them and admonish them of such things as hee writ then altogether lay foundations or deliver principles that are new to them and with which they are not acquainted Therefore Verse 24. hee admonisheth them that that might remaine with them which they have heard from the beginning as intending rather to confirme what they knew already and have been taught from the beginning by the word and spirit then to add in this exhortation any thing in which they were raw and unprincipled But because John sayes here that they have an unction from the spirit and know all things and Vers 27 that they need not that any man should teach them To conclude that therefore they needed no other Ministry or teaching but the spirit neither Scriptures nor Prophesies were to make John himselfe ridiculous For wherefore did he labour in this Doctrine and wherefore did he teach them at all if there were no need at all of his teaching when Paul sayes as he doth 1 Thes 4.9 Touching brotherly love there is no need that I write unto you for yee your selves are taught of God to love one another Doth he forbeare therefore to exhort the Saints to that duty or rather shew that he need not doubt of the successe of that Doctrine of brotherly love which he and other Apostles inculcates exceedingly because they have a principle taught them by God himselfe and his holy spirit that renders them apt to receive any hints or intimations that way It is a great piece of Oratory when yee can perswade your hearers that the things ye would inforce and make out more fully they assent unto already Therefore John here professes that hee wrote to them because they knew the truth already and upon that very ground that they were taught and did know and that they needed not teaching he was incouraged to the Doctrine and exhortation he gave them It is one of the best arguments we draw from reason to prove there is a God and in the vertue of which we use many others that this point is a thing they need not to be taught this they are all taught of God no man so barbarous no Nation so remote from the knowledge and converse with others that hath not this ingrafted in their nature this notwithstanding we doe not cease to multiply arguments to this purpose to confirme and draw out that principle into use and practice of which there is so faire a beginning layd deep even in the nature of every man living The summe is besides what I have sayd in the beginning that the Apostle would use them to bring all things to the Examen of the spirit and that he would improve the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine by the principles already layd in them by the spirit of God he uses these expressions that they know all things and need not that any man teach them but as the same anoynting teaches them and that he writes to them because they know the truth already Both to avoyd the seeming to deale with them as learners and beginners altogether unprincipled and untaught when as the things were such as were built upon principles layd into them by the anoynting of the spirit as also to fetch an effectuall rise of arguments for the assenting to such things as they knew and were taught already as there is no better bottome argument as I sayd to prove there is a God then this that they know it already being all taught it of God nor no better foundation to the exhortation of brotherly love with which the Scripture abounds above any one thing then that which Paul layes in the place above quoted out of the Thessalonians That there is no need to bee taught that For that they are all taught of God to love one another We say it is the part of a wise man Rerum manifestarum causas quaerere and it is especially the duty of those who have the care of instructing others to improve principles already lodged into them of which the foundations are most generally and most cleerly layd by the holy spirit in all the Saints for those commonly are of the greatest use and concernment So as here will be no good warant to depart from the use of Scripture or the Ministry of teaching for which God hath in all times and in these particularly in which John wrote indued men with gifts and power to follow vaine Enthusiasmes unlesse we wil put ridiculous and contradictory actions and wayes upon the Doctrines of this holy Apostle and the dictates of the holy spirit Having largely and sufficiently I hope opened these words I proceed now to those other texts I quoted out of Isaiah and Jeremiah That of Jeremiah is in Chap. 31. Vers 31. c. which is certainly a Prophesie of those times in which the Apostle John lived and of that state of the Church in which in the place before discussed he speaks Here the Prophet as it was usuall with the Prophet Isaiah and the rest rising from the Type to the Antitype having before discoursed of the inlarging and bettering of the condition of the Israelites he fals naturally and easily into the discourse of the times of the Gospell and New Testament Behold the day's come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant c. what this Covenant is not hee tells you Verse 32. Not the Covenant hee made with their Fathers when he brought them out of the Land of Aegypt What that Covenant was we shall not need here to