it is the dutie of all that are beleevers children of Abraham and will be blessed in Abrahams seed that is Christ to imitate Abrahams example in laying hold on the covenant for themselves and their children and giving them up to God even in their infancie by requiring the seale of the Covenant to be administred unto them and not to loose any part of that inheritance that God entayled upon Abraham and his children seeing as it hath been proved it is no peculiar priviledge of Abraham to have his seed in covenant nor his peculiar dutie to lay hold on the covenant for his children but the common priviledge and dutie of all the faithfull You proceed Therefore though the promises were made to Abraham and his seed yet the consequence will not follow that the covenant is likewise made with all beleevers and their seed for beleevers onely are the seed and the seed onely and none of them a father in the Gospel sense nor any other save onely Abraham to whom and his seed the covenant and promises were made Answ First If the consequence will not follow Because God is the God of Abraham and his seed Therefore he is to all the faithfull and their seed how is Abraham a father of the faithfull and patterne of beleevers Or how will it follow that Abraham performed any dutie or received any priviledge Therefore all beleevers ought to doe those duties may receive those priviledges Secondly your reason that you bring for your deniall of our consequence is a bold assertion manifestly repugnant to plain Scripture as Exod. 20.5.6 Where God having laid downe the summe of the covenant vers 2. bindes his people to his true worship and to avoid Idolatrie with a promise of mercy unto thousands of those that should love him and keepe his commandements Now these thousands are meant of the godly mans posteritie as appeareth by the Antithesis of vers 5. visiting the sinnes of the fathers on their children unto the third and fourth generation c. Doth not this promise belong to all that are in covenant with God and are bound to the obedience of the morall Law and to the pure worship of God and abstinence from idolatry so Esa 59. last vers Act. 2.37 What is meant by Gods shewing mercy to a thousand generations making a covenant that his Spirit and word shall be continued to their seed and seeds seed that the promise is made to them whom the Lord doth call and their children but the same that God promiseth unto Abraham that he will make a covenant with him and his seed be a God to him and his seed So that this answer to your boldly-affirmed but never-proved assertion that to Abraham and his seed onely the promise was made may suffice to overthrow the inferences you bring thereupon and your absurdities that you would father upon us mingled with divers untruths as may appeare to any intelligent Reader not worth answering Onely that which you lay downe in the beginning For beleevers onely are the seed and in the conclusion Abraham hath not two sorts of seeds in the sense and acceptation of the Gospel Vpon which as upon a ground-work of all your reasoning is built that the rottennesse of the foundation being discovered it may appeare how easily the superstruction will come down of it selfe I answer therefore Answ We read in the Gospell or new Testament of three sorts of Abrahams seed First Christ is called his seed Gal. 3.16 Secondly the faithfull of what Nation soever are called his seed Gal. 3.29 Thirdly those who naturally desended from his loynes Iohn 8.37 2. Cor. 11.22 And in this last kind to be Abrahams seed was sufficient to intresse men to the outward Covenant and the seale thereof and the promise was made to Abraham Gen. 17. literally and properly in this last sense not in the first or second as is apparent by the text For with that seed God made the Covenant in Abraham and to that seed God became a God which was to be circumcised at eight dayes old in respect of the males as you say the females in the males But the natural issue of Abraham was to be circumcised at 8 dayes old in respect of the males in them the females See Gen. 17.7.10.11.12 for proofe of both propositions Therfore the naturall issue of Abraham is the seed to which according to the litteral and proper meaning of the Scripture God promises to be a God in Covenant And so it appeares to be false which you say that beleevers only were the seed of Abraham sith many naturally descending from Abraham and circumcised and so outwardly in Covenant were unbeleevers You add that wee say Infants were then members of the Church and demand when they were cast out to which you answer that they were cast out when the Iewes Church-state and old Covenant was abrogate by the comming of Christ and preaching of the Gospell and planting of other Churches farre different from that of the Iewes in many respects Answ But I hope Gods people are not so simple as to beleeve your bare words against Gods expresse truth though you were an Angell from heaven or an Apostle Gal. 1. â— much lesse being as you are discovered and to think that in former