brings horrour to the Hearer Let them set before their eyes a late wofull and wonderfull Transaction in the same Country containing a most remarkable Act of Gods Justice in the stripping of one and laying him naked in open view who had attempted many a time to commit a Rape upon my good Name Being such a notable Trophy of divine Advertisement that I beleeve it will be transmitted by Tongue and by Pen from Age to Age untill the World be so aged that the Pen shall no more assist the Tongue or the Tongue need the Pen's assistance and that in the reading and hearing therof the most petrified hearts in the last Age of the World shall be dissolved I desire in the feare of God that they would abject abdicate and abrenunciate these their unjust and abject Criminations being the vulgar supports of a weake and tottering Cause and object what ariseth è Re natâ from the Thing in question and ex visceribus Rei from the bowels of the matter in hand according to the just latitude and Oeconomy of Conscience-Freedome if such a thing there be I trample not upon any mans weaknesse I have long ago learned from St Austine Nullum S. Aug. lib. 50. Homil. Hom. 23. Tom. 10. est peccatum quod fecit homo quod non possit facere alter homo si desit Rector à quo factus est Homo No Sin hath been committed by any Man which another man in being may not commit if the Governour be wanting of whom man had his first Commission to be May their sins be destroyed in them and not they destroyed in their sins compliably with the tropologicall Exposition of Gaudentius Adhuc triduum S Gaudent Tract 3. ad Neophytos Ninive evertetur Verum praedixit nam eversa est Iniquitas ejus quia poenituit Yet three daies Jon. 3. 4. and Niniveh shall be overthrown He foretold the Truth for the Iniquity of Niniveh was overthrown because she repented Note The Septuagint followed Sept. Orig. S. Chrysost Arab. Alex. Codex Heb. Paraphr Chlad Aq. Sym. Theod. by Origen St Crysostome and other Grecians with the Alexandrian Arabick propose yet three daies But the Hebrew and Chaldee with Aquila Symmachus and Theodotion maintaine yet forty daies My only Worke is if my Heart were seen by all Men as God sees it in the Originall whatsoever their magnifying and multiplying Glasses tell them that have devota ig ni Capita Heads devoted to Fire and Sedition and who themselves like Badgers run best in crooked paths I have lived beyond the Seas and have seen much of Heaven in the Church of Rome and therefore I have reason from Heaven to be more prying into the matters of my Faith than every home-spun man and to be of a more delicate touch in the presentation of new Matters And although I shall never open my selfe so wide as to swallow many things done and accepted in that Church which this Discourse will set in view and upon a Hill yet censure me gently deare Christians if these English Overtures of Heresie every day turning over a new leafe have sometimes brought my Heart into a kind of Earthquake and rendered me wishing that I could see the Church of Rome in her mutatis mutandis best holiday Garments The very same I now wish though verily I am now very much angry with some Papists upon particular and those reasonable Considerations Therefore As one foot of the Compasse standeth fast in the Point or Center whilest the other walkes the round so howsoever the World moves or my Body is moved my Soule shall now stand fast and direct all that I have seen in the World to the making of a Circle the most perfect of all Figures as being without ruptures without angles without end Alexander ab Alexandr◠hath Alex. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 19. Chronicled a Generation of people that were borne having the print of an Anchor on one thigh yet gives them not the credit of sticking to an Anchor But I now feele the print of Gods Anchor-Signet upon my Soule by the which he hath signed me for a staid Man And here will I stay desiring you to read attentively patiently and with understanding This in the Farewell After the Disputation at Newport an illiterate saplesse and obscure Townsman of Alubury did subobscurely challenge me to buffet with him in the like Disputation And I presently formed the Latine Epistle which followeth being obscure to him as perpendicular to my purpose that I might fall sharply upon reject for contemptible and confound his blind presumption of opposing Scholars For the abilities of Disputants must alwaies be congenerous with the Matter disputed and the various annexes of it And therefore I will never answer as a Disputant by word or by writing if the Adversary be Sterquilinii Filius a Son of the Dunghill and not able to fill the stomack of the learned Reader and Hearer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your Christian Brother Rich. Carpenter I. B. QUae nune denuò te prorsùs agunt Intemperiae dicam an exagitant Furiae Num tantos miselle Pusio velut afflatos ex nupero turbine sumpfisti tibi Spiritus ut me putidis tuis illis ac penitùs ambesis quasi vili Murium operâ corrosis ullatenùs circumscribi posse putes Cancellis Absit à viro vero largaeque Mentis hujusmodi falsa pariter curta Cogitatio Profecto mihi vel Jure debetur literario ut liberè liceat cùm libuerit expatiari per Campos illos nostros Elysios nempè Latinos Graecos Hebraicos Quinimo per Labyrinthos apprimè nobiles Artium secretarum sacrarumque ducente filo divagart Idquo ipsa postulat acclamante Rerum Naturâ si penitiùs introspicias Causae Theologicae divina sanè Majestas imò quidem Gravit as planè mystica An non confestim Rebus eò redactis calentibus cancellatas dabunt manus nuda terga Lictoribus offerent isti singulares trium Literarum Homunciones Agedum Produc in Solem pulverémque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illum nimirùm quem veneranda nobilitavit Academia sacer ut aiunt ordo consecravit Et cura diligentèr ut is quèm scilicèt in certamen posco rebus transactis evadat alter iudulgeas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referenti vocabulo veniam Bar-Ghibbhor Quod ad te attinet Editionis imperfectae Homunculum verè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophicum quamvis Corio tectum Jordane pleniùs intincto me jam denique ad Congressus Logicos acritèr provocantem sic animum induxi Coelestis Aquila non exuit alas quibus evecta cum fulminibus colluctatur non inter vermes impuros ipsa turpis ore sordido repit Quinetiam lino protinùs ligandus est ipse suis omnino lacerandus virgis qui Rationum gravioribus hisce Momentis à me stantibus licèt alienis à re tua aliorsùm vellicantibus ultrò non acquiescat submitt
átque lubentèr vela I nunc ut consulas Interpretes ex Ministrorum Collegio quod pro nihilo habes R. C. The Anabaptist washt and washt and shrunke in the washing CHAPTER I. ANd when we have done all we must all dye Yea Howsoever we are parted in the lines of Life we must all meet in the Point of Death as in a full point Death What is Death Heathenish Plato describes it with a Divine Plato in Phaedone and Christian Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the dissolution of the Soule and Body And the Latine Orator lookes with a full eye upon the Platonists when he saith Sunt qui Discessum Cicero Tusc Quâ—st lib. 1. Animae à Corpore putent esse Mortem There are who think Death to be a Departure of the Soule from the Body What these thought and was to them a matter of Opinion which is Assensus pendulus a wavering assent is to us Materia Fidei a Matter of Faith which is Assensus immobilis a firme and immoveable Assent to the revealed Truth of God Saint Paul was the Instrument of Revelation and hath settled it first as having a desire to depart dissolvi Philip. 1. 23 Interp. vulgat Tixt Graec. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Edit vulg Codâ—â— Grâ—â—c saies the Vulgar and the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved when he was in bivio in a way betwixt two waies And secondly as prophecying the time of my departure is at hand The Vulgar Tempus resolutionis meae It is O' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original the time or opportunity of my Resolution or Dissolution The Philosophicall Reason is this being also a Philosophicall Truth and there being Philosophicall Reasons of all Divine Truths which are not mysterious miraculous or meerly depending upon Divine Pleasure As Life results from the Union So by the Logicall Rule of Contraries it is the same case with proportion in privatives Death from the Disunion of Soule and Body The Rule is Contrariorum contraria est Ratio The Course of Contraries is contrary And Death as the Lion wounds Fraâ—zius in Leone not a part or member only but divides and rends in peeces the whole substance and subverts the Being caused by the Composition of essentiall Parts CHAP. II. ANd when we have done all we must all dye must be dissolved And then whither the Parts dissolved our Soules and Bodies ours in particular shall go the Devill sitting See Jer. 3. 2 S. Hieron lb. for us by the way as the Arabian in the wildernesse for the Passengers or according to St Hierom ut Latro as a Robber the Arabians being mighty Robbers and Hunters of Men in the Wildernesse and how they shall fare resolve it fairely and positively he that can Two States are assigned to every Soule The State of Conjunction with the Body and the State of Separation from it Of the first we have long triall Of the second we never yet had any No living Man or Woman knows experimentally what is the departure of a Soule from a Body or what Subsistance Adherence Condition Companions Relations a Soule hath in the State of Separation Now me thinkes He and She that may this very night be turned over by Dissolution to this wonderfull unknown and unfathomed State of Separation should be very carefull what they beleeve and how they live Especially the Life of Man being a very Bubble A Bubble puts on the forme of an Hemisphere And shadowing halfe the World as being an Hemisphere it accordingly consists of two Elements It is Aire within which is invisible for its Rarity and without a thin-shapt skin of water and there is all the Bubble The Aire deciphers our Soule and the watery skin our Body in this present World The skin presently breakes the Aire as presently breakes loose and there is a present end of the Bubble and we are as presently delivered up to another World O Lord open thou my Lips and Psa 51. 15. my mouth shall shew forth thy praise And whatsoever others beleeve or do or teach to be done and believed I will not recede from thy known Truth Even the Sea-Monsters or Lam. 4. 3. Sea-Calves driven with every Surge of the Sea draw out the Breast The Vulgar Sed Lamiae nudaverunt Edit vulg mammam But even the Witches or Fairy-Ladies and ranting Night-Dancers have laid the breast forth naked The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Sym. the Dragons Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sirens they give suck to their young-ones But they shall not suckle me CHAP. III. ONce more here let me symphonize with the Spirit of David I said saith he and I say with him Psal 39 1. I will take heed to my waies that I sin not with my Tongue I will take heed to my waies that I speake not write not prompted by Prejudice Custome or Carnall Affection But I may not shut the Book after the reading of this Text as the good old Saint in the Lives of the Vitae Patrum Idem exemplum habetur apud Theodoretum in Histor Tripart lib. 8. cap. 1. Et adducitur à M. Marulo l. 4. cap. 6. Fathers that having 〈◊〉 Bible given into his hands and letting his eye first fall and settle upon these words returned the Book shut and cried Sat est quod didici I have learned enough for the present I will first endeavour to digest this divine Lesson Holy Scripture must lye open and enthroned when holy matters are in debating according to the sober Custome of ancient Councils The Word of God being the most authenticall High-Place from whence in our wants and at pleasure we may looke into Heaven and into the first and Originall will of God and God having dealt otherwise with us than Adrian the Emperour Niceph. Eccl. Hisâ— lib. 3. c. 24. with the rebellious Jewes who banished them from their own Country and commanded that they should not look back upon it from an high Place The Scripture as the Logiciaâ—s teach de Terminis Coâ—notativiâ— signifies in recto all that which is materiall in it being the things themselves or the faire and fragrant Posie of the Truths revealed and in obliquo signifies that which is formall in it being the manner of Proposition or the Tradition of these Truths by Writing Wherefore although Scripture-Truths be divine Truths and made legible yet if they be not rightly preached interpreted proposed received they will not be true to us and written in our Hearts The Divines question How light could be created by it selfe according to the narration of Scripture Because there seemes then to have been Accidens cujus esse est inesse sine subjecto An Accident the radicall being wherof is to be in a Subject without a Subject and the narration likewise pretends as if Colour could otherwise be than in a Thing or Substance coloured But Aquinas makes it luce lucidius clearer than
