to return their Thanks. The Legal Sacrifices, s ERM,
as I have already said, are now abolished; III.
they are supplied by that one Commemorativen
Sacrifice in the Holy Eucharist, which the
Church by the Rubrick exhorts the Woman
to partake of, and by the Offering The ought.
to, make of herself, a holy and living Sacrifice
to God. But Offerings to the Minister are still
required ; not under the Notion of a Fee or
Reward, but as something paid as an Ac-
knowledgment to God, and offered to them
who still are to live upon God's Revenue,
And therefore as under the Law, even those
that were poor, brought a Dove, or a Pigeon,
but they of greater Substance a Lamb: So
now though the poorer Sort may well content
themselves with paying those Duties from
which none are, and (if they rightly under-
stood it) none would be excused ; yet it is be-
coming, when Persons of superior Condition,
and Rank, still offer a Lamb, i. e. besides,
what Law and Custom makes necessary,
something flowing from their own Free-Will.
For since, according to one of the Psalms ap-
plied for the Service, you have no Reward to
give unto the Lord, for all the Benefits he hath
done unto you, the least you can do, is to receive
the Cup of Salvation, to call upon his Name,

and

SERM. and cheerfully to pay your Vows, (by which,

III. material Vows and Offerings are meant) these or should you pay in the Courts of his own House,

even in the Presence of all his people.

SERMON IV.

The Israelite without Guile.

JOHN i. 47.

-Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no

Guile.

T HIS Day is dedicated by the West

ern Church to the Memory and

Honour of the Apostle St Bartholomew. Of whom, it is remarkable, that we find nothing recorded in the whole New Teltament, except that his Name is four Times mentioned, and that only in Course, in the general Catalogue of all the Apostles, Matt. X. 3. Mark iii. 18. Luke vi. 14. Asts i. 13.

This has induced many to believe, that he lies concealed under fome other Name, and that Nathanael (of whom my Text is spoken) must be the same with St Bartholomew, whom we this Day commemorate.

What makes this seem more than probable, is, that St John, in reckoning up the Disciples,

SERM. to whom o:r Saviour appeared at the Sea of IV. Tiberias, names Nathanael for one, John xxi.

2. For they who were together were Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didynus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the Sons of Zebedee, and two other of his Disciples. Now it seems very plain, that by bis Disciples in this Place, the Evangelist meant no other but Apostles: For he tells us ver. 14, that this was the third Time, that Jesus shewed himself to bis Disciples, after that he was risen from the Dead; And it is manifest, that the two former Appearances, (though both said to have been made to his Disciples) were made to none but Apostles only, ch. xx. 19-26. And therefore the Word Disciples, must in all Reafon be restrained to signify Apostles, as well in the third Appearance, as in the two former, And indeed, I find that Apostle, is a Word, which St John does not any where use of the Twelve ; but calls them always Disciples. And it is certain, that the four Persons which he names in this place, besides Nathanael, were all of the Twelve: viz. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and the Sons of Zebedee, i. e. fames and John. We need not then, I think, scruple to affirm, that Nathanael was one of the twelve Apostles,

. And

And if of the Twelve ; it will soon appear, S ERM. that he must be the same with Bartholomew. IV. For first it is remarkable, that as no other Evangelist (except St John) makes mention of Nathanael; so neither does St John, who mentions him, ever once make mention of Bartholomew. Again it is observable, that in three out of four of the Catalogues of the Apostles given by the Evangelists, Philip and Bartholomew are coupled together; Matt. x. 3. Mark ii. 18. Luke vi. 14. very fit Companions, supposing Bartholomew was the same with Nathanael, of whom, we may infer from the Context, Philip was an old and an intimate Acquaintance, and the first Inftrument of bringing him to Jesus.

Nathanael and Bartholomew then, is very plainly the same. Man, only mentioned by different Names : St John calling him by his personal or proper Name, the other Evangelifts by the Name of his family. So that putting both his Names together, he may properly be called Nathanael Bartholomew; i. e. Nathanael the Son of Tholomew or Tolmai. For that Bar (the first Syllable in Bartholomew) signifies a Son, is evident from blind Bartimeus's being interpreted the Son of Timeus, Mark x. 46. and from Peter's being