CITY, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF DOCTRINE. 213 cumstance, of Cain building a city and calling it after the name of his son. * That a community, influenced by certain prejudices and opinions, should separate themselves from their brethren and emigrate to some other locality, with the view of building a town for their future residence, may be easily conceived. Modern history furnishes examples of a similar character. Nevertheless, we do not conceive this to have been meant by the narrative before us: a fact of this nature may have suggested the employment of such a history as the suitable basis for denoting some spiritual circumstance, without intending thereby to express what appears upon the letter. But without dwelling upon this point, it is plain, from the series of things treated of, that by the city which Cain is said to have built, is to be understood the preparation of something for the mind to dwell in, rather than erections for the residence of the body. By a city, in a spiritual sense, is meant the doctrinal views of religion which are entertained by the persons of whom it is predicated. Men live in their opinions: they are, as it were, the houses in which their affections dwell, and a number of opinions constituțe a spiritual city: "a city of holiness," if the opinions are doctrinally true, but "a city of destruction," if they are heretical and false. Men who believe what is true and live therein, are contemplated as dwelling in the "city of God." Solomon wrote, that "the rich man's wealth is his strong city," (Prov. x. 15,) because a rich man is one who knows truth; and this spiritual wealth is a strong city. The cities of refuge, (Numb. xxxv. 6-12,) appointed under the Mosaic dispensation, for the protection of those who unintentionally did injury to another, represented the doctrinal truths of religion to which those are to flee, who, through ignorance of it, may have done harm to society. Such truths both teach and protect those who adopt them, with a view to life and safety. The cities of Judah, so frequently mentioned in the Word, and others, considered to have been the cities of Israel, * It is curious to observe the oversights into which commentators are sometimes led. Ftolemy is said to mention a city Anuchtha, in Susiana, or Khuzestan, a country lying eastward from Chaldea; this, the learned Huet, believed to be the same city, under a Chaldee name, as Hanakh or Enoch, built by Cain. See Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 151. But, surely it must occur to the most superficial thinker, to inquire, how a city built before the flood, should have remained after it, if all things perished in that catastrophe, with the exception of Noah and his family, as was believed by Huet, and the writers of the Universal History? likewise represented the doctrinal truths of the churcn; the former, those truths which relate to our duty to God, and the latter, those which treat of our duty to man. The "city of habitation," (Psalm cvii. 7,) signifies the doctrines of the church, which teach men the way to live for heaven. And "the cities without inhabitant,” (Isaiah vi. 11,) denote doctrinal truths without their corresponding goodness. Cities, naturally, are such by virtue of the people who inhabit. them, and from thence they are found to possess certain characteristics of their own. Every one may be acquainted with this fact, who knows how to observe men and things. How frequently do we hear those residences of men spoken of, under some cognomen intended to express their general feature! Some are said to be commercial, some manufacturing, some low, some proud, some ignorant, some learned, some industrious, some idle. In short, the idiosyncracies of cities differ as much as the individualities of men: they acquire a distinctiveness from the principles which influence them for a city is, as it were, a man, a larger man than the individual, nevertheless a man as to all his moral activities and intellectual operations; so that a city, as a collection of men, actually exhibits the doctrinal views and sentiments which may have contributed to the production of the cognomen by which it is known. This may serve to illustrate the circumstance, of cities being mentioned in the Scriptures, to represent the doctrinal opinions of the people of whom they are predicated; and why, also, certain appellations are sometimes applied to them. Jerusalem is said to be "builded as a city that is compact together," (Psalm cxxii. 3,) to express the unity and solidity of those doctrinal truths of the church of which it is the type: hence, also, it is called the "Heavenly Jerusalem," (Heb. xii. 22,) and described as the holy city coming down from God out of heaven. (Rev. xxi. 2.) It is not a natural city of men and houses which is to come down, but a disclosure of the doctrinal truths of the Word: these come down from heaven to guide men thither: and the Lord said "A city that is set on a hill, cannot be hid," (Matt. v. 14,) to teach us, that the doctrines of truth, when grounded on the elevated princi ples of love, will always be conspicuous for their brightness and their beauty. Thus, it is plain, that by a city is denoted doctrinal things. Let us, then, apply this signification to that which Cain is said to have built. It will at once occur to the reflecting, when they remember SIGNIFICATION OF A CITY ILLUSTRATED. 215 the series of spiritual things treated of, that this circumstance was intended to represent the people, collecting together the various materials on which they had grounded their heretical opinion, and therefore, arranging and constructing them into a doctrinal form for their future use. This idea may be illustrated by many circumstances which have taken place in the Christian church. This has been broken up into numerous sects, some of which have stood in the relation of parents to others. It was predicted that one would be "the mother of harlots." (Rev. xvii. 5.) The state of the people, during the decline of all churches, is pretty much the same: they corrupt the truth and build other sentiments, which they attempt to fortify, by inventions of their own. For example, let us take the doctrines of Predestination and Grace.