The general account of the work of the six
days is contained in the first chapter of Genesis; while in the second is
presented, among other things, a more particular narrative of the work of the
sixth day in the formation of the first human pair.
Let the reader peruse the history of the creation
as a revelation to himself as an inhabitant of the earth. It informs him of the
order in which the things narrated would have developed themselves to his view,
had he been placed on some projecting rock, the spectator of the events
detailed. He must remember this. The Mosaic account is not a revelation to the
inhabitants of other orbs remote from the earth of the formation of the
boundless universe; but to man, as a constituent of the terrestrial system.
This will explain why light is said to have been created four days before the
sun, moon, and stars. To an observer on the earth, this was the order of
their appearance; and in relation to him a primary creation, though
absolutely pre-existent for million of ages before the Adamic Era.
The duration of the earth's revolutions
round the sun previous to the work of the first day is not revealed; but the
evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long
continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the Scriptures, which
would seem to indicate, that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings
anterior to the formation of man. The apostle Peter, speaking of the
"false teachers" that would arise among Christians "by reason of
whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of," illustrates the certainty
of their "damnation" by citing three cases in point; namely, that of
certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of Sodom and Gomorrha.
Now the earth, we know, as the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah
and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it
is probable, that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the
order of their enumeration-first, judgment upon its pre-Adameral inhabitants;
secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon
Sodom after the flood.
Peter says, that "the Angels," or
pre-Adameral inhabitants of the Earth, "sinned;" and Jude, in speaking
of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says,
verse 6, "the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook
their own habitation." From which it would appear, that they had the
ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were
sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their
name(one sent) implies: thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their
habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated
this injunction and left it. Having transgressed the divine law, God would not
forgive them; "but casting them down," or driving them back, "He
committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for
judgment" (2Pet 2:4). Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to
their habitation, some further catastrophe befell them by which their committal
to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their
abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate,
under the waters of an overwhelming flood. Reduced to this extremity, the earth
became "without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep
waters" (Gen 1:1). Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers,
and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of "form" to the
surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became "void," or
empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found
any more upon it. Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adameral world
have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we
refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark,
that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before
the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic
flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have
hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the
Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.
Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six
days into six thousand years. But this, with the Scriptural data we have
adduced is quite unnecessary. Instead of six thousand, they can avail
themselves of sixty thousand; for the Scriptures reveal no length of time
during which the terrene angels dwelt upon our globe. The six days of Genesis
were unquestionably six diurnal revolutions of the earth upon its axis. This is
clear from the tenor of the Sabbath law. "Six days shalt thou labour (O
Israel) and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work: for in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Would it be any fit
reason that, because the Lord worked six periods of a thousand or more years
each and had ceased about two thousand until the giving of the law therefore
the Israelites were to work six periods of twelve hours, and do no work on a
seventh period or day of like duration? Would any Israelite or Gentile,
unspoiled by vain philosophy, come to the conclusion of the geologists by
reading the sabbath law? We believe not. Six days of ordinary length were ample
time for Omnipotence with all the power of the universe at command to re-form
the earth, and to place the few animal upon it necessary for the beginning of a
new order of things upon the globe.
But what is to become of the evil angels in
everlasting chains of darkness, and who shall be their judge? Jude says, they
were committed "for the judgment of THE GREAT DAY." He alludes
to this great day in his quotation of the prophecy of Enoch, saying,
"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His Holy Ones (angels of His
might, 2Thess 1:7) to execute judgment upon all, & c." This
coming of the lord to judgment is termed by Paul "the Day of
Christ"-during which the saints, with angels ministering to them, having
lived again, will reign with Christ a thousand years on the earth (Acts 17:31;
2Thess 2:2; Rev 5:10, 20:4,11-15). This is the Great Day of Judgment, a period
of one thousand years, in which Christ and His saints will govern the nations
righteously; judge the raised dead in His kingdom according to their works; and
award to the rebel angels the recompense awaiting their transgression.
"Know ye not," saith Paul, "that we (the saints) shall
judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?" (1Cor
6:3). From these data, then, we conclude that these angels will be judged in
the Day of Christ by Jesus and the saints.
In the period between the wreck of the globe as
the habitation of the rebel angels and the epoch of the first day, the earth
was as described in Gen 1:2, "without form and void, and darkness upon the
face of the deep,"-a globe of mineral structure, submerged in water, and
mantled in impenetrable night. Out of these crude materials, a new habitation
was constructed, and adapted to the abode of new races of living creatures. On
the first day, light was caused to shine through the darkness, and disclose the
face of the waters; on the second, the atmosphere called heaven, was formed, by
which the fog was enabled to float in masses above the deep; on the third, the
waters were gathered together into seas, and the dry land, called the Earth,
appeared. It was then clothed with verdure, and with fruit and forest trees,
preparatory to the introduction of herbivorous creatures to inhabit it. On the
fourth day, the expanded atmosphere became transparent, and the shining orbs of
the universe could be seen from the surface of the earth. Our globe was then
placed in such astronomical relation to them as to be subjected by their
influences to the vicissitudes of day and night, summer and winter; and that
they might serve for signs, and for years. Thus, the sun, moon, and stars which
God had made, by giving the earth's axis a certain inclination to the plane of
the ecliptic, became diffusive of the most genial influences over the land and
sea. It was now a fit and beautiful abode for animals of every kind. The
dwelling place was perfected, well aired, and gloriously illuminated by the
lights of heaven; food was abundantly provided; and the mansional estate waited
only a joyous tenantry to be complete.
This was the work of the fifth and sixth days. On
the fifth, fish and water-fowl were produced from the teeming waters; and on
the sixth, cattle, reptiles, land-fowl, and the beasts of the earth, came out
of "the dust of the ground," male and female, after their several
kinds (Gen 1:20-25, 2:19).
But among all these there was not one fit to
exercise dominion over the animal world, or to reflect the divine
attributes. Therefore, the Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the living
creatures." So Elohim created man in His image; male and female created He
them. Further details concerning the formation of the human pair are given in
the second chapter of Genesis, verses 7, 18, 21-25. These passages belong to
the work of the sixth day; while that from verse 8 to 14 pertains to the record
of the third; and from 15 to 17 is parallel with chapter 1:28-31, which
completes the history of the sixth.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them;" and the Jehovah Elohim, on reviewing
the stupendous and glorious creation elaborated by the Spirit, pronounced it
"VERY GOOD." Then the Elohim, or "Morning Stars sang together,
and all the Sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:4-7).
OF THE SABBATH DAY AND THE LORD'S DAY.
On the seventh day, which was neither longer nor
shorter than the days which preceded it, "God ended His work which he had
made;" and because of this notable event, "He blessed and sanctified
it." A day is blessed, because of what is or will be imparted to those who
are commanded to observe it. The sanctification of the day implies the setting
of it apart that it might be kept in some way different from other days. The
manner of its original observance may be inferred from the law concerning it
when it was enjoined upon the Israelites. To them it was said, "remember
the sabbath day to keep it holy." If it be asked, how was it to be kept
holy? The answer is, "in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor any one
or thing belonging to thee;" and the reason for this total abstinence from
work is referred to the Lord's own example in that "He rested the seventh
day." The nature of its observance in the ages and generations, and the
recompense thereof, is well expressed in the words of Isaiah;--"if thou
turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and
call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor
Him not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine
own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee
to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of
Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa
58:13-14). In this passage the conditions are stated upon which faithful
Israelites might inherit the blessing typified by the rest of the seventh day.
They were joyfully to devote themselves to the way of the Lord. They were not
simply to abstain from work, yawning and grumbling over the tediousness of the
day, and wishing it were gone, that they might return to their ordinary course
of life; but they were to esteem it as a delightful, holy, and honorable day.
Their pleasure was to consist in doing what the Lord required, and in talking
of "the exceeding great and precious promises" he had made. To do
this was "not speaking their own words," but the Lord's words. Such
an observance as this, however, of the sabbath day, implies a faithful mind and
a gracious disposition as the result of knowing the truth. Neither antediluvian
nor postdiluvian could "call the sabbath a delight," who was either
ignorant or faithless of the import of the promise "thou shalt delight
thyself in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with
the heritage of Jacob." A man who simply looked at the seventh day as a
sabbath in which he was interdicted from pleasures and conversation agreeable
to him, and from the money-making pursuits in which he delighted, would regard
the day more as a weekly punishment, than as joyous and honorable. Though he
might mechanically abstain from work, he did not keep it so as to be entitled
to the blessing which belonged to the observance of the day to the Lord. It was
irksome to him, because being faithless he perceived no reward in keeping it;
and "without faith it is impossible to please God."
The reward to antediluvian, and postdiluvian
patriarchs and Israelites, for a faithful observance, or commemoration of
Jehovah's rest from His creation-work, was "delight in the Lord, riding
upon the high places of the earth, and feeding with the heritage of
Jacob." This was neither more nor less than a promise of inheriting the
From these testimonies it is clear that it was
unlawful for servants in the families of
"The sabbath was made for man and not man
for the sabbath: therefore," said Jesus, "the Son of Man is Lord also
of the sabbath day" (Mark
The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by
Paul " the rudiments," or elements of the world," which, in
Galatians, he also terms "weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they
desired again to be in bondage." They evinced this desire by
"observing days, and months, and times, and years;" (Gal 4:3,5,9-10)
not being satisfied with the things of Christ, but seeking to combine the
Mosaic institutions with the gospel. This was Judaizing, and the first step to
that awful apostacy by which the world has been cursed for so many ages. When
the Mosaic constitution, as "the representation of the knowledge
and the truth," had "waxed old" by the manifestation of the
substance to a sufficient extent to nullify it, it "vanished away" by
being "cast down to the ground" by the Roman power, and with it the
law of the seventh day. Even before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of
the Galatians "lest he should have bestowed labour upon them in
vain," seeing that they were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the
law. They seemed not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary
constitution of things, "added because of transgressions, till the Seed
should come;" that when He came, "He redeemed them from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for them;" and that therefore they had
nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing its command.
They had got it into their heads that "except they were circumcised and
kept the law of Moses, as well as believed and obeyed the gospel of the
kingdom, they could not be saved" (Acts 15:1-5). Therefore they
"desired to be under the law" and began to busy themselves about
"keeping the sabbath," and doing other works which Moses had enjoined
upon
On the first day of the creation-week God said,
"Let there be light, and there was light;" so on the first day of the
week "THE TRUE LIGHT" came forth from the darkness of the tomb
"like dew from the womb of the morning." This event constituted the
day after the sabbath, or eighth day, the day of the Lord's resurrection; and
therefore styled by His disciples "THE LORD'S DAY." It is a day to be
much remembered by them, because it assures them of their justification
"in Him," of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of
His ruling or "judging the world in righteousness" as Jehovah's king,
when they also shall reign with Him as kings and priests of God (Acts 17:31;
Rom 4:25, 8:11; 1Cor 15:14-20; Rev 5:9-10). This day is also notable on account
of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and His disciples after
His resurrection (John
Power being in the hands of their enemies the
Christians of the Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according
to the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues on the
sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the Scriptures (Acts 17:2,17,
18:4, 19:8). To have done otherwise would have been to create an unnecessary
prejudice, and to let slip one of the best opportunities of introducing the
gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They did not forsake the
synagogues until they were expelled. While they frequented these, however, on
the seventh day, they assembled themselves together with the disciples whose
assemblies constituted the churches of the saints and of God. They ordained
elders over these societies, and "taught them to observe all things
whatsoever Jesus had commanded them" (Mat 28:20; Acts
To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is
possible only for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor
The law of Moses was delivered to the Israelites
and not to the Gentiles, who were therefore "without the law." "What
things soever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law;"
consequently the nations were not amenable to it: and though they obtained not
the blessings of
Men frequently err in their speculations from
inattention to the marked distinction which subsists in the Scriptures between
those classes of mankind termed "saints" and "sinners."
They confound what is said to, or concerning, the one, with what is said in
relation to the other. Relatively to the institutions of God they are as near
or afar off as are "citizens" and "foreigners" to the laws
and constitution of the
As I have shown, observance of the seventh day
was obligatory only upon the Israelites so long as the Mosaic code was in
force, being "a sign" between God and them. The sabbaths belong to
the land and people of
But these sabbaths will be no longer celebrated
on the seventh day. They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth or
first day of the week, which are the same. The "dispensation of the
fulness of times" (Eph
After the declaration of these things, Ezekiel is
commanded to show them the description of the temple which is destined to be
"the house of prayer for all nations," with the ordinances, forms,
and laws thereof. The Lord God then declares, "the ordinances of the altar
in the day when they shall make it," and when the Levites of the
seed of Zadok shall approach unto Him. The "cleansing of the altar,"
and the consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven
days. "And when these days are expired it shall be, that upon the
eighth day, and SO FORWARD, the priests shall make your burnt offerings
upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, O Israel,
saith the Lord" (verse 27). Thus the Lord's day, the day of His
resurrection from His seventh day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sabbath
day of the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of
This change of the sabbath from the seventh to
the eighth, or first day of the week, is the full development and establishment
of the observance of the Lord's day by the disciples of Jesus since the times
of the apostles.
Of the things then which have been written under
this head this is the sum.
FORMATION OF MAN.
"Out of the ground wast thou taken; for dust
thou art."
That "the sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the sabbath," is a truth of general application to all the
institutions of God. Upon this principle, man was not made for religion, but
religion was made for him. If this be true, then if follows that it was adapted
to man as God had formed him. Hence, the institutions of religion, if it be of
God, will always be found in harmony with his constitution, and not at variance
with it. They are devised as a remedy for certain irregularities which have
invaded his intellectual and moral nature; by which, phenomena have been
superinduced which are destructive of his being. Now the exact adaptation of
the Bible religion to the curative indications suggested by the intellectual,
moral, and physical infirmities of human nature, which every one who
understands it cannot fail to perceive,--proves that the mind which framed it
is divine; and that the religion of the Scriptures, and the constitution of
man, are the work of one and the same Creator. God is truly the only wise
Physician, whose practice is based upon perfect knowledge; for He alone (and
they to whom He hath revealed it) knows "what is in man" (John
2:25). Hence, no incongruities are discoverable in "His way" when His
method of cure is understood.
