10); for "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2). But I have more to say: Mourn, O mourn with Jerusalem, all ye that rejoice for her; "This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (Isa. x.x.xvii. 3): it is an interwoven time, _warped_ with mercies, and _woofted_ with judgments. Say not thou in thine heart, The days of my mourning are at an end: Oh! we are to this day an unhumbled and an unprepared people; and there are among us both many cursed Achans, and many sleeping Jonahs, but few wrestling Jacobs; even the wise virgins are slumbering with the foolish (Matt. xxv.
5): surely, unless we be timely awakened, and more deeply humbled, G.o.d will punish us yet "seven times" (Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28) more for our sins; and if he hath chastised us with "whips," he will "chastise us with scorpions;" and he will yet give a further charge to the sword to "avenge the quarrel of his covenant" (Lev, xxvi. 25). In such a case, I cannot say, according to the now Oxford divinity, that _preces et lachrymae_,-prayers and tears,-must be our only one shelter and fortress, and that we must cast away defensive arms, as unlawful, in any case whatsoever, against the supreme magistrate (that is, by interpretation, they would have us do no more than _pray_, to the end themselves may do no less than _prey)_; wherein they are contradicted not only by Pareus, and by others that are "eager for a presbytery" (as a prelate(1362) of chief note hath lately taken, I should say _mistaken_, his mark), but even by those that are "eager royalists"(1363) (pardon me that I give them not their right name: I am sure, when all is well reckoned, we are better friends to royal authority than themselves). Yet herein I do agree with them, that "prayers and tears" will prove our strongest weapons, and the only _tela divina_, the weapons that fight for us from above: O then "fear the Lord, ye his saints" (Psal. x.x.xiv. 9); O stir up yourselves to lay hold on him (Isa. lxiv. 7); "Keep not silence; and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (Isa.
lxii. 6, 7). O that we could all make wells in our dry and desert-like hearts (Psal. lx.x.xiv. 6), that we may draw out water (1 Sam. vii. 6), even buckets-full, to quench the wrath of a sin-revenging G.o.d, the fire which still burneth against the Lord"s inheritance. G.o.d grant that this sermon be not "as water spilt on the ground" but may "drop as the rain" and "distil as the dew" (Deut. x.x.xii. 2) of heaven upon thy soul.
SERMON.
EZEK. xliii. 11.
"And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them 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: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinance thereof, and do them."
It is not long since I did, upon another day of humiliation, lay open England"s disease from that text, 2 Chron. xx. 33, "Howbeit the high places were not taken away; for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the G.o.d of their fathers." Though the Sun of Righteousness be risen, Mal. iv. 2, "with healing in his wings," yet the land is not healed, no, not of its worst disease, which is corruption in religion, and the iniquity of your holy things. I did then show the symptoms, and the cause of this evil disease. The symptoms are your high places not yet taken away, many of your old superst.i.tious ceremonies to this day remaining, which, though not so evil as the high places of idolatry in which idols were worshipped, yet are parallel to the high places of will-worship, of which we read that the people, thinking it too hard to be tied to go up to Jerusalem with every sacrifice, "did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their G.o.d only," 2 Chron. x.x.xiii, 17; pleading for their so doing, antiquity, custom, and other defences of that kind, which have been alleged for your ceremonies. But albeit these be foul spots in the church"s face, which offend the eyes of her glorious Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, yet that which doth less appear is more dangerous, and that is the cause of all this evil in the very bowels and heart of the church; the people of the land, great and small, have not as yet prepared their hearts unto the Lord their G.o.d; mercy is prepared for the land, but the land is not prepared for mercy. I shall say no more of the disease at this instant.
