him as the Pharisees did upon our Saviour and have said thou bearest witness of thy self for thy self thy witness is not true they would have given a check or denyal to such a Custom accused it of Novelty or but of Yesterday and so have turned off easily that Argument which of all other lay most heavily upon them the Ancient Churches Custom and Practice in Baptizing Infants But they never did that as who could not deny this And so that other exception against Augustine as if he should utter and urge this in Heat and Passion against Pelagius his Adversary in point of Baptizing of Infants and speak more of the Custom and Practice of the Church than was true falleth of it self For they differed not in that point of Infant-Baptism no nor in the matter of the Custom of the Church herein For so Augustine affirmeth both in his first Book of the Merit and Remission of Sin The Peloagians themselves do grant that little Children are to be Baptized as who cannot come in or stand up against the Authority of the Vniversal Church delivered without doubt or Traditioned by our Lord and his Apostles And again in the eleventh Book against Caelestius and Pelagius He affirms and cites that Caelestius in a Book of his written at Rome acknowledged that Infants in a Book of his wirtten at of sin according to the Rule of the universul Church and according to the sense and meaning of the Gospel and Therefore Pelagius not daring to deny though otherwise impudent enough the General Practice of the Ancient Church in Baptizing Infants as who then and that way might have slipt his neck out of the Collaror Yoke Augustine held him to was feign to shist off that Fathers Argument as well as he could but very poorly and pittifully That the Church Baptized indeed Infants but not for the washing away of original fin which he denyed in Infants but for the better bringing them to the Kingdome of Heaven which Christ said was of such as theirs And truly this makes a great Addition to the Truth of this The Custom and Practice of the Universal Ancient Church in Baptizing lnsants that Pelagius so great a Schollar and Travellour who had seen the Customas and Practices the manners and fasthions of the Affricane and Asiatiqne yea and Europaean Churches being also himself a Brittish born should not as indeed he could not make any denyal or take any exception thereto as who by his own eyes and experience saw found it to be most true and uniform and so I may say our Baptism of Infants is a true Baptism and the Ancient Churches Practice hereof is a true Practice even our enemies themselves being Judges as Deut. 32.31 〈◊〉 why then was not Augustine himself Baptized in his In … y who was such as strong Advocate for the Baptism of Infants the Reason is plain and makes nothing against our Infant Baptism or the General Practice of the Church for neither his Father nor Mother were Christians or Believers when himself was born and they continued so untill a little before their death Augustine himself was not converted from his Manichean Haeresies and other vices untill the 31. year of his age who two years continuing a Catechumen and in the mean time writing somethings to give proof and testimony of the truth of his conversion or of his conversion to the Truth was Baptized himself and his Son Adeodate together like as Ahraham was circumcised with Ismeal his Son on the self-same day These things may be seen in His Confessions I shall need to adde no more for the shewing Infant-Baptism to have been the Custom and Practice of all the former Ancient Churches Augustines Testimony of the same is to me instead of all and as Goliahs Sword to David there is none like that Give it me 1 Sam 21.9 I have taken it and I give it thee not as a single Testimony of one Father for it but as a Quadruple witness of the Universal Church and its Custom and Practice for the point of Paedobaptism being four times expresly deliveced though by one and the same Father Saint Austin Yet I may for more perspicuity sake follow up this General Testimony by one Father unto its Particulars I mean the Covattestations of other particular Fathers in their several ages You have heard what Augustine hath said and written as for that Century For the year 390. 