it; and the Seraphim in Isaiah's vifion, the fame with the cherubim here, are alfo diftinguished from the Lord fitting on a throne high and lifted up; and are represented as attendants on him, and worshippers of him, Ifai. vi. 1-3.

3. If the cherubim could be thought to be emblems of a plurality in the Deity, they would be emblems, not of a trinity of perfons, but rather of a quaternity, fince the cherubin had four faces, each diftinct from one another; yea, John's four living creatures were four diftinct animals, each having a diftinct head and face; and the face of a man, both in his and Ezekiel's living creatures, is as diftinct a face as any of the reft; and if they were emblems of perfons, that must be so too; whereas the human nature of Chrift, this is faid to be an emblem of, is no person; Chrift did not take an human person, but an human nature into union with his divine perfon, for reasons that might be given; much less is it a perfon in the Godhead, as this fuppofed emblem would make it to be. Befides, the human nature in Chrift is his inferior nature, whereas the face of the man in the cherubim is the fuperior face, the reft being faces of irrational animals.

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4. If the cherubim were an hieroglyphic of the Trinity, this would give a fimilitude of the divine Being, and of that in him which is the most incomprehenfible to us, a Trinity of perfons in the Deity; and would furnish with an answer to fuch a question, fuggested as unanswerable, To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare with him? Ifai. xl. 18, 25. and xlvi. 5. for then it might be replied, To the cherubim: but there is no likeness of God, nor any to be made of him; though the Son of God often appeared in an human form, and in the fulness of time became incarnate; and the holy Ghost once descended as a dove; yet the Father's shape was never seen at any time, John v. 37. This notion also is repugnant to the second command, which forbids the making any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, Exod. xx. 4. and then most certainly forbids the making of any likeness of the divine Being. Suppofing the cherubim at the garden of Eden were made by God himself, as thofe in the tabernacle and temple were made by his order; yet he would never make nor order to be made fuch as he forbid, which he muft, if they bore the fimilitude of him; but the truth is, the cherubim were not a likeness of any thing above in heaven, nor of any thing on earth; there never having been seen nor known by any man on earth, as Jofephus affirms, any such creature whom they describe; and a certain Jewish writer obferves, the making of them came not under the interdict or prohibition of the fecond command; which if made in the likeness of God it would.

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Antiq. 1. 3. c.6. §.5. • R. Ifaac Mofaides apud Selden. de Jure Nat. & Gent. c. 6. p. 183.

5. To all which may be added, if the cherubim were known emblems of the Trinity, it can hardly be thought that any man would take the name of Cherub to himself, or impofe it upon any of his family, or fhould be fo called by others; yet we find a man with his family of this name, Ezra ii. 59. Neb. vii. 61. and ftill lefs would it be given as it is, to Antichrift, the antitype of the king of Tyre, the man of fin and fon of perdition, Ezek. xxviii. 14. where he is called the anointed cherub; which can never be in allufion to the divine Being, and the perfons in the Godhead; but may be in allufion to the minifters of the word, the cherubim are the emblems of, as will be prefently feen; fince he is an ecclefiaftical perfon, calls himself a Bishop, an univerfal Bishop, Chrift's anointed Vicar, and Head of the church, the fole and infallible interpreter of the facred fcriptures. Nor,

Secondly, Are the angels meant by the cherubim; though this is a much better fenfe than the former, and has been generally received by Jews and Christians: and what has led many to embrace this fenfe is, the fuppofed allufion to the cherubim looking to the mercy-feat, 1 Pet. i. 12. where mention is made of angels being defirous to look into the mysteries of grace; though it may be obferved that minifters of the word are fometimes fo called, and may be there meant however, John's four living creatures cannot be angels, fince they are so often diftinguished from them; not only by their names, the one being called angels, and the other living creatures in the fame place; but also by their fituation, the living creatures are reprefented as nearest to the throne of God, and round about it, then the four and twenty elders next to them, and round about them, and then the angels as round about both; but what puts it out of all doubt is, that these living creatures are by themselves owned to be redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb, out of every kindred and tongue, people and nation : which cannot be faid of angels; for as they never finned, they never stood in need of the blood of Christ to redeem them. See Rev. v. 8, 9, 11. and vii. 11. and xv. 7. Wherefore,

