Of E!eflion. 395 Then S• Ottr tllgraft\ng in, and the Jew• their ctati11g off, are-made an-~ fwerable one to the othe': 'l.nd the goodnefs fuewn to the Gentile Churches mufi Chap. 2 , . be fmtable to the fevertty fhewn agamll the Jewdh. Now then if God's fe· ~ verity to them (for their unbelief) lay in this chiefly to cut tl;em off from continuing a Church in their ~ofierity i then God's 'goodnefs in our cng;afting 10, muft accordmgly he 10 thts, to denve the Covenant down to our Children and Poflerity; or elfe the Apoftle had not fpoke adidem, which verje 1 7· he J>rofeffeth to do: Yea, if it be but granted, that our cutting off, threatn .d v erfe 2 2. fuould be (if executed) fuch a cutting off as was theirs, (as it i• plain it is ; for he fays Thott alfo}halt be CHt off) then it mufl neceffarily include the cutting off our Children : And then if the threatning be to cut off our Children, as he had done theirs, then our Children mufl be (uppofed to be by God's Promife engrafted in; for none are capable of being cut off, but fetch as are engrafted in. And 4· The Metaphor he expreffeth this Priviledge to the Gentile Churches by, implies it to be by Propagation,_ and fo of their Children chiefly, as Mem– bers to continue it. This Church Priviledge is compared to an Olive Tra, fpreadingintobranches, ver[t '7· only with this difference from that of the Jews, (which difference is found in the growing up of other Trees) that feme ·.rrces grow up of branches but mgraftedupon a root, ( fuch are the Gentile Churches) others con(ift of branches naturally growing out of a root: ( fuci1 were the Jews) but when they that are engrafted on the !lock or root do once take, they then partal<e of the fame natural priviledge, to fpread into new branches, branch after branch, in the fame natural way, that the branches of thofe Trees do, which grow naturally out of their root. So os, though in– deed the firfi engrafting or implanting of a wild Olive branch (as he calls the Gentiles, verfe 24.) be not by natural fucceflion; yet after it is emplanted, it is continued (as a Tree) by as natural fpreading, as was at lirfi in the natu– ral Tree, the branches whereof are cut off. For otherwife, if the priviledge of the Gentiles Church to continue, were but only by the addition of wild branches ( fuch as at the firfl, the new converted Gentiles themfelves were) newly converted to the Faith; and fo not by their Children chiefly in a natural fucceflion; then the continuance of all Gentile Churches in the next fucceffion were frill by a new engrafting only fuch as at firft, whereas when once grafted in, the Apofile makes it to be continued in a natural way,from the root, which Ab>·aham is become to be to us as well as to them, to fuew that if Believers continue in Faith, that God will continue his name on their Children, who are (according to the P{almij/J comparifon alfo) the Olive branches abot~t thn r Table. Neither )·Had the Arguments or Motives which he ufeth to the RommJS, to !land in the Faith, and thereby to continue a Church,had thot force in them, to prevail with them, if not meant of their Children fucceeding them, but on· Jyof other Gentiles vage, and at large that lbould rife up as Converts of the fame Nation. Or how would tlli• threatning of cutting them off have fo much concerned them, or have been fo pungent to move them, as if fuppofcd to be meant of their own Children fo dear to them? This mu!\ needs have a far fironger efficacy in it, to engoge them to fiand, feeing their Childrens hopes depended fo much upon their Fathers faith ; which furely is his meaning , be– caufe he fuarpens this admonition with the example of the cutting offthe Jews and their Children. . Yea, 6. How would this have provoked the Jews to emulation, (as verfe '4• he fays he intended to do) if the fame favour had not been vouch fafed ro the Gentiles now, that had been formerly unto the Jews tn thti re(pect? for e– mulation is always about the fame l<ind of excellency, which we properly af– fect, or once had, and are now Competitours for. And whereas the Objection may be, That the Jews only are called 1hc 1t:Jiu– ,·al brt~tJcbes, vnje 24. as if that way were only proper to them. The i\n· fwer is, Thatthat Title is given them in refped tha tthey were the firft Pn– mitive brooches; and rhatAbrt~ham, the fir(\ root out of which they had their fpintual Covena t derived, was alfo their natural Father, which to us, he was Ee e "' nor ;
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