so fierce against us for extending the Grace of God to all Men as being therein no respecter of Persons and yet shewing to Sinners the necessity of actual Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ as necessary to their Membership in the Church Militant by the Baptism of Repentance for Remission of Sins I say none so fierce against us as those who boast they are Abraham's Seed because descended from Gentiles who they suppose to be Believers But let me have a care I must now Answer for my self for Mr. Firmin demands of me Page 21. By what Scripture-Warrant do you reduce our Children into the state of the Children of Adam or Noah c. since we are never called their Children but only Abraham ' s whose Seed differ from theirs by a special Covenant made with Them and sealed with Them. To which of them did God say I will be the God of thy Seed and I will seal it But I reply These seem to me to be great swelling words of Vanity much worse in a Gentile than in a Jew And I would know what special Covenant hath God made with Mr. F. and his Seed which he hath denied to Tho. Grantham and his Seed But to the Question 1. I am far from denying Abraham's Fatherhood over the Faithful Christians but I deny that every Believer that hath an Infant is the Father of the Faithful And I deny many to have any right to that Title who boast much of it because they do not the works of Abraham but despise those that worship God according to his Will. Thus did not Abraham But thus does Mr. Firmin 2. I find that Adam was the Son of God Luke 3. Whether called so meerly for his Creation or for that after the Promise Gen. 3. 15. He walked with God or for both I will not dispute And I find that Christ's Descent is reckoned from Adam and the Saviour of the World was first promised to him and to proceed from him and therein was the Covenant of Grace in the first place made with him and in him with all Mankind who then were in him Nor do I find that this gracious Covenant was ever repealed but is in force to this day as is granted by Mr. Baxter 3. I find that Noah found Grace in the sight of the Lord being righteous before God. And I know that Mr. Baxter and other Learned Christians acknowledg the Covenant made with Noah and his Generations to be a Covenant of Grace and of perpetual Duration being indeed the renewal of the Covenant made with Adam I find also that Noah became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith and that his Faith did lead him to believe that which was as difficult to Sense as that Abraham should have a Son viz. That the whole World should be Drowned His Faith also was made perfect by Works for Whatsoever the Lord Commanded that did Noah 4. I find that all men from the time of the Flood are the Generations of Noah and that he was perfect in his Generation a Just Man and one that walketh with God and as one of his Sons proved wicked so did one of the Sons of Abraham I do also find in Scripture that we are all called the Sons of Adam To you O Men I call and my Voice is to the Sons of Adam or Man Prov. 8. 4. And as the Sons of Adam God shews them what is Good even to do Justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly with their God Mich. 6. Now from these Scripture-Warrants I honour my Great Grandfather Adam because to him was committed the first Oracles of God making known the Covenant of Grace I honour my Grandfather Noah because he was Heir of the Righteousness of Faith and had the second Edition of the Covenant of Grace extended to all his Generations till by Sin they eject themselves I likewise honour my Father Abraham because he had the third Edition of the Covenant of Grace as a Blessing to all Nations or to all the Families of the Earth Gen. 12. And also for that God was pleased to choose his Posterity as the People from whom Men should look for their Saviour with respect to his Descent according to the Flesh and of this Covenant as also of the Land of Promise was Circumcision given as a Sign to his Posterity that they might not mix with other Nations in Life or Religion but to Abraham himself as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith which he had near 30 Years before he was Circumcised But for all this I know that in Gospel-times unless we crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts we cannot be Abraham ' s Seed nor Heirs according to the Promise Gal. 3. 29. And the Seal of our Sonship and Right to the Inheritance is the Holy Spirit Ephes 1. 13. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes 4. 30. Mr. Firmin Now suppose that were true which is the great business of your Pamphlet to prove that all dying Infants are saved That thereby you may take off the Odium which lies upon you for shutting the Children of Believers out of the Church and denying them Baptism they being under the Covenant of Grace made with Adam as you say Tell me Is this Covenant of God with Abraham's Seed in vain Does the holy One make vain Covenants As to his Seed they were well enough before If Isaac die before the 8th day he is saved so that this Covenant might have been spared Answer 1. I havâ— said enough to shew that Abraham's Covenant Gen. 17. was not in vain but I am sure you here make a vain use of it For had Isaac died before he was Eight Days old in your Judgment he had not been saved and consequently no Male