Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - "Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v9"

Byron J. Rees - "The Heart Cry of Jesus"

Louis Hemon - "Maria Chapdelaine"

Kathleen Norris - "Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

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Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 3

J >> John Bunyan >> The Works of John Bunyan Volume 3




18. As the leaven goes on imperceptibly until the whole is leavened,
so the kingdom of our Lord must increase. How extraordinary has
been the progress of Divine truth since Bunyan's days! and who
can predict what it will be in another century?-Ed.

19. There being no night there but perpetual day.-Ed.

20. A 'gold angel' was an early English coin, valued at one-third
of a pound, afterwards increased to ten shillings. The 'twenty-shilling
piece' was the old sovereign. The comparison between them and
the silver pence and halfpennies was made by Bunyan in respect to
their rarity and not their purity.-Ed.

21. 'To stoop or lower the top-gallant' is a mode of salutation
and respect shown by ships at sea to each other.-Ed.

22. This quotation is taken from that excellent translation of the
Bible made by the reformers at Geneva, and which was much used
in Bunyan's time. He preferred the word pour to that of sprinkle,
used in the present version.-Ed.

23. How beautifully is the Christian's growth in grace here pictured
by Bunyan from Ezekiel 47:3-12. So imperceptibly by Divine power,
without the aid of man, that the partaker often doubts his own
growth. The water rises higher and higher, until at length there
is no standing for his feet-the earth and time recedes, and he is
plunged into the ocean of eternal grace and glory.-Ed.

24. 'To the one, the savour of death unto death; and to the other,
the savour of life unto life' (2 Cor 2:16).-Ed.

***

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized

or,

Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us
More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths.

'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew
them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings
out hereof, 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.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11

London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans
without Bishopgate, 1688.

[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR]

Of all the wonders of the world, the temple of Solomon was beyond
comparison the greatest and the most magnificent. It was a type of
that temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, of that
city whose builder and maker is God, and which, at the consummation
of all things, shall descend from heaven with gates of pearl and
street of pure gold as shining glass, and into which none but the
ransomed of the Lord shall enter. Jesus, the Lamb of God, shall
be its light and glory and temple; within its walls the Israel of
God, with the honour of the Gentiles, shall be brought in a state
of infinite purity. No unclean thing will be able to exist in
that dazzling and refulgent brightness which will arise from the
perfection of holiness in the immediate presence of Jehovah; and
of this, as well as of the whole Christian dispensation, the temple
of Solomon was a type or figure. It would have been impossible
for the united ingenuity of all mankind, or the utmost stretch of
human pride, to have devised such a building, or to have conceived
the possibility of its erection. The plan, the elevation, the
whole arrangement of this gorgeous temple, proceeded from the
Divine Architect. He who created the wondrous universe of nature
condescended to furnish the plan, the detail, the ornaments, and
even the fashion of the utensils of this stately building. 'David
gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses
thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers
thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of
the mercy seat, and the pattern of all that he had BY THE SPIRIT,
of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chamber
round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the
treasuries of the dedicated things' (1 Chron 28:11,12). 'Now,
behold I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand
talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; brass,
and iron without weight, timber and stone also, and all manner
of cunning workmen' (1 Chron 22). And lest his heart should fail
before a work so vast, 'David said to Solomon, Be strong and of
good courage, and do it; fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord
God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor
forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord' (28:20). Thus furnished with wisdom
from above, with materials and with cunning workmen, and, above
all, with the approbation and protection of his God, Solomon
commenced, and eventually finished, this amazing structure, and
fitted it to receive the sacred implements, all of which, to the
minutest particular, had been made by Moses, 'after their pattern,
which was shewed him in the mount' (Exo 25:40).

Every part of the building, including the foundation, its altar,
its courts, the holy of holies, all the utensils, and the ark,
were types of that more glorious system which, in the fulness of
time, appeared as the antitype, and perfected the Divine revelation.
The temple becomes therefore an object of our special attention
as a light to guide us while searching into gospel truths.

