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The third and laft thing prefigured by the tabernacle, is the church, that holy fociety and mystical body of Jefus Chrift, which, in fcripture-file, is the houfe and temple of the living God, in which he dwells and walks. We shall enumerate fome of the mot glaring parallels between them. The tabernacle was planned by the wifdom of God himfelf, who condefcended to adjust the minutest particulars, as the loops, taches, and the pins, and peremptorily required, that all things fhould be done according to the original pattern. And who knows not, that all things in the gofpel-church are planned by the fame unerring wifdom, and how much the fovereign Architect has teftified his difpleasure in every age against the inventions of men in things pertaining to God?"All that I command you, that shall ye do; ye fhall not add, ye shall not diminish*." This is the law, this is the prophets, and this is the doctrine of Christ and his apoftles. The tabernacle was executed by the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft, who rested on Bezaleel and Aholiab, to fit them for this fervice, without whom they were no more capable of it than other men. It was the fame Spirit that defcended on the bleffed apostles, the wife masterbuilders, of the gospel-church, without, which they could not have been qualified for their honourable work. Yea, it is the Holy Ghoft, who, by his common gifts, makes ordinary minifters workmen that need not be ashamed. The tabernacle was compofed of very different materials, as gold, filver, wood, brafs, fcarlet, blue, and purple cloth, fine linen, rams fkins, badgers fkins, and goats hair: yet all thefe different materials, combined by the work

'skill, conduced each in their kind to the beauty and perfection of the ftructure: and the gold could not fay to the brafs, nor the fcarlet to the goats hair, I have no need of yout." So in the fpiritu al houfe, the materials of which it is compofed, that the believers in Jefus Chrift, are men of divers

* Deut. xii. 32. t1 Cor. xii. 21.

nations, different ftations in life, unlike natural tempers, unequal gifts and graces, and various minifters: yet being fitly framed together by the operation of the Holy Ghoft they grow into an holy temple in the Lord. The fymmetry of the ancient tabernacle, the nice conjunction of the boards by mortifes and bars, and of the curtains by loops and taches, were not fo delightful to the eye of the body, as it is plea fant to the eye of the mind to fee brethren dwelling together in unity, perfectly joined together in the fame mind, and in the fame judgment, and carefully endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The tabernacle was covered with many coverings, with fine twined linen, with blue,. purple, and fcarlet, with ram fkins died red, with goats hair, with badgers fkins. By this means it was rendered extremely clofe, and finely protected from the injuries of the weather. May not this recal to our mind the ample protection and fecurity of the gofpel-church from the heat of God's anger, and from all worldly tribulations under the rich, the strong, and the broad purple covering of Immanuel's righteoufnefs? For the Lord is their keeper; the Lord is their shade on their right hand: the fun fhall not fmite them by day, nor the moon by night; the Lord will preferve them from all evil; the Lord will preferve their foul*." The tabernacle was ornamented with gold and filver, and curious embroideries; and though without it was not inelegant, it was, however, moft magnificent within. Even fo, the beauty of the gospel fanctuary does not fo much. ftrike the eye of fenfe, that looks at the outward appearance, as it is obvious to the fpiritual fight, that looks at unfeen things. Would you difcern the true glory of the fpoufe of Jefus Chrift, look not at her face because the fun hath looked upon her: but the king's daughter is all glorious within. The tabernacle was anointed with oil when Mofes confecrated it; and the church has an unction from the holy One. The tabernacle was divided into feveral partitions. Pfal. cxxi. 5, 6, 7.

The outward court might denote the visible church; the holy place is an emblem of the church invisible; and the holiest of all reprefents the church-triumphant in glory, to which none are admitted but the royal priesthood. By baptifm we enter into the first, by regeneration into the fecond, and by death into the third. O death, it is thine to pull afide the vail of mortality that interpofes between the holy and the moft holy place! Happy they who enter by faith, and not by a vifible profeffion only, into his fanctuary, which he has fanctified for evermore. For as there was no poflibility of coming at the holiest of all, but by paffing through the holy place; even fo it is impoffible, if we are not now partakers of his holiness, to be hereafter fharers of his glory.

III. The Temple of Solomon.

HE fecond and last material habitation of JEнOThen was the temple, which Solomon, that magnificent monarch, reared upon the hill Moriah in Jerufa lem, the metropolis of his kingdom,'to the honour of the God of Ifrael. The plan of it was dictated by the Spirit unto his father David, who was prohibited from executing it himself, becaufe of the bloody wars he had waged in the courfe of his life. The workmen were partly Ifraelites, and partly Gentiles of Tyre. The materials were the best trees, the most precious metals, and large hewn ftones, prepared and fitted for one another before they were laid upon the foundation, that the noife of axes and hammers might not be heard as the building rofe *. The ftructure itself was fixty cubits long, twenty broad, and thirty cubits high, and, like the tabernacle, confifted of two apartments, the holy, and moft holy place, or oracle. You entered this temple on the east by a stately porch, which was higher than the edifice itfelf by ninety cubits, and may be confidered as the steeple of that facred palace. The length of this porch was equal to the breadth of the princi pal houfe, and the breadth was the half of that length. I Kings vii. 7.

*

Here ftood the two famous brazen pillars, whofe names were Jachin and Boas, that is, ftability and ftrength though they were placed there, not for the fupport, but for the ornament of the house. Two open courts furrounded the whole fabric, and fide chambers were built round about against the wall. A row of narrow windows that floped within, illu minated the dome. The ftrength and beauty of God's fanctuary were the main things that diftinguished this finished piece of architecture: for the dimensions were far from being wide, but it was fupported by a ftrong foundation of large and coftly ftones, and ornamented within in the moft fplendid manner, with planks of cedar, plates of gold, glittering diamonds, and figures of palm-trees and cherubims.

This

was that holy and beautiful houfe which the Chaldeans were permitted to demolish for the first time, and the Romans for the fecond time, a thousand years after the first foundation was laid. Seventeen hundred years have now elapfed fince the final defolation of this folemn temple, which never more shall rife beneath the builder's hand: for it is the will of God, that in every place, and not in Jerufalem alone, he fhould be worshipped in fpirit and in truth.

As the temple of Solomon was built for the fame end with the tabernacle of Mofes, without all doubt the typical meaning of the one and of the other was alfo the fame. Was the tabernacle a figure of hea- ven, of Christ, and of the church? So alfo was the temple, it was a figure of heaven, the glorious habitation of God and angels, where the righteousflourish like the palm trees that were carved on the walls, ferve him continually, like the priests that entered into the fanctuary ;-and go no more out, being established for ever like the pillars that graced the porch of that holy place. And as the ftones which Solomon ufed were all hewn and prepared before they were brought there; fo all the ftones of the celeftial houfe, or the members of the triumphant church, are alfo prepared unto glory. Now is the time when their natural roughness and afperity is

taken away by the fkilful operations of the divine Spirit, and the various afflictions of this life, which exercise them in this vale of tears, that they may reft for ever and ever in the calm regions of everlasting peace, where no jarring found is heard, any more than there was of axes and hammers in the building of the temple. It was alfo a figure of the humanity of the Meffial, who fpake of the temple of his body, when he faid, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it up.". -But, without refuming what has been already hinted on this head, let us only further observe, that the temple was equally as the tabernacle, a figure of that holy fociety the church, which is his body, whether we confider the plan, the materials, the workmen, or the building itself.

The plan of the temple was defigned by God no lefs than that of the tabernacle. Nor could any wifdom inferior to divine have adjusted the model of the fpiritual houfe, which the angels themfelves admire. The materials were prepared, and the ftones fitted to one another, before they were compacted together, fo that noify tools were wholly unneceflary as the building arofe. An expreffive emblem this, of that peaceful harmony which ought to reign among the builders of the church as they carry on this holy work, and which would be easily attained, if none but polifhed lively ftones, as perfons duly qualified, were admitted to become a part of the fabric. The workmen were Gentiles of Tyre, as well as Ifraelites. Was not this a prelude of the future vocation of the Gentiles, that even the fons of the strangers, and of thofe that are afar off, fhould bear a part in building the walls of the gospel-church.

Chiefly let us confider the building itself. It was fupported by a strong foundation. What fhould this be in the antitype but Jefus Chrift, the foundation which God hath laid in Zion, on which all the apoftles and prophets have built themfelves and others from the beginning of the world, and to which alone John ii. 19.

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