like to entitle a bastard alledging out of Deut. 23. 2. that in the old Testament a Bastard was not to enter into the congregation of the Lord unto the 10th generation and so indeed he was not upon any terms for ought I see whether the parents repentance or the childs good behaviour when at years after once that particular statute was delivered yet takes upon him to deviate from his old Testament Rule so far himself as to admit such a one into the congregation and to baptism either when the parents repent notwithstanding his bastardy or when the child professes better in his own person p. 87. 88. By which kind of often interfearing of so able a man as Mr. Cotton I perceive and therefore believe believe and therefore speak it that the nearer men come from Rome towards reformation if they come not to the perfection of it according to the word the more miserably a great deal are they bewildred with any human tradition that is remaining among them unremoved in so much that the Papacy is lesse troubled with contradictions quarrels quirks and foolish quiddities about their infants sprinkling then Praelacy Praelacy then Presbytery Presbytery then Independency for though they hold none but believers and that all those are to be baptized yet the Pope carries it clearly to all infants born in his Christendom without streining these being all believers with him as in opposition to Turks The Prelate to the infants of Protestants onely that are his believers in opposition to Papists But the High-Presbyter to the infants of protestants universally though with him not 10 of 100 in his parish are believers when they administer the supper The Independent to none but the infants of those that are inchurcht with him though himself believes there are 1000s of believers that are not of his way those I say that are most reformed in other things are more muddled and lesse capable to maintain that popish practise of infant-sprinkling then those that are deformed in all other parts of outward order besides it and as they stand in the narrowest streit to hold it up so are they for the most part at the nearest step to lay it down not a few discovering dayly more and more the absurdity and unsuitablenesse of it to so pure a posture as they pretend to and quod fieri non debuit factum valet availing more to the keeping off many from the true way of baptism then any arguments they have whereby to satisfie themselves in the sufficiency of that way of sprinkling Thus we see what a laborinth you Clergy-men would lead poor creatures into if they should follow you yea I know not how a man can follow you unlesse he go nine wayes at once such Noniformity there is among you some saying this and some that and some you wot not well what your selves What pretty Checker work is there in your judgements about one and the same thing wherein you would be unanimous and uniform if you would return all unto the truth O how doth Babell come tumbling down by this Division of tongues even as when theeves fall out true men come to their goods even so surely will the true Church come at last to the understanding of this truth even that no infants at all are to be sprinkled when they shall see what a do there is about it among divines and how they would hold it if they could tell how and say something for it if they could tell what the disputers and scribes will scuffle one with another till their poor people not knowing which to follow will at last betake themselves to leave them all and follow Christ. What Sirs is the Gospel the plain simple gospel such a maeander as this is Christ thus divided were Paul Peter and Barnabas and Iohn and the rest of the Apostles and ministers whose Successors you all say you are but are not in very deed so intricately intangled in vain janglements about one and the same question as you are both among and within your selves so that your answers and Accounts for your practise hang together more conjangletim then conjunctim but no marvel if the Cat winckt when both her eyes were out you draw nigh to God O yee Priests with your mouth and honor him with your lipps but have for the most part of you removed your hearts far from him and your fear towards him is taught after the precepts of men therefore are ye drunken but not with wine you stagger but not with strong drink for the Lord hath powered upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes you Prophets you Rulers you Seers hath he covered you have disserted the truth and are degenerated into a counterfeit kind of Baptism that never descended from above that hath stood now of a long time jure Ecclesiastico but not jure Christico and so the best of you know not how to hold it now the truth returns from the land of her captivity without fidling and faining and patching and shifting and such shameful ridiculous thwarting of your selves and one another with yea and nay in your joint prosecution of one and the same cause as will if you reform not in time object as much to the Ha-Ha-He of that part of the Christian world that yet wonders after you of the protestant Clergy as other popish toies have done the Papacy to the Pape of such as once wondered after them give over therefore your dabling of infants faces and baptize believers by profession cast away all your wood hay and stubble which cannot endure the trial by the light of that day that is now approaching and begin the Gospel again as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be in this world world without end Amen Thus Sirs saving your vain boasting what innumerable Arguments and such through furniture from Scripture from reason from the Churches and Fathers Authority from more modern Authors amongst whom you mention Calvin Ursin Dr. Featley I have shewed that Scriptures are against you that Reason is against you that the Primitive Church and Fathers are against you that the immediately sub-primitive Church and Fathers are against you that the praepostern-Church and Fathers are though some against you some for you so little to be regarded in their testimonies in respect of the Superstition of their times that if they were all wholly for you they prove nothing de jure as neither do the testimonies of the more antient Fathers by Mr. Marshalls and Mr. Blakes confession that though the Clergy and all Christendome Pope Civil powers and people have been so fully for you for ages together as that they have persecuted all that have been against you yet this shewes the badness of your cause by the bloudiness of it and so makes more against then for you that two of those three Authors of your own alledging are as much for you as men can be that are opposite to you for they
men under their girdles and by force to tye high and low rich aâ—…d poor Prince and people male and female bond and free to serve God in no other way than the Pope or their Arch-bishops or Arch-presbyteries appoint and to tread all under them that with never such evidence of Scripture and demonstration of the Spirit and power do gainsay them or that poor party of people who meerly in order to the promotion of truth rejoicingly subject themselves to scorn shame hatred of all revilings from friends foes neighbors old acquaintance c. whether I say it be those or these alià s you or we that pretend verity and intend onely victory will appear more at large in the examination of the 23. page of your book in the first line whereof you charge us therewith as an evil most specially incident unto us mean while I let it pass and go on Report Secondly that the question to be disputed was Paedo-baptism namely whether the baptizing of little Children born of believing parents practised by the Church of God were lawfull Reply I remember indeed that when 't was questioned what the question should be Paedo-baptism was agreed upon to be it i. e. whether children ought to be baptized but had I been as wise as a Wood-Cock or minded the matter so well as I should have done I had spoken in a language more consonant to your practice for Paedo-rantism was the question I intended i. e. whether children ought to be sprinkled for though Baptism or Dipping of Infants is that the lawfullness of which you will never be able to demonstrate an error lying still in the Subject in case you did as in truth you do not dispense it yet you are gone further from the truth then so no more at best than Rantizing that false Subject which to do is indeed no Raptism at all I excepred against this in my Position as well as the other but your prudence