(2.) That the resemblance of heavenly things in them was but dark and obscure, as the apostle expressly affirms, Heb. x. 1. This both the nature of the things themselves, being earthly and carnal, with that state wherein the church was to be kept unto the ful- ness of time, did require.
2. This yet is certain and indubitable,—which gives us our stable rule of the interpretation of their significancy,—that God chose this way and these means to represent his glorious presence in and with the Lord Christ, unto all the ends of his mediation. For with respect unto them it is said that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” Col. i. 9; namely, as it dwelt typically in the tabernacle by the outward pledges of his especial presence. Whence he concludes that they were all “a shadow,” whereof “ the body was Christ,” verse 17. But we need seek for no further testi- mony hereunto than the express design of the apostle in this place. For his whole discourse, in this and the ensuing chapter, is to mani- fest the representation of Christ in them all. And those who would have only an application to be made of something unto Christ by way of accommodation or allusion, as the Socinians contend, do reject the wisdom of God in their institution, and expressly contra- dict the whole scope of the apostle. We have, therefore, nothing else to do but to find out the resemblance which, as an effect of divine wisdom, and by virtue of divine institution, was in them unto God’s being in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And to this end the things ensuing may be observed :—
(1.) The spring, the life and soul of all this service, was the deca- logue, “the ten words,” written in tables of stone, called “the tables of the covenant.” This is the eternal, unalterable rule of our relation unto God as rational creatures, capable of moral obedience and eternal rewards. Hereunto all this service related, as prefigur- ing the way whereby the church might be freed from the guilt of its transgression, and obtain the accomplishment of it in them and for them. For,—
[1.] It was given and prescribed unto the people, and by them accepted, as the terms of God's covenant, before any of these things were revealed or appointed, Deut. v. 2-27. Wherefore all these fol- ‘lowing institutions did only manifest how that covenant should be complied withal and fulfilled.
[2.] It was written in tables of stone, and those renewed after jthey were broken, before any of these things were prepared or
& erected, Exod. xxxiv. 1, God, _by the occasional breaking of the
VER. 3-5.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 215
first tables, on the sin of the people, declared that there was no keeping, no fulfilling of that covenant, before the provision made in these ordinances was granted unto the people.
[3.] The ark was made and appointed for no other end but to preserve and keep these tables of the covenant, or testimony of God, Exod. xxv. 16. And it was hereon the great token and pledge of the presence of God among the people, wherein his glory dwelt among them. So the wife of Phinehas the priest made the dying confession of her faith ; she said, “ The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken,” 1 Sam. iv. 22. Wherefore,—
[4] All other things, the whole tabernacle, with all the furni- ture, utensils, and services of it, were made and appointed to minister unto the ark ; and when the ark was removed from them they were of no use nor signification, Wherefore, when it was absent from the tabernacle, “ all the house of Israel lamented after the LorD,” 1 Sam. vii. 2; for the remaining tabernacle was no longer unto them a pledge of his presence. And therefore, when Solomon afterwards had finished all the glorious work of the temple, with ‘all that belonged unto it, “he assembled all the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant into its place” in the temple, 1 Kings viii. 1-4. Before this was done, all that glorious and costly structure was of no sacred use. This order of things doth sufficiently evidence that the spring of all these ser- vices lay in the tables of the covenant.
(2.) This law, as unto the substance of it, was the only law of . ereation, the nuale of the first covenant of works ; for it contained the sum and substance of that obedience which is due unto God
from all rational creatures made in his image, and nothing else. It was the whole of what God designed in our creation unto his own glory and our everlasting blessedness. What was in the tables of stone was nothing but a transcript of what was written in the heart of man originally ; and which is returned thither again by the grace of the new covenant, Jer. xxxi. 33; 2 Cor. ii. 3.
(3.) Although this law as a covenant was broken and disannulled by the entrance of sin, and became insufficient as unto its first ends, - of the justification and salvation of the church thereby, Rom vii. 3 ; yet as alaw and rule of obedience it was never disannulled, nor would - God suffer it to be. Yea, one principal design of God in Christ was, that it might be fulfilled and established, Matt. v.17, 18 ; Rom. ii. 31. For to reject this law, or to abrogate it, had been for God to have laid aside that glory of his holiness and righteousness which in his infinite wisdom he designed therein. Hence, after it was again broken by the people as a covenant, he wrote it a second time him- self in tables of stone, and caused it to be safely kept in the ark,