átque lubentèr vela I nunc ut consulas Interpretes ex Ministrorum Collegio quod pro nihilo habes R. C. The Anabaptist washt and washt and shrunke in the washing CHAPTER I. ANd when we have done all we must all dye Yea Howsoever we are parted in the lines of Life we must all meet in the Point of Death as in a full point Death What is Death Heathenish Plato describes it with a Divine Plato in Phaedone and Christian Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the dissolution of the Soule and Body And the Latine Orator lookes with a full eye upon the Platonists when he saith Sunt qui Discessum Cicero Tusc Quâ—st lib. 1. Animae à Corpore putent esse Mortem There are who think Death to be a Departure of the Soule from the Body What these thought and was to them a matter of Opinion which is Assensus pendulus a wavering assent is to us Materia Fidei a Matter of Faith which is Assensus immobilis a firme and immoveable Assent to the revealed Truth of God Saint Paul was the Instrument of Revelation and hath settled it first as having a desire to depart dissolvi Philip. 1. 23 Interp. vulgat Tixt Graec. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Edit vulg Codâ—â— Grâ—â—c saies the Vulgar and the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved when he was in bivio in a way betwixt two waies And secondly as prophecying the time of my departure is at hand The Vulgar Tempus resolutionis meae It is O' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original the time or opportunity of my Resolution or Dissolution The Philosophicall Reason is this being also a Philosophicall Truth and there being Philosophicall Reasons of all Divine Truths which are not mysterious miraculous or meerly depending upon Divine Pleasure As Life results from the Union So by the Logicall Rule of Contraries it is the same case with proportion in privatives Death from the Disunion of Soule and Body The Rule is Contrariorum contraria est Ratio The Course of Contraries is contrary And Death as the Lion wounds Fraâ—zius in Leone not a part or member only but divides and rends in peeces the whole substance and subverts the Being caused by the Composition of essentiall Parts CHAP. II. ANd when we have done all we must all dye must be dissolved And then whither the Parts dissolved our Soules and Bodies ours in particular shall go the Devill sitting See Jer. 3. 2 S. Hieron lb. for us by the way as the Arabian in the wildernesse for the Passengers or according to St Hierom ut Latro as a Robber the Arabians being mighty Robbers and Hunters of Men in the Wildernesse and how they shall fare resolve it fairely and positively he that can Two States are assigned to every Soule The State of Conjunction with the Body and the State of Separation from it Of the first we have long triall Of the second we never yet had any No living Man or Woman knows experimentally what is the departure of a Soule from a Body or what Subsistance Adherence Condition Companions Relations a Soule hath in the State of Separation Now me thinkes He and She that may this very night be turned over by Dissolution to this wonderfull unknown and unfathomed State of Separation should be very carefull what they beleeve and how they live Especially the Life of Man being a very Bubble A Bubble puts on the forme of an Hemisphere And shadowing halfe the World as being an Hemisphere it accordingly consists of two Elements It is Aire within which is invisible for its Rarity and without a thin-shapt skin of water and there is all the Bubble The Aire deciphers our Soule and the watery skin our Body in this present World The skin presently breakes the Aire as presently breakes loose and there is a present end of the Bubble and we are as presently delivered up to another World O Lord open thou my Lips and Psa 51. 15. my mouth shall shew forth thy praise And whatsoever others beleeve or do or teach to be done and believed I will not recede from thy known Truth Even the Sea-Monsters or Lam. 4. 3. Sea-Calves driven with every Surge of the Sea draw out the Breast The Vulgar Sed Lamiae nudaverunt Edit vulg mammam But even the Witches or Fairy-Ladies and ranting Night-Dancers have laid the breast forth naked The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Sym. the Dragons Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sirens they give suck to their young-ones But they shall not suckle me CHAP. III. ONce more here let me symphonize with the Spirit of David I said saith he and I say with him Psal 39 1. I will take heed to my waies that I sin not with my Tongue I will take heed to my waies that I speake not write not prompted by Prejudice Custome or Carnall Affection But I may not shut the Book after the reading of this Text as the good old Saint in the Lives of the Vitae Patrum Idem exemplum habetur apud Theodoretum in Histor Tripart lib. 8. cap. 1. Et adducitur à M. Marulo l. 4. cap. 6. Fathers that having 〈◊〉 Bible given into his hands and letting his eye first fall and settle upon these words returned the Book shut and cried Sat est quod didici I have learned enough for the present I will first endeavour to digest this divine Lesson Holy Scripture must lye open and enthroned when holy matters are in debating according to the sober Custome of ancient Councils The Word of God being the most authenticall High-Place from whence in our wants and at pleasure we may looke into Heaven and into the first and Originall will of God and God having dealt otherwise with us than Adrian the Emperour Niceph. Eccl. Hisâ— lib. 3. c. 24. with the rebellious Jewes who banished them from their own Country and commanded that they should not look back upon it from an high Place The Scripture as the Logiciaâ—s teach de Terminis Coâ—notativiâ— signifies in recto all that which is materiall in it being the things themselves or the faire and fragrant Posie of the Truths revealed and in obliquo signifies that which is formall in it being the manner of Proposition or the Tradition of these Truths by Writing Wherefore although Scripture-Truths be divine Truths and made legible yet if they be not rightly preached interpreted proposed received they will not be true to us and written in our Hearts The Divines question How light could be created by it selfe according to the narration of Scripture Because there seemes then to have been Accidens cujus esse est inesse sine subjecto An Accident the radicall being wherof is to be in a Subject without a Subject and the narration likewise pretends as if Colour could otherwise be than in a Thing or Substance coloured But Aquinas makes it luce lucidius clearer than
