turned Christians yea then so many thousands of the Iews which then believed and became Christians Act. 21.20 might have multiplied as easily by this time into one Christian nation at least by the pastoral power improvement and sanctity of Saint Simon Peter as the Church of Rome i. e. those few Gentiles which at first believed there did at last by the pollitick power improvement and subtilty of Sir Simon the Pope his supposed successour increase and multiply into so many And as God did not shew unto Peter in the forenamed place that he had now removed that birth priuiledge and old Covenant holinesse from the Iews by nature to the natural seed of believing Gentiles so Thirdly he shewed him point blank that he had now quite abolished and put an end to that old outward carnal legal ceremonial account of things and persons as holy and unclean so that now as no meats nor flesh of birds and beasts should be counted common or unclean in relation to other as aforetime so no men now or flesh of men however born should by meer fleshly birth of such parents though unbelieving Gentiles be counted common or unclean in relation to others whether Iews by nature or believing Christians natural seed as more holy by birth then they for being cavill'd with by them of the circumcision i. e. the birth priviledged Iews for eating things common and unclean and for associating himself with men uncircumcised common or unclean for so both the Gentiles or uncircumcision in the flesh and many meats eaten by them and prohibited to be eaten by the Iews are call'd and accounted under the law he tells them chap. 11. that he was at first as scrupulous of the thing as themselves till a voice from God declared to him that he must not now call any thing common or unclean that was so before in respect to other as more holy then it in the sense of the law because whatever was then common or unclean in such a sense God had now cleansed i. e. destroyed that denomination and distinction that was between it and what answerably to it was wont to be called holy And that these discriminating terms of holinesse and uncleannesse are as much abolished in all people and their fleshly seed as in all other flesh of birds and beasts appears undeniably chapter 10.28 where he tells Cornelius the very same as concerning men who aforetime were by birth common or unclean that he tells them of the circumcision as concerning other creatures which aforetime were called common or unclean Ye know saith he that t is an unlawful thing meaning according to the will of God under the law for a man that is a Iew to keep company or come unto one of another nation for then indeed Iews by nature might not eat with such as were by nature sinners of the Gentiles but now God hath shewed me that I should not meaning in these dayes of the Gospel call any man common or unclean observe the words I beseech you and consider them with reference to the vision it self and that further exposition of it which Peter himself makes in the 11. chapter and the result thereof is no less then this viz. That as there is now nothing i. e. no meats or flesh of birds or beasts or other creatures more unclean unholy unlawful or abominable to be eaten then other as some was under the law so there is not now any man by birth nature or nation unclean in such sense as the Gentiles were of old in reference to the Iews but that all men are alike now by birth and none by nature more holy or unclean then other in such wise as before none by meer nature neerer to God or further off more or less the people of God or accepted with him further then by holinesse or unholinesse of life they are distinguisht In further consideration of which v. 34.35 Peter opened his mouth again and said thus of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons i. e. now he accepts not men of one nation above another no not Iews by nature more then those which heretofore in relation to that birth-holiness the Iew had were counted sinners of the Gentiles nor any one man above another as meerly descended of such a parent but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Though therefore time was when the natural seed of Jewish parents as meerly so born though proving never so morally wicked profane and unbelieving in their own persons were still accepted of God I mean in that outward ceremonial sense onely as his people his peculiar chosen generation his holy nation above all nations of the earth though as Mr. Blake saies truly none of the holiest for any transcendent manners of the inhabitants yet when Christ came the hour came and now is wherein no fleshly birth or being of this or that nation or parentage or natural descent and condition doth invest one person or people with this birth-priviledge of acceptation before God as his people or denomination of a holy people or seed more then others the hour now is wherein in meer infancy there 's no more distinction at all between persons as holy and unclean wherein faith and not typical but true holiness or holinesse of truth onely Eph. 4 17 18.24 makes the distinction between the Church of the Genliles and other Gentiles wherein there 's no difference between Iews and Gentiles and the children of both save according as they are called and have hearts purified by faith Act. 2.39.15.9 wherein the righteousness and grace of God is unto all and upon all alike without difference in time of infancy and upon all alike that believe a like when they come to years for there 's no difference Rom. 3.22 wherein there is neither Iew nor Greek circumcision or uncircumcision more unclean or holy by nature either then the other as of old but all alike accounted sinners or holy according as they live sinfully or holily and not other wise If then we may not call any man of what blood nation or parentage soever under the Gospel common or unclean as God shewed Peter that he should not no not those who saving the abolishing of that unclaanness are as abominable by birth as the Gentiles were in the time of the law then may we not call any man however naturally descended holy upon the same account of that his natural birth in comparison of others Whereupon though Christ called the Canaanites by nature dogs in reference to the Iews and their seed the children while that birth-uncleanness or holinesse stood yet unabolished Mat. 15.12.26 after which example Mr. Blake takes such blind boldness to himself as to imagine the new born infants of believers and unbelievers may respectively be so denominated still yet he takes upon him much more then God ever gave Peter leave to do or any man else in those dayes of the Gospel if
lamb slain from the beginning of the world the same conditions of faith and repentance to be made partakers of the Covenant the same graces promised in the Covenant circumcising the heart to love the Lord c. Theirs was dispensed in darker prophecies and obscurer sacrifices types and sacraments ours more gloriously and in a more greater measure the clothes indeed do differ but the body is the same and so p. 13. The very self same priviledges formerly made peculiar to the Iews are now saith he through Christ communicated to the Gentiles Baptist. That the Covenant of grace is for substance not two but in all ages one and the same within it self who denies but what then is it therefore one and the same with another that most manifestly and downrightly differs from it and is as distinct a covenant also as that within it self for so verily the law which is also called the first covenant or the Covenant of Circumcision was varying wonderfully from that Gospel Covenant whereof yet we confesse is to be the type in both its Priesthood and People its Mediator and Attonement sacrifices and offerings precepts and promises inheritance and heirs birth-priviledges and seed ordinances and their subjects and all things thereunto pertaining I say they were very divers each from other saving still that one was to shadow out the other viz. Moses the Mediator Ioshua the Saviour Aaron the High-Priest and his burnt offerings for that temporal annuall Attonement Heb. 10.1 2. and purgation from fleshly impurities were all to point our Christ who is all this spiritually viz. the Mediator Saviour High-Priest Sacrifice and author of eternal Attonement between God and us and purification of our Consciences in the Gospel those earthly promises and inheritance were to represent our heavenly their fleshly heirship birth-priviledges seed and admission of new born babes to ordinances to shadow out what high born heirs those babes are who are begotten to the faith and their right and title to a standing in the Gospel Church O but saies Mr. Marshall they had the same Gospel Covenant that we have the same Christ the same conditions i. e. faith and repentance c. First take notice that with him faith and repentance are the conditions on which persons stood then and ever before and do now in the Gospell Covenant which things he knowes infants have not and therefore are not by right to be visibly inchurched and incovenanted under the Gospel till they visibly appear to have them yet under the Law they were in covenant and inchurched for all that and why because faith and repentance were not the conditions of that Church-covenant and ordinances nor of heirshâ—p to that Earthly Canaan but meer fleshly descent of Abraham Isaac and Iacob which whoever had had title to circumcision and Canaan though not to heaven thereupon if they never believed nor repented whilest they breathed Secondly but what if they had the same Gospel Covenant that we have held forth to them at least in a darker way will it follow therefore that they had not also another Covenant over and above that peculiar to themselves which we have not whereof circumcision was a token and which believing Gentiles much