things spoken by him were so 3. Nor can the Papists tell us what one Point of Necessary Instruction or Belief was delivered by Word of Mouth which is not now contained in the Holy Scripture if otherwise let them assign some necessary Point of Faith or Instruction such as without which we cannot know and serve God truly and fully and be saved eternally which is not contained in the Holy Scriptures But as this will hardly be attempted so let me exhort you Brethren to beware of all manner of Principles and Doctrins which have any tendency to weaken or invalidate the Authority and Sufficiency of the Scriptures which the Apostle avers to be of that sufficiency even before all the Books of Sacred Scriptures were extant as to furnish the Man of God throughly to every good Work. And then certainly he who is in all Points of Faith and Instruction a good Christian according to the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures will be out of the reach of any just reprehension though he know nothing of the unwritten Tradition so much pretended and admired by the Papists or others Being thus secured in your Principles from the very concession of your Enemies and by the Authority of the best and most Sacred Antiquity even the Holy Scriptures you have no cause to fear the most important difficulties wherewith possibly we may be tried in these days And that we may the better see how the case stands between the Baptists and the Papists with respect to the two great Ordinances of Christ to wit Holy Baptism and the Holy Table of our Lord Jesus Christ we will here take a View of the one and of the other in a distinct Column by it self the better to discern their Disparity The Manner of Baptism among the Baptized Believers commonly called Anabaptists Baptist The Manner of Baptism among the Papists commonly called Roman Catholicks taken out of the Roman Ritual by a Learned Hand translated into English Papist THE Messenger or Elder being attired in comely Raiment not much different from the rest of his Brethren first Preaches the Gospel to every Creature that is capable and willing to hear and when by hearing they have received Faith the Minister explains the Doctrine of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God for the further Illumination of the Disciples understanding in the knowledge of the only true God and our Lord Jesus Christ that they may obtain Eternal Life The Minister does oopen the Doctrine of Repentance in three parts especially i. e. as it consists in a due sense or knowledge of the sinfulness of sin In true Sorrow for sin committed especially against Almighty God. The necessity of forsaking the Conversation of sin and to walk righteously soberly and godly in this present Life The Doctrine of Faith is explained concerning the Object in respect of the God-head the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost into whose Name the Party is to be baptized and especially concerning Christ crucified buried and risen a-again and therewith is shewed that in Baptism we are to die unto Sin to be buried with him in Baptism to rise to a Holy Life and so to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in Baptism as to be born of Water and of the Spirit through the Word The Minister does open to the Party to be Baptized the whole Doctrine of Baptisms First That of Water which is the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins in respect of the Power by which it is commanded the extent of it to every repenting Sinner the end of it to be a Pledge of the washing away of sin and to give us admission into the Church of Christ to draw near to God in Prayer with full assurance having the Heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience by Faith in the Blood of Christ and our Bodies washed with pure Water even the Water of the Baptismal Covenant called the washing of Regeneration 2. That of the Holy Spirit the Promise of the Spirit being made to all that our Lord doth call and therewith doth explain the fourth Principle of Christ's Doctrine Laying on of Hands with Prayers as the Means appointed of God to obtain that Blessing even the Promise of the Spirit through Faith in the Word of Promise 3. The Baptism of Affliction is also opened that the Sufferings of Christ called by himself a Baptism may not be feared but patiently endured according to the Will of God. This is the Sum of the Doctrine of Baptism taught by the Baptized Churches The 5th and 6th Principles of Christ's Doctrine are likewise particularly opened concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and chiefly of Christ's being raised Bodily from the Dead as the most sure pledge that the Dead shall be raised Bodily and the eternal Judgment in which every man shall receive according to the deeds done in the Body whether good or bad To all which the Party to be Baptized