give repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2.24 25. 1. The children of Israel are said to be all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea 1 Cor. 10.2 the Red sea being an antitype of the Waters of Baptism and the cloudy pillar an antitype of the Spirit yet were they not dipped in the cloud dashed they might be and wetted with the cloud and some showers or drops falling from it as they passed under it going before them and behinde them at times as Exod. 14.22 but dipped or immerged in or into it you will not say I suppose nor can you say I think that the Israelites were dipped in or under the waters of the Red Sea as which were a wall unto them both on the right hand and on the left so that they walked dry foot and dry shod through the same sprinkled they might be and washed a little with some droppings and aspersions from the walls but dipped and immerged they were not in them and yet baptized I the rather and at first instance in this because the Apostle doth himself call this a figure or example of our Baptism at the 6. and 10. verses for as in that passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea they were preserved and their enemies the Egyptians drowned so by our undergoing and partaking of Baptism the water whereof representeth the blood of Christ to us our fouls are saved and our enemies sin and our natural corruption are enfeebled and overthrown so as remitted unto us thereby it cannot have dominion or bring damnation 2. Our Saviour asketh the two ambitious Suitors Can ye be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with and foretelleth them With the Baptism that I am baptized with shall ye be baptized Mark 10.38 39. What did he mean that either himself or those two Apostles should be dipped all over in blood and immerged therein no rather but that they should be sprinkled with the drops thereof and besmeared with the same so himself Though blood trickled down his head by the pricking of the Thorns and blood ran down his back by the cuttings of the scourge and blood issued out with water out of his side by the piercings of the spear and blood fell out of his hands and feet by the wounding of the spikes and nailes sprinkled he might be and aspersed in body and so was with blood but dipt and immerged he was not and yet baptized with the baptism thereof and as for the two Brothers James was killed of Herod with the sword Act. 12.2 and so he was baptized in blood but not dipt in it and John was banished by Domitian into the Isle of Patmos in the 90 year of the Nativity of Christ which was as every persecution is a kind of such baptism as is here meant by our Saviour where he endured Exile nine or ten years and there wrote the Revelation to the Churches but being after released by Trajanus he returned to Ephesus and there wrote his Gospel and there dyed in the 100. year after the Nativity he onely amongst all the Aposties being the Survivor of them all siccâ morte sine sanguine as some say though Augustine Libro Soliloq Cap. 29. Tom. 9. hath these words Veneni poculum Johanues intrepidus potavit He was forced to drink a cup of poyson but he saith not that he died thereof so if he were not baptized with the baptism that Christ was he drank of the cup which Christ did and foretold he should die also in the same Text. 3. John the Baptist told the people that He who came after him meaning Christ should baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire Mat. 3.11 and Christ himself foretold the Apostles they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many dayes hence Acts 1.5 and so they were on the day of Pentecost following when there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Acts 2.3 4. thus were they baptized with fire and the holy Ghost but not dipped or immerged in that fire but rather aspersed or superfused according to the phrase of Scripture I will pour out my spirit Joel 2.28 and the spirit was shed abundantly Titus 3.6 I could tell you of more baptizings for so the word is in the original of Cups Tables and Beds as they are mentioned in the Evangelist Mark 7.4 The which howsoever they may fit you well as being Pharisaical and Hypocritical and me also as wherein there was no dipping or immerging but onely washing and rubbing I passe by for brevity sake as also that which the Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called since the Baptism of Repentance in which they were not merged or drowned in tears that 's but a metaphorical phrase to shew an abundance of their weeping but onely sprinkled and perfused with tears by which they did seek and desire the remission of their sins and also found and obtained the same 4. I will add but one more 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead whether it be taken passively according to the translation for those who were baptized with water for dead i.e. given over for dead or ready to die or whether Actively and Passively for those who did baptize and also were baptized over the dead i upon the graves of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being oft as here put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as learned Beza observeth upon Mat. 17.27 and Mark 10.48 or whether it be meant who are washed for dead their dead bodies are washed according to the custom of the Patriarchs as yet then retained in the Church and mentioned to be done unto Dorcas Acts 9.37 who being dead they washed and laid in an upper chamber which way soever that Baptizing with water be meant it cannot imply any dipping or immerging as being unto dying persons or unto persons baptized over graves or unto dead bodies And thus I have shewed you that there may be baptizings where there are no dippings and immergings and that this derivative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a larger signification then its original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the general and therefore that it can be no Argument to prove your dipping to be the baptizing because baptism is a derivative word from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to dip And so I come now to the very particular work in hand and shall take it not onely in the Grammatical and Theological sense but in the very Sacramental and Mystical meaning the properly baptizing with water In the Name of the Father and the Son and the holy Ghost so as John the Baptist Peter and Paul and Philip and the Deacons and the 72 Disciples gave and ministred its so as Jerusalem and all Judea round about Jordan Christ and the Apostles the 3000. the 5000. the Eunuch Lydia
is a great deal of distance and difference twixt a Warrant out of Gods word and a Command or Precept out of the same I shall I hope bring you forth some warrants out of the word for our Baptizing Infants but for a Precept or Command for the same I am not engaged no nor required to give by this your Quaere Warrants enough and those from the word I shall serve upon you for though a Warrant from a Justice be a Precept Missive yet a Permissive will of God which is no Precept for it may be a Warrant of an Action and such are and may be any solid Reason or good Consequence or like example drawn there from which though it will not be admitted for a Precept may serve for a Warrant A. first Warrant shall be this Reason which is but a recollection or recapitulation of somewhat immediatly said before If Infants of Christians are all of them capable and some of them partakers of the Spirit and Faith and other inward Graces Then they may and ought to be Baptized This is warranted out of the word and those Texts Act. 8.36 Act. 10.47 The one warranting Baptism to a believer the other to him who hath received the Holy Ghost whether young or old Infant or grown person If Thou believest saith Philip thou mayest be Baptized when the Eunuch asked what doth hinder me so Faith it was that made him capable and removed the hindrance though upon his confession of his Faith it being not otherwise discernable he having no other right pleadable he being one o' the Gentiles He was actually Baptized So can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as we and so he Commanded them to be Baptized That particular Hypothetical if thou believest c. thou may'st be Baptized may and must be resolved into this general Categorical whosoever Believeth may be Baptized Man or Child Young or Old and howsoever Cornelius and the rest their receiving of the Spirit was in the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit then manifesting it self that way yet any other manifestation of the Spirit any word or act of God declaring that Persons do belong to Gods Covenant as some or other way the Spirit doth manifest it self in all that do belong to Gods Covenant is to us and ought to be to you a sufficient Warrant without any danger of will-worship to account them such and therefore to Baptize them be it this pouring out of extraordinary gists as here upon Cornelius and others or the Consession of Faith as in Philip or Repentance as in those that came to John the Baptist or be it a promise to believing Parents-and their Seed to be their God or Gods owning them as Persons belonging to the Church or any other ordinary Gifts and Graces of the Spirit or the Spirits supplying their infirmities in these cases can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized This Interrogative and quaestionipropounding Speech may and must be resolved into a Nagative-Answer absolutely No man can forbid water rightly for that 's done that is rightly done or done of Right anless he will forbid that which God hath Commanded and some of these we have abundantly for the Infants of believing Parents where no man can forbid there God Commands that they who have received the Holy Gholst should be Baptized The resule also out of this is this general Proposition whoseever whether Infant or grown Person hath received the Holy Ghost whether apparently or secretly ordinarily or miraculously whether in sight or Faith hath a right to Baptism no man can forbid it and in one of the particulars Peter here Commands it See how I have gratified you beyond a Warrant with a little less than a Command for the Baptizing of Infants if having Faith and the Spirit as many yea all the Elect of them have whom we not able to know one from the other particularly do therefore Baptize all under the Covenant with God More briefly and syllogistically thus take it as I recollect it All Persons who have received the Holy Spirit or have Faith are Commanded by God in Scripture to be Baptized as appears by the two Texts here cited But some Infants of Christians have received the Holy Spirit or have Faith as appears by many Texts formerly cited Therefore some Infants are Commanded by God in Scripture to be Baptized A Second Warrant is This Reason It Infants of Christian Parents be in the Holy Covenant of God and have the same engraven upon them and established with them Then they are to be Baptized and to receive Baptism as the initial seal thereof This Reason is warranted or this warrant may be reasoned out of the word Gen. 17.9 c. and Rom. 4.11 for it s there apparent and the light there shining dazzles all Antipaedobaptists they cannot abide to look thereon that as Abraham and his Proselytes grown men upon their profession of their Faith were Circumcised so the seed or Children of Abraham and those Proselytes were Circumcised as Children of Parents in Covenant and joyned together with them in covenant and both these are there expresly Commanded and so this also that the seed of Abraham and his Proselytes should be Circumcised by vertue and reason of Gods Covenant with them which was to be sealed unto them by Circumcision Now as the Being of Infants in Covenant under the Law made them capable of and gave them a due Right to Circumcision the Initial seal of that Covenant under the Law so the being of Infants in Covenant under the Gospel makes them capable of and gives them a due or Right to Baptism the Initial seal of the Covenant under the Gospel The Covenant being the same for substance and in relation to the eternal wel are of the Soul as in the nâ—x I shall shew which being so if Anabaptists passing by this reason from the Covenant will insist still upon the meer and sole Commandement of God I must tell them the Text saith not Thou shalt keep my Command but thou shalt keep my Covenant implying that this Command of Circumcision had reference to the Covenant and was part of it For here God is to be considered not in his absolute Prerogative commanding but as God in respective mercy Covenanting with his people and all his Commands are to be taken as branches of his Covenant and all prounded upon his Free-grace in Jesus Christ therefore Gen. 17.10 and 13. God calls expresly Circumcision by the name of his Covenant to teach you and all others that will learn that the Covenant made Infants capable of the Seal and not Gods meer Commandement as you and your notional and metaphysical Masters do abstract who love to play with your own Fancies and Imaginations whereas the Seal is nothing but the confirmation of the Covenant and appointed and commanded so to be of God But the Covenant in order of Nature going before the Seal thereof
