NEW COVENANT A NEW COMMUNICATION.

261

adapted to their external capacities for appreciation. Thus, at the time of Noah, the mental constitutions of the people were different from what they had been in preceding ages. The people in the better times of those ages, enjoyed perception; that is, an internal impression and discernment concerning holy and heavenly things: they felt, from an internal dictate, what was right and excellent; and this, to them, was instead of a documentary revelation. But in the days of Noah, this state perished, and then that new method of communication with man, of which we have spoken, was begun. Hereby, the knowledges of religion have been preserved, and hereby man has had his acquaintance with them maintained, and herein all may see the mercy of the Lord, a mercy manifested in the provisions of that new covenant, that new characteristic of revelation, and consequent church, by which so important a result has been accomplished. Unless there be a communication kept up between the Lord and man, man must perish. It may vary in its form: it may be by an internal dictate and impression, as was the case with Adam, and his immediate posterity; or, it may be by documentary declarations, as it has been in subsequent ages. But its existence, in some form, is indispensable to the perpetuation of man. And it was, because this communication had ceased with the principal part of the people of the later antediluvian periods, that they perished in the catastrophe called the flood. And here we close this chapter. We have endeavored to rescue the points which have been handled, from the marvellous and incomprehensible character which they present in their merely literal structure: and we have shown, that in their esoteric sense, they come home to a reasonable view of human nature, and God's dealings with men, and so commend themselves to our faith in them, as portions of God's Holy Word.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ARK-NOAH AND HIS FAMILY ENTERING INTO IT-THE BEASTS PRESERVED THEREIN.

"Those who have written professedly and largely on the subject, have been at great pains to provide for all the existing species of animals in the ark of Noah, showing how they might be distributed, fed, and otherwise provided for. But they are very far from having cleared it of all its difficulties; which are much greater than they, in their general ignorance of natural history, were aware of."-KITTO's Cyclopædia of Bib. Lit. Art. Ark, Noah.

To provide for the continuation of mankind, by saving some

from the flood, that was about to overwhelm the general population of the antediluvian world, Noah was directed to make an ark of certain dimensions, having three stories, with one door in the side, and one window above, to the whole; and having finished what was thus commanded him, "the Lord said unto him, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female: of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made, will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” (Gen. vii. 1–4.) The subjects announced, in the literal sense of this history, have always been considered exceedingly difficult to comprehend. To science they appear inexplicable; to religion they seem miraculous. For ages they have been placed in the niches of a misty faith; and the effort to understand them, has, not unfrequently, been denounced as infidel and presumptuous. Ecclesiastical authorities of a bygone period, having committed themselves to a certain course of thinking upon these subjects, succeeded in fastening their notions of them upon the minds of the multitude; and their descendants, in later times, have found it more convenient to stigmatize the doubter of their views, with an odious name, than to remove his scruples, or satisfy his inquiries with information. The few who have thought upon the popular views of those matters, and ventured to question their accuracy, have been treated as unfriendly to revelation, by the many who have not thought at all upon the subjects. The populace are more led by passion than by reason, and they are too frequently influenced more by those who hold offices of authority, than by the dignity of their own thinking. If men would receive religious knowledge, and improve their own intellectual condition, they must reflect for themselves. It is that which they make their own, by an effort of their own mind, which remains and endures with them. They take nothing with them into the other life, which has not been incorporated into their affections and thoughts during their abode below. The profession to believe the dogmata of faith, upon the authority of others, is not a belief in the thing proposed, but in the persons proposing; and such a belief is rather a reliance upon man, than a faith in God. It is of importance that this circumstance should be reflected on: those who desire wisdom,

THE WORD OF GOD A WORK OF GOD.

263

will do so; those who prefer to remain without it, will culpably neglect this duty. But wisdom is not to be moved from her pedestal, by the clamor of ignorance. She looks complacently upon the crowd who receive a certain opinion, for no other reason than because authority has propounded it, or, that their fathers believed

it;

and she is ever ready to afford assistance to all, who wish to form their faith upon a holier and a sounder basis. There is a great distinction between believing the Scriptures, and believing what men have said are contained in them. It is well known, that some authorities have declared the Word to contain a variety of dogmata for the faith of men, which other tribunals, of equal character and intellect, have not been able to discover. But it does not follow, because one man cannot find another man's conceit in the Bible, that therefore, he does not believe in it. This, however, is what prejudice and clamor would lead the multitude to think. The Bible may be fully believed to be the Word of God, although certain views which men have taken of its statements, may be intelligently and conscientiously rejected. The Bible, and men's interpretations of it, are, very frequently, two different things. In many points, they have been so for several ages. Conjectures and ingenious speculations, are among the chief sources through which the difficult narratives of revelation are commonly explained. This is the origin of those various opinions concerning them, which the differing sections of Christianity prove to exist. For a long period, men have not suspected that the Scriptures are written according to a fixed law. It seems to have been overlooked, that the Word of God was a work of God, and that therefore, like all other of his works, it must have been constructed on some fixed principles. This, however, is the case; and it must be so, if it be the Word of God: and it can no more be accurately interpreted, without a knowledge of the laws and principles of its composition, than the works of God in the stellar universe, can be explained, without an acquaintance with the laws and mathematics of gravitation.