declares his assent in the best manâ—er he can shewing also his sense of Sin and sorrow for it his purpose to live holily his Faith in Christ his Saviour the only Son of God and that it is his desire to be Baptized according to the Will of God. And then the Minister with the Congregation or persons present do make Prayer and Supplication to Almighty God to receive the returning sinner and to bless and sanctifie his own Ordinance to him And then the Party to be Baptized being cloathed with convenient Garments for decency he is had to the Water where calling upon the Name of the Lord he is dipped into the River or Water by the Minister in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And as in every thing Christians are to give thanks so this whole Service is concluded with farther prayer and thanksgiving to this effect That as it has pleased God to call his Servant or Servants out of their sinful state and to bring them into the way of Truth so it would please him to enable them to persevere to the end to his Glory and their own Eternal Comfort Nor do we put any Vow Covenant or Promise upon any Person save only what the very Nature of the Baptismal Covenant it self does in its own evidence carry along with it it being our greatest care neither to add to nor to diminish ought from the holy Ordinances of Christ but to keep them as they were delivered at first to the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. 2. AFter many preparatory Prescriptions the Priest being dressed in a Purple Robe calls the Infant to be Baptized by his Name and saith What askest thou of the Church of God the God-fathers answer Faith. The Priest saith again What shalt thou get by Faith The God-father replies Eternal Life Then adds the Priest If therefore thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments Thou shalt love
thing upon their own knowledg sight or hearing as the Apostles did 1 John 1. 2 Pet. 1. 16. for scarce so much as one hundred years and this their Testimony also being but of human Authority it remaineth of necessity that some Books of Record must be received upon the Authority of the Author in whose Name they speak and the Divine Evidence of the Matter contained in them and hence we argue the Sufficiency of the Scriptures own Authority to command our reception of them speaking to us in the Name of God and carrying in themselves Divine Evidences in respect of the matters therein contained Papist Query 3. Baptist Anti-query 3. How know you that your Copies and Translations of the Bible are the true Word of God since the Original Writings are not come to your Hands What Copies and Translations of the Scriptures have you that are more true than ours And where are the Original Manuscripts of the Prophets and Apostles Seeing it was not the Pleasure of the Divine Wisdom to preserve and present to all Nations the very first Pieces of Paper in which the Divine Oracles were written but rather to preserve many Copies and cause them to be spread throughout the World. And seeing no sort of Christians dare pretend to have Translated any of those Copies by an infallible Pen but only according to the best Skill they have acquired or learned in the Original Tongues It would better become all Learned Christians to bend their Minds to rectifie what they may any Imperfection or Mistake that may be in any of the Translations rather than by such Queries as this to open a Gap to Vnbelief and Irreligion And though much might be said by a captious Person against the English Translation of the Papists yet to prevent vain Jangling we refuse not to be tried in the Cases depending in these Queries and Anti-queries either by their Translation of the Bible or by that which is allowed by Authority And seeing no Papist is able to produce the prime Originals let them beware how they quarrel with our Copies lest some quarrel with theirs and â—so instead of Edification they bring forth nothing but vain Contention and show themselves ungrateful to God and mischievous to men For what man of any Modesty would upbraid another because he never saw the Original Writings when neither himself nor any man living ever saw them nor is ever like to see them Papist Query 4. Baptist Anti-query 4. Where we differ about the Sense of the Word by whom must we be tried The dead Letter cannot explain it self When we differ about the true Church or the Meaning of Authors be they Fathers or Councils by whom must we be tried These cannot speak for themselves more than the Scriptures And whether the Scriptures being compared together do not explain themselves Also whether this be not an opprobrious and ignominious Speech for you to call the Scripture a dead Letter And whether the true Lovers of the Scriptures ever vouchsafed them such ill and indeed improper Language Of all the Seven Queries this is the most difficult see what we have said to this Difficulty in our precedent Epistle Let the Papists prove themselves to be the true Church and the Contention about the Power of the Church to decide Differences which may arise about the Meaning of the Scriptures will with more ease be brought to a period In the mean time as we must every one give an account of our selves to God so it is the Duty of every Christian to labour to understand the Scriptures Mat. 24. 