hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me. And this is done to render him capable of divine honours; that he might be worshipped, and yet that that which is not God, might not be made the object of our worship.

"When the heathens worshipped the images of their gods, the best way they could take to vindicate it was under this notion, that they supposed their gods to inhabit their own images. But with infinitely more truth and justice may Christians worship the Son of God, who is the only appointed image of God, subsisting in a personal union with the indwelling Godhead.

"This may be illustrated by a lively similitude. A vast hollow globe of crystal, as large as the sun, is in itself a fair image of the sun. But, if we suppose the sun itself included in this crystal globe, it would become a much brighter image of the sun, and it would be in some sense one with the sun itself. And thus the same ascriptions which are given to the sun because of his light and heat, may be given also to this crystal globe, considered as inhabited by the sun itself, which could not be done without this inhabitation.

"Then, whatever honours were paid to this

globe of crystal would redound to the honour of the sun: even as the divine honour and adoration which is paid to our Saviour arises from the personal union of the human nature with the divine, and finally redounds to the glory of God. (Phil. ii. 11.)"

SECTION LVI.

COLOSS. iii. 1.-" If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."

EXCEPTION has been taken at these expressions, on the ground that heaven must be some fixed place, not above and below and on all sides of us, as must be the case if in all quarters of the globe men are to consider heaven as above them.

But, without entering into the question of the locality of heaven, we may observe that Nature, no less than Scripture, teaches us to be directed in our notions by the appearances of things. We may speak ever so learnedly on the motion of the earth round the sun, and yet we shall not alter the common mode of speaking, common even to philosophers who know

the truth, of the rising and of the setting of the sun. This may be called a fiction in nature: be it so. We do not object. But then we need not object to hear the above representations called fictions in Scripture, being perfectly content, if Scripture can point to Nature as its guide, and shield itself under her authority. All that it was necessary for either Nature or Scripture to guard against, was to prevent our being led into practical mistakes and no one can pretend that we are led into these by such a passage as that under our consideration. The devout man, therefore, may direct the eye of faith to that part of the heavens which lies before him, wherever he may be, without an impeachment of his good sense.

Besides, it seems certain, that not only Jews and Christians, but Pagans, have considered heaven as situated above them: so clearly do the words of Scripture harmonize with the natural tendencies of mankind.

"If you raise your hand to heaven," says Horace,* "your vine shall not be affected by the pestilential wind." And Homer: "The people prayed to the gods, and lifted up their

* Od. iii. 23.

+ Il. vii. 177.

hands." This indeed was so common a practice, that the learned Matthiæ* explains the government of the dative in Greek by verbs of praying, on the principle that, "in praying, the countenance or the hands were lifted up."

:

I have noticed of the common mode of speaking of the motion of the sun. And it is not without reason that Scripture has not departed from it for its object was to teach, not science, but religion; to correct the heart and life, not to inform the mind. Hence, it is no objection to Revelation that the sun and moon were addressed by Joshua in words which do not suit our improved knowledge of the heavenly bodies: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon."+

* Greek Gramm., § 393.

Josh. x. 12.