95 



these facts, is rendered yet more so by another .passage in thr 

 Psalms,* wherein it is said of the enemies of the Lord, " they 

 " set up their banners for tokens ;" or, in the Bible version, " their 

 " ensigns for signs" — in the style of Egyptian grossness : and this 

 brings me to a remarkable coincidence which tends to enforce my 

 conjecture. The names Cherubim and Seraphim, united together 

 in the nomenclature of tiie heavenly host, had both of them, di- 

 rectly or in their roots, -f tlie signification of oxen ; and were both 

 of them, in this sense, tlie names of Jewish and of Egyptian 

 idols : as, therefore, the people of Egypt bore upon their standards 

 the images of animals that were the object of their devotion, J it 

 is plahi that the worship of the Cherub or ox, as set up for the 

 banner of the chosen people, was the manner in which " they turned 

 " back again into Egypt in their hearts ;"§ and that, as they parti- 

 ally copied from the sacred emblem, its resemblance and its name, 

 they applied to the copy its obvious use — to lead them as a mili- 

 tary standard. 



Since many further demonstrations of the truth of this conjec- 

 ture will follow from the next inquiry that I shall institute con- 

 cerning this figure, I shall proceed to examine into its typical cha- 

 racter ; first slightly noticmg some coincidences with my opinion, 

 to be drawn from the comments and traditions of the Rabbins 

 and others. 



We find in Exodus, that twelve stones were " graven with the 



* Ps. 74.. 4. 



f The meaning of Ser-Apis is rlisputed. Apis was unquestionably a bull j Bryant goes near 

 io give the same meaning to Serapis. See Mythoi. v. 2. 248. 

 _ ^ Diod. Sic. ubi sup. 



i Acts, 7. 39, &c. 



