Page images
PDF
EPUB

der thee from doing good works, or else will hinder thee in the doing thereof; for evil is present with thee for both these purposes. Take heed, then, that thou do not listen to that at any time, but deny, though with much struggling, the workings of sin to the contrary.

2. Let this be continually before thy heart, that God's eye is upon thee, and seeth every secret turning of thy heart, either to or from him: "All things are naked and bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

3. If thou deny to do that good which thou oughtest with what thy God hath given thee, then consider that though he love thy soul, yet he can chastise-first, thy inward man with such troubles that thy life shall be restless and comfortless; secondly, and can also so blow upon thy outward man that all thou gettest shall be put in a bag with holes. And should he license but one thief among thy substance, or one spark of fire among thy barns, how quickly might that be spent ill and against thy will which thou shouldst have spent to God's glory and with thy will!

And I tell thee further, that if thou want a heart to do good when thou hast about thee, thou mayest want comfort in such things thyself from others when thine is taken from thee.

4. Consider that a life full of good works is the only way, on thy part, to answer the mercy of God extended to thee; God hath had mercy on thee, and hath saved thee from all thy distresses; God hath not stuck to give thee his Son, his Spirit, and the kingdom of heaven. Saith Paul, "I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, holy, acceptable, which is your reasonable service."

5. Consider that this is the way to convince all men that the power of God's things hath taken hold of thy heart, (I speak to them that hold the head;) and say what thou wilt, if thy faith be not accompanied with a holy life thou shalt be judged a withered branch, a wordy professor, salt without savour, and as lifeless as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. For, say they, show us your faith by your works, for we cannot see your hearts. But I say or the contrary, if thou walk as becomes one who art saved by grace, then thou wilt witness in every man's conscience that thou art

a good tree; now thou leavest guilt on the heart of the wicked; now thou takest off occasion from them that desire occasion; and now thou art clear from the blood of all men. This is the man also that provoketh others to good works: The ear that heareth such a man shall bless him, and the eye that seeth him shall bear witness to him. "Surely (saith David) he shall never be moved: the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." 6. Again, The heart that is fullest of good works hath in it least room for Satan's tempta. tions; and this is the meaning of Peter where he saith, "Be sober, be vigilant:" that is, be busying thyself in faith and holiness, "for the devil, your adversary, goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He that walketh uprightly walketh safely; and he that adds to faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, temperance; to temperance, brotherly kindness; and to these charity, and that abounds therein, he shall neither be barren nor unfruitful, (he shall never fall,) but so an entrance shall be ministered to him abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

7. The man who is fullest of good works is fittest to live and fittest to die: "I am now (at any time) ready to be offered up," saith fruitful Paul. Whereas he that is barren is neither fit to live nor fit to die: to die, he himself is convinced he is not fit: and to live, God himself saith he is not fit; "cut him down, why doth he cumber the ground?"

Thus have I, in few words, written to you (before I die) a word to provoke you to faith and holiness, because I desire that you may have the life that is laid up for all them that believe in the Lord Jesus and love one another, when I am deceased. Though there I shall rest from my labours, and be in paradise, as through grace I comfortably believe, yet it is not there, but here, I must do you good. Wherefore, I, not knowing the shortness of my life, nor the hindrance that hereafter I may have of serving my God and you, have taken this opportunity to present these few lincs unto you for your edification.

Consider what hath been said, and the Lerd give you understanding in all things.

FAREWELL.

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORN

SOLOMON'S TEMPLE SPIRITUALIZED;

OR,

GOSPEL LIGHT BROUGHT OUT OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM,

TO LET US MORE FULLY INTO THE GLORY OF

NEW TESTAMENT TRUTHS.

Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel-show the form of the house, and the fashion there. of, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.-EZEK. xliii. 10, 11.

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

COURTEOUS CHRISTIAN READER:

I HAVE, as thou by this little book mayest see, adventured, at this time, to do my endeavour to show thee something of the gospelglory of Solomon's Temple: that is, of what it, with its utensils, was a type of; and, as such, how instructing it was to our fathers, and also is to us their children. The which, that I might do the more distinctly, I have handled particulars one by one, to the number of threescore and ten; namely, all of them I could call to mind: because, as I believe, there was not one of them but had its signification, and so something profitable for us to know.

