his own: "No other sort of abode," says he, and in the length of his branches; for his 66 seems to contribute so much both to the root was by great waters. The cedars in the tranquillity of mind, and indolence of body. garden of God could not hide him, nor was The sweetness of the air, the pleasantness of any tree in the garden of God like unto him the smell, the verdure of plants, the cleanness in his beauty. I have made him fair by the and lightness of food, the exercise of working multitude of his branches; so that all the or walking; but, above all, the exemption trees of Eden, that were in the garden of from care and solicitude, seem equally to God, envied him."* After having related favor and improve both contemplation and the fall of his towering and extensive empire, health, the enjoyment of sense and imagina- the prophet makes the application to the king tion, and thereby the quiet and ease both of of Egypt: "To whom art thou thus like, in body and mind. A garden has been the in- glory and greatness, among the trees of Eden? clination of kings, and the choice of philoso- Yet shalt thou be brought down, with the phers; the common favorite of public and trees of Eden, to the lower parts of the earth." private men; the pleasure of the greatest, In another place we find the following ironiand the care of the meanest; an employment cal address to the king of Tyre, as having and a possession, for which no man is too attempted to rival the true God, and the glohigh nor too low. If we believe the Scrip-ries of his Paradise: "Thou sealest up the tures," concludes he, "we must allow that sum full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. God Almighty esteemed the life of man in a Thou hast been in Eden, in the garden of garden, the happiest he could give him; or God: every precious stone was thy coverelse he would not have placed Adam in that ing-thou wast upon the holy mountain of of Eden."* God-Thou wast perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou wast created, until iniquity was found in thee. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom, by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground; I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee."+ of Eden. The garden of Eden had, doubtless, all the perfection it could receive from the hands of Him, who ordained it to be the mansion of his favorite creature. We may reasonably presume it to have been the earth in miniature, and to have contained specimens of all natural productions, as they appeared, withTraditions and traces of this original garout blemish, in an unfallen world; and these den seem to have gone forth into all the disposed in admirable order, for the purposes earth; though, as an elegant writer justly intended. And it may be observed, that observes, "they must be expected to have when, in after times, the penmen of the Scrip- grown fainter and fainter in every transfusion tures have occasion to describe any remarka- from one people to another. The Romans ble de gree of fertility and beauty, of grandeur probably derived their notion of it, expressed and magnificence, they refer us to the garden in the gardens of Flora, from the Greeks, "He beheld all the plain well among whom this idea seems to have been watered as the garden of the Lord." + "The shadowed out under the stories of the gardens land was as the garden of Eden before them, of Alcinous. In Africa they had the gardens but behind them was a desolate wilderness." of the Hesperides, and in the east those of The prophet Ezekiel, at the command of God, Adonis. The term of horti Adonidis was for an admonition to Pharaoh, thus portrays used by the ancients to signify gardens of the pride of the Assyrian empire, under the pleasure, which answers strangely to the splendid and majestic imagery afforded by very name of Paradise, or the garden of vegetation in its most flourishing state: "The Eden." In the writings of the poets, who Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair have lavished all the powers of genius and branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and charms of verse upon the subject, these and of an high stature, and his top was among the the like counterfeit or secondary paradises, thick boughs. The waters made him great, the copies of the true, will live and bloom, the deep set him on high, with her rivers so long as the world itself shall endure. running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers to all the trees in the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the multitude of waters when he shot forth. Thus was he fair in his greatness, Sir William Temple-Garden of Epicurus † Gen. xiii. 10. Joel, ii. 3. It hath been already suggested, that a garden is calculated no less for the improvement of the mind, than for the exercise of the body; and we cannot doubt, but that peculiar care would be taken of that most important end, in the disposition of the garden of Eden. From the situation and circumstances of * Ezek. xxxi. 3, &c. Ezek. xxviii. 