisdom of God alone is true wisdom. But 
 in order to set forth and illustrate this truth, it was necessary to 
 discuss other subordinate topics, each of which is intended to 
 have a practical moral and spiritual effect of its own. Indeed it 
 is the hope of the writer that the book may be judged by its 
 spirit rather than by the intellectual form in which that spiiit is 
 embodied. 
 
 If then the reader has ever found himself embarrassed by the 
 Scriptural use of types and symbols ; if it has ever occurred to him 
 that the account of a “ talking snake” in the temptation of man, 
 is an improbable story; if the blasphemy of the infidel sneeiing 
 at the account which God has given of the sin and fall of 
 man, has ever disturbed him; if the mystery of the atonement, 
 made by the sacrifice of the Innocent for the guilty, has caused 
 him to offend ;—perhaps upon these and other points he may find 
 some relief from the following pages. And if, on rising from 
 their perusal, he sees more clearly, and feels more deeply, than 
 before, that his own views of things are to be thrown away as 
 folly, and those which God gives in his Word to be adopted as 
 the right ones in their stead ; that the law of God is holy, just 
 and good ; that the practical wisdom revealed through the con¬ 
 science, distinguishing between right and wrong, is paramount 
 over all other forms of the wisdom and prudence of man ; that 
 the Eternal Spirit, in his power and agency, is a “ very present 
 God,” upon whom he is dependent in a most vital sense ; that all 
 earthly and visible things are unsubstantial and fleeting shadows 
 compared with the substantial being and eternal permanency of 
 the unseen and spiritual things of the kingdom of God; that the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 mutual relations between the parent and child, and of marriage, 
 are hallowed, purified and exalted in his eyes ; that children are 
 to be trained up in the submission and obedience of faith, reve¬ 
 rence and love, and not in that of sight and reasoning ; that “ the 
 carnal mind” is an accursed enemy of God; that the chastise¬ 
 ments of labor, sorrow and death are holy things, to be submitted 
 to in penitence and in faith; that the atonement of Christ is the 
 only salvation for him; that he must be crucified with Christ in 
 order to live and reign with him ; that his own strength, or the 
 obedience of his own agency, is utterly in vain to save him from 
 the curse and power of sin; that the agency and obedience of 
 Christ in and for him are all-sufficient to restore and perfect his 
 spiritual life, and to bring into him an “ everlasting righteous¬ 
 ness —if he finds any of these effects produced upon his mind 
 and heart, let him give the praise and the glory to Him whose 
 blood cleanseth us from all sin. 
 
 May 3 , 1847 . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/treeofknowledgeoOOmcil 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 4 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF SYMBOLS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE WORD OF GOD 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLICAL CHARACTER OF THE SCRIPTURAL 
 ACCOUNT OF THE SIN AND FALL OF MAN 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE CREATION OF MAN 
 
 * • • 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF MARRIAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OP PARADISE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 49 
 
 G2 
 
 7£ 
 
 100 
 
 111 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1 A 1 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES . . • ' 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT . . • HjO 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN . • • * ' a 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN .... ^0 
 
 * CHAPTER XV. 
 
 91 0 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS . . • ' 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE . . • ^29 
 
 r 
 
t 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 Every form of religious belief that has ever ap¬ 
 peared in the world has expressed itself in sensible 
 representations. The Hindoo, the Egyptian, the 
 Greek, the Mohammedan, and the Christian, all alike, 
 have set forth the mysteries of their faith and life by 
 means of symbols. From what has this fact 
 arisen ? 
 
 A shallow and. sensual philosophy attempts to render 
 an account of this universal phenomenon by the sup¬ 
 position of priestcraft. It gives for the object of the 
 symbols of religion the veiling of the truth from the 
 masses of the people, that the power of superior in¬ 
 telligence might be enjoyed exclusively among the 
 initiated. It cannot be denied that symbols have 
 been perverted to serve this purpose. Rut it does 
 not follow that they have no higher origin than the 
 knavery of priests, and no better use than to keep 
 the people in ignorance and awe. Where they have 
 been thus perverted, it has been by the abuse of the 
 principle from which they arise, and which has its 
 seat in the very nature and constitution of man. 
 
 For the life of man is constituted in the synthesis 
 
 1 
 
 % 
 
2 
 
 OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 or union of a spiritual and a material nature. In like 
 manner it is found to be a fact, that whatever ad¬ 
 dresses man with life and power is also constituted 
 of what may be called body and soul, or form and 
 substance, or letter and spirit. Body without soul, 
 form without substance, letter without spirit, is dead 
 for him—powerless over his heart and life. No less 
 is spirit conceived of without the letter, substance 
 without form, soul without body, or any manifesta¬ 
 tion whatever, dead for man. It is a lifeless abstrac¬ 
 tion. 
 
 For this reason it is that purely philosophical sys¬ 
 tems have always been so powerless to affect and 
 mould the life of the human race. Plato, no less 
 than the more profound and metaphysical Bramins, 
 gives us only science without life. For this reason, 
 when Jehovah would affect the will and life of man 
 with power, his Spirit assumes a form, a sensible 
 manifestation, as the Angel of the Covenant, in the 
 burning bush, as Jehovah between the Cherubim, 
 whose form was light, and as Immanuel, God with us, 
 in Jesus of Nazareth. The very nature of man re¬ 
 quires that the Truth should become incarnate in 
 order to reach him with power, and become life to 
 his soul. For this reason also it was necessary that 
 the Church, which is now the body of the Spirit of 
 God in the world, should never for one moment be¬ 
 come extinct, otherwise a new incarnation would be 
 necessary to restore it to life. For the truths of the 
 Word of God, no less than other ideas, are always 
 found to be powerless over the heart of man where- 
 
OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 3 
 
 soever the Church has ceased to be a body animated 
 by them. Each member of the Church was intended 
 to be a living word of God, an epistle of Christ, 
 through whom his perfections should be manifested 
 to the world in life with power. 
 
 Out of the feeling of this lifeless nature of mere 
 ideas, however true and just, arises a universal desire 
 in man to give some sensible expression, some body- 
 ing-forth, to whatever lives and moves within him. 
 From this come gesture and action in speaking. 
 When we speak in earnest, with feeling, we are not 
 satisfied with words alone. We would express what 
 we feel to the eye as well as to the ear. Ideas and 
 emotions thus expressed have a life and life-giving 
 power for others unspeakably greater than anything 
 that can be found in mere words. Moved by this 
 desire the true artist toils with sublime devotion to 
 give a form, a sensible manifestation to the ideas and 
 emotions of beauty with which he feels himself to be 
 filled and inspired. Thus comes into existence an 
 Iliad, a Phidian Jupiter, a Venus di Medici, a Stras- 
 burg cathedral. 
 
 Nor can any idea or emotion which is living in 
 man rest satisfied until it either finds itself reflected, 
 or reflects itself, in some outward manner. Not 
 being able to find this reflection, nor allowed to ex¬ 
 press itself externally, it soon dies. He who denies 
 to himself all expression of falsehood soon loses the 
 desire to deceive however strong it may have been. 
 He who restrains impure ideas and feelings from all 
 possible expression and act, soon finds them perishing 
 
4 
 
 OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 out of his heart and mind. The love of God not be¬ 
 ing permitted to go out at all in acts of religious wor¬ 
 ship, the love of our neighbor imprisoned in the heart, 
 if that could be, must soon perish. 
 
 Whatever there may be in man which craves no 
 outward expression, which moves not, is already 
 dead. It is because the religious ideas of the deist 
 are dead and powerless over his heart and life that 
 they can be satisfied without any expression, any 
 bodying-forth, in acts of religious worship. It is be¬ 
 cause the religion of Jesus Christ was not dead, but 
 living, that he fasted and prayed in words and in ap¬ 
 propriate bodily positions. When he prayed he stood 
 up, or kneeled down, or fell on his face. When he 
 gave thanks for the bread that he had received from 
 his heavenly Father, he raised his eyes to heaven. 
 When he communicated his Holy Spirit to his dis¬ 
 ciples he breathed on them ; as, when he created 
 man, and imparted to him his soul, he is said to have 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 
 
 Some external manifestation or expression or re¬ 
 flection of man’s inward life, of the truth by which 
 he lives, is absolutely necessary to nourish and sup¬ 
 port it. Without this he cannot live, much less be 
 satisfied. Fie feels the dead and powerless nature of 
 mere ideas and abstractions. These are to him but 
 a “ lumen siccum ,” a dry light. Fie feels the want, 
 for himself and others, of an expression to the senses, 
 of a bodily form and reflection of the ideas and emo¬ 
 tions by which he finds himself to be powerfully 
 moved, and by which he desires to move others. 
 
OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 5 
 
 Neither is he satisfied with mere words. He must 
 seek to express himself to the other senses as well as 
 to the ear, that he may reach the whole man in 
 others ; that what he knows and feels may have for 
 himself and them a superior life and power. 
 
 This is a fact or trait of the constitution of man to 
 be verified by observing its manifestations in all 
 ages and countries, and by each man s expeiience. 
 In it is to be found the true solution of the origin and 
 use of symbolical representations. For a symbol is 
 a bodying-forth or representation to the senses of 
 ideas and emotions as these are found in the myste¬ 
 ries of life. Every act of man, therefore, as a signi¬ 
 ficant expression of the ideas and feelings from which 
 it springs, is a symbol. Every work of art, every 
 rite and ceremony of religion, is a symbol. The ap¬ 
 plause of the hands is the symbol of approbation, the 
 hiss, of disapprobation. The smile is a symbol of 
 pleasure 5 the frown, the falling of the countenance, 
 of wrath and displeasure. ' Standing in prayer is 
 the symbol of reverence; kneeling, of reverence 
 and humility. Sitting in prayer is the denial to 
 these feelings of their appropriate outward expres¬ 
 sion, and tends most powerfully, though subtly, to 
 destroy them. 
 
 Also, since the symbol has its origin in the going 
 forth of that which is within to represent itself with¬ 
 out, some feelings may be taken as the symbols of 
 others which are more inward and spiritual than 
 themselves. For example, the love of the dutiful child 
 to his parents is taken in the Word of God as a symbol 
 
6 
 
 OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 of the love which man should feel towards God his 
 heavenly Father. The pleasures of the senses thus 
 become symbols of spiritual joys, for which purpose 
 they are used where it is said, God smelled a sweet 
 savor from the sacrifice of Noah, and where David 
 says, How sweet are thy words to my taste , yea , 
 sweeter than honey to my mouth. Thus, also, the 
 conscious degradation and spiritual shame of remorse, 
 which arose in man as soon as he had sinned, went 
 
 forth and symbolized itself in the shame of his naked 
 body. 
 
 The superior life and force which symbolical 
 representations have for man over mere expressions 
 in words, may be perceived by the following illus¬ 
 trations and examples. 
 
 The spirit and life of the ancient Romans was the 
 genius of war and conquest. When, therefore, they 
 received the ambassadors of foreign nations, they 
 sought for some means of expressing to them the 
 ideas and feelings upon this subject, which were uni¬ 
 versal and prominent among these iron republicans. 
 These were, that the Roman was invincible ; that but 
 one result was ever anticipated at Rome of all wars 
 in which the republic might become involved ; that 
 in all conflicts which could arise between her and 
 other nations, they must expect to be conquered. 
 To express these more powerfully than it was possi¬ 
 ble to do in mere words, the Roman people gave 
 audience to foreign ambassadors in the temple of 
 Victory. 
 
 Also, when their armies had gained a battle, they 
 
OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 7 
 
 sought for some means of expressing, for their own 
 gratification, and to impress upon the conquered, so 
 that it should enter into their very life, the idea and 
 conviction that other nations were to them but as 
 brute beasts made to be subjugated. Again they 
 found the means of doing this in the language of the 
 symbol. They erected upon the field of victory an 
 immense wooden frame, in the form of a yoke for 
 beasts of burden, under which they marched the 
 remains of the conquered army, and then dismissed 
 them to their homes. What words, what bulletins 
 of exultation, what other means of expression could 
 have had the life and power of this terrible symbol ? 
 
 One more example will serve to illustrate the life 
 and force of the symbols of modern times. The 
 Russian coat-of-arms is a double-headed eagle, whose 
 two crowned heads, surmounted by another great 
 crown, turn and gaze in opposite directions. In his 
 talons he holds the globe surmounted by the cross, 
 and upon his breast is emblazoned an armed and 
 mounted warrior. 
 
 This is the symbol of that colossal power of the 
 North, the Russian Empire. Standing at the head of 
 the two continents of the earth, the old and the new, 
 she looks down over each with a crowned head, to 
 signify that her destiny is to rule both. The two 
 heads meeting in one body, the two crowns surmount¬ 
 ed by the one great crown, together with the single 
 sceptre, show that this two-fold empire is to be con¬ 
 solidated into one despotism. The globe in the 
 talons of the eagle, surmounted by the cross, marks 
 
OP SYMBOLS* 
 
 & 
 
 its extent, and shows what its religion is to be ; that 
 it is to embrace the whole world, over which is to be 
 established the Christian faith. The armed and 
 mounted warrior is her Cossack cavalry, the best 
 and most numerous in the world, upon which she 
 relies for the realization of these ideas and designs, 
 which she has thus emblazoned before her whole 
 population, that they may enter into its very life, and 
 mould it into their likeness. This tremendous sym¬ 
 bol, having grown up out of the character of the 
 Slavonic race, which is now moving into ascendency 
 among the nations, has been for a long time reflect¬ 
 ing these ideas into the minds and hearts of the 
 people, until, as travellers assure us, even the serfs 
 understand that Russia is one day to be the mistress 
 of the earth. 
 
 With perfect knowledge of this trait of the consti¬ 
 tution of man, in virtue of which he finds mere ideas 
 to be dead and powerless over his heart, and feels 
 the want of sensible representations of his inward 
 life to nourish and sustain it, our Lord symbolized 
 the fundamental truths of the Gospel in the sacra¬ 
 ments of the Christian Church. For the washing 
 with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, sets forth the defilement and pollution of the 
 soul ot man by sin, and his cleansing by the power 
 of God, into whose Triune name he is baptized. The 
 sacrament of the Eucharist is the symbol of the 
 truths, that, as the bread is broken, and the wine 
 poured in the sight of the faithful for them, so is the 
 body of Christ broken and his blood shed for them ; 
 
OF SYMBOLS. 
 
 9 
 
 as the bread is eaten and the wine drunk to nourish, 
 and strengthen, and cheer the body, so is Christ cru¬ 
 cified really and truly, though “ not after a corporal 
 and carnal manner,” received into the souls of all 
 who believe on him for the nourishment, strength, 
 and consolation of their spiritual life ; and that, as 
 they eat from the same platter, and drink Irom the 
 same cup, which those only of the same family 
 can do without disgust, so are they now but one 
 family. These are some of the truths of the Gospel 
 which have been symbolized in the sacraments by 
 the Wisdom of God, that they might not perish out 
 of the souls of believers, but have in them a perennial 
 life and power. 
 
 These views, in which this subject is but glanced 
 at, may serve, perhaps, in some degree to illustrate 
 the legitimate origin and use, and the superior life 
 and power, of symbolical representations. 
 
10 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and 
 they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the 
 world are come.” 
 
 The great body of believers in the Word of God 
 have always regarded its historical portions as literal 
 records of facts and events which occurred as they 
 are narrated and described. Not unfrequently they 
 are suspicious of every attempt to show a meaning 
 in any part of its narratives, deeper than that which 
 appears upon the surface. They are afraid lest they 
 should find their Bible explained away into myths 
 and allegories, such as the fables of the heathen. 
 Therefore they constantly affirm the literal sense of 
 what is recorded, and deny what they call a spiritual 
 sense. 
 
 Another class of readers and students of the Word 
 are always seeking to pierce through the literal sense 
 after something more profound and spiritual. These 
 are often unwilling to regard a given narrative as a 
 record of facts and events. For them it must be left 
 free to convey an allegorical sense which is often 
 inconsistent with the literal one. In their eyes the 
 Word seems degraded when its histories are literally 
 
WORD OF GOD. 
 
 II 
 
 understood. The account given ot the fall ot man, 
 the book of the prophet Jonah, are some of those 
 narratives which they would interpret as pure alle¬ 
 gories. Origen among the Fathers, Swedenborg 
 and even Coleridge among the moderns, are speci¬ 
 mens of this class. 
 
 Here, as in so many other cases of conflicting 
 views, it would seem that both parties are perfectly 
 right in what they aflirm, and both equally wrong in 
 what they deny. For, according to St. Augustin, 
 the narrative parts of the Word of God are both 
 historical and symbolical. They are truly the 
 records of facts and events which occurred as they 
 are narrated and described. But these facts and 
 events are not barren. They are pregnant with spi¬ 
 ritual truth—truth alike for all times and place, uni¬ 
 versal for man. Of this truth the facts and events 
 which are recorded are but as the husk or shell, the 
 bodily form, the symbol. 
 
 Each of these views, exclusive of the other, is 
 narrow, incomplete, and fraught with manifest evil 
 consequences. 
 
 For he who denies to the historical portions of the 
 Bible all deeper significancy than that which appears 
 upon their surface, does, in fact, if he only knew it, 
 deny that they are the Word of God in any higher 
 sense than that in which every true history must be 
 the word of Him who is Truth. He can have no 
 conceivable reason why the facts and events of 
 which they treat were selected to be recorded in 
 preference to that innumerable multitude of others 
 
OF The SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 12 
 
 which must have been passed over in silence. For all 
 the superior importance which they can have, must 
 arise from their significancy of truth universally or 
 generally applicable to man in other ages and coun¬ 
 tries, that is to say, from their symbolical character. 
 He is in danger of losing that in them to impart 
 which they were recorded,—their spirit,—which is 
 their quickening power, and of falling into that state 
 in which he must be killed by the letter. But more 
 than all, he places himself in an attitude of direct 
 opposition to the New Testament. For in it, as we 
 shall directly see, a sense is continually drawn from 
 the histories of the Old Testament very different 
 from, though not inconsistent with, the literal sense, 
 and which does by no means appear upon their sur¬ 
 face. 
 
 Through the prevalence of this exclusive view in 
 our time, it has come to pass that great numbers of 
 Christians do practically regard the Old Testament 
 as of little more worth and dignity and power than 
 any other old and true history. For them, it is 
 something almost entirely done away ; while to not 
 a few it is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence. 
 
 On the other hand, he who, seeking after a spi¬ 
 ritual sense in these narratives, denies to them their 
 literal and historical character, who regards them 
 as nothing but allegories and parables, and myths, 
 not only renounces the views which a,re always 
 given of them in the New Testament, but he throws 
 away the only key by which it is possible to unlock 
 the treasures which they contain. He turns away 
 
word of god. 
 
 13 
 
 from the only door into the Holy of Holies, and 
 seeks to climb up some other way. If by chance, 
 while he meditates upon them, he should light upon 
 pure truth, he has nothing to assure himself or 
 others that it is the truth which they were intended 
 to teach. If he should discover order it may be 
 but the order of his own mind. If he should per¬ 
 ceive beauty it may be but the beauty of his own 
 soul coloring with its own hues the objects upon 
 which it looks. He casts himself loose upon a wide 
 and dangerous sea without chart, or compass, or 
 rudder. He is liable to be continually driven and 
 tossed upon an infinite chaos of his own imagina¬ 
 tions, over which the Spirit of God has never 
 brooded. 
 
 Now, that the histories of the Old Testament do 
 record facts and events which occurred as they are 
 narrated and described, and that these facts and 
 events are to be taken as types or symbols of spi¬ 
 ritual truth, is evident from the most positive testi¬ 
 mony of Christ and his Apostles. 
 
 In respect to the ritual law there is no dispute 
 among Christians. That it was given to set forth 
 in symbol the fundamental truths of the Gospel is 
 acknowledged by all. In the New Testament it is 
 continually appealed to as an authoritative teacher 
 of truths afterwards to be declared in words. Of 
 this one example will be sufficient. It is declared 
 that the bones of the Lord were not broken upon 
 the cross, as were those of his fellow-sufferers, in 
 order that the Scripture might he fulfilled, that not a 
 
14 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 bone of him should be broken. But it is nowhere 
 said that not a bone of Christ should be broken. 
 This was commanded in respect to the Paschal 
 Lamb. Here it is evident that what was spoken of 
 this sacrifice is assumed as declared in type or sym¬ 
 bol of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 But in their expositions of the symbols of the Old 
 Testament, Jesus and his Apostles do by no means 
 confine themselves to the rites and ceremonies of 
 the Mosaic ritual law. They take up the historical 
 events, even those which occurred before that law 
 was given, and expound them after the same manner, 
 appealing to them as authority for the truths which 
 they drew from them regarded as symbols. The 
 land of Canaan, and the city of Jerusalem, are 
 always taken by them as the symbols of the king¬ 
 dom of God ; and the taking possession of these by 
 the Israelites under Joshua, after the death of the 
 law-giver, as the type of the believers’ entering into 
 the rest of holiness under Jesus, the captain of their 
 salvation, after they have been delivered from the 
 condemning power of the law. The manna in the 
 wilderness is taken by Jesus as the symbol of the 
 truth that the bread of life is nothing of earthly 
 growth, the work of man’s agency, where he de¬ 
 clares, I am that bread which came down from hea¬ 
 ven ; that is to say, I am that which is signified or 
 symbolized by that bread with which your fathers 
 were nourished. He refers also to the elevation of 
 the brazen serpent for the healing of the children of 
 Israel who had been bitten by the fiery flying ser- 
 
WORD OF GOD. 
 
 15 
 
 pents in the wilderness, as a symbol of the truth that 
 by his elevation upon the cross should all believers 
 be healed of the poison produced by the bite of that 
 old serpent , that is the devil. That it was originally 
 intended for this purpose is admitted by all. Yet 
 this is a purely historical event, and no way con¬ 
 nected with the ritual law. 
 
 Also, when the infant Redeemer under the guid¬ 
 ance of Joseph was led out of Egypt, it is said, that 
 was fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord , Out of 
 Egypt have I called my Son. But this was spoken 
 in the prophet of the children of Israel who were 
 brought up out of Egypt under the guidance of 
 Moses. The words are, When Israel was a child 
 then I loved him , and called my son out of Egypt. 
 It is evident that this exodus of Christ could fulfil 
 that which was spoken of the exodus of Israel only 
 in virtue of the prediction in type of the one in the 
 other. He dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it 
 might he fulfilled which was spoken hy the prophet , 
 He shall he called a Nazarene. But this was spoken 
 of Samson. That which happened to Christ could 
 not fulfil what was said of this Judge and deliverer 
 of his people except the one were intended to be 
 prefigured by the other. It is also declared that 
 Jesus rose from the dead on the third day according 
 to the Scriptures. But it is not predicted in the 
 Old Testament in words that the Messiah should 
 rise from the dead on the third day. He himself 
 refers to the history of the prophet Jonah, who was 
 three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, 
 
16 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 as the symbol under which it had been foretold that 
 he should be three days and three nights in the heart 
 of the earth. 
 
 Still more clear does the symbolical character of 
 the histories of the Old Testament become from St. 
 Paul’s treatment of the account of the mocking of 
 Isaac by Ishmael. He certainly does not mean to 
 deny that this is the literal history of an event which 
 occurred as it is narrated. Yet he expressly de¬ 
 clares that it is also an allegory or symbol, under 
 which is set forth the external and visible church, 
 when, having lost her spiritual life, she persecutes 
 the children of the promise. It represents in sym¬ 
 bol what always takes place in like circumstances, 
 a truth exemplified in the times of Abraham, David, 
 Jeremiah, Christ, Paul, Luther, and to the present 
 day. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 undertaking professedly to expound the symbols of 
 the Old Testament, takes up its historical portions 
 precisely as he does the ritual law, and explains 
 them in the same manner. Among these he enters 
 into the History of Melchisedec as a symbol of the 
 spiritual priesthood of Christ declaring that he was 
 made like unto the Son of God in that he was with¬ 
 out priestly generation, yet superior to the priesthood 
 of Levi; and in that he was king of a city 
 whose name was Righteousness and Peace, as if this 
 had been ordained of God that he might serve this 
 symbolical or typical purpose. 
 
 But in order to place this doctrine beyond all 
 doubt, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, after 
 
WORD OF GOD. 
 
 17 
 
 r- 
 
 having cited consecutively no less than eleven dis¬ 
 tinct events in the history of the children of Israel, 
 St. Paul declares, Now all these things happened 
 unto them for ensamples ( rvno\ , types is the word 
 translated ensamples), and they are written for our 
 admonition , upon whom the ends of the world are 
 come. In these words he gives a distinct and formal 
 enunciation of this doctrine, which is everywhere 
 assumed and taught in the New Testament, that the 
 events of the Old, were not only selected to be re¬ 
 corded, but that they actually happened # to serve as 
 types or symbols of the truths of the Gospel, truths 
 universal and alike applicable to the man of every 
 age and country. 
 
 One or two examples will serve to illustrate the 
 life and power of these historical symbols. 
 
 When the children of Israel had come to the bor¬ 
 ders of the promised land, terrified by the reports 
 which their spies had brought back of the gigantic 
 stature and superhuman prowess of its inhabitants, 
 they were discouraged and refused to go forward 
 after their divine guide to possess the inheritance of 
 
 * This is not a denial that these events arose from the free agency 
 of man, as truly as any in the history of the heathen world. The 
 two doctrines of man’s freedom and God’s preordination of whatso¬ 
 ever comes to pass, however inconsistent they may seem in our 
 eyes, are to be held in deference of our own wisdom to the wisdom 
 of God, as most certain truths. That there is a point in which they 
 meet and are conciliated, does not admit of a doubt. They are to be 
 regarded as the two sides of a stupendous arch whose keystone is 
 lost in the clouds. He who beholds the two sides, knows that they 
 have a keystone, although it is above the reach of his vision. 
 
18 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 which they were the heirs. Therefore they were 
 turned back into a barren and desolate wilderness, in 
 which they must wander many years, suffering contin¬ 
 ual hardship and sorrow, until as a people, they should 
 learn by bitter experience that the wisdom and love 
 of God was a better guide for them than their own 
 shortsighted prudence, or their own faithlessness and 
 fears. 
 
 This is an historical event which occurred as it is 
 described. But it is not barren. It is pregnant. 
 It is full of divine significance. It sets forth as in a 
 living picture the universal truth, that, whensoever 
 the people of God, discouraged by any obstacle that 
 may arise to withstand them, refuse to go forward in 
 implicit trust upon his guidance and strength, to pos¬ 
 sess that heavenly rest and peace of true holiness of 
 which they are the heirs, and of which the promised 
 land was but the type and symbol, they must be 
 turned back from that which is their true life to wan¬ 
 der in a spiritual wilderness, where, though not for¬ 
 saken, they are deprived of their most spiritual joys, 
 and where, though they make no progress, they can 
 never rest. Out of this wilderness they cannot come, 
 until wearied with the toils and cares of earth, and 
 chastised by human disappointments and sorrows, 
 they are made willing to trust themselves to the 
 guidance and the strength of God, and to follow him 
 in spirit and in truth. 
 
 Also the flood by which the old world was de¬ 
 stroyed, and upon which Noah was saved, is declared 
 by St. Peter to be the antitype of Christian baptism ; 
 that is to say, it is a symbol of those truths pertain- 
 
WORD OF GOD. 
 
 19 
 
 ing to the defilement and regeneration of man which 
 were afterwards set forth under this sacrament. 
 And by inspection we shall see that when these 
 truths are studied as, according to this Apostle, they 
 are exhibited in this tremendous symbol, it is not so 
 easy to lose the force of the words in wlfich regene¬ 
 ration is described in the New Testament, as other¬ 
 wise it is. In it we behold set forth in life, with 
 terrific power, that judgment upon the old man, the 
 corrupt nature in each individual which is described 
 in the New Testament, by the words, a baptism of 
 fire , being crucified with Christ , and by other expres¬ 
 sions no less significant. 
 
 For in this baptism of the Holy Ghost by which the 
 soul is regenerated and which is symbolized by the 
 flood, the carnal wisdom, the proud will, the self-trust 
 of the natural man, are overwhelmed and destroyed 
 by the judgment of God executed upon him, as the 
 old world, with its race of giants, with all their arts 
 and sciences, their cities and towers and high hills 
 of refuge, was overwhelmed and submerged in the 
 floods of the wrath of God. The filth and pollution 
 of the spirit are cleansed away, as now the human 
 race was purified. As Noah, the type of the rege¬ 
 nerated soul, is saved in the ark because he believed 
 God, so does the soul regenerated, stripped of all its 
 filthy righteousness, and emptied of its self-trust, of all 
 confidence in that in which the natural man trusts, 
 by faith in Christ flee into him, where it finds salva¬ 
 tion. By faith the new man rises above the floods of 
 the judgment of God, by which the old man in him 
 is cast down and destroyed. He is baptized into 
 
20 
 
 OP THE SYMBOLS OF THE 
 
 death , unto sin, and the world; and rises to newness 
 of life unto God. But when his human hopes and 
 joys begin to return, and he goes forth to the duties 
 of the mortal life, his first care is to erect in his soul 
 an altar to God, and to offer clean sacrifices, as now 
 the patriarch builded an altar and offered sacrifices 
 of every clean beast unto God. These offerings are 
 now well pleasing to God, as Jehovah smelled a sweet 
 savor from the sacrifice of Noah. Now for the first 
 time a covenant is made with the new man in Christ, 
 as here for the first time since the fall, a covenant 
 was made with the newly baptized human race, in 
 the person of Noah. Now the Father gives him a 
 new law, the royal law of love , unknown to him be¬ 
 fore, as here he gave to the race of man a new law. 
 Now he gives him the earnest of the Spirit , the 
 pledge of his love and guidance and protection, so 
 that he need be afraid no more of judgment, as here 
 he gave to the patriarch, and through him to his pos¬ 
 terity, the assurance that he would no more destroy 
 the earth with a flood, and placed his bow in the 
 clouds to be a constantly returning pledge of his 
 faithfulness. Henceforth, in the midst of the cloud 
 and the storm, the new man beholds the dear pledge 
 of God’s covenanted mercy, which throws over his life 
 a divine halo, of which the hues of the rainbow are 
 but a shadow. 
 
 These are but skeletons of the truths set forth in 
 these holy symbols. Indeed, because the truth sym¬ 
 bolized has a richness and power above all other modes 
 of expression, every attempt to empty such symbols as 
 these does not weaken and degrade them. Their 
 
WORD OF GOD. 
 
 21 
 
 power is to be felt by gazing upon them rather than 
 by reasoning about them. For they embody the 
 truth of God, in the gospel of his dear Son, in mi¬ 
 nuteness of detail, upon a stupendous scheme, with 
 awful grandeur, in divine beauty, in the life of man, 
 with the power of Jehovah. Mere enunciations in 
 words can never attain to the life and power of such 
 symbols as these. 
 
 When the significancy of these events which hap¬ 
 pened unto them in order to he types unto us , is per¬ 
 ceived, then and not before, does the Old Testament 
 become the word of God to us with power. Most 
 amazing, most divine does it become in our eyes and 
 in our faith. It is recognised as another body for 
 that Eternal Word, who also tabernacled in the man 
 Jesus of Nazareth. It is radiant of the brightest 
 beams of the Spirit of God. It is the very shrine of 
 the living God, from which he continually gives 
 oracles of life to our souls. It is the mercy-seat be¬ 
 tween the cherubim from which his glory beams with 
 such spiritual power that it must be approached with 
 the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, in a cloud of 
 the incense of prayer, with the offering of an humble 
 and sincere heart. 
 
 i 
 
22 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE SYMBOLICAL CHARACTER OF THE SCRIPTURAL 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 From the foregoing views it is plain that the Word 
 of God is not given to or for the men of any particu¬ 
 lar age or country in an exclusive sense. It is the 
 revelation of God to man. It was given through a 
 chosen and peculiar people, for humanity. It de¬ 
 scribes the origin, nature, and destination of huma¬ 
 nity ; the creation, temptation, sin, redemption, and 
 final salvation * of humanity. 
 
 If it be asked what humanity is different from an 
 idea in the mind of all individual human beings taken 
 collectively, it may be found much easier to ask such 
 questions than to answer them. For what is a vine 
 or a tree, different from a collection of all the branch¬ 
 es and other parts of which it is composed ? What 
 is a man different from a collection of limbs, mind, 
 soul, and of whatever else he is constituted ? Nay, 
 with all reverence, what is the Deity, other than an 
 
 * This is not to be understood in any sense opposed to the doc¬ 
 trine of the everlasting perdition of the wicked. In the Scrip¬ 
 tures the human race is regarded as a tree, of which individual 
 branches may drop off and die ; but the tree shall live. Humanity 
 shall be saved. The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. 
 
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 23 
 
 idea in the mind of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 taken collectively ? He who can have no perception 
 nor feeling of this unity in the human race ; who can 
 conceive of humanity in no other light than as a col¬ 
 lection of individuals related to each other by proxi- 
 mity of time, or space, or otherwise, but having no 
 fundamental unity, no vital oneness—he who is sure 
 that such a thing is altogether impossible—how can 
 he receive the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity ? 
 Whether he avow it in words or not, though he may 
 not be conscious of it, yet in his heart and practically, 
 he must deny either the Trinity or the Unity of God. 
 He must either reject the doctrine of a threefold 
 mode of subsistence in the Deity, or he must worship 
 three Gods. He cannot conceive of trinity nor mul¬ 
 tiplicity in unity, although this very thing is contained 
 in every fact of life. He may attain to the highest 
 and most comprehensive formulas of physical and 
 logical science, but he can have no profound recog¬ 
 nition or feeling of the mysteries of life. For him, 
 such expressions as ye are crucified with Christ , If 
 one died for all , then were all dead , In Adam all die , 
 By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners 
 —these, and all kindred expressions in the Scriptures 
 which pertain to the first and second Adam, must be 
 wholly unintelligible. 
 
 In virtue of this unity in the human race it is that 
 many of those events which are recorded of the first 
 man are also found to be, in the substance of them, 
 facts in the life of every man. He was the head and 
 representative of all who are descended from him 
 
24 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 not only in a formal and legal, but also in a vital 
 sense. He acts, and is spoken of, in the character of 
 man* Hence it is not exclusively his creation and 
 temptation and sin and shame and toil and sorrow 
 and death, which are treated of in the first chapters of 
 the Bible ; but in them is given an account of these 
 things in respect to man as such. In other words 
 the events which they describe are both histoiical 
 facts and symbols of truth which has a univeisal ap¬ 
 plication. 
 
 For to deny to this account the character of a faith¬ 
 ful and true history of facts and events which actu¬ 
 ally occurred as they are narrated and desciibed , 
 to regard it as nothing but an artistically wrought 
 myth or allegory or symbol is to take away from it 
 the character which is always ascribed to it in the 
 Word of God, and especially in the New Testament. 
 In Adam all die, By one man’s offence judgment 
 came upon all men —such expressions as these, of 
 which there are great numbers, become wholly 
 meaningless and absurd if Adam be regarded not as 
 a real person, but simply as a mythical character. 
 Also to maintain this view a principle of interpreta¬ 
 tion must be assumed which has not the least founda¬ 
 tion or support, and which, if carried out and applied 
 to other parts of the Word of God, and especially to 
 the history of our Lord, as it has been done, must 
 
 * “ There is scarcely one word that we have an account of, which 
 God ever said to Adam or Eve, but what does manifestly include 
 their posterity in the meaning and design of it.”—Edwards on Ori¬ 
 ginal Sin. (See the whole passage.) Part ii., Chap, i., Sec. iii. 
 
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 25 
 
 subvert all faith in Revelation, and end in the denial of 
 the very existence of him whose blood cleanseth us 
 from all sin.* 
 
 No less does the denial of all symbolical signifi¬ 
 cance to the events here recorded take away from 
 them that character which is ascribed to them in 
 the New Testament. For if this account were in¬ 
 tended to be understood as nothing but a literal 
 history of events in the life of the first man Adam, 
 how could truths be drawn from it of universal ap¬ 
 plication ? For example, St. Paul argues from the 
 fact that the first woman was taken out of her hus¬ 
 band, and made for him, that woman as such, is to 
 be in subjection to her husband. But this reasoning 
 has not the least logical force except upon the suppo¬ 
 sition that they to whom he wrote knew that this 
 
 * It would hardly be necessary to say one word in opposition to 
 this view if it had not been advocated by one such mind as that 
 of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He cannot away with the “ talking 
 snake;” and, therefore, denies that this account is to be understood 
 literally. In his eyes it is nothing but a ‘‘sacred myth” The 
 words of St. Peter himself: “The dumb ass, speaking with man’s 
 voice, forbade the madness of the prophet,” must also have ap¬ 
 peared to him as highly mythical . 
 
 Of the vagaries ol Swedenborg upon this portion of the Sacred 
 History, it is scarcely possible to speak with gravity. Accord¬ 
 ing to him, Adam is wholly a mythical character under which the 
 man of the first ages is described Eve also is not a person, but 
 evil personified. Adam’s union with her is man’s ui ion with sin. 
 That is to say, God made sin out of man, and brought sin to him, 
 and said, therefore shall a man forsake father and mother and shall 
 cleave unto sin. When such views do not refute themselves they 
 may safely defy all attacks from reason. 
 
 2 
 
26 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 manner of the creation of the woman was a symbol. 
 For otherwise, the fact that Eve was taken out of 
 Adam might be a very good reason why she should 
 obey him, but how could it prove that othei women, 
 who are not taken out ol their husbands in a liteial 
 sense, should be subject to them? The same fact 
 in the manner of the creation of the first woman is 
 referred to, both in the Old and New Testament, as 
 a reason why the man of every age and countiy 
 should leave father and mother, and cleave to his 
 wife. Here again, because Eve was taken out of 
 Adam, was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, 
 might be a good reason why he should break all 
 other ties and cleave to her, but can be no leason 
 why the man of these days should do the same, 
 unless it be understood that this is a symbol under 
 which is set forth truth of universal application. 
 Also in the prophets and by the Lord divorces aie 
 forbidden for the reason that Adam and Eve were 
 created male and female of one flesh. This might 
 be a good reason why he should not divorce her, 
 but the universal truth that other men are bound by 
 the same law cannot be drawn from that fact other¬ 
 wise than by regarding it as a symbol appointed by 
 God to declare his will and intention in respect to 
 marriage. 
 
 But upon the supposition that the significancy of 
 this history is to be confined to the first man, it gives 
 us no account of the Creator nor of the cieation of 
 man, but only of one man. It says nothing about 
 the sin and fall of man, but only of one man. It 
 
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 27 
 
 gives no account of the origin of the shame of the 
 naked body in us. It neither explains nor alludes 
 to the curse of toil and sorrow and death, as these 
 things have come upon us. It does not indicate any 
 connexion between the curse of child-bearing as 
 pronounced upon Eve, and the same curse which 
 has come upon woman as such. Upon the supposi¬ 
 tion that these events are not symbols, it was the 
 snake which tempted the first woman, and not Satan 
 under its form, embodied in it; the enmity between 
 man and the serpent teaches us nothing about the 
 enmity between Christ and the adversary; neither 
 do the words, He shall bruise thy head , and thou 
 shalt bruise his heel , contain any promise of the 
 destruction of the power of Satan by the Son of 
 God. This curse is all fulfilled, in its literal import, 
 by the enmity and warfare between man and the 
 reptile itself. That which Christians in every age 
 and country have treasured in their hearts’ faith as 
 a most blessed promise is all exploded. 
 
 From many parts of the narrative itself, however, 
 it is perfectly evident that it treats of symbols. The 
 country in which the garden of innocence was situat¬ 
 ed, is called the land of Eden , that is to say, the land 
 of Delight. But when we use such expressions as 
 The castle of indolence , The palace of desire , are they 
 not always understood as symbols ? The tree of 
 liberty —is it not a symbol under which something is 
 set forth pertaining to liberty ? The tree of life , The 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ,—these, if 
 language be not used at random, must be symbols 
 
28 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 under which something is set forth pertaining to life, 
 and to the knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 But if all other proofs were wanting, the universal¬ 
 ity of the facts which are treated of would be suffi¬ 
 cient of itself to show that what is signified by this 
 account is not intended to be confined to the first man 
 and woman. The temptation of man by the devil ; 
 the sin of man against God ; the shame of his naked 
 body ; the curse of child-bearing upon the woman ; 
 that of toil and sorrow, and death, upon humanity— 
 these, being found co-extensive with the human race, 
 are enough to show that this part of the Word of 
 God, except where this is limited by the account 
 itself, and by the very nature of symbols, is given to 
 describe humanity, man as such, no less than to record 
 facts and events in the life of the first man, Adam. 
 
 Nor has the particular and universal significancy 
 and application of the truth here set forth been over¬ 
 looked by those who have translated the Scriptures 
 into other languages, and especially into English. 
 They have marked it in the only way in which it 
 could be marked in a translation. For the Hebrew 
 word Adam , the same through the whole narrative, 
 they have rendered in two ways ; sometimes by the 
 word Man , denoting man as such, which is its exact 
 equivalent in meaning ; and sometimes by simply 
 transferring the word itself from one language to the 
 other, as a proper name of the first man, Adam. 
 This they have done evidently because they discerned 
 that, as used in the account, it is both a term of uni- 
 
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 29 
 
 versal significancy, and at the same time a proper 
 name. 
 
 This will the more fully appear as we proceed to 
 empty these divinely appointed and inexhaustible 
 symbols of some portion of their meaning. 
 
30 
 
 OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 r ; 'C _■ •; • f .. i 
 
 OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 “ God created man.” 
 
 As we have seen, the translators of the Bible into 
 English have indicated that the significancy of this 
 declaration is not to be confined to the first man. 
 He is taken as the type and symbol of the race. All 
 his posterity are included in him ; and what is said 
 of him is intended to apply to them. Therefore, 
 these words declare that God creates every man by 
 his direct agency as truly as he did Adam. The 
 methods by which he does this may be modified 
 indeed, as they are, but the substance of what is 
 expressed in these words is just as true of one man 
 as of another, of all men as of the first man. 
 
 In order that we should perceive the truth of this, 
 and feel its force, we must consider an objection or 
 difficulty which now continually arises in the minds 
 of men under this form. It is true , doubtless , that 
 the first man was made by the hand of God ; but now , 
 men are made by the laws of the natural world. 
 Nature , it is true , was originally made by God. He 
 communicated to her all her powers. But now men 
 are made by the laws of nature. God ceased from 
 his work of creation after the sixth day. 
 
 This conception of nature as a great machine hav- 
 
OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 31 
 
 ing its powers within itself, which God created a great 
 while ago, and whose operations he now stands by 
 to watch and direct, as an engineer superintends the 
 machinery of a factory, has well nigh succeeded, in 
 our time, in banishing the Creator from his own 
 works. For if his machine be perfect, as it must be 
 since it is the work of perfect wisdom and unlimited 
 power, there seems to be no need of his presence 
 even as an engineer. Under this view the very near, 
 ever present God of the Scriptures, becomes almost 
 of necessity nothing better than the deity of the 
 ancient Epicureans, withdrawn into some remote 
 corner of the universe, too far off to concern himself 
 with the affairs of the insects who inhabit this earth 
 •—a god of eternal idleness. Such a conception of 
 God has no power whatever over the life of man. 
 It leaves him free to follow the desires ot his own 
 heart. It gives him for his chief good nothing higher 
 than pleasure, and for his eternal hope, nothing better 
 than the grave. 
 
 In opposition to this, the God of the Scriptures is 
 always represented as present, and as doing by his 
 direct power, all those things which are called the 
 works of nature. The word of God knows nothing 
 of nature as a system of powers. We, in these days, 
 have departed from its phraseology upon this subject, 
 and from the idea which it reveals of the agency of 
 God in the natural world. For example, where we 
 say, the lightning, it thundered, it rains, the wind 
 blows, it ceases to blow, in the Scriptures it is the fire 
 of God, God thundered in the heaven, He raiseth the 
 stormy wind, He maketh the storm a calm. He sendeth 
 
32 
 
 OF THE CREATION OP MAN. 
 
 the springs into the valleys , He watereth the hills 
 from his chambers , Thou makest darkness , I create the 
 light. He is represented as feeding the young lions 
 when they roar for food, and the young ravens when 
 they cry to him. These wait all upon thee , that thou 
 mayest give them their meat in due season. TVhat 
 thou givest them they gather. Thou openest thine 
 hand—they are filled with good. Thou takest away 
 their breath—they die and return to their dust. 
 Thou sendest forth thy spirit—they are created. 
 Thou renewest the face of the earth. 
 
 The heartfelt recognition of this truth as it is in Je¬ 
 sus, that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without 
 the heavenly Father, is the only conception of God 
 which can have power over the life of man. Every 
 other view which removes him further off from us, 
 and his agency further back than does his own word, 
 is a delusion of the mind of man, professing itself to 
 be wise and thereby becoming a fool. It leads di¬ 
 rectly into scepticism, and when carried out, ends in 
 godless infidelity. 
 
 But do not the physical sciences demonstrate that 
 there are powers in nature which are not the direct 
 agency of God ? 
 
 In order to answer this question we must carefully 
 distinguish between two things which are totally dif¬ 
 ferent, between a law and a power. This distinction 
 is often lost sight of in these days when the whole 
 force of the human mind seems to be bent upon the 
 objects of natural science. Now, as every true vo¬ 
 tary of this science knows, its legitimate object is 
 simply to determine what are facts, and according to 
 
 t 
 
OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 33 
 
 what laws or methods these facts are produced. It 
 has nothing at all to do with the power by which they 
 are caused to exist. But in the heat and enthusiasm 
 of this pursuit after the knowledge of facts, and of 
 the laws or methods according to which the things 
 which do appear are created, man loses out of mind 
 the invisible power which creates them. Thus he 
 has come to deify laws and methods under the word 
 Nature , regarding and speaking of nature as if it 
 were a system of powers. 
 