his honour to have been sometimes Physitian to Lewes the Emperour Who being a Sorcerer devoured in the sight and perswasion of many Princes and their Followers a Cart loaden with unchopt Hay not abstaining either from the Horses or the poor Carter Also an armed Man his Horse and Harnesse Yet the Mist being recall'd the Country-Man and Man in Arms and all their Goods were made good againe These Devourers of Souls may in God's good time disgorge againe these Ignorant Country-People and themselves return to their old sucking a Paw or a Claw as the Bear or Polypus CHAP. XXXII HIs fifth Objection holds up the Head There is no Man of late who hath made use of this Text in the Proof of Baptism but the Papists and Bellarmin himselfe receives it not as conducing to such proof nor any of the Ancients I answer Horum Omnium Contraria vera sunt The Contraries of Dr Featly in his Dipper dipt Bellarum l. 1. de Sacramento Baptismi cap. 4. Idem facit Eodem in libro cap. 8. Bellarm. l. 2. de Essectu Sacramentorum c. 3. all these Things are true Dr Featly hath used this very Text in the defence of Paedobaptism Bellarmin chiefly builds upon it in this Matter proving the necessity of Baptism from the necessary meaning of this Text iterùm iterúmque againe and againe Likewise the same Bellarmin hath brought together the solid Testimonies of fifteen most approved Doctors and ancient Fathers who all understand by the water in the Text not the Word or any other like Thing but the Water of Baptism The words of Bellarmin are these Omnes Scriptores hactenùs hunc locum intellexerunt de Baptismo ut Justinus Apolog. 2. Tertullianus in lib. de Baptismo Cyprianus lib. 3. ad Quirinum cap. 25. Ambrosius lib. 3. de Spiritu Sancto cap. 11. Hieronymus in cap. 16. Ezechielis item Basilius Gregorius Nazianzenus Gregorius Nyssenus in Sermonibus de Baptismo Denique omnes Interpretes hujus loci Origenes Chrysostomus Augustinus Cyrillus Beda Theophylacâ—us Euthymins alij O God before whom we shall stand at the last Day how confidently yea how impudently doe these Religious Rats looke out of their Holes and mouth it concerning Protestant Writers concerning that good-liv'd Mirrour of Encyclopedy Bellarmine and all the Ancients and yet relying upon I know not what Perfugium Soricinum Rat-Hole by which to escape utter not one true word Beyond this St Ambrose writing S Ambrose lib. 10. Epist 84. ad Demetriadem Virginem Jansenius Harm in Evang. cap. 20. S Chrysost Hom. super Nisi quis renatus sucrit c. Perlege D. Tho. p. 3. q. 66 67 68. to a Virgin expressely affirms Paedobaptism to be the Constitution of our Saviour and erects his Pillarproof on these words Nisi quis renatus fuerit c. except one be born c. See Jansenius in his Evangelicall Harmony St John Chrysostom not onely Interprets the words for Baptism but also dignifies a famous Homily by making them the Subject of it wherein he carries all before him for the Baptism of Infants Aquinas is of the same Judgement Now indeed one would think a man might in reason give credit as soon almost to this reverend Squadron of Worthies St Justin Tertullian St Cyprian St Ambrose St Hierom St Basil St Gregory Nazianzen St Gregory Nyssen Origen St Chysostom St Austin St Cyril Venerable Bede Theophylact Euthymius I mean to all these in the Complex as to one lone lean leaden Pagnel-Saint in the Country Shall a young barefac'd dough-bak'd Dwarfe of March pane be much more priviledg'd because he is devoted to an old Woman than these walking Libraries wedded to the ancient Church And now in the revolution of my Thoughts why may we not encounter him with three of these being Latine Fathers and three of the Greek Church Why should we muster up fifteen at once Nay verily now I fetch the cud about againe why may not single St Austin take him up and throw him down St Austin was a Godly Man and somewhat learned CHAP. XXXIII BUt the Papists use this Text for Baptism ther 's the grand Ulcer The best Divines concentre in this That the very Devils may performe Acts morally good and that the Pagans and the most obstinate Hereticks have sometimes wrought Miracles and that there was never any Arch-Heretick which did not maintaine some Truths and rightly according to the Rules of Morall Rectitude defend them by Scripture And yet now the Papists concerning whom it hath been generally beleeved in England after some evaporations and ebullitions of heat and passion that they are a part of the true Church though a corrupted one and that many millions of them are sayed may not beleeve any Truths and as beleeved by them justly prop them with Scripture A sad case but fâ—ctitious and absque Fundamento in Re. In the place of Sun stand thou Jos 10. 11 still or as the Vulgar Sol non movearis Interp. vulgat Text. Hebr Sun be not moved the Hebrew gives up Sol tace Sun hold thy peace or be silent For which cause Rabbi Salomon gave it forth R. Salom. in hunc locum for Doctrine as clear as the Sun that the Sun daily sings Hymns sweetly sings them in the praise of God from the which his sweet Hymn-singing he ceased at the command of Joshua The Rabbin seems to run after the Platonick Philosophers who with their nimble-finger'd thoughts did set singng Syrens in the Celestiall Orbs. Be silent be still or hold thy peace is in Originall signification stand still rest or be quiet and the Catachresis or abuse of Speech is frequent in the Hebrew Language Now as it is the same Thing in the Sun to stand still and to hold his peace So shall I construe it one and the same in me who should be the Light of the World to hold my peace and to stand still Which yet I may not untill commanded by Joshua or Jesus who likewise never commands us to hold our peace for the concealement of God's praises which are then sung alowd when oppressed Truth is relieved Wherefore Joshua chose the Sun for the Subject of his Miracle because the Sun was the God of the Amorites and the praises of God were sung in a most high and heavenly Song when a Servant of the true God commanded this their false God to stand still or hold his peace and see his worshippers overthrown Thus therefore The Cosmographers Cosmogrâ—pâ—i inform us that there is more Sea in the Western than in the Eastern Hemisphere and if they doe not know it I now inform them that there are also more Ebbings and Flowings more water-Tempests more Sea-alterations and wave-motions of Religion in these our Western parts than elswhere And the Church of Rome holds Truth fast many Times when others wretchedly betray it And I sincerely confesse that even in this Discourse I walk beyond ordinary walkings upon the Grounds of the
