outward Ordinances and institutions and from thenceforth i. e. from the several periods of their presence with them establish them in a more compleat posture then before and each Church severally in its own proper order Moses then was the Mediator of the Old Testament established upon Earthly promises and so gave precepts accordingly but Christ the Mediator of the new which is called a better Testament established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. and so gives his precepts not by the mouth of Moses but as he pleases Besides all this though the Covenant of Circumcision made with that fleshly holy seed began before Moses yet whether that denomination of a holy seed a holy Nation and people did begin so high as Abraham or before such time as Moses and Aaron had according to Gods command to them ceremonially sanctified by the bloud of sprinkling and dedicated both the Book of the Covenant and all the people and all the vessells of the Ministery and all other things pertaining to that Tabernacle for both that holy people and all their ceremonially holy things whereby you need not be ignorant unless you will that the holiness of that seed and their sanctuary was the same and began and were to end both together were first consecrated didicated purified sanctified all at one time under Moses Heb. 9. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. c. whether I say the holiness of the seed began so high as Abraham is a thing so out af doubt to me that I dare say that as the holy land was not relatively holy till they came into it so the holy seed as well as the other holy things of that Covenant were not ceremonially consecrated nor form ally sanctified nor vouchsafed that title of a holy seed though vertually they were a choise seed before till a little before they were to enter it and howbeit I challenge no man yet I intreat any man in the world to shew me if he can where they were denominated and distinguished from all other people as unclean by that term of a holy people till God intituled them so by Moses Exod 22. 31. ye shall be holy men unto me neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts ye shall cast it to doggs which place compared with Levit. 22. 8. 9. Deut. 7. 6. chap. 14. 2. chap. 26. 19. doth so plainly shew these two things First That the holiness there spoken of began but thenceforth Secondly that it was but a certain ceremonial distinction and a holinese opposite to that kind of defilement which might be contracted by eating of unclean beasts and so fully ceased in Christ that I even blush to read Mr. Blake and have been ashamed in my mind to hear some Independents also bring those Scriptures wherein God called Israel a holy people to himself to prove that an inchurched believers meer fleshly seed is now by nature holy in the same sense Now then let us hear the conclusion of this whole matter of the things that have been spoken this is the summe viz. that there are three kinds of holiness of which when you say children of believing parents have holiness and consequenrly the spirit you undoubtedly mean one viz. Matrimonial Ceremonial Moral The Middlemost of which because your fellow laborers against the Gospel intend that chiefly in their books I have treated on last and most largely and I now say three things of it in special First That it is a Holinesse which once was but now is not in being Secondly That it is a Holiness which of it self when it was in being as it was at the beginning of the Gospel before Christ crucified could not without faith and moral holiness interest the persons in whom it was seated in any of these three things viz. Gospel Promises Gospel Priviledges or Gospel Ordinances 1. Not the premises for they were made to Abraham in Christ and his spiritual seed not his own fleshly seed upon such terms as bare birth of his body or such holiness and righteousness as was under the Law intituling to Canaan Rom. 4. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 16. 29. 2. Not the priviledges viz. Gospel immunities and Church-membership for those that could plead they were under the typical freedomes of the old house or Church under the Law as Abrahams seed only were are denyed by Christ to be that holy seed that should stand in the Gospel house that was now to be built or share in that spiritual freedome which the sonne gives which is the only freedome indeed unlesse they did Abrahams works Iohn 8. 32. to the 40 ta 3. Nor yet the Ordinances no not so much as Baptism the initiating ordinance it self for when that old holy seed remaining yet under their relative and denominative holiness unabolished did plead it as to baptism they were put back by Iohn and not permitted barely upon that account upon which they stood in the old house without faith unless they now believed and amended their lives whose repulse of them when they came to his baptism was this viz. begin not to say we have Abraham to our Father c. Mat. 3. 7 8 9. Luke 3. 7. 