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Mount Zion in this place puts on another form of a * fmooth, soft, fat and fruitful foil, as Jerome fpeaks. Some conftrue it Bah-Shan, tranquility dwells in it. This mount was in old time the kingdom of Og, king of the Amorites, which Macir, the firft-born of Menaffeh inherited under the conqueft of Joshua. Josh. xvii. 1, 13, 29. It was the most abundant in towns, pastures, and corn. Hill. onom. fac. 761. The feptuagint interpret it, fat and coagulated mount. to mount Sinai, upon which the word of the Lord defired to fix the divine prefence. These mountains conftituted part of the great chain from Libanus to Paran. Had. Rel. Paleft. c. 53. where God fhined, and the holy one came. Deut. xxxiii. 2. Hab. iii. 3. Gabgnunim doubles the fecond radical letter to exprefs the abundance of the hills, and round eminences. Michaelis makes the river Fordan flow down from the heights of this country,

* The reduction of matter into the first atoms, minima pun&ta, is known to few wife men. But many humble fouls have found the white ftone, that will bear the eternal fire unconsumed, by their fimple faith, and the hunger and thirst after justification in the Lord, who has wrought this wonderful work in them. Calmet fays, the literal fenfe is mountain of cheese, or mountain of heights, of many hills. It is rather a mountain of globes, or global forms; which Origen taught by the Hebrew tradition ascribed to fpiritual bodies; and light from a centre expands to an equal cir'cumference, and fills its veffel as an orb.

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called Bafhan. But with refpect to the envy and jealoufy of this well-watered and fertile hill against the humble and dry hill of Sion, he is mistaken* For, in the myftic sense, and even in the letter, Zion, on which the temple was built, was a very high hill; and the houfe of the Lord, as the figure required, was founded on the moft elevated part. Sinai, the miniftration of wrath and darkness, gendring unto bondage by flesh of Egyptian Hagar, the ftrange woman, changes by the power and grace of God into mount Zion, where the white cloud co vers and clothes their happy inhabitants above. Heb. xii. 18-24. Here we must compare Ifa. iv. 5. where the Lord will create a cloud upon all her congregations, and a pillar of fire, with the white cloud in Rev, xiv. 14. and with the bright cloud, photeine, which overshadowed our Lord, and his three witnesses, at his transformation in Matt. xvii. 5. Mark ix. 7. Here Mofes and Elias, the two minifters of wrath and of the ministration of condemnation against all flesh, are feen in glory, in the moft radiant white, where at their departure, Jefus only is found, myftically purporting, that all things shall be fubdued, and transmuted into him, and be clothed with his great white cloud. 1 Cor. x. 1-4. The Lord is faid to dwell in clouds, in the highest clouds, furrounded by Gods (Elohim) in Pfal. lxxxvi. 8-89. and in Pfal. xviii. 12.

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The Shechakim fignify the utmost tenuity of * matter for his garments, or emanations in the liberty of light, æther, and water in the most rarified monads or atoms. Buxt. Lex. ch. Talm. 2370. Parkinfons's Heb. Lex. 263. In this state is true reft found, for it is the nuptial bed of ivory, of fnowy whiteness and fplendor, the fame as the garment for the marriage-fupper of the lamb. Here the river Jarden, the defcent of judgment as at

* The doctrine of atoms fo early received among philofophers, was, in all appearance, tranfmitted from the Jews, as taught to them from the altars of Mofes, employed day and night in reducing matter, and the flesh and bones of fin and trespass-offerings into duft and afbes by the fire, that all things must be renewed, and delivered into the liberty of the glory of the fons of God. The Jews knew this world was not original in its present state, but reformed out of the chaos of the kingdom of the fallen angels. Hence Bara, to create, is more properly to renovate: Leusden observes in clav. Heb. ex prejacente materia. This all Jewish writers con fefs. This figurative reprefentation of all things and perfons paffing through the fire and blood of that altar, for regeneration and renovation, was fhewn in its truth at Pentecofte; and this baptism must be in the end, fulfilled upon every one. The notion of atoms, or matter in a spiritual state, originally existing as such, and becoming hard, fhut up and bound fast, to form a temporary prison to humble finners, and bring them to a fenfe of dependence, gives a better account of physical evil, than can be affigned on any other ground; and as the whole gospel is one voice to a reftitution of all things, this term could not be used for an original creation, but fuits perfectly to a pre-existent fall and corruption of matter by tranfgreffion of the rulers and heads of it. The Jews witness these things, and have no intereft in deceiving in these points,

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the Pentecostal feftival flow from this mount of Libanon, of true whiteness, into which Jefus was baptized in flesh, as the great finner bearing the fins of the world; and from which in the spiritual fense, he baptizes in the water of life, luminous and clear as chrystal, for it is his fea mingled with the fire of the holy fpirit, defcending as a dove in peace and love. As it is the glorious work of the Lord, our high-priest to build temples for God to dwell in, fo must he make them white as fnow in Salmon; as Lebanon itself, as our Leprofy of the falfe white must be changed into perfect whiteness, and then we lepers fhall be pronounced clean to enter the tent of the congregation. Lev. xiii. And as Og, king of Bafhan, of the remnant of the giants, or ancient rebels, had his dominion covered with the glory, the cloud, in which the redeeming angel fat with the ANCIENT of DAYS, fo was he and his people judged according to men, and flain in the flesh, the fin, and root of evil, that they might live according to God, in the fpirit, as the apostle explains this gracious defign. 1 Pet. iv. 6. This gospel preached by our elder brother, will offend the pretended faints of this day, who have fealed themselves as the elect, but who have placed the old dragon, Apollyon and Abaddon in the temple of the Lord God of hefts, the Lord of mercies and compaffions to a thousand generations. Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. This is the spiritual mountain, in which

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the Lord will dwell for eternity, or for victory, as the word, Nezach, will bear this twofold fenfe, which must be explained evangelically by Ifa. xxv. 6, 7. In this mountain fhall the Lord of hofts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things. He will deftroy in this mountain the face of the covering caft over all peoples, and the vail spread over all nations. He will fwallow up death in victory, or in perpetuity, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces: for the Lord hath spoken.

The Lord is among

Verse 17, 18, 19. The chariot of God two myriads of angels. (Shinan, doubled ones.) them at SINAI in his fanctuary. Thou haft afcended on high: thou haft taken captivity captive, and received gifts for man, (in the man.) even for the rebellious that the Lord Godmight dwell. Bleffed be the Lord, who will load us daily; he is the God of our falvation. SELAH.

There never was any doubt of this paffage, preluding to our Lord in the days of his flesh, and form of a flave; when he was to re-ascend, and repoffefs the glory he had before the foundation of the world: John xvii. 5, 22: when, after having fought the hard battle of love, by sufferings and death, even the death of the cross, he should have the reward of being the Saviour of the whole world, and of his bitter enemies, and murderers in the end. For even his drinking the vinegar and gall, and

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