384. and those years wherein he lived Hierom In his Epistle ad Laetam having told her that the good and the evill of little once are imtured much to their Parents he addeth in the middle of that Epistle unless perhaps you think the Sons of Christians is they receive not Baptism They onely are guilty of sin and that the wickedness also thereof is not to be referred or to redound to the Parents who would not give it especially at or in such a time wherein they could not contradict who were to receive it In his Book against the Pelagians towards the end he is for Infant-Baptism and confirms it by allerdging the Authority of Cyprian and his Colleagues In the same third Book against Pelag it is thus Crito i.e. Pelagian saith grant me thus much at lest that they are without sin who cannot sin speaking of Infants To whom Atticus i.e. Hieronimus Answereth I will Grant it if they have been Baptized in Christ and again They are without any Sin through the Grace of God which they have received in Baptism Chrysostom Arch-Bishop of Constantinople For the year 382. in his Homil. to the Neophytes is for the Baptism of Children and in his 40. Homil upon Genes calls Baptism our Circumcision His being not Baptized untill he was 21. years of age doth not prejudice here as whose Father and Mother were not Christians at his birth and who himself was brought up under Libanius an enemy to and a scoffer at Religion but after he was instructed in the Divinity knowledge by Miletus a Bishop and Baptized of him In his Homil ad Neoph having spoken of the Honours and Benefits of Baptism he saith a little from the beginning For this cause we Baptize the little Infants that they may not be defiled with sin that to them may be added Sanctity Righteousness Adoption Inheritance Fraternity of Christ That they may be all his Members and the Habitation of the Spirit In his 40. Homil upon Genes having spoken of Circumcision appointed to the Children of the Jewes and the pain of the Incision he addeth but our Circumcision or the grace of our Baptism brings the medicine without without such dolour and Innumerable benefits with it It hath indeed no definite time set down for it as that hath but it is lawful to receive both in the first and in the middle and in the last age this not made with hands Circumcision in which there is susteined no great pain but the weight of sins are put off and Remission of them is
unto the Church For which you may see Acts 2.39 41. because you give me no Text here which I wonder at of which I have your consideration in particular to peruse anon Onely I shall add a word or two about Sureties in the Baptism of Infants because I do not remember that hitherto before now you have made any mention of them and for that I see you are here in an errour about them and you would put a slur upon us and a kinde of slander upon our Church as if Infant-Baptism stood upon account of faith in the Parents and Sureties although say you they have none for themselves I will adde somewhat although they have more than your self I may say the one as well as you say the other Know then Sir that the costom of having Sureties at the baptizing of Infants hath been very ancient in the Church when Truth was in its prime light and Primitive purity though thereupon it is the less liked because the more unlike to the new upstart and out-staring novelisms of these later Ages and last declining times and their office was as to bear witness of the birth of Infants of Christian Parents and therefore were called Attesters or Witnesses as at this day so to answer for the faith and take upon them the education of the baptized Infants and for this they were called Sponsors or Susceptors Hereupon the Infant to be baptized although he did not profess himself to be Believer with his own mouth nor could yet being asked and interrogated as the manner was Doest thou believe he answered in the mouth and tongue of his Sponsors or Sureties or the very Parents or they which is all one answered in stead and place of the Infant I believe And without such profession of faith Infants publickly were not baptized in the Church Thus in and by the judgment of charity the Ancients held and judged the Infant to believe and that if it could speak with its mouth it would answer that it believed and because it could not they appointed as before Sponsors and Sureties in the name and place of the Infant to answer I believe And in this sense also besides others I have given were Infants of Christians called of old Believers because they did in some manner profess faith in and by the mouth and words of their Sponsors Sureties and Parents True its uncertain and unknown to the Church or man whether the Infant doth believe or not but unless the Church had so judged by the judgement of charity which saith the Apostle believeth all things hopeth all things the Infant to believe she would not have appointed Sureties and Sponsors in the name and place of the Infant so to asnwer and unless the Infant it self had so answered in the words and mouth of its Sponsors and Sureties she i.e. the Church would have forbid it to be baptized Thus I have told you of the ancient manner of the Primitive Baptisms with Sureties and Sponsors you must not now here call upon me for proof hereof out of the plain and direct Scripture for I acknowledge this ancient Custom and many a one in use amongst the first Christian Churches is not expresly prescribed in Scripture for then it might be concluded absolutely necessary for all ages and persons to follow so neither is it forbidden explicitly in Scripture and therefore not utterly