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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57955	A vindication of the baptized churches from the calumnies of Mr. Michael Harrison, of Potters Pury in Northampton-shire. Being an answer to his two books, intituled, Infant baptism God's ordinance. By William Russel, M.D. A lover of primitive Christianity.	Russel, William, d. 1702.	1697 (1697)	Wing R2360A; ESTC R218555	79,105	138

be a true Visible Church who do not thus admit Members by Regeneration but by Generation only and we have great reason so to do because they have only Humane Invention for their Foundation and not the Authority of God's Word as I have already shewed in this Treatise to which I refer you 2. He tells his People that we are you see no Churches no Ministers no Christians c. whereas there is nothing of Ministers intended in this Article as all may see that read it but that of Ministers under the Name of Elders or Pastors is contained in the 15th Article But he that writes in haste may repent at leisure 3. He saith We do by that make them no Christians I must confess I know not what his People are but I hope they are men of greater Charity and Moderation than their Priest or else I am sure they are not well qualified Christians But how can he think so from that Article when the design thereof is to shew who are orderly Members of a true visible Church and do therein declare that every one before they are admitted to baptism are to be true penitent Believers and he knows 't is our avowed principle not to admit any other but such only that in the judgment of Charity are so What sorts of Persons he accounts Christians I know not but I do account such to be so that are true penitent Believers and I hope there are many such in the World altho' they do not agree with us about some of the external modes of Worship but this seems to be done on purpose to exasperate the Spirits of his People against us but I hope they will not be so unwise as to mind what such a Clamorous Pen saith against us without better evidence Having cleared our selves from this Abuse I think it highly reasonable to know who it is he owns for Churches and Ministers for those that are rightly constituted according to the Primitive Pattern he is against so that it must be some others Now in Part 1. page 6. Mr. H. saith Whoever will be a Member of the Christian Church must be baptized 2. He tells us That Persons being knit to Christ by a vital union as they are living branches in him and the Elect of God is not a ground for Baptism and yet he confesses that thus only the Elect are in Covenant 3. When he comes to give us an account who are in the visible Covenant which in his Language is visible Church-members he saith page 7. Thus all who profess Christ Tares and Wheat Wise Virgins and Foolish this is the ground of Baptism He is much mistaken about the Parable of the Tares in Mat. 13. to apply it to Visible church-Church-members for our Lord doth not say the Field is the Church but the field is the World The good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom i. e. the Church and the Tares are the Children of the Wicked One i. e. the Devil the Harvest is the end of this World and the Reapers are the Angels c. Now had I been to plead against some of the cursed persecuting Tyrants of the World or against those bloody persecuting Principles and Practices of your Old Friend John Calvin I would have used this Text for an Argument against them as genuine and proper but it hath no relation to the visible Church for the Tares are the Rabble of the wicked out of the visible Church and such who shall be damned ●ternally for the Angels shall cast them into a Furnace of fire c. But however it seems they will serve Mr. H. to make Church-members of for he saith in the words following They are to be accounted Believers in Covenant and their Children to be baptized and that all Infants of such believing Parents are in the Covenant of Grace and yet in the same page he saith We do not baptize persons as the Elect of God or Infants as the Infants of the Elect for we do not know who belong to the Election of Grace But self-contradictions are common with him I shall make some few Remarks upon it and so proceed to what I intend 1. That if all the unconverted Hypocrites among all that profess the Christian Name be but baptized they are Believers in the Covenant of Grace then by his own Principle they must all be saved for they can never fall totally and finally 2. That if all the Infants of such are in the Covenant of Grace then they also must needs be saved by his Doctrine It 's an easie way to bring Persons into the Covenant of Grace if sprinkling a little cold Water on their Faces will do it 3. That notwithstanding all this it seems he doth not know that any one either of his Church-members or their Infants are in the Covenant of Grace neither doth he baptize them as such for he plainly confesses he doth not know who belongs to the Election of Grace Then it 's as plain that he is not sure that any of his Members or their