yet a rebel, he might as well be an heathen: if he were too stubborn to submit to the ordinances of God, he might as well be a sorcerer, or serve idols. And it is worthy of observation, that this severe sentence is against Saul, a king, who usurped the authority of the priesthood, and pleaded a godly reason for it. But so jealous is God, for the wisest ends, upon this subject, that no dignity of person, no appearance of reason, is admitted in excuse for the sin of rebellion. We therefore rightly pray in the Liturgy of the church of England, that God would deliver us from rebellion in the state and schism in the church; and in order to this, we should also pray, that he would deliver us from the principles out of which they proceed; for none of our reasonings will prevail in this case. For my own part, I must confess, that if there be any man who is so far infatuated as to have persuaded himself that God is no proprietor of power in the world of his own making and governing, and that all men are born to a state of equality; I would no more reason with that man, than I would preach temperance to a swine, or honesty to a wolf. I would leave him to himself, and turn toward those who have not yet received the infection.

The

The settlement of the church of the Hebrews in Canaan, a land of the Heathens, is the last article I am to explain, as prefigurative of the Christian church. It is mentioned as such in the apology of St. Stephen against the Jews: Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus (i. e. Joshua) into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers. The doctrine of all others most unacceptable and odious to a Jew was this of the translation of the tabernacle of God to the Gentiles. St. Stephen therefore does not literally affirm it, but covertly, and as a prophet should do, under the shadow of that antient history which was intended to foreshew it. The Jewish church derived much danger from its situation among the Canaanites; for though God had driven them out as possessors, and established his own people in their land, he left some of the former possessors to be thorns in their sides for trial and punishment: and their history shews how often they were ensnared by the abominable doctrines of idolatry, 'till the captivity of Babylon was the reward of their apostacy.

Wonderful was the settlement of the Jews

in Canaan, with the fall of Jericho, and the victories of the people of God against all the armaments and confederacies of their enemies. But not less wonderful was the establishment of Christianity amongst the Gentiles. Heathenism was in as full and as quiet possession of the world and its empire at the coming of Christ, as the Canaanites were in their own land when Joshua entered it. But the voice of the gospel preached by a few fishermen from among the Jews, a people held in the utmost contempt by the whole heathen world, soon cast down all the highest fences of Satan's kingdom, as the walls of Jericho fell down at the sound of rams horns blown by priests. As the Hebrews in the progress of their victories were exhorted to fear nothing, remembering how Pharaoh had been subdued in Egypt; so ought Christians to remember daily, how God reduced the power of Satan all over the heathen world, till his temples were destroyed, and the churches of Christ were placed upon their ruins.

But then, as there was a remnant of the Canaanites, to whom the people were frequently joining themselves in marriage, and consequently relapsing into idolatry, according to that of the Psalmist-They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded

them,

them, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them: so the works of heathen authors, with the fables of their false gods, the abominable rites of their religion, and the obscenity and immorality of their practices, are in like manner remaining among Christians; and it has been the custom for ages, all over Europe, to communicate the rudiments of languages and learning to young minds from heathen books, without due care to caution them against imbibing heathen principles; by which thousands of minds are corrupted, and through early prejudice rendered incapable of understanding the value of truth, and the abominable nature of heathen error. How frequently are heathen moralists applied to, when the finest rules of human prudence for the conduct of life are to be found in the scripture. But to go to the heathens for divinity, as some authors do, is intolerable. They blow out the candle of revelation, and then go raking into the embers of paganism to light it again. Many good and learned men, of the first ability and taste, have oberved and lamented the bondage we are under to heathen modes of education; but custom is a tyrant which hears no reason. However, there

can be no harm, and I hope there will be no offence, in praying that God will enable us to correct all our errors from the history of past miscarriages. This is the great use we are to make of our present subject. The dangers to the souls of men are the same in all ages; and their errors are the same for sense, however they may differ in form: so that we cannot be surprised and ensnared by any temptation that comes upon the church, if we look to the things that are past.

LECT.