Chapter LX: Preface: To the Reader (2)

3. A third consideration concerning the kingdom is this. Notwithstanding of all the happiness and gospel-blessings which it hath wanted in so great a measure, and notwithstanding of all the sins which have so much abounded in it, yet the servants of God have charged it with great presumption,(1383) that the church of England hath said with the church of Laodicea, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” Rev. iii. 17. It hath been proud of its clergy, learning, great revenues, peace, plenty, wealth, and abundance of all things, and as the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians, “Ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned,” that the wicked ones “might be taken away from among you,” 1 Cor. v. 2. And would God this presumption had taken an end when God did begin to afflict the land. It did even make an idol of this Parliament, and trusted to its own strength and armies, which hath provoked God so much, that he hath sometimes almost blasted your hopes that way, and hath made you to feel your weakness even where you thought yourselves strongest. God would not have England say, “Mine own hand hath saved me,” Judg. vii. 2; neither will he have Scotland to say, “My hand hath done it:” but he will have both to say, His hand hath done it, when we were lost in our own eyes. God grant that your leaning so much upon the arm of flesh be not the cause of more blows. God must be seen in the work, and he will have us to give him all the glory, and to say, “Thou also hast wrought all our works in us,” Isa. xxvi. 12. O that all our presumption may be repented of, and that the land may be yet more deeply humbled! Assuredly God will arise and subdue our enemies, and command deliverances for Jacob; but it is as certain God will not do this till we be more humbled and (as the text saith) ashamed of all that we have done.

4. There is another motive more evangelical: Let England be humbled even for the mercy, the most admirable mercy which God hath showed upon so undeserving and evil-deserving a kingdom. See it in this same prophecy, “I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God,” Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. And again: “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel,” Ezek. xxxvi. 32; “O my God (saith Ezra), I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee,” Ezra. ix. 6. And what was it that did so confound him? You may find it in that which followeth: God had showed them mercy, and had left them a remnant to escape, and had given them a nail in his holy place, and had lightened their eyes: “And now (saith he), O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,” Ezra. ix. 10. Let us this day compare, as he did, God’s goodness and our own guiltiness. England deserved nothing but to get a bill of divorce, and that God should have said in his wrath, Away from me, I have no pleasure in you; but now he hath received you into the bond of his covenant, he rejoiceth over you to do you good, and to dwell among you; his banner over you is love. O let our hard hearts be overcome and be confounded with so much mercy, and let us be ashamed of ourselves, that after so much mercy we should be yet in our sins and trespasses.

There is a third application, which I intend for the ministry, who ought to go before the people of God in the example of repentance and humiliation. You know the old observation, _Raro vidi clericum poenitentem_,—I have seldom seen a clergyman penitent. As Christ saith of rich men (Mark x. 24, 25), I may say of learned men, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a man that trusts in his learning to enter into the kingdom of heaven. He will needs maintain the lawfulness of all which he hath done, and will not be, as this text would have him, ashamed of all that he hath done. Yet it is not impossible with God to make such an one deny himself, and that whatsoever in him exalts itself against Christ should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. x. 5). Among all that were converted by the ministry of the apostles, I wonder most at the conversion of a great company of priests, Acts vi. 7. I do not suspect, as two learned men have done,(1384) that the text is corrupted in that place, and that it should be otherwise read. I am the rather satisfied, because there is nothing there mentioned of the conversion of the high priest, or of the chief priests, the heads of the twenty-four orders which were upon the council, and had condemned Christ: the place cannot be understood but of a multitude of common or inferior priests, even as, by proportion, in Hezekiah’s reformation, the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests, 2 Chron. xxix. 34.

And now many of the inferior clergy (as they were abusively called) are more upright in heart unto this present reformation than any of those who had assumed to themselves high degrees in the church. The hardest point of all is, so to embrace and follow reformation as to be ashamed of former prevarications and pollutions. But in this also the Holy Ghost hath set examples before the ministers of the gospel. I read, 2 Chron. xxx. 15, “The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt-offerings into the house of the Lord.” They thought it not enough to be sanctified, but they were ashamed that they had been before defiled. A great prophet is not content to have his judgment rectified which had been in error, but he is ashamed of the error he had been in; “So foolish was I (saith he) and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee,” Psal. lxxiii. 22. A great apostle must glorify God, and humbly acknowledge his own shame; “For I am the least of the apostles (saith he), that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” 1 Cor. xv. 9. And shall I add the example of a great father? Augustine confesseth(1385) honestly, that for the space of nine years he both was deceived, and did deceive others. Nature will whisper to a man to look to his credit: but the text here calleth for another thing,—to look to the honour of God, and to thine own shame; and yet in so doing thou shalt be more highly esteemed both by God and by his children. Now without this let a man seem to turn and reform never so well, all is unsure work, and built upon a sandy foundation. And whosoever will not acknowledge their iniquity, and be ashamed for it, God shall make them bear their shame; according to that which is pronounced in the next chapter, ver. 10-15, against the Levites, who had gone astray when Israel went astray after their idols; and according to that, Mal. ii. 8, 9, “Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people.”

