garding the cherubim, are all formed upon a partial view of the representations in Scripture, and can only be made to harmonize with a portion of these. That this must be the case with an opinion once very prevalent, which held them to be simply angelic natures, is obvious at first sight; for the component parts of the cherubic forms being all derived from this lower territory of nature, seems expressly designed to exclude the idea that they represented the beings or objects of another sphere.* The opinion of Michaelis, that they were a sort of "thunder-horses" of Jehovah, somewhat similar to the horses of Jupiter among the Greeks, has nothing to give it the slightest countenance in Scripture, unless it be the one passage in Ps. xviii. which, as we have seen, admits of being otherwise and more satisfactorily explained. The opinion of Herder, and several other Germans of more recent times, which regards the cherubim as originally feigned monsters, like the fabled dragons or griphins, which were supposed to guard certain precious treasures, hence represented first of all as appointed to keep and watch the closed gates of paradise, and afterwards placed by Moses in the sacred region which the people were forbidden to enter, but latterly changing their character and employed in a poetical manner as a creature of the imagination, this opinion is of too arbitrary a character, and deals too capriciously with the word of God, to need any particular refutation. It proceeds upon a false view of all the representations given of the cherubim, which were not even in the garden of Eden simply set up as formidable monsters, placed there to fray sinful men from approaching it, (if that had been all, the flaming sword alone had been sufficient,) nor were they placed at the door of the innermost sanctuary, as objects of terror, to guard its unapproachable sanctity, as on that hypothesis they should have been, but formed a part of its interior furniture, and while all the later notices of the cherubim confessedly represent them in a light quite different from the supposed original design, there is yet, when properly considered, a very close and intimate connexion between these later and the earlier accounts, so that it is scarcely possible to doubt that one and the same fundamental character belonged to all the representations. For the forms in John are evidently related to those in Ezekiel, these again to the cherubim in the temple of Solomon, which were themselves but copies of the Mosaic cherubim in the most holy place. As for the opinion of Spencer, that the cherubim, like most other parts of the Mosaic institutions, drew their origin from Egypt, and were formed in imitation of those compound monster images with which the religion of that country abounded, there is something in it so gross and heathenish, that few now, we should think, will be disposed to embrace it. Such compositions, it is well known, were by no means peculiar to Egypt; they were common to all heathen antiquity, abounding more, how

It is with some astonishment that we see this view revived in Elliot's Horæ Apocalyptica Introd., a work which generally displays a sound judgment, as well as extensive learning.

ever, in the east, than they did even in Egypt; and it is singular, that of all the compound monstrous forms, which earlier accounts have mentioned, and the more successful investigations of later times have brought to light from the remains of Egyptian idolatry, not one has any resemblance to the cherub,-the four creatureforms combined in it, seem never to have been so combined in Egypt, and the only thing approaching to it is to be found in India. It is therefore utterly gratuitous to assert that the cherubim were of Egyptian origin, since compound figures of that precise form did not exist in Egypt, and compound figures generally, were as much Indian, Persian, Chinese, Babylonian, or Grecian, as Egyptian. But a plain and important distinction exists between all the compound forms mixed up with the idolatry of these ancient countries, and the cherubim of Scripture; for in accordance with the whole character of heathen idolatry, which was the deification of nature, the former were immediate images and representations of Godhead itself, while the cherub is throughout represented as a creature, in palpable contradistinction to the Creator; and hence even in the most idolatrous periods of Israelitish history, it was never worshipped as an image of God. Combining in its different parts the highest forms and properties of life, as found in the visible world, it was a fit representation of what the intelligent head of this part of creation was to become when the work of God concerning him was perfected; and appearing as a creature, servant or minister of Jehovah, its active obedience and adoration was like the homage of all creation to its Maker. This creaturely character of the cherubim is also fatal to another opinion, the only other we shall mention, according to which they are viewed as symbols immediately of divine perfections, or personifications of Godhead attributes. Men of great name have adopted that viewPhilo, Grotius, Bochart, Rosenmuller, De Wette,-but it is utterly at variance with the essential nature of the cherubim, as representative of creature-powers and creature-life; and, indeed, though there had been more uncertainty than there is, as to this being the real character of the cherubim, yet we do not see how they could have been regarded as symbols of divine perfections, or personifications of divine attributes, without standing in evident contradiction to the second commandment. It would surely have been the greatest incongruity to have forbidden, in the strongest terms and with the severest penalties the making of any likeness of God, and at the same time to have set up certain symbols or likenesses of his perfections in the very region of his presence. No image or palpable representation could be admitted of any thing but what immediately and properly belonged to the creature; man himself, as a thinking, spiritual, moral being was the only image of himself, which God intended to exist here below; and the nearest possible connexion the cherubim could have with him, was, that as symbolizing by an ideal combination the highest powers and properties of life, which man in his restored condition was destined to possess, they served as a prophetic witness of that divine glory,

