rise againe Nay doth not this prove plainly that death had dominion over them and that they were thereby destroyed for otherwise how should there be place for their rising again And indeed the restoring of the Church to her being doth necessarily imply the losse of her being otherwise there would be no place for restoring If all men had been destroyed at the deluge of Noah a new creation had been necessary Happily he may think their is something in that that God is not the God of the dead but of the living in as much as all live to him Indeed this may prove the soules immortality and living with God But what sense it hath in regard of the Church is beyond my thoughts for certainly if it hath reference to the Church it will enforce the being and continuace of the Church of the Jewes and the Patriarchall Churches which ceased long agoe To imagine their continuance what can be more vaine But further if because all live to God therefore the Church alwayes hath a being where is place left for her death and cessation Truly this is a matter too far fetcht to prove any thing in this matter that may stand him in any stead for if any thing be gathered from it it must be that as Abraham and so other Prophets dyed and left the world so the Church of Christ dyed also and was destroyed out of the world But if he shall say Abraham and the rest lived notwithstanding The answer is they lived indeed another way not in regard of their mortall bodies but in regard of their immortall soules Their outward visible bodies were destroyed and in the dust so the outward visible Church is destroyed and ceases to be but the inwardnesse of it the life and soule to wit Jesus Christ is in heaven with God what this maketh to the matter in hand I leave the Reader to judge And this way saith J. S. I suppose Christ may have and enjoy as good a wife ever as any can be preserved for him under the defection of Antichrist Answ This way is a meere supposition without reason and against sense That Christ should have sometime a wife and sometime none and then one againe and yet he should have ever one preserved It were good to lay aside such senselesse suppositions and to beleeve the Scriptures that tell us that the man of sinne sometime sitteth in the Temple of God and that Gods Temple 2 Thes 2. 4. remaineth and hell gates shall not prevaile against it Though the Church Christs wife may goe astray and be corrupted yet he Matth. 16. 18 that is her husband will not forsake but will reform her and refine her and put new garments on her sure he hath read what God said of old to his Spouse Thou hast played the harlot with many Jer. 3. 10. 22. lovers yet return to me saith the Lord I am thy husband and thy maker But happily if he had then lived hee would have supposed Esa 54 5. that Christ might have had or have made to himselfe a new as he in this case endeavoureth to doe for him as good a wife as that that was so corrupt and defiled The truth is there is more rich grace and free mercy in Jesus Christ then to take advantage and to refuse and put away for he is the Lord that changeth not and therfore his Church is not destroyed no notwithstanding the evils she Mal. 3. 6. falleth into for he hateth putting away It were more sutable for J. S. and those of his way to professe Mal. 2. 16. the doctrine of workes which is sutable to their other opinions then the doctrine of free grace unlesse they would be more true to their principles as in this particular more especially wherein they hold corruption dissolveth the marriage bond and maketh the relation to cease and causeth the everlasting Lord to change and his Covenant to faile for evermore Psal 77. 8. The following complaint and story by which it is illustrated I have spoken unto it before in which matter of guilt if hee and those of his way should take water and wash their hands they would notwithstanding be no lesse guilty then Pilate was of Jesus blood But after this he telleth of his feares and that is that men put more in Baptisme then doth of right belong to it that doe preferre it before the Church and all other Ordinances besides Answ Is not J. S. and those of his way sick of this disease and that as dangerously as those he is in such feare of how otherwise should it be that they should be so often baptized over and over and over againe and make a Church that they may make Baptisme I leave the Reader to judge 2. How doth this appeare which he so feareth in others that they preferre it before the Cburch and all Ordinances beside Answ It is onely to the qualification of the matter externally that it might be sutable to the rest of the building Ephes 5. 