fwer to Solomon's prayer, defcended in a cloudy pillar, and filled the house with his presence, so that the priests could not stand to minifter, because of the cloud, " for the glory of the Lord had filled the houfe of the Lord," 1 Kings viii. 11. Nevertheless, "The glory of this latter houfe fhall be greater than that of the former; and in this place will I give peace, faith the Lord of Hofts." But this glory could not be either in its size, its magnificence, or its furniture; for in all these things it came far fhort of the former house, for it appeared in the eyes of the old men as nothing, when compared to Solomon's temple, infomuch that the old men wept at the fight of it. To whom God replies, The gold is mine, and the filver is mine, if I choose to adorn it with these things; but I have a greater, a better, and a more divine and heavenly glory to bring into this houfe, in which it fhall exceed the former.

Now do you observe this, that there were several things in that first temple that the children of Ifrael wonderfully gloried in; and yet the whole Bible gives no account of them to be found in the second temple. The first thing that the Jews had to glory in was the Ark; it was the throne of God, as Jeremiah calls it, "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our fanctuary," Jeremiah xvii. 11. It was an oblong cheft; the mercy-feat upon it, the law was in it, and the cherubims ftood on each end of it; and it was

God's mercy-feat, where he met and communed with the priests. This was in the former house, but never was in the latter. "In those days, faith the Lord, they fhall fay no more, the ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither fhall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they vifit it; neither shall that be done any more," Jer. iii. 16. This, I believe, was never more feen after the deftruction of the first temple by the king of Babylon. Hence it is plain that the glory of the latter house did not lie in the ark, nor yet in the mercy-feat.

2. We have no account of God's defcending in a cloud at the dedication of the latter house. There was no token or symbol of the divine majesty; no cloud of glory was feen; no divine train of the brilliant perfection of God displayed, at the dedication of this latter houfe:-therefore this excelling glory muft lie in fomething more than tokens, figns, or fymbols.

3. We do not read of the holy fire coming down from heaven upon the altar of burnt-offering, to confume the facrifice, in this latter house, nor of any thing like it.

4. The holy anointing oil, which was used at the confecration of priests, feems alfo to be miffing in the latter houfe: nor do we read any thing of it under the second temple, that I know of.

5. The urim and thummim, by which God was confulted, was not in the fecond temple; for,

although we read of it in Nehemiah, vii. 65, yet the Jews allow that these were not found, though they were fought after: and, to fupply the place of these, the Jews invented what they called Bath Col, which the learned fay had more the appearance of the necromancy of the heathens, than of communion with the Almighty.

6. It does not appear that the Shechina dwelt in the fecond temple. We have no requests made under the latter houfe, that he that dwelt between the cherubims would fhine forth, ftir up his ftrength, and come amongst us.

7. It is a question whether the Holy Ghost (as the fpirit of prophecy) was given under the fecond temple. Some think this ceafed from the days of Malachi, which appears from the following paffage: "And it fhall come to pafs, that when any fhall yet prophefy, then his father and his mother that begat him fhall fay unto him, thou shalt not live, for thou fpeakeft lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him fhall thruft him through when he prophefieth," Zech. xiii. 3. It appears that the spirit of prophecy ceased in Ifrael for many years. The Old Testament is concluded by Malachi, the laft of the prophets; and as the oracles of God were finifhed, and left upon record, fo they prophefied until John, as Chrift fays; but, in the days of John, good old Simeon, and Anna the good old widow, as well as Elizabeth and the bleffed virgin; all these feem to

be bleffed with the fpirit of prophecy; which fhews that he was given a little before Chrift came, and that to do as he always has done, and ever will do; namely, testify of Chrift." He enlightens poor fouls to fee their loft ftate, and their need of a Saviour, and animates them, and 'fends their hearts after him: he kindles new defires, and raises up new hopes and expectations; he fets them upon the watch-tower, and keeps them longing and looking out; he awakens their attention, and makes them perceive the Lord's most distant footsteps upon the mountains, as well as his nearer approaches. And wonderfully did he ftir up the fouls of men, both Jews and Gentiles, a little before the Holy One of Ifrael appeared. But to return to my fubject:-Seeing the fecond temple came fo far fhort of the first in size, in architecture, in its richness, its furniture, in its dedication, in fymbols, and fhadows, where is its excelling glory? According to what learned men write, the Jews, the inveterate enemies to our bleffed Saviour, have invented many things which they call the excelling glory of the latter houfe: they fay that its glory lay in the duration of it, because it stood ten years longer than the firft temple did. Others fay that Alexander the Great vifited this houfe, and that facrifices were offered up for him, about the time of his befieging the city of Tyre, in his expedition against Darius. But a heathen, an idolator, a murderer, a robber, and one who lived in the fin

of Sodom, could bring no glory to this latter house, but rather make it a den of thieves.

There are others who tell us that the glory of this latter house confifted in the number of perfons in the neighbourhood of Judea, which in the days of the Maccabees became profelytes, fuch as the Edomites and the Moabites; and that they brought fuch a vaft treasure into this house, and enriched it to that degree, that they made the glory of the latter house to exceed the glory of the former. But then gold and filver, as a good man well obferves, is not included in this glory; "The filver is mine, and the gold is mine, faith the Lord of hosts;" and though there is but little gold and filver in this house, when compared with the other, yet « The glory of this latter house fhall be greater than of the former, faith the Lord of hofts."

Some Jews make the glory of this latter house to exceed the glory of that built by Solomon, after it had been rebuilt, enlarged, and adorned by Herod the Great; when for beauty, fplendour, and magnificence, it exceeded the temple of Solomon; and indeed Jofephus fpeaks much in praife of Herod's architecture, and of the temple as rebuilt by him. But the glory of this latter houfe confifts not in its fize, its beauty, its grandeur, or its excellent workmanship. Nor can this house be called the defire of all nations; nor is the temple in the leaft intended by the glory mentioned in my text; but it is fomething that was to be brought