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perception; what has subsequently been written has been from external observation. The one relates to internal things figuratively expressed, the other to external things literally described. By overlooking this distinction, and judging of the documents of the former, by a standard proper to be applied only to the writings of the latter, a meaning has been claimed for them, which they never could have been intended to express. We are aware, that the long standing of such a meaning may raise a difficulty in the way of its being relinquished. The mind, when once familiarized with an inconsistent notion, does not readily fasten upon its perplexities. It is like a vicious habit, the disorder of which is hid from the perpetrator by long continuance. But the question is not, whether the literal interpretation of the narratives is of long standing, but whether it is true: if it is not true, its antiquity can have no claims upon our respect, and the sooner it is abandoned, the better will it be for the interest of an enlightened and spiritual religion. The narrative is commonly spoken of as an artless statement: this we believe to be a mistaken idea. As a divine composition, it must be looked upon as a work of God; it cannot, therefore, be an artless production: it must be the result of the most consummate skill, and so correspond with every other work that is divine.

CHAPTER X.

THE SERPENT AND ITS DECEPTION.

"Inquire no longer, man! who is the author of evil; behold him in yourself. Take away every thing that is the work of man; and all the rest is good."-ROUSSEAU.

THE subjects treated of, under the representation of a serpent and its deception, are of deep and melancholy interest to humanity. Great difficulties have always been experienced in the way of a satisfactory understanding of them. The letter has been contemplated, and the spirit overlooked. We shall endeavor to avoid that course, and present the truth which lies beyond it. The meaning is not that which at first appears. We cannot believe in the existence of a talking serpent; we do not think that God ever endowed a reptile with the capability of reasoning; nor can we conceive that mankind were seduced from their propriety by the utterances of a snake. At these views, prejudices may be shocked; we cannot help it; reason will rejoice; error may be alarmed, but truth will be strengthened and advanced. Truth will find her responses in the inner sensations of humanity, if they

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are fairly permitted to unfold themselves. We appeal, with our interpretation of the Word, to the consciousness and intuition of rational nature, as to the very counterpart of revealed and spiritual wisdom. There is such a phenomenon as feeling a thing to be true, even though there may be difficulties in the way of its clear utterance and demonstration. This we call perception, a faculty superior to reason, for it is the response of nature and not the cogitations of art; and there is a harmony existing between those responses in man, and a right exposition of God's Word. requires care and erudition to comprehend and grasp an argument intended to elaborate a truth, for those who are not disposed for its acceptance; but the honest and good heart, which loves truth for its own sake, will perceive it more clearly in the proposition than the argument. If men would only give their hearts and consciences fair play, they would soon be delivered from many of those fetters which have so long bound them to a misunderstanding, both of revelation and themselves. Let us then, attend to those approving impulses which arise, and strive to retain the impressions which they make upon our minds, as we proceed in the examination of the subjects before us.

In preceding chapters, we have traced the progressive development of human excellence, and ultimately found mankind raised to the very pinnacle of religious greatness. It was from thence they fell. The manner of this calamity, together with its immediate consequences, are thus detailed. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave.also to her husband, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken." *

* Gen. iii. 1-7, 23. Dr. Adam Clarke remarks on this narrative, "That

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To understand this account of man's fall, we must remember, that the eminent condition from which he descended, had been successively procured. His primeval state is declared to have been as of the earth, and without form and void; and also, as of darkness being upon the face of the deep: thus, that his original condition was the lowest degree of human life, and that it was from thence he was gradually elevated into the highest degree of human excellence. That low degree of life, in which he originally stood, was doubtless of a sensual nature, but not of an evil quality for evil had not yet come into existence. It was an orderly degree of life proper to man, it had the capacity of elevation latent in it, and it is this, upon which the higher degrees of life had a foundation. This is the life into which man now first comes, though its quality, in consequence of the fall, is more or less tainted with hereditary evil. Nevertheless, man, as an infant, is the mere creature of sensation, and the life of the senses is first developed, and must be so, before the higher degrees of intellectual and moral life can be unfolded. Thus Adam was not constituted by one principle merely, but by several.* His highest or inmost was celestial, the next was spiritual, and after these man is in a fallen state, the history of the world, with that of the life and miseries of every human being, establishes beyond successful contradiction. But how, and by what agency, was this brought about? Here is a great mystery; and I may appeal to all persons who have read the various comments that have been written on the Mosaic account, whether they have ever yet been satisfied on this part of the subject, though convinced of the fact itself. Who was the serpent? of what kind? In what way did he seduce the first happy pair? These are questions which remain yet to be answered. The whole account is either a simple narrative of facts, or it is an allegory." With this opinion we readily concur. The Doctor, however, considered it as a "narrative of facts," and, after the use of much Hebrew and Arabic learning, arrived at the conclusion, that the serpent was an ourang-outang, and that the chattering and babbling, of which it is now capable, are the remains of the speech with which it was once endowed, and of course the evidences of the curse. From this we dissent. He, however, was not quite certain that this opinion was correct, nor do we wonder at his doubt. Speech is the exclusive endowment of humanity, and it is attributed to the serpent only in the way of figure. But the Doctor further says, "if it is an allegory, no attempt should be made to explain it." Indeed! no attempt to be made to explain what God has allegorically revealed! what a commentary on commentators and himself.

