Consequence of the former it will also naturally follow that it is only by the Actual Faith of both Parents and Children as an Instrumental means by which either of them shall be blessed with that their desired Restauration And this may serve also for a Confutation of that Groundless and Unscriptural conceit of Mr. Allen when he affirms that the Infants of Believers are Abraham's Spiritual Seed and that upon this Account it was that they were admitted to the Priviledge of Church-Membership under the Law For thus he tells us If such Infants are as much of the Church and as much Abraham's Spiritual Seed as ever Infants in the Old Testament-Church were then they can be no more uncapable than they were of a solemn Admission into the Church by the Ordinance of Initiation for the time being as Baptism is now and as Circumcision was then But this which Mr. Allen takes here for granted and is indeed the Foundation of his Argument we utterly deny as not having been at all proved nor indeed can be proved by him or any other to wit That the Infants of Believers have any where in Scripture the Denomination of Abraham's Spiritual Seed This is a most certain Truth that as Abraham himself had a double Capacity one of a Natural Father the other the Father of the Faithful So he had a two-fold Seed For First he had a Seed that proceeded from him according to the Course of Natural Generation only And Secondly some were his Natural and Spiritual Seed also such as was Isaac and all the Faithful who proceeded from Abrahams Loyns To which we must add a Third sort and that is all true Believers or the Elect of God in all Nations who by Vertue of their Interest in Christ have also in Scripture the Denomination of Abraham's Seed who yet can lay no claim to Abraham as their Father according to the common Course of Nature And to imagine that Abraham hath any Seed in any other Religious or Spiritual Consideration whatsoever under the Gospel is to be wise above what is written For whatever the Jewish Children were to say that the Children of Christians are Relatively Holy that they are Church-Members and as much Christians externally as the Children of the Jews were Jews externally as some have suggested All these are but unproved Figments and Unscriptural Dictates And therefore from hence to infer their Relation to Abraham as his Spiritual Seed and thence that they are the proper Subjects of Baptism is no other than to build a lofty Structure upon a Sandy Foundation If then we shall affirm that the Infants of Believers now are Abraham's Seed they must of Necessity come under one or another of these Heads To say that they are so in either of the two former Respects cannot be at all pretended unto if in the latter neither can this with any shadow of Truth be affirmed For thus it was not with all the Natural Seed of Abraham himself as the Apostle expresly affirms Rom. 9. 7 8. Neither saith he because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called that is they that are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed So likewise Gal. 3. 29. If ye be Christs then are ye Abraham's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise Therefore to affirm that all the Infants of Believers are the Spiritual Seed of Abraham as there is no Scripture that proves it so it is directly contrary to the Scripture and indeed contrary to our own most common and obvious Experience whilst we consider with all that as for many of Abraham's own Natural Posterity they are so far from being his Spiritual Seed that as hath been already observed together with their Children they are Unchurched broken off and rejected by God because of their Vnbelief to this very day Which yet had not been had they been the Spiritual as well as the Natural Seed of Abraham For sure it is altogether Inconsistent with the terms of the Covenant of Grace the Gifts and Callings whereof are without Repentance that Abraham's Spiritual Seed or that such as are Members of the Invisible as well as the Visible Church should be at all cast off rejected and forsaken as the Jews now are Upon the whole therefore of our Answer to the forementioned Objection That if this Interpretation hold good there would be a great change in the extent of the Covenant narrower under the Gospel than it was under the Law and yet no notice in all the Book of God given of such a Change We say that there is abundant notice given unto us in the Book of God and that both in the Old and New Testament also concerning the change in question viz. the disfranchisement of Infants from their so long enjoyed Priviledge of Church-Membership We grant that under the Law they were admitted thereunto with their Parents But the Scriptures already alledged do abundantly prove their Exclusion under the Gospel Administration Unto which we shall only at present add Heb. 7. 