15. Pro. 22. 20 21. Papist Query 5. Baptist Anti-query 5. What clear Text have you out of the Scriptures for the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son Or for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday Or for prohibiting Poligamy or Infant-Baptism And whether there be not as clear Texts to prove unwritten Traditions Purgatory and the Real Presence Whether the Baptism of the true Church be not One And whether the one Baptism be not expresly found in the Scriptures and whether the Scriptures do not prohibit all Baptism of Water beside that one And whether the Papists have not confessed in many of their Books that Infant-Baptism is not found in nor grounded upon the Scripture And then whether it be not clear that all the Texts which speak of Baptism in Water do prohibit Infant-Baptism Also whether John 15. 26. 14. 26. 16. 7. be not clear Texts that the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son Also whether 1 Cor. 7. 1 2 3. do not as much prohibit one Man for having two Wives as one Woman for having two Husbands And whether it do not clearly prohibit the latter Also whether there be any thathold the First Day of the Week under the Notion of a Sabbath among the Baptized Churches and yet whether there be not clear proof for the Religious Observation of it Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Also whether it be not absurd for you to ask for clear Texts to prove unwritten things Also whether Purgatory and the Real Presence as you hold them are not plainly destructive to some Articles of the Christian Faith. For is not this the Faith of all sound Christians 1. That Almighty God does love no Creature in this World so much as the Creature Man nor does he take any Creature on Earth into that nearness of Vnion with himself as the Souls and Bodies of those that shall be saved 2. That the blessed Body of Christ after his Ascension into Glory admits of no Change either by Addition to his Substance of his Flesh and Blood or Diminution of any part thereof from either Now it is most certain that the Opinion of the Real Presence by Transubstantiation of Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ God-Man doth evidently militate against these clear Truths with the greatest opposition as will appear by these Considerations following 1. Though the Love of God to Mankind especially to all that shall be saved is exceeding great yet it is certain he never died nor ever will SO take them into Union with himself AS to Transubstantiate their Bodies into the Divine Substance of Christ and so make their Flesh of the same Essence with himself as he is God Blessed for ever And therefore it is in no wise to be believed That God Almighty so loves the Creatures Bread and Wine as to turn or transubstantiate the very Substance of them into the very Substance of the only Son of God whom we believe to be of one Substance with the Father It is also further to be considered That though the two Natures in Christ i. e. the Divine and Human are united after an unspeakable manner yet no Christian does believe that God did transubstantiate the Substance of the Humane Nature into the Substance of the Divine Nature and that the Forms of Flesh and Blood only does remain How then is
of the Holy Spirit the first is consigned to then in Sacred Baptism the second in Prayer with the laying on of Hands in which way this Mother-Church received this Blessing as is evident from the ennumeration and order of the Principles of her Catechism and also from this Testimony that great Grace was upon them all Acts 4. 33. as also in that it is expresly said that this Church continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine a Principle whereof is Prayer with Laying on of Hands and from this Church this Doctrine and Holy Practice was carried by the Apostles to Samaria Acts 14. for it is not to be imagined they would there innovate a practical principle which had not first been taught in the Church at Jerusalem But God bearing witness to this service of Prayer and Laying on of Hands at Samaria with the same Blessing of the Holy Spirit fore-received at Jerusalem confirms it as an acceptable and needful Service for all Churches And accordingly it was received in the times next succeeding the Apostles days as many witnesses testifie amongst whom Tertullian thus Dehinc manus imponitur c. After Baptism the Hand is imposed by Blessing