But I have now chosen a text which holds forth a remedy for this malady-a cure for this case; that is, that if we will humble our uncirc.u.mcised hearts, and accept of the punishment of our iniquity, Lev. xxvi. 41; if we be "ashamed and confounded" (Ezek. x.x.xvi. 32), before the Lord this day for our evil ways; if we judge ourselves as guilty, and put our mouth in the dust, and clothe ourselves with shame as with a garment; if we repent and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes, then the Lord will not abhor us, but take pleasure in us, to dwell among us, to reveal himself unto us, to set before us the right pattern of his own house, that the tabernacle of G.o.d may be with men, Rev. xxi. 3; and pure ordinances, where before they were defiled and mixed; Zech. xiii. 2, He "will cut off the names of the idols out of the land," and cause the false prophet, "and the unclean spirit to pa.s.s out of the land," and the glory of the Lord shall dwell in the land, Psal. lx.x.xv. 9. But, withal, we must take heed that we "turn not again to folly," Psal. lx.x.xv. 8; that our hearts start not aside, "like a deceitful bow," Psal. lxxviii. 57; that we "keep the ways of the Lord,"
Psal. xviii. 21, and do not wickedly depart from our G.o.d. Thus you have briefly the occasion and the sum of what I am to deliver from this text; the particulars whereof I shall not touch till I have, in the first place, resolved a difficult, yet profitable question.
You may ask, What house or what temple doth the Prophet here speak of, and how can it be made to appear that this scripture is applicable to this time?
I answer, Some(1364) have taken great pains to demonstrate that this temple, which the Prophet saw in this vision, was no other than the temple of Solomon; and that the accomplishment of this vision of the temple, city, and division of the land, was the building of the temple and city again after the captivity, and the restoring of the Levitical worship and Jewish republic, which came to pa.s.s in the days of Nehemiah and Zorobabel.
This sense is also most obvious to every one that readeth this prophecy; but there are very strong reasons against it, which make other learned expositors not to embrace it.
For, 1. The temple of Solomon was one hundred and twenty cubits high, the temple built by Zorobabel was but sixty cubits high, Ezra vi. 3.
2. The temple of Zorobabel (Ezra iii. 1, 8, vi. 3, 5, 7) was built in the same place where the temple of Solomon was, that is, in Jerusalem, upon mount Moriah, but this temple of Ezekiel was without the city, and a great way distant from it,(1365) chap. xlviii. 10 compared with ver. 15. The whole portion of the Levites, and a part of the portion of the priests, was betwixt the temple and the city.
3. Moses" greatest altar,-the altar of burnt-offerings, was not half so big as Ezekiel"s altar, compare Ezek. xliii. 16 with Exod. xxvii. 1,(1366) so is Moses" altar of incense much less than Ezekiel"s altar of incense, Exod. x.x.x. 2 compared with Ezek. xli. 22.
4. There are many new ceremonial laws, different from the Mosaical, delivered in the following part of this vision, chap. xlv. and xlvi., as interpreters have particularly observed upon these places.(1367)
5. The temple and city were not of that greatness which is described in this vision; for the measuring reed, containing six cubits of the sanctuary, not common cubits (chap. xl. 5), which amount to more than ten feet, the outer wall of the temple being two thousand reeds in compa.s.s (chap. xlii. 20), was by estimation four miles, and the city (chap.
xlviii. 16, 35) thirty-six miles in compa.s.s.
6. The vision of the holy waters (chap. xlvii.) issuing from the temple, and after the s.p.a.ce of four thousand reeds growing to a river which could not be pa.s.sed over, and healing the waters and the fishes, cannot be literally understood of the temple at Jerusalem.
7. The land is divided among the twelve tribes (chap. xlviii.), and that in a way and order different from the division made by Joshua, which cannot be understood of the rest.i.tution after the captivity, because the twelve tribes did not return.
8. This new temple hath with it a new covenant, and that an everlasting one, Ezek. x.x.xvii. 26, 27. But at the return of the people from Babylon there was no new covenant, saith Irenaeus,(1368) only the same that was before continued till Christ"s coming.
Wherefore we must needs hold with Jerome,(1369) Gregory,(1370) and other later interpreters, that this vision is to be expounded of the spiritual temple and church of Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles; and that not by way of allegories only, which is the sense of those whose opinion I have now confuted, but according to the proper and direct intendment of the vision, which, in many material points, cannot agree to Zorobabel"s temple.