Infants which died before they were Circumcised were saved This is that wretched Doctrine which I oppose And seeing you make Baptism as necessary to Salvation as Circumcision was and call it the Seal of the Covenant you either make Infants which die unbaptized saved by an unsealed Covenant as you speak or else you damn all Infants which die unbaptized No other sense can be made of your strange Questions P. 73. Your Question is this Are they all Justified and Saved then it must be by a Covenant of Grace And shall they be under the Covenant so as to be in a justified and saved state by it and not have the Seal of the Covenant As if the Covenant of Grace were of no use to poor Infants without the Crossing Sprinkling or as you Pouring a little Water on their Forehead for which you have no Rule at all in the Word of God. I cannot but admire your great Blindness 2. The Covenant of Circumcision might not now be spared because God had now designed to honour Abraham's Faith and to make him and his Posterity famous both for Multitude Religion and other Excellencies but chiefly to point out all Nations from whence to look for a Saviour which
Original the Chaldee Paraphrast Junius c. which sheweth that it must be understood of them that are Adulti and not of Infants If Infants be not circumcised it is the Parents fault as may appear in the Example of Moses whom the Lord punished and not the Child for neglecting it 3. Concerning Baptism I do believe it to be a very solemn Ordinance and also very useful in the Church of God yet I do not find that it is the Hand of the Spirit to convey Grace to the Heart of any Infant seeing what it conveys it doth it by Faith and by its Figure representing the Death Burial and Resurrection of Christ and ours with him c. of all which Infants know nothing being sprinkled as I formerly shewed very often when they are fast asleep and if awake they know nothing of the Mystery of Baptism But Mr. F. brought three Scriptures to prove his Doctrine we shall now consider them Ephes 5. 26. Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of Water through the Word I allow Baptismal Water to be here meant but then we see it does not cleanse but by or through the Word nor doth the Word profit unless it be mixed with Faith in them that hear it Heb. 4. 1 2. The Church is purified in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. And Baptism saves us as it is the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ And to this agree his other two Scriptures Tit. 3. 11. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Now Infants being uncapable of being cleansed by Baptism according to the sense of these Scriptures we may in no wise apply them to Infant-Baptism Divis 2. And because it may be most convenient to treat of Regeneration in this place we will here consider Mr. F's Arguments to prove that Infants have Faith and Repentance His first Argument is as followeth Arg. 1. If all even adult Persons are passive in the work of Regeneration then Infants are capable of Regeneration But the Antecedent is true Answ 1. Here we are told that grown Persons are passive that is they do nothing at all in the work of Regeneration this is the meaning of his Antecedent Now if this be true as he says it is then if they do nothing they neither hear the Word nor believe it nor repent nor hate nor turn from Sin for these are at least some of the parts of the work of Regeneration Now I would fain know who is active in all this if the Party regenerate be not St. Paul tells us With the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 10. When Peter shewed the Jews their Sin and preached Christ to them they were pricked to the Heart Now observe they came to hear the Word they gave Audience they gave Credit to it God blessed the Word with Power Now they cry out What shall we do Peter exhort them to repent c. and they gladly receive his word and had the washing of Regeneration the same day Now let God have the Glory of this and all Conversions who is the first Mover in it and the Efficient Cause of it yet he is absurd that will say Man is as passive as an Infant that can neither hear nor receive any Instruction at all And therefore I deny his Antecedent it is not true the Adult are some way active in the work of Conversion yea all that know the work do know what wrestling with Corruption is and how unable they are to overcome in the Conflict with Satan and Flesh without Supernatural Strength or Aid from Heaven but yet They act and wait for help in all their actings 2. Men are commanded to hear that their Souls may live Isa 55. If they hear and obey not they sin against God Rom. 10. 16 17 18. We grant that the Power Converting is not of the Creature We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves All our Faculties are given us of God. It 's our duty to put these Faculties into Act to hear repent and believe is Man's Duty It is not the Duty of Infants to hear repent believe c. therefore they are not regenerated this way What you urge from the Shunamite's Son and Lazarus being both dead and so equally passive as to rise from Death is wholly impertinent and being put into Argument is false for thus you must argue if you say any thing Infants dead are as capable to rise as the Adult being dead Ergo They are as capable of hearing beleiving and repenting as the Adult The Consequence is false many Instances we have of the Adult who hear believe and repent but no Instance of one Infant ever regenerated this way 3. As for your captious Demands about our being quickned c. you may well spare them till you give better Evidence of your own Conversion for your Books do evidently shew that a jeering idle Spirit has dominion in you Howbeit this we say The Original Cause of our Conversion is the Love of God The meritorious Cause is the Blood of Christ The ministerial Cause is the Evidence of Truth or the Word of Truth The efficient Cause is the Power of God's Grace John 1. 