Scripture in behalf of their Erroneous Principles the Socinians the Antinomians the Deists and the very Atheists themselves have something to alledge out of Holy Writ in the defence of their naughty Cause Now how this comes to pass St. Peter gives us to understand 2 Pet. 3.16 that the unlearned and unstable do wrest the holy Scriptures to their own destruction I beg of you therefore for Christ's sake and for your own Soul's sake not to be of the number of those who are as the Apostle affirms Eph. 4.14 Children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive 'T is a hard matter to think you shou'd have liv'd to these years and yet have your Religion to seek the meaning of Religion is to bind us up to the performance of our Duty towards God and towards Man and in this respect our Church is not wanting in giving sufficient Rules and Directions do we but follow them and if we do not 't is our own faults not the Churches In this way you have been brought up and herein Christian prudence doth oblige you to continue till you be assured of a better and shewn where it is and that falls next under our Consideration Namely 2. That a prudent Christian shou'd not upon some nice Scruples forsake the Religion he has been brought up in until he has Assurance given of a better and no prudent Man would change for the worse All is not Gold that glisters We ought to try before we trust and he must be a very weak Man that will change his Religion at the first sight of another offered in its stead before he has examin'd the Truth of it Now to come to the matter in hand you are persuaded to leave the Communion of the Church of England and to join with the Anabaptists and why For Conscience sake you say that way being as you think the better and the more for your Soul's health But then there shou'd go two words to a Bargain and 't is but common Prudence and Justice to your old Religion to examine wherein the new one is better Now to put you in a right way of Examination the Question will be Wherein is your new Persuasion better then my old Profession The Answer according to Scripture and Reason is it is purer in Doctrine Discipline and Worship But then we must go on to Particulars and Examine from Scripture and Reason the Truth of the matter Now I do say it lies upon you to shew me wherein the Purity of this new way excels the old one in the aforementioned respects and you are to keep to your old way till that be done And this in the name of God and Christ I demand of you to do as you will Answer the contrary at the great Tribunal You are oblig'd hereto upon two accounts 1. With regard to your own Soul should this new way prove a false one 2. With regard to the Souls of others who may be led into Errour by your Example I shall be glad to have your answer and desire that it may be in the Spirit of meekness as coming from one who seeks after the Truth and when found is willing to embrace the same and to stand to it Our Church has still the best right to you You have not as yet I hope renounced your Baptism and the true Mother will not agree with the Harlott to divide but if you are resolved right or wrong to forsake the Church at least do not abuse her Pray then let your answer be modest and free from Cavil Now I must needs tell you that did I doubt of the way I am in as I thank God I do not of all the several Persuasions among Christians the Anabaptists would be farthest from my thoughts of joyning to and that for these Reasons 1. With respect to those Persons who were the first Broachers of this Sect in the City of Munster in Germany about the Year of our Lord 1533. viz. John Matthias Jo. Buckhold alias Jo. of Ieyden Mancer Knipper-dolling Nicholas Stokins Knippenbury and others their first Reformers whose Persuasion was founded in Blood they raised a Sedition in the City seized of the Magistrates degraded the Senate and set up their own Ring-leaders plunder'd all places sacred and profane John Matthias being kill'd in a Skirmish Knipperdoling pretended a Revelation that Buckhold must be exalted to royal Dignity and to the eternal Throne of his Father David and having his Regalia put on him he had a Throne built him in the Market-place and was called the King of Justice and of the New Jerusalem Buckhold openly before the People made a mock Sacrament gave every one an unleavened Loaf saying Take eat and celebrate the Lord's death He had three Wives which were called his Queens one of which who had been a Glover's Wench happening to offend him he struck off her Head in the Market-place charging her with Adultery in the mean time his other two pretended Queens sung a blasphemous Hymn beginning with Glory be to God on high Whilst these wicked Reformers were for two years together carrying on their seditious and base Designs several thousand Souls perished in the City by Famine and the Sword but I forbear saying any more of those sad Varlets those lewd Reformers who never learn'd this way of reforming from Christ or his Apostles And now let us see what Doctrines they taught And can we expect to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles 2. Then with respect to their Doctrines