such distinctions in the new testament We can for we read in the new testament of pastours and flocks they who feed with the word are the Clergy and the flocks who are fed are the Laity All are not pastours or teachers 1 Cor. 12. 29. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers That is all are not so Deacons preached they were Lay-men therefore may Lay-men preach I instance in Steven c. The Deacons were not meer Lay-men but men full of the holy Ghost and of wisedom upon whom the Apostles layd their hands Acts 6. 6. Prove that any preached who had not imposition of hands Here that Anabaptist failing Cufin undertook it saying In the 8. of the Acts we read plainly that after that great persecution of the church at Jerusalem they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles and that they who were scattered abroad went every where preached the gospel and that God gave a blessing to their preaching it is plain Acts 11. 19. Again Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 10. As every man hath received the spirit even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of Christ. If God have given us a talent it is our duty to improve it They that were scattered and preached the gospel were such as the Apostles had layd hands on and sent to preach and among them Philip the Deacon there mentioned For the text of S. Peter he speaketh not there of publike preaching and administring the sacraments which appertaineth only to pastours by their speciall function but of edifying one another and teaching and admonishing in private according to the precept of S. Paul Colos. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell richly among you in all wisedom teaching and admonishing one another this was no publike preaching or expounding the word but godly conference in private houses with those whom they met such as every godly master of a family useth in his house instructing his children and servants the best that he can telling them their duty out of Gods word It is true in time of persecution we read of one Frumentius a Lay-man who in his travailes converted some to the christian faith confirming the truth of christian religion by scriptures That is all we desire to do as Frumentius did That was no preaching publikely by vertue of a pastorall function or expounding scriptures but holy conference and exhortation such as that of Aquila and Priscilla And the historian addeth after the church had notice how God blessed Frumentius his labours in turning many heathen to christinity the bishops sent ministers unto them to confirm them and administer the sacraments unto them and himself also received holy orders to accomplish that work which he had so happily begun The scripture puts no difference betwixt publike and private it is as lawfull to worship God in a private house to preach there as in one of your Steeple-houses The Apostle puts a difference 1 Cor. 11. 22. What Have you not houses to eat and to drink in Or despise ye the church of God The word in the originall is ecclesia not templum which never signifieth your Steeple-house in all the scripture The word ecclesia is taken diversly in holy scripture sometimes 1. For a company of men and that either of the wicked as Psal. 26. 5. Odi ecclesiam malignantium Or of the godly Acts 20. 28. 11. 26. c. 2. For the place of their publike meeting and so the word ecclesia is here taken If the people of God meet in a private place is not that then the house of God There is a publike house of God that is a place sequestred from common use and dedicated to Gods service and there is a private house of God as we read Ro. 16. 5. where some of the faithfull privatly meet and that also is called the church greet the church in thine house in such private houses it is lawful to preach in time of persecution but not now when we have publike churches for the service of God to which we may and ought to repair and in these churches no lay-man ought to preach nor at all exercise the pastorall function either there or any where else Which I prove by two reasons especially First none ought to take upon them the office of pastour or minister of the word who are not able to reprove and convince Hereticks and all gain-sayers but your lay and unlettered men are not able to convince Hereticks and stop the mouths of gayn-savers because they can alledge no scripture but that which is translated into their mother-tongue in which there may be and are some errours for though the Scriptures be the infallible word of God yet the translators were men subject to errour and they sometimes mistook Will you say that those learned men who translated the bible at Geneva committed any error in their translation I will and for instance Luke 22. 25. in the Geneva translation printed 1569. we read the Kings of the Gentiles reign over them and they that beare rule over them are called gracious Lords whereas in the originall it is Euergetai that is benefactors or bountifull yet this place hath bin much urged against the titles of our Arch-Bishops and Bishops as if Christ forbad any ministers of the gospell to be called by the titles of Lords or gracious wheras there is never a word in the text that signifieth either Lord or gracious neither dâ—th Christ there speak only to the ministers of the gospell but to all Christians Besides this I could produce many other errors in that translation which are corrected in the Kings translation Though we cannot prove the letter to be well translated that matters not much for the letter of the scripture is not scripture That 's blasphemy I pray take notice of it he denyeth the letter of the Text to be scripture The letter of the word of God is not scripture without the revelation of the spirit of God the word revealed by the spirit is scripture Very fine doctrine if God reveal not to us the meaning of the scripture is not the letter of the text scripture By this reason the greatest part of the Revelation and other difficult texts of scripture should not be scripture because God hath not revealed to us the meaning of them Here one that stood by demanded of the Anabaptist how prove you the bible to be Gods word By experience For whatsoever is written in the word of God commeth to passe concerning Christ and Anti-christ experience is the best doctor that teacheth us This reason alone will not prove the bible to be Gods word for Moses saith If a false prophet shall arise and fore-tell any thing and it come to passe Deut. 13.
also all the the reformed churches who conclude their prayers before their Sermon or after with this prayer conceive that it ought not only to beset before us as a pattern when we pray but also to be used as a prayer Neither are the reasons to the contrarie of any weight for though it be Scripture that doth not conclude it to be no prayer For the prayers of Moses Hannah Deborah Solomon David and Paul are set down in holy Scriptures and are part of the inspired oracles of God yet they cease not to be prayers and though in the Lords Prayer all the particular wants of Gods children are not expressed yet the main wants and principall graces are expressed to which the other may be with great facilitie added by our selvs and referred to the proper heads in the Lords Prayer Secondly hos suo jugulamus gladio we may give them a wound with their own dudgeon dagger for if they grant it to be the pattern of all Prayers it followeth that it is the perfectest of all prayers and certainly if we may use prayers of our own which are more imperfect much more may we use this which is a most absolute and perfect one If a Scrivener set a most perfect copie and therein comprise in certain sentences not only all the letters of the Alphabet but all the combinations and conjunctions of them none doubteth but that the schollers may both write other sentences according to that pattern and in the first place write those verie sentences in the copie endeavour to come as near as they can to the originall Such is the Lords Prayer a perfect copie to write by comprising in it all things needfull for a Christian to pray for first therefore we are to write it and then to write after it and correct our writing by it and though we speak with the tongue of men and Angells yet certainly our prayers cannot be so acceptable to God as when we tender them unto him in his Sons own words For this end saith that blessed Martyr S. Cyprian Christ vouchsafed to leave us this incomparable forme of prayer that whilst in prayer to the Father we read or say by heart what his Son taught us we may the sooner and easier be heard ARGUMENT IV. What the Christian church hath generally practised in all ages and places in the worship of God ought not to be thought as erroneous or swerving from the rule of Gods word But the Christian church generally in all ages and in all places hath made use of publike set and sanctified forms of prayer as appeareth by the Liturgies yet extant whereof some bear the names of the Apostles as S. Iames and S. Peter some of the Greek fathers as that of Chrysostome and S. Basil some of the Latine fathers as Ambrose Gregorie and Isidore c. Ergo set forms of prayers are not erroneous or swerving from the rule of Gods word ANABAP ANSWERS First that this is no better then a popish argument drawn from antiquitie and universalitie Secondly that these Liturgies are Apochryphall and though in latter times the use of Liturgies came in yet the purer and more ancient times used no such crutches to support their lame devotion for Justine Martyr in his second apologie affirmeth that the chief minister sent up prayers to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is interpreted according to his abilitie or gift of ex tempore prayers and Tertullian in his apologie saith that the Christians needed no monitor in their prayers as it were to chalk the way before them in a set form because they prayed by heart REPLY First the Papists pretend to antiquitie and make their brags of universalitie but in truth they have neither An argument drawn from a shadow of truth vanisheth like a shadow but an argument drawn from a true bodie is substantiall Secondly the strength of the argument lieth not in bare antiquitie and the universalitie of this practice for we know many errors are ancient and some abuses verie far spreading but in the nature and condition of the Catholike Christian church to whom Christ hath promised his perpetuall presence and the guidance of his Spirit into all truth in which regard the Apostle stileth it the pillar and ground of truth For howsoever particular churches may erre in faith and manners and the representative Catholike church in the most generall Councells hath sometimes grossely mistaken error for truth and Idolatrie for true religion yet the universall church taken formally for the whole companie of beleevers hath ever been kept by vertue of Christs promise from falling into any dangerous errour especially for any long time Thirdly Because they except against the Liturgies found in the writings of the ancient fathers in which though I grant there are some prints of noveltie yet there are foot-steps also of true antiquitie I will wave them for the present and by other good testimonies prove the constant and perpetuall use of Service or Common-Prayer-Books To begin with the first age from the ascension of our Lord to a hundred years Victorius Sciaticus Maronita in his preface to those three Liturgies he put forth saith that the Bishops both of the Eastern and Western churches made some alteration upon good ground in those Liturgies which they received from the Apostlei If this mans credit cannot carrie so great a cause yet certainly Hegesippus his testimonie a most ancient writer bordering upon the Apostles time ought not to be slighted who writeth of S. Iames chosen Bishop of Ierusalem by the Apostles themselvs that in regard of a form of Service or Common-Prayer-Book made by him for the use of the church of Ierusalem he was stiled Iacobus Liturgus In the second age Iustine Martyr in his second apologie which he wrote to Antoninus the Emperour acquainteth us with the practice of the Christians in his time which was to meet everie Sunday and in their Assemblies to read select places of Scripture hear Sermons and sing Psalmes and after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priest or chief Minister had made an end of his conceived prayer to offer up make or say Common-Prayers unto God It is true as it is alledged that he prayed by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all his might that is in the best manner he could or with all fervencie of devotion as the Rabbins say that he that pronounceth Amen with all his might openeth the gates of Eden This expression in the Greek will not conclude that the chief Minister in those dayes prayed ex tempore for it may truly be said of them who in the Universitie and at Court pen their prayers most accurately that they pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all their strength of wit memorie and affection Yet if it were granted that the Preacher in Iustine Martyrs time might make a short prayer before his Sermon ex tempore yet certainly he read other
given this power to the church yet some particular men in the church ought to execute this power of ordination The issue of the conference was first the Knights Ladies and Gentlemen gave the Doctor great thanks secondly three of the Anabaptists went away discontented the fourth seemed in part satisfied desired a second meeting but the next day conferring with the rest of that sect he altered his resolution and neither he nor any of that sect ever since that day troubled the Doctor or any other Minister in the Borough with any second chalenge Finis Additions to the former Conference IN the conference above mentioned D. F. promised to prove the baptisme of children 1. By scripture 2. By consent of the universall church And 3. by evident reason And the arguments drawn from the first head he prosecuted but was not permitted at that time to urge the arguments drawn from the second and third heads yet because they were desired by some persons of note it was thought fit they should be added to the former Next to the arguments drawn from expresse testimony of scripture for the baptisme of children we have a most forcible argument drawn from the consent of the universall church testified by their constant practise of admitting children to baptisme even from the Apostles dayes unto this present This argument if it be well weighed is of very great moment and may convince the conscience of any ingenuous Christian. For no Christian doubteth but that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and Christ promised his spirit to lead his church into all truth which promise he hath hitherto made good in such sort that it cannot be proved that ever the whole church of Christ unversally erred it is true particular churches have erred and may erre and generall councels which the schools tearm the representative church are subject to error and have sometimes decreed heresie and false-hood for truth but the formall church as they speak that is all the assemblies of Christians in the world cannot be impeached with error at any time whence I thus frame my argument That which the Apostles in their dayes began and the whole christian church scattered over the face of the whole earth hath continued in all ages and all countries where christianity hath been and is professed cannot be an erroneous practise But the catholike christian church in all places and ages even from the Apostles times hath admitted the children of faithfull parents to holy baptisme Ergo the practise of christening children cannot be erroneous or unwarrantable as the Anabaptists teach The major or first proposition is already sufficiently proved the minor or second proposition is proved by the testimony of Origen for the Greek church and S. Austin for the Latine and the Ecclesiasticall stories in all ages Origen in his Commentarie upon the sixt chapter of St. Paul to the Romans having alledged the words of the prophet David Psal. 51. 5. I was born in iniquity and in sin hath my mother conceived me addeth proper hoc ecclesia ab Apostolis traditionem accepit parvulis dare baptismum for this reason namely because all are conceived in sin the church hath received a tradition from the Apostles to administer baptisme to little infants And St. Austine l. 10. de genesi ad literam c. 23. Consuetudo matris ecclesie in baptizandis parvulis non spernenda est nec omnino credenda esset nisi Apostolica esset traditio the custome of our mother the church in baptizing infants is no way to be sleighted or rejected neither were it at all to be beleeved if it were not an Apostolicall tradition As for the continuance continuance of it the hystorie of all ages of the church confirms it neither can there be brought an instance in any Christian church in the world that denyed baptisme to children til this sect arose in Germany since the reformation began there in the dayes of Henry the eight After the testimonies of scriptures and the practise of the catholike church we have a third proof drawn from evidence of Reason against which if it be excepted that the eye of reason in matter of faith is but dim and therefore that such arguments are no way convincing I answer that it is true that such arguments drawn from reason as have no other ground but philosophicall axioms or sensible experiments are of little force in matter of faith which is above reason but such reasons as have ground and foundation in scripture and are firmly built upon those foundations are of exceeding great force and such are those I purpose to alledge First where the disease is there ought the remedy to be applied But the disease to wit originall sin is in children as well as men For all have sinned in Adam Rom. 5. 12. and are by nature the children of wrath Ephesi 2. 3. Ergo the remedy which is baptisme ought to be applied to children as well as men Secondly those who are comprised within the covenant of grace ought to be admitted into the church by baptisme For to them appertain both the promises of the new testament and the seal thereof which is baptisme But the children of the faithfull are comprised within the covenant of grace Gen. 17. 7. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee for an everlasting covenant Ergo children ought to be admitted into the church by baptisme Thirdly no means of salvation ought to be denyed to the children of the faithfull whereof they are capable But baptisme is an outward means of salvation whereof children are capable under the gospel as well as the children of the Jews were capable of circumcision under the law Ergo baptisme ought not to be denied to children Fourthly all those who receive the thing signified by baptisme ought to receive the outward sign It is the argument of St. Peter Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we But the children of the faithfull receive the thing signified by baptisme to wit regeneration and remission of sins Ergo they ought to receive the sign to wit the baptisme of water The proposition or major is proved alreadie the assumption or minor is thus proved Christ bad children come to him and he blessed them and said of such is the kingdom of God Mar. 10. 16. and that their Angels continually behold his Fathers face in heaven Mat. 18. 10. and unlesse the Anabaptists will grant that children are regenerated and receive remission of sins they must needs hold that all children are damned which is a most uncharitable and damnable assertion The ANABAPTISTS Objection Yea but the Anabaptists object Mat. 28. 18. Go teach all nations baptizing them Whence they would infer that none are to be baptized but those to whom the gospel hath before bin preached consequently that children ought not to be
