if you be not sanctified one in to and by the other as lawful man and wife by your union formerly contracted notwithstanding your now disunion in Religion then your children are unclean and this is truth for so the children are in this civil sense if begotten and born out of matrimony whether the parents be believers or no buâ— the other is not truth for whether both or but one or none of the parents believe the infants for that cause alone and without respect to matrimony are in no sense ere the more holy or unclean Thirdly and this will yet appear more plainly if you consider that faith alone in either one or both the parents begetting out of wedlock cannot sanctifie the seed so begotten with this civil holiness here meant no nor with that faederall holiness you plead for nor could it do so even then when that holinesse or birth priviledge you talk of was in force as now it is not viz. in the daies of the law for if two believers came together then out of marriage their seed were not onely base born and so unclean in this our sense but also to the tenth generation uncapable to be admitted into the congregation and so consequently unclean even in your own Deut. 32.2 whereupon how Pharez and Zarah were dealt with it matters not sith they were born before the law was given Ieptha was exempted from any inheritance with his brethren because he was the son of a strange woman Iudg. 11.2 and Davids unclean issue by Bathsheba that in the wisdome of God was taken away by death on the seventh day might not surely without breach of the law have been accounted holy and of the congregation if he had lived beyond the eighth whereupon your selves also are much fumbled about the holinesse of bastards and the baptism of base-begotten babies so that you scarcely know how to behave your selves about it though the parents sinning be believers at least en-churched in your Churches yea it s generally known saith Mr Cotton that our best Divines do not allow the baptism of bastards and though he is pleased to say they allow it not sine sponsoribus without Sureties yet I wonder sith Deut. 32.2 Gods denial of such of old is made the ground of their denial of such now to enter into the Congregation as unholy that our Divines dare take on them to admit cum sponsoribus and so to go besides their own Rule viz. the order of things under the law wherein God gave no such allowance but to let that tolleration pass which they take to themselves you may learn thus much of your selves if you will that though wedlock without faith make a holy seed in our sense yet faith without wedlock in the parents can make a holy seed neither in our sense nor in your own nor any at all for the infants of the married are holy but believers bastards are both civilly and federally unclean inso much that your selves see cause to refuse as federally holy the spurious seed euen of those whose lawfull issue you unlawfully sprinkle Fourthly if you more seriously consider that the holinesse in the Infant here must needs be the fruit and result of that and that must needs be the cause of the holiness here spoken of in the infant quo posito ponitur sanctitas sublato tollitur which being in the parents a holinesse must necessarily be thereupon which not being in the parents a holinesse cannot be in the seed for positâ causà ponitur effectus sublata tollitur abstract the cause and the effect cannot be suppose the cause and the effect cannot but be now that which if it be not in the parents the holiness is not but being in them the holinesse is consequently in the infants 't is not the faith but the conjugal or marriage Relation of the parents for as for the first of these viz. faith it may be in one yea in both of the parents and yet no federal holinesse at all be in the infants witness Ishmael the seed of Abraham the father of the faithful and his Sons by Keturah also born of him after Covenant made with him and his seed in Isaac and Iacob and yet neither of them in that Covenant witnesse the base born children of true believers among the Jews suppose David and Baâ—â—sheba which for all the parents faith could not by the law be admitted in thâ— Congregation nor have that birth-priviledge to be reputed holy which from the parents faith you universally intail to the infants moreover this birth-priviledge and Covenant-holiness by generation which did inright to Church ordinances which once was but now is a non-entity and out of date might be then when it was in being in children in whose parents faith was not found at all for most of the Iews were unbeiievers yet all their legitimate children were holy federally therefore faith in the parent cannot be the cause of such a thing yea if you will believe Mr Blake himself the strictest pleader for a birth-priviledge of federal holiness in Infants that ever I met with and that from this very place he condescends so far as to contribute one contradiction to himself toward the helping of the truth in this case viz. That faith in the parâ—nt is not the cause of this holinesse whilst making the holinesse in this text to be a birth priviledge or Church-Covenant holinesse and to be the fruit and result of the faith of the believing parents and consequently their faith to be the sole and proper cause of the same he confesses flatly elsewhere page 4. that a loose life in the parent and mis-belief which is as bad in some cases worse then unbelief for which is worse to believe false things or not to believe true yea Apostacy from the faith which all if they be not inconsistent with faith I know not what is do not divest nor debar the issue from having that holiness which himself saies is meant in this text Babist Perhaps he means not by faith strictly the parents true believing but in generall his being in the covenant and faederally holy himself and so a cause of this federal holiness in the issue Baptist. First Paul means true believing here in 1 Cor. 7.14 whether Mr Blake do or no. Secondly what will he get as to the point in hand by his Synonamizing faith and faederall holiness for still neither the one nor the other is made here the cause of the holiness of the seed for the holiness here spoken of may be where neither of them is and may not be in the seed even where they are both in the parent as for example in Ezras time Ezra 10 3. we find abundance of the Jews both Priests and people that were in the faith or at least in faederall holiness yet the children were put away as unholy as well faederally as otherwise because their marriage was unlawfull and that bed adulterous wherein they lay with strange
wives Ezra 10.3 and that both parents possibly may be faithful and faederally holy and yet their seed be in all senses utterly unclean is evident for the child of two believing Jews begotten besides the marriage bed was both a Bastard and also barr'd from the Congregation Deut. 32.2 again this faederal holiness as well as faith may be in neither parent and yet the issue not be unclean but holy still and so are all Matrimonially and civilly at least that among Pagans are the issue of the marriage bed and with the holiness of the Covenant of Grace too when they come to years and believe themselves as not a few children of unbelievers do and sometimes the seed of Turks and Tartars this therefore i. e. the faith or faederal sanctity of the one parent nor of both cannot be the cause of this sanctity is here denominated of the seed for holiness in the infants is not alwaies when this is and sometimes it is in the infant when this is not in the parent which being of each without other cannot be between a true cause and its effect but as for the second viz. the marriage sanctity in the parents it is that which being in the parents holiness is naturally and necessarily in the seed that is born of them whether they be both or either or either in faith or unbelief but being not in the parents there can be no holiness no birth holiness in their infants nor Matrimonial nor Congregationall neither therefore this is that which is the cause of the holiness of the issue in this Scripture the result of which and not of faith in the parents is this non-uncleanness in their posterity and so I have done with this kind of holiness and with this Scripture which speaks of this Matrimonial holiness and no other Thirdly Ceremonial holiness I call that same holiness which properly peculiarly and pro tempore only pertained to the whole nation and congregation of Israel denominating them all holy every one of them and distinguishing them from all other people and nations which during the time of the Iews pedagogy according to Gods own imposition were then accounted sinners common and unclean by a certain â—â—s-rationis an extrinsecall meerly notional and nominal rather then either real moral or substantiall sort of sin and uncleanness to which the others holiness was directly opposite and answerable The subjects of which Accountative holiness were not only the people of the Jews themselves which were a holy people Deut. 7. ver 8. Exod. 22.31 but also and more specially the Priests and more specially yet or in a higher degree but in the same kind of holiness for degrees do not vary nature the High Priests which were holiness to the Lord Exod. 39.30 also their parents which were not matrimonially only nor often morally yet to allow your own phrase here because they were outwardly in Covenant with God concerning outward promises and priviledges on performance of outward ordinances everâ— faederally a holy parentage a holy root Rom. 11. also their natural if withall matrimonial issue which were not at all in their infancy and but seldome when at years spiritually allwaies faederally holy branches a holy seed also their land of Canaan which was the holy Land their Metropolitan City Ierusalem which was the holy City their Temple which was a holy Temple the Utensills vessels vestments and other accomplishments which were all holy a holy Lavar a holy Altar a holy Ark holy Candlesticks holy Cherubims most holy place c. and in a manner all things belonging to the Law of Moses and that first Covenant made with Abraham and his fleshly seed whether hollowed or consecrated by God himself or dedicated to him by men at his appointment viz. the first born the first fruits tithes offerings sacrifices daies feasts which were al holy and had relation as shadowes and types for a while unto things Evangelically Spiritually and substantially holy that were to be there after yea with this same kind of holiness some meats were holy some flesh Hag. 2.12 13. was holy some birds and beasts were sanctified as holy and lawfull to be used and eaten when others were prohibited as prophane common and unclean not so much as to be touched without sin without contracting such an outward fleshly kind of guilt and impurity as made their souls in that ceremonial sense abominable yea with an uncleanness oppositely answerable to this carnall holiness those fleshly purities and purifyings that then were some actions as the touch of a dead body some issues of men and women some diseases as the Leprosie some bodily blemishes as crookedness dwarfishness blindness lameness yea the very easements and excrements that passed from them in the camp without covering did defile and render them sinners prophane unclean unholy and guilty before the Lord Levit. 5.2.3.5 11.43 to 46. also Chapters 14.15.22 also Levit 20.25.26 21.18 to the 24. Deut. 23.12.13.14 which defilements did then reach to pollute the flesh only which the bloud of Bulls and Goats that could not cleanse the conscience morally did sanctifie to the purifying of Hebr. chap. 9. ver 13. neither do these things defile any man now in any such sense at all This is the holiness which when you say infants of believers are holy I have ground to perswade my self you Ashford Disputants mean not but rather some inherent morall holiness when I consider how you talk of infused habits in the hearts of infants in your Disputation and Review and yet again I have ground to believe you mean this holiness which was in the Jewish infants and their implements if I may imagine your meaning by what is extant in the writings of your brethren upon the subject specially if I may measure your meaning by Mr Blakes in his Birth-priviledge or covenant-holiness of believers and their issue wherein he laies himself out at large and yet is too short when all is done in proving from the like under the law among the people of the Iews and their issue that even now in the times of the Gospel also a people that enjoy Gods ordinances convey to their issue a priviledge to be reputed by birth not unclean but holy persons and thereupon to be baptized the absurditie and inconsequence of which doctrine and so I hope to make it appear now I am upon it is little less then if he had argued thus as the Pope doth from that time to this viz. there was an Hierarchy or holy principallity among the Priests under the law therefore there must be such another under the Gospel and as then the high-Priests Aaron and his Sons who were holiness to the Lord wore holy garments in their ministration for glory and for beauty viz. Coats and robes embroydered with gold and blew and purple and scarlet and fine linnen and curious girdles of needle work nnd miters and holy Crowns upon the miters so his Holiness to the Lord the High-Priest of Christendome Appollyon
