Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	add_v	plague_n	word_n	2,973	5	4.8526	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47605	The rector rectified and corrected, or, Infant-baptism unlawful being a sober answer to a late pamphlet entituled An argumentative and practical discourse of infant-baptism, published by Mr. William Burkit, rector of Mildin in Suffolk : wherein all his arguments for pedo-baptism are refuted and the necessity of immersion, i.e. dipping, is evidenced, and the people falsly called Anabaptists are cleared from those unjust reproaches and calumnies cast upon them : together with a reply to the Athenian gazette added to their 5th volume about infant-baptism : with some remarks upon Mr. John Flavel's last book in answer to Mr. Philip Cary / by Benjamin Keach.	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1692 (1692)	Wing K84; ESTC R27451	144,738	231

the Commission saith he I explain the former thus First teach them that is make them my Disciples by teaching them to believe and repent Here we are to consider the order which God observes in making with Men a Covenant in Baptism First of all he calls them by his Word and Spirit to believe and repent then in the second place he makes a Promise of Mercy and Forgiveness and then thirdly he seals his Promise by Baptism They saith he that know not nor consider this Order which God used in covenanting with them in Baptism deal preposterously over-slipping the Commandment of repenting and believing and is the cause of so much Prophaneness in the World This Divine Order Christ signifieth when he saith make them Disciples and was always observed of God Mr. Perkins as he was a very learned Man so you know he was a Member of the Church of England and how fully does he confirm what we say and teach and how does he confute your Notion and Practice Moreover Mr. Richard Baxter speaking of the Order of the Commission Christ gave to his Disciples saith viz. Their first Task is to make Disciples which are by St. Mark called Believers The second work is to baptize them whereunto is annexed the Promise of Salvation The third work is to teach them all other things which are after to be learned in the School of Christ To contemn this Order is to contemn the Rules of all Order for where can we find it if not here I profess my Conscience is fully satisfied from this Text that there is one sort of Faith that must go before Baptism the Profession whereof the Minister must expect 2. You say The true reason why Christ bid his Disciples first teach and then baptize was because he was sending his Apostles forth among the Heathen to convert them to Christianity in which work we all know that preaching of the Word must go before the Administration of the Sacraments Pag. 20. Should say you the King of England send his Ministers into Foreign Plantations to convert the Indians to Christianity they ought not to be baptized before they are taught and instructed but when the Parents are proselyted and make a visible Profession of their Faith their Children may be baptized and afterwards instructed as the Children of the Jewish Proselytes were first circumcised and then taught for tho Abraham was first taught and then circumcised yet Isaac was first circumcised and then taught so that the sense of our Saviour is this teach such as are capable of teaching and baptize such as are capable of Baptism Answ I answer first how inconsistent is this with what just before you asserted Do you not plead for Faith in some sense to be in all such who by virtue of the Commission ought to be baptized and therefore pretend that Infants have Habitual Faith Faith in semine c. but now plead they may be capable of Baptism without Faith you also contradict what you before said about the order of words Do you not positively now confess by the order of the words in the Commission Teaching ought to go before Baptizing Sir 't is a sign of a very bad Cause that puts you thus to try your Wit and after all confound your self 2. I ask you how Abraham who God commanded to be Circumcised as a Seal of the Righteousness of that Faith HE had before circumcised could know he ought to circumcise his Son Isaac c. who had no such Faith had not God given him an express Command to do it Had it not been in the words of his Commission durst he think you have done it Be sure if he had he had sinned in doing that which God commanded him not So and in like manner since our Lord Jesus expresly in his Commission commanded none to be baptized but such who are first taught unless he had added as in Abraham's Case viz. when an Heathen is converted to the Faith and baptized you may baptize his Infants also how dare you add such Additions to Christ's Commission without his Authority and so make the World believe if you could our blessed Saviour gave forth an imperfect Commission to his Disciples which all Men must confess is the only Warrant and Rule of all Ministers to act by in the case of baptizing to the end of the World And doth he not say Add thou not to his Word lest he reprove thee and thou art found to be a Liar by fathering that on Christ which he never said nor intended Suppose the King should send you with a Commission into a remote Plantation and command you to act and do exactly according to the express words of the Commission not to add to it nor diminish from it upon pain of being cast out of his Favour and incur his Wrath and Curse durst you to do otherwise