God continually. There the illumination, the nourishment, the purity of every soul is complete. No veil obstructs the view, or forbids the access, of any individual: the beatific vision is vouchsafed to all, and the full fruition of their God is the portion of all the saints.]
If we judged only from the minuteness of the orders which God gave respecting this work, we should conceive highly of its importance: but still more shall we see it, if we consider,
II. The testimony of his approbation with which God honoured it —
[We must bear in mind that Israel had sinned a grievous sin ; that, at the intercession of Moses, God had turned away from his holy indignation, and promised to continue with them as their God. In token of his reconciliation, he ordered this tabernacle to be made for him ; and the very day it was erected, he came down visibly to take possession of it as his peculiar residence, and so filled it with his glory, that Moses himself could no longer stand to minister there f. Now whilst this testified his approbation of their work, and of those who had been engaged in it, it shewed to all future generations, that He will return to those in love and mercy, who return to him in a way of penitence and active obedience.
In this view, we are led to consider this event, not as re- lating to the Israelites merely, but as speaking to us. Where is the nation, where the church, where the individual, who has not given just occasion to the Lord to shut up his loving-kind- ness in displeasure ? Yet where is there to be found,
in the annals of the world, one single instance, wherein God has turned a deaf ear to the supplications of a real penitent ?
Instances to the contrary are without number And
God, as in the history before us, has seemed ambitious, as it were, to make " his grace abound, not only where sin had abounded," but (I had almost said) in proportion as sin had
abounded We must be careful not to " limit the Holy
One of Israel," whose "ways and thoughts are as far above ours, as the heavens are above the earth." We are apt to forget that he is the same God now, as he was in the days of old : but "he changeth not:" and if his manifestations be less visible than formerly, they are not a whit less real, or less gracious g.]
Application —
[The day on which this work was finished was the first day of the yearh. What a blessed commencement was it of
f ver. 35. 8 2 Cor. vi. 1G. and John xiv. 21. h ver. 2.
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