half p 49 l 17 d and. p 54 l 10 r Vzziah to meddle p 76 l 30 r inane l 37 r do no more p 77 l 9 r more than p 86 l 1 r ever p 104 l 22 r Babist p 110 l 24 r Baptist. p 116 l 5 for but it r that p 134 l 44 r healing of bodily p 135 l 39 d and. p 136 l 1 r more than of p 140 l 35 r not at all p 152 l 4 r requires p 155 l 16 for which r when p 162 l 46 r baptize p 165 l 18 r as not p 166 l 46 r deed p 186 l 45 r and Grandchildren p 194 l 32 dele to p 206 l 54 for be can discipâ—ed r can possibly know when such children are first discipled except it be in their first Infancy yet I tell him we know such children as well as others to be first discipled p 207 l 5 r Impossible p 215 l 31 r Judg of p 219 little r tittle p 220 l 30 were r we p 224 l 53 r at a venture p 233 l 19 r whose seed he is p 237 l 15 r object you l 24 r what through furniture your cause hath p 246 l 6 is as r as is p 269 l 27 seed r seal p 276 l 5 6 r who never yet actually displeased him l 19 r therefore l 31 r doing good to any p 306 l 3 r with d for p 310 l 38 r Mar. 19. p 311 l 46 r opere operatoâ— p 320 l 47 r scarce p 325 l 23 might not excuse them p 344 l 12 r not so plainly as you must p 357 l 39 40 r our worthy Divines and especially Mâ— Baxter p 362 l 40 r dexterity p 379 l 47 48 r putting on no others p 359 l 50 r bread for neither r not l 51 r chearing p 396 l 25 r with such niggardly p 410 l 46 r expeâ—â—us p 422 l 2 for had r and. p 423 l 32 r much mistaken p 427 l 13 for though r as p 445 l 18 d that with freedom on both sides p 454 l 17 for as or r or as l 26 r children were p 459 l 16 r as to a l 33 r as well as he p 462 l 40 r onely in the seed p 473 l 14 r Acts 9.6 p 475 r Rom 6 3 4. Acts 19 p 47â— l 39 r Iohn 1.33 l 46 r Prov. 1.22 p 478 l 1 d which l 36 r my self to be p 479 l 24 r Iohn 3.22 p 485 for a r all p 499 for viz. r were not p 518 l 40 r should not have been p 524 l 34 r examen p 526 l 24 r then from thence l 3 r Rite of Baptism p 527 l 36 r mouths p 529 l 4 r any right p 536 mar r uâ—riusquâ— p 547 l 54 r Synagogues i. e. their own Countreys or p 556 l 54 for might r night p 562 l 24 r whose remove would pluck p 578 l 51 r came at all p 582 l 4 r such onely are l 36 r if we ask p 586 l 5 for yea r yet p 590 l 28 r poâ—uiâ— p 603 l 46 r you run p 605 l 19 for by r but. p 612 l 15 r founded p 616 l 46 r Satan p 622 l 6 r cosu in the Table p 4 l 18 for by r be p 577 l 6 r is not to be obtained TO THE HONEST HEARTED unprejudiced Reader of these ensuing Systems More especially to you my loving Country men of the County of Kent Greeting BELOVED Friends and Brethren you have been earnest and are now wellnigh hopelesse and therefore by this time may possibly be for ought I know half angry Expectants of something or other from me in answer to that True Counterfeit so I call it of the Ashford Disputation A Pamphlet so injurious not so much to me as the truth that t was provocation enough to the presse of itself to one so clearly concerned in it as my self but as if it were not was a while after seconded by another Neverthelesse what evill surmises soever you have of my so long silence as I dare not say I am altogether blamelesse so I dare say I am not altogether excuselesse in the businesse for verily as t was little lesse then half a year after the Disputation before that Hasty Birth of theirs came to light in which time it threatned the Country to come out upon it and at last came out upon 't indeed so was it little lesse then a quarter after the nativity of that trifle before I received from the Publishers thereof the copy of it together with this ensuing Summons to let somewhat be seen in my own right in which since it s declared that they would needs interpret my total silence as a giving of the cause I stood as strictly engaged so from thenceforth Irrevocably resolved being elsewise indifferent as the Lord should lend me strength life and leasure not in my own but the Gospels Right which now I saw must suffer if I were silent to set upon this wearisom work notwithstanding which resolution of mine what by Partly my often avocations from home in way of service to the truth there being if I may become a â—ool â—o far without offence in satisfaction to such Churches as compel me to it by their unjust offences at my just absence from them as here to utter it no lesse then ten publique not to speak of Private Disputations in which I have been actually interessed since that of Ashford be sides publique preachings other occasional meetings and writings Church visitings and visitations of sick members to whom I have been moved several times to move many miles in such junctures when saving the pressingnesse of that case no other should have importund me to have stired an inch out of my own dores Partly my own necessary occasions and outward affaires at home which I am though but little yet to this day too much intangled in for a Souldier of Christ Partly one long and tedious sicknesse which my God was pleased to exercise me with toward the dead of one winter for almost a quarter together so that I was in all that time and somewhat more neither capable to stir much without dores nor do much within Partly if not principally an earnest desire I had as deeming it not worth while to trouble the world and travel throw the Presse with no more profitable a birth then a bare contradiction to that Bawble of theirs which doth more then sufficiently contradict it self and a meer Nugatory Negation of a few false Affirmatives that are made in that Account concerning my silly self and one poor particular disputation to stop more gaps with one bush and to hand forth somthing more for publique use together with it as I here have done namely not onely two entire Treatises viz. Anti-rantism and Anti-ranterism both which bear little or no particular reference to the Ashford Disputation but also very many usefull
as if your selves had been very forward that I should give account or shew my Arguments and Reasons onely my selfe was against it and opposed it and that with importunity as if I had urg'd that at any hand I might not give account of what I did 't is such a cunning contradiction to your selves as I never saw penn'd by the hands of prudent men since I was born to this day Sirs if I should have said so much as this of my self that I ought to have shew'd my grounds upon which I denied Infants-sprinkling but was at that time importunate with you that I might not my own conscience which is Mille testes and a thousand witnesses besides would condemn me as no ordinary self-belyar for I profess before the Lord and those many people that then heard me many of which unless willingly cannot be ignorant hereof I was most forward that day to give out the grounds of the way I walk in but that your selves not the people were most froward against it but the people have believ'd you so long at a venture in other cases that though both you and they know the truth to be contrary to what you say yet you hope they will believe you so still but the Lord grant them to find out your forgery for the future and to be no more guld by your ghostly glosses Report Sixthly That there should be no tumults no interruption of the Disputants that no provoking terms whereby offence might be justly given or taken should be used that if any such were warning should be given and satisfaction made or the Disputation to break up and the blame to ly upon that side which did transgresse Reply You might as well have given Account who they were that did violate this agreement as of the Article it self but then you had brought no little blame upon your selves and thereupon very likely you forbore it for as when you propounded this Article little considering that your selves were most likely to grow regardless of it you made a Râ—d for your own tails so you had assuredly slashed your selves soundly therewith had you told all the truth indeed for though this as all the rest was your own by Proposall your Antagonists only by assent yet verily even you the Law-givers were the the men that did most grosly transgress it yea some of you seem'd to sit there for nothing else but to blur and blunder the proceedings by some impertinent interposals or other so that after questions askt me three or four times over by your selves and leave as often askt you by me to answer yet the anticipations of some or other of you either forbad me to begin or at least cut me off before the end This Article therefore being broken by you in the other parts of it must be kept in the last clause thereof at least viz. the blame of the breach ly upon you Report Seventhly That after the Disputation ended it might be lawful for any one of the Congregation leave first obtained of the Ministers to ask questions and to propound his arguments not being tyed to any Syllogistical forms and to receive satisfaction Reply 'T was the facultie of the Pharisees of old to affect the chief seats in the Synagogues and t is the fashion of you Masters in Israel now to take upon you to be the Chaiâ—-men still and to bear such sway in the publick places that the people may not meddle there to speak a word or urge an argument or ask a question or without leave from you Masters of the Synagogues so much as once to quack in youâ— presence but Sirs the best on 't is you have now in this year of Iubilee 1650. for so doth your book beare date given not only toleration but advice and invitation too to all people to Ask the Priest p. 27. and therefore though formerly they might not do it at all and even now they do it oft to little purpose yet I hope you will have them excused for do it they will by your leave now and then when they ask you questions in your Cathedralls without asking you any more leave so to do Report Next you tell us That it was also moved by the Ministers that two Moderators might be nominated and also Clerks appointed for the writing down both of the Arguments and Answers the Originalls to be left in the hands of the Moderators that so no mis-reports might be raised concerning them or if any were the truth might be made appear to any that should desire satisfaction by repairing to them which I utterly refusing the Ministers superseded from further urging of it Reply I did indeed refuse to chuse any Moderator my self save the whole Auditory as knowing how basely the truth hath been captivated and kept under for Heresy by the Clawes of the Clergy when subjected to their determination yet did I not deny to have any chosen for I left you the liberty to chuse whom you would who very goodly but how justly let all men judge made choise of one to determine as judge in his own cause who was the only opponent almost altogether if the True Account were not false which sets down no Arguments but his but however the prime Plantiff in the Disputation and as finely he fitted your fancies that are affected so much with falsity and foppery of both which there was great store in his Reâ—â—pitulation As for me could I easily have suspected there would have been such immoderation amongst you as was striking up so many of you together sometimes that neither I could be heard by any of you at all nor your selves very well by one another it had not been amiss to have admitted of Moderators to have kept you in some better order for â—lerks also for the setting down of things truly had I thought you would have taken such advantage for want thereof as to raise and that in print too so many mis-reports as your selves have done I had probably closed with you in that motion and though I refused to do it then as being better opinion'd of you then you have since deserved for yet it 's more than I am like to do again if e're I meet you in another Disputation for that slippery tricks sake you have serv'd me concerning this Ictus Piscator sapit But as to this there 's no remedy now save my Nâ— to your Yea and the memories of the people that heard us my Supreme appeal for moderation is to Christ the Supreme Moderator of Heaven and Earth before whom as I told you then I hoped I should speak nothing of which I should have cause to be ashamed so I tell you now I hope I shall pen nothing of which I maie be affraid to give account when he appears and we appear before his Tribunall the same Lord come quickly and judge between us even so Amen Report After these Propositions were agreed upon you say I moved to have liberty to make
