subject and so soon lose the grounds So that I must give this short but true Character of Mr. Baxter and his late Book that he hath written neither with that gravity that became his Age with that Sobriety that became his profession nor with that modesty that became any tolerable Education And since he so much forgets himself I must tell him that that Gentleman Mr. Danvers whom he so insolently despises is to say no more his Superior a person of known worth piety and integrity and one whom God hath chosen to bear witness to his truth at that very time when he a Learned Scribe is shaken with every wind and scruples not to change his Judgement for and against things as the stream of outward success doth guide and influence them I shall now conclude with Mr. Baxter's Opinion of the Anabaptists when his heat is over he saith thus in his last Book There two sorts of Anabaptists amongst us the one are sober Godly Christians who when they are Re-baptized to satisfie their Consciences live amongst us in Christian love and peace And I shall be ashamed if I love not them as heartily and own them not as peacably as any of them shall do either me or better men than I that differ from them The other sort hold it unlawful to hold Communion with such as are not of their mind and way and are Schismatically Troublesome and Vnquiet in labouring to encrease their party I hope all the pious Anabaptists do virtually though not actually devote their Children to God and Consent to their Covenant-relation while they vehemently plead against it for surely they have so much natural Affection that if they did think that God would be a God in a special Covenant with their Children and pardon their Original Sin and give them right to future Life upon the Parents dedication and consent they would undoubtedly accept the gift and be thankful And I believe most of them would say I would do all that God entrusteth me to do that my Child may be a Child of God and accept any Mercy from him as far as God doth authorize me so to do page 188 199. Indeed my Judgement was and is that the point of Infant-Baptism hath its considerable difficulties which may occasion Wise and Good men to doubt or to be mistaken in it page 219. Therefore I never took the point of it to have such weight as that all that differed from me in it must be denyed either love liberty or communion If I know my own heart I do as heartily love a sober Godly man that is against Infant-Baptism as I do such men that differ from me in other Controversies and much better than one of my own Judgement who hath less Piety and Sobriety Nor do I think there is so much Malignity in the bare Opinion which denyeth Infant Baptism as that all the Anabaptists miscarriages should arise from the nature of that Opinion Ibid. I know that in the Ancient Churches men were left at Liberty both when tâ—â— would be Baptized themselves and when their Children should be Baptized and though Infant-baptism was without any Original since the Apostles yet it was not a forced thing And were it in my power it should be so still I would not deny Christian-love nor Church communion nor publique Encouragements to any pious peaceable man for being an Anabaptist I am not therefore half so Zealous to turn men from Anabaptistry as I am to perswade both them and others to live together with mutual forbearance in Love and Church-communion notwithstanding such differences page 221. I make no question but many of them are far better men than I and knowing my self lyable to Error c. I am far more offended at their Separation than their Opinion page 228. I know not by any Scripture or Reason that Re-baptizing is so hainous a sin as should warrant us to contemn at our Brethren page 233. By which you see Mr. Baxter is not so much offended with the Anabaptists as their Separation To which we say Let Mr. Baxter by his Elaborate Systems and subtil Distinctions first convince the Pâ—edo-Baptists of their error herein as the Independants and others and especially his Friend Mr. Wills who though he hath Written so much for Infant-Baptism yet 't is well known he is a wide Separatist May not the Church of Rome cry out against Mr. Baxter for his Separation Might not the Church of England do so formerly And may they not still yea Mr. Baxter also cry out against Mr. Wills and his party and say they are Rigid Independents and Separatists What means then all this Out-cry against the Antipaedo Baptists unless they would have us believe that they are such Universal Dictators as have Authority over Faith and are Infallibly inspired to propound Rules for all others that when they Separate we must and where they have Communion so must we Now if Mr. Baxter will vouchsafe to do Two Things 1. Tell us of what Church he is of 2. Prove that Church to be rightly Constituted according to the Primitive Pattern We will not then Separate from him In the mean time we judge it our duty whereunto we have already attained to Walk by the same Rule