4. Who are Ifraelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the fervice of God, and the promises; 4. Them, I fay, who are the A. D. 57. Children of Ifrael, that pious Servant, who as a Prince prevailed with God (Gen. xxxii. 8.) who were owned for the People of God, and called his Firft-born, (Exodus iv. 22, 23. Hof. xi. 1.) among whom God manifefted himself between the Cherubims (Pfalm 1. 2.) who were under the Covenant made with Abraham and Mofes ; had the Privilege of the divine Revelation, the written Law, the Worship of God in the Tabernacle and Temple, the Promise of the Land of Canaan, and of the Bleffings of the Kingdom of Chrift the Messiah. 5. Whofe are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh, Chrift came who is over all, God blessed for ever, A men. Dispensations of it. 6. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Ifrael which are of Ifrael. 5. In fine, That are the Seed of Abraham and the Patriarchs, of whofe Family was born Jefus Father hath appointed to be the Chrift the Son of God, whom the bleffed Head of his Church, and Lord and Governor of all the 6. But while I thus commiferate the Condition of my rejected Nation, I would not be underftood in the least to infinuate, aş if God had not fully and faithfully performed all his Promifes to the Church of Ifrael. For by a true Ifraelite or Member of that Church, we are not to understand every Man that is barely defcended and born of the Patriarchs. 7. Neither because they are of the feed of Abraham, are they all children: but in Ifaac fhall thy feed be called. 7. Or that the Promise made to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 7. That his Pofterity fhould be the Church and peculiar People of God that should enjoy the Land of Canaan, extended to all Abraham's ChilS3 dren; Ver. 5. Over all, God bleffed for ever. Compare 2 Cor. xi. 31. Ephef. i. 3. 1 Pet. i. 3. A. D. 57. dren; for 'twas exprefly limited to the particular Defcendants of Ifaac; and Ishmael had no Share in it. 8. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, thefe are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the feed. 9. For this is the word of promife, At this time will I come, and Sarah fhall have a fon. And yet Hagar was 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Ifaac, 11. (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might ftand, not of works, but of him that calleth.) 12. It was faid unto hert, The elder shall ferve the younger. 10, 11 & 12. Obferve it again in the Cafe of Jacob and Efau, both born to Ifaac by Rebecca*, the only Wife he had; there you find that before ever the Twins were born, or either of them in a Capacity of doing any Thing that might unqualify him for the divine Favour more than the other; God declared the Privilege fhould be Jacob's and his Heirs, though Efau was the eldest Son +. Which is to fhow you it was not any Fault in either Ishmael or Efau that deprived them of being the Fathers of the Jewish Church, but a *Gen. xxv. 23. + Ver. 12. The Elder ball ferve the Younger. If this be the true rendring of μείζων and ελάσσονι, then it relates to the Perfons of Jacob and Efau. But if it were meant of the Nations, their Pofterity, the Tranflation ought to be-The Greater ball ferve the Leffer, as Le Clerc has well observed. Compare Gen. xxvii. 39, 40. with 2 Sam. viii. 14. and 2 King. viii. 20, &c. a pure Act of the fovereign Will and Pleasure of God A. D. 57. in his Difpofal of such Kind of national Privileges. 13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Efau have I hated. 13. And though God feemed to speak this of the two Perfons of Jacob and Efau, he meant it chiefly of their Pofterity, Malac. i. 2, 3. I have loved you, faith the Lord to Ifrael. Yet ye fay, Wherein haft thou loved us? Was not Jacob Efau's (younger) Brother, faith the Lord? (i. e. was it no Favour to choose you for my Church before the Edomites?) Yet I loved Jacob and hated * Efau, and laid his Mountains and his Heritage wafte, i. e. I chofe you to inherit the promised Land of Canaan, and left the Edomites to inhabit a comparatively dry and barren Country. 14. What shall we fay then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 14. If therefore this were God's Method at firft to choose whom he pleafed for his Church, without any Evil committed by any that he refused that Privilege to; you cannot tax him with the leaft Injustice or Hardship in rejecting you now for your Infidelity, and receiving the Gentiles in your ftead. 15. For he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will 15. Is not his doing fo, very confiftent with his own Words to Mofes, Exod. xxxiii. 