Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/127

 The creation of man in the image of God after His own likeness, ought to be attentively considered by the devout reader of the inspired Word of God. So long as man is spiritual, his dominion proceedeth from the external man to the internal. Thus the fish of the sea, the fowl of the heaven, and the beast of the earth, are governed by the vigour and the power of truth in the understanding. But when, by pursuing the regenerate life, He becomes elevated by the love of heavenly good; then his dominion proceedeth from the internal to the external; the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Father, that "God (Love) may be all in all." Then the government is in true order, for He rules the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea.

HE more attentively we consider the first eleven chapters of Genesis, the more shall we be convinced that the things narrated in them "are an allegory." Though the particulars in the letter describe the generation of our first parents, still they are, by analogy, designed principally to teach the regeneration of man.

We have an intellectual as well as a spiritual principle; and the intellectual principle can only be rationally formed by truths drawn from the letter of the holy Word. Still these truths are all symbolized