8. Thirdly suppose baptism were entailed so to that holinesse and a meer fleshly seed of believers or of believing Abraham himself as truly as t is true it is not yet how grossely were you overseen Gentlemen in undertaking to prove the holy spirit by it to be in infants for that 's the probandum the very thing which by the holinesse of infants you went about to make good for the minor of your first fylogism which was this but little children have the holy spirit being denied was proved say you first by their faith secondly by their holinesse thirdly by those Eulogies given them in Scripture if then by holinesse you mean this kind of holiness I mean ceremonial which once was in the Iews by nature you have a wet â—…le by the tail then indeed for ask but Mr. Blake and he 'le tell you that that holinesse was in thousands who yet had not the holy spirit yea in truth all the Iews had that holinesse of whom not a Tenth even then when they had it were either in infancy or at years morally sanctified or indued with the holy spirit and as I have said these three things in special concerning that one kind of holinesse so I have three things in general to say in short concerning al these three sorts of holinesse viz. First one of them was in infants of old and now is not but is vanisht and when it was it proved not the spirit viz. ceremonial Secondly another is but nothing to your purpose I mean the proof of the spirit though it be in most infants viz. matrimonial Thirdly the other is not yet come for ought yet appears to infants viz. morall which if it did appear to be in them positive qualitativè as an inherent quality not negative onely so as to be without sin or absolutely innocent for
he travelled with the Galathians till Christ was form'd in them whoâ—… also he bespeaks as Iohn also doth his converts 1 Iohn 2. 1. by the name of my little 〈◊〉 Gal 4. 19. thus far if you will I agree with you but your cause will be no gainer by this agreement that as ceremonially holy ones begat ceremonially holy ones under the law as a tipe in a way of carnall copulation so spiritually holy ones beget spiritually holy ones in a Gospel sense by their spiritual communion and communication for as Christ himself who supremely begets so true Christians as agents and instruments under him may be said to multiply and see their seed when in their endeavours to beget others to the faith the work will way and pleasure of the Lord doth succeed and prosper in their hands thâ—… holy seed therefore that answers under the Gospel to that holy seed the Jews 〈◊〉 under the law as the substance of that shadow that with all the reâ—…is 〈◊〉 â—…d away is Christ and his truely morally and spiritually holy ones onely 〈◊〉 holy seed of the law or that seed which was holy in the old Covenants 〈◊〉 were but as the leaves of an oak which though they flourish and make a shew â—…r a time yet at last are cast off and fall to the ground but the holy 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Gospel sense i. e. the Saints and true believers not their natural seâ—… with 〈◊〉 foâ—… they are onely Semen carnis and that not of Abraham neithâ—… 〈◊〉 the Iâ—…w is who yet hath thereupon onely no part nor portion in this matter 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Gentiles these Saints I say are the true Semen fidei children of the faith and 〈◊〉 seed of Abraham and also the very substance thereof as Isa. 6. 13 as the Prophet there speaks of the truly Godly so I say the substance of the Church of the Iews now it hath cast it leaves i. e. all its former figurative holinesse holy Priests and holy â—…eed the substance thereof is still in them For all things under the law and old Testament even the whole Covenant and Testament it self as well as every part and parcel of the â—…ame did but serve unto the example and shadow of the New Testament will and Covenant that stands ratified by the blood of the Testator as neither was the first dedicated without blood and the more holy and true heavenly things thereof yea as wâ—…ll the holy promises that were made to that holy seed as the holy precepts upon performance of which they were made and the holy seed it self also to whom the promises were made and of whom these precepts were required did exemplifie a better Testament and those better promises upon which it is established and the better and more spiritual ordinances which in order thereunto are to be observed and that better and far more holy seed that observing these ordinances shall at last inherit which all were to come in under Christ and before which all the other were to vanish viz. First a heavenly Canaan Country Kingdom inheritance substance peace prosperity plenty advancement rest immunity glory answering to all that of Israels which was but earthly Secondly the life of faith and obedience to Christs law which is more inward and spiritual Mat. 5. answering that law of commandements conteined in ordinances given by Moses which was more ad extra and carnal Thirdly that holy seed which is not of the law of Moses nor of the flesh of Abraham by generation but of Christ by regeneration the seed or successors of the faiâ—…h of Abraham and so heirs with him by that faith of all Gospel-promises answering Antipically to the other for though the promise of being heirs of the old Canaan which was but a spot of the world and pickt out as a pattern for the time was made to Abraham and his seed through the law i. e. the children of Isaac and Iacob which were counted for his seed under the law viz. the natural branches of his body for these onely were the heirs of that old earthly legall and tâ—…pical land of promise in token of which all the males were circumcised in their â—…lesh yet the promise that Abraham should be heir of the world which is the Gospel pointed at couched and exhibted tipically in the delivery of the other was not made to Abraham and that seed of his through the law quâ—…tales only unless they were as some few were by faith his seed in the other sense also but through the righteousness of faith i. e. to the branches grafted in by personal believing in Christ Rom. 4. 