He left it to be thus done by his Apostles To the first of these Objections I make these following Answers 1. The whole sum of all True Religion was by Divine Artifice interwoven with the Jewish Administration whatever of Natural or Revealed Truth had been derived from God was either in plain precepts or curious Types and Shades to be found in that Theocratical Frame of Laws and not onely what had been implanted or deliver'd by God to his Servants but even the whole Evangelical Frame was in apt Figures and Emblems delincated in it It is no wonder then that a Tenth devoted as a Tribute to God should be taken into the Mosaick Frame under the Symbol of a Heav-Offering which by its Exaltation as Terumah signifies to Heaven and then let down to Earth Sursum Deorsum should carry its pedigree and original in that symbol even the Acknowledgment of the most High God Possesser of Heaven and Earth And in the second Heaving by the Levites of the Best of the Tithes for the use of Aaroh the High Priest and his Successors the most lively Num. 18. 2â— Type the Jewish Priest-hood had of our Lord's Priesthood there were the Lineaments of the first Decimation to Melchisedeck the more lively Type of Jesus our High-Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek 2. As all True Religion was by God's own Infinite Wisdom deposited in the Jewish Types so in them were the most unchangeable and eternal Moral Duties perform'd by all True Worshippers In the Sacrifices were close Applications to the Infinite Mercy of God in Christ under the Type Confessions Supplications Thanksgivings Acknowledgments of JEHOVAH the Onely True God filling Heaven and Earth with his presence of which the Tenupha or Wave-Offering was a Symbol turning the Worshipper to all parts of the World â—rorsum Retrorsum Dextrorsum sinistrorsum to Adore God to whom the Sacrifice was Wav'd 3. When therefore under the Gospel the Shaddows flew away and the Types were stripp'd off whatever was substance still remain'd Nor did the Holy Spirit of God so desert it s formerly Instituted Organs of Divine Worship but that it still delighted to make use of them as lively Expressions of those Duties the Things themselves had formerly been the Shades of Prayers are call'd â—dâ—urs and Praise is still a Sacrifice and True Christians call'd Priests The Offering up the Body in Holiness is a Living and Acceptable Sacrifice The Apostles Conversion of the Gentiles was a Priestly Rom. 15. 16. or Hierurgical service And more close to our purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Things the Philippians sent to the Apostles supply were an Odour of a sweet smelling savour and would abound Phil 4. 17 18. to their Account of what they possessed under the most High possessor of Heaven and Earth To do good and to Communicate a Phrase proper to the support of Gospel Ministry as is to be observed are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased Thus we see these Moral Duties remain and continne a Memory of the Divine Law by Moses by being expressed to us in the Gospel under such Tralations as were proper to that Law If therefore we shall find Great Moralities under Tithing as a Tribute to God in his Ministers If we shall find in a Tenth Part more then Typical and Ceremonial and in such Expressions as resemble such a Dedication to God as Decimation was why should we reject it as meerly Sacrifical For it is Evident Sacrifice hath a plain and undoubted Ceremonialness in its Nature for the sake of which onely can it by any Law of Nature or Equity be once supposed an Acceptable Acknowledgment of God or Worship of him and when-ever a Ceremonial Worship vanishes that must needs Evanish also But setting out a Tenth part to God and in honour of the Priest-hood of Christ for so Great and Real an Use as the upholding the Worship of God in the World in his Ministers Set apart to that Work is of so True a Morality in the Substance as not to be denied and the Omission of it is a Robbing of God And for the Tenthliness of it It is the Determining so far a settled proportion to such a purpose as which beyond all Reversal God did once accept and approve and therefore could not be Inequitable in it self and which also after so many Ages Christ on an occasion of Severity Review'd and Blamed nothing in both which Characters of honor can never be raz'd out But now what was Shaddowy Mosaick and Typical viz. the Tenth being accounted above other parts Holy to the Lord the Bringing the Tithes to Jerusalem Any Ceremony of Heaving them first to the Leviteâ— then to Aaron the Affixing them to Sacrificing Priests These are all vanished For in no such Sense do the Ministers of the Gospel claim them nor call themselves a PRIEST-HOOD but Rom. 15. 