to spare sentencing your cause as wrong by your personall defects and want of abilities but also in charity to couer the weakness of your Arguments which is such an unreasonable request as was scarce ever put forth before by any Disputants who if they find their Arguments to be weak ought rather to recant them specially after such publique acknowledgement of the weakness of them and to desire people that they would not suffer themselves to be swayed by them then otherwise But Sirs do you think in your consciences that there is such weakness in your Arguments as is here intimated to us in your own book and likewise that your cause which is so far from a good one that it deserves to bear the name of Abaddon is in danger of suffering so much through your defects in disputing it unless men be so charitable as to wink at the weaknesses of both I speak seriously in my mind you had then better by far have conceal'd then reveal'd your disputation in an Account and had provided much better for the honor of it for now you have vindicated it from the disgraces with which it was loaded in private like him that fetches a frisk out of the frying pan into the fire whilst you publish it in the same weakness onely robbing your Respondent of the strength of his Answers in which it discover'd it self at first and hang it out against the Sun so that all men may see clean through it so thin and thread-bare it is and that without spectacles and not onely so but make proclamation of the weakness of your Arguments with a petition to pardon the weakness of them that 's an ill bird which in hast bewraies his own nest and leaves it to others to make all clean and such are they that uncover their own nakedness so far when they need not that they are fain to be beholding to the benevolence of others to cover it and yet are so inexorable as to hold the cause of others inexcusable in the self same case wherein they are earnest to be excused by them for our cause is at a loss among you for the sake of what ere defects you spie in any persons that profess it But I believe you are not cordiall in your aâ—knowledgements here for if you were you would surely have endured your Respondents private representations of the weakness of your Arguments and your pedling in your proof of Infant-baptism with more patience then you did but its evident by your impatience towards him in that kind that what ere you say here of your selves in a voluntary humility yet you have so good an opinion of your selves and your work too that day that Tam nil as nothing as it here seems to be in your Account as well as ours you take it ill that any should esteem so poorly and speak so plainly though but privately of your trifling doings as you dispense with your selves to do here in publick before all the world and howbeit here 's weakness and defects and defects p. 3. overtly worded over by you in a general way yet it 's an hundred to one if a man take you at your word and yield to what you say as truth and say it ore after you that there 's much weakness in your Arguments and that there were many defects in your Disputation and your zeal of Infant-baptism is great and your abilities but mean to maintain it you will be half angry with him and think he casts scandals upon your disputation and be ready to gainsay all this and to stand up in vindication of your Arguments as strong and sufficient and lay all the defects that were in the disputation at your Respondents door and if you be askt what one individual particular Syllogism Term Argument or Scripture you were out in the framing uttering urging or underctanding of throughout the whole day of the disputation I am perswaded you will sooner bite your nayles then assign any or if it be specified by others that in this and that you were out you misunderstood such or such a Scripture such a speech or passage you faultred in I am afraid your pretended self-deniall will be found so little that you 'l justifie your selves in every bit and scrap of that which past from you during the whole discourse which makes your confessions deserve but little of that favour you so much implore by how much they savor of juggle and complement more then of a real true sense of what is wanting to you indeed which verily is a right-baptism to maintain rather then abilities to maintain that right-none that you stood up for nevertheless I must needs grant it to be true that you say here that your abilities were far short of your zeal yea so short that howbeit you had a good mind to do it yet you neither did nor could maintain it at all but wherefore was it but because you had a bad cause in hand yea had your zeal been as big as your cause was bad there had been no standing before you indeed the defects of your cause was the cause of your defects and not your own defects the cause of your causes had not the fault been more in your faith which was a false one then in your faculty to maintain things and had that and your baptism been as good as your parts are great and both these as probable as you capable to prove the meanest among you might have done more at the disputation then as it happend all of you did per vim unitam because though you fought with one who was no more then a flea in your ears yet you hapned to be fog'd so that you faced the wrong way and fell in unawares against the truth which in these daies of its return falls upon inquisitive consciences with more force from the mouth of fooles and babes then meer tradition doth from the wisest Babists in the world The deepest defect is in the cause you defend in the way you warrand t is a crooked cause an unwarrantable way and therefore those that will warrand mens walking in it can never do it without faultring and fumbling in the work and such after occasions of fawning on men for their charitable excusation Gentlemen that I may neither seem to defie nor yet to deifie your persons but put things upon a true Account you are men that have some worth and excellency and yet some weakness and exigency too but I impute your miscarriage in the disputation not half so much to your own as to your causes indigency your business was well man'd but ill manag'd because there was but an ill matter to be maintain'd you were at the wrong end of the staff and therefore well might you be defective in the strife this makes the least of the flock draw you great Leviathans out now adayes and the feeble to be as David before Goliahs that have been Polemically exercised from their youth
a tradition though more antient and reverent then some others as Mr. Rogers said of it and of which the church hath been posâ—est for 1500 years as Mr. Marshall a little more then he could undoubtedly prove too said of it is confest not onely by the Italian Clergy as Bellarmine who said it could not be proved by Scripture but as simply as our Clergy wrests the Scripture into the proof on t by the Remonstrants also who held it but as a very antient Rite that could scarcely be left off without great offence yea and Dr. Gouge also that would not be intreated to say ay or no to it at Dr. Chamberlains request now he sees people begin to pry into it did once acknowledge that it was a tradition of the church see Dr. Chamb. to Mr Bakewel p. 3. where he saies he hath under Mr. Barbers hand that he said so and used it as an argument to perswade him to take the oath ex officio And I desire all men to understand by these presents before whom we may happen to dispute this point hereafter that we declare against infant-sprinkling as a novelty in the faith and when we plead the dipping of believers as we are not in jest intending otiosam disputationem such idle dribling demi disputes and dainty dispatches as the Priesthood put us off with wherein he flams us i th mouth for an hour or two with the flap of a fox tail and lends us two or three licks of Latine and Logick and away again but a more serious earnest and constant course of conferring till the truth be tryed to the utmost so what we are so careful to contend for it is no new one but that old faith and baptism which was once delivered to the Saints this course of continued discourse though it suits not with such as seeing see not whose waies and courses are so much the more suspitious to be naught by how much the lesse they abide the light And a Modern Author whose Learning and Judgement lives in the Memories of many of our Kentish Clergy passed this sentence on it Pruritus disputandi scabies Ecclesiae yet I say is that the very life of the truth is so far concerned in that there 's very little of it comes to light in the CCClimate of the CCClergy by reason of their subtle sneaping things as much as may be out of sight that make against them I know the perverse disputings against the truth of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godlinesse that t is reformation enough to mend the means of Presbyters out of the Bishops superfluities is the scabb of the Church of England indeed but I speak not of the pravity but purity of the disputation when plain minded men destitute of all self ends are minded to be serious and self denying and single-hearted in this work in order to more then either money or meer dispute it self nor is it Pruritus disputandi an itching simply after dispute for who are we simple Coblers Cartars Smiths Fishermen Farmers c. to stand before the wise and the Scribe and the disputer of this world in that work if God had not rejected them and made his wisdome foolishnesse but it is pruritus disprobandi a deep desiring of disproving your practises as Popish dispelling your smoak of errors and endeavouring to the utmost of our power according to what you have sworn us to in that kind to root out not by the civil sword but the plainnesse of the word your superstition heresie Schism and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine that disposes us to desire it Indeed The Heathen said it was a wicked custome to dispute about the Gods for thereby things certain are oft called into question nor have they said thus without reason considering what little strength of Reason they had wherwith to assertain it that their Gods were Gods at all but me thinks it should not be counted therefore a wicked custome among true Christians that own the true God unless to put forth such curious questions about God as the Schoolmen do viz. An deus potius non fuisse whether God could have chosen whether he would have been God or no and such like fooleries to dispute about their God and about his worship for fear it should grow more doubtful by discussing and howbeit considering the strong causes that commonly stiffen and harden the CCClergy in their Heresies or the utmost of their ends in disputing and some of those sorry effects that ensue there is but little encouragement to that work of disputing with them yet sith truth can likely be no looser by comming to the light nor is diminisht but displayed the more by how much it is discussed I see no reason why it should be declined and why Heteticks are not to be disputed withall and here it cannot be amisse If we consider 1 the Causes 2 the deâ—ign of Hereticks 3 the Common effects of disputation with them Among the causes of the CCClergies Heresies may be reckoned Amor sui a conceit of themselves a fancied perfection and purity in them more then others Amor sui primum aedificavit civitatem diaboli saith St. Austin self love first set up the divels Kingdome Even that great City BBBabylon that in three PPParts reigns over the Kings and nations of the earth for though there were many superstitions grown in uppon the Christians before in the first three hundred years yet the pompous Kingdome of Priests had no foundation whereupon to rise so long as the Roman Empire remained Heathen for then the very Bishops of the Church of Rome whom the Devil hath since made his Vice-gerents in the world were persecuted to the death by the devil himself acting in the heathen Emperors in bloody butchery against Christians yea the Ministers went under miserable martyrdome as well as others and kept indifferent close to the truth but when once the Dragon who fought against Michael and his Angels with open rage before and acted against them under the very name of Christians by his Angells the heathen Emperors and massacred Millions of Christians when he saw the Emperor himself Constantine the Great turned Christian and resolved to vindicate Christs cause and rescue the Christians from their bloody sufferings and finding that Michael and his Angels did now prevail against him and his cruel Cutthroats so that place must be no more found for them in heaven i. e. the high places of power in the Empire and that he could execute his wrath now no longer by them against the saints as Christians a Christian being now come to the Crown he had no other remedy now then to play his cards about another way and turn Christian also himself that he might have the fairer advantage to crush the true Christians that kept the commands of God and the faith of Jesus under the new nicknames of Hereticks Schismaticks c. that
