tions, that signify nothing. Its very fundamental powers are shaken and disjointed, and their order towards one another confounded and broken: so that what is judged considerable is not considered, what is recommended as eligible and lovely is not loved and chosen. Yea, the truth which is after godliness is not so much disbelieved, as hated, held in unrighteousness; and shines as too feeble a light in that malignant darkness which comprehends it not. You come amidst all this confusion, as into the ruined palace of some great prince, in which you see here the fragments of a noble pillar, there the shattered pieces of some curious imagery, and all lying neglected and useless among heaps of dirt. He that invites you to take a view of the soul of man, gives you but such another prospect, and doth but say to you," Behold the desolation;" all things rude and waste. So that should there be any pretence to the Divine presence, it might be said, If God be here, why is it thus? The faded glory, the darkness, the disorder, the impurity, the decayed state in all respects of this temple, too plainly show the great inhabitant is gone. X. 2. And what was so manifest a sign of God's absence, was also a most righteous cause: for who have committed these great wastes, and made this temple uninhabitable, but men themselves? And what could be more injurious to the holy God, than to invade and profane his temple? Or for what could we suppose him to show more jealousy and concern? Whoever were a God, one would expect he should plead for himself, when men have cast down his altar. No words can express the greatness of the indignity! For do but take the following state of the case, thus: Man was his own creature, raised out of nothing by his mighty and most arbitrary hand; it was in his power and choice, whether ever he should have being, any, or none, another, or this, of so noble an order and kind. The designation was most apt, of so excellent a creature to this office and use, to be immediately sacred to himself, and his own converse; his temple and habitation, the mansion and residence of his presence and indwelling glory! There was nothing whereto he was herein designed, whereof his nature was not capable. His soul was, after the required manner, receptive of a deity; its powers were competent to their appointed work and employment; it could entertain God by knowledge and contemplation of his glorious excellences, by reverence and love, by adoration and praise. This was the highest kind of dignity whereto created nature could be raised, the most honourable state. How high and quick an advance! This moment, nothing, the next, a being capable and full of God! It was a most delectable 'and pleasant state, to be separated to the entertainment of the Divine presence; that as soon as man could first open his eyes, and behold the light and glory of this new-made world, the great Lord and Author of it should present himself, and say, "Thou shalt be mine." How grateful a welcome into being! "Thee, above all my works, which thou beholdest, I choose out for myself. Thine employment shall be no laborious, painful drudgery; unless it can be painful to receive the large communications of immense goodness, light, life, and love, that shall, of their own accord, be perpetually flowing in upon thee! Whatsoever thou, espiest besides, that is even most excellent and pleasant to thy sense, is yet inferior to thee, and insufficient for thy satisfaction and highest delight, and but the faint shadow of that substantial fulness, which I myself will be unto thee." There was, in all this, the freest and most condescending vouchsafement; no necessity could urge the self-sufficient Good to affect union and familiarity with its own creature. Man's alienation of himself from God, was as entirely voluntary, nothing could force him to it; he could have no inducement, which it was not easy to resist; heaven and earth could not afford the matter of a regardable temptation, to withdraw him from what did so infinitely excel. But how mean things have become the tempting and prevailing objects! the momentary relishes of a merely sensual delight, that might have been had innocent and t Sencc. de Tranquill, pure, without breaking the enclosure. Ravenous appetite, lust after forbidden pleasure, is impatient of restraint: reason, that should have restrained it, resigns its office, falls into a treacherous combination with usurping sense, chooses rather to obey than rule, to rebel than obey; for not to rule, being thereto enjoined by the supreme Ruler, was to rebel. The empire of rebellious appetite was reckoned more tolerable than God's: thus are his authority affronted and his goodness despised both at once. He is rejected both as ruler and benefactor, with equal disrespect to his majesty and grace, to his governing and his heartdelighting presence. And how ignominious, hereupon, is the rejection, when so vile things are chosen and preferred! The tyranny of lust, before his holy, reasonable, orderly government; the pleasures of sin, rather than those of the divine presence: this being the practical, decisive judgment given in the case, that these are better. 'Tis better be the meanest drudge and slave than his servant, and feed upon husks or ashes than his pure and most satisfying communications. And what he chose to be, he is; i. e. with the indignity done to God, he hath joined the vilest debasement of himself. For hence, also, how loathsome a creature is he now become! How perverted in all his powers! How full of darkness, confusion, impurity, malignity, and venom! How universally and horridly deformed! And hereof an estimate may be made, from his unaptness to self-reflection; which how notorious is it! What doth he not rather choose to do with his thoughts, than turn them inward? And how unfit is he for divine converse, that cannot endure his own; or to associate with God, that is become too foul a creature to have any satisfying converse with himself! Now what could be expected to ensue upon all this, but that he should be forsaken of God; that the blessed presence be withdrawn, that had been so despitefully slighted, to return no more? No more, till at least a recompense should be made him for the wrong done, and a capacity be recovered for his future converse: viz. till both his honour should be repaired, and his temple; till he might again honourably return, and be fitly received. But who could have thought in what way these things should ever be brought to pass? i. e. neither could his departure but be expected, nor his return but be above all expectation. To depart was what became him; a thing, as the case was, most God-like, or worthy of God, and what he owed to himself. It was meet so great a Majesty, having been so condescendingly gracious, should not be also cheap, to appear unapprehensive of being neglected and set at nought. It became him, as the self-sufficient Being, to let it be seen he designed not man his temple for want of a house; that having of old inhabited his own eternity, and having now the heavens for his throne, the earth his footstool, he could dwell alone, or where he pleased else, in all his great creation; and did not need, where he was not desired. That of the Cynic was thought a brave saying, when his malcontented servant turned fugitive, and left him-“ It were an unworthy thing Manes should think he can live without Diogenes, and that Diogenes cannot without Manes." How much better would it suit with the real self-fulness of a Deity, where nothing of this kind can look like an empty, hollow boast! It was becoming of his pure and glorious holiness, not to dwell amidst impurities, or let it be thought he was a God that took pleasure in wickedness; and most suitable to his equal justice to let them who said to him, "Depart from us," feel they spake that word against their own life and soul; and that what was their rash and wilful choice, is their heaviest doom and punishment. It was only strange, that when he left his temple he did not consume it; and that not leaving it without being basely expulsed, he hath thought of returning without being invited back again. Yea, and that whatsoever was necessary thereto, is designed by his own so strange contrivance, and done at his own so dear expense his only-begotten Son most freely consenting with him, and in sundry capacities sustaining the weight and burthen of this great undertaking. CHAPTER V. The restitution of this temple undertaken by the Emmanuel; First, more darkly prefigured; afterward, more clearly manifested. This constitution of Emmanuel sufficient. Necessary for this purpose. That he was himself to be the platform, the foundation, and the founder of it. The original Temple. And was, in order hereto, also a sacrifice; to procure that God might honourably, and without wrong to his governing justice, return, and have his abode with men. And that they might become prepared to receive his returning preon the account of this sacrifice. That when God is, for the sake of it, willing; sence. For which purpose he hath in him the power of giving the Holy Spirit, we might no longer remain unwilling. That unwillingness to be overcome by the power and spirit of Emmanuel: as hereafter to be more fully shown But working (suitably to an intelligent subject) in a rational way. To which strating divine love, and holiness. In its loveliness. Possibility of being a great accommodateness, in the constitution of Emmanuel. As demon attained. AND indeed, what was to be designed and done, did every way call for so great an undertaker. The indignity offered to the majesty of the most high God, in his so ignominious expulsion from his own temple, was to be recompensed; and the ruin must be repaired which had befallen his temple itself. I. In reference to both these performances, it was determined Emmanuel, i. e. his own Son, his substantial Image, the Brightness of his glory, the eternal Word, should become incarnate; and being so, should undertake several parts, and in distinct capacities, and be at once a single Temple himself, and that this temple should be also a sacrifice, and thereby give rise to a manifold temple conformed to that original one, of each whereof, in the virtue of that sacrifice, he was himself to be the glorious Pattern, the firm Foundation, the magnificent Founder, and the most curious Architect and Former, by his own various and most peculiar influence. only not to answer the true intent and use of a temple, but to frustrate and elude it, III. When this was the state of things with this world, and the fulness of time was now come, wherein God intended, with more vigour and efficacy, to renew and reinforce his mighty and merciful work of setting up his temple, and to make it rise in splendour and glory in the world, he at length sends down his Son: he puts on man; beMan