thee as it were a Shipboard or into the Ark sealing Christ with his benefits unto thee which shall not be pulled off and made Null and therefore need not to be iterated and set to again the first being still of force and efficacy to all true believers in Christ and repenters of sin Thus I have shewed you Sir how most men yea all men who have been Baptized in their Infancy may and ought to look upon themselves as Baptized in their Infancy which you seem to condemn and that to very good purpose and benefit and whereas you adde as the other part of your condemning them for their not looking after the Command of Christ to be baptized when they believe will you have them look after that is not to be seen or found nay have you seen or found out such a Commandment I pray Si lend or sell no some of your eye-salve to annoint our eyes for by and from that eye-salve in the 3. of Rev. 18. wherewith we have anointed our eyes according to Christs Council there given we cannot see from the one end of the New Testament to the other any such Commandement for persons baptized in their Infancy to be baptized when they believe And yet as if you had revealed and brought to light some rare matter of Salvation you have a very scrious and devout epilogue that it your considerations should be considered without a selfiish prejudicial Spirit a Spirit willing to he guided by the Spirit of the Lord according to his word of truth and the Scriptures truly red and interpreted by the Spirit of the Lord which are quoted to prove the Assertions It will appear to every honest and unbyassed Spirit that Infant-Baptism is a great and dangerous errour for ever to be rejected of every Soul that expects Salvation by Christ Jesus What a Cackling is here made upon the laying of an addle egge or rather what a Crowing is here upon the Treading out of a few idle considerations you have the faculty of entitling upon the Spirit and the Scriptures that which they being the Spirit and Scriptures of Truth own not your considerations and interpretations though very seldom you give interpretations them you leave for me to make quotatious and considerations enough you bring and those to no purpose or proof as I have particularly demonstrated where you cite them I leave it to the Honest and unbyassed Spirits to judge and determine whether the Texts you have cited were pertinent to your Consideration or according to your meaning or interpreting if you have given any whether Infant-Baptism be a great and dangerous errour for evewr to be rejected because now opposed of you which ever was a good and Religions Truth ever practised amongst the Saintt because recommended of Christ and the Apostles whether youts or mine be a selfish and prejudiciall Spirit I confess my Spirit is prejudiciall to yours your opinions as your Spirit is prejudicate to mine and thoughts Lastly whether your considerations be not as inconsiderate in the writer so inconsiderable to the Reader However you think so well of them that you go on to more of them when its time to have done with such selfish things and in the next place offer to me some of your considerations upon Act. 2.39 The which if I thought they were no more considerate nor considerable than your former I would consider a while upon it whether or no I should take them into consideration at all or pass by them as inconsiderable And such indeed they seem to be and upon the General view I find them so for in them all there are nothing but answers and solutions made to objections not set down Refutations and denyals of a sense before it be any where mentioned is not this Cart before the Horse which a Carter methinks should not do a consideration without consideration which a Consideratour I am sure should not do we had before your judgment setled out of Quaeres this is as bad your answers to no objections your refuting no Exposition of ours Well as all the way hitherto I have ordered your matters for you so I see I must do so still or else we shall make no work of it at least have no orderly proceeding in it First therefore let the sense of that Text be given and the argument drawn out of it for Infant Baptism which I will do for you and then after let the refutation of that sense and the Answers to that Argument be added or subjoyned the which you shall do for me Peter having preached here unto the Jess and laid to their charge the death and crucifying of Jesus Christ and brought them to some apprehension of their horrid sins at the 38 Verse exhorteth them to repent and be baptized into the Name of the same Jesus Christ and to accept him for their Messias the which he doth upon this reason and ground mentioned in the 39 Vers and drawn from the benefit that should redound not to the mselves onely but to their Children by their believing in Christ The which he proves from the Promise made to them and their Children In plainer and larger words thus it is God hath remembred his Covenant in sending that blessed Seed in whom he promised to be the God of Abraham and his Seed know ye therefore that as God made the Promise of Grace in Christ to come and to be exhibited unto Abraham upon his believing and took also his Children and Posterity into Covenant with him not onely the natural Jews but even amongst all Nations whoever became followers of Abraham's Faith should by vertue of the same inherit Abraham's Promise That he would be their God and the God of their Seed also which should also be taken into the same Covenant so now this blessed Seed in whom the Promise was founded being now come and exhibited would make it good to you all Jews and Gentiles who would believe in him and notwithstanding your cruel practises against him and your crucifying of him if you will believe in this Lord of life and your Messias you shall thereby be in as good or better condition under this last Administration for your selves and your children as in the former therefore deprive rot your selves by your impenitency and infidelity of so great a benefit as may come to your selves and Posterity for the Promise is made to you and your Children c. what Promise or the Promise of what for so I will clear the Text of some exceptions the Promise of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost so say some of you that you may the better turn this off from Infants of Believers baptized It is true they are promised also in the Verse before and I acknowledge they were Appendants to the Primitive Baptismes of the adult and peculiar to the first times for the more abundant confirmation of their Faith as Act 10 11. who were converted to it from Paganism and