consider of but then Verse 33. hee tells you what his Covenant shall be I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will bee their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more The great benefit of this New Covenant in opposition to the Old lyes in this that in this New Covenant God doth not onely propound the tearmes but ingages himselfe to performe the condition whereas the Old Covenant set before you life and death good and evill but ingaged you to the performance of the good without assistance for the Law was without you or to the suffering of evill But in the new Covenant the Law is within written in your hearts by which you are made holy and disposed for all good If you sinne as if any man sayes he has no sin he deceives himselfe and the truth is not in him He will forgive your iniquity and remember your sin no more And because the knowledge of God and his wayes is of the greatest consideration to us for our happinesse and holinesse ye shall be enlightened have the holy unction and be taught of God This inlightening especially in things of the
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
A PLEA for the Vse of Gospell Ordinances Against the Practice And Opinions of certain men of these times Unto which is added By way of an illustrious Instance A Vindication of the Ordinance of BAPTISME AGAINST Mr. Dels Booke ENTITULED The Doctrine of Baptismes Wherein it 's proved That the Ordinance of Baptism is of Gospel Institution and by Divine appointment to continue of use in the Church to the end of the World By HEN LAURENCE Esq Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ Col. 2.8 London printed by M. S. for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head Alley 1652. TO My most Deare and most Honoured Mother the LADY LAWRENCE Most Honoured Mother WEE heare much of late of certain civil Hereticks they call the LEVELLERS Men who by pretending Salus Populi and the common good would render their owne share in the World better then it is And finding as their Lots are cast community more advantageous to them then propriety would take away all those troublesome bounds and metes which Laws or Customes have established upon particular rights that all things might be reduced to their Primitive as they pretend and Originall Community I designe not the processe of these Men at this time how great soever their crime may be and great enough certainly it will be judged if this Charge be true But the Charge that this Discourse intends is against another and more audacious kind of Levellers spirituall Levellers men that would levell God and as it was the vanity and ambition of Adam to make himselfe like God so it is the presumption and pride of these men to make God like them We have formerly had to doe with some who would bring the Justice of God to the modell and scantling of their justice which hath been the occasion of that great controversie with the Pelagians and their followers the Arminians And now we are importun'd by a Generation of men who would subject the wisedome of God to the modell and scantling of their wisedome would give lawes to God for the government and Oeconomy of his owne house and judge all at an undue and under rate that lye not levell with their either reason or fancy And because selfe-love making up in us all defects men are usually reasonably well satisfied with their own wisdomes howsoever others are and that as the Scripture sayes Vaine Man would be wise though Man bee as a wild Asses Colt Hence it is that men who have not learned sufficiently that the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and therfore if any man would be wise he must become a foole that he may be wise men that have not been taught this of God are vying stil with God for wisedome and are extreamely scandalized at his method of saving men by the foolish and base and weake and despised meanes of Preaching with all other Ordinances and Institutions Our Saviour and Master taught us better by his owne example when considering of the reason why God had hid the great things of the Gospell from the wise and learned men of the World and revealed them to Babes He resolved it easily into the good pleasure of God Even so Father for so it pleased thee But these will rather dispute it out with God and Men then they will suffer such a blemish to their wisedome as the ayde and assistance that these foolish and weake and base despised things as the Scripture cals them brings with them And yet because it is hard to make an open Warre against God and apparent and evident truths held forth in his Word they imploy all the pittance of wisedome they have to this great worke of Levelling either in wholly taking away the use of the Scriptures to themselves and others of their elevation or by so mincing and altering them by their liberty of allegorizing Which you must beleeve although it be nonsence to be the Mystery of the History as they call it as they make them speake what they judge in wisedome they should since of themselves and naturally they are farre from speaking what they would But I shall trouble you no farther most Honoured Mother with prefacing having given you a short account who they are and what it is that this discourse