Partakers of his Altar, where they might still eat as Jews, fo they did not eat in Society with their difobedient Brethren; who, as St. Paul, and Barnabas faid unto thofe at Antioch in Pifidia, put the Word of God from them, and made themselves unworthy of everlafting Life. The Completion of the Covenant was not in the unconverted, but in the converted Jews; they, as Chriftians, were the true Heirs of the Promife among that People with the converted Gentiles, and the Covenant which God made with their Father Abraham, was with them, and them only of all the Jewif Nation, and as his believing Children, they more ef pecially had a right to the Temple tar of God, as long, as they were in reing. To this purpofe fpeaks St. Barnabas in h

and Al

Epiftle,

Be not like to them, who heaping up the Sins, fay that their Covenant is ours. Whereas t is ours only, for they [by their unbelief] have for ever loft that, which Mofes received. So Chap. x. Let us fee, then, whether this [unbelieving] People, or the former be Heirs according to the Promife, and the Covenant be with us, or them. So in the fame Chapter, And Jacob faid unto Jofeph, I know it, my Son, I know it, but the Elder shall ferve the Younger, tho he fhall alfo be bleffed. You fee then whom he bath appointed, that they should be the firft People, and Heirs of the Covenant, and what alfo if God bath mentioned this by Abraham? Then we have the Perfellion of Knowledge. What then, faith he to Abraham, because thou haft believed, it is imputed unto thee for Righteoufnefs, behold I have fet thee for a Father of the Nations, which by uncircumcifion believe in the Lord. Let us therefore enquire whether God hath fulfilled the Covenant, which he swore to our Fathers, that he would give this People? Tru

ly be gave it, but they were not worthy to receive it for their Sins; and a little after, Mofes therefore received them, but they were not worthy, now then learn, how we have received them. But the Lord himfelf bath given them unto us, that we might be the People of his Inheritance. All this he faid to bring the Chriftian Jews to a right understanding of the Gospel, for till this time and after, they were zealous of the Law, thinking not only themfelves, but the Chriftian Gentiles obliged to obferve it, as is plain from what follows. In this therefore, Breven, God was forefeeing, and merciful to us, becauy the People whom he hath purchased by his Beloved, was to believe in Simplicity, and therefore hé fhews things to us, that we should not run, as Profelytes to their Law. But to return from this fhort Digion, fuch was the Weakness of the Chriftian Jews which obliged the Apoftles to fo much Complyance, and Forbearance with them, and more particularly, as I hope I have made it appear very probable, in not taking their Titles from the Temple, I mean the Title of Priefts upon them, or giving it to others, whom they made Bishops, and Presbyters, while the Temple, and Temple-Priefthood were in Being. But tho' during that Period, they are not exprefsly called Priests, yet they are called fo implicitely, and by Intimation, as by St. Peter, who told the Chriftian Jews of the Afian Difperfion, that in their Chriftian State they were a Royal Priesthood, or Kingdom of Priefts. So, as is fhew'd above, St. Paul told thofe of Judea, and Jerufalem, that the Chriftians had an Altar, or Altar-Sacrifice offered by Priefts, whereof Unbeleivers who ferved at the Tabernacle, had no right to eat. So I have fhew'd how St. Clement in his Epiftle to the Corinthians, by a Circumlocution called their

↑ See Ignatius's Epift. ad Magnes,

Cap. ii.

Minifters wegrevivнorlas тa dweg, Offerers of Gifts, or Sacrifices, that is Sacerdoti, as the Italian, and Spanish, or Sacrificers, or Pontifs, as all the French Verfions tranflate the Greek, and Hebrew Words for Prieft.

r

VI. Wherefore in the next Place, as the Church might think fit, and have Occafion in after-times, when she was grown to more Perfection, to use fome other Terms, which were not in ufe before: So after the Destruction of Jerufalem, or when it was neer, the might begin to ufe the Word Prieft, or to use it more familiarly, than before. Thus we are fure from Eufebius, that before St. John dyed, the Για δὴ μεγάλη κυριακή, the Anniverfary Feftival of our Lord's Refurrection was called the Pafcha, or Paffover, by the ancient Chriftians, though it is not fo called in the Writings of the New Teftament. And from 'Ignatius, that the Church of Chrift difperfed through the World, was called the Catholick Church, and the Oblations of Bread, and Wine in the holy Eucharift the Myfteries, though the Church is not once called Catholick, nor the Lord's Supper a Sacrament, or Myftery, in the whole Book of the New Teftament. So nuerann μieg, the Lord's Day, is ufed for the weekly Fe ftival of our Lord's Refurrection in the Revelation of St. John, but is not found in any other Writings of the New Testament, where it is only call'd the first Day of the Week. So tho' in Antioch the Followers of Chrift, who before were called Nazarites,

