DISCOURSE V. 807 inwardly and spiritually holy, whose hearts are circumcised to love the Lord, and are interested in his everlasting love ; and on this account a real saint is called an Israelite indeed; John i. 47. a Jew inwardly; Isom. ii. 29. True christians, in the New Testament, are called the Israel of Gad ; Gal. vi. 16. as well as they are often represented, by the ancient prophets, under that name. These are the true circumcision, inwardly in the heart and spirit; Som. ii. 29. These are the circumcision, who wor- ship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus ; Phil. iii. 3. who are circumcised with the circumcision without hands, by put- ting of the body of the sins of theflesh; Col. ii. 11. And to confirm this doctrine, the scripture proceeds yet fur- ther, and represents even the best of blessings and the heavenly state, or the final reward of all the saints by the same sort of emblems, borrowed from the Jews. They go to the bosom of Abraham; Luke xvi. 22, 23. They sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; Mat. viii. 11. The blessing of Abraham tomes on the Gentiles; that is, that Gd is their God, and their exceeding great reward; Gal. iii. 14. They are heirs of the heavenly inheritance, according to the ancient promise made to Abraham ; verse 20. They enter into that promised rest, that remains for the people of God, typified by Canaan, the rest promised to the Jews; Heb. iii. and iv.0 Here let it be noted, that there were multitudes, in this visible church of Israel, to which theseoutward titles and privileges be- longed, who had not so much as a credible profession of real virtue, or holiness, or inward goodness; nor was it necessary, inorder to be members of that church ; for they not only came into this relation by their natural birth, as the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they always continued members of the church of Israel, so long as they continued members of the civil community, and were accounted parts of the nation, or king- dom of Israel : Their common immoralities did Plot cut them oft from their civil rights, nor were they ever properly cast out of the state too ; and according to the bible, when they were cut off from their people, they lost their civil as well as ecclesiastical privileges. V. On the other hand, the Gentiles or heathens, that is, all the nations besides the Jews, had the visible marks of a people J think the language of the New Testament, in the texts which 1 have cited, makes it evident, that the Jewish visible church was not so properly a type of the visible christian church, in its outward and visible form, as it was a typeof the state and blessings of the true and real children of God, that is, of the invisible church of God in all ages t though it is granted, that the visible christian church is founded upon a supposition that the members of-it are, or should appear to be, 'members of, the invisible church also, which was ant the case in the visible Jewish church, and the persons who composed it, whose church membership was built on another foundation:
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