I am herein very much strengthened while I observe many parallel pa.s.sages(1371) betwixt the vision of Ezekiel and the revelation of John; and while I remember withal, that the prophets do in many places foretell the inst.i.tution of the ordinances, government and worship of the New Testament, under the terms of temple, priests, sacrifices, &c., and do set forth the deliverance and stability of the church of Christ, under the notions of Canaan, of bringing back the captivity, &c., G.o.d speaking to his people at that time, so as they might best understand him.
Now if you ask how the several particulars in the vision may be particularly expounded and applied to the church of Christ, I answer The word of G.o.d, the "river that makes glad the city of G.o.d," though it have many easy and known fords where any of Christ"s lambs may pa.s.s through, yet in this vision, and other places of this kind, it is "a great deep"
where the greatest elephant, as he said, may swim. I shall not say with the Jews, that one should not read the last nine chapters of Ezekiel before he be thirty years old. Surely a man may be twice thirty years old, and a good divine too, and yet not able to understand this vision. Some tell us, that no man can understand it without skill in geometry, which cannot be denied, but there is greater need of ecclesiometry, if I may so speak, to measure the church in her length, or continuance through many generations, in her breadth, or spreading through many nations, her depth of humiliation, sorrows and sufferings, her height of faith, hope, joy, and comfort, and to measure each part according to this pattern here set before us.
Wherein, for my part, I must profess (as Socrates in another case), _Scio quod nescio_. I know that there is a great mystery here which I cannot reach. Only I shall set forth unto you that little light which the Father of lights hath given me.
I conceive that the Holy Ghost in this vision hath pointed at four several times and conditions of the church,-that we may take with us the full meaning, without addition or diminution.
Observing this rule, That what agreeth not to the type must be meant of the thing typified, and what is not fulfilled at one time must be fulfilled of the church at another time.
First of all, It cannot be denied that he points in some sort at the rest.i.tution of the temple, worship of G.o.d, and city of Jerusalem, after the captivity, as a type of the church of Christ, for though many things in the vision do not agree to that time, as hath been proved, yet some things do agree this, as it is least intended in the vision, so it is not fit for me at this time to insist upon it. But he that would understand the form of the temple of Jerusalem, the several parts, and excellent structure thereof, will find enough written of that subject.(1372)
Secondly, This and other prophecies of building again the temple, may well be applied to the building of the Christian church by the master-builders, the apostles, and by other ministers of the gospel since their days. Let us hear but two witnesses of the apostles themselves applying those prophecies to the calling of the Gentiles: the one is Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 16, "For ye are the temple of the living G.o.d; as G.o.d hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their G.o.d, and they shall be my people;" the other is James, who applieth to the converted Gentiles that prophecy of Amos, "After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up," Acts xv. 16.
Thirdly, But there is a third thing aimed at in this prophecy, and that more princ.i.p.ally than any of the other two, which is the repairing of the breaches and ruins of the Christian church, and the building up of Zion in her glory, about the time of the destruction of Antichrist and the conversion of the Jews; and this happiness hath the Lord reserved to the last times, to build a more excellent and glorious temple than former generations have seen. I mean not of the building of the material temple at Jerusalem, which the Jews do fancy and look for,-but I speak of the church and people of G.o.d; and that I may not seem to expound an obscure prophecy too conjecturally, which many in these days do, I have these evidences following for what I say:-
1. If Paul and James, in those places which I last cited, do apply the prophecies of building a new temple to the first-fruits of the Gentiles, and to their first conversion, then they are much more to be applied to the fulness of the Gentiles, and, most of all, to the fulness both of Jews and Gentiles, which we wait for. "Now, if the fall of them (saith the Apostle, speaking of the Jews) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" Rom. xi. 12. And again, "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" ver. 15. Plainly insinuating a greater increase of the church, and a larger spread of the gospel at the conversion of the Jews, and so a fairer temple, yea, another world, in a manner, to be looked for.
