APPENDIX.

ABSENCE OF A PRIESTHOOD.

ONE of the most remarkable and least noticed of the peculiarities of the Christian Religion has been omitted in the preceding Essays, as having been treated of in a Discourse delivered at Oxford on the 5th of November, 1821, which, with four others, I subjoined to the second edition of the Bampton Lectures. A brief notice, however, of the subject and outline of the argument, connected as it is with the object of this volume, may be not unsuitably subjoined to it.

a

The peculiarity alluded to is, that the Christian Religion alone is without a Priest. The ambiguity of language, and also the erroneous practice of some Christian Churches, render it necessary to offer proofs of an assertion, which when distinctly understood, and applied to the religion as taught in Scripture, is at once evident.

It is well known that certain ministers of religion were ordained by Christ and his Apostles, and have continued in an unbroken succession down to the present day: and it is not to be wondered at, that the name " Priest" should be applied in common to these and to the ministers of every other religion, true or false: but the point to be observed is, that their office is essentially and fundamentally different. When the title is applied, for instance, to

a See also Sermon IV. on the Consecration of a Church.

a Jewish priest, and to a Christian, it is applied equivocally; not to denote two different kinds of priests, but in two different senses; the essential circumstances which constitute the priestly office in the one, being wanting in the other. Accordingly there are in Greek, as is well known, two words, totally unconnected in etymology, which are used to denote the two offices respectively; the Jewish priest, and also that of the Pagan religions, being invariably called HIEREUS; the Christian priest, EPISCOPOS, or oftener PRESBYTEROS, from which last our English word " Priest" is manifestly formed. It is remarkable, however, that it is never rendered "Priest" in our version of the Bible, but always according to its etymology, "Elder;" and that wherever the word Priest occurs, it is always used to correspond to Hiereus. This last title is applied frequently, to Jesus Christ Himself, but never to any other character under the Gospel-dispensation.

This circumstance alone would render it highly probable, that Christ and his Apostles did not intend to institute in the Christian Church any office corresponding to that of Priest in the Jewish: otherwise, they would doubtless have designated it by a name so familiarly known. And if we look to the doctrines of their religion, we shall plainly see that they could have had no such intention. For it was manifestly the essence of the Priest's office (both in the true religion of Moses, and in the Pagan imitations of the truth) to offer Sacrifice and Atonement for the People-to address the Deity on their behalf, as a Mediator and

Intercessor and to make a Propitiation for them. All these are described as belonging to Christ, and to Him alone, under the Gospel-dispensation; which consequently (alone of all religions we are acquainted with) has, on earth, no Priest at all.b

The office of the Christian Ministers, the Elders or Presbyters, whom the Apostles by their divine commission ordained, is the administration of such rites (the Christian sacraments) as are essentially different from sacrifice; and, the instruction of the people; an office not especially allotted to the Jewish priests, but rather to the whole of the Levites; and so little appropriated even to them, that persons of any other tribe were allowed to teach publicly in the synagogues.

It deserves then to be kept in mind,

I. That Priest, in the two senses just noticed, does not merely denote two different things, but is, strictly speaking, equivocal. The word "house," for instance, is not equivocal when applied to the houses of the ancients, and to our own, though the two are considerably different; because both are the same in that which the word "house" denotes, viz. in being "a building for man's habitation:" on the other hand, the word "publican" in its ordinary sense, and in that in which it

b Nearly the same reasonings are applicable to the absence, under the Christian dispensation, of a literal TEMPLE, as well as of a Priest. For an able development of these views, see Hinds's "Three Temples of the One God."

c As, for instance, Jesus himself, who was of the tribe of Judah, and Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin.

occurs in our version of the New Testament, is equivocal, though in each case it denotes a man in a certain profession in life; because the professions indicated in each case respectively, by that term, are essentially different. And the same is the case with the word Priest, in the two senses now under consideration.

II. That though there is in the Greek, Romish, and some other Churches, a pretended Sacrifice, offered by a pretended Priest, (in the other sense,) this creates no just objection to what has been said; since their practice in this point is a manifest corruption of Christianity, totally unsupported by any warrant of Scripture, and manifestly at variance with the whole spirit of the Gospel; and what we are speaking of is the religion as originally instituted, not, as subsequently depraved.

III. That the peculiarity in question, as well as every other of any consequence, affords a strong presumption of the truth of the religion; and this, independent of any question as to the excellence of the peculiarity. For either an impostor or an enthusiast would have been almost sure, on such a point, to fall in with the prevailing notions and expectations of men; as experience shows, in the case of such a multitude of different systems of religion which confessedly have emanated from the sources alluded to. If our religion had been devised by Man, it would, in all probability, have been, in this point, (as well as in many others) different from what it is. And what could not have come from Man, must have come from God. It cannot be deemed therefore an insignificant circumstance that the

Christian religion should differ from all others, in a point in which, amidst their infinite varieties, they all

agree.

IV. That the charge of Priestcraft, so often brought indiscriminately against all religions, by those whose hostility is in fact directed against Christianity, falls entirely to the ground, when applied, not to the corruptions of some Churches, (which certainly do lie open to the imputation,) but to the religion of the Gospel, as founded on the writings of its promulgators. It is a religion which has no Priest on earth,-no mortal Intercessor to stand between God and his worshippers; but which teaches its votaries to apply, for themselves, to their great and divine High Priest, and to "come boldly to the throne of grace, that they may find help in time of need." Nor are the Christian Ministers appointed, as the infidel would insinuate, for the purpose of keeping the people in darkness, but expressly for the purpose of instructing them in their religion.

V. Lastly, that Christians should be warned, if they would conform to the design of the Author of their Faith, not to think of substituting the religion of the Minister for their own; his office being, according to Christ's institution, not to serve God instead of them, but to teach and lead them to serve Him themselves.

THE END.

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET HILL.