LIBRARY or THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. BT 700 .H68 1839 Howe, John, 1630-1705. The living temple n It I r t . V / 1 yy SELECT CHRISTIAN AUTHORS, WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS. N? 50. THE LIVING TEMPLE; OR, A GOOD MAN THE TEMPLE OE GOD. f REV. JOHN HOWE, A. Me WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LL.D., PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, SECOND EDITION. GLASGOW: WILLIAM COLLINS, S. FREDERICK ST. EDINBURGH : OLIVER & BOYD ; WILLIAM WHYTE & CO ; AND WILLIAM OLLPHANT & SON. DUBLIN : WILLIAM CURRY, JUNIOR, & CO. LONDON : WHITTAKER & CO.; HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO* AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. 1839. GLASGOW . PRINTED BY WILLIAM COLLINS & CGI i t. ft. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. It is well remarked by the excellent John Howe, in the following Treatise, that the “Living Temple ,’ 5 or, as it is frequently styled in the New Testament, the “ Kingdom of Heaven,” which God is setting up in the world, “ is not established by might or by power, hut by the Spirit of the Lord; who—as the structure is spiritual, and to be situated and raised up in the mind or spirit of man—works, in order to it, in a way suitable thereto; that is, very much by soft and gentle insinuations, to which are subser¬ vient the self-recommending amiableness and comely aspect of religion, the discernible gracefulness, and uniform course of such in whom it bears rule, and is a settled, living law. It is a structure to which there is a concurrence of truth and holiness ; the for¬ mer letting in a vital, directive, formative light—the latter, a heavenly, calm, and godlike frame of spirit.” To the same import is the declaration of our Sa¬ viour, when, in answer to the Pharisees, who de¬ manded of him when the kingdom of God should come, replied, “ The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or. VI Jo, there ! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” We are thus given to understand, that the kingdom which God is establishing in the world, does not consist in external forms .and observances—that it is not of a temporal, but of a spiritual character— and that, unlike the establishment of earthly king¬ doms, it cometh with none of those visible accompani¬ ments which meet the eye of public observation. The establishment of a new kingdom in the world carries much in it to strike the eye of an observer. There is a deal of visible movement accompanying the progress of such an event—the march of armies, and the bustle of conspiracies, and the exclamations of victories, and the triumph of processions, and the splendour of coronations. All these doings are per¬ formed upon a conspicuous theatre; and there is not an individual in the country, who, if not an actor, may not be at least an observer on the elevated stage of great and public revolutions. He can point his finger, and say, Lo, here ! or, lo, there ! to the symp¬ toms of political change which arc around him; and the clamorous discontent of one province, and the warlike turbulence of another, and the loud expres¬ sions of public sentiment at home, and the report of preparation abroad—all force themselves upon the notice of spectators; so that when a new kingdom is set up in the world, that kingdom cometh with observation. The answer of our Saviour to the question of the Pharisees, may be looked upon as a design to correct their misconceptions respecting the nature of the kingdom which he was to establish. There is no doubt that they all looked for a deliverance from Vll the yoke of Roman authority—that, in their eyes, the Captain of their Salvation was to be the leader of a mighty host, who, fighting under the special protection of God, would scatter dismay and over¬ throw among the oppressors of their country—that the din of war, and the pride of conquest, and the glories of a widely-extended dominion, and all the visible parade of a supreme and triumphant monarchy, were to shed a lustre over their beloved land. And it must have been a sore mortification to them all, when they saw the pretensions of the Messiah asso¬ ciated with the poverty, and the meekness, and the humble, unambitious, and spiritual character of Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot justify the tone of his persecutors; but we must perceive, at the same time, the historical consistency of all their malice, and bit¬ terness, and irritated pride, with the splendour of those expectations on which they had been feasting for years, and which gave a secret elevation to their souls under the endurance of their country’s bond¬ age, and their country’s wrongs. It marks—and it marks most strikingly—how the thoughts of God are not as the thoughts of man; that the actual ful¬ filment of those prophecies which related to the his¬ tory of Judea, turned out so differently from the an¬ ticipations of the men who lived in it; and that Jeru¬ salem, which in point of expectation, was to sit as mistress over a tributary world, was, in point of fact, torn up from its foundations, after the vial of God’s wrath had been poured in a tide of unexampled misery over the heads of its wretched people. Now what became all the while of those prophecies which respected the Messiah? What became of that VIII kingdom of God which the Pharisees enquired about, and of which, however much they were in the wrong respecting its nature, they were certainly in the right respecting the time of its appearance? Did it actually appear? Is it possible that it could be working its way, at the very time that every hope which man conceived of it was turned into the cruel¬ lest mockery? Is it possible that the truth of pro¬ phecy could be receiving its most splendid vindica¬ tion, at the very time that every human interpreter was put to shame, and that all that happened was the reverse of all that was anticipated ? Surely if any kingdom was formed at that time, when the besom of destruction passed through the land of Ju¬ dea, and swept the whole fabric of its institutions away from it—surely if it was such a kingdom as was to spread, through the seed of Abraham, the promised blessing among all the families of the earth, and that, too, when a cloud of ignominy was gathering upon the descendants of Abraham—surely if at the time when Pagans desolated the Land of Promise, and profaned the temple, and entered the holy place, and wantoned in barbarous levity among those sacred courts, where the service of the true God had been kept for many generations—surely if at such a time, and with such a burden of dis¬ grace and misery on the people of Israel, a kingdom was formed that was to be the glory of that people —then it is not to be wondered at that no earthly eye should see it under the gloom of that disastrous period, or that the kingdom of God, coming as it did in the midst of wars and rumours of wars, when men’s eyes were looking at other things, and their IX hearts were failing them, should have eluded their observation. In common language, a kingdom carries our thoughts to the country over which it is estab¬ lished. The kingdom of Sweden directs the eve of our mind to that part of Europe; and in the various places of the Bible where the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven are mentioned, this is one of the significations. But it has also other significations. It sometimes means, not the place over which the royal authority extends, but the royal authority itself. In the first sense, the kingdom of heaven carries our attention to heaven; but with this as the meaning, we could not under¬ stand what John the Baptist pointed to, when he said “ the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But, in the second sense, it is quite intelligible, and means that the authority which subordinates all the fami¬ lies of heaven to the one Monarch who reigns there, was on the eve of being established with effi¬ cacy on earth; or, in other words, that the prayer was now beginning its accomplishment— c{ Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” Hence it is that some translators, for the term kingdom , sub¬ stitute the term reign; and make our Saviour say, that the reign of God cometh not with observation, for the reign of God is within you. The will of man is the proper seat of the authority of God. It is there where rebellion against him exists in its principle; and where that rebellion is overthrown, it is there where the authority of God sits in triumph over all his enemies. Give him the will of man, and invest that will with an efficient control over a 2 X the doings of man, and you give him all he wants. You render him the one act of obedience which em¬ braces every other. 61 Give me thy heart,” is a precept, the performance of which involves in it the surrender of all the man to all the requirements. It brings the whole life under its authority ; for it takes that into its keeping out of which are the issues of life. And could these hearts of ours be brought into subjection to the first and great com¬ mandment, obedience would cease to be a task; for we would delight to run in the way of it. To do it would be our meat and our drink. We would know, in the experience of our own lives, that the commandments of God are not grievous. It is only grievous to do that which is against the bent of the will. But to do that which is with the bent of the will, contains in it all the facility of a natural and spontaneous movement. It is doing what is a plea¬ sure to ourselves. It is said to be one of the attri¬ butes of rebellion, that it walks in the counsel of its own heart, and in the sight of its own eyes. But this is only when the heart is alienated from the God of heaven, and the eyes are blinded by the god of this world. Give us a heart which the purifying grace of the Gospel hath made clean, and eyes to which Christ hath given light, and then it is no longer rebellion to walk in the counsel of such a heart, and in the sight of such eves. Obedience against the desires and tendencies of the heart is painful as the drudgery of a slave; and, in fact, to the eye of God, who thinks that if he has not the heart he has nothing, it is no obedience at all—but obedience, with these desires and tendencies, is car- / xi ried on with all the spring and energy of a pleasur¬ able exercise. And, oh ! precious privilege of him who is made by faith to partake in the heart-purify¬ ing influence of the Gospel! It is the very plea¬ sure which we take in the doing of God’s will, and which makes it so delightful to us, that gives to our performances all their value in the eye of God. We will be at no loss to understand the happiness of a well-founded Christian, when the doing of that which is in the hio-hest decree delightful to himseli, meets, and is at one, with all the security of God’s friendship and God’s approbation. We are now touching upon such an experience of the inner man as the world knoweth not, and are describing the mysteries of such a kingdom as the world discern- eth not; but whether all our readers go along with us or not, it remains true, that if the love of God be made to reign within, us, his will becomes our will. And this commandment proves itself to be the first of all; for when it is fulfilled, the fulfilment ol all the rest follows in its train—and the greatest of all; for it, as it were, takes a wide enough sweep to enclose them all, and to form a guard and a secu¬ rity for their observance. The reign of God on earth, then, is the reign of his will over the unseen movements of the inner man. This is the kingdom he wants to establish. It is the submission of that which is within us, that he claims as his due; and if it be withheld from him, all the conformity of our outer doings is a vain and an empty sacrifice. Give us a right mind towards God, and you give us, in the individual who owns that mind, all the elements of loyalty. It is there Xll \vhere his authority is felt and acknowledged to be a rightful authority. It is there where its require¬ ments are looked at by the understanding, and laid upon the conscience, and move the will with all the force of a resistless obligation, and form the purpose of obedience, and send forth that purpose, armed with the full power of a presiding influence, over every step and movement of his history. It is in the busy chamber of the mind where all that is great