was pleased to leave it out in your accurate Account thereof least it should do you more harm than good and asserted your errour to be double in your dispensation of that you call Baptism viz. first in that you plead to have Infants be baptized when they ought not Secondly in that you pretend to baptize them and yet do not of both which I demanded an account at that time and in all reason you should have given it but not caring how little your sprinkling is spoken of because you have little or nothing to speak for it you so took me at my word at the Table when I yielded to dispute Paedo-baptism that Paedo-rantism your only practise might not be medled with in discourse at all Secondly I observe when ever you come to dispute for your Childish-christeninâ—…s you plead only for the Infaâ—…s of Believers but is not your plea by far too narrow for your practise whilest you commonly christen the Infants of all you know your people are not all in the faith why else do you preach to them as prophane to the end you may convert them thereunto yet the wickedest wretches you so keep from the Supper that you often keep all from it for their sakes have access with their seed to be christened as freely for the most part as the other doth not that same faith that denominates men believers saints godly and gives them and as you say theirs too a true title to Baptism intitle their persons to the Supper or must a man bring you another and that a better kind of faith to the one than he had need care for toward the other this some of your Tribe do not blush to say because as the case is there is nought else to be said but know ye Sirs and they too that though you have your several sorts of Saints for your severall services viz. your grosser sort of believers to admit not in their own persons neither when at years but in their posterity only to your Rantism and a finer sort for the Supper yet Christ requires but one sort of faith and saintship to both these ordinances viz. no more than a true one to the one and no less than a true one to the other Again you had much need had you not think you to set children of believing parents as the only subjects of Baptism in the state of the question between us when throughout your whole Dispute as I shall shew when I come to consider it there is not a tittle nor grain of argument brought by you to prove the right of Believers Infants to Baptism but it serves as much every whit to prove the like for the Infants of Unbelievers also yea Sirs take this from me you do your cause a world of wrong in stating your question so streightly for besides that you give the ly therein to your own action which is the admission of all that are brought to you and are born within the precincts of your parishes you drive your selves to such a Dilemma by your own disputes that you will not know how to open your Church-doors for Believers Infants to come in thereat but Unbelievers Infants will with ease creep in at them too Thirdly one word more to this yet Did your Respondent assent to you in it as you seem to say that the Baptism of children is practised by the Church of God how pretily have you put these terms practised by the Church of God into the very question and that too as it stands stated beeween us Did I give and grant so much or have you not rather taken it for granted from me whether I will or no Sirs I had thought I had given you sufficient evidence of my denial that the Baptism of Infants is practised by the Church of God yea though the Church of the Pope and such as you call the Church of God as the Church of the Prelate the Church of the Presbyter and some others too do dispense Rantism to Infants under the name of Baptism yet I did then as also I do still deny it to be or have been practised by any true Church of God primitive or modern that then was or now is visibly constituted according to his will in the word As for what you call the Church of God whether you mean all Christendome or the Protestant part of it only it is even therefore no true visible Church of God because it Rantizes Infants for that being undoubtedly a stragling from the truth and an undue administration of that ordinance not only as to the form of it but the subject also the name of the true visible Church of God is ipso facto destroyed from it were there no more error in it but barely that if Doctor Featly to whom you send us in your Review define the true Church of God aright for while he saies that meaning that only is a true Church where the word is truly taught and the Sacraments duly administred consequently that is no true Church where baptism is
righted it rather a little too much in reckoning on it as more then it is worth or at least not setting so slightly by it as well we might But t is as usual a fashion among you Clergy men to count your selves scandaliz'd disparaged disgrac'd vilified undervalued c when you are but either found out in your falsehoods or slandered of a matter of truth as t is for you under one vile name or other to scandalize the Saints most falsly and slander the truth it self yet if your repute be at reparations more then justly through our occasion when we know it we shall make you satisfaction by submission and amends by amendment mean while have patience with us and in due time and Christs strength I trust we shall pay you all Pre. The men which were our Adversaries and their driving was known before c. Post. Were it in respect only to your Infant sprinkling that you did so frequently stile us thus we are no less then many hundreds of its old acquaintance who thinking once as you do that we did God service to be friends to it could now freely answer to the name of Adversaries but we are the best friends in the world to the Truth and your Persons could you once see wood for trees and no further Adversaries to your cause then as we are well assured you can never make it good while the world stands by all the shifts you can devise from the law of Christ whose cause you call it As for our Driving were it like that of Iehu the son of Nimshi it would excuse it self the better sith t is only against the house of the Woman Iezebell that hath sate as Queen over the Nations and stirred up Ahab the Kings and Powers of the Earth to commit fornication with her and to do abominably and to shed the blood of Saints if you be not she then our driving is not towards you but if you be as I dare not be sworn that you the C C Clergy throughout all Christendome are not then wo to your house indeed not as from us but from the Lord who yet a little while wherein space is given you to repent and if he cast not you and your lovers into a bed together and into great tribulation except ye repent so that all the Churches of Christ shall know that t is even he that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and giveth to every one of you according to your works then the Lord hath not yet spoken at all by me Pre. It is no new thing with them to bespatter those Arguments with their tongue which they cannot unty with their teeth c. Post. It is an old new thing with your selves for it hath been of old the custome of the new Clergie though never of the true by common councel to cry down as Heresie what truth soever was too hard for them as for us it is no new thing with us indeed for it is one of those old things which were in use among us while we were all one with you but since we sincerely sought the truth are past away so that I cannot but clear those men that say it is no new thing with us as speaking no other then the truth and must needs condemn those who condemn us of it now as men condemning us of a meer new nothing Pre. Thou hast here a true though short Relation of the most materiall things that passed c. Post. I was musing a while what of the Ashford-Disputation this True Account could be truly counted a True Account of for I found that it mentioned neither the number nor the names of the Scribes that scrap't it nor the Disputers that disputed it nor the Arguments of more then one of those disputers not all his Arguments nor half the Respondents Answers nor many more things that should be in it by right nor many of those things rightly that are in it by wrong at last I had resolution here that 't was A True though short Relation of the most materiall things that passed Yea Sirs I assure you a good whipping is fitter for that disputation then a printed Account of it to the world unless on purpose to be laugh't at that lasted â—…o less then six hours whereof