fo plain of the common Notion of a God, of Divine Worship, yet he faith it in Confequence, by calling Priesthood in common Prieftcraft," and af ferting, that the Chriftian Priests borrow'd the Custom of excluding Men from the holy Communion, and of Excommunication from the Heathen Priests, particularly from the Druids, who by excluding from Sacrifice, whom they pleased got all Power into their hands. He might as well, had he pleased, have afferted, that they borrowed the Notion of a God, and the Custom of Divine Worfhip, and the Inftitution of Priesthood it felf, and the Doctrine of Chrift's Mediation, and of the other World from them, as the Hiftory of Religion moft blafphemously in plain Intimations affirms. Nay, had he pleased, he might have faid, they borrow'd it from the Mexican, or other American Pricfts, before the Spaniards conquer'd the Weft-Indies; or have afferted with his ufual affurance, that Mofes borrowed the Invention of the Ark of the Covenant from them; for we are affured by thofe, who have written Accounts of thofe barbarous People, that the Devil, the Ape of the great God, led them about with an Ark.

I have faid this much about this Synagogue of Libertines, the true Synagogue of Satan among us, to fhew thofe, who are not yet acquainted with their Doctrine, and Manners, what kind of Men they are, who have this infernal Spite at Pricft hood, which derives it self from God, and at the Dignity, Difcipline, and Authority of the Sacerdotal Order, which they are permitted to tell the World in broad English, is nothing but ufurpation, and by confequence, that not only the Chriftian and Jewish, but the Patriarchal Priesthood, hath

$ Chap. iii.

Leen

been all along pure Cheat; and that Melchifedeck himself, whom the Scripture calls Prieft of the most High God, Melchifedeck the Type of our Saviour, in his Sacerdotal and Regal Office, Melchifedeck to whom the Father of the Faithful pay'd Tithes, and from whom he receiv'd his Sacerdotal Bleffing, as the less from the greater, that this great High Prieft was no better than the reft, a mere Prieftcraft Villain, and Knave. I would to God our Temporal Governours, to whofe Confciences I now fpeak, would appoint a Committee to examine their Works, particularly, The Rights of the Chriftian Church, and if they find they write Truth and Reason, then to depofe the whole Order of Priesthood, as Tiberius did that of the Druids among the Celts For if it be but Prieftcraft, it is intolerable in Human Societies; or let them flay us, if they please, as Jebu did the Priests of Baal; or fet the People, whom we have deluded to fuch a degree, in one general Maffacre upon us. For if we continue the fame ufurped Spiritual Authority over them, by the fame knavifh Craft, whereby, thefe Men fay, it was at first obtain'd, we deferve no better ufage from their hands. But if quite otherwife they find their Books, particularly this of The Rights, to be full of Falfhood, Impudence, and Blafphemy, then let them animadvert upon them, and their Authors, but in the gentleft manner, they think they would be treated in any other Chriftian Nation of the World.

I am not infenfible, what I have written in the following Letters about the Chriftian Priesthood, and its Sacrifice, and of the powerful Interceffion of Priefts, efpecially in the holy Eucharift, may at firft fight, amufe, and startle not only many of the Laity, who have not been converfant in these Theories, but even fome of the Clergy, of whom

I may fay, I hope without offence, as Ger. Voffins did of Keckerman, that they are Viri ceteroquin Eraditis fed novellorum Scriptorum, quam Antiquitatis Studioflores. And therefore, though, I think, I have faid nothing on thefe Subjects, but what I have proved by the concurrent Teftimonies of the best ancient Chriftian Writers, yet the better to prepare fuch Readers for my Book, I beg leave to add Tomé more both ancient, and modern Authorities, which in a crowd of Thoughts, efcaped my notice, and which will farther fhew, that I have advanced nothing but what is Catholick Doctrine, being far from Affectation of Singularities, which are dangerous in Divinity, and generally ferve to no end, be they old or new, but to gratifie the common Enemies of Revealed Religion, who are apt to make very ill afe, and advantage of them.

I begin with Gregory Nazianzen, who in his XXXth Oration fpeaks of Mofes, as à Prieft, thus, He by the ferrer and myftical Figure, in which he put his hands, turn'd the Amalekites to flight for the hands of a Prieft held upon the Mountain in Prayer, did what many thousands of Men could not do. And then turning his Oration to Anthimus Tyanenfis, or fome other factious intruding Bishop, who made ufe of Military force, faith he, What canst thon Jay, Son of Dathan, and Abiram, and maddeft of Captains, who durft rife up against Mofes, who haft lift up thy hands against us, as they did against that great Servant of God? How, wast thou not afraid? waft thou not aShamed to do so? and didst thou not fink into the ground? -- How could'st thou after this lift up thofe Hands to God, and offer with them to him, and intercede for the People? And in his XVII Oration, fpeaking to the angry Governour of Nazianzum, who was offended at the People: Saith he, What,

De Hift. Græc. Lib. ii. Cap. xiii.

Sir, would you have my Father offer his hoary Hairs, and his great number of Tears, and his long unblemished Priesthood to you, to appease you; his unblemished Priefthood, which perhaps the holy Angels, the Servants of the most Holy God, reverence as much as their own Miniftry. Have I now faid enough to foften you? or fhall I fay fomething more boldly? For Grief makes me very bold. I now then offer you Christ, Christ who was humbled for us; the Paffion, and Crofs of Christ, who yet was impaffible, the Nailes by which I am abfolved from Sin, his Blood, his Burial, his Refurrection, and Afcenfion, and this Table, of which we now communicate, and the Symbols of my Salvation, which I confecrate with the fame Mouth with which I now make Interceffion to thee: I say, I now prefent unto thee this most holy Mystery, which exalts us unto Heaven. And in his third Oration, which is against Julian, with whom he had ftudied at Athens, faith he of him, He defiled his Baptifm with the impure and abominable Blood of initiatory Sacrifices, returning, as it is in the Proverb, like a Sow to wallowing in the mire; and polluted his hands in cleansing and purging of them of the unbloody Sacrifices, by which we communicate with Christ, and his Sufferings, and bis Godhead. And in his firft Oration giving a Reafon of his unwillingness to be made a Bishop before he had prepared himself, faith he, Knowing these things, and that no Man is worthy of the great God, Sacrifice, and High Priest, who hath not first prefented himself a living, and holy Sacrifice to God, or not given Testimony of his reasonable wellpleafing Service, or not facrificed to God the Sacrifice of Praife, a contrite Heart, how durst I presume to offer up unto him, that external Figure of the great Mysteries of the Body, and Blood of Chrift,] or how could I take upon me the Name, and Habit

f See Orat, XI. Pag. 187.

of

of a Bishop, before I had purified my hands with holy Works. This he faid, after he fhewed how unreasonable it was for any Man to afcend to the Epifcopat in hafte; Who would, faith he, make a defender of the Gospel, that is to stand before God with Angels, and glorifie him with Archangels, and whofe Office it is to tranfmit Sacrifices upward to the Altar above, and execute the Priests Office with Christ, who would make fuch an one, as they form a Statue of Clay, in a Day. And in the beginning of his Letter to Simplicia, he applies this part of the Character of a Bishop, of being Priests with Chrift, to Bafil the great Bishop of Cafarea in Capadocia: Saith he, In this you do well, that do well, that you have commanded that our holy and common Father, that Pillar of the Faith, that Rule of Truth, and that hoary Pattern of a Church full of Wisdom, who furpaffed the common measure of Human Life, and Virtue, that great High Priest, and Mediator between God and Man, who was the Manfion of the Holy Spirit. To which I may add two of his Verses in his XI Poem to the Bishops:

Ω Θυσίας πέμποντες ἀναιμάκιος ηρῆες

Ω θεὸν ἀνθρώποισι, μεγ ̓ ἔξοχον, εἰς ἓν ἄγοντες.

0 you Priests, who offer up unbloody Sacrifices, and, O the great Dignity! who reconcile Men to God.

Here we have the Priests, the unbloody Sacrifice, the Atonement, and Expiation they make by it in virtue of the bloody propitiatory Sacrifice which is commemorated by it, and the great Dignity, and Excellency of the facerdotal Office, which by prefenting this Sacrifice to God upon Earth in Union with the other, which Chrift prefents unto him in

* Καὶ Χριςῶ συνιεςώσαντα. So Συνεργέντες, 2 Cor. vi. 1. So it is ouscoyoi, Cor. iii. 9.