pretends against as the title tels you what it pretends to I am not I thanke God so vaine as to imagine that this Essay should convert this kind of men especially such as are highest flowne and who having beene accustomed to defie reason and Scripture doe not use to bee satisfied when they are answered But I am not without hopes through the grace of God but that it may be of use to some truly godly for these temptations are fitted to persons and places of light who have not known the depths of Sathan nor are yet effectually insnared by these stratagems and wiles of the Devill And I am assured it will be accepted by you my Deare Mother to whom I present it not only upon that just account that you commanded it and the commands of Parents to their Children are of the highest Prerogative But because it will be satisfaction to you to see the Asserting and Vindicating of those things indeavored which have so much of truth and God in them and in a time when the profession and practice of them is expos'd not onely to the insultings of men openly and professedly prophane but which is lesse sufferable and more abominable to the scorne and contempt of such as would be esteemed Saints of the highest elevation But Wisedome is justified of her Children whose condition is very easily supportable with this assurance That as Christ was in the World so are they in the World and if Their life be hid with Christ in God when Christ who is their life shall appeare they shall appeare with him in glory I am Most Honoured Mother Your most obedient Sonne and Most Humble Servant Henry Lawrence A VINDICATION OF THE SCRIPTURES And Christian Ordinances NOTHING seems more to speak the misery of these evil and calamitous times in which we live then the extreame debordment of extravagant Opinions in matters of Religion diverse of which tend not onely directly to the undermining of Holinesse and Christian Religion which by the grace of God hath been long acknowledged and professed in this Kingdome but to the subversion also and destruction of civill society and communion with men as men The rise of which exorbitancy so far as my observation leads me is laid First in a slighting of the Ordinances of worship as things lesse profitable and usefull and more befitting Children then grown men and then according to the nature of errour which is easily multiplying and increasing for one absurdity granted a hundred will follow and grow out of it in a reprobating and utter casting of those Ordinances as things hurtfull and destructive to the nature of
dye Exod. 20.19 So as though afterwards they proved a stiff-necked people who having received the Law by the disposition of Angells did not keepe it Acts 7.51 53. Yet no man could pretend their ignorance of the mind of God or that the forme appointed to them by Moses was not of Divine institution and command In like manner when those Ceremonies and that way of worship was to cease and a new and a very different administration both of Doctrine and worship was to be in the World the wisedome of God judged it meet as before to give the World a good account of it that no man might justly pretend ignorance in a thing of that great moment and concernment and although the World the Jewes especially to whom the first addresses were made were particularly prepared for it by a long series and consent of prophesies which told them of very famous and notable changes which had formed their spirits to a steady and earnest expectation of them yet God intending to make a greater change in the World then was before used a greater Minister then Moses having therefore formerly contented himselfe to speake by the Prophets He spake unto us now by his Sonne whom he appointed heyre of all things and by whom he made the World and that we might be obliged to heare him and to receive from his mouth this new Series of Doctrine and Ceremonies which have been the rule of our Faith and Worship ever since it pleased God to declare this Sonne of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead and to anoynt others according to their measure with the same spirit of holinesse which should be under Ministers to this great Shepherd of our soules and which by most reall and mighty signes and miracles should confirme that Doctrine and those institutions of Worship which he brought from Heaven and gave unto the World So as this change was most visible to all manifested not onely to the reason and faith of men but to their very senses so as no man could pretend ignorance or reason of doubting so as the fault must rest in their will they would not come to him that they might have life and they loved darknesse rather then light because their deeds were evill Yea our Lord appeales to his workes and miracles and sayes that if he had not done amongst them the workes that never any man did they had beene without sinne but now they had no cloake nor no excuse Thus it hath pleased God to deale with us when ever he hath given a rule of Faith or worship or hath shaken and removed old forms of administration which were the tracts and wayes in which he hath met his people and communicated of himselfe to them he hath ever given such visible and sensible testimonies of these things to the