which he has discovered to be dangerous, - he is not to make a

ruin, and then to leave it. In the case before us, the materials remain; and he is required to erect with them another building, which shall be more sound and useful, in every particular. The distinguished men above alluded to have not neglected this duty; but they have not been successful in its performance. This is evident from the circumstance of their respective views not having satisfied each other or the public. The reason of this failure, it is believed, is traceable to a misunderstanding of the structure and purpose of those remarkable narratives; i. e., to the supposition that they treat of mundane things.

The following work is constructed on an entirely different principle. It has no pretensions to a complete exposition of the subjects. The writer is sensible of many of its deficiencies, both in that and in other respects. His aim has been to indicate a course of thinking, which, if pursued by abler minds, may lead to a more satisfactory treatment. A general outline of the meaning of those remarkable documents is all that he has intended to present; and this, of course, may be filled up with such light, shade, and coloring, as the intelligence and experience of the reader are capable of supplying.

He holds that the real divinity of those extraordinary portions of revelation can be most satisfactorily maintained, without making any concessions to opinions, which are offensive to judicious and rational thinking. The adoption of new sentiments concerning them need not decrease piety, or weaken faith; if they expel error and destroy superstition, their uses will be great. They who abandon a prejudice, which they had thought to be an opinion, when some new truth is demonstrated to them, come thereby into greater liberty and purer light.

The interpretation of the first seven chapters of Genesis, which is presented in this work, is founded on the following general principle; namely, that the letter of the Word of God contains within it a spiritual sense, which is as its life and soul. This principle, it is believed, will commend itself to the soundest judgment and best feelings of religious and thinking men. Evidences of the existence of this principle can be produced from every page of the sacred volume; and it is rationally confirmed by the circumstance, that, as a work of God, it must, to be in analogy with all other of His works, contain, within it, something more, and something different from that, which appears upon the surface.

It is plain that there must be a connection between the natural and the spiritual worlds, and that all things in the former derive their existence, more or less remotely, from some condition and activity in the latter. Now, as God's primary object in making a revelation to man is to furnish him with the means of knowing something concerning spiritual things, it is conceived, that he has caused to be employed, in the writing of His Word, the visible objects of nature, to express the spiritual things to which they have some relation. Thus, that the earth in general, as the dwelling-place for man's body, is the appropriate symbol of that state in general, which is the residence of his soul; and that all the various productions of the earth, which the Scriptures mention, whether of the animal, the vegetable, or the mineral kingdoms, are the types of some corresponding principle of affection and thought belonging to such state, and, consequently, that they are significant of them.

Besides this law of correspondences, according to which it is believed the Scriptures are written, and from which their character, as a revelation, and their quality, as to inspiration, derive the most ample and satisfactory evidence, there are also employed, in their structure and composition, representatives, which also signify. Among these representative objects, persons are very conspicuous; such, for example, as the sons of Jacob, the Priests, the Kings of Israel and Judah, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Prophets, and others. All these are considered to be mentioned in the Scriptures, and to have their histories therein related, because they were designed to represent something pertaining to the Lord's church and kingdom. This idea is, in some measure, acknowledged in the circumstance of many of these persons being commonly spoken of as types. Every one, for instance, is aware that Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, in consequence of certain remarkable incidents in his life, was representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, during His manifestation in the world. The law under which those representatives were selected, did not at all regard the quality of the person representing, but solely the thing to be represented by him; all the objects, therefore, which corresponded to divine and spiritual things, are also representatives of them, and what is represented is likewise signified.

The distinction between correspondences and representatives is, that correspondence consists in the mutual relation, which prevails between an efficient cause and its orderly effect. Thus, whatso

ever exists and subsists in the natural world from the spiritual, is called correspondence. But representatives are all those external things which exist in the natural mind, and which are the suitable appearances of all such internal subjects as are presented to the spiritual mind. For instance, when the viscera and structure of the face are permitted to act in unity with the affection and sentiments which exist in the mind, there is a correspondence; but the aspect of the face, under such circumstances, is the representation. The kings, priests, and prophets, are said to represent divine and holy things, because, in their governmental, priestly, and prophetic characters, they were, to the natural minds of the Israelites, what they conceived of such things.

Such are the principles, which are believed to have presided over the construction of the literal sense of God's most holy Word, and of which illustrative examples are presented in the following work. If the things mentioned in the Scriptures were not representative, and thence, significative, of holy and spiritual subjects, it would not be easy to see how a rational idea of their divine character can be formed; but with such a view of them, man may have some perception of their great sanctity and spiritual uses. Indeed, it seems difficult to see how divine ideas could have been enunciated in any other way than by means of those human ideas, worldly objects, and expressions, which are in correspondence with, or the representatives of, spiritual and heavenly things.

But, while this is regarded as a feature peculiar to God's Revelation, and, in our opinion, necessary to the ideas of its divine origin and inspiration, it is to be observed that it is a principle which will admit of a diversity of literal structure; and consequently, that such a structure has always been employed as was in agreement with the characteristics of the people, to whom it was originally vouchsafed. Hence has arisen that variety of style according to which different portions of the Sacred Scriptures are written. This circumstance is more or less conspicuous, in all the different books of the Word. There are, however, four great distinctions of style by which the Scriptures now in our possession are distinguished. These are,

FIRST, that which is intended to express spiritual and celestial things only, through the instrumentality of an appropriate selection and arrangement of terrestrial and worldly objects. This we regard as the primitive divine style, and consider it to have taken

its rise with the perceptions of the aborigines of our race, during the periods of their religious integrity. To them, at that time, it is believed that the objects of the visible world were as an open book, in which they could perceive divine and holy things represented, and who, therefore, when treating of spiritual things, would arrange their thoughts concerning them into a kind of historical series, in order to render them forcible and vivid. This, doubtless, is the style of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, or rather up to the fourteenth verse of the eleventh chapter; and it is in consequence of men, in later ages, not having attended to this most remarkable genius of the most ancient people, that those early portions of the book of Genesis, have been considered so exceedingly difficult to understand.

THE SECOND STYLE is historical, and treats, in the letter, of such facts and occurrences, as, from the time of Abram, are recorded in those books commonly called historical. Nevertheless, this style, like the former, is replete with an internal or spiritual sense. Historical circumstances began to be employed for the purpose of representing spiritual things, when mankind, and especially the descendants of Abram, to whom those documents, with the exception of the book of Job, were originally vouchsafed, had sunk into a merely sensual and selfish state. Job is evidently a more ancient book, produced, in all probability, upon the plan of the factitious history of the first style of revelation, though it does not appear to be so complete and regular in its structure.

THE THIRD STYLE is the prophetical. This, also, appears to have derived its condition from the factitious histories of the primitive people: not that it puts on a historical aspect, or that it is, like them, connected in a historical series; for it is well known to be much broken and interrupted, and likewise to contain many statements in the literal sense which are scarcely intelligible; still, in their internal sense throughout, there are expressed, in an orderly series, sentiments of a purely spiritual character.

THE FOURTH STYLE is the Psalms. These, as may be easily seen, partake of an intermediate form between the prophetical and that of ordinary speech, and they treat of the internal states and religious experience of all those who are within the pale of the Lord's church.

That these are just views of the style of the Psalms, with the prophetic and historical portions of the Holy Word, we think can

hardly be disputed; and although what is stated to be the style of those parts of it which precede the time of Abram is equally true, yet, because that may not be so readily perceived, it was deemed requisite to dwell a little on that point, in the introductory chapter of the following work. To what is there stated, we are desirous to add one or two other considerations.

It seems evident that the Lord, in causing a revelation to be made to man, of spiritual and heavenly wisdom, has had respect to the genius and disposition of the people, to whom it was vouchsafed. We gather this view from the facts which are apparent in what are emphatically called the Jewish Scriptures. From them it is plain that the letter of the revelation relating to that people, and of which they were made the depositories, was constructed, as we find it to be, in consequence of their remarkable condition. They were a most external and sensual people; and therefore, the revelation, which, in its external form, is peculiarly theirs, partook of that historical and worldly character by which we see it is distinguished. This was all that they appreciated. Of spiritual things they had but little conception, and scarcely any

care.

Now, if it be true that the literal structure of revelation has always been in conformity with the genius of the people, to whom it has been made, if it be true that the most external style of revelation to be found in the Bible was adopted in consequence of the sensual condition of the Jewish people, to whom it was first committed, then it will follow that the revelation granted to a superior people could not have been of so external a character. If the genius of the people, among whom the early portions of the book of Genesis were produced was eminently spiritual, and if the narratives are constructed in conformity with such character, then it is plain that the literal sense of that revelation ought to be differently understood from that which has been vouchsafed to the descendants of Abram. It seems contrary to all just criticism, to suppose that the literal form of the revelation which was granted to a people who were acquainted with spiritual things, is the same as that which was given to a community who were utterly ignorant of them. We therefore hold, that their external structure must be differently understood, nor can we perceive the reasonableness of any contrary conclusion.

It is admitted, that the first eleven chapters were produced among a people, who flourished long anterior to the time of Abram; and