13 14. where the Apostle saies plainly that if they which are of the law and circumcision only meaning the fleshly seed of Abraham as such unless they also walk in the steps of that faith which Abraham had be heirs with him of the world which is the thing promised in the Gospel then faith which is made the onely term intitling to Gospel-promises is made void and the promise of just no effect at all much more may we say if the fleshly sâ—…d of your Gentile believers most of which are no believers neither be heirs of this Gospel-promise and Gospel-inheritance as so born so that they may be signed for heirs by the Gospel-ordinance of baptism upon that meer and simple account of their parents being believers without respect to faith in their own persons then the Gospell requires faith to be acted by us in order to salvation altogether in vain and to no purpose yeâ—… if goâ—…pel promises and priviledges be intailed to me upon my fathers being a believer I need no faith of mine own as to the making of me an heir thereof and if it were so as you commonly say but most horrible in considerately from Acts 2. 39. that the promise of the Gospel is not onely to the believers but also to their bodily issue as barely descending from them qua sic simpliciter and without their own personal faith which in infancy appears no more to be in them then infants of unbelievers and which if it appears as oft it doth in unbelievers children when they come to years and not in the other declares them to be heirs apparent thereof when the other are not then I say plainly that all believers children must unavoidably be saved if God be true in his promise though when they come to years thâ—… never believe and live never so prophanely the terms being still fulfilled upon which you say the promise is made to them which is this being born of believing parents for the prophanness of their lives and non-believing themselves Non est causa quo minus c. is no cause whereupon they are a whit less the seed of believers after the flesh and if so and also that that only gives a title to the promise then he that made that promise on those terms viz. being the fleshly seed of believers the terms of being so born being fulfilled by all
their fleshly seed quá tales unless they also believe when they come to years for if they be taken away in infancy both they and all other infants of whom I find not where God requires faith so dying may be saved without it and are too though it cross your cruel conceit of heathen infancy this promise I say was made by Peter to unbelievers and their children yea and is in very deed to all men in the world and their children Jewes or Gentiles neer or far off whether in time or place yea to every Creature that then was hath been since now is or ever shall be to the worlds end is the promise made Mark 16. 15 16. by Christ himself who is the purchaser of eternal salvation for all men though actually the eternal saviour of none of those to whom his Gospel is preached save only such as obey him Heb. 5. 9. yet none of all this warrants your sprinkling believers infants onely in their infancy any more then it warrants your sprinkling of so many hundreds of unbelievers infants as you do still as sâ—…riet as you lace up baptism to believers infants onely in the state of your question for to say no more then the truth that 's another of your Hâ—…us pocus's which when your customers come to find out they will be ashamd of you you of your selves if you be not past it you I say yea specially you of the strict Presâ—…ytery who cry out upon your parish people as for the most part profane and ignorant impenitent and unbelieving in such a wretched condition that except they bâ—… converted they will perish nor dare you admit them to the Supper least they eat and drink their own damnation and yet their children are the seed of believers with you still to whom belong the promises and right to the seals for their sakes Yea O ye several parishes where these men preach not in the city only but in the Countreys of Kent Sussox and other places let me Apostrophize a little to you least your Clergy should not heed it if I speak onely to them have you not heard your teachers thundring you as Malignants for the most part tâ—…reatthreatning you to come in and to be reconciled to God as those that are yet enemies to him and his people meaning those few that are better friends to them then the major part oâ—… you are calling to you as crucifiers of Christ and preaching Peters doctrine Act. 2. by the halves saying repent repent for how beit they should say somewhat more to such sinners as you seem to be in their eyes viz. repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Christ for remission of sins yet they put themselves out of all capacity of preaching and you of practising thus whilest they make you believe you are aforehand in the business of baptism because of something like or rather very unlike it which was dispensed to you in infancy called sprinkling which they have sprinkled into the name of baptism yea have not some of them kept the Lords Supper wholly from you all for as many years together as they have lived among you and the rest kept back many hundreds of you as wicked and unworthy from that ordinance communicating in it with two or three score upon such like pretence of Scripture viz. what communion what part hath light with darknsss Christ with Belial the Temple of God and Idolators believers and infidells for what else can they pretend for if you were all believers and all walking in the light as God is in the light ye might have fellowship one with another therin the blood of Christ his son cleansing you from all sin as to the Supper therfore you are unbelievers yet are you not all or at least the most of you believers when you have children to be sprinkled you are unbelievers when your Minister is in the Pulpit and at the â—…able but owned all as believers while he stands at the Font or Bason whose persons for want of faith repentance and better behavior they will not admit to the Supper do you not see how you are nosed and gulled and Priest-ridden whilest with them you are ungodly persons