the Testimony of their Nicol. Lyra Comment in cap. 14. Dan secundùm Edit Vulgat Nicolaus Lyra Aliquandò in Ecclesia fit maxima Deceptio Populi in Miraculis factis à Sacerdotibus vel eis adhaerentibus propter Lucrum Sometimes the People are very greatly deluded in the Church by forged Miracles the Priests or their Adherents forging them for gain Secondly by the Authority of their own Alexander Hales In Alex Halens p. 4 q. 53. Meâ—â—b 4. art 3. Solut. 2. Sacramento apparet Caro interdùm humanâ procuratione interdùm operatione Diabolicâ Flesh appeares in the Sacrament sometimes by humane Procuration and sometimes by Diabolicall Operation the Priests and the Devill doing the same work fraudulently and the Devill whatsoever the Priests may pretend alwayes working for an Evill end And thirdly by the infallible Sentence 〈◊〉 Cl mentis Oâ—â—â—vi transmissum ad Regulaâ—es and most known Precept of their own dear Clement the Eighth commanding the Regulars to surcease from the deceitfull and fraudulent Abuse of their Knowledge acquired in Confessions by the which they made them burdensome to promote their own advantage in their outward Government And having proved the Things I should have strongly and boldly proved against the lawfullnesse of them of these their pious Frauds First because all proper Meanes are naturally suteable to the End and if the End be good the Meanes must be proportionably good and if the Truth of God published be the End the Meanes of Publication must be true void of deceit and godly Secondly because by fraudulent carriages in the way to our good Ends a vile aspersion is cast upon the Providence of God as if good Meanes were not adequately prepared by divine Providence for good Ends Thirdly because by such fraudulent Conveyances in holy Things holy Things in direct motion and issue and not per accidens are disesteemed the most excellent Truths of God question'd and Men become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without God and Atheisticall Fourthly because as evill produces evill and false Actions produce false speeches in the same Subject so much deceit of the Tongue is produced by this deceit of the Heart and action before and after it as pernicious Lying impertinent Equivocation multiplication of idle Words And lastly Because the Devill is the Father of Lies and of double dealing and the old heathenish Priests his impious Instruments were expert in reducing to praxis this pious Art the Holy Ghost is the Author of all Truth and of Holy simplicity Therefore these being so different in their Causes Meanes Ends may not be joyned in their Terms and Logicall Predications and fraud cannot be pious nor piety fraudulent CHAP. XXXIX HAD my Adversary said that Scripture hath been prostituted by some Papists to sanctify the licentiated Stews at Rome I should have come to his hand as a Hauke to the Lure and zealously protested against them First because the Evill in this Permission doth infinitely surmount and preponderate the Good as appeares by the consequents more by thousands being incouraged in this permission to the most grievous Commissions of Adultery Fornication and other Uncleannesse than the Good is or can be that the filth and stinke of the common sinke is restrained from certaine Houses Secondly because the filth might be more perfectly restrained by severe Lawes and a Coercive Power Thirdly this publike permission of the Stews is not like the permission of Usury because in Fornication Adultery c. the Actors both sin but in Usury the Taker or Borrower upon whom he that permitteth Usury keeps the single Eye of his Intention Sinneth not his Concurrence being materiall not formall and he not willing but un willing Fourthly because God hath dealings towards sin before the Commission prohibendo by forbidding it impediendo by hindering it permittendo by suffering it as after the Commission ordinando ad bonum by actuall and executionall ordering it to good ignoscendo by pardoning it puniendo by punishing it and this Permission of the Stews is larger than the divine Permission in such a latitude for God sometimes in all places absolutely hindereth sin but in the Reign of this Permission of sin by the Romanists there is no absolute hinderance there being so much of furtherance on their parts and there is but a dull cool and weak prohibition in consideration of penalties to be inflicted upon sense and these only of all humane Acts work effectually upon a Soul steeped in the Lees of corrupt Nature Fiftly because this permission proves a double Allurement to the single Clergy Lastly because the Jews there are greatly disturb'd and nardened by this Permission And I should have garnished this Reason with a prevalent Example commended to Eternity by Bishop Espenceus who relates of a Jewish Maid that she renounced the Jewish Religion and became a Christian that she might freely exercise the Romish-Christian Art of Ribauderie not unsoundly permitted as amongst Christians but soundly punished by the Jews And the Bishop bewailes the sadnesse of the matter with many a mournfull Accent Dici nequit quà m incredibili Christianorum Espâ—ncaeus de Contin l. 3. cap 4. tum pudore tum etiam eorum qui verè tales sunt cordolio factum est ut Judae filiae scortâ—rs non liceat Dei filiae liceat Imò Israelis filia meretricari non aliter ante possit quà m facta per Baptismum sanctum Christi soror filia It cannot be said with what incredible shame of Christians and also with what heart-griefe of such as are truly such it is come to passe that a Jewish Daughter may not become Whore a Daughter of God may Yea that a Daughter of Israell cannot otherwise play the Harlot than when she is made by Holy Baptism the Sister and Daughter of Christ She was made so quoad externanâ— apparentiam according to outward appearance and she had been really made so remotis impedimentis ex parte Subjecti had the impediments been removed on the part of the Subject CHAP. XL. ROme I Honour thee in thy Truths which are many and excellently obeyed by many But I detest thy Corruptions and I see a large Field before me and could proceed farther against them should I not wander beyond the Lines of Communication with my Matter Finally therefore Had my Adversary said that the Scriptures have been rifled spoil'd exanimated and murthered by some Papists of the Jesuiticall Division to set aloft the Scarlet-coloured practise of the murdering of Princes in the dark by private and obscure Persons I should have cried Murder and Treason too and have fortified my selfe in the Preamble with the forerunning History of the preposterously-Heroicall M. Claudius Paradinus in Heroïcis Courtier of Millain Andreas Lampugnanus who when he desired to Murther Galeazus Marius the Millain-Duke for a Tyrant did practise it long before by stabbing privately the Duke's Image that his hand might not shake or he misse his aim in his stabbing the Duke