16. as they offer up by their Ministry Souls Converted to GOD who are thereby as the Apostle in allusion speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and He Himself as before a Priestly Administrator And as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seniors or Elders in the Family of God offering up the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise as the Apostle James instructs us Jam 5. 14. Heb. 13. 10. And lastly as they attend on that Altar of which they have no right to eat that serve the Tabernacle viz. The continual publication of the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus who suffered for his people without the Gate as a Malefactor by Preaching and Administration of the Lords Supper which is a setting forth of Jesus Christ evidently before Heb. 6. 6. Men's Eyes crucified among them and a shewing forth his Death till he come as Apostacy and Denying of Christ is in a contrary sense Crucifying the Son of God afresh putting Heb. 10. 29. him to an open shame counting the Blood of the Covenant a Common or Unclean Thing In any other Sense we are all of the same Mind with that Eminent Servant of God and Minister of the Dr. Outram de Sacrificiis p. 222. Gospel â—ow with Christ It is of great Remark That none of the Ministers of Christ in whatsoever order they are constituted are any where in the Holy Scripture call'd Priests or Chief-Priests And a little after Not the Gospel Ministry but the Priest-Hood of Christ was in Succession to the Jewish Priest-hood so that there is no one by Divine Authority either Priest or High-Priest surviving except Christ alone viz. An Advocate with God for Men. Thus the whole Objection from the Connexion between Tithes and Sacrifices is clearly removed and therein whatever concerns the first part of the Objection I come now to the second part of the Objection There is no mention of Tithing in the Apostles Writings with Reference to the Ministers of the Gospel but such a Deep Silence as argues it a very Unevangelical Practice to Require or Receive such a
A Disquisition Upon our Saviour's SANCTION OF TITHES Matth. 23. 23. and Luke 11 42. WHEREIN That whole CASE is most Impartially Stated and Resolved According to Express SCRIPTURE FOR THE Satisfaction of All SCRUPLES Entred according to Order LONDON Printed by Th. Dawks 1685. A DISQUISITION UPON TITHES From Mat. 23. 23. and Luke 11. 42. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you pay Tithe of Mint Anise Cummin * Luke and Rue and all manner of Herbs and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith and * Luke pass over the Love of God These ought ye to have done and not to have left the other undone THat we may arrive to the Argument arising from these Words their full Sense and Explanation lies thus Our Saviour in the Course of his severe Denounciations upon the Scribes and Pharisees and while he was with a just Indignation exposing them charges their foul Hypocrisy that they Tith'd Mint Anise c. and passed over Judgment Mercy c. the weightier matters of the Law and then subjoyns this Censure These Things ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Now I allow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be understood of the paying not the Sacerdotal Receiving or Magistratical Adjudication of Tithes Although the Scribes and Pharisees being mostly Priests and of the Sanhedrim some Interpreters incline to that Sense of Receiving or Adjudication of Tithes which seems to raise the Sense somewhat higher and indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7. 5. signifies to receive Tithes but then it is applyed to to the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to receive Tithes of the people and not to the Things Tith'd as here I rather therefore understand them in that Pharisees Sense Luke 18. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pay Tithes of all I possess proper to a Pharisee at large Again the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or these Things ought ye to have done I refer to the nearest Judment Mercy c. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or those Things ought you not to leave undone to the furthest of Mint Anise Cummin c. Although Interpreters think each referrible to each which would still aggrandize our Saviours Sense in Favour of Tithes But I rather Interpret them thus These weightier Things ye ought in the first place and with a higher Intention upon the Things themselves to have done and the other Tithing Mint Cummin in regard of the Authority of the Law-giver and the Equity of his Laws even to every iota of them ought ye not to leave undone Taking then the Words with the least Favour to Tithes They must needs amount to this our Lord at that very Time when he had the greatest Provocation from the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees which he was so sharply chastising preferring the minutest parts of Tithing above the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when he was comparing Things of so puisne a Consideration as Tithing Mint Anise c. with those Massive Duties of Righteousness Judgment yet he saw something in these so petite Observations of Tithing some Foundation that they rested upon of so huge Importance and Consequence that the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ought he applys to the doing the weightier things of the Law or to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he applys also to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the not leaving undone those smallest Punctillo's of paying Tithes at the least by the Frame of his Speech It is necessarily so extended And thus by his own proper Sanction the payment of Tithes even to the smallest particles of Justice therein he Establishes But because notwithstanding all that hath been yet said it may seem a Permission rather than a Sanction or Injunction I shall enforce what I have already said by this Argument That which our Lord in the most minute Instances of observance gives the very same Sanction to that he does to the more weighty Duties of the Law that he does not only permit but enjoyn But to the minutest Instances of paying Tithes he gives the same Sanction as to the more weighty parts of the Law therefore he does not only permit but enjoyn the payment of Tithes That our Lord confirm'd all the weighty parts of the Law with his own Sanction is undeniable if therefore he fixes the same ought upon the payment of Tithes in the smallest Instances as he does upon the weighty Things of the Law he then by his own Sanction Establishes the one with the other And if he allowed that deference to the smallest Instances of Duty in the Payment of Tithes to Mint and Cummin what by way of proportion would he have allowed to the more Bulky and weighty Instances of payment of Tithes For the Tithing of Mint and Cummin and the neglecting of the more considerable Seeds of the Land would have been great Hypocrisy if the Pharisees had been guilty of it even as the neglecting or passing over Judgment and Mercy was and the Robbing of God in them had been much more worthy of being rancked with the passing over JUDGMENT and MERCY those more weightie Things of the LAW then Mint and Cummin could amount to But now as the minutiae of Tithing were only in this Case under our Saviours Eye so his Sanction is upon them equally not as to the Things themselves for so do they infinitely outweigh one another but as to the general obligation of Duty Seeing we must not willfully break the Law in one point or in one of its least Commandements in regard of the Authority of the Law-giver and the general Equity of his Laws as was said before though the matters of Obedience do so much preponderate one to another Now that our Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ought upon both is undeniable from the Text for to make up the Sense it necessarily communicates it self to the one as to the other and as the one is to be done with a more Solemn Address of the Soul so the other is not to be left undone in its just place and Season But having proceeded thus far I must now contest a more weighty Objection that is This Injunction of our Lord was Commensurate to the Time Moses his Law was to continue in full Force and Strength but assoon as that Expired which was at the Death of Christ then did that Precept of Tithing expire and naturally go off with the whole Body of Moses his Ceremonial Law with the Sacrifices and Priest-hood of that Law In Answer to this Objection I shall first argue Negatively and then Affirmatively and so proceed to a further debate upon each Argument Argum. 1 First then I thus argue Negatively That which our Lord upon so just an occasion and even so great a Provocation as the Hypocrisy the Pharisees committed on these Punctillo's of Tithing to compensate for their passing over Judgment c. yet derogated nothing in the least Iota
from as He did from other parts of Moses his Law in that he saw no just Reason on any Account for the Abrogation of it at his Death But he Derogated not in the least Iota from the payment of Tithes as from other parts of Moses his Law on so just an occasion and so great a Provocation therefore he saw nothing in it for which it ought to be Abrogated at his Death with such other parts of Moses his Law Argum. 2 In the second place I argue thus Affirmatively That which our Lord did not so Remonstrate to as to other parts of Moses his Law on so just an occasion and provocation in that he saw something more valuable than that it should be Abrogated with other parts of Moses his Law and Jewish Observances at his Death But in this Case our Lord Remonstrated nothing against payment of Tithes in the smallest Instances therefore he saw something more valuable than that it should be Abrogated with other parts of Moses his Law and Jewish Observances at his Death In both these Arguments I have placed the stress not upon the Sanction I have just before made Evident our Lord gave to the Law of Tithes because I presum'd it might be supposed only Temporary as other parts of Moses his Law But the stress is placed upon the Treaty our Lord gave to this part of Moses his Law very different from other parts of it to be Abrogated at his Death and that together with the Sanction he gave to this particular Law he made no Explanatory Remonstrance of its near approaching Abrogation for some Fault he found with it This plainly argues our Lord saw something so Equitable in this Law for the sake of which he intimated no signification that it was to be abrogated at his Death but to continue in its own place For the very want of such an Equity had else been a fault in the Eye of Christ Now the minor Propositions in both these Arguments that Christ Derogated nothing Remonstrated nothing are Evident from the Text of both the Evangelists who give us no Account of any such either Derogation or Remonstrance but only of his Sanction And it cannot be supposed but they would as freely have Recorded and deliver'd over to us the one as the other and that they would have been directed so to do by the Divine Spirit if it had been a point of Christs Doctrine For the proof therefore of the major Propositions that Christ not Derogating from nor Remonstrating to this Law of Tithes saw nothing in it for which it should be abrogated but that he saw something in it why it should not be abrogated but continue after his Death I shall now reason these two ways 1. By observing our Saviour did Remonstrate to any other parts of Moses his Law or Jewish Observances as they came in his way and by some fit way shew either his present dislike or give some forebodes of his Pleasure they should be abrogated at his Death and his Servants discharg'd from them but having not done so in this particular Law it argues he saw nothing in it at which he was at that present offended nor for which it should be abrogated at his Death And therefore I shall set my self to observe such particulars of Moses his Law and Jewish Observances as by the Evangelical Records fall under our Lords particular Remark and of his particular Demeanour towards the severals of them compared with this 2. In that our Lords Respect to this Law as we shall under the former Head make good will be found very different from other parts of the Jewish Law and observance and that such a Respect cannot be imagin'd to be grounded on an indifferency that it was neither Good nor Evil it will therefore follow he saw something of a positive Equity and Goodness why he did so regard it as no way to predict its Abrogation at his Death and therefore I shall endevour by a compare with other Scriptures centring in this to find out that positive Equity and Goodness Let us then first Examine our Saviours Treaty of the several parts of Moses his Law 1. And first as to the Moral precepts of Moses his Law our Lord was so far from Abrogating them that he sublimated them to their own purity far above the false Glosses of the Pharisaick Doctors or the low sense the Carnal Jew had of them as appears all along that divine Sermon on the Mount and for the perpetuity Mat. 5. 18. c. he dates the Duration of every Iota or Tittle of them beyond that of Heaven and Earth 2. In those things wherein either Jewish Custom and Practise or explicite permission by Moses his Law had prevaricated from the Divine and Original Constitution Our Saviour plainly and immediately reduced those Customs and Practises to that Divine original by settling that Standard of Reduction From the Beginning it was not so as in the Case of Marriage and Divorce Mat. 19. 8. 3. He peremptorily decided to the Civil Power the due of Tribute and therein of all subjection consistent with the supream Law of God all pretenses from the Jewish Law or any other of latter date to the contrary notwithstanding in that everlasting Oracle Render therefore to Cesar the Things that are Cesars and Mat. 22. 2â— to God the things that are God's 4. He diverted the severity of the Judaick Judicial Law as to the Execution from the woman taken in Adultery John 8. 9 10. although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very Fact by striking the Consciences of her Accusers with their own Guilt 5. In that great precept of the Sâ—bbath Day Our Lord crossed the Superstitious Austerity of the Pharisees and refuted it by Arguments drawn from the Mosaick Law it self which allowed nullum in Sanctuario Sabbati Otium no Sabbatism of rest in the Sanctuary but the Priests prophane as our Lord says the Sabbath Day in Mar. 12. 