and yet godly parents Church-members and belivers at one time and yet neither this nor that at another one while sheep specially at washing and sharing time whose little ones are lambs that must be bosom'd and brought to Christ and baptized as those to whom the Kingdome of heaven and priviledges of it are intailed and belong by right of generation and birth of Christian professors and many such good morrowes another while viz. at next Communion that entail is cut off again you being unbelievers and perhaps to go round again at next child you have to christen its tack on again so that when they are pleased or rather profitted by that title you are the flock of God purchased with his own blood over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers both to feed and feed on and when they please to improve the power and turn the key of the kingdome upon you they shut in with an hand ful of their own leaven as the true Turtle choise Church spiritual Spouse Synagogue of Saints and lock twenty to one of you out from feasting with them as a company of Carrion Crowes of Carnal Christians hateful haâ—…gbyes Servants of Satan as a heard of Wolves and Goats and Dogs and Swine Again some of you say Paedobaptism is a tradition of the Church as Dr. Gouge who used such an assertion to Mr. Barber as an Argument to him to take the oath ex officio and therefore belike being like to offend his fellowes if he did he would not at any hand deliver his opinion pro or con in answer to Dr. Chamberlain whether the sprinkling of infants were of God or man also Mr. Daniel Rogers who saith it is as reverend a Tradition of the Church as any but confesses himself unconvinced by any demonstration of Scripture for it others say it is an Apostolicall Tradition and institution of Christ and among these some say there is neither expresse nor positive command or example for it in the New Testament as Mr. Hunton yet good consequence for all that from the Old to prove it Christs Ordinance yea as good from the New as there is for women to eat the Supper as Mr. Marshall though the best consequence that I find the wisest of you make is to me as far fetcht as Peter had the keyes given to him therefore the Pope may sell pardons for money and save as many souls as he pleases and that 's a ground or conseqence as far short as an improbabillity yea as an impossibility is to a certainty in respect of that which is for womens fellowship in the supper for there 's as much president and precept too for that as there is for mens if either women may be disciples believers and Church
they should be accepted from such a judgement To which I answer Do you know any thing against the particular infant of an heathen if this be a reason upon which we are to judge any infants in particular to have faith because we know nothing againstany particular t is a reason upon which we are in charity to judge all particular infants in the world to have faith as well as any yea the infants of infidels as well as Christians for who knoweth any thing more against the infant of an infidell in his infanny whereby he should be excepted from our charitable opinion of him then he knows against the infant of a Christian especially that I may to your confutation conclude against you in your own words p. 5. 6. since it cannot appear that one of these more then the other hath by any â—…ctual sin barred himself and deserved to be exempted from the general staâ—…e of little infants declared in the Scripture viz. that the kingdom of heaven belongs to them So having run through and repelled that rout of responsives that would not be ruled by reason I come now to enter skirmish with your Scare-crow for verily what follows is no other then a false Alarum a sound of words a number of Iackeâ—…s and Breeches stuft with stubble and bombasted into the shape of men in arms to fright fools at a distance Review We shall only present to the Christian Reader those horrid sins this wretched error of the Anabaptists involves men in and so for bear to be further troublesome it may be the sight will make many tremble and forsake their tents and not suffer them to be so frolick about the hâ—…le of the Asp or play with the Leviathan and walk upon the ridge of thosâ—… Alps whose Praecipice is so fearfull Re-Review Bona verba quaeso and not thunder without lightning Review 1. It makes them deny their first â—…aith with their baptism for there is but one faith saith the Apostle and one baptism Eph. 4. 5 Re-review Aliâs it makes them first confesse and visibly professe that one faith and own that one baptism which what ever they did in words in works they denyed till now and makes them renounce that none faith and none baptism which they had in infancy for if they had faith while they were infants how can they deny it in your opinion who deny any falling from faith but if they had none in infancy then how can you deny but that they had none and so they deny none at all Review 2. It makes them crucify Christ again for we are baptized inâ—…o Christs death and therefore but once because Christ dyed but once Re-review It makes them crucify Christ often ore and ore again indeed i. e. in the Supper where in a figure they break his body and shed his blood an orderly fellowship and communion in which service they are ingaged to and enter upon after the example of those Acts 2. 42. immediately after baptism Other crucifying Christ I know none among them that is caused by their doctrine but that of those who after they are inlightned in it and have tasted the good word of God c. do after that fall away again and such indeed crucify to themselves the sonne of God a fresh and put him to open shame Heb. 6. 