What that act was we proceed to consider. He took a live-coal from off the altar, and therewith touched the prophet's lips, saying, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." The altar from whence the coal was taken, appears to have been the altar of burnt-offering, whereon the typical sacrifices were offered for atonement, day by day. Whether the live-coal symbolized that atonement, or its effects in the work of the Holy Ghost, called in the New Testament a baptism by fire, or both, is immaterial to my purpose. "Who can forgive sins but God only?" Whether atonement or sanctification be the import of the emblematic action, the one and the other are the acts of a Divine, and not of a created agent. This argument is so clear that Vitringa, who thinks that one of the SERAPHIM was the agent, and who interprets the SERAPHIM as symbolizing both angels commonly so called, and ministers of the Gospel, is obliged to account for the assignment of this act of atonement or sanctification to the former, by saying, "Those things which God Himself performs, and performs by Himself, are attributed in this vision to angels, for the sake of propriety."* But I think it more

* Angelis in hoc viso tribuuntur evoxnus quæ ipse Deus agit, et per se agit. By evoxnμws I suppose my author to mean for the sake of propriety with regard to the scenery of the vision.

honourable to the Spirit of inspiration, by whom the Scriptures were indited, to consider every symbol on record as conveying correct notions of the doctrine to be taught by it, whether we can comprehend that doctrine or not in the full dimensions of its import.

Such, my dear friend, are the views I have formed of this glorious vision vouchsafed to the evangelical prophet; to which I add the trite request of the latin poet:

Si quid novisti rectius istis,

Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.

Praying that He who touched the prophet's lips, may also guide, influence, and sanctify our hearts and minds, our lips and our pens; that all we think and do, and write and speak, may be to his glory in the promotion of the everlasting Gospel of the Blessed God,

I remain

Your's affectionately,

LETTER XIX.

THE CHERUBIM OF EZEKIEL.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

We are now arrived in the regular succession of the scriptural allusions to the CHERUBIC images, at that position where the fullest view is afforded of their structure and import. Neither in the book of Genesis where we first meet with them, nor in the accounts of the building of the Tabernacle and Temple, nor in the vision of Isaiah, have we any particular description of their figure and symbolical design. The historian and the prophet speak of them as writers would do who knew that they were addressing persons well acquainted with the subject. The prophet Ezekiel seems also to have been familiar with their figure; since he says, after describing his vision (chap. x. 20.) "And I knew that they were the CHERUBIM."* But those for whose

* Nemo consultus facile dubitaverit, quin Cherubini illi prophetici (viz. in visione Ezechielis) formå et specie (æque ac nomine) Cherubinorum in templo donati fuerint ; cum præsertim Ezechiel (qui sacerdos erat, adeoque templi figuras probè nôrat) postquam ad eorum formas propiùs advertisset, hoc apertè testatur, dicens, (cap. x. 20.) Tunc cognovi eos D d

VOL. I.

instruction he wrote, the captives in Babylon and their descendants, may be supposed to have needed the accurate delineation he gives; and this may account for the enlarged detail which the narrative of his vision supplies. Without this, it would have been impossible to determine either their figure or symbolical import.

The character of Ezekiel's visions, in his first and tenth chapters, was considered by the Jews to be so very mysterious that they prohibited any attempt to explain it. But surely this prohibition was absurd; for if the vision be inexplicable, in vain did Jehovah appear to the prophet, and in vain has the prophet related what was revealed to him. The more enigmatical the subject, the greater humility and care, and the more earnest supplication for Divine instruction, are undoubtedly required; but the attempt to decipher it, if made in a becoming frame of mind, cannot of itself be condemned. These visions are a part of that "Scripture" which " is given by in

Cherubinos esse. Ex aliis locis collatis colligo, Cherubinos animalium, quæ dixi, formas habuisse. Nam Psalmista, ni fallor, Dei Cherubim mn, Swa, appellavit, Ps. lxviii. 11. 772

', quæ sanctus Hieronymus ita transtulit, Animalia tua habitaverunt in eâ, nimirùm in hæreditate tuâ; LXX etiam, (et quæ expressa est Vulgata) habent ra (wa σs, animalia tuu. Loci sensus huc redire videtur—“Tu sedens inter Cherubinos, variis animantium formis expressos, hæreditatem tuam, i. e. populum Israeliticum, per eremum deduxisti." Legibus Hebræorum. Lib. iii. Diss. v. Sect. 2. Mede's Works. pp. 438 and 594.

Spencer de

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spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.)

The Divinely directed mode of arriving at the true sense of Scripture is by "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." And particularly, in order to interpret the hieroglyphics which it contains, the several editions, if I may so speak, when there are more than one, of the same hieroglyphic should be compared together, every hint contained in the New Testament be brought into contact with it, and the analogy of faith be closely considered in its bearing on the interpretation which is assigned to the symbol.

With these views and purposes I venture to write to you on the subject of what Ezekiel saw by the river Chebar. Wholly dissatisfied with the discordant expositions which I have met with in most of those commentators whom I have had an opportunity of consulting, I shall try how far the clew furnished by my former letters on the doctrine of the CHERUBIM, will lead to a consistent elucidation of the vision now to be considered. And in doing this, I shall first transcribe what Parkhurst has written on the subject, and then subjoin some additional observations.

"A particular description of the CHERUBIC