The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Front matter

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.;

I ^efUHS i

,^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Preface

The writer of this little volume would gladly apologize for its publication, but he well knows that the only apology which can be satisfactory must be found in the book itself; that, if it be not found there, it were vain to offer it here. Yet, perhaps, it may be of advantage to know something of the character and object of the following pages before they are read.

To some the views presented in this brief treatise may bear an appearance of originality to which they are not entitled ; others may be offended by a seeming novelty in that which is not new. For they exhibit those events in the Scriptural history of man which are connected with the fatal " tree of the knowledge of good and evil," not merely as facts, but also as facts which are immensely significant. But it must be remembered that there is hardly any commentary, ancient or modern, in which it is not assumed that most of those events have a symbolical and significant character. Every Christian child is taught to regard the curse pronounced upon the serpent as a symbol under which is set forth God's judgment upon " that old serpent, that is the devil ;" and under which is given the first promise of redemption through the " Seed of the Woman." In the following pages an attempt is made to justify upon acknowledged principles this way of viewing those events ; and at the same time to vindicate their claim to be facts which actually occurred as they are recorded.

But this little volume is principally the fruit of an earnest desire to relieve the minds of sincere people from difficulties in respect to some of the mysteries of the Word of God — difficulties from which the writer himself has greatly suffered, and from which so many suffer in this age of rationalistic and infidel philosophy. This he has sought to do, not by explaining them away, but by exhibiting as clearly as he could, the principle by which they are to be justified as mysteries. The fundamental idea of all the views presented is that the wisdom of man, as a criterion of distinction between good and evil, is, of itself, foolishness ; and that the Wisdom of God alone is true wisdom. But in order to set forth and illustrate this truth, it was necessary to discuss other subordinate topics, each of which is intended to have a practical moral and spiritual eflect of its own. Indeed it is the hope of the writer that the book may be judged by its spirit rather than by the intellectual form in which that spirit is embodied.

If then the reader has ever found himself embarrassed by the Scriptural use of types and symbols ; if it has ever occurred to him that the account of a " talking snake" in the temptation of man, is an improbable story ; if the blasphemy of the infidel sneering at the account which God has given of the sin and fall of man, has ever disturbed him ; if the mystery of the atonement, made by the sacrifice of the Innocent for the guilty, has caused him to offend ; — perhaps upon these and other points he may find some relief from the following pages. And if, on rising from their perusal, he sees more clearly, and feels more deeply, than before, that his own views of things are to be thrown away as folly, and those which God gives in his Word to be adopted as the right ones in their stead ; that the law of God is holy, just and good ; that the practical wisdom revealed through the conscience, distinguishing between right and wrong, is paramount over all other forms of the wisdom and prudence of man ; that the Eternal Spirit, in his power and agency, is a " very present God," upon whom he is dependent in a most vital sense ; that all earthly and visible things are unsubstantial and fleeting shadows compared with the substantial being and eternal permanency of the unseen and spiritual things of the kingdom of God ; that the

PREFACE. V

mutual relations between the parent and child, and of marriage, are hallowed, purified and exalted in his eyes ; that children are to be trained up in the submission and obedience of faith, reverence and love, and not in that of sight and reasoning ; that " the carnal mind" is an accursed enemy of God ; that the chastisements of labor, sorrow and death are holy things, to be submitted to in penitence and in faith ; that the atonement of Christ is the only salvation for him ; that he must be crucified with Christ in order to live and reign with him ; that his own strength, or the obedience of his own agency, is utterly in vain to save him from the curse and power of sin ; that the agency and obedience of Christ in and for him are all-sufficient to restore and perfect his spiritual life, and to bring into him an " everlasting righteousness ;" — if he finds any of these effects produced upon his mind and heart, let him give the praise and the glory to Him whose blood cleanseth us from all sin,

Chapter I. Page Of Symbols ...... 1

CHAPTER H.

OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE WORD OF GOD . . 10

CHAPTER HI.

OF THE SYMBOLICAL CHARACTER OF THE SCRIPTURAL

ACCOUNT OF THE SIN AND FALL OF MAN . . ' 22

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OP PARADISE ... 78

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

Vlll CONTENTS*

CHAPTER XT.

OF THE GIRDI^E OF FIG LEAVES . . . . J41

CHAPTER XH.

