tices of the Peace. Four thousand were to be employed in praising the Lord with the instruments of music which David had made for that purpose; and four thousand were to be at the gates of the temple as porters there. Thus David having taken an account of their chiefs, and respective families, and numbered them a second time, and divided them into three courses, viz. Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites, subdivided them, and cast them into a variety of classes. Of the Priests there were two families, viz. that of Eleazar, and that of Ithamar. And they were classed into twentyfour courses, with a chief over them, as the head of it. Then the Levites were also classed properly, as attendants on them. Such as were to be Singers, Musicians, and Trumpeters, were also fixed on; and ASAPH, JEDUTHUN, and HEMAN were to be over them. They also were divided into twentyfour courses. Each course was to serve one week, then to return home, and be succeeded by another. Thus the Priests being cast into twentyfour courses, the Levites being properly placed and classed, with the twenty-four courses of Singers and Musicians, and the courses of the Porters, and the Treasurers and Judges of Israel being all settled, David gave to Solomon his son, the Model of the Temple with the various orders of the Priests and Levites, as the Lord had given him. Which fully proves that every thing concerning the Temple and the proper arrangement of the officers thereof was of divine authority. We may see that it was the work and office of the Priests and Levites to set forth Christ, as crucified, in their daily services. The violent death of the sacrificial animal, the flaying of it, the cutting it into its various parts, the washing it, the salting it, the laying it on the altar, where it was consumed by fire, and the sprinkling its blood round about the altar were vastly significant, important, and expressive acts: Christ, his sufferings, sacrifice, and death, being the substance shadowed forth by them. And believers, doubtless, viewed Christ as set forth in these rites, sacrifices, and services, as evidently crucified before their eyes. At a convention of the whole Senate and great council of the nation, David in full assembly, and in the hearing of Solomon, tells them, he had given and C 1 Chron, xxviii. 11-18. prepared for the building of the House of the Lord three thousand talents of gold, even of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined gold, to overlay the walls of the house. Which Brown, in his Self-Interpreting Bible, says, amounted to one hundred and twentyfive tons of gold, and two hundred and ninety-three of silver, and in value to eighteen millions, eighty-two thousand, three hundred and twelve pounds, and ten shillings sterling. On which declaration of David the chief of the fathers, and princes of the tribes, &c. gave for the service of the temple five thousand talents and ten thousand drams of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of brass, and one hundred talents of iron. Which, Brown says, was about two hundred and nine tons of gold, and four hundred and eighteen of silver; in value thirty millions, eight hundred seven thousand, and eight hundred seventy five pounds sterling. May not these immense sums lead us to contemplate the unsearchable riches of Christ, and also their high apprehensions of him, and his most precious, glorious, and divine mediation? David could not refrain on this occasion from offering up his doxology of praise to Jehovah for his grace in d 1 Chron. xxix. 4. 1 Chron xxix. 6, 7. helping him and his nobles to offer thus willingly to the Lord'. The Priests, Levites, Singers, Trumpeters, Musicians, Treasurers, Porters, and Rulers in the House of God, being thus regularly organized, and ordained to their proper offices, with proper overseers over them; Solomon had nothing to do but execute the plan. This may lead us to observe, that Jehovah the Father drew the whole plan of salvation, and that Christ came down from Heaven, out of the bosom of his. Father, on purpose to carry the whole into execution; to finish it in his life and death, to raise up his church out of the ruins of the fall, and to present it to himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. I will, Fourthly, give under this head of discourse a short description of the temple, its furniture with its courts, and the services performed therein. The Temple was instead of the Tabernacle, and was sometimes called by that name; as the Tabernacle is called the Temple". The Temple was, if I may so say, an immoveable TABERNACLE. Ít was to answer the same end and design. -To be a memorial of Christ's bodyA certain sign, symbol, and pledge to f 1 Chron. xxviii. 10-16. 8 Jer. x. 20. the faithful in that age, and under that dispensation, of the incarnation of the Son of God. David, as was before observed, had made vast preparation towards building it. He He gave the model which he received of it from the Spirit Jehovah to Solomon. What David and his princes had provided for the erection of it was accordingly delivered. And, according to Brown, it was forty thousand tons weight of gold and silver; amounting in all to about nine hundred forty-two millions, seven hundred nineteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling. If it be asked, how came David by so much property, as enabled him to give as he did to this good work? I would reply, the learned Dr. Prideaux, in his curious account of the East India trade, from the time it was first begun by David and Solomon to our present age, has truly observed, "that David by possessing himself of two seaports belonging to Idumea first opened that trade, out of which alone, as his own proper effects, he left above twenty millions of our money in gold, besides silver, to his successor for building the Temple. And that his successor, by his wise management, drew to the said two ports of Elath and Eziongeber all the |
