mention is made of SITTING in darkness, Isaiah xlii. 7.; of SITTING in the assembly, and SITTING alone, Jer. xv. 17.; of SITTING at the right hand and on the left, Matt. xx. 21.; of SITTING on the right hand of power, Matt. xxvi. 64.; Mark xvi. 19.; speaking of the LORD.
Will you permit me then again to ask, what you conceive to be the proper interpretation of the term SITTING, as adopted in the above passages? Doth it relate to a bodily posture, or to a mental state? In other words, is there not sufficient reason to conclude, that the bodily posture of sitting, like that of standing, and like the operations of five bodily senses, spoken of in a former letter, is applied figuratively and significantly in the vocabulary of the ALMIGHTY, to denote the permanency of some spiritual purpose, rather than repose from corporeal labour? For, according to any other construction of the above passages, why should it be said of the children of Israel and all the people, that they wept and SAT before the LORD, when one would rather have supposed, that their sorrow would have inclined them to prostrate their bodies in the deepest humiliation and supplication? Why, again, should the Psalmist exclaim, O LORD, Thou knowest my DOWN-SITTING and mine up-rising, if by down-sitting he had meant nothing else but his sitting on a chair?
