In the Sentence past upon _Adam_, there is one Clause that seems to corroborate this Hypothesis; for, upon the Expulsion of our first Parents ... the Gates of _Eden_ were guarded by a _Cherub_ (to prevent their re-entrance) which, by the _Jews_, was esteem’d a _second Angel_, and may be aptly imagin’d to be a _Seraph_, or an Angel in the Form of a flying Serpent, whose Body vibrated in the Air, with a peculiar Resplendency, and may be fitly describ’d by the Image of such a Sword. ’Tis said, _God drove out the Man, and placed at the East-end of the Garden of Eden, Cherubims and a flaming Sword, which turned every way, to keep the Way of the Tree of Life_, Gen. iii. _ult._ God made Angels Guardians of Paradise, and a sparkling Fire, like a flaming Sword; says the _Arabick_ Version. But why may not this Text bear an Interpretation pregnant with good Tidings, as an Explication of the Promise made to the Woman, that is, an Instruction to our first Parents how to worship God after the Fall, namely by Sacrifice, which was to be offer’d by them before the _Cherubims_ (erected over the Gates of Paradise) as Sacrifices afterwards were before the _Cherubims_ in the _Tabernacle_ and _Temple_, or, as the _Hebrew_, before the _Faces of Jehovah_? The _flaming Sword and the Cherubims_, might be Emblems or Figures of some things to be observed in the Form of Worship design’d for that new Dispensation. The _fiery Sword_ being a killing Weapon, might represent irritated Justice; and _Cherubims_ being the Inhabitation of the Deity in the Tabernacle and Temple, might be an Emblem of Mercy, to which the Sacrifices were offer’d: and may not Cherubims be so construed here? _N. B._ May we not date the first Institution of Sacrifice here, which soon appear’d in the History of _Cain_ and _Abel_? God might address our first Parents after this manner; View these wonderful Sights over the Gate, behold in them the Scheme of Salvation! The Text thus interpreted, gives the Tempter a fresh Mortification, to see his bloody Design defeated, and our first Parents restored to Favour at the Gate of _Eden_, in which he had triumph’d over them; and that which encreased his Vexation was, to see this done by _Christ_, the promised Seed, one of the human Race. In the Tabernacle and Temple there were no Representations of God, but only emblematical Figures erected over the Mercy-Seat, called the Cherubims; in, or between them, the _Deity_ is said _to dwell_; and the Law obliged the _Jews_ to bring the Blood of the Sacrifice _before the Face of God_ in the Cherubims, that is, within the Vail, on the Day of Expiation: and here God might direct our first Parents to bring their Sacrifices to him, who was in a special manner present in the Cherubims over the Gate.