27a The Birth - Privi edge and Covenant- holineJe Ch.37 and your children is the promife made, but not fo in boel, nor in the quotation of the Apott1e. That Scripture bath onely an enume- ration of the feveral forts and conditions of people in any-Nation, on all which the Spirit is promifed, without any re.ference made o the parents of thofe fonnes and daughters,more then to t be ma- fiers of thofe fervants and handmaids; not the fonnes and daugh- ters of their feth, but the fonnes and daughters of the Nation. A Language ufual in our ordinary expreffions fpeaking of men of a'' ny fort or condition, as your Lawyers,your Merchants, &c. fo here, your fonnes, your daughters, your old men, your young men, &c. But Mafter Tombes-hath taken molt paines in obfcuring the Text. He faith,Thar an Anfwer may be fitted to this Argument,it U. to be ob- /ervedthat the promife made,is the fending of yeluuChrifl,and bleffing by him,ae is expounded, A&ts 3,25,26.Ads i3.32.Rom.i S. 39, I an- fwer, it is true, that Jefus Chrift is the molt eminent mercy pro - mifed, and may be called the promife virtualiter,being the ground of all promifes, and therefore force interpreters have mentioned the gift of Chrift an this occafion. But it is plaine that Gods Co. venant, and this gift are to be diftinguifhed ; Ch rift is promifed in priority to theJew, before the Gentile; The Jew then is taken into Covenant before this gift of Chrift can be of them expeeìed. It is therfore the Covenant it felf(entered with parent and childe, root and branch) that is here meant (as Calvin in the words be- fore obferves) from which the giving of Chrift in the flefh follows. And therefore Diodati fully pitches upon the true fenfe of it, See- ing as you are Abrahams children, you are within the Covenant, you ought to acknowledge Chrifl to be the head and fountain of the Cove- nant, The Covenant I will be thy God, and the God of thy feed is here meant, which from Abraham bad been the ?ewes priviledge, Rom. g. Mailer Tombes farther faies, that the limitation, as many a the Lord our God 'hall call, Jhewes that the promife belongs to them not _imply as lewes,but as called of God, which is more expre ffely affirmed, At 3. 26. To you firfl God having railed up his fonne 7efue, fent him to bleffe you in turning away every one of' you from his iniqui- ties- I wonder how it came into Matter Tombes his head to call this amplification, a limitation, it plainly enough fpeaks his bold neffe in dealing with the Scriptures; Had the Apoflle Paid, Ta you is the promife made, and to your feed, in cafe God (hall give you
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