to Books wherein the proper Characters of these Languages are alienated and Italianated St Hierom is my Cynosura Hence I write onely towards the place of the right Hand and altogether use European Characters not Asian not African not Hebrew Characters not Samaritan not Syriacke not Arabick nor indeed Ethiopick Characters although this Language be written from the left to the right as Greek Latine and the other Languages of Europe And whereas a Divine should carry in a full Body all Knowledges before him and chiefly Divinity and her School all other Knowledges being subservient to Divinity and Subordinate to Scripture the Written Rule he shall never be able to circumscribe and compasse his Design except he shal now and then â—e succinct and gaine Ground by a compendiary way and by over-stepping the lesse needfull Things Reader You have in this Washing of the Anabaptist the sound Truth both of Divinity and Language And whosoever shall Object Schism or Heresie to this Booke having first well-poised the Words against which the Objection shall aculeos exercre is himselfe Ignorant or Maliciâ—us Be not like the Women affected with the Pica or the Malacia who neglect solid and proper Meats and greedily devour and seek after Coales Ashes Meal Tarre Chalke Raw-flesh Man's-Flesh and the like disagreeing stuffe As we grow in years we doe or should encrease in divine Knowledge In the Generation of Naturall Things Nature whose Work is Opus Intelligentiae non errantis first prepares the Matter then introduces the Form which gives Being to the Thing then presently follow the proper Accidents then the Accidents which are common then shee cleans and purifies her Work from Superfluities and Lastly endeavours to ripen her Work and lodge it in the End for which it was made For Example In the Production of Man the Body is first prepared the reasonable Soul is afterwards introduced then follow the Propertieâ— Which are that the Child is risible and that he is disciplinable then come on the common Accidents being quantity colour figure c. Which are Posteriores Ordine Naturae Then the Child encreases and Ejects superfluous Things which are obstacles to perfect Operation Lastly He moves more forcibly towards the End of his Creation So in Spirituall Things the Man as the Matter or Subject is prepared Grace is introduced as the Form The proper and common Accidents attend him those within these without Wherefore let us lay aside every Heb. 12. 1. weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience Verse 2. the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith or as the Originall steers Text. Graeâ— it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Jesus the Beginner or that works the Beginning and the Finisher of our Faith or that consummates our Faith and makes it perfect This Jesus will savingly wash us from our seven Head-Sins in his Blood shed seven Times and will vanquish our Enemy the seaven-Headed Dragon and fill us with the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost and give us Donum Lachrymarum the gift of Teares in the which we shall be dipped and Bathed as Naaman the Syrian was in Jordane seven Times the Number seven being a perfect Number and signifying many and whereas his Flesh returned as the Flesh of a Child so we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children in Wickednesse or Malice and be joyned to Jesus the Saviour of washed and Baptized Childen now by Faith and afterwards by Vision or Fruition here by Grace and hereafter by Glory Behold the Course by which we are conducted to our End and now St Ambrose shall end the Discourse S. Ambrose l. 4. in Eucam c. 16. It is his Doctrine that Christ was afflicted with seven bleedings First he bled in his Circumcision against and in the defyance of our Luxury or fleshly Sins Secondly he bled in his Garden-Sweat against our sins of Intemperance and Gluttony Sweat being occasioned and materially caused by the Fat of our Bodies which is begotten of plentifull nourishment and this as a Sweat from inward Heat and Motion bringing bloud with it Thirdly he bled in his Coronation or when he was crowned with Thorns against our Pride and Ambition Fourthly he bled in his Flagellation or Scourging against our Envy because a Whip is most agreeable to a Dog which the Naturalists have exposed as an Emblem of Envy Fiftly he bled in the boring or Perforation of his Hands against our Extortion and Covetousnesse the Hands being the nimble Instruments of gathering pulling tearing and heaping up Sixtly he bled in the nailing and Crucifixion of his Feet against our Acedie and Slothfulnesse in divine Matters Lastly he bled in his Lanceation or when his tender Side was opened with a Spear and the Water which cooled his Heart was let forth in the Rupture of his Pericardium against or in the abommation of our Anger Anger being the Accension or Ebullition of the Blood about the Heart Wash us thorowly from our Iniquity Psal 51. 2. and cleanse us from our Sin O thou lover of Souls O our love that wast Crucified for us O our God and our All. Amen I freely and more than Summis Labâ—is invite an able Answerer Let him come He shall be entertain'd as he behaves himself It is easy to catch or snarl at yea to misinterpret and corrupt witsi a cursed Glosse any Doing or Saying as the Jews and old Heathens misinterpreted the Sayings and Doings even of our Lord and Saviour Christ infinitely beneath whom we all are My former Wandrings and Aberrations from the Truth I humbly confesse and heartily repent of The Morality of my Life let him blemish that can with Truth I am known to many and there are many Witnesses of my Conversation And now Let God and Man judge betwixt the Answerer and me and Vincat Veritas I most heartily and humbly desire the Prayers of all good and growing Christians and such as are familiar with God in Prayer on the behalfe of an intimous and inward Friend who came with me from the Church of Rome and hath been I am certaine cordially adherent to the Church of England but is now greatly Spirit-wounded and heavy-Heart-laden upon a very sad and strange Occasion Which is as she hath oftentimes privately and mournfully related to me She could comfortably say her Prayers converse with God delightfully and abundantly weep for her Sins when she was a Papist and such Teares Delights and Comforts have been denied to her during her Application to the Church of England She desires therefore of this our most gracious God if in Jesus Christ he be so pleased the restoring to her of such Comforts Delights and Teares And my Prayer is Restore them to her O our most gracious God in Jesus Christ Amen Substerno me paritèr ut par est patientèr huic Regiminis improviso planè Miraculo eo praesertim atque imprimis
THE ANABAPTIST Washt and washt and shrunk in the washing Or a Scholasticall Discussion of the much-agitated Controversie concerning Infant-Baptism Occasioned by a Publike Disputation Before a great Assembly of Ministers and other Persons of worth in the Church of Newport-Pagnell Betwixt Mr Gibs Minister there and the Author Rich. Carpenter Independent Wherin also the Author occasionally declares his Judgement concerning the Papists And afterwards concerning Episcopacy Phil. 1. 8. God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ St Cypr. Serm. de Lapsis Dolco Fratres vobiscum cum singulis copulo Pectus meum cum jacentâ—bas jacere me credo cum prostratis Fratribus me prostravit Affectus Brethren I grieve with you with every one of you I closely joyne and couple my Breast with such as lye on the Ground as if they were dead I fancy my selfe to lye on the Ground as if I were dead and with my prostrated Brethren my Affection hath prostrated me London Printed by William Hunt The Author's Admonition to the Reader concerning the Picture Reader I Know not any Man but agreeably to Rule and by his Fruits I know not that See Mat. 7. 16. all Iesuits are Lion-mouth'd in the Picture-Sense Nor that all Presbyterians are tongu'd like the Dragon Nor that all Anabaptists vomit fire I rather beleeve that the Lion-mouth'd Iesuit is the Pragmatical Iesuit descended from the roaring Lion in St Peter who gives devouring and murderous Counsill and seekingly 1 Pet. 5. 8. contrives the temporall destruction of his Opposers And that many Presbyterians have peaceable Natures and are not infernall-Dragon-tongu'd but are inconsiderately engaged by the simple and unballanced Apprehension of Morall Circumspection in such Persons Yea that many Anabaptists are temperate-hearted and mouth'd and have not the Tongue that setteth on fire the course of Nature and is set on fire of Hell but have James 3. 6. been wrought into this Adhesion by the violent and unequall Proposition of irregular Doctrines Iudicium ad Sapientiam pertinet saith Aquinas Right Iudgment is an Act of Wisdome D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art 6. ad 3. Mat. 7. 1. Wherefore Iudge not that is not rashly but wisely and according to pious Knowledg that ye be not judged The End of the fifth Objection in the Advertisement reflects more Light upon this Place Obrugiens Ore Leonino Uulpinus Jesuita Presbyter Serpentino Spiculo purus putus obganÌ„iens Non te deseram neâ—â— derelinquam Heb. 13. 5. Et nunc Exaltauit Caput meum Super Inimi cos meos Psal 26. 6. Sulphureis ab Ignibus Obmur murans faculentus Anabaptistaâ— Per Vomitum Scurra faculentus obstrepens To all the zealous Defenders and Abettors of Infant-Baptism Grace and Peace Deare Christians I Am prest once more to appeare in English against thought and wide of desire Because the Persons generally concerned in this Discourse notwithstanding their high looks and more than manly words cannot look so high as Latine which they call the Language of the Beast The leading occasion in the turning Point was I was called inwardly and outwardly recalled agreeably to the mixture and even Composition of my first and fundamentall Calling to preach in the Church of Newport-Pagnell before a very numerous Auditory congealed and consisting of the more solid and sapid part of Town and Country And after the Sermon baptized a Child orderly presented in the Church In the sober performance of which Mysterious Work rhe Minister unsetled in place and it seems in person professing for Anabaptism and suddenly rapted with a vertiginous Motion interrupted me And presently summoned me by a Challenge in the face of the Congregation to give him and his Brethren of the Separation a meeting there in publick after his twelve-days preparation being the long Parasceve to his intended and presumed victory The sequell I beseech you to enquire from others Only pray take this from me pledge-wise Delrio in his Magicall Disquisitions Delrio li. 2. Disquis Magic quaest 25. teaches that sometimes by the secret energeticall and unseen operation of the Devill and againe sometimes by the seen effectuall and apparent violence of a Disease men are ecstatically rapted and alienated from their Senses Who likewise refutes first Cardanus affirming that men may be rapted and set out of themselves by a naturall Commotion of Spirit and at their pleasure And afterwards Bodinus asserting that in a Rapture the Soule actually deserts the Body for a time And indeed the Soule of this Minister I beheld in the wild-fire of his eyes wherein also I saw some strange and occult Thing beyond a Disease beyond Man and beyond God's way of working This heady Enthusiast being now in his own Head the Head of the Universe was insooth sometimes a Member of the Vniversity for the which he did evaporate his griefe and cry out in the pangs of his inward remorsement before the Country and had been somewhat vexatious to the Protestant Ministers in the Circle about him His Friends and Allies fixed all their eyes with all their lies upon him as the Carry Castle or Behemoth of the Country the See Job 40. Vide Busâ—amantinum de Animantibus sacra Scripturae lib. 4. cap. 12. de Behemoth word is Hebrew-born and fetched from Behema a Beast I was born there and born thither by a charitable desire of consociating and consorting with my Friends He gave the first onset in a mad mood being a Figure of his after-carriage and would needs be Syllogizing in Mood and Figure The marrowy part of our Disputation with the bones and of Sermons preached afterwards by him and by me I here humbly deare Christians offer to you It agrees on each side with the Anabaptists They have Osee 8. 