your flesh Interperate what 's that is it not Intemperate or interprate sure it is not to interpret Scripture No marvel indeed if you would have me To confider of these things you have written with an unbiassed spirit and a self-denying humble spirit such as those spirits are that are guided by the spirit of the Lord For surely then your spirit hath not been guided by the Spirit of the Lord as which is or hath been in your Letter a byassed spirit and an all other besides your self denying proud spirit and therefore without any just ground you arrogate those words of the Apostle to your own practise saying as he 2 Cor. 2.17 We are not as many which corrupt or deal deceitfully with the Word but as of seneâ—rity sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ What you speak when you are teaching and expounding or praying I know not this I know by the experience you have given of your self to me that in your writing and citing Scriptures in your Letter you are the most corrupter and the most deceiptful dealer and wrester also of Scripture that ever I read I do not know many scarce any that go beyond you except your Masters and Tutours you know whom I mean and your sincerity is as false spoken as written of you if as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God you shall speak in Christ it will be acceptable as to God so to man and my self if renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness not handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth you commend your self to every mans conscience in the sight of God as you add of your selfe 2 Cor. 4.2 Comparing spiritual things with spiritual but so you did not when you compared the holy and legitimates together and the unclean with bastards to go no farther backward And Scripture with Scripture for Scripture is the best Interpreter of Scripture neither did you so when you could finde no Scripture to compare with 1 Cor. 7.14 that either did interpret or intimate bastards to be unclean and much less fignified by this word there or legitimates to be holy and much less meant by this word there For that in the close of your Letter which concerneth my self in particular as That you should gladly see better fruits from me If I knew what fruits you mean I should soon tell you whether or no I should ever glad you so much as to see them but if they relate to which immediately goeth before them the wresting of Scriptures by Humane learning I must tell you that the root that I am graffed into and which beareth me shall ever I hope bring forth better fruits though I question your gladness in seeing them as being opposite to your fruits who throughout your whole Letter have been gathering yea pulling and enforcing thornes of grapes and thistles of figs divers errorneous Tenets from Texts that will not nor can bear them the which I am sorry to see from you And for your intreating me to lay aside all selfe-ends and by-respects you must pardon me herein for I took up the defence of my self and my Ministery and Infant-Baptism as well as of others making both my end next unto Gods glory and the truth without any other by respects which I must not upon your request lay aside but for that which followeth I have seriously considered the things and words of God spoken by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures which were all written for our learning and imitation yea moreover have enformed you in particular how far forth all which were written for our learning were written for our imitation some of them and some of them not which you indistinctly and confusedly jumble together yea and according to your farther intreaty I have turned to and looked into all those Scriptures you have but quoted and named and not written out for want of time as you say and have writ out all the words of most of them as who never want time to search out the Truth of the Scriptures if I want not health Your self best know whether it was for want of time or for want of truth you did not transcribe the words as making most an end nothing to the purpose or Point for which you set down and multiplied Chapters and Verses by their figures onely and whether this was Not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceiptfully but by a manifestation of the Truth a commending your self to every mans Conscience whether this was of sincerity as of God as in the sight of God spoken or written judge you but judge righteous judgement for God will who trieth the heart c. For that in the close still of your Letter which concerneth your self it is your desire that wherein you have erred I would inform you by plain Scripture It is done to your hand but I fear it is not gone to your heart whose heart was and is I surmise resolved before hand as your hand laid upon your heart to that purpose of not acknowledging any error or submitting to information for what hope or likelihood is there hereof when as presently you adde You are confident heare here is nothing aserted asserted nor queared but will now appeare a truth proved by Scriptures and likewise will appeare at the great day Wherefore then do you intreat me to weigh things seriously and if you have erred in any thing to inform you when as you are confident here is nothing asserted or quaered but will now appear a truth just as the man in the Gospel professed to follow our Saviour Christ and went away presently about other matters of no such consequence you likewise say you will be informed by me wherein you have erred and in the next words you are confident of nothing asserted or quaered by you here but the very Truth I am perswaded the work will be much alike the informing you to the laying down of any error of yours and the washing of a Leopard to the putting off any of its spots But I should gladly see better fruits from you than such a non resolution and brasse-forehead which for the most part is in most of the Revolters from our Church and the Truth as not to be conformed and converted when informed confuted notwithstanding Though I have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgement is with the Lord and my work with my God Isa 49.4 But Sir are you confident that there is nothing â—sserted or quaered but will appear a Truth what that which is asserted by you may appear let passe buâ— sure that which is quaered by you here will not now appear a Truth neither now nor never will it be a Truth no not at the great day that which is quaered onely your Quaeres were your judgement as you affirmed before now you affirm they are a
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
before the Truth and stoop to it now that that I have brought it unto your house and set it before your face and eyes and if you would but rise up betimes in the morning and admit in of the light of Christ that true morning Star you might see your Dagon fallen down before the Ark and the truth standing up over your errors I doubt not but there will be those for Sir if you will be reled by your friend never meddle more with any controversie of Divinity I had almost said Text of Scripture that will take up Dagon again and set him in his place again but I may foretell them it will be labour lost for when they rise up the next morning they will behold Dâ—gon fallen again upon his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord and in worse case than before with his head and both the palmes of his hands cut off upon the threshold and onely the stump of Dagon to be left him But why should I lie down before and stoop to your Quaeres Considerations and Interpretations and the Truth of them that will appear at that great day and now appeareth proved by Scriptures For that now I am enformed informed and so cannot plead ignorance before the Lord at his appearing when he will reward every own according to his work I am now informed you write and must mean by your self your Letter and I am glad to finde you here in form though now you are out of matter for when you had matter to Quaere and Propound then I am