present and I hope you will see the whole out in the end for all will not own so much some perceiving no doubt what a foundation it laies for us to build firmly upon all that in this point we contend for do rather choose to deny this truth that baptism signifies or at least that it resembles a death and resurrection then by owning it be forc't to own the true way of baptism indeed Your Dr. Featley little better then denies both at first p. 70. saying thus As for the representation of the death and resurrection that is not properly the inward grace signified by baptism but the washing the soul in the laver of regeneration and clensing us from our sinnes but I can little lesse then admire that he above all men who quotes the Rubrick with little lesse authority then he doth the bible and hath no question little lesse then an 100 times in his daies taught little children the catachism contained therein should quite forget to learn it himself for there it s set down plainly that the inward and spritual grace signified by the outward sign of baptism is death unto sinne and a new birth unto Righteousnesse and besides he knew that in true regeneration there is a death and resurrection Rantist However in the manner of baptism as it is administred in the Church of England there is a resemblance of a death and resurrection for though the child be not alwayes dipt in water as the rubrick prescribeth save onely in case of necessitie which would be dangerous in cold weather especiall if the child be weak and sickly yet the minister dippeth his hand in the water and plucketh it out again when he baptizeth the infant and these are the very words of Dr. Featly next following the words you quoted and therefore whether he be right in those or no I am sure he is in these for there is a resemblance of death and resurrection in our baptism Baptist. Whether the Dâ—s mind misgave him or no after he had asserted that a death and resurrection is not the thing signified and that which is to be resembled in baptism I know not but me thinks he speaks as if he feared whether that would hold water or no and therefore least it should be found to leak in the very next words which you now speak in as one supposing it the safest way to grant thaâ— there ought to be a resemblance of a death and resurrection in right baptism he rather goes another way to work viz. to patch up a proof of it that there is a resemblace of a death and resurrection in that administration of it that is used in England but t is in such a way me thinks as may well make all the seers ashamed and Divines confounded specially you that so dote on that Doctor as to give up your selves to be so blindly discipled by him as you do and would have others to do so also that ever such a piece of doctrine should be delivered and yet behold you justifie and side with it by Englands Doctors in Divinity It seems then you dare nor quite gainsay but that a representation of a death and resurrection is fit to be made in the manner of baptizing and that the Church of England hath prescribed that it shall be done in such a manner as may be tanta mount thereto viz. by dipping unlesse of necessity through the infants sicknesse it be done otherwise yet notwithstanding that prescription of the Church which of you priests did ever do any other then sprinkle the healthiest infants but because the subject of your baptism in England being an infant is too tender at all times to be dipt or buried in water where not that your false subject of necessity ingages you to forgo the true way of baptizing which your selves prescribe unlesse necessity forbid it because I say the child cannot conveniently be buried with Christ in baptism into death in his own person therefore ecce signum this visible death burial and resurrection with Christ must be all transacted for him per alium i. e. by the ministers hand that is dipped into water and brought out again as it were instead of the child And this is even very suitable to all the rest for all the rest of your service in the point of baptism is done by representatives as little as it represents what is mainly to be represented by it and one part would mock the other if this should not be done so too t is true all is done in the childs name and in the childs stead but nothing done that of right ought to be done either by or to the child himself The infant indeed is askt dost thou believe in God dost thou forsake the divel wilt thou be baptized c but others must answer and promise and professe assent to and vow all these for him others mouthes must speak his mind and there 's the profession again he is spoken to by the minister saying to him I baptize thee i e. dip or bury thee with Christ in baptism into death for so t is in a little plainer English and true sense and intent of the service but alas it s nothing but the ministers hand that is dipt buried raised again with the drips that hang upon which the infant is onely rantized and there is the resemblance of the death burial and resurrection but I trust Sirs you will understand at last that when Paul saies to the Romans and Colossians that they were buried and raised in baptism he doth not mean that the dispensers hands but that their bodies were put under water and brought out again in respect of which they were said to be buried into death and are raised again i. e. not spiritually onely and really in respect of the soules dying to sinne and living to righteousnesse but outwardly visibly bodily in water also and this significatively and representatively of the other and this is my third argument for total dipping Rantist Significatively I grant if you will but not representatively I know no necessity that in every sign there is to be a resemblance of the thing signified thereby Baptist. If that be granted you will not easily withstand the other yet that is granted by the most and must be granted by all whether they will or no as for Mr. Cook and Mr. Blake themselves they neither of them seem to me to deny but that such a thing as a death and resurrection are signified in baptism yea Mr. Cook affirms it yea who questions saith he p. 19. but our justification and sanctification or remission of sins together with mortification and vivification are signified by baptism and he saies right for none can and I think none doth deny it but Dr. Featley of all Divines that I know of yea Calvin and Zanchee both assert it in their several expositions upon these very places Rom. 6.4 Coloss. 2.12 This participation in death saith Calvin is principally to be
infants as concerning their everlasting salvation into little a little corner yea good lord how few dying infants does he hope shal be saved that hath hope of none but of some i. e. believers infants which are but one of many and also not of all but onely some of them yet to conclude this in a way of resemblance to Mr. Bs. conclusion of his Argument from Mark 10. p. 107. I blesse the Lord Jesus Christ King of the Church though he gave no order to baptize and in church infants here on earth yet for having a greater tendernesse towards the eternal state of all dying infants then Mr. B. is yet aware of and towards all that live to years such a tendernesse as to invite them to himself universally and bid them wel-come and so great a care to inform his Church in his Word and Gospel concerning his good will to all men and to all infants also in that particular so as to speak it so plainly that plain minded men that are not minded never to change their minds as I hope Mr. B. is not may well see his mind in this case even as if he had therefore done this because he foresaw that some would arise so carnally and so cruely conceited as to suppose it impossible to be and but in vain to hope it almost that Gods saving mercy should extend to any more dying infants then those few and not all those few neither of their own and for my part I gladly accept Christs information and submit to his discovery let them resist it that dare And lastly one more Argument of hope that I have within my self that all dying infants must needs be saved is this yet because I could never find since I lookt for it as also none ever shall that look not without their eyes what should nor what save the Priesthoods divine kind of Doctrine does damn them I mean any of them so dying any more then one of them First as for sin which onely damnes I know none they have of their own and to say that any infant dyes eternally for theiniquity of his father only makes the word of God which is truth it self no better then a flat falsehood to me who read in Ieremy 31.29.30 Ezek. 18.3.4.19.20 Deut. 24.16 2 Kings 14.16 that the waies of God who requires it strictly of man not to put the children to death for the sins of the father but every man only for his own sin are so equal for all the false accusation of him by the wicked Jewes that seeing he both saies and also swears it that men shall never have occasion to say the childs teeth are edged by the grapes the father only hath eaten and in way of complaint for injustice doth not the son bear the iniquity of the Father but that every soul that dies shall dy for his own iniquity onely and that individual soul onely that sinneth shall dy i. e. eternally for temporally t is true we all dy in Adam as far as a to temporal death God may and often doth visit the sins of the Father on the children to the third and fourth generation of such as hate him not onely when children inherit so as to imitate their fathers hatred of God in which case only t is a punishment to those children but also on infants so as to take them out of the world with the fathers as in the case of Dathan and Abiram Amaleck Hittites Amorites c. yea Sodom and Gomorrah and the old world on which for ensamples sake to them that in after times should live ungodly the flood and the fire fell not onely temporal but eternal to the adult ones that gave themselves over to fornication and followed strange flesh though but temporal only to infants who neither lived ungodly nor gave themselves over to fornication as the other did and therefore though passing hence with the rest to a temporal death by that fire yet are not set forth as an ensample with the rest to all that should live ungodly by suffering the vengeance of eternal fire 2 Pet. 2.6 Iude 7. But the same temporal death that may be in fury to one as t is a passage to worse may be a mercy to another and so to those infants a passage from worse to better as good Iosiah was slain in battell as well as wicked Ahab and that for