do without the joynt concurrence both of God and the Creature So also in the new Testament Acts 26.17 18. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is not here much more put into Pauls Commission than he was able without God to do or will any body say that Paul acted short of his Commission or falsified his trust if he did not actually open all the eyes of the Gentiles and turn them from the power of Satan to God But Sir to convince you that there is more included in the Commission than was in the Apostles power to effect supposing the word Teach should signifie onely what you apprehend namely the speaking such things which are proper to make Disciples Consider this They are charged to baptise all they taught and was that in their power could they baptise any more than were willing to be baptised or should they have been judged falsifiers of their trust or acting short of their Commission for not baptising all those that should take horses and ride away from them when they had heard the Word It appeareth therefore undeniably that the very principle whereupon you found the absurdity is not good and consequently no force in your argument but this being all you have levied against my Brother Allens Argument built upon the Text and being found weak his conclusion lifteth up its head and that is that it is disorderly for persons to hold Church-Communion before Baptisme because Baptisme by Christs order was the next thing to be done after discipling and that immediately Secondly A second Argument to prove it a disorderly Practise for the Disciples to hold Church Communion before Baptisme is this If the Scripture maketh Baptisme the gate or entrance into the visible Church or Body of Christ Then is it a most disorderly practise for persons to sit down in Church-society without it But the Scripture maketh Baptism the gate or entrance into the visible Church or Body of Christ Mr. Goodwin denâ—eth now in effect that Baptisme is the Ordinance of entrance into the visible Body of Christ yea he is so far from thinking so P. 61 Of his Water dipping that he thinketh the injunction of it is but after the manner of the free-will offerings under the Law so that men may either obey or not obey without sin yea P 48 Water dipping that a Church may be of as sound and worthy a constitution without Baptisme as with it Now before I make particular answer to Mr. Goodwins Exception to the interpretation of the Scripture alledged to prove it I desire to make one observation which I would commend to the serious consideration of the Reader which is this That notwithstanding the vast variety of differences in the judgement of Professors about other matters of Christian Religion both learned and unlearned in so much that setting aside some few famous fundamentals it is a hard matter to find two men universally agreeing Yet for this opinion that Baptisme is the Sacrament of entrance into the visible Church of Christ all the Professors of Christian Religion hath met in it as one man as far as I ever yet heard or read of whether Papal Prelatical Presbiterial or Independant or Anabaptist except some few persons lately the most whereof are given to Seekerisme And is not that opinion justly to be suspected for an error that crosseth the judgement of almost all the world reputed Christian as well those that are under no temptation by worldly respects to baulk the naked truth as those that are This Argument I confess amounteth not to a demonstration but it justly provoketh an eye of jealousie over that opinion that singleth a man out from all his brethren of like pretious faith and rendreth him like the Widdow Paul speaketh of desolate I shall now proceed to establish this truth by shewing the invalidity of your great exception to the interpretation of the 1 Corinth 12.13 which Text my Brother Allen insisteth on to prove it the words these By one Spirit we are all baptised into one Body my Brother Allen understandeth with Mr. Baxster and the generally reputed Orthodox the word baptised properly of water Baptisme P. 342. Of plain Scripture Mr. Goodwin will needs understand it just now of Spirit Baptisme but why P. 68 72. Of his water dip because the Text saith By one Spirit we are baptised and as for water it is not mentioned To which I answer 1. The not mentioning of water is no Argument that the Text is not to be understood of water Baptisme because the word water is not mentioned in the Commission it self for baptising which yet notwithstanding is plainly enough interpreted by the Apostles to be meant of water Baptisme because of their practising it by vertue of their Commission So also in the 1 Corinth 1.13 14 15. the word water is not set down but no body in their right wits will understand the words otherwise Were you baptised in the Nume of Paul I thank God I baptised none of you But you say the Text speaketh of another Element P. 342. Of Insânts Châ—rch-Membership namely the Spirit 'T is true it doth mention the Spirit as a concurrent cause saith learned Baxsten but the Text speaketh of reall Baptisme 2. How frequently are effects attributed to the Spirit in Scripture in this sence Is not Baptisme the Doctrine of the Spirit as well as other duties Acts 1.2 Acts 2.38 Act. 8.29.38 Act. 1.48 and that which the Spirit exciteth to amongst other acts of obedience did not the Spirit send Phillip to the Eunuch as well to baptise him with water as preach to him and did not the Spirit inspire Peter to command Cornelius to be baptised and is not the proper office of the Spirit to excite men to and guide men in the performance of all dutie why then may not reall Baptisme with water being an act of obedience be attributed to the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 as well as any other acts of obedience whatsoever 3. To understand these words By the Spirit as a working cause and Baptisme as the effect agreeth to the context from the first verse to the 12. At the first verse No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and is not that by the agency and working of the Spirit upon the heart perswading it to think so honourably of Christ as to call him Lord. The Spirits work is to raise the esteem of Christ in the soul The soules calling him Lord is the effect of that work In the like sense I humbly apprehend all the gifts spoken of to the 12. verse are attributed to the Spirit namely as so many effects of his operation as the cause producing them Which having treated on at large he cometh in the 13. verse to tell them that by the
same Spirit which enriched them with those gifts mentioned they became enabled to stoop to the yoak of Chtist and put him on by Baptisme by which both Jews and Gentiles receiving the Gospel became incorporated into the mystical body of Christ and so though many members yet became now but one body As with persons in civil Corporations who of many individuals become one body by solemnizing the rite of entrance without which no man is counted a Member But now not to understand the words By one Spirit and Baptised the one as the cause the other as the effect would be to sense these words By the Spirit differently from the sense of the same words divers times in the preceding verses and enforce a metaphorical use of the word Baptised without any necessity But fourthly to make it clear that by Baptisme here he meaneth it not of the baptisme of the Spirit it appeareth by that which is attributed to it namely the entring of all persons into the mystical body of Christ he saith it is â—NTO ONE BODY and we are ALL baptised into one body So that it is the meanes sanctified by God for all the members entrance into that body It cannot therefore be meant of the baptisme of the Spirit because then working of miracles and speaking with tongues and prophesying extraordinary which the Scripture meaneth onely by the baptisme of the Spirit should be the initiating Ordinance into the body of Christ for all Church members which I suppose every one will say is absurd to imagine I have onely to prove for the making good this Argument that when the Scripture speaketh of the Baptisme of the Spirit it would alwayes be understood of working miracles speaking with tongues and the like and not of common and ordinary gifts as faith and love c. It appeareth thus 1. In that the holy Spirit never giveth to faith or love or any common gifts of the Spirit the name of baptisme for men to do so is unscripturall 2. Because Christs speaking to his Apostles who had a good degree of faith and love yet he did not deem them for the present baptised with the holy Spirit but onely telleth them Acts 1.4 5. they should be so baptised and adviseth them to wait at Jerusalem for it whereupon they were baptised with it accordingly upon the day of Pentecost Acts 2.3 4. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate And they began to speak with other tongues c. Now in the 11. Acts 16. Peter calleth Cornelius his speaking with tongues the baptisme of the holy Ghost which Christ promised Then remembred I the word of the Lord meaning when he heard them speak with tongues Acts 10 46 John indeed baptised with water but ye shall be baptised with the holy Ghost So that the meaning of John the Baptist Math. 3.11 and Christ Acts 1.4 where they speak of the baptisme of the Spirit must needs be of such a being filled with the Spirit and pouring forth of the Spirit as whereby persons do speak with tongues and the like because the Scriptures so interpreteth it and to judge otherwise were to be wise not onely above but against that which is written But thirdly and lastly to put it out of doubt you shall find the Scriptures putting abroad difference between that enjoyment of the Spirit which the Scripture calleth the Baptisme of the Spirit and that by which persons come to abound with faith love joy peace c. as to the wayes of attaining the one and the other To attain ordinary fillings of the Spirit in respect of these common fruits we are exhorted to the use of meanes to get them and blamed if we have them not Eph. 5 18. Luke 24.25 So that the largeness of the possession of them dependeth ordinarily upon the Creatures industry and in that way attained and according to mens industry or sloath they ordinarily have more or less of the Spirit But as for the Baptisme of the Spirit it is immediately conferr'd by way of extraordinary gift Consult the Scriptures where the Baptisme of the Spirit is mentioned and you shall find it so The first place is the 2 of Acts 2 3 4. verse â—nd suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there APPEARED unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Now the Apostle Peter â—â—lleth â—his â—he 〈◊〉 of the Spirit Acts 11.15 16. and also expresseth their attaining it by the falling of the boly Ghost upon them As I â—egâ—â—â—o speak the holy Ghost FELL on them as on us at the beginning So also in the 8. of Acts 16. Who when they were come down prayed for them that they night receive the holy Ghost meaning principally the holy Ghost in that way which they had not before for they had the holy Ghost to enable them to beleive as appeareth at the 12. verse but they had not the Baptisme of the Spirit which now Peter and John came to be instruments in by prayer for them with laying on of hands though not exclusive of a further presence of the Spirit in a common way But now how doth the Spirit express this kind of attaining the Spirit Mark at the 16. verse For as yet he was FALLEN upon none of them onely they were baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus So in the 19. of Acts 6. And when Paul had laid his hands on them the holy Ghost CAME upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied Doth the Sun shine clearer at noon-day than this truth that the common fruits of the Spirit are one thing and the baptisme of the Spirit another namely the gifts of speaking with tongues extraordinary prophesying and working miracles and if that be granted and who can with reason deny it It followeth then unavoidably that the 1 Corinth 12.13 speaketh not of the Baptisme of the Spirit because then speaking with tongues and working miracles should be the Ordinance of entrance into the visible Church of Christ for ALL Church-members for it is plain whatever is meant by Baptism in that Text that is the use of it we are all baptised INTO ONE BODY Fifthly and lastly to prove that by the word baptised in the 1 Cor. 12.13 is meant reall baptsme and not the baptism of the Spirit The scope and drift of the Apostle in mentioning it saith a good say to it Which is to make an argument of it 1 Cor. 1â— from 1â— 10 25. to perswade to Christian love care and tenderness one of another as one may easily see that will consult the place Now for proper reall Baptisme we find the Apostle make use of that often to the same purpose Once before in the beginning of this Epistle
that it was a standing law for all Pastors and Teachers to the worlds end 1. Because it fully appeareth that water-baptisme was never intended by God but either onely or cheifly for an introductory or planting Ordinance at its first coming unto a City or Nation till it should get some considerable rooting and interest among them not for a staple Ordinance in one and the same place with many other such like Pleas as this is to render it doubtful To which I answer but with much grief of heart to find such noble parts and abilities as God hath endowed you with so desperately engaged in so bad a cause But Sir if I prove by the Scriptures that it is sinful for Disciples to remain unbaptised and that by the precept of Christ then all your farre fetcht pleas will fall to the ground To prove then by the Scriptures that it is sinful by the precepts of Christ that his Disciples should neglect Baptisme I prove from the 2. Acts 37 38. that the commandments of the Apostles are to be looked upon as the Commandments of Christ it appeareth in that they had them from Christ Acts 1.2 Vntill the day in which he was taken up after that he through the holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen Paul 1 Corinth 11.23 pleadeth what he delivered them he had from the Lord. Peter therefore 2 Pet. 3.2 saith he wrote to them meaning the scattered Disciples to stirre up their pure minds by way of remembrance that they might be mindfull of the Commandments of VS saith he the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour besides the foundation of Religion laid by Christ and that laid by the Apostles the Spirit in Scripture maketh one and the same 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ Now the same Apostle to the Ephesians Ephes 2 20. saith thus And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets So that to build upon Christs doctrine and the Apostles doctrine is the same and that for the reason specified I conclude then that if the Apostles command every one to be baptised then Christ hath commanded every one to be baptised But the Apostle Peter in the 2. Acts 38. when the Disciples that were pricked at the heart by the word preached asked him what they should do He commandeth them to repent and be BAPTISED EVERY one of them for the remission of sins So that here is a plain positive command to all and every of the persons at whose heart the Word cometh not onely to repent but to be baptised If sin then be the transgression of the Law which the Apostle saith it is and that the Apostles Commands are Christs and that the Apostle hath commanded every one that repenteth to be baptised then doth the conclusion lift up its head that there is a precept of Christ in Scripture whereby it is made sinful for some persons to remain unbaptised But it may be Mr. Goodwin will object 'T is true this was a command which lay upon those new Converts as a duty but doth that prove it lieth upon us I answer Yes if the duty of repentance lie upon us as well as on them for they are both put together by the Apostle and if the precepts of the Apostles to the primitive Churches in any thing be precepts to us then is Baptisme as well as other things for as Repentance and Baptisme are both enjoyned to the first Churches by the Apostles so are they both put together in the Commission Math. 28.19 Disciple me all Nations baptising them and Mark 16.16 Goe and preach to every Creature He