f which would have made Adam
immortal; a divine gift lay hid in an outward form. The prophet
Ezekiel speaks of it afterwards in the following words, showing that a
similar blessing was in store for the redeemed;--"By the river, upon
the bank thereof, on this side, and on that side, shall grow all trees
for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be
consumed. It shall bring forth new fruits according to his months,
because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit
thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine[7]." Like
to which is St. John's account of the tree of life, "which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations[8]." And hence we read in
the Canticles of the apple-tree, and of sitting down under its shadow,
and its fruit being sweet to the taste. Here then in type is signified
the sacred gift of which I am speaking; and yet it has not seemed good
to the gracious Giver literally to select fruit or leaves as the means
of His invisible blessings. He might have spiritually fed us with
such, had He pleased--for man liveth not by bread only, but by the word
of His mouth. His Word might have made the fruit of the tree His
Sacrament, but He has willed otherwise.

The next selection of gifts of the earth which we find in Scripture, is
the very one which He at length fixed on, bread and wine, as in the
history of Melchizedek; and there the record stands as a prophecy of
what was to be: for who is Melchizedek but our Lord and Saviour, and
what is the Bread and Wine but the very feast which He has ordained?

Next the great gift was shadowed out in the description of the promised
land, which was said to flow with milk and honey, and in all those
other precious things of nature which I have already recounted as
belonging to the promised land, oil, butter, corn, wine, and the like.
These all may be considered to refer to the Gospel feast typically,
because they were the rarest and most exquisite of the blessings given
to the Jews, as the Gospel Feast is the most choice and most sacred of
all the blessings given to us Christians; and what is most precious
under the one Dispensation is signified by what is most precious under
the other.

Now let us proceed to the Prophets, and we shall find the like
anticipation of the Gospel Feast.

For instance, you recollect, the prophet Hose