But the evidence, my dear friend, is by no means closed. We have as yet examined but one witness; and, indeed, have heard but a small part of his testimony. He will appear again before us. And, besides Moses, we have Isaiah, Ezekiel, and St. John, to examine; and the evidence of the second of these will be found more full than that of either of his brethren. In addition to this we shall find some incidental notices of the subject in the other inspired writers, which are not without their importance in the argument. For the present I must take my leave of you, praying that He who inhabited THE CHERUBIM,* may dwell in your heart by faith, and also in the heart of

Your faithful and affectionate brother,

Symbolically; as afterwards, substantially, "God was in Christ:" In Him the whole fulness" (viz. of the Godhead) was pleased to dwell." Col. i. 19. comp. ch. ii 9.

be rendered « who dwelleth or ישב הכרובים Why should

sitteth between the Cherubim, since there is no preposition in either of the passages where this description of the Divine Majesty occurs? 1 Sam. iv. 4. 2 Sam. vi. 2. 2 Kings xix. 15. Isai. xxxvii. 16. Ps. lxxx. 1. xcix. 1. are, I believe, all the places in which this description is found.

LETTER XVII.

THE CHERUBIM ON THE MERCY-SEAT.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THE manner in which St. Paul has spoken of the law of Moses, or the whole Mosaic dispensation, in two of his epistles, seems to demand attention in writing on the subject to which this letter will be devoted. That subject is the symbolic intention of the CHERUBIC IMAGES on the mercy-seat, in the Holy of holies of the Tabernacle and Temple. The Apostle speaks of the Mosaic institution under the character of an intermediate dispensation, designed to answer certain purposes which he states, during a limited period. It was a sort of parenthesis in the great plan of mercy, which, though connected with that which preceded it and that which followed it, was not absolutely essential to the plan itself." It was added because of transgressions,”* viz. added

* Gal. iii. 19. ΤΩΝ ΠΑΡΑΒΑΣΕΩΝ χαριν προσεθετη, It was added because of the deviations, viz. from the patriarchal doctrine and practice, and especially from the purity of the prefigurative institutions which had been Divinely appointed on the expulsion of man from Paradise, but which had been corrupted, and

to the covenant, the dispensation of mercy,* before revealed in the promise made to Abraham, and which had been so confirmed that no intermediate institution could make any alteration in it. This parenthetical dispensation was, to those who were under it, "a school-master to lead them to Christ," by exhibiting their need of such a Saviour in a clearer light, and by symbolizing, in all its types, what the Saviour when He came, was to be, to do, and to suffer. (See Gal. iii. 15, &c.) By partaking of the nature both of the original dispensation under which the first Adam, and his posterity in him, were placed before the fall, and also of that into which those who are in union with the second Adam are brought; it discovered in the fullest point of view the impossibility of justification by any law of works; or that, "if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law;" and that "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of

thereby rendered obscure and unintelligible, not only in the world at large, but also among the descendants of Abraham, during their abode in Egypt. In order therefore to restore the purity of typical exhibition, and so to renew the expectation of the promised Saviour, the introduction of the Mosaic code became a necessary provision of Divine mercy. That code was, like its more simple predecessor of the patriarchal age, "a shadow of good things to come," when its substance should be revealed to the world by the Gospel of Christ.

* διαθηκη not συνθήκη

Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."

Such, then, being the character and design of the Mosaic institute, we may expect to find that it confirms and explains all the parts of that dispensation of mercy in which it forms a parenthesis. And accordingly we have seen evidence in our past inquiries, and shall find more in those which are before us, that this is the case.

I shall now transcribe the several passages of Scripture relating to THE CHERUBIM in the sanctuary of the Tabernacle and Temple, to which I wish to call your attention, and then make some remarks on them.

"Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold. two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two CHERUBIM of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy-seat. And make one CHERUB on the one end, and the other CHERUB on the other end; even of the mercy-seat" (or marg. of the matter of the mercy-seat) "shall ye make THE CHERUBIM, on the two ends thereof. And THE CHERUBIM shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy-seat shall their faces be. And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above the ark, and in the ark shalt thou put the testimony that I shall

give thee. And there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercyseat, from between the two CHERUBIM which are upon the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." (Exod. xxv. 17-22. See also 2 Chron. iii. 10-13.)

The execution of these orders given to Moses on the mount, is recorded in Exodus xxxvii. 6-9: "And he made the mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And he made two CHERUBIM of goid, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy-seat: one CHERUB on (marg. out of) the end on this side, and another CHERUB on (marg. out of) the end on that side: out of the mercyseat made he THE CHERUBIM on the two ends thereof. And THE CHERUBIM spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy-seat, with their faces one to another, even toward the mercy-seat were the faces of THE CHERUBIM."

The account given of THE CHERUBIM in the Holy of holies of Solomon's Temple, differs not from that which I have already transcribed, except that it is more concise in the description, and that it states their dimensions to have been larger. A repetition of the minuter particulars was unnecessary; but, as the Temple was so much