A41329:50
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
THE PLEA OF THE CHILDREN OF Believing-Parents, &c.THE PLEA OF THE CHILDREN OF Beleiving-Parents, &c.
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.
I will personate a Sadducee, and take their Argument; the Question is, Shall there be a Resurrection of the Dead? The Sadducee denies it, our Lord affirms it, and proves it from Exod. 3.6. I am the God of Abraham, &c. Matth. 22.29.31. v. But what is this to the proof of the Question, Doth God say expressly to Moses, there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead? if so, then we will believe it, else not. Thus the Anabaptist, Doth Christ expressly command the Apostles to Baptise Infants? then we will Practise it, else we Condemn it. But tho' God did not expressly say there shall be a Resurrection, yet he said that, which by necessary Consequence will force it. For tho' Jacob, who died last of the three, had been dead two hundred years, when God spake those words, yet he saith, he is their God, but he is not the God of the dead, but of the living; Mark 12.28. The people said, He answered them well, and 22 Matth. 33. They were astonished at it. Yet I may say, the necessity of this Consequence, from that Antecedent, is nothing so obvious and clear to many, even good Christians, as the Consequence of Infants of Believing-Parents, being under Abraham's Covenant, ⟨p. 15⟩and Church-Members with their Parents. But what mischief this Principle and Practice hath done, and how it hath served the Devils Design, we are sad Witnesses.
I will personate a Sadduce, and take their Argument; the Question is, Shall there be a Resurrection of the Dead? The Sadduce denies it, our Lord affirms it, and proves it from Exod. 3.6. I am the God of Abraham, &c. Matth. 22.29.31. v. But what is this to the proof of the Question, Doth God say expresly to Moses, there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead? if so, then we will believe it, else not. Thus the Anabaptist, Doth Christ expresly command the Apostles to Ba•tise Infants? then we will Practise it, else we Condemn it. But tho' God did not expresly say there shall be a Resurrection, yet he said that, which by necessary Consequence will force it. For tho' Jacob, who died last of the three, had been dead two hundred years, when God spake those words, yet he saith, he is their God, but he is not the God of the dead, but of the living;