For, though we are not now to worship God in these methods, or by such ordinances as once the old church did, yet to know their methods, and to understand the nature and signification of their ordinances, when compared with the Gospel, may, even now, when themselves, as to what they once enjoined on others, are dead, minister light unto us. And hence the New Testament ministers, as the apostles, made much use of Old Testament language and ceremonial institutions as to their signification, to help the faith of the godly in their preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

I may say that God did in a manner tie up the church of the Jews to types, figures, and similitudes; I mean, to be butted and bounded by them in all external parts of worship. Yea, not only the Levitical law and temple, but as

it seems to me the whole land of Canaan, the place of their lot to dwell in, was to them a ceremonial or a figure. Their land was a type of heaven, their passage over Jordan into it a similitude of our going to heaven by death. The fruit of their land was said to be uncircumcised, as being at their first entrance thither unclean; in which their land was also a figure of another thing, even as heaven was a type of grace and glory.

Again, the very land itself was said to keep sabbath, and so to rest a holy rest even then when she lay desolate, and not possessed of those to whom she was given for them to dwell in.

Yea, many of the features of the then Church of God were set forth, as in figures and shadows, so by places and things, in that land.

1. In general, she is said to be beautiful as Tirzah, (Song vi. 4,) and to be comely an Jerusalem.

2. In particular, her neck is compared to the tower of David, builded for an armoury, (Song iv. 4;) her eyes to the fishpools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bethrabbim, (chap. vii. 4;) her nose is compared to the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus, (chap. iv. 1;) yea, the hair of her head is compared to a flock of goats which come up from Mount Gilead, and the smell of her garments to the smell of Lebanon. Verse 11.

Nor was this land altogether void of shadows even of her Lord and Saviour. Hence he says of himself, "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys." Song ii. 1. Also she, his beloved, saith of him, "His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." What shall I say? The two cities, Sion and Jeruzalem, were such as sometimes set forth the two churches, (Gal. iv.,) the true and the false, and their seed, Isaac and Ishmael.

I might also here show you that even the gifts and graces of the true Church were set forth by the spices, nuts, grapes, and pomegranates that the land of Canaan brought forth; yea, that hell itself was set forth by the valley of the sons of Hinnom and Tophet, places in this country. Indeed, the whole, in a manner, was a typical and figurative thing.

But I have, in the ensuing discourse, confined myself to the temple, that immediate place of God's worship, of whose utensils in particular, as I have said, I have spoken, (though to each with what brevity I could,) for that none of them are without a spiritual, and so a profitable, signification to us.

And here we may behold much of the richness of the wisdom and grace of God; namely, that he, even in the very place of worship of old, should ordain visible forms and representations for the worshippers to learn to worship him by; yea, the temple itself was, as to this, to them a good instruction.

But in my thus saying I give no encouragement to any now to fetch out of their own fancies figures of similitudes to worship God by. What God provided to be an help to the weakness of his people of old was one thing, and what they invented without his commandment was another. For though they had his blessing when they worshipped him with such types, shadows, and figures which he had enjoined them for that purpose, yet he screly punished and plagued them when they would add to these inventions of their own. Yea, he, in the very act of instituting their way of worshipping him, forbade their giving (in any thing) way to their own humours or fancies, and bound them strictly to the orders of heaven.

"Look," said God to Moses, their first great legislator, "that thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount."

Nor doth our apostle but take the same measures when he saith, "If any man think

eth himself a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

When Solomon also was to build this temple for the worship of God, though he was wiser than all men, yet God neither trusted to his wisdom, nor memory, nor to any immediate dictates from heaven to him, as to how he would have him build it. No; he was to receive the whole platform thereof in writing by the inspiration of God. Nor would God give this platform of the temple and of the utensils immediately to this wise man, lest perhaps by others his wisdom should be idolized, or that some should object that the whole fashion thereof proceeded of his fancy, only he made pretensions of divine revelation as a cover for his doings.

Therefore, I say, not to him, but to his father David, was the whole pattern of it given from heaven, and so by David to Solomon his son in writing. "Then David," says the text, "gave to Solomon his son, the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasures thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat. And the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, and of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things, also for the courses of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord."

Yea, moreover, he had from heaven, or by divine revelation, what the candlesticks must be made of, and also how much was to go to each; the same order and commandment he also gave for the making of the tables, fleshhooks, cups, basons, altar of incense, with the pattern for the chariot of the cherubims, &c "All this," said David, "the Lord made me understand by writing his hand upon me, even all the work of this pattern." So, I say, he gave David the pattern of the temple; so David gave Solomon the pattern of the temple; and according to that pattern did Solomon build the temple, and not otherwise.