12. The formal Cause is believing and obeying the Truth through the Spirit The final Cause is God's Glory and our Salvation to the obtaining of which all our Faculties of Hearing Understanding Will and Affection are given us of God to be put into Act. This is not required of Infants and how they are sanctified by the Spirit God only knoweth 4. But now saith Mr. Firmin I will not have him for my God who cannot most omnipotently make me both will and do what he will. But I reply These are great swelling words of Vanity and nothing to the purpose We dispute not what God can do for he can of a Stone in the Street make a better Man than either of us And we deny not but God hath sometimes and may still if he please convert some by miraculous Operations But to say that all Conversions are miraculous as Mr. F. does is very false Paul was converted miraculously so was not Lydia What I say upon Ephes 1. 19 20. is mistaken by you for I extend it further than to the Resurrection of the Body for I expresly say he has power to do whatsoever he pleases and so to raise us up c. but if I was short or obscure this is my meaning The Faith of Christians is agreeable to the power which God shewed in Christ when he raised him from the dead and I think 1 Pet. 1. 3. doth very well explain Ephes 1. 19 20. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead Mr.
all dying Infants against those who would thus damn them is especially my present undertaking And if Mr. F. be disposed to urge me further it is a Subject I am willing to debate with him when and how he pleases so that we may discourse in Love as becomes Christians And as to the Questions about Sacred Baptism that Work may perhaps be undertaken in a particular Treatise by it self In the mean time let it be considered that it has been granted both by Papists and Protestants and those of the more Learned sort too That there is no Scripture for Infant-Baptism That the Scripture shews us no other way of baptizing but by dipping Yea I lately asked a Doctor of the Church of England very seriously Whether he held Infant-Baptism to be of Divine Institution Who very freely gave me this Answer No truly I only look upon it as a Church-Rite But then whether the Church have such Power as to make Rites and Ceremonies in Religion and particularly thus to alter the subject and manner of Baptism as has confessedly been done by the Church of Rome and in part by the Church of England is the business for this present Age to take into their most serious Consideration T. G. The INFANTS ADVOCATE against the cruel Doctrine of those Presbyterians who hold That the greatest part of Dying Infants are DAMNED Division 1. MR Giles Firmin was pleased to print two Questions and desires those whom he calls Anabaptists to answer them and at the request of some of his Neighbours I wrote a brief and I hope a modest Answer to them not for Contention but for Satisfaction to such as desire to know the truth in the matters thereby put to the Question by Mr. F. who finds himself aggrieved tho nothing is done but what he desired that is his Questions answered And tho he says they are not yet that shall not provoke me to say much to him concerning them But seeing by this occasion we are unavoidably fallen upon the business of Infants-Salvation Whether God Almighty ordained Baptism or any other Rite to be necessary to their Salvation or Whether the greatest or any part of Dying Infants shall be damned in Hellish Torments A Question of great weight and importance I find my self concern'd to proceed in opposing that cruel Doctrine which would send Millions of dying Infants to Hell Torments It was the Judgment of Austin and many others that unless Infants were baptized and received the Lord's Supper they could not be saved And Mr. Firmin seems to be of the same Mind with respect to their Baptism and moreover he holds that Infants must have Faith and Repentance as necessary to their Salvation or they must all perish I will set down his own words In Pag. 90. of his Plea he speaks thus To return to Infants They must be regenerate and have Faith some way else they must perish And in his Book entituled Scripture warrant c. he speaks thus Pag. 76. They who are regenerate have Faith and Repentance But all Infants saved are regenerated Therefore all Infants saved have Faith and Repentance And in Pag. 21. he counts it an Error in me for supposing If Isaac had died before he was eight days old he might have been saved So saith he this Covenant meaning the Covenant of Circumcision might have been spared And in Pag. 40. The same saith he I may say for Baptism being Christ's own Institution This is the Hand of the Spirit accompanying it when and where he pleaseth shall be the