428 DUjef$ionsan, fwered. The Birth- Privile'dge and Covenant- holinef ie Ch.46' teach them againe , which be the firji principles of the Oracles of God,and Were become fuch as had need of milk ?, and no of fir ong meat ? yet thefe were of the Church and therefore with them their children, Fourthly, illegitimation of birth, adulterous copulation in the parents, divefleth not fuch iffue of this priviledge, David had ne- ver in that manner fought in failing and prayer hischildes life, he beleeved that he mutt nor`have been of the feed of thejews9 but of the irncircurncifed Heathen; Phare.t was of fuch a birth,yer who bore a greater name and glory in Ifra -1 then he, and his fa- mily ? even where the illegitimation of his birth is noted, there the glory of his race is magnified, which is yet farther honoured in that Chrift according to the ßefh was made of his feed. That feed of efl6raham per eminentiam, was out of his loines ; jepthah indeed was driven out by this brethren, but not becaufe that he was not of the feed of the Jews, and people of God, but becaufe they would not have him to shire of the inheritance among them, Reverend Matter Cotton faith, That fome perfons may be noto. riots offenders (as known elthei fls, moclters of l~ eligion, Idolaters, 'apif s, Hereticks, Witches) and yet profeffe bef re men the faith, feemes to him to imply a contradiUlion. Thefe (I. confeffe) are plauo.. table words, to take with well meaning fouls, that attend not to the language of the Scripture in this particular. And for the flit, if Mailer Cotton meaner Atheifls in judgement, that profeffedly maintaine in word, what Davids fool laid in his heart, that there is no God; and by mockers of Religion, not thofe alone that op_ pofe the power, but with Lucian, all notion of Religion ; and by Idolârers, chofe that profeiiedly wor11 ip,falfe gods , and worfhip. not at all the Lord Jehovah, then it cannot be denied that this is a contradietion : But Reverend Mailer Rutherford, whom he op pofeth in that place, bath no fuch meaning; but for an Atheift in life, to be a profeffor of the faith, we have Paul, expreffelyfor it, 'Titus 1.16. `I hey profe f j'e that they k oW Gcd,6ut in works they deny him, being abominable, and difobedient and unto every good work reprobate. The Apoftle (we fee) faw no contradiEtion in it_; and for mockers of Religion, Peter did not foretell them to be out of the Church, but within the bofome of it, when. he fail, T here /hall come in the laflRtaycs [coffers, walking, after their own lulls, 2 Pet, 3. 3. For-,,Idolaters, if an iiraelite might bean Idolater, then a. Chriftían;
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