------------·---- ---- Of Eleelion. Children of the Covenant, yet he expounds thefe words fpoken io Agrabar,; """-A..r'. [bJ thySudjl;atltheRlmilies oftbe Eartb be ble!fid] thus: In tby Sad, Chap. '· nomdy Chnfl, (as ver{e 26. he mterprets 1t) All the FmherhoodJ or Kinreds ..__,.....v--..J of" the Eartb /halt be 6/rf!ed: The word in the original is .1 """''''", Fatbtr· hoodJ of the E.!Ytb. So he !lileth Families becaufc of the Fathers Covenant through which Chnfl, the Seed of Abraham, conveys his bleiiing. And rh; Pfalmift, PI•'· n. 27. fpeakingof the Calling of the Gentiles by Chrifl, as the fruit of his death , when he fays, All the mds of the Eflrth /hall t 11 r 11 un– tohim;-flnd<JiltheKinreds, f!Jc. The Sepruagim alfo rendtrs it, as Peier here, .,._.,,;, R1therhoods, and becaufe it lhall be derived fometimos by fucceffion of birth, as a means of conveying the blcffing, therefore in the follo'w· ing jO· ver(. he faith'· a Seed jh.1/J Jerve him: that 1s, the Po!leriry of thofe Godly , who (as v~rj. Iall )jha/Jbe born of them, Further, we fee that in the calling of the Jews to come, God refpefrs their Fathers and their Covenant though 1t be under the Gofpel : fo Rom. , r. Yea ~od the Apollle quoteth for it, that place of the Prophet, lfai. )9· 20. The Re– dtttntr /ball comt to Zio11, Now if we look into the words of the Prophet, prophefying of their call, how doth the proinife of the new Covenant made ro them in tbat their call tocome,run?More infallibly upon their feed than that former to Abrahams did. Thi< is my covwant, my[firit fha/1 not dfpart orlt of the mouth of thy s ,ed, and of thy Seeds Seed, from bmaforth rmd for fVer, There will be in the new Jerufalem a continued fucceffion of fanfrified ones: a Seeds Seed for ever: And not ?nly of Men converted, when of ripe years, but when lnfaim. Therefore m 'Dtttt 30. (where God gives the Co· venant of the Gofpel, as appears by Rom. 10. and that in oppofition to the lnw given before: and expreifeth it by way of Prophecying what lhould fall out after their difpufion, as ver{e 1.) he fays, I wi/J circumcife thy hfart, <J!ld t!Jf heart of thy .feed, verjf. 6._ You ~now whirher the phrafe Circttmcife lcads,namcly to the tign and feal of1t: whtch under the New Te!\ament isBap· tifm anfwering unto it; Their Cbildrens hearts he will ci~cumcifc , which is the fruit of Baptifin, as Go/of, 2. 12. And further, That our Covenant as Abrahamr feed lhould rWJ thus wiib us and our Families, was moll: correfpondent to that firfi example of the Cove– nant then given toAbraham: for then the Church was only in a Family! and fo the firfi giving of this Covenant and the.Seal to confirm it, was eflablifhed with a Family, through A6raham the Father of it. And this was (as all knew) the Primitive rmd naturalChurch way, under the Law of Nature afore Mo· fes; unto which therefore for ever God hath fuited this Family Covenmzt, and in Ab>·<Jham ratified and lanCtified it to the end of the World, he beirig confii· tuted the Father of all the faithful, both Jewr and Gemiles: And accordingly he and his Family were made the Proto-type of this Covenant : God then blef– fing all Families of Believers, and the Fathers thereof , in bleffing that of his through him the Father of it: Even as God bleifed all mankind in Adrsm and Eve (Gene f. I.) for encreafe and multiplying, as being the Root, and firfi Sampler. And the reafon why God chofe this of a family to convey the Covenant by, was, that this fociety was the only natural Socifty of all others, and there– fore God did always choofe it throughout all States ofti1C Church; T hus when the Church was national among the Jews, then was this way in force. I and my boufr will fcrvt the Lord, faid Jojuah, So 'D,wid, Pfal. IOI. And when under the New, the in!litution was to confill: of many Believers meeting in or.e place for publique worfhip, yet this !\ill remains a Church in the houfe alfo. God herein engrafting ( as he ufes to do) grace on nature, in our Spi– rits, when he converts us, fo his Covenant of Grace upon this Covenant of Nature to run in the Channel of it, And let me add rhis further obfcrvarion, that in A6rah,,ms Family hisSer– vants that were G'ntiles, if they had Children, thofe Children were circum· cifed as fore-running pledges and Types that both we and our Children, who arc Gentiles anrl f\rangers, were engrafted into this covenant, it held forth this our priviledge to come, that io Abrabam the Georilesfced (as well as A~ brtthams own) lhould be bleifed in him, CH AP;
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