A39697:187
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 4: Argument IV.
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.
And this is not only a Christians Liberty, but his commanded duty; to bring his Interest in Christ to this Touch-stone and Test, 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves, prove your selves, &c. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure, (i. e.) your Election by your calling. No Man can make his Election sure a priori, nor can any Man make it surer than it is in se, therefore it is only capable of being made sure to us a posteriori, arguing from the work of Sanctification in us, to God's eternal choice of us.
And as the Saints in all Ages have taken this course, so they have taken great and lawful Comfort in the use of ⟨p. 77⟩these Marks and Signs of Grace, 2 Kings 20. 3. 2 Cor. 1. 12.
I am sensible how vehemently the Antinomian Party, Dr. Crispe, Mr. Eyre and some others do oppugn this truth, representing it as legal and impracticable (for they are for the absolute and unconditional Nature of the new Covenant as well as you) but by your espousing their Principle, you have even run Anabaptism into Antinomianism, and must by this Principle of yours, renounce all Marks and Trials of an Interest in Christ, by any work of the Spirit wrought in us. You must only stick to the immediate Sealings of the Spirit, which if such a thing be at all, it is but rare and extraordinary.