A41329:142
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.
4ly, To whom Christ is a Head, to them God may be said to be a God: But Christ is the Head of the visible Church, in which are many unsound Members; Branches in him that bear no fruit, John 15.2. Then God in some sense is their God, if Christ may in some sense be their Head.
5ly, Is there not an external and an internal Adoption? Rom. 9.4. to them pertained the Adoption: Were they not called God's children? Deut. 14.1. Is not God then the God of his children? Do not God say, They are mine? Ezek. 16.20, 21. and yet is God no way their God?
6ly, If the spiritual Seed be there only meant, then all the Israelites in the Land of Canaan were the spiritual Seed; which I answer is false. That they must be so according to your interpretation, the next Verse proves it; Gen. 17.7, 8, 9. At the 8th verse, I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the I and wherein thou art a stranger, all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God: Thou shalt therefore keep my Covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. Can the Holy One speak plainer than he doth? Doth he not tell you, that that seed of Abraham which shall inherit the Land of Canaan [where his Tabernacle and all ⟨p. 44⟩