116 



that sign of the Zodiac, in whieh the sun was at the time of || their 

 departure from Egypt. 



The first part of the address of St. Stephen speaks of the " Ta- 

 " bernacle of ivitness in the wilderness ;" and we have already seen 

 the use which had been made of banners for tokens, and observed 

 the meaning of the text of Isaiah,§ that " there shall be a root 

 " of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people ;" and of 

 that of the Revelations, in which our Saviour is stiled, the Lion 

 of Judah — recollecting then the promise to tlie seed of David, thus 

 expressed in the 89th Psalm,f[ " His seed shall endure for ever, 

 " and his throne shall be established, as the faithful witness in 

 " Heaven ;" let us conclude with shortly pointing the meaning of 

 these allusions, and the object of this compound symbolification. 



I conceive that the Cherubim, connected with the Shechinah, 

 the other parts of the Tabernacle, or Temple, and the Jewish 

 History, particularly their pilgrimage, are types of the promise 

 of redemption to mankind ; and, that the Zodiac and the visions 

 in the Heavens of the inspired writers, are types collateral with 

 them, of the same great event ; but going farther, to picture the great 

 body of the faithful placed among the celestial Host hereafter. -f 



]| They quitted it on the 15th da^ of the first month on the morrow of the passover, Num. 

 33.3. This was in April. ^ Is. 11. 10. 



f V. 35 and 36. See botli the versions of our church. 



f I should not pass unnoticed an opinion of Mr. Holmes, (on the Revel. V. 1. p. 50.) that 

 the four animals of the Apocalypse are emblems of qualities of the Deity : the principle of 

 this construction is, that, " as these living beings were in the midst of the throne on which 

 " God was seated, they are something essentially belonging to his person." But this is a pal- 

 pable non-scquilur, and would as well prove the Cherubim to belong to the Shechinah. This 

 conjecture is liable to all the objections which lie against Parkhurst's, with which it is allied. 

 It should be always remembered, that the four animals are redeemed, and cannot thei'efore 

 be images of the Deity ; but rather represent, in the words of Dr. Hale, " the whole congre- 

 " gation of the faitliful in the four quarters of the world." — Chron. 2. 1300. 