26. But yet this charge is not altogether true for they doe not preferre Baptisme before the Word and the publishing of it by which faith comes Nay they doe not preferre it above or before the Church the Church being the pillar and ground of truth that is of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. of Ordinances and divine worship and so of Baptisme in the proceed of it in a right way which Church the matter of it at the preparing of it by John was first baptized and after laid together in the building So of this matter thus by Johns preaching prepared and by his washing in the second place fitted was in after time gathered and laid into a holy building to the Lord which Church way begun and setled in the world augmented and encreased those washed washing others according to Christs appointment never any unwashed person being added or laid into the building since the Church begun it being necessary that the matter of the Temple be outwardly fitted that it may sute with the rest of the building being laid thereon So as J. S. may be satisfied that his feares in the first place are causelesse the Church being on foot according to God Baptisme in administration followeth But in further declaring the reason of his feares he saith For they can erect a Church take in and cast out members elect and ordaine officers administer the Supper and all anew without looking after succession any further then the Scriptures But as for Baptisme they must have that successively from the Apostles though it come through the hands of Pope Jone what the reason of this is that men can doe all from the Word but onely Baptisme and that must come by man even by the man of sinne Answ To balance the thoughts of J. S. I will present a case to his consideration supposing he had lived in the Apostacie of the ten Tribes yea of Judahs Apostacie and returning to the Lord
Matth. 3. 3. I. S. is a stranger in his reasons to what is written though as we noted before he doth account it such a faulty thing in others yet he pleaseth himselfe all along in his reasons to infer this and the other thing to little purpose unlesse to deceive Secondly this practice of old namely of propagating the Church by generation was so far from destroying the Church as that it did tend to the increase of it greatly and was a meanes of Gen. 17. 20. 22. 17. 26 4 24. Esay 4. 8 19. Psal 105. 8. the continuing of it according to the gracious Covenant of God to a thousand generations and his promise to the seeds seed a Esay 59. 14. Now that Covenant is yet in force and that promise Yea and Amen b 2 Cor. 1. 20. in Christ as are all other of like nature Thirdly this is an inference savouring of ignorance or else diffidence or both hath not God said that he will poure his Spirit upon their seed to wit of his Church and his blessing upon c Esay 44. 3. their off-spring and that all their children shall be d Esay 54. 13. taught of God that his Church shall be a praise in the world e Esay 62. 7. when he shall returne in favour to Sion that the Gentiles shall bring their riches to her f Esay 60. nay hath he not said that the kingdome and greatnesse thereof shall be given to the Saints of the most high g Dan. 7. 27. and that this honour have all the Saints h Psal 144 9. Last of all what ever is or can be conceived in this reason either in the parts of it or the whole put together cannot amount to make good the charge the whole supposed proofe reaching but to the wel-being and purity of the Church at the most and not to the being of it it being so far from destroying of it as is affirmed the which I leave to the judgement of the Reader Reason IV It is unlawfull to baptize Infants because it is a ground both of ignorance and errour for it holds people in blindnesse that they cannot come to see and know the nature of that holy Ordinance nor what the same requires in the subjects thereof and also it causeth the simple to conceive that Baptisme is of necessity to salvation Answ That it is so as this Reason affirmeth if any please to beleeve it they may sure there is no Word of God produced to enforce them nor yet good reason or necessary consequence which the Author disliketh in others to move them to it Secondly this Reason savoureth of arrogancy and intrencheth on the wisdome of God that established this very thing in the substance of it in circumcision of old it being then no ground of ignorance nor errour neither is it now though he so say there being no more cause given to simple now to thinke so of Baptisme then was given them then in case of Circumcision Indeed it is rather likely their keeping such adoe about Baptisme and building such high things thereon may occasion some strange thoughts to such as are simple as surely it doth Thirdly I aske what should be the reason they cannot see the nature of the ordinances c. The Baptizing of Infants doth not let or hinder the knowledge of persons of yeers those are not the persons he meaneth surely for I appeale to himselfe whether he in particular be hindred at all thereby Nay further it hindreth not Infants when they come to yeers from understanding the nature and ends of the Ordinance no more then it did in the case of Circumcision the Israelites of old it being Gods appointment that children Ephes 6. 