they taught that Christ was not the true God that we are righteous by our own Merits and Sufferings that there is no original Sin that Infants are not to be baptized they maintained Poligamy that a Man may put away his Wife if of another Religion that the Godly should enjoy a Monarchy upon Earth and that any Man may Preach and give the Sacraments These and such like were their pernicious and fulsome Doctrines which 't is a shame to mention amongst Christians To all this I expect as short an Answer as was given lately to the Reverend Mr. Wesley's Book of the Sacraments by one of that Party at Epworth It is all Lies But if the Truth hereof be denied I can bring in a cloud of Writers of that time in testimony of what has been said of several Nations and several Persuasions If they are now ashamed of some of their Primitive Doctrines I 'm glad of it but however hence I think I may justly infer that if the Fountain-head of this Sect was so corrupt the Streams flowing thence cannot be very pure And it must be supposed an intolerable foul way I was in should I leave it to follow those Men. 3. With respect to the present way of the Anabaptists managing their Disputes I should not be very inclinable to be of that Persuasion for their usual way is to speak or write more
in Baptism is now generally disused in these parts of the World and Sprinkling succeeds in its room because the tender Bodies of most Infants the only Persons now to be baptized could not be put under water in these cold Northern Climates without apparent prejudice to their Health if not their Lives And therefore in this as in other cases God requires Mercy rather than Sacrifice especially considering that the main Ends of Baptism are attained this way and the mystical Effects thereof as virtually represented by Sprinkling 〈◊〉 Dipping And to this Mode of Baptizing the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 36. ver 25 26. seems prophetically to refer when he saith Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness and a new Heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you Now what has been said upon this Head will I hope satisfie you Neighbour and all other Persons that are not wilfully prejudic'd against Reason and Truth and as for such who are resolved to dissent and wrangle on whatever is said or whatever is proved I shall advise 'em to consult St. Paul for an Answer that may be more satisfactory namely If any man seems to be contentious we have no such custom neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11.16 And now Neighbour having gone through the Particulars I was to speak to and having also fairly answered some of the main Objections our Adversaries the Anabaptists chiefly insist on I shall only leave the whole matter before you in order as it is written with some useful Inferences and so conclude In the Introductory Part of my Letter I gave you to understand that there is such a thing as Men call an Erroneous Conscience and that there is a Zeal sometimes which is not according to Knowledge and hence I infer what a prudent and sober-minded Christian ought to do when he had some Scruples upon him before he left the Communion of the Church he was in he ought first from Scripture and Reason to examine into the Validity of the Scruples that seem to dissuade him from his former Profession and when he has done the best he can herein if his Scruples still grow upon him before he quits his old way he shou'd then by all due ways and means examine into the Truth and Safety of the new way proposed unto him instead of the old one else it may so happen that his Change may be for the worse and this no wise Man wou'd make Now in the making this Examination I put you in this way for finding out whether your old Profession or the new proposed one was the better I advised you to consult the holy Scriptures the Standard of Truth and thereby try your old Religion and your pretended new one and see which of them is purer in Doctrine Discipline and Worship and if upon a Fair hearing of the Cause the old one should prove the better it would then be clear you ought not in prudence to change and till this is done you are to keep to your old way And For the more orderly trying this Cause our Adversaries being Complainants and accusing our Church of false Doctrines it lies upon them to prove what those Doctrines are and what be those unlawful Terms of Communion she requires that are not justifiable by the Word of God and till then we are to keep our Ground and to act only as Defendants in the Cause no Man being by Law bound to accuse himself And he that voluntarily espouses a Quarrel against the Religion he has been brought up in without knowing first why and wherefore acts the part of a weak not to say a contentious Christian and 't is a true Maxim He that accuses another of dishonesty ought to look to himself in the first place Therefore in dealing with our Adversaries who are so free of their obloquies I took this Method pursuant to the proverbial Saying now mentioned and so inquired what pretence they have for the Truth for if they are in the wrong there 's no colour for your joyning with