that beleiveth and is baptised shall be saved and the same presence promised to the end of the world as well to baptising as to teaching Mr. Baxster saith by the end of the world to understand a period of time is a peice of impudent violence This then is my first Argument for the standing of the Ordinance of Baptisme it is joyn'd with Teaching in the Commission and Christ saith what God hath joyn'd together let no man put assunder But God hath joyn'd Baptisme and Teaching together and for any man to presume to part them what is it but to offer an affront to the great God and God will surely reckon with them for it first or last how many are there of such that for slighting Christ in his Ordinances Salt marsh and his followers which was the first stone they stumbled at have had strong delusions sent them by God that they might beleive lies and since proved forlorn wofull spectacles of Gods indignation But to set home this Argument for the standing of Baptisme as long as Teaching I shall use Mr. Goodwins own words upon which I would fix the eye of the Reader Water dip p. 12. No Authority can discharge or dis-oblige but that which is either greater than or at least equall unto that which bindeth If so then are you not bound by your own principle to find us out an Authority equall to Christs that hath discharged Baptisme which is by so great an Authority enjoyned as is Christs the Lords the great Judge both of quick and dead which I am sure is impossible for you to do and therefore Baptisme standeth in full force and vertue and all your suggestions rendring it doubtful must not nor will not go for gold but dirt except with some that in matters of Religion are neitheir hot nor cold which luke-warm temper God abhorreth and without repentance will one day spue them out of his mouth Good Reader let but thy esteem of Baptisme stand till Mr. Goodwin shew us an Authority equal to Christs that hath discharged it and I will promise thee that mine and thine shall fall together My second Argument to prove Baptisme standing is this That opinion which tendeth to the destruction of all Religion can never be the truth but to conceive Baptisme out of date tendeth to the destruction of all Religion That to conceive Baptisme out of date tendeth to the destruction of all Religion I demonstrate that thus 1. By dividing Religion into two parts 1. That which is external standing in the exercise of external Ordinances and 2. That which is internal standing in a holy frame of heart and life Now that to conceive Baptisme out of date tendeth to destroy the external part of Religion I prove it thus If the standing of Teaching and breaking bread and other acts of Church fellowship have no other foundation but what Baptisme hath the same then to conceive Baptisme out of date is to disparage the standing of all the rest as out of date also because the same God out of the same infinite wisodme ordained Baptisme that ordained breaking bread and all the acts of Church-fellowship may he hath cast some degrees of honour more upon Baptisme then upon some other of the Ordinances in as much as he singled out Baptisme from
feel the like obligation to Christ by it Then for the form it being by burying the body in water and raising it out again thereof there is a most exact representation between sign and thing signified which Christ intended in this sign as appeareth by the Scriptures though not in all signes which heavenly projects of the Lord Jesus Col. 2.12 Rom. 6.4 in the Ordinance are totally frustrate in childrens sprinkling 7. I find the Scriptures in all expressnese of letter are in many places for Beleivers Baptisme whereas there is not one such Text for Childrens nor any instance of the Baptisme of so much as one Child in all the new Testament though the firmament of the Scriptures are filled with the stars of Beleivers Baptisme so that many learned men have acknowledged Infant-baptisme is not in Gods Word and those who go about to found it on Scripture build all on consequences ifs may bees and why nots which Argument Mr. Goodwin hath often used to confirm the doctrine of general Redemption and to draw the contrary opinion under the suspition of error 8. I found the unregenerate world naturally falling in with Childrens baptisme which is a shroad sign it is a device of her own The world loveth her own John 15.19 And on the contrary hating Beleivers Baptisme with an inveterate hate as she doth every Ordinance of Christ administred in the naked plainness and simplicity of it 9. Infant-Baptisme disagreeth to the spiritual state of the Church under the new Testament because Baptisme being the initiating Ordinance into the Church it letteth in a sort of members which the new Testament knoweth not namely such as cannot worship God in Spirit whereas the Scripture saith John 4 23. That God now seeketh SUCH meaning onely such because he maketh the Churches growth unto an holy Temple to be by the meanes of the building its being fitly framed together Ephes 2.21 and again he maketh the encrease of the body unto its edification and its growth up into the head to be partly at least by the meanes of the WHOLE body its being FITLY joyn'd together and compact and mark according to the effectuall working in the measure of EVERY part whereas Infants are altogether uncapable of such effectual working or of any fit conjunction with Beleivers And though children might be Church members under the old Testament when also wicked persons might if Abrahams carnal seed not so under the New it is plain from the Scripture that Christ will have the matter thereof be the spiritual seed of Abraham manifested by repentance and faith Math. 3.9 Therefore 1 Corinth 1.1 giveth the matter of the Church by due constitution to be called Saints and commandeth that if any prove themselves otherwise by disorderly walking to withdraw from them 2 Thes 3.6 14. 10. I find the sharpest adversaries this way hath even in their writings on purpose to disgrace it and to magnifie the contrary namely Infant-baptisme God maketh them to let fall such expressions as justifie it and condemn their own As for instance Mr. Rich. Baxster speaking of the full and proper ends why God instituted the Ordinance of Baptisme he saith they are rather to be fetcht from the Aged than Infants and that because MARK The Aged 1. They are the most FVLLY CAPABLE SVBJECTS 2. THE MOST EXCELLENT SVBJECTS 3. THE MOST EMINENT SVBJECTS 4. OF WHOM SCRIPTVRE FVLLY SPEAKETH 5. THE GREATER PART OF THE WORLD WHEN BAPTISME WAS INSTITVTED who were to be partakers of it But on the contrary as for Infant-baptisme he acknowledgeth in the same place P. 301. Of plain Scripture Proof that the Scripture speaketh darkly of it yea that it is SO dark in the Scripture that the controversie is thereby become not onely hard but SO hard c. as he saith he findeth it Now if this learned and holy man hath not in a few words said more for our way than in his whole book against it and that upon pure principles of reason and Religion let the world judge for if Infants baptisme be dark in the Scripture and so dark as he complaineth 1. How doth this agree with the Title of the Book and the superscription of every page Plain Scripture proof for Infants c. Doth not plain Scripture proof and dark Scripture proof directly oppose And however Mr. Baxster thinketh he seeth such a thing though it lie darkly he knoweth many learned quick-sighted men that profess they cannot see it there at all no more than we But if the case be indeed thus as it is by Mr. Baxsters own confession that of Infants Baptisme the Scripture speaketh darkly but of Beleivers or the Aged that the Scripture fully speaketh and besides that they are the most capable eminent and excellent Subjects with what conscience either of duty to God or comfort to the soul can any Christian man cleave to Infant-baptisme and despise Beleivers If Infant-baptisme be a dark way and so hard to find is he a wise man that chuseth that way when he may walk in the light Doth any honest man in his right mind chuse untroden paths when the beaten rode lieth just before him and doth not Christ say he that walketh in the