Ver. 4. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious,

5. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

THE spring of all the dignities of a Christian, which is therefore the great motive of all his duties, is, his near relation to Jesus Christ. Hence it is, that the apostle makes that the great subject of his doctrine, both to represent to his distressed brethren their dignity, and to press by it the necessary duties he exhorts unto. Having spoken of their spiritual life and growth in him under the resemblance of natural life, he prosecutes it here by another comparison very frequent in the scriptures, and therefore makes use in it of some passages of those scriptures, that were prophetical of Christ and his church. Though there be here two different similitudes, yet they have so near a relation one to another, that he joins them together, and then illustrates them severally in the following verses-a temple and a priesthood.

I. A spiritual house. We have here, 1. the nature of the building; 2. the materials of it; 3. the structure or way of building it.

1. The nature of it; it is a spiritual building. Time and, place, we know, received their being from God, and he was eternally before both; he is therefore styled by the prophet, The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. But having made the world, he fills it, though not as contained in it, and so the whole frame of it is his palace or temple, but, after a more special manner, the higher and statelier part of it, the highest heaven; therefore it is called his holy place, and the habitation of his holiness. and glory. On earth the houses of his public worship are called his houses. But besides all these and beyond them all in excellency, he hath a house wherein he dwells more peculiarly than in any of the rest, and that is this spiritual building. And this is most suitable to

the nature of God. As our Saviour says of the necessary conformity of his worship to himself, God is a Spirit, and therefore will be worshipped in spirit and in truth, so he must have a spiritual house because he is a Spirit. Therefore God's temple is his people.

And for this purpose chiefly did he make the world, the heaven and the earth, that in it he might raise this spiritual building for himself to dwell in for ever, to have a number of his reasonable creatures to enjoy him and glorify him in eternity. And from eternity he knew what the dimensions, and frame, and materials of it should be. The continuance of this present world, as now it is, is but for the service of this work, like the scaffolding about it; and therefore when this spiritual building shall be fully completed, all the present frame of things in the world and in the church itself shall be taken away and appear no more.

This building is, as the particular designation of its materials will teach us, the whole invisible church of God, and each good man is a stone of this building. Each of these stones is called a whole temple, a temple of the Holy Ghost; though, taking the temple or building in a completer sense, they are but each one a part or a stone of it, as here it is expressed.

This spiritual house is the palace of the great King, or his temple. The Hebrew word for palace and temple is one. God's temple is a palace, and therefore must be full of the richest beauty and magnificence, but such as agrees with the nature of it, a spiritual beauty. In that psalm that wishes so many prosperities, one is, that their daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace, Psal. cxliv, 12. Such is the Church; but her comeliness is invisible to the world, she is all glorious within. Through sorrows and perse- · cutions, she may be smoky and black to the world's eye, as the tents of Kedar, but in regard of spiritual beauty, she is comely as the curtains of Solomon. And in this the Jewish temple resembles it aright, which had most of its riches and beauty in the inside. Holiness is the gold of this spiritual house, and it is inwardly enriched with that. The glory of the church of God consists not in stately buildings of temples, and rich furniture, and

pompous ceremonies; these agree not with its spiritual nature. Its true and genuine beauty is, to grow in spirituality, and so to be liker itself, and to have more of the presence of God, and his glory filling it as a cloud. And it hath been observed, that the more the Church grew in outward riches and state, the less she grew or rather the more sensibly she abated in spiritual excellen

cies.

2. But the spiritualness of this building will better ap-: pear in considering the materials of it, as here expressed: To whom coming, ye also, as lively stones are built up, Now the whole building is Christ mystical, Christ, together with the entire body of the elect: he as the foundation, and they as the stones built upon him; he the living stone, and they likewise, by union with him, living stones; He having life in himself, and they deriving it from him. When the church is said, Ephes. ii, 20, to be built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, it only refers to their doctrine concerning Christ; and therefore it is added, that he, as being the subject of their doctrine, is the chief corner-stone. The foundation then of the church lies in heaven, and therefore is out of the reach of all enemies, and above the power of the gates of hell. Fear not then when you see: the storms arise and the winds blow against this spiritual building, for it shall stand; it is built upon an invisible, . immovable rock.

