greatest combination of men was in distinct families (which sometimes were very great'), politics and economics being of the same extent, all the way of instruction in the service and knowledge of God, was by the way of paternal admonition; for the discharge of which duty, Abraham is commended, Gen. xviii. 19. whereunto the instructors had no particular engagement, but only the general obligation of the law of nature; what rule they had for their performances towards God, doth not appear; all positive law, in every kind, is ordained for the good of community; that then being not, no such rule was assigned until God gathered a people, and lifted up the standard of circumcision for his subjects to repair unto the world in the days of Abraham beginning generally to incline to idolatry and polytheism," the first evident irreconcilable division was made between his people and the malignants, which before lay hid in his decree: visible signs and prescript rules were necessary for such a gathered church. This before I conceive to have been supplied by special revelation.

The law of nature a long time prevailed for the worship of the one true God. The manner of this worship, the generality had at first (as may be conceived) from the vocal instruction of Adam, full of the knowledge of divine things; this afterward their children had from them by tradition, helped forward by such who received particular revelations in their generation, such as Noah, thence called a 'preacher of righteousness:' so knowledge of God's will increased," until sin quite prevailed, and all flesh corrupted their ways; all apostacy for the most part begins in the will, which is more bruised by the fall than the understanding. Nature is more corrupted in respect of the desire of good, than the knowledge of truth; the knowledge of God would have flourished longer in men's minds, had not sin banished the love of God out of their hearts. The sum is, that before the giving of the law, every one in his own person served God according to that knowledge he had of his will. Public performances were assigned to none, farther than the obligation of the law of nature to their duty in their own

1 Gen. xiv. 14.

m Eccles. malignantium. August. con. Faust. lib. 19. cap. 11. Per incrementa temporum crevit divinæ cognitiones incrementum. Greg. Hom. 16. in Ezek. a med.

families. I have purposely omitted to speak of Melchisedec, as I said before, having spoken all that I can or dare concerning him, on another occasion. Only this I will add, they who so confidently affirm him to be Shem, the son of Noah, and to have his priesthood in an ordinary way, by virtue of his primogeniture, might have done well to ask leave of the Holy Ghost, for the revealing of that which he purposely concealed, to set forth no small mystery, by them quite overthrown. And he who of late makes him look upon Abraham and the four kings, all of his posterity, fighting for the inheritance of Canaan (of which cause of their quarrel the Scripture is silent), robs him at least of one of his titles, a 'king of peace;' making him neither king nor peaceable, but a bloody grandsire, that either could not, or would not part his fighting children, contending for that whose right was in him, to bestow on whom he would. And thus was it with them in the administration of sacred things: There was no divine determination of the priestly office on any order of men: when things appertaining unto God, were to be performed in the name of a whole family, (as afterward, 1 Sam. xx. 6.) perhaps the honour of the performance was by consent given to the first-born. Farther, the way of teaching others, was by paternal admonition; (so Gen. xviii. 19.) motives thereunto, and rules of their proceeding therein, being the law of nature, and special revelation. Prescription of positive law, ordained for the good of community, could have no place, when all society was domestical. To instruct others (upon occasion) wanting instruction for their good, is an undeniable dictate of the first principles of nature; obedience to which was all the ordinary warrant they had for preaching to any beyond their own families, observed by Lot, Gen. xix. 7. though his sermon contained a little false doctrine, ver. 8. Again, special revelation leaves as a great impression on the mind of him to whom it is made, so an effectual obligation for the performance of what it directeth unto, the lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?' Amos iii. 8. And this was Noah's warrant for those performances, from whence he was called 'a preacher of righteousness;' 2 Pet. ii. 5. Thus although I do not find any determinate order of priesthood by divine institution, yet do I not thence con

clude with Aquin. 12. æ. quest. 3. a. 1. (if I noted right at the reading of it) that all the worship of God, I mean, for the manner of it, was of human invention, yea, sacrifices themselves; for this will worship, as I shewed before, God always rejected. No doubt but sacrifices and the manner of them were of divine institution, albeit their particular original, in regard of precept, though not of practice, be to us unknown; for what in all this concerns us, we may observe that a superinstitution of a new ordinance, doth not overthrow any thing that went before in the same kind, universally moral or extraordinary; nor at all change it, unless by express exception, as by the introduction of the ceremonial law, the offering of sacrifices, which before was common to all, was restrained to the posterity of Levi. Look then what performances in the service of God that primitive household of faith was in the general directed unto by the law of nature, the same, regulated by gospel light (not particularly excepted), ought the generality ofC hristians to perform, which what they were may be collected from what was forespoken.

