Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/78

 ruption and paralysis of all his human principles, and thus as the perversion of all his original inclination to receive and retain the spiritual sentiments of purity and heaven.

The human principles are celestial, spiritual, and natural; it is these which distinguish humanity from the brute creation, and the two former were rendered inactive by the depravity of the people, before the latter was entirely corrupted. They are distinct degrees of human life, to which respectively belong the sentiments of Love, Faith, and Duty; and that which was pre-eminent in each principle stood out as a characteristic of the people in the best times of the Adamic, Noetic, and Israelitish periods. In each of those periods a Divine dispensation was established, suited to the prevailing genius and requirements of the people to whom it was vouchsafed. The first, however, was associated with a more interior life, even in its visible character, than the intermediate and the last. How plain is it that the condition of religion which was begun with Adam, was much more eminent than that which had its commencement with Noah; and how certain is it that that which was originated with Noah was superior to that which was established with Abraham and his descendants! The reason is, because the first was adapted more to the loving, or celestial principle of mankind; the second to the believing, or spiritual principle; and the third to the obeying, or natural principle. It is well known that each of the three Churches referred to, declined and fell; but the peculiar nature of their fall consisted in the people of each Church successively perverting that principle in themselves to which its teachings were specifically adapted. Thus the celestial principle was perverted when the Divine things proper to the Adamic dispensation ceased to be perceived; and the rain which followed is revealed to us by the calamity of the flood. The