calling and inviting the Holy Spirit Tunc ille Sanctissimus c. Then that most Holy Spirit most willingly descends from the Father upon the Bodies which are cleansed meaning in Baptism and blessed Of the Resurrection of the Dead taught and believed in this Mother-Church In this Church it was where the Apostle gave witness with great Pâ—wer of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus in whose Resurrection assurance yea very full assurance is given to all men that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and the Vnjust It was here that our Saviour shewed himself alive after he had been dead by infallible proofs being seen of his Disciples forty days conversing with them of the things concerning his Church and Kingdom It was here that many dead Bodies of the Saints did arise and come out of their Graves and went into Jerusalem and appeared to many after Christ was risen which was a full proof that the Resurrection is of the same numerical Bodies which are laid in the Graves disrobed only of mortality and all imperfections And this is that Resurrection of the Dead here called a Principle of Christ's Doctrine and of the Foundation of this Mother-Church Of the Eternal Judgment Believed by this Church It was to the Guides of this Church to whom our Saviour first made known this great priviledge that they should sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel at that time when he should sit upon the Throne of his Glory Mat. 19. 28 who also is appointed of God to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Act. 10. 42. which great Article is here recounted among the principles of Catechism Heb. 6. 2. and called the eternal Judgment not only for that it is the last Judgment but because the effects of it shall be perpetual the pains to be imposed in this sentence of Judgment shall be of eternal duration to all wicked men who have contemned the Gospel of their Salvation and judged themselves unworthy of Eternal Life even that Life which then shall be given to Eternity to all such as have held fast the beginning of their Confidence and the hope of this their rejoycing stedfast unto the end Heb. 3. 14. As therefore the Tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of the World. The Son of Man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that do Iniquity And shall cast them into a Furnace of Fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of Teeth Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Who hath ears to hear let him hear Matth. 13. 40 41 42 43. Lo the eternal Judgment taught by Christ's own Mouth let all men be admonished to prepare for this Judgment for the coming of the Lord draws nigh Of the farther Order and manner of Worship used in this Mother-Church This did especially consist in frequently assembling themselves together to teach and preach Jesus Christ Acts 5. 42. or for the ministring of the Word of God and Prayers Acts 6. 4. In which we find no Liturgies or Forms of Prayer devised or imposed by the Apostles but these Services were performed by the aid of the Holy Spirit which as they were given for the work of the Ministry so 't is evident they have a remanency in the true Church till the whole be perfected Eph. 4. and it is this Blessed Spirit which helps the Church to make Intercession according to the will of God Rom. 8. 27. They were all very frequent at the Lord's Table breaking the Sacred Bread in remembrance of the Lord Christ giving thanks to God by him Acts 2. 41 47. nor needed they any Mass-Book or common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book to direct them in either Christ's own Institution of his Holy Table and the holy Prayer which he had taught his Disciples with other Heavenly Rules contained in the Holy Scriptures was abundantly sufficient and are so still to every Faithful Man of God and Minister whom God and his Church hath called to that Work to furnish him to every good work It is also excceding plain that the Holy Table of the Lord is here called the breaking of Bread. And therefore though that Holy Bread and Wine be the Body and Blood of Christ yet they are these in such sort as they are also the Bread of the Lord and the Cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 11 27. And forasmuch as the Apostle here and in the next verse does expresly call the same things by these different titles the Body and the Blood the Bread and the Cup we must of necessity take him to speak Figuratively in one of these but in the latter to wit Bread and the Cup we have no Figure save that the Wine in the Cup is taken for the Cup which is an usual form of speaking and therefore of necessity these Words Body and Blood must be understood to be mystically spiritually or figuratively in the Bread and Wine and not the Bread and Wine to be mystically spiritually or figuratively in the Body and Blood of Christ It is also as certain that the whole Church this Mother-Church Acts 2. 42 did then receive both the Bread and Cup of the Lord as that any one of them did partake of both the whole Service being expressed by a Synecdoche a part for the whole which yet will better appear in that this Ordinance ought to be received by every Recipient as he is a Member of Christ not as he is a Minister 'T is true as I am a Minister I dispense this Mystery but I receive it as a Member saith St. Paul For YE being many are one Bread and one Body For WE are all partakers of that one Bread. It was