saie of this evil and adulterous generation that they maintained it against me but themselves for whether they do or do it not they cannot hurt me thereby but if they do it the worst will be their own for as they of old that rejected the true Baptism for none Luke 7.30 did reject the councel of God against themselves so do they that reject it for a false one as to the terms of evil and adulterous generation concerning which you first charge me and then acquitted me as not intending them to you I meant them then in verie deed of this Age wherein we live yet so long as you go a whoring from God after waies of mens tradition and teach people to do so as you do I see not how I could have been truly said to revile had I used them directly to your selves Report Thirdly that though I had once been of that opinion and a Minister of the Church and received orders from it yet now I was of another and did renounce both the Church and her orders to which say you 't was answered that it was no marvell that I that had forsaken the Church should afterwards revile and despise her and that God having suffered me to fall into so gross an error as to deny and renounce my first baptism did in his just judgement suffer me to fall further and further Heresie being like a Precipice where after a man hath begun his run he cannot stay till he come to the bottom Reply I was once of that opinion indeed and practise too together with your selves and had not a little zeal thereof though not according to knowledge when I acted in your false function by implicit faith and made the Directories Canons Catechisms Creeds of the Clergies compiling my Rule as many more did besides my self not comparing them so singly as I should have done with that true Directory of the word but I have since seen good occasion to recant it as you will undoubtedly do also first or last and O that it may be yet in time to your peace notwithstanding your now forwardness to uphold it I was also in your sence once a Minister of the Church but since going about to look for that Ministry of the Church and for that Church whereof I thought my selfe a Minister from thenceforth I could never find either t'one or t'other As for your Church of England I confess I received twice her holy orders viz. once from the Bishops in the daies of their Dominion by whom I was ordained a Deacon i. e. in Scripture-sence to look toth'poor but in their sence half a Priest for in that capacity we might sprinkle if allow'd and give the wine to people also in the Supper but not by any means the bread unless very specially licensed thereunto till we should come into the full order of Priest-hood for so ran the phrase in the old English horn-book which as to that part was stiled The book of the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons once also by the Presbyters so called since the time of their Parricid or cutting the throats of their fathers the Bishops that gave the being of Priesthood to them and inducting themselves to reign in their stead as the Bishops themselves had dealt not long before with their old father the Pope who gave the being of Priesthood to them both from whom not as a Priest-hood but a true Presbytery as they say I was in orders to practise their refined Popery more perfectly which I might do before but by the halves but now I know not where this Church of England is if you speak of a true Church of Christ unless you can prove things to have their true being without either their true matter or true form for as the subject matter whereof it consists is false being not baptized believers so the form into which the Pope cast it some 600 years since in to which also the Prelate and Presbyter have new cast it being and that subpaena too National Provinciall Parochiall is utterly false and her fellowship as good as none at all because not free but forced and as for the true Ministry thereof I know not where it is neither if that onely be a true one as you were wont to say it is that can derive it self by a line from the very Apostles neither can you make good your interrupted succession from them unless the Pope from whom your Series comes was even then a true Minister of Christ when he was also an Antichristian Deceiver and unless Apostacy and Apostolicy can so stand together as that Rome was even then an Apostolick Church when 't was palpably apparent to be an Harlot neither if I could tell where can I tell very well which is the Ministry of your Church of England there are so many Ministries in it now namely Prelaticall High-Presbyterian Presbyterian-Independent each of which lay claim to that title but being both themselves and their adherents for such different forms of government cannot all three be the Ministry of one Church unless your Church of England that was of old so full of uniformity is now become capable of tri-formety in its discipline and Ministry and yet to be intirely but one Ministry and Church of England still which if it be it s a tr-iform monster then indeed As to your answer to this third head I wish you to weigh how rawly you utter your selves whilst just after your selves had clear'd me from the guilt of Reviling and before I had us'd any new terms that could have the least savor of reviling you return to charge me of it again but no marvel when every round reprover and renouncer of your Romishness is as much a reviler with you as your selves are at Rome for renouncing that grosser Popery that 's there Howbeit in truth he reviles your Church no more that calls it a very Harlot if it be so then your selves revile Rome in calling her a Harlot because she is so you hint at my renouncing my first baptism can a man renounce that he never had for what was dispenc't when I was a child as t is no signe to me now for I remember not that I ever saw it so I learn by the hear-say of it that it was not baptism at all as for this last which is also the first baptism that ever was administred to me I see no cause to renounce it as yet nor yet I am well assured ever shall As for heresie or believing and doing besides the word t is a Precipice indeed where after men have begun their run unless the Lord mercifully prevent them as he hath done me and many more of late and I desire may your selves in due time who are all gone astray from primitive truth after the doctrines and commandements of men they cannot well stay till they come to the bottom even the bottomless pit it self into which that Arch-Heretitk the Pope who open'd it
proved to be his Luke 12.52.53 Math. 24.9.2 Tim. 3.12 1 Cor. 1.27 2 Cor. 6.4 5. So that where there 's none of this I avouch the Gospell in its purity is not there though where these are the Gospel is not the cause for that is men lusts and flesh fighting against the light but the only the occasion whereupon they arise when Satan the strong man holds the house the goods are all in peace but when Christ the stronger man comes to storm him out there 's contention in hearts houses Towns and Countries as when Christ came to Ierusalem all was in an uproar and when Paul came with his Gospel to Ephesus Athens Iconium Lystra Derbe lewd fellows of the baser sort were set on by others to raise tumults for truth tormented them into rage thus we often judge of Causes as good or bad right or wrong by the effects that flow from them but to reason upon a cause as good or ill true or false right or wrong according to the might or moaness the abilities or defects of the persons that stand up for it is the right way to wrong it indeed sith the Antichristian cause hath the mighty wise and prudent Priests and Potentates of the world for its Patrons when the poor only for the most part receive Christs Gospell and the strength that God ordains in defence thereof against the persecutor is the mouths of Babes and Sucklings Causes are to be rejected as wrong and false according to the defects and weakness that is discovered to be in the Arguments that are brought to maintain and not by the weakness and defects that may seem to be in those that are more zealous then able to mannage them if there appear to be weight in the Arguments these if strong however weakly and babishly propounded will carry the cause in the conscience of any but such Priest-be-charmed Christians as in Charity to their Churchmen are resolved to yield themselves up to be carried away with every wind of doctrine that passes from them and covering the weakness of them to be whifled any way by such arguments as the men themselves that make them are fain to grant to be weak to prove what they are brought for for no Argument is weak that is sufficient to evince the thing it s used in proof of though it fall from the mouth of never so weak a man if a weak feeble hand letfall an heavy Axe upon it or a sharp sword even the sword of the Spirit the word of God that is quick and powerfull it may serve to cut off the Popes head Tripple Crown and all but if the Pope himself and all his children which are the ablest Humanists in the world come out to warre against Christ and his cause with reeds and rushes blind non sequiturs weak and broken Consequences they must ride back to Rome for stronger swords or else they may force fools into conformity to their follies but never guide wise men after the spirit to believe their cause to be good as therefore t is not good that an ill cause that hath but weak Arguments to uphold it should be owned for good either in Charity or upon pretence of ability in the persons that patronize it as the Clergies crooked cause of Infant-sprinkling is for what saies the Parish to those poor ones in it that entertain the Gospel are you wiser than a whole Synod of able Orthodox Divines so it is a thousand pitties that a good cause that hath strong Arguments enough from Scripture and reason to prove it right should be wronged so as to be rejected as rotten yet so Christs true baptism is through the defects of the persons called Anabaptists who are supposed at least to have more zeal then ability to prove it of which sin of wronging a right cause upon account of such defects even the cause of Christs true baptism which in his strength those Babes that are baptized with it are not only zealous but able to make good against the Ablest Baby-Baptist that is among you I know no men under the Sun more guilty then you Clergy men who take your advantages to cry out the lowder against it as error by the defects of Christs Disciples that plead and practise it of whom you say commonly as you say complementally of your selves here they have more zeal then abilities to maintain it yea verily you who seem here whether more simply or more simulatorily who knows not so to implore the