1 Kings 8

It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth. Sin in Scripture is compared to a menstruous cloth (Isaiah 30:22), to a plague sore (1 Kings 8:38). Joshua's filthy garments, in which he stood before the Angel (Zechariah 3:3), were nothing but a type and hieroglyphic of s…

1. God's Omnipresency; the Greek word for infinite [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] from [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], signifies without bounds or limits: God is not confined to any place, he is infinite, and so is present in all places at once. His center is every-where, Divina essen…

O Lord God of Israel, which dwells between the Cherubims, you are the God, even you alone. Deity is a jewel belongs only to his crown: Yet further, we acknowledge that there is no God like him (1 Kings 8:23). And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, and he said, Lord God…

There is nothing true but what is in God, or comes from God. I shall now speak of God's truth as it is taken for his veracity, in making good of his promises: (1 Kings 8:56) There has not failed one word of all his good promise: the promise is God's bond, God's truth is the seal…

He grieves for it, 1. As it is an act of pollution. Sin deflowers the virgin soul; it defaces God's image; it turns beauty into deformity; it is called the plague of the heart (1 Kings 8:38). It is the spirits of evil distilled.

It is the spirits of mischief distilled. (1.) It defiles the soul's glory; it is like a stain to beauty: it is compared to a plague-sore (1 Kings 8:38). Nothing so changes one's glory into shame as sin.

1. See what the Scripture compares it to. Sin has got a bad name, 'tis compared to the vomit of dogs (2 Peter 2:22), to a menstruous cloth (Isaiah 30:22), which as Jerome says, was the most unclean thing under the Law, it is compared to the plague (1 Kings 8:38), to a gangrene (…

But I answer, from God's word; that though heaven be the seat and throne of God's glory, and where he manifesteth, and magnifieth his glory; yet is it not the place of his substance and being, for that is infinite, and incomprehensible: and it is against the Christian faith, to…

Now, the reasons moving him to pray for longer life, were these: First, he had then no issue to succeed him in his Kingdom; and therefore he prayed for life, to beget a child, which might sit upon his throne after him. And the ground of this prayer was this; GOD had made a parti…

And by the Heavens here, not these visible aspectable heavens are intended; for with respect to them he is said to be exalted above all heavens, and to have passed through them. But it is that which the Scripture calls the Heaven of Heavens (1 Kings 8:27), wherein is the especia…

So Solomon expressed it in his Prayer at the dedication of the Temple, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain you (1 Kings 8:27). But there are various degrees of this condescension, various kinds of this inhabitation of…

(2) Things indefinitely expressed are to be expounded universally. 1 Kings 8:39. and to give to every man according to his ways, that is, 2 Chronicles 6:30. and render to every man according to all his ways. Deuteronomy 19:15. At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the mat…

Who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?" And (1 Kings 8:27) "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain you: how much less this house that I have builded?"

This Testimony, this Covenant, these Tables of Stone with the Moral Law engraven in them, were by the express command of God put into the Ark (Exodus 25:16; chapter 33:18; chapter 40:20; Deuteronomy 10:5). And there was nothing else in the Ark but these two Tables of Stone with…

For the remaining Tabernacle was no longer to them a pledge of his presence. And therefore when Solomon afterwards had finished all the glorious work of the Temple, with all that belonged to it, he assembled all the Elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of…

3. There is Benedictio Charitativa: this is, when one is said to bless another, by praying for a blessing on him, or using the means whereby he may obtain a blessing. This may be done by superiors, equals, inferiors, any or all persons mutually towards one another (see 1 Kings 8…

So much for defence of the second Reason of the Synod for confirming this sixth Proposition, against what the Reverend Author, in his Answer thereto, says in his Digression, and turning back to the Proposition foregoing. The third Reason of the Synod for this sixth Proposition,…

Yes, our brethren do in their Antisynodalia, pag. 17. expressly say, that the Covenant made with Abraham, and the Circumcision of his seed, was appointed upon the same terms that Baptism was, that is, that he should walk with God by faith and obedience. And it is observable, tha…

Question. How may God be said to be in heaven, seeing he is infinite, and therefore must needs be everywhere? 1 Kings 8:27. The heavens of heavens are not able to contain him. Answer. God is said to be in heaven: first, because his majesty, that is, his power, wisdom, justice, m…

For it is God's will, that we should not cast the care of heavenly things only, but all our care upon him (1 Peter 5:7). And he has elsewhere commanded that earthly things should be asked at his hand (1 Kings 8:35), and the same has been asked in prayer of Jacob (Genesis 28:10),…

2. It includes deep humiliation for heart evils and disorders; thus Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart (2 Chronicles 32:26). Thus the people were ordered to spread forth their hands to God in prayer in a sense of the plague of their own hearts (1 Kings 8:38). Up…

And they did sanctify both the worshippers, and the worship performed in them, the altar sanctified the gift, the Temple sanctified the gold (Matthew 23:18, 19), insomuch that the places were principal, and the duties less principal, as divines observe. The Temple and the altar…

The Septuagint read, (Deuteronomy 31:28) [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], Gather to me all the Elders. The like you may find, (1 Kings 8:1; 1 Chronicles 28:1). I shall next put him in mind that the Septuagint sometime turn Kahal by [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], as (Proverbs 26:26), His w…

1. The meaning. Question. How may God be said to be in heaven, seeing he is infinite, and therefore must needs be every where (1 Kings 8:27)? The heavens of heavens are not able to contain him.

Certainly if your hearts were right they would do so: What, shall Idolaters tremble because of their Calves, and shall not we have our hearts tremble because of our God? (1 Kings 8:44) If your People go out to battel against their enemies, whithersoever you shall send them, (wha…

What is called here simply by the Hebrew word for "grove," is called in ch. 21:7 by the Hebrew term for a carved image, that is, an "image of a grove." It seems to me that, just as when the Jerusalem temple was built they brought into it the tabernacle which they had previously…

For even as a husband looks that he alone should not only have the heart, but also the reverent and loving behaviour of the body (1 Peter 3:6; Genesis 26:6), so the Lord requires these, both as testimonies of our sincerity, as also helps of our infirmity, when we may convenientl…

Whereto appertained the ceremony of lifting up their hands to the Lord, which called them to mind with whom they had in this cause to deal (Genesis 14:22). So sometimes they added, or put in stead of the creatures of life, heaven, earth, afflictions, or sufferings, not to give t…

The Scripture is full to this purpose, in asserting, that not only all men are sinners as considered in their natural condition, but that even believers are sinful in part. For the same Apostle John that says (1 John 1:3), "Truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his…

3. Observe here, that a believing elect, or an elect believer, will not only be sensible of sin in the general, but of his own particular and peculiar sinful way; or thus, it's a good token when folk look not only on sin in common, but on their own peculiar sinful way; or thus,…

So (Lamentations 3) tears lie in heaven as solicitors with God, until he hear; mine eye trickles down, and ceases not, (Verse 50) till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. (1 Kings 8:30) Hear you in the heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive: says Solomon…

2. To be a token of the extraordinary presence of God, whose voice immediately came out of the cloud, as also to veil the glory thereof, which was best done by a cloud, a thing of a middle nature between terrestrial and celestial bodies. When Solomon built the Temple the Lord sh…

Now whatever invisible power this worship is tendered to, must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Omniscient who knows the thoughts, cogitations, secret purposes of our heart, which God alone does (1 Kings 8:39). Give to every one according to his ways, whose heart you know…

Oh plead and improve this relation. 10. God is omnipresent: Your Father which is in secret: the heaven of heavens cannot contain him (1 Kings 8:27). He fills all places with his immense and infinite essence: Heaven is his throne, the earth is his footstool; he is excluded from n…

This is demonstrated two ways: 1. A child of God banished out of all human society may pray still. Suppose a man were rejected by men, and ejected out of all companies of men, and were shut up in the closest prison, or shut out in the remotest wilderness; suppose a man were in t…

Some say, that the saints in heaven are with God, and that in him they see the desires of our hearts: but it is false which they say. For the Scripture says, that God alone searches the heart (1 Kings 8:39). None knows what is in man but God, and the spirit of man (1 Corinthians…

And yet no question but this Temple thus consecrated for the service of God, was truly and really his house: for he had told by Moses, that he would be present in every place where he should put the remembrance of his name (Exodus 20:24). And Solomon in dedicating the Temple sai…

He also means to attribute a more excellent and glorious form to God, than to any human creature whatever. And that he thus appeared in the Temple, it does yet add greater authority to the vision, because he had promised his presence to his people there, and there the people wai…

For it is not fit that God should dwell upon earth, or be shut up as within a prison. The Temple also was built upon a little hill, which little space was unable to comprehend God's glory (1 Kings 8:27). That place of my rest.] And yet the Lord had said of the Temple, in Psalm 1…

Here the temple is put for the outer court, as in other passages. Near it was the altar of burnt offerings, (1 Kings 8:64; 18:30,) so that the priest offered the sacrifices in presence of the people. It is evident, therefore, that there must have been furious rage, when the sigh…

A Throne is the seat of a King in his Kingdom, and is frequently used metonymically for the Kingdom itself, and that applied to God and man. See (Daniel 7:9; 1 Kings 8:2, 7). Angels indeed are called Thrones (Colossians 1:16), but that is either metaphorically only, or else in r…

First, That they should possess the Land of Canaan, and there enjoy that worship which he had prescribed to them (see Exodus 6:4; chapter 34:10, 11; Leviticus 26:8, 9; Deuteronomy 18:18; chapter 29:13; Psalm 105:10, 11). Secondly, That he would defend them from their adversaries…

§ 5 The Ark was the only furniture of the most Holy Place; the most sacred and holy of all the utensils of the Tabernacle and Temple. And it was the same in them both, as is evident (1 Kings 8:4, 6). It was the repository of the Covenant; for so the Law written by the finger of…

Besides secondly, it could not absolutely preserve men in its own observation; for it required that obedience which never any sinner did or could in all things perform; as the Scriptures of the Old Testament abundantly manifest. For they tell us, there is no man that sins not (1…

Surely they were more than men, that the father is but at a question, whether his sons have sinned or no? Solomon after an If concerning sin, resolves it into a conclusion (1 Kings 8:46): If (says he) they sin against you (here he makes a supposition, but you see he goes not one…

And though some wicked men have prophesied, as Balaam did, yet are they never accounted Prophets of the Lord, as Solomon was, but false Prophets and enchanters; neither were they Penmen of Holy Writ; who were, as Peter calls them (2 Peter 1:21), holy men of God, speaking as they…

The ubiquity and immensity of his essence, will not allow that he should be distant from any thing to which he has given a being. The heavens, even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him (1 Kings 8:27). Does he not fill heaven and earth?

In a word, when the Lord shall come forth upon his white horse with his armies, and shall destroy the Beast, and all the powers of the earth that take part with him: as (Revelation 19, from verse 11 to the end): Then God will speak terribly indeed against his enemies by the swor…

If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, you shall take him from my [reconstructed: altar] that he may die. Joab being a man of blood, King Solomon sought to slay him, though he caught hold on the horns of the altar (1 Kings 8:29). In Bohemia former…

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." See also 1 Kings 8:56. 9. God by David perfected the Jewish worship, and added to it several new institutions.