It was no discomfort to Solomon, that he awaked and found it a dream; for he knew this dream was divine and oracular; and he already found in his first waking, the real performance of what was promised him sleeping: such illumination did he sensibly find in all the rooms of his heart, as if God had now given him a new soul.

No marvel if Solomon, now returning from the tabernacle to the ark, testified his joy and thankfulness, by burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings, and public feastings. The heart, that hath found in itself the lively testimonies of God's presence and favour, cannot contain itself from outward expressions.

God likes not to have his gifts lie dead, where he hath conferred them. Israel shall soon witness they have a king enlightened from heaven; in whom wisdom did not stay for heirs, did not admit of any parallel in his predecessors. The all-wise God will find occasions to draw forth those graces to use and light, which he hath bestowed on man.

Two harlots come before young Solomon, with a difficult plea. It is not like, the prince's ear was the first that heard this complaint: there was a subordinate course of justice, for the determination of these meaner incidences. The hardness of this decision brought the matter, through all the benches of inferior judicature, to the tribunal of Solomon.

The very Israelitish harlots were not so unnatural, as some now a days, that counterfeit honesty. These strive for the fruit of their womb; ours, to put them off.

One son is yet alive; two mothers contend for him. The children were alike for feature, for age; the mothers were alike for reputation. Here can be no evidence from others' eyes. Whether's now is the living child; and whether's is the dead? Had Solomon gone about to wring forth the truth by tortures, he had perhaps plagued the innocent, and added pain to the misery of her loss: the weaker had been guilty; and the more able to bear, had carried away both the child and the victory. The countenance of either of the mothers bewrayed an equality of passion: sorrow possessed the one, for the son she had lost; and the other, for the son she was in danger to lose. Both were equally peremptory and importunate in their claim. It is in vain to think, that the true part can be discerned, by the vehemence of their challenge: falsehood is oft-times more clamorous than truth. No witnesses can be produced. They two dwelt apart under one roof; and if some neigh. bours have seen the children at their birth and circumcision, yet how little difference, how much change, is there, in the favour of infants! How doth death alter more confirmed lines!

The impossibility of proof makes the guilty more confident, more impudent. The true mother pleads, that her child was taken away at midnight, by the other; but in her sleep: she saw it not; she felt it not; and, if all her senses could have witnessed it, yet here was but the affirmation of the one, against the denial of the other, which in persons alike credible do but counterpoise.

What is there now to lead the judge, since there is nothing either in the act, or circumstances, or persons, or plea, or evidence, that might sway the sentence? Solomon well saw, that, when all outward proofs failed, there was an inward affection, which, if it could be fetched out, would certainly bewray the true mother. He knew, sorrow might more easily be dissembled, than natural love: both sorrowed for their own; both could not love one, as theirs : to draw forth then this true proof of motherhood, Solomon calls for a sword.

Doubtless, some of the wiser hearers smiled upon each other; and thought in themselves, "What! will the young king cut these knotty causes in pieces? Will he divide justice with edge tools? Will he smite at hazard, before conviction?" The actions of wise princes are riddles to vulgar constructions; neither is it for the shallow capacities of the multitude, to fathom the deep projects of sovereign authority. That sword, which had served for execution, shall now serve for trial; Divide ye the living child in twain, and give the one half to the one, and the other half to the other. O divine oracle of justice, commanding that which it would not have done, that it might find out that which could not be discovered! Neither God nor his deputies may be so taken at their words, as if they always intended their commands for action, and not sometimes for probation.