sure you had no form to proceed or order it in I was then fain to inform you that is to put your matters in form which are so deformed and disordered that so I might inform you in the matters which were material and of moment for if otherwise you mean of the matter I pray let me know wherein I am now informed by you not by your Quaeres these rather put doubts than bring any matters of Informations from you or themselves nor by your Considerations for they were so inconsiderable in themselves and so inconsiderately delivered by you that I never considered them farther than to refutation of them they never got within me and took any place in me to form or inform or conform or transform into or unto any thing in them nor by your interpretations of any Texts of Scripture for you never had the spirit you have so talked of to give a right interpretation of the Text but still as you broached it for my information it seemeth the Text of the Spirit informed me to the contrary that it was not the meaning of the Text nor minde of the Spirit I acknowledge I am not too old to learn nor so much a Scholar but I may be informed but I think I am too old a Bird to be caught with such your chaff and too long a Scholar and a Minister to be taught by such your stuff What is the chaff to the wheat saith the Lord by Jeremiah Jer. 23.28 If Sir you spread out any more shrapnets and send out any more Letten of Information to me let them be more literate and better baited with wheat else I shall not come down to them as who care not for pecking amongst such light and chaffy Quaeres and Considerations though I like well of sound solid and wheaty Reasons and Argumentations Again what are the resuse fish to Soles and Salmons now that you have toiled all this night for I see you fished in the dark night and have caught nothing of worth if you launch out into the deep again of controversies and let down your Net again of another Letter for a draught of Objections or Answers I pray be carefull to enclose a multitude of good fish Salmous and Soles of solid Objections and Reasons salving Answers and Distinctions or else I shall not be beckoned to to come in as who cannot though I love Fish well such as are sound and whole as a fish should be as I have mentioned feed upon poor John and fresh Herrings Minna-Quaeres and Sprat-Considerations and such other refuse fish you will never fatten me or inform or immatter me with such but I shall still be lank lean and ignorant and may plead ignorance before the Lord at his appearing for any thing of knowledge I have found in you and when he will reward every one according to his work you are not like to be rewarded for your informing me or for your interpreting Scripture or for your denying Baptism to Infants or for your dipping again the baptized or for your reviling the Church of Christ and his Ministers or for presuming to preach in Pulpits without Ordination and Authority for there shall be no reward to the evil man Prov. 24.20 Therefore take heed of having an evill eye or evil tongue against little Infants and their baptising or against the great God and his Church and Ministers and bringing and evil report or interpretation upon the good Word of God and the Scriptures lest God reward you according to your work and your evil work be rewarded with an evil wages of punishment for David's prayer is still with God Psal 94.2 Lift up thy self thou judge of the earth render a reward to the proud But now again Sir why do you follow And if you can answer these Quaeres and Considerations by plain Scripture I pray do or else hold your peace and leave your unwarrantable practices Did you not tell me but even now that I was informed now by your Quaeres and Considerations so that I could not plead ignorance and what will you have me answer them when as I am fully informed by them and have gotten full knowledge by them shall I answer against my information and dispute against my knowledge of your truths you even here contradict your self and your own spirit and speech as it often falls out to them that have such speeches and such a spirit of contradiction of others But if I can answer them and that by Scripture it is possible it seems or otherwise why do you pray me to do it then sure you have not rightly informed but rather mis-informed me and mis-interpreted the Scriptures and therefore I may more justly set upon the answoring them to inform you better in the knowledge of the truth and to infirm in you the grounds of your errours which I have done by plain Scriptures and by Arguments also proved by direct and plain Scriptures rightly interpreted And now that it is done I will command my self to hold my peace and enjoyn my self silence You boldly enough prayed me to do it or else hold my peace and I kindly enough have done it and do hold my peace Isa 62.1 It was for Zions sake that I held not my peave and for Hierusalems sake that I did not rest until the reighteousness thereof went forth as brightness or rather some little glympse brighter by my enlightning some
small step farther by my upholding or rather by Gods enlightening of it and Gods upholding of it For not I 1 Cor. 15.10 but the grace of God it is by which I am what I am and have done what I have doen to the God of which Grace I do here give up the Glory in the words of that heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men Luke 2.14 And now return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee c. Psal 116.17 But I must not thus make an end you Sir will not let me return to my rest or give me a Writ of ease until I have considered some certain Texts of Scriptures which you have written out to the full of the words and left with me for the conclufion of your Letter There is not reason the Reader should be deprived of them they are so excellent for the purpose and so pertinent to the cause they come like after-drops when a storm of rain is over The first is Job 6.24 25. Teach me and I will hold my tongue cause me to understand wherein I have erred how orceable forcible are right words but what doth your arguinges arguing or Arguments reprove do ye imagie imagine to reprove words Why do you leave out that which followeth with your leave I will add it as belonging to the former and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as winde This is kindly spoken of you to me as of Job to Eliphaz his friend if as truly meant and I think I may say in justification of the truth more than my self for wisdom is justified of her children that the thing is really done you are taught the truth here and caused to understand wherein you have erred and may hold if willing to learn therefore hold your peace as a friend answered and therein satisfied without reply as another friend only questioned and thereby convinced was speechless without answer Luke 22.12 But I suspect you have not told me all your heart and do but mock as Delilah told Sampson I fear I shall never teach you who have learned as much as you desire to know I may perhaps cause some other an indifferent Reader or so to understand wherein you have erred but your self the principal party I shall not I foresee according to that Text Prov. 27.22 the words whereof for want of time I have not written out Nor will you hold your peace for all your saying so you must or may