1. c. Mar. 2 23 c. the Temple and are blameless from their own practise in Leading their Beasts to Water from the true Intention of the Sabbath which was made for Man and not Man for John 5 17. it from the ever Active Goodness of the Divine Being and the Mediator that never Sabbatizes my Father worketh hitherto and I work And he foreboded the change of it from the seventh Day to the First by declaring himself Lord even of the Sabbath and assigning that for the Reason why he declar'd himself Lord over it viz. to change it because the Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for it That is the First day Sabbath might be as much adapted to Man's Good as the seventh was and that neither the one nor the other was any of those Eternal and Immutable Laws for which Man was made Therein intimating he changed no such Laws but as the Son of Man or the the great Mediator he changed such Laws as were made
for Man's Interest to what he saw most for their interest by variety of Circumstances and Times and were not those eternal immutable Laws for which Man was made and wherein his Happiness without any Alteration consisted Thus he judged the First Day honoured with his Resurrection and as a seventh part of Time including the Memory of the CREATION was now fittest for a Sabbath For who as the Son of Man can judge of those advantages of Humane Nature who took that Nature upon him that he might be touched with our Infirmities and might be a Compassionate High-Priest Upon this Head I have insisted the longer because it gives great light into the main discourse and because I shall have after occasion to compare together the precept of Tithes and of a seventh part of Time 6. He foreboded the Change of the whole Mosaick Frame by declaring the Scribe not far from the Kingdom Mark 12. 34. of God who understood the Love of God and our Neighbour to be more than all whole Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices which our Lord soon after as we shall presently see in an umbrage abrogated Circumcision was already antiquated by the Baptism of John and the Disciples of Jesus and was undervalued in compare with the making a man every whit whole the great Design of John 7. 22. the Gospel although by the first Institution the Uncircumcised was to be cut off from his People the Pass-Over was voided by the Lords Supper the Feast upon the True Paschal Lamb substituted to it 7. In all Cases wherein Pharisaick Hypocrisy Extortion Vain-Glory Traditional Superstition had introduced any Additions upon Ceremonial or even Moral Duties our Saviour was most Rigorous in the Detection and Censure as in their Phylacteries Corban Eating with washt Hands their long Prayers Fastings Alms the odd Sentiments of the Resurrection fastned to Moses his Law by the Sadduces with many other Instances of both kinds Now to draw up a Comparison betwixt the aforenam'd Instances for there remain two more of a peculiar consideration of our Saviours Treaty of Moses his Law and his Treaty of it in this perticular of Tithes and it thus arises We find the Interpretation of Moses his Law concerning Tithes was most particular and to the utmost Stretch and Extent when it was drawn down to Mint and Cummin far more express than any Words we find in the Levitical Law it self yet our Lord blames nothing he finds no fault nay he Approves and sets his Seal to it These Things ought ye not to leave undone He does not make it void nay he Establishes it it could not indeed be but that especially the Tantilloes those uttermost Farthings of Tithing must be in themselves much lighter in our Lords Account than Judgment Mercy but else he moves them not out of their place though but as the Dust of the Ballance in Tithing it self And therefore undoubtedly our Saviour saw some Rule of unchangeable Right that sustained so nice an Exposition of Moses his Law and that supported even that Law it self above the Ceremonial or Judicial Sanctions of Moses He does not fulfil it that is explain it at a greater Breadth or Height as he did Matthew the 5th those greater Laws Indeed the Pharisees had done that to his Hand and shrivell'd up the other by false Glosses but he Evacuates it not he retrenches nothing he gives nothing of an equitable Interpretation to it He redargues nothing as in all the rest of the forementioned Instances It assures us therefore this Exactness of Tithing was none of their Extortion Vain-Glory Traditional Superstition Rigid or Erroneous Interpretation not knowing the Scripâ—ures in their Mercy to Humane Nature or the Power of God but only their Hypocrisy shew'd it self in their passing over the weightier Matters of the Law while they were so