inhabited by all the fulness of God. This Man was, comes Emmanuel; an incarnate God among men; and a therefore, a most perfect Temple; the original one: i. e. not only a single one himself, but an exemplary Temple, to which all other were to be conformed; the advantage whereof to the forming of more we shall see hereafter: whereby he was also a virtual one, from which life and influence was to be transfused to raise and form all others. But in order to its being so, this very temple must become a sacrifice; and by dying, multiply: a seminal temple, as we shall hereafter show, and as he himself represents the matter. John xii. 24. And which is in the full sense of it said, 1 Pet. ii. where, when we were first told, (v. 4, 5.) we must come to him as unto a living stone, and as lively stones be built up a spiritual house; we are further told, (v. 24.) that he himself bare our sins is his own body on the tree, (where he was offered as a sacrifice,) that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness. For now, a temple being, in its proper use and design, intended for divine honour, could not have its foundation in the ruin thereof, or be built upon his unremedied dishonour: the Son of God, by tendering himself for a valuable recompense, must be the Corner-stone of this new building. The wrong that man had done to the divine majesty should be expiated by none but man, and could be by none but God. Behold then the wonderful conjunction of both in the one Emmanuel! who was, by his very constitution, an actual Temple; "God with us;" the habitation of the II. That the blessed God hath laid the platform and Deity returned, and resettling itself with men; and fitted the foundations of his temple, as it was to be restored and to be (what it must be also) a most acceptable sacrifice, set up again among men, in and by that great Emmanuel, For here were met together man that could die, and God his own Son made flesh. It is to be considered that (as that could overcome death; man, that might suffer, and hath been shown) the world had a long time lain deluged God, that could give sufficient value to those sufferings; with wickedness, sunk in sensuality, and a deep oblivion sufficient to atone the offended Majesty, and procure that of God; his memorial was even lost among men, and no- life might be diffused, and spread itself to all that should thing less thought of than a temple in the true design and unite with him; whereby they might become living stones, meaning of it; the notices of God, and any inclination to joined to that living Corner-stone; a spiritual temple, religion that remained, (too deeply infixed into the mind again capable of that divine presence which they had forand nature of men to be quite extinct,) were yet so faint feited, and whereof they were forsaken. and weak, carnal and terrene propensions so strong, that the vital religion which was the proper business of a living temple, could have no place. It was not only so in the pagan worlds, from which God had further withdrawn himself, but even with that select people to whom he vouchsafed more peculiar manifestations and symbols of his mind and presence. This hath been the result of the divine counsel, and the Lord's own doing, most justly marvellous in our eyes, viz. (which we are next to consider.) They had a figurative temple by his own appointment, erected in much glory among them, that might have instructed them, and by degrees the rest of the world, if they would have understood its true meaning and signification, that God was yet willing to dwell with men on earth, and that it should be a "house of prayer for all nations," who ought, upon those glorious appearances of God among that people, to have gradually proselyted themselves unto them. It prefigured what he intended, viz. in his appointed season, by his own Son to descend and inhabit, make and constitute him a much more glorious temple than could be built of wood or stone, or by the hands of men: that in after-time "Shiloh should come, unto whom the gathering of the people should be," and by whom he would reconcile and re-collect the apostate world back again to himself. But all this was an unintelligible mystery on all hands; entered not into the minds of men of either sort, but much less into their hearts; and the Jews did much more affect to paganize, and go further off from God, than the pagans (which in this they ought) to judaize, and draw nearer to him. The natural sentiments of religion, which were common to all men, did run out only | into mere external observances and empty (though somewhat different) formalities, that might well enough agree with a sensual life, transacted in habitual estrangement from God, and as without him in the world; so as not There was That all this may be the better understood, we shall endeavour to show, more distinctly, 1. The sufficiency and aptness of the constitution and appointment of Emmanuel, (considering what he was, and what was undertaken to be suffered and performed by him,) as the most proper and adequate means for the restoring of God's temple with men. 2. The necessity of this course for this end. 1. And for the former, the aptness and sufficiency of this course, or what the setting up of Emmanuel might do for this purpose, may be seen in the suitableness hereof to the foregoing state of the case, and by comparing therewith what he is, and hath done and suffered in order hereto. We