ye are in and repent if that be possible after ye have so abused the Truths of Jesus and his inheritance Second Section fixing Popery upon the Quakers Having discussed your charge of Popery calumniously 〈◊〉 against us I shall present a true one against you and that very breifly First Therefore for I resolve to adhere to the order of the queries above dispatched It is a Popish rule and a great one too That ignorance is the Mother of Devotion and ye both in those queries Quakerism no Popery pag. 98. are not a jot behind with them in that where ye condemn all means of knowledge both humane and divine and consequently knowledge it self seeing we cannot reach knowledge without the use of the means of knowledge whereby through Gods blessing we may attain unto it for extraordinary Inspiration is now ceased as is proved before nor must we tempt God to work extraordinary miracles and neglect and despise the ordinary means which he had allowed Secondly the Papists deny the Scriptures to have any authority over us or in order to us untill they get it from the Church whereby they mean the Pope and his Clergy and do also deprive the whole body of the people or Laity as they call them of the use of the Scriptures And do not ye also deny the Scriptures to be our rule at least our principal rule and endeavour to cause all men reject them at least as the principal rule Witness the proceeding Queries and your Quakerism no Popery And is not this one dish indifferent dressings for both of you aim to bring the Scriptures low yea to nought without your approbation they without their Pope and Councils approbation yea without the approbation of your light and sentiments within and so both of you agree exactly in subjecting the Scripture-authority to the authority of another rule which Inevitably must be as ye apprehend I am sure in both these articles ye are as like the Pope as any bastard can be like his father Thirdly The Papists and ye agree in denying Infant Baptism an external Christian Sabbath-day and Psalms-singing to be ordinances of Divine Institution under the Gospel they alleadgingthem to be only traditional ye that they are superstitious will 〈…〉 All which things we have seen in your queries Con 〈…〉 faith and Quakerism no Popery Sixthly 〈◊〉 have put three Articles into the last The Papists deny Bread and Wine to be in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper affirming that after the priests consecration it is no more Bread and Wiâ—e but is substantially changed into the very body and blood 〈◊〉 Christ so your brethren divinely Inspired as ye are in their fixth query here mock and scoff at the eating of bread and drinking of wine in that Sacrament making way it seems for that Popish Transubstantiation whereof we are the more confirmed because at the Sixteenth Query as I cleared before they lay down an assertion that cannot stand without the very grounds of that Transubstantiation Seventhly The Papists assert the Infallibility of their Pope and Councils and make that a ground of defence for their Church-constitutions and whole religion rejecting all that want the authority of such Infallible guides So do not you assert the Infallibility of your teachers Albeit often they are rather lunatick and oppose our Confession directory c. upon the very account of the fallibility of these that formed them though to no purpose as is shewed Eightly The Jesuit Papists worse then any of the rest stifly deny original sin and assert universal redemption universal light universal grace free-will in natural unrenewed men unto good and the Apostacy of the Saints all which I have shewed to be contrary to the Scriptures and in all these the Quakers are not a jot behind them but on the contrary do exceedingly out-reach them Fourteenthly For there are six articles in my last charge the same Jesuit Papists hold perfection to be attainable in this life Wherein ye are indeed more positive then they albeit still against the Scriptures as is before proved which shew us that according to Gods way of disposition for the debate depends not on potentia absoluta who will have us here to have a continual war with our corruptions that the victories of his grace may be the more glorious we the more humble and dependant on him Wee shall never here be fully perfect or freed from all corruption And Sir methinks ye strongly savour of supererogation too while ye say Quakerism no Popery Pag. 37.38 that ye can attain a sinless perfection in this life and yet grow in more degrees of grace for Sir when ye are altogether sinless and so neither God nor his law can ask any more of you as not being defective or unconform in a jot or else ye cannot be sinless ye may spare that which ye have more than is required and due to a needful friend or throw it into the Roman-Churches grand treasury of merit and be Canonized next day for a Saint for exceeding your duty and giving that overplus to the Church Fifteenthly Ye hold justification by your inherent righteousness and salvation by the merit of works as much as any Papist nay as the Pope himself does as is shewed Sevententhly for there are two in the last your brethren have endeavoured what they can in your Confession of Faith as we saw before And ye in your Quakerism no Popery Pag. 94 do sweetly also combine to clear the Pope from that reproachful name of Antichrist they alleadging that the Antichrist is our will and the Whore our wisdom