The fourth and last application of this doctrine is for every Christian. The text teacheth us a difference betwixt a presumptuous and a truly humbled sinner; the one is ashamed of his sins, the other not. By this mark let every one of us try himself this day. It is a saving grace to be truly and really ashamed of sin. It is one of the promises of the covenant of grace, “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations,” Ezek. xxxvi. 31. Try, then, if thou hast but thus much of the work of grace in thy soul; and if thou hast, be assured of thy interest in Christ and in the new covenant. A reprobate may have somewhat which is very like this grace: but I shall lay open the difference betwixt the one and the other in these particulars:—

1. To be truly ashamed of sin, is to be ashamed of it as an act of filthiness and uncleanness. The child of God, when he comes to the throne of grace, is ashamed of an unclean heart, though the world cannot see it. A natural man, at his best, looketh upon sin as it damneth and destroyeth the soul, but he cannot look upon it as it defiles the soul. Shame ariseth properly from a filthy act, though no other evil be to follow upon it.

2. As we are ashamed of acts of filthiness, so of acts of folly. A natural man may judge himself a fool in regard of the circumstances or consequents of his sin, but he is not convinced that sin in itself is an act of madness and folly. When the child of God is humbled he becomes a fool in his own eyes,—he perceives he had done like a mad fool, 1 Cor. iii. 18; therefore he is said then to come to himself, Luke xv. 17.

3. The child of God is ashamed of sin as an act of unkindness and unthankfulness to a sweet merciful Lord, Psal. cxxx. 4; Rom. ii. 4. Though there were no other evil in sin, the conscience of so much mercy and love so far abused, and so unkindly recompensed, is that which confoundeth a penitent sinner. As the wife of a kind husband, if she play the whore (though the world know it not), and if her husband, when he might divorce her, shall still love her and receive her into his bosom; such a one, if she have at all any sense, or any bowels of sorrow, must needs be swallowed up of shame and confusion for her undutifulness and treachery to such a husband. But now the hypocrite is not at all troubled or afflicted in spirit for sin as it is an act of unkindness to God.

4. Shame, as philosophers have defined it,(1386) is “the fear of a just reproof:” not simply the fear of a reproof, but the fear of a just reproof. That is servile; this filial. The child of God is ashamed of the very guiltiness, and of that which may be justly laid to his charge; the hypocrite not so. Saul was not ashamed of his sin, but he was ashamed that Samuel should reprove him before the elders of the people, 1 Sam. xv. 15, 30. Christ’s adversaries were ashamed (Luke xiii. 17), not of their error, but because their mouths were stopped before the people, and they could not answer him. A hypocrite is ashamed, “as a thief is ashamed when he is found,” Jer. ii. 26; mark that, “when he is found;” a thief is not ashamed of his sin, but because he is found in it, and so brought to a shameful end.

5. When the cause of God is in hand, a true penitent is so ashamed of himself that he fears the people of God shall be put to shame for his sake, and that it shall go the worse with them because of his vileness and guiltiness. This made David pray, “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel,” Psal. lxix. 5, 6. The sorrow and shame of a hypocrite (as all his other seeming graces) are rooted in self-love, not in the love of God: he hath not this in all his thoughts, that he is a spot or blemish in the body or church of Christ, and therefore to be humbled, lest for his sake God be displeased with his people; lest such a vile and abominable sinner as he is bring wrath and confusion upon others, and make Israel turn their back before the enemy. O happy soul that hath such thoughts as these!

I have now done with the first part of the text, wherein I have been the larger, because it most fitteth the work of the day.

The second follows: “Show them the form of the house,” &c.

Before I come to the doctrines which do here arise, I shall first explain the particulars mentioned in this part of the text, so as they may agree to the spiritual temple or church of Christ, which in the beginning I proved to be here intended.

First, We find here the form and fashion of a house; in which the parts are very much diversified one from another. There are, in a formed and fashioned house, doors, windows, posts, lintels, &c.; there is also a multitude of common stones in the walls of the house. Such a house is the visible ministerial church of Christ, the parts whereof are _partes dissimilares_,—some ministers and rulers; some eminent lights; others of the ordinary rank of Christians,—that make up the walls. If God hath made one but a small pinning in the wall, he hath reason to be content, and must not say, Why am not I a post, or a corner-stone, or a beam? Neither yet may any corner-stone despise the stones in the wall, and say, I have no need of you.