conferred should not be iterated upon the same subject lest it should wander deviate and degenerate from the Nature of Regeneration as forgetting of what house it came It goes without opposition in the schoole of naturall Phylosophy that a thing is by so much the more Noble by how much it hath more of inward forme from which formall interest the Celestiall bodies and pretious Gemms have their Nobility And the Sacraments are dignified by their divine and beautifull Influx and their formall setting our souls in the grace and peace of God which passeth all understanding Aristophanes undertaking the praises of temporall peace findes not Aristoph in pacc a name â—quall with the praises of it and he wishes to finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word or name equalling the capacity of ten thousand Amphors the Amphor was a large two-car'd Vessell in Athens but what word can suffice to blazon the dignity of our Spirituall and Sacramentall peace with God CHAP. X. A Sacrament beyond that it is signum rei sacrae a signe of an holy thing is in the next consideration and in the review Visibile signum Doni invisibilis à Deo institutionem trahens A visible signe of an invisible Gift deriving it's institution St Aug. lib. 2. de Doctrina christiana cap. 1. from God Signum as the Bishop of Hippo defines it est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire A signe is a thing of it selfe causing an other thing to press upon our thoughts besides the resemblance which it offers to our senses First then every Sacrament must be signum sensibile a sensible signe And all Sacraments both old and new are combined in this For Although God might and could have ordained some spirituall signe of grace yet that signe should not have properly been a signe in a Sacrament howsoever some Doctors pull strongly for the contrary as I now speake of Sacraments Because it should not have been signum humanum sed Angelicum an humane but an Angelicall signe and should have conformed to subsisting spirits not to men consisting of souls and bodies Who require such Sacraments as are able to congregate into a being and to conserve in a warme being a visible Church God attemperating and proportioning his Ordinances to us and our mixt condition That the Character impressed upon the soul in Baptism is a spirituall and invisible signe I will not doubt But it hath no shelter here Secondly there are speculative and practicall signes And the Sacraments of the old Law were not signes meerly theoricall or speculative of salvation and Grace but practicall Because the promise of a thing is not speculatively-behaviour'd and manner'd towards the thing promised but practically as causing it in some manner For he that promiseth is afterwards moved by his promise to correspond with it by fulfilling it And thus the promise is Causa moralis Reâ— promissae the morall cause of the thing promised Every promise having a morall force actually moving or apt to move the promiser to performance Whereas therefore all the old Sacraments were certain promises or signes by the which God did as it were promise in figures Christ and our Salvation it is fairly and fruitfully consequent that they were practicall signes of Grace to be given by Christ the Figure-Promises rending to after-performance through him that was to come And if the old Sacraments were practicall signes it is a signe that the new are much more and more excellently as grasping a more excellent promise Thirdly the signe here must represent a sacred and invisible thing not a thing which is profane or visible The sacred invisible thing which the Sacraments of the new Law doe signifie is threefold 1. Habituall and justifying Grace which as present is demonstrated 2. The passion of Christ the mediator which is the cause of Grace and is remembred as being past 3. Glory and life eternall which is the effect of Grace and which all habituall Grace quantum est ex se brings to it 's Subject and which as being hereafter to come is prefigur'd For the Sacraments signifying Grace do consequently signifie the beginning and end of the saine grace And their signification must be consider'd with some proportionable reference to the light of the divine understanding and the beams and irradiations of it which brings binds up uno intuitn both ends together Because the institution of a Sacrament is only of God the author of Grace God alone being able to compound and connex inward grace with an outward signe CHAP. XI I Wade farther It is a fundamentall rule Aequè certa sunt ac evidentia quae ex sacris Literis evidentèr ac certè deducuntur atque ea quae in illis expressè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ad verbum in terminis habentur The things are equally certaine and evident which are evidently and certainly deduced from sacred Scripture as the things which are found in Scripture expresly and word for word And the same rule is return'd in another dresse Conclusions are as right as their Principles if rightly and consequentially concluded The first reason of this truth is fundamentall as the truth is Ex vero nil nisi verum of truth comes nothing but truth by true deduction And the second reason is Because the conclusion is in effect the principle and the truth deduced is the truth from whence the deduction issues in other and more declaring terms It is true that of truth falshood may come per accidens by chance and materially not by formall right and necessary consequence Hence we cry Principia fidei vel quae ex eis deducuntur sunt in Scriptura The principles of faith or the truths deduced from them are in Scripture And Omnis divina revelatio est in scriptura vel directè vel per necessariam inevitabilem consequentiam Every revealed truth is in Scripture either directly or by necessary and inevitable consequence And hence we throw abroad he that holds a Doctrine holds all the consequences of it Because the Doctrine and the Consequences are one identicall truth in different language The difference betwixt Principles and Conclusions being according to the Nature of similitudes like the difference betwixt the heavenly and earthly bodies The heavenly bodies having their last perfection from their creation and by their very nature but the earthly bodies acquiring their due perfection by mutation and motion because they are generable and corruptible Or Like the blessednesse of the Creator and the Creature Whereas soli Deo Beatitudo D. Tho. p. 1. q. 62. art 4. in corpore perfecta est naturalis quia idem est sibi esse beatum esse Perfect blessednesse is naturall to God alone because to be and to be blessed is the same thing to him But the blessednesse of the Creature requires a triall of motion in the way which is heavenly-true
