not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and even those that killed the Lord of life obtained mercy Mat. 9.13 with Acts 2.36 37 38 39. and so did Paul the worst of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 16. therefore if any that are now Anabaptists have formerly been gross sinners it was while they were of your Church and it s no more then some of the best of Saints have been before conversion and repentance But I suppose Mr. Baxter would make the world believe that the Anabaptists are all so now after they become Anabaptists and would make that the cause of it and would perswade the world that its our principle and judgement Answ If Mr. Baxter had known any such in fellowship with us when he wrote his Book he should have done well to have named them but neither Mr. Saltmarsh Paul Hobson Mr. Williams are in fellowship with the Anabaptists and as for Mr. Erbery and others that have apostatized what have we to do with them we have cast them out from us long since and they are returned to you againe As for Mr. Denis amongst the Levellers he confessed his fault before God and man and obtained mercy and then what have you to do to play the Devils part to accuse him againe I believe his offence was not bigger then Peters who denyed and forswore his Master its like therefore if you had lived in those dayes you would have been so wicked as to have cryed downe Christ and his wayes as you do now and have said with the rest of your fore-Fathers the Scribes and Pharisees It s not likely that he and his way should be of God for in his prosperity none followed him but a company of poor people that knew not the Law and were accursed As for the Scribes and Pharisees and Wise-men and Rulers few or none of them were so simple as to be led aside with him and now see what an end he comes to and how God followeth him on with judgements one of his owne Disciples betrayed him and sold him for 30 pieces of silver and the other denyed and forswore him See what they are one a covetous wretch and a Traytor and the other a lyer for he said he knew not his Master and a perjured fellow for he forswore him and their followers the Church of Corinth such as denyed the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 and were incestuous persons And afterwards Peter and some of the Saints dissembled so as other were fain to withstand them to the face Gal. 2.11 12 13. Now is it possible that Mr. Baxter should be so blinded as to conclude that because of these things happening amongst them that therefore they were not the People of God and their way not the way of God Surely he speaketh evil of things he knows not for he cannot possible prove worse things among us that are in fellowship then there were some in those Churches but now since he and Mr. Hall in his nineteenth Argument have begun I am ingaged to answer them according to their foolishness lest they be wise in their own conceits Prov. 26.5 And first I much wonder that Mr. Baxter and Mr. Hall should reason thus against the Anbaptists when none are more deeply under the same condemnation then themselves It s strange they should complain of others for lying and are so notorious in it themselves for the very Title of Mr. Baxters book is a lye for he calls it Plain Scripture-proof for infants Churchmembership and Baptisme and brings not one Scripture to prove either Now for Treachery let them remember Mr. Love who was beheaded for a Traytor And for Perjury its easie to prove most of the Priests in England perjured for they have renounced the Bishops and their Orders which once they took an oath to he true unto And as for disobedience to the Magistrates and stlrring up of sedition in the Nation it s dayly manifest by their praying and preaching to all that hear them And as for idleness I would have them for shame to forbear speaking of that for they are all idle and know not how to work and were brought up idle and are such as Paul speaks of to Timothy which go up and downe not working at all nay they think it a great dishonour to their cloth to put their hands to labour and if you be not the men that live upon other mens labours when you would take away the tenth of all their increase and labours by a Law let the poor people judge Now as for your saying that the Anabaptist desert their wives it s a lye among the rest of your evil invented things for there is none amongst us that do or dare do such wickedness or if you know any such why do not you prosecute them according to Law you have a Law to hang up your owne Church-members for such things and then why do you spare us We may know by this your accusation is false for if we did as you report wickedly we were sure of no mercy at your hands and you are very simple if these things be true that you do not prosecute the Anabaptists and get them hanged out of the way and then they should not trouble you but your tongues are no slanders as it happens and that I hope all men will shortly see But I pray let us look a little further into your Church of England and see are not all the whores and rogues and theeves and murderers and witches that are hanged all the year through at every Assizes or Sessions are they not of your Church did you not baptize them into it in their Infancy and have they not continued in it some of them many yeers Nay is it not your practise in the Gayles after they are condemned to give them the Sacrament on the Sunday and one Church-member to hang up another on the Munday-morning And yet for all this are you so audacious as to say the Churches of the Anabaptists cannot be of God because they have corrupt members amongst them Who seeth not your wickedness and partiality And now may I not be bold to use the words of the Lord Christ Mat. 7.3 4 5. to you Mr. Baxter and to you Mr. Hall and others And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy Brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye or how wilt thou say to thy Brother Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beame is in thine own Thou Hypocrite first cast out the beame out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy Brothers eye Now lest you or any should think I deal too hardly with you in this case I answer you according to your folly lest you should be wise in your own conceits and that I am commanded to do by the word of the Lord Prov. 26.5 But to pass by the poor deluded people that are hanged up for