2. The Lord himself, in this same chapter, ver. 7, speaking of the temple here prophesied of, saith, "The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings," &c.; which, as it cannot be understood of the Jews after the captivity, who did again forsake the Lord, and were forsaken of him, as Jerome noteth upon the place, so it can as ill be said to be already fulfilled upon the Christian church, but rather that such a church is yet to be expected in which the Lord shall take up his dwelling for ever, and shall not be provoked by their defilements and wh.o.r.edoms again to take away his kingdom and to remove the candlestick.
3. This last temple is also prophesied of by Isaiah, chap. ii. 2, "And it shall come to pa.s.s in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord"s house shall be established in the top of the mountains (even as here Ezekiel did see this temple upon a very high mountain, chap. lx. 2), and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it," &c.; ver. 4, "And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Here is the building of such a temple as shall bring peaceable and quiet times to the church, of which that evangelical prophet speaketh in other places also, Isa. xi. 9; lx. 17, 18.
And if we shall read that which followeth, Isa. ii. 5, as the Chaldee paraphrase doth, "And the men of the house of Jacob shall say, Come ye,"
&c., then the building of the temple there spoken of shall appear to be joined with the Jews" conversion; but, howsoever, it is joined with a great peace and calm, such as yet the church hath not seen.
4. We find in this vision, that when Ezekiel"s temple shall be built, princes shall no more oppress the people of G.o.d, nor defile the name of G.o.d, Ezek. xlv. 8; xliii. 7;(1373) which are in like manner joined, Psal.
cii. 15, 16, 22, "The heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms (understand here also kings, as the Septuagint do), to serve the Lord;" which psalm is acknowledged to be a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ, though under the type of bringing back the captivity of the Jews, and of the building again of Zion at that time. The like prophecy of Christ we have Psal. lxxii. 11, "All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him." But I ask, Have not the kings of the earth hitherto, for the most part, set themselves "against the Lord, and against his Anointed"? Psal. ii. 2. And how then shall all those prophecies hold true, except they be coincident with Rev. xvii. 16, 17, and that time is yet to come, when G.o.d shall put it in the hearts of kings to "hate the wh.o.r.e (of Rome), and they shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire"? It is foretold that G.o.d shall do this great and good work even by those kings who have before subjected themselves to Antichrist.
5. That which I now draw from Ezekiel"s vision is no other but the same which was showed to John, Rev. xi. 1, 2,-a place so like to this of Ezekiel, that we must take special notice of it, and make that serve for a commentary to this,-"And there was given me (saith John) a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of G.o.d, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." This time of forty and two months must be expounded by Rev. xiii.
5, where it is said of the beast, "Power was given unto him, to continue forty and two months;" which, according to the computation of Egyptian years (reckoning thirty days to each month), make three years and a half, or twelve hundred and sixty days, and that is the time of the witnesses"
prophesying in sackcloth, and of the woman"s abode in the wilderness, Rev, xi. 3; xii. 6. Now lest it should be thought that the treading down of the holy city by the Gentiles (that is, the treading under foot of the true church, the city of G.o.d, by the tyranny of Antichrist and the power of his accomplices) should never have an end in this world, the angel gives John to understand that the church, the house of the living G.o.d, shall not lie desolate for ever, but shall be built again (for the measuring is in reference to building), that the kingdom of Antichrist shall come to an end, and that after twelve hundred and sixty years, counting days for years as the prophets do. It is not to my purpose now to search when this time of the power of the beast and of the church"s desolation did begin, and when it ends, and so to find out the time of building this new temple,-only this much I trust, I may say, that if we reckon from the time that the power of the beast did begin, and, withal, consider the great revolution and turning of things upside down in these our days, certainly the work is upon the wheel; the Lord hath plucked his hand out of his bosom, he hath whet his sword, he hath bent his bow, he hath also prepared the instruments of death against Antichrist: so saith the Psalmist of all persecutors, Psal. vii. 12, 13; but it will fall most upon that capital enemy. Whereof there will be occasion to say more afterward.