going on his own head to war as well he yet was it in respect of that eternall state that followed as well for him as ill for Ahab Sith therefore it s said so plainly the son shall not die for the iniquity of the father and yet temporally they may be taken away with the father it must needs be meant that eternally none die nor lye for ever under wrath for no more then meerly the fathers fault whereupon all dying infants having no trangression of their own cannot be damned for their own nor yet for their father Adams transgression and so are all as well as those of believers in a visible state of salvation and while they live infants unlesse hereafter they reject it as Esau did the land of Canaan in visible right to so dying to the heavenly Canaan Yea many thanks to my Ashford opposites for that clause of their pamphlet which is assistant to me almost at all assaies Christian charity it self which doth presumere unumquemque bonum nisi constet de malo constrains us to hope all things believe all things concerning the salvation of dying infants and of all infants as well as some specially since these more then those i. e. the infants of unbelievers more then of believers have not committed any actual sin wherby to deserve to be exempted from the general state of little infants declared in Scripture viz. that of such is the Kingdome of heaven Secondly as for righteousnesse there 's enough in Christ to take away it being imputed what ever unrighteousnesse is imputed for Adams sin and why that righteousnesse should not be imputed if the Scripture had not said it so plainly as it does Rom. 5. 2 Cor. 5.19.21 1 Cor. 15.22 to all poor dying innocent infants as well as some I cannot imagine unlesse you say not God the fathers love to all but man the fathers faith is that thing that must save some of those infants of believers that are savd by interesting that fruit of his body in the righteousnesse of Christ as well as himself for the taking away the sin of his soul which faith a father wanting the child shall perish for ever in default out and yet be in no fault in the world about it Alas poor infants indeed that descend from such parents as believe not if it be so that that the fathers faith onely does interest the infant in Christ their forefather the first Adam by his sin unawares to them damned them say they and say I if it did there 's righteousnesse enough in the heavenly father and the second
con they are but as Auxilliarie hereunto Secondly because I am willing also sith you call so much for it to give out my own grounds for the truth by the way as I go along in disproving of your false ones that you may either yield to them if sound or answer and disprove them if unsound and rotten in the residue I shall be so much the briefer The next argument whereby you undertake to prove infants of believing parents to have the holy spirit is drawn from those Eulogies given them in Scripture not inferior to those of the best Saints from whence you thus argue Disputation Those who are invited to come to Christ Mark 10.14 Mat. 19.14 Luk. 18 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 15. babes such as are new come from the womb blessed by Christ declared to have right to the kingdome of heaven set forth for examples of innocency not to be offended guarded from heaven by Angels c. have the holy Ghost But such are little children Disproof You say they have Eulogies i. e. good language and commendations given to them not inferiour to those of the best Saints Nay Sirs they are superiour in some sense to the best of Saints for the best here have sin but these have yet none Christ taking away Adams sin and they adding none of their own and yet it will not follow that they are to be baptized for they have yet no need of it muchlesse that they have the holy spirit which is the thing you would prove by it As for these particular Eulogies which you instance in if the most special among them do clearly prove the subject thereby denominated to have that holy spirit that entitles to baptism then I le agree that mine are but if it do not then I hope you will agree to it that your wits are little better then sodden In order to the fuller finding out of the full weight of each Eulogy to such a purpose I le consider some of them asunder that being the best way and not as you Babilonicae brevitatis gratiâ have wrapt and swadled them all up together into one Syllogism and if you think it too tedious so to do I would have you to know my pains in writing will be Tantamount to your patience in reading The first Eulogy which you say Scripture gives to little children is their invitation to come to Christ from whence your Argument in form must runne thus Babist Those who are invited to come to Christ have the holy spirit and are thereupon to be baptized But little infants of believing parents are invited to come to Christ Ergo they have the holy spirit and are to be baptized Baptist. To which I retort stating onely another Minor in room of yours as the subject to answer to your middle term and then judge your selves how false your foundation i. e. your Major is and consequently your building or conclusion Thus Those that are invited to come to Christ have the holy spirit and are thereupon to be baptized But all men and women in the world are invited to come to Christ Mark 16.15 Mat. 22.9 2 Cor. 5.19.20.21 Isa. 55.1 Mar. 11.28 Rev. 22.17 Ergo all men and women in the world have the the holy spirit and are therevpon to be baptized I need say no more to wise men The 2 Eulogy given from Scripture to little children is this viz. they are blessed by Christ whence your argument must run thus Babist Those that are blessed by Christ have the holy spirit and so present right to baptism But little children of believing parents are blessed by Christ Ergo they have the holy spirit and present right to baptism Baptist. I answer first by denying your Major which is not universally true for persons may be blessed by Christ and yet not have the holy spirit for better understanding of which let it be considered that persons may be blest various wayes from which yet to their having the holy spirit there 's no consequence viz. outwardly and inwardly temporally and spiritually with blessings of the body and of the soul of this life and that to come first with outward temporal bodily blessings abstract from the other they may be and often are blessed when yet at present at least for so they must have as to your present purpose they have not the holy spirit who possibly also never have it in all their lives I mean in that sense from which Peter argues thus to their baptism Act. 10. for that some of you say when you can make advantage on 't another way was the spirit in the extraordinary gifts of it onely as tongues prophecy utterance c. by which sense how ever your infancy is clear cut off from all capacity of having it and so you are confuted by your own party in the very corner stone of this your babish building but I le give you the advantage of your own personal Tenet let it be what it will save only that forenamed common sense of the spirit wherein I have told you t is in all men who yet are not therefore to be baptized I say again both men and women and children may be blessed by Christ outwardly only as with health peace plenty fruitful seasons Mat. 5.45 God is good to all and sends sun and rain i. e. all temporal blessings on the good and evil just and unjust The blessings of bodily protections as to be guarded with Angells from heaven from dangers and mischiefs which is another of the Eulogies you here instance in which to save your selves and me some labor I le take in hear it being but a temporal blessing from which it follows not that such as are blessed with it must consequently have the holy spirit also bodily salvation from and sanation of disâ—ases distempers by Christ who is a Saviour of the body these blessings of the body the barn the basket and the store health and external happinesse persons may be and often are blessed with from God who fills their bellies with hid treasure so that they prosper and are not plagued when yet they are wicked in their lives and far from the holy spirit Secondly If you take Christs blessing as in this place you must for it s so expounded and plainly expressed in one of the three Evangelists you quote which write all the same thing in some difference of prase for his praying for the persons whom he blessed I say that even spiritually persons may be blessed by Christ in prayer for them yea blessed with the blessing of the spirit it self as de futuro and and yet not pro presenti have the spirit for Christ blessed his disciples Luke 24.50 i. e. prayed for them that they might be endued with the spirit and yet that he then prayed for or by lifting up his hands to the father then blessed them with did not come on them till some while after in this sense Isaac blessed Iacob Gen. 27.28.29 Iacob
to believe the Scriptures which by necessary consequence confirm the thing we would leave the manner of doing it to him whose work it is the spirit of God who is able to do it we do it in other articles of faith and the resurrection of the body and ask not how it can be done because the Scriptures have delivered it and this of the renovation of soul is no lesse Miracle Re-Review And well may it be difficult to understand how faith should be bred in infants and doubted that they have it not since if we have learned to believe the Scriptures they are so far from confirming such a thing so much as by any possible or probable consequence that by necessary consequence they contradict it while they tell us that there is but one way whereby faith cometh and that such a one as it can never possibly come to infants in viz. hearing the word of God preached not inwardly by the spirit only as you prate below for he speaks not of such a thing there Rom. 10. but outwardly by some visible or audible creaturely ministration as is plain by the words foregoing viz. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard how hear without a preacher how preach except they be sent And whereas you tell us the spirit is able to work faith in them therefore we must leave the manner of doing it to him not offering as it were to pry into it Good Sirs spare your labor talk not about the unknown manner of a matter as unknown as the other for the thing it self is not yet clear in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the spirits ability to do it prove that it is done any more then it proves there is a 1000 worlds or that all men have faith because these things are possible to be effected by him but the evidence that he doth such a thing which if it be wanting as it is in this case it is but egregious folly to argue it from the other so as to say God can do it therefore though the manner how he doth it is not known to us yet we must not meddle further then to believe it is leaving the manner of doing it to him Moreover Sirs assure your selves of this that in some sort the manner is usually manifested to us in the word as well as the matter of such things as we are there called upon to believe even that miraculous work of the resurrection of the body which is your present instance wherein 1 Cor. 15.35 to the end the Lord condescendeth at large to explain the manner oâ— it as well as to prove the matter of it before and whereas you say you leave the manner of the doing things when it is nor clear to you to the spirit himself whose the work is in other articles of faith I wonder you are so forgetful as to bear such false witnesse as this against your selves when as in the point of dying infants salvation which for the matter of it is so clear that you cannot deny it though not clear to you in the manner you leave not the manner of it to God himself whose work it is to save them but limit him to the way of Church-membership faith baptism and holinesse c. whereas the word that was not at all for infants instruction declares to men and women what way he will save them in asking in many places of your book how can infants be justified without faith how can Turks and Pagans infants be saved what hopes of our infant salvation without baptism and all this too though there is no fear of their damnation by actual sin though it also ask you plainly enough how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard and consequently how can they be saved by faith though it tell you also plainly enough Act. 8. where that question is expressely askt what hinders c. even because they yet believe not with all their heart you had said true therefore had your words bin thus viz. we do it not in other articles of faith And whereas you say the renovation of a soul is no lesse miracle then the matter of infants having faith it seems you confesse it to be a miracle that faith should be in infants and for my part I fully confâ—sse it with you for surely t is such a thing as was seldome or never yet seen since the world began to this day but the renovation i. e. conversion of soules of men and women depraved and corrupted as infants never were by any actual sin p. 5. is no lesse miracle indeed then the other for the one is not at all and the other where it is is yet no miracle at all but a matter that happens ever and anon in the ordinary course of things as a miracle doth not and besides you are of those I am sure who are in the mind that miracles are ceased And lastly for you to sprinkle all the new born infants in all the Christian nations at this hour as taking it for granted that these all have faith for so you suppose though you see not any individual or particular infant hath it that is brought to you and yet hold infants faith to be a miracle and yet to hold miracles to be ceased also it is if not miraculum yet mirandum monstrum et horrendum at least to me i. e. a marvelous work and a wonder that ever the wisdome of wise men should so perish and the understanding of prudent men so come to nought Thus having done with your forlorn hope I le march on now to give checkmate to that wretched crew of cavillers that are so impudent as to be responsive against reason and its Regiment and to undertake to make it good against them that infants have faith and must have baptism Review The objection that reason makes against it will easily be answered it is done for satisfaction to the Reader Re-Review Yea Sirs is Reason in so little request with you as that you not onely dare so audaciously ingage against but also set so light by it as to say its objections are easily answered let it be put to the voâ—e if you please throughout the whole earth whether you deserve the title of good Logicians i. e. Reasonable men who here professedly wrestle against reason it self and whether your faith can possibly be found any other then faction and meer fiction against which Reason it self is by your selves confest to be opponent I confesse I have heard men called divines speak of many points of Religion and faith as above reason but I yet never met with men under the name of ministers so far devoid of Reason as to say that Religion and faith are against Reason till I met with you whose faith and practise of baptism to believers infants upon account of their appearing to believe more plainly then the profession of persons at years can make it appear
respected in baptism for not onely purgation but also mortification and the dying of the old man is proposed there c. And of spiritual circumcision Paul maketh two parts saith Zanchee the first he calleth buriall with Christ the other resurrection with him and of both these he maketh baptism the sign c. Neverthelesse our above named opposers will at no hand give way that there should be any representation or resemblance made in baptism of these two things which are the prime significations of it by putting under water and plucking out again yea they seem to chide with their several Antagonists A. R. and C. B. for offering once to urge that the outward sign ought to hold analogy or proportion with the thing signified in that particular A proportion between the sign and these things signified viz. a death burial and resurrection Mr. Blake grants there is in our way of baptism by dipping but that there need be or should be so by institution this he heares not of with patience no nor Mr. Cook neither But if it please you to have patience with me so long sith those two are the maine men that beside the Doctor whose repulse is not worth a rush so mainly oppose our Argument from Rom. 6. Col. 2. I le take the paines to transcribe their several replies and then see what strength there is in all that they say to the contrary Mr. Cooks defence is as followes What you go about to gather saith he from Col. 2.12 Rom. 6.4 I know not unlesse this that as Christ was buried abode in the grave three daies and then rose again So your party baptized must be put under the water abide there some considerable time and then come up again for if you presse a similitude of Christs death in going down into the water and of his resurrection or comming up out of the water why not also of his abode three daies by abiding three daies or some considerable time under the water which will make bad work neither can any such thing be gathered from those Scriptures I would demand two Questions saith he 1. How you gather from these places a dipping of the whole man over head and under water and that a similitude of Christs death burial and rising again to be represented by dipping in water is signified here these Scriptures shew indeed that the end of our baptism is to seal our communion with him in his death and resurrection by which we are dead to sin and raised again to holinesse but if you will presse hence a resurrection by our descending into abiding in and comming up out of the water take heed least you be one of those which adde to Gods word least he reprove you as a lyar and adde unto you the plagues written in his book for I know no word of God wherein this representation is necessarily implyed much lesse expressed Besides if you urge death and resurrection to be resembled by descension into and ascension out of the water you must urge also burial which is principally there expressed by the biding of the whole man head and all under for a time answerable to Christs three daies burial which cannot be without danger yea certainty of drowning 2. If it should be granted that a representation and resemblance of Christs death burial and resurrection is set before us in baptism and so of our death to sin and rising again to holinesse yet I demand why this may not as well be by infusion of water as dipping can you give me an example of so many killed and buried by immersion or dipping into the water as I can give of them that have been put to death and buried by infusion of water I am sure a whole world of men and other creatures those few that were in the Ark only excepted were buried in the universal deluge at once by infusion not by dipping so that infusion or sprinkling may as well clearly signifie death and burial as dipping and to the preservation of Noah and those that were with him in the Ark on which waters were poured from drowning the Apostle compares baptism as its Anti-type Thus far Mr. Cook p. 16 17. And then again p. 19 20.21 he undertakes further viz. to argue back again upon us at large and to prove that if there must needs be a resemblance and representation in baptism of the things that are signified therby then it may be as well nay must be rather by washing pouring sprinkling then by dipping and putting under the water sprinkling and infusion being as if not more agreeable to the nature and instiâ—ution of baptism then dipping or immersion for as the word used i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies washing so the thing represented signifyed and sealed saith he in the wonted implicit phrase in baptism is a washing 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are washed c. the washing of Regeneration 2 Tit. 5. having your bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10.22 t is a cleansing and purging 1 John 1.7 blood of Christ clenseth us from all our sinnes Heb. 9.14 blood of Christ shall purge your conscience which things viz. washing clensing purging are done as well by infusion of water saith he as dipping and though it were granted saith he that in those hot countreys they commonly washt by going down into the water and being dipt therein that will no more inforce a necessity on us of observing the same in baptism now then the examples of Christ and the Apostles gesture in the supper ties us to the same which was leaning and partly lying but it may be objected saith he that sprinkling a little water doth not so fitly represent the washing of sins away as dipping or plunging sith here the whole body is washed there the face or head onely I answer first saith he the Scripture no where requires washing of the whole body in baptism Secondly with as good reason one may plead thus that t is most convenient that at the supper every communicant should receive his belly full of bread and wine and take as long as his stomack and head will hold to signifie the full refreshment of the soul with the body and blood of Christ but who would endure saith he such reasoning These outward elements of water bread and wine are for spiritual use and to signifie spiritual things so that if there be the truth of things the quantity is not to be respected further then is sufficient for its end namely to represent the spiritual grace and that it be neither so little as not clearly to represent it nor so much as to take off the heart from the spiritual to the corporal thing yea the spirituall grace and visible act of God upon the soul signified and represented by the outward act of baptism viz. The application of Christs blood and donation of the spirit is exprest in Scripture by the name of powring sprinkling and that probably if not certainly with allusion to
of divine Justice in which Christ for our sins sake which he took upon him was for a while in a manner swallowed up Abode under the water how little a while soever yet saies Mr. Cook it must be three daies answerable to Christ three daies burial or else it answers it not as a true resemblance of it at all denotes his descent into hell even the very deepest degree of lifelessenesse while lying in the sealed and guarded sepulchre he was accounted as one truly dead rising out of water holds out to us a lively simitude of that conquest which this dead man got over death which he vanquished in his own den as it were that is the grave in like manner therefore it is meet that we being baptized into his death and buried with him should rise also with him and so go on in a new life Rom. 6.3.4 Col. 2.12 that these things are signifyed unto us in baptism the very outward rites themselves do teach for immersion shadowes out to us the pravity of our nature dying in us in which our old man dies and is buried with Christ the progresse of which benefit putting forth its power in us by a little abode under the water points out even as rising out of the water sets forth a new life corruption being done away hence it is that baptism is called the washing of Regeneration and that whereby we are saved Titus 3.5 1 Pet. 3.21 namely because what is done outwardly by the body in the sign the same is truly performed and confirmed to believers in the soul and even therefore both the names and properties of the sign and the thing signified are very often interchangeably attributed to each other by a Sacramentally metonimy Thus saith Tilenus in the forecited pages and some of this he repeats ore again page 1078. whereby you may guesse that in this his thoughts were well digested Form a Baptismi est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he sive Relatio c. The Form of baptism is that Analogicall relation of the external and earthly which are the signes with the heavenly things or things signifyed this relation and most lively similitude that is between them is the cause why both the names and the properties of the signes and things signifyed are frequently given to one another by a familiar metonimy of the holy Scriptures wherein baptism is called the washing of regeneration and is said to save us saith he and in this respect also say I we are said to be buryed and raised in baptism in those places because of that lively resemblance of and likenesse to a burial and resurrection that ought by institution to be in the dispensation of baptism and that is in that institution if practised as ordained by Christ. Now who would think by all this but that this man had been baptized indeed i. e. dipped into buried under and brought out of the water in his baptism in remembrance and resemblance of Christs death resurrection and his own with him for how does he speak and that out of these Scriptures we are upon that we ought thus to be baptized and these things are exactly exemplified to us saith he as if he had the lively Effigies of all that was done to him in his baptism dwelling indelably in his mind as if he had been truly buried and raised visibly in baptism indeed and yet behold I believe I may be so bold as to guesse by what he saies in favour of infants sprinkling and by one thing or other that he was not baptized all this while but meerly a Rantist and none of us in practice though so much for the way of dipping in his discourses Rantist But quorsum haec what mean you by all this quotation of Authors Baptist. Because Damnati lingua vocem habet vim non habet the words and constructions of a condemned man that is prejudged to be a heretick before he is heard are like to sway but little among his Accusers and therefore I rather chose to convince Mr. Cook and Mr. Blake who deny these Scriptures either to expresse or imply a representation of death burial and resurrection to be held forth in baptism by immersion submersion emersion by the judgments of their own approved orthodox Authors then by my own judging within my self that those words of Paul Act. the 17.28 viz. as certain of your own poets have said was ad hominem an argument of more weight then an Argument of ten times more weight then it self and that if the joint harmony of Modern Divines holding forth from Rom. 6. Col. 2. a necessity of resemblance of burial and resurrection to be made in baptism by immersion submersion emersion be not considered the never so well grounded Testimony of my single silly self must needs be sleighted Neverthelesse whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I shall leave a word or two upon record whereby either to inlighten you that there is a resemblance of a burial and resurrection necessarily to be held forth in baptism and that no lesse is necessarily implyed at least in these two places Romans 6. and Coloss. 2. or else to leave you without excuse in your disownings of it For First this will appear plainly if it be considered that by the word baptized in the texts is undoubtedly meant the outward rite ceremony sign and form of the administration of baptism Secondly if it be considered that the phrase buried with him and risen with him i. e. Christ doth expressely relate immediately and specially if not onely in those texts to that outward sign it self as that in which taâ—en distinctly from the mistery and inward grace we are said to be buried and risen not onely in signification but in lively representation of the inward and spiritual burial and resurrection with Christ and not to the spiritual internal death and resurrection it self as that which is to be understood by those phrases at all muchlesse onely or altogether or abstractively and apart from any outward and bodily burial and resurrection in baptism as Mr. Cook and Mr. Blake seeme too impishly to imagine Thirdly this appears yet further insomuch as there are other phrases in that 6 of the Rom. that do intimate and expresse that spirituall death and resurrection that is signified by the analogical and representative burial of the body in water and raising it again in baptism viz. dead to sin alive to God newnesse of life c. Here is mention made of the things signified And as for that that is spoken of under this expression buried in baptism t is delievered as a medium whereby as a motive whereupon as a reason wherefore as an image and representative wherein we are both to read and remember and also to practise and perform that other for do but mark how shall we saith he that are dead to sinne i. e. should be so live any longer therein know you not that as many of you as were baptized
not leaning nor yet lying for though Mr. Cook asserts with such confidence that lying was used by Christ t is undoubtedly utterly untrue what ere was the usual table gesture then is nothing to the point or if it be it is most evident it was sitting as it is now for if it was in some places the fashion to lean or ly on beds at great banquets as some tell us yet I am sure the table gesture was not lying nor leaning neither any otherwise then as we do viz. on one elbow or both when we please the Scripture saies all along that he sate Mr. Cook greeking it out in the margent as he does viz. Mat. 26.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 14.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not help him in what he saies for if any or all of these words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do signifie to lean or lie down yet they all signifie to sit down also for they are all rendred by discumâ—o the plain english of which is to sit down and therefore also our translators do so English them and I would demand of him again as he does of A. R. p. 12. whether he thinks that our translators that have englisht them thus viz. he sate down and as they sate dovvn and he commanded the multitude to sit dovvn on the grasse knevv not hovv to render the originall in its proper signification as vvell as he Nor yet fiftly is the usuall manner of vvashing among us which you confesse is most fit to be used in baptism by povvring as vvell as dipping for povvring is and yet but in some cases onely as namely the vvashing the hands and in that very case but sometimes and seldome onely for mostly that is by dipping and this too but when the infusion is so large as totally to vvash the hands so vvashed a preparative to such a vvashing but a compleat true washing it is not of it self vvithout some subsequent act of rubbing vvhich you use not about infants faces but swilling in water is the most usual way of washing and a washing of itself some times and some times used without any after rubbing at all therefore this by Mr. Cooks own rule by right should be observed in baptism Sixthly whereas he argues from the custom of the present times to an exemption from the primitive customes and practise he might as well take upon him to say thus if any man contend for that faith way of worship way of baptism that was in the primitive and purest times and for a reformation of all things according to the word and example of the Churches the word speakâ— of it is true those Churches indeed worshipped thus were congregated thus ordered thus baptized thus viz. by dipping when they believed but sprinkling infants is the way and fashion now adaies and as for what was done of the Churches of old we have nothing to do with it and if any list to be contentions for it we have no such custom now nor the Churches of God! of which sure Mr. Cook cannot but be ashamed who hath covenanted to reforme according to the word â—itâ— a covenant keeper and a Custom-monger cannot possibly be denominated both