Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	abraham_n	faith_n	perfect_a	4,924	5	9.0614	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41781	The infants advocate against the cruel doctrine of those Presbyterians who hold, that the greatest part of dying infants shall be damned : in answer to a book of Mr. Giles Firmin's entituled, Scripture warrant, &c. / by Tho. Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.	1688 (1688)	Wing G1538; ESTC R43209	26,760	32

so fierce against us for extending the Grace of God to all Men as being therein no respecter of Persons and yet shewing to Sinners the necessity of actual Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ as necessary to their Membership in the Church Militant by the Baptism of Repentance for Remission of Sins I say none so fierce against us as those who boast they are Abraham's Seed because descended from Gentiles who they suppose to be Believers But let me have a care I must now Answer for my self for Mr. Firmin demands of me Page 21. By what Scripture-Warrant do you reduce our Children into the state of the Children of Adam or Noah c. since we are never called their Children but only Abraham ' s whose Seed differ from theirs by a special Covenant made with Them and sealed with Them. To which of them did God say I will be the God of thy Seed and I will seal it But I reply These seem to me to be great swelling words of Vanity much worse in a Gentile than in a Jew And I would know what special Covenant hath God made with Mr. F. and his Seed which he hath denied to Tho. Grantham and his Seed But to the Question 1. I am far from denying Abraham's Fatherhood over the Faithful Christians but I deny that every Believer that hath an Infant is the Father of the Faithful And I deny many to have any right to that Title who boast much of it because they do not the works of Abraham but despise those that worship God according to his Will. Thus did not Abraham But thus does Mr. Firmin 2. I find that Adam was the Son of God Luke 3. Whether called so meerly for his Creation or for that after the Promise Gen. 3. 15. He walked with God or for both I will not dispute And I find that Christ's Descent is reckoned from Adam and the Saviour of the World was first promised to him and to proceed from him and therein was the Covenant of Grace in the first place made with him and in him with all Mankind who then were in him Nor do I find that this gracious Covenant was ever repealed but is in force to this day as is granted by Mr. Baxter 3. I find that Noah found Grace in the sight of the Lord being righteous before God. And I know that Mr. Baxter and other Learned Christians acknowledg the Covenant made with Noah and his Generations to be a Covenant of Grace and of perpetual Duration being indeed the renewal of the Covenant made with Adam I find also that Noah became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith and that his Faith did lead him to believe that which was as difficult to Sense as that Abraham should have a Son viz. That the whole World should be Drowned His Faith also was made perfect by Works for Whatsoever the Lord Commanded that did Noah 4. I find that all men from the time of the Flood are the Generations of Noah and that he was perfect in his Generation a Just Man and one that walketh with God and as one of his Sons proved wicked so did one of the Sons of Abraham I do also find in Scripture that we are all called the Sons of Adam To you O Men I call and my Voice is to the Sons of Adam or Man Prov. 8. 4. And as the Sons of Adam God shews them what is Good even to do Justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly with their God Mich. 6. Now from these Scripture-Warrants I honour my Great Grandfather Adam because to him was committed the first Oracles of God making known the Covenant of Grace I honour my Grandfather Noah because he was Heir of the Righteousness of Faith and had the second Edition of the Covenant of Grace extended to all his Generations till by Sin they eject themselves I likewise honour my Father Abraham because he had the third Edition of the Covenant of Grace as a Blessing to all Nations or to all the Families of the Earth Gen. 12. And also for that God was pleased to choose his Posterity as the People from whom Men should look for their Saviour with respect to his Descent according to the Flesh and of this Covenant as also of the Land of Promise was Circumcision given as a Sign to his Posterity that they might not mix with other Nations in Life or Religion but to Abraham himself as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith which he had near 30 Years before he was Circumcised But for all this I know that in Gospel-times unless we crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts we cannot be Abraham ' s Seed nor Heirs according to the Promise Gal. 3. 29. And the Seal of our Sonship and Right to the Inheritance is the Holy Spirit Ephes 1. 13. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes 4. 30. Mr. Firmin Now suppose that were true which is the great business of your Pamphlet to prove that all dying Infants are saved That thereby you may take off the Odium which lies upon you for shutting the Children of Believers out of the Church and denying them Baptism they being under the Covenant of Grace made with Adam as you say Tell me Is this Covenant of God with Abraham's Seed in vain Does the holy One make vain Covenants As to his Seed they were well enough before If Isaac die before the 8th day he is saved so that this Covenant might have been spared Answer 1. I hav● said enough to shew that Abraham's Covenant Gen. 17. was not in vain but I am sure you here make a vain use of it For had Isaac died before he was Eight Days old in your Judgment he had not been saved and consequently no Male Infants which died before they were Circumcised were saved This is that wretched Doctrine which I oppose And seeing you make Baptism as necessary to Salvation as Circumcision was and call it the Seal of the Covenant you either make Infants which die unbaptized saved by an unsealed Covenant as you speak or else you damn all Infants which die unbaptized No other sense can be made of your strange Questions P. 73. Your Question is this Are they all Justified and Saved then it must be by a Covenant of Grace And shall they be under the Covenant so as to be in a justified and saved state by it and not have the Seal of the Covenant As if the Covenant of Grace were of no use to poor Infants without the Crossing Sprinkling or as you Pouring a little Water on their Forehead for which you have no Rule at all in the Word of God. I cannot but admire your great Blindness 2. The Covenant of Circumcision might not now be spared because God had now designed to honour Abraham's Faith and to make him and his Posterity famous both for Multitude Religion and other Excellencies but chiefly to point out all Nations from whence to look for a Saviour which