ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 5 -7. 209 proper to it, intimated in those words, " Fitly joined to- gether, and compacted." It is a metaphor drawn from carpenters and other artificers, who by several joints do so co- aptate and fit the parts of their work unto one another, that being put together and fastened, there may one whole structure or body grow out of them ; and in that body this accurate fitness and inti- mateness of the parts with one another, produeeth an excellent strength, a beautiful order, and a ready ser- viceableness of each part to the other, and of all to the whole. So Jerusalem is said to be a city com- pacted within itself, Psa. cxxii. 3. As the ark (a type of the church) liad the ribs and planks and parts thereof so closely fastened into one another, that no water might get in to drown it. And in the taberna- cle all the curtains thereof were to be coupled together into one another, Exod. xxvi. 3. Christ is all for unity, and joining things into one, two natures united in one person, two parties reconciled by one Mediator, two people concorporated into one church ; one family, one father, one seed, one head, one faith, one hope, one love, one worship, one body, one spirit, one end, and common salvation. Christ is not, loves not to be divided. This is a fundamental requisite unto the growth of the body, the preservation of its unity. The building must be fitly framed together, if you would have it grow into a holy temple to the Lord, Eph. ii. 21. Col. ii. 19. When there was most unity, there was greatest increase in the church ; when they were all of one accord, of one heart, and one soul, then the Lord " added to the church daily such as should be saved," Acts ii. 46, 47. They that cause divisions and dissensions do not serve the Lord Jesus, and therefore they cannot but hinder the progress of his gospel, Rom. xvi. 17, 18. As in the natural so in s3
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