4. but I hope the truth among none but Reâ—…nlesse persons shall bear the blame and be made the cause of their crucifyings of Christ who depart from it as for us we are crucifyed dead and buried with Christ by baptism Rom. 6. for we are baptized into his death and that but once because Christ dyed but oâ—…ce and yet once because Christ dyed once and that is more then any Rantized Priest in Châ—…istendome can say of himself for he is not so much as once baptized at all Review 3. It makes them count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing for if it be holy what need they repeat it if unholy how do they prophane it Re-review How far forth Anabaptism properly so called i. e the repetition of baptism without such warrantable ground as it was repeated upon Act. 19. 5. doth saving the nonsense that is in that expression repeat the bloud of the Covenant and so count it an unholy thing I am not so much a friend to it as to gain say but sure I am that A-no-baptism and such yours is doth count not only the bloud of the Covenant but also that holy ordinance of baptizing believers which is the token of it an unholy thing for if it be holy why do you neglect it if unholy in so saying oh how do you prophane it Review 4. It makes the Covenant of the Gospel worse then the lâ—…gal this taking in all Children into the visible Church the Anabaptists excluding them making them no better than Turks and Pagans Re-review What again Review 5. It destroyes all the comforts that afflicted parents can have over their deceased children the grounds of them being destroyed their right in the covenant and promises of Christ. Re-review What again Review 6. It unchristens the whole Church of God for many hundreds of years together and calls in question the truth of Christs promises of being present with his Church to the end and guiding it by his spirit into all truth Re-review What again what ore ore and oreagain are you drawn so dry that you are fain to fill up to swell up your Review into the magnitude of a sheet with old ends and pieces and patches of things that were precedent or did these three Renegadoes fearing a storm run from their old ranks hither to secure themselves by câ—…ouding in amongst the rest of this rubbish stuff for every one of them have faced us once or twice a piece before page 6. 7. 12. 13. neverthelesse sith I meet with them here again I le have a word or two with every of them now To the first I say thus if the legal covenant did take in all children into the visible Church as you say as indeed it did i. e. as well the children of unbelieving as of believing Jewes neither had the one of these a strawes more right to circumcision then the other then sith the Covenant of the Gospel is inlarged and communicated to both Jewes and gentiles between whom the partition wall is broken down and they both made one And sith now by the Priests own confession it stands in the same way to be administred among the Jewes and Gentiles as that legal Covenant did for a time among the Jewes only the Priest himself makes the covenant of the Gospel worse then the legal that taking in at least to the visible Church all children of that people to whom it extended i. e. the Jewes without any exception without any respect to the parents being godly or ungodly believers or unbelievers the priests contrariwise under the Gospel Covenant which extends and belongs to the whole world i.
head and all under for a time answerable to Christs three daies burial which cannot be without danger yea certainty of drowning 2. If it should be granted that a representation and resemblance of Christs death burial and resurrection is set before us in baptism and so of our death to sin and rising again to holinesse yet I demand why this may not as well be by infusion of water as dipping can you give me an example of so many killed and buried by immersion or dipping into the water as I can give of them that have been put to death and buried by infusion of water I am sure a whole world of men and other creatures those few that were in the Ark only excepted were buried in the universal deluge at once by infusion not by dipping so that infusion or sprinkling may as well clearly signifie death and burial as dipping and to the preservation of Noâ—…h and those that were with him in the Ark on which waters were poured from drowning the Apostle compares baptism as its Antitype Thus far Mr. Cook p. 16 17. And then again p. 19 20. 21. he undertakes further viz. to argue back again upon us at large and to prove that if there must needs be a resemblance and representation in baptism of the things that are signified therby then it may be as well nay must be rather by washing pouring sprinkling then by dipping and putting under the water sprinkling and infusion being as if not more agreeable to the nature and institution of baptism then dipping or immersion for as the word used i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies washing so the thing represented sigâ—…yed and sealed saith he in the wonted implicit phrase in baptism is a washing 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 11. ye are wasted c. the washing of Regeneration 2 Tit. 5. having your bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10. 22. t is a cleansing and purging 1 John 1. 7. blood of Christ clenseth us from all our sinnes Heb. 9. 