4. now as of old should bee trained up in knowledge and understanding If any be hindred from understanding the nature and ends of this Ordinance such are a great cause of it in regard of many that are of the judgement and practice of I. S. who being so mutable in their course one while laying downe another time taking up and then casting away againe And beside altering the ends of Baptisme and rejecting the proper subjects of it namely the lineall seed of the faithfull that many they converse withall are at their wits end and know not what to hold or settle upon And that it is so and also that this reason hath no force in it against the baptizing Infants I leave the Reader to judge Reason 5 It keepeth up the state of Antichrist by granting of him this so chiefe a corner-stone of the Lords House to lie in his foundation for that Church where Baptisme is the true ordinance of God in the administration of it is by the rule of the Gospel a true Church so that if Antichrists Baptisme which he administreth be Gods Ordinance then that Church wherein he doth so administer the same must be also the Church of God and those in sinne that refuse communion with it Answer It may here be minded that divers things are here in this Reason affirmed and concluded but nothing at all proved we know what is written to the Law and Testimony Esay 8. 20. but I. S. seemeth to be a stranger to that and chuseth inferences such as he found great fault with in his Epistle No man needs to beleeve what is said in this Reason unlesse he will Secondly who granteth this to lie in the foundation of Antichrist surely I. S. surmiseth and taketh for granted that which is not acknowledged if any doe or have done it is not for want of ignorance Jeroboam made a schisme set up an idolatrous way of worship and calves and yet notwithstanding that way of his there was Circumcision the Ordinance of God and no part of the foundation of his idolatrous way nor any corner-stone in the building thereof Neither is Baptisme now any more a part of the foundation of Antichrist or corner-stone in that building And if I. S. were not ignorant of this mystery of iniquity he would not thus reason as he doth This mystery of iniquity it wrought in the Church 2 Thes 2. in the Apostles time when Baptisme was Gods Ordinance and no part of that foundation or corner-stone in that building as neither is now any part of it Let I. S. if he can shew when Baptisme became such a corner-stone in the foundation of that building or why it should be so more then Circumcision of old was a corner-stone in that idolatrous state and way of Jeroboam and the Calves let him shew how long it continued Gods holy Ordinance and when it ceased so to be Thirdly Christ is the chiefe corner-stone and this corner-Stone is in Ephes 2. 20. that dessection yet no part of it I suppose I. S. granteth it and will not deny it That there is in many in this Kingdome especially and John Hus alia else where as it was also formerly such as in whom Christ and his
with all truth as the Scriptures quoted compared together will prove To which I say they do easily and fully prove the same and there were never any that held the perfection of the Scriptures that did deny the same yet is J. S. never the nearer for all his pains in multiplying expressions to make the matter seem something when indeed it is nothing at all to purpose For To the Law and the Testimony we are to go And in Esay 8. 20. 2 Pet. 1 19. difficult cases To take heed to the Word as to a Light that enlighteneth in darknesse Now first I say the Scripture giveth no light at all concerning such a cessation of the Church and Ordinances Nay it is against the light of the Scriptures to beleeve any such thing Jesus Christ having said That hell gates shall not prevail against his Church and Matth. 16. Matth. 28. 20. having also promised his presence for preservation and continuation for ever Secondly I say it is but directively that the Scriptures do furnish men in all cases now their direction in this case it is to the Church 2 Tim. 3. 17 18. and to the ministery of man for the enjoying and being made partakers of the holy Ordinances of God The holy Scriptures of old in a like manner stood in the stead of Moses and the Prophets in a sense And yet the heathen were to repair to Jerusalem for the Ordinances as they did and did not act Esay 8. 20. 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2 Chro. 6. 32. them themselves with the help of the Law The Scriptures in a sense stood in the stead of Christ and the Apostles yet the people must go to John yea our Lord himself that he might fulfill righteousnesse Matth. 3. 15. must go to him Cornelius must send for Peter Paul must Act. 10. 32. Act. 9. 