Where if to rise so high as the Patriarchal Age, Even in that there are vifible footsteps of a Divinely instituted Priesthood, or of Representatives impower'd by God to intercede between Him and his Creatures, to fend Up Prayers for them to Him, and to bring Down Bleffings to them from Him; Inftances of both which parts of the Prieftly Office, namely Interceffion with God and Bleffing and Curfing in His Name we find long before the time of the Levitical Inftitution; of the firft in the ftory of Abraham and Abimelech Gen. 20. Where tho Abimelech has the Teftimony of fo good a Man as to have the fingular Grace of God's appearance to Him, who alfo for the Integrity of his Heart had withheld Him from Sinning against Him, yet He receives at the fame time a command from God for the faving of his Life to procure Abraham to pray for Him, For He is a Prophet, faith God, and He fhall Pray for thee and thou shalt Live! So Abraham pray'd unto God and God healed Abimalech. And again in God's fending Job's three Friends to Him to make reconciliation for them, Therefore take unto You now feven Rams and go to my Servant Job, and offer up for your felves a Burnt offering, and my Servant Fob fball pray for You, for him will I accept. Inftances of the fecond (i. e.) of God's dif penfing His Bleffings and Curfings by the

Miniftry

Miniftry of Men, we have in Noah's Bleffing Shem and Curfing Canaan, in Ifaac Bleffing Jacob and Rejecting Efau, and in Facob's moft remarkable and folemn Bleffing of the twelve Patriarchs. For tho' every Man may in some sense Bless another, so far as praying for the Bleffing of God upon him may be fo call'd, yet folemnly to pronounce a Bleffing in the Name of the Lord, is an Act of Authority, and cannot be done fo as to have any force or validity without a Commiffion from God. And that these Bleffings and Curfings which I have mention'd were of fuch a Nature, the Event and Notorious Verification and Ratifying of 'em by God fufficiently argues, and is alfo further confirm'd, because that being once pronounc'd they were irrecoverable: which particularly appears in that of Ifaac, who tho' impos'd upon by the younger Brother, who had come by Subtilty and taken away the Bleffing, yet could not recall it; But Efau was finally rejected, and could find no place of repentance tho he fought it carefully with Tears. Which plainly fhews, that his Father reckon'd not the Bleffing that he had bestow'd to be given in his Own Name or Authority, but that it was a Ministerial Act, and as fuch, having been once Executed, was not in his Power to alter or reverse. But to ftay no longer in the darker times that preceded the Law;

let

let us come to the Legal Priefthood; in the account of which we may find plainly and expressly related, how it pleas'd Almighty God to Choose and Sanctify one only Tribe, the Tribe of Levi out of all the other twelve to Minister to Himself, and out of that Tribe One only Family, to the highest Sacerdotal Dignity. He exalted Aaron, and gave him the Priesthood among the People; He shofe him out of all Men living to offer Sacrifices to the Lord, and to make reconciliation for his People. Ecclus 45. 6,7. 16. There we may fee the feveral diftinct Employments and different charges allotted to them; how the Levites were in all their Service at the appointment and direction of the Sons of Aaron, They fubject to the Principal Guides and Leaders of their own Order, and they all under Obedience to the High Prieft. There we may read, with what Auguft Solemnities they were publickly admitted to their Holy Functions. How God beautify'd Aaron with comely Ornaments, and cloathed him with a Robe of Glory, with a Breastplate of Fudgment, and with Urim and Thummim, fuch as before him was none; neither did ever any Stranger put them on, but only his Children and his Children's Children perpetually. How Mofes confecrated him, and anointed him with Holy Oyl; How this was appointed to him by an Everlasting Covenant, and to his Seed, that they Should

fhould minifter unto God, and execute the Office of the Priesthood, and bless the People in his Name, as the Son of Sirach defcribes it (Ecclus 45.) And as this divine Institution fo plainly fet forth was a fufficient Warrant, and nothing else could be fo, for all the Minifterial Acts which every One in their several Orders perform'd; fo the fevere Punishments, which God inflicted upon any, that prefum'd to invade the Office, to which they were not call'd, or with Sacrilegious Hands to touch thofe Holy things, that appertain'd only to the High Prieft, abundantly witness, how jealous God was of this his Own Holy Sanction. Out of the many Inftances of this Nature in the Old Teftament, I fhall mention but Two, the most remarkable for the Quality of their Perfons, their Crime, and Punishment. Nothing can be more terrible than the Vengeance, which was executed upon Dathan and Abiram; and what was their Crime, but that being only Levites, they afpir'd to the Prieftly Office. Let us hear Mofes expoftulating with them, and aggravating their Offence from the Dignity that they were already invested with, Seemeth it but a small thing to you, that the God of Ifrael has feparated you from the Congregation of Ifrael, to bring you near to HimJelf, to do the Service of the Tabernacle Lord, and to ftand before the Congregation, to

the

minifter

minister unto them? And he hath brought thee near to Him, and all thy Brethren the Sons of Levi with thee: and feek ye the Priesthood alfo? Numb. 16. 9, 10.) This was fo prodigious, fo unheard of a Provocation, that God alfo, as the Texts speaks (v. 30, &c.) made a New thing to punish it. And the Earth open'd her Mouth, and Swallow'd them up, with all that appertain d to them: and they went down quick into the Pit, and the Earth clos'd upon them. And there came out a Fire from the Lord, and confum'd the two hundred and fifty Men that offer'd Incense with them. And in after-times, when Uzziah, otherwife a good and religious, and fo long a profperous and victorious King, forgetful of this terrible Work of the Lord, waxed proud, and took upon Him the Priestly Office, and went into the Temple of the Lord to burn Incense upon the Altar of Incenfe, His Heart, as it is there faid, was lifted up to His Deftruction; for in that very act of Prefumption, while he had the Cenfor in his hand to burn Incense, and was wroth with the Priests, who would have prevented his Sacrilege, he was fmitten with a Leprofy, and was a Leper to his Death, and was cut off from the house of the Lord. These remarkable Judgments, what do they elfe but proclaim aloud from Heaven, how great an Impiety it is for any perfon, of what degree or qualification foever, with

out