d the vile, the
clean and the unclean, (who are apt to defile, infect, and leaven one
another,) now as well as then? Ought there not to be as great care over
the holy ordinances of God, to preserve and guard them from contempt and
pollution, by a hedge and fence of government, now as well as then? Is
it not as necessary that by government sin be suppressed, piety
promoted, and the Church edified, now as well as then? But under the Old
Testament the Church visible had a perfect rule of church government,
(as is granted on all sides:) and hath Jesus Christ left his Church now
under the New Testament in a worse condition?

2. The Lord Jesus Christ (upon whose shoulder God hath laid the
government, Isa. ix. 6, and unto whom _all power both in heaven and in
earth is given_ by the Father to that end, Matt. xxviii. 18) _is most
faithful in all his house_, the Church, fully to discharge all the trust
committed to him, and completely to supply his Church with all
necessaries both to her being, and well-being ecclesiastical. Moses was
faithful in the Old Testament; for, as God gave him a pattern of church
government in the ceremonial law, so he did all things according to the
pattern; and shall the Lord Jesus be less faithful as _a son over his
own house,_ than was Moses as a servant over another's house? "Consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was
faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all
his house--and Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a
servant--but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we,"
Heb. iii. 1, 2, 5, 6. Yea, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and
to-day, and forever," Heb. xiii. 8, giving a pattern of church
government to Moses, and the church officers of the Old Testament, (the
Church being then as a child in nonage and minority, Gal, iv. 1, &c.,)
can we imagine he hath not as carefully left a pattern of church
government to his apostles, and the church officers of the New
Testament, the Church being now as a man come to full age and maturity?

3. The holy Scriptures are now completely and unalterably perfect,
containing such exact rules for the churches of God in all states and
ages, both under the Old and New Testament, that not only the people of
God, of all sorts and degrees, but also the men of God, and officers of
the Church, of all sorts and ages, may thereby be made perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. "Th