the perfect words of the New Testament whereto nothing may be added and wherefrom nothing may be taken away by him that will lead a life agreeable to the Gospel Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 14. Thus Brethren I have for your sakes as well as others taken a fresh view of the State of this most Primitive Church to whose holy pattern through the Grace of God you have diligently laboured to conform your souls her Principles are yours her Government in good measure is yours if in any thing any of them be otherwise minded my hearts desire is that God would speedily reveal even the same unto you and then it is to be hoped that all well disposed will in time see themselves concerned to adhere to the truth of your Principles in the very Order wherein you maintain them Hear the Church OR AN EPISTLE TO All the Baptized Christians in England Exciting them to Stedfastness in their Holy Profession under their various Tryals and great Afflictions The Second PART BRETHREN AS it hath pleased God to exercise you many years with various Tryals and Afflictions for your Faithfulness to the Christian Religion in respect of the Restoration of it to its ancient Purity both in the Form and Power of it wherein you have laboured hitherto and have not fainted but by the Grace of God have attained to some degree in that behalf above what hath as yet been attained by the generality of your Country-men for which you owe the greatest Thankfulness to Almighty God. And having as I verily believe laid a right Foundation for a true Church-State you are indispensibly obliged to go on unto perfection as the first Churches which were built upon the same Foundation were expresly required and exhorted Heb. 6. 1 2 3. In which Holy Profession being by the Grace of God one with you and also called to the Ministry and Office of a Messenger of your Churches which I mention because it is the most despised Office amongst all Christians as it seems to have been in the Apostles days 1. Cor. 4. 9. do hold it my Duty at this time to endeavour to strengthen you in what I may in your Holy Profession as also to call upon such as have been shaken in mind by the violence of those Temptations which have befallen them in common with their Brethren For as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God as those undoubtedly shall who draw back from the Truth they have once embraced unto Perdition so I am very confident that for any to fall from the Truth as it is professed by the Baptized Churches is the most dangerous of all other they being indeed the nearest to the Truth in the Pristine Order and Simplicity of it of all sorts of Persons who own the Honorable Appellation of Christian For What sort of Christians can with any Confidence look upon or bring themselves close to the Rules of St. Pauls Catechism Heb. 6. 1 2. as the Antients used to call it except the Baptized Churches To say nothing of others can they of the present Roman Catholick-Church in any wise square themselves or justifie their present Church-State by the Rule of those Sacred Principles in the simplicity of them No these Principles of Christ's Doctrine will in no wise be concordant with the Catechism of the present Roman Church seeing a Doctor of their own hath told us that if the Scriptures must be our Rule c. they must all cross the Cudgels to the Anabaptists which is a plain giving up the Victory to the Baptized Churches unless a better Form of Doctrine can be assigned than this is which will never be Yea so pressing is this place from the true Institution of the Antient Christian Religion that the Rhemists seem to be under no small difficulty how to express themselves about it For thus they speak upon the Text Heb. 6. 1 2. We see hereby say they what the first grounds of Christian Institution or Catechism were in the Primitive Church and that there was ever a necessary Instruction and Belief of certain Points had by Word of mouth and Tradition before men came to the Scriptures which could not treat of things so particularly as was requisite for the teaching of all necessary Grounds Among these Points were the twelve Articles contained in the Apostles Creed The Doctrine of Penance before Baptism the Manner and Necessity of Baptism the Sacrament of Imposition of Hands after Baptism called Confirmation the Articles of the Resurrection Judgment and such like without which things first laid if one should be sent to pick his Faith out of the Scriptures there would be mad Rule quickly 1. It 's highly observable from hence that the first Grounds and Principles of our Churches which indeed are no other than what men read Heb. 6. 