Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	know_v	scripture_n	true_a	2,779	5	5.2179	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94730	An antidote against the venome of a passage, in the 5th. direction of the epistle dedicatory to the whole book of Mr. Richard Baxter teacher at Kederminster in Worcestershire, intituled, The saints everlasting rest, containing a satyricall invective against Anabaptists / by Iohn Tombes B.D. Lately teacher at Bewdley in the same county.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1650 (1650)	Wing T1797; Thomason E602_20; ESTC R206421	26,378	40

among Hereticks even then when I made earnest suite to him to have his Arguments in writing that I might examine them which I cannot any way obtaine as yet hath more manifestly shewed himself resolved to break with Me and to renounce Me as one unfit for communion with him then any action I ever did shewed the like disposition in Me towards him Mr. Baxter sayth I cannot digresse to fortifie you against these Sects I confesse a Discourse against those Sects as he calls them had been a Digression from the subject of his Treatise but not from the matter of his Epistle and the fifth Direction he gives to his Neighbours of Kederminster But why can he not digresse I can ghesse no other reason but his haste willing he was in his Epistle before that Book which was likely to sell to blast my reputation by Name and other dissenters from him without naming them whether to ease his stomack or to what other end he knowes best though he little considered what he wrote He goes on you have seen God speake against them by judgements from Heaven what were the two monsters in New England but miracles I Answer what judgements from heaven by wch God spak against the Sects he mentions they had seen I could never yet learn of his Neighbours though I have lived very near them have often conversed with them and had them my auditors till I imagin M. Baxters opposition to Me took them off Nor doe I think if Mr. Baxter were put to name the judgements by which God spake from Heaven against the Sects he names would he mention any other then the two Monsters in New England which I am confident neither Mr. Baxter nor any of his Neighbours of Kederminster saw These two Monsters are mentioned in the Margin of his book Pag. 232. to be the most hideous monstrous births of Mistris Hutchinson and Mistris Dier In Mr. Welds story of the Antinomians I finde mention in the Preface of thirty monstrous births or thereabouts brought forth by Mistris Hutchinson at once some of them bigger some of them lesser some of one shape some of another few of any perfect shape none at all of them so far as he could learne of humane shape And of Mistris Dyer that she brought forth her birth of a woeman child a Fish a beast and a foule all woven together in one and without an head which he describes pag. 44. of his Story The truth of the Relation I question not but that they were Miracles as Mr. Baxter takes the word Miracle in his second part Ch. 4. Sect. 1. c. in which he distinguisheth between Wonders and Miracles I think cannot be made good If we finde not the like story in every point yet we reade of many monstrous births as that of the Earle of Hollands daughter and many other yet neither Divines nor Philosophers nor Physicians that I know do reckon them among Miracles Nor do I think it a very safe way to take such Accidents as Arguments for or against any Tenet Camden in his Britannia describing Wiltshire makes mention of a Synod in Calne whereat upon the falling of the roome and preservation of Dunstan it was judged that God had determined for Monkery Many more such strange accidents doe both Heathen and Ecclesiasticall Histories mention for confirmation of superstition and errors which Mr. Baxter himself takes notice of Pag. 240. by which People have been lead to errors And therefore I think Mr. Baxter doth ill to direct his Neigbhours of Kederminster to such accidents to fortifie them against Sects And I have ever judged it a very unsafe and I thinke an evill course that many Preachers have taken to affright their People with relations of accidents befalling Men whom they judge erroneous thereby to deter them from so much as examining their Tenet as being contrary to Pauls admonition of trying all things 1 Thess. 5. 21. and directing to another way of discerning between truth and error then the holy Scripture contrary to John 5. 39. Mark 12. 24. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Deut. 13. 1 2. and Isai. 8. 20. c. which is derogatory to the Scriptures use and directing them by judgements from heaven to judge of Doctrines of which many Relations are not true as I am sure for one instance in the relations of Gods Judgement upon Sabbath breakers to which Mr. Baxter referrs Pag. 230. concerning Mr. Powle of Lemster in my time of being there and not far off from the place when it happened in the relation of which there are sundry mistakes and untruths nor did the circumstances shew the accident to be Gods Voyce to that end the compiler of that Book applies it But if the relations of the accidents be true yet it is uncertaine whether the Devill do not speak by them untill it appear first that the Tenet they are applied to confirme be of God which may be known by the Scriptures without relying on such accidents And it is well known that Papists use them as well as the Orthodox and make them a note of their Church and Doctrine which is rejected by Protestants But were it granted a safe way to judge of Doctrines by such judgements of God yet in all the story of Mr. Weld forementioned I finde not a word of Mistris Hutchinson or Mistris Dyer or any other of these whose errors are taken to be condemned by those accidents as holding Antipaedobaptisme I finde Mistris Dyer and her Husband to have been taken for Familists Pag. 44. Mistris Hutchinson to have held 29 errors Pag. 60. but none of them against Infant baptisme Mr. Baxter himself in the Margin of his book Pag. 232. bids aske them in New England whether they were not convincing providences against their Antinomian Antiscripturall heresies Why then doth Mr. Baxter tell his Neigbours of these judgements speaking against the Sects he mentions indefinitely when it was but against one of them in his own construction and place his speech where it might be and is commonly taken and was alledged upon Mr. Baxters credit in Pulpit in the Parish in which I taught as spoken against Antipaedobaptists but that it is most likely Mr. Baxter in that passage chiefly intended to make Me in particular and other opposers of Infant-baptisme odious and the truth we hold though he did thereby misleade Men for which the Lord forgive Him Yet I will adde thus much that I finde among the 82 errors condemned in New England in that story the 21 to be this To be justified by Faith is to be justified by Workes which how near it is to Mr. Baxters Doctrine in his Aphorisms of justification Thes. 20. 70. 72 73 74 75 76. in this Treatise Pag. 11. Doubtlesse the Gospel takes Faith for our obedience to all Gospell Precepts which he teacheth in his Aphorismes Thes. 76. and expounds James 2. 24. of justification before God by works in a proper sense and those were giving food or cloathing

