The Corruptions of the Antediluvian World-The Sons of God taking to themselves Wives of the Daughters of Men.......... 232 PREFACE. A SATISFACTORY explanation of the early chapters of Genesis, has become a desideratum in the church; for there is no fact in its history better established, than that the Mosaic accounts of the creation and the deluge are no longer considered to express those sentiments, which, for many ages, they have been supposed to do. What used to be regarded as "orthodox" upon those subjects, has been compelled to recede before the light of rational investigation and scientific discovery. This is admitted by men with first-class minds, — minds stored with erudition and piety, - persons whose veneration for, and belief in, revelation are far above suspicion; - professors in our national universities, and other institutions for the dissemination of religion and learning. A decree, therefore, has gone forth against the old notions upon these subjects: the old vessels have been effectually broken; and all, who carefully examine the fragments, are convinced that it is impossible to repair them. It is true, that several new ones have been attempted to be made, on some modified ideas of the literal sense of those ancient writings; but an intelligent inspection of them has shown that they also are marred and full of flaws, so that there has ceased to be any authorized interpretation of those extraordinary documents. In this dilemma, the old opinions continue to be taught to the rising generations, by which their minds must be prejudiced in favor of a mistaken judgment. This, doubtless, produces no little uneasiness and alarm among those, who know them to be untrue. The influences, which have exposed the errors, have not yet become sufficiently powerful to check their progress. This is to be lamented; but it is one of the consequences of not having supplied such new interpretations of the subject, as may be safely adopted in their place. The old errors may as well be taught as any new one, if teachings must be enforced on the subject, before any more satisfactory views can be established. But why the teaching of demonstrated errors should be persisted in, it is difficult to determine. It is admitted, that the work of him who would instruct society, is not completed by pulling down the building, which he has discovered to be dangerous, — he is not to make a ruin, and then to leave it. In the case before us, the materials remain; and he is required to erect with them another building, which shall be more sound and useful, in every particular. The distinguished men above alluded to have not neglected this duty; but they have not been successful in its performance. This is evident from the circumstance of their respective views not having satisfied each other or the public. The reason of this failure, it is believed, is traceable to a misunderstanding of the structure and purpose of those remarkable narratives; i. e., to the supposition that they treat of mundane things. The following work is constructed on an entirely different principle. It has no pretensions to a complete exposition of the subjects. The writer is sensible of many of its deficiencies, both in that and in other respects. His aim has been to indicate a course of thinking, which, if pursued by abler minds, may lead to a more satisfactory treatment. A general outline of the meaning of those remarkable documents is all that he has intended to present; and this, of course, may be filled up with such light, shade, and coloring, as the intelligence and experience of the reader are capable of supplying. He holds that the real divinity of those extraordinary portions of revelation can be most satisfactorily maintained, without mak ing any concessions to opinions, which are offensive to judicious and rational thinking. The adoption of new sentiments concerning them need not decrease piety, or weaken faith; if they expel error and destroy superstition, their uses will be great. They who abandon a prejudice, which they had thought to be an opinion, when some new truth is demonstrated to them, come thereby into greater liberty and purer light. This The interpretation of the first seven chapters of Genesis, which is presented in this work, is founded on the following general principle; namely, that the letter of the Word of God contains within it a spiritual sense, which is as its life and soul. principle, it is believed, will commend itself to the soundest judgment and best feelings of religious and thinking men. Evidences of the existence of this principle can be produced from every page of the sacred volume; and it is rationally confirmed by the circumstance, that, as a work of God, it must, to be in analogy with all other of His works, contain, within it, something more, and something different from that, which appears upon the surface. PREFACE. It is plain that there must be a connection between the natural and the spiritual worlds, and that all things in the former derive their existence, more or less remotely, from some condition and activity in the latter. Now, as God's primary object in making a revelation to man is to furnish him with the means of knowing something concerning spiritual things, it is conceived, that he has caused to be employed, in the writing of His Word, the visible objects of nature, to express the spiritual things to which they have some relation. Thus, that the earth in general, as the dwelling-place for man's body, is the appropriate symbol of that state in general, which is the residence of his soul; and that all the various productions of the earth, which the Scriptures mention, whether of the animal, the vegetable, or the mineral kingdoms, are the types of some corresponding principle of affection and thought belonging to such state, and, consequently, that they are significant of them. Besides this law of correspondences, according to which it is believed the Scriptures are written, and from which their character, as a revelation, and their quality, as to inspiration, derive the most ample and satisfactory evidence, there are also employed, in their structure and composition, representatives, which also signify. Among these representative objects, persons are very conspicuous; such, for example, as the sons of Jacob, the Priests, the Kings of Israel and Judah, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Prophets, and others. All these are considered to be mentioned in the Scriptures, and to have their histories therein related, because they were designed to represent something pertaining to the Lord's church and kingdom. This idea is, in some measure, acknowledged in the circumstance of many of these persons being commonly spoken of as types. Every one, for instance, is aware that Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, in consequence of certain remarkable incidents in his life, was representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, during His manifestation in the world. The law under which those representatives were selected, did not at all regard the quality of the person representing, but solely the thing to be represented by him; all the objects, therefore, which corresponded to divine and spiritual things, are also representatives of them, and what is represented is likewise signified. The distinction between correspondences and representatives is, that correspondence consists in the mutual relation, which prevails between an efficient cause and its orderly effect. Thus, whatso ever exists and subsists in the natural world from the spiritual, is called correspondence. But representatives are all those external things which exist in the natural mind, and which are the suitable appearances of all such internal subjects as are presented to the spiritual mind. For instance, when the viscera and structure of the face are permitted to act in unity with the affection and sentiments which exist in the mind, there is a correspondence; but the aspect of the face, under such circumstances, is the representation. The kings, priests, and prophets, are said to represent divine and holy things, because, in their governmental, priestly, and prophetic characters, they were, to the natural minds of the Israelites, what they conceived of such things. Such are the principles, which are believed to have presided over the construction of the literal sense of God's most holy Word, and of which illustrative examples are presented in the following work. If the things mentioned in the Scriptures were not representative, and thence, significative, of holy and spiritual subjects, it would not be easy to see how a rational idea of their divine character can be formed; but with such a view of them, man may have some perception of their great sanctity and spiritual uses. Indeed, it seems difficult to see how divine ideas could have been enunciated in any other way than by means of those human ideas, worldly objects, and expressions, which are in correspondence with, or the representatives of, spiritual and heavenly things. But, while this is regarded as a feature peculiar to God's Revelation, and, in our opinion, necessary to the ideas of its divine origin and inspiration, it is to be observed that it is a principle which will admit of a diversity of literal structure; and consequently, that such a structure has always been employed as was in agreement with the characteristics of the people, to whom it was originally vouchsafed. Hence has arisen that variety of style according to which different portions of the Sacred Scriptures are written. This circumstance is more or less conspicuous, in all the different books of the Word. There are, however, four great distinctions of style by which the Scriptures now in our possession are distinguished. These are, FIRST, that which is intended to express spiritual and celestial things only, through the instrumentality of an appropriate selection and arrangement of terrestrial and worldly objects. This we regard as the primitive divine style, and consider it to have taken |