Under the peculiar aid of Divine guidance and protection, this
sumptuous structure was finished, and most deeply impressive were
the ceremonies on the day of its consecration. Solomon had made
to himself an everlasting name, and it would be natural to expect
that in such a scene of splendid triumph he would have felt exalted
to the proudest height that human nature was capable of attaining.
But Solomon had not only heard of God by the hearing of the ear,
but by internal communion had seen and conversed with him. He
could say with Job, when he had been restored from the deepest
abasement to an elevated position, 'Mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' Thus, in Solomon's
beautiful prayer on the dedication of this gorgeous temple,
he humbly inquires, 'Will God in very deed dwell with men on the
earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain
thee; how much less this house that I have built?' (2 Chron 6:18).
Thus was completed the most perfect, splendid, and magnificent
building that was ever erected by human hands. Still it was only
a type of that infinitely more glorious antitype, the Christian
dispensation. 'Most stately and magnificent is the fabric of
God's house, yielding admirable delight to such whom free grace
has vouchsafed to give spiritual eyes to discern it; far surpassing
the splendour of its ancient type, the temple of Solomon, which
was once the wonder of the world.'[1] 'A greater than Solomon is
here.' 'The BRANCH he shall build the temple of the Lord'--the
more glorious, spiritual, eternal temple (Zech 6:12).

In a few hundred years after the temple of Solomon was finished,
this sumptuous structure was doomed to destruction, like all the
fading handiwork of man. Sin enervated the nation which should
have protected it; while the immensity of its riches excited the
cupidity of a neighbouring royal robber. It was plundered, and
then set on fire; the truth of the declaration made by Job upon
the perishable works of man was eminently displayed--'For man to
labour he is born, and the sons of the burning coal they mount
up fluttering.'[2] In a few days the labour of years, aided by
unbounded wealth and resources, was reduced to a heap of ashes.
And now, after a lapse of about twenty-five centuries, accompanied
by John Bunyan, 'a cunning workman,' as our guide, we are enabled
to contemplate the account given us of this amazing edifice recorded
in the volume of truth, and to compare that utmost perfection of
human art, aided from heaven, with the infinitely superior temple
in which every Christian is called to worship--to enter by the
blood of the everlasting covenant into the holiest of all, the
way consecrated by the cross and sufferings of Christ--without
the intervention of priests or lordly prelate--without expensive
victims to offer as a type of expiation--without limit of
time, or space, or place, the poorest and most abject, with the
wealthiest--the humbled beggar and the humbled monarch have equal
access to the mercy seat, sacrificing those sinful propensities
which are the cause of misery, and pleading the Saviour's merits
before the eternal Jehovah. Christ has consecrated the way, and
we enter into the holiest of all not only without fear, but with
solemn joy. The cost of Solomon's temple has been estimated at
eight hundred thousand millions of money: if this is true, still
how infinitely inferior is that vast sum to the inconceivable
cost of the eternal temple, with its myriads of worshippers, for
which the Son of God paid the ransom, when he made the atonement
for transgression, and built that imperishable temple which neither
human nor satanic malevolence can ever destroy, and in which every
spiritual worshipper will be crowned with an everlasting weight
of glory.

While we cannot doubt but that the temple and its services contained
many types highly illustrative of the Christian dispensation,
incautious attempts to find them may lead to fanciful interpretations
which tend to cloud, rather than to elucidate gospel truths. Bunyan
very properly warns his readers against giving the reins to their
imaginations and indulging in speculations like those fathers,
who in every nail, pin, stone, stair, knife, pot, and in almost
every feather of a sacrificed bird could discern strange, distinct,
and peculiar mysteries.[3] The same remark applies to the Jewish
rabbis, who in their Talmud are full of mysterious shadows. From
these rabbinical flints some have thought to extract choice
mystical oil to supple the wheels of their fancy--to use a homely
expression. Such Jewish rabbis and Christian fathers limped and
danced upon one learned leg, to the amazement of all beholders,
but not to their edification; their lucubrations may amuse those
who have patience to read them, but they afford no instruction.
Even the learned Samuel Lee, whose work on the temple abounds with
valuable information, has strongly tinctured it with pedantry. It
is seldom that a more curious jumble is found than in the following
paragraph:--'The waxen comb of the ancient figures and typical
eels is fully matted and rolled up in shining tapers, to illuminate
temple students in finding out the honey that couches in the
carcass of the slain Lion of the tribe of Judah.' There is no fear
of Bunyan's indulging his readers with the vagaries of the Jewish
rabbis or Christian fathers--his converse was limited to the prophets
and apostles. His object is to make us familiar with those types
exhibited in the temple and alluded to by the inspired writers of
the New Testament; to use a Puritan expression, he would enable
us to plough with our spiritual Samson's heifer to expound the
riddle, and thus discover the dark patterns of heavenly things (Heb
9:23,24). Among the many striking objects to which Bunyan directs
our wondering eyes, a few should excite our deeper attention while
we accompany him in viewing this marvellous temple.

