should be mine*. For this end the Hebrews were placed in a land by themselves, that they might not be corrupted with the ways of the Gentiles. They had laws and customs of their own, all tending to secure them from the idolatrous worship and wicked manners of the heathens. We Christians, who now belong to the Church, are in like manner called out of the world. Our blessed Saviour, speaking of the vocation of his disciples, saith†, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

But it is now to be shewn, secondly, that as the Church of God hath always been the same in its nature, it hath likewise preserved the same form in its external economy; the wisdom of God having so ordained, that the . Christian Church under the gospel should not depart from the model of the Church under the law. For as the congregation of Israel was divided into twelve tribes, under the twelve Patriarchs, so is the Church of Christ founded on the twelve Apostles, who raised to themselves a spiritual seed amongst all the nations of the world. They all had an equal right, to use the style of St. Paul; who speaks of his converts, as of his children, begotten by

* Lev. xx. 26.

+ John xvii. 16.

him to a new life, through the preaching of the gospel: so that he and all the other Apostles are to be considered as the patriarchal progenitors of the whole Christian people.

In the new Church we have twelve Apostles, in the old twelve Patriarchs; but in the heavenly society, where both are united, we find four and twenty Elders, seated about the throne of God, as it was shewn in the spirit to St. John. There the saints of all ages looked to the Lamb that was slain for the salvation of all. By some he was expected; by others he is commemorated: to those he was the end of the law; to these the beginning of the gospel; but to the general assembly of them all, he is the object of their faith and hope, and the principle of all true religion from the beginning of the world to the end of it; the Redeemer of all times, the Saviour of all nations. have reason to believe, that the Church, even in its glorious and triumphant state, shall still be conformed to its primitive division; for Christ assured his Apostles, that when the Son of man should sit upon the throne of his glory, they also should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel*.

We

Our Saviour, in choosing the number of

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* Matth. xix. 28.

those.

those whom he appointed to minister in his Church, was pleased to observe a strict conformity to the number of rulers under the law. Besides his twelve apostles, he appointed other seventy also the number seventy agrees to that of the Elders, who were appointed to assist Moses in his ministry*.

A farther examination will teach us, that the priesthood of the gospel was formed very exactly upon that of the law. Aaron was appointed as an high priest for the service of the tabernacle; under whom the sons of Aaron constituted an inferior order of priests, divided afterwards under David and Solomon into four and twenty courses, all regularly officiating in their turns. Below these there was the order of the Levites, who assisted the priests in all the services of the temple. There were then three orders of priests in the Jewish Church; there was the high priest, and the sons of Aaron, and the Levites. In the Church of Christ there was the order of the Apostles besides whom there were the seventy disciples sent out after them; and last of all the Deacons were ordained, to serve under both in the lower offices of the Church. The same form is still preserved in every regular Church of the world,

*See Numb. xi. 16, 25.

world, which derives its succession and authority from the Church of the Apostles; after whom the Bishops succeeded by their appointment; such as Timothy and Titus were in their respective Churches. This authority has been opposed in the Christian as it was in the Jewish Church: Corah and his company rose up against Moses and Aaron, for usurping a lordiy authority over the people: so, in the later ages of the Christian Church, a levelling principle hath prevailed, which has appeared in many different shapes. In some it objects to the order of Bishops as an usurpation of long standing in the Church: in others, it argues for an equality of authority in all Christians, because all the congregation are holy; herein making no distinction between holiness of person and holiness of office. Thus hath the authority of the Church been troubled with ar guments and objections, the same as in the times of old, and proceeding from the same spirit of rebellious opposition, under the disguise of superior sanctity. It was foretold to the church by the Apostle, that of their own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them*, as Corah and his company rose out of the congregation itself,

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* Acts xx. 30.

itself, and drew the people after them. Unless it were so, the Church of Christ would not be conformed, as it ought to be, to the Church of Israel. Though the case is lamentable, yet thus it must be: it must be that offences come: the authority of the priesthood must be opposed and the Church must be divided, if the scriptures are verified; but woe unto them by whom the offence cometh.

The Church under the gospel hath also been provided for as it was under the law, by the tenths of all the fruits of the earth, set apart for the maintenance of its ministers. The antiquity of this provision is so great, that we cannot trace it up to its beginning. Abraham gave the tenths of the spoils to Melchizedec, long before the age of Moses; and therefore the law only established what had been instituted in the earliest times of the Patriarchs. The Christian Church followed the same rule in all countries, as soon as it obtained a regular establishment; and the apostle argues for the propriety of it from the law of Moses. Do ye not know, said he, that they which minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel