and with the book of revelation in our hands, we fhall be at no lofs to difcover how well the one part of the facred volume agrees with the other, and both point to the fame object under every difpenfation; ftill representing the church or people of God as one body, actuated by one fpirit, and established in one and the fame faith and hope. Thus looking back, with a well-directed eye, to the state of the church, through its feveral progreffive ftages, from its first establishment in paradife, and its confinement afterwards to one fingle family in the ark, we can trace its enlargement in the pofterity of the chofen father of the faithful race, its wandering state in the wilderness, its fettlement in the promised land, and all that happened to it, till the fulness of time came for the manifeflation of its God and Redeemer, who was to put his finishing hand to the conftitution of this fpiritual fociety, and place it on a fure and immoveable foundation. Through the whole of this extended view, one ftriking circumstance must conftantly arreft our attention; that under every difpenfation of divine grace, fome particular perfons were fet apart for performing the facred rites of religion, and clothed with fuitable authority for that purpose. The infpired history fays but little of what is called the patriarchal economy. But even in the concife account which is given of that period, we fee evident marks of the divine inftitution of facrifice, as the most effential part of religious worfhip, and may thence juftly infer that a priesthood

alfo

was inftituted to minister in holy things; fince there was the fame reafon for fetting apart certain perfons to reprefent Chrift the Priest, as there was for conftituting certain offerings to reprefent Christ the Sacrifice. For maintaining this confiftency, we have every reason to believe, that the right to minifter was given to the firft-born, as types of Him, who was to be "the First-born among many brethren;" and it was on account of Efau's defpifing and felling this right, that he was denominated "a profane "perfon;" one who had no juft fenfe of God's appointment, or the regard which was due to facred things; for which reafon he was fet afide from the office, and the honour of the priesthood was transferred to his brother Jacob.

When we come down to the establishment of the church under the Mofaic difpenfation, we perceive its form and miniftry, its authority and independence difplayed in the clearest manner: And these things are frequently referred to in the writings of the New Teftament, which point to the ancient conftitution as ftill to be maintained in all things effential to the being of a church. Thus viewing the divine conduct in the light which revelation throws upon it, we are taught to confider the Jewish difpenfation, as the infancy of the Chriftian, and the Chriftian, as the full growth, and mature perfection of the Jewish. But in both, the body is formed after the same model;

Q2

+ Heb. xii. 16.

model; and we can trace a fimilarity of features and lineaments, fuch as is obferved in the progreffive advancement of our own bodies from infancy to manhood. To be fure," as the economy of "man's falvation forms one complete whole, it may "well be fuppofed, that there will be an uniformity "in its feveral parts;" And when we find the God of Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, regulating the fervice of the Ifraelitish church, by the exprefs appointment of those who were to minifter in it, we may juftly infer, that the fame God, when manifefted in the flesh for its falvation, would adopt a fimilar plan in the Chriftian church; thereby fhewing, that the "law being a fhadow of good things to come," bore a resemblance in all respects to the substance, which the gofpel exhibited. The law was adorned with a priesthood of God's own inftitution,-a high-priest, and priests of his own calling,--a whole tribe of Levites of his own felecting, feparated from the rest of the people, and peculiarly fet apart for the service of the tabernacle; which, with all its holy things, was a type or figure of the body, and confequently of the church of Chrift. In this church therefore, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth "all in all," we may expect to find the full completion of all that was prefigured under the Mofaic economy; and as the Hebrew miniftry was "an ordi66 nance

+ Sec this argument well handled in Mr. Daubeny's excellent Guide to the Church, p. 25, &c.

"nance for ever," that is, for the continuance of the temple and nation of the Hebrews, fo are the divine inftitution, and perpetuity of the Chriftian ministry, expreffed in that commiffion, which our Lord gave his apoftles;-" As my Father fent me, "even fo fend I you: and-lo, I am with you al66 ways, even unto the end of the world."

If we enquire into the hiftory of these apoftles, before they received this final and most ample commiffion from their Lord and Master, we shall find, that when the number of his followers had confiderably increased, and he was "moved with compaffion at "feeing the multitudes fcattered abroad, as fheep "having no fhepherd," he thought proper to "or"dain twelve," as the evangelift tells us, "that "they should be with him, and that he might fend "them forth to preach, and to have power to heal "ficknesses, and to caft out devils ;" and these he named apoftles, as being perfons peculiarly fent with power to act in his name, and to carry on the bleffed work, which he had fo happily begun. Afterwards, when the harvest became too great for fo few labourers as these twelve, our Lord was pleafed to "ap

point other feventy alfo;" who, though of an order inferior to the apostles, as appears from their never being diftinguished by that title, were yet empowered to preach the gofpel, and to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine. Thus early do we obferve a fubordination among the minifters of Christ, and a striking fimilitude between the Jew

ifh

ish church and the Chriftian, with respect to their foundation and establishment. The former was delivered from the Egyptian flavery by Mofes the fervant of God; and the latter is delivered from its bondage to fin and fatan, a flavery infinitely more deplorable, by Jefus Chrift the Son of God. In the former, the twelve tribes were conducted by twelve officers, the heads of their several tribes, who were all fubject to Mofes and in the latter twelve apostles were appointed to guide and instruct the people, and themselves to be obedient in every thing unto Chrift. And, to complete the allusion, our Lord's seventy disciples answered to the fame number of the heads of families, who were appointed according to the number of Jacob's family that went down with him into Egypt, and also according to the number of the "feventy men of the el"ders of Ifrael," who were folemnly fet apart for affifting Mofes in "bearing the burden of the peo

66

ple." Thus, as fome of the old fathers obferved, our Lord first chose twelve apostles, and afterwards he added other feventy felect difciples, that by this means, the people difcovering the refemblance between him and Mofes might the more readily believe him to be that Prophet, who, Mofes foretold, fhould come.

Thus far did our Saviour collect and gather his church in his own perfon, and while his miniftry

was

See Dr. Potter on Church Government, p. 49–50. Num. xi. 16. 17.