with which in Ezekiel's vision of them, there was a likeness of a throne, with the appearance of a man upon it; and the whole together is called the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord*: whence we collect, that what Ezekiel saw was a visionary appearance of that seat of glory in the holy place, which was the instituted likeness of the seat of the divine glory in the heavens. And in a like vision of Isaiah, the throne of God, and the display of his glory, is still present in his temple: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the templet. So, where the same prophet saith, Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory; the words habitation and holiness and glory all refer to the earthly sanctuary as a pattern of the heavenly.

The tabernacle was also a figure of the church of Christ and therefore the renovation and establishment of the church amongst the Gentiles by the preaching of the gospel, is described under the idea of a restoration of the tabernacle which had ceased from the time of David. The prophet Amos speaks of this gathering of the Gentiles into the church of Christ, as into the tabernacle taken in this new sense; and St. James made the proper application of it, when the great question was debated concerning the reception of the heathens. To this, says he, agree the words of the prophets, as it is written, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down-that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called §. To the same effect St. Stephen had observed in his apology to the Jews, that the tabernacle had originally been brought in with Jesus into the possession of the

Ezekiel i. 26. Isaiah vi. 1. Ib. lxiii. 15. § Acts xv. 6.

Gentiles; and therefore the church might reasonably go thither again; whereto the preaching of the gospel under the true Jesus should remove and settle it.

The propriety with which the Christian church is signified by this name, is too plain to be enlarged upon; inasmuch as we have already seen, that all things are there done in spirit and in truth, which were done in figure in the tabernacle of the law.

But the tabernacle, as well as the temple, is farther applied as a figure of the body of Christ; and this in a passage not open to common observation. The word, saith St. John, was made flesh and dwelt amongst us; where the true sense of the original is, he tabernacled amongst us: and then it is added, and we beheld his glory; for where the true tabernacle is, there must be also the glory of it. Here then we have the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, signified by the dwelling of God's presence in the tabernacle; than which there can be no higher proof of his divinity to those that understand the thing in this light. As the glory of the Lord was once present in the tabernacle, so it is said with reference to the same, that in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Well therefore might he say of his body, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again; for it was both a tabernacle and temple in a stricter sense than had ever been before; the Godhead had occasionally dwelt in the buildings made with hands: but with him it abode continually. The use our Saviour made of this term amounted to an assertion of his Godhead to the Jews; but as the Jews did not then understand the sense of his expression, so are many Christians as blind to it at this day.

After the pattern of Christ, and according to their proper measure, all Christians have the presence of God abiding within them; whence their bodies also are the temples of the Holy Ghost; from which consideration they are instructed to dedicate them, to the service of God; for that is certainly one use of a temple; and not to defile them, for that is sacrilege. And the subject gives them this consolation, that though their earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, he who raised up the tabernacle of David from its ruins to a more glorious state in the Gentile world, and raised up the temple of Christ's body which the Jews destroyed, shall in like manner quicken our mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in us, and give us a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

It was observed above, that the tabernacle of David is a figurative term for the Christian church as the mystical body of Christ: we shall likewise find, that the blessings and privileges of the Christian society or assembly of Christian people do all correspond with the œconomy of the congregation of Israel, and are described in terms borrowed from the law; of which the following example in the epistle to the Hebrews will be sufficient, where the apostle says-Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Every Christian is to conceive what his own state is, by looking back to the privileges of the church of old. He is come to

لا

mount Zion, to a situation exalted above the world; a mountain chosen and favoured of God, blessed with the dew of heavenly grace, and inheriting the promise of eternal life; even to that holy hill, on which Christ is established as King against all the opposition of the world below. It is the new Jerusalem, because it is ordained to be, as that city was of old, at unity with itself, and a principle of unity to all the land; where all the tribes of the earth unite in one religion, as the tribes of Israel assembled to wor ship at Jerusalem. The cities of the neighbouring nations were dedicated to some tutelary idol; Jerusalem alone to the true and living God; so now is the same God connected with the Christian city and with that only; and all the company of heaven, innumerable as they are, who assisted at the delivery of the law, are with him. As the first-born of Israel, who had the right of inheritance, were redeemed and written down by name; so are all the children of the Christian society enrolled in heaven as the first-born of God, and the book of life in which they are written answers to the register of the church of Israel. We are come to God the Judge of all, because we are taken out of the world of the ungodly, who are aliens, to be subject to his laws, and consequently to be under his government. It is true that all the world are under the authority of God; but then all are not related to him as citizens and subjects. In this respect, God was said to be nigher to the Jews than to any nation upon earth, because he was with them as their judge and protector. We have our Jesus, as they had their Moses; both of them mediators, to stand between God and the people. The Hebrews were not permitted to draw near to God to treat for themselves on pain of death; but Moses was to be

between them, as Christ is now betwixt us and God, and no man can come to the Father but by him: and in his blood we have remission, as all things were purified under the law, and nothing accepted or sanctified without the blood of sprinkling; which speaketh better things than that of Abel; for the blood of Abel cried for vengeance, this for mercy and pardon.

Thus is our society on like terms with theirs in every respect and to these particulars I may add, that as the congregation of Israel on great and solemn occasions was called together by the sound of a trumpet, so shall the great assembly of all nations, all the tribes of the earth, and we ourselves among the rest, be summoned after the same form: the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised: and then we shall see with our eyes what that great society is, in the which we now live by faith.

There are many particular institutions remaining, some of a religious, some of a moral, and others of a civil nature; a few of the most useful of which I must select, and shew how the scripture has applied them.

The sabbath, which succeeds the labours of the week, appears to have been appointed from the beginning as a perpetual sign, a sign for ever*, of that happy Rest which the servants of God are to expect after the labours of this life. For thus the apostle hath reasoned about it; that being called the Rest of God, it cannot be of an earthly, but must be of an heavenly nature; for God doth not rest upon earth where men labour. He shews that the true rest promised to the faithful was not the sabbath that was

*Exodus xxxi. 17.