found even of all which are done throughout the whole life Ambrose the Bishop of Millain by whom Augustine was Converted and Baptized in his Book of Abraham the Patriark lib. For the year 381. 2. Chap. 11. writing upon those words unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit See saith he Christ excepts none not the Infant not the prevented by some necessity c. Every age is obnoxious to sin therefore every age is fit for the Sacrament So also in his Epistle ad Demetriadem Virginem he mention eth the Baptism of Children Epist 84. lib. 10. speaking in that Epistle against Pride and Boasting of some especially Hearetiques and shewing the evill effects thereof to the defending false opinions extenuating of evil and sin and the evacuating of some good gives these two Instances amongst others Hence the sin of Adam is affirmed to hurt his Posterity by example not by passage or transition into them Hence is that Evacuation of the Baptism of little Children as if they should be said to have Adoption given there but not to be absolved from their guilt and again Though little ones not Baptized may or should be saved yet great is the negligence of those that hindeed their Baptizing In his Book de vocat lib. 2. cap. 8. he mentioneth Baptism of Children three or four times and once thus They speak very ill and unjurly of little Children who say Grace hath there what it may Adopt but the water hath not there what it may wash away speaking of such as deoyed sin in little Children Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Camqania For the year 379. a man famous for Poetry and Eloquence Piety and munificence a good acquaintance of Augustine and Hierom betwixt whom and Him there passed sundry Epistles a great favorite and familiar of Ambrose whose life he wrote as also of Sulpitius Severus to whom he wrote 14. Epistles As the Beginning of the twelfe Epistle to the same Sulpitius Severus hath these two verses whhich for your sake I must be fain to tranflate into English Thence from the Sacred Font the Priest did lead it The Infant white in body heart and habit Epiphanius For the year 376. In his first Book Haer. 8. The Figures were in the Law the Truth in the Gospel Circumcision which served for a time gave place to the Great Circumcision which is Baptism which Circumciseth us from sin and Sealeth us into the Name of God In His Book against the Cerinthians Circumcision had its time untill the Great Circumcision came that is the washing of the New-birth as is manifest to every one Surely he meant that which the Apostle calls so that is Baptism the washing or Laver of Regeneration and by calling Baptism the Great Circumcision he must intend Infant Baptism as Infant-Circumcision and speaks of them as of things manifest and wel-known the Carnal or fleshly Baptism as Circumcision In the end of his work calls Baptism and other mysteries observed in the Church which are brought out of the Gospel and setled by Apostolique Authority Traditions and then in his Time Baptism was ministred to Infants and observed Gregory Nazianzene For the year 375. In his 40. Oration of Holy Baptism largely speaketh of it the brief is in the Question and Answer What say ye of those who are of tender Age and perceive neither dammage or Grace shall we Baptize those Yes surely if any danger be it is better to be Sanctified without sense and feeling then to depart without the Seal and Initiation Circumcision bearing in a manner the figure of Baptism was offered to them who were void of Reason c. calleth also Baptism the Seal or Signet to such as enter into the Race of Life Basil the Great For the year 372. Bishop of Caesarea 1 Tom. Exhortation to Baptism wherein though the Baptism of Infants is not named yet I find these words There is a proper and peculiar time for this and that as for sleep for watching for warring the Time for Baptism is the whole life of man which he proves at large and again without Baptism there is no light to the Soul and then adds the Jew was compelled or forced to Circumcision because every soul which was not Circumcised the eighth day was to be cut off wilt thou defer the Circumcision not made with hands which is performed by Baptism in the putting of the flesh When wilt thou be a Christian Athanasius Q. 91. For the year 325. Of the Sayings and Interpretation of Scripture We dip or put the Infant thrice into the water and thrice bring it out insignification of the death and resurrection of Christ upon the third day I shall also here set down an answer of his Quest 2. to Antiochus because it confirmes what I have writ before of Infants having the Holy Spirit How shall we know that the Infant was truly Baptized and received the Holy Ghost in Holy Baptism when it was a Child but the answer is long and shall not need because I would be short The Question is enough to the purpose and sheweth both that Athanasius held both Infant-Baptism and therein affirmed them to receive the Holy Spirit the very question makes it unquestionable as to him Again in his Treatise of the Sabbath and Circumcision Hee calls Circumcision a type of Baptism Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and a Martyr For the year 247. The higher we go the cleerer the light shines for the Baptism of Infants for now here Cyprian with 66 Colleagues all Bishops do in a Councel at Carthage decree for it and so Certifieth his Friend Fidus in an Epistle to him third Book of Epistles Ep. 8. Yea that whole Epistle written by Cyprian and his 66 Colleagues sitting in Council with him The Title of it is of Infants to be Baptized and the subject of the whole Epistle is to justifie the Baptizing of them and answereth the objections of Fidus. As to the Cause the Baptism of Infants we all have judged that the mercy and Grace of God is not to be denyed to any Child born of man c. and that there is the same equallity of grace for the young Infant as the Elder God is no respecter of personages nor ages Yea he gives divers reasons why Infants and the rather and the sooner because Infants should be Baptized which for brevity sake I leave out here as who am onely upon the shewing having proved the Baptism of Infants before the Custom and Practice of Antiquity herein This Epistle also is owned and avouched both by Hierome Au-Augustine to be the true Epistle of Cyprian by Hierom as above is said and by Augustine Epistle 28. unto Hierome saying Cyprian did not here devise a New decree but kept and observed the true Faith or the faithful Practice and Custom of the Church Yea this Epistle of Cyprian was a very strong ground for them both to stand upon and they very much relyed
your mean drugs of Exposition with such high and extream Praises and Titles as if it were according to the minde of the Holy Ghost is not this to sound a loud trumpet before a poor alins given as the hypocrites do Matth. 6.3 Is not this one kinde of boasting of things without your measure 2 Cor. 10.15 and this one thing The minde of the Holy Ghost in this and that Scripture and peremptorily saying your Exposition to be according to the same this is that the Spirit indeed speaketh expresly that in the Latter days some shall be lovers of themselves proud boasters 2 Tim. 3 1 Tim. 4. and boasters of the Spirit having not the Spirit these be they who separate themselve as Jude telleth you now again verse 19. O the depth of the riches both of the knowledge and wisdome of God for who hath known the minde of the Lord Rom. 11.34 Behold the man who expounds according to the minde of the Holy Ghost in that Scripture at leastwise No Sir you do not you are confounded already who presume to be of the Council of the most High and of the minde of the Holy Ghost see how you falter and stagger at the first step and setting out to your Exposition for the meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way Psal 25.9 God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble James 4.6 for you chop and change the words of the Holy Ghost whose own words do best express its own minde turning holy as you should write it but that you are so holly or hollow into clean as if you would teach the Spirit of God the words it should use and then indeed you may the sooner know the minde of the Spirit speaking in your own words Sir are you like to expound this Text according to the mind of the Holy Spirit who refuse the words of the Spirit by which it signified its minde and bring and add another word which expresseth your minde better besides that in the ciring the words of the Spirit you twice add Believing believing as if you would teach the Spirit to express its minde more fully and plainly than of himself he doth putting words into his mouth which he left out though I acknowledge the words aee twice necessarily implied But I would you could once teach your self to write English and speak sense your self so far are you from expounding according to the minde or words of the Holy Ghost Look agian upon what followeth of yours This Scripture is owne one of the main props that Mr. Wsinell buildeth his Infant Baptism upon gounding rom hence That children are holy because there their fatheâ— and there their mother are lawfully married for that is the Apostles meaning in this Text namely the holiness of the child or uncleanness of it according to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the marage marriage of the Parents and so the the unbelieving husband or wife is sanctified by the believing husband or wife being lawfully marid married as the holy Ghost saith Vnto the pure all things are pure Titus 1.15 Rom. 14.20 and so an inpure impure or unbelieving wife or child is sanctified or pure to the pure or believing husband and so likewise the husband to the wife being lawfully maryed married or joyned together according to Gods Ordynance Ordinance or may of maryage Heb. 13.4 and so their children are holy or clean otherwise they ware were unholy or unthan or bastards and they themselves made whoremongers and adulterers whom God will judge First I pray Sir poine your two first lines and make your flops for the whole two Verses seem to relate Mr. Wyness opinion and grounding childrens holiness upon their father and mothers being lawfully married as if that were the Apostles meaning The which Mr. Wynell disclaimeth as his grounding or the Apostles meaning Seeing then it is your gounding and expounding put it into such words or dress it in such clothes that I may know it and you own it for your Child or child ish opinion whether it prove a legitimate or bastard for so I see you intend to make of the Apostles holy children only legitimates and of the unclean onely bastards And I am farther glad to see you are willing to look into any of our Writers and Books that treat of Infant-Baptism as here Mr. Wynell whose Treatise as I remember I sent either to you or to a friend to shew you and the rather because your Provincial Anabaptists like as the Provincial Jesuites do forbid unto their new Converts and old Catholiques as they call them the reading of our Protestant Books are cautious that our Oathodox Teactates come not into the hands and view of their Catechumen Proselytes It appears to me you have not so much as read Mr. Wynell about this Text so far are you from reading over his Book or not read so much as he wrote about it because you pass by his Exposition of it and his Reasons and your Answers to them and spend your time in drawing out of your self and your own bowels as a Spider those Cobweb-Consideration of your own spread out to catch Flyes that will come into them Well suppose it one of Mr. Wynell's main props or pillars he hath more besides and I thought that such a Sampson as you are would have laid hold on both or all the pillars of the house and pulled them down but instead of pulling down his you set up first a prop and pillar of your own by his and do interpret the Aposltes meaning of children being holy to be onely from a Matrimonial holiness as born in lawfull wedlock and so to be nothing else in a manner but a legitimation of birth And here you cite Rom. 4 20. which speaks of lawfulness and purity of meats to Believers and Titns 1.15 which speaks of faith purifying the heart and all things after to the pure and Heb. 13.4 which sheweth Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled all to what purpose forsooth to prove that the holiness spoken of children by the Apostle was meant of a legitimation of birth and the sanctification there mentioned of a Matrimonial sanctification were they not rather to this purpose to shew that a good memory and a good wit have not met in your head who shew your good memory to cite many Texts of Scripture but no good wit to apply them or to prove that out of them for which you bring them Next you infer it from the scope of the words For say you the words are part of an Answeare Answer to a Question put by the believing Corimhians Whether that they which were converted by the preaching of the Gospel might live with there their husbands or wives which were not converted Now the Apostle answer thus If the unbelieving husband or wife will dwell with the believing husband or wife is sanctified to or by the unbelieving husband or wife else ware your children
how quickly it hath made you a right and perfect Scribe and taught you the art and skill and practice too of your master which is to pervert Scripture wresting it to your own ill intents and purposes and worsting it against its own good meaning and sense For all this that you have cited here The accusation of a new thing may justly and manifestly still lie against you for your dipping whilst there goeth along with them and their conquering the Revelation of a new song or that new song of the Revelation But I must remember that I have entitled this to be a word and work of Catechising the Dipper as I have Instructed the Scribe And instead of many Quaeres which I received I shall give but these four Questions 1. Was not the person dipping a new thing 2. Persons dipped a new thing 3. Place where a new thing 4. And the very Dipping it self for the 1. Action 2. Maner a new thing If either of them be such then let this be my first Catechistical Quaere to you of the person Dipping and tell me or shew me Quaere 1. What warrant you have from any precept or example in facred Scripture or succeeding Primitive Antiquity for one Lay-Breother no Minister called or ordained to be the Dipper or Bapitzer of another or any Paul indeed Baptized Crispus and Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas 1 Cor. 1.14 16. The same Paul baptized the jaylor and all his and a certain woman named Lydia Acts 16.14 33. Peter baptized Cornelius and his houshold Acts 10.48 So Ananias baptized Saul Acts 9.18 Philip baptized the people of Samaria and Simon the sercerer Acts 8.12 13. And the three thousand souls which were added unto the Church were baptized by the twelve Apostles with the assistance of the seventy two Disciples Acts 2.38 41. And so the Commission was given by Christ to the Apostles as of Preaching so of Baptizing Mat. 28.19 20. And so it was from the beginning The first Baptist was John who baptized all them of Judea and Jerusalem and Christ himself and his Disciples Now John I know and Philip I know and Ananias I know and Paul I know and Peter I know and the twelve Apostles I know and the seventy two Disciples I know and the seven Deacons I know that they were servants of the most High sent and appointed of God to shew unto us the way of salvation and to minister the holy Ordinances Acts 16.17 Acts 10.15 But who are ye Ye that go for Dippers And whereas it is said that Peter commanded them tob e baptized it seems that together with Peter some other Brethren also present there either assisted in bringing water or it may be in pouring on water or aspersing therewith the houshold of Cernelius but at the command and call of Peter and God chiefly who had baptized them before with the holy Spirit Besides they the Brethren were some such of the Disciples who had before an ordinary calling to such like work if not here they had extraordinary to this in present Thus John 1.25 the Pharisees I wonder how the Scribes hypocrites kept off for if as usually they had been here joyned then you and yours had been here fetcht in in their scrupling at John resolved the point saying unto him Why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elias nor