"It cannot be doubted that the first man was created with a great variety of instinctive or inspired knowledges."—Sir H. Davy.

came the natural and sensual. The existence of these several principles in him, is proven by the fact that they are all, in some measure, capable of being re-developed in us; and also, in the circumstance, that they are more or less in activity in every mind, which cherishes respect for truth and virtue. The internal principles of human life called celestial and spiritual, are superior to those more external principles denominated natural and sensual; the former belong more to the things of heaven, the latter relate more to the things of the world: and this is as true of man in his primeval state as it is of his condition now: though then the exercise of his lower principles was only instrumental to the purpose of his higher ones; but in after-times this instrumental purpose became perverted; the delights of the sensual principle began to be cultivated, irrespective of superior ends, and their perceptions` of spiritual and heavenly things were successively closed.

This distinction of principle in man, is of the utmost importance to be known, if we would attain to any clear comprehension of the subject before us. The men of the most ancient dispensation, had not only the higher principles of celestial and spiritual life, but they had also the lower principles of natural and sensual life. So long as the people continued in their integrity, and maintained their innocence, so long all those principles existed in their proper order, the lower contributing to the purposes of the higher; but when man fell into disobedience and guilt, a disruption took place among them, and the lower principles began to usurp the places of the higher, and thereby to paralyze their functions. Hence it is very easy to see, that the quality of man's sensual nature before his fall, was very different from that which it became after it. Before the fall, it was such that it yielded willing obedience to the dictate and impulse of the higher principles of his inner life. It was as a servant, ministering to the attainment of superior ends, always acknowledging its subordinate position; but after that catastrophe, men began to prefer the sensual things of the body, to the intellectual and spiritual things of the mind, and thus the instrumental became the principal, so that the whole order and series of life, which had been successively developed, were changed. This is the state of man now; sensual things are uppermost with him, and the design of religion, its influences, and leadings, is to regain the order which has been lost.

The senses are but inlets for certain knowledges — doors, through which information concerning the outer things of the

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world pass into the mind. The elevation and enlargement of the mind, are ends, for the accomplishment of which, the senses are among the appointed means. Some persons hear, see, and taste, merely for the sake of hearing, seeing, and tasting; they live a long life, with a very limited extent of intellectual acquirements, because they have scarcely proposed to themselves any higher object than the gratification of their senses. Whereas, they who have employed their sensual powers as the ministers to higher uses, and with a view to produce superior ends, are found to possess enlarged and comprehensive knowledges of men and things. These circumstances may, in some faint degree, enable us to form an idea of the difference, between the quality of the sensual principle of man before, and after his fall. But the distinction is admissive of illustration and explanation by other facts known to general experience. For instance, when we are earnestly endeavoring to understand the meaning of a speaker, the words give us but little concern: we hear the words, indeed, and yet they affect the sense of hearing very little, because of the interest we are taking to collect the sense: nor is this all, for if we think a little more interiorly, and pay attention to what is really transpiring in our mind, it will occasionally be found, that we do not always gather the meaning as intellectual sentiments, in consequence of our chief aim being to catch and comprehend the feeling which urges the discourse. Some persons hear the words, but do not grasp the sentiment, they say the language was good and the discourse powerful, but can scarcely give an idea of what it was about; with such, the sensuality of hearing is the chief. Others hear the words, but listen to them only as the instruments for communicating the ideas of the speaker; with them the activity of the sensual principle is directed to a higher use: but with others, the sense is but imperfectly collected, in consequence of the attention being so deeply engaged to comprehend the feeling of the utterer: with such the sensual principle is directed to a nobler end. This was a use, which the men of the purest times made of their sensual principle, while the former are characteristics which it has engendered in later periods. We call attention to these distinctions, because the Scriptures have presented both conditions of the sensual principle to us, under the emblem of a serpent. When the sensual principle is circumspect, and employed as a means for the acquisition of useful knowledge, then is fulfilled the divine injunction, "be ye wise as serpents, (Matt. x. 16;) but when it is used merely for the purpose