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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	scripture_n	way_n	3,397	5	5.4178	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85422	VVater-dipping no firm footing for Church-communion: or Considerations proving it not simply lawful, but necessary also (in point of duty) for persons baptized after the new mode of dipping, to continue communion with those churches, or imbodied societies of saints, of which they were members before the said dipping; and that to betray their trust or faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity, whether of officers, or other members, in these churches (respectively) by deserting these churches, is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God. Together with a post-script touching the pretended Answer to the Forty queries about Church-communion, infant and after baptism. By John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1213; Thomason E723_15; ESTC R202234	72,402	91

become as Publicans and Heathens unto the other By means whereof many spiritual temples and habitations of the living God fair and large and wherein his Soul delighted to dwell are in imminent danger of being made waste and desolate Alass the fires of Swenkfieldianism Famdism Antinomianism Lutheranism Calvinism Super-Ordinancism with the sparks of Quaking and Ranting were and are but as ignes lambentes fires running up and down and licking only the outside of the house without kindling upon or burning any the principals or main timber whereas the fire of Anabaptism is like the fire kindled by God himself heretofore in Zion the fierceness whereof was so sore that as Ieremiah lamenteth the case it devoured the Foundations thereof Lam. 4. 11. And if we diligently consider the nature of that design the accomplishing whereof Sathan projecteth by this fire we cannot reasonably conceive but that it should be very subtil and penetrating in its kind I mean very apt and proper to insinuate and convey it self into the judgments and consciences of good men either less knowing or less considerate and yet withall so propertied also that persons who are diligent in the use of the touchstone and of through judgments may not feel the least warmth or heat of truth in it That fire which is to separate between Silver and Silver between Gold and Gold had need have somewhat more then ordinary fire in it And when Sathans device and work is to sever and divide Saints from Saints true beleevers from true beleevers imbodied as close and fast together as the scales of Leviathan the fire whereof he must make use in the operation must be some notion opinion or apprehension one or more so calculated and conditioned that in face it may look like a truth of God and yet in heart be far otherwise For by means of such a composition or constitution as this it is apt to take good people of lighter and weaker judgments and less considerate and to leave those of stronger and more inquiring and thus the operation is finished and the separation wrought For there is scarce any Church or congregation of Beleevers but is compounded of these two sorts of persons some who are more credulous and more easie to be taken with appearances others who are more jealous of faces and who must see a sound bottom before they approve or commend tops Now the Doctrine or opinion with the concurrent practise imbraced by those who are best known from others by the Name of Anabaptists I intend no reflection in the term nor any avouchment of the propriety of it in reference to those meant by it but meerly designation is of that calculation we speak of it hath a face or shew both of truth and Godliness but it hath an heart of error and prophaneness By means of the former it captivateth one sort of men by means of the latter it alienateth the judgments and affections of others from it I know not good Reader whether thou hast taken any notice either of the Fourty Queries about Church-communion and Baptism some while since published or of the Answer so called to them published more lately I judg it not worth either mine or any other mans pains to make an Anti-answer or just reply Heaving at a feather is too childish a posture for a man Something may be said in commendation of a fair face although the heart relating to it be never so foul and bad My Antiquerist is a man of parts and worth in his sphere but what the word of God and evidence of truth make crooked what parts or abilities of man are able to make streight I shall upon occasion of the subject discoursed in the precedure of these papers here only say this giving in withal a small first-fruits of an account for such my belief that I verily beleeve that there is nothing answered to any one of the said Fourty Queries but what is defective either in point of pertinency or of truth or at least of proof The grounds of my Faith in this kind are partly the nature and import of the questions partly the tenor and substance of such of the Answers which I have had time to weigh and consider For the former If I should propose such a question the tenor whereof should import that I verily beleeve the Sun to be up at noon day or that the body ought not to be sacrificed upon the service of the shadow or the rayment belonging to it or the like could I expect or think that he who should undertake in Answer to such my Questions to overthrow my belief imported in either could alledg or insist upon any thing but which of necessity must be either impertinent or untrue if not both or if neither yet uncertain which in close disputations especially if the degree of uncertainty be any thing considerable amounts to little more then to that which is untrue For the latter because I would not be thought to seek out my Antigonist where possibly he may be more