Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/89

 essential, for man is natural and uninstructed before he is spiritual and instructed. If the spirit of the Word were not by means of the letter accommodated to the natural, ignorant, and wicked states of man, there would be no conjunction with him. Therefore the pure and infinite truth of the internal sense of the Word is largely clothed with ideas taken from the minds of natural and evil men. Above the mere literal sense, as the meaning of an allegory is superior to the narrative, is the spiritual meaning of the Word, the "undergarment" (chiton) of the Lord, "without seam, woven from the top throughout." Only in this most general way can this subject be treated here. It must suffice to conclude that genuine science and reason, with which the Word, when rightly interpreted, is everywhere in accord, confirm the truths of the Word, and assure us that it is the Divine medium of love, wisdom, and power from God the Creator, to the earth.

It is the purpose herein to pursue first causes to their fountain-head, and to lay bare what many regard an unfathomable mystery. That this may be done intelligibly, it is necessary to