Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	bring_v	fruit_n	tree_n	3,146	5	8.3016	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47391	The ax laid to the root, or, One blow more at the foundation of infant baptism, and church-membership. Part I containing an exposition of that metaphorical text of Holy Scripture, Mat. 3. 10. : being the substance of two sermons lately preached, with some additions, wherein is shewed that God made a two-fold covenant with Abraham, and that circumcision appertained not to the covenant of grace, but to the legal and external covenant God made with Abraham's natural seed, as such : together with an answer to Mr. John Flavel's last grand arguments in his Vindiciarum Vindex, in his last reply to Mr. Philip Cary, also to Mr. Rothwell's Pædo-baptisms vindicatur, as to what seems most material / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.; Rothwell, Edward, d. 1731. Paedobaptismus vindicatus.	1693 (1693)	Wing K47; ESTC R39052	37,123	40

wickedly Christ 't is true dyed for Sinners but you have no True Faith in him he dyed to save Sinners from their Sins and that they might live to him See my Text now the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees if you believe not on Christ if you are not made new Creatures 1 Cor. 5. 17. the Ax will cut you down and that with Vengeance and Wrath will at last cast you into the Fire you must learn to know the way of Salvation and how the Mercy of God shines forth in a Mediator Christ hath satisfied his Justice and by him you must come to God out of Christ he is a consuming fire Abused Mercy O Sinner will be turned at last into Fury except you obtain an Interest in Jesus Christ you are undone for the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. 3. Or are you Self-righteous Persons Do you build on your own Righteousness like the Jews and hypocritical Pharises you may be think your States Good because you are not Swearers Drunkards c. may be you read pray and hear Sermons and give to the Poor and do much good but if you build your Hopes of Heaven on these Things down this Ax will cut you also Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. nay you must be found in the Righteousness of Christ all ours is but dung Phil. 3. 8 9. you must in a word bring forth good fruit every Soul of you or perish and this you cannot do till your Hearts are changed and so you become good Trees make the tree good and then the fruit will be good an evil Tree cannot bring forth good fruit c. all Works of unregenerate Persons yea their Religious Duties are but dead Works not good fruits nor can they bring forth good Fruits unless they are planted by Faith into Jesus Christ nay I must tell you that Gospel-Holiness will not save us it must be the Righteousness of God by Faith Sermon II. MAT. III. 10. And now also the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees every Tree therefore that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire THE Proposition I am to prosecute you may remember is this considering the Context viz. Now the dispensation is changed to be of the natural root or the Seed of Abraham according to the flesh is no ground for Church Membership or no Argument to be admitted into the Gospel Church or to Gospel Baptism You say you have Abraham to your Father or you are the Children of Believers or you have believing Parents Well but what of this as if John should say this will do you no good now this will stand you now in no steed this will give you no Right to Gospel Ordinances nor particularly to Gospel Baptism ' tho' it did to Circumcision and Legal Ordinances and Jewish Church Membership For Hager and her Son are cast out that are the Old Covenant and the Fleshly Seed this old Root and Right now in Gospel Days is struck at The Ax is laid to the Roots of the Trees i. e. To your old standing on the Old Covenant Root as you are the lineal Seed of Abraham The time is come now that the Old Covenant and Covenant Seed are to be rooted up the old House and Constitution pulled down God is now about to build a new Temple and a more spiritual House a spiritual Temple of living Stones and rather then he will want Materials he can of these Stones raise up Children unto believing Abraham and so make good the Covenant of Grace or Gospel Covenant made with him Now you must be united to a living Foundation i. e. Believe in Christ whose way I am come to prepare and make ready fit Matter for this new Building namely the Gospel Church which is not to be by natural descent from Abraham as such but only those who have the Faith of Abraham yea that Faith he had not in Circumcision but in Uncircumcision or before he was Circumcised You must grow out of a spiritual Root i. e. Be Married to Christ your first Husband i. e. The Law or Old Covenant is Just at the point of Death that so ye may bring forth Fruit to God Rom. 7. 4. But to proceed I shall prove this Proposition viz. That the Dispensation is now changed to be of that natural Root or National Church of the Jews or the Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh is no ground for Church Membership no argument for admittance into the Gospel Church or to Gospel Baptism 1. Because 't is positively said that there is a change of the whole Law i. e. The Levitical Priesthood legal Ordinance legal Church and legal Church Membership are changed and gone that so the betterCovenant and more spiritual Church and Church Membership might be established For the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law Heb. 7. 12. 'T is so changed as 't is abolished to make way for this as the late Annotators observe the mutation of the Priesthood indispensably requireth the change of the legal Covenant which hereafter I shall prove was not the Covenant of Grace but is directly called the Old Covenant the Covenant of Grace is but one and that never changeth This was made necessary by the Decree of God as they note who determined that both the Priesthood and Law should expire together like say I as an old Will or Testament doth when the Testator hath made and confirmed his Last Will and Testament When Christ the Gospel High-Priest had saith our Annotations in his own Person and Work perfected all of it in Heaven he roots out that Order of Priesthood and demolished the Temple and City to which he confined the Administration and scatters the People which would cleave to it so as all Designs and Endeavours of Jews or of Apostate Christian to repair or restore it hath been ineffectual to this Day What can be more clear Sirs then this that the Old House or Right of Church-Membership is overturned at the very Root for If the Covenant for Incovenanting the Fleshly Seed is changed or abolished and no new Law or new Precept is given forth for the bringing them in again What Ground is there left for any wise seeing and faithful Man to Plead for Infants Church-Membership but it is evident the former is true i. e. that Covenant by virtue of which they had Right to Circumcision and Church Membership or out of which Root that sprang is gone changed and abolished for ever and no new Law or Precept is given forth for the bringing them into the Gospel-Church as such To this Text let me add another which farther confirms it 2. For if that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for