of Gods house will never eat up nor destroy Mr. Baxter nor his Brethren the Priests of England for I never knew any of them go into the water to baptize either men or women for it is against their principle therefore he might well hold his peace in that thing and if the Anabaptists do it and it be so dangerous as he saith it his best way is to let them baptize as many as they will and then they will kill themselves the sooner if it be as he say and then he shall be quit of them But to conclude 1. We finde that in the daies of Christ and the Aposties they baptized both men and women in Rivers See Mark 1.5 with Acts 1.12 vers 37 38. and in AEnon near to Salem because there was much water there John 3.23 all this was allowed of and practiced by Christ and his Apostles Now if they baptized men and women in Rivers where there was much water we will be bold to follow their good holy and righteous Example notwithstanding Mr. Baxters foul mouth who doth not onely reproach slander and bely us but also the Lord Christ and his Apostles therefore we can through mercy well bear it knowing that the Servant is not greater then his Lord and if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold Through mercy we can rejoyce that we are counted worthy to suffer any reproaches for the name of our Lord Jesus But let Mr. Baxter and his Brethren know that they must one day give an account of all their words and actions to him that is ready to judge the quick and dead at his appearing 1 Pet. 4.5 who will come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon and to convince all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And then all Mr. Baxters serious protestations for the truth in one place of his Book chap. 1. pag. 2 3. and his cunning insinuations against the truth almost all over his Book will do him little good for then those which now are so zealous that they thinke they should do God good service if they should kill us John 16.2 will see their error But I heartily desire Mr. Baxter and the rest of his Brethren may see theirs before if possible And now to your eighth Argument which is as followeth That party and practise which hath been still branded and pursued with Gods eminent Judgements but never evidently with his blessings is not likely to be the way of God But the Anabaptists way and practice is such Therefore not likely to be of God The same saith Mr. Hall in his 19. Argument in his Fontgaurded To all which I answer If this Argument be good then thus the Amorites were followed on with blessings and enjoyed the best of the Land of Canaan 400. yeers together while the People of Israel were in bondage and in misery will you therefore conclude that the Amorites were the Children of God and that the Children of Israel were not the Children of God And likewise remember the poverty and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Disciples and how they were branded as much for Hereticks and wicked persons and such as knew not the Law and were accursed John 7.39 as you now brand us but dare you say that they were not Goods People Truly I remember the Prophet saith Psal 73.3 4 5. that when he saw the prosperity of the wicked and that they were not in trouble nor plagued like other men that he had like to have stumbled at their prosperity and to have said that they were Gods People but it seems ye have stumbled and are fallen so as to speak evill of Gods People because of their sufferings You further say What an hinderance the Anabaptists were to the Gospel in Germany by resisting the most painefull godly Ministers there be few Divines of note who do not bear witness of it frequently in their writings as Luther Melancthon Illyricus Zuinglius Bullinger Leo Juda Calvin with multitudes more and in pag. 140. you tell us Zuinglius was constrained to resist them with all his strength but it seems that was too little for you tell us presently that the Senate was fain to deal with them with banishments prison and death and then you tell us that Calvin did write a Treatise against them wherein he sheweth page 141. that the Anabaptists were divided especially into two Sect one more moderate and simple that did boast of Scripture and pleaded Scripture with confidence for all they held but the other was a sort called Libertines which were above Scriptures and these you say pag. 142. are such as forsake their Wives and Children and laying by all labour do live idly and feed on other mens labours and when they abourd with filthy abominable lust they say its the command of their heavenly Father perswading Women and honest Matrons that its impossible they should be partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven unless they filthily prostitute their Bodies alledging that we must renounce all things we love best and that all kinds of infamy are to be swallowed by the godly for Christs sake and that Publicans and Harlots go first into the Kingdom of Heaven and of the treachery lying and sedition wherewith these People everywhere do abound there is no end nor measure And I pray say you are these your vertues do you yet thinke they designe nothing dishonest or can you deny the truth of these things no you say nor can any man shew you one of the Anabaptists who is not blemished with some of these forenamed wickednesses c. And now I hope by this time you have vented your deadly poyson that lay under your tongue against the Anabaptists To all which I answer first If all these things should be true that Mr. Baxter hath said as they are not yet it seems Mr. Baxters Religion is so tottering and ready to fall that he is faine to underprop it with the Anabaptists failings or rather with the grossest wickedness of those that have Apostatized from us and is glad to discover the gross darkness of the worst of men or else his own light is so small that it will not shine and when he hath reckoned up the worst of all wickedness that those that have apostized from us have committed he would lay it all upon us and wickedly affirmeth that there is none of us free from it And when he should prove what he promiseth namely that the Anabaptists hindred the preaching of the Gospel in Germany his proof is nothing but telling us most writers of those times do testifie it To which I answer He might as well have asked his fellow-Preists if it had been lawfull to take Tythes and he had been sure to have had the testimony both of their words and writings for it as he hath now against the Anabaptists