* Whatever truths might have been originally expressed by those terms, it is quite evident, that in the process of time, they became entirely perverted, and that others were substituted in their stead. A controversy concerning them was begun in the ninth century (they had then existed about four hundred years) by the Saxon, Godoschalchus, and it was continued with more or less severity for a period of seven hundred years. During all this time, the people were wandering in their faith concerning these things. They had no settled convictions upon the subjects, which those terms were intended to express: but in the sixteenth century, a new champion arose, who, with the materials of this controversy, constructed, as it were, a new city, which has not been called after the name of those who founded it, but after Calvin, their son in the faith.† The case of Cain building a city and calling its name Enoch, was something similar to this. It will be recollected, that that people had vagabond in reference to the things of faith. become fugitive and Their notions about spiritual and holy things, had no coherence with each other, because they had departed from the face of the Lord, from whom alone all excellence and consistency descend: and therefore, they are described to have dwelt in the land of Nod, which is a state of wandering and uncertainty about the principles of faith. And now, to *The correct idea of Predestination, is, that God "created every one for His Glory," (Isaiah xliii. 7,) that is, for the enjoyment of His blessings, so far as they comply with the means placed within their power. Grace, is the divine mercy, which saves mankind according to appointed means. + See Mosheim, cent. v. sec. 23; cent. ix. sec. 22; cent. xvi. sec. 13. secure the credibility and adherence of the people, it became re quisite to re-examine the sentiments, which had led to the production of such unsteadiness of life and opinions, to cast away all those notions, which may have fastened themselves as excresences, upon their general principles, and so to re-arrange and construct the whole of their doctrinal views of religion, that they might appear as a new and more compact city. Thus, the description of Cain building a city, and calling it Enoch, i. e., instruction, was intended to represent those who held the heresy of Cain, striving to render it attractive. In our own day we speak of attractive speculations as "castle building:” surely, then, we need not wonder at its being said by those, among whom figurative language was so prevalent, that the construction, or arrangement of certain doctrinal views of religion, was the building of a city. We speak, also, of building up an opinion, and of fortifying our sentiments: and, to describe the confidence of some men in the notions they entertain, it is sometimes said of them that, it is the city in which they dwell. When, then, we see, that by Enoch, as the descendant of Cain, was denoted the origination of a new heresy, it is easy to perceive from these reasonings, facts, and illustrations, that the building of a city and calling it Enoch, -instruction, was intended to represent the construction, erection, and building, in an attractive form, of certain doctrinal notions of religious things for the reception and faith of that people. The teachers of truth are the builders of the city of God; they, by the divine assistance, erect the walls of Jerusalem and cause her to be a praise in the earth; whereas the teachers of error are the builders of the city of destruction, the architects of the synagogue of Satan. These circumstances, together with the errors which afterwards arose from that of Enoch, and especially the extinction of all faith in spiritual things, produced by the heresy of Lamech, terminates this branch of Antediluvian History. We read no more of Cain: nothing further of his life, no record of his death is preserved. The whole narrative concerning him concludes towards the end of the fourth chapter, because, as we have seen, the things of the church were ended with his fifth descendant, Lamech. COMPARISON OF ABEL AND SETH. 217 CHAPTER XVIII. THE BIRTH OF SETH-THE LONGEVITY OF HIS DESCENDANTS - AND THE "TRANSLATION" OF ENOCH. "The notion of a man's living to the age of 600 or 1000 years, was Egyp tian. How is this reconcilable with their precise knowledge of a solar year, and with their fixing the age of men, one with another, to the term of 28 years? This has suggested a supposition, that, by 600 or 1000 years in question, they meant the duration of a tribe or dynasty, distinguished by the name of its founder."- WEBB's Pauw., p. 275. ON the cessation of that division of the most ancient church called Cain, we are informed that, “Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." (Gen. iv. 25.) Now, as Abel represented the principle of charity, which had been regarded, by an earlier people of the most ancient church, to be the chief thing of religion, and as Seth was appointed as seed in his place, we reach the fact at once, that Seth represented a principle of faith, out of which charity was to be developed, and consequently, that it was given by God for the adoption of another branch of the Adamic descendants: this seems evident from the circumstance of its being said of his posterity, that they began to call upon the name of the Lord; (Gen. iv. 26;) that is, to worship Him from a principle of love and charity. The state of charity which now began to be cultivated, does not appear to have been precisely of the same exalted quality as that which had prevailed with Abel, because in the communication of it, it passed through another medium. With Abel, charity entered into the affections by a more internal way, than with the posterity of Seth. With the former, it arose out of an impulsive love, which is an internal principle; but with the latter, it sprung up from an intellectual dictate, which, respectively, was an external principle. But this merciful provision for the development and security of charity, did not continue in its integrity; for we are immediately informed of successive descendants, each of which is intended to express some change, which the perceptions of truth in respect to charity was undergoing among them, until it finally perished among a people called Lamech. The people, with whom that faith which had its commencement with Seth, perished, bore the same name as those with whom ended the faith began with Cain. They were distinct races, but are called by the same names, because they repre |