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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94730	An antidote against the venome of a passage, in the 5th. direction of the epistle dedicatory to the whole book of Mr. Richard Baxter teacher at Kederminster in Worcestershire, intituled, The saints everlasting rest, containing a satyricall invective against Anabaptists / by Iohn Tombes B.D. Lately teacher at Bewdley in the same county.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1650 (1650)	Wing T1797; Thomason E602_20; ESTC R206421	26,378	40

to a brother Vers 16. offering Isaac on the Altar which is rather a work of the Law then the Gospell Ver. 21. Rahabs receiving the Messengers and sending them out another way SECT. 9. Of the Anabaptists evill Lives MAster Baxter proceeds Christ hath told you by their Fruits yee shall know them we mis-interpret when we say he means by Fruit their fals Doctrine that were but idem per idem Hereticks may seem holy for a little while but at last all false Doctrines likely end in wicked lives Where hath there been known a Society of Anabaptists since the World first knew them that have not proved wicked How many of these or Antinomians c. have you known who have not proved palpably guilty of lying perfidivusnesse covetousness malice contempt of their godly brethren licentiousness or seared consciences Answ. Interpreters differ about the fruits Mat. 7. 16. some by Fruits understand evill life some false doctrine some both some adde their want of calling I for my part think both an evill life and a false Doctrine do discover false Prophets but chiefly their false Doctrine and so do Piscator Pareus Perkins c. because that seemes to be Gods note Deut. 13. 2. And in reason sith a false Prophet is so named from his false Doctrine the false-hood of his Doctrines best discovers that he is a false Prophet As for evill life by it self which M. Baxter seems to hold it cannot be the note whereby to know a false Prophet as such both because evill Men may be true Prophets as Judas for example who was a true Apostle yet a Theif and on the other side Mr. Baxter confesseth Heretikes may seem holy for a little while and therefore during that time they cannot be known by their evill life yea many erroneous Persons have continued in appearance holy to their end Mr. Baxter dares say no more but that all false Doctrine likely end in wicked lives Augustin commends Pelagius Epist. 120. Bertius Arminius yea many of those who have bin reputed Heretiques have been eminent for holinesse in appearance even to their end and thereby have prevailed And indeed it is the common Tenent of Protestant Divines answering Bellarmine and other Papists who deny Profession of the true Faith to be a note of the true Church and among other notes make the holinesse of their Teachers one note that true Faith is a sufficient note of a visible Church and true Teacher and that holinesse of life is not the note of a true Prophet or the want of it of a false Prophet If it were it would follow no true Ministers who are vitious in life nor to be heard nor to be owned as Pastors And therefore Mr. Baxter unadvisedly perhaps in heate or spleen directs his Neighbours to know false Prophets by this note which would if retorted prove Presbyterians Heretiques as well as Anabaptists But to say by their false Doctrine yee shall know false Prophets were idem per idem the same by the same Answ In Mr. Baxters Logick then false Doctrine and false Prophet are the same It is true false Doctrine is the form denominating a false Teacher or false Prophet but to make the forme denominating and the subject denominated the same is to Me false Doctrine in Logick Are the whitenesse and the thing white the heate and thing hot all one or doth a Man that knows hot water by heate cold water by its cold know idem per idem the same by the same But Mr. Baxter applies his rule generally against Anabaptists and saith where hath there been known a Society of Anabaptists since the World first knew them that proved not wicked Answ Were this question propounded dubitatively it would the lesse move but no Man will I think take his interrogation for any other then a most peremptory determination wherein like a right English Mastive he flies in the face not of one or two Men or one or two Societies of Men but on all the Societies of Anabaptists since the World first knew them and asserts them to have proved wicked An accusation that I should not have dared to make against the Papists themselves And for it if there were no other thing I may boldly say Mr. Baxter hath plaid the Devills part with a witnesse But you 'l say is it not true Answ. Were not Cyprian and his Colleagues Hemerobaptists in Epiphanius the Picards who re-baptized as the Preface to the Bohemian Confession of the year 1535 shewes Anabaptists that is baptizers againe And yet who doubts but they had many Societies who proved not wicked But you 'l say they were rebaptists on another ground then the Anabaptists Mr. Baxter means who deny Infant-baptism Be it so yet it is a most bold calumny to damne all their societies as in conclusion wicked But that Mr. Baxter may learne to order his pen better hereafter he may take notice that besides the probabilities that Berengarius opposed the Baptizing of little ones notwithstanding what Mr. Marshall alledgeth it is more then probable by Bernards 204 Epistle his 66. Sermon on the Canticles