have seen that the former desolate state of this temple was occasioned and inferred by man's apostacy, (whereby he became incapable of serving any longer the purposes of a temple, and God's departure thereupon. therefore the concurrence of somewhat on man's part, and somewhat on God's, unto this desolation; on man's, what was unjust, leading, and casual; on God's what was most just, consequent, and caused thereby; man's unrighteous and ill-deserving aversion from God, and God's most righteous and deserved aversion hereupon from him: the one caused by the other, but both causing in different kinds the vacancy and deserted state of this temple which ensued; the former as a sinning cause, the latter as a punishing. Now what we have considerable in the Emmanuel towards the restoration of this temple, and that it might become again habitable and replenished by the Divine presence as before, is answerable to this state of the case; and directly tending to compose things between the distanced parties, both on the one part and the other. And because God was to have the first and leading part in reconciliations, as man hath in disagreements, we have enough in him, whereupon-God might express himself and actual or ascertained oblation of that above-mentioned willing to rebuild and return to his former dwelling; sacrifice: for when he forsook this his temple, he left it and man be willing to render it back to him, and admit with just resentment, and his most righteous curse upon the operation of the fashioning hand whereby it is to be it-a curse that was of this import, "Never any thing holy prepared and refitted for its proper use. or pure any more come here, or any thing good and pleasant. The light of the sun never shine any more at all on thee: the voice of joy and gladness never be heard any more at all in thee." The powerful horror of this curse held it doomed to all the desolation and misery that were upon it; confirmed it in the power of him that ruled here, at his will. Hence, had the magic and charms of the evil one, their permitted, unresisted efficacy, rendered it an enchanted place; related and adjoined it to the nether world, the infernal region; made it the next neighbourhood, even of the very suburbs of hell; barred out all divine light and grace, all heavenly beams and influences from it. So that, had it not been for this Sacrifice, this temple had been and remained, even in the same kind, an accursed place, as hell itself: the Spirit of God should have had no more to do here, than there; for so the sentence and curse of his violated law had determined: "Thou shalt die the death," did say no less. IV. 1. The former is effected; and a foundation is laid for the effecting of the other too, in his becoming a sacrifice to justice; a sacrifice so rich and fragrant, so full of value and grateful savour, as that abundant recompense is made by it for the wrong man had done to the Majesty of heaven, by profaning and polluting this temple, and expelling so contumeliously its great Inhabitant-an injury, to which the creation, consuming in a universal flame, had been an unproportionable sacrifice: but the sacrifice of himself, the Emmanuel, God-man, could be defective in nothing; was both suitable and equal to the exigency of the case. For the sacrifice of him who was man, was suitable to the offence of man; and of him who was God, was equal to the wrong done to God. Long before this sacrifice was offered, the expectation of it, and since, the remembrance have been precious. It was of sufficient virtue to work and diffuse its influence at the greatest distance; and not of time only, but of place too; to perfume the world, and scatter blessings through all the parts and nations of it, as well as through all the ages. When no other sacrifice or offerings could avail any thing, (Psal. xl. Heb. x.) lo! He comes into a body prepared on purpose: which, though it was not formed and assumed until the fulness of time, (Gal. iv. 4,) was yet reckoned as slain from the beginning of it, Rev. xiii. 8. This was the seed in which, though it sprung up only in Judea, yet all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, Gen. xxii. 18. Long was this body in preparing, and the seed transmitted through many generations, whence it was at length to arise; into which, as its last preparation, the Deity descended; and that it might be a sufficiently costly sacrifice, filled it with the divine fulness; for in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Col. ii. 9. When we read Abel's sacrifice to have been more excellent than Cain's (Heb. xi. 4.) the Greek word is, it was fuller. How full a one was this! That was filled by faith with a derivative fulness; this, immediately by God himself, with his own self-fulness, which filleth all in all, and whence all must receive. Being so filled, it was a temple, and must now further be a sacrifice. Both are signified in that one short passage, which himself let fall, (John ii. 19.) "Destroy this temple:" i. e. that he was a Temple, and was to be destroyed; which is carried in the notion of a sacrifice. This he said of his body, v. 21. Strange mystery! The very temple itself a consuming oblation, self-devoted even to destruction, and out of that again self-raised! The Divine justice could not hereby but be well satisfied, and say, It was enough, when the whole temple became all propitiatory, and the profanation of the former