Christianismus Redivivus CHRISTNDOM Both un-christ'ned and new-christ'ned OR That good old way of Dipping and In-churching of Men and Women after Faith and Repentance professed commonly but not properly called Anabaptism vindicated by that two-edged Sword of the Spirit the Word of God from all kinde of Calumnies that are cast upon it and Cavils that are made against it by the Rantizers on the one hand and the Ranters on the other and proved to be the onely true Baptism and way of CHRIST In five or six several Systems containing a General Answer directed to No-body in particular In which Not onely A Publick Disputation for Infant-Baptism managed by many Ministers before thousands of People against this Author who was then Respondent A False Account extant under the name of A True Account whereof and their express Challenge to him to answer or give the cause gave good cause to him to undertake this Work is after a discovery of their True Account to be A true Counterfeit abundantly disproved and their own Review of their own Arguments over again Reviewed and refuted and their Talk about Toleration of Hereticks so Talk't with that Toleration of them though not by Ministers in true Churches yet by Magistrates in Civil States is manifested to be the minde of God But also Mr. Baxters Scripture proofs are proved Scriptureless and the chief Arguments of Dr. Holmes Dr. Featley Mr. Marshall Mr. Blake Mr. Cook Mr. Cotton and many more that plead it in print or private Letters are Enervated and indeed scarce Any-body that stands up for non-Baptizing and non-Churching or for that Parish-Practice of Sprinkling and In-churching Infants is left unanswered By Samuel Fisher M. A. and Pastor once of the Parish-Church but since of the true-Church of CHRIST which is at Lydde in the County of Kent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 2.38 8.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by Henry Hills and are to be sold by Francis Smith at his Shop in Flying Horse Court in Fleetstreet 1655. Postscript READER SInce the first Impression of this Book there is a Butter-fly flown abroad that makes a fearfull fluttering among its own favorites for Infant-sprinkling from the hands of one Mr. Reading with whom I once held a publick Dispute against it at Folston as is hinted to thee above in p. 231. p. 308. in my reading of which Work of Mr. Reading had I attained to satisfaction that our present way of Dipping Believers is the error and their way of Infant-sprinkling the truth thou shouldst have had my Recantation or had I seen it sending in any new supply of evidence not availing to my conviction in proof of theirs and disproof of ours thou might'st likely have seen from me some new supply of Relief or new Reply to such new Repulses but finding his to be but a new Book for the most part furtively collected out of many old ones already routed and that both in the Argumentative and Responsive part thereof as well that which relates more immediately to my self as that which relates to the cause I stand up in as managed by others there is Nil ferè dictum quod non fuit tam contradictum quà m dictum priùs wel nigh nothing spoken that was not both spoken and spoken to before by my self in this very Volume in so much that had he perused it as he had engagement and advantage enough to do it being extant in those parts where he lives almost a year before his own he might have seen his Book here answered before ere it appeared at the Press and have sav'd himself the charges of the Impression I resolved to supersede from any further medling with it as judging it frivolous to fight afresh with every old Argument and Answer that thrusts it self out onely in a new Harness Howbeit among other of his misrepresentations of my Arguments few or none of which are by him rightly represented I cannot but advertise thee of this as most notorious in that p. 154. of his Book whether in simplicity or subtilty I know not he suggests it unto thee for a truth that from this Proposition viz. the Parents to whom Peter spake Acts 2.39 were unbelievers then when he spake so to them I inferred this conclusion viz. that therefore the Gospel promise is not to believers and their children and so busies himself in beating the air and making good what none opposeth for our opinion is this which then also was my conclusion viz. that therefore the Gospel promise is made not onely to believers and their children but to unbelievers and their children also to whom it shall be made good too as in time to come they shall believe repent and be baptized Ex pede Herculem by this little thou mayst see the whole lump and how apt the man is to answer matters before he hath well heard them which for any man to do saith Solomon is follie and shame unto him And now since some know not what the meaning is of those three capital Letters viz. PPP CCC SSS c. with which the titleâ— given to the Clergy whether true or surreptitious are very often signed by me but especially in this later part of the Book above when I speak of the three kindes of Clergy-men altogether viz. Papal Prelatick and Presbyterian I signifie that this is to intimate unto thee how these three are the three PPParts of that great Citie BBBabylon which reigneth over the Kings and Kingdoms of the earth into which it stands divided before its fall Rev. 16.19 17.18 Moreover I do thee to wit that what thou findest in the last part of this Book distinguished by the old English Character is word for word the last part of that Paedobaptistical Piece which was put out about the Ashford Disputation which Reading abstract from the rest thou readest all that to a tittle on which this last part is but a Paraphrase to shew how the Ministers own good matter unmaskt is but a glass wherein if they be not blinde they may easily see their own ill manners and themselves who talk so much against Toleration of Hereticks and Schismaticks to be more Heretical and Schismatical than those they call so Finally desiring thee to help thy own understanding in the Reading of this Book in such places wherein the sense is clouded by reason of such defects as fell out in the Printing through male-correction of it at the Press by this ensuing Rule of Direction I commend thee to the Lord and Rest Thine in Him SAM FISHER Errata Epistle to the Reader p 4 l 15 r pugnandum Praescript p 2 l 24 r quid verbis p 3 l 21 dele if not p 6 l 10 dele as p 17 l 49 r when p 21 l 46 r possible they might ly p 23 l 30 r when he had p 41 l 4 after sprinkling r which it rather maiâ—s and suppress the true Baptism which premi c p 46 l 28 r the odd
for infant baptism from the several Housholds that are said to be baptized discovered and disproved p. 185. to 188. Old England Scotland New England concurring together by the ears about their infant-rantism 227. to 237. All those Eulogies or high commendations that are given to little infants in those Scriptures Mark 10.14 Mat. 19.14 Luke 18.16 cannot possibly prove them to have any right to baptism and the childish disputings of the Ashford disputers therefrom disproved also Dr. Holms's weak Arguings from Mark 10. for infant baptism and that Scripture opened and urg'd as a strong Argument against the Priests in that point p. 132. to 142. F Faith their apparent having of which is the first way whereby the Ashford Disputants would prove believers infants to have the Spirit not possible to be in any infants much lesse to be manifested to be in believers infants more then in those of unbelievers the childish disputings of the Ashford Disputers in proof of infants Believing from Matth. 18.6 from Faiths being and witnessed by their circumcision to be in the Jewes infants from their uncapablenesse to be justifyed and saved without it and from all other considerations whatsoever abundantly disproved p. 69. to 75.195 to 201.271 to 279. and their unreasonable repulses to such objections as themselves confesse Reason makes against infants faith on Reasons behalf replyed to p. 279. to 299. Not onely the primitive Fathers viz. F. Peter F. Paul F. Jude F. James F. John are all for us but the sub-primitive Fathers which the Ashford Disputers pretend they would fain have pleaded it from perhaps are more versed in then in the other discovered to be more against then for Infant baptism p. 214. to 226. H Imposition of Hands asserted unanimously by Paraeus Calvin Hophman Marlorat Bullinger Cotton and Dr. Holmes who cites these to be dispensed in antient time to baptized persons when at yeares in order to their admittance into church-fellowship p. 139. One undeniable Argument for the present use and practise of that doctrine of laying on of Hands on baptized believers before their admission into fellowship in the Church p. 492. in prosecution of which A Paper newly extant stiled Questions about laying on of Hands with the grounds thereof is answered p. 493. to 510. What Heresie and Schism is who is a Schismatical Hereâ—ick p. 524.525 the PPPriests proved to be the chief Hereticks and Schismaticks p. 526. to 528. the Churches of the Baptists clearing themselves from the crime of Heresie and Schism out of Calvins own mouth p. 529.530.531 Heresies Idolatry false worship 〈◊〉 to be tolerated in civil States the parable of the tares and Wheat Mat. 13. opened liberty of conscience in matters meerly of Religion proved and pleaded therefrom and by many other Arguments as the mind of Christ and the Higher Powers of the earth strictly summoned in the name of Christ as they will answer the contrary at their peril to cease acting according to the PPPriesthoods bloody Tenet of persecution for cause of conscience p. 532. sundry causes why God suffers Hereticks to be four great causes of the CCClergyes so great Heresie and erring from the truth viz. 1 Amor sui self conceit 2 dislike of their own places 3 Gloriae secularis Aucupium a desire to be Some body 4 Covetousnesse p. 590. to 608. Holinesse threefold 1 Morall none of this in infants p. 75. to 78. 