humble holy intimacy which I once enjoyed with my God; I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgement. Will he not help me to pray? Will he not hear my groans and requests? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? yet I would seek his face still, and "O that I knew where I might find him!"

66

"Often have I seen him in his own ordinances in the place of public worship? I have seen his power and his glory in the sanctuary: I have found him in secret corners, and my meditation of him has been exceedingly sweet. In dark retirements he has smiled on my soul, and has often given me reviving light. I have found him in his works, and I have had a fairer sight of him in his word; I can name the places, the pleasant lines in my Bible, and say, "I have seen the face of my God here :" but now the Bible itself is like a sealed book, or like a strange language which I cannot understand; I hear not the voice of my God speaking to me there; I go forward to his promises, and read what he will do for his people, but I perceive him not; backward to his past providences, or to my own experiences, and review what he has done, but there is a darkness too: I turn to my left hand amongst his works of nature, but I do not see him; I seek him on my right hand amongst his works of grace, but still he hides himself that I cannot behold him, ver. 8. 9. I wander in the night and inquire after him, I watch for him more than they that watch for the morning, I say more than they that watch for the morning. “O that I knew where I might find him!”

"And it is no wonder that I am so impatient under the painful sense of his present distance from me, and so importunate for his return: for I have known the dreadful case of utter distance from him in a state of nature and sin, and I have tasted something of the pleasure of being brought nigh by grace; and now I dread every thing that looks like the old distance, that estrangement; I would fain renew those divine pleasures of a returning and a reconciled God; O that I knew where I might find him!"

"Besides,

"Besides, I bethink myself and say, "What shall I do without a God!" for I find all creatures utterly insufficient to relieve and help me; and I have known something of God's all-sufficiency; he has been my helper in six troubles and in seven; he is my only hope: when creatures stand aloof from me, and each of them say, "There is no help in me,” whither should I go then but to my God? " O that I knew where I might find him !”

"I have been so much used to live upon him, and found his divine aids and influences so necessary to my life and my peace, that I sink and die at his absence. I feel within myself a sort of heavenly instinct that I want his presence, and cannot live without him. I know he stands in no need of me, for he gives to all his creatures life and breath, and being; but I need his counsels and his comforts, his strength and his love my soul is touched with such a divine influence, that it cannot rest while God withdraws, as the needle trembles and hunts after the hidden loadstone. If my God retire and hide himself, he will forgive a creature that loves him so well as to follow hard after him without ceasing, and is impatient and restless till he search him out; "O that I knew where I might find him!”

"Though God is pleased to depart from me for a season, yet I cannot let go all my hope; he hides himself from my soul, yet I dare not think him an enemy, but only a concealed friend: if I could get near him even to his seat, I know I should find it a mercy-seat, though perhaps judgement may sit there too. It is a throne of grace, says a Christian, because Jesus is there with the blood of atonement; and having such an high Priest over the house of God, and such a new and living way of access by the blood of Christ, I will seek after him, and address myself to him; I will confess mine iniquities before him, and be sorry for my sins, which may have beclouded or eclipsed my heavenly Sun, and hid his face from me; I fear I have grieved his blessed spirit, and provoked him to withdraw his kind

influences

influences of light, strength, and comfort; nor will I cease grieving for his absence till he return again.

"Come, O eternal Spirit, come and visit my poor dark and disconsolate soul; come and awaken all my powers to follow hard after my Father and my God! Come, invigorate my faith, and lead me to the Mediator, the blessed Jesus; come, open to me the promises, and let me into the covenant of his unchangeable love, ratified and sealed with blood. If ever I find my God again, it is there, I know, Į must find him: Christ is the only way to the Father. It is by the interest of his Son I shall get near to him, even to his seat; then will I pour out all my woes and my wants in his sight, I will order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he will put strength in me, and assist and suffer me to prevail with him.

"Then, when I have found him whom my soul loveth, I will hold him fast, and not let him go: I will charge all the powers and passions of my nature not to yield to onę sinful practice, nor provoke him to depart; for he is my everlasting and my almighty Friend.

