A39697:106
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.
(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, Gen. 3. 24.
(3.) Soon after the Violation of the Covenant of Works, God was graciously pleased to publish for the relief of Mankind, ⟨p. 33⟩now miserable and hopeless, the Second Covenant, which we call the Covenant of Grace, Gen. 3. 15. which is the first opening of the Grace of God in Christ to Fallen Man; and though this first Promise of Christ was but short and obscure, yet it was in every Age to be opened clearer and clearer, until the promised Seed should come. After the first opening of this new Covenant in the first Promise of Christ, the first Covenant is shut up for ever, as a Covenant of Life and Salvation; and all the World are shut up to the only way of Salvation by Christ, Gal. 3. 23