whole civil government centring in it, in the last resort, as an oracle, make this part of the ritual of great and necessary use, to a full understanding of the whole. I should imagine some part of the obscurity of these laws of Moses arises from hence, that the true intent and meaning of the presence of Jehovah in the sanctuary, has not been so clearly and so fully explained as it might have been.

Before this Hebrew ritual there was no fixed residence of the divine presence, or visible appearance of the glory of Jehovah in one particular place; yet God was pleased, even from the beginning, to appear on particular occasions, to speak to the fathers, and to make known his will, by his oracle, to the patriarchs. Such were the appearances of Jehovah to Abraham, the command and revelation of God to Noah, the several appearances of God to our first parents, especially in that circumstantial account Moses gives so particularly of the appearance of Jehovah, and voice of the Gen. iii. oracle.

Infinite being does indeed infer infinite presence. The light of reason, as well as revelation, teaches, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, but that he fills heaven and earth, as he declares of himself. In this sense God is equally present in all places and with all persons, and has a constant and immediate influence on

8, &c.

every creature through the immeasurable extent of the whole creation. But as God is invisible to bodily sense, as every spiritual being necessarily is, this presence of God is to be perceived by the eyes of the understanding only, neither to be seen by the eye, or heard by the ear, or manifested to any of our bodily senses. Yet as the wisdom of God thought fit, for many good reasons, to manifest himself and his will, on extraordinary occasions, to particular persons, by visible appearances and the audible voice of an oracle, such appearances have been usually called, and I think very properly, God's special presence. Now, the notice of such a presence conveyed to men by their bodily senses, must of necessity be local and sensible; for, as the presence of men is local, they can see and hear only in one place; and as their bodily senses can only perceive a bodily appearance, it was necessary such appearance of the divine presence should be local and sensible; but this, you easily understand, without any prejudice to the universal presence of Jehovah, a perfection of his infinite nature and being, or of his necessary and self existence, of which the ritual has taken very great care, as we shall hereafter see: so that this gracious presence of Jehovah in the church of Israel, must not be mistaken, as some seem to imagine, either from weakness of judg

ment or a prejudiced heart, determined beforehand to find fault, as if it inferred Jehovah to be a local' tutelar God; for the symbols of the presence only are local, they are symbols of the presence of an infinite Being, whose presence therefore fills heaven and earth.

But the better to understand this principal part of the Hebrew ritual, for the sake of which the other laws of the ritual were made, and by which we shall better understand their meaning and use, let us consider it in two views; first, what it is deSto represent, and, in the next place, what the representation was.

Schechinah re

I. Consider then, in the first place, What the what this visible appearance, or Schechinah, was designed to represent. If If you presenttake your account from the whole history ed. and worship of the Hebrew church, from the several directions and laws of the ri- ' tual relating to the Schechinah, you will perceive it was designed to represent Jehovah, the God and the King of Israel. It was not designed to represent any of the intelligences, angels, or archangels, supposed to inhabit and animate the sun, the moon, or any of the stars the host of hea

ven.

It was not to represent an Osiris or an Isis, a Jupiter or a Juno, or any of the immortal gods, or deified men, whose presence the idolatrous world courted, and which they hoped to fix in their images

and temples. In opposition to all these false gods, whether styled immortal gods or illustrious heroes, whether angels, or the departed souls of great men, the Schechinah of the Hebrews was the presence of Jehovah; this you see is expressed in the constant style given to him, of the true God, high above all gods, the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty God, Jehovah, who says of himself, I am that I am; who requires in the most solemn part of the law, that the whole church should own Exod. xx, and acknowledge him to be the Lord their God, and that they should have no other God besides him.

This character of the God of Israel represented by the Schechinah is confirmed in the solemn worship of the church. Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, stood before the altar of Jehovah, in the presence of all the congregation, and spread 2 Chr. vi. forth his hands and said, O Jehovah, God 12, 14. of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven nor the earth: he further owns, this Jehovah, to whom he addresses his prayer, is that infinite Being, whose presence is every where; Will Godin very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee, how much less this house, which I have built. And concludes this tition in these remarkable words: Hearken therefore to the supplications of thy ser

18,

21.

pe

vant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make towards this place; hear thou from thy dwelling-place, even from heaven, and when thou hearest forgive. How the church considered the character of Jehovah their God, in the after-days of Nehemiah, may appear from their solemn prayer, Thou, even thou, art Lord alone (or, thou Neh.ix.6. only art Jehovah): thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein; and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

39.

Jehovah, then, the God of Israel, who was represented in the Schechinah, was not any local tutelar God; but, as Moses describes him, Know therefore this day, and Deut. iv. consider it in thine heart, that the Lord (Jehovah) he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. This is so fully and so clearly set before us for our observation, that the whole design and use of the Hebrew ritual and worship will be found finally to centre in it.

II. Consider now how Jehovah was represented in the ritual. This representation is usually called the Shechinah, the habitation, or dwelling, from an Hebrew word that signifies to inhabit or dwell; so that the tabernacle, from the same word Shacan, is called mishcan. God therefore Exod. directs, And let them make me a sanctuary; xxv, 8,

שכן