that Prophet And at the 33. verse John sheweth his Authority namely his Mission He that sent me to baptize with water The Baptist was of Gods sending nay when Johns disciples came and told him saying Rabbi He that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him John answered and said A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven John 3.26 27. So giving us a rule in general first No man can lawfully baptize except he be authorized from above that is sent of God So at 34. ver he applieth and expoundeth in the particular of himself as before so here of Christ He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God And thus the Author to the hebrews Chap 5. ver 4. giveth both the same Rule in general No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Also maketh the application in particular to Christ ver 5. So also Christ glirified not himself to be made an high priest but he that said Thou art my son he said also Thou art a priest c. To circumcise was a ward of the Legal and to baptize of the Evangelical Keyes and they belonged onely to the Priests and Apostles and their successors in both admiministrations So then still I ask the Question Who are ye who take upon you I hope not to call over them which have evil spirits the name of the Lord saying We adjure you by Jesus yet to call over them whom ye think to have the holy Spirit The name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost saying We baptize you in the name of these § 1. Your answer is They are Brethren set apart by fasting and prayer of the Church to administer holy Ordinances But if this would do it that they are Brethren and that they are set apart why do ye not all at times become Dippers for ye are all spearate Brethren there is but one letter less and as little literature in a brother separate then or as in a brother sot apart And if truly set apart to administer holy Ordinances why do they not give over as in ordinary their secular Trades and Laicall Callings and wholly or chiefly tend upon such Administrations unto which they are set apart for so is both the precept and example of the word you so much pretend to Separate me Barnabas and Sakl for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 13.2 Give thy self wholly unto them i.e. Reading Doctrine Exhortation and the Gifts given thee 1 Tim. 4.15 It is not meet we should leave the Word of God and serve Tables Acts 6.2 and much less Stalls § 2. If set apart by or of whom I pray by and of the Church you say and what Church do you mean sure your own small private company of Believers or be you a great publique multitude of them And now are you not again out of the good old way yes sure for Christ never gave unto such a Church no not to the whole community of people Believers as Believers any such power and authority to set apart a Brother or Brothers to admi-ister the Ordinances of Christ as Preaching Baptizing but onely to such as himself chose out of the Church and believers to be Guides and Pastors of the same So of old Ephes 4.11 He gave some Apostles and seme Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers and it followeth for the Church its perfecting and edifying c. not to the Church to ordain and set apart the Authority is Christs to
in the noon-day as in the night that there is no footing or bottom in any River or Pond in Scripture for your dipping and immerging baptism How dare you then cry this up as the onely good old way of baptizing and determine that and decree it so to be even the very practice of John the Baptist and the very Acts of the Apostles and the mind of the Spirit when as it never seemed good to the holy Ghost and to them to lay upon us no greater burthen then the necessary things of which your immersion and dipping is none I am sure a burden indeed but not necessary thing sure if there had bin or were any such necessity or but conveniency thereof to the perfecting and compleating baptism as that without it baptism should not be true and right as of old the wind that bloweth where it listeth and the spirit that breatheth where it pleaseth would in some place or other of the Gospel have blown and breathed out unto us something of it nay rather hereof is a very great silence of your dipping and immerging though much speech and practice of baptizing Christ saith as elsewhere to the winde peace and be still and the spirit rather holds in its breath no words here are made no circumstances are given no consequences are to be drawn out for this dipping diving putting off or on of cloathes laying or lying down in the waters of ponds as is used by you at your baptizing But I shall now tell you that the winde bloweth fair and the spirit breatheth strongly and sweetly and that of old too for our sprinkling and aspersing Baptism and I perceive this sound from heaven will come suddenly upon you before you looked for it as of a mighty rushing winde and I wish it may fill all the house where you and your Brethren are sitting and that you would take them the Texts I mean into your considerations unless they be all spent and sent away to me in your Brothers Letter wherein he gave me so many considerations 1. Now of these Texts 1. Some are Typical as all those in the Pentateuch especially which speaks of the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices as Levit. 16.14 The Priest shall take the blood of the Bullock and shall sprinkle it before the Mercy-Seat 2. Some are Prophetical and allude unto Baptism as that of Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness by the which I mean the thing signified in and by the Baptismal-water even the cleansing blood of Christ the which David aimed at when he said also Wash me from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin and I shall be whiter then snow Psal 51.2 7. 3. Some other Texts are Mystical and represent it as Heb. 10.22 12.24 ye are come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel and again Let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Here is mention of sprinkling and washing with a reflexion upon the pure water or baptism the which another Text sheweth 1 Pet. 3.21 where he nameth Baptism where having spoken of the eight souls saved by water in the Ark He saith The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth now also save us by the resurrection of Christ so then like as the Ark saved Noah and his family by water so doth Baptism save us by water by being washed and sprinkled therewith as they were in the Ark for so the Apostle specifieth and hath no words of dipping or immerging as not conducing to the salvation of them or of the Ark it self which may be a fifth Text or instance where that is said to be baptized which was not dipt or immerged Again 4ly 1 Pet. 1.2 the Apostle there mentioneth the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ as the inward grace and thing signified of the outward sign and water in Baptism Now wherefore in all these or the most of these places doth the Spirit of God set forth the manner of application of Christs blood and the spiritual grace by the sprinkling it upon us but to intimate the way and maner of ministration of the Baptismal-water the sign and seal thereof to be by the springling and aspersing it upon us Had you Sir but such a Quaternion of Souldiers as it is called Acts 12.4 four such militant Texts to stand up and fight for your dipping and immerging yea or but an Union one such Text I mean in all the Bible that did but carry the colours or bear up an Ensign a sign or but the name of dipping as they do of sprinkling how would you glory and triumph as the Philistines did when they had gotten Samson into their hands how would you call your friends and neighbours your Brethren and Sisters together especially the two last dipped saying Come rejoyce with me for I have found the piece that was lost a Text for our dipping that was at a loss But it is so still and you are at a loss for it and may be at alas also for it you may go light up a candle and sweep or sweat too and seek diligently and yet not finde a piece of Scripture one Text for your dipping and immerging into and under the water like as I have found out fair texts and pieces of Scripture for our sprinkling and perfusion of water in the time and act of baptizing For as for that Text and piece of Scripture Rom. 6.3 4. Col. 2.12 which are both one that we are buried with Christ in Baptism wherein also we are risen with him I know some do descant and discourse hereout of Immersion into Immoration under and Emersion out of the water of baptism but the Plain Song in this as in other Scripture is this onely that through baptism being truly ingrafted into Christ and made one with him we are made partakers of the merit and efficacy of his death and burial and resurrection for these are included in that to kill and mortifie bury and abolish sin and natural corruption in us Though I add also this that such representation and operation of the death burial and Resurrection of Christ and of us sinners after his example is not then at baptism required of us as which is accidental to baptism or secondarily essential neither is it primarily nor properly the inward grace signified by baptism but the ablution and washing of the soul and cleansing it from the guilt and filth of sin in that Laver of Regeneration is principally intended and primarily essential to baptism like as the putting away the filthiness of the flesh by cutting off the foreskin was to circumcision And lastly if it were so the burial and Resurrection of Christ the main thing in
than with your manly or rather unmanly pride envy uncharitableness roughness and presumption whereout it is that you so despise and offend the little ones withholding them from their due of Baprism rail and revilethe Churches of God and the Ministers of Jesus Christ These things I tell you grieve the good and mild Spirit of God and send it away sad from such hearts and at last if presevered in will quench its holy fervours And I wonder very much that any people should run after you as they do who leave their Infants and Children under no better a condition or denomination than of Infidels and unbelievers for so you tell them that their condition by nature and their seed is the same which Pagan-Gentiles and till they know God and believe in him open and professed enemies of God whereas upon their and our nature that is natural Generation or Procreation of Seed there is the Covenant of Grace established and set up which you see at large Ephes 2.3 and 4 c. That we were by Nature the Children of wrath as well as others when out of Covenant You profess much Scripture Learn to speak in that Holy Language and to call Children of Christians Christians by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles or Pagans for so Saint Paul speaketh Gal. 2.15 We who are Jews by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles How Jewer by Nature because they were the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant born under it Act. 3.25 So are our Children Christians by Nature how not sinners of the Gentiles because born Jewes had not their sins imputed to them though born in original sin as the Gentiles the Covenant being a remedy appointed against it and a means to bring them into Gods favour again and so are our Children not sinners of the Gentiles You that are Parents and are carefull enough to keep sure your inheritances and joyntures of earthly things to you and your Children suffer not your Children to be wrangled out of their birth-right and joynt inheritance they have with your selves in the Covenant of Grace under the name and notion of unbelievers when as the Scriptures never calleth them so but a holy Seed and God hath made you and you Children joynt-partakers of the Covenant and the Seals thereof I have been the longer in this for that I would lay therein some ground-work for something to follow I will be very short in your next Quaere Section II. Of Baptism making Christians and how YOu ask whether Baptism maketh a man or woman a Christian without Faith and following of Christ in all his Commands and Steps left upon Record for our imitation This is a short Quaere and therefore shall be soon answered as not seeing to what purpose it is for you or against me I shall therefore briefly answer something to it out of Rom. 2.28 and 29. distinguishing of the sorts of Christians and the parts of Baprism as he doth of the sorts of Jews and parts of Circumcision As Circumcision which was outward in the flesh made though I do not here approve of this your word and therefore I will use another shewed or declared the Jew outwardly or the outward Jew so Baptism which is outward in the flesh sheweth or declareth the Christian outwardly or the outward Christian And both may be without Faith and following of Christ in all his Commands c. as in Esau and Simon Magus the one Circumcised the other Baptized Again As Circumcision which is of the heart in the Spirit not in the Letter made for here your word may go a Jew inwardly or the inward Jew So Baptism which is of the heart in the Spirit not in the water onely maketh a Christian inwardly or the inward Christian neither of these can be without Faith which parifieth the heart or the fruits of Faith in following of Christ c. Now as the Apostle saith surther He is not a Jew and that is not Circumcision so may I He is not a Christian and that is not Baptism namely approved of God and avaylable to Salvation which are outward onely and literal and therefore every true Jew or Christian must indevour after Faith and Following Christ to speak as you do and to find and get the inward and spiritual substance and nature of these Sacraments which is to worship God in Spirit to believe and rejoyce in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 to put off the sinsull body of the flesh Col. 2.11 That we may draw neer with a true heart in full affurance of Faith having our hearts sprinckled from an evill Conscience and our bodies washed in pure water Heb. 10.22 and may have the washing of Regeneration and the Sprinkling of the Blood of our Lord Jesus within us as Tit. 3.5 and 1 Pet. 1.2 Again There are Made Christians and there are Born Christians or a Proselytical or Parental Christianity As for such who are of the Pagan and Heathen world by Nature They can no otherwise be made Christians or Members of the Church but by a lawful Baptism upon their accession unto the Church and expression of their Faith so the Proselvtes of old were and did whom Baptism made Christians and outward members of the visible Church upon their Confession of Faith like as their Faith if true made them Saints and inward members of the Invisible Church But for them Infants who are in the Church and within the Covenant descended of Parents and in Covenant these are Born Christians and Church-members visible I mean not as born of Christian Parents but as born in and under the Christian Covenant so that their Baptism doth not so much make them to be Christians but only shew and declare them to be such as I said and seal them as Covenanters And howsoever a Positive expression of Faith explicitely be necessary unto a Heathen Born for his Admission unto his Christianity or Church-membership yet it is not so unto a Christian Born for their Christanity or Church-membership is their Birth-Privilege and Baptism is but their Instalment or inrolment and is but as the Inauguration or unction unto a Prince Born Faith I confess and I mean saving and justifying Faith and so must you seeing you joyn thereto the following of Christ in all his Commands and Steps left upon Record for our Imitation is absolutely requisite unto Born Christians as a Condition to their partaking and enjoyment of the Benefits and Fruits of Baptism but not absolutely required as the condition to their comming and engaging to the Covenant to the which they have a good Title and Right without present actual Faith unless you will affirm that all the Jewes who came to Circumcision had the like and all the whole Congregation of Israel man woman and child who Deut. 29. entred into Covenant with God had a saving and a justifying Faith In a word Baptism without Faith may declare a visible Christian but incompleatly