This sword hath already pierced the breast of the true mother; and divided her heart with fear and grief, at so killing a sentence. There needs no other rack, to discover nature; and now she thinks, "Woe is me, that came for justice, and am answered with cruelty; Divide ye the living child! Alas! what hath that poor infant offended? that it survives, and is sued for? How much less miserable had I been, that my child had been smothered in my sleep, than mangled before mine eyes! If a dead carcase could have satisfied me, I needed not to have complained. What a woeful condition am I fallen into, who am accused to have been the death of my supposed child already, and now shall be the death of my own! If there were no loss of my child, yet how can I endure this torment of mine own bowels? How can I live to see this part of my self, sprawling under that bloody sword ?" And, while she thinks thus, she sues to that suspected mercy of her just judge, O my lord, give her the living child, and slay him not; as thinking, "If he live, he shall but change a mother; if he die, his mother loseth a son: while he lives, it shall be my comfort, that I have a son, though I may not call him so; dying, he perisheth to both: it is better he should live to a wrong mother, than to neither." Contrarily, her envious competitor, as holding herself well satisfied that her neighbour should be as childless as herself, can say, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Well might Solomon and every hearer conclude, that, either she was no mother or a monster, that could be content with the murder of her child; and that if she could have been the true mother, and yet have desired the blood of her infant, she had been-as worthy, to have been stripped

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of her child for so foul unnaturalness, as the other had been worthy to enjoy him for her honest compassion. Not more justly than wisely therefore, doth Solomon trace the true mother, by the footsteps of love and pity; and adjudgeth the child to those bowels, that had yearned at his danger.

Even in morality, it is thus also. Truth, as it is one, so it loves entireness; falsehood, division. Satan, that hath no right to the heart, would be content with a piece of it: God, that made it all, will have either the whole or none. The erroneous Church strives with the true, for the living child of saving doctrine: each claims it for her own heresy, conscious of her own injustice, could be content to go away with a leg or an arm of sound principles, as hoping to make up the rest with her own mixtures; truth cannot abide to part with a joint, and will rather endure to lose all by violence, than a piece through a willing connivancy.

1 Kings iii. 2 Chron. i.

THE TEMPLE.

It is a weak and injurious censure, that taxeth Solomon's slackness, in founding the house of God. Great bodies must have but slow motions. He was wise, that said, "The matters must be all prepared without, ere we build within." And if David have laid ready a great part of the metals and timber, yet many a tree must be felled and squared, and many a stone hewn and polished, ere this foundation could be laid; neither could those large cedars be cut, sawn, seasoned, in one year; four years are soon gone, in so vast a preparation.

David had not been so entire a friend to Hiram, if Hiram had not been a friend to God. Solomon's wisdom hath taught him to make use of so good a neighbour, of a father's friend. He knew, that the Tyrians' skill was not given them for nothing. Not Jews only, but Gentiles, must have their hand, in building the temple of God only Jews meddled with the tabernacle, but the temple is not built without the aid of Gentiles: they, together with us, inake up the Church of God.

Even pagans have their arts from heaven: how justly may we improve their graces, to the service of the God of Heaven! If there be a Tyrian, that can work more curiously in gold, in silver, in brass, in iron, in purple, and blue silk, than an Israelite, why should not he be employed about the temple? Their heathenism is their own; their skill is their Maker's. Many a one works for the Church of God, that yet hath no part in it.

Solomon raises a tribute for the work; not of money, but of men. Thirty thousand Israelites are levied for the service; yet not continually, but with intermission: their labour is more generous, and less pressing: it is enough if they keep their courses one month in Lebanon, two at home; so as ever ten thousand work, while twenty thousand breathe. So favourable is God to his crea

ture, that he requires us not to be overtoiled, in the works of his own service. Due respirations are requisite in the holiest acts.

The main stress of the work lies upon proselytes; whose both number and pains were herein more than the natives'. A hundred and fifty thousand of them are employed, in bearing burthens, in hewing stones; besides their three thousand three hundred overseers. Now were the despised Gibeonites of good use, and in vain doth Israel wish, that the zeal of Saul had not robbed them of so serviceable drudges.

There is no man so mean, but may be some way useful to the house of God. Those, that cannot work in gold, and silver, and silk, yet may cut and hew; and those, that can do neither, yet may carry burthens. Even the services that are more homely, are not less necessary. Who can dishearten himself, in the conscience of his own insufficiency, when he sees, God can as well serve himself of his labour, as of his skill?

