there shall be a tabernacle in the daytime Isaiah, iv. from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a cover from storm and from rain. 5, 6. When God visibly appeared on Mount Sinai, and gave his law to Israel, it is represented after this manner: There were xix. 16. thunderings and lightnings, and a thick Exod. 18.' 19. cloud on the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.—And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. You see, in this representation, an exact conformity of a cloud, fire, and a voice, with the former descriptions of the Shechinah. I omit the other appearances of the Shechinah, except one, which is the standing appearance in the sanctuary. When the tabernacle was set up, and all its ornaments placed in it, and Moses had finished the work, then a cloud covered the seat of the congregation, and the Exod. xl. glory of the Lord (Jehovah) filled the ta33, 34. bernacle. How you are to conceive this cloud of glory, is further explained: for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel in all Exod. xL their journies. The continuance of the 38, cloud on the tabernacle, or the taking of it up from over the tabernacle, was the imperial signal of marching, or resting in the camp: By this description it should seem that the cloud and glory, or cloud of glory, was both within and without the tabernacle ; for the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle; so that, when the signal for marching was given to the Israelites, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, which shows there was a cloud over the tabernacle without, as well as the cloud filling the tabernacle within; which Bishop Patrick thus conceives: "The cloud and glory of "the Lord were not two different things, "but one and the same, as the pillar of "cloud and of fire were; it was outwardly "a cloud, and inwardly a fire; and ac"cordingly here the external part of it "covered the tabernacle without, while "the internal part shone with a bright "fire, or glory, within the house.' 36, 37. The description we have of the entrance of the Shechinah into Solomon's temple, will illustrate this account of it, with which it is the same in most things, though in some things more particular: The priests 1 Kings, brought in the ark of the covenant of the viii. 6. Lord (Jehovah) into his place, into the viii. 10. 11. oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. 1 Kings, And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord (Jehovah); so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord (Jehovah). The more immediate seat of this presence, or Shechinah, is expressly determined in the ritual: And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, and there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee, from above the mercy-seat, from between XXV. 21, the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony. Exod. 22. Why the Pre sence. of Idola But why, may some ask, were light, flame, and fire, chosen for the figure, or symbol, or the Presence? Suppose no other reason could be given but this, that since some form of visible appearance was to be chosen, it was free to choose any that was fit; and that light seems, at least, as fit, and as proper, as any other. It was well observed by a learned auTennison thor, "Jamblicus, in his book of the Egyp"tian mysteries, setteth out, by light, the power, the simplicity, the penetration, "the ubiquity of God.-Maimonides supposeth the matter of the heavens to have try, p. 316. 66 "risen from the extension of the vestment "of divine light, represented as the gar"ment of God, it having been said by Da"vid, that he covereth himself with light "as with a garment, Psalm civ. 2. Such sayings," says Archbishop Tennison, though they have in them a mixture of "extravagance, yet in the main they teach "the same with the Scripture, that God is 66 light, or, that there is nothing in the cre"ation so fit an emblem of him, and so fit "to be used in his appearance to the "world." The sun, then, as the greatest and brightest light in the heavens, might have been pitched upon by Zoroaster as the throne and residence of the Divine Presence, though he had not learned the notion of a Shechinah, by conversation with the Hebrews at Babylon. The world, in general, might more easily agree to make that glorious luminary the sun their Kebla, or place to which they directed their worship, for this single reason, that it appeared the brightest and most glorious body in the heavens, the likeliest residence they could think of for their gods. When, therefore, it pleased Jehovah to appoint a visible emblem of his extraordinary presence, light, flame, fire, were a very fit mark of it, especially when such extraordinary light was not only equal to the light of the sun in its greatest brightness, but even far exceeded it. When the Acts, xxii. 11. Acts, xxvi. 13. Schechinah appeared to St. Paul, he observes, he could not see for the glory of the light; or, as he explained it to king Agrippa, At mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me. Such a glorious created light as could outshine the brightness of the sun at mid-day, seems a very proper emblem of the particular presence of Jehovah, who is often and significantly represented as light. Light is so often used to signify understanding and truth, in opposition to ignorance and error, represented by darkness, that, without straining a metaphor, it may be used to signify the fountain of light, of understanding and truth, of favour and blessing. The use of this metaphor by the Psalmist and the Prophets, will show it had a plain, easy meaning; for who does not understand the blessing appointed by the ritual for the children of Israel; The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they Num. vi. shall put my name upon the children of 25,26,27. Israel, and I will bless them. Thus, then, you conceive the appearance of the Shechinah; it was a bright and glorious light, fixed in the tabernacle and temple in the most holy place, over the ark and mercyseat, between the cherubim of glory, to express and signify the presence of the |