N13864:346
A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…
A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of divinity, in a method entirely new. / By the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New Jersey[.]
Boston: printed by Draper & Folsom, 1782
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Another t•ing that the ancient Jews say was wanting in the second temple, was the Sh•chinah, or cloud of glory over the mercy-seat. This was promised to be in the tabernacle: Levit. xvi.2. "For I will appear in the tabernacle upon the mercy-seat." We read elsewhere of the cloud of glory descending into the tabernacle, Exod. xl.35; and so we do likewise with respect to Solomon's ⟨p. 109⟩temple. But we have no account that this cloud of glory was in the second temple. And the ancient accounts of the Jews say, that there was no such thing in the second temple. This was needless in the second temple, considering that God had promised that he would fill this temple with glory another way, viz. by Christ's coming into it; which was afterwards fulfilled. See Haggai, ii.7. "I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts."
Another thing, that the Jews in their ancient writings mention as being now withdrawn, was the fire from heaven on the altar. When Moses built the tabernacle and altar in the wilderness, and the first sacrifices were offered on it, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt-offering, as in Levit. ix.24.; and so again, when Solomon built the temple, and offered the first sacrifices, as you may see in 2 Chron. vii.1. And this fire was never to go out, but with the greatest care to be kept alive, as God commanded, Levit. vi.13. "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar: It shall never go out." And there is no reason to suppose the fire in Solomon's time ever went out till the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. But then it was extinguished, and never was restored. We have no account of its being given on the building of the second temple, as we have at the building of the tabernacle and first temple. But the Jews, after their return, were forced to make use of their common fire instead of it, according to the ancient tradition of the Jews. Thus the lights of the Old Testament go out on the approach of the glorious Sun of righteousness.