 Disguise it as we will, this is the idolatry of our 
 time, and of modern civilization. For this we have 
 forsaken the living, ever-present, ever-active God of 
 the Scriptures. It is an idolatry far more subtle and 
 disguised, therefore perhaps, more destructive to the 
 soul of man than that of the ancient Scandinavians, 
 or Greeks, or any other primitive heathen people. 
 For they never did lose the knowledge of the truth 
 that there is in nature nothing that can be properly 
 called powers. They knew that, having determined 
 with perfect accuracy the laws or methods accord¬ 
 ing to which things in the natural world are done, 
 they had determined nothing in respect to the power 
 which does them. They understood that within all 
 the laws and methods of nature was present a living 
 power, and one truly divine, although they did not 
 know that this power was in every case one and the 
 same. Hence arose their gods of cold and heat, of 
 thunder and storm, of the heavens, earth and ocean, 
 of the seasons, rivers and trees. 
 
 The laws of nature, when conceived of as they are 
 
 2 * 
 
34 
 
 OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 exhibited by a right natural science, are not powers in 
 any sense. They are simply methods according to 
 which some power acts. A law cannot execute itself. 
 It demands an executive power to act according to 
 it—to fulfil it. A law without this power within it, 
 is a dead letter, a mere idea in the mind, a form with¬ 
 out any substance, an abstraction. It is not worth 
 while to attempt to prove this. It must be seen to 
 be true, or argument will have but little weight. It 
 may be well, however, to cite the name and authority 
 of Newton. His life, as all know, was spent in de¬ 
 termining the laws of nature—of the universe. In 
 this work his success was greater and more splendid 
 than that of any other man who ever turned his mind 
 to the subject. It might seem to be gratuitous, and 
 even out of place, to say this here, except for the 
 sake of recalling all that is suggested of his labors 
 by the one word, gravitation. For he did not con¬ 
 ceive of the universe as a great machine whose 
 power of motion was the law of gravitation in itself, 
 which God had formerly created, and now stood by 
 to superintend its movements. Therefore, after he 
 had determined that the earth and the heavenly 
 bodies, and indeed all things, were in fact moved 
 according to this law or method, he still acknow¬ 
 ledged that there was needed a power thus to move 
 the universe from day to day and from age to age. 
 What this power was, he did not even attempt scien¬ 
 tifically to determine, because he well knew that this 
 question must lead him entirely beyond the limits of 
 the legitimate sphere of natural science. He sup- 
 
OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 35 
 
 plied this power, indeed, yet only and avowedly by 
 way of conjecture, by some subtle and impalpable 
 ether which he supposed might perhaps be univer¬ 
 sally diffused through infinite space. But by this 
 conjecture he only threw the question of the moving 
 power which acts according to the law of gravitation, 
 one step further back: he did not solve it, as is evi¬ 
 dent, and as all men of science now admit. For it 
 immediately recurs again in this form, What moves 
 the ether, by which the planets are moved ? 
 
 The answer to this question in whatsoever form it 
 may occur, is wholly without the sphere of natural 
 science. It belongs to theology. Therefore it is 
 answered by God himself in his own word. In it, as 
 we have seen, the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Allwise 
 Jehovah, the living God, is revealed as always and 
 everywhere the one power whose methods of action, 
 which he voluntarily chooses for himself, and which 
 in miracles he changes at pleasure, we call the laws 
 of nature. He is the working power throughout the 
 universe. The methods of action which he has 
 chosen and still chooses for himself, we call, doubt¬ 
 less with the greatest propriety, the laws of gravita¬ 
 tion, chemical attraction and repulsion, capillary at¬ 
 traction, and by other like names. The error lies 
 not in names, but in losing sight of the power which 
 works according to these methods. Wherever any¬ 
 thing is done according to these methods, there is 
 Jehovah doing it. Natural science, strictly so called, 
 has nothing opposed to this doctrine of God’s revela¬ 
 tion to man. It is only when the object and the 
 
H6 OF THE CREATION OF MAN, 
 
 sphere of this science is entirely misunderstood, as 
 Newton did not misunderstand it, that it is supposed 
 to demonstrate anything contrary to that view of his 
 own agency which God has given in his word. 
 
 Now, therefore, as truly as of old, it is Jehovah, the 
 living God, not the or do or dinars oi the Pantheist, 
 who creates the light and divides it from the dark¬ 
 ness. Now He gathers the waters together into one 
 place, and causes the dry land to appear, as truly and 
 directly as of old. Now' He causes the grass and herb 
 and tree to grow out of the ground. He sprouts the 
 germ buried in the heart of the earth. He turns it 
 upwards *to the light and heat, rather than down¬ 
 wards into the cold and dark. lie draw's the juices 
 of the earth up through the capillary tubes. With 
 these He nourishes and strengthens the tender plant. 
 He stretches out the branches, puts forth the leaves, 
 and opens the buds to his genial light and warmth 
 in the rays of the sun. He blooms the flower, and 
 paints it with its various and beautiful colors. He 
 elaborates the fruit, and ripens it for the food of man. 
 He rains upon the dry and parched earth. He causes 
 the streams to flow down the hills into the valleys ; 
 with these He fertilizes the ground. He is the mov¬ 
 ing power in the wind and the storm. He stirs up 
 and troubles the ocean. His wrath is the wrath of 
 the angry deep. He maketh the storm a calm so that 
 the waves thereof he still . His light is the light of 
 the sun, moon, and stars. He moves the planets in 
 their vast elliptical orbits around their focal suns. 
 From the centre to the circumference, He is present 
 
OF THE CREATION OF MAN* 
 
 37 
 
 doing all things that are done in nature by those 
 methods which he chooses, and which we call the 
 laws of the universe. This he does by his own 
 free, voluntary choice and power as truly and di¬ 
 rectly as upon the first day of the creation. Nature 
 of itself is but a system of methods, a dead organ¬ 
 ism, But within, under, behind (or howsoever it 
 may be feebly expressed) the laws, methods or pro¬ 
 cesses of nature, is the Spirit, the living God, who 
 upholds and moves all things, as they are upheld and 
 moved, by the Omnipotent Word of his power. 
 
 But did not God cease from his work of creation 
 after the sixth day ? 
 
 Certainly he ceased from creating new forms, but 
 he did not cease from creating others of species and 
 kind the same that he had already formed. Since 
 then nothing new has been discovered by the furthest 
 extended observations of natural science, except in 
 the case of miracles. But did he cease from cre¬ 
 ating according to the methods, and for the objects, 
 described in the account of these six days ? By no 
 means. Thou sendest forth thy spirit—they are 
 created. My Father worketh hitherto , and I work. 
 
 Therefore, in the words of St. Paul, The invisible 
 things of Him from the creation of the world are 
 clearly seen , being understood from the things which 
 are made , even his eternal power and Godhead. The 
 emphasis is to be laid upon the expression are made 
 or done , revealing the truth that we are surrounded 
 by the present, direct agency of God Almighty. In 
 the thunder, in the roar of the storm, the cataract, 
 
38 
 
 OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 and the troubled ocean, his voice is to be heard as 
 truly as it was from Mount Sinai. In the move¬ 
 ments of the planetary spheres, in the blooming and 
 clothing of the flower, in the falling of a sparrow 
 to the ground, his direct agency and power is to be 
 seen as truly as in the raising of Lazarus from the 
 dead. And in the creation of the child born of 
 human parents, his hand is revealed as truly as in 
 the creation of Adam from the dust of the ground. 
 Therefore said our first mother when her eldest son 
 was born, I have gotten a man from the Lord. 
 Therefore is the child of Christian parents, when 
 asked the question, who created you , taught to an¬ 
 swer, God. 
 
 For, although the method according to which the 
 thing is done, is modified by the new conditions 
 which are introduced in the relation of the child to 
 its human parents, yet God is the working power in 
 the creation of man now as of old. He creates the 
 first elements of the body. He draws up the parti¬ 
 cles of the dust of the ground, and builds up the 
 embrion by his power now as of old. He forms the 
 brain, heart, nerves, arteries, veins, blood, bones and 
 flesh, now by his own chosen methods. With the 
 dust of the ground drawn up by his own power, 
 and prepared in his own laboratories, He nourishes 
 and strengthens his creature. He brings the child 
 forth into the world and breathes into its nostrils 
 the breath of life, so that it becomes a living soul. 
 He works the bellows of the lungs, and the hydrau¬ 
 lic organism of the heart, arteries and veins, with his 
 
OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 
 
 39 
 
 own hand. He compounds in the bosom of the 
 mother the nourishment which she gives to her in¬ 
 fant. He distributes it through the body where it is 
 needed. God creates every man as truly as he 
 created Adam. God made me is the only truth 
 which can produce in the heart of man the feeling 
 that he belongs wholly to his creator, and has no 
 right to appropriate to himself the property of 
 another. 
 
40 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 “ Jehovah God formed man.” 
 
 “ God created man in his own image ; in the image of God created 
 he him.” 
 
 Here also, as before, it is man as such who is spoken 
 of under the type and symbol, the representative of 
 the whole race of Adam. The application of the 
 truth which is set forth in these words is indeed in 
 part limited by events that follow, and by the nature 
 of symbols ; yet it is true that man as such is made 
 in the image of God. That these words do, in some 
 sense, apply to all men, is evident from the Scrip¬ 
 ture. For in the law given to Noah after the flood, 
 the reason why the life of the murderer should pay 
 for the life he had taken is that man was made in 
 the image of God. This reason, as is evident at a 
 glance, has no force except upon the supposition 
 that the murdered man, whoever he might be, was 
 made in that image or likeness. Also St. James de¬ 
 clares in speaking of the evil of the unbridled 
 tongue, Therewith bless we God even the father; 
 and therewith curse we men which are made after the 
 similitude of God . Here it is given in express 
 words that not Adam alone formerly, but men now 
 
OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 41 
 
 are ma de ill the image of God. Nor is this truth 
 declared less explicitly in many other parts of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The repetition under different forms of the truth 
 expressed in these words, is emphatical, and marks 
 its importance. We must therefore proceed to in¬ 
 quire what this image or likeness of God in man is 
 now, and what it was in the first man. 
 
 It is to be observed, as universally true, that the 
 names by which man designates the attributes of 
 God, are originally names of attributes and faculties 
 and qualities which he finds in himself. This fact 
 that we apply to God the same terms by which we 
 describe things in ourselves, proves that we have dis¬ 
 cerned in ourselves the likeness or image of God. 
 For we do not call by the same names things which 
 we conceive of as totally unlike. Indeed, we are 
 not able to conceive of anything in God the likeness 
 of which we do not find in ourselves. Whatever 
 there may be in him, which has no reflection or 
 similitude whatever in man, is wholly unknown to us. 
 It is only by the knowledge of this truth that the 
 force of St. John’s reasoning can be felt, where he 
 says, We know that we shall he like him ; for we 
 shall see him as he is. Here he gives the fact that 
 we shall see God as he is, as a certain proof that we 
 shall be like him. But if it were possible to see 
 God as he is without being like him, this reasoning 
 could have no force. For example, we ascribe 
 knowledge to God. But it would be impossible for 
 us to do this, if knowledge to some degree were 
 
42 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 not in ourselves. For we could not know any¬ 
 thing, much less that what we describe by this woid 
 is an attribute of God. So also we undei stand that 
 God is a Being; but it would be impossible for us 
 to know this if we had no being ourselves. We 
 say that God is blessed; but we could have no idea 
 of blessedness unless we had enjoyed it to some de¬ 
 gree in ourselves. We could not say that God is 
 just, with any intelligence of what is meant by that, 
 if there were not in us at least a similitude of justice. 
 It is unnecessary to go into these illustrations in 
 detail. But if the subject be examined with atten¬ 
 tion it will be found that we cannot have the least 
 conception of anything in God the likeness 01 simi¬ 
 litude of which we do not find in ourselves. But 
 this is to acknowledge that there is in man an 
 image of God. 
 
 In order the better to understand the natui e and 
 dependence of the image of God in man, we may 
 consider the likeness of himself which is reflected 
 when a man looks into a mirror. For everything 
 which he beholds in this likeness is the reflection of 
 some trait in his own person. The one is wholly 
 dependent upon the other. While he gazes it exists. 
 As he moves it moves. When he turns away it 
 perishes as if it had never been. And the person of 
 the man is a being wholly transcendent m his natui e 
 and attributes above the image which is reflected. 
 
 In like manner, everything in man which has not 
 been introduced by sin (which is the reflected image 
 not of God, but of another), is the likeness or simili- 
 
OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 43 
 
 tude of something in his Creator. The attributes of 
 the infinite God reflected in a finite nature, as in a 
 mirror, become so to speak, the attributes of man. 
 The very being of man is the finite reflection of the 
 Being of God. So it is with all faculties and quali¬ 
 ties, sin only and its consequences excepted, which 
 we find in ourselves. Our thought, knowledge, voli¬ 
 tion, power, and will, are all the similitudes reflected 
 in oui finite nature of his infinite and transcendent 
 attributes which we, because we discern this like¬ 
 ness, feebly attempt to describe by the same names. 
 Even his Omnipresence finds itself feebly reflected 
 in our limited presence, as does his omnipotence in 
 our finite power. 
 
 But especially is it to be observed and borne in 
 mind in order to the right understanding of the nature 
 of the sin and fall of man, that the moral and spiritual 
 in him is the reflection of that in God which we call 
 by the same name. This by eminence is the image 
 of God in man by which he is distinguished above 
 the biute, and which has been so shockingly defaced 
 by sin. Justice, holiness, goodness, and truth—these 
 have no existence on earth, except as they are 
 reflected in us, as in a mirror, by that in God which 
 is their eternal substance. The conscience itself 
 marking the distinction between right and wrong, as 
 a guide of practical choice between good and evil, 
 is but a reflection in us of the eternal difference and 
 opposition between what is agreeable with, and what 
 is opposed to, the nature of God. 
 
 No less is everything in man which is the reflec- 
 
44 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 tion of anything in God, wholly and continually 
 dependent upon him, than is the reflection in a mirror 
 wholly and continually dependent upon its substance. 
 The most substantial spiritual being of man is a 
 dependent reflection of the One Being, the One sub¬ 
 stance, the One Spirit, God: that is to say, it is 
 sustained in existence by the pervading presence and 
 ever-active agency of God, who upholdeth all things 
 by the Word of his power , as really and truly as the 
 image in a glass is sustained in existence by the pre¬ 
 sence and gaze of the person who is reflected. If 
 God should cease to gaze into the mirror of time, in 
 which he reflects himself, the race of man, together 
 with the whole creation, would instantly cease to be, 
 as the figures vanish from the mirrors when the com¬ 
 pany retires from the thronged hall. Man is not 
 even capable of evil except as he is upheld and sus¬ 
 tained in existence by the unceasing action of the 
 power of his Creator. 
 
 Also, that in God of which man is the reflection or 
 image infinitely transcends all that appears in man, 
 as the living person in his nature and attributes 
 transcends his likeness in a glass. This is one of the 
 truths which are expressed by that great and terrible 
 name, so sacred that the pious Jew never dared to 
 utter it, Jehovah. The meaning of this word as 
 given by God himself is, I am that which I am. I 
 am inscrutable, incomprehensible to you. None hath 
 ever withdrawn my veil. No man hath seen God at 
 any time. God is above every idea or conception 
 which we can form or have of him. The highest and 
 
OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 45 
 
 purest and most comprehensive ideas which we can 
 attach to the words being, justice, holiness, know- 
 ledge, power, truth, goodness, love, mercy, and the 
 like, can but point upwards to that in God which we 
 call by these names. They cannot describe God. 
 That in him towards which these ideas in us point 
 upwards, remains ever transcendent above all that 
 we can conceive. When we have ascribed to him 
 all possible perfections, in the highest degree con¬ 
 ceivable by us, still God is not just that which we 
 have imagined but transcendently above it. There¬ 
 fore, with reason, is man forbidden to make unto 
 himself any image or similitude of the Eternal. 
 Every conceivable image or representation of God, 
 can do nothing but degrade him. For every creature 
 that God has made he is eternally Jehovah, I am that 
 which I am ; unto whom no forms, no words, no 
 images, no ideas can possibly attain. 
 
 If now we conceive of this likeness or image of 
 God in man as perfect and exact, not distorted like the 
 reflection cast from a broken or distorted mirror, yet 
 still, after the manner of the infinite in the finite, we 
 shall have perhaps the best idea which is possible of 
 the image of God in the first man. It was reflected 
 in him as the starry heavens in the pure and serene 
 lake, when it is unruffled by a breath of air, and un¬ 
 defiled by the swollen mountain streams. And his 
 perfection was maintained by recognising himself as 
 a reflection, and but a reflection of God. The mo¬ 
 ment he should aspire to independence of choice, 
 agency and life, he must sin, err, and fall. This 
 
46 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 would introduce a violation of all law and order 
 into the spiritual world as great, inexplicable, and 
 terrible as would be manifested in nature if the 
 reflection in a glass should assume an independent 
 life and action, and begin to mock and caricature the 
 features and actions of the person from whom it is 
 reflected. Iniquity is, and must be, a mystery . Thus 
 defaced and distorted is now the likeness of God in 
 man. 
 
 The image of God thus reflected in the finite 
 nature of man, was again reflected and symbolized 
 in his outward and material form. His upright posi¬ 
 tion became the symbol and expression of his inte¬ 
 grity, justice—of his internal uprightness. Hence 
 the word upright comes to signify justice in man. 
 Thus to stand signifies to be innocent and just; to 
 fall is to sin. The freedom of his movement in every 
 direction, his unfettered arms and hands, as con¬ 
 trasted with the confined limbs of the brute, reflected 
 the freedom of his will and choice. Hence we speak 
 of the freedom of the will. His clear and lofty eye 
 became the symbol of his intelligence. Hence, to see 
 passes over into a more spiritual sense and means 
 also to know. And so it is with other things. For, 
 that the nature of man is in some sort reflected in his 
 outward feature and form has been always perceived, 
 and is evident indeed from the effect which is pro¬ 
 duced upon us by the supposition of this nature resi¬ 
 dent in the form of a brute, or of a purely brute 
 nature in the form of a man. We are instantly 
 shocked and revolted. In the one case, we feel that 
 
OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 47 
 
 the form would be a prison for the nature, not a 
 home; in the other, the creature would be a monster 
 and chained or destroyed. This was seen and ex¬ 
 pressed by the heathen poet in ever memorable 
 words. 
 
 “Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram, 
 
 Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri 
 Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.”* 
 
 The full, constant, living feeling of the truth set 
 forth in this account of the creation of man in the 
 image of God, is the only effectual safeguard against 
 anthropomorphism , which is the attempt to attain unto 
 God by bringing him down to us. This delusion and 
 sin is one of those to which the man of every age 
 and country is most prone. It is scarcely less com¬ 
 mon now among Christians than it was among the 
 Greeks when Paul preached against it in Athens, 
 though doubtless in a greatly softened form. To 
 warn us against it God gives us his great and terrible 
 name Jehovah , to teach us that all the image of him 
 there can be in us is but an imago , a reflection, which 
 must be infinitely transcended by its substance in 
 him. For this purpose he declares, My thoughts 
 are not as your thoughts , nor my ways as your ways. 
 
 * “ While in their form and in their nature prone, 
 
 All other creatures downwards look to earth, 
 
 Feature and form sublime to man He gave 
 And bade him gaze with steady eye to heaven.” 
 
 Ovid I., Met. II. 
 
48 
 
 OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN. 
 
 But high as the heavens are above the earth , so high 
 are my thoughts above your thoughts , and my ways 
 above your ways. We are constantly prone to con 
 ceive of God as altogether such an one as ourselves. 
 Too often we forget that he is the incomprehensible 
 one; in all his modes of being and attributes, as far 
 above the most sublime flight of our thoughts as the 
 fixed stars are above the reach of a human arm; 
 transcending all our conceptions as the substance and 
 person of a man transcends his likeness reflected in a 
 mirror. Only this truth can guard us against the 
 presumption, the folly, the madness of that which is 
 one form of the sin of Adam, of attempting to scan 
 his ways and his wisdom, and to justify them in oui 
 eyes. We cannot measure and judge of the Godlike 
 power and Wisdom, the awful Justice and Holiness, 
 the infinite Blessedness, the incomprehensible Love 
 and Mercy of Jehovah, by our ideas of these things 
 —ideas which must be derived from the dependent, 
 and now distorted, reflection in us, and not from the 
 perfect and eternal substance in him. 
 
 It is before Jehovah alone that we truly bow. 
 Only in presence of the Incomprehensible aie oui 
 minds subdued to faith. The Infinite only can we 
 truly adore. Only by Truth, Holiness and Love 
 transcending all our conceptions, can our hearts be 
 brought back to that sincerity and solemnity which 
 were revealed in Christ, and imbreathed with that 
 divine all-hallowing love which is the peace that 
 passeth all understanding , the joy of God unspeaka¬ 
 ble and full of glory. 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE TWO-FOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 “ Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
 into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” 
 
 It would require a book instead of a chapter to 
 discuss the distinction which is marked in these 
 words. It is that of all most fundamental, and neces¬ 
 sary to a right understanding of the Scriptural view 
 ot man, and of his sin. Also it is one most liable to 
 continual misapprehension. It is the distinction be¬ 
 tween that in man which is of the earth earthy, and 
 that which is of the Lord from heaven. 
 
 These two natures, an earthly or material, and a 
 moi al or spiritual, are in the unity of one person. 
 The substance of the one is here said to be drawn 
 from the dust of the ground ; the other is described 
 as the breath of Jehovah. The confusion of these 
 two natures, the mistaking of the functions and mani¬ 
 festations of the one for those of the other, is abso¬ 
 lutely fatal to a right view of the sin and fall of the 
 human race. We must proceed therefore to consi¬ 
 der the distinction between them. 
 
 The leading characteristics of the earthly nature 
 in man are easily marked, because, in common with 
 
 him, they are found also in the brute, isolated from 
 
 3 
 
50 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 that which is moral and spiritual, and thus in a man¬ 
 ner defined. Whatever we find in the animal crea¬ 
 tion, we may know cannot be peculiar to that in 
 man which is moral and spiritual. What we do not 
 find in any degree in the brute, we may know is, in 
 man, of a higher origin than this earth. 
 
 In the brute, then, we have the material body and 
 form, with the senses which are seated in it. To 
 these belong their corresponding appetites and de¬ 
 sires, the pleasures of gratification and pains of pri¬ 
 vation. In the brute nature, also, are found certain 
 passions and affections, such as are necessary for its 
 support, defence and propagation. The love between 
 the male and the female, and the storge , or affection 
 of the parent for its offspring, are examples. 
 
 At the head of this nature in the brute is a certain 
 faculty of knowledge or sensual wisdom. This, in 
 some animals, as in the dog, rises very high, and 
 manifests itself in many things which, when observed 
 in man, are often supposed to be the attributes of, 
 and peculiar to, his spiritual nature. This is that con¬ 
 fusion which proves so fatal to the right understand¬ 
 ing of the Word of God. For by reason of the sin 
 of man, and of the preternatural development of the 
 earthly nature in him, and of the feebleness of the 
 action of the spiritual, he has come to regard that 
 which belongs to this earth, and is found in common 
 with him in the brute, as of celestial origin. This 
 sensual wisdom in animals is capable of the foresight 
 ol an object to be attained, and of a process of rea¬ 
 soning by which it adapts means to the attainment of it. 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 51 
 
 That many brutes have the capacity of reasoning, at 
 least in some degree, and of drawing logical conclu¬ 
 sions in view of the end which they seek to accom¬ 
 plish, is beyond all doubt. Examples of this will be 
 given when we come to consider the subtlety of the 
 serpent. But that which is of most importance to 
 observe, is that this sensual wisdom in the brute, by 
 whatever processes of reasoning it may reach its 
 piactical conclusions, is conversant only with the 
 things which belong to this life, and which perish in 
 the using. It gives all its practical judgments solely 
 fiom the earthly point of view, for the gratification of 
 the appetites, desires and affections of the animal, 
 without any reference to right and wrong, to the un¬ 
 seen and eternal world, or to God. Of these things 
 the brute manifests not the least intelligence. 
 
 In man, also, there is a brute nature, with all these 
 characteristics. But especially is this same faculty 
 of sensual wisdom which stands at its head to be 
 noted. It manifests itself in him precisely as it does 
 in the brute, only in a higher degree. It gives its 
 practical judgments from the earthly point of view, 
 for the gratification of the desires, appetites and af¬ 
 fections of the earthly nature at whose head it stands. 
 Its sphere is the mortal life. It reasons in view of 
 earthly objects, thus adapting its means to its ends. 
 It is the working power in the prosecution of merely 
 
 human science. It looks not beyond the objects of 
 sense. 
 
 This sensual wisdom in man, the head of his earthly 
 nature, in virtue of its union in him with a higher na- 
 
52 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 ture, whose light is reflected upon it, is indeed greatly 
 elevated and enlarged above all that appears in the 
 brute. Hence have arisen its great conquests in the 
 domain of the physical sciences. But however high it 
 may rise, it can never become spiritual, nor attain to 
 immortality. Its results can never be permanent and 
 imperishable. What is to become of geology and 
 mineralogy and chemistry, when the earth shall be 
 no more ? What is to become of Astronomy when 
 the heavens shall have waxed old as a garment and 
 been folded up by the hand of the Eternal ? Where 
 will be the purest forms of Geometrv when time and 
 space shall be no longer ? For with God there is no 
 past or future, no far or near; and he only sees all 
 things as they truly are. The heathen themselves 
 were not ignorant of this. Therefore Plato insisted 
 upon the study of mathematics as an intermediate 
 step in education to the knowledge of eternal things. 
 He knew that this science was not in itself the know¬ 
 ledge of the imperishable. This, and all beneath it, 
 is that knowledge which shall vanish away. 
 
 When a man falls wholly under the guidance of 
 this wisdom, which is conversant only with the things 
 that perish, he gives his practical judgments accord¬ 
 ing to the appetites, desires and affections, from the 
 earthly point of view, without reference to right and 
 wrong, to the spiritual and unseen world, or to God, 
 as tiuly as it is possible for the brute to do. He may 
 reach his conclusions by means of a more compre¬ 
 hensive induction of particulars, through longer, more 
 complicated and more accurate processes of reason- 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 53 
 
 \ . 
 
 ing, therefore with a more intelligent and certain 
 foresight, but the faculty and power by which he 
 does all this, differs from that in the brute only in 
 degree. It can never attain to the true knowledge of 
 God and divine things. He who seeks to know God 
 by means of it alone, must remain in blindness. 
 Hence it is that the sciences of which it is the instru¬ 
 ment are found flourishing in greatest vigor, and 
 bearing their highest blossoms and fruit, side by side 
 with the rankest infidelity and atheism. Never did 
 this wisdom develope and unfold itself more power¬ 
 fully, nor attain to greater perfection, than it did in 
 the French philosophers of the last century. Never 
 did it reason more logically from the only principles 
 which it is capable of receiving than it did when it 
 reached the conclusion, that there is no right and 
 wrong but pleasure and pain, no spiritual and unseen 
 world, no immortality, no God. These are the only 
 results which it is possible to attain by following that 
 wisdom which is in its own nature and origin earthly , 
 and which, adopted as the supreme guide of life, and 
 depended upon as the revelator of spiritual truth, be¬ 
 comes devilish. This wisdom is the light of the 
 earthly nature in man, as it is in the brute. It is to 
 be held in perfect subjection to the spiritual in him ; 
 and thus held, both in human and divine things, its 
 operations are legitimate and most useful. But trans¬ 
 ported into the domain of spiritual life as a criterion 
 and law of absolute truth, it becomes a most perni¬ 
 cious sophist. It can give only negative results, and 
 these negatives are lies. There is no God. The 
 
54 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of 
 God, foi they are foolishness unto him ; neither can 
 he know them because they are spiritually discerned. 
 This is that knowledge which pujfeth up; so that 
 carried away by it, man disdains the meekness and 
 lowliness of mind and self-sacrifice and holiness of 
 Christ. He discerns no beauty in these that he should 
 desire them. This is the wisdom which, because he 
 has fallen so completely under its guidance and con¬ 
 trol, is called in Scripture the wisdom of man, in op- 
 position to the Wisdom of God. 
 
 Such is the earthly nature of man with its wisdom. 
 If there were nothing more of him than this, he 
 
 would be but the first of brutes, as one animal is 
 superior to another. 
 
 But into this nature God breathed his own breath 
 as the breath of its life, and man became a living 
 soul This describes his moral and spiritual nature. 
 Its peculiar attributes are never found in the brute. 
 It is true indeed that this higher nature contains in 
 itself all the perfections of the lower. It is essen¬ 
 tially intelligent and reasonable. But its grand 
 chaiacteristic is that it cannot be satisfied with the 
 knowledge of visible and earthly and changing and 
 perishable things. It pierces through all things that 
 aie seen and felt, through all the objects of the 
 senses, after a cause which is not seen. It recog¬ 
 nises within and behind all things that appear a 
 substance which does not appear. It perceives the 
 necessity that under all the changing and fleeting 
 phenomena ol the senses, there should be a cause 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 55 
 
 and substance in virtue of which they arise and 
 exist and depart, but which is not subject to their 
 imperfections, to their mutations, nor to their decay. 
 That is to say, in this nature is the capacity of the 
 knowledge of the unseen and spiritual world, of 
 right and wrong, of immortality, of God. By it 
 alone is the true God recognised as the living God , 
 in opposition to that merely logical scheme of truth 
 which is called God by Spinoza, and which can have 
 no power over the heart and life of man. In it 
 alone is the capacity of love to God, of joy in obey¬ 
 ing and pleasing him, and of the enjoyment of his 
 love. This it is which feels the consciousness of 
 immortality, and recognises itself as a citizen of the 
 eternal world. 
 
 The things which the natural man, as he is now 
 found, hates, which are foolishness to him, the spi¬ 
 ritual man in his original state, loved. And as new 
 created, raised from the dead under the gospel, he 
 discerns in the meekness and lowliness of mind, 
 and self-denial for the good of others, and holiness 
 of Christ, a divine, overpowering beauty, a glory 
 which fills him with unutterable love and desire to 
 be like Christ. Instead of being foolishness to him, 
 these things are seen and felt to be the highest wis¬ 
 dom as the law of his own life and actions. The 
 true transfiguration of the Word and Wisdom of 
 God takes place in his heart, of which that upon 
 Mount Tabor was but the feeble type and symbol. 
 The knowledge of the power and glory of these 
 things as they are revealed in Christ, is the know- 
 
56 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN, 
 
 ledge of imperishable and eternal things. Compared 
 with this all other knowledge is but an unsubstantial 
 and fleeting shadow. Charity only never faileth . 
 
 As at the head of the earthly nature in man stands 
 this sensual wisdom which has been described, so at 
 the head of his spiritual nature stands the con¬ 
 science. This was intended to be a tablet in the 
 heart bearing engraved upon itself the Wisdom of 
 God as the law of man’s life and actions. It may 
 be compared to an eye, by which the path which the 
 Wisdom of God traces out for his children is dis¬ 
 cerned ; or to a window, through which the light of 
 God, and of the eternal world, shines into the soul. 
 And, better still perhaps, it is the ear through which 
 the Voice, the Word of God is heard uttering his 
 distinctions between good and evil, that man may 
 know to choose and to refuse aright. 
 
 For it is to be observed that the conscience 
 claims for itself an absolute, supreme, irresponsible 
 authority. It does not hold itself amenable to any¬ 
 thing in man, but it claims the whole man as ame¬ 
 nable to itself. Its most marked, and indeed its 
 essential attribute, when truly heard, is its authority. 
 This authority assumes to be paramount to all other 
 forms of wisdom, and prudence, no less than over 
 all the desires, appetites and affections. It holds 
 even thought subordinate. Therefore evil thoughts 
 according to the wisdom of Christ, are wickedness.’ 
 
 It does not base its distinctions between right and 
 wiong, noi the authority of its commands and pro¬ 
 hibitions, upon any prudential calculation of profit 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 57 
 
 and loss ; upon any good which man can foresee as 
 resulting from the choice of the right, or evil foreseen 
 as connected with the wrong. It gives forth au¬ 
 thoritative distinctions between these things, without 
 respect to man’s insights and reasonings upon the 
 fruit of actions. It marks for man one thing as 
 right, and commands him to love, to choose and 
 to do that thing; while within and under this in¬ 
 junction is the assurance, that thus it shall be well 
 with him; he shall live. It stigmatizes another 
 thing as wrong, and forbids him to love, and to 
 choose, and to do it; giving, as before, within the 
 prohibition, the warning that, doing this, it shall not 
 be well with him ; he shall die. But the conscience 
 gives no further account of itself. It tells him not 
 whence it cometh , nor whither it goeth. It does not 
 even inform him that the life it promises and the 
 death it denounces have any consequential connex¬ 
 ion with the things it commands and forbids. Often 
 it takes part against the clearest foresight of the 
 fruit of actions which is possible for man. For al¬ 
 though he be assured that, by deceiving his neigh¬ 
 bor to his hurt, he can gain the greatest advantage; 
 although he may not be able to conceive how any 
 evil should ever come to himself out of this act, 
 yet, if he hear the conscience truly, he will hear a 
 distinct command enunciated in his heart, with abso¬ 
 lute authority, This is wrong; this thou shalt not 
 do ; doing this it shall not he well with thee; thou 
 shalt surely die. And when he is called to give 
 impartial justice between himself and his neighbor, 
 
 3 * 
 
58 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 although he may not be able to see what benefit can 
 accrue to himself from it, although it may require 
 him to reduce himself to beggary, deprive his wife 
 and children of all support, and cast them helpless 
 upon the charities of the world, and even to sacrifice 
 his own life, yet, if he hear the conscience truly, it 
 will utter but one command in his heart, as before, 
 with the voice of absolute authority, This is right 
 and good ; this do , and it shall be well with thee ; 
 thou shalt live. This is the informing light, the 
 wisdom, the law of man’s spiritual nature. This, 
 because, where it is truly and purely heard, where 
 other voices are not mistaken for its voice, it is a re¬ 
 velation of God’s distinctions between what is good 
 and evil, is called in the Scriptures the Wisdom of 
 God in man. That it is through the conscience that 
 the voice and authority of God truly reaches the 
 human soul, is evident from, and acknowledged by 
 all Christians in this fact, that when a sinner is con¬ 
 victed of his sin by the Holy Ghost, it is in the con¬ 
 science that this conviction is felt. 
 
 These two natures in man centre in the unity of 
 one person in the will. This is the power of practi¬ 
 cal choice. It is the seat and centre of personality. 
 It stands, as it were (for here everything must be 
 expressed by figures), between the earthly and spirit¬ 
 ual in man, united to both; between the sensual wis¬ 
 dom and the conscience, comprehending and receiv- 
 ing both into itself; solicited by the one, commanded 
 and obliged by the other. 
 
 Most inadequate and feeble is this view; for here 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 59 
 
 all words can but mock and caricature the reality. 
 But it may serve to exhibit the possibility for man 
 of two very different characters and courses of life. 
 For on the one side, is the wisdom of the earthly 
 nature, giving its practical judgments from the earthly 
 point of view, according to the appetites, desires and 
 affections which belong to this nature, and according 
 to what seems good in its own eyes. On the other 
 hand is the spiritual nature, with its knowledge of 
 God, and of the eternal world, and its consciousness 
 of immortality, with its light and law, the authorita¬ 
 tive commands and prohibitions of the conscience. 
 Each of these prompts the will to choose according 
 to itself. 
 
 As the will turns its face away from the con¬ 
 science to the light of the sensual nature, receives 
 the authoritative wisdom of the conscience with re¬ 
 ference to the sensual wisdom, obeys the latter in 
 opposition to the former, it becomes the will of the 
 flesh. The man chooses and acts and lives accord¬ 
 ing to his own wisdom , fleshly wisdom , sensual wis¬ 
 dom, the carnal mind. His joys are the pleasures of 
 the sense, and of the knowledge peculiar to this mind. 
 He lives after the flesh. The light of his life, his law 
 of practical choice between good and evil, is the 
 wisdom of the flesh. The spiritual is subjugated and 
 controlled by the carnal. The free will itself, origi¬ 
 nally, truly, and properly spiritual and free, falls 
 under the dominion of nature, of the earthly in man. 
 The earthly nature enters into the spiritual, so to 
 speak; that is to say, it is reflected in it, thereby de- 
 
m 
 
 OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 grading and defiling and corrupting it by reducing it 
 to bondage, when it was intended to be superior and 
 to control. Thus its light is darkened. The con¬ 
 science is dethroned from its original and rightful 
 supremacy, and its oracles* although not wholly 
 drowned by the turmoil and clamor of rebellious pas¬ 
 sions, aie no longer heard with the ancient fulness 
 and ceitainty and authority. Thus it is now with 
 man in his natural state. 
 
 But on the contrary, as the will receives the soli¬ 
 citations of the earthly nature with sole reference to 
 the obliging and controlling power of the conscience; 
 holds all the judgments of the sensual wisdom in sub¬ 
 ordination to the Wisdom of God, with its face turned 
 steadily to the shrine of his oracles 5 accepts the au¬ 
 thority of God thus revealed as supreme, and chooses 
 accoiding to his commands, it is a spiritual will. The 
 light of the spiritual and superior nature is reflected 
 upon the earthly and subordinate nature, controlling 
 all the practical judgments of the sensual wisdom, 
 into harmony with the Wisdom of God; so that all 
 the acts of the man have a spiritual character, 
 which no act can have in the brute. Whether he 
 eat or drink, he does all with unconditional reference 
 to the oracles of the conscience to know what is com¬ 
 manded and forbidden there. No outward act which 
 he voluntarily chooses can be indifferent. In some 
 sort, the whole man is spiritual. He loves and re¬ 
 joices in the holy, in meekness and humility and 
 purity, in God. This is his meat and his drink, to 
 please God, He walks with God. God dwells with 
 
OF THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF MAN. 61 
 
 nim and in him, as the light and wisdom of his life. 
 Thus we may conceive of man in his original state. 
 
 That which is here to be observed and borne in 
 mind, as necessary that man should continue in the 
 estate in which he was created, at unity with God 
 and with himself, is the complete subordination of 
 the earthly nature with its wisdom to the spiritual 
 and its informing light, the wisdom of God revealed 
 through the conscience in the form of authority. 
 The inferiority and subjection of the one, and the 
 superiority and control of the other, are the truths 
 which are here symbolized by the earthly and divine 
 sources from which respectively they are derived. 
 The one is of the earth, earthy, the light of the other 
 is the Lord from heaven . Nor are these words mis¬ 
 applied. For it was the same Word of God, which 
 was revealed in Jesus Christ, of which he was the 
 embodiment or incarnation, called in the passage 
 here alluded to the Lord from heaven, which created 
 man, and breathed into his nostrils his own breath as 
 the spirit of man’s life. It was this Word of God 
 whose oracles of distinction between good and evil 
 were made known through the conscience of man 
 with absolute authority; and which, though now 
 they are scarcely, heard and but little heeded, and 
 often confounded with the voice of passion, and the 
 judgments of the sensual wisdom, were given to the 
 first man with all fulness and certainty and power. 
 
62 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ' ' V • . ’ 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 “Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he 
 took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof; and the rib 
 which Jehovah God had taken from man, made he into a woman, 
 and brought her unto the man.” 
 
 “ Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and 
 called their name Man.” 
 
 The symbolical and significant character of this ac¬ 
 count of the creation of woman has always been 
 perceived. The truths which are drawn from it by 
 the Lord and his Apostles are of the highest import¬ 
 ance, and indispensable to the right understanding 
 of the sin of the first man, in hearkening to the voice 
 of his wife rather than to the voice of God. In this 
 symbol is contained the whole doctrine of the mar¬ 
 riage relation between man and woman, as the whole 
 gospel is contained in the sacraments. 
 
 The first truth here symbolized is that the husband 
 and wife are one, as the body of the woman was 
 made out of a part of the body of the man. This 
 is also set forth in the words, He called their name , 
 Man. That this was signified by this manner of the 
 creation of his wife was immediately perceived by 
 Adam, and expressed. This is now hone of my 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 63 
 
 bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called 
 woman * because she was taken out of man. Also the 
 Lord declares that this unity was not to be confined 
 to the first man and woman, by applying the words, 
 They twain shall be one flesh , to the men and women 
 of his day. 
 
 This union between man and woman in marriage 
 is mystical. It cannot be explained in words, nor 
 yet perhaps distinctly conceived of in idea. It is 
 none the less real and true. The union between the 
 soul and the body is mystical; that between Christ 
 and the believer is mystical; yet both are none the 
 less real and true. The man and his wife were at 
 first, and are intended now to be, as truly one as 
 that from which the body of the woman was formed 
 was truly a part of the body of man. 
 
 But in order to know in what the man and woman 
 are one, and in what they are not one, by marriage, 
 we must carefully observe the force of the words 
 which are used in the New Testament to describe 
 this unity. This is now bone of my bones, and flesh 
 of my flesh. They twain shall be one flesh. To 
 this language, taken in its greatest rigor, both Jesus 
 and his Apostles carefully confine themselves in 
 their explanation of the doctrines of marriage. But 
 when they describe the unity between Christ and 
 the believer, they ascend to more spiritual expres- 
 
 ■ V . . v ^ * 
 
 * She shall be called female-man, wombman, woman, be- 
 
 T • 
 
 cause she was taken out of man, as distinguished from 
 
 woman. The two words differ only in that the one is masculine, 
 the other feminine ; precisely as the words lion and lioness. 
 
64 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 sions. For he that is joined to the Lord is not only 
 a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, 
 but also, He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit 
 with him. This latter phrase is never used to de¬ 
 scribe the marriage unity. Also Jesus declares 
 that in the spiritual world, they neither marry nor 
 are given in marriage. This unity is not therefore 
 in its own nature spiritual—a union of the spirits of 
 man and woman. But it is a oneness of the earthly 
 and mortal nature and life; of the desires and 
 affections, of the sympathies and loves of this nature ; 
 and of the wisdom and prudence which stands at its 
 head. In virtue of marriage, the man and his wife 
 are to love each other as their own flesh, to think 
 the same things, to follow the same counsels in re¬ 
 spect to all that pertains to the mortal life. By 
 marriage they twain are not one spirit but one 
 flesh. 
 
 The second truth here symbolized, and drawn 
 from the symbol by St. Paul, is that the woman is to 
 be in subjection to her husband. From the argu¬ 
 ments by which he proves the subjection of the 
 woman it is evident that, although it is first men¬ 
 tioned not until she had sinned, for reasons which 
 we shall hereafter see, it was in force, in her estate 
 of innocence, in virtue of her creation. For he 
 proves it from four considerations; because she was 
 not created first, but the man; because he was not 
 taken out of her, but she out of him ; because he 
 was not made for her, but she for him; and be¬ 
 cause he was not deceived into transgression, but 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 <35 
 
 she was. Three of these reasons were in full force 
 before she sinned; therefore that which they are 
 adduced to prove, namely, her subjection, was in 
 full force before she sinned. The conclusion is in¬ 
 evitable. The grounds and reasons of her subjec¬ 
 tion are drawn from the manner of her creation, 
 and lie in the very nature of woman as distinguished 
 from man. 
 
 But it was the earthly nature alone which was 
 taken out ot man. It is this alone in woman which 
 is united by marriage to him for the term of its 
 life. Therefore it is this alone which is put under 
 subjection to him. Her spiritual nature is free of 
 her human husband. With respect to it, she is his 
 equal, and perhaps, for some reasons hereafter to be 
 considered, greatly his superior. He has no right 
 of control over anything in her but that which be¬ 
 longs to her inferior nature, and to the mortal life. 
 To suppose the spiritual nature in woman to be re¬ 
 sponsible to man, and under his control, is to deny 
 its responsibility to God alone; and involves the 
 consequence that, if he command her to do wrong, 
 she is bound of right to obey. But this is absurd. 
 When he commands her to do wrong, she is to dis¬ 
 obey. God is the only Husband and Lord of the 
 spiritual nature, both of man and woman. 
 
 From this it is evident, that the subjection of the 
 woman to the man is not a mere official relation, as 
 some have supposed. This nature in her, which 
 alone is in subjection to him, is of itself inferior to, 
 and dependent upon him. To signify this very 
 
66 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 thing it was made of a part of him, for him, taken 
 out of him. She is less of stature than he. Her 
 physical strength is inferior to his. Her constitution 
 is more frail and delicate than his. Her appetites 
 are weaker than his. No less inferior to him is she 
 in logical powers, in that wisdom and prudence 
 which stands at the head of the earthly and mortal 
 nature. She is less at home in the walks of physi¬ 
 cal science, and in business, than is he. In all that 
 pertains exclusively to the mortal life, and which 
 perishes with it, she is inferior to man, weaker than 
 he, dependent upon him, and under his protection, 
 guidance and control. In respect to this nature, 
 she is, so to speak, but an individuated part of man, 
 his reflected glory, and, within its sphere, whatever 
 the wisdom of an infidel age may determine to the 
 contrary, it is her highest glory to obey her 
 husband. 
 
 From this symbol other truths are drawn by the 
 Lord and his apostles; but for the purposes of this 
 chapter it is only necessary to mention one or two 
 more. Because this union is real and true it can be 
 dissolved by two causes only, infidelity to the union 
 itself, and by the death of either of the parties. And 
 because it pertains to the mortal nature only it is 
 really and truly dissolved by death. Have ye not 
 heard that he which made them from the beginning 
 made them male and female, and said , They twain 
 shall be one flesh 1 What therefore God hath joined let 
 no man put asunder. Whosoever shall put away his 
 wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 67 
 
 to commit adultery. No less clear is he in respect to 
 the actual dissolution of the marriage union by death. 
 He said to the Sadducees, when they spoke of mar¬ 
 riage after the resurrection, Ye do err , not knowing 
 the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the 
 resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage; hut are as the angels of God. So that, 
 according to the case presented to him, if a woman 
 have had seven husbands, it makes no difference with 
 her in the spiritual world. Also St. Paul declares 
 that upon the death of her husband the woman is free 
 to marry again. This could not be unless the mar¬ 
 riage union were really and truly dissolved by death. 
 