this the rather I am induced to conceive not only from mine own knowledge and the credible testimony of others but also from their Petition to the Parliament April 2. 1649. and the Parliaments answer to them and their late heart-bleedings for Professors abominations in their faithfull generall Epistle Printed for the same man for whom Mr. Baxters published Bookes have been Printed But I perceive Mr. Baxter was willing to let his pen have the reynes and therefore addes How many of these c. May I not as well aske the parishioners of Kederminster how many have they known that have proved so palpably guilty of the soule sins he names How many Anabaptists or Antinomists they have known I cannot tell Mr. Baxter names me for one and I confesse his parishioners of Kederminster have had meanes to know me from my Cradle as being borne and bred up and lived a good part of my life near them if they know me so palpably guilty of the sins Mr. Baxter speakes of they shew but little love in that they rebuke me not but suffer sin on me contrary to what Mr. Baxter hath taught them I would have trod this passage under my foote as dirt were it not that the Devill by this and such like passages breeds such hatred and nourisheth such fury in mens brests that were it not for the mighty over-awing power of God and the magistrates Justice they would quickly fall on us to destroy us I add no more but the Lord rebuke them SECT. 10. Of the Anabaptists confident expressions and weaknesse upon triall and the dispute at Bewdley Jan. 1. 1649. YEt Mr. Baxter hath not done with us They have confident expressions sayth he to shake poore ignorant Soules whom God will have discovered in the day of triall But when they meet with any that can search out their fallacies how little have they to say you know I have had as much opportunity to try their strength as most and I never yet met with any in Garison or Army that could say any thing which might stagger a solid Man Answ. For other men I cannot make answer my own expressions in my Bookes and Sermons have no more confidence then strength of proofe or answer as there was occasion As solid men as Mr. Baxter have met with that which not only hath staggered but also hath brought them to assent to my Tenet Me thinks the institution Mat. 28. 19. the practise of Iohn Baptist the Apostles and first Churches who did Baptize no Infants that can be found might stagger as solid a man as Mr. Baxter and it is very likely Mr. Baxter met with some in Garison or Army that alledged these or some of these to him For my part I cannot tell how to construe it any other then a Judgement of God on men that hold so earnestly against Papists and Prelates and Presbyterians too that in Gods Worship humane Inventions are to be left as Will-worship and yet contend so much for Infant-baptisme so cleerly proved and so frequently confessed not only by learned Papists but also many of the more ingenuous of the Prelatical party and others to be onely a Church Tradition Yea the Oxford Divines in their late Reasons of the present Judgement of the Vniversity of Oxford about the Solemne Covenant c. Approved by generall consent in a full Convocation June 1. 1647. doe Sect. 4. Pag. 9. say that without the consentient Judgement and Practise of the Vniversall Church which they are not able to prove they should be at a losse when they are called upon for proofe in the Point of baptizing Infants But there yet remaines that which it seemes was first in his intention though last in execution to wit the blazing abroade his Dispute with me Ianua 1. at Bewdley of which he speaks thus You heard in my late publick Dispute at Bewdley Ianuary 1. With Mr. Tombes who is taken to be the ablest of them in the Land and one of the most Moderate how little they can say even in the hardest point of baptisme what gross absurdities they are driven to and how little tender consciencious fear of erring is left among the best Ans. Mr Baxter not content to be cryed up by his party hath thought good to glory in his imagined victory and to crow over me in print for that which I am assured the most considerate and godly Auditors of that Dispute have thought meet to mourn as perceiving it to have been his hour of temptation and God I hope will yet open his eyes to see how he hath been abused to become an Instrument to hinder the receiving of Truth and the Ringleader to a party of men who neither mind the things of Christ nor regard Mr Baxter saving wherein they make use of the keenness of his spirit and abilities to oppose the Truth and to uphold their repute But to the matter Mr Baxter reckons me among the Heretiques he had before described yet with difference In an Accusation of Heresie Jerom saith a man is not to be patient Mr Baxters Opinions about Justification Universal Grace in Amyralds middle way avowed by him in this place of his Epistle his Tenet about the Magistrates being an Officer under Christ as Mediator in his Aphorisms of Iustification pag. 273. may and are taken to savour more of Heresie then any Tenet I hold yea sure as our Protestant Divines are wont to answer Papists that the Tenets of the Protestants denying their additions when otherwise the same Faith is avouched cannot be justly charged as Heresie so neither can I be justly charged with Heresie who do avouch the Baptism appointed by Christ and practised by his Apostles and onely deny that the Consequences from the Old Testament are convincing to prove Infant-Baptism They that alter Christs way and introduce another way from Circumcision or the Jewish Church-state as Mr Baxter doth are more justly chargeable with Heresie His conceits of me I regard not His Neighbors of Kederminster might hear how little I did say but surely they could not hear in that Dispute how little I could say much less how little Anabaptists so called can say in the hardest point of Baptism His Neighbors and others may know by this and my other Writings and Sermon● that I can say more then I said then and I know other learned men who can say more in the point then disputed though I then said enough in answer to Mr Baxters Arguments then produced notwithstanding my care to speak no more then was necessary and my natural hesitancy in answering an Argument at the first hearing And how ever the business was packed to cry up a Baxter as if they had been a company of Boys at a game yet the whole Auditory might know and many did that Mr Baxter gave no sufficient Answer to that which I alledged That no good Argument could be drawn from the Infants of the lews visible Church membership to our Infants visible Church-membership