Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	abraham_n	faith_n	promise_n	3,454	5	7.6889	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63924	A vindication of infant baptism from the four chief objections brought against it ... : in a letter to Mr. **** / by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1699 (1699)	Wing T3321; ESTC R1870	31,861	38

alike But before I explain this Argument I cannot but observe to you by that little I have seen in these Controversies that the naming of such an Argument will raise some Mens Wonder who being quicker to wrangle about Words than to weigh the Reason of Things will break out into Exclamations and say Prove Baptism of Infants from the Example of God! Did Christ ever baptize an Infant Is there one Syllable of such a Practice in all Sacred Writ This must be the Old Thred-bare Argument from the Analogy between Baptism and Circumcision Infants under the Law or before it were Circumcised Ergo they may be Baptized and what a Non-sequitur is this But Sir after all that Raillery and Disdain with which this Argument is treated which has indeed been often urged and as often laughed at yet I must confess I cannot despise it but am perswaded that there is great Force in it if it be stated well and set in a true Light I do not then insist that one was a Type of the other nor argue from a bare Analogy as to Jewish Church Member-ship or the like but my Argument is this Baptism is now the Seal of the Covenant which was once sealed by Circumcision Infants were by God's own Command admitted then Ergo Infants may be admitted now Or thus God did admit Infants into a Covenant of Grace and Salvation thro' Jesus Christ and upon the Conditions of Faith and Obedience in that Covenant made with Abraham and confirmed by the Seal of Circumcision Baptism of Infants does but admit them into the same Covenant upon the same Conditions and as a Seal confirms that Covenant to them Ergo in Baptizing Infants we act by God's own Authority and Example for we do no more in baptizing them than by God's own Ordinance was done in Circumcising them The Rite indeed is changed it was Circumcising it is now Baptism What then The Use of both these Rites is still the same the One is a Seal of the Covenant of God and so is the Other a Seal of the same Covenant And so after all the pretended Non-sequiturs in this Argument from Circumcision to Baptism when the Use or main Design of both these Rites or Sacraments shall appear to be the same the Argument will have Force and the Change of the external Ordinances cannot lessen it In the Prosecution therefore of this Argument I have Two Things which you will challenge me to prove 1. That Circumcision when enjoyned Abraham was ordained to be the Seal of that Covenant which God made with him 2. That the Covenant with Abraham was the same with ours that is a Covenant of Grace and Salvation through Jesus Christ and upon the Conditions of Faith and Obedience And if these Propositions be found true the Consequence I think will be so clear as to want no Proof First That Circumcision when enjoyned Abraham was ordained to be the Seal of that Covenant which God made with him And this I think is very plain both from the Original Institution of Circumcision in the Old Law and the Explanations of it in the New As to the Old Testament God having made some Trial of Abraham by calling him out of his own Country and having found him readily observant in all that he commanded him declares Gen. 17. 2. that he will now establish a Covenant with him I will make my Covenant between me and thee and thou shall be a Father of many Nations Ver. 4. And again Ver. 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee And as every Contract among Men must have its Sanction and Establishment so here God declares after what Manner this Covenant should be confirmed Ver. 10. This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy Seed after thee every Man-Child among you shall be Circumcised Which Words do not make Circumcision the Substance of the Covenant but only the Manner of Establishing and Confirming it as appears from the following Verse And ye shall circumcise the Flesh of your Fore-skin and it shall be a Token or Sign of Covenant between me and you And again Ver. 13. My Covenant shall be in your Flesh for an everlasting Covenant that is a Token or Pledge in your Flesh of an everlasting Covenant Bishop Patrick in 〈◊〉 For as a Reverend Father of our own says It was not a meer Mark whereby they should be known to be Abraham's Seed and distinguished from other Nations but they were hereby made the Children of the Covenant and intitled to the Blessings of it and Circumcision was the Seal of it And this is farther evident from the New Testament for St. Paul in his Controversie with the Jews about Justification instances in Abraham whom he declares to be justified not for his being circumcised but for the Faith he had before it Rom. 4. 11. He received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal or Pledge of the Righteousness of that Faith which he had yet being uncircumcised a Seal of that Covenant by which God receives him as Righteous for his Faith And thus St. Peter Acts 7. 8. He gave him the Covenant of Circumcision that is he gave him the Covenant which he sealed and confirmed by Circumcision which is both a usual and very intelligible way of speaking So also St. Paul Gal. 3. 15. Brethren I speak after the Manner of Men if it be but a Man's Covenant yet if it be confirmed no Man disannulleth or addeth thereto And again Ver. 17. he speaks of the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ plainly alluding to this Covenant with Abraham which was Sealed and had its Confirmation by Circumcision 2. The Second Observation was that this Covenant with Abraham of which Circumcision was the Seal is the same Covenant with that which we Christians are now admitted into with God by Christ Mr. Keach I remember disowns this and contrary to what I now maintain offers this Argument p. 47. That Covenant that was made to separate the natural Seed of Abraham from all other Nations of the World and made sure unto them the Earthly Promise of the Land of Canaan could not be a Covenant of Grace which concerns the Infant-Seed of Believers under the Gospel He who often finds Fault with other Peoples Logic should take special Care of his own Here was one little but material Word omitted in this first Proposition It should have run thus That Covenant which was made only to separate c. The want of that only spoils the Consequence It might be made thus to separate Abraham's Seed and it might be made to other Ends too And so it might be a Covenant of Grace notwithstanding God intended by it that Distinction of his People also To prove then that the Covenant besides the Promises it contained of a Land of Canaan and

