Giles Firmin and the Transatlantic Puritan Tradition : Polity, Piety, and Polemic

A book on the life and writings of Giles Firmin (1613/14–1697), situating him in the intellectual milieu of late seventeenth century puritanism. Half Title 1 Series Information 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 Chapter 1 “Scholarly and Strangely Courteous Controversies”: Firmin’s Ecclesiastical Identity in the 1640s and 1650s 17 1 Firmin’s Experience to 1651 18 2 Firmin’s “Interpendency” in the Early 1650s 22 3 Growing Presbyterian Identity in the Later 1650s 45 4 Sects, Quakers, and the Power of the Magistrate 57 5 Conclusion 64 Chapter 2 “Nor Yet a New-Style Episcopalian”: Firmin’s Writings in the Early 1660s 66 1 Laudians, Moderates, and the Problem of Re-Ordination 70 2 Gifted Ministers and the Imposition of the Liturgy 88 3 The Solemn League and Covenant, Primitive Episcopacy, and Tyrannical Prelacy 100 4 Conclusion 110 Chapter 3 “Truth and the Lambs of God Must be Regarded”: Firmin on Effectual Calling, Faith, and Assurance 111 1 The Real Christian in Context 114 2 Preparation for Salvation: against Shepard and Hooker 117 3 Defining Faith: for and against the Rogers and Perkins 125 4 Effectual Calling, Self-Love, and the Glory of God 142 5 Imposing Duties on a “Christian Constituted” 147 6 Conclusion 152 Chapter 4 “What Episcopacy Is It You Mean?” Conscience, Schism, Anti-Popery, and the Edward Stillingfleet Debate 153 1 Erastians and Latitudinarians against Dissenting Schismatics in the 1670s and 1680s 156 2 The Latitudinarians on the Separation and Schism of Dissenters 162 3 Stillingfleet’s Polemics in the 1680s 166 4 Dissenting Replies to Stillingfleet and Anglican Polemics 174 5 Firmin’s Position vis-a-vis Presbyterian Dissent 187 6 Conclusion 195 Chapter 5 “Out of Whose Hive the Quakers Swarm’d”: Firmin, Federalists, and Anabaptists in the 1670s and 1680s1 197 1 Henry Danvers, Thomas Grantham, and the Paedobaptist/Anti-Paedobaptist Debate 200 2 Of Quakerism, Popery, and the Slippery Slope 211 3 Exegetical and Hermeneutical Disputes 217 4 The Matter and Form of Baptism 225 5 Pastoral Concerns 228 6 Conclusion 233 Chapter 6 “The Gospel is a Law”: Firmin, Free Grace, and Justification in 1690s Context 234 1 The Antinomian Conflict, 1690–1698 235 1.1 Antinomianism and Polemics 235 1.2 Antinomianism and Neonomianism in the Polemics of the 1690s 238 1.3 Free Grace and Justification, 1690–1694 245 1.4 Richard Davis, Antinomianism, and the Fragmentation of the Happy Union 253 1.5 Firmin on Justification and Assurance 261 1.6 Conclusion 266 Conclusion 267 Bibliography 279 Primary Sources 279 Secondary Sources 311 Index 321 In Giles Firmin and the Transatlantic Puritan Tradition , Jonathan Warren Pagán offers an intellectual biography of Giles Firmin (1613/14-1697), who lived in both Old and New England and lived through many of the transitions of international puritanism in the seventeenth century. By contextualizing Firmin in his intellectual milieu, Warren Pagán also offers a unique vantage on the transition of puritanism to Dissent in late Stuart England, surveying changing approaches to ecclesiology, pastoral theology, and the ordo salutis among the godly during the Restoration through Firmin's writings "Jonathan Warren Pagán offers an intellectual biography of Giles Firmin (1613/14-1697), who lived in both Old and New England and lived through many of the transitions of international Puritanism in the seventeenth century. By contextualizing Firmin in his intellectual milieu, Warren Pagán also offers a unique vantage on the transition of Puritanism to Dissent in late Stuart England, surveying changing approaches to ecclesiology, pastoral theology, and the ordo salutis among the godly during the Restoration through Firmin's writings."-- Provided by publisher "The admonition of the John Howe to the Earl of Kildare is a fitting epigram to a book on the life and writings of Giles Firmin (1613/14-1697). The thrust of Firmin's entire corpus of work was to construct forms of visible unity between the factions of the godly"-- Provided by publisher