and constant custom of the Primitive and the succeeding Churches throughout the several ages to Baptize the Children of believing Parents in their Infancy then it ought to be so still continued accustomed and practised This Warrant may be Reasoned out of the word or the Reason warranted out of Matth. 19.4.9 where Christ in case of a point of difference about divorce himself argueth and reasoneth from the Ancient times and the beginning of the Church of God So out of 1 Cor. 11.16 if any man seem to be Contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Where you and I may see the case there and here to be much alike The Corinthians had got up a fashion of their mens praying covered in their long Hair and their women praying uncovered in their shorn Hair you likewise have taken up a practice of baptizing onely believers when grown persons they make profession and have shut out Infants from their right to the Seal of Baptism being Covenanters with their Parents Saint Paul refuteth that their fashion by divers arguments drawn from the headship of man over the woman from the dishonouring of the head from the shamesulness and the uncomeliness of it from the Presence of the Angels from the light of nature five good and sound arguments and when he perceived for all those that they were contentious and quarrelsome with him about and for their fashion He clappeth upon them as his last argument this taken from the Churches of God that have been before us In like manner I have refelled your Practice by sundry Warrants and Reasons raysed out of the word from such Infants some of them having the spirit and faith in some degrees from their being in the same Holy Covenant of Grace with their Parents from the proportion and succession of Baptism unto Circumcision from Baptisme's being a remedy against Original sin especially from Infants capableness of the ends effects and benefits of Baptism five good and warrantable reasons out of the word and supposing for all this you will not be conquered though overcome but will still strive and contend contrary to 2 Tim. 2.24 Now I urge upon you in the last place this Reason which is the Custom of the Church both Modern we have such a Custom of Baptizing Infants of Believing Patents and we have no Custom approved or General of Baptizing onely Grown Believers As also Ancient Neither the Churches of God have had any such For so though Saint Paul argue N gatively onely the Reason is of as much force and weight affirmatively and the Custom of the Ancient and Modern Church's is good and pleadable both against the New Lights of late scismatical Innovators as also for the old Light of former and present Orthodex Professours As for the Negative the Not or No Custom Primitive and practice Apostolieal of Baptizing again at their growth upon Confession of Faith such as had been Baptized before in their Infancy I do reserve it for at other Place your Dipping Pond of which I shall speak at last onely here I shall bring in the Affirmative That the Ancient Prinritive Churchès succeeding the Apostles what the Apostles themselve did do and practied shall hereafter soon follow did hold and practice the Baptizing of Infants And though I think it will but disturb your Brain and cause you to stop your Nostrils and Mouth who small no sweet Savour or Odour of Antiquity as being one of the New Sent or unsent rather yet notwichstanding I shall and relate the Dictates of some of the Ancient Apostles succeeding Pastors and Fathers of the Church of old and I will do it for others sake who are Lovers of Antiquity but I will do it in English for your sake whom I am Instructing who are no lover of Languages more than you can speak I know you will not take this General Custom and Practice of the Church upon my bare word and present Assertion nor do I desire you should Therefore Remember the dayes of old consider the years of many Generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee ask now of the dayes that are past which were before wheâ—â—er there hath been any such thing as the Baptizing of Infants of Believers You shall readily find the same attested by the Reverend Fathers of the Church the Bishops and Doctors of the dayes of old and years of former Generations to have been so to be the Custom and Practice In a matter of Fact or Practice one Good and Creditable witness is sufficient and that I am sure I have Saint Augustine I mean not onely for the General Practice of Infant Baptism in his dayes and those present tim 's wherein he lived as might easily be shewed our of his Books of Original Sin Chap. 40. Third Book of the Merit of Sin and Remission Chap. 9. Third Book against Julian fourth Book of Baprism against the Donatists c. But also for the former and praeceding Churches up to the Primitive dayes For so Augustine who lived in the year after the Nativity of Christ 39â— and was Presbyter first and after Bishop of Hippo saith thus in his third Epistle to Volusian The Custom of the Mother Church in Baptizing little ones is in no wise to be despised not to be thought needless and were not to be believed but that it was as Apostolicall Tradition This is a very full and clear evidence of an Ecclesiastical Custom an Apostolical Tradition whether written or unwritten that infringeth it not according to that of the Apostle 2 Thest 2.15 hold the Traditons which ye have been taught whether by word or Epistle not to be despised but believed Nor did Augustine utter this suddenly but advisedly and therefore upon second thoughts saith it over again and the more Resolutely in his 15. Sermon of the words of the Apostle Let no man saith he buz or whisper into our eares any Doctrine to the Contrary This Practice of Baptizing Ghildren The Church alwayes had this it hath this it alwayes held this it hath received from the Faith or fidelity of our Ancestors and this it keeps Constantly to the end Therefore doth the same Father so often and so much press this Argument The Churches Practice of Baptizing-Infants upon Pelagius and his followers who were Contemporary with Augustine holding Infants were not taken or tainted with original Corruption and Sin by propagation but only contracted the same by Imitation as in his 150 Epistle unto Sixtus in his second Book of Marriage and Concup 18. Chap. in his first Book against Crescon the Grammarian cap 30. in his fourth Book against the Donat. c. 23. in his sixth Book against Julian one of Pelagius his Schollars or his opinions Now if this had not been truly and undeniably The Custom and Practice of the Church even up to the first and Primitive times as Augustine affitmed Pelagius and his Disciples would soon have fallen foul upon
this Doctrine of thus baptizing Infants overthrows your practice of baptizing onely Children grown though born of baptized Christian Parents when they can give a reason of their Faith I say Infant-Baptism overthrows this your Man Baptism in a setled planted Church and you have not one Text to raise or lift it up or hold up your selves But I remember you joyned with Infant-Baptism overthrowing its preventing also the Baptism expresly commanded in those Scriptures alleged by you What mean you Sir by such a conjuntion of overthrowing and preventing for if that overthroweth this then it doth more than prevent and if that doth but prevent this it doth not so much as overthrow it For my part I think the one doth not prevent the other but both were joyned together both in the Precept Baptise the discipled Nations the believing Parents and their children as also in the practice The Apostles having converted Pagan Nations and Houses I mean the grown Parents unto the Faith baptized them and their children at the same time or left them baptizeable and to be baptized of others if they were in haste of their preaching the Word like as Abraham the Believer and Ismael his Son were both circumcised upon one and the same day Sure if any one prevented the other it was the old Administration as you call it in this place the Baptism of Believers that prevented the other the Baptism of Infants and not the other back way as you affirm for the Believers both of the Jewish and Heathenish Nations were first baptized and then their Infants were afterwards baptised as Abraham was first circumcised and then the self-same day was Ismael circumcised But let me hear and reade your Reason You say likewise Insant-Baptism prevents the old ministration of this expresly commanded baptizing of Believers because most of persons look upon themselves as baptized in their infancy and so never look after the command of Christ to be baptized when they believe What a Reason is here given of Infant-Baptism preventing another Baptison expresly commanded namely the baptized persons imagination of himself or looking upon himself as baptized in his infancy and so never look after the command of Christ to be baptized when they believe To let go the irrationality of this Reason I must say again that there is no such old or new ministration of an expresly commanded Baptism of Believers grown after they have been once baptized in their Infancy Your cannot wring or wrest it out of the mouth of any one of your cited Texts so far are you from deducing and leading it fairly by the hand as I may so say out of them or any one of them This of yours savours too rankly of the old Heresie and new Schisme of Rabaptization ever condemned in the Churches of God both of old and of late as I have formerly proved from the Apostles casting up this account and bringing all Baptismes to this as the total summe that there is but one Baptism and therefore once baptized are not to be baptized any more And therefore not onely most of the persons but all of the persons baptized are to look upon themselves as baptized sufficiently and never to look after any other Baptism commanded them of Christ when they believe for there is none commanded Do you Sir express it as if it were a fault or a fancy that most of persons look upon themselves as baptized in their infamcy and never look after to be baptized when they believe Stop your ears Oye baptized men women and children at the voice of the chaarmers for they charm neither wisely nor foundly nor sweetly as to you and your good and benifit not wisely for you but subtlely for themselves and their party who having forsaxen their first love and renounced their first Baptism now compass about to make your their proselytes and so two-fold more the children of Hell than themselves if ye after so many strong Reasons and so fair a warning will also renounce your Baptism wherein ye renounced the Devil and all his works A chief one of the DXevils works is to draw people to renounce their Baptism the mark and Seal of their Covenane with God Gods with them as he useth to do with Wirches and Sorcerers before he entreth into Covtract with them and give them a mark and Seal of their Langue with him and his with them Not soundly or truly for you but hypocritically and falsly for themselves do they thus charm as who onely do pretend the Word and Commandement but can shew you none nor example for any Christian once baptized who ever was baptized again The desire to have you baptized again as the Impostors would have had the baptized Galathians circumcised That they may glory in your flesh Galat. 6.13 a most vain and shamefull glory and make you tread under foot the Son of God and to count the blood of the Covenant wherewith ye were sanctified an unholy thing and do despite unto the Spirit of grace Heb. 10.19 at least to grieve the holy Spirit of God wherewith ye were sealed unto the day of redemption if ye belong to the Election of God Such a grievous hainous and unsound thing tit is to renounce your Christian Baptisms Look therefre diligently to your selves as the Authour to the Hebrews hath it lest any man among you fall from the Grace of God even that Grace offered in the Sea crament of Baptism ot you and it may be received by you therein lest any root of bitterness springing up in you trouble you lest there be any profane person amongst you as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right Heb. 12.15 16 thus Esau despised his birth-right Genesis 25 34. Is not Baptism your birth-right also is not your renouncing of your Infant-Baptism a despising of your Infant Birth-right and a breaking or pulling off or a trostrating or evacuaring the Seal either way a despising it and a profaning of the Covenant of Grace and will ye thus part with your Birth-right first Baptism and sell it as it were to these supplanting Jacobs and all for a mess of twice sod pottage such is second Baptism or rebaptization Will you leave your Manna that came down first from Heaven loathing it to lust after and hunt after these Quails and listen to their Quail piper who say What is this Manna nothing before ouer eys but this Manna Remember that whilest the flesh of the Quails eaten in cintempt of Manna was yet between their teeth ere the Quails were chewed the wrath of God was kindled amongst the people to the smiting of them with a great plague besides that the flesh afterwards came out at their nostrils and was loathsom unto them and so fear ye left while the water of the new Dippers or second Baptism received in contempt of your first Baptism is yee upon your heads and ears and faces the wrath of God which ever attends upon the