The Temple is framed in Lebanon, and set up in Sion. Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure. There was nothing but noise in Lebanon; nothing in Sion, but silence and peace. Whatever tumults are abroad, it is fit there should be all quietness and sweet concord in the Church. O God, that the axes of schism, or the hammers of furious contentions, should be heard within thy sanctuary! Thy house is not built with blows: with blows, it is beaten down. Oh knit the hearts of thy servants together, "In the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace;" that we may mind and speak the same things; that thou, who art the God of peace, mayest take pleasure to dwell, under the quiet roof of our hearts.

Now is the foundation laid, and the walls rising, of that glorious fabric, which all nations admired, and all times have celebrated. Even those stones, which were laid in the base of the building, were not ragged and rude, but hewn and costly. The part, that lies covered with earth from the eyes of all beholders, is no less precious, than those that are more conspicuous: God is not all for the eye he pleaseth himself, with the hidden value of the living stones of his spiritual temple. How many noble graces of his servants have been buried in obscurity; not discerned so much as by their own eyes; which yet, as he gave, so he crowneth! Hypocrites regard nothing but shew; God, nothing but truth.

The matter of so goodly a frame strives with the proportion, whether shall more excel: here was nothing but white marble without; nothing but cedar and gold within. Upon the hill of Sion stands that glittering and snowy pile, which both inviteth and dazzleth the eyes of passengers afar off: so much more precious within, as cedar is better than stone; gold, than cedar. No base thing goes to the making up of God's house. If Satan may have a dwelling, he cares not though he patch it up, of the rubbish of stone, or rotten sticks, or dross of metals: God will admit of nothing that is not pure and exquisite: his Church consists of none but the faithful; his habitation is in no heart but the gracious.

The fashion was no other than that of the tabernacle; only this was more costly, more large, more fixed: God was the same that dwelt in both; he varied not the same mystery was in both. Only, it was fit, there should be a proportion, betwixt the work and the builder: the tabernacle was erected in a popular estate; the temple, in a monarchy: it was fit, this should savour of the munificence of a king, as that of the zeal of a multitude. That was erected in the flitting condition of Israel in the desert; this, in their settled residence in the promised land: it was fit therefore, that should be framed for motion; this, for rest. Both of them were distinguished into three remarkable divisions, whereof each was more noble, more reserved, than other.

But what do we bend our eyes upon stone, and wood, and metals? God would never have taken pleasure in these dead materials, for their own sakes, if they had not had a further intend

ment.

Methinks I see four temples in this one. It is but one in matter; as the God that dwells in it is but one: three, yet more, in resemblance; according to division of them, in whom it pleaseth God to inhabit; for wherever God dwells, there is his temple. O God, thou vouchsafest to dwell in the believing heart. As we, thy silly creatures, have our being in thee, so thou, the Creator of heaven and earth, hast thy dwelling in us. The heaven of heavens is not able to contain thee; and yet, thou disdainest not to dwell in the strait lodgings of our renewed soul. So then, because God's children are many, and those many divided in respect of themselves though united in their head, therefore this temple, which is but one in collection, as God is one, is manifold in the distribution, as the saints are many; each man bearing about him a little shrine of this infinite majesty: and, for that the most general division of the saints is in their place and estate, some struggling and toiling in this earthly warfare, others triumphing in heavenly glory, therefore hath God two other more universal temples; one, the Church of his saints on earth; the other, the highest Heaven of his saints glorified. In all these, O God, thou dwellest for ever, and this material house of thine is a clear representation of these three spiritual. Else, what were a temple made with hands unto the God of Spirits? And though one of these was a true type of all, yet how are they all exceeded each by other! This of stone, though most rich and costly, yet what is it to the living temple of the Holy Ghost, which is our body? What is the temple of this body of ours, to the temple of Christ's body, which is his Church? And what is the temple of God's Church on earth, to that which triumpheth gloriously in heaven?

How easily do we see all these, in this one visible temple! which as it had three distinctions of rooms, the Porch, the Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, so is each of them answered spiritually: in the Porch, we find the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the Church; in the Holy Place, the Communion of the true visible Church on earth, selected from the world; in the