of one Rantist Nay stay a little you 'l forget your own words I think anon did you not say your self even now that we must put difference between examples in substantiall matters and in matters meerly circumstantial we desire to keep as close as your selves can do to the primitive custom in things of weight and that there may be no variation from it without a violation of the will of Christ in any point that is positively commanded but I hope you will not make such a matter of moment of the manner of baptizing as if Chrst had injoined this way or that way of dispensation of it viz. dipping so strictly as that sprinkling may not be used nor yet sprinkling so as that dipping may not be used nay rather its a meer ceremony a prudentiall point in which the Church may use her discretion so as to dispense it either way as conveniency and charity may dispose her and no lesse is very well observed by Mr. Baxter p 135. Christ saith he hath not appointed the measure of water nor manner of washing no more then he hath appointed in the Lords supper what quantity of bread and wine each must take and as it would be but folly for any to think that men must needs fill themselves with bread and wine because it best signifies the fullnesse of Christ so it is no better to say that we must needs be washed all over because it best signifies our burial with Christ c. Christ told Peter that the washing of his feet was enough to clense all a little may signifie as well as much as a clod of earth doth in possession of much lands and a corn of pepper signifies our homage for much and much to such a purpose are those words of Mr. Cook p. 20. some of which having been quoted and spoken to before though not so satisfactorily but that they sway with me still I am almost loath to repeat them yet sith they be so among the other I can hardly decline the mentioning them once more by your leave in answer to the objection that a little water doth not so fitly and perfectly represent as dipping and plunging sith in the one the whole body is washed in the other the face or head only He saies first that the Scripture no where requires the washing of the whole body in baptism Secondly that with as good reason one may plead thus that at the supper it is most convenient that every Communicant should receive his belly full of bread and wine and take as long as stomach and head will hold to signify the full refreshment of the soul with the body and blood of Christ but who saies he would endure such reasoning Thirdly These outward Elements of water bread and wine are for speciall use and to signify special things so that if there be the truth of things the quantity is not to be respected further then is sufficient for its end namely to represent the spiritual grace and that it be neither so little as not to represent nor so much as to take of the heart from the spirituall to the corporal thing not the washing away the filth of the body in baptism nor the glutting or satisfying of the natural Appetite in the Lords Supper is to be looked after but the washing and refreshing of the Soul which may well be represented by the sprinkling of a little water eating and drinking of a little bread and wine In circumcision a little skin was cut of You see what these worthy men say you need not be so hot as you are for the ceremony if so be you keep the substance Baptist. I have received as much as all this comes to long
for a pretty while so as to go abroad though she now is weak and much what as she used to be before If then you will not believe the words of God believe the works believe the Miracles for it is by Miracles that they are preserved who are dipt in cold water and not destroyed saies Mr. Baxter which if it be then God hath wrought very many Miracles among the men you nickname Anabaptists of late for they are constantly preserved from perishing by either cold or suffocation yea I have known many a one better in body but I nere knew any one of whom I could safely say they were the worse in body or Soul for being dipt save such as turned from the truth after turning to it for the latter end with such indeed is worse then their begining Yet how rashly do these men shoot their bolts to the murdering of the truth whilst they make the ordinary practise of it no lesse then flat murder it self and that undeniably to any understanding man unless there be a preservation by a miracle for else it destroyes men quoth Mr. Baxter it directly tendeth to overthrow mens lives in the course of Nature it will kill hundreds and thousands of them but if a man scape perishing with cold yet how can he i. e. how is it possible for him to escape being choaked quoth Mr. Cook and stifled with the water if he must be plunged over head to signify his death to sin 2. Secondly kept under water to signify his burial How can a man escape choaking Sirs if he be put and kept under the water why I tell you that either he can or else he cannot if he can why then he can and so Mr. Cook is confuted if he cannot in the course of nature without miracle then it being certain that thousands do scape choaking it should seem God by Miracle secures them and yet for all this nor Mr. Baxter nor Mr. Cook are convinced whether it be the more shame for them or no not to be so I leave it to themselves and all understanding men to consider Or perhaps Mr. Cook means how can a man escape choaking if he be kept three daies under water for so quoth he the disciple must as Christ abode three daies under water if Christs burial be represented but not onely his own party for mora sub aqua quantu lacunque saith Tilenus quantumvis momentanea saith Bucan abode under the water for never so little a while doth most lively resemble Christs Burial but his own practise confutes him clearly in this for as the Ministers hand with which Dr. Featley resembles Christs burial is not dipt three daies together under water so the insusion of water upon the face of the infant which why may it not represent the burial as well as dipping quoth Mr. C. p. 17. doth not last for three daies together neither Thus you see how well Mr. Baxter and Mr. Cook have quitted themselves in their proof of our practise to be murder and against the sixth commandement and what high and mighty reason Mr. Baxter hath to accuse us to the magistrate as murderers and to suggest it his duty to him out of Mr. Craddock to restrain us to save the lives of his subjects and not to suffer but to destroy us Rantist But if you give way to Mr. Baxter to answer for himself he clears himself of moving the magistrates to destroy you I never moved Magistrate or people saith he p. 246. either to drive them out of the Land or to destroy them Baptist. What an egregious untruth is there doth he not say here if those that make it Religion to Murder themselves and urge it on their consciences as their duty are not to be suffered in a common-wealth any more then High-way Murderers then judg how these Anabaptists that teach the necessity of such dipping are to be suffered Is not this to tell men that we are no more to be suffered in a Common-wealth then high way Murderers which high way Murderers Mr. Baxters conscience I dare say desires that they may not be suffered but may suffer no lesse then hanging and yet dares he say he stirs not up the Magistrate against us I know not what is to excite the Magistrate against persons if this be not to charge them to be as guilty as high way Murderers which if he judges us to be indeed he is bouâ—d both in law and conscience to prosecute us to the very death but if he in his conscience judges us not to be such as oh how after to the contradiction of himself in this doth he judge more charitable of us then so e. g. p. 310. where he saith who dare think their error to be such and yet such is high way murder when lived and died in as concludeth them from grace then I marvel how he dare charge us so high as to rank us with and represent us as bad and as unworthy to be suffered in a Commonwealth as high way Murderers themselves especially since it remains yet on his part unproved that ever any disciple dyed in the time of dipping or by occasion of submission to that dispensation Rantist If there be not such danger of death to the Baptized yet the Baptizers may be murderers of themselves for it is evident that if the Minister must go into the water with the party it will certainly tend to his death saies Mr. Baxter p. 137 though they may scape that go in but once for weak Students to make a frequent practise of going into the water it will cure their ich after novelties and allay the heat of their intemperate zeal therefore me thinks saies Mr. Baxter the Ministers should have regard to themselves Baptist. Me thinks so too or else they are not like their wonted selves for self was ever yet for ought I see regarded by most Nationall Ministers much more then truth But I pray Sirs how certainly will it tend to your Ministers death any more then it doth to the death of our Ministers that do dispense it among whom I have known men full as sickly though not half so selfish as you that have often dipped men in the sharpest seasons and yet never lay by it so much as once but your ministers are weak students indeed that are studyed no further in common sense and reason and experienced no more in cold and other Gospel hardships which Paul was skilled in then to think that genum tenus must certainly and unavoidably make an end of them unless the Lord by a miracle deliver them and such as are fitter to make Curates of for Gentlemens chappels of ease then to take care of the poor afflicted Church of Christ. Rantist Well if it do not prove to be murder and so against the eighth commandement yet I am sure it will prove to be adultery to dip naked as they say you do and so flatly against the seventh for either you dip naked or you
