Answer to the Question Charged by Grantham, Text
THE ANSWER TO HIS PREFACE.
THE Preface is more conſiderable than his whole Book, there being ſomething in it which concerns our Practice. In it he juſtifies himſelf in his ſcoffing at me, for the experience I have found of the benefit of Abraham's, and my Baptiſmal Covenant when an Infant. Let the Reader take it ſhortly thus:
The Covenant I mention is, as I ſaid, that Covenant which God made with our Father Abraham, and his Seed, 17 Gen. 7. which Covenant holds *I gave him ſix Scriptures to prove it, but he not one on the contrary.ſtill with Believers and their Seed, and ſhall hold ſo long as there are Believers in Chriſt [Abraham's Seed, 3 Gal. 29.] upon Earth; unleſs the Anabaptiſts can ſhew us where God hath expreſly Repealed that Covenant, as he hath done other Covenants. To which I have ſpoken †See Scripture Wor. p. 8, 9, 10. 17 Prov. 16..
My Father then being a Son [as my Mother a Daughter] of Abraham, this Covenant ran down to his Seed: He could plead this Covenant for us; and when I came to Underſtanding, I did plead it for my ſelf. Here was a Price in my Hand, and I reſolved to improve it. Beſides this Covenant, I read other Promiſes made to the Seed of Godly Parents, as 20 Exod. 6. 30 Deut. 6. 112 Pſal. 2. 20 Prov. 7.43 Iſa. 3. &c. The Spirit of God did not inſpire theſe Penmen to write theſe Promiſes to fill up Paper, that we ſhould only read them, and not make uſe of them: let Children of ſuch Parents look to this. Theſe Promiſes, this Covenant, I believed, I highly prized, I begg'd the fulfilling of them many Years, being willing ‖Nos volumus ſed ille facit ut velimus Auguſt.to have Abraham's God to be my God, as he was His, and my Father's God, and I willing to be His, as Abraham and my Father were. And ſince he had promiſed Bleſſings ſeveral times, but did not ſpecifie what Bleſſings, I choſe my Bleſſings, to wit, All Spiritual Bleſſings in Christ Jeſus, 1 Epheſ. 3. without which I eſteemed nothing to be a Bleſſing, Non Entitie, being a ſtate far better than all other Bleſſings without them.
And whereas I was for ſeveral Years troubled about Legal Preparations, and Qualifications of Promiſes *As 11 Matth. 28.61 Iſa. 1.19 Luke 10. &c., [which I do not wonder, tho' Mr. Grantham, and his Sect, are never troubled about being Active, not Paſſive, in their own Begetting †Regeneration and Converſion differ.] I found in this Covenant, and theſe Promiſes a great help. Here God offered, yea, Covenanted to be my God, would I take him for my God, and give up my ſelf to him; this I found my Heart willing to do.
And whereas upon this Covenant-Interest, my Parents did dedicate me to God in my Baptiſm, when I came to underſtand my Baptiſmal-Covenant, what was contained in it, I bleſſed that God who was aforehand with me: I owned my Dedication; and for many Years followed God, that he would pleaſe to fulfil his part of the Covenant, and in the ſtrength thereof I would endeavour to fulfil mine. And in theſe Covenants have I found Relief under many, yea many many Temptations.
This is the Sum of what I wrote. Plea from page 63. to page 72.
To this Mr. Preſump. p. 6.Grantham anſwers. It would make a well Man ſlck to ſee what work he makes of it, for after all his ſhifting from Post to Pillar, he only gets Stomach to reject the Councel of God against himſelf, 7 Luke 30. If this be not ſcoffing, let the Reader judge; and that not only a ſcoffing at my Experience, but at that Duty which is incumbent upon all Baptized Children under Abraham, and their Baptiſmal Covenant. But in this he juſtifies himſelf.
The next thing you charge me with, Is eating of Blood, contrary to the Decrees of the Apoſtles and Elders, 15 Acts. I ſay with B. Auſtin, Tho' the Ceremonial Law be dead, yet it is fit it ſhould have a comely Burial. And having been buried ſo many hundred Years, that I may profeſs my Faith in theſe Truths, viz. That the Blood which makes the Atonement for my Soul, is ſhed, 17 Levit. 10.11. with 1 Col. 20. 2 Epheſ. 13.14.