 But the hope of reunion with departed friends is 
 not therefore, as some have supposed, a vain dream. 
 For ye sorrow not even as others who have no hope. 
 All the spirits of the redeemed are united in a real 
 oneness, from which flows eternally the most blissful 
 love and intercommunion. This spiritual union may 
 begin on earth between married people, and become 
 more and more perfect until death. But it does not 
 exist in virtue of any marriage here, nor of any hu¬ 
 man relation, but in virtue of something higher than 
 marriage, in virtue of the union of their souls with 
 God, consummated and perfected by the indwelling 
 in each of the one and same Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Now the institution of marriage was erected in the 
 bosom of the daily life of man to be an abiding sym¬ 
 bol of the relation which existed between his soul 
 and God. As such it is always spoken of and re¬ 
 ferred to in the Scriptures. Thy Maker is thy 1ms - 
 
68 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 band.* St. Paul calls it a mystery,* which it truly 
 is, in the proper sense of that word, and uses it 
 as the symbol of the spiritual union of the soul 
 with Christ. Throughout the prophets God is 
 everywhere represented as the husband of his peo¬ 
 ple. In the New Testament the Church is the bride 
 of Christ. The earthly nature of the woman, in its 
 inferiority, dependence upon, and subjection to, the 
 man, was intended to keep ever before the eyes of 
 both their own inferiority, dependence upon, and sub¬ 
 jection to God. As the man is the head of this na¬ 
 ture in woman, so is Christ the head of the Church. 
 As the woman, in respect to her inferior nature, is 
 the reflected glory of the man, so is the Church the 
 reflected glory of Christ. The corresponding relation 
 of man to the woman was intended to reflect steadily 
 into the human soul, the knowledge of the relation 
 which God bears to it. For this purpose this insti¬ 
 tution was set up by God himself; and it is indispen¬ 
 sable in society to the spiritual well-being of man, as 
 are all the institutions of God. To subserve this pur¬ 
 pose is the highest glory of marriage. Woe to them, 
 therefore, who seek to destroy the whole force of this 
 symbol by marriages in which the subjection of the 
 woman is denied, or not recognised. They do all 
 
 * The word nvsrfipiov, mystery, in its primary acceptation desig¬ 
 nates a symbolical representation of truth. In the Eleusinian mys¬ 
 teries among the Athenians, the doctrines of a future state, the im¬ 
 mortality of the soul, and many others, were clothed with a sym¬ 
 bolical form, and exhibited to the people, but explained only to the 
 initiated. 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 69 
 
 they can to destroy out of the human soul, the con¬ 
 viction of its inferiority, dependence upon, and sub¬ 
 jection to God, by violating that sacred symbol of it 
 which God has established. And woe to them # 
 who represent the estate of marriage as one of infe¬ 
 rior holiness to that of celibacy. They blaspheme 
 God’s own appointed means of grace. 
 
 When the symbolical and significant character of 
 this institution is lost sight of it comes to be regarded 
 as something in its own nature spiritual and perma- 
 ment, and is idolized. Into this very mistake the 
 Jews fell in respect to the nature of their ceremonial 
 law ; and to point out their error, St. Paul introduces 
 marriage as an acknowledged temporal relation. 
 But they had become so possessed with the idea that 
 their law was something substantial and everlasting, 
 instead of symbolical and temporary, that when He 
 came who was its substance and fulfilment, they 
 rejected him. They had become so wedded to the 
 forms of their holy law, in receiving which they had 
 
 V -, " • ^ . ' ' ‘ V' * r •-* J • * > • • 
 
 * Discerning the symbolical character of marriage, the Romish 
 church has erected it into a sacrament. With no less propriety, 
 and for the same reason, she should have made the birth of an in¬ 
 fant, the relation between the child and the parent, and death 
 itself sacraments. These also are holy symbols of spiritual truth, 
 ordained to be such by God. Nay for the same reason she should 
 have made the crushing of the head of the serpent a sacrament. 
 For this is a divinely ordained symbol of Christ’s most blessed tri¬ 
 umph over “that old serpent, that is, the devil.” But how she, 
 holding marriage as a sacrament, can teach that they who partake 
 of this means of grace, must therefore be less holy than they who 
 neglect it, is wonderful. Yet such is the folly of human wisdom 
 when it usurps the throne of the Wisdom of God. 
 
70 
 
 / 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 been so greatly honored and blessed, that they could 
 not look to the end of it, to that which it signified 
 and was intended to usher in. They could not bear 
 that it should be done away by the substance of it, 
 taking its place. 
 
 So it is with thousands of married people who 
 tenderly love each other. God has given them 
 something so excellent, so full of strength and conso¬ 
 lation in marriage ; they are so carried away with 
 its human love, and its temporal joys, that they can¬ 
 not discern the divine truth which it symbolizes. 
 They cannot bear that it should be done away, 
 should serve out its time, and give place to the sub¬ 
 stance of which it is the shadow. They are grieved 
 and pained at the thought that it should end at death. 
 The widowed wife looks forward to reunion with her 
 departed husband after death, as her greatest consola¬ 
 tion, instead of rejoicing most of all in the hope of the 
 perfection of her union with Christ in the spiritual world. 
 The dying husband cannot bear the thought of his wife’s 
 second marriage. He wishes her to rejoin him in 
 the spiritual world, as his own dearest friend, as his 
 own appropriated spiritual wife. The thought that 
 she should love others there as well as she loves him, is 
 painful. He cannot receive the truth that in the 
 resurrection they neither marry , nor are given in 
 marriage. He knows not that when the substance 
 is come, by it the shadow is done away. He cannot 
 rejoice that the perfection of his union with Christ 
 shall fulfil and absorb the institution of marriage, as 
 Christ fulfils and abolishes the law of Moses. He 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 71 
 
 so clings to this form, shadow, symbol, that when He 
 who is its substance is offered him, because Christ 
 must be loved with a devotion and fervor above this, 
 and every other thing, he rejects him in spirit, as the’ 
 Jews rejected him in the flesh. To be married to 
 Christ is something so hollow and unsubstantial to 
 
 is idolatrous heart that it can give him no pleasure 
 unless he may have his wife again; as the deliver¬ 
 ance from sin which Christ offered the Jews was 
 something so shadowy and unsatisfactory that they 
 could not receive it in the place of that deliverance 
 fiom subjection to the Romans which they desired and 
 expected. The real feeling of thousands when they 
 die, if it were put into words, is that they will bear, 
 because they must, as well as they can, their separa¬ 
 tion until they shall be reunited in heaven, instead of 
 i ejoicing that the shadow is passing away, and the 
 substance coming into its place. Thus also the Jews 
 to this day, bear their separation from their dear law 
 and sacrifices in the fond and vain hope that they 
 
 shall one day be reunited to be no more parted for 
 ever. 
 
 This is a most prevalent and deadly idolatry, 
 whose root is the same feeling which led Adam to 
 hearken to the voice of his wife rather than to 
 the Voice of God. There is no such thing as spirit¬ 
 ual wives and husbands. This is a phantom of earthly 
 beauty, mistaking which for an angel of light, many 
 have been beguiled from the simplicity,* and often, 
 
 * Swedenborg and his followers make the marriage relation to be 
 
72 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 from the purity of the Gospel. The desire to 
 reproduce the marriage relation in the spiritual 
 world, rather than to have it fulfilled and abolished 
 by the perfection of the union of the soul with Chi ist, 
 is perhaps the most subtle guise of light in which the 
 enemy can array himself for the destruction of the 
 unwary. For the genuine feelings of human lo\e 
 make their appearance in the heart after a mannei so 
 unselfish and pure, so free from appetite, their cei- 
 tain fruit, but which they have not yet borne, with 
 such soul-subduing sweetness and pleasure, with such 
 an assurance that they can never pass away, that it 
 seems as if they must be of a spiritual and immoital 
 nature. It seems to the idolator, as if heaven itself 
 could give nothing better than this, and could be 
 nothing without this. Yet all this, in its greatest 
 strength and purity and happiness, is but a type, a 
 symbol, a shadow. It is no more in comparison with 
 its substance, that spiritual unity with Christ which it 
 symbolizes, and the love and eternal joy which flow 
 out of that, than the body is to the spirit; than the 
 
 a principal source of the joys of heaven. Therefore in order to be 
 consistent the “ New Church” does not allow second marriages. It 
 is needless to say, that any view which does not allow of second 
 marriages is, ipso facto, a denial of the inspiration of Paul s epistles. 
 But it is to be observed that with all their boast of greater spirit¬ 
 uality than that of the “ Old Church,” they have fallen into an 
 error, which, as exhibited above, is precisely the same in substance 
 with that of the Jews, who would reproduce in their Messianic 
 kingdom, that temporal dominion, which was but a type and sym¬ 
 bol of that which was to fulfil and abolish it, the spiritual reign of 
 Christ in every soul. 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 73 
 
 bread and the wine are to the life of God in the soul 
 of man. 
 
 Out of this species of formulism and idolatry often 
 arises a feeling which is revolted at, and condemns 
 second marriages. Not unfrequently this is ascribed 
 to greater purity of heart, and spirituality of view. 
 It is true indeed that second marriages may be, and 
 perhaps commonly are, sought from motives and 
 feelings more corrupt even than those which con¬ 
 demn them. Yet it is none the less true that, because 
 they are distinctly and pointedly sanctioned by the 
 Word of God, they who condemn such relations are 
 of necessity found in an attitude of rebellion against 
 his Wisdom. Every feeling in man’s heart which is 
 1 evoked at anything sanctioned by God is corrupt to 
 the veiy core. It is to be repented of, and cast out 
 as evd. This error is precisely the same feeling and 
 view, in the substance of it, which led the Jew to 
 pride himself upon his superior fidelity to the law of 
 Moses after it had been fulfilled and abolished. It is 
 the idolatrous worship of the form and shadow; and 
 it leads to the rejection of the substance and spirit. 
 
 Against this form of idolatry, in which the rela¬ 
 tions of the earthly nature in man are regarded as 
 something spiritual and permanent, the Lord warns 
 us in the most awful words—words which seem to 
 many unnecessarily strong and harsh. He that lov- 
 eth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of 
 me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than 
 me, is not worthy of me. If a man come to me, and hate 
 
 not father and mother and wife and children and 
 
 4 
 
74 
 
 OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 brethren and sisters, he cannot be my disciple. 
 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I 
 tell you, nay, but a sword. These are all relations 
 of the earthly nature and the mortal life, appointed 
 to be typical and therefore temporary; having their 
 substance and fulfilment in the eternal and spiritual 
 union of the believer with Christ, as the sacrifice of 
 the paschal lamb had its substance and fulfilment in 
 the sacrifice of Calvary. The sword of Christ 
 severs these relations by bringing in the substance 
 which they shadow forth and prefigure, though they 
 be so dear to their idolatrous worshipper that he 
 cries out with Micah to the Danites, Ye have taken 
 away my gods, and what have I more ? And yet 
 they who shall be accounted worthy to attain unto 
 the resurrection of life, shall be as well satisfied in 
 the enjoyment of their perfect and eternal marriage 
 union with Christ, to dispense with all these relations 
 by which it is now symbolized, as the Christian is to 
 dispense with the sacrifices of the ritual law. 
 
 Perhaps to some these views may seem to be cold 
 and austere. But nothing can be cold or austere 
 which is sanctioned by the Word of God. They are 
 not found to be such in life and experience. He only 
 can know that marriage is honorable in all, and the 
 bed undejiled, who sees in it what Paul saw, a most 
 expressive symbol of the mutual relation between 
 the soul of man and God. The wife who sees in the 
 relation of her earthly nature to her husband a sym¬ 
 bol of the inferiority, dependence, and subjection of 
 
OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 75 
 
 her spiritual nature to Christ—she only truly loves 
 and seeks to please her husband. 
 
 The man who knows that his love and tenderness 
 towards, and treatment of, his wife, is to keep ever 
 present to his mind the love of Christ for him he 
 only can act towards her as Christ has acted towards 
 im Nothing can hallow, and consecrate, and 
 purify, and exalt to its true position the institution 
 ol marriage but the ever present thought of that 
 
 holy mystery which it symbolizes, prefigures, and 
 ushers in. 
 
76 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 “Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he 
 put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made 
 Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and 
 good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, 
 and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 “ And Jehovah God commanded the man saying, Of every tree 
 of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the know¬ 
 ledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day 
 that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” 
 
 In order the better to understand this account of the 
 garden of Eden, that is to say, the garden of Delight, 
 several things must be carefully attended to. First 
 is the authoritative law of good and evil here given 
 to man; secondly, after what manner this law was 
 symbolized under the two trees in the midst of the 
 garden ; and thirdly, with what feelings it was recog¬ 
 nised by man, which made the abode of his inno¬ 
 cence a garden of delight to him. 
 
 What this law of good and evil is, which was origi¬ 
 nally written upon the tablet of the heart of man, we 
 learn with perfect certainty from our Lord and Sa¬ 
 viour Jesus Christ, who came to restore it after it had 
 been defaced by sin. Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with 
 
77 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 all thy mind and with all thy strength, and thy neigh¬ 
 bor as thyself. This is the law which divides be¬ 
 tween what is good and what evil for man. And 
 there is no other possible. For it is not an arbitrary 
 enactment. It has its eternal and immutable founda¬ 
 tion in the very nature of God himself. No law can 
 come from him which is not, in the substance of it, a 
 transcription of his nature. But his nature is the 
 standard of good and evil. That which agrees with 
 it is good, and therefore good ; that which is opposed 
 to it is evil, and therefore evil. The transgression of 
 this law therefore has a significancy transcendency 
 above all that is evil for man. It is rebellion against 
 God. Obedience to it is a good equally above all 
 that is good for man. It glorifies God. Thus much 
 it seemed necessary distinctly to declare to avoid the 
 imputation of a mere utilitarian view, which the fol¬ 
 lowing lemaiks might otherwise seem to imply, but 
 which is abhorrent to every spiritual mind. 
 
 Foi the law of God not only distinguishes between 
 what is good and evil with respect to his nature, but 
 also with respect to man. It is, and always was 
 necessary, yea, indispensable to man, that by it he 
 might know to choose the good and refuse the evil 
 with unerring certainty. 
 
 In 01 dei the more clearly to perceive this we must 
 consider that the things which are good for man have 
 their opposites which are, and must be, evil for him. 
 
 If truth, temperance, the love of God and his 
 neighboi, be good for him, their opposites, delusion 
 and falsehood, intemperance, to hate God and his 
 
78 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 neighbor, must be evil for him. It could not be 
 otherwise. 
 
 Also, we must consider that, as we learn from ob¬ 
 servation and experience, the nature of man is such 
 that all his actions have a reflex influence upon him¬ 
 self, good for good, evil for evil. Every act whether 
 of desire, thought or volition, not only goes forth 
 upon other objects, but also returns upon himself 
 with its effects and consequences, and leaves him 
 somewhat different from that he was before. When 
 he indulges a desire for stimulating drinks, it is 
 strengthened, his power of resistance is weakened, 
 and future indulgence facilitated. By relieving the 
 distresses of the poor his disposition towards works 
 of that sort is increased, and he is rendered more be¬ 
 nevolent. By the exercise of pure and holy affec¬ 
 tions he becomes more pure and holy; by impure 
 thoughts and desires and acts, he is rendered more 
 impure. Of these things many have fatal experience. 
 For this fruit of actions is something so subtle and 
 far-reaching that it often escapes our notice alto¬ 
 gether, so that we refuse to be warned. Yet it is as 
 certain and inevitable as the decrees of God. The 
 effects of a man’s actions upon himself are like the 
 falling of a single drop of water upon the rock. It 
 seems to leave the stone just as it was before. But 
 after it has fallen for years the effect of the first drop 
 is so much increased as to make itself known: so 
 that in time the whole rock is worn away. Thus a 
 single evil act or thought or desire may seem to leave 
 the man unchanged, but it does not. See the drunkard 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 79 
 
 after a few years of indulgence—how changed! how 
 transformed! how fallen from all that he once was ! 
 
 Still further it must be observed that the effects of 
 man s actions upon himself, good for good, evil for 
 evil, have a ratio of increase peculiar to themselves. 
 For after every act he enters into subsequent 
 agency, in some sort, a new creature. That which 
 he being changed now does, also re-enters into him 
 anew, and leaves him still different from that he 
 was before. Hence he is changed from glory to 
 glory, or from death unto death . To this process 
 which is perfectly indisputable, evidently no natural 
 limits can be assigned. Left to itself, in the very 
 natuie of the case, it runs on while the man con¬ 
 tinues to exist. 
 
 Now because these effects of man’s actions upon 
 himself run on without any assignable limit, he must 
 continually find consequences and results evolved 
 out of his actions which it was impossible for him 
 to foresee. And in fact, that which seems to us evil 
 or painful to do or to suffer often produces in and 
 for us the most blessed results. That which seems 
 to our wisdom good and profitable is often fraught 
 with the most disastrous consequences. The good 
 01 evil fiuits of actions do not appear to a finite 
 intelligence and prudence except through experience, 
 and therefore are not to be known until they are 
 past, and cannot be recalled. 
 
 Fiom this it is plain that man, no less than every 
 other creature, must stand between two worlds of 
 good and evil, to him infinite, to choose aright be- 
 
I 
 
 80 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 tween which his own insight into probabilities, con¬ 
 sequences and results is wholly inadequate. In other 
 words, man cannot know good and evil. To discern 
 aright between these things by his own wisdom and 
 prudence he must have an infinite knowledge; that 
 is to say, a comprehension of all the consequences 
 and effects of his actions, which are infinite. But 
 this knowledge is competent to God alone. There¬ 
 fore without a law and guide of life from God only 
 wise , entirely independent of consequences, he must 
 be liable continually to choose amiss, and to pierce 
 himself through with many sorrows. He must have 
 something to indicate what is good for him and 
 what is evil, before he has tried it, because by the 
 experience of evil he must perish. 
 
 From this also it is evident that this law and guide 
 of life must be an authoritative one ; that is to say, 
 it cannot give its reasons for its commands and pro¬ 
 hibitions. For this only is authority in a true and 
 proper sense. These reasons, so far as they per¬ 
 tain to the well-being of man, not to speak of the 
 essential and eternal difference between good and 
 evil, having its foundation in the incomprehensible 
 nature of God, are the infinite and ever evolving 
 consequences of man’s actions upon himself. These 
 cannot be made known even by a revelation to a 
 finite intelligence. This law of God therefore can¬ 
 not give any other reason or sanction for its com¬ 
 mands and prohibitions than this, If thou shalt obey , 
 it shall be well with thee; thou shalt live: If thou 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 81 
 
 shalt disobey , it shall not be well with thee ; thou 
 shalt surely die. 
 
 Such a guide of life, such a criterion between 
 good and evil for man, is the law of God, as re¬ 
 vealed through Christ. This law does not make 
 anything good for man by commanding it. It com¬ 
 mands only what is good in itself, or agreeable with 
 the nature of God, and therefore good for man. It 
 does not make a thing evil by forbidding it. It for¬ 
 bids only what is evil in itself, or opposed to the 
 nature of God, therefore evil for man. The law of 
 God is nothing arbitrary. That which it commands 
 is good for man, that which it forbids is evil for him, 
 though there were no law. It is given to him by 
 his Heavenly Father to be to him an infallible 
 criterion of choice between good and evil, that he 
 may know to choose the good and refuse the evil, 
 without calculating the consequences of his actions, 
 which it is impossible for him to do. It is the Wis¬ 
 dom of God for man. Therefore it comes to him 
 in the foim of absolute authority, with the promise 
 of eternal life as the consequence of obedience, and 
 with the penalty of eternal death as the consequence 
 of disobedience, instead of an attempt at explanation 
 of the reasons upon which its commands and pro¬ 
 hibitions are based. The law is holy and the com - 
 mandment is holy and just and good. 
 
 Unfolding and applying this law for his disciples, 
 our Lord reveals this blessing which is in it. Bless¬ 
 ed are the meek. Blessed are the pure in heart. 
 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the veace- 
 
 4* 
 
82 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 I 
 
 makers. Blessed are they which do hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness. The Almighty and Eter¬ 
 nal and Self-sufficient God does not command his 
 creatures from the love of authority, merely for the 
 gratification of seeing them obey, or of punishing 
 them for disobedience. He cannot be benefited at 
 all by their obedience, neither can he suffer from 
 their disobedience. His essential glory and eternal 
 blessedness cannot be increased nor diminished by 
 anything that they can do. In giving his law to 
 man he is moved by infinite love, which is his es¬ 
 sence. The good for man, without which every¬ 
 thing else, when it has worked itself out, must pro¬ 
 duce the fruit of emptiness, bitterness and death, is 
 to be and to do what the wisdom of God has mark¬ 
 ed as good for him. To he spiritually minded is life. 
 The evil for man, without which all things which 
 are not joyous for the present hut grievous , shall on.e 
 day be found to have worked out a far more exceed¬ 
 ing and eternal weight of glory , is to be and to do 
 what the wisdom of God has marked as evil for him. 
 To he carnally minded is death. Therefore, This 
 shall he the covenant that I will make with the house 
 of Israel and the house of Judah. I will put my law 
 in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. 
 Therefore the mission of Jesus is to save his people 
 from their sins. For man saved from his sins, that 
 is to say, brought into obedience to this law, into 
 holiness, is saved from every evil. Left in his sins 
 he is saved from no evil. For sin is the evil, and 
 the only evil, from which he suffers. 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 83 
 
 This is the nature of that law of distinction between 
 good and evil which was originally written in the 
 heart, the most spiritual being of man—the law of 
 love transcribed from the very essence of God which 
 is love. Nor is this a conjecture. It is proved by 
 the fact that it is this law, and not another, which 
 Christ came to re-write upon man’s heart, and thus 
 to save him from the evil which he suffered in the 
 fall. Therefore it is this law which has been defaced 
 from his heart by sin. Of this law the conscience in 
 man was the organ, so to speak, the most faithful re¬ 
 flection. While therefore he should continue to 
 reflect God’s distinctions between good and evil 
 thus revealed in the form of authority ; while the 
 will should continue to receive the suggestions of the 
 earthly nature with sole reference to the wisdom of 
 God, and the whole practical life should continue to 
 follow this infallible guide, he could not err. He 
 could not mistake evil for good, nor choose what 
 would degrade and defile his soul, and destroy his 
 own well-being. But the moment he should erect 
 his own wisdom into a guide and law of distinction 
 between good and evil, and choose what might seem 
 good in its eyes independently of, and in opposition 
 to, the Wisdom of God, not only must he rebel against 
 God, that is to say, commit sin, but he must destroy 
 his own well-being and plunge himself into the world 
 of evil. 
 
 To guard his innocence, to preserve his spiritual 
 life he was placed by his heavenly father in the gar¬ 
 den of Paradise. 
 
84 
 
 di’ Ma& In fHii gAKden or EaradisE. 
 
 For the child-man, created in the image of God, 
 reflecting his likeness, and without experience, a 
 pl&ce ot abode was necessary, Where his earthly 
 nature might find an appropriate sphere* What 
 other could be suitable to his innocence but that 
 which is described iti the Words which stand at the 
 head oi this chapter ? It Was necessary that his out¬ 
 ward environment should correspond with the purity 
 of his inWard nature and life. Had it been other¬ 
 wise, since, by means of his earthly nature, he was 
 connected With the physical world, he Would have 
 been constantly liable to receive impressions from 
 Without opposed to that which Was within. Conflict 
 Would have arisen from this cause; while from the 
 union of tw f o natures in one person, physical evil 
 might ha\e passed over and affected his spiritual 
 Well-being* Also, We have seen that there is a de¬ 
 mand in the very constitution of man for an outward 
 and visible reflection or symbol of the truth by which 
 he lives; that this is not only necessary to the per¬ 
 fection and happiness of his life, but also to nourish 
 and maintain it. But the truth by which alone it 
 was possible for man to live was, that he could not 
 know good and evil by his own wisdom and fore¬ 
 sight of the fruit of actions; that upon this point he 
 must be implicitly submissive to the Wisdom of God 
 revealed in his conscience in the form of authority, 
 marking the good and stigmatizing the evil. Of this 
 truth therefore, by eminence, he needed an outward 
 leflection or symbol, for the same reason that we 
 need the sacraments* 
 
Of 1 MAN IN T'HJfc] GARDEN or PARADISE, 85 
 
 God did not deny to man that which he needed to 
 preserve him from error and to confirm him in inno¬ 
 cence. He placed him in the midst of a garden 
 which constituted the outward reflection and symbol 
 of the mysteries of his inward life. Here his food 
 stood ready prepared to his hand. Here his earthly 
 nature had its appropriate sphere, where the widest 
 lange of nis understanding could find nothing evil 
 for him except, perhaps, one thing, and that was for¬ 
 bidden by name. Here his senses, in the perfection 
 of their action, asked only what Was good, and were 
 hallowed by the presence and power of the spiritual 
 good of which they were the symbols. For as his 
 body and form were consecrated as the symbol of 
 his inward nature and spiritual characteristics, so the 
 pleasures of the senses symbolized spiritual joys. 
 This is evident from the manner in which the senses 
 of the body are used in the Scriptures to signify and 
 set forth spiritual things. Here his sense of smelling, 
 always filled but never cloyed with the odors of 
 blossoms and ripe fruit and with all sweet perfumes, 
 symbolized that spiritual enjoyment which is attri¬ 
 buted to God where it is said, that he smelled a sweet 
 savor from the sacrifice of Noah; to express which, 
 frankincense, myrrh, aloes, cassia, and other power¬ 
 ful aromas, were employed in religious worship. 
 The taste of his food symbolized that spiritual good 
 which is everywhere in the Scriptures represented 
 by reference to this sense. Thus it is in the expressions, 
 How sweet are thy words to my taste; yea, sweeter 
 than honey to my mouth ! It is my meat and my 
 drink to do the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
 
86 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 His sense of sight, receiving with pleasure all that 
 was grand and beautiful in the creation of God, sym¬ 
 bolized that which is in like manner set forth under 
 the giatification of seeing. Thus St. John declares 
 the joy of the saved soul by the fact that it shall see 
 its Redeemer as he is. Jesus also teaches us that 
 theie is a blessed vision of God which comes only to 
 the pure in heart. His sense of hearing, filled and 
 charmed by the whispering of gentle airs, the music 
 of flowing waters, the choral chant of birds, and led 
 by his own glad voice of thanksgiving and praise, 
 symbolized that spiritual joy which is set forth in 
 the Word under this sense. To express this St. 
 Paul instructs us to speak to each other in psalms 
 and hymns and spiritual songs. To touch the sources 
 of these feelings music is yet retained as a part of 
 the woiship of God. While under his sense of feel- 
 ing, that in which all the other senses are summed 
 up, were symbolized the highest mysteries of his 
 spiritual nature and joys. 
 
 But in order that the truth by which he lived might 
 be nourished and kept living in man’s heart, it was 
 symbolized in the most perfect manner. In the midst 
 of the gaiden his heavenly Father placed two trees, 
 both equally fair to the eye and fruitful; the fruit of 
 both equally, as far as man could see, good for food, 
 between which he established a distinction by 
 his authority, and called them by names significant 
 of the truth which they symbolized. These were 
 really and truly the most holy sacraments of the 
 primeval church of God on earth. 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 87 
 
 The first of these was named of God the Tree of 
 Life, and sanctioned for man’s eating. In order that 
 the symbol might be perfect, we may understand 
 that the fruit of this tree contained the principle by 
 which his earthly and mortal nature was to be sus¬ 
 tained and nourished in perennial health and vigor. 
 This indeed is not indispensable to its symbolical 
 character, but seems to be indicated by the reason 
 hereafter given for his expulsion from the garden, 
 Lest he put forth his hand , and take also of the tree 
 °f Lfe, and eat and live for ever. Also it is to be 
 observed that the nature and effects of the bread and 
 wine in the Eucharist, nourishing and strengthening 
 and cheering the body, correspond to their holy sym¬ 
 bolical character. 
 
 In that this tree was named the tree of life, and given 
 him for food, it symbolized before his eyes and reflect¬ 
 ed back into his soul, the truth which was written there 
 by the finger of God, that his spiritual life of innocence, 
 love and happiness, was nourished and sustained by 
 choosing the good which was marked for him as 
 right, in the conscience by the wisdom and authority 
 of his heavenly Father. In that there was no reason 
 given him why this tree was distinguished for his 
 food from the other, it symbolized the truth that he 
 was to be implicitly obedient to this wisdom of 
 authority revealed within him, without scrutinizing 
 or questioning its commands, without attempting any 
 prudential insight into the consequences and reasons 
 upon which it was based, but in the unwavering 
 
88 
 
 of man in the garden of faradise. 
 
 faith and assurance, that thus it should be well with 
 
 im ; he should live. As the eating of this tree was 
 hie to his earthly and mortal nature, so implicit obe¬ 
 dience to the wisdom of God should be life to his 
 soul. To him this tiee was the most holy sacrament 
 of the truth that he must be implicitly obedient to the 
 wisdom of God marking the good for him as right 
 
 and commanding it, that he might know to choose it 
 and live. 
 
 The other tree was named of God the Tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil. Of its fruit he was for¬ 
 bidden to eat upon pain of death. In like manner, 
 although it be not essential to its symbolical charac¬ 
 ter, we may understand that this tree contained in 
 its fruit the prolific germ of physical disease, which, 
 taken into the constitution of man, must unfold itself’ 
 
 and bring forth all bodily maladies, until it should 
 end in death to his earthly nature. 
 
 As the former was the tree of life, so this was the 
 tree of death. In that it was named the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, and forbidden, it sym¬ 
 bolized the truth that the knowledge of good and 
 evil was forbidden to man; that he could not dis¬ 
 cern between these things by his wisdom and pru¬ 
 dence. To him the evil would often seem fair and 
 desirable as the good, because he could not know 
 them in their essences, nor comprehend the everlast¬ 
 ing consequences of his actions. In that the penalty 
 of death was attached to the act of eating of the 
 fruit of this tree, it symbolized the truth that for him 
 to aspire to the knowledge of good and evil would be 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 89 
 
 death to his soul ; that is to say, the moment he 
 should attempt to discern between these things by 
 his own wisdom independently of the Wisdom of 
 God, to choose what might seem good, to refuse what 
 might seem evil, to his own prudence, he must choose 
 amiss, and, by his own foolish act, plunge himself 
 into spiritual death. As the fruit of this tree should 
 be death to his body, so the fruit of his choice be¬ 
 tween good and evil must be death to his spiritual 
 nature. To him this tree Was the most holy sacra¬ 
 ment and symbol of the truth that it would be his 
 ruin to disobey that Wisdom of God which made its 
 oracles known through his conscience, stigmatizing 
 the evil as wrong, that thus he might be warned 
 against what must degrade, defile and destroy his 
 life of innocence, love and joy. 
 
 There they stood, the two sacramental Trees, in 
 the midst of the sphere of man’s outward life, as in 
 the midst of his soul stood the conscience, the shrine 
 of the Word of God, through which God gave to him 
 unerring oracles of distinction between good and 
 evil. There they stood, the one marked as good, the 
 other as evil, not for reasons which appeared upon 
 the trees themselves, but by authority, as the Word 
 of God gave his oracles of distinction between good 
 and evil, not for reasons which man’s insight into 
 these things could in any wise comprehend, but by 
 authority, with that knowledge of good and evil in 
 their essential and eternal opposition, in that view of 
 the everlasting fruit of actions, which were compe¬ 
 tent only to the eternal and omniscient God, There 
 
90 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 they stood, ever before his eyes, bodying forth to his 
 sense, and reflecting back into his soul, these spiritual 
 truths by which he lived, to keep them ever fresh and 
 living in his heart. There they stood, not to try his 
 obedience, to see whether he would obey or not, as 
 is so often supposed, but for which there is not the 
 least foundation in the Word of God ; but given unto 
 him by the infinite love of his heavenly Father, in 
 perfect knowledge of his spiritual necessities, as 
 means indispensable to the preservation of his spirit¬ 
 ual life. There they stood, as in the bosom of the 
 Church of Christ now stand her two sacraments, in¬ 
 stituted and ordained by his wisdom, out of his love, 
 to body forth to the sense of the faithful, and to re¬ 
 flect steadily into their souls, the truth by which they 
 live. 
 
 It has been said by Voltaire that, “the account 
 given in the Bible of the Fall of man only shows how 
 much the God of Jews and Christians cares for his 
 apples, and how little he loves his children.” Fool! 
 Flad that man, in whom the subtlety of the serpent 
 was developed to its last term, to its highest perfec¬ 
 tion, known anything of the moral and spiritual nature 
 of man, had he ever reflected upon his own necessi¬ 
 ties, or upon the symbols of religion and art, or even 
 felt the inspiration of the true poet, he could not have 
 made of himself such an egregious and transparent 
 fool as is revealed in this sneer upon that, the divine 
 significance of which had never dawned upon his 
 darkened soul. 
 
 The love of Jesus Christ for his people, for whom 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 91 
 
 he laid down his life upon the cross, beams not from 
 the sacrament of his broken body and shed blood 
 with more certainty, than does the love of God from 
 these two trees in the midst of the garden of para¬ 
 dise. Without them the fall of man would not only 
 have been possible, but perhaps, it would have been 
 inevitable. For, as, where the sacraments which 
 Christ has instituted, are rejected by men, there the 
 truth which they symbolize soon perishes out of their 
 hearts, so it would seem, if the truths by which man 
 lived had not been bodied forth in, and reflected from 
 these sacraments, must it have perished out of the 
 heart of him, who, because his life was constituted in 
 the union of body and soul, needed that the truth by 
 which he lived should be presented to his senses, no 
 less than that it should be written upon his heart. 
 
 In order now that we may the better perceive with 
 what feelings this authoritative law of distinction be¬ 
 tween good and evil was recognised by the heart of 
 man, we must consider that the law which was writ¬ 
 ten upon his soul was that of love. He recognised 
 the authority of God over him as the authority of 
 love. His submission to it was the submission of love. 
 His dependence upon God was the dependence of 
 love. This it was which made the home of his inno¬ 
 cence the garden of delight. 
 
 This love was mutual between God and man. To 
 teach us what it once was, and what it must be, in 
 order that our well-being and happiness should be 
 derived through it from heaven to earth, the great 
 and good Creator has erected in the bosom of human 
 
92 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 life two most powerful and expressive symbols of its 
 true character. These are the mutual relations be¬ 
 tween the parents and the child, and that between 
 the husband and the wife. For nature and the brute 
 God is the Creator, because they are not capable of 
 the knowledge of him to whom they owe their exist¬ 
 ence, and all their enjoyments, therefore not capable 
 of love to him. But for man he is both Father and 
 Husband. These relations are consecrated as sym¬ 
 bols by God himself, and assumed as such in all such 
 expressions as the following : Our Father who art in 
 heaven, I am married to you, Thy maker is thy hus¬ 
 band . To understand therefore this relation of love 
 between man and God, we must empty these divine 
 symbols of some of their inexhaustible significance. 
 
 The feeling of a father for his child is known only 
 by experience; but its manifestations in life are be¬ 
 fore the eyes of alh The father lives in and for his 
 child. Its pain is his pain. While he beholds it 
 sporting for an hour in the fulness of its fresh and 
 joyous life, its presence is a rich reward for a day of 
 severest labor. His wisdom and strength are taxed 
 to the uttermost to provide for its support. When 
 his spirits worn down with fatigue, begin to sink 
 under the burden of his toil and care, the thought, 
 It is for my child, pours new vigor into his heart and 
 renerves his wearied arm. For the life of his child 
 he would gladly give his own. O Absalom, my son, 
 my son! Would God I had died for thee; O Absalom, 
 my son, my son! Such is the love of God for man, 
 which, while he remained in his innocence, poured 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 93 
 
 without any obstruction as the stream from the full 
 spring, into his heart. 
 
 But this symbol has not all its strength and perfec¬ 
 tion without the love of the mother also, which is, 
 if possible, more pure and self-sacrificing than that 
 of the father. 
 
 For every day may be seen the beautiful girl, 
 whose life has been passed in the midst of luxury, 
 courted, flattered and served by all around her, upon 
 the birth of her first child, turned at once into a vo¬ 
 luntary bondwoman. For it she is content to lay 
 aside her dress and ornaments with which she was 
 formerly so delighted to deck her beauty. Joyfully 
 she foregoes the gay company of which she was wont 
 to be the star and charm, for the presence of her 
 child. For it she wastes her beauty and her health. 
 She watches beside its infant slumbers until her cheek 
 grows pale, and her eye loses its lustre. While she 
 gazes upon its fair rounded limbs, and beholds its cheek 
 
 “ Mantling in first luxury of health,” 
 
 V "- ,r v' * * f ' V \ 
 
 as it reposes so peacefully upon her bosom, her heart 
 overflows upon it with love and exquisite happiness. 
 But when it suffers, her heart is heavy and pained. 
 She cannot rest. She performs for it the most me¬ 
 nial offices. Her greatest unhappiness is that she 
 cannot relieve its sufferings by bearing them herself. 
 She knows no pleasure until the little one, the lord 
 of her affections, smiles again in returning health and 
 beauty. But if God should call her to surrender the 
 
94 
 
 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 child into his arms to crucify her idolatry, as he so 
 often does, she droops like the flower whose root has 
 been severed by the ploughshare. Not unfrequently 
 she goes heart-pained to the grave. Rachel weeps 
 for her children and will not be comforted because 
 they are not. It is a beauty and a mystery. But 
 the love of God for man, which filled his heart in his 
 innocence, transcends all this ; for, although a woman 
 may forget her sucking child, yet God cannot forget 
 his children. 
 
 On the other hand, the infant, while he hangs in 
 conscious dependence and instinctive faith upon his 
 parents, is the image of the child-man before he had 
 sinned, in the simplicity of his faith and conscious 
 dependence upon God his heavenly Father. Not 
 that the child is by nature pure, but the evil in him 
 is yet undeveloped. The relation which he bears to 
 his parents is a symbol of the relation which the 
 child of God bears to him. He lives and moves 
 and has his being in the bosom of his parents’ love. 
 Their love shed abroad in his little heart awakens 
 the sweetest love in return. If he is the offspring of 
 Christians, and is trained up as a child of promise 
 an heir of the submission of Christ, in his first years 
 he lives in the untouched conviction that the wisdom 
 and choice and will of his parents are better for 
 him than his own. But because this preference of 
 their will before his own pleasure springs from faith 
 and love, it is not a bondage, but perfect freedom. 
 His sweetest feeling, his dearest joy is the thought, 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 95 
 
 It will please my father; it will make my mother's 
 heart glad. 
 
 To express this infantine relation which the child 
 of God bears to his Father, St. Paul puts into his 
 mouth that word which, in some or other of its forms 
 in almost all languages, children first learn to lisp to 
 their parents, the word Ahha. This is the child’s 
 word for father. And Jesus himself could find no¬ 
 thing which would so well illustrate the character 
 of a true child of God, as a little child. Therefore 
 he says, Except ye he converted , and become as little 
 children , ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 Therefore also he calls those who believe on him, 
 these little ones. 
 
 This in its greatest strength is weak to describe 
 and set forth the love with which man in his inno¬ 
 cence recognised the authority of his heavenly 
 Father over him. And because it is of itself inade¬ 
 quate, God has established another expression of it 
 which is more full and significant. This is the mar¬ 
 riage union between man and woman. As we have 
 seen, this union is ordained of God to be the holy 
 symbol of the relation which the soul of man was 
 intended to bear, and once bore, to him. To de- 
 velope this symbolical character of marriage, and to 
 work out the symbol in detail, is the object of that 
 Song of Songs which is Solomon's. And woe to them 
 who would degrade this divinest of sacred poems 
 into the mere expressions of the earthly love! 
 Their souls are darkened by pollution so that they 
 
96 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 V “ * f , . 
 
 cannot see. The things which make for their peace 
 are hid from their eyes. 
 
 Marriage then between man and woman, accord¬ 
 ing to the ordination of God, in that unity which has 
 been already indicated, leads to the mutual supposi¬ 
 tion of each other’s happiness in place of their own, 
 in all things pertaining to the mortal life. When it 
 goes beyond this, as we have seen, it becomes idola¬ 
 try, by the substitution in the affections of the form 
 for the substance, of the symbol for the thing sym¬ 
 bolized. The highest human happiness of the hus¬ 
 band consists and is found in supporting, sustaining, 
 cherishing, guiding and watching over his wife, from 
 love. The highest human joy of the wife consists 
 and is found in pleasing her husband from love. 
 This is the symbol. But it is inadequate also. The 
 love of God for man in his innocence, infinitely 
 transcends all this. For the marriage union is tem¬ 
 porary and dissolved at death. But the union be¬ 
 tween God and his children survives the dissolution 
 of the earthly nature, and is eternal. Marriage is 
 dissolved during this life by one offence. But God 
 represents himself as forgiving and passing over 
 even this, out of the fulness of his love for the 
 espoused soul. 
 
 By many others, but especially by these powerful 
 symbols, erected in the bosom of daily life, which 
 are universal, and must continue while man con¬ 
 tinues to exist upon the earth, has the Father and 
 Husband of the human spirit brought near to us, 
 and embodied before our eyes, to reflect it steadily 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 into our hearts, that which all words, all figures, all 
 symbols do utterly fail to describe ; which all ideas 
 must for ever fail to reach and comprehend, that love 
 wherewith he has loved us, and that which once 
 reigned in man’s heart towards him. These rela¬ 
 tions are therefore, once and for ever, hallowed by 
 the truth which they are constituted to symbolize 
 and leflect. No child should ever be brought up 
 without being imbreathed with the knowledge of the 
 holy symbolical character of the relation which he 
 bears to his parents. No marriage should ever be 
 solemnized where its symbolical character is not re¬ 
 cognised ; for this only can hallow it. 
 
 To have any idea and feeling therefore of the re¬ 
 lation between God and the first human pair in their 
 innocence, through which all their happiness was 
 derived from him into their souls, we must behold 
 him sustaining them, guiding them, watching over 
 and protecting them, communing with them from 
 within and without, reflecting himself in them, in 
 love—a love more tender and faithful than that of 
 father and mother and husband all in one. We 
 must behold them hanging upon him with the con¬ 
 scious dependence and instinctive faith of a little 
 child upon its parents; drawing the food of their 
 spirits from his perfections, as the infant draws its 
 nourishment with exquisite enjoyment from the bo¬ 
 som of its mother—we must behold them recognis¬ 
 ing his voice from within and without, which made 
 known his oracles of distinction between good and 
 evil, marking the good as right, and stigmatizing the 
 
 5 
 
98 OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 
 
 evil as wrong—we must behold them reflecting his 
 distinctions between good and evil; feeling them¬ 
 selves to be sustained, watched over and protecte , 
 guided, and communed with in love, with a love in re¬ 
 turn more tender and blissful than that of the good 
 child for its father and mother; than that ot tie 
 faithful and affectionate wife for her husband, both 
 
 in one. ^ 
 
 Hail to the new- wedded pair! Blessings upon 
 
 the first human children of God! To whom it is 
 given to behold the beauty of the picture which God 
 has placed before us of their innocence and felicity, 
 to feel its transcendent power, his soul is awed and 
 subdued; his heart kindles and glows; but he can¬ 
 not tell what he sees. 
 
 Here in Paradise, in the garden of delight, the 
 race of man passed its innocent and happy, but alas ! 
 its brief and fleeting infancy. To this period it still 
 looks back with fond and tender regret. The litera¬ 
 ture of the first ages, among all nations, retains the 
 tradition of a golden age* when sin and sorrow were 
 
 * “First rose an age of Gold, of its free choice, 
 
 No judge, no law, revering right and truth. 
 
 Fears, penalties were not. No threatening words, 
 
 Graved on the public tablet, yet were read. 
 
 No suppliant crowd before the avenger’s face 
 Trembled ; but free from harm and safe were all. 
 Unscathed, nor dragged down to the liquid waves 
 To visit foreign shores, the ancient pine 
 Upon his native mountains stood secure : 
 
 Nor mortals knew of coasts beyond their own. 
 
 No trenches steep girded defended towns. 
 
 Horns of curved brass and trumpets straight were not; 
 
OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF PARADISE. 99 
 
 as yet unknown. Dimmed and obscured indeed it 
 has been by time, but it could not be blotted out. 
 It is with the human race as with each individual. 
 Foi it is with fond and tender regret that we bear 
 m our hearts the memory of our childhood; of those 
 yeais of simplicity and love and happiness which 
 we spent under the guardianship and guidance of 
 our parents, hanging upon them in conscious de¬ 
 pendence and implicit faith, and nourished by their 
 providence and love. In the midst of the turmoil 
 of after life, forgetful of the curse of shame and toil 
 and sorrow and death, how often do we pause while 
 a father’s blessing or a mother’s kiss comes back 
 upon us like the vision of a lost paradise ! And man 
 himself, in the feeling of that unutterable craving, 
 which sends him forth under the guidance of his 
 own wisdom upon an ever-fruitless quest, carries 
 with him into every portion of the earth, and down 
 thiough the ages of time, the painful memento of his 
 lost innocence and happiness. 
 
 Helmet, nor sword. Unskilled in deeds of arms, 
 
 Secure the nations passed their happy years. 
 
 Unwounded by the plough or iron teeth, 
 
 Of her own will earth gave her various fruits. 
 
 Content with simple food, with relish keen, 
 
 Nutritious fruits from hedge and tree and field, 
 
 Man plucked and ate, by luxury undefiled. 
 
 I resh bloomed eternal spring ; and Zephyrs warm 
 Caressed the flowers born of the seedless earth, 
 
 Unfilled, nor heavy with the bearded grain. 
 
 Rivers of milk, rivers of nectar flowed, 
 
 And yellow honey from the oak distilled.” 
 
 Ovid, I., Met. iii. 
 
100 
 
 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field 
 which Jehovah God had made.” 
 
 The symbolical character of this account of the 
 temptation of man by the serpent breaks out with 
 such clearness and power that it has forced itself to 
 be recognised by all, even by those who most ear¬ 
 nestly insist upon the narrative as historical. In all 
 ages it has been discerned that what is here, and 
 hereafter, spoken of the serpent is intended to apply, 
 not to the reptile alone, but also to Satan, the spiritual 
 tempter and adversary of man. Yet it is nowhere 
 in the Word of God declared that there was any 
 spiritual power concerned in this matter; much less 
 that the Devil had any hand in it. Even in the New 
 Testament, where the subject is mentioned, it is still 
 the serpent that beguiled Eve. 
 