them what ever there may be for your leaving the Church for suppose for Argument sake the way you have been in is not good yet if the new way you are invited to be worse 't is madness to change so that be the Title naught that in possession by the Courtesie of all Laws is to be look't upon the best and ought to be so esteem'd until a better is prov'd In examining then into the Goodness and Truth of their Cause in Matter of Religion I took this Method 1st I gave the Character of those Persons who were the first Broachers of this Sect of the Anabaptists and this Neighbour is a very material thing to be considered For suppose I had a journey to take of great Consequence and being a Stranger to the way some Persons come and do very officiously offer themselves to be my Guide pretending they understand the Road very well and are making to the same place well surely in this case before I give my self up to their Guidance and Conduct I shou'd know who they are enquire into their character whether they are boni legales Homines honest and true Men and shou'd I find them otherwise it wou'd be very madness to take them for Guides let them pretend never so fairly For thus has many an honest Man been choust out of his Money and sometimes his Life too by the fair Speeches of Thieves and Robbers In this Case he that values his own safety shou'd with all speed rid himself of their Company and while he may without hazard bid them adieu Now To bring this matter home I have let you know what the first Setters up of this Sect were when and where it was they cry'd up their stupendous Doctrine Repent and be re-baptized or else you are damn'd what horrid Exploits they play'd what Barbarous Acts they were guilty of how they sack'd and plundred all before them filling all the places wherever they came with Blood and Confusion at Leyden Munster Amsterdam Utrecht and other places Now this is matter of Fact and cannot be denied and pray what think you of these new Guides Is it safe to follow them Did Christ and his Apostles ever take these methods to plant the Doctrines of the Christian Religion And shou'd it be alledged that the present Leaders of the Anabaptists are other sort of Men I answer Where there are the same Principles there wants nothing but Power and Opportunity to produce the same Effects And this brought me 2ly To consider what Doctrines they taught They held that Christ was not the true God to this let them take St. John's answer 1 John 2.22 Who is a lyar but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son They taught also that we are to be saved by our own Merits and Sufferings and that there
ANABAPTISM CONSIDERED Wherein the chief Objections of that Sect against Infant-Baptism and the manner of Baptizing by Aspersion or Sprinkling are fairly stated and answered AND REASONS given why Dipping is not to be taken as the essential or necessary Mode of Administration In a familiar Letter of Advice to a Parishioner inclining that way By William Eratt M. A. and Minister of Hatfield near Doncaster Gal. 4.16 17. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth they zealously affect you but not well Prov. 14.15 The simple believeth every word but the prudent man looketh well to his going LONDON Printed by W. B. for A. and J. Churchill And for Robert Clark in York MDCC Neighbour Woodward I Must needs say and complain too you have been unjust to your self and unkind to me as your Minister in not thinking me worthy of being consulted in your spiritual Concerns as to which I am given to understand you have lately been under some Scruples doubting of the Truth of your former Profession in the Communion of the Church of England and seeming to incline to the Anabaptists Persuasion Now to set you at rights herein the Errand of this is to acquaint you that I look upon it as a Duty incumbent upon me to give you the best Advice I can though not desired in this your grand Affair the Welfare of your Soul Pray then let not the Length of my Letter affright you for it is honestly intended for your good and I hope it will prove so be but you as easie and sincere in the Perusal as I was in the Writing of it And if my little pains taken herein do but satisfie your Scruples and bring you home to our Mother the Church from whence you were unadvisedly straying I shall think my self plentifully rewarded who am without Dissimulation Your loving Friend and Minister Jan. 9. 