Ps. cxlv. 9. The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works. They have six wings, denoting the constant energy of the watchman of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, exerted in them, his creation. My Father worketh hitherto, said the blessed WORD manifest in flesh, and I work. John, v. 17.

We shall readily perceive, then, why the Cherubim, those hieroglyphics, or images, as the word imports, of the creation were retained in the Jewish temple, while all other images were forbidden. For as Mind is necessarily connected with some substance or essence, so is God necessarily connected with his eternal co-existent substance, out of which all things are formed; and consequently, where any symbolization of him is made, there also must the universe, which he pervades, be symbolized also. Though, since he is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, to worship his body of the universe is forbidden. In Scripture, then, He is constantly represented as inhabiting these cherubim, not dwelling between them, as it is improperly rendered, 1 Sam. iv. 4; 2 Sam. vi. 2; 2 Kings, xix. 15; Isai. xxxvii. 16; Ps. lxxxi.; xcix. 1; and we may add, when stripped of the human Masoretic punctuation, and better translated, Gen. iii. 24. So he drove out the man: and dwelt (Shechinahed) at the east of the garden of Eden in the Cherubim and (or even) flame, the self-revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life; for eternal life was to be obtained only through a fiery trial. Where it seems the cherubim and the flame are the same thing, Moses using the Symbol to explain the meaning of it. For a cherub was generally an ox (compare Ezek. x. 14, with i. 10, and Rev. iv. 7), which symbolized fire, fire being the element which modifies all the rest and indeed, I am inclined to think, that the real derivation of the word

cherub is an (cur rab) a great furnace, as though out of which the creation was cast: though this perhaps only at second hand, as the ox, which the Egyptians worshipped, might have been called cherub, because an image of him had been the constant product of their great furnaces, (see Exod. xxxii. 4), and might have thus come to symbolize fire, out of which it came.

And so JAHOH is generally represented as dwelling in fire, Exod. iii. 2, The angel of the LORD, or, the Angel JAнон appeared unto him in a flame of fire. Exod. xiv. 24; xix. 18; Deut. iv. 24; Judges, xiii. 20. And before this supernatural flame, which the Cherubim symbolized, it appears, Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices, which had respect to Abel's perhaps by devouring it; and from the presence of which Cain went out, Gen. iv. 16, the presence of the Lord, the Cherubim of glory, as St. Paul calls them, Hebr. ix. 5, where he Shechinahed. Thus we see how scripturally, as well as philosophically, has Pope imagined it in these verses, in which the ancient philosophers have generally agreed, where he represents God as the soul of the universe :

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul;

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same;
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame;

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns,

As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns :
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

But afterwards, when the Great IT-SHALL-BE, or

WORD, had from eternity occupied the whole throne of infinite space, together with the Cherubim of the universe, filling, bounding, connecting, and equalling all, behold a Lamb only in the midst of the throne appears, a new wonder! For whereas in the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God, that is, there was no other God, person, hypostasis, or any thing else than He, filling all in all. Now, just as a son is born of a father, the WORD became flesh, not indeed that the WORD ceased to occupy the infinite space as before, which would be an impossibility, but just as, or rather, like as a son is born of a father, John i. 14, one God or Word resided in two bodies, of which the Word in the Universe took the appellation of the Father, and the Word in Flesh, the appellation of the Son. So it happened that He and the Father were still one, John, x. 30, only He was in the Father, as being contained by him, a nucleus in the midst of the throne of space, and the Father was in Him as a focus or concentration of Himself, John, xiv. 11; xvii. 21; so that in fact, they who saw the Son, virtually saw the Father. John, xiv. 9. For when the Son was in the form of God, he thought it no booty (άgrayμò,) not worth a snatch, if we translate it in literal and vulgar language, to be as God, but emptied himself of his infinite form or subsistence, and concentrated or condensed himself into the finite form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, Philip. ii. 6, 7, so that in him dwelt all the Pleroma (fulness) of the godhead bodily, Col. ii. 9, he being the image, or representation of the invisible God, Col. i. 15, God manifest, exhibited, in flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16, the stamp of his Being, Heb. i. 3; for no man had seen God before at any time, but Christ now declared him in a bodily form. John i. 18. Yet when he came down from heaven, he was still in

heaven, John, iii. 13, when he came out from God, came forth from the Father, and came into the world, John, xvi. 27, 28, he was still there by the presence of his infinite Father, with whom he had been before entirely identical, both in soul and in the body of the universe, but now only in soul and partly in body by his own corporeal frame. And thus, then, does the Lamb, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, occupy only the midst of infinite space, and the midst of the universe instead of the whole of it; since any one point in infinity, where his body or any one's else is, must of necessity be the midst or centre of that infinity. See WORD.

Before the throne were seven lamps of fire. For whereas light and heat symbolized the First Cause, so fire distributed in an indefinite, yet perfect number of portions throughout his creatures, which is light and motion united, symbolize the illuminating and cleansing power of the Divine Word. For the Divine Word is no other than light and motion, i. e. light and life, and of his fulness have we all received and grace upon grace. Eph. iii. 14, 19. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." See Bride, pp. 109, 111.

Before the throne is the ocean of eternity, common alike to the Great JAHOн and his infinite substance, out of which Nature is formed. For as the throne repre

sents infinite space, so does the ocean "before the throne," "proceeding out of the throne," represent that infinite space and that which fills it, the Great JAHOH and the universe carried down through all eternity.

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. For "that he is all Nature cries aloud through all her works."

And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,

By brooks and groves, in hollow whispering gales.

CROWN.-1. Possession of reward, honour, glory, and sovereignty. Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; iv. 4, 10; xiv. 14. Heb. ii. 7, 9.

2. A kingdom. Rev. vi. 2; xix. 12,

3. Crown of twelve stars. Rev. xii. 1. Having on her head a crown of twelve stars. Having the twelve apostles as the title to her dignity and authority.

4. The seven crowns. Rev. xii. 3. A red dragon having seven crowns on his heads. The actual reign of Satan over all the empires of the world.

5. The ten crowns. Rev. xiii. 1. A beast rise up having upon his horns ten crowns. The actual reign of the ten kingdoms. This beast is without crowns when it becomes scarlet colored with blood, xvii. 3. because its dominion has passed away.

6. Crowns like gold. Rev. ix. 7. And on their heads as it were crowns like gold. The semblance of regal dignity, which was possessed by the numerous emirs or sheichs of the Arabs or Saracens. A semblance indeed : for though the myriads of tribes, of which that nation was composed, had each of them its prince, yet, if he abused his power, says Gibbon, he was quickly punished by the desertion of his subjects, possessing as it were a