fome degree, and many other voluntary Severities and Superftitions, this being the principal thing they intended in their Religious Rites, to appease God and make him propitious to them; ince then Chrift has made a full and compleat fatisfaction and atonement for fin, and there is no expiation or fatisfaction required of us, all external Rites for expiation and atonement can have no place in the Chriftian Worship, without denying the atonement of Christ, and this neceffarily strips Chriftian Religion of a vaft number of external Rites practised both by Jews and Heathens.

2ly, Nor does the Gospel admit of any legal Uncleanneffes and Pollutions, diftinction between clean and unclean Meats, which occafioned so many Laws and Obfervances both among Jews and Heathens; fo many ways of contracting legal Uncleanness, and fo many ways to expiate it, and fo many Laws about Eating and Drinking, and fuch Superftition in Washing Hands, and Cups, and Platters, but our Saviour told his Difciples, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of 15 Matth. the mouth, this defileth the man. For whatsoever entreth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught, but thofe things, which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, falfe witnesses, blafphemies, thefe are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwafhen hands, defileth not a man. And this alfo delivers Chriftian Religion from all thofe Rites and Observances, which concerned legal cleanness, which were very numerous.

11, 17, 18, 19, 20.

3ly, Nor is there any Symbolical Prefence of God under the Gofpel, which puts an end to the legal Holiness of Places and Things. God dwelt among the Jews in the Temple at Jerufalem, where were the Symbols and Figures of his Prefence: it was God's House, and therefore a holy place, and every thing that belonged to it had a legal Holiness: for the Holiness of Things and Places under the Law, was derived from their relation to God, and his Prefence: this was the only place for their Typical and Ceremonial Worfhip, whither all the Males of the Children

of

of Ifrael were to refort three times a year, and where alone they were to offer their Sacrifices and Oblations to God: the very place gave Virtue to their Worship and Sacrifices, which were not fo acceptable in other places; nay, which could not be offered in other places without fin, as is evident from Jeroboam's fin, in fetting up the Calves at Dan and Bethel for places of Worfhip, and the frequent Complaints of the Prophets against those, who offered Sacrifices in the High Places; and therefore the Difpute between the Jews and Samaritans was, which was the place of Worship, whether the Temple at Jerufalem or Samaria: but Chrift tells the Woman of Samaria, that there should be no fuch diftinction of places in the Chriftian Worship: Woman believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerufalem worship the father. ...But the hour cometh and now is, 4 John 253 when the true worshippers fhall worship the father in fpirit and in 23. truth. Not as if the Father fhould not be Worshipped, neither at Ferufalem nor Samaria; but that neither the Temple at Jerufalem nor Samaria, fhould be the peculiar and appropriate place of Worship; that God's Prefence and Worship should no longer be confined to any one place; that the Holiness of the place should no longer give any value to the Worship; but those who wor fhipped God in fpirit and in truth, fhould be accepted by him, where-ever, they worshipped him. Such Spiritual Worship and Worshippers, shall be as acceptable to God at Samaria as at Jerufalem, and as much in the remotest Corners of the Earth, as at either of them for God's Prefence fhould no longer be confined to any one place, but he would hear our devout Prayers from all parts of the World, where-ever they were put up to him, and con.. fequently the Holiness of places is loft, which confilts only in fome peculiar Divine Prefence, and with the Holiness of places, the external and legal Holiness of things ceases alfo: for all other things were Holy only with relation to the Temple, and the Temple Worship For indeed God's Typical Prefence in the Temple, was only a Figure of the Incarnation: Chrift's Body was the true Temple where God dwelt: for which reafon he calls his Body the Temple, Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it up.

i

in three days: And the Apoftle affures us, that the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Chrift Bodily, a really and substantially, in oppofition to God's Typical Prefence in the material Temple: and therefore when Chrift was come, who was the true Emmanuel or God dwelling among us, and had by his. Incarnation accomplish'd the Type and Figure of the Temple, God would no longer have a Typical and Figurative Prefence,

23 Matth.

16, 17, 18, 19.

