REMNANTS OF TIME. 501 Israel might have the same worship as the Jews at Jerusalem, and that the ten tribes might not be inclined to go up to Jerusa- lem to worship, and be in danger of returning to their king Rehoboam again ; for it is hardly to be supposed that Jeroboam should so soon persuade all the ten tribes into such gross idola- try as to worship mere calves, though the scripture calls them so, as usually it does all idols by some word of contempt. This idolatry or worshipping a mere calf would have been too plain and too gross to be imposed upon the people at first, and that so soon after their separation from Judah and Jeru- salem, this being so expressly contrary to the second command, ac Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven, or earth, or the water, &c." Now if we suppose a cherub to be the figure of a winged ox, or any other winged figure with the face and feet of an ox superadded, it will not be the likeness or image of any thing in heaven, earth or water, and consequently Jeroboam might per- suade the people that this was not plainly forbidden ; nay, more, that it was ordered by Moses in the tabernacle, and such figures were in the temple. Let it further added, that when the worship of Baal was introduced into Israel by Ahab, it seems to be a different idol from the calves at Dan and Bethel, and yet it was something a -kin to it. The image of Baal was the image of a heifer as we are told in the first chapter of Tohit, ver. 5. and it is evident that Baal is sometimes in the feminine. See 1 Kings xvi. 31. in the Septuagint ;.1 Kings xix. 18. and the citation of that text in Rom. xi. 4. But if Baal was a common heifer, it is probable these calves of Jeroboam were something different ; for it is plain from many scriptures that Baal was an idol of the Ca- naanites which Ahab worshipped, when both king and people had grown bold in their idolatry : But the calves were designed by Jeroboam for symbols of the presence of Jehovah the God of Israel, and therefore probably they were not common calves, but cherubs, or winged oxen, or a figure near a -kin to those in the temple of Jerusalem. 6. It is further added as another reason, that though the . tribe of Judah imitated Israel in all their other shapes of idolatry, yet they never imitated Jeroboam's calves : Now what reason can be given for this, unless it be because the Jews are supposed to have had the very originals at Jerusalem, that is, the cherubs upon the mercy seat, in the form of flying calves or oxen. These arguments seem to carry great weight with them, yet others have supposed the cherub to be a winged man, because it is described often with one face at least as a map, and also with hands in scripture. Some of the Jews say it is a young man in beauty and vigour, because it has been generally taken for
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