five and an half past away mostly in Immaterials and the odd five an half too in such Immaterials as these you have here accounted for and if these are the most material things that passed how Immaterial may the world well think were the most Immaterial that passed in the Disputation they surely were not worth one quarter of the while they past in Moreover that your Relation is Short yea far short of the Disputation Related I dare not deny but dare you say it ore and oâ—…e again that 't is a true one how true it is is so apparent by the preceding Ezamen of your Account that I need not here so much as assert it to be false I shall therefore say no more but thus viz. Had you said false where you say true both here and in your title page where your c. is stiled A True Account A True Relation you had then said true without all question but your saying true in these two places where you should have said false hath made you speak falsly in both indeed Pre. The adversaries answers being rendred to his best advantage c. Post. As for example sometimes his answers are altered and translated into a clear contrary form sense meaning then he ever spake in somtimes added to somtimes defrauded of such clauses as would have given every body to understand his intent to be directly opposite to what its here represented sometimes invented as it were de novo somtimesrendred not at all but only related to be nothing in the least measure satisfactory nothing that carried the least shew of sense or reason to the purpose c. and all this if men would believe you and if they do not I dare say 't is because they have neither sense nor reason whereupon to believe it to your Respondents best advantage but t is utterly against your wills surely Sirs besides your intentions and in some such way as you never meant it if it be for 't were a wonder if you should mind my advantage so much as to render my answers the best way in order thereunto and 't is a chance had you intended my best advantage but that you might have helpt me one lee-tle dram more then you have done what not one syllable not one scruple not one minits matter more of all that store that lies a smothering wherewith to mend the case of your Adversary whom you seem so to pitty too that if 't were possible even for old emnities sake for old truths sake which he strives to tell you you would do all to his best aduantage facile est invenire baculum ad caedendum canem you can easily pick a hole in his
coat and could you not resolving to render things too to his best advantage find some few shreds and old ends or other out of all those cast clouts you made in the cutting out of your Account wherewith to stop a hole and hide the shame of at least some of that silly silence you sometimes father on him and some of that foppicall non-sense that you fain him and would fain have him at other times be thought to have utter'd was there not one grain more in all his six hours answering to put in his end of the scales whereby to have rendred his answers a lee-tle more weighty then you have rendred them and somewhat more answerable to sense and reason but in truth you may well be afforded a pardon for when hundreds of wise men that were ear witnesses of the disputation shall see how grossly you have falsified what you pretend to give a true Account of the truth will be no looser but yours the disadvantage rather in the end by Accident therefore indirectly and in such sense as the truth of God the more abounds through mens lies against it to his glory it may possibly prove true that things are here rendred more to my best advantage then if they had been more truly rendred but I suppose there would need no more to make Democritus weep and his dog laugh too if he had one then to hear you say in sober sadness that in this Ragged and Rude Rendition you directly intended any such matter as to render your Adversaries Answers to his best advantage or that you intended any other then the very contrary Pre. And the Ministers Arguments as they were delivered without any addition c. Post. Alack good men you minded so much the mending the case of your Adversary and so singly designed by alteration ablation addition c. the rendring of his Answers to his best advantage that you durst not trangress so much as a singers breadth by adding any thing to what you delivered you selves towards your own advantage in your Account of the disputation but what ever Additaments figments amendments c. are used for his alià s your own best advantage sake in the rendring of the Adversaries Answers yet the Ministers Arguments are set down even nakedly as they were delivered without any Addition for advantage as if either the Ministers needed nothing to be done in such a way in theircase but might well spare all the advantage to go on the other side and yet be on the surer side too or else were such self-denying men that they would rather represent the cause of the Adversary at the very best then their own in the least measure any better then it was And truly Sirs I must needs say that for you that you have not advantag'd your own matter much by Addition to your Arguments but what benefit accrues to them as you manage the matter in your Account is rather by way of Abdition then Addition for you have hid the most Immateriall of them from being seen at all and rendred them clean out of the way the advantage they have lies more in their being rendred by the ablative case then by the dative Pre. Thou art desired to read them without prejudice to let thy charity cover the weakness of them c. Post. For my own part Sirs as I heard your Arguments for Infant-baptism without prejudice i. e. not passing sentence on them till I had heard them when you urg'd them at first at the Disputation by word of mouth so God is my witness how often I have read them ore and ore again without prejudice seriously setting my self to weigh them most impartially in the ballance of both Scripture and reason since you urg'd them ore again in print nevertheless I cannot possibly unless I speak against the light of my conscience judge them to be any other then what I said before and what your selves are pleased here to acknowledge them to be before all the world begging of people in charity to couer the weakness of them viz. but weak Arguments which ingenuous confession of yours if it be not a giving of the cause Iappeal notonly to all rational men that shall happen to read this who know that the truth or falshood of all causes respectively lies in the strength or weakness of the Arguments that are brought in defence thereof so that they either stand or fall according as the Arguments to uphold them be they few or many are either weak or weigâ—…ty but also to your selves who tell us truly and plainly that t is the weight of Arguments onely and he is a weak man that saies weak ones are weighty ones that carries the cause your own words if they may be of any weight with you are these p 12. viz. besides that opinion of Ovid Et si non prosunt singula multa juvant what ever it may carry of credit in other causes 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 satisfaction and verity so that if a man might hope you would stick to this candid concession of yours and not start from it there need not be much said in discovery of the weakness or non-weightness of your Arguments and consequently of the Rottenness of your cause for the world it self may hear what you say out of your own mouths in this very vindicatory Account of yours wherein you not onely publish some of your Arguments in that same weakness and nakedness wherein at first they appeared so that every eye may discern it having leave now to examine them at leasure but also after not a few vain glorious vauntings and ventings of your selves concerning them as of worth and weighry in way of defence of them from those sleightings those disgraces those injuries and censures of them as weak and wanting which they are under as from us at last being sensible of their weakness you sing a new song to the tune of cry you mercy and fall a beseeching the Reader in his charity to cover the weakness of them by which weak petition you may work upon some weak ignorants that are not book learn'd or if they be stand bent to believe all things as you desire them but on none that are truly disciples though onely A. b. c. darians in the School of Cbrist but Sirs what need so much peccavi and precari if your ware were currant it would go off with acceptance without such a deal of cap and congee and pittiful intreaty to the Reader to cover the weakness of your Arguments the strength of which onely should cause him to gather the goodness of your cause and not strong intreaty to take it for good though the Arguments you plead it by are but weak Uino vendibili non opus est haedera if your Arguments and
