"and in the midst the face of a god, with

golden wings on his shoulders."* Montfaucon gives us two figures of Mithras, the god of the Persians, each of which has a human body, a lion's head, with four wings on the shoulders, two extending towards heaven, and two let fall to the earth. On comparing these representations with that in the prophet, the analogy will appear striking: "Thus were their faces, and "their wings were stretched upward, two wings "of every one were joined one to another, and "two covered their bodies." It has already been hinted that the origin of temples themselves may be traced up to the cherubic tabernacle, and some of the other insignia of paradise and hence it is that those in Egypt, emphatically called the "land of Ham," are discovered to have had a row of sphinges, or other compound and winged animal figures, extending to a great distance on each side of

Cudworth. Int. Syst. vol. i. p. 298.

+ Montfauc. Ant. Exp. tom. ii. p. 369. The reader will find a multitude of instances cited by Parkhurst in his Hebrew Lexicon, under the head 275; though a vast number more might easily be added. The Editor of Calmet's Dictionary, Frag, CLII. Forbes in vol. i. p. 198, may be consulted with advantage.

+ Ezekiel i. 22-26.

1

their entrances.* The columns, also, at Thebes, were adorned with the representations of polymorphous deities on their capitals; and generally, perhaps, it may be remarked, that these sphinges, gryphins, chimæras, and many other idols of a similar nature, exhibited as they so often are on abraxast and other gems, all in some way or other had their source from those mysterious beings, which composed that grand primeval type, once manifested on "the "east of Eden" to the inhabitants of the antediluvian world.

The heathens, moreover, not only preserved many singular vestiges of the overshadowing cloud and the symbolic fire, but even sometimes imitated that appearance of the firmament

* This appears to have been particularly the case on that side fronting the east.

+ See the fifth class of these curious gems in Montfaucon. Ant. Exp. p. 358; some of them are inscribed with the sacred names Jao, Eloai, Sabaoth, and Adonai, from which circumstance, many writers of note have attributed their origin to some early heretics called Basilidians. Lardner, however, has shewn that their source is to be looked for in Egypt, and some traditions of the titles of the true God, which the priests had retained from very early antiquity.

‡ In addition to what has already been offered, see the instances cited by Parkhurst, of heathen deities connected with "a cloud," in his Heb. Lex. voc. ¡1, p. 514.

over the Cherubim, as described in Exodus and Ezekiel, particularly the latter: "And the "likeness of the firmament upon the heads of "the living creature was as the colour of the "terrible chrystal stretched forth over their "heads above: and above the firmament that 66 was over their heads, was the likeness of a

throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, "and upon the likeness of the throne was the

appearance of a man above, upon it." Philostratus* observes that there was in the royal palace in Babylon, a room vaulted like a heaven, and adorned with sapphires of the colour of heaven, with the images of the gods placed aloft, and appearing as it were in the air. The king was wont to give judgment there, and there were four golden lynxes or charms hanging down from the roof prepared by the magicians, and called Ewv гArraι "the tongues or "oracles of the gods." We know that in the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, and afterwards in the temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, the oracle was overshadowed by the wings of the Cherubim, to which there may

* Philost. de Vit. Apoll. vi. 2. 247. viii. 14. p. 349, et Annot. Olear. Edit. 1709. Pausan. de Phoc. cap. 5. Schol. in Pind. Nem. iv. ver. 56.

possibly be some allusion derived from tradi tion, in the four Iynxes here mentioned.*

The Cherubim were altogethe a mysterious "similitude of the Great Ones," who themselves were none other than those, who, are elsewhere called in sacred scripture the Elohim or Aleim, and Jehovah. Of these titles, peculiar to the Supreme Being, and particularly of the latter of them, some traces are discoverable in mythology. The Carthaginians, for example, gave to their greatest deities of all, the name of the Alonim, while the Phoenicians and Syrians

* The lynx was a bird made frequent use of by the heathen in their incantations. The tongue is sometimes said to have been the part most valued. Synesius de Insom. p. 134. Nicephorus in Schol. Obser. 360. Stanleius. Philos, 1, 2, 3. Chald. Orac. v. 115. The figures alluded to in the representation of Philostratus were perhaps suspended, with their, wings outstretched, and hovering. Isaac. in Lycoph. Cassand. 310. Suidas. Pind. Pyth. iv. 380. Theocrit. Idyl. ii. 17. Nat. Com. viii. 18. Tzetzes mentions that when an oracle of this sort was consulted, the Iynx was turned round and round upon a magical wheel; which symbol was also introduced into the sacred dance of Cybele. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1139. The lynxes in the temple at Delphi were golden ones, and thought by some to have been the same representation as the Sirens, which were compound figures. The Egyptian Seraphis is sometimes represented with these mystic images hovering, or suspended around him. Kircher. Œdip. Egpyt. tom. iii. P. 479.

named Saturn the reputed father of the gods, EL, IL and Dus all of which are manifest derivatives from Eloah, the body name of the Creator in the singular number. Among the second mdeed, of these three nations, we bear

a is onurya The re Kame ERDEIM execk Sorur the companions of Saturn or Ens were called Elohim!" Analogous to this was the title of -the most high Elion, which they conferred upon one of their deities, and be was declared, according to that ancient writer Sanchoniation,

to have begat beaven and earth." This very name is given by Moses to the one only and true God: for Abraham said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, “the most high Elion, the begetter of heaven "and earth.*

In a fragment of Philo Byblius, taken from Sanchoniathon, and preserved in Eusebius.† a

* Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. xxxvi. et ut supra. Bochart. Canaan. Eb. i. cap. 2. p. 784 Plautus in Pan. Act. v. Scena 2. Scalig, not. in Fragm. Græc. Selden de diis Syr. Gale's Court of the Gentles. Stillingfeet's Orig. Sac. ii. 5. p. 404. Gen. xiv. 19, 22.

+ Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. i. p. 18. Ancient Univer. Hist. Carthag, vol. xvi. p. 622, and the authors cited by these

learned writers.

head mm Jeborah.

Also Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. under the

Vossius de Orig. Idol. ii. 14. pp. 378,

379.