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A31095 A brief and plain discovery of the falseness and unscripturalness of anabaptism as the same is now practised by those of that perswasion, w[here]in are plainly proved from God's word the five particulars here handled, that God's covenant with Abraham, Gen. 17.7. is the Covenant of grace whereby all God's elect are saved ... / by Ja. Barry, an unworthy minister of the Gospel. Barry, James, fl. 1650-1702. 1699 (1699) Wing B968; ESTC R34200 57,378 134

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present thee Blameless before the Throne of my Glorious Holiness in the Third Heaven is Subjectively Inherent in the Person of God-Man thy Mediator and Surety to this Mediatorial Righteousness of his thou shalt add nothing neither thy own Personal qualifications nor yet the Holiness of Saints or Angels as if thereby thou couldest be made more Acceptable than that Righteousness of his doth make thee Thou shalt keep my Covenant both thou and all thy Ecclesiastical or Church Seed throughout your Generations till my Son comes to Judge the World at the last day Thou and all thy Church Seed which Springs from thee by Fleshly Generation shall observe to have all your Males mark'd with Circumcision the visible Token and Seal of this my Gracious Covenant which I have now entred into with thee for thy self a stipulating Father and for all thy Children who are to be the Members of my Sons Mediatorial Kingdom or Visible Church on the Earth And when Christ my Son shall come in the Flesh and shall enter upon his Mediatorial Kingdom whatever visible Token or Seal he shal appoint to Succed in the Room of Circumcision thy Gentile Church Seed as well as Jews who are to believe in him shall carefully observe to be Sealed therewith both they and their Infants And that by Virtue of this my Covenant I now make with thee for thy self and them And to the end that neither thou nor thy Children in succeeding Ages may Be Ignorant of what my Will and Pleasure is concerning the Non-Elect who are to come and spring from Believing and Holy Parents in my visible Church or Churches I notifie to thee and thy Church Seed after thee throughout their Generations that my Soveraign Will and Pleasure is that all the Infants of my Believing Professing Church Membrs shall be markt with the Visible Token or Seal of this my Covenant in the Church whereof the Professing Parent or Parents are Members and that without any regard had to the Elect or Non-Elect For seeing that the Secrets of my Decrees and Counsels are known to my self alone I Will that thou and thy Church Seed after thee to the end of the World do in the Judgm●nt of rational Charity Judge all the Seed and Infant Posterity of my Professing People who have laid hold on my Covenant by an Eternal Visible Profession to belong to the Election and to own them for such untill they by open Apostacy and final Impenitency do manifest the contrary For albeit my Visible Churches do consist of Elect and Non Elect and the one as well as the other do partake of the Seal of my Covenant and are partakers of all Church Priviledges yet none shall ever partake internally and savingly of the inward Grace and Mercy Signified and Sealed by the Token and Seal of my Covenant in the Church Visible but the Elect only whose Names are particularly Registred in the Lamb's Book of Life And altho' the Non-Elect in my Church do fall short of the saving Benefits of my Covenant of Grace yet shall they find that I am no way behind with them for altho' I the Absolute Soveraign of the World be no way obliged to the Creature especially fallen Rebels yet seeing it is my Pleasure to Employ the Non-Elect in the Service of my Church while it is in a Militant State that those common Gifts of my Spirit wherewith they are to be endowed might be laid out and improved for the good and wellfare of my Elect and Chosen I will give them a Place in my Church that they shall be called by my Name and shall have an equal Right with mine Elect to the Seal of my Covenant and all outward helps and means of Salvation in the Church Visible whereby it shall plainly appear in the day of Judgment that their missing Heaven and falling short of Eternal Life was of their own Procurement Notwithstanding As is the Service wherein they are Employ'd in my Church I will give them a plentiful Recompence viz. a Temperal Reward in Lieu of a Temporal Service Such as Bodily Health Worldly Wealth Pleasures and Honours c. which are every way more suitable to their Spirit and are more sought and delighted in by them than are the things laid