THE ANABAPTIST Washed and washed, and shrunk in the washing: Or, a Scholastical Discussion of the much-agitated Controversy concerning Infant-Baptism; Occasioned by a Public Disputation, Before a great Assembly of Ministers, and other Persons of worth, in the Church of newport-pagnel, Betwixt Mr Gibs Minister there, and the Author, Rich. Carpenter, Independent. Wherein 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 jacent●bas jacere me credo; cum prostratis Fratribus & me prostravit Affectus.  
Brethren, I grieve with you: with every one of you I closely join and couple my Breast: with such as lie on the Ground as if they were dead, I fancy myself to lie 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 jesuits are Lion-mouthed in the Picture-Sense: Nor that all Presbyterians are tongued like the Dragon: Nor that all Anabaptists vomit fire.  
I rather believe, that the Lion-mouthed jesuit is the Pragmatical jesuit, descended from the roaring Lion in St Peter; who gives devouring and murderous Council, and seekingly 
1 Pet. 5. 8.  contrives the temporal destruction of his Opposers: And that many Presbyterians have peaceable Natures, and are not infernall-dragon-tongued; but are inconsiderately engaged by the simple and unballanced Apprehension of Moral Circumspection in such Persons: Yea, that many Anabaptists are temperate-hearted and mouthed, 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 unequal Proposition of irregular Doctrines.  
judicium ad Sapientiam pertinet, saith Aquinas: Right judgement is an Act of Wisdom, 
D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art. 6. ad. 3. Mat. 7. 1.  Wherefore: judge not; that is, not rashly, but wisely, and according to pious Knowledge; 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 obganiens.  
Non te deseram, ne●● derelinquam: Heb. 13. 5. Et nunc Exaltavit Caput meum Super Inimi cos meos: Psal. 26. 6.  
Sulphureis' ab Ignibus Obmur murans faculentus Anabaptista●  
Per Vomitum Scurra— faculentus obstrepens.   

To all the zealous Defenders and Abettors of Infant-Baptism, Grace and Peace.  
Dear Christians,  
I Am pressed once more to appear 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 Latin, 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 fundamental Calling; to preach in the Church of newport-pagnel, before a very numerous Auditory, congealed and consisting of the more solid and sapid part of Town and Country: And after the Sermon, baptised a Child, orderly presented in the Church. In the sober performance of which Mysterious Work, the Minister, unsettled 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 public; after his twelve-days preparation, being the long Parasceve to his intended and presumed victory.  
The sequel I beseech you to inquire from others. Only, pray, take this from me, pledge-wise. Delrio in his Magical Disquisitions, 
Delrio li. 2. Disquis. Magic. quaest. 25.  teaches, that sometimes by the secret, energetical and unseen operation of the Devil, and again sometimes by the seen, effectual 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 natural Commotion of Spirit, and at their pleasure: And afterwards Bodinus asserting that in a Rapture the Soul actually deserts the Body for a time. And indeed, the Soul of this Minister I beheld in the wildfire 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 University, (for the which he did evaporate his grief, 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 Bus●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, dear Christians, offer to you.  
It agrees on each side with the Anabaptists: They have 
Osee 8. 7. Sept.  sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: or, as the Septuagint: They have sown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 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.  sown empty and vain seeds, they shall accordingly reap vain and empty Fruit; and shall be long-whirled about, as in a whirlwind, 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 Door.  
Yet, here is not all; For, The Lord answered Job out of the 
Job 38. 1.  Whirlwind. And St Gregory 
S Greg. ib.  moralizes the Reason: Quia flagellato loquebatur; because he spoke to one that was actually under the lash. And, I hope that God, enthroned upon a whirlwind, 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 utterly deny, and hearty renounce, that I am a Papist in the Sense of the common Sectaries and others of the speckled Rout and miscellaneous Rabble, who call me so. I never was an Anabaptist, or had a Congregation heaving that way, God Almighty knows, and the world can testify: though now after our Disputation, and the success of it, the adverse Party hath most unworthily started this insipid Scandal of me, and as impudently defends it.  
These are they who leave altogether Viam Regiam, the Princely way of Truth, and turn aside to lies: Or, according 
Psal. 40. 4. li▪ dit. vulgat  to the Vulgar, insanias falsas, false madnesses: Or, in the words of the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, lying 
Sept.  madnesses: Or, acceptably to the Hebrew stamp, impressed by Saint Hierom, Pompam mendacii, the 
S. Hier. in Psal. 40.  worldly Pomp of a lie. These, although they should be in Ecclesia, in the Church, yet could not be de Ecclesia, of the Church; neither could they pertinere ad Regnum, pertain to the Kingdom. For without are dogs, (persons 
Apoc. 22. 15  barking, and biting, and tearing as they go,) and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.  
The Doctrine of Aquinas, 
D. Tho. 1. 2. q. 18. art. 2. & Interpretes ibi.  and of the Schools, is true: Humane Acts do take their Species or kinds, from their Objects: and if the Object be good, the Act is good: If the Object evil, the Act evil; in such a kind of Virtue or Vice wherein the Object is placed, or to which it is drawn or perverted. Because the Object being loved and efficaciously desired by the will, is always in the matter pulled home to it, and so refunds its goodness or badness upon it. Therefore the will which loveth and maketh a lie, and by loving it is habituated to it; is habitually evil in that kind.  
Standing upon this firm Ground, St Austin preacheth: 
S. Aug. ep. 52. ad Macidonium.  Non faciunt bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores: Good or evil Love makes good or evil Manners. And again, Talis est 
Idem Tract. 2. in ep. 3. Joann●.  quisque, qualis est ejus dilectio: Every one is such as his Love is: Love being the first, and the Queen of Passions in the Soul, and the rest all servants, and of the Train. In truth, and sans lying: It appears to me, that if Archimedes' were alive, he would sooner undertake to number the sands of the Sea than to sum up the Lies of such lovers and makers of Lies.  
I have been rather a constant and sedulous Opposer of Anabaptists, being actuated thereunto 
S. Bern. lib. 4. de Confid. ad Eugen. Pontis. Similia habet▪ Serm. 34, in Cantica.  by the grievous complaint of St Bernard: Cadit Asina, & est qui sublevet eam: perit Anima, & nemo est qui reputet; A she-Asse falls, and the Owner presently runs and lifts her up: A Soul perishes, and there is no man who considers as he ought to consider, how precious a jewel a Soul is, or, what is lost when a soul is lost.  
As first, in their first holding up their head, I opposed them and all their Tub-men, by public Disputation at Wapping: Where I extorted from the Minister of the place, by the rack of Argument, that his Congregation was the Synagogue of Satan; who thereupon was defeated, and fairly driven to the quick use of his Heels, by his own Congregation: and ran, as if Satan himself had been at his heels. And afterwards at Doctor Chamberlain's house, and in the fair and amiable presence of his Fairy-Congregation, where I devoutly heard from him a long Discourse, comparing (while his young she-Disciples encircled him in clusters) natural generation with Regeneration; and being, in proper Language, a learned Lecture of Man-Midwifry: And where afterwards, going up to the mouth of him, I tore from his lips, that we might baptise Children, did they not show resistance: and the resistance wherewith he defended himself in the push of Argument, is: Children usually cry, in the sprinkling of the water on their Faces. Whereupon I replied, that, by the same Reason, Children newly-borne, and feeling the cold Air, and crying, should not, after such resistance, be continued and entertained amongst us, but speedily returned into their mother's wombs. And there I left him, ready to do his Office, but not able to say a word for himself, or make any resistance. So that the pious Observation which holy St Austin used 
S. Aug. lib. 1. de Peccator. meriti● & remissione, cap. 23.  for the magnifying of the Mercy of God in his Ordinance, and for the commendation of the charity of Christians in administering it: Flendo & vagiendo cùm in eyes Mysterium celebratur, ipsis mysticis vocibus obstrepunt: Infants by crying when the Mystery is rightly celebrated upon them, noise it against the mystical words: Our womans-Doctor seriously abused and turned against God's blessed Ordinance, and the charitable and righteous administration of it. What Christian emolument came of the good which I wrought at the Spittle, by tormenting the Anabaptists there, (those petty Chapmen and Pedlars of Divinity,) and by stopping their Pestiducts; let the judicious Hearers (for, such there were of my Companions in every meeting,) judge.  
And now, with what strange and powerful water, these men have washed their Foreheads, or, how they have hardened them, I know not; as being altogether ignorant of this their mysterious Trade. Yet, I believe Hieronymus 
Hier. Cardan. lib. 6. de Subtilit.  Cardanus, in his report, that he saw a man at Milan, (being an Italian City,) who washed his face and hands with scalding lead, as carelessly and as confidently, as a man washeth his hands and face with ordinary water: but he had first washed them with an extraordinary, newsound and hardening water of his own.  
I forget. As the Physician describes the Disease, so he prescribes the Cure. These must be cured in their Hearts, and Roots: In their Actions, and Lives. Men have learned the way of changing bitter Almond Trees into sweet-ones: which is, they pierce them near to the Root, and let forth the bitter juice: So these bitter-hearted men and women, should let their perverse and sour Inclinations forth, at the Root of their Hearts; and become of bitter, better. And the Physicians, that they may draw the vapours from the Head of the Patient, apply Pigeons to the soles of his Feet. If these black Saints would walk innocently, and with Pigeons at their feet, they should not be troubled with such gross and idle fumes in their Brains.  
If they will not: The Palmtree, being, in some sense, the Phoenix of Plants, will grow straight and tall, and show fresh, and have sweet branches; howsoever at the Foot thereof outwardly, there may be Troops of unpleasant Frogs, of poisonous Toads, and of ugly Serpents, crying, and croaking, and hissing, and making a mixed noise that brings horror to the Hearer. Let them set before their eyes, a late woeful and wonderful Transaction in the same Country: containing a most remarkable Act of God's 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 believe, it will be transmitted by Tongue and by Pen, from Age to Age, until 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 thereof, the most petrified hearts in the last Age of the World, shall be dissolved.  
I desire in the fear of God, that they would abject, abdicate, and abrenunciate these their unjust and abject Criminations, being the vulgar supports of a weak 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 man's weakness. I have long ago learned from St Austin: 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 Governor 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 tropological Exposition of Gaudentius: Adhuc triduum, & 
S Gaudent Tract. 3. ad Neophytos.  Ninive evertetur: Verum praedixit, nam eversa est Iniquitas ejus, quia poenituit. Yet three days, 
Jon. 3. 4.  and Niniveh shall be overthrown: He foretold the Truth: for, the Iniquity of Niniveh was overthrown, because she repent. (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 Arabic, propose yet three days: But the Hebrew, and Chaldee, with Aquila Symmachus, and Theodotion, maintain, yet forty days.)  
My only Work is; if my Heart were seen by all Men, as God sees it, in the Original: 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 homespun man; and to be of a more delicate touch, in the presentation of new Matters. And although I shall never open myself 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, dear Christians, if these English Overtures of Heresy, every day, turning over a new leaf, 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 Compass standeth fast in the Point, or Centre, whilst the other walks the round; so howsoever the World moves, or my Body is moved, my Soul 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 feel the print of God's Anchor-Signet upon my Soul, by the which he hath signed me for a stayed 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, sapless, and obscure Townsman of Alubury, did subobscurely challenge me to buffet with him in the like Disputation. And I presently form the Latin 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 always 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 stomach 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 washed and washed, and shrunk in the washing.  

CHAPTER I.  
ANd when we have done all, we must all die. 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 Soul and Body. And the Latin Orator looks with a full eye upon the Platonists, when he saith: Sunt qui Discessum 
Cicero Tusc. Qu●st lib. 1.  Animae à Corpore putent esse Mortem: There are who think Death to be a Departure of the Soul 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 firm and  Assent to the revealed Truth of God.  
Saint Paul was the Instrument of Revelation, and hath settled it: first, as having a desire to departed: dissolvi, 
Philip. 1. 23 Interp. vulgat. Tixt. Graec. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Edit. vulg. Cod●● Gr●●c  says the Vulgar: and the Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be dissolved: (when he was in bivio, in a way betwixt two ways:) And secondly; as prophesying, 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 Philosophical Reason is: (this being also a Philosophical Truth, and there being Philosophical Reasons of all Divine Truths which are not mysterious, miraculous, or merely depending upon Divine Pleasure.) As Life results from the Union; So, by the Logical Rule of Contraries, (it is the same case with proportion in privatives,) Death, from the Disunion of Soul and Body. The Rule is: Contrariorum contraria est Ratio, The Course of Contraries is contrary.  
And Death, as the Lion, wounds 
Fra●zius in Leone.  not a part, or member only, but divides and rends in pieces the whole substance; and subverts the Being caused by the Composition of essential Parts.   

CHAP. II.  
ANd when we have done all, we must all die: must be dissolved. And then, whither the Parts dissolved▪ our Souls and Bodies (ours in particular) shall go, (the Devil sitting 
See Jer. 3. 2 S. Hieron. lb.  for us by the way, as the Arabian in the wilderness, for the Passengers; or, according to St Hierom, ut Latro, as a Robber; the Arabians being mighty Robbers and Hunters of Men in the Wilderness;) and how they shall far, resolve it fairly and positively he that can.  
Two States are assigned to every Soul: The State of Conjunction with the Body, and the State of Separation from it. Of the first, we have long trial: Of the second, we never yet had any. No living Man or Woman knows experimentally, what is the departure of a Soul from a Body: or, what Subsistance, Adherence, Condition, Companions, Relations a Soul hath in the State of Separation.  
Now, me thinks, He and She that may, this very night, be turned over, by Dissolution, to this wonderful, unknown, and unfathomed State of Separation; should be very careful what they believe, and how they live: Especially, the Life of Man being a very Bubble. A Bubble puts on the form of an Hemisphere: And shadowing half the World, as being an Hemisphere; it accordingly consists of two Elements. It is Air within, which is invisible for its Rarity; and without, a thin-shapt skin of water: and there is all the Bubble. The Air deciphers our Soul; and the watery skin, our Body; in this present World. The skin presently breaks: the Air as presently breaks lose: 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 show forth thy praise: And whatsoever others believe, 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 & Lamiaes 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 ways, that I sin not with my Tongue. I will take heed to my ways, that I speak not, (writ not,) prompted by Prejudice, Custom, or Carnal 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 lie open, and enthroned, when holy matters are in debating; according to the sober Custom of ancient Councils: The Word of God being the most authentical High-Place, from whence, in our wants, and at pleasure, we may look into Heaven, and into the first and Original will of God: and God having dealt otherwise with us, than Adrian the Emperor 
Niceph. Eccl. His●. lib. 3. c. 24.  with the rebellious Jews; 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 Logicians teach de Terminis Co●notativi●▪ signifies in recto all that which is material in it, being the things themselves, or the fair and fragrant Posy of the Truths revealed: and in obliquo signifies that which is formal 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 itself, according to the narration of Scripture: Because there seems then to have been Accidens (cujus esse est inesse) sine subjecto, An Accident (the radical being whereof 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 
D. Tho. part. 1. quaest. 7●▪ art. 1. ad ●.  the light. Primâ die facta est natura lucis in aliquo subjecto: sed quarto die dicuntur facta Luminaria; non qui●●orum substantia sit de novo producta, sed quia sunt aliquo modo formata quo priùs non erant. The nature of Light was made in some Subject, even upon the first day: but upon the fourth day the Luminaries or great Lights are said to be made; not because their Substance was now newly produced, but because they were form in some manner, in the which they were not formerly form. My Application is. The Light of the first day, in a Spiritual sense, is the Word of God, as coming from God to his Church: and the great Lights of the fourth day, are the same Word rightly proposed by the Church, and received into fit and gracious Subjects. More of this afterwards.   

CHAP. IU.  
TO press nearer. The Mathematical Axiom, Suprenum infimi tangit infimum supremi, The highest part of the lower thing touches the lowest part of the higher thing; insinuates a Concatenation of Things, and of Causes. And that this Concatenation may be securely supported in every link: God the first cause (though most united in Himself) is in all second Causes, and in all created things, per Essentiam, per Praesentiam, per Potentiam; by his Essence, by his Presence, by his Power. With reflection upon which Power, it is revealed of him; Attingit à fine … que ad finem fortiter, He touches from one end of the Creatures to the other, strongly.  
And he doth not uphold or touch his highest and lowest Creatures, as deserting or overpassing the rest couched betwixt them. For, De extremo ad extremum non est transitus nisi per media: The ordinary transition (yea, of the Creator attemperating himself to the Creature) from one extreme to the other, is by middle things: as the Passage ab Initiativo puncto ad punctum Terminativum, from the Initiative to the Terminative Point, is by the Line, being the Flux of the first Point. Therefore, as the blood continually resorts to the Heart in a Circle, from all parts of the body: So the Conservation or continued Creation and being of all things is from him, from whom is their first being and Creation.  
Hence we pronounce ex Cathedra, from the Chair in the School of Divinity: Providentia, vel infima tangit: Divine Providence toucheth all things, and even the last, lest, and lowest of them. And again, Praedestinatio est pars nobilissima Providentiae, Predestination is the most noble part of Divine Providence. And hence, it being a question amongst Schoole-Divines, 
Scholastici in tertiam partem D. Thomae.  Utrùm visibilis detur Effectus divinae Praedestinationis in Infantibus baptizatis; Whether or no there be any visible effect of divine Predestination in baptised Infants: The common answer is affirmative, concerning Infants dying after Baptism, and before they have actually transgressed.  
But the weak and fallible Authority of Schoole-Divines in itself, is not my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Touchstone wherewith I touch and try questioned Metals. Man did eat Angel's food: The Vulgar: Panem 
Psa. 78 25. Interp. vulgat. Text. Hebr.  Angelorum manducavit homo, Man hath eaten the Bread of Angels. The Original word rendered Angels, is Abbirim, of the strong: Angels being so called, because they are of superexcellent strength.  
I have read in Materia de Angelis: One Angel teacheth another Angel; or, a Superior Angel, having received in his Creation, more universal Species, teacheth an inferior Angel, by willing only, that he should know his mind; (quae volitio adimit impedimentum Secreti, & movet Deum ad imprimendam speciem talis Objecti alteri Angelo:) But it falls otherwise, in the Messenger, or Angel of the Lord of Hosts, designed by Malachi; 
Mal. 2. 7.  who teaches men by administering to them the Bread of the strong.  
The Angel of the Church, as proposing this Proposition-bread, or, these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Leaves of bread set in 
Sept.  sight, being the bread of the strong; hath strongly taught and maintained in the face of all Ages, the baptising of Infants: And whosoever hath obstinately set his face against it, hath been always esteemed respectively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, heterogeneous and heterodox; by the said Angel or Angels. And to the Judgement of these Angels in their Interpretations of Scripture, being the Will and Testament of the Lord of Hosts▪ from whom they come as Delegates and Ambassadors; I shall strongly stand; and seek the Law at their month.   

CHAP. V.  
LEt all Christian Fathers and Mothers take their little Children into their Arms; and having first kissed them, let them with a placid eye look upon them, and meditate over them. If they be not plane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, plainly void and emptied of all natural Affection; they will most plainly discover, that there are two things excellently conspicuous in Babes: which are, Innocency, and Impotency. By the first, they are altogether incapable of hurting others: by the second, as insufficient for helping themselves.  
In consideration of the first: It seldom falls out, even in the most bloody wars, as Vegetius observes, 
Veget. de re militari, lib. 3.  that old men, old women, young maids, and little Children are not spared. And in examination of the second; St Austin piously exhorts: 
St Aug. ad Hilar. ep. 89  Tanto magis pro Infantibus loqui debemus, quanto minùs ipsi pro se loqui possunt. We ought so much the more to speak for Infants, how much the less they be able to speak for themselves.  
Poor Things; they say nothing: But they are Dove-eyed, as the pretty one in the Canticles: and they 
Cant. 1. 15.  beg aloud, and plead prettily for themselves, with the dumb and silent Oratory of their sweet and innocent looks; being apt emissions and scintillations of their inward prettiness. Woe may compare them to a small kind of Lights or Lamps, composed of sweet matter, which are both shining and odoriferous. Certainly, God is graciously propitious to them in their kind, and in every kind agreeable to them; towards whom he hath imprinted in us, and even in barbarous People, a most merciful inclination of Nature; seconded with a viscerall commiseration of all their sufferings, above all ordinary course.  
I am too narrow. God hath enforced the very Tumult and outrage of the Sea, to acknowledge the baptised Infant: It being storied by Osorius concerning Albuquerqnez, 
Osor. de Rebus gestis Emmanue●is, Portugalliae Regis, lib. 1.  Admiral of the Portugal Fleet for the Conquest of the East Indies; that, being surprised by a most horrible Tempest, which gave sudden occasion to a woman in the same ship with him, to be delivered of a tender Babe, presently baptised by reason of the present danger; he fell upon his knees presently, presently took the newborn, now-borne, twice-borne Child in his hands, and held him towards Heaven, whilst he sacrificed his Prayer to God in this humble manner: Averte, Domine, fancy ●uam à peccatis meis, etc. Lord turn away the Face of thy Justice from my sins, and from the sins of the People with me: And though we have all deserved thine Anger yet in thy Child Jesus, spare us, by sparing this innocent Babe with us, that never sinned against thee, and is now received by thine Ordinance into thy Favour. Which Prayer being ended the Tempest ended, and the Sea became as harmless as the Child, and as calm as the water wherein the pretty Babe was baptised.  
We grown Persons are like Lampreys: we have all some strong string or other of poisonous actual … ination in us, but Babes have not: (〈◊〉 therefore, Men are exhorted, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, wax ye, or be ye 
1 Cor. 14. 20.  children in evil, or malice:) especially, baptised Babes, translated to a new, and heavenly condition; and in whom is presented a most pleasant part of Music, even that wherein the falling from a short Discord to a sweet Concord, causeth more than ordinary sweetness.   

CHAP. VI  
THe holy Doctrine of Infant-Baptisme, hath been soiled much, and polluted. How may it be reduced and recalled to its Native Purity? The Naturalists have found 
Albertus' lib. de Gemmis.  by curious Inquisition▪ That if a Pearl which is foul, be swallowed into the womb of a Dove, and remain there some while, the Dove will give it again most pure and Or●●ut. So every Doctrine must be tried and examined in the womb of the Scripture-Dove the Holy Ghost, which womb is the Word of God, proposed and interpreted by the Church of God: And if the Doctrine be Pearle-proofe, the Holy Ghost will quickly return it as such, and free it from spots, clouds, deformity.  
For the Church may well be subservient to the Scripture, and the Scripture auxiliary to the Church, in diverso Genere Causae, puta Exemplaris, & instrumentalitèr effectivae: Neither do the Logicians eliminate such Circles, or Circulations of Arguments; nor do such make us giddy.  
Prophetae, saith St Hierom, appellabantur 
St Hieron: ep. ad Paulinum, de sacra Scriptura.  videntes: quia videbant cum quem caeteri non videbant: The Prophets were called Se●rs: because they saw (Dono Prophetiae, by the gift of Prophecy, which gave them to foresee, and understandingly to declare their foresight; their Prediction including Prevision, quia praedicebant ex Praevisione; in the which, they differed from the Sibyls, who neither foresaw the things they Prophesied, nor perfectly understood their own Declarations,) Christ, whom the common Herd saw not. The Prophets and Apostles in their Holy Writings, and the Church interpreting them, discover Supernatural Truths to us, which we know not by other means: and their Testimonies are irresistible.  
The Chemists and Alchumists 
Chymistae. Alchymistae.  are agreed, that the most tried way of effecting the strange Transmutations of bodies, in Oils, Plants, Minerals, is to endeavour, and urge pressingly by all means the reducing of them to their old Nothing. The Scripture-Texts for Infant-Baptism, are so substantial, and solid, that, rather than they shall prove nothing for it, they take strange and many shapes, every shape shaping a proof.  
It is a secret of secrets in Sounds: That the whole Sound is not in the whole Air only, but also in every minute Part of the Air; otherwise, one and the same Sound could not beat upon many ears, and come with all the differences of it in such diversities of convenient Distance and Place. True it is of the Apostles: Their line is gone out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of 
Psal. 19 4.  the World▪ as the Hebrew: or, as the 
Text. Hebr. Sept. Lectio Vulgat.  Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sensed by the Vulgar, In omnem terram exivit sonus corum, their sound is gone forth into all the earth; and strictly followed by St Paul, and the Arabicks: 
Rom. 10. 18. Arab. Alex. Arab. Antioch. Interpretes Syr.  or as both the Syriack Interpreters, Evangelium, vel Annuciatio corum, Their Gospel or Annunciation is gone forth: All these running after the Septuagint, in the near Path of the Sense; not with the Hebrew, in the Road of the Letter.  
May the Evangelicall sound of the Apostles in this matter, reach even to the end of the World, and come wholly to every man's and woman's ears through all the earth.  
The Great Wheel in the Work, after which, and impelled by which, all others move; and the turning of which▪ as the first movable, shall be my care; is, to prove, that the words of Christ, Except a man be 
Joh. 3. 5.  borne of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; preach Baptism.   

CHAP. VII.  
SOme of the blockish and more earthy kind, seem to be scrupled and scandalised, that I have sometimes reform a Text in the English Translation of the Bible, by retriving it in the Original. Which notwithstanding, aught to be faithfully done by a faithful Teacher, for many Reasons: one whereof, I shall here indigitate. Because the English Translation is now and then so large, profuse, redundant, and running over, and so spreading itself beyond the modest limits of the Original, that it opens a way and window for an Adversary of Truth, which the Original shutteth up and blocketh against him. As here: The English Translation gives, Except a man be borne, etc. And the Adversary swallows presently, and concludes in haste; Therefore, if the Text hands forth Baptism, the baptised Person must be a grown man, as the word (man) commonly imports.  
Now can I be a faithful and equal examiner and Preacher of God's Word, and conceal the dyscrasy of the Translation and the present Obstruction of Truth: knowing, that the Original saith only, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and the Vulgar 
Text. Graec. Edit. vulgat  answerably, Nisi quis renatus fuerit, Except one be borne: And that except a Child be not one, he is not excluded from Baptism by the warrant of this Text, but affixed to it?  
Here the senseless Censurer ignorantly retorts upon me, that I speak myself wiser than all the English Interpreters of the Bible, and set them before my Tribunal; and above all this, that I correct the Word of God: when I am indeed God's Advocate, and set myself before the Tribunal of all the learned Knowers of the Original, to whom I humbly appeal as Judges; and when I only vindicate Gods known Word from gross error and misinterpretation, and protest against it, lest I should partake of it, according to the Rule in the Canon Law, Error 
Gratian. D 80. C. error cui non.  cui non resistitur approbatur, We approve the Error which we do not resist.  
The Black within the White, is: These blockish and dull-souled Censurers know no other Language than Mam-English, or, their mother Tongue: and they would feign have the whole work of sounding Scripture by the Line and Plummet, to move altogether and run within their own small Sphere and Circle; and so they would shoulder it with the tallest Divines, because they have been Abecedarii, and can, after much hammering, and stammering, and many a smarting Lash, put the Letters together, and cast a spell.  
I shall never be so forward and hardy as the late English Rabbi Dr Featly, who delivers for positive, 
Dr Featly in his Dipper dipped, not far from the beginning.  and avouches plainly, That no Translation is authentical, or, the Word of God. But I shall touch every suspicious Text of a Translation, with the Lydius Lapis of the Original: And if I make a false step, let the Learned tread upon me and crush me.  
I answer therefore to the shallow▪ thoughted Censurers, in St Gregory's 
St Greg. Homil. 7. in Ezech. D. Tho. 2. 2▪ q. 43. art. 7.  Words alleged by the Angelical Doctor: Si de Veritate scandalum s●mitur, utiliùs nasci permittitur scandalum quàm Verit as relinquatur: If a Scandal be taken from Truth, the Birth of a Scandal is more profitably permitted than Truth may be relinquished: The Scandal is passivum non activum, passive not active; non datum sed acceptum, not given but taken.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Whereas Christ the Son of the living God, by his Humanation, his Passion, and his Death, is the Universal Cause of our everlasting Life and Salvation: And whereas Universal Strength or Virtue even in these natural Things, is not bowed to us, and applied to particular effects, but by particular causes: it was convenient and reasonable, that some Remedies should be prescribed and adhibited to us in a ruinous Condition, that should, as particular causes, convey and confer to us the Virtue of the Cause which is Universal. These excellent Remedies are the Sacraments.  
And as the second Causes and Instruments of the first; and particular Causes attend the work of the Universal Cause: So these our Sacraments are the means and Instruments of Christ, for the effecting of his divine and saving Work upon us. And because there are always required to the work of the principal Cause, proportionable Instruments; it was congruous, that these our Sacraments should be presented to us under practical and visible Signs, and efficacious Words which are audible: the Universal Cause of our Salvation, being the Word of God Incarnate, and made sensible by assuming humane Nature, & elevating it in the Person of Christ.  
And because there is no salvation without Grace, as being previous and singularly proportionable to Glory; it is likewise conformable to right Reason and Measure, that Sacraments should be the divine Instruments of Grace in us; not as introducing the last effect of Grace by their virtue; but after the manner as the Sun and a man beget a man, which notwithstanding touch not in their operation, the Essence of the Intellective Soul, because it comes ab extra from without by Creation, and is not educed ex potentia Materiae, from the passive power of the Matter.  
And therefore, as the material Causes of our production in Generation, are attendant only upon the last disposition of the Matter, and aim precisely at the union of the Soul with the Body: So the Sacraments do not physically produce Grace itself, being a supernatural and proper gift of God the sole fountain of Grace; but only touch inclusively, the last disposition to it, pretending to the Union, and moving God to the production of it in a worthy Receiver.  
In relation to which virtus motrix, moving virtue, (moving the Will of God upon his promise,) the Prophet Micah saith, Thou wilt cast all their 
Mich. 7. 19  sins into the depths of the Sea. Where Arias Montanus notes out of the Rabbins, that it was customary with 
Benedictt. Arias Montan. in Mich. ex Rabbinis in Misnaroth.  the Jews to throw all things they did execrate and abominate, into the Lake Asphaltites, called Mare Mortuum, the dead or salt Sea. And conformably, the Indians who had expressed in them some footsteps of Judaisme, being now lightly impressed, express their sins in writing, or by some other Symbol; which they cast into a River, that it may be carried into the Sea, out of all sight and memory; as Acosta hath delivered to 
Acosta li. 5. de novo Orb, cap 25.  memory, from his own sight. But our Prophet alludes properly to the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red Sea; which was a type of Baptism, made blood-red by the death of Christ; and in the which our Egyptian sins are destroyed. Whence Theodoret 
Theod. & Rupert. in hunc locum.  and Rupertus do here by the depths of the Sea, allegorically understand Baptism.  
And Saint Gregory draws out in a long-spun thread, this efficacy of Baptism from the drowning of the Egyptians: and infers, Qui ergò dicit peccata in Baptismate funditùs 
Gregor. Magnus' in lib epist. ep. 39 ad Theoctistam Patriciam.  non dimitti, dicat in Mari rubro Aegyptios non veracitèr mortuos: He therefore, that says our sins are not forgiven in Baptism, may as truly say, that the Egyptians were not drowned in the Red Sea: and if he will give this, he must grant the other. And he fortifies himself with a reason of Proof: Quia nimirum plus valet in absolutione nostrâ veritas, quùm umbra veritatis: Because the Truth is of more validity in our deliverance and absolution, than the shadow of the Truth.  
The Nicen Creed is, after Scripture, the warrant of these writers: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
Symb. Nicen.  I believe one Baptism for the remission of sins.   

CHAP. IX.  
THe Signs also, and Matter of the Sacraments, are by divine Institution, most divinely and conveniently instituted. Behold this divine conveniency in Baptism, wherein we are spiritually regenerated which analogy to material generation.  
For: Whereas material Generation is Motus vel mutatio de non-esse address, A Motion or mutation from not-Being to Being; and Man in his first▪ Being, is, for the transfusion of Original sin, debarred of his first Birthright, the prime infusion of spiritual Life; from the which he doth afterwards analogically recede more and more, as he is more and more implicated in the bonds and sins of Death: it was orderly, that unto Baptism, which is the Laver of spiritual Regeneration, there should be ascertained on the part of the Sacrament, and annexed the spiritual virtue of washing away and removing sin by the infusion of Grace; and of translating by the same Grace, man to a gracious life above Nature.  
And because Signum respondere debet significato, the sign must always and signally answer to the thing signified; and the ablution of the outward filth of the body, is effected instrumentally by water: it was consonant, for the practical signifying of the spiritual and inward ablution of sin, that this initiatory Sacrament should be dispensed outwardly with water, sanctified by the word of God.  
And as one thing is once only generated; so is it concordant, that Baptism once rightly 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 school of natural Philosophy; that a thing is by so much the more Noble, by how much it hath more of inward form, from which formal interest, the Celestial bodies and precious Gems have their Nobility: And the Sacraments are dignified by their divine and beautiful Influx, and their formal setting our souls in the grace and peace of God which passeth all understanding.  
Aristophanes' undertaking the praises of temporal peace, finds not 
Aristoph. in pacc.  a name squall with the praises of it; and he wishes to find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a word or name equalling the capacity of ten thousand Amphors: (the Amphor was a large two-cared Vessel in Athens:) but what word can suffice to blazon the dignity of our Spiritual and Sacramental peace with God?   

