Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A65025
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A vindication of the apostolick and primative manner of baptizing by immersion in a letter to Mr. George Keith : with remarks upon a second friendly epistle written to him / from one who stiles himself Trepidantium Malleus.
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Trepidantium Malleus.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing V495; ESTC R22686
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18,586
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35
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A VINDICATION OF THE Apostolick and Primitive Manner OF BAPTIZING BY Immersion IN A Letter to Mr. George Keith WITH Remarks upon a Second Friendly Epistle Written to him from one who Stiles himself Trepidantium Malleus LONDON Printed for H. Walwyn at the Three Leggs in the Poultry at the End of the Old-Jury 1700. Mr. Keith YOU have very commendably disengag'd your self from many Prejudices in â—wncation and Interest to make an Impartial Enquiry into the True Principles of Christian Religion but you must expect the same Discouragements for so doing that every honest Enquirer before you has met withal Your Old Friends will reproach you with Apostacy and your New Ones if you be not well aware will make you an Apostate from Truth The several Zealots from all Quarters fill your Ears with Lo here is Truth and Sing Loud Hosannah's to their several Systems but I hope you are so good and so wise a Man as to believe 'em at your leisure Your having been imposed upon already ought to make you wary and cautious in giving your Assent for the future and I am sure you cannot justifie it to your own Understanding if you too hastily engage in any Religious Communion amongst us You have seen enough of Fair Pretence to Truth and Goodness so as not to be readily drawn in by a Specious Appearance Believe not every Spirit is a Divine Oracle and you had never greater reason to regard it than now when every Party aims at making you their Proselyte You do well to hear and examine what they say but your Prudence will Instruct you to consider whom you take for your Guide Give me leave as your Friend to put you only in mind of the Men of whom you ought to beware First I think you ought to beware of the Courtship and Discourses of the Men of mighty Pretences and Confidence who talk over all their Scheme in Religion with the same Assurance as if they had Immediate Inspiration nay if you can have Faith to believe 'em they won't fail to let you know they are often Inspir'd In the next place you ought to beware of the Men of Excess in Devotion or the Devout Biggots who by the Lustre of their Specious Piety may tempt you to fall in Love with their mistaken Principles In the Third place be sure to be upon your Guard when you happen to Converse with some Persons truly Religious who nevertheless will not allow you the use of your Reason in several Points of Religion but make it their Common place to disclaim it and decry the Persons who make the best use of it they can And in the Fourth place I think it will be needless since you are no Stranger to Learning to put you in mind of having no regard to a certain sort of Men who are Notorious Quacks in Religion In short these Men are such Bunglers in good Sense and Reason that I dare say you are aware of 'em already But in the last place you cannot be too wary in your Conversation with a Blustering noisy Pedant who has more Wisdom and Learning in his own Opinion than all the Ancients and the Moderns who is infallible in his Judgment and irrefutable in his Arguments who makes wonderful Discoveries of other Mens Errors and more wonderful Confutations of 'em but will not be oblig'd to acknowledge his own who marches up and down from Coffee-house to Coffee-house to hand about his Notions and to magnifie his Conquests Who looks as big as the Great Mogul with a Scrap of Latin and a little New Testament Greek vainly admires the in-considerable thing himself and more vainly expects that others should do so too Who just knows so much of Books and Languages as to give you their Titles and call Things by their Names and can despise every body but the despisable Man himself If your ill luck makes you acquainted with this Man you will soon discover him by his undiscreet Zeal and Ostentation He 'll tell you a fine Story of his own Capacity and bravely undertake to prove some New Hypothesis by Arguments known to no body and convincing to no body but himself and if you can bear with his Impertinence he 'll be Scribling on in perperpetuum to shew you his own Skill in Controversie and your Mistakes But then by those very Writings of his you may know him for at the very first taste you 'll find they contain nothing else But loose In-coherent Matter dull Criticisms foolish Stories idle Banter stupid Drollery and in short the whole Family of the Insipids There 's a certain Author you know whose Writings this Character very well fuits who will at last