and es¬ sential in the work of obedience is carried on. The mighty struggle between the powers of heaven and of hell is for the possession of this little chamber. The subtle enemy of our race knows, that while he has this for his lodging-place, the empire is his own —and give him only the citadel of the heart, and he will revel in all the glories of his undivided monarchy. The strong man reigns in his house with the full authority of its master, till a stronger than he over¬ come him, and bind him, and take possession of that which he before occupied. And such is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. It is in the heart of man that he worketh, and is ever plying it with his wiles and contrivances, and turning its affections to the creature, and blinding it to all that is glorious or lovely in the image of the Creator; and by his power over the fancy, causing it to ima¬ gine a greatness, and stability, and a value, and an enjoyment in the things of the world which do not belong to them ; and whispering false promises to the ear of the inner man, and seducing him as he did the first of our race, so as to bring him into the snare of the devil, and to take him captive at his will. In the same manner, he who came to destroy the Xlll works of the devil, bends his main force to the quar¬ ter where these works are strongest, and their posi¬ tion is most advantageous to the enemy. The heart of man is the mighty subject of this spiritual con¬ test, and the possession of the heart is the prize of victory. To those who have not yet learned to take their lesson from the Bible, all this sounds like a fabulous imagination, or the legendary tale of an artful priesthood to a driveling and superstitious people. But it is all to be met with in God’s re¬ vealed communication. You are ignorant of what you ought to know, if you know not that a contest is going on among the higher orders of being for the mastery of all that is within you. Let Christ then dwell in you by faith. He is knocking at the door of your heart, and if you will open it to receive him, he will enter it. He will sweep it of all its corruptions. He will enable you to overcome, for then greater will be he that is in you than he that is in the world. The kingdom of God is righteous¬ ness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; and he making you, by the power of his Spirit, to abound in these fruits will in you make another addition to that living temple—that spiritual kingdom which God is establishing in the world. Man has revolted from God, and a fearful change has taken place in his moral constitution ; and thus the things of sight and of sense, instead of leading his thoughts to God, have become the idolatrous ob¬ jects of his affections. In his original state of inno¬ cence, man not only held direct and intimate commu¬ nion with God, but all that he saw, and all that he enjoyed, conducted his thoughts and his affections to XIV that Being whose love and whose authority reigned in supremacy over his heart. The gratification of his desire for created things, was then in perfect har¬ mony with the love of the Creator. And man would just now have been in this condition if he had not fallen. He would not have counted it his duty, to have violently counteracted his every taste, and every desire, for the things which are created. The practical habit of his life would not have been a constant and strenuous opposition to all that could minister delight to the sensitive part of his constitution. He would not have been ever and anon employed in thwarting the adaptations which God had ordained between the objects that are around him, and his organs of enjoyment. It is true, that when Eve put forth her hand to the for¬ bidden fruit, it was after she had looked upon the tree, and seen that it was good for food, and plea¬ sant to the eyes: but the very same thing is said of the other trees in the garden, “for out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.” Our first parents tasted of all these trees without offence,—and in that habitation of sweets many an avenue of enjoy¬ ment was open to them; and a thousand ways may well be conceived, in which the loveliness of sur¬ rounding nature would minister delight both to the eye and the feeling of our first parents,—and from every point of that external materialism which God had reared for his accommodation, would there beam a felicity upon the creature whom he had so organ¬ ized, as to suit his capacities of pleasure to his out¬ ward circumstances. We are not to conceive, that during that short-lived period of the world's inno¬ cence, and of heaven’s favour, there was no gratifi¬ cation transmitted to the soul of man from the sen¬ sible and created things which were on every side of him. His taste was gratified,—and amid the pure luxury, and among the delicious repasts of paradise, might be perceived in him a principle of desire, cor¬ responding to what in our days of depravity is termed the lust of the flesh. His eye was gratified,—and as he surveyed the beauties of his garden, and felt himself to be its vested and rightful proprietor, would he experience a principle of desire, which, in its transmission to a corrupt posterity, has now become the lust of the eye. His sense of superior dignity was gratified, — and as he stalked in benevolent majesty among the tribes of creation that had been placed beneath him, would he feel the kindlings of that very affection, which, tainted by the malignity of sin, has sunk down among his offspring into the pride of life. All these affections, which in a state of guilt have so virulent an operation on the heart, as to be opposite to the love of God,—there is not one of them but may have had a pure and a righteous counterpart in a state of innocence. And the whole explanation of the matter appears simply to be this. Adam lived at that time in com¬ munion with God. In all that he enjoyed, he saw a giver’s hand, and a giver’s kindness. That link, by which the happiness he derived from the use of the creature was associated with the love of the Creator, was clearly and constantly present with him. There was not one thing which he either tasted or saw, that was not regarded by him as a token of the Divine / XVI beneficence j insomuch that the expression of a Fa- ther’s care, and a Father’s tenderness, beamed upon his senses, from every one object with which his senses came into intercourse. Whatever he looked upon with the eye of his body, was but to him the mate¬ rial vehicle, through which the love of the great Au¬ thor of all found its way to him, with some new acces¬ sion of enjoyment; nor could there one pleasurable feeling then be made to arise, which was not most exquisitely heightened, and most intimately pervaded, by the grateful remembrance of him who had placed him in his present condition, and whose liberal hand had done so much to bless and to adorn it. In the case of a human benefactor, there is no difficulty in perceiving, that there is room in the heart, both for a sense of gratification from the gift, and for a sense of gratitude to the giver. In the case of the heavenly Benefactor, the union of these two things stood con¬ stant and inseparable, and was only dissolved by the fall. A sense of God mingled with every influence that came from the surrounding materialism upon our first parents. It impregnated all. It sanctified all. The things of sense did not detain them for a single moment from God; because, while busied with the work of enjoyment, they were equally busied with the work of gratitude. All that they tasted, or handled, or saw, were memorials of the Divinity; insomuch that his visible presence in the garden was never felt to be an interruption. It only made Him present to their senses, who was constantly present to their thoughts. It for a time withdrew them from some of the scenes, on which his character was imprinted; but it sum¬ moned them to a direct contemplation of the charac- XVII ter itself. While it suspended their enjoyment of a few of the tokens of his love, it gave them a nearer and more affecting enjoyment of its reality; and in¬ stead of reluctantly withdrawiug from those objects which were merely dear to them as the reflections of his kindness, when he called them to an act of fellow¬ ship with the kindness itself, did they recognise his voice, and obeyed it with ecstacy. Now, without adverting to the way in which the transition from the former to the present state of man’s moral nature has taken place—such in fact has been the transition, that the two states are not only unlike, but in direct and diametric opposition to each other—there is no such change in his physical constitution, but that what tasted pleasurably to him in his state of innocence, tastes pleasurably to him still—and what looked fair to him in external nature then, looks fair to him now—and in many instances, what regaled his senses in the one state, is equally fitted to regale them in the other. The purity of Eden did not lie in the want or the weakness of all physical sensation ; neither does the guilt of our ac¬ cursed world lie in the existence, or even in the strength, of physical sensation. But in the former state, the gift stood at all times associated in the mind of man with the giver. God rejoiced over his children to do them good ; and they, while re¬ joicing in the good that they obtained, felt it all to be heightened and pervaded by a sense of his kind¬ ness. Every new accession to their enjoyment, in¬ stead of seducing them from their loyalty, only served to confirm it; and brought a new accession to that love, which made their duty to be their delight, and XV111 their highest privilege and pleasure to be the keep¬ ing of his commandments. The moral and spiritual change which our race has undergone, consisted in this—that the tie in their minds, was broken, by which the enjoyment of the gift led to a sense and a recognition of the giver. It is the breaking asunder of this link which simply and essentially forms the cor¬ ruption of man. He drinks of the stream, without any recognition of the fouutain from which it flows. God is banished from his gratitude and from his thoughts. With him the whole business of enjoy¬ ment is made up of an intercourse between his senses, and the objects that are suited to them. There is no intercourse between his mind and that Being, who is the author both of his senses, and of all that is fitted to regale them. He makes use of created things, and has pleasure in the use of them. But in that pleasure he rests and terminates. In¬ stead of vehicles leading him to God, they are in his eye stationary and ultimate objects; the possession of which, and the enjoyment of which, are all that he aspires after. Pleasure is prosecuted for itself. Wealth is prosecuted for itself. Distinction is pro¬ secuted for itself. There is no wish on the part of natural men for a portion in any thing beyond these. God is not the object of their desire, and he is just as little the object of their dependence. It is neither God whom they are seeking, nor is it to God that they look for the attainment of what they are seeking. They count upon fortune, and experience, and the constancy of the course of nature, and any thing but the power, and the purposes, and the sove- reignty of God. He, in fact, is deposed from his XIX supremacy, both as an object of desire and an object of dependence. Men have deeply revolted from God; and they have raised the world, not into a rival, but into the sole and triumphant divinity of their adoration. The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, may have all had their counterpart in the constitution of Adam ere he fell; but instead of averting his eye from the Father, they brought the Father more vividly into his remem¬ brance—instead of intercepting God, they conducted both his thoughts and his affections to the Being who openeth his hand liberally, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. But with the diseased posterity of Adam, these affections are only so many idolatrous desires towards the creature—so many acts of hom¬ age towards the world, regarded in the light of a satisfying and independent Deity—and therefore is it said of them, that “they are not of the Father, but of the world.” Now, to bring this home to familiar experience— who is there, in looking forward with delight to some entertainment of luxury—or who is