heavens, and under other forms return it again to the sources from which it flowed. So that it seems to be a general law that where there is an efflux there must also be an influx.

3. The Firmament. The proper translation of the word, which our version, after the Septuagint, renders firmament, is -the expansion. And God said, let there be an expansion, and let it divide the waters, &c. The cause of expansion is heat, which naturally divides and separates that in which it acts; as we see in the case of evaporation and the ascent of steam: and not only this, but the expansive force consolidates that whereon its impact is, whence our translation renders the word after the Greek, sigeμa, the firmament, that which renders all things firm, the action of which produces the cohesion of the atoms of bodies, and their agglomeration round a partial or general centre: in this last acceptation it is synonymous with the term attraction, and in the former with that of repulsion. From these considerations, we may readily understand why the Psalmist calls it, The firmament of his power or strength.1

The terms expansion, then, and firmament, express the matter of the heavens in a state of action, going from or returning to its central fountain; for every system, as well as its own sun and planets, has doubtless its own heavens, probably never stagnant, but incessantly issuing from a centre of irradiation, as the blood from the heart in a positive state, and returning in a negative state to that centre where it is, as it were, again oxygenated, and circulates to the flammantia mania mundi; and so

Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.

But though every system probably forms a distinct portion of creation, yet, reasoning from analogy, and the general plan of

1 Pa. cl. 1.

the Deity, as far as we are acquainted with it, there is every reason to believe that the universe consists of systems so concatenated as to form one great whole, the centre of which may be the Heaven of Heavens, the presence-chamber of the God of gods and Lord of lords; in whom and from whom is all motion, light, and expansion. What may be the links that connect the several systems can only be conjectured. It has been observed with regard to comets, that they wander from one solar system to another;' if this be the case they evidently belong to two systems, and their perihelion in one, will be their aphelion in another, and thus they may form connecting links between them. This concatenation of systems may also have a common motion round their glorious centre, forming the grand cycle, or year, of the Universe.

Having, I trust, made it evident, or at least extremely probable, that the Heavens and the Cherubim, physically considered, indicate the same powers, I shall next advert to some passages of Scripture that seem to lift up the veil which covers these mysterious symbols, and show us expressly what they represent.

In that sublime description of the descent of the Deity. for the help and deliverance of David in the eighteenth Psalm, we have these words; He rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. Here we have one of these symbolical beings introduced and explained-as the latter hemistich of the verse is clearly exegetical of the former-by the phrase, The wings of the wind. If we next turn to the hundred-and-fourth Psalm, in a parallel passage, we find an explanation of this latter metaphor. He maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind. Whence it appears that the wings of the wind, by

1 La Place, System, &c. by Harte, ii. 337.

2 Parkhurst renders these words, The wings of the Spirit, but he stands

alone in this.

6

an elegant metonomy, means the clouds, consequently the clouds are a cherub. In various parts of the Old Testament, God's presence and glory are manifested by and in a cloud. When he led his hosts from Egypt through the Red Sea, he went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire; when he was about to descend upon Mount Sinai, he said Lo, I come unto thee in thick cloud.2 When the tabernacle was set up in the wilderness, and the work was finished, Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. When Solomon's Temple was built, and the ark brought into the oracle, and placed under the wings of the cherubim, and the priests were come forth, then The cloud filled the house, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. As God thus came of old in a cloud, and by it manifested his presence to his people and in his house; so likewise when he spoke to them, it was from a cloud, as in the passage above quoted—Lo, I come to thee in a thick cloud, that thy people may hear when I

speak with thee. And again, And a cloud covered the mount; and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days, and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And in another place, And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders." And in the New Testament, at the Transfiguration, Behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud. From these passages it appears to follow, that when the Deity thought proper to address his prophets or his people by the voice of words, it was from a cloud.

1 Exod. xiii. 21.

3 Exod. xl. 33, 34.

5 Exod. xxiv. 15, 16.

7 Numb. xi. 25.

2 lbid. xix. 9, 16. 1 Kings, viii. 12.

4 1 Kings, viii. 6—11.

6 Ibid. xxxiv. 5.

8 Matth. xvii. 5.

But not only did God descend to communicate with his people, and to reside as it were amongst them in a cloud; but when our Saviour went up into heaven, it was upon a cloud, which Athanasius calls mounting the cherubim;1 and when he comes again, it will be in the same manner, attended by his holy angels. When he is said, in the Apocalypse, to ride upon a White Horse, and the armies which were in heaven to follow him upon white horses; by these white horses are meant white clouds, as is evident from other passages of Holy Writ: as where it is said-Behold, he cometh with clouds.3 Again, God's going to execute judgments upon any nation is sometimes represented by his riding upon a cloud. So when the prophet pronounces the burden of Egypt, his exordium is -Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt.

So immediate is God's action upon the clouds described to be in the Bible, that the thunder is called his voice, as in Job-Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth God thundereth marvellously with his voice and when he descended upon Mount Sinai, it was with mighty thunderings. Considering the benefits and blessings that God confers upon mankind by the ministry of the Cherub-clouds, his horses and chariots of salvation, we need not wonder at the Psalmist's expression-His strength is in the clouds. Acting by them, he causes it to rain upon one city and not upon another." Are there any, says Jeremiah, among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God.

1 Opera, ii. 3017, D.

2 Revel xix. 11, 14.

3 Ibid. i. 7, comp. Dan. vii, 13. Rev. xiv. 14. Acts, i. 11.

4 Job, xxxvii. 2—5.

6 Ps. lxviii. 34.

8 Jerem. xiv, 22.

5 Exod. ix. 28.

7 Amos, iv. 7.

The Deity superintends his whole creation, not only sup porting the system that he has established, and seeing that the powers to which he has given it in charge to govern under him, execute his physical laws; but himself, where he sees fit, in particular instances dispensing with these laws: restraining the clouds, in one instance, from shedding their treasures; and in another, permitting them to descend in blessings. Acting every where upon the atmosphere, and those secondary powers that produce atmospheric phenomena, as circumstances connected with his moral government require. Thus, it is that his strength is in the clouds; that his presence, either to bless or to curse, is manifested by them; that his voice is heard from them; his glory irradiates from them. On this account also they are called his paths.1

The Lord is said to come with fire, or rather in fire :2 to descend in fire;33 to be a consuming fire; to speak out of the fire; from all which passages it seems to follow, that fire or heat form also one of the physical cherubim upon which the Deity sitteth, or which he inhabiteth, and by which he acteth.

Light appears entitled to the same distinction; for God is said to dwell in the light that no man can approach unto, and to cover himself with light as with a garment.7

Lastly, air or wind, which God bringeth out of his treasury; which is the type, and, on the day of Pentecost, was the precursor of the Holy Spirit, both in Hebrew and Greek, is expressed by the same word distinguished only by its adjuncts; and is one of the main instruments by which God acts upon our globe, both in dispensing blessings and curses, and without which our life could not be sustained a moment, is evidently a

1 Ps. lxv. 14

2 Isai lxvi. 15. Heb. x, the Septuagint seem to have read

3 Exod. xix. 18.

5 Ibid. 36.

7 Ps. civ. 2.

ɔ.