But this foundation-stone, as it is commended by its quality, that it is a living and enlivening stone, having life and giving life to those that are built on it, so it is also further described by God's choosing it, and by its own worth; it is said to be chosen of God and precious.. God did indeed from eternity contrive this building and choose this same foundation, and accordingly in the fulness of time did perform his purpose. In Sion, in Jerusalem, he actually employed Jesus Christ in the work. of our redemption. He alone was fit for the work. It was utterly impossible that any other should bear the weight of that service than he who was almighty. Yet he was rejected of men. There is an antipathy betwixt the mind of God and corrupt nature: the things that are highly esteemed with men, are abomination to God ;.

and thus we see here, that which is highly esteemed with God is cast out and disallowed by men. But the choosing of God stands; and by that, (judge men of Christ as they will) he is the foundation of this building. And he is in true value answerable to this esteem: he is precious. This seems to signify a kind of inward worth, hidden from the eyes of men, blind unbelieving men, but well known to God, and to those to whom he reveals him. And this is the very cause of his rejection by men, the ignorance of his worth and excellency; as a precious stone that the skilful lapidary esteems of great value, an ignorant beholder makes little or no account of.

These things hold likewise in the other stones of this building; they too are chosen, hewed out and severed by God's own hand, out of the quarry of corrupt nature; dead stones in themselves, as the rest, but made living, by his bringing them to Christ, and so made truly pcious, and accounted precious by him who hath made them So. All the stones in this building are called God's jewels, Mal. iii, 17. Though they be vilified, and scoffed at, and despised by men; though they pass for fools and the refuse of the world, yet they may easily digest all, if they are chosen of God and precious in his eyes. This is the very lot of Christ, and therefore the more welcome on this account, that it conforms them to him, that it suits these stones to their foundation.

And if we consider it aright, what a poor despicable thing is the esteem of men! How soon is it past! God often chooses for this building, such stones as men cast away as good for nothing; 1 Cor. i, 26. And where he sayś, Isa. Ivii, 15., that he dwells in the high and holy place, what is his other dwelling, his habitation on earth? Is it in great palaces and courts? No; but with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Now, these are the basest in men's account; yet he chooses them, and prefers them to all other palaces and temples. Isa. lxvi. 1, 2. 3. We have the structure or way of building, To whom coming. First coming, then built up. They that come unto Christ, come not only out of the world that lieth in wickedness, but out of themselves. Of a great many' that seem to come to Christ, it may be said, that they

are not come to him, because they have not left themselves. Believing on him is the very resigning of the soul to Christ and living by him. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life, says Christ. He complains of it as a wrong done to him; but the loss is ours. It is his glory to give us life who were dead, but it is our happiness to receive that life from him. Now these stones come unto their foundation; which imports the moving of the soul to Christ, being moved by his Spirit, and that the will acts and willingly, for it cannot act otherwise, but still as being actuated and drawn by the Father; No man can come to me except the Father draw him. And the outward means of drawing is, by the word. It is the sound of that harp, that brings the stones of this spiritual building together. And then, being united to Christ, they are built up; that is, as St. Pauo expresses it, they grow up unto a holy temple in the Lord.

In times of peace, the church may dilate more and build as it were into breadth, but in times of trouble, it arises more in height; it is then built upwards; as in cities where men are straitened, they build usually higher than in the country. Notwithstanding the church's afflictions, yet the building is still going forward. It is built, as Daniel speaks of Jerusalem, in troublous times. And it is this which the apostle intends, as suiting with his foregoing exhortation. This passage may be read exhortatively too; but taking it rather as asserting their condition, it is for this end, that they may remember to be like it and grow up. For this end he expressly calls them living stones; an adjunct not usual for stones, but here inseparable; and therefore, though the apostle changes the similitude from infants to stones, yet he will not let go this quality of living, as making chiefly for his purpose.

To teach us the necessity of growth in believers, they are often compared to things that grow; to trees planted in fruitful growing places, as by the rivers of water; to cedars in Lebanon, where they are tallest; to the morning light; to infants on the breast; and here, where the word seems to refuse it, to stones-they are called living and growing stones.