e bound, even by this divine threatening, to avoid the
like by a divine warrant.

3. By remunerating or rewarding; whether he reward with blessings or
with judgments. With blessings God rewarded the Hebrew midwives, because
they preserved the male children of Israel, contrary to Pharaoh's bloody
command; _God made them houses_, Exod. i. 17, 20, 21. He will have the
elders that rule well _counted worthy of double honor_, &c.; i.e.
rewarded with a bountiful, plentiful maintenance, 1 Tim. v. 17.
Therefore, their ruling in the church is of divine right, for which God
appoints such a good reward. Contrariwise, with judgments God rewarded
king Saul, for offering a burnt-offering himself, 1 Sam. xiii. 12-14;
Uzzah, for touching the ark, though it was ready to fall, 2 Sam. vi. 6,
7; and king Uzziah, for going into the temple to burn incense, 2 Chron.
xxvi. 16. None of these being priests, yet presuming to meddle with the
priest's office. A rule for all persons, being not church officers, yea,
though they be princes or supreme magistrates, that they are hereby
warned by the divine law, not to usurp church authority or offices to
themselves. God rewarded the Corinthians with the judgments of
weakness, sickness, and death, for unworthy receiving of the Lord's
supper, 1 Cor. xi. 30. So that this is a divine warning for all after
churches against unworthy communicating.

CHAPTER VI.

IV. _Of a Divine Right by Divine Acts._

IV. By divine acts. Whatsoever matters of religion were erected in, or
conferred upon the Church of God, by God, or any person of the blessed
Trinity, and are left recorded in the Scripture, they are of divine
right, by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ. Shall divine
approbation, yea, shall the saints' binding example hold forth to us a
divine right, and shall not the divine actions of God, Christ, and the
Spirit, do it much more? Take some instances: the Lord's-day sabbath,
under the New Testament, was it not instituted (the seventh day being
changed to the first day of the week) by the acts of Christ, having now
perfected the spiritual creation of the new world? viz: by his
resurrection and apparitions to his disciples on that day, and
miraculous blessing and sanctifying of that day, by pouring forth the
gifts of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii., all which were seconded with the
apostolical practice in the primitive churches, Acts xx. 7, &c.; 1 Cor.
xvi. 1, 2. And do not the churches of Christ genera