culpô To leave therefore these detestable Sectaries whom to detect is to consute and to name is everlastingly to brand there are but three only sorts to whom that name properly and peculiarly appertaineth The first broached their doctrine about the year 250. which was this That all those who had been baptized by Novatus or any other hereticks ought to be re-baptized by the orthodox pastours of the church The second broached theirs about the year 380. which was this That none were rightly baptised but those that held with Donatus and consequently that all other who had received baptisme in the catholike church by any other save those of his partie ought to be re-baptized The third broached theirs in the year 1525. which was this That baptisme ought to be administred to none but such as can give a good account of their faith and in case any have been baptized in their infancie that they ought to be re-baptized after they come to years of discretion before they are to be admitted to the church of Christ. For the first sort though their opinion and practise were erroneous yet some conceive causas habet error honestas that they had very plausible pretences for it namely that hereticks were miscreants and had no place themselvs in the true church of God and that therefore they had no power by their baptisme to admit any into it that they had not the holy Ghost and therefore could not confer the gifts thereof upon any that they were foul themselvs how then could they by their baptisme wash others clean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against this opinion and practise of theirs Pope Stephen mainly opposed himself and in a Synod held at Rome condemned it as being repugnant to the tradition of the church which as he affirmeth received hereticks upon their submission recantation of their heresies without re-baptizing them But St. Cyprian a famous bishop in Africa in those dayes and afterwards a glorious Martyr took Pope Stephen to task refelled his argument drawn from unwritten tradition by scripture and in a provinciall Synod held at Carthage whereof he was president Anno Dom. 258. with the joynt suffrages of 87. bishops condemns the sentence of the Roman Synod and determines the flat contradictorie thereunto namely that the baptisme administred by hereticks was invalid and Null and that all that had no better baptisme ought to be brought again to the font and be christened anew no otherwayes to be accounted members of the true church And truely Erasmus in his Preface to his Edition of St. Cyprian affirmeth it to be an even lay between both opinions and that though the church in latter ages took part with Stephen yet that they might as well have confirmed St. Cyprians opinion without any prejudice at all to the catholike faith Howheit with Erasmus his good leave be it spoken whosoever shall dive deep into the point and ponder what St. Austine hath written in his exquisite tractates against the Donatists especially in his third book where professedly he scans all the arguments alledged by St. Cypran and his colleagues in the above-named third Synod at Carthâ—go will find that St. Cyprian had the better parts and gifts but yet the worst of the cause and therefore in the first and most celebrious councell of Nice it is ordered can 8. that the Catharists or Novatians who shall renounce their heresie and seek to be reconciled to the church shall be received by imposition of hands without requiring any new baptisme of them yet in the nineteenth canon it is decreed that is the hereticks called the Paulians taking that name from Paulus Samosatenus fly to the catholike church that they shall be re-baptized by all means By which seeming contradiction of the decrees of this most sacred Synod as it were by the collision of flint stones the fire of truth is thus clearly beaten out That we must distinguish of hereticks whereof some destroy the foundation as the Paulians Gnosticks Cataphrygians and the like others held the foundation but built upon it hay and stubble as the Catharists and Novatians and such hereticks as had a right beliefe in the blessed Trinitie and the natures and offices of Christ yet upon this good seed super seminarunt zizania some depraved the essentiall form of baptisme prescribed by our Saviour as did that Arrian of whom Nicephorus writeth that after he had used an hereticall kind of form dipt his hand in the font to christen the child all the water suddainly vanished away others though they had ill opinions concerning other articles of faith yet were right in doctrine of the Trinity and maintained the true form of baptisme and all those who were baptized by these latter sort of hereticks the church held their baptisme good and therefore did not re-baptize them when they received them into the church but only enjoyned them publikely to renounce their errours but those who had been baptized by the former sort of hereticks in regard their baptisme was indeed no baptisme the church appoynted agreeably unto this decree of the Synod of Nice that they should not be admitted without a new baptisme For the second sort of Anabaptists they were far worse then the former for they made a separation from the catholike Christian church holding that none were members thereof but those that held with Donatus all other they accounted no Christians and therefore if any were converted or rather perverted to their heresie they christened them again The former sort of Anabaptists were accounted only erroneous and schismaticall but not heretical but these were stigmatized for heretiks also and that deservedly for confining the church of Christ only to Africa and their sect there they consequently denied a main article of the Creed viz. Credo sanctam ecclesiam catholicam I beleeve the holy catholike church and the communion of saints Yet with these hereticks and schismaticks our Iacobites Brownists and Barrowsts symbolize for as the Donatists refused communion with the catholike church in regard of some scandalls they observed in it so do these separate from the true church of England in regard of some abuses and as they tearm them popish corruptions in it As they excluded all from hope of salvation who were not of their pure precise sect so these go not much behind them in their uncharitable censures of all those who are not of their fraternitie and as St. Austine complains of the Donatists that wheresoever they bore sway they brake down the communion tables which he there metaphorically tearmeth Altars and defaced the churches so we have had but too just cause to complain of the like out-rages committed by some of the Zelots of that strain though some of them of late have not escaped the heavy judgment of God for it For the third sort of Anabaptists they have sunk deeper in the former quag-mire are drowned over head eares in it For they not only
Apostles without a precept doth not necessarily binde the Church as may be proved by many instances for Christ washed his disciples feet before his supper and he administred it at night and to twelve men onely and no women yet we are not bound so to do In the Apostles dayes widows were maintained to serve the Church at the publike charge yet we are not bound to have such Likewise the first Christians sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men and lived together and had all things common Acts 2. 44. yet are not we obliged so to do Secondly The reason is not alike at the beginning Christians had no Churches nor Fonts in them and therefore they were constrained to Baptize in such places where were store of waters besides the climat of Iudea is far better then ours and men in riper yeers that were converted to the Christian Faith were Baptized in great multitudes and they might without any danger go into the Rivers and be Baptized after such a manner but now the Gospel having been long planted in these parts we have seldome any Baptized but children who cannot without danger to their health be Dipt and plunged over head and ears in the Font or Rivers especially if they be infirm children and the season very cold and the air sharp and piercing Lastly They urge the custome of many ancient Churches in which a three-fold Dipping was used and if they Dipt those that were Baptized three times it should seem they thought Dipping very necessary But we answere First that what those Ancients did they had no precept for it and if they follow some of the Ancients in Dipping the Baptized why do they not follow the example of all the ancient Churches in Christening children Secondly Those ancient Churches which used the trina immeâ—sio they speak of did it for this end To expresse the three Persons which may as well be done by thrice sprinkling or washing the Baptized as well as thrice Dipping But the truth is that neither is requisite because the Trinity is sufficiently expressed in the very form of Baptisme when the Minister saith I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Thirdly We answer with the Apostle That though some of the Ancients had such a custome for a time yet now we have no such custome neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11. 16. ARTICLE II. Concerning the baptizing of children ANABAPTIST NOne ought to be Baptized but those that professe repentance and faith and consequently no children ought to be Christened THE REFUTATION The children of such parents as professe Christian religion and are members of the visible church sith they are comprised within Gods covenant made to the faithfull children of Abraham and their seed may and ought to receive the seal of that covenant which was Circumcision under the law but now is Baptisme which I prove ARGUMENT I. That which extends to all nations belongeth to children as well as men for children are a great part if not the half of all nations But Christs command of Baptizing extendeth to all nations Matth. 28. 19. Go therefore teach all nations baptizing them and Mark 15. 16. Preach the Gospel to every creature he that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved Ergo Christs command of Baptizing belongeth to children and they ought to be baptized as well as men ANABAPTISTS ANSWER Christs command extends onely to such as are capable of teaching and instruction which children in their infancy are not for Christ saith Teach all uations baptizing them REPLY First the words of onr Saviour are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is make disciples and though children in their non-age cannot be taught yet they may be made Christs disciples by being admitted into his school their parents giving their names to Christ both for themselves and their families And in Christs precept teaching doth not goe before but follow Baptizing ver 20. teaching them to observe all things c. which is punctually observed in the children of the faithfull who after they are Baptized when they come to yeers of discretion are taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded Secondly Though children in their infancy are not capable of teaching or instruction because therein they must be active both by apprehending what is delivered to them and assenting to the truth thereof yet are they capable of Baptisme wherein they are meerly passive being washed in the Name of the Trinity prayed for and blessed and received into Christs congregation this may fitly be illustrated by Circumcision which by the command of God was to be administred to children at the eighth day though then they were no way capable of teaching or instruction in the Spirituall meaning of that outward signe made in their flesh and our Argument drawn from the analogie of Baptisme and Circumcision may be truly called in regard of the Anabaptists pons asinorum a bridge which these asses could never passe over for to this day they could never not hereafter will be able to yeeld a reason why the children of the faithfull under the Gospel are not as capable of Baptisme as they under the Law of Circumcision If they alleadge that these cannot be taught being but sucklings neither could they If they alleadge that these know not what is done unto them nor have any sense at all of the Sacrament neither had they save that they felt the pain of the knife as these do the coldnesse of the water and often shed tears at their Christening as the others did at their Circumcising If it be further said That they were of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh it may be truly rejoyned that these are of the seed of Abraham according to promise and his children as he is the father of the faithfull and so they have the better title of the two Thirdly It is no way safe to defer Baptisme till riper yeers for by this means millions of children might go out of this world without the ordinary means of their salvation which were an unsufferable if not a damnable abuse for though we like not of that rigid opinion of the schools ascribed to S. Augustine who in that regard was stiled durus pater infantum that children dying unbaptized are necessarily damned yet we must take heed of declining to the other extream in denying Baptisme to be the ordinary means of salvation for them and thereby slighting our Lords precept It is true God is not tied to his own Ordinance he may and in charitie we beleeve doth save thousands of the children of the faithfull who are still-born or dye before baptisme neither will he punish the child for that which it is no way guiltie of yet Gods ordinance ties us and the parents and governours are guiltie of a hainous crime before God who in contempt of Christs command or
an Apostolicall tradition Origen having alledged the words of the Psalme 51. 5 I was borne in iniquitie and in sinne hath my mother conceived me inferreth upon it propter hoc for this reason because we are all conceived and borne in sinne the Church hath received a tradition from the Apostles to administer baptisme to little children And S. Austine The custome of our Mother the Church in baptizing infants is no way to be slightened or rejected nor otherwise to be thought on or beleeved then as an Apostolicall tradition Thirdly it may be proved to be an Apostolicall tradition by that ground which S. Austine layeth and every mans reason readily giveth assent thereunto namely that whatsoever is observed uniformly in all churches and no man can tell when it began must needs be thought either to be done by the Decree of some generall Councell or to have descended from the tradition of the Apostles themselves But the baptisme of children hath been observed and practised through the whole Christian church as Austine affirmeth neither was it first appointed by any Canon of generall Councell that can be produced for though it be mentioned in the Councell of Vienna and the second Councell held at Brachara and in Synodo Gerundensi yet was it farre more ancient then any of those Councels neither can any name the time when first it began and therefore we cannot otherwise conceive of it then that it had its first originall from the Apostles ARGUMENT X. All members of the reformed Protestant churches in Christendome ought to conforme their judgements to the harmonie of the Protestants confessions set forth by the consent of all orthodox churches and firmly grounded upon deductions at least of holy scripture if not evident texts But the judgement of all the reformed churches delivered in the harmonie of their confessions is professedly for the baptisme of children and expressely against this renet of the Ans. baptist's Ergo let the Anabaptist either disclaime the 〈◊〉 of Protestants and children of the reformed churches 〈◊〉 renounce this their heresie for tâ—â—s pâ—rs quâ—â— nâ—m congruit â—otâ— Now for the Protestant confessions concerning this point I shall rehearse them in order beginning with the English Articles of Religion Artic. II. First the infants of Christian parents are not to be kept from baptisme because they care borne in sinne and belong to the people of God Secondly the Helvetion confession We condemn the Anabaptists who deme that children newly born ought on be baptized for according to the doctrine of the Gospel of such is the kingdom of God and they are within the covenant of God why therefore should not the soul of that covenant be given unto them Thirdly the Bohemian confession Though baptisme for the most part in the primitive church were administred to men of riper yeares yet children ought to be dedicated and consecrated to Christ according to his command Suffer little children to 〈◊〉 unto me Fourthly the French Article zy Although baptisâ—â— be a sacrament of saith and repentaunce yet in as much as children are reckoned with their parents in tho church of God we affirme that infants that are born of holy parents ought to be baptized by Christs authoritie Fifthly the Belgick confession We beleave that children ought to be baptized and signed with the sign of the covenant for the same reason for which the children in Israel were circumcised namely for that the same promises are made to them and to us Sixtly the Augustane confession they condemn the Anabaptists who dislike the baptisme of children and affirm that infants without baptisme and dying without the church may be saved Seventhly the Saxon confession We retaine the baptisme of infants because it 〈◊〉 must certain that the promise of grace belongeth also to infants and because of them it is said Suffer little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdome of seaven To drive this nayl to the head I shall need to adde nothing save the capitall punishments inflicted upon such as taught and practised Anabaptisme those Christian States accounted it no light errour upon which they layd so heavie a load of punishment in some places the broachers of this heresie and practisers of rebaptizing have been punished with beheading in some with drowning and in some with burning There is a law against this sect in the Code of Iustinian written with blood rather then ink If any man be convicted to re-baptize any of the ministers of the Catholike sect let him who hath committed this hainous crime together with him whom he hath seduced to be re-baptized suffer the stroake of death At Vienna the Anabaptists are tyed together with ropes and one draweth the other into the river to be drowned as it should seem the wife magistrates of that place had an eye to that old maxime of justice quo quis peccat eo puniatur let the punishment bear upon it the print of the sinne for as these sectaries drew one another into their errour so also into the gulf and as they drowned men spiritually by re-baptizing and so prophaming the holy sacrament so also they were drowned corporally In the year of our Lord 1539 two Anabaptists were burned beyond Southwark in the way to Newington and a little before them five Dutch Anabaptists were burned in Smithfield If I have been somewhat the more prolix in the prosecution of the arguments which make for the baptisme of infants S. Austine shall plead for this my large plea for them We are in conscience bound to speak the more for poor infants because they are not able to speak for themselves Now there remaineth nothing but that we stop the mouthes of their adversaries by reselling such objections as they usually make and unchristianly urge against christening them at our fonts The objections of the Anabaptists answered First they argue from the Scripture negatively thus the baptisme of children hath no warrant in Gods Word for we find there no command for it no example of it no promise to it therefore it is to be rejected as an humane invention and condemned also as an addition to the Scripture But we answer that by the like argument they might prove that no woman ought to be admitted to the sacrament of the Lords Supper for there is no command for womens participation of the sacrament nor example of it nor promise to it in Scripture If they answer that women are comprised under the name of beleevers so are children under the name of whole housholds and families which are reported in holy Scripture to have been baptized if they say further that by a like reason women are to be admitted to the sacrament as men because Christ dyed as well for them as men and they are as wel incorporated into Christs mysticall body as men we rejoin in like manner for the same reason that children
