CHAPTER VI.

THE CHERUBIM.

We have endeavoured, in the preceding chapters, from the narrative given by Moses of creation-week, from the brief but interesting notices which are recorded concerning man in Eden, and from various circumstances in the structure of ancient as well as modern languages, to gain some insight into the cause of the prevalence of metaphor and of allegory, in all the early revelations made to man. However imperfectly we may have succeeded in, what all our readers will grant is not an easy task,-combating early impressions, and reasoning against the current of opinion, in matters whereof many notions have been formed, because the facts regarding them have been but little attended to; we feel perfectly satisfied that what our arguments may fail at first to effect, a second consideration of them will accomplish, with many readers. Whoever so far adopts the principles contended for, as to try and to compare patiently, from time to time, as questions arise to his mind, the answers they afford with the solu

tions given, by any other process of reasoning, to the mysteries or figures with which the Divine Economy abounds, will obtain, as he proceeds, confirmation far stronger than any language we can use. As we advanced in our enquiry, we found a solution to the abundance of these figures in their admirable adaptation, as a mode of instruction, to the faculties of man; in their fitness for a testimony › concerning things which were of a future or prospective nature; and we were prepared to find natural objects used allegorically, to illustrate Divine truths, from the connexion subsisting between these objects and the language given to man. Accordingly, the first man is introduced to our notice as placed amongst emblems; and as giving such emblematical names to natural objects, as clearly indicated a just perception of the good and the evil,—of the truth and the lie. We have seen him endued with the spirit of prophecy; and we beheld him, after his transgression, comforted and supported by a promise, couched in the language of allegory and of figure. We have now to follow him, on his ejectment from Paradise, to a SCENE which CONFIRMS, in a more striking manner than any reasoning we can employ, the view we have taken of the instruction he had previously received. At the same place, also, we obtain the most satisfactory evidence, that it was by means of hieroglyphics that the truths of God were from the first preached to mankind.

It is narrated in Genesis iii. 24, that when God 'drave out the man, he placed cherubim at the east end of the garden of Eden, and a flaming

sword turning every way to keep the way of the tree of life.'

The vulgar idea connected with this passage being, that God placed angels, bearing bright or burning weapons, to guard the tree, we shall be pardoned offering one or two remarks on some inadvertencies in the translation, which have partly contributed to this absurd notion. We shall be borne out in the criticisms by every Hebrew lexicon.

The word translated 'placed,' is literally to 'dwell as in a tabernacle-to inhabit.' The word 'cherubim' has, in the original, the definite article 'the' before it. 'Sword' is introduced, while no such weapon as a sword had yet been known: the the phrase is the fire of wrath.' A sword being the instrument of wrath, had afterwards the name of wrath applied to it; but in this place the primary idea of the word should be used, because the object to which it was secondarily applied was then unknown. Besides, here, if the word meant sword, the phrase would literally be 'the fire of sword,' which is absurd. Turning every way' is the same word which the translators render in Ezekiel, chapter i., ‘infolding itself;' and 'keep,' although properly translated, does not, in the original, mean here to guard, but to keep, in the sense of observe; in the same sense in which it is used in the phrase 'to keep the commandments of the Lord.'

Had the translators of the English Bible, then, not been misled by some idea about a guard around the tree, they would have rendered the verse thus: 'So he drave out the man. And he inhabited (or

dwelt between) THE cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and the fire of wrath (or fierce fire) infolding itself to preserve inviolate the way or the tree of life.'

Here is A MEMORIAL set up at Eden; something to keep or preserve inviolate the way of the Lord; for the way of the Tree of Life' has ever been the way of the Lord:-that memorial is called THE

CHERUBIM.

There cannot be found a more glaring instance of the confusion, perplexity, and obscurity, which arise from connecting unauthorised ideas with a word, than in the case of the word Cherubim. From the definite article having been frequently dropped in our translation; from its plural termination (im) seeming to the ear to give it some connexion with seraphim; and from a too great readiness to adopt vague notions respecting what are called mysteries, almost every reader of the Bible thinks that the cherubim were what we call cherubs or angels. For such a notion there is not the smallest foundation in the Scriptures.

The first reference to the cherubim is in the passage already referred to in Genesis. The second is, where Moses is instructed to make it or them of the gold of the mercy-seat, and to portray them on the veil; and the form of them seems to have been understood, for he is merely instructed to frame them, but without any description of the form; the cherubim being something definite and previously well known. Paul calls them the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat. The third

reference to them by name is, where Solomon is instructed to frame others around the holiest of all; besides those upon the mercy-seat, which were then carried into the temple. The fourth is in the 80th Psalm, where God is said to 'dwell between them.' The fifth reference, and it is accompanied by a most copious description of them, is in the visions of Ezekiel. And the sixth, although in it the name is not mentioned, yet the description corresponds so precisely with Ezekiel's vision, that no doubt is left of the identity,-is in the vision which John saw of the four living creatures around the throne and in the midst of the throne.'

Let it be observed then,-1st, That in the vision which Ezekiel saw of the spiritual temple, God appeared sitting above or between four living creatures, and that this prophet, who was also a priest, and had therefore access to the holy of holies, says, 'I knew that they were THE CHERUBIM.' 2nd, That John, in his vision of the sanctuary in heaven, sees 'in the midst of the throne (the mercyseat) and round about the throne (the very situation of the golden cherubim on the ark), four living creatures;' and that these four were the same that Ezekiel saw, which he says were 'the cherubim.' 3rd, That God is described as 'sitting between the cherubim,' in the worldly sanctuary, which throne or seat was 'above or upon the ark.' And 4th, That God inhabited, or dwelt between, the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden. The coincicidence between, and the concurrent testimony of, all these passages prove, that in every recognized