be swallowed up in victory. The later Jews, warped and blinded as they were by false views of the Messiah, were yet able to catch some glimpse of this portion of the truth concerning his redemption; for of the seven things, which they imagined Christ should show unto Israel, two were, the garden of Eden, and the tree of life; and again, "There are also that say of the tree of life, that it was not created in vain, but the men of the resurrection shall eat thereof, and live for ever." So much light still remained to men groping amid the obscurity of judicial blindness. The first race of worshippers were placed in happier circumstances for apprehending the truth; and they must have been children indeed in understanding the import of God's symbolical teaching and providential arrangements, if through these they could not descry the prospect of a better country beyond death and the grave, awaiting those who should be heirs of salvation. Indeed, if they believed any thing at all concerning a purpose of mercy, bringing recovery from the ruin of the fall, it seems impossible for them to have avoided coupling with that belief, the conviction of a future life, and the hope of a resurrection from the dead; for without these, no such purpose of mercy could have brought one ray of comfort to them.

Having said thus much upon what the tree of life, in its relation to men after the fall, was fitted to teach them symbolically of divine truth, let us glance for a moment to the explanation of the symbol, which we are privileged to read in the ample revelations of the gospel. "To him that overcometh," says Christ, "will I give to eat of the tree of life, that is in the midst of the paradise of God." And again, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city." The least we can gather from these intimations of coming bliss, viewing them even in their most general light, is, that every thing which was lost by Adam, shall be again recovered by Christ, for those who are interested in his redemption. The far distant ends of revelation here most beautifully meet, and the last insight we have into God's purposes toward his people, reflects the lovely image of that first inheritance of blessing, which came along with the newly created world. In both alike we perceive a paradise of delight, and the tree of life in the midst yielding its immortal fruit. It is the intermediate portion of the history alone, which is overspread with gloom, and chequered with evil to the family of God. There, indeed, we see every thing disordered, and out of course-the beautiful workmanship of God defaced-a world heaving with trouble, and marred on every hand with signs of corruption and ruin-a fierce and incessant warfare between the elements of good and evil, in which the better part is too often put to the worse-humanity in all its members smitten with the wound of a sore disease, beset with numberless ills and calamities, the sport while living of its own waywardR. Elias ben Mosis, in Ainsworth on Pent. † R. Menahem on Gen. iii., quoted there also.

ness and folly, and the prey, when dead, of its most vile and loathsome adversaries. How cheering to know, that this reign of darkness and confusion is not to be perpetual-that it occupies but the mid-region of time, and is to be succeeded, at the close of ages, by a restitution of all things to the blessedness of order and life! The tempter has prevailed long; but, thanks be to God, he is not to prevail for ever. There is yet to come forth from the world, over which he has usurped dominion, and the people whom he has so often carried captive at his will, new heavens and a new earth, wherein righteousness and peace shall dwell for ever,another paradise with its tree of life, and a ransomed people once more resplendent with the glorious image of the Creator, well prepared by his regenerating power for inhabiting its blessed mansions, and partaking of its celestial fruit. May the joyful prospect be in us as a deep well-spring of consolation and delight! But this is not the whole, great though it be; for the antitype is always greater than the type; the things of grace far transcend, in height and excellence of being, the things of nature; and therefore, when we read of a new paradise, and a tree of life in the midst of it, yet to be eaten by the children of God, much more is to be understood, than the simple recovery of what has been lost through sin, or a restoration of the original state of things. It tells us of a sphere and condition of being similar in kind, but in the nature of the things to be enjoyed much more blessed and glorious, than what belonged to our first parents in Eden. The paradise there provided for the habitation of man, and the tree of life planted in the midst of it, to supply him with the food of immortality, were doubtless formed in wise adaptation to the nature of man-fitted to minister life and enjoyment to a being constituted as he was, when at first fashioned by the hand of God. But, upright and blessed as he then was, he was still "of the earth, earthy," with a body formed of the dust of the ground, which even in its best estate was but a tenement of clay, and necessarily imperfect in its tastes and powers and enjoyments, as compared with those who occupy the higher regions of existence.

come.

