the Temple of old typified, the Lord Jesus Christ, and bless him for the dispensation which led you to the knowledge of him, and to the acquisition of his favour.
1 Kings viii. 38, 39. What prayer and supplication soever he made by any man, or hy all thy people Israel, which shall knoio every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house : then hear thou in heaven thy dicelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou hnowest.
RELIGION is often thought to be an employ- ment fit only for weak minds, or for those who have nothing else to engage their attention ; but it is worthy the pursuit of the wisest and greatest of men. Never did Solomon appear more glorious than when uttering these words. At the head of all his subjects he dedicated his temple to God. He set them a bright example of piety and devotion ; and inter- ceded, not for them only, but for all succeeding generations.
In this portion of his instructive prayer we may see, I. The requisites for acceptable prayer —
An humble, upright, fervent, believing, submissive, obediential frame of mind is necessary when we ap- proach the throne of grace. But the most essential requisites for acceptable worship are comprised in,
L A deep sense of our own depravity —
[The "plague of one's own heart" is, one's in-dwelling corruption^ "Every one" has some "sin that more easily besets him ; " and this sin he ought to know. Not that a mere
^ Some understand "plague" as expressing some loathsome dis- order ; and the rather because it is translated " sore" in the parallel passage, 2 Chron. vi. 29. This is the true sense of it when it relates to the body ; but liere the heart is represented as the seat of this dis- order, and therefore it must be understood of sin. This is confirmed by what is said in the text, of God's knowing the heart.