CHAP. X.  
A Sacrament, beyond that it is signum rei sacrae, a sign of an holy thing; is in the next consideration, and in the review, Visibile signum Doni invisibilis, à Deo institutionem trahens, A visible sign of an invisible Gift, deriving its 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 sign is a thing, of itself 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 sign: And all Sacraments both old and new, are combined in this. For: Although God might and could have ordained some spiritual sign of grace, yet that sign should not have properly been a sign in a Sacrament, (howsoever some Doctors pull strongly for the contrary,) as I now speak of Sacraments: Because it should not have been signum humanum sed Angelicum, an humane but an Angelical sign; 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 warm being, a visible Church: God attemperating and proportioning his Ordinances to us and our mixed condition.  
That the Character impressed upon the soul in Baptism, is a spiritual and invisible sign; I will not doubt: But it hath no shelter here.  
Secondly: there are speculative and practical signs. And the Sacraments of the old Law, were not signs merely theorical or speculative of salvation and Grace; but practical. Because the promise of a thing is not speculatively-behavioured and mannered 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 Re● promissae, the moral cause of the thing promised: Every promise having a moral force, actually moving, or apt to move the promiser to performance.  
Whereas therefore, all the old Sacraments were certain promises or signs, by the which, God did, as it were, promise in figures, Christ and our Salvation: it is fairly and fruitfully consequent, that they were practical signs 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 practical signs; it is a sign, that the new are much more, and more excellently, as grasping a more excellent promise.  
Thirdly: the sign 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 do signify, is threefold: 1. Habitual and justifying Grace, which, as present, is demonstrated: 2. The passion of Christ the mediator, which is the cause of Grace, and is remembered as being past: 3. Glory and life eternal, which is the effect of Grace, and which, all habitual Grace, quantum est ex se, brings to it's Subject; and which as being hereafter to come, is prefigured.  
For the Sacraments signifying Grace, do consequently signify the beginning and end of the sane grace. And their signification must be considered 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 sign.   

CHAP. XI.  
I Wade farther. It is a fundamental 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 certain and evident, which are evidently and certainly deduced from sacred Scripture, as the things which are found in Scripture expressly, and word for word. And the same rule is returned in another dress: Conclusions are as right as their Principles, if rightly and consequentially concluded.  
The first reason of this truth, is fundamental 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, falsehood may come per accidens, by chance, and materially; not by formal, 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 identical 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 blessedness 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 blessedness is natural to God alone; because to be and to be blessed is the same thing to him: But the blessedness of the Creature, requires a trial of motion in the way; which is heavenly-true, even of the Angels.   

CHAP. XII.  
THE truth which I promise to fasten, and to settle upon pillars, as wisdom doth her House: namely, 
P. o●. 9 1.  that the words, Except one be borne, etc. engage for Baptism: I prove in the first onset, from the words of the Text itself: thus: Here within these words, is contained all that is essentially necessary to Baptism; all other things excluded: And this is the onely-safe way to know and find when a Text speaks fully and wholly of any thing: This being that full and adequate Correspondence, which Logic exacts betwixt an Essence and the thing essentiated; as also betwixt the thing defined and the Definition: that the one may fitly, fully and entirely pertain to the other, and be convertible with it, and measurable by it.  
After this manner, Baptism is responsible to the Text, and the Text to Baptism. For: Baptism is our birth of water and of the spirit, opening unto us the Kingdom of God; And, our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the Kingdom of God, is Baptism: And: This our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the Kingdom of God, is nothing else but Baptism; And, Baptism is nothing else, than this our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the Kingdom of God.  
If the Son of the Cooper shall set in his hoop, another Text, which takes up something of this, and conjoines it with some other thing dissentaneous from Baptism, (wherein the holy Ghost denotes a particular and secret concordance of Divine things and Ordinances,) that he may vie it with this our Text: the Logical Rule will unhoop him, de dissimilibus non est idem Judicium, Of things unlike, we may not pass the same judgement.  
And even according to Arithmetical Proportion; the mere addition of a single Unity, detracts from the sameness, yea and creates a specifical difference betwixt numbers: And, Numerus est in numeratis, A number, that it may be real and not notional only, must be subjected in the things numbered, being therefore also accordingly differenced.  
But when things of a different number, differ also in Nature; they are made by more differences, more different. And in things Divine, as in natural things, partial Natures are communicable to several things. The Text, Wash ye, make 
Isa. 1. 16.  you clean; for which, the Vulgar offers, Lavamini, & mundi estote, 
Interp. vulgat.  be ye washed, and clean; though it forespeak for Baptism, and was accepted under such a notion in the Primitive Church; yet because the precept is unrestrained, undetermined, and not bounded with a difference, and therefore not definitive; it bond not Christians with a strict bond; and Heathens finding it lax and wide, had seemingly, but unjustly brought it to their lustrations, as they are justly taxed by St Justin. 
Justin Mar. tire, Apolog. primâ & in Paraenesi ad Graecos & Gentiles.    

CHAP. XIII.  
THat in this our Text is all essentially necessary to Baptism, is farther apparent: Because here is signum externum & sensibile, the external and sensible sign, being water; and the concurrence of it, with the spirit: Here is operatio vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sancti spiritus interna & spiritualis, the inward and spiritual operation and energy of the holy spirit (that works always inwardly,) implying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an inward work and Birth: And here is mandatum Dei saltem implicitum, vel per consequentiam, at the least an implicit or consequential mandat of God.  
For although God be not our Neighbour, and therefore such obligations are not incidentiall upon him: Yet we are all fundamentally obliged, quatenus proximi; as neighbours to remove from our Neighbours, with the same love wherewith we love ourselves, and with our uttermost power, the impediments and obstacles lying in their way to the Kingdom of God: And therefore, this divine Declaration being extant and supposed; we are implicitly and consequentially commanded to execute the Sequel of it.  
Moreover: A sign may be naturale, quod non pendet ex nouâ Institutions, sed ex naturâ suâ significat; vel voluntarium, & ex arbitrio instituentis, id est, ad placitum divinum vel humanum; Natural, which doth not depend upon a new Institution, but signifieth of its own nature; or voluntary, and from the Arbitrament of the Institutor, that is, according to divine or humane appointment: And water here, is of divine and royal Institution, as the Spirit is of Royal and Divine operation, and as the Mandate is Divine and Royal.  
last: The sign as it is here assigned, hath complete analogy with the thing it signifies; it being most proper to that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the sign, to signify: Which it may do quoad substantiam, & quoad effectus primarios aut secundarios, respectively to its substance, and to its primary or secundary effects; as here the sign doth, principalitèr quoad effectum Ablutionis, principally with a finger pointing to its effect of Ablution.  
Water washes with its Humidity, being in the first and confuse view of Reason it's prime Quality; and therefore, fitly signifies the Ablution of our sins: With its Frigidity, it mitigates the superfluous exceed of heat; and therefore fitly signifies the mitigation of the Foams Peccat●, fire-hot and combustible matter of sin, being concupiscence: And as water is diaphanous, it is susceptive of Light; and therefore fitly enters league with Baptism, in quantum est Fidei Sacramentum, as it is the Sacrament of Faith, being the prime habitual and supernatural Light of the Soul. (It must be the Wolf of the evenings, which 
Jerem. 5. 6.  Oppianus likewise advisedly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Walker in the dark 
Oppian li. 1. de Venat.  night; that would abridge innocent Hearts and Lambs of the Sacrament of Light.)  
And the Sacrament of Baptism, as we find it here, is a practical sign, and besides its signification hath efficiency, as entitling us to the Kingdom of God through his princely Son the Bridegroom of our Souls, and as therefore adorning us with the wedding Garment of grace the pledge of Glory; (and for this reason is aptly called a Seal, being a practical sign as not only representing the Image, but also impressing it in the wax;) by the power of the Principle cause or Agent, that comes regalitèr, legalitèr, & authoritatiuè, regally, legally, and authoritatively with an Imprimatur, Let there be an impression of the Seal in the Soul.   

CHAP. XIV  
I Confirm it, first. That which is essentially, with respect to the whole Essence, agreeable to Baptism, (or any other thing,) is not common to many in the same literal construction, or communicable to any thing of a different kind: lest the whole Essence of Things should be confounded.  
Verily: The Genus in a Definition, is essential to the thing defined, and communicable to many things of a different kind: But it is not essential to the thing defined, (or to other things,) with respect to the whole Essence, but only as a Logical part. Neither are tears in Repentance Essential to Contrition, (which is an Act of Displicence in the heart;) that they should Essentially pertain to the means of Salvation. But water is essentially necessary to ordinary Baptism; though in extraordinary cases, involving Extremum periculum & horam Mortis, extreme danger and the hour of, death the defect of it may be supplied.  
And the Declaration here, as it is delivered in high terms, so is it Essential with respect to the whole Essence of ordinary Baptism. Which directed the Chair-divine of Aquine to speak high: Si aliqui nunc sanctificarentur 
D. Tha. part. 3. quaest. 68 art. 1. ad. 3.  in Utero, necesse esset eos baptizari, ut per susceptionem Characteris, altis membris Christi conformarentur: If any should be now sanctified in the womb, (as Jeremy and John the Baptist,) and cleaned from Original sin, they should of necessity be Baptised, that by the susception of the Character they might be conformed to the other members of Christ: this indelible Character having three Offices, aptos nos facere ad culium divinum, configurare Christo ejúsque Sanctis, & distinguere ab altis; to apt the subject, in some measure, for Divine Worship; to configure us to Christ and his Saints, (to Christ primarily and secundarily to his Saints under a new consideration;) and to distinguish the Baptised from the unbaptized, even in Hell itself.  
We are configured to Christ, who 
Heb. 1. 3.  is the brightness or effulgency of his Father's Glory, and the figure of his substance, as the vulgar; or, as the Greek Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Edit. vulgat Text. Graec.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Character of his subsistence; or, and the express Image of his Person, as the English. The subject of the Character, is the Soul secunaùm partem Intellectivam, according to the Intellective part; in the which part Faith is.  
And in Baptism, that which is Sacramentum tamùm, the Sacrament only, is the corporeal and exterior Ablution, effected under the prescribed form of words: That which is Res tantùm, the Thing only, is the Justification of the Person Baptised: And that which is Res & Sacramentum, the Thing and the Sacrament, is the Character of Baptism.  
And as the fit use of the prescribed words, though necessary to ordinary Baptism, (which therefore may not be administered by one that is dumb,) is included here in the right use of the water tending to spiritual Birth; so the impression of the Character, though likewise necessary, is here included in the work of the Spirit: Complete Birth in Baptism, supposing the performance of all works necessary to such Birth.  
And all this holds fair with reason: it belonging to young Sheep and initiated Servants and Soldiers, to be signed with a Character; and Christ being our good Shepherd, Master▪ Captain; who therefore, was not himself signed with a created Character; And therefore also, neither Circumcision, nor any Sacrament of the old Law, did imprint a Character in the Soul.   

CHAP. XV.  
I Confirm it, secondly. This Text agrees not with any Sacred Thing so evenly as with Baptism. Let any man▪ go, and make a near search, percurrendo per singula, examining the singulars in every kind. Let any man travel per enumerationem partium, through the numbering of all the choice parts of Divine Worship, or of God's Word: and in his return, honestly give up his Verdict.  
The child of the Hoop, answers out of the Tub; That by born of water, is meant born of the word; because the word is in Scripture oftentimes compared with water: and that the word meant, demeans itself as an Instrumental cause, the Spirit as an Efficient.  
I answer: This is the Hocus Pocus of desperate Ignorance, and a fugitive course. For: It is a breaking of all hoops and bonds, and a running hastily without cause, from the literal or historical Sense to a figure; in open defiance of the Rule, Minimè recurrendum est ad figuras, ubinulla cogit Necessitas aut Absurditas: We must not run back to figures, where we are not compelled by Necessity or Absurdity: Yea even against a fundamental Axiom set in Divinity, as a Star in the Firmament, for our guidance in the right understanding of Scripture: Which Axiom is precedent to the Rule: The literal sense, as the most obvious, and sweetly dropping from the native simplicity and propriety of words, as from a moderate Limbeck; if it be Usher to no evident absurdity, is always the meaning of the Holy Ghost.  
And if it were not: The Readers of Scripture would be Vagabonds, and never know where to sit down. And if, in every propulsion of our corrupt wills, we might affix new senses; we might also commonly deprave the most clear and most flourishing places of Scripture, and unbottom them from their proper hold, root, and inclination.  
The Herb called Morsus Diaboli, Devilsbit, the God of Nature hath so deeply rooted, that it is not pulled up entire: From the root of which, grew the name, and fable, that the Devil bites off the root, envying to us the use of it, as conducing so much to our health. When we violently pluck Scriptures from their native root and letter, with which they innocently bear towards us: the Devil bites in earnest, and ultra fabulam, beyond a fable.  
And therefore, we prove matters of Faith, and matters in controversy, only from the free-offering of the literal sense. And hence the Maxim: Theologia Symbolica vel Allegorica non est argumentativa: Symbolical or Allegorical Divinity is not reducible to Argument. For as the Spiritual sense, super literalem fundatur, & cum supponit, according 
D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art▪ 10. in corp.  to the determination of Aquinas; is founded upon the literal sense, and supposeth it: So it supposeth also, that the Sense of the foundation is the first, and most genuine Sense; as being the first considerable, and only root and prop of the rest. And the same Aquinas: Seasus literalis est, quem Auctor intendit: 
Idem ibid.  The Author of Scripture, intends the literal sense. And again: treating of the literal sense he addeth: 
Idem ibid. ad primum.  ex quo solo potest trahi argumentum, non autem ex his, quae secundùm allegor●am dicuntur, ut dicit Augustinus: Out of which only, we may draw an affirmative argument, but not from the things spoken according to Allegory, as St Austin saith.  
Vincentius the Donatist had in a prodigal humour attempted to prove from a dark and mystical 
St Aug. ep. 4●. contra▪ Vincentium Donatistam.  place in the Canticles, that the Church of God was fled into Africa: But St Austin betaking himself to the royal Fort here, put him to flight with a Sarcasme, ipsúmque vincebat Vincentium, and conquered him that had his name from conquering; with a Negative Argument.   

CHAP. XVI.  
THE Amplificator, thinking to hoop us up, amplifies the comparison, by describing in the rebound, how the Word agrees and contracts with water: As that 1: Water is of a purifying nature, and so is the Word: 2: Water is weak of itself, except it be compounded, and made comfortable with comfortable Ingredients; and so the word is a dead letter; and the comfortable Spirit and Life of the Word, is the true sense thereof: 3: Water hath a cooling and refreshing quality; and so the Word.  
I answer: All this is true: and all superlatively comprehended in Baptism. As 1: Baptism is of a most purifying nature: 2: Except the water in Baptism act with the spirit, it is most weak, and brings cold comfort: (But an argument raised from water here, taken for the word; in a word, is as weak as water:) 3: Baptism is endued with a most cooling and refreshing quality.  
Had the chief Properties of water, closed with the word, and not with Baptism; and been proper to the word quarto modo, proper to the word and only to the word: the Adversary, and the two proper Pages of his black Guard, had made a fairer appearance with their Pageantry.  
Thus did the Devil's Oracles deliver many sound truths, the better, under such palliations to disseminate & publish their most unsound errors. Thus doth a stink offend us more, when concomitant with some weak perfume which it hath pro vehiculo, than if it singly sets upon us; the perfume procuring for the stink, easier admittance into our sense: the stinking Perfumer that smells of Italy, knows it practically: and stinking Perfumers are more offensive. Thus poisons are most dangerous and irremediable, when joined in commission with a cordial that is not able to resist them: It serving to conduct them to the heart, and being unable to vanquish their malignity.  
This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to lead 
Aristoph. in Avibus. Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  silly women captive by the admixtion of truth with falsehood, as the old Fowlers deceived Pigeons by showing an exoculated Pigeon leaping and dancing in a net. And these impious ways of enervating and cutting the sinews of Scripture, may soon embroil the whole frame of it, and overturn all. Thus did the Tyrant Mezentius in Virgil, bind the quick and the dead together, and then, throw them into a den; leaving the living still embracing the dead, until death embraced the living, and made the conjunction homogeneal.  
Mortua qu●netiam, jungebat corpora vivis 
Virgil. Aeneid. lib. 8.   
Componens mantbúsque manus atque oribꝰ Ora.  
Excellently Tertullian of Carthage: 
Tert. lib. de Praescriptionibus adversus Haereticos.  Tantum Veritati obstrepit adulter Sensus, quantum & Corruptor Stylus, An adulterating Sense is as obstreperous to Truth, as a corrupting style: a false Sense of a true and Divine Text, being as mischievous, and doing the same work as a profane and ascititious Text. And vel caeco apparet, Violentam hanc, & quasi sidiculis extortam esse explicationem; the blind beggar may see this figurative explication, or confession of the Text, to be violent, and, as it were, extorted with the Rack.   

CHAP. XVII.  
I Prove secondly, that the Text proclaims Baptism: By answering the Arguments marching up in Battalions against this Truth. The first is. The new Birth is not attributed in Scripture to Baptism.  
I answer: This proposition is Antichristian, and most odiously false; as having the whole toad in it, guts and all. Baptism is named in scripture, Lovacrum Regenerationis, the Laver of Regeneration: of which afterwards. I will here, only set in the middle, a Text of the Apostolical Epistle to the Colossians: 
Colos. 2. 12.  Buried with him in Baptism, wherein also you are risen with him, through the Faith of the operation of God. Buried and risen in Spiritualibus, in Spiritual things; is nothing else but born again. In the which Burial and Resurrection, Corruptio unius est Generatio alterius, The corruption of the old man is the Generation of the new; and of the Subjects of sin, we are made the Adopted Children of God.  
And the Baptism here exhibited, must be Baptismus Fluminis, the Baptism of the Flood, or water-Baptism, which was commonly given with Immersion, to represent the Sepulture of Christ; answerably to this Text: And therefore, the Text runs, Buried with him. And in Sacred Sincerity, (which in our dealing of sacred things, aught to deal most sincerely,) the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Baptism. properly signifieth Immersion: though in rigore loquendo, Ablution is of the Fssence of our Baptism; but the manner of Ablution, is accidentary: because the Intention of the Lawgiver, with respect to the thing signified, is in the substance, ut abluamur, that we be washed.  
And in this Baptism, (whatsoever the Adversary muttereth, and champeth betwixt his teeth,) we are properly Baptised into Christ's Death and sufferings: Because the virtue of this Baptism, is derived from his Death; by the which we die to sin, and live to God. And what is there in the essential Constitution of the new Birth of a reasonable Creature; that is, in the constitution of a Child by Adoption; which is not reasonably discovered in a Baptised Infant; etiamsi passiuè se gerat?  
Adoption is by habitual Grace; which the Infant may receive by Infusion: though he cannot cry, Abba, Father; as wanting actual 
Gal. 4. 6.  Faith. Adoption differs from Natural filiation in this Essentially, that Natural filiation is founded in communicatione naturae viventis, in the communication of the Nature of a living Person, (Christ being called 
Mat. 16. 16.  the Son of the living God, quia viventium est generare sibi simile in natura, because it is the part of living things to beget their like in Nature:) 
Vide Concil. Francosordiense, circ● finem.  But Adoption is the Assumption of an extraneous Person, into the place of a Son: So may God assume a Child, in his free goodness. Adoptare, est quasi optare ut sit quod per naturam non est: To Adopt, is in a manner to wish, that he were a Son by Nature who is not: So God may join Children closely to him, as his Children: the wish in the Notation of the Name, failing here; because it fails of Divine Perfection. Adoptio fit per Filium natural●m, ubi naturalis Filius est: Adoption is made through the natural Son, in whom the Right and Heirship stands; where there is one; who consentingly yields up something of his Right: And Children may be Adopted through Christ the Natural Son; and be made partakers of his merits by the Sacrament of Baptism; The Sacraments being the Conduit-pipes, conveying the Grace of God, and Merits of Christ to us.  
The Eagle of the Thomists accords: 
D. Tho. p. 3 q. 62. art: ●●n sine Corporis.  Unde manifestum est, quòd Sacramenta Ecclesiae specialiter habent virtutem ex Passione Christi, cujus Virtus quodammodò nobis copulatur per susceptionem Sacramentorum. In cujus signum de latere Christi pendentis in Cruse, 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 sign of which, out of the side of Christ hanging on the Cross, flowed Water and Blood, one whereof pertaineth to Baptism, the other to the Eucharist, being the Chief Sacraments. He brings up the rear in the same Article, 
Idem ibid. ad tertium.  with: Justificatio attribuitur Resurrectioni ratione termini ad quem, qui est novitas v●tae per gratiam: Attribuitur tamen passioni ratione termini à quo, scil●cet quantum ad d●mission●m Culpae: Justification is attributed to the Resurrection of Christ, as to that to which the motion tends, which is newness 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 Christ's Death, by the which we are made alive, and rise with Christ; the Signs there, are called by the Fathers of the first Nicen Council, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Concilium Nic●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 Supreme 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 appears 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 instrumental concurrence.  
Wherefore God may strangely operate Faith in children: although we have no comprehensive knowledge of such operation: God's Spiritual 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: Infants sunt negatiuè Infideles, non positiuè: 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 less resistance, and these having no opposite Habit, or Act of perverse will.  
But the strangeness is, (saith he, who with sufficient unadvisedness 
Doctor Tailor in his Liberty of prophecy … Sect. 18.  and Incogitancy, took so much liberty in his Liberty of Prophesying;) That there should be an Instrument without an Agent to manage, or force to actuate it.  
Doth not God infuse a reasonable Soul into a child, in the very dark Womb: And is not Reason there in Actu signato, a long while, as an Instrument without an Agent to manage, or force to actuate it? And though John the Baptist was truly Sanctified in the womb, (which Sanctification was effected by the Infusion of habitual Grace,) and once leapt there for joy: Yet we hear 
Luk. 1. 41.  no farther of such unusual expressions in his Nonage; neither have we reason to believe otherwise than that habitual Faith remained in him, as an Instrument without an Agent to manage, or force to actuate it: nor will I dare to put him in equal 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 Mother's womb from Original sin, and there Justified; St 
St. Aug. ●p. 57 ad D●●d●nu●●.  Austin denies; which St Hierom also disavows of Jeremy. St Austin's 
St H●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 again by Grace, is conceived to be then born when he is conceived in his Mother's Womb, and receiveth a Soul and Life from God. For: as he is then born with! Original sin, so even then presently he may be reborn by Grace, and purified from it; yea and Baptised, 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 mother's Womb. The Syriack Bibles 
Syrorum Biblia.  have sanctified, Spiritu sanctitatis, with the Spirit of Holiness: And 
Codices Arabui.  the Arabic Books, in Utero, in the Womb. And we may not admit such an Audacious Hyperbole in Scripture.   

CHAP. XIX.  
THis habitual Perfection, though it hath no precedent or concomitaut Acts in Children, suitable with it: Yet hath it Acts precisely consequent to it.  
For donbtlesse: Baptised Children, coming to the dawnings of Reason, are wonderfully moved and raised from the habitual principles of Faith, Hope, Charity, (these being inseparable in them) to many spiritual and excellent Essays, of the which, their tenderness is capable; and which are not in unbaptized Children, and ungarrisoned Souls. As when we graft a Rosetree, and insert a grain of Musk into the cloven of the Stock; all the Roses that spring from it, if the Tree be not blasted from the ambient Air; will smell of Musk.  
It is true: These Essays 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 gins by the Sense. And this Infusion being acted independenter ab Organis Corporalibus, without dependence on Corporeal Organs, as being merely Spiritual; and acting upon the Soul ex parte Infusionis, as if it had no dependence 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 explicitly 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: Infants Baptizati habent Fidem, uti Rationem, in actu primo, non secundo: Baptised 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 actual Operation: Yet it is not meant cum respectu ad consequentia, with respect to all that follows; as, that Faith in Children, proceeds of itself to explicit Act and exercise, as Reason doth, which needeth not outward instruction to the common exercise of reasonable Acts: Because Reason belongeth to a Man, as proper to him in his fleshly House, and as being in his Definition; which, Faith, as being supernatural, and a Gift of Grace, doth not.  
And this their habitual Perfection, may be well apprehended, as in the reality of its Infusion, so in itself: it being in them, sicut Habitus est in Adultis dormientibus, & ex Habitu non operantibus, as an Habit is in us when we sleep, and work not by the Habit. Wherefore Baptised Infants are Fideles, of the Faithful Kind. And indeed, grown Persons are not called Faithful, ab actu, sed habitu Fidei, from the act, but from the habit of Faith; otherwise, when they sleep, and also, when they wake and think not of Faith or Divine Things, they should not be Fideles, Faithful.  
I confess that a Baptised Child, educated amongst the Turks or Indians, and not hearing of Christ, would be of the Indian or Turkish Profession: Because the Grace of Baptism would be lost and chased away, by the disordinate Application to sensible and present Things. For: As where the Sea is red or 
Nieremberg. Hist. Naturae, lib. 16. cap. 57 De mari rubro & nigro.  black, the Rocks and Sands are also there black or red: So we commonly conform in Religion, to the places of our Education, and are effigiated in morality by the manners of the Persons with whom we live.   

CHAP. XX.  
THese recluse and profound secrets of Knowledge, will be the more pervious, if this note concerning our Habits be enterweaved.  
Those Habits of Virtues which God (the Lord of all Spiritual Treasure) insuseth into the Soul, are actively produced by God, without us, (who passively receive them,) or our aid and co-operation. Whence an Infused Habit is defined, Bona Qualitas Mentis, quam Deus in nobis, sine nobis operatur: A good Quality of the Mind, which God worketh in us, without us. And: Habitus in Adultis tribuunt facilitatem Potentiae ad operandum: Habits in grown Persons, give a facility of working to the Power; as being capable of it. And the Acts of those Habits, either elicit or imperate, that is, the exercises of Virtue, are so produced by Grace in us, and in the Powers of our Soul, (good Habits not coming forth into Act, but by the present Influx of actual Grace,) that we also, must actively concur, and not only vitally, but also readily, freely, and with Election, and ordination to some honest end; to their production. 
1 Cor. 3. 9 Text. Graec. Lect. Vulg.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith St Paul: or, as the Vulgar, Dei enim adjutores sumus; For we are helpers of God, in the work of God: or, as the English: For we are laborers together with God.  
From this Doctrine of Habits, the second Arausican Council took 
Concil. Araus. secund. can. 20. S. Aug. in Sententiis, num. 311.  its Rise, when it published out of St Austin: Multa enim Bona facit in Homine, sine Homine, Deus: Sed nihil Boni facit Homo quod non faciat Deus, ut faciat Homo. Many good things God works in Man without Man: But Man doth no good thing which God is not the cause that Man is the Cause of. The former part of this part of the Canon, speaks of Habitual Grace in the Infusion: the latter part, of actual Grace and Operation.  
It is Visible here, that the Nature of an Habit is compossible with the childishness of Children: and that the Habit doth not give a facility of working to their Powers, by reason of their Indisposition, inward and outward; as we are indisposed, being in a sleep, or Trance, or distracted with Affairs of a lower order.  
I am startled sometimes with horror and amazement, as if I were planetstruck; when I consider and chew in my Thoughts, how inconsiderately and rashly, the ignorant ranting Rabble of Men, Women and Children, being exhausti Pudoris, of exhausted shamefastness, rush beyond the Hoop, and make a rude assault upon these hidden Depths, and Heigths, and Breadths; the sound Explications and evolutions whereof, are embodied in School-Divinity. They should hear 
Lucianus adversus indoctum.  the Dog's bark in Lucian; which when young Neanthus played upon the Harp of Orpheus without Orpheus his skill; enraged with his tunes out of tune, ran with open mouth upon him, and tore him, almost into as many pieces, as the noise he made, consisted of Discords.  
That Baptism is the Instrument of our new Birth, the Fathers and old Interpreters of Scripture, bear up by general Acclamation. I enter 
Tert. lib de Baptismo cap. 1.  Tertullian as their Orator: Nos Pisciculi secundùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nascimur: We little Fishes, according to our Fish, Jesus Christ, are Spiritually born in the Water. His explicit meaning as it depends upon History, is: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Saviour, being the Motto or Title of Consignation in all our Affairs, and by us gathered together in short, according to the first and Head-Letters, into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by you coagulated with scorn, and interpreted a Fish: who notwithstanding is mystically and Metaphorically our Fish; and we according to our mystical Head thus intimated by these Head-Letters, are inwardly born with the Fishes in their secret Element exposed to our mystical Use.   

CHAP. XXI.  
THE second objection is: If the Text declares for Baptism; either there is an halfe-Birth, and some are newborn by halves; or, all the Baptised shall enter into the Kingdom of God: quae ambo, sunt inconvenientia.  
I answer to the first Member: There is no halfe-Birth; neither are Baptised Children newborn by halves. For: the whole work of the new-Birth is completed in them: They have, saving Faith you may call it, or Sanctifying Grace; and they are Justified. Only: They have not this Grace or Faith, quoad externum exercitium, according to outward exercise: the effect of all, being as yet immanent and inward. Because, Quicquid recipitur, ad modnm recipientis recipitur: Whatsoever is received, is received and contained according to the manner and measure of the Receiver. And Children receiving the Life of Grace, when the corporeal Organs remain slatted, and lying mortuo modo, after a dead manner, in regard of such high and lively performances: we may not expect exercise, until teaching shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
2 Tim 1. 6. in Textu Graeco.  stir up the gift and grace of God in them, by blowing the coal, hid and lying as dead, some while in the Ashes: As the Fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which fell from Heaven, was nourished and cherished with the Suppliance of ordinary Matter and Helps, by the Priests under the old Law.  
For: Supernatural Habits are outwardly manifested and explicated by natural, outward and ordinanary Means: though Habits cannot be strengthened inwardly or augmented, but with Acts of the same kind.  
A Coat for the body of a Child, may be a whole Coat, a sit Coat, and a warm one, though it appears outwardly but a little Coat.  
And as we draw Original sin from our Parents, so God our Heavenly Parent, in a due Time, takes us up de matre cadentes, falling from the Mother, and being unclean; with a cleansing Ordinance. And because the Grace of Christ is, at the least, as great as the Prevarication of Adam; they who are made guilty by the first Adam, may not be neglected by the second: And therefore, his Visible Ordinances are addressed towards them as soon as they Visibly appear in the world.  
But the reverend and Politic Doctor objects for his Brethren the 
Doct. Tailor in his Liberty of prophesying. Sect. 18.  Anabaptists: That, Grace being an improvement and heigthning of the Faculties of Nature, in order to a Supernatural and most high End; hath no influence or Efficacy upon the Faculties of such, who cannot reasonably perform the natural Acts of Understanding.  
The Answer is: Grace in Children, perfects and heigthens the Faculties of their Souls, by cleansing them, by adorning them for God, and consequently by stating them in a capacity of their supernatural End. For though as Aquinas admonishes: Fi●em oportet esse praecognitum Hominibus, 
D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art. 1. in corp.  qui suas intentiones & actiones debent ordinare in Finem: It be necessary that the End should be foreknown by Men, who ought to direct their intentions and actions to their End: Yet in Children, in whom, for their defect of Understanding, there can be no such direction or dirigible Action; God Almighty directs and acts for them; and they are directed by him towards their Supernatural End, Sicut Sagitta à Sagittante dirigitur versus Scopum, as an Arrow is by the Archer directed towards the Mark; God working in and with all things, answerably to their being and capacity: and supplying, as the Supreme cause, their defects.   

CHAP. XXII.  
TO the other Member of the objection: Or, all the Baptised shall enter into the Kingdom of God: I answer: All fitly qualified for the whole effect of Baptism, and rightly Baptised, shall enter into the Kingdom of God; modò posteà non ponant obicem, if afterwards they, on their own part, scatter no impediment in their own way.  
Simon Magus hath no work for a Cooper; (I despise no man whose Father is a Cooper; but if such a one shall undertake to Hoope-binde his Hogsheads, or Buckingtubs, and not perform it strongly; I shall merrily tell him of it:) because he was not sitly qualified, though Baptised. 
Act● 8. 13.  Ponder the Text: Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was Baptised, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. His Faith and Foundation was not sound: therefore his Baptism and Superstructure was not safe; he remaining still unqualified: the fit qualification of an Adult, for the whole effect of Baptism, being Faith and Repentance.  
The Divines have truly discovered four Kinds of false Faith in true and Holy Scripture: The Faith of the Heretic: The Faith of the false Christian: The Faith of the curious Person: The Faith of the Person unquiet or unstable. All these have misplaced and mis-centred their Faith. Guess now I beseech you, which of these false Faiths, was the faithless Faith of this false Dealer, Simon the Magician. Surely: his Faith was the Faith, which, as the rest, leans not upon the Veracity of ●od, the Revealer of Truth, in his Revelation; nor upon the well-groundednesse of the Church, the Pillar of Truth, in her Proposition; but is generated and earth-begotten, when (this being its differential mark) the person is hurried on with a curious Motive of seeing Miracles: as the Scribes and Pharisees were, saying Master, 
Mat. 1●. 38.  we would see a sign from thee: Of whom also St Paul: The Jews require 
1 Cor. 1. ●2.  a sign. And Herod was tainted 
Luk. 23. 18.  in this kind.  
This Faith was the broad-eyed and staring Child of Amazement and Amulement. And therefore, even the Apostles themselves were deceived, etsi non i● materia Juris, in materia tamen Facti, though not in matter of Right or Law▪ yet in matter of Fact.  
But the Member here, serperastro cohibendum est, must be swathed up. The Alchemists uncertainly obtrude 
Alchymistae.  to us, to keep straight their curious opinion of the Philosopher's Stone, and of the making of Gold; That Nature intendeth Gold in all Metals; and that if the Crudities, Leprosities, Impurities of Metals were cured; they would all evade into Gold. Certainly: God intends intention primariâ, with his primary intention, that the Sacraments should be rightly received by all the Receivers, (and that they should all enter into the Kingdom of God;) and if they be not, the fault most commonly is in the Impurities, Leprosities, Crudities of the receivers; their impure Heresy, their leprous Christianity, their curious and unstable Crudity.  
He wils no man absolutely from his entrance into the Kingdom of God. And that he foreknows the non-entrance of many, hath no forcible operation upon the Things foreknown: Sicut enim, as St Austin, 
S A●g. in sentential. S●●. 379.  nemo memoriâ suâ cogit facta esse quae praetereunt, sic Deus praescientiâ suâ non cogit facienda quae futura sunt: For as no Man by his remembering of things past, compels them into 
Vide quae sequuntur apud Augustinum.  a past being: So God by his prescience and foresight of things to come, forces them not into being hereafter. But he wils it conditionally, from the breach of his Condition in his Covenant with Mankind.  
Divinely St Bernard: Rectè Deus non pater judiciorum vel Ul●ionum 
S. Bern. Serm. 8. in Natali Domini.  dicitur, sed pater Misericordiarum, eò quòd miserendi caus●m & originem sumat ex proprio, judicandi vel ulciscendi magis ex nostro: God is rightly said to be, not the Father of Judgements or of Revenges, but the Father of Mercies; because he takes the cause and origin of showing Mercy, from his own; but of judging and revenging from us.  
And from the bottom of Reason: Reprobation is an Act of divine Hatred; and God hates nothing in man except sin; and therefore, doth not reprobate Man for any thing but for sin.   