less their seed have nought to do with at all I trow not for though we grant Mr. Marshall that they had the substance of the Gospel among them as also Adam Noah and Abraham had and the same priviledges of that Covenant that we have excepting some circumstances of it wherein we are beyond them that will not run retro as Mr. Marshall would fain have it That the self same priviledges formerly made peculiar to the Iews are now through Christ conveyed to the Gentiles for the old Covenant priviledges viz. the fleshly birth holiness and heirship to Canaan and title to be signed as heirs upon a meer natural descent are such as the best Gentiles and best believers seed in the world can lay no claim to for that was as we see Gen. 17. a distinct proper Covenant to themselves as the fleshly seed of Abraham Isaac and Iacob whom the spiritual seed themselves have as such no right to partake with in their inheritance or earthly Canaan as this fleshly seed as meerly such have no right to partake with the other in their heavenly Canaan Babist But Mr. Marshal saies p. 11. that all their external promises in case of obedience all outward blessings which were to be enjoyed by them the land of Canaan and all the good things in it all outward punishments and threatnings losse of their Conntrey going into captivity and their sacrifices their washings their sprinklings their holy persons holy feasts and holy things were all of them but so many administrations of the Covenant of grace earthly things were not onely promised and threatned more distinctly and fully then now they are to them who are in Covenant but were figures signs and types and sacraments of spiritual things to be enjoyed both by them and us Baptist. As I grant the Covenant of Grace which promises eternal life on conditions as Mr. Marshall confesses of only faith and repentance to be for substance for ever the same within it self so I grant that the other covenant viz. all those external promises of outward blessings which were to be enjoyed by the Iews in Canaan in case of their obedience was a certain outward administration and lively type of that inward and true covenant of grace yet still must it be regranted by Mr. Marshall and all men that even that was a true real and really distinct covenant also of it self and though that were a plain picture and a map of the other and as it were a different dresse wherewith it was clothed upon and wherein it was exhibited to the world yet was it not onely an administration of the Gospel but also an entire covenant so substantially divided from that as that its most properly denominated another covenant and not that and they both are truly denominated to be two viz. an old and new one a first and a second which they could not genuinely be unless one were more then meerly another form and manner of administration or the other Nay seriously if that Gospel covenant which both you and wee say is one and the same in substance onely admitted variation in its circumstances doth multiply it self answerably to the number of those different clothings which that one body hath successively come forth in and must be as multifariously expressed as it hath shewed it self in various habits to our view and bear the names of two of first and second old and new from its severall and remarkable periods and administrations then sith there hath been not two onely but as you say truely your selves four remâ—rable periods and circumstantial appearances of that covenant viz. the first from Adam to Abraham the second from Abraham to Moses the third from Moses to Christ the fourth from Christ to the end the word would
appear concerning them Mr. Baxter professeth that it is utterly unknown to any man on earth and unrevealed in the word whether God give infants any inherent spiritual grace or not p 301. Therefore to salve his baptism of infants that have not that grace and faith in them that is prerequired to be in persons to be baptized as a condition he very goodly tells us that by grace and faith being prerequired as a condition he means either in the party or another for him so then though infants have no faith in themselves yet o mirandum they have faith in the loines i. e. in the hearts of their parents and so are to be baptized thâ—y are buryed in the dipping of the Ministers hand saith Featley and believe by the faith of their Parents saith Mr. Baxter Thus oh how these men who more stink of the Schooles then skill in the Scriptures are at variance about their own inventions bending their brains some one way some another to botch up their businesse of infant-baptism and yet as fast as one builds up another of them saves us a labour and razes and pulls down to our hands oh what stoch what stuff what stirs what strife what stickling what striking flatly against each others principles what a ditty what a do is here among them as if the Divines were all mad so let all the fraternity of divines be divided o God and fall out ever about their own falsities till they find thy truth and never let them agree better among themselves on what account to baptize infants till they ashamed of themselves and people ashamed of waiting on the Seers for determination of what is truth be all driven to confesse as blessed be thy name Mr. Baxter doth already p. 301. That they find it a hard controversie to prove infant baptism it is so dark in the Scripture much more a hard task to prove different uses of it to men and infants as needs they must if they prove it to be of use to infants for it signifies not at all to them as it does to men and so to conclude to the freeing of themselves from that puzzle and perplexity and fire of contention that now they fry in for their hatred of that one onely plain way of truth that leades to piece that verily t is not thy will that any infant at all should be baptized and let Mr. Ba. who was once in doubt of infant baptism upon sight of the slender grounds that other divines did hold it from till satan seduced him back again to the belief of it again be perswaded if it be thy will on sight of the more weak and slender principles which with much ado he hath found out whereon to satisfy himself and others and to sit still in the shadow of that superstition to be not almost onely but altogether saving their sufferings from him such as thy servants are whom he yet vilifies what he can As then to Mr. Baxters Appendix of Animadversions on Mr. Bedfords Dr. Burges and Dr. Wards absurdities about baptismal regeneration of infants t is no matter to us yea I conceive it a likely means of it self to make wise men renounce Infants baptism that read there at what ods they are and how they wrangle among themselves that own it beside sith he that passing by meddles with a strife not belonging to him is like one that takes a dog by the ears Pro. 26.17 I le passe by for my part and not meddle with it at all Fourthly another part of Mr. Baxters book is a small slender tract of about one leaf long penned in proof of baptisms abiding a standing ordinance of Christ to the worlds end and therein so far am I from excepting and contradicting that I rather approve it considering the high head of contradiction that in this last loose age already is and within a while much more and mote headily will be made against it and how the subtility of Satan is such that sith he can uphold his kingdome now no longer by his old souldiers the Rantizers which changed the lawes and ordinances of Christs kingdome he seeks to do it by erecting a new moddle of men I mean the seekers and Ranters who rase the very foundations of it and how sith he can prevail no more to deceive the nations from the narrowway of truth by his old Spiritualty the spiteful Priest he hath spit a new Spiritualty out of his mouth from which as from a greater Carnalty then the other the earth that it may be ripe for the sickle as it must be at Christs coming shall abound with abomination i. e. they that separate themselves from the true Church after their separation with them from the false sensual having not the spirit yet pretending more highly to it then ever any considering all this I say I seriously side with Mr. Ba. as to that subject and to shew him who simply supposes we are all a people posting towards the pulling down of Christs ordinances because some do and because all of us as we are sworn to iâ— seek what we are able to pull down mens to shew him I say notwithstanding his conceits to the contrary how close we keep according to the counsel both of Peter and Iude in that behalf 2 Pet. 3.2 Iude 17. to the commandements of Christ and his Apostles in these last daies wherein they declare that others should depart from and despise them to shew him also how little reason he hath to charge us with their evils who are to use his own phrase p. 26 above ordinances i. e. above obedience to God and so Gods themselves I intend God willing beâ—ore this work escape my hand that is now under it to bestow some few lines on the same subject having been often requested to it by others in vindication to the truth Fifthly as for the forepart of Mr. Baxs book for more then a fourth part of it is worn out in Preamâ—ular passages apologies epistles to the Church at Kederminster at Bewdley which Churches alias parishes of Kâ—d and Bew for all the people till of late that some few have separated themselves together to Mr. T. are Church-members with Mr. Ba. in those two places p. 280. which parishes I say howbeit sowing pillowes that they may sleep the more seeurely in superstition Mr. Ba. by a dedication of his doings to the Church at Ked to the Church at Bew. would fain flatter into a faith that each of them is a Church of Iesus Christ yet I must crave leavâ— to inform those Churches from Christ that as yet they are no other then Churchâ—s of the Popes calling and constitution for the parochial posture of Christning and so inchurching of all that are born within the bounds and barely abide within the precincts of the parish had its order from the head of those Churches viz. the Vicar of Christ but not at all from Christ Iesus himself yea and though there may be many
