A39697:96
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 1: I Position.
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.
(5ly.) And further, to clear this Point, the Apostle tells us, Rom. 10. 4. That Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Whence I argue, That if Adam's Covenant had one End, namely, the Justification of Men by their own personal Obedience; and the Law at Sinai had a quite contrary End, namely, To bring Sinners to Christ by Faith for their Righteousness; ⟨p. 28⟩the one to keep him within himself, the other to take him quite out of himself, and bring him for his Justification to the Righteousness of another, even that of Christ; then the Sinai Law cannot possibly be the same thing with Adam's Covenant of Works; but the Antecedent is true and plain in the forecited Text, therefore so is the Consequent.
Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness. Take the Law here, either more strictly for the Moral Law, or more largely, as it comprehends the Ceremonial Law; still Christ is the end of the Law. The Moral Law shuts up every Man to Christ for Righteousness, by convincing him (according to Gods design in the Publication of it) of the impossibility of obtaining Justification in the way of Works.
And the Ceremonial Law many ways prefigured Christ, his Death and Satisfaction by Blood, in our room, and so led Men to Christ, their true Propitiation; and all its Types were fulfilled and ended in Christ. Was there any such thing in Adam's Covenant? You must prove there was, else you will never be able to make them one and the same Covenant.