in matters of faith repentance Religion worship see Barbers answer to the Essex watchmens watch-word p. 7. c. the Magistrate receives no charge from God about Religion neither is cura ammarum but cura corporum onely committed to him Luther himself was of this mind that the Lawes of the Magistrate extended no further then to the bodies and goods that which is external and that God would have none to rule in the soul but himself therefore where the Magistrate goes about to govern in the conscience he usurps that jurisdiction which God reserves to himself certainly this is that great arrogany in the Whore or Woman of sin which God will severely punish in that S S Shee gives lawes to the conscience and sits in the Temple and Church of God as a God King Iames in Parliament 1609 said That it is a sure rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church with violence and blood and again in his Apology for the oath of Allegeance p. 4. speaking of the Papists that took the said oath That he gave a good proof of it that he never intended persecution for conscience but onely desired to be secured of them for civil abuses that it was usually the condition of Christians to be persecuted but not to persecute Again Faith and repentance to acknowledgement of the truth is Gods gift and if wee 'l believe our Clergy no way in every mans power no not by gift from God to perform and so the Magistrate must punish men belike because God who gives where he lists does not give them to believe c. Again Blasphemers Persecutors as Paul Idolators as the Corinthians yea Iewes Turks and Pagans may be converted in time by the word therefore are not to be plucked up out of the Earth for then they can never possibly repent Again persecution was never taught by Christ nor practised by his Apostles but arose among Heathens and was continued by the Roman Antichrist and his Ministers Yet there 's one way more whereby they evade all this and that is by denying that by the Tares here are meant Hereticks False Worshippers and Antichristians and asserting them to be Hypocrites in the Church and this is the way of Mr. Cotton whereby you may see again how Divines are divided among themselves in all things almost as well as some which Mr. Cotton in a book which the Bloody Tenet relates to gives out as I remember that by tares is meant hypocrites in the Church who are so like the wheat that they cannot well be discovered nor discerned from it and so must be let alone in the Church by the Ministers of the Church least they mistake and pluck up wheat instead of tares and cast out men for hypocrites who its possible may be sincere for ought we know In answer to which I must confesse men that cast out persons for Hypocrites had need be pretty wary and not overhasty yea better an inconvenience than a mischief betâ—er erre in letting some Hypocrites stand in the Church then for hast cast out one that seemes to be so to us and yet is not But this is not the sense of our Saviour in this place for as it cannot be the Church that the Tares are here bid to be let alone in as I have shewed above so much lesse by the tares can be meant hypocrites so neer the wheat i. e. true Saints in shew and likenesse and pretence as to be hardly discerned from them For First Though Hypocrites are like Saints and appear so to be oft it may be alwaies to the deceiving of us yet the Tares are not at all like the wheat nor at all to any but such as are stark blind appearing to be wheat Secondly an Hypocrite in the Church who is one that appâ—ars to be what he is not must be supposed while he is in the Church to be discovered or not discovered so to be when not discovered he is no hypocrite to us to whom things are as they appear what ere he may be to God but as true a Saint as the rest and when discovered till when to us he is a Saint and must stand under the notion of a Saint then he must not stand in the Church which is not to harbor any that are palpably wicked and who is so palpable as he whose simulata sanctitas is dulplex iniquitas But now First the tares hee spoken of are plainly said and seen to be tares and appeare to be tares and a distinct stuff from the Wheat and yet for all that they are bid to be let alone in the Field as hypocrites must not be in the Church when they appear to be such But in the field i. e the world t is true enough that hypocrites may stand even after they are cast out of the Church unlesse they act any thing that civil justice will reach them for and so also may Antichristians and all false Worshippers T is evident then that in this place as well as Matth. 15.13.14 that in the time of the Gospel Church Tares that much hinder the wheat that are mingled in the same Field world Civil States Countreyes Common-wealths of Satans sowing among the Wheat Weeds Nettles Bryers Thorns Plants that are not of the heavenly Fathers planting Faâ—se worshippers Hereticks men and their Ministryes of false Religions doctrines faiths waies of serving God may and ought by permission and commission from Christ be let alone and allowed to stand by no means in the same Church by all means in the same world or part of the world locally considered for the Church is not locally considered as a place measured by and consistent of such or such a compasse of ground as the Popes parish Churches did whereupon they went on procession once a year lest they should forget the bounds of their Church but mystically of such or such a company of men however scattered locally here or there yet in one fellowship I say in the same part of the world nation City Countrey civill corporation with the wheat Saints true Church under the protective power of civil Magistracy free from molestation meerly for their religion so be they live justly soberly and peacably with all men any thing said to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding by the Priest who of all men hath least reason to be against toleration of tares in the world and of plants which the heavenly father never planted if he consider what he is himself and unlesse he desire to be rooted out in hast by the civill power before his time See the parable and read it with the exposition of it Mat. 13.37 c. He that sowed good seed in the field is the son of man i. e. Christ the field is the world therefore not the Church the good seed or wheat are the children of the Kingdom i. e. the Saints the true Church and worshippers the tares which while men slept and did not mind it the
i. e. the Pope is the native Father of the Bishops and therefore he must be at least the Grand-father of you Presbyters Yet some of you are so ashamed to have it said that as Ministers of Christ you receive your orders and standing as such from Antichrist that you professe not to act in your ordinations to and executions of the ministerial function as from Gregory the Great but to renounce that and to ordain now not as Presbyters that were in orders from such as were in orders from the Pope but rather as persons deputed so to do by the ordinances of Parliament extant to that purpose and by the power and appointment of the Civil Magistrate who say you is he that only hath power to raise all again since the treading down in matter of both Ministry and Ordinances and may as well do it with his own hands if he please as appoint you to do it making him the chief officer that Christ hath set in his Church to redresse all that 's amisse in it such a Mish-mash as this was once more largely uttered by Mr. Glenden in a discourse at Swevenock in order to the proving the Ministry of the Church of England to be a true Ministry But if the Magistrate were any Church officer as at all he is not so as that men that have their orders from his ordinances as it seems the Junior Sophisters of this age have are as to the outward call or ordination true Ministers of Christ yet that makes nothing to the proving of you to be so that stand Ministers of the old stamp from the hands of the old Lord Bishops besides some yea it may be the most of you that hold your present authority to ordain in from the Parliament scarce held the Parliament while it stood of any authority at all since the last new modelling of it so discontented were you that your Northern model was in no more request yea though you held it such a lawful and sufficient power when they made an ordinance for Tith and Trebble dammages that you held your selves bound in conscience to God or rather your own good to obey it and improved you selves to the utmost to see it executed on conscientious delinquents against it yet when ordinances for double service came as solemn fasts witnesse that of Iun. 13.1652 so strictly enjoined to be observed by the Ministers of every parish how many of you drew your necks out of the coller as not owning the then Parliament to be a power that you might lawfully submit to thus an ordinance that is charged topful of benefice you durst venture to let off but when one came that had nothing but bare office in the mouth of it then they by whose orders you pretended to stand in both benefice and office might give order to discharge it twice before you would once discharge it And as your meet Mongrell Caesarean Magistratical Pope-episcopall kind of Ordination together with that unworthy unPastorlike forcible Obtrusion of your selves as Pastors on people without their free election so your Popelike practises and unministerly management of your selves in all other particulars doth proclaim you plainly to be no true Ministers of Christs Gospel nor true Pastors of the flock but rather to be Wolves Theeves Robbers Hirelings that come not in by the dore Jesus Christ but climb into the folds some otherwaies to wit the recommendation of great men and sometimes buying the gift of the spirit i. e. a spiritual living yet modestly saying No thrice as the Bishops when they had given a thousand pound for the place and improvement of your interest in your Patrons and do come into spoil steal destroy and serve your own selves of them as well as you can while you are with them and so away again to make a prey of some other parishes for verily if you can spie out any flocks that have better fleeces then other leaving those you lived with before to shift for themselves without their leave with the leave of such as pretend to the power of presentment you l be their Pastors whether they will or no but if any of you be chosen for their churchmen by a poor people that want a great Benefice for their Cure they must for you want the Benefit of a Curaâ—e Yea what maintenance is in this or that vacant parish which you are harping after is one of the main Questions thats about it yea Ye minister for maintenance ye teach for reward ye preach foâ— hire ye divine for money ye turn the Gosspel into a meer trade to the learning of which you put men out as Apprentices about some seven years to the universities and then allow them as free men therof to set up for themselves and get as good livings by it as they can where you may be sure of sufficient wages you will tell men a little of the truth and truely t is not much of it that you know but you care not how little you preach of that little you have to preach where you can hope to have but little pay for your pains Wo to yee O ye