generally set down at the 3. verse and specified in two particulars the one of chastity along to the 6. verse in whcih verse is another particular of justice and at the 7 verse the reason of both is yielded For God hath not called us to uncleanness but holiness which if understood only of Matrimonial uncleannes which is Fornication and holiness which is chastity then the Argument must run thus let no man go beyond his brother in bargining for God hath not called us to fornication but to chastity and so you alone shall run with it for me and follow the consequence thereof which I hold to be of no consquence And fourthly Such another consequence is this uncleanness and holiness or sanctification is put by St. Paul to the Thessalonians for fornication and chastity suppose it so though I grant it not so and therefore the same is meant by St. Paul to the Corinthian when he saith the husband is sanctified by or in or to the wife else the children were unclean but now they are holy as if the same words may not bear divers senses in scveral Text of Scriptures according to the diversity of the matter and scope and how will you shew that chastity among the Heathens and unbelievers is ever called sanctification in Scripture the spirit only being the Spirit of sanctification and the bodies of Heathens and unbelievers being not the Temples of the Holy Spirit and yet you see the Heathen or unbelieving husband or wife is said to be sanctified in or by the believing wife or husband And Fiftly and lastly The Apostle speaketh to the Thessalonians grown persons converted to Christ and tells them for the present and time to come that it is the will of God they should abstain from uncleanness and fornication from fraud and injustice for the one of which you cite Heb. 13.4 also the only tâ—xt you ciâ—e according the sense of it and what 's all this to the unbelievers being sanctified by the believers or their childrens being holy Here was no such mixt conjugal societies of Christians and Gentiles or Heathens and children born of them as appears in that the Apostles saith Let every one of you possesse his vessel in sanctification and not in the lust of Concupisence even as the Gentiles which know not God I am sure the Apostle neither speaks nor means a natural holiness or cleanness that is not born of Fornication as you strangly and inconsiderately blurt out which words I leave to you to put into some Genitive Case for the birth of I know not whom the fathers or children of these Thessalonians for you make no Genuine sense here either of fathers or childrens Natural holiness or cleanness There is a parcel of your third Consideration clapt in by you not belonging to the matter in hand there which according to my custom of right ordering and methodising of your confused stuffe I reserve untill anon to come in its due and proper place I proceed now that I have answered your Allegation for a Natural you would say if you were acquainted with the best spoken of your Sect Matrimonial sanctification Holiness and cleanness to give you my Reasons to the contrary of your Opinion 1. When the Apostle saith the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife c. and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband this cannot be meant of Matrimonial sanctity and holiness that their Marriage was good and lawful and chaste for both parties knew that of themselves before nor needed they nor did they here propound any such Quaere unto the Apostle Whether they were at first or still rightly man and wife or were joyned in lawful way of Wedlock whilest they were Heathens And that case was also determined before by the Apostle as the 9 and 10. verses let not the wife depart from the husband and let not the husband put away his wife But the Quaere here was whether the believing party might depart and seperate from the unbelieving party a Brother or a Sister as its more explicated at the 12 and 13. verses so that it seems this Quaere arose from something in difference of Religion that troubled the Conscience of the believing party after his or her conversion as whether it would not be defiled in remaining joyned to Idolaters and Infidels Now suppose the Quaere had been sent to you for answer for I will see how good you are at answers who are so much in Quaeres what will you answer to these Corinthians why thus you do Be content Sirs you have a natural holiness cleanness or your Matrimony is lawful notwithstanding the difference in faith you may live together for all that you are no Adulterers and Adulteresses increase and multiply your children are no bastards but Legitimates But Sir do you think this would have answered their Quaere satisfied their scruple or pacified their Conscience would they not have replyed to you in the words of Job to his Friends We have heard many such things miseralbe Comforters are ye all Job 16.2 Tell us that we know not answer us to that we Quaere you speak that we have not heard we have heard many such things we know all this that we are lawfully man and wife and our children are no Bastards but Legitimater if this be all you can say as good hold your peace for you speak no peace to Conscience Miserable comforters of Conscience are ye all or as in the margent troublesome comforters of conscience are ye all and by this your resolution make our Consciences more troublesome and miserable than before they were Our doubts are whether we that are converts and believers may put away or go from our husbands or wives which are Infidels and unconverted and also his or her children as not belonging to God for part of his people or seed and being as a grief and vexation if not pollutionto us what do you tell us of lawfulness of our Marriages or Legitimacy of our children Can you shew us there is any sanctification betwixt us and our unbelieving consorts whereby we may be induced to live and dewell together any holinesse of our off-spring and children that we may own them as members of the Church of God do this and do somthing else it s nothing you say But I will take off these Corinthians from you Sir and from baiting of you for which you may thank me and will direct them to a more happy and peaceable Comforter ever their own Apostle St. Paul who here fully answereth their doubts and quiets their Consciences telling them that the unbelieving husband is sanctisied by or in the word in the Original beareth all the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by or in the husband meaning though not expressed the believing husband and the believing wife I blamed you Sir before for expressing it in the text where the word believing is not for mentioning it as the fense and scope which my self
now do for the question is what the believing wife or husband is to do with the unbelieving husband and wife Now this goeth and speaketh to the heart as the Hebrews say of these Corinthians and bringeth a calme upon their troubled spirits now if the unbelieving husband bepleased to dwell with his believing wife she is well coutented for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by or in the wife and if the unbelieving wife be content to keep with her believing husband he is as well pleased for the unbelieving wife is sanctified in and by the husband and now also their children are not unclean but holy This of sanctification is such a privilege as is not common to all married folks but peculiar to believing persons so that these may reap such comfort and benefit hereby that their unbelieving consorts are sanctified to or by themselves and they may have not only a lawful enjoyment but also a holy use of their unbelieving yoke-fellows for that God esteems the seed of such to be a holy seed as truly as if both were believers Thus the Apostle his resolution removes that scruple of Conscience telling them the believing husband or wife they were not defiled by remaining joyned with the unbelieving consort but rather that the unbelieving consort was sanctified in or by the believing husband wife he which your sense of natural or Matrimonial chastity or sarctification if you will have the word also is nothing so satisfactory to or answerable for For again if so it should be meant and understood the Reason would have been as good The unbelieving wife or husband is sanctisied by or in the unbelieving husband and wife or the believing Consort is sanctified in and by an unbelieving Consort or the husband is sanctified by the wife and the wife by the husband Let them be what they will believers or unbelievers according to your sense as betwixt whom there is your matrimonial Chastity or lawful Marriage But then it would not have been so true every way as now it is according to my sense for to the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled Titus 1.15 Nay more whereas the believing Consort sanctifieth the unbelieving Consort and not the other way the unbelieving Consort sanctifieth the believing one if matrimonial Chastity or your natural Sanctity were here understood both Consorts would here be sanctified yea both the believing one and also the unbelieving one would be and were hereby sanctified in themselves not by or in one the other for Marriage is honourable amongst all and the bed undefiled Heb. 13.4 And then you may alter the Text of Titus and say to the impure and unbelieving husband or wife also all things are pure 3. they are sanctified even in themselves by their matrimonial Sanctity and natural Chastity and even their minde and conscience is undefiled Besides what an incongruity and inconsistency is there in such a reddition and interpretation the unbelieving wife is sanctified by or in the believing husband that is chastified or matrimonially holy Said I not but even now That chastity amongst the Heathen or spoken of them as here you will have it of the unbelieving is never called Sanctification or Sanctity in Scripture Turn down to your self the one Text and then turn it over to me I gave you also reason for it because their bodies are not the Temples of the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of Sanctification and Sanctity But I pray shew me also that one Consort or yoke-fellow doth chastifie or make chaste the other like as the Apostle sheweth you that one doth sanctifie and make holy the other and if so be both Consorts be not chaste how are they made chaste or chastified each by or in other or if but one be unchaste how is he or she chastified or made chaste by or in the other chaste one be it he or she Truly Sir this opinion of yours and your sense here deserves a little to be chastised till it be more sensible yea and chastified too as which doth adulterate and corrupt the purity of the Word and the sanctification of this Text. It may something recreate the Reader if any come to reade these sheetâ— besides your self who do concreate iâ— to intersert what a great Champion of Infant-Baptism hath related of as great an opposer of it about the interpretation of this Text which he holding as you do it to be meant of matrimonial chastity and holiness bringeth forth as a parallel Text the 34 Verse of this Chapter I pray look the Verse it is too longton me to write out twice and he thus rendreth and meaneth it The unmarried cares for the things of God that she may be holy in body and Spirit i.e. That she may be chaste but she that is married cares for the things of the world that she may please her husband The Relator saith of it onely this That in truth it is a pretty odd sense thus invented and that which I onely shall adde is That if thus invented it is hardly in truth and though pretty it is not chaste but holy that the Apostle aimeth at That she being unmarried and free from worldly cares careth the more for the things of God that she may be godly and holy and whether the sense be even or odd I pass not it is odd indeed that the unmarried careth for the things of God that she may be chaste I will make it even and say with the Apostle The unmarried careth for the things of God how she may be holy If you ask me now for my sense and interpretation of S. Paul here to the Corinthians saying The unbelieving Consort is sanctified by or to the believing Consort I gave it you but a little before to be this plainly You believing Consorts may have and have if you dwell together not onely a lawfull enjoyment but a holy use of your unbelieving Consort This I shall elucidate by comparing it with 1 Tim. 4.5 where the creature is said to be sanctified by the word and prayer unto the pure and Believer You may as well limit and restrain the Sanctification here onely to a lawfull use of the Creatures to Believers and unbelievers as you do the other former sanctification onely to the lawfull marriage of the unbelievers and Believers But as I have shewed you the one so I shall now prove that the other holdeth out more to your eyes if you will open them and look on because the Heathens and unbelievers had a lawfull use of the Creatures but S. Paul here to Timothy speaks of such an use of the Creatures as they had not and is appliable onely to Believers and therefore is a holy and sanctified use also not lawfull onely as appears by that which followeth for it is sanctified by the Word and Prayer they have the Word to Warrant the use of
