(1.) Shew you what are the chief properties of this house.
(2.) Declare what is the relation wherein Jesus Christ stands to this house, having called it all along the church of Christ.
(1.) For the properties, or chief qualities of this house, they are three : [1.] It is a living house; [2.] It is strong; [3.] It is glorious.
[1.] It is a living house : ' Unto whom coming as unto a living stone, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house;' 1 Pet. ii.4, 5. Christ.the foundation, is a living stone, and they that are built upon him are living stones. Hence they are said to grow together into a house. Growth is a sign
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of life, growing from an inward principle. Such as the growth of any thing is, such is its life. The growth of this house is spiritual, so therefore also is its life ; it lives with a spiritual life, a life whose fulness is in its foundation. He hath ' life in himself,' John v. 26. and they from him: *I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live;' Gal. ii.22. Yea, it is him- self in them : ' yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' It is true, those stones are dead in the rock, as well as others: ' by na- ture children of wrath as well as they,' Ephes. ii. 3. 'being dead in trespasses and sins ;' ver. 1. He who hews them out, gives them life : *he quickens them when dead in trespasses and sins.' There is not one rotten dead stone in all this build- ing. However some such may, by the advantage of their outward appearance, crowd in, yet they are not of the house itself.
[2.] It is a strong house: * The gates of hell cannot pre- vail against it;' Matt. i. 6. 18. Though 'the rain descend, and the tloods come, and the winds blow upon this house ; yet it will not fall, because it is founded on a rock ;' Matt, vii. 25. We were all once a house built upon Adam; and when the wind came, and beat upon us, we fell, * and the fall of that house was very great.' He in his best estate was found to be but sand ; now we are built upon a rock, that will abide all trials : the waves may make a noise, and dash themselves against him, but it will be to their own ruin.
But you will say. May not weak and inconsistent ma- terials be built upon a rock, which yet may have never the more strength for their foundation ?
It is not so here, for the whole building is framed together in the foundation ; Ephes. ii. 22. not only on it, but also in it, and so not to be prevailed against, unless the rock itself be over- thrown. And it is alivingrock that this house is built on, a rock continually communicating strength unto every stone in the building, that it may be enabled to abide in him. I should proceed too far, should I go to declare the mighty defence and fortification of this house : what hath been spoken from the foundation, is enough to demonstrate it to be a strono- house.
[3.] It is a glorious house, and that in a threefold re- spect.
1st. It is glorious in respect of inward glory, brought unto
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it of God in the face of Jesus Christ, being beautiful through the comeliness that he puts upon it. Hence Christ speaking of it, says, 'How fair art thou, O love, for delights!' Cant. vii. 6. and, 'thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee ;' chap. iv. 7. And how, I pray, comes that about ? Why Christ washeth it in his own blood, that it might be wholly ' a glo- rious church ;' Ephes. v. 26, 27. And farther, he being the branch of the Lord, and fruit of the earth, is made beauty and glory, excellency and comeliness thereunto; Psal. iv. 2.
It hath the beauty and glory of justification, which doth not only take away all filthy garments, causing iniquity to pass away, but also gives fair ' change of raiment,' Zech. iii. 4, 5. even the ' garments of salvation,' and the ' robe of righte- ousness ;' Isa. Ixi. 10. And then it hath the glory and beauty of sanctification, whence ' the king's daughter is all glorious within;' Psal. xlv. 13. The comeliness and beauty that is in a sanctified soul, is above all the glory of the world. This house is all overlaid with gold within : Christ is unto it, * a head of gold;' Cant. v. 11. His house is not like Nebuchad- nezzar's image, that the head should be of gold, and the members some of them of clay; they all partake of his na- ture, and are very glorious therein.
2dly. In respect of its outward structure, which it emi- nently hath in all the peculiarassemblies thereof. * O thou afflicted, and tossed with tempest, and not comforted, be- hold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy founda- tions with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates and carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones ;' Isa. liv. 11, 12. So also where it is called the new Jeru- salem (a city from its laws and policy), 'this city is' said to be ' of pure gold' (not dross and mire), ' the building of the wall of jasper, and the foundation of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones;' Rev. xxi. 18, 19. This is that which the psalmist calls, ' the beauty of holiness ;' Psal. ex. 3. The glory of the ordinances of the gospel in their vigour and purity. There is nothing so glorious, as our King on his throne, Christ in his court, this house reigning in the administration of his ordinances : then ' all his gar- ments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made him glad. Kings' daughters are among his honourable women : upon his right hand