A39697:253
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) To prove the calling again of the Jews he argues strongly, ver. 16. from the Federal Holiness derived to the branches from their root or Ancestors, namely, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with whom the Covenant was made, Gen. 17. For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are the branches, (i. e.) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being in Covenant with God. A Federal Holiness is from them derived to the branches. And this can be no other than a Federal Holiness, because those their Ancestors were utterly uncapable to transmit any inherent Holiness to them; That being the Incommunicable Prerogative of God. This Federal Holiness lying still in the root, (the Covenant with Abraham) will recover the branches again to Life, though at present many of them be broken off, as Job speaks in another case, Job. 14. 7, 8, 9. There is hope of a Tree though it be cut down, that it will Sprout again; and that the tender branch thereof will not cease ⟨p. 110⟩though the root thereof wax old in the Earth, and the Stock thereof dye in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
(2) To prove the calling again of the Jews he argues strongly, ver. 16. from the Federal Holiness derived to the branches from their root or Ancestours, namely, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with whom the Covenant was made, Gen. 17. For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are the branches, (i. e.) Abraeham, Isaac and Jacob being in Covenant with God. A Federal Holiness is from them derived to the branches. And this can be no other than a Federal Holiness, because those their Ancestours were utterly uncapable to transmit any inherent Holiness to them; That being the Incommunicable Prerogative of God. This Federal Holiness lying still in the root, (the Covenant with Abraham) will recover the branches again to Life, though at present many of them be broken off, as Job speaks in another case, Job. 14. 7, 8, 9. There is hope of a Tree though it be cut down, that it will Sprout again; and that the tender branch thereof will not cease