Secondly, That Christ hath broken down the Partition-Wall, [in which Wall Blood was one Stone] between Jew and Gentile, 2 Epheſ. 14.
Thirdly, That there is nothing unclean in it ſelf, 14 Rom. 14. I ſay, to declare my Faith in theſe Truths, I would now eat a Blood-Pudding in the face of Mr. Grantham, or any Jew, provided it be prepared S. A. that is, ſaith Mr. Grantham, Sir Anabaptist. No indeed Sir, you are as much miſtaken now, as when you told us, Tranſubſtantiation was never heard of, till it was invented in the Council of Trent. S. A. that is, Secundum Anteum. *As Phyſitians in their Bills, let the Bill be prepared S. A.: If a good Cook hath the preparing of them, elſe I care not for them. But I thank you for the ſport you have made us, by interpreting S. A.
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 Dipt, I deſire no acquaintance with ſuch.
For my own part, I have held Communion in the Holy Supper, and do daily in my Prayers remember one Anabaptist, whom I found ſound in other Points, and walking humbly; ſo that certainly I am no Deſpiſer of them who Worſhip God according to his Will, as you charge me to be †Page 19., and ſo would prove me, not to do the Works of Abraham. If Re baptizing were Worſhip; according to his Will, which I deny: As for Baptizing by Dipping of thoſe who were never Baptized, I am not againſt it, if Adminiſtred by one Qualified, Called, and Ordained according to the Goſpel. This Charge is as true as divers others I meet with in your Book; out of which I will only take the moſt material Things, and let your other Impertinencies alone.
16 Decemb. 1688. The Servant of the Seed of Believers, G. FIRMIN.
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 *Plea, p. 20.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 Lumbard †L. 4. Diſt. 4.himſelf is of the ſame Judgment.
The ſame was, and is my Opinion concerning Circumciſion, which made me wonder you ſhould ſo often tell your Reader, twice in one pag. 21. [where you tell me, You admire my great blindneſs] that I have ſaid, If Iſaac had died before he had been eight days old, he had not been ſaved: An abominable falſhood, I never had ſuch a thought. You ſay, pag. 6. You have done me no wrong, in ſhewing my Opinion: Yes, Mr. Grantham, as much wrong as Falſhood can do Truth. If your Choler have done boiling, the Fumes whereof troubled your ſight, rub your Eyes, and put on your Spectacles, and read the former Paragraphs, upon which thoſe words about Iſaac depend, and you will find this Sence. I was ſpeaking of the Grace of God in making that Covenant with Abraham, and his Seed, and Sealing it. Suppoſe, I ſaid, it were true which you ſay, That all dying Infants are ſaved, yet certainly there is a Bleſſing in this Covenant, that God makes and Seals with Iſaac, ſaid I, for God does not make Covenants in vain. But how does this prove, what you charge me with? I doubt not but as God ſaved Infants before Circumciſion was Inſtituted, ſo he did after without it.
But tho' there be no ſuch abſolute neceſſity, as I ſaid before, yet when God Inſtitutes any Ordinance there is a neceſſity lies upon us, to obſerve his Inſtitution reverently, and I do believe God doth convey Grace by them. For, as I ſaid concerning Circumciſion, it had Spiritual Ends; God ſtrictly chargeth this Ordinance to be adminiſtred to Infants of eight days old, which could not Co-work with him in the Adminiſtration of it; then he himſelf muſt do it, elſe the Spiritual Ends could not be attained, there is only a ſign, but not the thing ſignified in any one Infant; ſo the Ordinance is but in vain, which do not conſiſt with the Wiſdom, Grace, and Holineſs of God. 1. As it was in Circumciſion, ſo in Baptiſm, which ſucceed in the room of it. Though Circumciſion and Baptiſm are nothing without the Spirit, yet with the Spirit, Baptiſm is not inferiour to Circumciſion: He did work then, and doth work now, when and where he pleaſeth with it.