Zerubbabels encouragement to finish the temple. A sermon preached before the honourable House of…

Thus much for the Exposition of the words: I shall now raise some Observations out of them.

Out of the recited story, and what is here said in the 9. verse, which doth put Jeshua upon finishing the Temple; ¹The first Observation is this, That God carries on the building of the second Temple after the coming out of Babylon, (which was a type of the Reformation of our Churches) not all at once, but by degrees. The first Temple under the Old Testament was at once erected perfect, so by Solomon; And the Tabernacle before him, by Moses, was quickly finished, according to the pattern of the Mount, Exod. 40. 43. but this second Temple after the Captivity received degrees of rearing of it. And thus in the New Testament, those Primitive Churches were set up perfect (as for matter of rules) by the holy Apostles. And so it was meet they should be, because the Pattern was but once to be given, in the model of them. But Antichristianism having laid that Temple desolate, and defiled Gods worship in ⟨p. 13⟩all the parts of it; and those Ages wherein it should be restored, wanting Apostles immediately inspired, hence the restoration of them becomes a work of time: The holy Ghost Age after Age gradually revealing pieces of the platform of it; the Spirit by degrees consuming and dispelling the darkness that Antichristianism had brought in, by light shining clearer and clearer to the perfect day, which is the brightness of Christs coming, as 2 Thes. 2. 8. Compare we for this the type, the building of this second Temple here, with this Anti-type under the Gospel.

Out of the recited storie, and what is here said in the 9. verse, which doth put Jeshua upon finishing the Temple; ¹The first Observation is this, That God carryes on the building of the second Temple after the comming out of Babylon, (which was a type of the Reformation of our Churches) not all at once, but by degrees. The first Temple under the Old Testament was at once erected perfect, so by Solomon; And the Tabernacle before him, by Moses, was quickly finished, according to the patterne of the Mount, Exod. 40. 43. but this second Temple after the Captivity received degrees of rearing of it. And thus in the New Testament, those Primitive Churches were set up perfect (as for matter of rules) by the holy Apostles. And so it was meet they should be, because the Patterne was but once to be given, in the model of them. But Antichristianisme having laid that Temple desolate, and defiled Gods worship in