but revealed Things to us and to our Children 3. But if we did know which Infants would dye who do belong to the Election of Grace or are in Covenant with God yet we ought not to Baptize them because we have no Command from Jesus Christ so to do for it was not the Right of Infants to be Circumcised because they were in the Covenant of Grace for then all other godly Mens Children who lived in Abraham's Days would have had the same Right that Abraham's Children had nor was it the Right of Abraham's Infants whether considered as his natural Seed or spiritual Seed as such but it was their Right only By that mere express and positive Command of God to Abraham it was that I say gave all his Male Infants a Right to Circumcision and nothing else Now Baptism is also a mere positive Precept as Circumcision was then Therefore none have a Right thereto but such whom Christ commands to be Baptized namely Believers Was Abraham's Females or his Males under Eight Days old Circumcised or Had they any Right unto it tho' they might be in the Covenant of Grace 11thly All those that were in the Covenant of Grace God made with Abraham had thereby an undoubted Right to all the Blessings of the said Covenant and also had the Privileges and Blessings thereof by the Spirit of God Sealed to them and were made sure of eternal Life but all those that were in the Covenant of Circumcision God made with Abraham or were Circumcised had not thereby an undoubted Right to all the Blessings of the said Covenant nor had they the Privileges and Blessings thereof Sealed to them nor was eternal Life made sure to them thereby Therefore the Covenant of Circumcision was not the Covenant of Grace nor the Seal thereof The major is clear from Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed What Seed doth the Apostle mean certainly all Abraham's Seed that the Covenant of Grace was made with and none will deny but that the Promise here comprehends all the Blessings and Privileges of the Covenant of Grace compare this with that in Heb. 6. For when God made promise to Abraham because he could not swear by no greater he swear by himself ver 13. Saying surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee ver 14. And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise ver 15. For men verily swear by the greater and an oath of confirmation is to them an end of all strife ver 16. Wherein God is willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath ver 17. The Promise here referrs to the Promise or Covenant of Grace made with Abraham and 't is as sure to all his Seed comprehended in that same Covenant as possibly can be the very Oath of God is added besides his faithful Word to confirm it as to the minor sure none can Dream that Ishmael or Esau or the ungodly Jews that sprung from 〈◊〉 Loyns in their Generations till Christ came had undoubted Right to and Interest in all the Blessings and Privileges of the Covenant of Grace or eternal Life made sure to them do not we read that some of them were called Sons of Belial and of some of them our Saviour saith they were of their Father the Devil 12thly All those that were in the Covenant of Grace God made with Abraham had thereby a sure and strong Ground of Consolation that is Spiritual Consolation but many of them 〈◊〉 were comprehended in the Covenant of Circumcision had not thereby a sure and strong Ground of Consolation that is spiritual Consolation therefore the Covenant of Circumcision was not the Covenant of Grace see Heb. 6. 18. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have strange consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as the anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth into that within the veil Now certainly no Man can think all that the Covenant of Circumcision did belong unto had such sure and strong Ground of Consolation thereby for Ishmael had none Esau had none and Multitudes more of Abraham's natural Seed APPLICATION First I May infer from hence That they who bring Infants of Believers into the Gospel Covenant or Gospel Church err exceedingly and are severely to be reprehended there being not the least Shadow of Ground for their Practice herein from the Covenant God made with Abraham Secondly It also appears from hence That the main Pillar of Infants Baptism is rooted up the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees the external or natural Off-spring of Abraham or by Descent from an external Faedoral or Covenant Relation to him or as they are the carnal Off-spring of Believers Thirdly From hence also I inferr That the Children of Believing Gentiles as such are not the Seed of Abraham to whom the Covenant of Grace was made Nay let me tell you that it appears from hence That the Children of Believing Gentiles as such are neither the natural Seed of Abraham nor his spiritual Seed which to open yet more fully let us now consider all the distinct Sorts of Abraham's Seed which I find were Fourfold 1. Christ personally considered to Abraham and his Seed was the Promise made he saith Not as of seeds as to many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Gal. 3. 16. Now as the Promise referrs to Christ so the Infants of believing Gentiles all will say are not Abraham's Seed 2. All the Elect or whole Body of Believers who have the Faith of Abraham and walk in the Steps of Abraham these are called Abraham's Seed Now none can be so blind as once to suppose the Children of Believing Gentiles as such are the Seed of Abraham Can Infants believe in God as Abraham did or Can they walk in his Steps or which is more are their natural Off-spring as such of the Election of Grace Doth it appear so or Doth it not appear to the contrary viz. Do not many of their Seed prove wicked and ungodly Persons and so liveand dye Certainly were they all as such Elected they should be all Converted we are chosen to be Holy c. Eph. 14. 4. and if you be Christ's then are you Abraham 's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise Gal. 3. 29. 3. There was another i. e. a Natural Seed of Abraham to whom the Promise was made and that was Isaac Gen. 21. 22. but the Children of believing Gentiles as such or as so considered are not Isaac in that respect they cannot be the Seed of Abraham Isaac was begotten of Abraham's natural Body according to the Flesh and all spiritual Isaac's are regenerated Persons Gal. 4. 28. 4. We