And, on the whole, I hope to make it appear, that the christian economy or dispensation is not so defective in this particular, as all the Jews, and even some modern christians, do very groundlessly imagine.

In the first place, then, let us see whether the bible gives any help towards the proof of this position, that Jesus Christ was the Shechinah of the Jews, even in the days of his flesh, and humiliation upon earth. And here we must have recourse to the accounts left us by the four historians of his life, whom we call the Evangelists; and of whom, tho' the last in order in our bibles, yet St John deserves to be first noticed, as he goes farther back than the other three, and traces the original (if such a term may be used) of Jesus from the beginning. "In ' the beginning,' says he, 'was the word;' just as Moses had said, 'In the beginning God created.' By this we are not to understand, according to the common acceptation, beginning of time, otherwise we shall fall into the Arian error, which attributed a beginning to the word; and said, there was a time when the word was not, or had not a being. The Greek word αρχη, used by St John, corresponds with the Hebrew ראשיתused by Moses, and properly signifies the head, fountain, principle, from which a thing proceeds. Thus there is a passage in the Revelation',' where Jesus is called 'αρχη της κτισεως τε Θ8, 'the beginning of the creation of God;' but more properly, according to the meaning of the word αρχη, the Head, or Principle, by which the creation was made, as St John says of him, by Him ' were all things made;' and St Paul says, 'by ' whom God made the worlds.' This divine wORD was in the world, and exhibited himself to the world, though the world in general did not know or discern him. Thus he came to Abram 5, and was revealed to Samuel, and to the old prophet of Bethel', and to many more of the Jewish prophets. These were but transient exhibitions, made on solemn occasions, and for certain purposes. But at last the time came, that the divine word made a permanent residence among men and the word ' was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' How, or after what manner, the word became flesh, is far beyond our capacity to conceive or describe; for even St Paul acknowledged that it was wonderful great ' is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 'flesh. But as to the expression of his dwelling among us, it comprehends a great deal more than

is

is generally thought. The original, ̓εσκηνωσεν εν ημίν, literally signifies, he tabernacled or pitched his tent, in our natures or flesh; and thus has a direct allusion to the first institution of the cherubim, of which we have been speaking, and which, it is said, 'the

Lord God, ישן jashaken, INHABITED, not so properly, placed, as our translation renders it. In this sense it is said', 'the high and lofty one, שקן ער,in'habiteth eternity;' and so that glory may dwell, לשקן, in our land.' And from this Hebrew word שקן comes not only the Hebrew word for the tabernacle, but likewise the Greek σκηνη, a tabernacle, and the verb σκηνοω, to pitch a tabernacle.

A tabernacle, in scripture language, is a move able habitation, dedicated or set apart to religious use. We have seen that Paradise was a sacred tabernacle or tent; and it is remarked, that in the times of the patriarchal church, in most places where the patriarchs built an altar, it is said they pitched a tent'. Thus Moses was ordered to rear a tabernacle for receiving the glory of God; and from this tabernacle, in which were placed the cherubim, did the glory of the Lord appear. In the same sense did the Word, who was co-eternal with God, exhibit himself from or out of the tabernacle of human flesh. The body, which he assumed from the virgin, was the tabernacle of his divinity or glory;

VOL. II.

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Isa. lvii. 15.
2 Ps. 1xxxv. 9.
3 See Gen. xii. 8. xiii. 18. xxvi. 25.

glory; hence the word tabernacle is used by St. Peter to signify the body : as long,' says he, 'as ' I am in this tabernacle, &c. 'knowing that shortly • I must put off this tabernacle,' &c. This explanation will aid us in understanding another passage in the Revelation, of which the meaning seems otherwise somewhat obscure. It is as follows; and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to • blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and them • that dwell (tabernacle) in heaven.' The tabernacle here mentioned can be no other than the tabernacle of Christ's human body, as it is called God's tabernacle; and as the name of God that goes before is to be taken for the Divinity of Christ, as we shall see afterwards; and what follows, they • that have their tabernacle, or dwell in heaven,' is to be applied to the hypostatic union of God the name, and Man the tabernacle, into one person; which person may well be spoken of in the plural number, to denote the two natures in Christ. So that this blasphemy, here mentioned, is to be applied to all those, whether pagans, Jews, or pretending christians, that deny either the divinity or humanity of Christ, or presume to set up their impudent reason in opposition to the gospel declaration, that the word was made flesh :' and that the word tabernacle here is to be meant of Christ's body, we are warranted in believing by St Paul 3, where he calls Christ' the minister of the sanctuary, and of 'the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and 'not man;' and again', an ' high priest of good * things to come, by a greater and more perfect ta• bernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this 'building,' &c. In both these places, the apostle, as is plain from the context, not only had the body or humanity of Christ in his eye, but designed likewise to give it the preference before the Jewish tabernacle, which he proves to have been only pointed to, as a type of Christ's body, or, in the language of St John, to have been a figure of the 'word's becoming flesh.' Here then, that is to say, in our flesh, did Christ pitch his tabernacle, in allusion to those tabernacles, and in verification of them, which under the Jewish law were reared only by men; whereas this true gospel tabernacle was built by Jehovah ; upon which account, Jesus, or the Son, is said by an apostle to be the first-born of ' every creature,'

As this is the christian tabernacle, let us see next if in this tabernacle there was any exhibition or appearance resembling, or correspondent with, the Shechinah, or כבר־יהוה of the Jewish tabernacle : and in this point we shall find St John both clear and full. The word,' says he, 'was made flesh, ' and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory,' an expression of the same nature, and to the same purport

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