Secondly, The Prophet was here to show them “the goings out of the house, and the comings in thereof.” These are not the same but different gates, it is plain: “When the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship, shall go out by the way of the south gate, &c., he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in,” Ezek. xlvi. 9. And that not only to teach us order, and the avoiding of confusion, occasioned by the contrary tides of a multitude, but to tell us farther, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” Luke ix. 62. We must not go out of the church the way that we came in (that were a door of defection), but hold our faces forward till we go out by the door of death.

Thirdly, The text hath twice “all the forms thereof,” which I understand of the outward forms and of the inward forms, which two I find very much distinguished by those who have written of the form and structure of the temple. The church is exceedingly beautified, even outwardly, with the ordinances of Christ, but the inward forms are the most glorious: “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” Luke xvii. 21; and it “cometh not with observation,” ver. 20; “The king’s daughter is all glorious within;” yet even “her clothing is of wrought gold,” Psal. xlv. 13. When the angel had made an end of measuring the inner house (Ezek. xlii. 15), then he brought forth Ezekiel by the east gate, which was the chief gate by which the people commonly entered, and measured the outer wall in the last place. God’s method is first to try the heart and reins, then to give to a man according to his works, Jer. xvii. 10. So should we measure, by the reed of the sanctuary, first the inner house of our hearts and minds, and then to measure our outer walls, and to judge of our profession and external performances.

Lastly, The Prophet is commanded to write in their sight “all the ordinances thereof, and all the laws thereof;” for the church is a house not only in an architectonic, but in an economic sense. It is Christ’s family governed by his own laws; and a temple which hath in it “them that worship,” Rev. xi. 1, it hath its own proper laws by which it is ordered. _Alioe sunt leges Coesarum, alioe Christi_ (saith Jerome(1387)),—Caesar’s laws and Christ’s laws are not the same, but divers one from another. Schoolmen say,(1388) that a law, properly so called, is both illuminative and impulsive: illuminative, to inform and direct the judgment; impulsive, to move and apply the will to action. And accordingly there are two names in this text given to Christ’s laws and institutions: one(1389) which importeth the instruction and information of our minds; another,(1390) which signifieth a deep imprinting or engraving (and that is made upon our hearts and affections), such as a pen of iron and other instruments could make upon a stone. It is not well when either of the two is wanting; for the light of truth, without the engraving of truth, may be extinguished; and the engraving of truth, without the light of truth, may be obliterate.

All these I shall pass, and only pitch upon two doctrines which I shall draw from this second part of the text: one concerning the will of God’s commandment, what God requireth of Israel to do; another concerning the will of God’s decree, what he hath purposed himself to do.

The first is this: “God will have Israel to build and order his temple, not as shall seem good in their eyes, but according to his own pattern only which he sets before them,” which doth so evidently appear from this very text, that it needeth no other proof; for what else meaneth the showing of such a pattern to be kept and followed by his people? Other passages of this kind there are which do more abundantly confirm it.

The Lord did prescribe to Noah both the matter, and fashion, and measures of the ark (Gen. vi. 14-16). To Moses he gave a pattern of the tabernacle, of the ark, of the mercy-seat, of the vail, of the curtains, of the two altars, of the table and all the furniture thereof, of the candlestick and all the instruments thereof, &c. And though Moses was the greatest prophet that ever arose in Israel, yet God would not leave any part of the work to Moses’ arbitrement, but straitly commandeth him, “Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount,” Exod. xxv. 40. When it came to the building of the first temple, Solomon was not in that left to his own wisdom, as great as it was, but David, the man of God, gave him a perfect “pattern of all that he had by the Spirit,” 1 Chron. xxviii. 11-13. The second temple was also built “according to the commandment of the God of Israel” (Ezra vi. 14), by Haggai and Zechariah. And for the New Testament, Christ our great Prophet, and only King and Lawgiver of the church, hath revealed his will to the apostles, and they to us, concerning all his holy things; and we must hold us at these unleavened and unmixed ordinances which the apostles, from the Lord, delivered to the churches: “I will put upon you (saith he himself) none other burden: but that which ye have already hold fast till I come,” Rev. ii. 24, 25.

I know the church must observe rules of order and conveniency in the common circumstances of times, places, and persons; but these circumstances are none of our holy things,—they are only prudential accommodations, which are alike common to all human societies, both civil and ecclesiastical, wherein both are directed by the same light of nature, the common rule to both in all things of that kind, providing always that the general rules of the word be observed: “Do all to the glory of God,” 1 Cor. x. 31; “Let all things be done to edifying,” 1 Cor. xiv. 26; “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak,” Rom. xiv. 21; “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean,” Rom. xiv. 5, 14.

