A85311:28
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.
THE ANSWER TO HIS Vain Question.
AS for the Two Questions I propounded to the Anabaptists, you tell me, You have answered them, and so you have done with them. But others say, You have answered nothing. And I say, If they cannot be answered better than you have done, we will go on to Baptize the Infants of Believing Parents without any scruple.
Now you give me Two other Questions.
I. Quest. Whether God required Baptism, or any other Rite, to be necessary to the Salvation of Infants?
Answ. What need this Question, since I told you *I do not think Baptism to be absolutely necessary, either for Infants, or Adult Persons, as if without it they could not be saved. I named the Scripture to prove it: I gave the Opinion of our Protestants; I add now, some of the Papists, even Lombard