And we know very well that the poor Anabaptists had rich and potent Enemies wrote the stories against them for by Mr. Baxters own confession pag. 140 and 141. Zuinglius was constrained to dispute and try his strength with the poor Anabaptists and when he could not stop their mouths he had the help of the Senate who imprisoned banished and put them to death such Arguments I confess as neither Paul nor Peter nor John could answer but were forced to yeeld to them and suffer as Hereticks pestilent Fellows movers of Sedition and ringleaders of Sects see Acts 24.5 and so were these Anabaptists served at Germany for Mr. Baxter saith pag. 140. They did not suffer as Anabaptists but as men perjured disobedient and seditious and so I thought indeed for as there is no such way to have a silly sheep worried and torn in pieces as to put on a Bears skin on the top of him so these learned Divines as they call themselves know very well that the only way to have the Anabaptists prisoned or banished or hanged is to cloth them with all the filthy names and reproaches they can devise and then all people will be ready to stone them for alass they think whatsoever their Preists and Teachers say must needs be true or if any should question it he is presently suspected to be an Heretick amongst the rest And this is Mr. Baxters way pag. 136. he would by Logick prove that we are guilty of the breach of the sixth Commandement because we dip men in water and then he cries out to the Magistrate to hang us up as soon as high way-murderers and this is and hath been the practice of their fore-Fathers in the Prophets times and Christ and the Apostles Lastly You tell us that Calvin wrote a Book against them very well then it seems Zuinglius disputed with them and rendered them odious to the Magistrate and cast out their name as filth for the Son Mans sake as you do ours now Luke 6. and so the Magistrate prisoned and banished and hanged them and when they were dead and laid in their Graves Calvin falls a writing against them when he was sure they were past answering for themselves but Mr. Baxter I write to you and Mr. Hall and Mr. Cook while you are alive and may answer for your selves therefore I expect an answer from you if you have any thing to say according to truth or else you may forbear But now to Calvins Letter wherein you say pag. 141. he sheweth that the Anabaptists are divided into two sorts one of which did boast of Scripture and pleaded Scripture with great confidence for all they held Answ If they boasted of the holy Scriptures they boasted of no evil but of that which is good which we ought to make our boast of and to rejoyee in for Paul saith 2 Cor. 11.10 As the truth of Christ is in me no man can stop me of this boasting c. and in God we will boast all the day long and praise his name for ever Psa 44.8 and if you would boast of them more then you do it would be better for you But you say further they pleaded Scripture with confidence for all they held Answ I wonder Calvin and you were not ashamed to speak of these things what doth it displease you to hear men plead Scripture for what they hold are you such enemies to the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise to salvation then take heed lest while you boast your selves to be wise without them or above what is written you become not fools for the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are but vain and takes the wise in their own craftiness therefore let no man boast nor glory in man but in God and his word See 1 Cor. 3.19 20 21. but Mr. Hall and you have found out a way beyond the Scripture affirming that there are a thousand things not written in the word of God which you ought to obey to which you have a large answer to your tenth Position But to conclude this point if that be the worst you and Calvin can say of those Anbaptists namely that they made their boast of the Scripture and pleaded Scripture for all they held I shall not be ashamed to owne them for Christians before all men And as for your other sort you talk of which are above Scripture and confound all things good and bad God and Satan together I and all that own Scriptures do deny and defie them and their wayes as abominable and detestable and you do very wickedly to call them Anabaptists thereby to cast odiums upon us for your self confess pag. 141. that Calvin calls them Libertines and why then I pray are you so wicked and malicious as to call them Anabaptists I suppose all men that are impartial and rational will see your folly and wickedness for in the conclusion of all you would heap all their wickedness upon our heads pag. 142. saying No man can shew you one man of the Anabaptists that is not tainted with some of these foresaid wickednesses Answ If any one of us should say we never were lyers then we should be still lyers like your self for all men are lyers or have been and there is none righteous no not one but all are gone out of the way and with their tongues have used deceit the poyson of Asps is under their lips their mouth ful of cursing and bitterness and their feet swift to shed blood See Rom. 3.10 11 12 13 14 15. and so are yours Mr. Baxter or else you would never perswade the Magistrates to hang up the Anbaptists as well as highway-murderers page 136. but this I confess is the condition of all men before faith and repentance for the Lord Christ saith that those 18 upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell Luke 13.2 3 4. were not greater sinners then others but except they repented they should all likewise perish and so must you Mr. Baxter and others for God is no respecter of pers ons Againe I read 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. the Apostle speaks thus to the Saints Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God and in the 11. vers he saith Such were some of you but now ye are washed but ye are sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Now if there were such in the Church of Corinth as had been thus wicked and yet were washed justified and sanctified from their sins by the Lord Jesus then I dare not say but such as have been gross sinners may have repented and converted and come into the Churches of the Anabaptists as you call them in these dayes for I finde that Christ came