12, &c. Spence's Polymetis, cited in Letters on Mythology, p. 126 Adam, it should not seem probable, that an all-wise and all-gracious Creator would leave him in that state of ignorance in which, since the days of Faustus Socinus, it hath been but too much the fashion to represent him. For may we not argue in some such manner as the following? If so fair a world was created for the use and satisfaction of his terestrial part, formed out of the dust, can we imagine that the better part, the immortal spirit from above, the inhabitant of the fleshly tabernacle prepared for it, should be left in a state of destitution and desolation, unprovided with wisdom, its food, its support, its delight? are informed, that God brought the creatures to him, that he might impose upon them suitable names; a work which, in the opinion of Plato,* must be ascribed to God himself. The use and intent of names is to express the natures of the things named; and in the knowledge of those natures, at the beginning, God, who made them, must have been man's instructor. It is not likely, that, without such an instructor, men could ever have formed a language at all; since it is a task which requires much thought; and the great masters of reason seem to be agreed, that without language we cannot think to any purpose. However that may be, from the original imIf men, since the fall, and laboring under position of names by our first parent, we canall the disadvantages occasioned by it, have not but infer that his knowledge of things been enabled to make those attainmenfs in natural must have been eminent and extensive; knowledge which they certainly have made; not inferior, we may suppose, to that of his and we find the understanding of a Solomon descendant king Solomon, who "spake of replete with every species of wisdom, human trees, from the cedar to the hyssop, and of and divine; can we conceive ignorance to beasts, and fowl, and creeping things, and have been the characteristic of the first formed fishes." It is therefore probable, that Plato father of the world, created with all his pow-asserted no more than the truth, when he ers and faculties complete and perfect, and living udder the immediate tuition of God? If upon trial of Adam, as the head and representative of mankind, their fate, as well as his own, both in time and eternity, was to depend, can we ever think his Maker would expose him to such a trial, with a mind not better informed than that of a child or an idiot? asserted, according to the traditions he had gleaned up in Egypt and the east, that the first man was of all men rares, the greatest philosopher. As man was made for the contemplation of God here, and for the enjoyment of him hereafter, we cannot imagine that his knowledge would terminate on earth, though it took its rise there. Like the patriarch's ladIf redemption restored what was lost by der, its foot was on earth, but its top, doubtless, the fall, and the second Adam was a counter-reached to heaven. By it the mind ascended part of the first, must we not conceive Adam from the creatures to the Creator, and deto have once been what man is, when restored scended from the Creator to the creatures. It by grace to "the image of God in wisdom was the golden chain which connected matter and holiness?" And does not he, who de- and spirit, preserving a communication begrades the character of the son of God in tween the two worlds. Paradise, degrade in proportion the character of that other Son of God, and the redemption and restoratiou which are by him? Our first father differed from all his descendants in this particular, that he was not to attain the use of his understanding by a gradual process from infancy, but came into being in full stature and vigor of mind as well as body. He found creation likewise in its prime. It was morning with man and the world. We are not certain with regard to the time allowed him to make his observations upon the different objects with which he found himself surrounded; but it should seem, either that sufficient time was allowed him for that end, or that he was enabled, in some extraordinary manner, to pervade their essences, and discover their properties. For we Luke, iii. 38.-" Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God." That God had revealed and made himself known to Adam, appears from the circumstances related; namely, that he took him and put him into the garden of Eden; that he conversed with him, and communicated a law, to be by him observed; that he caused the creatures to come before him, and brought Eve to him. In these transactions, God probably assumed some visible appearance; because, otherwise than by such assumed appearance, no man, while in the body, can see God. And we find, by what passed after the fatal transgression, that "the voice or sound of the Lord God walking in the garden," was a voice or sound to which Adam had been accustomed, though guilt, for the first time, had made him afraid of it. If there was at the beginning this familiar intercourse between Jehovah and Adam, and he vouchsafed to converse with him, as he * Τα πρώτα ονόματα οι θεοι εδεσαν.-In Cratylo. afterwards did with Moses, " as a man converseth with his friend," there can be no reasonable doubt but that he instructed him, as far as was necessary, in the knowledge of his Maker, of his own spiritual and immortal part, of the adversary he had to encounter, of the consequences to which disobedience would subject him, and of those invisible glories, a participation of which was to be the reward of his obedience. of it to sacred purposes, some appropriation to God and his service, as is confessedly the case with many similar phrases; such as "house of God," "altar of God,"" man of God," and the like; all implying, that the persons and things spoken of were consecrated to him, and set apart for a religious use. When it is said, "The Lord God took man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to DRESS it, and to KEEP it," the words undoubtedly When God, in after times, selected a pecu- direct us to conceive of it as a place for the