the right gathering of a Church an Apostolick calling and a Baptism with the holy Ghost is always necessary GGGG This is the issue of Anabaptism in many and is likely to be daily in more as we are taught not only by the zealous and diligent observer of the Sectaries motions M. Edwards HHHH but also from that great Patriarch of the Anabaptists Confession M. Spilsberry who in his Treatise against the Seekers is forced to acknowledge the apostasie of too too many of those who once had been cordiall for his way of Anabaptism IIII We are not yet come towards any period of the journey of these wanderers for the spirit that is in them is restlesse Many of the Anabaptists are become Antitrinitarians and keeps them in a perpetuall motion these who are only Seekers notwithstanding of all their enmity against the setting up of Churches or use of ordinances till Elias and new Apostles come to kill the Antichrist and reform these Antichristian abuses that have destroyed for so long a time the true being of all Churches yet are they content in a private and personall way to embrace the Scriptures and the most substantiall truths therein contained but many Anabaptists are now begun to make havock of all The Trinity they abominate they will not only have Paul Beasts blasphemy to go without any censure but they do also joyn with him to preach down the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Person of the holy Ghost KKKK as their old Father the Anabaptist Servetus does lead them the way It is very suspicious that their seven Churches in their Confession make no mention at all of the Trinity The Confession of their seven Churches is here unsound nor expresse any thing of the Person either of Christ or of the holy Ghost when they have pregnant occasion so to do What they speak in their second Article of the Father Word and Spirit as being all three one God is expounded by some of their followers not of the Trinity of Persons but of three offices onely of one and the same Person LLLL It cannot but give offence that in their twenty second Article where they speak of that which Scripture holds out and we accordingly are to beleeve of Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost they mention in both their Editions onely the nature and offices of Christ the power and fulnesse of the Spirit in his works and operations but speak not a syllable of the Persons either of the Son or of the Spirit and to Christ they give but one nature while as all Divines since his Incarnation give him two Richardson one of their prime Leaders a blasphemer of the Trinity But that which most clearly evidences their Heterodoxy in this point is that having set down rightly in the end of their second Article the personall relations and properties the Fathers being of himself the Sons generation of the Father from everlasting the holy Spirits procession from the Father and the Son yet in their second Edition they scrape out all this and in the margin of its Preface they referre those who desire to know farther of their minde to their Brother M. Richardsons Treatise now this man tels us that what ever is written against the Anabaptists is all from the Devil MMMM and if we understand him right he pronounces our Doctrine of the Trinity of Christs eternall generation and of the Spirits procession from the Father and the Son to be no lesse a crime then very blasphemy NNNN That the seven Churches will own such horrible assertions though they referre us to them I cannot obtain of my self to beleeve albeit too many of their friends goe all this length and much farther Divers of them are abominable blasphemers of Christs Person Paul Beasts blasphemies against the Divinity of Christ and the holy Ghost are no more his singularities but are now become a part of the new light which shines in Lambs Congregation OOOO and openly in Westminster Hall is defended without all fear either of God or man PPPP yea so great is the despight of divers Anabaptists at the Person of Jesus Christ that they rail most abominably against his holy name they not onely spoil him of his Godhead but will have his Manhood defiled with sinne QQQQ yea they come to renounce him and his Crosse RRRR Though some of them with a great deal of confidence avow themselves to be the very Christ SSSS And if any worse can be Others of them are become perfect Atheists some of tbis generation are gone yet higher from the Trinity of the Persons they fall on the very nature and essence of God giving to him a humane shape and bodily form of three men wherein when he pleaseth he makes himself visible TTTT And which yet is worse some of them deny all beeing to God as if he had no existence neither in the heaven nor the earth or any where else VVVV Thus farre Boggis M. Hobsons man and M. Oats dear companion did openly avow and Webbe confessed that as once himself so many of his companions were turned expresse Atheists XXXX The holy Scripture the onely ground of faith They evert reject the whole Scripture which once being overturned all the building of our belief must fall is most lamentably blasphemed by them not onely the old Testament but the new also is set aside the letter of the most plain Texts is turned into allegories YYYY the Scripture is denied to be the word of God ZZZZ and is avowed to be full of lies and errours AAAAA men are sent from the word to seek revelations above and contrary to it BBBBB The Familistick Anabaptists do cleave fast to the most of David George his abominations and adde more of their own thereto Many of them are turned Familists denying the immortality of the soule They deny that any mans soul is a living spirit affirming it to be onely a bodily vapour like the life of beasts which at death does perish They are not onely for the sleeping of the soul at death but for its annihilation and for this they have published whole Books CCCCC At first these mortallists did grant a resurrection of the body and for that end a new creation of a corporal soul but now they speak out their mind more boldly they deny all resurrection after death all life either of body or soul what Scripture speaks of the day of judgement of the burning of the elements and of life eternall they turn it into allegories and make it all to be performed in this life but after a mans death they admit not of any return to life or to any more beeing DDDDD A heaven for the joy of the Saints Denying heaven and hell angels and devils a hell for the torment of the wicked after this life they utterly deny EEEEE That ever there was either Angel or Devil they also deny what Scripture speaks of these creatures they allegorize