1 2. are openly acknowledged by our most Potent Opposites to be the same which were in the Primitive Church received for the first Grounds and Institutions of Christianity or Christian Institution and Catechism That in the Primitime Church these Grounds were held in the very Order now observed by the Baptized Churches particularly Repentance before Baptism and Imposition of Hands after Baptism Sure this is a full Testimony that the Institution of the Baptized Churches now wrongfully called Anabaptists and theirs only is truly Apostolical Whilst all the Paedobaptists in the World among whom the Papists have quite subverted this Order giving their supposed Baptism before Repentance and that unto Persons that are not capable of Repentance 2. They tell us there was a necessary Instruction and Belief of certain Points had by Word of Mouth and Tradition before men came to the Scripture Admit this to be so in respect of such parts of the Holy Scriptures as were then unwritten when the Apostles first preached the Gospel yet it is certainly false in respect of such Books of Scripture as were then in being for it 's evident that our Blessed Saviour propounded the Text of Scripture Luke 4. 17 18 19. and thence preached to the People and commanded his Hearers to search the Scriptures John 5. 29. He did not send his Hearers to Tradition as the Papists do The great Apostle of the Jews St. Peter even then when he was filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 17. preached from and notably confirms his Doctrine by the Scriptures Act. 2. not by Tradition And Philip Acts 8. 35. began at the same Scripture which the Eunuch read and preached to him Jesus without making any use of Tradition Apollo being mighty in the Scripture not in Tradition convinced the Jews shewing not by Tradition but by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ So did the great Apostle of the Gentiles St. Paul Acts 28. 2â— Perswading men concerning Jesus out of the Law and the Prophets not out of Tradition from Morning to Evening and the best sort of St. Paul's Hearers searched the Scriptures daily not Tradition to see whether the
prevail against our Church in the Case of Baptism whether we consider the Subject Manner End and Use of Holy Baptism Whereas The only Witness which is pretended by my Learned Adversary for the first Century is Dionysius the Areopagite mentioned Acts. 17. 34. Who is said to speak thus in a Book entituled Eccles Hierarch cult The Custom of our Mother the Church in Baptizing Children is not to be contemned nor to be judged superfluous nor indeed to be credited if it were not an Apostolical Tradition Truly this Author speaks not like a Man that was satisfied in this Point of Infant Baptism and such is the faintness of his Evidence that methinks he should leave a suspicion upon every man that reads him that he did not know what to say nor whereof to affirm but leaving every man to think of the Words as he pleases we will hear what the Learned have said concerning this Book Eccles Hirarch First They put it down in the Catalogue of Forged Writings and Cajetan a Papist denys that Work to be written by Dionysius Their Reasons are 1. Because he never makes mention of St. Paul in that Book who was the happy Instrument by whom Dionysius was converted and yet he extolls Hierotheus as his Master 2. Because he writes of many Orders of Popes Priests and Monks of which the first Age had none 3. Eusebius and Jerome in their Catalogues never make mention of this Book And Gregory the Great doth say it was not written by Dionysius 4. Illiricus hath ten very considerable Reasons why this Book was written long after the Death of Dionysius one is this The Author talks often of the Distinction of the Quire and the Church whereas saith he the Christians had no such Churches an hundred years after Dionysiâ—s's time This Author therefore will never bear so great a weight as to prove Infant Baptism to have been either taught or practised by the Apostles Being thus found destitute of all Antiquity in the first Age let us hear what one of their own Chronographers tells us concerning both the beginning of Infant-Baptism and the want of any Evidence for Infant-Baptism in this Nation till more then three hundred years after Christ Robert Fabian a Papist in his Chron. part 5. c. 118. fol. 105. tells us the Faith had endured in Brittain from the time of Lucius the first Christian King in Britain near upon the season of four