only such as inhabited the regions where man was located.* These, indeed, are concessions to science and enlightened inquiry; and further investigation will show it to be requisite, to take an entirely different view of the whole subject.

Those who receive the literal sense merely, have an easy method for removing objections. They say that God, who can do every thing, could have had no difficulty in providing against those things which may seem obstacles to science, reason, or philosophy. They assert, that the whole affair must have been easy to Him, to whom all things are possible. Of course, this silences inquiry; and there is no arguing with those who will not reason. We do not address ourselves to such. They who admit those principles, deprive themselves of all ground for resisting the belief of any physical extravagance that may be propounded to them. They are neither favorable to sound piety or intelligence, and they close the mind against a candid investigation and fair comprehension, of what God has said in his Word. This is contrary to the benevolent design of Him who said, "Come, let us reason together." (Isaiah i. 18.)

To avoid those difficulties, and to obtain a clearer insight into the meaning of this remarkable history, we must remember a point which has been attempted to be set forth in a preceding chapter, namely, that with the Noetic people, the understanding was separated from the will, by which means they became admissive of external instruction concerning spiritual and religious things, and so found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and became the subjects of His covenant. The internal channels of immediate communication from the Lord, had been closed, by the corruption of the will. When this took place, the understanding was mercifully separated from the will, in order to provide a medium of access to the interiors of the mind, through instruction presented from without. This was a new condition in man's mental structure, which has ever since been faithfully preserved in him. Hence, a new form of divine communication was adopted, and spoken of as the covenant that was to be established with Noah and with his seed after him, and with every living creature that was with him. (Gen. ix. 9, 10.) Remembering this point, we shall at once be prepared to enter into the meaning of the command, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood:

* Dr. Pye Smith, Bishop Stillingfleet, Matt. Poole, Le Clerc, Rozenmüller, &c. &c.

WHY DID NOT OTHERS TAKE REFUGE IN THE ARK? 267

rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." (Gen. vi. 14.) We consider this direction to refer to the construction of a certain state of the human mind, and the orderly arrangement of its internal principles, through which a church might exist, and by which, preservation from evil, and the reception of good, was to be provided for; and not to the building of a wooden vessel. If this had been the case, the purpose of such an erection could not have been concealed. It was an extraordinary undertaking, requiring for its execution a large number of hands, and no inconsiderable pecuniary resources, to procure the materials, and reward the labor; it therefore, must have excited curiosity and inquiry. Noah did not receive any instruction to conceal the knowledge of the predicted flood from the people, nor the means which he had been commanded to adopt for his own safety; and therefore, it is reasonable to suppose, that the purpose of the erection must have obtained extensive publicity. How is it, then, that we do not find the slightest intimation of other parties endeavoring to save themselves from the impending catastrophe, by building vessels for the purpose? It may be replied; although they might have been made acquainted with the prediction of the approaching flood, that their evil lives prevented them from having any faith in its realization; and the Lord's observation, "They knew not until the flood came and took them all away," may be adduced as the evidence of such unbelief; and this, it may be argued, was the reason why they did not make any provision for their safety. Be it so; and one objection is removed. The love of life, however, is very ardent, even among the most abandoned, and if it were known to them (and this can hardly be doubted) that a vessel had been built to save a certain family from an approaching flood, it is reasonable to suppose, that, upon the rising of the waters, they would have become alarmed, and instantly have betaken themselves to the ark for safety. Under such circumstances, they would not have been deterred by any delicacy about entering another man's property; and if room were wanted for their accommodation, it is not likely that they would have hesitated to make it, by removing some of the animals and their provender. Human life is more precious than the beasts, and its preservation would be chiefly aimed at: nor would the owner of such a vessel have thrust them away in such an effort, if he had been a good man. This we say is a highly reasonable view of the case, supposing the ark to have been a natural vessel. The

dismay which must have overtaken the inhabitants, it is not easy to imagine: the horror which must have distressed the living, and the agonizing shrieks that would have proceeded from the dying, must have been exquisitely frightful: and surely, such circumstances must have constituted the very terror of the story, if it had been a physical occurrence: and yet there is not the slightest intimation concerning them. It is not easy to conceive a reason for omitting such descriptions, nor do we think they would have been left out, if the event had been such as it is currently supposed.