IIII Historia Davidis p. 139. Menno avowed that David was to be taken for Antichrist the Man of sin the Child of perdition a false Prophet a Robber and a Deceiver KKKK Clopenburg p. 63. All the Mennonists agree in their deniall that Christ is the true son of Mary and Mary the true Mother of Christ LLLL Ibid. p. 18. That grosse errours of the Anabaptists is to be considered whereby with Socinus and Vorstius they deny the immediate omnipresence of the Divine essence and so the attribute of Gods infinitenesse MMMM Ibid. p. 10. The Mennonists in the mystery of the Trinity reject the word Person Ibid. p. 12. Their nicenesse about the word Person is from this that they do not unanimously nor constantly beleeve that Christ is a divine Person different from the Fathers begotten from eternity before his birth of the Virgin Mary And p. 17 We see the orthodoxe faith of the Trinity corrupted by the Mennonists NNNN Clopenburg in his preface in that harmonious discord of the confession of all the Anabaptists I laboured to take off the deceitfull faird of their Syncretisme which doth consist only in the ambiguity of words OOOO Ibid. p. 132. A few years ago among the Flemish Anabaptists three new sects were added to the former who excommunicate one another The occasion of this division was Thomas Benks the Bishop of the Anabaptists at Franeker who at the rouping of a certain house did elude the design of a friend who first intended to buy it this merchandize many of the Anabaptists did approve as honest but others of them did not only disallow it as deceitfull but also pronounced that deceit worthy of excommunication Vpon this occasion a rent was made but while these two parties are at variance there ariseth a third party of mid men and neutrals who did disallow the bargain as fraudulent yet did not judge that fraud so hainous as to deserve the rigorous censure of excommunication in the mean time these three sects howsoever unanimous in the chief heads of their doctrine yet they bolted out fearfull excommunications one against another and refused all mutuall communion PPPP Ibid. p. 431. the Hamaxarii and Borboritae were these Anabaptists who separating themselves from the old Mennonists because of their rigidity in censuring received in their Communion any that were excommunicated by the other Sects and so did heap up together all filthinesse QQQQ Master Marshals Defence against Tombs p. 76. The London Anabaptists Confession is such a one as I beleeve thousands of our new Anabaptists will be far from owning as any man may be able to say without a spirit of divination knowing that their usuall and received doctrines doe much more agree with the Anabaptists in Germany then with that handfull who made this confession CHAP. II. The Tenets of the old ANABAPTISTS THE errours of the Anabaptists and their divisions amongst themselves are so many The most applauded Tenets of our modern Anabaptists are the self-same with what the old Anabaptists did invent that to set them down distinctly in any good order is a task which I dare not undertake much lesse can I give assurance what is common to them all and what proper to their severall sects only that I may demonstrate the same very spirit to breath this day in the Anabaptists of Britain which inspired their Fathers of former times in Germany I will remark what tenets Authors of good credit ascribe to both hoping that this discovery may be a means to bring many simple wel-meaning people who are not yet plunged in the deeps of obstinacy to a more accurate triall and greater suspicion of their ways when they shall see it made visible and palpable upon undeniable evidence that their most beloved tenets and practises which they beleeve to be full of truth and holinesse are no other but the same very singularities which the known event doth now convince all who without prejudice can but read unquestionable Histories to have been the inventions and dictates of the false and unclean spirit which acted and moved in Muncer Becold David George and such like abominable monsters of mankind Their first and prime Tenet was a necessity of gathering Churches out of Churches and of separation from the best reformed in their time because of mixt communion The first and leading tenet of the old Anabaptists was a necessity to gather new Churches out of these which Luther and Zuinglius and their followers had reformed from Popery A It is remarkable that these men had never a stomach to trouble themselves with any labour to make converts from Popery or prophanenesse only so soon as gracious persons had drawn any Cities or Countries out of the kingdom of Antichrist then they fell on and every where did much disturb the work of the new Reformation B At the beginning they dissembled the grossest of their errours and their intention to quarrell infants baptism they did only presse a greater measure of holinesse and mortification then was ordinary C in this all good men went along with them but when they began to teach that the Church behoved to consist of no other members but such as were not in profession and aim