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opened in heaven;* and the first voice that I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto Crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were FOUR ANIMALS, full of eyes before and behind. And the first ANIMAL was like a lion, and the second ANIMAL like a calf, and the third ANIMAL had the face of a man, and the fourth ANIMAL was like a flying

* Ev TQ spavw, THE heaven, mystically so called.

† ΤΩ ερανω, THAT heaven.

See Letter XXIV.

§ The word animals is substituted for "beasts," because neither the eagle nor the man can be denominated beasts. Zwoy signifies a living creature or animal.

eagle. And the FOUR ANIMALS had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not, day and night,* saying, 'HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHICH WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME.' And when those ANIMALS give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” '†

This vision of the CHERUBIM is the first with which St. John was favoured, and he has given the largest and most particular account of it. It should therefore be considered as a clew to those which follow; and I shall request your special regard and close attention to a consideration of this first apocalyptic view of the subject.

You will remember that the Revelation of St.

* There is no night in the heavenly state, wherein angels dwell; consequently the scene must be laid in the church on earth.

† Col. i. 16. “ All things were created by Him and for Him" who is " the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature," and whom St. John saw sitting on the

throne.

John is throughout of a scenical kind. The information it conveys is furnished by means of hieroglyphics: and what the Apostle saw was not real but visionary; the scenes being presented to his imagination, and not to his bodily senses. The scenery of the vision now before us, is borrowed intirely from the Temple at Jerusalem. Like Ezekiel (chap. i. 1,) St. John saw the "heaven opened;" and in the mystic heaven presented to his mind there was a Temple: or perhaps that heaven was itself the Temple which he saw. (Comp. chap. xiv. 17. and xv. 8.) In this Temple there was a throne, answering to the mercy-seat, the throne of Grace in the Temple of Solomon, on which sat the same Divine Personage who was seen by Isaiah and Ezekiel in their corresponding visions. Before the throne were "seven lamps of fire," or the seven-branched golden candlestick, which is explained as symbolizing "the seven spirits of God," the mystic number seven denoting the perfection of his agency in the covenant of redemption. "In the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were FOUR ANIMALS, full of eyes."

Now is it not necessary, my friend, to identify the ANIMALS of the Apocalypse with the CHERUBIM of Moses and Ezekiel, and with the SERAPHIM of Isaiah? Can we avoid doing so, when we consider that the FOUR ANIMALS of St. John are of the same species of which the Quadriform

CHERUB of Ezekiel consisted?* The station of the FOUR ANIMALS corresponds with that of the CHERUBIM in the Temple; for both were placed "in the midst of the throne" on which they stood, while, by the shadow of their wings, they were also "round about the throne." The attribute of a fulness of eyes is ascribed both to the CHERUBIM of Ezekiel and to the ANIMALS of St. John; and the attestation of the SERAPHIM in Isaiah is the same that is made by the apocalyptic ANIMALS. Can we hesitate about the identity of the objects presented to the minds of these several Prophets, or of the whole with the scenery of the Temple?

But what is the inference we are to draw from the station and attributes of the apocalyptic ANIMALS? Shall we place created angels, or the four evangelists, "in the midst of the throne" of God; or shall we ascribe to the one or the other that omniscience which is denoted by being "full of eyes before and behind ?"

There is nothing I conceive, which obliges us to understand the FOUR ANIMALS as having been presented to the imagination of St. John distinct and separate from each other. On the contrary,

* To this it is no objection that one of the Animals is called by St. John a calf, and not an ox as it is by Ezekiel; for the words ταυρος, βες, aud μοσχος are used indiferently in the LXX version for animals of the beeve kind.

↑ Launæus existimat Joannis animalia non minus quadriformia fuisse quam Ezechielis; Joannem autem eam solummodo singulorum faciem descripsisse, quæ, ipsi adversa, plena apparebat.

the particular mention of the man's face, ver. 7, while no mention is made of the faces of the other animals, may intimate what Ezekiel has more fully described, that the face of the man was conjoined with that of another animal in his compound figure. And if we may suppose, reasoning from the analogy of the visions as already proved, that St. John saw two compound symbols, we may account for the ascription of wings to each in ver. 8, without confounding the persons or dividing the substance.

But that to which I wish more particularly to draw your attention in the passage I have transcribed, is the office therein assigned to the CHERUBIC emblems, which appears to me to correspond with that which I have supposed them to have held in all the previous exhibitions, at Paradise, in the Temple, and in the several prophetic visions. The office is that of joint witnesses and approvers with respect to the great redemption. Previous to the first coming of our Lord their testimony had relation to the work of atonement, as to be accomplished and accepted in the fulness of time; and subsequently

Cujus rei hæe fortasse causa sit, quod Joannes animalia cerneret in circuitu throni stantia, eundemque semper servantia situm; Ezechiel autem ea viderit excurrentia, revertentia, et horsum vorsum sese motitantia, unde diversas eorum facies facilius dignoscere potuerit. Quoted by Witsius, Egyptiaca, Lib. ii. cap. xiii. sect. 24.

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