12. For the Priesthood heing changed there is made of Necessity a change also of the Law which Change of the Law there spoken of must needs include Circumcision with all the Priviledges and Appurtenances belonging to it And therefore as Infants Church-Membership came in with the Law of Circumcision so it went out and was Repealed with it Objection 3. If this Interpretation be true the Believing Jews should have loss upon their Repentance and Belief of the Gospel if their Children formerly Church Members should now be Excluded upon the Faith and Repentance of their Parents To this we Answer First It is true that insome Sence a Jew converted to the Gospel should have loss and particularly in that point of Signing his Fleshly Seed by an Ordinance together with the Fall of all the Glory of their Sanctuary and pompous Priest-hood so much and so long the joy and boasting of that Nation Which the Spirit of GOD fore-saw and fore-told Isa 8. 14. And hence it came to pass that Christ became so great an Offence and the Gospel so sore a Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence to them all yea even to many of them after they had submitted to the Gospel yea the Gentile Churches were scarce if at all preserved from Stumbling hereat with the Jews But all this Loss well considered would amount to no more than what befals a Man who from the Priviledges of a Servant is Invested into the Priviledges of a Son And this was the very Case Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth His Son c. Verse 5. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Verse 7. Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Son And the Reason of this Change the Apostle plainly sheweth us Verse 23. He that was after the Bond-Woman was Born after the
Spiritual We say not For it is plain there was no such Inquisition concerning the good or bad qualities the Fruitfulness or Unfruitfulness of the Members of the former Church in 〈◊〉 to Admission thereinto It was enough barely to be of Abraham's Seed or Family to be so esteemed But now saith John the Axe is laid unto the Root of the Trees And they must all be hewn down under the Gospel that have nothing else to pretend unto but that of a Godly Parentage which plainly excludes Infants as well as all other unfruitful Branches from the Gospel Church And to this same purpose is it that he doth further assure them ver 12. That Jesus Christ was now resolved with the Gospel Fan to Purge thoroghly the Floor of the Gospel Church and to gather the Wheat into His Garner Under the Law and before also even in Abrahmam's time the Chaff and the Wheat remained together unsevered but now the Fan must go to Work We read of no such Fanning Work in the former Church state And to what purpose is it else that Christ told the Woman of Samaria as he doth Jo. 4. 23. The Hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to Worship Him Which plainly sheweth that God expecteth now greater Purity Exactness and Spirituality in such as were to approach His Presence in the Celebration of Gospel Worship And indeed of this the whole fifth of Mat. is a sufficient and convincing Proof giving clear evidence concerning the refinedness and spirituality of the Gospel Administration above and beyond that of the Law For then saith our Saviour it was thus and thus but I am come to tell you a New Doctrine and do call you up to greater Purity and Strictness § 4. Secondly We Answer That that Holiness which was ascribed unto the whole Body of the Jewish Nation was a Typical Ceremonial Holiness and was no other than was ascribed to the whole Land City Temple Altar and divers other things and is therefore now Abolished For if all things under the Law were but a Figure and Shadow of good things to come then such was the Holiness of the Jewish Nation and People also Now this the Apostle in the 9th and 10th Chapters to the Hebrews proves at large shewing that all things under the Law all the Priviledges of the Old Covenà nt with all the Perquisites Dependancies and Appurtenances thereunto belonging are called by such Names as make them evidently appear to be Typical As First they are called a Figure Heb. 9. 9. Which was a Figure for the time then present So verse 24. For Christ is not Entered into the Holy Place made with Hands which are the Figures of the true Secondly They are called a Pattern Heb. 9. 23. It was necessary that the Pattern of things in the Heavens c. Thirdly They are called a Shadow Heb. 10. 1. For the Law having a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the thing◠c. Now the Holiness of the Jewish Nation being an Appurtenance belonging to the Law or the Old Covenant It was but a Figure Pattern or Shadow of all good things to come and was therefore Typical and is now Abolished And if we will know what the Holiness of the Jewish Nation did serve to Typifie or Represent unto us It is evident that as it Typified the Holiness of Christ himself So of all Abraham's Spiritual Seed who are made Holy by Believing in Christ § 5. The Time of Reformation therefore spoken of in the forementioned Scripture Heb. 9. 8 9 10. being come wherein those Imperfect Gifts and Sacrifices with all those Carnal Ordinances which were for a Season Imposed on the Jewish Nation were to be done away and the Gospel-Church taking place in the Room thereof It cannot rationally be supposed but the one doth far exceed the other at least in Purity and Inward Glory For by how much Christ hath now obtained a more excellent Ministry than that of Moses and by how much also he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant Which is Established upon better Promises as the Apostle affirmes Heb. 8. 