were circumcised under the law they ought to be baptized under the Gospell For sith they are comprised in the covenant why should not they as well receive the seal thereof set to it in the new law as well as the children of the Jews received the seal set thereunto by the old Secondly I have produced before both command for baptizing of children Argument 1. and example of it Argument 3. and promise also unto it Argument 5. The command of baptizing all Nations Mat. 28. 29. the examples of baptizing whole families Act. 16. 15. 33. 1 Cor. 1. 16. and the promise made to us and our seed Act. 2. 39. evidently extend to children They argue from Scripture affirmatively our Lord Jesus Christ in that great charter Mat. 28. 18. 19. 20. saith Go teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and Mark 16. 15. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospell to every creature he that shall beleeve and be baptized shall be saved but he that will not beleeve shall be damned From these texts they would infer that none ought to be baptized but such who are first taught and instructed in the principles of Christian faith and consequently that no children ought to be baptized because they are not capable of teaching That the placing the word teaching before baptizing in that text doth no more conclude that teaching must alwayes precede baptisme then the setting repentance before faith in those words Repeâ—t ye and beleeve the Gospell Mark 1. 15. and setting water before the spirit Ioh. 3. 5. except a man be born of water and the spirit necessarily infer that repentance goeth before faith which yet is but a fruit of faith or that the outward baptisme with water goeth before the inward baptisme of the spirit whereas the contrarie is clearly proved out of that speech of Peter to Cornelius Act. 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we Secondly if there be any force in this argument drawn from the order of the words it maketh against them for thus we wound them with their dudgeon-dagger Christ saith baptize them in the name of the Father teaching them to observe all things baptizing therefore must go before teaching especially in children who may be baptized before they can be taught Thirdly they mis-translate the words for Christ saith not go teach all nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things neither is there a tautologie in our blessed Saviours words for his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. go make disciples among all nations baptizing them and teaching them Now though children cannot be taught before they are baptized yet they may be after a â—orâ— made Christs disciples by their parents or god-fathers offering them unto God and undertaking for them that they shall be brought up in the Christian religion Fourthly Christ speaketh here of the plantation of the Christi an faith and the conversion of whole nations in which alwayes the preaching of the word goeth before the administration of the sacrament First men are taught to repent of their sins and beleeve the Articles of the Christian faith and after they have made confession of the one and profession of the other then they are to be received into the church by baptisme This course was taken by the Apostles in the beginning and must at this day be taken by those who are sent into Turkie or the East and West Indies to convert Pagans or Mahumetans or unbeleeving Iews to the Gospell They are to baptize none before they have taught them the principles of Christian religion but after the Gospell is planted and the parents are beleeverâ— and received into the church by baptisme their children are first to be baptized and afterwards taught so soon as they are capable of teaching They argue from examples after this manner such are to be baptized who with the Iews in Ierusalem Mat. 3. 6. confesse their sins who with the Proselytes Act. 2. 41. gladly receive the word who with the Samaritans Act. 8. 6. give heed to the word preached who with those of Cornelius familie Act. 10. 44. receive the holy Ghost by the hearing of the word who with Lydia have their hearts opened to attend the things that are spoken by the Apostles Act. 16. 14. who with the Gaoler hear the word preached and seek after the means of salvation Act. 16. 30. But children can neither confesse their sins nor attend to the word preached nor actually beleeve nor desire baptisme they therefore ought not to be baptized But we answer all that can solidly be concluded from these examples is but this in the affirmative all such who were so qualified as these were viz. hearers of the Gospell penitent sinners and true beleevers unfainedly desiring the means of their salvation ought to be admitted into the church by baptisme which we freely grant but they cannot conclude from these examples negatively that none other ought to be Christened No more then it will follow that those of Cornelius his family received the gift of the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues before they were baptized with water therefore none but such who have received such gifts of the holy Ghost may and ought to be baptized To confesse sins and actually professe faith makes a man more capable of baptisme yet dumb men who can do neither if they have a good testmonie of their life and conversation and by signs make it appear they unfainedly desire the sacraments may receive them Secondly if there be any force at all in an argument drawn from examples affirmatively it must be from examples in the like kind as from men to men from children to children not from women to men or from men to children or from children to men For it will not follow women in the Apostles times were covered in the church therefore men ought to be so or men may speak in the church therefore women may or children are usually fed with milk and not strong meat therefore men in ripers years ought to use such dyet no more will it follow men in riper years who are capable of instruction ought to hear the word to give their assent thereunto and enter into a strict covenant with God to lead a new life before they have accesse to the Font. Therefore the like duties are required of children who have not yet the use of reason nor knowledge of good or evill By this reason they might starve children because the law is he that will not labour let him not eat It holds in men but no way in children who are not able to labour in any calling by reason of the infirmitie of their joynts and want of reason and understanding Baptisme is a seal of the righteousnesse of faith
lives to the law of God they are also purged from the guilt of their sinnes and Christs righteousnesse is imputed unto them though they have no sense or feeling thereof till God worketh powerfully upon their hearts by the preaching of the word and they apprehend Christs merits by an actuall faith As a flower in the winter lyes hid under ground in the root which at the spring shooteth forth the leaves thereof so in children that are baptized there remaines that root of sanctifying grace in their hearts which in riper yeares putteth forth the leaves thereof by a holy profession and bringeth forth fruit by a godly conversation They argue à pari if the sacrament of baptisme be to be administred to children then also the sacrament of the Lords supper for both are seales of the same covenant But the supper is not to be administred unto infants therefore neither is baptisme But we answer that the inference is not good for though both are seales of the covenant of grace yet there is a three-fold disparitie in them which looseneth the sinewes of the argument First baptisme is the seale of our new birth but the Lords supper of our growth in grace and ghostly strength baptisme is a sacrament of initiation the Lords supper of perfection Now it will not follow that because a punie or novice may or ought to be admitted to the lowest form in the school of Christ therefore he may and ought to be set in the highest the Lords supper is strong meat and not milk and therefore no fit meat for sucklings Secondly the sacrament of the Lords supper was instituted for the commemoration of Christs death As oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup saith the Apostle ye shall declare the Lords death till he come But children neither can apprehend nor shew forth Christs death therefore that sacrament is not ordained for them Thirdly before the receiving the Lords Supper every one is required to examine himselfe which children cannot do But before baptisme there is no such examination required Though if any in riper years be converted to the Christian faith it is most requisite that he be examined by the minister who baptiseth him and that he be able to give a good account of his faith but every one who is fit to be baptized is not presently to be addmitted to the Lords Table without precedent preparation and a more strict examination of himself both concerning his growth in faith and sinceritie of repentance and unfained charitie with an earnest desire of that heavenly repast They argue from Christs example who was not baptized till he was thirtie years of age But we answer that Christs example alone without a precept doth not bind us For Christ neither instituted nor administred the holy Supper till the day before his death and then he both administred and received it after Supper and that with his Apostles only yet we are not bound either to defer our receiving to the day before our death or to administer the Eucharist after Supper or to participate only with such a number and those Priests or Ministers of the Gospell Secondly Christ in his infancie was circumcised circumcision then being in force neither was baptisme then instituted but now circumcision is abrogated and baptisme succeeds in the place thereof Thirdly though Christ were not baptized in his infancie for the reasons above alledged yet was he baptized if I may so speak in the infancie of baptisme it self For as soon as Iohn began to baptize Christ came unto him and required baptisme of him When the fulnesse of time was come in which God had appoynted to manifest him to the world and appoynt him our teacher by a voice from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him According to whose example we ought not to defer our baptisme but upon the first opportunitie offered unto us receive that seal of our new-birth in Christ and admission into his church I conclude the answer to this argument with an observation of Gastius that Christ because he was Lord both of the people in the old testament and of them in the new therefore he would receive the sacraments of both and was both circumcised in his infancie and baptized also as soon as baptisme was in force Since the examination and confutation of this second Article of the Anabaptists there came to my hands a small pamphlet dedicated to the house of Commons intituled The vindicathâ—u of the royall commission of king Iesus wherein the author Francis Cornwell master of Arts and sometimes student of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge frameth many arguments against the ordinance of the church in baptizing infants Of which I may truly say as Martiall doth of Caecilius who made disverse dishes of one and the self same kind of course root Atreus Caecilius cucurbitarum Sic illas quasi filias Thyestae In partes lacerat secatque mille Gustu protinus has edes in ipso Has prima feret alterave mensa Has coenae tibi tertia reponit Huicseras Epidipnidas parabit Hoc lautum vocat hoc putat venustum Unum poâ—ere ferculis tot assem Thou cheatest my stomack with varietie of dishes in all which there is but one sorie root drest after a diverse manner in all of them not a half-pennie worth of good and solid meat So this new Anabaptisticall Proselyte endeavours to cheat the judgement of the reader with varietie of syllogismes and enthymems in which there is but one or two arguments at most propounded in divers forms and in all of them not the weight of one solid reason the summe effect of his whole book is contained in the title-page wherein he affirmeth that the christening of children doth universally oppose the commission granted by king Iesus Mat. 28. 19. 20. Mark 16. 15. 16. and that paedobaptisme is a popish tradition brought into the church by Innocentius the third upon these two notes he runs in division through his whole book The first hath no colour of probabilitie and the latter is a grosse ignorant untruth if the baptisme of infants oppose the coÌ„mission granted by Christ Mat. 28. either it opposeth it in words or in sense not in words for there is no mention at all of children in either of those texts much lesse any prohibition of baptizing them neither doth it oppose it in sense For the meaning of our Saviour there apparently is that his Apostles and their Successors should go and convert all Nations and plant Christian churches in them first teaching them the Gospel and principles of Christian Religion and after administring the sacraments unto them which they have done accordingly first teaching the parents and baptizing them and after their children into their faith But the objection from these texts is fully answered and retorted in the end of the conference and in the solution of the first argument brought by
the Anabaptists in this section And therefore I come briefly to examine his second assertion or rather aspersion of the whole Christian world in these words in the frontis-peece of his book Against the anti-christian faction of pope Innocentius the third and all his favourites that enacted by a decree that the baptisme of the infants of beleevers should suâ—ceed circumcision These words vertually contain this proposition that the christening children is the practise of an Anti-christian faction which was brought first into the church by the decree of Pope Innocentius the third Of which enunciation I may say as Tertullian doth of the Chameleon quot colores tot dolores or rather quot dicta tot maledicta so many words as there are so many grosse errors and scandalous reproaches For the baptizing infants is not the practise of a faction nor a part but of the whole not Anti-christian but truely Christian church Neither was it introduced by Innocentius the third but is of far more ancient date and was derived even from the times of the Apostles themselvs First it is well known that the Greek and Latine churches or the Eastern or Western were the membra dividentia of the whole church and that the christening of infants was approved of and practised by the Greek church is evident by the testimonies of Gregorie Nazianzen orat 40. in bap Origen hom 8. upon Leviticus and 14. of Luke and that it was likewise approved and practised in the Latine church is clearly collected from Ambrose lib. de Abrahamo Patriarcha Ieron cont Pelag. l. 3. Augustin l. 10. de Gen. ad lit c. 23. Cyp. ep 59. ad Fidum Now if the Greek and Latine churches were Anti-christian where were there any Christians in the world Secondly Pope Innocentius the third as it is well known to all the learned lived in the twelfth age of the Church and flourished about the year 1215 in which year he called the great Councell at Lateran Before him Gregorie the great whom M. Cornwell himself alledgeth page 11. out of M. Fox in his book of Martyrs about the year of our Lord 599. above six hundred yeares before Innocentius the third resolved Austine the Monk that in case of necessitie infants might be baptized as soon as they were born and two hundred yeares before Gregorie S. Austine wrote a treatise de baptismo parvulorum and for the lawfulnesse thereof in his 28 epistle and in his third book de pec mer. remiss and by occasion elsewhere also alledgeth a testimonie out of S. Cyprian to that purpose who wrote in the year of our Lord 250. nay which is most considerable Origen in his Comment upon the epistle to the Romans c. 6. l. 5. quoted by M. Cornwell himself p. 10. affirmeth in expresse tearms that the church from the Apostles received a tradition to baptize children whence I thus frame my argument All Christians ought to hold the traditions which have been taught them by the Apostles either by word or epistle 2 Thess. 2. 15. But the baptizing of children is a tradition received from the Apostles as Origen affirmeth loc sup cit Austine l. 10. de Gen. ad lit c. 23. de bap cont Donatis l. 4. Ergo the baptizing of children ought to be retained in the Christian church Thus M. Cornwell hath spun a fair thred of which a strong cord may be made to strangle his own assertion Yea but M. Cornwell chargeth all ministers deeply to answer this his negative demonstration saying O that the learned English ministerie would informe me lest my bloud like Abels crie aloud from heaven for vengeance for not satisfying a troubled conscience how shall I admit or consent to the admittance of the infant of a beleever to be made a visible member of a particular congregation of Christs body and baptized before it be able to make confession of its faith and repentance lest I consent to separate what God hath joyned together That which God hath joyned together no man ought to separate But faith and baptisme God hath joyned together Mar. 16. 16. Acts 8. 37 38. 16. 33 34. Gal. 3. 27. Ephes. 4. 5. Ergo faith and baptisme no man ought to separate ANSWER This argument is so far from a demonstration that it is not so much as a topicall syllogism but meerly sophisticall therin any who hath ever saluted the University and hath bin initiated in Logick may observe a double fallacy The first is fallacia homonymiae in the premises The second is ignoratio elenchi in the conclusion First the homonymia or ambiguity is in the tearm joyned together for the meaning may be either that faith and baptism are joyned together in praecepto in Christs precept and that no man denieth all that are commanded to be baptized are required to believe and all that believe to be baptized or joyned together in subjecto that is to say all who are baptized have true faith and that none have true faith but such as are baptized in this sense it is apparantly false and none of the texts alledged prove it for the thiefe on the crosse had faith yet not the baptism we speak of as also the Emperour whom S. Ambrose so highly extolleth in his funerall and many thousands besides again Iulian the Apostata and all other who after they came to years renounced their baptisme and Christian profession had baptisme yet no true faith which as M. Cornwell himself will confesse cannot be lost totally or finally Secondly in the former syllogisme there is ignorantio elenchi he concludes not the point in question they who most stand for the baptizing of children will not have faith and baptisme severed for they baptize children into their fathers faith and take sureties that when they come to yeares of discretion they shall make good the profession of the Christian faith which was made by others at the font in their name and for them nay so farre are they from excluding faith from infants that are baptized that they beleeve that all the children of the faithfull who are comprised in the covenant with their fathers and are ordained to eternall life at the very time of their baptisme receive some hidden grace of the Spirit and the seeds of faith and holinesse which afterwards beare fruit in some sooner in some later Neither is this any paradox or new opinion for S. Ierome advers Lucifer and Austin ep 57. ad Dard. and Zanchius de tribus Elohim affirm that the holy Spirit moveth upon the waters of baptisme and that as the Spirit in Genesis 1. 2. rested upon the waters incubabat aquis that he might cherish and prepare them for the producing of living creatures so the holy Ghost resteth upon the waters of baptisme and sits as is were abroad upon them and blesseth them and thereby doth cherish the regenerate and animate the elect S. Leo speaketh most elegantly and fully to this point in his sermons of the birth of
Christ omni renaâ—ceâ—i aqua baptismatis instar est uteri virginalis â—adem 〈…〉 qui replevit virginem peccatum quod ihi 〈…〉 conceptio hic mystica toâ—â—it ablâ—tio And 〈◊〉 5. factuâ— est homo nostri generis ut nos divinae naturae possâ—imus esse consortes originem quam sumpsit in utero virginis posuit in 〈…〉 dedit 〈◊〉 quod dedit matri obumbratio Spiritus quâ—â— facit ut Maria pareret salvatorem facit ut regeneret undae credontem to every regenerate Christian the water of baptisme is in stead of the Virgins wombe the same Spirit replenishing the font which filled the Virgin and the sinne which there his holy conception prevented or evacuated here the mysticall ablution takes away And again Christ was made a man of our nature that we might be made partakers of his divine nature the birth or originall which he took in the Virgins womb he hath put in the font of baptisme he hath given that to the water which he gave to his mother by the like over shadowing of the Spirit the water regenerates a beleever whereby Mary brought forth a Saviour As for the rest of his arguments they are like rotten wyer they will not endure the streining and they are alreadâ—e broken in pieces by another See the declaration against the Anabaptists printed at London for R. W. 1644. A confutation of A. R. his TRACTATE entituled The Vanitie of childrens baptisme THe presse now adays is like Africa â—emper aliquid apportat novi monstri it brings forth every day some new monster among which one of the most ugly and mishapen is a Treatise printed by A. R. of The Vanitie of childish baptisme quis furor ô cives quae tanta licentia praeli O the impietie of the men of these times the more to be condemned by all after-ages by how much they condemn the pietie and devotion of the former An ordinance of God and most holy sacrament instituted by Christ and from the dayes of the Apostles even to this present age administred by the whole church to the children of beleevers is tearmed by the vain author of this Treatise upon weak and childish reasons vain and childish Is everie action childish whereof children are the subject Then was circumcision childish and the protection of Angells is childish and the imposition of hands and benediction of our blessed Saviour I tremble to speak it in the language of this black-mouthed Treatiser will be concluded to be vain and childish For the sacrament of circumcision by Gods commandement was administred to children the Angells of heaven are childrens guardians and our Redeemer himself took children in his arms layd his hands upon them and blessed them And if he commanded children to be brought unto him shall not we bring them to the church If he embraced them shall not we receive them into his familie If he layd his hands on them shall not we wash them in his sacred font If he blessed them shall not we pray for them and after a religious manner consecrate them unto him and make them free of the citie of God according to Abrahams copie I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Herod the Ascalonite and Richard the third King of England were branded with anote of infamy and barbarous crueltie to allages the one for â—â—isling the young princes of the blood and heires of the crown of England the other for massaging the infants in Bethlehem and the confines thereof yet those bloodie tyrants deprived those sweet babes only of their temporall life of how much deeper dye is their sin who by their soul-murthering doctrine and practise endeavour to deprive the heires apparent not of an earthly but of a celestiall crown and all the children of the faithfull throughout the whole Christian world of the ordinarie means of eternall life Whatsoever fair varnish hath been of late put upon this heresie it seemed so horrid and abominable in the eyes of our predecessors and other reformed churches they inflicted the severest punishments upon the obstinate maintainers thereof that they could devise At Zurick after many disputations between Zuinglius and the Anabaptists the Senate made an act that if any presumed to rebaptise those that were baptized before they should be drowned In the year of our Lord 1539. five Dutch Anabaptists were burnt in Smithfield and two beyond Southwark in the way to Newington At Vienna many Anabaptists were so tyed together in chains that one drew the other after him into the river wherein they were all suffocated vid. suprâ— Here you may see the hand of God in punishing these sectaries some way answerable to their sin according to the observation of the wise man quo quis peccat co punietur they who drew others into the whirl-pool of error by constraint draw one another into the river to be drowned and they who prophaned baptisme by a second dipping rue it a third immersion But the punishment of these Catabaptists we leave to them that have the legislative power in their hands who though by present connivence they may seem to give them line yet no doubt it is that they may more entangle themselvs and more easily be caught For my part I seek not the confusion of their persons but the confutation of their errors two whereof A. R. undertaketh strenuously to defend The first is the necessitie of dipping in baptisme dipping saith he in his title-page is baptizing and baptizing dipping and p. 8. the institution of Christ requireth that the whole man be dipped all over in water This he endeavoureth to prove out of Mark 1. 8. and Ioh. 1. 26. and Plutarch l. de superstitione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Act. 11. 16. c. 8. 38. 39. Philip and the Eunuch went down both into the water and Mat. 3. 16. Christ went with Iohn into the water p. 11. and Col. 2. 12. buried with him in baptisme and Rom. 6. 4. 5. were buried with him by baptisme into his death Now let any man saith he that is not quite fallen out of his reason judge whether washing or sprinkling the face with water or dipping the whole man into water doth answer all these texts of scripture I answer this is a weak and childish fallacie For ex particulari non est syllogizari no man in his right wits will conclude a generall from a particular as he doth here Some men that were baptized went into the river therefore all that be baptized must do so The word baptizo sometimes signifieth to dip therefore it alwayes signifieth so Although in the places alledged the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not in but with as the words immediatly following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make it plain and therefore both the Geneva and the last translation render the words not I have baptized you in water but he will baptize you in the holy Ghost but I
