thee up to the Place, which the Lord thy God fhall chufe; and thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites, and unto the Judge who shall be in thofe Days, and inquire, and they shall show thee the Sentence of Judgment; and thou (halt do according to the Sentence which they of that Place, which the Lord fhall chufe, fhall fhew thee; thou shalt observe to do according to all that they shall inform thee, according to the Sentence of the Law which they fhall tell thee, and according to the Judgment which they shall teach thee, thon fhalt do; thou shalt not decline from the Sentence they shall fhew thee to the Right Hand or to the left; and the Man who will do prefumptuously, and will not hearken to the Priest, who ftandeth to minifter there before the Lord thy God, or unto the Judge, even that Man fhall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Ifrael, and all the People fhall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. From all which it is plain, that the Lips of the Priefts, under the Law, were to preserve all kind of Knowledge both Spiritual and Temporal: The last Resort, both in Civil and Ecclefiaftical Cafes, was to be to them: And Men were to appeal to them, and to fubmit to their Determinations in all Man-, ner of Difficulties, and they were to país Sentence in Cafes of Blood, as well as any Civil Magiftrate; Blood and Blood, Plea and Plea, Stroke and Stroke, tho' Matters purely of an inferiour and Worldly Nature, were yet brought under their Cognizance by God Himself; and in those Cafes, and therefore much more certainly in Things of a Nature purely Spiritual, their Sentence was to ftand, and none could refuse to submit to their Decifions, but at the Price of their own Heads.

10, 12.

But it may be faid, the Levitical Law, as being defign'd to coerce and keep under a ftubborn and perverfe Generation of Men, was more fevere and terrible; but the Chriftian Law, the Tenders of the Gospel are more foft and gentle: The Law of Mofes feem'd only a Ministration of Judgment and Condemnation: The Law of Chrift is in every Branch of it, a clear Evidence of the Love and Goodness of its Author. Eli2 Kin. 2. jah might call for Fire from Heaven to burn up the two Captains and their Fifty, who were fent to feize him, as they belong'd to a wicked and idolatrous Prince, and probably Affiftants to him in his Wickednefs; but the Apoftles were not allow'd to call for Fire from Heaven to confume that Samaritan Village which refus'd to entertain the Son of God: For, as our SaviLuke 9. our Himself alledged, The Son of Man came not 55, 56. to destroy Mens Lives, but to fave them. All this is true: And yet that it might appear to all Men, that the Spirit, working in the Evangelical Priefthood, was really as powerful as that which wrought in the Priefts of the Houfe of Aaron; St. Peter ftruck thofe covetous Hypocrites Ananias and Sapphira dead with a Word: And thofe Miracles, which were done by the Apofles and other lawful Preachers of the Gofpel in the firft Ages of the Church, to confirm their Doctrines, were at least as efficacious to the Propagation of faving Truth, as all the Severities of the Jewish Dilcipline.

Now, tho' the Evangelical Priesthood was of a more Spiritual Nature, yet it carry'd as much Authority with it, as ever the Legal : Priesthood had done: Nor did that Commiffion given to the Apostles by their Mafter, found

lefs

Mat. 28.

lefs than that which had been given before to Aaron, or to Eleazar. Our Saviour does not confine the Labours of the Apostles, as He had done thofe of the Aaronical Priefthood, to one particular Nation, but He commanded them, 19. 20. to go make Difciples of all Nations, or endeavour to profelyte the whole World to Christianity, baptizing them, and fo giving them Admiffion into the vifible Society of fuch as believ'd the Gofpel, as the Male Children had in former Times been admitted into the Jewish Church by the Sacrament of Circumcifion: And this Admiffion of Perfons into the Church, either by Circumcifion under the Law, or by Baptifm under the Gospel, was an Exercise both of Authority and of Jurifdiction. The Apostles were obliged to teach all Men; to obferve all things whatsoever Chrift had commanded them: To which after that Command, To preach the Gospel, to Mark 16. every Creature, St. Mark adds, He who believeth, 16. and is baptiz'd, fhall be faved, but he who believ eth not shall be damned. Which Determination is really and in it felf much more terrible to Unbelievers, or fuch as were difobedient to that Gofpel, which the Apoftles preach'd, and which their Succeffors carry'd on's than all the Menaces of a Temporal Death against a prefumptuous Ifraelite.

If then we confider the End and Design of our Saviour in conftituting, and of his Apoftles in collecting, a Church out of the corrupt Mafs of Mankind; i. e. to make all those who are Members of it capable of eternal Salvation, as believing in Jefus Chrift; and the Apofties and thofe lawfully fucceeding them in the Minifterial Office, having the Power of cafting Men out

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of

of the Church by Excommunication, as well as admitting them into the Church by Baptifm; (for thofe Powers generally fuppofe one another ;) Tho' that Power of caiting unfound Members out of the Church be purely Spiritual, and fuch as affects the Soul, and confifts only in the Weight of a Verbal Sentence; yet tho' the Verbal Sentence of ejecting any out of the Church, may only look like turning fuch Wretches into the loofe World again, after they had made an outward formal Submiffion to Jefus Chrift; yet nothing can in it felf be more dreadful than an entire Excifion, or Ejection from the Church of Christ, the happy Society of Believers: And to be deliver'd up to Satan, (by which Expreffion St. Paul underflands Excommunication,) is an infinitely more difmal Punishment, however foolifa and ignorant Men may make a Jeft of it; than it is to be deliver'd over to an earthly Judge or Executioner. Only with refpect to Men, (the Subjects of both Civil and Ecclefiaftical Cenfures,) there's this Difference between a Spiritual and a Temporal Excifion. Death under the Sentence of a temporal Judge, cuts off all Hopes of Repentance, where Men have not taken Care of that before: But a Spiritual Sentence delivers up the Sinner to Satan, for the Destruction' of the Flesh indeed, i. e. for the humbling and Mortification of the living Man; but, if it operate kindly, for the Salvation of the Soul in the Day of our Lord Jefus Chrift. This Spiritual Severity is made use of as a moft effectual Means to bring the drowfy ftupid Sinner to himself, that fo his fhort Affliction, which is but for a SeaJon, may purchase for him a far more precious and exceeding Weight of Glory.

Α

A Power of this Nature, (tho' not fo full as they had afterwards,) our Saviour gave to his Difciples, while He was yet converfant with them upon Earth, when he fent them to preach Mat. 10. only to the loft Sheep of the House of Ifrael; viz. 6—15. he gives them Authority to bring down Peace upon that House, which fhould receive them as coming in his Name: But he adds, Whosoever fhall not hear you, nor receive your Words, when you depart out of that Houfe or City, Shake off the Duf of your Feet. Nor fhould that Symbolical Action be in vain; for it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, than for those Perfons who fhould reject or difobey that Gofpel which they preach'd. Now thofe Perfons, muft certainly have a very great Authority devolved upon them, whofe Words could equally bring down a Bleffing or a Curfe upon their Friends or Enemies. And that Power or Authority, how great foever it may ap pear, is fettled, beyond all Difpute, upon the lawful Paftors and Governours of his Church by our bleffed Mafter in thofe Rules he gives concerning the trefpaffing Brother, If thy Brother Mat. 18. fball trefpafs against thee, go and tell him his Fault 15,16, 17, between thee and him alone if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established; and if he shall neglect to hear thee, tell it to the Church; and if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publičan. This was our Lord's Direction to his Difciples, when he was preparing them for the great Work of building his Church.

There is, indeed, fome Difpute as to the Meaning of thofe Words, Tell it to the Church;

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and

18.