obnoxious or weak I shall give a brief account of his weakness in the best of his strength for I presume that if he be stronger then himself anywhere it is in the front of his battail and in his formost Answers Therefore let us in a word see whether the foundations both of his first and second Answers be not less either in pertinency as hath been said or in Truth if not in both or least in proof 1. In his Answer to the first Query he layeth for one ground hereof that which is the matter of question between him and his Querist viz. that Constituting of Churches without Baptism is a corrupt practise 2. That Infant-sprinkling is a corrupt practise also Now what an impertinency is it in arguing to assert that without proof which is denyed by the adverse party and that in the Question it self under debate and withall to build the process of the dispute upon it 2. He layeth this for another ground of his Answer that there was no such practise as either constituting of Churches without Baptism or sprinkling of Infants on foot in the world till after all the Books of the Holy Scriptures were finished This likewise he affirms without all proof notwithstanding he well knows that the sence of his Querist stands to the contrary This is of the same house and lineage of impertinency with the former 3. He builds another strein of his Answer upon this ground that the Querist hath disclaimed communion with the Church of Rome and the Parochial Churches in England and this upon this ground because there is no example in Scripture for such Church-Constitution as that of Rome and England is Here are more untruths then one un ess a very improper construction of the phrase disclaim communion contracts the number For I never disclaimed communion with the Church of Rome more then I have done with the Church of Mahomet nor had I ever occasion to do the one

doth amongst us Nor can any man tolerably imagin had the precept of God concerning circumcision under the Law been like to have occasioned as many doubtful disputations amongst the best of the Jewish Nation as he knew the signification of his mind concerning Baptism in the Gospel would occasion and raise amongst the best of his Saints that he would ever have regulated Church-fellowship amongst them by circumcision Yea 3. And lastly the Regulation of Church-communion under the Levitical Law by circumcision upon the terms and with the limitations formerly specified is so far from being so much as a probable argument that Church-communion should be intended by God to be regulated by Baptism under the Gospel that it rather evinceth the quite contrary For as the communion of the Church under the Law whilst it the Church was yet carnal and servile in the Infancy or nonage of it was regulated by a Rule or Law suitable to the state and condition of it i. e. by a Law of a carnal Ordinance so is it reasonable to conceive that the Church under the Gospel being spiritual 1 Pet. 2. 5. and of mature growth the Communion thereof should be regulated by a Law or Rule agreeable to the condition and state hereof and which requireth and consiseth in somewhat that is more spiritual and not by Baptism which is a carnal Ceremony so acknowledged by the Greatest Masters themselves of the way called Anabaptism as well as Circumcision Thus they who have eyes to see and hearts to understand may clearly enough perceive that however the subject of Baptism under the Gospel may be rationally calculated by the subject of Circumcision under the Law yet the Regulation of Church-communion by Circumcision under the Law can be no ground of estimating Church fellowship by Baptism under the Gospel We have assigned Reason upon Reason of the difference And thus having felt and handled the two insulting horns of the late-threatening Dilemma we find them to be made of brown paper But to proceed yet a little further with the Answerer in his Answer to the first Query 9. Another ground whereon he builds is that the Scripture is every whit as express for Baptism to precede the enjoyment of Church priviledges as it is for a voluntary consenting to Church Order and Government to precede the same enjoyment But how impertinently to his Cause and with how little proof is this affirmed First If by Church-priviledges he means all Church-priviledges how can the Scripture be express for Baptism to precede the enjoyment of them when as it self is one of these priviledges and doubtless according to his sence one of the greatest of them Is the Scripture express for any thing to precede the enjoyment of it self If by Church-priviledges he means some of these priviledges when he hath specified which he means we shall consider further of his assertion But 2. The Scripture may be express enough for Baptism to precede the enjoyment he speaks of i. e. that Baptism did sometimes precede this enjoyment and may precede it still yea and haply that in some cases it ought to precede it and yet be neither express nor virtual or implicit for the absolute or universal necessity of such a precedure which is the point wherewith the Query before him pincheth him 3. And lastly The Scripture may be as express for what he saith it is as for a voluntary consenting to Church Order c. and yet be neither express nor yet virtual or consequential for it For the Truth is that the Scripture is not express for the said consenting only some of us judg it meet to desire such a consent of those whom we judg otherwise meet to admit into Communion with us in Church-priviledges to prevent some grand inconveniences which it is not pertinent here to specifie although the sence of others of us is otherwise in the case And 10. How impertinent to his Cause is this reasoning If one person may be admitted upon such terms he means to Church-priviledges without Baptism then why not two if two