2. The tabernacle and temple were also Tabernaa considerable part of the Hebrew ritual, cle and temple. in which the Schechinah, the visible appearance of the Presence, was to be fixed; a consideration of which will show us the manner in which the presence of Jehovah was to be received into his sanctuary. This place, made holy by the presence of Jehovah, as the place where he put his name, and caused his glory to dwell, is often therefore styled the Court of God, and the House of God. It was to the Divine Presence inhabiting this sanctuary as his palace, all the worship of the church was to be offered, by express direction of the ritual itself, as residing there in the character of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whose covenant was with this people, as the God and King of Israel. This presence of Jehovah in the temple (not the temple itself, as some weakly imagined) was a foundation of hope in the peculiar favour of Jehovah, for his protection and blessing as their God and King. The Psalmist, speaking of the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High, adds, God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. And again, The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Ja- Psalm cob is our refuge. Selah. The Psalmist xlvi. 4, 5.

therefore addresses his prayer to Jehovah, as present in the sanctuary: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth: before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy 1xxx. 1,2. strength, and come and save us. The tabernacle and temple were so manifestly of the same nature, meaning, and use, that a consideration of either will equally give us the true intention of both.

Psalm

Whencesoever it was that temples had their original, or when they first came into use, is of little consequence, I apprehend, to our present inquiry. Whether the wisdom of God condescended to adopt a custom already in use before the giving of the law, as some have thought (though not very easy to prove), or whether this fixing the presence of Jehovah among the children of Israel gave occasion to the nations, neighbours to the Hebrews, to honour the presence of their gods in like manner, is, I think, hardly worth a long inquiry. It will be sufficient to take notice briefly of what the Hebrew ritual plainly directs as to this part of the worship; for, these are what God thought fit to appoint by his own authority, and will appear to have sufficient reasons for their establishment, whether they had been in use, or had not been in use, before.

I might observe, with respect to the

Egyptian chronology, that all parts of their history, so high as the Exodus and times of Moses, are very uncertain at least, if not certainly antedated; and that all reports of the Greek historians concerning their affairs are too late in time, and their informations too imperfect, to have any authority, at the utmost can give but very weak conjectures. To leave, then, such uncertainties, it is well observed, on more certain principles, "that two things are es- Nature of a temple. "sential to the proper notion of a temple; "the one, that it must be some house

or place separated for the use of some deity, and consecrated by some solemn "rites of religion to the worship of it; "the other, that it was a place where the deity dwelt, and manifested an extraordi

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nary presence in some way not common "and usual *." Thus the Psalmist represents the seat of God's presence, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

Psalm

cxxxii. 5.

on the

The mystery of the tabernacle, says CudDr. Cudworth, was fully understood by the worth learned Nachmanides, who, in few words, Lord's but pregnant, thus expresses it: The mystery of the tabernaele was this, that it was to be a place for the Shechinab, or habita

*E jam dictis intelligitur duo essentialiter requiri, ad templum constituendum, nempe dei proprietatem, et ejusdem inhabitationem, aut presentiam singularem. -Spencer, 1. iii. dissert. vi. p. 284, 286.

Supper,

c. vi. p.

31.

tion of Divinity, to be fixed in; and this, adds Dr. Cudworth, no doubt, as a special type of God's future dwelling in Christ's human nature, which was the true Shechinah.

You observe then, in general, that all the magnificence of the tabernacle and temple, of its buildings, ornaments, vessels, ministers, attendants, offerings, sacrifices, and every part of the worship, which the ritual directed to be performed only at the temple, was on account of the Schechinah residing in the temple; therefore God himself gives this direction, And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among Exodus, them, according to all that I show thee, xxv. 8, 9. after the pattern of the tabernacle.

xxvi.

The ritual further directs the tabernacle should be built with the richest maExodus, terials, boards of Shittim wood, overlaid with gold, sockets of silver, rings of gold, and bars overlaid with gold, vails of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work. In Solomon's 1 Kings, temple the whole house was overlaid withvi. 21. in with pure gold. Particular directions are given for the building of the sanctuary, for making the mercy-seat, the ark, the table, the altar, the candlesticks, and the several vessels that were to be placed in the holy place.

The temple itself was divided into two rooms, an outward and an inward: the

outward room was called the holy place; 1 Kings, the inward, the holy of holies, the most vi. 19. holy place, and the oracle. The LXX have not translated the original word, for " what reason I cannot conceive, when they had a well-known one so ready at hand, by which they might have expressed the meaning of the original, fully and clearly; 09. as the place from whence the oracle of God was given, or the WORD of Jehovah went forth.

This most holy place was a room of state of equal length, breadth, and height, or a cube of about twenty cubits (near thirty foot), all overlaid with pure gold. The holy place, or outward room, as an antechamber to the Presence, was of equal breadth of twenty cubits (near thirty foot), but as long again, or forty cubits (near sixty foot): both these were ornamented in the highest manner with the richest materials. Some consider the magnificence and ornaments of these two rooms, as chiefly, if not only, meant as a furniture fit for the rooms of state, in which the King of Israel was to appear and manifest his presence by his glory. Yet others consider them as intended for instruction, designed to explain more distinctly the nature, design, meaning, and use of the Presence itself.

If you first consider the holy place, you will observe there were prepared for the

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