Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	time_n	1,642	5	3.9468	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

under the Law we deny not but that the natural Seed or Progeny of Abraham were all Holy with an External Ceremonial Typical Holiness and consequently they were then admitted to an external Participation of Church Privileges yet now 't is otherwise Old things are passed away and all things are become new now we know no Man after the Flesh 2. Cor. 5.16 17. That Old Church State is dissolved and manner of Admission into it by external Birth Privileges or ●●●●●ive Covenant Holiness and 't is very evident this was effected by the Death of Christ See Eph. 2.14 For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us Having abolished in his flesh even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making Peace vers 15. The Legal External Covenant made with the Jews whilst it abode was a Wall of Separation or Partition between them and the Gentiles and caused Enmity in them both in the Jews because they contemned the Gentiles as a People Unclean and Abominable not being Circumcised they Hated them And the poor Gentiles they seeing themselves out of the Covenant and so deemed Strangers and Foreigners and without God in the World they envied the Jews But now Jesus Christ has broken down this Wall of Partition and slain the Enmity that was between them which was the Ceremonial Law and Covenant of Circumcision and all other external Privileges as they were God's peculiar Covenant People and these being abolished and gone now both Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ and become one new Body or Church viz. A Christian Gospel Church And hence he adds And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross ver 16. That is The outward Wall of Jewish Rites and Privileges being gone Christ thereby designed to bring both Jew and Gentile viz. all the Elect unto God and both into one Church State no Person nor People now having any external Privilege above others by the Gospel Covenant And if the Jews external Birth-Privileges were a Wall of Partition between them and the Gentiles let Men take heed how they set up another like Wall of Partition among them who are Believers and their Seed and Unbelieving Gentiles and their Seed lest that prove a ground and cause of like Enmity between believing and unbelieving Gentiles as the Old Rites and Covenant Privileges did between Jews and Gentiles But to open that Text Rom. 11.16 a little more fully as I have formerly done 't is evident the Apostle in the 9th and 10th Chapters to the Romans is treating of the Election of Grace and of the Covenant of Grace God made with Abraham These were his People which he had not cast away chap. 10.1 And of this sort God had 7000 in Elias's Days ver 4. Even so saith he at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace ver 5. Hence he says What then Israel hath not obtained c. but the Election hath obtained and the rest were blinded ver 7. He farther shews That abundance of the natural Seed of Abraham were broken off How were they broken off Why for their Unbelief they not Receiving Christ but Rejected Him and the Gospel And the New Church State were broken off but that the Gentiles might not boast over them the Apostle shews There is ground left to believe all those that belong to the Election of Grace shall in God's due time be brought in again and so partake of the Blessings of the Gospel Covenant or Promise of Grace made to Abraham's spiritual Seed and to prove this he in ver 16. lays down an Argument For if the First-fruits be Holy the Lump is also Holy and if the Root be Holy so are the Branches By the Root I understand as I said before Abraham is meant Root and Father signifying here the same thing Abraham being counted the Root or Father as God represents him not only of his own natural Off-spring but of all that believe or the Root of all his true holy and spiritual Seed and so intended here By the First-fruits may be meant Isaac Iacob and all the Holy Patriarchs for they were given to Abraham as the First-fruits of the Covenant of Grace or Free Promise of God to him and these were Holy with a true spiritual personal and inherent Holiness Also Thirdly By the Lump may be meant and doubtless is the whole Body of the Elect or spiritual Seed of Abraham from the time the First fruits were given to him untill the Gospel Days or whole Lump of God's true Israel who also were all Holy as the Root and First-fruits were Holy Fourthly by the Branches he means the true spiritual Seed of Abraham or the Elect Seed that then were living at that present time as ver 5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the Election of Grace And these were Holy likewise even as all the rest both as the Root First-fruits and Lump or whole Body were Holy that is all the the spiritual Seed of Abraham were like himself viz. Holy in a Gospel Sense with a personal and inherent Holiness Now observe he speaks of some Branches that were broken off these seemed to be Branches or Children of Abraham And so they were according to the Flesh but were like those Branches in Christ who bear no Fruit Joh. 15.2 3 4. and therefore taken away he alludes to the natural Seed of Abraham to whom he stood not as a spiritual Father or Root but as a natural and legal Father as they were a National Church and sprang from him as such to whom the external legal Covenant was made and these as such for rejecting of Christ were broken off 1. Not broken off from the Election of Grace for to that they did not belong 2. Nor were they broken off of the Gospel Church for they never were grafted into that but 3 dly they were broken off from being any more a Church or People in Covenant with God the whole Old Church State and Constitution being gone by the coming in of the Gospel Dispensation and they not closing in with Christ in the Covenant of Grace and Gospel Church but utterly rejected him and the New Church State For this they were broken off as a lost People because not re-planted or implanted into Jesus Christ and the true Gospel Church the Old being gone quite rased and taken away They have now no Root to stand upon having lost their Legal standing and Privileges as Abraham was their Father upon that very Foot of Account and they not appearing to be the true Branches or Seed of Abraham as he was the Father of all the Faithful or of all the Elect Seed they must of necessity from hence be broken off from being the People of God or belonging to any Common Head or Root in any