In medicine, a scientific practice is directed,
and founded upon a knowledge of the structure of mechanism of the body, the
motive power thereof, and of the functions which are manifested by the working
of this power on its several parts. The absence of this knowledge in a
professional, constitutes empiricism; and is one cause of such vast multitudes "dying,"
as it is said, "of the doctor." Being ignorant of the motive
power of the living creature, they are as unsuccessful in correcting its
irregularities, as a watchmaker would be in rectifying a timepiece who was ignorant
of the principles and laws by which it was moved. Now this may be taken in
illustration of the predicament of others who undertake the "cure of
souls." To treat these as "a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed," a man should be acquainted with "souls" as God hath
formed and constituted them. He should know what "a living soul" is;
what its condition in a healthy state; what the peculiar morbid affection under
which it languishes; what the nature of the cure indicated; and what the divinely
appointed means by which the indications may be infallibly fulfilled. An
attempt to "cure souls" without understanding the constitution of man
as revealed by Him who created him, is mere theological experimentalism; and as
bootless, and more fatally destructive than the empiricism of the most ignorant
pretenders to the healing art. What! men undertake to "cure souls,"
and not know what a soul is; or to imagine it a something, which it is
admitted, cannot be demonstrated by "the testimony of God." This is
like pretending to repair a timepiece without knowing what constitutes a watch
or clock, or while imagining it to be a musical box, or any other conceivable
thing.
Speculation has assumed that the soul is
something in the human body capable of living out of the body, and of eating,
drinking, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking, singing, and so forth; and of
the same essence as God Himself. In times past some have busied themselves in
calculating how many such souls could stand on the point of a needle; a
problem, however, which still remains unsolved. A vast deal is said in
"sermons" and systems about this idea; about its supposed nature, its
wonderful capacity, its infinite value, its immortality, and its destiny. I
shall not, however, trouble the reader with it. We have to do with "the
law and the testimony;" and as they are altogether silent about such a
supposed existence, we shall not occupy our pages in superadding to the
obsolete print concerning its attributes, which has already merged into the oblivion
of the past. I allude to so much as this, because it is made the foundation
cornerstone, as it were, of those experimental systems of spiritual cure, which
are so popular with the world, and so utterly exclusive and proscriptive of the
divine method.
Upon the supposition of the existence of this
king of a soul in the human body, are based the current notions of heaven,
hell, immortality, infant salvation, purgatory, saint-worship, Mariolatry,
spiritual millenniumism, metempsychosis, &c., &c. Its existence both in
the body and out of the body being assumed, it is assumed also to be immortal.
An immortal disembodied existence requires a dwelling place, because something
must be somewhere; and, as it is said to be virtuous or vicious according to
its supposed life in the body, and post mortem rewards and punishments
are affirmed-this dwelling-place is exhibited as an elysium, or, as an orthodox
poet sings, "a place of goblins damn'd." To deter men from crime, and
to move them to "get religion" that their souls may be cured of sin,
frightful pictures are painted, sometimes sculptured on stones, of the
crackling and sulphurous flames, hideous devils, and horrid shapes, which fill
the Tartarian habitation of the immortal ghosts of wicked men. This destiny of
condemned ghosts was a part of the "vain philosophy" of the Greeks
and Romans before the advent of Christ. It was introduced into the churches of
the saints soon after "God granted repentance to the Gentiles" (Acts
11:18). But, as the apostles taught the resurrection of the mortal body (Rom
8:11; 1Cor) the dogmatism of the Greeks was variously modified. Some admitted
the resurrection of the dead; but, as it interfered with their hypothesis about
souls, they said it was already past (2Tim 2:18);
And consequently, that "there is no
resurrection of the dead" (1Cor 15:12). This gentilizing the hope of the
gospel filled Paul with zeal, and caused him to pen the fifteenth chapter of
his first letter to the Corinthians to counteract its pernicious influence. He
wrote to Timothy to put him on his guard against it; and styles the gentilisms,
"profane vain babblings; and oppositions of science falsely so
called" (1Tim 6:20). He exhorts him to shun them, and "not to strive
about words to no profit;" for they "would eat as doth a canker"
(2Tim 2:14,16-17).
If there were no other evidence in Paul's
writings of inspiration, this prediction would be sufficient to establish it.
It has come to pass exactly as he foretold it. The dogma of an immortal soul in
mortal sinful flesh has eaten out the marrow and fatness, the flesh and sinew
of the doctrine of Christ; and has left behind only an ill-conditioned and
ulcerated skeleton of Christianity, whose dry bones rattle in the "winds
of doctrine" that are blowing around us, chopping and changing to every
point of the compass. The apostles taught two resurrections of the dead; one at
"the manifestation of his presence"-EPIPHANEIA, tees parousias
hautou; (1Thess 4:14-17; 2Thess 1:7-8; 2:8) the other at the delivering up
of the kingdom to God at the end (1Cor 15:24; Rev 20:5) of the dispensation of
the fulness of times. But this did not suit the theory of the dogmatists. They
resolved the first into what they term "a glorious resurrection of
spiritual life in the soul;" and the second into a re-union of disembodied
ghosts with their old mortalities to be sent back whence they came. In this way
they reduce the second resurrection to a very useless and superfluous affair.
Their systems send "souls" to their account as soon as death strikes
the bodies down. Some torment them in purgatory, or in an intermediate state;
others send them direct into unmitigated punishment; while both, after they
have suffered for thousands of years before trial and conviction, re-unite them
to their bodies and if it be asked for what purpose? System replies, "to
be judged!" Punish souls first and judge them after! This is truly human,
but it is certainly not divine justice. The truth is, that this article of the
creed is brought in to defend "orthodoxy" against the imputation of
denying the resurrection of the body, which would be a very inconvenient charge
in the face of the testimony of God. But this will not avail; for, to believe
dogmas that make the resurrection of the mortal body unnecessary and absurd is
equivalent to a denial of it. In saying that there was no future resurrection,
Paul charged the Corinthians with the mortal sin of repudiating the
resurrection of Jesus; "for," said he, "if the dead rise
not," as ye say, "then Christ is not raised." Their heresy eat
out this truth, which stands or falls with the reality of the "first
resurrection" at his coming (verse 23).
The question of "infant salvation" and
"non-elect infant damnation," also rests upon the dogma before us.
"Orthodoxy" sends some infants to hell and some to heaven; though
many "orthodox" persons are getting heartily ashamed of this part of
the creed. The apprehension of the damnation of their "immortal
souls" on account of "original sin," has given rise to the
Romish conceit of the rhantismal regeneration of infants by the Holy Spirit in
the scattering of a few drops of water upon the face, and the use of a certain
form of words. This has been recently declared to be regenerative of infant
souls by an English court of law! This question is actually gravely discussed
by bishops, priests, lawyers, and ministers, in the year of grace 1849! So true
is it that "great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand
judgment" (Job 32:9).
As far as the infant is itself concerned this
Romish ceremony is of no importance, for it does it neither good nor harm. In
one sense, however, the subject of "the ordinance" is deeply injured.
He is indoctrinated by system into the notion that he was truly baptized when
rhantismally "regenerated;" and, therefore, when he is grown he
troubles himself no more about the matter. Alas, what havoc the apostacy has
made with the doctrine of Christ! Believers' baptism transmuted into rhantizing
an unconscious babe for the regeneration of its "immortal soul!"
Would such a thing ever have been thought of but for the Nicolaitan
"oppositions of science," "which," says the Lord Jesus,
"I hate?" (Rev 2:6-15). I trow not.
How important then it is that we should have a
Scriptural understanding of the constitution of man. If it should appear by an
exposition of the truth, that there is no such kind of soul in the universe as
that conceited by the pagan Greeks and Romans, and gentilized into the doctrine
of the apostles by contemporary perverters (Gal 1:7-9) of the gospel, the faith
and hope of which it hath ulcerously consumed-and handed down to us by
"orthodox divines"-and fondled in these times as an essential
ingredient of a true faith:--what becomes of the "cure of souls" by
the dogmatical specifics of the day? They are resolved into theological
empiricism, which is destined to recede like darkness before the orient
brightness of the rising truth.
Let us then endeavour to understand ourselves as
God has revealed our nature in His word. On the sixth day, the Elohim gave the
word, saying, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." In
this word was life, spirit, or energy. "It was God. All things were made
by it, and without it was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-5).
Hence, says Elihu, "the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath
of the Almighty hath given me life;" (Job 33:4) or, as Moses
testifies "the Lord God formed man, the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a LIVING
SOUL" (Gen 2:7).
Now, if it be asked, what do the Scriptures
define "a living soul" to be?--the answer is, a living, natural, or
animal body, whether of birds, beasts, fish, or men. The phrase living creature
is the exact synonym of living soul. The Hebrew words nephesh chayiah
are the signs of the ideas expressed by Moses. Nephesh signifies creature,
also life, soul, or breathing frame from the verb to
breathe: chayiah is of life-a noun from the verb to live. Nephesh
chayiah is the genus which includes all species of living
creatures; namely Adam man, beme beast of the field, chitu
wild beast, remesh reptile, and ouph fowl &c. In the common
version of the Scriptures, it is rendered living soul; so that under
this form of expression the Scriptures speak of "all flesh" which
breathes in air, earth, and sea.
Writing about body, the apostle says,
"there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."
But, he does not content himself with simply declaring this truth; he goes further,
and proves it by quoting the words of Moses, saying, "for so it is
written, the first man Adam was made into a living soul;" and then
adds, "the last Adam into a spirit giving life,"(1Cor
15:44-45). Hence, in another place, speaking of the latter, he says of him,
"now the Lord is the Spirit. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into His image from glory into
glory, as by the Lord the Spirit"-(2Cor 3:17-18).
The proof of the apostle's proposition that there
is a natural body as distinct from a spiritual body, lies in the
testimony, that "Adam was made into a living soul;" showing
that he considered a natural, or animal body, and a living soul, as one and the
same thing. If he did not, then there was no proof in the quotation, of what he
affirmed.
A man then is a body of life in the sense of his
being an animal, or living creature-nephesh chayiah adam. As a natural
man, he has no other pre-eminence over the creatures God made, than what his
peculiar organization confers upon him. Moses makes no distinction between him
and them; for he styles them all living souls, breathing the breath of lives.
Thus, literally rendered he says, "the Elohim said, the waters shall
produce abundantly sherets chayiah nephesh the reptile living soul;"
and again, "kal nephesh chayiah erameshat every living soul
creeping." In another verse "let the earth bring forth nephesh
chayiah the reptile living soul;" and again, "kal
nephesh chayiah erameshat every living soul creeping." In another
verse, "let the earth bring forth nephesh chayiah the living soul
after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth,
&c.;" and "lekol rumesh ol earets asher bu nephesh chayiah
to every thing creeping upon the earth which (has) in it living breath"
(Gen 1:20-21,24,30), that is, breath of lives. And lastly, "whatsoever
Adam called nephesh chayiah (the living soul) that was the name
thereof" (Gen 2:19).
Quadrupeds and men, however, are not only
"living souls," but they are vivified by the same breath and spirit.
In proof of this, I remark first, that the phrase "breath of life"
in the text of the common version is neshemet chayim in the Hebrew;
and that, as chayim is in the plural, it should be rendered breath of
lives. Secondly, this neshemet chayim is said to be in the inferior
creatures as well as in man. Thus, God said, "I bring a flood of waters
upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is ruach chayim
spirit of lives" (Gen 6:17). And in another place, "they went in to
Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which is ruach chayim
spirit of lives." "And all flesh died that moved upon the
earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing,
and every man; all in whose nostrils was neshemet ruach chayim BREATH OF
SPIRIT OF LIVES" (Gen 7:15-22). Now, as I have said, it was the neshemet
chayim with which Moses testifies God inflated the nostrils of Adam; if,
therefore, this were divinoe particula aurae a particle of the divine
essence, as it is affirmed, which became the "immortal soul" in man,
then all other animals have "immortal souls" likewise; for they all
received "breath of spirit of lives" in common with man.
From these testimonies, I think, it must be
obvious to the most unlearned, that the argument for the existence of an
immortal soul" in "sinful flesh," hereditarily derived from the
first sinner, predicated on the inspiration of his nostrils with "the
breath of lives" by the Lord God, and the consequent application to
him of the phrase "living soul," if admitted as good logic,
proves too much, and therefore nothing to the purpose. For if man be proved to
be immortal in this sense, and upon such premises as these, then all quadrupeds
are similarly immortal; which none, I suppose, but believers in the
transmigration of souls, would be disposed to admit.
The original condition of the animal world was "very
good." Unperverted by the introduction of evil, all its constituents
fulfilled the purposes of their existence. Begotten of the same power, and
formed from the substance of a common mother, they were all animated by the
same spirit, and lived in peace and harmony together. Formed to be living
breathing frames, though of different species, in God they lived, and
moved, and had their continued being; and displayed His wisdom, power, and
handywork.
But, to return to the philology of our subject, I
remark that by a metonomy, or figure of speech in which the container is put for
the thing contained, and vice versa, nephesh "breathing
frame," is put for neshemet ruach chayim, which, when in
motion, the frame respires. Hence nephesh signifies "life,"
also "breath" and "soul"-Life, or those mutually
affective, positive and negative principles in all living creatures, whose
closed circuits cause motion of and in their frames. These principles, or
qualities, perhaps, of the same thing, are styled by Moses Ruach Elohim
(Gen 1:2), or Spirit of Him "who only hath immortality, dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see"
(1Tim 6:16), and which, when the word was spoken by "the Holy Gods"
(Dan 4:8), first caused a motion upon the waters, and afterwards disengaged the
light, evolved the expanse, aggregated the waters, produced vegetation,
manifested the celestial universe, vitalized the breathing frames of the dry
land, expanse, and seas; and formed man in their image and likeness.
This ruach, or spirit, is neither the Uncreated One who dwells in
light, the Lord God, nor the Elohim, his co-workers, who co-operated in the
elaboration of the natural world. It was the instrumental principle by
which they executed the commission of the glorious INCREATE to erect this
earthly house, and furnish it with living souls of every species.
It is this ruach, or instrumentally
formative power, together with the neshemeh or breath, which keeps them
all from perishing, or returning to the dust. Thus, "if God set His heart
against man, He will withdraw to Himself ruachu veneshemetu, i.e., his
spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn
again to dust" (Job 34:14-15). In another place, "by the neshemet
el, or breath of God, frost is given" (Job 37:10). Speaking of
reptiles and beasts, David saith, "thou withdrawest ruachem, i.e.,
their spirit-they die; and to their dust they return. Thou sendest forth ruhech,
i.e., Thy spirit-they are created" (Pss 104:29). And again,
"whither shall I fly, meruhech, from Thy spirit" (Pss 139:7).