CHAPTER XHI.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

OF THE CLOTHING OF SXINS .... 210

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER L

OF SYMBOLS.

Every form of religious belief that has ever appeared in the v^orld has expressed itself in sensible representations. The Hindoo, the Egyptian, the Greek, the Mohammedan, and the Christian, all alike, have set forth the mysteries of their faith and life by means of symbols. From what has this fact arisen ?

A shallow^ and sensual philosophy attempts to render an account of this universal phenomenon by the supposition of priestcraft. It gives for the object of the symbols of religion the veiling of the truth from the masses of the people, that the power of superior intelligence might be enjoyed exclusively among the initiated. It cannot be denied that symbols have been perverted to serve this purpose. But it does not follow that they have no higher origin than the knavery of priests, and no better use than to keep the people in ignorance and awe. Where they have been thus perverted, it has been by the abuse of the principle from which they arise, and which has its seat in the very nature and constitution of man.

For the life of man is constituted in the synthesis 1 or union of a spiritual and a material nature. In like manner it is found to be a fact, that whatever addresses man with life and power is also constituted of what may be called body and soul, or form and substance, or letter and spirit. Body without soul, form without substance, letter without spirit, is dead for him — powerless over his heart and life. No less is spirit conceived of without the letter, substance without form, soul without body, or any manifestation whatever, dead for man. It is a lifeless abstraction.

For this reason it is that purely philosophical systems have always been so powerless to affect and mould the life of the human race. Plato, no less than the more profound and metaphysical Bramins, gives us only science without life. For this reason, when Jehovah would affect the will and life of man with power, his Spirit assumes a form, a sensible manifestation, as the Angel of the Covenant, in the burning bush, as Jehovah between the Cherubim, whose form was light, and as Immanuel, God with us, in Jesus of Nazareth. The very nature of man requires that the Truth should become incarnate in order to reach him with power, and become life to his soul. For this reason also it was necessary that the Church, which is now the body of the Spirit of God in the world, should never for one moment become extinct, otherwise a new incarnation would be necessary to restore it to life. For the truths of the Word of God, no less than other ideas, are always found to be powerless over the heart of man where-

OF SYMBOLS.

soever the Church has ceased to be a body animated by them. Each member of the Church was intended to be a Hving word of God, an epistle of Christ, through whom his perfections should be manifested to the world in life with power.

Out of the feeling of this lifeless nature of mere ideas, however true and just, arises a universal desire in man to give some sensible expression, some bodying-forth, to whatever lives and moves within him. From this come gesture and action in speaking. When we speak in earnest, with feeling, we are not satisfied with words alone. We would express what we feel to the eye as well as to the ear. Ideas and emotions thus expressed have a life and life-giving power for others unspeakably greater than anything that can be found in mere words. Moved by this desire the true artist toils with subHme devotion to give a form, a sensible manifestation to the ideas and emotions of beauty with which he feels himself to be filled and inspired. Thus comes into existence an Iliad, a Phidian Jupiter, a Venus di Medici, a Strasburg cathedral.

Nor can any idea or emotion which is living in man rest satisfied until it either finds itself reflected, or reflects itself, in some outward manner. Not being able to find this reflection, nor allowed to express itself externally, it soon dies. He who denies to himself all expression of falsehood soon loses the desire to deceive however strong it may have been. He who restrains impure ideas and feelings from all possible expression and act, soon finds them perishing out of his heart and mind. The love of God not being permitted to go out at all in acts of religious worship, the love of our neighbor imprisoned in the heart, if that could be, must soon perish.

Whatever there may be in man vv^hich craves no outv^ard expression, which moves not, is already dead. It is because the religious ideas of the deist are dead and powerless over his heart and life that they can be satisfied without any expression, any bodying-forth, in acts of religious worship. It is because the religion of Jesus Christ was not dead, but living, that he fasted and prayed in words and in appropriate bodily positions. When he prayed he stood up, or kneeled down, or fell on his face. When he gave thanks for the bread that he had received from his heavenly Father, he raised his eyes to heaven. When he communicated his Holy Spirit to his disciples he breathed on them ; as, when he created man, and imparted to him his soul, he is said to have breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Some external manifestation or expression or reflection of man's inward life, of the truth by which he lives, is absolutely necessary to nourish and support it. Without this he cannot live, much less be satisfied. He feels the dead and powerless nature of mere ideas and abstractions. These are to him but a " lumen siccum'' a dry light. He feels the want, for himself and others, of an expression to the senses, of a bodily form and reflection of the ideas and emotions by which he finds himself to be powerfully moved, and by which he desires to move others.