dark stumbleth John 11.10 or doth it become the people of God to be so indifferent in matters of Religion as not to care whether they walk in the light or in the dark or can any man think to please God by chusing a dark way hard to find when a lightsome path beaten by the feet of Christ and the Saints looketh him full in the face Or where is that man in all the world that will give as much for land that the title too is dark as for that which is clear and unquestionable Doth not every one say of Titles not clear I le not meddle Hath not Mr. Baxster said to Mr. Bedford it is good going the surer side of the hedge p. 303. of Plain Scripture proof and is not Beleivers Baptisme the surer by his own confession Or doth it become men to be more solicitous about their temporal estates than their spiritual Or can leaving the light and walking in the dark be thought the way to the Saints everlasting rest 11. It agreeth not to the wisdom and goodness of Christ that Baptisme should be so dark in the Scripture as Mr. Baxster saith it is not to his wisdom because it is appointed for babes and because he expecteth obedience who that expecteth obedience will leave their Lawes hard to find Not to his goodness because he hath put the Disciples under a sore penalty in case of disobedience to whatsoever he hath commanded Now the way of Baptisme after faith is clear and manifest as Mr. Baxster acknowledgeth most like therefore to be the Statute of Christ for his Babes to submit too and not that which is dark Besides would it not be a good excuse at Judgement for the neglect of any Law of Christs if men could say the Command
not him that eateth DESPISE him that eateth not But by despising them to understand the rejection of them from Church communion the Scripture saith no such thing and for you to say it it is to be guilty of that which you charge us with namely to take a half for a whole and to indulge a light appearance and to let it pass for an evident demonstration But 3. Suppose the word receive should respect the Communion of the Church and the Argument this That God having received the weak into communion with himself it is the Churches duty to receive â—hem into her communion Doth it follow from thence that it would be her duty to receive them disorderly into her communion To come a little closer Cornelius the person you instance in from Acts 10.25 being a fearer of God and worker of righteousness was ACCEPTED of God yet when God had a purpose to adde him to the visible Church of Christ he sendeth him to a Minister of Christ and inspireth him to command Cornelius to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 10.48 Neither doth Peter notwithstanding he was convinced of his being a person accepted of God hold any Church communion with him before it what ever he did after 4. If fellowship with God give immediate right to full communion with the Church simply upon that account then not onely the godly of the Presbyterians have such a right but the Episcopal party too nay 't is probable a many in the darkness of Popery for I suppose no body can be so uncharitable as to think there are no persons there upright nay to shew the unreasonableness of this opinion I could go further and say Pagans debt and Dowry p. 14. many amongst the Heathen which in your judgement may be in the state of grace These and all these have a present actual immediate right to Church communion In a word as this principle was contrary to your judgement heretofore so also hath your practise been ever since you took up the Church way I remember not one man that ever sat down with the Church in the constant fellowship thereof but was orderly joyn'd according to the Independant principles Nor one man that ever occasionally broak bread with the Church but it was matter of offence to some except they were members of some Church or other Who then may not see whose eyes are not too heavy to open what a strait your opposing us bringeth you too namely to turn head upon the principles of the way you walk in and your own constant practise and what man is he who doth not glory in men whose faith and practise standeth not in the wisdome of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 3.21 1 Cor. 2.5 James 2.1 and that hath not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons but must conceive with jealousies as strong as death that that cause which you now plead is not right which putteth so learned a man as your self to so desperate a losse Your fifth Consideration for substance this THat learned men are not agreed about the exact signification of the word BAPTIZO whether it be to dip or not therefore not fit for any much less such illiterate ones to determine it and build so great a matter upon it To which I answer 1. What considerable advantage would it be to us to know the original at this point it seemeth all the knowledge of the learned worketh not union in judgement about it you confess they are not agreed for all that But 2. Whether learned men can agree about the signification of the word BAPTIZO or no it is of little consideration to us in this case because the Spirit of God hath interpreted it to our hand in the holy Scripture elsewhere namely in the 6. of Romans 4. and Colos 2.12 Therefore we are BURIED with him by Baptisme Again being BURIED with him in Baptisme wherein also we are risen with him besides many other places So that if these Scriptures speak of water Baptisme which is but few mens question That one of them doth I have proved already and would the other if need required it there must be a buriall of the body in water where the Baptisme of the Gospel of Christ is rightly administred otherwise it is none of the Baptisme of Christ and the Apostles and Primitive Churches The late Annotators are much to be commended for their honest and upright dealing with the Scripture herein upon this 4 verse of the 6. Romans these words Buried with him by Baptisme in this phrase say they the Apostle seemeth to allude to the antient manner of Baptism which was to dip the parties baptised and as it were to bury them under the water for a while and then to draw them out of it and lift them up to represent the buriall of our old Man and our Resurrection to newness of life Again upon the 8. of Acts 38. these words They both went down into the water and he baptised him They were wont say they to goâ— down into the water and dip the whole body As in the 3. Math. 16. So that their judgement of the Text there also And Jesus when he was baptized went up straight way out of the water I say their judgement is that his body was dipt by John in Jordan and who can think otherwise with reason for to what purpose should he go to the River to be baptised but because there would be a want of much water And how clear is this apprehension to an unprejudiced mind since that the abundance of water is given for the reason of Johns baptising at Enon John 3.23 And John also was baptising in Enon near to Salim because there was MVCH WATER there But besides the 3. Math. 16. saith of Jesus that when he was baptised he went Up straitway OUT of the water And so Mark 1.9 10. and how could he be said to go up out of the water except he first went down into it As the Scripture saith expresly of Phillip and the Eunuch I say as expresly as they can speak read else Acts 8.38 And Phillip and the Eunuch went both DOWN INTO the water and he baptised him and when they were come Up OUT of the water And can any body with any shew of reason conceive that they went down into the water to be sprinkled of the face Justin Martyr therefore telleth us that in their Baptisme they were BORN of water which he propoundeth as their practise from the Primitive custome Mr. Baxster Saints Rest p. 179. Now the whole man its coming out of the womb of the water hath a perfect Analogy to a natural birth to which he doth allude but in the sprinkling of the face there is no likeness at all to any such thing as a birth Calvin himself as much a friend as he was to Infant-sprinkling yet was so honest as to affirm its practise was not from the
