disposed to hurt or destroy, consented to dwell peaceably under the same roof with the Lamb. One common interest reconciled dispositions which were almost as opposite as light and darkness. And as a principle of safety united those within the ark, so it is a natural circumstance noted by the Poet, that all animosities had subsided on account of the terror and distress which prevailed without it;

Nat lupus inter oves: fulvos vehit unda leones: Unda vehit tigres",

IV. When the Economy of the Gospel succeeded to that of the Law, all distinctions were abolished as effectually as within the Ark of Noah; according to the sense of St. Peter's Vision on occasion of the Conversion of Cornelius. With a view to this, our Blessed Saviour gave that unlimited charge to his Apostles-Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every Creature-to animals clean

* Και διέσωσεν δι' αύτε (Νωε) ο Δεσπόλης τα εισελθονία ΕΝ ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ ζωα εις κιβωτον. The Lord saved by Noah the Creatures which entered with unanimity into the Ark, Clem. Epist. ad Cor. i.

Ovid. Met, lib, i,

and unclean, gentle and savage, polished and barbarous, Jews and Heathens. And with allusion to the same event, he compares the Church to a net that was cast into the Sea and

gathered of every kind'. When this commission was executed, that is, when men of all nations, like the various kinds of beasts, birds, and fishes, were assembled together as members of the Church by the preaching of the Apostles, St. John in the Revelation hears them all unite in one universal Chorus of praise and thanksgiving to the great Author of their common salvation-" Every Creature "which is in heaven and on the earth, and "such as are in the sea, and all that are in

them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, "and glory, and power be unto him that sit"teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb ❝for ever and ever "."

V. Here it is worth observing, to what absurdities men may be driven in sacred subjects, when they have no regard to that symbolical method of speaking and writing, which distinguishes the Bible from all other books. Christ having ordered his disciples to preach to every creature, St. Francis, a monkish Evan

a Matth. xiii. 47.

F 4

b Rev. v. 13.

gelist,

gelist, taking this strictly according to the sound of the expression, discovered that the commission had never been properly executed: so he betook himself to the woods, wilds, and waters, that by preaching to beasts, birds, and fishes, as such, he might fulfil the command of Jesus Christ, and do what his Apostles, in their ignorance, had left undone.

VI. The character and labours of the Ox are so frequently referred to, that they deserve a particular consideration; and we are now prepared to trace the meaning of them. St. Paul, insisting on the rights of the Christian Clergy, takes occasion to introduce that precept of the Law-thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn. Hence he argues, that they who preach the Gospel are justly entitled to live of the Gospel; as the labouring Ox is permitted to eat freely of that Corn which it treads out with its feet for the service of man. This similitude will bear a very close examination: for as the Ox separates the grain from the Ear, so the Minister is required to preach the New Testament from the Old; or, in other words, to extract and exhibit the Spirit from the Letter; and this Spirit gives life to the soul of the hearer, as

corn from the threshing-floor gives life to the body. If then the labour of the Ox illustrates the labour of the ministry, the Ox himself must denote the person of the minister: of which, indeed, there can be no doubt, when St. Paul (1 Tim. v. 17, 18.) hath expressly applied the image to those who labour in the word and doctrine. It is the opinion of some ancient Interpreters, that our Saviour himself, in compliance with the figurative language of the Law, sent out his Apostles by two and two, as yokes of oxen; which allusion is also very evidently taken up by St. Paul, where he addresses his fellow-labourer in the ministry under the name of a true yoke-fellow; not so much, perhaps, to illustrate the nature of their service, as to remind him of their mutual love and affection: for these faithful animals contract such an attachment to each other by working together under the same yoke, that they can never well endure a separation.

In the temple of Solomon there was a Sea of Brass, for the purposes of sacred ablution, supported by twelve Oxen; three of which

were placed in such a manner under every quadrant of the Vessel, that their faces were directed to the four quarters of the heaven. As the furniture of the Temple was undoubtedly prophetic in its signification, we see in this compound figure the first Apostles of the Gospel, who were Jews by birth, Ministers by office, and twelve in number, going into all the World, and carrying with them the Laver of Regeneration, to baptize all na

tions.

Now we have proceeded thus far, I think we shall be able to account for a passage in the Prophecy of Isaiah, which seems contradictory to the Law of Moses. The people were forbid to plow with an Ox and an Ass together, with an allusion to which the Apostle warns his disciples not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers: which was the original meaning of the precept, and the moral of it will always hold good. Yet the prophet says, Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the Ox and the Ass. This cannot be accounted for, unless it is taken as a prediction, that the separation between the Jews and Gentiles should

2 Isa. xxxii. 20.

be