fertility, and causing growth, in some particular situation: and we admit that it is highly probable a superior people would be placed in some position favorable to vegetable luxuriance and beauty, because we think it is a law of mind, to express itself, not only in significant words, but to indicate itself by representative circumstances: nevertheless, we conceive that the true object of a garden being here mentioned, was to denote the existence of a cultivated intelligence, and that it is said to have been in Eden, to signify that the ground of intelligence was in a purified love.

Surely every one may see, that a beautiful garden is the appropriate symbol of an elegant mind:* what else but such a mind can in reality be the garden of God? Is not such a mind of his planting? is not the fruit of such a mind of his growth? and is not the felicity arising from the possession of such a mind among his good and precious gifts. We instantly perceive the truth of this: it comes to us at once: the reason is, because, when the mind is enlightened by the suggestion, it passes, as it were suddenly and spontaneously, from the physical to the mental idea.

This general resemblance may be confirmed by more particular analogies. Thus, as the good and beautiful things of a garden spring up to their perfection, only as they are set and taken care of by human industry and skill: so the true and useful things of the mind come forth in their completeness, only as they are planted and preserved by the wisdom and goodness of God. In a garden, there is nothing cultivated but what is useful and delightful for the rational man; so in the minds of the intelligent, nothing is permitted to grow but what is requisite and necessary to promote some Christian grace.

The Lord Jesus Christ most certainly viewed the mind under this aspect, when he taught his beautiful parable of the sower. The "seed," said he, "is the Word of God," and "he that receiveth the seed into good ground, is he that heareth the Word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matt. xiii. 23.) Every one must see that this description of the mind, as arising

* Origen asks, "Who is so weak as to think that God planted a garden, like a husbandman, and in it a real tree of life, to be tasted by corporeal teeth (tongue;) or that the knowledge of good and evil was to be acquired by eating the fruit of another tree? And as to God's walking in the garden, and Adam's hiding himself from him among the trees, no man can doubt that these things are to be taken figuratively and not literally."

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from the reception and understanding of the Word, is founded in its resemblance to a garden. Moreover, the Scriptures, on several occasions, compare the church to a garden. Thus, of the righteous it is written, that his soul should be as a watered garden; (Isaiah lviii. 11;) and of the captived Israelites it was predicted, that they should "plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them," (Jer. xxix. 5;) which plainly means, that the church in bondage, which they then represented, would ultimately become intelligent and enjoy its advantages.

It is because the garden of Eden signifies the intelligence of love, as possessed by the church of those ancient times, that it is written, "The Lord will comfort Zion, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." (Isaiah li. 3.) Here, by Zion, is meant the church; the wilderness and desert denote its deficiencies in truth and faith, but which nevertheless, will become like Eden, when it is influenced by love; and like the garden of the Lord, when distinguished by intelligence. They are said to be like the others, because they will, in some measure, be the reproduction of their excellence. But the prophet distinctly refers the wisdom and knowledge of the church, to the circumstance of having been in Eden, the garden of God. His words are, "With thy wisdom and thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches; — thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God." (Ezekiel xxviii. 4–13.) Upon this point, then, we need not further dwell: we plainly see that it is employed as a beautiful symbol of that fruit-bearing intelligence, which is the proper inheritance of the celestial man.

But this garden is said to have been eastward of Eden, to denote that the intelligence of the Adamic Church, derived its illumination and warmth wholly from the Lord. For, as the sun of nature is always ascending in the east, as the earth is perpetually rotating upon its axis towards him; so the Lord, as the sun of righteousness, is represented by the east, eternally rising upon human minds, as men turn themselves to him, to receive the warmth of His love and the light of His wisdom. That the eastern sky, at the time of sun-rising, is, from its splendor and magnificence, a beautiful representation of the Deity in his majesty and glory, may be easily perceived. The Scriptures frequently mention this region in this sense. A strong example is given by the Prophet, where he says, "Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east." (Ezekiel xliii. 2.) The earliest tradi

tions of all knowledge, whether human or divine, are associated with some ideas of the east: and wise men are said to have come therefrom,* to indicate that all genuine wisdom in man is communicated to him from the Lord. We also read, on several occasions, of the children of the east, because they represented all those who are possessed with the knowledges of truth and good from the Lord. (Judges vi. 3; viii. 10: 1 Kings i. 4-30.) This idea is the source of that holy custom, which once prevailed, of turning to the east in times of prayer. It is, also, the origin of a similar observance in certain christian churches at this day, on the repetition of their creeds; a circumstance which shows that a custom may exist long after the reason for its adoption has ceased to be attended to.