charitable benevolence of well disposed people to cover the weakness of your Arguments and not to suffer your cause of Infant-sprinkling to suffer throw your defects and inabilities to maintain it are men so far from teaching facienda faciendo from doing to others as you would be done to that you rather disclaim and proclaim those Arguments of ours as weak which as feeble a folk as we are are strong enough to storm you out of your strongest holds and cause that cause to be despised under pretence of our defects which though weak in our selves and pretending to little of that outward accomplishment which you call ability yet throw Christs word assertaining it to be his and his spirit assisting us thereunto we have both zeal and ability to maintain who is it I trow that trumpets about the eminency and learnedness of their party and illiteracy of the Anabaptists whereby to render the way the more contemptible more then the Priesthood who charm their people against the receipt of the Gospel in such sort as the Pharisees of old when they said are you also deceived have any of the Rulers of the Pharisees believed on him but this people that know not the law are cursed Ioh. 7.47 48 49. So brags Dr Featly and his fellows despising the way of dipping viz. joint suffrages of so many Bishops in such a Synod as for the Anabaptists they are a few mean sylly men and women an illiterate and sottish sect the father and head of whom quoth he was Nicholas Stock and a very blockhead was he p. 164. Simple rude Mechaniâ—ks Russet Rabbies Apron Levites whom we own not quoth he but detest and abominate p. 113 who know not how to dispute for truth because they know not the original and cannot conclude syllogistically in mood and figure p. 1.2 Thus Featly defeats them in their cause by dilating on their defects and which of you almost do not confirm your people against their cause by their infirmities of one kind or other like flies you feast your selves upon their sores and let go their sounder parts you make much of their little to your purpose you make your best out of their worst and out of their personal weaknesses strengthen your selves and others against the truth which wise men know is nevertheless truth for the poors receiving it you root in their very excrements whereby to find matter to make their good cause bad and yet here oh how mendicant of other mens mercy not only
in that truth on their side doth animate and assist them you meet them with staff and spear and humane accomplishments and they stand before you in the name of God and strength of that truth and true Israel of his whom you yet defie this makes Schoolmen like Schoolboyes under the rod when they are taken tardy in their exercise and see they are like to be whipt for it cry spare us in that their School-masters the Pope and Councels have overtaskt them and set them a Theam which Scripture whence onely they must fetch all their proofs saies just nothing of at all This makes the Disputers the Divines to come abroad a begging in print among the vulgar as you here do saying cover pass by bewayling the weakness of their Arguments their defects in disputing their presumption in entring the lists their non-preparation for the disputation because it s not the true Gospel they disputed for a very stripling may make a Gyant give back if he have hold on the hilt of his sword and the other thrust hard against the blade 't is hard for thee O Saul to kick against the pricks a learned lawyer may be at loss in a lame suit Asinus ad lyram may play his part better and make sweeter musick then the most accurate musitian that hath nothing to beat upon but a board it may well put any but the meer Sophister to his shifts to prove the moons made of green cheese and so 't will any save the meer self-seeker that is set to serve it out of a sight that he can serve himself of it and therefore is resolv'd to make any Argument serve turn even libet ergo licet rather then leave it to prove Infant-baptism much more Infant-rantism to be a good cause and yet the more 's the pitty this is the cause you have to make good and have been so bold as to stand up for which though your wishes are here that it may not suffer wrong through your defects yet mine are much rather that you may not suffer your selves to be wrong'd any more or to be wrong'd for ever through its defects for howbeit it flatters you into an opinion of its ability to be maintain'd by you by its appearing ability to maintain you yet you 'l find ith'end that by its fair flourishes it hath flusht you into more zeal then furnisht you with ability to maintain it when it shall have brought you to your choice of one of these two ex quibus minimum est eligengendum viz. either of Repentance from it and all other your Parochiall dead works tithes and other traditions that depend upon it upon a sight and acknowledgement that you have been mistaken about these as well as other Romish Remnants that you have seen cause through the Parliaments eyes to renounce since that long since Lutheran reformation which after longer standing out will be so much the harder Chapter for you Clergy men to run throw or else which is worse then nought of perseverance in your evil waies and dead works against light to prevent the other which last the Lord prevent from befalling any of you if it be his will Pre Who would not have presumed to have entered the lists c. Post. It had been no presumption in you had you been true Ministers of Christ and the cause you stood up in Christs cause indeed for grant it to be presumption in Vzziah to meddle in the publique service of the Temple and in Vzziah to put forth his hand to uphold the Ark and consequently for so you argue not we for men to meddle so as to minister to the Gospel publiquely in your Churches that are not in holy orders yet it is none vos Apello for the Priests or ordained Ministers of Christ to stand up any where in defence of Christs truth where it s traduced but rather duty which in speciall they stand bound to in that therefore you accounting your selves Christs Ministers do grant it to be presumption in you to put forth so publiquely when you saw it tottering you do no less thou give the cause you stood up in to be none of his as indeed it was not but your own and that was it only which made it presumption and very high presumption in you too in that you durst enter the lists against the Lord Iesus in in his own ordinance and that with such weak Arguments such flags as flam'd like swords but alas such as could not bear the brunt when it came to blows here how much less will they in that battel of the great day of God Almighty which is now marching apace upon you 'T is true therefore as you here confess you have been presumptuous and presumption is one of the most desperate sins that can be against Christ yet for all that in his name and as an Embassador from him though otherwise an unworthy and ever a contemptible creature in your eyes as though himself did beseech you by me I am bold to beg of you that you would not despair but come in and be reconciled to him presuming no more to stand up against him with such weak weapons as before least he tear you in pieces fall upon you and grind you to powder but sit down and humble your selves that you have stood so long in the way of Sinners so that they could not come to Christ through your Blurres lay down your arms and yield your selves prisoners to him stoop to that golden Scepter he yet holds out unto you own him as your King Priest and Prophet list no more against him but list your selves under him for he is gracious and will yet receive you and baptize you with his spirit if you turn at his reproof and repent and be baptized in water in his name for remission of sins Pro. 1.23 Act. 2.38 become little children in such a sense as you should be that you may be baptized and then be baptized in truth and in token for your memory hath lost your traditionary token sprinkling that hereafter you will not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified but manfully fight under his banner against sin the world and the devill and continue Christs faithful souldiers to your lives end How happy had it been for you if you had took quarter from Christ before this time for he would have given it and forgiven all your enmity against him in his truth but you are stiff-blades and your words have been stout against him you Clergy men are Lords you will not come neer but I beseech you become Lord beggars at the throne of grace as Brightman said truly the Bishops were for earthly honor at the thrones of Kings and Princes that you may have more of that grace and holiness to worship God with reverence according to his own will which God gives to all humble Suppliants then had you less learning and living then you have and more disgrace in this world then ever
cut off from standing as till Chirist they did now any longer upon their own Root Abraham because of unbelief I say then that no infant in infancy of what believing parent soever is either Abrahams spiritual seed or dying in infancy is saved upon any such account as a believers seed or Abrahams seed nor whilst living an infant onely may be signed by baptism as an heir apparent of salvation for if Abraham stand not a spiritual father to his own meer fleshly seed he stands not so sure to the meer fleshly seed of any believing Gentile for that were to priviledge every ordinary believer and his natural seed above either himself or his own Nor doth this hinder or deny the salvation of the dying infants of believers or dispose them ere the sooner muchless necessarily to damnation to say they are not Abrahams spirituall seed quâ believers infants nor heirs to salvation upon any such account as that for though neither upon that nor any other account at all they may warrantably be baptized yet it s more then possible or probable either because infallible that there 's other Scripture account enough upon which when we see them die in infancy we may assert them undoubtedly not to be damned for as it is most sure and true that all that are apparently if really Abrahams spiritual seed by faith must so living so dying be saved in token and farther evidence of which to themselves more then others they are by the good wil of Christ to be baptized yet is it neither true nor necessary that all that are saved must be Abrahams spiritual seed by faith but most certain that some shall be saved that never were Abrahams seed in any sense at all witnesse not onely the faithful fore-fathers of Abraham for he was their seed and not they his but also all dying infants of what parents soever both before Abrahams time and since of whom to salvation notwithstanding those are the onely termes on which it belongs to adult ones to whom it s preacht Mark 16.15 16. these being truly capable of neither 't is not required that they should either repent believe or be baptized I know this Iustification of dying infants without faith is uncouth and little less for all it holds forth so much salvation then damnable doctrine among you Divines that plead the contrary but I shall by the help of God make it good to the faces of you all when I come to consider the baldness of your consequence in this point as you give me good occasion to do in some places where me thinks you meddle with it somewhat clumsily as it were in mittins as if because there 's no other way revealed for the salvation of such by Christ to whom the gospel is preached who are capable to hear and do what 's required for such onely the word universally speaks of when it speaks of salvation in that way but the way of belief and actuall obedience onely therefore there 's no other way for the salvation of dying infants by Christ who can possibly neither believe in him nor obey him which as it is such shameful stuff that I cannot bear it with out inward blushing at your blindness so whether you have not as much cause to be ashamed on 't within your selves is well worth your inmost inquiry I say therefore again so far is this from excluding dying infants of believers from entrance into the kingdome of heaven to say they are neither