VII. LECT. learn, that God confiders all oppofition against lawful authority, as a fin against himself. He declares that rebellion is as the fun of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry:* the meaning of which, as it ftands in the book of Samuel, is this; that if a man were a Jew, and yet a rebel, he might as well be an heathen: if he were too ftubborn to submit to the ordinances of God, he might as well be a forcerer, or ferve idols. And it is worthy of observation, that this fevere fentence is against Saul, a king, who ufurped the authority of the priesthood, and pleaded a godly reason for it. But fo jealous is God, for the wisest ends, upon this fubject, that no dignity of perfon, no appearance of reason, is admitted in excufe for the fin of rebellion. therefore rightly pray in the Liturgy of the church of England, that God would deliver us from rebellion in the state and fchifm in the church; and in order to this, we should alfo pray, that he would deliver us from the principles out of which they proceed; for none of our reafonings will prevail in this We cafe. VII. cafe. For my own part, I must confefs, LECT. that if there be any man who is fo far infatuated as to have perfuaded himself that God is no proprietor of power in the world of his own making and governing, and that all men are born to a state of equality; I would no more reafon with that man, than I would preach temperance to a swine, or honesty to a wolf. I would leave him to himself, and turn toward those who have not yet received the infection, The fettlement of the church of the Hebrews in Canaan, a land of the Heathens, is the last article I am to explain, as prefigurative of the Chriftian church. It is mentioned as fuch in the apology of St. Stephen against the Jews: Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, which alfo our fathers that came after brought in with Jefus (i. e. Joshua) into the pofSeffion of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers. The doctrine, of all others most unacceptable and odious to a Jew, was this of the tranflation of the tabernacle of God to the Gentiles. St. Stephen VII. LECT. Stephen therefore does not literally affirm it, but covertly, and, as a prophet should do, under the fhadow of that antient history which was intended to forethew it. The Jewish church derived much danger from its fituation among the Canaanites; for though God had driven them out as poffeffors, and established his own people in their land, he left fome of the former poffeffors to be thorns in their fides for trial and punishment: and their history fhews how often they were ensnared by the abominable doctrines of idolatry, 'till the captivity of Babylon was the reward of their apostacy. Wonderful was the fettlement of the Jews in Canaan, with the fall of Jericho, and the victories of the people of God against all the armaments and confederacies of their enemies. But not lefs wonderful was the establishment of Christianity amongst the Gentiles. Heathenism was in as full and quiet poffeffion of the world and its empire at the coming of Chrift as the Canaanites were in their own land when VII. when Joshua entered it. But the voice of LECT. the gospel preached by a few fishermen from among the Jews, a people held in the utmost contempt by the whole heathen world, foon cast down all the highest fences of Satan's kingdom, as the walls of Jericho fell down at the found of rams horns blown by priefts. As the Hebrews in the progress of their victories were ex- «< horted to fear nothing, remembering how Pharaoh had been fubdued in Egypt; fo ought Chriftians to remember daily, how God reduced the power of Satan all over the heathen world, till his temples were destroyed, and the churches of Christ were placed upon their ruins. But then, as there was a remnant of the Canaanites, to whom the people were frequently joining themselves in marriage, and confequently relapfing into idolatry, according to that of the Pfalmift-They did not deftroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a Snare 02 VII. LECT. Snare unto them: fo the works of heathen authors, with the fables of their falfe Gods, the abominable rites of their religion, and the obscenity and immorality of their practices, are in like manner remaining among Chriftians; and it has been the custom for ages, all over Europe, to communicate the rudiments of languages and learning to young minds from heathen books, without due care to caution them against imbibing heathen principles; by which thousands of minds are corrupted, and through early prejudice rendered incapable of understanding the value of truth, and the abominable nature of heathen error. How frequently are heathen moralifts applied to, when the finest rules of human prudence for the conduct of life are to be found in the fcripture. But to go to the heathens for divinity, as fome authors do, is intolerable. They blow out the candle of revelation, and then go raking into the embers of paganism to light it again. Many good and learned men, of the firft ability and tafte, have obferved and lamented the bondage we are under to heathen modes |