which the new creation, and especially man the head of it, should yield to God.*

It only remains that we shortly sum up what has partly been indicated already, the place and bearing which the cherubim in Eden were intended to have in the early worship of God. In considering this, it must be borne in mind what the account in Scripture, as well as the reason of the thing, justifies us in doing, that the cherubim there were not like those in the hidden sanctuary of the temple, fixed and inanimate creatures, but like those in Ezekiel and Revelation, possessing the appearance of life in the highest state of activity, and surrounded with the brightest radiations of divine glory. It is also to be borne in mind, that though connected with the flaming sword to the extent of being, along with it, instituted guardians of the way to the tree of life, they were not so connected as to be visibly united with it, brandishing the sword, as has sometimes been supposed, in their hands, nor could the first worshippers have any reason to regard them as ministers of vengeance. They saw them, indeed, occupying a region which none but holy creatures could possess, and which must, as a testimony for the righteousness of Heaven, be kept free from the encroachments of sinful men. In this point of view, their occupation of Eden must have afforded a perpetual sign and witness of the absolute holiness of God, and that as connected with the everlasting life, of which the tree in the midst of the garden was the appropriate food. This life had become for the present a lost privilege and inheritance to man, because sin had entered and defiled his nature; and other instruments must take his place to keep up the testimony of God, which he was no longer fitted to maintain.

But while in this respect the cherubim in Eden served to keep up the remembrance of man's guilt, as opposed to the righteousness of God, the chief purpose of their appointment was evidently of a friendly nature-a sign and emblem of hope. They would not of themselves, perhaps, have been sufficient to awaken in the bosom of man the hope of immortality, yet, when that hope had been brought in by other means, as we have seen it was, they came to confirm and establish it. For why should the keeping, of the tree of life have been committed to them? They were not its natural and proper guardians; neither was it planted to nourish the principle of an undying life in them; they were but temporary occupants of the region where it grew, and being ideal creatures, whatever they kept, must obviously have been kept for others, not for themselves. Their presence, therefore, around the tree of life, with visible manifestations of divine glory, bespoke a purpose of mercy toward the fallen. It told that the ground lost by the cunning of the tempter, was not finally abandoned to his power and

I have not thought it necessary to give any account or refutation of the opinion of Parkhurst and the Hutchinsonian school, according to which the cherubim were, in the proper sense," emblematical of the ever-blessed Trinity in covenant to redeem man;" for the idea is in itself so extravagant, so destitute of any just foundation in the nature of the symbol, and so flagrantly at variance with the purport of the second commandment, that any special consideration of it were needless.

malice, but was yet to be re-occupied by the beings for whom it was originally prepared; and that in the mean time, and as a sure pledge of the coming restoration, Heaven kept possession of it by means specially appointed for the purpose. Eden thus had the appearance of an abode, though for the present lost, yet reserved in safe and faithful keeping for its proper owners against the time when they should be provided with a righteousness qualifying them for a return to its pure and blessed privileges; and there was set before the family of man a standing pledge that the now forfeited condition of immortality would be restored.