CHAP. XXIII.  
TO right Baptism is required; ex parte Baptismi, vel Sacramenti on the part of Baptism or of the Sacrament: 1: right Matter: which is, natural water, not artificial as Rose-water & the like. And it must be water in its proper and simple Element, not compounded▪ 2: right Form: As: I Baptise thee in the name of the Father 
Ecclesia O●cid●ntali●.  and of the Son and of the Holy, Ghost, according to the received use of the Western Churches: or, as the 
Ecclesia Grae●●, E● O … ales aliae quaedam.  Church of Greece, and some other Oriental Churches; Baptizetur Servus Christi, talis, in nomine Patris, etc. Let the servant of Christ be Baptised (here he is named) in the Name of the Father, etc. For: the Grecians do 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 error 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 beam cast upon these Requisites on the part of the Sacrament, St Austin is doctrinal: Accedit 
S Aug. Tractat. 80. in J●an.  Verbum ad Elementum, & fit Sacramentum; The Word is applied 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 certain Form of words is required by the pull of necessity, that the indifferency of the Matter may be determined; so there is need of some special Intention, formal or virtual, to determine the indifferency of the Form: otherwise, he that shall accidentally read or utter the words or formal part of the Sacrament, in strange or profane matters and occasions; shall be said to read 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 intent the work of Christ, and to Act after his prescription.  
And lastly, ex parte Baptizati, on the part of the Baptised, 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 Kingdom of God is open to the rightly Baptised: The Scriptures being impregnably strong for it.  
The Apostle St Peter having opened the sluees of Heaven, and brought the 'slud into his Discourse, and how some were saved by water in the Ark. ass●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 Original deals it: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: which the 
Text. Graec  Vulgar doth re●●est into its native signification; per Lavacrum Regenerationis; 
Edit Vulg.  by the Laver of Regeneration.  
Then are we saved by Baptism, as by a Sacramental Instrument. Then are we likewise washed in Baptism, from Original sin. Then is Baptism the Sacrament of Regeneration; and consequently of Initiation.  
And it is most conformable to the royal way of divine Mercy, and to right Reason, the royal Work of the divine Power; that the Sacrament which initiates us, should also instrumentally regenerate us, and compliablie lift us up into the royal state of Salvation: that the Goodness of God may be, not only as large and extensive, but also in some sort, as intensive and efficacious for us to life and deliverance, as the malice of the Devil is to Death and destruction.  
Wherefore Ananias to Paul, than 
Act. 22. 16.  Saul: Arise, and be Baptised, 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 actual sins also, committed (if such there be) before Baptism, washed away by it. And either this water-signe must be Signum inane, a vain Sign, 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 complete 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 less, (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 looks upon the End in every practical touch of his Power; which End is the chief 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 itself 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 express and visible sign 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 Council 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 threefold: Gregory answers as followeth. De 
Concilium Roman. sub Gre●●cio primo: & idem Greg lib. 1. Regist●i, ●p. 4. ad Leandrum Episc. Hispal●nsem: & allegat Gratianus de Consecrations, D●st. 4. cap. de trina.  trinâ mersione Baptismatis nil responderi verius potest, quàm quod ipsi sensistis; quia in una Fide nihil officit sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo diversa. Nos autem quòd tertio mergemus, triduavae Sepulturae Sacramenta signamus; ut dum tertiò Infans ab aquis educitur, Resurrectio tr●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; qu●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 divers Custom of the Holy Church hurts not where there is one Faith. ●ut we dipping the third time, declare the Mystery of the three day's Sepulture; that while the Infant is drawn from the water the third time, the Resurrection of Christ after three days, may be thereby expressed. If any perhaps may think it to be done, even for the veneration of the highest Trinity; neither is there any hindrance to this, but such a one may dip once only the Baptised Person: Because there being one Substance in three Subsistences, it cannot be at all reprehensible, to dip the Infant in Baptism either three times or once; whereas in three Mersions, the Trinity of Persons; and in one, the Singularity of the Divinity may be designed.  
Also: in the Thing signified there is never any difference, Rebus eodem modo se habentibus: because God works infallibly: And: Agens agit ad extremum Potentiae, si Patiens eodem modo se habeat: The Agent acts to the utmost of his Power, if the Patient be alike disposed: And not only the Natural, but also the Voluntary Agent, respectively to what he proposes and intends.  
Let the backward-witted Anabaptists know, that a Divine must not expatiate altogether in Scriptures, which in every purge-motion, or Tickle of their Imagination, they turn and wiredraw with their most unnatural and violent Interpretations, to their own everlasting Perdition.   

CHAP. XXV.  
Here now remaineth yet one obstacle: this being the last and strongest Quill which the Porcupine shoots in this encounter. If Children be infallibly Sanctified in Baptism, then is there a falling from Grace.  
My answer is. I confess in the sight of the Sun, that my Judgement goes aequis passibus, with some Independents in many particulars. For example: in the Doctrine of Universal Redemption, if piously regulated: Of Conditional Reprobation; and that our sins and Damnation are of ourselves; our Salvation of God: That there is a moderate Freedom in Man with reference to supernatural Actions, excluding Pelagius and the Massilienses or Semipelagians; and that the Action hath its being free, from our Will, and from the Divine Grace, it's being gracious: These actions in us being somewhat like the theandricall Operations in Christ: and in all their Doctrines, militant against the Calvinists; wherein the Independents as noble Creatures and Adversaries to the Viper, free our most good and most pure God from being the Author of the Evil of most impure sin. Likewise: that there is a Falling from Grace. Which not being granted: the Anabaptist will here throw the Paedobaptist flat upon his back, that neither Scripture nor Learning will be able to relieve or help him; except he shall pitifully fly to this miserable and unreasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that some infants are Sanctified by the Sacrament, and others are not.  
Neither are these the Doctrines of Independents only, but also of the most expert Scholars of the English Nation; against whom I shall never take up this Gauntlet.  
The Grace in the question, is habitual Grace: and the falling, is a Falling for a Time in the Saints of God, and a final Falling in Reprobates. For: He that says, the Elect fall finally, ●als himself presently into a Contradiction: And: Contradicentium unum necessariò ve●um, alierum falsum est: Of contradictory Sayings the one is necessarily true, the other false: And in a Contradiction being grounded upon esse & non-esse; and therefore, consisting of two parts, where of the one denieth Being, and the other affirmeth to be; it is impossible that both parts should be true, that is, should be, otherwise than Chimerically. If they be Elected by God to Salvation, whose Decrees concerning our last End are immutable; they cannot fall finally from it: And: if they can fall finally from Salvation, they are not Elected by God to it: the immediate Jar being betwixt ens & nonens, being and not being; betwixt being Elected and not being Elected; betwixt falling finally, and not finally falling.  
The firm Tenure therefore, of this Truth is: That as the Sense of Touching, like a faithful and most unseparable Achates, stays outwardly with us unto the last breath; and this ending to act, Death gins 
Vide Arist● lib. 3. de anima, cap. 13. Text. 67.  to execute: So the Elect may for a while, and Reprobates finally do, lose all the lively Touching and faithful Attendance of inward and habitual Grace, and consequently, the Life of Godliness.   

CHAP. XXVI.  
I Receive Scripture in the humble 
Gius. in vita Caroli Borromaei, lib. 8. cap. 2.  posture of Carolus Borromaeus, who read it always upon his Knees, as humbly attending to the Royal Words of his King. And my first Text is: But when the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness, 
Eze. 18. 24.  and committeth Iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live? all his Righteousness that he hath done, shall not be mentioned: In his Trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Here it is evidently supposed, that the Righteous man may, and sometimes doth, fall finally; as dying in his sins and Trespasses: yea, that he loses while he lives, not only Gratiam gratum facientem, the Grace by which he is properly acceptable to God, and which gives to the Soul a divine and supernatural Being; and consequently, the Habit of Charity, (these not being distinguished, according to Scotus and the Anti-Scotian 
Scotus & Scotistae.  Scotists; the same gift, as it makes us beloved of God and accepted to Glory, being called Grace, and, as it renders us Lovers of God, being named Charity;) but also all good Habits that are merely natural and moral, and which cannot be expelled by one opposite Act, but require many such Acts to their expulsion; such Habits being acquired by the multiplication of Acts of the same nature, and therefore, being weakened by the diminution of them, and lost by cessation from them; and by the frequent acting of opposite Acts: For, he is here declared to do according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, and to have put himself into a lost condition, wherein all his righteousness that he hath done, shall not be mentioned; our past Acts, intercepted by a change, not returning upon us except we be qualified and opened for them by a condition agreeable to them.  
My second Text is: And because 
M●t. 24 12. 13.  Iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. The Greek Text affords, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Charity of many shall wax 
Text. Graec.  cold. Which words imply a total extinction of Charity, and a coldness of Death; because the coldness of Charity is opposed here to Perseverance, which endures unto the end; and the opposition or antithesis would not be right and even, unless it were a coldness losing all heat of Charity, and ending in coldness: And the Text supposes, that few shall endure unto the end, yea but one amongst many, the rest losing their Charity.  
My third Text: Know ye not that 
1 Cor. 3. 16. 17.  ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the Temple of God is Holy, which Temple ye are. The Original goes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: If 
Text. Grac.  any man destroy the Temple of God, him shall God destroy. It is consequent: the Temple of God may be destroyed; and the Person, who was the Temple of God, and in whom the Spirit of God dwelled, may be destroyed finally.  
My fourth text: Holding Faith and a good Conscience, which some 
1 Tim. 1. 19  having put away, concerning Faith have made shipwreck. A good Conscience conspiring with Faith, is a true mark of Gods' faithful Servant: yet, some that had a good Conscience, have put it away, and thereby made shipwreck of their Faith: which they could not have done, had they not once been in the Ship or Ark of the Church, and there obtained, first their Faith, and then, their good Conscience: and therefore, they were utterly unravelled, as losing, first their good Conscience, and then their Faith.  
My fifth Text is: In the latter 
1 Tim. ●. 1●  times some shall departed from the faith. But no man actually departeth from that which he hath not. It runs on: giving heed to seducing Spirits, and Doctrines of Devils. And no man is rightly said to be seduced from a false faith, but only, from the true faith: Neither is any seduced Person entangled in the false Doctrines of Devils, but as relinquishing the true Doctrine of God: from the possession of which, being drawn, he is properly seduced and led out of his way, having been in it; the seduction here, not being a seduction from the way to the Doctrine of God, but a seduction from the Doctrine which is the way of God, this being diametrically and immediately opposed to the Doctrines of Devils.  
Many more Texts there be, if summed up by the Algebra of ingenuous and Christian Candour: but even these are able singly to heave out the objection. And: if we cannot fall from Grace or Faith: why doth holy Scripture exhort us promiscuously, many times and pressingly, to stand fast, hold fast, persevere? and why do we produce and prosecute these Texts in our Sermons? Exhortation always presupposing a possibility of the contrary.  
The Text in high esteem with our low square Knights of the round Hoop: The gifts and calling of God 
Rom. 11. 29.  are without Repentance: gives nothing to the adverse party, but only a call to Repentance. For: although the Original word be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, impenitible; and the Basilean Code 
Text. Graec. Codex Has●●eensis. Syrus In●crp.  exalts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, immutable; and the Syriack shrines it, non mutavit Deus Donum suum & Vocationem; God hath not changed his Gift and Vocation: Yet this proposition is intended the Vocatione absoluta & efficaci, of the absolute and efficacious Vocation of predestinated persons, with respect to the final effect, which assuredly follows: and of the Gifts in order to it. And if you wry it from this, you move crookedly; because, Many are called but few, etc. And in genere, it is true of inefficacious Vocation and Grace, quantum est ex parte Dei, as considered and weighed on God's part; and on the part of his antecedent, not of his consequent and judiciary will.   

CHAP. XXVII.  
REason, as the Handmaid, waits upon Scripture.  
First: if Charity be considered ex parte Subjecti, on the part of the Subject: the Subject being vertible and mutable, Charity may be lost by actual mutation. For, in regard that this Charitas viae, Charity of the way, doth not fill the whole possibility of the Subject, and therefore, is not always actually, nor at any time necessarily carried towards God: in the time wherein it ceaseth from act, the Subject being free from necessity and coaction, hath power at the presentation of other concurrences, to disband the Habit.  
Secondly: if Charity be considered ex parte Habitus, on its own part, or on the part of the Habit: the use of the Habits in us on our parts, is from our will, as from an active Power or Faculty; and there is essentially required in our will, a Reference ad utrumque Oppositorum, to both the Opposites; that is, as well to the one as to the other: in respect of which Respect or Reference, the Subject or Agent is variable.  
Thirdly: The understanding of a Saint militant, is capable of darkness and offuscation: and every sin descends from some kind of ignorance: Whence the Philosopher: 
Arist in Ethic. lib. 3.  Omnis Malus, ignorans est: Every evil person is ignorant: Therefore, we are then only secure of Holy Charity in our will, when we are secure of perfect Knowledge in our Understanding: as, when we clearly see the first Truth, the clear sight whereof is our Blessedness: Therefore, if we are not secured by Grace, from ignorance and error; neither are we secured by Grace, in the possession of Grace.  
Fourthly: The will of Man in hoc statu, is mutable: & therefore, the state or condition of it, is likewise mutable. For: there agreeth not with our will a state of immutability, or immutable Adhesion, but when our will is adequately filled, and hath nothing offered to it by the which it may be diverted from its Object: and it cannot be filled when any thing remains to be desired: and some strange Thing will obtrude itself as desirable, until we are united with our last End.  
Fiftly: Man is made flexible by Disoipline: and therefore (as before) people exalted to Grace, are exhorted to beware lest they fall from it. Looking diligently, lest any man fail 
Heb. 12 15.  of (or fall from, saith the Margeant,) the Grace of God.  
Sixtly: I pretermit the fall of the Angels, and of our first Parents: also, of Solomon St Peter, etc. And I argue thus. David was a saint of God: The same David committed Adultery, and Murder: This very Commission, even in its very first adventure, was a foul falling from the fair Law of God, and from the gracious keeping of it, and by consequence from the gracious Helps of keeping the Law, whereof the chief is Habitual Grace.  
If you return: It was a Falling from the actual Use of that Help, but not from the habitual Possession of it: It is answered: It was a Falling from Habitual Grace, as it was a Falling from the Law of God the Giver of Grace for the keeping it; these being equally Gods Instruments, and though divided in their places, yet united in their Office and work: And the Law was thrown out of his Keeping and Possession.  
Again: If the inward Help of Habitual Grace be not actually used, in the meeting and convention of circOne of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing. mstances implying our strict obligation, and our just freeing of God's Honour; but on the contrary, the main End of the Habit be perverted by the full and free admission of Contrary Acts: the Habit being debaried of employment when it should work, certainly fares as God fares ●he Author of the Habit, and he that dwells in us by it, and works by it in us; who now is opposed by contrary proceedings, utterly thrown off, set at desiance, and altogether contemned; all the secret cords of Love and Unity being broken.  
And to say, that God dwells by Habitual Grace in a Soul contemning him, setting him at defiance, throwing off him and his chief Instruments, inward and outward; and contrarying him in his ways and works; is to defy with a graceless defiance, both Scripture and Reason. What fellowship hath righteousness 
2 Cor. 6. 14, 15.  with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? The word belial signifies in the Hebrew School, without profit, or, in the cast of another derivation, without yoke: And it is taken sometimes in concreto, as the Latin 
Oratores Latini.  Orators use pro Scelesto Scelus, wickedness for a wicked man; and so it is takable here: And therefore the Syriack sounds it, What concord is there, 
Syrus Interp.  Messiae cum Satana, of the Messiah with Satan? Satan derives itself▪ saith Isidore, from the Hebrew Shatan; 
Isid. in Etymol.  which is Englished, he is an Adversary. And God's greatest Adversary, is sin: Yea, the Devil is not his Adversary, but for sin. And doth God keep his Holy Temple, (which if it be not Holy, is not his Temple,) where sin and the Devil set up their unholy Standard, and build impure Trophies after their Victory and Triumph over the Temple of God? O Myriads of Contradictions!  
And the Apostle must be understood of exact Light and extreme Darkness: for otherwise, there is Communion betwixt them: And Adultery begetting Murder, Proceedeth from extreme Darkness; and is, itself, dark and dark; Adulterously Dark, and Murderously Dark.  
Be it so: That Peccatum opponitur Gratiae, ut Gratia est, non contrariè, s●d demeritoriè: Sin is opposed to grace, not as contraries are opposed, but as the Sinner demerits a Jewel of such Excellency: Yet, one contrary Act being accepted into the retiring-place of a Supernatural Habit, (the Supernatural Habit, according to the common course of Habits; inclining, not compelling us to its Act, nor of necessity precluding the way to a contrary Act,) this peccaminous and contrary Act puts the Supernatural Habit to flight, as possessing and contaminating all the powers of the soul; a coexistence by the Rules of Divine Oeconomy, not being allowed on either side.  
Besides: What should hinder, that he who does the works of Carnal and unconverted Men, called the works of Darkness; should not be known by his Fruits; and be in a dark and Carnal condition, as such men are? especially, St John testifying: 
1 Joh. 2 9  He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his Brother, is in darkness, even until now. Which cannot be meant, but of Habitual darkness and Hatred of our Brother, that continueth until it be expelled by the Habitual Love of our Brother: As Faith expelleth Infidelity, (and is expelled only by it;) these not being able to stand in the same Subject, in eodem Nun● in the same Now of time. And sans doubt: he that wilfully murdereth his brother, hateth him. Moreover: If David fully and wholly consented to Adultery and Murder; all the Spiritual Parts of David in David, were of the conspiracy; and as they could, preferred Adultery and Murder before God, as majus Bonum Davidi, magisque desiderabile, a greater Good to David, and more , either as pleasurable or profitable: But Habitual Grace could not conspire in this kind, so much as negatively, by denying or suspending its Help; because if it be, it always Acts for God, as a Supernatural Habit; and hath such a near link with Heaven, and likeness with Divinity, that it cannot betray its Trust. And neither can any good Habit be used evilly, besides what may be said of remiss Acts.  
I give, That indifferent Acts may be acted without the concurrence or Subduction of the Supernatural Habit: And if Aquinas and his Thomists 
D. Tho. & Thomistae.  do substantially prove, some Sins to be praeter Legem, non contra eam, besides the Law, not against it; or equivalently, not contrary to Charity, though contrary to the perfection of it; the same Doctrine may not be repealed concerning these.  
And to what newfound Utopia in David, could Grace retreat; all David consenting to Adultery crying Murder?  
Furthermore: Praecisione intellectiuâ & rationis, etiamsi non real & objectiuâ; By intellective, though not by objective and real Precision: If David had died in his Act of Adultery, or consent to Murder: had he been carried to Heaven or Hell? If to Hell; then he was not in a sanctified State, or the state of Habitual Grace: If to Heaven; then would there have been a going to Heaven without Repentance after sin; and many plain Texts of Scripture would have mouldered into nothing.  
This Dilemma though most unconquerable, a certain uncertain and inferior Waiter on the lower CLasses, would elude with a supponis quod non est supponendum, you suppose what may not be supposed▪ for, you may not suppose a Falsehood to prove a Truth.  
I answer: Then 〈◊〉 we all Divines taken an evil course in all their good Discourses; who frequently enter their proofs with, Si per impossibile daretur &c. And yet I will distinguish here (that I may be liberal to my friend) betwixt falsum ex Natura 
Z▪ b●rella in M●●aph.  sua, & propter intrinsecam repugnantiam Terminorum, & falsum ex suppositione Decreti extrinseci; That which is false of its nature, and by reason of intrinsical repugnance in the Terms, and that which is false from supposition of the  Decree. And I consider not David now, as a predestinated person by Virtue of the Divine Ordination, (from which I totally prescind,) but with a full eye upon his murderous Adultery, inhumanely committed by Divine permission. And such a Supposition is not repugnant with the proof, but is only and simply previous to it, in such an imaginary Case as this is.   

CHAP. XXVIII.  
THE third Objection succeeds. Christ and his Apostles, in their discoursing and preaching, never presled Baptism, at the first lift; but either faith or repentance, or these together.  
I answer. Hoop. Whither so fast? come back. Never, is a Term of Infinity: in the which because it here states the Proposition, and betwixt finite and infinite there is an infinite distance; it unmakes the Proposition by making it infinitely false.  
I distinguish therefore. We may consider Baptism to be presled, at the first lift, by one discoursing or Preaching; (cum respectu ad Finem;) either that it may be presently known by him with whom he discourseth, or, to whom he preacheth; as the first Sacramental Ordinance, ipso facto vel dicto, moving him to immediate preparation: or, that it may be presently used by him in his own Person. In the last consideration▪ it was never presled, at the first lift, by Christ or his Apostles, to the persons with whom they discoursed or preached: But in the first Consideration, it was first pressed to Nicodemus.  
Yet: this was not the ordinary, and everyday course of Christ and his Apostles: Because in their discoursing and preaching, their business being only with Adults; their first Business Ordine Naturae, (which is not always ordo Doctrinae,) was their Qualification. Wherefore when John the Baptist began to preach to the People of the Jews, he began, Repent ye, for the Kingome 
Mat●h. 3. 2.  of Heaven is at hand. When Christ began to preach to the same People, he began after the same manner: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. When the 
Mat. 4. 17.  twelve were sent forth by two and two, amongst the same People: (it stands recorded of them:) they went 
Mar. 6. 12.  out, and preached that men should Repent. When Peter had ended his first Sermon, preached likewise to the Jews, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, which Jews had now been the Crucifiers of Christ: and the people troubled in Heart, said unto Peter, and to the rest of the 
Act. 2. 37, 38.  Apostles, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be Baptised every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Gift of the holy Ghost: Repentance in grown persons being the first fruit and work of Faith, (which is the only Basis and adequate foundation of all Christian Virtues;) and being requisite together with Faith, in such persons, to Baptism.  
It hath two faces, faciem Humanam, & faciem Angelicam▪ an Humane face turned backward and sorrowful; an Angelical face turned forward, and showing a cheerful Resolution: And it hath answerably, two works or Acts. St Gregory 
S Greg. H●m. 34. in Evang.  puts them together: Poenitentia est, anteacta peccata deflere, & deflenda, iterùm non committere: Repentance is, to Lament for our sins committed, and not to commit the sins to be Lamented for. Which Acts are jointly preparatory, in persons that have actually sinned; and are in the cause, that there are joined according to the Holy Language of the old Liturgies▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Holy Things 
Liturgi● S S. Basilii & Chrysostomi.  to Holy Things, Holy Hearts to Holy Ordinances.  
And here appears, like a good Angel, the reason why we are formally reconciled to God after actual sin, by Repentance, and by no other Virtue, or performance. Which is: Because in our actual sinning, the Soul consented to Evil: and Repentance only, is the formal reversing and cancelling of that consent, quantum ex parte voluntatis possibile est, as far as is possible on the will's part: which, though it cannot factum infectum reddere, undo the thing done in respect of the Act, as being contradictory, and because the thing done hath a necessary connexion with the Time in which it was done; yet being a gracious will, doth unwill the former willing of sin, as throwing it forth by a contrary Act; and so doth Undo the thing done in respect of the Effect; and thereby, qualifies the Soul of an Adult for God's mercy in Christ, given by Baptism; of which, the peccaininous Will is not capable.   

CHAP. XXIX.  
YET, we may reasonably believe, that the Apostles Baptised many, who could neither actually Repent nor believe. Because they baptised Families: as in the acts, Cornelius 
Act. 10. 47, 48. Act. 16. 15. Act. 16. 33. Act. 18. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 16.  with his Household; Lydia and her Household; the Jailor and all his; Crispus and all his House; And St Paul saith: I Baptised also the Household of Stephanus.  
I shall not urge here, the Probability of there being Children in these Households, and surrender this Houshold-hold with reserving only an Argument à Probabili. But I will boldly maintain these House-Garrisons, even by little Infants; and pronounce, that he who will securely follow this Precedent, must Baptise Households; and that he who follows the Precedent of Baptising Households, in the which there is no Verbal or Consequential Exclusion of children, must Baptise children, households benig ordinarily recruted with Children: And that therefore, exempli gratiâ, I being called to an House, whereof all are already Baptised except a Child or Children; to correspond with these Apostolical Patterns of Baptising Households, must Baptise the Child or Children: Except I will magnify certain periodical and stationary Times in respect of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ, as they are multiplied by the Astrologers 
Astrologi.  in respect of temporal Kingdoms. And that if the Apostles did not Baptise Children; the defect was not on the part of their Intention, which was Habitual and hypothetical even towards Infants, but because there were no Children in these Households; (which notwithstanding, would be most unreasonably said;) for, they aimed as they acted, and as the Text runs, to Baptise Households without exception.  
And if you except Infants, because they be not expressly mentioned in Scripture; why are the Apostles admitted as Baptised Persons, the Baptising of whom, Scripture doth not any where mention: and the best written account of 
Euodius in Epist. quae inscribitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nic●ph. l. 2 Eccles. Hist. cap. 2. Euthym. in cap. 3. Joannis.  which, we derive from Evodius, the Successor of St Peter in the Bishopric of Antioch: who writeth, that of women, the Virgin Mother was only Baptised by Christ; of men, only Peter; and that Peter Baptised Andrew, James and John; and they, the rest of the Apostles▪ The same Relation was afterwards brought about again by others, as by Nicephorus, Euthymius, etc.  
In Verbo Sacerdotis Christiani: We 
Cabalistae  must all be cabalists in some Sense, and receive with a plaudit the Distinction of the word of God into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, written and unwritten; and that some Truths were Apostolically given at the first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, besides the pen & Paper: which Distinction moreover, I know not how to call Distinctionem Generis in Species, but rather Subjecti in Accidentia; because the Scription, as also the Oral Communication of it, is purely accidental: and we might have received it as Verbum Mentis, or Verbum Dei in Mente, the Word of God in the Mind; after the primitive manner of Reception: Neither know I how to say, that the Things understood by the Members of this Distinction, do really differ.  
The Text in the History of the Jailor: And they spoke unto him the 
Act. 16. 32.  Word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house: is to be understood, to all in his house that understood the Word: And of the Text, Believing 
Verse. 34.  in God with all his House, the Sense is; all in the House that could Believe, Believed: And: the House of 
1 Cor. 16. 15.  Stephanus addicted themselves to the Ministry of the Saints: that is: all of the House that could so addict themselves. For: Propositio quae affirmat 
Hurtado in Logica.  vel subinfort rem impossibilem, non est Vera: The Proposition affirming or inferring an impossible Thing, is not true, And figurative Expressions admitting such limitations, are very common in all Historical Narrations.  
Yea, this very limitation must likewise be taken home into the Narration, that the Apostles Baptised Households; the Sense being, Baptised all in the Households, capable of Baptism; which capability, we prove to be in Children. And therefore, I say again: and I must, and will say it: Take him Jailor.  
O how the dirty Camel, that 
Franzius ●● Plutarcho & aliis.  thinks not the Water fit for his, or any good use, except he trouble and muddy-make it with his own dirty feet!   

CHAP. XXX.  
THE fourth Objection breaks in upon us. Baptism is not commended or intended in the Text: Because the Baptism only now in force, was John's Baptism; and Christ should here transform himself into a Minister of John's Baptism, which would be incongruous.  
This Objection supposes a wide difference betwixt John's Baptism and the Baptism of Christ; unto which, I give a Transeat without murmuring. John verily Baptised 
Acts 19 4.  with the Baptism of Repentance: that is: Baptismo qui erat Symbolum, excitatio & Protestatio Poenitentiae, ad remissionem Peccatorum Baptismo Christi recipiendam: With the Baptism which was a Symbol, excitation and Protestation of Repentance for the remission of sins to be received by Christ's Baptism.  
Hence it runs directly without a By as in the eyes of  Judgements; that Infants, and Children void of actual Reason and uncapable of Repentance, were not Baptised with the Baptism of John: But the Baptism of Christ is given to Infants for the remission of Original sin.  
The Text proceeds: Saying unto the People, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. From this Holy Declaration, St Ambrose, St 
S Ambrose lib. 1. de spiritu sancto, cap. 3. S Hierom in Joelis c. 2. Petrus Lombardus. D. Tho. Bonaventura, Palacius & alii, in l. 4. Sententarum, D●st. 2. Hugo de sancto victore, lib. 2. de Sacramentis, par. 6. cap. 6. Palac. ibid.  Hierom, the Master of the Sentences, Thomas Aquinas, Hugo de sancto Victore, Bonaventure, Palacius, and others, extract; That this was the Form of John's Baptism, Ego te Baptizo in nomine Venturi Messiae, vel, in eum qui Venturus est, ut credas: I Baptise thee in the Name of the Messiah to come, or, into him who is to come, that thou mayest Believe in him. And when he baptised Christ, saith Palacius, he used this Form, Ego te Baptizo in Nomine tuo, qui Venturus es, I Baptise thee in thy own Name, or, in the Name of thyself who art to come. And as the Person was extraordinary and singular; so also was the Form of Baptization, and indeed the Baptism, singular and extraordinary: Because it was not to Christ, as to others, Baptismus poenitentiae, the Baptism of Repentance.  
And the next Verse presently starts another difference betwixt these Baptisms: When they heard this, they were Baptised in the Name 
Act. 19 5.  of the Lord Jesus. For: the Baptism of Christ cannot be iterated, in regard of the Character; but the Baptised of John, were Baptised again by the Apostles. Wherefore John faith of Christ: he shall Baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. 
Mat. 3. 11  The Vulgar: Ipse vos Baptizabit in Spiritu sancto & igni. So the Greek. 
Lectio Vulgat. Text. Graec,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he shall Baptise you in the Holy Ghost, and in fire. And so moves the Syriack, Arabic, Persic, Egyptiack. 
Syrus Interp. Evangelium Arabicum, Persicum Aegyptiacum, Aethiopicum.  or Coptick, and the .  
The words in their sense, flow thus my Baptism is preparatory as the common use of Water is: but the Baptism of Christ is in Spirit-power, and fiery-natured: And by▪ how much Fire is more active and efficacious than water, by so much the Baptism of Christ is more empowred than my Baptism: Fire fires, inflames, enlightens, purges, carries upwards, changes into itself: all which, the Baptism of Christ doth; Habitu, Actu, Effectu, vel Aptitudine, by Habit, Act, Effect, or Aptitude, in convenient Subjects.   

CHAP. XXXI.  
THis given pro concesso, for a thing granted, on both sides: My answer may be: These words were said to Nicodemus, by a Prolepsis or Anticipation of Time; as the most Noble Things are delivered in Scripture.  
And let our young Hoop-Master be admonished, that, as I formerly denied Figure flinging in a plain Text, so neither do I entertain a Prolepsis here, as Figuram Dictionis aut Sententiae, a Figure of Word or Sentence; but only, as a Figure in the Circumstance of Time; which is outward in respect of the Words or Things.  
The Baptism of John was, as his Office, preparatory; and as his cry: Prepare ye the way of the Lord. So 
Mat. 3. 3.  were the old Ceremonies in respect of Christ and the Gospel. And yet, Christ was preached in most full and high Terms; the Validity of the Ceremonies yet standing in its full Height. Unto us a Child is born, unto 
Isa 9 6. Text. Hebr.  us a Son is given. In the Original; Praeteritum Tempus ponitur pro futuro, the Time past or past Tense is put for the Time to come or future Tense: Which is exactly recounted 
Sept.  by the Septuagint; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A Boy hath been born to us, a Son hath been given to us. And this was fairly done by the Figure Prolepsis: though in itself, it be rather Evangelicall, than Prophetical. And though the Expression be freeborn in the Original; and propose to us, that the Child shall as surely be born and given, as if he were already given and born: Yet the Figure stands immovably; Figures in all our Langusges, being often wedged into Idioms: as here the Prolepsis is not merely circumstantial, but looks inwardly, to keep the Sense strait.  
But I have a strong reserve. For: The Baptism of Christ was also now in force. See John. 3. 26. and John 4. 1.  
How strongly do these Arguments recoil upon our Adversary, their Answers being fitted to them? And how gross and supine Ignorance do they suppose in him, both of Scripture and Arts?  
This empty Anabaptist, having publicly disputed away the University, that is, renounced the University in his Disputation, and done public Penance for his inward acquaintance with her; never thrived afterwards: and retains nothing now, of Name or Thing, but a mere presentation of Surface-Learning: and forgets that in the old Law, the hands of the Priests were filled in their Ordination, to signify, that they were ordained to fill the Ears and Hearts of the People, with Truth and sound Knowledge; not with Falsehood, and clotted, clouted, unreasonable, unseasonable Answers.  
But although he be little▪ considerable, yet his rashneste may happily prove the unhappily-happy Occasion of much good; and many seduced People may now bring near to the Eye, their own Error.  
Trithemius Chronicles a Jew named 
Trithem. in Chron. Anno 876.  Sedechias, and reports him for his honour, to have been sometimes Physician to Lewes the Emperor: Who being a Sorcerer, devoured in the sight and persuasion of many Princes and their Followers, a Cart loaden with (unchopt) Hay; not abstaining either from the Horses or the poor Carter: Also, an armed Man, his Horse and Harness. Yet, the Mist being recalled; the Countryman, and Man in Arms, and all their Goods were made good again. These Devourers of Souls, may in God's good time, disgorge again these Ignorant Countrypeople; and themselves return to their old sucking a Paw or a Claw, as the Bear or Polypus.   