there, in pro¬ secuting with intense devotion some enterprise of gain—or who is there, in adding to the pomp of his establishment, that ever thinks of God as having fur¬ nished the means, or as having created the materials of these respective gratifications ? They look no farther than to the materials themselves. For the indulgence of these various affections, they draw not upon God, but upon this solid and visible world, to which they ascribe all the power and all the inde¬ pendency of God. They look not to any plea¬ sure which they enjoy as emanating from the first XX cause. They see it emanating from secondary causes; and with these do they stop short, and are satisfied. It is this which stamps the guilt of atheism on the whole practical habit and system of human life. In the prosecution of its objects, not one civil obligation may have been violated—not one deed may have been committed to forfeit the respect of society—not one thing may ever have been charged upon this world’s idolater to alienate the regard, but every thing may have been done by him to conciliate the kindness, and draw down upon him the flattery of his fellow-men. But, alas ! he has broken loose from God ! He lives from the cradle to the grave, without any practical recognition of Him in whom he lives, and moves, and has his being. A demonstra¬ tion of social virtue, so far from offending, may minis¬ ter to his complacency. But to bid him crucify his affections for the things of sense, is to bid him inflict a suicide upon his person. And thus, while benefi¬ cent in conduct, and fair in reputation among his fellows, may he in prospect be linked with the fate of a world that is soon to be burnt up, and in character be tainted with the spirit of a world that islyingin wicked¬ ness. And thus it is, that there may be spiritual guilt in the midst of social accomplishment—there may be wrath from heaven in the midst of applause and connivance from the world—there may be impend¬ ing disaster in the midst of imagined safety—there may be abomination in the sight of God, in the midst of highest esteem and popularity among men. There is nothing in the daily routine of this world’s luxury, or this world’s covetousness, or this world’s ambition, which suggests to its carnal and XXI earth-born children the conviction of sinfulness* The round of pleasure is described, or the career of adventure is prosecuted, or the path of aggrandize¬ ment is entered upon; and it does not once meet the imagination of this world’s votary, that, in every one of these pursuits, he is widening his departure from God. He is not aware of the deathly charac¬ ter of his habits; and, protect him only from the voice of human execration, he hears, or hears without alarm, that voice of truth which pronounces him wholly given over to idolatry. And yet can any thing be more evident, even of the most harmless and reput¬ able members of society, than that the gifts of a kind and liberal Father have stolen away from him the af¬ fections of his own children—than that they have taken up with another portion, than with him who originates and sustains them—than that they have built their foundation on the creature, and look on the Creator with the defiance at least of unconcern ? They in reality have disjoined themselves from God* Instead of being conducted by the sight of the world to the thought of God, they look no farther than the world, and it stands in their hearts contrasted with God. Instead of the one leading to the other, the one detains and withdraws from the other. They are so conversant with the world as to lose sight 0 f God. For this we can appeal to the conscience of every natural man, and on this we ground the affir¬ mation, that though in the keen pursuit of the money which purchaseth all things, he may have never devi¬ ated from the onward path of integrity, he has been receding by every footstep to a greater distance from heaven—and with an eye averted from God, has XXll been looking towards those things, the love of which Is opposite to the love of the Father. And it is because men are thus engrossed with the visible objects of time, that they have lost sight of their own individual concern in that spiritual king¬ dom which God is setting up in the world. Because it does not rank among the visibilities of earth, it is looked at by them with the most heedless indiffer¬ ence, and they regard its existence as a fiction of the imagination. The subject of that kingdom is in¬ deed invisible. It worketh its silent and unseen wav through the world of souls, and it may be mul¬ tiplying its objects, and widening the extent of its dominion every day, without the eye of man being able to perceive it. There is a day of re¬ velation coming; and the hidden things which are to be laid open on that day are the secrets of the heart. But, in the mean time, the heart is, in a great measure, shut up from observation ; and many of its movements will remain unnoticed and un¬ known till that day shall discover them. And we are expressly told, that that greatest of all move¬ ments, by which it turns from Satan unto God, is a hidden operation. It is said of the Spirit, who worketh this movement, that no man knoweth whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. It makes its noise¬ less way through streets and families. The visible instrument which God employs may come equally to all who are within its reach; but the effect which the Spirit giveth to that instrument, is not a matter of direct perception, nor can we tell who the individual is whose heart it will ply with the word of God, so as to give all the weight and power XXIU of a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. O how much of the inner man remains impenetrably hidden under all that is visible in the general aspect of soci¬ ety ! To man himself it is an unknown field, though the beings who are above man have all their eyes upon it. In looking to human affairs, it is the only field they deem worthy of contemplation. The frail and fleeting materials of common history are as nothing in the eye of those who count nothing important but that which has stamped upon it the character of eternity. To recommend it to them, it must have the attribute of endurance : or, in other words, it must be related to souls, which are the only subjects in this world that God hath endued with the vigour of immortality. Now the soul of man is invisible to us, nor can we see, as through a window, its desires, and its movements, and its silent aspirations. There is a thick covering of sense thrown over it; and thus it is, that what, to the eye of angels, ap¬ pears the only worthy object of attention in the his¬ tory of the species is, to the eye of man himself, an unknown mystery. His eye is engrossed with the glare of what is seen, and of what is sensible; and the secrecies of the soul lie on the back ground of his contemplation altogether. He knows as little of the busy doings which go on in the heart of his neighbour, as he knows of what goes on on the sur¬ face of some remote and undiscovered world. In the wildness of immensity, there are fields so distant as to be beyond the ken of eye or of telescope ; but there is also a field immediately around us, which lies wrapt in unfathomable secrecy. O it is little dwelt upon by man, whose thoughts are so taken up XXIV with what the eye seeth, and the ear can listen to. But on this field there are doings of mightier im¬ port than the whole visible universe lays before us. It forms part of the world of spirits. It is the field of discipline for eternity. It is the field on which is decided the fate of conscious and never-ending ex¬ istence. It is a province in the moral government of God, and in worth outweighs all the splendour and all the richness of that material magnificence which is around us. The earth is to be burnt up, and the heavens are to pass away as a scroll; but on this near, though unnoticed field, there is a mighty in¬ terest now forming, which will survive the wreck of all that is visible; and it is there that God gains ac¬ cessions to his kingdom which endureth for ever. But there are two remarks by which we would limit and define the extent of what is said by our Saviour, about the kingdom of God coming not with observa- tion. It holds true of every man who becomes the subject of that kingdom, that by his fruits ye shall know him. There is a visible style of conduct which bespeaks him to be a different man from others, and a different man from what he himself was before he entered into the kingdom of God. Let the reign of God be established over the inner man, and it will tell, and tell observably, upon the doings of the outer man. But remark here, that though the kingdom of God may be the subject of observation where it ex¬ ists, yet the bringing of that kingdom into existence, or, in other words, the coming of that kingdom may not be with observation. Now, what is true of an individual, is true of many. The formation of the kingdom of God, in the hearts of the majority of a XXV neighbourhood, would give rise to a spectacle fitted to strike the general eye; and there is something broadly visible in the complexion of a renovated and mo* ralised people. There is a change of aspect in the doings of every man who is born again, that meets the observation of his neighbours; and a suffi- cient number of such men would give rise to such a general change as to solicit general observation. But though the change, after it is established, may excite their notice, yet the coming on of the change may not excite their notice. The steps by which it is accom¬ plished may elude the notice of the generality alto¬ gether. The little stone may be too small to draw upon it the attention of a distant world; but it may compel their attention by its progress, and even long before it filleth the whole earth, the whole earth mav be filled with inquiries after it. The work of the Spirit is visible, but the working of the Spirit is not visible. He bloweth where he listeth ; and though the king¬ dom of God, that he is to establish in the world, shall swallow up all the rest, apd by its magnitude force it¬ self upon the general observation, yet, in the first stages of its progress, and in the act of coming, it may not be with observation. Our other remark is, that though the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, yet by the prophe¬ cies of God, the origin and the sudden enlargement of that kingdom have a place assigned to them in the march of visible history. The four great monarchies form conspicuous eras in the history of man. They come with observation, and they mark, in a general way, the infancy, and the growth, and the matured establishment of that kingdom which cometh not with B 50 XXVI observation. We lie at the feet of NebuchadnazzaPs image. This is the place in the descending scale of ages which we occupy; and the present political aspect of Europe was seen afar by the prophet Da-* niel through the vista of many generations. The ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided, form the closing scene in his magnificent re¬ presentation of futurity ; and it is this distant period which, in the mighty range of his prophetic eye, he is employed in contemplating, when he tells us of a kingdom made without hands, and, from the size of a little stone, growing into a mountain which filled the whole earth. The coming of these ten kingdoms carried on it a broad aspect, which addressed itself to the senses of men. They were ushered in with all the notes and characters of preparation. Kings met and kings combated on a conspicuous arena; the loud uproar of the battle was heard, and the rumour of it spread itself; and each of the predicted kingdoms made its entrance into the world, with the pomp, and the circumstance, and the visible insigna of war. It is in the time of these kingdoms that the kingdom of God is to break forth on every side; and the want of those visible accompaniments, which mark the progress and the establishment of other kingdoms, signalizes the kingdom of God, and stamps upon it the peculiar character of coming not with observation. There is a silence and a secrecy in the progress of this king¬ dom, which do not belong to the others. It has its signs too, but they are not such signs as the Phari¬ sees were looking for, when they asked about the kingdom of God, and about the signs of its appear¬ ance. The interpreters