2 Matrimoniall this in all infants as well as some save onely Bastards but proves not the holy Spirit to be in its subject nor gives any right to baptism yet this proved to by the Holiness onely meant in 1 Cor. 7.14 p. 78. to 85 3. Ceremoniall viz. that of the Jewes by nature that entitled them to circumcision commonly called Faederall by the Priests the common Topick whence they Analogically plead a Birth Holines in believers infants consequently their right to baptism proved abundantly to be abolished and the extream contradiction follies absurdities of Mr. Blakes Baby book stiled the Birth-priviâ—edge discovered p. 85 to 132. The Holinesse of the Iews seed confest by both Mr. Blake and Mr. Baxter to be the same whereby the Land City Temple were holy which being ceremonial and abolished the other must needs be so also p 114.115 The Babish disputings of the Ashâ—ord Disputers and of Mr. Baxter for infant baptism from the Hope or Hopelessnesse of their salvation according as we dispense or deny baptism to them discovered and disproved and grounds to hope the salvation of all dying infants whether baptized or no exhibited p. 189. to 193. also 442. to 462. I Innocency of infants no argument for their baptism but much rather for the contrary p. 77.78 As Ishmael and his seed was cast out of Abrahams house before Isaac so Isaac and his seed before Christ. Gal. 4.22 to the end and many other Scriptures illustrating that truth opened Johns Baptism why called Johns how differing from Christs and how it was Christs p. 478.479.480.401 M The National Ministry whether we consider their ordination or manners and many more matters no Ministry of Christs making but of the Popes p. 558. to 588. O The reasons ordinarily rendred against the use of baptism or any Ordinances at all refelled p. 476. to 491 509. to 522. P The Gospel Promise not made to believers seed as such nor to the meer fleshly seed of any man in the world Act. 2.39 which is made so much of by the Priests as of force to prove infant baptism opened and cleared to make against them p. 89. to 95.261 to 266. S Scripture up in armes against infant baptism as coted in proof of it out of Mr. Baxters own mouth 206.207.211.212 Of Sprinkling when and how it came instead of baptism p. 311. P. 311. line 27. for Fidus read Magnus Caetera tam nil sunt ut vix funt digna notatu Crimina Typographi parva remitte precor ANTI-DIABOLISM OR THE TRUE ACCOUNT A TRUE COUNTERFIT ANd now Sirs to say nothing of your pretty Preface till anon for even that also must then be forth coming to give Account of its dawbery and incongruity as well as your Account it self I will begin with your book which as diminutive as it is you have for all that stitcht up in no less than three Treatises First A Report of your Disputation Secondly A Review of your Arguments Thirdly A Ratiocination about Hereticks In all which how far forth you quit your selves like men of truth and reason comes now before the world to be examined The first I say is a Story of the long Disputation that was held at Ashford Iuly 27 1649. from noon till neer seven at night and it 's contained in the five first leaves whereof two whole ones at least but say so they had need are spent in your exact setting down of the Arguments and Answers and the rest in praevious and posteriour passages So that in this first part of your Pamphlet there are two things in generall
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
and that numberless crue of corrupt Clergy-men which by the advantage of that smoak of errors with which he darkened the Sun and the Air ascended from it will fall again for out of the bottomless pit those Locusts came and into the bottomless pit they must return Report Fourthly That I was a fool and an Ass and the weakest of many to defend the doctrine of Iesus Christ yet doubted not but to make it clear against every opponent to which your answer was that that which I said of my self out of a voluntary humility you the Ministers did acknowledge out of the sense of your wants Reply As to secular literature I did indeed acknowlege my self to be a Dunce and a Fool but as to your bringing me in here as branding my self with the name of Ass I must protest against it as one of those scandalous and false aspersions with many more of which this story of yours is stored in trial of which I appeal to a letter sent to me some few dayes after the Disputation from an eminent gentleman then of your party my answer whereunto you cavill at but care not for answering at all your selves wherein he writes thus to me as concerning this present passage viz. If any man should ask my opinion now notwithstanding your seeming modesty to term your self Dunce and fool I should be apt to conclude with the proverb that to me you did appear by much more knave than fool either therefore this gentlemans memory was better than yours or else your faculty of forging is greater than his and this is most likely of the two for though he reviles me through ignorance of what I am yet I think he spake plainly what he thought and repeated no more than what I spake of my self but you oportet mendacem esse memorem whether wittingly or no it concerns you to examine have most grosly falsified my words that you may fasten the fouler blemish upon my person this language you learn'd be like from Dr. Featly who very often al-to-be-asses the Anabaptists calling his argument from circumcision to Infant-baptism in respect of the Anabaptists Pontem Asinorum a bridge which these Asses could never pass over p. 40. also in his preface to the Reader wherein rating the russet Rabbies for preaching against the errors of the Priest-hood what quoth he are all the Prophets become mad that the Asses mouth must needs be open by miracle to reprove them nor doth he say so altogether without some reason for verily we were all once Ass-assinated so farre as most Christ'n creatures are still as to yield our selves up to be rid by Balaam the false Prophet i. e. Assemblies and Classes of the Clergy who love Tyâ—hes the wages of their unrighteousness and take toll of all people for deluding them till upon a time we saw the Angel of the Lord with his sword ready drawn in his hand to destroy him as he was riding us to defie Israel since when refusing to go with him any further though he smites us of Dumb Asses as we were before we are become the Lord opening our mouths a people speaking with mans voice and forbidding the madness of the Prophet Moreover I may well excuse your calling me Asse by craft whilst you condescend to call your selves unawares by the same name of Fools and Asses for do but mark what you here say of me and how you make it agree with your selves he said say you that he was a fool and an asse and that which he said of himself out of a voluntary humility the Ministers did acknowledge i. e. of themselves out of a sense of their wants fallere fallentem non est fraus Report You tell us furrher that you prayd the Congregation that sinee you were not the men appointed for the Disputation but onely undertook it that the truth might not be wholly deserted and the current of slanders which was likely to rush in against it might be somewhat interrupted by the seasonable interposing of your selves they would not suffer any defects of yours to prejudice the cause that it was the truth on your side did animate you to undertake it which you were ready to evince by the Arguments following leaving the success to God to whom onely it belonged to convince the understanding Reply Here 's much talk of the truth and the truth but the truth is your undertakings have been ever a deserting of the truth as it is in Iesus and causes of a current of slanders that rush in against it in every parish from the mouthes of your Priest-rid people who living under your constant out-cries of Heresie Schism and such like upon all that suits not with your covetous interest have learnt exactly to speak in your tongue as if they had been spit out of your mouthes as for your seasonable interposure it is by so much unseasonable as t' will prove succesless to your ends for though while the Clergies will was the worlds law their interposings did interrupt all arisings of truth yet now t is the time of the end wherein men wil run to and fro and you labor in the fire and weary your selves for very vanity to uphold your thred-bare traditions for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Report The sum of the Disputation held at Ashford in Kent Iuly 27. Reply Had these two brief businesses which you stile above the sum of my position and here the sum of the Disputation been stilled some of the position some of the Disputation or a little of one and a little of t'other you had bin in the right on 't for there 's scarce so much as some of either As for the Position you have dispos'd on 't out of the way and diminisht the Disputation into nothing almost in comparison of the true proportion of both Now as to this piece of business which you stile the sum of the Disputation I must talk with it two wayes and deal with it under this double notion First as t is a Relation of the then Disputation Secondly as t is your Disputation for Infant-baptism I shall shew the falsness of the one and the foolishness of the other and then come to review your Review your relation so you term it is most manifestly false if not as false a one as was ever pend or printed concerning such a matter since the Pope and his Priests perceiving their kingdom to decline by the breakings forth of truth from under their smothers began to be-lye its witnesses to this day I shall take notice of a few more of your figments and two or three passages in the Disputation which passed by the memories of you Accountants least by telling the whole truth you should shame the devil and your selves which may suffice to prove a disproportion between your Tattale and its Title of true Account and so leave it to the unprejudic'd auditors of our Discourse and