of Iesus Christ in token whereof they are not only outwardly baptized in water immediately after they are thus born and become the Children of Abraham by faith but also circumcised in the heart with the circumcision made without hands i. e. inwardly sanctified by the spirit of God mortyfying crucifying cutting off and casting out the fleshlie superfluities thereof Col. 2.11 All which as its proved abundantly in each particular thereof in several other Scriptures as Rom. 4.13.14 Heb. 8.6 Rom. 9.7.8 Gal. 3.7.9.26.27.28.29 so is it verie plainly and summarily shewed in Heb. 9.23.10.1 where the Law of the old Covenant is said to be with all the holy things thereof but onely patterns of things in the heavens figures of the true and to have only a shadow of the good things to come and not the verie substance of the things themselves the Covenant-holiness therefore and birth-priviledge which was then in the Jewes fleshly seed with whom that Covenant was made was as all other things then were but typicall and consequently but ceremonial and temporal I mean abiding onely till the time of the Gospel And since your selves acknowledge that what was but typicall of old is now vanished I marvel that you should so much forget your selves as to renounce the same holiness that was then in all other things and retain it still as standing in the seed and you hold it to be removed from Abrahams own fleshly seed too and subjected onely in the fleshly seed of believing Gentiles you fight against the owning of any of that kind of holinesse that of old was I mean you Priests of the Presbyterian party for the Bishops and Dâ— Featley fight against it in the Pope and yet hold it themselves to be where you own it not in Temple Copes Surplices Altars Fonts Chalices and such holy Church-geer as Christs Church in London in Oxford in Cambridge in Canterbury did once supera bound with but neither Christs Church in Rome till corrupted nor Christs Church in Corinth nor Ephesus nor Philippi nor any of the rest of the Churches in the primitive times ever did nor any of Christs true Churches in these latter times ever will place holiness in any more I say you are against all that relative Jewish ceremonial holiness and abide not to hear of its abiding in any thing else yet abide not to hear any otherwise but that it abides still in that onely subject i. e. the fleshly seed of enchurched parents But Sirs although in most things I must needs preferre the worst of you two P Priest-hoods of the Prelatick and Presbyterian posture yet to give the Devil his due in this one thing I cannot but commend the Pope and his Priesthood beyond you both in that since you will all needs Iudaize more or lesse and regulate your Gospel service by that of the Law they Judaize more judiciously and more ingenuously than either of you two PP that pluck him to pieces for it for thou English Scottish Angel are neither hot nor cold neither gospel nor law neither wholy Romish nor rightly reformed but retaining a little of one and a little of the other and lying in a Lukewarm temper between them both for which God will spue you out of his mouth as well as them but as for the other they are not lukewarm but I bear them record they have as the Jewes also had since the Gospel came in a zeal of the Law but not according to knowledge yea they are zealous of the holyness of that Covenant more and more compleatly then either of you for they plead not only for the holiness of their fleshly seed as P. nor only a holiness in Temples Altars Fonts Vestmenâ—s Vessels c. as P. but for a holiness well-nigh in all those things and more too than ever were denominated holy under the Law in which supererrogating I must needs uncommend them again as far worse then you yea they say downrightly to the people that except it be after the manner of Moses in all things almost Iudicial and Ceremoniall only Moralls they are a litle more moderate in observing and can better bear an absolute abrogation of viz. one Holy High-Priest to procure attonement aliâs sell indulgencies and pardons whose supremacy must be owned and he answerably adorned with holy Mitre and Crown Purple Scarlet fine Linnen Chaines of Gold also if there be â—ot holy Altars Tapers Lavers holy Water Offerings first fruits fine flower Wine and Oile Salt Cream Spittle c. holy Fasts as Lent Wednesdaies Fridaies holy Feast-daies in memorial of such Saints as the Pope eanonizeth which are more by far then there are daies in the year holy Pictures and Images holy Warrs holy Pilgrimages holy Clouts holy Rags holy Reliques holy Bells holy Chanteries holy Churchyards of which they say Pueri sâ—cer est Locus extra Mejete holy persons devoted to service viz. holy Votaries holy Monks holy Friers holy Nunns sic de ceteris from the Vniversal Vicar to the holy singing men and pipers and the rest of that rabble which are the very vermine of Christendome yea if they observe not all the holy Statutes and ordinances which his Holiness their Lord God the Pope commands them especially if they seperate from the holy Catholike Church of his constituting they cannot be saved Thus they clean outstrip you if pleading for relative dedicative holiness and consecration of persons places and times be as proper under the Gospel as under the Law and are so zealous of that kind of holiness that in zeal thereof they will have all to be Holiness to the Lord till they come to be as wicked and prophane as the very devil himself can well desire they should be Si aliquando quare non nunc saies the Pope when you question him for his Dedicative holiness if so once why not now If under the Law why not under the Gospel the same phrase you commonly bespeak us in when we demand a reason why you fancy such a birth-holiness in your fleshly seed in return to which against such time as you shall satisfy us so slenderly in this case so as to say Si aliquando quare non nunc arguing from the manner of things under Moses that thus or thus they ought to be under Christ and deriving a holiness from that of the Jews fleshly seed to the fleshly seed of believing Gentiles under the Gospel I leave this double question upon record First Si aliquid quare non quicquid If you will have any thing holy with that Ceremonial holiness now why not every thing that then was so Secondly Si aliqualitèr quarè non aequalitèr if you will needs Iudaize at all why not in all as well as the Pope though where he doth all and more too he shall at last have no thanks for his labor The next and last argument whereby I shall prove that typical holiness of Abrahams fleshly seed as well as of all the other
he now call any person by meer naturall birth more holy common or unclean then other T is not now fleshly birth nor circumcision nor uncircumcision in the flesh that discriminates men as Saints or sinners children or dogs holy or unclean in Covenant with God or out fit or unfit further then non-age unfits all alike for such a thing now to be of the visible Church which is not now nationall neither as heretofore it was for under the law this only made men communicable or incommunicable one with another this was the cause why those of the circumcision cavilled with Peter till he satisfied them to the contrary because he being a Iew by nature and circumcised in the flesh went in to men uncircumcised and did eat with them Act. 11. from eating with whom he dissemblingly withdrew himself at another time fearing them of the circumcision Gal. 2. which way of discrimination of persons each from other as holy and unclean fit or unfit for Church-communion each with other by meer fleshly birth and circumcision in the flesh was but a type the Antitype whereof is not this viz that believers fleshly seed are holy Saints Gods people Church-members by birth and contrariwise unbelievers fleshly seed by nature dogs swine sinners unclean in such sort as the seed of Iews and Gentiles were under the law but this rather and indeed viz. that believers themselves spiritually born by faith in Iesus Christ circumcised in heart doing Abrahams works are now the children of Abraham a peculiar people a holy nation neer and deer unto him that must dwell in his house and be fed and refresht with that bread of which there 's abundance and vnbelievers themselves unholy ones in heart and life never new born nor become children to God and Abraham by faith in Christ but remaining uncircumcised within under the unclean lusts of the flesh are those unclean ones and sinners with whom communion is not to be held by the other in Church bodies those dogs and swine to whom the childrens bread is not to be divided nor holy things given even the holy ordinances of the Gospel nor pearls cast i. e. the precious particularities of professed believers viz. baptism and the supper thrown away upon them Moreover as God shewed Peter by that vision Act. 10. that not any man now no not a Gentile by nature may be called common or unclean any more then one that is a Jew by nature so he shews him the same ore again in a round reproof by the mouth of Paul Gal. 2.11 to 19. where t is recorded how shamefully he separated from eating with the Gentiles for fear of offending the Jews of whose cavils with him in this kind he had had some experience before Act. 11. as if he had been opinion'd still according to the law that such meats as were then unclean and such people as were then sinners by nature in reference to the then holy seed of the Iews had been no lesse then abomination still for him or any Iew by nature to eat of