of the Gospel both by the Law of God and by the Law of nature vers 7. Who goeth a warfare on his own charge who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock and vers 13. Doe ye not know that those that minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they that wait at the Altar be partakers with the Altar even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel He saith not God permitteth or alloweth of it but ordaineth and commandeth it And lest these two strings should not be strong enough to keepe the bow still bent he addeth a third to wit an Apostolical injunction let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things Moreover when we read that Abraham and Iacob gave tithes I demand by what Law whether by the Law of nature or the Leviticall or Evangelicall not by vertue of the Leviticall for that Law was not then enacted and by that Law Levi was to receive not pay tithes Yet Levi himselfe in Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedech if they paid it by the Law of nature that bindeth all men if by the Evangelicall Law it bindeth all Christians to pay their tithes towards the maintenance of Melchisedechs Priesthood which endureth for ever And Saint Austine fearfully upon this ground threatneth all those who refuse willingly to pay their tithes that God would reduce them to a tithe and blast all the nine parts of their estate Thirdly I except against the thirty ninth Article viz. that baptisme is an ordinance of the new Testament given by Christ to be dispensed only upon persons professing Faith or that are disciples or taught who upon a profession of Faith ought to be baptized Here they lispe not but speak out plaine their Anabaptisticall doctrine whereby they exclude all the children of the faithfull from the sacrament of entrance into the Church and the only outward meanes of their salvation in that state but the best of their proofes fall short the word only which only can prove this their assertion is not found in any of the texts alledged in the margent nor can the sense of it be collected from thence For though it is most true and evident in the letter of those texts that all Nations that are to be converted and all men in them of yeers of discretion that have been taught the principles of Religion ought to make profession of their Faith before they are baptized as all that came to mens estate among the Jews or proselytes ought both to know and to give their assent to the covenant before they received the seal thereof to wit circumcision yet no such thing was or could be required of children who notwithstanding were circumcised the eight day so by the judgement of all the Christian Churches in the world the children of beleevers who are comprised in the letter of the covenant may receive the seal thereof to wit baptisme though they cannot make profession of their Faith by themselves for the present but others make it for them and in their stead the affirmative is true that all that make profession of their Faith and testifie their unfained repentance are to be baptized but the negative is most false that none are to be baptized who have not before made such profession of their Faith when by reason of their infancie they are not capable to be taught But this hereticall assertion is at large resu'ed by manifold Arguments drawne from Scripture Fathers and reason and all their cavils and evasions exploded Article 2. to which I refer the Reader Fourthly I except against the fortieth Article viz. The way and manner of dispensing of this Ordinance the Scripture holds out to be dipping or plunging the whole body under water it being a signe must answer the things signified which are these 1. The washing of the whole soul in the blood of Christ 2. That interest the Saints have in the death buriall and resurrection of Christ 3. Together with a confirmation of our Faith that as certainly as the body is buried under water and riseth again so certainly shall the bodies of the Saints be raised by the power of Christ in the day of the resurrection to reigne with Christ. This Article is wholly sowred with the new leaven of Anabaptisme I say the new leaven for it cannot be proved that any of the ancient Anabaptists maintained any such position there being three wayes of baptizing either by dipping or washing or sprinkling to which the Scripture alludeth in sundry places the Sacrament is rightly administred by any of the three and whatsoever is here alleadged for dipping we approve of so far as it excludeth not the other two Dipping may be and hath been used in some places trina immersio a threefold dipping but there is no necessity of it it is not essentiall to Baptisme neither doe the Texts in the margent conclude any such thing It is true Iohn baptized Christ in Iordan and Philip baptized the Eunuch in the river but the Text saith not that either the Eunuch or Christ himselfe or any baptized by Iohn or his Disciples or any of Christs Disciples were dipped plunged or dowsed over head and eares as this Article implyeth and our Anabaptists now practise Againe the bare example of Christ and his Apostles without a precept doth not bind the Church and precept there is none for dipping it is certaine Christ and his Apostles celebrated the Communion after Supper and in unleavened bread and with such a gesture as was then in use among the Jewes yet because there is no precept in the Gospell for these things no Christian Church at this day precisely observeth those circumstances and therefore dato non concesso that Christ and Saint Iohn or their Disciples used dipping in Baptisme it will not follow that we ought to baptize in the like and no other manner Besides it ought to be noted that in the beginning Christians had no Churches nor Fonts in them and there being many hundreds nay thousands often to be baptized together there was a kind of necessity that this Sacrament should be administred in rivers or such places where were store of waters as there were in Enon neare Salem where John baptized But now the Church hath better provided there being Christian Oratories every where and Fonts in them most convenient for this purpose whereunto I shall need to adde here no more having fully handled this point both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the discussion of the first Article Fiftly I except against the 41. Article viz. The persons designed by Christ to dispence this ordinance the Scripture hold forth to be a preaching Disciple it being no where tyed to a particular Church Officer or Person If the eye be
The Discription of the severall 〈◊〉 OF ANABAPTISTS With thâ—re manner of Rebaptizing Cyprian de Habitu Virg Sordidat iâ—ta Lavatia non abluit nâ—c emundat membra Sed commaculat W. M. sculpsit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Dippers dipt OR THE ANABAPTISTS DVCK'D AND PLVNG'D Over Head and Eares at a Disputation in Southwark TOGETHER WITH A large and full DISCOURSE of Their 1. Originall 2. Severall sorts 3. Peculiar Errours 4. High Attempts against the State 5. Capitall punishments with an Application to these times By DANIEL FEATLEY D. D. Válens Gratianus ad Florianum Vicarium Asiae Antistitem qui sanctitatem baptismatis illicita usurpatione geminaverit sacerdotio indignum esse censemus Eorum enim damnamus errorem qui Apostolorum praecepta calcantes Christiani nominis sacramenta sortitos alio rursus baptismate non purificant sed incestant sacramenti nomine polluentes LONDON Printed for Nicholas Bourne at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange And Richard Royston in Ivie-Lane 1645. TO THE MOST NOBLE LORDS WITH THE HONORABLE KNIGHTS CITIZENS and BURGESSES Now Assembled in PARLIAMENT THe bright burning Taper of Geneva as warme in his Devotions as cleare and lightsome in his Disputes truly observeth that the pure doctrine of the Gospel never appeares as it were above the water but Satans watchful eye is upon it and he casts an envious gloate at it and hath his Tobiases and Sanballats either to jeere or fright the sincere Professors out of the powerfull preaching thereof In which regard it is that as the Jewes in their edifying the materiall Temple so you in the repairing of the Spirituall have a weapon in the one hand and a toole in the other and you have hitherto more imployed the Sword then the Mattock or Spade by reason of the great opposition on all hands and after you shall through Gods blessing have laid the roofe on this sacred building and gratefull posterity put a garland of glory upon your heads for it yet still there will be use of an arming sword not of War but of Justice to cut off Superstition and Idolatry on the one side and Profanenesse and Sacriledge on the other Heretiques with one edge and Schismatiques with the other For as in the beginning of the Reformation so now in the endeavoured perfection thereof the mortall enemie of our immortall soules sets on work all sorts of Heretiques and Schismatiques to hinder disturbe and if it were possible destroy this excellent work The Heretiques he employeth to pervert the Catholique doctrine the Schismatiques to subvert the Apostolike discipline of the Church the Heretiques endeavour to shake the foundations the Schismatiques to make breaches in the walls the Heretiques to rot the maine timber the Schismatiques to pull in sunder the rafters of this sacred structure Now of all Heretiques and Schismatiques the Anabaptist in three regards ought to be most carefully looked unto and severely punished if not utterly exterminated and banished out of the Church and Kingdome First In regard of their affinity with many other damnable Heretiques both Ancient and Later for they are allyed unto and may claime kindred with 1. The Millenarians in the first Age proclaiming Christs Temporal Kingdome upon earth for a thousand yeares before the day of Judgment 2. With the Marcionites in the second Age who denyed the substance of Christs humane body made of a woman 3. The Catharists or Novatians in the third Age who denyed Repentance and restitution to the Church thereupon to those that fell in time of persecution 4. With the Donatists in the fourth Age who re-baptized all those that had received Baptisme before in the Catholique Church Lastly with a rabble of Heretiques in the latter Ages namely the Apostolici the Adamites the Enthusiasts the Psycopannychists the Polygamists the Iesuits the Arminians and the Brownists of all which and their Errours I have set downe a particular Catalogue Chap. 2. As it was said of Caius Caesar In uno Caesare multi Marii and as Cicero saith of the Familie of the Bruti that it had in it multorum insitam atque illuminatam virtutem so in one Anabaptist you have many Heretiques and in this one Sect as it were one stock many erroneous and schismaticall positions and practices ingraffed and as it were inoculated Secondly in regard of their audacious attempts upon Church and State and their insolent acts committed in the face of the Sun and in the eye of the high Court of Parliament Whereas other depravers of the Doctrine or disturbers of the Peace of the Church whether Papists Socinians or Arminians who in the later times have braved it and set up their top and top-gallant yet since Argus with his hundred eyes hath pryed into every corner of this Kingdome and severall roomes in the great Ship of the Church have bestowed themselves under the hatches and layne close in obscurity these with the forwardest of the Brownists strut in the upper deck and discover themselves with open face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and upbraid the State with their merit in hazarding their estate and persons in this present War and boast with swelling words of vanity that they expect somewhat more then a toleration They preach and print and practise their Hereticall impieties openly they hold their Conventicles weekly in our chiefe Cities and Suburbs thereof and there prophesie by turnes and that I may use the phrase of Tertullian aedificantur in ruinam they build one another in the faith of their Sect to the ruine of their soules they flock in great multitudes to their Iordans and both Sexes enter into the River and are dipt after their manner with a kind of spell containing the heads of their erroneous tenets and their engaging themselves in their schismaticall Covenants and if I may so speak combination of separation And as they defile our Rivers with their impure washings and our Pulpits with their false prophecies and phanaticall enthusiasmes so the Presses sweat and groane under the load of their blasphemies For they print not onely Anabaptisme from whence they take their name but many other most damnable doctrines tending to carnall liberty Familisme and a medley and hodg-podge of all Religions Witnesse the Book printed 1644. called The Bloodie Tenet which the Author affirmeth he wrote in Milke and if he did so he hath put much Rats bane into it as namely That it is the will and command of God that since the comming of his Sonne the Lord Iesus a permission of the most Paganish Iewish Turkish or Antichristian Consciences and Worships be granted to all men in all Nations and Countryes That Civill States with their Officers of Iustice are not Governours or Defenders of the Spirituall and Christian state and worship That the doctrine of Persecution in case of Conscience maintained by Master Calvin Beza Cotton and the Ministers of the New English Churches is guilty of all the blood of the soules crying for vengeance
which law is morall and perpetuall as all grant Prove that any ought to be compelled by the gospel That which Iosiah did agreeably to the morall law bindeth us under the gospel for Christ in the gospel both repeateth and confirmeth this commandement of loving the Lord with all our heart and all our soul calling it the first and great commandement Mat. 22. 37. 38. Therefore our princes are as much bound as Iosiah was to compell their subjects to serve the true God Yet farther to give you satisfaction I will prove that it is agreeable to the new law to compell men to come to church and hear Gods word and receive the sacraments for this Christ teacheth in the parable recorded by S. Luke chap. 14. 23. Of a King who made a great supper and bade many guests and when they made excuses he said to his servant gâ—e to the high-ways and hedges and compell them to come in that my house may be full To this nothing being answered D. Featley proceeded in his argument Besides this command in the parable thus I prove that you ought to come to our churches the Apostle commandeth Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the over-sight of you and submit your selvs for they watch for your souls c. To which if we adde those places in 1 Tim. 2. 2. and 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. An undeniable argument may be framed to convince your conscience after this manner All lawfull superiours either temporall or spirituall commanding lawfull things are to be obeyed But your lawfull superiours in church and common-wealth require you to come to our church which I proved to be a true church of Christ. Ergo you ought to obey them and you sin against God by your disobedience to lawfull authority if you come not The word of God doth not command us to come to your steeple-houses the King hath nothing to doe to command us in that kind The King hath power to command you in all things that are lawfull and not repugnant to Gods word indeed if he should command any thing against Gods word you ought rather to obey God than man by the example of the Apostle in the Acts 4. 19. But it is a thing lawfull and no way repugnant to Gods word but most agreeable thereunto to come to our steeple-houses as you call them where the servants of God assemble on the Lords day and other times to worship him in spirit and truth Ergo the King hath power to command you to come to our church The King makes an Idoll of the church where doth Christ command us to come to it Where he commandeth us to hear the word preached for in our church the word of God is preached and therefore there we ought to hear it I am not so averse but if one of our society should preach in Olaves or Mary Overis church I would hear them I would come where the church is gathered for therein I obey Christ. Then you will hear none but one'of your society as if your societie were the true church and none of the true church but those of your society I have proved already that we have a true church among us but you have none For where there are no lawfull pastors nor flocks there is not a true church But amongst you there are not lawfull pastors nor flocks Ergo no true church We have amongst us lawfull Pastours There are no lawfull Pastors but those who are sent Ro. 10. 15. No man ought to assume unto himself that honour but he that is called as was Aaron Heb. 5. 4. all Presbyters are to be made by imposition of hands 1 Tim. 4. 14. 5. 22. 2 Tim. 1. 6. But your Pastors have no sending no calling no imposition of hands on them Ergo you have no lawfull pastors None amongst us teach but they have Ordination for they are elected examined and proved Have you imposition of hands of the Presbytery Wee are not bound to tell you if you will come to our Church you may see I pray you M. Doctor come to the point how prove you the Baptisme of Children to be lawfull by the Word of God It seems you will willingly fall upon no other point but this of Anabaptism which heresy was condemned neer fifteen hundred years ago Here after a long space the Scotchman puts in a word saying Not sixteen hundred years ago If it were but a thousand it is long enough being condemned by the whole Christian Church Greek and Latin Sir that is neither here nor there you know what the woman of Samaria said Joh. 4. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain and ye say that at Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship they continued in an error above 2000 years You are mistaken in your chronology for there were not 2000 years between Iacob and Christ. But to let that your errour passe the Samaritans indeed were in an errour a long time but this is no errour but a doctrine of truth that children ought to be baptized There are three sorts of arguments of great force with all understanding men the first and chiefest from 1. Scripture 2. From consent of the universall church 3. From evident reason I will produce all these for the baptisme of children We desire to have it proved by scripture Our proofs out of scripture are of two sorts some probable some necessarie First probable as where it is said in the Acts 16. 33. that the Apostle baptized the Gaoler with all that belonged to him and Lydia and her houshold Acts. 16. 15. and 1 Cor. 1. 16. that he baptized the houshold of Stephanas and in a whole houshold in all probabilitie there were some children I cannot tell that let 's hear your necessary proofe out of Gods word There is as good ground reason or warrant for the baptizing of children now as there was of old for circumcising them But of old children were to be circumcised many plain places there are where that was commanded Ergo now by the same warrant they are to be baptized We denie that there is the same warrant or ground now for the baptizing of children that there was of old for the circumcising of them For there is an expresse command for circumcising of children but there is none for the baptizing of any but those who can hear the word preached Mat. 28. Go teach and baptize 1. That which circumcision was in the old law to the Jews that is baptisme now to us the sacrament of entrance into the church for so St. Austine and all sound divines hold that our sacrament of baptisme answereth theirs of circumcision as the sacrament of the Lords supper doth their Paschall Lamb. 2.