temple was expiated by the immolation of the new: so that, in point of honour and justice, no exception could now lie against the return of the Divine presence to its wasted and forsaken temple. V. Only his return could not, as yet, be presently to dwell there, (for it was most unfit,) but to refit and prepare it for his future dwelling. It had been long desolate, and hereby was become decayed and ruinous, full of noisome impurities; yea, the habitation of dragons, and devils of Ziim, and Jiim, and Ochim. Many an abominable idol was set up here, that filled up the room of the one God that had forsaken and left it. It was wholly in the possession of false gods, for whose use it was the more fit, by how much it was the less fit for his; for amidst darkness, confusion, and filthiness, was the chosen seat of the principalities and powers that now did dwell and rule here. Here was the throne of the prince of darkness, the resort of his associates, the altars of as many lusts as the heart of man, now wholly given up to all manner of wickedness, could multiply unto itself; by whose consent and choice, this horrid alienation had been made and continued. Upon such terms the "strong man armed kept the house." The blessed God might now return, but he must build | before he dwell, and conquer ere he build. He might return, but not upon other terms than the expiatory value, VI. But now, (Gal. iii.) Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. He was made a curse for us; not the same in kind which we had incurred, (which it were horrid to think,) but such as his state could admit, and ours could require. For that a person so immutably pure and holy should become an impure thing, was what his state could not admit; and that one of so high dignity should willingly suffer to that degree which he did for us, was a thing of so great merit and value, as to answer the uttermost of our ill-deservings; than which the exigency of our case could not, in that respect, call for more. And the end or design of his becoming to that degree a curse for us, being expressly said to be this, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, (or the promised Spirit,) implies that the curse upon us had intercepted and cut off from us all influence of that holy blessed Spirit; for the fresh emission whereof, in God's own stated method, he had now again opened the way. That this blessing is hereby said to become the portion of the Gentiles, was enough to the apostle's present purpose, writing to the Galatians; the Jews having, upon the same terms, had the same privilege formerly from age to age: "Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them;" (Neh. ix. 20.) which also is implied in their being charged with vexing and rejecting this blessed Spirit, one generation after another, Isa. lxiii. 10. Acts vii, 51. And they had now the same gospel, and are here also included, in that it is said to be the blessing of Abraham; into the communion whereof the Gentiles are now declared to have been admitted, about which so great a doubt had been in those days. That therefore the Spirit might be given for the mentioned purpose, on the account of the Son of God's oblation of himself, is out of question. The necessity that he should be only given on these terms, will be seen hereafter, in its proper place, in ch. ix. But whereas it hath been designed in all this discourse to represent the constitution of Immanuel (being first made a personal Temple, then a Sacrifice) as an apt and fit means to multiply this one temple into many, and bring it about, that upon just and honourable terms God might again return to inhabit the souls of men: it may perhaps be alleged, by some,-That it seems an unrighteous thing God should appoint his own innocent Son to be punished for the sins of offending creatures, and let them escape. And then how could an unjust act make for the honour of his justice, or that which was in itself unfit, be a fit means to any good end?-The loud clamours wherewith some later contenders have filled the Christian world upon this subject, make it fit to say somewhat of it; and the thing itself needs not that we say much. We do know that the innocent Son of God was crucified; we know it was by God's determinate counsel; we know it was for the sins of men ; (which the adversaries, in a laxer and less significant sense, deny not, though it must by no means be understood, say they, as a punishment of those sins;) we know many of those sinners do finally escape deserved | be punished with the loss of both eyes, and his own son punishment. The truth of these things, in fact, is disputed on neither side: all these then are acknowledged reconcilable and consistent with the justice of God. What then is to be inferred? Not that these things are not so, for that they are, is acknowledged on all hands. What then? That God is unjust? Will their zeal for the reputation of God's justice admit of this? No; but it is only unjust to count this suffering of his Son a punishment: that is, 'tis unjust he should suffer for a valuable and necessary purpose; not that he should suffer needlessly, or for no purpose that might not have been served without it! But why may not the sufferings of Christ be looked on as a punishment! Because they will have it be essential to punishment, that it be inflicted on the person that offended; and then inconsistent with its notion and essence, that it be inflicted