times indeed Infants were in Covenant with God but now are excluded that now all Infants of christian parents dying without actuall faith and under yeares of discretion must certainly perish as aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and out of Covenant with God that grace is so farre straitned under the Gospell in comparison of what it was under the law that whereas God was then a God to parents and to children even to many generations yea to the children of Proselytes Exod. 12.48 of what Nation soever now the holyest Christian parents can apprehend no benefit from the Covenant for their children at least till they come to yeares of discretion and actuall faith and till then must accompt them infidells and wholly under the power of the devill Is this to advance Gods Grace to extoll the Gospell and glorifie Iesus Christ Or rather is it not a tricke of the devill greatly to obscure and indeavour the utter extinguishing of the glory of Gods grace the virtue of Christs death the lustre of the Gospell and the comfort of a Christian all at once They that will hearken to such deceits as these let them make account at the last to be cheated of all grounds of comfort in Gods word Act. 2.39 Doth not the Apostle say the promise is to you and your children and to them that are afarre off c. when the Iewes Church-state and old Covenant were abrogated But let us come to consider the many respects wherein you say that the Church of the Gospell differs from the Iewish state or old Covenant whence you would prove that Infants are now cast out of Covenant wherein because you repeat for substance some toyes and
commission bound them to baptize none but those which were brought to actuall faith you have not proved as may appeare by the foregoing examination of what you produced Secondly Why should not we interpret their commission by their practise rather then draw their practise to that sense which your fancy is pleased to put on the commission Their practise as a commentary on their commission shews in what sense it was understood by them Thirdly Why may not those places that speake of the beleeving of the family before they were baptized if you can produce any such be expounded by these that shew the heads of that the families beleeving and being baptized and giving up themselves and theirs unto God the whole families were accounted beleeving families and so baptized especially seeing it so agreeth with Gods proceeding with Abraham the father of the faithfull Fourthly Or what necessitie is there that either those Scriptures should be expounded by these or these by those when they are both equally plain and cleare They may be both true according to the proper sense of the letter and history In some families all might well be of ripe years and actuall beleevers in others not and yet both sorts might be baptized without absurditie Arg. 3 Those which are Saints or holy ones are meet members of the Church and so have right to that Sacrament that seales admission into the Church Eph. 5.25 26 27. 1 Cor. 1.2 But the children of Christian parents are Saints or holy ones Ephes 5.25 26 27. 1 Cor. 7.14 Therefore they are meet members of the Church and so have right to baptisme being the Sacrament that seales admission into the Christian Church The Proposition namely that Saints or holy ones are members of the Church and so to be admitted to the Sacrament of entrance thereinto I know not to be questioned or denied by any and if it should may be confirmed by those Scriptures wherein the Churches have the title of Saints given to them or Saints by calling implying that a Saint and a member of the Church are termes convertible considering that in some Epistles the faithfull are all called by the name of Church the name of Saints or holy ones not being used and contrariwise so that sometime the Apostle calls them to whom he writes Saints not Church sometime Church not Saints sometime both Church and Saints Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.2 Ephes 1.1 Phil. 1.1 Col. 1.2 Gal. 1.2 1 Thes 1.1 2 Thes 1.1 as may appeare in the places quoted in the margine so that all the members of the Church are Saints all Saints are members of the Church Yet it is to be noted by the way they were Saints by calling or called to be Saints Not so that every member of these Churches were truly sanctified but such as had beene called to holinesse and made at least an externall profession of obeying this heavenly call For some among those sanctified ones or Saints by calling were notorious offenders and such as were stained with grosse errours as 1 Cor. 3.3 5.1 2. 6.1.8.13 so Chap. 8.11 15. 