to be rejected as unlawfull to be used as which was for the good of the Infant and hurs of none as having neither impiety nor iniquity in it so also it was for the provision and better education of the Infant the edification of the Church and the demonstration and exercise of Charity to and charitable judging of others Insomuch that as those venerable Names and Lights of the Ancient Church Tertullian and Auguâ—tine have related and delivered that Custom of baptizing with Sureties and Sponsors so other Reverend Names and Lights of these Modern reformed Churches as Luther Zanchy Beza have allowed approved and commended the aforesaid Custom as fit to be retained still From all which it now appears that you Sir are much out when as you talk and tattle of the Churches baptizing Infants upon account of faith in the Sureties although they have none of their own for you see it was not upon the account of the faith of the Sureties which the Sureties had of their own that Infants ever were baptized but upon the account of the faith of the Infant which the Infant had of its own testified and professed in their name by the Sureties appointed by the Church which judged charitably of the Infant to beleive that the Infant was baptized But now before I proceed to the next I will call upon you to consider That your Doctrine of baptizing actual Believers onely and thereupon not baptizing the Infants of Believers until they have actual faith and can and do make confession of it doth rather overthrow as much as in you lieth the nature of the Covenant of Grace and the whole Gospel of Christ at leastwise to the Seal thereof all the while from their birth that such Infants are kept by you from the same Seal of Baptism for you cannot keep them from their Covenant though you do shamefully ingratefully ungraciously yea and unnaturally keep them from the Seal The thing is evident enough if you do but remember this is the nature of the Covenant and Gospel of Christ the Promise of God to be the God of the believing Parent and his Seed joyntly therefore also of his child as soon as it s born yea before when it is his Seed and soon after its birth Gods will is declared to have this Covenant executed and confirmed by an initial Seal of Circumcision upon Infants in the Old and of Baptism upon Infants in the New Testament now who overthroweth this Covenant we who put our Infants under the Seal of the Covenant soon after their birth it being their birth-right or you that with-hold it from your Infants until they come to be of years to make profession let God himself be judge and that his Word Genesis 17.14 He hath broken my Covenant who the child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not circumcised so also he whose flesh is not washed with the water of Baptism which latter if not done or ordered to be done by you who are Parents to the Child the breach and overthrowing the Covenant lieth upon you and not upon the child to answer for You have broken the Lords Covenant and the Lord may break in upon you as he did upon Moses for neglect of circumcising his Seed Exodus 4.24 Consider of it it s the Lords mercy you are not broken and consumed let the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering lead you to repentance the Covenant Gospell Christ being the same under both Administrations God will look and justly may and must that his Covenanters or covenanted with even Instants shall be now partakers of
regard them as little as you do our Students and the learned of our Universities but is there any such to be seen in the chair of Moses or to be read in the Pentateuch of his books all that I can meet with is this that when their children should ask their Parents the meaning of the Pesseover the Parents were to instruct or Catechiz them therein and so prepare them for a Passeover against the time should come that they under stood the service thereof in the mean the memorial of the Angels passing over them in Egypt and their passing over the Red Sea into the Wilderness was so held up even amongst their children Exod. 13.14 What 's now become of your old Quaere now what expresse command have you for such and such I retort it upon your self for childrens eating the paschal Lamb Every Male-child shall be Circumcised a command is expresse for the Circumsing of children Deus 16.16 and sure if chidlren had been to eat of the paschal Lamb there would have been as expresse a command for this and whereas Exod. 34 23. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God the place which he shall choose whereof one time was the feast of the Passeover it s granted as a Commandement that such children who could hold the father by the hand and walk with him up to the Temple went along with him but wherefore namely to be instructed Catechized and blessed of the Priest but not to eat of the paschal Lamb unless they were of that groweth in years and in understanding of the mystery if otherwise they had other food than the paschal Lamb for them of lesser age and knowledge as also for the unclean as some might happen to be and uncircyncumcised both at home when they did eat the Passeover and also at the Temple as for the unleavened bread I suppose the children did eat of that because for seven daies together all leavened bread was to be put quite and utterly out of the house and burnt insomuch as they must not look upon any yea it was under Gods curse if any did eat any leavened bread during those seven daies which at other times ordinarily they did but for the paschal Lamb which was to be eaten up all in that one night and what remained of it to be burnt with fire in the morning I take it the children of the Jews did eat nothing of it at all who were there fore had to bed and laid to sleep whilest the Parents were celebrating their evening and night-service of the Passeover At other Sacrifices and Offerings which were not Sacramental it s expressed it shall be for Aaron and his sons for the Priest and his children as being a part of their maintenance Now this I the rather enlarge upon to perswade you from your opinion that you have taken up I know not where yes I believe I know where you have taken it up even where it lay in-Tombed that so you may be no occasion of reviving and raising up and old bruied error that hath lain quiet in its grave these thousand years and upwards and that is The administraing the Lords Supper unto Infants and children of Chriftians as necessary and decent This opinion was of force in the Roman Church in the daies of Pope Innocent the first I will not name some others of ancient and reverend remembrance in that Age who held the same thing and practice and did thereby shew that men standing too much upon their own conceited interpretations of Scriptures may fall from the truth and erre from the faith in some particulars as you Sir have generally done throughtout your whole Letter for then He and the rest of the Roman Church under him believed that Infants baptized could not be saved except they should participate of the Eucharist taking their ground from that Scripture John 6 53. Jesus said unto them Verily I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you and therefore they held it the Lords Supper wherein the flash of the Son of man is eaten and his blood drunk necessary to the life and salvation of Infants But this was not the right interpretation of that Text as which is not meant of that Eucharistical or Sacramental feasting upon Christs Body and Blood but of a Spiritual Faith and believing in Christs Death and Passion And hereupon this opinion of Pope innocent the first and the Roman Church under him is since retracted and rejected by Pope Pius the fourth and the Roman Church under him in that Council of Trent whose Decrees are all held and canonised to bâ—â—â—lieved upon necessity of salvation as who have determined against administration and participation of the Eucharist as neither necessary nor decent for Infants How say you to this you Great Patrons and Imitators of the Church of Rome who say she cannot erre at leastwise hath not erred Did the Church of Rome not erre in the daies of Pope Innocent then is she now in an error doth she not now erre herein then did she formerly erre and conseq tently may erre hereafter But now if those above named had light upon your Tenet or error as I think it and could have made it hold up which you onely raise and startle having the Gift as any gisted Brother that ever I read to prove nothing and affirm any thing That the Infants of the Jews did eat of the Paschal Lamb and Supper they would have had a far fairer pretext and faster ground for the Infants of Christians to participate of the Eucharistical Cup and Bread of the Lords Supper for then they would have pleaded hard for a Commandement of Christian Infants to partake of the Eucharistical Supper even in or out of that Commandement you mention but shew not of the Jewish Infants to partake of the Paschal Supper and pressed it the rather for that the Eucharistical Supper succeeds in place under the Gospel unto the Paschal Supper under the Law and rather more for that the Grace of Christ now exhibited is of larger extent and greater latitude than when he was to come and be revealed And I tell you these reasons would have troubled much these Tridentine Fathers to have answered and refelled more than that Text of John above cited But I believe that you never had any such notion or dream in your head either sleeping or waking nay upon a re-view of your words I see I may answer to your Question and say as you mean and you never the nearer to what you aimed at for you say thus Did they eat the Paschal Lamb before they had a Commandent I answer They did not eat the Paschal Lamb before they had a Commandement you mean so do you not and so do I and what then therefore the Jewish children had a Commandement to eat the Paschal Lamb. But this followeth not well nor will before