CHAP. XXXII.  
HIs fifth Objection holds up the Head. There is no Man of late, who hath made use of this Text in the Proof of Baptism, but the Papists: and Bellarmin himself receives it not as conducing to such proof: nor any of the Ancients.  
I answer. Horum Omnium Contraria vera sunt: The Contraries of 
Dr Featly in his Dipper dipped. Bellarum. l. 1. de Sacramento Baptismi, cap. 4. Idem facit Eodem in libro. cap. 8. Bellarm. l. 2. de Essectu Sacramentorum, c. 3.  all these Things are true. Dr Featly hath used this very Text in the defence of Paedobaptism. Bellarmin chief builds upon it in this Matter: proving the necessity of Baptism from the necessary meaning of this Text, iterùm iterúmque, again and again. Likewise: the same Bellarmin hath brought together the solid Testimonies of fifteen most approved Doctors and ancient Fathers, who all understand by the water in the Text, not the Word, or any other like Thing, but the Water of Baptism. The words of Bellarmin are these: Omnes Scriptores hactenùs hunc locum intellexerunt de Baptismo; ut Justinus Apolog. 2. Tertullianus in lib. de Baptismo: Cyprianus lib. 3. ad Quirinum, cap. 25. Ambrose lib. 3. de Spiritu Sancto, cap. 11. Hieronymus in cap. 16. Ezechielis: item Basilius, Gregorius Nazianzenus, Gregorius▪ Nyssenus in Sermonibus de Baptismo: Denique omnes Interpretes hujus loci Origenes, Chrysostomus, Augustinus, Cyrillus, Beda, Theophylac●us, Euthymins, & alij.  
O God, before whom we shall stand at the last Day; how confidently, yea how impudently do these Religious Rats look out of their Holes, and mouth it concerning Protestant▪ Writers; concerning that good-lived Mirror of Encyclopedy, Bellarmine; and all the Ancients; and yet, relying upon I know not what Perfugium Soricinum, Rat-Hole by which to escape, utter not one true word!  
Beyond this. St Ambrose writing 
S Ambrose lib. 10. Epist 84. add Demetriadem Virginem. Jansenius Harm. in Evang. cap. 20. S Chrysost. Hom. supper▪ Nisi quis renatus sucrit, etc. Perlege D. Tho. p. 3. q. 66, 67, 68  to a Virgin, expressly affirms Paedobaptism to be the Constitution of our Saviour, and erects his Pillarproof on these words, Nisi quis renatus fuerit, etc. except one be born, etc. See Jansenius in his Evangelicall Harmony. St John Chrysostom not only Interprets the words for Baptism; but also dignifies a famous Homily, by making them the Subject of it; wherein he carries all before him for the Baptism of Infants. Aquinas is of the same Judgement.  
Now indeed, one would think, a man might in reason give credit as soon almost to this reverend Squadron of Worthies, St Justin, Tertullian, St Cyprian, St Ambrose, St Hierom, St Basil, St Gregory Nazianzen, St Gregory Nyssen, Origen, St Chysostom, St Austin, St Cyril, Venerable Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius; I mean, to all these in the Complex: as to one, lone, lean, leaden, Pagnel-Saint in the Country.  
Shall a young barefaced dough-baked Dwarf of March pane, be much more privileged because he is devoted to an old Woman, than these walking Libraries wedded to the ancient Church?  
And now in the revolution of my Thoughts, why may we not encounter him with three of these, being Latin Fathers, and three of the Greek Church? Why should we muster up fifteen at once?  
Nay verily, now I fetch the cud about again: why may not single St Austin take him up, and throw him down? St Austin was a Godly Man, and somewhat learned.   

CHAP. XXXIII.  
BUt the Papists use this Text for Baptism: there's the grand Ulcer.  
The best Divines concentre in this: That the very Devils may perform Acts morally good: and that the Pagans, and the most obstinate Heretics have sometimes wrought Miracles: and that there was never any Arch-Heretick, which did not maintain some Truths, and rightly, according to the Rules of Moral Rectitude, defend them by Scripture. And yet now the Papists (concerning whom it hath been generally believed in England, after some evaporations and ebullitions of heat and passion; that they are a part of the true Church, though a corrupted one; and that many millions of them are said:) may not believe any Truths; and as believed by them, justly prop them with Scripture. A sad case: but f●ctitious, and absque Fundamento in Re.  
In the place of, Sun, stand thou 
Jos. 10. 11  still: or, as the Vulgar, Sol non movearis, 
Interp. vulgat. Text. Hebr:  Sun, be not moved: the Hebrew gives up, Sol, tace; Sun, hold thy peace, or, be silent. For which cause Rabbi Solomon gave it forth 
R. Salom. in hunc locum.  for Doctrine as clear as the Sun, that the Sun daily sings Hymns, & sweetly sings them in the praise of God: from the which his sweet Hymn-singing he ceased at the command of Joshua. The Rabbin seems to run after the Platonic Philosophers, who with their nimble-fingered thoughts did set singng Siren's in the Celestial Orbs. Be silent, be still, or, hold thy peace, is, in Original signification, stand still, rest, or be quiet: and the Catachresis or abuse of Speech, is frequent in the Hebrew Language. Now as it is the same Thing in the Sun, to stand still and to hold his peace: So shall I construe it, one and the same in me who should be the Light of the World, to hold my peace, and to stand still. Which yet, I may not, until commanded by Joshua or Jesus: who likewise never commands us to hold our peace, for the concealment of God's praises, which are then sung aloud when oppressed Truth is relieved. Wherefore Joshua chose the Sun for the Subject of his Miracle, because the Sun was the God of the Amorites; and the praises of God were sung in a most high and heavenly Song, when a Servant of the true God, commanded this their false God to stand still or hold his peace and see his worshippers overthrown.  
Thus therefore. The Cosmographers 
Cosmogr●p●i.  inform us, that there is more Sea in the Western, than in the Eastern Hemisphere: and if they do not know it, I now inform them, that there are also more Ebb and Flow, more water-Tempests, more Sea-alterations and wave-motions of Religion, in these our Western parts, than elsewhere: And the Church of Rome holds Truth fast many Times, when others wretchedly betray it.  
And I sincerely confess, that even in this Discourse, I walk, beyond ordinary walkings, upon the Grounds of the Church of Rome; as being well assured, that these return to the Adversary what is righteously due to him, and that none other will overturn him at every Turn, when he should be turned, returned, overturned.   

CHAP. XXXIIII.  
HAD my Adversary said, that many Papists have abused Scripture in the Sophistical maintenance of some ungrounded and Air-Castle Doctrines: I would have run along with him hearty, and without any discomposing the placid order of my Soul, and followed his Game, as he with Hooping, so I with a Kennel of loud Criers.  
Had he set up his cry against Aquinas his Doctrine (restored by 
D. Tha. part. 3. quaest. 25. art. 3.  Bellarmin) in his question. Utrùm Image Christi sit a●oranda adoratione latriae? Where he resolves, that the Image of Christ or a Crucifix maybe adored with the Adoration of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being a Worship due to God alone: I should have set up an outcry, and have cried out with him, O absurd! abominable! I would have answered to him with an extraordinary Echo, that should have plainly repeated all his words; & having done my Echoes part, would have begun and performed my own part by sound Proof: As: This Worship is abominable▪ and absurd; howsoever the Worshipful Maintainers of it, crutch it up with the common distinction of ordinatiuè and terminatiuè, that is, with referring the Worship to the Prototype, and not housiing it in the Image:  
First: because the Worshipper, either gives divine Worship to the Image, or destroys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very Thing in Question:  
Secondly: because this Doctrine doth cast a foul dishonour upon the Humanity of Christ, and throws the Business, as if there were as great an alliance, at the least in respect of outward Privileges, betwixt Christ and the Crucifix or Image of Christ, as betwixt the Son of God and his Humanity: for, neither is divine Worship terminated in the Humanity of Christ.  
Thirdly: because Acts of divine Worship are from necessary Injunctions, and rely upon Principles which are aeternae Veritatis, of eternal Truth, or, true at all times: but it lies howsoever, in the free pleasure of Men, whether or no they will accept such an Image as an Image of of Christ to such Adoration; and consequently if they do, such Adoration is not proposed as necessary.  
Fourthly: because the common People, being the greatest, part of Worshippers, who are most efficaciously tutored by Sense, can hardly reach in this case without confessed Idolworship, to so nice an Act of Distinction betwixt Ordination and Termination in the Worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, wherein they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, actually give divine Worship due only to God, to the Creature and to the Creator by one and the same Simple and undivided Act; and though the Creator be first, and inwardly intended, yet even divine worship is out wardly given and impended to the Creature:  
Fiftly: because divine Worship is never given except under the strict Bond of the Hypostatical Union, to a Thing propter aliud: but always propter se; as being altogether incommunicable; & communicable Things only, are given propter aliud: and therefore Christ repels and convinces the Devil out of Deutoronomy, with 
Mat. 4. 10.  the Law of Worship imposed upon Mankind; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, him only shalt thou serve with the Service or Worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
last: Because this Doctrine is patched up of insolent and seandalous Terms, and sounds offensively; which should be avoided as being justly grievous to chaste and pious 
Aelian. in Hist Animal.  Ears: And, in fit comparison, is like the Head of the Frog that Elian saw as he was travelling from Naples to Puteoli, which drew a Body of shaped dirt after it.  
And again: I would have declared: that this idle Idolillo-doting is abhorred by the most conscientious and most learned of their own Bishops. As: to prefer an example: The People in certain parts of Spain, namely, Cantabria, Galetia, etc. were so deeply enamoured on their old, maimed, deformed, and wormeaten Images, and which the Verminous 
Hieronymus Lamas in Sum. p. 3. cap. 3.  Rats had gnawn out of shape; that, as he witnesses who was an Eyewitness, when, by the command of the Bishops, they were at length removed, and Images of decent composure placed, according to the Method of Rome, in their rooms: the ignorant Spaniards, Men and Women, young and old, and of all sizes, put their fore-fingers in their eyes; and like children having lost their beloved Babbles, or their Deos rurales, country-Gods; cried lamentably (poor Seniors & Senioras) for their old Images again; they would not have new ones: and this, even since the Council of Trent, and the many great complaints there.   

CHAP. XXXV.  
HAD my Adversary said, that many Papists have misled Scripture in their inconsiderate labouring to prove, the single Life of Priests to be from divine Command; I would have joined Hands and Hearts with him; and have dismounted the Papists from the figurative 
1 Tim. 3. 2.  Sense of the Text. A Bishop must be blameless, the Husband of one Wife; after the very same fashion▪ as I now unsaddle the Anabaptists from the Text in hand, by keeping him to the Letter. And I should not have rested there; but have argued further, out of my own Treasure.  
First: The boldness of tainting this holy Scripture, hath been unfortunate, as in other places, so at London: For: when John, Cardinast 
Mat. Paris lib. 7. p. 219.  of Cremen, in a London-Councill, had leven'd his Oration with a medley to this purpose, he was found at night by the quaint disposition of divine Providence, notwithstanding his divine Speech and the Divine Command they profanely recommend to us, in bed with a whore: and though he had been received with great Pomp and Honour, he now tucked up his long Train of Scarlet, and stole away in a Mist; leaving, as the Devil commonly does when he disappears, a poisonous and abominable stink behind him of a whore and a whoremaster:  
Secondly: I have discovered by reading▪ that when the Christians besieged Ptolemais, they took a 
Aldrovandus' P●olegom. in Ornithol. ex Egnatio.  weary Dove which brought a Letter from the Sultan directed to the Besieged; and by letting the Dove fly into the City with a new Letter of their own composing, moved the Citizens to Dedition, and gained the City: But I could never discover by reading or other industry, that the Letter which the Holy Ghost, the Dove of Heaven, brought from Heaven, can be changed or altered by Christians upon Earth: And had we been commanded to marry in the words, Increase and multiply, and consequently, sinned if we had not married; or, had the words, the husband of one Wife obliged the Bishop to marriage, and not inferred only a strict exclusion of Polygamy, whether taken in the venerable Sense of Jewish Antiquity, or in the construction of the Greek Church; it would have sorely troubled the Church of Rome, to have learnedly pretended the setting of an Ecclesiastical Constitution as a firm obstacle against a divine Command:  
Thirdly: It is not probable, that a divine Constitution can be repugnant with Marriage, first ordained in our most divine state of Innocency, and first celebrated in Paradise the most Divine Place upon Earth:  
Fourthly: If it be a divine Constistution which abrogates the marriage of Priests, how is it fair, that the Vicegerent, having a delegated and subordinate Power, and acting for God, doth not Act according to his Delegation and Instrument, but dispenses oftentimes in a Superior and explieit Constitution of his divine Master?  
last: where shall we find a divine Constitution opposed so largely against the Intention and Institution of Nature in the Species, especially in so high a Kind as this of Mankind; and Marriage being ordained, by a second Ordination of Providence, as a Remedy against the vile productions of Lust?   

CHAP. XXXVI.  
HAD my Adversary said, that some Papists have wrested Scriptures in arresting them to justify the Latin▪ Prayers, even of the most ignorant People among them: I should have stood for him, and seconded his endeavours:  
First: because the Definition of Prayer which the Schools have received from Saint John Damascen, is, 
S. Jo. Dam. l. 3. d● Fide Orthodoxa, cap. 24.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Ascent of the Mind or Understanding to God: And the Understanding or Mind cannot ascend to God in religious Prayer, being an humble and petitionary Ascent of the Understanding and Will, moving God to Assent by a knowing, reverentially-becomming, and attentive Presentation of our just Desires; except the Prayer be offered with Understanding:  
Secondly: Because though we should in our Prayer, sometimes attend to God to whom we pray, and sometimes to the Thing for which we pray: yet, if the Prayer be not Understood, our Lip-offering would be a Tempting of God, when so near and fair a Means and Help of Praying after the best manner, is obstinately rejected:  
Thirdly: Because God requires our Offerings to be proportioned to our Abilities; and he hath made us understanding and reasonable Creatures; and requires therefore of us, reasonable Service, and to pray with 
Rom. 12. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 15.  Understanding:  
Fourthly: Because if there be such need of the outward Picture, to prevent distraction; there is much more need of the inward Pictures, which the words present like the turning of the Heavenly Spheres, for the same end.  
Fiftly: Because there should be nothing useless or vain in our Commerce and Conversation with God; but the Words in such Prayers are vain and useless: God accepting not of Things which are foolishly, ignorantly, and indevoutly presented; and words not understood, being presented indevoutly, ignorantly, foolishly.  
Sixtly: Because those who pray thus, are not conformed to the Church, as ignorant Priests, and Sacerdotes ad Missam, teach and pretend, except they will as ignorantly grant, that the Church to which they are conformed, prays without understanding:  
Lastly: Because the famous Parrot of Cardinal Ascanius, which 
Coeliu● Rhodig. de antiquis Lectioniq. l. 3. cap. 32.  distinctly and with seeming devotion oftentimes recited the Creed, prayed, or said part of the divine Office, as religiously, with relation to understanding the Prayer, and outward appearance, as these misunderstanding People: For: the Parrot recited many good words (which it understood not) in their order; because it had the Species of those Words, connexed in the Imaginative Power: And these Parrat-Christians ex Regione P●sittacorum, recite their Latin Prayers; as having the words concatenated in their Memories, or because they read them.   

CHAP. XXXVII.  
HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been stormed by Papists, to exalt the Pope in certain undue Kinds of Greatness, Power, and Titles: I should have presently come at the Call, and have brought Victory and Victoria with me: who having quilted his Discourse with a long Narration of the Pope's improper Titles, Power and Greatness, uncreates him again with reference to such Greatness, Power and Titles; and undoes all with a Catastrophe: Sed Glossatores Juris hoc 
Victoria de Potest. Eccl. Relect. 1. Sect. 6.  Dominium dederunt Papae, cùm ipsi essent pauperes Rebus & Doctrinâ: But the Canonists or Glossators of the Positive Right or Canon Law, gave this Dominion to the Pope; themselves being poor with respect both to Riches and Learning. And I should have added this Grain or two ex meo: From their poor condition and Poverty, came their poor-conditioned Flattery; and from their Ignorance, their blind asserting of those Things which they did not understand.  
Verily, I should have been familiar with my Adversary; and said: Sir: There hath been a question conjured up from Hell: Uirùm Papa possit voca●d Deus? Whether or no the Name, God, may be given to the Pope? And though the Term, God, in the Question, opens the arms to receive a Distinction, and by consequence a Decision; and may be understood, either secundùm Naturam, according to Nature, or secundùm Similitudinem, according to Likeness; and the Pope may be called Deus secundùm Similitudinem, God according to Likeness; as the Angels, yea Men, and Judges especially, are honourably called Elohim in scripture: yet, the Question is unexpedient, irrelegious, and unsufferably-swelling, as concerning the Pope.  
First: because this high pretence to earthly Greatness, is directly opposite to Christ, who is the generally-confessed Head of the Church; appearing upon Earth in the form of 
Phil. 2. 7.  a Servant. And therefore, When John Archbishop of Constantinople vainly pretended to glorious Titles above him; St Gregory Bishop of Rome, pulled the other way, and styled himself Servum Servorum Dei, a Servant of the Servants of God:  
Secondly: because a mere Man, and one who is not infallible or unerring in his particular actions concerning himself; is quickly puffed up with such Titles:  
Thirdly: because People who depend upon the Favours of Princes, are soon intoxicated with opinion of the pretended Rights and Greatness of those upon whom their Honours and Profits depend; all the Passions running as Love runs:  
Fourthly: because such Questions and Titles render the Pope most odious, ridiculous and contemptible to all his Adversaries, confessing, or denying Christ; and are the cause that his Adversaries confessing Christ, do, according to his Principles, the less confess him; and that his Adversaries denying Christ, deny him the more:  
Fiftly: because the Angels were thrown from Heaven, and Man out of Paradise, by desiring to be as God:  
And lastly: Because the special raising of this Question concerning the Pope by his Parasites, is a notable sign, that the Aim was directed beyond the Bounds of Likeness; and overlooked, yea and overwent the Question proposed concerning Bishops, Princes, Judges, or other Magistrates, in a strange untrodden Course.   

CHAP. XXXVIII.  
HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been ravished by Papists, to prefer the impious Art of pious Fraud; which hath much thrived, grown fat, and prevailed amongst them: I should have said as my Adversary said: and have strongly proved it:  
First; by the Testimony of their 
Nicol. Lyra Comment. in cap. 14. Dan, secundùm, Edit. Vulgat.  Nicolaus Lyra: Aliquandò in Ecclesia fit maxima Deceptio Populi in Miraculis factis à Sacerdotibus, vel eis adhaerentibus propter Lucrum: Sometimes the People are very greatly deluded in the Church, by forged Miracles; the Priests or their Adherents forging them for gain.  
Secondly; by the Authority of their own Alexander Hales: In 
Alex Halens. p. 4 q. 53. Me●●b. 4. art. 3. Solut. 2.  Sacramento apparet Caro, interdùm humanâ procuratione, interdùm operatione Diabolicâ: Flesh appears in the Sacrament, sometimes by humane Procuration, and sometimes by Diabolical Operation: the Priests and the Devil doing the same work fraudulently; and the Devil, whatsoever the Priests may pretend, always working for an Evil end:  
And thirdly, by the infallible Sentence, 
〈◊〉 Cl mentis O●●●vi transmissum ad Regula●es.  and most known Precept of their own dear Clement the Eighth, commanding the Regulars to surcease from the deceitful and fraudulent Abuse of their Knowledge acquired in Confessions, by the which they made them burdensome, to promote their own advantage in their outward Government. And having proved the Things, I should have strongly and boldly proved against the lawfulness of them, (of these their pious Frauds:)  
First: because all proper Means are naturally suitable to the End; and if the End be good, the Means must be proportionably good; and if the Truth of God published, be the End; the Means of Publication must be true, void of deceit, and godly:  
Secondly: because by fraudulent carriages in the way to our good Ends, a vile aspersion is cast upon the Providence of God; as if good Means were not adequately prepared by divine Providence for good Ends:  
Thirdly: because by such fraudulent Conveyances in holy Things, holy Things (in direct motion and issue and not per accidens) are disesteemed; the most excellent Truths of God questioned; and Men become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; without God, and Atheistical.  
Fourthly: because as evil produces evil, and false Actions produce false speeches in the same Subject; so, much deceit of the Tongue, is produced by this deceit of the Heart and action, before and after it; as, pernicious Lying, impertinent Equivocation, multiplication of idle Words.  
And lastly: Because the Devil is the Father of Lies, and of double dealing; and the old heathenish Priests, his impious Instruments, were expert in reducing to praxis this pious Art: the Holy Ghost is the Author of all Truth, and of Holy simplicity.  
Therefore these being so different in their Causes, Means, Ends, may not be joined in their Terms and Logical Predications; and fraud cannot be pious, nor piety fraudulent.   

CHAP. XXXIX.  
HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been prostituted by some Papists, to sanctify the licentiated Stews at Rome: I should have come to his hand, as a Hawk to the Lure, and zealously protested against them.  
First: because the Evil in this Permission, doth infinitely surmount and preponderate the Good; as appears by the consequents; more by thousands, being encouraged in this permission, to the most grievous Commissions of Adultery, Fornication, and other Uncleanness, than the Good is or can be that the filth and stink of the common sink is restrained from certain Houses.  
Secondly: because the filth might be more perfectly restrained by severe Laws and a Coercive Power.  
Thirdly: this public permission of the Stews, is not like the permission of Usury; because in Fornication, Adultery, etc. the Actors, both sin; but in Usury, the Taker or Borrower, (upon whom he that permitteth Usury, keeps the single Eye of his Intention,) Sinneth not; his Concurrence being material not formal, and he not willing but un willing:  
Fourthly: because God hath deal towards sin, before the Commission; prohibendo, by forbidding it; impediendo, by hindering it; permittendo, by suffering it; as after the Commission, ordinando ad bonum, by actual and executionall ordering it to good; ignoscendo, by pardoning it; puniendo, by punishing it: and this Permission of the Stews, is larger than the divine Permission in such a latitude; for, God sometimes in all places, absolutely hindereth sin; but in the Reign of this Permission of sin by the Romanists, there is no absolute hindrance, there being so much of furtherance, on their parts; and there is but a dull, cool and weak prohibition in consideration of penalties to be inflicted upon sense; and these only of all humane Acts, work effectually upon a Soul steeped in the Lees of corrupt Nature:  
Fiftly: because this permission proves a double Allurement to the single Clergy:  
Lastly: because the Jews there, are greatly disturbed and nardened by this Permission.  
And I should have garnished this Reason with a prevalent Example, commended to Eternity by Bishop Espenceus; who relates of a Jewish Maid, that she renounced the Jewish Religion and became a Christian, that she might freely exercise the Romish-Christian Art of Ribauderie, not unsoundly permitted, as amongst Christians, but sound punished by the Jews. And the Bishop bewails the sadness of the matter, with many a mournful Accent: Dici nequit, quàm incredibili Christianorum 
Esp●ncaeus de Contin l. 3. cap 4.  tum pudore, tum etiam eorum qui verè tales sunt, cordolio, factum est, ut Judae filiae scort●rs non liceat, Dei filiae liceat: Imò Israelis filia meretricari non aliter ante possit, quàm facta per Baptismum sanctum Christi soror, & filia: It cannot be said, with what incredible shame of Christians, and also with what heartgrief of such as are truly such, it is come to pass, that a Jewish Daughter may not become Whore, a Daughter of God may: Yea that a Daughter of Israel, cannot otherwise play the Harlot, than when she is made by Holy Baptism, the Sister and Daughter of Christ.  
She was made so quoad externan● apparentiam, according to outward appearance; and she had been really made so, remotis impedimentis ex parte Subjecti, had the impediments been removed on the part of the Subject.   

CHAP. XL.  
Room: I Honour thee in thy Truths: which are many, and excellently obeyed by many. But I detest thy Corruptions: and I see a large Field before me, and could proceed farther against them, should I not wander beyond the Lines of Communication with my Matter.  
Finally therefore: Had my Adversary said, that the Scriptures have been rifled, spoiled, exanimated and murdered by some Papists of the Jesuitical Division, to set aloft the Scarlet-coloured practise of the murdering of Princes in the dark, by private and obscure Persons: I should have cried Murder, and Treason too: and have fortified myself in the Preamble, with the forerunning History of the preposterously-Heroicall 
M. Claudius Paradinus in Heroïcis.  Courtier of Milan, Andreas Lampugnanus; who when he desired to Murder Galeazus Marius the Millain-Duke, for a Tyrant; did practise it▪ long before, by stabbing privately the Duke's Image; that his hand might not shake, or he miss his aim in his stabbing the Duke: whom at last, he stabbed 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 Holiness!  
There wants nothing to the top and top-gallant of this Angelical devilishness, but the presenting of the poisoned Sacrament to a devout Emperor on his Knees: which likewise, they have devoutly done:  
I would have opened the door to Jesuitical examples, and let them ●orth tumbling one over another, like the Waves in a foul & troubled Sea: As: of Garnet and Oldcorn, Jesuits, and chief Actors in the matchless Powder Treason; who are 
English martyrologue printed in the year, 1608.  Chronicled for Martyrs: of Sixtus Quintus a Favourer and Patron of the Jesuits, who consecrated a panegyrical Oration to the immortal praise of Clement the Jacobin Friar, that Murdered Henry the third, King of France, by searching into his Belly with a religious knife: And of Barrier, who endeavoured 
Arnault ● Frenchman, in his Plead against the Jesuits, on the behalf of the King and Parliament of France.  the kill of Henry the fourth, with a poisoned Altar-Dagger; (which Raviliach afterwards expedited;) animated thereunto by holy Father Varad a Jesuit.  
And I should have sifted the Original 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. Moral. 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 affirm, 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 commandments which manage us towards our Neighbour, but not in the Commandments 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 himself cannot dispense directly and formally in any Precept of the Law of Nature. The Reason is: Because the Laws of Nature contain and command that which is good intrinsically and in its Nature; therefore the Things opposed to these Laws, are in their Natures and intrinsically Evil; and not because they are prohibited by the will of God, but because of their own Natures, they are dissentaneous and contrary to Natural 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 itself Contradictory, that they may come into Being.  
Wherefore God cannot make, (pace Occami,) the Hatred of God to be Godly, good or Lawful: 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 persuade us to these Evils; much less will them, command them to be, and make them good, lawful 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 follows 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 Eternal in Mente Dei.  
Yet, God can dispense indirectly and materially in these Laws, 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 Lives of Princes? And if the Laity be subject to the Clergy, as the Body to the Soul: yet, the Soul 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 spiritual and moral Sense, the literal Sense being repugnant with other Precepts: though she 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 Martyrdom.  
Desist then, O ye cruel Jesuits, from this your making odious the most acceptable Name of our most mild and meek Jesus.   

CHAP. XLI.  
BUT in regard it is only Objected by the Adversary, that the Text (Except one be born again &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 Quarrel. 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 Islanders adjoining 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 shoes, because the men of China perform the morality of their Salutation by putting off their Hats?  
The violent motions of spirit, Jesuitical 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 publicly raised in the Church of Rome, and which are not destructive of its being a Church; as the sins and errors of the Pharisees, destroyed not the Chair of Moses: and the Doctrines of the Church of Rome, lineally descended from Apostolical Antiquity, or included Virtually in their seed and root: And that my Quarrel is not with Truth or Integrity, but with the Corruption of Integrity and Truth.  
And in the Truth and Integrity of a sincere and unlevened Soul: If I die on my Bed, and with knowledge of what I say and do; some of my latest words on my Deathbed, shall be these.  
I most hearty deny, defy, renounce, abhor and protest against the Presumption, Pride and Avarice of Popes, their Nephews, and Cardinals; the deceitful Deal of Priests, Jesuits, Monks and Friars, and against all their Doctrines which bear the true Marks and Hecceities of Corruption: But, all the Sacred Articles of Catholic and Apostolic Doctrine amongst the Papists, which they have faithfully conserved; all their well-ordered Zeal, their admirable and most ravishing Devotions, their Deiform Intentions, their Heroical Acts of Virtue; their Abnegations of themselves, and of their Friends, Goods and Pleasures; their Watch, Fast, Praying; their Recollections, Meditations, Spiritual Exercises, Introversions, Soliloquies. Aspirations, and all the pretty-Love Actions of the Body that attend them; their Keeping of the Heart and Senses; their Humiliations, Mortifications, and Resignations of themselves, to the Will of God, come Riches or Poverty, Disgrace or Honour, Liberty or Imprisonment, Sickness or Health, Life or Death; their sigh, sobbings, yearnings, and Groan after God; their appretiative Love of God, when they cry out, in the Surges 
Psa. 73. 25.  and high Sea of the Spirit; Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee; their intensive Love of God, when the Soul being returned from the Ravishments and ecstasies of Love, and the Body overcharged; the charge is jointly given. I charge you, 
Cant. 5. 8.  O Daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of Love; or, as the Vulgar, 
Edit. vulg.  quia amore Langueo, that I languish with Love; and afterwards, their dying, and giving up the Ghost in their vehement loving of God, and by the very force of it: I most humbly receive, embrace, approve, with all my Soul, Heart and Spirit.  
And I will never believe, that the Tree is corrupted in the Root, Heart and Substance, which brings forth such heavenly Fruit; especially when I behold Trees, that are more promising and professing in their leaves and blossoms, but less performing in their fruit.  
And I confess humbly and sorrowfully, as in the Presence of God and Man, that when I first came from the Papists, I was more, as it often happens in extraordinary Mutations, fired on with Passion than sweetly drawn with Devotion.  
But now I desire of God, that I may be seasoned with Moderation, and love in every place, what my experienced Soul tells me in the retiring-Chamber of my second and composed Thoughts, God loves and likes in all places.  
We often deserve by our own Offences, that we take offence at the miscarriges of others; and reject in a lump the good with the evil.  
A Scandal is defined: Verbum aut Factum minùs rectum aut bonum, praebens occasionem alteri Spiritualis ruinae aut lapsûs in peccatum: A word or Deed less right or good, giving occasion to another of Spiritual Ruin or Falling into sin. Where the Adverb, minùs, lesse, may not be taken comparatiuè, sed negatiuè, comparatively, but negatively, for a Word or Deed which is not good but evil: And the Evil may be intrinsecè, vel extrinsecè malum, intrinsically or extrinsecally evil: the evil intrinsically evil is charactered in the precedent Chapter: the other is described; which hîc & nunc in respect of particular circumstances, of Time, Place or Persons, wants some Moral Rectitude or Goodness. The Active Scandal is subdivided in Scandalum per se & per Accidens, A Scandal by itself, and a Scandal by Accident; this happening praeter intentionem Agentis, besides the intention of the Agent.  
God almighty grant, I may be so absorbed in the profound Consideration of the Scandals which I have given, that I may only use the active Scandals of others as I would use a Mark of Caution, set near or over 
Vide Ambros. Catharin. sib. de Prophetic Savonarolae, & Raphaelem Volater. lib. 5. Geograph. in sine.  a Rock. For it must needs be that offences come, in all Churches; and Papa Angelicus the Angelical Pope and his Reformation already come in the Prophecies of Savonaerola, may not in reason be farther expected.   

CHAP. XLII.  
I Am now carried, as upon the Wings of Cherubims, to the main drift of my Adversary in his last Objection: which was: to bring an Odium upon me, and stigmatize me for a Papist. Hoop: do me no harm good Man.  
I am verily persuaded, that there are of my kindred (being in part Jewish Presbyterians) who greatly desire to reinforce Popery upon me for secret Ends, which they have as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Lovers 
Text. G●aec. 2 Tim. 3. 2.  of their own selves, and lovers of Money. And they Would persuade me into it, by long persuading me that I am of it: Which in truth, is a powerful assault upon the will; as continually hammering the thing proposed, and the conveniences and friendly considerations of it, into the Heart. Upon this Assumption, (as commonly, a Man's Enemies are of his own Household,) they let fly their fancies by the Volley.  
And therefore, as it was in the old Greek Litany, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Lit. Graec.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: From myself good Lord, deliver me: And as it is in the Roman 
Orat. Rom●nae ad Primam, & alibi:  Prayers: De Inimicis nostris, libera nos, Deus noster: From our Enemies, deliver us, O our God: So my most hearty Prayer, shall ever be: Ab Amicis meis liberame, Domine Deus noster: From my Kindred deliver me, O Lord our God.  
St Gregory Nazianzen objecteth 
S. Greg Naz. orat. 4. in Julian.  against Julian; that his cheeks undecently swelled, when in a Fume, he blew the Coals at the Devil's Altar with old women, enemies to the Truth of God and of Christ.  
But: Mihi ab istis perquàm Volupe est affligi: I take great pleasure in being afflicted and Crucified by these and the like Lumber: as, by other merciless Presbyterians, by wilful Anabaptists, by the profane Regiment of lose, lewd, unjust, and unmorallized Ministers: by the Satyr-Kinde of ignorant, phrenetical, and powder-passioned Papists, etc.  
And here: I will answer punctually. First: They call me Jesuit; And I call, not them, but the great Majesty of God to witness, against them: That I never was a Jesuit, nor a Lover of Jesuits.  
Secondly: They Tare-sow among the People, that I am a professed Papist, and reconciled to my Priestly Functions: both which, are most false, the most true God knows.  
O degenerating England: dost thou thus poorly reward one that came to thee, as an humble Suppliant, in a Church-storm, for pious Harbour? one that hath sat peaceably under thy wings, and was never in Arms? One that, whatsoever he writes to better his judgement, never preached aught thwarting the known Church of England; or gave pass to a word looking awry upon the State?  
I humbly hope: that notwithstanding the various and easy Pretences of Worldly Policy; we are not as yet, Seducers, and righteously worthy of Silentiall Punishment, if we Preach against Anabaptism.  
I am bold; and I cannot hold: because I never learned to be afraid in the defence of the mighty God's cause: And if I suffer, I shall suffer, the strong God looking upon me and strengtening me; and moreover, in the view of the Christian World: Many whereof, rejoice to hear and see me already made a miserable Sufferer by my own dear Countrymen, to whom I have hopefully ran for Appeal and safety.  
Now if any Romanist shall take offence at my taking and publishing these Offences; I shall joyfully enter the lists, even with him; and shall undertake to make the Offences I have taken, so numerous and so ponderous that all the Catholic perfumers in the new Exchange, shall not be able to suppress and pacify the stink raised in the stirring of Romishpuddels.  
In the mean time: all the world must grant, as they grant Postulata Mathematica, Mathemeticall Postulates; That although Motus Coeli semper sit Uniformis Velocitatis, the Motion of the Heavens be always of a most Uniform Swiftness, because it hath already the highest Perfection of its Motion; yet Man upon Earth, being short of his highest Perfection, hath not a motion that is Uniform, but moves unequally, is fast and slow, sometimes humanely moves one way, ignorantly sometimes another way, a third way imperfectly sometimes, and moves nearer to the highest Perfection, as he makes progress in the way of divine Knowledge.   

