Eunuch demands it instantly upon the sight of water Philip tells him the condition of Baptisme which was beleeving in Christ with all his heart which when the Eunuch affirmes he did Philip according to the command of our Lord went downe into the water with him and baptized him Where you have the institution run parallell with the practice as exactly as is possible I shall name but one place more amongst many which is that of the 10 of the Acts where after that Peter had Preached largely to Cornelius and his Family the Lord Jesus and the great things of the Gospell through him and that their Faith which was the condition of Baptisme was gloriously manifested by the powring down of the holy Ghost upon them Peter puts them presently upon baptisme as the second piece of his Commission which was to baptize those which by his Preaching were made Disciples and did beleeve and therefore commanded them to be baptized in water Thus you have the rule verifyed in the practice and there is no Comment so good upon the rule or precept as Apostolicall practice I have sayd before that this forced interpretation was bold as you may see it further evidently by what hath been last sayd in the exact correspondency betweene the rule and practice but you will easily see it also foolish for I beseech you what is that which denominates any man holy just and good but beleeving in God through Christ And what is it to be a Disciple or to be a Christian but to be all that He that beleeveth and is made a Disciple is baptized or interested as they call it into the Name of God and is made holy just true righteous mercifull good which is all that they understand by Baptisme expressed in these places then if beleeving or being made a Disciple be all that that interpretation which they would inforce upon these places is nothing but a loathsome and absurd tautology thus indoctrinate teach or Disciple all Nations that is make them holy just righteous good mercifull c. interest them in God for that no question they are when they are made Disciples and beleeve and then baptize them that is make them holy just righteous good interest them in God or as it is Mark Chap. 16. vers 15 16. Preach the Gospell to every Creature he that beleeveth that is is interested in God is made holy just good mercifull c. And is baptized that is is interested in God is made holy just good mercifull c. shall be saved What a monstrous and absurd thing is this new exposition to make the holy Scriptures speake not onely any thing to the gingle of our owne fancies but even the most abominable and loathsome tautologies and Nonsence Things thus stated I am not solicitous about that question concerning Johns baptisme whether in all respects it be the same with that concerning which Christ Commissioned his Disciples and was used by the Apostles after the Ascension of our Lord that is whether it were generally of that efficacy and vertue before the Ascension of Christ as after which is the question as it lyes betweene us and the Papists but as it is urged by these men that Christs or the Gospel-Baptisme had not the same ceremony especially in respect of the same Element of water with that which they call Johns baptisme can never be made out by any one argument of theirs on the other side I take it to bee sufficiently made out already though it will be more also in the examination of particular objections that the Gospell baptisme which was by vertue of the Apostolicall Commission to continue as the Preaching of the Word unto the end of the World was administred by water To come now to their arguments and particularly as I finde them layd downe by a namelesse Author who boasts to have been the first that broacht this Doctrine but if none will contend with him for the glory of this there are those that will not yeeld an inch to him in things of as great and considerable revelation if to make themselves God or calling themselves the Lord of Hosts be things of as great and high a nature as this This you must carry along with you that the great businesse is to prove that Christs baptisme is not by water He affirms therefore as an argument to confirme his premises that Johns Baptisme and Christs were distinct in their appellations What will then follow Ergo Christs baptisme was not administred by water Absurd Where lyes the consequence or what Logick will inforce it But to goe on Was not Circumcision I beseech you a leading Ceremony in Moses Law in as much as all the worshippers of that Covenant were styled the Circumcision it belonged properly and particularly and was the great Ordinance of the Mosaicall Law as you may find Acts 21.21 where the prime instance of forsaking Moses was not to be circumcised and that also Gal. 5.3 Who ever is circumcised is a Debtor to doe the whole Law This notwithstanding Christ sayes Circumcision was not of Moses but of the Fathers So Baptisme by water is a leading and principall Ordinance to Christians as Circumcision was to the Jewes and yet in the same sense may it be sayd to be not of Christ but of John that is hee whom it pleased God to make use of in the first administration of it was John I beseech you is not the Law of the Old Covenant as often called Moses Law as Baptisme is the Baptisme of John doth that make Moses therefore the Author or Institutor of that Law as a thing distinct from the Law of God In like manner calling Baptisme by the name of Johns baptisme doth by no meanes conclude that it should not be Christian and Gospell baptisme Secondly our Author alleadgeth that the Scripture affirmes that Christs baptisme was to follow Johns not to goe along with it at the same time I have Baptized you with water but he shall Baptize you excellent therefore Christs Baptisme was not by water because it was to follow in time this Logick is as new as his so much boasted of notion In other places as Matth. 