or eat with and likewise how roundly he was dealt with by Paul who minded him of that which he knew well enough but was too willingly ignorant of at this time viz. That these who were but a while since by nature holy were now no holier by nature then Gentiles that were then also called sinners of the Gentiles but that as to that old account of ceremoniall uncleanness and holinesse whereby they were distinguisht from the very womb before they were now all alike by nature viz. Iews no more holy then other men and other men even Gentiles no more sinners by birth then they all that partition wall of birth holinesse and uncleanness propinquity and alienation that did once difference some men from other ab incunabilis being broken down and themselves such as must look upon themselves as dead to that law whereby they stood the children of God and Saints and all other men sinners by fleshly birth and under another law now even that of the Gospel by which there is no other way of being holy and becoming so much as relatively onely much lesse really the children of God then that of faith in the Lord Iesus for the Iews themselves more then for any other and therefore in case they now go about to build again the things that they had destroied meaning that fleshly birth holinesse which they had before disownd they should make themselves transgressors in so doing this verily is the very sum sense and scope of that Scripture viz. to cry down all the old ceremonial distinctions of men by nature and Nation to beat down all that old birth priviledge and preheminence of one person however descended above another as to Gospel participation and communion out of which yet Mr. Blake blindly takes his text where upon to build again a certain birth holinesse in one mans fleshly seed above another the very thing that Paul there declares rather to be abolished most perversly propagating to the meer carnall sâ—ed of Christians that antient tipical and now ended holinesse of Iews by nature who though the seed of believing Abraham himself yet have none of it at all now themselves nor yet whilst they had it could be admitted by Iohn to baptism and gospel priviledges upon that onely account and yet if it still remain as the thing intitling to ordinances both must have it and a right also to baptism by it specially if Mr. Blakes own tenet be true that the ground of a childs admission to baptism is not the faith of his immediate parent onely as he saies it is not p. 24. of his birth priviledge but the promise made to believing Ancestors at a great distance for as he saith there that if Iosia have no right from his father Ammon yet he is not to be shut out having right from his father Abraham so say I Abraham being not onely the remote parent of Iosia but of all the Iews that are born at this day also if the Iews have no right now from their own immediate parents that in the primitive times or more lately believed not the Gospel yet may they have right if right at all be to be had to Gospel priviledges from the parents faith at a distance from their remote fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob whose believing of the Gospel is as well worthy to intitle all their seed to this day to the Gospel promises as the faith of any believing Gentiles onely I cannot therefore but stand amazed in my mind to consider how miserably Mr. Blake mistakes himself in taking that text from which to prove a present birth holinesse in the infants of believing Gentiles which if there were no other to compare it with doth sufficiently clear it of it self alone how much more if compared with those forecited out of Act. 10. Act. 11 that there is now no such holinesse and uncleannesse as was once between Iews by nature and such as
that formed them will shew them no mercy and the lord Iesus shall come with flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not his Gospel and that because they received not the truth in the love thereof that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions to believe lies that they all might be damned who had pleasure in unrighteousnesse c. who ere transgresseth and abideth not in the the doctrine of Christ hath not God every soul that heareth not the voice of that Prophet shall be destroyed with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and an hundred such like as speak of an necessity of good works as well as of faith viz. self-denyall taking up the cross and following Christ c. speak of and to infants in non age while they know not their right hand from their left But Sirs oh that you would once understand for then all your intricacies sottish and absurd assertions and disputes about infants would be ended and save you a world of perplexity that now you are in by the ignorance of it that the word was not written as the way and will of God concerning infants in infancy but concerning men and women in order to their salvation by Christ Iohn 6.39.40 And this Sirs is no other answer then you use to give us when we argue against infants believing thus viz. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word preached But infants cannot hear so as to know Christ by the word preached Ergo infants cannot believe You tell us true faith in Adultis can come no other way but by preaching but in Infantibus faith is begotten otherwise so you fancy but you have no Scripture for it as we have that faith comes no way but by hearing Babist But that Scripture Rom. 10. speaks only of the way of faiths comming to adult ones Baptist So say I of welnigh the whole body of Scripture it speaks of the way wherein men at years must expect to be justifyed and saved and not of infants for they may be saved without faith so when we plead with you against the baptizing of infants I mean such of you and such there be amongst you as are ashamed as well as some that are not to say that infants have faith we tell you the Scripture speaks only of baptism of persons confessing sin professing faith that faith and baptism use still to go together as he that believeth and is baptized the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized if thou believest with all thy heart c. therefore those that believe not may not be baptized you tell us again of these places and of all that ever we bring out of Scripture where baptism is mentioned that they speak of adult persons of whom t is confessed by you that faith and confession and profession is required in order to baptism but not of infants that cannot perform them So Pareus in Vrsin Cate. p. 384. 385. and also many others and your answer is very true and grants all that we desire for indeed all the places where ever baptism is mentioned throughout the Scripture do speak of it as in relation to grown persons and not to infants therefore because the Scripture is wholly silent in such a thing we dare not meddle to baptize infants but as we grant your answer to be true so I hope you will grant it to be as true in our present case for if some of you when we call for faith to a persons baptism or else deny that person to be baptized say thus viz. true no baptism without faith of such of whom faith is required and who are capable to act it i. e. of men at years but infanâ—s being uncapable to act faith and it being not required of them therfore they may be baptized without it which conclusion you make without book to for the word warrants you not to make it why may not we when you call so universally for faith to every ones salvation or else saying assuredly they are damned return the like viz true no salvation without faith of persons capable to act it and of whom it s required but infants being uncapable to act it and it being not required of them therefore they may be saved without it Babist This conclusion is spoken without book and as unwarrantable by the Scripture as you say ours â—s sith the Scripture speaks as much of salvation by faith as of baptism upon faith and as little of salvation without faith as it doth of baptism without it therefore still we have at least as good ground to say infants may be baptized without faith as you have to assert they may be saved without it Baptist. No I shall leave you behind here for sith the Scripture speaks of the impossibility of infants believing and yet with all of their saluation as your selves confesse in your own interpretation of that clause viz. of such is the kingdome of heaven but no where at all of their baptism it shews that they may be saved without believing but shews not that they may be baptized without it besides to hold any of them to be damned before they have by actual sin debard themselves of salvation is abominable cruelty and breach of Christian charity with you who yet confesse that all of them have not faith p. 19. but to hold they need not to be baptized cannot bear the like construction sith t is acknowledged by them that deny their bapâ—ism and by them also who absurdly assert to the contradiction of themselves that the denyal of baptism to them denies all hope of their salvation that they may be saved nevertheless though they die unbaptized so that whether we who hold that to them all belongs the kindome of heaven though they neither believe nor are baptized before they die or you that hold no salvation to them without faith and yet hold that all of them have not nay that very few of them for how few are believers infants to others have faith whether we or you I say do justly deserve the censure of damning all or at least innumerable infants dying contrary to that evident testimony of Scripture and sentence of our Saviour that to them belongeth the kingdome of heaven and contrary also to the rule of Christian charity set us by your selves which is to presume well of every infant that he is in a good estate till he appear to be in a bad and by actual sin to bar himself and deserve exemption from the general state of little children declared in Scripture which is this that they have right to the kingdome let the most simple but honest Reader judge between us As for the two texts you say are brought in proof of justification of infants without faith viz. Rom. 5.18 Rom. 11.7 who urges the last of them I know not for my part I take it to be of no tendency at all either to your purpose or