means to convey Spiritual Blessings to the Hearts of some Infants and prove to them the washing of Regeneration So that I think I have done him no wrong in the account I have given of his Opinion To all which I answer To intermit a little the business of Infants Faith and Repentance we will consider what he says of Circumcision and Baptism He tells us Pag. 39. That he cannot conceive how it can consist with the Wisdom Holiness and Goodness of God to institute an Ordinance in his Church for spiritual and saving Ends and strictly to command this Ordinance to be administred to such Subjects as Children of eight days old and he himself not work with his own Institution when and where he pleases to the good and benefit of that Subject to whom it is administred this Subject having need of the Spiritual Good signified and sealed thereby It doth implicitly charge the Institution with Vanity To which I reply 1. Considering what Mr. F. says of Isaac dying before the eighth day which I noted before his sense is this that from the time that Circumcision was instituted it makes that Covenant of Circumcision a Vanity to think any of Abraham's Seed tho but Infants of eight days old could be saved if not circumcised And then I pray what is like to become of all the World beside who had no Interest in the Covenant of Circumcision Must they not all perish We shall hear more of that anon 2. And besides this tho he makes Circumcision thus necessary to the Salvation of Infants yet he does not believe that all Infants that were circumcised were saved for these words of his when and where he pleases carry this sense in a Presbyterian Breast that tho Circumcision did by express order belong to all the Males of Abraham's Seed being eight days old yet perhaps but few of many of them should be saved which I evidently shewed in my Answers to Mr. F's Question and to Mr. Petto Now here I do profess to believe that Almighty God did not thus ordain Circumcision to be absolutely necessary because they to wit Infants can neither understand his Will herein nor desire it neither hinder it it wholly depends on others to do it for them and why then they should perish if it be not done no reason can be shewed but that which is the hardest thing of all is that if Isaac had died before the eighth day he should not be saved when yet it was not lawful to circumcise him What is this Does God damn Infants for dying before they be eight days old or for not having that done to them which by God's Law ought not to be done before the eighth day This is the cruelst Doctrine that can be And I will shew how contrary it is to the Doctrine of Learned Protestants One saith thus upon Gen. 17. 14. It is no good reading to say the uncircumcised Man-Child but Zachar the Male c. shall be cut off for the Infant of eight days old mentioned ver 12. is of purpose omitted here Hence then it is inferred that there was no such absolute necessity of Circumcision that Children wanting it should be damned Again This place cannot be understood of Infants that are uncircumcised 1. That addition the eighth day is used only by the Septuagint it is not in the Hebrew 2. The words are qui non circumciderit he which shall not circumcise So readeth the
Firmin argues thus They who are regenerated have Faith and Repentance but all Infants saved are regenerated Therefore all Infants saved have Faith and Repentance Answ 1. Here is a fault in your Logick your Major should have been universal or else you conclude nothing rationally 2. Therefore I deny the Major and say Some may be regenerated I mean cleansed from Sin renewed by Christ and made fit for Heaven without Faith and Repenuance namely Infants and sure I am Mr. F. shall never be able to prove his Major being taken universally and if he like not to mend his Major I reject his Argument and retort it thus 3. They that are regenerated do continue in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers But all Infants saved are regenerated Ergo All Infants saved continue stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Now as this Argument is fallacious so certainly is yours Again 4. You that make all Conversion miraculous how can you tie Regeneration to Faith and Repentance as it respects Infants Do not you contradict your self Mr. Firmin in this May not God sanctify Infants what way he pleaseth but must be limited to your Methods Sir what he doth in the Regeneration of Infants is a Secret let it alone to him 5. But let us hear Dr. Taylor one of your own Mind as to Poedo-baptism yet he saith Let Infants be pressed with all the Inconveniencies which are consequent to Original Sin yet it will not be laid to their Charge so as to condemn them Or if it could yet the Mercy and absolute Goodness of God will secure them if he take them away before they can glorify him by a free Obedience For as Infants without their own consent contracted the Guilt of Adam ' s Sin and are liable to all the Punishments which can with Justice descend upon his Posterity who are personally innocent so Infants shall be restored by the second Adam by the Redemption of Jesus Christ by his Righteousness and Mercies applied either immediately or how or when he pleases to appoint And here Mr. F. may learn from Dr. Taylor how Infants may be guilty of Sin and yet Innocent which he would make a Contradiction in