The nature, objects, and phenomena mentioned in the Scriptures, are the appropriate symbols of spiritual thoughts and affections pertaining to man; and it is those spiritual things, which these natural descriptions are intended to reveal. The world of matter is an emblem of the world of mind, and God has chosen the former, as the means for disclosing the facts and circumstances relating to the latter. Some portion of the letter of the Scrip

tures consists of national history, as is the case with what is said of the Jewish nation; but there are cases of emblematical history merely, the chief of which is that portion of the Word, which precedes the time of Eber, mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. We discriminate between the actual and the emblematical history, but regard both to be of like weight and authority, as to their divine origination and spiritual purpose. The narrative of the flood, and all the particulars that are grouped therewith, we look upon as factitious history only, embodying, indeed, a revelation from God, and intended to make known certain moral and spiritual events, connected with the corruption of an ancient people. We receive the narrative as one which has been produced under the divine superintendence and direction. We cherish it as a portion of God's revelation to man. But we do not believe that literal interpretation, which has long prevailed concerning it. We do not mistake the figurative terms for the real meaning, which is the common and popular course. We discriminate between the figure and the thing which is signified. It is admitted, by all candid minds, that the subject of the ark, with its remarkable contents, presents very embarrassing ideas to a rational understanding. Much labor, and some ingenuity, have been employed in the attempt to explain the arrangements of the ark, so as to adapt it for the reception of seven pairs of clean animals, and two of the unclean, of all the earth, besides the room necessary for eight human beings, and stowage for food requisite for upwards of twelve months' sustenance.* The success has not been equal to the exertions. Nor has it ever been shown, how eight persons could keep in order, feed, and water such an immense number of inmates. Moreover, if the ark had been a natural ship, the closing of the window and the door (there was but one of each) for so many months, must have effectually prevented the admission of air, which is now known to be so essentially necessary for the preservation of health and life; and the respiration of the multitude of inmates must have completely vitiated that which was within. How then did they survive? Upwards of a hundred men have been known to perish in a few hours, in consequence of being confined in a small building, to which a sufficient quantity of air could not gain access. And it *Bishop Wilkins. Essay towards a Philosophical Character and Language.

+ When Calcutta was attacked by Suraja ud Dowlah, the viceroy of

THE ARK AS A SHIP, AND SANITARY SCIENCE. 265

was only the other day, that a similar calamity occurred to a number of passengers in a ship, from the like cause. How was it, then, that Noah, his family, and the numerous beasts, were enabled to live under such unfavorable circumstances? We do not read of any provision having been made for ventilation; which must have been absolutely necessary to preserve the lives of those within. Thus, sanitary science suggests new difficulties in the inquiry.

But the dimensions of the ark do not afford sufficient room for the accommodation of all the animals of the earth. Those who have supposed there was space enough, have considerably underrated the number of the species to be provided for: * they have, also, overlooked many other circumstances, which a true solution of the problem requires to be carefully remembered. Three or four hundred species is the most that have ever been calculated for; whereas, of mammalia alone, there are more than a thousand species; of birds, fully five thousand, besides reptiles, of which there are upwards of two thousand species, that cannot live in water, and at least a hundred thousand insects, besides millions of animalcula. The size of the ark was evidently inadequate to stable them; nor is it easy to see, how eight persons could have attended to them. The difficulties attending the collection of the mammalia and birds alone, from the various regions of the earth, and introducing them into the ark, with their necessary provision, are quite sufficient to suggest that there is some very considerable error in the current belief upon this subject. The best writers have been led to abandon the idea, that species of animals of all the earth were collected in the ark, and to suppose that they were

Bengal, in 1756, the English factory, which had been removed from Hoogly, and established there, was deserted by the governor, the commandant, and many other European functionaries and residents. On the capture of the place, the English who had remained to defend the factory, were thrust into a small unwholesome dungeon, called the Black Hole, and of 146 individuals who were thus shut up at night, only 23 were found alive in the morning. The cause of this frightful circumstance, was the presence of carbonic acid gas, produced by respiration, and other means, for which there was no escape, nor any sufficient aperture for the admission of fresh air.

* Le Pelletier, a merchant of Rouen, proposed, towards the close of the last century, a plan for building a vessel in which all kinds of animals might be included and maintained for a year.