most important and interefting to us, it seems to be a circumftance worthy notice, that fince the ufe of animals for food, and thofe chiefly which were made choice of in facrifice, the world fubfifteth by fhedding of blood, and the death of the innocent is daily the life of the guilty. This is an additional reafon, why every meal should be "fanctified” according to the apoftolical direction, "by the word of God, and by prayer,"* while the meat that perisheth reminds us, in fo lively and ftrikingamanner, ofthat which endurethunto eternal life. The history of the Pafchal Lamb, with the prefervation of Ifrael from the hand of the Deftroyer, in that night to be remembered through all their generations, the night of their leaving Egypt, is a very particular, full, and beautiful exemplification of the nature and defign of Sacrifice. "Chrift, our Paffover, is facrificed for us ;" and therefore we too "keep the feast."+

That miraculous fupply of food, vouchfafed by God, to sustain his people, during their journey through the wilderness, till they came to the bor ders of Canaan, was another fign or fymbol of immortal life, and its fupport derived from above, This new and extraordinary viand fprung not out of the earth, but came down, in rain, or dew, from heaven; white to the eye, fweet to the taste, and agreeable to every palate; given freely to all; proportioned to the neceffities of each; and renewed day by day, till the fojournings of Ifrael were over, and the promifed reft attained. St Paul, having occafion to fpeak of thofe events, which, as he expreffes it, "happened unto Ifrael for enfamples," as figures or ihadows of things fpiri- . tual and divine, mentions this miracle, with that VOL. I.

1 Tim. iv. 5.

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+ 1 Cor. v. 7. † Τύποι συνέβαινον.

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of the water brought out of the rock, in the following terms" They did all eat the fame fpiritual meat; they did all drink the fame fpiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock, which followed them; and that rock was Christ.” * Our Lord, in the fixth chapter of St John's Gospel, difcourfing with the Jews upon this fubject, fays to them"Mofes gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the TRUE bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."+ Chrift here stileth himself the TRUE bread, plainly in oppofition to that which was fhadowy and figurative. He is the TRUE bread, which cometh down from heaven, and is given, day by day, to nourish and fupport the Ifrael of God, the camp of the faints, the church militant, during her pilgrimage in the world, till fhe fhall come to the promifed inheritance, the land of that everlafting reft, which remaineth for the people of God. There we fhall find, and enjoy for ever, the truth and substance of this facred figure. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith to the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the HIDDEN MANNA," that is, to partake of that life,” which is "hid with Chrift in God;" as the golden veffel of Manna was laid up, for a memorial, in the holy places made with hands." ||

To the fame purpofe ferved that bread, called the Shew Bread, or Bread of the Prefence, § fet forth new, every morning, in the tabernacle, and temple, and denoting the fuftenance to be communicated to the fouls of men from the body of Mefliah; to prefigure which body, it is well known, that both tabernacle

* 1 Cor. x. 3, &c. Exod. xvi. 33.

↑ John vi. 32. Heb. ix. 4.

+ Rev. ii. 17.

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Bernacle and temple were conftructed, under the direction of God himself.

Laftly-What the Tree of Life was to Adam in paradife; what Sacrifice in general was to the faith-.. ful, after the fall, from Abel downward; what the Pafchal Lamb was to Ifrael quitting Egypt; what Manna was to that people in the wilderness; what the Shew Bread was in the tabernacle and temple; all this, and if there be any other fymbol of like import, it is now briefly comprehended, during tlie continuance of the Christian church upon earth, in the holy Eucharift. The former were prefigurative facraments, this is a commemorative one. They. fhewed forth the Meffiah, and the life which is by him, until his firft coming; this fhews forth the fame Meffiah, and the fame life," until his coming again." Excluded from the Tree of Life in Paradife, we are admitted to partake of the Bread of Life in the church. Loft by the covenant of Works, we are saved by that of Grace. A cheering voice calls to us from the fanctuary, "Draw near with faith, and take this holy facrament to your comfort." The elements are honoured with the names of the Body and Blood of Christ, because appointed to fignify and convey, to the worthy communicant, the bleffings purchafed by his Body broken,. and his Blood thed, upon the crofs; bleffings tothe foul, like the benefits conferred upon the body by bread and wine; life, health, ftrength, comfort, and joy.

Such have been the different fymbols and facra-ments vouchfafed to mankind under different difpenfations, all reprefenting and fhadowing out a glorious immortality in another and better world, where we fhall fit down with the author and giver of it, at his table, to eat Bread, and drink of the fruit.

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fruit of the Vine, new in his kingdom; where we fhall give glory to the Lamb that was flain; where we shall partake of the hidden Manna, and eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradife of God.

From the paffages of Scripture thus laid together, the nature and defign of the Tree of Life in Eden feem fufficiently clear. And, upon a review of what hath been faid, it is impoffible not to admire the confiftency and uniformity running through. both Teftaments, from the second chapter of the Genefis of Mofes, to the twenty-fecond of St John's. Revelation, which fo mutually illuftrate and explain each other. The analogy of faith, in this inftance, proclaims aloud the wisdom and harmony of the divine difpenfations, from the creation to the confummation of all things.

At fundry times, in divers manners, and by various inftruments, bath heaven conveyed inftruction: to man. But the instructionconveyed, with the terms. and figures employed to convey it, befpeak, at all times, the hand of the fame omnifcient and beneficent. author. They must be construed and expounded upon the fame plan; and when rightly conftrued and expounded, will be found to terminate in the fame. awful and interefting objects, eternal life, and the means of its attainment. To thefe great ends ferve the symbols of Paradife, the facrifices of the patriarchs, the types of the law, the vifions of the prophets, and the facraments of the Gofpel, with the numberless expreffions and defcriptions borrowed from them, and referring to them. Thefe constitute a kind of facred language peculiar to holy writ,. and only explicable by it. The knowledge of this language is a science by itfelf, and the ftudy of it well worthy the attention of fuck as have leisure and.

and abilities to profecute it, is its own rich and ex-· ceeding great reward. The fubjects are of fuch infinite moment, that all others muft in comparison, appear to be as nothing. And the drefs, in which they are presented to us, is the most ornamental and engaging in the world. It is of that kind, to which both eloquence and poetry, among men, owe all their charms. The doctrines of Scripture are not propofed in a naked logical form, but arrayed in the most beautiful and striking images which the creation affords. *

A celebrated and well known author, whose effays have long been the established standard of truetafte, and fine writing, makes, in one of them, the following obfervations" By fimilitudes drawn... from the vifible parts of nature, a truth in the understanding is, as it were, reflected by the imagi-nation: we are able to fee fomething like colour and shape in a notion, and to discover a scheme of thoughts traced out upon matter. And here the mind receives a great deal of fatisfaction, and has two of its faculties gratified at the fame time, while the fancy is bufy in copying after the understanding, and transcribing ideas out of the intellectual world into the material. It is this talent of affecting the imagination that gives an embellishment to good fenfe, and makes one man's compofitions more agreeable than another's. It has fomething in it like creation, and beftows a kind of existence.

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makes additions to nature, and gives greater variety to God's works. In a word, it is able to beautify and adorn the moft illuftrious fcenes in the univerfe, and to fill the mind with more glorious fhews and apparitions than can be found in any part of it.”† Perhaps * See Lord BACON's Advancement of Learning, B. vi. C. 3. + Mr ADDISON's concluding paper on the Pleasures of Imagie nation. Spectator VI. N° 441.

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