fters of it to be proper Priefts, as the Primitive Chriftians, and all Churches before the Reformation taught, and believed. But then, I muft fay again upon Suppofition, that, like Baptifm, it is only a Sacrament, or religious Myftery, and not a Sacrifice, that according to the Notion of Prieft, and Priesthood, as I have before explained it out of profane, and holy Writers, the Minifters of it must be Priests. For to be taken from among Men to perform all the moft holy Solemnities above mentioned, pertaining unto God, to have Authority from him to reprefent before him the Paffion of his Son, and the Merits of it on Earth, as he doth in Heaven, and in Virtue of it to intercede unto him for the People, for whom he performs the holy Myftery, and to admit them in his Name to feaft at his Table, and to deliver unto them the Bread, and Wine, as Pledges of his Love, and Seals of Pardon: To minifter in this manner in the most intimate Act of Communion that can be betwixt God, and Man, as fully answers the Notion, and Character of a Prieft, as to offer Sacrifice, and the Signification of την αγίων λειτεργός, ἱεραρείν, ἱερὰ ἐργάζεθ in the divine Writings, and of dev, pv, and goev in profane Authors, which by special ufage, were applyed to the Action of facrificing, as properly be. long to any other minifterial Action as holy, and

was fo called by the Ancients, because the Victim to be flain was brought to the Mole [or Bulk] of the Altar, and there flain and therefore Mallation, was after Immolation. But now Immolation is agreeably faid of the Bread, and the Cup, but Libatim is properly the Oblation of the Cup only. Eufebius Cafarienfis in Pfalm xlv. v. 7,8. He means the rational and fpiritual Sacrifices, which we fee are daily offered up by the Priefts for the Faithful. To thefe may be added the Jewifh Doctors, who taught, that under the Meias all Sacrifices fhould ceafe, but that of Bread, and Wine, cited in that moft excellent Tract of The Great Duty of Frequenting the Chriftian Sacrifice, Lately written, and publish'd by Mr. Nellor

foler

folemn as facrificing, which the publick Liturg performs by God's Appointment, but more efpecially to minifterial Actions, in which there are religi, ous Mysteries, external Signs, manual Rites, and Operations, as taking, and breaking of Bread, and taking, and pouring out Wine, and feafting upon them, as God's Entertainment, and concluding all with most folemn Acts of Interceffion. These are Ta τα Dex, moft holy Performances, as holy, and folemn as any Sacrifice, and pertaining as much to God, and therefore he that by God's Appointment adminifters in fuch holy Rites, and Offices cannot but be λexplos ieguelöv, which I faid before was the Definition of a Prieft. I have faid this upon meer fuppofition, by granting more than I fhould for the more effectual Conviction of your late Author, and his Second. For the holy Eucharift is fo very like a Sacrifice, or facrificial Mystery in all its Rites, and manner of Ministration, that if it be not a Sacrifice, no Man can well tell what the common Notion of a Sacrifice is, or eafily diftinguish it from the Na, ture of any Sacrifice, upon which the Votifts ufed · to feaft in the Temple, and at the Altar of their God. The Primitive Chriftians who were as afraid. of Idolatry, as any of the Proteftants, were fo far from not having this Notion of it, or being afraid. to own it as fuch, that as Melchifedech was a Type of Chrift: So they believed the Bread and Wine,

h Et Melchifedech Rex Salem protulit Panem, & Vinum, Fuit autem Sacerdos Dei Summi, & benedixit Abraham. Quod autem Melchifedech typum Chrifti portaret declarat in Pfalmis Spiritus Sanctus. Secundum ordinem Melchifedech. Qui Ordo utique hic est de Sacrificio illo veniens, & inde defcendens, quod Melchifedech Sacerdos Dei fummi fuit, quod Panem, & Vinum obtulit, quod Abraham benedixit. Nam quis magis Sacerdos Dei Summi, quam Dominus nofter Jefus Chriftus? Qui Sacrificium Deo Patri obtulit, & obtulit hoc idem, quod Melchifedech obtulerat, i. e. Panem, & Vinum, suum feilicet Corpus, & Sanguinem. Et circa Abraham benedictio illa pracedens, ad noftrum populum pertinebat, &c. Cyprian Ep. LXIII. dit. Oxon. See Grotius upon the Place.