The text giveth some clearing to this point: There is here showed to the house of Israel a pattern of the whole structure, and of the least part thereof, and all the measures thereof; yet no pattern is given of the kind, or quantity, or magnificence of the several stones, or of the instruments of building. The reason is, because the former is essential to a house, the latter accidental,(1391) the former, if altered, make another building; the latter, though altered, the building is the same: therefore where we have in the text “the forms thereof,” the Septuagint read ὑποστασιν αὐτοῦ,—_the substance thereof_.

But to clear it a little farther, I put two characters upon those circumstances which are not determined by the word of God, but left to be ordered by the church as shall be found most convenient. First, They are not things sacred, nor proper to the church, as hath been said. They are of the same nature, they serve for the same end and use, both in sacred and civil things; for order and decency, the avoiding of confusion and the like, are alike common to church and commonwealth. Secondly, I shall describe them as one of the prelates hath done, who tells us,(1392) that the things which the Scripture hath left to the discretion of the church are those things “which neither needed nor could be particularly expressed. They needed not, because they are so obvious; and they could not, both because they are so numerous, and because so changeable.”

I will not insist upon questions of this kind, but will make a short application of the doctrine unto you, honourable and beloved. You may plainly see from what hath been said, that neither kings, nor parliaments, nor synods, nor any power on earth, may impose or continue the least ceremony upon the consciences of God’s people, which Christ hath not imposed; therefore let neither antiquity, nor custom, nor conveniency, nor prudential considerations, nor show of holiness, nor any pretext whatsoever, plead for the reservation of any of your old ceremonies, which have no warrant from the word of God. Much might have been said for the high places among the Jews, as I hinted in the beginning; and much might have been said by the Pharisees for their frequent washings (Mark vii. 2, 3, 4, 7), which, as they were ancient, and received by the traditions of the elders, so they were used to teach men purity, and to put them in mind of holiness; neither was their washing contrary to any commandment of God, except you understand that commandment of not adding to the word (Deut. iv. 2; xii. 32; Prov. xxx. 6), which doth equally strike against all ceremonies devised by man.

“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” Gal. v. 9; and a little leak will endanger the ship. Thieves will readily dig through a house, how much more will they enter if any postern be left open to them. The wild beasts and boars of the forest will attempt to break down the hedges of the Lord’s vineyard (Psal. lxxx. 13), how much more if any breach be left in the hedges. If, therefore, you would make a sure reformation, make a perfect reformation, lest Christ have this controversy with England, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee,” Rev. ii. 4. And so much of our duty.

The second doctrine concerneth God’s decree, and it is this: “It is concluded in the council of heaven, and God hath it in the thoughts of his heart, to repair the breaches of his house, and to build such a temple to himself, as is shadowed forth in this vision of Ezekiel.” For the comparing of this verse with ver. 7 in this same chapter, and with chap. xxxvii. 26, 27, will easily make it appear, that this showing of the pattern, and all this measuring, was not only in reference to Israel’s duty, but to God’s gracious purpose towards Israel. According to that, Zech. i. 16, “Therefore thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.” Now this vision cannot be said to be fulfilled in Zorobabel’s temple, as I proved before, only here take notice that the second destruction of the temple by the Romans was worse than the first by the Babylonians,—that desolation was repaired, but this could never be repaired, though the Jews did attempt the building again of the temple,(1393) first under Adrian the emperor, and afterward under Julian the apostate. The hand of God was seen against them most terribly by fire from heaven, and other signs of that kind; and about the same time (to observe that by the way) the famous Delphic temple was without man’s hand, by fire and earthquake, utterly destroyed and never built again,—to tell the world that neither Judaism nor paganism should prevail, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Where then must we seek for the accomplishment of Ezekiel’s vision, I mean for the new temple in which the Lord will dwell for ever, and where his holy name shall be no more polluted? Surely we must seek for it in the days of the gospel, as hath been before abundantly proved; but that the thing may be the better understood, let us take with us, at least, some few general observations concerning this temple of Ezekiel, as it representeth what should come to pass in the church of Christ.

First of all, there is but one temple, not many, showed to him,—which is in part, and shall be yet more fulfilled in the church of the New Testament, according to that, Zech. xiv. 8, “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem;” which is the same that we have, Ezek. xlvii. 1. Then follows, “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.” The like promise we find elsewhere: “I will give them one heart, and one way,” Jer. xxxii. 39; Ezek. xi. 19. It is observed, that for this very end of uniformity, the heathens also did erect temples, that they might all worship the same idol-god in the same manner. The plague of the Christian church hitherto hath been temple against temple, and altar against altar, “But thou, O Lord, how long?” Psal. vi. 3.