of prophecy have been watch- XXV11 ing, for whole centuries, all the variations which take place in the restless politics of this world—they have been pursuing every fluctuation in the ever-changing history of the times,—hut the ten toes of Nebuchad¬ nezzar’s image still represent the great outline of European society. It is not in the revolutions of political power that we are to look for the direct or immediate symptom of God’s approaching kingdom. The effect of that kingdom is to revolutionize the hearts of men. The Alexander of a former day, filled with generous resentment at the wrongs of his out¬ raged country, and gathering energy from despair, and marching at the head of a population rallying around the standard of revenge, out of all his provinces, and aided by the tempests of heaven, might have over¬ whelmed that power which had spread its desolating triumphs over half the monarchies of Europe. But all this might have been done, and the little stone have remained all the while stationary, and the flock of Chrirt received no addition to its numbers ; and should the same rapacity of ambition exist among the rulers of the world, and the same profligacy among the people, and the same baleful infidelity among the learned, and the same lofty contempt for the holy spirit and doctrines of the Gospel among the upper classes of society, and the same devotedness to the good things of life spreading among all its classes a spiritual indifference to the law of God—then the kingdom of God has made no progress, and all the characters of Antichrist stand as deeply engraved as ever upon the aspect of the existing generation. But should the heart of the present Nicholas receive a se¬ cret visit from that Spirit which bloweth where he list- XXV111 eth—should it be turned, with all its affections, to the Saviour who died for him—should the renewed soul of the monarch own in silent reverence the power of a higher monarchy, and, instead of his plans and his purposes of ambition and war, should his heart be filled with the holy ambition of dedicating all his means and all his energies to the spread of Chris¬ tianity in the world ; then, in the solitude of his inner chamber, an unseen preparation might be going on for helping forward the establishment of the kingdom of God : and when we think of the small place which these doings occupy in the columns of a gazette, or in the deliberations of a cabinet, or in the earnest contemplation of the general mind in Europe—above all, when we think that they are chiefly carried on by men who, through the great mass of society, are derided or unknown—then may we well understand how a kingdom, spreading its unseen influence through such private channels, and earning all its triumphs in the heart and bosoms of individuals, is a kingdom which cometh not with observation. / We may easily understand, from what has been stated, how inefficient must be many of the methods which are actually resorted to for extending true reli¬ gion, or the kingdom of God, in the world. It is not by crusading it against the power of infidel go¬ vernments, that you will establish this kingdom. It is not by enacting it against the heresy of unscriptural opinions, that you will carry forward the establishment of this kingdom. It is not by the solemn deliberations of a legislature, sitting in judgment over questions that can only be carried into effect by the civil autho¬ rity of the state, that you can at all help forward the XXIX establishment of this kingdom in the world. We will venture to say, that the mad enterprise of the middle ages did not add one subject to the kingdom of God. They may have stormed the holy city, so as to plant upon its battlements the standard of Chris¬ tendom ; but they did not storm a single human heart, so as to plant within it a principle of holiness. The citadel of the heart must be plied with another en¬ gine : and the strong man who reigns and who occu¬ pies there, may smile and may sit in secure defiance to the warlike preparations of a whole continent. No external violence of any kind can force the will and the principle of man to its subserviency. Whatever effect it may have on the territory of earthly princes, it cannot add a single inch to the territory of the kingdom of God; and that whether the instrument of religious frenzy be an army or a parliament, after- expending all its force, and doing nothing, it is at length, by the working of another instrument, and the silent but powerful efficacy of another expedient, that we make a way for the establishment of God’s Living Temple in the world. This brings us to the question. What is this in¬ strument ? The Spirit of God is the agent in every conversion of every human soul from Satan unto God. He is the alone effectual worker in this mat¬ ter, but he worketh by instruments; and it is our part to put them in readiness, and to do those things to the doing of which he stands pledged to impart the efficacy of his all-subduing influences. It was the Spirit, and he alone, who gave the apostles all the enlargement they got on the day of Pentecost: but they put themselves in readiness, by obeying the XXX prescribed direction to go to Jerusalem; and there they waited and they prayed for the promise of the Father. Had they not been at their prescribed post, they would have obtained no part whatever in the promised privilege; and in like manner we, with every sentiment of dependence on the power of the Spirit, should, both for ourselves and others, do those things in the doing of which alone we have reason to expect that he will come down with all that energy of im¬ pression, and all that richness of gift and of endow¬ ment, which belong to him. The apostles were the human instruments for the dispensation of the Spirit in those days; and we cannot do better than to take our lesson from them, and observe what they had to do, that the Spirit of God, working along with them, might turn the hearts of men, and extend the proper kingdom of God over the proper ground which that kingdom has to occupy. They laid before those to whom they addressed themselves the word of God, and they prayed for the Spirit of God, that he might take hold of his own instrument, and make it bear with effect upon the consciences and the understand¬ ings of men. The lesson is a short one, but it com¬ prises all that we have to do in the work of extending Christianity through the world. Be it on our own behalf, and with a view to bring down upon our own souls the benefits of the Gospel, and the best thing we can turn ourselves to is to read diligently the Bible, and to pray diligently for that Spirit, who pours the brilliancy of a warm and affecting light over all its pages. Be it on behalf of others, and with a view to secure to them the benefits of the Gospel, then, if they are immediately around us, the best XXXI thing we can do is to ply them with the instructions of the Bible, and to pray for the coming down of that power which can alone give these instructions all their efficacy. Hence the stationary apparatus of a country where Christianity is established—consisting of schools, where the reading of the Bible is taught; and churches, where the meaning of the Bible is ex¬ pounded; and official men, whose business it is to pray themselves, and to press the exercise of prayer on others, to that God who orders intercessions in behalf of all, because he willeth all to be saved. But should it be in behalf of men who live in a distant country—and the precept of “ Go and preach the Gospel to every creature,” gives a legitimacy to the attempts of Christianizing them, which all the ridi¬ cule and all the wisdom of this world cannot over¬ throw—then the stationary apparatus becomes a moveable one; and the word of God, translated into other languages, and human messengers to carry that word and to expound it—and Christians abroad to spread around them the message of salva¬ tion, and Christians who stay at home praying to the God of all influence, and giving him no rest till he pour such a blessing on other lands that there shall be no room to receive it. This lays before us the godly apparatus, which we rejoice to observe is in growing operation among the men of the present day : and while Bible Societies, and Missionary So¬ cieties, and Praying Societies, have the full cry of ridicule discharged upon them by the men of the world—while the disgrace of an obscure and con¬ temptible fanaticism is made to lie upon all these operations—while the affairs of temporal kingdoms. XXXII and the fluctuations of their ever-veering politics, fill up the columns of every newspaper, and form the talk of every company—there are holy men now dealing with the hearts and the principles of the people in our own country, and of savages in distant lands; and amid all the noisy contempt and resistance they have gathered around them, with the sanction of apostolical example, and the persevering use of apostolical instruments, are they working their silent but effectual way to the magnificent result, and the final establishment of the kingdom of God in the world. And thus it is, that men become themselves liv¬ ing temples of God, and that God’s living temple, his spiritual kingdom, is extended and established throughout the world. And we cannot better reply to the question, What is the best instrument for pro¬ moting and extending the kingdom of God in the world ? than by referring our readers to the following treatise of John Howe, “ The Living Temple, or a Good Man the Temple of God.” This treatise, which we have introduced to the notice of our readers is less known to the Christian public than some of the other productions of this celebrated author. It is not because that, either in itself or in its subject, it possesses less worth or less importance than those pieces of this author which are better, known and have acquired greater popularity—for in respect to both, it holds a high rank among the numerous and valuable productions of this much- admired writer. But we apprehend the reason of its not obtaining such general circulation arises from the circumstance of the main subject of the treatise XXX111 —the formation of God’s Living Temple in the world—being intermingled with his lengthened and elaborate demonstrations of the existence of God— and from his profound and metaphysical controversies with Spinoza and the French infidels, respecting the uncreated Being, and the eternal self-existence of the Deity, extending through nearly half the original treatise. And, though we hold his profound and erudite exposure of atheism, to contain the most perfect and unanswerable demonstration of the ex¬ istence of a God with which we are acquainted — yet the deep and metaphysical character of his argu¬ mentation, renders it too occult and abstruse to be easily apprehended by ordinary readers; and thus is it fitted to repel them from entering on a piece of superlative excellence. It was under this conviction, and to render the treatise more acceptable and use¬ ful to the Christian public, that we have divested the present edition of those elaborate disquisitions, into which he had been drawn by the French infidels, and which were extraneous to the specific design of the work, and have only presented our readers with what relates to the author’s main subject—the method by which the reign of truth and holiness is established in the hearts of men, in order to their becoming temples of the Living God. To those who desiderate a full and comprehensive exhibition of the Gospel scheme, for the restoration of our fallen and apostate race to the lost image and communion of the Godhead, we would recommend this invaluable treatise to their perusal. He gives a deeply affecting but justly descriptive representa¬ tion of the apostacy, and consequent ruin and de- b 2 XXXIV pravity of man, in his melancholy but magnificent delineation of the ruined, desolate, and forsaken con- dition of that noble Livimg Temple, where God once dwelt, and which was once blessed and beautified by the Divine Presence. And he gives a no less power¬ ful and scriptural representation of the wisdom and glory, of the plans and purposes, of the Divine Mind, for the rebuilding of this fallen and deserted temple by Emmanuel, that God might, in perfect consistency with the holiness and righteousness of his august government, again tabernacle with man—and that the love, and the loyalty, and the