Abrahams spiritual seed by faith nor heirs thereof upon that ground onely of being so that it rather concludes and supposes there 's some other ground that is common with them to the innocent infants of even infidels and all the world upon which these whom though they are hundreds to one yet your selves in your fierce wrath and merciless cruelty devote universally to damnation may dying in infancy universally be saved also which ground if you will yet know it is the righteousness of Christ the free imputation of which universally from the father saves not onely all that believe from both that and their actuall transgressions too but even the whole world whether they believe it or no from the the imputation of Adams transgression so that none at all ever perish upon that account in which respect he is said to be the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe much more doth it and that without faith save all dying infants who as they believe not so have not as yet by any actual sin bard themselves or deserved exemption or become liable at all to the second death i. e. the damnation of hell which befalls not any but upon personal neglect of the light and grace of life brought in by the second Adam as the first death onely overtakes mankind for onely that sin of the first Adam Babist If all dying infants are saved then not few but many if not the maior part must be saved contrary to that of Christ Mat. 7.13.14 Luke 13.23.24 where he saith few there are that are saved Baptist. There are indeed but few inter adultos among persons that come to years of whom alone and not of Infants at all Christ there speaks and even every where else where he speaks to us of the way of life and this is plain by the reason he there gives why so few are saved which is the straitness of the gate and narrowness of the way that leads to life viz. of self-denial and suffering for Christ which men mostly being very loath to walk in it comes to pass that few of them come to life by it but infants being altogether uncapable to walk in it are are altogether dis-ingaged from walking in it till they come to capacity so to do and yet are not damn'd for not walking in it when we come to years of understanding and to apprehend the good will of God to us in providing a Saviour for us his good will concerning us in order to salvation by him is that we believe in him and obey him and apply his righteousness unto our selves Gal. 3.27 but whilst we are yet in such minority as neither to know what God hath done for us nor to be capable of putting on the Lord Iesus our selves he himself is pleased to impute his righteousness to salvation to us so dying even as we our selves whilst our infants are new born do not onely provide but also put on what clothes we have provided in our pitty towards them for the covering of their nakedness but when they come to years of such discretion as to discern and be sensible of their own shame and capable to dress themselves with their own hands we expect when in our love we have once provided raiment for them they should put it on themselves or go without it thus candid are we towards the dying infants of all sorts nevertheless though we tell you of our charity towards them and of your own cruelty in sending all
so then if you had pleased but your blunt delivery of your selves here without any modification of your meaning makes it out as if you meant to fright the whole Countrey to baptize all their infants in all hast as ever they mean to have any hope they shall be saved besides if they be but doctrinally damned and not really by the denial of baptism to them the matter is so much the lesse for as they are not one straw the better whether living or dying in infancy if they have it so they cannot be as to salvation one straw the worse if they want it and die without it and then what need such thundring out of terror to the parents as if there were no way but one that is damnation to their dying infants out of hand if they do not see to the baptizing of them in infancy before they dye moreover if it be doctrinally to damn all infants to deny their right to baptism then how damnable is your doctrine to that innocent age who deny it to no lesse then 20 to one viz. all the dying infants of unbelievers but the best on t is though your doctrine is so desperate and ungodly as to declare nought but damnation to all such as the Pope doctrinally damnes i. e. all that are not born within the pale of the Church yet there is salvation enough for these infants as well as for the other in Christ Jesus whereby till they deserve exemption by actuall transgression they may be saved really though with you they are doctrinally damn'd and with us as well as you deny'd to have or so much as to have any right at all to baptism Thus Sirs I have done with your deep Disputation there remaining no more but a certain magisterial moderation or determination in which you are your own carvers taking upon you to manage it by the mouth of him whose onely arguments all these are in which piece of your Pamphlet I shall briefly take notice of some passages wherein you speak very fairly of your selves very fowly falsly and injuriously of your respondent very conrradictorily to what you said before very ignorantly of the word very impertinently as to the proof of faiths being in and baptisms belonging to those infants you plead for more then those you plead against and then come to consider your Review you speak as followeth Determination Since it hath been proved that little infants have the holy Ghost c. here let there be a recapitulation of the former arguments therefore baptism is not to be denied unto them Detection Doubting belike whether any stander by can find in his conscience to give so good a testimony as you afford and such ample approbation to your Arguments as you desire and they deserve not you ingrosse the dijudication of the disputation between yourselves and me into your own clutches and then claw your selves in the face of the world and bestow such commendatories upon your simple shuffles as if it were proved and put out of doubt thereby that believers infants have the spirit faith holinesse and such apparent right both to heaven and baptism as no creatures have in the world besides them but having shewed how shallowly fillily and slenderly you have argued all this above I decline detest and disclaim this your positive dijudication and make my appeal from the high Commission Chair of you Clergy men who for ages and generations have sate judges in your own cause unto the people whom you have ever mis-led by your blind guidance to judge between us among whom not they who have so long commended themselves as Orthodox will be approved at last but those whom the Lord commendeth Determination If any doubt be raised concerning particular infants the judgement of Charity will cast that out especially considering no other judgement can be past upon those that are Adulti Detection That the judgement of charity concerning faith the holy spirit and right to the kingdom can in infancy be past no more upon believers infants then upon all infants is told us so plainly by your selves that if you be not resolved that you will never learn any thing that is truth from your selves you must needs see it as well as we since you say p. 18. there is no discovery of the habit of faith but by the asts and none by the acts in any infants at all in infancy and that the spirit is neither bound to work it in all the children of Christians nor barred from working it in any children of infidelâ— and p. 5. that the judgement of charity must so pass that we are to presume well of all who by actuall sin have not barred themselves and deserved exemption and that there 's better ground to build a judgement of charity concerning faith and the spirit in adultis then infantibus viz. profession and visible manifestation by the fruits and acts and a better judgement then that of charity viz. of certainty is to be had of adult persons right to baptism we seeing them certainly to professe faith as infants cannot which whether they deceive us in that profession or no is clear ground to baptize them on this I have shewed so sufficiently above that there needs no more be said of it here Determination Our Respondent hath confessed that Ishmael who was that carnall seed of Abraham yet had right to the seal of the Gospel Covenant circumcision and that the spirituall seed and their children have under the Gospel as good right to the seal thereof which is baptism Detection O rare and base what again Sirs what again I professedly denyed baptism to be a seal at all witnesse my then disavowing the Scotchmans proceedings in the dispute of baptism under the term of initial seal I also denied circumcision to be the seal of the Gospel Covenant or that it was set to Ishmael under such a notion yea you your selves are my witnesses but three pages above that I said circumcision was a seal to Abraham only and not to his posterity and yet here again as well as before you turn false witnesses against me and will needs fasten this upon me for a farewell that I grant all for truth that your selves ignorantly assert in these particulars and not content therewith a matter more monstrous then all the rest you say I confess not only Abrahams spirituall seed themselves i. e. believers but their children also to have under the Gospel as good right to baptism as the seal of it as they the direct contrary to which is the Position I stood then to evince yea which I both then did do still and ever shall till you disprove it better than you have yet done maintain against you or else wherin do we differ Sirs you should have done well to have expressed your minds in plain right down English and then the scope sum and scum of them would have risen and appeared thus viz. we the Disputers and Scribes of the Ashford
be declined that as he who preaches it though an Angell from heaven is to be hâ—ld accursed so he that doth thereafter shall have no thank for his labor for in vain do they worship him that either teach or take for doctrines the traditions of men Secondly and further to prove it least Mr. Marshal and the Dr. should not grant Vossius that Tertullians denial is of the baptism of all infants even of believers as well as infidels I argue that more plainly First from the universallity of the expression of himself in his disswasion which extends to all manner of persons without exception for it may be thought he was somewhat soiled with that superstition which was rife in after ages viz. that baptism was best dispensed towards the end of a mans life that he might have a sign of the forgivnesse of all his sinnes at once whereupon Tertullian would not have unmarried persons baptized until temptation was over so far was as he from desiring such early dispensation of baptism as that to infants I say his perswasion to delay it extends to all manner of persons and therefore to the infants of believers as well as to other little ones Secondly his indefinit and indifferent expression of these little ones concerning which he speaks for saith he specially about little ones promiscuously including all excepting none as it had bin necessary for him to do if he would be understood to speak but of some and not of others for if Mr. Marshall should preach or write his opinion against the baptism of unbelievers children onely retaining to himself his present earnestnesse for the baptism of other little ones and deliver himself downrightly and indifinitely thus onely in way of dissawsion viz. I would not by any means have little one baptized I find no ground baptizare parvulos to baptize infants c. so running on and never distinguishing so as to say in that sermon or speech I mean onely infants of infidels I should not take him for so judicious a man as I yet hold him to be saving his holding so stiffly still for infant baptism Thirdly by the reason he gives why he would not have little ones baptized viz. least their sureties should be in hazzard of non-performance of their words by reason of their own death or their God childrens untowardnesse which danger