in any thing under pretence it was his meaning whereas he plainly and fully in his Commission expressed in the Affirmative how and what you should do in all Matters and things and forbad you to add thereto Read Rev. 22.18 For I testify unto every Man that heareth the words of the Prophecy of this Book If any Man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him all the Plagues that are written in this Book c. Who told you what you say is the sense of our Saviour Can any Man once think since the Commission of Christ is a pure Gospel-Commission and contains meer positive Laws and Rules no ways referring to nor depending on the Law or Command God gave to Abraham that what you say can be true and the Conclusions safe certain and warrantable May not another say with as good Authority that our Saviour commands his Disciples to baptize all Nations both Parents and Children too whether they will or not whether they believe or not whether Jews or Gentiles Turks or Pagans I wonder you are not afraid who take liberty after this sort to sport as it were and play with invert alter and add unto the sacred Commission of the jealous God and great King of Heaven and Earth 3. We will examine your Similitude of which you seem very full Suppose say you a Person Owner of a great Flock of Sheep should command his Shepherd to shear all his Sheep and give them an Ear-mark to know them and he leaves out all the Lambs which perhaps made up half the Fold unmark'd Can the Shepherd be suppos'd to have done his Duty Suppose he says the Lambs were very young and uncapable of shearing True says the Owner but were they not capable of marking Infants say you are not capable of teaching but are they not capable of Christ's Ear-mark Baptism by which Christ's Sheep are distinguished from the Devils Goats But according to your Principles Christ's Fold has no Lambs in it but all Sheep such a Fold as the World never yet heard of See Isa 40.11 Answ 1. I answer this is as

THE Rector Rectified and Corrected OR Infant-Baptism Unlawful BEING A sober ANSWER to a late Pamphlet entituled An argumentative and practical Discourse of Infant-Baptism Published by Mr. William Burkit Rector of Mildin in Suffolk WHEREIN All his Arguments for Pedo-baptism are refuted and the necessity of Immersion i.e. Dipping is evidenced and the People falsly called Anabaptists are cleared from those unjust Reproaches and Calumnies cast upon them TOGETHER With a REPLY to the Athenian Gazette added to their 5th Volume about Infant-Baptism With some Remarks upon Mr. John Flavel's last Book in answer to Mr. Philip Cary. By BENJAMIN KEACH Bernard Serm. 66. in contica Irrident nos quia Baptizamus Infantes quòd oramus Pro mortuis quòd Sanctorum suffragiae postulamus London Printed and sold by John Harris at the Harrow in the Poultry and at the Author's House near Horsly-down Southwark 1692. John Tredwell's EPISTLE to Mr. William Burkit SIR I Am not a little concerned to see how I am necessitated to write this Epistle in Vindication of my self from those Aspersions you have cast upon me in your late Book called An argumentative and practical Discourse of Infant-Baptism though not so much for my own Reputation as to clear up to the World Matter of Fact and free the Truth of Christ I mean his despised Ordinance from that Reproach and Contempt you have cast upon it I know I meet with no worse usage from you than my Lord and Master and many of his faithful Servants did meet withal from others The truth is all impartial Men cannot but wonder when they hear and consider of your undue Behaviour towards me First in your strange and unreasonable Proceeding when you came in that unexpected and unseemly manne● into our Meeting-Place at Lavingham I wrote a friendly Letter to you being grieved to here how you had cast most odious Reflections in your Pulpit on the People falsly called Anabaptists I thought according to your Letter you would have come in a Christian manner to me in private and not to have made such an Uproar and Disturbance in our Meeting-place which is entered according to the Law in that Case provided and there to read your Notes and take up an hour or two and not suffer me to give you a sober Reply Sir what reason have you thus to quarrel with your Dissenting Brethren and shew such a Spirit of Prejudice against us who have done you no wron● We are for Peace but it seems you are for War What ●eason had you to write against us at this time and to write with a Pen dipt in Gall as if you envy'd our present Liberty and design'd to expose us to the Hate and Contempt of the People to say no worse if you could what else can any sober Person make of your Epistle and Book in general for thus you begin Since the late general Liberty the Anabaptists thinking themselves thereby let loose upon us have disperst themselves into several Counties endeavouring to draw away our People from us by perswading them to renounce their first Dedication to God in Baptism and to enter into their Communion after the way of Dipping c. Sir Our Design in our Preaching to Gospel we can appeal to God and all the World is to endeavour to draw Men from their Sins and ungodly Lives and to believe in Christ to the Salvation of their Souls They who have attended upon my Ministry can witness what the Scope and Design of my Preaching hath all along been Can any say that I ever preach'd up that Ordinance which is our present Controversy till you preach'd it down and cast Reproach upon it