are here and there upon thee and thou knowst it not Report And this opposition of Anabaptism hath been since done say you accordingly Reply And 't were enough to make a man think though I say it not that 't was done even immediately considering what a Tom-boyes trick was serv'd us so soon after whilst we were preaching besides the steeple upon a Tombstone which that it grieve you not know Christ preacht in a ship on the shore on a mountain in the Synagogues in houses even any where where people were willing to stay and hear and so may his Ministers too for ought I know for while you were scratching and clawing one another at your Inr we teaching and convincing each other in the Outer Court for there was no room for Christ in the Inner Temple we were curst most bitterly with bell though neither with book nor candle yea there a rose who knows not whence for sure 't was either from you and your party or you in your party or you without your party or at least your party without you such a hot dispute of bim-bom-bell which put us to such a non-plus that least we should perdere in contentione vocem we were fain to give over and be gone and were utterly Routed in the skirmish tell we could well Raylly together in another place So here 's the upshot of the business of that Disputation of which somewhat more might yet be written had my business been to give Account and not rather to take Account of your Account on 't but this is written that people may believe your true Account to be a true Counterfeit and believing it may know the better how to trust you another time One word more yet to the Disputers and Scribes OF THE ASHFORD DISPUTATION OR AN EPILOGETICAL POSTSCRIPT ON THEIR APOLOGETICAL PREFACE Pre. THere was never any Intent this Disputation following should have appeared in publick c. Post. Like enough so Sirs for the first appearance or deliverie of it self in publique by word of mouth was with so little credit to your cause that it might very easily be as ashamed to shew its face in print as the Scribes that penn'd it seem'd to be to shew their names And doubtless so it would have been but that it came disguis'd And yet even this false face whereby you have made it shew fairer by farr on one side I mean your own then at first it did is so black so blind so full of blurres and blemishes that it cannot chuse when it comes to review it self the second time but color red and blush at its own blindnesses if it be not Brazen Pre. But that like Jonas's Gourd it should have died as suddenly as it grew c. Post. Like Ionas's Gourd indeed for Ionas-like O that you were as like him in his best as you are too like him in the basest of his behavior you run away from God O ye Priests and refuse to preach the preaching that he bids you whereupon a mighty tempest is upon you and upon the waters whereon you ride i. e. the tongues nations multitudes and peoples so that they are troubled for your sakes and upon the Earth it self which is as it were the Ship in the bowells of which you have imbarqued your selves ever since your fall from heaven thither in the loins of your Father Abaddon Revel 9.1 So that it reels to and fro like a Drunkard is moved exceedingly like to be split in pieces clean dissolved utterly devoured with a curse for your sinns principally O yee Priests who have trangressed the Laws of Christ the only Lord and Law-giver changed his Ordinances broken the everlasting covenant neither will the sea of the whole world cease to roar about you and be outragious till the lot fall upon you as it did on Ionas to be cast forth though the Ship-Masters row never so hard to have you spared nor till the Tempestuous waves on which you seek still to swim aloft have over-whelm'd you so on every side that you be fain to cry Alas out of the belly of hell But Alas though the ship rock and is ready to suffer ship-wrack yet as if they had made a Covenant with death and with hell were at at an agreement So rockt asleep is Ionas so sluggish are our Renegado Prophets that they yet discern not the mystery of the things that are upon them but are stark sensless of the stirs that are about them and of the storms which themselves are most concern'd in And what the Gourd was to Ionas in his heat even such is this Disputation also to your cause of Infant-baptism viz. as short as sleight a shelter a shadow for there 's no substance in 't under which you have rejoyced a while and receiv'd some thin refreshment and defence against the heat of that truth with which you were a while tormented But God hath prepared a silly worm to smite the Gourd so that though it blossom like a Rose and flourisheth as a chief flower among your followers for a time yet it will die even as suddenly as it grew so that leaving you to your Evensong to the Tune of or like the Gourd that Jonas had men will begin to sing mattens ere-long saying Their Rose withers Their Blossom blasteth Their Flower fades The morning hasteth Their mourning hasteth Their Sun Sets Their shadow flies Their Gourd consumes The Darling dyes Their sprinkling dyes Pre. The truth is the disgraces that the Adversaries in private have loaded it withall have rak't it out of those ashes c. Post. For your Respondent whom you mainly mean here witness these words of yours to me viz. Sir These short Collections of the Ashford disputation had slept long enough if your own private letters had not awakned them by a too much sleighting your opponents and their Arguments not without a just occasion from a friend of yours presented in a letter called a spade a spade and represented your Doo back again in no worse wise then it deserved Asserting that your pleading of Infant-sprinkling from that non-entity of Infant-believing was shamefull and childish pedling and that the miserable rawness and rudeness of some then and there ingag'd in Syllogisticall dispute did â—avor as little of the Scholar as that of the Christian all which and what more is there related was no other then the Truth when I pen'd it and I find nothing to the contrary yet in your Account Howbeit 't was so disgracefull and loadsome that you Disputers immediately became Scribes and posted out a piece of Print on a sleeveles errand i. e. the Recovery of your Retrograde Repute being afraid not more â—hen hurt that if this man of war do not what is not to be done maintain your Infant-sprinkling which premi haud suprimi potest the more you tread the more you spread your credit may grow so crazy upon 't as to die indeed as indeed it doth and that daily for as
disputation having more mind that victory then verity should befal us and having fiâ—st given and granted to our selves the priestly prerogative of being sole judges and determiners of that daies disputation between us and our respondent do thereupon determine and by these our letters pattents give and grant the cause and the day to be wholly ours and least it should be hardly confessed and yielded to by fair means we will have it by fowle and wrest it from our Respondent as fully granted by him though we know it was not and take it from him pro confesso by force even by forged cavillation and false accusation and therfore know all men by these presents that though it be most expresly denied by our Respondent that infants of believers have right to be baptized yet it is most expresly confessed by him that infants of believers have good right to be baptized had you said thus well indeed might the world have cryed shame on it more then now but in effect it had been but the proper paraphrase of what you have more closely and covertly presented it with in this place Wherefore Sirs I do you and the world to wit once more to prevent any ones being charmed into a misbelief of me by your juggles how little I concur with you in these things and to say no more then what I have shewed above viz. First That baptism is no seal at all of the Covenant of Grace but a sign of it onely Secondly that believers infants have no right at all to be signed with it in infancy Thirdly That circumcision was no seal of the Gospel covenant but a sign only or token between God and Israel of the old Covenant concerning the Land of Canaan and some other particular peâ—sonal promises and priviledges pertaining to that people though it was a type of Circumcision in the heart where with Abrahams spiritual seed are circumcised and thereby inrighted to the heavenly inheritance Fourthly that it was no seal at all to any but Abrahams person and that in another sense then the word seal is accepted in with you Fiftly that it was dispensed to Ishmael under no such notion as a seal of the Gospel covenant but meerly as he was a male of Abrahams house on which account it was set to every male born in his house or bought with his money though visibly an heir to neither the earthly nor the heavenly Canaan as wicked servants were not and no doubt to his Sons by Keturah also as well as to Ishmael though both he and they before known to Abraham to be no heires of that covenant of circumcision which God gave him in Gen. 17. and told him that he would establish that with Isaac only Gen. 17.19.21 Determination It is further added for satisfaction how children have faith viz. in Semine radice munere habitu actu primo not in fructu folio usu actu secundo in a word they have the habit and the seed not ths exercise and fruit of it Detection You asserted above p. 3. from Mat 18.6 that little ones do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere believe in Christ which phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to believe to drink to eat to read to teach to hear c. do ever expresse productionem potentiae in actum not simply the habit facultie gift inclination power seed c. but the very second act the use the fruit the putting forth of these faculties into their several acts and exercises this as all well studied Schollars know so your selves cannot but acknowledge that to believe is not only to have faith but to act faith and it cannot properly be said of any that they do believe but such as quoad nos do so indeed As for such as are onely in potentià ad fidem though proximâ and sâ—ch as are in capacity to believe and do not they cannot be said by wisemen to believe for then all men may be said to believe who have facultatem munus credendi as well as intelligendi ratiocinandi Eligendi c. though they never do it I appeal therefore to your own consciences whether your saying that infants do believe and yet cannot act nor shew that faith by any fruit of it hath not in it plus Idiotae quam Idiomatis and be not as palpable a contradiction as can fall from mens tongues or pens Determination Their not declaring of it themselves can no more conclude against infants faith then against their reasonable soul. Detection The Reasonable soul is in them universally essentially in the highest degree necessarily and praedicable concerning them de omni per se qua sic as being de esse constitutive for Animarationalis est forma hominis quae dat esse the very essential form of mankind so that he can as easily cease to be as to be without it therefore there can be no conclusion against that in any infants sith they are no longer then while they have it but faith in Christ is according to your selves Habiâ—us ad placitum a deo infufus only not innatus and is in them neither qua sic nor essentially nor universally in all nay but in a few infants by your own confession and you know not which neither for though you do altum sapere so far sometimes as to conclude it is in infants of believers yet you do insipere fo far sometimes as to undote that again and say the spirit is neither bound nor barred in his working of it in these or those so that till they are at yeares there ean be no conclusion made p. 18. therefore me thinks you should blush at this illiterate and indigested assertion viz. that there can be no more concluding against the being of faith in them then their having reasonable souls Secondly if from their non declaring it there can be no more concluding against their having faith then against their reasonable souls then there is no more concluding against the being of faith in one infant more then its being in another or against its being in unbelievers infants than in those of believers for the reasonable soul is in all even in the infants of unbelievers as well as of believers Secondly if their non-declaring it be no ground to conclude against their having faith yet I am sure it is ground enough to bar you from concluding that they have it specially that this infant hath it more then that for though you confess there can be no conclusion made till you see the fruits of their faith yet that is the bold conclusion you undertake to make Fourthly whether we can upon its non appearance conclude against their having faith yea or no yet upon its non appearance we may boldly conclude against their baptism and admittance into the visible Church here on earth into which not an invisible habit of faith gives right but an outward appearance and profession
