of fins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I fay, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jefus. The Doctrine of the Wheels, in the Vifions of Ezekiel, Opened and Explained. Preached April 25, 1765, to an Affembly of Minifters and Churches, at the Meeting-House of the Rev. Mr ANDERSON, in Grafton-street, Westminster. EZEKIEL X. 13. As for the Wheels, it was cried unto them in my bearing, O Wheel. SOME OME time ago, on a public occafion, I delivered a difcourfe (fince printed) concerning the Cherubim, or Living Creatures, frequently mentioned in thefe vifions of Ezekiel; and I then intimated, that as by the Cherubim we are to understand the Minifters of the Gofpel; fo by the Wheels, the Churches of Chrift under the Gospel-difpenfation. And fince I am about to preach to an affembly of Churches, there can be no impropriety in treating on such a subject at this time. Various are the interpretations given of these Wheels. The more commonly received sense of them is, that they fignify the World, and all things in it, which are changeable, unfettled, and uncertain; and the Providences of God, which are various and different, and caufe changes, revolutions, and viciffitudes, in men and things: one generation paffeth away, and another cometh; fome are wheeling out of the world, and others wheeling into it; things whirl about continually as the wife man says of the wind, and return again according to their circuits; and yet they are not carried by a blind impetus, but are under the guidance of unerring wifdom, and under the direction of the omnifcient Being, whofe eyes run to and a Called the Doctrine of the Cherubim opened and explained, in a Sermon preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Mr John Davis, at Waltham Abbey, August 15, 1764. b Eccles. i. 4, 6. and fro through the whole earth; hence it is thought these wheels are faid to be full of eyes and though the providences of God, many of them are intricate and obfcure, and fo are as it were a wheel within a wheel; the reafons of them are not easily penetrated into, nor the ends God has in view at once to be feen; bis judgments are unfearchable, and his ways past finding out; yet there is a harmony and confiftency between them, they are all of a piece; the Wheels have all one likeness; and when the mystery of God in providence fhall be finished, and his judgments are made manifeft, they will appear harmonious, beautiful, and delightful. But from this generally received interpretation, many have thought fit to recede; fome, as by the Cherubim, or Living Creatures, understand the Churches of God, compofed of living faints; fo by the Wheels they fuppofe angels are meant, and that what wheels are to chariots, that angels are to churches, ufeful and fubfervient to them; miniftering Spirits fent forth to minifter for them who are the heirs of falvation: others are of opinion, that churches and members of churches are defigned both by the Cherubim and the Wheels; by the one the fuperior members of churches, and by the other the inferior ones fuch a dif tinction in churches may be admitted, for God hath fet fome in the church, first apoftles, fecondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, &c. and the rest of the members, the private and common ones, may be reckoned the inferior, yet all useful and neceffary; the Cherubim are thought to be meant by the former, the Wheels by the latter; and a chariot without wheels is of little or no use, as wheels without a chariot, or other carriage, are infignificant; and thus, as the apostle argues with respect to the members of an human body, the eye cannot fay to the head, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you; nay much more those members of the body, which feem to be more feeble, are necessary». Others, as they interpret the Cherubim of the minifters of the gospel, and I think rightly, fo the Wheels of the work of their miniftry, which is fometimes. called a course, race, or running; thus John's miniftry is faid to be his courje, and the apostle Paul joins his courfe and miniftry together, as meaning the fame thing; and elsewhere directs, to pray that the word of the Lord might have free COURSE, and be glorified: and it is obferved, that there is but one wheel, one faith, one doctrine of faith, or fyftem of truths to be delivered and received; and though miniftered by different perfons, and these have different gifts, yet, as to the fum and fubftance of it, is the fame; as the apostle fays, The Son of God, Jefus Chrift, who was preached among you by us, even by me, and Sylvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay'; we did not contradict ourselves, nor one another; • Zech. iv. 10. Vid. Polanum in loc. f Heb. i. 14. d Rom. xi. 33. • Cocceius in loc. 1 Starckius in loc. 1 2 Cor. i. 19. ther; there is an unity, harmony, and confiftence, in the ministration of the gofpel; the wheels have one likeness: and though the doctrines of the gospel are mysterious, abftrufe, and hidden to many, are like a riddle, or an enigma, or as a wheel within a wheel; yet they are plain to enlightened minds, to them that find spiritual and experimental knowledge: and as wheels when set in motion roll on with force and rapidity; fo the doctrines of the gospel, when the Spirit of God is in thofe wheels, or when they are attended with his energy, they come with demonstration and power, and are the power of God unto fal vation. But the key for the interpretation of the Wheels, as of the Cherubim, is to be taken from John's vifion in the fourth chapter of the Revelation; for as the Cherubim, or living creatures, in Ezekiel's visions, are the fame with John's four beafts, or living creatures; fo the Wheels here are the fame with the four and twenty elders there, which are the reprefentatives of gofpel-churches; defcribed by their number, in allufion to the four and twenty courfes of the priests, in the times of David; by their character, as elders, in distinction from the church of the Old Teftament, and its members; who were as children in their nonage, under the elements of this world; whereas gofpel-churches, and their members, are young men and fathers, grown men in knowledge and underftanding; by their feats, and thrones on which they fat, expreffive of their power and authority of judging and determining things relative to their own affairs within themselves; as who fhall be received among them, retained by them, or excluded from them: What have I to do, fays the apostle, to judge them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are withinTM? They are also described by their raiment, clothed in white linen; that fine linen, clean, and white, which is the righteoufnefs of the faints, and that is the righteousness of Chrift; and by having on their heads crowns of gold, fignifying they are made kings and priests unto God by Jefus Chrift. And now that