14. blood of Christ shall purge your conscience which things viz. washing clonsing purging are done as well by infusion of water saith he as dipping and though it were granted saith he that in those hot countreys they commonly washt by going down into the water and being dipt therein that will no more inforce a necessity on us of observing the same in baptism now then the examples of Christ and the Apostles gesture in the supper ties us to the same which was leaning and partly lying but it may be objected saith he that sprinkling a little water doth not so fitly represent the washing of sins away as dipping or plunging sith here the whole body is washed there the face or head onely I answer first saith he the Scripture no where requires washing of the whole body in baptism Secondly with as good reason one may plead thus that t is most convenient that at the supper every communicant should receive his belly full of bread and wine and take as long as his stomack and head will hold to signifie the full refreshment of the soul with the body and blood of Christ but who would endure saith he such reasoning These outward elements of water bread and wine are for spiritual use and to signifie spiritual things so that if there be the truth of things the quantity is not to be respected further then is sufficient for its end namely to represent the spiritual grace and that it be neither so little as not clearly to represent it nor so much as to take off the heart from the spiritual to the corporal thing yea the spirituall grace and visible act of God upon the soul signified and represented by the outward act of baptism viz. The application of Christs blood and donation of the spirit is exprest in Scripture by the name of powring sprâ—…kling and that probably if not certainly with allusion to the administration of baptism Isa. 44. 3. Joel 2. 28. I will powre out my spirit upon all flesh Ezech. 36. 26. He spâ—…inkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean this clean water questionlesse is the blood and spirit of Christ represented in the water of baptism so in the new testamet Act. 2. Heb. 10. 22. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 9. 13. and 14. verses compared together and Heb. 12. 24. Now saith he let any one without prejudice consider these Scriptures whether at least some of them speak not in allusion to baptism and whether baptism be not a lively resemblance and representation of the things here spoken of and withall let him consider whether the thing exhibited in this sacrament be ever so fully set forth by dipping and then I leave him to iudge whether sprinkling be not as if not more agreeable to the nature of this sacrament as dipping or immersion In this manner Mr. Cook delivers his conceptions in his to A. R. we will onely see what his parallel saith who argues as Mr. Cook doth epitomizing as it were the labors of Mr. Cook unto his own turn against C. B. wee l first fully receive his charge also and then fully return what in right reason remaines to be returned to both If by baptism saith he we are planted into the likenesse of Christs death and also made partakes of his resurrection will it follow therefore that there must be some ceremony in the application of the water to resemble it if you may take this liberty of argument give me leave saith he to attempt the like and with as good reason to conclude that baptism must be no other then sprinkling that there may be proportion between it and that sprinkling of blood and water that did foreshadow it or baptism must be onely by powring of water there being a lively representation between that and pouring out of the holy spirit or that baptism must be by washing with water only there being a lively proportion between that and washing away of sins by Christs blood you see saith he what you will gain from these disputes from Analogy and proportion To this purpose Mr. Blake p. 6. as if he had stopt all our mouthes by this at once for ever yet I hope he shall see that he hath left us room enough yet to breath in and by which to breath out some reply Now to give the more plain quick cleer and condign check to these two palpable controulers not to say contramâ—…lers of the present piecious and apparent Truth reducing Mr. Blakes sharp and snap-short Syllogisticalls unto that long circumferaneous collation of Mr. Cook out of which for ouhgt I find he fetch it and in the answering of which Mr. Blake is answered as well as he I most earnestly intreat both those two and all other opposites to that one and onely true way of baptizing we plead for viz. of total dipping seriously to advise what is granted and denyed what is asserted and argued and by what weak Mediums and on what crazy grounds those things are that are
was the way and outward meanes of salvation but not in this respect as it was rained on nullum simile currit Quatuor Fourthly which washings purgings sprinklings of Christs blood and clean water typified of old and foreshadowed by the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hysop wherewith Moses and the high priests after him sprinkled the old Israel so that they were typically and ceremonially counted holy and clean thereupon in a fleshly sense onely are all expressions spoken not with such allusion to baptism as Mr. Cook imagines nor are so neer a kin to it as he laies claim to for if they are all to be resembled and respected by us in our baptism as things some way or other signified to us therein yet are they not at all the main or principall things or such as are immediately or primarily but onely remotely and secondarily signified to us therein and so not necessarily to be either all or at all so much resembled as something else But the death burial and resurrection of Christ which is the rise and root the originall and meritorious cause of all the rest being that which though you would shut it out altogether from its interest and right of being represented in baptism of all the rest is mainly and most immediately signified and primarily to be eyed and respected and all the rest but consequently and through that therefore its necessary that this should be resembled most lively that it may take the deeper impression upon us Yea