CHAP. XLIII.  
THE sixth objection bears up to us. If I understand in the Text, by the Kingdom of God, as I seem to do, the Kingdom of Glory; then the Text, including Baptism, excludes and excommunicates all Unbaptized Persons from the Kingdom of Heaven.  
To this Argument, Doctor Featly, according to his Grounds, would have answered: That all unbaptized Persons are excluded the Kingdom of Heaven, de lege ordinariâ, by God's Ordinary Law; Christ here speaking strictly, to bind Parents to their duties: Yet, that God hath a Prerogative, quae est supra legem Ordinariam, which is above his Ordinary Law; and by this, he doth, as work miracles, ●o extraordinarily execute the secret Decrees of his Benevolence and good Pleasure, in extraordinary Cases; these requiring extraordinary Proceed: And if we consider him, as having a royal Prerogative; he may not be confined, otherwise than he hath confined himself. And how God may be above himself in different respects, is presently understood. For: As he is Author Gratiae, the Author of Grace, he works above himself as he is Author Naturae, the Author of Nature: the Supernatural Order being so called, because it stands above the Order of Nature; and Supernatural Grace perfecting humane Nature in order to a supernatural End▪ without which Grace we cannot arrive unto it: And extraordinary Cases even in the same Order beget the different respects, and Considerations of God in his Prerogative, and God in his ordinary Course.  
Now the Kingdom of Glory, is chief & most commonly understood by the Kingdom of God: because it is the first, and most noble thing understood by it: and the Kingdom of Grace is not so called, but with denomination from the Kingdom of Glory: Which as of all Kingdoms it is the most excellent, this being the best, highest, and most profitable Sense of the Kingdom of God; so it most urgently obligeth us to Baptism under such Terms.  
Eucharistical Nourishment or Manducation, though it conduceth also to the nourishing of the Body; yet is more constituted under the Kind of Spiritual Meat, under which Reason it is more profitable to us, than under the Kind of material and corporeal Aliment: As also an Iron or Steel-Breast-Plate, although it be a kind of Garment, as it covers our Body, and defends it from heat and cold; yet goes more in the mouths and estimation of men, for a kind of Armour, as which, it exerciseth its chiefest office, and under which notion it is more profitable to Men, than for a Garment. In like measure proportionably, although the Kingdom of God signifies the Kingdom of Grace and the Kingdom of Glory; yet doth it more, and more often signify the Kingdom of Glory, under which Sense it is most profitable and advantageous to Mankind; than it signifies the Kingdom of Grace. And when a word signifieth divers Things, and one of them chief: the Thing which it chief signifieth, is the Sense if the Sentence will clasp with it: the chief Things, being to be chief considered, as always first apprehended in our Go from the Cause to the Effect.  
The word, Body, may be understood of a natural Body, a mystical or Ecclesiastical Body, a Civil or Politic Body. Which Word if its place will endure it, must be understood of a natural Body; because the natural Body, is a true Body, and more properly a Body, than the rest; and because from the natural Body, the mystical and the Civil Body are called Bodies; the natural Body being so realiter, really; the mystical and Civil Bodies being so only denominative, by denomination. And we shall thus know when a Thing hath his name by denomination from another Thing. It hath▪ if, another thing so named being taken away by intellectual Ablation or Separation, it therefore and immediately vanisheth as such. Take away the natural Body; and the Civil and mystical Bodies lose their Names. Take away the Kingdom of Glory: and there will be no Kingdom of Grace. For: Sublato Principali tollitur Accessorium; Sicuti, Sublatâ Causâ tollitur Effectus; &, Subla●â Formâ Essentiali, Res ipsa tollitur: The principal being taken away, the Accessary is also removed; As, the Cause being taken away, the Effect is taken away also, which Essentially depends on the Cause; And, As the Essential Form being taken away, the Thing itself is abolished. And the natural Body is the principal Body, considered as a Body: and the Relations betwixt these Bodies as Essentially and Fundamentally depending on the natural Body, fall to the ground, if the natural Body, which is Fundamentum Relationis, the Foundation of the Relation, be set apart.  
The Body of an Ape is in many parts and particles, like to the Body of a Man: and therefore, Galen addicted himself more to the Anatomising of Apes than of Men; as 
Franzius in S●mia●j  Franzius recounts out of two famous Anatomists, Vesalius and Columbus. Yet, the Transition from Apes to Men, is not always happy and successful. If the Adversary had studied humane Arts and Sciences, or Anatomised Corpus Theologicum, the Body of Divinity; & not only read the History of Apes, in his learning to make ill-favoured mouths and 
Vide Quintil. in Rhet.  evil faces; or learned only conformare os, to fashion his mouth to an untuneable Tone: he might himself have smoothed his own way through these knotty Matters: and I now question, if his unopened understanding can follow, when the way is opened and plained before him for him by another.   

CHAP. XLIIII.  
BUT while the Adversary bespattereth and bedawbeth his Mother-Church, as accusing her that she damns Children dying without Baptism; he runs himself inevitably upon Scylla or Charybdis. For: he would have Children saved without Christ; that is; without Grace, which is the bond of Salvation in Christ, and the wedding Garment; without Faith, (which is the first sanctifying Grace,) against the common cry of Scripture; and without a Sacrament, the Sacraments being the pure Channels of God's mercy to us in Christ: and so, sets them above all Ordinances: or, he would have them all damned who do not ascend to the years of discretion. Alas poor Babies.  
That, God, as the great Provisor, and overlooker of the natural and supernatural Order; and that Christ as the Highpriest, and the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls, supplies 
1 Pet. 2. 25.  by his extraordinary Power the inculpable defects of the Sacraments, which are Defects ex parte Ministri, Materiae, etc. I deny not. And that he supplies all the Defects concerning them: I do not affirm. Because the Supernatural and extraordinary suppletion is, in the most part, when the ordinary fails without our fault or failing; it being therefore afforded; and the obligation of the Supreme Provisor, in some such Cases only arising. As the Universal Cause in Nature, supplieth in like manner the natural Defects of the Particular Cause.  
Here the Adversary, being desperately resolved durissima atque ultima sustinere, to endure all hardness: manumises this Proposition: Those who do not manifest Grace, are not of the Visible Church.  
I answer, first: The Innocents' 
Mat. 2. 16.  in the Gospel, Baptised Baptismo Sanguinis, with the Baptism of Blood; did not manifest Grace, and yet, were of the visible Church, because they were visible Martyrs. And they are called by the Ancients, Primitiae Martyrum, the first fruits of the Martyrs. And when the Fathers in their Sermons upon St Stephen, dignify him with the Title of Protomartyr, the first Martyr; they suppose him to have been the first in respect of adult Persons, and the first complete Martyr.  
Where learn, that the Baptism of Blood hath the same Effects, as Baptismus Fluminis & Flaminis, the Baptism of water and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost: that is: as Baptismus in Re & Baptismus in Voto, Baptism in the Thing and Baptism in Desire: here being an extraordinary Suppletion. Yea: the Baptism of Blood is the more noble, as having and holding a singular conformity with the Passion of Christ.  
Secondly: If Children do not pertain to the Visible Church, because they cannot manifest Grace; then if they die being Children miserable is their end, and their misery in the loss of God, is without end. Because the Church of God is Via, the way; she only, teaching it; and the Head of it, so calling himself: and the Kingdom of God, is Patria, the Country. And as no man comes to his Country, but by the way; So extra Ecclesiam non est Salus, out of the Church there is no Salvation: A Figure whereof was, That all were drowned in the Houd, whom the Flood found unasked. The divine 
S. Cypr. lib. de Vni●ate Ecclesiae.  Rule of St Cyprian is universally accepted: Non habet Deum Patrens, qui non habet Ecclesiam Matrem: He hath not the God of the Church for his Father, who hath not the Church of God for his Mother. And 
Council Lateran sub Innocent. 3. cap. 1.  the Faith▪ Confession of the Council of Lateran under Innocentius the third, is innocent: Una est Fidelium Universalis Ecclesia, extra quam nemo salvatur: There is one Universal Church of the Faithful out of which no Person is saved.  
last: outward manifestation of Grace, doth not render us Members of the visible Church as visible, that is, of the outward Church as it is outward: but, that we visibly and and outwardly communicate with the said Church, and are congregated with the visible Members of it: (the Case of the Innocents' was extraordinary, as the Birth of Christ was, upon which it waited:) because the outward manifestation of Grace imports a reference to the Senses of men, which are not capable of the Impressions of such manifestation: and because outward manifestation in free Agents, is no infallible sign of inward and invisible Grace, except it be infallibly known to us, that the Persons giving such manifestation, are infallibly directea; or, except we receive it of God, by private Revelation.   

CHAP. XLV.  
THe last Objection comes to its trial: And it is the monumental Objection of Mr Tombs, the Oracle, Apollo, Champion, Achilles, 
Mr Tombs in his Examen.  Goliath, Knight-Errant, or, less improperly, the feathered Fore-horse of our Anabaptists.  
It parallels another Text with ours. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye 
Jo. 6. 53.  have no life in you. Being the Text in meditation whereof, Synesius hymns it of the Eucharist, that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Synes. in Hymnis.  the Trophy of Divine Love.  
It is not, saith Mr Tombs, proved sufficiently by illation from this Text, that Infants may receive the Lord's Supper: therefore neither from the other, that Infants may be Baptised. Wherefore although the Text treateth of Baptism, yet is it not efficaciously convincing for Infants.  
I answer. First: These Texts very much differ in their Logical Terms and latitude. His Text is directed by a Term of restriction to the Jews, (to whom Christ preached in the Synagogue,) being grown 
See V 59  Persons; and commends to them the eating of strange, but solid meat, perfectly agreeable to them only, and such as they; Except ye eat, etc. In our Text, although presentially directed to Nicodemus, the direction is let lose, and widened with a Term extending to all persons young and old, etc. Except one be born.  
Secondly: These Sacraments are very much different in their Natures and Effects. The Sacrament of Baptism was given, that it might initiate us, purge us from sin, and reduce us to Spiritual Purity: and it is requisite, that even Children should be initiated, purged and reduced; and being now initiated bodily and apparently into the World, should not be left there by the Lover of Souls, as the most innocent, and yet wanting an Ordinance of Spiritual Initiation. For this reason: the Sacramental and visible Action in Baptism, is washing with water; accordable even with Children, who are born unclean, and therefore, presently washed by the Midwife. The Eucharist was appointed, that it might nourish and conserve Spiritual Life acquired in Baptism; which corporal Meat doth in corporeal Things▪ as conserving the animal Life: and therefore the Signs here are presented in the form of solid nourishment, which agrees not perfectly with Babes, but only with grown Persons. Yea: the Spiritual Repast in the Eucharist, being instituted with analogy to material Meat and Drink; and presupposing in the Receiver, Spiritual Life: if it findeth it not, cannot nourish: material eating and drinking, presupposing also the Life of Nature. And God giving grace to the religious and humble Receiver of this Sacrament; gives it always as an augmentation of Precedent Grace, not as the beginning of Spiritual Life. But Baptism, as vivificatory, primarily and properly belongeth to Infants that are dead in sin. And a strong digestion of solid nourishment in Spiritual Things, conformable to vigorous Augmentation; is not, without the Spiritual strength and election of grown Persons. And the Eucharist most relieves the best disposed: As in Nature; Est modus operandi Causae uniuscujusque, ut (cateris Paribus) sempèr magis operetur in passum meliùs dispositum: Every Cause more works upon a Subject more disposed, because it hath less to conquer. But there is no diversity of Disposition in Children; nor any positive or privative indisposition to Baptism And therefore. Baptism infallibly, necessarily, and irresistibly produceth its whole Effect in them. For: Causa necessar●a sufficientèr applicata, debet operari: A necessary Cause applied sufficiently, must work; if it encounter no resistance requiring a Warlike encounter in the Subject: and here is none.  
Thirdly: when Actions are directed and determined to certain Persons capable of performance: it is supposed, that the performance belongs to them and their care, to whom the determination and direction is made; as, in the Text, Except ye eat: the persons here being all capable of such care and performance. But if Actions be enjoined in Terms that involve all, and some be uncapable of the care and performance enjoined: it is supposed that the performance belongs to the capable and knowing part, not only in respect of themselves, but also in respect of them who are unknowing and uncapable in themselves of such performance and care; and therefore Subordinate: And Parents are obliged to a care of their Children, Superiors to care for Inferiors, the Knowing to be careful of the Ignorant, by the Laws of God and Nature.  
last: His Text is religiously true and illative even in our Sense. For: except the grown Jews, to whom solid nourishment belonged after their conversion; were converted, Baptised, and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist in Act or Desire: Or: if they wilfully rejected, or neglected the sacred use of it: they were void of Life; as not having the Life of Grace, and conserving it with agreeable nourishment.   

CHAP. XLVI.  
IF St Austin deduced a like necessity 
S Aug. l. 1. de peccatorum Merit is & Remissione, cap. 20. S Cypr. in l. de Laps●s.  that Infants should receive the Lords Supper, from the words Joh. 6. as appears by his own clear expression. If within the Line of St Cyprians Days, the sacred Communion was exhibited to Infants; as is evident by his evidence given concerning himself giving the Communion to an Infant. Which History with its Book, is again Historied by Saint Austin. If it be delivered 
S Aug. cp. 23.  up into the Senate and Council of the Learned by Maldonat, that 
Maldon. Comment. in Jo. 6.  Innocentius the first, held a necessity of communicating Infants; and that this opinion and practice went on six hundred years with some parts of the Church: I shall yield it passage as a pious Use, but not as absolutely or strictly necessary, nor as able to infringe the Baptising of Infants, or our Text concerning Baptism; for the most unalterable Reasons newly given.  
And moreover: because the susception of the Eucharist, cannot have its whole, substantial or most excellent Effect in Infants.  
And the Authority of private Men, say the Sorbonists, when they 
Sorbonista▪  are not made public by representing the Church in Councils; proves little in dubious, and those ill-byassed Cases. Original and Secondary Tradition, are not of equal Validity. Neither are some particular Churches and their use, comparable, or, to be measured with the overspreading use in the great stream of the Church.  
Innocentius as a private Doctor, might accept it as a private opinion. So might St Cyprian, St Austin and others before them, as the Testimony of Dionysius Areopagita makes credible.  
It was a pious use, and somewhat like, that the sacred crumbs were anciently given, in the Greek Church to innocent Children.  
And uses of Ordinances must be measured with the Natures of them, and thereby tried.  
I maim no Authority because it is such, but as deviating or turning aside from Truth. The Council of Trent reasons devoutly, most piously, 
Concil. Triden .. Sess. 21. qu● suit quinta su● pio quarto, cap. 4.  and according to right Reason: Sancta Synodus d●cet, parvulos usu rationis ●arentes, nullâ obligari necessitate ad Sacram●ntalem Eucharistiae Communionem; siquidem per Baptismi lavacrum regenerati & Christo incorporati, adeptam jàm filiorum Dei Gratiam in illa aetate amitte●e non possunt: The holy Synod teacheth, that Little-ones wanting the use of reason, are not obliged by necessary obligation, to the Sacramental all Communion of the Eucharist: because they being regenerated by the Laver of Baptism and incorporated into Christ, cannot lose in that Age, the Grace of the Sons of God now obtained. Where the Council learnedly enforces, that the Eucharist being ordained for the nourishing of the Grace received in Baptism; the use of it would be useless, with regard to the main use, in an Age which cannot lose the Grace received.  
And whereas we are nourished, not only that we may not perish, but also that we may be strengthened; we are not strengthened in Grace (for present use,) but by the concurcrence of actual Grace, of the which, Children, as not acting by Grace, are uncapable: there only remaining accidental and adventitious benefits according to the good use afterwards made of Baptismal Grace.  
And now, quandoquidem umbone exceperim hoc telum, seeing I have received this Dart upon the boss of my Shield or Buckler; I thus retort it. If Infants were partakers of the Eucharist, then certainly they were Baptised being Infants: Baptism preceding the Eucharist: Yea, Dionysius 
S Dionys. Areap. lib. E●cles. Hierarch. c. 7. part. 2.  having eternised in his Hierarchy, That the unbaptised ought not to be admitted to the sight of the Eucharist. And St Austin here wheels to us: Ad Sacramentum 
S Aug. l. 1. de peccat. Merit. & Remiss. cap. 20. Tom. 7.  Mensae Domini nemo rit è nisi Baptizatus accedit: To the Sacrament of the Lords Table none come, by direct and orderly proceed, but the Baptised.  
That the Ancients were deceived in the Baptising of Infants, as in communicating them; will not follow; because the Sacraments are differently natured, and intended; and because the practice was differently carriaged.  
This return of the Argument; is like Aurum fulm●nans, which is an Extract from Gold, admixed with other Ingredients; and in the blow, forceth downwards with a mighty power. This Return drives all down before it, but what was down before.   

CHAP. XLVII.  
THirdly: I gather up myself to prove, that the Holy words, Except one be born, etc. word it, in the nearest and holiest Sense, for Baptism; from the sweet harmony, concord and consonancy betwixt other Texts of Scripture, and this Text thus understood. And thus I begin to raise the Works.  
That Circumcision did forerun and foresignify Baptism, and that Baptism answereth to it; is aftersignified by the Apostle: who abstracting the Colossians from the 
Coloss. 2. 11, 12.  old Circumcision, which was carnal, and settling them upon the new, which is spiritual; transfers the Name of Circumcision to Baptism, and calls it the Circumcision made without hands.  
Besides: Circumcision was, and Baptism is the initiating Sacrament: and they were both accordingly instituted, by way of Relief and Remedy, against the first and fundamental evil deprehended and reprehended in us, Original sin; being the greatest Evil and sin, as the Cause of all other sins and Evils.  
Now the Children of Christians, are as capable of Baptism, as the Children of the Jews were of Circumcision: and as wanting of it. For: Idem est vulnus, & eadem Ratio Medicinae sub utroque Testamento: There is the same Wound, Soare, and Reason of the Medicine under both Testaments. Eadémque Ratio Legis: And the same Reason of Prescription for the Cure.  
There is no repugnance therefore, ex parte Sacramenti vel Instrumenti, on the part of the Sacrament or Instrument; neque etiam ex parte Subjects, nor on the part of the Subject Neither is there any resistance or opposition ex parte Instituentis, vel Author is Sacrament●, on the part of the Institutor, Author of the Sacrament, or him that licentiates the coition of the Subject and Instrument; and authorises by royal Authority, 
S●c james 2. 8  the Instrument to work Instrumentally upon the Subject.  
And I make it up, thus Circumcision according to the Institution of it, was in its Drift and Nature, a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith: And 
Rom. 4. 11.  this was ipsissimus Finis Institutionis Baptismi, the very End itself of the Institution of Baptism, and comprizes the Nature of it: it being instituted to be, and it being in its Nature, a Seal of the Covenant of Grace, or, of the Righteousness of Faith.  
And although Children under the old Law, had not on the eighth Day, actual Faith, nor could express their Faith by their actual profession▪ yet the Sacrament of Circumcision was actually applied to them, as God's Legal Instrument: Therefore the Sacrament of Baptism, as God's Evangelicall Instrument, should, for the same Reason, be applied actually to Children under the Gospel: and if it be not, the fault is in us, being the animate Instruments.  
The Mouse in Lemnius, was begat 
Levinus Lemnius, l. 2. cap. 10  of Corruption in the Ventricle of a Man. What Beast is bred of the Corruption in the Brains of Anabaptists; except it be the Beast in Plandanus, which being most foul 
Vide Plaudanum, l. 2. de S●cretis O●bis, & Rerum Miraculis.  and ugly, abhors all kind of cleanness by washing, and therefore devours the Lambs approaching the Water, which in places remote from it, he loves, plays with, and cherishes: I am altogether unknowing.   

CHAP. XLVIII.  
CIrcumcision was by command commended to the Jews: first that they might be admonished by this Sign, of the divine promise made to Abraham concerning the 
Gen. 12: 15. 17. 22.  M●ssias, who was to come, as a royal Extract, of his Generation, and in whom all Nations and Generations should be blessed: And in this respect, it was executed in Membro Generationis, and was Signum Praefigurativum.  
Secondly: that the People of God, should by this Sign be discriminated and discerned from the 
Vide S. Chrysost. Hom. 30. & 39 in. Gen. Item, Irenaeum l. 4. c. 30. S Jo. Dametas▪ l. 4. de Fide Orthodoxa. cap. 26.  Gentiles. Wherefore St John Damascen was fixed in the Opinion, that the Israelites therefore were not Circumcised in the Wilderness, because, they not being mingled with other Nations, there was no visible need of this distinctive mark: though indeed, a more applicatory Cause was; their difficult Journey would have been grievous to them, had they been there Circumcised: In this regard it was Signum Distinctivum.  
Thirdly: that it might be used as the Remedy of Original Sin: which in Circumcision, (and not by it,) was remitted by the Faith of the Parents: And therefore also, was Circumcision enacted in Membro Generante; Original sin being traduced by Generation. So St Gregory, 
S. Greg. in cap. 3. Job. S. Bern. Serm. 3 de Circumcisione. S Beda in Lucae▪ c. 2.  St Bernard, St Bedè. Hence the Fathers, catechising the World, teach; that Circumcision stood in the Place of Baptism, and reversally Baptism stands in the place of Circumcision. In this place it was Signum Rememorativum, scilicèt Peccati Originalis.  
Fourthly: that a Name might be duly and religiously given to the Infant. For: the Names of Abram and Sarai were changed, when the 
Gen. 17.  Law of Circumcision was promulgated: and whereas he had been called Abram, that is, Pater excelsus, an high Father; Ab in the Hebrew, signifying Father, (which in the Chaldee and Syriack, is Abba; and in the Greek and Latin, wherein there is the concession and freedom of a literal Termination, Abbas,) and ram signifying high: God then added honourably to his Name, the letter Hain, and so drew it forth into Abraham: Which is in true signification, Pater multarum Gentium, the Father of many Nations: Likewise, his Wife having been formerly called Sarai, that is, my Princess, Mistress, or Lady; God abstracted from her Name, the letter Jod, and conveyed the letter He into the place of it; and she was called Sarah, signifying Princess, absolutely, and without any mean reference: (the literal Communication from the incommunicable Name, Jehovah; I name not:) And here, it was Signum nuncupativum.  
Fiftly: that it might serve to the diminution and abatement of carnal Concupiscence; & therefore again, it was administered upon the Member, in the which, that Carnal Vanity most commandeth: And in this consideration, it was Signum directivum.  
Sixthly: that it might be a Sign of the Spiritual Circumcision wherewith Christ Circumcising us by his Blood, should remove the superfluities of our sins. Of this, St Paul: 
Rom. 2. ●9,  He is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and Circumcision is that of the Heart, in the Spirit, & not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. And to this also, agrees Irenaeus: And now, 
S. Irenaeus ubi supra,  it was Signum Commonitorium.  
Lastly: that it should be the Sign of our Baptism. Wherefore as Circumcision distinguished the Children of Abraham from the Gentiles; So Baptism severeth Christians from Infidels: As Circumcision impressed a deep Character in the flesh, not easily concealed even with Superinduction; so Baptism impresseth an indelible Character in the Soul: As by Circumcision, the Jews and Proselytes were piously received into the warm boatswain of the Synagogue; so by baptism Christians are incorporated into the Holy Church, and made Members of it: As Circumcision did cut off the foreskin of the flesh; so Baptism cutteth away Carnal Concupiscence, as instilling Grace into us, by the which we may resist it: And as in Circumcision, Original 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 kiss of Peace, 
Dr Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying, Sect. 18.  That Figures and Types prove nothing, unless a Commandment go along with them, or some express to signify 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 Express, being the Express expressed to the Colossians.  
But I cannot give admittance to 
Idem ibid.  all the following ●ardle: Circumcision l●ft a Character in the flesh, which being imprinted upon Infants did its work to them when they came to age; and such a Character was necessary because there was no word added to the sign; but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the Body, the Character is on the Soul, to which also the word is added which is as much a part of the Sacrament as the Sign itself is; for both which reasons, it is requisite that the Persons Baptised should be capable of Reason, that they may be capable both of the Word of the Sacrament, and of the Impress made upon the Spirit: Because the Godfathers, anciently called Susceptores, Undertakers, and still, Patrini and Compatres, oblige themselves, to acquaint these their Spiritual Children, entering upon the years of Understanding, with the ceremonial Work and real Effect of Baptism, which involve both the Words and the Spiritual 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 formal and lively direction; the Fleshly Character being no direction without express teaching, and but a materiall-one with it.  
It was therefore, even before the formal Institution of Priests and Levites; the Duty of the Parent or Chief Person and Firstborn 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 design, and from whose actual Passion, words being inefficacious of themselves, they have that they are effectual.  
Hence the School-Divines require, that the Minister of a Sacrament in the administration of it shall intent to behave himself as a Dispenser of the Mysteries of Christ: and farther teach, that if he shall Baptise without intention, or as a Devilish Engine 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 merely such, are not forcible.  
These Things orderly considered, the Reason of the Parity betwixt the Sacraments, fails not; and the Argument though analogical, is efficacious.  
I understand at last, that I do 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 Spiritual Truth, to found the Colossus of a temporal 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 mystical Body and the chained Order of it, were subordinate to a Civil Body and its Order and Chain: 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 Lives and Prayers enough to redeem his Error. 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 pass into a Proverb: A Doctor amongst the Anabaptists.  
The Judgement of Agapetus was both ordinate and edificatory; as is evidenced by the religious Council he gave to Justin●an the Emperor: 
Caesar … ius Tom ●an Just●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 fest●na, Whereas you have received the Scrpter of the Empire from God; think, by what means you shall please him who gave it unto you: and whereas you are set by him before all men has●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 royal Clay abhorred this low, hellish, Atheistical, 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 Jews under the Law: the Sacrament of Circumcision opening to these, the royal Door of God's Visible Church, and entering them as blessed Partakers of his Promises: And so, the Sacred and complete 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 Personal Coming, (Christ the Fountain of Grace, now coming visibly and in Person with his Fountain running Wine and Oil,) being, not to shorten, abridge, or abolish, but to lengthen, enlarge, and multiply Evangelicall privileges; as appears in the multitude of Persons now accepted to Grace by General acceptation, and of their extraordinary Graces, and the extraordinary Manners of their being given: And the fundamental 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 effectual than the Shadow, the End more excellent than the means; and the succeeding Antitype, than the preceding Type.  
Children therefore, may not be Losers, but must be Gainers by the coming of Christ; and that they may be Gainers, must be supported from falling into a Chas●●, 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 bind it fast with the nerves and▪ ar●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 himself to his own Order, we shall consider him in comparison of such Things, to be there where he hath put himself; and not expect extraordinary Works in disagreeing and ordinary Courses; or Superord●nations within the Dominion of Ordinances.  
For the way to God, being the way of God, is agreeable to God; as 〈◊〉 Means 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 go to the Devil, 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 Confirm it, secondly: Christ is the Son of the Father of Mercies: his Natural Son: And: From the Father and the Son, by one everlasting and undivided Act, proceeds the Holy Ghost, who is Love, ●or, 
1 Jo. 4. 16. Text. Grac  as the Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Charity: And: the Son of God, so loved Mankind, that he took the Nature of Man, in the very womb of a Woman, and first was and appeared a Child. And this Divine Son of God, grown from a Child to a Man, professed himself to be, and was Medicus Animarum, the most knowing and most merciful Physit●an of Souls.  
Now, is it imaginable by intellectual Creatures: or, can a Man be so blind to the Law of Christ, whose Love, Wisdom, Providence and infinite; as to think, that our Spiritual Physician, described by the Prophets and in the Gospel, as the grand Master of the College; would now under the Gospel, which is the Perfection of the Law, and to publish which Christ himself 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 settled 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 Mankind; should be such an evil 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 Ti●us a Pagan 
Plutar. in Tite, Vespasiam Filio.  Emperor, that he was Deliciae Humani Generis, the Dainties of Humane Kind; 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 beneficial to any. Palladius applauds Bisarion, because 
Pallad in ●ausi●ca, cap. 116. Leonti●s in vita Joan. Eleemosyna●ii.  he sold his Bible for the relief of a poor Man. And Leontius magnifies in Joannes Eleemosynarius, that he wept always 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 fullness of Mercy as of the Godhead dwells, looking sternly and immovably, night and day, upon all innocent Children, (who in puris naturalibus cannot look towards him, and who, by the default of others, are burdened with accidental 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 pity of them pretty Souls.  
The Casuists publish to the World, 
Casuistae.  that when the public Use of a Thing is both Righteous and sinful, sub diverso respectu, according to the good or evil Persons using it; as Oil 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 evil purposes. This Doctrine of the Anabaptists, cannot be accepted of any for a good End; because it is evil in itself, as Blaspheming the Mercy of God, the Procession of the Holy Ghost, who proceeds ut Amor, as Love; the Incarnation of Christ; as excommunicating harmless 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 Confirm it, thirdly: As it is an ordinary manner of Inference, to infer by arguing à majore ad minut affirmatiuè, From the greater Thing to the lesser affirmatively; thus: He that is able to do the greater Thing, is able à fortiori to do 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 Logic 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 Hairs 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 Gospel: And this Manner of Inference, concerns the providential 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 Logic; A posse ad esse non valet Argumentum: The Argument is not Valid which saith, whensoe'er there is a passive Power that a Thing may be done, then also, is there an active Power, which shall or will do 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 himself to an Ordinary Law, and proportionable Course; being extraordinarily able to keep it, will not ordinarily break it.  
And the proportionable Course is founded in this: That the old Law was a Figure of the new; and the 
S Dionys. Eccles. Hierarche. c. 5. part. 1.  new is a Figure, saith Dionysius, of our future Glory: And that in the new Law, the Things▪ done in the Head, were Signs of the Things to be done in the Members: Whence arise the three Spiritual or mystical 
V●●e D. Tho q 1. a. 10. in corp.  Senses of Scripture, allegorical tropological, or moral, and anagogical.  
And it is not a Spiritual Sense in our Sense here, when words do signify Things, but when Things do signify other Things▪ As: When the Things under the Law, signify the Things under the Gospel, and the Things done by the Head of us, signify the Things to be done by us; and the Things under the Gospel, signify the Things of Glory▪ by Gods Ordination: who only, makes Holy Things to signify other Holy Things that are subsequent to them by connexion from his Decree, through much difference of Time, Place, and Persons: And therefore, as the mystical members necessarily pertain to the invisible Head, and Glory of necessity follws the Gospel; so the Gospel follows the Law, and pertains to it; as giving to the Life in every touch of the Pencil, what the Ceremonial part of the Law hath showed in the first draught.   

CHAP. LIII.  
NOte. Baptism▪ succeed 〈◊〉 Circumcision, quoad Substant●am, non quoad Omnes Circumstantias: agreeably to the Substance, not agreably to all the Circumstances, (which Circumstances in the greater part, are now heterogeneous:) As the Sacrament of the Eucharist, succeeds the Feast of the Paschall Lamb.  
And therefore we, conforming to old Things in their new Substantials: are not obliged to Baptise Children on the eighth Day, this being a Circumstance of Time; nor in the part wherein they were Circumcised, this being a Circumstance of Part or Place; nor to Baptise the Males only, this being a Circumstance of Person, as it designs this and that Male, and as it relates to the Exclusion of Females; though not, as it imports in recto the Inclusion of Males.  
Where I suppose against Dr Tailor; 
See Doctor Tailor Sect. 18.  That the Persons included, under the reduplication, as such, or, as included, are not a Circumstance, neither are impertinent and accidental to the mysteriousness of the Rite, but pertain essentially to the mystery, as without which persons being the Subjects of it, the mystery could not be constituted, or performed.  
So Males and Females, at the least disjunctively, pertain to the essence and actuality of Baptism, as being more ample.  
For: then only, Persons are in proper Speech Circumstances of a Work or Action, when they are only Circumstantially, outwardly, and accidentally interessed in it; as here the Persons are, considered in individuo, but not, considered in the whole Kind.  
Now these old Circumstances had of old, their sufficient Reasons. Circumcision was deferred until the eighth Day, that the Children might gain strength, for the prevention of precipitation into mortal Danger. Which Reason falleth off in Baptism, in the which, our skin is not stirred; the new Law being a Law of Love, as the old Law was a Law of Terror and Fear. Children were Circumcised in Membro Generationis, for the reasons given before; the chief and carrying reason whereof, now falls with its Carriage; because Christ is already born and we are not Abraham's Children, otherwise than by Faith; and the greater Number of Christians Baptise all parts of the Body, to signify a total and perfect washing of Spirit: (though Clement the eighth 
Clemen● octavus in extravag.  declared for the admittance of the foot or hand to Baptism, in case the Child should be in danger, and the hand or foot only, show itself as animated, & with proper motion.) And the Males only, were circumcised; because this Ordinance attached them in the part proper to them, they being the stronger, and only able to bear a wound and bloodshed in that Age: Which reason, as it relates to Females, now loses its hold: Who then, it is most probable, were embraced by some other Ordinance which the Scripture conceals, and not by their lackeying to the Males.  
Wherefore Baptism is not expressly adjudged by God to these Circumstances; as Circumcision was.  
And although there was in the manducation of the Paschall Lamb, no prescription of Sacramental drink; we will not hence deduce that the Eucharist may not by divine Ordinance, be administered but in one kind: Because in the most ancient Churches, it was at the first administered in both kinds; yea, in many Western Churches, this use continued unto the Days of Aquinas: And 
Vide D. Tho in ●d● Materiâ.  because the Feast under the more perfect and explicit Law, is in itself, more perfect, complete and explicit; and especially in its noblest Use; as explicitly and perfectly representing and signifying the Passion of Christ sacrificed for us.   

