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A45125 The axe laid to the root of separation, or, The churches cause against it by the author who wrote in the late Times for free admission to the Lord's Supper. Humfrey, John, 1621-1719. 1685 (1685) Wing H3670; ESTC R225063 79,856 182

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a holy People unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special People unto Himself above all the People that are upon the Face of the Earth Deut. 7.6 So again Chap. 14. Vers 2. A Special People a Peculiar People from whence this Covenant we speak of is called by some the Covenant of Peculiarity as by me the Covenant of Advantage from the Words before of the Apostle What Advantage then hath the Jew He hath shewed His Mind unto Jacob his Statutes and Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any other Nation Psal 147.19 20. To whom pertaineth the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving the Law and the Service of God and the Promises Rom. 19.4 By the Adoption I understand that Sonship only which they had by their Admission into this outward Relation of being God's peculiar People By the Covenants I understand nothing but this same Covenant of Advantage given at first to Abraham and renewed after by Moses and so called Two Covenants the Covenant of Circumcision and the Covenant which God made with the Jews when He took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt Act. 7.8 Heb. 8.9 By the Promises likewise we must understand either those that were made only to that People or if the great Promise of Salvation by Christ be included also we must understand that they belonged to the Israelites in regard to the Revelation that is they only had the Revelation of them but the Matter revealed belong'd alike to all the World It is true that Abraham was the first Man with whom God entred Covenant understanding it of this Covenant of Advantage or Peculiarity and he is the first Elect therefore we read of in Scripture Thou art the Lord the God who didst choose Abraham and broughtst him out of Vr of the Ch●ldees Nehem. 9.7 It is an Election into this peculiar State or relation to God in regard to his Conventional Government we are speaking of and as all the Israelites are said to be his Chosen People It is not to be understood of that Decree of Election which Divines dispute of from other Texts but is equivalent with his Call Get thee out of thy Countrey unto a Land that I will shew thee Gen. 12.1 God's choosing Abraham and calling him into this peculiar Relation is but the same thing but it is One thing to be Chosen in regard to that Election which is unto Everlasting Life and Another to be only Called Many are called says Christ and few chosen This is indeed here very certain and to be observed that it was in Abraham and his Family God was pleased to lay the First Foundation of any Corporation formed under distinguishing Laws or Institutions for his Solemn Service or Worship which is properly to be a Church A Church from the Word in the Greek is a Number of the Called that is called out of the World as it is Idolatrous or given to false Worship unto the owning the true God and his Government according to his own Institutions which was begun in the Commonwealth and Polity of Israel Circumcision being preliminary to it and is now and shall be continued in the Congregations of Christians to the end of the World This Covenant then which God made with the Jews when He brought them out of Egypt appears to be no other than such a Covenant as passes between a Prince and his Subjects that is a Political Covenant God undertaking to be their Ruler and they promising him Allegiance so that the Common-wealth of Israel was indeed a Theocracy insomuch as when the People chose Saul for their Prince they are said to reject God for the Lord their God was their King 1 Sam. 12.12 Not but He continued this Conventional-Government of His for all that allowing of their Kings as his Vicegerents having his House or Temple to dwell amongst them where he kept also his Servants or Houshold the Priests and Levites receiving their Offerings as Rents for maintaining his Attendants This Kingdom was not to cease untill Christ his Son the Messiah should come into the World and then indeed he broke up House and delivered up the same to him The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his Feet untill Shiloh come and to Him shall the gathering of the People be Gen. 49.10 We read therefore when Christ had finished the Work of Man's Redemption and Rose from the Dead He takes upon Him the Administration of this Government All Power is given me in Heaven and Earth Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel Matth. 28.18 Mar. 16.15 What is that but Go and gather all those that will come in and Incorporate as the People who are to be gathered to Me that is that will embody as Christians who then are to be Baptized and so to continue in Doctrine in Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayer which are Laws and Institutions of his Government I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion Ask of Me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the utmost Parts of the Earth for thy Possession That Kingdom which God had over the ●ews in regard to this voluntary Government He hath now given to his Son and all the World that will are to be brought into it Upon this account is the State of the Church under the Gospel that is the Christian Church so often called the Kingdom of God And Jesus began to Preach Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of the Messiah fore-told in the Prophets and the Terms were not strange to the Jews They thought indeed the Messiah would come for the Restauration of the Kingdom to Israel by Conquering the Romans and subjecting all the Nations and so reigning in outward Glory but they were deceived not in the Matter it self nor in the Greatness and Extent of his Dominions but they were deceived in the Manner of it which was not to be of this World that is not from it or to be set up by Worldly Means by Armies or the Sword but by the Word yet is it a Kingdom in the World and as other Kingdoms comprehends the Bodies as well as Souls of Men and Women living under Subjection to his Government in that External way of Worship and Discipline as by his own Officers and Ordinances He hath appointed in the Gospel It is therefore a mistaken Notion which our Divines have ordinarily taken up of the Church accounting it to be the Number only of the Regenerate and Elect which in the first Apprehension is the Number of the Called and the Called are ex intentione vocantis more than the Chosen It is true that the Church in some Scriptures speaking of it to other Purposes is to be understood of the Elect only So we read of the Church of the
