A39697:275
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.
(5.) He affirms these things to be of highest concernment to us. If so, then sure it must follow, that Repentance from dead Works, and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, must be inferior things to them; for nothing can be higher than the highest, or equal with it. And then by making them the chief Fundamentals in Religion, as that Expression doth, (if it be not a vain and Sinful Hyperbole) the Salvation or Damnation of Men depends upon compliance, or non-compliance with them. And then whither must you send all Gods People in the World that differ from you? Sir, I find your Brethren in the Appendix to their confession of Faith, Pag. 110, placing one of these which you make of highest concernment, among the other circumstances ⟨p. 128⟩of Religion: And doubtless that is it's Proper place. Nor do I see how they can free themselves from Participation in your Sin, 'till they have admonished you for it, and caused you to expunge it out of your Book.
(6.) That it is a Settling of our Thresholds by Gods Threshold. The Words you recite from Ezek. 43. 8. which speaks of the Idolatrous Kings of Judah and Israel, building Temples and Altars for their Idols, in, or near the Courts of the Temple of God: As the English Annotations on the Text will inform you, an Abomination that defiled Gods Holy Name, a Wickedness not to be Named, and for which the Lord consumed them; And calls it Whoredom in the next Words. Here Sir, you have exceeded all the Bounds of Society and Christian Charity; And made this circumstantial difference about the Proper Subject of Baptism, the Grossest Heathenish Idolatry in the World: And consequently dissolved the Bond of Christian Charity, and broken off all communion with us; for with such Idolaters you ought not to have any communion.
(6.) That it is a Setling of our Thresholds by Gods Threshold. The Words you recite from