and on us for the Practice thereof not that I am ashamed to own that blessed Truth or did not occasionally mention it but I had rather see one Sinner converted than a hundred Persons baptized who bring not forth Fruits meet for Repentance But you proceed in your Epistle and say One of their Teaching-Disciples meaning my self having set up in our Neighbourhood for making Proselytes by Re-baptizing them i● a nasty Horse-pond into which the Filth of the adjacent Stable occasionally flows and out of which his deluded Converts come forth with so much Filthiness upon them that they rather resembled Creatures arising out of the Bottomless-Pit then Candidates of holy Baptism and all this before a promiscuous Multitude in the Face of the Sun Sir I wonder how you come to publish such a notorious Untruth to the World it seems to me you neither regard your own R●putation nor keeping of a good Conscience towards God you ought to repent of this your great Rashness in asserting such abominable Falshoods You will find what you have affirme● is contradicted by the Testimony of many sober Persons nor indeed is there any ground for any body to believe wha● you say was true since you say I did it in the sight of such a promiscuous Multitude Had it been such a Pond as you say do you suppose we would have baptized People in it in the open sight of such a mixt Multitude But Sir when did you see any to come out of the bottomless-Pit that you know so well how they look You say our delud●d Proselytes Are those deluded whom God hath blessed the Preaching of the Gospel to the Conversion of their Souls and to convince them of their Duty to obey Christ's holy Ordinance of Baptism according to the Apostolical Institution Sir remember you and I must come to Judgment these are hard Words which you will be convinced of sooner or later And are not those hard Words as well as notoriously false you speak as if our baptizing of believing Men and Women hath a tendency towards the Sin of Adultery and Murder the Lord give you Repentance if it be his will What you speak as to my Preaching for Bread I will leave that to my Friend to answer for me I have got your whole Book answered I sent it to one whom I knew could better do it than my self not that I saw any thing in it but that a Man of very mean Parts might have done it but for some Reasons I thought it would be better for another to answer you at this time than my self I hope you will read it but I fear not without Prejudice As to my mentioning that Text in Isai 43.2 When thou passest through the Water I will be with thee c. I only alluded to it not thinking it intends Baptism but that it is to be taken metaphorically yet 't is true in the case of our Obedience to Christ in Duty as well as in case of Affliction But I will leave you to him that will judg between us in Righteousness I am unwilling to tell the World of those shameful and obs●ene Expressions uttered by you when you came into our Meeting-place partly because of Modesty and partly because I would not expose you I shall forbear being not willing to trouble my self with you any

more nor with any who are of your Spirit but if you write again let it be in Love and not in Wrath not hard Words but hard Arguments and you will not offend your abused Friend and Servant who wishes well to your Soul John Tredwel Preston-Place April 30 1692. A Certificate under the Hands of several sober and impartial Persons WHereas Mr. Burkit of Mildin in the County of Suffolk hath in his late Book called An argumentative and practical Discourse of Infant-Baptism very unjustly reproached the People called Anabaptists and particularly Mr. John Tredwell Preacher of God's Word declaring that he the said Tredwell hath lately at Kittle-Baston in the said County of Suffolk baptized several Persons in a nasty Horse-pond into which the Filth of the adjacent Stable occasionally flows and that the People baptized in the said Pond came forth with much Mud and Filthiness upon them c. We whose Names are hereunto subscribed do solemnly certify and declare to the whole World that those Reports and Assertions of the said Mr. Burkit are utt●rly and notoriously false for we taking a strict View of the said Pond and Stable find the Dung or Filth of the said Stable runs the quite contrary way from the Pond into the Road. Moreover we solemnly certify and declare that the Persons who were baptized in the said Pond came forth without the least Speck or Spot of Dirt or Filth upon their Clothes the Water being clean In witness whereof we have set our Hands this 3d Day of May 1692. John Tyril sen Gent. Baptists William Brown Not Bapt. Samuel Denny David Sare jun. Thomas Cable Thomas Game William Steward William Boram Thomas We le Thomas Boss   John Noble THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Reader IT grieves and afflicts my very Soul to see such Strifes Animosities and Bitterness of Spirit amongst Christians because of that Difference there is amongst us in respect of some Truths of Jesus Christ in a time when we are all threatned by the common Enemy I am afraid it is the Fore-runner of a dismal Hour which is coming upon us But indeed of all who have of late come forth against us called Anabaptists none have shewed a worser Spirit than this Mr. Burkit who writes himself Rector of Mildin in Suffolk and that which troubles me the more is what I have lately heard by a worthy Gentleman concerning him i. e. That he is look'd upon as a sober Person