TREES OF LIFE AND KNOWLEDGE. 85 to the interior things of men. It is easy to see that the life,"* which is here referred to, must mean the inmost influences of holy men; and the "knowledge" spoken of, must be that very knowledge which had contributed to raise them into that elevated condition. LIFE is an invisible, intangible possession, evidencing its existence by the production of consequences upon our organization; it is a growing and fruit-bearing principle in man, in which respect it may be called a tree; faint, indeed, and feeble in its beginnings, but successively sending out more vigorous developments and powers. So, the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil is a mental acquisition, gradually putting forth its tender shoots, and stronger limbs, attaining greater height, and showing more luxuriance, both in its utterances and its acts; in which respects it, also, is most aptly likened to a tree. Now, those inmost influences, which are here denominated the tree of lives, consist in love, love to God, and love to man, loves which derive their essential quality from the Lord, and so induce an intellectual faith concerning Him. Every one, who will seriously reflect upon this subject, must conclude, that such loves are not only the life of a religious man's will; but also, the life of his understanding. Love is the primary life of such a man; without this, there could be no living faith; man could not think, if he were not first influenced by love to do so; he could not act, if the love of action were removed. Whatsoever a man thinks, believes, and does, proceeds from love, as its living cause. He is senseless, thoughtless, inanimate, and dead, to every thing he does not love. As his love grows cold, his thoughts wax torpid; but if his love inflames, his imagination is illuminated, his utterances become forcible, and his action energetic. Whatever a man loves pre-eminently, he thinks continually, and it will more or less display itself in every act. The reason for all this is, because human love is the very life of the human character. The love of God, by man, is the first great duty of all religion, and it is plainly intended by Him to be in the midst of every other excellence; and thus it is a tree of life in the midst of the garden a tree, because of its growing and fruit-bearing * Chaiyim-lives. The plural form is used in the original, because the religious life of the man, here treated of, was displayed under a twofold aspect, viz., the life of his affections, and the life of thought. qualities, and a tree of life, because it imparts animation to every thought and every duty.* -- It is reasonable to suppose, that the love of God is the ruling life of angels; and if so, how proper is it to be spoken of as the central life of celestial men the life that was in the midst of their intelligence — their intellectual garden. That this is a correct view of the subject is evident, not only from its approving itself satisfactorily to our reason, but from the circumstance of the tree of life being yet extant, and the fruit thereof, conditionally, offered to the acceptance of universal man. In the Revelations it is written, that the Lord said, "To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (Rev. ii. 7.) To “ overcome means the successful resistance of what is evil; and then, "to eat of the tree of life," plainly denotes, to be filled with the good of love, which is said to be in the midst of the paradise of God, to denote, that it is the inmost principle of all heavenly intelligence and truth. Seeing, then, that the tree of life was significant of the good of love to the Lord, as it existed in the most ancient church, we are the more readily prepared to accept the idea, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was representative of all the truth of faith respecting him. The proposition, that the truth of faith is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, at once affects us as a lucid fact, which reasonings could not brighten, but might obscure. The solid knowledge of the pre-eminently religious man is, genuine truth, and this is the foundation of his faith; so, that while his love of God is his "tree of life," his faith in God is his "tree of knowledge." These are the two essential things of true religion with the human race, and thus we learn, as it were in the compass of a nutshell, the bright and practical ideas intended to be represented to man by those two trees. The reason why the eating of one of them was prohibited, we will show in another place. Philo says, "By the tree of life is metaphorically meant love to God, the greatest of virtues, by which the soul is rendered immortal; " and by "the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is signified that prudence which discriminates between things that are by nature opposite and contrary." De Mundi Opificio. Maimonides calls the law, "a tree of life." - De Pœnitentia, ix. sec. 2. THE RIVER OF EDEN, AND ITS BEING PARTED INTO FOUR HEADS. "The fairest test of a theory is its application to the solution of a Phenomenon. - JOHN BIRD SUMNER, M.A., Records of Creation. Second Edition, p. 235. IF Eden and its garden were not intended to express geographical positions of the earth, and if the trees of the garden did not mean productions of the vegetable kingdom, but that all these things are mentioned to signify internal states and principles, belonging to a highly cultivated condition of religious humanity; then, it is easy to infer, that by the river and its partings, are not to be understood natural waters, but the source and order, whence the several degrees of their intelligence were to be preserved in growth and fruitfulness. They, who could compare a highly cultivated mind to a skilfully planted garden, and clearly perceive the general analogy existing between them, could, also, easily describe the more particular condition of such a mind, by some other more particular circumstances, which such a garden would require for the maintenance of its fertility and beauty. When such a people talked of lands and rivers, in connection with the spiritualities of religion, it was for the purpose of giving them a representative