reasons for baby-baptism be strong and solid your Reader if rational will receive them if weak as you say they are he is a Reader scarce worth writing reason to who will be prevailed with by your desire so to cover their weakness as in charity to suffer himself to be overcome and carried away by them notwithstanding that their weakness to close with you in your cause and to be beaten into a belief of your baptism as good though it hath but broken reeds and bulrushes to maintain it by the force of bare beggings and beseechings or if in this request of yours to us to cover the weakness of your Arguments your meaning is not that we should be so silly as to build our belief and practice upon them though weak by your own confession whose they are but onely that we should not publish discover and divulge their weakness to the world but in charity be content to think our think or to see and say nothing truly Sirs what others will do at your request in this kind I know not but I assure you I cannot possibly for my part grant your desire in this case forasmuch as your selves have engaged me several waies not to be silent on pain of giving away the cause which if it were onely my own too the matter were so much the less you should have it with all my heart yea verily and my own life too to do your souls good for I know I could freely part with it to be a means of effecting your salvation but since it is the cause of God which he hath intrusted me with the pleading of against you who presume to enter the lists against it with such silly tools and weak weapons on behalf of a Babish-baptism which is not from heaven but of men I dare not give place so far as in foolish pitty to spare the Cittie Babylon or in Charity not to bewray a Breach or weakness in her walls of defence when I spie it for that were in Charity to betray the truth of of God and such Charity is more Antichristian by far then Christian what ere you call it and such as could have small hope of acceptance before God however esteemed of among men wherefore I desire you to have me excused if I cannot in charity cover the weakness of your Arguments for in Charity to poor souls that are led aside from the way of truth by your piteous pious pretences and weak reasonings for your way and I am concerned in the very next place after I have done with this of yours to the Reader to discover to the world the weakness of them besides sith you have made so bold with your selves as to proclaime the weakness of your own Arguments for Infant-baptism I hope the Counties of Kent and Sussex will consider this that their choise Ministry that stood up to maintain Infant-Baptism at Ashford did after in their own Account theerof give out of their own accord that there was weakness in the Arguments they brought for that purpose men mutire nefas I hope it shall be no offence to you for me to second you in your own saying 't is you who have publisht your arguments to be weak my business shall be only publickly to prove them so to be as you assert them yet if it be offensive to you it shall be no wonder to me for I know already that you can bear it better to have your Disputation ly under disgrace and disparagement under shame and censure of weakness from your selves in print then from your supposed Adversary and true Friend my self so much as in a private Letter only and that some men as the Proverb is may more safely steal the horse then some so much as peep o're the hedge Pre. Not to suffer the cause to be wronged thorow the defects of those who had more zeal to maintain it then abilities c. Post. T is both usual and lawfull for us to judge of causes by the effects that naturally and necessarily flow from them for qualis causa i. e. naturalis per se talis effectus Retró e. g. Infant-sprinkling hath been a cause efficient and per se from whence much evil hath necessarily crept into the world for it hath been a means of confounding the Church and the World together of letting the Gentiles or Nations by whole sale into the outter Court of filling the world with meer nominal Christians and carnal Christianity whereby they have got advantage ever since to tread down the holy City and true worship and worshippers as Heresie Hereticks of bringing the nations into one Catholick Church whereof the Pope was universall Bishop or overseer for ages together thorow the eyes of his creatures the Clergy the very Stirrup whereby he and his Ministers who have blended themselves into a blind and beastly uniformity have become Masters of the Kingdomes and have got up to ride them a plea and president for traditions it being one it self which ever make Gods commands void and mens worship of God in vain an inlet of these and innumerable more mischiefs and absurdities for posito hoc uno absurdo sequuntur mille therefore it is undoubtedly an ill cause also t is lawfull to judge of a cause by the common Consequents which come from it not as caused properly but meerly occasioned by it and in respect of which it is called only causa sine quâ non i. e. that without which the other would not be and yet no other then the bare accidentall occasions of those effects which flow from something else as the cause thereof perse and most especially when those consequents are declared by the word of God to be such as will upon that occasion universally and unavoidably come to pass and thus we may give a shrew'd guess that our cause is good viz. that our Gospel Ministery Church-way and Baptism is the true one because we see it is seconded now and ever hath been with what it was of old seconded and foretold also that it should ever be even every where to the worlds end viz. divisions in families two against three and three against two the Father against the Son the Daughter against the Mother c. offences of friends and fleshly relations the account of Heresie and baseness hatred of men persecution cavils stits tumults about it by which things Christs people Gospel Ministers and Ministrations are ever proved to be his Luke 12. 52. 53. Math. 24. 9. 2. Tim. 3. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 27. 2 Cor. 6. 4 5. So that where there 's none of this I avouch the Gospell in its purity is not there though where these are the Gospel is not the cause for that is men lusts and flesh fighting against the light but the only the occasion whereupon they arise when Satan the strong man holds the house the goods are all in peace but when Christ the stronger man comes to storm him out there 's contention
in hearts houses Towns and Countries as when Christ came to Ierusalem all was in an uproar and when Paul came with his Gospel to Ephesus Athens Iconium Lystra Derbe lewd fellows of the baser sort were set on by others to raise tumults for truth tormented them into rage thus we often judge of Causes as good or bad right or wrong by the effects that slow from them but to reason upon a cause as good or ill true or false right or wrong according to the might or meaness the abilities or defects of the persons that stand up for it is the right way to wrong it indeed sith the Antichristian cause hath the mighty wise and prudent Priests and Potentates of the world for its Patrons when the poor only for the most part receive Christs Gospell and the strength that God ordains in defence thereof against the persecutor is the mouths of Babes and Sucklings Causes are to be rejected as wrong and false according to the defects and weakness that is discovered to be in the Arguments that are brought to maintain and not by the weakness and defects that may seem to be in those that are more zealous then able to mannage them if there appear to be weight in the Arguments these if strong however weakly and babishly propounded will carry the cause in the conscience of any but such Priest-be-charmed Christians as in Charity to their Churchmen are resolved to yield themselves up to be carried away with every wind of doctrine that passes from them and covering the weakness of them to be whisled any way by such arguments as the men themselves that make them are fain to grant to be weak to prove what they are brought for for no Argument is weak that is sufficient to evince the