Ixxii INTRODUCTION. 



and power; of God's action upon and by 

 them, expressed by his riding or sitting upon 

 them, and inhabiting them ; as likewise by 

 his employing them as instruments both of 

 good or evil, of blessing and cursing. 



That the cherubim are powers or rulers 

 in nature is evident, as was before observed, 

 from their symbols the man, the lion, the 

 ox, and the eagle. It is singular that amongst 

 the descendants of the three sons of Noah, 

 the three last animals should be adopted into 

 their religion, the ox, the Egyptian Apis, 

 by the descendants of Ham; 1 the lion, a a 

 symbol of light, by the Persians, 2 derived 

 from Shem ; and the eagle by the Greeks 

 and other nations descended from Japhet* 



These powers, be they what they may, are 

 described in Scripture as forming a chariot 

 on which the Deity is represented as riding, 



1 Other descendants of Ham, as the Phoenicians, regarded the 

 ox or heifer as a sacred animal. Baal was worshipped as an ox 

 as well as a fly. (Tobit, i. 5.) 



* Mithras is to be seen with the head of a lion and the body 

 of a man, having four wings, two of which are extended towards 

 the sky, and the other two towards the ground. Montfaucon, 

 i. 232. Comp. Ezek. i. 11. 



3 Every one knows that the eagle was sacred to the Grecian 

 Jupiter. 