which he brought forth to Abraham, when he blef fed him, to have been a Type of this commemorative Sacrifice by Bread, and Wine, which Chrift inftituted for his Church. They believed it to be that Mincha purum, that pure Offering foretold by

the

i Cur itaque poftea per Prophetas pradicat (piritus futurum, ut, in omni terra, aut in omni loco offerantur Sacrificia Deo, ficut pet Malachium Angelum unum ex xii. Prophetis: Non recipiam Sacrifi. cium de manibus veftris, quoniam ab Oriente fole ufque ad occidentem nomen meum Clarificatum est in omnibus gentibus dicit Dominus omnipotens, in omni loco offeruntur Sacrificia munda nomine meo. Tertull. Adverfus Judæos. C. 5. So Contra Marcion. Lib. III. Cap. 22. Μηχισεδέκ, βασιλάς Σαλὴμ, ὁ ἱερῶς τὸ θεῖ ύψο ἶςε, ὁ ὲ οἶνον κὶ ἢ ἄρτον ἢ ἡ Γιασούτω διδές τροφέω, εἰς τύTo cuxαesías. Clemen Alex. Strom. Lib. IV. p. 539. So St. Ambrofe in Epift. ad Hebr. Cap. v. Hujus ordinem Sacrificii per myfticam fimilitudinem Melchifedech juftiffimus Rex infiituit, quando Domino Panis & Vini fructus obtulit. Conftat enim pecudum victimas periiffe, quæ fuerunt ordinis Aaron, non Melchifedech. Sed hoc manere potius inftitutum, quod toto orbe in Sacramentorum erogatione celebratur. Cap. vii. Neque carnis, & fanguinis vi&imas immolaverit, & brutorum fanguinem animalium dextra fufceperit, fed Pane, & Vino fimplici puroque Sacrificio Christi dedicaverit facerdotium. Which perhaps fhould be read Sacramentum, as in the Words of St. Hierom, cited below out of his Epiftle to Evagrius, Tom. iii. of the Bafil Edition. Sacerdos in æternum fecundum ordinem Melchifedech. Ordinem autem ejus multis modis interpretantur, quod folus, & Rex fuerit, & facerdos, & ante Circumcifionem fundus Sacerdotio, ut non gentes ex Judæis, jed Judai è Genti bus facerdotium acceperint; neque un&tus oleo facerdotali, ut Moyfis pracepta conftituunt, fed oleo exultationis, & fidei puritate; neque carnis & fanguinis victimis, immolaverit, & brutorum fanguinem, eorum animalium exta, id eft, quicquid fuper efcam eft, fufceperit, fed Pane, & Vino fimplice, puroque Sacrificio, Chrifti dedicaverit Sacramentum. Petrus de Marca de Sacrificio Miflæ effe Melchifedechi Sacrificium, qui Paris & Vini fpecies Deo privs ab fe oblatas, ut decebat facerdotem Altiffimi, ad agendas de Abrahami victoria gratias, ipfi dein, atque commilitonibus edendas bibendafque prabuit, ut Sacrificii participes omnes faceret.- -Cujus Exem plo Chriftus, Pane & Vino prolatis in ultima menfa Deo gratias egit quare frugum illarum Sacrificium à telchifedecho ad Dei venerationem adhibitum, typus fuit veri sacrificii a Chrifto inflituti. See alfo St. Hieron. in Matth. de Confecr. dift. 2. Affumpfit pa