Petrus Cluniacensis his Epistle against Peter de Bruis and Henricus Eckbertus Schonaugiensis his Sermon 7. adversus Catharos in the Auctarium of the Biblioth Patxum Tom. 2. and others that there were many hundreds of years sithence a very great number of godly Societies that did deny Infant-baptisme and in Gaule and Germany were Baptized after Infant-baptisme But perhaps Mr. Baxter imagines no Anabaptists as he calls them till Luthers dayes There have been many of those Societies in high and low Germany Will Mr. Baxter a yong Man that I believe never travailed out of England fall into such exorbitant censoriousnesse as to condemne them all as in fine proving wicked sure I am Alstedius in his sapplement to Chamier de Eccl. l. 2. c. 13. Sect. 3. puts the Anabaptists among those that had the garment of a good life Cassander in his Epistle to the Duke of Gulick and Cleve cited by me in my Examen part 2. Sect. 6. saith in quibus magna ex parte pii cujusdam animi argumenta cernas Sundry other writings I have read even of those that have written against them who either by their ingenuous Confessions of some of them or their readinesse to except against them for small infirmities give me occasion to conceive there have been in the Low Countries and elsewhere godly Societies of them and not such as in conclusion proved wicked But perhaps Mr. Baxter pronounceth so of all those in England that have been called Anabaptists If so let him know that there have been in London Churches of those called Anabaptists and are still whose Confession of Faith may compare either with Mr. Baxter or perhaps the Assembly for soundnesse of Doctrine and not a few of whose Teachers and Members have lead a godly life to the end and whose living members yet hold forth the Faith in a godly life And

nor holy as separated to God Sect. 4. pag. 6. Of the Text Levit. 25. 41. 42. Alleaged to prove our children Gods servants Sect. 5. pag. 7. Of the Text Deut. 29. 10. 11. 12. Alleaged to prove our Infants to be visible church-members Sect. 6. pag. 9. Of the Text Acts 15 10. Alleaged to prove our Infants Disciples of Christ Sect. 7. pag. 11. Of the Text 1 Cor. 7. 14. Alleaged to prove our Infants holy as seperated to God Sect. 8. pag. 20. Of Gods speaking by judgements from Heaven against Anabaptists Sect. 9. pag. 24. Of the Anabaptists evill lives Sect. 10. pag. 28. Of the Anabaptists confident expressions weaknesse upon triall and dispute at Bewdley Jan. 1. 1649. ERRATA ADde to the margin page 2 at line 15. these words See Salmas apparat ad libr de primatu Papae page 192. Voss Thes. 6 de Baptismo page 4 l. 14 r in page 7 l 14 blot out it page 7 l 34 yee r yet page 8 l 21 r on v 15 in the margin r before Christs comming page 9 l 29 tencher r teacher page 10 l 1 if r is l 11 businesse r businesse l 15 circumtion r circumcision page 13 l 34 thu r thus page 16 l 18 mani r manifestly page 24 l 6 7 how near it is r is neare AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST Mr. BAXTERS Invective against Anabaptists SECT. 1. Of Anabaptists accusing their own Children THere came newly to my hands this following passage which because it doth mainly reflect on my selfe I conceive my selfe necessitated to answer it Anabaptists saith Mr. Baxter play the Divells part in accusing their own Children and disputing them out of the Church and Covenant of Christ and affirming them to be no Disciples no servants of God nor holy as separated to him when God saith the contrary Levit. 25. 41. 42. Deut. 29. 10. 11. 12. c. Acts 15. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Answ. Though Mr. Baxter speaks of Anabaptists in the plurall yet the passage it selfe and the circumstances of it well known in these partes evidence it to be directed either solely or mainly against my selfe The terme Anabaptists I own not any more then my Infant sprinkling The Faith I owne but not the Ceremony They are unjustly called Anabaptists who have beene Baptized after their own profession of the faith of Christ though they had water sprinkled or poured on their faces by an Officiating Priest when they were Infants Sprinkling is not Baptizing nor Infants the Subjects of the Baptisme of Water appointed by Christ or practised by the Apostles Mr. Baxter offered to prove In the beginning of the Dispute after mentioned that dipping in cold water is murder and Adultery It seems he dare undertake to prove the snow black he is so confident of his nimble wit and ready tongue Thousands in the primitive times in which Baptizing was by dipping until Hieroms time at least in the 4th Century Thousands in these dayes are so baptized without murder or adultery And therefore Mr. Baxters assertion is contrary to sense and experience He may do much I believe but will never be able to prove Infant Baptisme or sprinkling instead of it to be the duty ordained by Christ Math. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. The seven Churches under Baptisme about London disclaime the Title of Anabaptists in the Preface to their Confession of faith under that terme all the Pelagian and Arminian errours all those pestilent errours of Community of Goods denying civill Magistracy lawfullnesse of taking an Oath to end strife and sundry other are charged on them that deny Infant Baptisme I may well say in a Divelish manner by many Preachers to make them odious to the people that they might drive them away out of the Land if not destroy them and therefore if Mr. Baxter who knowes how odious the terme is had minded equity or peace he had chosen rather to stile us Antipaedobaptists then Anabaptists But what sayes he of us Anabaptists play the Devils part in accusing their own Children A most virulent charge which shews Mr. Baxter kept no moderation of spirit nor heeded what he wrote The Devils part in accusing is either by himselfe or his Instruments before God or before men or in their own conscience Mr. Baxter may as soone bring water out of a pumice stone as prove we do any of these wayes play the Devills part But perhaps it will be said we accuse them however To accuse is to charge with a fault or crime I know no fault or crime we charge our Children with meaning our infant Children but their birth sin of which Mr. Baxter hath been heard to charge them as deep as any of us But it is unnaturall in us to accuse our own Children perhaps I blesse God he hath given me Children to whom I bear a naturall affection as tender as another If Mr. Baxter meane denying Baptisme to belong to them in infancy to be the playing the Devils part in accusing them he must give me leave to think that he himselfe playes the Devills part in asserting that it belongs to them till he prove it appointed by Christ or used by his Apostles which I expect to be done by him ad Graecas Calendas and so much the rather do I think he playes the Devills part therein because experience proves that Thousands are hardned in carnal presumption to their perdition by conceiving their Infant Baptisme to make them Christians and so heires of heaven SECT. 2. Of Anabaptists disputing their Children out of the Church and Covenant of Christ ANother thing wherein Mr. Baxter sayes we play the Divels part is in disputing our Children out of the Church and Covenant of Christ I answer The Church of Christ is either visible or invisible the Covenant of Christ may be meant either of Christs Covenant to them or theirs to Christ by disputing them out of the Church may be meant either that by our disputing we keep them out of the Church and Covenant of Christ or cast them out being admitted It is true I have asserted in disputation that according to the constitution of the visible Church of Christians Infants are not visible Church Members and I still assert it For the visible Church of Christians is a company of believers art 19 of the Church of England and therefore till a person is a believer he is not a visible Church member according to the frame of the Christian Church which is not a whole Nation joyned together in one Community by the civill Magistrate as the Jewish Church was but a company of believers made such by the preaching of the Gospel And this definition of the visible Church was formerly received among Protestants without the addition which the Assembly lately put to it in their Confession of Faith ch. 25 is avouched in disputes against Papists concerning the notes of the Church As for the invisible Church or Covenant of Christ to them I have often shewed in my examen of Mr. Marshalls

sense so as that it may be verified of the infants he meanes Jt is true God saith the Corinthians children were holy but he doth not say they were holy as separated to God as Mr. Baxter would have it Jn what sense it is there taken J conceive can be gathered no way but by analysing the Apostles words and finding out of what holinesse his speech can be true which J have already in my Examen of Mr. Marshalls sermon and my Apology and post script proved to be only legitimation and may yet more fully prove in my review of the dispute about infant-baptisme if ever it be published against all that Mr. Marshall Mr. Geree Mr. Blake Mr. Cobbet Mr. Church or any other I have met with reply to my examen Nor is it unusuall with interpreters to take a word in a sense in which it is used no where else when the matter ' scope and other circumstances of the Text lead to that sense as in that Epistle 1 Cor. 11. 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which every where else signifies power or authority there confessedly signifies a veile and the phrase of due benevolence is used 1 Cor. 7. 3. in a sense in which it is used no where else and the like may be said of the word forme Phil. 1. 6 of the word Church Math. 18. 17. and many more As for Mr. Baxters exposition I conceive it not right 1 Because if the sanctification be understood as Mr. Baxter would have it in that sense the unbeliever is said to be sanctified only to the true real believer before God who by prayer doth sanctifie the other party to his or her use for of such only it is true to them every thing is sanctified by Prayer sith they only can pray and to them only all things are pure not to them who though they professe they know God yet in works deny him Tit 1. 