why not ten and so an hundred or a thousand and consequently such Gospel Order layd totally aside If an hundred or a thousand or ten thousands should be admitted to Church-priviledges upon a manifestation of their Faith which may be otherways and to far better satisfaction done then by a being Baptized with an exclusion of all others who are able to give no such account of a work of Faith in them would this be a total laying aside of Gospel Order Good Reader consider and judg 11. He affirms that those Precepts Exhortations or Doctrines by which men stand enjoyned to observe Gospel Order do virtually prohibit men Baptized communion with unbaptized in Church-fellowship as that which is contrary thereunto But at what a distance do his Proofs stand from his Position as if they were meer strangers to it For 1. His first Proof is built upon a clear mistake of the word Teach Go and teach All Nations Mat. 28. 19. and indeed upon a misunderstanding of the whole Verse For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to teach doth not signifie to teach men so as to make them willing to obey the Gospel which sence notwithstanding bears the whole burthen of his first Proof of the said Position this sence of the word was I beleeve never heard of from any Author that hath written in the Greek Tongue and however cannot be the sence of it here as will appear presently but the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly signifies to instruct or teach or which is the same to do that which is apt and proper to make a Disciple one or more whether any person be actually or by way of event or success made a Disciple or no And that this was the proper and only sence of the word intended by the Lord Christ here is evident because otherwise 1. He must be conceived to give a Commission or Charge to men to do that which was not in their power to do as viz. actually to regenerate or convert men to the Faith c. 2. It would follow that although the Apostles should have taught and preached the Gospel with never so much faithfulness yet they had falsified the Trust reposed in them by Christ and acted short of their Commission if they did not at all times when they preached make those to whom they preached actual Beleevers This considered how impertinent and insulse is that conceit that an Injunction to baptize is therefore put by a participle of the present tense Teach all Nations baptizing them c. to imply that they were presently to baptize men upon their being taught If this were so all persons whatsoever to whom the Gospel was at any time preached by the Apostles were upon their bare hearing of it and whether they beleeved or blasphemed to have been baptized by them And if there be any sence at all in these words as all

understandings nor with all the additional help of the light hitherto afforded us by our Brethren tell how to beleeve or conceive that all the Land of Judea and they of Ierusalem with all the region round about Iordan were all over-powered by any such high hand of Faith who yet came thick and threefold troops upon troops and companies after companies to be baptized of John and were baptized accordingly CONSIDERATION XIV For those who are babes in Christ and weak in the Faith yea for those who know but in part and higher then thus neither doth their knowledg it self rise who think they know more then all the world besides to mistake where in a manner all the judicious learned and grave all the zealous faithful and best conscienced Christians and Servants of God throughout the world Fathers Martyrs Reformers and others for sixteen generations together even from the days of the Apostles until now have mistaken and not been able to discover the truth or mind of God is doubtless the most venial and pardonable mistake that can well be imagined yea although it should be supposed that the subject matter wherein or about which this mistake hath been be of very great weight and consequence Such as this and no whit worse or more culpable then this is the mistake if yet a mistake it be of those Churches and Saints who judg it no ways necessary nor agreeable to the mind of Christ for them to desire a baptismal dipping having been regularly as they conceive and sufficiently baptized in their Infancy Now the common and best-known principles of reason and equity and of Christianity most of all upon mistakes of the most-venial nature and which are incident to the best the most watchful and faithful of men teach men to inflict the lightest punishment whether by censure or otherwise if any at all that well may be If then to judg and condemn a Church or people of God as a spurious and unclean Congregation with whom no man can joyn in Church-communion without polluting himself in the sight of God be an high and heavy censure which I presume no man questions then must they who inflict this censure only upon the account of the demerit of the aforesaid mistake needs be extreamly irregular unrighteous and unreasonable in so doing And yet they who in the open view of the world inflict it by an actual hasty and as it were a frightful rending and tearing off themselves from such Churches inflict it upon the hardest and most unchristian terms that can be imagined And give me leave here only to add this that I know no more pregnant a symptome of a strong inchantment delusion or distemper then when a petty handful of men are rank of confidence and conceit that all the world are out of their witts but themselves and that they are as so many stars of the first magnitude and all other men but as the snuffs of so many Candles CONSIDERATION XV That Baptism how duly soever administred is no Churchmaker but at the highest a Church-adorner and this possibly in some cases only too is evident from hence that the Lord Christ whilst he was yet unbaptized