A47391:156
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.
1. Answ. I Answer, Must Infants of Believers be comprehended in that Covenant God made with Abraham? or else, Cannot any dying Infants be saved? How then were any dying Infants saved before Abraham's Days, or before that Covenant was made with him?
2. I never said no Infants were included in the Covenant of Grace, God made with Abraham, but not as such: No doubt, all Elect Persons, both Infants and the Adult, were included in the Covenant of Grace, and had or shall have the Blessings of Christ's Blood and Merits; but the Covenant of Grace may be considered Two manner of ways, or under a Two-fold Consideration.
1st. The inward invisible Blessings, Grace, and Privileges of it.
2d. The visible and outward Administration, or Privileges thereof.