Sermons of Ralph Erskine 3. The Law of God's House

Extract

Sermons of Ralph Erskine

3. The Law of God’s House

“This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy: behold, this is the law of the house” Ezekiel 43:12.
It is most suitable and necessary that, these who have been making a solemn profession of their being of the household of faith, who have been eating and drinking in God’s house as fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, should know the order and law of the house; and, therefore, I lay before you a short sum of it, very emphatically here expressed, — “This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy: behold, this is the law of the house.”

In the beginning of this chapter we have an account of the glory of God filling the temple, (particularly verse 5), and then a promise of God’s continuing his presence in his church, (verses 7, 8), to the purging them from their idolatry, corruption, and defilement, which here they are put in mind of, for their conviction and humiliation. From verse 10, and downward, we have Israel exhorted to faith and repentance; “Shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquity.” The temple was a token of God’s kindness, and symbol of presence, as well as a type of Christ the true temple, and of the New Testament church. And, when he enjoins to show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed, we may remark, that the way wherein a gracious God shames people for their sin is to shew them his kindness and gracious presence: thus he puts them out of countenance, and sets them a blushing, “That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God,” (Ezek. 16:63). — Again, “If they be ashamed of all that they have done, then shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and all the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms …