no Change of the Levitical Priesthood, you must throw off the Pfalms of David, as well as the Gospel of Chrift. Then confider, that the Promife to the Priesthood, of which David then prophefied, was confirmed by an Oath, that God would not alter his Purpose; I have fworn, and will not repent: There was no Oath to the Priesthood of Levi. Again; the Priesthood of the Meffiah was declared to be eternal; Thou art a Prieft for ever. And the Type of this Priesthood, in Melchizedek, was more noble than that in Levi; becaufe Abraham, the Father of Levi, and of all Ifrael, did pay an Acknowlegement to the Priesthood of Melchizedek, as fuperior to his own, in paying of Tythes to Melchizedek, instead of receiving Tythes from him; and being bleed by Melchizedek, as his fuperior.

Ifai. lxvi.

21.

Exod. xix.

When the Flowing-in of the Gentiles to the Church is defcribed, it is written, I will take of them for Priefts and for Levites, faith the Lord. If this were to be understood of the Jews, yet the Covenant with Levi would be at an End, if the Priesthood were inlarged to let in thofe of other. Tribes. And it is promifed, Ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priefts. This could not be under the Mofaical Difpenfation: But it is under the evangelical; where the Priesthood, which is defigned to ferve the whole Earth, is not, it cannot be, confined to one Family, or Tribe, or Nation: And fo the whole Kingdom of God, which is the whole World, as they that are made capable of the Covenant of Grace: So alfo of the Priesthood.

6.

And if the whole Gentile World were gathered unto you (as you expect), then furely the one Tribe of Levi would not be fufficient for Priests to them all.. So that, according to your own Expectation, there must be a Change. And yet,

IX. Your great Objection is, That God cannot alter any thing that he has once ordained. It is true, God is immutable, and cannot change; and what he ordains must answer the Ends for which he has ordained it. He does not always tell us what thofe Ends are, and thereC

fore

fore we cannot always tell when they are accomplished: But when he pleafes to make known to us the Ends for which he has ordained fuch Things, what it is they tend to, and when they are to be accomplished, then, when they are accomplished at the Time he has named, to think this any Breach of Promife, or Alteration in God, which is the highest Proof of his Veracity · and Unchangeableness, is a great Weakness in our Underftandings; and our great Unhappiness, when this betrays us to oppofe and fight against the Counsel of God, and forfeit our Share in his glorious Difpenfations, all ordained to bring us to Bliss.

1. This Objection of yours, which keeps you from Chriftianity, is that which has divided the Samaritans from you: They stick to the Inftitutions given to the Fathers, to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; and think that what was after commanded to Mofes cannot alter what God had before appointed. Our Fathers worship

ped in this Mountain (faid a Woman of Job.iv. 20. Samaria to our Meffiah), and ye fay, that in Jerufalem is the Place where Men ought to worship. Our Lord determined the Cafe on your Side against the Samaritans, and faid, that Salvation is of the Jews. But, by the fame Argument that you can defend yourselves against the Samaritans, you muft yield up the Caufe to the Chriftians: For if God could alter his Inflitutions, from what he gave to the Fathers, to what he commanded by Mofes, why not from what he commanded by Mofes, to what he inftituted by Chrift?

2. If you fay, that the Argument will run on to all Changes, as from what he inftituted by Chrift, to what it is pretended he anew revealed to Mahomet, and fo on to the End of the World; and that nothing can be certain :

I anfwer, That Mahomet could not prove his pretended Revelations, by thofe Marks as Mofes and Chrift did, and they only; as I have fhewn in a Treatife intituled Deifm Refuted. And we may fafely venture all

the

the Impoftors in the World to counterfeit thefe Marks, and to believe them if they can.

But, in the next Place, Chrift was foretold by Mofes, Deut. xviii. 18. Yea, and all the Prophets that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewife foretold of these Days in which our Meffiah came into the World, and fulfilled all that they had prophefied of him. So that the Gospel is a Confirmation and Fulfilling of the Law, and bears Witness to it.

But though the Alcoran does acknowlege both the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament, and fo far bears Witness to them, yet it cannot fhew that Mahomet was foretold either by Mofes or Chrift, or by any of the Prophets. Nay, Chrift has told, That he is the laft, and none to come after him: And therefore gives us Caution to believe none fuch. So that the Alcoran is in direct Oppofition both to the Law and the Gofpel.