alone but also visibly and really holy and elect and therefore that new Churches behoved to be gathered and that all the old any where extant behoved to be separate from as mixed and so corrupted societies then Luther and Zuinglius did oppose themselves to this schismatick humour D When they found themselves disappointed of the assistance of Luther and Zuinglius and all the rest of the orthodox Preachers without more delay they fell upon their intended work themselves alone first by private conventicles E then by preaching in the open streets they gathered and set up Churches after their own mind F consisting meerly of Saints G who did forbear communion in religious exercises with all other Churches H whom they avowed to be for the most part but worldly carnall and prophane Gospellers I and their best Preachers especially Luther and Zuinglius to be but Scribes and Pharisees false Prophets large as evill as the Pope and his Antichristian Priests K Antipaedobaptisme became at last their greatest darling For the stricter ingagement of the Saints and godly party their adherents and for the clearer distinction of them from the prophane multitude of all other Congregations they thought meet to put upon them the mark and character of a new Baptisme making them renounce their old as null because received in their infancy and in a false Church At the beginning this rebaptization was but a secondary and lesse principall Doctrine among them for Muncer himself was never rebaptized neither in his own person did he rebaptize any L yet thereafter it became a more essentiall note of a member of their Church and the crying down of infants baptism came to be a most principall and distinctive Doctrine of all in their way M They the authors of
of a Congregation so the whole House of Commons and every Member thereof are punishable in their life limbs and estate by the whole people and every free-born man in England RRRR even the poorest begger for as I take it there is not nor has not for many ages any person been born a slave in any part of Christendome I will not here interrogate where or how these Soveraign Lords the people can meet to hear an account All former Laws and Acts of Parliament must be abolished and to give out judgement upon their faulty servants the new Parliament of Commons only I would be resolved by what Law this very grand Jury of the whole people are like to proceed Shall the King and Lords and the ancient way of Parliaments take away with themselves all former Laws which have been their creatures we thought it might have been losse enough to have destroyed with the King and Lords such Laws as did concern their two abolished States in particular but we are taught a more deep lesson all the Laws which these six hundred years have produced must be cast into the bottom of the Sea for ever for since the Norman Conquest the great work of all Parliaments hath been how to contrive evill Laws for the oppression of the people SSSS Now I doubt if there be any authentick registers of English Laws before the Conquest this day extant or if any such be whether it shall be found expedient to keep them on foot when all the other are cassed and annulled The will of the multitude must stand for the Soveraign Law hereafter It seems our new Soveraigns the people the sole creators of all Kings and Parliaments when once they are established in their Supremacy will be loth to have their hands bound by the fetters of any humane Laws much lesse of those old forgotten worm-eaten Statutes which the Danish Saxon or British Tyrants in the time of their domination did obtrude as in Religion there must be no Law but what every man in his conscience thinks to be the sense of the word of God that is the supream rule to him so it must be in the State TTTT We know who has printed the unlawfulnesse to make any Laws for the State Scripture being alike well furnished in Laws for the State as for the Church VVVV But I conceive it will be a great deal more easie for a few persons in the generall Court of New England to agree in their applications of the word of God to every civill emergent then for that many headed Soveraign the whole people of old England the one may much more safely be troubled to rule according to their gift of Government without any written institute and humane Law XXXX then the other for I believe if the whole free-born people of England were set on the Bench to judge of all causes according as every one did conceive without any written Law all by-past constitutions being cancelled the government of our State would quickly become more arbitrary and confused then long could be endured and those inconveniences which they professe to be the only cause why as yet they do not totally abolish both the name and thing of a very House of Commons YYYY by a little experience should be found to be more and greater then now are imaginable But that we may proceed I do propone one only scruple more about the point in hand By what means so great changes in Church and State are like to be compassed for not only King Charles and all our living Lords but also Royalty and Lordship it self must be cast down The present House of Commons for their manifold misdemeanors must be dissolved and so the whole fabrick of our old corrupted State totally abolished and a frame wholly new put in its place wherein no footstep either of Monarchy or of Aristocracy may appear ZZZZ but the Soveraignty must rest in each individuall of the people as they speak AAAAA the most poor base weak foolish creatures possessing a like share of the Supremacy both civill and Ecclesiastick the Kinghood and the Priesthood as they call it BBBBB with the most noble wise able wealthy of the land CCCCC having it at their option to execute the Soveraign power by themselves or when they find it for their ease to nominate so many Deputies