to this God puts his Laws in the minds of men and writes them in their hearts Heb. 8.10 which implies that he did not do so under the Old Testament or at least but very little comparatively Again Joh. 4.23 But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth implying that thither-unto or until then they had not so worshipped him or at least that there was but little of that found under the Legal Dispensation And according to the nature of this Ministration children voyd of understanding and faith were capable of holy things as Circumcision and Passover and the like and consequently of the ends and benefits of them in part upon a literal administration and reception of them Rom. 3.1 2. Exod. 12.44 48. But the case is far otherwise now under the Gospel which is the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 It is not the work done but the manner of doing of it in knowledg faith and fear of the Lord that entitles men unto the benefit and blessing of Gospel-Ordinances for so the Apostle affirms concerning Baptism it self 1 Pet. 3.21 when he says that it saves us now as the Ark did some in the days of Noah not saith he the putting away of the filth of the flesh i. e. not by the external letter of the Ordinance but the answer of a good Conscience towards God i.e. when accompanyed with such a frame of mind and conscience as does answer God in his intendments of Grace in that Ordinance So again Col. 2.12 when the Apostle saith that they were buryed with Christ in Baptism and that they were therein also risen with him yet he says that thus they were by the faith of the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead meaning such a faith as was produced by the operation of God or else such as had the operation of God in raising up Christ for its object however it was by the interveniency of this Faith that they became both buryed and risen with Christ in Baptism Now Infants as they are not capable of acting this Faith or making this answer of a good Conscience so they are not capable of those blessings and benefits intended by God in Baptism in as much as he hath suspended the donation thereof upon these in conjunction with Baptism And where any effect depends upon the taking place of more causes then one as it does in the case in hand it is not any one of those causes alone that will produce that effect 3. How ever the ends of Circumcision were attainable though administred to Infants in those respects before mentioned with their fellows yet doubtless the Ordinance it self was so much the less spiritual and so much the more weak and savoring of the Legal Ministration and suited to the then childish condition of the Church because administration thereof was made to Infants This I conceive might easily be made out from several of those rational principles consonant to the Scripture upon and from which I have already evinced Baptism to be more spiritual profitable and edifying when administred to men professing the Faith then when applyed to children Therefore doubtless what the Apostle speaketh of the Commandment in general meaning the Law which as he says made nothing perfect how that it is disanulled for the weakness and unprofitableness of it Hebr. 7.18 19. may well be understood to comprehend even this part of the Commandment also which enjoyned an Ordinance one or more to be administred to little children And how ever such a mean low way and method of enjoying Ordinances as was accommodated to the capacity of babes was not uncomely whilest the Church was in the condition of children as the Apostle speaks Gal. 4.3 no more then it is for a child whilest he is a child to speak and act as a child yet to retain this poor and low and barren way of administring a Gospel-Ordinance to Infants now the Church is raised both in capacity and administration to its manly condition is as incongruous and uncomely as it is for one still to speak and act as a child when he is become a man By this time I hope it appears that there is not the same reason why Baptism administred to Infants should reach the ends thereof as there was why Circumcision though applyed to Infants formerly should attain its end For the nature of the two Ordinances differ the terms of their Administration differ and the respective capacities of the Church then and the Church now differ and according to that rule in Logick Where the things themselves differ there the reasons of those things differ also ARGUM. III. 3. MY next Argument shall be taken from the different nature of the two Ministrations of the Old and New Testaments as rendering Infant-Baptism in that precise consideration of it as applyed to Infants disagreeable to the Ministration of the Gospel but withall more correspondent with the Ministration of the Law Therefore I thus further argue If Infant-Baptism be disagreeable to the Ministration of the New Testament then Infants ought not to be baptized The reason hereof is because so far as either this or any other way or practice does comply with the Legal Ministration and disagree with the Evangelical so far it does cross or oppose the design of God in changing the Ministration of the Law for that of the Gospel and consequently carries in it a spirit of antipathy against the very spirit of the Gospel Ministration This if it were not sufficiently evident of it self might receive abundant confirmation from such Scriptures as these and what might fairly and plainly be deduced from them Joh. 4.23 24. 2 Cor. 3.6 Gal. 4.9 Col. 2.8 17. Heb. 7.18 19. 8.6 7. 