98 



of perfection, to the nature of uncultivated mankind, tiie en- 

 tire of its ceremonial possessed a symbolical character, and it 

 was only perfect as a type of institutions which were yet to exist. 

 The Cherubim, therefore, were allegorical as the rest ; and bore 

 a double typical allusion ; tlie one sufficiently obvious, the other 

 more deeply concealed. They were, in the first place, an em- 

 blem or hieroglyphic of the people of Israel. The arguments 

 which I have adduced, the authority of Sir Isaac Newton,* Mede, 

 and others, agreeing with the Rabbinical traditions, will per- 

 haps establish this fact ; but if these will not suffice, it will acquire 

 proof in the sequel ; wherein I shall endeavour to ascertain the 

 second and important antitype of the Cherubim. To this I shall 

 proceed, after having shortly noticed one common but erroneous 

 intei-pretation of this sacred figure, which is deserving of notice, 

 because it is adopted by such men as Hutcliinson, and Parkhurst. 

 This figure has been conjectured to be an emblem of the Tri- 

 nity-j- : but this supposition is liable to objections entirely unsur- 

 mountable. Besides that, throughout all the various descriptions 

 of Cherub and Cherubim, we find no triple union ; some being 

 single, others double, but none the " tria juncta in uno" — an ob- 

 jection which has required much sophistry to attempt to remove, 

 but in vain — it is quite decisive against it, that in the Revelations, 

 "l where this compound image is confessedly alluded to, it is said 

 to have fallen down and worshipped " God that sat upon the 

 throne:" the same is also said of it in Ezekiel. It could not 



• See the works of Sir Isaac Newton, and of Mede, and Wetstein, as quoted above, 

 f See Parkhurst's Dictionary, at the word " Cherub. 

 i Chap. S. S. and 19. ♦. 