From these testimonies it is manifest, that the ruach
or spirit is all pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or the dust of the
deepest hollow, in the uttermost depths of the sea, in the darkness, in the
light, and in all things animate, and without life. It is an universal
principle in the broadest, or rather, in an illimitable sense. It is the
substratum of all motion, whether manifested in the diurnal and ellipsoidal
revolutions of the planets, in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the storms
and tempests of the expanse, or in the organism of reptiles, cattle, beasts,
fish, fowls, vegetables, or men. The atmospheric expanse is charged with it;
but it is not the air: plants and animals of all species breathe it; but it is
not their breath: yet without it, though filled with air, they would die.
The atmosphere, which extends some forty-five
miles in altitude, and encircles the globe, is styled the expanse, by Moses;
and the breath of God, in Job. It is a compound body, consisting when pure of
nitrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of 79 of the former to 21 of the latter,
in 100 parts. These are considered as simple bodies, because they have not yet
been decomposed; though it is probable they have a base, which may be ruach.
This may exist free or combined with the elementary constituents of the neshemeh.
Uncombined, it is that wonderful fluid, whose explosions are heard in the
thunder, whose fiery bolts overthrow the loftiest towers, and rive the sturdy
monarch of the woods; and in less intensity gives polarity to light, the
needle, and the brain. These three together, the oxygen, nitrogen, and
electricity, constitute "the breath" and "spirit"
of the lives of all God's living souls.
Thus, from the centre of the earth, and extending
throughout all space in every direction, is the Ruach Elohim, the
existence of which is demonstrable from the phenomena of the natural system of
things. It penetrates where the neshemet el, or atmospheric air, cannot.
When speaking, however, of the motivity and sustentation of organized dust, or
souls, they are co-existent within them. In this case, the ruach Elohim becomes
the ruach chayim, or "spirit of lives;" and the neshemet
el, the neshemet chayim, or "breath of lives;" and both
combined in the elaboration and support of life, the neshemet ruach chayim,
or "breath of the spirit of lives." Living creatures, or souls, are
not animated, as physiologists and speculative "divines" erroneously
imagine, by "a vital principle," capable of disembodied
existence as the ghost of man, or the transmigrating spectres of other animal
species;--ghostly things, the laws and functions of which in the animal economy
physiologists are unable to discover; and theologists are non-plussed to prove
the existence of from the word of God. On the contrary, "souls" are
"made living" by the coetaneous operation of the ruach
chayim and the neshemet chayim upon their organized tissues
according to certain fixed laws. When the as yet occult laws of the
all-pervading ruach, or spirit, shall be known, this subject will be
understood; and men will then be as astonished at the ignorance of the
divines," and physiologists of this "cloudy and dark day,"
respecting "living souls," as we are at the notion of the ancients,
that their "immortal gods" resided in the stocks and stones they so
stupidly adored. This, however, is quite as reasonable a theory as that of
"immortal souls" dwelling in sinners of Adam's race.
The ruach chayim and neshemet chayim
are lent to the creatures of the natural world for the appointed period of their
living existence. But, though lent to them, they are still God's breath, and
God's spirit; nevertheless, to distinguish them from the expanse of air and
spirit in their totality, they are sometimes styled, "the spirit of
man," and "spirit of the beast;" or collectively, "the
spirits of all flesh," and "their breath." Thus, it is
written, "they have all one ruach, or spirit; so that man hath no
pre-eminence over a beast; for all is vanity or vapour." "All go to
one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" (Qoh 3:19).
And in the sense of supplying to every living creature, or soul,
"spirit" and "breath," Jehovah is styled by Moses,
"God of the spirits of all flesh" (Num 27:16).
Besides the ruach and neshemeh
without, there are certain elementary principles, in a state of combination,
within all living souls, which are related to them by fixed and appropriate
laws, for the manifestation of living actions. The light to the eye, and the
eye to the light; so also, the breath and the Spirit of God to the constituents
of blood, and the blood to them. These, acting and re-acting upon each other in
the lungs of all breathing frames, cause that motion throughout their structure
which is termed life. The following testimonies will throw some light
upon this part of our subject.
"Flesh, be-nephesh-u, with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." This teaches that
blood is the nephesh, or life of the flesh; hence it continues,
"and surely your blood, lah-nephesh-tikam, for your lives will I
require" (Gen 9:5). We often find life put for blood, and blood for life,
as elsewhere in the context. "Be sure that thou eat not the blood, for the
blood is the nephesh, or life; and thou mayest not eat the life, nephesh,
with the flesh" (Deut 12:23). But, to this it might be objected, that if
the blood be the life, then so long as it is in the body it ought to live; on
the contrary it dies with the blood in it. True. Moses, however, does not teach
the dogma of an abstract vital principle; but life, the result and
consequence of the decomposition and re-combination of the elements of certain
compounds. The blood abstractly considered is not life; yet relatively, it is
"the life of the flesh." The following testimony will show the sense
in which the phrase "the blood is the life" is used. "I will set
my face against that soul that eateth blood. For the life of the flesh is IN the
blood itself. I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for nephesh-tikem your lives: for it is the blood that atones be-nephesh
for the soul" or life. "Whosoever catcheth any fowl that may be
eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof.
Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the
blood thereof" (Lev 17:11). Nothing can be plainer than this.
There are three kinds of living manifestations,
which are characterized by the nature of the organization, or being,
through which they occur. Hence, we have vegetable life, animal
life, and incorruptible life. The last is immortality; because
the body through which the life is manifested being incorruptible, never wears
out; so that being once put into motion by the Spirit of God, it lives for
ever. Vegetable and animal life, on the contrary, are terminable or mortal;
because the materials through which it is revealed are perishably organized.
Mortality, then, is life manifested through a corruptible body; and
immortality, life manifested through an incorruptible body. Hence, the
necessity laid down in the saying of the apostle, "this corruptible body
must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality," before
death can be "swallowed up in victory" (1Cor 15:53-54). This doctrine
of "life and incorruptibility" was new to the Greeks and Romans; and
brought to light only through the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus
Christ. It was to them foolishness; and is to the moderns incredible, because
they understand not the 88888glad tidings of the age to come.
Incorruptible life might, with equal propriety,
be styled spiritual life as indicative of that with which spiritual
bodies are endowed. But here I use not the word spiritual, lest it should be
confounded with that intellectual and moral life a man possesses when the
"incorruptible seed" of the kingdom takes root in his heart; and
when, in "the obedience of faith," he passes from under the sentence
of death to the sentence of justification unto life eternal. But, at present,
we have to do with animal or natural life, which is all the life the fleshly
sons of the first Adam can boast of. Enough, however, I think, has been
advanced to show the Scriptural import of the text already quoted, that
"the Lord God formed man, the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul." The simple,
obvious, and undogmatic meaning of this, is, that the dust was first formed
into "clay," which was then modelled by Jehovah Elohim into
the form of the soul called "man," as a potter shapes the substance
of his vessels. Thus, Elihu said to Job, "I also am formed out of
the clay" (Job 33:6); and again, "we are the clay, and Thou our
potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand" (Isa 64:8). The fashioning of
the clay being accomplished in all its component parts, which in the aggregate
constitute man; that is, the dust being animalized, and then organized, the
next thing was to set all the parts of this exquisite mechanism into motion.
This was effected by the inrush of the air through his nostrils into his lungs
according to the natural laws. This phenomenon was the neshemet el, or
"breath of God," breathing into him; and as it was the pabulum of
life to all creatures formed from the dust, it is very expressively styled
"the breath of lives" in the plural number. Some imagine that
Jehovah Elohim placed his mouth to the nostrils of the as yet clay-cold
man-soul prostrate before him, and so breathed into them. Be this as it may; of
this, however, we are without doubt, that God breathes into every man at his
birth the breath of lives to this day; and I see no Scriptural reason why we
should deny that He breathed it into Adam as He hath done into the nostrils of
His posterity, namely, by the operation of the natural, or pneumatic laws.
Hitherto, man, though a soul formed from the ground, had been inanimate;
but, as soon as he began to respire, like the embryo passing from foetal to
infant life, he "became a living soul," not an everliving,
but simply nephesh chayiah a living breathing frame, or body of life.
MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE ELOHIM.
"Thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels."
Men and beasts, say the Scriptures, "have
all one ruach or spirit, so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a
beast." The reason assigned for this equality is the oneness of their
spirit, which is proved by the fact of their common destiny; as it is
written, "for all are vanity:" that is, "all go unto one place;
all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Yet this one spirit
manifests its tendencies differently in men and other creatures. In the former,
it is aspiring and God-defying, rejoicing in its own works, and devoted to the
vanity of the passing hour; while in the latter, its disposition is grovelling
to the earth in all things. Thus, the heart of man being "deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, who can know or fathom it"-Solomon was
led to exclaim, "who knoweth the spirit of the sons of Adam, ruach beni
headam, which exalts itself to the highest, and the spirit of a beast which
inclines to the earth?" (Qoh 3:19-21). We may answer, "none, but God
only;" He knoweth what is in man, and needs not that any should testify of
Him" (John 2:25).
But, from this testimony some one might infer
that, as man was made only "a little lower than the angels,"
and yet has "no pre-eminence over a beast," the beast also is but a
little lower than the angels. This, however, would be a very erroneous
conclusion. The equality of men and other animals consists in the kind of
life they possess in common with each other. Vanity, or mortality, is all
that pertains to any kind of living flesh. The whole animal world has been made
subject to it; as it affects all living souls alike, bringing them back to the
dust again, no one species can claim pre-eminence over the other; for "one
thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other."
Man, however, differs from other creatures in
having been modelled after a divine type, or pattern. In form and capacity
he was made like to the angels, though in nature inferior to them. This
appears from the testimony that he was made "in their image, after their
likeness," and "a little lower than the angels"
(Pss 13:5), or Elohim. I say, he was made in the image of the angels, as the
interpretation of the co-operative, "let us make them in our
image, after our likeness." The work of the six days, though
elaborated by the power of Him "who dwelleth in the light," was
executed by "His angels, that excel in strength, and do His commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Pss 103:20). These are styled
Elohim, or "gods," in numerous passages. David says, "worship
Him all ye gods;" (Pss 92:7) which Paul applies to Jesus, saying,
"let all the angels of God worship Him" (Heb 1:6). Man, then,
was made after the image and likeness of Elohim, but for a while inferior in
nature. But the race will not always be inferior in this respect. It is
destined to advance to a higher nature; not all the individuals of it; but
those of the race "who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age (the
future age) and the resurrection from among the dead…who can die no more: for
they are equal to the angels; and are the sons of God, being the sons of
resurrection" (Luke 20:35-36).
The import of the phrase "in the image,
after the likeness" is suggested by the testimony, that "Adam begat a
son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth" (Gen
5:3). In this respect, Seth stands related to Adam, as Adam did to the Elohim;
but differing in this, that the nature of Adam and Seth were identical; whereas
that of Adam and the Elohim were dissimilar. Would any one be at a loss to know
the meaning of Seth's being in the image of his father? The very same thing is
meant by Adam being in the image of the Elohim. An image is the representation
of some form or shape; metaphorically, it may signify the exact
resemblance of one character to another. But, in the case before us, the
parties had no characters at the time of their birth. They were simply innocent
of actual transgression; no scope having been afforded them to develop
character. The Elohim, however, were personages of dignity, and holiness, as
well as of incorruptible, or spiritual nature. The resemblance, therefore, of
Adam to the Elohim as their image was of bodily form, not of
intellectual and moral attainment; and this I apprehend to be the reason why
the Elohim are styled "men" when their visits to the sons of
Adam are recorded in the Scriptures of truth. In shape, Seth was like Adam,
Adam like the Elohim, and the Elohim, the image of the invisible Increate; the
great and glorious archetype of the intelligent universe.
Seth was also "in Adam's own likeness."
While image, then, hath reference to form or shape, "likeness"
hath regard to mental constitution, or capacity. From the shape of his
head as compared with other creatures, it is evident, that man has a mental
capacity which distinguishes him above them all. Their likeness to him
is faint. They can think; but their thoughts are only sensual. They have no
moral sentiments, or high intellectual aspirations; but are grovelling in all
their instincts, which incline only to the earth. In proportion as their heads
assume the human form in the same ratio do they excel each other in sagacity;
and, as in the monkey tribe, display a greater likeness to man. But let the
case be reversed; let the human head degenerate from the godlike perfection of
the Elohim, the standard of beauty in shape and feature; let it diverge to the
image of an ape's, and the human animal no longer presents the image and
likeness of the Elohim; but rather, the chattering imbecility of the creature
most resembling it in form. Adam's mental capacity enabled him to comprehend
and receive spiritual ideas, which moved him to veneration, hope, and
conscientiousness, the expression of his views, affections, and so forth. Seth
was capable of the like display of intellectual and moral phenomena; and of an
assimilation of character to that of his father. He was therefore in the
likeness as well as in the image of Adam; and, in the same sense, they were
both "after the likeness of the Elohim."
But, though Adam was "made in the image and
after the likeness" of the "Holy Ones," the similitude has been
so greatly marred, that his posterity present but a faint representation of
either. The almost uncontrolled and continuous operation of "the law of
sin and death" (Rom 7:23), styled by philosophers "the law of
nature," which is an indwelling and inseparable constituent of our present
economy, has exceedingly deformed the image, and effaced the likeness of God,
which man originally presented. It required, therefore, the appearance of a New
Man, in whom the image and likeness should re-appear, as in the beginning. This
was "the man Christ Jesus," whom Paul styles "the last
Adam." He is "the Image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15);
"the effulgent mirror of the glory, and exact likeness of His person"
(Heb 1:3). Hence, in another place, Paul says, He was "in the form
of God" (Phil 2:6-8), and also "made in the likeness of men, and in
the form of a man." Being thus the image and likeness of the invisible
God, as well as of man, who was created in the image and likeness of the
Elohim, He made Himself equal with God in claiming God for his father (John
5:18), though born of "sinful flesh." Though thus highly related in
paternity, image, and character, He was yet "made a little lower than the
angels;" for He appeared not in the higher nature of Elohim, but in the inferior
nature of the seed of Abraham (Heb 2:16). This was the first stage of His
manifestation, as the present is of the saints who are His brethren. But He is
the appointed "Heir of all things, on account of whom", "the
dispensations were re-arranged by the word of God, to the end that the things
seen exist not from things apparent" (Heb 1:2, 11:3). But, says the
apostle, "we do not yet see all things put under Him: but we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honour; that by the grace of God he should taste death
for every man" (Heb 2:8-9). Having been thus laid low, and for this
gracious purpose, He is no longer "lower than the angels." He is
equal to them in body; and made so much superior to them in rank, dignity,
honour, and glory, "as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they" (Heb 1:4).
