1. The government of the visible Church under the New Testament is as needful as ever it was under the Old Testament. What necessity of government could be pleaded then, which may not as strongly be pleaded now? Is not the visible Church of Christ a mixed body of sound and unsound members, of fruitful and barren branches, of tares and wheat, of good and bad, of sincere believers and hypocrites, of sheep and goats, &c., now as well as it was then? Is there not as great cause to separate and distinguish by church power, between the precious and 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?