Secondly, Ezekiel’s temple and city are very large and capacious, as I showed in the beginning; and the city had three gates looking toward each of the four quarters of the world, Ezek. xlviii. 31-34: all this to signify the spreading of the gospel into all the earth; which is also signified by the holy waters issuing from the threshold of the temple, and rising so high that they were waters to swim in, Ezek. xlvii. 1, 5. God hath said to his church, “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes: for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left,” Isa. liv. 2, 3. A great increase of the church there was in the apostles’ times, Col. i. 6; but a far greater may be yet looked for, Rom. xi. 12. Though the enemy did come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a standard against him, Isa. lix. 19; “The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back,” Psal. cxiv. 3. But when the gospel cometh, “like a noise of many waters” (as the Prophet calls it, ver. 2, signifying an irresistible increase), it is in vain to build bulwarks against it: God will even break open “the fountains of the great deep,” and open “the windows of heaven” (Gen. vii. 11); and the gospel will prove a second flood, which will overflow the whole earth, though not to destroy it (as Noah’s did), but to make it glad; “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” Hab. ii. 14; Isa. xi. 9.

Thirdly, In this temple, beside the holy of holies, were three courts:(1394) the court of the priests; the court of the people, commonly called _Atrium Israelis_; and, without both these, _Atrium Gentium_, the court of the heathen, so called, because the heathen, as also many of those who were legally unclean, might not only come unto the mountain of the house of the Lord, but also enter within the outer wall (mentioned Ezek. xlii. 20), and so worship in that outer court, or _intermurale_; unto which did belong (as we learn from Josephus(1395)) the great east porch, which kept the name of _Solomon’s porch_,—in which both Christ himself did preach (John x. 23), and the apostles after him (Acts v. 12); by which means the free grace of the gospel was held forth even to heathens, and publicans, and unclean persons, who were not admitted into the court of Israel,—there to communicate in all the holy things: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” Luke xix. 10. This outer court of the temple is meant when it is said that the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery into the temple, and set her before Christ, John viii. 2, 3. Now all this will hold true answerably of the spiritual temple; for, _first_, As the uncircumcised and the unclean were not admitted into the temple among the children of Israel (Ezek. xliv. 9), so all that live in the church of Christ are not to be admitted promiscuously to every ordinance of God, especially to the Lord’s table, but only those whose profession, knowledge and conversation, after trial, shall be found such as may make them capable thereof: yet as heathens and unclean persons did enter into the outer court, and there hear Christ and his apostles, so there shall ever be in the church a door of grace and hope open to the greatest and vilest sinners who shall seek after Christ, and “ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward,” Jer. i. 5. _Secondly_, There shall be also somewhat answerable to the court of the children of Israel: God can raise up even of the stones children to Abraham (Matt. iii. 9); he will not want a people to tread in the courts of his house, and to inquire in his temple. _Thirdly_, And as in the typical temple there was a court for the priests, so hath the Lord promised to the church: “Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers,” Isa. xxx. 20; and again, “I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding,” Jer. iii. 15. _Fourthly_, And as there was a secret and most holy place, where the ark was, and the mercy-seat, and where the glory of God dwelt, so Christ hath his own “hidden ones” (Psal. lxxxiii. 3), “the children of the bride-chamber” (Matt. ix. 15), who, “with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2 Cor. iii. 18. There is also a time coming when God will open the secrets of his temple, and make the ark of his testament to be seen otherwise than yet it hath been; which shall be at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, Rev. xi. 15, 19.

Fourthly, The fourth thing wherein Ezekiel’s temple represented the church of Christ is in regard of the great strength thereof: it stood “upon a very high mountain,” chap. xl. 2. The material temple also in Jerusalem, as it is described by Josephus, was a very strong and impregnable place. Interpreters think that Cyrus was jealous of the strength of the temple, and for that cause gave order that it should not be built above threescore cubits high, whereas Solomon had built it sixscore cubits high, Ezra vi. 3. The Romans afterwards, when they had subdued Judea, had a watchful eye upon the temple, and placed a strong garrison in the castle Antonia (which was beside the temple), the commander whereof was called “the captain of the temple” (Acts iv. 1); and all this for fear of sedition and rebellion among the Jews when they came to the temple. Now the invisible strength of the spiritual temple is clearly held forth unto us by him who cannot deceive us: “Upon this rock,” saith he (meaning himself), “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” Matt. xvi. 18. The princes and powers of the world are more jealous than they need of the church’s strength; and yet (which is a secret judgment of God) they have not been afraid to suffer Babylon to be built in her full strength: “There were they in great fear where no fear was” (Psal. liii. 5); for when all shall come to all, it shall be found that the gospel and true religion is the strongest bulwark, and chief strength for the safety and stability of kings and states.

