be extended to all the Christian doctrines. 121 OF PRIEST- "would expose priestcraft more than an historical account, CHARGE how, and for what motives, the clergy varied in their notions and practices concerning" Church government. "As first, how they set up men called apostles, and then bishops, and priests, and deacons, in the heathenish sense of the words, and for heathenish reasons, who had arch-priests, priests, and inferior ministers, who usurped power over the people, and excluded whom they would, as unworthy; and, as the heathens had one sovereign pontiff over all their arch-priests, and priests, so the clergy, to magnify their power, were never quiet, till the more effectually to enslave the people, in a most heathenish manner, and for heathenish reasons, they set up another Pontifex Maximus at Rome." So it may be said in this blasphemous way, "Nothing would expose priestcraft more than an historical account, how, and for what motives, the clergy varied in their notions concerning Jesus of Nazareth, as first, how they made Him a prophet, then a king, and at last, in a heathenish manner, and for heathenish reasons, a sovereign pontiff, and demon-like mediatory betwixt God and man, that in His name they may get the same power over the people, as the idol-priests had, and exclude whom they would, as unworthy." Nay, might he not falsely say, they were never quiet, till of an inferior ministerial sort of God, under the one supreme God, as they first taught Him to be, they met together, and made and determined Him to be an essential God, very God of very God, of one substance with the Almighty Father, equal to the supreme God, to exalt their power, by a pretended spiritual authority under Him, in a 'heathenish manner,' not only over the people, but over senates and kings. I must also observe, with what assurance this doughty champion, and penman of the club, derives the Christian notion of sacrifice, priest, and altar, by priestcraft from the y See the History of Religion, [pp. 287-298, of the reprint appended to the reprint of the Growth of Deism, 1709. "It may now be proper to shew the several distinctions of Gods, and Divine powers, and the uses of them: whereby it will further appear, how the priestcraft contrived notions and opinions, to engage people to submit implicitly to their directions. . . . Demons, in the theology of the Gentiles, were SECT. IV. [Matt. 5. 23, 24.] 122 Sacrificial terms in the New Test. derived from the Old. PREFAT. heathens, contrary to the known original, and first propagaDISCOURSE, tion of the Christian religion from the Jewish Church, and among the Jews. Did he not know that the blessed Founder of it was a Jew, and all His Apostles Jews, who were versed in the Scriptures, and religious rites and customs of the Jews? Did he not know that Christianity is nothing but mystical, or reformed, Judaism, and that our Lord Himself used the words 'altar,' 'gift,' or sacrifice, and offering, in a precept to His disciples?? and did He borrow them from the heathens, or from the Jewish Church? Did St. Paul, who was an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, and conversant in Moses and the prophets, and in their temple worship; did he, I say, who was versed in the Greek, as well as the Hebrew Testament, borrow the word Ovσiaσrýρiov, 'altar,' from the heathen, or from the Hellenistical writers, who so carefully used this word both in their versions of the Old Testament, and their other writings, in distinction from ßwμòs, which the heathens used for the altars of their gods. But because 'heathen' and 'heathenish' will make a terrible sound in the ears of some readers, and raise odious ideas, with fears [Heb. 13. 10.] [See The Christian Priesthood, chap. ii. sect. vi.] a As in Numb. xxiii. 1. [Bwμoùs, LXX, aras, Vulg." So] ver. 14, 29, 30. Amos vii. 9. [Bwuol, excelsa,] 1 Macc. i. 47. [Bwuoùs, Vulg. v. 50. aras,] ver. 54. [ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον Bauous. Vulg. v. 57. Super altare Dei aras.] ver. 59. [θυσιάζοντες ἐπὶ τὸν βωμὸν, ὃς ἦν ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου. Vulg. v. 62. sacrificabant super aram quæ erat contra altare]. ibid., c. ii. 23. [Bwμoùs, aras. So] ver. 25, 45. cap. v. 68. 2 Macc. x. 2, 3. [θυσιαστήριον, altare.] And this distinction was so generally observed betwixt θυσιαστήριον and βωμὸς, that the former is but once used for the altar of an idol in the LXXII. 1 Kings (Baoλ г) xviii. 