the comparison by describing in the rebound how the Word agrees and contracts with water As that 1 Water is of a purifying nature and so is the Word 2 Water is weak of it selfe except it be compounded and made comfortable with comfortable Ingredients and so the word is a dead letter and the comfortable Spirit and Life of the Word is the true sense thereof 3 Water hath a cooling and refreshing quality and so the Word I answer All this is true and all superlatively comprehended in Baptism As 1 Baptism is of a most purifying nature 2 Except the water in Baptism act with the spirit it is most weak and brings cold comfort But an argument raised from water here taken for the word in a word is as weak as water 3 Baptism is indued with a most cooling and refreshing quality Had the chiefe Properties of water closed with the word and not with Baptism and been proper to the word quarto modo proper to the word and only to the word the Adversary and the two proper Pages of his black Guard had made a fairer appearance with their Pageantry Thus did the Devils Oracles deliver many sound truths the better under such palliations to disseminate publish their most unsound errors Thus doth a stinke offend us more when concomitant with some weake perfume which it hath pro vehiculo than if it singly sets upon us the perfume procuring for the stink easier admittance into our sense the stinking Perfumer that smels of Italy knows it practically and stinking Perfumers are more offensive Thus poysons are most dangerous and irremediable when joyned in commission with a cordiall that is not able to resist them It serving to conduct them to the heart and being unable to vanquish their malignity This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to leade Aristoph in Avibus Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silly women captive by the admixtion of truth with falshood as the old Fowlers deceiv'd Pigeons by shewing an exoculated Pigeon leaping and dancing in a net And these impious waies of enervating and cutting the sinews of Scripture may soone imbroyle the whole frame of it and overturn all Thus did the Tyrant Mezentius in Virgil binde the quick and the dead together and then throw them into a den leaving the living still imbracing the dead untill death imbraced the living and made the conjunction homogeneall Mortua quâ—netiam jungebat corpora vivis Virgil. Aeneid lib. 8. Componens mantbúsque manus atque oribê° Ora. Excellently Tertullian of Carthage Tert. lib. de Praescriptionibus adversus Haereticos Tantum Veritati obstrepit adulter Sensus quantum Corruptor Stylus An adulterating Sense is as obstreperous to Truth as a corrupting style a false Sense of a true and Divine Text being as mischievous and doing the same work as a profane and ascititious Text. And vel caeco apparet Violentam hanc quasi sidiculis extortam esse explicationem the blinde beggar may see this figurative explication or confession of the Text to be violent and as it were extorted with the Rack CHAP. XVII I Prove secondly that the Text proclaimes Baptism By answering the Arguments marching up in Batalia against this Truth The first is The new Birth is not attributed in Scripture to Baptism I answer This proposition is Antichristian and most odiously false as having the whole toad in it guts and all Baptism is named in scripture Lovacrum Regenerationis the Laver of Regeneration of which afterwards I will here only set in the middle a Text of the Apostolicall Epistle to the Colossians Colos 2. 12. Buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God Buried and risen in Spiritualibus in Spirituall things is nothing else but born againe In the which Buriall and Resurrection Corruptio unius est Generatio alterius The corruption of the old man is the Generation of the new and of the Subjects of sin we are made the Adopted Children of God And the Baptism here exhibited must be Baptismus Fluminis the Baptism of the Flood or water-Baptism which was commonly given with Immersion to represent the Sepulture of Christ answerably to this Text And therefore the Text runs Buried with him And in Sacred Sincerity which in our dealing of sacred things ought to deale most sincerely the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism properly signifieth Immersion though in rigore loquendo Ablution is of the Fssence of our Baptism but the manner of Ablution is accidentary because the Intention of the Law-giver with respect to the thing signified is in the substance ut abluamur that we be washed And in this Baptism whatsoever the Adversary muttereth and champeth betwixt his teeth we are properly Baptized into Christs Death and sufferings Because the virtue of this Baptism is derived from his Death by the which we dy to sin and live to God And what is there in the essentiall Constitution of the new Birth of a reasonable Creature that is in the constitution of a Child by Adoption which is not reasonably discovered in a Baptized Infant etiamsi passivè se gerat Adoption is by habituall Grace which the Infant may receive by Infusion though he cannot cry Abba Father as wanting actuall Gal. 4. 6. Faith Adoption differs from Naturall filiation in this Essentially that Naturall filiation is founded in communicatione naturae viventis in the communication of the Nature of a living Person Christ being called Mat. 16. 16. the Son of the living God quia viventium est generare sibi simile in natura because it is the part of living things to beget their like in Nature Vide Concil Francosordiense circâ— finem But Adoption is the Assumption of an extraneous Person into the place of a Son So may God assume a Child in his free goodnesse Adoptare est quasi optare ut sit quod per naturam non est To Adopt is in a manner to wish that he were a Son by Nature who is not So God may joyne Children closely to him as his Children the wish in the Notation of the Name failing here because it failes of Divine Perfection Adoptio fit per Filium naturalâ—m ubi naturalis Filius est Adoption is made through the naturall Son in whom the Right and Heirship stands where there is one who consentingly yeelds up something of his Right And Children may be Adopted through Christ the Naturall Son and be made partakers of his merits by the Sacrament of Baptism The Sacraments being the Conduit-pipes conveying the Grace of God and Merits of Christ to us The Eagle of the Thomists accords D. Tho. p. 3 q. 62. art â—â—n sine Corporis Unde manifestum est quòd Sacramenta Ecclesiae specialiter habent virtutem ex Passione Christi cujus Virtus quodammodò nobis copulatur per susceptionem Sacramentorum In cujus signum de latere Christi pendentis