6. By so much of necessity must the gospell Church exceed in lustre beauty Refinedness and Spirituality the former Administration SECT VIII THE Second Argument in Mr. Allen's Book remaining to be Answered is this That all Persons and so little Children that were of the Legal Church must needs in one Respect or other have been Persons of a Religious or Spiritual Consideration And this considered saith he I know not upon what better to place the Visible Church-Membership of Infants or to Attribute it to than God's Electing and Calling them to his People and their Parents Dedicating and Devoting them to God and his Service And the Scripture useth to reckon little Children as having begun to do this or that when they are but placed in Circumstances that will bring them to it Actually in the Issue And thus the Children of the Kohathites of a Month Old were numbred with their Fathers as with them keeping the charge of the Sanctuary when they were but in a way of being trained up to it And for the same Reason little Children were said to enter into Covenant with God when their Parents did so Deut. 29. 11 12 § 2. To this we Answer First By granting that it was in a Religious Consideration that Children were then Admitted Members of the Legal Church But yet it doth not therefore follow that they are to be admitted Members of the Gospel-Church for the Reasons before rendered The Terms of Admission into that being far more strict and Spiritual than were those under the Law Secondly Whereas he tells us That the Reason of their Admission into the Legal Church was God's Electing and Calling them to that Priviledge This we also grant But then we also say that though the Call and Election of God in Reference to the Inward Substance of the Covenant of Grace or to an Invisible Membership in the Invisible Church is Invariable It doth not follow that the Gifts and Callings of God in Reference to External Membership are therefore also Invariable or Irrevokable as is afterward by Mr. Allen Asserted and unto which we have already in the Second Part of this Discourse given a sufficient Answer For we find by undeniable Evidence that those External Gifts and Priviledges that the Natural Posterity of Abraham were once Invested with are now Rescinded Repealed and Repented of and it cannot be affirmed that in any Religious Capacity whatsoever they are now at all owned by God as his Church and People as once they were neither Parents nor Children But for the most part remain broken off and Unchurched to this Day And if you say That they and their Children being broken off We and our Children are Ingraffed in their Room This is that which remains to be proved and indeed the
contrary is manifest as hath been already with abundant Evidence Demonstrated in the foregoing Parts of this Discourse since the Axe of the Gospel is now laid unto the Root of the Trees and every Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down in respect of any further Church Priviledge which before was Indulged unto them which clearly cuts off the pretence of Children unto any such Priviledge under the Gospel as well as all other Vnfruitful Branches Thirdly Whereas he tells us of their Parents Dedicating and Devoting them to God and his Service And that the Children of the Roathites of a Month Old were numbred with their Fathers as keeping the charge of the Sanctuary And that for the same Reason little Children were said to enter into Covenant with God when their Parents did so Deut. 29. 11 12. To this we Answer That it is indeed a very Pious and Commendable thing for Parents to Dedicate and Devote their Children to God and his Service and to this Purpose to train them up as soon as they are capable in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. But it doth not therefore follow that they can justly be Reputed Church-Members now till Converted and wrought upon by the Preaching of the Gospel unto them whatever they were under the Law as hath been before demonstrated § 3. And though the Kohathites of a Month Old were numbred with their Fathers as keeping the charge of the Sanctuary Evident it is that this was the proper Work of the Kohathites by God's special Direction in their several Generations and as they became to grow up to the Competency of Years an Actual discharge of that Duty was required of them This being an External Service which by God's special Direction was peculiarly Incumbent on all that were of that Lineage But what signifies this to prove the Church-Membership of Infants under the Gospel § 4. And as little signifies that which follows when he tells us That for the same Reason little Children were said to enter into Covenant with God when their Parents did so Deut. 29. 11 12. For though 't is true thus it was under the Law yet this proves not the Point in dispute For as we have already said That Covenant which God made with his People when he took them by the Hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt because of the Faultiness of it is now Abolished That Covenant saith God they brake they continued not it and I regarded them not So that though Infants were Visible Members of the Legal Church yet that was by a Positive Law and that which is now Abolished Shew us the like now or you say nothing SECT IX MR. Baxter indeed tells us in his Book called Plain Scripture Proof of Infants Church-Membership and Baptism p. 57 58. That the Covenant mentioned in the fore-cited Text Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Where Children are Represented as Fellow-Covenanters with their Parents was a Covenant of Grace or a Gospel-Covenant and that therefore neither it nor the Church-Membership of Infants which saith he was built thereon or inseparably Conjunct is repealed For thus runs his Argument My 12th Argument saith he is from the forementioned Text in Deut. 29. 