was as much the head and as legitimate an head of the Church as after his baptism And as Christ obtained not the Head-ship of the Church nor right unto it by being baptized so neither do beleevers obtain their right to membership in a Church by their being baptized Yea it is but conjectural and traditional Divinity to affirm or hold that all the members of all the Churches in the Apostles days were baptized Certain I am that Baptism cannot rationally pretend to so much Interest to constitute ●● legitimate members of Christian Churches under the Gospel as circumcision might to constitute the members of the Iewish Church under the Law Yet this Church was altogether as true a Church and all Abrahams children by Isaak as true members of this church when and whilest they had no practise of circumcision amongst them as viz. during their Fourty years journeying through the Wilderness as when it was in the most regular and standing use among them Yea doubtless Abraham and his family were as much the Church of God before the Ordinance it self of circumcision was delivered unto him as afterwards And why the Iewish children before the eight day should not be judged members of that church as well as after I understand not Therefore without all controversie Baptism is no builder of Churches although as some men now set it on work it is a puller of them down Nor doth it at all savour of Gospel dispensation that God should build his spiritual Temple upon Foundations made of a carnal ceremony or that he should deny that poor and mean priviledg comparatively of Church-membership unto that Grace I mean Faith unto which he hath vouchsafed that High and Heavenly prerogative the making of men to becom the Sons of God Besides that which is no where mentioned as commending any man either unto God or men more then or so much as many other duties or qualifications cannot reasonably be judged more necessary to any mans regular admission into Church-fellowship then those other things Now Baptism is no where represented in the Scriptures as commending any man either unto God or men nor as any considerable testimony of any mans Faith vast multitudes of people having been baptized by Iohn yea and by Christ himself or his Disciples whereas there were very few true beleevers amongst them Mat. 3. 5. Mar. 1. 5. Luk. 7 21. Compared with Iohn 1. 11. Ioh. 3. 32 Acts. 1. 15. whereas other qualifications as Faith Love Righteousness Holiness Humility the new Creature the hearing of the Word the searching of the Scriptures with many others of like character are frequently insisted upon as matters of worthy testimony unto those in whom they were found yea and some of them of signal acceptance with God Therefore certainly it is a most groundless and importune conceit to estimate the truth of a Church of Christ by the Baptism of the members or to deny unto such congregations or bodies of Saints the legitimacy of Church-ship upon a pretence and conceit of their not being baptized which are in all things which commend a Church either unto God or men the Glory of Churches yea and in the Apostles sence 2 Cor. 8. 23. the Glory of Christ himself CONSIDERATION XVI The main if not the only ground and reason why our newbaptizing and baptized Brethren reject the Baptism so esteemed and practised among us is because they suppose it to be a meer nullity and to have nothing in it of the Baptism appointed by Christ Upon this their supposition they proceed with the utmost severity against us they excommunicate us and deliver us up to Satan that we may learn rightly to baptize But if the Lord Christs rule be true a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7. 18. And again that every tree is

a man of stout limbs and of a very able and active body otherwise the person to be baptized especially if in any degree corpulent or unwieldy runs a great hazard of meeting with Christs latter Baptism * instead of his former And if this manner of Baptizing were in use in the Apostles days it is no great marvel that Paul being a man little and low of stature as History reports him and himself overtures 2 Cor 10 1 10. cared so little and seldom to adventure upon the work And yet should we hesitate in our Consciences much more where to find a competent person amongst them authorized by God to administer such a kind of Baptism unto us For we are not yet baptized into the belief of either of these Doctrines either 1. That a person unbaptized may without a special call or warrant from God like unto that of John Baptist Luke 3. ● undertake the Administration Or 2. That that was a case of necessity wherein either Nicholas Stork with his three Comrades in Germany about the year 1521 or whoever he was that first himself being in his own Judgment and Conscience un-baptized presumed to baptize others after that exotique mode in this Nation Nor are we convinced or clear in our Judgments that any of those who have been dipped amongst us have been rightly baptized if it be supposed that true Baptism consists in a total immersion or submersion by him that baptizeth because the baptized themselves are wont to submerge the greater part of their bodies before the Baptist comes at them and so are rather se-baptized then baptized according to what the Scripture seems to speak concerning Baptism Besides we do not read in the Scriptures of any Baptismal Boots or Baptismal Breeches or of shifting garments to avoyd the danger of being baptized or of encircling women with women after their coming from the water to salve their modesty with some other devices now or of late in frequent use amongst our new Baptists in the way of their practise All these things narrowly considered minister a ground of vehement suspition unto us left the whole story of Baptismal Diping should prove Apocryphal Sixthly