not for every circumstance But the reason and equitie of the law of circumcising children still remaineth for nothing can be alledged why children then should be by circumcision admitted to the church not now as well by baptisme hic aqua adversariis semper haeret Thirdly if the children of Christian parents should be excluded from baptisme they should be in a worse condition then the children of the Jews were under the law for they by receiving the sacrament of circumcision were admitted into the visible congregation of Gods people and accounted partakers of his promises But it were absurd nay as Calvin further enforceth this argument execrable blasphemie to think that Christ should abridge those priviledges to the children of the faithfull under the Gospell which God granted to children under the law ARGUMENT V. All they who are comprised within the covenant and are no where prohibited to receive the seal thereof may and ought to receive it But children are comprised within the covenant of faith whereof circumcision was a seal Rom 4. 11. and now baptisme is Ergo children may and ought to receive baptisme Of the major or first proposition there can be no doubt for it is unjust to deprive a man of the confirmation of that to which he hath a true right and title And for the minor or assumption it is as clear for so are the words of the covenant Gen. 17. 7. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee ANABAP ANSWER That promise there belongs only to the seed of Abraham according to the flesh and not to us REPLY First this answer is in effect refuted by the Apostle Rom. 4. 13. The promise that he should be the heir of the world was not given to Abraham or his seed through the law but through the righteousnesse of faith as he was the father of all the faithfull and in that notion we are as well his children as the beleeving Jews and we read expressely Act. 2. 39. that the promise is made unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off and even as many as the Lord our God shal call and Gal. 3. 7. Know ye therefore that they that are of faith are of the children of Abraham Secondly the covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed is said to be eternall the chief head whereof was that he would be their God but this is not verified of Abrahams seed according to the flesh for very few of them for these many hundred years have been Gods people being professed enemies to Christ and his church this promise therefore must necessarily be understood of his children according to promise among which all true beleevers and their children are to be reckoned and if they are comprised within the covenant why should they not receive the seal of their initiation and admittance thereunto which was circumcision but now is baptisme every way corresponding thereunto As is solidly proved and clearly illustrated by S. Cyprian l. 3. ep 8. Lactan. l. 4. divin justit c. 15. Augustinus ep ad Dardonuns 57. cont Iul. Pelag. l. 2. ARGUMENT VI. Such who were typically baptized under the law are capable of real and true baptisme under the Gospell for the argument holds good à typo ad veritatem from the type to the truth from the signs in the law to the things signified in the Gospell But children were typically baptized under the law for they with their fathers were under the cloud and passed through the red sea but their washing with rain from the cloud prefigured our washing in baptisme and by the spirit and the red sea in which Pharaoh and his host were drowned was an emblem of Christs blood in which all our ghostly enemies are drowned and destroyed Ergo children are capable of true and reall baptisme under the Gospell ANABAP ANSWER The cloud and the red sea and the rock that followed them were not types but only metaphors and allegories from which no firm arguments can be drawn in this kind REPLY First this answer whets a knife to cut their own throats For as Gastius affirmeth it is the doctrine of the Anabaptists that all sacraments are nothing else but allegories if then the cloud and the red sea were allegories signifying our spirituall washing according to their own tenets they are sacraments and if children were partakers of sacramentall ablutions under the law why not under the Gospell Secondly the Apostle saith expressely ver 6. that all these things were types or figures or lively patterns to us and ver 2. that all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea the cloud therefore and the sea were types of our baptisme and not meer tropes or allegories They may happily object that as we read in the canon law that a Pastor or Rector may have a Vicar endowed sed vicarius non habet vicarium that a Vicar cannot have a Vicar endowed under him and likewise in Philosophie that the voice may have an echo by the repercussion of the aire but that the echo hath no echo so that the promises of God have types or sacraments representing them but that the types and sacraments themselvs have no types and sacrament to prefigure them But the answer is easie for we may say with Nazianzen that either there may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an obscure type of a clearer and a rude draught or imperfect modell of a more perfect such were the legall types of the Evangelicall sacraments or to speak more properly circumcision and the Pascall Lamb were not types of our baptisme and of the sacrament of the Eucharist but of the things represented by them viz. of the circumcision of the heart and our spirituall nourishment by feeding upon the Lamb of God that takes away the sinnes of the world ARGUMENT VII All they who belong to Christ and his kingdom ought to be received into the church by baptisme But children belong to Christ and his kingdom as Christ himselfe teacheth us Mar. 10. 14. and Luk. 18. 16. suffer little children to câ—me unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein vers 15. and he took them up in his arms and put his hands upon them and blessed them Ergo children ought to be admitted into the church by baptisme ANABAP ANSVVER This place is put in to be read at the sprinkling of children for the whore hath sweet words as sweet as oyle with these fair speeches she maketh the nations yeeld to her Prov. 7. 21. but the simple only beleeve her for this place maketh nothing for the baptisme of children the children mentioned in the Gospel were not sucklings for it is said they came to Christ neither did Christ christen any of them though he took them into
his arms and blessed them to shew that he was the Saviour as well of young as old REPLY First Barber deserveth to be trimmed himself for thus reproaching his mother the church of England who if she be a whore what must he needs be but a bastard who cannot deny himself to be born of her If she and other reformed churches who have excluded the papacie and banished the great whore out of their precincts be no better then whores what true spouse hath Christ in the world or what had he for 1500. yeares during which time all churches through the Christian world baptized infanâ—s even those who were the forerunners of these Anabaptists and bare also theâ—r name because they practized rebaptizing as these do yet they condemned not simply the baptisme of infants as I noted before Secondly though it be said that these children came to Christ in a large sense that is had accesse to him yet they came not to him upon their own leggs for S. Luke saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they brought unto him babes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were no other then such as we tearm sucklings or infants and though it be true that Christ christened them not for he christened none himself but his Disciples only as S. Iohn teacheth us yet his receiving them and blessing them and commending humility to all by their example saying that of such and none but such is the kingdome of God is a sufficient ground and warrant for us to christen them for why should not we receive them into the bosom of the church whom Christ took into his armes Why should we not signe them on whom he layd his hands Why should we not baptize and pray for them whom he blessed If he be the Saviour of young as well as old and to perswade us of this truth expressed such love to infants why should we exclude them from baptisme an outward means of salvation whom Christ as they confesse excludes not from salvation it self See more below in the answer to A. R. ARGUMENT VIII All they who are partakerrs of the grace both signified and exhibited to us in baptisme may and ought to receive the signe and sacrament thereof this is the basis and foundation upon which S. Peter himself builds Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we And it may be further confirmed both by an argument drawn à majore ad minus after this manner if God bestow upon children that which is greater the inward grace why should we denie them the lesser the outward element Or by an argument drawn à relatis they to whom the land is given ought not to be denyed the sight and keeping of the deeds and evidences thereof neither ought we to sever those things which God hath joyned to wit the signs and the things signified they divide the signe from the thing signified who denie them to have grace ordinarily modo non ponant obicem who receive the outward sign and they again sever the thing signified from the sign who allow unto children the grace of remission of sinnes and regeneration and yet denie them the sign and seal thereof to wit baptisme But children receive the grace signified and exhibited in baptisme for the Apostle teacheth us they are not unclean but holy and therefore have both remission of sins and sanctification Ergo children ought to receive the sign and sacrament thereof to wit baptisme ANABAP ANSWER The Apostles â—eaning is that the children of beleevens are not uncleane that is bastards but holy that is born in holy wedlack REPLY First this answer is no way pertinent to the scope of the Apostle which is to perswade the Christian husband not to forsake his unbeleeving wife nor the Christian wife to depart from her unbelieving husband because the unbeliever is sanctified by the beleever where by sanctification the Apostle cannot understand legitimation For faith in the husband doth not legitimate the wife that is make her no bastard if she were so born but sanctifieth her to himself and maketh her a part and member of a holy familie dedicated to God Secondly neither is sanctification here nor in any other place of Scripture taken otherwayes then for separating some way from prophane as persons times and places are said to be sanctified Neither doth holy necessarily implie no bastard For some holy men have been base-born nor doth not bastard implie holy for both the children of damned hereticks yea and infidells too if they be begotten in wed-look are no bastards yet in the state and condition they are in are far from holy See more hereof infra in the answer to A. R. ARGUMENT IX All Apostolicall traditions which are truely such ought to be had in reverent esteem and retained in the church For what the Apostles delivered they received from Christ himself either by word of mouth or the infallible inspiration of his spirit such things are part of that sacrum depositum which Timothie is charged so deeply O Timothie keep that which is committed unto thee and the Thessalonians to keep stand fast and keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word the traditions which you have been taught either by word or by our Epistle But the baptisme of children is an Apostolicall tradition truely so called Ergo it ought to be had in high esteem and retained in the church ANABAP ANSWER Though it hath been an ancient custome in many churches to christen children yet it is no Apostolicall tradition but a humane ordinance which had its originall from the Pope the man of sin REPLY First there was christening of children in the church before there was any Pope in the sense they take the word for oecumenicall bishop chalenging unto himself and usurping authoritie over the whole church for not only S. Augustine and Prosper and and Ierome make mention of this custome and good use of it to condemn the Pelagian heresy which denieth original sin but also the councell of Carthage in the dayes of S. Cyprian who flourished in the year 250 determined not only that children might and ought to be baptized but also even before the eighth day upon which some in those dayes stood strickly but erroneously and conformably hereunto we find a canon in the Milevitan councell in which the synod decreed that whosoever shall deny baptisme to children even as soon as they come out of their mothers womb in case the children be weak and in apparent danger of death let him be accursed and before either the synod of Carthage or this Mileâ—tan Irenaeus in his second book against heresies chap. 39. speaks of infants children young and old saved by their new birth in Christ namely by water and the spirit Joh. 3. 5. Secondly S. Origen and S. Austine affirm in expresse tearmes that the baptisme of children is
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83. and Ezra 9. 5 6. I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto my Lord my God and said O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasse is grown up unto the heavens c. usque ad finem capitis And Psal. 92. the title is A Psalme or song for the Sabbath day and Psal. 102. the title is A prayer for the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. From Psalme 119. to 134. all the Psalmes are intituled Songs of degrees they are fifteen in number answerable to the fifteen steps between the peoples court and the priests and they were so called as the Iewish Rabbines observe because these fifteen Psalmes were sung in order as the priests went up those fifteen steps Hereunto we may adde a passage out of the Samaritan Chronicle Postea mortuus est Adrianus cujus Deus non misereatur c. The high Priest living in that time in the year of the world 4713. by their accompt took away that most excellent book that was in their haâ—ds even since the calm and peaceable times of the Israelites which contained those songs and prayers which were ever used with their sacrifices for before every of their severall sacrifices they had their severall songs still used in those times of peace all which accurately written were transmitted to the subsequent generations from the time of the Legat MOSES untill this day by the ministerie of the high Priest Long after Moses in the dayes of Ezra set forms of prayer were prescribed and used in the Synagogue of the Iews whereof Maimonides yeelds this reason Ut preces indisertorum non minùs perfectae forent quam preces viri utcunque linguae disertae Vid. Selden Comment in Eutychium Patriarcham ANABAP ANSWER It cannot be denied that in the time of the old Testament set and stinted forms were used but the case is different with us for under the Gospel we have more light of knowledge and many speciall gifts of the Spirit which they had not they were in their non-age and as children used these forms like festra's which they that can read perfectly cast away or as those that learn to swim make use of bladders which they put from under them after they can swim of themselves securely REPLY First though it must be confessed on all hands that we have under the Gospel more clearer light of knowledge then the Iews under the Law for as S. Ambrose saith excellently Umbra in lege imago in evangelio veritas in coelo and though we excell them in other gifts of the Spirit yet they wanted not the Spirit of supplication mentioned Zach. 12. 10. I will poure upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Ierusalem the Spirit of grace aâ—d supplication it was not therefore for want of the Spirit that they used set forms Secondly let it be noted that Moses and David and other prophets both prescribed and used set forms who no doubt could and did pray by the Spirit in a more excellent manner then any now adayes can yet they commended and used set forms Thirdly if this had been an errour in the Iewish Liturgie or publique Service that they used stinted forms undoubtedly Christ or his Apostles would have somewhere reproved this as they doe other errours that crept into that Church but they are so farre from reproving this practice that they rather confirm and establish it as you shall see in the next argument ARGUMENT III. Whatsoever Christ commanded and the Apostles practised ought to be retained among Christians But we have Christs command and the Apostles practice for set and stinted forms of prayer Ergo they ought to be retained in the Christian church Of the major or first proposition it is impietie to doubt for there was a Voyce heard from heaven saying heare him he cannot mis-lead us for he is the Way nor deceive us for he is the Truth and if Pythagoras schollars bare such a reverent respect to their master that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipse dixit sealed up their lips and stopt their mouthes from contradicting what his bare word had ratified how much more reverence owe we to the words of our Lord and Master who hath not only the words of eternall life but is himself the word of God or rather God the word The assumption is proved out of Math. 6. 9. After this manner therefore pray ye Luke 11. 2. When ye pray say c. Luke 15. 18 19. I will rise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Math. 26. 39. O my father if it be possible let this cup passe from me and v. 44. and he left them and went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words And Io. 17. 11. 21. that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee And Rom. 16. 24. 1 Cor. 16. 23. 2 Cor. 13 14. Gal. 6. 18. Eph. 6. 24. Phil. 4. 23. 1 Thess. 5. 28. 2 Thess. 3. 18. Heb. 13. 25. Revel 22. 21. The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Apoc. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and c. 5. 12. worthy is the Lamb to receive power c. c. 15. 3. they sang the song of Moses the servant of God viz. the song set down Exod. 15. 1. In these passages of the new Testament we have set forms of prayer somewhere commanded somewhere commended somewhere used somewhere reiterated and all inspired by the holy Ghost and therefore certainly the use of them can be no quenching of that holy Spirit whom we feel to inflame our hearts in the rehearsing these sacred forms ANABAP ANSWER The Lords prayer is expounded in Scripture tanquam norma non tanquam forma orationis as a pattern of all prayer not as a prayer it is scripture and therefore not to be used as a prayer in prayer we are to expresse our wants in particular and the graces which we desire in this prayer are only propounded in generall REPLY First Christ delivered the Lords Prayer at two severall times and upon speciall occasions in the former he commands it as a pattern and rule of all prayer saying pray after this manner but in the latter he enjoyneth it to be used a a prayer in the former he saith pray thus in the latter pray this or when ye pray say our Father and surely not only all the ancient fathers who have commented upon this prayer as Tertullian Cyprian Cyrill of Ierusalem Ambrose Gregorie Nyssen Ierome Chrysostome Augustine Cassian Petrus Crysologus Bernard Innocentius Theophylact Euthymius Bede c. but