that sits upon the same ye affirming that Antichrist more strictly taken is a spirit sitting in mans heart Properly which the Pope certainly is not and so according to you Sir we cannot at least Properly call the Pope Antichrist Ye are understood Sir Eighteenthly Ye hold the Apocryphal books at least many of them to be of divine Inspiration and consequently of equal authority with the Scriptures for every doctrine divinely Inspired is of Infallible divine authority and Scripture assurance or authority can rise no higher And herein Sir ye also joyn with the Papists And when ye ask which is your only argument by what rule of faith we know that these Apocryphal books are not of divine authority or equal to the Scriptures seeing the Scriptures says not whether they are or not I Answer that though by express Scripture sentence or plain positive saying this cannot be cleared yet seeing these books do all of them want Scripture-stile which by the rest of the undoubted Scriptures compared we easily see and they were not found in the original language of the Old Testament and they are never cited in the New Testament and in many of them there are things frivolous written yea quite unsutable and in some of them the writer excuses his failings and they were never accounted any part of Canonical Scripture in the Old Testament-times and this passes without
2.38 and 8.16 and 10.48 Lastly It must be a desperate cause that forces it's Patrons to such contrary defences presently they affirmed that Baptism with Water was dispensed in the Name of the Lord now they cry About Ship and deny that Baptism in the Name of the Lord is Baptism with Water Are not these Men indeed in a mixture who in the unjust defence of falshood thus run upon such desperate 〈◊〉 of splitting Contradiction But fourthly They except against the same Text that Baptism with Water cannot be meant therein because the Apostles say they had no commission to Baptize with Water seeing Paul says 1 Cor. 1.17 that Christ sent him not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel Ans But in despight of this Exception all our forementioned Arguments do plainly prove the Baptism mentioned in the Text to be Baptism with Water and so also that the Apostles had a Commission to Baptize with Water Secondly The Quakers are bound by this their reasoning to acknowledge the Baptism there mentioned viz. 1 Cor. 1.17 to be Baptism with Water or else they will lose the whole ground pretended for their exception which acknowledged as we have also before proved it truly to be it presently appears from the Context of the same place that the Apostles had a Commission for Baptizing with Water seeing Paul plainly there declares that he Baptized some of these Corinthians which doubtless he did not without Commission or else he had been a manifest Intruder and Usurper of an Office in the Church and Worship of God for which he had no Order or Warrant which must be false I answer therefore lastly that the meaning of these words of Paul is plainly Comparative viz. that Baptism was not the principal and chief work that he was sent for but the Preaching of the Gospel such as is the meaning of that expression Hos 6.6 I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and such as is the meaning of that Joh. 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin that is nothing compared to what they now have Lastly They except against the same Text that Baptism with Water cannot be meant therein because say they it is not therein expresly mentioned Ans First A Man might upon this ground much rather argue against Christs demonstration Luk. 20.37 that the rising of the dead is not expresly taught Exod. 3.6 from whence he brings his Argument where God says I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that therefore such a thing cannot be there meant Or that Circumâ—sion of the flesh of the Foreskin is not expresly mentioned under every distinguishing Character thereof Galat. 5.2 3. where the flesh of the Foreskin is omitted and that therefore it cannot be that which is there meant but our Spiritual Circumcision in Christ that is our Regeneration must be the thing which Paul there disputes against and condemns and is not that well argued Secondly As Baptism with Water is not here expresly named in respect of every punctilio of its designation So far less is any of the forementioned improper Baptisms here expresly mentioned seeing the name Baptism is proper to that of Water and not to the other Therefore by the Quakers own Rule none of these is meant here either and so if the Rule be good no sort of Baptism is here meant but the word Baptizing is set down here for an impertinent Cipher signifying nothing Thirdly I have shewed before that there is much Doctrine meant in the Scriptures which is not therein expresly taught but implicitly only and so this Rule of the Quakers is most false I answer therefore lastly that albeit the word Water be not here Matth. 