fhall flourish in the courts of our God. They fhalf bring forth fruit in old age; they fhall be fat and flourishing." * Thefe texts feem to fuppofe the real existence of fuch plantations, and, at the fame time, to intimate the end and defign of them, namely, to reprefent the progrefs and improvement of the faithful in virtue, through the influence of the divine favour. The fame pleafing and expreffive image is employed to the fame purpose, in the first pfalm-" He fhall be like a tree plantted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his feafon; his leaf alfo fhall not wither, and whatever he doth fhall profper."

As to the rivers of water which fupplied and refreshed the Garden of Eden and all its productions,. we meet with fomething analogous to them, both in the tabernacle and temple.

During the journey of the children of Ifrael from Egypt to Canaan, the camp in general and the facred tabernacle in particular were fupplied with water in a miraculous manner, not only at the time when Mofes fmote the rock, but the fame supply accompanied them afterwards" They drank of that rock," that is, the water of that rock, "which followed them." "He led thee (fays Mofes) through that great and terrible wildernefs, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who made water to flow for thee of the rock of flint."+ And thefe waters, like those in Eden, were of a facramental nature. "They did all drink the fame fpiritual drink; for they drank of that fpiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Chrift."‡ How lively a representation of that heavenly grace, which comforts

* Pf. xcii. 12.

+ Deut. viii. 15.

our

‡ 1 Cor. x. 4、

our weary spirits, and enables us to accomplish our journey through the wilderness of life!

*

If from the tabernacle we proceed to the temple, we are there prefented with the facred ftreams of Siloah, breaking forth and flowing from the mount of God. In Ezekiel's famous vifion of the new temple, there is a wonderful description, founded on the real fituation of things at mount Sion, explaining their fignification, and unavoidably carrying our thoughts back to the waters and plantations of the original fanctuary in Eden. "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the houfe, and and behold waters iffued out from under the threshold of the house eastward.-Then faid he to me, Thefe waters iffue out toward the east country, and go down into the defert, and go into the fea: which being brought forth into the fea, the waters fhall be healed. And it fhall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whitherfoever the river fhall come, fhall liveAnd by the river, upon the bank thereof, on this fide, and on that fide, fhall grow all trees for meat, whofe leaf shall not fade; neither fhall the fruit thereof be confumed it fhall bring forth new fruit according to its months, because their waters iffued out of the fanctuary; and the fruit thereof fhall be for meat, and the leaves thereof for medicine."*

When the prophets have occafion to foretel the great and marvellous change to be effected in the moral world, under the evangelical difpenfation, they frequently borrow their ideas and expreffions from the hiftory of that garden, in which innocence and felicity once dwelt together, and which they reprefent as again fpringing up and blooming in the wilderness. Of the many paffages which occur,

* Ezek. xlvii. . et feq.

two

.

two or three only fhall be recited. "The Lord will comfort Sion, he will comfort all her waste places; he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defart like the Garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody;"* fuch joy and gladnefs, fuch thanksgiving and melody, at the reftitution of all things, as were at their first creation, when "Godfaw every thing he had made, and behold, it was very good;" when "the morning ftars fang together, and all the fons of God fhouted for joy." "When the poor and needy feek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Ifrael will not forfake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midft of the vallies; I will make the wildernefs a pool of water, and the dry land fprings of water. I will plant in the wildernefs the cedar, the fhittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; and I will fet in the defart the fir free, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may fee, and know, and confider, and underftand together, that the hand of the Lord hatir done this, and the Holy One of Ifrael hath created. it."+ "The wilderness and the folitary place fhall be glad for them, and the defart fhall rejoice and bloffom as the rofe. It fhall bloffom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and finging; the glory of Lebanon fhall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they fhall fee the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God."‡

At the time appointed, these predictions received their accomplishment. Men "faw the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." By the death and refurrection of the Redeemer, loft Paradife

* Ifai. li. 3.

+ Ifai. xli. 17.

‡ Ifai. xxxv. I.

dife was regained; and its ineftimable bleffings, wisdom, righteousness and holiness, are now to be found and enjoyed in the Chriftian church. But as men are still men, and not angels, those bleffings are still represented and conveyed by facramental fymbols, analogous to the original ones in Eden. From the facred font flows the waters of life, to purify, to refresh, to comfort; "a river goes out of Eden to water the garden," and to "baptize all nations;" while the eucharist answers to the fruit of the tree of life: at the holy table, we may now "put forth our hands, and take, and eat, and live: for ever."

Let us go one step farther, and confider the state? of things, in the heavenly kingdom of our Lord. There, it is true, all figures and shadows, symbols® and facraments, fhall be no more; becaufe faith will there be loft in vifion, and we fhall "know even as we are known." But in the mean time, till we attain that perfect confummation, was any perfon admitted to a fight of heaven, and the wonders that are therein, he could no otherwise describe them to us, who are yet in the body, than by the way of picture and fimilitude. This was the cafe of St Paul. In a divine extafy, he had been caught up, and made to fee and hear things, which he could not impart to others, on account of their incapacity to receive them. What then does he? He refers us to the habitation of our first parents, for a general and comparative idea of them. "I knew a man (fays he) who was caught up into Paradife." Our Lord, giving the penitent thief to understand, that his forrows would foon be at an end, and he fhould pafs, with his Saviour, into a place of rest and joy, uses the fame expreffion-" This day fhalt thou be with me in Paradife." The beloved difVOL. I.

E

ciple,

ciple, who was frequently in the spirit tranflated to those celeftial manfions which Christ is gone to prepare for us, gives a more particular and extended defcription of them. But how? By bringing to our view all Eden, its waters and plantations, together with those seen by Ezekiel, in his vision of the new temple. "He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as chryftal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.-And of either fide of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.-To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradife of God.-Bleffed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.-And the fpirit and the bride fay, Come. And let him that heareth fay, Come. And let him that is athirft come; and whofoever will let him take the waters of life freely." In these paffages, the divine fcenery is evidently borrowed from objects once really exifting in the terrestrial Paradife, and employed to aid our conceptions, in apprehending celeftial glories. If, therefore, we are taught, that heaven resembles the Garden of Eden, it feems fair and reasonable to conclude, that the Garden of Eden resembled heaven, and was, from the beginning, intended fo to do; that, like the temple under the law, and the church under the Gofpel, it was, to its happy poffeffors, a place chosen for the residence of God; a place defigned to represent and furnish them with ideas of heavenly things; a place facred to contemplation and devotion; in one word, that it was the primitive temple and church, formed and confecrated for the use of man, in his state of innocence. There,