may come as well by baptism of believers infants as of others As whose Sponsors whether fathers or mothers or God fathers and God-mothers may die before they grow up or if they live be frustrated of their ends by the wickednesse of these children or god-children also Fourthly in that he speaks of such children of whom the Lord said forbid them not to come unto me which in the Priesthoods own sense at least are believers children yea and them onely by which clause according to you he may seem to speak of them onely rather then of infidels childrens onely whom you your selves forbid to be brought to Christ at all Fiftly in that he saies let them become Christians when they know Christ belike then if your sense be true some Infants may be warrantably enough made Christians before they know Christ but some infants again may not at any hand be made Christians till they know Christ which if it were Tertullians meaning as t is yours he might mean honestly in it as you do but t is too mean an opinion to keep touch with the word which never knew any way but one wherein disciples and Christians were made i. e. of profest faith repentance and baptism after they knew Christ by the preaching of the Gospel Sixtly in that he saies we should be more wary then to commit Divine substance to them to whom earthly substance is not committed now we know that earthly substance can be no more wisely committed to infants of believers in their non age then to infants of infidels Seventhly by one end why he would have them be capable to beg salvation first viz. that God may seem to give it to them that ask it which end is destroyed if baptism be dispensed to believers infants in infancy for they can no more ask it then the infants of uâ—believers Eightly because he saies it behoves them indifinitely meaning all them that enter into baptism to pray and confesse sin c. which conditions are as exclusive of all infants as of some those of believers being no more capable to do that then infants of infidels are Ninethly what ever children he disswaded from the baptizing of here and so saith Mr. Marshall and Mr. Blake its most evident de facto that they were wont to be baptized then or else there had been no object of his diswasion therefore if his advice to delay to them were concerning infants of infidels then its evident that in Tertullians time t was the custome to baptize infidels infants as well as Christians and so if antiquity of infant baptism were an argument of its goodnes it s as good an argument of the goodness of baptizing infidels infants also which with you is well-nigh as bad as the other is good Babist True de facto we have evidence that the baptism of infidels infants then was but that fathers disswading from it is an argument that t was nought and though crept in yet a thing that was not so from the beginning Baptist. Then I hope if ever you come to be perswaded and it is a wonder that none of the reasons above be cogent that t was indeed from baptizing of any children at all that Tertullian diswaded we have an argument of your own for it that the baptism of any mens infants is naught also and a thing that was not so from the beginning and so if Mr. Marshall himself be not by this time sick of Tertullian I assure both him and on all that I am and of all the Fathers also with whom in this controversie I would not have meddled but that your Pamphlet flutters so so with naming the Fathers and takes iâ—â—ll that testimonies from the Fathers were not taken on the day of the Ashford disputation I say again I am sick of them not so much with fear at the sight of any thing in any of them that makes against us for I find nothing that hath the strength of a straw against our way throughout them all even these few Iunior inferior ones themselves that are most against us for the Seniors are more fully on our sides and some of the Iunior ones also as Basil and Chrisostome both in the fourth Century whose words as Mr Blakwood cites them p. 28 29. of his storm are thus viz. First he ought to believe and after to be sealed with baptism and if any one have not corrected the transgression of his manners and hath not made vertue easie to himself let him not be baptized Which words are exclusive of infants t is not therefore any disadvantage that comes by them to our cause which I am sick
the principle of reason and facultie of understanding in infants the faculty of understanding is an innate habit necessarily to be concluded and that in the highest degree to be in all infants t is in omni per se quâ ipsum but faith in Christ is by your own confession but an infused habit and by your own confession as not in all infants so in you know not which and which not till you see them act it and yet by your own conclusion to go round again t is in such not in such viz. not at all in Turks and Pagans infants for they are all in a damnable condition with you but in all infants of Christians even such as yet give no specimen of it and that so necessarily that a man may as truly deny that which is naturall to them even the faculty of understanding as deny the habit of faith to be in them Next in order to a fuller and more direct answer you prepare the way by a pannel of six or seven positions which you say you must necessarily hold concerning two or three of which we may say it s no great matter whether you hold them or no for any undoubted and infallible truth that is to be found in them in the sense wherein you take them or at least for any great matter of assistance that acrues to your cause by them and as for the rest of which you say you must necessarily hold them you might have said rather you must necessarily yield them to us for indeed they are the giving up of your cause and no other then the drawing of a dash with your own pen over all that ever you say throughout the residue of your works as concerning that sufficient appearance of faith you assert to be in believers infants yea he is blind that doth not see you thereby perfectly blotting out again what ever you penned in that particular with your own hands First say you the habit of faith must be before it can work I know no necessity of holding this for truth neither indeed would you hold it but that you imagine faith to be another kind of habit then it is for there are more kinds of habits then one though you speak of habit by the lump all along as if you were aware of but one for here 's ore and ore again habit habit habit habit habit but not the least hint of what kind of habit you mean you are never the men that distinguish of habits whereas qui bene distinguit bene docet there being some habits acquired and obtained no otherwise then by acting and faith it self is such a habit as will hardly be proved for all your confidence in the contrary to be any other at least to be apparent in any one or visible to the view of others till some act thereof hath past the persons in whom it is neither is any one in the world that I know of habitually a believer in Christ till having heard of him or his word he doth actually believe Secondly whereas you say the spirit of God infuses this habit I grant he infuses it if you take the word infuse in a true sense i. e. for begetting it in persons by the preaching of the word other infusion of faith if yet that may be properly called infusion which is a phrase rather of your own coining in this case the word knows none God indeed gives it but he gives it in the way of hearing the word of faith in the way of hearing Christ preached in which way he never gave it to infants neither is it his gift to them in any other the spirit works it but not without the use of means not per saltum and in nictu oculi i. e. so suddenly as you fancy but by the discharge of that office he bears from the father to that end and purpose towards the whole world i. e. moving striving perswading inwardly whilest the word doth without inlightning convincing a man of sin in himself of righteousness to be had and of a judgement to come wherein we shall be saved or damned according as we believe or believe not accept or neglect so great salvation upon which motions and convictions which are â—tricter and stronger in some then in other some some yield and believe and obey the Gospel and some for all this rebel and obey not so that t is true the spirit thus effects the business within us yet not so as that he is said wholly to do it without us he is the supreme efficient the operative cause of it but we are to be concurrent cum causà operante we have a part to do as well as he when he hath done his part towards us i. e. to believe which if we do not he will not force us he will go no further nor shall he be blamed but we and we not onely blamed but damnd for not doing it accordingly but if we do believe and turn at his reproof then indeed there is a promise of an infusion or rather effusion of the spirit in other i. e. those more special and peculiar offices of a witnesse to our spirits that we are Gods children a seal a comforter a revealer of the things freely given us of God a supporter under suffering c. all which it performes towards the Saints and in â—espect of which onely its called the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 in this manner the spirit of God in order to that sweet infusion of it self into us may be said if you will call it infusion for which a fitter word may be found to infâ—se i. e. to work faith other infuâ—ion of faith into men much lesse into iâ—fants or such a downright infusion as I suppose you dream on the Scripture makes no mention of at all Thirdly in that you say he is not bound to work it in all the children of Christian parents nor barred from working it in any of the children of infideâ—â— this indeed you must necessarily hold as you say for t is undeniable truth but in holding it you must wholly let go all you held before concerning believes infants appearing to have faith and that in contradistinction to the infants of unbelievers for first you use to say as p. 14. out of Act. 2. that the promise of it is to believers and their seed i. e. as believers seed and so consequently to all and onely their seed not the seed of unbelievers for quod convenit qua ipsum convenit omâ—â— soli semper belongs alwayes to all of one sort and not any man of another and thereby you use to bind the spirit unlesse he will bee unfaithfull to work faith as without which you think he cannot give them salvation in all the seed of believers for a promise that is made to such or such a seed qua si must needs be sure as the Scripture saith Romans 4.16 and made good or else God that cannot lie breaketh his word to
