and said. The glory is departed
from Israel, because the Ark of the Covenant was taken, and said again:
"The glory is departed from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken." But
in what manner may this dwelling of God over the Ark of the Covenant be
conceived of? Should the Most High God, whom all the heavens, and the
heaven of heavens cannot contain (1 Kings viii. 27), whose throne is
the heaven, and whose footstool is the earth (Is. lxvi. 1), dwell in a
temple made by the hands of men? (Acts vii. 48, ff.) Evidently not in
the manner in which men dwell in a place, who are _in_ it only, not
_out_ of it. Nor in such a manner as the carnally minded suppose, who,
to the warnings of the prophets, opposed their word: "Is not the Lord
among us? none evil can come upon us" (Micah iii. 11), or: "Here is the
temple of the Lord, here is the temple of the Lord, here is the temple
of the Lord" (Jer. vii. 4), imagining that God could not forsake the
place which he had chosen, could not take away the free gift of His
grace. The matter rather stands thus: That which constitutes the
substance and centre of the whole relation of Israel to God, is, that
the God of the heavens and the earth became the God of Israel; that the
Creator of heaven and earth became the Covenant-God, that His general
providence in blessing and punishing became a special one. In order to
make the relation familiar to the people, and thus to make it the
object of their love and fear, God gave them a _praesens numen_ in His
sanctuary, as a prefiguration, and, at the same time, a prelude of the
condescension with which He whom the whole universe cannot contain,
rested in the womb of Mary. And in so doing, He gave them not a
symbolical representation merely, but an embodiment of the idea, so
that they who wished to seek Him as the God of Israel, could find Him
in the temple, and over the Ark of the Covenant only. The circumstance
that it was just there that He took His seat, shows the difference
between this truly _praesens numen_, and that merely imaginery one of
the Gentiles. There was in this no partial favour for Israel, nothing
from which careless sinners could derive any comfort, God's dwelling
among Israel rested on [Pg 390] His holy Law. According as the Covenant
is kept or not, and the Law is observed or not, it manifests itself by
increased blessing, or by severer punishment. If the Covenant be
entirely broken, the consequence is that God leaves His dwelling, and