as does appear in particular by the Ninevites as also by the Sacrifices for the Atonement of the Deity which have been in use in all Nations Not but all the World is under the same Law as Adam was the Law that was for our Nature cannot be altered but we are not under it on the same terms We are under it as a Rule of Life but we are not under it as a Rule of Judgment We are under it so as we are bound to live according to it but we are not under it so that if we do not we shall be justified or condemned by it There is one Religion therefore Law or Rule for all Mankind to obtain Life by which being the Law of our Lapsed Nature or Remedying Law containing God's Grace administred to all the Earth in a threefold State of such as were or are without the Law or before it and under the Law and under the Gospel as this Administration is threefold so hath the Faith which is the Condition thereof been diversified But now is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of this Law which hath ever been afoot in the World And though a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian under the Third Edition of it or that which was required of the Jew under the Second yet hath he such a Faith as belongs to the First such as the Antients before Abraham had and so long as that Faith he hath does work by Love or by Sincere Obedience to God according to his Light it will justifie him as well as that which is now further required of us under the Gospel It follows that this Law being that which is given for Life and so the one only true Measure of Religion to all the World must belong to the Government of God which is Vniversal and that is the Natural Government of God The Government of God which is Conventional is that Government which He hath taken over some certain Persons as they are gather'd or joyned together into Societies unto which they are called out of the World for the Glorifying his Name in that Worship and Service of Him which He hath Instituted by his Positive Law Precepts or Ordinances I mean such as He hath any way revealed to be his Will whether they be such as belong to the Law of Nature also or such as do not in order to the taking owning and acknowledging Him for their God in a peculiar manner that is in opposition to the Worship of any other God or Idols and the serving Him the true God in any other way but what He hath appointed and their becoming thereby a peculiar People to Him and so being under his Favour and Blessing in regard to all the good things of this Life and that which is to come I do observe here the Government of God which is Natural is over all the World this Government which is Conventional is over some Persons only called out of the World into a peculiar Relation to God That the One is over All but consider'd as Single Persons taking in every Individual in the World the Other is over some and so over Singulars also but consider'd as Incorporated for the Publick Service of God That the One Government is by the Law of Nature I mean both of Lapsed and Innocent Nature the Other is by his Positive or Revealed Laws That these Laws and Ordinances of God therefore which He hath revealed as they are more and as they are revealed otherwise or farther than by the Light of Nature or Natural Reason only are a high Priviledge to such as they are vouchsafed to What Advantage th●n bath the Jew above the Gentile Much every way chiefly because that unto them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.1 2. That this giving to a People his Oracles or Positive Institutions are advantageous upon this Account that they are Means for obtaining his blessing or else there could be no such Advantage in them That this Blessing of God must not be look'd on only to concern Temporal Things but Spiritual and Eternal For seeing Man consists of a Body and a Soul and that Soul is Immortal he cannot be happy but in Both. That the great and principal Advantage therefore that we have by these Ordinances or Government of God which is Conventional must and does lie in being Means for the bringing Men up to the Performance of the Terms of that Law which God by his Government which is Natural and Vniversal hath made to be the Rule of Judgment to all Men for Everlasting Life or Condemnation There are some Learned Men that will not have Adam nor any in the World to have been in Covenant with God before Abraham understanding it of a Covenant of Life But so long as God had a Government in the World before Abraham and that Government must be by a Law and that Law to Adam fallen to Seth Enoch Melchisedeck must be a Law of Grace or else no Man of them could have been saved it is but a Matter of Words whether they call this Law of Grace and Life a Covenant or not This we must have a Care of that we distinguish this Law of Grace or Law for Life and Salvation which is contained in these Words Walk before Me and be Vpright belonging out of question to Adam Seth Enoch as much as to Abraham and the Covenant which God made with Abraham hereupon being such an upright Person in regard to himself and Posterity I will make my Covenant between Me and Thee and I will multiply thee exceedingly I I will establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations to be a God to Thee and thy Seed after Thee This is my Covenant Every Man-child among you shall be Circumcised There is the Covenant of Life therefore and Covenant of Advantage The Covenant of Life I scruple not to call it Law or Covenant was made with faln Adam and in him with all the World and is all one with the Law of Grace I say that belongs to God's Natural Government which is Vniversal and according to this Law or Covenant must every Man be judged at the last Day The Covenant of Advantage is the Covenant which God made with Abraham and with the Israelites for his sake beginning it with him by Circumcision unto which were added other Rites and Ordinances by Moses together with the Declaration of the Moral Law and in regard hereunto that People are said to be a holy People a peculiar People and preferred before all the Nations in the World Among all the Multitude of People Thou hast gotten Thee one People and unto this People whom Thou lovedst Thou gavest a Law that is approved of all says Esdras 2 Esd 5.27 Ye stand this Day all of you before the Lord to enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God Deut. 29. Thou art