observation of what is without; eyes within, to denote insight into the causes and mystery of all things which are seen. To them is not given seven eyes, but far more than seven, fulness of eyes; yet, with all that fulness and with all that number, so much is not expressed as is expressed by the number seven, which were in the head of the Lamb; and this is the beauty and power of the symbolical number seven, signifying self-containedness. All observation whatsoever is in Christ, by virtue of the number seven ; but only a very great quantity is in the living creatures by virtue of the multitude of their eyes, as much as they are capable of containing. The one hath all knowledge, comprehension, inspection, in himself complete. The other hath as much as he is pleased to bestow upon them; a great deal indeed, very, very much, but dependent upon him, measured out from him, derived from his fulness. Now, I further observe, that the perfect, and complete, and self-contained power, total and universal, which is in the horns of the Lamb, the four living creatures have nothing of at all, but only the four-and-twenty elders, whose song, as hath been observed, containeth power (ver. 11); instead of which the song of the four living creatures containeth thanks; which being confirmed also by the symbol of thrones and crowns adjoined to the elders, doth strengthen the idea represented above, that it is the fulness which is in the church set forth by two symbols. I say not at present two parts of the church, but two aspects of the church; the one the aspect of power, the other the aspect of knowledge and comprehension; the one the aspect of seated dignity, the other the aspect of unresting praise and worship. For the living creatures rest not day and night, literally, "and have not rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." But the elders have rest. They sit in throned state, priests upon their thrones, and their action is to be ever falling down prostrate before the throne of God, and to be ever casting their crowns before it; which is an act, as I understand, of continual and perpetual acknowledgment of their dig nities derived from Christ, and held from him in continual homage.

While all these things are beyond a doubt contained in the symbol of the four living creatures, I think there is a

deeper mystery still, which, if I err not, is the mystery of spirit. It is manifest that nothing could be undertaken so difficult. as to set out spirit by a visible symbol, which I think hath been accomplished by Ezekiel and John's description of the living creatures. The eye is a symbol of a spiritual power, as contradistinguished from a worldly or temporal power, which is symbolized by the horn. And that little horn of Daniel wherein were eyes, is therefore an antichrist; because it taketh upon itself this double prerogative of horns and eyes, which belongeth to the Lamb, and to him only (Rev. v. 6). So in Zechariah, the seven eyes upon the one foundation stone are declared to be (iv. 10) “the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth," which rapidity of motion is proper only to a spirit: but this is not left to inference, but is expressly so declared (Rev. v. 6), " And seven eyes, which (eyes, not horns) are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." And indeed nothing is more common than to see an eye painted in pictures to represent the spiritual omnipresence of God. Furthermore we have seen, that the seven lamps of fire are appropriated (Rev. iv. 5) to signify the Holy Ghost; and the same emblem we do find in Ezekiel, used for the living creatures. The whole passage is worthy of careful attention, as revealing a wonderful effort of descriptive power to represent a spiritual reality by visible objects. Ezek. i. 13, 14: “As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran, and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.' of a flash of lightning." But perhaps beyond all other expedients, is that in the text, of representing them as full of eyes, both outwardly and inwardly that is, altogether spirits, and I would say disembodied spirits. The lightnings and thunderings proceeding forth from the throne, likewise convey the same idea: Which maketh his angels spirits [winds], and his ministers a flame of fire." (Heb. i. 7.) Their never resting, carries with it the same impression. And the idea of life set forth above, which I was led to from their being seen every where within the throne, gives strength to the same notion, that spirit is the radical power of the symbol

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of the four living creatures. Now from all these considerations it hath been often pressed upon my mind while meditating this great subject, that the four living creatures do represent the church baptized with the Holy Ghost; that is, all who since the days of Pentecost have been added to the number of the heavenly host; while the elders represent the saints of the former dispensation, who were trained under the promise of being kings and priests, which was God's first overture to the Jews by Moses (Ex. xix. 6), but were not baptized with the Holy Ghost ;—the one the saints gathered before, the other the saints gathered after the day of Pentecost. For, let men quibble as they please, I assert it to be a great point of scriptural doctrine, that baptism with the Holy Ghost began upon Christ, when the Dove descended on him, and came not to another person till the day of Pentecost; and any other view makes void the grand distinction between the Old and the New Testament dispensation. The reasons of this great distinction are these :-(1) The express declarations of Scripture, fixing the coming of the Holy Ghost upon men to the time posterior to the glory of Christ (John vii. 39; Acts xix. 2). (2) The coming of the Holy Ghost upon all flesh was a great promise of the Father, which Christ is declared to have received when he ascended up on high, and to have sent down on the day of Pentecost (Joel ii. 28; Acts ii. 16). (3.) It is an express prerogative of Christ as man to baptize with the Holy Ghost (Matt. iii. 11). (4.) Redemption from the law is necessary previous to the receiving of the Spirit (Gal. iv. 5, 6; iii. 13, 14). (5.) The power to become a son of God, which is by regeneration of the Holy Ghost, was derived from Christ to those who believed on him, as well Jews as Gentiles (John i. 12, 13). These and many other reasons, which we cannot go into at present, leave no doubt on our mind, that it is no better theology to say, that Christ was incarnate before he was generated of the virgin, as to say that the Holy Ghost was given before the day of Pentecost. And as the Old-Testament saints were saved by looking forward to the one, so also, by looking forward to the other; I believe it to be the characteristic of the Christian church to be spiritual, and of the Jewish church to be carnal (Gal. iii. 2—6; Heb. vii. 6; ix. 10);

