a Jewish ceremony a binding command nor fasten contradictions upon him for applying that here to laying on of hands in Baptism which in his Examen he interprets to be laying on of hands in Ordination of Ministers Let those passe Yet I cannot but take notice that he is so confident of his present interpretation of those places that he says they might have deterred the Author of the Frontispiece from exposing the Ordinance of Baptisme and other Rites to contempt had he any reverence to holy things To which I reply who was the Author of the Anti-frontispiece page I know not and as little whether it was to Idolize or to expose to contempt dipping or rebaptizing which he calls the Ordinance But if it were Christs Institution me thinks they should not be afraid to have that exposed to the eye which they preach to the ear But he marches on furiously like Jehu with whole Waynes laden with reproaches inveighing against the Frontispiece of Dr. Featlies book and this with the Epistles and other passages which he sayes do give occasion to Intelligent persons to conceive that this sort of men do make but a sport of Christs Ordinance As for Dr. Featlie he hath given his account already before a higher Bar some like Kestrils love to be preying over dead carcases and with Thersites to trample upon the graves of those Achilles's whom they durst not look in the face when living The Author of the other is unknown to us Yet let him know thus much we reverence Christs Ordinance and have as great a mind to search out and receive the Truth as himself and are so far from exposing them that are for re-baptizing and against Infant-Baptism to the contempt of light and profane wits and to the hatred of the ignorant and superstitious common people as he uncharitably scandalizes them that we rather pity them and would not only spend our breath but our dearest blood to bring them into unity and unanimity with their brethren And whatsoever he conceives The Book was published by men of that spirit who endeavoured to bring those home to the fold of Christ who of late had been poysoned in judgment and imbittered in affections against the reformed Churches and their Ministers which he further confirmes them in calling them loose or formal pretended Ministers Which argues a great deale of rash ignorance in him seeing he neither knowes Pastor or people of these parts saving two or three censorious Anabaptists upon whose credit he takes this uncharitable prejudice whereas if he had been willing to have been truly informed he might have found Ministers as free from loosenesse and formalities and more constant to the principles of truth and conscionable than they that vilifie them and labours as much for reformation of ignorance superstition profanenesse and ungodlinesse which abounds lesse in these parts than under his wing as the Anabaptists does to gain Proselytes by re-baptizing which whosoever in the spirit of meekness opposes and would keep their flock free from infection he brands them with the mark of formall pretented Ministers Who take upon them to teach but do indeed as Elymas the sorcerer Acts 13. pervert the right way of the Lord This censure falls as heavy upon all Ministers of the Reformed Churches as us which we spread before the Lord as Ezekiah did Rabsheca's blaspheming letter and submit to the Judgment of the whole Church whether Mr. Tombes or we more pervert the way of the Lord or resemble Elymas the Sorcerer who like him did seek to turn away the Deputy from the Faith and withstood Barnabas and Paul as he does all Orthodox Ministers like Johannes ad oppositum or Ishmael his hand is against every man Mr. Tombes 4 Section SVrely did they seek the truth in love they would not so insult over tender consciences as they do encourage the looser sort and deter the enquiring souls from the waies of Christ For my self as I have found from others so I deprehend in these men the same unrighteous spirit in their reporting my Answers and publishing them in Print without my revising of them though it were proposed and as I remember yielded by one that in a private way I should have his Arguments sent to me in writing And for the other after two Copies of his Sermon sent me yet I wrote to know whether he would own them nor did publish any thing though I had sent some Anâ—madversions on the notes I received of which I was told one copy wâ—â— shewed to Mr. Cragge himself and not disowned by him And I do account it a shamefull practise which these men and another before have used towards me that after I have been drawn to a verball Extemporary dispute and no common Notary agreed on yet my Answers are published by them without ever allowing me the sight of them that I might either own them or amend them before the Printing and publishing them But I see faction so prevailes with them that like as if they were of the Romists minds they allow themselves liberty to use any arts as pious frauds to bear down the truth of Anti-Paedobaptism And this they do with so much insolency as may stir up the inconsiderate to trample upon their Antagonist and create prejudice against the truth which hath necessitated me in this hast to write this Reply SOme Truths we are impregnably setled in Scripture is a river as Gregory said where a lamb may wade others are more obscure where the Elephant may swim in these we seek the Truth in love yet not so as to be wherried about with every wind of new doctrine But after the Apostles advice 1 John 4. 