in his demonstration and consequently to loose his Argument so that parting the Disciples amongst themselves can never be the design of the Spirit in those words AS MANY AS 2. To confirme the Reader therein I referre thee to that proof we have made in answer to Mr Goodwins third Consideration by which it fully appeareth that there was no such thing in those dayes as Church-fellowship before Baptisme where I hope thou wilt have full satisfaction as in divers other places of this Book 3. Consider this the same persons that in the 27. verse are noted under the words As many As in the 28. verse are called ALL as well as in the 26. verse for YE are ALL one in Christ Jesus that the object of the word YE is not a part of the Churches but the whole as well in the 28. verse as in the 26. there is no question because there is nothing affirmed between to enforce nay not to invite to a restrain'd understanding them But if any one ask what the reason should be that the Apostle chuseth such words as these which for the most part are partitive and yet by them intend all and every individuall I answer For variety the scope and context necessitating them to be understood universally yea the word MANY is upon that account as I apprehend often put in Scripture for ALL as in the 9. Hebr. 28. He was once offered to bear the sins of many Now the 1 Timot. 2.6 saith He gave himself a ransome for ALL and Mr. Goodwin understandeth the word ALL largely as well he may So in the 5. Romans 15. If through the offence of one many be dead but by the 12. verse it appeareth by this word MANY he meaneth the whole posterity of Adam for he saith Death passed upon ALL men Now the words As many As served the Apostles design in this place with as much advantage every jot as the word All would do There being two sorts of persons become proselites to Christian Religion namely Jewes and Gentiles and the Gentiles being apt to think that they should not be the children of God upon so good termes as the Jewes because of the high respect God bear from the beginning to the Jewes more than the Gentiles and that therefore onely so many of the Church as were Jewes should become heires of that priviledge through beleiving the Apostle for their comfort doth assure them that not onely so many of the Church as were Jewes became the Sons of God by faith and put on Christ by Baptisme but AS MANY as were baptised into Christ though they were never so many and of what rank sex condition soever whether they were Jewes or whether they were Gentiles and though they were like the starres in the skie for multitude they had all put on Christ and were all members of the same body according to the next words verse 20. There is neither Jew nor Greek nor bond nor free nor male nor female but ALL one in Christ Jesus So that there is a strain of Elegancy in the Apostles varying the word All to As many As so farre are they from necessitating us to understand them parting the Disciples amongst themselves So I have done with the Scriptures which Mr. Goodwin useth to overthrow my Brother Allens Arguments levied to prove the unlawfulness of mixt communion of baptised and unbaptised persons in Church-fellowship besides these eight I doe not find any he useth to found any Argument on to answer him if then it appear that the Scriptures Mr. Goodwin buildeth on like not the service but in truth bitterly complain of it and whether they doe not so I referre to the judgement of the judicious Reader and let him judge of Mr. Goodwins whole building accordingly And whether Mr. Goodwin find that heaving at my Brother Allens Answer to his fourty Queries be but like the heaving at a feather P. 55. Of Water dip which he saith is too childish a posture for a man or rather whether the truth in it be not like a mountain rather which the greatest Giant heaving at though Mr. Goodwin himself cannot make to stir And now let all the world judge between us and Mr. Goodwin 1. Whether we are as lie representeth us Persons of a maimed fancy P. 4. Of Water dip having our reasons judgements and understandings stupified distraught and confounded that all reason opposing us is a Barbarian to us that common sense is a mystery in accessible to our understandings men of sound intellectuals are as men that speak to us in a strange tongue P. 41 42. that if they speak any thing against our way we know not valleys from hills nor hills from valleys rivers from trees trees from rivers halfes from wholes nor wholes from halfes precepts from promises nor promises from precepts ceremony from substance nor substance from ceremony every distinction that attempteth to shew us the error of our way Ipso facto becometh a Chaos and confusion On the other hand for the maintenance and defence of our way the shadowes of mountains seem valiant and arm'd men stubble and rotten wood are turned into weapons of steel and iron before us letter becometh spirit face becometh heart promise becometh precept ceremony becometh substance Apostles become ordinary men and women disputables become demonstrations and peradventures become all Yeas and Amens in respect of these marvellous and sad distempers in our fancies and understandings to reason with us about our way or to endeavour our conviction seldome turneth to any better account than a beating of the air or their Diogenes his begging applications to the statues of men 2. Whether these expressions may not be justly numbred amongst those cruel mockings which the cruel persecutors of old tried the worthies of the Lord with Hebr. 11.36 even those of whom the world was not worthy 3. Whether such contemptuous revilings be not the way to harden fallen persons in their sin there being no sign of charity in them but hatred rather than recover them and as directly contrary to the rule as flesh is to spirit 2 Timothy 2.24 And the Servant of the Lord MUST NOT STRIVE but be GENTLE TO ALL MEN apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devill So also Galations 6.1 If a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESSE considering thy self least thou also be tempted 4. Whether these expressions are not directly contrary to the advice of the Spirit of God in these Scriptures following Phillip 2.3 In lowliness of mind let each esteem other BETTER than themselves Romans 12.9 In honour preferring one another Titus 3.2 Speak evill of no man Colos 3.12 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness
was dark and so hard to find 12. As Beleivers Baptisme agreeth to particular Churches gathered out of the world by the Word so doth Infant-baptisme agree to the National Church and Communion therein which you have renounced because by Baptisme they are immembred into the Church and so capable of Church Communion yea 't is their right if their Baptisme be reckoned valid because according to Scripture Acts 2.42 All baptised persons were added to the Church and continued in the Apostles fellowship breaking bread and prayer by what rule then can the Parishes be withdrawn from when they are esteemed duly baptised persons till legally proceeded against for disorderly walking If then you will reject their Church state as good as you do by withdrawing from them you must not allow their Baptisme because their Baptisme if good giveth right to it Indepency then rejecteth the fruit but letteth the tree stand that beareth it If it be objected that some though not all of the Independents disallow the Baptisme of some children namely such whose Parents beleive not T is true in words but not deeds where is there one man in all the Independent Churches the truth of whose Baptisme was ever called in question 13. Infant-baptisme agreeth to the carnal interest of those men who take up preaching for filthy lucre whereas Beleivers Baptisme altogether frowneth on it Infant-baptisme taking in high and low rich and poor into the Church maketh both more and richer Customers to the Minister Beleivers both fewer and poorer because they are but few that beleive comparitively and for the most part of the poorer sort so that which way soever I looked on Infant-baptisme I found the signes of a plant which the heavenly Father never planted and on the contrary Beleivers Baptisme every way