thing it s used in proof of though it fall from the mouth of never so weak a man if a weak feeble hand let fall an heavy Axe upon it or a sharp sword even the sword of the Spirit the word of God that is quick and powerfull it may serve to cut off the Popes head Tripple Crown and all but if the Pope himself and all his children which are the ablest Humanists in the world come out to warre against Christ and his cause with reeds and rushes blind non sequiturs weak and broken Consequences they must ride back to Rome for stronger swords or else they may force fools into conformity to their follies but never guide wise men after the spirit to believe their cause to be good as therefore t is not good that an ill cause that hath but weak Arguments to uphold it should be owned for good either in Charity or upon pretence of ability in the persons that patronize it as the Clergies crooked cause of Infant-sprinkling is for what saies the Parish to those poor ones in it that entertain the Gospel are you wiser than a whole Synod of able Orthodox Divines so it is a thousand pitties that a good cause that hath strong Arguments enough from Scripture and reason to prove it right should be wronged so as to be rejected as rotten yet so Christs true baptism is through the defects of the persons called Anabaptists who are supposed at least to have more zeal then ability to prove it of which sin of wronging a right cause upon account of such defects even the cause of Christs true baptism which in his strength those Babes that are baptized with it are not only zealous but able to make good against the Ablest Baby-Baptist that is among you I know no men under the Sun more guilty then you Clergy men who take your advantages to cry out the lowder against it as error by the defects of Christs Disciples that plead and practise it of whom you say commonly as you say complementally of your selves here they have more zeal then abilities to maintain it yea verily you who seem here whether more simply or more simulatorily who knows not so to implore the charitable benevolence of well disposed people to cover the weakness of your Arguments and not to suffer your cause of Infant-sprinkling to suffer throw your defects and inabilities to maintain it are men so far from teaching fâ—…enda faciendo from doing to others as you would be done to that you rather disclaim and proclaim those Arguments of ours as weak which as feeble a folk as we are are strong enough to storm you out of your strongest holds and cause that cause to be despised under pretence of our defects which though weak in our selves and pretending to little of that outward accomplishment which you call ability yet throw Christs word assertaining it to be his and his spirit assisting us thereunto we have both zeal and ability to maintain who is it I trow that trumpets about the eminency and learnedness of their party and illiteracy of the Anabaptists whereby to render the way the more contemptible more then the Priesthood who charm their people against the receipt of the Gospel in such sort as the Pharisees of old when they said are you also deceived have any of the Rulers of the Pharisees believed on him but this peopâ—… that know not the law are cursed Ioh. 7. 47 48 49. So brags Dâ—… Featly and his fellows despising the way of dipping viz. joint suffrages of so many Bishops in such a Synod as for the Anabaptists they are a few mean sylly men and women an illiterate and sottish sect the father and head of whom quoth he was Nicholas Stock and a very blockhead was he p. 164. Simple rude Mechanicks Russet Rabbies Apron Levites whom we own not quoth he but detest and abominate p. 113 who know not how to dispute for truth because they know not the original and cannot conclude syllogistically in mood and figure p. 1. 2. Thus Featly defeats them in their cause by dilating on their defects and which of you almost do not confirm your people against their cause by their infirmities of one kind or other like flies you feast your selves upon their sores and let go their sounder parts you make much of their little to your purpose you make your best out of their worst and out of their personal weaknesses strengthen your selves and others against the truth which wise men know is nevertheless truth for the poors receiving it you root in their very excrements whereby to find matter to make their good cause bad and yet here oh how mendicant of other mens mercy not only 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
3. 5. it thinketh no evil Charity believeth all things it hopeth all things especially since it cannot appear that the little children of infidels have by any actual sin bard themselves or deserved any more then others to be exempted from the General state of little children declared in Scripture Ergo to doubt that little children of infidels have the holy Ghost is a breach of Christian Charity In which though both propositions be flatly false yet I call heaven and earth to witness whether all that you bring in proof of the Minor do not prove it as much breach of Christian charity to doubt that any infants as t is to doubt that believers infants have the holy spirit one infant having no more deserved ill by actual sin then another Thus all that ever you have done hitherto is utterly undone for the Argument you began upon and the basis of your building is that believers infants for their baptism only you plead denying the baptism of other infants as well as we have the holy spirit this upon denial of any sufficiencie in all your former proofs to make it appear is at last undertaken by you to be made sufficiently appear in this last Syllogism which if it do not make it as sufficiently appear concerning unbelievers infants considering your own matter used to prove the Minor as concerning the other then my candle is quite gone out but if it do then surely the very light that is in you is utter darkness In the next place you dispute upon us by way of Question and Interogation thus Disputation 1. How do those men and women that are baptized at years make it appear to those that baptize them that they have faith and the holy spirit If it be answered by their profession 3. Whether their profession since it is possible they may lie can make it appear infallibly If it be answered no. 3. What judgement then can they that baptize them passe upon them to be the subjects of baptism as they call them whether any other than that of charity If it be answered that of charity T is replyed then let them passe the same judgement upon those little infants of whom in general the Scripture hath given so good a report and against whom in particular no exception can be raised and the controversie between us is at an end Disproof First whereas you quere how those we baptize make it appear that they have the holy spirit before we baptize them I answer I know no necessity of making it appear that persons have the holy spirit before their admission to baptism for though we find once that God Anticipated his promise and gave the holy spirit before baptism Act. 10. yet I know not nor yet do you any promise there is wherupon in an ordinary way we can expect it of receiving the holy spirit of promise till after faith repentance obedience turning to God baptism and asking of it Prov. 1. 23. Iohn 7. 38. 39. Act. 2. 38. chap. 5. 32. chap. 8. 16. 19. Luke 11. 13. Ephes. 1. 13. Secondly as for the holy spirits appearing infallibly I answer first it may possibly appear infallibly to be in some in whom it is as Act. 10. 44. 45. 46. 47. by sundry fruits and manifestations of it which may warrant us to say God is in them of a truth Mat. 7. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 1 Cor. 12. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 25. It may I say undoubtedly appear to be in men and women but cannot any way at all so appear to be in infants if we may believe your selves who tell us p 8. that infants have not the exercise and fruit offaith and p. 18. that instruction of the understanding in matter of faith in some sort must go before any act of faith can be discovered and that no judgement of science can be past upon infants till the acts themselves be seen and examined for a posteriore onely the discovery of habits is made and that unlesse it could be certainly presumd what children have it what have not there can be no conclusion made And howbeit I am not of the seekers mind that an appearance of the holy spirit in any person before baptism in water doth exempt him from it but am well assured that it strictly rather ingages him to it or else Peter could not have commanded them in name of the Lord to be baptiz'd in water upon whom the holy spirit fell Act. 10. but must rather have forbid it as frustraneous and altogether superfluous yet that the spirit should appear at all to be in men in order to their baptism much more that it should appear infallibly to be in them is a matter of no necessity that I know of sith in the word it s not required that persons be baptized with the holy spirit first in order to their baptism with water but that they be first baptized in water in order to their receiving the holy spirit Act. 2. 