these matters of Christs death burial and resurrection are such cardinall things to be considered as quibus non mediantibus without the mediation of which we cannot conceive clearly nor lay claim to any of the other as ours For as in the supper remotely heaven it self and all spirituall excellencies are signified to us to be ours yet all the things signified cannot be represented to the eye but onely such as are the more immediate significations of it and are the rise and proper cause of all the rest viz. Christ crucified and our feeding on him by faith theseare and are to be lively set forth unto us and resembled before our eyes in bread and wine broken and powred out and received and applied to us but not all the fruits of his death and our faith even so it is likewise in baptism and indeed the main signification in both is Christs person crucified dead buried and raised and that is to be resembled in both and other things viz. the benefits of his death as remission of sins and purging c. to be consequentially gathered from that neither can nor are nor need all those to be resembled But as for Mr. Coâ—…k he pleads stifly to have all these resembled viz. washing purging powring sprinkling of the spirit and blood of Christ but excludes the main thing altogether viz. Christs death and resurrection which are the very rise and ground of all those And yet if he will needs have all those to be resembled are they not as much and much more resembled by dipping and plunging a person in water then by powring and sprinkling a little water upon him and is not swilling under water a more effectuall way of washing and clensing then sprinkling which though it be a Diminutive way of wetting yet in truth is no way of washing at all If therefore he will have washing and such a washing as well deserves the name of clensing to be resembled in baptism can he have even that done in a better way then by dipping or dousing for verily plunging is a washing and a more eminent way of washing and purifying and so more lively resembling ablutioneâ—… peccatorum the purging away our sinnes by the blood of Christ then aspersion or bare infusion either of which without some after rubbing is a way of washing and clensing seldome used by men or women unlesse it be among slatternes that are minded to leave things as foul well nigh as they find them and I am sure there 's no rubbing succedaneous to your sprinkling which is any ingredient to your dispensation for what the priest drops on the midwife rubs indeed not on but off and so as that is no washing so if it were I hope you do not allow the midwife to give equal influence with the priest unto the dispensation of baptism Besides both sprinkling and powring are vertualy implied in plunging and burying in water but these are not at all supposed in the other every lesser wetting being contained and included in the greater not so the greater in the lesse Fiftly which quirk of his concerning a necessity of abiding 3. daies under water answerable to Christs 3 daies buriall if we will needs urge an necessity of resembling him in his death burial and resurrection is so fond that a fool may find enough wherewith to refel it for Mr. Cook knows that nullum simile currit quatuor no similitude answers in all things besides t is the truth and substance of the thing not the circumstance or quantity of time of abode which is to be respected here for a burial is as true a burial when a person abides but 3. minutes wholly under the element wherein he is buried as if he abode 3. daies and a burial is as truly represented by being once under water as if one continued under altogether and the resurrection a little better by being brought up again alive then if one lay till he were altogether dead Sixthly and lastly which assertion of his uttered in favour of his assertion viz. that the Scripture no where requires the washing of the whole body is so much the more favouring of either ignorance or forgetfulnesse in him or both by how much one of the very Scriptures that are quoted by himself as speaking in reference to baptism doth require it for its said Heb. 10. 22. let us draw neer with a true heart c. and having our bodies washed with pure water which clause if meant of baptism as undoubtedly it is requires not a sprinkling but a washing and that 's more then your sprinkling is and this too not of the face only which is the only part you sprinkle but of our bodies which word whether we shall take properly to signifie the whole body indeed or run to figurative acceptations when we need not and take the body by a Synechdoche of the whole for a part to signifie so small a part as the face only I need not wish a wise man to determine for every unprejudiced man that hath but common sense will see cause enough to take it plainly as it lies Rantist But all this while me thinks you make it appear so plainly as you not must before I believe or receive it that it is so needful as you would make it that there should be a resemblance of the thing signified in that sign of baptism at all that 's the thing I wait to see proved for let Mr. Cook make what
