DISCOURSE 1. 6;3 Abraham, and he-is their father; Rom. iv. 11, 16. Gal: iii. 8, 9, 29. They are called God's people, who were not his peo- ple; Rom. ix. 24, 25. They are invested with the honourable titles which the carnal Jews enjoyed ;- 1 Pet. ii. 0, 10. " A chosen generation, a royal priesthood,, a holy nation, a pecu- liar people, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." And in Eph. ii. 19. " They are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow - citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," his elect, his beloved, and he dwells among them, and in them, as in his city and hi's tetti- pie, by his Holy Spirit, verse ,22. and 1 Cor. vi. 19. and 2 Cor. vi. 16. XII. As those Gentiles who do, really and inwardly, re- ceive the Messiah, and practise his religion in faith and .holiness, come into all these inward, real, and spiritual privileges and blessings; so all that make'a visible and credible profession of faith, and holiness, and universal subjection to Christ, come into all the outward privileges of the visible church, under the gospel : Some few of which privileges are continued from the Jewish church, but the greatest part of them, are abolished, because the gospel state is more spiritual than the dispensation of the levitical law, and not such a typical state as that was ; and none are to be admitted into this visible church, and esteemed complete members of it, but those : who make such a declaration and profession of their faith in Christ, and their . avowed subjection to him, as may be supposed, in a judgment of charity, to manifest them to be real believers in Christ,';tlie true subjects of his spiritual kingdom, and members of the invisible church. See Proposition VII. XIII. When therefore St. Paul and Peter write to the Gentile christian churches, they give them such honourable titles as these, Holy brethren, called to be saints, called and holy, sanctified in Christ Jesus, the elect of God, the beloved of God, washed from their sins, justified, sancted in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit ofour God, risenfrom a death in trespasses and sins, raised - together with Christ, set down with hint in heavenly places, followers of us, and of the Lord, to whom the gospel came not in word only, but also in power, elect according to the fore- knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, begotten, to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, who have obtained precious faith through the, righteousness of God and our Saviour, a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, even the people of God who have now obtained mercy, Sic. And the reason of these glorious titles is this, that they ar uq3
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