on an innocent person. But if so, the pretence for the cry of injustice vanishes, unless they will be so absurd as to say, It is very just to afflict an innocent person, but not to punish him; when the punishment hath no more in it of real evil to him that suffers it, than the admitted affliction. And when they say, The very notion of punishment carries in it an essential respect to that personal guilt of him that bears it, it implies that in the present case punishment hath no place, not because it is unjust, but because it is impossible. In the meantime, how vain and ludicrous is that pretence, that all the real evil which God determined should befall his Son he should let come upon him with acknowledged justice, but that the injustice must lie only in a notion; i. e. if he look upon it as a punishment. Yet also the punishing of one for another's offence is forbidden to men, as themselves allege from Deut. xxiv. 16. (as it is not strange God should disallow men that dominion over one another, which he may claim to himself, and which he is in no such possibility to abuse as they,) which therefore shows their notion of punishment is false, by which they would make it impossible for one man to be punished for another's faults, (as the learned Grotius acutely argues,) inasmuch as it were absurd to forbid a thing that is impossible. And that God himself doth often punish the sins of some upon others is evident enough from many places of holy Scripture; particularly the second commandment, (Exod. xx. 5.) "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children," &c. 2. Sam. xxiv. 15, &c. 1 Kings xiv. Lam. v. 7. Whereas therefore they are wont, on the contrary, to allege that of Ezek. xviii. "Ye shall no more use this proverb, The fathers have eaten the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," v. 2, 3. and 19, 20, &c. It is plain, in that it is said, Ye shall no more, &c. that the blessed God speaks here of what, in merciful indulgence, he for the future would not do, not of what in strict justice he might not; for can it be supposed he owns himself to have dealt unjustly with them before. afterwards being found guilty of that crime, was content to lose one of his own eyes, that justice might be done to the public constitution, and mercy be shown to his son in saving one of his: and that of the Pythagoreans, Damon and Pythias, the one of whom pawned his own life to the tyrant, to procure time for the other (condemned to die) wherein to settle some affairs abroad before his death; who returning within the limited time to save his faith and his friend's life, by surrendering his own, so moved the tyrant that he spared both. The common case of man, forsaken of the divine presence, and not to be restored without recompense, was the most deplorable and the most important that could be thought. And it may now be compassionately cared for; this having been obtained by this great sacrifice, that the divine justice is so well satisfied, and his majesty and honour so fully asserted and vindicated, as that he now may, without wrong to himself, (his justice and the dignity of his government not reclaiming against it,) cast a compassionate and favourable eye upon the desolations of his temple; take up kind thoughts towards it; send forth his mightier Spirit to dispossess the "strong man armed," to vanquish the combined enemy-powers, to build and cleanse and beautify the habitation of his holiness, and then inhabit and dwell in it: upon which account it is now called, the temple of the Holy Ghost; the Spirit which the Father sends, in the name of the Son, upon this errand; he having obtained that it should be sent. By which Spirit also the Emmanuel was sufficiently enabled to gain our consent unto all this; for his dying on the cross was not that he might have the Spirit in himself, but that he might have the power of communicating it: and so (as was before intimated) might the foundation be laid for what is to be done on our part, by the offering of this sacrifice: of which we are next further to treat. It is evidently therefore neither impossible nor unjust to punish one for another's offence; and the matter only seems harsh, to such as have misshapen to themselves the notion of punishment, and make it only correspond to the appetite of private revenge: whereas it only answers to a just will of vindicating the rights and honour of government; which may most fitly be done, upon another than the offender, not at random, or in an undistinguishing promiscuous hurry, but upon the two suppositions mentioned by the above-recited author. 1. If there be a near conjunction between the person punished, and the person offending. 