CHAP. LIV.  
I Draw with a chain of Adamant, my second Scripture-Consonancy, à Mandato Christi, from the command of Christ. For: When Boëtius 
Boëtius super Topica Ciceronis l. 6. non procul a sine.  delivers, Locus ab Auctoritate est infirmissimus, The Topick of Authority is most infirm; he doth not infringe his own Authority, but speaks of Authority founded upon Humane Faith, not of Authority founded upon Science, or upon divine Revelation, which comes from God; who by reason of the infinite Light of his Understanding, cannot be deceived in himself; and by reason of his infinite Truth, cannot deceive others: the Authority of his word understood aright, being therefore most firm.  
Go ye, saith Christ, and teach all 
Mat. 28. 19 20.  Nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. If we bring this English Text to a refinement by the Greek: it will sound otherwise. The English teaches: teach all Nations: So also, the Vulgar Latin. But the 
Edit. vulg. Text. Graet.  Greek disciples us: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, disciple all Nations; not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, teach ye. Which expression, doubtless, in the first and most common acception of it, intends as the complete Sense, the making of Disciples by actual teaching: and this discipling was afterwards most common, as being agreeable with the much greater part of such who were designed for Disciples. But in a second and less common acception, as agreeable with a lesser part, and an incompleate and lesser kind; the word Disciple signifieth initiate, or, set apart for Disciples; or, devote such to God, by marking them for Disciples, and let them be taught afterwards, who in regard of their present ineptitude and incapacity, cannot be presently made Disciples by actual teaching.  
And the Reason of this Exposition, is uncontrollable: Which is: When an Active Verb of Command, is applied to all Nations or People; it must admit such Senses, by the which, it shall approve itself appliable to all people or Nations: And Children certainly are a bigger part of the Nations or People, in respect of their number; than they are in respect of their growth.  
And that our Children are so discipled, is undeniable: Because, first: they are offered to God by the Church, or by their Parents; who devote them, and give their Names to Christ:  
Secondly: the Susceptores undertake for them; that, in conformity to their Obligation intimated in the Form of Baptism, (which is afterwards expressed in the Charge,) they shall be taught the true Worship of the most Holy Trinity. Hitherto they are only Disciples in Fieri.  
Thirdly: they receive the royal Mark or Character in their Souls; by the which, they are Sealed for God, and made Disciples and Christians in Facto esse: not as being actually taught, but as being put into the School and Family of Christ, and set actually in the number of his Disciples, according to the less common acception of the word.  
We send sometimes, little children to School or put them into the hands of Tutors or Governors, not for their present & actual improvement by learning, but that they may be kept out of harms way. And thus children are sweetly received into Chrstian Discipline, to waylay the danger of their dying without Baptism, God's general and Holy Ordinance; the Holy Ordination of which, was not for nought in respect of any person.  
Though this be adduced for Illustration sake; and Similitudines Illustiant, non probant, Similitudes prove not, but Illustrate: Yet, when the Similitude stands with both feet, upon Things of near affinity, and like Oeconomy, and concurring to Identity or some aggregate Perfection combined in the same End, (as the outward Man and the inward Man in the same man, are but one and the same Christian Man, tending to 
Legatur Suarez in Metaph. Disp. de Vno, Sect. 8.  Christ;) the Illustration is a solid Probation.   

CHAP. LV.  
AND in this Text, the word, Teaching follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Teaching them to observe 
V 20.  etc. And yet▪ we do not there press the word, Teaching, to teach, that Teaching always and of necessity follows Baptism; because Baptism of necessity and always follows Teaching in Adultis, in grown Persons capable of Teaching.  
But now, will they force Christ to speak irrhetorically, and burden Scripture with a Tautology, that he may speak for them? Truly if they should, he would immediately draw off, and leave them to speak for themselves. For● If Teaching be set before Baptising, it will not evince, that all the Persons deputed for Baptism, must be actually taught before they be Baptised.  
First: Because, ut habetur in Materie de Legibus; Statuta Communia 
Videatur Materia de Legibus.  prop●●●ntur secundùm quod multitudeni conveniunt: & ideò Legislator in eyes statuendis attendit id quod communiter, & in pluribus accidit: General Appointments, as this is, are proposed accordingly as they agree with the greater number: and therefore, the Lawgiver in appointing them, attends to that which commonly, and for the most part happens. And the greater number in those times, were such as should be taught before they could be Baptised, being grown Persons: and the Lawgiver attends to the common course, and bids, teach all Nations Baptising them.  
And indeed in the Conversion of Nations, and the general Plantation of Christian Faith; the Preaching of the Word, as being the first onset upon the Sense and Soul, precedeth orderly and simply, the administration of the Sacraments.  
Secondly: because it might also be reasonably answered; (which would rebate the edge of all that could be said;) The stepping of teaching before Baptising, doth no more carry away with it, that teaching hath legal precedency, and aught always to take the place in action before Baptising; than that Repentance, as being commanded before Faith in the Words, Repent ye, and believe 
Mar. 1. 15.  the Gospel, should therefore claim always the first place; which yet, is a fruit of Faith: Faith attending upon Repentance here, by a Rhetorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
These pleasures of the Holy Ghost in the contexture of Scripture, occasioned the Rule of Exposition, Non datur prius aut posterius in Scriptura: Scripture observes not sometimes, what is former, or what latter in itself.  
I commiserate the Adversary here; he being so environed, that if he will dance, he must needs dance in a Hoop. But, as St Austin elegantly: 
S Aug. l. 1. Confess. cap. 13.  Quid est miserius misero non miserante seipsum? What is more miserable than a miserable man having no commiseration towards himself?   

CHAP. LVI.  
THere is another knot. The Text in the Mine, hath: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Baptising them into the Name-: Because the Baptised should not only catch to themselves, the Name and Profession, but also be soberly immersed into the Thing professed and named.  
I answer: The Undertakers take for Infants, with respect to the Profession: but the Thing and the Name, themselves take. They are washed and Sanctified in the Name of Christ; and are therefore called Christians: external Communication being necessary to a Member of the visible Church; but not external and personal Profession in this case; the Persons being uncapable of it, and the Profession of others, being equipollent on the behalf of such Persons.  
Still they stick by the teeth, at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and finding it to be an alien in gender from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they have taken up from under the hedge in the Highway, a Noun whereon to throw it; which themselves have made fit, and clothed: And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Disciples. And thus they send back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, them, with a pass and an Officer, to be carried, not to the Nations, it's native place, but to the Disciples in the Nations.  
Let the Answer be. The like Conjunction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is frequent in Scripture: And they are at once, thrice conjoined in the Apocalypse. 
Rev. 20. 8. 9 10.  And why may we not more naturally fetch out a companion for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the Vulgar use of speaking, than from a strange Verb of Command, (which Verbal fetch, would be a wondrous fetch & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Abase of speech, and most abusively surrogate one word for another:) and ●ather Substitute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name common to Men, Women, and Children; and bind all up in the end of the Construction, with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of all the Nations?  
Neither is the Conjunction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, incongruous; because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a most ready word in that Language; and as always ready, so able always to make the construction perfect: the Nations being constituted of Men, Women, and Children.  
What a mighty weight would these underlings and Country-Workemen heap upon a new-sangled supposition of their own: When a Building should not be improportionable to the Foundation.  
The Author of the Arabic Catena, 
Author Arabicae Catenae, cap. 8.  sets for a mark to us, that Cain's Mark made him proof against Men and all their Weapons: Had there been Swords or Pikes, they could not have entered him: had there been Guns; he was so marked by God, that he could not have been their Mark to be marked by them: Against all the Beasts, and Serpents: his Force and Poison proved the stronger, and subdued their Poison and Force: Against the Elements: He could nor be burned by the most devouring Fire; or drowned by the great Ocean of Water; or blasted by the most Pestilential Air; or crushed by the fall of a Rock or Cliff. Against the War and uproar of the Clouds, and Sky: Thunder and Lightning could not offend him; nor, Tempests hurt him.  
The simple Herd of Anabaptists fancy to themselves, that their Arguments are all of proof; and they prove nothing for them, but only, that they prove nothing for them, and altogether for us. An ordinary pen, is a sufficient Weapon to pierce them: One spark of industrious courage, is able to consume them: A few drops from the profound School-Ocean; to i'll, benumb, and drown them.   

CHAP. LVII.  
I Confirm this Argument, first: Christ demonstrated by his Example, that he intended in his command, the Baptising of Infants. It is written: Jesus himself Baptised not, 
Joh. 4. 2.  but his Disciples: that is: Baptised not ordinarily, but only extraordinarily; in compliance with the Testimony of Euodius.  
And Jesus devolved and delegated the function of Baptising, to his Disciples: First: that he might enable them, in regard of appliance to the wants of the Church: And secondly, that he might ennoble them; and that the people might look upon them as having such power so derivatively conferred on them. For▪ had Christ himself commonly Baptised, the People would have greedily sought to be Baptised by him, and have waved his Disciples who therefore, would have sunk in repute, and been brought into contempt and obloquy.  
Now Christ Baptising not, for these Reasons: could not in his Example, express for Infants, more fully & plentifully than he did. He said: Suffer 
See Mat. 19 13. 14. 15. Mar. 10. 13. 14. 15. 16.  little children to come unto me: that is: to come in a large Sense, or, have access to me, for a Spiritual End. And the three Evangelists, who treat of this Matter, declare first, that they were brought. Yea St Luke saith expressly; 
Lu. 18. 15. 16. 17.  And they brought unto him also Infants, that he would touch them. Where the Original ears exactly: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: But 
Text. Graec.  they brought unto him also sucklings: Adferebant, non adducebant: they brought them, they did not lead them.  
Roger Bacon instructs us in his Perspectives, that Looking-Glasses 
Rogerus Bacon in Perspect. Dist Vlt.  may be erected, by the representations of which, we may, notwithstanding the interposition of much distance, look into the Country's Cities, and Camps of our Enemies. Let us here as in a Glass, behold the deceitful carriage of our Adversary in reversion.  
What nimble Familiar taught Mr Tombs, that when the word 
Mr Tomb● in his Examen. Mat. 12. 22. Mat. 17. 16.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied to the blind and deaf Demoniac, and to the lunatic Child; the persons were steered to Christ upon the carriage of their own legs, and not carried to him? Anabaptism walks by the false Light of strange and feverish Fancies.  
And is there not a blindness and deafness, (I will be modest and not asperse them with devilishness,) in such who will not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify they carried, when it is joined with so portable Subjects, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, babes?  
Such might be shamed into better knowledge, by the Greek words, which begin with a Child, and are both carried and run along with him until he ceases to be a Child. First: in the womb of his Mother, he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: being born he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: there he stays a while: he is afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, puerulus; (which word is used by St Matthew and St Mark:) until he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stripling Boy.  
But Mr Tombs being ready-handed, 
Mr Tomb● in his Examen.  would gladly take away the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify a Child explerato ingenio praeditum, come to some known ripeness▪ of Wit and Understanding, and now capable of Learning: because the Apostle writes thus to Timothy: And that 
2 Tim. 3. 15.  from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures: in the place of the Translation expounding from a Child, the Original exposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
Text. Grac.  Which in our Sense, would signify, from thy very Infancy.  
It is not far to the Answer. The Intention of the Apostle is, to manifest here, that his Timothy had early and betimes applied himself to the reading of Holy Scriptures; and therefore, he takes a Word upon which, that he might raise up this Example as an honourable Pyramid with a point like a Flame, he builds an Hyperbolical Sense: the plain and ready meaning of which, is; thou didst begin so early to learn Holy Scriptures, that, had it been possible, thou wouldst have begun, even from thy very Infancy.  
A word now, having a proper Sense, in the which it is almost always used for a common Reason; and a Sense that is Hyperbolical; in the which, for a special Reason, it is used once only: shall I disdainfully turn away from the proper Sense, and adhere to that which is Hyperbolical and improper? Certainly, no Man doth it, unless to defend improperly, improper Works.  
I make up all into a precious Bracelet, thus: Christ by receiving Infants into his Arms and Bosom, he being the Bridegroom and Head of the Church; and now working as the Head and Bridegroom: shown, that we might receive them into the Bosom and Arms of the Church: Christ by laying his hands upon them, in sign they were his own; shown, that we might sign them, as his: Christ by blessing them, (which was the last and highest of present mercies, it being supposed that he Baptised not;) shown, that his Disciples, and we might Baptise them, (which is the last of our present favours towards them:) And therefore, Christ by saying, Suffer little Children to come unto me; shown, that we must not prohibit them to be brought unto Christ by Baptism: And Christ by declaring, that of such (and none but such) is the Kingdom of God; declared likewise, that the Kingdom of Grace, as the Way, is open to them.   

CHAP. LVIII.  
I Confirm it, secondly: The Church, or Kingdom of Grace, may not reject such as the Kingdom of Glory receives: Yea: Such as the Kingdom of Glory receives, must be received into the Church or Kingdom of Grace, by God's Ordinances in it, as Ordained to give them the Signs of their Title to the Kingdom of Glory: it being said of the Church now increasing, And the Lord added 
Acts 2. 47.  to the Church daily such as should be saved: Without which daily and visible addition to the Church, of such as shall be saved; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hairy Devils Scripturized by Aquila, 
Aquila in Is. 13. 21.  would soon dance in it.)  
If therefore, Infants must be offered to Christ, and thereby have a Communion with him in the Kingdom of Heaven; Baptism Christ's Ordinance, now in full vigour and force, must be communicated to them in the Church, Velut Arrha Sponsi, as a Christian Sign of this their Communion with Christ, and Right to him in the Kingdom of Glory, and as a visible Manifestation of this invisible Benefit; the Church of God, being as truly visible as invisible.  
He that objecteth our Text, saying, 
Text. Graee▪ Mr Tombs in his Examen.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of such, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of these, is the Kingdom of God, or, of Heaven: and that Christ intended to teach others Humility, Simplicity, Innocency, by these Children: and that therefore, the Kingdom of God is of such only, who are like to these Children; such Children expressing not Innocency, Simplicity, Humility, as they are Virtues: may take for a sure Answer: Propter quod aliquid est tale, & illud magis: That for which, any Thing is such, is itself more such: If Men be qualified for the Kingdom of God, by reason of their likeness with such Infants; such Infants are as much (if not more) qualified for the same Kingdom: who, though they do not express true Virtues outwardly, yet outwardly express the likeness of such Virtues; and have inwardly, true Virtues by Infusion, effecting their inward conjunction with God.  
And this outward likeness, though natural and not flowing from inward and Supernatural Habits, yet is in such Infants, outwardly significative of inward Perfection; from which signification, the similitude is taken.  
Where it is Noteworthy, that Baptism was not obligatory, or necessary to Salvation, until after the Death of Christ, (the very Morning-Rites and Sacrifices being on the day of his Passion, in force; and the Evening-oblations, invalid;) nor declared in a general consideration, until the command went forth, Go ye therefore, and teach all Nations, Baptising them, &c: nor yet, fully & completely sealed and perfected, until the promulgation of the Gospel in the Pentecost.  
And we are not driven to take Sanctuary at the Terms of the Summulists: 
Summulissae. ●  and stand it out, that other children in the rigour of Speaking, are such. For: although Christ did both commend these Virtues (the likeness whereof is in children,) and Men-piously-turn'd-childrens, in respect of their having them truly: yet he shown also, that the age of children is not underannuated, and estranged from the Kingdom of God. Because when he said, Suffer little Children to come unto me, he spoke literally and Historically of true children, presented actually to him: And therefore even the reason adjoined, for of such is the Kingdom of God; must also truly agree with true children: and those embrace and blessings of true children, signify truly, the like Things in the Kingdom, and import Heavenly blessings and embrace.   

CHAP. LIX.  
I Confirm it, thirdly: If in this great Command of Baptising, children be not included; God having imprinted in the nature of Parents, a most ardent and earnest Love of their children; there is nothing in the Supernatural Order of Grace, that answers to this natural Love, according to the way of God in the disposition of these Orders; and the Parent is left by the God of Nature, very much loving his child, and yet, not succoured by the God of Grace, or informed how or that his child shall be beloved of God▪ without which pectoral security, he cannot love his child as he ought, and with a love becoming a Christian Father.  
I speak of security by Ordinance, (we being confined to Ordinances,) which excludeth four. And if this fear be not excluded; it will be continual and urgent; and the Gospel and law of Christ, shall, in this respect, be Lex Timor is & Servitut is, non Amoris & Libertatis, a law of Fear and Bondage, not of Love and Liberty: which it essentially is, and aught, and is revealed to be.  
And the fearful and troubled Parent, may perhaps, go aside into a melancholy place, and there desperately cry: O, for my poor children's sakes, that I had been born a Jew before Christ, and expected him in Figures: this my latter having him in Substance, is dangerously prejudicial to my dear flesh and bloud-Babes.  
Rachel in the Oriental Languages 
Hebr. Syr. Chald.  is interpreted a Sheep or Lamb; and a Lamb or Sheep was aptly and suitably called up to lament, weep, and 
Mat. 2. 18.  mourn over Innocent Lambs. Indeed every Christian Mother, if knowing and not unnatural, (I exclude Anabaptists,) would be a Rachel, a sheep, and, in this great contest betwixt Love and Fear, mourn, weep and lament over her Lambs.  
And whereas it is the observation of Franzius, that the Sheep or 
Franzius in Ove.  Lamb, useth, in the sensual motions of Joy and Sorrow, but one bleating ●one, and that one a pleasant-one: Grief would invent many sad and unpleasant Tones in those Rachel's or Sheep.  
And the persuasions of the most Spiritual Men, would not otherwise prevail with them, than the Odours applied to Persons in a Fit of the Falling Sickness; which happily recover them out of the Fit, but are unfit to discharge the Disease, or fitly prevent the casual Recurrence of it: Because their Griefs would under the Supposition and consequence of this Case, be rational. For: it would be apparent, that the Course of Divine Ordinances was interrupted: And therefore, like Rachel, they would not be Comforted.  
And as, according to the Discourse 
Scholastici.  of School Divines, if God should reveal to a Man his Damnation; he might lawfully despair: So if this neglect of divine provision for Infants, now only under the Gospel, were a revealed Truth; Parents would think (justly or unjustly, my reverential Fear of God will not suffer me to define) themselves dealt with hardly, strangely, preposterously: and the Thoughts arising, would raise and beget irregular and immoderate Sorrow.  
I do not justify these complaints, or Griefs: But I maintain, that God cannot give a just cause of Grief, or complaint against him; and that the Matter of this Case, thus put into Form; is impossible: and therefore the thing is impossible, which is dreined from it, as here, not only ex Vi suppositionis, but also, ex Vi consequcntiae petitae quasi ex rei naturâ.   

CHAP. LX.  
NOte. The Baptism of Infants is not commanded expressly & interminis; though the Circumcision of them, was expressly commanded, and by a positive Law. Because the Thing which materially occasions a particular nomination, or branch of injunction in a Law, is a particular Case and condition: which condition and Case are not in Baptism; it being set open to all sorts and conditions.  
And in Types there is need of express Descension to particulars; because the Rule of the Type, is the first Rule: In Antitypes there is not the same need; (because the Antitype is, in some fashion, regulated by the Type:) especially, where there is a notable variation in the Antitype, by the which, it is widened and made large for the free reception and admittance of all persons, as here there is: Circumcision being appliable to Males only, and Baptism agreeable with all.  
And though Females were not Virtually Circumcised in their Parents; yet some command they did undergo, answerable to their Kind, as Circumcision answered to the Males in their Kind, and having the same end with it; which together with Circumcision, thawed and resolved itself into Baptism.  
Moreover: What need is there of a new-moulded and express Command for Infants, when the old command in regard of the Substance of it, that is, as it substantially and essentially imports a divine Remedy against Original sin, according to the old works and warpings of Corrupt Nature, inherent in our Children; it being more than the mere Privation of Original Justice: is not antiquated, but still in ancient force and ability?  
As ●e have now no need of an express Commandment, for the keeping of the Lords Day; because the old Memento Commandment, is quoad substantiam, yet in force; though the Church hath intermeddled in the Circumstance of Time, for the Commemoration of the new Creature rising from his own Nothing, with Christ in whom he hath all Things: the Substance and Morality of the Commandment, remaining ; which obligeth us necessarily and substantially to the keeping holy of one Day in seven.  
Whence in the most Primitive Tract of Apostolical Times, the Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Roman 
Calendaria Syriaca, Arabica, Graeca, Romana, antiqua.  Calendars did equally reverence the Jewish Sabbath and our Lord's Day: (and I cannot cover as I go, the Wind blows it open, that the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the natural Son of God by his eternal Generation, and temporally, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary; is found as ancient in these Calendars, as our Lord's Day.)  
Let our Anabaptists therefore, take to Heart, that in general Precepts and Laws, the numeration of special Kind's or Matters, is not only not necessary, but also supervaneous, and praeter morem, besides the course and custom of general Laws; such especially which have been in any sort formerly modelized.   

CHAP. LXI.  
HEre is the Place and seat of my last chief Argument arguing from Consonancy. The Seal of the Covenant belongs to all those who belong to the Covenant: the Seals following always the Right and Propriety. And Children supplied with the Faith of the Church, (as also, the children under the Law were,) belong to the Covenant.  
For: when God covenanted with Abraham for him and his Posterity, he consigned the Covenant with Circumcision: which having a Spiritual reference, not only as referring to Spiritual Circumcision in respect of the Persons circumcised, but also as referring to a Circumcision without hands under the Law of Christ; received the Gentiles into the Covenant by Spiritual Adoption: And, as Mr Tombs honestly granteth: 
Mr Tombs in his Examen.  The Covenant was the same in all Ages, in respect of the Thing promised, and Condition of the Covenant, which we may call the substantial and essential part of the Covenant: that is: in the Abstract. But he dishonestly substracts the Covenanters or confederates, who, on our part, as elected and called, or, as called only, are also necessarily included in the Concretion of it.  
The Covenant is exhibited in a short Scheme: which notwithstanning, is the Magna Charta, or great Charter of God's free Mercy in Christ: And I will establish my Covenant 
Gen. 17. 7.  between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their Generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee: that is: thy seed after thee by flesh and blood; or by spirit and Faith only; that it may be an everlasting Covenant; and that the Covenant may comprehend all them, unto whom I shall be a God, and in whom I shall be apprehended by Faith, or by Faith here and hereafter by Vision.  
And hence Isaac was Circumcised on the eighth day: And hence again, the Apostle St Paul first, to 
Rom. 4. 13.  the Romans: For the promise that he should be the Heir of the World, was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the Law: but through the righteousness of Faith: and as he was the Father of all the Faithful. 
V 16.  And the Promise being made to him and his Seed, under a Spiritual Consideration, was therefore made to him as he was a Spiritual Father, and to his Seed as they were his Children Spiritually; and therefore, all coming within the reach of this federal and pious consideration, fall into the pious Arms of the Covenant. Secondly, to the Galathians: Know ye therefore, that they which are of 
Gal. 3. 7.  Faith, the same are the Children of Abraham.  
Wherefore Zacheus, after his Justification, was presently styled a Son of Abraham. And when the 
Luk. 19 9  Jews soared in their Thoughts, because they were the Children of Abraham according to the flesh; it came inauspiciously upon them, to be called by John the Baptist, a Generation 
Mat. 3. 7.  of Vipers; and to hear the reason of their being called so, Think 
Verse 9  not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father; he depressing them with a tacit reflection upon other children, in the very consideration wherein they exalted themselves.  
The Apostle St Peter speaks consonantly to the Jews: For the Promise 
Act. 2. 39  is unto you, and to your Children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
Read Eph. 2.  call: that is: afar off in the Series and order of Generation, as being yet in the loins of their Parents, and afterwards▪ to be born; or, in distance of Affection, as the unbelieving Jews and ignorant Gentiles.  
Severus the Emperor (my Author is Lampridius) had in his first 
Lamprid. in Alexandr● Severo.  Lararium, the Images of Christ and Abraham, to which, every morning, as Pontifex Maximus, he sacrificed▪ but he did not know or worship Christ aright, neither was he a Faithful Child of Abraham.  
Now Children being involved in these Generations under the old Law; and these Generations yet continuing: must pertain as truly to the Covenant under the new Law.  
The Adversary may raise a dust or a mud, in darkening and dirtying Scripture with corrupt Interpretations: as nothing is so notum in se a●t nobis notum▪ clear in itself or clear to us, but something may be said against it. Yet: Maledicta Glossa quae corrumpit Textum: Cursed is the Gloss, which corrupts the Text.   

CHAP. LXII.  
I Confirm it, first: by St Paul's 
Rom. 8. 30.  Order of Predestination: Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them healso glorified. Here we have wholly given into our Hands Virgula divinâ, that every predestinated Person in the Generations of Abraham, is called, is justified, is glorified: & in the contrary consideration, that no person is glorified, except he be first justified; that no person is justified, except he be first called; and that no person is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to 
V 28. Text. Graec.  purpose, except he be first predestinated.  
Now we cannot possibly discover or imagine a Vocation or calling with relation to Infants, but by Baptism: Because then only, they will be rightly said to be called, when they are actually ascribed into the number of those who are called; as then only, they will be actual Covenanters, when they have been signed with the Seal of the Covenant. Neither are they capable of any other Vocation; as neither, of any other Seal. And either they are not predestinated; and shall not be glorified, if they die being Infants: or they are called by Baptism, and justified by the Virtues infused, 
Jo. 3. v. 3. & 7.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from above into them in it.  
If you fly to and take refuge at, extraordinary Vocations in Ordinary Courses; you disesteem God's Ordinances as curt, and not carved proportionably to all ordinary Conditions: when Order cannot consist without Proportion.  
In Lucian's Philopatris▪ wherein 
Luciani Philopatris.  the Interlocutors make it their grand Affair, to dishonour the Worship, Rites and Manners of Christians; they might have justly cast out a scorn upon such an out cast Vacuum in Religion as this is.  
And if you repeat, that Children ordinarily die before Baptism; then will they of the School reply without 
Schelastici.  stammering, that such are not called. If you ask: will the Mercy of God look besides a Child, because men look not after it as they ought, or because chances impede the religious endeavours of Men? They will answer: One Attribute of God doth nothing in prejudice of another: And therefore, his Mercy doth not any thing in opposition to his Providence: that God may be conformable to himself in his Works; and that men may be conformable to God in his Ordinances.   

CHAP. LXIII.  
I Confirm it, secondly: The Scriptures irrefragably, and manifoldly manifest: That there can be no justefication, without Faith. Therefore either Infants have habitual Faith, by the which they are justified; or, being Infants, they are totally averted from justification.  
It is truly supposed, that actual Faith doth not justify: and it is justly and actually granted, that Infants have not actual Faith: Because as Grace perfects Nature, so it first supposes Nature, quatenus Perfectio supponit perfectibile, in regard that the Perfection of a Thing supposes the Thing to be perfected by it; and as it supposes the being of it, so likewise that it be like-behavioured: and therefore, there cannot be actual Faith, where there is not actual use of the natural powers; and where the Understanding, being the Power or Faculty wherein Faith resides, cannot move in the Sense wherein Motus Intellectus est intelligere, the Motion of the Understanding is to Understand.  
And actual Grace requires a likeness in the Subject, not only in respect of the natural Act, but also, of the natural Aptitude; which, respectively to heavenly Things, is not an early-riser in Children though graciously habited.  
If it be thrown in my face: Without 
Heb. 11. 6.  Faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him: But a Child doth not believe that God is, or, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him: And yet, without this Faith, saith the Apostle, it is impossible to please God. I answer: These are the Acts of Faith: and therefore, the Apostle speaks here of grown Persons, and of actual Faith, without which it is impossible that Persons having the right use or understanding, should rightly please God.  
For: Christ and his Apostles, in their commending the Acts of Faith, as such, and to the people; chief considered two things.  
First: that there are some works, which are done viribus naturae, by the strength of Nature, and sine speciali Dei Auxilio, without the special Help of God; and that these were the works of which the Philosophers boasted: and that there were other works, which having been commanded in the old Law. were now acted without explicit Faith in Christ; and that the grown Jews presomed upon these works: And therefore, they weaned the people from the works of Nature, and of the Law: and grounded them upon an apprehensive and active Faith in Christ, without which they could not please God.  
Secondly: they considered, that Faith is Principium, Fundamentum, & Radix nostrae Justificationis, The Beginning, Foundation, and Root of our Justification; and, as being active, our formal Justification; because Charity is the Life and Form of of Faith: And that one thing may be the Beginning of an other Thing, of the which it is not the Foundation; and the Foundation of a Thing, of the which it may not be the Root: And that a Beginning, as a Beginning, doth but begin a Thing; a foundation supports the thing which it found'st; A Root, not only supports, but also influit esse, gives being to another Thing by influx: And, Principium radicale virtute continet reliqua, A radical Beginning, virtually contains the Things, of which it is the Beginning: And that Faith acting by Charity, was therefore necessary to the Salvation of the People: which Action is in Covenanted Children, by virtual suppliance; their Sanctification being only intended for the present.  
If any man shall assault me thus, quasi palmario Argumento, as with a chief and Victory-portending Argument: Fides non justificat quatenus Fides est, aut credit; sed quatenus operatur: quia etiamsi credat, aut sit Fides: si non operetur, non justificat: Faith doth not justify, as it is Faith, or, as it believes; but as it works: for, although it believes, or, is Faith; yet, if it works not, it justifies not: it being like fire, which doth not enliven, as it shines or gives light; but, as it heats: and therefore we say from the mouths of the Philosophers, Calor vivificat, Heat 
Philosophi. Vide Edmundum Campianum in decem Rationibus.  enlivens: And though some have given to Children, pulsus abditos Fidei, actual Faith acting inwardly as the pulse doth; yet no Divine will divinely say, that Faith in Infants acteth by Charity: And although Justification be attributed to Faith, by the Rule, Quod natum est ex pluribus sequi, tribuitur ei quod est primum: That which followeth of many Things, is commonly attributed to the first of them: Yet Faith justifies, as being alive; and, as being alive, works. I answer: This Argument fights altogether, for the Faith of understanding and grown Persons: and if it wins the Field, I lose it not: And: Faith in Children, is not dead, though it works not; the fault being in the Organ, with regard to within and without.   

CHAP. LXIV.  
I Confirm it, thirdly: St Paul writeth 
Eph. 5. 25. 26.  to the Ephesians: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word. Where it is perspicuous; that either Infants are of the visible Church, and partakers of her Faith; or, that Christ did not give himself for them: and also, that those for whom he gave himself, he sanctifies and cleanses with the washing of water by the Word: the water and the word being the outward part of the Sacrament; and the Sacramental Sense, being the literal Sense of this place; though the Adversary would have hooped it up, to the washing of the word preached; until his Hoops broke and flew about his ears, and the water being left, leapt into his face.  
And the visible Church is here meant, because the visible Church is the Church which is invisibly sanctified and cleansed with the Visible washing of Water by the Word.  
And because the water and Word in these words, concern Children: the Admonition is conveniently directed to Husbands, who are exhorted to love their Wives; this Love being the pious occasion, that Children are born to the Church.  
In the which exhortation agreeably, the Baptising of Infants is implicitly 
Theologi in primam, & secuudam partem D. Thomae. Vide S. Hieronymum adversus Jovinianü, Vigilantium, etc.  commanded.  
Now, the Divines put it to the Question, An Deus jubeat impossibibilia? Whether or no, God Commands impossible Things? And they generally, answer negatively. Their Commanding Reason is: Because if God should command impossible Things, ageret praeter finem Mandati, qui est, ut servetur: he would work besides the end of the Commandment, which is, that it may be kept. And here, is Ignorance, Imprudence, want of Power, and Unrighteousness, in one lefthand-cast of the Anabaptist, cast upon God. For: in his Legislation, he commands and appoints a Thing; which, as the Anabaptist mutters, for the unfitness and incapacity of the Subject, to which the Action in the appointment, is appointed to point; neither ought nor can be done, according to Appointment.   