10. have Ananias and so such as attain the knowledge of the truth they are to go to the Church and Ministery of man appointed of God and so that way to be added to the Church and made partakers of the holy Ordinances of God for it is most certain the Act. 2. 47. Scriptures act nothing neither can they they onely direct in righteousnesse 2 Tim. 3. 16. their directions is always as aforesaid and no otherwise Thirdly I say it is not true that the Scriptures are in the stead of the holy Ministery ordained by God The Scriptures were not in the stead of the Priests in case of Sauls sacrificing nor in Vzzia the King his burning incense to inable them to do as they did 1 Sam. 13. 12. The Scriptures were not in stead of circumcised Jews unto the Heathen to inable them or make them capable of building the Temple 2 Chron. 26. 17 18. They were not in stead of John Baptist to our Lord They were not in stead of Peter to Cornelius and his friends As it is not in stead of Ezra 4. 3. Matth. 3. 15. Acts 10. 32. Christ the Apostles or holy Ministery to an unbaptized person or persons to inable them warrantably to Baptize and so without Commission to raise this Ordinance a new so lost and deceased out of the world according to his opinion The Scriptures which he quoteth I shall set down and they are these 2 Tim. 3. 15. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Rom. 16. 25 c. Now I appeal to the indifferent Reader whether these Scriptures all or any of them are any other then directive Again whether their direction it be not to a precedent Stative Church and ministery of man appointed by God as formerly under Moses and the Prophets so in this latter dispensation under Christ and the Apostles as is before declared Lastly whether these Scriptures or any of these or all of these compared together do give direction to a person unbaptized himself to baptize either himself or others and whether they do not rather testifie against such usurpation of Gods holy things and running before they be sent in thus doing a thing that never came into Jerem. 23. 21. the minde of God much lesse did he require it at their hands Jerem. 32. 35. J. S. proceedeth and saith By all which we see that all things are contained in the Scriptures Answ Yea in the way of direction and therefore such practices as are without the direction of the Scripture are unwarrantable such as is their casting away as Null their present Baptisme because of some corruptions that did attend it and beginning it again with greater corruptions namely by an unbaptized person without Commission acting of it Here he addeth many good words in commendation of the Scriptures As containing all things concerning faith and obedience as being the Propheticall mouth of Christ to which all must repair unto and all Doctrines and practices must be tryed by and an Angell from heaven is not to be beleeved but as they speak according to it All which is directive as I said before And what then Truly nothing Though he go over the same matter again with some different expressions and some of them improper carrying a shew of favouring his conceit and what he would have As where he saith The Scriptures is the onely place How is this proper or true unlesse he mean in a directive way Where any Ordinance of God in case aforesaid that is of cessation and losse of being again when or wheresoever any of these meaning Ordinances of God cannot be found What then We are saith he to go to the Scriptures directly and recover the same again as Cant. 1. 7. Esay 8. 19 20. Answ All this is but the same over again we are to go to the Scripture for direction if the case were so the Scripture directing and not acting as Esay 8. 19 20. the Church acting according to that direction and therefore persons are sent thither according to that Cant. 1. 7. alleadged which is according to the direction of Scripture which alwayes sendeth men to the Church in such cases so as in this copiousnesse he doth but puzzle his Reader to make him beleeve what he is never able to prove He proceedeth saying Thus having found out the place or subject very improper expressions Is not the Scripture the ground and foundation of all Ordinances in a directive way Did ever any Christian question it much lesse deny it That he should with often going over the same and with such improper expressions and far fetches seek to make it appear as a discovery of truth not known or at least not assented unto sure he had some further drift in it then ordinary In the next place he saith It is to be known how they that want it may come orderly by it For saith he though God hath joyned his Word and Ordinances together yet he hath injoyned an orderly way for his people to come to injoy them Answ I would fain know to what end all the former matter serveth if so be God require an
giveth being to all Order and Ordinances It doth give being of direction and warrant declaring what is good and lawfull and what not It acts nothing God requireth an orderly way and that is by the Church Now courteous Reader do but seriously consider how J. S. hath cleared the way of raising and beginning again Baptisme lost and fallen out of the world as he beleeveth and how he hath removed the difficulties in the way which he ealleth clouds that darken the skie See if thou do not yet finde it very dark and cloudy as ever and never the clearer for all the labour and pains he hath taken and whether his labour and travell herein hath been to any more purpose then the washing of the Blackmoore For first of all Whereas he referreth thee to the Scriptures as the Successours of the Apostles in his opinion First Thou seest the Scriptures were before the Apostles and the Apostles themselves were guided by them Secondly That the Scriptures are onely directive and act nothing at all neither can they and beside they do not direct to any such course as the constituting an unbaptized Church or authorizing unbaptized persons to baptize Thirdly Thou seest what great cause of doubt and question there is according to his opinion whether these Scriptures be the Scriptures of God and whether they have not lost their being having been so long in Babylon and in the hands of Antichristians especially if it be minded that they were by Antichristians translated into our native Tongue their translating must needs make them Antichristian and to be rejected as false as well as their Baptisme Where will J. S. be then do thou but think for the raising a new his Church and Baptisme which I would wish him and those of his way to consider of well But then in the second place God being to be sought as he holdeth in an orderly way according to what he hath declared as his judgement and this orderly way being by the Church rightly gathered and constituted to whom Christ hath committed the power Consider good Reader in the first place that if the Scriptures be not Antichristian as his opinion inforceth that they have in them no ground or warrant by any example or precept for such an unbaptized Church neither can such a supposed Church be orderly constituted or the proceed thereof orderly the Scripture being wholly silent concerning any such thing This conceit of so making Christs Church and so making Baptisme being a meer Popish Tenent and the proceed therin like unto theirs in such like cases So as this Ordinance of Christs Baptisme being according to his opinion destroyed in Babylon and there being no orderly Church of Christ in earth to be found as he holdeth nor no Christ Moses Eliah or Prophet from heaven appearing nor yet any that by Signes and Miracles can prove the truth of their Mission I conceive it necessarily followeth and I willingly leave all men free to judge of it That J. S. is yet for all his clearing in a great straight and under a dark cloud out of and from under which he will not be able to get unlesse he do as Saul did make bold to do that which is unwarrantable and so running before he be sent and doing that which God never spake any word about the which he shall do well to take further knowledge of CHAP. III. Containing a defence of the judgement of such as hold that Baptisme hath continued Gods Ordinance in the Apostacie of Antichrist notwithstanding the corruptions attending of it in way of Answer to the Cavils and Exceptions of J. S. against the same BEfore that J. S. could finish the matter in the former Chapter and clear it as he pretended to do he found some Tenents in his way as opposite to that pretended truth but indeed errour which he endeavoured to maintain the which he setteth down thus First such as stand for a personall succession Again thus A word or two to such as hold succession in the defection of Antichrist Again Such as hold Baptisme by personall succession as in pag. 39. may be seen To which I answer First That sure J. S. mistaketh himself being never able to make it appear that any person or persons do so hold So I might let him alone to contest with his own fancie But in as much as he may happily have met with some that hold the continuation of Baptisme as Gods Ordinance in that defection not in way of succession that being no way proper to an Ordinance returning home unto himself his phrase of succession as darkening the truth I shall apply my self to take knowledge of his scope and purpose First he saith Such have received a sufficient Answer that hold so in what he had writ before To which I answer Indeed if he might be his own Judge in his own cause it might be so It were much better that others should have said so and praised him then he thus his own work But what was it that he had proved before in his conceit That all the world are unbaptized onely he and those of his way Is he not a mighty Champion thus to nullifie and make void the Christianity of all Christians in the world It is more then Turks could ever do by all the force and power they had He hath yet a word or two more to say to such as