because the Idolaters heretofore repenting forsaking their false synagogues and lying signes in thē usurped needed not a new outward cutting or circumcising as is shewed at large in our former writings Discoverie p. 116. 120. Apologie p. 110. 113. For though the degree of syn in Rome be greater by farr then that of Apostate Israel as elswhere is also manifested yet seing they then were fallen from God and from his church and so were divorsed from the Lord and were not his wife but dead in their synns the ordinances of God which they in shew reteyned could not be unto them the signes and seals of forgivnes of synns and of life eternal and therfore were in their use of them false and deceytful as were also the ordinances of God reteyned in other nations as Altars Sacrifices Preists tithes firstfruits incense meat offrings drink offrings feasts baptismes or washings anoyntings excōmunications prayers vowes many the like wherof al histories doo bear record that the Gentiles did reteyn them 2. They proceed secondly and say Jf the baptism had in the church of Rome be not true baptisme then it is not the Lords baptisme and then they which have no other but it should get the Lords baptisme afore they come to the Lords table to eat the Lords supper c. I answer this reason is the same in effect with the former and there answered as also long agoe objected by the enemies of the truth and refuted by M. Barrow We have gotten the Lords baptisme by coming to the Lord in true faith and repentance who baptiseth us with the wholy Ghost and with fyre As for the outward washing which we had it need not be repeted as before is shewed and we may as lawfully eat the Lords supper without a new washing as the Idolatrous Israelites turning to the Lord might eat the passover with out a new cutting or circumcising 2. Chron. 30.1.5.11.18.19.20.21.25 Ezra 6.21 So wheras they charge us with profaning the Lords table it is turned upon their own heads for they have these many yeres professed the Romish baptisme to be not a true but a false Sacrament whiles yet without a new washing they did partake of the Lords supper If this be to pollute and prophane it as now they press us why doo they not first repent themselves of such prophanation why cal they not in their former writings and refute them 3. Agayn they dispute ther is but one baptism Eph. 4.5 Baptisme in the church of Rome eyther is that one baptisme or is not it Jf it be that one then is it true baptism if not then they which have no other but it have not that one baptisme and therfore must get it c. I answer 1. This agayn is the same argument with the former and before answered 2. This ground from Eph. 4.5 was that which Cyprian builded on who taught rebaptising of such as had been baptised by heretiks whose arguments seing our Adversaries thus urge we pray them tel us whither they be of Cyprians mind for rebaptising and if they be wherein they differ in that point from Anabaptists If they be not then it seemeth they hold that al such as are baptised by hereticks Antichrists excommunicates schismatiks and other like have that one true baptisme of God Eph. 4.5 and so have the seal from God of forgivenes of synns and are one body with thēselves And if not then they reason but for fashion sake to trouble us and the world with questions 4. Furthermore they argue such baptism is eyther a seal of Gods covenant or not Jf it be then sure it is true baptisme Jf not then 1. they which have no other baptisme must with the Anabaptists get another that they may be assured they have the seal of Gods covenant c. 2. then that ther neyther have been nor shal be in Babylō any of Gods people c. Rev. 18.4 3. then baptism now had in Apostate churches is not answerable to the circumcision had in the Apostasie of Jsrael for that was true circumcision c. I answer they may by a litle varying of words make an 100. such reasons alone and the same al begging the question and prooving nothing What one scripture or reason frō thence is here brought to prove Antichrists baptism true baptisme Let any mā define by the word true Christiā baptism then compare therwith the blasphemous Christening before set out from Bellarmine and he shall see what accord is between them And wheras the burden of these mens song is wee must ells baptise agayn this is no proof at al for besides that which is before answered what if it be our errour that we baptise not agayn wher be then all their proofs are they not vanished into smoke Verily I should much rather incline to Cyprians error though I am farr from it for a new washing then approve the sacrilegious washing used by that man of syn with most high dishonour to the blood of Christ to be that one true Christian baptism the seal of Gods covenant For that of Rev. 18.4 because God caleth his people out of Babylon therfore Babylons baptisme is true baptisme is without all colour of reason As if one should argue thus God by Ieremie caled his people out of Babylon Ier. 51 45. therfore Babylons sacrifices and sacraments were true Who would not rather conclude hereby the contrary God caleth his people out of her therfore