A47399:120
[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 containing an exposition of that metaphorical text of Holy Scripture, Mat. 3, 10].[The ax laid to the root, or, One blow more at the foundation of infant baptism and church-membership containing an exposition of that metaphorical text of Holy Scripture, Mat. 3, 10].
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.
2. But, as to Paul's Circumcising Timothy, it was, when he knew Circumcision was abolished; and therefore, it could not oblige him, Paul well knew, to keep the Law. Sith no Law, in its own Nature, can oblige any Person, according to the Nature, and Quality of it, when 'tis abrogated and in no force, tho' he saw it was his Liberty, for some Reasons to do it: But those Christians, corrupted by false Teachers, did not believe, That Circumcision, and other Legal Rites, were abolished, but that they were in full Force as ever; and therefore, he tells them, (granting it was, as they believed) if they were Circumcised, they were obliged to keep the whole Law, tho' his great Design was to take them off from seeking Justification by Works. Therefore,
3. 'Tis evident, Paul did not Circumcise Timothy, in Obedience to the Law given by the Lord; but for other Politic Reasons, in complying with the weakness of some Jewish Christians: After the same manner he submitted to some other Rites also, of the Ceremonial Law, as shaving the head, and purifying himself, which was then also abolished, tho' not deadly, say Expositors, then though those Ceremonies, were dead, and so nothing in them, Act. 21.24. Circumcision was, alas! dead, and this Paul knew, therefore could not hurt Timothy: But those, to whom he wrote, thought it was alive; and therefore, it would not only hurt, but destroy them, or be destructive to them, upon the Account of the Obligation it lay them under, if it was as they conceived. This being so, What is become of Mr. Flavel's Argument, which he makes such boast of, as if unanswerable? pag. 231.
3. 'Tis evident, Paul did not Circumcise Timothy, in Obedience to the Law given by the Lord; but for other Politick Reasons, in complying with the weakness of some Jewish Christians: After the same manner he submitted to some other Rites also, of the Ceremonial Law, as shaving the head, and purifying himself, which was then also abolished, tho' not deadly, say Expositors, then though those Ceremonies, were dead, and so nothing in them,