undoubtedly convince all that Read his Friendly Epistles his Apologies and Reprimands and his Vindiciae Antibaxterianae that no Man that ever Printed on any Subject can be so completly Dull and so remarkably Scurrilous as himself I need not cite the Pages and the Expressions but I refer you to his whole Second Friendly Epistle to you for one scandalous Instance The Author of this Friendly Epistle Mr. Malleus as he desires to be call'd excuses himself with an air of Indignation pag. 4. from proving that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies only to Plunge for that he is sure is a mistake which after his Comical Fashion he endeavours to prove from the Original Words us'd in the Texts Mark 7.4 and not as he has twice miscited it 4. and 7. Heb. 9.10 and not the 11. as he makes it cited in the Margin But notwithstanding his great Confidence in his Proof from these Passages may it not still be question'd whether his Instances have any other Argument in 'em unless it be to prove the flat contradiction to what he asserts For the words form'd from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly referr to the hands in St. Mark and St. Luke too Luke 11.38 and to make the Phrase compleat the Greek must run in St. Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. unless they wash their hands and in St. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that he had not first wash'd his hands by an ordinary grecism of an Accusative after a Verb Passive which every one of the Authors Fr. Ep. p. 2. miserable Grecians very well knows but himself Now that the Jews wash'd their hands any other way than we and all the World do by Plunging 'em in the Water lies upon our Author's hands to prove and there it will continue to stick I dare say and without being put to a Plunge he 'll never be able to maintain it Heb. 9. 11. But Mr. Malleus referrs you to another Text in the Hebrews ay so he does But he miscites the Number of the Verse and like a miserable Grecian misreads the Words of his Author and like a miserable Logician first supposes by a good Inclination that the sprinkling of Blood mentioned in the 14th is one of the Baptisms mentioned in
thought fit to declare ex abundanti that the custom of pouring water on the party baptiz'd or sprinkling with Water did but lately prevail in the Christian Church Pool in 1000 supra citato Serius â—liquanto in valuisse mos perfundendisive aspergendi I think it may with good reason be suppos'd if not fully prov'd that whilst Baptisteries or places built and set apart for Baptism were made so large as to receive not only the whole Body immers'd or dip'd but several Persons and both Sexes in distinct apartments at the same time Durantus de ritibus Eccl. l. 1. c. 19. as 't is certain they were for Durandus mentions some the Ruins whereof were shown in his time at Pisa Florence Bononia and Parma I say whilst these Baptisteries were in use Immersion without doubt continued to be the ordinary mode of Baptizing Nay these Baptisteries were so capacious that some us'd to bury their dead within their Walls 14. Can. Concil Autisiodoren which was expresly forbid by a Council held in the Year 578. It began indeed to be a Question about the middle of the third Century whether Baptism by Aspersion might not be lawful and sufficient without a strict observance of the former practice of Baptizing by Immersion And St. Cyprian S. Cypr. Op. 76. Ep. ad Magnum who flourish'd about that time has this very point under debate By which enquiry 't is as evident as any thing can be that Baptizing by aspersion or sprinkling was then not an ordinary but an uncommon and rare practice and the Novelty of it was the reason for which some did scruple to admit it and not only so but made it a Question Cent. Magd. in 3. Cent. de Bapt. whether the parties who were so baptiz'd were truly and properly Christians How different then the Sentiments and practice of the best and purest Ages were from the Opinion of Trepidantium Mallens I think does in some measure appear by this brief account I have given What was it then could tempt this daring Epistle-Writer to repeat the Insolent Challenge of of his Anonimous Author Viz. to produce one place in Scripture where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to Plunge Of whatever Party the Gentleman be who first made the Challenge he may upon Publick Notice given who he is have all his own Dictionaries Historians and Commentators ready to answer his Challenge And since Mr. Mallens pertly appears for the Gentleman 's Second Friendly Ep. p. 20. but wisely resolves not to be concluded by his Authors for he cares not what they say Having arm'd himself with so much Sufficiency and Obstinacy as to reject the most convincing Arguments from all other Persons but St. John himself he may set his heart at rest St. John will have nothing to do with him that Excellent Person was well enough understood by all his Followers and so was St. Peter too and their Followers took care to Propagate the Doctrine they taught 'em and the usages they left 'em