A Rejoinder to Henry Danvers, Title page – To the reader
A REJOYNDER TO MR. HENRY DANVERS HIS Brief friendly Reply TO MY ANSVVER ABOUT INFANT-BAPTISM. By RICHARD BLINMAN Miniſter of the Goſpel.
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Wall Bookſeller in Bristol, 1675
To the READER.
Courteous and Impartial Reader;
I Have made bold to trouble thee yet this once, with theſe few pages, by way of Rejoynder to Mr. Henry Danvers his friendly Reply (as he calls it) to my Eſſay, in anſwer to his firſt Book againſt Infants Baptiſm. In which, though there were many hard cenſures againſt it, and unworthy reflections againſt thoſe that maintain it; yet I choſe in mildneſs (as the Lord helped me) to refute them, rather than in bitterneſs ſo as to raiſe a Paroxyſm. Hoping that he might have taken notice of ſomething, that (upon ſerious conſideration) might have ſtop'd his proceedings in that controverſy. But now in his third piece lately publiſh'd, I find many unhandſome and biting taxations (though by a Rhetorical Artifice) reflected upon me; which I did not expect from a Gentleman of his education; much leſs from a Chriſtian, (as I hope he is) though at preſent led aſide, and leading others; and leaſt of all from him who hath ſo deeply cenſured, and characteriſed Mr. Wills for harſh and uncharitable dealing with him. I could willingly ſuppoſe thoſe extravagancies do proceed rather from ſome Partners and Abettors, than from himſelf; I having ſome ground to conclude, that he had other heads beſides his own in his Reply both to Mr. Wills, and to my ſelf. I ſhould willingly have been ſilent, had they terminated in my own perſon only, and never have troubled the Reader with my Vindication. But obſerving how he had drawn a veil over my Arguments, (which every Reader cannot diſcern) and triumphed over the truth in them; and what he hath ſaid tending to the weakning of the eſteem of my miniſtry; I thought my ſelf bound in conſcience to diſcover the weakneſs of his Reply, and to return his ſevere reflections upon himſelf, to whom they are rightly due, (as I hope will appear). And this I do, not to diſgrace his perſon, (for I can truly ſay, I have a love and pity for him, and do not at all compliment him, as he doth me, with [your ſervant]): but to make his miſtakes appear, that the honeſt and ſimple-hearted may not be led aſide. I ſhall deſire the Readers pardon, for giving him the trouble of theſe pages; promiſing him, that unleſs I ſee more preſſing reaſons than at preſent I do, never to trouble him more with writings of this kind; which I ſee will be endleſs, till the Lord take another way to convince men of their error. I had almoſt forgotten to tell thee, kind Reader, that in all his Reply to me, I have not obſerved any thing that undermines the main of my Arguments; only that which he brings out of Acts, 2.1. anſwers to one particular, viz. How he knew, but that they might be dead, or abſent, as Thomas once was?
Thine to further thee in the truth, RICHARD BLINMAN.