your feet the refidue of your paftures? and "to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye "must foul the refidue with your feet? And "as for my flock, they eat that which ye have "trodden with your feet; and they drink that "which ye have fouled with your feet. There, "fore, thus faith the Lord God unto them, Be❝ hold I, even I, will judge between the fat "cattle and between the lean cattle. Because

ye have thrust with fide and with fhoulder, "and pushed all the diseased with your horns, "till ye have scattered them abroad; there"fore will I feek my flock, and they shall no "more be a prey; and I will judge between "cattle and cattle." I apprehend, that the crime here laid to their charge is pharifaical pride. They are fat, that is, puffed up with a conceit of their own fuperior attainments. They "tread down the refidue of their pasture, ❝and foul the deep waters of which they drink " with their feet." They defpife the ordinances of religion difpenfed among them, instead of receiving inftruction with humility; they fet themselves up as judges and cenfurers of their teachers. "They thruft with fide and "fhoulder, and push the diseased with their "horns." The use they make of their abilities and knowledge is, to ftagger the faith of the infirm, reverfing the apoftle's maxim, "re

"ceiving

H

"ceiving him that is weak in the faith to doubt"ful difputations, not to godly edifying.” The company of Korah, Dathan and Abiram of old, fhewed much of this fpirit. They pretended a refpect for the congregation of the Lord, as being holy, yet they fet themselves in oppofition to the authority which Gad established in the congregation, for the exprefs purpose of maintaining and promoting that holiness. A fimilar fpirit thewed itself early in the church of Chrift: "I wrote unto the church: (fays the apoftle, "3 John, ver. 9.) but Diotrephes, who loveth "to have the pre-eminence among them, re"ceiveth us not." In every period, persons of this difpofition have appeared, perhaps they are more numerous in proportion to the greater purity in which the ordinances of religion are difpenfed. Their conduct proceeds from the enmity of the carnal mind varnished over with an appearance of superior sanctity; it is more offenfive to God, and more injurious to the interefts of religion, than open infidelity or profaneness.

A third reafon for continuing Ifrael in the wilderness of old, was to form them into a national church, by the ufe of the ordinances, government and discipline which they were afterwards to practife in the land. Just fo, the Jews, when converted, fhall be trained under the im

mediate

mediate eye of God in the wilderness, as a Christian national church, not only for their own advantage, but likewife as a model for the feveral Christian churches fpread over the earth during the Millennium. Perhaps fuch a model may be thought by fome unneceffary, in regard Christianity has been long established in the world, and fome excellent patterns of national churches are in existence. I answer to this, that the state of the Chriftian church in paft ages, and in the present, evidently proves the neceffity of a more perfect model of a national church than has hitherto appeared, as well for the benefit of individual churches, as for the union of the whole into one. For the firft three hundred years, the Chriftian church was not acknowledged by the civil power, far less protect. ed by it; fuch a state, therefore ill agrees with the Millennial church, "when the kingdoms "of this world become the kingdoms of our "Lord and of his Chrift;" Rev. xi. 15. When

kings are the nurfing fathers, and queens the "nurfing mothers of the church;" Ifa. xlix. 23. Some time after fhe received the protection of the civil power, the ecclefiaftical swallowed up the civil authority, and established the most defpotic tyranny. This furely can be no model for the Millennium. Since the Reformation, feveral national churches have been established

on a rational plan; but no plan has yet been discovered, fufficient to unite the feveral reformed churches. In order to this, feveral questions remain to be determined, to which the researches of divines, and fagacity of politicians, have been hitherto unequal. Such as, what kind of churchgovernment is of divine authority? How far the civil and ecclefiaftical authority ought to be blended together, and how far they ought to be diftinct? What is the moft profitable manner of dispensing the ordinances of religion? How far ought difcipline to extend? Should it reach to the perfons and property of men, for fins hurtful to their eternal falvation though not fo immediately injurious to fociety? But all these queftions fhall be refolved, and made level to every capacity, in that plan of a national eftablishment, which God himself will form for the Jews in the wilderness. His authority likewise in forming it will induce other churches to adopt it as a pattern; whereas, though the fame plan did at prefent exift, no human reafoning would induce another church having a different plan, to quit their own and receive it. The proof of this fentiment, that the converted Jews fhall furnish the model of a national church, refts on the glorious description given us of the Jewish national establishment, and of the communion fubfifting

fubfifting betwixt them and the Gentile churches at the Millennium, which I fhall afterwards more particularly explain.

Perhaps too, as the Mofaic economy was first given in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, fo its spiritual meaning fhall be fully unfolded in the wilderness, when the Jews are converted. The general defign of it is already revealed, and forms an argument for the doctrine of the atonement, which the cavils of adversaries can never overturn; becaufe every illuftration of it, without a typical reference to the atonement, appears extremely futile and abfurd. However, the minutiæ of that economy ftill remain involved in obfcurity, and perhaps will continue fo until the Jews are converted, when the Spirit that dictated, fhall unfold its meaning fully, adding much to the knowledge of the church, without making any addition to the canon of Lcripture,

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