7. Sept. sowne the wind and they shall reap the whirlewind or as the Septuagint They have sowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeds corrupted with the wind and having no marrow which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Hierom And therefore having S. Hierom. in Os 8. 7. sowne empty and vaine seeds they shall accordingly reape vaine and empty Fruit and shall be long-whirled about as in a whirlewind with every wind of Doctrine blowing dust into their Eyes and striking them as the Angels did the Sodomites Sept. in Gen. 19. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they shall see all things but the Doore Yet here is not all For The Lord answered Job out of the Job 38. 1. Whirlewind And St Gregory S Greg. ib. moralizes the Reason Quia flagellato loquebatur because he spake to one that was actually under the lash And I hope that God enthroned upon a whirlewind will change the Subject and raise his Instruments and Servants to answer these wild-conceited people and lash them into some right use of their understanding and senses again I am a true Protestant in my own sense and perhaps in yours And I
conferred should not be iterated upon the same subject lest it should wander deviate and degenerate from the Nature of Regeneration as forgetting of what house it came It goes without opposition in the schoole of naturall Phylosophy that a thing is by so much the more Noble by how much it hath more of inward forme from which formall interest the Celestiall bodies and pretious Gemms have their Nobility And the Sacraments are dignified by their divine and beautifull Influx and their formall setting our souls in the grace and peace of God which passeth all understanding Aristophanes undertaking the praises of temporall peace findes not Aristoph in pacc a name â—quall with the praises of it and he wishes to finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word or name equalling the capacity of ten thousand Amphors the Amphor was a large two-car'd Vessell in Athens but what word can suffice to blazon the dignity of our Spirituall and Sacramentall peace with God CHAP. X. A Sacrament beyond that it is signum rei sacrae a signe of an holy thing is in the next consideration and in the review Visibile signum Doni invisibilis à Deo institutionem trahens A visible signe of an invisible Gift deriving it's institution St Aug. lib. 2. de Doctrina christiana cap. 1. from God Signum as the Bishop of Hippo defines it est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire A signe is a thing of it selfe causing an other thing to press upon our thoughts besides the resemblance which it offers to our senses First then every Sacrament must be signum sensibile a sensible signe And all Sacraments both old and new are combined in this For Although God might and could have ordained some spirituall signe of grace yet that signe should not have properly been a signe in a Sacrament howsoever some Doctors pull strongly for the contrary as I now speake of Sacraments Because it should not have been signum humanum sed Angelicum an humane but an Angelicall signe and should have conformed to subsisting spirits not to men consisting of souls and bodies Who require such Sacraments as are able to congregate into a being and to conserve in a warme being a visible Church God attemperating and proportioning his Ordinances to us and our mixt condition That the Character impressed upon the soul in Baptism is a spirituall and invisible signe I will not doubt But it hath no shelter here Secondly there are speculative and practicall signes And the Sacraments of the old Law were not signes meerly theoricall or speculative of salvation and Grace but practicall Because the promise of a thing is not speculatively-behaviour'd and manner'd towards the thing promised but practically as causing it in some manner For he that promiseth is afterwards moved by his promise to correspond with it by fulfilling it And thus the promise is Causa moralis Reâ— promissae the morall cause of the thing promised Every promise having a morall force actually moving or apt to move the promiser to performance Whereas therefore all the old Sacraments were certain promises or signes by the which God did as it were promise in figures Christ and our Salvation it is fairly and fruitfully consequent that they were practicall signes of Grace to be given by Christ the Figure-Promises rending to after-performance through him that was to come And if the old Sacraments were practicall signes it is a signe that the new are much more and more excellently as grasping a more excellent promise Thirdly the signe here must represent a sacred and invisible thing not a thing which is profane or visible The sacred invisible thing which the Sacraments of the new Law doe signifie is threefold 1. Habituall and justifying Grace which as present is demonstrated 2. The passion of Christ the mediator which is the cause of Grace and is remembred as being past 3. Glory and life eternall which is the effect of Grace and which all habituall Grace quantum est ex se brings to it 's Subject and which as being hereafter to come is prefigur'd For the Sacraments signifying Grace do consequently signifie the beginning and end of the saine grace And their signification must be consider'd with some proportionable reference to the light of the divine understanding and the beams and irradiations of it which brings binds up uno intuitn both ends together Because the institution of a Sacrament is only of God the author of Grace God alone being able to compound and connex inward grace with an outward signe CHAP. XI I Wade farther It is a fundamentall rule Aequè certa sunt ac evidentia quae ex sacris Literis evidentèr ac certè deducuntur atque ea quae in illis expressè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ad verbum in terminis habentur The things are equally certaine and evident which are evidently and certainly deduced from sacred Scripture as the things which are found in Scripture expresly and word for word And the same rule is return'd in another dresse Conclusions are as right as their Principles if rightly and consequentially concluded The first reason of this truth is fundamentall as the truth is Ex vero nil nisi verum of truth comes nothing but truth by true deduction And the second reason is Because the conclusion is in effect the principle and the truth deduced is the truth from whence the deduction issues in other and more declaring terms It is true that of truth falshood may come per accidens by chance and materially not by formall right and necessary consequence Hence we cry Principia fidei vel quae ex eis deducuntur sunt in Scriptura The principles of faith or the truths deduced from them are in Scripture And Omnis divina revelatio est in scriptura vel directè vel per necessariam inevitabilem consequentiam Every revealed truth is in Scripture either directly or by necessary and inevitable consequence And hence we throw abroad he that holds a Doctrine holds all the consequences of it Because the Doctrine and the Consequences are one identicall truth in different language The difference betwixt Principles and Conclusions being according to the Nature of similitudes like the difference betwixt the heavenly and earthly bodies The heavenly bodies having their last perfection from their creation and by their very nature but the earthly bodies acquiring their due perfection by mutation and motion because they are generable and corruptible Or Like the blessednesse of the Creator and the Creature Whereas soli Deo Beatitudo D. Tho. p. 1. q. 62. art 4. in corpore perfecta est naturalis quia idem est sibi esse beatum esse Perfect blessednesse is naturall to God alone because to be and to be blessed is the same thing to him But the blessednesse of the Creature requires a triall of motion in the way which is heavenly-true
in Cruce fluxerunt Aqua Sanguis quorum unum pertinet ad Baptismum aliud ad Eucharistiam quae sunt potissima Sacramenta Whence it is manifest that the Sacraments of the Church specially have virtue from the passion of Christ the virtue whereof is in some manner coupled with us by the susception of the Sacraments In signe of which out of the side of Christ hanging on the Crosse flowed Water and Blood one whereof pertaineth to Baptism the other to the Eucharist being the Chiefe Sacraments He brings up the reare in the same Article Idem ibid. ad tertium with Justificatio attribuitur Resurrectioni ratione termini ad quem qui est novitas vâ—tae per gratiam Attribuitur tamen passioni ratione termini à quo scilâ—cet quantum ad dâ—missionâ—m Culpae Justification is attributed to the Resurrection of Christ as to that to which the motion tends which is newnesse of Life by Grace Yet is it attributed to the Passion of Christ as that from which the motion arises Videl with regard to the remission of the fault And therefore because in the Eucharist also there is a Representation of Christs Death by the which we are made alive and rise with Christ the Signes there are called by the Fathers of the first Nicen Councill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concilium Nicâ—num primum the Symbols of the Resurrection CHAP. XVIII THE sacred words You are risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God reinforce upon our Thoughts that divine Faith is infused by God the Supreame Divine Power to whom nothing is impossible which involves not repugnantiam in terminis a repugnancy in the Terms And in pious Truth The Agent of infinite Power doth not of necessity require to his Action or Work Matter or Instrument as it appeares in Creation which is one of the proper and incommunicable Actions of God Therefore neither doth he require any disposition or Preparation in the Subject or any kind of instrumentall concurrence Wherefore God may strangely operate Faith in children although we have no comprehensive knowledge of such operation God's Spirituall operations in us operated by his Creative or like Virtue being rather known to us by their Effects than by their Manner of Infusion We own a Doctrine Infantes sunt negativè Infideles non positivè Infants before Baptism are Infidels negatively not positively Wherein they are distinguished from grown Heathens being positively Infidels Now if God infuseth Faith into Infidels that are such positively yea if the edge of his Power could be dulled by Resistance in the Subject he may infuse Faith into such as are negatively Infidels here being lesse resistance and these having no opposite Habit or Act of perverse will But the strangenesse is saith he who with sufficient unadvisednesse Doctor Taylor in his Liberty of prophesy … Sect. 18. and Incogitancy tooke so much liberty in his Liberty of Prophesying That there should be an Instrument without an Agent to mannage or force to actuate it Doth not God infuse a reasonable Soul into a child in the very darke Wombe And is not Reason there in Actu signato a long while as an Instrument without an Agent to mannage or force to actuate it And though John the Baptist was truly Sanctified in the wombe which Sanctification was effected by the Infusion of habituall Grace and once leaped there for joy Yet we hear Luk. 1. 