to believe the Scriptures which by necessary consequence confirm the thing we would leave the manner of doing it to him whose work it is the spirit of God who is able to do it we do it in other articles of faith and the resurrection of the body and ask not how it can be done because the Scriptures have delivered it and this of the renovation of soul is no lesse Miracle Re-Review And well may it be difficult to understand how faith should be bred in infants and doubted that they have it not since if we have learned to believe the Scriptures they are so far from confirming such a thing so much as by any possible or probable consequence that by necessary consequence they contradict it while they tell us that there is but one way whereby faith cometh and that such a one as it can never possibly come to infants in viz. hearing the word of God preached not inwardly by the spirit only as you prate below for he speaks not of such a thing there Rom. 10. but outwardly by some visible or audible creaturely ministration as is plain by the words foregoing viz. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard how hear without a preacher how preach except they be sent And whereas you tell us the spirit is able to work faith in them therefore we must leave the manner of doing it to him not offering as it were to pry into it Good Sirs spare your labor talk not about the unknown manner of a matter as unknown as the other for the thing it self is not yet clear in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the spirits ability to do it prove that it is done any more then it proves there is a 1000 worlds or that all men have faith because these things are possible to be effected by him but the evidence that he doth such a thing which if it be wanting as it is in this case it is but egregious folly to argue it from the other so as to say God can do it therefore though the manner how he doth it is not known to us yet we must not meddle further then to believe it is leaving the manner of doing it to him Moreover Sirs assure your selves of this that in some sort the manner is usually manifested to us in the word as well as the matter of such things as we are there called upon to believe even that miraculous work of the resurrection of the body which is your present instance wherein 1 Cor. 15.35 to the end the Lord condescendeth at large to explain the manner oâ— it as well as to prove the matter of it before and whereas you say you leave the manner of the doing things when it is nor clear to you to the spirit himself whose the work is in other articles of faith I wonder you are so forgetful as to bear such false witnesse as this against your selves when as in the point of dying infants salvation which for the matter of it is so clear that you cannot deny it though not clear to you in the manner you leave not the manner of it to God himself whose work it is to save them but limit him to the way of Church-membership faith baptism and holinesse c. whereas the word that was not at all for infants instruction declares to men and women what way he will save them in asking in many places of your book how can infants be justified without faith how can Turks and Pagans infants be saved what hopes of our infant salvation without baptism and all this too though there is no fear of their damnation by actual sin though it also ask you plainly enough how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard and consequently how can they be saved by faith though it tell you also plainly enough Act. 8. where that question is expressely askt what hinders c. even because they yet believe not with all their heart you had said true therefore had your words bin thus viz. we do it not in other articles of faith And whereas you say the renovation of a soul is no lesse miracle then the matter of infants having faith it seems you confesse it to be a miracle that faith should be in infants and for my part I fully confâ—sse it with you for surely t is such a thing as was seldome or never yet seen since the world began to this day but the renovation i. e. conversion of soules of men and women depraved and corrupted as infants never were by any actual sin p. 5. is no lesse miracle indeed then the other for the one is not at all and the other where it is is yet no miracle at all but a matter that happens ever and anon in the ordinary course of things as a miracle doth not and besides you are of those I am sure who are in the mind that miracles are ceased And lastly for you to sprinkle all the new born infants in all the Christian nations at this hour as taking it for granted that these all have faith for so you suppose though you see not any individual or particular infant hath it that is brought to you and yet hold infants faith to be a miracle and yet to hold miracles to be ceased also it is if not miraculum yet mirandum monstrum et horrendum at least to me i. e. a marvelous work and a wonder that ever the wisdome of wise men should so perish and the understanding of prudent men so come to nought Thus having done with your forlorn hope I le march on now to give checkmate to that wretched crew of cavillers that are so impudent as to be responsive against reason and its Regiment and to undertake to make it good against them that infants have faith and must have baptism Review The objection that reason makes against it will easily be answered it is done for satisfaction to the Reader Re-Review Yea Sirs is Reason in so little request with you as that you not onely dare so audaciously ingage against but also set so light by it as to say its objections are easily answered let it be put to the voâ—e if you please throughout the whole earth whether you deserve the title of good Logicians i. e. Reasonable men who here professedly wrestle against reason it self and whether your faith can possibly be found any other then faction and meer fiction against which Reason it self is by your selves confest to be opponent I confesse I have heard men called divines speak of many points of Religion and faith as above reason but I yet never met with men under the name of ministers so far devoid of Reason as to say that Religion and faith are against Reason till I met with you whose faith and practise of baptism to believers infants upon account of their appearing to believe more plainly then the profession of persons at years can make it appear
other were they that wrought miracles to convert sinners from the evil of their waies but that cannot be granted by you however who cry out that the working of miracles was an extraordinary gift that hath ceased since the times of the Apostles finally the conversion of souls of men to faith by the preaching of the word is that which is effected ordinarily and therefore is not miraculous for ordinary and miraculous are clear contrary so that they do rather tollere se invicem then are capable to be denominated of one thing both at once for an ordinary thing is not only that which comes to passe usually and frequently but chiefly which is accomplished secundum ordinem according â—o a common order of meanes and constant course of second causes as faith in infants doth not being wrought if at all without the outward means as your selves confesse and even thereupon and in that very respect here called miraculous and if I could ever see such a thing at all as neither you nor I ever did I should say it were a miracle indeed to see an infant believe on him of whom understandingly they never heard but Miracles are such things which as they are done more rarely then other things so when they are done t is if not contra yet at least praeter extra supra ordinem either against or besides or out of or above the usual way not keeping the accustomed use of means nor process of second causes Fourthly whereas to back one absurdity with another you assert the work of the spirit in the conversion of men i. e. adult ones which is by outward means to be both ordinary and miraculous I judge it to be as very a Bull as ever was conceived and gendred in the braines or calved out of the mouth of man Review 8. The only Scruple is the making it appear concerning particular children which are brought to be baptized whether they have faith or no for say the Anabaptists faith is an inseparable condition required in persons to be baptized and we know not the heart nor the work of the spirit Though enough hath been said to this in the disputation yet these two things are added for further satisfaction 1. That true faith is not required in every one to be baptized for then none but justifyed persons should be baptized and those that are apostates afterwards must be said to fall totally and finally from grace 2. That a charitable judgement concerning their having faith is sufficient to admit them to baptism which judgement is as due to children of believing parents as to any of years that make profession First because the Scripture hath so amply declared the good will of Christ to them which is tantamount to any ones single profession of himself Secondly because we know nothing against any particulars wherby they should be excepted from such judgement Re-Review You begin first to storm the rear or last clause of that Argumentative matter which you have here charged upon the Anabaptists as their opinion but you might have spared that pains if you had pleased for those you call Anabaptists