9.9 10 11. 10.1 But I presume of every mans plenary satisfaction as to this Therefore I proceed But Infant-Baptism is disagreeable to the Ministration of the New Testament Assumption 1. The truth hereof in the first place is conspicuous and perceptible by what hath been made good in our former Argument For there we proved Baptism as administred to Infants less edifying as to the several ends of it then when administred unto Believers and if less edifying then the more suitable and conformable to the Ministration of the Law which was a Ministration of less light and edification and to the same proportion disproportionate to the Ministration of the Gospel which is a Ministration of a greater light and a more rich edification 2. I might in the second place well suppose Infant-Baptism to savor strongly of the Legal Ministration because the principal Arguments produced in defence thereof are such as do arise out of and are deducted from the example of Infant-Circumcision a principal part of the Legal Ministration and from that analogy and proportion that is supposed to be between them and not only so but likewise because such Arguments and Pleas tend to draw down this
or youth about the time in which they come to know the difference between good and evill at which time they make themselves guilty of actuall transgression and consequently put themselves under a necessity of conversion to wit repentance and faith for the obtaining remission of those actuall sins and therefore in reason cannot be looked upon as regenerate untill the fruites worthy amendment of life and of faith do appear though this remedy I say should be thought on which is not likely yet for them to retain them in the Church whilst Infants and to cast them out when they come to years of understanding is such a thing which as there is no rule prescribing it so I beleeve my own observation in some other cases prompting me hereunto it will prove a thing of greater difficulty then indulgent parentall members will know how to overcome If any shall think to prevent this more then inconvenience another way viz. by Baptizing Infants into the universall Church and not receiving them into any particular Church till they can give an account of their repentance from dead workes and faith towards God or else if they do receive them into a particular Church shall think to prevent this by not admitting them unto communion with the Church in other ordinances till they can give the aforesaid account herein likewise besides the evill of unregenerate persons permissive abode in the Church they shall give a rule unto themselves which God hath not given For whoever are fit to be and de facto are members of the universall visible Church are fit also to be members of particular Churches and whosoever are members of particular Churches cannot according to any rule in Scripture that I know be excluded part and fellowship in any the Ordinances there administred For during the time in which God would have Infants to be members of the nationall Church of the Jews and partakers of one ordinance to wit Circumcision he did neither order their excommunication out of the Church upon account of their unregeneration when they became actuall sinners nor yet debarre them communion with the Church in any other ordinance till signes of their regeneration appeared nor were they excluded communion in any the ordinances of that Church at any time from their very Infancy otherwise or longer then the terms of naturall necessity and debility did impose it upon them Nor does it at all follow that Infants are to be admitted Church members under the Gospell because they were so under the Law as some vainly imagine nor yet that persons of like disqualification may be admitted into or continued in Churches under the Gospell as might be both the one and the other under the Law no more then it followes that the Gospell ministration is carnall beggerly weak and unprofitable because that of the Law was such Heb. 7.18 9.10 Gal. 4.9 For under the Law Church membership was vested in Abrahams naturall seed in which capacity Infants were as well as men but under the Gospell that priviledg is proper only to those that are or appear to be his spirituall seed to wit beleevers Gal. 3.7 26-29 Rom. 9.8 in which capacity Infants are not Under the Law spirituall defilements such as were ignorance unbelief or morall pollutions such as are extortion railing covetousnesse c. did not exclude persons from Church membership if they did but keep the ceremoniall Law which according to the Apostle Heb. 9.9 10. stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them untill the time of reformation which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience which yet unregenerate men were in a capacity to perform But now under the Gospell both spirituall and morall defilements such as are ignorance of God and his wayes unbelief covetousnesse drunkennesse railing extortion c. doe de jure exclude persons from Church fellowship 1 Cor. 5.11 15.34 Under the Law as the service and administration of that Church did consist of elements of the world beggerly rudiments and carnall ordinances Gal. 4.3.9 Heb. 9.10 So the members of that Church that were permitted communion in those ordinances Isa 53.1 8 18. 10.22 Heb. 4 2. Psal 81.11 Isa 65.2 were at least sometimes for the most part but carnall likewise in which respect Infants and youths were not lesse capable of Church membership then they But now under the Gospell God requires such only to worship him in his Churches as can worship him in spirit and truth and will have his Churches to be spirituall houses built of living stones to wit such as are meet to be an holy priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Joh. 4.23 24. 