Lastly, The glory of this temple was very great, insomuch that some have undertaken to demonstrate(1396) that it was a more glorious piece than any of the seven miracles of the world, which were so much spoken of among the ancients. But the greatest glory of this temple was, that “the glory of the God of Israel” came into it, and “the earth shined with his glory,” ver. 2; Christ, the brightness of his Father’s glory (Heb. i. 3), walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Rev. i. 13), is and shall be more and more the church’s glory; therefore it is said to her, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” Isa. lx. 1. Surely as it was said of the new material temple, in reference to Christ, so it may be said of the new spiritual temple, which yet we look for, “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts,” Hag. ii. 9. Christ will keep the best wine till the end of the feast (John ii. 10); and he will bless our latter end more than our beginning, Ezek. xxxvi. 11.

That which I have said, from grounds of Scripture, concerning a more glorious, yea, more peaceable condition of the church to be yet looked for, is acknowledged by some of our sound and learned writers(1397) who have had occasion to express their judgment about it: and it hath no affinity with the opinion of an earthly or temporal kingdom of Christ, or of the Jews’ building again of Jerusalem and the material temple, and their obtaining a dominion above all other nations, or the like.

I shall now bring home the point. There are very good grounds of hope to make us think that this new temple is not far off; and (for your part) that Christ is to make a new face of a church in this kingdom,—a fair and beautiful temple for his glory to dwell in: and he is even now about the work.

For, first, “The set time” to build Zion is come, when the people of God “take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof,” Psal. cii. 13, 14, 16. The stones which the builders of Babel refused are now chosen for corner stones, and the stones which they chose do the builders of Zion now refuse: “They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations,” Jer. li. 26. Those that have anything of Christ and of the image of God in them begin to creep out of the dust of contempt, and to appear like stars of the morning. Nay, to go farther than that, the old stones, the Jews, who have been for so many ages lying forgotten in the dust, those poor “outcasts of Israel” (Psal. cxlvii. 2), have of late come more into remembrance, and have been more thought of, and more prayed for, than they were in former generations.

Secondly, Are there not great preparations and instruments fitted for the work? Hath not God called together, for such a time as this, the present Parliament, and the Assembly of Divines, his Zorobabels, and Jehoshuas, and Haggais, and Zechariahs? Are there not also hewers of stones, and bearers of burdens? much wholesome preaching, much praying and fasting, many petitions put up both to God and man? the covenant also going through the kingdom as the chief preparation of materials for the work? Is not the old rubbish of ceremonies daily more and more shovelled away, that there may be a clean ground? and is not the Lord by all this affliction humbling you, that there may be a deep and a sure foundation laid?

Thirdly, The work is begun, and shall it not be finished? God hath laid the foundation, and shall he not “bring forth the head-stone?” Zech. iv. 7, 9. Christ hath put Antichrist from his outerworks in Scotland, and he is now come to put him from his innerworks in England: “His work is perfect” (Deut. xxxii. 4), saith Moses; “I am Alpha and Omega (saith Christ), the beginning and the ending,” Rev. i. 8; “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God?” Isa. lxvi. 9.

I may add three other signs whereby to discern the time, from Rev. xi. 1, the place before cited: _First_, Is there not now a measuring of the temple, ordinances and worshippers, by “a reed like unto a rod?” The reed of the sanctuary in the Assembly’s hand, and the rod of power and law in your hand, are well met together. _Secondly_, There is a court, which before seemed to belong to the temple, left out and not measured: “From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath,” Matt. xxv. 29. The Samaritans of this time, who serve the Lord, and serve their own gods too (2 Kings xvii. 33, 34), and do after the manners of idolaters, have professed (as they of old to the Jews, Ezra iv. 2), that they would build with you; that they will be for the true Protestant religion as you are; that they will also consent to the reformation of abuses, for the ease of tender consciences. But God doth so alienate and separate betwixt you and them, by his overruling providence, discovering their designs against you, and their deep engagements to the popish party, as if he would say unto them, “Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem,” Neh. ii. 20; or as it is in the parable concerning those who had refused to come when they were invited, yea, had taken the servants of Christ and entreated them spitefully, and killed them,—the great king hath said in his wrath, that they shall not taste of his supper, and he sends forth his armies to destroy those murderers, and to burn up their city, Matt. xxii. 6, 7; Luke xiv. 24. Surely what they have professed(1398) concerning reformation is scarce so much as the Pope did acknowledge when reformation did begin in Germany. However, as it is our heart’s desire and prayer to God for them that they may be saved, so we are not out of hopes that God hath many of his own among them, unto whom he will give “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