26. [διέτρεχον ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, transiliebantque altare], and the latter by no Hellenistical writer for the altar of God, but the author of the second book of Maccabees, who gentilizes in his style, ch. i. 19. [λάβοντες ἀπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, acceptum ignem de altari, (this is said of the altar of God,)] xiii. 8. [Bwudy, aram Dei.] The same distinction is observed between altare and ara throughout the Latin vulgar Bible, and all the Latin fathers, except Tertullian. [See Christian Priesthood, chap. ii. sect. 6. § 3. The one passage, 1 Kings xviii. 26, is far from being the only instance in which θυσιαστήριον is used by the LXX for the altar of an idol. It is so used Jud. ii. 2, and vi. 25-32, where it occurs five times. (Vulg. ara, in all). 3 Reg. xvi. 32, (Vulg. ara,) 4 Reg. xi. 19, (Vulg. ara,) xvi. 10, (Vulg. altare,) xxi. 3, 4, (aras,) 5, (altaria,) xxiii. 12, (altaria, twice,) 2 Par. xiv. 3, (altaria, as also) xxiii. 17, xxviii. 24, xxx. 14, xxxiii. 4, (aras, as also) 5, 15,xxxiv. 4,5, (altaria,) Ezek. vi. 4—13, (aras, as also) Hos. viii.11,x. 1-8,xii.11, (altaria). In 3 Reg. xiii., 4 Reg. xxiii., Amos iii. 14, θυσιαστήριον is used of the altar at Bethel. On the other hand, in Josh. xxiii. 10, sqq. (except ver. 28,) Bauds (but Vulg. altare,) is used of the altar erected by the Transjordanic tribes, which is contrasted (ver. 19) with θυσιαστήριον, the altar in the tabernacle. Beside the passages noted by Hickes, ara is used for the altar of the true God, Ecclus. 1. 13, 15, (LXX, βωμὸς,) Baruch i. 10, (LXX, θυσιαστήpiov.)] Heathenism is true religion corrupted. 123 OF PRIEST and jealousies in their minds, therefore whatever Christianity CHARGE hath in common with the religions of the Jews and heathens, it must be all'heathenish,' and for 'heathenish reasons;' its 'priests,' and 'sacrifice,' and 'altars,' its 'excommunications,' the mediation, and high-priesthood of its Redeemer, must be represented as heathenish, and, if he durst, he might have represented every thing in the Jewish religion as heathenish too. But that was too bold a stroke at first, but hereafter perhaps they may arrive at that confidence, unless Josephus against Apion, and the Christian apologists, and Cyril of Alexandria's answer to Julian the apostate, should stand in their way, who have shewed that the Greeks were but boys and children to the Hebrews, and that, like plagiaries, they borrowed all their learning, sacred and profane, relating to law or religion, from them. Indeed paganism, as learned men have often shewed, is but Judaism, corrupted from the service of one true God to the worship of devils; and, as I must observe again, if every thing in the Christian religion, whereof there is the like among pagans, must pass for heathenish priestcraft, there will be but very little left, which must not pass for such too. Wherefore when these blasphemers say, that such or such a notion or practice in the Christian religion was introduced by priestcraft from the heathens, it should be considered, whether the heathens did » [Πυθαγόρας τοίνυν ὁ Σάμιος ἀρχαῖος ὢν, σοφίᾳ δὲ καὶ τῇ περὶ τὸ θεῖον εὐσεβείᾳ, πάντων ὑπειλημμένος διενεγκεῖν τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων, οὐ μόνον ἐγνωκὼς τὰ παρ' ἡμῖν δῆλός ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ζηλωτὴς αὐτῶν ἐκ πλείστου γεγενημέ vos.—Flav. Josephi, contra Apionem, lib. i. c. 22. Op., tom. ii. p. 1345, 11. 19-23.] [πάντα ὅσα περὶ ἀθανασίας ψυχῆς, ἢ τιμωριῶν τῶν μετὰ θάνατον, ἢ θεωρίας οὐρανίων, ἢ τῶν ὁμοίων δογμάτων, καὶ φιλόσοφοι καὶ ποιηταὶ ἔφασαν, παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν τὰς ἀφορμὰς λαβόντες, καὶ νοῆσαι δεδύνηνται, καὶ ἐξηγήσαντο. -S. Justini Martyris, Apologia i. c. 44. Op., p. 70, A.] · [εἶτα πρὸς τούτῳ καταδεικνύωμεν Μωσέα μὲν ἐν χρόνῳ τὰ πρεσβεῖα λαχόντα, καὶ δόξαν ὀρθὴν καὶ ἀπλανεστάτην περὶ τῆς ἀῤῥήτου καὶ ἀνωτάτω πασῶν οὐσίας εἰσκεκομικότα, καὶ κοσμοποιΐας ἄριστα μνημονεύσαντα καὶ νόμων τῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν καὶ δικαιοσύνην οὐ ἀθαύμαστον βραβευτὴν, τοὺς δὲ παρ ̓ αὐ- καὶ μὴν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ̓Αρίστωνος Πλά- e [e. g. Theophilus Gale in his Court of the Gentiles, 4to. 1672-78, and Huetius in his Demonstratio Evangelica, fol. 1679, and, with a preface defending it, 1690.] PREFAT. DISCOURSE, SECT. IV. 124 Adoption of what is good from heathens. not derive it from the Jews, or whether it is not a thing common to all religions, and good in itself, though more or less perverted and abused by the heathens; nay, I will add one thing more, it ought to be considered, whether it is unlawful for Christians, or Christian priests, to borrow a proper term or good custom from paganism, or to reform and turn that to the honour and service of the true God, which they abused in the worship of the false gods. Brissonius, in his Formulæ, hath shewed that the ancient and common phrase in the Christian worship, Kúpte èλéŋoov, 'Lord have mercy upon us,' was one of the formulæ of invocation in the solemn worship at heathen sacrifices; and I would ask this man, supposing that Christian priests anciently borrowed it from the heathens, whether it was a sin or shame in them, or a disgrace to Christianity, to transfer it from the idol worship of pagans, and consecrate it, as they did their idol temples, to the service of the true God. I say, supposing, but not granting, because the phrase is in several places of the gospel, and was, without doubt, taken by the Church from thence. I also beg leave to tell him of a laudable religious rite among the heathens, who accounted the table, at which they entertained their friends, lepov Xpĥμa1, “a very sacred thing," and as a sort of "altar for the gods of friendship and hospitality;" and for this reason 'it was counted a great crime among them to dishonour them, and the entertainments at them, by any dishonest or indecent behaviour, according to that of Juvenal; Hic verbis nullus pudor, aut reverentia mensæ*.' They were also wont to offer 'libations' upon them in gratitude to their gods, and, as we may be sure, never blasphemed them, or ridiculed their oracles, or their lying signs and wonders, or spoke against their priests as knaves, and priesthood as priestcraft, while they feasted at them; or entertained one another, and the whole company, with such f [Barnabæ Brissonii de Formulis et sollemnibus Pop. Rom. verbis, lib. i. p. 79. Francofurti. 1592.] [See Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, book viii. ch. 2. § 4.] h Dr. Potter's Archæol. Græc., vol. ii. book iv. ch. xx. [ἱερὸν χρῆμα, δι' ἧς ὁ Θεὸς τιμᾶται φίλιός τε καὶ ξένιος, Synesius, Ep. lvii., and "Cleodemus in Plutarch calls it, φιλίων θεῶν βωμὸν καὶ ξενίων.”] i Ibid. [D. J. Juvenal. Sat. ii. 110.] Call for ecclesiastical censures on the Deists. 125 profane discourse, as the author of the Rights and his companions did, at the entertainment of which I have given some account above, and as one of that sort of men more lately did at another table, where, though no priest, he presumed to say, that preaching, praying, and Sacraments were all 'stuff.' I wish all the priestcraft I am master of were sufficient to persuade the atheists and deists among us, so far to return to Christianity, as to imitate the heathens in this religious custom, when they sit down to table at their entertainments, in paying as much honour to the true God, as they did to the false; and to be afraid, as they were, to profane their tables with irreligious communication, especially with discourses of such a direful, and piacular nature, as, if the 'Gallionism' of these times suffers them to speak and write on with impunity, will be avenged by God on the community in heavy judgments, which any serious person may better imagine than I can describe. At least, let the ecclesiastical authority make enquiry after them, and when they have found them, censure them, and burn their books; for they are βέβηλοι, ἀνίεροι, ἀσεβεῖς, ἀνόσιοι, ἐναγεῖς, ἐξάγιστοι, 'profane, unholy, impious, ungodly, polluted, execrable' men, in the heathenish sense of the words, and therefore, for heathenish reasons, common with heathens to Jews and Christians, let them be excluded from Christian communion, and not suffered to come into our Churches and to our altars, or into our pulpits to profane them'. Let them be corrected at least with the apostolic rod, lest those in whose hands it is put, by longer forbearance, provoke our Lord, whose vicegerents they are in His kingdom, to require the neglect of their duty at their hands, and tempt the people in good earnest to think, as these His enemies would have all the world believe, that their pretended priestly power is indeed nothing but real priestcraft. Let them consider that all the satanical insults of these blasphemers, and all the affronts and reproaches they throw upon their order, terminate in Him who is the High-Priest of their profession; but He is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and if He is once roused, if once He is angry at them for their too long forbearance, then blessed are all they who 1 [See notes, k, p. 54, p, p. 72.] CHARGE OF PRIEST- |