41. no farther of such unusuall expressions in his Nonage neither have we reason to beleeve otherwise than that habituall Faith remained in him as an Instrument without an Agent to mannage or force to actuate it nor will I dare to put him in equall balance with his Lord and Master And though the last be an extraordinary Example the first is not And why we might not have such ordinary Examples as frequently in the Order of Grace as in the Order of Nature I can not ken That John was truly and really purged in his Mothers wombe from Originall sin and there Justified St St. Aug. â—p 57. ad Dâ—â—dâ—nuâ—â— Austin denies which St Hierom also disavows of Jeremy St Austin's St Hâ—erom in cap. 1. Jerem. reason is quia renasci praesupponit nasci because to be born again presupposes to be born I humbly answer Man with relation to his Capability of being born againe by Grace is conceived to be then born when he is conceived in his Mothers Wombe and receiveth a Soul and Life from God For as he is then born with Originall sin so even then presently he may be reborn by Grace and purified from it yea and Baptized either his mother dying and his way being opened or she living and he exerting a foot or hand that the divine Remedy as a remedy may be as early as the disease And our Scripture-plea foreran the Forerunner he shall be filled with Lu. 1. 15. the Holy Ghost even from his mothers Wombe The Syriack Bibles Syrorum Biblia have sanctified Spiritu sanctitatis with the Spirit of Holinesse And Codices Arabui the Arabick Bookes in Utero in the Wombe And we may not admit such an Audacious Hyperbole in Scripture CHAP. XIX THis habituall Perfection though it hath no precedent or concomitaut Acts in Children sutable with it Yet hath it Acts precisely consequent to it For donbtlesse Baptized Children comming to the dawnings of Reason are wonderfully moved and raised from the habituall principles of Faith Hope Charity these being inseparable in them to many spirituall and excellent Essayes of the which their tendernesse is capable and which are not in unbaptized Children and ungarrison'd Souls As when we graft a Rose-Tree and insert a grain of Muske into the cleft of the Stock all the Roses that spring from it if the Tree be not blasted from the ambient Aire will smell of Musk. It is true These Essaies are not explicit Acts of Faith Hope Charity Because these Acts ordinarily suppose acquired Knowledge and Omnis nostra Cognitio à Sensu initium habet all our acquired knowledge begins by the Sense And this Infusion being acted independenter ab Organis Corporalibus without dependance on Corporeall Organs as being meerly Spirituall and acting upon the Soule ex parte Infusionis as if it had no dependance on a Body Except the body receive an outward Impression of Learning the Man consisting of Soul and Body is defective in part and cannot ordinarily and explicitely produce Acts by the Combination of Body and Soul tending to which production the Body hath no such present or former impression Although therefore it flies from one mouth to another Infantes Baptizati habent Fidem uti Rationem in actu primo non secundo Baptized Infants have Faith as they have Reason in the first Act not in second that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potentialitèr non energeticè in remote power and aptitude not in actuall Operation Yet it
Western Churches or as the Ecclesia Graeâ—â— Eâ— O … ales aliae quaedam Church of Greece and some other Orientall Churches Baptizetur Servus Christi talis in nomine Patris c. Let the servant of Christ be Baptized here he is named in the Name of the Father c. For the Grecians doe not attribute the Act of Baptism to the Minister Sacramenti Minister of the Sacrament that they may de industria of set purpose professedly and practically condemn the old errour of those who attributed the virtue of Baptism to the Baptizers saying I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas 1 Cor. 1. 12. With a beame cast upon these Requisites on the part of the Sacrament St Austin is doctrinall Accedit S Aug. Tractat. 80. in Jâ—an Verbum ad Elementum fit Sacramentum The Word is applyed to the Element and there is made a Sacrament And ex parte Baptizantis on the part of the Baptizer we may not undervalue his right intention For as a certaine Forme of words is required by the pull of necessity that the indifferency of the Matter may be determined so there is need of some speciall Intention formall or virtuall to determine the indifferency of the Form otherwise he that shall accidentally reade or utter the words or formall part of the Sacrament in strange or profane matters and occasions shall be said to reade or utter them Sacramentally And in Conscience The Minister of a Sacrament doth not Act Sacramentally but as Minister Christi the Minister of Christ and he cannot act as the Minister of Christ except he doth intend the worke of Christ and to Act after his prescription And lastly ex parte Baptizati on the part of the Baptized right qualification is required which in Infants is That they are offered to the Church and supplied with the Faith of it that they may be offered to God CHAP. XXIIII AND it is not absonous from Truth that the Kingdome of God is open to the rightly Baptized The Scriptures being impregnably strong for it The Apâ—stle St Peter having opened the sluees of Heaven and brought the sloud into his Discourse and how some were saved by water in the Ark. assâ—meth The like figure 1 Pet. 3. 21. whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us And St Paul is divinely Tit. 3. 5. symphonous But according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost The Originall deales it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Text. Graec Vulgar doth reâ—â—est into its native signification per Lavacrum Regenerationis Edit Vulg. by the Laver of Regeneration Then are we saved by Baptism as by a Sacramentall Instrument Then are we likewise washed in Baptism from Originall sin Then is Baptism the Sacrament of Regeneration and consequently of Initiation And it is most conformable to the royall way of divine Mercy and to right Reason the royall Work of the divine Power that the Sacrament which initiates us should also instrumentally regenerate us and compliablie lift us up into the royall state of Salvation that the Goodnesse of God may be not onely as large and extensive but also in some sort as intensive and efficacious for us to life and deliverance as the malice of the Devill is to Death and destruction Wherefore Ananias to Paul then Act. 22. 16. Saul Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins For As the outward filth of the body is washed away with water so the blood of Jesus Christ applied in Baptism 1 Joh. 1. 7. cleanseth us from all sin which is the filth of the Soul Then are our actuall sins also committed if such there be before Baptism washed away by it And either this water-signe must be Signum inane a vain Signe and of no effect or there is an inward washing suppositis intere à supponendis And if there be this washing God's works being perfect and Sanctifying Grace being opposed to all sin must be a washing from all sin Which compleat washing is indeed so properly the Thing intended by the Author of the Sacrament and Giver of Grace that be the outward washing more or lesse I speak here of Infants not of Adults in whom the Grace received is correspondent with the qualification of the Subject the inward effect doth not recipere magis minùs but is ever the same Because God lookes upon the End in every practicall touch of his Power which End is the chiâ—fe in all the course and the first intentionally though executively the last and Grace the Gift of God is an attendant upon the Thing signified and doth not attemperate it selfe to the manner of signifying And therefore Baptism given with a threefold Immersion doth not more justify than Baptism conferred by one Immersion or Inspersion And yet the first is a more expresse and visible signe of Sacrramentall Grace because it washeth more perfectly and furthermore adumbrates the most blessed Trinity in whose most blessed Name the Baptism is given A Roman Councill celebrated under Gregory the Great and the same Gregory together with Gratianus firmly set a bar upon this Truth Leander Bishop of Hispalis or Sivil imploreth Gregory his Determination concerning Immersion whether it should be one or three-fold Gregory answers as followeth De Concilium Roman sub Greâ—â—cio primo idem Greg lib. 1. Registâ—i â—p 4. ad Leandrum Episc Hispalâ—nsem allegat Gratianus de Consecrations Dâ—st 4. cap. de trina trinâ mersione Baptismatis nil responderi verius potest quà m quod ipsi sensistis quia in una Fide nihil officit sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo diversa Nos autem quòd tertio mergemus triduauae Sepulturae Sacramenta signamus ut dum tertiò Infans ab aquis educitur Resurrectio trâ—duani temporis exprimatur Quòd si quis fortè etiam pro summae srinitatis Veneratione existimet fieri neque ad hoc aliquid obsistit Baptizando semel in aquis mergere quia dum in tribus Subsistentijs una Substantia est reprehe sibile esse ni … a tenùs potest Infantem in Baptismate vel ter vel semel immergere quâ—ndò in tribus mersionibus personarum Trinitas in una potest D. vinitatis Singular it as designari Concerning the threefold Immersion in Baptism nothing can be answered more truly than that which ye have thought Leander and the Church of Sivil used one Immersion because a diverse Custome of the Holy Church hurts not where there is one Faith â—ut we dipping the third time declare the Mystery of the three dayes Sepulture that while the Infant is drawn from the water the third time the Resurrection of Christ after three dayes may be thereby expressed If any perhaps may thinke it to be done even for the veneration of the highest Trinity neither is there any hinderance to this but such a one may dip once onely the
