564 REMNANTS or TIME. Solomon's ten lavers for the temple had their several bases adorned in the border between the ledges with lions, oxen and cherubs, 1 Kings vii. 29. so that here'a cherub seetns to be men- tioned instead of the face of a man, and to be distinguished from an ox, though in Ezekiel's vision chap. i. and x. the face of a cherub is plainly the same with the face of an ox. Yet on the plàtes of the ledges were cherubims, lions, and palm -trees ; 1 Kings vii. 30. where neither the face of an ox or man is men- tioned. Perhaps these differences may be in some measure reconciled if we observe that these cherubs which adorned the walls of Eze- kiel's visionary temple, and of Solomon's real temple, and the borders of the brazen lavers, are only graven or carved upon the flat or plane, or at least with some little protuberance above the flat, which the Italians call Basso Relievo : And then that figure which would have had all four faces visible if it had stood forth by itself as a real animal, or a statue, namely, that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, can have but two faces visible, or three at the most, when figured upon a plain or flat surface; the other one or two being hid behind : And thus the cherubs may be in all these places the same four - faced animals, and yet only two or three of their faces appear according to their designed situation and the art of perspective. And perhaps Solomon might diver -' sify these figures for the sake of variety in different parts of these sacred works*. Upon the whole, what if we should conclude a cherub to be most usually figured with a body like a man with four wings, two whereof are stretched for flight, and two covering the lower parts ; with the feet of an ox or calf ; with the head of a man or an ox, whatever other faces were joined to it whether lions' or eagles, or whether it had any other face or no. It is more likely ,there was but one sort of face belonged to eaoh of the two cherubs on the mercy -seat, because it is said, their faces looked toward one another, but whether this was the face of an ox or a man is not yet absolutely determined. I think we may allow Jeroboam to be supposed to imitate these cherubs which were on the mercy -seat in his idolatrous worship ; and though they had the perfect shape of a calf, yet they might be called calves in scripture language, by way of re- proach and contempt, because they had the feet of a calf, if not the head also. a It is the opinion of some learned men that Ezekiel's temple was but a kind of a repetition of the pattern of the same people whichGod gave to David, and by which Solomon built his temple. And that this pattern was given to Eze- kiel that he might shew it to the Jews, if they were pious and obedient, to ani- ma'e them to hope for another temple in their own land, and instruct them in the building of it when they should be released fromBabylon ; Ezek. xl. 4. and alai. 10. Il. since ft wassupposed none remained who could remember to much of their old temple as to give particular directions for the building of it.
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