And if any be otherwise-minded we hope the Lord will in time reveal it unto them Amen FINIS ANIMADVERSIONS Upon a Late Book Intituled INFANT-BAPTISM From HEAVEN and not of MEN In Answer to Mr. Henry Danvers his Treatise of BAPTISM WHEREIN Believers Baptism in Opposition to Infants pretended Baptism is further Vindicated and Confirmed And that Believers only are the Spiritual Seed of Abraham is also further Evidenced against the Exceptions of Mr. Joseph Whâ—ston By E. H. Non adeo perdite confidens sum ut ausim aliquâ—d affirmare quod Sacra Scriptura silentio praeterit Theodoret. i. e. I am not so desperately confident that I dare affirm any thing which the Holy Scripture doth pass by in silence Grace doth not run in a Blood neither is the love of God Tyed or Entailed upon any Linage of Men Caryl on Job cap. 5. The Preface to the READER Courteous Reader THe Delay of the Fore-going Treatise in the Printer's hands gave me Opportunity to peruse and briefly to Animadvert upon Mr. Whiston's Book wherein I find a promising Title and very little more To Trace him in all his Meandrous Digressions would be an Argument I want other Business The main strength of his Objections is in the said Treatise fully Enervated and I do not think my self concerned to pursue him when he insists upon matters besides the Question in Debate His Exceptions touching the matter of Antiquity are substantially answered by Mr. Danvers yet shall be briefly glanced upon here I shall not now Dispute whether it be Generously done by Mr. Whiston to assail with so much Violence one that 's already beset with such clamarous Adversaries as Mr. Baxter and Mr. Wills But he gives the Curious some occasion
true So that like a Tree his Book runs out into so many smaller Boughs and Twigs and layes it self out at large into such a train of Trivials so many littles to the purpose that he will find himself great store of small business that shall throw away so much of his precious time to read his Book The next thing I take notice of in his Book is his Answer to Mr. Danvers his Collections c. wherein the Reader will find so much Gall and Vinegar such a proud austere magisterial Spirit such scurrilous unchristian Language that it makes me amased and to question whether this be Mr. Baxter or his Coadjutor Mr. Wills But it seems they are both agreed in their unsavory Dialect Is this the man that Wrote so much for Love and Unity and would make the World believe that he is made up of nothing but Charity Suppose Mr. Danvers should be mistaken in some of his Collections had it nbt been better to have shewed him his mistakes in a Mild Christian and Brotherly way And if you say the offence was publique and therefore deserved a publique reproof Grant that also yet what need these peevish bitter and angry reflections Hath Mr. Baxter forgot that Scripture Gal. 6.1 If any man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness He contemptuously calls him Maj. Danvers a Souldier but why a Souldier I confess an Officer ought to be a Soldier but he was a Collonel as well as Mr. B. was a Chaplain and Mr. B. knows 't is not civil nor do Souldiers love to be retrograded no more than Chaplains Would he think it kindly done if he were dwindled from a Chaplain in Folio to a puny Curate in duodecimo I doubt his ambitious Humor would rather be Pope but I suppose he means that he was so once and perhaps it was when M. Baxter was Chaplain and surely it is the Chaplain's work with all mildness and gentleness to convince his Officers of any error But it 's like in those dayes he used better Language and accomodated himself to the humors of his Officers or else Fama mendax But perhaps hee 'll tell us he looks upon Mr. Danvers as a rigid Anabaptist whom with the Independents he condemns and censures as ignorant silly persons c. in his usual Civility not deserving the least grain of his Charity But what does the man mean do they separate from the Church of Rome so do's Mr. Baxter Do they separate from the Church of England so did Mr. Baxter as constituted by Episcopacy but what he does now is a hard question But I shall leave Mr. Danvers to vindicate himself Another thing notable is his 56 Articles of Faith that he supposes the Anabaptists and others must hold if they deny his Popish Positions in his Christian Directory c. It were no hard matter to Father many grosser absurdities upon Mr. Baxter were his raw and undigested Notions and erroneous principles noted that have past his Pen at several times for above these Twenty years But leaving his other mistakes it will be no Injury to tell you that one Article of Mr. Baxter's Faith is That all the Children all the numerous posterity of Vnbelievers yea of such Vnbelievers whose immediate Parents or Parent were not Enchurcht are all in the Kingdom of the Devil and necessarily damned Seeing he holds that the Children of Believers only are the Subjects of Baptism being born within the Covenant of Grace Children of God Heirs