28.19 formally exprest yet the circumstances of the Text the Analogy of Faith and other Scriptures that I have compared it with in my Arguments do manifestly and irresistibly demonstrate the Baptism here mentioned to be Baptism with Water Let the Quakers answer my Arguments if they can I mean at the Greek Calends All the particular exceptions of the Quakers against our Argument from that Text of Matthew being so overthrown and answered The Quakers have as yet one general Argument whereby they hope to overturn Baptism with Water viz. Baptism with Water say they was but a figure that Christ might be made manifest to Israel who had diverse Baptisms imposed on them till the time of Reformation but Christ the Substance being come the shadows must flee away This Objection they lay down in their Confession of Faith page 25. Ans Whether Baptism with Water be a Figure or not I have now abundantly proved it to be an Ordinance of the New Testament Divinely Appointed due in the Churches Court to all the visible or appearing Disciples of the New Testament and necessary to Salvation under the same and to continue to the end of the World And what then dare the Quakers say against it Or how dare they oppose their own meer Brain-sick fancies to the Word of God and Dictates of the Holy Ghost Secondly Let Baptism with Water be a Figure manifesting Christ to Jews and Gentiles too that is to say a sacred Symbol of Christs blood shed not to be shed and so not a shadow of a thing to come on the Cross and a Seal of Remission of Sins there through Yet Christ by his Incarnation Death and Resurrection did not cancel all manner of Figures universally seeing the Bow in the Cloud is still a Figure to us or a Symbol and Pledge rather that God will no more destroy the World by Water Gen. 9.11 12 13. Nor did he thereby cancel all manner of Figures I would rather call them sacred Signs and Symbols if the Quakers would too representing Christ and his Passion and Blood Shed for we shall moreover prove at the Survey of their next ensuing Query that Christ hath Ordained Bread and Wine to be in the Eucharist a Sacred Sign and Symbol of his Body and Blood to the Worlds end But he hath only cancelled thereby Old Testament Figures shadowing forth Him and His Death and Passion to come Thirdly If Baptism with Water was only a Figure to manifest unto Israel Christ Jesus why then did the Apostles dispense it afterwards to the whole Disciples of the Gentile Church without ever cashiering it and with so much speed and diligence after the appearing of their Discipleship Lastly Gospel Baptism which is done with Water as the External Symbol is so far from being a shadow that should have fled away when Christ came in the Flesh and Dyed and the time of Reformation was come that on the direct contrary it then first received its Institution after Christ was come and together with the breaking forth of that Reformation viz. the New Testament way of Dispensation and is by Christ put into the Commission of the Ministers of that Reformation as an Ordinance to be continued to the Worlds end and was thereafter accordingly carried along
we must raze the word Baptize out of the Text. Secondly I prove the Antecedent of this Argument from the first Epistle of Peter 3.21 where the Apostle shews Baptism with Water to be necessary to Salvation under the New Testament while he says The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now Save us And that Baptism here is meant of Baptism with Water appears by the comparison which he uses comparing our Saving by Baptism to Noahs Saving by Water as being the last the Type and the first the Anti-type for the word which we have here turned like Figure is in the Original Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anti-type Now there must be some near resemblance betwixt a Type and its Anti-type which is very little or rather none here betwixt Noahs Temporal Saving by Water and any of these Improper Baptisms but very great betwixt that and our Eternal Saving by Baptism with Water which may be understood by comparing them which we may not stay to do Secondly the explication which he subjoyns in place of a Caution shewing how Baptism now Saves us viz. that its not by putting away the filth of the Flesh or by the meer external washing of the Body which Water had a fitness to do or by the very work wrought as Papists would but by its object which it signifies and Seals viz. the Blood of Christ which causeth the Answer of a good Conscience towards God will not allow it to be meant of any other Baptism but Baptism with Water which he so carefully explains nor can any man make Sence of the explication applying it to any of these Improper Baptisms Lastly Christ gives most express Commission to his Apostles and other succeeding Ministers of the New Testament for the Apostles were not to live to the worlds end which is the duration of the Commission to Baptize with Water all the Disciples that should come unto him under the New Testament to the end of the world Mat. 28.19 20. Therefore Baptism with water must uncontrolably be an Ordinance of the New Testament Divinely Instituted and to continue to the end of the world The Consequence hereof is beyond the exception of all the world The Antecedent will also be clear if I can but prove that by Baptism here is meant Baptism with Water which if I do not good Reader I Intreat thee believe me not henceforth Therefore first the Baptism here mentioned in this Text of Matthew pre-requires Discipleship in the party to be Baptized for the Words in the Original Language are Go make Disciples all Nations Baptizing them c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Baptism of Doctrine does not pre-require that or else a man might not Preach the Gospel to any that is not beforehand a Disciple and so it should never have been Preached to the Gentile or Heathen world Nor does