A85311:26
The answer of Giles Firmin, to the vain and unprofitable question put to him,…
The answer of Giles Firmin, to the vain and unprofitable question put to him, and charged upon him by Mr. Grantham, in his book, entitled, The infants advocate : viz. whether the greatest part of dying infants shall be damned? : Which advocate, while he shuts all infants out of the visible church, and denies them baptism, opens heaven to all dying infants, justifying those of his party, who admit them all as he doth, into Heaven without regeneration.The answer of Giles Firmin, to the vain and unprofitable question put to him, and charged upon him by Mr. Grantham, in his book, entituled, The infants advocate : viz. whether the greatest part of dying infants shall be damned? : Which advocate, while he shuts all infants out of the visible church, and denies them baptism, opens heaven to all dying infants, justifying those of his party, who admit them all as he doth, into Heaven without regeneration.
London: printed for John Lawrence, 1689
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.
For the rest of your Preface, I told you if there were any false Stories blame not me, they came from your own Party, boasting of you very much: As since you wrote against me, a Friend of mine being at London, and discoursing with one of your Tribe, about disputing, We, said he, will set a Taylor to Dispute with him. That I see this Taylor is a great Man in the Anabaptists Opinion, and in his own too, else he would not have carried himself so proudly in the Arminian Controversy, when I gave him no occasion to meddle with it. It being a Controversy, in which Pious, and very Learned Men, other manner of Men than He and I am, have laboured very much, that this Man should jump off his Taylorsshop-board, and after some Study, take the Doctors Chair, as if he were the Man to determine those Questions, when I see he is but a Smatterer, and knows not the depth of that Controversy. Upon this ground, with the former, finding him a Scoffer, and one as I understand, that denies Communion with all Churches [tho' nothing which is Human is imposed] but dipped Churches, I did not treat him with that Respect, as I have done other Men.
For the rest of your Preface, I told you if there were any false Stories blame not me, they came from your own Party, boasting of you very much: As since you wrote against me, a Friend of mine being at London, and discoursing with one of your Tribe, about disputing, We, said he, will set a Taylor to Dispute with him. That I see this Taylor is a great Man in the Anabaptists Opinion, and in his own too, else he would not have carried himself so proudly in the Arminian Controversie, when I gave him no occasion to meddle with it. It being a Controversie, in which Pious, and very Learned Men, other manner of Men than He and I am, have laboured very much, that this Man should jump off his Taylorsshop-board, and after some Study, take the Doctors Chair, as if he were the Man to determine those Questions, when I see he is but a Smatterer, and knows not the depth of that Controversie. Upon this ground, with the former, finding him a Scoffer, and one as I understand, that denies Communion with all Churches [tho' nothing which is Human is imposed] but dipt Churches, I did not treat him with that Respect, as I have done other Men.
To one of his Disciples that sows the same Darnel in these parts, which he doth elsewhere, I mentioned three Pastors, and Churches; I am sure for Holiness and Abilities, there are none such among the Anabaptists, no nor under the Sun; yet he, forsooth, would have no Communion with them, they were not Dipped, I desire no acquaintance with such.