1. All the materials that were used required preparation. The stones
must be quarried, squared, and fitted for the building with many
a hard knock and cutting of the chisel. So must you and I, my
readers, pass through the new birth, and be prepared by the Holy
Spirit to fit us for the spiritual building composed of living
stones; and if not made meet for that building, we shall be
eventually found lifting up our eyes in torment.

2. Very solemn is the consideration insisted on by our author--that
all sons are servants to assist in building this spiritual edifice,
but all servants are not sons to inherit a place in it; an awful
thought, that there have been and now are servants employed in the
conversion of sinners, and in building up the saints, who never did
nor never will worship in that temple. Let us examine ourselves
before we enter that dreary abode, to which we are hastening; 'for
there is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the
grave, whither thou goest' (Eccl 9:10).

3. Are we zealously affected to forward the work, be careful
then as to the materials we use, 'living stones' not wood, hay,
or stubble. May all our persuasions be constantly used to bring
poor thoughtless sinners to repentance but introduce them not as
members of that house until you have a scriptural hope that they
have passed from death unto life--that they are believers in Jesus,
and have brought forth fruit meet for repentance.

4. All the foundation, the superstructure, the furniture, must be
according to the written word of the prophets and apostles, Jesus
Christ being the chief corner stone. Reject all the inventions of
man and all human authority in the worship of God.

5. The temple was so built that the worshippers looked to the west
toward the holy of holies. All the superstitions and idolatrous
notions of man lead him to turn to the east, to worship the rising
sun. 'The heathen made the chief gates of their temples towards the
west, that these stupid worshippers, drawing nigh to their blind,
deaf, and dumb deities, might have their idols rising upon them
out of the east.'[4] The temple as a type, and Christianity as
the antitype run counter to such idolatrous absurdities and folly.

6. Christian, be content with whatever may be your lot, however
humble your place in the church and world. Soon will it be changed
for the better. In this world we are working men, and must be
content to be clad and fed as such, that we may be fitted for our
solemn and joyful change. Soon we shall put on our church-going
holiday suit and partake all the dainties of the heavenly feast,
the glories of the New Jerusalem. Reader, these are samples
of the prominent truths which will occupy your attention, while
accompanying Bunyan in your interesting visit to Solomon's temple.
May you richly enjoy your survey of that astonishing building,
under so trusty and experienced a guide.

GEO. OFFOR.


[TO THE CHRISTIAN READER]

COURTEOUS CHRISTIAN READER,

I have, as thou by this little book mayest see, adventured, at this
time, to do my endeavour to show thee something of the gospel-glory
of Solomon's temple: that is, of what it, with its utensils, was a
type of; and, as such, how instructing it was to our fathers, and
also is to us their children. The which, that I might do the more
distinctly, I have handled particulars one by one, to the number
of threescore and ten; namely, all that of them I could call to
mind; because, as I believe, there was not one of them but had
its signification, and so something profitable for us to know.

For, though we are not now to worship God in these methods, or
by such ordinances, as once the old church did: yet to know their
methods, and to understand the nature and signification of their
ordinances, when compared with the gospel, may, even now, when
themselves, as to what they once enjoined on others, are dead,
may minister light to us. And hence the New Testament ministers,
as the apostles, made much use of Old Testament language, and
ceremonial institutions, as to their signification, to help the
faith of the godly in their preaching of the gospel of Christ.

