should live of the gospel*. Here it is evidently intended, that the practice of the law should be taken as a precedent for the times of the gospel; and that as it was then, even so it ought to be now: but the clergy then received the tenths, &c. which were consecrated by God's appointment; therefore it is his ordinance that they should receive the same now; otherwise the cases would not be parallel.

During the persecutions under which the Christian Church suffered at its first appearance, its support by pecuniary contribution, and the sale of private property may seem to have authorized a new rule, different from that of the law of Moses. But we can draw no conclusion, because of the necessity of that time. In regular times the old rule will take place and if the Church should again fall into distress, it must again depend upon the devo tions of the congregation.

There is likewise a conformity in all the services and ministrations of the Church. The law had its washings and purifications, as we have the purification of water baptism. They had the passover in figure as we have it in truth; for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; and we keep that feast as a memorial of our A A 3 redemption,

* 1 Cor. ix. 13,

redemption, as they commemorated their deliverance from Egypt by the offering of the Pascal Lamb. He was no Jew who did not celebrate the Passover; and he is no Christian who neglects the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. As they had manna in the wilderness to support them, we have the true bread from heaven; without which we cannot pass through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan. They added their prayers to the incense of the temple, as we offer up our prayers through the merits of Christ, whereby they are recommended and made acceptable. There was a censer for incense within the veil, as Christ intercedes for us in the presence of God. Let my prayer, says the Psalmist, be set forth in thy sight as the incense; thereby shewing us what was intended in that part of their service: and when Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, offered incense in the temple, there came a voice from heaven which assured him that his prayers were heard. As these things have been considered more at large in the 4th and 5th Lectures on the figurative language of the scripture, it may suffice to observe, that as Jesus Christ is called the minister of the true tabernacle, all the services of the old tabernacle are verified under his priesthood; so

that

that not one jot or tittle of the law is found to fail.

The Church has also been remarkably conformable to itself in its sufferings. There never was a time, so far as we can learn, when the true Church of God, with its doctrines and institutions, was not hated and opposed by the world; either persecuted and oppressed by powerful tyrants, or traduced and insulted by lying historians. From Abel downwards, a restless worldly spirit of unbelief has contradicted the worship of the true God, and troubled his people. The Hebrews were held in abomination by the Egyptians, and treated as slaves; though the nation had been saved from famine, and its policy reformed and established under an Hebrew. They plotted to extirpaté the whole race of them, by casting every manchild into the river. When the Church was settled in Canaan, all the neighbouring nations of idolaters were as thorns in their sides, detesting their religion, and fighting against them at every opportunity. The Chaldæans led them into captivity, and detained them for seventy years, with a view to make them forget their religion; the practice of which they also endeavoured to render impossible by the demolition of their temple. Antiochus murdered the Maccabees,

A A 4

cabees, and harassed the whole people on account of their faith.

The same spirit, acting on the same principles, afflicted the Christian Church with ten bloody persecutions; and there never was a time when it was not misrepresented by lying reports and malicious accusations. Truth and godliness have always been distinguished by the world's ill-will towards them; and if there be any particular Church now, which is hated and railed at more than the rest, by Papists on one side and the Sectaries on the other, I will venture to pronounce from this circumstance only, that wherever that Church can be found, it will prove to be, in its doctrine and profession, the purest Church of Christ upon

earth.

The authority and discipline of the Church (which are the last things I shall speak of) have been the same in all ages by God's appointment; as being founded on two reasons which are of perpetual obligation. The Church having the charge of the divine oracles, and being the guardian of the divine law, must have authority to preserve it, by punishing those who offend against it; and being a society or body corporate, must always have had (what is common to all lawful societies) a

right of preserving itself by a power over its own members.

The authority of office in the Church always was, and now is, from God himself: no mán can take the honour of the priesthood, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron: and the person so invested is accountable to God for the exercise of his authority, and not to the world; because the object in view is the preservation of God's law for the salvation of his people. Therefore, every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward*, and, he that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. The same power (mutatis mutandis) was with the Christian Church; and they are commanded by the apostle to watch over their members, and look diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble them, and thereby many be defileat. No society can long survive, when its discipline is lost; because the manners of men, when unrestrained, tend universally to dissolution. The Church has undoubtedly, as it always had, a divine right to preserve the faith, to punish its own members by censures, deprivations, and excommunications; and exercise

* Heb. ii. 2. + Chap. x. 28 Chap. xii. 15.