Chapter II. The Creation of the Earth and Man

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. p. 38 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?”^a We may answer, “None, but God only;” He knoweth what is in man, and needs not that any should testify of Him.^b

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; and 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,”^c or Elohim. I say, he was made in the image of the angels, as the interpretation of the co-operative imperative, “Let us make man 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.”^d These are styled Elohim, or “gods,” in numerous passages. David says, “Worship him all ye gods;”^e which Paul applies to Jesus, saying,^f “Let all the angels of God worship him.”^g 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 (αιων μελλων the future age) and the resurrection from among the dead (εκ νεκρῶν) * * * who can die no more; for they are equal to the angels (ἰσάγγελοι); and are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection.”^h

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.”ⁱ In p. 39 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, 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 p. 40 law of sin and death,”^a 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”^b (εικων του Θεου); “the effulgent mirror of the glory, and exact likeness of his person,”^c (ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης, καὶ χαυακτὴρ της ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ). Hence, in another place, Paul says, he was “in the form of God”^d (εν μορφῇ Θεου) 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,^e 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.^f 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” (δι οὗ), “the ages were re-arranged (κατηρτιςθαι τους αιωνας) by the word of God, so that the things seen exist not from things apparent.”^g 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.”^h 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.”ⁱ

In Jesus, then, raised from the dead incorruptible, and clothed with brightness as when he was transfigured upon the Holy Mount,^j we behold the image and likeness of the invisible 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 p. 41 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.^a

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,”^b when he shall appear in power and great glory, “we shall be like him; because we shall see him as he is.”^c 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 p. 42 his spirit,” operating through Jesus upon their dust, and fashioning it into the image of the Lord from heaven.^a 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.^b Truly may he be called the “Wonderful.”^c 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 their’s. 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.”^d This is repeated by the Lord Jesus, who says, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”;^e which assurance Paul also revives in his letter to the saints at Philippi, saying, “Our commonwealth (ἡμῶν το πολιτευμα) has a beginning^f (ὑπάρχει) in the heavens, (εν οὐρανοις) 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 enables him even to subdue all things to himself.”^g

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.^h Hence, in speaking of Jesus, Paul says, “born of David’s seed according to the flesh; and constituted the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, through the resurrection from the dead.”ⁱ Thus, he was born of the spirit, and therefore p. 43 became “a spirit;” and, because highly exalted, and possessing a name which is above every name,^a 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 εις πνευμα into a spirit, and was therefore enabled 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.^b Thomas thrust his hand into his side, and was convinced that he was the same who had been crucified.^c 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, πνευμα, 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 φαντασμα, a phantom or mere optical illusion; and not πνευμα, spirit.^d When Jesus walked upon the sea both p. 44 Matthew^a and Mark^b 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,”^c or, Lord from heaven.

This corporeal change of those, who have first been morally “renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that hath created them”^d 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.”^e 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.”^f He must be “changed into spirit,” put on incorruptibility and immortality of body, or he will be physically incapable of retaining the p. 45 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 probably 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 mystery. We shall not all sleep (κοιμηθησομεθα met. to die, be dead), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it (the seventh trumpet)^a shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (ισαγγελοι equal to the angels),^b and we shall be changed (εις πνευμα, into spirit).^c For this corruptible (body) must put on incorruptibility (αφθαρσιαν), and this mortal (body) must put on immortality (αθανασιαν). Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”^d

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 at 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 (οι λοιποι 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 (ἆξει[?], lead out, or produce), with him.”^e He then proceeds to show the “order”^f in which the saints are changed into spirit, or immortalized, by the Son of Man.^g “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 together 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.”^h

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 p. 46 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 sin unto salvation.”^a 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 worlds; and with incorruptible and undying men: but it is as 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,”^b “which some professing have erred concerning the faith.”^c

p. 47 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 the social feelings enable him to develop; which, however, if unfurnished with a proper object, or wholesome excitation, react upon him unfavourably, and make him disagreeable. Well aware of this, Yahweh Elohim said, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help fit for him.”^a

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 handiworks. The Lord had created man in His own “image and glory”; but He had yet to subdivide 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;^b 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: p. 48 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 sympathises 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 p. 49 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.”^a

The testimony of Moses in regard 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 p. 50 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.”^a 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 forever. 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.”^b 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 rises from the dead, they will doubtless become 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 comandments 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.

p. 51A 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 unbelieving wives, however, were disobedient and perverse, and chose to depart, “let them; a brother is not under bondage in such cases.”^a 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.^b 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 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 not dismayed at any threat.”^c