2 Cor. 12.21 Gal. 3. Phil. 3.15 Yet it was sufficient to make them Saints by calling and members of the visible Church that they were partakers of the heavenly calling Heb. 3.1 and so they had externall right to the Sacrament although if they did not walke worthy their calling they brought upon themselves the greater condemnation Secondly it is confirmed hence In that holinesse comprehends all the conditions or qualifications that are requisite to baptisme Holinesse cannot be without communion with Christ regeneration and remission by the Spirit and Bloud of Christ 1 Cor. 6.11 1 Ioh. 1.7 So that as much as a man is holy so much he hath communion with Christ regeneration and remission If indeed and truth he be holy then is he inwardly and really united unto Christ regenerated and justified If outwardly and in profession onely he be holy then hath he communion with Christ regeneration and remission onely outwardly and in profession as Heb. 10.29 Those Apostates are said to account the bloud of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified prophane and to doe despite to the Spirit of Grace These were not truly and inwardly sanctified for then should they have never fallen away but onely outwardly faederally and in respect of externall profession Yet this externall holinesse is as much as the Minister can discern or require as necessary for receiving into the outward covenant and admitting to the seale of entrance Thirdly this is confirmed by that Scripture cited in the Proposition Ephes 5.25 26 27. where it is shewed that the Church is sanctified and purged by Christ in the washing of water in the word that he might make it to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and unblameable Wherein these two propositions making for the confirmation of my Proposition are plainly contained First that the Church is sanctified by Christ and that it is an holy societie which holinesse is such a proper adjunct or unseparable propertie of the Church that whosoever is holy must needs be a member of the Church Secondly that this Church which Christ so loved for which he gave himselfe which he hath made holy he hath cleansed with the washing of water in the word which whether it be meant of the outward signe or thing signified in baptisme or rather both doth apparently shew that the whole Church and all the members thereof being holy have right to the outward washing of water in baptisme To the Minor or Assumption That the children of Christian parents are holy First it might be proved from the same place Ephes 5.25 26 27. For otherwise unlesse it be granted that all the children of Christian parents are so faederally holy that at least some of them are sanctified in deed and truth it will follow that they are not loved of Christ none of those for whom Christ gave himselfe nor part of the Church at least in their infancie and consequently those children of Christian parents that die before the years of discretion and actuall faith must unavoidably and remedilesly perish and that the parents of such can have no hope at all of their escaping eternall damnation not withstanding all the promises that God hath made to his people and their posteritie which opinion what Christian heart doth not abhorre Secondly but for the fuller proofe of the point that children of parents whereof the one at least is a beleever are holy that place 1 Cor. 7.14 is most direct and cleare where the Apostle saith For the unbeleeving husband is sanctified by the wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the unbeleeving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children uncleane but now they are holy whence we may note First that the word holy is the same that is used else-where for Saints as the proper title of the members
fancies of your owne braine that you have vented before I will not think it burdensom to answer you though in some things the same for substance that hath been said before That you say viz. the Iewish Church-state and old Covenant being constituted upon nature and the naturall seed of Abraham Answ I pray you can you tell what you meane when you say that the Iewes Church-state was constituted upon nature and the naturall seed of Abraham I am sure you speake not according to Scripture that I say not nor according to sense or reason As far as I can apprehend when you say it was built upon nature If you have any meaning in these words and doe not let them fall from you at randome it must be understood either first that nature was the ground cause of this covenant or secondly that naturall blessings were onely bestowed in this covenant or thirdly that this covenant was made onely with the naturall children of Abraham all which are manifestly false For first if your meaning be that this covenant was grounded on nature so that nature was the cause of it you must either meane the nature of God as contradistinguish't to his will and good pleasure or the nature of Abraham The nature of God was not the cause of it for what God doth by nature his nature being the cause he doth eternally necessarily unchangeably so as he cannot but doe it as to know himselfe and all things knowable to love himselfe Or if you meane that the nature of Abraham was the ground of this covenant it is as false for there was nothing in Abraham by nature that put difference between him and others Deut. 7. Iosh 24. Rom. 4. Or if you meane God onely bestowed