10 11 12. where all the Jews with all their little ones were entred into Covenant with God From whence I argue thus if the Covenant which those Infants who were then Church-Members were entred into with God was a Covenant of Grace or a Gospel-Covenant then it is not Repealed and consequently their Churchs Membership is not Repealed as being built on the Covenant or inseparably Conjunct But the said Covenant which the Infants who were then Church-Members did pass into was a Covenant of Grace as distinct from the Law which is Repealed Where by the way it may be observed that though Mr. Baxter affirms the Covenant mentioned Deut. 29. to be a Covenant of Grace or a Gospel-Covenant yet he doth here seem plainly to grant that the Law or Sinai Covenant was no other than a Covenant of Works and accordingly now Repealed Wherein Mr. Baxter is undoubtedly in the right though he therein directly câ—â—tâ—adicteth Mr. Roberts his Notion who affirms the Law or Sinai Covenant it self to be a Covenant of Faith in Christ Jesus The unsoundness whereof we shall have Occasion to discover in the following parts of this Discourse Therefore neither it nor their Church-Membership is Repealed So that if we can substantially prove that the Covenant mentioned Deut. 29. 10 11 12. was not a Covenant of Grace nor a Gospel 〈◊〉 but a legal Covenant and that which is now Repealed from hence it will unavoidably follow and that according to Mr. Baxter's own Concession that the Church-Membership of Infants which as himself affirms was built thereon or inseparably Conjunct is also Repealed with it § 3. Now that the Covenant there mentioned though there was Grace in it as there was in all the Covenants that God ever made with Men is not a Covenant of Grace properly so called whereof Christ is the Mediatour nor a Gospel but a Legal Covenant is Evident forasmuch as it is no other than a Repetition or Renewal of the Covenant made with that People in Horeb or at Mount Sinai when God took them by the Hand to lead them out of Egypt which was first mentioned Exod. 19. and that in the very Words and Terms as it is there Expressed That Covenant being now again solemnly Repeated and afresh Transacted between God and them in Deut. 29. as is manifest by comparing Exod. 19. 4 5. with Deut. 29. from the 1st to the 13th Verse As also the 24th and 25th verses of that Chapter And accordingly whereas in the first verse of this 29th of Deut. We are there told These are the Words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel in the Land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Mr. Pool in his Annotations upon this Text paraphraseth the words thus These are the Terms or Conditions upon which God hath made that is renewed Covenant with you The Covenant saith he was but one in Substance but various in the time and manner of its Administration And indeed as it is Evident that it is the same Covenant for Substance that was first made with them in Horeb So it is as Evident from the words themselves in this forecited text Deut 29. 1. That it was not a Covenant of Grace properly so caled but a Covenant of Works or a Legal Covenant which God renewed with the Israelites in the Land of Moab since Moses was the Mediator of it In which respect we are there expresly told that these are the words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel beside the Covenant he made with them in Horeb. Whereas the Covenant of Grace properly so called hath no other Mediator than Christ himself 1 Tim. 2 5. Who is
of Faith must of necessity according to the Apostles Reckoning be desirous of Returning to that old Bondage which Christ hath deliver'd us from and which the Apostle doth so earnestly Exhort us to avoid Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not Intangled again with the Yoke of Bondage § 8. But though Mount Sinai Covenant which answered to Jerusalem that then was is a Bondage Covenant The Gospel Covenant saith the Apostle which answereth to Jerusalem that is above is free which is the Mother of us all The Gospel Covenant therefore being a free Covenant It must not it ought not to be Blended or Mixt with that from Mount Sinai as if the one were the other and no difference at all to be made betwixt them onely in Respect of the different Degrees of the Discovery of Gospel Grace No saith the Apostle What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-Woman and her Son For the Son of the Bond-Woman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-Woman So then Brethren we are not Children of the Bond-Woman but of the Free In the 30. and 31. Verses of the forementioned 4th to the Galatians And this we must be And thus we must do as the Apostle here adviseth us unless we shall mingle Law and Gospel together Bondage and Liberty Works and Grace Death and Life And a ministration of Condemnation with that of Righteousness and Peace Which would be no other than as much as in us lies to overthrow the whole Gospel and to obscure darken and confound those truths that are of highest Importance And which ought therefore to be carefully and distinctly handled by us according to the different Services they are designed and appointed for SECT VIII BUT then we are yet further told by Mr. Sedgwick in his forementioned Discourse pag. 174. That that Covenant which was Confirmed by Bloud and Sprinkling which Typified the Bloud of Christ Gonfirming and Ratifying the Covenant was no Covenant of Works But the Covenant which God made then with the Israelites was Confirmed by Blood Exod. 24. 7. Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the Audience of the People And they said All that the Lord hath said we will do and be Obedient Vers 8. And Moses took the Blood and Sprinkled it on the People And said Behold the Bloud of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words Now this very place is quoted by the Apostle Heb. 9. 19. He Sprinkled both the Book and the People Vers 20. Saying This is the Bloud of the Testament which God hath Enjoyned you And expresly Interprets it and applies it to the Blood of Christ Vers 14. and Vers 23. And therefore that Covenant with that People was not a Covenant of Works which never was nor shall be Confirmed by the Bloud of Christ § 2. To which we Reply First That it is Evident that the Covenant the Bloud whereof Moses Sprinkled on the People in the forementioned Exod. 24. 7 8. Could not possibly be the Law Written in Stones which will appear in a diligent Examination of the words before and after Vers 3 4. Moses came and told the People all the words of the Lord and all the Judgments And all the People Answerd with one Voice and said All the words which the Lord hath spoken we will do And Moses Wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the Morning and builded an Altar c. Vers 5. And be sent Young Men of the Children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and Sacrificed Peace offerings of Oxen unto the Lord Vers 6. And Moses took half of the Bloud and put it in Basons And half of the Bloud be Sprinkled on the Altar Vers 7. And he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the Audience of the People And they said All that the Lord hath said we will do and be Obedient Vers 8. And Moses took the Bloud and Sprinkled it on the People and said behold the Bloud of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words Now that the Book of the Covenant here spoken of the Bloud whereof was thus Sprinkled on the People could not be the Law Written in Stones appears most evidently from the following words Vers 9. Then went up Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and Seventy of the Elders of Israel And they saw the God of Israel c. Vers 12. And the Lord said unto Moses Come up to me into the Mount and be there And I will give thee Tables of Stone and a Law and Commandments which I have Written that thou mayst teach them Wherein first we cannot but observe That whereas the words of the Covenant the Bloud whereof was Sprinkled on the People Vers 8. are expresly said Vers 4. to be Written by Moses So on the other hand the Law Written in Stones is here expresly said to be Written by God himself And Secondly It is also as evident that Moses had not as yet so much as received the Law Written in Stones from God till after he had Sprinkled the Bloud of the forementioned Covenant wherein the Statutes and Judgments were contained upon the People So that the Law Written in Stones therefore could not possibly be the Covenant the Bloud whereof was so sprinkled but was indeed another Covenant and delivered at a distinct Season and in a distinct Method the one uttered and declared by â—he Mouth of God himself in the Audience of all the People the other delivered unto them by the Mouth and Ministration of Moses onely The one Written with Gods own Finger in the two Tables of Stone the other Written in a Book by the Hand of Moses which is accordingly here called the Book of the Covenant by way of distinction from the Tables of Stone From whence by the way it clearly appears That that Covenant which as Moses elsewhere assures us God himself with his own Immediate Mouth and Voice declared unto Israel and that in the Audience of all the People Deut. 4. 10 11 12 13. was in this as well as in other respects as much a Covenant of Works as that made with our first Parent For if the Covenant made with Adam had no Mediator so neither had this 'T is plain indeed that God made use of the Ministration of Moses in the delivery of the Ceremonial Covenant but not so in the Promulgation of this For this was both Written and declared Immediately by the Hand and Mouth of God himself § 3. But to return Whereas Mr. Sedgwick tells us That that Covenant with that People which was Confirmed by Bloud and Sprinkling which Typified the Blood of Christ Confirming and Ratifying the Covenant was not a Covenant of Works which never was nor shall be Confirmed by the Blood of Christ and makes no distinction thereon between the Ceremonial Covenant that was Dedicated with Bloud