me Mr. F. tells us his Major last denied is clear from our own Confession in that we say Faith and Repentance are the two parts of Regeneration but he that grants this extends it only to the Adult of whom these are things required and not to Infants of whom they are not required so that this is a meer Caption unbecoming a grave Disputant But let us hear how he proves his Minor. They saith he who are born unclean that are sinful and corrupt by Nature must be regenerated before they can be saved But so are Infants born Therefore c. Answ It is not denied by us that Infants are born unclean and we grant that before they come to Heaven they must be cleansed so that you might have spared this Argument The thing you are to prove is That Infants cannot be cleansed without Faith and Repentance But this you cunningly slide over and you will find it to be an undertaking too hard for you and I think you are the first Man that ever attempted it It is not your telling us again of your Seminal Faith that will do it which as you refer it to Infants is a meer Chimera of your own Brain But when you speak of the Adult you seem to speak sense in these words When God regenerates an Adult Person he doth first infuse the Principles Seeds Habits of all the Graces of the Spirit When the Sower went out to sow Mat 13. 3. it was but the Seeds of Faith and Repentance which he did sow which was first received and these Seeds grew up Mark 4. 27. Now Sir if you will stand to this and these Texts to govern your Speech we may very well come to agree What then is the Seed here spoken of Our Saviour tells us it is the Word of God which Men hear preached unto them Is this the Seminal Faith and Repentance which you talk on Then this Seminal Faith is not in Infants for as they cannot hear the Word so no Sower or Preacher is sent to them And I suppose you would not baptize an Adult Person tho he has heard the Word unless you see some effect of it at least that the tender blade appear for Persons are not made Disciples or Christians by being baptized but they are baptized because they are made Disciples John 4. 1. Mat. 28. 19. Mathetusate panta ta ethne Baptizantes autous And Disciples may be called Christians Acts 11. Now with what Conscience then can you baptize an Infant that never to your knowledg received this Seed at all But Mr. F. bids us twy-fallow and try-fallow our Ground and sow no seed for according to your Doctrine saith he you may have a Crop without it But by his favour this is not our case but his own for he sows no Seed to Infants and yet he will have a Crop of them for he will have them baptized asleep or awake by force Now Baptism is an Act of Obedience springing from the Word the Seed sown Acts 2. 38 40. Act. 8. 12. Nay more he exacts this Crop of Infants not only before he sow any Seed or before any be sown by any other that he knows of but also before he so much as Twy-fallow or plow at all And thus whilst he thought to kick the Husbandman on the breech he hath kick'd up his own Heels Mr. F. quotes 1 John 3. 9. It is the Seed which remains Peter ' s Faith failed sadly saith he as to the Act but the Seed remained This would lead us to another Question as it is his manner to confound his Discourses with Diversities but I shall hold him to the Parable of the Sower alledged by himself Mat. 13. And then I may tell him the Seed only remains in good and honest Hearts but not in every place where it is sown nor in every place where it is received remember the High-way and the Stony and Thorny Ground Mr. F's Arg. 2. No unclean Person shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But Infants by Nature are unclean If the Scripture be believed they must bear the Image in which they were created by God that ever see the face of God. Answ Should I retort this Argument I might shew the infirmity of its form But I shall take your Sense I suppose by the Major you mean no unclean or wicked Person as such shall see God. And by the Minor you mean that Infants are born of sinful Parents polluted by Original Sin and so under Condemnation And therefore before they can come to Heaven they must be cleansed from these Pollutions c. If this be your Sense I agree with you But then your Argument touches not the Question which is Whether
be able to prove them viz. That some Infants have Faith and Repentance seminally and others have Vnbelief and Impenitency seminally And which is another Impossibility no Man can distinguish the Infants one from another Nor can it ever be proved that Seminal Faith and Repentance if yet any Body can tell what it is do give us any ground to baptize any Body For Suppose we take this Seminal Faith and Repentance to be the faculties of Credence and Sorrow Or suppose some take them to be some secret Inspirations of the Spirit yet sith they appear not to us it is as if they were not For that Rule is good in this Case Deâ— non apparentibus non existantibus eidem est ratio It is the profession of Faith and Repentance that qualifies a Person in respect of us for Sacred Baptism the Church is not judg of of Hearts they are only known to God infallibly Division 4. Concerning Original Sin. It would even grieve a Sober Christian to read the strange Immaginations which Men have Published about Original Sin and the Extreams they have run into on the Right Hand and on the Left