38. for the baptism of the spirit as t is promised onely to believers so we believing obeying the Gospel and asking the holy spirit t is signified to us as one thing that shall be given among the rest in that very way of water baptism so that its enough for us as to the baptism of persons to take cognizance of it that they believe and repent which things though they cannot do without the spirit performing its common office of striving drawing moving inlightning convicting of good and evil sin and righteousness c. in all which it acts to the whole world Gen. 6. Rom. 1. 20. Iohn 16. 8. Act. 7. 51. yet they not only may do them without but must dothem before they can by promise expect the spirit in those special respects wherein he is promised to believers and calld that holy spirit of promise And now because you ask how we know they have faith whom we baptize I answer by their profession which gives though not infallibility yet by your leave for all your preferring the Eulogies given in general to all infants above any mans personal profession for himself in this case a far clearer and better grounded judgement of charity concerning them that they have faith then that you have concerning infants which at best is but charity mistaken for cruelty whilst it takes that to be in infants and that on pain of their damnation too they dying without it viz. believing see p. 8. which infants are utterly uncapable of and whilst it takes even that too without which it holds no infants are saved to be in but very few infants viz. believers infants onely and so damns all other dying infants which are far more innumerable and as capable of faith and as little barring themby actual sin from salvation and as little deserving damnation as the other so that whether we or you plead the cause of innocent infants let the world judge And whereas you suppose that because in charity onely we judge men and women
men at years but infanâ—…s being uncapable to act faith and it being not required of them therfore they may be baptized without it which conclusion you make without book to for the word warrants you not to make it why may not we when you call so universally for faith to every ones salvation or else saying assuredly they are damned return the like viz true no salvation without faith of persons capable to act it and of whom it s required but infants being uncapable to act it and it being not required of them therefore they may be saved without it Babist This conclusion is spoken without book and as unwarrantable by the Scripture as you say ours is sith the Scripture speaks as much of salvation by faith as of baptism upon faith and as little of salvation without faith as it doth of baptism without it therefore still we have at least as good ground to say infants may be baptized without faith as you have to assert they may be saved without it Baptist. No I shall leave you behind here for sith the Scripure speaks of the impossibility of infants believing and yet with all of their saluation as your selves confesse in your own interpretation of that clause viz. of such is the kingdome of heaven but no where at all of their baptism it shews that they may be saved without believing but shews not that they may be baptized without it besides to hold any of them to be damned before they have by actual sin debard themselves of salvation is abominable cruelty and breach of Christian charity with you who yet confesse that all of them have not faith p. 19. but to hold they need not to be baptized cannot bear the like construction sith t is acknowledged by them that deny their bapâ—…ism and by them also who absurdly assert to the contradiction of themselves that the denyal of baptism to them denies all hope of their salvation that they may be saved nevertheless though they die unbaptized so that whether we who hold that to them all belongs the kingdome of heaven though they neither believe nor are baptized before they die or you that hold no salvation to them without faith and yet hold that all of them have not nay that very few of them for how few are believers infants to others have faith whether we or you I say do justly deserve the censure of damning all or at least innumerable infants dying contrary to that evident testimony of Scripture and sentence of our Saviour that to them belongeth the kingdome of heaven and contrary also to the rule of Christian charity set us by your selves which is to presume well of every infant that he is in a good estate till he appear to be in a bad and by actual sin to bar himself and deserve exemption from the general state of little children declared in Scripture which is this that they have right to the kingdome let the most simple but honest Reader judge between us As for the two texts you say are brought in proof of justification of infants without faith viz. Rom. 5. 18. Rom. 11. 7. who urges the last of them I know not for my part I take it to be of no tendency at all either to your purpose or 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 nearing 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 false 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
those dayes not onely before but also after Christ crucified for as in the dayes before Iohn the baptist was beheaded and before Christ crucified all those multitudes of disciples which by each of them were made by teaching were universally baptized either by Iohn confessing their sins or by Christs disciples who dispenst in Christs name for he dispenst not himself in Enon or Iordan or some other places that were convenient Mat. 3. 5. 6. Iohn 3. 22. 13. 4. 1. 2. so even long after Christ crucified raised and ascended were the people that were discipled and converted to the faith before ever they joined in visible Church-fellowship in one body in breaking of bread and prayers baptized all without exception for as it s said Act. 2. 38. 40. 41. 42. of that first Church of the Jews or Hebrews to whom that Epistle was after written they were bid to be baptized every one of them so as many of them as did gladly receive the word of the Lord i. e. as repented and imbraced the Gospel were baptized and then continued in the Apostles doctrine who surely taught them all the six first principles of the oracles or holy things of God at that time Heb. 5. 12. 6. 1. 2. and what more they saw occasion for for with many more other words then those that are recorded did Peter then exhort that people v. 40. and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers so it s said 1. Cor. 12. 13. of the whole Church of Corinth in way of sacramental metonymy whereby that is very familiarly spoken of the thing signified which can be spoken properly onely of the outward sign et retro by one spirit we are all baptized into one body Iewes or Gentiles bond or free none excepted and have been all made to drink into one spirit Yea as these Churches in Iudea Ierusalem and Corinth were all baptized before built up in a body so which of all the Churches were not to whom the Apostles directed afterward those several Epistles All the Romans to whom Paul wrote were baptized all the Galatians were baptized the Ephesians which at first were but 12 disciples that imbraced the truth were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus the Colossians were baptized the Philippians were baptized as we see by Lydia and the Iaylor and all those that believed with them which was the beginning of the Church at Philippi and that the Thessalonians were not baptized is more then bruitish to imagine for surely Paul and Silas that went immediately thither from Philippi where the Iaylor and Lydia and many more were baptized had not got a new doctrine of no-baptism to preach before they came to Thessalonica nay it is evident by the Jews accusation of them Act. 17 6. that what doings and disturbance they were occasion of through their preachings and baptizings at Philippi the same they were by the same means no causes but occasions of at Thessalonica therefore of them say they these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also yea Paul himself hints that to us 1 Thess. 