498 REMNANTS OE TIME. If we consult the derivation of the word it seems to come from 1 -17 Charab, which in the Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic languages signifies ' to plow,' which is the known work of oxen. This favours the sentiment of those who describe it as a flying ox. Others tell us that 1ri7 cherub,, in Arabic is ' a ship that caries merchandise,' and that a cherub is a chariot of God, ap- pointed to carry the Shecinah, or bright glory, which is the symbol of God's presence ; and therefore God is said to ride upon a cherub. Psalm xviii. 11. 1ri7 53/ t' jirchab al cherub, he rode on a cherub: and Psalm civ. 3. it is said he rnaketh the clouds his chariot, mnii rechub, so that by the transposition of a letter, which is frequent with the Hebrews it seems to signify a chariot': and in 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. cherubs upon the ark are called ' the chariots of the cherubims,' and the whole figure in Ezekiel's vision had wheels all about it as a chariot, and yet it is sometimes called the cherub in the singular and sometimes cherubim or cherubs. . All this is true; but in a chariot there are generally some animals represented as moving, drawing or carrying it. And though in Ezekiel's vision it is a living or animated chariot with living wheels which had the spirit of the animals in them ; Ezek. i. 20. yet there are winged animals to move it, or to move with it. The whole is composed of four living creatures which had faces and wings, and feet and hands, joined together in a living machine with wheels, and the God of glory rode upon it. But let us proceed and consider several scriptures more particularly and in order. The first place where we find the name mentioned is Gen. iii. ult. " God placed cherubs and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life." This does not seem to mean a chariot or chariots, but living creatures ; if they were in the shape of men, then a flaming sword is waving in their hands. If in the form of flying oxen, then with flames about them, flashing out like a sword from their eyes, nostrils or mouth. Perhaps the brazen - footed bulls breathing out flames which guarded the golden fleece in Coichos, may be derived hence by the fabulous Greeks. Adamanteis Vulcanum naribus efflant ". ripides Tauri." Ovid. Or, as the Greeks were went to compound and divide stories at pleasure, these bulls might keep the gardens of the Hesperides where golden apples grew, that is, by the fabling inter pretation, the fruit of the tree of life ; though generally I confess a dragon is made the guardian of them, which wild fable might arise from the serpent being there ; Gen. iii. 1. for stories taken from the bible are variously mangled and confounded by the heathens.
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