A85311:82
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.
Mr. Grif. told me, he did not say God could not Regenerate Infants, but God doth not Regenerate. But I say, if God can do it, then according to his revealed Will, he must do it, if Infants be saved. And as for the first part of the Definition, God can do, and doth work it in all Infants, in which [to use the Metaphor] are sown the Seeds of Faith and Repentance, as well as of any other Graces. For what difficulty there should be in sowing the Seeds of Faith and Repentance, more then all other Graces, I cannot tell.
You tell me, pag. 25. Infants have no Object of Faith propounded to them, therefore they cannot have Faith seminally.
Answ. Nor is there an Object of Love propounded to them. God is the Object of our Faith and Love, so is Christ, 14 Joh. 1. But God is not propounded an Object of Faith, and Love to Infants, therefore Infants are saved without any Seminal Faith in, or Love to God, as much as to say without any Grace at all.
I shall add but this: If there be no Seeds of Repentance and Faith in Christ, in the Regeneration of Infants, then the Righteousness, the Sacrifice, Blood of Christ, with all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace, are imputed and applied to persons, where are only the Seeds of the Graces of the Covenant of Works, which no Man shall make me believe.