Covenant Relation to God at all The Dispensation being changed the Old House pulled down Agar and her Son cast out Old things past away and all things being now become New But this New State New Blessings and New Church Privileges they rejected and so were the natural Branches broken off and the Gentiles who were wild by Nature that is never were in any visible Covenant State with God nor in any sense related to Abraham as a Root were grafted into the True Olive Jesus Christ and into the Gospel Church and so Partakers of the sap and fatness of the Root and of the Olive that is of the spiritual Blessings of Christ and of the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham and Privileges of the Gospel Church and this they received and partook of us as being first grafted by saving Faith in Christ and so united to his Mystical Body But since there are a great Number of the natural Branches that are beloved for their Father's sake that is for their Father Abraham's sake as the Root and Father of all the Elect Seed they shall in due time be grafted in again and so become a People visibly owned of God and in Covenant with him as the True Seed now actually are and formerly were And if this be considered What doth this Text do to prove the natural Seed of Believers are in the Gospel Covenant or are externally relatively and foederally Holy for if the natural Seed of Abraham can lay no claim nor have any Right to Gospel Precepts or Privileges as such but are broken off What ground is there for us to think within our selves that we or our natural Off-spring as such should be taken in and so another Wall of Partition and cause of Enmity set up between believing and unbelieving Gentiles and their Seed as such The Apostle speaks not of Branches or of being Holy with an external relative Covenant Holiness but of such a spiritual Gospel Holiness that was in the Root viz. Abraham who believed in God and it was counted to him for Righteousness And thus all his true spiritual Seed who are actual Branches and in Covenant are Holy and also all the Elect of Abraham not yet called are discretively Holy or in God's sight so who calls things that are not as if they were they are all Holy in his Account and beleved for their Father's sake with whom the Covenant of Grace was made for himself and all his spiritual Seed And 't is from this Argument the Apostle argues for the calling of the Iews and grafting them in who belong to the Election of Grace Therefore there is no ground for Infants Church Membership or Baptism from hence and those who make every Believer a common Head or Root of their natural Off-spring as Abraham was either way know not what they affirm nor what they say see Rector Rectified Moreover the Jews who were broken off are still the natural Seed of Abraham and if therefore this Holiness was an external relative foederal Holiness they are still in that Sense Holy as far forth as any Child of believing Gentiles as such can be said to be but 't is evident this is not that Holiness of which the Apostle speaks nor is there any such Holiness under the Gospel Dispensation spoken of as to that Text in 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your Children unclean but now are they Holy this is so fully answered in that late Treatise Entituled The Rector Rectify'd c. that I shall speak nothing now to it for from the Scope of the place 't is evident the Apostle speaks of Matrimonial Sanctification and of the Holiness of Legitimation see pag. 134. to 140. so that there Mr. Rothwell hath his Arguments answered touching Infants faedoral Holiness under the Law c. Obj. 11. If the Children of Believers as such are not now under the Gospe● in Covenant with them and so to be admitted Members of the Church as formerly then the Privileges of the Gospel Covenant and Membership are straitned and fewer than they were under the Law Mr. R's Paedo-Baptismus pag. 2.3 Answ. 'T is not once to be supposed but that the External or Temporal Privileges of the Iews under the Law were more and larger as well as Church-Membership than those we have under the Gospel Dispensation since their Church was national and their Promises and Privileges consisting in earthly Blessings as they were a People considered in that old Covenant Relation for the Jewish Teachers or Priests of God had many external Privileges which no Gospel Minister can once pretend unto Minister's Sons had all a Right to the Ministry they had a Right to the Tenths of all their Brethren's Increase and first Fruits and a multitude of other Advantages besides viz. they had a Civil Government of their own Power to punish Capital Offenders with Death their Temporal Rulers were among themselves but Christ hath not set up such a Gospel political Church-State nor given such Power and such a Government to his Church under the Gospel what will be in the Kingdom of Christ in the last days we know not They had a lovely and fruitful Land given to them for their Inheritance that flowed with Milk and Honey they were promised outward Peace Riches and gathering of much Wealth so are not we they had a glorious external Temple and what not also all their natural Off-spring were born Members of their Church But none of these Privileges can we lay claim unto all that are to be admitted into the Gospel-Church have only a Right by Regeneration by the second Birth and not by the first Birth we are to expect Persecution and trouble in the World and not Peace and Prosperity Poverty and Want and not Riches or earthly Fulness yet our Privileges are better and greater under the Gospel than theirs were under the Law the Gospel Covenant being established upon better Promises Our Children when grown up sit under the clear and glorious Light and Preaching of the Gospel which they and theirs had then held forth but in dark shadows moreover the Par●ition Wall being now broken down the Gospel Church is not confin'd to the one People or Nation only but now all in all Nations of the World who believe and embrace Christ by saving Faith whether Iews or Gentiles are Joint-heirs together and have Interest in like spiritual Blessings now greater Infusions of the Spirit Alas what Privileges had the poor Gentiles under the Law and their Children Is not the matter well amended with us Sir this being so what is become of your Rational Arguments for Infant Baptism p. 2 3. Obj. 12. Circumcision in the very direct and primary End of it teached Man the Corruption of his Nature by sin and the Mortification of sin therefore 〈◊〉 Covenant of Works or Condition of it to this purpose Mr. Flavel speaks pag. 231. Answ. I answer though it should be granted that Circumcision had such an End yet that that was the direct