1. We believe not every spirit but trye the spirits whether they be of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world Otherwise the Socinians and Ranters might impose upon us who vent their blasphemous notions with as much confidence as doe the Anabaptists And we are so far from insulting over tender consciences that wheresover we see any spark of piety we encourage it any looseness we reprove it yet we think not that it is to deter enquiring souls from the wayes of Christ meekly to disswade them from questioning one Ordinance after another till Satan have disputed them out of all as we know some by wofull experience who first denyed Infant-Baptism then all Baptism except spirituall as they call it then the Lords Supper and so one Ordinance after another till they were above Ordinances and at length turned Atheists What unrighteous spirit he found in others concerne not us though we believe he had faire dealing from Mr. Baxter whom he girds at And in relation to our selves we conceive his Answers are reported with as much faithfulness as our oppositions and published with no more prejudice to him than us though also without his revising nescit vox dicta reverti if he and we come upon the publick stage we must not be offended if our words
much as seen Abergaveny He addes to render it more odious like a Prelate had silenced them Truly as there is no such thing as a Prelate extant to silence in the Church so no such thing as this forementioned Silencing in the book I wish I could truly say so much of the third No such thing as an Anabaptist to be silenced I mean the opinion their persons I love their piety and learning where it is found I reverence But Mr. T. might have found nearer home some more resembling the most Prelatical of Prelates not excluding the Pope and that 's they that Magisterially prefers their own private opinions before the judgments of learned and godly Assemblies of Divines Harmonies of Confessions Determinations of Councells Oecomenial censuring all their brethren that dissents of prophane abuse and sinfull practise as he does in the words following In the interim he sayes there was but one whom with any face it could be pretended he was Anatomized or silenced Perhaps he means because he was the only Disputant yet there were two in the Pulpit that interposed with him some fâ—w that spake in the crowd many that ostentatiously vaunted before the Dispute that were more modest or silent afterwards But yet he speaks and writes for the Truth So said Copp and Collier I wish he did so we would be so far from opposing or disgracing his tenet that we would endeavour to maintain it with him and advance it Truth commonly goes attended with humility and self-denial which I fear the words following little relish of for he rejoyceth that those that dâ—ssent from him have no other thing to charge him with than his contending for a reformation of that prophane abuse of Infant-sprinkling Well be it so or the contrary we had rather with Sem and Japhet cover the nakednesse of Fathers in Israel than with Cam to expose it to open shame yet we think that the poor Publican that abaseth himself will rather go away justified than the proud Pharisie that rejoyces or thanks God that he is not as other men nor as those that are for the prophane abuse of Infant-sprinkling A high charge and dangerous if he make it not good which he will never do by his pretended reformation otherwise than to use the homely comparison of a godly man the devill did when going to streighten his dammes legge he broak it In the mean time the lesse hope we have of his return the more is his losse yet who knowes but he that like Saul reviles this way which he calls of sinfull practise may with the stray sheep be brought home at length to see his errour to the joy of men and Angels Mr. Tombes 3 Section The Libel hath a frontispice which pretends to shew the manner of the Anabaptists dipping but most falsly sith it represents it to the eyâ— of the beholders as if they held persons by the heels when they baptize them which is otherwise than their practise The pretended manner of laying on of hands and washing of feet is unknown to me if they do use it yet they have such likely proofes from Heb. 6. 