Chap. y9, Àn Exp./Irian upon the Book of Jß7B. Verf 5. 17 it to their whole carriage, rendring it thus ; And tritely yedeale Jlately over me. Hence obferve; Firft, ei ^Lan is apt to magnif e himfelfe over tho¡e that he ruppofeth fallen into erreur, or whomhefeesfallen into trouble. vian -is ready to thinke highly ofhimfel le, when hebeholds another downe. We fee this in that g-e ftcafe ( abr;ut which the Apoft:e enlarges his difcourfe, Rom. t r ) between the yen-es end Gentiles. The ?ewes were fallen, they were as braxrches broken off ; The Gentiles who were a wildOlive tree, were ?r iffed in among ( or for) them,Ner;r7. The Apofrle hada j'ea- loufre that this priviledge would fwell the ',Gentiles into great -thoughts of themfelves, and into a contempt of the 7rwe,, aid therefore he cautions 'them ( ver. r 8.) Boaft not againfi the branches ; that is against the branches that are broken off. For if thou boafteft than bearef not the roote, but the root thee ? But it mae,be objefted againft the Apoftles way ofarguing ; why, what ifthou did not boaft they fhould they then Beare the roote, acd not the roote them ; furely whether they boafted or boa- fled not, they being branches, the root mua beare them, andnot they the roote. I anfwer, the Apoílle Both not at all fuppofe that if they /bid not boaft they fhorld bear theconte,but ufes -this as an argument why they fhould not boaft againft the bran- ches which were broken off, even becaufe themfelves, though :graffed in, yet were but branches, and therefore they did not beare the roore, but the roote them, Now there is nothing more uncomely then to boaft againft that thing or ,perfon which beareth us up, or againft that which receiveth no benefit from us, but we receivemuch from it. As theApoflle fpeakes in the clofe ofthe r 7 verfe ; Those with thempartakft ofthe roste andfittneffef the Olive tree. By the Olive tree, we are to-under- Rand the valeChurchofGod, ( ver.1 r.r6. ) The Lord called thy name agreen Olive tree, faireand ofgoodlyfruit.. he root of this Olive tree was Abraham, by-vertue ofthe-Chu ;ch-covenant in Chrift, which was made firft, by name, with 'him, who is hence alfo called the Fatherofthe faithfadii. Yet (in páffage) take this caution, Abraham wasnot the roote ofthe Olive tree -.( the Church ) by way of,communication, as ifeither gems or 'Gentiles
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