Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel — show the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof. — Ezekiel 43:10,11.

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

COURTEOUS CHRISTIAN READER:

I HAVE, as thou by this little book mayest see, adventured, at this time, to do my endeavor to show thee something of the gospel-glory of Solomon’s Temple: that is, of what it, with its utensils, was a type of; and, as such, how instructing it was to our fathers, and also is to us their children. The which, that I might do the more distinctly, I have handled particulars one by one, to the number of threescore and ten; namely, all of them I could call to mind: because, as I believe, there was not one of them but had its signification, and so something profitable for us to know.

For, though we are not now to worship God in these methods, or by such ordinances as once the old church did, yet to know their methods, and to understand the nature and signification of their ordinances, when compared with the Gospel, may, even now, when themselves, as to what they once enjoined on others, are dead, minister light unto us. And hence the New Testament ministers, as the apostles, made much use of Old Testament language and ceremonial institutions as to their signification, to help the faith of the godly in their preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

I may say that God did in a manner tie up the church of the Jews to types, figures, and similitudes; I mean, to be butted and bounded by them in all external parts of worship. Yea, not only the Levitical law and temple, but as it seems to me the whole land of Canaan, the place of their lot to dwell in, was to them a ceremonial or a figure. Their land was a type of heaven, their passage over Jordan into it a similitude of our going to heaven by death. The fruit of their land was said to be uncircumcised, as being at their first entrance thither unclean; in which their land was also a figure of another thing, even as heaven was a type of grace and glory.

Again, the very land itself was said to keep sabbath, and so to rest a holy rest even then when she lay desolate, and not possessed of those to whom she was given for them to dwell in.

Yea, many of the features of the then Church of God were set forth, as in figures and shadows, so by places and things, in that land. 1. In general, she is said to be beautiful as Tirzah, ( Song of Solomon 6:4,) and to be comely as Jerusalem. 2. In particular, her neck is compared to the tower of David, builded for an armory, ( Song of Solomon 4:4;) her eyes to the fishpools of Heshben, by the gate of Bethrabbim, ( Song of Solomon 7:4;) her nose is compared to the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus, ( Song of Solomon 4:1;) yea, the hair of her head is compared to a flock of goats which come up from Mount Gilead, and the smell of her garments to the smell of Lebanon. Song of Solomon 4:11.

Nor was this land altogether void of shadows even of her Lord and Savior.

Hence he says of himself, “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.” Song of Solomon 2:1.

Also she, his beloved, saith of him, “His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.” What shall I say? The two cities, Sion and Jerusalem, were such as sometimes set forth the two churches, ( Galatians 4) the true and the false, and their seed, Isaac and Ishmael.

I might also here show you that even the gifts and graces of the true Church were set forth by the spices, nuts, grapes, and pomegranates that the land of Canaan brought forth; yea, that hell itself was set forth by the valley of the sons of Hinnom and Tophet, places in this country. Indeed, the whole, in a manner, was a typical and figurative thing.

But I have, in the ensuing discourse, confined myself to the temple, that immediate place of God’s worship, of whose utensils in particular, as I have said, I have spoken, (though to each with what brevity I could,) for that none of them are without a spiritual, and so a profitable, signification to us.

And here we may behold much of the richness of the wisdom and grace of God; namely, that he, even in the very place of worship of old, should ordain visible forms and representations for the worshippers to learn to worship him by; yea, the temple itself was, as to this, to them a good instruction.

But in my thus saying I give no encouragement to any now to fetch out of their own fancies figures of similitudes to worship God by. What God provided to be an help to the weakness of his people of old was one thing, and what they invented without his commandment was another. For though they had his blessing when they worshipped him with such types, shadows, and figures which he had enjoined them for that purpose, yet he sorely punished and plagued them when they would add to these inventions of their own. Yea, he, in the very act of instituting their way of worshipping him, forbade their giving (in any thing) way to their own humors or fancies, and bound them strictly to the orders of heaven. “Look,” said God to Moses, their first great legislator, “that thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount.”

Nor doth our apostle but take the same measures when he saith, “If any man thinketh himself a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

When Solomon also was to build this temple for the worship of God, though he was wiser than all men, yet God neither trusted to his wisdom, nor memory, nor to any immediate dictates from heaven to him, as to how he would have him build it. No; he was to receive the whole platform thereof in writing by the inspiration of God. Nor would God give this platform of the temple and of the utensils immediately to this wise man, lest perhaps by others his wisdom should be idolized, or that some should object that the whole fashion thereof proceeded of his fancy, only he made pretensions of divine revelation as a cover for his doings.

Therefore, I say, not to him, but to his father David, was the whole pattern of it, given from heaven, and so by David to Solomon his son in writing. “Then David,” says the text, “gave to Solomon his son, the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasures thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat. And the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, and of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things, also for the courses of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord.”

Yea, moreover, he had from heaven, or by divine revelation, what the candlesticks must be made of, and also how much was to go to each; the same order and commandment he also gave for the making of the tables, flesh-hooks, cups, basons, altar of incense, with the pattern for the chariot of the cherubims, etc. “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand by writing his hand upon me, even all the work of this pattern.”

So, I say, he gave David the pattern of the temple; so David gave Solomon the pattern of the temple; and according to that patoern did Solomon build the temple, and not otherwise.

True, all these were but figures, patterns, and shadows of things in the heavens, and not the very image of the things: but, as was said before, if God was so circumspect and exact in these as not to leave any thing to the dictates of the godly and wisest of men, what I can we suppose he will now admit of the wisdom and contrivance of men in those things that are, in comparison to them, the heavenly things themselves?

It is also to be concluded that since those shadows of things in the heavens are already committed by God to sacred story, and since that sacred story is said to be able to make the man of God perfect in all things, ( Timothy 3:15, 16, 17,) it is duty in us to leave off to lean to common understandings, and to inquire and search out by that very holy writ, and naught else, by what and how we should worship God. David was for inquiring in his temple. Psalm 27:4.

And although the old church way of worship is laid aside as to us in New Testament times, yet since those very ordinances were figures of things and methods of worship, now we may — yea, we ought to — search out the spiritual meaning of them, because they serve to confirm and illustrate matters to our understanding. Yea, they show us the more exactly how the New and Old Testament, as to the spiritualness of the worship, were one and the same; only the old was clouded with shadows, but ours is with more open face.

Features to the life, as we say, set out by a picture, do excellently show the skill of the artist. The Old Testament had but the shadow, nor have we but the very image; both, then, are but emblems of what is yet behind. We may find our Gospel clouded in their ceremonies, and our spiritual worship set out somewhat by their carnal ordinances.

Now because, as I said, there lies, as wrapt up in a mantle, much of the glory of our gospel-matters in this temple which Solomon built, therefore I have made, as well as I could, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, this book upon this subject.

I dare not presume to say that I know I have hit right in every thing, but this I can say, I have endeavored so to do. True, I have not for these things fished in other men’s waters; my Bible and Concordance are my only library in my writings. Wherefore, courteous reader, if thou findest any thing, either in word or matter, that thou shalt judge doth vary from God’s truth, let it be counted no man’s else but mine. Pray God also to pardon my fault: do thou also lovingly pass it by, and receive what thou findest will do thee good.