obedience which were due to heaven’s great Monarch, might be re¬ established in the hearts of men, in order that they might again be restored to that blissful communion and intercourse with God which they had forfeited by their apostacy. And who can estimate the might and the magnitude of that great undertaking, by which Emmanuel achieved the restoration of this ruined temple ? How the temple of his own body had to be destroyed, that;by his sufferings and death he might expiate the guilt of an apostate world— and make reparation for the offence done to Heaven’s righteous government—and effect a reconciliation between God and his alienated creatures—and ob¬ tain the communication of the Holy Spirit to reno¬ vate and adorn this desolated ruin, that the great Inhabitant might return and again occupy his long- deserted temple. It is because men are insensible to the extent of the ruin and the desolation which sin has effected, that they are so insensible to the greatness of that deliverance which the Saviour had to achieve for the restoration of man to the en¬ joyment of the Divine Presence. XXXV To establish the reign of truth and holiness in the hearts of men, and thus to render them fit temples for the Divinity, is the grand and ultimate design of God in that wonderful dispensation which is revealed in the Gospel. Oh it is little thought of by men, in whose hearts the god of this world has established his reign, what a mighty change must be effected ere they become living temples of God ! It is because they are so insensible to the nature and extent of the ruin, that they are so insensible to the magnitude of that change which they must undergo ere they be¬ come fit for the Divine residence. It is not a repair, but a rebuilding. It is not a reform, but a thorough regeneration. It is fearful to think of the delusion which prevails in the great mass of society respecting this mighty change. It is not merely the infidel and the practical atheist, to whom Howe so well addresses the lauguage of terror and alarm, that require to be awakened. When we think of the spiritless indif¬ ference, and cold irreligion, of many professors of Christianity—when we think of the lukewarm de¬ cencies, and heartless conformities, of many who pro¬ fess their attachment to the Saviour—and compare them with that spirituality of mind, and renovation of heart, which this excellent author so well sets forth, as constituting the Living Temple, it may well alarm the consciences of many a decent and reputable professor of the Gospel. And it ought to reach conviction to the heart of many, whose com¬ placency in their own state has never been disturbed, that, amidst the many earth-born qualities and en¬ dowments with which their character iii society is adorned—while their hearts are devoted to earthli- XXXVI ness, and the world forms the object of their idola¬ trous affections—they are still unfit for the Divine residence, and are living without God in the world. Now, it is the scriptural view of the magnitude of the change that is implied in becoming a Christian, which makes Christianity, in the entire sense of the term, so revolting both to the pride and the sagacity of nature. It looks so wild and impossible an en¬ terprise to draw away the affections from that which appears to give life and motion to the whole of human industry. The demand appears so extravagant, when asked to renounce our liking for what all men like —and we appear to be pushing the exactions of re¬ ligion so unreasonably far, when we represent it as incompatible with the love of wealth, or grandeur, or animal gratification—that, to the eye of many a cool and sober-minded citizen, it appears in the light of a very unlikely speculation. With the eye of a strong practical understanding, much and judi¬ ciously exercised in the realities of business, he re¬ gards the man of such lofty and spiritual lessons as a visionary altogether—but he shrewdly guesses that there is no danger of obtaining many real disciples to a system, so utterly at variance with the most urgent principles of the human constitution. Now, to repel the contempt and also the apparent common sense of all this resistance, we might easily demonstrate, that without any mitigation whatever of the spirit of Christianity, the service of God would still remain a reasonable service. But we shall con¬ tent ourselves with urging upon you one argument which the Bible furnishes, which is, that the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. There is a XXXVII result pointed to here, ye sage and calculating men, who are looking so intently forward to the result of your varied speculations. There is an event which is surely coming upon you all, and which will put to shame all the glory of secular wisdom, and hurry to a prostrate ruin all the might and magnifi¬ cence of your groveling enterprises. In a few little years, and time will arbitrate this question. It will tell us who is the visionary—he who is wise for this world, or he who is wise for eternity. A day is coming, when the busy ambition of your lives will all be broken up—when death will smile, in ghastly contempt, over the vanity of earthly affections— when, summoning you away from this warm and com¬ fortable dwelling-place, he will call your body to its grave, and your spirit to its reckoning—and upon the falling down of that screen which separates the two worlds, will it appear that the man who has sought his portion among the schemes, and the pursuits, and the passing shadows of our present state, was indeed the visionary. With this element of computation do we neutralize all the contempt which nature feels and nature expresses against the abstractions of a spiritual Christianity—and pronounce of him who disowns it, that he is indeed the blind and pitiable maniac, wast¬ ing himself upon trifles, and lost and bewildered among the frivolities of an idiot’s dream. On entering some busy place of commercial inter¬ course, and perceiving what it is that forms the ruling desire of every heart, and the ruling topic of every con¬ versation—and feeling the resistless evidence that is before him, of the world being the resting-place of every individual, and its perishable objects forming all that XXXVU1 they long for, and all that they labour after—and, at the same time, observing what a face of respectable intelligence is thus lavished on the pursuits of earth- liness—a Christian looker-on cannot but feel the strength of that discountenance which is thus laid on the views and the principles of spiritual men. The vast aggregate of mind and of example in the world appears to be against him; and he feels as if, left alone to his own visionary speculation, a gaze of universal con¬ tempt was directed against that peculiarity, in which he meets so few to share and to sympathise with him. But let him only look a little farther on, and this will both revive his confidence, and retort on the whole opposing species the very charge by which he was well nigh overwhelmed. In a few years, and all that is visible of the mass of life, and thought, and ambi¬ tion, that is before him, will be a mouldering mass of dust and rottenness in the churchyard. There is evermore a rapid transference of that living crowd, one by one, from the place of business to the place of burial. In a few years, and the transference will be completed, and every one of these intense, and eager, and speculative beings, shall have disappeared from this busy scene, and shall have gone to share in the still more awfully interesting and important scenes of eternity. Edinburgh, June , 1829. T. C. CONTENTS. Page Introduction,.41 Chap. I. Atheists have made it more necessary to defend Religion, and a Temple in general, than this or that mode of Religion. Better defended by practice than argument, 50 Chap. II. The two more principal grounds which a Temple supposes. First, The existence of God. Secondly, His conversableness with men, ..... 63 Chap. III. The second principal ground which a Temple supposes. God’s conversableness with men. Reflections on the Atheistical temper,.81 Chap. IV. Man’s Apostacy from God, and the vitiated state of his nature. The Temple of God hereby made waste and desolate, and become unfit for the Divine Pre¬ sence, ......... 110 Chap. V. The restitution of this Temple undertaken by the Emmanuel. The blessed God hath laid the platform and foundations of his present Temple in Emmanuel, 136 Chap. VI. The necessity of this constitution of Emmanuel to the erecting God’s Temple in the world, . . 176 Chap. VII. God’s rights so unalienable that he cannot quit them to his wrong. A sufficient recompense on this ac¬ count necessary,.* . 201 xl CONTENTS. Page Chap. VIII. That no less a recompense to the Divine government was sufficient than that made by Emmanuel^ 219 Chap. IX. The Communication of the Holy Spirit neces¬ sary to the Formation of the Living Temple. The Spirit given only through Christ,.. 242 Chap. X. The Holy Spirit is given both as a Builder and as an Inhabitant of this Temple, ..... 263 Chap. XI. The Holy Spirit is given as an Inhabitant of this Temple, ....... -284 THE LIVING TEMPLE. INTRODUCTION. This Living Temple is quite of another constitution and make than that at Jerusalem, and 66 not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;” so what is requisite to the interest and service of it is much of another nature. Entire devotedness to God, sincerity, humility, charity, refinedness from the dross and baseness of the earth, strict sobriety, dominion of one’s self, mastery over impotent and ignominious passions, love of justice, a steady pro¬ pension to do good, delight in doing it, have con¬ tributed more to the security and beauty of God’s temple on earth—conferred on it more majesty and lustre—done more to procure it room and reverence among men, than the most prosperous violence ever did : the building up of this temple, even to the lay¬ ing on the top-stone, (to be followed with the accla¬ mations of c Grace, Grace,’) being that which must be done, not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. Which, inasmuch as the structure in spiritual, and to be situated and raised up in the mind 42 or spirit of man, works, in order to it, in a way suit¬ able there. That is, very much by soft and gentle insinuations, unto which are subservient the self- recommending amiableness and comely aspect of reli¬ gion ; the discernible gracefulness and uniform course of such in whom it bears rule, and is a settled living law. Hereby the hearts of others are captivated and won to look towards it: made not only desirous to taste its delights, but, in order thereto, patient also of its rigours, and the rougher severities which their drowsy security and unmortified lusts do require should accompany it: the more deeply and throughly to attemper and form them to it. Merely notional discourses about the temple of God, and the external forms belonging to it, being unaccompanied with the life and power to which they should be adjoined, either as subservient helps, or comely expressions thereof, do gain but little to it in the estimation of discerning men. Much more have the apparently useless and un¬ intelligible notions, with the empty formalities too arbitrarily affixed to it, by the unreformed part of the Christian world, even there exposed it to contempt, where the professed design had been to draw to it respect and veneration. A temple that is the seat of serious, living reli¬ gion, is the more venerable and the more extensive, the more defensible and the more worthy to be de¬ fended, by how much it is the less appropriate to this or that sect and sort of men, or distinguished by this or that affected, modifying form ; that which, accord¬ ing to its primitive designation, may be hoped, and ought to be resort of all nations: which it is vain 43 to imagine any one, of this or that external form, not prescribed by God himself, can ever be; unless we should suppose it possible that one and the same human prince, or power, could ever come to govern the world. Such uniformity must certainly suppose such a universal monarchy as never was, and we easily apprehend can never be. Therefore, the belief that the Christian religion shall ever be¬ come the religion of the world, and the Christian church become the common universal temple of man¬ kind; that 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, of an attractive power, most peculiarly suitable to human nature: “ we love him, because he first loved us.” 