capable of enjoying heavenly glory, and of glorifying Him that made us. For so much the greater is our sin, if we glorify Him not. So much the sorer must be our punishment, if we by our sinfulness dishonour Him. Let then the dreadful instances of his vengeance, recorded in his word, as having already taken place upon the earth, awaken us to a due apprehension of the judgments hereafter to take effect, when the earth itself shall be destroyed. Let the lamentations of Jerusalem, in her ruins and captivity, quicken our ears to hear by faith the weeping and gnashing of teeth, which when the world ends will begin to issue from the place of torment, never to cease. And that we may escape the tribulation of eternity, let us in all our present troubles humble ourselves before God in prayer. The afflictions which He now sends us, becoming thus the means of turning us to Himself, will be our way to escape endless misery. And being constantly in the habit of approaching the throne of grace, through the intercession of our Saviour, we shall be the less afraid to stand before the judgment seat of Christ; we shall be the better prepared to take our part in the songs of praise and joy, which are sung ever unto Him in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Lord, do Thou teach us so to weep and to lament, that we may hereafter everlastingly rejoice! Grant, Lord, that in all our sufferings on earth we may so suffer with Thee, that we may be also glorified together! See Rom. 8. 17.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 1. 1-3.

The word of the Lord cometh to Ezekiel.

I Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2 In the fifth day of the month,

which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.

LECTURE 1279.

Our guilt, and need of Christ to save us.

The book of the prophet Ezekiel refers largely to the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the seventy years' captivity. It was well calculated to confirm the words of the prophet Jeremiah, as well as to console those who suffered under the afflictions which Jeremiah and Ezekiel foretold. It tended to uphold the authority of the Law, by setting forth the ill consequences of disobedience. And therefore also it would tend to bring men unto Christ; for the more grievous is the punishment due to man for sin, so much the greater is man's need of a Saviour. And probably the mysterious vision of the temple, with which this book concludes, may be best interpreted of the church of Christ, and of the restoration of fallen man, through Him, to holiness and heaven.

Let these then be the general views with which we read this sacred book, the style of which is such as to render it in some parts hard to be understood. Besides noting how national sins are overtaken by national punishments, besides observing how differently the godly and the wicked behave under the same judgments, let us continually bear in mind, that these judgments were the express fulfilment of God's sentence on the violation of his Law; and let us frequently reflect that in like manner is the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. See Rom. 1. 18. Where then, let us ask, where should we now have been ourselves, what must now have been our condition of guilt, what our fearful looking for of judgment, had we not had a Saviour, Christ the Lord; had we not been made partakers of a better covenant than that of the Law, even the covenant of the Gospel? Praise be to Him who died to save us both from the guilt of sin, and from its power! Praise be to Him who has consecrated us to become a living temple, fit for his use, and for the manifestation of his divine glory!

PART VIII. O. T.

B b

The vision of the likeness of four living creatures.

4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. 13 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.

14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

LECTURE 1280.

The works of creation regarded as divine emblems.

It has pleased God, in the revelation of his will, to make use of human language, of the words by which we convey our meaning to each other. But we know that in former times men had another way of communicating their thoughts, namely, by making pictures of certain visible objects, which stood for signs of the things to be expressed. Many of these hieroglyphics, as they are called, have come down to the present times; enough to prove, that this method of conveying information must have been practised of old to no small extent. We may probably judge aright in considering, that it has pleased God to make some use of this method also, in the revelation of his will. And we may suppose the vision here vouchsafed to Ezekiel to be an instance of divine teaching by the likenesses of sensible objects, conveying a meaning after the same manner as the ancient hieroglyphics. If ever those singular remains of antiquity should be satisfactorily deciphered, they would probably throw great light on the visions of this kind recorded in the Scriptures. In the

mean while the mere existence of such remains may serve an important end; as giving us good ground to think, that such visions. as this of Ezekiel, however hard to be understood by us, were well suited to the case of man at the time being, when pictures of this kind were the most striking and effectual method of conveying notions of things unseen.

Owning then that we can only form a faint conjecture as to what were the precise notions here meant to be imparted, we may suppose that this likeness of four living creatures, appearing out of the midst of the fire and the cloud, was designed to represent those ministering spirits, who execute the will of the Most High, and to teach Ezekiel what must be his qualifications as a prophet of the Lord, to teach us what must be ours as the Lord's people. If in their general figure they had the likeness of a man, this may mean, that the chief instruments by which God vouchsafes to do his work, and to shew forth his glory, are reasonable creatures. As to their four faces, "the face of a man" may mean reason, "the face of a lion" strength, "the face of an ox" perseverance, and "the face of an eagle" swiftness. The "four wings" also, and the "straight feet," and "the hands of a man under their wings," seem suited to convey the notion of swiftness, firmness, and expertness. "They went every one straight forward;" this may mean stedfastness. "Whither the spirit was to go, they went;" this expresses submissive obedience. Whilst the brightness of their appearance, and that which went up and down amongst them, may be designed to shew us how glorious a thing it is to minister to the glory of the Lord.

And truly if we were desirous to profit by instruction of this kind, we need no other vision but to open our eyes upon the various objects of creation with which we are surrounded. Each may teach us something of our duty towards God. Each has some quality, that may be easily interpreted, as a sign of duties which we owe to God, or of our own gain and glory in discharging them. Let our faith bear fruit like the earth. Let the sea be to us a pattern of obedience, rising and falling, advancing and retiring, exactly as God commands. Let all things that have breath suggest to us the reflexion, that our life is the gift of God, and that all our talents ought to be, like theirs, employed in the fulfilment of his will. And when we lift up our eyes to the firmament on high, let us see therein a symbol of the glory of our Maker; in the clouds and storms tokens of his righteous indignation against sin, and in the sun and moon and stars emblems of the light and warmth of heavenly truth and heavenly love, images well suited to express the goodness of the Lord, and the excellency of those things which He has prepared for the children of men.

The vision of the four wheels, and of the throne.

15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.

16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.

18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.

25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appear22 And the likeness of the fir- ance of the brightness round mament upon the heads of the about. This was the appearance living creature was as the colour of the likeness of the glory of of the terrible crystal, stretched the LORD. And when I saw it, forth over their heads above. I fell upon my face, and I heard 23 And under the firmament a voice of one that spake. LECTURE 1281.

The reverence inspired by the glory of the Lord.

In proportion as a passage of Scripture is obscure, on account of the obscurity of the subject, it will usually happen also that there