punctilious in Tithing Mint and Cummin But besides all these Instances given of our Lords Abearance towards the Law of Moses there are two more that require a more intimate research into them because they import a greater Favour of our Lords towards the Mosaical Law and yet in one of them there was a certain Expiration of Moses his Institution at the Death of Christ and in the other within less than half an Age after his Death so that except there shall be a certain Distinction found betwixt those two Instances and this of Tithing we are upon it may have been out of Date with the Rest of the Mosaick Law which had some kind of Languishing Life till the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus The first is that of the Leper Mat 8. 2. c. who being cleansed by our Lords miraculous Power was injoyn'd by him to shâ—w himself to the Priest and to offer for his cleansing as Moses commanded from whence it may be thus argued Christ enjoyn'd or approv'd the Offering Moses Commanded for cleansing the Leper But that Offering is abrogated by Christ's Death therefore some part of Moses his Law abrogated by Christ's Death is yet enjoyn'd or approved by him And as it would be Iewish and Anti-Evangelical to continue such an Offering upon the Cure of a Leper because of that Injunction of Christ so is it the same to continue the Observation of the Law of Tithes because Christ said at that Time to the Pharisees These ought ye not to have left undone But in Answer to this Argumentation I rejoyn these Considerations 1. Our Lord was indeed himself in all Instances of Duty obedient to the Law of Moses under which he was made and proportionably he withdrew no man at Galat. 4 4. that time of his Being upon Earth from a present Actual Obedience to it rightly understood so to this Leper he enjoyn'd the observation of the Law of his cleansing so far as to offer according to it 2. Yet in the course of our Lords miraculous Healing there were many Lepers cleansed For as a daily thing he renunciates to Iohn by his Disciples among other Miracles the Lepers are cleansed and yet we have only this Exemplification of Christ's Solemn Command Mat 11. 15. to observe Moses his Command Nor did he Caution his Apostles concerning it in their Commission to cleanse the Lepers Mat. 10. 8. 3. In that most remarkable Healing of the Ten Lepers Luke 17. 14. There was only a Command to shew themselves to the Priest without any mention of the Offering which shews though our Lord did pay an observance to the Mosaick Law yet in all his miraculous Cleansings he knew a Greater than Moses was there and so did not oblige the Cleansed rigorously to those Observances 4. He Limits the Injunction to the proper end of it viz. For a Testimony to them that is 1. That our Lord was no Contemner of Moses his Administration though they calumniated him as such on all occasions but a Just moderator over it As a Son over his own House 2. For a Testimony to them that the Kingdom of God was come
upon them in the Miraculous Power of Christ Luke 11. 20. And therefore the Leper was charged to tell no Man but to surprize the Preist with the Offering for his Purification that so there might be a legal Attestation to the Truth of the Miracle which was so porfect doubtless like Naamans his Flesh coming again as the Flâ—sh of a 2 Kings 5. 14. Child as to surmount any occasion for the seven Days probationership Levit. 13 6. The Appearing thus to the Priest and the Offering for Cleansing were Indisputable Ratifications of the Miracle and therefore were so carefully Commanded Now all these things laid together There will appear to any unprejudic'd Considerer a vastest Difference betwixt our Saviour's Sanction of the Duty of Tithing and the Command to the Leper as pro hac vice for that time to shew himself to the Preist and Offer c. and that for so great an End as a Testimony to them without which there had been no such necessity The second of these two last Instances and much the Greater is comprehended in those two (a) John 2. 14 c. Mar. 11. 15. 16. Zeloticisms if I may be bold so to call them of our Lord and Saviour the one at the first Pass-Over he publickly appeared at after his Baptism and the second at his last just before his Death viz. the Whipping and Ejecting the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and which is most Remarkable prohibiting the passing of Vessels through the Temple or Sanctuary rather setting these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Mottoes as it were by his Divine Action on the Gates or first Avenues to the Temple The first in his First Action make not my Fathers House a House of Merchandise The second in his Second Action my House shall be call'd a House of Prayer for all Nations This I account an Instance of greatest moment