baptism yet shall we not need to infer hence or to introduce hither the Rite of immerging and emerging which is your total dipping as which is resembled as well and better in our manner of aspersion and effusion of water upon the party though but upon a part for when water is poured upon or is laid upon the head of the adult standing on his feet or kneeling on his knees as likewise upon the face of the child lying in the Arms of the Minister or the Parent or other presenting it are they not the while as it were buried in or do they not lie under the water as the buried doth under the earth and so the party may be said to arise as it were when it comes or goeth from the water as the body doth from the earth or the Ministers dipping his hand into the water and plucking it out when he layeth it on may it not have the same signification with immerging and emerging and so of the Burial and Resurrection of Christ And I think I may say our Church in giving liberty of dipping or immerging and emerging of Infants if not weak did it not so much from authority of this or any other Scripture as in conformity to some of the Ancient Christians and Fathers of the Church in this custome as in other lawful Rites they practised to which and whom I now come Onely I shall give but a tender and gentle touch of one thing that floweth more naturally or rather more mystically from the afore-alledged Texts That if the baptized his being buried with Christ in baptism be represented and signified by the lying and abiding of the water upon the face or forehead as a part of the body and so the body in that part thereof its lying and abiding under the water even sprinkled and poured upon it Then sure it is not advisedly and conveniently done by Gentlewomen and tender Mid-wives to wipe off the water from the part and absterge it with a handkerchief as soon as it is laid on by a Minister or by turning the head of the Infant whom I speak for that cannot speak for it self presently downward to cause the water to fall off it upon the ground In all the History of Baptism from the beginning of it in Jordan and Rivers to the present being of it in Fonts or Vessels I do not read of such a word spoken or such a work done as absterging or wiping off water in Baptism no not then when there seemed more occasion for it as when the adult and likewise Infants were immerged all over their naked bodies in the water at Baptism nor then when presently after it they went or were carried to be anointed as they were either all over their bodies as in the Greek Churches so Cyril Catech. Mystag 11. Chrysest Homil. 6. in Col. witness or in their foreheads and breasts and between the shoulders so Epiphanius Haeres 79. Rabanus de Instit Cler. l. 1. c. 23. affirm Therefore learned Vossius doth justly censure the Translator of the Apostolical Constitutions of Clemens as they are called for rendring those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Thus deinde Diaconissa eas abstergit for the word is and signifieth anointeth not abstergeth and the work was the Deaconess anointed them not absterged them after baptism The truth is they neither absterged or wiped off water after their Baptism or oyl after their unction and so such a custom hath no ground either in Equity or Antiquity True it is also that this our Westernly Northen Climate is colder much then those Easternly Southern and our waters therefore are colder and our Infants tenderer and our Mothers more indulgent and our Midwives are more adventerous but our Ministers are descreet not to pour on much water and that they do to hold it some while in their hand to the warming of it and gently to rub and wash the face of the Infant with such warm hand and warmed water and God is ever merciful at his Ordinances and Sacraments especially so that I never heard of any child that ever sickned much less died upon a cold taken at Baptism In a word and a word also is enough to a wise woman The wiping of the Baptismal-water from the childs face as soon as it is laid or poured on is so far as lieth in her the taking off and avoiding I will not say a frustrating and evacuating of the sign and seal as soon as it is laid on as to that signification and sigillation of the parties being buried with Christ in baptism as which onely the abiding and remaining of the water upon the body or bodily part and it s lying and centinuing under the water doth resemble and represent But I return to you Sir and shall now proceed to farther discussing of your dipping and our sprinkling by Antiquity to shew which is the good old way I or it may be when you wrote me word that your dipping was older then our sprinkling or pouring on of water and that it was the good old way you had some squint-eye upon Antiquity of the second hand for the Scripture is the Antiquity of the first hand the very