she vvith all her counfeyt service sacraments apish imitation of Gods holy things are detestable and cursed Agayn a people may be Gods though unbaptised as the uncircumcised Israelites vvere Gods people Deut. 29.10 13. vvith Josh. 5 4 5. The 3. point of Israels circumcision to be true is but barely by them affirmed vvithout proof and is before disproved And if they shal continue thus to say al things and prove nothing I vvill never trouble my self more to ansvver their discourses 5. Finally they reason if baptisme in Rome be not true baptism then as we also sayd it is an idol bearing shew and image of that which it is not in truth And jdols ar things of naught c. and so baptisme in Rome is a thing of naught and to be estemed as nothing in the world as filth or doung c. I answer idols are of two sorts some merely devised by men as Ieroboams calves some perverted by men from holy signes to Idols as the brazen Serpent Both these kinds are in popish baptisme For their crosses exorcismes greasings c. are Idols of the first sort worse then Ieroboams bullocks their washing with water in nomine patris c. is of the second sort that is Gods ordinance turned into an Idol as was the brazen Serpent Thus is there a mixture in Antichrists Christening of both sorts of abominations Therfore have we renounced that Romish baptisme as an impure idol in their abuse standing
and govern the Church in her publick affaires which is the work of the Officers but as they are partakers of Christs kingly anoynting by his spirit common to the head and the members and so Kings by participation and indowed with kingly power for the coÌ„quering and subduing of the power of sin and Sathan not onely in themselves but in their brethren also by the sword of the spirit the word of God which they are to minister unto them as all other graces in their order And this meaning being held it may safely be taught that they are over one another that is to watch one over another and so as kings to conquer their spirituall enemies one in another mutually But I wil rather insist vpoÌ„ mine own words for or to one another as being most fit to shew that coÌ„munioÌ„ of the saints in this grace as in the rest which he also in all equity should have done And thus I will prove this royall coÌ„munion of the saynts And for them that make themselves merry herewith let them suffer me to speak and when I have spoken let them mock on And first it must be observed that the place and scriptures which M. Iohnson notes in our Confession to prove Christ the onely King of his Church prove him as wel and that truely to be the onely Preist Prophet of his Church And if notwithstanding his sole prophecie and preisthood peculiar to him as the head the saynts may be Prophets and Preists as members by coÌ„munication they may also be Kings by coÌ„munication notwithstanding his peculiar imperiall power And so the scriptures testifie that he hath made vs kings and preists unto God even his Father and so our Father But it wil be answered that Christ hath made vs Kings to resist subdue and conquer our spiritual enemies Sin Sathan this world and our worldly lusts by the sword of the spirit the word of God and the work of the spirit in and by the same I grant it and therupon conclude that since Gods people are also by the same weapons and means to resist and subdue the power of sin in their brethren they are also kings in the same respecâ— unto them The saynts are Christians and that for and in respect one of another as members vnder Christ one of another and therfore Kings For to be a Christian for another is nothing els but by participation of Christs annoynting to be a Preist Prophet and King for another Ad vnto this that whatsoever grace any member of the body hath received it is for the use and edification of the rest and so in order to be administred by him as a good disposer of the grace of God And must this royal grace then which the saynts have received find no time nor place for the dispensation of it vnto others When a brother comes to subdue and maâ—e conquest of some spiritual enemy or sin appearing in his brother eyther privately or publiquely in his place and order he dooth this as a fellow member and Christian and so by one of his three states and indowments of preist prophet or king for he hath no office wherein he administreth but by neyther of the two former therfore by the latter and as a king and so made by Christ. Lastly the people are by M. Iohnsons own graunt to choose their officers as also upon just occasion to depose them And this as the former they doo not as Preists or Prophets and therfore by their kingly indowment from and vnder Christ. And thus much to prove the saynts in their coÌ„munion as Preists to offer up the prayers one of another and Prophets to instruct one another so also partakers of the kingly dignity of Christ as his meÌ„bers for the suppressing and conquering of sin appearing one in another in that order which Christ hath left And where do I in al this as is imputed to me advance the people as others do the Prelates and make them Idols Do I give them power to prescribe and appoint