CHAP. LXV.  
NOte. The federal, adherent, extrinsecall, relative, and Covenant. Holiness, transmitted from the last Age to Posterity, and grounded 
1 Cor 7. 14.  upon Saint Paul; and which is commonly distinguished against internal, inherent and Personal Holiness: is not fashionable to this purpose, or, of the same colour with it. And, 
Mr Tombs in his Examen.  as Mr Tombs judiciously censures it, the ancient Writers knew it not.  
For: this federal Holiness, as it is ordinarily expounded, walks by the sides of the Parents; who are, many times, unbelievers, and formal Denyers of God in their Works, and therefore, cannot qualify their Children, being also Children of Wrath, for Baptism.  
And though, in such a Case, the verticity of the point moves to the Faith of the Church; yet neither this Faith concurs to the Holiness of a Child in order to Happiness (as we speak here of Holiness,) without application; which is by Ordinance.  
And what shall be said of those young raw Catechumeni, the Jewish Children, Baptised by Athanasius in his childhood, as he was playing the Bishop on the Sea-shoare: which Baptism was pronounced firm and Sacrament-strong, by Alexander Bishop of Alexandria, and his learned Assistants; and was pinned upon the Record, by Ruffinus, Nicephorus, 
Ruffin. Eccles. Hist. lib. 1. cap. 14.  and others?  
Our Christian Monuments and Annals have many potent Examples, that urge accordingly.  
And if a Paganish Infant-Orphan be brought by Providence to be educated, all the time of his Pupillage by a Christian: shall he not be presently Baptised; when the Patria Potestas, Fatherly Power over him, is now untterly dissolved?  
Farther yet: The Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ, is more ample, and of more efficacy, than the Promise to Abraham as such: Wherefore if the Child offered, be in a condition, that the Undertakers can perform their Promise; there can be no injury where the Right leans towards God, and when the Sacramental Ordinance is opened to all Nations.  
And if an innocent Child should be thrown aside from Baptism, hôc ipso, by this very thing, that he is not born of Christian Parents; the child should be hardly used, and it would hardly, yea verily, it would never be sound explicated; wherein the largeness and plentifullnesse of the Gospel with relation to Infants, doth consist.  
And here is no repugnance oppugning us from the want of Christian Parents: because the Christian Suseeptores adopt such children, and are loco Parentum.   

CHAP. LXVI.  
I Now set forward to prove the Baptism of Infants by Reason, and to send the Text assistance from the God of Nature: Reason as Aquinas 
D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. a. 8. ad 2.  teaches, being subservient to Faith; as the natural Inclination of the will is to Charity.  
I prove it, first: There is a perfect Congruity and Conformation of Things in this Ordinance, with reference to Children: Which Infers a Congruity, if not a Necessity of their being Baptised. As thus: There is required in grown Persons an actual Disposition to Baptism, by actual Faith; for two Reasons. The first is: Because they are defiled by actual sins; which they have added wilfully, to their Original Transgression: Sins which are committed by the actual aversion of our wills from God, naturally and symmetrically ask, if they be remitted, the actual Conversion of our wills to God. The second is: Because God acts with all Things according to their Natures; and therefore, the reasonable creature having the use of Arbitrament; & wanting to be justified, is not justified by God, except he concurs by free and actual Assent. But neither of these Causes hath place in Infants; they having only an habitual Aversion, which may be removed by the infused Habit of Theological Charity; and they having sinned, not by their own wills, but by the will of another, and it being therefore even and equal, that they should be relieved by the wills of others: Which is most proportionable to our way, Guidance, and Prudence, (we dividing to all, all Things agreeably to them, by an Act of distributive Justice informed with Prudence,) being the Way of Humane Reason; and to God's Way and Government, being the way of Divine Providence.  
Wherefore St Austin speaks, as reasonably 
S Aug: Serm. 10. de verbis Apost.  so divinely: Accommodat illis Mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes, ut veniaut; aliorum Cor, ut credant, aliorum linguam, ut fateantur: ut quoniam quòd aegri sunt, alio peccante praegravantur; sic cùm sani fiant, alio confitente salventur: Our Mother the Church lends and fits to Infants the feet of others, that they may come to the Font (which presented itself at the Door, because Baptism is the Door into the Church;) the Heart of others, that they may bele●ve; the Tongue of others, that they may confess: to the end, that as they are made sick and weighed downwards by the sin of another, so by the confession of another they may be restored to Health saved, and carried upwards.   

CHAP. LXVII.  
I Prove it, secondly: (which Proof may serve as a perfect Confirmation of the former:) The Doctrine of St Hierom is pure Divinity, and like 
S. Hieron. ep. ad Da mas.  exalied Metal: Peccantes recedunt à Deo, Affectuum, non Locorum Spatiis: Sinners recede from God, by the distance of Affection, not of Place.  
And the Reason is at the next Door. God is every where; though not repletive, repletively, and circumscriptiuè, circumscriptively, as a Body is in a place, which possesses a place, and so fills it, that it excludes another Body out of the same place; and which is circumscribed: nor definitiuè, definitively, as the Angels, who are so determined to a place, that if they be here, they are not elsewhere at the same time: yet attinctiuè, attinctively, quia atting it ubique, saith Cajetan, because he touches every 
Cajet. in p. 1. q. 1. a. 10.  where; as conserving and holding all Things up by the touch of his Power; and impletiuè, impletively, according to his own Testimony of Himself in his Prophet, Caelum & terram ego impleo, I fill Heaven and 
Jer. 23. 24.  Earth; and so, he is totus in toto Mundo, & totus in qualibet parte Mundi, All in all the World, and all in every part of the World; and so also, he is All with all his Essence and Power out of the World in Vacuo, wherein he can create more Worlds at his pleasure: and therefore, we should not locally or absentially departed from him, though we could run out of the world.  
Wherefore we likewise return to God, versis Vestigiis, in the very same Way, non Spatiis Locorum, sed Affectuum, not by the Spaces of Places, but by the motions, Pases, and fo●tings of our Affections; not our Persons, but our Affections drawing near to him, and those, not in a Physical or natural, but in a moral and ethical Consideration.  
And this our return to God being every where, yea, this only, is proper to us in respect of our Departure, and of the Nature and possibility of the Thing, and pleasing to God in respect of his Acceptance: Because this only, is proportionable to our Departure in the removal of it, and to our Duty in repairing the breach made by our Departure: And therefore, having departed, only after that manner; after this manner only, by the Rule of Proportion, we return.  
Now when we recede from God who is every where, by the Affections of others, as in Original sin; it is likewise, most proportionable and orderly, and therefore, most proper to us in regard of our Departure in the manner of it, and most pleasing to God in regard of his Acceptation, yea, only proper and pleasing, as being only proper to the Nature and possibility of the Thing; that we should return to God by the Affections of others, if we have not the use of our own.   

CHAP. LXVIII.  
I Prove it, thirdly: God hath wonderfully ordained, that as Children are not capable of the qualification of grown Persons; so neither should they need it.  
I have proved, that they need not actual Charity, and consequently, neither actual Faith, by way of Remedy; because they have not actually sinned. (Truly: though a grown Man should not actually sin after Baptism; yet he should need actual Faith and actual Charity; but he should not need them in Remedium, as a Remedy.)  
And moreover, Children should not need actual Repentance, although they should be able, in respect of their Powers, to Repent actually: Because Original sin in the Children of Adam, is not Materia Poenitentiae, Matter of Repentance:  
Neither doth a Man, rightly repent of a sin which he never committed; & the position or opposition of which, did not lie within the Verge of his Power. To which purpose, the Scripture equitably saith of two Infants, Jacob and Esaw; neither having done 
Rom. 9 11.  any good or evil.  
Therefore, according to the stipulation of sound Reason, there is another qualification of Infants, agreeable to their need; which can be no other than Baptism: God supplying abundantly, with his Remedies, all our Spiritual needs according to their exigence.  
Chesed (a Scripture-Word) in the Hebrew Language, properly signifies Piety, by the which, a Man is pious, not only towards God, but also towards Men, and towards these, especially in the cravings of their Wants. And therefore, it signifies Piety, as Piety is an infused Virtue: that is: Piety towards God for his own sake, and Piety towards Men for God's sake; or, a Piety towards Men, regulated by the Law of God. Hence 
Marinus, Forsterus, Pagninus ●exicis.  a good and Holy Man is called Chasid, pious; and a Stork, Chasida; as being a pious Bird towards its Parents; and as painfully, and, as it were, piously supplying their needs and wants in the ingruencies and strong Assaults of their feebleness; and as being therefore a Symbol of Piety.  
If Men by a divine Regulation, piously supply the wants one of another; and this, by a Participated Goodness or Piety: God, as being essentially good, (in which Sense, God only, is good,) much more supplies the Wants of his Creatures, especially of his reasonable Creatures, and of those, especially as he he sits at the Fountainhead of the Supernatural Order; wherein the Gifts are most excellent, and most excellently and plentifully communicated; the End being most excellent, as being infinite, and the communication of an infinite Good finito Modo, after a finite manner, because the Subject is incapable of Infinity; and the Provider being infinitely able, infinitely wise, infinitely merciful.  
Which consideration, in the rallying of every Argument, must bring up the Rear.   

CHAP. LXIX.  
I Prove it, fourthly: In the curing of natural Diseases, we instruct a sick Man concerning the Circumstances of his Recovery, and we exhort him to the use of the Means: Yet we do not exhort him to be well, (which is the End;) but medicine him: Because the curing of his Disease, and his well-making, are not in his own Power, but altogether in the power of God, and of the wise Physician under God. And therefore, the Physician cures Mad, Lunatic, and Lethargic Persons; that have no desire to be cured, and consequently, do not confer their endeavours towards it.  
In the curing of Spiritual Diseases, we both instruct and exhort the sick Person, if he be capable of exhortation and instruction, because there is a Voluntary and Supernatural Concurrence, absolutely required on his part; and God infallibly performeth his Promise, if the sick Person doth, in the strength of the Divine Helps, what in him lieth.  
But, in the curing of natural Diseases, We use not such Instructions or Exhortations, if the Patient hath not the right use of his Understanding and Senses: neither doth the Physician wait or attend the time of his coming to them, but presently apply his best Helps.  
Likewise in Supernatural Wants and emptiness, with respect to which, God is the professed Physician; we may not expect until the Patient comes to the right use of Reason, but must help, as in the Case of present necessity, according to the Rule of Right Reason; which direct us to believe, that God is super excellently provident, and more copious in every kind of Help for Spiritual Cures, and for Cures wherein he is the immediate and only Physician with sanative application to the Spirit; than he is for bodily Cures, whereby he works more mediately by others, and more joynedly with them.  
Therefore having also a reasonable and outward Ground for our inward Direction, in his Word, and in either Sense of it; we may, and must, (and are more bound to it,) apply our Helps, as we do, in the Baptising of Infants.  
David tunes his old Harp to a new 
Psal. 102. 17. Text Hebr.  Song: He will regard the Prayer of the destitute. In the Original, the Words are high, though they are ●ung with an humble Voice, and treat of a low Thing: Respexit ad Orationem Myricae: He hath lo●ked 
Targ. Josephi Caeci.  bacl, or, had respect to the Prayer of the low Shrub. The Targe: ad orationem desolatorum, to the Prayer of desolate Persons, The Septuagint: Humilium 
Sept.  of the humble.  
Doth God look back, or, hath God respect to the Prayer of one good Man in a low Estate? And doth he not accept of the Faith and Prayers of the whole Church, (which reserveth continually, holy Prayers and pious Intentions, for such holy Works and pious Performances,) offered with the Application of a divine Ordinance, for these many low Child-Shrubs? these little Babes, desolate in the judgement of ignorant Men; these humble Sweet-ones?   

CHAP. LXX.  
I Prove it, fifthly. The Church of God is like the Body of Man, (and is therefore called a Body,) as the Apostle teaches, who diversely argues 
Rom. 12. 4. 5. and 1 Cor. 12. 12. and onwards.  from the body of Man to the Church of God.  
Now though Simile non est omnino Simile, Like is not altogether like; or, Simile non est Simile quoad omnia, Like is not like in all Things; And it be sufficient to the sufficiency of a Like, that it be grounded and erected upon the position of one Conveniency: yet the likeness betwixt the Body of Man and the mystical Body, is manifold; and stands unblasted and inviolate in respect of the Parts and Actions, by the which, the Body of Man is a complete humane Body, and does the chief and necessary Actions of such a Body; the reservation of their Properties being supposed, namely, that the Parts and actions of the one are natural, the parts and Actions of the other, Spiritual or mystical: otherwise the mystical Body could not be called in Scripture, a Body, with respect to such a Body.  
Whence I argue. In the humane Body we see many and divers kinds of Parts; whereof some live and have Sense, as the fleshly Parts; some live and have no sense, as the Bones; some neither live nor have sense, as our excrementitious Parts, the nails and hairs: So neither is it strange, or against the nature of a mystical Body, but rather omnimodously agreeable to it, that there are some in the Church, who have Spiritual Life, and give sensible Effects of it, as good signs, (though they are not evident signs in respect of us;) these actually exercising Faith, Hope, and Charity: and some who live inwardly, without any sensible manifestation or appearance; as, Baptised children, having only habitual Faith, Hope, and Charity: as there be some grown Persons, who have only Faith; and some also, who have neither actual nor habitual Faith, but only, an external and relative Conjunction with the Body.  
I double the Files in this Matter: that the Conveniency may be seen to be started at every turn. Spiritual Regeneration by Baptism, is like our carnal and bodily Condition in this meeting-Point: That as children in their Mother's Wombs, neither live of themselves, nor carve or care for themselves, but live by a Soul given of God, and are sustained in life by the nourishment of their mothers; so Children, which have not the use of Reason, being now in the Womb of the Church their Mother, receive Life and the Badge of Salvation, and the Seal of Spiritual Cure and Sustentation, not by themselves, but by the mere Gift of God and Act of the Church. It is the Office therefore of the Curers to cure them.  
In Joël, where the English inoculates, call a solemn assembly; the Septuagint 
Joël. 1. 14.  preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Sept. S. Dionys. de Eccles. Higher, c. 10▪  preach ye a Curation. Whence Dionysius the Areopagite names the Persons wholly devoted and addicted to God's Service, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Undertakers of Cures, or, Curers of themselves and others.  
If the Conveniencies betwixt the natural and mystical Bodies, be many and great; and one be, that the Parts of both, are sometimes illaffected, and want Curation to be performed by the undertakers of Cures, or, by the Curers of themselves and others: it is the part of the Curers on both parties, to perform their parts in curing the diseased parts, under God who, as a Supernatural Curer, is All in All; wholly belonging to their Cure,   

CHAP. LXXI.  
I Prove it, sixthly; All that are not Spiritual, are excluded from Heaved: Either therefore, all Infants dying without Baptism, are excluded from Heaven, or, they are made Spiritual without Baptism: And they cannot be made Spiritual in our Sense, but by the Communication of Spiritual Gifts; against the like Communication of which in Baptism, our Anabaptists rebel.  
Besides: If they be made Spiritual without Baptism; then is there in respect of Infants, a divine Election amongst equal Things (which divine Election, as divine Judgement, pertains to divine Wisdom;) and God Elects and receives absque fundamento in Re posito, & ante praevisionem Operum, without any Difference and Foundation in the Thing; and without any variation on their part, in regard of our Christian Duties, or application to God's Ordinances.  
Again: Either all Unbaptized children are saved, or some are saved, and some, accordingly to the Concessions and Confessions of the Anabaptists, damned to everlasting Torments and Perdition; and their Perdition is of God, and not of themselves: which enterfeers with the Text; O Israel, thou hast destroyed 
Hos. 13. 91 Edit. Vulg.  thyself; or, as the Vulgar Edition, Perditio tua ex te, O Israel, O Israel, thy Perdition is of thyself: which Text with our Context, our ablest Independents grant animo Volente, Volently, and Violently Pulpit for.  
And if this Consequence, (which with the rest, proceeds ex falso Supposito,) were true; the Presbyterians or strict Calvinists would cristas attollere, lift up their Crests and Combs; and continue their unnatural and exotic Interpretations upon the old Proverbial Sentence: The 
Prov. 16. 4.  Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the Wicked for the Day of Evil Which the Hebrew 
Text. Hebr.  hands forth: Omnes operatus est Jehovah propter se: improbum ad Diem mali: Jehovah hath made all Persons for himself: the wicked Man to the Day of Evil. And which the English Presbyterians English: God hath made all Things for himself: yea: the Wicked for the Day of Judgement and eternal Damnation: pouring, as it were, by the carriage of an Indian, upon God, that he makes the muchgreater and massier Part of Men, Women and Children, of purpose to Damn them: Whenas this good Proverb speaks of the Evil Day of temporal Punishment: which according to the Hebrew Dialect, is called the Day of Evil; or, as the Septuagint 
Sept.  oftentimes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of affliction or afflictation. Or: If they will draw the Text to the punishments of Hell: Then must they draw with it, that God made indeed, the Wicked for the Day or Time of Evil, intention secundariâ, with a secundary intention, and having fore-looked upon them in the Evils of their sins,  
And thus, the Ends here, God and the Day of Evil as executing the good Justice of God, are, as we term it in Logic, Fines subalterni. And when God made the Wicked Man for the Day of Evil, he made him for Himself: Because when he punishes him with temporal or eternal punishments, he glorifies himself in his executive justice: And the wicked man falling by Death from under the Order of his Mercy, falls under the Death-Order of his Justice,  
Now God cannot absolutely Ordain a Wicked Person for this good End, the glorification of the divine Justice by his eternal punishment: first: Because this Ordination would Eclipse his Goodness, and his very Nature: And secondly: Because he should then, be contrary to his own Sanctity, and absolutely Ordain the wickedness of the Wicked Person, as such: the absolute Ordination of which, would, by a necessity derived from the Ordination, bring it necessarily into Being. And: Non est faciendum malum vel minimum, ut eveniat bonum vel maximum: The least Evil 
S●● Rom. 3. 8.  may not be done, that the greatest good may come of it. For: Though in the Evils of Punishment, we may lawfully choose the lesser: because the lesser Evil, tnuc indueret rationem Boni; would then put on the State or Nature of a Good; as we may rather choose the loss of our Goods, than of our Lives: yet Malum Culpae quatenus tale est, nunquam potest habere rationem Boni; The Evil of sin, as such, can never put on or have the Nature or state of a good: Neither can a good End moralise or sanctify an Evil Action.   

CHAP. LXXII.  
I Prove it, lastly: The natural work of Baptism, answerable to the Word, (the best and most primitive Words, signifying the Natures of Things,) and to the Sign: is, to wash. And Children greatly need Spiritual washing; as being greatly defiled with the first sin of their first Parents. Therefore Baptism, which is a Sacramental Washing and the first Sacrament; greatly agrees with them, as not being yet washed; And is not in vain with respect to Children.  
Frustrà est quod non potest habere suum usum: that is in vain which cannot have its use: As Aquinas expounds 
D Thom. comment. in A●●stot. l. 1. de Coelo Text. 12.  upon Aristotle's Axiom, Deus & natura nihil frustrà faciunt, God and Nature do nothing in vain. Which Axiom thus expounded hath a farther aim, yet, clearly winds up, and proves, that even the actual use of Baptism belongs to Infants.  
And: If the Thing which is ordained for all who are touchable by the Faith of the Church; may not, by reason of humane Restraint, be communicated to the Little-ones, which are many: there follows upon wheels, that the Restainers render it useless and vain with respect to the many Little-ones at the least: and that although God will make nothing in vain; yet men make vain the will of God: Which likewise, all unbelieving Parents, in respect of their Children; and all Unbelievers, in regard of themselves do, Baptism being ordained for all that want it: and all wanting Baptism that want Baptismal Grace: and all wanting Baptismal Grace that want to be washed from Original sin: and all wanting to be washed from Original sin who are defiled with it.  
These Arguments are such as the Substration of the Matter will bear. For: we cannot, in this place eventilate Reasons from the Definition or Nature of a Sacrament, or from the Effects of Baptism, in themselves, and in the proper Houses and Places wherein, as the Planets, they have their plenary Power. Because these things being Spiritual, mystical and Lidden; our natural Reason cannot give an exact estimat of them, or bring them forth to the most perfect discernment & avowance of the reasonable Man: And as Revelation first supposes Reason: so Reason afterwards, in her Discourses of revealed Things, supposes Revelation; and sometimes, walks only by the walls and Edges of it. And for the same Reason, we are unfurnished of Demonstrations both à Priori and à Posteriori; that is; Cause-Demonstrations, and Demonstrations by the Effects. Yet: we have Reasons of the second Order and Metal & of the Silver-kinde: which are perfectly urging, (so say the Logicians,) where Demonstrations cannot be had.   

CHAP. LXXIII.  
LET my Standard be now set up, at the Doctrine and Praxis of the Church in Primitive Ages.  
Because there is no express Precept in Scripture, saying, Go, and Baptise Infants; no Precedent in plain Terms, saying, They Baptised Children; no clear Promise, promising clearly, Many Benefits shall accrue to Baptised Children, many to the Baptizers of them; or the like: the Church gave to the Baptising of Infants the Name of an Apostolical Tradition: Which we therefore understand, with respect to the expressness of Precept, Precedent, Promise.  
In a general Sense, and much used anciently; the whole Body of the new Testament, is an Apostolical Tradition; and in a special Sense, some special Truths of it: That, in 
See 2. Thes. 2. 15.  our Sense, is an Apostolical Tradition, which was delivered by the Apostles to the Church, and is not found expressly in divine Scripture, though it be expressly found and extant in the writings of Apostolical Men in Apostolical Times: Or: That is an Apostolical Tradition, which hath many fair and excellent Characters in divine Scripture; but hath its explicitnesse or expressness from Apostolical Precepts, Practices, Promises, warranted to the Apostles by Christ their Master, which are Unscriptur'd.  
The Baptising of Infants, being thus received by such Tradition: the Disciples of the Apostles preached it in their Sermons, (it fell from their lips in the first warmth of the Gospel, like sweet Gums from the Trees of Arabia heated by the Sun;) the Fathers of the Church published it in their writings; the holy Councils Canonised it; and it became a Starrified Truth, or, a Truth of the Firmament.  
And as Vincentius Lyrinensis thunder-strikes the Heretics of his Time: Quid unquam aliud Conciliorum Decretis 
Vinc●nt. Lyrinens. contra Haeres: cap. 32.  enisa est, (scilicet Ecclesia,) nisi, ut quod anteà simplicitèr credebatur, hoc idem posteà dil●gentiùs crederetur? What other Thing at any Time, hath the Church endeavoured in the Decrees of the Councils, than that the Things which were simply believed should afterwards be believed with more diligence?  
And this Truth thus extracted, being as such, more than a humane Truth, is no less than a divine Truth. For: As the Art or Invention which removes a Thing from Earth, must needs exalt it nearer to Heaven; and the farther from Earth, still the nearer to Heaven: So a Testimony coming from God to us through Sanctified Persons; if it be more than humane, must needs be, in some sort, divine: and it coming through Persons divinely inspired, and infallibly directed; the higher it is raised from the consideration of being humane, the more divine will it be.  
And if such a Testimony, were not Apostolical, but only Ecclesiastical; even such an Ecclesiastical Testimony, endowed with all its Perfections and Formalities, would be formally Divine.   

CHAP. LXXIIII.  
IN this purified Sense, St Dionysius Areopagita, who lived in the first Century, and was the Disciple of St Paul, as having been his Convert at Athens: affirms to be delivered 
S. Dionys. Arcop. lib Eccl. Hier. cap. ult. part. ult. Author Quaestionun ad Orthodox●s, quaest. 56.  by the Apostles, that Infants should be Baptised.  
The same thing is Orthodoxly taught by the Author of the Questions ad Orthodoxos: who also, after some discussion and bandying of the Business, concludes in the rebound, that Baptised Infants are saved, unbaptized Infants are not saved; leaving us to save ourselves as we can. And though Justin Martyr be not the Author of this Book; it caling into the Court, Irenaeus, Origen, the Manichees: Yet the Author is confessed by all Authors, to be very ancient and of great reputation.  
And Justin Martyr himself being 
S Just. M●rt in D●al●g. cum. Tryptone Judaen. p. 2. prop●s. 3.  a Noble Member of the second Century, and contemporary with St John, and therefore well familiarized with Apostolical Practice: declares himself , in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew.  
Irenaeus also, an honourable Extract 
S. Lenaeus contra Haeret. l. 2. c. 39  of the same Century, honourably mentions the Baptising of Infants.  
In the third Century, we have Origen; who having alleged the Words of the Prophet, Psal. 51. 5. Behold, I was shapen in in quity, and in sin did my Mother conceive me: follows the motion of his matter thus: Propter hoc Ecclesia ab Apostolis 
Orig. lib. 5. Homil in c. 6. ap Rom.  Trad●tionem accepit, etiam parvulis dare Baptismum: For this reason, (namely because we are all conceived in sin,) the Church received a Tradition from the Apostles, enjoining us to Baptise Infants. St Cyprian 
S. Cypr. Carthag. l. 3. Epist. 8. ad Fidum Episcopum.  was the Church-Pillar of Africa, in this Century: who together with a Council of Carthage, consisting and bound together of 66 Bishops, as of so many strong Cartilages, whom he venerably calls his Colleagues; determined, not only that Children might and ought to be Baptised, but also, that they might even before the eighth day: which was not apparent and Crystal-clear to Bishop Fidus and his Church, in respect of the nearness and compliance betwixt Circumcision and Baptism, and the Determination of the Council having been occasioned thereby: which Determination St Cyprian recounts to Fidus.   

CHAP. LXXV.  
SAint Hierom witnesseth for us, 
S. Hierom. l. 3. contra. Pelagianos. S. Aug. l. 10. de Genesi ad literam, cap. 23.  in the fourth Century. And St Augustine: who thus writeth: Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae in Baptizandis parvulis, nequaquam spernenda est, ncc ullo modo superflua deputanda, nec omninò credenda nisi Apostolica esset Traditio: The Custom of our Mother the Church in Baptising Infants, is not to be despised, nor in any sort deemed superfluous, neither at all to be believed except as an Apostolical Tradition: St Austin embracing Apostolical Tradition, as the unwritten word of God; and speaking here, of belief built upon express Declaration of God's Word.  
The same St Austin, to prevent the Insurrections of objection, devoteth a Rule to the perfect knowing of an Apostolical Tradition; and Reason in the Light of Nature beholds the evidence of it: Quod universa 
Idem. lib. 4. de Baptisms Parvulorum contra Donatistas', cap. 23.  tenet Ecclesia, nec Conciliis institutum, sed semper retentum est, non nisi Authoritate Apostololicâ traditum rectissimè credimus: That which the Universal Church holds, and was not insti●n●ed by Councils, but hath been always retained; we most rightly believe to have been delivered no otherwise than by Apostolical Authority.  
The same Father again, treating of this Ecclesiastical custom of Baptising Infants, ascertains to us that it was Universal: Hoc Ecclesia semper habuit, sempèr tenuit; hoc à Majorum 
Idem. Serm. 10. de Ver●is Apost. c. 2.  fide percepit: hoc usque in finem perseverantèr Custodit: This the Church always hath had, always hath held; this she received from the Faith and credit of our Ancestors; this she perseveringly keeps to the end.  
Yea: the three tutelar Angels of the Church in their Times. St Hierom, St Augustine, and Prosper Aquitanicus, always pres●e on, and put forward this Custom, in their Victorious 
S. Hieron. ubi Suprà. S Aug. Serm. 14. de verbis Apost. qui inscribitur, De Baptismo Parv●l●rum contra Pelagianos. Tom. 10. Item, l. 1. de Peccator. merit. & remiss. c. 26. Prosper Aquitan. l. 2. de Vocatione Gen. ium, cap. 8. Concil. Milevit. Can. 2. S. Greg. Naz o● at. in sanctum lavacrum. S. Basil. Oyat. Exhortatoriâ ad Baptismu●. S. Chrys●●. Homil. 1. ad N●ophyto●.  Disputations against the Pelagian Heresy, which denied Original sin.   

CHAP. LXXVI.  
IN the Year four hundred eighteen. The Milevitan Council, being a Provincial of Africa; consecrated this Canon: Placuit ut quicunque Parvulos recentes ab uteris Matrum Baptizandos negat, Anat●enia sit: It is the Pleasure of the Council, that is, placuit spiritui sancto & nobis, It hath pleased the Holy Ghost and us, that whosoever denies Baptism to Infants newly born, be denounced an accursed Thing: The intendment is: whosoever denies Baptism to such at such a Time, as a Thing then alienated from their condition. Other Councils give the like Council afterwards.  
I add St Gregory Nazianzen, St Basill, St Chrysostom. And I could add very many others. But these are sufficiently efficient. And this Doctrine thus grounded and mounded, is like the Laureal, which stands firmly to its Root, and is fresh, green, and glorious, amidst the violent Careers, and hottest conslicts of Lightnings and Thunderbolts with their obstinate Opposites: and when other Trees are weatherwasted and blasted, hath not a leaf impeached: and therefore, is worn on the Heads of the most conquering Conquerors.  
The little Child which Jesus called 
Mat. 18. 2. Vide Jansen. Harm. in Evang. Vide Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 30.  unto him, and set in the midst of his Disciples; was thought to be St Martial; or St Ignatius, who testifies, that he saw Christ after his Resurrection. St Marshal was named à Marte, from War, or Martial Affairs and Discipline: and St Ignatius ab Igne, from Fire. Every Child that hath seen an Apostle, would be Martial; and every Pen-and-Ink Horn-Boy, would be all Spirit and Fire, in the maintenance of Infant-Baptism; if it could be instilled into them; how credible this Object of our Faith is rendered by Antiquity.   

CHAP. LXXVII.  
IT is a ready Work now, for a Man of a selfe-moving and opinionated Conscience, unreasonably to distrust Authors that speak against him, (as Heretics in all the retrograde Motions and Hurlyburlies of Time, have disinherited and rend from the sincerity of the Canon, many fair parts of Scripture;) to by't the long-untainted Works of Ecclesiastical Writers, dente Sordido, with a Sordid Tooth; and to perform the rigid Command of Macchiavell and his rabid Academy; 
Macchiavell. in Principe. Idem babet in Regno.  Caluminare auda●tèr; saltèm aliquid adhaerebit, Caluminate thy betters boldly; some filth will adhere to them.  
Indeed, and indeed: The Humour of such a Man (seeking himself and not God) is like Virtus formatrix, the formative or plastic virtue in Semine; which endeavours always to shape the subjected Matter to itself.  
And he that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Act. 17. 18. Text. G●e●.  Seminiverbius, a sour of words; may quickly disseminate into the people, that this Doctrine of Apostolical Tradition will presently break the Barrs, and set all wide open; and that now the Communion of Infants may force a reentry; the Easther of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus, may take up its old quarters; and any man may recommand admittance, that brings with him the revived opinion of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis, Scholar to St John, and Schoolfellowe to St Polycarp; and of his Followers, St Justin, St Irenaeus, Tertullian, 
S. Just. in Dialog. cum Tryphone. S. Hieron. in Catal●go Scriptorum Ecclesiast, Euseb. Eccl. Histor. l. 3. cap. 22.  Lactantius, Apolinarius, and others, going all in the foul way of the Millenaries: (which opinion was accepted as from St John, but came, like a sudden Inundation, from Cerinthus, who pretended to have received it from the Angels: though as it was fomented and fermented by Cerinthus, it was more fleshly in the Adjuncts and Circumstances & gave after-Occasion to the Paradise of the Alcoran.)  
But our Mark of an Apostolical Tradition, which St Austin administers, and other Marks waiting in the Antecamera, and expecting to be called; will strongly keep the brazen doors against them.  
And though English writers desire to touch this point with tenderness, and a Lady's Hand: yet in verity, if Apostolical Tradition must be housed in the Almshouse, as miserably poor, and altogether superannuated; we may soon hook ourselves in a collateral Consideration. For: If it be objected: The like, or greater Dangers wait the written Books: As: Whether or no they were first delivered by the Apostles? Whether they were not corrupted by the Librarians, or others being Heretics? Whether the Manuscripts were not perverted by the Malice or Ignorance of the Transcribers? our last Refuge must be the same, the Promise of God to his Church.   

CHAP. LXXVIII.  
THE Arguments, that struggle and tug for Anabaptism, may now at last supervene and somewhat infest our Text. Yet few there are that appear to go strongly, none go upon a sure foot: all being spiderweb-Arguments; and wrought in the Light, to catch Flies; and as much excelled by the Arguments of the contrary part, as the poor yellow Picture of the Sun in the cigling, is excelled by God's greater Luminary.  
There are two much-opposite Houses, opposite in themselves, and opposed in Scripture: Bethel and Bethaven. Bethel signifies, the House of God who is strong. Bethaven is interpreted by Theodotion, the House of 
Theodor. Symmach. Aquila. Sept.  Iniquity: by Symmachus and Aquila, the House of Nothing. The Septuagint contract it by a Grammatical Crasis, and square it forth Domus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the opening of which, as wanting the fit & true key, the Greek Scholiast and Interpreters have long wearied and greatly tormented themselves.  
Aven tied up or filled by Contraction, is on, which signifies Grief or an Idol: and the House was called Bethon, because Jeroboam's golden Calves were there worshipped.  
Now the sane Hebrew Non or Name which signifies an Idol & Wickedness: signifies in Contraction, Labour and Grief: because an Idol and Wickedness are the causes of, and end in grief and labour: And from Bethaven the Idol-House and the House of Wickedness; we remove to Bethon, the House of Grief both temporal and eternal.  
The Arguments for the Baptising of Infants, justly pertain to the House of God who is strong; and their strength as being divine, cannot be demolished. The contrary Arguments belong to Bethaven, the House of the Idol and of Wickedness: and as they are wickedly set up, like golden Calves, to be worshipped; so they are every day righteously thrown down like the senseless Nothing in the Sense of Symmachus and Aquila, to the great grief of the great and grievous Calves who set them up to be worshipped, and of the leaden Calves their Worshippers, who bow themselves down to Worship them.  
And if their Authors ad Scholae Diatribas sisterentur, should be cited to School-Exercise; they would soon effugere per posticum, sly away by the back Door.  
They are for the most part, thrummed with Scripture-Texts shamelessly wried, and caught up by them with a sleight; as imitating the vile artifice of our vagabond Jugglers, when by the means of an unseen Hair, they bring small bodies to them with a praestò. Which Text-Arguments I shall pass carelessly by, their nap being off, and they dismantled already: one only excepted, which, as they have straw-stuft it, looks Saracen-big upon us. And from this, I shall step to that little which they presume to bubble up from the Dictates of Reason, and from Records.  
Some Arguments I have raised for them from the Foundation: and some I shall make, as I hitherto have, more strong as they stand upon their Foundation; and velut amento mittere, as it were, slingthrow them.   