 But the whole tenor of Scripture seems to imply 
 that it was Satan who, under the form of the serpent, 
 here seduced the human race from its simplicity and 
 innocence. For the name Satan signifies adversary; 
 and the supposition that it was he who first set him¬ 
 self to destroy the well-being of man gives applica- 
 
OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 101 
 
 • . ^ ' ‘1 \ J 
 
 tion and appropriateness to this name. He is de¬ 
 clared by the Lord to be a liar, the father of lies, and 
 a murderer from the beginning; as if he had been 
 the inventor of that original lie by which was accom¬ 
 plished the murder of man in soul and body. He is 
 also called the Devil , that is to say, the slanderer; as 
 if he had been the originator of that horrible slander 
 which, as we shall hereafter see, is contained in the 
 words, God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, 
 ye shall be as Gods , knowing good and evil. Every¬ 
 where in the Scriptures Satan is the tempter of man 
 by eminence. He tempted Job, Judas, Ananias and 
 Elymas, with many others. He tempted Christ the 
 second Adam. St. John expressly calls him the 
 dragon , that old serpent , that is the devil, as if to 
 identify him with the serpent here mentioned. It 
 seems to be in allusion to the curse hereafter pro¬ 
 nounced upon the serpent that St. Paul encourages 
 the disciples in the words, The God of peace shall 
 bruise Satan under your feet shortly. From these 
 and many other passages, the Church in all ages, 
 both Jewish and Christian, has uniformly held to one 
 faith upon this point, that it is Satan who is here de¬ 
 scribed under the form and symbol of the serpent as 
 the tempter of man. 
 
 It is not to be inferred from the curse hereafter 
 pronounced upon this reptile, upon thy belly shalt 
 thou go, that its form was different before it became 
 the instrument of the Devil in the temptation from 
 that in which we now behold it. For most certainly 
 this curse was not for the punishment of the creature, 
 
102 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 but for the instruction of man. Also the curse ol 
 subjection was pronounced upon the woman as a 
 punishment for her sin, although as we have seen, 
 she was to be subject to her husband from, and in 
 virtue of, her creation. We may understand theie- 
 fore, that it was the serpent as we now behold it into 
 which the spiritual adversary of man entered to de¬ 
 ceive and ruin him. 
 
 From what has been already determined of the 
 power of symbols over the heart and life of man, 
 since God hinself assumes a visible representation of 
 his attributes in order the more vividly and power¬ 
 fully to impress them upon those to whom he appeals, 
 and upon all men by his incarnation, it will not seem 
 strange that the power of evil, seeking to reflect his 
 likeness in man, should also assume a visible form. 
 Nay, according to this view, it would seem indispens¬ 
 able to his success; otherwise his suggestions would 
 have been powerless, as mere ideas are always found 
 to be. It would seem therefore that they who find 
 an insuperable objection to the historical and liteial 
 character of this account in the fact that in it a talk¬ 
 ing snake is introduced, have not profoundly consi¬ 
 dered this trait of human nature. Also they do err 
 not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 
 For as he, in order to re-instamp his own image upon 
 the human soul, assumes that form which best leflects 
 it, the form of a man in Christ Jesus, so Satan, in 
 seeking to deface and destroy this image, and to fill 
 its place with his own likeness, assumed that form in 
 
OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 103 
 
 the serpent which best symbolizes and expresses his 
 own nature and attributes. 
 
 To this reptile is here ascribed a subtlety above 
 every other animal which God had made. In order 
 therefore to comprehend the nature of that likeness 
 of himself which the adversary sought to reflect in 
 the soul of man, in place of the image of God, we 
 must inquire and carefully determine what subtlety 
 is, as opposed to animal instinct on the one hand, and 
 on the other, to true wisdom. 
 
 The operations of mere instinct are to be recog¬ 
 nised by these traits ; They are direct , and perfect 
 without experience, without the foresight of the object 
 and end to be obtained by the actions to which they 
 prompt, and without any process of reasoning. This 
 is evident from examples which fall under the obser¬ 
 vation of all. For when the lamb first applies itself 
 to the teat of its mother it is wholly without experi¬ 
 ence ; the data for a process of reasoning are there¬ 
 fore wanting, if it were capable of such a thing ; and 
 all foresight of what is to be obtained by such an act 
 before experience must be impossible. That which 
 leads it to do this for the first time, as soon as it is 
 yeaned, is instinct. The illustration is equally per¬ 
 fect in the case of the human child. It is blind in¬ 
 stinct which teaches it to suck for the first time. 
 Also, if the eggs of the sparrow be taken from the 
 nest and hatched by artificial means, the young birds, 
 kept shut up in their cage from all intercourse with 
 their kind, at the proper season, will build their first 
 nest, if the material be provided, precisely like that 
 
104 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 from which they were taken while in the shell. 
 Here, as before, experience, a foreseen result, and a 
 process of reasoning, are alike impossible. They 
 cannot know for what the nest is intended; they 
 cannot have learned the art of building it; nor can 
 they foresee the brood which they are piepaiing to 
 rear. This is that blind yet direct instinct, which, by 
 a figure of speech, may be called the conscience of 
 the brute, since it is like the conscience of man in 
 this that it is direct in its operations, and a guide of 
 life, of practical choice between good and evil, which 
 is prior to, and independent of, the calculation of the 
 results and consequences of actions. This is not the 
 subtlety here ascribed to the serpent which made it 
 the fit instrument of the malice, and most expressive 
 symbol of the character and attributes of the tempter 
 
 of man. 
 
 For there is in animals a kind of wisdom which is 
 very different from this, which is neither blind nor 
 direct, which is capable of reasoning from experi¬ 
 ence in foresight of an object and end to be obtained. 
 This also is evident from facts which every one may 
 observe and verify for himself. Foi the haie when 
 pursued, instead of flying directly away, turns towards 
 the hounds, doubles and redoubles upon the couise, 
 crosses and recrosses her tracks. This she does to 
 confuse the scent. The deer, when close followed, 
 takes the water, and swims down the stream as tar 
 as he can, to throw the dogs off his trail. These, 
 coming down to the water, immediately infer that 
 the game must have crossed. They plunge in, 
 
OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 105 
 
 and on the other side commence a search up and 
 down the stream, in the course of which they soon 
 find the lost trail. So also the racoon, when hard 
 pressed, looks out a tall tree which has been blown 
 down into a reclining position, mounts upon it at the 
 root where it touches the ground, and runs along the 
 trunk to a height beyond which he does not consider 
 it safe to jump, then springs as far as he can from the 
 tree to the ground, and strikes off' in a different direc¬ 
 tion from that which he has hitherto followed. This 
 he does to throw the dogs off his track, that he may 
 escape while they are seeking to recover it. What 
 he has foreseen and calculated upon takes place. 
 For when his pursuers come up to the root of the 
 tree, the young dogs are utterly at fault. They 
 hunt around the root, and up along the tree, but in 
 vain. The spring of the game has passed far beyond 
 them. But if there be among them an old and sub¬ 
 tle hound, experienced in the hunting of this animal, 
 it is not so with him. He knows instantly what has 
 been done, for he has been often before deceived by 
 the same trick, and he takes his measures accordingly. 
 Starting from the point where the scent is lost, he 
 fetches a compass wide around the inclining tree, at 
 such a distance from it that no spring could have 
 reached beyond him; and before he has returned to 
 the same point again of necessity he has found the 
 lost trail. As soon as he strikes it he signalizes the 
 other dogs with his cry, and the whole pack, giving 
 up their own search, follow where he leads. This, 
 in the pursuers and the pursued, is craft, cunning, 
 
 5 *- 
 
106 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 subtlety. It has nothing of the directness and sim¬ 
 plicity of instinct. It manifests as clearly as these 
 things can be manifested, a foresight of the object to 
 be obtained, a process of reasoning based upon ex¬ 
 perience, and the inference of a practical conclusion. 
 If there be any doubt that brutes are capable of all 
 this, in higher or lower degrees, the doubt must be 
 removed by observation. 
 
 This is the quality here ascribed to the serpent, in 
 a degree above that of every other animal. In the 
 brute it is not an evil, but its highest excellence and 
 glory, because its nature is oj the earth, eai thy , and 
 incapable of the knowledge of God and spiritual 
 things—incapable of immortality. But the word sub¬ 
 tlety when applied to man is used in a bad sense. 
 We do not call him a crafty or cunning or subtle 
 man who follows justice and righteousness with fide¬ 
 lity, however prudent he may be. In him this selfish 
 and calculating wisdom is governed and subdued by 
 the paramount authority of right and wrong; that is 
 to say, his own wisdom is informed with and control¬ 
 led by, the Wisdom of God revealed through his con¬ 
 science. This is true wisdom. 
 
 This subtlety therefore is the nature of the wisdom 
 of Satan. It is his own creature wisdom erected 
 into independence of, and opposition to the Wisdom 
 of God. 
 
 But, in order to comprehend its evil nature in 
 him, we must recall what are the necessary conse¬ 
 quences of following it as a law and guide of dis¬ 
 tinction between good and evil, in every creature of 
 
OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 107 
 
 God which is destined to immortality. For since 
 the creature cannot foresee the everlasting conse¬ 
 quences of his actions upon himself, nor compre¬ 
 hend the reasons of what God has commanded and 
 forbidden, in the first step of following this guide 
 he rebels against God. This is his sin. Also of 
 necessity he chooses evil for good, because he 
 ceases to obey that Wisdom of God which only can 
 be a sufficient and unerring guide of practical choice 
 between good and evil. The evil which he chooses 
 enters into his own nature and defiles and degrades 
 it still more and more continually. Thus in place 
 of the high and pure and benevolent affections, all 
 evil and malignant passions are developed and 
 strengthened. Thus subtlety becomes the wisdom 
 of enmity. In its highest possible development 
 without the guidance of the Wisdom of God, it is 
 adequate only to choose, and to accomplish evil, 
 both for him who follows it, and for all who are the 
 objects of it. 
 
 For, however acute and far-sighted it may be¬ 
 come, it can never rise to infinity, so as to compre¬ 
 hend all the fruit of actions; and therefore cannot 
 guard the creature against the choice of evil for 
 himself, while he means only evil for others. This 
 wisdom of itself is adequate only to the accomplish¬ 
 ment of immediate objects ; it must overreach itself 
 in the end. The more successful it seems for the 
 present, the more unsuccessful it afterwards finds 
 itself, because the evil which the creature, under its 
 guidance, seeks to inflict upon others, returns into 
 
108 OP the subtlety op the serpent. 
 
 himself. The greater its development in opposition 
 to the Wisdom of God, that is to say, the more 
 powerful it becomes to work its immediate evil ob¬ 
 jects, the deeper does it plunge him who follows it 
 into degradation and ruin. Of it this paradox is 
 perfectly true, The more far-sighted it becomes, the 
 more short-sighted it is. 
 
 Hence it is that, while in the spiritual adversary 
 of man (who is here spoken of under the symbol of 
 the serpent, the most subtle of all animals), this 
 wisdom is developed to its highest perfection, he 
 is also the most malignant, degraded and abo¬ 
 minable of all the creatures which Jehovah God 
 has made. He is wise only to do evil; and in that, 
 sure to overreach himself. This is evident from all 
 his acts as they are recorded in the Scriptures. For 
 in his temptation of the first Adam he accomplished 
 his immediate evil object, but thereby he placed his 
 head under the heel of the seed of the woman, the 
 second Adam, to be crushed, which he did not 
 mean. When he tempted the patriarch Job, he be¬ 
 came the means of inflicting upon him only that 
 suffering and sorrow which the Wisdom of God had 
 seen to be indispensable to the perfection of his 
 spiritual life, and everlasting well-being. In his 
 temptation of Christ he only succeeded in perfecting 
 the captain of man’s salvation, by the experience of 
 his seducing power, in that sympathy with his 
 tempted brethren which was necessary in him in 
 order that he might deliver them out of the power 
 of the devil. Even in his greatest achievement 
 
OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 109 
 
 upon earth, when he tempted Judas to betray, and 
 the Jews to crucify the Lord of Glory, in which he 
 aimed at the perdition of the Redeemer, and of the 
 race which he came to save, he succeeded only in 
 exalting the man Jesus above every creature, and 
 laid that only foundation-stone of the salvation of 
 the human race which could be laid, which is Christ 
 crucified. By his own act he destroyed his own 
 power, and plunged himself into the abyss of hell. 
 
 Now, as we have seen, in order that man should 
 remain in the estate in which he was created, it was 
 necessary that this calculating wisdom in him, 
 which depended for its practical conclusions Upon 
 the foresight of the object to be obtained, and upon 
 processes of reasoning, should be held in perfect 
 and implicit subjection to the Wisdom of God re¬ 
 vealed in the form of authority through the con¬ 
 science. Upon this perfect subordination, his spi¬ 
 ritual life and well-being depended. Therefore, in 
 seeking his ruin, the adversary must try to induce 
 him to throw off, to rebel against this authoritative 
 Wisdom of God as the guide of his life, and to adopt 
 in its place his own insight and prudence as the law 
 of distinction between good and evil. In other 
 words, he must tempt man to choose between good 
 and evil by his own wisdom rather than according 
 to the Wisdom of God. Therefore he chose as the 
 instrument of his temptation the serpent, in which 
 this subtlety was higher and more perfect than in 
 any other creature, that by means of it he might 
 reflect his own likeness of subtlety in the place of 
 
110 
 
 OF THE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 
 
 that image of God, which consisted in the perfect 
 reflection in the soul of man of God’s distinctions 
 between good and evil. 
 
 After what manner he accomplished this, we must 
 now inquire. 
 
 * 
 
 y 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 Ill 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 “ And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat 
 of every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto the ser¬ 
 pent, 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 to the woman, Ye shall not die at all. For 
 God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, 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 plea¬ 
 sant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she 
 took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also to her hus¬ 
 band with her, and he did eat.” 
 
 How long man continued in the estate of innocence, 
 we know not. But sooner or later a change passed 
 upon him, most sad and disastrous for all who are 
 born in his likeness. Seduced by the powerful temp¬ 
 tation of the enemy of all righteousness , he rebelled 
 against the authority of the Wisdom of God, and set 
 up his own wisdom in its place. Thus he transgressed 
 the law of his life, and plunged himself into shame 
 and toil and sorrow and death. We must now tear 
 ourselves away from the contemplation of his blessed 
 innocence, and behold him in the act of his sin, here 
 recorded and described that it may be known what 
 
112 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 that terrible evil is which has invaded and ravaged 
 the life of humanity. 
 
 In order the better to understand this account, we 
 must carefully observe that the words of the serpent 
 took effect in the woman, and excited in her the feel¬ 
 ings and thoughts which they describe. This is evi¬ 
 dent from the fact that he succeeded in the tempta¬ 
 tion. By his subtle power he spoke * his words into 
 her, so that they, no less than her own expressions, 
 must be taken as truly descriptive of that which, in 
 the substance of it, passed within her heart and mind. 
 
 First then in the temptation is the questioning of 
 the command of God. Yea, hath God said, ye shall 
 not eat of every tree of the garden ? This suggestion 
 of the tempter entered into the woman, and became 
 questioning in her. 
 
 This was the beginning of the bosom sin which 
 was perfected and manifested in act when they ate 
 of the fruit of the forbidden tree. For he that, before 
 obeying, has once questioned a command of God, has 
 already sinned against it. It matters nothing in re¬ 
 spect to what in the command this questioning ap¬ 
 plies. It may have slipped from the memory so 
 as to leave an uncertainty whether it has ever come 
 from God. But this is sin ; for, in that the command 
 has been given by God, it is the thing which ought to 
 
 * The old serpent deceived our race and poisoned its root, by that 
 well chosen temptation, addressed to our first parents “Ye shall be 
 as gods, knowing good and evil.” He seems to have spoken the 
 word into their very souls, so that it became a part of their being.— 
 Erskine, on the freeness of the Gospel. Essay III. 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 113 
 
 be remembered, as having come from him, whatever 
 else may be forgotten. Or this questioning may ap¬ 
 ply to the meaning of the command, arising from 
 doubt whether it has been rightly apprehended 
 or not; and this is sin. For when God speaks, 
 through the conscience or otherwise, he means to be 
 so understood as to lead to immediate obedience. 
 Whoever does not so understand him must either 
 accuse God of not speaking with sufficient plainness, 
 or himself of not hearing as he ought to hear. In 
 either case he is convicted of sin. Or it may apply 
 to the reasons of the command, as most probably it 
 did in this case, since it was immediately followed by 
 the outward manifestation of distrust of God’s good¬ 
 ness in giving such an injunction. This also is sin. 
 Hath God said we shall not eat of this tree ? And 
 for what reason has he forbidden it ? For what rea¬ 
 son has he laid upon us these authoritative prohibi¬ 
 tions ? If these things are evil for us, why has he not 
 shown us this evil, and in what it consists ? Why 
 should we be placed under this authoritative law in 
 respect to good and evil, the reasons of whose dis¬ 
 tinctions are veiled in impenetrable mystery ? This 
 kind of speculation in man, to determine whether he 
 shall obey or disobey, is sin. It is nothing less than 
 to cite the Wisdom of God to the bar of man’s wis¬ 
 dom, and to require it to give an account of itself. 
 But before that inferior tribunal it cannot give a 
 satisfactory account of itself. It is impossible for 
 man to give to his own rational nature a logical ac¬ 
 count of the reasons upon which God’s distinctions 
 
114 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 between good and evil are based. God himself can¬ 
 not make man comprehend them, unless he could 
 make him to know the difference between good and 
 evil in their own natures, and embrace the infinite 
 series of the effects and consequences of his actions; 
 that is to say, unless he could make the finite to be 
 infinite. The light of the creature is wholly incapa¬ 
 ble of receiving such a revelation as this. Man has 
 nothing to do with the reasons and purposes of God 
 in giving his commands. He has nothing to do but 
 to obey, as soon as the Word of God has come to 
 him, without questioning the object or tendency of 
 the command, or the motives or reasons with which 
 it is given, but in the unwavering faith that it is the 
 ordination of infinite wisdom and love ; that in obey¬ 
 ing, it shall be well with him ; he shall live : in dis¬ 
 obeying, it shall not be well with him ; he shall surely 
 die. The Word of God, whensoever and howsoever 
 it appears in man, speaks with authority, and not as 
 the Scribes. It is not amenable to the wisdom of 
 man, but man’s wisdom is amenable to it. It can be 
 satisfied with nothing short of unquestioning, unhesi¬ 
 tating, implicit obedience. 
 
 The reply of the woman to this suggestion of the 
 tempter describes the re-affirmation of the command, 
 as the authority of the Wisdom of God, revealed 
 from without, and affirmed in her conscience. God 
 hath said, we shall not eat of it nor touch it lest we 
 die. This is all that can be said about it. This re¬ 
 affirmation of itself as the Wisdom and authority 
 of God, marking his distinctions between good and 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 115 
 
 evil, commanding the good with the promise of life, 
 forbidding the evil upon pain of death, is all that man 
 can obtain from his Word, all that he can obtain 
 from the conscience, so far as it is truly heard, let 
 him question it as much and as urgently as he will. 
 The attempt to legitimate God’s distinctions between 
 good and evil in the eyes of man’s inferior wisdom 
 must for ever fail, as here it failed. 
 
 For when the woman found that the Wisdom of 
 God would render no account of itself at the bar of 
 her wisdom, immediately she began to distrust it; or 
 rather, that distrust which was contained in her ques¬ 
 tioning of it, began to take a precise form, and to 
 manifest itself openly. The words of the tempter 
 entered into her, and reflected the thought and feel¬ 
 ing which they describe. We shall not die at all; 
 for God doth know that in the day that we eat thereof 
 we shall become as gods, knowing good and evil. 
 These words, it is to be observed, are a manifest proof 
 that she was not ignorant that God had reserved the 
 knowledge of good and evil to himself. She knew 
 that as yet she could not discern between these things 
 by her own light and wisdom. God had given her to 
 understand that it was impossible; that it would be 
 death for her to aspire after this knowledge which 
 was competent to him alone. This was all false; 
 and God knew it to be false when he had said so. 
 For here was a tree which, as God knew when he 
 prohibited it, had the power to open her eyes, if she 
 should eat of its fruit, so that she also could know 
 good and evil, and choose between them aright by 
 
116 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 her own wisdom and prudence. It would enable hei 
 to know what God had hidden from her, and falsely 
 taught her that he only could know, that he might 
 hold her in mental bondage and blind subserviency 
 to his will, under a law and guidance which would 
 render no reasons for its distinctions, but only thun¬ 
 dered death to its transgressors. Faith in God, the 
 only root of obedience, had been plucked up out of 
 her heart, and in its place now sprung the poisonous 
 growth of unbelief. The light of faith, in which 
 man sees all things through the wisdom and will of 
 God, had gone out, and dark, horrible, godless unbe¬ 
 lief, which throws him back upon the blind guidance 
 of his own distinctions between good and evil, had 
 entered. And this was its fruit. She accused God 
 in her heart of lying to her with malignant intention. 
 The earth shuddered! 
 
 Now the woman raised her eyes to the tree, and 
 lo ! it was fair to the eye, and, as it seemed to her, 
 its fruit was good for food. Her senses of sight and 
 taste were captivated; and for the gratification ol 
 her sensual nature, she was ready to reject the author¬ 
 ity of the Wisdom of God over her, and to set at 
 naught all the love which he had manifested. But 
 above all, this tree was desirable to make her wise. 
 In what sense she was not already wise, we have 
 seen. She could not know the difference between 
 what was good and what evil by her own wisdom, 
 the light of her sensual nature, while she had a per¬ 
 fect and infallible guide and criterion of distinction 
 between these things in the authoritative Wisdom of 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 117 
 
 God, the light of her spiritual nature, revealed in her 
 conscience. Thrown back now upon the guidance 
 of this prudential and calculating wisdom, having 
 cast off the authority of the Wisdom of God, inspired 
 by her sensual desires, deluded by the devil, led to 
 believe that the fruit of the tree would open her eyes 
 to know good and evil for herself, she would trust 
 herself to her own guidance to eat of this tree. 
 What could be so desirable as that she should be de¬ 
 livered from this authoritative guide, which would 
 render no account of the reasons of its distinctions, 
 and which might lead her to choose the evil, and thus 
 to ruin herself before she could be aware ? What 
 could be more desirable than that she should have, 
 as an unerring guide of life, an intelligent and inde¬ 
 pendent insight into the distinction between good 
 and evil ? This once attained, she would have her 
 well-being taken from under the watch and care of 
 another, and secured in her own hands for ever. 
 The possibility of mistake would be done away. 
 For knowing good and evil in herself, she would be 
 sure to choose the good and refuse the evil, and to 
 guard her own destiny with unerring prudence. 
 And, how blessed would it be to have an indepen¬ 
 dent wisdom and will and choice of her own ! She 
 would be elevated to know that which she had so 
 foolishly thought God only could know. She would 
 depend upon another no longer. She would be as 
 God. Henceforth she would not be under the ne¬ 
 cessity of walking by faith in another ; she would 
 walk by sight, nor yet err from the path of her 
 
118 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 own well-being and happiness. She took of the 
 tree and did eat. She chose what seemed good 
 in her own eyes, instead of what seemed good in 
 the eyes of God. The will in her turned its face 
 away from the light of the Wisdom of God, and 
 consented to the solicitations of her earthly and 
 
 ' ^ n * r V 
 
 sensual nature. 
 
 The sin of the woman was immediately, through 
 her agency, reflected in the man. She gave also to 
 her husband with her , and he did eat. In the New 
 Testament we are told that Adam was not deceived , 
 but the woman being deceived , was in the transgres¬ 
 sion. This seems to indicate that his understanding 
 was not imposed upon by the sophism of the tempt¬ 
 er ; that he did not act upon the supposition that he 
 was already able to choose aright between good and 
 evil, in order that he might become able hereafter, 
 nor expect any such result from eating of the fruit, 
 as she had done ; but that he rather disobeyed from 
 a greater devotion to his wife than to God. How¬ 
 soever this feeling arose in him, it was, in the sub¬ 
 stance of it, the same sin which she had committed, 
 and led to the same outward act. For, in opposition 
 to the authority of the Wisdom of God, she had 
 hearkened to the appetites, and chosen according to 
 the light of the sensual nature. By this nature he 
 was united, married to her. He received her sug¬ 
 gestions and followed her guidance, in opposition to 
 the authority of the Wisdom of God. He therefore 
 followed the solicitations of the earthly nature in 
 him, choosing what seemed good to gratify the 
 
 9 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 119 
 
 affections of this nature, according to its light and 
 wisdom, in rebellion against the authority of the 
 Wisdom of God, as she had done. The will in him 
 also turned its face away from the light of the spi¬ 
 ritual nature to be guided by the earthly and carnal, 
 as it had done in her. 
 
 Thus their sin was consummated in one and the 
 same act. Thus man sinned in eating of the for¬ 
 bidden tree. His sin was the aspiration to be as 
 God, knowing good and evil. 
 
 In this act, and in the state of heart and mind by 
 which it was preceded, and from which it sprung, 
 he ceased to believe in the Wisdom of God as the 
 only guide of his life. He ceased to believe in the 
 sincerity, goodness and love of God. He ceased to 
 love God, so as to prefer the will and pleasure of 
 God to his own. He ceased to recognise himself as 
 but a reflection of God, and to reflect God’s dis¬ 
 tinctions between good and evil. He repudiated the 
 authority of God over him, and his own subjection 
 and dependence. He rebelled against God. He 
 charged God with deceiving him. He set up his 
 own wisdom, the light of his sensual nature, as the 
 criterion of distinction between good and evil. To 
 the bar of this wisdom which was created to be 
 subject, and to obey, he cited the Wisdom of God, 
 and required it to give account of itself. Thus he 
 placed himself in his own conceit, not only beside, 
 but in the place of God. He said in substance, if 
 not in conscious thought, I will be like the Most 
 High . And this he did in violation of that love of 
 
120 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 God for him which was stronger and more tender 
 and faithful than that of father and mother and hus¬ 
 band, all in one. He carried his sin to its greatest 
 height of daring, impiety, and malignity, by attack¬ 
 ing, violating,, and thus destroying, the most holy 
 sacrament and symbol of the truth that he could not 
 know good and evil by his own wisdom, but must 
 be implicitly submissive and obedient to the guid¬ 
 ance of his heavenly Father, which had been set up 
 before him by God 5 s love and watchful piovidence 
 over him, to guard him from sin, and the pei dition 
 of sin. He sinned as the beloved disciple would 
 have done, if, while he leaned upon the bosom of the 
 Son of God, instead of receiving the offered bread 
 and wine, the sacrament and symbol of the only 
 truth by which it was possible for him to be healed 
 of his maladies, he had dashed them from the hand 
 of his Redeemer and Lord, and trampled them undei 
 
 his feet. 
 
 Thus the will in man turned away from the guid¬ 
 ance of the Wisdom of God, yielded to the solicita¬ 
 tions of the earthly nature, and chose according to its 
 light. The will became the will of the flesh and the 
 mind became the cclv'ticiI mind, in that evil sense m 
 which these expressions are used by St. Paul. This 
 mind of the flesh now reigned over him, and became 
 the law of his life, his criterion of distinction between 
 good and evil. If now, by the insights and reason¬ 
 ings and calculations of his own creature wisdom, by 
 his own subtlety, he could not give account of the 
 grounds and reasons upon which the commands and 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 121 
 
 prohibitions of the Wisdom of God were based, he 
 would not submit to them, nor obey them, but would 
 choose what seemed good to himself, rather than 
 what seemed good in the eyes of God. If he could 
 not see how a thing would be good for him, and what 
 good would result from it, he would not choose it, 
 simply because it was marked as good by the Wis¬ 
 dom of God, and commanded upon his authority, with 
 the sanction, This do, and it shall be well with thee; 
 thou shalt live. If he could not see how a thing 
 would be evil for him, and what evil it would pro¬ 
 duce, he would not reject it simply because it was 
 stigmatized as evil by the Wisdom of God, and for¬ 
 bidden under the penalty, Doing this, it shall not be 
 well with thee ; thou shalt surely die. But because 
 he had sinned by his rebellion against the authority 
 of the Wisdom and love of God, and thus depraved 
 his own nature, vitiated and corrupted his tastes and 
 inclinations, that which would now seem good to 
 him, must be evil in the eyes of the Holy One, and 
 evil for himself. By every choice which he should 
 make under this guidance he must pierce himself 
 through with many sorrows. 
 
 Thus of necessity, by losing faith in God, man sunk 
 into illusion—became subject to vanity. Looking at 
 all things through that wisdom which gives all its 
 practical judgments from the earthly point of view, 
 according to the appetites, desires and affections of 
 the earthly nature, he beheld only the visible and 
 perishable things of time and sense, as things substan¬ 
 tial, and of all importance. He lost the perception 
 
 6 
 
122 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 of the shadowy and unreal nature of the phenomena 
 of this life. The things which are unseen yet sub¬ 
 stantial and eternal, the spiritual, become dim and 
 shadowy and uncertain in his eyes. He was bap¬ 
 tized with a lie—into the name and likeness of the 
 
 father of lies. 
 
 Thus by the aspiration in man to be as God, know¬ 
 ing good and evil, the authority, the guidance, the 
 love and the life of God, perished out of his heart. 
 Thus perished simplicity, innocence, peace and joy, 
 union and communion with God. Thus was spiritual 
 death born into life. 
 
 In the account here given by God of the sin ol 
 man, there is no attempt made at a philosophical ex¬ 
 planation of the matter. It does not profess to ex¬ 
 plain how any influence could have power to lead, 
 or to draw Adam into transgression of that law of 
 his life which was written upon his heart, and in his 
 nature, and symbolized in the most expressive man¬ 
 ner before his eyes. How a holy nature can pass 
 out of its original holiness into sin, is a mystery in¬ 
 scrutable to our wisdom. To explain it, we must be 
 able to grapple with, and to clear up the long \ exed 
 question of the origin of evil in the universe. To do 
 this, we must be able to comprehend the natui e and 
 essence of evil, as opposed to good. But to under¬ 
 stand the nature and essence of evil, we must pene¬ 
 trate into the nature and essence of good, that is to 
 say, of God, Jehovah, I am that which I am. This 
 is impossible to every finite intelligence. Foi e\eiy 
 creature, therefore, that God has made, this is an 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 123 
 
 eternally insoluble problem. The demonstration of 
 the impossibility of the quadrature of the circle is no 
 whit more perfect than that which may be given of 
 the insolubility of the question of the origin of evil. 
 The only difference is that, by the aid of the symbols 
 employed in mathematical reasoning, the logic of the 
 one case is more easily mastered than in that of the 
 other. Happy are they who are beset with the 
 speculative mind, when they learn this, and cease to 
 
 vex a question by which they must be eternally baf¬ 
 fled. 
 
 But here is portrayed as in a diagram, in a symbol, 
 what that is in which the sin of man consists. This 
 symbol describes the primary form of all sin, in 
 which sin is found as soon as it exists at all. Sin is 
 the aspiration to be as God, knowing good and evil. 
 This expression however, is not limited here to sig¬ 
 nify a conscious affection and a defined process of 
 thought, and a preference in act of man’s own will 
 befoie the will of God. For the effect of Adam’s 
 first sin entered into himself, and depraved his own 
 nature, into the likeness of the sin which he had com¬ 
 mitted, which was the aspiration to be as God, know¬ 
 ing good and evil. His children were born in his 
 evil likeness, after his sin, and not before. Therefore 
 they are born with a nature out of which springs the 
 preference of their own wills, or of what seems 
 good to themselves, before what seems good in the 
 eyes of God, as necessarily as the poison springs 
 under the tongue of the viper. This expression, the 
 aspiration to he as God knowing good and evil , is 
 
124 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 here used to describe that corruption of the most in¬ 
 ward and spiritual nature of man, which is behind all 
 his affections, all his thoughts, and all his actions, and 
 from which they all spring. And this corruption of 
 his nature, derived from his first sin, consists in this 
 very thing, and in nothing else, that his nature contains 
 in itself the substance and root and principle of that 
 which in form, in growth, in development, becomes 
 in conscious affection, in defined process of thought, 
 the active preference of what seems good to himself 
 before that which seems good in the eyes of God. 
 But this is to feel and act and live in the character of 
 a god, in the assumption that he can know the dif¬ 
 ference between good and evil, of himself, and by 
 his own wisdom. 
 
 Without this, in the substance of it, there can be 
 no sin. The expression of immaculate perfection in 
 man is, Not my will , but thine be done , or in other 
 words, not what seems good to me, but what seems 
 good to thee, O Father. Higher than this in holiness 
 the creature cannot rise; as he cannot sink lower in 
 sin, than to prefer his own will to the will of God. 
 
 Because this is the evil that is in man, when the 
 Word and Wisdom of God is manifested in the flesh, 
 to take away sin, he comes as the object of faith. 
 This preference in man of what seems good to him¬ 
 self before what seems good to God, is the want of 
 faith in God: hence, all sin is reduced in the New 
 Testament to unbelief. What shall we do that we 
 may work the works of God ? This is the work of 
 God , that ye believe on him, whom, God hath sent. 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 125 
 
 The faith of the gospel is the renunciation from the 
 heart of man’s own wisdom and will and pleasure, 
 of what seems good in his own eyes, and the adop¬ 
 tion into their place of the Wisdom and will and 
 pleasure of God, of what seems good in his eyes. 
 In Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily. He who truly believes in him, re¬ 
 ceives him as the supreme Lord of man’s heart and 
 conscience. By his faith or confidence in him, man 
 is perfectly sure that what he has declared is the 
 truth; that what he has commanded are the good 
 things ; and what he has forbidden the evil things. 
 He no longer judges according to the appearance ; 
 that is to say, he does not believe that things are as 
 they might appear to himself, but he believes they 
 are as they are represented by Christ. By believing 
 in him he recognises the truth that his own wisdom 
 is folly ; and becomes truly wise by receiving the 
 wisdom of God in its place. That is in him which 
 is commanded in the words, If any man thinketh him¬ 
 self to he wise , let him become a fool that he may he 
 wise. This he does more or less perfectly according 
 to the measure of his faith. When his faith is per¬ 
 fected, that is true of him which is declared by the 
 prophet, in the name of Jehovah, of the man Christ 
 Jesus : Who is blind as my servant ? or deaf as my 
 messenger that I sent ? Who is blind as he that is 
 perfect; and blind as Jehovah's servant? . . . He 
 shall not judge after the sight of his own eyes , nor 
 reprove after the hearing of his own ears. 
 
 This is the original sin of man. The human race 
 
126 
 
 OP THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 have but carried out and developed that which was 
 begun by the father and head and type of man. 
 The aspiration to be as God, knowing good and evil 
 is the evil, which has destroyed the well-being of 
 humanity. This is what is the matter with man: 
 and this shall continue to be the matter with him, 
 until he shall be made to know that he is not a God, 
 but a blind worm; that he cannot know good and 
 evil by his own wisdom, but must be, in every feel¬ 
 ing, choice and act, dependent upon, and implicitly 
 subject to, the Word and Wisdom of God. When 
 he shall come to look at all things, so to speak, 
 through the eyes of Christ, to prefer what seems 
 good to God, before what seems good in his own 
 eyes, then, and not before, shall he find the eternal 
 well-being of his soul. 
 
 We must now turn our attention to the inquiry, 
 after what manner this evil likeness of Adam in 
 which his posterity are born, is developed into life, 
 strength and activity. 
 
 Much has been written upon the connection be¬ 
 tween Adam and his posterity, to vindicate the 
 justice of God in that, under his government and 
 providence, they are found to be involved in the oii- 
 ginal sin, and its terrible consequences. Perhaps 
 however, the most important thing for us to do, is 
 not to prove that God is just, nor to 
 
 “ Justify the ways of God to man 
 
 but to take knowledge of the fact, which is therefore 
 stated because it is the thing to be known, that the 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 127 
 
 children of Adam were born in his likeness after he 
 had sinned, and lost his spiritual life. To this point 
 St. Paul confines himself, without any attempt to 
 show, that the view which he takes does not com- 
 promit the justice of God. He knew that man 
 cannot scrutinize God; that what God does is the 
 standard of justice, by which all our ideas of it are 
 to be tried and corrected, but which cannot be 
 brought to the bar of any judging power in us. 
 
 It would seem, however, to us exceedingly strange 
 if we should hear that a bloodthirsty lioness had 
 brought forth a gentle and timid lamb; that a dove 
 had been hatched from an eagle’s egg. No less 
 wonderful would it seem if the children of Adam 
 had not been born in his likeness. It is not therefore 
 wonderful that they do inherit from him something 
 which is the ground and principle of the invariable 
 course of their lives; which naturally grows with 
 their growth, and strengthens with their strength; 
 which is in its own nature evil, and corrupt and ac¬ 
 cursed, as that in him of which it is the likeness, 
 was evil, corrupt and accursed. 
 
 As we have seen, however, there is in the earliest 
 infancy of the child a most striking and beautiful 
 similitude of innocence. The Adam in him is yet in 
 abeyance. He knows not that there is any God, 
 nor any right and wrong. He hangs with implicit 
 faith and dependence upon his parents. For awhile 
 his own choice and will are so weak that he feels 
 himself to be wholly dependent. He has not yet 
 undertaken to discern between good and evil by his 
 
128 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 own light and wisdom. He has not yet voluntaiily, 
 and by his own act, eaten of the tree of the know¬ 
 ledge of good and evil. Death is in him, it is true, 
 by reason of the inherited evil, but it has not y ©t 
 been awakened into life and strength and activity by 
 occasion of the exercise of authority over him. 
 The commandment has not yet come to him; there¬ 
 fore the work of death is not finished in him. He is 
 one of those over whom death reigns, although he 
 has not yet sinned after the similitude of Adam s 
 transgression , by rebellion against a known law. 
 He is one of those described by the words of St. 
 Paul, I was alive once without the law. When the 
 commandment came sin revived and I died. But 
 when the commandment shall come to him, the sin 
 that is in him shall awaken into life, and finish its 
 work of death. But now in the most chaiming 
 similitude of innocence, free from shame,, toil and 
 sorrow, he dwells in his garden of paiadise. His 
 food stands ready prepared to his hand by the wis¬ 
 dom and providence and love of his parents. The 
 world of nature blooms out to his opening sense, 
 with surpassing beauty and charm. Every sense is 
 filled and delighted. And even after the evil has 
 manifestly begun to work, it is long before it can 
 wholly deface and destroy the simplicity and beauty 
 of infancy. Blessed be childhood! It is a holy 
 symbol. 
 
 But the child has that within him which soon, 
 alas! begins to manifest itself as a wisdom and 
 choice and will of his own. He begins in his mind 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 129 
 
 to question the wisdom of his parents as the law of 
 his choice between good and evil; and to prefer his 
 own will to theirs. Unconsciously first, and con¬ 
 sciously afterwards, his questionings arise. Is not 
 this food, this amusement, as good as that, and as 
 much to be desired to give him pleasure ? Why 
 then should the one be allowed, and the other for¬ 
 bidden ? As soon as he thinks about the matter at 
 all, it seems to him, because he cannot know what 
 his parents know of good and evil, that their dis¬ 
 tinctions between these things, as expressed in their 
 directions and commands, are not based upon good 
 and sufficient reasons. For, because he cannot see 
 so far as they do, nor comprehend the consequences 
 of his acts to himself so well as they can, he cannot 
 feel the force of their reasons, even though they 
 should explain the matter to him as fully as it is 
 possible to do. He has now questioned the wisdom 
 of the authority of his parents over him, where he 
 ought simply to have obeyed, and has therefore 
 sinned against it. 
 
 Here the parent ought simply, kindly and deliber¬ 
 ately to reaffirm the command with the penalty of 
 disobedience ; but by no means to attempt any ex¬ 
 planation of the reasons upon which that command 
 is based. The Wisdom of God could give no ex¬ 
 planation of its reasons to man when he questioned 
 it. God hath said that in the day that ye eat thereof 
 ye shall surely die. If this course be taken with the 
 child, and yet his native tendencies be left to de- 
 velope themselves, it seems to him a harsh thing that 
 
 6 * 
 
130 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 he should be held under an authority so seeming y 
 arbitrary that it will not condescend to justify itself 
 in his eyes. Now he is ready to distrust the good¬ 
 ness and love of his parents towards him, in exerting 
 such an authority. It seems to him as if they could 
 not be moved wholly by feelings of kindness when 
 they command him to do, or not to do, things in ie 
 spect to which he can see no good reason for such a 
 distinction. He is now ready to impute to them the 
 most unworthy motives and feelings. They love to 
 govern him; or they take a pleasure in making him 
 do what he does not desire to do. They do not con¬ 
 sult his pleasure, nor, as far as he can see, his well¬ 
 being. Is not this thing innocent '? He can see no 
 harm in it. Is it not good to give him pleasure ? 
 What good motive can they have for depriving him 
 of so much happiness ? Surely they do not care foi 
 his happiness or they would not foibid him these 
 things. Thus it was that the woman lost her con¬ 
 fidence in the good intentions of God, the loss of 
 which is expressed in the words, God doth know that 
 in the day that ye eat thereof ye shall he as gods , 
 
 knowing good and evil . 
 
 Let it not be supposed that these thoughts and 
 feelings are too refined and subtle for a child. For 
 although they may not come out into full conscious¬ 
 ness, nor be followed step by step as here presented, 
 yet the substance of all this must be in the child 
 before he can proceed to an outward act of disobe¬ 
 dience. Often the whole of it takes place without 
 consciousness, suddenly as the lightning’s flash. 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 131 
 
 Now, the desires, appetites, and passions of the 
 earthly nature in the child are full and strong before 
 there is anything in force to counteract them. He 
 feels the powerful solicitations of sense before he has 
 any knowledge of spiritual things. Now it is that 
 the wisdom and authority of his parents to choose 
 for him, stands in the place of the Wisdom of God, 
 hereafter to be revealed from without and affirmed 
 within him. His subjection to his parents is to pre¬ 
 pare him for subjection to God, when he shall come 
 to know that there is a God who has authority over 
 him. If he be not restrained by them, he must 
 choose amiss, according to his own wisdom rather 
 than according to theirs. His rebellion must go into 
 outward act, and he must pierce himself through with 
 deadly sorrows. Thus he is already prepared for 
 rebellion against God, as soon as his commandment 
 shall be made known. 
 
 This is the terrible significancy of disobedience to 
 parents. For this reason it is placed side by side 
 in the Word of God with murder, and the most 
 malignant forms of sin. It is rebellion against God 
 in germ. It is atheism in its first stage of develop¬ 
 ment. It is the first movement of the sin of Adam. 
 It is the erecting of the child’s own wisdom, as a 
 guide of choice between good and evil, into that 
 place which ought now to be filled with the wisdom 
 and authority of the parents, and which is hereafter 
 to be filled with the authority of the Wisdom of God. 
 In it the child has already begun to sin after the simi - 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 litude of Adam's transgression, before he knows that 
 there is any God against whom he can sm. 
 
 Long before this has ended however, a new law 
 has made its appearance. This is the law of God, 
 as given in his Word, and which reaches the soul 
 through the conscience. This law, which in its 
 nature and authority is intended to be prefigured and 
 ushered in by the parental law, now comes to the 
 child commanding this, and forbidding that, with the 
 voice of absolute authority, without any explanation 
 of the grounds and reasons upon which its distinc¬ 
 tions are based, because these reasons man cannot 
 comprehend nor feel their iorce, it they should be 
 stated. This do and tlwu shall live; disobey, and 
 thou shalt surely die. Whence is this new law, and 
 whence this absolute authority over him who has 
 already cast off law, and rebelled against authority ? 
 He does not believe in the law of God as the law of 
 wisdom for him. He has no faith that the things 
 which it commands are the good things for him ; 
 nor that what it forbids is evil foi him, in its own 
 nature ^ because he cannot know the essential diffei- 
 ence between good and evil, nor comprehend the 
 everlasting consequences of his actions upon himself. 
 It seems to him all arbitrary, without sufficient rea¬ 
 son. He is already in the preference of his own 
 wisdom and will in the choice between good and evil. 
 That in him which has already asserted for itself 
 independence of the wisdom and authority of his 
 parents, now asserts for itself independence of the 
 Wisdom and authority of God. Neither shall he die 
 
OF TI1E SIN OF MAN. 
 
 133 
 
 at all. He will choose by his own wisdom. He 
 will know good and evil for himself; that which 
 God only can know and mark aright. He will be as 
 God in this thing. Ye shall he as gods knowing 
 good and evil. The same thing has now taken place 
 in respect to God and his law, which he has been 
 passing through before in respect to his parents and 
 their law, only after a more spiritual and deadly 
 manner. Consciously or unconsciously, in spirit if 
 not in thought, in substance if not in the form here 
 described, all this must precede, or lie at the bottom 
 of every outward act of transgression of the law of 
 God, after it is made known. 
 
 Still more spiritual and deadly does all this become 
 when the profound spirituality of the law of God is 
 revealed to him, who has now become a youth or a 
 man, as it was made known to Paul. When he 
 learns that this law not only forbids outward acts ; 
 but extends also to the appetites, desires and affec¬ 
 tions ; to the secret thoughts of his mind; to the dis¬ 
 positions and states of his spiritual nature, forbidding 
 what he has long felt, and now loves to feel, to which 
 he is now in bondage, under the most horrid penal¬ 
 ties, the fire that is never quenched, and the woj'm that 
 never dies , eternal death —then it seems to him that 
 God deals with him in the most arbitrary, tyrannical 
 and cruel manner. To his view God is a pitiless and 
 ferocious monster. What ! has he given me these 
 desires, and will he damn me because they burn ? 
 Has he given me reason, and forbidden me to use it ? 
 He has forbidden thoughts and feelings over which I 
 
134 
 
 OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 have no control. He tells me to have faith and love 
 towards him ; and is faith and love in my own powei ? 
 The carnal mind which is enmity against God , now 
 works within him. He hates God with a peilect 
 hatred. He would dethrone God if he could. The 
 commandment has come to him, sin has revived and 
 he has died the death in trespasses and in sins. 
 
