his church. "A garden inclosed," says our Lord to his church," is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, camphire (margin, cypress) with spikenard; spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, and all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon."— Bride. "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."Bridegroom. "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, &c." (Cant. iv. 12— 16, and v. 1.) This metaphorical description relates to the beauty and delight of the place prepared by the heavenly Bridegroom for the residence, of his bride; and the end for which I have produced the passage is to show, that the blessedness of the Christian church is scripturally illustrated by allusions to scenes like those of the residence provided for our first parents. In the fruits, and waters, and refreshing odoriferous breezes of the primitive Eden, adumbrations are afforded us of those spiritual fruits, waters and influences, which gladden the Church of Christ.

But there are other similar allusions in the less mystic parts of Scripture. "Their soul shall be as a watered Garden." (Jer. xxxi. 12.) “Thou

shalt be like a watered Garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." (Is. lviii. 11.) "In that day sing ye unto her, a Vineyard of red wine: I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment: I will keep it night and day." (Is. xxvii. 2, 3.)

But the part of Scripture to which I more particularly request your attention, is the description of the Millennial state in Rev. xxii. 1-3; where the emblems of Paradise are so introduced that the connexion cannot be overlooked. " And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as chrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and of either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him." Compare with this the description which Ezekiel has given of the same blessed period of the church in its latter state. (Chap. xlvii. 12.) By the river, on the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaves shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit, according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for

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meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." See another description evidently referring, retrospectively and prospectively, to the same origin and accomplishment as those just produced. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the vallies: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah, the myrtle and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together; that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." (Is. xli. 18-20.) You will observe, that these species of trees are all evergreens, whose essential oil preserves them from the loss of foliage, to which the deciduous kinds are subject; and that they are all odoriferous as well as oleagenous. What a change is that which is here figuratively described! Sin had perverted the original Garden of the Lord into a wilderness of deformity and want but the wilderness is again to be renewed in more than its pristine beauty and abundance by the Grace and Omnipotence of Jehovah. Christianity is Paradise restored. And whatever spiritual blessings will be enjoyed,

according to these emblematic descriptions, in the Millennial state, are the same essentially with those which it is the privilege of every believer in Jesus, in every period of the church, richly to enjoy. Whether "the new heavens and the new earth," which are promised at or after the Millennial period, are to be understood figuratively or literally, I shall not at present inquire.

Let us now attend again to the original picture from which these prophetic copies are manifestly taken. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads." (Gen. ii. 8-10.) Observe, my friend, the plantation of this garden. God Himself. And so is the

It was planted by church of Christ.

Therein "all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." The prophet Isaiah in his description, or rather the Spirit of Jehovah speaking by him, anxiously claims the honour of the work for Him to whom alone it is due. Recur again to the passage I have quoted, and mark this characteristic in it.

So also the author of the Apocalypse represents the water of life, by which the new Eden is, and will hereafter be more abundantly fertilized, as "proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb."-" Salvation is of the Lord."

A garden is an enclosure secured by a fence. The paradise of the state of innocence was a spot chosen and separated from the rest of the earth. And such also is the Christian church. The productions of Paradise comprehended every fruit that is "pleasant to the sight and good for food." In our "Paradise regained," the regained,” the eye that is restored to its proper function, finds all that is calculated to fix attention, and excite admiration; and here the once vitiated but now restored taste finds also the food which it relishes and enjoys. Above all, the tree of life in the midst, fixes attention and delights the soul. In communion with Christ it finds more than Adam forfeited. This is heaven anticipated. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth," is the garden of the Aleim. In our Eden there are also waters of comfort. Refreshing streams of Divine influence revive and cheer the whole enclosure. (Comp. Rev. xxii. 1—3; Ps. xlvi. 4, and lxv. 9.) These waters are abundant in quantity, and in quality most delightful.

But I must not omit to notice the employment assigned to the tenant of the original garden of the world. We read (Gen. ii. 15.) that "Jehovah