DDDDD every November EEEEE to be a Parliament of Commons to cognosce upon extraordinary incidents as their Soveraign the people shall prescribe them rules though in ordinary cases they declare their purpose to set up twelve men with a President in every Hundred who upon their oath of fidelity shall be intrusted to determine absolutely all causes belonging to that Hundred without appeale to any Judge except the Aniversary meeting of the whole peoples deputies FFFFF This new Ochlocratorick republick where every individuall participates of the Soveraignty The three fundamental Laws of our new Utopian Republick not as in Democracies where the better sort only of the people have voyce in Government whether they will be pleased to make to themselves a body of new Laws they have not so far as I observe as yet declared only they seem to set up three fundamentall rules First that in matter of Religion every man must be absolutely at his own disposition to believe speak write do what ever he thinks sit GGGGG Secondly that men in publick place either of Church or State must serve freely if they have any means of their own or otherwise if they be poor their greatest gages in the most eminent places shall not exceed the summe of 50 or at most 60 pounds a year HHHHH Thirdly that all men â—n all places shall be accountable and punishable in their life and estate by their Soveraign Lords the individuals of the people without all controll or appeal IIIII According to reason and experience the present distemper of the Sectaries is posting on fast to a Dictatorship absolute Tyranny in the hand of one Since all these things must be as our new Statists give the world assurance of their resolution to have them is it not like that before so great changes can be brought about much resistance will be made a strange confusion and bloodshed multitudes of difficulties cannot but fall in the way shall it not therefore be absolutely necessary that some men of known valour and courage whose wisdome faithfulnesse and successe long experience makes unquestionable be set up to command in name of the people for some time till these high and mighty designs may be gotten accomplished and the people once be set down in peace upon the high places whence the King Lords and Commons wont to pronounce these unjust Laws which now with their authours must be laid aside In such cases of extraordinary difficulty the wise people of Rome did oftentimes name a Dictator in whose hand for a certain time they placed all their power the Senate the Armies the Magistrates both
they are miscarried to practice against this profession they acknowledge their errour and duty to endeavour amendment and satisfaction I wish all our controversies were so near an end as this quickly may be I hope the Saints will not be so unreasonable as to make the beating of their unsanctified errours reflect upon any part of their sanctity especially when they who deal with them are so carefull as they can when they break their shels to remember what is within that they spoil not their pearl and for all which may offend in the cask and shard that the jewell and treasure which God has inclosed be not trod under foot Châ—rity and compassion to bâ— extended to our enemies This is almost all I have to say of the second caution also That in the greatest pangs of our zeal we never forget charity It 's true in this dead age where zeal against error or vice is so rare and where it is found of so low a degree that we need not draw it down by the mixture of any allaying adjunct yet because in some it has and in more it may exceed that charity which the Lord will have joyned with it we shall be loth to separate When ever we have to doe not only with them in whom we evidently see some rayes of the image of God but with very hypocrites whom we have but too good ground to suspect of counterfaiting yet for charities sake let us give them so far as evident verity will admit a good construction leaving the full account and certain search of them to the Lords fâ—rther discovery whether here or in his own day In the mean time for the sake of that grace and truth they carry in their face and mouth let us deal so gently with them as may be yea when we have to do with the grossest sinners let us never put off the bowels of pity and humanity to the worst of them Who hath made us of a better metall What sometimes have we been What before all our tryals be over may yet escape us or our children or our dearest friends Who knoweth how soon these wicked persons may receive mercy and be rescued out of Satans bands And though their wickednesse should continue yet they are not without abundant misery If it be not unhappinesse enough to be slaves to errour to vice to the Devill while they live to be instrumentall in the advancing of Satans Kingdome and active in destroying the precious souls of men yet their torments which abides them in hell are lamentable and a matter of great compassion to all who beleeve them What ever indignation we are obliged to carry against the sin yet we must pity the man and if any censure spirituall or temporall be inflicted upon him this justice must flow from the fountain of love and desire by that ordinary means to recover the person or else the execution will be no lesse heavy to the inflicter then to him on whom it is inflicted The clamours and invectives against the Presbyterians charity may well be neglected being so evidently caustesse Presbyteriâ—nâ— are far from persecuting any They are called persecutors when to this houre no power at all so much as of admonition is put in their hand and for this fault are cryed out upon by them who practise persecution to their power before the Sun If most bitter and injurious contumelies in word and print if crushing of a man in his credit and estate if threatning and beating by swords and staves onely