 This is the natural development of that which is in 
 man by birth—the likeness of Adam. The faith ol 
 Christ, working upon the parents, and through them 
 upon their children, does indeed often restrain this 
 depraved nature from running out into the excess 
 here described. To many, even in Christian lands, 
 the law of God never comes with such revelation of 
 its spirituality and power as to call into conscious 
 activity this terrible hatred against God, its author. 
 The heathen also, are almost entirely without this 
 law, except so far as an uncertain echo of it may be 
 heard in their consciences. But the principle of all 
 this, waiting only the occasion of development, that 
 is to say, the coming of the law, is born with every 
 child of Adam. Therefore death reigns even over 
 those who knew not the law of God, and have not 
 sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. 
 
 The development of this evil likeness of Adam, in 
 thousands of cases, is facilitated and hastened, lathei 
 than restrained, by the treatment which children re¬ 
 ceive from their parents, who have inherited the 
 same evil, and in whom it has been developed and 
 perfected by the bringing-up which they have re¬ 
 ceived. For while the physical necessities of the 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 135 
 
 child cause him to hang upon his parents in conscious 
 dependence for everything, it is intended that he 
 should be imbreathed with their love. As his facul¬ 
 ties open, he is to be filled with faith in their wisdom, 
 and with reverence for their authority. By every 
 possible means he should be imbued with the convic¬ 
 tion and feeling, that his own wisdom is a guide 
 wholly inadequate to lead him aright; that following 
 it he must choose amiss, and destroy himself; that he 
 must be for ever implicitly submissive to a voice and 
 an authority above him, the reasons of whose com¬ 
 mands he can never comprehend, whose wisdom and 
 love he is never once to question, but to obey ; and 
 that thus only it can be well with him ; he shall live. 
 He is to be trained in the obedience of faith and love 
 and reverence, not in that of sight and reasoning. 
 The highest reason that can be given for his doing any¬ 
 thing, is that his parents, in their superior wisdom, in 
 the fulness of their love, and in the plenitude of their 
 authority, have commanded it. No other reason 
 should ever be given but that which is implied in the 
 command itself. The fewest possible injunctions and 
 restraints should be laid upon the child. He should 
 have the free range of his garden of Paradise. Every 
 command of parental authority should be given in 
 the fewest and simplest words, with the gentlest 
 voice and manner, and for every transgression of a 
 positive command, and perhaps for nothing else, the 
 chastisement of the rod should be administered with 
 all tenderness, but with unswerving fidelity. He that 
 spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth 
 
13G 
 
 OP THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 him chasteneth him betimes. This is the Wisdom oi 
 God. And woe to the age which has found out a 
 better wisdom for itself than his ! The whole object 
 of the authority and government of parents, is that it 
 may exactly prefigure, and usher in, that law of God 
 which springs from infinite love and incomprehensi¬ 
 ble wisdom. Whatever else it may effect, it is an 
 utter failure where it fails to accomplish this. 
 
 Instead of making this the object of his treatment 
 of the child, the parent forsooth must appeal to his 
 understanding and persuade him to do thus and so. 
 He undertakes to argue with the child, and to show 
 him the grounds and reasons of what he is requested 
 to do; that he may see it is good to be done, and 
 choose it of his own desire. Here he appeals to a 
 wholly incompetent authority. For such an appeal 
 assumes that, if the matter be fully and properly ex¬ 
 plained, the child is capable of knowing, and choosing 
 aright between good and evil. But this is not so. 
 He is without the experience through which the 
 parent has passed, and by which he has learned all 
 that he knows of good and evil. It is therefore im¬ 
 possible for the child to feel the force of reasons 
 which are based upon an experience which he has 
 not. He is not capable of foreseeing those conse¬ 
 quences of his actions which his parent foresees. 
 Hence when the appeal is made to the child’s own 
 judgment and discrimination to sanction the command 
 of his parent, that judgment, if it be honest, must go 
 against the choice which he is expected and required 
 to make, and in favor of his own desire, according 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 137 
 
 to what seems good to himself. Now the parent is 
 reduced to the necessity, either of allowing the child 
 to take his own way, or of flying from the decision 
 of that judge to which himself has appealed. In 
 either case faith in the wisdom of the parent is de¬ 
 stroyed out of the child. Often the parent is amazed 
 at what seems to him the perverseness or stupidity 
 ol the child, because, after the matter has been all 
 explained, still he is not at all convinced, but desires 
 to do what has been forbidden as much as before. 
 He does not know, he will not consider, that it is im¬ 
 possible for the child to feel the force of 'his reasons, 
 because he is without his experience upon which 
 those reasons are based. 
 
 The stupidity is in the parent. Woe to him, and 
 to his children, and his children’s children, to the 
 third and fourth generations, that it is! By thus 
 appealing to the child’s own insight and reasoning to 
 sanction his commands, he does all in his power to 
 erect the child’s own wisdom into a guide and law of 
 distinction between good and evil. He tells him in 
 substance that he is able to discern what is good for 
 him and what evil, if he will only think about it and 
 consider. Every attempt to reason with the child 
 and to persuade him by considerations of the mind, 
 to choose this and reject that, instead of guiding him 
 by the authority of superior wisdom, is as much as 
 to assure him that he is not incapable of knowing 
 good and evil. It is precisely the temptation of the 
 serpent. r I hus the father becomes to his own child the 
 professed teacher of Adam’s sin, which is the root and 
 
138 
 
 ' OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 substance of all sin, the cause of all practical mistakes, 
 the fountain of all the evils that are in the world. In¬ 
 stead of forbidding to him the knowledge ol good and 
 evil; instead of seeking to fill him with the conviction 
 that he cannot discern between these things by his own 
 wisdom, in thus attempting to reason him into obedi¬ 
 ence, the father leads his child to the fatal tree; shows 
 him its fruit, so fair to the eye, and good for food, so de¬ 
 sirable to make him wise; assures him that he shall not 
 die at all; invites him to pluck and eat that which con¬ 
 tains the germ of inevitable death to his soul; which 
 expels him from his beautiful paradise of simplicity, 
 love and happiness, and sends him forth, under the 
 guidance of his own wisdom, under the dominion of 
 the carnal mind , into a thorny world, without laith, 
 without hope, and without God. Alas! for the child! 
 He is trained to regard his own wisdom as the law 
 to which appeal is to be made in his choice between 
 good and evil; and when the law of God comes, that 
 Voice of divine authority, which cannot give its 
 reasons for its instructions, it finds him already in 
 rebellion against it. Alas ! for the child. Through 
 his parent’s sin and folly, he has sinned and fallen 
 before he knows that there is any right or wrong, any 
 God, any life to come. 
 
 This is now become a system of education and 
 training for children—the system of moral suasion . 
 It is based wholly upon the wisdom of the serpent. 
 Its fruit is death. If it be not checked it will pro¬ 
 duce a luxuriance and bloom of infidelity, and ungod¬ 
 liness, such as the earth never beheld. The state of 
 
OF THE SIN OF MAN. 
 
 139 
 
 society will become so lawless that it cannot be borne. 
 Well might the Word and Wisdom of God exclaim 
 in view of all this (for it was in view of the offences 
 which children would receive that the words were 
 uttered), Woe unto the world because of offences! 
 For thus is lost even the similitude of innocence ; thus 
 is blasted the paradise of childhood. 
 
 The memory of Paradise is not more clear in the 
 traditions of early ages than is the consciousness of 
 the nature of the sin by which it was lost. Accord¬ 
 ing to the account of the Greeks,* man’s first sin, was 
 the attempt to ascend to heaven to steal the fire and 
 the light (the wisdom) of the gods. To punish him 
 a woman was created, and endowed with every hu¬ 
 man perfection. Venus gave her beauty, with irre¬ 
 sistible attraction and charm, and filled her heart 
 with the desire of pleasing. The god of eloquence 
 touched her lips with persuasion. Apollo taught her 
 music. Minerva instructed her in all other beautiful 
 and useful arts. The Hours and the Graces decked 
 her with every winning ornament. Each of the 
 other deities conferred upon her some excellent and 
 precious gift. Last of all Jupiter placed in her hand 
 a mystical casket, and warned her under the most 
 terrible penalties, never to break its seal. But over¬ 
 swayed in an evil hour by the desire of forbidden 
 knowledge, she opened the fatal casket. When lo ! 
 forth flew from within it the hosts of diseases, cares 
 and sorrows which have invaded the human race. 
 
 * Hesiod. Theog: 521. Opera et Dies, 47. 
 
140 
 
 OF THE BIN OF MAN. 
 
 She tried to close it again ; but it was too late. Hope 
 alone remained in the bottom. This she carefully 
 preserved and handed down to her posterity, now all 
 she had to leave them. 
 
 Dimmed and obscured it is; yet it reflects, with 
 no uncertain light, the nature of the original sin. It 
 is a far off echo of the mournful truth, sounding 
 across the abysm of ages of sin and toil and sonow 
 and death, not without hope; tender and touching 
 as the wail of the bereaved mother over her dead 
 child, in the hope that, though it be dead it shall live 
 
 again. 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 “ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they 
 were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made them¬ 
 selves aprons.” 
 
 “ And they heard the Voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden, 
 in the cool of the day : and Adam and his wife hid themselves 
 from the presence of Jehovah God in the midst of the trees 
 of the garden. And Jehovah God called unto Adam, and 
 said, Where art thou ? And he said, I heard thy Voice in the 
 garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. 
 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou 
 eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest 
 not eat ? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to 
 be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah 
 God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done ? 
 And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” 
 
 Hitherto both the man and his wife had been 
 naked yet without shame. There was nothing within 
 them, in their spiritual nature, of which they had 
 need to be ashamed in the presence of God and of 
 each other, therefore nothing without in their bodies 
 desired to be covered. Simplicity, innocence is 
 naked. 
 
 But now in the consciousness of their sin they were 
 ashamed and afraid ; and they sought to cover their 
 naked bodies, to hide themselves from the presence 
 of God, and to excuse themselves for what they had 
 
142 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 ^ > / , 
 
 done. But here the question arises, What connexion 
 can the shame of the naked body have with sin? 
 What could there be in the sin ot the first man to 
 suggest or awaken shame of his nakedness, when this 
 feeling had been before utterly unknown ? In order 
 that we may have the more intelligent view of this 
 subject, we must observe that there are tw T o feelings 
 which are called shame, in human speech. The one 
 is, so to speak, an outward and physical shame which 
 leads us, as it led the first man, to cover our naked 
 bodies. The other feeling is one more inward and 
 spiritual. It is the shame ol remorse or conscious 
 degradation. The feeling which a man has when 
 detected in a sinful and disreputable act is called 
 shame, no less than that which leads him to cover 
 his naked body. This inward and spiritual shame 
 of conscious sin, when it arose in the heait of man, 
 was, of course, a new feeling, and demanded some 
 new outward expression or manifestation. Foi, as 
 we have already seen, there is in the very natuie ol 
 man a necessity that whatever is living and power¬ 
 fully moving in him, should seek and find some out¬ 
 ward manifestation, into which it may go forth and 
 symbolize itself: otherwise the feeling must perish 
 out of his heart. But the conscience of sin was now 
 in man a legitimate feeling; one that needed to be 
 nourished and kept alive, because upon it depended 
 his salvation. If it should perish, if he should sink 
 down into that state in which he should be no more 
 sensible of his sin, and ashamed before God, it would 
 be impossible to renew him again to repentance. 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 143 
 
 Foi it is only through the conviction of sin that man 
 is saved from it by the gospel. 
 
 Hence, in the earthly nature of man, by whose 
 solicitations, and following whose wisdom, he had 
 been betrayed into sin, was immediately reflected 
 the shame of his degraded spiritual nature. The 
 sight of his naked body, the embodiment of his sen¬ 
 sual nature, by which he had been seduced, became 
 odious to him because it reflected back upon him the 
 nature of his sin, and made its consciousness and 
 conviction the more painful. The shame which he 
 felt for his sin and folly went forth and attached 
 itself to the outward form of the nature by which he 
 had been led into transgression. 
 
 This is not fancy. It is what always takes place 
 in like circumstances. The feeling which we have 
 towards any act of our lives goes forth, by a law of 
 oui natuie, and attaches itself to the instrument by 
 which the act has been performed. A single instance 
 will serve to illustrate the truth of this. When the 
 Archbishop Cranmer was brought to the stake, there 
 was one act of his life for which he felt unuttera¬ 
 ble abhorrence. In a moment of fear and temptation 
 he had formerly signed a recantation of those very 
 doctrines for which he was now about to suffer. The 
 feeling which he now had towards that act went forth 
 and attached itself to the hand with which it had 
 been committed. Therefore he thrust it into the 
 flames, and held it until it was consumed, exclaiming, 
 Let this hand which sinned, first suffer. 
 
 Also, hitherto the nakedness of man’s body had 
 
144 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 been the symbol of his innocence ; that he hacl no¬ 
 thing within which needed to be covered from the eye 
 of God. But now that he was polluted and defiled 
 in his spiritual nature, and ashamed in the presence 
 of God, the sight of the symbol of his former inno¬ 
 cence, which was lost for ever, must awaken the 
 most painful feelings. For whatever calls vividly to 
 mind the memory of that which was formerly dear, 
 but now lost through our own sin and folly, is odious 
 to our sight. Therefore the man and his wife, to 
 relieve this pain, sought to cover their naked bodies 
 from their own eyes, and from the eye of God. 
 
 Why this inward and spiritual shame of sin attached 
 itself particularly to those parts of the body which an 
 apron or girdle would cover, is to be undei stood fiom 
 the fact that in them is the whole force of the sensual 
 nature summed up and concentrated. They aie 
 always treated in the Scriptures as the type of the 
 sensual nature, by which man was seduced into sin. 
 For this reason the evil that is in man is described 
 by the words carnality, carnal mind, the Jlesh, concu¬ 
 piscence, adultery, and by the like expressions. Be¬ 
 cause these parts are the type of the whole sensual 
 nature, the sins of gluttony, drunkenness, and other 
 evil indulgences of the appetites, desires and affec¬ 
 tions of this nature, are not forbidden by name in the 
 law delivered from Mount Sinai. That in man in 
 which the whole force of this nature is summed up 
 and concentrated, is selected as the type of the whole, 
 and the prohibition laid upon it. These are all for¬ 
 bidden in type under the one command, Thou shalt 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 145 
 
 not commit adultery. Therefore, when this spiritual 
 shame seeking an outward expression, as it must 
 needs do, reflected itself in the earthly nature of man, 
 it naturally sought out those parts of his body in 
 which the strength of that nature was concentrated, 
 and by which it most powerfully manifests itself, 
 and attached itself most closely, though not exclu¬ 
 sively, to them. 
 
 Thus the feeling which now arose in man’s heart 
 m respect to his sin, went forth and symbolized itself 
 in the shame of his naked body. Thus modesty be¬ 
 came a holy symbol to reflect back into his soul that 
 shame which he felt for his sin in the presence of God, 
 fiom which it first arose, and which still remains its 
 ground and cause in every man. This feeling is to 
 keep evei fresh and living in the heart of man the 
 conviction and shame of his sin, that lor it he may go 
 in mourning and penitence all his days. 
 
 Theiefore, in the Word of God, the shame of the 
 naked body is continually taken as the symbol of the 
 shame of sin. To uncover the shame or nakedness 
 of a person, is to discover his sin and folly. Thus the 
 prophet Isaiah threatens the Egyptians, that for their 
 sin they should be led away captive, stark naked, 
 with nothing to cover their shame. So he declares 
 to the daughter of Babylon , Thy nakedness shall be 
 uncovered; yea, thy shame shall be seen. Also Jeho¬ 
 vah declares to Jerusalem, I will discover thy skirts 
 upon thy face , that thy shame may appear. The 
 force of these expressions is not to be understood and 
 felt except from the knowledge of what is set forth in 
 
 7 
 
146 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 this account of the origin of this feeling of the shame 
 of the naked body, and of its connection with sin. 
 
 Indeed, the word shame is the proper and scriptu¬ 
 ral word to describe that feeling which naturally 
 arises in the soul of man for and from sin. It is to 
 be preferred to the heathen word remorse, because 
 this latter, which signifies the biting-back which sin 
 inflicts upon the soul, leaves out of view him against 
 whom the sin has been committed. But the word 
 shame, and the feeling which it describes, implies the 
 presence of God before whom the soul is ashamed. 
 The heathen knew not against whom they sinned; 
 therefore they referred the pain which arose from 
 conscious guilt, to nothing but the sin itself, and called 
 it remorse . But they who had this account of the 
 significancy of the feeling of shame, and who knew 
 against whom they had sinned, could not describe 
 the conscience of sin by this word. Therefore they 
 cry, O Lord God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up 
 my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are in¬ 
 creased over our heads, and our trespass is grown 
 up unto the heavens. 
 
 According to these views of the significancy of the 
 feeling of shame, it is not found in the brute because 
 he is of one nature, therefore incapable of sin, there¬ 
 fore again, incapable of shame. Even in the highest 
 ranks of mere animals it is utterly unknown. They 
 can feel fear, but of shame they give not the slightest 
 manifestations. 
 
 Neither is it found in the infant, because, although 
 the root of all sin is in him, he has not vet sinned 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 147 
 
 after the similitude of Adam’s transgression; that is 
 to say, he has not deliberately and consciously re¬ 
 belled against the clearly enunciated, and fully 
 recognised law of God. He has not yet, by a free 
 act of his own, elevated the sensual nature with its 
 wisdom into the sphere of the conscience, to control 
 its judgments in his choice between good and evil. 
 The Wisdom and authority of God is not yet mani¬ 
 fested in his conscience. He is as yet ignorant of 
 the law of God. Hence he is ignorant of the feeling 
 of shame. But when this law of God shall begin to 
 enunciate itself in his conscience, and his transgres¬ 
 sion of it shall become precise and conscious, his 
 shame of his naked body shall begin to be felt; for 
 not till then does he become capable of the shame 
 of sin, of which it is the reflection and divinely ap¬ 
 pointed symbol. But when it happens that the man 
 goes on in sin, hardening his heart, and stifling the 
 voice of the conscience, until his susceptibility to the 
 sense and shame of sin becomes destroyed, he loses 
 also, to a great degree, the shame of his naked body. 
 Often it perishes altogether. Then man is restrained 
 from the open exposure of his person, and from the 
 open gratification of his brutal lusts, only by former 
 habit, by the customs of society, and by the penal¬ 
 ties of the civil law. He is given over to his own 
 heart’s lusts , to work all uncleanness with greediness. 
 This is the force of the charge which God brings 
 against the nation of the Jews. Thou hast a whore’s 
 forehead, and refusest to he ashamed. Hence also, 
 
148 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 to be shameless signifies in common speech, to be 
 utterly abandoned. 
 
 Among those nations also which are entirely savage 
 and uncultivated, as are many of the African tribes, 
 the feeling of shame is weak and ill-defined. In 
 some it scarcely appears at all, although perhaps 
 none are entirely without it. They know not the 
 clearly enunciated law of right and wrong. The 
 oracle of the Wisdom of God, making known its 
 authoritative distinctions between good and evil, 
 is scarcely heard by them. The light which has 
 shined into their darkness they have utterly failed to 
 comprehend. The conscience in them has almost 
 entirely ceased to be a medium of communication 
 between their souls and God. They do not rebel 
 against the clearly recognised law. Their sin after 
 the similitude of Adam's transgression is not precise 
 and conscious. Therefore in them the sense and 
 shame of sin is scarcely felt; and therefore again, 
 its reflection and symbol, the shame of their naked 
 bodies is almost unknown. But when the law is 
 preached to them, and their conscience of sin is 
 awakened into life ; when they recognise themselves 
 as transgressors of the law of God, and rebels 
 against his authority, their shame is felt, and they 
 cover their naked bodies, especially those parts in 
 which the strength of the sensual nature is summed 
 up and concentrated. 
 
 Hence it is that, when the disposition to uncover 
 the body more and more makes its appearance among 
 civilized nations who have the clearly enunciated 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 149 
 
 law of God revealed from without and affirmed 
 within, especially among women, it is always the 
 unerring sign and proof of great corruption of 
 morals, by which the sense and shame of sin against 
 God, together with that which is the sacred symbol 
 of it, ordained of God to keep it ever fresh and 
 living in the heart of man, is abolished and destroy¬ 
 ed. Blessed be modesty! For sinful man it is a 
 holy thing. 
 
 But while in Adam, the conviction and shame of 
 his sin, with its reflection, the shame of his naked 
 body, and the desire to be covered, were now le¬ 
 gitimate feelings, and appropriate to his defiled and 
 polluted state, yet the attempt to cover himself, and 
 to hide himself from the presence of God, arose from 
 a most evil and sinful delusion, of which the girdle 
 of fig leaves is the most significant and expressive 
 symbol. This delusion is that state of mind in 
 which man desires and hopes and attempts to palliate 
 and excuse his sin in his own eyes, and in the eyes 
 of God. This is a deep, radical, though often un¬ 
 conscious insincerity in man towards himself and 
 towards God. It is that which Jesus charges upon 
 the Scribes and Pharisees under the word hypocrisy. 
 Ye are they who justify yourselves . How can ye 
 believe ? It is that which is called in Scripture the 
 refuge of lies. To the nature and manifestations of 
 this delusion, as it is symbolized and brought out in 
 words, in the dialogue that follows between God and 
 man, we must now turn our attention. 
 
 When the man and his wife heard the Voice of God 
 
150 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 walking in the garden in the cool ol the day, they at¬ 
 tempted to hide themselves from his presence. They 
 were afraid because they were naked. 
 
 The meaning of the expression, I was afraid be¬ 
 cause I was naked, is to be understood by comparison 
 with such words as those which Jesus addressed to 
 his disciples when he offered them the saciamental 
 bread and wine, saying, This is my body; this is my 
 blood. The simple nakedness of man was not that 
 which made him afraid, and drove him fiom the pie- 
 sence of God. For he had been naked when he most 
 rejoiced in that presence. • But that shame of his na¬ 
 kedness which he now felt was the symbol of his shame 
 of sin, as the bread and the wine are the symbols of 
 the body and the blood. That which made him 
 ashamed and afraid was the conscience of sin, fiom 
 which the shame of his bodily nakedness aiose. This 
 it was which led him to attempt to flee and hide him¬ 
 self from the voice of God. 
 
 This is a symbol of universal significance. Thus 
 it is with man. For when the pleasure of sin has 
 passed, when the tumultuous transports of the sensual 
 nature have subsided, in the cool of leflection, man 
 hears the Voice of God in the conscience, conducting 
 him of sin and folly, and destroying all his peace, 
 as Adam heard it in the cool ol the day walking in 
 the garden. Of this voice he is now afraid because 
 it is that of him against whom he has sinned. In its 
 presence his shame is discovered. He feels that now 
 there is that within him which cannot stand the scru¬ 
 tiny of God, which he would wish to hide Irom his, 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 151 
 
 and from every eye. He tries to flee and hide him¬ 
 self from this presence, as Adam sought to hide him¬ 
 self in the midst of the trees of the garden. For 
 this purpose, he plunges into the avocations of the 
 mortal life, and tries to charm the voice to silence by 
 amusements, pleasures and dissipation. He would 
 drown it in the turmoil and clamor of this world. 
 But he flees and hides himself in vain. The voice 
 follows him. It calls him in tones which he is forced 
 to hear; Man where art thou ? In vain he assigns, 
 as a reason for hiding himself, that he is naked and 
 ashamed and afraid. Who told thee that thou wast 
 naked ? Whence came this fear and shame ? The 
 necessity itself which he now feels of trying to 
 escape from the rebuking voice in his conscience, is 
 the evidence and ground of conviction that he has 
 sinned. Innocence does not seek to cover nor to 
 hide itself. It does not know what shame is, nor 
 fear ; because it does not know what sin is. It has 
 all boldness and confidence in the presence of the 
 justice of God, revealed through the conscience. 
 
 When the Voice of God had reached man in the 
 depth of his hiding place, and forced him to acknow¬ 
 ledge the fact of his transgression, then he attempted 
 to take refuge in self-deceit, the refuge of lies. He 
 would excuse himself by laying the blame of his sin 
 upon God and upon his wife. The conviction that 
 he had sinned without any excuse or palliation was 
 too horrible to be borne, even for a moment. Self¬ 
 ishness had now entered, and taken possession of his 
 heart. That act to which he was led by feelings so 
 
152 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 unselfish towards his wife, so generous and self-sacii- 
 ficing, as they appeared him, because it was chosen 
 in opposition to the Wisdom of God, the only just 
 criterion of what is truly generous, has landed him 
 in the heart of the most loathsome selfishness 
 towards God and his neighbor. Therefore let the 
 blame of his sin go anywhere rather than remain 
 upon himself. Let it rest upon God himself, 01 upon 
 her for whose love he has not scrupled to tiansgiess 
 the law of God. The woman whom thou gavest to he 
 with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. Poor 
 girdle of fig leaves ! it cannot hide his nakedness. 
 It must be all stripped off, and his soul must appear 
 
 naked before God to be judged. 
 
 In all this, and through the whole account, Adam 
 speaks and acts in the character of man ; and his 
 words and actions are the symbols of univeisal tiuth. 
 Thus it is here. For thus man continually seeks to 
 palliate and excuse his sin by the reasonings and 
 devices of the carnal mind. To remove the guilt 
 from himself, to silence his conscience of sin , he tiies 
 with all his might to lay it upon something, or some¬ 
 one else, upon the circumstances in which he was 
 born and brought up, upon his forefathers, upon his 
 corrupt nature, upon the strength of his temptations, 
 and upon a thousand other things. Thus he seeks to 
 cover his sin from himself and from the eye of God. 
 The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's 
 teeth are set on edge. I knew thee, that thou wast an 
 austere man, and I was a fraid. In all of these cases 
 the blame,, if pushed back, must rest upon God at 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 153 
 
 last; and there in fact it is placed, even when men 
 are least conscious of making against him so horrible 
 a charge. 
 
 But nothing that man can devise or think of, can 
 excuse or palliate sin, otherwise it would not be sin. 
 The blame of it cannot rest anywhere but upon him¬ 
 self; otherwise it would not be sin. The tempter 
 himself cannot bear the blame of any sin but his own. 
 For all the circumstances of every case in which 
 man can be placed, all the obstacles in the way of 
 obedience, all the temptations which can arise, with 
 all their power, are present to the mind of God, 
 when he gives the command. Therefore for every 
 excuse or palliation that man can devise or think of, 
 for transgression, there must stand prepared before¬ 
 hand this answer from the judgment of God. I 
 knew you would have that excuse, that reason for 
 disobedience when I gave you the command. I 
 knew it all; had weighed all its force. Yet I gave 
 you the command notwithstanding, and meant to be 
 obeyed, because I saw that that reason for disobeying 
 was not valid nor sound. If I had seen that there 
 could be any valid excuse for not doing what I com¬ 
 manded you, I would not have given you the com¬ 
 mand. Thou knewest that I was an austere man! 
 Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee , thou wicked 
 servant. Every excuse, every palliation which man 
 can think of to cover his sin, is always a device of 
 the carnal mind, and utterly a delusion, which, how¬ 
 ever valid it may appear, must perish in the presence 
 of the searching and infallible judgment of God. At 
 
 7# 
 
154 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 best it can be nothing more to his soul, than was the 
 flimsy girdle of fig leaves to the naked body o 
 
 Adam. 
 
 This universal tendency of the sinful soul to try to 
 cover its sin from its own eyes, and fiom the eye of 
 God, together with the folly of every such attempt, is 
 here symbolized in the most expressive manner, for 
 the revelation to every man of the deceitfulness of 
 his own depraved heart and mind. Nothing can 
 avert the judgment of God in condemnation of sin. 
 
 Thus also it is always, as here exemplified, that 
 what appears to man the most generous and self- 
 sacrifising action in the world, if it be forbidden by 
 the Wisdom of God, must in the end generate in his 
 soul the most loathsome and abominable selfishness; 
 or rather, it must become manifested as selfishness. 
 For as love is the fulfilling of the whole law, so self¬ 
 ishness, the want of love, must be the heait and 
 substance of all transgression of the law, however it 
 may disguise itself. This is the secret of that bittei 
 and terrible hatred which so often arises, and which 
 must sooner or later always arise, between those who 
 have been led into transgression of the Wisdom ol 
 God, by the force and passion of human love. When 
 the terror of God’s judgment reaches the soul, if not 
 before, all those feelings which seemed so generous 
 and self-sacrifising are brought out in their true cha¬ 
 racter. The semblance of generosity which they 
 wore is pierced through by the eye of God, and 
 stripped off. That only remains which was their 
 heart and substance from the first, such selfishness as 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 155 
 
 leads a man to lay the blame of his own sin upon his 
 God, and upon the wife of his bosom. God only can 
 choose for man what is truly generous. Man is not 
 able to choose by his own wisdom that which shall 
 abide the presence of the judgment of God. 
 
 As the Voice of God approaches nearer to the 
 origin ol sin, its questioning becomes more searching, 
 and implies more certain condemnation. What is 
 this that thou hast done ? And the woman said, 
 The serpent beguiled me , and I did eat. This is 
 the repetition in her of the same feelings and thoughts, 
 in the substance of them, which had already been 
 expressed by her husband, and which are symbol¬ 
 ized by the girdle of fig leaves. Only it is to be 
 observed that the word here translated, beguiled , 
 means to deceive by causing to forget. Instilling into 
 the mind of the woman his subtle and poisonous sug¬ 
 gestions, the tempter caused her to forget, to lose out 
 of mind the command she had received. When she 
 took of the tree and did eat , she was not thinking of 
 the law of God, but of the pleasure of indulgence. 
 She was in the act of seeing, that the tree was plea - 
 sant to the eye , and good for food, and to be desired 
 to make one wise. Thus, also, with the command, 
 the penalty of disobedience, announced to guard her 
 innocence, sank down out of her sight and faith, and 
 full before her stood the anticipated pleasure of grati¬ 
 fied desire. 
 
 In like manner it is universally true, and here set 
 forth to be recognised by all, that when the sensual 
 desires rise up in rebellion against the authority of 
 
1.56 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 the Wisdom of God, revealed through the conscience 
 in man, he is blinded. The law ol God seems to 
 recede. It grows dim and uncertain. The desiie 
 to experience immediate pleasure causes him to lose 
 out of mind the command, with its penalty. The 
 pleasure is something immediate, present and power¬ 
 ful. It looms large and full before him, so as to fill 
 his mind. The evil consequences of disobedience 
 are future, dim and shadowy. They are uncertain 
 in his eyes. The hope ol escape from them aiises. 
 The man is beguiled in being caused to forget. 
 
 In order to meet this universal tendency, and to 
 keep ever present to the mind ol the tempted, the 
 authority of the law ol God, with the ceitainty and 
 horrible nature of the penalty of disobedience, when 
 he, who is the only true light of the conscience, was 
 manifested in the flesh, he opened his mission with 
 the full announcement of the law. Till Heaven and 
 earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
 from the law till all he fulfilled. Also, the words in 
 which he, who suffered the whole force of the pen¬ 
 alty of disobedience, describes it, are of such ten ible 
 import that they cause the flesh to thrill, and the hail 
 to rise with horror. They are the outer darkness , 
 the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth , the 
 worm that never dies , and the unquenchable fire. 
 
 The Voice of God has followed the guilty parents 
 of the human race. In the midst ol their hiding- 
 place, under all the excuses and palliations which 
 they have been able to devise, the judgment of God 
 has reached them. Their poor girdle of fig leaves 
 
OF THE GIRDLE OF FJG LEAVES. 
 
 157 
 
 all stripped ofl^ naked they stand in the presence of 
 the flaming eye ot Truth. They submit themselves to 
 the judgment of him against whom they have sinned, 
 without excuse and without palliation, as now they 
 well know. They await the pronunciation in words 
 ot the doom which they have already incurred and 
 brought upon themselves; after which, God shall 
 clothe them in other covering than fig leaves, and by 
 other hands than their own. 
 
 Thus, also, must the judgment of God at last reach 
 the soul of every man who has sinned after the simi¬ 
 litude of Adam’s transgression. So long as he stands 
 framing excuses and palliations for his sin, seeks to 
 cover it from his own eyes and from God, to fly and 
 hide himself from the presence of the Voice in his 
 conscience; while he tries to escape conviction by 
 any means whatsoever, this judgment is yet a judg¬ 
 ment to come. It is following him, and one day shall 
 surely find him out. Stripped of all these, naked, 
 emptied of all self-trust, feeling that every excuse or 
 palliation that he can possibly think of, is utterly a 
 delusion, without the least validity, however it may 
 appear to his wisdom, sensible that he is utterly help¬ 
 less—thus, if he would be saved, he must surrender 
 himself into the hands of the judgment of God. Upon 
 him who does this, the judgment which God pro¬ 
 nounces shall be mercy. He shall baptize him with 
 all-purifying fire. He shall cause him to be crucified 
 with Christ, to die with him unto sin, that with him 
 he may live evermore unto God. He shall judge 
 the evil in him, and destroy it out of him. That 
 
158 
 
 OF THE GIRDLE OF FIG LEAVES. 
 
 which God shall lay upon him in the form ol toil and 
 sorrow and death, shall be the greatest blessing which 
 he, being sinful, can receive. It shall be the means, 
 by the grace of God, of purging out of him the seeds 
 of corruption and death. He shall be clothed with 
 the righteousness of God, by God’s own hands. 
 
 These are some of the truths, universal for man, 
 which are set forth by, and under these events in the 
 life of Adam. There are others, also, which can be 
 brought into a clearer light, when we come to tieat 
 of the clothing of man with the skins of slaughtered 
 animals by the hand ol God. 
 
OP THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 159 
 
 .. ' r ■ i f £ » 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 “ And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done 
 this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of 
 the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat 
 all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee 
 and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed. He shall 
 bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 
 
 In the temptation the Adversary succeeded in his 
 malignant design of destroying the moral image of 
 God from the soul of man; and reflected his own 
 likeness in its place. Now, therefore, he comes 
 under the curse which his own short-sighted subtlety, 
 the wisdom of enmity, has brought upon himself. 
 This curse is not pronounced upon him directly, but 
 upon the serpent, the instrument which he had chosen 
 to reflect his own likeness in the soul of man; and 
 it is only by recognising the truth, that here, as be¬ 
 fore, the serpent is taken as the symbol of the Devil, 
 that what is spoken of it becomes applicable to him, 
 and to his work and image in the spiritual nature of 
 man. We must proceed therefore, to empty the 
 symbol of some of its significancy. 
 
 The serpent, before declared to be more subtle 
 than any beast of the field, is unable, as we now be- 
 
160 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 hold him, to move in a straight, direct, right manner. 
 His movements are tortuous—the most oblique and 
 complicated involutions and evolutions of his whole 
 body. His eye is level with the ground, so that he 
 cannot see but the shortest distance ahead. He 
 grovels upon his belly. He is the most gieedy of 
 all creatures. His food is of the most loathsome 
 and abominable kind, which he swallows in the 
 crudest masses. His mouth is full of deadly poison, 
 which he seeks to inject into every other creatuie. 
 He is the enemy of all things above himself, espe¬ 
 cially of man ; and man is his enemy. They meet 
 only that the serpent may bruise his heel, and he 
 crush the serpent’s head. This is the symbol here 
 appointed by God to describe the nature and destiny 
 of Satan, and of his likeness, the serpent in man. 
 
 The spiritual adversary of God and man, there¬ 
 fore, knows not the straight, direct, right guidance 
 of the Wisdom and authority of God, which com¬ 
 mands him to do this as right, and forbids him to do 
 that as wrong. This he has cast ofl for the wis¬ 
 dom of subtlety, his own creature, calculating wis¬ 
 dom, which moves towards those objects only which 
 seem good to itself, by the oblique and complicated 
 involutions and evolutions of the reasoning mind. 
 His is not simple or direct or right, but tortuous. 
 Now this wisdom, as we have seen, is not and can¬ 
 not be, to any creature destined to immortality, an 
 
 * “ These animals (serpents) are above all others the most vora¬ 
 cious. Happy is it for mankind that the rapacity of these frightful 
 creatures is often their punishment.”— Buffon. 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 161 
 
 adequate guide of choice between good and evil. 
 Therefore he is, with all his subtlety, short-sighted. 
 His eye is level with the ground. He is a grovelling 
 power ; utterly unable to look up to the pure, the 
 true, the beautiful, the holy, with adoration and love. 
 Towards these things, as he beholds them, he feels 
 a perfect hatred. Evil he calls good, and good evil. 
 He loves the loathsome and abominable; all things 
 that tend to work evil. It is his meat and his drink 
 to do his own malignant will. His mouth is full of 
 deadly poison, which he continually seeks to inject 
 into all other natures, that he may destroy their spi¬ 
 ritual well-being. He wages unceasing warfare 
 against everything above him, especially against 
 God, and God’s image in man. But in all this he 
 brings upon himself the evil which he intends against 
 others. While he bruises the heel of the Seed of 
 the woman, in and by the very act, he places his 
 head under that heel, by which it is crushed, and his 
 power destroyed. 
 
 The great and decisive battle of this warfare, 
 which had raged from the fall of Satan, in which his 
 power was broken, and his head crushed, was 
 fought by the Word and Wisdom of God incarnate 
 in the man Christ Jesus. He entered into the human 
 soul, the nature of man, from which his image had 
 been defaced, and the image of Satan set up in its 
 place; from which the authority of his wisdom had 
 been dethroned, to give place to the subtlety of the 
 Devil. He met the enemy in his own dominions, 
 conquered him there, and expelled him thence. In 
 
162 
 
 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 the flesh of Adam he encountered all the subtlety 
 and malignity of Satan. He foiled all his weapons. 
 The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the 
 pride of a life independent of God, by which the 
 first man had been overcome, had no power over 
 him, the Second Man. In Jesus of Nazareth, he 
 brought the flesh and soul and wisdom of man once 
 more into perfect and filial subjection to, and unity 
 with God, by revealing in him the Word and Wis¬ 
 dom of God with power. Thus in Jesus, preserving 
 him against all the assaults of the enemy, from all 
 spot and taint of sin, he redeemed and rescued the 
 nature of man. 
 
 When, in the mystery of the Wisdom of God, 
 whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, it was seen 
 to be indispensable to the deliverance of his brethren 
 from the power of the Devil, that Jesus should bear 
 their curse, voluntarily he took it upon himself. 
 He descended to the source of the evil which had 
 invaded human nature, to the lowest depths of the 
 curse ; and by voluntarily bearing it, overcame it. 
 For a man is not subdued by what he voluntarily 
 suffers, but conquers it, by the force of his will. 
 Therefore Jesus is so careful to declare, I lay down 
 my life of myself; no man taketh it from me. I have 
 power to lay it down and have power to take it again. 
 He was born of the woman according to the judg¬ 
 ment pronounced upon her for her sin. Voluntarily 
 he bore the cruel hatred and scorn of his brethren. 
 Voluntarily he submitted himself to the wrath of 
 God, and expiated the guilt of the sinner by offering 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 163 
 
 up himself for the sacrifice, a lamb without spot. 
 He took upon himself shame and toil and sorrow 
 and death, the judgment of man for sin; and thus 
 made atonement between God and man. He 
 overcame death by rising from under its bonds into 
 newness of life, that he might destroy him who had 
 the power of death , that is, the Devil. Out of the 
 dark and mournful grave he brought life and im¬ 
 mortality to light. He revealed the blessing that is 
 in all the afflictions of the mortal life; and thus 
 took away their sting. He turned everything into 
 blessing, into the means of salvation from sin, to all 
 who believe on him. 
 
 But above all, upon the cross he triumphed over 
 the subtlety and malignity of Satan, in that he made 
 him the instrument of destroying his own power. 
 For all that the Power of evil could do, was to lay 
 that only foundation stone of the salvation of man 
 which could be laid, and which is the crucified 
 Christ. Here it was, by the Redeemer upon the 
 cross, to which he had been nailed by the malice of 
 the Devil, that he, with all his principalities and 
 powers was triumphed over when most he seemed 
 to triumph. Here he was made a spectacle of 
 mockery and derision to the universe. By the de¬ 
 monstration here given of the short-sighted folly of 
 his wisdom, the wisdom of subtlety, in that it is 
 damned to overreach and confound itself, the power 
 of Satan over all who believe in the cross is de¬ 
 stroyed. Here the head of the serpent is crushed. 
 All the manifestations of his power which have ap- 
 
164 
 
 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 peared in the world since the day of the cross, are 
 but the writhings of the lower extremities of a 
 wounded snake, whose head has been crushed by 
 the heel of man. 
 
 But this symbol also describes the nature and des¬ 
 tiny of the likeness of Satan in man. This is that in 
 virtue of which the Scribes and Pharisees are called, 
 Children of the devil, A generation of serpents; in 
 virtue of which Elymas the sorcerer is addressed in 
 the words, O full of all subtlety and mischief, thou 
 child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, 
 wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the 
 Lord ? The head of this serpent in man is subtlety, 
 the wisdom of the creature erected into independ¬ 
 ence of, and opposition to the Wisdom of God. It is 
 that wisdom in man which is first by its own nature, 
 earthly, belonging to the sensual nature, but which 
 adopted as the guide of choice between good and 
 evil, becomes devilish. It is the carnal or fleshly 
 mind. 
 
 In the act of adopting this his own creature wis¬ 
 dom as the guide of life, as we have seen, man re¬ 
 belled against the authority of the Wisdom of God. 
 He cast off the simple, direct, right wisdom of au¬ 
 thority revealed in his conscience, commanding this 
 and forbidding that, and bringing down from God 
 into his soul the knowledge of the eternal difference 
 between good and evil. He fell back upon his own 
 creature wisdom, upon his own insights, upon the 
 oblique and complicated processes of his own mind, 
 as a guide of choice between good and evil. This 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 165 
 
 was his sin. But under the guidance of this wisdom 
 every choice of the man must be prescribed and dic¬ 
 tated beforehand by the appetites, desires and affec¬ 
 tions of the earthly nature at whose head it stands. 
 According to it, he judges of all things from the earth¬ 
 ly point of view. But, since he is destined to immor¬ 
 tality, this is always a partial and false view. To 
 do this is to be short-sighted as the serpent, whose 
 head is level with the ground. For the only far¬ 
 sighted wisdom is that of the conscience, which, 
 when it is trulv heard, and other voices are not mis- 
 taken for its voice, gives its oracles of distinction be¬ 
 tween good and evil, according to God’s knowledge 
 of these things, and in view of their everlasting con¬ 
 sequences. Therefore man chooses evil instead of good. 
 The evil of his choice enters into his own nature, de¬ 
 grading and defiling it by reflex influence. Thus is 
 strengthened and developed that evil which was the 
 principle of the first act of sin. He falls prone upon his 
 belly and grovels. He is no longer able to look upwards 
 towards that which is pure and holy and self-sacri- 
 fising with adoration and love. The immaculate 
 holiness of Christ makes no more favorable impres¬ 
 sion upon him in thi$ state than it did upon the 
 Scribes and Pharisees. Speak to him now of the 
 beauty of holiness , and he knows not what you mean. 
 There is no beauty in this that he should desire it. 
 Tell him of the charm of meekness under insult and 
 injury, of love to his enemies, of returning good for 
 evil and he knows not whereof you speak. The 
 force of these words, beauty and charm , thus applied, 
 
166 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 does not reach him at all. Show him a good man, 
 after the Wisdom and example of Christ, denying 
 himself for the benefit ol others, sacrifising his life 
 and fortune to the welfare of his brethren, and all 
 that he sees is a hypocrite, or a fanatic and fool. 
 Lead him to the cross of Calvary, show him the man 
 Jesus laying down his life in agony and blood for his 
 brethren, and he will cry, He saved others ; himself he 
 cannot save. Come down from the cross if thou he 
 the Son of God, and I will believe. That joy for 
 which the Redeemer endured the cross, despising the 
 shame, is absolutely inconceivable to him. The 
 Word of God is no longer food to him: he thinks he 
 can live upon bread alone. 
 
 Ah! he is subtle but not wise. The knowledge 
 of the whole world of physical things may be laid 
 open before him. He may stretch nature upon the 
 rack and extort from her all her secrets. He may 
 bridge the ocean with his ships, and weave over the 
 earth a network of railroad. He may harness the 
 winged lightning to bear his messages from pole to 
 pole. He may be master of the most rigid and 
 powerful logic, as a child controls the motions of his 
 puppet. He may embrace the most comprehensive 
 formulas of that science which pertains to things 
 earthly and perishable, and which is all concluded 
 within the limits of the ideas of time and space. 
 The highest abstractions of mathematics, and meta¬ 
 physics may be his playthings. Yet with all this, 
 when you speak to him of God and spirit, of right 
 and wrong, he will reply, I cannot see nor hear 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 167 
 
 nor taste nor feel, nor smell God nor spirit nor right 
 nor wrong. God is but a phantom of man’s imagi¬ 
 nation, created by his fears. There is no right nor 
 wrong but pleasure and pain. 
 
 All this, the creature wisdom erected into indepen¬ 
 dence of the wisdom of God, is utterly in vain as a 
 guide of choice between good and evil. Hence in 
 its highest development, in the philosophers of the 
 French revolution, it could lead to nothing but a reign 
 of terror. Under its guidance the true light of life, 
 which enlightens every man that comes into the 
 world, through his conscience, goes out; and the 
 man is damned continually to choose amiss, evil for 
 good, and thus to reduce himself more and more to 
 the proneness of the serpent. All the most acute 
 and subtle and scientific operations of his understand¬ 
 ing are levied upon for the attainment of the gratifi¬ 
 cations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye 
 and the pride of a life independent of God. For 
 riches, honor, fame, beauty; whatever can gratify 
 the appetites, desires and affections; whatever can 
 feed the pride, and exalt the wisdom of the earthly 
 nature, he is greedy as the serpent. He feeds upon 
 the bread of envy, deceit, pride, vanity and lust. 
 This is the loathsome food he relishes. His tastes 
 and miserable enjoyments are only of that which 
 pertains to this world, of evil. On his belly he goes, 
 and eats dirt all the days of his life. 
 