OF SYMBOLS. O

Neither is he satisfied with mere words. He must seek to express himself to the other senses as well as to the ear, that he may reach the whole man in others ; that what he knows and feels may have for himself and them a superior life and power.

This is a fact or trait of the constitution of man to be verified by observing its manifestations in all ages and countries, and by each man's experience. In it is to be found the true solution of the origin and use of symbolical representations. For a symbol is a bodying-forth or representation to the senses of ideas and emotions as these are found in the mysteries of life. Every act of man, therefore, as a significant expression of the ideas and feelings from which it springs, is a symbol. Every work of art, every rite and ceremony of religion, is a symbol. The applause of the hands is the symbol of approbation, the hiss, of disapprobation. The smile is a symbol of pleasure ; the frown, the falling of the countenance, of wrath and displeasure. Standing in prayer is the symbol of reverence ; kneeling, of reverence and humility. Sitting in prayer is the denial to these feelings of their appropriate outward expression, and tends most powerfully, though subtly, to destroy them.

Also, since the symbol has its origin in the going forth of that which is within to represent itself without, some feelings may be taken as the symbols of others which are more inward and spiritual than themselves. For example, the love of the dutiful child to his parents is taken in the Word of God as a symbol b OF SYMBOLS.

of the love which man should feel towards God his heavenly Father. The pleasures of the senses thus become symbols of spiritual joys, for which purpose they are used where it is said, God smelted a sweet savor from the sacrifice of Noah, and where David says, How sweet are thy words to my taste^ yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Thus, also, the conscious degradation and spiritual shame of remorse, which arose in man as soon as he had sinned, went forth and symbolized itself in the shame of his naked body.

The superior life and force which symbolical representations have for man over mere expressions in words, may be perceived by the following illustrations and examples.

The spirit and life of the ancient Romans was the genius of war and conquest.* When, therefore, they received the ambassadors of foreign nations, they sought for some means of expressing to them the ideas and feelings upon this subject, which were universal and prominent among these iron republicans. These were, that the Roman was invincible ; that but one result was ever anticipated at Rome of all wars in which the republic might become involved ; that in all conflicts which could arise between her and other nations, they must expect to be conquered. To express these more powerfully than it was possible to do in mere words, the Roman people gave audience to foreign ambassadors in the temple of Victory.

Also, when their armies had gained a battle, they sought for some means of expressing, for their own gratification, and to impress upon the conquered, so that it should enter into their very Hfe, the idea and conviction that other nations were to them but as brute beasts made to be subjugated. Again they found the means of doing this in the language of the symbol. They erected upon the field of victory an immense wooden frame, in the form of a yoke for beasts of burden, under which they marched the remains of the conquered army, and then dismissed them to their homes. What words, what bulletins of exultation, what other means of expression could have had the life and power of this terrible symbol ?

One more example will serve to illustrate the hfe and force of the symbols of modern times. The Russian coat-of-arms is a double-headed eagle, whose two crowned heads, surmounted by another great crown, turn and gaze in opposite directions. In his talons he holds the globe surmounted by the cross, and upon his breast is emblazoned an armed and mounted warrior.

This is the symbol of that colossal power of the North, the Russian Empire. Standing at the head of the two continents of the earth, the old and the new, she looks down over each with a crowned head, to signify that her destiny is to rule both. The two heads meeting in one body, the two crowns surmounted by the one great crown, together with the single sceptre, show that this two-fold empire is to be consolidated into one despotism. The globe in the talons of the eagle, surmounted by the cross, marks

© OP SYMBOLS*

its extent, and shows what its rehgion is to be ; that it is to embrace the whole world, over which is to be established the Christian faith. The armed and mounted warrior is her Cossack cavalry, the best and most numerous in the world, upon which she relies for the realization of these ideas and designs, which she has thus emblazoned before her whole population, that they may enter into its very life, and mould it into their likeness. This tremendous symbol, having grown up out of the character of the Slavonic race, which is now moving into ascendency among the nations, has been for a long time reflecting these ideas into the minds and hearts of the people, until, as travellers assure us, even the serfs understand that Russia is one day to be the mistress of the earth.