From these facts and considerations it is evident, that the description of Adam's being placed in the garden eastward in Eden, was intended to signify the state of his intelligence and love, together with his continued acknowledgment, that those blessings came to him from the divine munificence and care. And this garden is said to have been planted by the Lord, to teach us that the insemination of every spiritual seed, and the growth of all celestial virtue, are derived from Him: they are, as the prophet says, branches of his planting and the works of his hands, that he

*Matt. ii. 1. It deserves, also, to be remarked, that those wise men are said to have seen his star in the east, (verse 2.) This is commonly understood to mean, that they beheld the star in the eastern quarter of the sky. But this cannot be the true idea. (See Campbell's Four Gospels, translated from the Greek.) The star which they saw must have been really in the west, for they were guided by it out of the east country westward, towards Jerusalem. The meaning, therefore, is, that the wise men were in the east at the time they beheld the star. This agrees with the first verse; and, it is necessary to express the spiritual sense, which is, that a state of illumination from the Lord is necessary to direct us where to find Him.

We may also observe, that commentators have felt great difficulty in discovering what is meant by the word east, as used in several parts of Scripture. Calmet confesses it, on the ground, that He was compelled to admit that it seemed to mean places North of India. (For a summary statement, see Cruden, Art. East. (Others have seen that it is sometimes used without any regard to the eastern quarter of the heavens. (See Rev. J. F. Denham, M.A., F.R.S., Kitto's Bibl. Cyclopædia, Art. East.) Of this, there can be no well founded doubt; the reason is, because it refers to the Lord, and the internal sense of the context equired that it should be so employed.

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may be glorified. (Isaiah lx. 21.) Such was the garden into which Adam-the most ancient church- was happily introduced, and which he was mercifully required to "dress and to keep: ". to enjoy, but to acknowledge that it was the Lord's, since it was only by such acknowledgment that the blessing could be kept.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TREES OF THE GARDEN: SPECIFICALLY THE TREE OF LIFE, AND THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

"Know that in the trees, fountains, and other things, of the garden of Eden, were the figures of the most curious things by which the first Adam saw and understood spiritual things."-RABBI SIMON BAR ABRAHAM, as cited from Hutchenson's Hebrew Writings, by the Rev. E. Madeley in his "Science of Correspondences Elucidated," p. 125, note.

THE peculiar language applied to the trees of the Garden of Eden, and, specifically, the remarkable names given to two of them, contribute some additional proof of the facts attempted to be established in the preceding chapter. We shall show, that they are intended to represent some of those particular conditions of that intelligence and love, which we have seen to be the general inheritance of a superior people—the most ancient church.

It is admitted that "much more seems intended" by those trees, than what appears upon the surface, and although, in some quarters, difficulties have been felt in determining what that is, the cause of them is not so much in the thing itself, as in the predisposition of certain minds, to discover some physical meaning where it is not intended. (Dr. A. Clark's Commentary on Genesis ii. 9.) The Jews interpreted the prophecies, announcing the coming of the Messiah, to mean the raising up of an earthly prince, in order to confer glory upon the worldly kingdom of Israel. They made up their minds with this mistaken idea, and thus produced a difficulty in understanding the true meaning of those predictions: so much so, that they were actually fulfilled in the manifestation and mission of Jesus Christ, without its being acknowledged by that obstinate people. The confessed difficulty in comprehending what is meant by the trees of the garden, though different in kind, is the same in principle. Some physical notion has been conceived concerning them, whereas some mental condition is really meant. "Life" and "knowledge" are not vegetable productions, they are spiritual and intellectual existences: and the attempt to

find the former, in a narrative constructed only to express the latter, must be as fruitless as the endeavor to find

"Fire in ice,

Or darkness in the blaze of sun-shine."

There existed in the garden four sorts of trees, first, those which were "pleasant to the sight;" second, those that were "good for food;" third, "the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden;" and fourth, "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Gen. ii. 9.)

They who have viewed those statements in a merely literal sense, suppose the trees "pleasant to the sight," to have consisted in all such as are elegant in their structure, producing a beautiful variety of flowers, and exhibiting to the eye a rich magnificence of color. It has also been thought, that those which were "good for food," meant all such as were productive of luxuriant fruits, suitable for human sustenance and health.

There can be no well-founded objection to a belief that gardens did exist among the Adamic people, or that trees of a delightful and exuberant character grew within them. But still it must be higher facts than these, which were intended by the description. These only contemplate the pleasure of the senses and the nutrition of the body. But revelation is grounded in deeper and inner things: it regards the delights of the mind, and the sustenance of the soul; and therefore, the elegancies of nature are borrowed and employed for their symbolical indication. That this must be the main object, for which those trees are mentioned, seems evident from "the tree of life," and "the tree of knowledge of good and evil," with which they are associated. The very names of these forcibly express spiritual and intellectual things.

We are aware, that "the tree of life" has been thought to have been a tree possessing certain medicinal virtues, which were to be a means for the preservation of the body, and to act as an antidote against death. We are likewise aware that "the tree of knowledge" has been considered as a tree distinguished by some peculiar property, which, when taken, was capable of increasing knowledge. But these notions appear to us rather as the efforts of a lively imagination, than as the result of a solid judgment. The idea of a medicinal shrub being called the "tree of life," or a stimulating esculent, "the tree of knowledge," may be plausible to some, but we do not see how it can be truth to any. The former idea concerning the "tree of life" is founded upon the persuasion,