whom at last he stabb'd to the Heart even before the Altar in a Church O the Purity of this Duke-stabbing under the roof of the Temple and the white Canopy of Holinesse There wants nothing to the top and top-gallant of this Angelicall Devilishnesse but the presenting of the poison'd Sacrament to a devout Emperour on his Knees which likewise they have devoutly done I would have open'd the door to Jesuiticall examples and let them â—orth tumbling one over another like the Waves in a foul troubled Sea As of Garnet and Oldcorn Jesuites and chiefe Actors in the matchlesse Powder Treason who are English Martyrologe printed in the year 1608. Chronicled for Martyrs of Sixtus Quintus a Favourer and Patron of the Jesuites who consecrated a Panegyricall Oration to the immortall praise of Clement the Jacobin Fryer that Murthered Henry the third King of France by searching into his Belly with a religious knife And of Barrier who endeavoured Arnault â— Frenchman in his Pleadings against the Jesuites on the behalfe of the King and Parliament of France the killing of Henry the fourth with a poisoned Altar-Dagger which Raviliach afterwards expedited animated thereunto by holy Father Varad a Jesuite And I should have sifted the Originall Question An Deus dispensare possit in Lege Nature vel Decalogi Can God the Pope's Lord dispense in the Law of Nature or the Decalogue Wherein Occam Gerson Occam in 2. q. 19. ad 3. 4. dub Gerson in Tract de vita spiritali Lect. 1. Corol. 10. in Alphabeto 61. literâ E. Almainus Tract 3. Morall cap. 15. Scot. in 3. Distinct 37. q. 1. paragrapho Hic dicitur Bonavent in 1. Distinct 47. q 4. Gabr. in 3. Dist 37. q 1. Art 2. Concl. 1. Durand in 1. Dist 47. q 4. num 16. and Almain affirme that he can dispense in every Law of the Decalogue And their Foundation is Every sin is a sin because it is forbidden by the will of God if therefore God will a thing to be no sin hoc ipso it shall not be a sin And in the which Question Scotus Bonaventure and Gabriel defend that God can dispense in the Precepts of the second Table but not in the Precepts of the first Table that is can dispense in those commandements which manage us towards our Neighbour but not in the Commandements which conform us towards God And in the which Durandus declares that God may dispense in the affirmative Precepts of the second Table but not in the negative Precepts thereof And I should have determined that God himselfe cannot dispense directly and formally in any Precept of the Law of Nature The Reason is Because the Lawes of Nature contain and command that which is good intrinsecally and in it's Nature therefore the Things opposed to these Lawes are in their Natures and intrinsecally Evill and not because they are prohibited by the will of God but because of their own Natures they are dissentaneous and contrary to Naturall Reason and reasonable Nature quà talis est As possible Things are possible not because God hath willed them to be possible but because it is not in it selfe Contradictory that they may come into Being Wherefore God cannot make pace Occami the Hatred of God to be Godly good or Lawfull because this Turn of Things overturns all and is contrary not only to Nature and Reason but also to the Divinity of God And God cannot perswade us to these Evils much lesse will them command them to be and make them good lawfull and honest As therefore the Creatures have their existence from the will of God but their possibility from the very Nature of God because if we consider the Nature of God in his Omnipotency it naturally followes and results that there is a possibility of Things by Creation which Things if per impossibile God were not were impossible So the positive Law both Divine and Humane depends upon the will of God but the Law of Nature is derived from the Law Eternall in Mente Dei Yet God can dispense indirectly and materially in these Lawes by changing the matter of the Thing commanded and thereby subtracting it from the Law of Nature and obligation of the Decalogue For God can give to one Man Power over the Goods Body and Life of another But when where or how did God give Power to the Church of Rome over the Goods Bodies and Lifes of Princes And if the Laity be subject to the Clergy as the Body to the Soule yet the Soule hath not absolute Dominion over the Body and therefore may not lop off the Members or pluck an eye out having offended her and cast it from her otherwise than in a spirituall and morall Sense the literall Sense being repugnant with other Precepts though shee may willingly suffer them or freely give them up to be lopped off passively in the Confession of the true Faith or surrender the whole Body to be destroyed in Martyrdome Desist then O ye cruell Jesuites from this your making odious the most acceptable Name of our most mild and meek Jesus CHAP. XLI BUT in regard it is onely Objected by the Aduersary that the Text Except one be born againe c is used by the Papists Per me liceat They may use it without opposition from me their using a Text in a righteous manner and Matter being no sufficient and reasonable Ground of Quarrell As I may not quarrel with them for their using sacred Scripture in the proof of the most sacerd Trinity against the old Arrians those of Transyluania or in the proof of the Incernation of Christ for the Prepossession and corroboration of Christians against the cursed Insinuations of Mahomet The Spirit of Contradiction and the works of it are not unknown to my Adversary And does he think it would become me to be like the Ilanders adjoyning unto China who by reason of some Traverses of discord and jealousies which oftentimes arise betwixt neighbouring Countries and Provinces falling betwixt them and the Chinenses salute one another by putting off their shooes because the men of China performe the morality of their Salutation by putting off their Hats The violent motions of spirit Jesuiticall and Presbyterian cannot be of God in the long Catalogue of whose blessed works their is no violent Thing I would have the World to understand that I now understand the difference betwixt the Doctrines which Pride and private Interest have publikely raised in the Church of Rome and which are not destructive of its being a Church as the sins and errours of the Pharisees destroied not the Chair of Moses and the Doctrines of the Church of Rome lineally descended from Apostolicall Antiquity or included Virtually in their seed and root And that my Quarrell is not with Truth or Integrity but with the Corruption of Integrity and Truth And in the Truth and Integrity of a sincere and unleven'd Soule If I dye on my Bed and with knowledge of
cutteth away Carnall Concupiscence as instilling Grace into us by the which we may resist it And as in Circumcision Originall Sin was remitted so also not only in Baptism but even by the Grace of it the same Sin is exauctorated And in this Sense it was Signum typicum Signum Bonorum futurorum in Christo in cujus Mortem Baptizarentur Christiani CHAP. XLIX SHould I give it a kisse of Peace Dr Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying Sect. 18. That Figures and Types prove nothing unlesse a Commandement go along with them or some expresse to signifie such to be their purpose although it unsalts yea grievously belepers Gregory the Great in a great part of his works I have expressed the Expresse being the Expresse expressed to the Colossians But I cannot give admittance to Idem ibid. all the following â—ardle Circumcision lâ—ft a Character in the flesh which being imprinted upon Infants did it's work to them when they came to age and such a Character was necessary because there was no word added to the signe but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the Body the Character is on the Soule to which also the word is added which is as much a part of the Sacrament as the Signe it selfe is for both which reasons it is requisite that the Persons Baptized should be capable of Reason that they may be capable both of the Word of the Sacrament and of the Impresse made upon the Spirit Because the Godfathers anciently called Susceptores Undertakers and still Patrini and Compatres oblige themselves to acquaint these their Spirituall Children entring upon the years of Understanding with the ceremoniall Work and reall Effect of Baptism which involve both the Words and the Spirituall Character And the grown Children under the old Law could not understand the direction of the Character in the Flesh without such teaching which is the formall and lively direction the Fleshly Character being no direction without expresse teaching and but a materiall-one with it It was therefore even before the formall Institution of Priests and Levites the Duty of the Parent or Chiefe Person and First-born in the Family to instruct the Child afterwards And as words were not used in Circumcision so neither in any other Sacrament of the old Law because the words in Sacraments have necessary reference to the Word incarnate whom they designe and from whose actuall Passion words being inefficacious of themselves they have that they are effectuall Hence the School-Divines require that the Minister of a Sacrament in the administration of it shall intend to behave himselfe as a Dispenser of the Mysteries of Christ and farther teach that if he shall Baptize without intention or as a Devilish Engin of Contradiction with a positive Intention and resolution against it he will not act as a Dispenser of the Merits of Christ in his Mysteries but attribute strength to words in the manner of Witches and Conjurers which as meerly such are not forcible These Things orderly considered the Reason of the Parity betwixt the Sacraments fails not and the Argument though analogicall is efficacious I understand at last that I doe not make these Batteries against the Doctor 's Judgement but his Policy And again I bleed inwardly with grieving that the Divines in eminent places should betray Spirituall Truth to found the Colossus of a temporall Purpose for this was truly the false and unfriendly betraying of a most invinsible Fort to a most false enemy of Truth As if the mysticall Body and the chained Order of it were subordinate to a Civill Body and it's Order and Chaine And as if Heaven were not rightly placed above Earth and God above Princes I am assured that he found no such lineament in the Exemplar the Life of Christ Yet I hope he will furnish us with Holy Lifes and Prayers enough to redeeme his Errour And perhaps he will write seriously for God of the same Subject as he hath written against him in jest and mockery Fie fie Abeat in Proverbium Let it passe into a Proverbe A Doctor amongst the Anabaptists The Judgement of Agapetus was both ordinatâ— and edificatory as is evidenced by the religious Councill he gave to Justinâ—an the Emperour Caesar … ius Tom â—an Justâ—niano Sceptrum Imperil cùm a Deo susceperis cogitato quibusnam modis placebis et qui id tibi dedit cùmque omnibus Hominibus ab eo sis praelatus prae omnibus eum honorare festâ—na Whereas you have received the Scrpter of the Empire from God thinke by what means you shal please him who gave it unto you and whereas you are set by him before all men hasâ—en to Honour him before all Men and to set God-pleasing above the pleasing of Men. But the mourning Nightingale sitting upon the sharp Thorn in the midst of my Heart sweetly sings to me that the sublime Soul of the royall Clay abhorred this low hellish Atheisticall and most dirty Stratugem CHAP. L. I Confirm the Argument first If the Children of Christian Parents should be thus excluded from Baptism they would be empaled into a narrower and more limited Condition than the Children of the Jewes under the Law the Sacrament of Circumcision opening to these the royall Dore of God's Visible Church and entring them as blessed Partakers of his Promises And so the Sacred and compleat Ordinances of Christ should be most unnaturally Circumcised and Circumscribed which in their Nature Work and End are much more large and ample than those of the Law The Intention of the Ordainer in his Personall Comming Christ the Fountain of Grace now comming visibly and in Person with his Fountain running Wine and Oyl being not to shorten abridge or abolish but to lengthen enlarge and multiply Evangelicall priviledges as appears in the multitude of Persons now accepted to Grace by Generall acceptation and of their extraordinary Graces and the extraordinary Manners of their being given And the fundamentall aim of the divine Ordainer that works in his second works which are his works of Grace agreeably to his first Works which are his Works of Nature and in Whose only power it is to institute a Type because it is in his Power only to annex the Thing Typified being to make plain that the Substance is more effectuall than the Shadow the End more excellent than the meanes and the succeding Antitype than the preceding Type Children therefore may not be Losers but must be Gainers by the comming of Christ and that they may be Gainers must be supported from falling into a Chasâ—â— by an Evangelicall Sacrament He that shall urge here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 polemically Children accordingly Mr Tombs in his Examen should receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist because they were admitted to the Passeover must prove and binde it fast with the nerves and arâ—eires of strong Arguments that Infants were admitted to the Passeover as to the receiving of that Sacrament the manner of Exod.