walking shall live or dy and not at all of the way wherein he saves or damnes dying infants for that stands still by good reason from Scripture that they being uncapable to do what on mans part is required to life i. e. to act belief unless wee l hold they are all damned dying in nonage as you pittiful merciless men hold that 20 to one are but we bloody Baptists that none at all are we must hold them to be excused from the terms of believing and presented righteous before the Father by the righteousness of Christ without faith and therefore though I see I shall meet with this argument again in your Review where I le talke with it a little more yet I le conclude here just contrarily to what you conclude with viz. that the tenet of no justification nor salvation for dying infants by the righteousness of Christ without faith in their own persons is a meer figment of the Arch-Anti-baptists i. e. the Priests without ground and reason from Scripture whereby as by â—ome shew of reason to flatter men on to a continuance in that false way of bringing infants to be sprinkled that so their Kingdome and priesthood many continue to spread its black wings over whole provinces and parishes at once and to submit them to their arbitrary jurisdiction as well a ware that it can stand no longer then the other for once give over christening the whole parish infancy and then farewell that parish posture which the Pope set up in all Christendome some 600 years ago yea then down falls the parochial-Church-steeple-house Priest-hood pay and all Amen so be it THE SECOND PART OF ANTI-BABISME OR A REVIEW OF THEIR REVIEW I Come now to take notice of the second piece of your Pamphleâ— a thing made up of several sorts of matter and trickt together into one slender Tractate and entituled A Review of the Arguments used in the Disputation my Animadversion of which I answerably stile a Re-Review or Review of your Review In which Review of yours I find some things said and disputed over again which are before disputed in the Disputation somethings as it were unsaid and undisputed ore again which are disputed before in the Disputation and somthings viz. here a little and there a little disputed which the Disputation disputes not before at all So that the business if you view it one way stands ternal i. e. brancht out into 3 heads barking all like those of Cerberus against the light but if you review and behold it another way it seems to stand Quaternall or quartered out into four heads acting all in their several turns against the truth viz. First A Preaamble or March towards the battle p. 11 12. Secondly An Onset or charge given by a Forlorn hope of three worthies or choice Arguments whereof the first is a freshman that was not in the last dispute the two last old Souldiers that are bold to facâ— about and fight us again though wounded well-nigh to death in the last battel p. 12.13.14.16 Thirdly A very hot dispute or Reply against Reason and its forces storming your strong hold of infant-baptism or an earnest encounter with such objections as Reason saie you makes against it all which you make a puff at and attempt to vanquish in seven or eight several repulâ—es p. 16.17.18.19 Fourthly A Bugbear bringing up the Rear of the battel horribly dressed and horned with seven horns all pushing and poking against the truth on purpose to to fright men from being baptized and make such as are ready to turn to the truth to tremble and forsake its tents alias a warning or Morter-piece charged with a number of small shot viz. the horrid sins this wretched errour of the Anabaptists alias thaâ— odious error of owning the truth involves men in that more hits then hurts them that have the spiritual armour on presented and discharged to scare the Christian Souldier i. e. the Christian Reader if possible out of his Christian wits and senses Thus does this Squadron of militarie matter made and raised in defence of Infant-baptism divide it self and play its part against which notwithstanding we shall God willing adventure forth in the strength of Christ give battel to it and to each part of it successively as it lies in order Review There might innumerable Arguments be brought both from Scripture and Reason for the confirming of the practise of the Church of God from the beginning whose authority alone if it were of any esteem with the adversaries thereof were enough to have silenced these disputes at least to have laid the itch and quenched the heat of them in baptizing the children of believing parents but as the hast of the Disputation did forbid the Ministers then to be so thoroughly provided with them modesty doth now to insert them here Therefore the Christian Reader is desired to peruse Calvins Institutions Ursins Catechism and Dr. Featley's Book upon this subject where he shall be thorowly furnished Besides that opinion of Ovid Etsi non prosint singula multa juvant What ever it may carry of credit in other causses ought to have but little in this where we trust not in multitude nor measure by number but substance and weight of Arguments are the foundation of our faith the other are for pomp and victory these onely for satifaction and verity Whosoever thou art that desirest to be grounded in the Truth examine diligently and understand these three arguments following which are but the same reviewed that were used in the disputation and thou shalt be able being confirmed thy self thorough the grace of God to strengthen thy brethren whose faith is every where assaulted in these miserable dates by the watchfulness and cunning insinuation of the adversary nor are these three commended unto thee as if among David's Worthies they were the first three the composer of them arrogates no such thing to them thou shalt find many both better appointed and more strongly armed and which go forth in strength of those that fight the battels of the Lord among the Worthies of Israel these were never intended but as a forlorn-hope yet till the adversary shall have worsted them thou shalt not need to desire fresh supplies Re-Review This first part or Praeambulary approach to the battel gives big words but no blowes it only vapours and vaunts carries the colours and â—lourishes them advancing with a company of broad bragges of what Innumerable forces your cause hath at command from Scriptures and from Reason and from Churches practise and authority and from Authors of Renown Calvin Vrsin Dr. Featley whereby fearing least they should forgo it upon sight of your own apparent slenderness and that unthorough provision your Disputation presented in proof thereof to flatter your followers First into a false faith of more full and thorough furniture comming in from all quarters toward its defence and so to a secure continuance in your crazy cause and to keep close still to the
adversaries are put to their shifts to finde out a new way for the salvation of infants dying in their minority viz. The presentment of the satisfaction of Christ without faith otherwise they conclude they could not be saved which invention of theirs destroies the Gospel covenant which is the righteousnesse of faith and either damns innumerable innocents whose right to the kingdom of heaven our Saviour hath declared or grounds their salvation upon a figment of their own brains such as the Scriptures are wholly silent in and the Churches of God never dreamed of They alleadge two texts for their proof Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of one the free-gift came upon all men unto justification of life Rom. 11.7 Election hath obtained it of which two texts the latter is nothing for them for it excludes not justification for the Apoctle saith plainly Rom. 8.30 Those whom he predestinated he justified and though the elect onely shall be saved yet justification goes between The former is directly against them for it expressely mentions justification of life so that the Anabaptists must either prove that justification is not to go before salvation and so pull in pieces the golden chain by taking out the link Rom. 8.38 or else that justification is not by faith and so destroy the Covenant of the Gospel till when they justly deserve the censure of damning all infants dying contrary to evident testimony of Scriptures and the sentence of our Saviour that to them belongeth the kingdeme of heaven And whosoever shall consider the impertinences of their proofs in a cause of so great consequence shall have just cause to suspect all their other doctrines and take heed how to take any thing upon trust from these new masters Re-Review Here is an argument hath neither head nor tail in it able to hurt for both have bin bruised already we having had to do with them before the one in the front the other in the rear of the disputation therefore no need to fear it yet sith it turns about again and Reviews us hisses in ouâ— faces and makes such a flutter as if it would both bite and sting us to death I shall secure it a little further how ever The head of the argument is this syllogism viz. Such as have the holy spirit and faith are the subjects of baptism but children have so The first proposition whereof you say the Anabaptists will not deny but I tell you what the Anabaptists will do I know not because if there be such a people in the world yet I never was so privy to their principles and practises as Dr. Featley and his fellows pretend to be who paints them out and presents them to the world in his title page as dipping naked and daily But in the name of 100s of them you commonly and abusively call so I mean the truest baptists that are in England I le be so bold as to deny it to be true without more for t is not the inward unseen seeds of grace and faith nor that invisible having of these which is the uâ—most you dare or do affirm concerning infants but the visible having thereof so that we see they have them by the fruits effects acts opperations and professions that quoad nos makes a subject for baptism as for what is within it is nothing to us we are strangers to it neither can or may we intermeddle therewith till it shews it self without secret things belong to God onely and things revealed onely to us and therefore for your blind brazen faced minor wherein you positively affirm here again that children not specifying what children nor whose whether of believers or unbelievers nor both nor if of believers onely whether all or onely some of them have the spirit and faith I shall be as bold to deny it ever till they give some better specimen of it then the best infant that ever you or I saw did in that nonage wherein you sprinkle them specially so long as to the stark spoiling utter unsaying and clear contradicting of whatever your own selves would prove it by you are fain to confesse page 16. That all have them not and p. 18. Which have and which have nâ—â— the spirit being no more bound to believers infants then others and no more bar'd from working in unbelievers infants than believers cannot be certainly presumed and that whatever the spirit may work in children yet this is not known to us so that there can be no conclusion made And howbeit this Argument being by your own concession thus crushed in the head i. e. this Prosyllogism turns about with his tail and thrusts at us therewith I mean this ensuing Syllogism viz. No Iustification nor salvation to them that have not faith But justification and salvation is to infants Ergo infants have faith Yet I return thus to your Major viz. that though there is no justification nor