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 he loved them even unto death; the relationship which was consequently established between them; and the sacrifice 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 (τῳ λουτρῳ του ὗδατος) by the word (ἐν ρηματι,) 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.”^d This word, which is p. 52 defined to be “the law and the testimony,”^a 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 develops 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;”^b and Peter, the incorruptible seed;^c and Paul, “the word of the truth of the gospel;”^d and John, “God’s seed;”^e and by James it is termed, “the word of truth,”^f 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 unto knowledge^g after the image of him that created him.” This renewing affects the spirit of the mind,^h 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.”ⁱ 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.”^j Now, the “testimony of God” came by the Holy Spirit, by which God testified in His prophets;^k and, in the last days, spoke through His Son^l and the apostles.^m 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 p. 53 “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.”^a 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, who is ignorant of the word, can be regenerated, or born again, by being plunged into a bath. 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 the 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;”^b and Paul prays, “That Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith.”^c Now, faith comes by hearing the word of God;^d in other words, it is the belief of God’s testimony concerning things to come, which are not seen;^e and without which, it is impossible to please Him.^f 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?^g 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.”^h

The truth to be believed is the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ.ⁱ 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.^j Being awakened 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 baptised into Christ have put on Christ” p. 54 (ενεδυσασθε) * * * “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.”^a 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 holy 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.”^b “I have espoused you to one husband,” says Paul, “that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”^c 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.”^d This is she of whom the psalmist 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 into the king’s palace.”^e 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 honour 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.

p. 55 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:”^a — 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.^b “This is a great mystery,” says Paul; “but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”^c This mystery, I have endeavoured 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,”^d 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 eastward of his position. Adam and Eve were its aborigines. It was “the East” of the Egyptians, as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are “the West” to 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.”^e These were four principal streams, whose names, 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,”^f frequently styled in the scriptures, “the Great River.”^g On the map before me, there are four rivers which flow together, and at length form a river which falls into the Persian Gulf. This indicates the country called Eden, namely, that which is watered by these rivers; so that we may reasonably conclude p. 56 that in early times it comprehended the land east of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria, part of Persia, Khushistan, and the original settlements of Ishmael.^a

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;”^b that is, in the East, or Eden.

There is a prophecy in Ezekiel, predicting the overthrow of the Egyptian Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, “the mighty one of the heathen.” In setting forth the certainty of his overthrow, God recapitulates 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.^c These trees^d are representative of the royalties of Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, &c., which the kings of Assyria had abolished;^e 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 wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast 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 p. 57 shalt thou be any more.”^a 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 slew between the temple and the altar.”^b

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 favoured 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.^c

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 p. 58 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 enclosure, 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 lay somewhere between the Gulf 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 enclosure.

In the septuagint of this text, the word garden is expressed by παραδεισος, 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;”^a and, “A garden enclosed (a paradise) is my sister spouse, &c.; thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, &c.”^b 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.^c 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 le 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.”^d

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 p. 59 melody.”^a “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier 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.”^b 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.”^c

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 present 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.”^d

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.”^e 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.”^f 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, and 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.^g 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,^h will I, the Lord, who am the life, give p. 60 glory, honour, and immortality, when I come to stand on the Mount of Olives,^a and to re-establish the kingdom and throne of David, as in the days of old.”^b 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.”^c 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, ἐν τῃ βασιλεία σου: but in others, it is various, though in sense the same—as, “Remember me when thou comest in the day of thy coming, ἐν τῃ ἡμέρᾳ της ἐλευσεως σου. 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 unskilful in the word of righteousness,”^d 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;^e 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.^f “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.”^g

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 to Israel?” “It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”^h This was his language to the apostles. The p. 61 kingdom could not be restored again to Israel under the Mosaic code. This had “decayed, and waxed old, and was ready to vanish away.”^a 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.^b To tell them of the times and the seasons of the kingdom, would have been to have informed them of this national catastrophe; 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;”^c and in this apocalypse, the times and 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 translations, 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,^d—thou shalt be with me in the Paradise, εν τῳ παραδεῖσῳ:” 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 a scripture term, and must be explained by the scripture use of it. In the sacred 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.”^e 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, “Labour, to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.”^f 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 the manifestation of the rest 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 p. 62 until the Lord Jesus enters into his rest^a which he cannot do until he has finished the work God has given him to do.^b “Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day,” or the “to-day,” “of salvation,”^c—a period of time from Joshua to the future glorious manifestation 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.

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,” 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 savours 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,^d if he were with the Father before; and, where did he leave the thief, for he was 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.