3 I The Birth- Priviledge and Covenant-holineffè Ch. 38 fhould imagine it,) but the execution of the decree of Reprobation in excluding them from the invifible Church. To this I firft make demand ; Is there any filch decree as to call: out of the Church invifible ? I am lure that Chapter bath no fuch thing. Divines ufe to expreffe that God decrees to per - mit man to go on in his wages, not to hinder him in unbelief, or. fin , and to proceed in juftice againft fin ; but fuch a decree as this , I finde not in Scripture,, or read in any approved Au- thour. Secondly, I demand ; Did they continue in the Church vi- fible , when upon execution of fuch a decree they were cast out of the Church invifible ? or was .their station in the vifible Church loft and that of the invifibleChurch never gained , and therefore they were not broken off from it? Thirdly, I fay, _God then changed the way of Administration of Church - Ordinances, vouchfafed his prefence no longer in, nor blefl[ing upon Circumci(on, Sacrifice, and other legal Rires, refufed (after that time of Reformation by himfelf appointed) to be ferved and worshipped in types and shadowes : Appointed a Gofpel-way , in which he would be ferved in Spirit and Truth ; let up Baptifme in the place of Circumcifion, as a Standard to which all muff refort that would be of his vifible Church. Now the Jewes did flick fait to the letter of the former Ordinances, charging Steven with blafphemy , in that he laid fhould change the Rites that Mofes gave them Ads 6. 14. and put him to death upon it ; notwithftanding his full proof (in that elegant Oration, .9Ets7) that the Scriptures of Mofes and the Prophets bare witneffe to it. This obftinacy of theirs gave occafion to that Epifile to the Hebrews, if it might be to undeceive and lay open the jufl period put to that worfhip in carnal] Ordinances. The way let up of God they refufed , contrada á and bla/phe- ming, Aas 13.45. RejeEFing the cornea of cod againff them /elves, not being baptized Luke 7. 3 and fo they remaine, embracing carbonem pro thefauro ( if I may ufe the Proverb) a Cloud for Its - no, the bare shadow without the fubítance, doting upon Rudi- n rnents and Elements which the Apoffle calls beggery, and fo their eyes are held "that they fee nothing into glorious Gofpel- myfte- ries ; And this their unbelief is their breaking off from that vi- Í fible Church - ftation, in which they fometimes ftood,upon which account:;
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