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beneath the seat of his immediate presence. But it is perfectly evident, that a chain or sphere of ideas of this kind might be reduced to writing without at all changing its nature: accordingly, this has been done in the written Word, which comprehends the sphere of Divine Truth, or the ideas with which it invests itself, when it comes within the precincts of nature, reduced, further, into natural language; and the written Word thus presents, in its literal sense, the very Divine Truth rendered obvious to our senses under its lowest form or manifestation.

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Now although it may at first be difficult to conceive how the literal sense of the Word of God, as contained in a book, can afford, as stated in the passage we have just been considering, a pavilion for the Most High; it is easy enough to apprehend how a sphere or emanation of Divine Truth, clothed with natural ideas, may be regarded under the image of such a pavilion: and yet we see also, that such a sphere of Divine Truth clothed with natural ideas might easily be reduced into writing; that is, a book or writing might be framed which should convey the same ideas to the mind of its reader. Thus it is perfectly evident, that all that is true of an emanation of Divine Truth clothed with ideas taken from the world of nature and from human perceptions, is equally true of the written Word in its literal sense of this also it may be said, in reference to its Author, that his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies." Considered as a mere collection of words and letters, the Holy Word, as existing in a book, would indeed be nothing; but considered as to the ideas which those words in their literal sense convey to the mind of an intelligent being, the written Word is the same as the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, and forming a sphere around him, when brought down to the apprehension of man regarded only as an inhabitant of the world of nature: and thus both the one and the other, both the written Word in its letter and the sphere of Divine Truth in its extreme circumference,-are considered in Scripture as the clouds of heaven,-as the basis in which the pure Divine Truth terminates, and as the covering which shields from unprepared minds its otherwise too dazzling glories.

3. We will proceed to try the application of this interpretation of "the clouds" to another remarkable passage of the Psalms, which reads, "Ascribe ye strength unto God; his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds."* Here, as every where else where clouds are mentioned in connexion with the Lord, the merely literal sense affords no intelligible meaning at all: for what sense would there be in saying that the strength of the Lord is in the clouds, if by the Ps. Ixviii. 34. g

clouds were meant the mere unstable vapours that float over our heads. But understood in the spiritual signification of the term, as we have explained it, the meaning is most beautiful, and the symbol chosen to express it most appropriate. For it is in the lowest or most ultimate form of Divine Truth, which is what is meant by the clouds, that its strength principally resides; provided, that is, it be not separated from its interior contents; for then it becomes like a body without a soul, which is a powerless carcase. It is known to all, that man's body is the covering of his soul, and that, though his soul is capable of existing without the body, it quits with the body all power of acting upon the solid substances of this world of nature: and so the Divine Truth, as seen in heavenly light, would be without the power of affecting the minds of men in this world of nature, were it not invested with its literal sense for that purpose: but in this it is clothed with all its fulness and with all its power. Something similar obtains in human compositions and discourses. Every attentive observer of such subjects must have noticed, that the more the ideas which a speaker wishes to convey are clothed with natural images, provided the intended meaning is distinctly seen, the more strong do the language, and the sentiment too, appear. An orator who should address even a polished assembly in a chain of subtle reasoning, presenting none but abstract ideas expressed in the artificial language of philosophers, would make but little impression; but he who should appeal to their natural feelings, in ideas taken from their common sentiments, and conveyed in language drawn from sensible images, would be esteemed a speaker of far greater power. In the same manner, the Word in its letter is always felt to possess great strength and power, if there be a perception at the same time of its genuine meaning; and the same truths conveyed in abstract terms are relatively unimpressive. Thus if we hear this sentiment, "The Lord at some period will reveal himself to the church by the discovery of the spiritual sense contained within the letter of his Word:" the sense intended is very clear, but it does not affect the mind with any strength: but if the sentiment be expressed in the language of the letter of the Word, "Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory ;" and it be at the same time seen that such is the real sense of these words; they will then be attended by a perception of power as well as clearness ;-this portion of "the clouds" will be felt to possess strength.

Admitting then this interpretation of the symbol, as being expressive of the Word in its literal sense, it perhaps will be seen with what accurate propriety it is said of Jehovah, that "his strength is in the clouds."

4. There is, moreover, one passage of the Psalms, in which this interpretation of the clouds is given almost in express terms. Addressing the Lord, it is said, "Thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy TRUTH reacheth unto_the_CLOUDS.”* Is not this a plain

affirmation, that the clouds are used for the lowest plane or basis in which the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord terminates and closes ? and this, certainly, is in the literal sense of the written Word.

5. This view of the subject will also enable us to see the reason why, on various most important occasions, divine revelations, or enunciations of most important divine truths, are said to have been made from clouds.

The ten commandments were thus delivered at Mount Sinai. For that purpose "the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud" and accordingly "it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.”‡ How beautiful and expressive was this, if a cloud is the symbol of the Word in its letter, from and by which it is that God communicates his will to man!

The same remark may be applied to this parallel example. When Moses was afterwards called up into the mount to receive the tables on which the law was written, and to have further revelations communicated to him, the same symbol was repeated: "And Moses went up into the mount; and a cloud covered the mount: and the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it, six days: and the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud."§

So, because it is by the Word in its letter that all divine instruction is imparted to man, it was customary for a cloud to appear over the mercy-seat: thus the Lord says to Moses, "Speak unto Aaron thy brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy-seat, that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat." And it was from over the mercy-seat, thus out of this cloud, that the Lord, after the tabernacle was erected, held his usual discourses with Moses: "Thou shalt put the mercyseat above the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee and there I will meet thee, and will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."¶ How well the signification of the ark accords with that of the cloud which comPs. cviii. 4. Ex. xxv. 15, 16,

:

+ Ex. xix. 9.

| Lev. xvi. 2.

Ver. 16.

1 Ex. xxv. 21, 22.

monly hovered over it, may appear from what is said on the former subject in the fifth Lecture. We have noticed above, that the cherubs also were personified emblems of the Divine Word in its letter.

When, likewise, Moses had removed his tent or tabernacle out of the camp, on account of the idolatry of the Israelites in the affair of the golden calf, "it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and the Lord," say our translators, “talked with Moses* :” but as the Lord is not mentioned in the original, it is actually affirmed that the cloudy pillar talked with Moses.

A cloud being the emblem of the Word in the letter; and it being by the Word, in which the Lord himself has an abode, that the Christian is guided in his spiritual journey; how beautifully and aptly was this represented in the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness; when "the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way!" As in his darkest states the Christian is still under the Divine Protection, and is led by the Divine Love when his perceptions of truth are most obscure: this was represented by the pillar of fire which guided the Israelites by night.

We find the same symbol employed, to teach the same lesson, upon a most weighty occasion, in the Gospel. When Jesus was transfigured before the three disciples, " behold a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him."

As, however, many of the images used in the Word, retaining their most general signification, often take two opposite specific, ones; so are clouds sometimes used as emblems of darkness and ignorance; of a state in which no light is seen from the letter of the Word, but false persuasions, adopted as true, exclude the light of heaven; as when the prophets speak of “ a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness."{

Surely, on thus beholding how constantly the passages in which clouds are mentioned in connexion with the Lord, yield a lucid and instructive sense, when they are regarded as symbols of Divine Truth in its shade, or when it is veiled over by a covering of appearances, or, specifically, of the Word in its letter: it must be difficult to doubt that this is the true interpretation of the image. This signification is grounded, we have seen, in a clear and just analogy: and when we find that on its application to the clouds of the literal sense they in so many instances lose their obscurity, and become bright clouds translucent with the light of heaven; we surely have reason, not only to

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accept this as the true interpretation, but to admit also, that the principle on which it is founded affords the true key for decyphering the symbolic language of Holy Writ. Such perpetual coincidences could never originate in chance.

No. V. (Page 437.)

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE JEWISH CHARACTER; EVINCING ITS APTITUDE FOR A DISPENSATION CONSISTING CHIEFLY IN EXTERNAL RITES.

It is affirmed in the text above, that the Israelites were selected to represent those spiritual things which they were incapable of inwardly perceiving and feeling; and it is observed that their genius and temper were such as rendered them better adapted than any other people to this purpose; for they were distinguished by a remarkable tendency to multiply ceremonial observances, even beyond what was required of them, and to substitute these for the morals enjoined by the Law of God. Further to prove that this was really their character I have translated and abridged, from the Synagoga Judaica of Buxtorf, a number of examples of the manner in which they find, in almost every text of Scripture, an authority for some trifling ceremony or custom. These exhibit such marks of a gross and superficial turn of mind, as one would hardly suspect was to be found in the history of man: but idle and ridiculous as they are in themselves, they teach a lesson that is weighty and important, if they establish the view offered in the Lectures, of the purpose for which the Israelites were selected as a peculiar people: they also are not a little curious, as unfolding an extraordinary chapter in the great complex volume of human nature. Buxtorf every where gives as his authorities the Talmud and the Rabbins.

It was the practice, says the book Colbo, and in some places is so still, when a child first began to learn to read the Law, to give him some cakes made of honey and milk; because it is written, "He made him to suck honey out of the rock :" [Deut. xxxii. 13:] and again, "Honey and milk are under thy tongue:" [Cant. iv. 11:] and the letters of his horn-book, also, were smeared over with honey, which he was to lick with his tongue, because the Psalmist says, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" [Ps. cix. 103.]*~A truly devout Jew ought to rise Before daylight, because David says "I will awake the morning;" [Ps. lvii. 9;-in our translation, "I will awake early ;"] that is, they say, "I 營 Synag. Jud. Cap. vii.

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