Hoc

nem

the Prophet Malachi, which thould be offered in every Place, and not in one, as among the Jews, unto the Name of God among the Gentiles, from the rifing of the Sun unto the going down of the fame. Hence they called it to diftinguifh it from the Fewifh Sacrifices θυσίαν λογικήν, και αναιμακλόν, Sacrificium rationale & incruentum, the Spiritual and Unbloody Sacrifice, or Offering without Slaughter, and Blood, * and θυσίαν αθύλως θυόμενον από την ἱερέων: A Sacrifice offered by the Priests without Slaughter; or Mactation, a Susiav, hoftiam mundam, puram a pure Offering, becaufe pure from Violence, and Blood, as in the Words of Conftantine the Great, in the twelfth Chapter of his Oration to the Church of the Saints, where fpeaking of the Commemoration of Martyrs in the holy Eucharift: he faith, Such Euchariftical Sacrifice as is performed in Commemoration of thefe Men, as is pure from Blood, and all Violence, in which alfo there is no need of the Odour of Incenfe, or of Fire, but only of as much pure Light, as is fufficient to give Light to the Worshippers. They allo called it [θυσίαν ανέσεως ] a Sacrifice of Praife, according to what Buxtorf tells us fome Rabbins faid, that the Sacrifice of Praife fhould never ceafe. And agreeably to what St. Peter the Apoftle, of the Circumcifion faith, to the whole Houfe, or Family of Chriftians converted from Judaifm, Te alfo as lively Stones are built up a fpiritual Houfe into an boly Priesthood, to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices [of which the holy Eucharift is the

n

nem, qui confortator eft hominis, & ad verum pafcha tranfit Sacramentum, ut quomodo in præfigurationem ejus Melchifedech Panem & Vinum offerens fecerat, ipje in veritate corporis, & fanguinis fui reprefentarer.

Gelafil Cyzic. Hift. Conc. Nicen. Can. xxx. 1 Lexicon Rabbin. in 7277. m I Epift. Chap. ii. V. 5. 'Es præfigunt Steph. D. 1. Alex. N. 1. Barb. 5. nov. 4. Genev

Ethiop.Dr. Milles Gra Teth

chief] acceptable to God by Jefus Chrift. This fpiritual Houfe, built up of converted Jews, and Gentiles into an holy Priesthood, was a Political House, or Society, of which Jefus Chrift, whom he calls the living precious Corner-ftone, was the fupream Head, and Governour. For as the Head, and Governour of every Political Houfe is what the Cornerftone is to a Building, the Strength, and Support of it, and as this spiritual House must be taken for the political Houfe of God's Church, as it is taken, Hebr. iii. 5, 6. in thefe Words, Whofe Houfe we are: So the holy Priesthood mentioned here, is not to be taken for the Priestly Function, or Office, as if all Chriftians were Priefts, but for the Prieftly Polity, and Government of the Church, which is the Houfe of God. It is alfo taken in the fame Senfe in the ixth Verfe, where the whole Body of Chriftians, like the Jewish People, Exod. xix. 6. is faid to be a chofen Generation, a Royal Priefthood, an holy Nation, and a peculiar People, which was as true in the proper political Senfe of the Chriftians, as it was of the Jews, becaufe the Church as one fpiritual Body politick hath Jefus Chrift for its fupream Governour, who is both King, and Prieft. This Polity of his Kingdom is properly expreffed by a Royal or Kingly Priesthood, in which the Chriftians are governed, as the Jews in their Theocracy were, by a Prieft, who was a Secular, as well as a Sacerdotal

P Fagius upon the Place. Regnum Sacerdotale, vel Sacerdorum" h. e. Regnum non profanum, quod ex opibus, & Armis, fed quod ex Sacerdotibus, rebus facris, ac divinis conftat. q. d. Sacrum & divinum erit hoc regnum. Nemo dubitet Spiritum fan&um hic potiffimum refpexiffe ad Chriftum, qui eft verus ille Rex, & Sacerdos, qui tandem ex populo Judaico fecundum promiffiones D. i proditurus erat. Quandoquidem autem una eft Judæorum, & Gentium fides, unus Deus, unaque Ecclefia, cum ad vite innocentiem, & puritatem Chriftianum populum bortaretur Petrus his verbis commodiffime ufus eft, vos, inquit, genus electum, regale facerdotium.

Minister,