a numerous Seed was also a Covenant of Grace and Mercy and Salvation in Jesus Christ and consequently the same Covenant with ours Be pleased Sir to consider 1. That the Covenant was made on the same general Conditions 2. That it contained the same general Promises 3. That both were founded on the same Consideration and had regard to the same Mediator Jesus Christ. 1. That this Covenant which God made with Abraham was founded on the very same Conditions on which that is established which we Christians make with God in Christ the Sum of what the Gospel of Christ requires in order to the Salvation of our Souls is only a firm Faith and sincere Obedience And if this be so the Agreement in this respect is very exact God having required Faith and Obedience by the Covenant which he made with Abraham as strictly and as indispensably as he has done by Christ As to Faith the Case is so very plain and so universally acknowledged on all sides that I shall need to say but little upon it The Faith of Abraham was so eminently renown'd and so illustrious a Pattern to all succeeding Ages that to the everlasting Memory of it he is distinguished by that signal Character the Father of the Faithful and all Christians in the World are called his Children as we walk in the Steps of that Faith Rom. 4. 12. And that this Faith was the Condition of Abraham's being received into Covenant is evident not only from the Old Testament which says Gen. 15. 6. That he believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for Righteousness but also from the New in which St. Paul convinces the Jewish Converts that the Works of the Law were not the Conditions of Justification and Salvation because Abraham himself was justified by Faith Rom. 4. 2 to 11. And that his Posterity were bound to this general Faith is plain in St. Paul's Vindication of his Orthodoxy on the very Account of his Believing all that is written in the Law and in the Prophets Acts 24. 14. And as Faith was one part of Abraham's Covenant so Obedience was another And this appears plainly by that Injunction which God gave him at the very same time that he was establishing his Covenant with him Gen. 17. 12. The Lord appear'd unto Abraham and said unto him I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect Which Words the Jews themselves look upon to be so much a Command of Universal Obedience as from thence to conclude that in Circumcision they all covenanted to have no other God but him See Bishop Patrick 2. As Abraham's Covenant is the same with ours in its Conditions so it is in its Promises too The Two great Blessings of the Gospel are Justification here and eternal Life hereafter As to the first of these that Abraham was Justified by his Faith and that consequently Justification is one of the great Benefits and Blessings of the Covenant God made with him is so plainly and expresly asserted in the Gospel that it is needless to go about to prove it And that eternal Life in the World to come was promised to Abraham and his Posterity by Christ as well as it is to us appears from hence that the Land of Canaan has always been looked on as a Type and Figure of Heaven and that not only by us in these latter Ages of the World but is so esteemed by St. Paul himself Heb. 3. 1. And from the Account which the New Testament gives of the Spiritual Meaning and Design of the Old when God declares to Abraham That he would be his God Gen. 17. 7. and to Isaac Gen. 26. 3. and to Jacob Gen. 28. 13 That he intended hereby to reward their Faith and Obedience with the Kingdom of Heaven is evident from the Words of Christ who from these Promises proves the Certainty of such a future State to the Jews among whom it was controverted Mat. 22. 31 32. And St. Paul tells us that Abraham and the Patriarchs expected such a Recompence to be couched under those Temporal Promises Heb. 11. 13. where he says These all died in Faith not having actually received the Promises that is the Blessings promised while they were on Earth but having seen them afar of and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth and desired or looked for a better Country that is to say an heavenly And what can be a better Proof that this was a Covenant of Grace than to find the chief Blessings of the Gospel here promised by God and believed and expected by the Patriarchs on the very Conditions of the Gospel But 3. Lastly Both these are founded on the same Consideration and equally have respect to the same Mediator Jesus Christ And for the Confirmation of this we all know that the Promises which God made to Abraham saying In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed are truly and readily fulfilled only in Jesus Christ And as the Holy Spirit of God has taught us this so Christ tells us that Abraham himself understood it so For discoursing with the Jews about him he said John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced and desired to see my Day and he saw it and was glad i. e. he was sollicitous more perfectly to understand the Substance of these Promises and he did understand them to be intended of me and was delighted in the Contemplation But whether all that succeeded this Patriarch had the same particular Communication of this great Mystery is not at all to our Purpose 'T is sufficient that the New Testament declares that what Blessings were thus graciously promised in this Covenant with Abraham were with Reference to and for the Sake of Jesus Christ that was to come And this St. Paul has expresly affirmed Gal. 3. 16 17. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made he said not to Seeds as of many but as of One and to thy Seed which is Christ So he goes on this I say that the Covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ c. Affirming in short all that I have here been proving viz. that Circumcision was the Seal for the Confirmation of that very Covenant which God made with Abraham in Christ Four Hundred and Thirty Years before the Law was given So that Abraham had not only the same Covenant with us but the very same Gospel that is preached to us was preached to Abraham also Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham What Gospel was it It was certainly the Gospel of Christ through whom alone it was said to Abraham In thee shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed And it was certainly at the Time when he established that Covenant which was confirmed of God in Christ And all the Seed of Abraham that were circumcised were bound to worship