Another thing much discouraging and disswading unto us from the way mentioned is that they who have passed over the bridg of Anabaptism can find as it seems no firm ground to stand on on the other side but are ever and anon shifting their Judgments and their practises running out into strange and uncouth opinious heaping up observation upon observation yea their own Churches and Congregations notwithstanding their high Purification by Baptism are sometimes unclean to them in so much that they divide and subdivide yea and are ready to divide again their divisions Seventhly Whereas Antichrist himself is not more Antichristian then in claiming and exercising such a dominion over the Faith of his Proselytes and Disciples by vertue whereof he commandeth them to depend only upon Ministers and Teachers of his own Faith and wicked perswasion in matters of Religion severely prohibiting unto them the hearing of Protestant Preachers we understand that the same high-imposing spirit domineers more generally in the Churches and Congregations which have been dipt and that they also solemnly conjure all their Proselytes and Converts not to hear Jesus Christ himself speaking by any other mouth then theirs thus bearing them in hand as if a voyce from Heaven like unto that which was heard by the people at Christs Baptism concerning him had come unto them also in reference to themselves and their Teachers in this or the like tenor of words We are the only true Churches and Ministers of Christ HEAR VS Yea there was of late a very great Schism made in one of these Churches and the greater part aposynagoguized by the lesser because of the high misdemeanor of some of the Members in hearing the words of eternal life from the mouths of such Ministers who follow not them in their way Such principles and practises as these we judg to be most notoriously and emphatically Anti-christian and such wherein as was said in a like case the very horns and hoofs of the beast may be felt and handled Yea we cannot but judg them to be of most pernicious consequence to the precious Souls of men as depriving them of the best means and opportunities which God most graciously affordeth unto them for their recovery out of all such snares wherein at any time their foot may be taken This is another grand discouragement unto us from that way Eighthly We observe That more generally when men or women have suffered themselves to be intangled with a conceit of that way especially when they have bowed down their Judgments and Consciences unto it they are presently found in that sad condition and distemper wherein the Apostle perc●ived the Galatians upon their subjection to the yoke of Circumcision when he demanded of them Who hath bewitched you a For as these were so strangely besotted and dissensed with their notion of Circumcision and legal Observations that the Apostle himself feared b that he should not be able to deliver them no not by the clearest arguments and demonstrations of the vanity and danger of their new notion and practise so are the Reasons Judgments and Understandings of the persons we speak of so stupified distraught and confounded with the admiration of their Water-work and their airy conceits about it that all Reason opposing it is a Barbarian unto them common sence is a mystery inaccessible to their understandings the light of the noon-day offering to discover any nakedness in their way is as dark as the darkness of mid-night it self Men of sound and serious intellectuals are as men that speak unto them in a strange tongue if they speak any thing against their way They know not valleys from hills nor hills from valleys rivers from trees nor trees from rivers halfs from wholes nor wholes from halfs precepts from promises nor promises from precepts ceremony from substance nor substance from ceremony every distinction that attempts to shew them the error of their way ipso facto becomes a Chaos and confusion On the other hand for the maintenance and defence of their way the shadows of mountains seem valiant and armed men stubble and rotten wood are turned into weapons of steel and iron before them letter becomes spirit face becomes heart promise becomes precept ceremony becomes substance Apostles become ordinary men and women disputeables become demonstrations and peradventures become all Yeas and Amens In respect of these marvellous and sad distempers in their fancies and understandings to reason with them about their way or to endeavor their conviction seldom turns to any better account then a beating of the ayr or then Diogenes his begging applications to the Statues of men But Ninethly and lastly The first born of all Discouragements unto us in this kind is that which our eyes dayly see and our ears oft hear and wherewith our hearts

is not his meaning in saying so many of us as c. clearly this that as many of us Saints or of us beleevers who have been baptized For in what other consideration rel●●ion or respect he should make himself one of them is not easie to imagin Evident it is from Chap. 1. 13. 