Now, as every thing in the paradise that is lost was made in wise and fitting adaptation to the nature of him who was to dwell in it, so unquestionably will it be in regard to that paradise, which is to And as the second Adam, who with his spouse the church is to possess it, is not like the first, of the earth, earthy, but the Lord from heaven, even in his bodily framework spiritual and glorious, in his whole human nature crowned with an honour and a majesty, which the eye of man in its earthly state cannot so much as look on without amazement, that future paradise, with its tree of life, must be exceedingly more excellent and glorious, than what originally existed in the new-formed earth. A better order of things shall then be established, because a higher state of being shall have been introduced. There shall not be the laying anew of earth's first foundations, but the raising of these aloft into the sphere of things heavenly and divine-not nature revived merely,

but nature glorified-humanity, not as it was in Adam, but as it now is in Christ, the glorious and mighty Lord of heaven, and a paradise fit for those to dwell in, a tree of life fit for those to partake of, who have been made like to the Son of God.

But are such promises as those referred to, really to be understood as speaking of an actual participation of a certain tree, destined to appear and grow for ever in the final habitation of the redeemed? Undoubtedly not; the language, as transferred to that heavenly region, is assuredly figurative, and we are no more to think of a literal tree, such as that which once stood in the centre of Eden, than of a literal manna, or a literal white stone, or the being literally set up as a pillar in the temple of God, which are equally promised to the faithful. These are all alike figurative expressions, employed to indicate, by such things as are known on earth, the future blessedness of the righteous; for by such things only can we, in our present state, form any idea of what awaits the people of God hereafter. Yet, though all are figurative, they have not the less a definite and intelligible meaning; and when promise is made us, not only of a paradise for our abode, but also of a tree of life in it for our food, an assurance is plainly given of something being provided for our glorified natures, corresponding to what the tree of life offered to the earthly frame of Adam. For him the tree of life was designed to minister the food of immortality; to sustain the principle of life without corruption or decay; in all probability imparting also a sense of pleasure and refreshment beyond what the common trees of the garden were capable of affording. The spiritual and refined natures of those who have entered into glory, shall certainly not need such carnal nourishment; they shall be cast in a higher mould; but still they shall be material frameworks, however exalted and ethereal in their temperament; and why may they not be capable of enjoymentwhy may they not even require support ministered from without by means suitable for the purpose? That this might be the case is not prevented by any conceivable impossibility in the nature of things; that it shall be so, is what the language of Scripture seems clearly to import; an immortal life is to be possessed, and supplies of nourishment for all its powers and faculties, its cravings of desire and capacities of enjoyment, shall be ever found within its reach. There all hunger shall be satisfied, and thirst for ever quenched; the inhabitant shall never say, "I am sick;" the flow of pure and blessed life in his nature, shall experience no ebb; the service, on which he waits, shall be performed without weariness and fatigue to his members; the freshness of perpetual youth, the strength and alacrity of angels, shall be his; for he has access to the very fountain of life, and enjoys the full inheritance of a son in his Father's house. Blessed, then, truly and beyond present conception, shall they be, "who do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

SECTION THIRD.

THE CHERUBIM AND THE FLAMING SWORD.

The truths symbolized by Adam's exclusion from the tree of life, have not been considered with any reference to the particular means employed for securing his exclusion, or to any change made regarding the occupation of the garden, in which the tree was placed. It might easily be conceived, that the flaming sword had no separate symbolical meaning, apart simply from being employed as a weapon of defence to guard the way to the tree of life, from the unwarranted approach of fallen man. But this cannot be conceived regarding the cherubim, which are said to have been placed in the garden after man's expulsion, and seem to have been in some way connected with the flaming sword; for the latter would manifestly have been of itself sufficient to prevent all access to the now forbidden region, and the other must have been added, because necessary to complete the symbolical instruction, which the objects of paradise were designed to furnish to the first race of worshippers. And as these cherubim will occur in another stage of our investigations, as occupying an important place in the tabernacle worship, we shall here, once for all, enter into a full examination of the light, which is thrown by the scattered intimations of Scripture on the nature of these symbolical figures. In this we shall make free use of the materials provided by Baehr, whose skilful and elaborate treatment of this symbol surpasses every thing we have seen upon the subject.*