3.11 and Luke 3.16 John sayth I doe Baptize you with water In Marke yee have it I have Baptized you with water and hee shall Baptize you c. Mark 18. It seemes here apparently that John describes the course of his Ministry which was to administer the outward Element and to give Christ his part which was to doe the spirituall worke therefore when hee sayes hee hath he doth not meane that he will doe it no more and when he sayes hee doth it doth not exclude the times past but speakes as I say of the proper course and parts of his Ministry Againe for that of Christ Hee shall Baptize the future is often put for the present partiâ—ularly in the Hebrew Idiom when perpetuity or continuation is designed Psal 1. He shall bring forth his fruit in
his season Why not here he shall baptize for hee doth baptize that is hath this worke or office to baptize with the spirit Besides John 1.33 yee have it in the Present Tense affirmed of Christ This is he that Baptizeth with the holy Ghost Ob. But then it is told us out of Acts 1.4 5. he commanded them they should waite for the promise of the Father For John Baptized with water but yee shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many dayes hence according to what John sayes of himselfe I Baptize you with water but hee shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Therefore Johns baptisme was the baptisme of water and Christs the baptisme of the spirit and so not one but severall baptismes Answ Answer I doe not speake still of the efficacy of baptisme but of the Ceremony or Element It is certaine that here is not a distinction of baptismes but of Baptizers I Baptize you with water but he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost Therefore when John sayes I Baptize you with water hee doth not handle that point what his baptisme was but what hee was himselfe to the end that they should not attribute to him that which was proper to Christ for so ye have it Matth. 3.11 Hee that commeth after me is mightier then I whose shooes I am not worthy to loose he shall Baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire So here yee have what is the vertue of John or of the Minister in baptizing and what of Christ This distinction is common to the New Testament and runnes through the whole course of the Ministry I have planted Apollo watered but God gave the increase No Minister ever gave the holy Ghost ever baptized with the holy Ghost and fire that was Christs part So as when ever baptisme is administred the Power and Ministry are to bee distinguished The Power is Christs the Ministry Johns or any other man qualifyed for it The baptisme of the Minister is externall conferring but the signe that of Christ internall conferring the thing signifyed and because John who had so great an opinion amongst the Apostles was to decrease and our Lord to increase therefore Christ instances in him in this place of the first of the Acts in opposition to his part in the Ministry But last of all I aske any man whether men were not baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire before that time for first the Apostles were baptized with the holy Ghost before that the Saints and Beleevers were sanctifyed and regenerated and made holy before then which is all these men would have to be that Ordinance so as things were not annexed and affixed to that famous sending downe of the holy Ghost in the shape of fiery tongues but was before long during all the course of the administration of baptisme though perhaps not with that efficacy and fulnesse and glory as after for so it is true that the holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet gloryfied So as clearly this place of the Acts holds out the excellency and glory of Christs administration in respect of all under-Ministers and particularly in respect of John who being the first Minister of baptisme had a peculiar honour from it and the whole Church here was spiritually baptized as in a type the Apostles receiving eminently the holy Ghost not for themselves but for the Churches This extraordinary administration Luke as Calvin observes improperly that is out of the ordinary signification calls Baptisme for baptisme properly signifies Immersion to the end that the Antithesis and opposition between Christ and John might bee intyre by the same reason as Paul after hee had mentioned the Law of workes to the end that the Antithesis might lye on both sides faith The Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 After this wee have a new Interpretation framed upon Acts 19. where we are made beleeve that those twelve Disciples found to be baptized onely by Johns baptisme were baptized againe in the name of Christ and this baptisme into the Name of Christ he sayes was not the repeating of any water but meerely the gift of the spirit This as the rest is boldly affirmed but where lyes his proofe or how doth hee make it out It is most probable as it hath beene taken by all to this day that if this were another baptisme or a repetition of baptisme it was by water as well as in severall other places in the Acts where any are sayd to be baptized hee himselfe understands it by water why not as well here But truely I am of opinion with those that thinke that Paul did not here command any to bee baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus which were already baptized with the baptisme of John