16. This then is Mr. Baxters sense For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified to the use of a believing wife who is truly and really a believer before God and not only by profession before men unto whom by vertue of her true faith and prayer her Husband is sanctified to her use and pure to her But if this were the sense then the reason of the Apostle had reached only to the resolution of such to live with their unbelieving yoke-fellowes the rest were not to continue with them because they were not sanctified to them whereas the doubt was concerning any visible believer or brother and accordingly the Apostles resolution Besides supposing any true reall believers doubted of the truth of their owne faith they would be deterred by the Apostles reason so understood from living with their unbelieving yok-fellowes as being not sanctified to them Againe the Apostle had resolved them of the lawfullnesse of their continuing together by a reason taken from a thing only known to God and their own conscience whereas his intent was to resolve all concerning the lawfullnesse of living together with their yoke-fellowes in disparity of Religion by a reason taken from a thing obvious to them all 2. Mr. Baxters sense supposeth that the cause of the sanctification of the unbeliever is the faith of the believer but if so then doubtlesse the Apostles would have expressed it thus to or in the believing wife or husband whereas it is only said in or to the husbnnd or wife without adding the terme believing which manifestly shews the Apostle placed not the Emphasis in it For who will leave out the word in which the Emphasis is put and not rather expresse it remarkably 3. If the sense be as Mr. Baxttr would have it then this proposition is true as being included in the Apostles reasoning The Children whereof one of the Parents is not a reall true believer before God are none of them holy as separated to God But it is false take the separation to God what way and to what use he will the child of professed unbelievers much more the child of professed believers though not really such before God may be and perhaps is separated to God Now that these Propositions All the Children whereof one parent is not sanctified to the other are uncleane none of the children whereof one of the Parents is not sanctified to the other are cleane or holy are included in the Apostles consequence is confessed by Chamier Mr. Blake and others as I shew in my Examen Postscript and other writings nor do I know any that deny it and if they should it might easily be evinced to any that is acquainted with the rules of reasoniug and therefore according to Mr. Baxters explication the Apostle must assert that all the Children whereof one of the Parents is not sanctified to the others use being a true reall believer before God are unclean none holy as separated to God which being manifalse Mr. Baxters exposition is apparently erroneous Lastly if his sense were allowed him then the baptizing any Infant but such whereof one of the next parents is a reall believer before God would be unlawfull for such only are holy in his sense and the rest uncleane But it being knowne only to God that one of the Parents is a true reall believer before God it will follow no Ministers ought to baptize any infant at all without revelation from God that one of the Parents is a true real believer otherwise we shall baptize the uncleane or unholy who have not a right to be baptized To tel us as Mr. Baxter did in private conference with mee that by a judgement of Charity a professed believer is to be taken to be a reall believer I answer be it granted yet that is not sufficient to justifie the baptizing the child of such a one according to Mr. Baxters exposition sith as he expounds the Apostle it is requisite that the parent be a true believer before God or else the child is uncleane that is in his sense unbaptizable Besides the judgement of Charity is not that by which persons are to proceede in Baptizing but the certaine judgement of Verity arising from Ministeriall Skill and Prudence to know what is the true Profession and from sense that the Person to be Baptized maketh such Profession Mr. Baxter himself in his Appendix to his Aphorismes Pag. 58. dare not you to dispence Gods Seales upon your conjectures of the probability or improbability of Mens sincerity These things being true though I should be mistaken in my sense yet Mr. Baxters arguments were answered yet ex abundanti I shall answer Mr. Baxters Exceptions against my interpretation which according to my memory and the Notes which I could procure of the Disputation between us were these The sense is not right which thus interpreteth the Apostles Speech The Vnbelieving Wife is sanctified to the Husband that is in respect of lawfull use of Marriage is as if he were Sanctified else were your Children uncleane that is bastards but now they are holy

this the rather I am induced to conceive not only from mine own knowledge and the credible testimony of others but also from their Petition to the Parliament April 2. 1649. and the Parliaments answer to them and their late heart-bleedings for Professors abominations in their faithfull generall Epistle Printed for the same man for whom Mr. Baxters published Bookes have been Printed But I perceive Mr. Baxter was willing to let his pen have the reynes and therefore addes How many of these c. May I not as well aske the parishioners of Kederminster how many have they known that have proved so palpably guilty of the soule sins he names How many Anabaptists or Antinomists they have known I cannot tell Mr. Baxter names me for one and I confesse his parishioners of Kederminster have had meanes to know me from my Cradle as being borne and bred up and lived a good part of my life near them if they know me so palpably guilty of the sins Mr. Baxter speakes of they shew but little love in that they rebuke me not but suffer sin on me contrary to what Mr. Baxter hath taught them I would have trod this passage under my foote as dirt were it not that the Devill by this and such like passages breeds such hatred and nourisheth such fury in mens brests that were it not for the mighty over-awing power of God and the magistrates Justice they would quickly fall on us to destroy us I add no more but the Lord rebuke them SECT. 10. Of the Anabaptists confident expressions and weaknesse upon triall and the dispute at Bewdley Jan. 1. 