salvation without faith of such as are capable to believe and of whom to believe it is required yet of such as neither are capable nor called on to believe in order thereunto there may be and is a justification and salvation without it and this is the case of all dying infants in the world the presentment of the satisfaction of Christ without faith and without obedience also in any thing else both which are in ordine ad vitam injoined to adult ones doth save dying infants or else innumerable of those infants are damned neither is this any new way for the salvation of infants dying in minority nor a grounding their salvation upon a sigment and invention of our own braines nor such as the Scripture is altogether silent in nor such as destroyes the Gospel Covenant which is the righteousness of faith for howbeit it is true that the Scripture runs on this wise saying The just shall live by faith he that believes shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned and to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly his faith shall be accounted unto him for righteousnesse and twenty more such like expressions of the Gospel Covenant Rom. 1. Rom. 3. Iohn 3. c. as that which gives righteousnesse and life by faith only without the works of the Law yet I beseech you set your wits on work and see whether these Scriptures were written of infants or to them either or whether only of and to mens at years only to shew unto them on what terms the Lord will accept and save them in the Covenant and promise of the Gospel Me thinks your own reason should dictate thus much that all those places speak no more of infants then they speak to them in minority and that you will assuredly yield that they do not yea you may as well say these places viz. T is a people that have no vnderstanding therefore he that made them will not save them and he
ours therefore I shall not trouble my self with it but the first of them which you say is so directly against us t is because you are blind if you do not perceive it to be an express downright declaration of a general justification of all from Adams sin as to life i. e. a resurrection from that bodily death which that sin brought upon all mankind and from which as there is now a universal return of every individual by Christ so there had never bin any returning for any one man in the world but by Christ to all eternity world without end 1 Cor. 15.21.22 Yea as universally as that judgement or condemnation to that first death came by Adam upon all men so that it spreads its black wings upon them all and brings them all down to the dust from whence they came so universally is justification unto life i. e the benefit and resurrection from that death from which else no one man should ever have risen come by Christ upon all men really and truly and not onely so but a capacity also and possibility of eternal happinesse and well being after that resurrection and all this whether persons believe it yea or no yea and a promise and certainty of it in case of belief in this Christ otherwise indeed a losse of the Resurrections becoming a mercy and benefit to them and a lyablenesse even after that escape of the first death that came by the first Adam to a sorer even that second death that lake of fire which by the second Adam by whom comes eternal blessednesse on believers comes upon all unbelievers and that for ever So that if there be no salvation to infants without justification yet ther 's justification of infants without faith or baptism either And whereas you argue from the cart to the horse from the justification and salvation of infants to their faith I argue from their non capacity to believe to their justification and salvation without it no salvation or justification without faith say you but infants are justified and saved therefore they believe if no justification and salvation without faith say I infants who cannot believe can neither be justified nor saved but infants so farre as they need justification for they have no sins of their own are justified and saved also for the kingdome of heaven belongs to them therefore there is justification and salvation for infants without faith To conclude therefore this opinion of you adversaries to the truth which allows no salvation to infants without faith puts you miserably to your shifts viz. either to find out a new way of coming by faith which Paul saies comes onely by hearing or else to damn innumerable dying infants who whilest they lived were uncapable to hear the word preached and so to believe or else as you do p. 18. to dream out a new kind of hearing whereby infants come by their faith viz. an inward wonderful miraculous hearing of some voice of the spirit within such a sigment of your own brains as the Scripture is wholly silent in and no true Church of God nor rational man but your selves who dream dreams and divine â—alse divinations and things of nought deceits of your own heart and tell them to the deceiving of others did ever dream of and whosoever shall consider the impertinencies of your proofs in a cause of so great consequence shall have just cause to suspect all your other doctrines and to take heed how they take any thing any more upon trust as the whole world hath done now of old from these new masters the Clergy who instead of being ministers in truth or servi servorum dei have bin domini dominorum Lords over the heritage and over the faith of all civil powers and people teaching them instead of the true doctrine of the old ministers the traditions and commandements of men And so I have done both with the head of this third argument and with that long tail also that trails after there remains no more of it to be meddled with but a certain slender sting that sticks to this tail put forth against us with more length then strength in prosecution of the argument which I shall cut out into many pieces and after set upon each section severally and then I hope your great hope of help from these three unworthies will prove a forlorn hope indeed Review But to prosecute this Argument for the full satisfaction of the simple but honest Reader since there is no way to come to salvation but by justification and no justificatnon but by faith why should it be doubted by any but little infants which are ordained to salvation are also by faith made subjects of justification those soules which please God so well as they are to see him presently after their separation from the body why should they not be capable of faith without which the Apostle saith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Re-Review The Reader had need be honest for I dare say he will be simple enough that receives full satisfaction your way by your present prosecutions of it because there 's no way for salvation and justification for men that are actual sinners and capable to believe and to whom justification and remission is preached to the end that they might believe it to their comfort is there therefore no other way wherby God willing and ordaining to save little infants from eternal wrath can possibly or doth certainly save them that can neither sin or be preacht to nor believe but that very self same way of believing is he tied to that means to save infants by as we are tied to it in order to the saving of our selves viz. the way of faith if so why not to repentance and self denial also for both these are the way to us Act. 2.38.40 Mat. 16.24 and would it not shift a man out of his seven sences to hear such doctrine that infants as ever they will be saved dying infants must even in their infancy repent is it not manifold more suitable to reason and sense of Scripture that as infants so far as they are guilty become guilty unwittingly to themselves by the presentment and imputation of the first Adams sin without personal disobedience in themselves so also should be justified from that imputed sin by the presentment of the satisfaction and imputation of the righteousness of the second Adam as unwittingly to and without personal obedience in themselves and because without faith t is impossible to please God for such as have actually incurred his wrath such as come to him by prayer for these indeed must believe that is God and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ther fore is it impossible for infants also who yet actually disspensed him nor yet are capable to come to him by belief or prayer Is that Scripture think you intended to infants for shame scope the Scripture a little better Review Is it not the
out of the City by a Rivers side and there sate down and spake to as many as resorted thither to hear viz. certain women for men for the most part were more shy of the Gospel as now they are that they might conveniently dispense baptism to them as should imbrace the Gospel as a certain woman named Lidya and her houshold did and thereupon out of hand were all baptized Act. 16.12 c. Rantist Their baptizing where there was much water for this reason that they might do the work so effectually to every person as by dipping is a frivolous conjecture as if there could be no reason why Iohn should chose a place where many waters were but that he might dipp the whole man in the water the cause rather seems to be this because waters in those hot Countryes were rare and in some places could not be had in a great distance and because there came multitudes to be baptized for the dispatching of which they might well seek places of many waters where John and his disciples might at once be imployed one water of depth sufficient would have served for the use of dipping for dipping sake he might have sought for a deep but needed not to seek many waters Baptist. So saies Mr. Cook indeed to A. R. p. 15.16 and Mr. Blake to Mr. Blackwood who jumps as just with Mr. Cook as one that never saw nor heard of any sprinkled can likely do with another who maintaines sprinkling to be the onely way of baptizing but both weary themselves to little purpose The question is not whether Iohn had no reason but that which we alleadge of baptizing where there was much water but whether that which we alleadge viz. that he might dipt the whole man be not one reason as for that you bring viz. because there came multitudes to be baptized and that Iohn and his disciples might at once be imployed in baptizing that can be no reason at all of their running into rivers to baptize nor of their dispensing in Iordan In Enon and in places of much water or in many waters and therefore for ought I see yet ours is the onely one for verily were it not for the sake of totall dipping they need not for the multitudes sake that came to be baptized nor yet for the multitudes sake who did baptize I mean Iohn and his disciples who no doubt were all at once imployed in that work have sought for a place of much water or many waters for as one bason of water may well serve to sprinkle a whole parish of many persons or if not it s easily replenisht so many persons imployed at once in sprinkling might easily put their hands into one or if not might they not easily have it in many basons what a poor shift is this Rivers Iordan Enon many waters and why because many were baptizing and many to be baptized one water of depth quoth Mr. Blake would have served for the use of dipping for dippings sake they he might have sought for a deep but needed not seek many waters but would not one water of no great depth as a bason yea of no depth at all as a cock or conduit have served for the use of sprinkling 1000s for sprinkling