pared for him by that blessed Person, "in whom is "life, and the life is the light of men." The same divine Person was always the source of immortality, however the sacred symbols, instituted to adumbrate it, have been varied under different dispensations. To our first parents, before the fall, he stood in the relation of Creator and Lord. To them, and to their posterity, since that sad catastrophe, he hath stood, and ever continueth to stand, in the new relation of Saviour and Redeemer. The man who doth not now acknowledge him in this latter character, will find him, in the former, an avenger to execute wrath : and what wrath can be so fierce and terrible as that of the Lamb? It is oil set on fire. The sinner, unless he be in love with condemnation, must not revert to the first covenant, and aim at the acquisition of eternal life on the foot of the law of works, or the performance of unsinning obedience. In this case. the rebel claims promotion instead of suing for pardon. He puts forth his hand to the fruit of the now forbidden tree, which is no longer food for man. Its nature is changed with our condition. To the eye of human pride it still looks fair and tempting; but its contents, when eaten, are ashes and sulphur; and immortality, without redemption, would prove the reverse of a blessing.

Such being the state of this matter, and the order of the divine economy concerning it, all that is said in the Scriptures from the fall downward, with regard to the new method of obtaining eternal life, and the

John, i. 4.

appointed means of so doing, will throw light backward, and serve to illustrate the account already given of the tree of life in Paradise.

To this end may be adduced the texts which speak of the Redeemer, his religion, truth, grace, and salvation, under the very original expression of the tree of life.

And here, the first place is due to that charming description, left us by king Solomon in the Proverbs, of divine WISDOм personified, and represented as having been with God in the beginning, yet rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and delighting to be with the sons of men; as the way, the light, and the life, the author and giver of peace and comfort, joy and gladness; the Creator of all things, by whom the worlds were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made." Happy," says the great teacher of Israel, happy is the man that "findeth Wisdom, and the man that getteth under

standing. For the merchandise of it is better than "the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof "than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; "and all the things thou canst desire are not to be "compared unto her. Length of days is in her right "hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her

ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths "are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay "hold upon her, and happy is every one that re❝taineth her "."

e

Thus, in another place: "The fruit of the right

e Prov. iii. 13, &c.

eous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls "is wise f." The fruit produced by the righteous, through grace, copious, fair, and well flavoured, like that which once grew upon the tree of life, invites all beholders to come and partake, with its owner, of that glory and immortality with which it shall one day be crowned. And surely he, who, by these means, winneth souls by righteousness and salvation, is wise indeed! He resembles the Eternal Wisdom, the Son of God himself, who came down from heaven to win souls, when the fruit of the righteous was the true tree of life.

Again-"A wholesome or healing tongue is a "tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breach " of the spirit "."

If this be so in what passes about the affairs of the present world, how much more, when the concerns of another make the subject of conversation! When we extend the proverb to them, we cannot but think of the two capital instances in which it was most signally verified. We detest the tongue that perverted' "mankind from the path of life, and made a "breach in the spirit," at which sin entered, and death by sin. But everlasting benediction be upon that tongue which spake, as no other ever did or could speak, pardon, peace, and comfort to lost mankind. That was the tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing of the nations. "With the tongue confession is made unto salvation."

Once more: ""

Hope deferred maketh the heart

Prov. xi. 30.

g Prov. xv. 4.

"sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of "life"." This likewise is true, in temporals, of any object long wished for, and at last possessed; but it is emphatically so of the hope of salvation, which, while it is deferred, maketh the heart sick; as we may find by the pathetic and forcible exclamations of those who waited for it in old time. But when

the desire, that is, the object of the desire-he whom so many prophets and kings had earnestly desired to see he who was the "desire of all nations "-when he came, he proved the tree of life restored in the Paradise of God.

Two remarkable representations of things spiritual and divine, under the Gospel dispensation, or in the kingdom of heaven, were exhibited to Ezekiel and St. John. Let us compare them with each other, and both of them with the original scenery in Paradise, from which the images are evidently borrowed, and to which unless they are again referred, they lose half their beauty and significancy.

In Ezekiel's vision of the Christian church, under the figure of the second temple, he tells us, he saw "waters issuing from the sanctuary, and giving uni"versal life, wherever they went." St. John saw "a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding "from the throne of God and the Lamb." And "a river" we know, "went forth" at the beginning, to water and make glad the garden of God in Eden.

"On the banks of the river, on this side, and on

h Prov. xiii. 12.

i Ezek. xlvii. 1-9.

* Rev. xxii. 1.

"that side," Ezekiel beheld "very many trees;" or, as it should, perhaps, be rendered, "a very great tree', " "whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the "fruit thereof be consumed: it" (in the singular number) "shall bring forth new fruit according to "its months; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, " and the leaves for medicine"." Let us now turn again to St. John-" In the midst of the street of "it"-the new Jerusalem, succeeding in the place of Paradise, and the old Jerusalem with its temple and services-"in the midst of the street of it, and "of either side the river, was there the tree of life, "which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded its “fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were "for the healing of the nations"." Can we read either of these descriptions, without immediately carrying our thoughts back to Eden, where we see growing out of the ground, at the command of the Lord God, "every tree good for food, and pleasant "to the sight; the tree of life also in the midst of "the garden ?"

But let us take a view of some other figures and sacraments, ordained since the fall of man, as the tree of life was appointed before it, to represent to the faithful the blessing of immortality.

The lost blessing was to be recovered and restored to the human race by the sufferings and death of a surety, who, after dying for our sins, was to rise again for our justification. The grand institution, therefore, of this kind, commencing immediately upon

.עץ רב מאד !

Ezek. xlvii. 12. "Rev. xxii. 2.