19. I will S 4 have * Ver. 13. Efau bave I hated. The Hebrew Language has hardly any way to exprefs the middle Proportion of Things, or the fecond Degree of Comparison. So that Loving and Hating in that Tongue often fignify no more than choofing one Thing or Perfon, and leaving another, or preferring one before another. Our Saviour ufeth this Hebraism in the fame Manner. John xii. 25. and Matth. x. 39. See alfo Gen xxix. 31. This is moft clearly explained in those remarkable Words of the Book of Efdras, 2 Efdras iii. And unto him thou gavest Ifaac, and unto Ifaac thou gavest Jacob and Elau. As for Jacob thou didst CHUSE bim unto thee, and PUT BY Efau: And fo Jacob became a GREAT NATION. Moreover the Word bating may be here taken in the Senfe of feverely punishing, as it refpects the Pofterity of Efau, who oppreffed and abused the Ifraelites. For this Senfe let the Reader fee the excellent Bp. And Fowler, Free Difcourfe, Part II. pag. 269, 270, &c.. compare Malac. i. with Obadiak, Verle 9, 10, 11, &c. - A. D. 57. will have mercy, and I will have compaffion on whom I will have compaflion. have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy, &c. i. e. My pardoning, and receiving this People again for my Church, after this grofs Act of Idolatry, is what I am infinitely far from being obliged to: But I forgive them by an Act of my own fovereign Authority over all People. 16. So then, it is not of him that will- 16. You see then, this national Privilege of the Jews or any other People's being a peculiar Church, is difpofed of in God's own Way, and as he pleases. It was not given to all Abraham's Pofterity. Efau could not have it by Ifaac's earnest Defire, he might be the Man; Efau's running for the Venifon would not do; it was determined for Jacob. And confequently, if the Gentiles be now chofen of God to become his Church, fince you have refused the Gofpel; 'tis but agreeable to the Tenor of your own Scriptures. 17. For the fcripture faith unto Pharaoh, Even for this fame purpose have I raised thee up, that I might fhew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 17. And as God thus difpofes of his Favours to Nations, and Perfons; fo he orders his Punishments upon Offenders according to his own good Pleasure. He may punish or pardon, deftroy them fooner or later. As 'tis plain the Inftance of Pharaoh and his People, to whom he thus fpake after his long and incorrigible Obftinacy. For this Caufe have I raifed thee up*, &c. i. e. whereas indeed you deferve to have been long ago deftroyed, yet it was my Pleasure to defer it, and keep * you for a more exemplary, and remarkable Deftruction. 16. 18. Now Ver. 17. For this Caufe have I raised thee up, Exod. ix. The Hebrew Word is, , I have made thee fland or continue. Which the Septuag. very rightly rendered avenev TÚTY Sialngine For this haft thou been kept. Which is a Demonitration that Pharaoh was not born or created, on Purpose for so much as temporal Punishment; but only that the Punishment of his Sins was deferred for a while. St. James ufes this Word ie, for raifing up from Sickness, Jam. v. 15. 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. 18. Now from thefe Scripture A. D. 57. Examples, 'tis clear beyond Exception, that God does and may moft justly raife and exalt fome Nations in their Privileges and Relations to him above others; may either pardon their Ingratitude, or fuffer them to ripen for a lefs or greater Destruction after their long and obftinate Disobedience. And thus his rejecting you now, and accepting the Gentiles, is juftifiable by all the Examples of divine Judgments, Mercies and Punishments. 19. Thou wilt fay then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath refifted 19. Some of you may perhaps be fo hardy as to fay, well! If God will be thus arbitrary, if we must be rejected and caft off, there is no Help for it. 'Tis his own doing; and do not let him follow us on* with Checks and Reproaches, fince he has entirely had his Mind his will? en us. 20. Nay but, Oman, who art thou that repliest against God? Thall the thing formed fay to him that formed it, Why haft thou made me thus? 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the fame lump to make one veffel unto honour, and another unto difhonour? 20 & 21. Obdurate and ungrateful People! Is this all the Return you make for former Fayours and Privileges? This your Behaviour under the Punishment for your Abuse of them? When, by incurable Infidelity, you have thrown yourselves into the juft Hand of divine Vengeance, is it Arbitrarinefs in your fupream Judge, both to punish and reproach fuch unparallel'd Ingratitude? For you to call it fo, is just as if the Clay fhould infult the Potter, and prefcribe him what he should do with the Pieces when they are marred and broken †. 22. What if God willing to fhew bis wrath, 22. What if God has stayed his Hand from fuch an obftinate Nation Ver. 19. Ti μsupelas; why fhould he fill find Fault? i, e. accuse and reproach us. + See Jer. xviii. 4, 6. Eccluf. xxxiii. 13. |
