A47391:143
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. 6. The Covenant of Circumcision was of the Letter, and not of the Spirit. This the Apostle lays down, Rom. 3. 29. But he is not a Jew which is one outward; and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of man but of God. Doth he not clearly hereby intimate, that Circumcision of the Flesh was of the Law, and not of the Gospel? for by Letter, the Law is meant, all Expositors confess, in that parallel Text, 2 Cor. 5. Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit, see our late worthy Annotators, by the Letter: Here (say they) the Apostle understandeth the Law, or the Law, is called the Letter, Rom. 2. 27. Who by the letter and Circumcision, doth transgress the Law. The Law (say they) in opposition to the Gospel, is called the Letter; and again they say, the Gospel is called the Spirit, both in opposition to the carnal Ordinances of the Law, and because Christ is the Matter, Subject, and Argument of it. The Law kills, but the Gospel gives Life; yet some affirm, that Law written in Stones was the Gospel, or a dark ministration of it: What Law is it then that kills? and what was the Covenant of Works, which as such is taken away? But no more of that: here 'tis plain, Circumcision was not of the Spirit, i. e. not of the Gospel, but of the Law.
Arg. 6. The Covenant of Circumcision was of the Letter, and not of the Spirit. This the Apostle lays down, Rom. 3. 29. But he is not a Jew which is one outward; and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of man but of God. Doth he not clearly hereby intimate, that Circumcision of the Flesh was of the Law, and not of the Gospel? for by Letter, the Law is meant, all Expositors confess, in that paralell Text, 2 Cor. 5. Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit, see our late worthy Annotators, by the Letter: Here (say they) the Apostle understandeth the Law, or the Law, is called the Letter,