II.

of setting apart and confecrating gardens DISC. and groves, for the purpose of religious worship. Thus Abraham, we are told, planted a tree, or grove, at Beersheba, " and called on the name of the ever

lafting God"." The worshippers of false Gods are described, in the writings of the prophets, as " facrificing in gardens," as

purifying themselves in gardens, behind "one tree in the midft;" and it is foretold, that they should be "ashamed for the oaks "which they had defired, and confounded " for the gardens which they had chosen°." A surprising uniformity in this point may be traced through all the different periods of idolatry, as fubfifting among the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Groves were dedicated to the Gods, and particular fpecies of trees were facred to particular deities. The fame ufage prevailed among the Druids, in these parts of the world. And to this day, the ailes of our Gothic churches and

Gen. xxi. 33. • Ifai. lxv. 3. 1xvi. 17.

cathedrals

DISC. cathedrals are evidently built in imitation

of thofe arched groves, which of old fupplied the place of temples. It is not, therefore, without reafon, that the author of a learned differtation on the fubject makes the following remark "Thefe were the "hallowed fanes of the ancients, in which

they performed divine worship. And in"deed, if we would trace up this rite "to its origin, we must have recourse to "the true God himself, who instituted in "Paradife a facred garden, or grove; or"dained Adam to be the high priest of it, "and confecrated in it two trees, for a public teftimony of religion."

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But upon the fuppofition now made, that the Garden of Eden ferved as a kind of Temple for our first parents, might we not expect to find some resemblance of it in the tabernacle and temple afterwards erected, by the appointment of God, for his refidence in the midst of his people Ifrael? The question is by no means abfurd, especially if we recollect, that it was the de

ap

fign of the Mofaic fanctuary, with its paratus, to prefigure the restoration of those fpiritual bleffings, which were forfeited and loft by the tranfgreffion in Paradife. Let us therefore enquire what fatisfaction the Scriptures will afford us upon this point.

The principal objects in the Garden of Eden, with which Revelation has brought us acquainted, are the plantations of trees, and the rivers of water, by which those plantations were nourished and fupported in glory and beauty. Was there any thing of this fort in or about the tabernacle and temple?

With regard to the plantations, two pasfages in the Pfalms incline us to think there were such in the courts of the Jewish fanctuary, as well as in that of Eden: "I "am like a green olive-tree in the house of "God". The righteous fhall flourish like "a palm-tree, he fhall grow like a cedar “in Lebanon. Thofe that be planted in

P Pf. lii. 8.

"the

DISC.

II.

DISC." the house of the Lord, fhall flourish in II. "the courts of our God. They fhall bring

"forth fruit in old age; they fhall be fat "and flourishing." Thefe texts feem to suppose the real existence of fuch plantations, and, at the fame time, to intimate the end and defign of them, namely, to represent the progrefs and improvement of the faithful in virtue, through the influence of the divine favour. The fame pleasing and expreffive image is employed to the fame purpose, in the firft Pfalm— « He "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers "of water, that bringeth forth his fruit "in his feafon; his leaf alfo fhall not "wither, and whatever he doth shall profper."

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

q Pf. xcii. 12.

II.

During the journey of the children of DISC. Ifrael from Egypt to Canaan, the camp in general and the facred tabernacle in particular were supplied with water in a miraculous manner, not only at the time when Mofes fmote the rock, but the fame fupply 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 wilderness, wherein "were fiery ferpents and fcorpions, and drought, where there was no water; "who made water to flow for thee out of "the rock of flint." And these waters, like thofe in Eden, were of a facramental nature. They did all drink the fame

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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 our weary fpirits, and enables us to accomplish our journey through the wildernefs of life!