good old way it self for that your right or direct eye could see little or nothing in the Scripture for your dipping and immerging And I am glad to meet you here again in this your good old way hoping that by your looking upward to Antiquity and the ancient Customes of the Churches of God you may ere long lay down your Novelties and the yesterday fashions of your new Brotherhood And to say the truth whither else can you now go being beaten out of your holds you thought you had and those firm ones as you had thought in Scripture for your dipping and immerging and finding at leastwise now no ground or footing in any Pond there no not River for your Dippers and Immergers to stand in and baptize whither I say can you go but need of it more then zeal to it driving you to the next Antiquity which succeeding and some of them seeing the Canon of Scripture consummated and consigned by St. John the Revelationist as Evangelist and so living and dwelling next to those starry times of the Apostles and those Sun-shining dayes of Christ Jesus can best discover relate and traject their light they being the next neighbours to the same borrowed and participated from them But to the point I acknowledge that some of the Ancients yea many of them did use to dip and immerge at and in their baptizings and because it lieth upon your hand to prove it let the learned of your side take it in hand to transcribe and produce such ancient Authors and their Testimonies I had as live they should spend the time and lose their labour when they have done as my self for so they will neither will it be of any advantage to you and your dipping and immerging being far different as to the
or testified by others to Asperse or sprinkle In the Name of the Father of the Son and of the holy Ghost a little water upon the face fore-head of your child in the bed gently washing therewith by the moving of his hands with prayer and supplication before and after Thus doing both dangers may be prevented and this was that I with the Ancients even now called Baptismus Clinicorum How long halt ye betwixt two opinions and thoughts if the sprinkling or aspersion be baptism follow it but if dipping and immersion then follow it And the people with their Dipper answered me not a word I will but add one Testimony more and that is of Walafridus Strabo de rebus Ecl. cap 26. Notandum non solùm mergendo sed etià m de super fundendo multos baptizato fuisse adhuc pâ—sse baptizari It is a thing to be noted as it is notable that many have bin formerly and may still be baptized not onely bydipping and immerging but also by sprinkling and pouring water upon them and so he also maketh mention of the baptizing of St. Laurence out of a Pitcher or Pot of water which was by aspersion or perfusion and 〈◊〉 was often as he saith when as the bigness of the bodies of grown persons converted would not suffer them to be immerged and dipped in the Vessel their Baptisteries and Fonts being too little for them And so I have done my Task which was to be a Task-master unto some of the Egyptians who have bin and would be still Task-masters over the Israel and churches of God and give out their commands for the dipping and immerging of our children in Ponds or Rivers when and then onely they shall be of years of discretion and confession as to their faith and I have drawn up this my censure of it as an Ark you will presently say I know of Bulrushes and therefore I say so in present myself afore-hand to prevent you The which how weak and mean a thing soever you may think it through Gods providence may be a means to preserve a Moses and more children of Israel from your immergings and plun gings of them for the time little else then drownings especially the Ark being daubed with slime and pitch cemented and closed together with Scriptures Reasons and Antiquity moreover More plainly I have passed my censure upon your late dipping and immerging in my Parish for a new business as I called it once and ever shall and if I could stand so long about it and the Reader would stay the while as to gather them up together or take a review of the evidences I have brought in against it for a new business I do think there would be a full Jury and a grand Jury of them the which propounded and given up to any indifferent Judge besides your self he would not onely passe a censure of novelty upon it as I hove done but might crie once and again Novitas novitatum omnia novitas Yea and he would give out a Sentence of vanity also upon the same and say vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas The Person dipping and baptizing an ordinary man no ordained Minister the Persons dipped and baptized Christians born and baptized before The manner the dipping and baptizing them in their cloathes the circumstances or ceremonies I omitted because they were not onely new and vain but foolish and immodest and the action of dipping the whole body over head and ears in the cloathes and lastly the place a common Horse-pond and weyr Novelty of novelties all is novelty yea Vanity of vanities all is vanity I will say no more of it though more might be said of it then that it was a new and a vain busines yea a taking of the Name of God Father Son and holy Ghost in vain I will now onely add a Corollary or two touching the whole business betwixt us and so I shall give a Vale or Fare-well to it and to your Letter and my answer or censure rather for so I must call it to the end who so stiled it in the beginning Coroll 1. §. 