to return their Thanks. The Legal Sacrifices, S E R M, as I have already faid, are now abolished; III. they are fupplied by that one Commemorative Sacrifice in the Holy Eucharift, which the Church by the Rubrick exhorts the Woman to partake of, and by the Offering fhe 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 fomething paid as an Acknowledgment 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 thofe Duties from which none are, and (if they rightly understood it) none would be excufed; yet it is becoming, when Perfons of fuperior Condition, and Rank, ftill offer a Lamb, i. e. befides, what Law and Cuftom makes neceffary, fomething flowing from their own Free-Will. For fince, according to one of the Pfalms applied for the Service, you have no Reward to give unto the Lord, for all the Benefits he hath done unto you, the leaft you can do, is to receive the Cup of Salvation, to call upon his Name, and SER M. and cheerfully to pay your Vows, (by which, III. material Vows and Offerings are meant) thefe Should you pay in the Courts of his own House, even in the Prefence of all his People. SERMON [75] SERMON IV. The ISRAELITE without Guile. JOHN i. 47. ·Behold an Ifraelite indeed, in whom is no Guile. T lomew. HIS Day is dedicated by the Western Church to the Memory and Honour of the Apostle St BarthoOf 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. A&ts 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 fame with St Bartholomew, whom we this Day commemorate. What makes this feem more than probable, is, that St John, in reckoning up the Disciples, to SERM, to whom our Saviour appeared at the Sea of 2. For they who were together were Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the Sons of Zebedee, and two other of his Difciples. Now it feems very plain, that by his Difciples in this Place, the Evangelift meant no other but Apoftles: For he tells us ver. 14, that this was the third Time, that Jefus fhewed himself to his Difciples, after that he was risen from the Dead; And it is manifeft, that the two former Appearances, (though both said to have been made to his Difciples) were made to none but Apostles only, ch. xx. 19-26. And therefore the Word Disciples, must in all Reafon be restrained to fignify Apoftles, as well in the third Appearance, as in the two former. And indeed, I find that Apoftle, is a Word, which St John does not any where use of the Twelve; but calls them always Difciples. And it is certain, that the four Perfons which he names in this Place, befides Nathanael, were all of the Twelve: viz. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and the Sons of Zebedee, i. e. James and John. We need not then, I think, fcruple to affirm, that Nathanael was one of the twelve Apostles. And And if of the Twelve; it will foon appear, s ERM. that he must be the fame with Bartholomew. IV. For firft it is remarkable, that as no other Evangelift (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 iii. 18. Luke vi. 14. very fit Companions, fuppofing Bartholomew was the fame 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 Jefus. Nathanael and Bartholomew then, is very plainly the fame Man, only mentioned by different Names: St John calling him by his perfonal 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 firft Syllable in Bartholomew) fignifies a Son, is evident from blind Bartimeus's being interpreted the Son of Timeus, Mark x. 46. and from Peter's being called |