b1SCOilltsh V. 609 exclude every individual heathen at that time, from the invisible church of God ; for Jethro at that time, a Midianite was probably a good man ; and so might some others upon the foot of Noah's covenant, even as several of the Jews were wicked men : But considering these two parts of mankind, Jews and Gentiles, in the bulk, they were types and figures of the two sorts of people, in the world, viz. the goodand bad, or saints and sinners. And I think, it is pretty evident, that the holy writers use the same sort of language, which I have recited, in the first and fifth pro- positions, sometimes to signify the literal and external state of the Gentiles, before the gospel came to them, and sometimes to signifythe real, internal, and spiritual state of all, who are not born again, not converted to God, nor renewed toholiness ; and the one seems to be designed, by all these spiritual parallels, as a type and emblem of the other. VI. During the time of the Jewish dispensation, there were always some of the Israelites, really religious and holy, who were the spiritual seed of ,Abraham, as well as natural, that is, imitators of his faith and holiness; and in this double sense, Abraham is their father : for, in the spiritual sense, he is father' of all who believe, and trust in God and obey him, even of the Gentilebelievers, as well as of the Jews ; Rom. iv. 16. Gal. iii. 29. These religious Jews were real saints, members of the invisible church, and the true Israel, that is, they were, in reality, what the whole nation of Israel was, in type, and figure, and appearance ; Rom. ix. 6. Theapostle saith, theyare not all Israel, which are of Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are theyall children, implying that the true Israel are really, what the whole nation was visibly : And chapter ii. 29. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, andnot in the letter only : Such were not only the part of God'svisible church, and had the visible privi- leges thereof, but were alsomembers of his invisible church, and the children of his special love. But, at the same time, the bulk and multitudeof the visible nation of Israel, which was the visible church, were generally great sinners, and with all their glorious titles of external and typical holiness, and divine favour, they were inwardly wicked, and belonged really to the kingdom. of Satan, and not to the in- visible church of God. There were multitudes of Sadducees in that church, who neither believed therewas any angel or spirit, any immortal soul in man, any 'resurrection of the dead, nor in- deed, any future state of rewards or punishments, and they lived according to these principles. Hopeful church-members indeed, if the Jewish church hadbeen to be composed of real saints! Another body of them were Pharisees, whose inward wicked- ness was great, as even many of their outward practices were VOL. m. Q a
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