2. 2. that after they had suffered and were shamefully intreated at Philippi they yet were bold to speak to the Thessalonians the Gospel of God the same Gospel sure that they preacht at Philippi for what he did and ordained in one Church the same he did and ordained in all the Churches 1 Cor. 16. 1 with much contention By all which foregoing considerations the Minor of the third main argument above is cleared which assure baptism to be commanded to all without exception therefore a duty from which we are not exempted What Christ commanded to be taught and observed not only in and among all nations of the world but also in all ages and generations thereof even to the very end the same is not ad placitum but de jure not at mens own pleasure but of right to be taught and observed as Christs will and their duty in all nations to this very day But Christ commanded Baptism in water to be taught and observed not onely in and among all Nations of the world but also in all ages and generations therof even to the end Ergo Baptism in water is not at mens own pleasure but of right to be taught and observed as Christs will and their duty in all nations to this very day The Minor which only needs proving needs none neither to him that will but observe how plain it is to every mans understanding in the text For first if baptism be to be taught to and observed as duty among all nations and by every creature therein that hears and believes as t is clear it is both here for teach them saies Christ i. e. all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and did he not command them in the very verse above the observation of that administration of baptism and also Mark 16. 15. 16. where he bids that the Gospel of salvation be from thenceforth tendred on terms of faith and baptism to all the world to every creature capable of being preach to then of necessity in all nations and generations to the worlds end for all nations were not then extant but many nations are risen since that the world then knew not all the world every creature was not in actual being at that time neither could possibly be all baptized unless baptism abide in its right in all ages unto the end by all nations every creature all the world Christ denoted all people of the earth that then were or thereafter should be whom as they should successively arise and grow into capacity for it he would have to be in their several generations successively taught and baptized Besides how plainly doth Christ expresse his meaning to be that this course of baptizing in waâ—…er should be kept a foot in all ages and generations v. 20. where after his precept to observe that dispensation he adds this promise of his presence And lo I am with you alwaies i. e. in your faithful observation of all these things for if men be not found in this way he is disingaged even to the end of the world Amen Whence the argument in form may be thus What way of outward administration Christ not onely required to be observed to the end but likewise promised his people to be present with them during their due observation of to the very end of the world that must stand of right to the very end of the world But Christ hath not onely required that outward administration of water baptism to be observed to the end of the world but likewise hath promised his people to be present with them during their due observation of it to the very end of the world Ergo that administration of water baptism is of right to stand even to the very end of the world The objections that are usually made against what is asserted hitherto
that it have as mutuall protection from them as it yields subjection to them for this is the good will of God concerning them as such and whether they be Heathens or Christians they are Gods Ministers to attend continually upon this very thing viz. to render unto all men their dues as men viz. a room in quiet in the world of what wayes of religion soever yea though Indians and redress of any civil wrongs as they expect to have all men of what religions soever within their power to render to them their dues of tribute honour custome fear for for this cause pay they their tribute also because Magistrates are Gods Ministers to the world ward and to the Church as part of the world and in no other sense then as to the rest of the world to attend continually on this very thing to dispense praise or punishments for civil good and evil among men not spiritual for then they may punish evill thoughts proud looks ignorance non-profiting by the word not Gods Church-ministers to dispense good or evil for good or evil done in the Church but as the same actions may have reference to the state also as theft or the like civil abuse which comes one way under the Churches censure and another way under the Common-wealths they are not I say Church Ministers nor Ministers to the Church qua Church as the Priests principle seemes to make them for then they may claim not only Tribute but Tith also as well as the Priest but that he will be loath to part with though in truth it belongs to him for his Church wasting work full as little as to the other I humbly beg therefore I say of the Powers that truth which hath been trod under foot may be tolerated among them in their several civil States Common-wealths and Kingdomes and to the end it may undoubtedly be so let all that which the Powers in the several Nations do judge in their own consciences to be truth in point of Religion have toleration and protection and no more countenance by them as Magistrates but bare protection from injury as other waies also may have and not such extraordinary supports from a power Heterogeneal to that of the Church nor such extraordinary gratulations gratuities revenews incomes preferments and portions out of the common State-stock let their own private purses be as open to them such as professe it pay to its Ministry as much as they will for besides the partiality of this thing of making other Religions and wayes that judge themselves to be the truth as well as that pay and be tributaries to the true one and the grumbles it will ingender in mens minds this proves the greatest mischief under heaven to the truth when the Ministers who should expect nothing but shame and suffering with their Master who was Beelzebub are slusht with the outward pomps and vanities of this world till they forget themselves so as scarce to know what ground they stand on and howbeit Magâ—…trates may mean honestly in their high honourings of them as that good man Constantine the great did yet as his high embraces and graces done to Christi in Bishops proved besides his intent the stirrup whereby those Lord beggars got up on horse back and rode to the devil for so hath that Romish whore rid both her self and the beast under her which is Christ'ndome so though I hope it never will yet it may possibly be so again if care be not taken against it witnesse the two other more seemingly modest and maidenly Minions Episcopacy and Presbitery which qua Ministry came out of her loines wâ—… have not brought the world so far out of that old Babilon towards Sion as they pretended to do by reformation as else they might have done being slugged luld asleep by benefits and benefices in the way for posit â eadem causà ponitur idem effâ—…ctus sublat â tollitur golden cups ever yet made wooden Priests and ever will do let truth have liberty and peace it will desire no more of the State if it be truth indeed And Secondly let all other wayes and religions besides that which the Magistrate judges to be truth that judge themselves to be in the truth save that of those whose very way as abovesaid is no way but dishonesty and whose way isto root out all wayes but their own by civil power be also tolerated practised and protected from outward violence and oppression as well as that for this besides the knitting of the hearts of men of all wayes under one civill power in intire love and strong affection to that Power that domineers not ore their conscience besides that I say this tolerating all practices in point of religion save that practise of non toleration of any but it self in civil states must needs tolerate the truth among the rest whether it ly in this way or that and so the Power shall be out of all danger and hazard of coming under the guilt of truth treading which the P P Priesthood hath engaged the civil power in for 1260 years together as else it cannot for if toleration be of no way but one then if that chance to be the wrong and themagistrates are no more sure then other men that they are in the right yea 100 to 1 they are not if they use civil violence to others First because the false wayes are many and bread and easie and fine and the true way but one and that so streit and narrow mean and base that not many noble and mighty and men of power ever find it 1 Cor. 1. 