the Congregation; this is the Ordinance of God Now, thefe wife Objectors may as pertinently afk, whether the Confecration of a Prieft alters. the Nature of the Man, the Nature of the Elements in the Sacraments, or the Nature of the Prayers which they offer up at Church in the Name of the People; and they may as well infer, from thence, with the Quakers, that the Prayers may be offered up, and the Sacraments administered, as acceptably to God, and as effectually to the People, by any body elfe as by a Prieft: But, all this we deny upon the cleareft Evidence; the Prieft is God's efpecial Minifter, appointed, and confecrated for those Purposes; and, therefore, unless we give up Christianity, and common Sense, we must fuppofe that God will pay a particular Regard to his own Inftitution. In like manner, as the Priest is God's pub lick Minifter, the Church is God's Houfe, folemnly devoted, or confecrated, to his Service, and feparated from all other Ufes whatsoever; from whence we may justly conclude, that the Prayers offered up by his own Minifter, in his own. House, will be particularly acceptable, and effectual. This is the Senfe, and the only Senfe, in which the omniprefent God may be faid to be peculiarly prefent in fome Places above others, not by his Effence, (which must be equally in all t Places) but by fingular Manifeftations, and Com-> munications, of himself to Mankind: Now, that God has, in this Senfe, been, all along, pecu-. liarly prefent in particular Places, that fuch Places were called his Prefence, and became the ordinary

ordinary standing Places of Worfhip, is the conftant Doctrine of Scripture. I shall trace this Matter from the Creation, and give a brief Hiftory of it, as we find the feveral Inftances recorded in the Bible,

The great Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Sherlock, feems to have made a very probable. Conjecture, viz. that even in Paradise itself, there was fome peculiar Place where God moft ordinarily appeared to cur first Parents. For this Opinion he quotes Gen. iii. 8. where we read, that, when Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden Fruit, they "heard the Voice of the Lord God (the eternal "Word) walking in the Garden in the cool of "the Evening, and Adam and his Wife hid "themselves from the Prefence of the Lord "God, among the Trees of the Garden." Two things, I think, are clear from this Paffage. Firft, That there was fome particular Place in Paradife where God ufually met, and converfed with them. Secondly, That there was fome external Appearance accompanying his Communications in this Place, from which they fled, and endeavoured to hide themfelves, among the Trees of the Garden. Biskop Patrick fuppofes this Appearance to have been more glorious and majestick than it had been at other Times this Occafion, he quotes the following Paraphrafe of a Jewish Commentator; They heard the "Voice of the Word of the Lord, who appeared in very glorious Clouds, in flaming Fire, of fuch an amazing Brightness that they were not able to endure the Sight of it."

L

on

The

The next Inftance is in the Account of Cain and Abel's offering their Sacrifices, which was an Act of religious Worship, and, no doubt, accompanied with fome Prayers; see Gen. iv. 3, 4. The Obfervation of Bishop Patrick upon this Paffage, is fo pertinent to my prefent Purpofe, that I fhall cite it at large." As there "were fome folemn Times of making their de "vout Acknowledgments to God, fo, I doubt not, there were fome fet Places, where they met for that Purpose: For the original Word brought, is never used about private, but publick Sacrifices; and, therefore, I fuppofe that they brought these Sacrifices to fome fixed "Place, looking towards the Schechinah, or glo"rious Prefence of God at the Entrance of the "Garden of Eden," (as the Jews were afterwards ordered to look towards the Temple at Jerufalem, when they offered up their Prayers at a Distance from it) " from which Adam had "been expelled. For there being, no doubt, "fome fettled Place, where they performed fa

cred Offices, it is most reasonable to think "that it had refpect to the Schechinab. Where"foever That appeared, they appeared before. "God (as the Scripture fpeaks) because there he

manifefted his fpecial Prefence, which moved "them to go thither to worthip him, to give "him Thanks, or to enquire of Him." From this Prefence of the Lord, this glorious Appearance, which Cain, at the 14th Verfe, calls the Face of the Lord, he was banished, and never afterwards enjoyed the Sight of it; and God with

drawing

drawing his gracious Prefence from him, he was alfo forfaken by him, and put out of his fpecial Protection. From thence he went into the Land of Nod, which was as much the Place of God's effential Prefence, as that from which he was banished.

Let us now proceed to the Hiftory of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; from whence we not only learn, that in thofe Days, they always had their appropriate Places of Worship, but that they pitched their Tents, and built their Altars, either in fuch Places as God directed them to, or where God appeared to them, and that thefe were the Places where God ordinarily received their Homage, and conversed with them. At the 12th ch. ver. 6, 7, we read that God -appeared unto Abraham in the Place of Sichem, in the Plain of Mamre, and that there he built an Altar unto the Lord, who appeared to him. If we proceed in the Hiftory to the 13th ch. v. 4, we fhall find that he returned hither again when he came out of Egypt; and that there, at the Place of the fame Altar which he built at the firft, he called on the Name of the Lord: So that the Appearance of God to him in this Place, had made it a standing Place of Worship. In this Place God appeared to him again, and renewed his Promise to him after the Departure of Lot. After this, by God's Command, Abrabam removed his Tent, and dwelt in the Plain of Mamre, where he built an Altar to the Lord, xiii. 18. Here God frequently appeared to him, as we may fee at large in the xvth, xviith, and

xviiith

xviiith Chapters. In the fame manner, when God appeared to Ifaac at Beersheba, he built an Altar, and called upon the Name of the Lord, and took up his Abode there, as in a Place where God was prefent, xxvi. 24, 25. And

the Lord appeared to him the fame Night, and faid, I am the God of Abraham thy Fa"ther, &c. And he builded an Altar there, " and called upon the Name of the Lord." Thus, as Jacob, his Son, was going towards Haran, being obliged to lodge in the Field all Night, he had a Dream, wherein he faw a Ladder fet upon the Earth, the Top of which reached to Heaven; and he faw Angels afcending and defcending upon it, God himself standing above it, and renewing his Promife and Covenant to him. From hence he concluded that God was peculiarly prefent in this Place. Says he, Chap. xxviii. 12, 13, &c. "How dreadful is this Place,

this is none other than the Gate of Heaven and, therefore, he calls the Name of it Bethel, and fets up the Stone whereon he lay, and pours Oil on it, and vows that if he came again in Peace to his Father's Houfe, that Stone which he had fet up fhould be God's Houfe. This is God's Houfe, this is the Gate of Heaven. Here God might be faid to keep bis Court,attended by his boly Angels, his Minifters, whom Jacob had feen going up from hence to receive Inftructions, and coming down from thence to put them in Execution. Thus the great Mr. Mead explains it Book 2. p. 436. He obferves, that the Prefence of God in one Place more than another, confifts

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