2. If there be a consent and voluntary susception of the former on behalf of the other. And we add, as a 3. Especially if there be thereupon a legal substitution, the supreme ruler upon that consent also agreeing, providing, by a special law made in the case, for such transferring of the guilt and punishment. All which have so eminently concurred in the present case, that it can proceed from nothing but a disposition to cavil, further to insist and contend about it. And we know that such translations have among men not only been esteemed just, but laudable; as in the known story of Zaleucus, who having ordained that adultery among his Locricas should A De Satisfact. VII. Wherefore, 2dly, That which was to be done on our part, in order to the restoring of God's temple in us, was, that we be made willing of his return, and that there be wrought in us whatsoever might tend to make us fitly capable of so great a presence. More needs not to be said (but much more easily might) to show that we were most unwilling. And that our becoming willing was requisite, is sufficiently evident. For what sort of a temple are we to be? Not of wood and stone; but as our worship must be all reasonable service, of the same constitution must the temple be whence it is to proceed. We are to be temples, by self-dedication, separating ourselves unto that purpose; and are to be the voluntary under-labourers in the work that is to be done for the preparing of this temple for its proper use: and the use which is to be made of it, that there the blessed God and we might amicably and with delight converse together, supposes our continual willingness, which therefore must be once obtained. Now unto this purpose also, the constitution of Emmanuel was most suitable; or the setting up of this one eminent temple first, God in Christ. This was a leading case, and had a further design: it was never meant that the Divine presence should be confined to that one single Person, or only that God should have a temple on earth as long as the Man Christ should reside there; but he was to be the primary original Temple; and his being so, did contribute to the making us willing to become his temples also. 1st. As here was the fulness of that Spirit, by whose power and influence that, and all the subsequent work, was to be wrought in us: which fulness is by that blessed name EMMANUEL, signified to be in him on purpose to be communicated, or as what must be some way common unto God with us. Our aversion was not easily vincible: the people, it was said, (speaking of the reign of Emmanuel,) should be willing in the day of his power; (Ps. cx. 3.) and as it follows, in the beauties of holiness, Ì Chr. xví. 29. This was a known name of God's temple, for the building whereof David was now preparing, and whereto the passages agree, Ps. xxvii. 4. Ps. xcvi. 8, 9. And that spiritual one whereof we speak must be here chiefly meant, whereof the Christian world, in its exterior frame, is but the outer court; or is subordinate to the interior to be wrought. They are themselves to come as lively stones, to the living Corner-stone, by a vital act of their own will; which, we know, is not to be moved by force, but rational allurement. Wherefore this being the thing to be brought about, it is not enough to inquire or understand by what power, but one would also covet to know by what motive or inducement, is this willingness and vital co-operation brought to pass; and we shall find this origi nal Temple, the Emmanuel, had not only in it a spring of sufficient power, but also, frame, and to the work thereof, but as scaffolds to the build- | willing, must be dealt with in a way suitable to the effect ing which they enclose. The people shall be willing, but not otherwise than being made so by his power; and that not always put forth, but in the day of his power; on a noted memorable day; a day intended for the demonstration and magnifying of his power; i. e. the season when Emmanuel (the Lord, to whom the speech was addressed) would apply and set himself, even with his might, to the great work of restoring and raising up the temple of God: a work not to be done by might and power, (according to the common, vulgar notion thereof, by which nothing is reckoned might and power but a visible arm of flesh, hosts and armies, horses and chariots,) but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. Then, though the spirits of men swell as mountains, in proud enmity and opposition, (which must be levelled where this building is designed,) those mountains shall appear bubbles: what are they before this great undertaker? They shall become a plain, when the Head-stone is brought forth with shoutings, unto which the cry shall be, Grace, grace. This is the Stone laid in Zion for a foundation, sure and tried, elect and precious; disallowed by men, but chosen of God; the chief Stone of the corner; a living, spirituous Stone, from which is a mighty effluence of life and spirit, all to attract and animate other stones, and draw them into union with itself, so as to compact and raise up this admirable fabric, a spiritual house for "spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ:" a Stone that shall spread life through the whole frame; called therefore a Branch, as well as a Stone, whereto is attributed the work and the glory of building God's temple. "Behold the Man whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory," &c. chap. vi. A plain indication, that the prophecies of that book did not ultimately terminate in the restoration of the temple at Jerusalem; but, more mystically, intended the great comprehensive temple of the living God, which the Messiah should extend and diffuse, by a mighty communication of his Spirit, through the world; when (as is afterwards said, v. 15.) "they that are afar off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord; "and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also. Many people and strong nations," &c. chap. viii. 20, 21, 22. Ten men out of all languages to one Jew, that shall say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Mic. iv. 2. This, 'tis said, shall be at Jerusalem, but it must be