Conversion pre-require Discipleship or else no man might indeavour the Conversion of an Heathen or Pagan or of any man who is not before-hand a Disciple Nor can the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit be here understood by Baptism seeing the Baptism here mentioned is to continue to the end of the world which these Gifts were not as no man even a Quaker will deny Therefore seeing none of these Improper Baptisms are here meant and some Baptism is meant it must be meant of Baptism with water seeing the Text cannot agree with any other Secondly the Baptism mentioned here in Matthew is the same with that mentioned in Mark Mark 16.16 seeing Matthew here and Mark there are manifestly giving a Narration of the self-same thing and Commission as needs no proof But that Baptism mentioned in Mark is Baptism with Water as is before proved Therefore so also is this mentioned here in Matthew seeing they are the very same as said is Thirdly the whole Tenor and Circumstances of the Commission for Baptism in this Text of Matthew do agree with the Baptism with Water thereafter dispensed by the Apostles and other Ministers in their times at their Order and can agree with no other Therefore the same must be here meant and no other The Consequence is so easie that except we resolve utterly to abandon and renounce our Reason and turn absolute Brutes we must understand every Saying of that wherewith it agrees and not of that wherewith it disagrees I prove the Antecedent For this Commission in Matthew for Baptism pre-requires the Discipleship of the Party Go make Disciples Baptizing c. or it requires that they first be made Disciples before they be Baptized or none to be Baptized but Disciples as is most clear 2dly It requires them to Baptize all the Disciples of whatsoever Nation if they appear to be such viz. as the Connexion of this Baptism with the Condition required whereupon it is to be dispensed declares and the Relative word Them not being restricted with any limitating Circumstance does still repeat its whole Antecedent and is of the same full extent therewith 3dly It requires them without delay with the first convenience after the appearing of their Discipleship to Baptize them Go make them Disciples Baptizing as if it should instantly be done there being no more now to be waited for after discovery of the condition and by this all needless delays are cut off And lastly It requires the Baptism therein mentioned to be dispensed in the Name of the Lord as is plainly exprest in the Text. These things express the tenor and circumstances of this Commission such as are any ways Intrinsecal Now all these things do plainly agree unto the Baptism with Water thereafter dispensed by the foresaid Persons and as is already proved cannot agree with any other That they agree unto that I prove for the Baptism with Water dispensed by them pre-required Discipleship or it was dispensed to none but Disciples Secondly It was dispensed to all that became Disciples and appeared such to the Church of whatever Nation Thirdly It was without delay dispensed to them upon the appearing of their Discipleship Fourthly It was dispensed to them in the Name of the Lord. All which appears from our second third and fourth Arguments before and the many Scriptures cited therein See Act. 2.41 and 8.12 13 36 37. and 10.47 and 18.8 and 22.16 and 1 Cor. 1.13 Lastly All the Baptisms except Baptism with Water that can be alledged or pretended to be meant in this Text of Matthew as the Baptism of Doctrine of Conversion of the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit and let the Baptism of the Cross be added too are only Improperly and Metaphorically so called as needs little demonstration I think seeing pouring dipping sprinkling and washing which the word Baptize signifies in the Original Language being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot be proper to any of these and to that any of them agreeth in a proper sence as any Man without preserves may see Having premised this ground I again prove that the Baptism mentioned in this Text of Matthew
must Rise with Christ Jesus And if they be Risen with him then seek these things that are above And is not Bread and Wine from below and if the Apostle puts them to seek these things that are above then he brought them off these things that are below for he says to the Corinthians The things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal This he Spoke when they were Jangling and in a Disorder about outward things Doth he not bring them off things that are Seen to things that are not seen and whether or not ye ever intend ye your selves called Ministers or your Hearers shall come any nearer to Christs Death and Die and be Buried with him but only to take Bread and Wine in Remembrance of Christs Death lest ye and they should come to forget Christs Death Answer us plainly these things Yea or Nay SVRVEY Their Doctrine here doth very well agree with George Keiths Quakerism no Popery page 100. where he flatly denies the Supper of the Lord to be any standing Ordinance of Christ and will have it forsooth a Popish Principle and Practice as also with their Heretical Confession of Faith wherein they deny all manner of External Ordinances pages 24 25 26 27 77 78 79 92 93 102 103 104 105 122 130 133 135. Before we come to a particular Disquisition upon this Query we must expunge that restrictive Clause After