other formes of Gods worship offices of Ministery canons ceremonies or holy dayes then Christ hath prescribed and appointed to bind the conscience by urging subscription ex animo to their own inventions or to loose conscience by dispensations to sin as of pluralities non residencies and the like or that one man should set up and pul down ministers and excommunicate and absolve both ministers and people by his sole authority If another man should thus have charged Mr IohnsoÌ„ when he mainteyned the same libertie of the brethren if nor greater which I now do though it may be not under the same terms he would have pronounced it blasphemy in him B passing by his terms of provocatioÌ„ and reproach I come to another exception which is that I make the order of saynts superiour unto the order of officers to wit in it self as I there explayne my meaning and not in respect of government as he traduceth me I know that he which guideth ordereth and directeth another is in that his art and work superiour vnto him that is so guided ordered and directed So is the Pilote in guiding the ship superiour and above all the passengers in it though the King and his Councell so is the Physition in ordering the kings body as is also the meanest guide in leading and directing him and his army Royall in unknown places So are the officers superiour to the Church in their art or work of government which is the opening and applying of the scriptures to the use and direction of the Church but as this is done by them in an order of service and not of Lordship so I judge and call them inferiour And so in my book I make them equall in their persons as saynts superiour in the word they minister and in the place of God not so in their order of servants wherin they minister but inferiour My reasons there brought to prove mine affirmation bycause he here medles not with I also forbear in this place to confirm onely a few words of one of them upon which the next and last exception dependeth Which is that the order of Church-officers is inferiour to the order of the saints bycause their order is an order of service and servants unto the saynts the Church I know Kings may be sayd to serve their people and so to become their servants but this is onely in respect of their love towards them and care for them but not in respect of their order which is a Lordship and Kingship by which they reign over their people as their servants and subjects The like may be sayd of Christ himself as that he served his disciples and became as a servant c. And for that it must be considered that as in the things wherin he did thus serve and become as a servant he did in his love make himself inferiour to his disciples and preferred
saying of God to Moses they wil forsake me c. and J wil forsake them And as for that which is cited from Levit. 26.45 it was a promise of the Gospel upon their unfeighned repentance and perteyneth to the Iewes also at this day as Paul sheweth us Rom. 11. for this rule is general he that confesseth and forsaketh his synns shal have mercie Although therfore God useth sometime more forbearance of evil men than at other time and often giveth space to repent yet if they repent not they shal assuredly perish and their boasting of the covenant shal not save them 3. Touching their application of things to Israel not putting difference between their state when it was one and when it was rent asunder therin also they fayl Whiles Israel were one they continued Gods Church for though they often synned yet by his word afflictions he soon brought them to repentance as is noted Judg. 2.4 5. and 3.8 9.15 and 4.1.2 3. c. But when after many other synns ten tribes fel from the Lord and rent themselves from the Kingdome of David and Preisthood of Levi both which were sacramental types of Christ and his Church when they left the other testimonies of Gods presence the Temple and Altar at Sion where God had sayd he would dwel for ever and builded them new Temples and Altars to syn forgetting their maker when they set up Calves and Divils to worship God by then presently God sent his Prophet to them with a denunciation of judgment which being done he was to avoid them as Hethens Publicans not eating or drinking in the city which because he did though drawn in by the lye of another Prophet the Lord slew him with a Lion And all that feared God both Preists people left the country and went to Iudah and the rest wer stil caled upon by the Prophets to forsake them as not being Gods wife that is his Church and their estate shewed to be without the true God and without Preist and without law and they were unto God as the Aethiopians Now wheras our Opposites allege God did not presently cast them off it is true in respect of caling them to repentance and of their dwelling in the land or as the scripture saith of putting out the name of Jsrael from under heaven for his covenant was to punish them by degrees at last if they repented not to scatter them among the Hethens til their uncircumcised harts should be humbled and they rewed their former syn and then would he remember his first covenant so receiv