1699 700. William Eratt ANABAPTISM CONSIDERED c. J. W. I Am apt to think your rash separating your self from the Church wherein you were baptized and bred up is a Case when well examined you will not easily answer either before God or Man for all the new Light you so much as I hear now boast of for as our Saviour speaks in the Gospel If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Matt. 6.23 You are pleas'd to say you have been hitherto in Errour and Darkness but however that be are you now infallibly sure of your being in the right way This Principle of Popish Infallibility I presume you will hardly pretend to for that savours too much of the blind Zeal and Enthusiasm of Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits If then 't is possible for a Man to be mistaken though himself believes otherwise and if Zeal does not always prove the best cause for as St. Rom. 10.2 Paul affirms of some of the Romans that they had a Zeal of God but not according to Knowledge from hence then I gather there may be an erroneous Conscience that is a Man may be zealously affected in an ill matter Not to instance herein Examples of former Times we have modern ones sufficient 1. As to the Case of the Papists they 're infallibly sure of being in the right and all others in the wrong and that there is no Salvation out of the Communion of their Church 2. As to the Quakers they are as confident of their way that they are inwardly taught of God by his Spirit and yet I dare say for all the Zeal of the one or the other you will easily agree with me they are both grosly mistaken in matters of Religion and Religious Worship From what has been said I thus argue That a confident Zeal is not always an Assurance of Truth being there and this premised give me leave to tell you what a Lover of Truth ought to do suppose he has some Scruples upon him that he has been in a wrong way In this Case a scrupulous Conscience shou'd take especial care to inform it self these two ways 1. Examine into the Validity of those Scruples that seem to disuade him from the Profession he has lived in 2. If after all his Searches after Truth his Scruples do still grow upon him and he cannot satisfie himself to continue in his former Profession in the next place a Wise-man and a prudent Christian shou'd by all due ways and means examine into the truth and safety of the new way he intends to make choice of else though the way he has been in as he fancies is not good yet so may it fall out he may take a worse 1. Then A prudent Christian who is a Lover of Truth shou'd by all due ways and means examine into the Validity of those Scruples that seem to dissuade him from the Profession he has lived in Inconstancy in any one argues a Weakness insomuch that the Wise man urgeth us Prov. 24.21 not to meddle with them that are given to change and 't is excellent Advice which the Apostle St. Paul gives Heb. 10.23 to hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering And the same Apostle begs of Roman Converts to beware of following those who occasion Schisms or Divisions in the Church of God Rom. 16.17 I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Now who those are who have always been for dividing the Members of Christ's Body hear the Character of them given the 2. Tim. 3.6 7. Of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth To bring the Matter home to our present purpose you see how dangerous a thing it is to be guilty of Heresie or Schism If you had then been a Lover of Truth and of Peace you ought first to have consulted me as your Minister and laid before me your Scruples e'er you had openly dissented from the Communion of the Church You ought to shew me from the holy Scriptures the Standard of Truth wherein the Terms of our Communion are unlawful what Doctrines they are our Church maintains and teaches which are contrary to the Word of God Will you try and condemn the Church you have been baptiz'd and brought up in without hearing what she has to say for her self It is against the Law of Nations to condemn any Person indictâ causâ before his Cause is heard and to caution you by the way you are to be very careful in your enquiry of the Doctrines taught in the Sacred Writ and not to pass your Judgment rashly in favour of this or that Opinion in contradiction to the received Doctrines and constant Practice of the Church of God since the time of Christ and his Apostles for I must tell you that the worst of Hereticks in all Ages have pleaded
And so much for unjust Anger in the aforementioned respects But then there 's an unjust Anger which goes farther and may come within the Verge of a malicious Temper Now should any be so uncharitable as to insinuate from my saying I was angry at you that I maliciously intended you an ill turn the occasion of it might be supposed one of these two things either it was in prejudice to your Person or in pique to the Sect of the Anabaptists which you seem inclining to As to both which I thus apologize for my self 1. As to a malicious Temper I appeal to all my Neighbours whether ever my Carriage or Behaviour among them has deserv'd such a Censure That I have been ever ready upon all occasions to serve my Parishioners and to do them any kindness that lay in my power I promise my self so much that every one of them not excepting John Woodward wou'd if need require averr in my behalf 2. As to any bitterness of Spirit towards Dissenters from the Church with that I hope none can justly charge me and I put the Question to your self Whether all the last Year in your Converse with me when Church-warden you ever at any time heard me rail against any Persons whatsoever that differ'd with me in point of Religion This then being premised I must tell you there 's a great difference to be made betwixt one who has all his Life-time been brought up a Dissenter whom Education and Custom has so far blinded that