Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_200.lzh/6_239.TXT

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to wicked persons, and to answer ends it never was de-
signed for ;which must be an abomination to the Lord.
Vet. 8'. And .ye have not kept the charge of mine holy
things, &c.] That is, have not kept and retained the
holy doctrines of the Gospel; nor observed the holy
ordinances of it, as they were first delivered: but ye
have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary .for your-
selves; meaning either, that such as were in public
office did not attend to it; but were idol-shepherds,
and left the flock, their care and charge, to others, to
surrogates and curates, to do their work for them;
whilst they indulged themselves in sloth and idleness:
or that the members and hearers set up preachers for
themselves, according to their lusts, agreeable 'to their
own carnal sentitnents, without any regard to the will
and glory of God.
Vet. 9. Thus saith the Lord God, &c.] This that fol-
lows is the law and rule to be observed, and which
will be observed by the churches in the latter day,
though so little regarded now: no stranger uncircum-
cised in heart, nor uncircumcised in.flesh, shall enter into
my sanctuary; of these see the note on ver. 7- unre-
generate men may not be admitted members of a Gos-
pel church; for that is holy, and holiness becomes it;
but they are unholy, and as unfit to be received as
swine into a king's pala. ce; saints and they can't talk
together, their language being different, they barba-
rians to one another; nor can they walk together,
being not agreed in sentiment and practice; besides,
such persons disquiet the churches of Christ by their
quarrelsome behaviour in it, and immoral conversation
out of it; and are dangerous and infectious persons,
whether heterodox in principle, or immoral in life:
and much less should such be admitted to public ser-
vice, to preach the word, and administer ordinances;
since they should be holy that bear the vessels of the
Lord, his name, and Gospel; they are blind and igno-
rant, and so not apt and fit to teach others; they are
dumb, and can't speak to cases they are strangers to,
as those of wounded consciences, tempted and deserted,
or backslidden ones; they will bring in strange doc-
trines, foreign to the Scriptures, and the experience of
saints; and it is no wonder they are unsuccessful in
their ministry, and churches don't thrive under them;
to which, among other things, we must impute the
great decline of religion, even among Protestant dis-
senters, who, it is to be feared, have too many of this
character among them: but there should not be here
of any stranger that is among the children of Israel;
though they are among them, nay, though they are the
children of them, and have had a religious education;
yet being strangers to the grace of God, should not be
admitted members, and much less ministers, of the
churches of Christ.
Vet. 10. And the Leviten that are.gone away far from
me, &c.] These Levites were priests, as appears
from vet. 13. who professed themselves Gospel
preachers, ministers of the reformed churches; but
departed from the reformation-principles; erred from
the faith; and either mixed it with the doctrines of
men, or wholly dropped, concealed, or dissembled it;
departed from the word of God., as the rule of faith and
practice; and set up their own reason as their guide
in matters of religion!;. were gone off from the pure
worship of God and his ordinances, and entirely ne-
glected the discipline of his house: when Israel went
astray, which went astray away from me after their idols;
though there may be an allusion to some apostacy of
literal Israel, under the Old Testament, and from
whence language may be borrowed to express this;
either to the Israelites joining themselves to Baal-peor
in the fields of Moab, in the time of Phinehas, who was
zealous and faithful to the Lord, from whom Zadok
descended after mentioned: or to the detection in the
times of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, when all Israel
forsook the word of the Lord: or to the times of Ahaz,
when Uriah the priest made an altar like to that at
Damascus by the king's order; and which idolatrous
practices increased in the times of Manasseh; when,
no doubt, many of the priests and Leviten, either
through fear of kings, or on accountof gain, and for the
sake of their livelihood, departed from the Lord and his
worship: but the reference is to a defection in the times
of the New Testament, and in the latter days of those.
times; not to the falling away of the church of Rome,
and its departure from the faith and order of the Gospel,
predicted 2 Thess. iS. 3. 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, 3. 2 Tim. iii.
1--5. though, no doubt, some truly godly ministers.
have been carried away with the errors of that church,
and afterwards. restored, as these Levites: but the case
here referred to is the declension in the reformed
churches; their formality; their great imperfection in
the service of God; their departure from the doctrine
of faith they once heard and received, which they are
called upon to repent of; their defiling themselves with
superstition and will-worship, and going after the idols
of their own hearts, corrupt reason, the doctrines and
inventions of men, and carnal rites and ceremonies;
see Rev. iii. 1--4: they shall even bear their iniquity;
that is, the Levites, priests, or ministers; they shall
bear the shame and disgrace, when they come to see
their errors, and the punishment and chastisement of
their sin, of which hereafter.
Vet. 11. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary,
&c.]] Though degraded from their office as priests and
ministers of the word, yet being restored from their
sins and errors, shall have a place in the house of God,
and do their work there in a less honourable and a more
servile way; as in former times, when ministers had
sinned foully, and were degraded froth their office,
upon repentance they were notrestored tothat, but
only admitted to lay-communion; see 2.Kings xxiii.
9: having charge at the gates of the house; like those
sort of Levites who were porters and doorkeepers in
the temple, or like our sextons or pew-openers now:
and ministering to the house; emp. loyed as theGibeonites
were in hewing wood and bringing water for the use of
the sanctuary, or in. repairing of it; learning and ex-
ercising the business of smiths, masons, and carpenters:
they shall slay the burnt-offering, and the sacrifice for
the people; not bring it to the altar, and offer it there;
only slay it, and skin it for the priests; which is not
robe understood literally, there being no such sacri-
fice in Gospel times; bt/t to denote the menial service
and inferior post that such shall be employed in; if
they have no trade, they shall learn one, in order to get
a livelihood for themselves, and be serviceable to the
interest of religion in a lower way; but ministers of