of CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Church

THESE are both Greek words. properly fignifies the Houfe or Temple where Chriftians meet to celebrate or perform their public worship, and is evidently formed from the word Kugianòv The House of the Lord; to which Original indeed the Word in our Northern Dialect (KYRK) comes nearer: and by a common figure in speech the People affembled here are called the Church; just as the great Perfons affembled in the King's Court are called, The Court. Catholic is a Greek word which fignifies Univerfal. So that when these two words Catholic Church are put together, they naturally fignify the Great and Universal Body of Christians in every Age and Nation, of which our Lord Jefus Chrift is the Common Head, and they are all the feveral Members. But both these words, by the cunning management of defigning

men,

men, have been strangely perverted, and made to ftand for the direct contrary to what they firft fignified. The word Church, is often expreffed by another Greek word Εκκλησία Ecclefia which cannot fignify any thing but the Affembly or the Congregation yet it has, for many ages, been fet down to fignify thofe particular Chriftians who have been appointed by the reft to officiate in Divine Things, to pronounce the Prayers of the Congregation, and to read and explain the word of God to them. And thefe Ecclefiaftics have affumed to themselves the diftinguishing appellation of the Clergy from another Greek word which fignifies Lot or Inheritance, as if they were the peculiar Lot or Inheritance of God and from being at firft the Minifters or Servants of the People, and from receiving voluntary Salaries and Stipends to fupport them in doing their Duties have raised themselves, by infenfible degrees, to fuch height of authority and power, under the name of

the

;

the CHURCH, as to determine judicially for the rest of the Congregation, what they are to believe and to do in religious affairs and claim these wages of the People, as their own by Divine Right. But as there is not the least trace of their Name, their Authority, or their Stipends in the Holy Scripture, we muft look for their origin in the Councils and Decrees of after ages, when the power of the Clergy was faid to be above all other powers, and they claimed to be the Lords and Difpofers of both worlds, the present and the future. Nay one prefumptuous Clergyman, the Pope of Rome, claims and exercises a very high, even a divine authority over the reft of his fort, as the very Vicar and Reprefentative of Jefus Chrift himself to which they most humbly submit. And He and his Party audaciously uffume to themselves, exclufive of all others, the Name of the Catholic Church. But, by a ftrange abfurdity and contradiction, they call this

the

the Roman Catholic Church; as if any particular Member could be the Univerfal or the Whole Body of the Chrif tian Church. St. Paul certainly forefaw this affuming and excluding Spirit which would arise amongst Christians, and therefore he hath done all he could to prevent or cure it in the XIIth Chap. to the Romans, and in the XIIth Chap. ift Ep. to the Corinthians, and then in the XIIIth Chap. he fhews the most excellent way to unite and knit together the feveral Members of Chrift's Body the Church (viz.) by Charity or Univerfal Benevolence. And this Charity, Love, or Univerfal Benevolence, our Saviour himself fixes as the very diftinguishing Characteristic of the true Members of his Church. By This shall all men know that ye are my Difciples, if ye love one another. How abfurd fhould we think it if the People of any one County in Great Britain fhould take it in their heads that they only were true Britons, and on that

account

account fhould affert that None but themfelves are intituled to the Benefits and Privileges of Britons. Surely all the other Inhabitants of this happy Island would look upon this as the highest arrogance; and would justly fay, that for that reason, they least of all deserved what they thus ridiculously laid claim to. This is the very part the Romanists act in calling themselves Catholics - And therefore we may fairly conclude that the more any man is a Roman, the lefs he is a Catholic, and that the true Catholic is he who hath an extensive Love and Charity for all Christians, yea for all Mankind.

Of SUBSCRIPTION.

THIS is a Latin Word which fignifies Writing a Perfon's name under an Inftrument as a fign of Authenticating or Approving of it. The fenfe I would

confider it in, relates particularly to Sub