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A47399 [The ax laid to the root, or, One blow more at the foundation of infant baptism and church-membership containing an exposition of that metaphorical text of Holy Scripture, Mat. 3, 10]. Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704. 1693 (1693) Wing K48_pt2; ESTC R20690 57,342 56

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Water is applyed to the Body If it were so that all that were Baptised were Regenerated then all that were Baptised should be saved or e●se the Doctrine of Perseverance falls ●o the Ground And again he says That some indeed say That Regeneration is conferred in Bapti●m upon the Elect but how so active a principle as a spiritual Life should lye d●a● and sleep to lo●g even many Years which intervene between Baptism and Conversion is not easily conceivable Charnock on Regen p. 75. Sir Do but prove what you here affirm and I will write no more against Infant-Baptism and till that 's done all you say is nothing in my Judgment But to proceed Such a Commission you speak of would not in your sense Authorize those Twelve Elders of Israel to go and Teach and Circumcise the Jews and their Children only but all others in all Nations of the World this would be an easie way of making People Christians But Sir The Gospel whatsoever you think according to our Doctrine is more extensive then was the Law to the Jews for that was restrained to that People He sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgments to Israel He hath not dealt so with any nation for his judgments they have not known them Psal. 147.19 20. But the Gospel is not restrained or limited to any one particular People or Nation but it is to be preached to all the World and whosoever are made Disciples i. e. Do believe and are baptised shall be saved Mark 16.16 Not that we suppose Men can't be saved without Baptism for that makes no Person a Christian or a Disciple of Christ neither Young nor Old though 't is the Duty of Believers to submit thereto We doubt not but that the same spiritual and eternal Blessings which the Jewish dying Infants had by the Death and Merits of Christ then the dying Infants of Christians have now according to the Election of Grace But as touching the legal and external Privileges of the Jews we have proved in this Tract and elsewhere that they had many more in divers respects under the Law than those we Christians and our Children have under the Gospel As to those great Advantages Blessings and Privileges of the Covenant of Works which you talk of I wonder what they were for the Covenant of Works could not give Life no Justification nor Righteousness that could save by that Covenant no pardon of Sin but contrarywise Death Wrath and the Curse is denounced upon every Soul of Man for the breach of it How vain then are your Arguments in the Gospel is Life is Justification is Pardon of Sin to every Man that believeth To the Iew first and also to the Gentiles Rom. 1.16 Time would fail me to sh●w how absurd your Notions are to what almost all our Learned Protestant Divines have wrote about the Covenant of Works The Jewish Infants received no Soul Spiritual and Eternal Advantage by Circumcision What the chief Advantage or Profit was which they h●d thereby St. Paul tells us Rom. 3.1 2. Tho' it was commanded of God for the Ends and Designs I have already mention●d and if so What Benefit can any Infant receive by Baptism or rather Rantism which is a mere humane Innovation You confess it was instituted by the Church as a needful Thing p. 37. And the Church hath Instituted it because it is needful it was indeed never Instituted or Appointed by our Lord Jesus And as to that Custom among the Jews you speak of p. 7 8 of their Baptising Proselytes I have fully Answer'd it in my Treaty called The Rector Rectified p. 24 25. and in my Answer to the Athenian Society Sir you go upon a Mistake all along taking it for granted That Circumcision and other legal Rites were great spiritual Privileges for 't is no such Thing It was a Yoke of Bondage not to be born and a great Mercy it was to them that they were delivered from it Act. ●5 And therefore the Jews did they believe in Christ and see the Nature of and Tendency of Circumcision would never speak after that manner as you mention in p. 9. Viz Obj. I will rather be a Iew then a Christian because as soon as I own and profess their Faith my Child after such a Declaration is in covenant as well as my self and hath a Right to the Sign c. Answ. Sir The Jewish Childrens Right to Circumcision was not deferred till their Parents made a profession of Faith but as they were the natural Seed of Abraham as such it was the Command of God to Abraham that gave them that Right and nothing else Obj. So that by this account it plainly appears That denying Infants Baptism is an hindrance to the progress of the Holy Gospel Answ. True if Infant-Baptism doth make them Christians you say right it must follow That the denying them Baptism hinders the progress of the Gospel but this is false which you assert Baptism makes them not Christians we say none but Christ by his Spirit can Regenerate the Souls of Men or make them Christians True you may thereby give them the Name of Christians but can't give them the Nature of Christians you may deceive them and make them believe they were so made Christians and thereby undoe them eternally by relying upon a mere Cheat and Delusion This is a way to make false Christians counterfeit Christians What a Christian is he whose vile Nature was never changed You would do well to get a great Number of Ministers if Baptism does make Christians as I said before to go into the Heathen Nations and Baptise them and so make all the World Christians but if you know no other way for the progress of the Gospel then this of making Christians by Baptism God deliver the World from your way of Christianing the Nations You will not see That the Gospel Church is not National but only Congregational the Jewish Church in that differ'd from the Christian● For What is more clearer than this Christ's Church is called a Garden inclosed Christ's Flock is a little Flock Those who were added to the Church were separated either from the Jewish People or Heathen Nations were commanded to separate themselves and not to touch the unclean Thing Ye are not saith Christ of the World You would make whole Nations the Church and from the Commission inferr such a false Conclusion I have consider'd what you have said in p. 10 11. Sir When all the Pagan World are instructed and believe in Christ we will say they have a Right to the Sign i. e. Baptism but not till then hath one Soul a Right thereto prove what you say if you can i. e. That the Children of Christians as such are Christians as the Children of Iews were Iews or that Baptism makes any either old or young True Christians or regenerates their Souls 'T is not your bare Assertions or your Saying it that is worth any thing what Authority