Lastly, The time seemeth to answer fitly: The new temple is built when the forty-two months of the beast’s reign, and of the treading down the holy city (that is, by the best interpretation, twelve hundred and sixty years) come to an end. This computation, I conceive, should begin rather before the four hundredth year of Christ than after it; both because the Roman Emperor (whose falling was the Pope’s rising) was brought very low before that time by the wars of the Goths and other barbarous nations, and otherwise, which will appear from history; and further, because pope Innocentius(1399) (who succeeded about the year 401) was raised so high that he drew all appeals from other bishops to the apostolical see, according to former statutes and customs, as he saith. I cannot pitch upon a likelier time than the year 383, at which time (according to the common calculation) a general Council at Constantinople (though Baronius and some others reckon that Council in the year 381) did acknowledge the primacy of the bishop of Rome,(1400) only reserving to the bishop of Constantinople the second place among the bishops. Did not then the beast receive much power when this much was acknowledged by a council of one hundred and fifty bishops, though sitting in the East, and moderated by Nectarius, archbishop of Constantinople. Immediately after this council, it is acknowledged by one of our great antiquaries,(1401) that the bishop of Rome did labour mightily to draw all causes to his own consistory, and that he doth scarce read of any heretic or schismatic condemned in the province where he lived, but straight he had recourse to the bishop of Rome. Another of our antiquaries(1402) noteth not long before that Council, that Antichrist did then begin to appear at Rome, and to exalt himself over all other bishops.

Now if we should reckon the beginning of the beast’s reign about the time of that Council, the end of it will fall in at this very time of ours. But I dare not determine so high a point. God’s work will, ere it be long, make a clearer commentary upon his word. Only let this be remembered, We must not think it strange if, after the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years, Antichrist be not immediately and utterly abolished; for when that time is ended he makes war against the witnesses, yea, overcometh and killeth them. But that victory of his lasteth only three days and a half, and then God makes, as it were, a resurrection from the dead, and a tenth part of the great city falls before the whole fall; see Rev. xi. 3, 7, 11, 13. Whether this killing of the witnesses (which seemeth to be the last act of Antichrist’s power) be past, or to come, I cannot say: God knows. But assuredly, the acceptable year of Israel’s jubilee, and the day of vengeance upon Antichrist, is coming, and is not far off.

But now, is there no other application to be made of this point? Is all this said to satisfy curious wits, or, at the best, to comfort the people of God? Nay, there is more than so: it must be brought home to a practical use. As the assurance of salvation doth not make the child of God the more presumptuous, but the more humble (Ezek. xvi. 63); neither doth it make him negligent, but diligent in the way of holiness, and in all the acts of his spiritual warfare, Phil. iii. 13, 14; 2 Pet. i. 10; so that “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,” 1 John iii. 3: so answerably, the assurance of the new temple, and of the sweet days to come, serveth for a twofold practical use; even as David also applieth God’s promise of Solomon’s building the temple, 1 Chron. xxii. 9; for thus he speaketh to the princes of Israel, ver. 19, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise, therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God;” and this is, beside, the charge which he giveth to Solomon.

First, then, ye must set your heart and your soul to seek God, forasmuch as you know it is not in vain to seek him for this thing, Dan. ix. 2, 3. When Daniel understood by books that the seventy years of Jerusalem’s desolation were at an end, and that the time of building the temple again was at hand, then he saith, “I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” O let us do as he did! O let us “cry mightily unto God,” Jonah iii. 8; and let us, with all our soul, and all our might, give ourselves to fasting and prayer. Now, if ever, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” James v. 16.

Secondly, And the more actively you must go about the business. “Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord,” 1 Cor. xv. 58. What greater motive to action than to know that you shall prosper in it? “Arise therefore, and be doing.”

And so I am led upon the third and last part of the text, of which I shall speak but very little.

The doctrine is this: Reformation ends not in contemplation, but in action. The pattern of the house of God is set before us to the end it may be followed; and the ordinances thereof to the end they may be obeyed: “Give me understanding (saith David), and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart,” Psal. cxix. 34; “If ye know these things (saith Christ), happy are ye if ye do them,” John xiii. 17. The point is plain, and needeth no proof but application.