them agayn to grace in Christ. And as for not casting them presently out of the land the Lord dealt with them as he had before dealt with the Hethen Canaanits which were spared therin for a time because their wickednes was not yet full Gen. 15.16 If this patience towards them wil not prove them a true Church no more wil Gods like patience towards apostate Israel And how they in their impenitent estate hardning their necks dayly more more could be sayd to be the true Church of God though they cōpassed him with lyes and in the covenant of his grace unto salvation I leave for them to judge that are wise in hart As for these mens double respects they are not al of them syncere They would have it said in respect of the Israelites and not of the Lord that they were without God without Preist without law none of his wife having children of whordoms and the Lord is not with Jsrael c. agayn in respect of the Lord and not of themselves that he is caled their God and they his people and their children borne to him and Israel not to have been a widow forsaken c. I answer whatsoever was syn was wholly their own and whatsoever was grace was wholly Gods this is true in the best Churches in the world But whatsoever was a reproof and punishment for their syn respected both Gods justice and their demerit and whatsoever acceptation of grace was in them respected both Gods mercy in Christ and their faith If therfore they were in any sence a true Church at that time actually it must needs be by mutual referēce to the covenāt on both parts God offring they taking his grace offred through his holy Spirit working in them otherwise it is a mere fiction in religion to make difference where none is Now let them shew that they accepted the grace of God caling them to repentance we shew the contrary by the Lords own testimonie who for their unbeleef and stubborn disobedience did put them out of his sight in wrath And if men accept not the grace of God his caling upon them to repent makes them no more his Church then the Hethens unto whom he doth the like Agayn it is not sound to say that in respect of themselves onely it was spoken by the Prophet the Lord is not with Israel with any of the children of Aephraim For he there dissuadeth Amaziah from having the army of Israel to help him his reason is the Lord is not with Jsrael this most directly respecteth the Lord and his withdrawing of his presence from that people Even as Moses sayd Got not up to warr for the Lord is not among you did not the event shew when they fled before their enemies that is was meant in respect of Gods presence and help now withdrawn from them Also when it is sayd in other scriptures the Lord was with the Iudge and the Lord is with me I wil not feare and I am with yow al dayes many the like who ever would dreame that these things could be spoken in respect of the men onely and not of God and Christ Finally the Prophets speech to the Iewes the Lord is with yow while yow be with him but if yee forsake him he wil forsake yow doth evince manifestly that it is an evil glosse when the text sayth the Lord is not with Israel to turn it by respects as if nothing were meant but Israel is not with the Lord. So in the other speech Israel hath been without the true God the words folowing but had he turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him he would have been found of them these manifest that it was in respect of Gods forsaking them also and not onely of their forsaking him No better if it be not worse is their citing of Hos. 2.2 she is not my wife that this respected Israel in themselves be it so but what foloweth neyther am J her husband and if the former branch respected Israel then this respecteth the Lord especially seing he testified by Ieremie J cast her away and gave her a byll of divorcement unless they wil say this also
children that dwel with their adulterous mother that is to abhorr her syn with speech and signe to cal her back from evil absteyn themselves from it and in al things cleav to their father betake theÌ„selves into his closet c. I answer thus it appeareth that these our opposites are returned to acknowledge the whore of Rome to be their mother whom they feign to be as woman which lyeth in a deadly sort swollen with waters of the dropsie or with poison which had long agoe given up the ghost if God by the imposition of his grace c. had not nourished and kept her warm Now to leav their mother thus on her sick bed as they have doon disclayming al Christian dutie unto her which is due to a true Church in corruption is but the part of unnatural children Whiles God dooth nourish keep her warm wil they quite abandon her let them return and cherish her also and al her members and see if ther be any baulm to heal her wounds and to comfort her As for us we have been taught of God that in respect of him she is dead long agoe in her syns Rev. 20.5 with Ephes. 