115 



gested, between the precious stones of tlie new Jerusalem, and 

 those of the Jewish ceremonial ; between the stones op fire 

 which formed the bright ornament of the canopy of Eden, those 

 of the Ephod, and Pectoral, and the foundations of the Church 

 of Christ. 



There is in the book of Acts an entire || chapter, wherein St. 

 Stephen abridges the history of the Jews, and uses some expres- 

 sions which partially illustrate this subject. « This is that Moses," 

 he exclaims, " that was in the church in the wilderness," or " the 

 " Tabernacle of imtness in the wilderness ;" from him the Israelites 

 " in their hearts tvirned back again into Egypt ;" and, having 

 made to themselves idols, so offended the Deity, that he turned, 

 and gave them " up to worship the Host of Heaven :'' in con- 

 sequence of which they " took up the Tabernacle of Moloch, 

 " and the Star of the God Remphan,"§ and other Gods, who 

 constituted a part of the Host of Heaven, in the double sense of 

 Deities and of celestial luminaries. In this we see a continuation 

 of that connexion in the minds of the Israelites, so like to the 

 superstitions of the people whose idolatries they closely copied, 

 between the stars, the Heavenly Host, and the Tabernacle of 

 witness which their gross intellect could not entirely comprehend : 

 and, it is important to add, that they might have been possibly 

 induced to the error of setting up material objects for their praise, 

 upon their signal deliverance from bondage — of fonning a molten 

 calf for their worship — as well by its predominance in the figure 

 of the Cherubim, as by its being the image which designated 



II Chap. vii. 



J See also Amos S. 26—1 Kings U. 33—2 Kings 23. 16— Jer. 19. 13.— Zepban. 1. 5. 