I may say that God did in a manner tie up the church of the Jews
to types, figures, and similitudes; I mean, to be butted and
bounded[1] by them in all external parts of worship. Yea, not only
the Levitical law and temple, but, as it seems to me, the whole
land of Canaan, the place of their lot to dwell in, was to them
as ceremonial, or a figure. Their land was a type of heaven, their
passage over Jordan into it a similitude of our going to heaven
by death (Heb 3:5-10). The fruit of their land was said to be
uncircumcised (Lev 19:23). As being at their first entrance thither
unclean (Exo 12:15). In which their land was also a figure of
another thing, even as heaven was a type of sin and grace (Lev 6:17,
23:17).[2] Again, the very land itself was said to keep Sabbath,
and so to rest a holy rest, even then when she lay desolate, and
not possess of those to whom she was given for them to dwell in
(Lev 26:34,35).

Yea, many of the features of the then church of God were set forth,
as in figures and shadows, so by places and things, in that land.
1. In general, she is said to be beautiful as Tirzah, and to
be comely as Jerusalem (Can 6:4). 2. In particular, her neck is
compared to the tower of David, builded for an armoury (Cant 4:4).
Her eyes to the fish-pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bethrabbim.
Her nose is compared to the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards
Damascus (Cant 7:4). Yea, the hair of her head is compared to a
flock of goats, which come up from mount Gilead; and the smell of
her garments to the smell of Lebanon (Cant 4:1,11).

Nor was this land altogether void of shadows, even of her Lord and
Saviour. Hence he says of himself, 'I AM the rose of Sharon, and
the lily of the valleys' (Cant 2:1). Also, she, his beloved, saith
of him, 'His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars'
(Cant 5:15). What shall I say? The two cities Sion and Jerusalem,
were such as sometimes set forth the two churches, the true and
the false, and their seed Isaac and Ishmael (Gal 4).

I might also here show you, that even the gifts and graces of
the true church were set forth by the spices, nuts, grapes, and
pomegranates, that the land of Canaan brought forth; yea, that
hell itself was set forth by the valley of the sons of Hinnom and
Tophet, places in this country. Indeed, the whole, in a manner,
was a typical and a figurative thing.

But I have, in the ensuing discourse, confined myself to the
temple, that immediate place of God's worship; of whose utensils,
in particular, as I have said, I have spoken, though to each
with what brevity I could, for that none of them are without a
spiritual, and so a profitable signification to us. And here we
may behold much of the richness of the wisdom and grace of God;
namely, that he, even in the very place of worship of old, should
ordain visible forms and representations for the worshippers to
learn to worship him by; yea, the temple itself was, as to this,
to them a good instruction.

But in my thus saying, I give no encouragement to any now, to
fetch out of their own fancies figures or similitudes to worship
God by. What God provided to be an help to the weakness of his
people of old was one thing, and what they invented without his
commandment was another. For though they had his blessing when
they worshipped him with such types, shadows, and figures, which
he had enjoined on them for that purpose, yet he sorely punished
and plagued them when they would add to these inventions of their
own (Exo 32:35; 2 Kings 17:16-18; Acts 7:38-43). Yea, he, in the
very act of instituting their way of worshipping him, forbade
their giving, in any thing, way to their own humours or fancies,
and bound them strictly to the orders of heaven. 'Look,' said God
to Moses, their first great legislator, 'that thou make all things
according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount' (Exo 25:40;
Heb 8:5). Nor doth our apostle but take the same measures, when
he saith, 'If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual,
let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the
commandments of the Lord' (1 Cor 14:37).