liar people to be his church and heritage, to exercise of the body. We readily acquiesce receive the law from his mouth, and to be the in this, as the truth, but not as the whole guardians of his promises, he "chose one truth; it being difficult to imagine, that so place to place his name there;" to be the noble a creature, the lord of the world, should place of his residence, where he appeared have no other or higher employment. Much and was consulted. He gave directions for more satisfaction will be found in supposing, the construction of a temple, or house, in a that our first parents, while thus employed, particular manner appropriated to him, and like the priests under the law while they called his; which, though composed of ministered in the temple, were led to conworldly elements, was so framed, as to exhibit an apt resemblance, model, or pattern, of heavenly things; to serve as a school for instruction, as a sanctuary for devotion. Might not the garden of Eden be a kind of temple, or sanctuary, to Adam; a place chosen for the residence and appearance of God; a place designed to represent and give him ideas of heavenly things; a place sacred to contemplation and devotion? Something of this sort seems to be intimated by the account we have of the garden in the second chapter of Genesis, and to be confirmed by the references and allusions to it in other parts of the Scriptures. With this view we may observe, that though Paradise was created with the rest of the world, yet we are informed, the hand of God was in a more especial manner employed in preparing this place for the habitation of man. "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." Thus the great Architect of the universe, he who, in the language of the apostle, "built all things," is described as selecting, disposing, and adorning this wonderful and happy spot, wherein was to be placed the creature made after his own image and likeness, but a little lower than the angels. Does not this circumstance suggest to us, that something more was intended than what generally enters into our idea of a garden? Whenever the garden of Eden is mentioned in the Scriptures, it is called "the garden of God," or "the garden of the Lord," expressions which denote some peculiar designation templations of a more exalted nature," serving to the example and shadow of heavenly things." The powers of the body, and the faculties of the mind, might be set to work at the same time, by the same objects. And it is well known, that the words here used,* do as frequently denote mental as corporeal operations; and under the ideas of DRESSING and KEEPING the sacred garden, may fairly imply the CULTIVATION and OBSERVATION of such religious truths as were pointed out by the external signs and sacraments which Paradise contained. That some of the objects in Eden were of a sacramental nature, we can hardly doubt, when we read of "the tree of knowledge," and "the tree of life." The fruit of a material tree could not, by any virtue inherent in it, convey "the knowledge of good and evil,” or cause that, by eating it, a man should "live for ever." But such fruit might be ordained as a sacrament, upon the participation of which, certain spiritual effects should follow. This is entirely conformable to reason, to the nature of man, and of religion. It is remarkable, that, in the earliest ages, a custom should be found to prevail, both among the people of God and idolaters, of setting apart and consecrating gardens and groves for the purpose of religious worship. Thus Abraham, we are told, "planted a tree, or grove, at Beersheba, and called on the everlasting God." The worshippers of false gods are described, in the writings of the prophets, as "sacrificing in gardens," as "purifying themselves in gardens," behind one tree in the midst ;" and it is foretold, that they should be "ashamed for the oaks which they had desired, and confounded for of the faithful in virtue, through the influence of the divine favor. The same pleasing and expressive image is employed to the same purpose, in the first Psalm-" He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he doth shall prosper." the gardens they had chosen."* A sur-plantations, and, at the same time, to intiprising uniformity in this point, may be mate the end and design of them; namely, traced through all the different periods of to represent the progress and improvement idolatry, as subsisting among the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Groves were dedicated to the gods, and particular species of trees were sacred to particular deities. The same usage prevailed among the Druids, in these parts of the world. And to this day, the aisles of our Gothic churches and cathedrals are evidently built in imitation of those arched groves, which of old supplied the place of temples. It is not, therefore, without reason, that the author of a learned dissertation on the subject makes the following remark:-" These were the hallowed fanes of the ancients, in which they performed divine worship. And indeed, if we would trace up this rite to its origin, we must have recourse to the true God himself, who instituted in Paradise, a sacred garden or grove, ordained Adam to be the high-priest of it, and consecrated in it two trees, for a public testimony of religion.", But upon the supposition now made, that the garden of Eden served as a kind of temple for our first parents, might we not expect to find some resemblance of it in the tabernacle and temple afterwards erected, by the appointment of God, for his residence