for righteousnesse sake may come within the lines of any persecution As for the Presbyterians elsewhere why should their faults be charged upon the English before they be put in a condition to fall into them And yet I pray you how highly doth this humour of persecution raign in the worst of Presbyterians any where Doe they at all meddle with any mans goods liberty or life This has often been objected by some either ignorant or malicious men but as oft it has been rejected as a very injurious falshood Scotland which useth most to be burthened with this charge is sufficiently cleared of it in the Historicall Vindication All the Church censures there are meerly spirituall Excommunication in that Church is more rare and when it must be exercised is performed with much more leisure caution then amongst any of the Sects if so be they approve of any Discipline I am sure the principles either of the Independents or Brownists or Anabaptists permit them not to draw out so rarely and when it must be drawn to unsheath that sword any thing so leisurely and deliberately as the principles of the Presbyterians force them to doe If the State and Kingdome where the Presbytery doth dwell he pleased by the Acts of their Parliament to inflict any civill censure on excommunicate Papists or such who for obstinacy in a flagicious crime such as adultery murther or fornication or something worse what is that to the Church But this pâ—ssibly may be the matter the Church exhorts the State to the making and execution of Laws which may controul those whom Satan hath inspired to destroy themselves and all others they are able by their detestable errors for the punishment of them who make it their work to impugne and mock all the truths of God if this be the crime we will confesse our guiltinesse but withall that we esteem it a duty which the Parliaments of both Kingdomes have solemnly sworn to perform to their power If the chief framers and commenders of that Covenant at the beginning have since either discovered their hypocrisie or apostatized from their former sense or feigned a sense of their own to that solemn Covenant which is clearly destructive both to its plain words and known intention we can but pity and desire to be free of so grievous guiltinesse The third Caveat I spoke of was a true love to order The dignity and power of the Magistrate would be carefully preserved this is the season when the Prince of mis-rule Satan with all his power is building his Babell both in Church and State If ever order was necessary in the Church it is now more when every person man or woman young or old whose phansie is up must be at publick preaching and if in this they would square their words to any good rule it were the lesse evill But the most of their doctrines are meer conceits contrary to the truth of God Vnhappy Independents who opened at first and keep open to this day the door of the Church for these Satyres and Vultures these Iim and Ziim the great Owles and shriek Owls the wild beasts of the Desert and the wild beasts of the Island the Dragons and all the dolefull creatures to come in and defile to make havock of all that is most precious in the House of God But the order I mean here is chiefly in the State it will not satisfie the Masters of our mis-order
that circumcision did primarily seal the temporall promise and signified sanctification but secondarily I know the Anabaptists in Germany shame not to say that the Covenant made with Abraham was a meer carnall thing and had nothing to do with eternall life as for the expression of learned Cameron if by primarily he meaned immediately that it sealed these things first in order as they were types of spirituall things it may then passe cum grano salis but if by primarily he intended principally that circumcision did chiefly seal earthly blessings the opinion is too unsavoury to be received BB M. Marshals Defence 245. For my own part I seriously professe that supposing infant Baptism a nullity I cannot understand how any in the world should this day be lawfully baptized unlesse it can be made good that a person unbaptized himself may be a lawfull Minister of baptism to others Tombs Apology p. 54. That none be admitted to the Lords Supper till he be rightly baptized I professe is to be stood upon in point of prudence for right order yet if it be stood upon in point of conscience so as in no case the contrary is to be permitted it will of necessity make many superstitious perplexities for besides that it may be doubted whether all the Apostles were baptized who yet were admitted to the Lords Supper by Christ himself when Constantine the Great and others did deferre their Baptism so long it is not likely they never received the Lords Supper before their Baptisme CC Tombs Apology p. 31. I do count the story of the Anabaptists to contain in it many things the true reasons of which and the true knowledge of the circumstances concerning them will not appear till the day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God DD Ibid. p. 32. How farre the Anabaptists sought reformation I cannot tell it is plain that Carolostadius and Pelargus and some say Melancthon would have reformed it in Saxony had not Luthers pertinacy in that as well as Consubstantiation and Images withstood it and Baltazar Hubmer sought it at Zurick and was denied it is known I think the reformed Churches have been to blame and so may be our present reformers that they have never yeelded to reform it in a regular way EE Ibid. p. 106. M. Marshals Book it appears was contrived by divers I believe the ablest of the Assembly I wish it were declared whether the paedobaptists would stick to that work or any other FF Ibid. p. 93. And though many magnifie the vertue and benefit of their juridicall excommunication yet the best intelligence I have makes me question whether it hath not b