Church of Rome as being well assur'd that these return to the Adversary what is righteously due to him and that none other will overturn him at every Turn when he should be turn'd return'd overturn'd CHAP. XXXIIII HAD my Adversary said that many Papists have abused Scripture in the Sophisticall maintenance of some ungrounded and Air-Castle Doctrines I would have ran along with him heartily and without any discomposing the placid order of my Soul and followed his Game as he with Hoopings so I with a Kennel of lowd Cryers Had he set up his cry against Aquinas his Doctrine restored by D. Tha. part 3. quaest 25. art 3. Bellarmin in his question Utrùm Image Christi sit aâ—oranda adoratione latriae Where he resolves that the Image of Christ or a Crucifix maybe adored with the Adoration of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Worship due to God alone I should have set up an outcry and have cried out with him O absurd abominable I would have answered to him with an extraordinary Eccho that should have plainly repeated all his words having done my Eccho's part would have begun and performed my own part by sound Proof As This Worship is abominable and absurd howsoever the Worshipfull Maintainers of it crutch it up with the common distinction of ordinativè and terminativè that is with referring the Worship to the Prototype and not housiing it in the Image First because the Worshipper either gives divine Worship to the Image or destroies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Thing in Question Secondly because this Doctrine doth cast a foul dishonour upon the Humanity of Christ and throwes the Businesse as if there were as great an alliance at the least in respect of outward Priviledges betwixt Christ and the Crucifix or Image of Christ as betwixt the Son of God and his Humanity for neither is divine Worship terminated in the Humanity of Christ Thirdly because Acts of divine Worship are from necessary Injunctions and rely upon Principles which are aeternae Veritatis of eternall Truth or true at all times but it lies howsoever in the free pleasure of Men whether or no they will accept such an Image as an Image of of Christ to such Adoration and consequently if they doe such Adoration is not proposed as necessary Fourthly because the common People being the greatest part of Worshippers who are most efficaciously tutor'd by Sense can hardly reach in this case without confessed Idol-Worship to so nice an Act of Distinction betwixt Ordination and Termination in the Worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actually give divine Worship due only to God to the Creature and to the Creator by one and the same Simple and undivided Act and though the Creator be first and inwardly intended yet even divine worship is out wardly given and impended to the Creature Fiftly because divine Worship is never given except under the strict Bond of the Hypostaticall Union to a Thing propter aliud but always propter se as being altogether incommunicable communicable Things only are given propter aliud and therefore Christ repels and convinces the Devill out of Deutoronomy with Mat. 4. 10. the Law of Worship imposed upon Mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him onely shalt thou serve with the Service or Worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly Because this Doctrine is patched up of insolent and seandalous Terms and sounds offensively which should be avoided as being justly grievous to chast and pious Aelian in Hist Animal Eares And in fit comparison is like the Head of the Frog that Elian saw as he was travelling from Naples to Puteoli which drew a Body of shap'd dirt after it And again I would have declar'd that this idle Idolillo-doting is abhorred by the most conscientious and most learned of their own Bishops As to prefer an example The People in certain parts of Spain namely Cantabria Galetia c. were so deeply enamour'd on their old maimed deformed and worm-eaten Images and which the Verminous Hieronymus Lamas in Sum. p. 3. cap. 3. Rats had gnawn out of shape that as he witnesses who was an Eye-witnesse when by the command of the Bishops they were at length removed and Images of decent composure placed according to the Method of Rome in their rooms the ignorant Spaniards Men and Women young and old and of all sizes put their fore-fingers in their eies and like children having lost their beloved Bables or their Deos rurales country-Gods cried lamentably poor Seniors Senioras for their old Images againe they would not have new ones and this even since the Councill of Trent and the many great complaints there CHAP. XXXV HAD my Adversary said that many Papists have misled Scripture in their inconsiderate labouring to prove the single Life of Priests to be from divine Command I would have joyned Hands and Hearts with him and have diâ—mounted the Papists from the figurative 1 Tim. 3. 2. Sense of the Text. A Bishop must be blamelesse the Husband of one Wife after the very same fashion as I now unsaddle the Anabaptists from the Text in hand by keeping him to the Letter And I should not have rested there but have argued further out of my own Treasure First The boldnesse of tainting this holy Scripture hath been unfortunate as in other places so at London For when John Cardinast Mat. Paris lib. 7. p. 219. of Cremen in a London-Councill had leven'd his Oration with a medly to this purpose he was found at night by the queint disposition of divine Providence notwithstanding his divine Speech and the Divine Command they prophanely recommend to us in bed with a whore and though he had been received with great Pomp and Honour he now tuck'd up his long Traine of Scarlet and stole away in a Mist leaving as the Devill commonly does when he disappeares a poisonous and abominable stink behind him of a whore and a whore-master Secondly I have discovered by reading that when the Christians besieged Ptolemais they tooke a Aldrovandus Pâ—olegom in Ornithol ex Egnatio weary Dove which brought a Letter from the Sultan directed to the Besieged and by letting the Dove fly into the City with a new Letter of their own composing moved the Citizens to Dedition and gained the City But I could never discover by reading or other industry that the Letter which the Holy Ghost the Dove of Heaven brought from Heaven can be changed or altered by Christians upon Earth And had we been commanded to marry in the words Increase and multiply and consequently sinned if we had not married or had the words the husband of one Wife obliged the Bishop to marriage and not inferred only a strict exclusion of Polygamy whether taken in the venerable Sense of Jewish Antiquity or in the construction of the Greek Church it would have sorely troubled the Church of Rome to have learnedly pretended the setting of
