These things being premised, we say now, that, notwithstanding this whole worship, and all the concernments of it, was appointed by God himself; notwithstanding it was designed by him to be beautiful and glorious, and that indeed it was the very top of what external beauty and splendour could reach unto ; — yet that it was no way com- parable to the beauty and glory of this spiritual worship of the New Testament; yea, had no glory in comparison of it. This, then, 1 shall briefly demonstrate: — (1.) In general; and then, (2.) By an in- duction of some particular instances.
For the former, I need go no farther than that place where the apostle doth expressly handle this comparison, viz., 2 Cor. iii. 7-10. He doth here on set purpose compare the ministration of the law in the letter, with all its outward legal worship, rites, and ceremonies, with the administration of the gospel in the Spirit, and the worship of God attending thereon. And first, he acknowledged that the old ministration was very glorious ; which he either gives an instance of, or proves it by that of Moses' face shining when he came down from the mount, when he had received the law, and the pattern of all that worship which he was to appoint unto that church. It seems that God left that shining on the face of Moses — which was such that the people could not bear the brightness of it — to testify how glorious that was about which he had received revelation ; so that, indeed, saith
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the apostle, "That ministration was glorious, very glorious, — yea, glory in the abstract," verse 9. Nothing was there ever in the world to be compared with it. We will, then, compare it now with the ministra- tion of the Spirit, and the worship of God under the gospel. It may be he will say, " It is not all out so glorious, indeed." Nay, but he goes farther, and tells ns that this doth so excel in glory, comeliness, and excellency, that, in respect unto it, the other had no glory at all. What, then, may be said of any thing invented by men in the worship of God for glory and beauty? I dare not say what the apostle saith of that which God himself appointed, — that it hath any glory and beauty in itself. But yet, suppose it hath so ; let men esteem it as glorious and beautiful as they can possibly fancy it to be, — yet, unless the same vail be on their minds in reading the Gospel which is on the Jews' in reading Moses, they cannot but see and acknowledge that it hath no glory in comparison of that spiritual worship which we have described.
Some particular instances will make the general comparison more evident. I shall only name these three, which — being the principal spring of all the beauty, glory, and order of the worship of old — are peculiarly considered by the apostle to this very purpose, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he sets out the excellency of the evangelical administrations of the covenant and worship of God above and beyond the legal : —
1. The first of these was the temple, the seat of all the solemn out- ward worship of the old church. The beauty and glory oi it were in part spoken to before ; nor shall I insist on any particular description of it. It may suffice, that it was the principal state [place] of the beauty and order of the Judaical worship, and which rendered all exceeding glorious ; — so far, that the people idolized it, and put their trust in it ; — that upon the account of it they should be assuredly preserved, notwithstanding their presumptuous sins: and, indeed, it had such blessings and promises annexed unto it, that if there were at this day any place or house in the world that had the like, I should desire to be among the first that should enter into a pilgrimage of going to it, though it were as far beyond Jerusalem as it is thither. But yet, notwithstanding all this, Solomon himself, in his prayer at the dedi- cation of that house, 1 Kings viii. 27, seems to intimate that there was some check upon his spirit, considering the unanswerableness of the house to the great majesty of God. It was a house on the earth,- — ■ a house that he did build with his hands ; intimating that he looked farther to a more glorious house than that. And what is it, if it be compared with the temple of gospel worship? Whatever is called the temple now of the people of God, is as much beyond that of old as spiritual things are beyond carnal, as heavenly beyond earthly, as
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eternal beyond temporal. First, In some sense the body of Christ is our temple, as himself called it, speaking- of the temple of his bod} as being prefigured by it, — as having the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him, typified by the presence of God in the old temple, and being the centre wherein all his people meet with their worship of God, as those of old did in the temple. And surely there is no comparison, for beauty and excellency, between the house that Solo- mon built and the Son of God, " who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." Again, The persons and the assemblies of the saints, as I showed before, are a temple to God under the gospel. They are his body, Eph. i. 23 ; and his house, Heb. iii. 6. Nor is the old temple, made of wood and stones, gold and silver, to be compared with this living house, washed with the blood of Christ, adorned with the real graces of the Spirit, and gar- nished with all the choice jewels of God's eternal love. They are God's delight, " the first-fruits of the creature" to him, the spouse of Christ, — through his graces altogether lovely. The Lord Jesus sees more beauty and glory in the weakest assemblies of his saints, com- ing together in his name, and acted and guided in his worship and ways by his Spirit, than ever was in all the worship of Solomon's temple when it was in its glory. Thirdly, Heaven itself, the holy place not made with hands, is also the saints' temple under the gos- pel. Believers have in their worship an open way into the holiest made for them by Christ, who entered into it as the forerunner, Heb. vi. 20 ; opening it to them, also giving admission into it, chap, x. 19-21. And how exceedingly doth this exalt the excellency of the spiritual worship of the gospel ! What was the glory of Solo- mon's temple to the glory of the meanest star in heaven ! How much less was it, then, in comparison of the glorious presence of God in the highest heavens, whither believers enter with all their worship, even where Christ sits at the right hand of God !