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DISC. thetic and forcible exclamations of thofe

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who waited for it in old time. But when the defire, that is, the object of the defirehe whom so many prophets and kings had earnestly defired to fee, and did not feehe who was " the defire of all nations"when he came, he proved the Tree of Life reftored in the Paradife of God.

Two remarkable reprefentations of things spiritual and divine under the Gofpel difpenfation, or in the kingdom of heaven, were exhibited to Ezekiel and St. John. Let us compare them with each other, and both of them with the original scenery in Paradise, from which the images are evidently borrowed, and to which unless they are again referred, they lose half their beauty and fignificancy.

In Ezekiel's vifion of the Chriftian church, under the figure of the second temple, he tells us, he faw "waters iffuing "from the fanctuary, and giving univerfal "life, wherever they went." St. John

i Ezek. xlvii. 1, 9.

faw

faw a river of water of life, clear as

cryftal, proceeding from the throne of "God and the Lamb*." And "a river," we know, "went forth," at the beginning, "to water and make glad the Garden of "God, in Eden."

"On the banks of the river, on this fide, and on that fide," Ezekiel beheld very many trees;" or as it should, perhaps, be rendered, "a very great tree'," "whofe leaf shall not fade, neither shall "the fruit thereof be confumed: it (in "the fingular number) fhall bring forth "new fruit according to it's months; and "the fruit thereof fhall be for meat, and "the leaves for medicine "." Let us now turn again to St. John-" In the midst of "the street of it"--the new Jerufalem, fucceeding in the place of Paradife, and the old Jerufalem, with it's temple and fervices"in the midst of the Atreet of it, and of either "fide the river, was there the Tree of Life, " which bare twelve manner of fruit, and

DIs c.

III.

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Pisc." yielded it's fruit every month; and the "leaves of the Tree were for the healing of "the nations"." Can we read either of these defcriptions, without immediately carrying our thoughts back to Eden, where we fee growing out of the ground, at the command of the Lord God, "every tree good "for food, and pleasant to the fight, the "Tree of Life alfo in the midst of the garden."

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But let us take a view of fome other figures and facraments, ordained fince the fall of man, as the Tree of Life was appointed before it, to represent to the faithful the bleffing of immortality.

The loft bleffing was to be recovered and reftored to the human race by the sufferings and death of a furety, who, after dying for our fins, was to rife again for our justification. The grand inftitution, therefore, of this kind, commencing immediately upon the fall, and continuing in

Rev. xxii. 2.

force

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force to the death and refurrection of DISC. Christ, was Sacrifice. A victim was brought to the altar, and being flain as a substitute for the offerer, firft faved him from death, and then became food to fupport his life. And as Providence hath been ever careful to furnish us with continual memento's of the truths most important and interesting to us, it seems to be a circumftance worthy notice, that fince the use of animals for food, and thofe chiefly which were made choice of in facrifice, the world fubfifteth by fhedding of blood, and the death of the innocent is daily the life of the guilty. This is an additional reason why every meal should be "fanctified," according to the apoftolical direction, " by the word of "God, and by prayer "," while the meat that perisheth reminds us, in fo lively and ftriking a manner, of that which endureth unto eternal life. The hiftory of the Pafchal Lamb, with the preservation of Israel from the hand of the Destroyer, in that night to be remembered through all their

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DISC. generations, the night of their leaving Egypt, is a very particular, full, and beautiful exemplification of the nature and de

fign of facrifice.

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Chrift, our Paffover,

"is facrificed for us ;" and therefore we

too "keep the feast "."

That miraculous fupply of food, vouchfafed by God, to fuftain his people, during their journey through the wilderness, till they came to the borders of Canaan, was another fign or symbol of immortal life, and it's fupport derived from above. This new and extraordinary viand sprung not out of the earth, but came down, in rain, or dew, from heaven; white to the eye, sweet to the taste, and agreeable to every palate; given freely to all; proportioned to the neceffities of each; and renewed day by day, till the fojournings of Ifrael were over, and the promised rest attained. St. Paul, having occafion to speak of thofe events, which, as he expreffes it, happened unto Israel "for enfamples," as figures or shadows

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PI Cor. v. 7.

4 Τύποι συνεβαινον.

of

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