up for my Chosen Plain Instances hereof I have seen fit to leave on Record in the Persons of Ishmael and Isaac both born of Abraham according to the Flesh the one a Reprobate the other Elect both must be of the Church Visible and Sealed with the Visible Token and Seal of Gods Covenant with Abraham Of the same Nature is that of Esau and Jacob both born of Isaac according to Fleshly Generation yet the one a Reprobate and the other Elect both must be of the Visible Church and Sealed with the Seal of the Covenant and pass currant for Church Members before men untill they themselves make the contrary to appear As did Ishmael Esau c. And thus having as plainly and as briefly as I could for the information of those who are yet Ignorant of Abrahams Covenant Explained and shewn the Substance and Tenure of Gods Covenant with Abraham for himself and all his Ecclesiastical or Church Seed both Jews and Gentiles to the end of the World I come now to lay down some Scriptural Arguments to Prove that Gods Covenant with Abraham as now Explained is the Covenant of Grace which God Propounded to Abraham in Gen. 17.7 And not a Covenant of Works as the Anabaptists Teach it is That it is the Covenant of Grace and no other will evidently appear to any who look not asquint on the Arguments following Arg. 1. The first Argument is this If God never yet made a Covenant of Works with any mee● Man but that which he made with sinless Adam the Natural and Federal Head of all Mankind in the State of Innocency before the Fall Then God's Covenant with Abraham is the Covn ant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works But God never yet made a Covenant of Works with any meer Man but that which he made with sinless Adam the Natural and Federal Head of all Mankind in the State of Innocency before the Fall Therefore Gods Covenant with Abraham in Gen. 17.7 is the Covenant of Grace and no other Plain it is and none without Lying against God can deny it that God made a Covenant of Works with Adam and in him with all Mankind The Condition whereof was do and Live sin and Dye And as plain it is that Adam Fell by Transgressing that Covenant by which Fall he lost the Blessed Image of God to himself and all his Posterity whereby he and his Posterity became utterly uncapable of Life and Salvation by that Covenant Now Abraham being by natural Birth a Son of the first Adam and as such born under the Curse of Adam's Covenant and partaker of a sinful and polluted Nature which rendred him as uncapable of performing any Work which as a condition can Answer
it self The Covenant is briefly comprehended in these Words I will be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee For in these Words God Engages himself by free and absolute Promise to Abraham and to his Elect Church-Seed that he will be a God to him and them to do all things for them which are needful to compleat their Happiness both here and hereafter Secondly The Land of Canaan was promised not as it was any Essential part of the Covenant of Grace or as if real Blessedness consisted in the actual Enjoyment thereof But as the same was a Temporary Type of Heaven And for want of understanding and considering this very thing many who have thought themselves Wiser in the Mysteries of the Gospel than their Neighbours have prov'd themselves short of true Wisdom in this Particular at least To convince of this Mistake let that of our Saviour in Mat. 6.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness there of and all these things shall be added to you be weighed in the Ballance of an unprejudiced Consideration and to an Impartial Eye that looks not Asquint at these two places of Holy Scripture Gen. 17.7 and Mat. 6.33 it will most plainly appear that Temporal Blessings are held forth in one as well as in the other And if it must needs be granted that because God made the Promise of the Land of Canaan to Abraham c. that therefore God's Covenant with him and his was a Covenant of Works It will as necessarily follow that Believers to whom Christ directs his Speech in Mat. 6.33 are now under a Covenant of Works as well as Abraham was And so neither Abraham the Father of the Faithful nor any of his Seed the Elect I mean either of the Jewish or Gentile Race are like to be Saved or Enjoy God for their Portion And by this way of Arguing it will evidently appear to any seeing Man who shuts not his Eyes for fear of being convinced that while the Adversaries I now Oppose in this Controversy were employed in devising this Shift to prove God's Covenant with Abraham to be a Covenant of Works and that on purpose to exclude