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 desti¬ tute 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 propa¬ gating 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—testifying 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. Some¬ what 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, 66 We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love,” &c. After which it shortly follows, cs We love him, because he first loved us ; as if he should say, £ The way of God’s bringing us to that love-union with himself, that we by love dwell in him, and he in us, is by his repre¬ senting himself a Being of love.’ Untill 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 re¬ presentation of God’s love towards us, save in Em¬ manuel ? This is the sum of the ministry of recon¬ ciliation, or, which is all one, of making men love God; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, &c. This was the very make and frame, the constitution and design of the original temple , to be the “ Tabernacle of witness;” a visible 156 testimony of the love of God, and of his kind and gracious propensions towards the race of men, how¬ ever they were become an apostate and degenerate 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, wherein 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 Divine glory was familiarly visible, the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, shining with mild and gentle rays, such as should allure, not affright us, nor their terror make us afraid. A veil is most condescendingly put on, lest majesty should too potently strike unaccustomed and misgivingminds; and what is more terrible of this glory is allayed by being interwoven with 66 grace and truth.” Upon this account might it now truly be proclaimed, “ Be¬ hold, the tabernacle of God is with men!” That is performed which once seemed hardly credible, and (when that temple was raised that was intended hut for a type and shadow of this) was spoken of with wondering expostulation : u In very deed will God dwell with men on earth !” Whereas it might have been reasonably thought this world should have been for ever forsaken of God, and no appearance of him ever have been seen here, unless with a design of 157 taking vengeance ; how unexpected and surprising a thing was this, that in a state of so comfortless dark- ness and desolation, the “ day-spring from on high should visit it,” and that God should come down and settle him in so mean a dwelling on purpose to seek the acquaintance of his offending disaffected creatures! But chiefly and more eminently this his gracious in¬ clination was testified,— By the manner and design of his leaving this his earthly abode, and yielding that his temple to destruc¬ tion : “ Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up.” This, being an animated living temple, could not be destroyed without sense of pain, unto which it could not willingly become subject but upon design ; and that could be no other than a design of love. When he could have commanded twelve legions of angels to have been the guardians of this temple, to expose it to the violence of profane and barbarous hands ! this could proceed from nothing but love; and greater love could none show, especially if we consider what was the designed event. This temple was to fall but single, that it might be raised manifold: it was intended to be multiplied by being destroyed—as himself elegantly illustrates the matter: “Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit;” which he after¬ wards expresses without a metaphor,—“ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,” signifying, as it follows, the death he should die, “ will draw all men unto me.” We will not here insist on what was said before, that hereby the way was opened for the emission of the Spirit, which, when it came forth, performed such 158 wonders in this kind, creating and forming into tem¬ ples many a disaffected unwilling heart. Whence it may be seen, that he forsook that his present dwell¬ ing; not that he might dwell here no longer, but only to change the manner of his dwelling, and that he might dwell here more to common advantage; the thing he intended when he came down. He came down that, by dying and descending low into the lower parts of the earth, he might make way for a glorious ascent; and ascended, that he might fill all things; that he might give gifts to men, even the rebellious also, that he might dwell among them. Not, I say, to insist on this, which shows the power by which those great effects were wrought, we may also here consider the way wherein they were wrought; that is, by way of representation and demonstration of the Divine love to men. How brightly did this shine in the glorious ruin and fall of this temple ! Herein, how did redeeming love triumph ! how mightily did it conquer and slay the enmity that wrought in the minds of men before ! Here he over¬ came by dying, and slew by being slain. Now were his arrows sharp in the hearts of enemies, by which they became subject. What wounded him did, by a strong reverberation, wound them back again. How inwardly were thousands of them pierced by the sight of him whom they had pierced ! How sharp a sting was in those words, u Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ !” for it immediately follows, 6( When they heard this, they were pricked to the heart.” They that cruci¬ fied him are crucified with him, are now in agonies, 159 and willing to yield to any tiling they are required —“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” He may have temples now for taking them; the most obdurate hearts are overcome; and what could be so potent an argument? what so accommodate to the nature of man—so irresistible by it? To behold this live-temple of the living God, the sacred habita¬ tion of a Deity, full of pure and holy life and vigour, by vital union with the eternal Godhead, voluntarily devoted and made subject to the most painful and ignominious suffering, purposely to make atonement for the offence done by revolted creatures against their rightful Lord ! What rocks would not rend at this spectacle; enough to put the creation (as it did) into a paroxysm, and bring upon it travailing pangs! And how strange if the hearts of men, only next and most closely concerned, should alone be unmoved, and without the sense of such pangs! Well might it be said, “ I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men,” without any such diminishing sense as to mean by that all a very few only; not intending so much by it the effect wrought, as the power or natural apti¬ tude of the cause. As if he should say, ‘This were enough to vanquish and subdue the world, to mollify every heart of man; and to leave the character upon them of most inhuman creatures, and unworthy to be called men, that shall not be drawn.’ It might be expected that every one that hath not abandoned humanity, or hath the spirit of a man in him, should be wrought upon by this mean : and they cannot but incur most fearful guilt, even all men, who, once having notice of this matter, are not effectually wrought upon by it. 160 Upon which account the apostle asks the Gala¬ tians, (who had not otherwise seen this sight than as the Gospel narrative had represented it to them,) who had bewitched them that they should not obey, before whose eyes Christ had been set forth crucified among them ? intimating, that he could not account them less than bewitched whom the representation of Christ crucified did not captivate into his obedience. And since, in his crucifixion, he was a sacrifice, that is, placatory and reconciling, and that reconciliations are always mutual, of both the contending parties to one another; it must have the proper influence of a sacri¬ fice immediately upon both, and as well mollify men’s hearts towards God, as procure that he should express favourable inclinations towards them. That is, that all enmity should cease and be abolished for ever; that wrongs be forgotten, rights restored, and entire friendship, amity, and free converse, be renewed, and be made perpetual. All which signifies, that by this mean the spirits of men be so wrought upon that they render back to God his own temple, most will¬ ingly, not merely from an apprehension of his right, but as overcome by his love; and valuing his pre¬ sence more than their own life. Guilt is very apt to be always jealous. No wonder if the spirits of men, conscious of so great wrong done to God, (and a secret consciousness there may be even where there are not very distinct and explicit reflections upon the case,) be not very easily induced to think God re¬ concilable. And while he is not thought so, what can be expected but obstinate aversion on their part ? For what so hardens as despair ? Much indeed might be collected, by deeply-considering minds, of 161 a propension, on God’s part, to peace and friendship, from the course of his providence, and present dis¬ pensation towards the world; his clemency, long- suffering, and, most of all, his bounty towards them. These lead to repentance in their own natural ten¬ dency : yet are they but dull insipid gospel in them¬ selves to men drowned in sensuality, buried in earth- liness, in whom the divine Spirit breathes not, and who have provoked the blessed Spirit to keep at a distance, by having stupified and laid asleep the con¬ sidering power of their own spirit. Nor are these the usual means, apart and by themselves, which the Spirit of God is wont to work by upon the hearts of men, as experience and observation of the common state of the Pagan world doth sadly testify; and without the concurrence of that blessed Spirit, even the most apt and suitable means avail nothing. But now where there is so express a testification, as we find in the Gospel of Christ, of God’s willing¬ ness to be reconciled; a proclamation distinctly made, that imports no other thing but glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men; (for confirmation whereof, the Son of God incarnate is represented slain, and offered up a bloody sacri¬ fice ; and that we might see at once both that God is reconcilable, by the highest demonstration ima¬ ginable, and how or upon what terms he comes to be so;) no place for reasonable doubt any longer remains. We have before our eyes, what, by the wonderful strangeness of it, should engage the most stupid minds to consider the matter; what ought to assure the most misgiving, doubtful mind, that God is in good earnest, and intends no mockery or deceit 162 in his offer of peace ; and what ought to melt, mollify, and overcome the most obdurate heart. Yea, not only what is in its own nature most apt to work to- • wards the producing these happy effects is here to be found, but wherewith also the Spirit of grace is ready to concur and work; it being his pleasure, and most fit and comely in itself, that he should choose to unite and fall in with the aptest means, and apply himself to the spirits of men in a way most suitable to their own natures, and most likely to take and prevail with them : whereupon the Gospel is called the 44 ministration of spirit and life, and the power of God to salvation.” But that this gospel, ani- mated by that mighty and good Spirit, hath not universally spread itself over all the world, only its own resolved and resisting wickedness is the faulty cause; otherwise there had been gospel, and temples raised by it, every where. [2.] This original 'primary temple hath matter of rational inducement in it; as it gives us a plain representation of Divine holiness brightly shining in human nature. For here was to be seen a most pure, serene, dispassionate mind, unpolluted by any earthly tincture, inhabiting an earthly tabernacle like our own. A mind adorned with the most amiable, lovely virtues, faith, patience, temperance, godliness ; full, of all righteousness, goodness, meek¬ ness, mercifulness, sincerity, humility; most ab¬ stracted from this world, immoveably intent upon what had reference to a future state of things, and the affairs of another country; inflexible by the blandishments of sense; not apt to judge by the sight of the eye, or be charmed by what were most 163 grateful to a voluptuous ear; full of pity towards a wretched, sinful world, compassionate to its calami¬ ties, unprovoked by its sharpest injuries; bent