2. and our Saviours practise and command John 13. as might have deterred the Author of this frontispiece from exposing the Ordinance of Baptism and those other Rites to contempt had he any reverence to holy things and regard to Christs appointment But the frontispiece of Dr. Featlies book and this with the Epistles and other passages do give occasion to intelligent persons to conceive that this sort of men do make but a sport of Christs Ordinance and that they have little mind to search for or receive truth but to expose them that are for believers Baptism and against Infant-sprinkling to the contempt of light and prophane wits and to the hatred of the ignorant and supersticious common people And I conceive that this book is published by men of that spirit who seeke to make odious the endeavoured reformation of ignorance superstition prophaneness and ungodlinesse which abounds in those parts and to uphold those either loose or formal pretended Ministers who take upon them to teach but indeed as Elymas the Sorcerer Acts 13. pervert the right way of the Lord. Reply Still more venome he calls it a Libell why because unlicensed So is his Plea and the most of his works except his Exercitation and Examen and they but conditionally which being violated renders them more obnoxious Or because dissonant from the doctrine of the reformed Churches So this falls under that guilt and it is cleared A Libell as my Lord of St. Albans Etimologized it hath its name from a Ly and a Bell A Ly hatched at home a Bell to ring it abroad So Mr. Tombes his Plea for Anti-Paedobaptists was hatched in private in his study rung abroad through the Country A Lye nay like the man possessed with devils amongst the Tombes its name is Legion because they are many This he saith hath a Frontispiece he should have said an Anti-frontispiece which pretends to shew the manner of Anabaptists dipping but most falsly sith it represents to the eyes of the beholders as if they held persons by the heels when they baptize them which is otherwise then their practise To which I return in his own language he relates it most falsly seing the representation is otherwise than he says for if he had not been I will not say like to Elymas the Sorcerer to whom he compares us smit with blindnesse he might have seen they hold them by the hands and not by the heels unlesse their heels be-continued and immediately joyned to their neck and shoulders which cannot be imagined unlesse like Ulisses companions when thrown into the water they are Metamorphized into swine their armes turned into leggs their hands into heeles And what strange Prodigie if they had been represented as held by the heels It s a known thing that some have been thrown in by the hands but have been pulled out dead by the heels with this funeral sermon preached over them I tremble to utter it You see that no sooner are they new-born but God takes them to himself But this Anti-Paedobaptist hath another quarrel at the Anti-frontispiece page which he fastens upon the Paedobaptists and the frontispiece page which is that the pretended manner of laying on of hands and washing of feet is unknown to him and yet he seems to call it Christs appointment and says that they have likely proofs from Heb. 6. 2. and our Saviours practise and command John 13. whence we may gather that there are some things of Christs appointment and have proof from Scripture and our Saviours practise and command which are unknown to him It seems he is but yet a Seeker and though it were true he dissented in nothing from the Church of England save in the Question of Infant-Baptism By this principle he is lyable to stray as far as the German Anabaptists I will not impeach him with Judaism for making
Infant-Baptism could they be believers and Catechumem at that age The other indeed would have the Baptism of some to be put off till they were of competent age to answer for themselves but were they not as Pamelius and others prove children of heathens which is apparent because he speaks of the danger Sponsorum of the Sureties and nothing of the parents Secondly the Author in that Chapter speaks of the Baptism of such as were born of Jewish or Heathenish parents as S. Paul and the Eunuch and therefore he desires that the Baptism of such Infants may be deferred till they made confession of sins and profession of faith their parents being Infidels and their Sponsors Mortal the most of their kindred and neighbours as it is probable being Heathens This doctrine differs nothing from that we hold But Master Tombes further sayes the Popish doctrine of the necessity of Baptizing Infants of their inheriting heaven was taught by the writers called Fathers Called Fathers and were they not so This is in patrios mingere cineres to defile the urns of the Antients Pinge duos angues pueri sacer est locus extrà Mejite Juvenal Paint here two snakes it ill becomes Children to pisse on fathers Tombes In comparison of whom what conceit soever some have of themselves they are but Imps and Zanies But to the matter two untruths are here by him asserted First That the Fathers held the necessity of Baptizing to Salvation Secondly That it is Popish Doctrin For the first they maintained a threefold Baptism 1. Fluminis of water 2. Flaminis of the Spirit 3. Sanguinis of Blood Either of the two later might supply the want of the first So Basil the great discoursing of this point in the Homilie of the 40 Martyrs says of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was