as to any material or substantial replication you can make against the truth herein asserted and proved but you neither will nor can hold your peace as to frivilous multiplication of words impertinent citations and misinterpretations and mis-applications of Texts slanderous calumniations of Ministers and the Answerer especially no more than the dog in the dark night can or will leave barking and bawling at the bright Moon But how feeble and impotent are crooked and impertinent words appears by Job saying How forcible are right words the other words What doth your arguings or arguments reprove as unfitting and unseasonable for you to use unto me before you had heard or read any word or syllable of any arguing or argument from me You might rather have left them out for me to have said them to you as now I shall after that I have read over and heard your arguings and arguments or rather Quaeres Gonsiderations Interpretations without any arguings or arguments in them What do they reprove Indeed they reprove something every thing those things that deserve no reproof but they prove nothing no not those things that most needed proof and which you undertook to prove which indeed moved and occasioned me to be thus large in setting down the things in controversie betwixt us by proving and disproving and reproving sometimes lest all the time should be as lost and mis-spent betwixt us and no body nor our selves the better by this discourse The last words are right words for us both and very forcible to inform me and reform my imagination which hath been to reprove words and speeches of one that is desperate you were very loth to write out these words and good cause why which are as wind so are both the words and speeches of one that is desperate and so are the reprooss of such words and speeches of one that is desperate you out of hope of learning I out of hope of teaching according to that Text Jer. 17.9 Jerem. 13.23 The words whereof I have not written out for want of time The other Texts that you have heaped up together and at large transcribed are nothing but very Quakerisms in the end of your Letter to which Anabaptisms will come in the end you have here begun though you are not the first For as it is the fashion of Quakers to get up into their memories and mouths all the Texts of old and new Testament where any false and vicious Prophets are spoken of and against or any covetous and superstitious Pharisee is taxed and reproved and to flap them in the face of every Minister they meet withall though never so impertinently and inconsiderately insomuch that one of them very lately being at Church after the Minister had ended his Sermon as who preacheth constantly every Sunday twice Yea said he this is just as the Prophet saith Isa 56.10 They are all dumb dogs that cannot bark sleeping lying down c. And just even so do you Sir first you tell me of Jerem. 5.4 and have now time enough to write out the words at length and not in figures Surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgement of there their God The which is spoken of the ignorant and perverse people amongst the Jews the Prophet complains of like as we Ministers may of many such amongst us your self not excepted and I commend you for your fit and pertinent and even Quaker-like application of it to us the Ministers of England whom you know to know the way of the Lord c. and therefore apply it against your own science and conscience to Ministers which is spoken onely to the People by the Prophet The next is Micah 3.5 11 12. Neither here is there to you any want of time to write out all the words Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people to erre that byte bite with their teeth and cry Peace and he that putteth not into there their mouth they even prepare war against them The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priest thereof teach for byre hire and the Prophets thereof devine divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come unto us Therefore shall Zyon Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field c. What if there were in the State
your last line lovely and amiable though the first leaf was hatefull and detestable I embrace you in your last line so also in your Subscription speak it again and write or subscribe again your self that in the hand of two witnesses or the double witness of your hand this word may stand and be more confirmed To be the Lord Jesus's devoted Servant as also mine and the rest the meanest of Christs Servants and Ministers Servants for Jesus sake which I take onely according to the Apostles limitation Galath 5.13 in or by love for which also I thank you being ready also to serve you in and by love for Jesus sake but with another of the same Apostles limitations 2 Thess 2.10 by an in love of the truth the which because some have not received God hath sent them strong delusions that they should believe a lye as it followeth in the Apostle ver 10 11. But we are bound to give God thanks for you Brethren and Nâ—ighbours and Parishioners and your selves are boundmuch more to do the same to God for that he hath called you unto the belief of the truth by our Gospel and something also by this my Answer to you 2 Thessalonians 2. verse 14. Therefore Brethren and Neighbours stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle verse 15. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort and â—stablish you in every good word and work verses 16 17 And now also Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up Acts 20.32 Consider what I say and have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 Let every soul that is understanding be subject to the higher powers of the word and captivate every thought to the obedience of the truth Let every Saul who is ignorant admit of the light of the Word and Truth to shine round about him that the scales by the Ministry of Ananias may fall away from their eyes that in seeing they may see and understand the truth of all the matters and mysteries of Salvation Acts 9.15 But if any man be ignorant and will be ignorant let him be ignorant and still be ignorant 1 Cor. 14.38 Or Let them hear and say reade and see It is truth Isa 43. verse 9. And so Sir because I will be answerable to you in all things I do now subscribe my self as in relation to my Master and Lord Jesus Christ His the least of his Servants and Ministers not worthy to be called a Servant and Minister of Christ so in reference unto you my Antagonist and Opponent Your the greatest of your friends worthy to be called a friend of yours for am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Gal. 4.16 When you have tried all your Brethren and Friends Truth will be your best Friend and your best Brother will be Jeffry Watts From Muchleigh's Parsonage July the 1. 