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A85020
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The infants advocate of circumcision on Jewish and baptisme on Christian children. By Thomas Fuller, B.D.
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing F2447; Thomason E1431_1; ESTC R202071
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87,089
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272
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generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Hence we collect it a Gospel-Covenant From 1. The language and expression of it 2. The continuance and duration of it 3. The blessings and benefits conveyed by it For the language and expression the voice is the voice of Jacob. The speech agreeth thereunto not to betray it as it did Peter to his shame and sorrow but to discover this covenant to its honour and our comfort to be an Evangelical Covenant That very phrase to be a God unto thee is a Gospel-phrase Otherwise how cometh he who upon the breach of the covenant of works was left our enemy our inraged judge to be a God unto us I see here Matthew in Moses the New couched in the Old Testament Parallel is the expression Mat. 1. 23. And they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us God with us and to be a God unto us differ something in sound nothing in sence Secondly for the continuance and duration of it An Everlasting Covenant that with Adam was but a short-lasting covenant Some conceive Adam never naturally slept in his Innocency accounting that caused deep sleep Gen. 2. 21. before Eve her creation supernatural but forfeited his Innocency before night As there be some kind of insects called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Naturalists say survive but a day so some conceive Adams integrity of no longer duration And though we dare not certainly close with their opinion the Scripture not acquainting us with the date of Adams perseverance in paradise we may be confident that covenant of works was of no long continuance before it was broken This short-liv'd covenant thus expired it was never reviv'd again on the same conditions but utterly extinguished Yea herein God magnified his mercy that upon any termes he would treat with mankind whom he might have condemned as incapable of any future contract for once breaking of Covenant Yet now he draweth up a second agreement with them being a covenant of grace and that everlasting such his goodnesse that though we if strictly examined break it with him he will not break it with us I confesse everlasting in Scripture is sometimes taken for long-lasting in which sense the Hebrew tongue accepteth of an ever after an ever but here it is taken truly for eternity seeing whom God loveth he loveth to the end without end The third argument to prove the evangelical nature of Gods covenant with Abraham is drawn from the blessings and benefits conveyed thereby whose size and measure is so great they are only of a Gospel proportion to be a God unto thee Could lesse be said then this so short the words yet could more be said then this so large the matter All things herein are comprized a promise to give repentance faith hope and charity patience in afflictions preservation from or in them competency of outward maintenance perseverance unto the end in a word grace and holinesse here glory and happinesse hereafter How tedious are the instruments of our age a span of ground being scarcely passed under a span of parchment in comparison of the concise Grants of our ancient Kings some of whose Charters contain not so many words as they convey Manours therein Yet even those Patents are prolix if compared with Gods Covenant in my text to be a God unto thee promising therein more then what man can ask or desire God hath set us a pattern therefore let thy words be few Eccles 5. 2. not to be babling to him in our prayers seeing he is so plain and pithy to us in his promises couching all things in so short an expression To put all out of doubt this Covenant of Circcumcision made with Abraham and his seed appears to be a Gospel Covenant because S Paul so expoundeth it If any scruple arise about the sence of a Law to whom should people repair for satisfaction but to the makers thereof if alive Thus on the emergency of doubts about the nature of this Covenant we may and must have recourse unto the Author thereof Now the same spirit who indited Genesis by Moses indited the Epistle to the Romans by S. Paul who plainly affirmeth Rom. 4. 11. that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision the seal of righteousness by faith Object It is strange to conceive how in that age there could be a Covenant of faith the word faith appearing properly but once Habac. 2. 4. in all the old Testament and once afterwards with a negation before it in reference to the Jews Deut. 32. 20. Children in whom is no faith Seeing therefore such silence of faith in the Old Testament so frequently resounded in the New this Covenant with Abraham seemeth suspicious to be an old Covenant of Works and to have nothing of Gospel therein Answ The word Faith only not the thing signified thereby is wanting in the old Testament What Christ and his Apostles call faith and believing that the Prophets and pen-men of the old Testament expresse by Trusting The Religion and Creed of the Ancient Patriarchs is briefly drawn up by David Psal 22. 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded I will not say the Triplication of the word Trust denotes their belief in the Trinity Father Son and holy Spirit but here it plainly appears they had their confidence in and dependence on God though then not so clearly revealed unto them which sheweth the sameness in substance of their belief with ours Vse This serveth to confute such who account the Jews a meer husk shell and shadow of Gods people as if all the promises made unto them meerly terminated in temporal happinesses Thus they feed the Jews bodies with milk and fill their bellies with hony even to a surfeit flowing from the fruitfulnesse of the land of Canaan whilest in the mean time they starve and famish their souls excluding them as incapable of heavenly and spiritual blessings Their uncharitable errour is grounded on this argument because when their blessings are reckoned up Deut. 28. 3. it extendeth only to the city field fruit of their bodie ground cattle kine sheep c. but no mention of their eternal beatitude hereafter in heaven Yea when Isaac cordially blessed Jacob desiring no doubt to make the same as compleat as he could bestow and Jacob receive his expressions Gen. 27. 28. amount no higher then to the dew of heaven the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine On the other side when the Jews curses are solemnly pronounced Deut. 28. 16. they are confined to city field basket store fruit of the body land kine sheep c. Here a deep silence of hell and damnation so that the smiles or frowns of God to the Jews seem to reach no farther then to their well or ill being in this life To this it