In Jesus, then, raised from the dead,
incorruptible, and clothed with brightness as when He was transfigured upon the
Holy Mount (Mat 17:2), we behold the image and likeness of the God. When we
contemplate Him by faith, as we shall hereafter by sight, we see A MIRROR from
which the glory of Jehovah is reflected in intellectual, moral, and physical
grandeur. He that would know God must behold Him in Christ. If he be acquainted
with Him as He is pourtrayed in the prophets and apostles, he will understand
the character of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see; who chargeth His
angels with folly, and before whom the heavens are not clean. Jesus was the true
light shining in the darkness of Judea, whose inhabitants "comprehended it
not." "Through Him, God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, shone into the hearts of as many as received Him, to give them the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; that so
they might receive power to become the sons of God, believing on His name (John
1:5-12; 2Cor 3:18, 4:6).
How consoling and cheering is it, then, amid all
the evils of the present state, that God hath found a ransom, who is willing
and able to deliver us from the power of the grave; and not only so, but that
"at the manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom 8:17-25), when He
shall appear in power and great glory, "we shall be like Him;
because we shall see Him as He is" (1John 3:2). Then will the saints be
"changed into the same image from glory," now only a matter of hope,
"into glory," as seen and actually possessed, "even as the
Lord" Himself was changed, when He became "the spirit giving
life," or "a quickening spirit."
THE SPIRITUAL BODY.
"There is a spiritual body."
The subject of this section is the second member
of the apostle's proposition, that "there is a natural body, and there is
a spiritual body." It is contained in his reply to some of the Corinthian
disciples, who, to their shame, had not the knowledge of God, and therefore
foolishly inquired, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do
they come?" He showed them that the animal body had a similar
relation to the spiritual body that naked grain has to the plant
produced from it according to the law of its reproduction. He explained, that
before a plant could be reproduced from a seed, the seed must be put into the
soil, and die, or decay away. By the time the plant is established, all vestige
of the seed is gone from the root; yet, the identity of the seed with the plant
is not lost, inasmuch as the same kind of seed re-appears in the fruit of the
plant. The plant is the secondary body of the seed-body, which is the first.
There are different kinds of vegetable seed-bodies; and also of animal
seed-bodies. These classes of seeds are terrestrial bodies, and have their
glory in the bodies produced from them. But there are also celestial bodies,
whose glory is of a different character. It is light blazing and sparkling in
the vault of heaven, as may be seen by every eye. Such is the apostle's
illustration of the resurrection of the dead; or, of how they are raised, and
for what kind of body they spring forth. "So also," says he, "is
the resurrection of the dead." We are in this state as the naked grain. We
die and are buried, and go to corruption; leaving only our characters behind us
written in the book of God. When decayed, a little dust alone remains, as the
nucleus of our future selves. When the time comes for the righteous dead to
rise, then "He that raised up Christ from the dead will also make alive
their mortal bodies by His spirit," operating through Jesus upon their
dust, and fashioning it into the image of the Lord from heaven (Rom 8:11; 2Cor
4:14). Thus, as the Elohim made man out of the dust in their own image and
likeness; so, the Lord Jesus, by the same spirit, will also re-fashion from the
dust, the righteous of the posterity of the first Adam, into His own image and
likeness. This is wonderful, that by a man should come the resurrection of the
dead (1Cor 15:21). Truly may He be called the "Wonderful" (Isa 9:6).
Once a Babe fondled at the breast, and hereafter the Creator of myriads, now
only dust and ashes, but then equal to the angels of God; and "sons of the
resurrection," of which He is Himself "the First Fruits."
Having shown "how," or upon what
principles, the righteous dead are raised, the apostle gives us to understand,
that their "glory" will consist in brightness; for He cites the
splendour of the celestial bodies as illustrative of theirs. This reminds us of
the testimony in Daniel, that "they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars for ever and ever" (Dan 12:3). This is repeated by the Lord Jesus,
who says, "then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their father" (Mat 13:43); which assurance Paul also
revives in his letter to the saints at Philippi, saying, "our commandment
has a beginning (Dan 2:44; Luke 19:12-15) in the heavens out of which also we
wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who will transfigure the body of
our humiliation, that it may become of like form with the body of His glory, by
the power of that which enable Him even to subdue all things to Himself"
(Phil 3:20-21).
When we die we are buried, or "sown"
like so many seeds in the earth. We are sown, says the apostle, "in
corruption," "in dishonour," "in weakness," and with
an animal nature; but, when we are raised to inherit the kingdom, we become
incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and possessed of a Spiritual nature, such as
Jesus and the Elohim rejoice in. Now, a Spiritual body is as material, or
substantial and tangible, a body as that which we now possess. It is a body
purified from "the law of sin and death." Hence it is termed
"holy," and "spiritual," because it is born of the Spirit
from the dust, is incorruptible, and sustained by the ruach, or spirit,
independently of the neshemeh, or atmospheric air." "That
which is born of the flesh," in the ordinary way, "is flesh," or
an animal body: and that which is born of the Spirit," by a resurrection
to life, "is spirit," or a Spiritual body (John 3:6). Hence,
in speaking of Jesus, Paul says, "born of David's seed according to the
flesh; and constituted the Son of God in power, by the spirit of holiness,
through a resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:3-4). Thus, He was born of
the spirit, and therefore became "a Spirit;" and, because highly exalted,
and possessing a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9-11), He is styled "the
Lord the Spirit."
That the Spiritual body is independent of
atmospheric air for its support, is clear from the ascension of the Lord Jesus.
An animal body can only exist in water, or in atmospheric air, and at a
comparatively low altitude above the surface of the earth. Now, the air does
not extend beyond forty-five miles; consequently beyond that limit, if they
could even attain to it, creatures supported by breath in the nostrils, could
no more live than fish in the air. Beyond our atmosphere is the ether;
through which they only can pass, who, like the Lord Jesus and the angels,
possess a nature adapted to it. This is the case with the Spiritual nature.
Jesus was changed into a Spirit, and was therefore enable to pass
through it to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. Enoch, Elijah, and
Moses, are also cases to the point.
The Spiritual body is constituted of flesh and
bones vitalized by the Spirit. This appears from the testimony concerning
Jesus. On a certain occasion, He unexpectedly stood in the midst of His
disciples, at which they were exceedingly alarmed, supposing they beheld a
spirit, or phantasm, as at a former time. But, that they might be assured that
it was really He Himself, He invited them to handle Him, and examine His hands
and feet: "for," said he, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as
ye see me have." Incredulous for joy, He gave them further proof by eating
a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb (Luke 24:36-43). Thomas thrust his
hand into His side, and was convinced that He was the same who had been
crucified (John 20:27). What stronger proof can we need of the substantial and
tangible nature of the Spiritual body? It is the animal body purified, not
evaporated into gas, or vapour. It is a bloodless body; for in the case of
Jesus He had poured out His blood upon the cross. The life of the animal body
is in the blood; but not so that of the Spiritual body: the life of this
resides in that mighty power which suspends "the earth upon nothing,"
and is diffused through the immensity of space.
When the Lord Jesus said, "a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have," He did not mean to say that a
spiritual body had not; but a Spirit such as they thought they
saw. "They supposed they had seen a spirit." In the received reading
the same word, is used here as in the text which speaks of Jesus as "the
Lord the Spirit;" but, evidently, not in the same sense. Indeed, the
reading in Griesbach's edition of the original text is clearly the correct one.
The word rendered spirit is properly, a phantom or mere optical illusion; and
not spirit. When Jesus walked upon the sea both Matthew (Mat 14:26) and Mark
(Mark 6:49) make use of the same phrase as Luke, and say that the disciples
when they saw Him, "supposed they had seen a spirit, and they cried out
for fear." In both these places the word is phantasma, and not pneuma.
Having affirmed that man stands related to two
kinds of body, the apostle gives us to understand, that in the arrangements of
God the spiritual system of things is elaborated out of the animal, and not the
animal out of the spiritual. The natural world is the raw material, as it were
of the spiritual; the bricks and mortar, so to speak, of the mansion which is
to endure for ever. In relation to human nature, two men are presented as its
types in the two phases it is to assume. These Paul styles "the First
Adam," and "the Last Adam," or "the first man," and "the
second man." The former, he terms "earthly;" because he came
from the ground, and goes thither again, and, the latter, "the Lord from
heaven;" because, being "known no more after the flesh," He is
expected from heaven as the place of His final manifestation in "the body
of His glory." Then, says John, we shall be like Him." If,
therefore, we have been successful in depicting the Lord as He is now, while
seated at the right hand of God; namely, an incorruptible, honourable,
powerful, living person, substantial and tangible, shining as the sun, and able
to eat and drink, and to display all mental and other phenomena in perfection:
if the reader be able to comprehend such an "Image of the invisible
God," he can understand what they are to be, who are accounted worthy to
inherit His kingdom. Therefore, says Paul, "as we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1Cor 15:49),
or, Lord from heaven.
This corporeal change of those, who have first
been morally "renewed by knowledge after the image of Him that hath
created them" (Col 3:10)- from "sinful flesh" into spirit, is an
absolute necessity, before they can inherit the kingdom of God. When we come to
understand the nature of this kingdom, which has to be exhibited in these
pages, we shall see, that it is a necessity which cannot be dispensed with.
"That which is corruptible cannot inherit incorruptibility," says the
apostle. This is the reason why animal men must die, or be transformed. Our
animal nature is corruptible; but the kingdom of God is indestructible, as the
prophet testifies, saying, "it shall never be destroyed, nor left to other
people; but shall stand for ever" (Dan 2:44). Because, therefore, of the
nature of this kingdom, "flesh and blood cannot inherit it;" and
hence the necessity of a man being "born of the spirit," or "he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5-6; 1Cor 15:50). He must be
"changed into spirit," put on incorruptibility and immortality of
body, or he will be physically incapable of retaining the honour, glory, and
power of the kingdom for ever, or even for a thousand years.
But, before the apostle concludes his interesting
exposition of "the kind of body for which the dead come," he makes
known a secret which was previously concealed from the disciples at Corinth. It
would probable have occurred to them, that, if flesh and blood could not
inherit the kingdom of God, then those who were living at the epoch of its
establishment, being men in the flesh, could have no part in it. But to remove
this difficulty, the apostle wrote, saying, "Behold, I tell you a secret.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it (the seventh trumpet Rev
11:15,18, 15:8, 20:4) shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
(equal to the angels, Luke 20:36), and we shall be changed into spirit, Cor.
15:45). For this corruptible (body) must put on immortality. Then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in
victory" (Isa 25:8). But, that the saints might not misapprehend the
matter, especially those of them who may be contemporary with the seventh
trumpet-period, he gave further particulars of the secret in another letter.
The disciples of Thessalonica were deeply sorrowing for the loss of some of
their body who had fallen asleep in death; probably victims to persecution. The
apostle wrote to comfort them, and exhorted them "not to sorrow as the
others (i.e. the unbelievers), who have no hope. For if we (the
disciples) believe that Jesus died and rose again;" and be not like those,
who, by saying, "there is no resurrection of the dead," in effect
deny it; "even so," as He rose, "them also who sleep in Jesus
will God bring forth (lead out, or produce), by Him" (1Thess
4:14). He then proceeds to show the "order"(1Cor 15:23) in
which the saints are changed into spirit, or immortalized, by the Son of Man
(John 5:21,25,28-29). "For," says he, "this we say unto you by
the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain at the Lord's coming,
shall not anticipate them who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall come down
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise FIRST: after that we,
the living, who remain, shall be snatched away at the same time with them in
clouds to a meeting of the Lord in the air: and thus we shall be with the Lord
at all times. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1Thess
4:13-18).
It will be seen from this, that survivors of the
dead were not consoled in the first age of Christianity for the loss of their
friends, as they are now by those who "improve the death" of the
influential among them. In "funeral sermons," the "immortal
souls" of the deceased are transported "on angels' wings to
heaven," and the living are consoled with the assurance, that they are
singing the praises of God around the throne, feasting with Abraham, and the
prophets, with the saints and martyrs, and with Jesus and His apostles in the
kingdom of God; and they are themselves persuaded that the souls of their
relations, now become angels, are watching over them, and praying for them; and
that when they die their own souls will be re-united with them in the realms of
bliss. Need I say to the man enlightened in the word, that there is no such
comfort, or consolation, as this in the law and the testimony of God? Such
traditions are purely mythological; and come of the Nicolaitan dogma of saved
"ghosts; and goblins damn'd," which has cancerously extirpated
"the truth as it is in Jesus." No, the apostles did not point men to
the day of their death, and its immediate consequents for comfort; nor did they
administer the consolations of the gospel to any who had not obeyed it. They
offered comfort only to the disciples; for they only are the heirs with Jesus
of the kingdom of God. They taught these to look to the coming of Christ, and
to the resurrection, as the time of a re-union with their brethren in the
faith. At death, they should "rest from their labours, and their works
should follow them;" and "to them that look for Him shall He appear
the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation" (Heb 9:28). Such
were the practical and intelligible "words," with which the apostles
comforted their brethren; but words which have become sealed and cabalistic,
both to the unlearned and "the wise."
In conclusion, then, as far as power is
concerned, God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible
basis at once. The globe could have been filled with men and women, equal to
the angels in nature, power, and intellect, on the sixth day; but the world
would have been without a history, and its population characterless. This,
however, would not have been according to the plan. The animal must precede the
spiritual as the acorn goes before the oak. This will explain many difficulties
which are created by systems; and which will for ever remain inexplicable upon
the hypotheses they invent. The Bible has to do with things, not imaginations;
with bodies, not phantasmata; with "living souls" of every species;
with corporeal beings of other world; and with incorruptible and undying
men: but it is mute as death, and silent as the grave, having nothing at all to
say about such "souls" as men pretend to "cure;"
except to repudiate them as a part of that "philosophy and vain
deceit" (Col 2:8) "which some professing have erred concerning the
faith" (1Tim 6:21).