of Christ and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But if Mr. Baxter in these Fifty six Articles nay in most of his late Writings hath not more gratified the Papists and contributed to their Cause more than any English Protestant Divine ever did yea at once as much as in him lyes thrown away the Protestant Cause and as far as his Credit goes spoiled all that our Famous Champions have done I am much mistaken having hereby lai'd such stumbling blocks in the way of ordinary Christians far beyond the most crafty Jesuite that ever hath been amongst us He tells us he will Write no more but he hath a mighty Faith that will believe him I am of Mr. Bagshaw's mind who told him some time since when Mr. Baxter told him he would not answer him Mr. Bagshaw replyes I know you will not keep your word for your pride will put you upon Writing and your guilt will necessitate you to do it just in as unbecoming a manner as you have done for an ill Cause must be maintained by Calumny And then in a lusory way tells us That if these Children will after this baul and cry and wrangle and foul the House a savory Metaphor he is not bound to rock the Cradle and to make them clean From whence may it not follow 1. That Mr. Baxter owns the Anabaptists as his Children but whether instead of an indulgent Nurse he has not proved a cruel Step-mother let the World judge 2. That the Anabaptists are soul sweetly spoken and all the paines he hath taken in his Writings these Twenty years has been to clean them But whether he hath not cast more dirt and filth upon them and made them fouler than ever he found them is easie to be determined by any that reads his plain Scripture-proof c. The next thing I observe is How strenuonsly he strives to have the Fathers on his side and fearing he should lose the Argument from Antiquity we see how the sleepy Lyon's roused and roars like a Son of Thunder fearing the Old worn-out cause of Infant-Baptism should be routed and never rally again But he must know we are not so fond of the Fathers from the Third Century that being as Tully sayes Omissis fontibus consectari rivulos we believe Infant-Baptism is ancient and so are other Errors more antient but from the beginning it was not â—o But that which confirms me against this Fallacy of Infant-Baptism is that the first that mention it do also mention the Erroneous Grounds upon which it was practised viz. for the washing away Original Sin for the conferring of Grace and absolute necessity thereof to Salvation c. But let Mr. Baxter shew us if he can that any of the Fathers speaks of Infant-Baptism as to be performed upon the grounds he and others in this Land have practiced it i. e. the Child 's being in the Covenant of Grace by vertue of both or one of the Parents personally manifesting his Faith and Repentance and being an Enchurched Member of some Congregation c. Here I dare say Mr. Baxter has none of the Fathets of his side now his Orthodox Fathers are Heterodox but is it not strange that if Infant-Baptism were an Apostolical Tradition as divers affirmed and some still dream that the Apostles had not delivered the true grounds upon which it should be practiced as well as the practice it self Or did these Holy Fathers only keep the
closes withall that our practice of Dipping is a breacb of the Sixth and Seventh Commandements Let the same return serve his impious insinuation as is given to Mr. B. and Mr. W. after whose Copies he writes And so I shall conclude with an admonition to Mr. Whiston to more Christian moderation and if he thinks himself concerned to appear farther in ths Controversie that he lay aside all passion and heat as inconsistent with a Gospel-frame of Spirit and tending to the extirpation of that Charity and Mutual Forbearance our Lord Jesus expects from us And let him lay down his Thesis distinctly and set down his Arguments syllogistically or in a form more intelligible to all persons which he will and directly to the matter in debate and not to trouble us nor the world with extraneous and needless rambles leaving the Cardinal pretence unessay'd as he hath done save at a very great distance and with such timorousness and collateral approaches as would make one think he has no great confidence in the attempt however he would carry it in tongue and confidence And I can assure him that if there be any escape or undue reflection in what I have offered which may tend to the breach of Peace or Charity I allow not my self in it and will be willing to receive an admonition if offered in meekness I would further advertise Mr. Whiston not to make Mr. Baxter nor Mr. Ws. his pattern in dealing with us whose pens run at so licentious a rate that the most unspotted innocence is not armor enough against their virulence As for the first no pencil can pourtray him better than his own pen A man of quarrel sometimes friend and sometimes foe to most perswasions to reject whose poyson is to provoke his sting And to slight his Dictates how incongruous soever to truth and inconsistent among themselves is to undergo the severe Discilpine of his lashing pen. Man-kind it seems must gape for his Oraculous Dictates and must believe him as his present Sentiments actuate him or else take what comes after Nor need we express Mr. Ws. in a more averting Character than that he squires â—t after him and should we apeal to Mr. Whiston or any sober man of his perswasion we doubt not but we may have so much equity as to disallow his late dealing with us Figuring and Traducing us in his invective reflections upon the person of Collonel Danvers as if we had been such dangerous persons c. in these phrases When their hands are tyed from fighting Exploits done in the time of his Collonelship c. And what is that but to exasperate the world against us and expose us to the frowns of Authority as much as he can how does this poysonous insinuation consist with his pretences of respect This looks like Juda's kiss Would he think it fair if we should use the engine of Repercussion here doth it not rather in his own Oratory discover the ebullition of a temporizing waspish spirit But he loves us Brethren and desires not our shame He is as courteous as lightning that spares the Scabbard but destroys the blade After he has represented us as such mishapen Bug bears and woundded us with his keenest Railery he would lick over the place he bit and make us believe it is all stark love and kindness Well he hath shot his Bolt tells us our Doctrine is ominous not fit for any Age of the Church with a fixation of black characters upon it leading to blasphemy and immorality and yet all this is not to desire our shame He may by the same artifice knock a man down and laugh upon him and tell him he does him good service He must pardon us if we be coy to so rude a kind of Courtship Therefore upon the whole if Mr. Whiston perseveres in that Intemperate angry frame he began withall in Imitation of the other two I shall not think my self obliged to divert my self from more grateful studies to vye tongue with him knowing that whatever he says or what hard measure he may give me Truth will remain always answerless and unconquered FINIS POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT is now humbly submitted to thine impartial judgment Whether our practice of Baptizing Believers so fully made out by the Scriptures the Suffrage of Learned men in every Age of the Church since Christ owned by our Severest Adversaries to be a Scriptural Baptism exemplified by the practice of all Antiquity deserves such sharp Rebukes as our present Opponents dispence to us And whether that cause we maintain though under so sacred a Patronage deserves to be so persecuted as it is by them and delineated in such frightful Characters since on all sides the baptizing of the Adult is granted but Infant-baptism by one side only and upon such uncertain grounds too every distinction or denomination of Paedo-baptists administring it upon a different pretence some upon a mistake that it takes away sin and saves the Child's Soul some affirming the Infant to have Faith some upon the Parents some upon the Pro-parents or Gossip's some upon Abraham's some upon the Churches Faith a very uncertain sound whilst opposed on the other side with such a dint of Reason both from Scripture-Authority and primitive Antiquity And suppose you had been called to decide a matter in controversie betwixt two and find that what one affirms is granted on both sides but what the other maintains granted by one only and rationally opposed by the other would you not judge his cause best and most safe that 's allowed by both And such is our present case A Queen of England demanded of the Protestant Prelates whether the Church of Rome was a true Church and if Salvation may be had in it They answered in the affirmative The Queen replies that since both sides grant there may be Salvation in the Church of Rome and but one only that there may be Salvation obtainable in the Church of England therefore it was the safest way to remain on that side that both agreed Salvation may be had in And though we plead not for the inference as then applyed yet it holds well in other cases For if one should ask whether Adult or Infant-baptism be a true Scriptural Baptism both sides are agreed that Adult baptism is so and one side only holds Infants baptism to be lawful May not the Querist safely and certainly conclude that side that hath the suffrage of both to be safest And therefore we hope upon a serious weighing this Consideration we may have the Justice and Equity of an open Ear from any denomination of the Christian Religion and that understanding the reason of our consciencious dissent from the practice of Infant-baptism they would not condemn us for affirming what the Scripture invincibly makes out the suffrage of Antiquity ratifies and they themselves own Farewell A BUCKET of WATER To Quench the FIRE Or a Letter to Mr. Obed. Will 's concerning the