When Solomon also, was to build this temple for the worship of
God, though he was wiser than all men, yet God neither trusted to
his wisdom nor memory, nor to any immediate dictates from heaven
to him, as to how he would have him build it. No; he was to receive
the whole platform thereof in writing, by the inspiration of God.
Nor would God give this platform of the temple, and of its utensils,
immediately to this wise man, lest perhaps by others his wisdom
should be idolized, or that some should object, that the whole
fashion thereof proceeded of his fancy, only he made pretensions
of Divine revelation, as a cover for his doings

Therefore, I say, not to him, but to his father David, was the
whole pattern of it given from heaven, and so by David to Solomon
his son, in writing. 'Then David,' says the text, 'gave to Solomon
his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and
of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and
of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat,
and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts
of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of
the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the
dedicated things: also for the courses of the priests and the
Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the
Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord'
(1 Chron 28:11-13).

Yea, moreover, he had from heaven, or by Divine revelation, what
the candlesticks must be made of, and also how much was to go to
each; the same order and commandment he also gave for the making
of the tables, flesh-hooks, cups, basins, altar of incense, with
the pattern for the chariot of the cherubims, &c. (vv 14-19). 'All
this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his
hand upon me, even all the work of this pattern' (v 19). So, I say,
he gave David the pattern of the temple, so David gave Solomon the
pattern of the temple; and according to that pattern did Solomon
build the temple, and no otherwise.

True, all these were but figures, patterns, and shadows of things
in the heavens, and not the very image of the things; but, as was
said afore, if God was so circumspect and exact in these, as not
to leave any thing to the dictates of the godly and wisest of men,
what! can we suppose he will now admit of the wit and contrivance
of men in those things that are, in comparison to them, the heavenly
things themselves? (Heb 8:5, 9:8-10,23, 10:1).

It is also to be concluded, that since those shadows of things
in the heavens are already committed by God to sacred story; and
since that sacred story is said to be able to make the man of God
perfect in all things--2 Timothy 3:15-17--it is duty to us to leave
off to lean to common understandings, and to inquire and search
out by that very holy writ, and nought else, by what and how we
should worship God. David was for inquiring in his temple (Psa
27:4).

And, although the old church-way of worship is laid aside as to
us in New Testament times, yet since those very ordinances were
figures of things and methods of worship now; we may, yea, we ought
to search out the spiritual meaning of them, because they serve
to confirm and illustrate matters to our understandings. Yea, they
show us the more exactly how the New and Old Testament, as to the
spiritualness of the worship, was as one and the same; only the
old was clouded with shadows, but ours is with more open face.

Features to the life, as we say, set out by a picture, do excellently
show the skill of the artist. The Old Testament had the shadow,
nor have we but the very image; both then are but emblems of what
is yet behind. We may find our gospel clouded in their ceremonies,
and our spiritual worship set out somewhat by their carnal ordinances.

Now, because, as I said, there lies, as wrapt up in a mantle, much
of the glory of our gospel matters in this temple which Solomon
builded; therefore I have made, as well as I could, by comparing
spiritual things with spiritual, this book upon this subject.

I dare not presume to say that I know I have hit right in every
thing; but this I can say, I have endeavoured so to do. True, I
have not for these things fished in other men's waters; my Bible
and Concordance are my only library in my writings. Wherefore,
courteous reader, if thou findest any thing, either in word or
matter, that thou shalt judge doth vary from God's truth, let it
be counted no man's else but mine. Pray God, also, to pardon my
fault. Do thou, also, lovingly pass it by, and receive what thou
findest will do thee good.

Thy servant in the gospel,

JOHN BUNYAN.




Solomon's Temple Spiritualized


'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew
them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings
out hereof, 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.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11


I. Where the Temple was built.

The temple was built at Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, in the
threshing-floor of Arnon the Jebusite; whereabout Abraham offered
up Isaac; there where David met the angel of the Lord, when he
came with his drawn sword in his hand, to cut off the people at
Jerusalem, for the sin which David committed in his disorderly
numbering the people (Gen 22:3-5; 1 Chron 21:15, 21:12; 2 Chron
3:1).

There Abraham received his Isaac from the dead; there the Lord
was entreated by David to take away the plague, and to return to
Israel again in mercy; from whence, also, David gathered that there
God's temple must be built. This, saith he, is the house of the
Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel
(1 Chron 21:28, 22:1, 3:1).