A41329:130
The plea of the children of believing-parents for their interest in Abraham's covenant, their…
The plea of the children of believing-parents for their interest in Abraham's covenant, their right to church-member-ship with their parents, and consequently their title to baptism. The cause of publishing this discourse after so many learned men have laboured in this province, is declared in the preface to the reader. By Giles Firmin.
London: printed for Tho. Simons, 1683
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. Did not God engage himself to be the God of all the Seed? and did not Circumcision Seal up his Covenant and Engagement to them, if they did perform the Condition? and had they not a great advantage by God's engaging himself thus to them to lay hold upon God, for their God and Eternal Portion?
2ly, This Covenant was made with Abraham as a Believing Person, and the Father of Believers; it was not made with him as a Man, nor with his Seed as Men, but as the Seed of a Believing Father. Circumcision was the Seal of the Righteousness of Faith. Rom. 4.11. in which Chapter twice he is called, The Father of all Believers, both Jews and Gentiles; and Gal. 3.29.
Here a Question might be moved, why Abraham should be called, The Father of Believers; my Reason is, were there no Believers before Abraham? was he the First and Eldest Believer? The Father in the Family is the first in the Family; so Abraham, if the Father, should be the first. But was not Abel a Believer in Christ, Enoch, Noah, &c. surely there were Believers in Christ a Thousand Years before Abraham was Born, what may we think of Adam and Eve in Charity, may we not think they Believed ⟨p. 39⟩in the Promised Seed? why then should Abraham be the Father?