Gh. ; 8 . óf the i_ fce Beleevers. 389 from iris father, But here the Apo file makesthe Gentiles branches, and a wilde Olive gra f fed in belider nature , and the ?ewes only nátu- rall branchesgrortngfrom the roar, verf. 2I, 24, He wakes them wilde only at their firft ingraffing and fo was all Terahs race wilde likewife till that change of Faith wrought in A6rahi: rr1 call, and the Covenant of God entred with him ; We now are natural as they were, and cannot be called wilde but in our firit Originali. Pofitively ( Malter Tombes laves) the root it no other then Abraham , and prefently tells us that he twice laid in his Ex- amen ; that Abraham only it a holy root, or at me Abraham,ifaac and Jacob. To leave him to deal with Mailer Mirfhall about his contradic`lion; I (hall look into the fireng,rh of his Argument, which if it have any face of an Argument, runnes thus. If Abra- ham be the roote, and not every beleeving Parent thew the ingraf- fing is by Elellion, and Faith that jrsf ifies. The truth is , the lequel is undeniable on the contrary; If e braharn be the root, then the ingraffing is not into the invifible Church, which he firangely calls by Ele&ion , but only into the vifible. This Mailer Black wood faw, and faine would have maintained that Chrift is the root ; for ingraffing into Chrift and not into Abraham, makes a Member of the Church invifible. This Mailer Tombes bath already heard from me pag. 30. of my Anfwer. if the ingraffing be by a Paving Faith only, to derive laving Graces perfonally in- herent, as a fruit of Election from Abraham , then it muff needs be that we are Elect} in Abraham. Abraham may fay, Without me ye can do nothing, and he that beleeveth in me, out of his belly fhall flow rivers of living water; and we may fay,The life that we live in the flefh, we live by Faith in the fon of l crab. This muff neceffarily follow, if Abraham be the root, no_ t only refpective to a conditional Covenant but to the graces under condition Covenanted; It had been more fafe for him withMailer Black- wood (though in contradiction to himfelf) to have made Chrift the root, when thefe confequences muff follow; To which he an fwers, Apol.77. 1 f I made Abraham a root as communicating Faith by inft ors, or impetration mediatory as Chrifp, this Would follow; But I make Abraham a root as he is called the father of all them that beleeve, Rom. 4. it. Not by begetting Faithin them , but II an exemplary caufe o f beleeving as 1 gather from the expreffon, verf. z 2. That P p he
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