1 Pet. 1.5 in which capacity Infants are not So that notwithstanding all that can be pretended to the contrary for other pretentions besides these I know none Infant Baptism is in a little time like to prove a corrupter of the * And doubtlesse that is none of Christs Church wayes wherein provision for Church purity is made but only for one age or half one rather upon which account among others the way of Independency seems to me to fall short of the mark and to misse of Gods way Independent Churches themselves as well as it hath been of the Nationall which one would think were to them argument enough alone to cause them to lay aside the practise of it The premises therefore considered Infant Baptism that hath proved so great a snare to men to think themselves secure in an unsafe condition that hath been as it were the bottom means of erecting Churches contrary to the Gospell pattern to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ unto whom they pretend relation and setting of Antichristian officers over them yea and is likely also in a little time to leaven even those Churches themselves that have been looking after some reformation and purity that Baptism I say is questionlesse no doctrine according to Godlinesse as true Baptism is but of ungodlinesse of which to me it 's more then probable it hath been a great promotresse in the World And therefore to me it clearly appears to be the duty of all those that love the honour of Jesus Christ and the prosperity of his affaires both in his Churches and in the World both which have suffered so deeply by the springing up of this root of bitternesse as is in part before exprest to endeavour with all their might in a Christian way the extirpation of so evill a custome as this hath been and the restitution of primitive Baptism as one of those Lawes of our Lord which corrupt times have made void as indeed they have done many other Upon which account I shall further encounter the one and plead the cause of the other in the ensuing arguments to which I refer thee with humble requests to God to give thee an upright heart and single eye in thy
it at this turn also For know ye for a certainty that the conscience never hath so rich a tast of the sweet and pleasant fruit of righteousnesse as when a man in conscience to God and love to truth is willing to suffer and doth suffer from the world in the practice of it this hidden Manna is not tasted save by those that overcome temptation But why should not those that are Godly wise indeed overshoote the devil in his owne bow and rather be encouraged to then discouraged from searching into those doctrines and waies which are discountenanced by the world since they are so much the likelier to be of God for if they were of the world the world would love her owne It is also a thing very ungrateful to the flesh and hardly attained without much spiritual ingenuity for men who have for a long time and with great confidence owned asserted and pleaded the cause of an erroneous way afterwards to acknowledge their mistakes and turn Advocates for that which with a high hand they have somtimes opposed But he that knows not how to deny himself in such things as these upon conviction sof light knows not how to approve himself a man worthy the name of a Disciple of Christ who as the Master saith cannot be such except he deny himself And had not ye Beloved learned this spiritual art long before this in other cases you had never made so happy an exchange of Error for Truth as now I esteem you to have done We have hitherto been coming out of darkness error and superstition but by degrees and not all at once now discovering one error and then another and why then should not our former experience this wise admonish us still of not being too confident of our having now discovered all Satanical Papal and anti-christian deceits in doctrine and worship unto the bottome but rather to be jealous over our own hearts and judgements lest some of those old dregs should yet be left behinde Solomon says that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day and yet where would there be place and opportunity of growing in knowledge and understanding if there were not occasion even for Christians themselves ever and anon to be changing their dark and crooked thoughts for more lightsom and well rectified apprehensions It is a thing doubtlesse too to incident also even to otherwise good men themselves not onely to put much of that affection they bear to the erroneous things they practise into the ballance with the reasons upon which they act by which means that seems to them ponderous which otherwise in it selfe is as light as vanity but also to presume and hope that those seeming grounds which they have will excuse them before God in their way and practise though their confidence concerning them suffers many a rebuke from the truth when it is laid close to the conscience by the Spirit of God But the Spirit of truth which loves and desires truth in the inward parts though he patiently bears and indures much disingenuitie of this kinde in the mindes of men for a time yet if his applications for cure hereof be alwaies slighted and neglected it many times provokes him at last to leave them under the power of their owne deceivings and to say But if any man