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tion is in the dust, being clothed with skin and flesh, and fenced with bones and sinews; and in "our earthly house of this tabernacle" the WORD appeared, when he "was made flesh and tabernacled' among us;" for," as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the samed" And when we " put off this tabernacle," when our "earthly house of this tabernacle" is" dissolved," that “outward man,” “ the dust,” shall “return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it;" for, when the "earthen vessel" is broken, the “inward man” is “as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." When it is said, then, that "GOD created man in His own image,” that assertion relates to the "inward man," which, being spirit, is created after the likeness of the Deity. It is afterwards stated, that "the LORD GOD formed man [of] the dust of the ground:" this statement, then, refers to the creation of the “outward man," that "house of clay whose founda

▾ Job, iv. 19.

• Job, x. 11.

b 2 Cor. v.

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το εσκήνωσεν.”

© John, i. 14.

4 Hebr. ii. 14. Επει οὖν τὰ παιδία κεκοινώκησε σαρκὸς καὶ

αίματος, καὶ αυτος παραπλησίως μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν."

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tion is in the dust." Man, then, was formed of spirit" and of dus

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"And the Lord GOD planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom He had formed.'

Adam, then, compounded of spirit and dust, was put by his Creator in a place which is called "the garden of Eden1," or of Pleasure. From this place he was, afterward, sent forth "to till the ground from whence he was taken"." That place, then, which is called "the garden of Eden," was a place distinct from "the ground" from whence Adam "was taken," and to which he was, afterward, sent forth.

The "garden of Eden" is mentioned in other parts of the sacred volume: "He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord":" "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of GOD"." The garden of Eden, then, is also styled the garden of the

* Gen. ii. 8.

n

Gen. iii. 23, 24.

m Gen. iii. 23.

Isaiah, li. 3.—“The land that was desolate, is become like the garden of Eden1." "The land is as the garden of Eden before them." The plain of Jordan, when Lot beheld it, was "well watered every where," "as the garden of the Lord 3."

Ezek. xxxvi. 35.

"Ezek. xxviii. 13.

2 Joel, ii. 3. 3 Gen. xiii. 10.

Lord, and the garden of God. It is stated by Moses, that, "in the midst" of " the garden of Eden" grew "the tree of lifer;" the "tree of life" is spoken of by St. John as being "in the midst of the paradise of GOD 9." The word paradise means a garden; thus, the "paradise of God" and the "garden of God" are terms of precisely the same import; and the " garden of Eden" is, ás has been seen, called also "the garden of GOD;" so that "paradise of GOD,"

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garden of God,” “ garden of Eden,” are expressions having one and the same meaning. The situation of the "tree of life," then, as described by St. John, is the same as that described by Moses; it is "in the midst of the paradise or garden of GOD"." The "tree of life" is also spoken of by St. John, as growing "in the midst of the streets" of the holy city new Jerusalem, and "on either side of the rivers" the "pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of GoD and of the Lambt."

P Gen. ii. 9.

Rev. ii. 7.

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Rev. ii. 7. Gen. ii. 9.
Rev. xxii. 2.

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1 Rev. xxii. 1.—As St. John speaks of "a pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of GOD and of the Lamb," so Zechariah also speaks of living waters” which should go out from Jerusalem;" and Joel says, tain shall come forth of the house of the Lord." Ezekiel also, in the account of his vision, speaks of "waters which issued out from under the threshold of the house [the temple 2 Joel, iii. 18.

Zech. xiv. 8.

This " great city, the holy Jerusalem"," in which is the throne of GoD and of the Lamb"," is "the city of the living GOD, the heavenly Jerusalem," the "Jerusalem which is abovey." The "tree of life," then, which is spoken of by St. John, as being " in the midst of the paradise of GOD," is also mentioned by him as being in the midst of the heavenly Jerusalem; the "paradise of GOD," then, appears to be the same place as the "heavenly Jerusalem." St. Paul speaks of his being " caught up to the third heaven"," "into paradise"; so that "paradise" and "heaven" are used by him in the same sense. But if "the paradise of GOD," and " the garden of God," have the same signification; if "the

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of God] eastward," forming a copious river, and, on the banks of this river, were "trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued forth from the sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine2.” So, on the side of the "river of the water of life" mentioned in the Apocalypse, was "the tree of life which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations3." "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden 4."

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garden of GOD" and "the garden of Eden" denote the same place; and if " the paradise of GOD" be the same place as that which is also denoted by the expressions "Jerusalem which is above," "heavenly Jerusalem," and "heaven," then it follows, that "the garden of Eden" denotes that place which is also called

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heavenly Jerusalem," or "heaven." And, if "the tree of life" spoken of by St. John, be the same tree of life" as that mentioned by Moses, since each of these inspired writers describes "the tree of life" as being situated in the midst of a place which is spoken of under the name of " paradise, or garden, of God," it will follow that the "garden" or paradise mentioned by Moses, is the same "paradise" or garden spoken of by St. John. That "the tree of life" spoken of by St. John, is the same tree of life" as that mentioned by Moses, appears from the properties ascribed to "the tree of life" by each of these writers. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of GoD":" "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my Gode:" "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne":" " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot his name out

b Rev. ii.. 7.

Rev. iii. 12.

d Rev. iii. 21.

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