1649. YEt Mr. Baxter hath not done with us They have confident expressions sayth he to shake poore ignorant Soules whom God will have discovered in the day of triall But when they meet with any that can search out their fallacies how little have they to say you know I have had as much opportunity to try their strength as most and I never yet met with any in Garison or Army that could say any thing which might stagger a solid Man Answ. For other men I cannot make answer my own expressions in my Bookes and Sermons have no more confidence then strength of proofe or answer as there was occasion As solid men as Mr. Baxter have met with that which not only hath staggered but also hath brought them to assent to my Tenet Me thinks the institution Mat. 28. 19. the practise of Iohn Baptist the Apostles and first Churches who did Baptize no Infants that can be found might stagger as solid a man as Mr. Baxter and it is very likely Mr. Baxter met with some in Garison or Army that alledged these or some of these to him For my part I cannot tell how to construe it any other then a Judgement of God on men that hold so earnestly against Papists and Prelates and Presbyterians too that in Gods Worship humane Inventions are to be left as Will-worship and yet contend so much for Infant-baptisme so cleerly proved and so frequently confessed not only by learned Papists but also many of the more ingenuous of the Prelatical party and others to be onely a Church Tradition Yea the Oxford Divines in their late Reasons of the present Judgement of the Vniversity of Oxford about the Solemne Covenant c. Approved by generall consent in a full Convocation June 1. 1647. doe Sect. 4. Pag. 9. say that without the consentient Judgement and Practise of the Vniversall Church which they are not able to prove they should be at a losse when they are called upon for proofe in the Point of baptizing Infants But there yet remaines that which it seemes was first in his intention though last in execution to wit the blazing abroade his Dispute with me Ianua 1. at Bewdley of which he speaks thus You heard in my late publick Dispute at Bewdley Ianuary 1. With Mr. Tombes who is taken to be the ablest of them in the Land and one of the most Moderate how little they can say even in the hardest point of baptisme what gross absurdities they are driven to and how little tender consciencious fear of erring is left among the best Ans. Mr Baxter not content to be cryed up by his party hath thought good to glory in his imagined victory and to crow over me in print for that which I am assured the most considerate and godly Auditors of that Dispute have thought meet to mourn as perceiving it to have been his hour of temptation and God I hope will yet open his eyes to see how he hath been abused to become an Instrument to hinder the receiving of Truth and the Ringleader to a party of men who neither mind the things of Christ nor regard Mr Baxter saving wherein they make use of the keenness of his spirit and abilities to oppose the Truth and to uphold their repute But to the matter Mr Baxter reckons me among the Heretiques he had before described yet with difference In an Accusation of Heresie Jerom saith a man is not to be patient Mr Baxters Opinions about Justification Universal Grace in Amyralds middle way avowed by him in this place of his Epistle his Tenet about the Magistrates being an Officer under Christ as Mediator in his Aphorisms of Iustification pag. 273. may and are taken to savour more of Heresie then any Tenet I hold yea sure as our Protestant Divines are wont to answer Papists that the Tenets of the Protestants denying their additions when otherwise the same Faith is avouched cannot be justly charged as Heresie so neither can I be justly charged with Heresie who do avouch the Baptism appointed by Christ and practised by his Apostles and onely deny that the Consequences from the Old Testament are convincing to prove Infant-Baptism They that alter Christs way and introduce another way from Circumcision or the Jewish Church-state as Mr Baxter doth are more justly chargeable with Heresie His conceits of me I regard not His Neighbors of Kederminster might hear how little I did say but surely they could not hear in that Dispute how little I could say much less how little Anabaptists so called can say in the hardest point of Baptism His Neighbors and others may know by this and my other Writings and Sermon● that I can say more then I said then and I know other learned men who can say more in the point then disputed though I then said enough in answer to Mr Baxters Arguments then produced notwithstanding my care to speak no more then was necessary and my natural hesitancy in answering an Argument at the first hearing And how ever the business was packed to cry up a Baxter as if they had been a company of Boys at a game yet the whole Auditory might know and many did that Mr Baxter gave no sufficient Answer to that which I alledged That no good Argument could be drawn from the Infants of the lews visible Church membership to our Infants visible Church-membership