upon doing the greatest good, and prepared to the suffering of whatever evil. Here was presented to common view, a life transacted agreeably to such a temper of mind; of one invariable tenor; equal, uniform, never unlike itself, or disagreeing with the exactest or most strict rules. Men might see a god was come down to dwell among them ; ts the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person:” a deity inhabiting human flesh ; for such purposes as he came for, could not be supposed to carry any more becoming appearance than he did. Here was, therefore, an exemplary temple ; the fair and lovely pattern of what we were each of us to be composed and formed to : imitating us (for sweeter insinuation and allurement) in what was merely natural, and in¬ viting us to imitate him in what was (in a commu¬ nicable sort) supernatural and divine. Every one knows how great is the power of example, and may collect how apt a method this was to move and draw the spirits of men. Had only precepts and instruc¬ tions been given men, how they were to prepare and adorn in themselves a temple for the living God, it had, indeed, been a great vouchsafement; but how much had it fallen short of what the present state of man did, in point of means, need, and call for ! How great a defalcation were it from the Gospel, if we did want the history of the life of Christ ! But not only to have been told of what materials the temple of God must consist, but to have seen them composed and put together; to have opportunity of J64 viewing the beautiful frame in every part, and of beholding the lovely, imitable glory of the whole, and which we are to follow, though we cannot with equal steps: how merciful condescension, and how great an advantage is this unto us! We have here a state of entire devotedness to God, (the principal thing in the constitution of his temple,) exemplified before our eyes, together with what was most suitable besides to such a state. Do we not see how, in a body of flesh, one may be subject to the will of God ; to count the doing of it our meat and drink—when it imposes any thing grievous to be suffered, to say, “ Not my will, but thine be done”—how, in all things, to seek not our own glory, but his, and not to please ourselves, but him—how hereby to keep his blessed presence with us, and live in his constant converse and fellowship, never to be left alone; but to have him ever with us, as always aiming to do the things that please him ? Do we not know how to be tempted, and abstain; injured, and forgive; disobliged, and do good; to live in a tumultuous, world, and be at peace within ; to dwell on earth, and have our conversation in heaven ? We see all this hath been done, and much more than we can here mention: and, by so lively a representation of the brightest divine excellencies, beautifying this original exemplary temple , we have a two-fold most considerable advantage towards our becoming such ; namely, that hereby both the possibility and the loveliness of a temple are here represented to our view: by the former whereof we might be encour¬ aged, by the latter allured, unto imitation; that working upon our hope, this upon our desire, and love in order hereto. 165 First, The possibility. ' I mean it not in the strict sense only, as signifying no more than that the thing, simply considered, implies no repugnance in itself, nor is without the reach of absolute omnipo¬ tence ; for as no one needs to be told that such a thing is, in this sense, possible, so to be told it, would signify little to his encouragement. There are many things in this sense not impossible, whereof no man can, however, have the least rational hope: as, that another world may shortly be made; that he may be a prince or a great man therein; with a thousand the like. But I mean it of what is possible to Divine power, that is, to the grace and Spirit of God, now ready to go forth in a way and method of operation already stated and pitched upon for such purposes. For having the representation before our eyes of this original temple , that is, God inhabiting human flesh on earth, we are not merely to consider it as it is in itself, and to look upon it as a strange thing, or as a glorious spectacle, wherein we are no further concerned than only to look upon it, and take notice that there is or hath been such a thing; but we are to consider how it came to pass, and with what design it was that such a thing should be, and become obvious to our view. Why have we such a sight offered us; or what imports it to us? And when we have informed ourselves, by taking the ac¬ count the Gospel gives us of this matter, and viewed the inscription of that great name Emmanuel , by wonderful contrivance, inwrought into the very con¬ stitution of this temple, we shall then find this to be intended for a leading case; and that this temple was meant for a model and platform of that which 166 we ourselves are to become; or after which the tem¬ ple of God in us must be composed and formed : and so, that this matter is possible to an ordinate, divine power, even to that mighty Spirit that resides eminently in this temple, on purpose to be trans¬ mitted thence to us, for the framing of us to the like¬ ness of it; and so that the thing is not merely pos¬ sible, but designed also, namely, that as he was, so we might be in this world : to which is necessary our believing intuition towards him, or a fiducial acknow¬ ledgment that this Jesus is the Son of God, come down on purpose into human flesh, to bring about a union between God and us: whereupon that union itself ensues: the matter is brought about, we come to dwell in God, and he in us. And this we collect and conclude from hence, that we find the same Spirit working and breathing in us which did in him : ££ Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” And though it was an unmeasured fullness of this Spirit which dwelt in this 'primary temple , yet we are taught and encouraged hence to expect, that a sufficient and proportionable measure be imparted to us, that we may appear not altogether unlike or un¬ worthy of him; that this temple and ours are of the same make, and ££ both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one;” that we so far agree with our original, that he may not be ashamed to call us brethren. And how aptly doth this tend to excite and raise our hope of some great thing to be effected in this kind in us, when we have the matter thus exemplified already before our eyes, and do behold the exact and perfect model, according 167 whereto we ourselves are to be framed. Nor doth that signify a little to the drawing of our wills, or the engaging us to a consent and co-operation, as the under-builders in the work of this temple. A design that in itself appears advantageous, needs no more to set it on foot, than that it be represented hopeful. No one that understands any thing of the nature of man is ignorant of the power of hope. This one engine moves the world, and keeps all men busy. Every one soon finds his present state not perfectly good, and hopes some way to make it better; other¬ wise, the world were a dull scene. Endeavour would languish, or rather be none at all: for there were no room left for design, or a rational enterprising of any thing; but a lazy unconcerned trifling, without care which end goes forward, and with an utter indiffer- cncy whether to stir or to sit still. Men are not, in their other designs, without hope, but their hope is placed upon things of no value; and when they have gained the next thing they hoped for and pursued, they are as far still as they were from what they meant that for. They have obtained their nearer end, but therein mistook their way, which they de¬ signed by it, to their further end. When they have attained to be rich, yet they are not happy; perhaps much farther from it than before. When they have preyed upon the pleasure they had in chase, they are still unsatisfied; it may be, guilty reflections turn it all to gall and wormwood. Many such disappoint¬ ments might make them consider, at length, they have been out all this while, and mistaken the whole nature and kind of the good that must make them happy. They may come to think with themselves, 4 Somewhat 168 is surely lacking, not only to our present enjoyment, but to our very design : somewhat it must be without the compass of all our former thoughts, wherein our satisfying good must lie.” God may come into their minds ; and they may cry out, 4 Oh ! that is it; here it was I mistook, and had forgot myself/ Man once had a God ! and that God had his temple, wherein he resided, and did converse with man: hither he must be invited back. Yea, but his temple lies all in ruin, long ago deserted and disused, forsaken upon provocation, and with just resentment; the ruin to be repaired by no mortal hand; the wrong done to be expiated by no ordinary sacrifice. All this imports nothing but despair. But let now Emmanuel be brought in; this original temple be offered to view, and the design and intent of it be unfolded and laid open, and what a spring of hope is here ! Or what can now be awanting to persuade a wretched soul of God’s willingness to return ? Or being now sensible of his misery by his absence, to make it willing of his return; yea, and to contribute the utmost endeavour that all things may be prepared and put into due order for his reception ? Or if any thing should be still awanting, it is but what may more work upon de¬ sire, as well as beget hope: and to this purpose, a narrower view of this original temple also serves; that is, it not only shows the possibility, but gives us opportunity to contemplate. Secondly, The loveliness too of such a temple. For here is the fairest representation that ever this world had, or that could be had, of this most delect¬ able object. The Divine holiness incarnate did never shine so bright. And we may easily apprehend the 169 great advantage of having so lively and perfect a model set before us of what we are to design and aim at. Rules and precepts could never have af¬ forded so full a description, or have furnished us with so perfect an idea. He that goes to build a house must have the project formed in his mind before ; and he is to make a material house of an immaterial. So here, we may say, the real house is to be built out of the mental or notional one. It is true, indeed, when we have got into our minds the true and full idea or model of this temple, our greatest difficulty is not yet over: how happy were it if the rest of our work would as soon be done, and our hearts would presently obey our light ! If they were ductile and easy to yield and receive the stamp and impression that would correspond to a well enlightened mind; if we could presently conform and become like to the notions we have of what we should be, if on the sudden our spirits did admit the habitual fixed frame of holiness whereof we sometimes have the idea framed in our minds, what excellent creatures should we ap¬ pear. But though to have that model truly formed in our understandings be not sufficient, it is however necessary ; and although our main work is not imme¬ diately done by it, it can never be done without it. Truth is the mean of holiness : “ Sanctify them through thy truth.” God hath chosen us to salva¬ tion, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Therefore it is our great advantage to have the most entire and full notion that may be of that temper and frame of spirit we should be of. When the charge was given Moses of composing the taber¬ nacle, that movable temple, he had the perfect pattern H 50 170 of it shown him in the mount. And to receive the very notion aright of this spiritual living temple re¬ quires a some-way prepared mind, purged from vicious prejudice and perverse thoughts, possessed with dis¬ like of our former pollutions and deformities ; ante¬ cedent whereto is a more general view of that frame whereunto we are to be composed, and then a more distinct representation is consequent thereon. As we find the prophet is directed first to show the people the house that they might be ashamed, whereupon it follows, if they be ashamed of all that they have done, then he must show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the' ordinances thereof. Ezek. xliii, 10, 11. How much would it conduce to the work and service of God’s temple in us, if upon our having had some general intimation