The Gofpel ofthe Legal Priefhood, 493 the Minifters and Officers of the Church. And in that famous Pro- phefy of the Converfion of the Gentiles, Ifa. 66. i9,2o,2,1 . as the con- verted Gentiles are there called a Meat-Offering to the Lord : So Gof- pel-Minifters are called Priefts and Levites, Verf. 21. See the Geneva Notes e. f. g. h. on the Place. .Queft. Here then it may be demanded, whether GofpelMiners may be caked Priefts? Aním. In the Popifh Senfe they may not ; for the Papifts call them Priefts, becaufe, they fay, they offer a propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mafs for quick and dead. But there is no fuch Sacrifice under the Gof- pel, but that one only Sacrifice which Jefus Chriul offered when he offered up himfelf once for all. Therefore their calling Minifters Priefhs on fuch an Account is erroneous and abominable. And,hence it is, that the Word Pririb is juftly become a Word of Contempt andRe- proach, as the Word Baal, which at firft was and might be ufed for the true God ; but becoming in common and ordinary Speech the Name of Idols, the Lord refufeth that Title, Hof 2. 16. thou (halt no more call me Baali, . my Lord, but thou'halt call me Ifhi. Or as the Word Bi- jhop, which is a Scripture Word, and fignifieth an Overfeer, any El- der of a Church ; but having been fo long abufed to fignify an Anti. chriftian Order of Men, and Spiritual Ufurpers in the Church of God, it is now juftly become a Word of Contempt and Reproach ; and therefore it is not fit to call a Gofpel- Minifter a Bifhop. - Of the fame Nature is the Word Catholick, which in its proper Signification, and its firft life, might be innocent and inoffenfive : But beingbecome the Name of Diftinftion, whereby the Papifts do diftinguifh themfelves from other Chriftians that are more reformed then they; therefore we do not call our felves Catbolicks, as they do. Some alledge, that the Word Pries7- comes from the Saxon Priefier, and that from theGreek Presbyter, and fo lignifies no more but an El- der. But the Signification of Words is not ruled by the Notation or Etymology of them : And therefore fuppofe this Word Prieft had fome good Senfe at firft ; yet, being in common Speech ufed to fignify one that offers Sacrifice it is therefore not fit to be ufed concerning Gof: pel-Minifters, wiled with force Limitation and Explication, as if we call them Antitypical Priers, or the like.. The Analogy lies chiefly is this; That as the Prieftsof old did mini- fier to the Lord in his Houle under the Law, fo do Gofpel-Officers under the New Teftament in his Church. 3. The Priefts were Types ofall Believers, Rev. I. 6. and be bath made .xs Kings and Pries`is to God and his Father : So likewife : Pet. 2.9. where he
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