Thirdly, Since the four and twenty elders in the vifions of John are the reprefentatives of gofpel-churches, fo called in allufion to the twenty-four courfes of the priests, and the twenty-four stations of the Levites, fixed in the times of David; who, as they in turn attended the fervice of the temple, reprefented the whole body of the people of Ifrael; fo thefe twenty-four elders before the throne, and in the temple of God, reprefent the whole Ifrael of God, all the members of the gofpel-church-ftate from firft to laft; and fince the four living. creatures are clearly diftinguifhed from them both by name and by fituation, and by giving the lead to them in divine worship, as minifters of the word do to the churches; it remains, that the minifters of the gospel only can be meant

by

by the living creatures, or the cherubim. See Rev. iv. 4, 6, 9, 10 and v. 8, 1!, 14. and vii 11. and by confidering the feveral places where they are made mention of, this will appear to be the truth of the matter. As,

1. Gen. iii. 24. where they are first spoken of, and are faid to be placed at the east of the garden of Eden, with a flaming (word, to keep the way of the tree of life; I am quite content to have the phrafe rendered, to obferve the way the tree of life, as the word is often tranflated by us %. The flaming fword may be an emblem of the fword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and which is sharper than a two-edged fword, and has itself two edges, law and gospel; by the one, when it enters and cuts deep, is the knowledge of fin, and of the fad confequences of ir, and leaves a sense of wrath and fiery indignation; and by the other, the knowledge of Chrift and falvation by him, and is called the gofpel of falvation; and the flame of it may denote the light, heat and glory, which are in the word, when accompanied with a divine influence; fo the cherubim may be an hieroglyphic of the minifters of it; and it is the fenfe of fome, both Jews and Christians", that the ministry of the word is referred to and intended by the whole. When Adam had finned, he was driven out of the garden of Eden, to prevent his eating of the tree of life, left he should imagine that by that action of his, his life was preserved and continued, and would be for ever; teaching him thereby, that he was not to expect falvation and eternal life by any acts and works of his own, nor by any creature, nor by any outward means: and cherubim were placed without the garden, not to guard the way of the tree of life, literally understood, or to prevent Adam's accefs unto it; that was fufficiently done by his being driven out of it; but to obferve and point out to him, for his comfort and relief, the way to a nobler tree of life than that in the garden; to the true antitypical tree of life, Jefus Chrift, that tree of life that ftands in the midst of the paradife of God, the church, of which every overcomer of fin, Satan and the world, may take and eat, Rev. ii. 7. Chrift, the Wisdom and Word of God, who is a tree of life, the author and giver of life eternal to all thofe that lay hold by faith upon him; and happy is every one that fo doing retains him, Prov. iii. 18. even Chrift the way, the truth, and the life, the true way to eternal life. Now the cherubim were in this emblems

f I am not alone in this fentiment; Dr Lightfoot is of the fame opinion, Profpect of the Temple, c. 38. Pfeiffer. Dub. Vexat. cent. 4. loc. 4. p. 407. Ofiander in ibid. and fo Vitringa on Ifa. vi. 2. though of another mind are, Witfius in Egyptiac. 1. 2. c. 13. §. 35. and Oecon. Fœder. 1. 4. c. 6. §. 44. and Marckius, Fafcic. Differtat. dif. 24. §. 17, &c. bat Dr Goodwin, in his expofition of the Revelation, p. 5, 6. takes John's four living creatures to be the officers of the christian church. 8 See Pfalm cvii. 48. Eccles. xi. 4. Ifai. xlii. zo. Jonah ii. 8.

Vide Fagium in loc.

of minifters of the gofpel, the fervants of the most high God; whofe work it is to fbew unto men the way of life and falvation by Jefus Chrift.