hold contrary to his erroneous conclusion that Baptisme hath continued and doth continue Gods Ordinance c. And first he begins by way of Querie thus If they mean by defection the outward form of worship and Government Ecclesiasticall as he thinketh they do Answ Is defection of so hard and doubtfull sense with J. S. as he should querie thus and go by thinking he may know that defection or defilement pollution or corruption are of one nature and that there is a reall difference betwixt corruption and the thing corrupted between defilement and the thing defiled betwixt Religion and Gods Ordinances and mens additions to and detractions from the same They mean that the Ordinances and in particular Baptisme hath continued from the Apostles downward thorow all the apostacie and defilements that have attended Religion and it to this day Just as Circumeision of old did continue Gods Ordinance in the apostacie and defilements of the ten Tribes under Jeroboam and likewise in the time of Manasses in Judah This is their meaning and what then Then saith he all the power and authority that ever carried out any Administration or constituted Ordinance depends on the same Just as Circumcision depended on the Calves in Jeroboams apostacie And if so saith he then the Ordainer and Ordinance ordained are both of one nature Yea they are both of one nature God is the Author he is spirituall and Baptisme the thing ordained so also If one be saith he Antichristian the other is also Antichristian Strong lines without proof What if neither be Antichristian neither the Authour nor
and his pure service as those of the ten Tribes that went from Israel to Judah had other Priests and Ministers of the Law and service of God and a pure way of serving of God onely that of circumcision they would continue that though according to his conceit in the case of Baptisme it came from the two Calves What would he have said or thought of it in this case I would faine know If they did well it is good for us to imitate them in a like case 2. I say as before more fully I have shewed that this Church and Ordinances are but new in regard of purity the other being corrupt so all this he calleth new is not like their new raising of the Church and Ordinances as if those before had lost their being and were not at all In this their case which he so excepteth against there is expresse warrant 2 Thes 2. 15. keep the Ordinances as they were delivered unto you that is purely 3. Baptized persons in the case of their returne from idollwayes and Apostacie to the pure service of God are to look after Baptisme no otherwise then circumcised Jewes did in the like case when they returned unto the Lord Ezek. 44. 9. They were not to circumcise themselves or be circumcised again yet the Heather comming along with them they must be circumcised In like manner Gods people comming out of Babylon according to the call of God Rev. 18. 4. are not required to be again baptized though the Jewes and other Heathen that imbrace the faith of Christ are required to doe it which I would wish I. S. and those of his way to consider of 4. For the continuation of the Church and Baptisme the outward qualification of the matter the Scriptures fully give witnesse unto as before is shewed so as is no need of beginning them a new in any sense unlesse of purity but other Ordinances are by negligence laid by and out of use something in the room of them and so are by the Church to be restored to their places when the Church is purged and made pure Lastly for this of Baptisme comming through the hands of Pope Jone and from the man of sin It is a false and scandalous reproach it cometh no more through the hands of Pope Jone and the man of sin then the holy Scriptures did or then Circumcision did through the hands of the two Galves of old J. S. may be ashamed so to reproch Gods holy Ordinance by his good pleasure preserved to this day I would wish him to call to mind his complaint story before And now in regard he is up with Pope Ione again to disgrace the truth and those that stand for it whereby to make persons afraid and do they know not what which after they undo again and so Gal. 2. 18. make themselves every way trespassers by destroying what they before built I will note some particulars wherein those of his way shake hands with Pope Ioane and the man of sin and leave the Reader to judge who may be most justly taxed for affinity with Pope Jone the reformed or separated Churches or those of the new way of Baptisme First those of that way of Baptisme hold generall or universall redemption with the man of sin and Pope Jone 2. Free-will 3. Falling from grace 4. Conditionall Election that men may be saved if they will themselves 5. They hold an universall Church and generall ministery with power universall 6. That Antichrist is not yet come and shall be a particular man and shall continue but three years c. 7. They hold