Infants shall be saved and then they are at charge to maintan him to very little purpose Nay further he doth not know by this confused way of arguing that any of those Churches Ministers or Christians that belong to those visible Churches he talks of are in any more hopes of Salvation than those Heathens he speaks of in another place whom he with Calvin of old condemns to the pit of Hell for no other imaginable Reason than the Decree of God built only upon this Supposition because God will have it so But God will not entrust these rasn Men to be Judges of the World For he hath committed all Judgment to the Son otherwise the poor Anabaptists would be under bad Circumstances I now proceed to prosecute my Design to discover who it is that he intends by Ministers By Ministers he must needs intend those that were before described to be Members viz. Either his carnal Professors or Infants born of them Infants he cannot mean because they are not capable If you would therefore be satisfied he hath told you it is all the Ministers that profess Christ besides those of our way For there lyes the Antithesis For he saith we disown them all so to be but our selves and he owns them or else he hath no reason to be angry with us I hope we are not to understand that he is displeased with us for disowning them whom he disowns To be short The Membership and Ministry of the Presbyterians Episcopal and Romish Church are all built upon the same foundation which will appear if you ask but a few Questions 1 Que. Whether the Presbyterians do not own the Church of England to be a true Church Their Answer must be Yes because we received our Baptism from them and never repeated it and therefore they must be a true Church or else our Baptism is no true Baptism 2 Que. Whether the Presbyterians do not own the Bishops and their

pretends then to be they must be under the greatest Enchantment that ever Mortals were for such multitudes to follow them as he speaks of For none but such who had first abandoned Scripture and Reason with all the Notions that serious Christians ever had about Religion could ever fall in with such Notorious and Nonsensical Practices as he talks of To conclude saith he What shall we say to the Anabaptists that dip and re-baptize themselves The first Anabaptist in Germany did so and one Smith an English Man that was a Member of Mr. Ainsworth's Congregation did so because they had none to do it for them there being no Anabaptists before them Answ If his Story about Fact be no truer than his reason he gives for it I am sure 't is all false and a meer slander But let us consider the matter distinctly 1. Who baptized John the Baptist who was the first Baptizer Did he baptize himself or was he baptized by another If he was not baptized at all then an unbaptized Person did in the beginning of this Ordinance baptize multitudes If he was baptized it must be by himself or some unbaptized Person so that if such a thing were done it were not such a grievous Crime as he pretends But to proceed If this be true that there were none in England before Smith what was the Reason that Mr. Harrison should tells us a story so contradictory to this in page the 3d. of his 2d part That two Ships laden with Anabaptists escaped to England where they have nested ever since endeavouring to propagate Anabaptism Now observe This story is told by him as acted presently upon the business of Munster c. Now if this Man was in Holland in Mr. Ainsworth's time I am sure there was many Churches of Baptists in that Countrey and that they had been before they were a state as the Lords of Holland have testified in their Approbation of that famous Book Entituled The Bloody Theater and in their Lordships Letter therein to the Lords of Switzerland c. And if Smith lived in England then certainly some one of those two Ship Loads of Anabaptists he talks of or their Successors were in being so that he needed not to have baptized himself for want of an Administrator I must therefore return him this for answer that such an improbable self-contradicting Story is not to be credited As to what he saith against the Honourable Collonel Danvers I do affirm that neither Mr. Baxter whose hand was not only against every Man that stood in his way altho' never so worthy of whom the Learned and Judicious Dr. Owen whose Books Mr. Baxter was not worthy to carry after him who had been Vice-Chancellor of Oxford and lived and dyed a Zealous and Honest Independant yet this most Courteous and Civil Gentleman could not escape the virulency of Mr. Baxter's Pen as you may see in Vindiciae Anti-Baxterianae lately published with divers others whom he hath also abused But as hath long been observed of that Man there was in his writings no consistence but Baxter wrote against Richard and Richard against Baxter and therefore what he hath said against Collonel Danvers is not to be valued of a Rush for those Testimonies he hath given will stand good to the shame and reproach of all the Baxterians in the World But I will not trouble my self to answer a Man that will never be answered but