poor Infants from that Covenant and from Baptism the now Seal thereof they have insensibly shut both Abraham and themselves too out from being Saved And what advantage will hereby accrew to their Cause let it be improved to the utmost Object 2. It is again Objected If the Covenant in Gen. 17.7 be a Covenant of pure Grace and not a Covenant of Works and that all Abraham 's Children be alike Interested therein then doth Grace come by natural Generation contrary both to Scripture and Reason Answ The ground of the Objectors mistake Lyes in two things First His not distinguishing or considering that the Children of Believing Abraham are said to be in Covenant two Ways or in a twofold Respect First Internally by Virtue of God's Election And thus none are or ever shall be in Covenant but Abraham's Seed viz The Elect who are in Scripture by way of distinction styled the Children of Promise Typ'd out in the Person of Jsaac Gal. 4 28. These and they alone Partake in the saving benefits of the Covenant and have also a right to the visible Sign or Seal of the Covenant in the visible Churches of Christ under the Gospel Dispensation Secondly Externally by Virtue of the External Profession made in the Church And thus the Non-Elect as well as the Elect are said to be in Covenant with God in his Churches Visible here on Earth These Albeit they never partake in the saving Blessings of the Covenant yet by Virtue of the External Profession made they and their Infant-Seed though not Elect have an External Right in the Church Visible to the Token or Seal of Abraham's Covenant and to all other Priviledges and Ordinances in the Church whereof they are capable according to the Revealed Will of God By Virtue hereof it is that God calls such his People and he will have his Church to call and own them for such too until they manifest themselves to be otherwise and that by a voluntary Defection and final Apostacy Plain Instances hereof are Graphically set down in God's Word in the Persons of Ishmael and Esau in whose Persons the Reprobate Seed of Abraham were Allegorically typ'd out as the Elect Seed were Allegorically and Typically represented in the Persons of Isaac and Jacob The former of these Sprang from the Flesh of Abraham as well as the latter And on this account they had a place in the Visible Church and were marked with the Seal of God's Covenant as well as the latter They were esteemed and reckoned as God's Children and true Members of the Church until by Defection and Apostacy they discovered themselves to be otherwise If this Distinction be not allowed I cannot see how God can be orderly Worship't by any Visible Church on Earth This is the Summ and Substance of God's Covenant made with Abraham in Gen. 17.7 and with his Elect Seed c. And by Virtue of this Promise Abraham and with him all his Elect Seed would have been most Happy and eternally Blest had no Promise been made of the Land of Canaan So in like manner shall all true Believers with their Elect Seed be eternally Happy and Blest being made Partakers of the Righteousness of Christ intended in Mat. 6.33 Albeit such Believers and their Elect Seed should with Lazarus Die on a Dunghil for want of those Temporal Blessings held forth by Christ in the above-mentioned Promise which plainly demonstrates that the Promise which God made to Abraham of giving to him and to his Seed the Land of Canaan was no more an Essential part of the Covenant made with him and his Seed than the Promise held forth by Christ in the place above-named proves that Believers and their Elect Seed are now under a Covenant of Works All the difference which I can find between these two places is that the Promise in Gen. 17.7 was Typical of the Kingdom of Heaven The other is not so Were this Covenant of God made with Abraham the Father of the Faithful as he was a Stipulating and a Covenanting Representative in a Church Visible but rightly understood and believ'd with Application to Mens own Souls I am perswaded there would be neither Anabaptists nor Arminian in the World The Church of Rome Holds and Teaches that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion I am not ashamed to say it is the Mother of all Errors in Religion Neither am I afraid to affirm it to be both the Mother and Nurse of Anabaptism and Arminianism CHAP. II. Proving that Circumcision was a Seal of Gods Covenant of Grace made with Abraham and his Seed Arg. 1. EIther Circumcision was the external Token or Seal of Abraham's Covenant of Grace mentioned G. 1● 7. Or else that Covenant had no Seal at all The Adversary cannot avoid here H must either Grant or Deny