with Pope Jone and accordingly censure all the reformed and separated Churches for meer Schismaticks 8. They hold with Pope Jone dipping in Baptisme I do not say that J. S. or all of that way hold all these particulars but this I am sure that all these are held by persons in that way in practice they also shake hands for as the man of sin hath made a Church so they also have made a Church onely the man of sin and Pope Jone have succeeded better in their work for they have made a Church of a large structure whereas theirs is yet but a little Terret of the like nature 2. As Pope Joane hath sent out her messengers to preach and baptize namely the Friers and others the Moors and Indians so in like manner these send out their messengers to preach and baptize also 3. As Pope Jone and the man of sin give authority to their instruments and ministers to act things without the cognizance of the Scriptures so in like kinde do they namely authorizing an unbaptized person to baptize others In this and one thing more they exceed in irrationalnesse Pope Ione to wit of giving mission to unbaptized persons to baptize 2. In Baptizing them that were before baptized I will forbear to adde other particulars Now let them shew if they can any such doctrines held or courses taken by the separated or rightly reformed Churches in way of affinity with Pope Jone and the man of sin I say no more but leave the Reader to judge In the end of this Sexion he uttereth divers high Notions so undigested unsound and contradictorie as a man that should weigh them could not but wonder First he saith that we are to know that the truth depends not upon Churches nor any mortall creature but onely upon the immortall God who by his Word and Spirit reveals the same when and to whom he pleases This is the first of his wonderfull Notions which we are to know that the truth of Ordinances and right serving God of which is our question depends not upon Churches Where then is J. S. his orderly way he proposed according to God by the Church and her assignement of one or two of her members to begin Baptisme being lost c. Secondly This that he would have us to know is directly contrary to that which God teacheth us to know in his Word 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Church of the living God God himself saith is the pillar and ground of truth that is of Religion and divine Ordinances as we said before Thirdly If I. S. say he do not mean truth of Ordinances truly he is then beside the matter in hand deceiving and being deceived Fourthly If he mean as in the former is specied with whom then doth he contend Do not all confesse the truth as Doctrinall to have God for the Authour of it and to depend on him What high words doth he here use to amaze the Reader as The truth depends not upon any mortall man Who ever held so But upon the Immortall God Who ever held otherwise But this immortall God reveales the same by his Word and Spirit What doth God reveal new Ordinances of Religion by his Word and Spirit Sure this is some dark non-sense He questionlesse meaneth some other thing What Revelation he herein intendeth is not hard to guesse however he is beside the
please So as it must be the want of his new Baptisme or nothing and then I leave it to him to judge whether that be not the form of the Church necessarily according to his ground that gives the being thereunto Secondly if by such he meanes those he was an opponent of in the former matter of the Churches continuation and likewise Baptisme under Popish defection I shall adde a little in the way of defence First granting that such hold indeed no Church to wit rightly constituted as a right or lawfull Ministeriall Church without or before the matter of this Church is baptized Secondly denying that in so holding they make Baptisme the form of the Church as he inferreth and so make Baptisme the form there is more goeth to the proof of a matter then so His five Reasons might well have been spared by which he would prove Baptisme not to be the form of the Church till he had made that to appear to be of necessity the right consequence which sure he is never able to do for there was no right Ministeriall Church of old without Circumcision yet Circumcision was not the form of that Church an uncircumcised person was not to be admitted a member much lesse an officer Circumcision was then an externall qualification of the matter as in like manner is Baptisme now In this matter we shall have recourse to the first beginning of the Church of the new Testament and of Baptisme John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ sent of God to prepare the way of his Son according to Commission baptized much people as did also afterward the Disciples of Christ our Lord to him repaired our Lord to be baptized that righteousnesse might be fulfilled It may be observed by the way that this was in the Church of the Jewes Of these thus