Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

Of Elef1i01t ~ the Heathen, lfai. p. 1. are likewife called UIICircumciftdand u11cltan, Now BooK V. then in this place under this common language of the ]ews concernir.g thtir ~ Children, and thofe of others, he exprdleth the like d1ffcrent flate of Belirvers Cluldrtll and others now under the Gofpel; and fo thtn the meaning is this, Th•t whereas Unbelievers Children, are in the account of the Gof;>el, and of God himfelf under the Gofpel, pronounced unclean, (that is, as re– maining in the flate in which they were born, namely, of}ill and 1111cleamu{s (fo Orig.nal fin is called Zacb, I3· 1.) and fo was typified out by the unclean: nefs of bifanls for feven days) and therefore are to be kept out of the Church, (as mtclran perfons were then among the Jews) and to be made partakers of no Sacramental Ordmances (as unc1rcumc1fed perfons were not, Ijai, )2. I,) and fo not to be 6apti:ud, as being to be judged and pronounced unclean: On the contrary (fays he) l'our Childr~n (although born in fin, a~ others) are yet, by God s true fentence of them mh1s Word and revealed W 11! proclaimed hot,.· and fo are to be judged of by us, as truly regenerate and born again: And ho~ to reconcile this with God's fecret Will, and the Event, I lball after lhew in a whole fubfequent Chapter in this Difcourfe. And thefe terms he ufeth of holyand uncletllt, not as if that our Children were now typically, or only outwardly to be efleemed hot,. The reality is now expre[ed (as in the New Teflament it ufeth to be) by the Name of the Type thereof in the Old: For that general Holinefs of the Jews and their Seed, in adiflintlion from Heathen and their Children, was then aType ofthat real holint{s , which true Believers Children now have under the Golpel; and thcretore he cxprdfeth this here, by rhe.fame phrafes ufed there, And the reafon hereof, namely, that he •mends an Evangelical, and not an outward Legal holinefs,fuch as was under the Old in the Type is evident: For if1t were Legal holinefs, it mufl be either Ceremo~tial or that Moral holinefs which was in Adam, which was a vacuity of Original fin. Now it is neither of thefe; it is not Crrtmonilll, though he ufetl1the terms of it, for the Ceremonies being abolifued, concerned them not, And t::Moral holinrfs, in oppofition to having Onginal fin in them, he cannot mean: For the Children of the Godly are con– ceived in fin, as well as others, though afterwards fantlified in the womb; (which was typified out by the uncleannefs of all Children among the Jews for feven days.) Homeans theretore Evangtlical Hnli~efs ; that though they be born in fin , as others are, yet they are n part fandlfied , or regenerate and made holy in flare, and to are not in a fiatc of fin, bur of Evangehcol holinefs in God's light. I will not fay that that Particle [Now) thty tJrt holy, the [•.,;; ~] to have relation to the times of the Gofpel , becaufe it may have ano– ther fcnfe, yet I do not exclude that, · Thus you have feen the folution of the Cafe. In the third place, by his de· termining the cafe thus, in the terms of the Old Law;yournay eafily fee what the Scruple was (which he had in his eye ) which troubled thefe Corinthians, together with the true bortom· ground of their fcruple or doubt, to the remo' vatof which, he intended this lolution, as purpofing to fpeak diretlly unto it. For the trUih is, thlt thefe two Cafes, both about putting away unbelieving Wiv~s and Husbands, as alfo concerning the Children of Parents, whereofone was an Unbeliever, were fuch, and fo in view !lated, as the Letter of the Old Teflament would feem to warrant, yea command the leaving or putting away the unbeLeving Party, and alfo the pronouncing their Children fo begotten , unckan, although one Party were a Believer: For thus, indeed it was among the Jews; for when in, and after the Captivity they had married flrange Hea· then Wives, and begotten Children on them, you fuall find Ezra ro. ~· that after a folemn Fafl they olid covenant toput away aU thr WJvrs, a11d tht Chi/. drtil 6rgottt/J of them. The like you have alfo, Nehtm. 9· And fo the place in Malac. 2. where the Prophet fays, that God fought a hoiJ fad; it is fpo· ken upon this very occafion of marrying firange Wives, verjt 1 I. and fo it was that they profaned the holinefs of that People by that mixture, as verfe ''' both defiling themfelvcs thereby, and their Seed alfo. And it is no wonder to imagine that by occafion of, and from thofe initances in the Old Teflament,, lt

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