1 Immersion and dipping in baptism especially thrice as also Aspersion and sprinkling or rather perfusion and pouring on of water though but once were both the good old way in the manner as they were done and administred by the primitive Doctors and ancient Fathers of the Church And to do the cause and the truth right their immersion was the older way I say not the better way and is some years older then their aspersion as many years as Tertullian lived before Cyprian which by computation is not above two or three and fifty years difference or distance betwixt their times Yea but I will recal that Verdict and do reverse that saying as whereby I do immersion and dipping too much right and aspersion and sprinkling too much wrong as to their Births Right and Originals for I do remember a testimony before cited by me out of Tertullian lib de poenit cap. 6. in these words which may be repeated here again without any Tautollogy being to several and different purposes and proofs Neque ego renuo divinum beneficium i. e. abolitionem peccatorum inituris aquam omnimodo salvum esse sed ut eò pervenire contingat elaborandum est Quis enim tibi tam infidae poenitentiae viro asperginem unam cujuslibet aquae commodabit where you read and see in plain and evident words that aspersion of the adult and grown persons was in Tertullians dayes also and I might also now passe the Verdict the other way and say that immersion and dipping is the yonger way some years yonger then aspersion and sprinkling as many years as Cyprian is yonger then Tertullian about fifty two or three The truth then is They were both of them as twins as Esau and Jacob in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.24 as two manners of baptizing in the Church of God born much about the same time and as also Esau and Jacob did they lived and walked together a while and sometimes lived apart and assunder and the one was used in one place and the other practised in another place according to the diversities of the Churches and difference of the ages and variety of customs in and amongst them and so it continued for an eight or nine hundred years But what and if as it may be immersion like Esau being indeed the more hairy rougher and harder manner and way of baptizing might get out first and come forth into the Churches practise it was but a very little while before for aspersion like Jacob being indeed the plainer and smoother and easier way and manner of baptizing soon followed after and at the heels Yea as Jacobs hand took hold on Esâus heel and after supplanted him of the blessing of his Birth-right so aspersion if behind overtook immersion and wholy supplanted it of its primogeniture and so got away the blessing from it to be the onely
good old Way into a new by and bad path from the publick Ministery or Steeple-houses be it so to private mysteries or smokeries rather of their Chimney-houses from your first true Baptism at a Font. to a second vain Dippism in a Pond They have been rather instrumental to your Confusion then your Conversion Yea I say further God doth not use them the Anabaptists as Anabaptists andtheir doctrine as any ordinary means or instruments of his to the Converting fouls to the Faith and Truth I promised to give you a Particular of them and their Doctrines and this it is wherein they differ from us and have forsaken the Truth of our Church and the Word of God and which doth denominate and constitute an Anabaptist They reject all Infant-baptism renouncing their own Baptism they took in Infancy and therefore Re-baptize themselves and others and keep their children from Baptism till years of discretion and ability of profession and so in a manner deny the Seal of the Covenant of Grace to Infants with whom also God hath entred into it saying I will be thy God and the God of thy seed They hold all stinted and set forms of prayer unlawful to be used in Church or House and even so also the Lords prayer That there is no distinction betwixt Clergy and Laity That the taking of Oaths before or by the Authority of a Magistrate is unlawful That the office of a Magistrate is neither lawful nor necessary with abundance more for why should I stir the whole dunghil to infect the Air of coherent and coincident Errors and Lyes as the Prophetical Scriptures call them Are such Teachers and Tenets like to pluck you out of