A39697:178
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.
Obj. But you will say, If Faith be the Condition, and that Faith be not of our selves, then both the Promise and the Condition are on Gods part; (if you will call Faith a Condition) and so still on our part the Covenant is absolute.
Sol. This is a mistake, and the mistake in this leads you into all the rest; though Faith (which we call the Condition on our Part •e the Gift of God, and the power of Believing be derived from God; yet the act of believing is properly our act, though the power by which we believe be of God; else i• would follow when we act any Grace, as Faith, Repentance or Obedience, tha• God believes, repents, and obeys in us and it is not we, but God that doth al• these. This, I hope, you will not dar• to assert: They are truly our Works though wrought in Gods Strength, Is• 26. 12. Lord, thou hast wrought all o• ⟨p. 73⟩works in us, (i. e.) Though they be our Works, yet they are wrought in us by thy Grace, or Strength.
As for Dr. Owen, 'tis plain from the place you cite in the Doctrine of Justification, pag. 156. he only excludes Conditions as we do, in respect of the dignity of the Act, and is more plain in his Treatise of Redemption, pag. 103, 104. in which he allows Conditions in both the Covenants, and makes this the difference, That the Old required them, but the New effects them in all the Federates.