assert not such a thing as that is they say not that faith but that an outward appearance or profession of faith is an inseperable condition required in persons before they be baptized by them for they know not what belief is in the heart but as confession of Christ is made with the mouth and profession of him in the words and works whether therefore persons have faith or not and whether there be any as he that is blind sees no such that receive the truth in truth for a time and after fall totally from it that is neither here nor there to us in this case for if there be inwardly no dram of faith at all yet if there be such an outward serious profession made of it that we thereupon I say again thereupon and not on charity misgrounded can judge it to be we are excused in baptizing such hypocrites and apostates and their comming to holy things with unhallowed hearts will be not upon us but themselves but if there be never so much faith in the heart and no profession of it without whereby it appears concerning this and that particular person that he believes so far as we can discern God will not hold us guiltlesse in baptizing such persons for taking his name in vain That opinion therefore of a necessity of faiths being really in persons as well as a profession of it before we may baptize them Reasonlesse might as well have writen under his own head as under the head of Reason for that is owned no more by one then by the other t is a real profession of it that in foro hominum gives admission and warrants the administration which because it neither is noâ— can be made by any particular infant and consequently no appearance made that it hath faith therefore infants may not be baptized This indeed remaines a scruple unremoved by you to this very hour or is rather a matter unscrupled and altogether undoubted by us viz. that it cannot be made appear concerning this or that particular infant suppose any one of them you sprinkle that it hath any faith at all You tell us enough hath been said to this in the Disputation I tell you that more then enough is said against it in the Disprobation yet fith you are pleased to add as little as can be in further satisfaction I shall add as much as need be in further refutation of your folly You say that a Charitable judgement concerning this or that particular persons having faith for your proof now is to be de individuo is sufficient to admit them to baptism and that this judgement is as due to children of Christian parents i. e. every particular amongst them that are brought to be baptized as to any at years that make profession It seems then that the believing paâ—ents personal profession of his own personal belief which is that onely whereby we judge him to be a believer doth prove himself to us to be a believer not one jot more plainly then it proves all his children if he hath never so many to be believers as well as he and that we are bound by duty to judge all the children of a professor to have faith as certainly as we may judge that professor himself to have it for the same judgement of charity that is due to professed believers is say you equally and every whit as due to such believers children Are you not ashamed of such a blind businesse as this what doth a mans personal visible acting and professing of faith discover it to others that the habit of faith as you call it is in himself no further then it discovers it to be also in his children did you not say but the very next page above that no judgement of science concerning a persons having faith can be passed till the acts of
baptized and built upon the foundation i. e. doctrine of Christ and the Apostles a spiritual house a holy temple i. e. visible church unto Iesus Christ now in these daies of the Gospel and that no mans fleshly seed or natural posterity no not Abrahams own barely on such an account as being his bodily seed much lesse any believing Gentiles who hath not more priviledge then his seed I think but onely the at least seeming spiritual seed of Abraham i. e. those that are children of God and Abrahams too by faith in Christ Gal. 3.26.28 as no infant is have right to dwell in this family the babes the seed of Abraham circumcised in heart the children of the heavenly promise pointed at and typed out by the Iews babes and that circumcised seed of Isaac and those children of that earthly promise of the old Canaan these are the true sons of the free woman the Gospel visible church before whom the bond woman and her son i. e. Abrahams meer â—leshly seed though by Isaac are cast out that they may dwell alone in the house as Hagar and her son were cast out of Abrahams house of old before Isaac and his seed that they might dwell alone for look how Ishmael and his seed stood in reference to Isaac and his that were the children by promise of the earthly Canaan viz. but servants that must not abide the house longer when the other came in to stand so Isaac the type and his seed themselves in reference to Christ the true Isaac and his seed i. e. believers viz. as servants that must be packing when he comes in and not abide in the house together with him see Iohn 8. Galatians 4. ult But that were to begin the work again which I have finisht above where I have given a touch of these things and but a touch in comparison of what might be said And of multiplying Arguments and making many books there is no end Therefore I le hint but a few among which this shall be the first If the standing upon the root Abraham i. e. the family or visible Church of God since Christ be by faith in the person onely so standing and not by faith in the parent as of old then infants cannot now stand therein But so t is Therefore the other The consequence is cleared by the consideration of the incapacity of infants to believe faith being assent to something propounded to us faith comming by hearing and hearing by the word Rom. 10. so that who so thinks it possible for infants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere when it is said how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard is wretchedly inconsiderate The Minor is evident out of Rom. 11. where it is said the very natural branches of Abrahams body that did on that account meerly as the fleshly seed of that father of the faithfull stand in the olive tree the visible Church before time yet now could stand no longer on that old account why were they not the seed of Abraham still that stood without faith in the old visible Church to the very end of it yes but they believed not in their own persons therefore could not stand in this house but were cast out of their own olive their own father Abrahams family i. e. the visible Church now Christ came in because of unbelief and thou saith Paul to the Gentile standest how by fleshly descent no that standing is gone from such as come of Abrahams himself therefore is not to thee nor to thine but by faith i. e. personal and not parentall A Second this If all they that are baptized into one visible body under the Gospell are made in the supper to drink into one spirit then infants who cannot drink into one spirit with the body secundum te may not be baptized into that visible body But this is true 1 Cor. 12.13 Therefore that So Col. 2.19 All the body is knit together and by joints and bands hath nourishment ministred and increaseth by that which every joint and member supplieth Eph. 4.16 But infants are not capable to have Spirituall nourishment Minstired and to grow in grace as all the body ought to do at least and this in the use of the Supper If you say they are capable of spiritual nourishment I say as capable I think as of the spiritual birth for where there 's a birth there 's a growth but then me thinks they should be as capable of the supper which is the Sacrament of spirituall nourishment being capable of that as being capable of spiritual birth they are of baptism the outward Sacrament of the same But Mr. Bax. denies that page 114.115 among other reasons for this because though capable to be washed yet not to eat bread and drink wine in their first infancy Oh strange they may have it then as they can eat and drink A third is this If no infants were baptized and added to the first Gospell visible Church then surely they had no right so to be for the Apostles would not do them that wrong as not to add them that had right But this is true Therefore that The Minor is plain out of Acts 2. where to the 120. men and women that without infants continued in fellowship Acts 1. there were added 3000. more in one day and not one infant among them but as many onely as gladly received the word nor more nor lesse for else Luke couzens us in his history and continued after their baptism in fellowship in breaking bread and prayers which no infants did and yet it is well nigh infallible that those 3000 had some infants belonging to some of them which would have been added with their parents if the promise is to you and to your children and them a far off even as many as the Lord shall call would bear the sense divines drawes it to Yea Master Cotton himself conceives that no infants were baptized at that time and when else either these or any other were neither I not any one else ever found since they began to read Christs Testament with their eyes open Yea Peter commanded no more to be baptized but the same persons whom he speaks to also to repent which me thinks he should have done saying be baptized every one of you and baptize your children also if any such thing had been intended and Christians infants were to have been separated out of the world and called to be saints and baptized as Mr. B. believes they are to be but not I. For what saies Paul in his Epistle to the Romans chapter 1. I suppose he wrote not to infants yet to all the called Saints to all that be in Rome called to be saints So in 1 Cor. 14. the 23. If the whole Church come together and all speak with tongues and all Prophe-y So 26. Every one of you hath a Psalm So 31. Ye may all prophecy one by ons that all may be edifyed He writes and