answering the breathings of the Spirit of God in Scripture and consequently that it became me as a friend to Truth and for the honour of Jesus Christ not onely to obey Christ by submitting to the Ordinance my self but to strive the restoring it to its primitive puritity to which I take my self obliged 1. By the Scripture Jude 3. It was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith ONCE delivered to the Saints 2. By the example of holy men of old that when they set upon reformation in the worship of God Neh. 10.19 2 Kings 23 25. Jer. 6.16 Mal. 4.4 2 Châ—on 33.8 had respect to ALL the Law in reforming both before and after the Captivity which also was according to the express Command of God 3. By Gods high approbation of such his Servants who did accordingly as you may see in the instance of Josiah 2 Kings 27.25 David is called a man after Gods own heart Acts 13.22 because a fulfiller of all his will and Caleb so highly dignified Josh 14. from 8. to the 14. because he fully followed the Lord his God Solomon is disparaged by this 1 Kings 11.6 That he went not FVLLY after the Lord as did David his Father 4. By the Covenant that the whole Church entered into with the rest of the Nation to reform both in doctrine and discipline according to the Word of God But you cannot think Baptisme any part of Christs Law and so the practise rather a piece of will-worship than fully following of Christ To which I answer When the doctrine of universal Redemption first sounded in your ear it was as hard to bear as Beleivers Baptisme is now and as farre from your thoughts to be the mind of Christ but that which was hard then is easie now that which was darkness then is light now and that which was wood hay and stubble then is gold and silver and pretious stones now yea those doctrines that when time was in your hast you were ready to say he deserved to loose his eyes that preacht them now for your joy could almost be content to pluck out your own eyes in gratitude to him that brought them Is it not true And again concerning the Church way mind Mr. Goodwins words to Mr. Thomas Goodwin when he was in Holland Your authority graces learning parts judgement and example have made the stone of separation amongst us so massie and heavie that we are constrained to be at double paines and labour in removing and rouling it from the consciences of men A great part of our imployment is to stanch the issue of that fountain of bloud which you have opened in the womb of our Churches here But yet since Mr. Goodwin hath found cause to build up that which then he threw down with so much zeal and industry and I verily beleive if a man should have said to Mr. Goodwin at that time Sir the time may come when you may find cause to separate from the national Church and gather a particular he would have said Am I a Dog that I should do this great thing Oh how he sweat at it then to roul that heavy stone of separation from the consciences of men at last found it too heavy to be done at all and so thought fit rather to lie under the weight of it than heave any longer at it I write not these things to shame Mr. Goodwin it is no shame to a man that he knoweth but in part and that he is not Master of all knowledge at one and the same time The path of the just being as the shining light Prov. 4 18. which shineth more and more to the perfect day If more spiritual light shine not into the judgement if it not a sore sign that the path of such men is not the path of the just And if when it is come into the judgement if it shall not appear in practise then it is a sign of a heart glued to some carnal worldly interest or other which causeth the person to withhold the truth in unrighteousness T is not changing simply that the Scriptures find fault with but being GIVEN to change Changing as the case may be is so farre from being a fault Prov. 24.21 that it is a sign of a growing soul in grace of walking after the Spirit of a self denying upright soul that lieth naked before the truth unmarried to any secular interest Truths faithful friend that so truth may get up careth not though it self go down This therefore is the glory not the shaâ—e of Mr. Goodwin that when the truth came into his judgement as it is in Jesus he consulted not with flesh and bloud but with Paul preacheth the faith which once he destroyed for which many glorified God in him I beseech you therefore let no man mis-judge me in the ground of tâ—is relation as if I intended hereby to cast the least disparagement upon him whom for the good I have received from God by his hand I am bound above many to love and honour But if you ask wherefore then serveth this story I answer that you should not think of
God the injunction from heaven is very particular and express See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount Heb. 8.5 And Ezek. 43 10. Thou Son of Man shew the house to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquity and let them measure the pattern viz. to build say you mark with ALL POSSIBLE EXACTNESSE according to it Now whether the Disciples sitting down in Church bodies before Baptisme be not directly contrary to the pattern and consequently a disorderly practise let the world judge 1. By the Scriptures where we have Christ commanding baptisme presently upon discipling Math. 18.19 which we see the Apostles practised with much faithfulness in the whole story of the Acts to which we have spoken already 2. Where we find the erection of the first famous Gospel Church the manner is thus reported Acts 2.41 1. They gladly received the Word 2. Were baptised And 3. They continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking bread and prayer but first you see they were baptised behold then the pattern in the Mount and must not he be next to willingly ignorant that doth not see this that is so plainly written that he that runneth may read it Why then if all other patterns be but seducers and that our duty is to build with all possible exactness according to the first pattern have you not justified our separation from you for resusing to build according to this pattern 2. Let the judgement of the learned Mr. Baxster Saints rest p 179 from Doctor Preston touching the primitive practise be taken This food we call the Eucharist saith Justin Martyr one of the most ancient Fathers from the practise of the primitive Church to which â—o man is admitted but onely he that beleiveth the truth of our doctrine being washed in the laver of Regeneration for remission of sinâ— which washing he expresseth thus Then meaning after faith and prayer they are brought to the Water and are BORN AGAIN OR BAPTISED in the same way as we our selves were born again for they are washed with water In the Name of the Father Son and Spirit But that which is home to my point is that no Disciple touched the Eucharist as he calleth it till first baptised indeed after Baptisme then he sitteth down with the body in full communion but not before 3. As we have the Scriptures of our side and the judgement of the learned on our side that this was the Primitive practise so we had you your self on our side at this point when you writ your letter to Mr. Tho. Goodwin p 7. Covenanting is not lawful before Baptisme is is evident because it is not lawfull for a Church to receive the unbaptised into fellowship with them as Members of that body neither is there example or APPEARANCE of warrant in Scripture for such a thing And at that time you were as confident as Confidence it self could make you Pag. 1. of what you then wrote as you there affirm or if you were not of other things yet of this because you say and that according to truth That there is neither example nor appearance of warrant in Scripture for such a thing Yea in that letter p. 5. Evident it is that those that were added to the Church were baptised before this is affirmed of them So that upon Principles of your own which is that we ought to build with all possible exactness according to the pattern you are condemned 1. By the Scriptures 2. By the learned 3. Out of your own mouth all which speak Baptisme to goe before Church-fellowship and consequently to walk