God's Ordinances in it as Ordained to give them the Signs of their Title to the Kingdome of Glory it being said of the Church now increasing And the Lord added Acts 2. 47. to the Church daily such as should be saved Without which daily and visible addition to the Church of such as shal be saved the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hairy Devils Scripturized by Aquila Aquila in Is 13. 21. would soon dance in it If therefore Infants must be offered to Christ and thereby have a Communion with him in the Kingdome of Heaven Baptism Christ's Ordinance now in full vigour and force must be communicated to them in the Church Velut Arrha Sponsi as a Christian Signe of this their Communion with Christ and Right to him in the Kingdome of Glory and as a visible Manifestation of this invisible Benefit the Church of God being as truly visible as invisible He that objecteth our Text saying Text. Graee Mr Tombs in his Examen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of these is the Kingdome of God or of Heaven and that Christ intended to teach others Humility Simplicity Innocency by these Children and that therefore the Kingdome of God is of such only who are like to these Children such Children expressing not Innocency Simplicity Humility as they are Vertues may take for a sure Answer Propter quod aliquid est tale illud magis That for which any Thing is such is it selfe more such If Men be qualified for the Kingdome of God by reason of their likenesse with such Infants such Infants are as much if not more qualified for the same Kingdome who though they doe not expresse true Vertues outwardly yet outwardly expresse the likenesse of such Vertues and have inwardly true Vertues by Infusion effecting their inward conjunction with God And this outward likenesse though naturall and not flowing from inward and Supernaturall Habits yet is in such Infants outwardly significative of inward Perfection from which signification the similitude is taken Where it is Note-worthy that Baptism was not obligatory or necessary to Salvation untill after the Death of Christ the very Morning-Rites and Sacrifices being on the day of his Passion in force and the Evening-oblations invalid nor declared in a generall consideration untill the command went forth Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them c nor yet fully compleatly sealed and perfected untill the promulgation of the Gospell in the Pentecost And we are not driven to take Sanctuary at the Terms of the Summulists Summulissae â— and stand it out that other children in the rigour of Speaking are such For although Christ did both commend these Vertues the likenesse whereof is in children and Men-piously-turn'd-children in respect of their having them truly yet he shewed also that the age of children is not underannuated and estranged from the Kingdome of God Because when he said Suffer little Children to come unto me he spake literally and Historically of true children presented actually to him And therefore even the reason adjoyned for of such is the Kingdome of God must also truly agree with true children and those imbracings and blessings of true children signifie truly the like Things in the Kingdome and import Heavenly blessings and imbracings CHAP. LIX I Confirm it thirdly If in this great Command of Baptizing children be not included God having imprinted in the nature of Parents a most ardent and earnest Love of their children there is nothing in the Supernaturall Order of Grace that answers to this naturall Love according to the way of God in the disposition of these Orders and the Parent is left by the God of Nature very much loving his child and yet not succoured by the God of Grace or inform'd how or that his child shall be beloved of God without which pectorall security he cannot love his child as he ought and with a love becomming a Christian Father I speak of security by Ordinance we being confined to Ordinances which excludeth four And if this fear be not excluded it will be continuall and urgent and the Gospell and law of Christ shal in this respect be Lex Timor is Servitut is non Amoris Libertatis a law of Fear and Bondage not of Love and Liberty which it essentially is and ought and is revealed to be And the fearfull and troubled Parent may perhaps go aside into a melancholy place and there desperately cry O for my poor childrens sakes that I had been born a Jew before Christ and expected him in Figures this my latter having him in Substance is dangerously prejudiciall to my dear flesh and bloud-Babes Rachel in the Orientall Languages Hebr. Syr. Chald. is interpreted a Sheep or Lamb and a Lamb or Sheep was aptly and suteably call'd up to lament weep and Mat. 2. 18. mourn over Innocent Lambs Indeed every Christian Mother if knowing and not unnaturall I exclude Anabaptists would be a Rachell a sheep and in this great contest betwixt Love and Fear mourn weep and lament over her Lambs And whereas it is the observation of Franzius that the Sheep or Franzius in Ove Lamb useth in the sensuall motions of Joy and Sorrow but one bleating â—one and that one a pleasant-one Griefe would invent many sad and unpleasant Tones in those Rachels or Sheep And the perswasions of the most Spirituall Men would not otherwise prevaile with them than the Odours applied to Persons in a Fit of the Falling Sicknesse which happily recover them out of the Fit but are unfit to discharge the Disease or fitly prevent the casuall Recurrence of it Because their Griefs would under the Supposition and consequence of this Case be rationall For it would be apparent that the Course of Divine Ordinances was interrupted And therefore like Rachel they would not be Comforted And as according to the Discourse Scholastici of School Divines if God should reveal to a Man his Damnation he might lawfully despair So if this neglect of divine provision for Infants now only under the Gospell were a reveal'd Truth Parents would think justly or unjustly my reverentiall Fear of God will not suffer me to define themselves dealt with hardly strangely preposterously and the Thoughts arising would raise and beget irregular and immoderate Sorrow I doe not justifie these complaints or Griefs But I maintain that God cannot give a just cause of Griefe or complaint against him and that the Matter of this Case thus put into Form is impossible and therefore the thing is impossible which is dreined from it as heer not only ex Vi suppositionis but also ex Vi consequcntiae petitae quasi ex rei naturâ CHAP. LX. NOte The Baptism of Infants is not commanded expressly interminis though the Circumcision of them was expressely commanded and by a positive Law Because the Thing which materially occasions a particular nomination or branch of injunction in a Law