sake even of multitudes they need have sought for neither deep waters nor for many waters neither or if they must needs have had as many waters as they had dispensers they might quickly have made many waters out of one by filling out of one well one cock one bucket many basons Mr. Blake rejoices in Mr. Blackwoods rendring the word plurally viz. many waters which the translators render in the singular viz. much water supposing he hath such a prize in our yielding to read it so as takes off the whole force of our reason but I hope he understands himself better then to believe that by many waters is meant several waters waters in several sourses or channels divisim Sigillatim seor sim sumptae divided and a part one from another for by many waters is meant a confluence of much water together many waters meeting in one flowing running contiguously and contained jointly in one sourse river channel otherwise in one River Enon it could not be said there were many waters for t was but one floud as Iordan was so that by Enon or many waters he must needs understand much water a sufficiency a competency of water for the occasion in hand enough to baptize i. e. to dip and overwhelm in and not several waters for several persons at once to sprinkle in for this might be done easily without much water and if not without several waters yet at least in several basons of water onely but the other could not many shallowes were sufficient for many to Rantize and be Rantized in but they sought some one deep one Iordan one Enon of depth sufficient those being onely the most fit to baptize i. e. to dip in Fiftly it appears plain that the Saints in the primitive time were totally dipped or overwhelmed in water by that denomination that is given to them after baptism Rom. 6.3.4 where the Romans are said to be baptized into the death of Christ and buried with him in baptism into death also Col. 2.12 when the Collosians are said to be buried with Christ in baptism and therein also raised with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead Now we all know that he that is buried is totally put under that element wherein he is buried whatever it be whether water or earth and all over covered with it not sprinkled with a little onely Non quaelibet aquae guttula nec quaelibet terrae globula t is not a little parcel of water sprinkled on a man can denominate him baptized as t is not a little clod of earth crumbled on a man can denominate him to be buried for baptism is a burial an ordinance and visible sign wherein every believer is to be visibly buried and every one that 's truly buried is totally covered subjected to that element that buries him and for a time at least translated by it out of sight Rantist Buried yea but mistically and spiritually invisibly and inwardly onely in respect of the thing signified in baptism and effected in them viz. death to sinne by vertue of Christs death in which respect also they are said to be raised i. e. to newness of life by the power of Christs resurrection but this is not meant nor spoken with reference to the visible sign it self as if there were to be a burying of the body under water and bringing that up again It s the inward grace and not the outward sign it self in respect of which baptism is called a burial and a resurrection the things signified being our dying to sin and rising to righteousnesse even as Christ did die and rose again Baptist. I am glad to hear you grant so much truth as you do at the
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
truth as t is in Jesus I hope he may do yet in due time if he do not shut his eyes against the Gospel because I find him saying and unsâ—ying again what he said before he had well studied it p. 113. and he is out in print for infant baptsm and against the true baptism for all his professions of â—o serious search after it before he had well studied it to the bottom if he do not recant his error I am confident some of the people will that have been deluded by him and out of love to the Lord Jesus that loved them as a Priest and washed them from sin in his own blood and as a Prophet and a King requires them so to do arise and be baptized as they ought washing away their sins calling on the name of the Lord. Thus my friends and you my Ashford Antagonists you have my mind amongst you in this matter If any one of you answer and I have satisfaction from him to the contrary he shall hear of my recantation if I have not he shall see it by my silence for I le never lose so much time as I have done by the bare writing of this from preaching to poor ignorant creatures the free love and rich grace of God in Christ to all that obey him in truth and as I see I must if I meddle more at the presse with this subject ANTI-RANTERISM CHRISTNDOM NEW CHRISTN'D OR Christs ordinances continuing till Christs second coming In a small system wherein are some few reasons rendred for the now raising of water baptism into its right way of administration as to the form and subject and for the remaining of both it and other ordinances in their primitive right till the return of Christ Iesus FOr as much as I have been several times sollicited by several persons both by word of mouth and otherwise to give out unto them the grounds ends and arguments in writing of my continuance in the practise of water baptism and other ordinances of Christ as laying on of hands prayer breaking of bread church fellowship c. according as the Churches of Christ in the primitive ages of the Gospel did and for that I find it an easelesse and well nigh an endlesse businesse to write the same things in private letters about one particular subject to every of those particular persons that may successively desire it I have therefore thought good being called to the presse by sundry challenges of the Priesthood and more specially by not only the publication of that abusive pamphlet concerning the ashford-Ashford-disputation for infant-baptism but also their professed expectation that I should give some answer or give the cause to inserâ— here this ensuing account of my own reasons for the right of our remaining in the use of ordinances till the return of Christ and animadversions of what little reason the Ranter hath to run from them and redeem himself from that bondage which he deems to be in the observation of them before the time appointed much more to run beyond the bounds of modesty and all good manners also as not all but many if not most of those do first or last who despise any of the ordâ—nances of the Lord Jesus and herein as I shall be plain using no other form method and order then what the Lord gives into me as I write so I must be brief the foregoing part of this volume having risen already unawares to a far greater magnitude then was meant to the whole when I first cast the bulk of it in my mind and there remaining also something yet to speak and I know not well how much to the Priests concerning themselves in way of return to the last piece of that pedobaptistical pamphlet which was puâ— forth by who knowes or rather by who knows not whom in order to the plainer disquisition of the truth in this question viz. whether the ordinances of Christ that were in use of old are of right to be practised still as there are four services then in use the necessary use of which is now denied viz. baptism in water laying on of hands breaking of bread and church-fellowship so I shall addresse my self to prove the practise of these four severally to stand even de jure till the second coming of Christ which is yet to come And because baptism in water though most strenuously denyed by many to be so much as lawfull to be either dispensed or submitted to and by many even of those that have submitted to it to be necessary or any other then a matter of indifferency is yet the first in order to be practised and that without or before which we are not once to meddle with the other I therfore propound it as the first in order to be proved and in order to the proof of at least the lawfulnesse thereof against such as say its sinful for this will be included in the other I shall by the help of God prove a necessity of it against such as judge it needlesse or superfluous and by several Scriptures shew it to be such a service the present performance of which is so far from being sinful that it is no lesse then sin and rebellion against Christ himself to leave it unperformed The Scripture which I shall most directly make use of to this purpose and lay as the very basis and foundation of this businesse and make as a certain cardinal Topick â—lace from whence to argue and whether to reduce all the rest which I shall more coâ—laterally handle is Mat. 28.18.16.20 All power is given c. in which place these things chiefly are observable as subservient to the proof of the point in hand First we find Christ pleading that absolute power which was given him by the father to be the Soveraign Lord and Supream Lawgiver to the whole world thorowout all nations and generations of it from thenceforth even to the end in these words viz. All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth i. e. I am he to whom this prerogative is granted to give out to all men what laws and rules they shall be guided and governd by what wayes they must walk in in order to that eternal salvation which as a Priest I have purchased them to by my own blood if ever they mean to attain it I am that Prophet which the Lord hath raised up unto all people now instead of Moses who was the faithful giver out of Gods will mind or Testament to Israel of old whose voice all must now hearken to in all things what ever I say unto them and whoever harkneth not to me shall be cut off from among the people behold God hath given me for a witnesse to the people a leader and commander unto the people Secondly After he had thus shewed his authority and commission from God to be the only Lawgiver whereby to summnon the sons of men to so much the stricter attention to