1656. Now I proceed from a Scribe and his Letter answered and a Pharisce or Separate churched to a hypocrite or Dipper sprinkled but first of all to be questioned and catechised and so to the Narration of a dipping to be censured according to my Promise in the Title and Frontispiece of this Treatise Onely first Courteous Reader I Must desire of thee that in the reading over if so thou art intended this Narration of a Dippping with a Censure thereupon which followeth now Thou wouldst not mind a Passage or Paragraph of the Former Epistle to thee which goeth before the Answer and Instruction of a Scribe and his Letter as wherein I apologized for my omitting to cite and call into the several Points I handled the venerable Testimonies of the ancient Doctors and Fathers of the Church in their own learned Languages This I excused unto thee partly because I was confined and tyed up by the Scribe and his queres onely to Scripture Commands and Examples for my Answer and partly for that I intended my Answer should go no farther then in a reciprocal and interchangeable Letter returned unto him who first occasioned and provoked it Though afterwards by reason of the larger extent of my Answer then I expected The Desk refusing a transcription of it to which I had offered it I was even compelled to make my refuge unto the Presse for an Impression of the same otherwise all the labour must be lost on both sides the Queres and Letter unanswered the Scribe uninstructed the Pharisee uncharged and Truth unvindicated as to and by my self This beingdone the Answer finished dismissed and sent away for the aforesaid prupose There fell out and was practised in my Parish and it may be for the more affront to me at a house of mine there This Dipping of two new Sisters in a Pond of the Yard The which being in publick upon the Lords-day and betwixt the Morning and Evening Worships drew away much people thither and was discoursed of by many mouthes and so famed about in these parts that I resolved and could do no less to get a full Narration of the business and to pass my censure upon the same And so having first preach it down in my Pulpit to my own Parish as a New business of ill consequence I next have written it down in my Study to thee the Reader and have sent up also this my censure after the former my Answer to be Impressed or Imprinted together into the same Tractate as handling both of them matters very agreeable and consonant So then here intending the Presse and having now no confinements or restraints upon me I have taken my full Liberty to produce and bring in much of the Learned Antiquity and to write out and transcribe their weighty Words and Speeches in their own Languages as many of them as I had by me for the fuller Confirmation and firmer Attestation of this my censure upon that Dipping that it was and is as I have said a New business and a very Novelty Yea this I have done as for the convincing the Anabaptists their Dipping and Immerging Baptism so called to be of Novelty so for the Confirming the Orthodox their Sprinkling and Aspersing Baptism as it is to be of Antiquity by the evidences of the ancient Fathers and Doctors brought forth and shewed on both sides and farther I have ascended up to the Highest Antiquity of all even to the Ancient of dayes and the Primogenit of every Creature and have probably at least shewed that Christ Jesus himself manifested in the flesh was but Aspersed or Superfused with water and not Dipped and Immerged under the water certainly not in their way and manner at his Baptism by S. John the Prime baptist nor other Christians after him by S. Peter and the other Primitive Baptizers And as to raâ—fi
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
wicked way of persecuting Christ in his members and became a member of Christ himself but whether it be the sanctifying grace of God or but the restraining grace of God the Evangelical tidings or legal terrors and faith Saint James speaks of James 3.17 22. or the fear Jamaica put you in I rejoyce to see you pluckt out of your wicked wayes and shall much more exceedingly be gladded when I shall see you also brought to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Tim. 2.25 and because I cannot in meekness instruct you opposing your self for withal you absent your self yet I will pray that God would give you repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth Yea moreover as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way 1 Sam. 12.23 Yea I have done it and if you refuse to hear it and walk therein but reject it it being the Word of the Lord. Take heed lest he reject you as he did Saul for refusing to do after the Word of God by Samuel and so Samuel went to Ramah and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death like as Saul came no more to see Samuel unto the day of his death nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul 1 Sam. 15.34 § 1. I had done but my zeal to you and your knowledge of the Truth wherein I may be or desire to be helpful unto you doth carry me on a little further as first to let you know that though David called his Persecutors Dogs Ps 22.17 21. and Peter called Apostates Dogs 2 Pet. 2.22 and Paul called Impostors Dogs Phil. 3.6 yet will it not become you neither is it consonant to the knowledge of the Truth or the Truth of your knowledge to call a whole Parish a company many of them if not the most of them no better then Dogs Like enough then they will be barking and bawling at you if not biting and tearing of you but I will keep them off as much as I can and bid them peace and be still saying to them as Peter If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and God resteth on you 1 Pet. 4.14 whilst I shall say to you Sir you know not another part of your ignorance of the Truth what manner spirit they are of who for any thing you know may be true sheep of Christ nay you know not what manner spirit your self is of sure the spirit of Grace which is given to the meek and humble resteth not upon you for the Grace of God you said even now appeared plucking you out of your wicked wayes and works had it been the sanctifying Grace it would also have appeared plucking you out of your wicked words and uncharitable and untrue calumniations Sir till you be endued with such manner of spirit as David Peter and Paul were so Prophetical and Apostelical so discerning so authorized forbear I pray such rash speech and judge not that you be not judged with the same judgement for with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again Mat. 7.1 2. They will be as too likely dogged and dogging also of you and your company and then what coupling and kenneling of Christians will there be you will so make the whole Island the Isle of Dogs otherwise famous for sheep If this will not do take knowledge of another Truth seeing the Grace of God hath appeared plucking you to the knowledge of the Truth that whosoever shall say unto his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Counsel but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell fire and what shall he be in danger of that saith Thou Dog nay all of you are no better then Dogs I pray tell you me that out of the knowledge of the Truth that the Grace of God appearing hath pluckt you unto § 2. To let you know that though David stiled himself a dead dog and a fleat 1 Sam. 24.14 and Mephibosheth also called himself a dead Dog 2 Sam. 9.8 and both out of a true humbled spirit in and under Glory yet there may be a vain glory in your humility and if so then will it not become you neither is it consonant to the knowledge of the Truth or to the Truth of your knowledge to speak of your self as one not so good as a dog so Co◠2.18 The Apostle discovers a guile or a beguiling in the voluntary humility of some who were