With perfect knowledge of this trait of the constitution of man, in virtue of which he finds mere ideas to be dead and powerless over his heart, and feels the want of sensible representations of his inward life to nourish and sustain it, our Lord symbolized the fundamental truths of th§ Gospel in the sacraments of the Christian Church. For the washing with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, sets forth the defilement and pollution of the soul of man by sin, and his cleansing by the power of God, into whose Triune name he is baptized. The sacrament of the Eucharist is the symbol of the truths, that, as the bread is broken, and the wine poured in the sight of the faithful for them, so is the body of Christ broken and his blood shed for them ;

as the bread is eaten and the wine drunk to nourish, and strengthen, and cheer the body, so is Christ crucified really and truly, though " not after a corporal and carnal manner," received into the souls of all who believe on him for the nourishment, strength, and consolation of their spiritual life ; and that, as they eat from the same platter, and drink from the same cup, which those only of the same family can do without disgust, so are they now but one family. These are some of the truths of the Gospel which have been symbolized in the sacraments by the Wisdom of God, that they might not perish out of the souls of believers, but h^ve in them a perennial life and power.

These views, in which this subject is but glanced at, may serve, perhaps, in some degree to illustrate the legitimate origin and use, and the superior life and power, of symbolical representations.

1*

10 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE

CHAPTER IL

OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE WORD OF GOD.

" Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."

The great body of believers in the Word of God have alw^ays regarded its historical portions as literal records of facts and events which occurred as they are narrated and described. Not unfrequently they are suspicious of every attempt to show a meaning in any part of its narratives, deeper than that which appears upon the surface. They are afraid lest they should find their Bible explained away into myths and allegories, such as the fables of the heathen. Therefore they constantly affirm the literal sense of what is recorded, and deny what they call a spiritual sense.

Another class of readers and students of the Word are always seeking to pierce through the literal sense after something more profound and spiritual. These are often unwilling to regard a given narrative as a record of facts and events. For them it must be left free to convey an allegorical sense which is often inconsistent vv^ith the literal one. In their eyes the Word seems degraded when its histories are literally understood. The account given of the fall of man, the book of the prophet Jonah, are some of those narratives which they would interpret as pure allegories. Origen among the Fathers, Swedenborg and even Coleridge among the moderns, are specimens of this class.

Here, as in so many other cases of conflicting views, it would seem that both parties are perfectly right in what they affirm, and both equally wrong in what they deny. For, according to St. Augustin, the narrative parts of the Word of God are both historical and symbolical. They are truly the records of facts and events which occurred as they are narrated and described. But these facts and events are not barren. They are pregnant with spiritual truth — truth alike for all times and place, universal for man. Of this truth the facts and events which are recorded are but as the husk or shell, the bodily form, the symbol.

Each of these views, exclusive of the other, is narrow, incomplete, and fraught with manifest evil consequences.

For he who denies to the historical portions of the Bible all deeper significancy than that which appears upon their surface, does, in fact, if he only knew it, deny that they are the Word of God in any higher sense than that in which every true history must be the word of Him who is Truth. He can have no conceivable reason why the facts and events of which they treat were selected to be recorded in preference to that innumerable multitude of others

12 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE

which must have been passed over in silence. For all the superior importance which they can have, must arise from their significancy of truth universally or generally applicable to man in other ages and countries, that is to say, from their symbolical character. He is in danger of losing that in them to impart which they were recorded, — their spirit, — which is their quickening power, and of falling into that state in which he must be killed by the letter. But more than all, he places himself in an attitude of direct opposition to the New Testament. For in it, as we shall directly see, a sense is continually drawn from the histories of the Old Testament very different from, though not inconsistent with, the literal sense, and which does by no means appear upon their surface.

Through the prevalence of this exclusive view in our time, it has come to pass that great numbers of Christians do practically regard the Old Testament as of little more worth and dignity and power than any other old and true history. For them, it is something almost entirely done away ; while to not a few it is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence.

