"As the formation of their character. Hence, the apostle says, many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' (Rom. viii. 14.) The spirit of God is the influence of divine truth proceeding from Him. The sons of God, then, in the remarkable passage we are considering, is a phrase intended to express those doctrinal truths which yet remained among the people. They had been handed down to them from a remote and superior ancestry, nor had they yet been dissipated by the corruptions of the people: that was an enormity they were now about to perpetrate. They are said to have seen the daughters of men that they were fair; to inform us, that they were about to be made to favor and subserve the lusts of evil: and the consummation of this iniquity is thus described, "They took to them wives of all which they chose." This is a peculiar circumstance, which takes place in the human mind as the things of the church are departing out of it; and therefore, it may be useful to elucidate it by an additional remark. When a man turns himself away from good, and goes in an opposite direction, a change takes place both as to the objects of his love and the subjects of his thinking. That, also, which he loves pre-eminently, he thinks continually, and so all the knowledges of his mind are brought into requisition, to serve and favor the objects of his love. If there is any powerful truth which cannot be easily made to bend in such a direction, it is rejected and ultimately forgotten, but all other truths are induced to favor the lusts which are desired, and so, to look upon them as "fair." By this means, men confirm themselves in their impurities, and they are not unfrequently led by it into the delusion of believing their evil to be good. This state is spoken of in the Scriptures as putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter; (Isaiah v. 20;) and it may readily be conceived, by any one who will attentively observe what passes in himself and others. Every one who loves an evil, will endeavor to invent arguments to persuade himself that it is allowable, as well as agreeable. Men are exceedingly expert in reasoning favorably for the things they love. The materials for such reasonings they will draw from any and every source at their command: nor will the Word of the Lord itself be left untouched in such a course. Approximations to this are occasionally observable in quoting the Scriptures upon light and frivolous occasions: and particularly, when its passages are cited as the authority or excuse for any questionable conduct. As for instance, when the wars to THE MEANING ILLUSTRATED. 247 which the Israelites were directed, are referred to as a sanction for the prosecution of wars in general: or, when the conduct of David is cited to justify the indulgence of some criminal propensity. But whensoever any of the statements of divine truth are employed to favor and forward the pursuits of a selfish love, then the sons of God are in the act of seeing the daughters of men to be fair-the divine truths are about to subserve the purposes of human lusts. Those who are in evil, will excuse the outbreaks of their anger by adducing passages expressive of the divine wrath;* and they will defend the hatred of their enemies, by citing the laws of retaliation; in short, evil men, like devils, can quote Scripture for their purpose, pervert its design, and thus bring its truth into contact with impurity. All such cases may be taken as illustrations of those dark scenes of moral turpitude, which transpired in the latter days of the Antediluvian world, expressed in the remarkable, yet powerfully significant sentence, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair." Those abandoned people, having perverted the truth to subserve an evil purpose, must needs have profaned it; and thereby they deprived themselves, not only of every spiritual good, but even of those remains which might have conduced to its attainment. All such profanation of the Word closes the interiors of the mind against the influence of heavenly graces, and prepares it for the inundation and overflow of those infernal principles in which they perish. It was to describe that desperate condition, in which the mind would no longer be led by the spiritual things of heaven, that the Lord is stated to have said, " My spirit shall not always strive with "It is reported that the Pope, Julius the 3d, had been greatly enraged at the Bishop of Rimini, his major-domo, about a peacock; that His Holiness twice blasphemed, — and that when one of the Cardinals told him that he ought not to be so angry upon so small a matter, the Pope answered, "If God was so much disturbed, and filled with such anger and fury, and did such a quantity of evil to the whole human race about an apple; why may not I, who am his vicar upon earth, be angry with my major-domo about a peacock."- Examiner of May 18, 1817, as cited by the Rev. R. Hindmarsh. + I remember reading, some few years ago, in a police report, of a man, who had neglected, and ran away from his family, defending himself with the following passage of the Word: "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life."- Matt. xix. 29. man." The Spirit of the Lord, consists in those holy influences which proceed from him to operate on men the graces of salvation, through the teaching of His Word; and the strivings of this Spirit consisted in its efforts to rescue men from evil, and better their condition in respect to heavenly things. But when this effort ceased to be effective, in consequence of its being resisted on the part of man, then this Spirit is said to strive no longer; not that the mercy of the Lord was withdrawn, but that it had ceased to be perceived or acknowledged by mankind. Nevertheless, the design of perpetuating the human race was not to be abandoned, though new ground was to be provided for the reception of the means. It was pronounced, that there "should not be any more a flood to destroy the earth;" (Gen. ix. 11;) because means for its prevention had been adopted in the new arrangement of the human mind before referred to. The remains, which were to be inseminated into the intellectual faculty, and there preserved by the Lord, were no more to be destroyed, as they had been, by the last posterity of the most ancient people. CHAPTER XX. - THE GIANTS THAT WERE IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD, AND THE "It is not necessary to understand any particular race of men of higher stature than usual, as many ancient interpreters have done; for since nephil means, to fall or rush on any one, nephilim will mean those who rush or fall on others, i. e. robbers, banditti, the Centaurs of the Greeks were the same kind of people." - ROSENMULLER. It is a remarkable circumstance, that towards the closing of the antediluvian period, we should be informed that "there were giants in the earth in those days; and also, after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." (Gen. vi. 4.) The most accomplished scholars admit, that the original term here translated giants, does not necessarily mean men of extraordinary stature, and that it may be very fairly construed to signify persons with remarkable minds. Taking this view of the subject, we at once perceive a reason for the statement, which otherwise seems disconnected. It comports with the circumstance of their origin being traced to a connection of the sons of God with the daughters of men; and doubtless, it THE GIANTS IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 249 is designed to point out one of the mental phenomena developed by an expiring church, and it must be understood to indicate some enormity, which the idea of gigantic bodies does not furnish. There might have been individuals in those times, as there have been in all subsequent ages and nations, whose physical stature exceeded the average size of men. Several instances are mentioned in the really historical portions of the Scriptures. Og, the king of Bashan; * Goliah, of Gath; † Ishbi-benob, and Saph; (2 Sam. xxi. 16, 18;) may be cited, as examples; and even Saul, the king of Israel, "from his shoulders and upwards was higher than any of the people." (1 Sam. ix. 2.) Indeed, it appears that there were some families or tribes, who attained an uncommon height: the sons of Anak are so described, (Numb. xiii. 33,) so also, are "many" of those whom the Moabites called Emims, and the Ammonites, Zamzummims; (Deut. ii. 10, 11, 20;) the Rephaims, likewise, from the name, are considered such a race. Now, there cannot be any moral wrong, in the circumstance of the body being developed into extraordinary magnitude: it is a consequence of the action of some natural law, over which, men have but very little control. But it is remarkable, that in every case where such persons are treated of in the Scriptures, they are contemplated as being at enmity with God and religion! This circumstance forcibly suggests, that such cases are recorded, not so much to supply us with historic information, as to afford the means of a spiritual representation. We do not obtain much religious knowledge from being told that certain men, or classes of persons, attained to an unusual height. Such a fact may be interesting to science, but it conveys no information about the characteristic of the mind, heart, and religion; and these, after all, are the great topics upon which the Scriptures treat in every part; and the machinery of eloquence, poetry, history, and figure in a variety of forms, are employed to subserve this momentous purpose. * Deut. iii. 11. He is said to have been a remnant of Giants; most probably to intimate that he was the last of a family possessing unusual stature. His real height is not recorded; his bed (Michaelis, and Dathe, translate it his coffin,) is said to have been nine cubits long, which is fifteen feet four inches and a half. † 1 Sam. xvii. 4. He was six cubits and a span in height, that is, ten feet seven inches. The skeleton of O'Brien, preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, measures seven feet eleven inches in height. men. Although, then, there might have been exceedingly tall men in the antediluvian world, we conceive, that by the giants, of whom Moses speaks, as existing in the earth in those days, were represented some enormous condition of mind, rather than of body; and that it was produced, as intimated, by that profane commerce, which existed between the sons of God and the daughters of men. It is easy to see, that such a result must have taken place, when the doctrines of truth were prostituted so as to favor the lusts of Under such a circumstance, they forgot the greatness of God, and strove to increase the proportions of themselves. They grew big in their own eyes, and their phantasies caused them to suppose that they possessed a large mental stature. The mind has its dimensions as well as the body; and hence, we sometimes speak of great and little minds; of giant thoughts, and dwarfish notions. The term, giant, is derived from words which express the idea of earth-born; and those of whom Moses treats, in the case before us, were so, because they possessed an enlarged condition of selfish love, which is, "of the earth, earthy." By an imagination of their own height and pre-eminence, they set aside whatsoever was humble, contrite, and holy, and blew themselves into unseemly proportions. "Charity," says the apostle, "vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly;" (1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5;) but self-love, and its persuasions, which are the opposites to this heavenly grace, do all these things. The wicked, who have knowledge, make it bend to favor their criminal pursuits, and so their vices become gigantic. It is the obvious result of such a course. This idea is such as most persons can appreciate: for every one has met with men who were, more or less, great in their own estimation, who considered themselves somewhat above the ordinary dimensions of the mental standard. swell out their imaginary importance, and, in the only correctives, religious influences and truths, they are sure to become great in their own eyes. Now this condition, which has been more or less realized in every age of the world, was, at the period of which we are treating, developed in great enormity; hence it became one of the effective causes which hastened on the inundation of the world. Such phantasies absence of the This posterity of the dying church were called, in Hebrew, Nephilim, which Aquila translates, EnlлinτOVTES (Epipiptontes) men who attack; and Symmachus Biało (Biaioi) violent men, those whose rule of action is by force of arms; these interpreta |