of cloud and fire marching over the host above; see the host beneath under their fourfold banners of the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle, marching under and within the circuit of his throne; see all without the camp unclean, and every unclean person put forth of it; and you have, I think, the origin of the symbol of God enthroned upon the cherubim, and the cherubim restricted to the limits of his throne,—likewise of the New Jerusalem, the throne of the Lord (Jer. iii. 17), into which nothing entereth that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life (Rev. xxi. 27): "And without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (Rev. xxii. 15.) I can give no better account of the origin of these forms, than the tradition which the Jews have handed down to us, that they were engraven upon the four cardinal standards of the tribes. The lion of the tribe of Judah and the ox of Ephraim are certainly referred to in the blessings of these tribes (Gen. xlix. 9; Deut. xxxiii. 17). Reuben's blessing, in both these places, doth also carry the same reference to the man; but wherefore Dan should have the eagle I know not, but rest contented with the agreement of the Jewish writers that it was so. As to the silence which is maintained in the Books of Moses with respect to these standards, the same silence is maintained with respect to the form of the cherubim, which is not given until they were exhibited to Ezekiel on the eve of their departure. Upon the whole, therefore, we give our judgment for this interpretation of the forms of the cherubim; and we remark how it confirms the conjecture we have thrown out, that they refer to the church in the wilderness, that is, the church as it hath been since the day of Pentecost: while the symbol of twenty-four elders, taken from the temple service in the days of David, refers to the church settled in the kingly, priestly state; that is, to the saints who lived under the former dispensation, wherein the kingdom was an essential part, being the first-fruits of the kingdom to come, even as to us the Spirit is the first-fruits of the spiritual Jerusalem to come.

But when all this hath been said and admitted, it amounts to no more than the ascertaining of the type by

which the church was represented, and in the language of which it is symbolically described. And the deeper question still remains, Why is this type chosen? What truth of God's church doth it represent ?-Each of these four creatures from whom the likenesses are taken, is a ruler and sovereign in its kind. Man is the sovereign of all God's works, visible and invisible. He was so created in Adam; and in Christ he is so in actual and eternal operation. The lion is the lord of the unclean and untamed beasts. The ox is the head of all the clean beasts which might be offered in sacrifice, and was required at the hand of a prince and a priest when atonement was made for them. The eagle is the head of the feathered fowls of heaven. Sovereignty or dominion, therefore, I think, is manifestly contained in the choice of each of these similitudes: and, in the union of them all, I think universal sovereignity to be clearly denoted. For, combine them into one, and what have you? man the sovereign of the rational or the spiritual, of all life which looketh up to God, and hath any portion of his image; the eagle, the sovereign of all life which dwelleth in the airy firmament, of all that is brought forth by the waters; the lion and the ox dividing between them the sovereignty of the clean and the unclean creatures, formed out of the dust of the ground. This division into clean and unclean, which is the most ancient of Divine distinctions, expresseth the eternal truth, as seems to me, of a portion of creation in a closer covenant with God than another portion. This was not a distinction made by the Law, but older than the Deluge; and though, to us who are spiritual, it be removed, there are positive declarations in all Scripture, especially in the last chapter of Ezekiel, of its being introduced again, when the dispensations of God shall revert to their natural from their present supernatural course,—against which time it is declared, Ezek. xvi. 62, that the Jews shall be in a closer covenant with God than the other nations: and during the same period it is said of the New Jerusalem, that "without are dogs," which are the unclean creatures. This indicates to me an eternal truth of a distinction in creation, between the holy and the unholy, between the redeemed and the unredeemed, between the saved and the lost. And perhaps it is for

:

the purpose of including both these departments of creation, that the lion and the ox are introduced. But, be this as it may, the conclusion seems to me to stand good, that another use of this fourfold form is to represent the dominion of all life as resident in these living creatures; the spiritual church which upbeareth the throne of God, and hath its eternal dwelling place in the New Jerusalem, where is the throne of Jehovah, answering exactly to that sovereignty which is given to Christ, and his body the church, in the last verses of the first chapter of Ephesians Christ head over all, the church the fulness of him that filleth all in all, all other things under their feet. He that sitteth upon the throne, and the throne itself are one; instinct with one life; speaking with one voice: it is a compound symbol, like the New Jerusalem, which is at once the wife and city of our God. And thus to represent the throne of our God and his Christ, by all the forms of nature over which they rule, by the life formed from the waters, by the twofold life, holy and unholy, in heaven and hell, formed from the earth, by the life of the invisible and rational spirit, this seemeth to me both areasonable and noble device. How often have I seen Britannia enthroned upon the subject personifications of Asia, and Africa, and America! It is, as if to set it forth familiarly, our king's throne should be composed of a piece from every sort of tree which grows within his dominions. If I mistake not, this same method of representation will be found at the bottom of the supporters in heraldry. The substance of this observation therefore is, that all creation shall be subject to the church, both spirits and things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; that the throne of God exerciseth sway over all invisible being, all being in the heavens, all being on the earth, and all being under the earth in the unholy places.

