A39697:247
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.
Whereas you say, pag. 12. Baptism cannot succeed Circumcision, because it leaves no Character or Mark upon the Body, as that did. This very Objection of yours is borrowed in express Words from Socinus, that Enemy of Christ, in Disp. de Bap. pag. 113. and fully answered by Maccovius, Loc. Come. pag. 830, 831.
Whereas you say, pag. 12. Baptism cannot succeed Circumcision, because it leaves no Character or Mark upon the Body, as that did. This very Objection of yours is borrowed in express Words from Socinus, that Enemy of Christ, in Disp. de Bap. pag. 113. and fully answered by Maccovius, Loc. Com. pag. 830, 831.
Object. But it will be further said, that according to our Opinion there can be no Analogy or Correspondency betwixt the very Subjects of both Ordinances; for Infants at eight days Old were the proper Subjects of Circumcision, but the Subjects of Baptism were adult believers, from the time of it's first institution. And so the Analogy fails in the very Subjects.
Sol. This Objection is grounded upon a great Mistake, 'tis your Opinion not ours that destroys it. For with us it lies fairly in these three respects of it (1.) We find that at the first institution of Circumcision, Abraham the Father, at Ninety Years old, and all the Men of his House, were first Circumcised, Gen. 17. 25, 26, 27. Answerably, at the first institution of Baptism, Parents, Masters of Families, &c. being adult believers, were first Baptized. (2.) After the Circumcision of Abraham and the Men of his House their Infant Seed were also Circumcised, the promise belonging to them, as well as their Parents. Answerably under the Gospel the whole Families of believers were Baptized, and the promise runs to their Infants under the Gospel as ⟨p. 107⟩