in the midst of his people Israel? The question is by no means absurd, especially if we recollect that it was the design of the Mosaic sanctuary, with its apparatus, to prefigure the restoration of those spiritual blessings which were forfeited and lost by the transgression in paradise. Let us, therefore, inquire what satisfaction the Scriptures will afford us upon this point. The principal objects in the garden of Eden with which revelation has brought us acquainted, are the plantations of trees, and the rivers of water by which those plantations were nourished and supported in glory and beauty. Was there anything of this sort in or about the tabernacle and temple? With regard to the plantations, two passages in the Psalms incline us to think there were such in the courts of the Jewish sanctuary, as well as in that of Eden: "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.† The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." These texts seem to suppose the real existence of such * Psal. lii. 8. As to the rivers of water which supplied and refreshed the garden of Eden, and all its productions, we meet with something analogous to them, both in the tabernacle and temple. During the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, the camp in general, and the sacred tabernacle in particular, were supplied with water in a miraculous manner, not only at the time when Moses smote the rock, but the same supply accompanied them afterwards. "They drank of that rock," that is, the water of the rock, "which followed them." "He led thee," says Moses, "through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who made water to flow for thee out of the rock of flint."* And these waters, like those in Eden, were of a sacramental nature. "They did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ."+ How lively a representation of that heavenly grace which comforts our weary spirits, and enables us to accomplish our journey through the wilderness of life! If, from the tabernacle, we proceed to the temple, we are there presented with the sacred streams of Siloah, breaking forth and flowing from the mount of God. In Ezekiel's famous vision of the new temple, there is a wonderful description, founded on the real situation of things at Mount Sion, explaining their signification, and unavoidably carrying our thoughts back to the waters and plantations of the original sanctuary in Eden: "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward. Then said he to me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. And by the river upon the bank thereof on this side, and on that side, shall grow all : trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, | angels, those blessings are still represented neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed and conveyed by sacramental symbols, anait shall bring forth new fruit according to its logous to the original ones in Eden. From months, because their waters issued out of the the sacred font flows the water of life, to sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for purify, to refresh, to comfort; a river goes meat, and the leaves thereof for medicine."* out of Eden, to water the garden," and to When the prophets have occasion to foretell "baptize all nations; " while the eucharist the great marvellous change to be effected in answers to the fruits of the tree of life: at the moral world, under the evangelical dis- the holy table, we may now put forth our pensation, they frequently borrow their ideas hands, and take, and eat, and live for ever." and expressions from the history of that gar- Let us go one step farther, and consider den, in which innocence and felicity once the state of things in the heavenly kingdom dwelt together, and which they represent as of our Lord. There, it is true, all figures again springing up and blooming in the wil- and shadows, symbols and sacraments, shall derness. Of the many passages which occur, be no more, because faith will there be lost two or three only shall be recited. "The in vision, and we shall "know even as we Lord will comfort Sion, he will comfort all are known." But in the mean time, till we her waste places; he will make her wilder- attain that perfect consummation, was any ness like Eden, and her desert like the garden person admitted to a sight of heaven, and of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found the wonders that are therein, he could no therein, thanksgiving and the voice of me- otherwise describe them to us, who are yet lody:"+ such joy and gladness, such thanksgiv- in the body, than by the way of picture and ing and melody, at the restitution of all things, similitude. This was the case of St. Paul. as were at their first creation, when "God saw every thing he had made, and behold, it was very good;"-when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the tle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them: and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." myr "The saw At the time appointed, these predictions received their accomplishment. Men " the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." By the death and resurrection of the Redeemer, lost Paradise was regained; and its inestimable blessings, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, are now to be found and enjoyed in the Christian church. But as men are still Ezek. xlvii. 1, &c. tlsa. xli. 17, &c. men, and not † Isa. li. 3. "I knew a In a divine ecstasy, he had been caught up, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. Bless- |