CHAP. II.

Of the same among the Jews, and of the duty of that people distinct from their church officers.

2. CONCERNING the Jews after the giving of Moses's law: the people of God were then gathered in one, and a standard was set up for all his to repair unto, and the church of God became like a city upon a hill, conspicuous to all; and a certain rule set down for every one to observe that would approach unto him. As then before the law we sought for the manner of God's worship from the practice of men, so now since the change of the external administration of the covenant, from the prescription of God; then we guessed at what was commanded, by what was done; now, at what was done, by what was commanded: and this is all the certainty we can have in either kind, though the consequence from the precept, to the performance; and on the contrary, in

this corrupted state of nature, be not of absolute necessity; only the difference is, where things are obscured, it is a safer way to prove the practice of men by God's precept, charitably supposing them to have been obedient, than to wrest the divine rule to their observation, knowing how prone men are to deify themselves, by mixing their inventions with the worship of God. The administration of God's providence towards his church hath been various, and the communication of himself unto it, at sundry times, hath been in divers manners; especially, it pleased him not to bring it to perfection but by degrees, as 'the earth bringeth forth fruit; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." Thus the church, before the giving of Moses's law, seems to have had two main defects, which the Lord at that time supplied; one in discipline or government, in that every family exercised the public worship of God within itself or apart, (though some do otherwise conclude from Gen. iv. 26.) which was first removed, by establishing a consistory of elders; the other in the doctrine, wanting the rule of the written word, being directed by tradition, the manifold defects whereof were made up by special revelation; to neither of these defects was the church since exposed. Whether there was any thing written before the giving of the law, is not worth contending about: Austin' thought Enoch's prophecy was written by him; and Josephus affirms, that there were two pillars erected, one of stone, the other of brick, before the flood, wherein divers things were engraven ; and Sixtus Senensis, that the book of the wars of the Lord was a volume ancienter than the books of Moses; but the contrary opinion is most received: so Chrysost. Hom. 1. in Mali. After its giving, none ever doubted of the perfection of the written word for the end to which it was ordained, until the Jews had broached their Talmud to oppose Christ, and the Papists their traditions, to advance antichrist; doubtless the sole aim of the work, whatever were the intentions of the workmen.

The lights which God maketh, are sufficient to rule the seasons for which they are ordained; as, in creating of the

a Mark iv. 28.

b Aug. de Civit. Dei. lib. 15. cap. 23. C Joseph. Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 3. d Sixt. Senens. Bib. lib. 2.

world, God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; so in the erection of the new world of his church, he set up two great lights, the lesser light of the Old Testament, to guide the night, the dark space of time under the law, and the greater light of the New Testament, to rule the glorious day of the gospel; and these two lights do sufficiently enlighten every man that cometh into this new world. There is no need of the false fire of tradition, where God sets up such glorious lights. This be premised, for the proneness of men to deflect from the golden rule and heavenly polestar in the investigation of the truth; especially in things of this nature, concerning which we treat, wherein ordinary endeavours are far greater in searching after what men have done, than what they ought to have done; and when the fact is once evidenced, from the pen of a rabbi, or a father, presently conclude the right; amongst many, we may take a late treatise for instance, entitled, Of Religious Assemblies and the Public Service of God; whose author would prescribe the manner of God's worship among Christians, from the custom of the Jews; and their observations, he would prove from the rabbies; not at all taking notice, that from such observance, they were long ago recalled to the 'law and to the testimony;" and afterward for them sharply rebuked by truth itself. Doubtless it is a worthy knowledge to be able, and a commendable diligence, to search into those coiners of curiosities; but to embrace the fancies of those wild beads which have nothing but novelty to commend them, and to seek their imposition on others, is but an abusing of their own seisure and others' industry. The issue of such a temper seems to be the greatest part of that treatise, which because I wait only for some spare hours to demonstrate in a particular tract, I shall for the present omit the handling of divers things there spoken of, though otherwise they might very opportunely here be mentioned; as the office and duty of prophets, the manner of God's worship in their synagogues, the original, and institution of their latter teachers, scribes and Pharisees, &c. and briefly only observe those things, which are most immediately conducing to my proposed subject. The worship

e Matt. v. 6.