It was customary in discussions upon the cherubim, both in this country and on the continent, to spend much labour in considering the derivation of the word cherub, with the view of determining the precise form and object of the cherubim. This line of inquiry, however, is now abandoned, as one that can lead to no certain or profitable result. The real origin and import of that word, is still a matter of doubtful disputation; and it is from other means of information than the name, that we are to form our ideas concerning it. All are agreed in this, that the cherub denotes a compound, and consequently an unreal, living creature, made up of four parts, those, namely, of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. How these component parts were united into one creature, and what parts of each respectively were visible in its appearance, is not particularly noticed in scripture, and has given rise to various representations, all fanciful, and some of them not a little disgusting. The truth seems to be, what Von Mayer was the first to advance, and Bachr concurs in, that the cherub was not fixed and uniform, but variable in its form; for thus only is it possible to reconcile the descriptions given of its appearance in different portions of Scripture. The cherubim seen by Ezekiel beneath the throne of God, are described as having each four faces and four wings, (chap. i. 6;) but those after

See Baehr's Symbolik, Vol. I. pp. 311-314, pp. 340-360, also Hengstenberg's Authentie, Vol. II. p. 643.

wards described by him, as represented on the walls of the temple, are affirmed to have had only two faces, (chap. xli. 18, 19.) In one place, (chap. x. 14,) we even read of the face of a cherub, as if it were properly but one; and in the directions given to Moses, for the construction of those which were to stand at each end of the ark of the covenant, it is expressly said, that their faces were to be made so as to look upon each other, and toward the mercy-seat, (Ex. xxv. 20,) which had been impossible if they each possessed four faces. There must have been some difference in the appearances presented by the cherubim of the ark, and those of the veil, the former being separate and independent figures, the latter woven as paintings into the curtain. That the predominating appearance was that of a man, seems to be implied by what is said in the fifth and sixth verses of the first chapter of Ezekiel; but the number of faces, of feet, of wings, and of hands, differed according to circumstances-the variation in each case, perhaps, being designed to adapt it more fitly to the leading object of the representation, to which it belonged, and the several variations tending the more certainly to make it be regarded as an unreal being, and so to prevent its being abused to purposes of superstition. But what were these artificial creatures designed to represent or signify? This is a more important question, than that which concerns their particular form and appearance, and will require longer investigation. The radical meaning of the word cherub, being involved in obscurity, can throw as little light upon this part of the inquiry as the other, and need not therefore receive any consideration. But there is another name, which is applied to them in Ezekiel, and from which something more definite, perhaps, may be learned. This name, which is a single word in the original, is rendered in our translation, living creatures, (Ez. i. 5, 13, 14,15, 19, 20, 21, 22; x. 15, 17,) and might perhaps be better rendered living ones. The Septuagint always renders it by wa; and this also, it will be remembered, is the word which is used by John in the Revelation to denote the four beings which he saw so often standing around the throne, and which are described by him as having the appearance of the four creatures which entered into the composition of the cherub,-viz. man, ox, lion, and eagle, (Rev. iv. 6, 7, 8, 9; v. 6, 8, 11, 14; vi. 1, 3, 5, 6, 7; vii. 11; xiv. 3; xv. 7; xix. 4.) In several of the places referred to, these beings are represented as speaking, as worshipping God, as taking part with the angels of God in the judgments he was going to inflict on the enemies of his church; which alone is sufficient to show, that the name applied to them is very improperly translated beasts, in the English, and many other versions of the Scriptures; as is also evident from the term properly signifying and correctly rendered beast, (Inpiov,) being throughout the Apocalypse distinctly used of the grand head of apostacy and rebellion, (chap. xi. 7; xiii. 1, &c.) There can be no doubt, both from the identity of name, and from the same number and kind of animal forms appearing in each case, that the living creatures in John are to be regarded as substantially one with