your wicked wayes and to bring you to the knowledge of the Truth whether private or publick who hang so fast in the Bushes and Thickets of Errors and stick so deep in the Bushes and Thickets of Erros and stick so deep in the mire of Vices dipt in both up to the chin and mouth yea over head and ears especially seeing such were never called or sent about the work of Converting souls to either For my part I am of Paul and I am of Jeremiah and so should you be of both too the Apostle and the Prophet But first I am of Paul the Apostle who saith indeed Faith cometh by hearing for how shall they believe in whom they have not heard But it is hearing of a Preacher for how shall they hear without a Preacher And it is of a Preacher sent for how shall they preach except they be sent The Apostle is clear of the opinion that onely sent Preachers who have Mission and Commission from God can bring hearers to the Faith and seems to wonder at those in his vehement and frequent Interrogatories who say or think otherwise This Text I may call Faiths Clymax or Ladder with its steps and gradations which none of your Lay-brethren could ever yet climbe up to or come down by if they begin at the lower end as they ought being the ground and foundation of the work and so offer to go and climbe up they mâ—ss of their first step and footing because they are not sent and so must climbe no farther or higher for want of Mission they cannot go up the Ladder in the Right way of preaching and begetting faith in the Hearers or your self And if they begin at the upper end and top of this Ladder as indeed presumptuously they use to do and heap to themselves at first a multitude of Hearers and so come down along to their preaching yet they fall off the Ladder at the lower staffe or step again because still they be not sent and so can do no missive or ministerial good upon their Hearers nor your self as to Faith It is Gods great mercy to them and you that they cast not themselves down head-long or that they are not cast down by him that took them up into the Pulpit and set them on that Pinnacle of the Temple to the breaking of their necks as well as making shipwrack of Faith for they tempt the Lord their God and are not in their wayes which words must not be left out by you as they are left out by the devils citing of that Text and therefore God hath given his Angels no charge over them being out of their wayes to bear them in their armes or hands that they dash not their foot against the stones Yea they do dash not onely their feer but their tongues also against the stone the Head-stone of the corner which these builders refuse in ascending Pulpits or stepping into chairs and preaching without his sending or Commissioning them according to his Prerogative given unto him of which this is a part All power is given me in Heaven and in Earth as my Father hath sent me so send I you Mat. 28.18 19. John 20.2 So also I am of Jeremiah who is so frequent and fervent in the point that I shall onely name the Texts and make the proofs out of all together Jer. 14.14 23.32 21. 27.14 28.8 9. where I observe that six or seven times the Lord by the Prophet saith that he sent them not and thereupon it 's said thrice they prophesied lyes once otherwise then the word is once deceits and dreams once their Errors and lightness false visions and divinations things of naught and the deceits of their own hearts enough one would think to keep off people from hearing of them and yet in plain terms therefore they are forbidden thrice to hearken to them or their words And if for all this they will be hearing of them as they have now very itching ears and give themselves much to hearing new men as news-men the Prophet tells and foretels them more plainly They shall do no good on it at the 32. verse of the 23. Chapter I sent them not nor commanded them Therefore they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord. Hear you this Sir and hearken to this all ye separate people of England those of God unsent uncommanded Preachers false Teachers of the Anabaptistical separation for are they not so that teach you the Doctrines and Practices I have particularized but even now and now may assimilate unto the lyes dreams deceits vain visions of those false Prophets those false Teachers of the Anabaptisticall separation I say nay saith the Lord shall not profit you at all therefore they have not nor any Grace of God appearing in by or from them for God doth not give Converting ministerial Grace to them whom he doth not send nor Commission them plucked you or any of our people nor shall pluck them or you from your wicked wayes to the knowledge of the Truth for this is and will be a great deal of profit they have not turned and converted you or any of our people nor shall unto the Faith and unto God for this is and will be the greatest profit of all that can be You
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