Supper out of the principal Question which is first in order as not being any part of the Sacrament Instituted having any mystical meaning neither being any where of Scripture commanded but being only an External Circumstance of that first Supper of our Lord meerly occasional because of the Passover taken before it which according to its Institution Exod. 12. was to be Celebrated at Even In the room whereof because Christ was to Institute the Gospel-Supper it behooved to be taken after it and not before it being thereby to abolish and Antiquat the Passover And if we were tied to every circumstance of that first Gospel-Supper then we behooved always to take it in an Upper Room and with Twelve only in Company yea and after a Paschal Lamb too And albeit a Quaker should answer that this last named Circumstance would be against Sciripture abrogating the Jewish Ceremonies yet it is hard to reply that all matters of Faith and parts of Religious Worship must be not only not against Scripture but according thereunto and having Divine Appointment therein see Isai 8.20 Jer. 7.31 32. and 19.5 6. Matth. 15.9 Mark 7.7 Colos 2.20 21 22. When therefore the Quakers shall be able to prove that that Circumstance of time when the first Gospel-Supper was Celebrated is any Constituent part of the Sacrament with mystical signification Instituted by Christ Jesus or that it is any where of Scripture Commanded then and not till then we shall acknowledge that we are in the wrong in taking it before Dinner and this they are obliged to do if they hold the Affirmative as here they pretend to do seeing all parts of Religious Worship must have positive Scripture-Warrant which if they want they will be plain contrary to Scripture general Precepts forbidding all Will-Worship after the commandments of Men. Having thrust out that limitating Clause After Supper from the state of the Question we find the state thereof to be yet Vitious for it may either be understood of common eating of Bread and drinking of Wine and so it is no Gospel Ordinance seeing Drunkards and Heathens can do that unto excess in a Tavern But Secondly It may be understood though with much ado as it is proposed of Sacramental eating and drinking of Bread and Wine Consecrated Sanctified and set apart for a sacred Symbol of Christs Death for signifying and sealing all the benefits thereof to the worthy Receivers their Spiritual nourishment in Christ and Communion with him and with each other In this sence I confidently assert the eating of Bread and drinking of Wine as the Quakers mockingly term it to be an excellent Gospel-Ordinance Instituted by Christ Jesus to be observed in his Church to the Worlds end This conclusion is so clear from Matth. 26. Chap. and Luk. 22. that nothing can be more clear For first We have in both places Christs Fact and Deed set down that he took Bread and Wine and blessed them that he brake the Bread and put the Wine into the Cup and that he distributed it to the Disciples and did eat and drink thereof with them Secondly We have Christs express Commandment albeit the blind Quakers cannot see it injoyning the whole action to be in like manner done by his Church and People afterwards This do c. Luk. 22.19 Thirdly We have his Word of Promise Sacramentally enunciating the thing signified or Internal matter of the External Signs and Symbols by a Metonimy attributing the name of the thing signified to the Sign expressing the Sacramental Union and Relation of the one to the other wherein consists the Internal form of the Sacrament This is my Body given for you This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood shed for you Luk. 22.19 20. Lastly We have the Explication of the end of this Sacred Ordinance which is that it should be for a memorial of Christ Death This do in Remembrance of Me Luk. 22.19 Now what blindness is happened to the Quakers that they cannot here read Christs Institution of the Gospel-Supper consisting of his own Fact and a Commandment to his Church to do the like thereafter with a rich Promise annexed and the End of the work declared Can any thing be devised more clear than this Or Can the Quakers number their own Fingers What shall we think of them when they can neither Read nor hear when it is Read by others this clear Institution of the Eucharist but that they are possessed with a blind and deaf Spirit that deprives them both of sight and hearing Secondly For a further assurance if need were that the Eucharist is a Gospel Ordinance of Divine Institution we have the Practice of the Apostles and the whole Church after the pouring forth of the Spirit Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 10.16 in which places there is not only the Example of the Churches Practice set down but also further we have their accustomed use thereof clearly imported as any Man by reading and considering the places may see Thirdly The Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians eleventh Chapter while he is correcting several abuses that were crept in into the Worship there amongst the rest calls them to the first Institution of the Lords Supper where in the 23. Verse he affirms that it was an Ordinance he had received of the Lord and delivered unto them and in the 26. Verse he shews the duration of it to be until Christs coming again Now what an extream distraction shall it be to say That Christ delivered an Ordinance unto Paul to be by him delivered unto