set forms of Prayer which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Prayers and distinguished from that which he delivered alone by himself by way of preface to his Sermon or Homilie In the third age we meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prescribed prayers and Tertullian in his apologetick gives us the moulds or heads of the publike prayer then constantly used saying our prayer for all our Emperors is that God would vouchsafe to grant them a long life a happy reign a safe Court valiant armies faithfull counsellors a good people a quiet world Yea but say the Anabaptists they said this prayer de pectore out of their brests and sine monitore without any guide or remembrancer or prompter and therefore by an ex tempore facultie This will not follow they mistake much the matter for this monitor Tertullian speaks of was a kind of Nomen-clator who kept a Catalogue of their numerous heathen deities to whom those Paynims prayed upon speciall occasions and directed them to whom and for what to pray left they should commit any absurditie in their prayers in praying to Ceres for wine and to Bacchus for corn Such monitors or prompters the Christians needed not who prayed to one God only and not a prayer suggested by others but premeditated by themselvs and first spoken in their heart before it was uttered by the mouth according to that of the Psalmist My heart is enditing a good matter my tongue is the pen of a readie writer To pray then de pectore in Tertullians sense is no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say without book or pray by heart or from the heart whose feat is in the brest S. Cyprian flourished in this age about the year 250. in whose writings which S. Ierome affirmeth to have been sole clamora as illustrious and well known in the Christian church as the beams of the sun or as he speaketh hyperbolically brighter then they We find some short forms of prayer at this day in use both in the Roman Missall and our book of Common-Prayer as namely sursum corda habemus ad Dominum lift up your hearts and we lift them up unto to the Lord c. Upon which passages and the like the Centurle writers who have gathered all the harvest of antiquitie and have scarce left gleanings for any other truly infer that in this blessed Martyrs dayes out of all peradventure they had certain set forms of short prayers and responds In the fourth age Eusebius writeth that the most religious Emperour Constantine the great commanded all his subjects to keep holy the Lords day and on it to send up to God with heartie and unanimous devotion an elaborate or studied form of prayer penned as it seemeth for the purpose as to give God thanks for the great and miraculous victories he gave him over all the tyrants that persecuted the church so to pray to God to perfect the great work he had begun by him to propagate the Gospell through the whole world and reduce all that were subject to the Roman state to the obedience of faith Besides this prayer penned by some Bishop the same Historian writeth that the Emperour himself made a speciall prayer which he commanded the Souldiers to say every day in the Roman tongue In this age also the famous Councell at Laodicea was held which hath left us diverse Canons like so many golden rules both to regulate our devotion and rectifie our lives and among these for one that everie morning and evening the same service or form of prayer should be used and because some even in this verie age adventured to make use of their ex tempore gift of prayer at least read or said some private prayer conceived by themselvs in stead of the publike form the Milevitan Councell provideth against this abuse by a speciall Canon which carrieth this tenor it seemed good to the reverend fathers met in this Synod to appoynt that those prayers or orizons which were devised or at least allowed by that Councell should be used by all men and no other lest peradventure something through ignorance or want of care might be uttered in the church that might not well agree with the Catholike faith The occasion of this Canon was the over-weeâ—ing conceit that some Bishops had of some prayers devised by themselvs which they obtruded to the church in stead of the publike prescript form whereby it appears that in those dayes that libertie was not permitted to any reverend or ancient Bishop which now everie punie minister taketh to himself to adde or leave out or change what he thinketh good in the Book of Common-Prayer established by the church and ratified by Act of Parliament About the end of this age or the beginning of the next Basil Ambrose and Chrysostome framed Liturgies to be used in their Diocesses yet extant in their works and bibliotheca patrum though with some interpolation And S. Augustine in his seventh Tome consisting of many excellent treatises against the Pelagians produceth divers passages out of the Common-Prayer then used by the church to convince those hereticks of the noveltie as well as falshood of their tenets For notwithstanding that the Pelagians were furnished with many testimonies of the ancient Doctors especially of the Greek church qui ante exortum Pelagium securius locuti sunt who before that heresie sprang up spake more freely of the freedome of mans free will by nature in opposition to the Manichees who taught a fatall necessitie of sinning then could well stand with the free grace of Christ accurately defended by S. Austine and his scholars yet this learned and zealous father being most expert in the prayers appoynted to be read in the ancientest Christian churches out of them exceedingly confounded these upstart hereticks and proved a full consent of antiquitie for those Orthodox tenets he propugned against all the enemies of Christs free and saving grace and truly at this day a man may more certainly gather out of the Book of Common-Prayer and specially the Collects used in our Liturgie what is the judgement of the church of England in those points anciently questioned by the Pelagians and now by the Arminians then out of the Book of Articles or Homilies In the sixt age Gregorie the great and S. Isidore set forth offices or forms of church Service and partly out of them partly out of the Liturgies above mentioned of S. Basil Ambrose and Chrysostome partly some more ancient attributed to the Apostles and Evangelists themselvs all the famous and known churches of the Christian world have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misses officia services or Books of Common-Prayer compiled which they use at this day and as most of the reformed churches have so the most learned and judicious Calvin wisheth all might have Concerning a form of prayer and ecclesiasticall rites I very well
word as I proved heretofore and therefore are not to be accounted a meer humane invention although therein mans wit and invention be made use of Thirdly this argument may be retorted upon the Anabaptists Forms of prayers upon premeditation which Preachers use before their sermons are as well a worship of mans devising as the set forms devised and framed by the governours of the church But premeditated or studied prayers made by way of preface before sermons are acceptable to God and allowed by the Anabaptists themselves Ergo set forms of prayer cannot be disallowed OBJECT II. None who useth a set form of prayer prayeth by the Spirit Every good Christian ought to pray by the Spirit 1 Cor. 14. 15. Ergo no good Christian may use set forms of prayer ANSWER First the Apostle in the place alledged speaketh of an extraordinarie gift of the Spirit as appeareth by the verse immediately going before If I pray in a strange tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is without fruit Now sith those extraordinarie gifts of the Spirit are ceased Christians are not now bound to prophesie or pray by the Spirit in the Apostles sense This text therefore is impertinently alledged and maketh nothing against set forms of prayers now in use in the church Secondly the phrase to pray by the Spirit as it is used by Divines may admit of a double meaning either to pray by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit as the Prophets and Apostles and all the pen-men of the holy Ghost spake and wrote and in this sense they who use set forms of prayer devised by men pray not by the Spirit as neither doe they who pray ex tempore for then they could not be out which they are often nor commit any errour in their prayers which they doe very many nay then their prayers should be of equall authoritie with the Psalmes other prayers set down in scripture given by divine inspiration or by this phrase they mean to pray by the assistance of the Spirit and in this sense they who use premeditated and penned prayers more pray by the Spirit then they who use ex tempore prayers conceived and brought forth at the same instant for the Spirit assisteth the former both in their premeditation and their present deliverie but the latter only in their sudden expressions and I would fain know of them why they who preach studied and penned sermons preach by the Spirit and that far more accurately learnedly judiciously and powerfully then others and yet in their judgements they who utter studied and penned prayers pray not by the Spirit Thirdly this objection may also be retorted by the Apostles example we are as well to sing by the Spirit as to pray by the Spirit for so are his expresse words I will pray with the Spirit I will pray with understanding also I will sing with the Spirit I will sing with understanding also But a man may sing by the Spirit and yet sing prick-song and a written or printed dittie in meeter for such are the Psalmes of David which they themselves sing therefore a man may pray by the Spirit and yet use a set form and rehearse a penned or printed prayer OBJECT III. It is not lawfull to confine the spirit for that is a kind of quenching it forbidden by the Apostle 1 Thess. 5. 19. But the prescribing and using set forms of prayers is a confining or stinting the spirit Ergo the prescribing or using set forms of prayer is unlawfull First if the governours of the Church should simplie and absolutely forbid all suddainly conceived or ex tempore prayers in publike or private they should offend in some degree and be guiltie of the breach of that precept of the Apostle For to stifle all suddain motions of the Spirit and prohibit all piouâ— ejaculations is in some sense to quench the Spirit But albeit they command a set form of Liturgie to be read in the church yet they condemn not the use of conceived or premeditated prayers by preachers in their Sermons nor by private Christians in their closets but leave them to their Christian libertie Secondly I demand of them when they object against the use of set forms of prayer that they confine the spirit what Spirit they mean the Spirit of God or their own spirit the spirit of man If the Spirit of God their objection contains in it blasphemie for the Spirit of God cannot be confined by us whether we pray with premeditation or without use a set form or not the Spirit of God worketh in both as he pleaseth both by enlightning the understanding and warming our affections and powerfully assisting both in the conceiving and deliverie of prayer If they mean their own spirit or the spirit of him that prayeth in the congregation namely the minister or preacher I answer this is most necessarie that his spirit for the time be confined and his intention tied to that prayer he readeth or saith by heart neither is this forbidden by the Apostle nor is it any quenching of the spirit but rather a kindling it For in uttering zealous prayers with a fixt intention and devout affection we feel our hearts burn within us Thirdly this objection may also be retorted if a preacher may not use a set form of prayer because the spirit in him is thereby confined neither may he deliver a conceived or ex tempore prayer in the audience of the people because by it the spirit in them is confined though the prayer of the preacher be no set form to him but meer voluntarie and extemporarie yet is it a set form to the hearers and their spirit if they will not suffer their mind to wander is tied and confined to it so long as it lasteth being an home or two according to the length of our late fast prayers in which regard none more confine the spirit in men then these our upstart Enhusiasts OBJECT IV. Prayers of the Pastor or Minister ought to be fitted to the severall occasions of the faithfull Set forms of prayer cannot be so fitted Ergo they ought not to be used in churches First this is ignorantly objected by such who never read either our books of Common-Prayers or other helps to private devotion for in them there are not only generall prayers fit for all men to use at all times but also speciall applied to severall estates and conditions of men for men in sicknesse and in health in time of war or in peace and the like Secondly these severall occasions they speak of are either such as concern more in the congregation or some one only in partilar if they concern more and the preacher be acquainted therewith he may either chuse a penned prayer fitting for them or himself upon premeditation make one if they concern one only such are not fit to be mentioned in publike prayers but the Pastor is to repair to them and applie a salve in private to their peculiar sore Thirdly
this objection may also be retorted if all things which we need to pray for upon any occasion whatsoever be contained in one short set form of prayer much more may they be in many of greater length But all things we need to pray for are comprised in a short set form of prayer to wit our Lords prayer as S. Austine saith in expresse words although saith he we vaire never so much in our prayers and say other words then those which Christ hath sanctified in his holy form of prayer yet if we pray as we ought we say no other thing then that which is set down in the Lords prayer Ergo all things we need to pray for may be comprised in set forms which may be thus easily demonstrated there is no ex tempore prayer which may not be taken by characters and then either read or said by heart and so made a set form of prayer for all men in the like case OBJECT V. Reading a prayer is no more praying then reading a prophesie is prophesying or reading a Sermon is preaching But where a set form of Liturgie is used the minister only readeth certain prayers and collects Ergo he prayeth not nor is his ministerie therein Divine Service ANSWER First bare reading a prayer simplie without any more then lip-labour is not praying but reading a religious prayer with understanding intention and affection is praying and godly devotion For what is prayer but a lifting up of the heart to God with a lively faith and fervant affection out of a quick sense of our wants and calling upon him for such things as are agreeable to his will This whether it be done within book or without book with our own words or borrowed from another it matter not at all Secondly the reason holdeth not from praying to prophesying and preaching for prophesie is an extraordinarie gift of the holy Ghost and preaching a speciall facultie acquired by many years studie now especially since the extraordinarie gifts of the Spirit are ceased but prayer is a common dutie of all Christians and therefore though it will not follow such a man readeth a prophesie Ergo he is a prophet or readeth written or printed Sermons Ergo he is a preacher Yet we may rightly conclude such a one readeth godly prayers constantly after a religious manner therefore he is an humble orator and petitioner to his heavenly Majestie for Christ said to his Apostles when you pray say Our Father c. Saying therefore or rehearsing a set form is praying Thirdly this objection may be thus retorted if reading the law in the synagogue be preaching it in the language of the holy Ghost then reading holy and heavenly prayers of the church is praying but the text saith expressely that reading the law is preaching Act. 15. 21. Moses of old hath in everie Citie them that preach him seeing he is read in the synagogue everie Sabbath day Ergo reading prayers is praying The Anabaptists having thus disgorged their poyson against set forms of prayer in generall the Brownists who ingender with them thus spit their venome against the Liturgie of the Church of England in particular EXCEPT I. First they except against it that it is a meer humane invention and hath no warrant from Gods word ANSWER But this exception is weak and false First weak for if all things in the service of God wherein mans invention skill and art is exercised are to be rejected and abandoned what will become of the partition of the Bible into chapters and verses the translating it into the mother-tongue putting Psalms into meeter and setting tunes to them Catechismes confessions of faith forms of administring sacraments nay conceived as well as read prayers and all commentaries homilies and sermons for all these have something of Art and are the issue of our meditation invention and contemplation We must therefore of necessitie distinguish between the doctrine and the method of a sermon the matter and the form of a prayer the substance and circumstance of Gods worship in the former there is no place for mans art wit or invention in the latter there hath been alwayes and must be Secondly it is false for the booke of Common-prayer consisteth of first confessions of sinnes and of faith secondly lessons out of the old and new Testament thirdly thanksgivings or blessings generall and speciall fourthly Psalmes read and sung fifthly prayers for our selves and for others but for all these we have precept and president in scripture namely for confession of sinnes Psal. 32. 5. I said I will confesse my transgrlssions to the Lord. Prov. 28. 13. He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but who so confesseth them and forsaketh them shall have mercie Dan. 9. 20. While I was praying and confessing my sinne and the sinnes of my people Ezra 10. 1. 11. Now when Ezra had prayed and confessed weeping and casting himself down before God 11. Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers Math. 3. 6. And were baptized of him in Iordan confessing their sinnes For confession of faith Math. 10. 32. whosoever shall confesse me before men him will I confesse before my father which is in heaven Rom. 10. 10. With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation 1 Pet. 3. 15. Be readie alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you For lessons to be read out of the old and new Testament Deut. 31. 11. Thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing Esay 34. 16. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read Luke 4. 16. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read Acts 13. 15. After the reading of the Law and the Prophets Acts 15. 21. Moses being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day 1 Tim. 4. 13. Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine For thanksgivings Neh. 11. 17. And Mattaniah the sonne of Asaph was the principall to begin the thanksgiving in prayer Psal. 26. 7. That I may publish with the voyce of thanksgiving and tell of all thy woundrous works Psal. 50. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving Phil. 4. 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God Ephes. 5. 20. Give thanks alwayes 1 Thess. 5. 18. In every thing give thanks For Psalmes read and sung Psal. 95. 1. O come let us sing unto the Lord. 1 Chron. 16. 9. Sing Psalmes unto him Ephes. 5. 19. Speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall songs Iam. 5. 13. Is any merry let him sing Psalmes Rev. 15. 3. And they sang the song of Moses the servant of the Lord. For prayers for our selves and others 1 Kings 8. 28 29 30 38. Have respect unto the prayer of thy servant Math. 21. 13. My house shall be called the house of prayer Luke
18. 10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray Acts 3. 1. Peter and Iohn went up together into the Temple at the houre of prayer 1 Thess. 5. 17. Pray without ceasing 1 Tim. 2. 1. Let prayers intercessions and supplications be made for all men 1 Thess. 1. 2. making mention of you in our prayers 2 Tim. 1. 3. remembrance of thee in my prayers EXCEPT II. Secondly they except against the Service-book that either all of it or the greater part is taken out of the Roman Missall and therefore is to be kickt out of the church with that superstitious piece of Romish devotion ANSWER But this exception is first insufficient secondly ignorant For if the prayers in our Service-book are holy and pithie if agreeable to the pattern of all prayer and favour of true pietie and devotion which they cannot denie they doe what skils it out of what book they were culled The Iews borrowed jewels of the Egyptians to adorn the Sanctuarie Solomon sent for timber and other materials for the Temple to Hyram king of Tyre S. Paul transcribed verses out of heaÌ„then Poets Virgil raked gold out of Enuius hic muck Christian Apothecaries gather simples to make sovereigne electuaries out of the gardens of Iews and Mahumetans the Lapidaries take out a precious stone called Bufomtes out of the head of a Toad Christ indeed forbids us to cast pearl before swine but no where to take a pearl out of a ring in a swines snowt if there be found any there Secondly this exception is guiltie of as much ignorance as weaknesse they who make it are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as cannot see afarre off of if they could they might have discerned the prayers in our Church-book to be farre more ancient then the Roman Missall The Bishops and learned Doctors who in the dayes of Edward the sixt compiled the Service-book at Windsor had farre more ancient Liturgies in their eye then the Roman Missall or Breviarie they drew not water out of that impure channell but out of a clearer fountain There are the same Epistles and Gospels in our book and theirs but they were not taken out of theirs but out of the Canonicall books of the old and new Testament there are the same Psalmes and Hymnes but they were not taken out of their Psalter but out of Davids and Saint Luke there are many of the same Collects and Orisons but they are not taken out of their Breviarie but out of the Liturgies of Saint Basil Saint Ambrose Saint Chrysostome and other more ancient attributed to the Apostles themselves Lastly if in regard of that little which may seem to be translated out of the Missall into our English Service-book it might be tearmed as Spalatensis when he was present at the Service in Canterburie church called it Breviarium optime reformatum a reformed Breviarie I cannot apprehend how that should be any derogation to it for what saith Solomon take away the drosse from the silver and there shall come forth a vessell for the refiner This was the noble work of the learned Doctors and Martyrs who reformed Religion in England they took away the drosse not only from the Missals but from all other Offices and Service-books then extant all superstitious Rites either heathenish or Iewish all Legendarie fables all invocation of saints prayers for the dead all Dirige's and Trentals and whatsoever was not warrantable by holy scripture and retaining the rest supplyed what was wanting thereunto and hence came forth this Vessell for the refiner this Liturgie of our church more compleat then any now extant in other reformed churches EXCEPT III. Thirdly they except at three Popish absolutious as they tearme them the first in the beginning of the Service after the publique confession the second before the Communion the third in the visitation of the sick But this exception hath in it more strength of passion then reason for none of these absolutions are absolute but conditionall nor in the name or by the authoritie of the Minister but of Christ. The first is nothing but a declaration of Gods mercie who freely pardoneth the penitent and of the Ministers dutie to declare and pronounce this absolution and remission to the people The second is a prayer of the Minister to God to have mercie upon the Communicants to pardon and deliver them from all their sinnes and to confirme and strengthen them in all goodnesse The third is the execution of that Ministeriall power wherewith Christ invested the Apostles and their successours Iohn 20. 23. As my father sent me so I send you whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained Here is our expresse warrant and commission from Christ for what we doe in this kind to revive the spirit of the humble and cheat up the drooâ—ing conscience reaâ—lie to languish in a featefull conflict with despaire EXCEPT IV. Fourthly they except against the reading of the Psalmes Epistles and Gospels in a corrupt translation in which there are many grosse errours as Psal 105. 28. And they were not obedient to his word whereas it should be translated and they rebelled not against his word and Luke the first 36. This is the sixth moneth which was called barren for this is the sixth moneth with her who was called barren And Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the time for serving the Lord. And Galat. 4. 25. Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia and bordereth upon the citie which is now called Ierusalem for and answereth to Ierusalem And Phil. 2. 8. He was found in his apparrell as a man for being found in fashion as a man And Ephes. 3. 15. Which is the father of all that is called father in heaven and earth for of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named But this exception is of little importance and may soon be philipp't away For first if no translation way be read in the church but that which is free from all errour then none at all ought to be read for there is none in which there are not some mistakes more or lesse with this ferula therefore they rap themselves over the thumbs Secondly those sores on which they fasten their nail have their salves they may see them if they please in Hooker Fisher and many others who have cleared those very passages Lastly neither is the Minister nor are the people tyed to that translation in the common-prayer-book but they may if they please in stead thereof read the Psalmes Epistles and Gospels according to the last and best translation neither were they to blame who in the first setting forth of the common-prayer-book appointed the scriptures to be read in that ancient translation for that was the best then extant neither is there any errour at all in it which concerneth faith or manners and other slips must be born withall in translations or else we must read none at all till we have a translation given