censuring one another very severely for their differing apprehensions in this Matter And it is remarkable how cruelly Censarious Mr. Firmin is against my self in particular representing me as a Master among the worst sort of Anabaptists who he says denies Original Sin. Concerning which he tells you we are Rotten That the foundation of Anabaptism lies in denying Original Sin. That in this we are given up to more blindness than the Heathens c. To all which I Answer 1. If I be one of the worst of my Brethren in this Point I hope the rest will be better thought of by Men of Moderation for my sake when they have had what violent Mr. Firmin hath not patience to consider what I have published upon the account of Original Sin and that long before I heard there was such a Man in the World as Mr. Firmin in my Christianismus Primitivus Book 2. Pag. 77 78. thus you read me 2. For the better attaining to a powerful conviction of Sin and a sence of Man's wretchedness by reason of Sin it is necessary to understate the general state of Transgression into which Mankind is involved concerning which we find the Scripture gives this Testimony That all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And that by one Man Sin entred into the World for that all have sinned And that the whole World lieth in wickedness which is also evident by common Experience every Nation being greatly corrupted through the abounding of Iniquity and the universality of the ways of Sin does evince the same that the Apostle might well say Both Jew and Gentile are all under Sin. 3. The Sin of Mankind is either Original or Actual The first is come upon all even the very Infant-state of Mankind lie under it of whom that saying is true They have not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s Transgression yet Death reigning over them proves the Transgression of Adam to be upon them This is that Root-Sin called the Sin of the World John 1. 29. whereof none are free Nor is it convenient to extenuate or lessen this Sin either in its nature or the punishment it brings with it it being indeed the Filum certissimum or Leading-Thred to all other Iniquities Mankind being hereby corrupt Ab Origine and wholly deprived of the Glory of God without the intervening Mercy of a Saviour And hence we find David when complaining of his sinful state looks back to his corrupt Original amongst the rest of his Iniquities complaining Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me Knowing as Job saith None can bring a clean thing out of an unclean one So that they are not to be despised who say that in our Humiliation for Sin we ought to bewail this our Sinful Original which had been to Adam's Posterity like the Sin of Traytors which bringeth with it corruption of Blood to their Off-spring for which they must bear the shame of such Transgressions How do we find that the Sin of Progenitors was wont to be lamented by their Off-spring among the Israelites And is there not the same reason Adam's Children should do the like as being sensible of the evil Consequences thereof We also may say Our Father hath sinned and we have born his Iniquity 4. And hence I like the saying of Irenaeus well which I will give in English because Mr. F. is pleased to lock it up in Latine Omnes enim venit c. Christ came to save all by himself all I say who are born again in God Infants Little ones Boys and Young Men and Old Men But as for his Ideo per omnem venit aetatem I let that alone for I do not find that Christ passed through the age of Old Men yet I say he came to Sanctifie every Age and therefore every Age who do not profane the Blood of Christ by which they were Sanctified as I am sure no Infant doth they shall certainly be Saved by him and hence the Salvation of all dying Infants is apparent enough But how Infants are born again in God is a secret and not to be Demonstrated by Mr. Firmin nor any other Surely had I written as Irenaeus doth he would have said I exclude the Operation of the Holy Ghost for Irenaeus says he came to save all by himself yet as 't is certain that the Holy Spirit is not wanting to the Aged Sinner there is no ground to doubt of his care of poor Infants Division 5. Of Free-Will Concerning Free-Will Mr. F. calls it our Diana and an Imperial Majesty representing us to deny God to be most Blessed because if his Will be resisted he failing of his End is to want a degree of Blessedness c. I Answer 1. Then it seems according to Mr. F. all that God wills to be saved must and therefore shall be Saved and the rest he wills to be Damned and they shall therefore be Damned But how he can reconcile his Doctrines to these Scriptures I cannot tell which saith I live I Will not the death of the Wicked And that this is good in the sight of God c. who will have all Men to be Saved 2. Was it God's Will that when he brought Israel out of Egypt that their Carcases should fall in the Wilderness If it were not then he wanted a degree of Blessedness Was it God's Will that Adam should fall and bring himself and his Posterity into so many Miseries If not God was not most Blessed because he failed of his End. If you say it was God's Will that Adam should fall and that Israel must fall in the Wilderness you had as good tell us that God has Decreed all the evil Actions that Men do and that they must do them else God cannot be most