Ixxxii INTRODUCTION. 



site directions, so as to be antagonist or 

 conflicting powers. The cherubim placed 

 at each end of the mercy seat had their 

 faces inward, or looking towards each other, 1 

 so that they appeared to symbolize antagonist 

 powers, as if one was a vis centrifuga, and 

 the other a vis centripeta. The pillars of 

 the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the 

 world upon them ; 2 and these two antagonist 

 forces, that which flies from and that which 

 seeks the centre, form that, so called, universal 

 gravitation, which, under God, upholds the 

 universe, keeps all its wholes and their parts 

 in their places, maintains their motions, and 

 mutual actions upon each other. But though 

 these, as moving in an opposite direction, may 

 be called antagonist or conflicting powers, yet 

 their opposition is not enmity, but universal har- 

 mony and love. This Philo seems to intimate, 

 when he says a station, 3 over against Para- 

 dise, was assigned to the cherubim, and the 

 flaming sword, not as to enemies about to 

 struggle and fight, but as to those that were 

 most intimate and friendly. It is said of the 

 cherubic animals, in Ezekiel, that they ran 



1 Exod. xxxvii. 8. 9. 2 1 Sam. ii. 8. 



3 De Cherubim. 85. F. G. Ed. Col. Allobr. 1643. 