en rather an engine of much harm as being used rather against dissenters in opinion and opposers of profit then men openly vitious managers of that censure generally shewing themselves irreconciliable to them that dissent from them but favourable enough to vitious living GG Ibid. p. 57. I was told there was a very intelligent man that said he was sorry that I had M. Marshall for my Antagonist as knowing him to be apt to mistake which he conceived would be a vexation to me and indeed I finde his words true p. 69. I must confesse I finde M. Marshall still so confused a Disputer that I know not to what purpose his manner of writing in this point should tend but to puzzle his Reader and weary his respondent HH Ibid. p. 19. M. Marshall says that I vilifie M. Thomas Goodwin as a man who by spinning out similitudes and conjectures deceives his auditors I say still that I expected from M. Goodwin arguments but counted my self deluded with his conjectures finding nothing to his purpose in any of these Texts which were the main he alledged HH 2 Ibid. p. 3. I saw few or none regarded for clearing the truth but popular Orators such as relate to great men or are usefull to uphold a party are the men esteemed And p. 95. I may rather say that by my two Treatises there is such a wound given already to infant baptisme that however men may play the Mountebanks and skin it over it will never be cured at the bottom II Vide supra BB. KK Ibid. p. 10. I durst not justifie such a practise as to gather a separated Church LL Vide supra C. MM Vide supra BB. NN Tombs Apology p. 92. I doubt much how hence may be concluded any power of suspension from the Lords Supper for every emergent scandall so judged by a congregation or congregationall Presbytery OO Ibid. p 91. I have said that I doubted whether ever excommunication a sacris or the Presbyterian or the Independent Ecclesiasticall Government would be proved to be Jure Divino by Christs appointment and I doubt whether the power of the Keyes Matth. 16. be any other then doctrinall and whether Matth. 18. contain any other direction then about particular injuries betwixt brother and brother or Let him be to thee a Heathen and Publican be any other then shunning familiar converse PP Ibid. I confesse that I take it to be but a matter of prudence whether each congregation have its compleat power within it self or that it be ordered in some things by an Assembly of select persons out of divers congregations and whether congregations and Pastors be fixed or unfixed p. 93. I suppose in the manner of doing these things we have not certain precise direction from Gods word but that we are left free by God to order such things though pertaining to Christians as Christians by alterable rules of prudence QQ Ibid. p. 93. Nor doth the Church lose by having a Christian Magistrate if that jurisdiction be wanting sith I suppose it is better provided for by the constant care of a Christian Magistrate if conscientious in executing judgement if not such censures have been seldome executed with conscience or good effect RR M. Marshals Defence p. 73. Have not multitudes of our Anabaptists swallowed down all Arminianisme SS A Defence of the lawfulnesse of infants baptism in answer to M. Spilsberry VV M. Spilsberry peculiar interest of the elect in Christ and his saving grace XX Gangren first Part division second p. 23. M. Den exercises in Lambs Church the usuall theme that he is upon is Christs dying for all for Judas as well as Peter he often preaches this Doctrine as those who have heard him do report this is the everlasting Gospel to beleeve that Jesus Christ hath dyed for all men Turks Pagans and that all the sins of men committed against the morall Law were actually forgiven and pardoned when Jesus Christ shed his blood and none of them that ever men had committed or should were imputed to them but men were onely damned for not beleeving in Christ and for nothing else YY Ibid. p. 36. Oats who is a great Dipper and Preacher amongst them delivered in Bell-Alley in Colemanstreet not long ago that the Doctrine of Gods eternall election and predestination was a damnable Doctrine and
ears in Baptisme Matth. 3.13.16 Then commeth Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto Iohn to be baptized of him and Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water Iohn 3.23 And Iohn also was baptizing in Enon because there was much water there Act. 8.38 39. And he commanded the Chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him and when they were come up out of the water c. Ans First suppose that in all these places dipping had been used it follows not that it was so universally we have proved that divers Scripturall baptismes were by sprinkling and not by dipping Secondly although dipping had been universall in the Primitive times yet thâ—s practise would not inferre any necessity of its continuance unlesse two things were made good first that practice and example alone is a sufficient ground for the institution of a Sacramentall rite again that every circumstance of a Sacrament generally practised in Scripturall times must be of an unchangeable and unvariable nature and so necessary that without sin it may not in any case be altered Thirdly none of the places alledged doe look towards the dipping of a naked person over head and ears which is the main question Fourthly there is no word expresly in any of the places of dipping and if they will admit us to dispute by consequences see if from any of those places there be a necessary inference of any dipping the multitude of waters in the third of John John 3.23 infers not the plunging of all who were baptized in them but onely the conveniency of baptizing a multitude rather in a place of many waters then in a desert void of water such as many places in Canaan were In the days of the Patriarchs the finding of