but rather taught that those who had received Johns baptisme were rightly baptized into Christ and therefore had no need of any new or other baptisme It is very probable notwithstanding that from this place did either arise or was confirmed in many the opinion of the difference of these two baptismes of John and Christ though as it is now stated to us by our namelesse Author hee for any thing I shall say to the contrary shall have the honour of the novelty of it But to consider the place a little particularly Paul being come to Ephesus found certaine Disciples which afterwards Ver. 7. are sayd to be about twelve he presently askes them if they had received the holy Ghost since they beleeved The sense must certainely be as it will appeare by what followes have yee received the gifts of the holy Ghost which ordinarily accompanied faith and baptisme in those dayes according to that in the Acts Repent and bee Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus which our Author will not deny I suppose to bee administred by water and yee shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost and according to that Gal. 3.2 Received you the spirit by the workes of the Law or by the bearing of Faith also Verse 5. He that ministreth the spirit and worketh miracles among you where they are joyned together as things of a kind Besides being Christians and having beleeved they could not want the spirit of God regenerating and sanctifying for no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the spirit therefore it must needs be meant of those extraordinary gifts which were peculiar to those times as an effect of beleeving and baptizing and yet not common to all They answered simply as the thing was and particularly to his question that they had not so much as heard whether there were an holy Ghost or no. The sense whereof must cleerly be that they were ignorant of the holy Ghost or knew not whether there were any such thing or no to wit as he was then visible or exhibited to beleevers in miraculous and extraordinary gifts for else being Christians they felt the power of the holy Ghost and being Jewes as they
1. For the Gentiles were not strangers in those Countreys which Peter mentions but the Jews which dwelt in them So as by the dispersed strangers or the strangers of the dispersion were meant the Jews Peter therefore writing to the Jewes his Countreymen and of whom he was the Apostle exhorts them to constancy in the Faith and profession of the Doctrine delivered to them by the Apostles This hee inforces from an argument of the excellency of that Doctrine the subject of which he calls the power and comming of our Lord Jesus Christ Verse 16. by which he understands his comming in the flesh and putting forth his power for the salvation of his people He further inforces this exhortation from an argument fetcht from the certainety of this Doctrine which had for his author Christ and God and was not cunningly advanced by devised Fables and sophisticall reasons but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty sayes hee Verse 16. and heard also the voyce that came from the excellent glory saying this is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased So that as John sayes what wee have heard and seene that declare wee unto you Another argument which he uses to confirme them in this excellent doctrine is the consent of ancient prophesies to the Jews well knowne vers 19. We have also a more sure word of Prophesie Beza translates it Non firmiorem sed firmissimum sermonem propheticum and shewes the parallell of other Scriptures where the Comparative is used for the Superlative But if you read it not most sure but more sure it is in respect of those to whom he writes the Jewes amongst whom the Writings of the Prophets were of the greatest and highest authority Whereunto you doe well that you take heed as to a light shining in a darke place till the day dawne and the day starre arise in your hearts This Doctrine of the Prophets which in Verse 20. he commends from the infallibility of it as having the spirit for its authour is another argument for the asserting and proving of that great truth which he mentions Verse 16. Viz. The comming of our Lord Jesus Christ with power c. For both arguments confirme the same thing this from Prophesie and that from the voice of God to wit That Jesus Christ was the Sonne of God come in the flesh for the saving of the World He tells them therefore they doe well to make use of this head of argument and to attend to it for it is like a light shining in a darke place the propheticall Scripture like a Lanthorne as the word is had a narrow and restrained light and the times before the comming of Christ were times of darknesse whereas the light of the Gospell is more day light like the morning starre that chaseth away darknesse and this was true in the very beginning of the Gospell to those who had received it in the power of it and so yee have it 1 John 2.8 The darknesse is past and the true light now shineth If therefore you attend to the Scripture of the Prophets which had for author not any private or particular spirit but the spirit of God you will have a light to guide you in your darknesse till the day at last appeare and the morning Starre the signe thereof scatter altogether your darknesse that is till the light of the Gospell which hee compares with that of former Prophesies bring a clearnesse and a brightnesse like to day light in stead of the Candle or Torch-light yee enjoyed before so as there shall be no doubt or scruple in you concerning this great mystery of godlinesse asserted by the voice