baptized was the Church of the new Testament begun whether the initiation of it be referred to the time before the passion of our Lord as to himself and the twelve with whom he brake bread or whether it be referred to the time after his resurrection when he gathered the 120. together and blessed them as is most Acts 1. proper let him take his choice and refer to which he will it was begun of the aforesaid baptized matter which is certainly to the life of the matter in hand in discovering that the matter of the Church was fitted by Baptisme before it was laid together As was the Church at the first rise of it so was the proceed those 120. baptized those that joyned with them being not before baptized as it is written they were baptized and added to the Church This first Church scattered by persecution became the instrument of increase and the first matter of many Churches which Churches by their instruments baptized such as received the faith and joyned into the Lord and thus was the Church and Kingdome of Christ spread throughout the World as the holy history doth shew And let J. S. or any of his way shew that there was ever any unbaptized Church or Congregation of the new Testament or that ever any unbaptized person was received into fellowship or that ever any unbaptized person after Baptisme was a foot in the World baptised or was authorized for to do it And lastly let him tell me whether the order of the new Testament as in another case he asked be not as strict in this case of Baptisme as it was in Circumcision of old when no uncircumcised might have part in the Church or fellowship in the Ordinances much lesse act Ordinances Esek 44. in way of dispensing of them to others And let him tell me whether a precept or example be not as necessary in all those cases as in that of baptizing Infants And lastly whether his practice of raising and beginning the Church of unbaptized persons do agree with the primitive practice of our Lord and his Apostles that began the Church of baptized matter as before J. S. propoundeth a second Reason of his opponents thus The Scripture speaketh of no Church before Baptisme To which he answereth as he did to that of the Gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church He must distinguish he saith A meer shift to blind his Reader and avoid the truth there needs no distinction at all in the case He would not take it well if any should distinguish in case of Infants Baptisme But what is his distinction it is betwixt the truth of the doctrine of Baptisme and the administration of it just as he did in the fore-named case as much as if he had said He must distinguish betwixt the Scripture that teacheth Baptisme and Baptisme or washing according to the Scripture In this first sense Baptisme or the doctrine of Baptisme as much as if he had said the holy word of God is before the Church What this is to the purpose is beyond my judgement nor yet that which followeth no Church according to the order of Christs Testament without it or before it No Church without or before the Scripture how this is to the matter in hand and what clearing or rather darkning there is in this distinction I leave the Reader to judge But now for the second part of the distinction Namely the outward administration of Baptisme that ever followeth the Saints joyning in fellowship by mutuall faith and agreement in the Doctrine wherein consists the stating of the Church in her conjoyning in Covenant which ever goes before in the administration of Baptisme and gives power and authority for the same so saith he in the first sense the Church is not before Baptisme but in the last it is Answ The summe and scope of this whole matter amplified and enlarged is utterly false being referred to the purpose for which J. S. doth bring it namely to prove an unbaptized Church or the Scriptures speaking of such Alas this is farre from proving the matter no not in a seeming way In this case it may be truly said from the beginning it was not so The matter of the Church was fitted outwardly by Baptisme as is before declared And the Scriptures give no president of such Church officer or member at any time such a proceed being cleane besides the Scriptures 2. J. S. deceiveth if not himselfe yet others in what he setteth down in referring that to the initiation of a Church which is onely true of the proceed The Church stated and on foot in the world according to God of baptized persons baptizeth others in way of proceed in a orderly way of administration so it was at the beginning and to begin otherwise is not according to the pattern So as not taking notice of the difference between right beginning and orderly proceed he is clean out and beside the truth and his distinction will appeare to be vain and to no purpose unlesse to deceive for as he setteth down that Baptisme ever followeth in regard of the administration of it the Saints joyning in