to it since they are forced to fly to such an Argument as this to prove Circumcision to be a Gospel Covenant I shall not now enter upon the Debate Whether the Ceremonial Law was a part of the Covenant of Works or not tho' I must say I judge it was an Appendix to it and that it appertained to the First Covenant the Apostle affirms Heb. 9.1 They are to clear up this viz. How the Ceremonial Law is part of the First Covenant and yet no part of the Covenant of Works 2. Yet their Work lies not so much in that neither as it doth in this Respect viz. They are to prove That the Ceremonial Law was part of the Covenant of Grace which as yet none of them that I ever heard of have attempted to do tho' we grant it was a Shadow of it when they have proved that they have in the 3. Third Place another Task viz. To prove that Circumcision was ● part of the Ceremonial Law for tho' it was a Figure or a Sign yet it may be doubted of Whether it was a part of that Law or not Yet 4. It might be a part of or appertain unto the Sinai Covenant for 1 t is called a Covenant that 's evident but Where is the Ceremonial Law ●o called 2. It gave the Children of Israel an Assurance of the Sinai ●ovenant and that the Apostle calls The great and chiefest Adv●ntage ●hey had by it 3. It also was of the same nature and quality and had ●e like Promises annexed to it upon their Obedience and the same ●hreatning upon their Disobedience 4. It obliged those who were Cir●umcised to keep the said Law Gal. 5.3 It was I have proved of the ●●me Nature and Quality i. e. a Conditional Covenant and like Promise ●f Earthly Blessings and like Threatnings annexed to it Secondly Was not the Ceremonial Law a Part of that Law St. Paul ●alls The Hand-Writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary 〈◊〉 us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Col. 2.14 If Cir●●mcision was part of this Law sure it did not appertain to the Gospel or ●ew Covenant much less the Seal of it for then it could not be against us but for us not contrary to us but agreeable to us as a Choice Blessing 2. And if the Covenant of Circumcision was a Part of the Ceremonial Law 't is evident that Covenant is abolished and if the Covenant be cancelled or abolished What good will the Seal do them 3. That the Ceremonial Law was part of the First Covenant 't is evident Heb. 9.1 2. Then verily the First Covenant had also Ordinances of Divine Service and Worldly Sanctuary The Old Covenant comprehended not only the Sinai ministration as a Covenant of Works do this and live but also the whole Mosaical Oeconomy and Aronical Priesthood Sacrifices and all manner of shadowing Rites and Ordinances whatsoever amongst which Old Covenant Rites or Legal Ordinances Circumcision was one of the chief so that this makes against them 4. All the Holiness and Sanctification of the Ceremonial Law only appertained to the Flesh and therefore no part of the New Covenant Heb. 9.13 What tho' it was dedicated by Blood it was but Typical Blood Blood of Bulls and Goats that could not take away Sin purge the Conscience nor make any thing perfect Mr. Elton on Colossians speaking of Col. 2. ver 14. puts forth this Question viz. Quest. How were the Legal Ceremonies of the Jews a Hand-Writing of Ordinances Answ. I answer saith he they were so in regard of their Use to the Jews who in using them as it were Subscribed to their own Guiltiness of Death and Damnation In using Circumcision they made known they had ordinal Sin and were guilty of it their Washings shewed they were exceeding filthy in God's sight and so guilty of the Curse of the Law and so did their Sacrifices Hence God in infinite Mercy sent his Son to pay our Debts and he has satisfied Divine Justice and so has cancelled this Hand-Writing that witnessed our Guiltiness and bound us over to Punishment What good will it do them to grant That Circumcision was part of the Law I know not these Things considered For they evident it is were bound exactly to keep all the Laws Statutes and Ordinances of that Law which I think a Learned Man says were more then 300 nay and if they continued not in doing all these Things they were Cursed when they sate down and when they rose up whe● they went abroad and when they came home see Deut 27.20 to 26. Gal. ●● 10. Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of t●● Law to do them Mind it well all Things in the whole Book of the Law● not only the Ten Precepts but all things contained in the Ceremonial La● also 6. Therefore tho' the Blood of Bulls Goats and Heifers are called th● Blood of the Covenant yet it was not the Blood of the New Covenan● but of the Old neither the First Covenant was dedicated without Blood Heb. 9.18 True the Blood of the Old Covenant figured the Blood of the New yet that doth no more prove the Ceremonial Law was part of the New Covenant then the Shadow can be proved to be the Substance and therefore tho' those Sacrifices pointed to Christ yet that Law was part of the Covenant of Works i. e. no Life by it In those Sacrifices God's Soul had no Pleasure 7. Nor could they see or look beyond those things which are abolished see 2 Cor. 3.13 From hence I argue If the Ceremonial Law was a Hand-Writing i. e. a Bond or Obligation of Conviction Accusation and Condemnation to the Jews binding them farther to the Curse of the Moral Law it was no part of the Covenant of Grace but the former is true Ergo Therefore whatever gracious Design God had in it or however useful to the Elect yet in it self it was a Law of Works tho' given in Subserviency to the Gospel Law as the Sinai Law was 6. Obj. God gave himself to Abraham to be his God and the God of his Seed in the Covenant of Circumcision or made over himself by way of special Interest to them in it so Mr. Flavell positively affirms Therefore it was the Covenant of Grace Answ. I Answer This I am persuaded is the grand Cause of their great boldness and mistake in affirming the Covenant of Circumcision was the Covenant of Grace and therefore ought the more carefully to be Examined Considered and Answered for if Mr. Flavel and the rest of our Brethren are right in this Assertion i. e. That God gave himself in Circumcision to Abraham and to all his Seed to be their God by way of special Interest they say a great deal but this we deny 1. As to Abraham God gave himself to him to be his God yea gave him special Interest in himself but it was before he