National PPPriesthood t is too too eviden that you are not the Shepheards of the sheep yea you are the idol-shepheards that leave the flock to provide for your selves not regarding their welfare when by sâ—incking away from them you can provide but a little better for your own you are exceptis excipiendis saving some few hundreds among many thousands Hirelings ' that flee to prefer better secure advance or advantage your selves because you are Hirelings and care not for the sheep you are Pastors that are become bruitish you have not sought the Lord but your selves for the most part therefore shall ye not prosper but your sheep shall be scattered away from you Ier. 10. yea verily you drive them from you dayly more and more not onely by many pieces of your dry divinity but specially with your terrible doctrine of trebble damages in which you drive so furiously upon them that you drive them both out of your dores and their own also you have an evill eye of covetuousnesse and greedinesse upon the tenth of every mans substance and therefore you loose no time while the law of man favours you in it though not the man Christ Jesus and spare no pains but take scrape strive streign ride run rake wrangle weary out your selves and neighbours and all Courts and Committees in City and Country to have something out of every thing for doing worse then nothing till you not onely trebbly endamage but totally undo many poor mens wives and childrens bodies and your own souls too except ye repent little considering that an inheritance gotten hastily in the beginning shall not be blessed in the end you devour widowes houses and for a pretence make long prayers and therefore will receive greater damnation you Tith mint and rue and all manner of herbs corn lamb
illuminated Tradesmen Christ the Carpenter Peter the Fisherman Paul the Tentmaker Aquilla and his wife Priscilla from which kind of poor folks and babes to whom it seems good in gods fight to preach the plain Gospel and reveal by his word and spirit what he hides from wise men when they will not see this prudent PPPriesthood if he were not proud might learn more truth and Gospel purity then ever was taught him by his Grand-father the Pope or any of those Clerical Councells or Ghostly fathers which he consults more with then with Christ and Scriptures The Reason of all his obstinacy against tradesmens teachings is this he knows that his trade of teaching for hire and divining for money Must fall if tradesmen begin once to turn divines and to teach truth for nothing ye know that by this craft quoth he Act. 19.25 c. we have our wealth moreover ye see and hear c. he is well aware and so are we that if he lose the lives of persecution for conscience and sprinkling of infants Iachin Boaz the two main pillars grand Supporters of his kingdom his Temple will quickly rend in to more pieces then 3 PPPs from the top to the very bottom and all his matchlesse magnitude and numberlesse priestly Prerogatives drop directly to the ground viz. his Lieutenantship to the prince of this World his Lordship over the heritage his headship over the Church his dominion over the faith his title to the tenth of every mans estate his merchandize of slaves bodies and souls of men his leave to trample the holy city and slay at pleasure the truth tellers that torment him his rich revenues dignity glory power seat and great Authority together with all the priviledges profits liberties immunities thereunto belonging All this his royalty must fail if he give ground but a little and would have failed ere this time If he had a face could blush at his own abominable blindnesse or ingenuity to confesse himself hurt or own the plain truth while his lungs will serve him in reply or Amor sui constrain him to cry heresie against the truth therefore this Diotrêphes that loves to have the preheminence over all for ever because he hath had it for a while receiveth not truth but prates against it in the pulpit and elsewhere with malicious words and though he contradict himself ever and anon in his own Sermons and discourses yet if he say any thing at all he thinks it much when wisemen weighing it find it little to the purpose Tertullian thus describes Hermogenes Loquacitatem facundiam existimaret Impudentiam constantiam deputaret c. so he when he bumbasts the pulpit and slashes the Saint Schismaticks in their absence before his people supposes he hath spoken with no small grace when t is for want of grace that he did it and that when he is most audacious against all reformation as at Rome and even that he hath sometimes sworn himself and others to as here in England when he finds it more crosse to his credit then he thought of when he undertook for t he counts them fickle unconstant that change their minds and mend their manners and himself only stable and constant to the CCChristian Religion Hence it is that the effects of Disputation with him have been not onely fâ—ustrate but dangerous dangerous I say to him no otherwise then as it overturned his Kingdome that the truth of Christ might take place but to them that disputed with him in this respect as it hath been no lesse then their pretious lives were worth once to oppose or open their mouths against him witnes Wickliff Hus Ierome of Prague and all the executions done in Queen Maries daies upon such as durst dispute against the Pope or meddle against the mass and those done in Queen Elizabeths upon Barrow Greenwood and Penry who were hang'd by Episcopal malice for professing against them and the Common-prayer which now well nigh all England hath renounc't as a corruption and what should have been done upon such as disputed against or depraved the Presbyterian directory is well known for that Clergy hath shew'd themselves so much in their Fathers colours that ere long all England will renounce both it and them and in this respect it hath been also frustrate as to peoples conviction for truths witnesses to dispute never so clearly against him for as much as he hath still stopt their mouths with the stake prison or gallows and kept his own wide open against them in the pulpit when he hath secured them from all capacity of storming him there for The common sort are apt to think those have the victory that live to speast last and that their CClergies cause is never wrackt by the cause of Christ as long as one is left alive that can speak a word in that against the other And by how much error takes with our corrupt nature more then truth by so much there is more danger of its spreading where the Roots i. e. the self love vain glory ambition covetousnesse pride Lordlines universality and cruelty of the CCClergy who are plants that our heavenly father never planted Stocks from whom stemes out a stench from whom abomination branches it self out to the corrupting therof in al quarters of the Earth Rev. 11.18.17 5.19.2 are not plucked up and rooted out for from the Priest and the Prophet profanness heresie hath gone out into all the world and spread it self like a leprosie or some raging canker and for the most part such is the resolvednesse of the CCClergy to bind the people still to a blind obedience to their blind guidance of them beside the word that Disputations with them if not carefully I mean clearly and also coolly proceeded in with love to their persons and almost without zeal against their evils which yet we must not abate them an ace of for all their anger pacem cum hominibus cum vitiis bellum they Raise more evil spirits of wrath and divellishnesse in them then we can lay because they see them raise more good spirits of doubts and earnest enquiries after truth in the people who before were wont to take their ware on trust without trial then then they can lay again while they live by all the shifts and subtleties they can devise for when once people are resolved to believe things to be heresie by hearsay no more but to fancy them according as they find them in the word and to see into the plainness of speech that is in the Scripture with their own eyes they see so much disproportion between the national Church wayes and those of the primitive Churches of the Gospel that they commonly resolve not to see at all adventures through the unclear eyes of CCClergy men any more This makes them fret and fume and fain and fiddle hither and thither which way to fasten their Heretical opinions further if it be possible on them in whom they they
nought but shame belongs to man and pray for those that desire as the conversion of others to it so thy preservation in the truth which oh how hard is it to abide by in these evil times of temptation from the fals Churches the non-chuches which both seek what they can to unchurch the true which thou continuing faithfully in it to the death shall onely lead thee unto everlasting life but if any man will be ignorant let him be ignorant Now as to the Apologetical part I say thus to you O ye Priests you are of all men the generation whose great and general displeasure I expect to fall under and for this present works sake to become your enemy more universally then ever yet because I here tell you the truth but as little hope as I have to be heeded by you in what I say I must tell you and the Lord judge between you and me whether I speak the truth or not I am so far from desiring the temporal much more the eternal destruction of any one of you that as far as t is possible I would prevent both yea if by the publication of all this I seek any thing next to Gods glory more then the salvation as well of your own souls as of such as are seduced and insnared by your spiritual sorceries in wayes of false worship heresie and Schism from the primitive truth will not the Lord at last find me out nay verily I love the persons of you all as well as other mens indeed I love you too well to spare sharpness toward you or in silence suffer you to perish as I verily believe and therefore speak the more plainly to you that by any means I may save some of you without remedy you will do persisting in your wonted obstinacy against the Gospel this being the faith which God hath begotten me to by a serious search and observation of the word and world together the faith which he hath for some years made me to live in and will I trust if he call me to it strengthen me to die in rather then deny one jot of it to please men good or bad friend or foe unlesse it be discovered to me to be a false one I must not be ashamed to professe it for fear of them that kill the body for then wo unto me from him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell and should I be altogether silent as my fearful flesh would fain be least I should prove an intollerable offence to my friends and seem to be as O my God thou knowest how far I am not a self avenger on my foes and expose my self as at no hand I desire to do might it be avoided to the hatred and hard censure of you all the light of this truth would arise many other wayes yea the Lord pleadeth it before you day by day by the tongues and pens of others besides my self but I neverthelesse might be destroyed I had at first illumination and strong impulsions of spirit not perceiving like Samuel who thought it had been Eli that called him and not the Lord whether it were the suggestion of Gods spirit or my own and when at last I understood clearly that t was the Lord himself that told me he would do such a thing to the house of Eli i. e. the Generation of the Priesthood as should cause the eares of all that â—ear it to tingle I feared likewise to shew Eli the vision and was as loath to declare as you OPPPriests are to hear the things concerning you here declared I was ready to say to the Lord send this message by the hand of him by whom thou wilt send but necessity was upon me yea wo unto me my God had been a terrible one to me had I refused it yea I may say as Ieremy Ier. 20.7.9 O Lord thou hast deceived me and art stronger then I and hast prevailed for I said I will not make mention of this nor speak it in thy name but his word was within me as fire in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay he whose face onely I seek that I may not be deceived the light or louring of whose countenance is more to me then the favours or frowns of all faces hath prest me in spirit to tell that on the house tops which he hath told me in the ear in a closet what shall befal me in so doing I know not save that the spirit witnesseth that afflictions do every where abide me and all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus yet none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto me that I may finish my race and the ministry I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Act. 20.24 if your Ministry Gospel doctrine Baptism be right then ours is wrong and if ever it appear we shall come back to you if ours be right then yours is wrong and must be declared that you may return to the truth I know there are many things you will question not to say quarrel with me about First you 'l ask me why I do not for the peace sake of the Church forbear and keep my opinions in these points to myself rather then publish them so plainly in print as well as by word and penne to the disturbance thereof To which I say if it be the truth I hold and matter of weight withall it wil excuse the promoting of it self if it were to the distraction of the Church which is to be subject to the truth and not the truth to her also to the distruction of the world fiat justitia aut pere at mundus Secondly the matters held forth here by me which are mainly the falsness of your Ministry and baptism are as truth so of such consequence as to be well worth discovering if either Luther did well to declare against the Pope and Clergy of Rome or your selves O Presbyters against Prelates Deans and Chapters c. without regard to the several disturbances that were like to be consecutive thereto yea the true subject and manner of administration of baptism which when it serves your turn so to do you call a circumstantial matter a ceremony for which if you should erre therein none but weak querulous consciences will complain and separate an indifferent thing for which why should we make so much ado aâ—gâ—at not to be streind at and such like is so necessary a matter one of the most necessary points of Religion which those that erre in do most fearfully erre and are totally deserted by the spirit of God these are your own words Thirdly you talk much and t is the language of the Pope to your selves since you rent from his Church of the Church and our holy mother the Church and Ghostly fathers of the Church and good and true tempered sons of the Church and the peace of the
himself and in no commission from Christ to make his Ministers could not secundum te O Presbyter make those true Ministers that made those that made them that made these that make you and so what ere you are as from him yet as from Christ you are no Ministry at all but in very deed the very same that I cal you viz. of the Beast and of the Dâ—agon as also the three fold CCChristendome of whom you say that they are Jewes i. e. Christians when they are not are no other then the Synogogue of Satan In all which so far am I from reviling that I speak the words of sobernesse and truth which whoever does may not unlikely be reviled as a reviler by you but is a faithfull reprover indeed for it is not simply vile terms spoken that make a reviler if spoken both seriously and in season but their non agreeablenesse to them they are spoken of for else undoubtedly not onely your selves who spake as vilely of the Pope as I of you but Iohn Baptist Peter Paul yea and Christ Iesus himself none of which reviled at all though upon occasion of their enmity against God they called men whom else they respected well enough too by the name of Satan evil and adulterous generation Generation of Vipers children of the devil enemies of all righteousnesse bruit beasts Foxes Doggs Swine c. must all be revilers with you too This take therefore from me and let it satisfy viz. that I le never fasten any terms upon you which by your works you first fasten not on your selves yet know that persisting as you have done under the notion of Christs Ministers in pride and perversenesse against his Gospel though I should never call you Deceivers Antichristian and the WWWhore of BBBabylon yet you l prove your selves to be so in the end Now therefore Oh HHHarlot hear and fear for I have heard from the Lord of Hosts a consumption determined upon thee throw out the whole earth thou hast being well mounted harnased and attired upon the back of thy beast made warr against the Lamb in his Saints thy Hereticks for fourty two moneths a time times and a half or 1260 years and power hath been given thee and the beast which thou spurrest to overcome them and over kindreds tongues and nations so that all that dwell upon earth have worshipped him and thee on him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world yea thou hast opened thy mouth in blasphemies and caused thy beast under thee to blaspheme the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven yea thou hast spoken great words against the most High and worn out the Saints of the most high and thought to change times and lawes and they have been given into thy hand so that who was like to thee and thy beast who was able to encounter and make war with him but now behold thy proud times are ended and the Lamb will overcome thee for he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful and thou that hast led into captivity shalt go into captivity and thou that hast killed with the sword must be killed by the sword here is the patience and faith of the Saints And the very ten hornes themselves even all the kingdomes of Christendome into whose hearts it hath been put to give thee all their power and strength as well as the tith of all their glory and riches and carnall things upon thy pretence of ministring to them in spiritual all which thou hast swom upon been born up and fortifyed by as Babylon of old by the River Euphrates and with all which thou hast as with so many hornes of a savage beast tossed bruised gored the sides of Saints under the name of Sinners even these shall now turn upon thee and unhorse thee yea they shall hate thee O Whore and make thee desolate and naked and burn thy flesh with fire so that all thy lovers great and small and thy Merchants that have been rich by trading as in other things so especially in bodies and souls of men shall bewail and lament when they see the smoak of thy burning saying Alas Alas for thee whilest Gods people that are first come out of thee yea whole heaven and all the holy Apostles and Prophets who now suffâ—r under thee for telling thee the truth and shall be avenged of thee shall rejoice over thee at thy downfall You will hardly give audience O ye Priests to this word but some of you rather cry out against me as multitudes of your Churches good children did some few dayes since in Smithfield when by one of the City Marshals meerly for preaching the Gospel to thousands there assembled to hear it I was betrayed into their hands to be abused saying away with him away with him hang him t is pitty but he should be stoned and such like hue and cryes as were heard of old others of you Seers may be ready to call to me scoffingly out of your mount Sier watchman what of the night watchman what of the night but whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I tell you Sirs the morning cometh and also your dead night therefore if you will enquire enquire quickly return and come to the truth before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you or if it may not be said as of old it was that many of the Priests were obedient unto the faith yet Oh that many of your people would know in their day the things that make for their peace before they be hid from their eyes and partake no more of your sins least they partake of your plagues but if IIIezebel and her lovers will lie in bed together and not repent when God gives them space to repent of their fornications then me thinks I hear a noise among them as of those that are in hellish tribulation yelling out from beneath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alas Alas whilst from above a voice of much people in heaven saying Hallelujah Hallelujah for now our Lord will raign And judge that Scarlet WWWhore who still doth fain Her self to be Christs Spouse and so maintain Her self a Qeen the world her slaves in chain Though like a Quean she doth the whole earth stain Wiâ—h Whoredomes and Saints blood whom she hath slain Three PPParts three CCCrowns three HHHeads of subtle brain A TTTripple TTTribe Rides Christndom t is plain And like Hells three mouth'd Monster stands to strain Souls that scape thence and bark them back again Yet when t is told this Minx this whore in grain Frowns Frets Hates Teares Fumes Threats Storms Fomes amain But IIIezebel wo to thy house refrain Thy pride thy lies thy wrath like that of Cain Thy filth thy self thy greediness of gain Else as thy mirth hath been shall be thy pain This