to the present Case 1. Because our Saviour gave this as a Sanction of his own above and beyond the Sentiment of the Jews who were in amaze at it and ask'd a Sign to be the Warranty of so great Doings and it did so enrage the Pharisees that they sought to destroy him upon it and yet the Temple of the Lord was their great Cry and their last Accusation of our Lord at his Death was for the very Temple as if Blasphem'd by him And further It is the more remarkable because Christ for the fulfilling of a double Prophecy thus Soveraignly manifested himself the first Time that of David his Type The Zeal of thy House hath â—aten me up The last Time that of the Prophet Esay My House shall be called the House of Prayer for all Nations 2. It is the more Influential on our present Discourse because Tithes and the Sanctuary had such a Correlation one to another that they may seem to have Lived and Died together 3. Because this Divine Zeal of our Lord terminated in a Temple whose Holyness and Use was much prostrated at his Death Then the Vail of the Temple that separated it from common Approach even of Eyes was by Miracle rent from the Top to tâ—e Bâ—ttom Mat 27. 51. and within less than fourty years it was burnt by Titus the Instrument of Divine Vengeance and utterly rased Here then appears as Solemn a Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple as upon Tithes and yet how soon It was of necessity to be abrogated and that even as by a Hand from Heaven we have seen as our Mat. 24. 1 2. Saviour also foretold A Stone not left on a Stone Now to All This these two things are said 1. That our Lords Intention was to put that Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple as an Entail of the same Holyness upon the successive Temples of the Christians against which I shall say no more then that the very want of the Cabor and Shecinah proper only to that material Sanctuary does disprove that opination 2. The more valuable Account of the most Pious and Learned Mead takes the Place of this who puts the Emphasis of our Saviour's Action of Favour to the the Temple on that part of it which was allowed to the Gentiles which the Jews valued at that vile Rate as to make it as Common and Unclean But our Lord for the Vindication of it in preparation to the Gentiles coming into his Church did thus Exterminate All that prophane Incumbrance of it and Correspondent to this does that Prophecy especially shine out My House shall be called for All Nations the House of Prayer 3. Although this Account of our Saviour's Action can be by no means spar'd much less excluded for the very sake of that Prophecy and also the near approach of the Gentiles Conversion yet I shall be bold to give one larger and more Receptive as also more close and nearer to the purpose of this unparalell'd Comming of the Lord into his Temple And that is This was indeed our Lords Causing Sacrifice and Oblation to cease foretold by Daniel in the midst of the week his last Pass-Over or just approaching Death Consummatively as it was inchoated at the very beginning of the Week or the first Pass Over And when Saerifice was thus caused to Cease Prayer Dan 9. 27. that was at least Coeval with Sacrifice and to endure to the very end as the surviving Worship succeeded naturally to it alone as Comprehensive of all Spiritual and Intellectual Worship and God's Acceptance of it This Action then of our Lords so superlative takes away the First that he may Establish the Second And that here resided the Mind of that Heavenly Grandeur our Lord assum'd I thus argue 1. The Temple was at that time the Great Symbol of both the Divine Presence and Worship and indeed the only then in the World 2. It was from its very first Foundation a House of Prayer Solomon dedicated it as such at the first by that 1 Kings 8. 2 Chrâ—n 6. his Reyal Prayer Prayer was intermix'd with all Sacrifices as the most Learned Dr. Outram often observes in that Excellent Discourse of Sacrifices It was always Comprehensive of all Divine Worship Oh thou that hearest Prayer to thee shall all Flesh come but yet under Moses his Law Sacrifice over-shaded it and the Temples name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primarily not a House of Prayer but a House of Sarifice 3. The Evangelical Prophet Esay foretels It should in the Gospel state of the Church receive another name It should be called the House of Prayer that is of Prayer separated from Sacrifice for else it was before the House of Prayer and although he joins Sacrifices yet it is only according to the Language of that time a prediction of Spiritual Sacrifices 4. That Merchandize our Saviour ejected and the passing of Vessels through the Bounds of the Sanctuary he prohibited was in a Sense absolutely necessary at least of High Conveniency to the