a Million of Chast Eyes seu majora Vero seu minora nor appeare in publicke eundem de Papismo Coccysmum nobis occinens crowing to us the old young-cockrel crow of Papist and Jesuit that is used by some as a meer Stop-Gap in great penury of Matter by others quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like an efficacious Bug-Beare as if they could and would and might do as they would though according to Right and Law they could not entangle me with a dangerous Name and thereby deter me from my Sacred Purposes and upon these designes often enters tanquam versus intercalaris as the Burden of the Song útque duram de nobis emolliat Sententiam and that he will not entertain hard and Evill Thoughts of me before he wel knows me But although I binde up the Anabaptists into this heterodox Fardle yet the great Aim which my soul hath in this World being to be a perfect Lover and Advancer of Truth I engage my selfe to make it shine as the Sun that many Anabaptists are the Propugners and Maintainers of most excellent and most divine Truths and are more justifiable before God and more sufferable by Man than the Presbyterians or strict Calvinists and attached upon this Account I shall enter the lists with any Man in the fair Field of School-Divinity by measuring and weighing the Doctrines avowched on both sides And a word more in the heat of true Love towards honest and harmlesse Truth It runs amongst the People without opposition that there are or were lately Jesuits in this our Army and that they have Preached there Yea it hath clearly passed and been imbraced and hugg'd with much joyfull wonder that the Pope's latest Agent in England Signior Con a Scotchman hath been seen by Knowing Eyes in this Army For me I have not received any particular Favour from the Army nor from the present Authority neither will I accept of preferment But the God of Truth whom I honour commands me to publish on the behalfe of injured Truth how ungratefull soever and censurable the Publication will be to many That whereas I know Popish Affairs Motions and Contrivements in a large Measure and in holy Truth I know more than many thinke me to know and than some would have me to know I faithfully beleeve this Report to be the most malicious and most damnably-false Invention of the seething-scalding-burning-fire-hothearted Genevenses to bring the State and Army into dishonour and Obloquy ut que Oleum huic Incendio copiosius affundant as other strange Things have been forged by them And I am certaine that Signior Con dyed many years agoe and before the new-moulding of the Army beyond the Seas This I deliver in the word of a Christian and in the Hopes which I have to dwell with the most Unerring Fountain of Truth the all-knowing God We walk in Darknesse deceiving and being deceived Pure Religion and Undefiled is this To beleeve the Truth of God rightly to speak it boldly to build upon this Truth and not upon Lies and to performe religiously towards God and Man well-ordered Love and Obedience The Vindication of one Truth extrudes another Let the World take speciall notice that I bleed in my Spirit and am ashamed of my Company when I heare it asserted in Pulpits by Persons non infimae Classis That the Pope dispenses with Priests and Jesuits to recant and join with the Ministers of England that they may reduce Protestants the more conveniently to his Religion That the Common Prayer is Masse in English That the Papists beleeve they shall be saved by their own Merits excluding the Merits of Christ That the common People amongst them pray most commonly in a Language which they Understand not That all ordinary Papists worship Images as their Gods That they all hold Adultery and Fornication to be but Veniall Sins That no Professours of Chastity live Chastly amongst them That all of that Religion are bloudily minded and the like And conclude that these Fancy-Fram'd Pictures of Doctrines falling foul with my cleare Knowledge may passe along with other Aâ—ntick Shapes It is infallibly certain That there are amongst Papists Corruptions both of Doctrine and Manners But he that obiects Falshood against them will after a while manifest his own Falshood and set them free yea will appeare in the number of the greatest Tyrants as tyranizing over Souls and weak understandings The Man is not well setled in his Wits who blames my reviewing and revising the Secrets of Truth when I am a sad Spectator of Soul-Alterations evill in their Terminations and a mournfull Hearer of Blasphemies every day on every side Perhaps Reader it is troublesome to you that I write my selfe Independent adeò ut me transsig as convitio If it be so So be it Vereor etenim nè muricatus tibi subsit Animus For I fear that which way soever your Mind fals it is pointed towards me sharp hurtfull and Caltrap-like Whereas Hereticks and Scismaticks give me Names at their pleasure I presume that I may have leave to Name my selfe by what Name or Title soever I shal desire to be modestly called It matters not how I am called by my selfe but what in my selfe I am Indeed The chiefe Doctrines which I propose to the Reader I will defend to have been formerly defended and proposed by the most learned Divines of England and now to be recommended to the people by the most Popular Independents And therefore Tell not me Apparatu planè scenico Thrasonismi pleno with your Theatricall Language that my Discourse is Oratio pernicioso confecta Philtro It is the godly Truth of the most true God who is my Rock and I feare you not For God said to the valiant Joshua Josh 1. 5. and the Words are sweetly warbled over again by St Paul I Heb. 13. 5. will never leave thee nor forsake thee Where the Originall is wonderfully big and breeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Versicle there are five Negatives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Originall meaning affirms I will never never leave thee I will never never never forsake thee Then If the Presbyterian comes to bite if the Anabaptist God will never never leave me If the wicked Liver comes if Jesuit if Devill God will never never never forsake me OBIECT VI. LAstly It is objected That I understand not all the Languages which I use I answer I submissely confesse that I doe not understand all the Words and Secrets of these Languages yea that some of these Languages have many Secrets and Words which I reach not I understand English And my old School-Fellowes at Eton Colledge know that I was there a Babler in Greek and Latin I have picked up some odd Ends of Languages abroad And I have taken some pains in the Orientall Languages In the which notwithstanding I goe not the rough and tedious way of the Character but apply my selfe