of the truth and of the church itself and for itself? And when will they pity and relieve the suffering saints and their captive brethren in Babylon? And until they have effectually and completely secured for them, not indeed the possession of legal authority and of political power, but the free and full enjoyment of religious worship, and of public instruction; and the acknowledged and undoubted protection of life and of property; how can they be acquitted of a deplorable defect of duty to Christ, and of charity and concern for his members?

Where, indeed, is there so great a field for philanthropy and for beneficence, as the churches groaning under the yoke of the Beast, and the malice of Gog, present us? Their captivity long and unparalleled, their sufferings tedious and agonizing, their privations manifold and deplorable! And to assist and to relieve them is not merely a call of Christian duty and of Christian feeling, but of human compassion and human nature. But extreme caution is to be adopted. They are not barbarians to be civilized, nor heathens to be converted; but they are Christians to be enlightened, and our brethren to be instructed and to be reformed. They are, besides, a proverbially disputatious people, inseparably wedded to their own forms, and unalterably tenacious of their own sentiments and their own opinions. They must not therefore be offended nor disputed

with. But having been released from persecution, and supplied with the means of instruction, and the instruments and facilities of improvement; which they so cordially embrace and so ardently long for, as is shewn by Dr. Walshe in his "Tour from Constantinople," and indeed by all travellers in the East; they must be then left to themselves. Rash attempts of indiscreet interference, and of ill-judged and obtrusive zeal, would only delay or defeat their gradual and otherwise certain progress of enlightenment and of melioration. That Mr. Mede and Archbishop Usher, and many others, should have trembled for the reformed churches, and almost have despaired of their independence and security; was perhaps agreeable enough to the threatening aspect of their times. Subsequent events have not, however, justified their theories, nor confirmed their opinions and their interpretation. There is now no longer the name nor even the shadow of the Roman empire in the west, to mislead modern expositors, and to countenance the perverted sense, and illegitimate use of the prophecies; to excite party strife, and to extinguish Christian love and Christian peace. And if we would enlarge our field of view, and our field of action, beyond our own circle and our own denomination, to the state and circumstances of the whole church throughout the earth, under all its names and all its forms; we would be better members of it ourselves, and would D d

more effectually promote its well-being in the . world at large. We would understand prophecy more justly, and believe the Gospel more firmly. We would become more holy and more happy ourselves, and more charitable and more useful to others; better members of the church, and, in the truest sense, better citizens of the world.

Having completed the general outline, and adjusted the fixed scheme and invariable sense of prophecy; consistently alike with its known and acknowledged design and use, and the true interest and weal of the one faith and of the one Church of God; I can now only ardently desire and pray, that it may be so blessed as to convey to others in reading it the same mental ease and peace; the same settled satisfaction and confirmation in the truth and hope of the Gospel; that it has done to myself in investigating and arranging it; that it may be in some degree instrumental to increase the evidences and the influence of the Christian faith, and the strength and prosperity of the Catholic Church; to rescue prophecy from misinterpretation, confusion, and perplexity; and religion from error, strife, and animosity.

THE

SHEKINAH OR GLORY,

AND

THE CHERUBIM.

AN INQUIRY.

THAT the garden of Eden had been merely teh Almighty Father's first book and infant school of truth and virtue; was no secret to the Jews, and has been shewn already in the third section of this volume. And that as such it had been aptly and admirably provided with the objects and the means of early moral culture, and of rude and elementary education, may be easily and immediately perceived. It was, indeed, skilfully and graciously prepared and adapted, to train up his young and earthly family; and to fit and qualify them, as they were then appointed and constituted; for greater and better things in the future and heavenly garden, the paradise of glory and of God *. It was the nursery which Infinite Wis

*

See also Bishop Horne's Sermons on the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life; and Bishop Bull's Discourse on the State of Man before the Fall.

dom and Goodness had provided for his innocent, indeed, but still his humblest and weakest, children. And who were to form that link in his vast and boundless dominions, which was to unite his spiritual with his animal and material world, and the angel with the brute creation.

Adam, in paradise, was not, as Clemens Alexandrinus expresses it, God's LITTLE BOY; he was, at least, as the event too plainly shews, innocent and artless, unversed in moral combat, and unpractised in self-controul. He was, therefore, settled in a suitable place of training, with an appropriate course and method of instruction, under his own immediate inspection and his own peculiar tuition; and it was obviously an initial process, and an infantine and preparatory establishment; the situation was pleasant and attractive, a garden; the business easy and agreeable, to dress and to keep it; and the duty plain and intelligible, to eat of all the fruits of the garden but ONE. It was, therefore, merely TASTE NOT of

this one tree,-TOUCH NOT this one fruit,-HANDLE NOT this one apple; and which, it must be remembered, are said by St. Paul to the Colossians to be the very rudiments of the world. Could any plan be devised, indeed, more easy and familiar? or any instruction be imagined more plain and elementary? or any duty be imposed more simple and superficial? The object was, 'tis true, moral in the end, but it was remotely and indistinctly