refer him to the Collonel's own answer to Mr. Baxter at the end of his History of Christianity where he hath fully confuted all Mr. Baxter's ridiculous and caufeless Clamours CHAP. VII Being an Answer to those Errors which Mr. H. saith we are guilty of THere are six things which Mr. Harrison charges upon us as condemned Heresies and Errors which are as follows 1. The Anabaptists are very Erroneous in the Doctrine of Original Sin 2. That Christ dyed alike for all Men and that all Persons in the World are by the death of Christ put into a capacity of Salvation 3. That God affords all Men universal and sufficient Grace and consequently a power of Free-Will to be saved if they will 4. That a Person truly justified and sanctified and so a Branch in Christ united to him may yet fall away and be eternally damned 5. They disown all Ministers Christians and Churches of Christ to be any Ministers Churches or Christians at all but only such as are gathered in their way that is by Dipping 6. Their employing many weak ignorant Men to preach that have Pride and Confidence enough to think themselves fit to teach others who have yet more need to be taught themselves the very first Principles of Religion As to his first Charge That we are very Erroneous in the Doctrine of Original Sin and that we plainly deny Original Sin and for evidence quotes the Confession of Faith published almost forty years ago and reprinted Anno 1691. and refers us to Articles the 2d and 10th I shall set down the whole Articles that the Reader may see we do own Original Sin notwithstanding his Clamour to the contrary Article 2d That God in the beginning made Man upright and put him into a state and condition of Glory without the least mixture of misery from which he by transgression fell and so came into a miserable and mortal Estate subject unto the first Death Gen. 1.31 Eccles 7.29 Gen. 2.17 and 3.17 18 19. Article 10th That all Children dying in Infancy having not actually transgressed against the Law of God in their Persons are only subject to the first death which comes upon them by the sin of the first Adam and not that any one of them dying in that estate shall suffer for Adam's sin eternal punishment in Hell which is the second death for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 15.22 Mat. 19.14 Not daring to conclude with that uncharitable Opinion of others who tho' they plead much for the bringing of Children into the Visible Church here on Earth by Baptism yet nevertheless by their Doctrine that Christ dyed but for some shut a great part of them out of the Kingdom of Heaven for ever The great Quarrel he hath against this is because we will not allow their scriptureless and uncharitable Notion that Infants of a span long are yelling in Hell and that God made poor little innocent Babes on purpose to damn them as some of the Calvinists affirm Now the reason why we reject this Doctrine is because it 's no where so written in the Holy Scriptures But we own Original Sin as truly and fully as any Calvinist whatsoever But we must be falsly accused only because we reject his blind and ignorant Notion about it and will not send little sucking Babes to Hell by whole-sale as he doth The good Women that are his Hearers can't choose but be mightily comforted with this News from the Pulpit and Press and think it worth all the Money they or their Husbands give him for

And not as now perpetuating Controversies and of widening and imbittering them No Debates saith one have been managed with that bitterness no Questions debated with that virulence as the Theological When will Divlnes be ashamed of sacrificing of their Charity to their Passions that is to the sensual and brutal part of our Natures The Tartars manage their Wars with less Cruelty than the Clergy For saith he there is neither Measure nor End of our Reproaches and Infamations I beseech you Sir consider these things and if you are not satisfied about the Controversie depending if you please to acquaint me with any particular doubt about it so you do it in the spirit of Meekness I shall endeavour to give you all reasonable satisfaction For in short the best Expedient I can think of to promote Knowledge is that we argue all our Religious Controversies with that Spirit of Charity and Tenderness and of deference towards our Opposites which the Gospel we preach to others more especially obiiges us to Then may we expect a Blessing from the Lord in such Pious and Charltable Procedures I shall add no more but subscribe my self as in Duty bound A Sincere Lover of your Soul W. R. A VINDICATION OF THE Baptized Churches BEfore an Artificer can build a new House in the room of an old one that is fallen down he must first clear away all the Rubbish that he may lay a new Foundation That Rubbish of Railery and Abusive Language with which I perceive Mr. Michael Harrison hath lined his Mouth in his Pulpit and has stuffed his Book in print for he tells us in his Epistle to his first Book that he was first put upon preaching upon that Subject and afterwards consented to the printing of it I intend