A39697:294
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
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.
And yet I will say with Alexander, I will contend with you in Friendship and Courtesy, even whilst I earnestly contend against you for the Truths of God, which you have here opposed, and I have endeavoured to vindicate.
And yet I will say with Alexander, I will contend with you in Friendship and Courtesie, even whilst I earnestly contend against you for the Truths of God, which you have here opposed, and I have endeavoured to vindicate.
One Word more before I part with you, I do assure you, and the whole World, that in this Controversy with you, I have not knowingly or advisedly misrepresented your Sense: If you shall say I did so in my second Argument from the Words p. 179. I assure you, both my self and others could understand you no otherwise than I did in the Papers I sent you; and when you told me, you meant ⟨p. 140⟩there was no pardon in either of those Covenants, but that it plainly directed to Abraham's Covenant, you will find I have given you as fair a Choice as you can desire, either to stand to your words in the first Sense wherein I understood them, (or which will be the same to me) to your own Sense in which you afterwards explained it to me. And whereas I blame you over and over in my Epistle and Conclusion, for putting the proper Subject of Baptism among the highest things in Religion: Let the Reader view your Conclusion, and see whether you do or not: If you say you speak of the Covenant there as well as of baptism: I allow that you do so; yet I hope 'tis equally as bad, nay indeed and truth, a great Aggravation of your Fault, to make this Article, viz. Gods Covenant with Abraham, Gen. 17, is an abolished Adam's Covenant, one of the highest concernments of a Christian; the Baptism only of Adult Believers another. My consequences from your Words are just and regular, how startling soever they seem to you.
One Word more before I part with you, I do assure you, and the whole World, that in this Controversie with you, I have not knowingly or advisedly misrepresented your Sense: If you shall say I did so in my second Argument from the Words p. 179. I assure you, both my self and others could understand you no otherwise than I did in the Papers I sent you; and when you told me, you meant