which were admitted unto it before his is a less excellent Ministry he the Mediator of a worse Covenant upon worse promises seeing the same is not extended now as formerly to all ages Sexes and conditions of people children included under the Law being omitted therein Now though many Infants of Bethlehem and the coasts thereabouts Mat. â— suffered for him surely none suffered by him But he continued their condition as good yea and bettered the same by his Incarnation He who himself was a childe as well as a man and a childe before he was a man did tender and improve the condition of children as wel as of men and leaving this we now proceed to a second Reason out of Scripture CHAP. X. The Second Reason drawn from the birth-holinesse of Christian Infants OUr Second Reason out of Scripture is bottomed on S. Pauls expression 1 Cor. 7. 14. for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy Now because there is some difficulty about the meaning of the words we will be the larger in explaining the same It appears by the first verse in this chapter that the Corinthians by letter had requested from S. Paul solution and satisfaction to sundry Queries by them propounded Wonder not that they who 1 Cor. 1. 5. were commended by S. Paul to be enriched in all knowledge should now desire further instruction For first they had all knowledge but not all the degrees of knowledge Secondly they had all knowledge in fundamental necessaries to salvation not in all cases of occasional emergency such as their questions were Thirdly grant that even in these they had information before they now sue for further confirmation from the infallible spirit of the Apostle Alas will some say for the losse of this letter of the Corinthians to S. Paul Pitty it was that providence did not transmit the same to posterity How useful had it been for us if it had come into our hands Let such know first this their letter was no part of Canonical Scripture pen'd by a fallible Spirit Secondly we have still this letter in effect because we have Saint Pauls answers to the questions therein Thirdly men generally are more curious to enquire about those parts of Scripture which they suspect to have miscarried then careful to improve those which remain and are sufficient for our salvation Amongst these Questions this was not the easiest whether a believing husband or wife were to continue in wedlock with an unbelieving wife or husband if by providence it so came to passe that one was an Infidel the other a Christian The Negative no doubt seem'd probable to some and on this account that if he who is joyned to an Harlot is one body then by the same consequence Idolatry being spirituall whoredom Copulation with an infidel is unlawful and infectious But S. Paul in the foregoing verse determines the contrary That in case the Infidel is pleased to dwel with the believer they ought so to continue rendring a reason thereof in the words afore alledged for the believing husband c. The words contain 1. A Proposition 2. The proof thereof The Proposition is reciprocal it turneth and windeth backwards and forwards the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband the proof thereof is in the ensuing words else were your children unclean but now are they holy In the proposition the Cardinal word Sanctifie as being the main Hinge whereon the same turneth deserves our serious examination Sanctified here is not taken quoad personam to enholy the party so as to procure his or her eternal salvation If the holy Triumvirate of Noah Daniel and Job Ezek. 14. 20. could save neither son nor daughter but their sole selves from a temporal destruction much lesse can the sanctity of a Christian husband or wife operate so effectually on his or her Pagan Partner as to estate them in a saving condition Indeed the wives holy conversation may be instrumental to her husbands conversion 1 Pet. 3. 1. But it is God alone who sanctifies in this high acception thereof Sanctified then here is taken quoad usum that is eousque they are made holy so far in relation to Marriage that the christian may have a lawful and comfortable converse and cohabitation in bed and board with the counter-Pagan Thus all meats though some of them formerly forbidden as unlawful by the Levitical Law 1 Tim. 4. 5. are sanctified by the word of God and prayer that is the use of them is legitimated and they made healthful to the bodies and lawful to the souls of such praying Christians as feed upon them See we here first Grace where it came did not always take one and all in a family God in dispensing thereof dealeth as Jacob did in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh Gen. 48. 14. He crosseth his hands wittingly taking a husband out of one house a wife out of another a wife out of one house a husband out of another The reason hereof Mat. 11. 26. even so father because it pleaseth thee John 3. 8. the Spirit bloweth where it listeth Thus Amos 4. 7. the earth is often chequered with moisture and drought with barrennesse and fruitfulnesse the effects thereof I cause it to rain upon one city and not upon another Secondly Hence we may learn that Dominion is not founded in Grace Had it been so then the believing wives to unbelieving husbands had a just title to deny any obedience pleading that their husbands by their Paganism had forfeited all power over them yet the Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 1. enjoyneth subjection even to such husbands who did not obey the word and who as yet were without the word Lastly and chiefly hence we observe Mixt mariages made against Gods will do defile the Religious but continued according to Gods will do sanctifie the profane person Solomon may be a proof of the first 1 Kin. 11. 4. not converting his Idolatrous wives but perverted by them Namely because he crossed Gods commandment Deut. 7. 3. Neither shalt thou make Mariages with them and the reason is added for they will turn thee away from following me And although the husband was doubly advantaged both with his marital authority and a good cause on his side rather to prevail on his wife then to be imposed on by her yet because there was Laesum principium a fault in his first Match the edge was taken off from all his arguments to her and added to her arguments against him making them by Gods just judgement twice more piercing and powerful to seduce him Should then a Christian Man wilfully take a Heathen wife he could not pretend that his Christianity should sanctifie her Infidelity so far as to make his bed and board comfortable and lawful unto him because he crost a positive precept which enjoyns the believing party if