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A62458 A letter concerning the present state of religion amongst us Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672. 1656 (1656) Wing T1053; ESTC R5555 12,737 27

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is the marks of predestination whether true or false not distinguishing whether they suppose the Covenant of Grace the undertaking of it and persevering in it or not I say that you are no way secured by these Laws that the Triers themselves much lesse those whom they shall send you are not complices of this damnable Heresy I must not forget to advise you that Dell one so far of this Heresy that he hath written a Book against Baptisme it self is now and is acknowledged by these Commissioners master of a Colledge in the University whereof several fellows have been notorious Preachers of this Heresy who cannot be acknowledged a member of the Church by any good Christian The like I alledge in regard of the Sect of the Anabaptists In which point I must suppose two things First that the Christian Faith supposeth Original sin Secondly that without Baptisme there is no cure for it which depends upon the Premises that there is no absolute predestination without consideration of the Covenant of Grace which Baptisme executeth to cure it For whatsoever our Lord meant when he said unlesse ye be born again of water it is manifest that though no man can become a true Christian without the operation of the Holy Ghost yet the Grace of the Holy Ghost dwelling in a man is not granted but in consideration of his entring into the said covenant and that this onely is the cure of Original sin There is then no necessity of shewing an expresse precept in Scripturre that all Infants be baptized or that the Church from the Apostles time did Baptize all while they were Infants If the Christian Faith suppose Original sin if no cure for that but by the covenant of Grace if no execution of that Covenant but the Baptisme of the Church unlesse where the outward act is prevented by inevitable necessity after the inward desire thereof was sufficiently resolved and declared then is this necessity a constraining precept and hath been so reputed by the Church even since the Apostles which alwayes hath taken order not that all should be baptized Infants but that no Infant should die without being baptized For the diligent watch over all occasions that might carry Infants out of the world unbaptized observed by the Church from the beginning though neglected since demonstrateth no legal assurance of the salvation of such as should die unbaptized whatsoever might be presumed of Gods goodnesse over and above what he declareth But as for those that shall become obliged and engaged to the covenant of grace by being consecrated to God through the act of the Church thereby obliging it self to shew them the truth of Christianity which obligeth all to whom it is shown the necessity aforesaid together with the practice of the Church is a legal presumption of the cure of Original sin and the opening of Paradise which it onely shutteth If therefore our Anabaptists do not believe original sin they are Pelagian Hereticks If beleeving it they beleeve notwithstanding that it is cured by Predestination without the Covenant of Grace they fall into the damnable Heresy premised And seem to make not onely that Baptisme whereby they make void the Baptisme received in the Church of England a renouncing of the Christianity which they received and professed at their Baptisme but that also which they give those whom they will not have baptized while they are infants utterly void and ineffectual towards God as not pretending to bring them into Covenant of Gods Grace by Christ that is into the profession of the true Faith and of fighting against sin till death under the same which they that beleeve Salvation by Gods Predestination revealed by faith without undertaking and persevering in the Covenant of Grace can by no means pretend to do Seeing then that the necessity of Baptisme cannot be denied but upon such a ground as voideth the Covenant of Grace and seeing the Triers are either Anabaptists themselves or complices in the same Commission with Anabaptists whereof there are in the Commission of Triers five or six that I hear of by name and how many more God knows and in the Commission for ejecting of scandalous Ministers in one County of Hertford nine of fifteen as I am credibly informed it is evident that by these Laws you are no wayes secured of having Anabaptists for your Pastors who are expressly Schismaticks forsaking the Church for that which the Church alwayes did and by consequence of the premised reasons Hereticks As the Baptisme of those men whom they pretend to send you for Pastors is by this reason void in point of right so the Eucharist which they may pretend to celebrate will be void of the effect of a Sacrament toward you but not void of the crime of Sacriledge towards God The reasons are two The first because those who have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practise of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacriledge in consecrating the Eucharist Though the name of Ministers signifies no more then deacons and that it is truely Sacrilege for deacons to celebrate the Eucharist But because those whom the Church lawfully gives not the power of celebrating this Sacrament to though by mis-understanding those whom it gives it to may be called Ministers and ought to be called Priests their Eucharist is no Sacrament but Sacrilege The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and beeing of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to be the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to be made by the consecration before which they were onely Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the fame and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must be presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to be guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ as not distinguishing a signe of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the blessed Reformation of Religion in