e light of truth, may be obliterate.

All these I shall pass, and only pitch upon two doctrines which I shall
draw from this second part of the text: one concerning the will of God's
commandment, what God requireth of Israel to do; another concerning the
will of God's decree, what he hath purposed himself to do.

The first is this: "God will have Israel to build and order his temple,
not as shall seem good in their eyes, but according to his own pattern
only which he sets before them," which doth so evidently appear from this
very text, that it needeth no other proof; for what else meaneth the
showing of such a pattern to be kept and followed by his people? Other
passages of this kind there are which do more abundantly confirm it.

The Lord did prescribe to Noah both the matter, and fashion, and measures
of the ark (Gen. vi. 14-16). To Moses he gave a pattern of the tabernacle,
of the ark, of the mercy-seat, of the vail, of the curtains, of the two
altars, of the table and all the furniture thereof, of the candlestick and
all the instruments thereof, &c. And though Moses was the greatest prophet
that ever arose in Israel, yet God would not leave any part of the work to
Moses' arbitrement, but straitly commandeth him, "Look that thou make them
after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount," Exod. xxv. 40.
When it came to the building of the first temple, Solomon was not in that
left to his own wisdom, as great as it was, but David, the man of God,
gave him a perfect "pattern of all that he had by the Spirit," 1 Chron.
xxviii. 11-13. The second temple was also built "according to the
commandment of the God of Israel" (Ezra vi. 14), by Haggai and Zechariah.
And for the New Testament, Christ our great Prophet, and only King and
Lawgiver of the church, hath revealed his will to the apostles, and they
to us, concerning all his holy things; and we must hold us at these
unleavened and unmixed ordinances which the apostles, from the Lord,
delivered to the churches: "I will put upon you (saith he himself) none
other burden: but that which ye have already hold fast till I come," Rev.
ii. 24, 25.

I know the church must observe rules of order and conveniency in the
common circumstances of times, places, and persons; but these
circumstances are none of our holy things,--they are only prudential
accommodations, which are alike common to all human societies, both civil
and ecclesiastical, wherein both are directed by the s