therefore the Jewish Infants were to have the initial Seal of Circumcision the old Ministration imprinted upon them in their infancy to seal up the Covenant unto them under which they were born though they had no such discerning as is now required of the Replier to be in the present act of our new Ministration so our Christian Infants are to have the initial Seal of Baptism the new Ministration sprinkled upon them In their infancy to seal up the same Covenant unto them under which they are born though they have no more discerning than was mentioned to be in the Jewish Infants then at the past act of their old Ministration And yet neither of these Ordinances vain or ineffectual to either of the Infant parties For the efficacy of Baptism as Circumcision depends not upon the act of the Creature discerning and working this is but a rank Romance or a Roman prank of the Replier but upon the free Grace and mercy of God conveighing and operating yea Baptism is not onely a transient act as to sprinkling of water and outward washing but a permanent and continued act of the same grace and mercy as to the inward washing and application of Chirsts merits unto all Gods children But Jewish infants discerned somewhat as who had a bodily seeling of the cutting of their the foreskin of their flesh and so have our Christian infants a bodily feeling of the water laid upon their forehead or faces but what 's either to the purpose of the spiritual discerning of either action or sign as Sacramental to them they discern somewhat and this somewhat is nothing nothing to the purpose being but a natural feeling of the coldness of the water or sharpness of the knife But there is mroe reason there should be demanded discerning of the sign when Baptism is ministred than there was when Circumcision was given for this left a mark or print of it self behinde it so that the Circumcised person bare in his body the mark of the Lord Jesus to use the Apostles phrase and he did daily discern that visible sign to assure him that he was sealed into Covenant with God but the water leaves no impression upon Baptized infants but is either presently wiped off with a Handkercheif by the Midwife or other woman though I think they should not do so and the Ministers ought to rebuke them for it or shortly after it is dried up of it self so that the body is as if it were not washed or wetted at all and and no mark to be seen outwardly to put the party in minde of his being sealed into God his peculiar Servant But what and if there be a mark and character of Baptism like as of Circumcision then there is no more reason of discerning in the one party than the other I do not mean that mark which Papists hold is formed in the soul of every Baptized infant and inscribed thereby the external action of Baptism Simply and barely in it self considered which they call an Indelible character For such is not to be found in Scriptures nor Orthodox writers such a character as may be imprinted and consist without grace in a soul damned and besides its absurd if not impious to ascribe to an external action of a creature that which is the proper act of God an internal characterising or indelible marking in the soul and they may as well say the bare and naked external preaching of the Gospel or remission of sins doth imprint eternal salvation upon the soul without perceiving any force or using any faith But I mean that mark and character which the Ancient Orthodox held to be imprinted in Baptism which was either that gracious act or gift never to he reiterated and therefore called an indelible character for a man rightly baptized becomming a Turk or Jew and afterwards returning to the faith and Church of Christ is in no case to be re-baptized the vertue of his former Baptism is not spunged out but still remainech a vailable of which matter I have spoke largely before or else the very grace and gife of the holy spirit of which the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts and Eph. 1.13 In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which also may very truly be called an indelible seal and character wheresoever it is inscribed and imprinted as it is in the hearts and souls of many Baptized infants even all belonging to the eternal election and inheritance mentioned and spoken of in the Texts above alleged Or thirdly the character of Baptism is that passive power whereby the party Baptized is made fit and capable in due time and order to receive the other Sacrament the Lords Supper whereof without Baptism he were uncapable as without Circumcision the Jew was of the Passeover So then there is in both the initial seal marks or characters and as much mark left upon the face and forehead of the infant Baptized as there was upon your head and face when you were dopt or dipt over both in the Pond or River you wote off and though the outward mark were more permanent in Circumcision being done and engraven upon and into the flesh by incision yet there was an outward mark in Baptism though more transient done and laid upon the face and flesh by aspersion or infusion as anciently by immersion But neither was the one character or mark more discernable to the one the Circumcised infant then the other to the Baptized infant neither if it was was it more available to the participation of the Passeover then the other to the partaking of the Lords Supper or more acceptable to God who though he set sometimes an outward mark upon them that mourned Ezek. 9. and so and outward mark upon the houses of the Egyptians for good ends and purposes and so appointed the external elements and actions both of Circumcision and Baptism to be holy and profitable signes and seals yet are not the outward marks in the flesh or the sensitive discernings of the sings the excellencies of Circumsion or the eminencies of Baptism nor is God taken onely or chiefly delighted with beholding such external services and administrations who required these at your hands these onely or chiefly when therefore the Jewish infants came to years of discretion and discerning God looked for and called for not the Circumcision of the flesh but for the Circumcision of the heart this was the mark he looked for and upon in his sheep the Israelites and and so likewise when Christian infants shall attain to the age of discerning and understanding God will look for and upon not so much the water in or upon the face which was the mark of flesh as the blood of Christ in the heart which is the mark of the Spirit And this is that I conclude with As one of your Baptized and re-baptized adult proselytes may
so many of them as he did and I would wish you to be very wary when you go over to the Savages in New England and the Pagans in our West Indes that you broach not this either doctrine or interpretation amongst them lest the Parents there and husbands and especially the mothers and wifes fly in your face and all to scratch you and scald you for calling and making their children bastards and left the children 〈◊〉 come forth out of the Cities and mock you and throw stones at you or words as hard Go up thou baldhead he interpretation is bald indeed and hath not one hair of a rational Writer whatsoever the head is or hath under the cap I know not and the she Bears come out of the Wood and tear the false Prophet and interpreter instead of the true children and no bastards What a man are you Sir that thus fill the world with bastards by such your interpretation I mean the world of Pagans and Heathens where man and wife being neither of them believers and so neither sanctified by the other their children must be unclean bastards according to your doctrine and Exposition thus instead of satisfying and pacifying the doubtful and scrupulous consciences of some converted yoke fellows the other remaining unconverted you will trouble and disquiet a world of consciences or the conscience of the greater part of the world which being unconverted and lying in infidelity must sadly look upon their issue as bastardly and illegitimate because unclean Yea this will make such mutinies insurrections in those Kingdoms that there will be no Conscience of peace made as no peace of conscience successions in them and all inheritances may be hereby questioned and overthrown by this your Divinity although it be not good Humanity Yea those worthy Primitive Christians converted by the Apostles who were born in Paganism of both Infidel Parents must lie under your censure and sense of bastardy until you release them and the very father of the faithful Abraham himself cannot escape you but by your exposition must be a bastard too as whose Parents were Idolaters both and servers of other gods than the true one Jos 24.2 I pray you Sir you that pretend so much to the language of the Spirit as if it were your Mother-Tongue the cloven Tongue of the Spirit as also to exposition according to the minde of the Spirit as you said of your self even now as if you were the Spirits Secretary or Clerk of its Closet shew me such a language of the Spirit such a minde of the Spirit in any one Text throughout the whole Bible for this in hand fails of it where a child or children of two unbelieving or Infidel Parents lawfully married together are called or but intimated bastards and will you have the face and impudency without any exemplary Text or parallel Scripture or miraculous gift of Prophesie it would be miraculous indeed if you were so gifted but indeed miraculous gifts are ceased and they were for confirmation of Truths not for confusion of them as are your prophesyings to affirm such children bastards as you cannot avoyd it whilest you interpret the children in St. Paul whereof but one of the Parents in lawful wedlock is an Infidel or unbeliever are therefore caleld holy because they are legitimates or lawfully born and not bastards and when you have done it or before you do it to call it the genuine sense and meaning of the Text and to father it as it were upon the Spirit to be an exposition according to the minde thereof And so now having gone thus far against your interpretation of bastardly uncleanness and legitimal holiness I shall now come back to mine which is also the Exposition generally of all Orthodox Baptist Protestants and I may adde more truly an Exposition according to the minde of the Spirit and the very genuine sense of the Text. For I suppose you will not deny but the minde of the Spirit was in Paul Now Paul was of this minde you must confesse it That children of though but one Christian Parent were holy in the Scripture phrase in the Spirits language in the Churchs relation and if they be judged and reputed such esteemed and spoken of as such by Paul I shall not hereafter much minde or regard what they are in your or others mindes and meanings expositions and interpretations For if the Apostle reputeth them so then God reputeth them so in some things the Apostle said I but not the Lord 1 Cor. 7.10 in other not I but the Lord 12 ver but in this I and the Lord for not I saith he i.e. I onely but the Lord also verse 14. the believing wife is sanctified by the husband c. else were your children unclean but now they are holy I said before that such holiness is here meant and spoken of as is opposite to uncleanness as appears in the very words placed and set in opposition one to the other else they were unclean but now they are holy but to what uncelanness not to the uncleanness of bastardy as you will have it to make up a holiness onely of legitimation both which I have refelled but the uncleanness of infidelity or a state out of Covenant as our Divines will have it to make up the holiness of these children a holiness of federation or federal holiness For so this state out of Covenant as Infidelity and Paganism and Idolatry is very often stiled and called uncleanness as I touched before and such Infidel and Idolatrous Parents or people are even named Adulterers and Fornicators and said to go a Whoring after strange gods or Idols and so it s the condition and denomination of their children to be called unclean all after a Spiritual or Ecclesiastical sense But you cannot shew me where by unclean are meant bastards though bastards may be called unclean for where the unclean persons are reckoned up bastards are not mentioned But if this must go for an Exposition of the Text and that according to the minde of the Spirit as thus unclean i.e. Bastards then the terms or words must go or run true both waies backward and forward that bastards are unclean and the unclean are bastards And whereas bastards amongst the Jews might not by their Laws bear any Office in Magistracy ordinarily for Jephthah was extraordinarily chosen by God and the people for this valour nor sit in the Sanctuary nor execute any Priestly Office as over the Congregation of the Lord Deut. 13.7 like as by the Civil Laws they could not enjoy Inheritances yet they were Circumcised and might eat the Passeover and had free accesse to the Temple and Tabernacle to perform worship and hear the Law and were federally holy as any legitimates But for the particular of infants holiness I say 1. in general Any person or family for so it was at first in Abraham or Nation as afterwards it was with the Jews and is now with the
persons in the Church holy and so reputed by the Apostle to be by their being in and under the holy Covenant of God or by being children of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant may and ought to have the holy Initial Seal of that Covenant which in the Gospel is Baptism But all infants in the Church of believing Parents are such persons holy and so reputed by the Apostle to be by their being in and under the holy Covenant or by being children of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant Therefore all infants in the Church may and ought to have the holy initial Seal of the Covenant which in the Gospel is Baptism You will now Sir of your self I shall not need to urge or advise you being experienced and practised often before therein now the eighth time with much facility deny the conclusion For the first Proposition you cannot deny it being grounded out of that Text Act. 10.47 where Peter saith Can any man forbid water that those should not be Baptized who have received the holy Spirit and as is largely explained and proved before as also upon this Reason deducible hence that where holiness is the Spirit is and where the Spirit is Christ is and where Christ is the Covenant is and where the Covenant is the Seal initial namely Baptism may and ought to be For the second Proposition you cannot deny it being the expresse affertion of Paul here But now they are holy namely their children And whereas I have put in my whole Discourse all these my eight or nine Arguments into the form of a Syllogism I have done is the better to inform you to which you pretend to be willing in the close of your Letter I hope you will taste it now at last the better though savouring much of our University Arts and Humane learning as consonant and agreeing subservient and conducing to the Divine wisedom and of good use for the understanding and Expounding of the Scriptures written in the learned Tongues and Languages and often referring to Moral and Phylosophical matters of which I have spoken largely before and should not have mentioned again but that you have another fling at the same in the close of your Letter saying that it appears that the most learned by Humane learning want the learning of the Spirit to interperate interpret Scripture It is true that some of the learned by Humane learning may and do want the learning of the Spirit to interpret Scripture but do not more of the ignorant by their Humane ignorance much more want the same yet none of the learned and much less of the most learned do by humane learning as you must mean though you point not your words with any Comae's or Colons for want of Humane learning by Humane learning I say want the learning of the Spirit seeing the Spirit of God hath both taught it at first as the Author of it and made much use of it practising some of it in the Scripture and as Hagar and Sarah may dwell together in the same house humane learning as you call it and the learning of the Spirit may keep together in the same head-house so long as Hagar is an obedient handmaid to her Mistris Sarah and Humane learning humbly submits and is servant or subservient unto the learning of the Spirit and