Let me here only add a word concerning a fourth thing which the Holy Ghost may seem to intend in this prophecy, and that is, the church triumphant, the new "Jerusalem which is above," unto which respect is to be had, as interpreters judge, in some parts of the vision, which happily cannot be so well applied to the church in this world. Even as the new Jerusalem is so described in the Revelation (Rev. xxi.), that it may appear to be the church of Christ, reformed, beautified, and enlarged in this world, and fully perfected and glorified in the world to come; and as many things which are said of it can very hardly be made to agree to the church in this world; so other things which are said of it can as hardly be applied to the church glorified in heaven, as where it is said, "Behold, the tabernacle of G.o.d is with men, [having come down from G.o.d out of heaven]
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and G.o.d himself shall be with them, and be their G.o.d," ver. 3. Again, "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it," ver. 24.
But now I make haste to the several particulars contained in my text: "I pray G.o.d (saith the Apostle) your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless," 1 Thess. v. 23; Phil. i. 9, 11. And what he there prays for, this text, rightly understood and applied, may work in us, that is, gracious affections, gracious minds, gracious actions. In the first place, a change upon our corrupt and wicked affections,-"If they be ashamed of all that they have done," saith the Lord; Secondly, A change upon our blind minds,-"Show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof," &c.; Thirdly, A change also upon our actions,-"That they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them."
For the first, the words here used is not that which signifieth blushing through modesty, but it signifieth shame for that which is indeed shameful, filthy, and abominable,(1374) so that it were impenitency and an aggravation of the fault not to be ashamed for it.
I shall here build only one doctrine, which will be of exceeding great use for such a day as this: "If either we would have mercy to ourselves, or would do acceptable service in the public reformation, we must not only cease to do evil and learn to do well, but also be ashamed, confounded and humbled, for our former evil ways." Here is a twofold necessity, which presseth upon us this duty,-to loathe and abhor ourselves for all our abominations, to be greatly abashed and confounded before our G.o.d: First, Without this we shall not find grace and favour to our own souls; Secondly, We shall else miscarry in the work of reformation.
First, I say, let us do all the good we can, G.o.d is not pleased with us unless we be ashamed and humbled for former guiltiness. Be zealous and repent (Rev. iii. 19), saith Christ to the Laodiceans; be zealous in time coming, and repent of your former lukewarmness: "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" (Rom. vi. 21,) saith the Apostle to the saints at Rome, of whom he saith plainly, that they were "servants to righteousness," (ver. 19;) and had their "fruit unto holiness." But that is not all; they were also ashamed while they looked back upon their old faults, which is the rather to be observed, because it maketh against the Antinomian error now afoot.(1375) It hath a clear reason for it, for without this G.o.d is still dishonoured, and not restored to his glory: "O Lord (saith Daniel), righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces," Dan. ix. 7. These two go together. We must be confounded, that G.o.d may be glorified; we must be judged, that G.o.d may be justified; our mouths must be stopped, and laid in the dust, that the Lord may be just when he speaketh, and clear when he judgeth (Psal. li. 4). And as the Apostle teacheth us, 1 Cor. xi. 31, that if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged of G.o.d; and, by the rule of contraries, if we judge not ourselves, we shall be judged of G.o.d; so say I now, if we give glory to G.o.d, and take shame and confusion of faces to ourselves, G.o.d shall not confound us, nor put us to shame: but if we will not be confounded and ashamed in ourselves, G.o.d shall confound us, and pour shame upon us; if we loathe not ourselves, G.o.d shall loathe us.
Nay let me argue from the manner of men, as the Prophet doth, Mal. i. 8, "Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?" Will thy governor, nay, thy neighbour, who is as thou art, alter an injury done to him, be pleased with thee, if thou do but leave off to do him any more such injuries? Will he not expect an acknowledgment of the wrong done? Is it not Christ"s rule (Luke xvii. 4) that he who seven times trespa.s.seth against his brother, seven times turn again, saying, I repent? David would hardly trust Ittai to go up and down with him, who was but a stranger (2 Sam. xv. 19), how much more if he had done him some great wrong, and then refused to confess it? And how shall we think that it can stand with the honour of the most high G.o.d, that we seem to draw near unto him, and to walk in his ways, while, in the meantime, we do not acknowledge our iniquity, and even accuse, shame, judge, and condemn ourselves? Nay, "Be not deceived, G.o.d is not mocked," Gal. vi. 7.
