of fupplying the Spiritual Wants of the Un baptiz'd: For thefe latter are of fo extraordinary a Nature, than no less than Mercies Supernatural are fufficient for fo great a Purpose, and therefore no other Method must be used to obtain fuch Mercies, than what he who is to beftow them has appointed. Obedience (in this Cafe) is better than Sacrifice, efpecially than fuch a falfe Burnt-Offering as Saul (in the Inftance above-mention'd) prefum'd to offer to God. And may we all take warn ing by his Punishment, not to confine God to our Will-Worship; not to meddle in his Pofi tive Inftitutes, and expect that he should concur with our foolish and prefumptuous Inter pofing,in fuch Ministrations as he has confin'd to the Authority and Administration of his and his Chrift's Appointed Priests and Minifters only

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Obj. XIII. The Expofition of the 39 Ar ticles of the Church, which goes under the Name of Gilbert Bishop of Sarum, has this Remarkable Paffage upon the 23d Article'; Page 259, and 260. Viz. "It is to be confider'd, "that the High-Priest among the Jews, was the "Chief Perfon in that Difpenfation; not only "the Chief in Rule, but he that was by the Di"vine Appointment to Officiate in the Chief Act " of their Religion, the yearly Expiation for the UL Sins of the whole Nation, by which Atonement was made for the Sins of that People. "HERE IT MAY BE VERY REASO "NABLY

"NABLY SUGGESTED, That fince nons

befides the High-Prieft might make this Atone"ment; then no Atonement was made, if any "other befides the High-Prieft fhould fo Officiate. "To this it is to be added, That God had by an "EXPRESS LAW fixed the High-Priesthood "in the ELDEST of Aaron's Family; and that "therefore, tho that being a Theocracy, any "Prophet empower'd of God might have tranf "ferr'd this Office from one Perfon or Branch of

that Family to another; yet without fach an "Authority, no other Perfon might make any "fuch Change. But after all this, (not to men "tion the MACCABEES, and all their Suc

ceffors of the Afmonean Family) as Herod "had begun to change the High-Priest at Plea"fure, fo the Romans not only continued to do

this, but in a most mercenary manner, they fet "this Sacred Function to Sale. Here were as ແ great Nullities in the High-Priefts that were "in our Saviour's Time, as can be well imagin'd

to be. For the Jews keeping their Genealogies "fo exactly as they did, it could not but be well "known in whom the Right to this Office refted; "and they all knew that he who had it, purchas'd "it; yet these were in fact High-Priests: And "fince the People could have NO OTHER, the "Atonement was still perform'd by their Mini"ftry. Our Saviour owned Cajaphas, the Sa "crilegious and Ufurping High-Prieft,(Joh. xviii. 22, 23.) and as fuch he prophefied (Joh. xi. 51.): This fhews, That where the Neceffity

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was

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was Real and Unavoidable, the Jews were "bound to think that God did, in Confideration "of that, difpenfe with his own Precept. This R may be a fuft Inducement for us to believe, "That whenjoever God (by his Providence) brings Chriftians under a Visible Neceffity, of being either without all Order and Joint-Wor"Ship, or of Joining in an Unlawful and Defiled "Worship, or Finally, of breaking thro' Rules and "Methods, in order to the being united in Wor"Ship and Government; That of thefe Three, of which one must be chofen, the last is the "leaft Evil, and has the feweft Inconveniencies hanging upon it, and that therefore it may be "chofen. -Thus far the Expofitor. After whom comes another Writer, and applies all this to the Pofitive Miniftrations of the Chriftian Priesthood; and from hence would conclude, That the Baptifms of our AntiEpifcopal Diffenters, and of fome Foreigners who are deftitute of Epifcopal Ordination, ought to be esteem'd good and valid: And fo great a Strefs does he lay upon our Expofitor's Judgment in this Matter, that he gives us this great Encomium upon the abovelaid Paffage in thefe Words: "This is an Argument

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urg'd by the Good Bishop of Sarum, in his ૬૯ Articles, in this very Cafe I am arguing upon; "and is SO FULL to the Purpose, that I do " not think it CAPABLE of an Answer.

Anfw. Because this Objection is Authoriz'd by fo great a Name; and boafted to be fo

very full to the purpose, I fhall endeavour to refute it in a Double Refpect. First, Upon Suppofition, (tho' not granting) that all things afferted by the Expofitor, concerning the Jew

High Priesthood and Atonement, were exactly as He in his Articles has reprefented them. And Secondly, Upon account of the real Truth of thofe Matters of Fact related by the Expofitor, concerning the Inftitution and Change of the High-Priesthood.

f. Tho' all things concerning the Jewish High-Priesthood and Atonement, were exactly as the Expofitor has reprefented them, yet it will not follow from thence, that Un authori'd Baptifms, fuch as thofe mention'd in the Objection,are Good and Valid. Because the Chriftian Church never was yet reduced to the fuppofed miferable State of the Jewish Church, and indeed never will be; for the fuppos'd Ufurpation affected the whole Church of the Jews; becaufe, the Atonement by the Jewish High-Prieft could only be made in that One Place called the Holy of Holies, which was in the Temple at Jerufalem: Even a True High-Prieft could not do it in any other part of the World; fo that, when a Ufurper had got poffeffion of the Temple, and was by force of the Civil Power maintain'd therein; The Jews, if they had adher'd to the True High-Prieft could have had no benefit by his Miniftration of an Atonement, because he could have made no Atonement for them, be

ing forcibly kept out of the Holy of Holies: But the Miniftrations of the Chriftian Priesthood are not fo confin'd to Place, they are equally Valid over the face of the whole Earth; fo that if wicked Civil Powers in one Country, fhould even Destroy Chriftian High Priefts, the Bishops: Yet ftill God's Promife of being with his Apostles, his High-Priests to the End of the World, and that the Gates of Hades fball not prevail against his Church, fecures us thus much, that this Deftruction, of Christian High Priefts, fhall not be Univerfal; fome fhall be found on Earth with Powers to give Valid Ordination: if they are Deftroyed in one Dominion, they will be found in another; and the Miniftrations of Baptifm by those who are Ordain'd by them, will be Valid in every place. Which is a very different Cafe from that of the Jewish Priesthood.

But further, the Objection does not come up to the point, in the Matter before us; it is not fufficient to juftifie the Anti-Epifcopal Ufurpations of Proteftants who dare not coinmunicate with the Church of Rome, by reason of her intolerable Corruptions in Doctrine and Worship; for, even in the worst times of Popery, they that reform'd without Bishops. to head them, might, if they would, have procured Minifters to be Ordain'd by REFOMED Bishops in England, if their own Corrupt Bishops refus'd to Ordain them. And 'tis not fufficient to object, that the Labour N

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