A47391:130
The axe laid to the root, or, One blow more at the foundation of…The ax laid to the root, or, One blow more at the foundation of…
The axe 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 showed 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 ...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 ...
London : Printed for the author, and are to be sold by John Harris ..., 1693
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Arg. 2. Because there were some to whom the Covenant of Grace, or Gospel Covenant did not belong, were, nevertheless, commanded to be Circumcised, as Ishmael, Esau, &c. Doth the Gospel Covenant appertain to Scoffing Ishmaelites, and to profane Esau's? No, God told Abraham, his Covenant should not be with Ishmael. As for Ishmael, I have heard thee, behold I have blessed him, but my covenant will I establish with Isaac, Gen. 17. 20, 21.
Arg. 2. Because there were some to whom the Covenant of Grace, or Gospel Covenant did not belong, were, nevertheless, commanded to be Circumcised, as Ishmael, Esau, &c. Doth the Gospel Covenant appertain to Scoffing Ishmaelites, and to prophane Esau's? No, God told Abraham, his Covenant should not be with Ishmael. As for Ishmael, I have heard thee, behold I have blessed him, but my covenant will I establish with Isaac, Gen. 17. 20, 21.
Also, there were others who might be in Abraham's Family; who, no doubt, might some of them be in the Covenant of Grace, that were not required to be Circumcised, nor did it belong to them, viz.
1. All his Male Children, who dyed before Eight Days old. 2. All his Female Children. 3. There was also some other godly Men, in the Days of Abraham, to whom Circumcision of Right did not belong, as Melchizedek, Lot, Job, &c. Doubtless, had Circumcision been a Law or Precept of the Covenant of Grace, all these would God have required to have been Circumcised as well as the others; but the Truth is, being in the Covenant of Grace, gave no Right at all to any, no not to the Male Children of Abraham, to Circumcision; but only God's express and positive Command to him.