THE FORMATION OF WOMAN.
"The woman was of the man."
Adam, having been formed in the image, after the
likeness of the Elohim on the sixth day, remained for a short time alone in the
midst of the earthborns of the field. He had no companion who could reciprocate
his intelligence; none who could minister to his wants, or rejoice with him in
the delights of creation; and reflect the glory of his nature. The Elohim are a
society, rejoicing in the love and attachment of one another; and Adam, being
like them, though of inferior nature, required an object, which should be
calculated to evoke the latent resemblances of his similitude to theirs. It was
no better for man to be alone than for them. Formed in their image, he had
social feelings as well as intellectual and moral faculties, which required
scope for their practical and harmonious exercise. A purely intellectual and abstractly
moral society, unattempered by domesticism, is an imperfect state. It may be
very enlightened, very dignified and immaculate; but it would also be very
formal, and frigid as the poles. A being might know all things, and he might
scrupulously observe the divine law from a sense of duty; but something more is
requisite to make him amiable, and beloved by either God or His fellows. This
amiability and social feelings enable him to develop; which, however, if
unfurnished with a proper object, or wholesome excitation, re-act upon him
unfavourably, and make him disagreeable. Well aware of this, the Jehovah Elohim
said, "it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help
fit for him" (Gen 2:18).
But previous to the formation of this help, God
caused "every living soul" (kol nephesh chayiah) to pass in
review before Adam, that he might name them. He saw that each one had its mate;
"but for him there was not found a suitable companion." It was
necessary, therefore, to form one, the last and fairest of His handyworks. The
Lord had created man in His own "image and glory;" but He had yet to
sub-divide him into two; a negative and a positive division; an active and a
passive half; male and female, yet one flesh. The negatives, or females, of all
other species of animals, were formed out of the ground (ver. 19); and not out
of the sides of their positive mates: so that the lion could not say of the
lioness, "this is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; therefore shall
a lion leave his sire and dam, and cleave unto the same lioness for ever."
The inferior creatures are under no such law as this; as primaries, indeed, the
earth is their common mother, and the Lord, the "God of all their
spirits." They have no second selves; the sexes in the beginning were from
the ground direct; the female was not of the male, though the male is by her:
therefore, there is no natural basis for a social, or domestic, law to them.
But, in the formation of a companion for the
first man, the Lord Elohim created her upon a different principle. She was to
be a dependent creature; and a sympathy was to be established between them, by
which they should be attached inseparably. It would not have been fit,
therefore, to have given her an independent origin from the dust of the ground.
Had this been the case, there would have been about the same kind of attachment
between men and women as subsists among the creatures below them. The woman's
companionship was designed to be intellectually and morally sympathetic with
"the image and glory of God," whom she was to revere as her superior.
The sympathy of the mutually independent earthborns of the field, is purely
sensual; and in proportion as generations of mankind lose their intellectual
and moral likeness to the Elohim, and fall under the dominion of sensuality; so
the sympathy between men and women evaporates into mere animalism. But, I say,
such a degenerate result as this, was not the end of her formation. She was not
simply to be "the mother of all living;" but to reflect the glory of
man as he reflected the glory of God.
To give being to such a creature, it was
necessary she should be formed out of man. This necessity is found in the law
which pervades the flesh. If the feeblest member of the body suffer, all the
other members suffer with it; that is, pain even in the little finger will
produce distress throughout the system. Bone sympathizes with bone , and flesh
with flesh, in all pleasurable, healthful, and painful feelings. Hence, to
separate a portion of Adam's living substance, and from it to build a woman,
would be to transfer to her the sympathies of Adam's nature; and though by her
organization, able to maintain an independent existence, she would never lose
from her nature a sympathy with his, in all its intellectual, moral, and
physical manifestations. According to this natural law, then, the Lord Elohim
made woman in the likeness of the man, out of his substance. He might have
formed her from his body before he became a living soul; but this would
have defeated the law of sympathy; for, in inanimate matter there is no mental
sympathy. She must, therefore, be formed from the living bone and flesh of the
man. To do this was to inflict pain; for to cut out a portion of flesh would
have created the same sensations in Adam as in any of his posterity. To avoid
such an infliction, "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept." While thus unconscious of what was doing, and
perfectly insensible to all corporeal impressions, the Lord "took out one
of his ribs, and then closed up the flesh in its place." This was a
delicate operation; and consisted in separating the rib from the breast bone
and spine. But nothing is too difficult for God. The most wonderful part of the
work had yet to be performed. The quivering rib, with its nerves and vessels,
had to be increased in magnitude, and formed into a human figure, capable of
reflecting the glory of the man. This was soon accomplished; for, on the sixth
day, "male and female created He them;" and "the rib which the
Lord God had taken from man, He made a woman, and brought her unto the
man." And "God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish (fill again) the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that creepeth upon the earth."
Believing this portion of the testimony of God,
need our faith be staggered at the resurrection of the body from the little
dust that remains after its entire reduction? Surely, the Lord Jesus Christ by
the same power that formed woman from a rib, and that increased a few loaves
and fishes to twelve baskets of fragments after five thousand were fed and
satisfied, can create multitudes of immortal men from a few proportions of their
former selves: and as capable of resuming their individual identity, as was
Adam's rib of reflecting his mental and physical similitude. It is blind
unbelief alone that requires the continuance of some sort of existence to
preserve the identity of the resurrected man with his former self. Faith
confides in the ability of God to do what He has promised, although the
believer has not the knowledge of how He is to accomplish it. Believing the
wonders of the past, "he staggers not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but is strong in faith, giving glory to God " (Rom 4:20).
The testimony of Moses in regards to the
formation of woman, brings to light a very interesting phenomenon, which has
since been amply proved to be the result of a natural law. It is, that man
may be made insensible to pain by being placed in a deep sleep. The Lord
Elohim availed Himself of this law, and subjected the man He had made to its
operation; and man, because he is in His likeness, is also able to influence
his fellow-man in the same way. The art of applying the law is called by
various names, and may be practised variously. The name does not alter the
thing. A man's rib might be extracted now with as little inconvenience as Adam
experienced, by throwing him into a deep sleep, which in numerous cases may be
easily effected; but there our imitative ability ceases. We could not build up
a woman from the rib. Greater wonders, however, than this will man do
hereafter; for by "the Man Christ Jesus" will his Bride be
created from the dust, in His own image after His own likeness, "to the
glory of God throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
When the Lord God presented the newly formed
creature to her parent flesh, Adam said, "this is now bone of my bone, and
flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Ishah (or Outman), because she
was taken out of Ish, or man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one
flesh" (Gen 2:23-24). Thus, Adam pronounced upon himself the sentence that
was to bind them together for weal or woe, until death should dissolve the
union, and set them free for ever. This was marriage. It was based upon the
great fact of her formation out of man; and consisted in Adam taking her to
himself with her unconstrained consent. There was no religious ceremonial to
sanctify the institution; for the Lord Himself even abstained from pronouncing
the union. No human ceremony can make marriage more holy than it is in the
nature of things. Superstition has made it "a sacrament," and,
inconsistently enough, denied it, though "a holy sacrament,"
to the very priests she has appointed to administer it. But priests and
superstition have no right to meddle with the matter; they only disturb the
harmony, and destroy the beauty, of God's arrangements. A declaration in the
presence of the Lord Elohim, and the consent of the woman, before religion was
instituted, is the only ceremonial recorded in the case. This, I believe, is
the order of things among "the friends," or nearly so; and, if all
their peculiarities were as Scriptural as this, there would be but little cause
of complaint against them.
"Man," says the apostle, "is the
image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man;" and the
reason he assigns is, because "the man is not of the woman; but the woman
of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the
man" (1Cor 11:7-9). She was not formed in the image of man, though she may
have been in the image of some of the Elohim. "Man" is generic of
both sexes. When, therefore, Elohim said "let us make man in our
image;" and it is added, "male and female created he them;"
it would seem that both the man and the woman were created in the image and
likeness of Elohim. In this case, some of the Elohim are represented by Adam's
form, and some by Eve's. I see no reason why it should not be so. When mankind
arises from the dead, they will doubtless rise as immortal men and women; and
then, says Jesus, "they are equal to the angels;" on an equality with
them in every respect. Adam only was in the image of Him that created him; but
then, the Elohim that do the commandments of the invisible God, are the virile
portion of their community: Eve was not in their image. Their's was restricted
to Adam; nevertheless, she was after the image and likeness of some of those
comprehended in the pronoun "our." Be this as it may, though
not in the image, she was in the likeness of Adam; and both "very
good" according to the subangelic nature they possessed.
A GREAT MYSTERY.
"We are members of His body, of His flesh,
and of His bones."
In writing to the disciples at Ephesus, the
apostle illustrates the submission due from wives to their husbands by the
obedience rendered to Christ by the community of the faithful in his day.
"As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands in every thing." This was an injunction of absolute submission to
their Christian husbands as unto the Lord Himself; because "the husband is
the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church." But,
while he enjoins this unqualified obedience, he exhorts their husbands to
return them due benevolence, not to treat them with bitterness, but to love
them "even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for
it." If their wives, however, were disobedient and perverse, and chose
to depart, "let them; a brother is not under bondage in such cases"
(1Cor 7:15). They are like those who will not submit to Christ. The love which
should subsist between Christian brethren and sisters in the married state, is
such as Christ manifested for the church by anticipation. "While we
were yet sinners Christ died for us," says the apostle" (Rom
5:6-8). This is the greatest love a man can possibly show, that He should die
for His enemies; and this is the kind of love which Paul (who by the bye was
never tried by a termagant wife) commends to the attention of the Ephesians;
though always on the supposition, that the wives "adorn the hidden man of
the heart with that which is incorruptible, even a meek and quiet spirit, which
is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time
the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in
subjection to their own husbands: even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him
Lord: whose daughters such women are, as long as they do well, and are
not dismayed at any threat" (1Pet 3:3-6).
As He had introduced the subject of matrimonial
love and obedience, and had adduced the love of Christ for them all as His
Church, by way of illustration; He proceeds to show the object for which they
ought cheerfully to make for Him, who had loved them so devotedly. His object
in giving Himself for the church before it was formed, was that those who
should afterwards compose it "might be sanctified and cleansed in the
laver of the water BY the word that," at the resurrection.
"He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish." "Ye are
clean," said Jesus to His disciples, "through the word which I
have spoken to you" (John 15:3). This word, which is defined to be
"the law and the testimony" (Isa 8:20), is the great instrument of
holiness and purification. It changes men's minds, loosens their attachment to
earthly things; causes them to place their affection on things above; creates a
new and right spirit within them; diffuses the love of God abroad in their
hearts; separates them from sinners; leads them into Christ; and developes in
their lives, fruit characteristic of that repentance which needs not to be
repented of. The Lord Jesus styles it, "the word of the kingdom" (Mat
8:19); and Peter, the incorruptible seed (1Pet 1:23); and Paul, "the word
of the truth of the gospel" (Col 1:5); and John, "God's seed"
(1John 3:9); and by James it is termed, "the word of truth" (Jas
1:18), with which the invariable and unvacillating Father of lights begets His
children, that they should be "a kind of first fruits of His
creatures." It is by this word that an individual is renewed or renovated;
so as, in an intellectual and moral sense, to become a "new man;" as
appears from what the apostle says to the brethren at Colosse; "Ye have
put on the new man, which is renewed by knowledge (Col 3:10) after the
image of Him that created him." This renewing affects the spirit of the
mind (Eph 4:23-24), which may be known to be renovated, by a man having turned
from his natural subserviency to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, and the pride of life," to "righteousness and true
holiness." When the mental disposition, called "the heart," is
renewed, it becomes a mirror, as it were, in which one skilled in the word of
the kingdom, can discern the spirit, or behold a reflection of the Divine
Nature, This image of God in a man's character can only be created by the word
of the truth of the gospel of the kingdom. A man may be very "pious"
according to the standard of piety set up and approved by his fellow-men; but,
if he be ignorant of the renewing elements,--if he neither know nor understand,
and consequently, and necessarily, be faithless of the law and testimony of
God, "there is no light in him." He is walking in a vain show;
"in the vanity of his mind, having his understanding darkened, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him, because of
the blindness of his heart" (verse 18). The law and the testimony are
styled by Peter, "God's knowledge;" "whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises: that BY THESE," i.e., by the
understanding and belief of these, "ye might be partakers of the Divine
Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2Pet
1:2-4). Now, the "testimony of God" came by the Holy Spirit, by which
God testified in His prophets (Neh 9:30); and in the last days, spoke through
His Son (John 3:34, 5:47, 6:63, 7:16, 12:48-49; Heb 1:1-2) and the apostles
(Mat 10:19-20). Hence, the effects of the word believed are attributed to the
spirit; and because the word sets men to breathing in God's moral atmosphere,
it is termed "spirit and life." These remarks will explain the saying
of the apostle to Titus, "according to His mercy God saved us through the
laver of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
This is parallel to the saying, "sanctified and cleansed in the laver of
the water by the word;" for the reader must not suppose, that any
man, woman, or child, can be regenerated, or born again, by being plunged into
a bath, who is ignorant of the word. The Holy Spirit does not renew the heart
of man as He renews the mortal body, when through Jesus He raises it from the
dead. In this case, the power is purely physical. But, when the heart is
subject of renewal, it is by the knowledge of the written testimony of God, or
the word. "God," says Peter, speaking of the gentile believers,
"purified their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9); and Paul prays,
"that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith" (Eph 3:17). Now,
faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17); in other words, it is the
belief of God's testimony concerning things to come, which are not seen (Heb
11:1); and without which, it is impossible to please Him (verse 6). When a man
is renewed by the truth, he is renewed by the spirit, and not before. There is
no such thing in the Scriptures as a renewed ignorant man. Ignorance of the
testimony of God, and regeneration, are utterly incompatible. The truth is the
purifier to those only who understand and obey it (1Pet 1:22) and there is no
moral purity, or sanctification of spirit before God, without it. It is only
believers of the truth, then, who can be the subjects of a regeneration by
being submerged "in the laver of the water." When they come out of
this, they have been "washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus by the spirit of God" (1Cor 6:11).
