WHEEL. In Scripture frequent mention is made of the Wheels of Chariots of War, of Chariots used in threshing Corn, and lastly of the Wheels of the Chariot of the Lord, which appeared to Ezekiel, and to Daniel. Ezek. i. 15, 16, &c. Dan. vii. 9.These were of a wonderful Magnitude, Beauty, and
- Splendor, as may be seen in the Description made of them by those Prophets. Ezekiel says, that they were living and animated: Spiritus vitæ erat in rotis. That they were full of Eyes, or inlaid with precious Stones and Jewels, that glistered like Eyes: And that they were made as if one Wheel were in another Wheel: Et quos earum, quasi sit rota in medio rotæ. Whether the Wheels are to be conceived one within another, as a smaller is within a larger, or that both were of the same Bigness, and crossing at Right Angles, so as to make a Wheel that might move every way. See the Article CHERUBIM.
The violent and precipitate Wheel of the Wicked, is represented in Scripture, under the Idea of a Wheel that turns with great Impetuosity. Deus meus, pone illos ut rotam, & sicut stipulam ante faciem venti. And in Samuel, The Souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle Psalm lxxxii. 14. 1 Sam. xxv. 29. Psalm lxxvi. 17.of a sling. When the Psalmist describes the Destruction of Pharaoh and his Army, at their Passage into the Red Sea, he says, that the Arrows of the Lord, or his Lightning, were darted forth, and that the Voice of his Thunder broke out, to overthrow the Wheels of the Egyptians: Vox tonitrui tui in rotâ.
Eccles. xii. 6. James iii. 6. Vulg.Solomon, in an enigmatical Manner describing the Effects of old Age, says, The Wheel, shall be broken at the Cistern. This may be understood of the natural Passage of the Urine, and the Organ of Generation, which then loseth its Strength. St. James says, that the Tongue sets fire to the Wheel or Course of Nature, or of our Life. All our Life may be justly compared to a Wheel, because of its Inconstancy and Volubility. And the Tongue creates abundance of Sin and Misery in Life.