(Rev. i. 18,)-who can alone unbar the great celestial gate, fastened on the inside-who.commands this sacred record-Write, these things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth; who, behold, sets forth before us a wide open door, which man cannot shut, (Rev. iii. 7,) if we will tread with him the narrow path which leadeth thereunto. Now, if the myriads of intelligents who inhabit the countless worlds revolving in our heavens-who occupy the vast out-buildings of the great celestial temple, are like unto us passing their probationary trials, they also are necessarily ordained to encounter difficulties, and progress in virtue: for though those laws of nature which govern the material system need not change, admit not of improvement, the grand Director of the intellectual one commands that we, and doubtless all intelligents, be perfect, as is the universal Father. Therefore, notwithstanding these have all been formed like unto rivers, full and perfect in their several kinds, yet, like to those rivers, expansion and enlargement is required in their advancement to the high and glorious mark towards which it behoves them to tend. These may be whole, these may have past their first estate, and need not a physician; but they are not in a state of safety; petition is essential, and to whom can they apply but unto one common Father? Where can they apply? No doubt, in outward sanctuaries, where God has himself declared He would affix his name, and hearken unto prayer. (2 Chron. vi. 20.)* And on what day, above all other days, should they fervently apply? Doubtless, upon the seventh; for God rested from the work of their creation on the same day He rested from the work of forming our small globe, and blessed and hallowed it: our sabbath-day on earth must therefore be, the universal sabbath of these our lower heavens. By its having pleased supreme Wisdom to ordain the consecration of peculiar spots and edifices for social public worship on our little globe, that He therein may dwell, (Exod. xxv. 8,) that where two or three are gathered together in his name, He may be in the midst of them. (Matt. xviii. 20.) When we likewise reflect, that though He has given the earth to the children of men, that all the whole heavens are the Lord's, the great Lord God of heaven, (Psalm cxv. 16; Gen. xxiv. 7,) and are expressly told that all their hosts do bless and worship him, It should not pass unnoticed, that the place from whence King Solomon put up the prayer out of which the scriptural annotation just above inserted is extracted, was the outward sanctuary, or profane place, (so called by Ezekiel on account of the polluted worshippers who offer up their petitions in it-xlii. 20.) This appears by its having been recorded in the 12th and 13th verses, that Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands. For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court, and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven (manifestly in the first tabernacle, or outward sanctuary,) before the brazen altar; and this scaffold was made of brass, corresponding with the brazen types therein contained. (Nehemiah ix. 6,) we think ourselves justified in concluding that all the worlds in these our nether heavens have their peculiar sanctuaries. The sacred garden where man while in his innocent estate abode, it is presumed, was the primeval hallowed spot on this our earthly clod; a kind of temple or sanctuary to Adam—a place chosen for the residence and appearance of God-a place designed to represent and give him ideas of heavenly things;" (and which God himself was after pleased to do, by imparting of the Mosaic symbols ;)—" a place sacred to contemplation and devotion.' And, indeed, when we * Horne. This beautiful writer adds: "Something of this sort seems to be intimated by the accounts we have of this garden in the second chapter of Genesis, and to be confirmed by the references and allusions to it in other parts of the Scriptures. And it is remarkable that traditions and traces of this original garden, as designated for a place of social worship, seems to have gone forth into all the earth; for in the earliest ages a custom was found to prevail, both among the people of God and idolators, of setting apart and consecrating gardens 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 everlasting God. The worshippers of false gods are described in the writings of the prophets as sacrificing in gardens behind one tree in the midst; and it is foretold that they should be ashamed for the oaks which they had desired, 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 subsisting among the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans;-groves were dedicated to their gods, and particular species of trees were sacred to particular deities. The same usage prevailed among the Druids in these parts of the world; and to this day, the aisles trace religion on our globe up to its origin, "we must have recourse to the true God himself, who instituted in our terrestrial paradise this sacred garden or grove, ordained Adam to be the high priest of it, and consecrated two sacramental trees for a public testimony of religion."* The vital principle of all religion is, like to its Author, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Not an intelligent throughout infinite space but has access to him—not a world throughout our nether heavens, but has its outward sanctuary, that God therein may dwell. And as from all the sanctuaries upon our little globe there does ascend, as from one sanctuary, the homage of mankind; so from all the sanctuaries contained in these lower footstool heavens there does ascend, as from one sanctuary, the homage of God's intellectual offspring from out these starry heavens; and as all these sublunary sanctuaries are doomed to be destroyed, the worshippers in them are doubtless seeking for a more enduring one-admission into which, the emblematic patterns clearly ascertain, can only be obtained by fervent supplication in the sublunary ones: through these alone all must ascend to the one glorious gate, which opens into the high heavenly one. Considered in this view, our former estimate diminishes to nothing. (p. 174.) The outward sanctuary portrayed in the figu of our gothic churches and cathedrals are evidently built in imitation of those arched groves, which of old supplied the place of temples, and which derived their origin from Eden." * Horne. rative charts unquestionably stands as representative of the unnumbered sanctuaries contained in the first, or starry heavens. All these do dwell under the defence of the Most High-all these abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm xci. 1.) All these are in his sight but as one sanctuary. "Yet these fair worlds, the creatures of a day, Though form'd by God's own hand, must pass away, "But fix'd, O God, for ever stands thy throne- In humble duty may all bow before him, VOL. I. |