 Also, his mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. 
 The poison of asps is under their tongues. The 
 enmity of all those who bear the image of the ser- 
 
168 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 pent against the Seed of the woman is deadly and 
 implacable. The dragon in them makes war upon 
 all in whom the Seed is found, and will not be paci¬ 
 fied but when drinking their blood. To this let the 
 death of Jesus testify. To this let the blood of his 
 martyrs witness. 01 this the infidelity of the reign 
 of terror is a proof. “ Crush the wretch.”* This is 
 the shibboleth of the seed of the serpent in their 
 warfare against the seed of the woman. For this 
 “ wretch” was none other than he in whose life and 
 sufferings and death, is seen nothing but meekness 
 and purity and love and self-sacrifice for the good of 
 others, even Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 This is the likeness of Satan, the serpent in man, 
 whose head, in all them that believe, is crushed 
 by Christ upon the cross. In order to see that this 
 is so, we must now inquire after what manner it is 
 done. 
 
 The fundamental idea ol the Gospel is the doctrine 
 of atonement or reconciliation made between God 
 and man by the obedience, sufferings and death of 
 Christ; whereby the justice of God is satisfied, so 
 that he can be just, and yet the justifier of him that 
 believeth in Jesus. This is a stupendous mystery to 
 all creature wisdom, wholly insoluble by the rational 
 mind of man. The logical connection between the 
 sufferings of Christ and the satisfaction of the justice 
 of God for the sinner, cannot be traced. It defies 
 
 * These words were written at the close of the letters of corres¬ 
 pondence between Frederick II. of Prussia and Voltaire, to express 
 their implacable malignity against Christ. 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 169 
 
 the human understanding. It is announced to man 
 upon the authority of the Wisdom of God, and he is 
 required to believe it in order to be saved. 
 
 Against the truth of this declaration of God, the 
 wisdom of the serpent in man, the carnal mind, 
 makes war with all its subtlety and power, to prevent 
 it from being believed. The weapons of its attack 
 aie such as these. Ought not God to love his own 
 Son, being innocent and pure and holy, better than 
 man unholy, polluted and rebellious ? Is it right that 
 he should lay the sufferings of the guilty upon an 
 innocent pei son even though he, having received the 
 command from his father, be willing to make the 
 sacrifice ? If God so loved man as to provide a pro¬ 
 pitiation for his sins, not even sparing his own Son 
 to accomplish this object, what need of a substitute 
 at all to piopitiate him ? W^ashenot already wholly 
 piopitious to man, since it is he who so loves man as 
 to find a propitiation for him, even in the sacrifice of 
 his own Son? True and proper justice does not 
 demand that the innocent should suffer in place of 
 the guilty. It demands that the guilty should be 
 punished. How then can the justice of God be 
 satisfied with what justice does not demand ? 
 
 To these and a thousand like cavils of the wisdom 
 of the serpent, it is in vain to reply that the justice 
 of God is not satisfied after a true and proper manner, 
 but God’s violated law demands a victim to honor it 
 in the eyes of the universe; that the sacrifice of 
 Christ is designed merely as a grand moral spectacle 
 to impress upon all intelligent creatures a proper 
 
 8 
 
170 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 sense of its authority and inviolability. It is m vain 
 to introduce here illustrations drawn from the imper¬ 
 fection of human governments. These and all such 
 views and illustrations are out of place heie. Foi 
 the law of God is the faithful transcription, the undis¬ 
 torted mirror of his nature and attributes. If theie- 
 fore there be anything in his law which demands 
 satisfaction for sin, there must be something in him 
 which demands satisfaction for sin. How can there 
 be any feature in the image and reflection which is 
 not in that of which it is the image and reflection 1 
 No less in vain is it to reply to these cavils, that 
 the idea of justice, as it appears in the consciousness 
 of man, is the abstract proposition that sin must be 
 punished, but that it says not upon whom it must be 
 punished ; whether upon the sinner or his substitute. 
 The consciousness of man does not give abstract 
 propositions at all. These are reached by a piocess 
 of generalization or abstraction. The consciousness 
 of man does not say sin must be punished. It utters 
 in tones of thunder, My sin must be punished upon 
 me. We cannot take out of this affirmation one 
 part, and reason from that as true, then reject the 
 rest. This argument for the necessity of a victim to 
 satisfy the justice of God, which is drawn from the 
 consciousness of man, as if it declared the abstiact 
 proposition, that sin must be punished, but did not 
 say upon whom the punishment must be inflicted, 
 whether upon the innocent or the guilty, is peihaps 
 the most shallow sophism, that was ever devised by 
 man to reconcile the Wisdom of God to his own. 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 171 
 
 To reply with this to the cavil, no less than to reduce 
 the sacrifice of Christ to a mere governmental 
 scheme to save the honor of the law in the eyes of 
 the moral universe, as if God’s law were something 
 arbitrary, and not the express transcript of his nature, 
 is to answer the serpent with his own subtlety. 
 When the atonement of Christ is received and be¬ 
 lieved in for such reasons as these, and would be 
 rejected if these answers were not given, it is 
 leceived only because it is thought to commend 
 itself in the eyes of that very sensual wisdom, or 
 carnal mind, which it was given to crush. 
 
 The only scriptural answer to these and all possi¬ 
 ble cavils of the serpent, is, Ofool! who art thou that 
 repliest against God ? This is the thing which is 
 announced upon the authority of the Wisdom of God, 
 to be believed in as truth because God has said it. 
 The substitution of the Innocent in place of the guilty 
 is foolishness in the eyes of man’s wisdom. This is 
 the foolishness of the cross, which Paul was so care¬ 
 ful to preach. God has warned us beforehand that 
 it would seem to be folly in our eyes; not because 
 it is folly, but because man’s wisdom is a fool, and 
 cannot see things aright. In itself it is the Wisdom 
 of God ; but man, left to himself, is such a fool that 
 what is truly the highest wisdom, even the Wisdom 
 of God, seems to be folly in his eyes. For the folly 
 of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. Now it is 
 evident that man, in the fact of believing in the 
 validity of the sufferings of the innocent Son of God, 
 for the justification of the sinner, which is foolishness 
 
172 
 
 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 to him, yet declared by God as the truth, must 
 utterly renounce the validity of his own wisdom in 
 favor of the Wisdom of God. In the fact of receiving 
 this as the truth upon the authority of the Wisdom of 
 God, is the wisdom of man in whose eyes it is folly, 
 confessed and felt to be that which it truly is, a fool. 
 Confidence in it, as a guide of choice between good 
 and evil, is destroyed. By receiving that as true, 
 which is folly in its eyes, the carnal mind, the head 
 of the Serpent in man is crushed. The Wisdom of 
 God is submitted to, and felt to be the only true law 
 of distinction between good and evil. 
 
 A single illustration may be here given. When 
 the little child looks up to the heavens above, if left 
 to his own intelligence, he will be perfectly sure that 
 the sun moves, and the earth stands still. His father 
 tells him that the fact is not at all as it appears to 
 him ; but the earth is turning round faster than his 
 top, and the sun stands still. It is foolishness in his 
 eyes. He cannot yet receive any demonstration of 
 the truth. But he has faith in his father, in his truth 
 and wisdom. He believes what he is told to be the 
 truth, although it does not so appear to him, because 
 his father has told him so. In the fact of believing 
 in this truth, in opposition to wdiat would be his own 
 independent judgment, he renounces his own wisdom, 
 and adopts that of his father in its place. He cannot 
 believe this without feeling that his own view of 
 things, compared with the wisdom of his father, is 
 folly. 
 
 This is the effect produced in man by faith in *he 
 
OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 173 
 
 atonement of Christ, upon the authority of the Wisdom 
 of God. Because it is opposed to his own wisdom, and 
 yet true, in believing it, he recovers that truth which 
 he lost in the Fall, that his own wisdom is a fool; 
 that God only is wise, and therefore alone competent 
 to be to him an adequate guide of choice in the dis¬ 
 tinction between good and evil. He therefore who 
 would explain away what Paul calls the foolishness 
 of the cross of Christ, which he preached lest the 
 cross should be made of more effect; who would 
 commend it in the eyes of human wisdom, takes away 
 from it all its power to crush the carnal mind, the 
 head of the Serpent in man. Thus preached it can 
 be neither stumbling-block to the Jew, nor folly to 
 the Greek ; neither can it be the Wisdom of God and 
 the power of God, unto salvation to any sinful soul. 
 
 This work of the Seed of the woman is now going 
 in the world in these last times . He is crushing the 
 head of the Serpent in man, by his Holy Spirit, 
 through the faith of his cross. And this shall go on, 
 whosoever would hinder it, until he send forth his 
 judgment unto victory . 
 
 Thus is the character and destiny of Satan, and of 
 his likeness in man, set forth under this most power¬ 
 ful symbol, appointed by God; and which yet 
 remains, and shall remain before the eyes of the 
 human race while the sin of Adam is found upon the 
 earth. 
 
 Therefore, wherever we behold this infamous 
 creature, the Serpent, we are to see reflected the 
 accursed nature and consequences and destiny of 
 
 
174 OF THE CURSE UPON THE SERPENT. 
 
 subtlety, the wisdom of the creature erected into 
 independence of, and opposition to the Wisdom of 
 God, as a guide of choice between good and evil. 
 When we consider the enmity between man and the 
 snake, we are to regard it as an institution ot God, 
 which it is to symbolize and set before our eyes the 
 enmity between God and Satan, and that between 
 God’s image in man and the carnal mind. When we 
 feel that peculiar horror and loathing in the presence 
 of the serpent which is universal, and to be cheiished 
 as a divinely appointed symbol, we are to learn fiom 
 that, with what loathing the wisdom of subtlety in 
 opposition to the Wisdom ol God, is to be legalded. 
 From the deadly sting of the serpent, we are to know 
 the agonies of Christ for us; and how deadly is the 
 poison which the carnal mind, in its enmity, infuses 
 into the spirit of man; and with what power it cor¬ 
 rupts and destroys the image ol God in him. And 
 when we crush the serpent’s head we are to behold 
 in that the symbol appointed by God to keep before 
 our eyes the truth that he does utterly crush this 
 earthly and sensual and devilish wisdom in Satan 
 and in man, which, in pride and folly and madness, 
 the creature has dared to prefer to the Wisdom of 
 God as a guide and criterion of distinction between 
 
 good and evil. # 
 
 * The ancient Egyptians, instructed perhaps by the tradition ot 
 this account, symbolized the prudential wisdom of man, with the 
 logical faculty, which reaches its conclusions by oblique and com¬ 
 plicated evolutions and involutions of thought, under the form of 
 the serpent in motion. 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 175 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 “ 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.” 
 
 If anything were wanting to demonstrate that 
 what is said in this account of the first man and 
 woman, is spoken of them as types or representatives 
 of the whole race, it is found here. For this judg¬ 
 ment pronounced upon the first woman, without any 
 intimation of its application to any one else, is found 
 to be, as a matter of fact, the judgment upon woman 
 as such. 
 
 From the foregoing views, we may perhaps be 
 able to understand, why the tempter addressed him¬ 
 self first to the woman rather than to the man. For 
 it is to be observed, that she was beguiled into trans¬ 
 gression by means of a sophism, which now it is easy 
 to detect. It was a petitio principvi ,—a begging of 
 the question. When the serpent advised her to aspire 
 after a knowledge which might be to her an indepen¬ 
 dent and sufficient guide of choice between good and 
 evil, he admitted, in substance, that she was not then 
 able to guide herself upon this point; but he insisted 
 that, if she would eat of the forbidden tree, that 
 
176 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 would open her eyes, so that she would after that be 
 as God, knowing good and evil. But in order to ob¬ 
 tain this knowledge, she must first act upon the as¬ 
 sumption, that she was already able to choose aright 
 in this case, when her eyes were not yet opened, in 
 order to become able to choose aright hereaftei ; 
 that is to say, she must assume that her eyes were 
 already opened, in order that they might become 
 opened. The sophism is transparent. 
 
 But, as we have seen, the woman is by creation 
 inferior, dependent upon, and in subjection to the 
 man, in respect to the earthly nature, by which she is 
 married to him. But especially is she inferior to him 
 in that sensual wisdom which stands at the head of 
 this nature, whose legitimate sphere is the knowledge 
 of things which pertain to the mortal life. When, 
 therefore, the appeal is made to this faculty, she is 
 more easily imposed upon than is he, by such false 
 suggestions and sophistical reasonings as the tempter 
 employed. 
 
 And since it was by means of this earthly nature 
 in them that the temptation must succeed, if at all, 
 since it was its light or wisdom which was to be 
 erected into an independent guide of choice between 
 good and evil, there was a manifest subtlety in ap¬ 
 pealing first to it in the woman, where it would be 
 most easily imposed upon by false suggestions and 
 sophistical reasonings. Here he would be most 
 likely to succeed, by drawing that wisdom in her 
 which was weaker than in her husband, and made to 
 be dependent upon, and in subjection to him, first, 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 177 
 
 into independence of and opposition to him, then, to 
 the Wisdom of God. 
 
 Also, since the subjection of the woman, in respect 
 to her earthly nature, to the man, was one of the 
 symbols appointed by God to reflect into their souls 
 their subjection to him, if she could be led to appeal 
 to this wisdom independently of her husband, this 
 symbol would be destroyed, and the truth, which it 
 was intended to nourish in their hearts, would be left 
 without its support. This symbol being violated, and 
 the woman seduced, her influence would be united 
 with the wiles of the tempter, to accomplish his ma¬ 
 lignant designs upon the father and head of the 
 human race, and through him upon all his posterity. 
 
 But if they had continued in that estate in which 
 they were created, it is evident that this subjection of 
 the earthly nature of the woman to the man could 
 never have been felt as a burden or inconvenience— 
 as anything else than a blessing, any more than that 
 subjection of themselves to God, of which it was the 
 divinely appointed symbol, could be felt as anything 
 else than a blessing. For this nature in her was 
 created inferior to, and necessarily dependent upon 
 him, as they were inferior to, and of necessity depen¬ 
 dent upon God. Also, while they both remained 
 filled and informed with the Wisdom of God, as the 
 guide of their life, the man could not require of the 
 woman anything but that which was right, and which 
 it would be her dearest human happiness to perform. 
 Nor could her dependence upon her husband be felt 
 
 before, as it must now be since her sfn. For in their 
 
 8 * 
 
178 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 garden of Paradise she had been surrounded with all 
 things which were good for her. The food of hei 
 mortal nature stood ready provided to her hand. She 
 needed none to toil lor her support ; none to defend 
 her from violence and harm. Her subjection to her 
 husband was the blissful dependence of confidence 
 and love; the repose of her earthly nature in his, as 
 they together rested, with the 'peace that passeth all 
 understanding , in God, the husband of their spiiitual 
 nature. 
 
 But now all things were sadly changed. For she 
 had seduced her husband into transgression, by which 
 he had cast off the only right guidance, that of the 
 Wisdom of God. She had thus become the means of 
 destroying all security for his requiring of her only 
 what would be right, and what she would be pleased 
 to do. That nature in which they were one, whose 
 desires and affections had flowed so sweetly together, 
 would be one in perfection no longer. Its unity was 
 shattered. Conflicting opinions and judgments would 
 now arise between them. Feelings which had moved 
 in unison and harmony, would jar in harsh discord. 
 They both had become selfish and wayward crea¬ 
 tures, full of whim and caprice. He would be tyran¬ 
 nical, jealous and cruel. But to his worst tyranny, 
 to his most unreasonable ill-treatment, to all his abuse 
 of her weakness, she must submit. For one cause 
 alone could she be allowed to separate from him du¬ 
 ring her mortal life. And even this greatest offence 
 she would often find it easier to pass over, than to 
 separate from him who was the head of her earthly 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 179 
 
 nature. Now, also, they were about to be driven 
 forth into a world cursed for their $ake, so that it 
 would yield them a scanty and meagre subsistence, 
 not until it should be subdued by labor, to which the 
 strength of the woman was inadequate. Evil days 
 were at hand, days of unbridled lust and bloodshed, 
 when the whole earth should b q filled with violence. 
 If she had been left to her own courage and hardi¬ 
 hood and strength, doubtless she would have perished^ 
 and with her the human race. 
 
 Therefore her desire should be to her husband, and 
 he should rule over her. This expression is repeated 
 of Abel to his elder brother, Cain. His desire shall 
 he to thee , and thou shalt rule over him. Its force is, 
 that Abel should feel his inferiority to his brother in 
 physical strength, in age, and in the dignity ol his 
 birth ; should be conscious of dependence upon him, 
 and should look to him with desire for counsel, guid¬ 
 ance and protection: so that Cain, as the inheritor 
 of the birthright, and its authority over the other 
 members of the family, should have the ascendency 
 and rule over him. So the woman had reduced her¬ 
 self to that state in which she needed one of greater 
 strength, and courage, and hardihood, to toil for her 
 support, to defend her from violence, and to be a guide 
 to her mortal life through its pathway of thorns and 
 thistles. She would be forced to recognise and to 
 feel that dependence upon her husband which she had 
 so foolishly violated, because now it was necessary 
 even to the preservation of her existence. Now that 
 nature in her by whose rebellion she had sinned, 
 
180 
 
 Of THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 would be forced back into a sense of its inferiority, 
 and into subjection, by the circumstances into which 
 she had plunged herself by her sin. The responsi¬ 
 bility and care of providing for the mortal life ot them 
 both was committed to the man, and with it necessa¬ 
 rily the right and the duty of supervision and control. 
 Henceforth, with desire must she look to him for 
 guidance, defence and support, even though his rule 
 over her should be capricious, tyrannical and cruel. 
 
 Thus it is plain that, by the sin of the woman, a 
 form and significancy are given to her subjection 
 to the man. In this new form it is not only the 
 symbol of her subjection to God, but also ot the 
 nature and consequences of her sin, and a chastise¬ 
 ment of her guilt. That nature in her, by whose 
 proud elevation to command where it had nothing to 
 do but obey, she sinned, is now, by the circumstan¬ 
 ces in which she has placed hersell, forced back into 
 subjection to her husband, that thereby it may be 
 trained to submission to the Wisdom of God. This 
 subjection is now a most holy symbol to nourish 
 penitence and humiliation, and the feeling of her de¬ 
 pendence upon God. 
 
 To the influence of this symbol in the long series 
 of generations, is to be ascribed in a great degree, 
 the difference between man and woman as they are 
 now found, in respect to susceptibility of religious 
 impressions. For as the essence of all sin against 
 God is rebellion, so the very heart and substance of 
 true piety is submission—the perfect subordination of 
 the earthly to the spiritual nature ; of the spiritual 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 181 
 
 nature to the conscience, and of the conscience to 
 the Word and Wisdom of God, This submission is 
 that of faith and conscious dependence in love ; first, 
 passively, to every, even the least event of life, re¬ 
 garded as the ordination of the wisdom and love of 
 God; and secondly, in an active sense, the submis¬ 
 sion of obedience to every command of his law. 
 Now that nature in the woman by whose rebellion, 
 seeking to lead and command where it had nothing to do 
 but to follow and obey, she sinned, is forced back into 
 conscious dependence and submission to her husband. 
 This prefigures in her and ushers in, the subjection 
 of her spiritual nature to God, of which it is his ap¬ 
 pointed and consecrated symbol. It works in her 
 the same effect which is produced in the child by his 
 subjection to the authority of his parents. It is to 
 her what the law of Moses was to the sincere and 
 obedient Israelite—it is her schoolmaster to lead 
 her to Christ. Thus as a little child brought up in 
 obedience and subjection, she is led by the Lord 
 into his kingdom, more readily, and with less resist¬ 
 ance, than is man. 
 
 For man has this holy symbol before him, but not 
 in him. He beholds it, but does not feel its chastis¬ 
 ing and subduing power. There is none in this 
 world to whom his earthly nature, with the pride of 
 its strength and wisdom, is forced into subjection. 
 Therefore it has unfolded itself in him with ranker 
 luxuriance than in woman. The mind in him has be¬ 
 come so puffed up with the pride and conceit of its 
 success in the sciences that pertain to this life, that it 
 
182 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 obstinately refuses to stoop to the humiliating sub¬ 
 mission of the gospel. It cannot consent to account 
 itself a fool that it may be filled with the authority of 
 the Wisdom of God. It has thus attained a more 
 formidable development in man than in woman. It 
 has even reached that monstrous arrogance that he 
 undertakes to explain and give account of her greater 
 susceptibility of religious impressions, by her inferi¬ 
 ority to him—inferiority only in that which is earthly 
 and mortal, and in that wisdom which is conversant 
 only with the things that perish. Inferior in all this 
 indeed she is; but in that charity which never fail- 
 eth ; in that which is meek and humble and self- 
 sacrifising and submissive to God ; which is capable 
 of conscious dependence upon, and obedience to him, 
 in love, woman, as she is now found, is immeasura¬ 
 bly superior to man. Most blessed has this subjec¬ 
 tion of the woman proved to her spiritual well-being. 
 
 We must now turn our attention to the infliction 
 upon the woman for her sin, of pain and sorrow in 
 child-bearing. This also has an immediate connec¬ 
 tion with, and relation to the nature of her sin. For 
 she had sinned by the elevation of her sensual nature 
 with its wisdom over the spiritual in her, and over its 
 informing light, the authority of the Wisdom of God. 
 For the gratification of the lust of the flesh and the 
 1 ust of the eye, and the desire to be wise in a sense 
 in which she was not already wise, she had not scru¬ 
 pled to rebel against the authority of the clearly 
 enunciated law of God, revealed from without and 
 within. And now was attached to the gratification 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 183 
 
 of those feelings in her in which the whole force of 
 the sensual nature is summed up and concentrated, 
 the most terrible pain and anguish and sorrow which 
 she could suffer and yet live. Thus she received in 
 that nature by which she had been led to transgress, 
 a terrible memorial and symbol of the nature and 
 consequences of her sin, to reflect into her soul the 
 knowledge and conviction of the sin itself, and also 
 of the fearful spiritual chastisement to which she had 
 subjected herself, that she might go in penitence and 
 humiliation all her days. 
 
 This institution of God set up in the bosom of daily 
 life, for the most holy purposes, the ingenuity and 
 folly of men have been able neither to destroy nor 
 corrupt. It remains universal as the race, and as the 
 sin of man; modified only by the degree of the 
 strength in which the sin which is after the simili¬ 
 tude of Adam’s transgression , is found. For among 
 savages and the most degraded of the human race, 
 who have no clearly enunciated law of right and 
 wrong revealed from without or within; whose sin, 
 therefore, against such a law cannot be clear and 
 precise and conscious, the pains and sorrows of child¬ 
 bearing are very light. Their sin after the simili¬ 
 tude of Adam’s transgression, the preference of their 
 own wisdom over the clearly enunciated and recog¬ 
 nised Wisdom of God, is ill defined. Therefore the 
 symbol of this sin has not assumed that terrible 
 form and power among them which it has among 
 civilized nations. When the commandment shall 
 come to them sin shall revive ; and this symbol of its 
 
184 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 nature and consequences shall assume that fearful 
 form which it has wherever there is rebellion against 
 the known law. The luxury with other means by 
 which this judgment is executed, is not here left out 
 of view. For luxury itself, enervating the physical 
 constitution, is one of the clearest and strongest 
 manifestations of rebellion against the known law; 
 since it is not possible except where man has brought 
 his mind with all its powers into subservience to the 
 gratification of the desires of the sensual nature ; 
 that is to say, among civilized, reflecting and enlight¬ 
 ened nations. For among these the law of right and 
 wrong, however it may be rebelled against, is always 
 clearest and most precise. 
 
 To him who looks upon all things in the light of 
 the Word and Wisdom of God, this judgment upon 
 the woman is a most solemn and holy thing. For 
 since it was instituted by God as a memorial of the 
 nature and punishment of sin, as such it is always 
 regarded and treated in the Scriptures. For this 
 purpose it is used with a frequency and emphasis 
 second only to death itself. Whether it be the 
 penalty of sin laid upon Christ, through whose suffer¬ 
 ings the new man is born into the kingdom, or that 
 inflicted upon the sinner himself, the judgment of 
 God is continually set forth under this powerful 
 symbol. 
 
 For, although the sinner may long pursue with 
 seeming impunity the objects of the desires of his 
 own heart; though the pleasure of the gratification 
 of the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 185 
 
 the pride of life, may be keen and transporting for 
 the moment, causing him utterly to forget the law of 
 his God, and to lose the conscience of sin , for the 
 time; though the evil consequences of sin may be 
 long deferred, they are inevitable—a judgment cer¬ 
 tain to come. They shall come upon him in a mo¬ 
 ment when he is in perfect fancied security, suddenly; 
 with such surprising and terrible power, that all the 
 fleeting pleasure of sin shall be swallowed up, and 
 no more remembered, except with pain and anguish 
 and sorrow. They shall he afraid; pangs and sor¬ 
 row shall take hold upon them: they shall he in pain 
 as a woman that travaileth. When they shall say , 
 peace and safety , then sudden destruction cometh upon 
 them as travail upon a woman with child; and they 
 shall not escape. 
 
 Also, under this symbol the doctrine of the birth 
 of the soul into the kingdom of God through the suf¬ 
 ferings of Christ, is continually set forth. Verily I 
 say unto thee , except a man he horn again he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God. ... He shall see of the travail 
 of his soul and he satisfied. In these and a great 
 multitude of kindred passages, the relation which the 
 son of God bears to the redeemed, for whose sins he 
 suffered the judgment of God, is symbolized, and 
 shadowed down to man under the relation which 
 the human mother bears to her children, who are 
 born not otherwise than through her pangs. 
 
 This institution of God it is which perhaps, more 
 than anything else, rebukes the unspiritual and un¬ 
 circumcised mind of man, so prone to cavil at the 
 
186 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 doctrine of the Word, that he must be born into the 
 kingdom of God, into eternal life, through the suffer¬ 
 ings of another. It speaks to all who have ears to 
 hear, as with the voice of God from heaven, conde¬ 
 scending to reason with them. Do you not see that 
 the child of human parents comes into the world 
 only through pangs and sorrows ? Gan you think 
 that I have ordained this wonderful fact for nothing ? 
 Can you not learn from it to put to silence the ob- 
 . jections of your foolish mind against the declaration 
 of my Wisdom, that the spiritual children of the 
 Redeemer, the receivers of his life, and the heirs of 
 his glory, can be born only through the sufferings of 
 him who is both father and mother in one ? 
 
 Also under this symbol is set forth the joy of 
 Christ, for which he endured the cross, despising the 
 shame. For, as the woman remembereth no more the 
 anguish for joy that a man child is born into the 
 world, so he sees of the travail of his soul, and is 
 satisfied. Willingly he bears the sufferings which 
 are laid upon him that he may bring forth into a 
 new life his heir, the human spirit, and introduce it 
 into the inheritance of God. In this his joy is above 
 every joy, as for it he has received a name above 
 which is every name; that at the name of Jesus every 
 knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
 earth, and things under the earth. 
 
 The influence of this institution in purifying the 
 heart of the woman has not been less than that of 
 her subjection to her husband in rendering her sus¬ 
 ceptible of religious impressions. For the terrible 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 187 
 
 pain and anguish and sorrow inflicted upon her sen¬ 
 sual nature in child-bearing, could not pass without 
 great effects. The impression which the experience 
 of this judgment makes upon the mother, is of ne¬ 
 cessity imparted to the daughter by the silent yet 
 irresistible intercommunion of life. From genera¬ 
 tion to generation, and from age to age, it has not 
 ceased to work upon the female heart and mind; 
 until it has come to stand before woman, as such, 
 like a terrible phantom. It rises before her with 
 every temptation, and threatens her with mysterious 
 and awful premonitions. Hence where man aban¬ 
 dons himself, woman shrinks and trembles before 
 the dark future. This has always been a purifying 
 influence upon her heart and feeling, which he has 
 not. Under its power she has become more pure 
 of heart than is he. The worldling, or the debau¬ 
 chee, who knows her only from those whom the 
 corruption of man has reduced to the lowest de¬ 
 gradation, and who looks at even these through his 
 own vile affections, may sneer and mock as much 
 as he pleases—it is true that there is no comparison 
 between man and woman as such, in respect to 
 purity of heart. Woe for the human race if this 
 had not been so ! If man had found no obstacle to 
 his lust in the repelling and subduing purity of 
 woman’s heart; if he had not been constantly drink¬ 
 ing at the fountain of the love of a mother, a sister, 
 a wife, a daughter; and had not been purified by 
 these influences, the human race would have sunk 
 long ago into irredeemable corruption and ruin. 
 
188 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 
 
 The woman was first in the transgression, and 
 seduced her husband to take part with her in oppo¬ 
 sition to the Wisdom and love of God, therefore, in 
 addition to those chastisements which follow, and 
 which are included under the judgment upon man, 
 these two chastising memorials and symbols of the na¬ 
 ture and consequences of sin, are inflicted upon her, 
 and set up in her earthly nature. Under their powerful 
 influence, she has become more meek and submis¬ 
 sive, more susceptible of everything pure and beau¬ 
 tiful and holy, than is man. It is not her vocation 
 to explain the gospel to him in words and ideas. 
 He is more capable of thought than is she. To him 
 religion is often but a thought. He seeks to be saved 
 by thinking. He mistakes to know for to be ; science 
 for life. He would rather understand the gospel 
 than submit his understanding to it. He continually 
 seeks to know of the doctrine whether it be of God 
 or not first, in order that afterwards he may do it. 
 But too often he loses the force of those words of 
 him who only knew; If ye will {first) do the will of 
 my Father, then shall ye know of the doctrine, whether 
 it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. For faith 
 in Christ personally, and the obedience of faith, the 
 faith of the little child in his father, must precede 
 sight, or the knowledge of the truth in the clearness 
 and demonstration of ideas. 
 
 But with woman it is different. She can believe in 
 Christ, personally ,as a little child in its father, when as 
 yet her ideas of the doctrines he has taught are but ob¬ 
 scure. She can submit her mind unto him implicitly 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON WOMAN. 189 
 
 with less resistance than man. She feels more 
 vividly than does he. To her the Gospel is a life 
 rather than a thought. She has been trained to sub¬ 
 mission, and her heart prepared to behold the beauty 
 and glory of the purity of Christ, by the chastening 
 power of these symbols set up by God in her nature. 
 Hence by her union with man, as once she led him 
 into rebellion, now she leads him back to submission. 
 By the powerful communion of life she continually 
 informs him with her own meek and submissive and 
 obedient spirit. She sheds upon his heart a light 
 higher than that of knowledge, the light of love. 
 She breathes into him something of that purity of 
 heart, which she so much more readily receives from 
 God than does he. 
 
 It was a woman who first recognised the mission 
 of Jesus. Women were his most faithful followers 
 and ministers through life. A woman was last at 
 his cross, and first at his sepulchre. To a woman 
 he first showed himself after his resurrection. As 
 through her, the evil came, so through her alone re¬ 
 demption comes into the world. It is the Seed of 
 the woman who alone can crush the Serpent’s head. 
 The immaculate Redeemer was born of a woman, but 
 owns no human father. 
 
190 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 “ And unto the man he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the 
 voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I com¬ 
 manded 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 also and thistles shall it 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 to the ground; for out of it 
 wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re¬ 
 turn,” 
 
 The reason given for this judgment upon man, 
 Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife , 
 would seem to exclude woman from its effects. But 
 this is only an appearance. For, we have seen that 
 man, in following the guidance and counsel of the 
 woman, to whom he was united by the bond of the 
 earthly nature, yielded to the solicitations of the 
 affections of that nature in opposition to the authority 
 of the Wisdom of God. His sin therefore was the 
 same, in the substance of it, with hers ; for which 
 this judgment is pronounced upon both. This is evi¬ 
 dent from the fact that the woman, no less than the 
 man, suffers the evils which it describes. It is the 
 chastisement upon man as such; that is to say, upon 
 humanity ; of which every human being is the heir. 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 191 
 
 In order the better to comprehend its significancy 
 and object, we must observe that the spiritual evils, 
 the loss ol spiritual life, of the death in trespasses 
 and in sins, of barrenness of good and fertility of 
 evil, man brought upon himself by his own foolish 
 and wicked act of rebellion against the authority of 
 the Wisdom of God, whereby he cast off the only 
 sufficient guide of choice between good and evil; 
 and separated himself from God, as a branch from 
 its parent root and stem. These evils, really and 
 truly the judicial penalty of his sin, were none the 
 less the inevitable consequences of his own act. But 
 the design of God to save man from this penalty, 
 was announced to him as soon as he had sinned, in 
 the promise that the Seed of the woman should crush 
 the head of the serpent. In order that this promise 
 of salvation from sin should be fulfilled in man, it 
 was necessary that he should not lose the feeling of 
 deprivation and want; that the knowledge and con¬ 
 viction of the nature and consequences of his sin, 
 with the feeling of its guilt, should not perish out of 
 his heart. And in order that these should be kept 
 fresh and living within him, he needed of them an 
 outward reflection and symbol, as we need the sacra¬ 
 ment of baptism to nourish in our minds and hearts 
 the knowledge and conviction of our spiritual defile¬ 
 ment. God did not deny him that which now, in his 
 fallen state, was necessary for his salvation. The 
 earth became barren of good, and fruitful of evil, and 
 his own earthly nature by which he had been seduced 
 into sin, was subjected to toil and sorrow and death. 
 
192 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 In respect to the curse upon the ground for man’s 
 sake, it is to be remembered that the country in 
 which the garden of Paradise was situated is called 
 a land of Delight. It is hard to conceive of this 
 land, so described, as full of thorns and thistles, of 
 noxious and poisonous herbs, before the sin of man. 
 
 It would seem that in such a land tempests and hurri¬ 
 canes and destroying lightning would not lavage the 
 beauties of nature. This description would seem to 
 forbid us to conceive of the brute world in continual 
 and deadly war—the lion tearing the kid, the wolf 
 drinking the blood of the lamb—before the creature 
 had become subject to vanity through the sin of man. 
 
 Also, it is most certain that there is a correspon¬ 
 dency* between the unseen and spiritual world, and 
 
 * The “doctrine of correspondences,” between things in heaven 
 and things on earth, is a great point with the Swedenborgians. It 
 was known, they tell us, to the most ancient church, but afterwards 
 lost, and for the re-revelation of it they honor their head and founder 
 as an inspired man. He saw sheep and lambs in heaven ; wolves 
 and serpents in hell. Now, some of these people are called scholars. 
 They ought to know that these vagaries are the most gross and mate¬ 
 rial burlesque of the fundamental idea of the Platonic philosophy. 
 The doctrine of eternal and essential “ideas,” the types and sub¬ 
 stance of all things that “ do appear,” to the knowledge of which 
 Plato tried to soar, and thence to descend to a perfect science of all 
 things earthly, includes the whole of that correspondence between 
 things above and things below, which is ascribed to the great North¬ 
 ern dreamer as a divine revelation, and is without his absurdities. 
 Nor was this at all original with the Greek philosopher. It has been 
 known from the foundation of the world. It is set forth in the saci ed 
 books of the Hindoo Bramins, in all its profundity, though not with 
 that logical precision and beauty which it could not receive except 
 from the mind of a Greek. 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 198 
 
 the things which do appear. The whole visible crea¬ 
 tion must be, in some sort, an image of the spiritual 
 world, otherwise it could not be a manifestation of the 
 glory of God. There must be a reflection of spiritual 
 things in the things that are made, else these could 
 not serve the purposes for which they are continually 
 used in the Scripture to express and declare spiritual 
 truths. If this were not so, the expressions, God is 
 light , God is love, and indeed the whole Scripture, 
 could have no meaning for us. The patterns of all 
 things belonging to the tabernacle of this earth are 
 to be seen in the mount of the Lord. 
 
 So, also, there is a correspondence between the 
 higher and lower grades of the things that are made, 
 between that which is in man on the one hand, and 
 that which is in the brute and in nature, on the other. 
 This is everywhere assumed in the Scriptures, and 
 often described. We have already seen that the 
 nakedness of man’s body was the s^nbol of his inno¬ 
 cence ; that he had nothing within which needed to 
 be covered from the eye of God, and that the garden 
 of Paradise corresponded to his inward life. So now 
 his naked body must be clothed, because his soul needs 
 robes of righteousness. So now thorns and thistles 
 correspond without to the spiritual state to which he 
 has reduced himself. Also, it is to be observed, that 
 the flood was in waiting when the earth had become 
 so filled and polluted with violence that it must be 
 purified by the waters of a deluge, destroying the 
 guilty race. The rainbow* is first mentioned when 
 
 * The difficulty which arises from the manner in which the rain- 
 
 9 
 
194 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 it was needed for the symbol of the new covenant, 
 which God would make with the newly baptized hu- 
 
 bow is first mentioned in Scripture, may be removed, if we conceive 
 of the earth before the flood as imperfectly drained. It is a matter 
 of fact, that the process of draining, by which God gathers t le wafers 
 together into one place, and causes the dry land to appear, is now 
 g0 ing on in manv parts of the earth, as truly as of old. The whole 
 of what is called the Lake country of North America, was, at a com- 
 paratively late date, under water. One day those lakes must be 
 drained off, and their bottoms, except where they are on a level wit 
 the ocean, or shut in by impassable barriers, will be, like the sur¬ 
 rounding country, covered with cornfields. While this process was 
 so new as we may conceive it to have been before the flood, rain 
 was not wanted, because a mist would go up from the moist eart 
 and water the whole face of the ground. This is the case even yet 
 with those parts of the earth which have been most lately drained, 
 which scarcely suffer at all when the rain does not fall for many 
 months. Also, during this period, rain would be impossible; tor, 
 in order to its production, the water must be well drained off from 
 the earth, and gathered together into immense bodies, upon whose 
 surface the heat of the sun may act to produce by evaporation those 
 dense masses of watering vapor, whose condensation waters the 
 thirsty ground. But not until the formation of these dark clouds, 
 could the bow in the heavens be reflected in any precise form. 
 
 What confirms this view is, that the elephant, the hippopotamus, 
 the tapir, the alligator, and animals of the same sort, the living but 
 degenerate representatives of that huge, informe animal world whose 
 fossil remains are found in the bones of the mammoth, the great 
 saurians, and the like, are all lovers of the marshy and imperfectly 
 drained portions of the earth. From this it would appear, that when 
 the earth was inhabited by this sort of creatures, in numbers and 
 species so much greater than now, it must have been less perfectly 
 drained than now. During this period, also, the animal part of 
 man, after he had been driven forth from Paradise, the high and 
 drained situation of which is demonstrated by the mention of four 
 great rivers which had their source in the garden, might naturally 
 partake to some degree of this informe and gigantic character. 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 195 
 
 man race, in the person of Noah—the type of the 
 regenerated soul. According to the predictions of the 
 prophets, as it would seem, the perfect renovation of 
 the life of man will be reflected in the natural world. 
 This new life demands, as its appropriate outward 
 environment, that new heaven and new earth which 
 John saw in beatific vision. 
 
 Also, there may be a connection between man and 
 the natural world of the most vital kind, which, like 
 everything else pertaining to life, must be wrapped 
 up in inscrutable mystery. For the life which is in 
 the brute is evidently affected and modified in the 
 most powerful manner, by that which is in man. 
 Perhaps there is a point where that nature in man 
 which is of the earth , earthy , centres in unity with 
 that of the animal creation, and through it, with the 
 whole natural world : so that the creature becomes, 
 of necessity, a partaker of man’s good and evil. If 
 
 Therefore the Scriptures, with all the earliest traditions of the 
 human race, speak of giants. 
 
 But when the earth became so much drained as to need rain, and 
 by consequence, the water was gathered together into oceans, the 
 sun’s rays, acting upon their surface, would produce by evaporation 
 those dark and heavy masses of vapor which condensed become 
 rain. Hence both the rain and the rainbow are first mentioned at 
 the flood. As man first felt the shame of his naked body after he 
 had sinned, as thorns and thistles then first made their appearance, 
 as the flood waited to purify the polluted earth when it needed it, 
 so, when an outward symbol for a new order of inward and spiritual 
 things was needed, the rainbow came out to serve that purpose ; and 
 all in virtue of the harmony and correspondence which is ordained 
 of God, between the outward and inward, the visible and invisible, 
 the natural and spiritual worlds. 
 
196 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 this were so, those symbols of universal righteousness 
 and peace and love, which are drawn by the prophets 
 from the brute world, renovated, and restored to or¬ 
 der and harmony, would become most expressive. 
 If this were so, it would clear up those woi so 
 Paul, so hard to be understood, in which he speaks o 
 the subjection of the creature to vanity, for the sin ol 
 man ; and destined with him unto redemption, tor 
 the earnest expectation of the creature waitethfor the 
 manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature 
 was made subject unto vanity not willingly, tor 
 the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage 
 of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children 
 
 of God. 
 
 However these things may be (and they are not 
 presented here as interpretations of the Word of God, 
 nor as matters of science), it is certain that, as the 
 garden of Paradise had been the appropriate envi¬ 
 ronment and symbol of man’s innocent and happy 
 life, and was even necessary for its perfection and 
 preservation, so, now that he had sinned, God saw 
 fit to place him in a new and very different outwai 
 sphere. Therefore he sent him forth into a world 
 cursed for his sake, under which curse it became the 
 most significant reflection and symbol of the evils of 
 that spiritual degradation into which he had plunged 
 himself. Evil had entered into him in whom were 
 summed up all the perfections of the creation; that 
 evil was now reflected in the creation itself. The 
 eye of the creature was diseased, and the body be¬ 
 came blinded. The head, the heart, of the creation 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 197 
 
 was sick, and all the members suffered with it. He 
 had subjected himself to the bondage of corruption 
 and to vanity; the things which were made for him, 
 were subjected to the bondage of corruption and to 
 vanity with him. Selfishness had now become the 
 mode of his being; selfishness was reflected in the 
 world which depended upon him. He had aspired 
 to independence of God, had set up his own wis¬ 
 dom and will in opposition to the Wisdom and will 
 of God, and thus destroyed his harmony with 
 the world above him. The world below him, over 
 which he was made to rule, now aspired to indepen¬ 
 dence of him, set up, so to speak, its own wisdom 
 and will in opposition to his, and thus destroyed its 
 harmony with him. He had rebelled against God ; 
 the creature rebelled against him. He had become 
 the enemy of God ; all things subject to him became 
 his enemy. Henceforth storms and tempests, brutes 
 and reptiles should seek to dethrone him, as he had 
 sought to dethrone God. He must rule by his greater 
 power, as God maintained his throne because the 
 weakness of God is stronger than man . He had re¬ 
 fused to render to God the fruit of his spirit; the 
 earth now refused to render to him the fruit of her 
 increase. He now, as God’s husbandry , required to 
 be worked, broken up with affliction and sorrow, and 
 fertilized with the seed of divine life communicated 
 to him anew, before he would yield fruit unto God; 
 so now the earth must be broken up and tilled, and 
 fertilized ; the seed planted, watered and tended with 
 unceasing toil and care, before she would yield her 
 fruits unto him. Left to his own native tendencies 
 
198 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 and powers, to his own wisdom, choice and will, he 
 would now bring forth only evil, that which was 
 worthy in the sight of God to be burned ; so now the 
 earth of her own will, should bring forth unto him 
 thorns and thistles which men gather , and they are 
 burned. 
 
 Thus the evil which is in nature and the brute 
 in their relations to man, became the most vivid 
 reflection and symbol of the evil in him, in his rela¬ 
 tions to God. As such this evil is always assumed 
 and treated in the Scripture. The parable of the 
 sower, that of the wheat and the tares, and others, 
 are founded upon the assumption that in the eaith s 
 barrenness of good and fertility of evil there is a 
 reflection of the evil that is in man. When therefore 
 we consider that this curse was inflicted upon the 
 earth for man’s sin, and that, when God makes one 
 thing like another, he does it with design, it is mani¬ 
 fest that man is intended to find in this curse upon 
 the earth, a symbol of his own barrenness of good 
 and fertility of evil; that the knowledge of his spi¬ 
 ritual desolation may be kept ever befoie his eyes, 
 and reflected into his soul. Blinded by the delusive 
 light of the carnal mind, confused by the babble of 
 science about natural laws, he may cease to feel the 
 power of this symbol; still it remains, and shall 
 remain, while the sin of Adam is found upon the 
 earth, as an institution of God for the instruction of 
 a sinful race. 
 
 The curse of barrenness upon the ground for man’s 
 sake, was the necessary condition of the chastise- 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 199 
 
 ment of toil, both of body and mind, upon himself. 
 This made constant prudence, vigilance, and thought, 
 with the labor of his hands, indispensable to his con¬ 
 tinued existence. 
 
 Also, the necessity of labor arose directly out of 
 the sin which he had committed. For, as we have 
 seen, he had adopted a guide of life wholly inade¬ 
 quate to be to him a correct criterion of choice be¬ 
 tween good and evil. Following it he must continu¬ 
 ally choose amiss, evil for good. Flence what he 
 chooses and follows, as good, utterly fails to satisfy 
 him; and he is continually tormented with a feeling 
 of emptiness and want. This craving of which none 
 are without the most painful experience, except those 
 who have descended nearest to the rank of the brute, 
 sends him forth upon an ever fruitless quest to satisfy 
 it. For under the guidance of his own wisdom, he 
 never can succeed in finding the satisfying good, 
 because his soul can be filled and satisfied only with 
 that which the Wisdom of God marks as good, and 
 chooses for him. Therefore the more he gains of 
 that which seems good in his eyes, the more he 
 craves, and the more earnestly and laboriously re¬ 
 news his seeking. This is to reflect into his mind 
 and heart, and cause him to know by the most bitter 
 experience, the truth that in his sin he has chosen a 
 guide of life wholly inadequate to distinguish aright 
 between good and evil. 
 
