to get quit of the Cherubim by way of Prevention. But the Learned Mr. Jofeph Mede, (to whofe Judgment he submits) fays that they were four Standards, and that St. John's Vifions were the fame, and cites Aben-Ezra, and two other Apoftates, (what had the Rabbies to do with the Apocalypfe?) that the Lion referred to our Saviour; the Ox to Trajan; the Man to Septimus Severus; and the Eagle to Maximinus and makes their Agreement an Argument of the Omnisciency of God.

3

His Party already own, that he has outdone his Master the when he hath

allowed that, p. 8. the Hebrew Scriptures are the Repofitory of all divine Knowledge; and has taken upon him to blufter and bully one, who has afferted their Meaning in this and other Points; and afterwards comes and fays, it may be this, or that, or nothing, and at laft refers his incapable Self to the Opinion of another who knew nothing, but ftill refers to others, &c.

All he produces from the Apoftate Jews, their innumerable Conftructions and Stories about the fame thing. all he afferts himself, his feveral Offers about one Object, are Proofs that either they, or

he

he would say any thing to get quit of thefe Words; but that neither of them knew what to say. So proves he knew nothing of the Matter, nor defigned to fet Mr. Catcott right; but to evade the Authority of the Scriptures, and destroy the Evidence, he has produced for Chrif tianity.

Guffetius, in his Preface, joins with Scaliger, that each Hebrew Root has but one Idea; and he fhews and gives his Reafons, that they are not to be taken from Arabick, or other Oriental Dialects, nor from Conftructions of the Rabbies; and that we are not to depend upon the LXX, or other Greek Verfions, nor on the Vulgate, or other Oriental Verfions, or on New Verfions, nor are we to take the Grammar from any of their Rules, but to examine each Word in the Hebrew Scripture, by the Ufage in itself, with Rules, &c. So explodes every one of the Authorities, the Obfervators have produced, to derive or fupport their Significations of the Words in Contest.

If thefe Creatures who' call themselves the Obfervators were but indifferent between Right and Wrong, or had any Inclination to be fet right, they might fee by the Epithets afcribed to the Cherubim,

fuch

of being צעצעים ,Council חשב fuch as

Carriers away of Captives home with them, cited The Use of Reafon recovered, p. 56. that they are right construed; and by the Descriptions of the Visages of the Man and the Lion, Ezek. xli. 20. by My- &c. in Ifa. li. &c. cited in The Ufe of Reason, p. 232, 233. that Chrift was two of them united.

צעה

These Inftitutions by Hieroglyphicks or Emblematical Exhibition or Reprefentation, under the Figures of four living Creatures, of the Actors and Actions to be and be performed in the Redemption of Man, called the Cherubim, the four Beafts, who were to keep the Way to the Tree of Lives, who had had the Typical Prefence the Oracle in them, and the Glory above them, and before whofe Emblematical Faces all Emblematical Actions had been performed on Earth, and before whom the Typical Atonement to be exhibited in Heaven had been exhibited in the Type of it, the Sanctum San&torum When the Perfon of the Effence in Man had performed what was exhibited on Earth, and was gone to exhibit what was to be done in Heaven, and was by Covenant poffeffed of all Power to rule those he had purchased, deftroy the Adversaries,

and

and was to have the Glory, the Love and Adoration, and whofe Denomination was He that fitteth upon the Throne, and whofe Reprefentative was the Lamb, the very Perfon the Obfervator is for setting afide; the four Beafts were to give way, to furrender to the Lamb.

As Hieroglyphicks were framed and

inftituted at firft for Men who had not been taught Languages and Sciences, and were a Species of Evidence which gives the ftrongeft Ideas, and which might be defcribed in any Language; fo at last the Apocalypfe feems to have been writ in that manner for the better Information of those who had been used to them, and who had thefe forts of Hieroglyphicks preferved and ftanding, but did not underftand the Hebrew Language; so for any that fhould afterwards acquire the understanding of either or both, the one being the Images of the Things, the other the Words for them. So we find in the Apocalypfe, which is most of it writ in this manner, when he comes to this Part, Rev. iii. 21. cited Introd. to M.-fine Principio, p. 218. To him that overcometh will I grant to fit with me in my Throne, even as I alfo overcame, and am fet down with my Father in his Throne.

Rev. iv. 2. One fat on the Throne, de fcribed, 6. And in the midst of the Throne, and round about the Throne, were four Beafts full of Eyes before and behind,

the certain Emblem of the Prefence or Omniscience in them. Thefe Creatures, according to the various Scenes, are placed in different Orders, Ezek. i. 10. The Man and the Lion, the Ox, the Eagle. x. 14. The Bull, the Man, the Lion, the Eagle. xli. 19. The Man and the Lion. xliii. 15. And from the Lion of God and upward fhall be four Horns: Till then the Prefence was in them all, fo they all full of Eyes. Here Rev. iv. 7. This is a fhort Scene, and the Time not to be mistaken.

The

Lion acted without the Man before the Incarnation, and after Union they were parted for fome time before the Death, and after the Death of the Humanity till Refurrection; whether after the Death of the Body till its Refurrection the Soul was feparated from the Effence, I determine not now; after the Effence had performed his Part, he claimed his Right, and all Power was furrendered. He took the Rule or Government of this System and Man, and took Precedence. After he had left the Humanity, the Influence of the Holy Spirit was upon or in it; fo