principally meant of the New Jerusalem, that cometh down from heaven, that is from above, that is free with her children, and is the mother of us all, And how plentiful an effusion of Spirit! how mighty and general an attraction, by it, is signified in all this, by which so deeply rooted an aversion to God and serious living religion, as is known to be common to men, is overcome, and turned into willingness and inclination towards him! And whereby that great primary temple, CHRIST, replenished with the divine fulness, multiplies itself into so many, or enlarges itself into that one, his church; called also his body, (as both his very body and that church are called his temple,) the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Nor needs it scruple us, or give us any trouble, that we find this name of a temple placed upon a good man singly and alone, sometimes upon the whole community of such together. Each one bears a double habitude-direct towards God, by which he is capable of being his private mansion; collateral towards our fellow Christians, whereby he is a part of his more enlarged dwelling. Whensoever then any accession is made to this spiritual temple, begun in Christ himself, it is done by a further diffusion of that Spirit, whereof that original Temple is the first receptacle. VIII. But moreover, because it was a rational subject that was to be wrought upon, it is also to be expected that the work itself be done in a rational way. These that must be made living, and that were before intelligent stones, were not to be hewed, squared, polished, and moved to and fro by a violent hand; but being to be rendered 2dly, Carried with it enough of argument and rational inducement, whereby to persuade and overcome our wills into a cheerful compliance and consent. And that, IX. 1. As it was itself the most significant demonstration of divine love, than which nothing is more apt to move and work upon the spirit of man. The bonds of love are the cords of a man, (Hos. xi. 4.) of an attractive power, most peculiarly suitable to human nature: We love him, because he first loved us, 1 John iv. This is rational magnetism. When in the whole sphere of beings we have so numerous instances of things that propagate themselves, and beget their like, can we suppose the divine love to be only barren and destitute of this power? And we find, among those that are born of God, there is nothing more eminently conspicuous, in this production, than love. This new creature were otherwise a dead creature. This is its very heart, life, and soul; that which acts and moves it towards God, and is the spring of all holy operations. Since then love is found in it, and is so eminent a part of its composition, what should be the parent of this love, but love? Nor is this a blind or unintelligent production, in respect of the manner of it, either on the part of that which begets, or of that which is begotten: not only he who is propagating his own love, designs it, and knows what he is about, but he that is hereby made to love, knows whereto he is to be formed, and receives, through an enlightened mind, the very principle, power, and spirit of love. Is his love the cause of ours; or do we love him, because he loved us first? And what sort of cause is it? or how doth it work its effect, otherwise than as his love; testified and expressing itself, lets us see how reasonable and congruous it is, that we should love back again? As is more than intimated, by the same sacred writer, in that epistle: Hereby perceive we the love of God," &c. chap. iii. 16. Somewhat or other must first render his love perceivable to us, that thereby we may be induced to love him for his own, and our brother for his sake. And again, "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love," &c. After which it shortly follows, "We love him, because he first loved us;" q. d. The way of God's bringing us to that loveunion with himself, that we by love dwell in him, and he in us, is, by his representing himself a Being of love. Till he beget in us that apprehension of himself, and we be brought to know and believe the love that he hath towards us, this is not done. But where have we that representation of God's love toward us, save in Emmanuel ? This is the sum of the ministry of reconciliation, or which is all one, of making men love God, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, &c. 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. This was the very make and frame, the constitution and design, of the original Temple, to be the "Tabernacle of witness;" a visible testimony of the love of God, and of his kind and gracious propensions towards the race of men, however they were become an apostate and degenerous race; to let them see how inclined and willing he was to become acquainted again with them, and that the old intimacy and friendship, long since out-worn, might be renewed. And this gracious inclination was testified, partly by Christ's taking up his abode on earth; or by the erecting of this original Temple, by the Word's being made flesh, (John iv.) wherein (as the Greek expresses it) he did tabernacle among us. That whereas we did dwell here in earthly tabernacles, (only now destitute and devoid of the divine presence,) he most kindly comes and pitches his tent amongst our tents; sets up his tabernacle by ours, replenished and full of God; so that here the f εσκήνωσεν. e Zech. ii. 8, 9. |