Obj. IT doth belong to the children of the faithfull, for if the root be holy, so are the branches?
Ans. That doth not alwaies follow, for Isaac and Rebecca was holy roots (as you terme them) and yet Esau was not an holy branch, whom the Lord hath rejected before his birth.
Obj. It is said concerning him, that the elder shall serve the younger, or the greater the lesse, but not as you say?
Ans.. I pray whether are you, or the Prophet Malachy, the* 1.1 more able to expound the meaning of that text of Scripture, if the Prophet, he rendereth it thus? I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, Mal. 1. 1, 2. Againe, the Prophet Ezekiel telleth us, that godly Parents may have wicked children, Ezek. 18. 5. 10. 14. 17, &c. and wicked Parents may have godly children, so that your Argu∣ment cannot hold water.
Obj. Doth not Peter tell the Jewes, Act. 2. 3. 6. that the pro∣mise is to them and their children?
Ans. 'Tis true that Peter acquainted them so, but what is that to us?
Obj. Doth not the same belong to us, and our children, as did to the Jewes, and their children?
Ans. No, for the Jewes were a peculiar people, chosen of God, above all the people of the face of the earth, and so were not we Gextiles, and therefore, that holdeth no better then your former Argument.
For to whom that Covenant was made, to them only it did belong; but that Covenant was made to Abraham, and his car∣nall Seed, (of which we are not) and none other.
Ergo that Covenant belonged to them, and to none other.