15. that he was no dweller in Rome at the time of writing this Epistle nor had been any time before So likewise when he writes to the Churches and members of the Churches of Galatia thus For as many of YOV as have been baptized c. can his meaning be as many of you who dwell in Galatia as have been baptized Or doth not such a sence as this plainly imply that he wrote his Epistle aswel to the Infidels in the Countries of Galatia as to the members of the Christian Churches there Therefore questionless the Apostles meaning in the words before us is plainly and directly this As many of you who being members of the Churches of Galatia have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and consequently the particle {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as many as is not partitive of the beleevers in the places mentioned from the rest of unbeleeving Inhabitants there but of beleevers amongst themselves those that had been baptized from those who were at present unbaptized in either place respectively This to be the express sence of the two passages mentioned might be further evidenced by the light of sundry considerations but that we judge the premises already levied sufficient to establish that conclusion It being then so clear a case that there were some members of Churches in the Apostles days who were unbaptized at least for a time it undenyably follows that Baptism is no Constitutor of Churches as the beloved notion of my Anti-querist beareth Concerning that Copweb-piece stiled by the Author Some Baptismal abuses briefly discovered wherewith some silly flies as I understand have been intangled and catched there is a besome preparing for the brushing away of that also from the Temple of God so far as it is catching and hath not been dismantled by the contents of these papers For the tail of it wherein the sting and the worst of the poyson lies hath been cut off and swept away hereby THE ANATOMY OF Ana-Baptism ANa-Baptism is by the Modern Architects of it built upon Foundations or Grounds of three sorts Some 1. True but not pertinent 2. Fals and therefore not pertinent 3. Conjecturall onely and therefore very little pertinent 1. Of the first sort are 1. All those Texts of Scripture on which they mis-ground first their Opinion and then their Practictise As Mat. 19. 28. Mar. 16. 16. Act. 2. 38 41. Act. 8. 37. Rom. 6. 3 4. Coloss. 2. 12. Heb. 6. 2. possibly with some others These are true Grounds of Doctrines and practises corresponding but are irrelative to the Doctrine and Practise of Ana-Baptism 2. Of this sort also are these and some other like Tenents upon which they build their said Fabrick 1. That in the Scripture there is no particular or expresse either Precept or Example for Infant-Baptism 2. That no Ordinance of Christ can be neglected or omitted without sin This rightly understood and with due limitation is a truth also but thus understood it reacheth not their practise 2. Of the second sort are these 1. That in case Infants were not Baptized in the dayes of Iohn the Baptist nor of Christ nor of his Apostles then ought not Baptism to be administred unto Infants now 2. That Circumcision was neither sign nor seal of the Righteousness of Faith or of the Covenant of Grace but unto the person of Abraham onely 3. That Baptism it self is no Seal of the Covenant of Grace unto any person whatsoever but a sign onely 4. That an Administration of Baptism made to professing Beleevers doth more conduce unto and better answer the ends of Baptism then that which is made to Infants 5. That Infant-Baptism is disagreeable to the Ministration of the New Testament 6. That none ought to be Baptized but such who in their own person appear voluntarily willing to be Baptized in obedience unto God 7. That Infant-Baptism is a nullitie 8. That Infant-Church-member-ship was a Leviticall Ceremonie and abolished with the rest of the Legall Ceremonies by Christ in the Gospell 9. That a profession of Faith whether reall or feigned is a more warrantable ground whereon to administer Baptism then an estate in Grace though attested by God himself 10. That any Person un-baptized may without special Commission from God and without proof-making of such a Commission administer Baptism and that such a mans Administration together with all the administrations lineally descending from it is the Institution of Christ 11. That any person whatsoever pretending to beleeve and to have been baptized whether invested into any Office or not may as lawfully administer Baptism as he that is an Officer in a Church 12. That not simply Baptism but the administration of Baptism to beleevers onely is an Ordinance of Christ properly so called 13. That there can be no warrantable ground for the administration of an Ordinance to such or such a subject or after such or such a manner but either a particular and express precept for or example of the one and the other 14. That there ought to be a resemblance or similitude between the sign and the thing signified as there is between the bush and the wine in the Vintners celler and was between the streight pole on which the brazen Serpent was lift up and the cross timber on which the Lord Christ was Crucified and again between the Rain-bow and the safty of the Earth from drowning between Circumcision and the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed 15. That the Baptizing of Infants is unlawful because it is not a Ordinance of Christ 16. That obedience to external Rites Ordinances and Institutions is to be preferred before obedience to the Law of nature or to the precepts of the Moral Law 17. That no circumstance mentioned in the Tenour of an Institution or observed in the first Administration thereof can without sin either be omitted or varied in after Administrations upon any occasion or consideration whatsoever 18. That persons baptized after the new mode of dipping though void of saving Grace and strangers unto Holiness are notwithstanding by vertue of such their Baptism rendered visible Saints whereas others not so baptized are invisible notwithstanding the greatest Exemplariness of Saint-ship in the whole course of their lives and conversations otherwise 19. That children under the Gospel are more unworthy more unmeet less capable subjects of Baptism then they were of circumcision under the Law 20. That it was better and more edifying unto men to receive the initiating or first Sacramental pledg of Gods Fatherly love and care in the time of their Infancy under the Law and that now under the Gospel it is worse and less edifying unto