but particularly the mode of Baptizing by Immersion insomuch that it continued upon the matter an Invariable and Vniversal Practice for two or three Centuries succesively as those very Learned Men acknowledge who for better Reasons than Mr. Malleus ever thought on justifie and practise a different Mode in Baptism I have now Sir consider'd the arguing part of Mr. Malleus his Epistle to you and am ready to blame my self for attempting to confute a Pamphlet which in every Page confutes it self and has I make no question been slighted by you upon the first reading It may be expected I should take some notice of his Scandalous Reflections defaming Stories and pitiful Witticisms which he makes sport with in every Page but that 's a Task sit for no body but one of his own Kidney and Complexion He himself is the fittest Person to answer that part of his Epistle to write a Satyr or Panegyrick upon his own Writings and if he does it I am sure either of 'em will amount to the very same Lampoon You find scatter'd up and down in every Page the Flowers of his Rhetorick and his Complements such as for instance Purblind Brethren Paper-headed Men read their Scrible and learn their Chatt a considerable Phrase borrow'd from Old Mother Clito You 'll find him in the 2d Page very Comically and much like a Pedant Schooling his Masters the Reverend Assembly of Divines with an Objection which he says is Ignorantly Vnlearnedly and Foolishly urg'd and immediately he runs riot into his beloved Moods and Tenses And in the very next Page he comes to his good nature again and then the very same Persons are Vnanswerable Vrgers Great Worthies and Eagle-eyd-Men at Controversie that knock a Dispute in the head while you say what 's this In the 7th and 8th Pages You have his most Learned Observations with which his affected skill in the Greek has furnish'd him And here you must take him if you can be so kind for a considerable Critick or else you 'll very much disappoint him in his expectation In the 10th Page You are all of a suddain alarum'd with his Discourse of the Canon mounted up and beginning to roar P. 10. and I know not what which would put one in expectation of some News from Livonia But he immediately disappoints you by telling you a Tale of a Tub and himself P. 11. Once upon a time I liv'd in a Town c. And in his 15th Page he falls foul without any provocation given Dr. R. Mr. T. upon Two Gentlemen who value his Reproaches above his good Opinion and would have been very sensible of the Scandal of his Commendation as I make no question those Gentlemen are whom he names in his 20th Page and is mighty desirous as if they had nothing else to do to have the credit of being Answer'd by one of ' em After this comes on an uninterrupted medly of Idle Stories and by the Texture it appears every thing that came to hand was made a part of his dull Epistle to you Mr. Keith that a Man has very strong presumptions to believe Mr. Malleus to be that very Botcher which he mentions in the 25th Page whom his very kind Neighbour the Vintner had subdu'd with the Fruit of the Vine and made his Penn outrun his Wits Thus Sir for the respect I bear to Truth and your Person both which I am sure are very much injur'd by this scurrilous bantering Epistle-Writer I have briefly expos'd his Reasons and his Rhetorick if it be pardondble to give his way of Writing and Arguing those venerable Names And upon the whole I think 't is evident that his Style his Logick and his Confidence are all of a piece and all without Precedent exactly calculated for the Meridian of Moorfields And had he done himself Justice he had dated his Letter from one of the apartments in the College de gens insensez in his Neighbourhood and then he had saved you the trouble of reading his Epistle and me the trouble of making these Remarks I am Sir FINIS ERRATA Page 5. l. 25. r. perpetuum p. 6. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ADVERTISEMENT THE Considerations of Drexelius upon Death in Three Parts First Considerations upon Sickness and Death for such as are in Health 2. Various Thoughts upon Death for all the Circumstances of Sick People 3. The Divine Art of Dying Well or a Dying Person 's Preparations for the other Life Being Directions Meditations and Prayers suited to that last and greatest Occasion of Life Never before in English now Translated by a Fellow of the Royal Society Sold by H. Walwyn at the Three Legs in the Poultry next the Old-Jury where you may also have Drexelius's Considerations on Eternity A Compleat System of Grammar English and Latin wherein that most excellent Art is plainly fully and distinctly Taught and practically mannag'd thro' every part in a Method which renders it easie to all Capacities Dedicated to the Duke of Gloucester Price 1 s. Sold by H. Walwyn A Brief Exposition of the Church-Catechism with Proofs from Scriptures By the Right Reverend Dr. John Williams Lord Bishop of Chichester Edition 9. Price 6 d. The Whole Duty of Man put into familiar Verse for the greater Pleasure and Benefit of the Young Reader Price bound 6 d.