hundred years and odd and then in the next Chapter he gives account of Augustin the Monk coming into England and how he prevailed with some Bishops to observe his Orders And in Fol. 107. he saith But for all this there were of them that said that they might not leave the Custom which they so long had conâ—inued without the Assent of all such as used the same Then Austin gathered a Synod to the which came seven Bishops of Brittains with the wisest men of the famous Abby of Bangor But first they took Counsel of an Holy Man whether they should be obedient to Austin or not And he said if you find him humble and meek as to Christ's Disciple belongeth that then they should assent to him which meekness they should perceive in him if he at their coming into the Synod or Council arose against them When the said Bishops entred the said Synod Augustine sate still in the Chair and removed not wherefore they were wroth and disdained him and would not obey to his requests Then he said to them Since ye will not assent to my Hests generally assent to me especially in three things The first is That you keep Easter Day in due Form and Time as it is Ordained The Second That ye give Christendom to Children And the Third is That ye Preach unto the Anglish the Word of God as I afore-time have exhorted you and all the other Deale I will suffer you to amend and reform among your selves But they would not thereof From this Passage it is very evident that Infant-Baptism came not into this Nation till about four hundred years after the Gospel was first Received here and therefore the Papists must needs fail of Antiquity here and must if they will do us right give place to the Baptized Believers not only in the Case of Believers-Baptism but also in respect of the denial of Baptism to Infants seeing these seven Bishops and the wisest Men of Bangor withstood Augustine the Monk in that point then as we withstand the Papists in that point now And as we have suffered many hard things even to the burning of our Bodies in Smithfield for bearing witness to the Ancient and True Baptism of Christ even so it fared very ill with those that withstood Infant-Baptism c. in the Days of Austin for Fabian relates how they were many hundreds of them murdered and Mr. Fox seems to lay the Fault upon Austin I conclude with these two short Arguments 1. The present Church of Rome cannot possibly prove her self to be the true Church of Christ Ergo the present Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ 2. The present Church of Rome hath no true Baptism Ergo She is no the true Church of Christ Let the Papists defend their present Church against these Arguments the Grounds whereof are delivered truly in the precedent Discourses without which all they can say will signifie little for what Power soever the Church hath it is little to them unless they make good proof that they are the true Church of Jesus Christ FINIS * It is said of the Roman Christians that the Light of Piety shined in their Minds when they heard Peter but they were not satisfied with once hearing neither satisfied with the Vnwritten Doctrine that was dâ—livered but earnestly besought St. Mark whose Gospel is now in ure that he would leave in Writing unto them the Doctrine which they had received by Preaching c. Euseb Hist l. 2. Chap. 15. We see that the Church of Rome esteemed the Gospel in Writing above the delivery of it in Preaching though they heard it from Peter himself Sure they are not the same now as then for Tradition from whom it's hard to say is more now to them than the Scripture And the Scripture nothing to them but as delivered and interpreted by Tradition * The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Repentance Faith Doctrine of Baptisms Laying on of Hands Resurrection of the Dead Eternal Judgment Christ as received in the Power and Order of these Principles becomes a Foundation to his Church in which respect the Principles are here called the Foundation also Mark 16. 15. Rom. 10. 17. Joh. 17. 3. Acts 2. 38. Tit. 2. 12. Mat. 28. 19 20. 1 Cor. 2. 2. Rom. 6. 4. Joh. 3. 3 5. Eph. 5. 26. Mat. 28. 18. Mat. 28. 18. Act. 2. 28. Act. 22. 16. Rom. 12. 13. Heb. 10. 22. Acts 2. 38. Act. 8. Act. 19. Gal. 3. 14. Mat. 20. 22 23. 1 Cor. 15. Acts. 17. 31. 1 Cor. 5. 10. Acts. 2. 40. Mark 1. 5. Acts 8. 36 37. Mark 1. 15. John 3. 23. Acts 8. 38. Mat. 28. 19. Acts 20. 7. Gal. 3. 13. Heb. 10. 12 14. Mat. 26. 26. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24. John 6. 35. 1 Cor. 11. 26. 1 Cor. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 10. 14 15 16 17. Mat. 26. 30. Dr. Willet Synops Papis p. 561. Acts 2. 27. Heb. 7. 24. This Catechise is Printed with the approbation of William Hide D. D. President of the English Colledge at Doway The present Baptized Believers only do hold to the old Religion at least in the Point of Sacred Baptism