It is evident, then, that these three things are required to the building of the house of God, whereof these material fabrics were a type and representation. And all these were perfectly effected by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have said before, that it is not the house or church of this or that age, place, or generation, that is intended in this expression, but the church of God in all ages and places from first to last. I confess the principal instance of this work is in the church of the new testament, whose foundation 7 himself and erection on himself he did so expressly and particularly undertake. “On this rock,” saith he, “I will build my church,” Matt. xvi. 18;—the stable rock of faith in himself as the eternal Son of God, and as designed to the great work of God in glorifying himself among sinners. This work of building the house of God was always, from the beginning, performed by himself. The first thing required unto it may be considered two ways:—First, as to the delineation or forming of this house in his own eternal mind, as the Son and Wisdom of the Father. He was in the eternal counsels of the Father about the providing and framing of this habi- tation for himself. God from all eternity had laid the plot and design of this great fabric and all the concernments of it in the idea of his own mind. And there it was hid, even from all the angels in heaven, until its actual rearing, until the event, Eph. iii. 9-11. This design and purpose of his “ he purposed in Christ Jesus;” —that is, this counsel of God, even of Father and Son, Prov. viii. $1, 32, was to be accomplished in and by him. And this glorious pattern he had in his mind in all ages, and brought with him into the world when he came to put the last hand unto it. This answered the 224 or idea represented to Moses in the mount. He expressed this conception of his mind, when he gave out laws;
544 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IIL
rules, orders, ordinances, institutions of worship, the whole pattern of the house, as it was in divers manners and at sundry seasons to be erected. I have in the Prolegomena unto the first part of these discourses abundantly manifested that it was the Son who, from the foundation of the world, immediately in his own person transacted the affairs of God with men. Thither I refer the reader. He it was that walked in the garden when Adam had sinned, and gave the first promise unto him; which proved the foundation of the house of God in after ages. He it was that was with the people in the wilderness, which gave them their laws and statutes in Horeb, and so built autocratically the house of God. And for the church of the new testament, when he immediately and visibly transacted all the affairs of the kingdom of God, it is most apparent he spake with and instructed his disciples in all things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Acts 1. 3,—that is, of the house. And as God com- manded Moses that he should make all things according to the pattern showed him in the mount, so Christ requires of his disciples that they should teach men to do and observe all things whatever he commanded, Matt. xxviii. 20; which is therefore all that belongs unto the house of God.
Secondly, The second thing required unto the building of this house is the providing of materials, and the framing and compact- ing of them into a house for God. Now this was a great work indeed, especially considering the condition of all those persons whereof this house was to be constituted. They were dead in tres- passes and sins, and the house was to be a living house, 1 Pet. ii. 5. They were all enemies to God, strangers from him, and under his curse; and the house was to be made up of the friends of God, and such as he might delight to dwell with and among. They were dead stones, and the house was to be built of the children of Abra- ham. This, then, was a great and glorious work, and which none could perform but he that was unspeakably more honourable than Moses or all the sons of men. The particulars of this work are many and great; I shall briefly reduce them into four heads, such as were resembled and represented in the building of the tabernacle by Moses :—
First, then, Moses gathered the materials of the tabernacle by a free-will offering from among the people: Exod. xxxv. 4, 5, “ And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LoRD commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the LorD: whosoever. is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lorp.” By this means, without force, or compulsion, or imposition, were the materials of the tabernacle brought in. And so also doth the Lord Christ provide for the building of the church. He doth not gather
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men by force or violence, or drive them together into the profession of the truth with the sword, as Mohammed and the Pope do to their idols; but he invites none, receives none, admits of none, but those that willingly offer themselves. Such as come unto him, and give up themselves to the Lord, and to the officers of his house, by the will of God, he admits, and no other, 2 Cor. viii. 5; Rom. xil. 1. And herein he puts forth the greatness of his power, in giving them this will of coming; for they have it not in nor of themselves, but he makes them “ willing in the day of his power,” Ps. cx. 3. And this work we could manifest to be great and glo- rious, might we insist on the particulars of it.