voluntaries in humility and so Col. 2.23 c. St. Paul espies a vain shew of wisdome even in the humility of the Impostors of his time and in their not sparing but neglecting their bodies for they would scourge their bodies macerate their flesh with fastings and drinking onely water to make a shew of wisdom and to get a repute of Religious humility and savouring heavenly things This was but Frier-like with the Flagellants and is but Quaker-like with Parnellites and may be Dipper like with your self to make a shew of wisdome in this your will worship and humilty to the beguiling of silly souls that you are ready to go through fire and water neglecting the body so also that you mind not worldly repute nelecting your name or not sparing your self in it but calling your self not so good as a Dog in your former condition you might advance your new business and your self therein to be as good as a Lion or a Lamb. I think it was said either of Diogenes by another or by Diogenes of another going but barely and thinly in cloathes that a man might see Pride as well in a Philosophers thread-bare cloak as an Emperors rich furr'd Pall so that Ecebolius who laid himself flat on the ground in the Temple Porch bidding people to go over him and tread upon him as unsavoury salt Calcate me insipidum salem made therein but a shew of wisdom or policy rather and savoured even of pride in that his effected and therefore ju ly suspected humility and I think Abigail did but Complement in those words of her being sent for to be wife to David Let thine hand-maid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord 1 Sam. 25.42 But enough of this and take it I pray not as my supposition in you that it is so but rather my admonition to you that it be not so For I must now tell you my opinion is it was not so with you then nor so with those others either then or now of whom you speak the same § 3. You may be bold with your self you will say and I say so too bolder with your self in calling or miscalling what you please then you may be with others upon that ground that no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor 2.11 and a
nature as well as others Eph. 2.3 and Eph. 1.4 and yet were not nor could be called dogs notwithstanding impure or hateful before God because they were in and under the love of God which is called Amor Benevolentiae the love of his eternal good Will and Benevolency in electing of them although before their Conversion and before they have Faith they do not stand actually reconciled unto God which is called Amosr Complacentiae the love of his special delight and complacency in accepting of them by the coming of Christ into the world and purchasing it for them so that their persons are never hateful or detestable but beloved and accepted from all eternity and therefore cannot be as bad as dogs though their state wherein they are in may be odious and detestable as was Sauls when he persecuted the Church and as was yours when you walked in wicked wayes and both of you were ignorant of the Truth but this some similar act or quality of a dog as impurity and ignorance for a while is not enough or sufficient to impute the Title and denomination of a dog to such whose persons belong to Gods Election and are under gracious favour of God in a Christ and are parties covenanted with and partakers of the Seal or Seals Doth God take care for Oxen 1 Cor. 9.9 what Dogs who are Gods what a transposition of letters is this what an Anagram which none but an Ingram and Agrammatical man who is himself transported with a zeal without knowledge can or will affirm or make The field that is intended for Wheat fallowed for Wheat and Sown with Wheat is not called or to be called a barren Wilderness and desart Land though weeds come up in it every where and before the good husbandry hath appeared plucking them up but it is called Tilth-land and a Wheat-field The ground of your error lyeth in this that you thought of no other Grace but that of sanctification when you spake those words of your self and others to be dogs until the Grace of God appearing plucking you out of your wicked wayes to the knowledge of the Truth so the words themselves do shew and therby shew also your ignorance of the Grace of God both that of Election and that of Justification which is not any inherent Righteousness and quality as Papists also hold with you which in matter of Justification or Election is but dung as the Apostle calleth it for the Grace of God is one of his Attributes out of us in God and according to the use of Scripture is either metonymically the special gift of Grace or properly the gracious favour of God in Christ by which Grace we are elected called justified sanctified and shall be glorified and in this order they go one before another as several acts and degrees of Grace sanctification being the end or effect as of our Election Eph. 1.4 and of our Justificaiton Luke 1.75 so of our Vocation 1 Thes 4.7 It s a strange error of yours to account your self and others a sheep onely in and under the Grace of sanctification so you say you were no better then a dog till the Grace of God plucked you out of your evil wayes were you then a dog and no sheep in and under the Grace of Election and Vocation and Justification I am sure others are not But what is your drift and scope I pray Sir in writing thus to me now at this time that your self hath not been so good as a dog till the Grace of God appeared plucking you out of your wicked way unto the knowledge of the Truth Is it to advance the power and efficacy of your separate and dipping Ministery above mine and the Sacerdotal function it must be so and no marvel for you committed soul and body unto but one of them my self and others could seldom get your body unto our Churches and Ministery I prepared my dinner and killed my Oxen and fatlings and had all things in a readiness Mat. 22.4 but you made light of it and went another way or would stay at home or when you came if the good seed I sowed in you did not fall into good ground Mat. 13.4 to bring forth fruit but you suffered the fowls the wicked one to devour and catch it away or the thorns of the care of this world to spring up and choak it you must blame neither Seed nor Sower neither Ministery nor Minister but even say of your self I was a High-way side Hearer a Thorny-ground Auditor like as you say you was no better then a dog that while and so I gave that which was holy to dogs But I do not say so that you were that while any such for you did neither trample the holy things under your feet though they fell upon thorns or by the way side neither did you turn again and rend me Again Let no one of you be puffed for one against another 1 Cor. 4.6 I acknowledge there is a difference of Ministery but who maketh thee to differ from another who is Paul and who is Apollos but the Ministers by whom you believed for neither is Paul that planteth nor Apollos that watereth any thing but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.5 7. you do well and wisely to say The Grace of God appearing pluckt you out and so to ascribe the glory of your plucking out of wicked wayes to the Grace of God The Grace of God is free as the Spirit of God to blow where it listeth John 3.8 and upon whom so by whom and when it listeth Yet thirdly I add that