• See Cotelerius's Note on the Place. Eccles. Hift. Lib. V. Cap. xxiv. Epift. ad Smyrn. * Δεῖ δὲ καὶ του διακόνος όντας μυςηρίων Ἰησῖ Xeis, &c, Epift ad Trall. Uffer; or elfe Musneiov may here fignifie both the Myfteries, or Sacraments of the Church, Baptifm, and the Lord's Supper, neither of which is called a Myftery, or Sacrament in the New Teftament.

and

and Galileans, came after the Greek Fashion to be firft called Chriftians from the Name of their Mafter Chrift: Yet neither any of the Writers of the New Teftament, or any other of the Apoftolical Age call them by that Name, or our Religion Chriftianity, or the Chriftian Religion. St. Luke in his Hiftory of the " Ads tells us, that King Agrippa faid unto Paul, Almost thou perfuadeft me to be a Chriftian, but St. Paul feems to decline the Name in his Answer, faying, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all, who hear me this Day, were both almoft, and altogether fuch, as I am, except thefe Bonds. In his Epiftles he never faith Paul an Apoftle to the Chriftians, or Chriftian Church at fuch a Place, but to the beloved of God, the Church of God, the Saints, and the faithful Brethren; which are all common Jewish Expreffions, that did not diftinguifh the Chriftians by Name, as a Sect. St. James, when he wrote to the converted Jews of the Difperfion, infcribes his Epiftle not to the Chriftian Fews, or Jewish Chriftians, but to the Twelve Tribes fcattered abroad. And St. Peter infcribes his 1" Epiftle to them, To the Strangers, or Sojour ners fcattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, &c. And the second is addrefs'd to them in this Circumlocution to them, who have obtained like precious Faith with us, as if it then were a private Rule of the Church not to call themselves by a Characteristical Name, which would have diftinguished them, and offended the other Jews. St. Ignatius, St. John's Difciple Bishop of Antioch, is the firft Ecclefiaftical Writer, in whom we find thofe Names, who in his Epiftle to the Magnesians hath thefe Words. @giov ἐν ἐσιν μὴ μόνον καλείς χρισιανός, ἀλλὰ δή ε, it is therefore fitting that we should not only be called Chriftians, but be fo indeed, and i telo μain aute

st

"Chap. xxvi. 28.

двувр

γενόμβυοι μάθωμία και χρισιανισμὸν ζῆν, wherefore being his Difciples, let us learn to live according to the Chriftian Religion. And again, 8' Xersiaviones & εἰς ἰσδαισμὸν ἐπίςευσεν, &c. For the Chriftian Religion was not converted to the Jewish, but the Jewish to the Chriftian Religion. Wherefore if it be asked why St. John, who lived long after the Destruction of Ferufalem, neither called himself, nor the Bifhops, and Presbyters of the Churches to whom he wrote Priefts? I answer firft, it may as well be asked why he did not call the People of those Churches Chriftians, or their Profeffion Chriftianity by Name, as his Scholar Ignatius did? He wrote his Book of Revelation twenty fix Years after the fatal Period of the old Ferufalem, and the Temple-Worship, and his Gospel about thirty four Years after, and yet in neither of them doth he call the Difciples of Chrift Chriftians; nor, what is yet more obfervable, doth he fay one Word in either of them, or in his Epiftles, of the Priesthood of Chrift, tho' in his Book of Revelations he again, and again describes him in a moft majeftical Style, as King. And as. the Doctrine of his Priefthood was then undoubtedly the Doctrine of the Church, tho' he makes no mention of it: So his Difciples were then Chriftians, tho' he doth not call them fo. In like manner the Bishops, and Presbyters of the Church were then without doubt esteemed Priests, though he omits the Name. And fo no doubt before he dyed, in the beginning of the Second Cen-.tury, the Names of Bishops, and Presbyters, which before had been ufed in common, and indifferently, were then ufed differently in diftin&t Sences to fignifie the two holy Orders, as in all the Epiftles of his Difciple; fo weak an Argument is this negative Argument against any thing, which was the

W

See Cotelerius upon the Place.

general