2.1 having been the marked whore worshiper of the Beast from which death she is not risen to live reign with Christ. Although to this world she liveth and reigneth in pleasure til at one day death otherwise also come upon her she be burnt with fire Rev. 18.7.8 And then shal we be so far from mourning at her funeral as we shal rejoyce with the heavenly multitude and sing Hallelujah when God hath given Sodoms judgment on her and we see her smoke rise up for evermore Rev. 19 1.2.3 Finally to back M. Iunius judgment they cite Amandus Polanus Bart. Keckerman who sayd that Antichrist shal sit in the temple of God not Jewish but Christian c. and as a rotten apple is an apple but corrupt so that Church is corrupt c. I answer they may I confess cite diverse men that were mistaken in judging of that rotten church which wil help these our opposites nothing who have seen and acknowledged better now goe back Bernard was a learned man in his time and is counted a Sainct and he playnly reproved many Romish abominations and sayd the beast in the Revelation which hath a mouth speaking blasphemies occupieth Peters chaire yet himself doted overmuch upoÌ„ the bewty of that harlot when he wrote thus at an other time to her Leman the Pope Thou art the great sacrificer the cheif Preist thou art Prince of Bishops heyr of th'Apostles thou art in primacie Abel in government Noah in patriarchship Abraham in order Melchisedek in dignity Aaron in authoritie Moses in judgship Samuel in power Peter in anoynting Christ. It is not therfore to be marveiled at though wise godly men be mistaken for in many things we syn all Jam. 3 2. But I have shewed how the scriptures doo judge of this sorceress and could also allege many learned mens judgements but I wil goe no further then our own country Mr Cartwright speaking of the baptising of children sayth Jf both parents be Papists or condemned heretiks c. their children cannot be received to baptisme because they are not in the covenant c. And agayn Jf the corruption be such as destroyeth the foundations as in the Arians which overthrow the person of Christ as in the Papists which overthrow the office of Christ they being no Church ought to have no priviledge of the church Mr Perkins writeth thus As for th'Assemblies of Papists understanding companies of men holding the Pope for their head and beleeving the doctrine of the council of Trent in name they ar caled Churches but in deed they are no true or sound members of the catholik church for both in their doctrine in their worship of God they rase the very fouÌ„datioÌ„ of religioÌ„ And agayn Jt is no more a church in deed then the carkesâ— of a dead man that weareth a living mans garment is a living man though he look never so like him And agayn he hath a treatise and Assertion that A reprobate may in truth be made partaker of all that is conteyned in the religion of the church of Rome and a Papist by his religion cannot goe beyond a reprobate and bringeth 4. arguments for proof hereof and endeth with this Corolarie that A man being indued with no more grace then that which he may obteyn by the religion of the Church of Rome is stil in the state of damnation D. Fulk answering the counterfeit Catholik saith Jt is evident that the true Church decayed immediatly after the Apostles times and telleth the Papist yow cry the Catholik Church the Catholik Church when yow have nothing in deed but the Synagogue of Sathan Agayn The Church of Antichrist is founded upon 7 hills Rev. 17. upon the traditions dreames fantasies and devises of men c. Therfore sayth he in no wise may she be called the city of God but Babylon the mother of fornication Sodom Aegypt where our Lord is dayly crucified in his members D. Willet answering Bellarmin sayth We deny utterly that they are a true visible Church of Christ but an Antichristian Church and an assembly of Heretiks enemies to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Agayn he sayth 2. Thes. 2. he shal sit in the temple of God that is the visible Church that which sometime was the true visible Church as the Church of Rome and after should be so takâ—n reputed and chalenged as it is at this day by the Papists c. He shal sit in the Temple of God that is take upon him the name title of the Church and yet an adversary unto it And agayn The Turk is out of the Church and so in truth is the Pope but yet he challengeth to him and his the name of the Church M. Bale compareth the Pope and Turk togither thus So glorious are the pretenses of Romish Pope Mahomet that they seem unto them which regard not these warnings the very Angels of light and their Churches most holy congregations being very divels with the very dregs of darknes The Pope in his Church hath ceremonies without number none end is there of their babling prayers their portases bedes temples altars songs howrs bells images organs ornaments Iewels lights oilings shavings c. that a man would think they were proctours of paradise On the other side Mahomet in his Church is plenteous also in holy observations they wash themselves oft frequent their temples pray 5. tymes in the day they reverently incline they lye prostrate on the ground they fervently cal to God they absteyn from wine they abhor idols c. But unto what end this holynes leadeth the sequel declareth Daniel maketh these two but one because they are both of one