There is another thing as to this point to be taken notice of. There is a way by which God also doth depart from this house, and that also is by sin, as the occasion. The sin of a man will thrust him out, and the sin of men will drive God out of his own house. Of this you read, Ezekiel 11:22, 23. For this, he saith, 'I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies' (Jer 12:7). And this also is dreadful. The great sentence of Christ upon the Jews lay much in these words, 'Your house is left unto you desolate'; that is, God has left you to bare walls, and to lifeless traditions. Consider, therefore, of this going out also. Alas! a church, a true church, is but a poor thing if God leaves, if God forsakes it. By a true church I mean one that is congregated according to outward rule, that has sinned God away, as she had almost quite done that was of Laodicea (Rev 3).
He that sins himself out, can find no good in the world; and they that have sinned God out, can find no good in the church. A church that has sinned God away from it, is a sad lump indeed. You therefore that are in God's church, take heed of sinning yourselves out thence; also take heed, that while you keep in, you sin not God away, for thenceforth no good is there. 'Yea, woe to them when I depart from them!' saith God (Hosea 9:12).
LIV. Of the singers belonging to the Temple.
Having thus far passed through the temple, I now come to the singers there. The singers were many, but all of the church, either Jews or proselytes; nor was there any, as I know of, under the Old Testament worship, admitted to sing the songs of the church, and to celebrate that part of worship with the saints, but they who, at least in appearance, were so. The song of Moses, of Deborah, and of those that danced before David, with others that you read of, they were all performed, either by Jews by nature, or by such as were proselyted to their religion (Exo 15:1; Jude 5:1,2; 1 Sam 18:6). And such worship then was occasioned by God's great appearance for them, against the power of the Gentiles their enemies.
But we are confined to the songs of the temple, a more distinct type of ours in the church under the gospel. 1. The singers then were many, but the chief of them, in the days of David, were David himself, Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, and their sons. 2. In David's time the chief of these singers were two hundred fourscore and eight (1 Chron 25). These singers of old were to sing their songs over the burnt-offering, which were types of the sacrificed body of Christ; a memorial of which offering we have at the Lord's table, the consummation of which Christ and his disciples celebrated with a hymn (Matt 26:30). And as of old they were the church that did sing in the temple, according to institution, to God, so also they are by God's appointment to be sung in the church by the new. Hence,
1. They are said to be the redeemed that sin. 2. The songs that they sing are said to be the 'songs of their redemption' (Rev 5:9,10). 3. They were and are songs that no man can learn but they.
But let us run a little in the parallel.
1. They were of old appointed to sin, that were cunning and skilful in songs. And answerable to that it is said, That no man could learn our New Testament songs, but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth (1 Chron 15:22; Rev 14:3).
2. These songs were sung with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and trumpets; a type of our singing with spiritual joy, from grace in our hearts (1 Chron 25:6; 2 Chron 29:26-28; Col 3:16).
3. The singers of old were to be clothed in fine linen; which fine linen was a type of innocency, and an upright conversation. Hence the singers under the New Testament are said to be virgins, such in whose mouth was no guile, and that were without 'fault before the throne of God' (1 Chron 15:27; Rev 14:1-5. See also 7:9-16; Psa 33:1).