ture,"serving to the example and shadow of hea"venly things." The powers of the body, and the faculties of the mind, might be set to work at the same time, by the same objects. And it is well known, that the words here used*, do as frequently denote mental as corporeal operations; and under the ideas of DRESSING and KEEPING the sacred garden, may fairly imply the CULTIVATION and OBSERVATION of such religious truths as were pointed out by the external signs and sacraments which Paradise contained.

That some of the objects in Eden were of a sacramental nature, we can hardly doubt, when we read of "the tree of knowledge," and "the tree of life." The fruit of a material tree could not, by any virtue inherent in it, convey "the knowledge of good and " evil," or cause that, by eating it, a man should "live "for ever." But such fruit might be ordained as a sacrament, upon the participation of which, certain spiritual effects should follow. This is entirely conformable to reason, to the nature of man, and of religion.

It is remarkable, that, in the earliest ages, a custom should be found to prevail, both among the people of God and idolaters, 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," as

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(( purifying themselves 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 the 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 of our Gothic churches and cathedrals are evidently built in imitation of those arched groves, which of old supplied the place of temples. It is not, therefore, without reason, that the author of a learned dissertation on the subject makes the following remark:-"These were "the hallowed fanes of the ancients, in which they performed divine worship. And indeed, if we "would trace up this rite to its origin, we must have recourse to the true God himself, who instituted in "Paradise a sacred garden or grove, ordained Adam "to be the high-priest of it, and consecrated in it two trees, for a public testimony of religion."

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But upon the supposition now made, that the garden of Eden served as a kind of temple for our first parents, might we not expect to find some resemblance of it in the tabernacle and temple afterwards erected, by the appointment of God, for his residence

m Isa. lxy. 3. lxvi. 17.

in the midst of his people Israel? The question is by no means absurd, especially if we recollect that it was the design of the Mosaic sanctuary, with its apparatus, to prefigure the restoration of those spiritual blessings which were forfeited and lost by the transgression in Paradise. Let us, therefore, inquire what satisfaction the Scriptures will afford us upon this point.

The principal objects in the garden of Eden with which revelation has brought us acquainted, are the plantations of trees, and the rivers of water by which those plantations were nourished and supported in glory and beauty. Was there any thing of this sort in or about the tabernacle and temple?

With regard to the plantations, two passages in the Psalms incline us to think there were such in the courts of the Jewish sanctuary, as well as in that of Eden: "I am like a green olive tree in the house of "God". The righteous shall flourish like a palm

tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those "that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall "flourish in the courts of our God. They shall

bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and "flourishing." These texts seem to suppose the real existence of such plantations, and, at the same time, to intimate the end and design of them; namely, to represent the progress and improvement of the faithful in virtue, through the influence of the divine favour. The same pleasing and expressive image is employed to the same purpose, in the first Psalm

n Psal. lii. 8.

• Psal. xcii. 12, &c.

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"He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; "his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he "doeth shall prosper."

As to the rivers of water which supplied and refreshed the garden of Eden, and all its productions, we meet with something analogous to them, both in the tabernacle and temple.

During the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, the camp in general, and the sacred tabernacle in particular, were supplied with water in a miraculous manner, not only at the time when Moses smote the rock, but the same supply accompanied them afterwards." They drank of that "rock," that is, the water of that rock, "which "followed them." "He led thee," says Moses,

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through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein "were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought, "where there was no water; who made water to "flow for thee out of the rock of flint"." And these waters, like those in Eden, were of a sacramental nature. They did all drink the same spiritual drink; "for they drank of that spiritual rock which followed “them, and that rock was Christ." How lively a representation of that heavenly grace which comforts our weary spirits, and enables us to accomplish our journey through the wilderness of life!

If, from the tabernacle, we proceed to the temple, we are there presented with the sacred streams of Siloah, breaking forth and flowing from the mount of

God. In Ezekiel's famous vision of the new temple, there is a wonderful description, founded on the real situation of things at mount Sion, explaining their signification, and unavoidably carrying our thoughts back to the waters and plantations of the original sanctuary in Eden: "Afterward he brought me again "unto the door of the house, and behold waters "issued out from under the threshold of the house "eastward.-Then said he to me, These waters "issue out toward the east country, and go down "into the desert, and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be "healed. And it shall come to pass, that every

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thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live.-And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side, and on that "side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall "not fade; neither shall the fruit thereof be con"sumed it shall bring forth new fruit according to "its months, because their waters issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, " and the leaves thereof for medicine"."

When the prophets have occasion to foretel the great and marvellous change to be effected in the moral world under the evangelical dispensation, they frequently borrow their ideas and expressions from the history of that garden, in which innocence and felicity once dwelt together, and which they represent as again springing up and blooming in the wilderness. Of the many passages which occur, two

Ezek. xlvii. 1, &c.