temporall blessings in this covenant that is palpably and execrably false also God was their God in the old covenant circumcised their heart to love him feare him and obey him and trust in him he gave remission of sinnes and sanctification under that Covenant which were not naturall blessings Or thirdly if you meane that that Covenant was made with Abrahams naturall posteritie there is no appearance of truth in it for bond-men and those that were bought with money and Proselytes of any nation or stock whatsoever were admitted into this Covenant Gen. 17. Exod. 12. You adde This to wit the Christian Church-state upon grace and the spirituall seed of Abraham Answ So was the old Covenant to use your phrase constituted on grace Gods free favour was the cause of it and the graces of the Spirit bestowed as truly under it though not so plentifully and clearely as now as these phrases expresse Gen. 17. Deut. 30. Mal. 2.5 I am God all-sufficient I will be thy God I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God c. My Covenant was with him of life and peace Secondly if you meane by the spirituall seed of Abraham Iesus Christ the seed of the woman that was to breake the Serpents head Gen. 3. Joh. 8. Rev. 13. 1 Tim. 2. in whom the Covevant was made with our first parents fallen at the seeing of whose day Abraham rejoyced in whom God promises that all the Nations of the earth should be blessed the old Covenant was made with Abraham in him who is the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the world who is the onely Mediatour between God and man and by whom alone Abraham and all the faithfull have had communion with God You adde That therefore termed Israel according to the flesh and of the circumcision of the flesh this Israel according to the spirit and of the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.28 29. 4 6 7 8. Col. 2.11 Answ No such thing appeareth in those Scriptures Take heed how you falsifie Gods word would you perswade men that God gave not circumcision of heart under the old Covenant that because all were not right Israelites that were Abrahams seed therefore none were that because he is not a Iew that is one outwardly therefore none under the old covenant were inwardly Iews because true Christians are circumcised with a circumcision without hands therefore the Iewes were not circumcised but onely with hands not spiritually Let any man examine those Scriptures and see whether from thē it can be gathered that all under the old covenant had onely circumcision of the flesh and that all under the new covenant have circumcision of the spirit It will appeare to any judicious Reader that here are two or three notorious falsehoods with a grosse perverting of Scripture in this short sentence The first That the Iewish Church-state or old covenant is called Israel according to the flesh or circumcision of the flesh but the Gospel-state Israel according to the spirit or the circumcision of the heart wherein are infolded more untruths then one Secondly that therefore they are so called because that was constituted on the naturall seed of Abraham c. The abuse of Scripture appeares that these Scriptures neither prove the antecedent nor sequele nor consequent neither make any thing for his purpose as if it would not be overtedious to stand upon and needlesse to any men of judgement might be shewed But such uttering of falshoods and then propping them with Scriptures to abuse the simple is ordinary almost in every page and sometimes frequent in one page as may appeare by the answer though I have not said so much in expresse words before neither should have said so now but that I consider such is the weaknesse of some Readers that what they read if Scripture be brought for proofe thereof though never so impertinently abusively and perversely they thinke it must goe for currant Thirdly that you say a state of bondmen or servants so as in that state an heire or beleever differed nothing from a servant though he were lord of all c. Gal. 4.7 Answ That under the Old Testament the Church of the Iews was an heire yea lord of all though in regard of its infancie and immaturitie nothing differing from a servant as being held under the tutourship of the Law this I say is sufficient to prove that the Church of the Iewes and the Christian Church is one and the same for substance and under the same Covenant in all essentialls For all know that a sonne and heire is the same for substance and in person at three yeares old and at thirty though altered in some accidentall priviledges at riper yeares And hence your fancie of the Iewish Church being constituted on nature is quite overthrowne For if the Iewish Church was heire and lord of all beleevers were then children though in minoritie and under tutourship How were they children not by nature for Christ onely is the Sonne of God by nature therefore by grace and so they were under a Covenant of Grace Thus powerfull is the word of truth to overthrow those errours that ignorant men would abuse and force it