26. Secondly because as King Iames said persecution is a certain note of a false Church then truth is unavoidably smothered by them and will first or last pull vengeance upon that power Rev. 6. 11. 12. though it be under the name of Heresie onely that he suppresses it and plucks it up under the name and notion of weeds and taâ—…es that would else choak the wheat besides therefore a most strict charge that Christ gives Mat. 13. that in the world i. e. the civil States and Common-wealths of it the Tares should stand together among the wheat untill the harvest which alone is an Argument putting all out of doubt in this controversie he gives this good reason viz. least in plucking up the Tares the wheat also chance to be rooted up with them t is for the wheats good therefore for the Tares to stand and for the wheats sake that Christ wills they should though not in the Church yet in the world to the very end thereof And because the Divine cannot yet divine that to be Christs meaning in that scripture that false worshippers hereticks c. may lawfully if not civil offenders be licenced to live in civil States let us consider how sinister his own conjectures are upon it I have met with some and some of chiefest note in this County of Keâ—… who have shifted it
O Presbyters against Prelates Deans and Chapters c. without regard to the several disturbances that were like to be consecutive thereto yea the true subject and manner of administration of baptism which when it serves your turn so to do you call a circumstantial matter a ceremony for which if you should erre therein none but weak querulous consciences will complain and separate an indifferent thing for which why should we make so much ado a gâ—…at not to be streind at and such like is so necessary a matter one of the most necessary points of Religion which those that erre in do most fearfully erre and are totally deserted by the spirit of God these are your own words Thirdly you talk much and t is the language of the Pope to your selves since you reat from his Church of the Church and our holy mother the Church and Ghostly fathers of the Church and good and true tempered sons of the Church and the peace of the Church and Schismaticks in the Church c. wherewith you astonish the vulgar but I protest this day before God and men not onely against him against whom you are Protestants also but against your selves also his Schismatical sons who own his ordinations and still walk in some of his ordinances viz. Rantism Parochial posture c. as those that are little lesse ignorant then he and his good sons of both the true Church and true peace thereof whilst the truth to which she should submit is not regarded by you and the very things that make a true visible Church and are de esse and constitutive of it so that abstract them and you null it viz. true matter i. e. believers baptized and true form i. e. free and not forced fellowship both which are so in the Churches of England Scotland Italy France and Spain are not onely wanting but also trodden under your feet Fourthly the peaceable way wherein we propagate these opinions were you as sure they are erroneous as I am tha tyou'l once find them to be truth will yetexcuse and acquit us from all guilt of disturbing the peace of either the world or your Church which is the world in reference to the true one and unlesse you can say the Gospel of peace which where ere it comes occasions dissentions is the cause of them as in no wise it is but mens lusts rather that rage and take on against it you cannot say our Gospel is for it propounds them to the world in no other way then that and that way was no other then bare propounding them and as Christ and his disciples did not judge them here though they will judge them most severely hereafter who reject their words by the power of the Magistrate by the civil sword by nailing to pillories cutting off ears slitting noses whippings fines confiscations prisons bonds banishments fightings fire and fagot the bloody wayes whereby BBBabilon hath edified it self to that height of abomination the Arguments whereby the CCClergy were wont to convert Hereticks quickly from all error to dust and ashes so if any man hear our words and reject them well may we rebuke him sharply as they also did but we judge him not in that way whereby the Tribe of Levi that hath levied war for his lusts sake against the whole earth hath bereft all men of peace neverthelesse the words that we speak to him being those that Christ and his disciples have spoken in the world the same will judge him at the last day Secondly why sith it must needs be supposed there be many Godly men among the Ministers of the Nations though the most of them be wicked yet I do not except and exempt them when I inveigh so heavily against the CCClergy or why I do not rather forbear and spare to speak so broad at all and so generally as I do against that generation as an evill one for the sake of those good ones that are among them To which I say First that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 godly men properly are those onely that worship God aright i. e. according to his own will and institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which well weighed might possibly put the best men among you to your trumps to make good your title to that title and denomination of godly by Scripture record sith while you stand among the rest even you as well as the worst do preach and practise for doctrines of Christ some traditions of man if you had no more enjoined you by them on whom you wait for your instructions then barely the sprinkling of infants by which you make void what in you is the true baptism of Christ. Yet not denying but that there is a sprinkling of honest hearts quorum meliori luto sinxit praecordia Titan whom the sun of righteousnesse as he lightens every man that cometh into the world hath hatcht up into a higher predicament of Godlinesse then their fellowees who are drawn up into some higher streins of devotion then the rest I adde further Secondly what are these littles to the lump what is the gleaning to the vintage here and there one good man to the whole corrupt crue of them that like Locusts and Caterpillars have spread themselves together with the smoak of errors over the earth in three several swarms or armies can some scores of well meaning Priests give the denomination of an holy PPriesthood godly Ministry to those legions of them that lie in wickednesse you may as well say there 's a million of Saints among the men of the world therefore reprove not the world for their sakes such as these who out of meer simple honesty rather then sinful sophistry and mystical iniquity do stand and act and argue against the true way as they do are Rarae aves very few to the multitude of humanists and sensual ones and subtle subverters of the Gospel which yet they would seem to be Ministers of for their own ends by whom they are commonly so hated too so far as they have any more strictnesse and sincerity then ordinary that they are among the other of their brethren as I was for querying after truth while I stood among them as owles and bats baired by other birds which few good grapes were they better then they are cannot denominate the whole vintage as una â—…irundo non facit ver BBBabilon is BBBabilon still and SSSodom is SSSodom and must be called so though Lot live in it and he called out of it too unlesse he mean mean to perish with it Thirdly those good men that are there the mores the pitty that they are so ought not to be suffered nor spared but spoke to the rather themselves and that very roundly too for being and abiding in a bad way and not the way it self and those many bad men that are in it scape declaring against as bad because of them there must be down-right dealing with upright men when they are in a wrong way