DISC.

II.

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 defcription, 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 house, " 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, whither foever the "river fhall come, fhall live-And by the "river upon the bank thereof, on this fide, and on that fide, fhall grow all trees "for meat, whose leaf shall not fade; nei"ther

II.

"ther fhall the fruit thereof be confumed: DISC. "it fhall bring forth new fruit according "to its months, because their waters iffued "out of the fanctuary; and the fruit there"of 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 history 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, two or three only fhall be recited. "The Lord will com"fort Sion, he will comfort all her wafte

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places; he will make her wilderness like

Eden, and her defert like the Garden of "the Lord joy and gladness shall be "found therein, thanksgiving and the "voice of melody ";" fuch joy and glad

Ezek. xlvii. 1, et feq.

"Ifai. li. 3.

nefs,

II.

DISC. nefs, fuch thanksgiving and melody, at the reftitution of all things, as were at their firft creation, when "God faw God faw every thing

" he had made, and behold, it was very

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good;" when " the morning ftars fang

together, and all the fons of God shouted

"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

66

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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 fhittah tree, and the myr

tle, and the oil tree; I will fet in the "defart the fir tree, and the pine, and the "box tree together: that they may fee, "and know, and confider, and understand

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together, that the hand of the Lord hath

“done this, and the holy One of Ifrael "hath created it"." "The wilderness and "the folitary place shall be glad for them,

w Ifai. xli. 17.

" and

II.

" and the defart fhall rejoice, and bloffom DISC. "as the rose. It fhall bloffom abundantly, "and rejoice even with joy and finging; "the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto "it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon :

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they shall see the glory of the Lord, and "the excellency of our God."

At the time appointed, thefe predictions received their accomplishment. Men "faw "the glory of the Lord, and the excel

66

lency of our God." By the death and refurrection of the Redeemer, loft Paradise was regained; and it's 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, thofe bleffings are ftill represented and conveyed by facramental fymbols, analogous to the original ones in Eden. From the facred font flows the water of life, to purify, to refresh, to comfort; "a river goes out of Eden, to water "the garden," and to "baptize all nations ;"

VOL. I.

* Ifai. xxxv. 1.
E

while

II.

DISC. 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 66 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 fhadows, fymbols and facraments, shall be no more, because 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 ecftafy, 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