candid disposition ; as the Samaritan woman % and the man who had been born bhnd''. Yet, on proper occasions, he was not backward to assert his supe- riority to all the sons of men. Jonas was a prophet; and Solomon a king ; but he was, in every view, greater than either the one or the other of them'. And, of all the structures in the universe, the temple was infinitely the most august and sacred : yet did he, without hesitation, declare himself to be greater than the temple^.
In order to confirm this assertion, I shall not enter generally into the proofs of the divinity of Christ, but shall consider minutely the comparison here instituted between the temple and him : and, stating those things which most ennobled the temple, I will distinctly mark the superiority of Christ in every particular.
The temple then, with every vessel in it, was made after a pattern formed by God himself ; and given to David, and to Solomon, for that end' —
[But the Lord Jesus Christ was himself formed by the very hand of God. He was formed, as no other person ever was, by the immediate agency of the Holy Ghost; as the angel had announced to the Virgin Mary: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- shadow thee : therefore, also, that Holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God '"." Nor was it in his person only, but in his offices also, that he was pre-emi- nently the product of Divine wisdom and power. In him are combined the kingly, prophetic, and sacerdotal offices ; all of which he executes, in a spiritual manner, over the face of the whole earth, yea, and in heaven itself too ; and will continue so to do, even to the end of time. It was in reference to him and his offices that the temple itself was formed, and all its ordinances were appointed. They were but the shadow, of
s John iv. 25, 26. n John ix. 35—37.
* ver. 41, 42.
^ Whether we read fxeii^wr or fuei^ov, denoting a person or a thing, we must of necessity understand it of our Lord himself : only, in the latter case we must suppose him to point to his own body ; as he did when he said, " Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up:" Johnii. 20, 21.
1 1 Chron. xxviii. 11, 12, 18, 19. "' Luke i. 35. compared with Heb. ix. 11.
1351cJ CHRIST GKEATEU THAN THE TEMPLE. 357
which he was the substance: and consequently his superiority in this respect is fully established".]
Again : the temple was richly furnished with every thing which could conduce to the glory of God, or to the welfare of man —
[The candlestick, the table of shew-bread, the altar of incense, the censer, the ark of the covenant, with numberless other vessels, all of the purest gold, and of the most exquisite workmanship, distinguished this building far beyond any that ever existed upon earth. But they were very faint shadows of his incomprehensible fulness and excellency. In Him their respective uses were all combined. He was at once the sacri- fice, the altar that sanctified it, and the Priest that offered it. He was " the light of the whole world ;" and " the living bread, of which whosoever eats shall live for ever." He was the laver in which every child of man must wash both his person and his offerings. He was the ark, which contained in it the law, and was covered in all its exact dimensions by the mercy-seat ; for, by his own fulfilment of the law for us, he rendered the exercise of mercy commensurate with the necessities of fallen man. Here again, then, compare the shadow with the sub- stance, and say whether the Lord Jesus Christ do not infi- nitely surpass the temple in the very things which constituted its chief grandeur.]