by Alexander and scoffed at the scrupulous caution of the Grecians who would passe no act without signing it and swearing to it Scythae colendo fidem jurant our Scythians faith is our band and our promise our oath Those who blush not to break their faith with men will make no scruple of conscience to forsweare themselves by their Gods An honest mans word is as good as his oath and a prophane persons oath is no more to be regarded then his word All these examples of the heathen may bee alleadged to good purpose to shame and confound those Christians in name who rap out oathes by no allowance who turn Christs meritorious sufferings in all his parts into blasphemies and wound his very wounds Assuredly if men shall give account at the day of judgment of every idle word much more of execrable oathes but it will not follow we may not sweare lightly or rashly to the great dishonour of God and scandall of religion and therefore wee may not honour God by an oath by calling him to witnesse in matters of greatest moment whereby we agnize his soveraigne Majesty we professe his all-seeing wisdom we invocate his sin revenging justice against all those who dare put his holy and dreadfull name to that which their conscience tells them is a falshood Whereas it is said that an honest man will have as well a care of his word as his oath and a dishonest man as little regard of his oath as his word this is but a vaine flourish for an honest man who will have a care of his word will have a greater care of his oath and a twist â—s stronger then a single string and although many dishonest men will falsifie their word for their advantage yet they will not so easily bee brought to forsweare themselves in regard of the severe penalty of the law and the infamy and horrour of the sinne of perjury whereof the Hebrewes write that at the giving of the tables in Mount Sinai when the law was proclaimed against perjury heaven and earth shook as it were trembling at so horrid a crime The issue and effect of all is this as God sweareth by himself for our comfort so we may swear by him for his glory nay the Prophet goeth farther we ought and it is our duty to take an oath in truth by the truth and for the truth in truth that is in a true and just cause by the truth that is by God who is the truth and for the truth that is for the manifestation and confirmation of truth The second difficulty concerning oathes is whether they may bee imposed I answer briefly they may both by supreame and inferiour Magistrates deriving their authority from him this I prove First by cleare testimony of Scripture Secondly by the examples of holy and religious men who have both administred and taken such oathes Thirdly by evidence of reason ARGUMENT I. In the charge that Ioshuah gave to the Elders Heads Iudges and other officers of Israel among other things there is this remarkeable passage Yee shall not make mention of the names of other Gods nor cause to sweare by them neither serve them nor bow your selves unto them but cleave to the Lord your God as you have done this day whence I thus frame my argument What the Rulers of Israel were forbidden to doe to other Gods this passage sheweth that they may and ought to doe to the true God But the Rulers of Israel are forbidden to make mention of or cause any to sweare by the Gods of the heathen Ergo they may and ought to make mention of the name of the true God and require and cause men to sweare by him when an oath shall be required of them ARGUMENT II. What the Saints of God are recorded to have done and they are no where reproved for the doing thereof in holy Scripture we may doe for all those things were written for our example 1. Cor. 10. 6. But the Saints of God are recorded in holy Scripture to have exacted and taken oaths imposed for Abraham Gen. 24. 23. maketh his servant sweare by the Lord God of heaven that he should not take a wife to his sonne of the daughters of the Canaanites David being urged by Saul sware 1. Sam. 24. 21. 22. that he would not cut off Sauls seed after him Ezra made the chiefe Priests and all Israel to sweare that they would put away their strange wives according to the commandement of God Ezrah 10. 5. Nehemiah 5. 12. called the Priests and tooke an oath of them that they should doe according to their promise that they should restore unto their brethren their lands their vinâ—-yards their olive-yards their houses and also the hundred part of their monie and of the corn wine and oile they exacted of them Ergo Christians may lawfully both impose and take oathes ARGUMENT III. All Christian Magistrates may command those who are subject to their authority such things as are lawfull and necessary for the discharge of their office and the preservation of humane society But oathes are things lawfull as is proved in the former question and they are necessary for the execution of the Magistrates office and the preservation of humane society For without such oathes the Common-wealth hath no sure tye upon publick officers and Ministers nor Kings upon their subjects nor Lords upon their tenants neither can mens titles be cleared in causes civill nor justice done in causes criminall nor dangerous plots and conspiracies be discovered against the State Ergo Christian Magistrates may command those that are under their authority to take oathes and this is the constant judgement of the reformed Churches But they object no man may be enforced to any act of Religion for Tertullian saith acutely and truly nec Religionis est Religionem cogere It is against Religion to compell or enforce Religion But the taking of an oath whereby we invocate God is an act of Religion Therefore no man may or ought to bee enforced to take an oath There are two sorts of acts of Religion inward and outward First inward as to adhere to God to love him to beleive in him and put our confidence and place our happinesse chiefly in him these and such like acts of Religion cannot be enforced Secondly outward as comming to Church receiving the Sacrament and making confession of our faith fasting and prayer these latter may be enforced as wee see by the example of Iosiah who compelled all Israel to serve the Lord and by the speech of the King in the Parable who made a great supper and bade many guests and when they had made their severall excuses said to his servant Goe to the high waies and hedges and compell them to come in that my house may be full Among these latter acts of Religion is the taking of an oath which though in all leagues and covenants and holy vowes it ought to be free
every man have praise of God The Apostle speaketh not in that place against any judiciall proceedings but against private rash and uncharitable judging of our brother and taking his words in the worst part without any just ground or censuring not so much his outward actions or speeches as inward intentions known only go God Such perverse judging our Saviour condemneth Matth. 7. 1. And this Apostle Rom. 2. 1. Therefore thou art unexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest As in the skye sometimes there is cleare light and perfect day sometimes perfect darknesse and yet besides these a third condition which we call twilight neither so light as day nor so dark as night so the actions of men for which they are questionable in Spirituall or Temporall Courts are of three sorts some are altogether hidden of which there can be brought no sure proofe nor strong presumption the judgement of these must be reserved to the last day when Christ shall reveal the secrets of all hearts some are done as it were in the face of the Sunne whereof there may be strong and evident proofes brought in such cases a Judge ought to proceed secundum allegata probata and not put the conscience of any man as it were upon the wrack to extort the truth from him by oath Lastly some are of a mixt nature neither fully open and manifest nor altogether hidden such whereof there are strong presumptions and a generall fame but no pregnant proofe in such cases the oath ex officio is of use whereby the truth may be more and more discovered and the party either cleared upon his deniall or convicted upon his confession or held pro confesso by his evasions and tergiversations and refusing to be put to the test of his oath ARTIC 6. Concerning the office of the Civill Magistrate THere remain many other errours of the Anabaptists some blasphemous as the denying the incarnation of Christ from the substance of the blessed Virgin some impure and lascivious as maintaining the plurality of wives some drowzie and sottish as the casting of the soule into an Endymion sleep untill the day of judgement But because these absurd positions are not at this day generally owned by our Anabaptists the last errour which I intend to encounter at this present is that pernicious assertion of theirs concerning the exauctorating all Civill Magistrates whereby they dull the edge or wring out of their hands the sword of justice Other of their errours fight against the Church but this against the State others agaisnt piety but this against Politie yet as Velleius in Tully goeth about by reason to prove that nothing is more hurtfull to man then the gift of reason so this errour against policie is most politickly devised by them for there being but two censures which any need to fear the Ecclesiasticall and the Civill and they regarding not the Ecclesiasticall because they are out of the pale of the Church if they could keep themselves out of the reach and stroake of the Civill sword all were cock-sure with them they might every where securely both vent their errours and practise their villanies This is the true reason why they so vehemently contend that the coercive power of the Magistrate can no way consist with the perfection of Christianity Now although the Civill Magistrate be ordained of God for the suppression of all vice and heresie yet above all other he ought to have an eye to this for this hath a peculiar antipathy to Magistracie The Magistrate shall beare his sword in vaine indeed if he let other heresies grow but if this thrive in any Kingdome State or Common-wealth he shall not beare his sword at all There is that contrariety and repugnancie between this heresie and that calling that if Magistracie doe not speedily root out this heresie this heresie will extirpate all Magistracie for thus much it professeth in formall tearmes ANABAPTIST No Christian may with a good conscience execute the office of a Civill Magistrate REFUTATION Before I cut off this heresie against the materiall sword with the sword of the spirit which is the word of God I will present to the Anabaptists a glasse wherein they may see their own faces drawne to the life Saint Peter and Saint Iude speaking against false Prophets in their dayes so describe them that all men may see who were the Grand-Fathers of these Hereticks who trouble the Church at this day They walke saith Saint Peter after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse and despise Government and Dominion Presumptuous are they selfe-willed they are not afraid to speake evill of dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord but these as naturall brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speake evill of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their owne corruption I intreat the Reader to take speciall notice of the words of these two Apostles which fall so pat upon our present Anabaptists as if the Apostles had particularly aimed at them But to leave pâ—urtraying them and fall to refuting them ARGUMENT I. Every office appointed by God for the administration of Justice and preservation of peace both in Church and Common-wealth may with a good conscience bee executed by a Christian called thereunto But the office of Civill Magistrates is an office appointed by God for the administration of justice and preservation of peace both in Church and Common-wealth Exod. 18. 20 21. 2 Chron. 19. 6. 7. 11. Prov. 8. 15. Dan. 2. 21. Ergo the office of a Magistrate may with a good conscience be executed by a Christian. ANABAPTISTS ANSWER Although God appointed Magistrates in the time of the Law and the Iewes were kept in order by them yet it followeth not that Christians may exercise that power one over another or that they need any Civill Magistrate at all for they are called by Christ to a greater perfection They must not resist evill but give place to wrath REPLY There is a like necessity of the office of a Judge and Magistrate as well under the Gospell as under the Law For both the Scripture teacheth us Acts 6. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 3 4. 6. 6 7. Phil. 3. 18. Iames 4. 1. and daily experience sheweth that such disorders fall out among Christians as did among Jewes and that through the corruption of our nature we are subject to those passions that unlesse the Civill Magistrate interpose his authority there will be no quiet and peaceable living and if the malady still remaine we must use the remedy which God hath appointed It is false which they affirme that Christ in the 5. of Matthew addeth any thing to the law which the Prophet David Psalme 19. 7. affirmeth to bee perfect converting the soule but only he vindicateth it from the corrupt glosses and false interpretations made thereof by the Scribes and Pharisees For even
Kings and Christian Governours ARGUMENT VII Those for whom we are to offer up prayers and supplications in speciall their calling must needs bee warrantable by and agreeable to the Gospell But we are to offer prayers and supplications in speciall for Civill Magistrates 1 Timothy 2. 1. 2 3 4. Ergo their calling is warrantable by and agreeable to the Gospell ANABAP ANSWER We are to pray for their persons as men but not for their functions as they are Magistrates REPLY The Apostles instancing particularly in Kings and those that are in eminent authority sheweth that he hath an eye to their very function especially seeing he addeth that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honestie which we cannot doe unlesse God blesse their government over us Calvin rightly inferreth this to be the meaning of the Apostle from the reason he useth vers 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth By all men saith he the Apostle cannot understand ad unum omnes nemine excluso every man in particular none excepted sed omnes vitae conditiones status quia status Principum rejectus à Deo maledictus videri poterat eo quod omnes Evangelium infesto animo persequerentur Not all men universally and every man in particular for then none should be damned but all states and conditions of men and in that regard he names expressely Kings and Princes because their estate and condition might seem to be rejected of God and cursed by him by reason that all Princes at that time were ill-affected to the Gospell and persecuted it to bands and death Notwithstanding this mischiefe the Church then received by Civill Magistrates yet the Apostle teacheth us that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God to make supplications even for them because God excludeth no calling or conditions of men from salvation ARGUMENT VIII What Kings are required to doe under the Gospell can be no diminution of Evangelicall holinesse or perfection But Kings under the Gospell are commanded to imploy their power to the advancement of Christs Kingdome Psalme 2. 10 11 12. Ergo it can be no diminution of Evangelicall holinesse or perfection for Kings to imploy their regall power in the service of the Church ANABAPTISTS ANSWER King David in the second Psalme exhorteth Kings to embrace the Gespell and worship Christ not to exercise their regall authority amongst Christians REPLY When Saint Paul commandeth that every man after his conversion to the Christian faith to abide in the same calling whereunto they are called certainly hee excludeth not the best and most eminent calling which is that of Soveraign Princes and Magistrates and if they must not quit their calling undoubtedly they must imploy their power to the best end which is the advancing of Christs Kingdome in theirs 2 Saint Augustine by an acute distinction very well illustrateth the Text of the Psalmist Be wise O yee Kings serve the Lord with feare a King serves God two manner of wayes as a man by leading a godly life agreeable to the rules of the Gospell as a King he serves God by enacting lawes with convenient severity commanding just things and prohibiting the contrary so Hezekiah and Josiah and the King of Ninive◠and Datius and Nebuchadnezzar hee might have added and Constantine and Theodosius and all religious Christian Kings serve God for then properly Kings serve God as Kings when they doe those things in and for the service of the Lord which none can doe but Kings ANABAP OBIECT There is no Paradox so absurd saith the Oratour which meets not with some Patron among the learned and I may adde farther which hath not some varnish of reason yea and glosse also of Scripture put upon it For although as the Poets faine that Atlas beares up the heavens so the Civill Magistrates beare up the pillars of the earth and support the frame of all government yet the Anabaptists bid them Battaile and furnish themselves with weapons against their calling out of Scripture First they wrest to their wicked purpose the words of our Saviour Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world Ergo say they no Christian ought to raigne as a King or rule as a Governour in this world But we answer that the inference is unsound themselves being Judges for as he here professeth that hee had no Kingdome here so elsewere that he had no house or possessions The Foxes saith he have dens and the Birds have nests but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to lay his head Yet the Anabaptists will not allow it for a good inference Ergo no good Christian may hold house or lands If then they will have Kings to quit their Earthly Crownes and Scepters because our Saviour had none such here let them give a good example and first quit all their houses goods and lands and follow Christ naked The meaning of our Saviours words is that though indeed hee bee a King yet his Kingdome is not a Temporall Kingdome in which hee swayeth a Temporall sword but a Spirituall Kingdome whereby hee ruleth the hearts of the faithfull or that he is a King and hath both his Throne and his Guard his Throne of glory and his Guard of Angels but this his Kingdome is an heavenly not an earthly Kingdome Notwithstanding it will not hence follow that earthly Kings and Princes hold not their Crownes from him For Solomon and Saint Iohn affirme the contrary Solomon speaking in the person of Christ saith By me Kings raigne and Saint Iohn saith He hath a name written upon his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords a Temporall Kingdom and a Spirituall are diversa not adversa diverse and distinct not adverse and contrary one to the other Christ in a different capacity hath right to both as God hee administreth all Temporall Kingdomes by Kings and Princes appointed by him and his Spirituall Kingdome by Bishops Pastors and Ministers of the Gospell Howsoever certain it is that he warranteth and approveth of the authority of Secular Kings and Magistrates for he commandeth all men to pay unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and himselfe paid tribute and acknowledgeth Pilats power over him to be from God Secondly they straine the words of our Saviour Matth. 20. 25. Luke 22. 25. The Kings of the Gentiles execute Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so with you therefore say they no Christians may beare rule one over another To this objection the learned Divines both ancient and later shape a double answer first that Christ here speaketh not to all Christians but only to his Apostles and their successours whose office hee distinguisheth from Temporall Rule and Dominion You my Apostles shall not by vertue of your calling challenge to your selves Regall power or Coactive and Temporall authority or