the Misteries of it But of this matter there is enough written before and how it should now at the last appear to you that the most learned by Humane learning do want the learning of the Spirit to interpret Scripture if you mean it of those who interpret the Scriptures for Infant-Baptism against you it is marvelous to me for I will instance but in this one and last interpretation of 1 Cor. 7.14 But now they are holy We interpret it holy federally as who are born in Covenant with God and of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant with God and so are not unclean as the Gentiles out of Covenant but you interpret it holy legitimally as who are lawfully born of Parents in wedlock according to the Law and so are not unclean as bastards born out of wedlock now do you remember your words four times repeated in one of your pages I will repeat them once more for you but to you Judge you but judge you righteous judgement for God will judge you I say whether of the interpretations savours most of Humane learning or the learning of the Spirit yours or ours doth it not clearly appear to your eyes that your interpretation is a meer Humane natural carnal political interpretation and such as you can bring no word or example for from the learning of the Spirit the Scriptures where holy are called or meant legitimates and unclean bastards and therefore it is a meer Humane learning and not agreeable to the learning of the Spirit nay repugnant to it for by the learning of the Spirit all bastards are not unclean nor all legitimates holy But our interpretation is a very Divine gracious spiritual Ecclesiastical interpretation and such as I have brought both word and example for from the Scriptures the learning of the Scriptures where all in Covenant with God or born of Christians or one Christian Parent are stiled holy and all childeren born out of Covenant or of Parents both Heathens are called unclean and therefore ours is the very learning of the Spirit to take your words now out of your mouth and put them into ours as justly I may according to the minde of the Spirit as who declared unto us in the Scriptures and we from it to you that all Covenanters born of Covenanters with God are holy and all out of Covenant and born of such as are out of Covenant are unclean And so now by this as indeed by all or most of the Scriptures that you have made use of throughout your whole Letter which rather you have made an abuse of it will appear yea doth that your self is one of them the most learned by Humane learning certainly Sir for all your talk against it you have been at the University and gotten up some Humane learning and are a great Practitioner therein as appears by this and your other interpretations yea I take you to be a man if not a Master of Arts and Humane learning more than of the learning of the Spirit though pretending to this more a better Humanist than Divine or rather an Alchymist who can extract out of the Spirits holy in Scripture the spirit and flesh to a child lawfully born and out of spirits unclean the quintessence of a bastard Do you call this the learning of the Spirit to Interperate Scriptures with all for so you write and shew your self to be good at expounding as you are at spelling your Orthography and Orthodoxy being both alike do you interpret the Scripture by your learning of the Spirit no sure you Interperate interpret Scripture rather by the ignorance and illiterature of
Truth proved by Scriptures and yet but propounded in Quaeres and what will they be at the last your Quaeres will appea you say a Truth also at the last and great day you will be deceived then as now for your Quaeres are not Resolutions Decrees Axioms but Quaeres it doth not yet appear what is Truth in them to your self or any others put them out of Question into Propositions come out of your Quaeres into your Resolves and then I will tell you whether now in the later little daies they do or in that last great day they will appear a Truth or Truths In particular to passe by your Questions and Quaeres your Sacrilegious Usurpation to Preach Baptize and distribute the Sacramental Bread and Wine your injurious Detension of Christian Infants from Baptism the Seal of the Covenant God made with them also your ridiculous dopping and plunging of grown persons over head and ears back ward in a Pond who were before Baptized in their infancy in the face of the Congregation your Scrismatical separation from your Parochial and National fellow members professing truth and holiness your Scurrilous railing upon the true visible Church of England and the Ministers thereof as Baalitish Devillish and Antichristian professing and worshiping Christ Jesus and God in spirit and truth with a world more of fraudulent misinterpreting and misapplyings of sacred writ virulent Caluminations of holy Truth violent oppositions of lawful order uncharitable imaginations and contempts of higher Powers and all persons who are not of your S ct and Set can I think or any man else whose brains and heads have not been intoxicated by a superfluous re-baptization that these will appear a Truth or truths at that great and last day which in all the former daies the Word of God hath judged and condemned for errors and untruths it hath been the fashion of some Heretiques and Scismatiques when they have been confuted and confounded with the evidence and light of Truth which hath been flashed in their faces here from the Word and Scriptures to make their appeals to the great and last day for trial and to Jesus for the Judge of truth or untruth but we have it already as a ruled Case from himself in the 12. of John 48. ver The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him and you and all at the last day and the Apostle Paul speaketh of the same day When God shall judge the secrets of men according to his Gospel Rom. 2.16 Flap not me off therefore with this put off of your Tenets if you have done with Quaeres as its high time that they will appear Truths at that great and last day for if you cannot now in this your little present day make them to appear Truths according to Christs word and Pauls Gospel better than you or others have done as yet and yet I think you and they have done your best they will never appear Truths in the great and last day but the Word and Gospel will then as now they do appear against them for errors and untruths and by that Word and Gospel Christ and his Apostles and all the Saints shall judge and condemn them for such so that you and they who held up your heads in these waters of strife and contention here on Earth with the pust and blown bladders of your self-conceipted fansies will be fain to hang them down in shame and confusion of face Revel 3. â—â— Calling upon the Hills to fall upon you and to the Mountains to cover you from the face of him that siteth upon the Throne and from that shine and lustre of Truth that then will appear at that great and last day I will therefore give you the good counsel of the Apostle Let every man for the counsel is good for all of us take heed how he buildeth upon the Foundation Jesus Christ every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it Especially the great and last day you speak off Because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is whether Gold Silver precious Stones or whether Wood Hay Stubble if any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward if any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer losse 1 Cor. 3.10 and 12. And whereas in your next close you bid me lye down before it and stoop to it it is spoken like an imperious School Master or imperial Master of the Field which as yet you are neither as for all the Truths of Christ set forth in his Word and Gospel I do here stoop to them and ly down before them prostrating and casting down all my imaginations and every thing of my Reason that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God bringing into captivity every thought or affection of mine to the obedience of Christ and his Truth and pleasure laying my hand upon my mouth and putting my mouth in the dust and laying dust upon my head I do here bow down my head incline my heart throw down all within me and without me and wholly and totally yield my self unto Truths of the Word of God as to the Victorious and Conquering the powerful and Triumphant Rod and Scepter of Christ Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 3.10 1 Kings 18.39 Numb 23.18 Deut. 32.4 The Lord he is the God The Lord he is the God God is not as man that he should lye a God of Truth and without iniquity just and right is he yea God is truth it self and Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Spirit is truth 1 John 5 6. And thy Law is truth and all thy Commandements are truth John 14.6 Psalm 119.142 and 151. Thy Word is true from the beginning Psal 119.160 and so to the end thy Word endureth Heaven and Earth shall passe away but one jot and tittle of the Word shall not passe away till all be fulfilled Matth. 5.18 But Sir to lye down before or stoop to your Quaeres and Considerations and Interpretations so void and empty of the Divine Truth of God and his Word so full and even swoln with the Humane sanfie of man and his will though you masterly expect it I shall Scholarly defeat you I am now too strong and well truss'd and truth'd to untrusse or untruth to such a dip-dop pedant or rather Anti-pedant as you are such a one as you are I could have disciplined that way and discipled any other way fifty years ago and I have too much of Mordecai the Benjamite in me and of his zeal to the Church of God than to bow or stoop to such a Haman a man the Agagite the separate that speaks so ill and vilely of the people of God and seeks to destroy it and them utterly Nay rather let your Dagon fall upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord and your Quaerulous errors lie down
your errors then you cite the Text onely but write not the words for want of time and truth too and so feed their senses onely with figures and numbers onely sending them away to search out the words for their satisfying their understandings as the Egyptians did the Isaelites to finde out straw for their burning the Brick But I remember your last Text you cited wherewith you think you have hit us home was that off the Scribes and Pharisees laying heavy burdens upon mens or the peoples shoulders and not moving them with one of their fingers I have put by the blow as of all the other your Texts alleged against us so of this and the Scribism of the same and have made them to recoil-back fly in your own face because you overcharged and had no kill to charge aright you hold as great if not a greater correspondency with the Pharisees than the Scribes Few of you are Scribes more are Pharisees for you are like unto them in your name the word Pharisee signifying Separate as formerly I said so in your corrupting and false interpreting of Scripture this I have shewed throughout this Discourse so in your high conceipt of your own righteousness and holiness this you manifest in your scornful and supercilious looâ—s and speeches so in your compassing the Land to make you Proselites and ambitious seeking the people and their applause this all men see and you will not deny I adde lastly which makes the wonder that people run after you in your laying heavy burthens and grievous to be borne upon the shoulders of men and women This latter is the thing I will shew out off Act. 15. where ver 5. There arose up certain of the Sect of the Pharisees which believed or professed Jesus to be the Messia saying it was needful to Circumcise the newly converted Brethren c. the matter is decided in the 10. ver 28. ver Now therefore why tempt you God who put a yoke upon the neck of the Disciples which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear And it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary thing c. Out of which I gather and deduct this one General Proposition leaving out the particular of Circumcision Things laid upon Christians or Disciples more than necessary are a burden and yoke and seemeth not good to the Holy Ghost but is a tempting of God Joyn we issue now in brief Here the Pharisees of the old separation said it was needful to Circumcise the new converted Chirstians or Disciples and you of the newer separation say it is needful to re-Baptize grown and professing Christians or Disciples upon a particular confession of their Faith are not you now agreeable to the Pharisees in laying on a burden and a yoke upon the necks and shoulders off the Disciples and Christians But how do I shew this latter to be a burden or yoke why from the Proposition here because the re-Baptizing of Christians or Disciples who were Baptized formerly in their Infancy is more than needful or necessary andthat it is so my whole last part of this Discourse which now I am finishing hath amply Demonstrated yea your own Rule given to me at first doth joyntly attest the same the which is this of all things necessary to Salvation the Scripture hath either a Command or an Example or both Now shew me for that your practise any Command of God Expresse or Implicite or by Consequence for such your re-Baptizing Or any Example of any grown person or Christians formerly Baptized so re-Baptized if you cannot hold you your peace they are your own words I will speak you a Pharisee laying upon mens necks and shoulders a yoke and a burden and moreover by doing so a tempter of God and doer of that which seemed not good unto the Holy Ghost and the Apostles Again for you to require of Infants born in Covenant with God and of Parents in Covenant with God an external confession or profession of Faith before you will put them under the initial Seal of that Covenant and in the mean while to with hold this from them until they shall do that is a putting a yoke and burden upon their necks and shoulders to hinder them in their Christian progresse it is to tempt the Lord and to put him upon other means for Infants Salvation than Baptism and its a doing of that which seemeth not good to the Spirit and the Apostles assembled and determining the case in a holy Synod for that it is a requiring more of Infants than is necessary to needful for their Baptism Yet once more The leading of grown Christians Baptized before into some deep Pond and therein re-Baptizing them plunging and holding them some while there under water over-head and ears body and cloaths too is a yoke upon the neck and a burthen put and laid upon the head and shoulders heavy and grievous to be borne especially of the aged infirm and sickly and a doing of more than is necessary unto the administration of Baptisin unseemly and superfluous if not ridiculous and so more than seemeth good un to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles met in Counsel yea it is an tempting of God and some as I have heard have sickned and died soon after thereupon of which I shall discourse at large in my Narration censure of a late dipping which followeth Now see Sir by this whether we Ministers of the Church of England or you Separates from the same be like to the Pharisees And so I have retorted all your Texts and returned them to you again to apply them to your selves or to apply your selves to them I shall therefore onely give you the like friendly farewel at the end of my Letter as you gave me in yours namely a few Texts of Scripture to consider of and seriously to weigh some for your self and others that take upon you to be Preachers of the Separation to consider of and that not slightly as you use Numb 16.11 and 12. 2 Chron. 26.18 Jer. 23.21 31 32. 2 Corinh 11.13 14 15. 2 Tim. 3.5 6 7 8 9. Tit. 1.10 and 11. Heb. 5.4 and 5 2 Pet. 2.18 19. 2 Pet. 3.16 Some for your followers and others that hear you and if any of my people be amongst them for them also to consider of and that not lightly 2 Chron. 36.15 16. Jerem. 2.13 Matth. 24 23 24 25 26. Mark 12. 38 39 40. Luke 21.1 with Mat. 16.6 and 12. Rom. 16.17 18 Gal. 4.16 17 18. Gal. 5.7 8 9 10. 2 Tim. 4.3 and 4. Heb. 10.23 and 24 Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 2.12 Jude 17 18 19. 20. And this one for all and every one of you 1 Tim. 6.3 4. 5. You see Sir I do not as you did for whereas in the matter of Proof I have written out the words of every Text to the full here in point of Reproof I onely name the Texts and no