otherwise a disorderly practise answer who can And the truth is if we are not to follow the customes of the Primitive Churches in worship in every thing that we can follow them in with this limitation Positive giving way to Morral which they did under the Law how are they a pattern to us how shall we understand where to follow them and wherein to leave them Upon the whole matter then I conclude that though by faith men become the Sons of God and that Christ owneth all true Beleivers for brethren yet they have not thereby a present immediate right to full communion with the Church simply upon that account because the same God that ordained faith the meanes of adoption hath ordained Baptisme to goe before visible membership into the Church of Christ much more before a constant sitting down in full Church Communion they then that walk otherwise cast off the Rule and so reproach the wisdom of Christ complain of the Rule as imperfect and become Judges of the Law Your fourth Consideration being of one heart and soul with the third I shall have the lesse to say to it it is for substance this THat persons that have fellowship and Communion with God are thereby immediately fittted for communion with the Church without Baptisme otherwise it is not against us This Proposition Mr. Goodwin supposeth proved by the 14. Rom. 1 2 3. Him that is weak in the faith receive you Again let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not the reason why he must be received and not despised is For God hath accepted him But how Mr. Goodwin or any man else can make this follow from thence that therefore all persons that have fellowship with God have a present right to Church communion without Baptisme I understand not For 1. The weak in faith that this Text speaketh of were baptised persons which appeareth by the sixth chapter where he useth their Baptisme as an argument to mortification and a new life That the words in the third verse So many of us is not partitive of the Disciples amongst themselves which Brother Allen hath proved unanswerably from the scope to which Mr. Goodwin hath made no reply and to the further clearing whereof I shall speak something in due place 2. Mr. Goodwin supposeth that the object of receiving is into Church communion when the Text saith Him that is weak in the faith receive you which I humbly apprehend is an ungrounded conjecture because the Apostle writeth to an establish'd Church whereof those weak ones were a part which by vertue of their membership were already in full communion with the Church Besides is it a reasonable thing to imagine that such a thought would enter into the heart of the Church to cast brethren out of fellowship with the Church of Christ that was regularly immembred because they were more self denying than others by eating hearbs which they did unto the Lord Rom. 14.6 Surely the Church wanted no exhortation to that so that this caution therefore serveth some other design as I humbly apprehend namely the common respect of Christians which strong ones can hardly vouchsafe to the weak for as the weak are apt to judge the strong so the strong to slight and despise the weak which is the words of the Text Rom. 14.3 Let
way of God whereby you seek to pervert the strait wayes of the Lord I shall say little but Lord lay not this sin to your charge Suppose they should do so ought the errors of men to be indulged or corrected onely let me mind you of your own words which as at many other times so at this rise up in judgement against you Sir in one of your Letters to Mr. Tho. Goodwin p. 11. you have these words If we judged it any advantage to the truth and cause we maintain against you we durst vye morrall imputations with you and are confident that we could assign and suggest against you both as many and as likely indirect and fleshly grounds for your departure from us as you can against us for keeping our first standing and profession BVT the truth will never be made GREAT by such demonstrations or arguments as these on either side If Mr. Goodwin thinkes the truth will never be made great by such demonstrations as these it is because he judgeth there is no reason why it should and if so as on the one hand it condemneth him for using them so on the other hand it justly begetteth suspition of error concerning that opinion that such Arguments are used to maintain But to proceed you say that as to another end of Baptisme namely the obliging persons to be the loyal Disciples of Christ you say your Infant-sprinkling or baptisme is as operative that way upon the Conscience as out Baptisme is upon ours or would be upon yours if you should come under it Here is two things affirmed but neither of them proved nor indeed is it possible to prove them one is that your Baptisme is as bearing upon your conscience to become Christs Disciples as our Baptisme is upon ours this is a thing which you affirm at randome not knowing how the baptisme of those that are indeed rightly baptised and that take up the wayes of God in uprightness I say how it heareth upon them nor ever are like to doe because your prejudice is grown so great that you know not how to interpret any action they doe charitably nor scarce word they say Another thing you affirm is that your Infant-baptisme is as bearing upon your conscience as ours would be if you came under it and how can you tell that without tryall Truly Sir I should hope that passing under that figure wherein in so fully represented Christs death buriall and resurrection and your death buriall and resurrection with him being approached unto in the Name and fear of God and in obedience to Jesus Christ that it might be a meanes of killing that spirit of cruelty that haunteth your pen in many of your controvert all writings to the dishonour of God and discredit of the opinion you maintain in them the strait wayes of truth as they have no need of the crooked wayes of sin to build them with so they are never like to be built by them But thirdly and lastly You say your Infant-baptisme is as edifying and comforting To which I answer You must first prove it to be of Christs appointing or else you impose upon us to beleive that the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of edification and comfort will take as much pleasure to concurre with mens inventions as his own Ordinances which is quite contrary to the Scripture Mark 7.7 In vain doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the traditions of men But 2. You say your soules have thriven under that Baptisme 'T is probable so but that doth not prove it was by the meanes of Infant-baptisme of which you are ignorant whether ever any such thing was done or no onely that you have heard so if this arguing be like Mr. Goodwin in other things I am much mistaken Christ telleth the Jewes John 649. That their Fathers did eat Mannah in the wilderness and are dead but can any body gather from hence that their death was caused by the eating of Mannah These are your own words p. 44. Of Water dipping And is not your reasoning in this place much after the same manner you were baptised in Infancy and thrive in godlinesse when grown up to yeares of discretion but it no more followeth that your thriving in godlinesse was by the meanes of your Infant-baptisme than that their death was caused by eating of Mannah And is it likely that ignorant worship of God should have any lively operation upon the soul much lesse that it should have as much as that which is done knowingly and voluntarily and belâ—ivingly the soul having communion with God in it And why may you not as well say that hearing Sermons in infancy is as edifying as at age I know not Infants would understand as much of the one as of the other and when grown up it might be told them what was said then as well as now they are told what was done then in Baptisme is the darkness of the darkest night more void of light than this proposition is of truth Reader judge Your seventeenth Consideration for substance this IT doth not appear from Scripture that any Church of Christ or embodied Society of Beleivers was commanded by Christ or the Apostles to be dipt nor yet