II. DISC. nefs, fuch thanksgiving and melody, at the reftitution of all things, as were at their first creation, when "God faw every thing "he had made, and behold, it was very good;" when "the morning ftars fang "together, and all the fons of God shouted " for joy.""When the poor and needy "feek water, and there is none, and their "tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will "hear them, I the God of Ifrael will not "forfake them. I will open rivers in high 66 places, and fountains in the midft of the "vallies; I will make the wilderness a 66 pool of water, and the dry land springs "of water. I will plant in the wilderness "the cedar, the fhittah tree, and the myr"tle, and the oil tree; I will fet in the "defart the fir tree, and the pine, and the "box tree together: that they may see, "and know, and confider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath "done this, and the holy One of Ifrael "hath created it"." "The wilderness and "the folitary place fhall be glad for them, w Ifai. xli. 17. " and II. "and the defart fhall rejoice, and bloffom DISC. "as the rofe. It fhall bloffom abundantly, "and rejoice even with joy and finging; "the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto "it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon : they shall see the glory of the Lord, and "the excellency of our God *." At the time appointed, these predictions received their accomplishment. Men "faw "the glory of the Lord, and the excel"lency of our God." By the death and refurrection of the Redeemer, loft Paradife was regained; and it's ineftimable bleffings, wisdom, righteousness and holiness, are now to be found and enjoyed in the Christian church. But as men are ftill men, and not angels, those bleffings are ftill reprefented and conveyed by facramental fymbols, analogous to the original ones in Eden. From the facred font flows the water of life, to purify, to refresh, to comfort ; " a river goes out of Eden, to water "the garden," and to "baptize all nations;" VOL. I. * Ifai. xxxv. I. while II. DISC. while the eucharist answers to the fruit of the tree of life: at the holy table, we may now" put forth our hands, and take, and "eat, and live for ever." Let us go one step farther, and confider the state of things, in the heavenly kingdom of our Lord. There, it is true, all figures and fhadows, fymbols and facraments, fhall be no more, because faith will there be loft in vifion, and we shall "know even as we are known." But in the mean time, till we attain that perfect confummation, was any perfon admitted to a fight of heaven, and the wonders that are therein, he could no otherwise describe them to us, who are yet in the body, than by the way of picture and fimilitude. This was the cafe of St. Paul. In a divine ecftafy, he had been caught up, and made to fee and hear things, which he could not impart to others on account of their incapacity to receive them. What then does he? He refers us to the habitation of our first parents, for a general and comparative II. idea of them. "I knew a man (fays he) DISC. "who was caught up into Paradise." Our Lord, giving the penitent thief to underftand, that his forrows would foon be at an end, and he should pass, with his Saviour, into a place of reft and joy, ufes the fame expreffion "This day fhalt thou be with "me in Paradife." The beloved difciple, who was frequently in the spirit translated to those celeftial manfions which Chrift is gone to prepare for us, gives a more particular and extended defcription of them. But how? By bringing to our view all Eden, it's waters and plantations, together with those seen by Ezekiel, in his vision of the new temple. He fhewed me a pure " river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, "and of the Lamb.-And of either fide "of the river was there the tree of life, "which bare twelve manner of fruits, and 'yielded her fruit every month; and the "leaves of the tree were for the healing of "the nations.-To him that overcometh "will I give to eat of the tree of life, DISC. " which is in the midst of the Paradife II. ❝ of God.— Bleffed are they that do his "commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life-And the spirit "and the bride fay, Come. And let him "that heareth fay, Come. And let him "that is athirft come; and whofoever will "let him take the waters of life freely." In these paffages, the divine scenery is evidently borrowed from objects once really existing in the terreftrial Paradise, and employed to aid our conceptions, in apprehending celestial glories. If, therefore, we are taught, that heaven resembles the Garden of Eden, it feems fair and reasonable to conclude, that the Garden of Eden refembled heaven, and was, from the beginning, intended fo to do; that, like the temple under the law, and the church under the gospel, it was, to it's happy posfeffors, a place chofen for the refidence of God; a place defigned to represent and furnish them with ideas of heavenly things; a place facred to contemplation and devotion; in one word, that it was the primitive temple |