be ignorant viz. upon such terms let him be ignorant 1. Cor. 14.38 The day is now hastening apace wherein the mighty God will reckon with the Babilonish whore for corrupting the earth with her deceits and then the eye of Jesus Christ will be upon those who have thorowly pleaded his cause wholly followed him and faithfully born witnesse to his truth against all her unsound and corrupt waies to keep them from the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them whereas those that have been partakers with her in her corruptions must then be partakers with her in her sufferings though otherwise they be the people of God themselves unlesse they have before that time obeyed that voice which saith come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues And therefore how exceedingly doth it concern all those who would be then found pure virgins indeed and such as have not defiled their garments no not with any the least of those whorish polutions narrowly to consider such their ways which are shreudly suspected for unclean as they are whose nakednesse I have hereby laboured to discover Thus having though not without weaknesse yet with much uprightnesse and true affection to you spread my thoughts and apprehensions before you as touching those things wherein I cannot close with you being neverthelesse not unwilling to retract any thing I have done if ever the vanitie of it shall be discovered to me as loving no way in Religion further then I apprehend it countenanced by the truth and having herein satisfied my self in discharge of my duty towards you I shall now commend this poore endeavour of mine to the blessing of the blessed God and you unto his direction in the perusall of it and shall God inabling me still endeavour to approve my selfe May 11. 1653. Yours unfeignedly to love honour and serve you WILLIAM ALLEN A Premonition to the Reader touching the evill and dangerous effects of Infant Baptism READER THou hast in the following discourse together with some other things some few of those many arguments that are and may be readily produced against the practise of Infant Baptism and such they are for the most part as have not been insisted on by others for I would not weary thee with the repetition of the same Arguments which are extant in other mens labours for which cause their number is the lesse but thou wilt do well to estimate the truth in this particular rather by the weightinesse then number of the Arguments leavied for its service I would have thee take notice that where ever thou meetest with any expressions tending to deny mens visible being in Christ or their visible membership in his Church without Baptism such deniall is still intended in respect of Gospell form and order according to which men are not regularly visibly incorporated into Christ or his Church without Baptism The which holy order of the Gospell though I intend no more thereby ought to be of sacred resentment to every Christian in as much as every word of God is pure and savours of divine wisdome Pro. 30.5 But now as concerning the mischievous effects of Infant Baptism not so much as to touch here upon those which are discovered in the ensuing discourse I shall here onely hint at two or three of them which might also have been drawn up more amply argument-wise First the untimely and undue administration of Baptism to Infants hath doubtlesse proved a miserable snare to thousands and ten thousands in the world to neglect that
For we shall find that not the baptizing of men into the expectation of Christ to come had the promise of the Spirit but the baptizing of them into the faith and acknowledgment of Christ come and of Iesus to be that Christ and so consequently that Iohns Baptism had no such promise annext to it as Christ's Baptism had on this behalf 1. That Iohns Baptism had no such promise of the Spirit appears by his own acknowledgment and assertion in which he makes this very difference between his own Baptism and the Baptism of Christ viz. that his was but a Baptism of water unto repentance but that he which should come after him should baptize with the Holy Ghost Matth. 3.11 Nay Mark hath it thus which is somewhat fuller I indeed have baptized you with water but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost Mark 1.8 His manner of speaking seems to import as if he intended hereby to beat them off from any expectation of the Spirit upon the account of his Baptism now they had received it and to put them upon the expectation thereof from and by the Baptism of Christ when he should come 2. The Apostle Peter accompanied with the rest of the Apostles herein addressing himself to that great multitude that heard him preach at Ierusalem advises them in order to their reception of the Holy Ghost to repent and to be baptized and that every one of them in the Name of the Lord Iesus Acts 2.38 Consider now who these were to whom he gives this advice And we shall find that it was the multitude as they are called ver 6. that came together flocking doubtless from all parts of the City upon occasion of that miraculous wonder of fiery cloven tongues siting upon the Apostles and of their speaking with strange tongues when this was noised abroad as there it is said And can any man imagine that when as but about four years before this the Inhabitants of this City generally went out to be baptized of Iohn and now as generally came together to hear and see this wonder that yet none of them that now came together should be of that number that had been baptized