A39697:104
Vindiciæ legis & fœderis
Vindiciæ legis & fœderis: or, A reply to Mr. Philip Cary's Solemn call Wherein he pretends to answer all the arguments of Mr. Allen, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Sydenham, Mr. Sedgwick, Mr. Roberts, and Dr. Burthogge, for the right of believers infants to baptism, by proving the law at Sinai, and the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, were the very same with Adam's covenant of works, and that because the gospel-covenant is absolute. By John Flavel minister of the gospel in Dartmouth
London: printed for M. Wolton, 1690
A REPLY TO Mr. Philip Cary's Solemn Call. › Section 1: I Position.
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 yet, though what I have said destroys your false Position, I am not willing to leave you, or the Reader, ignorant wherein the Truth lies in this controverted Point betwixt us; and that ⟨p. 32⟩will appear by a due consideration of the following Particulars.
(1.) 'Tis plain and uncontroverted, That Adam's Covenant in Paradise contained in it a perfect Law and Rule of natural Righteousness, founded both in God's Nature, and in Mans, which in its perfect state of Innocency was every way enabled perfectly to comply therewith: For the Scripture tells us, Eccles. 7. 29. That God made Man upright, and his punctual complying therewith was the Righteousness by which he stood.
(2.) This Covenant of Works being once broken, can never more be available to the Justification and Salvation of any Fallen Man: There was not now a Law found that could give Righteousness; the broken Covenant of Works lost immediately all the Blessings and Privileges, which before it contained, and retained only the Curse and Punishment; in token whereof Cherubims with flaming Swords turning every way, were set to keep the way of the Tree of Life, Gen. 3. 24.
(2.) This Covenant of Works being once broken, can never more be available to the Justification and Salvation of any Fallen Man: There was not now a Law found that could give Righteousness; the broken Covenant of Works lost immediately all the Blessings and Priviledges, which before it contain'd, and retain'd only the Curse and Punishment; in token whereof Cherubims with flaming Swords turning every way, were set to keep the way of the Tree of Life,