According to the Grace of God which is given to me I have laid the foundation 1 Cor. 3.10 of your coming out of your wicked way to the knowledge of the Truth for many years together and another doth but build thereon and the foundation I have laid in you was none other then Jesus Christ and him crucified The Covenant of the Grace of God in Christ I will be thy God and the God of thy seed made therefore with your believing Parents and your self with the Seals therof which have been given you and the conditions which are to be performed by you yea I have built upon this foundation Gold Silver and precious stones preach in Faith and Repentance and Obedience in your own words coming out of wicked wayes unto the knowledge and practice of the Truth and just then when the building should have been raised up unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ you fell a pulling down as fast as I had built up yea you suffered others to come in upon you by their sleights and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive to build upon my foundation Wood Hay and Stubble and such combustible things and to set in many of their weak and impotent and beggerly rudiments upon it especially those three your separation from your Church your evil affection to the ordained
say they have converted you and so say some others I am sure and done you much good to your souâ— which you have said you would commit to them and trust them with a very foolish almost blasphemous speech if you said it And God faith here they shall not profit you at all and therefore do you no good either in soul and body as to Conversion and Salvation whom shall I believe God or you whom do you believe God or your self Gods true prediction or your own false suggestion Come come Sir Let God be true and every man a lyer Rom. 3.4 as it is written also for so your self and every other man that saith he hath profited in soul unto Salvation or Conversion by these unsent and unordained Preachers of the separation when as God saith such shall not profit the people at all by their Anabaptistical Doctrines and Preachings Mistake me not I am not against the profit that may come even from them to you or others by mutual and fraternal conferences exhortations admonitions supplications so long as their words be seasoned with the falt of Truth and Grace and be good to the use of edifying and your selves have your senses exercised to discern both good and evil and be able to try and prove all things and hold to that which is good for so God hath allowed and approved of it and profit may come upon it Col. 3.16 1 Thes 5.11 But this from Gods Word I hold That an usurped publick taking upon them the cure of souls without Commission as teaching Anabaptists do in a manner yea upon the matter of the fraternity and sorority within their limits and also their dispensing and dividing the mysteries of the Word and Seals of the Sacraments without a lawful sending ordination and separation thereto and that in a rightly constituted and planted Church where there is a power of order and degrees and a settled or fixed Ministery will be of no profit and benefit to you or the people as to Faith and Conversion that wait and attend onely upon such a service or Ministery if I may so call it For now lift up your eyes and look on the fields are they white unto the Harvest since people left praying that God would send Husbandmen into his work and Laborers into his Vineyard and since people have left coming to and attending upon their own painful preaching Ministers and have betaken themselves to the hearing of self-intruding peakers which were none of Gods calling or sending are they not rather smutched and smitten with blasting and mildew with pride haughtiness malice variance rancour envy fraudulency covetousness lying defamation hypocrisies impuâ—ities more then ever they were and compassed about of late with such a dark cloud of Satans witnesses and his Emissaries every where transforming themselves into Angels of New light no better then darkness Besides the Schisms in the Churches of God and destractions of mens minds the contempts of Gods Ordinances the broaching of Errors and Heresies the Rapines Sacriledges and Massacres that have been committed the slighting of Laws and Civil Magistrates the uprising of bloody Wars and throwing down of Order and Proprieties Insurrection and Rebellion And now Sir I return to you again to whom I have a sixth thing to acquaint you with and then I shall take my leave and subscribe a friendly farewel to you § Sixthly What shall I say more to you of these men for that indeed a notable change and alteration hath been wrought in you is manifest to all them that dwell here abouts and we cannot deny it my self as I have said rejoyce at it yea and the Angels in Heaven rejoyce over one sinner that repenteth and converteth truly and sincerely This therefore I will say even the same still that you do That the Grace of God appeared plucking you out of your wicked wayes to the knowledge of the Truth But I ask as St. Paul doth Gal. 2.3 This onely would I hear and know of you Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of the Faith so received you this Grace or your Conversion of being pluckt out of yoru evil wayes to the knowledge of the Truth from the Word preached by your Brethren of the separation or from the Word preached by my self or other ordained Ministers I have proved before that unsent Teachers and Preachers shall not and cannot profit you with their Doctrines especially being not of God and his Word and therefore they have not wrought any such thing in you by their Doctrines and that you could not cannot attain and therefore have not attained to Faith but by hearing of a sent and ordained Preacher and the Word of God by him Again received you this Grace of God or your Conversion and plucking out of your evil wayes from the Spirit of God in and by your last Dippism or your first Baptism not in and by your last dipping at Laver for this requireth Conversion and Faith and Profession of it before you can be partaker of it you must bring these with you already wrought to your dipping your dipping doth not work them at that time but presupposeth them so I cannot call your dipping a Laver of Regeneration but a Generation of I know not what at Laver or a degeneration Besides I have shewed this your dipping which is but a Re-baptizing at the best to be a humane device yea Heretical practise so esteemed and for such condemned of the Churches of God throughout all Ages and therefore it can be no means or instrument of God and his Grace to pluck you from your wicked wayes to the knowledge of the Truth Whither now Sir will you go as Hos 2.7 so is yur case She shall follow after her Lovers but she shall not overtake them and she shall seek them but shall not finde them then shall she say I will go and return to my first Husband for then was it better with me then now Follow not therefore after those your Suitors and Solicitors rather your inveiglers and beguilers that rather have tempted your spiritual chastity and attempted also somewhat upon your body but come and return to your first Husband Christ Jesus and your first Covenant of Grace sealed unto you in your first Baptism from which as from the Fountain hath issued out all other Grace of God appearing to you sithence and even that plucking you out from your wicked wayes and bringing you to the knowledge of the Truth through his dispensing his word and your hearing the same of Gods Ministers sent to that purpose and through the operation of his Spirit stirring up the Grace of God in you and the Grace of the same sanctifying your afflictions and last sickness and fears and other things that have befallen you She did not know that her first Husband gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl and multiplyed her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal Hos 2.8 or as in the
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
ipse procedit and a little after Albicabat tota civitas de Grege candido I add also the testimony of our Countryman Rabanus Maurus one of Beda his Scholars who Lib. 1. de Instit cler Cap. 29. Pâ—st Baptismum traditur Christiano vestis Candida designans innocentiam puritatem Christianam quam pâ—st ablutas veteres maculas studio sanctae conversationis immaculatam servare debet ad presentandum ante Tribunal Christi I think I may as well heap to my self Testimonies and have herein an itching hand writing for the good of others you being indocible herein as there be some that heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears hearing too little good of themselves Lactantius de Resur Dominicae die speaking to Christ Rex sacer ecce tui radiat pars magna Trophaei Cum puras Animas Sacra lavachra beant Candidus egreditur nitidis exercitus undis Atque vetus vitium purgat in amne novo 1. This testimony I the rather add because of its antiquity for Lactantius lived in the 310 year from the Nativity of Christ and speaketh of the clear and white waters of the Rivers used in Baptism to confirm what I said before hereof like as another doth of Fountain or Fonts Paulinus by name Inde parens sacro ducit de Fonte sacerdos Infantes niveos corpore corde habitu So Paulus Diaconus who wrote in the year 790. Lib. 6. Hist Longobard Cap. 15. maketh mention for which cause I also make mention of him and his testimony of one Codratus King of the Anglosaxons who was baptized at Rome of Sergius the first Pope there in the year 690. and by him named Peter and that he died being in his white Garments and that was within the seven days or weeks after he was baptized For of old they were baptized at Easter a solemn time appointed for the Catechumens to be baptized in after their instructions and preparations certain dayes before and so arrayed in the same white garments for seven or eight dayes they appeared all upon the Sunday following Easter-day which thereupon was called with them Dominica in Albis as both Rabanus in his 2 Lib. de Instit Cleâ— Cap. 30. and Augustine in Serm. ad competentes a very white Sunday though in our English called Low-Sunday It might be a second Palm-Sunday being both Ensigns as of Innocency so victory The which Feast of Easter lasted with them until Pentecost therefore called with us Whit-sunday or White-Sunday also because they then also appeared together in their white cloaths after which namely the Lords day after their white garments were taken off for which purpose it was called Pascha clausum or the Feast of Easter finished or shut up as Alcuinus in Epistolaad Carolum Magnum in Hebdomada Pentecostes In imitation of this the Papists do even yet continue to put a white handkerchief or other white linen vestment upon or about the head of the baptized and anointed Infant by which they signifie both the glory of the Resurrection as also the splendour and whiteness or brightness of the soul the black and foul spots of sins being washed off and lastly that the baptized must so long as he liveth keep and preserve its purity and innocency and so in a manner and upon the matter I have given you in English the substance of all the Latine before lest thou should traduce me also for a Papist for writing thus to you in an unknown tongue But I leave now this digression occasioned from the third signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as I have said to Dye even to dye white as wool and snow the crimson and scarlet sins of such as being born therein come to be baptized And so I conclude my first answer to your or rather others objection the which answer is briefly this That your dipping or immerging cannot be the true and onely baptism because as they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to dip or immerge for that I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth also to Wash and also to Dye and where there are three significations as three branches of a Primogenial or Radical word it followeth not but is a great non-sequitur or inconsequence that the word derived as Baptism here should be confined to and concluded in the one namely dipping when as it may be and must be enlarged and extended to the other also washing and dying Secondly in words when from them arguments are drawn you must consider to what use and purpose the words are brought and not so much or onely from what root and original they are fetcht for howsoever most an end I acknowledge the Primitive and Radical word is of a greater latitude and larger extent then that which is branched and derived from it yet it is often otherwise or sometimes at least as in some trees whose branches do exceed the root in extension and as in man who is Arbor inversa whose arms and legs do spread wider and farther then the head and hair Our Divines do instance in two Derivative words Catechising and Prophecying whereof the first namely Catechizing according to the use of the Scripture spreads now as far as to the teaching of men of riper years by any way of writing or preaching or conference as is to be seen Luk. 1.4 Acts 18.25 Acts 21.24 1 Cor. 14.19 yet is derived from a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound or such a sound as an Eccho yeildeth and properly and originally is but such an instruction as is of children or Novices in the Elements and Rudiments of Religion by a lively voice of Question and Answer sounding and resounding like the Eccho So the second namely Prophecying according to the use of the Scriptures spreadeth now farther then the root or word whence it is derived for whereas this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth properly and radically but to foretell things to come and reveal matters to be hereafter fulfilled that now is extended to the declaring of things also past done and already fulfilled as in those well known places of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11.4 and 1 Cor. 14.13 31. So thirdly to come to our business in hand Baptizing though it may be and is derived from the radicall word before mentioned which signifieth dipping and immerging into and under water yet it is of a larger signification then so and is extended in general to many kinds of washings and laverings rinsings and cleansings even where there is no dipping or immerging at all and this also according to the use and language of the Scriptures I shall give you some particular instances and inductions as I have in part already and so shall a little exercise your patience and mine own too according to the rule given me being apt to teach you patient in meekness instructing you if peradventure God will