A39697:194
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 5: Argument V.
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 Sequel of the Major is self-evident; for where there are no terms or Conditions required on our part, there can be none to deliberate or give our consent to; and so a Man may be in Covenant without his own consent.
The Minor is undeniable in the Text cited. If you say these are Duties but not Conditions; I reply, they are such Duties, without the performance of which, we can have no Benefit by Christ and the new Covenant, Luke 14. 33. and such Duties have the true suspending nature of Conditions in them. If you say they are only subsequent Duties, but not antecedent or concomitant Acts; the 28th Verse directly opposes you, Let him first sit down and count the cost: And for those overt acts whereby we explicitly declare our consent to the terms of the Covenant, at our first entering into the Bond of it, I hope you will not say that's a legal Covenant too, Isa. 44. 3, 4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon thy Seed, and my Blessing upon thine Off-spring, and they shall spring ⟨p. 80⟩up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say I am the Lords, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, &c. A plain allusion to Soldiers, when they List themselves under a Captain or General. What remains now, to reply to these Arguments? but either that the places by me cited and argued upon, do not intend the new Covenant under which we are, or that this new Covenant hath its Conditions, and is not altogether Absolute, as you have asserted it to be.
The Minor is undeniable in the Text cited. If you say these are Duties but not Conditions; I reply, they are such Duties, without the performance of which, we can have no Benefit by Christ and the new Covenant, Luke 14. 33