K Perverter of the Sacred Text he adduces, for the Validity of fuch Unauthoriz'd Baptifms. Obj. XV. His Second Imaginary Argument to this purpose, is taken from 1 St. Pet. ii. 5, 9. Te alfo- are built up a Spiri "tual Houfe, an Holy Priesthood, to offer up quently may Baptize. That this is no Novelty he brings Tertullian's Authority to prove; "Nonne & Laici Sacerdotes fumus? "Scriptum eft enim, Regnum quoque nos & Sa"credotes Deo & Patri fuo fecit. Differentiam "inter Ordinem Plebem conftituit Ecclefia, & "Honor per Ordinis conceffum Sanctificatus: "adeo ubi Ecclefiaftici Ordinis non eft Conceffus, "Offers & Tinguis, & Sacerdos es tibi folus. And prefently after, " Igitur fi habes jus Sacer"dotis in temetipfo, ubi neceffe eft, habeas oportet etiam Difciplinam Sacerdotis, ubi neceffe fit habere jus Sacerdotis. Exhor. Caftit. The "leaft that thefe Words imply, is certainly, "that in Tertullian's Judgment, the Laity "have a Right to the Priesthood, and where "'tis a Cafe of Neceffity may exercife that Right. "And hence 'tis evident, that only Order 02 "and "and Regularity makes fome Act, and re"strains others from acting in that Capacity. To which add, what he calls his Third 66 In Argument, that in Gal. iii. 28. 'tis faid, "Chrift Jefus there is neither few nor Greek, "neither Servant nor Free, neither Male nor "Female, for ye are all one in Chrift Jefus. "Therefore 'tis not abfotutely neceffary in it "Self that Baptifm fhould be perform'd by "an Episcopal Hand, because in Chrift there "is no diftinction of Perfons. Anfm. This Gentleman fhould have taken into his Account the Promise of God to the Fews, "Ye shall be unto me a Kingdom OF "PRIESTS, and an Holy Nation, Exod. xix. 6. Upon a right confideration of which, he would have preferv'd himself from the mif chief, of fo unfafe an Interpretation of the Parallel Texts of the New Teftament, and his Readers too, from the Infection which some of them may draw in, from his Publication of it. That Text in Exodus never exalted the Common-People of the Jews, to be Proper Literal Priests, nor gave them any Right to the Pofitive Inftituted Functions of the Priefthood; fo far from that, that those among them, who thought they might perform those Prieftly Functions, upon their Attempt to do fo, found to their Sorrow, that they were not fuch Priests: (King Saul is a standing Proof of this.) And the Judgments inflicted on them are recorded in the Sacred Oracles, to warn warn us all to avoid fuch Falfe and Prefumptuous Notions, and the Dangerous Practices confequent thereupon. As The Common Jews then were only Priests in a Figurative Senfe of the Word, i. e, God Selected and Confecrated his Proper Priefts, and took them from among Men, publickly to offer fuch Gifts and Sacrifices to him as he had appointed them: So, he took and feparated to himself from among other Nations, the People of the Jews, that they might acceptably offer to him fuch Services, particularly Publick Ones, as he fhould appoint them alfo. Even God's Proper Priests were limited by him, what Publick Services they fhould perform to him, infomuch, as that none of them could Validly Minister in the peculiar Office of the High Priest who was their Head, and they were all dependant on I him, So the Common Jews, the Figurative Priests were limited in their Publick Services; they were none of them to Minifter, except jure Prophetico in the Peculiar Offices of the Proper Priefts, who were also their Heads and Governors, in the Publick Divine Services, It was a great Privilege for the Common Jews to be admitted by God, to offer him the Publick Services, or Figurative Sacrifices of Prayers and Praises, together with those of themfelves, Souls and Bodies, to his reasonable Service; and to be accepted by him when they did this as he had appointed them, in fubor. 0 D 03 fubordination to, and dependance on his Pofitive Instituted Priefts; and this was their Figurative Priesthood. They are called Priests, only in this remote improper Sense of the Word viz. because, they were separate from other Nations, and fuch their Services were accepted of by God, as the Proper Priests were taken from among Men, and their Pofitivé Inftituted Offerings and Services were acceptable to him, upon the account of his thus Separating and Confecrating of them. This Separation, and Confecration of his Instituted Proper Priests by God himself, was not (as the Objector would have it) only for Order and Regularity, but also that they might be Shadows and Types of Chrift, the Great High Priest which was to come, in whom alone we can be accepted. They, and the Bloody Offerings and Sacrifices made by them for the People, were appointed to refemble HIM, and the Sacrifice he was to make for the Sins of the whole World, as St. Paul in his Epiftle to the Hebrews has abundantly prov'd. And this had infinitely more in it than bare Order and Regularity, 'twas an Inftituted Method, of interceding with God by the Mediation of Jefus Chrift, in behalf of fallen Man; 'twas an appointed way of executing Christ's Mediatorial Office, by vifible Reprefentatives of him, and Types of his Miniftrations, to reconcile us to God, and God to us. 'Tis the fame now in our Chriftian Difpenfation: The Apoftles and their Succeffors are appointed not only for Order and Regularity, but also, and more especially, to Reprefent our Saviour, to be His Vicegerents and AMBASSADORS, to bear his Character and Authority; for fays He, As my Father bath fent me, even fo Jend I you. Lo I AM with you! He that Hears you, Hears ME. This continues visible to us, His Mediatorial Office, and makes their Inftituted Minifterial Acts to be His, and for that Reason acceptable to God for our Spiritual Benefit and Advantage. Hence we difcover, that Tertullian's Notion concerning the Priefthood of Private Chriftians was a Montaniftical Error; for their Priesthood spoken of in the feveral Texts objected, amounts to no more than that Figurative Priesthood which belong'd to the Common Jews, as God's Segullah or peculiar People, for the Reasons I have given before concerning them. To which add, that the Text in St. Peter confirms this, by naming the Sacrifices they are to offer, for he fays their Priesthood is "to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices, i. e. those of Prayers and Praises, &c. As for the other Pofitive Sacrifices, appointed by Chrift to be made by his Instituted proper Priefts, viz. the Dedication of Perfons to God by Baptifm;, the offering of the Commemorative Sacrifice of Chrift's Body and Blood in the Eucharift; and prefiding in all other Publick Divine Service to 0 4 mediate |