18. 11. which is prescribed in Exodus and likewise that the Nature and Effects of the Eucharist are as coherent with Infants as the Effects and Nature of Baptism are proved to be And though we shall not put God to a confinement yet because in ordinary Things and Cases he hath confined himselfe to his own Order we shall consider him in comparison of such Things to be there where he hath put himselfe and not expect extraordinary Works in disagreeing and ordinary Courses or Superordâ—nations within the Dominion of Ordinances For the way to God being the way of God is agreeable to God as 〈◊〉 Meanes agree with the End And therefore we come to the God of Order and of Harmonious Heaven by an orderly Way which is the Godly Participation of his Ordinances As Men goe to the Devill the God of this World and of Discorder Sidonius testifying there Sidon lib. 2. ep 9. is a great Head or Power in Hell overlooking and overawing all that there be no order kept 〈◊〉 a disorderly Way which is the wicked neglect contempt or abnegation of his Holy Ordinances CHAP. LI. I Confirme it secondly Christ is the Son of the Father of Mercies his Naturall Son And From the Father and the Son by one everlasting and undivided Act proceeds the Holy Ghost who is Love â—or 1 Jo. 4. 16. Text. Grac as the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charity And the Son of God so loved Mankinde that he took the Nature of Man in the very wombe of a Woman and first was and appeared a Child And this Divine Son of God grown from a Child to a Man professed himselfe to be and was Medicus Animarum the most knowing and most mercifull Physitâ—an of Souls Now is it imaginable by intellectuall Creatures or can a Man be so blinde to the Law of Christ whose Love Wisdome Providence and infinite as to think that our Spirituall Physitian described by the Prophets and in the Gospell as the grand Master of the Colledge would now under the Gospell which is the Perfection of the Law and to publish which Christ himselfe became a Child suffer Children to have a damnable and mortal Disease inward but revealed in his Visible Church upon which rejecting the Synagogue he setled all Heavenly Rights and Properties now purchased and unfolded by his Death and not suffer them to have a revealed Cure by a Visible Ordinance It is improper that the Society of Jesus which Jesus is the greatest Lover of Mankinde should be such an evill Companion as to molest and incommodate all other Societies and Communities But it is most improper that the sweet and blessed Child Jesus should not be a Saviour of sweet Children as he is of other Persons or that they should want the Blessing of his Providence Plutarch honours in Tiâ—us a Pagan Plutar. in Tite Vespasiam Filio Emperour that he was Deliciae Humani Generis the Dainties of Humane Kinde and that he was often heard to say Hodie non regnavimus quia neminem affecimus Beneficio We have not reigned to day as not having been beneficiall to any Palladius applauds Bisarion because Pallad in â—ausiâ—ca cap. 116. Leontiâ—s in vita Joan. Eleemosynaâ—ii he sold his Bible for the reliefe of a poor Man And Leontius magnifies in Joannes Eleemosynarius that he wept alwaies in the evening when in the Day he had not been solicited for the suppliance and succour of some afflicted Person And now the Anabaptist sets Christ in whom the fullnesse of Mercy as of the Godhead dwels looking sternly and immoveably night and day upon all innocent Children who in puris naturalibus cannot looke towards him and who by the default of others are burdened with accidentall and grievous Impediments and leaving them destitute of Help yea selling in a manner his Book of Promises and glad Tidings to others for their Prejudice and without any pitty of them pretty Souls The Casuists publish to the World Casuistae that when the publike Use of a Thing is both Righteous and sinfull sub diverso respectu according to the good or evill Persons using it as Oyl was in the Primitive Times wherein it served for meat and for Lamp-use and was orderly used by the Christians and by the Jews disorderly it may be Righteously sold to all that are not known to buy it for evill purposes This Doctrine of the Anabaptists cannot be accepted of any for a good End because it is evill in it selfe as Blaspheming the Mercy of God the Procession of the Holy Ghost who proceeds ut Amor as Love the Incarnation of Christ as excommunicating harmelesse Children assigned to Christ by divine Title as profaning all Congregations and Families with uncircumcised and Unblessed Company as being injurious to the whole Church of God CHAP. LII I Confirme it thirdly As it is an ordinary manner of Inference to infer by arguing à majore ad minut affirmativè From the greater Thing to the lesser affirmatively thus He that is able to doe the greater Thing is able à fortiori to doe the lesser in eodem Ordine in the same Order of Things because as God having an Infinite Power does all things equally and with like facility so we being finite and acting by our Power act proportionably with it and in proportioned and subordinate Acts of Power the greater includes the lesser And as this Manner of Inference concerns the Power of the Agent So is it an extraordinary manner of Inference but a firm one and Giantstrong according to the divine Logick of Scripture to infer by arguing à minore ad majus from the lesser Thing to the greater thus If God actually cares and exercises his Power in caring for the Sparrow and the Haires of our Head he cares much more for our Children If he provides comfortably for Children under the Law he provides more comfortaebly for Children under the Gospell And this Manner of Inference concernes the providentiall Love and good Will of the Agent And although this Manner of Inference be not ordinary but with certain other applications deniable yet the work and Order of Love is a Proof above Nature and Reason and will not be thus limit-bound So we teach in ordinary Logick A posse ad esse non valet Argumentum The Argument is not Valid which saith whensoe're there is a passive Power that a Thing may be done then also is there an active Power which shall or will doe it Because although every Passive Power hath an active Power extant and responsible to it Yet many times they meet not But Love and Truth transcend all and teach above the ordinary Level that the Rule is contrary and rules thus A posse ad esse praesens vel futurum valet Argumentum when it meets with a Set and promised Order of divine Things and that God having willingly and lovingly bound himselfe to an Ordinary Law and proportionable Course being extraordinarily able to keep
that respect he hath already sure hold of them And Theodot Job 1. 6. Vide Theophylact in Mat. 12. he who according to Theodotion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Adversary that lyeth in ambush against us is willing that the Anabaptists should greatly please themselves with a little smattering of Morality and a few beggerly rudiments of pious Profession whil'st they are Soule-poison'd themselves and whil'st they poison the Souls of the People with their impure Arguments which like the inchanted Castles of their Hearts are strong and impregnable only until the Charm be dissolved O the Saviour of Israell Nature in the Naturall Body doth alwaies endeavour to rectify it self And Grace in the Soule rectifies Nature But who shall rectify these out-law'd and strong-will'd people that strongly keep the Fort of their Hearts against Grace Even thou alone who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mighty God CHAP. LXXXVIII THE Results here prefer themselves Whereof the first is This Text thus warded guarded and secur'd with Fortifications of all sorts professing for Baptism the Baptism of Infants is commanded in Scripture The Resultancy is thus brought neer to the Eye Every Proposition is either a Principle principally and properly belonging to some Science I speak of Science in a large Sense from which the Scâ—ence partly floweth and followeth every Science being Virtually contained in it's Principles or is a Conclusion deduced from a Principle Whence every Conclusion is reducible to the Principle from which it was deduced And Sciences are of two Kindes there being some which proceed from Principles known by the naturall Light of our understanding as Arithmetick Geometry and others and some that proceed from Principles known by the Light which a Superiour Science gives to us and these we name Subordinate Sciences As our Science called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Perspectiva proceeds from Principles Vide Alstedâ—i Cursum Philosophicum ultimae Ediâ—ion is in Perspectiva Musica made known by Geometry and Musick from Principles known by Arithmetick Now if the Proposition be a Principle of a Superiour Science it supposeth no other Principle of it's Kinde going before it yet is it big with Inference and the Propositions inferred are Conclusions regulated by it this being one applicatory Sense of the Rule Primum in unequoque Genere est Mensura reliquorum The first in every kinde is a Measure of the rest And every Conclusion supposeth and inferreth unlesse the last Conclusion that is deducible may be â—ound this inferring not but abundantly supposing And of what rank and Order soever the Proposition is which supposeth and inferreth of the very same Order and ranke are the Propositions inferred and supposed If that be a naturall Truth these also be naturall Truths If that be a divine Truth and God's Word these be God's Word and divine Truths Because as that in it selfe expresseth God's Speech so likewise by it selfe it supposeth and inferreth God speaking by these Take now the Text or Proposition here Except one be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God This Proposition supposeth and inferreth What doth it suppose Every Proposition necessarily and immediately supposeth the Proposition whereof it is the immediate Reason the Thing the immediate Reason of the Thing being immediately connexed and such a Reason orderly necessarily and most neerly following the Thing The Thing therefore which this Proposition must of necessity suppose is Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants offered by the Church it necessarily following as the immediate Reason For except one be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Or Except ye Baptize all such and they be born of Water and of the Spirit they cannot enter into the Kingdome of God And the immediate Reason hath so severe and sincere a connexion with the Thing that the Thing which even now went before it and was supposed it can now againe infer and bring after it making the Thing omnimodously strong by supporting it on both sides and with both Arms upholding it As thus Except one be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Therefore goe and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants offered by the Church Finally This Proposition or Conclusion except one be born c. being the Word of God a divine Truth and a Proposition of the Superiour Science which is Scientia Dei Beaâ—orum the Science of God and the Blessed the other Proposition Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants c. must also be a Proposition of the Superiour Science a divine Truth and the Word of God even upon a double Account and as in the Supposition so in the Inference and must be received by all rationall Persons as of equall waight and worth with the written and expresse Proposition Except one be born c. by the which it is necessarily supposed and from the which it is inferred of necessity And therefore let our Anabaptists never ask more where we finde the Command of Baptizing Infants in the Word of God it being there once and againe within a short space of place And the Truths of Scripture cannot be more cleared by interpretation if we could mingle with our Interpretations the very Beams of the Sun Indeed A Conclusion may proceed ex falsa Hypothesi from a false Supposition But our Conclusion is the Word of God and in a false supposition the Thing supposed is not immediately necessarily naturally supposed but accidentally ad placitum as being far fetch 't neither is the Proposition supposing or before and to which we suppose the immediate Reason of it And the false Supposition may be soone discovered to have crep't and wedg'd it selfe unnaturally into the Order drawn from the Principle and not to belong orderly and naturally to it CHAP. LXXXIX THE second Result is The Baptizing of Infants is necessary tà m necessitate Pracepti quà m necessitate Medii by the necessity of Precept and by the necessity of Meanes That is necessary by the necessity of Precept which is necessary because it is divinely commanded And that is a Command at the least an implicit-one to the breach of which there is annexed an extreme Penaltie as here there is That is necessary by the necessity of Meanes which is appointed by divine appointment as a Meanes of our entring into the Kingdome of God And here Baptism is required as a necessary Condition Qualification or Meanes Except one be born c. the unbaptized being excepted by a contrary exception as unconditioned unqualified and without the Meanes The Reader may perhaps voice it here This is Popery If he doth I reply first I have repeated what I have read in Dr Featly who hath Dr Featly in his Dâ—pper dip't written as I have that Baptism is doubly necessary by these Necessities Secondly I reply