World as was fit to give a generall and full satisfaction that such was undoubtedly the pleasure and will of God in things of so great moment and concernment Now that Christians in the dayes of Christ and his Apostles and since to these very times have been possessed of certaine Ordinances and formes of worship such as Preaching Conference Baptisme breaking of bread and to comprehend all these under one head Church-fellowship in all its administrations of gifts and offices though with much variation in the way reason of administring these things I thinke no body will deny But where in the name of God I aske it are those Divine Warrants which formerly have not been wanting to these cases made manifest and visible to us as formerly by mighty miracles by the voyce of God or the Sonne of God from Heaven as formerly still which should destroy that was built and make such changes our duty which else without them would be the highest and greatest Sacriledge I appeale to God and man whether any such things be or no nay I dare be bold to say it in the Name of God to all holy and rationall men that there hath no such thing been and that what ever hath been held out for any such mighty change and alteration for the present hath been nothing but an absurd and ridiculous allegorizing of certaine passages of Scripture which very Scripture these men that would destroy Ordinances looke upon generally with as ill an eye as they doe on any of the rest of these formes as they call them but find good to make use of it now and then for the more assured deceiving of themselves and others I say there having been no such mighty and visible and authentick warrant for this change as becomes so great a businesse and as formerly God hath been used to give in things of this nature nor nothing like it nor nothing at all but the bold vanity and speculation of some men which would intrude their reasonings and revelations as good Gospel upon the world I hope we shall learne to be sober Not to be wise above what is written nor to thinke that God hath altered or quitted all his methods in matters of so great moment and concernment to the World because it is suitable and agreeable to the fancies of a few men the principall and most leading of which have been sufficiently deceived to the view of all men in those things wherein they have most avowedly and confidently interested the name and authority of God himselfe and of whom I will be bold to say that the best and ingenious excuse their owne friends and followers can make for them is that they are in some degree of madnesse and distraction This I would spare to affirme but that it is notoriously knowne and it is fit also that the judgements of God should be knowne and that the hand of God is eminently out against those who fear not the curse of adding to or taking away and either out of the vanity of their owne reasonings or from Diabolicall inspirations are bold with him in things of so great concernment as are the utter racing and taking away of Gospell Ordinances and Institutions Having sayd what I intended about the nature of Ordinances in generall and the reason of their continuance I shall labour now more particularly to vindicate from that contempt and scorne which is put upon it by some men the Ordinance of Baptisme not onely to rescue that Institution from the violence that is offered to it but by an illustrious instance in one of the same kind with the rest and one at this time more opposed and undermined then any to give a further account and shew more cause for the abiding and continuing with us of all the rest There hath been a great and much agitated controversie betweene the Papists and those of the reformed Religion concerning the identity and efficacy of Johns Baptisme as it is called compared with Christ The Papists thundering Anathemaes against them who shall affirme the Baptisme of John to have the same vertue and power with that of
Christs Those of the reformed Religion on the other side are generally of opinion that the Ministry of John was the the same that was after delegated to the Apostles and that the Baptisme of John was the same which was administred after by the Disciples and Apostles of our Lord and which by the command of Christ was to be propagated into all the World and all Nations to be Baptized with it This controversie though in the tearmes of it it remaines much the same yet in sense and meaning it is exceedingly changed by some men of this generation who would have us beleeve that there is no use of Water in the Baptisme of Christ that belonging onely to Johns Ministry the last terme of which was the Ascention of Christ but that Christs Baptisme and the rule and Institution of it Matth. 