of his gracious propensions towards us, to repair our ruins and restore our forlorn decayed state, we begin to lament after him and conceive inward resentments of the impurities and desolations of our souls; and shall now have the distinct representation set before our eyes of that glorious workmanship which he means to express in our renovation ! How taking and transporting a sight will this be to a soul that is be¬ come vile and loathsome in its ow r n eyes, and weary of being as without God in the world ! But now, wherein shall he be understood to oive us so exact <_5 an account of his merciful intentions and design in this matter as by letting us see how his glory shone in his own incarnate Son, his express image, and then signifying his pleasure and purpose to have us con¬ formed to the same image? This is his most apt and 171 efficacious method when he goes about to raise his new creation and erect his inner temple : t( God, that commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.'” That glory shines with greatest advantage to our trans¬ formation in the face or aspect of Emmanuel. When we set our faces that way and our eye meets his, we put ourselves into a purposed posture of intuition, and do steadily look to Jesus ; u when we, with open face, behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord/’ His very Spirit enters with those vital beams; enters at our eye, and is thence transfused through our whole soul. The seed and generative principle of the new creature is truth : u Being born again, not of cor¬ ruptible seed, but incorruptible, the word of God.” We must understand it of practical truth, or that which serves to show what we are to be and do in our new and regenerate state. Hereby souls are begotten to God, hereby they live and grow, hereby they come and join, as living stones, to the living Corner-stone, in the composition of this spiritual house. Now we have this practical truth, not only exhibited in aphorisms and maxims in the word, but we have it exemplified in the life of Christ. And when the great renovating work is to be done, the old man to be put off, the new man to be put on, the spirit of our mind to be renewed, our business is to learn Christ and the truth as it is in Jesus; so is accomplished the formation of that new man that is after God. And when we become his workmanship, 172 we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works; caught into union with that Spirit which showed it¬ self in the whole course of his conversation on earth, and is gradually to work and form us to an imitation of him. Whereunto we are not formed by mere looking on, or by our own contemplation only of his life and actions, on the one hand ; nor on the other hand is our looking on useless and vain, as if we were to be formed, like mere stones, into dead un¬ moving statues, rather than living temples; or as if his Spirit were to do that work upon us by a violent hand while we know nothing of the matter, nor any way comply to the design. But the work must be done by the holding up of the representation of this jirimary temple before our eyes, animated and reple- l J nished with divine life and glory, as our pattern and the type by which we are to be formed, till our hearts be captivated and w r on to the love and liking of such a state; that is to be so united with God, so devoted to him, so stamped and impressed with all imitable godlike excellencies as he was : we are to be so ena¬ moured herewith, as to be impatient of remaining what we were before. And such a view contributed directly hereto, and in a way suitable to our natures. Mere transient discourses of virtue and goodness seem cold and unsavoury things to a soul drenched in sensuality, sunk into deep forgetfulness of God, and filled with aversion to holiness : but the track and course of a life evenly transacted, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and that is throughout uniform and constantly agreeable to itself, is apt, by often repeated insinuations, insensibly to recommend itself as amiable, and gain a liking even with them that were most 173 opposite and disaffected. For the nature of man, in its most degenerate state, is not wholly destitute of the notions of virtue and goodness, nor of some faint approbation of them. The names of sincerity, hu¬ mility, sobriety, meekness, are of better sound and import, even with the worst of men, than of deceit, pride, riot, and wrathfulness; nor are they wont to accuse any for those former things under their own names. Only when they see the broken and more imperfect appearances of them, and that they are rather offered at than truly and constantly represented in practice ; this begets a prejudice, and the pre¬ tenders to them become suspected of hypocrisy or a conceited singularity, and are not censured as not being ♦ grossly evil, but rather that they are not thoroughly good. But when so unexceptionable a course is in constant view as our Saviour’s was, this procures, even from the ruder vulgar, an acknowledg¬ ment that he doth all things well, and carries such lustre and awful majesty as to command a veneration and respect; yea, is apt to allure those that more narrowly observe into a real love both of him and his way; especially when it has such a close and issue as appear no way unworthy of himself or his former pre¬ tensions. But all being taken together, resolves into the plainest demonstration of most sincere devoted¬ ness to God and good-will to men, upon which the great stress is laid: u And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” And how great a thing is done towards our entire compliance with the Re¬ deemer’s design of making us temples to the living God, as he himself was, when he, under that very notion appears amiable in our eyes ! How natural m and easy is imitation to love ! All the powers of the soul are now, in the most natural way, excited and set on work ; and we shall not easily be induced to satisfy ourselves or admit of being at rest till we attain a state with the loveliness whereof our hearts are once taken and possessed beforehand. But nothing of all this is said with design, nor hath any tendency to diminish or detract from that mighty power of the blessed Spirit of God, by whom men become willing of the return of the Divine presence into its ancient residence, and, in subordination, active towards it; but rather to magnify the excellency of that wisdom which conducts all the exertions and operations of that power so suitably to the subject to be wrought upon, and the ends and purposes to be effected Upon the whole, the setting up of this original temple , inscribed with the great name, Emmanuel , or the whole constitution of Christ the Mediator, hath, we see, a very apparent aptitude and rich sufficiency in its kind to the composing of things between God and men; the replenishing this desolate world with temples again everywhere, and those with the Divine presence; both as there was enough in it to procure remission of sin, enough to procure the emission of the Holy Spirit; an immense fullness both of righ¬ teousness and Spirit—of righteousness for the former purpose, and of Spirit for the latter; and both of these in distinct ways capable of being imparted, because the power of .imparting them was upon such terms obtained as did satisfy the malediction and curse of the violated law, which must otherwise have ever¬ lastingly withheld both from apostate offending crea- 175 lures. It is not the righteousness of God, as such , that can make a guilty creature guiltless, or the Spirit of God, as such , that can make him holy. Here is a full fountain, but sealed and shut up ; and what are we the better for that ? But it is the righteous¬ ness and Spirit of Emmanuel , Gocl with us; of him who was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; and who was made a curse for us that we might have the blessing of the promised Spirit, otherwise there were not in him a sufficiency to answer the exigency of the case; but as the matter is, here is abundant sufficiency in both respects, as we have already seen. And therefore the only thing that remains to be shown herein, is the necessity and requisiteness of such means as this to this end. For when we take notice of so great and so rare a thing as an Emmanuel set up in the world ; and find by this solemn constitution of him by the condition of his person, his accomplishments, per¬ formances, sufferings, acquisitions, the powers and virtues belonging to him, that every thing hath so apt an aspect and is so accommodate to the restitu¬ tion of lost man and of God’s temple in and with him ; we cannot but confess here is a contrivance worthy of God, sufficient for its end. So that the work need not fail of being done if in this way it prove not to be overdone ; or if the apparatus be not greater than was needful for the intended end; or that the same purposes might not have been effected at an easier rate. I design therefore to speak dis¬ tinctly and severally of the necessity of this course in reference to the remission of sin and to the emission or communication of the Spirit; and do purposely 176 reserve several things concerning this latter to be o o discoursed under this head; after the necessity of this same course for the former purpose hath been considered. CHAPTER VI. The Necessity of this Constitution of Emmanuel to the Erecting of God's Temple in the World. * I. It may here perhaps be said, £ Why might not the matter have been otherwise brought about ? Or might not God of his mere sovereignty have remitted the wrong done to him without any such atonement, and upon the same account have sent forth his Spirit to turn men’s hearts ? And if that must work by arguments and rational persuasives, were there no others to have been used sufficient to this purpose, though the Son of God had never become man or died upon this account ? That to use means exceed¬ ing the value of the end, may seem as unsuitable to the Divine wisdom as not to have used sufficient. And who can think the concerns of silly worms im¬ possible to be managed and brought to a fair and happy issue, without so great thiugs as the incarnation and death of God’s own Son ?’ II. The subject of the preceding chapter is there¬ fore continued, in which we proceed to show,— Secondly , The necessity , as the case stood, that this course should be taken for this end. No man can here think we mean that the end itself was other- 177 wise necessary, than as the freest love and good-will made it so; but that supposed, we are only to evince that this course was the necessary mean to attain it. And as to this, if indeed that modesty and reverence were every where to be found, wherewith it would become dim-sighted man to judge of the ways of God, any inquiry of this kind might be forborne; and it would be enough to put us out of doubt that this was the most equal and fittest way, that we see it is the way which God hath taken. But that cross temper hath found much place in the world, rather to dispute God’s methods, than comport with them, in an obedient thankful compliance and subserviency to their intended ends. And how deeply is it to be re¬ sented, that so momentous a thing in the religion of Christians—and that above all others should be the subject and incentive of admiring, devout thoughts and affections—should ever have been made intricate and perplexed by disputation! That the food of life should have been filled with thorns and gravel! and what was most apt to beget good blood, and turn all to strength, vigour, and spirit, should be rendered the matter of a disease! This can never enough be taken to heart. What complaints might the tortured, famished church of Christ send up against the ill instruments of so great a mischief! e Lord! we asked bread, and they gave us a stone! They have spoiled the provisions of thy house ! Our pleasantest fare, most delicious and strengthening viands, they have made tasteless and unsavoury!’ What expostula¬ tions might it use with them ! 6 Will you not let us live? Can nothing in our religion be so sacred, so important, as to escape your perverting hands?’ h 2 178 The urgency of the case itself permits not that this matter be silently passed over: a living temple needs the apt means of nourishment and growth; and it must be nourished and grow by what is suitable to its constitution: to which nothing is more inward than the laying this