Dialogismum Cordis mei sequor I follow the discourse of my Heart in the deep tracts of School-Divinity the strength and marrow of which I finde after long use to be superlatively strong and usefull and above the marrow and strength of Lions although the Crassipelles or thick-skinn'd Preachers dabling and wading in the shallow shallowly think otherwise Thirdly An Act of dissembling in turpissimis habeo I place amongst the basest of Things There is a famous Alphabet of Hebrew Words which being compared Habetur in Masoâ—a sinali cujus Collectoâ—â—rat R. Jacob Ben Chaijm quaeque 〈◊〉 est Co … Venetianâ— Buxâ—â— sianis 〈◊〉 two by two agree in their Letters both radicall and servile and in their Manner of being written and very much differ in their Sense But if I differ from the multitude in Judgement I shall humbly and submissively propose in writing the difference of my Judgement and no way differ from my selfe The most heavy hand of God is upon us and how dare we to dissemble in God's waighty Businesse Psal 29. 9. Targ. ibi The voice of the Lord maketh the Hindes to calve The Targ runs with the Hindes parere cogit compels to bring forth the Hindes bringing forth with great difficulty but when affrighted with Gods Voice being Thunder Now as one Christian may beleeve another If I could yield consent to the whole Masse or Medly of the Doctrines of Papists I would be as free as the Aire and as bold as a Lion and the Reader should quickly know it And If Men will be star-lighted by Sense and Reason they must conceive That had I been acceptable to Papists the Popish-linag'd Heir would not have stab'd me the other Day with an Irish Dagger in the sight of the Sun and in an open place so neer to the Grand Seat of Justice God Almighty defend our Superiour Powers from such Mischiefes which commonly bring subitaneam improvisam Moriem suddaine and unexpected death In the sacred Assistance of the highest Power I shall never be like to the Jesuited Papist in the stabbing of any Man or in the non-performance of obedience to the Powers under whom I am dejected although the said Powers should cloudily shine upon me CHAP. LXXXX THE third Result is The Sacraments have their Effects and Virtue from Christ who alone makes our way clear for our entrance into the Kingdome of God and therefore a wicked Man wrap't envelop't and involv'd in sin doth Validè Validly though not Licitè Lawfully administer a Sacrament For As it matters not in respect of Curing Diseases whether or no the Body of a Physitian which is the Instrument of a Soul having Art be sound or infirm And as it neither helps nor hinders the conveyance of water that the Pipe of Conveyance or Conduit-pipe be composed of Gold or Silver or Lead or Wood So it imports not in regard of Sacramentall Effects whether or no Minister Sacramenti the Minister of the Sacrament be good or Evill though in obedience to the will of God and in respect of his own personall Good and actuall Preparation complying with the sacred Ordinance and of the good of others by the Good of his good Example he should be excellently good Because Instrumentum non agit secundùm propriam formam aut virtutem sed secundùm virtutem ejus à quo movetur An Instrument as an Instrument doth not Act according to it 's own form and virtue but according to the virtue of the Power by which it is moved All actions coming from agreeable Forms and Powers Wherefore Christ operates in the Sacraments by the good as by the living Members of his Church and by the evill as by inanimate Instruments St Austin gives his full and manifold S. Aug. in Evang Joan Tract 11. Approbation Baptismus qui datus à Juda Baptismus Christi crat qui autem à Joanne datus Baptismus Joannis erat Non Judam Joanni sed Baptismum Christi etiam per Judae manus datum Baptismo Joannis etiam per manus Joannis dato rectè praeponimus The Baptism that was administred by Judas was the Baptism of Christ And the Baptism administred by John was John's Baptism We doe not set Judas before John but we rightly preferr the Baptism of Christ even administred by the hands of Judas before the baptism of John though it passed through John's hands He returns the same reason in another place wherein he speaks not as before of different Baptisms but of the same Per Ministros dispares Idem lib. 3. contra Cresconium Grammatitum cap. 6. Dei munus aequale est quia non illorum sed ejus est The Gift of God is equall though administred by Persons of unequall Conversation because it is the Gift of God not of them who administer the Gift The same quick-sighted Author weaving into his Discourse that although some vain Persons of the weaker Kinde prompted and solicited by sinister Intentions brought Children to be Baptized to the end the Children might receive or conserve bodily Health yet the Children were truly and rightly Baptized by the Ministers of the Sacrament after-strows this Reason Celebrantur Idem epist â— 23. ad Bonifacium enim per cos necessaria Minisleria For Services of necessary Consequence and Result are celebrated by them And I wonder not a little that reasonable Mr Tombs could fancy Mr Tombs in his Examen any Thing to be soundly deduced for him from the vanity and irresolution of a few seduced and unsound People And if he will tear to himselfe that the want of a good Intention in the Parents may pervert or incoÌ„modate the actuall Baptism of the children it will much more follow of it selfe that the want of Intention or of a good-one in the Minister of the Sacrament must quel and overthrow his Act of Baptizing the Minister of the Sacrament acting Sacramentally It is cast up in the end as gold-oar with an Indian Spade that a Sacrament quoad Essentialia Substantialia Sacramenti according to the Essentials and Substantials of a Sacrament proves alike to the Receiver whosoever the Giver or Minister be if the Giver be rightly call'd and Ministerially gives a Sacrament CHAP. LXXXXI THE fourth Result is Although we are obliged to the Baptizing of Infants for the prevention of the Danger in the Text and as fellow-Members with a People professing Christ Yet grown Persons anciently converted to the Faith were orderly and rightly catechised and instructed before they were Baptized Such Meanes proportionably agreeing with such a Condition And therefore in their first Application to the Church they were aestimativè in the estimation of Belâ—evers Unbeleevers and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as possessed of an evill Spirit and moved inwardly by it and were searched how strangely soever the Word may sound in strange Ears with Exorcisms by some deputed for that work and called Exorcistae Exorcists who rebuked the devill in the Name of
I am dumb in this that when the Presbyterians had pared rounded and brought the Baptizing of Infants from the setled and immoveable Font to the moveable and unsetled Pue-Dish the Anabaptist did quickly wring it out of his Hands and move it quite away Yea one thought in a Dream that he saw the Presbyterian come dauncing in a Mask with his Pue-Dish in his Hands and our Gib-Anabaptist as round as a Hoop dauncing to him grapling with him pulling it from him and furiously dashing it against the Ground But â—è videar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest I should seeme to sell Dreames I say waking that they have done like Things The Presbyterians have stamped and bissed away the Use and Virtue of the Sacraments the virtue of which is essentially virtuous and edificatery to the Church of God The Presbyterians have unfather'd renounced the Fathers The Presbyterians have unprayer'd rejected the Lords Prayer which it is known to the Readers of the Jewish Writers our Vide Seder Tephill Lusitan p. 115. Sepher Hammussar 49. 1. Comm. in Pirk. Auoth fol. 24. Seph Hammussar 9. 12 Saviour the divine and Eternall Wisdome gather'd and borrow'd as represented to him by divine Light and Infusion out of the old Elders and Rabbins that he might commend and dignifie the Authority of Ecclesiasticall Writers and Prayer-Makers I could ride a great circuit here And the Anabaptists have followed them at the Heels with a Trip. Let them therefore be again ashamed because they have followed the unruly Presbyterians when they should have followed the Rule And let them learn from a Learner That Man above his naturall End and the Law of Nature corresponding with it hath a supernaturall End and a supernaturall Law by which the Law that is naturall is perfected and to which he should be conformable in naturall and Supernaturall Things and whereas humane Lawes which are made in conformity to the Law of Nature and by the Light of Nature tend and are extended only to the regulating of outward Actions and rendring the Agent punishable in consideration of their exorbitancies he should now rule his very Thoughts and compose the first Motions of his erring Heart according to the Divine Law and Rule CHAP. LXXXXIX GOD threatned his People then living Harlot-like and will Osee 2. 9. recover my wooll and my flax given to cover her nakednesse The Vulgar Interp. vulgat Latine Adopts Et liberabo lanam meam linum meum and I will set free my wooll and my flax God made all things for his Glory and Service and when a Thing is diverted from this End it is captivated and held in Captivity In an excellent Manner God hath Ordained Scripture and his revealed Will for our Edification in the Work of his Worship and Glory Which revealed Will if preverted and wrought as Wax to mens Ends fals besides this divine End and is detained in Captivity And God will in his Time set it free in which Time the nakednesse and selfe-ends of Hereticks shall be discovered to the shame of such as cover their known Ignorance and miserable nakednesse with God's Holy Covering Thus the good Meats and Drinks being God's blessed creatures which are greedily devoured by wicked Men have a strong reluctancy because they shall now be maligned and tainted in regard that in all Nutrition there is Conversio Alimenti in Substantiam Aliti A Conversion of the Aliment into the Substance of the Thing nourished by it and because they are carried away by violence for the support of those who are in the field and in arms against God Much more have Scriptures a reluctancy when abused by Hereticks because they are perverted to hereticall Senses and because they are profanely handled as Arms against God It is the Language of St Paul The earnest expectation of the Creature Rom. 8. 19. waiteth c. Where the Originall sanctifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Glac that is such an expectation as Men expresse by standing upright holding up the Head stretching out the neck and looking earnestly and anxiously for the Thing expected So in a manner doe the Scriptures expect the coming of Christ looking as it were towards the East and crying Come O blessed Author of Scriptures glorifie thy selfe deliver us and shame our naked ignorant and profane Abusers Amen Even so come Lord Apoc. 22. 20. Jesus The Metaphysitians have well said Perfectio se tenet ex parte Formae Perfection arises from the essentiall Form the Matter being incompleat and imperfect and perfected by the Form The Reason is Forma dat esse Rei the Forme gives the Being Yea As the Form is so is the Action the Action following the Form and being proportioned to it For Unumquodque sicut est operatur Every Thing Acts or Works as it is And the more simple Elements are the more active and perfect as having the more Form and therefore the Heavenly Bodies are more perfect and active than the Elements Amongst knowing Things those have more knowledge and activity the Forms of which are more elevated from the Matter Of Men those are more active and knowing whose Souls are more exalted above their bodily Matters and materiall Things If the Souls of these Anabaptists immers't into their Bodyes were extracted from the lees and set upright and could as an active Mistresse lady it over their Bodies and over externall Things attending upon them as the favour and applause of Ignorant Men c. They would walke more innocently sincerely perfectly and not unsoul and dispirit Scripture and the Law of God as they doe Who if they expect to discover the pure will of God by making and hewing their own wilfull way through the Law of God and against the propensity of his Word may Vide Albert. de Saxon. l. 3. Physic q. 6. art 62. Conclus 3. Menduz Virid lib. 4. Problem 47. with more Prudence expect untill the Aire be found navigable and they be able to saile in a Ship upon the Convexity thereof towards Heaven as Men sail at Sea when they discover new Stars CHAP. C. THE second Inference is Let those whom God strengtheneth against these and such his Enemies rejoyce in God their strength and be confident of his future Mercy Many there be which say of my Psal 3. 2 3 Soul saith holy David There is no helpe for him in God Selah But thou O Lord art a shield for me or about me my Glory and the lifter up of mine Head The Vulgar lifts it up Edit vulg Multi dicunt Animae meae Non est Salus ipsi in Deo ejus Many say unto my soul There is no helpe for him in his God The Hebrew Text senses it non emnimodò salus ei There is no Text. Hebr. helpe for him though he should search all manner of waies It was then a Proverbe say the Rabbins amongst David's Enemies Ei qui furatus est ovem occidit Rabbini