required Fourthly it had been stark non-sense for Mark to have said of Christ as he doth Mark. 1.9 he was baptized of Iohn in Iordan if he were not dipt or if by baptized we must understand sprinkled for he was sprinkled into the River is as absurd and unelegant English as to say he was dipt into the rain Secondly it was not by powring water upon them that Christ and the Eunuch were washed this is the baptism Mr. Baxter pretends to as that and that only which ever he saw dispensed in all his life as it were disclaiming the way of sprinkling which yet is your onely wonted way I believe he saw good cause to be ashamed of owning that any longer for baptism as many a one besides him is who with him puts it off thus that their baptism is not by the way of sprinkling but powring of water upon the infans for my part saith he p. 134. I may say as Mr. Blake that I never saw a child sprinkled but all that I have seen baptized had water powred on them and so were washed And Mr. Blake saies p. 4. of his answer to Mr. Blackwood that he never saw nor heard of any sprinkled O the egregious shifts and shuffling evasions of these men who perceiving the perverse practise of sprinkling infants summoned and sub paena'd to come to a trial by the word of God do disguise it out of its old name that it hath born with content and without controul for ages and generations and doth still among many of their own party till now they begin to see it more strictly then ever enquired after and likely to come into trouble for its transgression from Christs command and shroud it under another name whereby to secure it so that now they know not nor ever saw or heard of any such manner of thing done in all the world No Sirs what never that is strange what parts of Christendome have you lived or do you live in I profess for my part I have lived a Sprinkler of infants my self about some seven or eight years not only in several parishes but in several parts of our English Christendome far distant yet so far as I remember I did never see till I came acquainted with the people whom you nick name Anabaptists any thing done by any in that particular that might well bear any other name then that of sprinkling yea I know where a dispensation of baptism as t was called was done so slenderly once to the child of a noted Clergy man that the father himself was so far in doubt whether there was so much as sprinkling or any water at all dropt from the fingers of the Dispenser that he doubted a while after whether he do still or no I know not whether it were not his duty to have it done over again a little better the Gentleman I speak of if ever he read this will surely remember both what and what Child of his I mean Mean while what more then sprinkling was ever done by my self or any other in that place or any other wherever I have been I cannot call to mind neither do I know that ever till of late that men see advantage lost by it in this controversy the name of sprinkling was denyed to what was done in all places of England save such where the manner was and very newly is upon sight of the falsenesse of the way of sprinkling to dippe a little more then the tippe of their Noses Besides though the Rubrick did prescribe dipping as the onely right form wherin baptism is to be dispensed and in case of weakness declared it sufficient to pour water upon a child yet what kind of powring was universally used by them who never used dipping is evident by the Rubrick if we will give it leave to expound it self for in the Catechism thereof which is not unknown to Mr Blake and Mr. Baxter both to have been taught or commanded to be taught all children at any years in all parishes of England this question viz. what is the visible sign or form in baptism is thus resolved viz. water wherein the person baptized is dipped or SPRINKLED with it in the name c. So that howbeit the Bishops were pleased to use the word pouring water as you do yet a great piece of pouring it was I promise you that their Priests practised to infants and it is a chance whether Mr. Baxter and Mr. Blake have not in the infancy of their administration which I suppose was in the bishops reign done the like though now happily they make a little better measure or at least seen the like at some time or other but me thinks they cannot chuse but have heard of the like in one place of the world or other a poor piece of pouring I say when their hands onely being put into water were after held up perpendiculariter over the infants face that it might be wetted a little with what fell guitatim from their fingers ends And this hath been the most usual way that I have seen in respect of which I may say the Priest that administred all commonly by book and wiâ—hin book did act beside book and without book in that service for howbeit he was in joined to dip the child in the water as the most expedient way at least and not so much as to dispence by powring water unlesse in case of weaknesse onely yet he made bold having an inch given him to take an ell i. e. upon leave granted him to forbear dipping in time of weaknesse only to forbear dipping altogether and being authorized by the same Ghostly fathers the Bishops to make powring suffice instead of dipping at such time onely wherein dipping might not be safely used to make sprinkling serve instead of pouring also and in this manner I am perswaded the world was gulled by the Clergy in Cyprians daies and after who having the verdict of so grave a Father as Cyprian was that application of water in the bed might stand for baptism in time of sicknesse in case the sicknesse proved unto death for if they recovered even in his judgement they ought to be had to the River and dipt for ease sake to the flesh and such like self ends made some slender slabber to stand for baptism altogether And that sprinkling only hath been the general way of England its evident enough to any save such as seeing see not and have ears and hear not yea as shy as Mr. Blake and Mr. Baxter are of that name sprinkling as blind and deaf as they would make themselves in this case as though they never saw nor heard of any sprinkled yet there are Divines famous in their account who own it some of which seem to speak as if they never heard of such a thing as powring of water in the dispensation of baptism but only of dipping and sprinkling as the only forms that ever they had the hap to hear of witnesse besides
represent it yet so little is the quantity that you use not of water onely in the one but of bread and wine also in the other ordinarily nor so much as to take off the heart from the spiritual to the corporal thing content with all in my heart that it be not too much on this hand provided that it be not too litle one the other so but that it may reach to resemble the things signified for the whole vertue of baptism lying in signification per ablutionem i. e. per submersionem per sepelitionem in aquâ and the vertue of the supper much what in signification per recreationem per representationem plenitudinis non multum interest quantum quisque abluatur modo obruatur submergatur sepeliatur nec quantum quisque comedat modo comedendo repleatur To conclude Sirs you are too short in that point of the outward element in the supper as well as baptiâ—m in the Church of Corinth there was so much bread and wine that if some hungred others were drunken as neither of these should have been so the latter could not have been but that the use then was to have more abundance of the elements then you have in your parish passeovers wherein the people are past over with so poor a pittance that all may in likelihood be hungry enough but none at all very easily drunken such niggardly snips and sups not at Rome onely where the Priests expounding Christ as speaking to themselves when of the wine saying drink ye all this and not to the people saying drink ye all of this do impropriate the liquor wholly to themselves but in England also do the priests supp I should say dine for it is done at noon dayes with them their poor patient dependant people at the Lords table There 's one thing among Mr. Baxters bedrow which I had almost quite past over without any answer which if I had you would have said it is like I willingly forgat it Christ told Peter saith he that the washing of his feet was enough to clense all Mr. Blake gives us a touch here too through the persons of a popish party p. 10. of Peters mind saith he not to be washed in one part onely which say some from the same place also viz. Iohn 13.9.10 is as sufficient as the washof the whole As if that Scripture even therefore because it speaks of washing doth speak of this ordinance of baptism either it doth Sirs in your opinion or it doth not if not to what purpose do you quibble upon it here if you say it doth I much marvel why you think so but more if in earnest you argue from it that a man need be baptized but in part onely sith you all confesse practically that the face and head but not the feet are the subject of baptism yea verily you had as good have said Pilate took water and washed his hands before the multitude therefore the ordinance of baptism is no total dipping for the story of Christs washing Peters feet speaks no more of the ordinance of baptism then the other does yea it is most evident that the washing of the disciples feet was clear to another end and use viz. not to baptize them much lesse to shew how they should baptize others but meerly to teach them humility one toward another and to condescend to the lowest offices that could be for loves sake to each other this Christ expressed himself to be the direct meaning of what he did v. 12.13.14.15 c. after he had washed their feet he saies to them know you what I have done to you you call me Lord and master you say well so I am if I your Lord and Master have washed your feet you also ought to wash one anothers feet for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you this was Christs end therefore to learn them humility which was done as well in washing their feet onely as all the body yea the feet only indeed because the feet are the viler parts of the body for us to stoop to wash whereby to expresse our humility each to other in which respect and no other it is that when Peter yet ignorant â—o what Christ was about to do cryed out Lord my hands also and my head Christ replies that he that is washed i. e. not in Baptism but in this washing he was then about need not more i. e. ad rem substratam then to wash his feet but is clean every whit i. e. as much as he need be to this intent for which I now am washing you besides that the washing of the feet only is not a sufficient washing to denominate a man baptized according to Christs ordinance is evident by the Eunuch that went into the water and so was washed in his feet and yet not baptized for all that according to Christs will till Philip had baptiz'd or dipt him there it is a sign you are put hard to your shifts when you use such impertinencies to help you as these Rantist Impertinency I think all is impertenency with you still though never so solid that is brought in disproof of your idol dipping but what say you I trow to those two last unanswerable Arguments of Mr. Cook against totall dipping viz. that it is against both the sixth and seventh Argument both which Arguments Mr. Baxter also takes after him and â—angs you about with them a little better then Mr. Cook did and laces your sides so handsomely therewith that I believe you selves will be all sick of Mr. Baxter and your cause scarce be whole of those two Gashes he hath thereby given it salve it over as long as you will for he proves it plain that your plunging practise is no better then flat Murther and Adultery Baptist. I say these are knocking Arguments indeed if they be but as solid as they shew for but for all that let us see a little for our money before we part with it and hear what their Arguments are in words at length and not in figures if it chance to prove as you say they say and as they say indeed in this particular viz. that it is Murther and Adultery to dip as we do I assure you in the word of a Minister and a Christian that hopes to be saved in the way of innocency as well as your selves that dipping as it is no idol of mine for I adore it no otherwise then I ought to do every ordinance of our onely King Priest and Prophet Christ Jesus for his sake that ordained it so it shall never be adored so much as to be owned more by me but be abhorred rather with deeper detestation then I dispense it with affection to this houre but I believe that their proof will fall wondrous short of so high a charge as they venture to charge us with be pleased therefore since you mention it in gross to repeat their Arguments more at large
