cried

teral sense, nor are any way reconcileable to the up' simplicity of the pastoral dress.' And so likewise in what follows:

VER. 9.-King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

VER. 10. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

Commentators are much at a loss here; as for what our translators have called chariot in the text, they have put bed on the margin. The LXX. have rendered it pogov, as it were a carriage, from $ɛpw, to carry; in conformity to which, Jerom and the Vulgate make it ferculum;' though it is as likely that the pogov of the LXX. is only the Hebrew word, aphriun, put into Greek letters. The word is one of the 'ana joμeva, and occurs nowhere else. The interlineary version of Arias Montanus reads it in his text thalamum sponsarum,' a bridal bed, but has it on the margin 'edificium,' a building. In the first of these senses, Buxtorf brings it from, phareh, to be fruitful; and will have it to signify a marriage-bed, from its fruitfulness. And indeed there is some shew of probability for this derivation, as we have a scripture-precedent in the formation of a word much similar to this '-' Jo

seph

1 Gen. xli. 52.

seph called the name of his second son, aphrim, Ephraim, for God 7, hephrni, hath 'made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.' But there is another root that bids as fair for giving rise to this word, if we will but lay aside the notion of a bed or chariot, and that is, , aphr, which is translated ashes, powder, or dust, either in a good or bad sense, and gives name to a country, N, auphir, Ophir, what we would call the Dust-coast, perhaps to our Aphrica, where the Dust-coast is well known. From this country, be where it would, Solomon got great quantities of gold '; and gold of Ophir is proverbial in scripture. May not our word aphriun have some connexion with it, as there is such a sameness of letters, and the same mention of gold attached to it? Why it should be either bed or chariot, no reason has been, or can be given, either from the Hebrew itself, the Copov of the LXX. or the context. It may be a word framed on purpose, pro re nata,' as we would say, by the spirit of God, to describe some grand piece of workmanship of the true Solomon, for the benefit of his church. And what if I should say, that in the outward and emblematical representation here given, it points to that glorious fabric of the temple, in which, under either real or typical signification, all the parts of description will be found to meet? King Solomon was the builder of it, by a reserved privilege of revelation, which was refused to his father

II Kings ix. 28. x. II.

father David'. The timber for it was brought from Lebanon; gold, silver, and purple, were expended in great abundance upon it: And on the whole, it was such a magnificent structure, as might well merit a particular appellation, and be spoken of by its inspired builder, under a name of peculiar and expressive appropriation. It was modelled, planned, and contrived by God himself. He furnished the materials for it; and when it was finished, He took what we might call-personal possession of it, by the residence of his Shechinah visibly in it; all which made it truly, really, and by way of property, the house of God. Such was the

material temple of Solomon, as it is still, by way of emphasis, called: And, in the application to the archetypal Solomon, we shall find every article of this elegant representation beautifully analogous to, and descriptive of, some special blessing. The temple of Solomon, as a Divine residence, was but typical of a Divine residence in a closer and more intimate manner. Behold I send my messenger*, and suddenly (ON, petaam, soon after this sending) the Lord, the Adon, (the distinguishing title ' of the Messiah 3), whom ye seek, shall come into his temple.' Into what temple? Let himself answer the question. Destroy this temple, and in 'three days I will raise it up :' but he spake of the

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temple of his body'. He had said before, by the mouth of one of his old prophets, Mine ears hast 'thou opened;' (or, as St Paul renders it3, a body 'hast thou prepared me') then said I, Lo, I come,' &c. This prepared body was the dwelling of the mighty one of Jacob, which was heard of at Ephrata,' (x, aphrte, our very word almost), the temple into which the desired Adon was to come, which the enemies were to destroy, and He was to rear up again the third day. The church too is called the body of Christ, united to him as her Head; and, in conformity to the Old-Testament style, is represented likewise as a temple. the church therefore, in conjunction with, and depending upon Christ, her real, though invisible residenter, may be applied every particular of this aphriun, this mystical machine, which king Solomon is here said to have made ("", lu, 'ɛavzw, LXX.) for himself. So stands the case between the true Solomon and his church, which he hath purchased with his own blood, and hath purified savrw, to himself, to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

To

What

2 Psalm xl. 6.

1 Ver. 21.

3 Heb. x. 5.

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4 Psalm cxxxii. 6. compare Micah v. 2. St Matth. ii. 5.

5 Ephes. iv. 15. and v. 23. Col. i. 18, &c.

1 Cor. vi. 19. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Ephes. ii. 21. Revel. xi. 1.—and as

an house, 1 Tim. i. 15. Heb. iii. 2. 5. 6. 1 St Peter iv. 17.

7 Psalm cxxxii. 14. St Matth. xviii. 20.

Tit. ii. 14.

8 Acts xx. 28.

What king Solomon thus made for himself, he made of the wood, literally, of the trees,' of Lebanon, the incense mountain, as the name signifies, constituted of members from all nations, to offer up incense, to remember, present, exhibit for daily acceptance, his merits, the grateful odour, perfume, sweet-smelling savour' of the sacrifice which the true Solomon, offered to God, of his own prepared body, for our sanctification. He made the pillars of it silver.-So says this same writer in another place 3, Wisdom hath 'builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. The earth,' says the Psalmist 4, (not in his own person certainly) and all its inhabitants ' are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it.' The church herself is called a pillar3, the pillar of truth.' The pillars here are said to be silver, the emblem of whiteness, purity, and splendour: So the promise runs, Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.' The apostles are called pillars"; and we find a threatening under this metaphor, "I have made thee this 'day an iron pillar against this whole land;' iron, the emblem of roughness and wrath-as, Thou • shalt break them with a rod of iron,' The bottom thereof of gold-The bottom (avantov, LXX. stra