cut off malefactors from the Church therewith But they weigh not the circumstances of the Text the Scribes and Pharisees intended not the execution of justice upon the woman but came a birding to catch our Saviour in a snare which they laid after this manner Will he judge this woman fit to be stoned according to the Law or not it he will not judge her we have a just quarrell against him for derogating from the Law of Moses if he judge her fit to suffer death and condemne her to be stoned wee shall have just cause to question him by what authority hee assumes to himselfe the office of a Judge Christ discerning the snare thus breakes it in sunder He that is without sinne among you saith he let him first cast a stone at her Which is as if he should have said The matter of fact is evident the woman is guilty and the law is as cleare shee ought to be stone◠but who are you who demand the rigour of the Law to be executed upon her are you free from this foule aspersion are you innocent from this great offence look into the book of your owne conscience or if not read what you see here written in the dust Thus touching on their sore they shrinke and withdraw themselves away one after another and the woman is left alone with our Saviour whom he dismisseth with a gracious admonition Goe and sinne no more vers 11. What will the Anabaptist conclude from hence that because Christ condemned not this woman to death according to Law that therefore no Christian may inflict corporall punishment for adultery by the same reason they might inferre against themselves and their owne practises that because Christ severed not this woman from the congregation that therefore no Minister of God or spirituall Magistrate may excommunicate for adultery or the like crimes That which we are from this example of our Saviour to learne for our instruction is first That Christ came not to destroy but to save not to punish but to forgive sinne not to bereave any of their Temporall life but to purchase for all true believers and penitent sinners a Spirituall and Eternall life Secondly that all they who are overtaken with any sinne or crime punishable by the Law ought not to prosecute the extremity against others who stick in the same mud with themselves The snuffers which were to mend the lights in the Sanctuary by Gods appointment were to be made of pure gold to teach us that they who take upon them to accuse and censure others ought themselves to be most free from blame especially in the same kind of transgression otherwise they are like to heare Physitian cure thy selfe or out of Rom. 12. 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe thou which preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale thou which saist a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery or as we have it Ioh. 8. 7. He that is without sinne ltt him cast the first stone Thirdly that the Ministers of the Gospell by the example of our blessed Saviour when sinners are brought before them confounded with shame in themselves and so strangled with their inward guilt that they are not able to speak a word in their own defence or for their excuse ought to have compassion on them and upon their repentance and humiliation send them away with some comfort aad godly admonitions as our Saviour doth here Hath none condemned thee neither doe I goe and sinne no more Lastly they argue very weakly ab authoritate negativè after this manner We read in holy Scripture of no Christians that ever sate upon the throne of Majesty or Bench of Justice neither in the age of the Apostles nor in the prime and best times doe we heare of any Civill Magistrate exercising any authority in the Church therefore Christians ought to exercise no such authority nor execute any such office But this argument like snow when the weather growes warme dissolves of it selfe For 1. As we read in the New Testament of no Christian Kings Judges Sheriffes or other Officers attending on Courts of justice so neither doe wee read of any that taught the Tongues Arts or Sciences or trades in foraine parts or exercised any kind of Manufactures now in use yet no man doubteth but many hundred did so and questionlesse Ministers of justice are as necessary in every City and Towne Corporate as Merchants or Artizens This argument therefore ab anthoritate negativè may justly bee answered negatively If there were no Christian Magistrates they could not bee recorded in Scriptures but it will not follow none are mentioned or recorded in Scripture Ergo there were none 2. Though the story of Abgarus King of Edessa his conversion to the Christian faith may be Apocryphall yet the story of the Eunuch related Acts 8. 27. A man of great authority under Candace Queene of Ethopia is Canonicall and Nicodemus a Ruler among the Iewes and Ioseph of Arimathea the Senatour and Theophilus to whom Saint Luke intitles his Gospell and Cornelius the Centurion and Publius the Governour of Melita and Sergius Paulus the Proconsull and Erastus the Chamberlaine and some of Neroes family whose names are registred in the book of life make good the observation of the Apostle that though not many Noble men not many mighty men not many in great place or authority yet some such were called even in the Apostles time which are sufficient to rebate the edge of this argument 3. Admit that there were few or no Converts in the Apostles dayes who held the place or executed the office of Magistrates yet that which is sufficient to prove the lawfulnesse and necessity of that calling Christ himselfe both acknowledged and submitted unto the authority of Pilat and paid tribute to Caesar and Saint Paul appeales to Augustus and complaines to Lysias of a conspiracy against him and was rescued by him Lastly though the Christian Church at the beginning was cast out as it were starke naked and lay in the open field weltring in her owne blood and no eye pitied her yet in processe of time the predictions of the Prophets were accomplished She had Kings to be her nursing Fathers and Queenes to be her nursing Mothers and all sorts of Civill Magistrates both supreame and subordinate to be her Gardians and Protectours And as the earth in Italy never bare so great a burthen on it nor yeilded so plentifull a crop as when it was turned up laureato ato vomere and the plough held by the hand of Camillus the Dictatour terra gestiente se coli à triumphali agricola so the Church and Common-wealth never so thrived as when religious Kings and Princes took the manuring and managing thereof Which happinesse God grant to these Realmes and Kingdomes even till Shilo come AMEN The Pythagoreans conceived the Celestiall Spheres to bee like Cymbals and by their regular motion to produce
harmonious sounds the Angels or Intelligencers as they call them turning as it were the broaches But this Celestiall musick they speak of is but a pleasing dreame a true Celestiall harmony may be heard in the confession of all the Reformed Churches wherewith now in the close I purpose to cheare up and recreate the Reader and lest any quarrell should be made or offence taken at the precedencie I will call the severall Churches in such order as they are ranked in the Latine edition of the Confessions printed at Geneva An. 1581. Concerning the Authour Office and Authority of the Civill Magistrate thus we read In the Helvetian confession The Magistracie of what kind soever is ordained of God for the peace and quietnesse of mankind and hee ought to have the first place in the world And a little afterwards As God doth work the safety of his people by the Magistrate whom hee hath given to bee as a Father to the world so all subjects are commanded to acknowledge this benefit of God in the Magistrate let them therefore honour and reverence him as the Minister of God love him and pray for him as their Father obey him in all his just and righteous commands the care of Religion chiefly appertaines to a godly Magistrate let him therefore draw his sword against all malefactours murderers theeves and blasphemous hereticks c. In this regard we condemn the Anabaptists who as they deny that a Christian may execute the office of a Magistrate so also they deny that any man may be lawfully put to death by him The Basill confession Let every Christian Magistrate bend all his forces this way that among all that are under him the name of God may be hallowed his Kingdome propagagated and his will in the rooting out of all wickednesse and vice may be fulfilled This duty was ever enjoyned even to the heathen Magistrates how much more is it required of a Christian Magistrate who is Gods true Vicar The Bohemian confession The Civill Magistrate is the ordinance of God and appointed by God who both taken his originall from God and by the effectuall power of his presence and continuall aid is maintained by him to governe the people in those things that appertain to thelife of the body here upon earth to whose power all and every one ought to be subject in those things that are not contrary to God first to the Kings Majesty then to all the Magistrates and such as are in authority under him whether they be of themselves good men or evill The French confession wee beleive that God would have the world to be governed Civilly and by Lawes that there may be certain bridles whereby the desires of men may bee restrained and that therefore he hath appointed Kingdomes Common-wealths and other kinds of Principalities whether they come by inheritance or otherwaies and because he is the authour of thiâ— order we must not only suffer them to rule whom he hath set over us but also yeild unto them all honour and reverence as to Deputies and Ministers assigned by him to execute their lawfull and holy function into their hands God hath put a sword to punish all breaches as well of the first Table as of the second The Low-Dutch confession We beleive that Almighty God by reason of the corruption and depravation of mankind did appoint Kings Princes and Magistrates and that it is his will that this world should bee governed by lawes and a Civill government and to this end hee hath armed Magistrates with a sword to punish the wicked and defend the good To these it appertaineth of duty not only watchfully to preserve the Civill State but also to endeavour that the holy Ministery of the word be maintained all Idolatry and false worship removed the Kingdome of Antichrist pulled downe and the Kingdome of Christ propagated Wherefore wee detest all Anabaptists and seditious persons who cast away all government and Magistracie pervert judgements and overthrow all mens rights make all mens goods common and lastly abolish and confound all orders and degrees appointed by God among men for honesty and comlinesse sake The High Dutch confession at Ausperge Civill governments and constitutions are good workes and ordinances of God as Saint Paul testifieth they condemne therefore the Anabaptists who forbid Civill offices to Christians they condemn also those who place Evangelicall perfection in abandoning all civill affaires whereas Evangelicall perfection is Spirituall and consisteth in the motions of the heart in the feare of God Faith Love and Obedience The Saxon confession Wee teach that in the whole doctrine of God delivered by the Apostles and Prophets that Civill government is maintained and that Magistrates Lawes tribunalls and the lawfull society of men sprung not up by chance but that all the good order that is left is preserved by the exceeding goodnesse of God for the Churches sake and all subjects owe to the civill Magistrate obedience as Saint Paul saith not only for wrath that is feare of corporall punishment wherwith the disobedient are rewarded by the Magistrate but also for conscience sake Contumacie being a sinne offending God and withdrawing the conscience from him And seeing Magistrates are the chiefe members of the Church let them see that Judgements in the Church and Ecclesiasticall censures be rightly executed as Constantine Theodosius Arcadius Marcianus Charle-Maine and many godly Kings took order in their times that Ecclesiasticall judicature and proceedings in spirituall Courts should be rightly carried The Suevick confession Our Churches teach that the office of a Magistrate is most sacred and divine whence it is that they who exercise this power are called Gods and our Preachers teach that the obedience which is performed to Magistrates is to bee placed among good works of the first rank and that by how much a man is a more sincere and faithfull Christian the more carefull hee is to observe the Lawes of the State I know not upon what ground the English and Scotch confession are left out of the Harmony of Confessions for they are as full as any of the rest for proofe of the point in question the Scotch runneth thus The Confession of Scotland Wee confesse and acknowledge Empires Kingdomes Dominions and Cities to be distincted and ordained by God that powers and authority in the same be it of Emperous in their Empires Kings in their Realmes Dukes and Princes in their Dominions and of other Magistrates in their Cities to be Gods holy Ordinance ordained for manifestation of his owne glory and for the singular profit and commodity of mankind so that whosoever goeth about to take away or confound the whole state of Civill policie now long established we affirm the same men not only to be enemies to mankind but also wickedly to fight against Gods expressed will The Confession of England Art 37. The Kings Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England and
darknesse how great is that darknesse if there be confusion in order it selfe how great must the confusion needs be if all be Pastours where are their flocks if all be teachers where are their Scolars a preaching Disciple sounds as harshly as a Scholar Master or a Lecturing hearer it is true we grant that all who have received gifts from God ought to make use of them for the benefit of others and if any abound in knowledge hee ought to communicate to them that lack and freely give lumen de lumine Clouds when they are full powre downe and the spowts runne and the eaves shed and the presses overflow and the Aromaticall trees sweat out their precious and soveraigne oyles and every learned Scribe in the Kingdom of God brings out of his rich treasury new things and old Notwithstanding this necessary duty of imploying our talent whatsoever it be to our Masters best advantage none may take upon him the cure of soules without Commission nor divide the word and dispence the Sacraments without ordination and imposition of hands none may preach except he be sent none may assume the honour of the Priesthood except hee bee called as was Aaron none may open and shut the Kingdome of heaven except they have received the keyes from Christ neither a calling without gifts nor gifts without a calling makes a man of God if any have a calling without gifts their Ministery is without fruit if any gifts without a calling their Ministery is without power the former have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not every one that hath a strong voice is a lawfull cryer in a Court but he that is appointed neither is every one that can write a good hand a publick Notary but he that is sworne neither may every Mariner that is skilful in Navigation take upon him the office of a Pilot but he that is chosen But this error of the Anabaptists whereby they overthrow all order in the Church and confound shepheards and flocks Masters and Scholars Clergy and Laity I have professedly impugned and at large refelled Article 4. Whither I referre the Reader for further satisfaction Sixtly I except against the 45. Article That such to whom God hath given gifts being tryed in the Church may and ought by the appointment of the congregation to prophecie When Muncer a seditious Anabaptist first set abroach their doctrine at Mulchus and took upon him to reforme many things in Church and State Luther advised the Senate to demand of him what calling he had to doe such things he did and if he should avouch God for the Author of his calling then they should require of him to prove that his calling from God by some eminent signe for that whensoever it pleaseth God to change the ordinary course and to call any man to any office extraordinarily he declares that his good will and pleasure by some evident signe If the calling of the Anabaptisticall teachers bee be ordinary let them demonstrate it by Scripture if extraordinary let them prove it by miracle For the prophecy they spake of let them distinctly declare what kind of Prophecying they mean and whom they esteem Prophets for prophecying is taken in a double sense in holy Scripture sometimes according to the propriety of the Greek derivation for the prediction of things future sometimes in a larger sense for revealing the mysteries of God expounding his Oracles either coÌ„cerning things past present or to come and this two manner of wayes either with study and upon premeditation with the help of Arts and Tongues and by consulting the best Commentaries both ancient and latter or without any study or premeditation by immediate revelation or inspiration Prophecy in the first sense is an extraordinary calling in the last an extraordinary gift in the middle acception an ordinary Ministeriall duty And if that custome which Arch-Bishop Grindall would have introduced into the Church in the dayes of Q. Elizabeth and is in use at Geneva and among some other reformed Churches were put in practise in England and a certaine number of learned and able Pastours met at some set times and having before notice of the Texts to be handled should every one in their order deliver their severall interpretations observations and applications thereof which they call Prophecying we should exceedingly approve of it and questionles thereby the Ministeâ—s would very much improve their talents of knowledge But for rudeÌ„ and illiterate Mechanicks without calling without knowledge of Arts or Tongues upon a Scripture read in the Congregation to give their suddain judgements and interpretations thereof as is the manner of the Anabaptists we hold it an intolerable presumption in them and unsufferable abusâ— in the Church For those extraordinary revelations they pretend unto together with the miraculous gift of Tongues and healing for many hundred yeares agoe have failed in the Church If they could now doe as the Primitive Corinthians could not onely pray by the spirit but sing by the spirit if upon the first proposall of an obscure and intricate passage of the old Prophets or Apocalypse they can give upon the suddaine a cleare and rationall interpretation and deliver this in what Language soever if they can discover the secrets of the hearts of unbeleivers in such sort that they falling down on their face shall worship God and report that God is in your Assemblies of a truth then let the examples of the Primitive Christians in the Apostles dayes serve them for Precedents in this kind but of those irradiations of the Spirit together with the glisning of the fiery tongues have not been seen in any Christian Church these many ages if they come as short of the prime converts to the Christian Religion in extraordinary gifts as in time if they are so far from speaking with strange tongues that they cannot speak correctly and coherently in one if they are so wide of the sense of the place they expound that their Paraphrases are often without sense if they utter old broken notes taken from none of the best Sermons for new revelations if they furbish up ancient heresies that have layne long in the dark for Christian Armour of Light if in their interpretations they not only contradict the Scriptures but themselves and in stead of a musicall consent we hear nothing but vain janglings if their prophecyings for the time past have bin no better and none can prophecie or promise better of them for the time to come though they pretend never so much to the spirit and boast of visions and Revelations though some of them have a glib tongue and thereby slide into the approbation of the vulgar sort though in their contemplations they sore up so high that they lose themselves and their hearers though they draw their thinâ—e wier to a great length though notwithstanding they are often