There is another observation which I have to make upon the fourfold form of the living creatures, and which I value the more as being derived from this book itself; for, of all things, I love to be guided and directed in my interpretations by the word of God. Each of them taketh a part in one of the first four seals; and in their order of first, second, third, and fourth. Now from the character of those seals we may obtain some insight into the cha

racter of the four living creatures. Without advancing any theory of the seals, it is manifest that the first, with which the lion hath to do, is mighty, large, and triumphant conquest; the second, with which the calf hath to do, is bloodshed and slaughter; the third, with which the man hath to do, sad and sore famine; and the fourth, with which the eagle hath to do, is general destruction by plague, war, famine, and the wild beasts of the earth. To understand what part the four living creatures have in this, it must be known that the action of the seals is to rid the earth of its oppressors, and to take possession of it for the Lamb, whose right it is. He opens the seals of successive judgment upon the oppressors of the earth, and each of the living creatures sympathizing therewith, and no doubt having a hand therein within the veil, calls the attention of the seer to what is effected. The lionlike cherub, according to this scheme, expresseth the roaring of Christ against his enemies, his scattering and discomfiting them (Isai. xxxi. 4), this answereth well to the lion of Judah, as described (Gen. xlix. 9); the ox-cherub expresseth that which is proper to the ox to tread out with violence, to thrash the nations; and this again answereth well to Ephraim (Hos. x. 11), and it also answers well to Ephraim's destiny (Deut. xxxiii. 17). The connection of the man-cherub with the third seal is more difficult to understand and, at present, I can only say, that if it be famine which is signified in the seal, it shews the general affliction and woe which it spreads over mankind; if it be spiritual famine, then it signifies the faintness and misery into which the reasonable creation of God is brought and how the general carnage which attends the fourth seal is connected with the eagle-faced cherub is well explained, referring to Rev. xix. 17, where unto such a carnage all the fowls of heaven are summoned. But I confess that the result of this observation doth not satisfy me. If there be a specific appropriateness of each cherub to each seal, then it is, I take it, something deeper and fuller than I have expressed above. Perhaps there is no such appropriateBut this is not the place for further research. There is yet another method of sounding the great depth. of truth, which is contained in the symbol of the four living creatures; which is, by studying the points of agree

ness.

:

ment and disagreement between Ezekiel and John, and trying what can be made out from this.-(1) I have studied much, and been sore distressed, to come at the reason why those four wheels, which are attached to the four cherubim of Ezekiel, and have one spirit with them, and are full of eyes like they, and instinct with the same motion and will, should be wanting in the vision of our text. My notion of what Ezekiel saw is, that these four cherubim and these four wheels did upbear together, as it were, on four sides the basement of the throne of God, which is described by Daniel as having wheels like burning fire (vii. 9). These wheels revolve not, which would give them a motion of their own: whereas the object of the Holy Spirit is to make us to understand, that the whole complex body of cherubim and wheels was instinct with one life, was one living thing, whose complication of appearance is merely to increase the expressiveness of it as a device of God, for conveying much truth unto his church. Why then are these wheels wanting in John's vision? The natural answer is, Because the throne is now come to a state of rest; whereas formerly it was in a state of motion, and did wheel itself from place to place, and finally mounted up from the earth and disappeared by the way of the east (Ezek. x.); and will not return again till the Jews are restored (Ezek. xliii.) And why, it may be asked, is that cherubic throne come to rest? The answer is found in the first verse of the cxth Psalm: "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make all thine enemies thy footstool;" and in Heb. iv. 10: "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." Therefore it is, I think, that the throne is without its wheels. What these wheels attached to the cherubim may signify is another question, which belongeth rather to the interpretation of Ezekiel than of John. I know no better account of it than, that the church is the cause of all the motion, and change, and revolution in the providence of God; that there is one spirit in providence and grace; that the church is the ultimate end of every work of God upon the earth. (2) It hath also been a subject of much meditation with me, why the cherubim of Ezekiel should be under the firmament of the throne, and the cherubim of John above, upon it. And of this I can give no account,