A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

I have Transcribed these words at large, because their Design is to defeat that Article of our Faith concerning the Imputation of the Sin of Adam unto all his Posterity, which there is no doubt but they will make Use of, who are gone over among our selves unto the Negative of it: and that it might appear whose Heifer they Plough withal who deny the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Justification, because those things that are Personal and Inherent in one, cannot be communicated unto another. I say therefore, (1.) That this Assertion, Of one being accounted unto another in what he doth, holds only in those things which belong unto the Increase or Diminution of an Inheritance which descends from Parents unto Children, and not otherwise, is gratis dictum, without pretence or Confirmation. Even in things Moral God threatens to visit the Sins of the Fathers on the Children. So the Israelites wandered penally in the Wilderness forty Years, and bare the Iniquity of their Parents. The Infants that perished in the Flood, and at the Conflagration of Sodom, died penally under the Judgment that came for the sin of their Parents. Wherefore the general Foundation of his whole Discourse is unproved and false, and the application of it unto the present Case, as we shall see, weak and impertinent. For, (2.) This renders the Argument of the Apostle as weak and impertinent as any thing can be imagined. For it allows Levi to be no otherwise Tithed in Abraham, but as part of the Goods which Abraham gave in Tithe to Melchizedek would have descended unto him. For he was but one of the twelve Sons of Jacob, the Grand-child of Abraham, whose share in those Tithes cannot be computed to be worth mentioning, much less to bear the weight of an Argument in so great a Cause. Besides it is not the Person of Levi, but his Posterity in the Family of Aaron, that is intended. And such Movables as were Tithed by Abraham do seldom descend through so many Generations. It is therefore ridiculous to impose such a kind of Argumentation on the Holy Apostle. (3.) Yea, this Interpretation is directly contrary unto what the Apostle designed to confirm by the Instance he gives. For that which he aimed at was to prove Levi Inferior to Melchizedek by his paying of Tithes in the Loins of Abraham.

I have Transcribed these words at large, because their Design is to defeat that Article of our Faith concerning the Imputation of the Sin of Adam unto all his Posterity, which there is no doubt but they will make Use of, who are gone over among our selves unto the Negative of it: and that it might appear whose Heifer they Plough withal who deny the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Justification, because those things that are Personal and Inherent in one, cannot be communicated unto another. I say therefore, (1.) That this Assertion, Of one being accounted unto another in what he doth, holds only in those things which belong unto the Increase or Diminution of an Inheritance which descends from Parents unto Children, and not otherwise, is gratis dictum, without pretence or Confirmation. Even in things Moral God threatens to visit the Sins of the Fathers on the Children. So the Israelites wandred poenally in the Wilderness forty Years, and bare the Iniquity of their Parents. The Infants that perished in the Flood, and at the Conflagration of Sodom, died poenally under the Judgment that came for the sin of their Parents. Wherefore the general Foundation of his whole Discourse is unproved and false, and the application of it unto the present Case, as we shall see, weak and impertinent. For, (2.) This renders the Argument of the Apostle as weak and impertinent as any thing can be imagined. For it allows Levi to be no otherwise Tithed in Abraham, but as part of the Goods which Abraham gave in Tithe to Melchisedec would have descended unto him. For he was but one of the twelve Sons of Jacob, the Grand-child of Abraham, whose share in those Tithes cannot be computed to be worth mentioning, much less to bear the weight of an Argument in so great a Cause. Besides it is not the Person of Levi, but his Posterity in the Family of Aaron, that is intended. And such Movables as were Tithed by Abraham do seldom descend through so many Generations. It is therefore ridiculous to impose such a kind of Argumentation on the Holy Apostle. (3.) Yea, this Interpretation is directly contrary unto what the Apostle designed to confirm by the Instance he gives. For that which he aimed at was to prove Levi Inferiour to Melchisedec by his paying of Tithes in the Loyns of Abraham.