On the other hand, he who, seeking after a spiritual sense in these narratives, denies to them their literal and historical character, who regards them as nothing but allegories and parables, and myths, not only renounces the views which are always given of them in the New Testament, but he throws away the only key by which it is possible to unlock the treasures which they contain. He turns away from the only door into the Holy of HoUes, and seeks to cHmb up some other way. If by chance, while he meditates upon them, he should light upon pure truth, he has nothing to assure himself or others that it is the truth which they were intended to teach. If he should discover order it may be but the order of his own mind. If he should perceive beauty it may be but the beauty of his own soul coloring with its own hues the objects upon which it looks. He casts himself loose upon a wide and dangerous sea without chart, or compass, or rudder. He is liable to be continually driven and tossed upon an infinite chaos of his own imaginations, over which the Spirit of God has never brooded.

Now, that the histories of the Old Testament do record facts and events which occurred as they are narrated and described, and that these facts and events are to be taken as types or symbols of spiritual truth, is evident from the most positive testimony of Christ and his Apostles.

In respect to the ritual law there is no dispute among Christians. That it was given to set forth in symbol the fundamental truths of the Gospel is acknowledged by all. In the New Testament it is continually appealed to as an authoritative teacher of truths afterwards to be declared in words. Of this one example will be sufficient. It is declared that the bones of the Lord were not broken upon the cross, as were those of his fellow-sufferers, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, that not a

14 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE

hone of him should he hroken. But it is nowhere said that not a bone of Christ should be broken. This was commanded in respect to the Paschal Lamb. Here it is evident that what was spoken of this sacrifice is assumed as declared in type or symbol of Jesus of Nazareth.

But in their expositions of the symbols of the Old Testament, Jesus and his Apostles do by no means confine themselves to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual law. They take up the historical events, even those which occurred before that law was given, and expound them after the same manner, appealing to them as authority for the truths which they drew from them regarded as symbols. The land of Canaan, and the city of Jerusalem, are always taken by them as the symbols of the kingdom of God ; and the taking possession of these by the Israelites under Joshua, after the death of the law-giver, as the type of the believers' entering into the rest of holiness under Jesus, the captain of their salvation, after they have been delivered from the condemning power of the law. The manna in the wilderness is taken by Jesus as the symbol of the truth that the bread of life is nothing of earthly growth, the work of man's agency, where he declares, / am that hread which came down from heaven ; that is to say, I am that which is signified or symbolized by that bread with which your fathers were nourished. He refers also to the elevation of the brazen serpent for the healing of the children of Israel who had been bitten by the fiery flying serpents in the wilderness, as a symbol of the truth that by his elevation upon the cross should all believers be healed of the poison produced by the bite of that old serpent, that is the devil. That it was originally intended for this purpose is admitted by all. Yet this is a purely historical event, and no way connected with the ritual law.

Also, when the infant Redeemer under the guidance of Joseph was led out of Egypt, it is said, that was fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord, Out of Egypt have I called my Son. But this was spoken in the prophet of the children of Israel who were brought up out of Egypt under the guidance of Moses. The words are. When Israel was a child then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. It is evident that this exodus of Christ could fulfil that which was spoken of the exodus of Israel only in virtue of the prediction in type of the one in the other. He dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, He shall be called a Nazarene. But this was spoken of Samson. That which happened to Christ could not fulfil what was said of this Judge and deliverer of his people except the one were intended to be prefigured by the other. It is also declared that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. But it is not predicted in the Old Testament in words that the Messiah should rise from the dead on the third day. He himself refers to the history of the prophet Jonah, who was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale,

16 OP THE SYMBOLS OF THE

as the symbol under which it had been foretold that he should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Still more clear does the symbolical character of the histories of the Old Testament become from St. Paul's treatment of the account of the mocking of Isaac by Ishmael. He certainly does not mean to deny that this is the literal history of an event which occurred as it is narrated. Yet he expressly declares that it is also an allegory or symbol, under which is set forth the external and visible church, when, having lost her spiritual life, she persecutes the children of the promise. It represents in symbol what always takes place in like circumstances, a truth exemplified in the times of Abraham, David, Jeremiah, Christ, Paul, Luther, and to the present day. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews undertaking professedly to expound the symbols of the Old Testament, takes up its historical portions precisely as he does the ritual law, and explains them in the same manner. Among these he enters into the History of Melchisedec as a symbol of the spiritual priesthood of Christ declaring that he was made like unto the Son of God in that he was without priestly generation, yet superior to the priesthood of Levi ; and in that he was king of a city whose name was Righteousness and Peace, as if this had been ordained of God that he might serve this symbolical or typical purpose.