3. The case of necessity in state of Person I scarce understand unless it be this When as he or she earnestly desireth and imploreth for the same whether by its speech or its need and there is no Minister to give it Baptism here the Lord will have mercy and not sacrifice and men are not to stand upon this ordination but the persons salvation Let but your Brother or your self stay and expect such cases of necessity before you or he dip any more or baptize again and then though you be not nor he set a part for the administring that Ordinance but are meer Lay men you shall hear nothing from me against the same I assure you But if in a well ordered and already planted and constituted Church and that when there are no such cases or states of necessity but that lawfully ordained Ministers may easily be procured you and your Brethren will go on still to dip and baptize and that publiquely being no better ordered or set a part then you have related I shall say though again Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Gad for I shall not hold you of the Tribe of Levi Num. 16.7 or Issachar rather couching down between two burthens Genes 49.14 your Laical and Ministerial Callings And it shall come to pass as Zacharias saith Zach. 13.4 5. that such Prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision which he hath prophesied and every one of his Division that he hath made and set a partition yea of his Dipping also that he hath ministred and Baptisin and he shall say and confess at last I am no Prophet I am an Husbandman for man taught me to keep cattel from my youth God never ordained me to dip Christians from my birth Distinctly Take this a Presbyter or Priest in respect of his Ministerial Character and Order I mean onely a sacerdotal gift power and commission is primarily and principlally the publick and ordinary minister of Baptism A Deacon may baptize also and that publikely so it be at the appointment of the Bishop or Priest but a Priest by his own right may baptize ex officio as we say by vertue of his sacerdotal office even in the presence of a Bishop But a Layman may not baptize publickely but onely privately neither privately in the presence of a Priest or Deacon but onely in their absence neither alwayes in their absence but onely in case of necessity Then it hath been permitted according to the good old way and new way also of true Churches some such times to Laymen to baptize so he intend to do that which the Catholick Church doth in that kind of administration The second Catechistical Quaere is concerning the Persons Dipped Quaere 2. What warrant of precept or example have you from the Sacred Word or Prim tive Antiquity for your Dipping and Anabapâ—izâ—ng Christians washed before or members of the visible Church baptized once in their Infancy by lawful Ministers so as the two Women and Sisters were whom your Brother Dipped Ask now of the days that are past which were before since the day that God created man and woman upon Earth and commanded circumcision in the eldest Chruch of the Jews and appointed Baptism in the younger Church of the Gentiles ask from the beginning to the end of both whether there hath been any such thing as this that a person circumcised or baptized in their infancy were ever recircumcised or rebaptized at growth or yeras after when they could render a Reason or make confession of their Faith c. Instance in one if you can and be instant upon it as you will and is not then your dipping the formerly dipped a new business As for that example of Joshua upon Gods command Circumcise again the children of Israel the second time Jos 5.2 This doth not intimate any Repetition or Reiteration of that Sacrament in or to the same particular Israelitish person circumcised as if he should be now circumcised again but onely relates the Restauration and Renovation of that Sacrament unto the people of Israel in general amongst whom Circumcision was a long while intermitted and discontinued by reason of their frequeut yea continual journals and removings up and down as the 4 5 6 Verses do evidence the same As for that Acts 19.5 of St. Pauls practise the example of the Ephesian Disciples in the Acts it is abundantly answered in my Instruction of your Scribe to which I refer you and I add this for a plainer and shorter Resolution for you 1. That it maketh nothing for your Re-dipping and Re-baptizing 1. Because St. John's Baptism being there spoken of and you or your Sect being Popish in your opinion of Re-baptizing and so holding from hence that the Baptism of John and Christ are two different Baptisms and that in the substance and not onely in the Degree of their signification and efficacy Here was no iterat on of one and the same but the ministration of a diverse Baptism and so is not to your or my purpose 2 For that there is no Baptism of water spoken of much less there laid to be reiterated that the Ephesian Disciples had long before received from some of Johns Disciples but onely the Baptism of Fire i.e. of the Spirit and the miraculous gifts of the same is there mentioned which they confess they had not so much as heard of namely that they unsually as then accompanied the other Baptism of water And so that the former was that they were baptized with and was poured upon them there in the Name of Jesus namely the gifts of the holy Spirit which were miraculous If you shall produce as somewhat you must say for your selves the example of Saul Cornelius and the Eunuch baptized in their elder years upon their conversion to and cofession of Christ and the commands of God to Ananias Peter and Philip c. to baptize them thereupon All this and as much more which you might have alledged of the same sort brings no advantage to your practice no age to your new business of Rebaptising the second time for that the mentioned above were their first and onely baptizings they being some of them Pagans born others aliens from the Covenant of Christ adverse and opposite to ignorant at leastwise of the Christian Faith were then frist of all baptized upon their embracing of it and never after baptized again No not the Black Aethiopian amongst them was ever dipped the second time And what is all this to your Redipping of two Women baptized before in their infancy as being born Christians and within the Covenant of Grace and Christ Yea more if the Pope of Rome should come over into England and turn Protestant or become one of your Sect a separate nor we would nor should you of right baptize him again having been baptized before rightly as to the Element and Words of Institution Therefore the Ancient Orthodox Church never Re-baptized Hereticks themselves upon their
margent wherewith they made Baal And so you do not or did not know that Gods first Covenant of Grace in Christ I will be thy God and the God of thy seed sealed unto you in your Infant-baptism your first Infant-baptism sealing unto you the Covenant of the Grace of God in Christ gave you your knowledge of the Truth your Conversion from your evil wayes your Repentance your Faith and increased these and other Graces in you which you and they prepare for and ascribe to their and your Anabaptism and wherewith they and you would make Anabaptism leaping upon the Altar that they have made and dousing in the Ponds that you go to crying O Baal hear us or Great is Diana of the Ephesians the dipping of the Anabaptists Why halt ye or how long O ye people halt ye between two opinions or two Baptisms 1 Kings 18.21 if your first Infant-baptism be the Seal of Gods Covenant of Grace to you follow it but if the Anabaptists second Dippism be the Seal then follow it Therefore I say farther to them the people and you not I even I onely but we even we also thousands of us remain the Ministers of the Lord and your Prophets are a great many more for every one that will with you may consecrate himself and be a Prophet we as we do will still bring our children and Infants of believing Parents unto Baptism in our Churches pouring on or sprinkling water In the name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost with invocation or calling on the Name of the Lord and do you as you use go out with your grown but born Christians men and women whom you have with-held from their Baptism in their Infancy or with other grown persons formerly baptized whom you have seduced into your by-wayes and carry them to your dippings and diving them over head and ears body cloathes in your Ponds of the field the Baptism or washing that answereth by fire I mean the Spirit 1 Kings 18.24 and spiritual Graces bringing after to Repentance from evil wayes and unto the knowledge of the Truth let that be the right washing and Baptism indeed All the people I know will and yur selves also must needs answer The word is good and it is well spoken Now then I propose and it s my major proposition most true That washing with water or Baptism which answereth by fire cavil not at the phrase God in or by Baptism I mean and hath the Graces of Gods Spirit Faith Repentance Conversion answerable and following thereupon is that and that onely which is mentioned in the Scriptures as of Gods Institution so conjunction Mat. 3.11 Mark 1.8 Acts 2.38 John 3.6 and in a great many other places which formerly I have brought shewing the correspondence or accompanying the one of or to and after the other the Baptism and the Spirit But I assume and it is my minor proposition yet no less true That neither of your two dippings I call them two in respect of the Subjects which are of two sorts some formerly baptized and some not are to be found in any part of Scripture throughout the whole Bible either instituted of God or conjoyned with fire or the Spirit as my whole Book and this annexed Treatise or Censure hath cleared demonstrated And therefore I may conclude Negatively against your diping by Anabaptists that it answereth not by fire and so you have received from them and it nothing but water no fire no Spirit no Grace no Regeneration no Conversion no plucking out of your evil wayes into the knowledge of the Truth What you have of these Goods or Graces in present you have and received as sparks at your first Baptism in your Infancy which being according to the Scriptures and to Gods Ordinance and Institution answereth by Fire in all Gods elect children as who are inwardly also baptized of the Spirit whch is the fire I mean and speak of which answering also by fire in them afterwards sheweth their Baptism in Infancy to have been according to the Scripture Gods Ordinance and Institution To come up yet closer to you If you Sir be one of those that belong unto the Election and Covenant of Grace as I in charity judged of you as I ought to do when I baptized you and gave you Baptism as the seal of the Covenant then were you baptized with fire i. e. the Spirit as well as water the inward Grace being united to the outward Sign unto such and the Spirit as truly and really and actualy applying the merits and blood of Christ in the justifying and sanctifying vertue unto your soul as I did the water to your body or bodily part of your face or forehead and the invisible Grace of the Sacrament was conveyed to you by such visible means so that if you had dyed in your Infancy this your Baptism had been to you supposing you still an Elect Infant as a seal of the Righteousness of Christ extraordinarily applied by the holy Ghost to your Justification and Salvation God hath now suffered you to live to years of discretion I must therefore put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift or Grace of God which is in you as Paul speaketh to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.6 I cannot say by the putting on of my hands but I may by the pouring on of that water with my hands The word in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up that fire of the Spirit I spake of and to quicken up the grace of Baptism that hath lien under the ashes throughout your youthful and sinful dayes of ignorance that so now it may kindle and burn brighter in you You are now to bestir your self in reading the Word and hearing it preached by such Ministers as God sendeth into the Church and amongst them him especially who baptized you at first that so you may come to Faith by such means and by Faith now actually lay hold on the promises of the Covenant of Grace touching Justification Remission and Adoption and enjoy them to your use and comfort which were but made and sealed in your Baptism as to every Elect Childe of God and estated upon you on Gods part as to your Right and Title I do not say that your Baptism properly did give you or primarily the Right and Interest you have unto God and Christ Gods free Covenant and promise did it but it sealed up onely and mainly confirmeth that Right and Interest which you had already even then in Gods Govenant and Promise Gods Word is as good as his Bond and his Promise as effectual as his Seal your Baptism as the other Sacrament was not for the strengthning or effectualizing of Gods Covenant but to the confirming and supporting your faith in apprehending it I would make this very plain to you hoping it may be for some good to you Suppose an Estate made over unto you in your Infancy by a Will and Testament under Seal you