 Through this bitter yet most blessed experience of 
 the shadowy and unsatisfactory nature of earthly 
 good, the human race is passing from generation to 
 
200 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 generation and from age to age. Since the Fall, 
 man has been laboring to dig out of the earth his 
 true good ; to find in things earthly a portion to 
 satisfy his soul, which should remain with him for 
 ever. The ancient Egyptians addressed themselves 
 to their abstract yet sensual religion, around which 
 their whole life revolved, to fill their craving hearts, 
 and to establish and maintain their well-being and 
 prosperity. What did they become ? What are 
 they now ? Babylon and Persia w T ould fill themselves 
 with the pride of despotism and outward pomp. 
 They bloomed for awhile and then withered as a 
 summer flower. Greece was seduced by the charms 
 of beauty and art. She has sunk down so low that 
 she cannot appreciate her own works. The Romans 
 worshipped military glory and conquest. With in¬ 
 finite labor and bloodshed, they acquired all that 
 these could give. Italy is now an insignificant de¬ 
 pendency of other military powers. The Hindoos 
 sought in metaphysics the knowledge of the true 
 good of man. But this with them, as with the Egyp¬ 
 tians, degenerated into the grossest sensuality ; and 
 they have sunk into imbecility. The Chinese, in 
 monstrous pride and conceit of their own wisdom 
 and self-sufficiency, have tried to wall out all other 
 nations and to shut themselves up within themselves, 
 until, professing themselves to he wise, they have be¬ 
 come fools , and utterly vain in their imaginations. 
 
 A 1 these things are in vain for man when sought 
 as a substantial and permanent good. His kingdoms 
 and empires, all things that he can work out for him- 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 201 
 
 self by his own wisdom and toil, rise and fall like the 
 waves of the troubled ocean. Still he is in want ; 
 still surrounded with thorns and thistles which pierce 
 his soul. And yet he continually repeats experiments 
 that he knows have a thousand times failed. The 
 nations of Europe, Russia with the sword, Germany 
 with literature, France with science, and England 
 with commerce and wealth, are seeking to achieve 
 something for the good of man, to fill his soul; while 
 the great hope of America is the sovereignty of the 
 people and the mass-meeting. Vanity of vanities ; 
 all is vanity ! These experiments, no less than those 
 which have preceded them, shall all utterly fail to 
 work out the well-being of man. One day their 
 vanity shall appear. The judgment of toil shall not 
 be without its effect. Man shall yet, through it, be 
 taught the folly of his own wisdom, and this great 
 craving, palpitating heart of humanity, shall lose its 
 confidence in itself, feel its own impotence, and cry 
 with infinite desire, Blessed be he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord. Then shall the creature rejoice 
 for its redemption draweth nigh. In Him, the Word, 
 and Wisdom of God, shall man recover once more, 
 the lost Paradise. Instamped with his image of 
 meekness, humility, purity, and self-sacrifice, filled 
 with his love to God and man, informed with his 
 everlasting righteousness, shall the human race find 
 its true good and all-satisfying portion. 
 
 That which is going on in the human race repeats 
 itself continually in the lives of individuals. This 
 
 world opens upon us in youth with the fairest pro- 
 
 9 * 
 
202 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 mises. We cannot but believe that, with prudence 
 and industry, we shall be able to achieve something 
 to make us happy, to satisfy our hearts. We set 
 ourselves to attain whatever may seem good m our 
 eyes. If we do not succeed, disappointment pains 
 us ; if we do, that which is gained is found to be 
 shallow and empty: it is soon exhausted, soon ceases 
 to please. Then we place our good in something 
 else yet before us, which calls us to a new series of 
 thoughts and labors. When this is gained the same 
 disappointment meets us; and we turn to some other 
 object, to which distance lends enchantment , and 
 which is clothed in the illusions of the sense and the 
 mind. Thus we are ever seeking, and never finding. 
 From the ashes of our ruined hopes, new hopes arise 
 with more potent delusion. Earthly good, that 
 which seems to be good in our own eyes, in ever- 
 varying forms of beauty, lures us onward from one 
 thing to another, as the butterfly leads the child a 
 long and weary chase from flower to flower, and at 
 last rises out of his reach. We fix our hearts upon 
 earthly pleasure, and woo her with all the ardor of 
 idolatry. But when she is won, we find her a loath¬ 
 some corpse, a dead larva , who unveils herself not 
 until the heart is married to her deformity. 
 
 Most terrible yet most blessed is this experience. 
 For when through it man has been led to feel, I can 
 never more rejoice in any earthly good: all that 
 this world can give, all that I can woik out foi my¬ 
 self, is utterly empty, and unable to satisfy the deep 
 craving of my soul, that is an hour of infinite pang, 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 203 
 
 of indescribable woe. But from it he turns to Him 
 who is the fulness of God, and there finds the peace 
 of God which passeth all understanding; the joy 
 of God which is unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 This judgment therefore, inflicted upon the earthly 
 nature of man, and upon the wisdom which stands 
 at its head, and arising by consequence out of his 
 sin, is a memorial and symbol of its nature and its 
 folly, in that he has cast off the Wisdom of God, for 
 a guide of life wholly inadequate to distinguish 
 aright between good and evil ; and following which 
 he must continually see and choose as good, that 
 which, when attained, he finds to be empty and un¬ 
 satisfying as the east wind. 
 
 But the spiritual life of man, consisting in the love 
 of God, filled and satisfied with the holy perfections 
 of God, nourished by filial obedience to his voice, 
 has perished in the very act of transgression and 
 rebellion. Now this death must be reflected in that 
 inferior and subordinate nature, and in its wisdom, 
 by whose proud elevation over the Wisdom of God, 
 he has sinned. Perhaps he has taken into his con¬ 
 stitution the seeds of decay and death, in the fruit 
 of the forbidden tree ; and now he must be deprived 
 of the fruit of the tree of life, by which his health 
 and strength might have been perennially nourished 
 and sustained. Perhaps at the point where these 
 two natures centre in unity, the death of the one 
 passes over, so to speak, and becomes death in the 
 other. By whatsoever means the judgment is exe¬ 
 cuted by the ordination of God, it is certain that all 
 
204 
 
 or THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 in man which was taken from the ground is doomed 
 to return, with pain and anguish and sorrow and 
 darkness, to the ground again. 
 
 This dissolution and death of the earthly nature 
 in man, with the going out in utter darkness of its 
 light, is the most terrible yet most sacred symbol 
 that has ever been instituted and ordained ot God, 
 to embody, and place before our eyes, in visible and 
 sensible form that spiritual death which man has 
 brought upon himself by his sin. As a symbol it is 
 continually used in the Scriptures. To be carnally 
 minded is death . When the commandment came sin 
 revived , and I died. In these, and in ten thousand 
 kindred expressions, it is perfectly evident that what 
 is signified by the word death , is not the mere disso¬ 
 lution of the earthly nature in man, but something 
 spiritual , of which the death of the body is but an 
 outward form, to be to man a symbol, and to reflect 
 it steadily back, with great power, into his soul. 
 
 This symbol has been set up in his earthly nature 
 because by it he was seduced into sin. It consists 
 in the going out of the light of the sensual nature, 
 because it has served as an ignis fatuus, to lead 
 man astray. It comes upon him in spite of all his 
 prudence and vigilance and toil, to make him know 
 how inadequate is the guide of life which he has 
 chosen to distinguish aright between good and evil. 
 The great horror and darkness, in which the light 
 of the mortal life goes out, is to reflect back into his 
 mind and heart the knowledge and conviction of the 
 horrible spiritual darkness into which he has sunk 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 205 
 
 by sin. The pain and agony and sorrow of dissolv¬ 
 ing nature symbolize and set forth the pain and 
 agony and sorrow of eternal death— the worm that 
 never dies, and the fire that is never quenched. In 
 that death comes upon all, even upon infants, and 
 those who have not sinned after the similitude of 
 Adam’s transgression, it symbolizes the truth, that 
 spiritual death, truly and properly so called, in germ 
 if not in full growth, is implanted in every soul of 
 man that is born in the likeness of the father of the 
 human race. For by one man sin entered into the 
 world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon 
 all men, for that all have sinned. That is to say ? 
 the proof that spiritual death has come upon all men 
 is that all do sin, and that its symbol, the death of 
 the body, is set up in all. 
 
 These tremendous symbols of the nature and con¬ 
 sequences of the sin of man, set up by God in his 
 earthly nature, were indispensable, both on account 
 of their spiritual significance and chastising power, to 
 his salvation from that estate to which he had now 
 reduced himself. For if he had been allowed to re¬ 
 main in the garden of Paradise, or had been sent 
 forth into a world where his own prudence and fore¬ 
 sight should have been adequate to preserve him 
 from these things, soon he must have lost all consci¬ 
 ence of sin; and all memory of the high and blessed 
 life from which he had fallen. Soon he would have 
 come to regard his own wisdom as amply sufficient 
 to guide him aright in the choice between good and 
 evil, since it would have enabled him to supply all 
 
206 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 the wants of which he could have retained any feeling. 
 His conscience, already weakened and dethroned, 
 would have been put to silence by the unrestrained 
 gratification of the lusts of his earthly nature, and 
 would have ceased to give any oracles from the 
 Wisdom of God. With the appetites, desires and 
 affections of this nature in preternatural strength; 
 with the means of their full gratification at hand ; 
 their most intense and protracted pleasures unat¬ 
 tended with pain or remorse ; the fear of death re¬ 
 moved ; man would have been contented with the 
 things of this earth. He would have sunk down into 
 the rank of the brute, in everything pertaining to his 
 moral and spiritual nature. One nature alone would 
 have reigned within him, and that would have been 
 at peace with itself. Internal conflict would have 
 been impossible. All teeling of want would have 
 perished. Thus his redemption would have become 
 impossible by those means which God had chosen. 
 For, as man is made, it is only through the feeling of 
 want, nourished in the soul by these institutions of 
 God, as symbols and as chastisements, and by other 
 means, that he retains the capacity of receiving what 
 he needs—the restoration of that spiritual life which 
 he has forfeited and lost by his sin. 
 
 The great length of the mortal life before the flood 
 must have weakened the presence and power of the 
 symbol and chastisement of Death. It occurred so 
 seldom, that its significancy could be lost. It could 
 be regarded as so far off, that the fear of it ceased to 
 deter from crime. Therefore man rushed into the 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 207 
 
 most horrible excesses. The earth was polluted 
 with violence and blood. Hence, when the time 
 came for the promise that there should be no more 
 flood, human life must also be shortened. Its brevity 
 therefore, the frequency with which death occurs is 
 one of the most urgent necessities of, one of the great¬ 
 est blessings to, the human race while it continues in 
 its sins. 
 
 Also, now, when these symbols lose their power 
 over the heart of man, hardened by its sins, he sinks 
 into inevitable and irretrievable perdition. When 
 the affairs of the mortal life prosper ; when men are 
 comparatively free from care and toil and sorrow; 
 when death is regarded as afar off; they lose almost 
 all feeling of the want of anything better than this 
 world can give; all conscience of sin, and of the 
 possibility of spiritual life. Their mode of being is 
 described by the words, Soul, thou hast much goods 
 laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink. 
 The words of the Wisdom of God, Thou fool! this 
 night thy soul shall he required of thee, lose all the 
 power of truth. The language of their hearts is, 
 Give me all the pleasures of earth for ever, and I ask 
 no more. Often they live and die without any pain¬ 
 ful conviction of sin, as if they had no soul. Their 
 heart is as fat as grease. Their eyes stand out with 
 fatness. They have no hands in their death. Of such 
 it is said, and not of the possessor of money as such, 
 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a nee¬ 
 dle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
 God. Therefore, Woe unto you that are full; and 
 
208 
 
 OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 Blessed are ye poor. It is impossible for him who 
 does not hunger and thirst after righteousness to be 
 filled. 
 
 But when man feels the thorn and the thistle in 
 the flesh; when he is worn down with the labor of 
 the body, and exhausted with exertion of the mind ; 
 when he is racked with pain, and pierced with disap¬ 
 pointment ; when he is heart-broken with affliction 
 and sorrow; when death enters and lays his iron 
 hand upon the most beautiful and best beloved of his 
 heart; when he beholds in others and feels in him¬ 
 self the agonies of the dissolution of his earthly na¬ 
 ture ; when he feels the light of the mortal life going 
 out in utter darkness, then he knows that all is not 
 right between him and his God; then he feels the 
 want of something which this earth cannot give, and 
 sighs for the restoration of that spiritual life which he 
 has lost, and which, as brought to light by Christ, 
 cannot be subject to dissolution nor decay. To pro¬ 
 duce this very effect indispensable to his salvation, 
 and for which they have a power which no processes 
 of reasoning can have, were these most terrible, yet 
 most sacred symbols set up by God in man’s earthly 
 nature, in the bosom of the mortal life ; that by their 
 chastising influence, and by their outward and visible 
 reflection of the nature and consequences of his 
 transgression ; of the inadequacy of the guide of dis¬ 
 tinction between good and evil which he has chosen, 
 and of the spiritual death which he has brought upon 
 himself, the conviction of his sin and folly might be 
 nourished in his soul: that the feeling of want might 
 
OF THE JUDGMENT UPON MAN. 
 
 209 
 
 not perish out of his heart, and leave him to perish 
 without remedy. 
 
 Blessed be the thorn and the thistle ! Blessed be 
 toil! Blessed be sorrow ! Blessed be death ! 
 
210 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 > * • r . • * ; * ^ * i.*- • . . 
 
 “Unto the man also and his wife did Jehovah God make coats of 
 skins, and clothed them.” 
 
 God had not spared to inflict upon his offending 
 creature the tremendous chastisement ol labor and 
 sorrow and death. Did he now go about to provide 
 for him a good suit ol clothes, by such extraordinaiy 
 means as the shedding ol the blood of innocent ani¬ 
 mals, for no other purpose but to relieve him from a 
 little bodily inconvenience ? This also is a symbol. 
 
 In order that we may the better comprehend its 
 significancy, it must be observed that here, in the 
 garden of man’s former innocence, as soon as he had 
 sinned, God began that stupendous system of prepar¬ 
 ation for the sacrifice of Christ, which he carried on 
 with unswerving fidelity and rigor for four thousand 
 years. Of this whole system the fundamental idea 
 was, that without the shedding of blood was no re¬ 
 mission of sin. Here he began it in the slaughter of 
 the innocent for the guilty. From the account given 
 of the sacrifices* of Cain and Abel it manilestly 
 
 * In the New Testament it is declared By faith Abel offered unto 
 God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. The question here 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 211 
 
 appears that this was already regarded as an institu¬ 
 tion of divine appointment. Throughout the long 
 line of patriarchs, from Adam to Israel, no other 
 offering is ever made but that of an animal whose 
 blood had been shed. At last, in order that the work 
 might be perfected, God called the nation of the 
 Jews out from all others ; isolated them from foreign 
 influence, and set up among them that most wonder¬ 
 ful ritual of bloody symbols, which is described in 
 the book of Leviticus. Morning and evening, and on 
 all extraordinary occasions in the lives of individuals, 
 and in that of the nation, for fifteen hundred years, 
 
 arises, What had been revealed by God which Abel believed, and in 
 which Cain had no faith ? In order to find the true solution of this 
 question it must be observed that the offerings themselves were 
 different. Abel sacrificed an animal; Cain did not. From this it 
 might be presumed that God had commanded them both to offer 
 bloody sacrifices. But this is not left to conjecture if we adopt that 
 sense of the passage which is preferred by many Hebrew scholars, 
 and which, it would seem beyond all doubt, is the true one. For 
 in the words, If thou doest not well sin lieth at the door, there 
 seems to be little more expressed than the identical proposition, If 
 thou sinnest, thou sinnest. But the word here translated sin is fre¬ 
 quently used in the Scripture to signify a sin-offering ; and so it is 
 elsewhere translated. But if it be so rendered here, the words of 
 God to Cain, rebuking him because he was angry that his brother’s 
 offering had been accepted and his own rejected, become most sig¬ 
 nificant, and reveal the true reason of the rejection of Cain’s sacri¬ 
 fice. Why art thou wroth ? If thou doest well shalt thou not be 
 accepted ? thou shalt surely be accepted. If thou doest not well, a 
 sin-offering is lying down at the door. If thou hast sinned the 
 animal which I have designated as a sin-offering is lying down at 
 the door of thy tent; that take, shed its blood, and offer it with the 
 confession of thy sin, as I have commanded, and thou shalt be for¬ 
 given, and accepted no less than thy brother. 
 
212 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 the victim bled with the confession of sin. It was 
 only by dragging the innocent animal to the altar, 
 confessing his sins over its head, and offering its life 
 in place of his own that the Jew could obtain forgive¬ 
 ness and reconciliation. Once a year, on the great 
 day of atonement, the high priest, in the presence of 
 the congregated thousands of Israel, made full con¬ 
 fession of the sins of the whole people in their name 
 with the shedding of blood, which he took and sprin¬ 
 kled before the mercy seat of Jehovah between the 
 cherubim in the Holy of Holies. Everything be¬ 
 longing to the worship of God was sanctified with 
 blood, and without the shedding of blood was no re - 
 mission. This idea which lay at the bottom of all 
 the rites of the ceremonial law, was symbolized 
 and reflected into the minds of the people from gene¬ 
 ration to generation and from age to age, in every 
 conceivable form, in order that they might be sur¬ 
 rounded and filled with it, and moulded into its like¬ 
 ness. Their whole life was made to revolve around 
 it, that it might be instilled into them. It was an 
 idea so strange, and even so revolting to human wis¬ 
 dom, that God saw it to be necessary to reveal it to 
 the human race with great signs and wonders and 
 manifestations of his power and authority; and to 
 keep it steadily before the eyes of that people out of 
 whom the great sacrifice was to arise, in order that any 
 should be found to believe on him to spread his Gospel, 
 when he should be revealed. For all this, as we are 
 expressly told in the New Testament, was prepara- 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 213 
 
 tory for him; since it was impossible that the blood 
 of bulls and of goats should take away sin. 
 
 No less preparatory for that which was to be re¬ 
 vealed in him, was the moral law. For by the very 
 condition of that law, which was perfect obedience, 
 it excluded man from salvation. This do and thou 
 shalt live. Cursed be every one that continueth not 
 in all things which are written in this law to do them. 
 This condition man in his own strength never did, 
 nor ever can fulfil, because the law comes to him 
 demanding that it should never be violated not until 
 he has already violated it. It finds every man a 
 depraved being, and therefore incapable of perfect 
 obedience by his own agency. It was not therefore 
 given to do what it could not do, but for another 
 purpose, to be our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. 
 If a law had been given which could have given life , 
 verily righteousness should have been by the law. 
 
 Wherefore then serveth the law? What is that 
 precise effect which it was necessary to work in the 
 heart of man in order that he should be prepared to 
 believe in Christ, and thus come back to submission 
 and obedience ? It was added because of transgres¬ 
 sions until the Seed should come. The law entered 
 that the offence might abound. Not that the law 
 was given by God for the purpose of making man 
 more sinful. God does not make his creatures sin¬ 
 ful, nor more sinful; but he saves them from their 
 sins. But the law entered to bring out into con¬ 
 sciousness and conviction, as sin , that evil pravity of 
 nature in man which he does not recognise nor feel 
 
214 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 to be truly and properly sin until it goes forth in 
 transgression of the law known ; that by this means 
 he might come to the knowledge of sin within him, 
 in its exceeding abundance. The law is the instru¬ 
 ment of God to make him know and feel how sinful 
 he is. Yet it is true, that the law is the occasion, 
 though not the cause of man’s becoming more sinful 
 than he can be without it. But the sin of which it 
 is only the occasion is not to be charged upon it, 
 but upon that which is truly and properly its cause. 
 For the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and 
 just and good. Yet the commandment which was or¬ 
 dained unto life, I found to be unto death. For when 
 the commandment came, sin revived, and I died the 
 death in trespasses and in sins. For sin taking oc¬ 
 casion by the commandment deceived me, and by it 
 slew me, that is to say, wrought in me all manner of 
 concupiscence. Was then that which is good made 
 death to me? God forbid: but sin, the depraved, 
 perverse evil nature, which was in me befoie the 
 commandment came—this it was which was made 
 death to me, that it might appear sin, be brought out 
 and recognised as sin in this, its working death in me 
 by that which was good, that sin by the commandment 
 might become exceeding sinful. By the fact that 
 man’s evil nature abuses and perverts a good thing, 
 the holy law of God, into an occasion ol becoming 
 more sinful, his depravity and exceeding sinfulness 
 is demonstrated and made known to him. For by 
 the law is the knowledge of sin. 
 
 But how can this holy and just and good law of 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 215 
 
 God become even an occasion of the revival of sin 
 in the heait of man ? In virtue of that in him, which 
 led Adam after he had sinned to fly from the presence 
 of the Voice of God, and hide himself, thus adding to 
 his sin. This law exhibits God in the attribute and 
 attitude of justice, without mercy. Cursed be every 
 one that continueth not in oil things which are written 
 in the book of this law to do them. It comes to every 
 man, who is born in the likeness of Adam, after he 
 has sinned. It finds him in rebellion against its wis¬ 
 dom and authority, and under its curse. It finds him 
 blinded in his mind and hardened in his heart, so that 
 he does not see nor feel the paramount authority of 
 justice. He is now grounded and built up in selfish¬ 
 ness, so that he cannot feel that justice is of more 
 woith than his own well-being. He is not whiling 
 that justice should have its course at the expense of 
 himself. The maxim, Fiat justitia , ruat ccelum , he 
 would have inverted when applied to himself. Let 
 his heaven stand even at the expense of justice. 
 Hence the justice of God is to the sinner a terrible 
 and hateful thing. It will not, because it cannot, 
 allow of the least transgression. It thunders death 
 to the transgressor. While through the law God is 
 exhibited to him in the attitude of simple justice, he 
 hates God; he counts him his enemy. But to hate 
 God is the highest development of sin. This is its 
 last term. This is the life of spiritual death. Thus 
 the commandment which was ordained unto life, he 
 finds to be unto death. This inward and spiritual 
 alienation from God was that in Adam which caused 
 
216 OP THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 him to fly from his outward presence, under which 
 act of the first man it is symbolized and set forth, as 
 it takes place in every man. While this delusion m 
 the sinner that God is his enemy continues, while this 
 fear reigns over him, he must remain in his aliena¬ 
 tion from God. He cannot, because he will not, and 
 he will not, because he cannot, return to him in sub¬ 
 mission, love and obedience. He is shut up under 
 him by the law. Through it he receives the sentence 
 of death in himself; the judgment of God upon the 
 Adam in him. This, also, is symbolized by the sen¬ 
 tence of death pronounced upon the father of the 
 human race, before he received from the hand of God 
 a substantial covering for his nakedness and shame. 
 
 This is the preparatory work of the moral law, 
 
 and beyond this it cannot go. 
 
 But if man be left here, he remains in his delusion 
 
 that God is his enemy ; in his alienation and enmity, 
 which leads him to fly further and further from God ; 
 to plunge himself deeper and deeper into sin, and the 
 perdition of sin. For in God’s presence only are 
 there joys for evermore. God is the root of his life. 
 His true well-being consists and is found not else¬ 
 where nor otherwise than in his presence, and in that 
 union with God, of which confidence or faith, submis¬ 
 sion, love and obedience are the legitimate fruits. 
 Only the wisdom of God, received by faith 01 confi¬ 
 dence in it, can be to him an unerring guide of choice 
 between good and evil. Left here, therefore, man 
 must perish for ever. He is lost. Hence, if he is to 
 be saved out of his sin at all, he needs, he must have, 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 217 
 
 a manifestation of God’s gracious disposition towards 
 him. He must be convinced that God is not his 
 enemy. He must know that God’s justice, which de¬ 
 mands satisfaction, and which has already pronounced 
 sentence of death upon the Adam in him, is not in¬ 
 consistent with such love as would yet save him from 
 his sins. Also, since he has sinned by such a conceit 
 of his own wisdom as has led him, for its guidance, 
 to cast off the authority of the Wisdom of God as a 
 guide of life, and has thus fallen under the condem¬ 
 nation of the justice of God, it is necessary that this 
 manifestation of God’s love to him which he needs, 
 should be made through such means as shall satisfy 
 the justice of God, and through such means that he 
 cannot truly and from the heart believe in it, without 
 having the pride of his own wisdom crushed, and it 
 forced to confess itself a fool before God, Lnd no 
 longer to be trusted. 
 
 What now is that grand d solemn mystery which 
 demanded, or could be appropriately announced by 
 such a stupendous scheme of preparation as this? 
 What can be the appropriate end and fulfilment of 
 a course of four thousand years of shedding the blood 
 of innocent animals, and offering them up to God with 
 the confession of sin ? What is that grand and solemn 
 mystery, which can meet these spiritual necessities of 
 the human race, by satisfying the justice of God, by 
 manifesting his infinite love, and by crushing for ever 
 the pride of man’s wisdom ? Let God himself declare 
 it, without the possibility of admixture with human 
 devices. 
 
 10 
 
218 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten son that whosoever believeth in him 
 
 SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. He 
 HATH MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US WHO KNEW NO SIN, 
 THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GoD 
 
 IN HIM. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitia¬ 
 tion, THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD, TO DECLARE HIS 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE 
 PAST THROUGH THE FORBEARANCE OF GoD—TO DECLARE 
 HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST, AND THE 
 JUSTIFIER OF HIM WHICH BELIEVETH IN JeSUS. He IS 
 THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS, AND NOT FOR OURS 
 ONLY, BUT FOR THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. The 
 
 Lord hath laid on him the inigiuity of us all : 
 
 AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED. GoD COM- 
 MENDETH HIS LOVE TOWARDS US IN THAT WHILE WE 
 WERE YET SINNERS CHRIST DIED FOR US. For WHEN 
 WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME ClIRIST 
 
 died for the ungodly. When we were enemies, we 
 
 WERE RECONCILED TO GoD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SoN. 
 
 Great is the mystery of Godliness : God was in 
 Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not 
 imputing their trespasses unto them. 
 
 This is the mystery of the gospel. As we have 
 seen, it is impossible for man to perceive how the 
 death of Christ in our stead can satisfy, or in any way 
 relieve the justice of God lor our sins. The logical 
 explanations of it which men give, resolve themselves 
 into the most transparent sophisms, under a pure and 
 rigid analysis. It defies the wisdom of man. It is 
 foolishness in his eyes. He is warned beforehand 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 219 
 
 la it must appear to be foolishness to his wisdom. 
 ^ et he is assured upon the authority of the Wisdom 
 o 0 -od, that it is not foolishness, but the truth and a 
 fact; that by the faith of it, as the truth and a fact 
 man s wisdom might stand confessed, a fool. This is 
 the foolishness of the Cross, in the faith of which 
 resides the power to crush the carnal mind, the head 
 oi the serpent in man, and to reduce his soul once 
 more into subjection to the authority of the Wisdom 
 
 Also, In Him was the love of God manifested. 
 Greater love hath no man than this , that a man lay 
 down his life for his friends. Herein is love ; not 
 that we loved God , hut that he loved us , and sent his 
 bon to he the propitiation for our sins. This is the 
 gieatest and most powerful manifestation of the love 
 of God for the sinner which is possible. That God 
 should give his only begotten son to die for us—no¬ 
 thing, beyond what is set forth by such an act as this 
 is conceivable. Also, this is a love which is back of 
 the atonement, as the cause is back of its effect. It 
 does not originally depend upon the atonement; but 
 the atonement depends upon it, and is its manifesta¬ 
 tion. The atonement is the fruit and consequence of 
 the love of God. Moved by this love, he devised the 
 atonement; he found the sacrifice in his only begotten 
 son ; he laid upon him the iniquities of us all. The 
 satisfaction which his justice demanded did not limit 
 this love. In his infinite nature, justice and mercy 
 and love are not inconsistent. The love of God is 
 justice, and his justice is love. God is love. God 
 
220 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 loves his enemies even while they are enemies; else 
 he could not command us in order to be like him, o 
 love our enemies. 
 
 Now by what means man is brought to believe m 
 this love of God, as manifested in the gift of his bon, 
 is not here the question. But when once it is e- 
 lieved in, not only is the wisdom of man confessed to 
 be folly, in that it is brought to believe what seems 
 to be foolishness in its own eyes, but also by this 
 faith the delusion that God was his enemy is scat¬ 
 tered to the winds. That fear which arises out oi 
 the shame of conscious sin and which drives im 
 from the presence of God into deeper an eepei 
 alienation and enmity, is destroyed; and he receives 
 boldness to return to the only source and fountain ot 
 his spiritual life and well-being. Nay, he is m some 
 sort sweetly forced into repentance, for by this 
 manifestation of his love, which God has made in 
 that he himself has found a sacrifice and ransom 01 
 the soul of man, in the blood of his own Son, he fol¬ 
 lows the sinner out into his alienation and rebellion 
 and enmity, and proclaims his love to him there to 
 soften his heart, to take away his fear, and to win 
 him back to life. Here the sinner first learns against 
 whom, and what manner of love, he has^ sinne . 
 That God should love him while he was innocent 
 does not seem strange. But here he learns that, 
 although the justice of God demanded satisfaction, 
 vet God has never been alienated from him in the 
 spirit of his mind. From the moment when he be¬ 
 gan to rebel, God had prepared an atonement for his 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 221 
 
 sin, through which in due time he would manifest 
 that eternal love, which moved him to lay the sins of 
 man upon his own Son. Even in the terrible sen¬ 
 tence of death pronounced by the Voice of God 
 through the law upon the Adam in him, God was 
 moved by love. That condemnation and death itself 
 was a blessing, only he did not then know it. And 
 it was even necessary that this knowledge should be 
 withheld from him then, in order that the sentence 
 ol death should be executed, that he might truly die 
 unto sin. By this proclamation of his love to the 
 sinner, God heaps coals of fire upon his head to melt 
 him into repentance. He overcomes evil with good. 
 His love overcomes and kills the sinner’s enmity. 
 For when, believing in this love which is declared by 
 the gift of the Son of God, he learns that the God 
 against whom he has been sinning, is One who has 
 so loved him, as to find an atonement for his sins ; 
 and that too, since nothing else would do, in the 
 sacrifice of his own Son, that he might save his 
 soul from perdition—this it is which brings out his 
 sin as something so inexcusable, unreasonable, malig¬ 
 nant, loathsome, and abominable, that repentance 
 seems to come into his heart of itself. This reveals 
 such an unfathomable depth of love in God, that it 
 has, where it is believed, an overwhelming soul-sub¬ 
 duing power. It melts the most obdurate and rebel¬ 
 lious heart into penitence and humiliation as soon as 
 it is believed. By it man is broken down. His 
 evil is overcome by the omnipotence of God’s good¬ 
 ness. His enmity subdued by the omnipotence of 
 
222 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 God’s love. He may stand in the pride of his heart, 
 and refuse to recognise the presence of his God, while 
 the wind and the earthquake and the fire rage around 
 him. But when he hears that still small voice, I have 
 redeemed thee with the sacrifice of mine only begotten 
 Son, he wraps his face in his mantle, and bows his 
 head. His rebellion ceases. God has conquered. 
 And this is that which has given him the victory, 
 even his love, revealed in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Thus by the atonement of Christ the justice ol 
 God is satisfied, the love of God is manifested, 
 through such means, as that by the faith of it, the 
 pride of man’s wisdom is crushed, and he recon¬ 
 ciled in the spirit of his mind to his Heavenly 
 Father. The fear of conscious sin no longer drives 
 him from the presence of his God. Now he can 
 return to God. The righteousness of Christ, in his 
 obedience, sufferings and death for him, becomes as 
 a garment to cover his nakedness and shame, to blot 
 out , to put away his sin. And he cannot return in 
 any other way. He must have peace with God in 
 order to love God. He must love God in order to 
 please him by obedience. He must submit to his 
 Wisdom, and obey its guidance in the choice between 
 good and evil, in order to choose aright and live. 
 The faith of God’s love towards us, as manifested 
 through the gift of his Son, is the only spring and 
 generator of our love towards him. We love him 
 not otherwise than because he first loved us. For, 
 although the character of God is infinitely worthy 
 of love for its own sake, yet it cannot reach a sinner 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 223 
 
 depraved and blinded so as to be known, except 
 through the faith of this declaration, God commend- 
 eth his love towards us in that while we were yet sin¬ 
 ners Christ died for us. Man must have justifica¬ 
 tion before he can have sanctification. This is the 
 doctrine the loss of which St. Paul represents as 
 fatal to his countrymen. And here is the reason why 
 the early Reformers represented the doctrine of 
 justification by faith as Articulus vel stantis vel ca- 
 dentis Ecclesice. 
 
 Unto this faith afterwards in due time to be fully 
 declared, man was shut up, by the system of bloody 
 sacrifices for sin, and by the operation of the moral 
 law, or in other words, the law of distinction between 
 right and wrong, upon his heart and mind. These 
 truths of the gospel were symbolized or expressed 
 from the time that the first man was covered by the 
 hand of God, in the skins of slaughtered animals 
 until the Seed came. Immediately upon the Fall 
 they are set forth under the symbol of the clothing 
 with skins, precisely in the order in which they were 
 afterwards to be declared. 
 
 For, as we have seen, the shame of man’s naked 
 body arose out of, and became the symbol of his 
 new feeling, the inward and spiritual shame of con¬ 
 scious sin. His girdle of fig-leaves was the symbol 
 of his attempt to disguise and palliate his sin, to 
 cover it from his own eyes, and from the eye of God. 
 It did not succeed. He needed a better covering 
 than any which his hands could provide. He was 
 still naked, ashamed and. afraid. His flight from the 
 
224 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 presence of God to hide himself was but the outgo¬ 
 ing and manifestation of his alienation from God, 
 increased by his fear; in which God was regaided 
 as his enemy, and the justice of God was terrible 
 and hateful to his soul. The Voice of God pro¬ 
 nouncing upon him the sentence of death was the 
 symbol of that inward and spiritual sentence of 
 death pronounced by the law, that sentence of death 
 in himself which Paul received, and which every 
 one must receive upon the Adam in him, whenever 
 he is reached by the Voice of God through the law. 
 
 And now, what was the object, what must have 
 been the effect upon the mind and heart of Adam, of 
 the act which followed, together with the promise 
 which had been declared by God in the curse upon 
 the serpent ? How must this have destroyed his 
 delusion that God was his enemy ; and convinced 
 him that the heart of God was still full of pity and 
 mercy and love towards his erring creature ! It was 
 as much as to say in words, and by act more express¬ 
 ive than words, I do not hate you, O Alan, though I 
 condemn your sin and folly. I love you, though you 
 have despised my love. Behold my love in this that 
 I have determined not to leave you in your ruin. 
 Your enemy shall not triumph over you, although you 
 have put yourself into his hands. I will crush his 
 head, and utterly destroy his power. By the Seed 
 of the woman herself; of her who was first in the 
 transgression, I will triumph over him ; and you shall 
 also triumph through me. But seek no more to cover 
 your sin from me. You must lay bare the nakedness 
 
OP THE CLOTHING OP SKINS, 
 
 225 
 
 of your soul to my eyes. I must judge the evil that 
 is in you to destroy it out of you. In my judgment 
 alone can you have any hope of salvation from your 
 sin, and from its terrible perdition. All that you can 
 devise and do is, and must be, for ever in vain to 
 cover your shame, and take away your fear. I must 
 do this for you. But seek no more to comprehend 
 and justify in your eyes my Wisdom in that which I 
 do. It demands the submission of your mind. Your 
 sin is of such horrible magnitude, that it cannot be 
 put away by any means which your wisdom would 
 choose. An innocent victim must suffer in your 
 stead; must bear your sin , and carry your trans¬ 
 gressions. This is foolishness in your eyes ; not so 
 in mine, because my wisdom is better than yours now 
 blinded by your sin. Therefore cease from your 
 own wisdom; submit to me, follow my Wisdom in 
 all things. Lo ! I give you the sign of this thing.— 
 And in that form which he had chosen to commune 
 with his creature, God lays hold upon the innocent 
 animals; pours out their life unto death; and with 
 their skins yet reeking with the blood of life, himself 
 covers the nakedness, and puts away the shame of 
 man .—Behold, I have covered your naked body, 
 which made you ashamed and afraid in my presence, 
 and caused you to fly from me, by the slaughter of 
 the innocent for you. I have found an innocent vic¬ 
 tim and sacrifice for your sin. I have put it away 
 and covered it from my eyes. Here learn that I am 
 not your enemy; that I love you, and have provided 
 the covering that you need to appear in my presence. 
 
 10 * 
 
226 
 
 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 Therefore seek no more to fly and hide yourself from 
 me. The chastisements which I have laid upon you 
 are the fruits of my love. Return to me in the spirit 
 of your mind ; in confidence, love, and obedience. 
 For under my guidance only can you choose aright 
 between good and evil. Left to your own ways which 
 you have chosen, you must perish for ever. I am 
 the root of your life, you are a branch. I am the 
 
 head of which you are a member. 
 
 Thus when man had received the sentence of 
 death in himself from the Yoice of God ; when his 
 own covering for his nakedness had been stripped off; 
 when his own excuses and palliations for his sin had 
 been consumed by the flame of God’s searching and 
 righteous judgment, made known in his heart and 
 conscience, then, and not before, he received this seal 
 of grace, mercy and love, to melt him into repent¬ 
 ance ; to win him back to union with his heavenly 
 father in love, that he might be saved from his sin. 
 God covered with his own hand his naked body, the 
 shame of which had made him afraid, and driven 
 him to fly and hide himself, to signify that he only 
 can, and that he truly does, cover and put away the 
 sin from which that shame has arisen. This cover¬ 
 ing was not an apron or girdle of flimsy fig leaves; 
 but garments or robes of the skins of beasts, the 
 most^substantial and durable material, to signify that 
 the covering which God provides foi the sinnei is 
 complete and perfect, wholly the work of God, an 
 everlasting righteousness; which once and for ever, 
 where it is received by believing in it, takes away 
 
OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 227 
 
 that shame and fear which drives the deluded soul 
 from his presence and from life.- These garments 
 God provided not otherwise than by the sacrifice of 
 innocent animals, to symbolize the truth that the 
 righteousness which only can effectually cover the 
 sin of man, must be found in the sacrifice of the 
 innocent for the guilty, even of the Lamb which was 
 slain from the foundation of the world. 
 
 From this act of God, in which he clothed man in 
 the skins of beasts to put aw T ay the shame which had 
 made him afraid, a countless number of expressions 
 in the Word of God derive their origin and signifi- 
 cancy. For as the shame of the naked body is con¬ 
 stantly taken in the Word as the symbol of the 
 shame of conscious sin, so the covering of nakedness 
 is the favorite expression to symbolize the forgiveness 
 of sin. The righteousness of Christ, in his obedience, 
 sufferings and death, is continually set forth under 
 the symbol of a garment. Thou wast naked and bare; 
 
 I passed by, and I spread my skirt over thee, and 
 covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, and 
 entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord 
 God, and thou becamest mine. Woe to the rebellious 
 children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not 
 of me; and, that cover with a covering but not of 
 my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin. He that 
 covereth his own sins shall not prosper. Blessed 
 is he whose sin is covered. Thou hast covered all 
 their sins. He hath covered me in robes of right¬ 
 eousness. That I might win Christ, and be found 
 in him, not having on mine own righteousness, 
 
228 OF THE CLOTHING OF SKINS. 
 
 which is as filthy rags , hut the righteousness of God. 
 I counsel thee to buy of me white raiment , that thou 
 mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness 
 do not appear r 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE, 
 
 229 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ‘ \ - S ' ' . 
 
 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 ^' »,/.*' v ' ' - > *• v... *' .* . *‘ C 
 
 “And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, 
 to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and 
 take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever-There¬ 
 
 fore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till 
 the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; 
 and he placed at the east of the garden, Cherubim, and a flaming 
 sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of 
 life.” 
 
 Had man actually obtained the object of his insane 
 ambition ? Did the experience of sin and evil into 
 which he had plunged himself, and by which alone 
 he now differed from his former estate, render him 
 more like God, who cannot be tempted with evil , than 
 he had been before ? If now he was acquainted with 
 evil, how had he become more like God in knowing 
 good as well as evil ? For to confine the force of 
 expression to know good and evil , to knowing evil 
 alone, is a manifest violation of its plain and obvious 
 sense. Or are these words, Lo ! the man has become 
 as one of us to know good and evil, words of high 
 and solemn irony? 
 
 This figure of speech which is called irony, is much 
 more frequently used in the Scriptures than is com¬ 
 monly supposed. The words of our Lord to his dis¬ 
 ciples, when returning from his agony in Gethsemane 
 
230 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 he found them sleeping, are ironical.* The whole 
 parable of the unjust steward is certainly a strain of 
 terrible irony.f But it these examples seem to be 
 
 * “ Sleep on now and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, 
 and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. If he 
 had meant them to sleep on, would he have addressed to them a 
 speech which, in order to have any effect, must wake them ? Also 
 in the next verse he says, “ Arise and let us be going : Behold, he 
 is at hand which doth betray me.” Here he gives the same leason 
 for their awaking and going which he had just given for their sleep¬ 
 ing and taking their rest—that he their Lord and Redeemer was 
 about to be betrayed. If this were a good reason for their awaking, 
 it could not be a good reason for their sleeping. But if the former 
 w r ords be understood as ironical, the passage is relieved of all diffi¬ 
 culty. Surely this is a proper time for you to sleep when jour Lord 
 is just about to be betrayed and crucified ! Arise and let us be 
 going ; your Lord is about to be betrayed. 
 
 f The character of the unjust steward should be carefully observ¬ 
 ed. His Lord has called him to account for negligence and waste, 
 and is about to deprive him of his office. In order to provide for 
 himself now, he connives with his master’s debtors to dehaud him. 
 He has not wit enough to conceal his dishonesty. It is found out. 
 This is the character held up as a model for the disciples of Christ. 
 
 Now let us suppose this to have taken place before our eyes. 
 What is there in this man’s conduct to be commended ? Not his 
 fidelity as a servant; for he is too lazy to wmrk, too proud to beg ; 
 and, as the wiser course, has betaken himself to forgery and steal¬ 
 ing. But it is his prudent foresight which is lauded by his master. 
 Did a master ever think of praising a servant for prudent foresight 
 exercised in defrauding? But what is there even of adroitness or 
 cunning, to say nothing ot rational foresight in what this man had 
 done ? Just such as a lawyer would manifest, if, when a bill or note 
 is put into his hands to be collected, he should keep to himselt a 
 third or fourth part of its amount. This any fool can do ; and no 
 man in his senses, when he should find his agent employed in such 
 practices, would ever think of commending him for his foresight. 
 
 In applying this parable, the Lord says to his own true disciples, 
 who have utterly renounced this world, “ And I say unto you, make 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 231 
 
 doubtful to any, there are others which do not admit 
 of doubt. Rejoice , O young man , in thy youth , and 
 
 to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness ; that when 
 ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Now 
 when shall the disciples of Christ fail, so as to have need of anything 
 that the mammon of unrighteousness can give them ? Where did 
 the mammon of unrighteousness, in whatsoever sense that expres¬ 
 sion may be taken, get everlasting habitations to give the disciples 
 of Christ? 
 
 That these are words of high and solemn irony is evident from 
 what follows. For immediately, lest he should be mistaken, the 
 Lord drops this figure of speech, as is almost always done in the 
 Scriptures, and in the most direct and pointed manner warns his 
 disciples against following this man’s example. “ He that is faith¬ 
 ful in that which is least, is faithful also in much ; and he that is 
 unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not 
 been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,” as this man was not, 
 
 “ who shall commit to your trust the true riches ?” “ If ye have not 
 been faithful in that which is another man’s,” as this unjust steward 
 was not, “ who shall give you that which is your own ? No ser¬ 
 vant can serve two masters.” “ Ye cannot serve God and mam¬ 
 mon.” 
 
 By carefully attending to the truths, which by way of application, 
 Jesus himself draws from this parable, it will be seen that it is 
 spoken against covetousness, not to recommend foresight. For 
 these truths can be drawn from it only by understanding that the 
 conduct of this proud, lazy, covetous fool, is held up as the very 
 opposite of true wisdom and prudence; as something in every par¬ 
 ticular to be abhorred. For this unjust steward utterly failed to 
 gain what he sought. Is it to be supposed that his Lord allowed 
 him to keep what he had so dishonestly appropriated to himself? or 
 that, after such a specimen of his fidelity, he restored him to the 
 stewardship ? What then did he gain by his very prudent fore¬ 
 sight ?. And the application of the words, “ The lord commended 
 the unjust steward because he had done wisely, for the children of 
 this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light,” 
 becomes such as this, surely your Lord shall commend and reward 
 
232 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and 
 walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of 
 thine eyes; hut know that for all these things, God 
 will bring thee into judgment . The former part of 
 this address is ironical. In the latter part the iiony 
 is dropped as usual, that it may not be mistaken. It 
 is as much as to say, Rejoice not O young man in 
 vanity; walk not in the ways of thy heart, nor m 
 the sight of thine own eyes, according to thine own 
 wisdom, because for all these things God will surely 
 bring thee to a terrible reckoning. The same figure 
 is used by the prophet Elijah in his famous address 
 to the priests of Baal. Cry aloud, for he is a god, 
 either he is talking or he is pursuing, or he is in a 
 journey , or peradvznture, he sleepeth, and must he 
 awaked . Thus in the most powerful manner he sets 
 
 before the deluded idolaters, the grossness of their 
 folly and sin, in calling upon him as a god, who could 
 neither talk, nor hunt, nor move from one place to 
 another, nor even sleep. 
 
 you for such conduct as this, if you can conceive that a man should 
 praise his servant in such circumstances ! Surely it is wise for you 
 to follow this man’s example, since the children of this world, who 
 walk in utter darkness, are so much wiser than the children of light 
 who are illuminated by the Holy Ghost, and walk in the Wisdom 
 
 of God! 
 
 This view is still further confirmed, if that were necessary, by 
 the fact, that “ the Pharisees who were covetous,” immediately 
 perceived that this parable was spoken, not to recommend foresight, 
 but against them, and they derided him. This led him to follow 
 them up with another, that of the rich man and Lazarus, which re¬ 
 bukes them for the same love of mammon which is rebuked in the 
 parable of the unjust steward. 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 233 
 
 Also, it is to be observed, that God is frequently 
 represented as mocking, in order to reveal, the gross¬ 
 ness of that folly which is contained in all the sin of 
 man, the preference of his own wisdom before the 
 Wisdom of God. Because ye have set at naught all 
 my counsel , and would none of my reproof,\ I also will 
 laugh at your calamity , and mock when your fear 
 cometh. When the heathen plot against the Lord 
 and his Anointed, seeking to cast off the bands of his 
 authority, they are said to imagine or devise vain 
 things. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; 
 the Lord, shall have them in derision. 
 