it then stood in both which have fell out also accordingly so that there hath been a taking of all that dispensation of ordinances in their primitive purity totally out of the way therefore now we are to meddle no more with them at all at least unless we had some extraordinary Prophets as the Iews had after the treading down of their temple and and worship to satisfie and shew us that its the mind of the Lord we should set up that old fabrick and form again Baptist. This is the old tune which you and your followers have been used to sing in any time this seven year which yet I could never learn to this day distinctly to sing in after you and I am perswaded never shall unlesse I could hear more clearnesse and distinction in the sound then yet I do to whom while I sound how sutable your sense is to the sense of Scripture you are Barbarians when you speak thus That Christ now comes in the light and power of his spirit as a swift Roe and hart upon these mountains of division that now are between the PPPriests among themselves and between others and them and that abundance of light comes dispelling that fog and smoak of mens traditions which hath risen out of the bottomlesse pit and of a long time darkned the Sun and the air and the hearts of people all this I grant but that this coming of his doth put an end a ne plus ultra to any one of his own traditions or ordinances that were instituted by him and in his name delivered to the Churches in the primitive times as a part of his will and testament then this is as hard a lesson for me to learn as t is for some to learn that t is their duty to be baptized for assuredly nothing but Christs own personal coming shall put a period to any one tittle of his Gospel will and Testament or of that outward dispensation which by appointment from himself was then in force and therefore to neither baptism imposition of hands or Churchfellowship in breaking bread every of which most undoubtedly was a part of the preceptory part of Christs Gospel in those daies and of that new Testament ratified in his blood 1 Cor. 11. 25. which gospel testament and holy will of his that he as a great Prophet left in charge for all men to observe when he went away Mat. 28. 20. Mark 13. 34. Luke 19. 17. to the 28. and not any new one delivered since is the very same according to which he will judge all men at his return any part of which therefore in either promise or precept suppose but the ordinances of it for I am sure it was a testament and Gospel that had ordinances then wo be to that man or angel that shall once dare to declare as null yea let no man slatter himself and delude others with pretences of an Angelical Seraphical life to be led now in an higher kind of way then the Saints and Churches did in the primitive ages of the Gospel for I tell that man that if he were not only appearing to himself to be wrapt up above Paul but really an angel from heaven and not Christ himself who when he comes personally shall say indeed unto his servants come up higher he must be Aâ—…hema preaching and holding forth other then what the Apostles at first delivered to the Churches of Galatia who received the Gospel with the outward ordinances and Church order thereof Gal. 1. 6. 7. 8. 9. 11. 12. compared with 1 Cor. 11. 23. 24. c. in which Scriptures its evident that the whole intire Gospel which was preached then by Paul who received it together with the ordinances of baptism Gal. 3. 27. and the supper not of man but of the Lord was strictly required to be kept without hearkning to any other things then what were then delivered and received in the Churches though spoke by an angel from heaven or their very selves who at first preached them who if ever any such thing should have fallen out as their falling off from that truth and contradicting themselves for so doing must have been held accursed yea if Paul himself should have come some 100s of years after to the Churches of Galatia and gainlaid what he had said before saying you received the Gospel from me at first with ordinances but now you may let the ordinances of it alone it s enough for you to believe onely and live up to God in the spirit he had condemned himself to cursing out of his own mouth if then the Apostles that at first gave out the Gospel to the world were not on pain of being accursed to preach any other then what at first they preached what cursing attâ—…ends thee O wretched Ranter that deifiest thy self and takest upon thee not onely to deny but to defie the Gospel of Christ in the ordinances of it and the holy oracles of the living God Thou tellest us of a coming of Christ by his spirit into the hearts of men after which there need be no more use of ordinances that when Paul saies men must continue breaking bread till he come he means till he comes in spirit but I tell thee if the right eye of reason were not utterly darkned in thee thou couldâ—…t not but understand that till he come 1 Cor. 11. speaks of the same time as Christ himself speaks of when he saies to his Church in Thyatira Rev. 2. 25. 26. which were then in a Church posture and under the use of ordinances that which ye havâ—… already hold fâ—…st till I come and that that time was no other then the end of this world which he shall put a period to by his personal coming is cleared by the verse following he that over cometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nations where by the end as he means the same period he pointed at before iâ—… that phrase till I come so he means the time of Christs second coming to judgement to raign at the end of this world mentioned Mat. 24. 3. and in scores of Places more and not the time of his coming by his spirit unto men for so he was come and hath come more or lesse well nigh as soon as and even ever since he went away yea according to his promise he soon sent his spirit to abide with his people in their observation of his commandements and not otherwise as a comforter in the absence of his person Iohn 14. 15 16. one office also among the rest of which spirit when he should come so far was he by his coming from disingaging men from obedience to any one thing that Christ spake while he was on earth was because many would be very subject to to forget and be willingly ignorant of Christs lawes to teach all things and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ said unto his disciples while he was with them