a fountain in these bounds was a rare and singular benefit however we deny that the conveniency of much water for the baptizing of a multitude of people does import a necessity of dipping any who are baptized therein The other place of Act. 8.38 39. imports Philip and the Eunuchs going down from the coach towards the water and their ascending again into the coach from the lower place where the water was but doth either this descending or ascending infer Philips stripping of the Eunuch and dipping him over head and ears in that water The third place is not so important for it speaks nothing of Christs going down into the water and what it says of his comming up may well be expounded of the low situation of the river beneath the field where John did preach readily they have stood on the brink or within the river when they were sprinkled and had the water of the river poured upon them but that in the midst of that multitude Christ did discover himself and that John so oft as he baptized any did cause to strip both himself and them and went so naked with them into the river taking them in his arms and plunging them therein is a matter of so great unlikelihood that without Scripture or greater reason then yet appears it may not be admitted The third objection Immersion is necessarily to be practised because it signifies our buriall with Christ The third objection That Baptisme is a sign of the buriall of Christ has no reference at all to Immersion according to Rom. 6.3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore wee are buried with him by Baptisme unto death also Col. 2.12 Buried with him in Baptisme wherein also you are risen with him Ans First it is a presumption in any man to put a divine institution upon any rite which in its own nature is onely indifferent But it is a presumption in the highest degree to affixe a signification to any such rite we grant Baptisme for its signification has the death of Christ and all the fruits thereof also that it seals to us our fellowship not onely in Christs death but in his buriall his resurrection his ascension his sitting at the right hand of God but what divers Scriptures and particularly the places in hand do ascribe to Baptisme we have no warrant to apply it unto immersion Secondly if men would goe to make analogicall significations according to their own pleasure we might say that sprinkling did put water upon the head and so the whole person under the water and by this were a sign of buriall as well as immersion It makes nothing against this that by sprinkling a little quantity of water is applyed onely to the head and much water by dipping is applyed to the whole body for in Sacraments the quantity of the element the shortnesse of the outward action is not attended The tasting of a little bread and a little wine does signifie to us our full communion with the whole body and the whole blood of Christ as well as the largest banquet of wine and all delicates could do The cutting off a very little from one part of the body only did signifie the Circumcision and cutting off of the whole body of corruption as wel as if much skin much flesh had been cutted off from every member even so the sprinkling of a little water may signifie and seal up unto us our participation in Christs life death buriall resurrection and every thing else of his wherein we have interest as well as a totall immersion in the whole Ocean for so long a time as Jonah lay under the billows of the great deep Thirdly this argument draws us to two great inconveniences The danger of dipping First a necessity as we would not abolish a Sacramentall and significant rite to keep every baptized person so long a time wholly under the water as may sensibly expresse Christs buriall under the ground now to be put for so long a time wholly under the water by the hand of a weak Minister though never so carefull to preserve cannot but bring an evident hazard of life or health to many Secondly consider if it bring not in the institution of a new Sacrament whereof none that yet I have heard of have spoken the Sacrament of emersion The new Sacrament of Emersion at least the addition of this as a new large half unto the old Sacrament of Baptisme or Immersion this their new rite of emersion does signifie and seal up to us as they say our resurrection with Christ this can be no part of baptisme or immersion nor rationally be comprehended under it though always it were conjoyned and did follow at its back for emersion and immersion are contraries and one contrary is not a part nor cannot goe under the name of the other except you will make bitter sweet and darknesse light Unto those Arguments of the Disputants the Treatiser adds nothing considerable in all his long Discourse except some testimonies partly from Protestant but most from Popish
New Testament p. 34 They deny angels and devils and souls They deny heaven and hell and eternall life They cast away all the Ordinances of God p. 35 David George to them was spirituall Christ much more excellent then Christ crucified Many people were ready to seal with their bloud all these abominations The monster David George did live and die in plenty and peace The best of the Anabaptists have very grosse errors The Mennonists deny originall sinne p. 36 In the points of election redemption grace free-will perseverance justification perfection they are grosser then the Arminians or Iesuites They are yet more absurd They deny the omnipresence of God They deny the Trinity And the truth of Christs humanity p. 37 They refuse all consequences from Scripture They refuse reasoning from the Old Testament The covenant with Abraham they make carnall They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace CAP. III. The modern tenets of the Anabaptists in England THe spirit of Anabaptisme clearly devillish p. 47 The fair profession of many