True, all these were but figures, patterns, and shadows of things in the heavens, and not the very image of the things: but, as was said before, if God was so circumspect and exact in these as not to leave any thing to the dictates

of the godly and wisest of men, what! can we suppose he will now admit of the wisdom and contrivance of men in those things that are, in comparison to them, the heavenly things themselves?

It is also to be concluded that since those shadows of things in the heavens are already committed by God to sacred story, and since that sacred story is said to be able to make the inan of God perfect in all things, (2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17,) it is duty in us to leave off to lean to common understandings, and to inquire and search out by that very holy writ, and naught else, by what and how we should worship God. David was for inquiring in his temple. Ps. xxvii. 4.

And although the old church way of worship is laid aside as to us in New Testament times, yet since those very ordinances were figures of things and methods of worship, now we may— yea, we ought to search out the spiritual meaning of them, because they serve to confirm and illustrate matters to our understanding. Yea, they show us the more exactly how the New and Old Testament, as to the spiritualness of the worship, were one and the same; only the old was clouded with shadows, but ours is with more open face.

18

Features to the life, as we say, set out by a picture, do excellently show the skill of the artist. The Old Testament had but the shadow, nor have we but the very image; both, then, are but emblems of what is yet behind. We may find our Gospel clouded in their ceremo nies, and our spiritual worship set out somewhat by their carnal ordinances.

Now because, as I said, there lies, as wrapt up in a mantle, much of the glory of our gospelmatters in this temple which Solomon built, therefore I have made, as well as I could, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, this book upon this subject.

I dare not presume to say that I know I have hit right in every thing, but this I can say, I have endeavoured so to do. True, I have not for these things fished in other men's waters; my Bible and Concordance are my only library in my writings. Wherefore, courteous reader, if thou findest any thing, either in word or matter, that thou shalt judge doth vary from God's truth, let it be counted no man's else but mine. Pray God also to pardon my fault: do thou also lovingly pass it by, and receive what thou findest will do thee good.

Thy servant in the Gospel,

JOHN BUNYAN.

THE GLORY OF THE TEMPLE;

OR,

SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, AND THE MATERIALS THEREOF, SPIRITU ALIZED.

I. Where the Temple was Built.

The temple was built at Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, in the threshing-floor of Arnon the Jebusite; whereabout Abraham offered up Isaac; there where David met the angel of the Lord when he came with his sword drawn in his hand to cut off the people of Jerusalem for the sin which David committed in his disorderly numbering of the people. Gen. xxii. 3, 4, 5; 1 Chron. xxi. 15; ch. xxii. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 1.

There Abraham received his son Isaac from the dead; there the Lord was entreated by David to take away the plague, and to return to Israel again in mercy: from whence also David gathered that there God's temple must be built. "This," saith he, "is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel."

This Mount Moriah, therefore, was a type of the Son of God, the mountain of the Lord's house, the rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

II. Who Built the Temple.

The temple was built by Solomon, a man peaceable and quiet; and that in name, by nature, and in governing. For so God before told David—namely, that such a one the builder of the temple should be.

"Behold," saith he, "a son shall be born unto thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies roundabout: for his name shall be called Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build an house for my name, and he shall be my son. I will be his father."

As, therefore, Mount Moriah was a type of Christ as the foundation, so Solomon was a type of him as the builder of his Church. The mount was signal, for that thereon the Lord

God, before Abraham and David, did display his mercy. And as Solomon built this temple, so Christ doth build his house; "Yea, ye shall build the everlasting temple, and ye shall bear the glory."

And in that Solomon was called peaceable, it was to show with what peaceable doctrine and ways Christ's house and Church should be built. Isa. ix. 6; Mic. vii. 2, 3, 4.

III. How the Temple was Built.

The temple was built not merely by the dictates of Solomon, though he was wiser than Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, and all men, (1 Kings iv. 31,) but it was built by rules prescribed by or in a written word, and as so delivered to him by his father David.

For when David gave to Solomon his son a charge to build the temple of God, with that charge he gave him also the pattern of all in writing; even a pattern of the porch, house, chambers, treasuries, parlours, &c., and of the place for the mercy-seat, which pattern David had of God, nor would God trust his memory with it. "The Lord made me," said he, "understand in writing, by his hand upon me, even all the work of this pattern." Thus therefore David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of all; and thus Solomon his son built the house of God. See 1 Chron. xxviii. 9-20.

And answerable to this, Christ Jesus, the Builder of his own house, whose house are we, doth build his holy habitation for him to dwell in, even according to the commandment of God the Father; for, saith he, “I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave a commandment what I should speak." And hence it is said God gave him the revelation; and again, that he took the book out of the hand of Him that

« PreviousContinue »