Let me therefore, honourable worthies, leave in your bosoms this one point more: Many of the servants of God who have stood in this place, and could do it better than I can, have been calling upon you to go on in the work of reformation: O “be not slothful in business,” Rom. xii. 11; and forget not to do as you have been taught. Had you begun at this work, and gone about the building of the house of God as your first and chief business, I dare say you should have prospered better. It was one cause, among others, why the children of Israel (though the greater number, and having the better cause too) did twice fall before Benjamin, because, while they made so great a business for the villainy committed upon the Levites’ concubine, they had taken no course with the graven image of the children of Dan (Jud. xviii. 30, 31), a thing which did more immediately touch God in his honour.

But I am confident errors of this kind will be now amended, and that you will, by double diligence, redeem the time. I know your trouble is great, and your cares many, in managing the war, and looking to the safety of the kingdom, yet mark what David did in such a case: “Behold, in my trouble (saith he) I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight,” 1 Chron. xxii. 14. David did manage great wars with mighty enemies, (2 Sam. v., viii., x., xi.,) the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Syrians; beside the intestine war made first by Abner (2 Sam. ii. 8), and afterward by Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 10), and after that by Sheba (2 Sam. xx. 1.) Notwithstanding of all this, in his trouble and poverty (the word signifieth both), he made this great preparation for the house of God; and if God had given him leave, he had, in his trouble, built it too, for you well know he was not hindered from building the temple by the wars or any other business, but only because God would not permit him.

Set before you also the example of the Jews, when the prophets of God did stir them up to the building of the temple, Ezra v. 1, 2. They say not, We must first build the walls of Jerusalem to hold out the enemy, but the text saith, “They began to build the house of God.” They were not full four years in building the temple, and finished it in the sixth year of Darius, Ezra. iv. 24 with vi. 15. Now all the rest of his reign did pass, and all Xerxes’ reign, and much of Artaxerxes Longimanus’s reign, before the walls of Jerusalem were built, for about that work was Nehemiah from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the two and thirtieth year (Neh. v. 14); and if great chronologers be not very far mistaken, the temple was finished fourscore and three years before the walls of Jerusalem were finished.(1403)

It is far from my meaning to cool your affection to the laws, liberties, peace, and safety of the kingdom. I desire only to warm your hearts with the zeal of reformation, as that which, all along, you must carry on in the first place.

One thing I cannot but mention: The reverend Assembly of Divines may lament (as Augustine in another case), _Heu, heu, quam tarde festino!_—_alas, alas, how slowly do I make speed!_

But since now, by the blessing of God, they are thus far advanced, that they have found, in the word of God, a pattern for presbyterial government over many particular congregations; and have found also, from the word, that ordination is an act belonging to such a presbytery, I beseech you improve that “whereto we have already attained” (Phil. iii. 16), till other acts of a presbytery be agreed on afterward. Yourselves know better than I do, that much people is perishing (Prov. xxix. 18), because there is no vision: “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few,” Luke x. 2, Give me leave, therefore, to quicken you to this part of the work, that, with all diligence and without delay, some presbyteries be associated and erected (in such places as yourselves in your wisdom shall judge fittest), with power to ordain ministers with the consent of the congregations, and after trial of the gifts, soundness and conversation of the men. In so doing you shall both please God and bring upon yourselves the blessing of many poor souls that are ready to perish (Job xxix. 13); and you shall likewise greatly strengthen the hearts and hands of your brethren in Scotland, joined in covenant and in arms with you. I say therefore again, “Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee,” 1 Chron. xxii. 16; yea, the Lord is with you (Hag. ii. 4, 5) according to the word that he hath covenanted with you, so his Spirit remaineth among you: Fear ye not, but “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE HOUSE OF LORDS, IN THE ABBEY CHURCH AT WESTMINSTER.

A

SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE THE HOUSE OF LORDS,

IN THE ABBEY CHURCH AT WESTMINSTER,

AUGUST 27, 1645;

BEING THE DAY APPOINTED FOR SOLEMN AND PUBLIC HUMILIATION.

BY GEORGE GILLESPIE,

MINISTER AT EDINBURGH, 1642.

“Aliae sunt leges Caesarum, aliae Christi: aliud Papinianus, aliud Paulus
noster praecipit.”—_Hieron. in Epitaphio Fabioloe_

EDINBURGH:

ROBERT OGLE AND OLIVER AND BOYD

M. OGLE & SON AND WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW. J. DEWAR, PERTH. W. MIDDLETON,
DUNDEE.

G. & R. KING, ABERDEEN. W. M’COMB, BELFAST

HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., AND JAMES NISBET AND CO., LONDON.

1645.

REPRINTED BY A. W. MURRAY, MILNE SQUARE, EDINBURGH

1844.