258 The Birth - fri'vileage and Covenant - holine ffe Ch. 3 5 Taut, 73 arnabas were all naturally Jewes, borne of Jewifh Pa- rents and bred up in the way and Religion of the Jewes ; fuch only Chrift chofe for Apoftles , being himftlf a Miniller of the Circumcifion. `Peter therefore being one of the twelve muff ne- ceffarily be fuck, Paul was fuch,as we know from his own mouth a elw, and of the Tribe ofBenjamine. arnabaa was fuch, of the Tribe of Levi. And being fuch, they enjoyed a priviledge which the Gentiles wanted , they were by birth and off fpring of a Na- tion that is holy. No Nation was fo great as they,who had God fo nigh unto them who had ftatutes and judgements fo righte- ous. The Jew had every way prerogatives and advantages , but chiefly the Oracles of God. God had not dealt fo with every Nation; when other Nations were without God , they had God nigh unto them when others were unclean , they were holy. This great priviledge of Birth, Gentiles wanted, and fo were by off - fpring fanners ; as Birth renders ail , fo they remain unholy and unclean , among the unholy and unclean without any fuch title to the Covenant of God that thereby they might obtaine any other denomination ; they are dogs, while the people in Co- venant are children. And by this meanes the kerning oppofiti- on which is between this Text and that of the Apoftle, Ephef.2.3. is eafily reconciled. Here the Apoftle makes an oppofition in na- ture, between Jewes and Gentiles ; Jewes by nature had privi- ledge above Gentiles. There he makes Jewes and Gentiles in nature equal; We (faith he) were by nature children of wrath, as well 414 others as well as Heathens, that have no Birth- privi- ledge; Nature in that Text is not the fame as nature in this. Na- tare there is taken for the qualification of nature, which is equal- ly defiled in Jews and Gentiles , which is there evidenced in the converfation of the Jewes, being (before converfion by grace) the very fame with the Gentiles. eXmong whom a fo we all had our converfation in times paft in the lofts of our iefb , fulfilling the defrres of the ftfh . nd of the minde and were by nature children of wrath,e t en a- others. Nature here is taken for a Birth priviledge, and fo the Jewes (though in themfelves fanners) are reputed an holy people, .a people by Covenant holy to the Lord. Nature fimp4 confidered1,is ftained, and renders Jewes and Gen- tiles equally finners and obnoxious to Gods wrath ; of which Juftification by Faith is an acknowledgement, as the Apofile here thews,
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