yet do I find but that in the primitive times the simple act of baptizing the believers when once converted was any other but an act so inferiour servile and subservient to that of preaching the gospel of preaching repentance faith and baptism in Christs name for remission of sins in order to conversion which more specially belonged to the messenger-shâ—p that it was unlesse any desired the Apostles to do it themselves or when the multitudes to be baptized were so great that t was fit that every he disciple that had two hands as I may say should be assistant committed mostly to more inferior persons common disciples who as they might baptize and preach too occasionally so when any were converted by either themselves or the Apostles did attend more to the bare act of dispensation then the Apostles did we cannot think that Peter himself nor the eleven did baptize all the three thousand without the hands of many other of the 120 to help at least though in that case the Apostles baptized some also t is like Moreover we see Philip baptized the Samaritans and the honourable Eunuch yet though an occasional preacher of the Gospel he did it in the capacity of adisciple only for his deaconship did not make him ere the fitter to baptize and Ananias baptized Paul who is stiled but a certain disciple and the rest of the disciples that together with Philip were scattered abroad by the persecution that arose about Steven went every where even as far as Antioch preaching the Lord Jesus and turned many unto the Lord Act. 11.19 to the end and baptized them surely as Philip did for that businesse was the foundation of the famous Church at Antioch before any such great administrators as Apostles came neer them for though Barnabas who together with Paul was sent forth afterward from that Church with prayer and laying on of hands from which time they both were visibly and in foro Ecclesiae Apostles and were so called and not before Act. 13 3-14.14 was sent to confirm and comfort them and exhorted them to continue in that faith which they were baptized into before yet he was but in the capacity of a teaching disciple only yet and not an Apostle nor do I believe that Peter baptized them with his own hands Acts 10 but by some of them that came with him from Ioppa only he bid it should be done as that which no body could forbid and commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord but by whom t was done we know not The father sent Christ to baptize i. e. to give order for the baptizing of the disciples he should make or else he could not be truly said both to baptize and yet also to speak and do no more then the Father that sent him gave command for as he is Ioh. 3.22.4.1.12.49.40 and yet in another sense it may be said Christ was not sent to baptize i. e. personally to dispense the ordinance it self for if he had been sent to baptize with his own hands he had not fulfilled his message for howbeit it s said he baptized more then Iohn yet he himself dipenst baptism to none with his own hands Iohn 4.1.2 but by the hands of his disciples When therefore Paul saies he was not sent to baptize he means not that baptism was none of those things he had in commission to meddle with for had it been so he had meddled beyond his commission in baptizing those few he did baptize with his own hands which were absurd to think but that he had not such a positive command to dispense it after he had preacht the Gospel to conversion so himself but that others even inferior persons might baptize the disciples of his converting as well as himself he means not that baptism was no part of his message which he received in charge from God to deliver and declare among men as his will for he saies God sent him to preach it not to baptize but to preach the Gospel saith he and what was that but the Gospel of repentance and baptism the baptism of faith and repentance for remission of sins among the nations but that there was no necessity that himself should administer it when it might be done by others not that t was not needful to be done but that t was needlesse he personally should dispense it so it might be done by another Neither doth Paul make that the ground of his giving of thanks to God that no more but Crispus and Gâ—us and the houshold of Stephanus c. were baptized for then he had thankt God that the Corinthians had most of them neglected their duty in that point of baptism which its evident he preacht among them as well as faith or else sure none of them at all would have submitted Act. 18.8 but that he himself had with his own hands baptized but some of them least perceiving what a foolish dotage on his person was in the hearts of many of them any of them at least his party for some doted too much on Paul some on Apollos some on Cephas i. e. Peter should either think the better of their baptism as long as they lived because he dispenst it or else think the worse of him for it i. e. that he had baptized in his own name this is the clear sense in which Paul speaks and not the other 1 Cor. 1.14.15.16.17 viz. that no more then such and such were baptized by his hands not that no more then such and such of them for they were all baptized by one or other were baptized at all for that many more then those he there names as baptized by him were baptized by one or other for all Crispus's house and many more of the Corinthians besides Crispus's his own person whom onely with Gaius and Stephanus his house he here names believed and were baptized as well as he and they is evident Act. 18.8 yea verily and elsewhere that all the Corinthians were baptized for 1 Cor. 1.13 Paul speaking to the whole Church of Corinth none excluded saith thus were ye i. e. ye O Corinthians that were all baptized baptized in the name of Paul and 1 Cor. 12.13 speaking to and of the whole Church again together with himself he saies we are all baptized into one body and have been all made i. e. in the supper to drink into one spirit all the body of them therefore were baptized Ranterist It appears that some of the believing Romans who were beloved of God and called to be Saints Rom. 1.11 and who had from their hearts obeyed the form of doctrine delivered unto them Rom. 6.3 were neverthelesse unbaptized as many of us as have been baptized into Christ c. which words plainly intimate that some of them were not baptized see Ioh. 1.12 to as many as came to him gave he power these words plainly intimate that some of these did not receive Christ as appeareth by the words immediately
himself and in no commission from Christ to make his Ministers could not secundum te O Presbyter make those true Ministers that made those that made them that made these that make you and so what ere you are as from him yet as from Christ you are no Ministry at all but in very deed the very same that I cal you viz. of the Beast and of the Dâ—agon as also the three fold CCChristendome of whom you say that they are Jewes i. e. Christians when they are not are no other then the Synogogue of Satan In all which so far am I from reviling that I speak the words of sobernesse and truth which whoever does may not unlikely be reviled as a reviler by you but is a faithfull reprover indeed for it is not simply vile terms spoken that make a reviler if spoken both seriously and in season but their non agreeablenesse to them they are spoken of for else undoubtedly not onely your selves who spake as vilely of the Pope as I of you but Iohn Baptist Peter Paul yea and Christ Iesus himself none of which reviled at all though upon occasion of their enmity against God they called men whom else they respected well enough too by the name of Satan evil and adulterous generation Generation of Vipers children of the devil enemies of all righteousnesse bruit beasts Foxes Doggs Swine c. must all be revilers with you too This take therefore from me and let it satisfy viz. that I le never fasten any terms upon you which by your works you first fasten not on your selves yet know that persisting as you have done under the notion of Christs Ministers in pride and perversenesse against his Gospel though I should never call you Deceivers Antichristian and the WWWhore of BBBabylon yet you l prove your selves to be so in the end Now therefore Oh HHHarlot hear and fear for I have heard from the Lord of Hosts a consumption determined upon thee throw out the whole earth thou hast being well mounted harnased and attired upon the back of thy beast made warr against the Lamb in his Saints thy Hereticks for fourty two moneths a time times and a half or 1260 years and power hath been given thee and the beast which thou spurrest to overcome them and over kindreds tongues and nations so that all that dwell upon earth have worshipped him and thee on him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world yea thou hast opened thy mouth in blasphemies and caused thy beast under thee to blaspheme the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven yea thou hast spoken great words against the most High and worn out the Saints of the most high and thought to change times and lawes and they have been given into thy hand so that who was like to thee and thy beast who was able to encounter and make war with him but now behold thy proud times are ended and the Lamb will overcome thee for he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful and thou that hast led into captivity shalt go into captivity and thou that hast killed with the sword must be killed by the sword here is the patience and faith of the Saints And the very ten hornes themselves even all the