"Then, though I should have a thousand enemies set themselves against me, I would not be afraid; yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have found my God, and my God is with me."

XIX. The FIGURE of a CHERUB.

A CHERUB is a name used in scripture to denote some angelic power or powers, under the figure of some strange animal: the plural number in the Hebrew is cherubim, which signifies cherubs, and I know not how our translators of the Bible came so often to speak of cherubims, adding an s to the Hebrew plural number, instead of the English plural, (viz.) cherubs. Perhaps some learned writers using

the

the word cherubini in Latin, instead of cherubi, might lead them into this grammatical irregularity.

The Jews themselves greatly differ about the form or figure of a cherub. Josephus, in his Antiquities, book iii. chap. 6. tells us, that cherubs are flying animals, like to none that were seen by men, and whose form no man knoweth. Abenezra, a learned Jew, supposes it to be a general name, extending itself to all forms or figures; though in the writings of Moses he supposes it to come nearer the figure of a young man or boy.

Some have imagined, that the mere face of a boy with wings is sufficient to describe a cherub; and accordingly such figures are wrought into the ornaments of buildings and curtains, &c.; but I know no just ground for this imagination, except it be that those on the ark were beaten out of the same mass of gold which made the mercy-seat: and it must be confessed, this sort of figure is more easy to be thus formed than any tall shape with a body and feet. Exod. xxv. 19. and xxviii. 7.

It is generally represented in scripture like some strange living creature, with one or more faces, having both wings and feet: when it has four faces, they are borrowed from a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle: the wings are described as very large, and the feet, when they are particularly described, are like those of an ox or a calf: but whether the whole figure be more like that of an ox or of a man, the learned are not agreed. This is certain, that the several scriptures wherein cherubs are mentioned can hardly be reconciled, without supposing them represented in different forms, sometimes nearer to one of these forms, and sometimes to the other. If, therefore, after all our searches, we cannot come to a full determination, we must be content to acknowledge our ignorance, though perhaps, by diligent in-quiry, we may come pretty near to the truth.

If we consult the derivation of the word, it seems to come from a charah, which, in the Chaldee, Syric, and Arabic languages, signifies to plough, which is the known

work

work of oxen.

This favours the sentiment of those who describe it as a flying ox.

Others tell us, that 1 cherub, in Arabic, is a ship that carries merchandize, and that a cherub is a chariot of God, appointed to carry the shechinah, or bright glory, which is the symbol of God's presence: and therefore God is said to ride upon a cherub. Psalm xviii. 11. 2172 by I jirchab al cherub, he rode on a cherub, and Psalm civ. 3. it is said, he maketh the clouds his chariot, rechub; so that, by the transposition of a letter, which is frequent with the Hebrews, it seems to signify a chariot; and in 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. the cherubs upon the ark are called the chariot of the cherubim, and the whole figure in Ezekiel's vision had wheels all about it as a chariot; and yet it is some◄ times called the cherub in the singular, and sometimes cherubim or cherubs.

All this is true; but in a chariot there are generally some animals represented as moving, drawing, or carrying it. And though in Ezekiel's vision it is a living or animated chariot, with living wheels, which had the spirit of the animals in them, Ezek. i. 20. yet there are winged animals to move it, or to move with it. The whole is composed of four living creatures which had faces and wings, and feet and hands, joined together in a living machine with wheels, and the God of glory rode upon it. But let us proceed and consider several scriptures more particularly and in order.

The first place where we find the name mentioned is Gen. iii. ult. God placed cherubs and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. This does not seem to mean a chariot or chariots, but living creatures: if they were in the shape of men, then a flaming sword is waving in their hands. If in the form of flying oxen, then with flames about them flashing out like a sword from their eyes, nostrils, or mouth. Perhaps the brazen-footed bulls breath, ing out flames, which guarded the golden fleece in Colchos, may be derived hence by the fabulous Greeks. ------- Adamanteis