of Heaven and confirmed by propheticall predictions scilicet Christ manifested in the flesh And if you say here that the Jewes to whom hee writ being beleevers were cleare in this point already I answer that it is more then appeares That there was a day light clearnesse yee have it in the 17 Acts 10. That those that received the Word with all readinesse of minde searcht the Scriptures dayly to see whether those things were so And yet as yee may see in a parallell place to this Acts 2.41 They who readily or as it is there gladly received the Word were Baptized which implyed them Beleevers that being the condition of Baptisme So although these Jewes were already Beleevers in Christ as having readily and gladly received the Word yet it would be mightily to their advantage and establishment that they should search the Scriptures and attend to the Writings of the Prophets that so there might a day light clearnesse and assurance concerning matters of this great moment arise in their hearts So as many of the Jews that beleeved amongst which number some of these might be were not come to that clearnesse in beleeving to which the preaching of the Gospell joyned to the search of Scriptures would bring them Nor here doth the Apostle at all give a tearme or period to the searching or attending to the Scripture or written prophesies but shewes the great use of them for the attaining the ends above mentioned Wee know things are preserved by the same way by which they are form'd or procur'd No man will deny me that Timothy had attained a great degree in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ Paul had no man like minded to him who naturally cared for the things of the Lord. A man he was destin'd to great workes by prophesie 1 Tim. 1.18 Gifted also and inabled for his Ministry by prophesie and laying on of hands and instructed in the holy Scriptures from a Child And yet this Timothy forearmed already by Prophesie and gifts and study in the Scriptures is commanded 1 Tim. 4.13 to give attendance to reading and in the 15 Verse he is commanded to meditate upon those things and to be in them and give himselfe wholly to them that his profiting might be evident and appeare to all Nay Paul himselfe who gave the rule of not knowing Christ after the flesh and understood surely the mystery of godlinesse as well as these men in that very place where hee sayes that he is ready to be offered up and that the time of his departure is at hand 2 Tim. 4.6 When having fought a good fight his thoughts runne of Crownes and glory Verse 7 8. commanded Timothy expresly to bring with him when he came the Books which he left at Troas and the parchments That great Apostle was not of these mens minds that it was a carnall and unspirituall thing to read and meditate and use such helps as God who knowes us better then wee doe our selves judges meet for us but is forward and ready himselfe to doe what he exhorts Timothy to to give himselfe to reading and meditation and thinke it no dishonour to use that meanes as well as others And thus have I done with that which I propounded to my selfe to say concerning the Scriptures in order to the discourse I have in hand
were they knew that there was a holy Ghost by many Scriptures Psal 51. Lord take not thy holy spirit from me also in the 1 Kings 22. Which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speake to thee also Isa 11. The spirit of the Lord was upon him So as the sense must needs as I have sayd bee understood of the gifts of the spirit scil to speake with tongues prophecy and the like for they are sayd to receive the holy Ghost which are adorned with any new or extraordinary gift Having received an answer of this question hee presently subjoynes another and askes them Ver. 3. Unto what then they were baptized which follows very pertinently the other for as he tooke it for granted that baptisme immediatly followed beleeving so the administration of spirituall gifts called receiving the holy Ghost or the gifts of the holy Ghost ordinarily accompanyed baptisme sometimes before it as a witnesse they were worthy of baptisme as in Cornelius and his Family Chap. 10. sometimes after baptisme as to the Apostles yea and our Lord himselfe received the holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove immediately after the receit of baptisme Having therefore asked them how they were initiated into Christian Religion that is by whom was that ceremony administred or how or to what purpose were they baptized They answer that they were baptized into Johns baptisme which was proper enough signifying that they in baptisme professed the Doctrine taught by John sealed to them by the administration of that Ordinance but otherwise their progresse was not great as having neither heard Christ himselfe nor his Apostles The like of which was sayd of Apollo that he knew onely the Baptisme of John Chap. 18.25 being instructed or as Beza reads it initiated in the way of the Lord knowing little or nothing more of Christ then what John preached and sealed with his baptisme So as to be baptized into any ones baptisme as in this place into the baptisme of John signifies to professe and by the receiving of baptisme to imbrace the Doctrine which John preached and sealed with that signe the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the finall cause And indeed baptisme seemes to have a threefold signification one proper which signifies immersion or dipping which from the effect is also called ablution or washing The other two translations as when it is taken for powring out the gifts of the holy Ghost or when it is taken for