And this is the bufinels that you, my Brother, should be conftantly employed in, in inftructing men that they are not to be faved by their own works, duties and fervices; that God faves and calls men, not according to their works, but according to his purpose and grace; that men are to expect the pardon of fin, not on the account of their repentance and humiliation, but through the blood of Christ, and according to the riches of God's grace; that by the deeds of the law no flesh living can be justified in the fight of God; but that a man is juflified by faith in the righteousness of Chrift, without the deeds of the law; that men are not faved by the best works of righteousness done by them, but by the abundant mercy and free grace of God, through Christ. You are to acquaint all that you are concerned with, that falvation is by Christ alone; that God has chofen and appointed him to be his falvation to the ends of the earth; and that he has appointed men to falvation alone by him; that he has fent him into the world to be the Saviour of them; this is the faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, you are to publifh and proclaim, that Chrift came into the world to fave the chief of finners; and that by his obedience, fufferings and death, he is become the author of eternal falvation to them; and that there is falvation in him, and in no other; and that there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby they can be faved. Souls fenfible of fin and danger, and who are crying out, What shall we do to be faved? you are to obferve, and point out Chrift the tree of life unto them; and fay, as fome of the cherubs did to one in fuch circumstances, Believe on the Lord Jefus Christ, and thou shalt be saveds Acts xvi. 31. Your work is to lead men, under a fenfe of fin and guilt, to the blood of Christ, fhed for many for the remiffion of fin; and in his name you are to preach the forgiveness of it to them; you are to direct believers, under your care, to go by faith daily to Chrift the mediator, and deal with the blood. of fprinkling for the remiffion of their fins, and the cleanfing of their fouls; which fprinkled on them fpeaks peace and pardon, purges the confcience from. dead works, and cleanses from all fin. You are to point out the righteousness. of Christ, as the only justifying righteousness of men, by whofe obedience only men are made righteous; the miniftration of the gospel is a miniftration of righteousness, even of the righteoufnefs of Chrift, which is revealed in it from faith to faith; and fuch fhould be your ministration. You are to acquaint men, that this righteousness is unto all, and upon all that believe; and that fuch are juftified from all things by it, from which they could not be justified by the law of Mofes, and that the acceptance of men with God, is only in Chrift the beloved.. You are to obferve to men the atoning facrifice of the Son of God, and to direct them,

them, as one of the cherubs did, pointing to him, and faying, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world! John i. 29. to bid them view the fin-bearing and fin-atoning Saviour, and look to the Lamb in the midst of the throne as though he had been flain; by whofe flain facrifice fin is put away, and they perfected for ever that are fanctified. But more of this may be observed,

2. In the account of the cherubim over the mercy-feat in Exod. xxv. 18, &c. there they are faid to be two, and were emblems of the prophets of the Old Teftament, and of the apoftles of the New, with their fucceffors, the minifters of the word in all generations; between whom there is an entire harmony and agreement; the prophets fpoke of the fufferings of Chrift, and the glory that Thould follow; and the apostle Paul, and the other apostles, faid no other things than what Mofes and the prophets did fay, that Christ should suffer, and be the first that should rife from the dead; they both agreed in laying ministerially Christ as the foundation, and in directing men to build their faith and hope upon him, as well as they themselves were laid on him; and therefore he is called the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Ephes. ii. 20. even as the niercyfeat was the bafis on which the two cherubim food, and by which they were fupported and it may be obferved, in agreement with the number of the cherubim, that the feventy difciples of Chrift were fent forth by him two by two to preach his gospel; and the minifters of the word that prophefy in fackcloth during the reign of antichrist, are called the two witneffes, Luke x. 1. Rev. xi. 3 and the addition of two other cherubim of a larger fize in Solomon's temple, may fignify the greater perfection of the gospel-miniftry, and the larger number of golpel-minifters, in the gofpel-church of the New Teftament, of which Solomon's temple was a type. The inatter of which the cherubim over the mercy-feat were made, was pure gold, and of the fame mafs with the mercy-feat; denoting the rich gifts and graces of the Spirit, with which minifters of the gospel are qualified for their work; and which are of the fame kind and nature with those of Christ, as man; only in measure, his without; and the rich treasure put into thefe earthen veffels, and the precious truths of the gospel, comparable to gold, filver and precious ftones, committed to their truft to minifter. The ufe of the cherubim was to overfhadow the mercy-feat, and therefore they are called the cherubim of glory fhadowing the mercy-feat, Heb. ix. 5. which they did with their wings; denoting in minifters their miniftrations, the readiness and chearfulness of them; the cherubim looked towards one another, and towards the mercy-feat, and pointed to that.

And this, my Brother, is a principal part of your work, as one of the cherubs, so direct to Chrift the mercy-feat, the channel of the grace and mercy of God so the fouls of men; as God fet forth Chrift in his eternal purposes and decrees

to