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 [pg 6-007] 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 whoredoms 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 pass 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 [pg 6-008] no more oppress the people of God, nor defile the name of God, 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 God shall put it in the hearts of kings to “hate the whore (of Rome), and they shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire”? It is foretold that God 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 God, 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 [pg 6-009] 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 God, 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 God, 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 God is with men, [having come down from [pg 6-010] God out of heaven] and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God,” 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 God (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 God: 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, God is not pleased with us unless we be ashamed and humbled for former guiltiness. Be zealous and repent (Rev. iii. [pg 6-011] 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 God 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 God may be glorified; we must be judged, that God 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 God; and, by the rule of contraries, if we judge not ourselves, we shall be judged of God; so say I now, if we give glory to God, and take shame and confusion of faces to ourselves, God shall not confound us, nor put us to shame: but if we will not be confounded and ashamed in ourselves, God shall confound us, and pour shame upon us; if we loathe not ourselves, God shall loathe us.