The truth to be believed is the gospel of the
kingdom and name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12). When this is understood, and
heartily received, it produces a disposition of mind, such as was in Abraham
and Jesus, and which is called repentance. Believers, so disposed, are the
begotten of God, and have become as little children. They believe "the
exceeding great and precious promises," together with the things testified
concerning the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus. He fell into a deep
sleep; and, while thus unconscious and insensible, His side was opened by a
spear, and forthwith rushed blood and water (John 19:33-34). Being awoke out of
His sleep, He was built up a spiritual body, flesh and bones; and, by His
ascension, presented to the Father as the federal representative of His church.
This is the aggregate of those, who, believing these things, have been
introduced into Christ through the laver of the water; according to the saying
of the Scriptures, "ye are all the children of God in Christ Jesus through
the faith. For as many as have been baptized into Christ have entered into
Christ." Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and HEIRS according to the
promise" (Gal 3:26-29). A community of such individuals as these
constitutes the mystical body of Christ. By faith, its elements are
"members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Hence, they
are "bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh;" and, therefore, the
beloved Eve of the last Adam, the Lord who is to come from heaven, and make her
of the same spiritual nature as His own. Thus, the church is figuratively taken
out of the side of her Lord; for every member of it believes in the remission of
sins through His shed blood; and they all believe in the real resurrection of
His flesh and bones, for their justification unto life by a similar revival
from the dead. "Your bodies are the members," or flesh and bones,
"of Christ; * * * and he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit"
(1Cor 6:15-17). "I have espoused you to one husband," says Paul,
"that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2Cor
11:15-17). It will be perceived, then, that the church as defined, is in the
present state the espoused of Christ, but not actually married. She is
in the formative state, being moulded under the hand of God. When she shall be
completed, God will then present her to the Man from heaven, "arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white" (Rev 19:7-8). This is she of whom the poet
sings, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget
also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King greatly desire
thy beauty: for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him. The King's daughter is
all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto
the King in raiment of needlework; the virgins, her companions that follow her,
shall be brought unto Thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they
shall enter unto the King's palace" (Psa 45:10-15). The presentation
of Eve to the first Adam was the signal of rejoicing to the Morning Stars; and
we perceive that the manifestation of Messiah's Queen will be attended with the
"Alleluia" of a great multitude, sounding like the roaring of
many waters, and the echoes of mighty thunderings, saying, "let us be glad
and rejoice, and give honor to the Lord God omnipotent: for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and His betrothed hath made herself ready."
Such is the relationship and destiny of the true
church, styled by Paul, "the One Body." It is forming by the word;
or, taking it as formed in the apostolic age, but not presented, the
apprehension of the apostle has been sadly realized. "I fear," says
he, "lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
The tempter has seduced the betrothed. The simplicity in Christ is no longer
characteristic of a community. It is corrupted on every side; and the ruin of
the transgression alone prevails. Nevertheless, although there be no hope for
the professing world, seeing that it is too "wise in its own
conceit;" too self-satisfied with its supposed illumination; glorifying
itself, and saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing, and knows not," and will not be persuaded, "that it is
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (Rev
3:17)-seeing, I say, that this is the irremediable condition of the religious
public, yet there remains scope for the deliverance of those who are disposed
to obey God rather than men. If they would become bone of Christ's bone, and
flesh of His flesh, they must "leave father and mother, and be joined unto
the wife." They find themselves now, perhaps, members of denominations as
they happen to be led. These are their parentage according to the fleshly mind.
They must be forsaken, and men must become "one flesh" and "one
spirit" in the Lord, if they would inherit the kingdom of God (Mat 10:37).
"This is a great mystery," says Paul, "but I speak
concerning Christ and the church" (Eph 5:22-32). This mystery, I have
endeavored to elucidate in these remarks, though necessarily in a very brief,
and therefore imperfect manner. When I shall have finished the work before me,
it will have been more minutely unfolded, and, I trust, convincingly explained.
EDEN.
"In Eden."
When Moses penned the words "in
Eden" (Gen 2:8), he was westward in "the wilderness of the land
of Egypt." From the expression, then, we are to understand, that there was
a country styled Eden in his day, which lay to the westward of his position.
Adam and Eve were its aborigines. It was "the East" of the
Egyptians, as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are "the West" of the
Atlantic American States. It was quite an extensive range of country, and in
after times became the seat of powerful dominions. It appears to have been well
watered by the branches, or tributaries, of "a river that went," or
flowed, "out of it" (verse 10). These were four principal streams,
whose name, as given by Moses, are the Pison, "which compasseth the whole
land of Havilah;" the Gihon, "the same is it which compasseth the
whole land of Khush," or Khushistan; the third, the Hiddekel, or Tigris;
"that is it which goeth eastward to Assyria. And the fourth river is the
Euphrates" (verses 11-14), frequently styled in the Scriptures, "the
Great River" (Gen 15:18). On the map before me, there are four rivers
which flow together, and at length form a river which falls into the Persian
Gulph. This indicated the country called Eden, namely, that which is watered by
these rivers; so that we may reasonably conclude, that in early times it
comprehended the land east of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria, part of Persia,
Khushistan, and the original settlements of Ishmael (Gen 25:18).
This country, in after ages, came to be
denominated "the Garden of the Lord;" and the kings who reigned in
it, "the Trees of Eden." It was no doubt termed the Lord's garden as
a whole, from the fact of His having, in the beginning, planted a garden in it
where He put the man; so that the name of a small part of Eden, came to be
applied by his family in the time of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and Moses, to
the whole region; more especially as the future paradise is to occupy a
considerable portion of its ancient limits.
The plain of Jordan appears to have been part of
Eden from the following texts. "Lot beheld all the plain of Jordan, that
it was well watered everywhere as the garden of the Lord. Then Lot chose
him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east; and dwelled in the
cities of the plain" (Gen 13:10-12); that is, in the East, or Eden.
There is a prophecy in Ezekiel, predicting the
overthrow of the Egyptian Pharoah by the king of Babylon, "the mighty one
of the heathen." In setting forth the certainty of his overthrow, God
recapitulated the power and dominion of the Ninevite dynasty of Assyria: which,
however, was not able to withstand the king of Babylon, and therefore there was
no hope for Egypt of a successful resistance. In the recapitulation, the
Ninevite Assyrian is styled, "a cedar in Lebanon;" that is,
his dominion extended over the land of the ten tribes of Israel, in which are
the cedar-crowned mountains of Lebanon. After describing the greatness of his
power by the magnitude of the cedar, the Lord says, "the cedars in the
garden of God could not hide him; nor was any tree in the garden of God like
unto him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so
that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied him" (Ezek
31:3,8-9). These trees (Dan 4:20-22) are representative of the royalties of
Mesopotamia Syria, Israel, &c., which the kings of Assyria had abolished
(Isa 37:12-13); and which "could not hide him," or prevent him
getting the ascendancy over them. It is clear, then, from the terms of this
beautiful allegory, that the countries I have indicated are comprehended in
Eden; that as a whole it is styled the garden of the Lord; and that the trees
are the royalties of the land.
That Eden extended to the Mediterranean, or
"Great Sea," appears from Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre. Addressing
the Tyrian royalty, he says, "thou hast been in Eden, the garden of the
Lord. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou was perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee. Therefore I
will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. Thou shalt be a terror,
and never shalt thou be any more" (Ezek 37:13,16,19). The meaning of this
is obvious to one acquainted with the history of the kingdom of Tyre. It was a
royalty of Palestine in Upper Galilee, whose king, Hiram, was in intimate
alliance with Solomon. He appears to have been a proselyte worshipper of the
God of Israel; whom his successors some time afterwards forsook; and therefore
God suppressed the kingdom of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar for seventy years; and
finally by the Greeks.
Eden has been a field of blood from the beginning
of the contest between the "Seed of the Woman," and the "Seed of
the Serpent," until now; and will yet continue to be until the serpent
power be broken upon the mountains of Israel. It was in Eden that Abel died by
the hand of Cain. There also Abel's antitype was wounded in the heel, when put
to death upon the accursed tree; and lastly, to fill up the measure of the
iniquity of the blood-defiled land, the serpents of Israel slew the son of
Barachus between the temple and altar. But the blood of God's saints shed in
Eden, did not cry to Him for vengeance without effect; for as the Lord Jesus
declared, so it came to pass. "Behold," said He to the vipers of His
day, "I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye
will kill and crucify; and some of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood
shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zecharias, son of Barachus, whom ye shall slay between the temple and the
altar" (Mat 23:35).
Eden is emphatically the Lord's land, or garden;
and from the creation till the breaking off of Israel's olive branch, the
principal and almost only, theatre upon which He exhibited His wonders to the
nations in the days of old. Egypt and its wilderness may be excepted for forty
years. Beyond its limits was outer darkness. Eden only was favored with light,
until the gospel found its way among the nations of the west; and, although
darkness covers the land, and gross darkness the people, yet the Lord, its
light, will arise upon it and His glory shall be seen there (Isa 60:1-2).
THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward
in Eden."
While Eden was "the East" eastward of
the wilderness, the garden of Eden was eastward in Eden. "Eden the garden
of the Lord," and "the garden of Eden," are quite different
ideas. The former designates the whole of Eden as the Lord's garden; the
latter, as merely a plantation in some part of it. To plant a garden is to
fence in a certain piece of land, and to adorn it with fruit and ornamental
trees and shrubs. If unenclosed, and consequently, unguarded, it is not a
garden. The name of the plantation implies, that its surface was protected from
the invasion of the animals, whose habits made them unfit tenants of a garden.
The place, then, was an inclosure, planted with "every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food." Its situation, Moses says, was
"eastward," having a river flowing through it to water it. I suspect
from this, that it laid somewhere between the Gulph of Persia, and the junction
of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The text reads, "and a river went out of
Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into
four heads:" which I should interpret thus:--a river flowing out of Eden
was caused to water the garden on its way to the sea; and from the garden
northward, the river diverged into its tributaries, which terminated at four
several heads. The heads were not in the garden, but at remote distances from
it. The garden of Eden was watered by only one, and not by four rivers; as it
is written, "a river went out to water it;" which certainly excludes
the four from its inclosure.
In the Septuagint of this text, the word garden
is expressed by ***, which is transferred into our language without
translation. Paradise is a Persian word adopted into the Greek, and
expressed in Hebrew by parades or pardes. It signifies a park, a
forest, or preserve; a garden of trees of various kinds, a delightful grove,
&c. It is found in these texts:--"I made me gardens (paradises)
and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits" (Qoh
2:5); and, "a garden enclosed (a paradise) is my sister spouse,
etc.; thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, &c." (Cant 4:12-13).
The latter text is part of a description of Solomon's vineyard, representative
of that part of Eden over which he reigned; and metaphorical of its beauty,
fertility, and glory, when the Heir of the vineyard, the "greater than
Solomon," shall come to Zion, and "marry the land" of Eden, as
defined in the everlasting covenant made with Abraham (Gen 15:18). For so it is
written, "thy land, O Zion, shall no more be termed desolate: but thou
shalt be called Hephzibah, (i.e., my beloved is in her), and thy land
Beulah, (i.e., married): for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land
shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons
marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God
rejoice over thee" (Isa 62:4-5).
When the marriage, or union, takes place between
the sons of Zion, and their King, with the Land of Promise in Eden, it will
again become the garden of the Lord, or Paradise, which His own right hand hath
planted. For "the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste
places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and
the voice of melody" (Isa 61:3). "Instead of the thorn shall come up
the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree: and it
shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off" (Isa 55:13). At that time, "I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of
water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the
cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle tree, and the oil tree; I will set in
the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box together: that they (Israel)
may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the
Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it" (Isa
51:17-20).
These testimonies reveal a future state in regard
to Eden, of which its primitive garden is a beautiful and appropriate
representation. Once the seat of a paradise on a small scale, it is
destined to be transformed from its desolation into "the Paradise of
God." The country of the four rivers, even to the west from sea to
sea, is predetermined to shine forth as "the glory of all lands."
Paradise hath no other locality. Other orbs may have their paradises; but as
far as man is concerned, the Paradise of God will be by Him planted in Eden
according to "the promise." "In that day, shall Israel be the
third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the
land;" that is, of Eden: "whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt, My people, and Assyria, the work of My hands, and Israel,
Mine inheritance" (Isa 19:24-25).
In the letter to the congregation at Ephesus, the
Spirit says, "to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of
Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" (Rev 2:7). The simple
import of this is as follows. The saints of God are termed in Scripture,
"Trees of Righteousness," which bring forth good fruit; and the King
of Saints, the Tree of Life. This, then, is the symbol of Christ as the giver
of life. "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he
that eateth Me," says Christ, "even he shall live by Me"
(John 6:57). Hence, to give a man to eat of the Tree of Life, is for the Lord
Jesus to raise a true believer from among the dead to incorruptible life. He
will then eat, or partake, of that life, which He is ordained to bestow, who
said of Himself, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." But,
none of the believers, or heirs of life, can partake of the life-giving tree,
until it is manifested in the Paradise of God; that is, until the Lord appears
in His kingdom (2Tim 4:1,8; 1Pet 1:7-13). We shall see in the second part of
this work the particulars concerning this kingdom. I shall therefore content
myself with remarking here, that when it is manifested, it will be established
in the Lord's land, that is, in Eden. Hence, the promise, interpreted into
plain English, is-"To the believer that overcomes the world (1John 5:4),
will I, the Lord, who am the Life, give glory, honor, and immortality, when I
come to stand on the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4), and to re-establish the
kingdom and throne of David, as in the days of old" (Amos 9:11). There is
no immortality, nor Paradise until then; neither can any attain to them unless
they "overcome the world;" for the promise is only "to him that
overcometh."
But, to this doctrine sceptics object, that
Paradise must have a present existence somewhere; seeing that, on the day of
His crucifixion, Jesus told the thief that he should be with Him in Paradise on
that day; as it is written, "I say to thee, to-day shalt thou be
with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). I admit, that it is so written in
English; but, I find there are various readings and punctuations in the Greek.
In the first place, the thief's petition is differently worded in some
manuscripts. In the common version it reads, "remember me, Lord when Thou
comest in Thy kingdom: but in others, it is various, though in sense the
same-as, "remember me when Thou comest in the day of Thy coming.
Now the Lord "comes in His kingdom" "in the day of His
coming;" therefore, I say, the two phrases are in sense the same, only the
latter more plainly suggests to "the unskillful in the word of
righteousness" (Heb 5:13), the import of the term "to-day," in
the answer to the petition.