This is the first necessity of the duty which this text holdeth forth. The Lord requireth of us not only to do his will for the future, but to be ashamed for what we have done amiss before.
The other necessity of it, which is also in the text, is this: That except we be thus ashamed and humbled, G.o.d hath not promised to show us the pattern of his house, nor to reveal his will unto us; which agreeth well with that, Psal. xxv. 9, "The meek will he teach his way;" and ver. 12, "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose;" and ver. 14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." There is sanctification in the affections, and here is humiliation in the affections, spoken of as necessary means of attaining the knowledge of the will of G.o.d. Let the affections be ordered aright, then light which is offered shall be seen and received; but let light be offered when disordered affections do overcloud the eye of the mind, then all is in vain.
In this case a man shall be like "the deaf adder" (Psal. lviii. 4, 5,) which will not be taken by the voice of the charmers, "charming never so wisely." Let the helm of reason be stirred as well as you can imagine, if there be a contrary wind in the sails of the affections, the ship will not answer to the helm. It is a good argument: He is a wicked man, a covetous man, a proud man, a carnal man, an unhumbled man; therefore he will readily miscarry in his judgment. So divines have argued against the Pope"s infallibility! The Pope hath been, and may be a profane man; therefore he may err in his judgment and decrees. And what wonder that they who receive not the love of the truth be given over to "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie?" 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. It is as good an argument: He is a humbled man, and a man that feareth G.o.d; therefore, in so far as he acteth and exerciseth those graces, the Lord shall teach him in the way that he shall choose. I say, in so far as he acteth those graces,-because when he grieves the Spirit, and cherisheth the flesh, when the child of G.o.d is more swayed by his corruptions than by his graces, then he is in great danger to be given up to the counsel of his own heart, and to be deserted by the Holy Ghost, which should lead him "into all truth," John xvi. 13.
But we must take notice of a seeming contradiction here in the text. G.o.d saith to the Prophet in the former verse, "Show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities;" and, Jer. x.x.xi. 19, Ephraim is first instructed, then ashamed. And here it is quite turned over in my text; if they be ashamed show them the house.
I shall not here make any digression unto the debates and distinctions of schoolmen, what influence and power the affections have upon the understanding and the will; I will content myself with this plain answer: Those two might very well stand together,-light is a help to humiliation, and humiliation a help to light. As there must be some work of faith, and some apprehension of the love of G.o.d, in order before true evangelical repentance, yet this repentance helpeth us to believe more firmly that our sins are forgiven. The soul, in the pains of the new birth, is like Tamar travailing of her twins, Pharez and Zarah (Gen. x.x.xviii. 28-30): faith, like Zarah, first putting out his hand, but hath no strength to come forth, therefore draweth back the hand again, till repentance, like Pharez, have broken forth,-then can faith come forth more easily. Which appeareth in that woman, Luke vii. 47, 48: she wept much, because she loved much; she loved much, because she believed; and by faith had her heart enlarged with apprehending the rich grace and free love of Christ to poor sinners: this faith moves her bowels, melts her heart, stirs her sorrow, kindles her affection. Then, and not till then, she gets a prop to her faith, and a sure ground to build upon. It is not till she have wept much that Christ intimates mercy, and saith, "Thy sins are forgiven thee."
Just so is the case in this text: Show them the house, saith the Lord, that they may be ashamed; give them a view of it, that they may think the worse of themselves, that they want it, that they may be ashamed for all their iniquities, whereby they have separate betwixt their G.o.d and themselves, so that they cannot "behold the beauty of the Lord," nor "inquire in his temple," Psal. xxvii. 4; and if, when they begin to see it, they have such thoughts as these, and humble themselves, and acknowledge their iniquities, then go to and show them the whole fabric, and structure, and all the gates thereof, and all the parts thereof, and all things pertaining thereto.