would not obey the orders of the Church insomuch that who but the devill who so busie as he now to have Christian Bishops favoured cherished advanced honoured with all the honours that might be next to that of the very Crown Imperial it self who so earnest as he to have all the world brought about by all means possible and in all the hast to become Christians and to become one holy Catholick Christian Church and so within a while Deo permittente non approbante having set forth the beast or Roman Empire in another shape and christned it with the name of Christendome he scrambles up his Kingdome to himself again makes over his power seat and great authority to this beast thus transformed and this beast gives it all up to the Whore he sets him up a Vicar General and names him the Vicar of Christ the head of the Church Bishop of the Universal See and such like and by him and the Ministers of Christ that issued from him fills all the earth with abomination and reigns with as full force though not so open face but under a mask having all things in a kind of apish imitation of Christs kingdome to the suppressing of the truth as in former daies he had done and all this came to passe through this sin of self love in the Clergy which as it grew great so love to the truth grew smaller and smaller till it came to be totally extinguisht and the light of it wholly ecclipsed from the earth for when the good man Constantine in his zeal to the truth gave them great Revenues to which other princes added more still according to the voice that was then heard in the aire viz. hodie venenum infusum est ecclesiae so it sell out for the Clergy fell to make much of themselves and things of the earth to serve and seek their own interests fell to wrangling and jangling about Primacy Superiority who should be universall Bishop and such base unworthy abominable and self-pleasing practises so that the truth took no more place in their hearts from thenceforth for ever From thenceforth they began to grow in high esteem of themselves and not only to fancy but also to inveagle both Princes and people to fancy some perfection holinesse choicenesse spiritualnesse and purity in them more then in all other men and to distinguish themselves from the people by their garbs and titles of Holy men of God the Spiritualty the Clergy or Heritage of God the Tribe of Levi the lot of Gods own inheritance the Priesthood Ghostly fathers Divines shutting out the people from sharing with them in these terms of honour which belong onely to Gods people whom of all the rest in the mean time they villyfyed with the names of Hereticks as if God himself had no regard almost to any but themselves and did behold all manner of men but these Ministers afar off calling other princes and lords for the Clergy men were become lords and princes too now i. e. spiritual ones Temporall Princes Lords Temporall Secular men and the people the Laity Mechanicks that must not meddle with the Scripture so much as to look in it for so it was in old time not so much as to take upon them to be skilled in it much lesse to speak out of it or expound or understand any otherwise then as these Divines say is the meaning of it yea under the raign of these latter Lords the Protestant CClergy though they have it in such plain English before their eyes yet what a horrible thing was it but a few years behind fancied by Featley and still is well nigh universally by the CClergy here in England who appropriate all the wisdome about the Scripture to themselves what a horrible thing I say for the people to talk on or have more to do with Scripture then to take it as the Priesthood gives the sense of it The Shoomaker goes not beyond his last nor the Taylor beyond his measure quoth he only the trade and well might he so call it for by that craft they have their wealth as handicrafts men theirs by other crafts of expounding Scripture is a mystery which every Artizan arrogateth to himself the Physitian here will be prescribing receipts the Lawyer will be demurring upon Dubia Evangelica and every handicrafts man will be handling the pure word of God with impure and unwashed hands this the pratling huswife this the old dotard this the wrangling Sophister in a word this men of all profession and men of no profession take upon them to have skill in sic ille quid ni quaeso O Sacerdos what was the Scripture given for thee only to look in or wast thou set to keep people out from it under lock and key or may the spirit blow no where but where thou listest must not all people search it or must they search and find no more truth in it then thou findest or must they not take it into their mouths lest they defile it as Bishop Wren thought who prohibited the people to talk on it at their tables for fear they should prophane it It should seem so by Dr. Featley who cryed down the people as Asses Apron Levites Russet Rabbies the Clergy of Laicks c. wondering that their dores and posts and walls did not sweat upon which any note was fixed to give notice of the exercises of men of any manual imployment yea t is a thousand pitties quoth he that such owls and bats and night birds as if the Clergy onely were the children of the day and the people the children of the night and darknesse should slutter in our Churches and sile upon our fonts Pulpits and Communion Tables This was the cause of that great Schism of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. all the congregation is holy But this is the cause of that schism of Pope Prelate and Presbyter from the primitive freedome that gifted Disciples whether officers or no had to speak to exhortation edification comfort and that the congregation then had to admonish her Ministers upon occasion Col. 4.17 viz. all the congregation are prophane onely the Priesthood holy enough to draw neer within the rails and to preach to the people out of the Pulpit they are afraid I wot least the preaching of others there should sile and bewray it what need else of causing the pulpit to be washed as I have heard one of our Kentish Clergy men did his after two tradesmen had preached there in his absence they think they are men meliore luto of some better mould and taller by far in Gods affections then the People are This conceit makes them go apart look upon themselves as sons of Anack their Brethren as Grashoppers shun commerce and society with them as with publicans and sinners In detestation of whom as not consecrated they say Odi Profanum vulgus and in a kind of proverbiall spel procul hinc procul este profani and as
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
Animadversions of a number of lame Arguments Empty Answers absolue Absurdities Babish Baflings Sophistical shuffles and clear Contradictions sometimes to themselves and often to each other in their carrying on of the same cause which are therefore the more remarkable that are in the books of their best Champions all which as it askt me no small time to tumble ore to summon together and enter in a new Treaty with to see if I could yet possibly find cause to agree with and fall back to them in the point of Infant baptism before I struck a stroke against them with my pen so when I could come to no accomodation by that last parly but saw them all at odds among themselves and consequently saw more occasion then ever to fall out with them afresh it took me up much more time to encounter with them all for so I was fain to do more or lesse occasionally as I found them in their several works falling in to the help of the Ashford Disputants by the way Finally partly the starting of fresh Hares I had almost said Foxes upon me whilest I was working to wearinesse in descrying the starting holes of the old ones which occasioned yea even necessitated me to take up and follow those new sents unlesse I would rather suffer them to range up and down and do mischief without putting on in the least measure to prevent them more especially that Hasty birth of Mr. Baxters which as well for the sake of some Friends that commended it to my consideration as for the sake of that deep delusion I saw the whole Country to be under by doting on it I was constrained to speak as I have done at the end of Anti-rantism though succinctly yet more distinctly to then to any other VVhat I say with these obstructions Partly and some other also of another nature I have been forced inevitably to presse your patience Dear Friends almost to death wherupon I challenge you notwithstanding to forbear Murmurring and acting in such sullennesse as because the book came out no sooner therupon to neglect it altogether if my paines may not abate his displeasure and ballance his patience who is offended without a cause for not hasting it out by the halves as some for ought I see had rather I should have done then tarried till I had done the tenth of what I intended I desire that man who ever he is either to fry still in the fire of his own fretfull humour or else to please himself when he sees Good without amends from me who having disposed of this that 's out to the publique service as soon as I could well do it acceptably to God whose providence hath hitherto prevented me dare not disparage his acceptance of me so much as in what I have it to ask forgivenesse from men Its never long that comes at last if withall it effect that in order to which it comes and if you say Bis qui cito he does indeed that dispatches I say Sat cito si sat bene soon enough if well enough or else too soon even yet whether this present Bulk doth performe its errand so well or no as to be worth your waiting so long for it It s not for me to determine I leave it to your strictest examination regardlesse utterly of any censure whether yours or theirs to whom it beares strictest Relation my business in it lying morewith God then either them or you wel knowing that he who spends himself in thoughts of what others think of him his hath more pride then wit and more time then grace and wisdome to improve it let the work therefore stand or fall to its own Master I le neither beg any mans good word for it nor put it under any patronage but Christs from whom it came to me and to whom together with all honour thanks and praise for his assistance of me most unworthy creature in it I dedicate it back again If any quarrel with the length of it now it is come as some do in that it was so long ere it came and ask why I have laid such a large and voluminous siege to so small and trivial a fort such poor paper works as might have been battered and taken in much lesse time and with a far lesse train of Artillary then is here brought against the Ashford Disputation I desire them to understand that howbeit the daring defiance thereof engaged me to make my first on set upon that petty Garrison so that there is as it were a vein of dispute therewith continuing and running for the most part throwout the whole Volume yet the battle is also with the main body of their worthies as I said before according as inter pâ—ignandum they have occasionally bin cessary to their relief Secondly Possession is eleven points of the twelve in which respect they being but defendants and we now indeed as they say page the â—irst invading or rather re-invading for they at first by their own invention brought innovation and invasion upon the truth both them and the practise of their Church in the point of infant sprinkling which are both praepossed already of all Christendome and have now of a long time planted seated and settled themselves so firmly in the dark Cells of mens inmost consciences and affections that it hath been and is not onely hatefull but hazardous for any to storm them out we go upon no small disadvantages and so had need be more free of our shot then else we should be Intus existens facile prohibet alienum a few within the walls may be a match to many that are yet without how much more when the stormed are many to one of those that storm them even four hundred and fifty of the rest to few of the Lords Elijahs Thirdly An ell too long is better than an inch too short he that likes not the length hath enough of the same to make it shorter to himself when he pleases and liberty from the Authour to look into as little of it as he lists Fourthly if you find it not greater in quantity then in quality advantagious to the truth it may welcome it self into reasonable mens affections when such a short shuffle as that it relates to may without injury be shut out of doors If the title of it chance to trouble Any body that shall not at all trouble me for though the Ashford disputatation which it mainly answers to was assuredly penned by Some Body yet No Body is pleased to own it and therefore to him even to No body it was most meet to superscribe the answer In a word and to conclude for it were an unreasonable thing no less then to set my self upon a new score by wiping out the old one if while I am excusing my self for detaining the book so long from you I should detain you long from the book it self now it is out by a long Epistle what ere t is heretis