A39697:172
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 3 › Argument 3: Argument III.
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.
Argument III.
If all the Promises of the Gospel be absolute and unconditional, requiring no Restipulation from Man, then they cannot properly and truly belong to the New Covenant.
But they do properly and truly belong to the New Covenant: Therefore they are not all absolute and unconditional.
The Sequel of the Major is only liable to doubt, or denial, namely, That the Absoluteness of all the Promises of the New Testament cuts off their Relation to a Covenant; but that it doth ⟨p. 70⟩so, no Man can deny, that understands the difference between a Covenant and an absolute Promise. A Covenant is a mutual Compact, or Agreement betwixt Parties, in which they bind each other to the Performance of what they respectively promise: So that there can be no proper Covenant, where there is not a Restipulation, or Re-obligation of one part, as well as a Promise on the other. But an absolute Promise binds only one Party, and leaves the other wholly free, and unobliged to any thing in order to the enjoyment of the good promised. So then if all the New Testament Promises be unconditional and absolute, they are not part of a Covenant, nor must that Word be applied to them; they are absolute Promises, binding no Man to whom they are made, to any Duty, in order to the enjoyment of the Mercies promised: But those Persons that are under these absolute Promises, must and shall enjoy the Mercies of Pardon and Salvation, whether they repent, or repent not; believe, or believe not; obey, or obey not. Now, to what Licentiousness this Doctrine leads Men, is obvious to every Eye. Yet this absoluteness