A39697:16
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
Preface: A Friendly Preface to the Author of the SOLEMN CALL, and the more discreet and charitab…
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.
The readiest way to cool such heats is by discovering the trivial nature of the matter contended about; as Demosthenes appeased the tumult among the people raised by a small occasion, by relating to them the story of a man that had hired an Ass to carry him a journey, but the Sun shining fervent, he was forced to quit her back, and betake himself to her shadow; the owner withstood him, alleging that he had hired the body of the Ass, but her shadow was not in the bargain; and so the contention between them grew as hot as the Sun. Many such trifles have raised great contentions in the world, witness the great contention betwixt the Eastern and Western Church, about keeping of Easter.
The readiest way to cool such heats is by discovering the trivial nature of the matter contended about; as Demosthenes appeased the tumult among the people rais'd by a small occasion, by relating to them the story of a man that had hired an Ass to carry him a journey, but the Sun shining servent, he was forced to quit her back, and betake himself to her shadow; the owner withstood him, alledging that he had hired the body of the Ass, but her shadow was not in the bargain; and so the contention between them grew as hot as the Sun. Many such trifles have raised great contentions in the world, witness the great contention betwixt the Eastern and Western Church, about keeping of Easter.
Other points there are of greater moment, ⟨image 4⟩about which good men contend; and yet these oftentimes are magnified much above their true intrinsical value. So I am sure it is in the Controversy before us. Mr. Cary tells us, that these things will be found at length to be of highest concernment unto us, and must therefore be our most serious practice, pa. 243. If so, then the proper subject of Baptism must be one of those that is of greatest weight, and the profession thereof, the very Shibboleth to distinguish one person from another in matters of Religion. No wonder therefore the fires of contention are blown up to such a vehement heat, even in such an improper season: much like the contentions among the English Fugitives at Frankfurt, when their brethren were frying in the flames at Smithfield. Just so must we be scuffling, whilst thousands of our Brethren are bleeding in Ireland. Had we a true sense of the quality of the Subject, or the unseasonableness of the