has treated the subject. There is a minuteness of description, and a repetition in some of its material parts, which seem to fix a high degree of importance on it. Nothing trivial surely can be intended by imagery so described. I should be led, by the very phraseology, to look for some mystery of deep import intended to be conveyed by it, a mystery much deeper than the ministry of angels or the human ministry of the Gospel.

I must add that THE CHERUBIM appear to be called the faces or persons of Jehovah; for when the manna was ordered to be laid up "before the faces of "Jehovah," Aaron is said, in fulfilment of this order, to have laid it up "before the faces of the Testimony," by which is meant the ark with THE CHERUBIM upon it.

You will observe that neither of the passages of Scripture which has yet come before us, has furnished any account of the figure of the CHERUB. But this defect will be abundantly supplied, when we take into our review the visions of Ezekiel. Moses in Genesis and Exodus, (and the remark will also apply to the books of Kings and Chronicles) speaks of the CHERUBIM as well known to those for whom he wrote. These figures had existed from the time of the expulsion from Paradise, and had been a constant appendage to the sacred

לפני תערה *

Tabernacle, which, from that period, had been used among believers as the place of Divine worship. At the time when Ezekiel wrote, after the captivity, it should seem that the knowledge of these emblems was, in part at least, lost; and that his visions were intended, among other ends proposed in them, to revive this important knowledge.

For further particulars then, on this interesting subject, I must refer you to a future letter, and am, in the mean time,

LETTER XVIIL

THE SERAPHIM OF ISAIAH.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

We are brought, in the course of our inquiry concerning the doctrine of THE Cherubim, to the glorious vision of the evangelical Prophet Isaiah, which is recorded in the sixth chapter of his prophecies. That this vision is connected with the CHERUBIC images, which were placed, by Divine command, on the mercy-seat of the most holy place, in the Tabernacle of Moses, and in the Temple of Solomon, and also with the subsequent visions of Ezekiel and St. John, hereafter to be considered, is, I think, unquestionable. In this, indeed, we have, so far as I know, the unanimous suffrage of those who interpret the hieroglyphic in a manner very different from that which I have adopted: and I am satisfied that when you have compared the several editions, if I may so speak, of the CHERUBIC Symbol, you will be of the same opinion.

After laying before you the account which the Prophet has given of his vision, I shall briefly call your attention to its general object, the iden

tity of the SERAPHIM with the CHERUBIM of the Temple, the scene of the vision, its principal figure, the throne on which He sat, the position of the Seraphim, their number, their wings, their proclamation of the glory of Jehovah, and the act which one of them is stated to have performed. The result, I conceive, will be, that you will concur with me in the general view of my letters, that they represented neither created angels, nor human messengers, but The Three Persons in the Divine Essence.

The Prophet's account of his vision is as follows: "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the Temple. Above it stood the Seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And One cried unto Another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts. Then flew one of the Seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and

said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." (Isai. vi. 1-7.)

The general object of this vision appears to have been to make known the certainty and glory of the Messiah's kingdom, to be manifested at a time when the Jewish nation would be sunk into a state of the lowest ignorance and the greatest obduracy, and would be on the verge of the most tremendous desolation. That it had a primary reference to the Babylonish captivity, and the moral state of the Jews which led to it, is highly probable; but that it looked forward to their moral state previous to their last and long dispersion, is certain from the application which the Evangelists and Apostles have made of the ninth and tenth verses. (See Matth. xiii. 14, 15; John xii. 39. 40; Acts xxviii. 25, 26; Rom. xi. 8.) And one of these quotations clearly evinces, that the vision had respect to the erection of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah at the time when the Jews would be in the depths of judicial blindness and hardness of heart; for St. John, after mentioning their deplorable spiritual condition, adds, "These things said Esaias when he saw His glory," that of the King Messiah, “and spake of Him." Should you wish to see more on the subject of this prophecy, I refer you with much satisfaction to the learned commentary of Vitringa, though I differ from him on the subject of the SERAPHIC exhibition.