I will not quarrel with any man, who fhall call the Chriftian Churches, and the Utenfils of it, holy things for being employed in the Worship of God, they ought to be feparated from common uses, and reafon teaches us to have fuch, places and things in fome kind of religious Refpect, upon the account of their relation, not to God, but to his Worship; but this is a very different thing from the Typical Holiness of the Temple and Altar, and other things belonging to the Temple, and there are two plain differences between them, the first with respect to the cause, the second with respect to the effect: the cause of this legal Holiness, was God's peculiar Prefence in the Temple, where God chose to dwell as in his own House, which Sanctified the Temple, and all things belonging to it: the effect was that this Holiness of the Place Sanctified the Worship, and gave value and acceptation to it: the first needs no proof, and the second we learn from what our Saviour tells the Scribes and Pharifees. Wo unto you, ye guides, which fay, whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but whosoever shall fwear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor; ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple, that fanctifieth the gold? And whosoever shall fwear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever sweareth by the gift, that lieth upon it, he is guilty? ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gift, or the Altar that fanctifieth the gift? So that it seems, there was such a Holiness in the Temple and Altar, as conveyed a Holiness and Sanctity to other things, even to the Oblations and Sacrifices, which were offered there. But now whatever Holiness there is in Christian Churches and Oratories, they are fanctified by the worship, that is performed there, not the worship fanctified by them. It is the Affembly of Chriftians themselves, that is the

blind

Church

Church, the House, the holy and living Temple of God, not the building of Wood or Stone wherein they meet: God and Christ is peculiarly present in the Affemblies of Chriftians, though not by a Figurative and Symbolical Prefence, and thus he is prefent in the places, when Chriftians meet, and which are Confecrated and Separated to Religious Ufes, and there is a natural Decency in the thing, to fhew fome peculiar Refpects to the places, where we folemnly Worship God; but the prefence of God is not peculiar to the place as it was appropriated to the Temple of Jerufalem, but it goes along with the Company and the Worship; and therefore the place may be called Holy, not upon account of its immediate relation to God, as God's Houfe, wherein he dwells, but its relation to Chriftians, and that Holy Worship, which is performed there; and I fuppofe every one fees the vaft difference between these two: and thus all that vaft number of Ceremonies, which related to this external and legal Holiness of Places, Veffels, Inftruments, Garments, &c. have no place in the Chriftian Worfhip, because there is no Typical and Symbolical Prefence of God, and confequently no fuch legal Holinefs of places and things, under the Gospel.

1

4ly, Nor are material and inanimate things made the Receptacles of Divine Graces and Vertues under the Gospel, to convey them to us meerly by Contract and external Applications; like fome Amulets or Charms, to wear in our Pockets, or hang about our Necks. There was nothing like this in the Jewish Religion, though there was in the Pagan Worship, but under the Gospel Chrift bestows his holy Spirit on us, as the principle of a new divine Life, and from him alone we muft immediately receive all Divine Influences and Vertue, and not feek for these heavenly Powers in fencelefs things, which can no more receive, nor communicate Divine Graces to us, then they do Wit and -Understanding to those who expect Grace from them; For can Grace be lodged in a rotten Bone, or a piece of Wood or conveyed to our Souls by perspiration in a kifs or touch?

5ly, The Chriftian Religion admits of no External or Ceremonial Righteousness. In Christ Jefus neither circumcifion availeth

F

any

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any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new creature, and obedience to 5 Matth. the commandments of God, and faith which worketh by love: The great defign of the Gospel, and of all our Saviour's Sermons, being to make us truly holy, that we may be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption,which is in the world through luft. There is nothing our Lord does more feverely con demn, than an External and Pharifaical righteousness, which confifted either in observing the External Rites of the Law of Mofes, or their own Superftitions received by tradition from their Forefathers, and exprefly tells his Difciples, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye shall in no wife enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: Now this cuts off every thing, which is External in Religion at a blow, because it cuts off all hopes and relyances on an External Righteoufnefs, and I believe men will not be fond of fuch Superftitions, when they know, they will do them no good.

6ly, And hence it appears, that there can be no place for any thing, that is external,in the Chriftian Religion,but only for fome fœderal Rites; fuch as the two Sacraments of the Gospel are, Baptifm and the Lords Supper; the first of which is our admiffi on into the new Covenant, the second the exercife of Communion with Christ in this Gospel Covenant. And fuch Rites as these are neceffary in all Inftituted Religions, which depend upon free and voluntary Covenants: for fince Mankind has by fin forfeited their natural right to Gods favour, they can challenge nothing from him now,but by promise and Covenant; and fince fuch Covenants require a mutual ftipulation on both sides, they must be tranfacted by fome visible and fenfible Rites, whereby God obliges himself to us, and we to him; but thefe being only the figns or feals of a Covenant, are very proper for a Religion, which rejects all External and Ceremonial Righteousness and Worfhip for it is not our being in Covenant with God, nor the Sacraments of it, that can avail us, without performing the conditions of the Covenant, and therefore this does not introduce an External Righteousness..

Now