In the next place, Jesus did not evade the
thief's prayer, but gave him a direct and intelligible reply. He told him, in
effect, that what he requested should be granted; in other words, that when He
was Himself in His kingdom he should be there too. But, does the reader
imagine, that Jesus told him the time when, seeing that He was not even
Himself acquainted with the time when the Jewish State, as constituted by the
Mosaic code, should be abolished? And, till this was set aside, He could not
come in His kingdom; for then He is to sit and rule, and be a Priest upon His
throne (Zech 6:12-13,15); which He could not be co-existent with the law;
because the law of Moses would permit no one to officiate as a priest, who was
not of the tribe of Levi; and Jesus was descended from Judah (Heb 7:12-14).
"Heaven and earth," or the Mosaic constitution of things in Eden,
"shall pass away," said Jesus: "but of that day and hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father" (Mark 13:31-32).
Furthermore, does the reader suppose, that the Lord
informed the thief of the time when He would come in His kingdom; or, that it
could possibly be, that He came in His kingdom on the day of His suffering;
seeing that on the forty-third day afterwards He refused to tell even the
apostles, the times and the seasons when He would "restore AGAIN
the kingdom of Israel?" "It is not for you to know the times
and seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power" (Acts 1:3,6-7).
This was His language to the apostles. The kingdom could not be restored again
to Israel under the Mosaic code. This had "decayed, and waxed old, and was
ready to vanish away" (Heb 8:13). It was to be "cast down to the
ground," the daily sacrifice was to be taken away, and the temple and city
to be demolished, by the Little Horn of the Goat, or Roman power" (Dan
8:9,12,24, 9:26). To tell them of the times and the seasons of the
kingdom, would have been to have informed them of this national catastrophy; of
which they were kept in ignorance, that they might not fall asleep, but be
continually on the watch.
But, though Jesus did not then know the times and
the seasons of the kingdom, He knows them now; for, about thirty years after
the destruction of Jerusalem, "God gave Him a revelation of the things
which must shortly come to pass" (Rev 1:1); and in this apocalypse, the
times and the seasons are set forth in order. But, to return to the case of the
thief. In saying, "to-day," Jesus did not, and could not, tell him
the precise time when he should be with Him in paradise. In some Greek manuscripts,
there is a various, and no doubt the correct punctuation. The comma, instead of
being after "thee," is placed after "to-day;" as, "I
say unto thee to-day,--thou shalt be with Me in the Paradise, that is,
"at this time, or, I now say to thee, thou shalt be with Me in My kingdom
in the day of My coming."
But, if the objector insist upon an
interpretation of the passage as it stands in the common version, then let it
be so; his position will be by no means less easy to carry. His instantaneous
translation of souls to Paradise at death, as far as it is fortified by this
passage, hangs upon a thread, like the sword of the Syracusan tyrant; and that
is, the word "to-day." This is the Scripture term, and must be
explained by the Scripture use of it. In the second writings, then, the term is
used to express a period of over two thousand years. This use of it
occurs in David, as it is written, "To-day if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts, lest ye enter not into My rest" (Pss 95:7-11). The
apostle, commenting upon this passage about one thousand years after it was
written, says, "exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day;"
and, "labor, to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of
God" (Heb 3:13, 4:9-11). Thus, it was called "to-day," when
David wrote; and "to-day," when Paul commented upon it. This was a
long day; but one, however, which is not yet finished; and will continue
unclosed until he manifestation of the rest of in the Paradise of God. If it be
admitted, that we are still in "the day of salvation," then it must
be received as true, that we are living "while it is called
to-day"-that "to-day" is now; and this "now"
will be present until the Lord Jesus enters into His rest (Pss 132:13-18),
which He cannot do until He has finished the work God has given Him to do (Isa
40:10, 49:5-6,8). "Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now
is the day," or the "to-day" "of salvation"
(2Cor 6:2),--a period of time from Joshua to the future glorious
manifestatation of Christ in the kingdom, to say nothing of "the accepted
time" to the patriarchs, before the typical rest of Israel in the promised
land.
This "to-day," however, is limited both
to Jew and Gentile; and in defining this limitation, Paul tells us, that
"to-day" means, "after so long a time." "God
limiteth a certain day," says he, "saying in David, to-day
after so long a time; as it is said, to-day if ye will hear His voice harden
not your hearts" (Heb 4:7). When this time has elapsed, it will no longer
be "to-day" in Christ's reply to the thief, it will read
thus:--"Verily, I say to thee, after so long a time thou shalt be with Me
in the Paradise;" but, how many years it would before that time
terminated, He gave the petitioner not the slightest intimation of.
Lastly, is it not the very climax of absurdity to
talk of Jesus being "in His kingdom," or "in the Paradise,"
which were synonymous, while He was lying dead in the tomb? Is His kingdom
among the dead? He told the Pharisees it was among the living. "Oh, but,"
says one, "He descended into hell;" "true,"
"true," says another, "and while He was there He preached the
gospel to the dead, and proclaimed repentance to the spirits in prison. He and
the thief, that is to say, their souls, were there together as soon as death
released them. This was Paradise." "Not exactly so," adds a
third. "That savors too much of purgatory. They were in an intermediate
state of blessedness before the throne of God, in the kingdoms beyond the
skies." "How can that be," says a fourth; "is the
blessedness in God's presence only intermediate? They went straight to the
fulness of joy for evermore." Why, then, was Jesus raised that He might go
to the Father (John 16:16) if He were with the Father before; and, where did He
leave the thief, for he as not raised; and if not raised but left
behind, how can he be with the Lord in Paradise? When this question is
answered, it will be time enough to glance at the traditions extant upon this
subject-dogmatisms, however, which none who understand the gospel of the
kingdom can possibly entertain.
MAN'S DOMINION.
"Let them have dominion."
The garden being prepared in Eden, the Lord
placed the man there whom He had formed. It was there the "deep
sleep" came over him, and he first beheld his bride. They were now settled
in Paradise; and, protected by its inclosure from the intrusion of the inferior
creatures, they passed their days in blissful tranquillity, innocent of
transgression, and in peaceful harmony with God and the creatures He had made. Adam
dressed the garden and kept it. This was his occupation. Though as yet sinless,
it was no part of his enjoyments to be idle. To eat bread in the sweat of the
face is sorrowful; but to work without toil is an element of health, and
cheerfulness, and is doubtless the rule of life to all the intelligences of the
universe of God.
But, he was not simply an inhabitant of the
Paradise, placed there "to dress and keep it." The work before him
was to begin the replenishment, and subjugation of the earth. For in the
blessing pronounced upon them, God said, "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it." The material was all before him. The earth was
to be peopled; and the culture of the garden, as the model of improvement, to
be extended as his posterity spread themselves over its surface.
This command to "replenish the earth,"
strengthens my previous conclusion, that the earth had been inhabited, at some
period anterior to the creation of the six days; and that its population had
been all swept away by a catastrophe similar to the Noachic flood. That
"replenish" means to fill the earth again, is manifest
from the use of the word in the blessing pronounced upon Noah. As it is
written, "and God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, 'be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth.'" There is no room for
dispute here. Every one must admit that it signifies to fill again; for,
having been filled by Adam, all his posterity, except eight persons, were swept
away by the deluge; and Noah and his sons were to supply their place, or refill
it, as at this day. I see, therefore, no good reason why the same word should
not be similarly interpreted in both cases; which I have concluded to do.
Man's conquests in a sinless state were to be
over rocks, mountains, seas, and rivers, by which he might subdue them to his
own convenience and enjoyment; and, perhaps, had he continued innocent of
transgression until his mission was accomplished; that is, until by his
fruitfulness he had filled the earth again with people, and had subdued it from
its natural wildness to a paradisaic state-his nature would have been exalted
to an equality with the Elohim, and the earth, without any violent changes,
have become his dwelling place for ever. But, the Creator foreseeing that man
would transgress, laid the foundation of the earth upon such principles as
would afterwards accommodate it to his altered circumstances. Had He foreseen a
result different from what has actually come to pass, He would, doubtless, have
framed or constituted it, with reference to that result. But, while He did not
necessitate man's transgression, His plan was to constitute a natural world
with reference to it as its basis; and then, on the other hand, without
necessitating man's obedience, to constitute a spiritual, or incorruptible,
order of things upon the earth, having an intelligent and voluntary conformity
to His precepts as the foundation upon which it should be built. This, then, is
the present order of things. Man is replenishing the earth and subduing it. He
is reducing it from its natural wildness. Subduing land and sea to the
convenience of nations; and subjugating likewise, the wild creatures of his own
species to law and order and exterminating the untameable;--he is preparing the
world for an advance to a more exalted, yet not perfect state,
which the Man from heaven shall introduce, and establish; not, however, upon
the destruction of nature and society, but upon the improvement of the first,
and the regeneration of the last; which shall continue for a thousand years, as
the intermediate state between the present purely animal and natural,
and final purely spiritual, or incorruptible, and unchangeable constitution of
the globe.
In carrying his mission into effect, it was
necessary the animal man should have dominion. He was too feeble to execute it
without assistance; and there was no source from which he could receive voluntary
aid. It was needful, therefore, that he should receive power by which he
could compel the co-operation he required. For this reason, as well as for his
own defence against the inconvenient familiarity of the inferior creatures with
their lord, God gave him dominion over them all. "Have dominion,"
said He, "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth." This was the charter of man's sovereignty over flesh and
blood-himself the king, and all living creatures the subjects of his dominion.
As to his own species, however, he was permitted to be neither a law to
himself, nor to His fellows.
The right of man to exercise lordship over his
fellow man beyond the circle of his own family, was not granted to him "by
the grace of God." God's grace only conferred upon him what I have
already stated. Even his domestic sovereignty was to cease, when the time came
for one to leave father and mother. After this separation, all paternal rule
ended, and the only bondage which continued was the yoke of affection. Man rules
in his family by the grace of God, which says, "children obey your parents
in the Lord; for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is
the first commandment with a promise; that it may be well with thee, and
thou mayest live long in the land." This obedience is founded on the
fitness of things; but even this is not enjoined absolutely. It is only
"parents in the Lord," who have a divine right to expect
unqualified obedience from the Christian children of their household. If
parents not in the Lord, require their children to do contrary to, or to
abstain from doing, His will, obedience should be firmly but affectionately
refused. This would probably produce trouble and division in the family, if the
parent were an uncultivated man of the flesh, or a bigot. In that case, he
would behave like a tyrant, and endeavour to coerce them to obey him, rather
than their conviction of the truth; whose nature it is to divide between flesh
and spirit sinners and saints, and to create a man's foes out of the members of
his own household (Mat 10:35-36). But such children should remember that
"it is better to obey God than man" (Acts 4:19, 5:29); and that he
that loves parents more than Jesus, is not worthy of Him. Better leave the
paternal roof as an outcast, than to dishonor Him by preferring their laws to
His.
If man's domestic sovereignty be thus qualified
and limited by the grace of God, shall we say that He conferred on man
"divine right" to govern his species in its spiritual and civil
concerns, to found kingdoms and empires, and to invent religions as a means of
imparting durability to their thrones? What God permits and regulates is one
thing; and what He appoints is another. He permits thrones and dominions,
principalities and powers, to exist; He regulates them, setting over them the
basest of men (Dan 4:17), if such answer His intentions best, prevents them
circumventing His purposes, and commands His saints to "be subject unto
the higher powers." For there is no power but it is under God the
powers that be are set under God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the
power, resisteth the regulation of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves punishment. For the magistrates are not a terror to good
deeds, but to the evil. Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of
the same: for he is a servant of God unto that which is good for thee"
(Rom 13:1-5).
God did not commission man to set up these
powers. All He required of him was to obey whatsoever He chose to appoint. But,
when man became a rebel, his rebellious spirit was transmitted to his
posterity; and, refusing to be governed by the grace of God, they founded
dominions of their own, upon principles which were utterly subversive of the
government of God upon the earth. He could as easily have quashed their
treasonable proceedings as He stopped the building of Babel; but in His wisdom
He chose rather to give them scope, and to subject their usurpations to such
regulations as would in the end, promote His own glory and their confusion.
Therefore it is that Paul says, "every power is under God; and the powers
that be are placed under Him." This is a matter of great consolation and
rejoicing to His saints; for, though the tyrants may propose, it is God only
that disposes events. The saints who understand the word will keep aloof from
politics. None are more interested in them than they; but they will mix
themselves up neither with one party nor another; for God regulates them all:
therefore to be found in any such strife, would be to contend in some way or
other against Him. The servant of the Lord must not strive, except "for
the faith once delivered to the saints." For this He is commanded to
"contend earnestly" (Jud 1:3); because such a contention is to
"fight the good fight of faith," and to "lay hold on eternal
life."
In the beginning, then God reserved to Himself
the right of dominion over the human race. He gave it not to Adam, nor to his
posterity, but claimed the undivided sovereignty over all man's concerns for
Himself by right of creation and for him whom He might ordain as His
representative upon earth. All the kingdoms that have, or do exist, with the
exception of the Commonwealth of Israel, are based upon the usurpation of the
rights of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ; nor is there a king or queen, pope
or emperor, among the Gentiles, who reigns "by the grace of God."
They reign by the same grace, or favor, by which sin reigns over the nations.
They have no favor in the eyes of God. He bears with them for a time; and makes
use of them as His sword to maintain order among the lawless, until His
gracious purposes in favor of His saints shall be manifested, according to the
arrangement of the times He has disposed. Then, "will His saints be joyful
in glory; and the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword
in their hand: to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the
people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all His saints.
Praise ye the Lord" (Psa 149:5-9).
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
"Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow
the Tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good
and evil."
These are the most remarkable trees that have
ever appeared in the vegetable kingdom. They were "pleasant to the sight,
and good for food." This, however, is all that is said about their
nature and appearance. They would seem to have been the only trees of their
king; for, if they had been common, Eve's desire to taste the fruit of the Tree
of Knowledge, and their inclination to eat of that of the Tree of Life, could
have been gratified by eating of other similar trees. What the fruits were we
cannot tell; not is it important to know. Supposition says, that the Tree of
Knowledge was an apple tree; but testimony makes no deposition on the subject;
therefore we can believe nothing in the case.