Doubtless the Lord said, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt. xxiv. 37-39.) But the "ark" and "flood," mentioned in this passage, are no proofs that they were natural things. To regard them as representing certain spiritual things pertaining to the mind, answers all the purposes of the argument they are introduced in the gospel to sustain. To say that they were spiritual things, is not to say that they were less real. The mere circumstance of mentioning “Noe," the "flood," and "the ark," offers no explanation of the subject, and therefore, the ideas and facts which they were employed to express in the original narrative, are precisely those to which the Lord referred. The plain scope of the passage is, to show that the state of mankind, at the coming of the Son of Man, would be similar to that which preceded the entrance of Noe into the ark, the comparison instituted is between the two states of mankind; and the revelation made is, that the spiritual life of religion always perishes by similar means; namely, by yielding to the love of self and the world, and neglecting God and heaven. The means by which this life perishes with some, and is preserved with others, are spoken of in the Scriptures, under a variety of figures. Thus, the means which destroyed the spiritual life of religion with the antediluvians, is described to have been a flood; the means by which it was to be preserved with Noah, is represented by his entering into an ark. That by which it was extinguished with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, was "brimstone and fire," but that by which Lot and his family were saved from the conflagration, was the instruction and guidance of two angels. (Gen.

HOW SPIRITUAL LIFE PERishes.

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xix. 16-23.) So the means by which it will perish with some, under the Christian dispensation, are described as the darkening of the sun and moon, and falling of the stars; whereas, its preservation with others, is to be accomplished by their seeing the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. There is, then, nothing in the above passage inimical to the view we are taking of the general subject.

If the ark, and the particulars which are related of it, had no other signification than what the letter presents, there would be nothing at all religious or spiritual in the account of them; and consequently, they would be of no more value to mankind than a similar history composed by profane writers, in which case it would be a kind of dead letter. But these are ideas which cannot attach to any portion of the Lord's Word; and therefore, the ark, with its construction and arrangements, must refer to something that is spiritual and living - something pertaining to the mind and soul of man, rather than to his body and the world.

The literal sense of the narrative is not sufficiently clear, to have led the "orthodox" to any settled opinion concerning the form and materials of the ark. The word here employed for the ark is not aron, which is used to express the ark of the covenant, but tebath; and it is used only of the Noetic vessel, and that in which Moses was preserved. (Exod. ii. 3, 5.) Hence Dr. Geddes, (see his Critical Remarks, pp. 67, 68;) and others, have supposed, that it was a large coffer formed of twigs, like basket work! and covered over with bitumen, both within and without, to keep out the water. The Greek speaks of its material as ex Eulov tetgαyarov (ek xulon tetragonon,) of square boards; Jerome, in the Vulgate, calls it "planed wood," and "pitched wood;" and several other commentators have imagined that it was built of several sorts of wood, although only one is expressly named. Thus, even those who abide in the letter, do not seem to know what the letter A popular opinion respecting its form, as presented in "orthodox" pictures, is, that it was a kind of house erected in a boat; for which idea, however, there is no foundation in the narrative. There is nothing about the description, to suggest that it was a regularly built vessel, and all that is fairly to be inferred from the evidence of the letter is, that it was a building of a certain wood, in the form of a parallelogram. But what is the meaning of such descriptions?

means.

We conceive them to refer to the establishment of a new church,

for which the people under the name of Noah, were instructed to prepare. The Adamic church, as a celestial dispensation, was about to perish, and now the Noetic church, as a spiritual dispensation, was to be developed. This new church, of course, implied a new state of mind on the part of those who were the recipients of its principles. Every one sees, that the church is as an ark, in which men are to be saved from spiritual perils; and also, that the church, which so saves, is a state of the affections and thoughts implanted in the mind. The state of the church, and the state of the mind, run parallel to each other. As the mind sinks down, by corrupting loves, the church declines: as the mind improves, by heavenly delights, the church advances: so that, whether we speak of a new church, or of a new state of mind, as being represented by the ark, it amounts to the same thing: for man is a church, in consequence of his mind being imbued with its principles.

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The mind, considered as a faculty, consists of will and understanding of will, to love what is good; of understanding, to comprehend what is true. These have been the characteristics of mind in all ages posterior to the time of Noah; but it was with that people with whom these two principles first came into distinct activity; and the command given them to make the ark, under the perilous circumstances which surrounded them, has some practical bearing upon a like duty, in all subsequent times. The mind of man is a spiritual vessel, created with capacities for the reception and preservation of the spiritual and celestial things of religious life. This capability of the mind, under this new condition of its existence, was now to be tested and developed: but this was no ordinary work. The formation of the mind, considered as a faculty, with the use for which it is designed, is the act by which it becomes a mind properly: and the building up of this ark, so as to render it a safe vessel in times of storm and peril, requires much care, instruction, and time. This is implied in the directions which were given to Noah, and in the period which elapsed before they were completed.

But this ark was to be of certain dimensions, and to be made of gopher wood, pitched within and without. These particulars are stated, to represent the several means which were to be adopted, in order to render the mind a safe and effectual medium, for the right development of that new covenant, which was then about to be established.