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ingly furnish us with proper and pertinent matter for our enfuing meditations.

"Men and brethren, children" of the holy ftock, facred to God by defcent, nor only from Christian parents at large, but from Chriftian priests alfo; who were, in a higher degree than others, "holy to the Lord," even as the Levites, among the Jews, had greater fanctity than the reft of the tribes; to you, in a particular manner, appertaineth this fcripture, and the comfortable affurance given in it, that " if the first-fruit be "holy, the lump is alfo holy; if the root be holy, "fo are the branches. Permit me therefore to apply it, after the fame manner that I have explained it, by confidering,

I. The great privilege, honour, and advantage, of our descent from the Christian priesthood.

II. The obligations we are under of adorning our facred parentage by an antwerable fanctity of life and manners; and of distinguishing ourselves as much by an inherent and habitual, as we are already distinguished by an external and relative holinefs.

III. The bleffings, we may juftly expect will befal us, as they have already, I doubt not, befallen us, on both these accounts.

I The priesthood hath in all nations and all religions been held highly venerable; chiefly in that nation which God felected to himself, and that religion which he prescribed to them. Now

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the Levitical priefthood was only typical of the Christian; which is fo much more holy and honourable than that, as the inftitution of Chrift is more excellent than that of Mofes. If therefore the "prefent miniftration be more glorious" than the former, the minifters more holy; fome advantage muft needs redound to the offspring from the dignity of the parents. "Marriage, and a "bed undefiled, is honourable in all men," and the Chriftian priesthood is of all others moft honourable; and therefore a defcent from the marriage-beds of thofe, who were vefted with this character, cannot but be honourable.

I am fenfible, we live in a time, no ways favourable to these pretenfions; a time, when our order, which ought "highly to be efteemed in "love, for its works fake," is, on that very account, difregarded; when we are fo far from being encouraged to speak of our profeffion in those high terms of refpect wherewith the faithful of the first ages, and even good princes and emperors themselves, always treated it, that the ufual titles of diftinction, which belong to us, are turned into terms of deiifion and reproach, and every way is taken by profane men, towards rendring us cheap and contemptible; when the divine authority of our miffion, and the powers vested in us by the "High Priest of our profeffion, Chrift Jefus," are publicly difputed and denied, and the facred 'rights of the Christian church' are scornfully trampled on in print, under an hypocritical pretence of maintaining them.

However, let not thefe indignities difcourage us from afferting the juft privileges and pre-emi

nence

nence of our holy function and character; Let us rather imitate the couragious example of St. P..ul, who chose then to magnity his office, when ill men confpired to leffen it. Shall the fons of Behal fet themselves to decry our order, and by that means to difgrace our birth? and fhall not the fons of Levi vindicate both by leaking the truth in Chrift, though they may be thought to " speak «< as it were foolishly in the confidence of boaft❝ing ?" ing?"

If then others may be allowed to glory in their birth, why may not we? whofe parents were called by God to attend him at his altar? were entrusted with the difpenfation of his facraments, with the miniftry of reconciliation, with the power of binding and loofing? were fet apart to take beed to the flock of Chrift, Acts xx. 28. "over "which the Holy Ghost made them overseers, "and to feed the church of God, which he pur "chafed with his own blood? to hold forth the "word of life, to fpeak, to exhort, and to re

buke with all authority?" Tit. ii. 15. If any ftation, any employment upon earth, be honourable, theirs was; and their pofterity therefore have no reason to blush at the meinory of fuch an original.

The fountain of all temporal honour is the crown; but the fountain of the regal power and dignity itfelf, is God: From whom alfo our fathers according to the flesh received their priestly authority and character, by the intervention of men, in like manner authorized by God for that holy purpose; and under him, and them, were the minifters of the fpiritual kingdom; wherein

we,

we, their defcendants (and many of us called to the like adminiftration) "do rejoice, yea and "will rejoice."

If thofe, who ftand before earthly princes, in the nearest degree of approach, who are the immediate reprefentatives of their perfons, difpenfers of their favours, and conveyers of their will to others, do, on that very account, challenge high honours to themfelves, and reflect fome part of their luftre on their children and families: Shall not they, who bear the like relation to Chrift in his fpiritual kingdom, and dischargé the like offices under him, and of whom it may be as truly faid as it was of the tribe of Levi, that God hath feparated them from the congrega ❝tion, in order to bring them near to himfelf;" Numb. xvi. 9. fhall not they alfo deferve honour from men on the account of their high ftation and truft; and derive fome fmall fhare to those who defcend from them!

If ample powers granted by the rulers of this world, add dignity to the perfons entrusted with thofe powers; behold the importance and extent of the facerdotal commiffion. "As my Father hath fent me, even fo fend I you. Whofefoever fins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; "and whofefoever fins ye retain, they are retain"ed," John xx. 21, 22.

If antiquity and a long track of time enoble families, thofe, from whom you come, can trace their fpiritual pedigree up even to Him, who was the founder of "the church of the first-born and "of whom the whole family in heaven and "earth is named." Let others justify their mifVOL. II.

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fion,

fion, as they can: We judge not those without ; but are fure, we can justify that of our fathers, by an uninterrupted fucceffion, from Chrift himfelf; a fucceffion, which hath already continued longer than the Aaronical priesthood, and will, we doubt not, ftill countinue, till the church militant, and time itself, fhall be no more.

But our further boaft is, brethren, that we have our rife, as from the clergy of Chrift; fo particularly from thofe of the church of England; a clergy, that for foundness of doctrine and depth of learning, for purity of religion and integrity of life, for a zeal in things pertaining to God, that is, according to knowledge, and yet duly tempered with candour and prudence (which is the true notion of that much talked of, much mifunderstood virtue, moderation) I fay, a clergy, that on thefe, and many other accounts, is not exceeded, if to be paralleled, in the Chriftian world.

Ye are the fons of a clergy, whofe undiffembled and unlimited veneration for the holy Scriptures hath not hindered them from payingan inferior,but profound regard to the b ft interpreters of Scripture the primitive writers; in whofe works as none have been more converfant than they, fo none have made a better ufe of them towards reviving a fpirit of primitive piety in themselves and others. And their fearches and endeavours of this kind have been bleffed with a remarkable fuccefs. For, as to the earliest and most valuable remains of pure antiquity (fuch as thofe of Barnabas, and Clement, and Ignatius, and Polycarp) I may fafely venture to fay, that the members of this church have done more towards either bring

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