kingdomes of Christendome into whose hearts it hath been put to give thee all their power and strength as well as the tith of all their glory and riches and carnall things upon thy pretence of ministring to them in spiritual all which thou hast swom upon been born up and fortifyed by as Babylon of old by the River Euphrates and with all which thou hast as with so many hornes of a savage beast tossed bruised gored the sides of Saints under the name of Sinners even these shall now turn upon thee and unhorse thee yea they shall hate thee O Whore and make thee desolate and naked and burn thy flesh with fire so that all thy lovers great and small and thy Merchants that have been rich by trading as in other things so especially in bodies and souls of men shall bewail and lament when they see the smoak of thy burning saying Alas Alas for thee whilest Gods people that are first come out of thee yea whole heaven and all the holy Apostles and Prophets who now suffâ—r under thee for telling thee the truth and shall be avenged of thee shall rejoice over thee at thy downfall You will hardly give audience O ye Priests to this word but some of you rather cry out against me as multitudes of your Churches good children did some few dayes since in Smithfield when by one of the City Marshals meerly for preaching the Gospel to thousands there assembled to hear it I was betrayed into their hands to be abused saying away with him away with him hang him t is pitty but he should be stoned and such like hue and cryes as were heard of old others of you Seers may be ready to call to me scoffingly out of your mount Sier watchman what of the night watchman what of the night but whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I tell you Sirs the morning cometh and also your dead night therefore if you will enquire enquire quickly return and come to the truth before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you or if it may not be said as of old it was that many of the Priests were obedient unto the faith yet Oh that many of your people would know in their day the things that make for their peace before they be hid from their eyes and partake no more of your sins least they partake of your plagues but if IIIezebel and her lovers will lie in bed together and not repent when God gives them space to repent of their fornications then me thinks I hear a noise among them as of those that are in hellish tribulation yelling out from beneath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alas Alas whilst from above a voice of much people in heaven saying Hallelujah Hallelujah for now our Lord will raign And judge that Scarlet WWWhore who still doth fain Her self to be Christs Spouse and so maintain Her self a Qeen the world her slaves in chain Though like a Quean she doth the whole earth stain Wiâ—h Whoredomes and Saints blood whom she hath slain Three PPParts three CCCrowns three HHHeads of subtle brain A TTTripple TTTribe Rides Christndom t is plain And like Hells three mouth'd Monster stands to strain Souls that scape thence and bark them back again Yet when t is told this Minx this whore in grain Frowns Frets Hates Teares Fumes Threats Storms Fomes amain But IIIezebel wo to thy house refrain Thy pride thy lies thy wrath like that of Cain Thy filth thy self thy greediness of gain Else as thy mirth hath been shall be thy pain This
I shall be saved No condemnation to them that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit so dying but I walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Ergo so doing so dying there 's no condemnation to me and so consequently still I shall be saved Rom. 8.1 * witnesse a paper newly extant subscribed with 15. hands and sent to my self in particular by one of the subscribers while I am just beginning this very treatise of Anti-ranterism which occasions a more distinct handling of this point of laying on of hands then I otherwise intended stiled Questions about laying on of hands with the grounds why they are demanded lovingly propounded to all those churches of Iesus Christ in London or elsewhere or to any one member of the body of our Lord who pleadeth or preacheth for the necessity or usefulnesse of laying on of hands to be practised by all baptized believers The 2d query of which is on this wise viz. We desire to be directed by them unto some place of Scripture if they know of any where our Lord Iesus Christ or any of his Apostles or disciples preached this doctrine viz. that all baptized believers ought to practise or submit unto laying on of hands * Heb. 5.12.6.1 2. Act. 19 6. Act. 8.12.15.16 17. Act. 2.40 42. * because many blame and reprove baptized believers because they do not practise submit to or come under laying on of hands Therefore we desire to know of them if they can tell of any of the servants of Christ that ever did reprove or blame any sort of people whether baptized or not because laying on of hands was not practised or submitted to by them * As if women were not under the promise of the holy spirit repenting believing and being baptized as well as men when as Peter saies Acts â— 39 to the whole multitude of women as well as men repent and be baptized and ye shall receive the holy spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and them that are a far off even as many as the Lord shall call as if John Baptist also did not speak promiscuously to the multitudes of both men and women and to the women as well as the men whom he baptized when he said I indeed baptize you with water but she shall baptize you with the holy spirit and if baptized believing women be under a promise of being baptizd with the spirit as well as men pro. 1.23 then why they should not have hands laid on them and be prayed for that they may receive it as well as the other according to the promise he is a wiser man then I am that knowes any reason Viz. seeing that many draw inferences and deductions as they call them from Heb 6.2 to maintain one laying on of hands onely and none of them upon the forementioned considerations neither in the end purpose or event Therefore we desire to know whether you judge it a command of our Lord Christ that any mans inference or deduction should be of a binding form in point of faith and obedience and because we have seen some of our dearly beloved brethren in the Lord to the grief of our hearts much offended at us because we believe not the inferences or deductions as they call them Heb. 6.2 Therefore we desire to know of them what they will refer us to as the sure rule to try inferences or deductions by because the best of men are liable to mistakes * witness his reproving and threatning of lost labour to those that so do Mat. 15.9 x John 5 30.8.16.17.12â— 49.50.14.31 * Act. 1.1.2 3.10.33 * Act. 2.42 1 Cor. 14.37 Eph. 2.20 Heb. 6.1 2 Pet. 3.2 Jude 17. * For there was a certain form of Christs doctrine delivered by the Apostles to persons as from him which they were to obey and after obedience unto which and not before they were counted unto Christ as now his servants which till they had obeyed they were counted none of his but unto sin as its servants standing in several particulars whereof its most evident that water baptism was one for obedience in baptism and obedience to that form of doctrine delivered are both urged as arguments and ingagements to the Romans now to reckon on themselves or from thenceforth i. e. their obedience thereunto as in foro dei hominum et ecclesiae Christs servants that had formally owned him and whether the rest viz faith repentance laying on of hands belief of a resurrection and judgement which are Heb. 6. all called the foundation which was at first to be laid altogether with baptism called by the name of the form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 which was at first to be obeyed by every beginner in Christs school is worth our serious considerations * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.1 * so the Enquirers seem to me to do while they teach men that as yet have not that they need or ought not to submit to prayer and laying the holy spirit and unteach such again as have been targht it till they disown that first principle of the doctrine of Christ after they had once even practically owned it * who would â—ain be our own carvers and either have such visible gifts as some call them as he was pleased to give them or else we will be blind and not see not believe though we see it that he gives any gifts of his spirit now at all * John 14.17 28. Gal. 5. 17. John 16.13 R m. 8.13 1 Cor. 2.12 1 Cor. 12.7 Eph. 4.11 Eph. 4.30 a Eph. 1.13 b Act. 2.39.40 c Prov. 1.23 Joh. 7.38 39. Luke 11.13 Act 5.35 * Iohn did no miracle but all the the things which Iohn spake of this man are true Joh. 10.41 Iohn 7.48 Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe Iohn 20.29 Thomas because thou hast seen thou hast believed but blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed Herod hoped to have seen some miracle done by Christ but he would not so much as answer him Luke 23.8.9 He did not many mighty work there because of their unbelief Mat. 13.5 Lord why could not we cast him out Iesus said because of your unbelief â— Joh. 1.16 â—â—f his fulaes we have â—ll received grace for grace Iohn 16.7.13 2. Cor. 13.14 the communion of the spirit be with you all Gal. 5.22 2 Cor. 5.5 God who hath given us the earnest of his spirit Ephes. 1.33.14 in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance c. whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption Ephes. 4.30 * if any doubt it as some do and say prophesy is a gift of speaking infallibly by revelation from God as t is spoken of 1 Cor. 14.1 the 2.3.4.5 verses of the same chapter confute him where prophecy as it is determined to be a far more eminent and profitable gift and greater and more