28.29 Goe teach all Nations baptizing them c. is not to plung and dip them in cold Water as John did his Disciples But baptize them or dip them into the Name of God the Father Sonne and Spirit that is to use their owne words by the Ministry which shall be of the Spirit and not of the Letter You shall Baptize them or dip them or interest them into the Name of God who is the Father Sonne and Spirit or sprinkle his Name upon them that they may be holy just true mercifull righteous good c. The drift of all is as they affirme distinctly to exclude Water Baptisme in lieu of which as a thing contradistinct they would bring you in Spirit Baptisme To make this good they draw most of their best weapons out of the Popish Quiver in the disputes betweene us and them of the difference of Johns Baptisme from that of Christs though they manage them to a quite other purpose then they meant them for we and they differ about the efficacy of Baptisme by Water they the Papists affirming that Baptisme doth ex opere operato conferre grace that is by the force and vertue of its administration without any respect to the foregoing Faith and Repentance in the party baptized in which respect they preferre it to the Baptisme of John administred also by Water but these would have us beleeve that there is no such thing remaining to Christians as Baptisme by water When therefore I say they have helped themselves by these borrowed arguments to shew that the baptisme of Christ and that of John are two things and abused the Popish arguments to their owne ends then with many a specious flourish they acquaint you with the excellency of spirit Baptisme above water Baptisme wherein as in a Theame very easie they make a great flourish and shew us forsooth how much the efficacy of the spirit is more then water which for honour sake no doubt ever and anon they call cold water and so at length conclude with that which all the premises drive at that all outward and carnall and earthly things are put to an end in which number all outward administrations are contained by the inward spirituall and heavenly things of a better and second testament In which how little sincerely and faithfully they deale with holy Ordinances and the great Master and Institutor of them Jesus Christ by imposing their Apocryphall novelties upon the people under the specious title of a more raysed and spirituall administration as I have in part shewed already more generally in the preceding discourse so I shall endeavour more particularly in the vindication of the Ordinance of Baptisme to make manifest For my owne part I have thought that the difference of Johns and Christs Baptisme was not very considerable for we by the acknowledgment of all injoying Christs baptisme it was of lesse moment to know what the difference of the two Baptismes were if there were any But as it comes stated to us by new hands and it is the particular credit of errour that it is new there is nothing more considerable since by vertue of that distinction of Johns and Christs Baptisme they would utterly take away the Ordinance of Baptisme it selfe and by a like reason all the rest which with so much comfort and edification the Saints of God have knowne how to use as pledges of love and paths and tracts of Communion with God in Jesus Christ without adoreing them or putting them in Gods place though I confesse according to what our corruption is that is not without danger but it is the part of good and wise men to reform errour without overthrowing foundations on the other side folly ever rests in the extremities to which the Devill drives it That there is a Gospell New Testament Baptisme that these men will grant and that it is particularly held out in these places Matth. 28.19 20. and Marke 16.15 16. The words of Matthew are Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you unto the end of the World To say here that Christ might mean baptisme by water of which ceremony there should be an end within a certaine time is to contradict the expresse words of the Scripture that sayes he will be with them in these things unto the end of the World and they may with as good reason prefix a time to the ending of Faith and Hope or any Christian grace or Ordinance according to their owne fancies or pleasures or to Preaching also since Preaching and Baptisme are here put together But some would Philosophate more subtlely and tell you that by baptizing here is not meant dipping or plunging in water in the Name of the Father c. But to Baptize them or dip them or interest them into the Name of God or sprinkling his Name upon them that they may be holy just mercifull righteous good But besides that this is boldly affirmed how ridiculous and absurd it is you will easily see boldly because in a thing of this moment upon a baâ—e affirmation without any proofe they goe against what hath been the sense of all ages and of all men if you will judge of their sense as we must needs doe by their preachings and by their practice but ridiculous I say also and absurd it is The words are wee know Goe teach all Nations or disciple them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then Baptize them that is first make them Disciples first make them beleevers and then baptize them therefore in Marke the place before quoted Hee that beleeves and is baptized shall bee saved According to this word of Institution and command yee have exactly the Apostolicall practice and this I dare affirme there can be no better way of finding out the nature of any Ordinance then by comparing the practice with the Institution The practice you will find in severall places particularly Acts 8.34 35. When Philip had Preacht to the Eunuch Jesus and the Ordinance of Baptisme as it appeares because the