A85311:56
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.
First, 1Twice in one Page you tell us, Infants are not guilty of any Sin of their own. Then they have no Sin of their own: It is impossible to part Sin and Guilt, tho' God pardon the Punishment.
- 1Against Mr. Pet. p. 27.
If Infants have no Sin of their own, 1then the Administration of Circumcision to Infants of eight days old, almost two thousand years, was a vain Administration.
- 1Circumcision was Instituted before Christ, 1923. Bucolc.
In a Sacrament, there is the Sign, and the thing signified. What was signified in Circumcision. 10 Deut. 16.30 Deut. 6.4. Jer. 4. 9 Jer. 26. tells us [the Uncircumcision of our Flesh is joined with our Estate, dead in Sin, 2 Col. 13.] But if Infants have no Sin of their own, then the thing signified was not there; so that it was no Sacrament, but the Administration of a Lye, according to your Doctrine.
In a Sacrament, there is the Sign, and the thing signified. What was signified in Circumcision. 10 Deut. 16.30