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fign of the Mofaic fanctuary, with its paratus, to prefigure the restoration of those fpiritual bleffings, which were forfeited and loft by the tranfgreffion in Paradise. Let us therefore enquire what fatisfaction the Scriptures will afford us upon this point.

The principal objects in the Garden of Eden, with which Revelation has brought us acquainted, are the plantations of trees, and the rivers of water, by which those plantations were nourished and fupported in glory and beauty. Was there any thing of this fort in or about the tabernacle and temple?

With regard to the plantations, two paffages in the Pfalms incline us to think there were fuch in the courts of the Jewish fanctuary, as well as in that of Eden: "I "am like a green olive-tree in the house of "God". The righteous fhall flourish like

"a

a palm-tree, he fhall grow like a cedar "in Lebanon. Thofe that be planted in

P Pf. lii. 8.

"the

DISC.

11.

DISC. " the houfe of the Lord, fhall flourish in

II.

"the courts of our God.

“forth fruit in old age;

They shall bring

they shall be fat

"and flourishing." Thefe texts feem to fuppofe the real existence of such plantations, and, at the fame time, to intimate the end and defign of them, namely, to reprefent the progress and improvement of the faithful in virtue, through the influence of the divine favour. The fame pleasing and expreffive image is employed to the fame purpose, in the firft Pfalm- "He "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers "of water, that bringeth forth his fruit "in his feafon; his leaf alfo fhall not "wither, and whatever he doth shall prof"per."

As to the rivers of water, which fupplied and refreshed the Garden of Eden and all it's productions, we meet with fomething analogous to them, both in the tabernacle and temple.

1 Pf. xcii. 12.

II.

During the journey of the children of DISC. Ifrael from Egypt to Canaan, the camp in general and the facred tabernacle in particular were fupplied with water in a miraculous manner, not only at the time when Mofes fmote the rock, but the fame fupply accompanied them afterwards-"They "drank of that rock," that is, the water of that rock, "which followed them." "He led thee (fays Mofes) through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein

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were fiery ferpents and fcorpions, and drought, where there was no water; "who made water to flow for thee out of "the rock of flint." And these waters, like thofe in Eden, were of a facramental nature. They did all drink the fame

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fpiritual drink; for they drank of that

fpiritual rock which followed them, and "that rock was Chrift." How lively a representation of that heavenly grace, which comforts our weary fpirits, and enables us to accomplish our journey through the wildernefs of life!

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DISC

II.

If from the tabernacle we proceed to the temple, we are there prefented with the facred ftreams of Siloah, breaking forth and flowing from the mount of God. In Ezekiel's famous vifion of the new temple, there is a wonderful defcription, founded on the real fituation of things at mount Sion, explaining their fignification, and unavoidably carrying our thoughts back to the waters and plantations of the original fanctuary in Eden. "Afterward he brought "me again unto the door of the house, " and behold waters iffued out from under "the threshold of the house eastward.— "Then faid he to me, Thefe waters iffue "out toward the east country, and go "down into the defert, and go into the "fea: which being brought forth into the "fea, the waters fhall be healed. And it "shall come to pass, that every thing that "liveth, which moveth, whither foever the "river fhall come, fhall live-And by the "river upon the bank thereof, on this "fide, and on that fide, fhall grow all trees "for meat, whofe leaf fhall not fade; nei

"ther

1

II.

*ther fhall the fruit thereof be confumed: DISC. it fhall bring forth new fruit according "to its months, because their waters iffued "out of the fanctuary; and the fruit there"of fhall be for meat, and the leaves "thereof for medicine

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When the prophets have occasion to foretel the great and marvellous change to be effected in the moral world, under the evangelical difpenfation, they frequently borrow their ideas and expreffions from the history of that garden, in which innocence and felicity once dwelt together, and which they reprefent as again fpringing up and blooming in the wilderness. Of the many paffages which occur, two or three only fhall be recited. "The Lord will com"fort Sion, he will comfort all her wafte places; he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defert like the Garden of "the Lord joy and gladness shall be "found therein, thanksgiving and the "voice of melody ";" fuch joy and glad

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Ezek. xlvii. 1, et feq.

u Ifai. li.. 3.

nefs,

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