he cannot easily if he would discern and embrace the Truth and a Person that out of an unadvised and wilful Humour runs away from the Church and knows not Why or Wherefore The first is an Infirmity and is really to be pitied the other is a Disease and so proper means are to be made use of in order to a Cure Now in this case all gentle Methods are first to be taken and he must be reckon'd an unwise or an unfaithful Physician that shou'd do otherwise but if all this is done and the Disease still grows worse and worse turns to a malignant Distemper and threatens Danger to the Publick In such an Extremity when the Infection cannot be cured it has always been thought advisable to shut up or remove the Person infected though never so near a Friend And I think I may herein without being guilty of a Droll or lightness of Expression in so serious a matter as is now before us apply the common Proverb which is as true as plain That one scabb'd Sheep may infect a whole Flock But 2. There 's a just Anger And of this sort we have sufficient Examples in Holy Writ and thus Jacob did justly resent Rachel's too forward Petition Give me children or else I die as if that Blessing had been absolutely in the Power of Man and therefore Jacob's Anger was kindled against Rachel though 't is known he loved her well and he said Am I in God's stead who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb Genesis 30. ver 1 2. And so was Moses justly displeased at Korah and his Company for their presumptuous usurping the Priest's Office and private tampering with the People to set them a murmuring against Moses and Aaron their Governour and their Priest Thus did our Blessed Saviour unkindly resent the Abuse of the Temple the House of Prayer in the Peoples profaning of it by their merchandizing in the same his Words and his Actions shew this He cast out them that bought and sold in the Temple and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves saying my house shall be called of all nations the house of Prayer but ye have made it a den of Thieves Mark 11.15 17. And thus is God Almighty said to be angry with his People when they offend either by their Words or Actions And to give you another Instance When the People out of a pretence of greater Holiness dissented from the publick Worship made their private Sacrifices and offered strange Incense Now as to the Crime and how God Almighty resented it hear from his own Word I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious People which walketh in a way that was not good after their own Thoughts a People that provoketh me to Anger continually to my face and how was this that sacrificeth in Gardens and burneth Incense upon brick which say Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou these are a smoak in my nose and a fire that burneth all day From what has been urged on this Head I infer That in some cases there is a very just Anger Thus Magistrates may and ought sharply to reprehend all seditious and villainous Practices So also Parents disobedient Children Masters unruly Servants and the Ministers of God's Word ought to tell the People under their charge of their Faults Cry aloud and spare not saith the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58. ver 1. shew my People their transgressions and these related to Errours in Principles as well as Practice so I also as a Minister of the Gospel though one God knows the unworthiest of my Brethren do think I fall a share in this Authority or Power of reprehending Errours in my Parishioners whether of Opinion or otherwise And in this Case and upon this Account I am angry with you who having lived so long in the Communion of our Church who the very last Year performed the Office of Church-warden and I must needs say did I believe according to your Oath and the best of your Knowledge honestly discharge your self herein who was the same Year confirmed by the Bishop and did then if you understood your Duty therein renew your Baptismal Vow and promise to remain stedfast in your holy Profession Add to this your frequent receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is or ought to be the Seal of our Confirmation in the Faith and Doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ Now for you to have done all this and as soon as ever you was out of Office of Church-warden to run away from the Church from your Baptism from the late solemn Confirmation thereof from the Communion with your Brethren at the Lord's Table and never to tell your Minister Why or Wherefore you did it is to me very unaccountable as if the Profession of our Church was so groundless and so despicable that nothing cou'd be said for it worth your regarding But now to see how the Case is alter'd is admirably strange You are already more civil to your new way witness what you said Yesterday at Mr. Pryms among your Neighbours namely That did I come you had nothing to say to me but if I pleas'd one of your Teachers should give me a meeting and dispute it out with me In the name of Goodness what a shame is it that you should already be so muffled and blinded as to pin your Faith on another Man's sleeve It