A39697:230
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.
(2.) You say the Promise was not to them as Believers Seed, nor to any uncalled by the Lord.
Reply. Your meaning is, that these Words [as many as the Lord shall call] are a Limitation of the Promise to them only, whether Parents or Children, that are actually called; let this your Interpretation be compared with, and examined by the Scope of the Text, which you confessed before to be a Motive to persuade them and theirs to Repentance and Baptism, and see if it can stand before it, as ours doth: For if this be the meaning, then the Apostle's Argument must run thus: I exhort you, convinced Jews, to Repentance and Christian Baptism; for ⟨p. 97⟩whereas you and your Children have hitherto been an holy Seed, and the Promise formerly was to them as well as you; but now the case is altered; if you your selves repent and be baptized, you shall have the benefit of the Promise; but as for your Children, they shall be in the self-same case and state with the Children of Pagans and Infidels: Indeed, if any of your Children shall hereafter believe, they shall have benefit by the Promise, but no more than the Children of Pagans and Infidels, which upon Repentance shall be equal with them. Repent ye therefore, and be baptized, for the promise is unto you, and to your Children. This, and no other, must the Apostles Motive be, according to your Interpretation and Limitation of his Words.
Reply. Your meaning is, that these Words [as many as the Lord shall call] are a Limitation of the Promise to them only, whether Parents or Children, that are actually called; let this your Interpretation be compared with, and examin'd by the Scope of the Text, which you confessed before to be a Motive to perswade them and theirs to Repentance and Baptism, and see if it can stand before it, as ours doth: For if this be the meaning, then the Apostle's Argument must run thus: I exhort you, convinced Jews, to Repentance and Christian Baptism; for ⟨p. 97⟩whereas you and your Children have hitherto been an holy Seed, and the Promise formerly was to them as well as you; but now the case is alter'd; if you your selves repent and be baptiz'd, you shall have the benefit of the Promise; but as for your Children, they shall be in the self-same case and state with the Children of Pagans and Infidels: Indeed, if any of your Children shall hereafter believe, they shall have benefit by the Promise, but no more than the Childen of Pagans and Infidels, which upon Repentance shall be equal with them. Repent ye therefore, and be baptized, for the promise is unto you, and to your Children. This, and no other, must the Apostles Motive be, according to your Interpretation and Limitation of his Words.