If Mofes had faid, that he himself was the last that God would fend, then could not you expect any Meffiah to come. But fince Mofes has told us of a Prophet that God would fend after him, and commanded all to hear him, and threatens God's Judgments upon those who will not hearken to the

Words of God, which he fhall tell them, Deut.xviii. what Difficulty fhould you make to 19. hearken unto him, who has come with

the fame Att ftation and Seal of God as Mofes himself did?

3. If you fay, That you are forbidden, Deut. xiii. to truft even Miracles against what Mofes commanded : That Scripture fhall be confidered by-and-by; and it will be fhewn, that it extends only as to the Worship of falfe Gods; and that they are not true but feeming Miracles that are there spoken of.

But your Talmud (tit. de fynedrio) gives this as a ftanding Rule, That any Command whatsoever may, without Scruple, be tranfgreffed by the Command of a Prophet; that is, who works Miracles to atteft his Miffion.

C 2

This

This is to be understood of thofe Commands which ftand only upon pofitive Precepts of God's Inflitution, and have not a moral, which is an indifpenfible Obligation, in their own Nature.

And of this there are many Examples in Scripture, even where Miracles were wrought to warrant them; But they gave Place oft times to Cafes of Neceffity, and public Good.

How oft have the Treasures of the Temple, which were hallowed, being dedicated to God, and the very Gold upon the Doors and Pillars of the Temple, been given to Heathen and idolatrous Kings (when other Treasure there was none), to procure Peace to the Kingdom, upon great Emergencies? And no Cenfure pafled upon this.

David, in a Cafe of Neceffity, eat of the hallowed Bread, and thofe who were with him, of 1 Sam, xxi. which it was not lawful for any but the Priefts to eat; and was blameless.

The Command of the Sabbath was tranfgreffed, as oft as the eighth Day for the Circumcifion of a Child fell upon that Day.

Job. vi.

chap. v. 5.

1 Sam. vii. 7, 17.

Joshua, and all the Men of War, compaffed Jericho on the Sabbath day.

Circumcifion (fo pofitively commanded) was omitted forty Years in the Wildernefs.

Samuel facrificed at Mixpeh, and built ́an Altar at Ramah; neither of which was the Place that God had appointed: Which was contrary to the general Command, Deut. xii. 13, 14. And befides, Samuel was no Levite ; and therefore it was Death for him to offer Sacrifice, by Num. xviii. 7.

The fame did Elijah (who was not a 1 Kings Levite), and had God's Approbation, by xviii. 38. a great Miracle then shewn.

The Place of which Mofes fpoke, Deut. xii. 5, 6. That God would chufe to put his Name there, was established at Shiloh, which bore the Name of the

Meffiah,

1 Sam. 1.

3, 7.

Num. iv.

3, 23.

1 Chr.

xxiii. 27.

Meffiah, and was called the Tabernacle which God had pitched among Men, Pfal. lxxviii. 60. It remained there from the Days of Joshua to Samuel, about four hundred and fifty Years: And thither they brought their Tythes, Sacrifices, &c. and came up yearly to worship, as Mofes had commanded, to the Houfe of the Lord, which was there. Yet this was altered, by the Authority of David and Solomon, who fet it up at Feru'alem; and moreover made feveral Changes in the Courfes of the Priests and the Levites, and other Parts of the Worship of God, which Mofes had commanded, particularly as to the Time of the Levites Service, which, by the Commandment of Mofes, was from the Age of thirty to fifty: But this, by the laft Words of David, was altered, and they were to begin their Service at the Age of twenty. And the Reason is there given, because the Manner of their Service was changed; not being fo laborious, as when they were to carry the Tabernacle upon their Should.rs: The Practice of which ceased, when the Houfe of the Lord was built at Shiloh, after the Conqueft of Canaan: For then the Ark was fixed; and all the Tribes repaired to it at Shiloh, and it was not carried about with them from Place to Place, as formerly. Yet this Alteration of the Age of the Levites Service was not made till the Time of David; but ferved ever after, Ezr. iii. 8. And there was no Prophecy going before to warrant thefe Changes; nor had Mofes fpoken any thing of them. But he spoke exprefly of the Meffiah; and implied Changes to be made by him. For

Jof. xviii.

1. 1 Sam. i. 7. iv. 3.

18, 19.

he gives ftrict Charge to hearken to what Deut. be Jhould command; and threatens God's xviii. 15, Judgments to those who should refuse. Now what Occafion was there for this, if he had no more in Commiffion than Mofes had, and were to command nothing more or less than Mofes had