120 ONENESS OF THE CHURCH. [ EXERC. VI.
added to the strengthening of their unbelief. They could not bear with patience an intimation of letting out the vineyard to other husbandmen. With this principle and prejudice of theirs the apostle dealt directly in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. ix.-xi,
On the same grounds he proceedeth with them in this Epistle; and because his answer to their objection from the promises lies at the foundation of many of his reasonings with them, the nature of it must be here previously explained. Not that I shall here enter into a consideration of the Jews’ argument to prove the Messiah not yet to be come, because the promises in their sense of them are not yet accomplished, which shall be fully removed in the close of these dis- courses; but only, as I said, open the nature in general of that answer which our apostle returns unto them, and builds his reason- ings with them upon.
2. We shall have occasion afterwards at large to show how, after the entrance of sin, God founded his church in the promise of the Messiah given unto Adam. Now, though that promise was the sup- portment and encouragement of mankind to seek the Lord,—a pro- mise, absolutely considered, proceeding from mere grace and mercy, —yet, as it was the foundation of the church, it included in it the nature of a covenant, virtually requiring a restipulation unto obe- dience in them who by faith come to have an interest therem. And this the nature of the thing itself required; for the promise was givey unto this end and purpose, that men might have a new bot- tom and foundation of obedience, that of the first covenant being disannulled. Hence, in the following explications of the promise, this condition of obedience is expressly added. So upon its renewal unto Abraham, God required that he should “ walk before him, and be upright.” This promise, then, as it hath the nature of a covenant, including the grace that God would show unto sinners in the Mes- siah, and the obedience that he required from them, was, from the first giving of it, the foundation of the church, and the whole wor- ship of God therein.
Unto this church, so founded and built on this covenant, and by the means thereof on the redeeming mediatory Seed promised therein, were all the following promises and the privileges exhibited in them given and annexed. Neither hath, or ever had, any individual per- son any spiritual right unto, or interest in, any of those promises or privileges, whatever his outward condition were, but only by virtue of his membership in the church built on the covenant, whereunto, as we said, they do all appertain. On this account the church be- fore the days of Abraham, though scattered up and down in the world, and subject unto many clfanges in its worship by the addi- tion of new revelations, was still but one and the same, because founded in the same covenant, and interested thereby in all the
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benefits or privileges that God had given or granted, or would do so at any time, unto his church.
3. In process of time, God was pleased to confine this church, as unto the ordinary visible dispensation of his grace, unto the person and posterity of Abraham. Upon this restriction of the church covenant and promise, the Jews of old managed a plea in their own justification against the doctrine of the Lord Christ and his apostles. “We are the children, the seed of Abraham,” was their continual cry ; on the account whereof they presumed that all the promises be- longed unto them, and upon the matter unto them alone. And this their persuasion hath cast them, as we shall see, upon a woful and fatal mistake. Two privileges did God grant unto Abraham, upon his separation to a special interest in the old promise and covenant :—
First, That according to the flesh he should be the father of the Messiah, the promised seed; who was the very life of the covenant, the fountain and cause of all the blessings contained init. That this privilege was temporary, having a limited season, time, and end, ap- pointed unto it, the very nature of the thing itself doth demonstrate ; for upon this actual exhibition in the flesh, it was to cease. In pursuit hereof were his posterity separated from the rest of the world, and preserved a peculiar people, that through them the pro- mised Seed might be brought forth in the fulness of time, and be of them according unto the flesh, Rom. ix. 5,
Secondly, Together with this, he had also another privilege granted unto him, namely, that his faith, whereby he was personally interested in the covenant, should be the pattern of the faith of the church in all generations; and that none should ever come to be a member of it, or a sharer in its blessings, but by the same faith that he had fixed on the Seed that was in the promise, to be brought forth from him into the world. On the account of this privilege, he became the father of all them that do believe: for “ they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham,” Gal. ii 7, Rom. iv. 11: as also “heir of the world,’ Rom. iv, 13, in that all that should believe throughout the world, being thereby implanted into the coyenant made with him, should become his “spiritual children.”