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A30637 Vindiciæ pædo-baptismi, or, A confirmation of an argument lately emitted for infants baptism in a letter to a reverend divine of the Church of England / by R.B. ... Burthogge, Richard, 1638?-ca. 1700. 1685 (1685) Wing B6157A; ESTC R40304 32,736 88

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and abuse he that hath so many words for bad or for Impertinent purposes hath not one word for that purpose which only became him One would think a man so much in pretentions of Conscience and of nothing but Conscience in the case who did only seek to give or to receive satisfaction should have judged it proper to have considered what was Argumentative and that whatever else he did he should be sure not to have left undone the thing that most Imported those ends But of this not one word but while he is dealing in his Mint Annis and Cummin and yet he is not for Tything he leaves those greater matters undone I beleive by this that you will easily infer as I do that really it was not Conscience as he at first pretended in his Letter to me but it was Rouzed Courage as he tells his Reader in the Epistle to him that made him so concerned and so forward in this controversy And he accordingly manages it not as a serious matter a matter of Conscience for light and Information but as a business of Quarrel and of Vanity only to recover if he can his lost Credit and that Field which as himself confesseth P. 17. once he fairly left me and now he would unfairly regain You see his unfairness in the Publick Management of the business between us which is the Second Head I propounded I now advance to the third which is to Note but briefly the Unjust Aspersions which he makes of Contradiction and Incoherence and of Ostentation and Vanity as he scents them in my Discourse and those he runs upon under two Heads the First with Respect to the Harmony the Second to the Novelty of it As to the Harmony he says First that I affirm in my Advertisement that in this Controversy there is no need of of Exactness of Critiscisme and yet that I say namely in one of my Letters that Gen. 17. 9. 10. must be understood Crittically and that the Apostle was as Critical upon it as I or any other can be Secondly that I say in my Advertisement that I was concern'd to see the Article of Infants Baptism to Hang on Wyres and by Geometry and that I could not see it owner of sure and solid Foundations unless it be as in my Letters I lay it and yet in my Letters I applaud Mr. Baxter's Argument for it Thirdly that in one of my Letters I call the Opinion of antipedo Baptism a Novelty and yet had said in another that it is probable that those who would not suffer little Children to come to Christ to be Bless●d were of the Perswasion of this Anabaptist These are his Mountains Births as to the Harmony of my Argument Really Sir I know not how without Blushing and Begging of your Pardon for giving you the trouble of so great Imp●rtinencys to Enter into Discourse of things so Vain so Frivilous but since it must be done I will endeavour to do it as Little to your Disturbance that is with as much sobriety and Tenderness and with as little Amplification as is Possible I will but touch on these matters and note them without Insisting and Staying upon them To his First Imputation then I say that as one may understand a Text made out and unfolded by a Crittick who himself is no Crittick so that I spake of Exactness of Crittiscism and of that too as a Part of Humane learning as is Evident by the Coherence where I spake of it Ay and when in my Advertisement I affirmed that there was no need of Exactness of Critiscism as to this Business I then did and with a direct Prospect unto what I had affirmed in my Letter both concerning Gen. 17. 9. 10. and the Apostle Paul's being Crittical upon it I say I did add by way of Limitation for the main that for the main of the Controversy there was no need of it And indeed the Controversy for the main of it doth not depend on any Crittiscism much less upon Exactness of Crittiscism and least of all upon Exactness of Crittiscism as it is a Part of Humane Learning one need not to be a great Scholar a great Philosopher or a great Crittick as he must be to be an exact one to understand that Text or the Apostles Crittiscism upon it which to is not a Humane Crittiscism but a Divine To the Second I grant I did say I was concerned and so I was to see the Article of Infants Baptism hang on wyres and by Geometry on which I did and do believe it to be hung by all that do not find it as indeed it is and as I find it is and as many others before have found it inlay'd in the Constitution of an Instituted Church and in the Harmony of the Scriptures Those that lay it otherwise do not lay it on its true Foundations But I never said as this Wyre drawing man whose only business is to put me under Odium and Envy with all Partys would make me say That all before me hung it but on Wyres for Those did not even according to that saying of mine who founded it on Abrahams Covenat and in the Constitution of an Instituted Church as many did before me and as even Mr. Baxter must seeing the Membership of Children which is the Principal Argument he goes upon cannot be understood but with Relation to the Constitution of a Church and it is Inlay'd in the Covenant And where now I Pray you Sir is that Vanity or that Contradiction which this Lincey'd man that Looks through stone walls hath Espyed or rather Invented I say Invented for when he Affirms P. 3. that I said I could not see it meaning Infants Baptism to be owner of sure and solid foundations Vnless it be as I here lay it he Imposes Grosly I said no such words I only said Unless it were Inlaid as I find it is in the very Constitution of an Instituted Church and in the Harmony of the Scriptures and many to be sure If not most now a dayes do take it to be so Inlaid All do that Ground it on the Covenant of Abraham though they do not All find it to be so in one way and in the same Method As to his Third Exception Give me leave to tell you that in the last Paragraph of my first Letter speaking of some that in our Saviours time did forbid little Children to come unto him to be Blessed I said in a Parenthesis and as it were smilinglyly not by way of Position as a thing on which I Insisted but only Pleasantly that some it may be of your Perswasion c. But such is the Judgment the Exactness of Judgment of our great Disputer that he takes as spoken seriously That which was but Pleasantly spoken making it to Contradict what other where I say concerning the Novelty of his Perswasion And to perswade his Reader the better for none that is mine can think so that he hath grounds for what he