the Doctrine which John delivered with the seale and ceremony accompanying it as when it is sayd that Apollos knew nothing but the baptisme of John for new Doctrines had new Ceremonies accompanying them After this in the next Verses scil 4 5 6. Paul was so farre from bidding them to bee baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus that hee taught them rather that those who had received Johns baptisme were duely baptized into Christ and therefore had no need of a new baptisme but rather as a consequence and due of it might receive the gifts of the holy Ghost For the fourth and fifth Verses are spoken by Paul giving a right account and narrative of the baptisme of John with the ground of it whereas the fourth Verse is commonly taken to be spoken by Paul to those Ephesians but the fifth to bee spoken by Luke shewing what followed the word of Paul whereas it plainely appeares by the Particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are adversative that both those Verses were spoken by Paul Verse 4. Iohn verely baptized c. Verse 5. But when they heard this His vero auditis so as both these expressions were Pauls teaching that those who having heard Iohn had received baptisme were baptized into the Name of Christ that is as before were consecrated or dedicated by baptisme unto Christ Then Verse 6. begins the words of Luke telling the successe of this discourse And when Paul had layd his hands on them c. signifying that Paul did nothing else after he had informed them that they were rightly baptized into the Name of Christ then to lay hands on them upon which followed the gifts of the holy Ghost speaking with tongues and prophesying So as here is nothing of two baptismes but a right explanation of Iohns baptisme to be the Gospel baptisme or baptisme into the Name of Christ Ob. As for that they object that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a transitive and expletive and a note of transition and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expletive Answ The Answer is That it may bee when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precedes not but when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precedes then no wise man will deny it to bee adversative and to correct the other part of the narration as when Mark 14. Truely the Sonne of man goeth as it is written of him But woe to him by whom the Son of man is betrayed No man here will grant that in the first place Christ speaks and in the second Mark Having thus vindicated the Ordinance of Gospel-baptisme from the mistakes and objections against it I might here make an end but that the forementioned namelesse Author takes upon him to answer the objections brought against his novelty severall of which are certaine men of straw set up by himselfe to be the easier by his addresses overthrowne As that by this meanes we are robbed of our Christendome Againe then so many ages have erred also that he is the first man that opposed it Then that Christ justifies and commands water baptisme Iohn 3. Mat. 28. How that place of Matthew which holds out by way of Institution Gospel baptisme is to bee understood I have formerly shewd also what a sympathy correspondency there is between the institution and the practice the one being the Comment upon the other and therefore shall trouble you no further with that which is sufficiently cleared already nor not at all with those petty objections I told you of before which he so easily formes and answers That argument which hee frames against Baptisme from Pauls not being Commissioned for it and thanking God that he had baptized but very few as Crispus and Gaius and the house of Stephanas I have particularly considered and answered already when I gave the exposition of the greatest part of that Chapter scil 1 Cor. 1. out of which it is raysed to which I referre the Reader not affecting needlesse repetitions But one objection would trouble him if he would give it liberty and let it have its scope and himselfe sayes it seemes to be the strongest which is the constant practice of the Apostles in this câ—â—e not onely before Christs baptisme came in 〈◊〉 â—fter as he says as appeares by many places which hee quotes out of the Acts of the Apostles This Objection notwithstanding doth not much trouble him for he answers it easily thus That the Apostles indeed did practice water baptisme but not from Christ but from Iohn whose baptisme they tooke up and an outward
ceremony of honour and account is not easily layd downe This he helps himselfe in and proves by a parallell instance to wit that some of the Apostles used Circumcision and that after the Ascension of Christ for Circumcision was an honourable Ceremony used from Abrahams time and so they could not abruplty lay it downe but used it for their sakes who were weake and so in like manner the Apostles used the baptisme of Iohn or water baptisme c. This Objection that in his account seems so strong if he had dealt ingeniously he should have beat it out thinner and considered more particularly some of those places in the Acts and hee would have found that so generall an answer would scarce have served the turne But I confesse in this place as well as in some others I have much adoe to keepe my selfe from questioning the moralls of these men more then their intellectuals It is true that Paul did once use a liberty in circumcising one to wit Timothy as ye find Acts 16. Paul was to visit the Churches and having a desire to take Timothy along with him in that work who was wel reported of by the brethren he took and circumcised him Because saith the Text of the Iewes