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SOLOMON'S TEMPLE SPIRITUALIZED:

O R,

GOSPEL-LIGHT

Fetched out of the

TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM,

To let us more easily into the Glory of

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EZEK. xliii. 10, 11. Thou Son of man, fbew
the house to the house of Ifrael-fhew them
the form of the house, and the fashion there-
of, and the goings out thereof, and the com-
ings in thereof, and all the forms thereof,
and all the ordinances thereof, and all the
forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.

GLASGOW:

Printed by JOHN ROBERTSON

M D C C L X X 11 I

·RB. 23 a 1914-3

BRITISH

CHRISTIAN READER.

I

Courteous Christian Reader,

Have, as thou by this little book mayest see, adventured, at this time, to do my endeavour to shew thee fomething of the gospel glory of Solomon's Temple; that is, of what it, with its utenfils, was a type of; and, as fuch, how inftructing it was to our fathers, and alfo is to us their children: The which, that f might do the more distinctly, I have handled particulars one by one, to the number of threeScore and ten; namely, all that of them I could call to mind; becaufe, as I believe, there was not one of them but had its fignification, and fo fomething profitable to us to know.

For though we are not now to worship God in thofe methods, or by such ordinances as once the old church did: yet to know their methods, and to understand the nature and fignification of their ordinances, when compared with the gofpel; may even now, when themselves (as to what they once enjoined on others) are dead, minifter light to us. And hence the New Tef tament minifters, as the Apostles made much ufe of Old Teftament language, and ceremonial inftitutions as to their fignification, to help the faith of the godly in their preaching of the gof pel of Chrift.

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I may

I may fay, that God did in a manner, tie up the church of the Jews to types, figures and fimilitudes, I mean to be butted and bounded by them in all external parts of worship: Yea, not only the Levitical law and temple, but, as it feems to me, the whole land of Cannan, the place of their lot to dwell in, was to them a ceremonial or a figure. Their land was a type of heaven; their paffage over Jordan into it, a fimilitude of our going to heaven by death. The fruit of their land was faid to be uncir cumcifed, as being at their first entrance thi ther unclean; in which their land was also a figure of another thing, even as heaven was a type of fin and grace.

Again, The very land itself was faid to keep fabbath, and fo to rest a holy rest, even when The lay defolate, and not poffeffed of those to whom he was given for them to dwell in.

Yea, many of the features of the then church of God were fet forth, as in figures and sha dows, fo by places, and things in that land.

1. In general, fhe is said to be beautiful as Tirzah, (Song vi. 4.) and to be comely as Jerufalem.

2. In particular, her neck is compared to the tower of David, builded for an armoury, (Song iv. 4) her eyes to fish-pools of Hefbbon, by the gate of Bethrabbim, (chap. vii. 4.) her nofe is compared

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* Heb iii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Lev. xix. 23. chap. xxvi. 34, 35. Exod. xii. 15. Lev, vi. 17. xxiii. 17.

compared to the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damafcus, (chap iv. 1.) Yea, the hair of her head is compared to a flock of goats, which came up from mount Gilead; and the smell of her garments to the smell of Lebanon, (ver. 11.)

Nor was this land altogether void of shadows, even of her Lord and Saviour. Hence he fays of himself, I am the Rofe of Sharon, and the lilly of the valleys; (Song ii. 1.) Alfo fhe, his beloved, faith of him, his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars, (chap. v. 15 ) What fball I fay? The two cities, Sion and Je rufalem, were fuch as fometimes fet forth the two churches, (Gal. iv.) the true and the falle, and their feed Ifaac and Ifhmael.

1 might alfo here fhew you, that even the gifts and graces of the true church were fet forth by the fpices, nuts, grapes, and pomegra nates that the land of Cannan brought forth. Yea, that bell itself was fet forth by the valley of the fon of Hinnom, and Tophet, places in this country. Indeed the whole in a manner was typical and a figurative thing.

But I have, in the enfuing difcourfe, confin ed myself to the Temple, that immediate place of God's worship; of whose utenfils in particular, as I have said, i have spoken, (though to each with what brevity I could) for that none of them are without a spiritual, and fo profitable, fignification to us. A 3

And

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