to Noah with the covenant of general redemption. It is found in Psalm lxxxix. 38: His throne (viz. that of the Messiah) shall be established for ever as the moon, and as the faithful witness in heaven." The copulative between the two distichs of the verse seems to imply that two distinct comparisons are intended; and, if so, what other object of comparison besides the moon, can the Spirit of revelation be supposed to introduce but the rainbow," the faithful witness" of Divine faithfulness frequently exhibited "in heaven" to the eyes of all mankind. This symbol thus appears to have a higher and more generally interesting office assigned to it, than that of assuring us that no general deluge of waters shall again destroy the earth.

This will be further established, when it is recollected that, both in the Old and New Testament, the Mediator of the covenant of redemption is represented as having a rainbow for his crown. This representation, joined as it is with many other features of resemblance, proves the identity, as to the subject and intention, of the visions of Ezekiel and those of St. John. (Comp. Ezek. i. 26-28, with Rev. iv. 3, and x. 1.) The subject of both is the glory of our Redeemer; and the object is the confirmation of our faith in Him as the all-sufficient Saviour of our souls.

But, before I proceed to lay before you these New Testament references to the token of Noah's

covenant, I must observe, that both that covenant, and the general covenant of redemption, are represented as founded in sacrifice for sin.* The former is thus introduced to our notice, Gen. viii. 20, &c; "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour" ("marg. a savour of rest" or appeasement. Comp. Eph. v. 2.); and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again any more curse the ground

* That solemn covenants were, of old, frequently if not always, accompanied and sanctioned by animal sacrifices, both among believers and heathens, is too well known to require any proof; and "the offering these sacrifices, and passing through the parts of the divided victim, was symbolically staking their hopes of salvation on their performance of the conditions on which the sacrifice was offered." It was acting the adjuration of an oath, "So help me God." In condescension to human infirmity, it pleased Jehovah, the God of Abraham, to confirm his engagement to Abraham and the lost world in the same way. See Gen. xv. 9-18, where the symbols of the Divine presence passed between the parts of the divided victims, whereby Jehovah, pledging as it were his own existence for the fulfilment of his great promise, exhibited to the eye "the oath which he sware to Abraham." For instances of heathen imitation, see Homer, Virgil, Livy, &c. Hence the Latin phrases ferire, icere, percutere fœdus; (see Ainsworth's Dictionary on the word fœdus)-and hence the corresponding See Letter XXIX.

.כרת ברית,,Hebrew phrase

The importance of typical sacrificature could not have been more strongly pointed out, than by Noah's offering on his altar one, or more, of every clean animal and fowl, as will appear when it is considered that seven only of every species had been preserved in the ark.

for man's sake." Then follow, in chap. ix, the Divine blessing that was pronounced on Noah and his family, and a revelation of the covenant of which the rainbow was the token. Here, then, a connexion between the typical sacrifices of Noah, and the blessing, is clearly established. And in like manner, the general dispensation of mercy is called the "New covenant in the blood of Christ," referring to the channel in which Divine mercy flows, and the way in which it has been secured to us. How delightful is it to trace the uniformity of the Divine procedure, the relation which one part of Scripture bears to another, and the evidence afforded in all for the confirmation of our faith and hope!

Indeed, with what view could God reveal to man a covenant of mercy, engaging that he would no more destroy him from off the face of the earth till the final conflagration, but with an ultimate reference to an effectual atonement and an everlasting salvation? There would have been no mercy displayed in the preservation of human life, and the consequent multiplication of our species, had there been no redemption provided for the souls of penitent sinners, by His sacrifice to which all previous atonement, whether in the patriarchal or levitical period, pointed. Independently of this expiation, the prolongation of human life would have led only to an increase of guilt and punishment; and the

multiplication of our species must have produced an increase of weeping and wailing and gnashing

of teeth.

The vision of the Apocalypse to which I have referred you, is recorded in the 4th chapter. The throne of grace, symbolised by the mercy-seat in the most holy place, appears therein as the seat of the Divine Majesty, and around it St. John saw the hieroglyphic "rainbow, in sight like unto an emerald." The allusion to the token of God's covenant with Noah is distinctly marked in Ezekiel's corresponding vision, where, after describing (chap. i. 27) the man in glory, and the brightness that was round about him; the prophet adds, "As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the bow that was round about." "This was the appearance" (or a vision)" of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." On these corresponding visions, Vitringa, in his exposition of the Apocalypse, has the following remarks. "These words may suggest to us this view of the subject; that God, as he was seen by Ezekiel sitting on a throne, was on every side surrounded by great splendour of Majesty and Glory, as if he had been encircled by a rainbow. But it may be questioned, to which among the colours of the rainbow Ezekiel principally referred, the green or the red? For the rainbow is composed of both; and a reader of Ezekiel might be led to think of red or bright yellow, which is

particularly manifest among those colours; but the rainbow which St. John saw surrounding the throne of God, was of that colour which is most proper and natural to it, namely, green, the colour of the emerald. Pliny, in speaking of this stone, observes, that "its aspect is more grateful than that of others, on many accounts; in proof of which, the delight which we experience in the verdure of fields and trees, may be adduced. And as the green of the emerald is stronger than that of any other object, the eye dwells on it with greater pleasure. Besides, in contemplating an assemblage of precious stones, the emerald contents the eye without producing satiety."

"When John saw a rainbow surrounding the throne, we are, I conceive, to understand him as saying, that the King Himself whom he saw sitting on the throne had his head encircled with a rainbow; so that the rainbow had the appearance of a crown encompassing the head of the august royal Personage who, in vision, was presented to the mind of St. John. This is certainly the description, afforded us in a subsequent context of the Apocalypse, chap. x. 1, of the mighty angel whose venerable appearance is pourtrayed after 66 similar manner: a And a rainbow was above his head." The rainbow, therefore, had here the appearance of a crown,* surrounding the

Milton's idea of the Rainbow, as being the image of an open and complacent eye-brow, when he says,