These trees, however, are interesting to us, not
on account of their natural characteristics, but because of the interdict which
rested upon them. Adam and Eve were permitted to take freely of all the other
trees in the garden, "but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil,"
said the Lord God, "thou shalt not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it;
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen
2:17, 3:3). Naturally, it was as good for food as any other tree; but, as soon
as the Lord God laid His interdict upon it, its fruit became death to the
eater; not instant death, however, for their eyes were to be opened (Gen
3:5-7), and they were to become as the gods, or Elohim, being acquainted with
good and evil even as they (Gen 3:22). The final consequence of eating of this
tree being death, it may be styled the Tree of Death in
contradistinction to the Tree of Life. Decay of body, and consequent
termination of life, ending in corruption, or mortality, was the
attribute which this fatal tree was prepared to bestow upon the
individual who should presume to touch it.
In the sentence "thou shalt surely
die," death is mentioned in the Bible for the first time. But Adam
lived several centuries after he had eaten of the tree, which has proved a
difficulty in the definition of the death their indicated, hitherto insuperable
upon the principles of the creed. Creed theology paraphrases the sentence
thus-"in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die figuratively, thine
immortal soul becoming liable to the pains of hell for ever; and thy body shall
die literally afterwards." But, it is very evident to one unspoiled by the
philosophy of the creeds, that this interpretation is not contained in the
text. The obscurity which creates the difficulty, does not lie in the words
spoken, but in the English version of them. The phrase "in the
day" is supposed to mean that on the very day itself upon which
Adam transgressed, he was to die in some sense. But this is not the use of the
phrase even in the English of the same chapter. For in the fourth verse of the
second chapter, it is written, "in the day that the Lord God made
the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the
earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth,
and every herb of the field before it grew." This, we know, was the work
of six days; so that "in the day" is expressive of that period. But
in the next before us, the same phrase represents a much longer period, for
Adam did not die until he was 930 years old; therefore, the day in which he
died did not terminate till then.
But it may be objected, that the day in the text
must be limited to the day of the eating; because it says, "in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die:" and as he was not eating
of it 930 years, but only partook of it once on a certain natural day, it
cannot mean that long period. But I am not prepared to admit that the physical
action of eating is the only eating indicated in the text. Adam fed upon the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge all the time from his eating of the natural
fruit until he died. The natural fruit in its effect was figurative of the
fruit of transgressing the interdict, which said, "thou shalt not eat of
it." The figurative fruit was of a mixed character. It was "good"
or pleasant to the flesh; but "evil" in its consequences.
"By the law," says the apostle, "is the knowledge of
sin;" "sin is the transgression of law" (Rom 3:20; 1John
3:4). Sin is pleasant to the flesh; because the deeds forbidden are natural to
it. It is that "good" fruit which the animal man delights to
eat. The flesh, the eyes, and life, have all their desires, or lusts, which,
when gratified constitute the chiefest good that men under their
dominion seek after. But, God has forbidden indulgence in these lusts. He says,
"love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world" (1John 2:15-16). And again,
"the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore,
will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Jas 4:4); and,
"if ye live after the flesh ye shall die" (Rom 4:21-23).
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that
soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption" (Gal 6:7-8). All
"the ills that flesh is he air to" make up the "evil,"
which has come upon man as the result of transgressing the law of God, which
said to Adam, "thou shalt not eat thereof." The fruit of his eating
was the gratification of his flesh in the lusts thereof, and the subjection of
himself and posterity to the "evil" of eating of the cursed
ground in sorrow all the days of their lives (Gen 3:17-19).
All the posterity of Adam, when they attain the
age of puberty, and their eyes are in the opening crisis, begin to eat of the
Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Previous to that natural change, they
are in their innocency. But, thenceforth, the world, as a serpent-entwined
fruit tree, stands before the mind, enticing it to take and eat, and enjoy the good
things it affords. To speculate upon the lawfulness of compliance is partly to
give consent. There must be no reasoning upon the harmlessness of conforming to
the world. Its enticements without, and the sympathizing instincts of the flesh
within, must be instantly suppressed; for, to hold a parley with its lusts, is
dangerous. When one is seduced by "the deceitfulness of sin,"
"he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed. Then when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth
death" (Jas 1:14-15); in other words, he plucks the forbidden fruit, and
dies, if not forgiven.
Furthermore, the sentence "thou shalt
surely die," is proof that the phrase "in the day" relates
to a longer period than the day of the natural eating. This was not a sentence
to be consummated in a moment, as when a man is shot or guillotined. It
required time; for the death threatened was the result, or finishing, of a
certain process; which is very clearly indicated in the original Hebrew. In
this language the phrase is muth temuth, which literally rendered is,
DYING THOU SHALT DIE.
This view is fully sustained by the paraphrase
found in the following words:--"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread TILL thou return into the ground; for out of it
wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen
3:18). The context of this informs us that Adam, having transgressed, had been
summoned to trial and judgment for the offence. The Lord God interrogated him,
saying, "hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee that thou
shouldest not eat?" Adam confessed his guilt, which was sufficiently
manifest before by his timidity, and shame at his nakedness. The offence being
proved, the Judge then proceeded to pass sentence upon the transgressors. This
He did in the order of transgression; first upon the serpent; then upon Eve ;
and lastly upon Adam, in the words of the text. In these, the ground is cursed,
and the man sentenced to a life of sorrowful labor, and to a resolution into
his original and parent dust. The terms in which the last particular of His
sentence is expressed, are explanatory of the penalty annexed to the law.
"Thou shalt return into the ground," and, "unto dust shalt thou
return," are phrases equivalent to "dying thou shalt die."
Hence, the divine interpretation of the sentence, "in the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die," is, "in the day of thy eating, all
the days of thy life and sorrow, returning thou shalt return into the dust of
the ground whence thou wast taken." Thus, "dying," in the
meaning of the text, is to be the subject of a sorrowful, painful, and
laborious existence, which wears a man out, and brings him down to the brink of
the grave; and, by "die" is signified, the end, or last stage,
of corporeal existence, which is marked by a ceasing to breathe, and
decompostion into dust. Thus, man's life from the womb to the grave is a
dying existence; and, so long as he retains his form, as in the case of
Jesus in the sepulchre, he is existent in death; for what is termed being,
is corporeal existence in life and death. The end of our being is the end of
that process by which we are resolved into dust-we cease to be. This was
Adam's state, if we may so speak, before he was created. He had no being. And
at this non-existence he arrived after a lapse of 930 years from his formation;
and thus were practically illustrated the penalty of the law, and the sentence
of the Judge. For from the day of his transgression, he began his pilgrimage to
the grave, at which he surely arrived. He made his couch in the dust, and saw
corruption; and with its mother earth commingled all that was known as Adam,
the federal head, and chief father of mankind.
TREE OF LIFE.
"Eat and live for ever."
This was planted "in the midst of the
garden." It was also a fruit-bearing tree. It would seem to have been as
accessible as the Tree of Knowledge; for after the man had eaten of this, he
was driven out of the garden that he might not touch that likewise. Its fruit,
however, was of a quality entirely opposite to that of which they had eaten.
Both trees bore good fruit; but that of the Tree of Life had the quality of
perpetuating the living existence of the eater for ever. This appears from the
testimony of Moses, who reports, that after the transgressors had received judgment,
"the Lord God said, behold the man has 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: therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground whence he was taken"
(Gen 3:22-23). From this, we learn, that the Lord God had instituted this tree
to give life, and that Adam was aware of what would result from eating of its
fruit. It is probable that, had he been obedient to the law of the Tree of
Knowledge, he would have been permitted to eat of the Tree of Life, after he
had fulfilled his destiny as an animal man; and, instead of dying away into
dust, have been "changed in the twinkling of an eye," as Enoch was;
and as they are to be, who shall be ready for the Lord at His coming. But of
this we can say nothing certain, because nothing is testified on the subject;
and beyond the testimony our faith cannot go, though opinion and credulity may.
If, then, Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life, he
would have been changed from a living soul into a soul capable of living for
ever; and not only capable, but it would seem, that being immortal, the Lord
God would have permitted him to remain so. For, we are not to suppose that, if
a thing become capable of undecaying existence, therefore its Creator cannot
destroy it; consequently, if Adam as a sinner had eaten of the Tree of Life,
his immortality would have been only permitted, and not necessitated contrary
to the power of the Lord God.
To have permitted Adam and Eve to become
deathless and to remain so, in a state of good and evil such as the world
experience, would have been a disproportionate and unmerciful punishment. It
would have been to populate the earth with deathless sinners; and to convert it
into the abode of deathless giants in crime; in other words, the earth would
have become, what creed theologists describe "hell" to be in their
imagination. The good work of the sixth day would then have proved a terrible
mishap, instead of the nucleus of a glorious manifestation of divine wisdom and
power. But, a world of undying sinners in a state of good and evil, was not
according to the divine plan. This required first the sanctification of
sinners; then their probation; and afterwards, their exaltation, or
humiliation, according to their works. Therefore, lest Adam should invert this
order, and "put on immortality" before he should be morally renewed,
or purified from sin, and the moral likeness of God be formed in him again; the
Lord God expelled him from the dangerous vicinity of the Tree of Life. He drove
him forth that he should not then become incorruptible and deathless.
The first intimation of immortality for man is
contained in the text before us. But, in this instance it eluded his grasp. He
was expelled "lest he should eat, and live for ever." It was because
immortality belonged to this tree; or rather, was communicable by or through it
to the eater, that it was styled ots hachayim, that is, the Tree of the
Lives; for that is its name when literally rendered. The phrase "of the
lives" is particularly appropriate; for it was the tree of endless life
both to Adam and Eve, if permitted to eat it. If the world enticing to sin, be
fitly represented by the serpent-entwined tree, imparting death to its victim,
Christ, who "has overcome the world" (John 16:33), as the giver of
life to His people, is well set forth by the other tree in the midst of the
garden; which was a beautiful emblem of incarnated power and wisdom (Prov
3:13-18; 1Cor 1:24) of the Deity, planted as the Tree of Life in the future
Paradise of God (Rev 22:2).
MAN IN HIS NOVITIATE.
"God made man upright."
When the work of the six days was completed, the
Lord God reviewed all that He had made, and pronounced it "very
good." This quality pertained to every thing terrestrial. The beasts of
the field, the fowls of the air, reptiles, and man, were all "very
good;" and all made up a natural system of things, or world, as perfect as
the nature of things required. Its excellency, however, had relation solely to
its physical quality. Man, though "very good," was so only as a piece
of divine workmanship. He was made different from what he afterwards became.
Being made in the image, after the likeness of the Elohim, he was "made
upright." He was neither virtuous, nor vicious; holy, nor unholy; but in
his beginning simply innocent of good or evil deeds. Being without a history,
he was without character. This had to be developed, and could only be formed
for good or evil, by his own independent action under the divine law. In short,
when Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their potter, they were morally
in a similar condition to a new-born babe; excepting that a babe is born under
the constitution of sin, and involuntarily subjected to "vanity"
(Rom 3:20); while they first beheld the light in a state of things where evil
had as yet no place. They were created in the stature of a perfect man and
woman; but with their sexual feelings undeveloped; in ignorance, and without
experience.
The interval between their formation and the
transgression was the period of their novitiate. The Spirit of God had made
them; and during this time, "the inspiration of the Almighty was giving
them understanding" (Job 32:8, 33:4). In this way knowledge was imparted
to them. It became power, and enabled them to meet all the demands of their
situation. Thus, they were "taught of God," and became the
depositories of those arts and sciences, in which they afterwards instructed
their sons and daughters, to enable them to till the ground, tend the flocks
and herds, provide the conveniences of life, and subdue the earth.
Guided by the precepts of the Lord God, his
conscience continued good, and his heart courageous. "They were naked,
both the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25). They were no
more abashed than children in their nudity; for, though adults in stature, yet,
being in the infancy of nature, they stood before the Elohim and in the face of
one another, without embarrassment. This fact was accidentally recorded. As we
shall see hereafter, it is a clue, as it were, given to enable us to understand
the nature of the transgression.
While in the state of good unmixed with evil,
were Adam and Eve mortal or immortal? This is a question which presents itself
to many who study the Mosaic account of the origin of things. It is an
interesting question, and worthy of all attention. Some hastily reply, they
were mortal; that is, if they had not sinned they would nevertheless have died.
It is probable they would, after a long time, if no further change had been
operated upon their nature. But the Tree of Life seems to have been provided,
for the purpose of this change being effected, through the eating of its fruit,
if they had proved themselves worthy of the favor. The animal nature will
sooner or later dissolve. It was not constituted so as to continue in life for
ever, independent of any further modification. We may admit, therefore, the
corruptibility, and consequent mortality, of their nature, without saying that
they were mortal. The inherent tendency of their nature to death would have
been arrested; and they would have been changed as Enoch and Elijah were; and
as they of whom Paul says, "we shall not all die." The "we"
here indicated possess an animal, and therefore corruptible nature; and, if not
"changed," would surely die; but inasmuch as they are to "be
changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet," though
corruptible, they are not mortal. In this sense, therefore, I say, that in
their novitiate, Adam and his betrothed had a nature capable of
corruption, but were not subject to death, or mortal. The penalty was
"dying thou shalt die;" that is, "you shall not be permitted to
eat of the Tree of Life in arrest of dissolution; but the inherent tendency of
your animal nature shall take its course, and return you to the dust whence you
originally came." Mortality was in disobedience as the wages of sin, and
not a necessity.
But, if they were not mortal in their novitiate,
it is also true that they were not immortal. To say that immortals were
expelled from the garden of Eden, that they might not live for ever by eating
of the tree, is absurd. The truth is in few words, man was created with a
nature endued with certain susceptibilities. He was capable of death; and
capable of endless life; but, whether he should merge into mortality; or, by a
physical change be clothed with immortality, was predicated on his choosing to
do good or evil. Capacity must not be confounded with impletion. A vessel may
be capable of holding a pint of fluid; but it does not therefore follow that
there is a pint in it, or any at all. In the Paradise of Eden, mortality and
immortality were set before the man and his companion. They were capable of
being filled with either; but with which depended upon their actions: for
immortality is the end of holiness (Rom
We meet with no traces in the Mosaic history of
ceremonial observances, or religious worship, pertaining to the novitiate. To rest
one day in seven; believe that the Lord God would perform His word if they
transgressed; and to abstain from touching the Tree of Knowledge, was all their
Gracious Benefactor required. There was no "religion" in the garden
of Eden-no tenure of the