says he falsely represents my words and makes me say Pag. 3. That it is Probable those that would not suffer little Children to come to Christ were of his Perswasion Is not this an honest Disputant or rather a cunning sophister I said some it may be of your Perswasion And it may be is but happily and that at most is but a Possibility and he hath made Probability of it in a word hath made a Serious matter of what was only intended for a Divertive one But of this I doubt not but I shall hear again and be Rhimed for it In the mean time I will Ask him one hard Question viz. Where it is that I do say as he says I do to this purpose that 't is Probable c. sure he can never find it but where he finds that Mahomet's Tomb at Mecca to use his own Expression Pag. 5. is said to hang by Geometry or that the Licians suffered none to propose a New Law but at his Peril Pag. 5. and that is no where but either in his own Common-Place-Book or to speak in his own most Civil Language within his own Pericranium and there Magnetism and Geometry Serious and Pleasant Licians and Locrians Scotus and Sotus are all one and not so much as Mensa as a Table between them I have ended with the Reflexions which he makes as to the Harmony of my Argument the which you see are so rarely Proper and so Judicious that you may well believe though he say it himself Pag. 64. That his Reader will find namely in his Book somewhat of Brain as well as Tongue and somewhat of his Brain you have already had upon the Harmony of the Argument Now you shall have somewhat too of his Tongue upon the Novelty of it And upon this Head First He Gravely Informs me that Innovators hear not well among the Judicious P. 4. As if Anabaptists were not Innovators but all for Antiquity and the good Old way Secondly He is again at his Tales that the Licians he should have said the Locrians suffered none to Propose a New Law but at his own Peril P. 5. as if Arguments were Lawes or that Infants Baptisme were not setled by ours In fine He Adds and you may think from Pure love that the Church of England by all means He is much Concerned for Her and all other the Assertors and advocates of Infants Baptism on the Old Foundations are more concerned in one Passage than He P. 5. As if all of all orders were fast asleep and all like to be lost unless a Goose a Second time should save the Capitol You see Sir his Extraordinary Courtesie for the Church of England as well as for other the Advocates and Assertors of Infants Baptism But I hope this Church and those other Advocates and Assertors of Infants Baptism will not for all that be Wheedled into a Mistake You may be sure his Courtesie is but Polyphemus ' s Now indeed He fights against one but know he hath a Reserve for all you now must look to your Old Foundations He is Principally P. 5. at Present at least only concerned about the new one Mark that at Present at least This Church no more then others hath no entire security from him It is not a Peace but only a Cessation he grants He is at Present only concerned about the new one But time may come for the old ones too And Really he is Provided already if such a time shall come For as you had it before in his Letter He hath a very Large Discourse which he had before Compiled in which he doth Consider and give Answer to all the most Material Arguments which are usually Insisted on for Justification of the Practice of Infants Baptism c. The Church of England it seems for all his Kindness to her and all other the Advocates and Assertors of Infants Baptism though now he claws them might have heard of him sooner Ay and have felt him too before this but that unluckily for my self but luckily enough for this Church and for those other Advocates and Assertors I did come in his way and now the Cry is Novelty Novelty Truly I think it very needless and I could wish that others thought so too to Vindicate my self from his Extravegancies upon his Topick and to tell you That the Title Page of my Book on which he principally grounds Them as it went from me was nakedly this An Argument for Infants-Baptism deduced from the Analogy of Faith and Harmony of the Scriptures And what is added if any Imputation can be laid to it of Gaudiness or Ostentation it must be Put on the Book-seller as the Occasioner of it I acknowledge it is said that the Method is wholly New and that it certainly is but it is not said as this Disputer doth Report it That the Argument is wholly New Method and Matter are very different things and in the very Title where it is noted that the Method is wholly New it is said of the Grounds and these are Matter not that they are wholly New but that they are not commonly Observed Implying that they may have been and are by some Observed though Happily not by every Body And who will say they were And when I say the Argument as I do manage it hath little Authority 't is manifest I speak not of the Argument as to the matter and grounds of it but as to the Method and Form of Managing of it I say not the Argument Simply but the Argument as I do Manage it the Method of Management is mine and is New but the Grounds on which it is Bottomed are not New but are as Old as the Church and as the Bible In fine to Alter Schemes is not to Innovate Articles Schemes are but Dispositions of Matter and may be exceeding various and often are even where the Matter for the main is the same But what if the Argument were New and all as New as the Method Would it to a Man of Conscience a Seeker of Light a Lover of Truth go the less in Value but for That if it is Good It is not Antiquity any more than Novelty It is Verity only that ought to be considered by Conscience and indeed that is for as old Arguments are not Entertained by it only because they are old So new ones are not Rejected only because they are new Dies diem docet but I may not so much Imitate the weakness of my Adversary as to fall a Common Placing and therefore I say no more as to this Thus Sir I have Followed my Adversary in his Prosecution of his two Topicks Harmony and Novelty and have considered his Reflections and now should very gladly dismiss a Subject so unpleasant and so little to Edification but that in a charge he makes upon me both in his Epistle to the Reader and in other places there is another Instance of his Falshood Malice and Calumny Proper fruits of that Distemper