A47535:378
Gold refined, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…Gold refin'd, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…
Gold refined, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy institution of Jesus Christ ... : wherein it is clearly evinced that baptism ... is immersion, or dipping the whole body, &c : also that believers are only the true subjects (and not infants) of that holy sacrament : likewise Mr. Smithies arguments for infant-baptism in his late book entitled, The non-communicant ... fully answered / by Benj. Keach ...Gold refin'd, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy institution of Jesus Christ ... : wherein it is clearly evinced that baptism ... is immersion, or dipping the whole body, &c : also that believers are only the true subjects (and not infants) of that holy sacrament : likewise Mr. Smythies arguments for infant-baptism in his late book entitled, The non-communicant ... fully answered / by Benj. Keach ...
London : Printed for the author, and are to be sold by Nathaniel Crouch ..., 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 10: Wherein the great Arguments, and pretended Scripture-Proofs for Infant-Baptism, concern…
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.
But it you will have it as you say, see what absurd Consequences will follow and arise from your Notion: And first take what Calvin saith,1 'Tis manifest, saith he, that the Promise understood of Spiritual Blessings pertaineth not to the Carnal Seed of Abraham, but to the Spiritual, as the Apostle himself saith, Rom. 4. 8, 9. for if you understand the Carnal Seed, saith he, then that Promise will belong to none of the Gentiles, but to those alone who are begotten of Abraham and Isaac according to the Flesh;2 by this it appears you go about to shut out your selves and Children too from having any part in that Covenant made with Abraham.
- 1Calvin on Gen. 17. 7.
- 2Estius. Anno Gen. 17. 7.
Secondly, If God made the Covenant of Grace with Abraham and his Carnal or Fleshly Off-spring, and so with all Believers and their Children, then all their Off-spring must have saving Grace bestowed upon them and a new Heart, because these things are some of the chief Blessings contained in the new Covenant.
Now do you see that all the Children of Believers have the Grace of God bestowed upon them, so that they are new Creatures? certainly no, for as Abraham had his Ishmael, and Isaac his Esa, and David his Absalom, so have most or many Believers wicked and ungodly Children, and so they live and die to the great Grief of their Souls: You can't think that God fails in his Promise, and that the Covenant of Grace is not so firm and sure as the Scripture declares it to be, one of them will follow, or you must conclude your selves mistaken in your Notion: