It were easy for me to represent the sense of many otlier eminent divines m perfect harmony with the doctrine of this great and ex-
VINDICIARUM VIXDEX. 513
cellent divine, who liave substantially proved the point I defend against you : But it is enough.
II. Let us next examine what execution his rcph/hsith done upon my sQcund pos'itto7i, set up in direct opposition to him; namely, IViat God's covenant with Abraham, * Gen. xvii. Unto which cir- curncision was annexed^ is for its substance^ the self-same covenant of grace with that which the Gentile-believers, and their hifant-seedy are now under.
Here I have abundant cause again to complain, that Mr. C. hath so formed his answers, as if he had never read the book he under- takes to reply to. And I do verily beheve, the greatest part of his reply was made at random, before ever my printed book was in his hands. For he hath not at all considered the state of the question, as I there gave it him ; nor kept himself to the just and necessary rules of disputation, as I earnestly desired he would. However, it is not complaints, but confirmation and vindication of my argu- ments, which is my proper work. I shall therefore recite them briefly, and vindicate and confirm them strongly ; contracting all into as few words as can express the sense and argument of the point before me.
Argum. 1. If circumcision be a part of the ceremonial law, and the ceremonial law was dedicated by blood ^ whatsoever is so dedi- cated, is by you confessed to be no part of the cove- vindicia^lem-^, nant of works; then circumcision can be no part of © 40 *
the covenant of works, even by your own confession. ' "' But it is so. E7'go.
Reply. To this Mr. C. returns a tragical complaint, Qg instead of a rational answer. Insinuates my false and ^' gross abuse of him. Appeals to his reader. Tells him I have taken a liberty to say -what I please, as if there were no future judgment to be regarded. And that I can expect no comfort another day, without repentance now. For those things that have thus passed betwixt him and me shall again be revised and set in order before rne. That he is weary of noting my miscarriages of this liind. That there is hardly a page or paragraph in my whole re- j)ly but abounds with transgressions of this nature. He begs the Lord to forgive me ; aiul wishes he could say. Father forgive him, for he knoweth not what he doth : as if my sin were greater thatb the sin of those that stoned Stephen, or crucified Christ.
Reply. Either I am guilty or innocent in the matter here charg- ed upon me by Mr. C. If guilty, I promise him an ingenuous ac- knowledgment. If innocent (as both my conscience and his own book will prove me to be) then I shall only say, He knoweth not what spirit lie is of The case must be tried by his own book,
• Abraham's covenaut, Cea. xvii, the c'JYeiiant of grac«.
514 ^INDrCIARUM VIXDEX.
and it will quickly be decided. These are the very words in hi? Solemn call, p. 148. ' He (that is, Mr. Sedgwick) makes no distinc-
* tion betwixt the ceremonial covenant that was dedicated with ' blood, and the law written in stones that was not so dedicated. ' How strangely doth he confound and obscure the word and truth ' of God, which ought to have been cleared, and distinctly declared ' to those he had preached or written to ?' With much more, p. 149, 150, 151. where he saith, ' It is plain, that the law written in
* stones, and the book wherein the statutes and judgments were ' contained, were two distinct covenants, and delivered at distinct ' seasons, and in a distinct method ; the one with, the other without ' a Mediator ; the one dedicated with blood and sprinkling, the
* other (that we read of) not so dedicated.'
Now let the reader judge whether I have deserved such tragical complaints and dreadful charges for inferring from these words, That the ceremonial law being by him pronounced a distinct cove- nant from the moral law, which he makes ail one with Adam's co- venant ; delivered at a distinct season, and in a distinct method ; the ceremonial law with a Mediator, the moral law without a Me- diato?- ; the ceremonial law dedicated with blood and sprinkling, the moral law not so dedicated : let him judge, I say, whether I have wronged him in saying, that by his own confession, circumci- sion being a part of this ceremonial law, it can therefore be no part of the covenant of works.
Exception. But Mr. Cary hath two things to say for himself, (1.) That in the same place he makes the ceremonial law no other than a covenant of'xorlcs: And the wrong I have done him is not dis- tinguishing, as he did, hei^Wt a covenant qficoj'hs, and the covenant ^'li^orks. Here, it seems, lies my guilt, upon which this dreadful outcry against me is made.
Reply. But if I should chance to prove, that there never was, is, or can be any more than one covenant of works ; and that any one covenant which is distinguished from it (as he confesses the ce- remonial law was) by a Mediator, and the blood of sprinkling, can be no part of that covenant of works ; what then w411 become of Mr. C's distinction of « covenant of worlds, and the covenant qfworlcs ? Now the matter is plain and evident, That as there never were, are, or can be more than two common heads appointed by God, namely, Adam and Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 45, 46, 47, 48. Rom. v. 15, IT, 18, 19. so it is impossible there should be more than two covenants, under which mankind stands, under these two common heads. And the first covenant once broken, it is utterly impossible that fallen man should ever attain life that way, or that ever God should set it up again wivh such an intention and scope, ' unless (as
VIXBICIARLM VIXDKX. 5lo
* Mr. Charnock speaks *) be had reduced man's body to tbe dust
* and his soul to nothing, and framed another man to have govern-
* ed him by a covenant of works ; but that had not been the same ' man that had revolted, and upon his revolt was stained and dis- ' abled.' If Mr. C. therefore be not able to prove more covenants of works with mankind than one, let him rather blush at liis silly distinction betwixt a covenant of works, and the covenant of works. For indeed he makes at least four distinct covenants of works, one with Adam, two with Moses ; one moral, the other ceremonial ; and a fourth with Abraham at the institution of circumcision. Gen, xvii.