and one also well affected to the present Government would all his Brethren in that respect were like-minded But in this Attempt of his I know not what he aims at Should we not all unite together in Love and Affection and strive to promote Peace and Concord and not tear one another in pieces after this manner I am sure this cannot tend to the Honour of God which he has done nor to the Service of the Church or State but we have been provoked by him to vindicate our selves and therefore none who are unprejudiced can blame us Should we suffer our selves to be loaded with Reproach and Infamy and not endeavour in a just way to clear our selves and that Truth of Christ we are so well established in from the certain Testimony of the sacred Scripture and must we be exposed for making God's Word our only Rule herein as a corrupt and erronious sort of People because we affirm from thence Believers only are the true Subjects of Baptism and that Baptizing is Dipping and not Rantising especially since 't is well known in all the Articles of Religion we are acknowledged to be sound and orthodox and that by our Advers●ries themselves only this is the out-cry you deny Infant-Baptism The reason of which Reader thou wilt see if thou dost but weigh well what is said in the ensuing Treatise And now to you my Brethren who own this despised Truth of Christ viz. The Baptism of Believers let me give you one Caution i. e. Take heed you are not ashamed of Christ or to own his holy Appointment or his Servants because reproached by ill Men or others through undue Prejudice left Christ be ashamed of you when he comes at the last Day in the Glory of the Father with all his holy Angels Reader there are two things I would desire thee to note First That I have repeated some of my Answers to Mr. Burkit often partly because he repeats the same Arguments and partly because I would indeavour to make it clearly to appear that many or most of his Arguments he brings to prove Infants ought to be baptized do as fully and as apparently tend to prove Infants ought to receive the Lord's Supper therefore I have drawn almost upon every like Occasion the same Inferences for that as he hath for the other which I intreat you to consider well of Secondly Whereas you will find both Hebrew Greek Latin German Dutch as well as English made use of other more or less in the insuing Answer I would not have you think I understand all those Languages but I have had the Assi●tance of a Learned Person tho in that case only who is my Friend and Acquaintance that so the Work might the more fully and effectually be done I 'll say no more but leave it to the Blessing of God and thy serious Examination and remain yours in the Lord's Service in the Work of the Gospel Benjamin Keach From my House near Horsly-down Southwark May 12 1692. THE Rector Rectified and Corrected OR Infant-Baptism Unlawful CHAP. I. Disproving the Arguments for Infant-Baptism taken from Circumcision With several Arguments proving the Covenant of Circumcision no Gospel-Covenant Confuting also the Arguments for Infant-Baptism from the pretended Jewish-Baptism AS to you Six Propositions I shall begin with the first and so speak to them in order Proposition I. Your first is this viz. That Baptism by Water is a Sacrament of the New Testament instituted by Jesus Christ for the solemn admission of the Party baptized into the visible Church and to be a Sign and Seal unto them of the Covenant of Grace Answ You and I are thus far agreed save only I deny that Baptism is any where in God's Word called a Seal of the Covenant of Grace for if it was then all Persons baptized have all the Blessings of the Covenant of Grace made sure to them I know no other Seal of the Covenant of Grace but the Holy Spirit I mean that seals those Covenant-Blessings and Spiritual Priviledges to our Souls see Ephes 1. 13 14. Chap. 4.30 Whereas you say the Quakers who disown any Baptism in Water were once our Proselytes is not true of the greatest part of them tho some few of them might depart from that Faith and Profession we are of Many others of them you cannot be ignorant come from you and some from the Presbyterians c. Nor could our Practice of baptizing none but Believers or such who make a Profession of Faith midwive their evil and

was Dipping If you would saith Dr. Du-Veil attend to the proper Signification of the word in the Synod of Celichyth Anno 816. where Wolfred Archbishop of Canterbury presided Let saith he the Presbyters beware that when they administer the Sacrament of Baptism they do not pour Water upon the Heads of the Infants but let them be always plunged in the Font according to the Example of the Son of God himself who was plunged in the Waters of Jordan thus must the Ceremony be performed according to order See Dr. Du-Veil on Acts Chap. 2. p. 76. The said learned Doctor saith in the same place the constant Practice of the universal Church till the time of Clem. 5. who was crowned Pope An. 1305. under whom first of all the second Synod of Ravenna approved the Abuse introduced into some Churches about an hundred Years before that Baptism without any necessity should be administred by Aspersion Hence it came to pass that contrary to the Analogy or intended mystical Signification of this Sacrament all the West for the most part has in this Age the use of Rantism that is Sprinkling instead of Baptism as Zepper speaks to the great Scandal of the Greeks and Russians who to this day plunge into