by Iohn Surely such a thing will not be any mans thought or if it shall yet will not be believed amongst considering men And yet even these notwithstanding their having been baptized by John are directed and exhorted now afresh to repent and be baptized and that EVERY ONE of them in the Name of the Lord Jesus for remission of sins and are thereupon assured that they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Their being baptized then in the Name of the Lord Jesus was necessary to render them meet to receive the Holy Ghost notwithstanding their former Baptism by Iohn 3. If things be well weighed I conceive it will be found that these twelve Disciples at Ephesus were baptized again though they had been baptized formerly unto Johns Baptism upon this very account especially and in order to this very thing viz. their receiving the Holy Ghost For 1. The manner form and import of Pauls questions or demands to them and their answers to him do imply that as it was common for the Spirit to be given upon the reception of Christs Baptism so also that it was not wont to be given upon the administration of Johns For when Paul queries Whether they had received the Holy Ghost since they had believed ver 2. And so when he again demands upon their declaring they had not Vnto what then they had been baptized it plainly implies that Paul did verily expect that they should have received the Holy Ghost upon their being baptized until he was informed that they had been baptized only unto Johns Baptism And not onely so but that question of his Vnto what then were ye baptized since ye have not received the Holy Ghost does also imply that Paul very well knew that there was a Baptism which was not accompanied with the giving of the Spirit and therefore the end of his question was to know Unto which Baptism they had been baptized and upon their resolution of the Case shewing that they had been baptized only unto Johns Baptism the true reason was discovered why they had not received the Holy Chost as being that which did not use to follow upon Johns Baptism the which appears hereby in that they knew Johns Baptism and the manner of it they themselves being baptized thereunto and yet they had not so much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost to wit extant in the world upon any such terms as Pauls question unto them did import of which surely they could not have been ignorant if the Holy Ghost had been wont to be vouchsafed unto men without any other Baptism save that of Iohn 2. That their re-baptizing or their being baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus mentioned in ver 5. of Acts 19 was in direct order to their receiving the Holy Ghost the thing first in question between Paul and them may easily be gathered from the connexion that is b tween the 5. and 6. verses and the matters therein related For that their being baptized as set forth ver 5. and their receiving the Holy Ghost ver 6. were neerly related the later having a dependance on the former the Conjunction copulative AND which knits both matters together shews For so the words run When they heard this they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus AND when i.e. when this was done AND when Paul had laid his hands on them which imports as much I conceive as if he had said AND when also Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came on them i.e. then or thereupon the Holy Ghost came on them So that their receiving of the Holy Ghost relates both to their being baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus and to the imposition of Pauls hands both which in their due order did prepare and dispose them for that reception To conclude this therefore if then men were to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus when they came to believe in him in order to their receiving the Spirit of God though they had been before baptized by Iohn then surely have they need to be baptized for the same end who come to the acknowledgment of the truth though they have been baptized as men call baptizing in their infancy because such their Infant-Baptism as hath been formerly evinced doth not operate towards their receiving of the Holy Ghost as true Gospel Baptism will do Come we now more briefly unto a second reason why it is not safe for any to satisfie themselves with that Baptism which they received in their Infancy the irregularity of it supposed and that is because it is none of Gods Baptism i. e. it is none of his ordaining but is the device of mans own heart As it is said of that Feast which Ieroboam ordained though in other
ends for which Baptism was ordained and in respect whereof all other men needed it yet in some other respects we see it was necessary even in Christ himself viz. as it was a thing well becoming him to fulfil all righteousness and to obey God in this as in all other his Commands and Institutions then on foot Matth. 3.15 2. It appears from the Baptism of Cornelius and his Company For though one end of Baptism is to put men into a regular capacity of receiving the Holy Ghost as hath been noted yet God preventing this end of baptism as unto them in causing the Holy Ghost to fall upon them extraordinarily while the word of the Gospel was in speaking to them and before they were baptized the Apostle Peter hereupon is so far from making this an Argument why they should not be baptized or had no need of Baptism as that he thence infers the reasonableness of the thing why they should be baptized in reference to other ends Acts 10.47 48. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord. I might also from what hath been now last mentioned Objection take occasion to answer another Objection against the continuation of Baptism in these dayes which Objection is this That experience shews that Baptism now produces no such effects as it did in the Apostles dayes for then those that were baptized with water were baptized also with the Spirit some visible effects thereof frequently ensuing But no such effects are now produced by that Baptism which men take up in our days for what have they more of the Spirit who are baptized with this new baptism as they call it then those that are not and if they have no more then to what purpose is the practise of it continued To this I answer Answer 1. That by what hath been just now observed about the baptism of Cornelius and his Company it appears that baptism is necessary for other ends then to render men capable of those extraordinary receptions of the Spirit For we there see that baptism was necessary to them though they had been prevented herewith 2. If this Objection were forcible against the being of true baptism now in the world it might be to as good purpose an objection against the being of any true believers in the world at least so far as known to us For there are no such effects as a miraculous speaking with tongues c. that follow mens believing in these dayes which yet were promised to believers and received by them in the Apostles dayes Mark 16.17 But as the ordinary and common effects of believing to wit obedience love c. do now follow mens believing as well as they did in the Apostles dayes though those extraordinary effects are ceased or at least suspended as having been vouchsafed for a certain time only by way of special dispensation designe for the confirmation of the Gospel-ministration whilest it was but yet new Mark 16.20 Heb. 2.4 So do the ordinary common and indeed most salvivical effects of baptism where duly used now remain when as those that were extraordinary and by way of extraordinary designe and of special dispensation for a time voucsafed are now ceased or at least suspended Neither were those gifts which we call extraordinary extraordinary in point of saving benefit above those which we call ordinary nor indeed equal to them for the Apostle having spoken of these extraordinary gifts 1. Cor. 12.10 concludes thus in ver last Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way And what was that more excellent way but the way of Christian love and charity of which he speaks in the following Chapter the which if wanting though otherwise a man had the tongue of men and Angels and the gift of Prophesie and faith to remove mountains yet he would be nothing but as a sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13.1.2 But 3. whereas it is demanded what have they more of the Spirit who are baptized then those who are not Though I believe they will not boast of their measures of the Spirit yet I dare say that if they have not a greater presence of the Spirit with them then others have to acquaint them with the things freely given them of God to mortifie the deeds of the body to lust against the deeds of the flesh to crucifie their affections and lusts to the old world to guid them in the wayes of truth to help their infirmities in prayer to strengthen them to suffer and to support them in suffering for righteousness sake and to fill them with that joy and peace which is unspeakable and full of glory it is not because these and the like blessed effects of the Spirit are not deducible from God by baptism if rightly improved but it is because they either rest in the work done or do not exercise faith about the Ordinance and the promise of God annexed to it or else do not frequently and seriously apply themselves to God for these supplyes from it not study how they may all their dayes make the best improvement of it for otherwise this Ordinance is not barren nor is that a vain word which assures men of the Spirit that obey God herein Indeed Baptism doth not procure these effects by any natural efficiency or by the work done neither indeed doth any other Ordinance of the Gospel but in a moral way If then there be that answer of a good conscience joyned with it of which Peter speaks it will doubtless give a good account of it self as touching both what and whose it is Let any mans heart but serve him to obey God in this Ordinance of his and he will find himself upon better terms of confidnce towards God to expect larger receptions from him then before he could do especially whilest he was under any jealousie of mind lest he had not as yet sought such and such grace at his hand after the due order of the Gospel I perceive also Objection that many stumble at this stone as to conceive as if Baptism were an Ordinance and Administration peculiar only unto the first times of the Gospel and not to continue longer then whilest the first Plantation of Chu ches by the Apostles was in hand Towards the removing of which stumbling block Answer laid in their way by Satan I will not say much in more then what I have said though much more might readily be produced on that account But I would demand of the consciences of such whether Baptism were ever at any time an Ordinance of the New Testament of Jesus Christ or no And whether that New Testament in which Baptism hath its place standing were not the last Will and Testament of Christ And if so as I suppose it will not be denied so to have been then whether