thefe and the wheels fignify the fame, may be concluded partly by their fituation; the fame fituation the elders have in John's vifion, the wheels have in Ezekiel's; in John's vision there was a throne, and one on it, the Lord Jefus Chrift; next to this throne were the four living creatures, or minifters of the word; who receive their commiffion, power, and authority, gifts, grace, light, and knowledge, from Christ on the throne; next to them are the elders, or gofpel-churches, to whom they communicate what they receive from Chrift; fee Rev. iv. 2, 4. and v.6. and vii. 11. So in the visions of Ezekiel, there was a throne, and nearest to the throne were the Cherubim; and by the Cherubim were the wheels, see Ezek. i. 15, 26. and x. 1, 2, 6, 9. and partly by their dependence on one another, and their M 1 Cor. v. 12. : their order of operation in John's vifion the four living creatures move first, and give the lead in divine worship, Rev. iv. 9, 10. and v. 14. So in Ezekiel's vifions, as the Cherubim, or living creatures moved, fo the wheels did; when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the living creatures were lift up from the earth, the wheels were lift up, Ezek. i. 19. And again, when thofe went, thefe went; and when thofe ftood, thefe ftood; and when thefe were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them, ver. 21. fee also chap. x. 16-19. In this light, in this view of things, I fhall confider the wheels, and fhew the agreement between them and gofpel-churches; and my business will be to obferve their name, their number, their fituation, their form, figure, and appearance, and their motion. First, Their name, Wheels, or Wheel; as for the Wheels, it was faid in my hearing; or they were called in my bearing, by the following name, Galgal", which fignifies fomething that may be rolled, a wheel, and that is round as that is, a circle, or a globe, or fphere: now as the round and circular form is a fymbol of perfection; this may denote the comparative perfection of gospel-churches to that of the Old-Teftament-church under the law: the law made nothing perfect; the facrifices of it were not perfect, nor could it by them make the comers thereunto perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did; Chrift, who is come an high priest of good things to come, the ground and foundation of all folid hope; he by one facrifice has perfected his people for ever, obtained perfect peace and reconciliation, made a full atonement, wrought out a complete righteousness, and procured a full pardon, and is become the author of eternal redemption and falvation; God having provided fome better thing for us, under the gospel-dispensation, that they, of the former difpenfation, without us should not be made perfect: they were, as before obferved, as children not grown up to maturity; but members of gofpel-churches, in comparison of them, are arrived to the measure of the ftature of Chrift; though in comparison of the church triumphant, or faints in heaven, they are imperfect, know but in part, and prophesy but in part. The word here ufed, as hinted before, fignifies a globe, or fphere, and is used of the heavenly sphere, the concave, or expanse, which furrounds our globe, and in which the heavenly bodies move; and it is tranflated heaven in Pfalm lxxvii. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; in Galgal, in the heavenly sphere: and it is easy to obferve, that the gofpel-churchftate is called the heavenly Jerufalem', in diftinction from the former difpenfation, • baban anp on ipfæ vocatæ funt vel fuerunt orbis, Junius & Tremellius, Pifcator; see the margin of our Bible; the words may be rendered, as for Ophannim (Wheels) they were called in my hearing Hagalgal, the orb or sphere. • Vid. Maimon Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 4.. I Heb. xii. 22. P Heb. vii. 19. 9 Heb. xi.40. tion, and heaven itself; and in which fense it is almost always, if not always, ufed throughout the book of the Revelation; and this may fuggeft unto us, that members of gofpel-churches are, or should be, fouls born again, born from above; heaven-born fouls, partakers of the heavenly calling, and such as are preffing towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Gofpel-churches may be fignified by wheels, because of their moveableness and changeableness. Wheels are rolled about and moved from place to place, and fo have churches been. The firft gofpel-churches were planted in Judea, and then the kingdom of God, or gofpel-church-ftate, was taken from thence, and carried into the Gentile world, where various churches were raised, as the leven churches of fia; and what was threatened to one of them, the church of Ephefus, has been true of them all; that the candlestick, or church-state, should be removed out of its place; for where are those churches now? Gofpel-churches were first in the eastern part of he world, then they came more westerly, and now more northerly, where their chief feat is. Thus they have been wheeled about, and perhaps may take another circuit more foutherly. Gofpel-churches are not always in the fame ftate and condition, as well as not in the fame place : fometimes in profperity, and fometimes in adverfity; fometimes in a ftate of perfecution, and fometimes in a state of peace and liberty. The first gospelchurch was at Jerufalem, and was at firft profperous and numerous; but at length a perfecution arose, by which its members were made havock of, and its minifters scattered abroad; and fo it fared with other churchés; but after a time the churches had reft throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified and multiplied; and fo it was with the churches among the Gentiles, they had tribulation ten days under the ten Roman emperors that perfecuted them; and then there was filence in heaven for half an hour; peace and quietnefs in the churches for a small space of time; in the reign of Conftantine. At one time, the church is represented in a molt glorious and fplendid manner, as clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve ftars; expressive of her dignity, and of her purity in doctrine and worship; and presently we hear of her taking two wings, and fleeing into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time"; and in a changeable state on one account or another, have the churches of Chrift been ever fince; our forefathers in the last century fuffered perfecution; we now enjoy peace and liberty; what this will iffue in, time only can difcover. The Cherubim are fometimes called the chariot of the cherubim"; not that they themselves, abstractedly confidered, form a chariot; though the Lord is faid to ride upon a cherub *; but, they with the wheels make one; for a chariot without • Acts viii. 1 and ix 31. W 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. Rev. ii. 10. and viii, 1. * Pfalm xviii. 10. Rev. xii. 1, 6, 14. |