Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/153

Rh and shown, is the Lord as the central love and life of the soul. Now, having this and partaking of the fruit of this tree, man is in Eden, in the kingdom of heaven, in the New Jerusalem, no matter what the age of the world or where his dwelling place may be.

Yet these expressions, though synonymous in a general sense, in a specific sense, especially as prophetic of different ages of the Church, have a somewhat different meaning. Eden refers, in a strict sense, to that state of innocent perfection of life which was characteristic of the most ancient Church. It was, in its goodness and wisdom, of that peculiarly infantile or tender genius, which is past and gone and which can never on earth be exactly reproduced. The New Jerusalem is more properly that state of heavenly perfection in the Church at large, or in the individual heart, which has been attained through severe conflict with evil in emerging from the baptism of hell. It will be compatible with the knowledge and possession of natural science, art and luxury, to which those primitive people were strangers. It will, therefore, have a broader basis of natural knowledge. The two are similar states, but developed under different circumstances. This truth is alluded to for the purpose of taking note of the fact, that when different expressions are used in Scripture for a similar idea, though they mean the same