significance of internal things. They spoke of the geography of nature to express the conditions of intellect. They knew that the world of nature was in correspondence with the world of mind. Nor has this idea entirely vanished from the church. How common it is for Christians to speak of Zion, Canaan, and Jordan, to signify some internal and religious things. In such cases they do not think of the mountain, land, or river, but some spiritual state, which they are conceived to signify. They to whom the magnificence of nature was as a theatre, representing the gorgeous things of spiritual and heavenly life-they who could "Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, would not only speak of the general condition of the mind, by some general resemblance in the world, but they would represent its particular states, by some particular features of physical nature. To such a people, a river, with its streams, would be eminently suggestive. In after-times, the beauty which they confer upon the landscape, the fertility which they induce upon their banks, their gentle flow, and sky-reflecting qualities, have originated poetic thought and writing: but the men of the most ancient times, saw in such things something deeper than the modern poet; they beheld in such objects those interior and spiritual realities, which are the soul and origin of poetry. With them, the thought of a natural river was instantly changed into the idea of wisdom, and the varieties of wisdom they would indicate by giving names to its streams.* We need not descend into secular history for evidence of this fact; it is plentifully recognized in the Sacred Scriptures, there being numerous passages constructed on the circumstance of such a relationship being perceived. Those who are in the satisfactions arising from divine instruction, are said ❝to drink of the river of God's pleasures." (Psalm xxxvi. 8.) The waters, also, which the prophet saw issuing from the house which he beheld in vision, are described to have successively deepened, until they became a river that could not be passed, (Ezekiel 1 – 5,) to show how the divine truths, which are proper to the Lord's church, are continually heightening, until they attain that elevation of wisdom, which no man can pass. Again, the Psalmist says, "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God:" (Psalm xlvi. 4 :) where, by a river, is meant the divine wisdom of the Holy Word, and the "streams whereof," the numerous truths which descend therefrom; and these are said to "make glad the city of God," because they are productive of delight and happiness to the church. There is a remarkable similarity, in general idea, between this passage and that which says, "A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." (Gen. ii. 10.} "The garden" is as "the city of God;" the "river" and 'streams," as the "wisdom and truths" which impart gladness and refreshing. It is likewise written, that "the earth is watered with the river of God," (Psalm lxv. 9;) which spiritually means, that the external man is rendered fertile, in his works of use, through the inflowings of divine wisdom from the Word. John said that he was shown "A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God." (Rev. xxii. 1.) Here, the 66 *The fables concerning the river Styx, Charon crossing the Stygian Lake, and the consecration of the fountains of Pindus, Helicon, and Parnassus to the Muses, with many other mythological intimations referring to rivers, their sources, and results, all took their rise from this perception. SPIRITUAL MEANING OF A RIVER. 89 "pure river of water of life," plainly denotes the genuine truths of the Holy Word. It is these which impart spiritual life to man: Hence the Lord said, “The water, i. e., the truth, that I shall give him, (the man who comes to him,) shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John iv. 14.) Every one may perceive that it can be nothing else but divine wisdom which proceeds as a river from the throne of God, and also, that its purposes must be to secure salvation and eternal life to all who will receive it. It is said to be clear as crystal, to denote that it is as pure as spiritual illumination can perceive it. Now, it will be observed, that the river of Eden is without a name: yet, as its uses were to water the garden and keep it in fertility, it may reasonably be considered as the river of life, which was the inflowing of wisdom from the Lord, in order to maintain, among the most ancient people, their state of religious eminence in its integrity and greatness. The reason why this river is spoken of without a name is, probably, because it represented the divine wisdom, as it is in itself, and which, as such, is inexpressible to finite thought. It is only when this river of wisdom becomes parted, by entering into the human mind, and there presenting itself to the distinct faculties by which it is distinguished, that it will admit of nominal description, because it is only then that we obtain distinct perceptions of it. Hence, it was only when the river entered the garden that it was 66 parted," it was then that it "became into four heads," which were respectively called, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrat. It must be admitted, that divine wisdom, as it is in itself, cannot fall into finite apprehension; and every one must see, that, in order to its being understood at all by man, it must enter into some degree of his mind. These degrees are several; and divine wisdom is designed for all these, and to affect them all in the way of rendering them fertile in the things of use. These degrees, in general, are spoken of as three, and they consist of celestial, spiritual, and natural; but, there is also the rational degree, which exists between the spiritual and natural: this is a medium principle, which communicates between the scientific things which act upon the mind from without, and the intellectual perceptions which operate from within; and thus, in some measure, it belongs to both. The celestial, pertains to the will and its affections; the spiritual, to the understanding and its thoughts; the natural, to scientifics and such common knowledges as are observable from |