The Gofpel of the Min ration ofthe Legal Min f ry. 5 3 t pies for it ; forfiriving whofhould be chiefefl, Mat. 18.1,2,34. and Mat 23.8,10,11. and Mat. 20. 25. and Luke 22. 24, 25, 26. And it is the brand fet upon Diotrepbes, 3 Joh. Yerf. 9. that he did l'img ejlivE,v, that he affeaed the Primacy. 3. Tho'the Prieff's Power was Ecclefiaffical ; yet the Pope exercifes a temporal Power ; and this, not as a Commiflïoner from and under the Civil Magiftrate, but diftin& from the Civil Magiftrate, and without dependance on him,;, yea, indeed fuperior to him; and fo do the infe- rior Prelates too, not only a Civil Power derived from the King, as o- ther Barons of the Realm, or Juftices of the Peace, or the like Civil Dignities ; but they make the Clergy a Fountain of Povver to them felves, even of Temporal Power (wherein they intrench upon . the,Pre- rogative and juft Rites of the Civil Magiftrate) as well as ofEcclefiafti- cal Power, having never received any fuch Primacy of Office from Jefus Chrift, but ufurping it to themfelves ; and fo they do intrench both uponGod and the King, (hewing themfelves therein to be the true and natural Children of their Father the Pope, the great Antichrift ofRome. But you fee how remote this is from the Spirit of the Gofpel, and that it is indeed a Judaizing, for Minifters to afihme a Difparity andSupe- riority of Power, and Ecclefiaffical or Spiritual jurifdiaion'over other Minifters. So much of the Priefts, andof their Prieftly WorkandMi- niftrations. 2. The fecond fort of Temple-Officers were the Levites : Of whom four Things are worthy to be confidered. r. Who they were. They were the whole Tribe of Levi, excepting only Aaron's Pofterity, who were preferred to an higher Office of Prieflhood ; yet they were Levites, but all Levites were not Priefts. The Prieshr were Levites in regard of their Birth andExtraftion out of that Tribe ; but they were not Levites in regard of their Office ; nor were the Levites Priefts. 2. The occafion of their Separation to thisOffice. Andthere are two or three occafions of it noted. (,1.) The Lord's pang by thefirft-born of Ifrael, when he'flew the firft-born of Egypt, Exod. 13.2. on which occafion the Lord challen- ged the firft-born to himfelf; and required they fhould be fan&ified to him. But afterwards the Lordwas pleafed to take the Levites from a- mong the. Children of Iliac!, inftead of all the first-born. See Narnb. 3. u, I2, 13. Therefore the Levitesfhabi be mine, ( faith God) becanfe all the firfl -born are mine. ( 2.) The Faithfuinefs ofthe Levites in a time of great Apoftacy and Temptation ; the Story whereof youhave in Exod, 32. 28 39. and it Yyy2 í!s
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