small businesse that does more then think his think to his own self of each particular odde conceit that is in it or that â—alkes to the world of it any more then in the general and in the lump In the lump therefore I say in the sincerity of my soul as in the sight of God I see not what to stile it more suitably to it self in short then a lump of Logical superfluity a systeme of Syllogistical simplicity wherein the man mannages his war like some fresh man that is newly metriculated into the faculty of Logicking in mood and figure that delights to hear himself syllogize out every syllable as he hath scribled it over afore hand and treasured it up in his papers so he comes out with a huge heap of hypotheticals arguing at a vast distance from the business of baptism and some times ex suppositis non supponen lis too as if he would fetch infant baptism from far sith t is so dark in Scripture as he confesses it is that he cannot have it nigh at hand proving more roundly then soundly in a great circumference of consequence upon consequence syllogism upon syllogism thus if this then that if this then that if this then that but this therefore that when not seldome neither this nor that is true but will you hear the conclusion of the whole matter it is this ma. If some infants be disciples and churchmembers and to be devoted to God therefore to be baptized mi. But so they are Therefore to be baptized To which besides the sequel of the Major which I shall shew to be utterly false I 'le prove the Minor false by the prosecution of this Syllogism If infants be neither disciples in any sense much lesse that in Mat. 28 nor church members of a Gospel Congregation nor are to be devoted to God in such a sense as the Jewish males then not to be baptized But so they are not Ergo not to be baptized As for his Mediums whereby he Argues infants to be disciples they are so frivolous and foolish that a very child may be ashamed of them The first which is taken out of Act. 15.10 is so abundantly declared to be absurd before that I need not clear it further and therefore I 'le say the lesse to it here he argues thus viz. Those i. e. all those on whom the false teachers would have put the yoke of circumcision were disciples But some of those on whom they would have layed that yoke were infants Ergo infants are disciples The Major of which is a foundation so â—alse and infirm that I stand amaz'd at it that a man of Logick should dare to lay it yet well nigh every one of you builders lay it as your basis from whence you divine a discipleship to infants and thereon build the businesse of their baptism as Doctor Featley Mr. Marshall and others yea who would think it inter scribendum while I am a writing this very line in Answer to Mr. Bax. there is a trifle brought to my hands oâ— a sheet and a half piping hot from the presse penned by Mr. Simpson of Marden son to that Mr. Simpson of Bethersden whose private letters I answered above stiled a soveraign preservative against Anabaptism in which there is nihil novi no newes at all for t is a furtive collection of some few fraggments out of other men viz. Mr. Blake the Ashfordian dispute and others which all are also more then enough enervated before whereupon I shall trouble my self no further then thus with that toy the author whereof in his epistle to the Anabaptists as he calls them about Marden tells strange stories of his being stormed on every side and almost tired out with onsets and oppositions from their private letters and among the rest he minds them how he had once to do with a host of them viz. September the tenth 1649. in which conflict my self who was more then an eye witnesse though much inferior to a worthy brother then in presence also viz. Mr. Blackwood and therefore far from arrogating to my self the title of Champion with which he smites me in his Margent can testify how uncivilly and shamefully the man stormed against the truth insomuch that unlesse he repent of the mad-blind hare-brained zeal he then expressed many if not most of that Auditory he then interrupted whether he remember them of it or no will surely never forget it while they live In which book I say as there is no new Argument so to be sure there is this old Argument as well as some more translated out of Mr. Bax. or some other whereby to prove infants discipleship p. 20. because the false Teachers would have put the yoak of circumcision on them But Sirs what though they would have put the yoak on the disciples necks will it therefore follow that they were all disciples on whose necks they would have put the yoake me thinks it should not if you look well about you any more then this viz. Augustus Caesar put the yoak of Tribute on all the Jewes i. e. taxed all the Jewes Ergo all they were Jewes whom Augustus taxed Nay verily had it been said they would have put the yoake of circumcision on all the disciples as it is not yet would it not have held Retro that therefore all those on whom they would have put the yoak were disciples but in very deed neither of those was true for as it was not all the disciples on whom they would have put that yoake for they did not teach that women should be circumcised so all were not disciples on whom they would have put that yoak for male infants not being capable to be taught cannot possibly be disciples at all much lesse such disciples as are meant in that place of whom it is most evident that they were taught verse 1. Much more might be said in disproof of this foolish fancy but that enough is spoken to it before yet this is the first Medium whereby Mr. Bax. bends himself to make it good that some infants are disciples and his other are as mean to the full as this he proves it next by a disjunctive thus If infants be not disciples it is either because they are uncapable so to be or else because God will not shew them such a mercy But neither of these can be the cause Ergo some infants are disciples To which I answer that t is not because God will not shew them so great a mercy for most undoubtedly the Lord shewes far greater mercie then that though not that to infants that dy in infancy for he saves them and gives unto them everlasting life and admits them into the Kingdome of Heaven and as for that bare simple notion outward account and denomination of disciples what extraordinary great mercy is that I wonder if it be abstracted from the other t is not so great a mercy but persons may have it and yet be damned for all
nominally yet not really Christians obeying the pure word of Christ would not endure sound doctrin but having itching ears that loved to be tickled not grated upon grew weary of the plaines of the Gospel saying to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophecy not prophecy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophecy deceits get ye out of the way turn aside out of the path cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us despising his word and rufusing to hear the Law of the Lord as they of old Isa. 30. then the Lord gave them their own hearts lusts and sent leanes withall into their souls granted them heapes upon heaps of such Cater-pillars as should dwel at their own doors and devoure their soules and delude them with Heresie and false divinations and as their pay for so doing should devour also the tenth of their labours nay the sixth in all parishes through the Nations he removed the candlestick out of his place and because they walked not in the light thereof whilst they had it let darkness come upon them he gave them Priests that should teach for hire and Prophets that should divine for money and say is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us Mic. 2.11 he gave them like people like Priest a people not willing to be taught and a Priesthood not able to teach he removed their truth-teachers into a corner so that their eyes should see no more such teachers nor their ears hear any voice behind them saying this is the way walk in it and so opened the flood gates for all manner of horrible Heresies to flow in upon them he powred upon them the spirit of deep sleep and closed their eyes the Prophets their Rulers their Seers he covered so that the vision of all became unto them as the words of a book sealed which if delivered to their learned men saying read this I pray they cannot for it is sealed if to their ignorant people saying read this they cannot for they are not learned t is for their Orthodox Divines and not for them to read and expound the Scripture forasmuch as the people drew neer to God with their mouth and with their lips did honour him with Gloria Patries c. but removed their hearts far from him and would have their fear towards him taught by the precepts of men therefore the Lord proceeded to do a marvellous work in all Christ'ndome yea a marvellous work a wonder for the wisdome of their wise men perisht and the understanding of their prudent men was hid and the Lord left them to do their works in the dark and to turn all things upside down and to put a bridle upon the jawes of the people and ride them from Ierusalem unto Babilon even to all manner of Heresie blindnesse and confusion for ages and generations together Lastly to provoke the Pastors to diligence and watchfulness to prove them whether they be hirelings or not such as will flie when the wolf comes or lay down their lives for the sheep therefore the Apostle Paul speaking specially of that very time wherein the insolency and obstinacy of Hereticks and Schismaticks should increase to such a height as not to indure sound doctrine but rather to turn from the truth and turn to fables and heap false teachers to themselves to tickle them up in their lusts preach down and act no patience but rather persecution toward those that preach up the truth in consideration thereof charges Timothy to whom he left the oversight of the Church at Ephesus in order to the making full proof of his ministry to stand to it then with so much the more diligence to preach the word and be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine to watch in all things indure the afflictions that should befal him from the hands of wolvish spirited men 2 Tim. 4.1 ad 8. And indeed this is that which should move the Pastors of the several congregations of Christ and such whom the holy spirit hath made Overseers of that little flock of his in these daies to take good heed both to themselves and all that flock for throw the negligence of the Pastors turning Hereticks yea wolves themselves in former dayes the sheep have been most miserably misled and rul'd over with force and cruelty and this will be a proof of their love to Christ above their lives if they shall give all diligence to the feeding of the sheep and lambs of Christ not flying for fear of men from that worthy work not forbearing nor shunning to deliver unto them the whole councel of God at this day though there be so many CCClergy men to croak against them for it And here let it be well noted that whether here or wherever throughout this discourse I dilate on the duty of the Pastors and put them on to performance of it I mean the Pastors of the Churches which are commonly called Anabaptists which are among the Nations as sheep among wolves as the lilly among thornes rent and torn for their Testimony to the Truth and not YYYou the PPPriesthood YYYou the PPPastoralty of the Parishes for verily he is blind that beholds you not to be no Pastors but rather Hâ—relings yea Wolves Persecutors then Pastors of the sheep of Christ yea even you Presbyterian Pastoralty as well as others Indeed you have the boldnesse to stile your selves the Ministers of Christ but you are wrapt up in a cloud of confusion and contradiction about the proof of your Pedigree as from him yea when its closely quaeried whence you came I mean as to your ministerial function and capacity seeing you cannot derive your ordination by a lineal succession from the Apostles otherwise some of you and I judge the most do not deny but that remotely you receive your orders from the Pope who as you say not as Pope but as Presbyter ordained those Bishops which not as Bishops but as Presbyters ordained you Presbyters though t will prove but Priests when all is done if the Antients among you consult the common-prayer book and form of your ordination a pretty series for the Ministers of Christ to descend in why Sirs are you not ashamed of this to cry out against the Pope as Antichrist and Rome as an Apostate strumpet and yet to hold all you have as a Ministry from and through these and that too since they Apostatized from the truth shall we think that all Christs ministers descend lineally from the loines of Antichrist ye are witnesses then against your selves that your Grand-father is the Pope and so that you descended one and the same way with those locusts even popish Priests Iesuites Monks and Friers and that you are no better born as to your being men in holy orders then the veriest Scoundrel among them that depends together with you upon that Hierachy Mr. Rutherford saies Diotrephes