to beleeve there is an Element of Fire in the uppermost parts of the Air. So when the holy Spirit of God works upon our moist flesh and hard Hearts there is much strugling for a while the aim of the Spirit is that the Soul now iâ—flamed may be drawn upwards and set above the Body When therefore by the puissant strength of God's holy Spirit it is crowned with Victory and enthroned upon the Body it neglects the Body 〈◊〉 now tending to Consumption and Ashes and turns the point of it's Spirit altogether towards Heaven as waiting for a blessed Change and Separation O most Unchangeable God worke this Work of Charge upon the Hearts of the Anabaptists that they being Conquer'd by thy Spirit their Spirits may look upwards and ascend to thee in the bright flames of perfect Charity Gideon gave to his Souldiers Iudg. 7. Trumpets Pitchers and Lamps within the Pitchers who when they came to the Camp of their Enemies blew the Trumpets brake the Pitchers and held the Lamps in their Hands If we professe for Christ as they professed for Gideon by the blowing of their Trumpets and if when we come to the whole Camp of our Enemies after that our pitcher-Pitcher-Bodies are broken by death our Lamps our Souls appeare burning with true Charity Faith being evacuated we shall goe Conquerours Men are diseased in their Bodies and they presently send in all hast for the most expert Physitian Men are disquieted in the Possession of their Goods and themselves presently run in all hast to the most cunning Lawyers Men are troubled and toâ—n in their Souls and their Consciences are discomposed and no Man runs or sends that unerring Science may be brought and applyed to Conscience and the true Seal of God to the Soul Therefore Men love their Bodies and Goods more than their Souls and God There are two sorts of People amongst us that are deafe to Goodnesse and almost irrecoverably and implacably wicked A kinde of scatter-brain'd phreneticall scandalousliv'd sulphureous and plainly Gunpowder-Papist and a mad ranting Atheist that questions the being of God of the Angels of the Soul of Heaven of Hell and indeed questions all the Articles of all the first Creeds the Apostolicall Creed the Nicen Creed St Athanasius his Creed and the Creed of Constantinople to whom we may reduce as their Sisters and Consorts those Bubbles of the feminine sort that spend their daies in jollity and wantonnesse and repent in Sack and not in Sackcloth These two sorts often revoke Alexander Crinitus l. de … sta Disciplina into my minde who commanded that the two notorious Rogues which infested his People should whip and scourge one the other out of his Dominions ut alter alterum fugeret alter fugaret alterum to the end the one might fly from the other and the other put this one to flight and so he and his People might in a good hour be rid of them both Yea These the women being added renew in my memory him in the Comedy that had three bad Ignoramus Dulman Wives of the which he said Duas Cacodaemoni darem â—â lege ut abriperet tertiam I would give two to the Devill on condition that he would come and fetch away the third But I will not be so merry in a Tragicall Businesse nor so vainly witty in Earnest Yet I earnestly and in earnest desire of God the removall of the Devil 's sworn Instruments even by Justice if they have sinn'd away all Mercy No Man pities the Devill as no Man pities a wounded Dragon though he grones And Serpens saith Albertus cùm Serpentem devorat Albertus Magnus sit Draco As the young Serpent devouring an old Serpent becomes a Dragon so the old Serpent devouring a young Serpent grows into a Dragon also Now I return to you O Anabaptists May the Spirit of Truth enter into your Hearts Be it unto your Souls as I wish to my own Remember that the most excellent Signes of our Predestination are If we are joined in Spirit-Communion with the People of God If we have the Bowels and Works of Charity Mercy Clemency If no sin rules and commands in us If there shine in our Lives many remarkeable extraordinary and heroicall Acts of Vertue If we are purged and purified by Afflictions and rejoyce in them If we be resigned to the will of God in his Word and it be not in our desires to pull him out of his wâ—rd after our wils the Contraries whereof if not contraried by us are the Signes of our Reprobation If ye censure me to have thinned my Ink with the spirit of wormwood I pray you let me be excused Because the Fathers and holy Writers St Cyprian St Hierom Russinus St Austin St Athanasius St Chrysostome St Gregory Nazianzen St Hilary St Prosper Optatus Milevitanus St Bernard Salvianus and others though otherwise meek-carriaged have taught me by their Examples to be fervorous vehement and high-strained in the Defence of God's Truth be it Veritas Doctrinae aut Veritas Vitae Truth of Doctrine or Truth of Life against obstinate Hereticks and Sinners The Grace of Conversion be with you all CHAP. CVII THE fifth Inference is Let this Defence of Infant-Baptism as God's Instrument hammer us into stedfastnesse of Faith And God said saith Moses Let there Gen. 1. 6 be a Firmament in the midst of the waters The Hebrew Word signifying Text. Hebr. Firmament is Rachiagh the Root of which being Raka as St Hierom S. Hieron in qq Hâ—braicis witnesseth is in strict Sense Expandere distendere distendendo Firmâ—re to stretch out and to firm and consolidate in expansion a Thing which was sluid and rare as the Matter of the Heavens was these being made of water Oleaster Cajetanus and Pagninus Oleast Câ— jet Pâ—gâ— iv Genesin Understand an expansion or extension instar extension is quae sit in laminâ Malleorum ictibus diductâ atque expansâ like the extension caused in a Plate beaten with Iron Hammers Ye must be beaten into solidity and stabiliment and a very Fâ—â—mament in the midst of these troubled and moving waters the Firmament being called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint Sept. by the Latins Firmamentum quia firmatur because it is made firm and solid and firms other Things adjoyning to it The Negroes that are Divers for Pearls in the West-Indies and walk under Water feel no waight or Burden because Grave non gravidat in suo Centro Heavy is not Heavy in it's proper and Originall place The Sea-Waters take their tumultuous Courses and rebound above and about them whilest they seek in the bottom earnestly for Jewels O thou pious Heart notwithstanding all the disorderly motions of Heresy round and round and round about thee do thou earnestly gather in the bottom the Spirit-Jewels of God's holy Truth In the beginning of the Creation Gen. 1. 2. the Spirit of God moved
a Million of Chast Eyes seu majora Vero seu minora nor appeare in publicke eundem de Papismo Coccysmum nobis occinens crowing to us the old young-cockrel crow of Papist and Jesuit that is used by some as a meer Stop-Gap in great penury of Matter by others quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like an efficacious Bug-Beare as if they could and would and might do as they would though according to Right and Law they could not entangle me with a dangerous Name and thereby deter me from my Sacred Purposes and upon these designes often enters tanquam versus intercalaris as the Burden of the Song útque duram de nobis emolliat Sententiam and that he will not entertain hard and Evill Thoughts of me before he wel knows me But although I binde up the Anabaptists into this heterodox Fardle yet the great Aim which my soul hath in this World being to be a perfect Lover and Advancer of Truth I engage my selfe to make it shine as the Sun that many Anabaptists are the Propugners and Maintainers of most excellent and most divine Truths and are more justifiable before God and more sufferable by Man than the Presbyterians or strict Calvinists and attached upon this Account I shall enter the lists with any Man in the fair Field of School-Divinity by measuring and weighing the Doctrines avowched on both sides And a word more in the heat of true Love towards honest and harmlesse Truth It runs amongst the People without opposition that there are or were lately Jesuits in this our Army and that they have Preached there Yea it hath clearly passed and been imbraced and hugg'd with much joyfull wonder that the Pope's latest Agent in England Signior Con a Scotchman hath been seen by Knowing Eyes in this Army For me I have not received any particular Favour from the Army nor from the present Authority neither will I accept of preferment But the God of Truth whom I honour commands me to publish on the behalfe of injured Truth how ungratefull soever and censurable the Publication will be to many That whereas I know Popish Affairs Motions and Contrivements in a large Measure and in holy Truth I know more than many thinke me to know and than some would have me to know I faithfully beleeve this Report to be the most malicious and most damnably-false Invention of the seething-scalding-burning-fire-hothearted Genevenses to bring the State and Army into dishonour and Obloquy ut que Oleum huic Incendio copiosius affundant as other strange Things have been forged by them And I am certaine that Signior Con dyed many years agoe and before the new-moulding of the Army beyond the Seas This I deliver in the word of a Christian and in the Hopes which I have to dwell with the most Unerring Fountain of Truth the all-knowing God We walk in Darknesse deceiving and being deceived Pure Religion and Undefiled is this To beleeve the Truth of God rightly to speak it boldly to build upon this Truth and not upon Lies and to performe religiously towards God and Man well-ordered Love and Obedience The Vindication of one Truth extrudes another Let the World take speciall notice that I bleed in my Spirit and am ashamed of my Company when I heare it asserted in Pulpits by Persons non infimae Classis That the Pope dispenses with Priests and Jesuits to recant and join with the Ministers of England that they may reduce Protestants the more conveniently to his Religion That the Common Prayer is Masse in English That the Papists beleeve they shall be saved by their own Merits excluding the Merits of Christ That the common People amongst them pray most commonly in a Language which they Understand not That all ordinary Papists worship Images as their Gods That they all hold Adultery and Fornication to be but Veniall Sins That no Professours of Chastity live Chastly amongst them That all of that Religion are bloudily minded and the like And conclude that these Fancy-Fram'd Pictures of Doctrines falling foul with my cleare Knowledge may passe along with other Aâ—ntick Shapes It is infallibly certain That there are amongst Papists Corruptions both of Doctrine and Manners But he that obiects Falshood against them will after a while manifest his own Falshood and set them free yea will appeare in the number of the greatest Tyrants as tyranizing over Souls and weak understandings The Man is not well setled in his Wits who blames my reviewing and revising the Secrets of Truth when I am a sad Spectator of Soul-Alterations evill in their Terminations and a mournfull Hearer of Blasphemies every day on every side Perhaps Reader it is troublesome to you that I write my selfe Independent adeò ut me transsig as convitio If it be so So be it Vereor etenim nè muricatus tibi subsit Animus For I fear that which way soever your Mind fals it is pointed towards me sharp hurtfull and Caltrap-like Whereas Hereticks and Scismaticks give me Names at their pleasure I presume that I may have leave to Name my selfe by what Name or Title soever I shal desire to be modestly called It matters not how I am called by my selfe but what in my selfe I am Indeed The chiefe Doctrines which I propose to the Reader I will defend to have been formerly defended and proposed by the most learned Divines of England and now to be recommended to the people by the most Popular Independents And therefore Tell not me Apparatu planè scenico Thrasonismi pleno with your Theatricall Language that my Discourse is Oratio pernicioso confecta Philtro It is the godly Truth of the most true God who is my Rock and I feare you not For God said to the valiant Joshua Josh 1. 5. and the Words are sweetly warbled over again by St Paul I Heb. 13. 5. will never leave thee nor forsake thee Where the Originall is wonderfully big and breeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Versicle there are five Negatives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Originall meaning affirms I will never never leave thee I will never never never forsake thee Then If the Presbyterian comes to bite if the Anabaptist God will never never leave me If the wicked Liver comes if Jesuit if Devill God will never never never forsake me OBIECT VI. LAstly It is objected That I understand not all the Languages which I use I answer I submissely confesse that I doe not understand all the Words and Secrets of these Languages yea that some of these Languages have many Secrets and Words which I reach not I understand English And my old School-Fellowes at Eton Colledge know that I was there a Babler in Greek and Latin I have picked up some odd Ends of Languages abroad And I have taken some pains in the Orientall Languages In the which notwithstanding I goe not the rough and tedious way of the Character but apply my selfe