saved by faith of things to come. By carual I do not mean unholy, but "babes in Christ," under tutors and schoolmasters (1 Cor. iii. 1). We have that thing without which they could not be perfected: wherefore it is written, Heb. xi. 39, 40, " And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.' And in the enumeration of the heavenly company in the following chapter of the Hebrews, we have two companies; one "the spirits of just men made perfect," whom I regard as those ancient saints perfected at the resurrection of Christ, by being raised along with him; the other, "the general assembly and church of the first born," whom I regard as the New Testament church, those to whom he gives power to become sons of God, those who are begotten of him as the second Adam, by regeneration of the Holy Spirit; the first-born sons of him who is the High Priest. This train of reasoning and reflection, I say, hath sometimes, yea often, led me to think that there is something more in the distinction of the church into elders and living creatures, than merely to set forth by a double symbol more fully the offices of the church in glory, and that it contains the two-fold condition of the redeemed: the elders, the Old-Testament saints, in their bodies, raised for government in the form which Christ had from his resurrection to his ascension; the four living creatures, the NewTestament church, spiritual yet clothed upon with their bodies, as Christ's was on the holy Mount. But I am far from being convinced of this; and I throw it out rather as a conjecture for which much may be advanced, than as a judgment or conclusion to which I have come. The great point, however, that spirituality is the characteristic of the symbol of the four living creatures, standeth unaffected whether this conjecture be valid or not. But more of this

hereafter.

It hath been supposed by many interpreters, that the fourfold form of the lion, the calf, the man, and the eagle hath respect to the four standards under which the twelve tribes of Israel marched through the wilderness. For of the Jewish writers it is asserted, that while the standard of each tribe was in colour according to the stone repre

senting it in the high priest's breast plate, there was wrought upon that of Judah the figure of the lion; upon that of Ephraim, the figure of the ox or calf; upon that of Reuben, the first-born, the figure of a man ; upon that of Dan, the figure of an eagle. Now it was commanded by the Lord, (Num. ii.) that under these four head tribes, the rest should marshal themselves. Judah on the east, with Issachar and Zebulun; Reuben on the south, with Simeon and Gad; Ephraim on the west, with Manasseh and Benjamin; Dan on the north, with Asher and Naphtali. And in the centre of this quadrangular encampment, which it is believed covered a little more than twelve square miles, there was the tabernacle of God, with four divisions of the Levites, forming a small inner encampment around it. This was the manner of God's marching through the wilderness; encompassed and defended around by his chosen people, under their banners of the lion, the calf, the man, and the flying eagle. To cover and to guard, is thought by the learned to be the proper signification of cherub; and in Ezekiel, the prince of Tyrus is called the cherub that covereth (xxviii. 14); and in Gen. iii. 24, they are said to be set to keep the way of the tree of life. Now, by these four standards together composing the church, the place of God's presence, was covered and defended. He did, as it were, march upborne upon their shoulders. He dwelt amongst them, and made them his habitation; nor did he remove from amongst them until the days of Ezekiel, and that with the assured promise of his returning again. This was the condition of things during the whole progress of their journeyings in the wilderness, until they obtained. possession of their inheritance: a period which is by Paul, Heb. iii. iv., as well as in other parts of Scripture, declared to be the type of the church from the time that the rock of Christ's body was rent, and the waters of the Spirit flowed out on the day of Pentecost, continuing with us till this day in the sacrament of baptism, and to continue till we shall pass Jordan, and those of us who, like Joshua and Caleb, are believing, shall enter into the rest which remaineth for the people of God. Of the spiritual church therefore, the Lord riding upon the cherub through the wilderness is the fittest symbol. See him in his pillar