baptized not b◠another or by the faith of another but by his own faith not in water but in his own blood And Austin himself that was conceived to be a hard father of Infants and of all that dyed unbaptized retracted his opinion and acknowledged that Baptism was not absolutely necessary to Salvation lib. 5. de Baptis contra Donatistas Etiam atque etiam considerans invenio c. I again and again considering saies he do find that not onely the passion for the name of Christ to be able to supply that which was wanting of Baptism but also faith and conversion of heart if haply by reason of the strait of time they can not be relieved by celebrating the mystery of Baptism Thus the Fathers are cleared from this aspersion Neither is it Popish doctrine or a general Tenet of the Papists that Baptism is necessary for inheriting of heaven Bernard that lived in the mists of Popery and was an Abbot confesses that not the want but the contempt of the Sacrament damnes and discoursing upon this subject in his 77 Epistle avouches out of Ambrose and Augustine that invisible sanctification was sufficient to Salvation without a participation of the visible Sacrament Blesensis another Papist that lived near Bernards time saith sufficiet Spiritus solus quia ipsius testimonium pondus habet The Spirit alone that is the spiritual and inward Baptism will be sufficient because the witness thereof hath weight intimating that the party might be saved when outward Baptism through invincible necessity was denyed True it is Baptism does not conserre grace ex opere operato all are not saved that are baptized nor all damned that are not baptized yet under the Gospel we have no promise of any to be saved that are not Candidati or to use Tertullians language designati sanctitatis in covenant visible and capable of Baptism Of which I have insisted more largely to give light to that which followes Master Tombes 6. Section AS false it is that the Baptizing believers called by these Anabaptism had its spring and rise from Nicholas Stork and others there named it being commanded by Christ practised by the Apostles continued in the first ages without any Infant-Baptism and when Infants were baptized it was very rarely onely in case of danger of the nearness of death to the Infant and when reformation of other Popish abuses was sought the reformation of this was sought with the first some hundred of years before Luther Reply IN the former Section nine untruths out-vying the number of the lines are asserted by Master Tombes 1. that the Epistle affirms that the baptizing of believers had its rise and spring from Nicholas Stork 2. That we call Baptizers of believers Anapaptists 3. That it is false though the Epistle mentions it not baptizing of believers without infants had it spring and rise from Nicholas Stork 4. That it was commanded by Christ 5. Practised by the Apostles 6. Continued in the first ages 7. When Infants were baptized it was very rarely 8. That it was onely in case of danger of the neerness of death to the Infant 9. That when reformation of Popish abuses was sought the reformation of this was sought with the first some hundred years before Luther These are his nine Worthies besides which many more deserves censure that come now to be stripped that their deformity may be discovered First the Epistle does not affirm that the Baptizing of Believers had its rice and spring from Nicholas Stork The words are these as all errours so it that is Anabaptism had its beginning after truth The husbandman first sowed good corn then the enemy tares and then mentions the most notorious Hereticks that arose in the six first Centuries at the end of which the Mystery of iniquity began more fully to work which was first nascent then crescent then Regnant then Triumphant And no sooner appeared a Reformation in Luthers time but there were Herods that sought the life of this Babe Dragons watching while the woman was travelling to devour the child amongst whom the Anabaptists of Germany were most venomous the Author whereof was one Nicholas Stork then Phiser Knipperdoling Muncer with their Tayler King John Becold of Leyden Now by what Chymistery will Master T. extract from hence that the Epistle affirms that the baptizing of believers had its rise and spring from Nicholas Stork This will be strange Logick the Anabaptists of Germany in Luthers time were the most venomous or greatest disturbers of Reformation the first Author whereof was Nicholas Stork therefore baptizing of believers had its rise and spring from hence It is as inconsequent as this The Anabaptists of England have been great disturbers of our late Reformation the first Author whereof was Master T. Therefore baptizing of believers had its spring and rise from Master T. True it is it will follow secundum quid that those Anabaptists of Germany had their spring from Nicholas Stork These of England from Master T. But that simpliciter all Anabaptists had their spring and rise from them is a palpable inconsequence much more that the baptizing of believers had its rise from thence