the Water those they baptize and deny mark any one to be rightly baptized who is not plunged into the Water according to the Precept of Christ as we find in Sylvester Sguropulus Dr. Taylor saith The Custom of the Ancient Church was not Sprinkling but Immersion in pursuance of the sense of the word Baptizing in the Commandment and Example of our blessed Saviour Salmasius in his Notes of divers upon Sulpitius Severus saith That the word Baptizein signifies Immersion not Sprinkling Nor did the Ancients otherwise baptize than by single or treble Immersion in the Greek Church to this day saith he the Person to be baptized is plunged over Head and Ears The same thing does Peter Avitabolis testify of the Asian Christians inhabiting Iburia and Colchi St. Ambrose saith Water is that wherein the Body is plunged to wash all Sin away there all Vice is buried In a Book inscribed Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws printed at London 1641. 't is expressed in these words viz. While we are plunged in the Water the Death and Burial of Christ is recommended to us that we openly testify that Sin lies dead and buried in us The Roman Order published by the Writers concerning Ecclesiastical Ceremonies say the Presbyters enter into the Fountain within unto the Water and the Males are first baptized and then the Females Luther saith The Name of Baptism is a Greek word it may be turned a Dipping when we dip something in Water that it may be wholly covered with Water And although saith he that Custom is now altogether abolished among the most part for neither do they dip the whole Children but only sprinkle them with a little Water they ought nevertheless to be dipt and presently drawn out again The Germans also call Baptism T●●ff from deepness which they call Tieff in their Tongue as if it were meer saith my Author that those be dipt deeply who are baptized John Bugenhagius Pomeranus both a Fellow and Successor in the Ministry of Luther at Wittenburgh whom Thuanus and Zanchius witness to have been a very moderate godly and learned Man affirms That he was desired to be a Witness at Hamburgh in the Year 1529. That when he had seen the Minister only sprinkle the Infant wrapped in Swathling-Cloaths on the top of the Head he was amazed because he neither had heard nor saw any such thing nor yet read in any History except in case of Necessity in Bed-rid Persons Hence in a General Assembly therefore of all the Ministers that were convened he did ask of a certain Minister John Frize by Name who was sometime Minister of Lubec how the Sacrament of Baptism was administred at Lubec who for his Piety and Candor did answer That Infants were baptized naked at Lubec after the same fashion altogether as in Germany but from whence and how that peculiar manner of Baptizing hath crept into Hamburgh he was ignorant At length they did agree among themselves that the Judgment of Luther and of the Divines of Wittenburgh should be demanded about this Point Which thing being done Luther wrote back to Hamburgh That this Sprinkling was an Abuse which they ought to remove Thus Plunging was restored at Hamburgh yet is that Climate cooler than ours Mr. Joseph Mede saith That there was no such thing as Sprinkling or Rantism mark used in Baptism in the Apostles days nor many Ages after He had spoke more proper if he had said there was no Rantism used in the Apostles days but Baptism than to say no Rantism used in Baptism since he well knew they are two distinct and different Acts It cannot be Baptism at all if it be only Rantism or Sprinkling Immersion or Dipping being the very thing not an Accident as I hinted but an Essential so absolutely necessary that it cannot be the Act or Ordinance without it If I command my Maid to dip my Handkerchief into the Water and she only takes a little Water in her Hand and sprinkles a few Drops upon it doth she do what I commanded her was that the thing or is it not another Act Even so 't is here you do not the thing you Rantize and Baptize none unless you dip them into the Water Chamier also saith The ancient use of Baptism was to dip the whole Body into the Element therefore did John baptize in a River Dr. Hammond in his Annotations upon John 13.10 saith That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies an Immersion or washing the whole Body and which answereth to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for Dipping in the Old-Testament and therefore tells us upon Mat. 3.1 that John baptized in a River viz. in Jordan Mark 1.5 in a Confluence of Water John 3.23 because 't is said there was much Water which the Greeks called the Lakes where they used to wash Also saith he the Ancients called their Baptisterions or the Vessels containing their Baptismal-Water Columbethras viz. a Swimming or Diving-place being very large with Partitions for Men and Women The Learned Mr. Pool or those Learned and Reverend Divines concerned in perfecting his most excellent Annotations on the Holy Bible says A great part of those who went out to hear John were baptized that is dipped in Jordan On John 3.6 and on Matth. 28.20 say they It is true the first Baptism of which we read in Holy Writ was by dipping the Person Baptized The Dutch Translation according to their Language reads it Dipping Mat. 3.16 Ende Jesus gedoopt zijn de is terstont opgeklomen vit hit wter And when Jesus was dipp'd he came out of the Water And vers 6. Ende wierden van hemge doopt in de Jordan And were dipped of