 If now we recur to the account before given of what 
 man beheld after he had eaten of the fruit of the forbid¬ 
 den tree, we shall perceive that his eyes were opened 
 indeed, but not to know good and evil. Their eyes 
 were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 
 And since it is perfectly evident that by the experi¬ 
 ence of sin and evil, man became in no respect more 
 like God than he had been before, but that the image 
 of God in him was marred instead of being rendered 
 moie pei feet, the expression, Lo ! the man has be¬ 
 come as one of us to know good and evil, may, like the 
 pieceding examples, be taken as words of high and 
 solemn irony. They are spoken to describe and 
 make known, the greatness of man’s folly, as it ap¬ 
 peared to the Wisdom of God. They reveal the 
 tiuth that, as God beheld man’s presumptuous and 
 insane attempt to know good and evil by his own 
 wisdom, it was a miserable failure. They are as if 
 Jeho\ah had said, Indeed, man has succeeded in be- 
 
234 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 coming as one of us ! The creature of yesterday has 
 raised himself to equality with his Creator ! The 
 worm has indeed become a god ! He has plunged 
 himself into death. How art thou fallen from heaven 
 O Lucifer, Son of the morning ! How art thou cast 
 down to the ground ! Hor thou hast said, I will as¬ 
 cend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the 
 stars of God, I will be like the Most High. Thou 
 sha.lt be brought down to hell. 
 
 In order now that man may submit to the chastise¬ 
 ment inflicted upon him by God, he must be driven 
 forth from the garden to till the ground, out of which 
 he was taken. The home and outward reflection of 
 his innocent and holy and happy life, is no longer a 
 fit abode for his sinful nature, upon which has come 
 the judgment of toil and sorrow and death. The tree 
 of life, the sacrament and symbol of that spiritual life 
 which has been nourished by the obedience of his 
 own agency, under the guidance of the Wisdom of 
 God, must be forbidden to him in order that by its 
 fruit his earthly nature may not be freed from the 
 punishment of death. He has now violated the truth 
 of which it was the symbol, and has no longer any 
 right to the sacrament of it, which can now be no¬ 
 thing better than a form, and must be powerless for 
 his spiritual good. He must not linger around that 
 tree, sighing to retrace his steps, to undo what is 
 past, but go forth and submit himself to all the evils 
 of the earthly lot which he has brought upon himself, 
 that he may learn by bitter experience how inade¬ 
 quate is the guide of life which he has chosen, to dis- 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 235 
 
 tinguish aright between good and evil. Therefore 
 Jehovah God drove out the man. 
 
 And he placed at the east of the garden , Cherubim 
 and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep 
 the way of the tree of life. What is there in this ex¬ 
 treme care and rigor with which the tree of life was 
 guarded from Adam, which is of universal signifi- 
 cancy and application ? What is the truth for man 
 as such, here symbolized ? 
 
 In order to perceive what this is, we must observe, 
 that innocence once lost, never can be recovered, 
 because it consists in never having sinned. The 
 redeemed saints now in glory are not, and never can 
 become innocent, because it can never be true of 
 them that they have not sinned. This is as much as 
 to say, in other words, that man having lost his spi¬ 
 ritual life cannot regain it by the obedience of his 
 own agency. Having once sinned, and being left to 
 his own agency, he must go on to sin for ever. For 
 sin is something spiritual, and back of all actions. 
 The sin of Adam even was back of his act of eating 
 the forbidden fruit. It was that state of heart, that 
 spiritual disposition from which this act arose ; of 
 which the act of disobedience was but the outgoing 
 and manifestation. Much more therefore in us, and 
 universally, sin is that in the agent himself of which 
 outward sinful acts are but the manifestation and 
 symbol. It is even back of the thoughts. Jesus him¬ 
 self points us to something back of the thoughts as 
 the place where sin originates. Out of the heart pro¬ 
 ceed evil thoughts. Sin is therefore that in the thinker 
 
236 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 himself of which sinful thoughts are but the out¬ 
 going. 
 
 But, as we have seen, every act of human agency, 
 whether of desire, thought or volition, reflects upon, 
 and enters into the agent himself. By it he is changed. 
 Hence after the first sin, he enters into subsequent agen¬ 
 cy different from that which he was before. His inward 
 and most spiritual character is changed for the worse. 
 He is vitiated, depraved in his nature. All his follow¬ 
 ing acts are modified in their character by the fii st act 
 of sin. After he has once conceived evil within him¬ 
 self, all that he can do by his own agency purely, 
 must partake of that original evil. Sin defiles the 
 agent himself, the fountain of all conceivable acts, 
 and thus defiles all the stream which flows from that 
 fountain. It corrupts the heart, out of which are the 
 issues of the life, and thus corrupts the whole life. 
 It changes the character of the will, the root of all 
 actions, and thus causes all the fruit to be changed 
 for evil. It perverts the nature ol the vine, and thus 
 perverts the nature of all the branches. Hence it is 
 utterly impossible for man to return to life by the 
 obedience of his own agency. He can of himself do 
 nothing which has the least tendency to save him 
 from his sins. For all that he can do, or think, or 
 feel, must flow out of a heart already polluted, de¬ 
 praved, defiled by sin. And who can bring a clean 
 thing out of an unclean ? Without me ye can do 
 nothing. When we were yet without strength, in due 
 time Christ died for the ungodly. We are not suffi¬ 
 cient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 237 
 
 It is the idea, that it is not absolutely impossible for 
 man to return to life by the obedience of his own 
 agency which St. Paul opposes under the form of 
 justification by works. It is perhaps, the most diffi¬ 
 cult of all things for man to receive the conviction, 
 that, although some things may be less displeasing to 
 God than others, it is utterly impossible for him in his 
 own strength to do anything which is not tainted with 
 sm, and therefore accursed from the presence of the 
 Loid. It is hard for him to be brought wholly to 
 despair of his own agency. And the loss of the 
 feeling and conviction that sin is something back of 
 all actions from which they spring, is even yet under 
 the Gospel, the most fatal of all mistakes into which 
 Christian people fall. For this it is which prevents 
 men fiom feeling that it is sin, in this spiritual sense, 
 fiom which they must be saved by Christ, if they are 
 evei sa\ed at all. It blinds them to the knowledge 
 of what that is in which the Salvation of the Gospel 
 consists ; that it is to become holy within as well as 
 without; to be like Christ. Hence they look to him 
 as to one who has purchased forgiveness for them 
 in an external and legal sense, rather than as to him 
 who saves them from their sinfulness. They are 
 pi one to think that if they will do as well as they 
 can, God will forgive them where, through human 
 infirmity, they do err and come short; and there 
 they lest satisfied. As well might a man whose 
 vitals a cancer is eating away, be content when the 
 physician tells him he will remove some of its 
 branches, and forgive him the operation necessary to 
 
238 
 
 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 eradicate the whole. For this reason man seeks to 
 excuse himsell for his sin, to prove to himself and 
 others that he is not so much to blame foi his tians 
 gressions. As wisely might he labor to excuse him¬ 
 self for having taken poison, when it is raging m his 
 system, instead of applying to the antidote. Sin is 
 not only that which brings man into condemnation 
 before God. It is also a fatal disease ; it is poison to 
 his nature. It is death. Myself am hell. Foigive- 
 ness from God for all a man’s sins in a legal sense, 
 announced to him by name in a voice fiom heaven, 
 can do him no manner of good, except as the neces¬ 
 sary means of purifying his spiritual natuie fiom sin 
 itself, by reconciling his heart to God in love. Foi 
 this purpose indeed it is indispensable. But the veiy 
 moment that the pardon ol sin, in a puiely legal 
 sense, becomes the object of a mans desiies and 
 seeking, rather than deliverance from sin itself, 01 
 for any other purpose than as the necessary means 
 of salvation from sin, it becomes an idol which must 
 lead its deluded worshipper into shame and everlast¬ 
 ing contempt. 
 
 Because the sin of man is something spiritual, 
 back of all actions, consisting in a depraved and 
 perverted nature of the agent himself, which not only 
 brings him under condemnation ol the lighteous 
 judgment ol God, but also partakes of the natuie ol 
 a spiritual disease, he cannot by the obedience of his 
 own agency return to spiritual life. He must be 
 brought to despair of helping or healing himself. 
 For that which would heal is precisely the thing 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM 
 
 PARADISE. 
 
 239 
 
 which is diseased. He must feel himself to be help- 
 ess, without strength. Until he feels this, he is always 
 lingering around the tree of life, trying to be saved 
 by eating of its fruit. He is continually trying to do 
 something which may be pleasing to God; when 
 this is impossible except to an innocent and unde- 
 prayed being. Hence he is always baffled, defiled 
 more and more by the conscience of sin. To de- 
 stroy this illusion, to reduce him to the conviction 
 and feeling of his helplessness in his sins ; to make 
 mi know that he is dead in trespasses and in sins 
 e aw was given. Feeling this, he is emptied of 
 nmself, so to speak. His self-trust, and self-right¬ 
 eousness, and all hope from himself, are destroyed. 
 
 I hus only can man be prepared for the new life 
 which is already prepared for him in Christ; and his’ 
 mind and hopes turned to such expressions of the 
 Wisdom of God as the following. The Lord our 
 Righteousness. In the Lord have I righteousness and 
 strength. He is in some sort forced to look away 
 from himself to him who of God is made unto us 
 isdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and 
 Redemption. He questions with himself what those 
 words which follow should mean. Without me ye 
 can do nothing. I am the vine, ye are the branches. 
 Ye are the body of Christ. The spirit of God dwelleth 
 in you. Ye are the temple of the living God. Christ 
 in you the hope of glory. Christ is in you, except ye 
 be reprobates. It is God who worketh in you, both to 
 will and to do of his good pleasure. We are not suffi¬ 
 cient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves 
 
240 
 
 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 but our sufficiency is of God. Christ liveth in me. 
 The power of the truth here declared, like every 
 other truth, is to be realized in act and life, not other¬ 
 wise than by first believing it upon the authority of 
 the Word of God. That authority is to overcome 
 all cavils and objections of the carnal mind. But as 
 soon as it is believed, that these words, Christ is in 
 you except ye be reprobates , do describe a truth and 
 a fact, out of, and through the faith of that truth, 
 springs up a new life, and a new strength, which is 
 nothing else but the life and strength of the Spirit 
 of Christ in man’s soul. The belief of this truth is 
 the secret of godliness. The divine energy and 
 success of Paul in the service of his master, was the 
 unwavering faith of the truth which he declares in 
 the words, It is not I that live, but Christ that liveth 
 in me. I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengthened me. No man ever yet successfully 
 contended with, and overcame the temptations of 
 the world, the flesh and the devil, who did not be¬ 
 lieve what John declares in the words, Greater is he 
 that is in you, than he that is in them. No man can 
 live who will not believe the truth which Christ re¬ 
 veals to him in the declaration, I am the life. 
 
 This life of Christ in man is wholly a new life, 
 different from, and in its perfection inconceivably 
 more excellent than that of his original innocence. 
 Where sin abounded grace does much more abound. 
 This life is not nourished by the obedience of man’s 
 agency, as was the life of Adam. It must be erected 
 upon the crushed ruins of man’s agency. It must be 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 241. 
 
 implanted in the death of that nature in which man 
 has sinned, and which is now depraved. Man must 
 be crucified with Christ; be baptized into his death , 
 that he may live with him and by him. To establish 
 and maintain this new life, the simple guidance of the 
 Wisdom of God in the choice between good and 
 evil is not sufficient. To follow that guidance man 
 has now, of himself, no strength, no will, no desire. 
 He needs a wisdom, a righteousness, a strength, a 
 will not his own, yet united to him, and revealed in 
 him. He needs an agency revealed in him which 
 is not his own, to choose and obey for him. This 
 is Christ in man who chooses and obeys, of whose 
 obedience all that is good in man’s affections, 
 thoughts, volitions and actions, is but the conse¬ 
 quence, the outgoing and manifestation. He brings 
 into man his own perfect everlasting righteousness , 
 that unto him might be all the praise and glory of 
 salvation. This is the life of God in the soul ol 
 man. ' This in its perfection is salvation from sin, 
 and there is no other. 
 
 Now, the tree of life from which Adam was shut 
 out, stood fast beside the tree ot the knowledge of 
 good and evil. It was the sacrament and symbol of 
 ]iis life of innocence, whose joy was the consequence 
 and reward of the obedience of his own agency unto 
 the guidance of the Wisdom of God, in his choice 
 between good and evil. That file was lost past all 
 hope of redemption. Innocence and the fruit ot in¬ 
 nocence had perished for ever. Man must not linger 
 
 around that tree hoping to derive any spiritual bene- 
 
 11 
 
242 
 
 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 fit from its fruit. To eat of it now can be nothing to 
 him but a form of obedience. He must turn away 
 his eyes from it. Every hope of life by his own 
 obedience must be rooted out of his heart, before he 
 will humble himself to receive the free gilt ol salva¬ 
 tion through the obedience ol another, for, and in 
 him. He must submit himself to the sentence of 
 death which has been pronounced upon him; must 
 be baptized into death in a spiritual sense, m order 
 that he may live. Now he must look to other sym¬ 
 bols to learn how he may receive a new life,' In 
 the agony and flowing blood of the innocent animal, 
 in its flesh consumed with fire upon the altar of God 
 —in these he must find the symbol of the truth that 
 only in being baptized into the death of the innocent 
 Lamb of God can he have life. But so unconquer¬ 
 able is now his delusion and depravity that he and 
 all his posterity will be continually seeking to return 
 to life through the outward form of obedience. To 
 warn him, and through this symbol, all his posterity, 
 against this, which must always be fatal; to teach 
 man that to return to life by the;way of the obedi¬ 
 ence of his own agency is for ever impossible; that 
 the attempt to do it must be fatal to his only hope of 
 life; the cherubim and the flaming sword which 
 turned every way, were set to guard the way of the 
 tree of life. By this fiery sword, must every one 
 who seeks to be justified by his own works, to obey 
 by his own strength, to walk by his own light, to live 
 by his own life, be slain and consumed. 
 
OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 243 
 
 From this life nourished and maintained by the 
 obedience of his own agency man must look away 
 to the new righteousness and the new life, which must 
 be generated, nourished and perfected by the indwell¬ 
 ing in him of the Spirit of Christ. This life is not 
 only more excellent than all that he has lost, but it is 
 sure to all the seed. For the Spirit of Christ enters 
 into a unity with the spirit of the believer, so intimate 
 and vital, that the two are properly said to be one. 
 He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with him. 
 Jesus himself declares to his disciples that they are 
 one with him, as he is one with the Father. Because 
 I live ye shall live also. All glory be to his holy 
 name ! It is just as impossible for them to die, as it 
 is for him. This life therefore cannot be lost as was 
 the former in Adam. It depends not upon the falli¬ 
 bility of man’s discernment between good and evil; 
 nor upon the mutability of his will. It depends not 
 upon man’s weakness or strength. The covenant is 
 well ordered in all things and sure. The mercies of 
 David are sure. It depends upon the choice and 
 obedience of him who has united himself with his 
 people, so as to become one with them; of him 
 whose wisdom cannot err, whose faith cannot fail, 
 and whose strength has already overcome all his and 
 our enemies. Therefore it is that when this symbol, 
 the tree of life, is introduced again in the close of the 
 history of humanity, now saved from sin, it stands in 
 the midst of the street of the New Jerusalem, come 
 down from heaven to earth, on either side of the 
 
244 OF THE BANISHMENT FROM PARADISE. 
 
 river of life, which issues out of the throne of God 
 and the Lamb, and beside it is no longer the tree 
 
 OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 
PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, 
 
 Corner of Park Row and Spruce Sts., opposite City Hall, 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 PUBLISHES AMONG OTHERS THE FOLLOWING*. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH’S WORKS. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, 
 
 AND A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHORESS. 
 
 2 Vols. Svo., 
 
 WITH SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR TPIE WORK. 
 
 The Publisher invites the attention of the public to this 
 new Edition of one of the most popular and useful writers 
 ofthepresent age. It contains upwards of 1500 large octavo 
 pages, and nearly thirty different productions; several of 
 which in prose and poetry, make their first appearance in 
 our country in this edition. All her volumes, excepting 
 a few juveniles unsuited to a Standard Edition, are includ¬ 
 ed in this, making, to all intents and purposes, a complete 
 Edition of the Works of Charlotte Elizabeth. 
 
 To the attractions of our former Editions we have added 
 several engravings from steel, got up expressly for the 
 work, as Illustrations and Embellishments. 
 
 The news of the death of Mrs. Tonna has awakened a 
 new interest in her writings. Among her last labors as an 
 authoress, was the preparation for the press of Judeea 
 Capta. This we received from Charlotte Elizabeth in 
 manuscript, in advance of its publication in England, for 
 this Edition of her works, which has her express endorse¬ 
 ment, and is the only one in this country from which she 
 has derived any pecuniary benefit. 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 “ Charlotte Elizabeth’s Works have become so univer¬ 
 sally known, and are so highly and deservedly appreciated 
 in this country, that it has become almost superfluous to 
 praise them. " We doubt exceedingly whether there has 
 been any female writer since Hannah More, whose works 
 are likely to be so extensively read and so profitably read 
 as hers She thinks deeply and accurately, is a great an¬ 
 alyst of the human heart, and withal clothes her ideas in 
 most appropriate and eloquent language, lhe present 
 edition, unlike any of its predecessors in this country, is 
 in octavo form, and makes a fine substantial book, which, 
 both in respect to the outer and inner, will be an ornament 
 to any library.”— Albany Argus. 
 
 “ These productions constitute a bright relief to the 
 bad and corrupting literature in which our age is so 
 prolific, full of practical instruction, illustrative of the 
 beauty of Protestant Christianity, and not the less abound¬ 
 ing in entertaining description and narrative.” Journal 
 of Commerce. 
 
 “ In justice to the publisher and to the public, we add 
 that this edition of Charlotte Elizabeth’s Works will form 
 a valuable acquisition to the Christian and family Libra¬ 
 ry.”'— Christian Observer. 
 
 (i We experience a sense of relief in turning from the 
 countless small volumes, though neat and often ornate, 
 that the press is constantly throwing in our way, to a 
 bold, substantial-looking octavo of 600 pages, in plain 
 black dress, with a bright, cheerful countenance, such as 
 the volumes before us. Ot the literary characteristics of 
 Charlotte Elizabeth we have had frequent occasion to 
 speak. Her merits and defects are too well known to 
 need recapitulation here.”— Newark Daily Advertiser. 
 
 This third volume completes this elegant octavo edition 
 of the works of this popular and useful author. The 
 works themselves are so well known as not to need com¬ 
 mendation. The edition we are disposed to speak well 
 of. It is in clear type, online paper, and makes a beauti¬ 
 ful series. It is, moreover, very cheap.”— jYew York 
 Evangelist. 
 
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 ABETH'S WORKS, IN UNIFORM, NEAT I8m0. VOLS., 
 VARYING FROM 25 TO 50 CENTS PER VOL. 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. IV. Dodd. 
 
 THE ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS. 
 
 The Attraction of the Cross, designed to illustrate the 
 leading Truths* Obligations and Hopes of Christianity. 
 
 By Gardiner Spring, D.D. 12mo. Fourth edition. 
 
 We are not surprised' to hear that Mr. Dodd, the publisher, has al¬ 
 ready issued the third edition of the Attraction of the Cross, by the Rev. 
 
 Dr. Spring. It is the ablest and most finished production of its author, 
 and will undoubtedly take its place In that most enviable position in the 
 family, as a volume of standard reading, to be the comfort of the aged 
 and the guide of the young. We commend it as one of the most valua¬ 
 ble issues of the press.”— N. Y. Observer. 
 
 “ This is no ordinary, every-day volume of sermons, but the rich, 
 ripe harvest of a cultivated mind—the result of long and systematic 
 devotion to the proper work of the Christian ministry. We regard Dr. 
 Spring as one Of the most accomplished preachers of the country. We 
 never heard him preach a weak discourse ; and whenever he appears 
 from the press, it is with words of wisdom and power. A careful perusal 
 of this admirable book has afforded us great pleasure. We do not won¬ 
 der to find it so soon in a third edition. It will have a lasting reputa¬ 
 tion.”— Baptist Memorial. 
 
 a This volume, which we announced two weeks ago, and which we then 
 predicted would prove to be the most excellent and valuable work yet 
 
 written by Dr. Spring, has more than equalled our expectations. 
 
 We trust that every family in our land will read this precious work, 
 which illustrates so'beautifully and attractively the leading truths, ob¬ 
 ligations and hopes of Christianity, as reflected from the Cross of 
 Christ.”— Albany Spectator. 
 
 “ We mistake ‘if this neatly-printed volume does not prove one of the 
 most attractive religions works of the day. It presents the practical 
 truths of religion, which all ought to know, free from the spirit of sect¬ 
 arianism or controversy. The book is prepared for permanent use, and 
 bids as fair, perhaps, as auy book of the kind in our times, to live and 
 speak long after the author shall have gone to test the realities he has 
 so eloquently described.'”— Journal of Commerce. 
 
 u Dr. Spring’s new work, which we had occasion recently to announce, 
 is very highly commended elsewhere. A New-York letter in the Boston 
 Traveller thus introduces it to -notice‘ A new work of Dr. Spring, 
 
 « The Attraction of the Cross,” has been published by M. W. Dodd, of 
 this city. , . . “ The Attraction of the Cross” is destined to live among 
 the very best productions of the church with which its respected author 
 is connected. The style is remarkably pure, the arrangements of the 
 topics lucid and methodical, and the arguments addressed with great 
 force to the reason and conscience. It will stand by the side of Dod¬ 
 dridge’s Rise and Progress,” “ Wilberforce’s View,” or the Way of 
 Life,” in the libraries of future generations.’ Newark Daily Aclv. 
 
 u None will wonder at the rare success which this volume has won, 
 who have read it. For comprehensiveness of views, beauty of style and 
 excellence and fervor of devotional feeling, few works have lately ap¬ 
 peared that surpass it.”— Neic-York Evangelist. 
 
 a The grand relations of the Cross, its holy influences, its comforts and 
 its triumphs, are here exhibited in a manner cheering to the heart of 
 the Christian. And the perusal of this book will, we venture to say, 
 greatly assist and comfort the children of God.. . .’’— Presbyterian. 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. XV. Dodd. 
 
 DR. RICHARD’S LECTURES. 
 
 Lectures on Mental Philosophy and Theology. By James 
 Richards , D.D. Late Professor in Auburn Theological 
 Seminary. With a Sketch of his Life. By Samuel H. 
 Gridley. And a finely engraved likeness. 8vo. 
 
 “ For natural vigour of mind, practical wisdom, fervent piety, and un¬ 
 wearied diligence, both as a minister of the Gospel and teacher of Theo¬ 
 logy, the professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary at Auburn 
 stood deservedly high in the estimation of all who knew him or his writ¬ 
 ings. The discussions in this volume relate to some of the most profound 
 and difficult subjects, yet are distinguished for great clearness of method, 
 
 strength of thought and simplicity of style. We only regret that 
 
 the taste for lighter reading will probably exclude this volume from the 
 libraries of those who most need it. To students in Theology, and think¬ 
 ing laymen, it presents strong allurements, and will abundantly compen¬ 
 sate for the time of more than a single reading.”— Com. Adv. 
 
 CHRISTIAN IMPERFECTION. 
 
 Lectures on the Moral. Imperfection of Christians. De¬ 
 signed to show that while sinless perfection is obligatory 
 on all, it is attained by none. By Seth JVilliston, D.L. 
 IS mo. 
 
 “ This is a work which will repay many a reading. In force of reason¬ 
 ing, felicity of illustration, and power of application and conclusion, it 
 will commend itself to the strongest intellect; while the Christian will 
 be convinced, that the Rev. author, instead of lowering the standard of 
 divine graces and duties, raises it to the highest point of Christian excel¬ 
 lence and to t he perfections of God, so that the true disciple of Christ will 
 be led to bumble himself before God, and repent daily in dust and ashes, 
 of his involuntary sitis of omission and commission.”— Alb. Spectator. 
 
 KEVINS’ SERMONS. 
 
 Sermons. By the late William JYevhis, D. D. With a 
 ■ finely engraved portrait. 12mo. 
 
 UNION TO CHRIST. 
 
 By Rev. R. Taylor. 18mo. 
 
 NON-CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD, 
 
 BY THE RENEWING OF THE MIND. 
 
 By Rev. G. JY. Judd. 32mo. 
 
 FRAGMENTS; 
 
 FROM THE STUDY OF A PASTOR. 
 
 By Gardiner Spring,. D. D. 12mo. 
 
 rr 
 
 a 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 R T, 
 
 PiLOTTE ELIZABE1 
 
 jJ 5 $ 
 is O 
 
 IN 18mo. VOLUMES. 
 
 JUDAH'S LION. 
 
 “ Tit a sprightly, well-written narrative, containing scenes of high dra¬ 
 matic interest; it portrays tlie character and hopes of the Jews in their 
 distortion and points to the means which may De blessed in restoring 
 them Sthefifth of Abraham, in the true Messiah P-Phila. Observer. 
 
 '“Individuality of character is faithfully preserved, and every one is 
 necessary to the plot. The reader will find in this book much informa¬ 
 tion that he can only find elsewhere by very laborious researen Char- 
 lotte Elizabeth is a firm believer in the national restoration of the Jews 
 to the possession of Palestine, but believes they will previously be con¬ 
 verted^ Christianity. We advise our friends not to take up this book 
 until they can spare time for the perusal; because, if ^ey commence it 
 will require much self-denial to lay it down until it is fairly read 
 through . 77 —Christian A.dv* and Join • 
 
 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
 
 A collection of deeply interesting Memoirs, beautifully 
 illustrated under the similitude of flowers. 
 
 CAUSES 
 
 SECOND j 
 
 OK, UP AND BE DOING. 
 
 “We consider this little volume before us one of the best practical 
 works from the pen of this popular writer. It presents a series of mter- 
 estimr illustrations of the efficacy of that faith which looks above and 
 beyond second causes, and relies for support on the word and promises 
 of “God.”— Christian Observer. 
 
 FALSEHOOD AND TRUTH. 
 
 a a beautiful and instructive volume, worthy to be put into the bands 
 of nil children and youth, as a choice token of parental solicitude for 
 their preservation from insidious errors, and the establishment ot the 
 truth Is it is in Jesus. Few there are indeed of any age who can lead it 
 without equal profit and pleasure.”—Boston Recorder. 
 
 CON FORM STY. 
 
 « v/e read this little volume with great and unqualified satisfaction. 
 We wish we could induce every professor of 
 
 Wh renutation as a very accomplished and superior writer, and be 
 
 SncTadLate of Evaagolica! made 
 
 ential upon the whole life and conduct.”— Epis. KeCoram , 
 
 O 
 
Books Published and for Bale by M. IF. Dodd. 
 
 THE DESERTER. 
 
 “ We have never (we speak advisedly) read a story that more entirely 
 enchained us than this. We are not quite sure how much of it is 
 fancy, and how much fact; but we rather suppose that the outline is 
 veritable history, while the filling up may have been drawn partly from 
 the author’s imagination. The principal hero of the story Is a young 
 Irishman, who was lead through the influence of one of his comrades, 
 to enlist in the British Army, contrary to the earnest entreaties of his 
 mother, and who went on from one step to another in the career of crime 
 till he was finally shot as a deserter : though not till after he had practi¬ 
 cal lv embraced (he Gospel. The account of the closing scene is one of 
 '.he finest examples of pathetic description that we remember to have met 
 vith. The whole work illustrates with great beauty and power the 
 lownward tendencies of profligacy, the power of divine grace to subdue 
 the hardest heart, and the encouragement that Christians have never 
 to despair of the salvation, even of those who seem to have thrown 
 themselves at the greatest distance from divine mercy.”— Albany Daihj 
 
 Citizen. . 
 
 “ This is one of the happiest efforts of this exceedingly popular writer. 
 Its great aim appears to be to exhibit the truly benevolent influence of 
 real piety upon the heart of man, as well as the degrading na ture of sin. 
 The narrative is admirably sustained—the waywardness of the unre¬ 
 generate exhibited in living colors, and so interspersed with sketches of 
 the ‘soldier’s life,’ as to add a thrilling interest to the whole. It forms 
 a neat library volume of near i250 pages, and is handsomely printed and 
 bound in cloth.”— Auburn .Journal. 
 
 “ One of the happiest productions of the author. The narrative is 
 well sustained, and the personages and character are true to nature ” 
 — Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 COMBINATION. 
 
 “ This is a tale, founded on facts, from the gifted pen of Charlotte Eliz¬ 
 abeth. It is well written, and contains the very best of advice. It lays 
 down with great force the mighty truth, that without Religion there 
 can be no virtue ; and that without the fear and love of God. man will 
 inevitably be dashed on the rocks of irredeemable ruin. Religion is the 
 Sheet Anchor, the only protection to hold by in the hour of violent 
 temptation ; but if that be lost, all is over. Such little works as these 
 are eminently calculated to produce a vast amount of good ; and there¬ 
 fore let the heads of families place them upon their table for the benefit 
 of their children. 
 
 “ In no better way could an evening be spent than by having it read 
 aloud, that a warning may be taken from the folly of others, and that 
 the course which has led them to ignominy and disgrace may be most 
 carefully avoided.”— Boston American Traveller 
 
 THE DAISY—THE YEW TREE, 
 
 Chapters on Flowers. 
 
 Three most delightful little volumes, made up in part from 
 her very popular Flower Garden Tales for those who prefer 
 them in smaller volumes 
 
Books Published amd for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH’S WORKS-CONTINUED. 
 
 WRONGS OF WOMEN. 
 
 Part I. . 4 Milliners and Dressmakers TI. £ The 
 Forsaken Home;’ III. 4 The Little Pin-Headers ; 
 IV. 4 The Lace Runners.’ 
 
 « Is now published in handsomely hound volumes hy M. W. Dodd. 
 These are the most popular and intensely interesting stories from the 
 ever-moving pen of Charlotte Elizabeth, and we are desirous to see them 
 widely read. They are eminently calculated to awaken sympathy for 
 the oppressed and the poor, and we therefore take pleasure in calling to 
 them the attention of our kind-hearted readers.”— N. Y. Observer. 
 
 “ This volume contains Charlotte Elizabeth’s most graphic, truthful, 
 and pathetic expressions of the £ Wrongs of Women.’ She has come out 
 as the champion of her sex, and if they have no such wrongs to be re¬ 
 dressed in this country, they have thousands who sympathize with their 
 
 enslaved sisters in Great Britain.”— lb. 
 
 “The authoress of the ‘Wrongs of Women/ Charlotte Elizabeth, has 
 portrayed them in terms of exquisite pathos and heart-moving tender¬ 
 ness. Eloquently and forcibly has she denounced the inhuman policy 
 out of which they have grown; and with all the susceptibilities and 
 overwhelming influences of woman’s affections, she approaches the su 
 ieot in the hope of being able to bring some alleviation, some mitigation 
 of the mental and physical degradation of her sex.”—American (Boston ) 
 Traveller. 
 
 DANGERS AND DUTIES. 
 
 “ This volume is full of thrilling interest and instruction. Those who 
 commence, will not be content till they have finished it, and they will 
 find instruction presented in a form so irresistibly attractive and en¬ 
 chanting, that they will read it through, and wish it longer still. — 
 Christian Advocate. 
 
 PASSING s HOUGH FS. 
 
 u ]7 ew volumes of 156 18mo pages, contain a greater amount of valuable 
 thought happily arranged to secure attention and promote reflection. 
 The anecdote of George III., p. 53, is new to us, as are indeed several 
 other illustrations, but they are striking and beautiful. Books like this 
 cannot be too widely circulated nor too frequently read. They supply 
 heavenly aliment to the weak, useful medicine to the sick, and sate sti 
 mulus to the healthy and the strong.”— Boston Recorder. 
 
 We also publish in elegant library style, illustrated with 
 Steel Engravings, what to all intents and purposes may be 
 considered a complete edition of the Works of this popu¬ 
 lar Authoress. The edition is comprised in upwards of 
 1500 large octavo pages. 
 
 3 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. IV. Dodd. 
 
 JUD/EA CARTA. 
 
 ‘Judaea Capta,’ the last offering from the pen of this gifted and pop¬ 
 ular writer, will be esteemed as one of her best works. It is a graphic 
 narrative of the invasion of Judea by the Roman legions under Vespa¬ 
 sian and Titus, presenting affecting views of the desolation of her towns 
 and cities, by the ravages of iron-hearted, bloodthirsty s-oldiers, and of 
 the terrible catastrophe witnessed in the destruction of Jerusalem 
 The narrative is interspersed with the writer’s views of the literal tut 
 filment of prophecy concerning the Jews, as illustrated in their extra¬ 
 ordinary history, and with remarks contemplating their returning pros- 
 perity. Iler occasional strictures on the history of the apostate Josephus, 
 who evidently wrote to please his imperial masters, appear to have 
 been well merited. The work is issued in an attractive and handsome 
 volume .”—Christian Observer. 
 
 “If the present should prove to be Charlotte Llizabeth s last work, 
 she could not desire to take her departure from the field of literature 
 with a better grace ; and we doubt not that it will be considered, if not 
 the best, yet among the best of her productions. It is full ol scripture 
 truth illustrated by the charm of a most powerful eloquence ; and no 
 one we should suppose, could read it without feeling a fresh interest 
 in behalf of the Jewish nation, and a deeper impression of the truth 
 and greatness, and ultimate triumph of Christianity .”—Albany Daily 
 
 “ This volume contains a description of some of the most terrific 
 scenes of which this earth has been the theatre. Rut instead of con 
 templating them merely as a part of the world’s history, it takes into 
 view their connection with the great scheme of Providence, and shows 
 bow the faithful and retributive hand of God is at work amidst the 
 fiercest tempest of human passion. The work contains no small por¬ 
 tion of history, a very considerable degree of theology, and as much 
 beautiful imagery and stirring eloquence as we olten find within the 
 same limits. Those who have the other works from the same pen 
 will purchase this almost of course ; and they need have no fear that 
 it will disappoint any expectation which its predecessors may ha\e 
 awakened .”—Albany Religious Spectator. 
 
 Also just published— 
 
 44 THE CHURCH VISIBLE IN ALL AGES.’’ 
 
 A work, making attraction to the youthful as well as the 
 more mature mind, a deeply interesting and important subject. 
 
 All the foregoing are printed on clear, white paper, and 
 bound to match, making an attractive and beautiful set of 
 books. They are sold in sets or separately, varying from 
 25 to 50 cents per volume. When purchased for Sabbath 
 Schools, a liberal deduction is made from the above prices. 
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
Books Published (and for Bale by JSl. IV. Dodd. 
 
 (N ADDTION TO TIIE FOREGOING IS ALSO PUBLISHES?, 
 
 MEMOIRS OF REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, 
 
 Missionary to Polynesia. By Rev. Ebenezer Prout, of Hal¬ 
 stead. 1 vol. l2mo. 
 
 “Mr. Dodd has published a fine edition of Prout’s Memoirs of Rev 
 John Williams, Missionary to Polynesia. The lives of few men afford 
 more ample material for an instructive and interesting biography than 
 that of Williams. His ardent, energetic, and successful labori as a 
 Missionary of the Cross, are almost without parallel. His self-denying 
 
 and eminently prosperous efforts in Polynesia have been extensively 
 
 before the public in the ‘ Missionary Enterprises , and the friends of 
 missions every where hold him in affectionate and melancholy - 
 membrance as the • Martyr of Erromanga The author of ihe Me¬ 
 moir now published, has, without drawing largely upon the fact . with 
 which the Christian public are already familiar, produced ayolime 
 of intense interest. The work is not merely the eulogy, but the his¬ 
 tory of the active and efficient life of a man whose works constantly 
 spoke his praise, even to the hour of his tragic death We takepea- 
 sure in commending the excellent mechanical execution of the vol 
 
 ume.”— 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, LABORS, AND EXTENSIVE 
 USEFULNESS OF THE REV. CHRISTMAS EVANS, 
 
 A Distinguished Minister of the Baptist Denomination in 
 Wales. b Extracted from the Welsh Memoir by David Phil¬ 
 lips. 1 vol. l2mo. With portraits. 
 
 “ One or two specimens of the preaching of this celebrated Welsh 
 >• iri have been extensively read in this country, and have been suffi 
 i cnfro m^rk the author as a man of extraordinary genius. We are 
 .1 vlw more of him The memoir before us gives a sueemt 
 glad to know mo - , , au a presents the portraiture ot a man 
 
 emineMThet, aod moa, amiable character. There 
 Cf great talents eminen ffieiy,^ ^ which are exceedingly in- 
 
 and satistachry than any tin g moir is a valuable addition to 
 
 Fuller’s wort on printed, anu adorneu with a 
 
 portraitof°E rails,'tfie » of which are We,ah enough.”-*. Y. 
 Evangelist. 
 
 THE ADVANCEMENT CF RELIGION THE CLAIMS 
 OF THE TIMES. 
 
 By Andrew Reed, D. D., with a Recommendatory Introduc¬ 
 tion by Gardiner Spring, D. D. 1 vol. i2mo. . 
 
 s, nr i T1 „ „ nvs U At the request of the publishers I have paid some 
 Dr. Spring says, At 1 . with ,h e view of expressing my 
 attention to use work of Dr. 1, vereTi(1 author is favorably 
 
 known tc^the^churchej of thi^ couhtry, and ih's work win Oe,r.«. 
 nothing from his reputation. f-g. 
 
Books Published and for Sale by AT. W. Doda. 
 
 THE BOOK THAT WILL SUIT YOU 5 
 
 Or a Word for Every One. By Rev. James Smith, Author oi 
 “ Believer’s Daily Remembrancer,” &c. 
 
 “ An elegant little hand book of some 300 pages 16mo., and by an En 
 dish author Its contents are a rare selection of topics, treated briefly 
 o suit the circumstances of those who have fifteen or twenty minutes 
 ,o spend in reading, which it would be wicked to throw away, and yet 
 Jiscouraging to commence a heavier volume. * The Successful Mo 
 mer,’ ‘The Child’s Guide,’ ‘The Husband’s example,’ ‘The Wife’s 
 Rule,’—these are some of the topics taken promiscuously fr< m the 
 book ; and they show the author’s mind to be travelling in the right di 
 rection, viz.: towards the theory of life’s daily practice. We hope 
 that the time is near when Christian parlors will be emptied of ‘The 
 Book of Fashion,’ ‘ Somebody’s Lady’s Book,’ etc., etc., made up of 
 love stories mawkishly told, and other drivelling nonsense; and their 
 places supplied with works like the ‘ Book that will Suit you’—no less 
 pleasing, and far more useful.” 
 
 GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS, 
 
 In a faithful account of the Life and death of John Bunyan, 
 pp. 176. 
 
 “ We are pleased to see a very handsome edition of this admirable 
 treatise. It is just published, and will be eagerly sought after by all 
 who admire the spirit and genius of this remarkable man whose ‘ Pil¬ 
 grims Progress’ stands nearly if not quite at the head of religious lite¬ 
 rature.” 
 
 KIND WORDS FOR THE KITCHEN \ 
 
 Or Illustrations of Humble Life. By Mrs. Copley. 
 
 “This admirable little volume is the production of Mrs. Esther 
 Copley, (late Mrs. Hewlett.) whose popularity as an authoress has long 
 been established upon both sides of the Atlantic. The welfare of that 
 interesting and important part of society who discharge the domestic 
 duties of life has long engaged the attention of this distinguished and 
 accomplished lady. 
 
 ‘■‘ We have read the ‘Kind Words for the Kitchen,’ with a firm con¬ 
 viction that it is the best work we have ever seen in so small a com 
 pass for its designed purpose ; it suggests all that a sense of duty would 
 lead the head of a well regulated household to advise, and having 
 loaned the book to ladies distinguished for their judgment and skill as 
 heads of well-governed families, they have urged its publication with 
 a few omissions of matter deemed inappropriate to our country. 
 
 “ We believe almost every Christian lady wall be glad to place such a 
 manual of sound instruction in the hands of her domestics, and thal 
 which is kindly bestowed will generally be gratefully received. With 
 an assurance that the generil diffusion of this book would accomplish 
 a most valuable service in binding together more closely the interests 
 of the employer and the employed, and softening down the asperities 
 which so frequently grow out of the ill performed duties of the house¬ 
 hold sphere, we should rejoice to know that this little volume wai 
 placed by the side of the Bible in every kitchen of our country.’ 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 With portions of it I have been exceedingly interested, as throwing 
 together very important thoughts upon the most important topics of 
 religious instruction, well arranged and favorably expressed. The 
 work evidently cost the author time, effort, and prayer, and it is well 
 worth the labor and solicitude it cost. Whoever reads it will be abun¬ 
 dantly compensated, and if he reads it with the spirit with which it 
 was written, cannot fail to become a more enlightened and useful 
 Christian. The object and aim of the writer is not a selfish one, but it 
 is to do good. He takes a wide range, and yet having read the work 
 the attentive reader will find that the substance of it is easily remem¬ 
 bered. If our churches and our ministers would possess themselves 
 of its principles and imbibe its spirit, they would have less cause to 
 lament the decay of vital godliness, either in their own hearts, their 
 families, or their congregations. 
 
 “The publisher deserves commendation and encouragement for the 
 attractive form in which he presents this volume to the public, and I 
 take great pleasure in recommending it to all who purchase books for 
 the sake of reading them.” 
 
 PRAYERS FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES; OR THE 
 DOMESTIC MINISTER^ ASSISTANT. 
 
 By William Jay, author of Sermons, Discourses, &c., &c. 
 From the last London Edition. With an Appendix, con¬ 
 taining a number of select and original Prayers for partic¬ 
 ular occasions. 1 vol. l'2mo. 
 
 “This volume has been long looked upon as one of the best collec¬ 
 tions of devotional exercises for the domestic circle, that has been 
 published, and by a large class of Christians we doubt not that it is 
 considered invaluable. 'The present edition will be still more desirable 
 to American Christians, who will not fail to thank the publisher for 
 the fine form in which he has presented it ."—Courier $ New York 
 Enquirer. 
 
 A GOLDEN TREASURY FOR " HREN OF GOD. 
 
 Consisting of Select Texts of the Bible, with Practical Obser¬ 
 vations, in Prose and Verse, for every day in the year. By 
 C, H. V. Bogatzky. A new edition, carefully revised and 
 corrected. 1 vol. l6mo. 
 
 “This is a reprint of a work written by a Polish Clergyman more 
 than a century ago. We have seldom met with a work more admir¬ 
 ably suited to the religious wants of families than the work before us. 
 There is a lesson for every day in the year ; a portion of Scripture is 
 taken and such reflections are given as the text suggests. Tnose fam¬ 
 ilies who are in the laudable habit of calling their household together 
 in the morning cannot do better than procure this work. The por¬ 
 tion assigned foi each morning lesson is short, but full of the true 
 spirit of Christianity, and c.ould not fail to have a salutary influence 
 upon tne thoughts and actions of the day. It is got up in the style of 
 •fie-ratioe for which the publisher, M. W. Dodd, is so well known. 
 
Bnnkq Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 SERMONS, NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED, ON VARIOUS 
 PRACTICAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 Bj the late Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D. 
 
 “ Dr. Griffin may be regarded as having been a prince among the 
 princes of the American pulpit. He left a large number of sermons 
 carefully revised and ready for publication, part of which were pul>- 
 hshed shortly after his death, but the greater portion of which consti¬ 
 tute the present volume. They are doubtless among the ablest dis- 
 eourses ot the present day, and are alike fitted to disturb the delusions 
 of guilt, to quicken and strengthen, and comfort the Christian, and to 
 serve as a model to the theological student, who would construct his 
 discourses, in a way to render them at once the most impressive, and 
 the most edifying.” ’ 
 
 A MEMOIR OF THE REV. LEGH RICHMOND, A. M. 
 
 Rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire. By Rev. T. S. Grimshaw, 
 A. M., Rector ot Burton-Latimer, &c. Seventh American 
 from the last London Edition, with a handsome Portrait on 
 Steel. 
 
 We have here a beautiful reprint of one of the best books of its 
 class, to be found in our language. Such beauty and symmetry of cha¬ 
 racter, such manly intelligence and child-like simplicity, such official 
 dignity and condescending meekness, such warmth of zeal united with 
 a perception of fitness which always discerns the right thins to ba 
 done, and an almost faultless prudence in doing it,—are seldom found 
 combined in the same person. It is a book for a minister, and a book 
 for parishioners; a book for the lovers of nature, and a book for the 
 mends of God and of his species. Never perhaps were the spirits and 
 duties of a Christian Pastor more happily exemplified. Never did 
 warmer or purer domestic affections throb in a human bosom or exer¬ 
 cise themse ves more unceasingly and successfully for the comfort, the 
 present well-being and final salvation of sons and daughters. From no 
 
 riiSSnt rob Tn b « 7, < U , e K er p00d ,' vi11 flow out t0 men, in a fuller, warmer 
 “f" 1 ' , *1 a w ™ d > be was the author of the ‘Dairyman’s Daughter,’ 
 and the ‘ Young Cottager.’ 8 ' 
 
 M be engraved likeness of Mr. Richmond alone is worth the cost of 
 the work : as illustrative of the uncommon benignity that adorned and 
 eudeared the man to his friends and the world.” 
 
 UNCLE BARNABY, 
 
 Or Recollections of his Character and Opinions, pp. 31G. 
 
 religion of this book is good—the moralitv excellent and mo 
 mode of exhibiting their important lessons can hardly be surpassed in 
 anything calculated to make them attractive to the young or successful 
 in correcting anything bad in their habits or morals. There are some 
 twenty chapters on as many common sayings and maxims occurrences 
 
 Ston.’* ep ln a T' anl1 ra: a * ofta beneficial to'pareaS 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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