English Anabaptists not to bee trusted What errours may be charged upon all what onely upon some of them p. 48 The confession of the seven Churches is a very imperfect and ambiguous declaration of their judgement Let no errour be charged upon any man which he truly disclaims A brief sum of all the Anabaptists errors Every Anabaptist is at least a rigid Separatist p. 49 Though the Independents offer to collude with the Anabaptists yet they separate from the Independents no lesse then from the Brownists as antichristian p. 50 They avow all their members to be holy and elect and some of them are for their perfection p. 51 After they have separate from all other Churches they run next away from their own selves They charge one another with Antichristianisme They are Independents They put all Church power in the hand of the people They give the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments to any of their gifted members out of all office p. 52 Even unto women They must not preach in a Steeple-house p. 53 All Tithes and all set Stipends are unlawfull their Preachers must work with theit own hands and may not goe in blacke cloathes They celebrate the Lords Supper in any common Innes after another feast All the new light of the Independents and Brownists is borrowed from the Anabaptists The anointing of the sick with oyle the rejecting of the Lords Prayer of all set Psalms of Vniversities and humane learning are the Anabaptists inventions The Independent Apologists are for liberty to most of the Sects 54 And some of their prime friends are for a generall liberty to all 55 The Anabaptists deny all power to Magistrates in any thing which concerns Religion Turkisme Popery Atheisme the greatest blasphemies they would not have punished with so much as a discountenance They presse a liberty for preaching and propagating openly all errours imaginable Yet they grant that errour is a soul-murder and a greater crime then the destruction of a King of a Parliament of a whole Nation p. 56 They hate the Covenant They are injurious to the Scots p. 57 All punishing of errour with them is persecution They presse liberty of conscience much out of policy p. 58 The granting of all this liberty will not assure the Magistrates of the Sectaries civill obedience p. 59 The tenets and practise of the Sectaries destroy Magistracy They professe their design to overturn from the ground the government of our State as now it stands Kings and Lords are no more tolerable Neither is the House of Lords any longer to be endured p. 60 The poorest begger in the land has a share of the Soveraignty above the King and Parliament All former Laws and Acts of Parliament must be abolished p. 61 The will of the multitude must stand for the Soveraign Law hereafter p. 62 The three fundamentall Laws of our new Vtopian Republick p. 63 According to reason and experience the present distemper of the Sectaries is posting on fast to a Dictatorship and absolute Tyranny in the hand of one The State in danger by the Sectaries principles p. 64 The greatest purchase which the overturners of States usually make is a late repentance p. 65 CAP. IV. Their Antipaedobaptisme Arminianisme Arrianisme Familisme and other wicked errours ALL Anabaptists are for Antipaedobaptisme They avow the nullity of our Baptisme p. 89 They presse on us a re-baptization They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace and make Circumcision a seal onely of carnall promises Many of them deny originall sin and assert all the articles of Arminius p. 90 They separate from all who renounce not Paedobaptisme Yet they admit into their Churches many much worse then these from whom they separate p. 91 Sprinkling to them nullifies Baptisme M. Tombes new way He is a rigid Antipaedobaptist yet not against sprinkling He spoils all infants of all interest in the covenant of grace p. 92 He is a friend to the worst Anabaptists and injurious to all who oppose them He makes Baptisme a rite needlesse either to young or old He admits of a frequent re-baptization He admits unbaptized persons to the Lords Table He is a grosse Erastian The most of the Anabaptists are Arminians p. 93 The second Edition of their confession is not so free of Arminianism as the first The chief Churches of the Anabaptists are grosse Arminians p. 94 Many of them are Antinomians laying aside all care of morall duties Making all grief for sin unlawfull p. 95 Denying Christs satisfaction and reconciliation of God to men The best of them are inclineable to Libertinisme The Antinomian controversies are not as the prime Independents doe make them onely about words and methods of preaching p. 96 Many of the Anabaptists are become Seekers denying all Churches all Officers all Ordinances Many of the Anabaptists are become Antitrinitarians p. 97 Richardson one of their prime leaders a blasphemer of the Trinity p. 98 Divers of them are abominable bl sphemers of Christs Person Others of them are become perfect Atheists They evert and reject the whole Scripture p. 99 Many of them are turned Familists denying the immortality of the soul Denying Heaven and Hell Angels and Devils Some of them make the world eternall others all creatures to perish p. 100 Some deny all resurrection others make the beasts rise to glory They teach abominable obscenities They follow David George in his greatest absurdities The divine light of their new Prophet The fall of Adam and the clearest Scriptures are but allegories The whole Divinity suffered in the Person of Christs humanity p. 101 The great light which this Prophet brings from heaven is that all the Devils and all the Reprobates shall be saved by his Gospel Randall his grosse Familisme p. 102 No resurrection no heaven no hell after this life The Saints in this life become as perfect as God The clearest Scriptures are false in a literall sense That God is