which were in those quarters for they knew all that his Father was a Greek Least therefore the brethren of the Circumcision should be scandalized in the converse of a Gentile the breaking downe of the partition wall being yet not so manifest as was needfull for the satisfaction of their scrupulous consciences Paul tooke the advantage of his Mothers being a Jewesse and to avoyd the scandal and offence of those brethren circumcised him But the same Paul who to avoyd the scandall of some weake brethren circumcised Timothy such ceremonies as Divines use to say having then a kind of indifferency in them not being yet honourably buryed would by no meanes circumcise Titus Gal. 2.3 for when there were false brethren who might draw that liberty into an ill example he would not be constrained by them to circumcise Titus or hee would not doe that upon any occasion or ground which they might prsently reproach him with as varying from his principles that he being the great Doctor and Preacher of liberty should yet at Jerusalem and in the presence of the Apostles alter his practice And generally where this liberty was knowne and averred Paul was zealous we know to defend it as we see in the case of Peters eating with the Gentiles and withdrawing afterwards fearing them of the Circumcision Verse 11 12. and told him that by his example he compelled the Gentiles to Judaisme which was intollerable for even the Jewes by beleeving in Christ were delivered from the bondage of such ceremonies much more the Gentiles whose portion they never were You see now the force of this parrallell in one part of it Circumcision let us compare it now with the other of Baptisme Circumcision was sometimes administred once as we see and but once that I know by the Apostles after absolutely refused the reason and ground manifest and given for the satisfaction of some Jewes that were in those quarters who not having sufficient light about those ceremonies would have beene scandalized to have seene Paul taken Timothy with him as a companion and fellow-worker uncircumcized after this and in another circumstance this was absolutely refused as I have sayd But baptisme by water administred frequently by the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel to all Nations to all sorts Jews and Gentiles who were taught and instructed in it to take it up upon the most spirituall and Gospell grounds to the most spirituall and Gospell ends and that from the beginning of the preaching of the Gospell to this day now above sixteene hundred years together without any interruption in any age till the age of this Doctor who boasts of a particular felicity in administring this light to the World Here then I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse whether these men deale equally and uprightly or no in the way of their reasonings and parrallels To omit other things which will be confest by all men as that not onely Jewes but Gentiles were led into and instructed in this practice of baptisme by the Apostles and that after the ascension of Christ when they would have the terme put to this water baptisme even after that the Gentiles received it as a new thing and light from the Apostles Circumcision was forbidden the Gentiles and those that would have Preached it to them were sayd to bee troublers and subverters of their soules Acts 15.24 but where ever they Preach't Christ among the Gentiles they Preach't also this baptisme either to Jewes or Gentiles as a Gospell and New Testament Ordinance which was to continue as long as Preaching even to the end of the World Mat. 28. So Peter Acts 2. had no sooner Preach't and converted men made them Disciples but he led them into the Doctrine and Preaching of Baptisme Verse 38. Acts 8. Those of Samaria and the Eunuch had baptisme preach't and administred to them as a Gospell Ordinance and appendix of Preaching so Cornelius Acts 10. who wayted on Peter to heare all things commanded of God Verse 33. was led with his Family into the Doctrine and practice of baptisme by Peter For the ends of Baptisme every one knowes they were the same with the Preaching and beleeving of the Gospell this being nothing but another way of administration of the same Gospell namely our union and communion with God in Jesus Christ But then for the grounds of Baptisme that they were Gospell and spirituall if any can be the whole course of the Scripture shewes Is not Faith in the Lord Jesus beleeving with all the heart a spirituall and Gospell ground Must not that needs be a spirituall and Gospell Ordinance that hath that for the rise But this is the ground and rise of this Ordinance Acts 8.37 To instance but in one place more is not the receiving of the holy Ghost a spiritual and Gospell ground Can that Ordinance be legall and servile and ungospell that hath the baptisme of the holy Ghost for the rise and ground of it Yet so it was that this baptisme by water which they so villyfie as pretending to a Metaphisicall Religion after the root of their owne carnall and fleshly wisedome and not after the foolishnesse of Gospel administrations which yet is wisedome to those that are perfect I say this baptisme by water had for its rise and ground the powring out of the gifts of the holy Ghost That spirituall Baptisme being an appendix either a due to it when this went before as Acts 2. Repent and be baptized and yee shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost or else a ground and rise of it as here the powring out of these heavenly gifts giving warrant or title for the administration of this ordinance But enough to shew the vanity and falshood of these men in