threatned or reproved for the non-practise of dipping I answer It is very true because the Apostles did not use to spend their breath in vain they would not command that to be done twice which Christ had ordered to be done but once nor to reprove where there was no cause If you would have the Reader feel any weight in this Argument you are bound to find us a Society of embodied Beleivers undipt which is a task too hard for you but yet this light supposition is the very foundation of your Argument which being rotten and sandy the building falleth of it self I need say no more to it Your eighteenth Consideration for substance this THat it is more than any of us will be ever able to prove that there is any precept of Christ whereby it is made sinful for any person whatsoever not to be baptised in one form or other 1. Because it can be no sin to be undipt whilst there is no legal Adminstrator 2. Because the Commission to baptise is given to the Apostles onely 3. Because they were not enjoyned to baptise any person against their wils 4. It is hard to know what is the Antecedent to the Pronoune THEM in the Commission or whom or what persons they are whom our Saviour here authorizeth his Apostles to baptise 5. In the Commission is no Command laid upon any person to be baptised 6. Neither doth it appear from those words teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you that the Apostles did teach Beleivers to require Baptisme of them 7. It appeareth not that the Apostles in the course of their Ministry did ever teach either Church or person to seek baptisme at their hand 8. Though that should be granted yet it followeth not
to meet on munday nights to edifie one another in faith and love Amongst other discourse which I cannot now remember I affirmed that the sight of them meaning our friends was a greif and burthen to me which following some words of easie misconstruction he concluded they proceeded from an absolute fall of affection to them and so presented them to others of the brethren that were wont to meet there which conceit got further rooting in the minds of the brethren by another unhappy circumstance The brother appointed to speak the next meeting before he began his Sermon began with this story making it the ground of no more meeting at my house To which I answer 1. Those words The sight of the Church was a greif and a burthen to me I said but the principle of them was not the want but the abundance of affection to them I say again the abundance of affection to them God is my witness who had indeed obliged me much which made parting with them the more grâ—â—vous and the necessity of that made me willing to be estranged from them that I might the better undergo the burthen this is the perfect truth which God the searcher of all hearts knoweth and this also was one main reason amongst others why I estranged my self from Mr. Goodwin afterwards But if it be ask'd why I did not reply to the brother who understood just contrary I answer I intended to do it after he had done his Sermon for it was before his Sermon that he began to speak of it but after his Sermon falling upon some discourse with Mr. Goodwin relating thereto I quite forgot being pressed with trouble and grief at some high words Mr. Goodwin then gave me This is the truth which the righteous God of heaven and earth knoweth for whose sake we now suffer by Mr. Goodwins unmerciful Pen To be injured by a common enemy 〈◊〉 no matter of wonder but to be wronged by ones father as it is a matter of more strangeness so of harsher recentment But it may be God hath bid you to cuâ—se me to take me off all glorying in men that I may be the more intire to himself me thinks I now find that Scripture hath a fresh edge upon my spirit Cease from man whose breath is in his nâ—strils Isaiah 2.22 for wherein is he to be esteemed 1 Cor. 3.21 Therefore let no man glory in man Your three and twentieth Consideration is THat there is no substantiall Argument produced to justifie such a practise nor you beleive ever will be Whether we have not given Arguments to justifie it more than one and that grounded upon the Scriptures and your own principles and indeed the principles of all the learned I referre to the judgement of the Reader As for that which you say by way of reply to my Brother Allens answer to your fourty Queries about Church communion I shall leave him to answer or be silent as he findeth cause onely it lieth much upon my spirit to shew unto your self if may be if not to your self yet to the unprejudiced Reader the palpable suffering of many of the Scriptures engaged in that service The first is the 2. of Acts 41. which Text my Brother Allen urgeth to prove addition to the Church and fellowship in it to follow Baptisme not goe before it and that 1. Because the Text saith they gladly received the Word 2. Were baptised 3. Were added to the Church 4. Continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship Now Mr. Goodwin will have it that Baptisme might be left out of the chain and yet they might have been Church members notwithstanding 1. Because those who are said to have been baptised in the former part of the verse are not said in the latter to have been added to the CHURCH but simply they were added or added unto Mr. Allen understandeth the Relative to those words added to to be Them according to the present translation and whereto both he and the Translators are guided 1. By the mention of the hundred and twenty Disciples in the Chapter before at the 15. verse to which these that were now converted were added which in the 47. verse of this 2. chapter are called the Church in plain English And the Lord added to the CHVRCH dayly c. And that the Relative to those words ADDED to were the Church or the hundred and twenty Disciples spoken of before Mr. Goodwin himself in his fourty Queries which I do not think were written above half a year before this Water dipping so understood it mark his words It cannot be demonstratively proved from the Scriptures that those hundred and twenty Disciples unto which it is here said P. 6. Of 40 Queries Acts 1.15 that three thousand were ADDED c. which a little before he himself calleth the Church in the same page But now all of a sudden Mr. Goodwin altereth his mind and will not let the 47. verse expound the 42. though the context as faiâ—ly leadeth to it as heart can wish but runneth us to the 11 of Acts 24. to know the Relative to the words added to in the 2. Acts 41. because there it is thus written And much people was added to the Lord. Here again you insinuate a difference in sense between those words added to the Lord and those added to the Church whereas in your Letter to Mr. Tho. Goodwin p. 5. you expound the joyning to the Lord spoken of Acts 11.24 of immembring into the Church your words these There is mention made of many that were added or joyn'd to the LORD i. e. say you were immembred into the CHVRCH Now what construction can any rational impartial considerate man make of this your shifting too and fro in this manner but as an evident demonstration that in fighting against us you labour to engage the Scriptures in a warre they have no mind too and so you loose your way and know not well where to set your foot not what ground to stand on The Lord make you sensible of it But again you say 2. It is said Acts 2 47. And the Lord added to the Church WHO saith Mr. Goodwin such as were baptised No but such as should be saved or were saved which was not by being baptised but beleiving Here Mr. Goodwin saith two things 1. That those that the Text speaketh of that were added to the Church were not such as were baptised but c. If this be not a strange proposition and as contrary to the Scripture as light to darkness I am under the enchantment Mr. Goodwin upbraideth me with so often for though it be true that those that were added to the Church were such as should be saved yet it followeth not that those that were added to the Church were not baptised nay it is plain they were by the 41. verse Then they that gladly received his word were baptised and the same day that is that they received the Word and were baptised there