to remove before I speak any thing to his Book CHAP. I. IN the Epistle of his first Book he charges us with Erroneous Doctrines that we are like pricking Briars and wounding Thorns Those wild and Erroneous Doctrines broached by the Anabaptists have been a perpetual Vexation and Trouble The confident repeated Challenges the restless Insinuations of the Anabaptists Their various Attempts to ensnare and draw away my Hearers to their own way They are a sort of restless People with great Indignation spurning at Infant-Baptism They tempt you to be cruel to the Children of your own Bowels setting them among Pagans and Infidels They are the Enemy of Infants The Doctrine of the Anabaptists makes all Infants to be of the visible Kingdom of Satan and leaves us no well-grounded Hope of the Salvation of any dying in Infancy and is therefore to be justly abhorred as false Doctrine Then it seems by his Doctrine that Baptism doth it self regenerate Infants in his Understanding and translate them out of the Kingdom of the Devil into the Kingdom of Christ This is plain downright Popery and abhorred by the Protestants as false Doctrine But he goes on with his Railery for want of Argument What barbarous usage is this to poor Infants the Anabaptists perversely thrust them away from Christ and from his Church set them among Pagans and Infidels who are of the visible Kingdom of the Devil But in the same page he tells us That the Anabaptists do not assert the damnation of all Infants dying in Infancy but on the direct contrary they assert the certain Salvation of all Infants Why then doth he charge it upon them Poor Man I pity him for his Ignorance in Divinity We have many Inferionr Mechanicks in our City of Londou that blessed be God understand the mind and meaning of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures better than he And there is another unhappiness attends the poor man he hath so lately changed his Religion from Episcopacy to Presbytery that he is not well instructed in the Presbyterian Doctrines but began to write too soon before he knew what they held or what himself was talking of I am ashamed to think that a man should print himself a Minister of the Gospel and should know so little of the Gospel Church-state if all his Knowledge be suitable to what he writes in his two Books But he proceeds Erroneous Doctrine Weak Anabaptists Their Children are ignorantly and bruitishly brought up live and dye Pagans It 's a false and dangerous Doctrine They wilfully shut their Eyes They do it with much scorn and contempt They are guilty of a plain breach of the sixth Commandment Thou shalt not kill Dipping Persons in water is a most heinous Sin is a plain breach of the sixth Commandment Thou shalt not kill Observe what Tautologies the poor man is guilty of Dipping in cold water tends to the taking away of Life many have contracted such Distempers that have hastened their Deaths thereby therefore the so doing is a great sin But the contrary to this is true that divers have recovered of their Diseases upon their being baptized Ergo. Mr. Michael Harrison's assertion is a great untruth great malice and a great sin And herein he imitates the Devil who was a Lyar from the beginning and is the false accuser of the Brethren If this Charge be true that we are guilty of Murder why hath not he or some of his horrid lying Authors accused us to the Magistrate that Justice might have been executed upon us as murderers But I am confident he doth not believe himself but writes directly against his Knowledge and Conscience I never had to do with such a scurrilous foul mouthed Author in Divinity in all my life and I am heartily sorry he hath so foolishly offered me this occasion for it 's very contrary to my Genius to render railing for railing All this Rubbish is in his first Book of a Groat price But in his 2d Book as he begins with a known untruth in the Frontispiece Infant-Baptism God's Ordinance when he knows it is not so much as mentioned in all the Holy Scripture so he exceeds all bounds in his railing and abusive Language in this 2d part For in the Title Page you have these Words Anabaptists plea of Antiquity a meer untruth A Rebuke of their several Erroneous Opinions An Answer to several Scandalous and Erroneous Papers put out by the Anabaptists c. In his Epistle the Anabaptists have been exeeeding troublesome to all our Reformers Hardned the Churches Enemies hindred the Reformation Bitter Enemies to the Work of God Have most maliciously charged me with preaching Popish Doctrine Malicious Slander Betrayed their Weakness and Ignorance Are a People strangely alienated from the Spirit of the Gospel They have an Hatred and Opposuition to all Christian Churches and look on all others to be Pagans Then he falls upon abusing Mr. Collins who hath together with that faithful and eminently learned Minister of Christ Mr. Claridge sufficiently answered his first Book Which Answer he saith is so weak it scarcely deserves any reply And saith He is a weak unthinking man foul and unchristian Carriage and then he quotes one Mence for