It would not be difficult, we conceive, for the first race of worshippers, with the aptness they possessed for symbolical instruction, to go a step farther than this, and derive one lesson more from the appearance of the cherubim in Eden. While these could not fail to be regarded as witnesses for God's holiness, in opposition to man's sin, and signs of God's purpose to rescue from the power and malice of the tempter what had been lost; they would also very naturally suggest the thought that the fulfilment of that purpose would even more than recover what was lost. These ideal creatures, which were placed for a season in paradise in man's room, united in their compound structure powers and faculties super-additional to those which were now possessed by man, or had ever been his-combining with man's intelligence the capacity for productive labour and usefulness peculiar to the ox, the might and dominion of the lion, the winged speed and far-seeing penetration of the eagle. The garden of God, and the tree of life, as emblems of hope to the church, being now in the keeping of creatures, possessed of such a singular combination of qualities, was surely fitted to awaken the conviction, that a higher place and destiny was to be won for man in the new creation; and that when the lost inheritance should be recovered, and the restitution of all things should take place, the nature of man should be endowed with other gifts and faculties for the service of God, than it originally possessed. Eden was not only maintained in its primeval honour after the fall, but it seemed rather to have gained by that unhappy event; higher beings kept possession of its treasures, brighter manifestations of divine glory hung around its approach; clearly indicating to the eye of faith that the tempter should be more than foiled, and that what tended in the first instance to defeat the purpose, and deface the blessed workmanship of God, should be ultimately overruled in his providence, for ennobling and beautifying this territory of creation.

SECTION FOURTH.

THE PRIMITIVE MODE OF WORSHIP BY SACRIFICE.

The symbols, to which our attention has hitherto been directed, were simply ordinances of teaching. They spake, in language perfectly intelligible, of the righteous character of God, of the evil

of sin, of the moral and physical ruin it had brought upon the world, of a plan and purpose of recovery, and other collateral points; but they did nothing more. There were no rites of service connected with them, nor of themselves did they call men to do any thing in outward action, expressive of the knowledge of divine things they were the means of conveying. But religion must have its active services, as well as its teaching ordinances: the one furnish light and direction, only that the other may be in-. telligently performed; and a symbolical religion, if it could ever be said to exist, could certainly not have perpetuated itself, or kept alive the knowledge of divine truth in the world, without the regular recurrence of one or more symbolical actions, fitted to call forth religious ideas and feelings. Now, the only action of this kind, which makes its appearance in the first ages of the world, and the one which continued to hold, through all the after stages of symbolical worship, the paramount place, was the rite of sacrifice. We are not told, it is true, of the institution of this rite in immediate connexion with the fall; and the silence of inspired history regarding it till Cain and Abel had reached the season of manhood, has left room for much disputation concerning the origin of sacrifice,-whether it was of divine appointment, or of human invention! And if the latter, to what circumstances in man's condition, or to what views and feelings naturally arising in his mind, might it owe its existence? In the investigation of these questions, a line of inquiry has not unfrequently been pursued, more becoming the character of philosophers, than that of Christian divines; the solution being sought for in certain abstract views of human nature, and the annals of a remote and semi-barbarous heathenism, as if Scripture were altogether silent upon the subject, till we come far down the stream of time. If we really take it for our guide, the properly debateable ground regarding the rise and original nature of sacrifice, narrows itself to a very limited period of time-that, namely, which stretches from the fall of Adam, to the time when Cain and Abel presented their offerings to God; for from that period, verging too on the very commencement of the world's history, we are expressly told, that sacrifice of one kind had a recognised and appointed place in the worship of God. Not only are these first-born of Adam's family presented to us as worshippers at an altar, but by some visible token of acceptance-in all probability by sending down fire from heaven to consume the offering-God gave clear and undoubted proof in the case of Abel, that the mode of worship employed by him was sanctioned and approved by Heaven. From that period, therefore, at least, sacrifice of a certain kind held a sure and well-ascertained place in the public worship of God; it bore full upon it the warrant and approbation of Heaven; and if there had been any room for doubt concerning it during the brief space, which intervened between the fall, and the time of Abel's accepted offering, it was then, and thenceforth determined beyond all dispute, to be a mode of worship, to which God set to the seal of his authority. We should