CHAP. LXXIX.  
THey argue first, from Scripture. 
Mar. 16. 16.  He that believeth, and is Baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned. Here actual Faith is required before Baptism; as a Requisite with Baptism, to Salvation.  
I answer: If this Text excludes Infants from Baptism, than all Infants dying in their Infancy, and before they have actual Faith, shall be damned.  
And if Infants may be debarred from Baptism, by the judgement and Act of this Text, because they cannot actually believe; they may be denied to eat by the Sentence and Act of a like Text, because they cannot labour actually: the Apostle giving a law, If any will not work, neither shall he eat. 
2 Thes. 3. 10.   
But it is most undeniably certain, that this place of St Mark aims altogether at grown Persons, as is admirably evident by the steerige of the precedent Verse: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the World, and 
V 15.  Preach the Gospel to every Creature. For: the Gospel is not Preached but unto the grown Person, as only capable of being edified by Preaching. And therefore, the place, that it may be righteously and modestly understood, must of necessity receive this Ingredient, derived from the precedent Verse: He of them to whom the Gospel is Preached, that believeth and is Baptised, shall be saved: but he of them to whom the Gospel is Preached, that believeth not, shall be damned. And the grown Persons must likewise adequate the sense of every Creature, though every Creature be not a grown Person.  
Where the English puts into the mouth of the Psalmist: God setteth 
Psal. 68 6.  the solitary in families, or, in a House: 
Interp. vulgat.  The Vulgar offereth, Qui habitare facit unius moris in Domo, who makes Persons of one carriage and behaviour to live in a House together. The Vulgar Interpreter drew his water from the Nile of the Septuagint: 
Sept.  who have in the Current of their Version, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Men of the same Manners, and having the same scope. Aquila Scripture-makes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aquila.  Men singled forth, and living alone.  
Christ in St Mark, separates grown Persons from Children, and puts Persons of the same carriage together: affirming that in the conversion of grown Persons, Faith which comes by hearing and Baptism are necessary to Salvation: and also, subinferrs, that Children may be Baptised and saved, without hearing the Word Preached, and without actual Faith, as not being capable of either.   

CHAP. LXXX.  
THey argue, secondly: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from an absurd Thing which would follow, if Children were Baptised.  
For: as Hurtado diggeth out of 
Hurtado in Logica, ex Organ. Aristot.  Aristotle: Ex vero nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; of Truth no absurd or inconvenient Thing follows, nor a Thing impossible.  
Signum frustrà datur non intelligentibus quid significet: A Sign is in vain given to those who understand not the meaning of it: As: a beautiful Picture, though the Masterpiece of a Master-workman, is in vain presented to the Void Circles in the face of a blind Man: He does vainly that Musics a deaf Man, or sounds a silver Bell or Trumpet at the double-barred Door of his Ear: He vainly works who physics a dead Body.  
I answer: The Proposition is moderated and regulated by some, after this manner. Signun frustrà datur non intelligentibus velintellecturis quid significet: A sign is in vain given to those who understand not, or shall not afterwards understand, what it means.  
But let others take this rough, rugged & brier-bearing path: I will not. Because many Children die quickly after Baptism, who neither knew, nor shall know, in the State wherein the Signs are in force, what the Sign signifies: And some Children, putting off their childhood with their coats, climb up to years; who know not wisely themselves, or any Thing pertaining to them, but are themselves wisely known to be Fools.  
And therefore, in downright Truth: this argument is not upright, but is itself most absurd and blasphemous: it spitting fire at God▪ and kicking, with an equal foot, against Circumcision, and God the Author of it: the Sign whereof, was not in vain, though given to such as understood not what it meant.  
Wherefore the Proposition is false: it not being in vain to offer to any Person what may do him good, though he be not sensible of the Thing offered, or of the good it doth or can do. Physic is ministered to Children, Fools, Mad men. A Man sunk to the Ground in a Swoon, and unsensible of Help, is raised again, and forcibly brought back to sense by strong water forced upon him; or something of a strong sent, by force applied to his nose. One sick of a lethargy or epilepse, or grievously wounded, is used accordingly.  
The man who traveled betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho, and was left 
Luk. 10. 30.  half dead in the way, having been assaulted by Thiefs; though he was neglected by the Priest and Levite; was rightly succoured by the Samaritane, who bond up his wounds, 
Verse 34.  pouring in Wine and Oil.  
The Answer which wholly and through-cuts the throat of the Argument, is: The Sign is not in vain which doth not signify to the Persons whom it principally concerns: But, the Sign is in vain which cannot at any time signify to them, by reason of defect and default in itself. As we say: Frustra est Potentia, non quae non reducitur ad Actum, sed quae reduci non potest: The Power is in vain, not which is not reduced, but which is not reducible to Act. As also, according to the divine Dictates of my most eminent Master in Rome: 
Joannes de Lugo, Cardinalis, in Materia de Christo.  Non est frustrà in Deo Potentia assumendi plures Naturas humanas: The Power in God of assuming more humane Natures, is not in vain. For: although he will not, yet he is able by his absolute Power: Which Ability diverts and forestals the Vanity of the Power.   

CHAP. LXXXI.  
THey argue, thirdly: à Congruo; from the Congruity betwixt Persons of a like Condition. No Man Baptizeth grown Persons that are blind, deaf, and dumb: Therefore, neither ought we to baptise Infants, the same Reason interposing itself, and Infants being blind, deaf and dumb in respect of the Ordinance. 
Lessius, Emmanuel Sa, Medina, Mariana, & al●●, in Castbus Conscientiae.   
I answer to this Case-Argument, according to the most sound Doctrine of the most profound Casuists. If the grown Persons which are blind, deaf, and dumb, could by any means express of themselves a pious W●ll, by which they willed or desired to be Baptised, or denoted their preparation to Baptism; or, if they were not born so, and have manifested such a desire or will and preparation, immediately before they were vanquished by the Calamites of dumbness, deafness, blindness: or: if one having declared his good will to Baptism, become presently sick, and by a sudden extraposition be exposed out of himself and his Senses; and there be no Indic a Sanitatis, signs of his Health and Recovery: Such Persons might, may and must be Baptised.  
(Yea: the Baptism is valid, which is given to Persons either a sleep or mad, if Baptism were formerly desired by them.)  
But if their will and preparation cannot be known: they are not Baptised. Because in those who have the flourishing use of Reason, their express consent is required to baptism, and also, their preparation by Faith and Repentance: otherwise grown Persons would not be reconciled to God according to their capacity, and the Condition of Humane Nature, agreeably to which Condition and Capacity God always works.  
And the Persons in the Argument, as they have no capacity of expressing their consent and preparation, because it cannot be riveted into them what Baptism is; wherein they agree with Infants▪ so have they no capacity of expressing that they do not ponere obicem, put an hindrance or obstacle to Sacramental Grace; and herein they differ from Infants, who cannot put any such obstacle or hindrance. And therefore, except we have an outward Sign from them of their inward qualification, we (as being guided only by outward Signs) do not apply to them the outward sign of a Sacrament, as having moral signs of inward prevention, and abuse of the Sacrament.  
Hence on the one side, though sons or daughters wanting the use of Reason, may not be Baptised invitis Parentibus, their Parents being unwilling: yet if such being ripened, shall express their consent, and manifest their preparation, we Baptise them, notwithstanding the unwillingness of their Parents: And on the other side, we Baptise a Mad man, that hath been mad from his Nativity, without or against his consent; because although he may outwardly oppose the outward Ceremony of the Sacrament, yet he hath no inward opposition to the inward Grace and Effect of it.  
Thus their Congruum is incongruum; and the blind and deaf Persons in the Argument, are not so deaf and blind as the Forgers of it.   

CHAP. LXXXII.  
THey argue, fourthly: We cannot be assured of children's inward qualification for Baptism: therefore we may not Baptise them.  
I answer: We are assured of a negative qualification in them; namely, that there is nothing in Children, by the which, according to their childish condition, they are unqualified. And as they cannot have a positive qualification, so they need it not.  
And in this respect, we are much more assured of their qualification, than of the qualification of grown Persons: who, though they profess the true Faith of Christ, and seem, faithfully to promise amendment of Life; yet cannot make it plain, answerably to our assurance, or make certain to us certitudine Scientiae aut Fidei, by the certainty of Science or Faith, that they cordially profess the one, or faithfully promise the other; or, that the Motive of their Promise and Profession is the Love of God, and not a temporal Consideration: the Garb of Hypocrites, comprehending all the outward postures of Godliness.  
And as in grown Persons, the Secrets of the Heart are known to God, not to Men or Angels; so there is a secret work of Sanctification in Baptised Infants, which God knoweth as omniscient, and as the Author of Sanctification; and Man knoweth not, (I will not seclude the Angels being Spirits, from the sight of infused Grace, either in the actual infusion or in the residence of the sanctifying Habit:) upon whose royal knowledge of Spiritual Things in themselves, we may not wish or think to intrude.  
That the Pancrasie of this Answer, may farther exert itself to view: Let the Anabaptists consider, first, the Nature of divine Faith: which is, A firm Adhesion of the Understanding to the revealed will of God; which Adhesion is commanded by our Wills, acting by Love the will of God: Which Faith and Love are the Gift of God. For: an imperant Act of the will, concurs with the Understanding to an Act of Faith: And as Biel scholastically: 
Biel▪ in. 3. Sent. d. 23. q. 2. a●l. 1.  Cre●ere est Actus Intellectûs Vero assentientis, productus ex voluntatis Imperio: An Act of Belief, is an Act of the Understanding assenting to Truth, and produced by the command of the Will.  
Let them ponder, secondly, that this actual Faith is connexed with 
1 Tim 1. 5. Text. Grae●.  actual Charity: which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Charity ●ut of a pure Heart, and of a good Conscience, and of Faith unfeigned or unhypocriticall.  
Thirdly let them advisedly recount, that the Catechumeni coming to make the Profession of their Faith before Bapiism, must come obediently to the Exhortation of the Apostle: Let us draw near with a 
Heb. 10. 22.  true Heart in full assurance of Faith; or, as the Original speaks, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Text. Graec.  in the fullness, or certain persuasion of Faith.  
Now if the Anabaptists require assurance in the Baptizers, the Baptizers must be assured, that the Persons whom they Baptise, are thus qualified; of the which they cannot be assured, but by divine Revelation: And we are all already assured without a new Light of divine Revelation, that these extraordinary Matters are not the ordinary Matter of Divine Revelation.   

CHAP. LXXXIII.  
THey argue, fifthly: De Baptism● non repetend●, in sacris Tabulis nihil occurrit: We are not prohibited in Scripture to iterate Baptism: therefore we may be rebaptised.  
I answer: Neither is the iterating of Baptism in a Person Baptised with Christ's Baptism, commanded, commended, or tolerated in Scripture: the Answer being as full and Scripture-strong as the Argument.  
The Rabbins anxiously dispute upon 
Rabbini in Gen. 4. Gen. 4. 15.  the Text, and the Lord set a Mark▪ upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him: What Sign or Mark this was, wherewith Cain was marked or signed.  
Some think it to have been a wondrous and unnatural howling & yelling, by the which he did bewail his lost & wandering condition. Others imagine, that it was a wildness or Fury: Others, a wand'ring Flight: Others, a perpetual shaking and Trembling of his body, and especially, of his Head; signifying his continual Instability, and horrible Fears: and that therefore he built a City for his Defence; he having in his Fears and wander dilucida Intervalla: the first and this opinion, being anchoured upon the Septuagint, where 
Sept. Gen. 4. 12.  for a fugitive, and a vagabond, they allow, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mourning and trembling. Some give abroad, that he crept on all four, as Children sometimes do: Some, that he was bra●ded & cauterised with a particular Mark: So Aben Ezra. Yea: R. Solomon 
Aben Ezra in Gen. 4. R. Solomon, ibid.  avoucheth, that God imprinted a Mark in his Forehead. And intruth, some Arabic Versions of the Septuagint translate it, And the Lord imprinted. The Hebrew Word Oath signifieth also a Letter: and we may, without injury to the Text, interpret it, And the Lord set a letter upon Cain. Which Letter some Hebrew Doctors wisely surmise to be Thou, being the last Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and the first of the Hebrew Word Teshuba, signifying Repentance: that all people seeing Cain, might be silently admonished to Repent of their sins; lest God should give them over to final Desolation of Heart as he gave Cain.  
Which Mark soever of these, we seize upon as the mark of Cain; that, even that very Mark, is verily the Mark of an Heretic: but especially the Vagabond-Mark. The Difference is: God set a Mark upon Cain: The Anabaptists, in the repetition of Baptism, mark themselves: After the marking of which Mark, 
See Ezech. 9 4 in the Hebrew.  (so the Hebrew phrases it;) it is remarkable, that they know not where to rest or end their Motion, but are turned besides their Marks, ways and Arguments, and sent into the Wilderness by every Novice.  
And having once iterated Baptism, although they should be Baptised as often, as Alexander the Physician required the washing of Lapis Lazuli, before it should be used: they would never be clean, or washed from this irremoveable Mark of their continual Wand'ring and Motion.   

CHAP. LXXXIV.  
THey argue sixthly: The Merits and Satisfaction of Christ profit us not, but as pulled home to us by our Application: Therefore the Sacrament of Baptism cannot convey the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ to Children; these being unable to apply to themselves the said Merits and Satisfaction.  
I answer: Be it hearty granted, that there is a necessity of Application in Persons capable of it. Because the satisfaction of Christ is altioris Ordinis, of a higher Order, than any pious operation of ours, it being general; as offered and prepared for the sins of all Mankind; and our pious Operations being particular, and reflecting only upon our own Faults. And as the Sun, being a Universal Cause, does not annul or abolish the proper Efficiency of the particular Causes, (for Example, of a man begetting a Man;) but rather, works with them, and requires their cooperation, without which it works not in the production of such Effects: So the general satisfaction of Christ, requires to its Effects the Particular operation of grown Persons, without which it doth not operate.  
Hence, for the Sin of Adam, being the general Fault, and adhering to humane Kind, God is wholly and solely satisfied with and by the Satisfaction of Christ; a general Satisfaction being adequately commensurated with a general Fault: and in regard of our particular sins, he requires our particular operation, and application of the general Cure; the most sovereign Medicine or salve not curing, except applied to the wound or Soar to be cured: (the Weapon-salve and magnetical Cures have here no place or likeness.)  
But particular Application cannot have being in Infants: And God exacts not of any Persons in any condition, above what he offereth, or hath given to them: And therefore, the Faith of the Church is efficiently and sufficiently appliable to them, and supplies their Defects.  
Sans doubt: When Children shall be unchilded, their particular and personal Application is necessary. Which Application doth not enforce Rebaptisation: Because the Sacrament of Regeneration, as relating to Generation, cannot be iterated: And because we may not be twice Charactered with the same Character.  
Wherefore it may be justly said of Rebaptisation from the Pen of St Cyprian writing against the promiscuous 
S. Cypr. contra promiscuos in ●alne is Congressus.  Meetings of Men and Women in Baths: So●didat lavatio ista, non abluit: This washing defiles, and washes not.   

CHAP. LXXXV.  
THey argue, seventhly: from the Authority of a Council: Upon 
Dr Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying, Sect. 18.  which, the Libertine-Prophet confidently reposes himself, as with Authority.  
The Council of Neocaesarea allows expressly to a woman with Child, that she may be Baptised; the Baptism 
Concil. Neocaes'. Can. 6.  of one in her Condition, not descending to the Child in her Womb: because every one in that Confession, should show his own Election.  
I answer: first: This Council was not a general Council, or confirmed by a general Council in every particular Branch of it.  
Secondly: Even a general Council may err in reddendâ Ratione, in giving a Reason, and in Things besides the Thing principally defined and intended: And therefore, a Council doth not oblige us ad necessariò credendum aut faciendum, but when it speaks definitiuè, definitively; God securing to us, only the Matters to be believed and to be done, which conduct us to Salvation, and leaving us to discourse the Reasons: Because the Definitions pertain to all; the Reasons, to the Learned only, who are Judges of them.  
Thirdly: this Council undertakes not to define the Matter of Infant Baptism; but only, glances at it, obitèr & aliud agens, by the way.  
Fourthly: As Infants may not be 
Vide D. Tho. p. 3: q. 68 art. 10.  Baptised in the Womb, for excellent Reasons: so being out of the Womb and alive, they must be Baptised for as excellent Reasons.  
Fiftly: The Canon compares an Infant in the Womb, not constituting a Person by himself, with one out of the Womb, being a proper Person subsisting by himself; and to such a Person the Canon requires, that he shall show 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, proper Election. And this is all that Theodorus Balsamon, Zonaras, Photius, or any Expounder of the Canons, can demand canonically of this Canon.  
But the Canon doth not show, that the Election of others having Dominion over the Child, and their public showing of it, and strengthening it by their Confession of the Faith for him; is not accepted as the proper Election of the Child, and as his personal showing of it; and may not be so named; in the nonage of the Child.  
And this answer perfectly divides betwixt the Child in the Womb, and the Child newly born.  
For, the Sacraments are Visible Signs, and must therefore be conferred upon and terminated at Persons in a visible, approximate, & tangible condition. So that, had the Canon compared Infants with grown Persons, in this or the like Pronunciate; Infants, that they may be Baptised, must grow beyond their Infancy and Childhood, and must have and sh●w proper and personal Election, as other grown Persons do: it had pronounced against us.  
But whereas it only requires in an Infant, a proper Election and the showing of it, with comparison to the Infant in the Womb, for the which, none can Elect or show Election, because no one can see for what he should show Election on God's behalf; which inhibits the administration of the Sacrament, being a Visible Sign, and requiring a Visible and apparent Subject: The Child born, being now a Person by himself, though he hath no such actual Election in himself, yet may Elect and show his Election by others, of which only Election he is then capable; as he Elects by others, in the matter of temporal and outward Provision; and as Nature Elected for him in the Womb: and this may freely pass for his proper Election, and answer to him as being now a proper and single Person, and in the hands of others having received spiritual Power over him from God, and in whom it lies to dispose of him to God's greatest Glory, who is most glorified by his Worshippers.  
I confirm this Answer, by unlocking another precious Cabinet of Divinity. St Hierom expounding the Words of Christ after he had set a Child in the midst of his Disples: Take heed that ye despise not one of 
Mat. 18. 10.  these little ones: for I say unto you, that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is 
S Hieron. in M●t. 18. exponens illud, V 10. Angeli ●●rii in caelis▪ etc.  in Heaven: crieth out: Magna est Digni●as Animarum, ut unaquaeque habeat ab ortu Nativitatis, in Custodiam sui, Angelum delegatum: Great is the Dignity of Souls, that every Man hath from his first rising and appearing under the stars in his Nativity, an Angel delegated to him for his Custody.  
If a Child hath an Angel delegated to him for his Custody, from the first minute of his Birth: Which Angel is not delegated to him in his Mother's Womb; because there he is adhuc Aliquid Matris, as the School-Divines 
Scholastici:  School us after Aquinas, yet something of the Mother; as fruit hanging upoon a Tree, is yet something of the Tree: Shall we grown Persons think that an Infant, being now a Person by himself, and therefore specially attended from Heaven, may not partake of God's heavenly Ordinance, if he shall by Heavenly Providence fall into the Right of those that can Heaven-Chuse and rightly confess for him; and that this Heaven-choice and confession may not be called his personal and proper Confession and Heaven-choice: especially, the gracious Acts which God accepts from us, though, as such, effected Supernaturally by a power infinitely above us; being imputed to us, as our proper and personal Acts? Avertat Deus: God forbidden.   

CHAP. LXXXVI.  
THey argue, eightly: from the bowels of ancient History. Certain Persons, born of Christian and zealous Parents, were anciently detained from Baptism, until they came to years: As: Constantine the 
Euseb. in vita Constan●ion. Russiaus, Nicepho●u●: & alii. S. Aug. confess. lib. 1. cap. 11. Vide vitas Sanctorum.  Son of Helena a Christian: St Austin the Son of Monica a Christian: who together with St Hierom & Saint Ambrose borne of Christians, were not Baptised until they had completed the Age of 30 Years. And St Gregory Nazianzen, the Son of a Bishop in the Greek Church; was Baptised being a Youth.  
I answer: This in the winding it up, concludes only, that the Practice of Baptising Infants, was not strictly, absolutely and altogether Universal.  
And first: These Parents would not have willingly, and without a torture of Heart, so neglected these their Children, that they should have died without Baptism. St Austin 
Possidonius in vita Augustini.  was greatly and fearfully sick, at which time his Mother Monica was also greatly sick with fear, lest he should have died without participation of the sacred Ordinance. And what these Divine Worthies divinely thought and taught concerning their own, or others dying without Baptism; is worthily manifest in their most worthy writings. Let St Gregory Nazianzen stand here for a 
S. Greg. Naz. in Serm. de Baptismate.  Mark, because he seems most remarkably opposite to us. He commands expressly, that the Child be Baptised in periculo Mortis, in the case of Mortal Danger; and he proves it with an argument desumed from Circumcision: and he farther wills, that Baptism be not differred beyond the Age of three years: in which Age, we that are of Age know, Children are unknowing, and cannot have actual Faith and Repentance, and consequently, neither publish them by Profession.  
Secondly: Their Parents and they proposed to themselves a religious End in differing their Baptism: Yea: the Devotions of these few and extraordinary Saints, stayed them long amongst the Catechumeni, partly that they might heap together, and treasure up great store and variety of Learning & Experience in their capacious Hearts, before they should be forced up●n public Offices, Ecclesiastical or Civil: unto which they were not ordinarily driven or called, being yet Catechument; though it extraordinarily happened to St Ambrose and Constantine.  
Thirdly: St Austin, St Hierom, and St Ambrose were partly elevated above all ordinary Rules, by extraordinary Inspirations, to an ardent desire of conforming themselves to the extraordinary Example of Christ their Master.  
last: Actiones Paucorum (quemadmodum & Privilegia) non sunt trabendae in Exemplum: The Actions of some few, militant against the common Praxis of the Church, (as also the Privileges of some,) a●e not to be drawn into Example: It is an exemplary Rule in the Canon-Law. To which I lawfully marry, and in a Canonical Hour; another like Rule: Logibus, non Exemplis, vivitur: we should live according to Laws and not according to Examples of Men carried against, besides, or above Law.  
Ludovicus Vives his mistake was 
Vide Lud. Viu. in S. Aug. de Civit. Dei, l. 1. cap. 27.  gross, and he grossly ignorant of History, all people must confess that will not be, as he was, grossly mistaken.  
And concerning Constantine: the 
Vide etiam Metaphr. in Constantino. Surium Tom. 6. Martyrol. Vsuard. & Pontifical. Roman. c. 34  most creditable opinion is, that he was Baptised by Sylvester Bishop of Rome, immediately after his Conversion; (and not by Eusebius the Arrian Bishop of Nicomedia, Death invading him with sickness:) and that his Mother Helena then expected the Messiah, and was of the Jewish irreligious Religion.   

CHAP. LXXXVII.  
LAstly: they argue: from the loins of Modern History. The Children of the Georgians in Armenia, are not Baptised until they be aged eight years.  
I answer: The Abassine Christians are Circumcised. The Customs of decayed and corrupt Churches, are not presidential unto us.  
They argue still; and magisterially enough: but either by pressing places of Scripture, which they press to death; or by oppressing us with a multitude of Arguments, bearing no date of Authority or superscription of Reason. And herein they tripudiate like the Fairies or Satyrs upon the Mountains; as if all the good ground they dance upon, were their own. And whilst they amuse us, with a plausible and yellow paint of carriage and of stretched pronunciation, they suppose themselves to set off their dull-coloured Arguments, with the gaudy lustre of their painted behaviour: But, all this while, cannot sink to the bottom of the Devil's Policy. Non enim persequitur & impugnat 
Cypr. Carthaginensis l. 3. Epistolarum, ep. 1. ad Lucium.  Christi Adversarius, says the Glory of Carthage, nisi Castra & Milites Christi: Haereticos prostratos semel & suos factos contemnit & praeterit: Eos quaerit dejicere, quos videt stare: The Adversary of Christ doth not violently persecute and impugn, but the Camp and Soldiers of Christ: He contemns and passes negligently by Heretics, as being now in the dirt, and already made his own: He seeks to throw them down, whom he sees to stand.  
It appears a godly Truth: That the Devil never appears to them, whom he knows to question his Being: because in 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 lieth in ambush against us; is willing that the Anabaptists should greatly please themselves with a little smattering of Morality, and a few beggarly rudiments of pious Profession; whilst they are Soule-poisoned themselves, and whilst they poison the Souls of the People with their impure Arguments; which, like the enchanted Castles of their Hearts, are strong and impregnable, only until the Charm be dissolved.  
O the Saviour of Israel: Nature in the Natural Body, doth always endeavour to rectify itself: And Grace in the Soul, rectifies Nature: But who shall rectify these outlawed and strong-willed 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 secured with Fortifications of all sorts; professing for Baptism: the Baptism of Infants is commanded in Scripture.  
The Resultancy is thus brought near 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 Science partly floweth and followeth; every Science being Virtually contained in its 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 Kinds: there being some, which proceed from Principles known by the natural Light of our understanding, as Arithmetic, Geometry, and others; and some that proceed from Principles known by the Light which a Superior Science gives to us; and these we name Subordinate Sciences; As, our Science called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Perspectiva, proceeds from Principles 
Vide Alsted●i Cursum Philosophicum ultimae Edition is, in Perspectiva & Musica.  made known by Geometry; and Music, from Principles known by Arithmetic.  
Now if the Proposition be a Principle of a Superior Science, it supposeth no other Principle of its Kind, 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 kind, is a Measure of the rest.  
And every Conclusion supposeth and inferreth; unless the last Conclusion that is deducible, may be ●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 rank are the Propositions inferred and supposed: If that be a natural Truth, these also be natural Truths: If that be a divine Truth and God's Word, these be God's Word and divine Truths: Because as that in itself, expresseth God's Speech; so likewise by itself, 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 Kingdom 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 nearly following the Thing. The Thing therefore, which this Proposition must of necessity suppose, is: Go and Baptise 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 Kingdom of God: Or; Except ye Baptise all such, and they be born of Water and of the Spirit, they cannot enter into the Kingdom 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 again 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 Kingdom of God: Therefore go and Baptise all Persons qualified for Baptism, yea even Infants offered by the Church.  
Finally: This Proposition or Conclusion, except one be born, etc. being the Word of God, a divine Truth, and a Proposition of the Superior Science, which is Scientia Dei & Bea●orum the Science of God and the Blessed; the other Proposition, Go and Baptise all Persons qualified for Baptism, yea even Infants, etc. must also be a Proposition of the Superior 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 rational Persons, as of equal weight and worth with the written and express Proposition, Except one be born, etc. 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 find the Command of Baptising Infants in the Word of God; it being there, once and again, 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 fetched; neither is the Proposition supposing, or, before and to which we suppose; the immediate Reason of it: And the false Supposition may be soon discovered to have crept and wedged itself unnaturally into the Order drawn from the Principle, and not to belong orderly and naturally to it.   

CHAP. LXXXIX.  
THE second Result is. The Baptising of Infants is necessary tàm necessitate Pracepti quàm necessitate Medii, by the necessity of Precept, and by the necessity of Means.  
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 Penalty; as here there is.  
That is necessary by the necessity of Means, which is appointed by divine appointment, as a Means of our entering into the Kingdom of God: And here Baptism is required as a necessary Condition, Qualification or Means; Except one be born, etc. the unbaptized being excepted, by a contrary exception, as unconditioned, unqualified, and without the Means.  
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 D●pper dipped.  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 find, after long use, to be superlatively strong and useful, and above the marrow and strength of Lions: although the Crassipelles or thick-skinned Preachers dabbling 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 Maso●a sinali, cujus Collecto●●rat R. Jacob Ben Chaijm, quaeque 〈◊〉 est Co … Venetians & Bux●● sianis 〈◊〉.  two by two, agree in their Letters, both radical 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 myself.  
The most heavy hand of God is upon us; and how dare we to dissemble in God's weighty Business? 
Psal. 29. 9 Targ. ibi.  The voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to calve. The Targe runs with the Hinds: parere cogit, compels to bring forth; the Hinds bringing forth with great difficulty, but when affrighted with God's Voice, being Thunder.  
Now, as one Christian may believe another: If I could yield consent to the whole Mass or Medley of the Doctrines of Papists; I would be as free as the Air, 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-linaged Heir would not have stabbed me the other Day with an Irish Dagger, in the sight of the Sun, and in an open place so near to the Grand Seat of Justice.  
God Almighty defend our Superior Powers from such Mischiefs; which commonly bring subitaneam & improvisam Moriem, sudden 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 Kingdom of God: and therefore, a wicked Man wrapped, enveloped, and involved 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 Physician (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 Led, or Wood: So it imports not in regard of Sacramental Effects, whether or no Minister Sacramenti, the Minister of the Sacrament, be good or Evil; (though in obedience to the will of God, and in respect of his own personal Good and actual 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 evil, 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 administered by Judas, was the Baptism of Christ: And the Baptism administered by John, was John's Baptism. We do not set Judas before John; but we rightly prefer the Baptism of Christ even administered 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 equal, though administered by Persons of unequal Conversation: because it is the Gift of God, not of them who administer the Gift.  
The same quicksighted Author weaving into his Discourse, that although some vain Persons of the weaker Kind, prompted and solicited by sinister Intentions, brought Children to be Baptised, to the end, the Children might receive or conserve bodily Health; yet the Children were truly and rightly Baptised by the Ministers of the Sacrament: after-strows this Reason: Celebrantur 
Idem epist. ● 23. ad Bonifacium.  enim per eos 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 sound deduced for him, from the vanity and irresolution of a few seduced and unsound People.  
And if he will tear to himself, that the want of a good Intention in the Parents, may pervert or incommodate the actual Baptism of the children: it will much more follow of itself, that the want of Intention, or of a good-one in the Minister of the Sacrament, must quell and overthrow his Act of Baptising; 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 called and Ministerially gives a Sacrament.   

CHAP. LXXXXI.  
THE fourth Result is. Although we are obliged to the Baptising 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 Baptised: Such Means proportionably agreeing with such a Condition.  
And therefore: in their first Application to the Church, they were aestimatiuè, in the estimation of Believers, Unbelievers and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as possessed of an evil 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 devil in the Name of Jesus.  
After these Exorcisms; they were brought unto the Baptistery, and there they put on the Name of Competentes, because they did there competition for Baptism: And there were they put into the hands and tuition of the Catechists.  
And now, while they were taught and catechised, they were named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. These did frequently fast, watch, pray, and hear Sermons: being separated from others in the Church, by a proper place called Catechumenium. They departed from 
Vide Hospinianum in Tract. de Templis.  the Church ante majorem Canonem, before the Priest entered upon the greater Canon and Celebration of the Mysteries: Yea, they were not present in the Baptising of others.  
After their Baptism, their Name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being a Twin-word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a new plant.  
But except necessity pressed, by occasion of sickness or other like evil, inducing the Danger of Death; they were Baptised, only at the two great Feasts, in the which, 
S. H●eron. in vita Paul●, primi E●●mitae.  Anthony wore the Palm-Habit of Paul the first Hermit; that is, at the solemn Feasts of Easter and Pentecost; 
Tertul. l. de Baptismo. ad Ca'ccm. Leo Magnus ep. 4. quae ●si ad Episcopos Sicihae.  according to Tertullian and Leo the first.  
And again: before they were admitted into the number of Believers, by Baptism; (let the Reader patiently, if not reverently, hear the repetition of some special Ceremonies of the Church, raised from the reverend Monuments of pious Antiquity; in the seattering of which, I am only the Interpreter to the Fathers;) first, they turned their faces toward the West, and renounced the Devil and his works, and the works of all them from whom the Sun of Righteousness was departed, (in the Apostolical form); as Dionysius Areopagita 
S. Dionys. Arcop. de Eccl. Hier. cap. de Baptism.  recounts.  
Secondly: they tacked about and faced the East; in which position of Body, they professed the Christian Faith, and their Defence thereof; (using the words of the Apostolical Creed;) agreeably to the same Dionysius: 
Idem ibid.  and afterwards of the Nicen Symbol.  
Thirdly: the same writer attesteth, 
Idem ibid.  (I can witness nothing in it, but him to be a witness of it;) that the Sign of the Cross was made on their Foreheads, and on their Breasts: by the which, they were signed for God and for Christ crucified; the ignominious and inglorious Passion of whom, should be their Triumph and Glory: as it was St Paul's. 
Gal 6. 14.   
And yet, again: After their admittance by Baptism: first: they were kissed osculo Pacis, with a kiss of Peace, by the Christians who were present, in token that, as Baptised Persons, they were now their Brothers: this is enroled by St Cyprian. 
S. Cypr. l. 3. cp. 8. ad Fidum.   
Secondly: a burning Taper was given into the hands of the Baptised Persons, in sign of the Faith and Grace received; and to signify that now they were translated from the Power of Darkness, to the admirable Light and lot of the Sa●nts: this 
S. Greg. Naz. orat. in sanctum Lava●rum. Lactant. in Carmine. Paschali.  is Chronicled by St Gregory Nazianzen.  
Thirdly: they were invested in a White Dress, as Lactantius hath left dressed in metrical black and white; which they wore from the Sabbath or Saturday▪ being the Eve of Easter, and called Sabbathum Sanctum, the Holy Sabbath; to the Sunday after Easter-Day, which was therefore named Dominica in Albis, The Lord's Day wherein the Baptised, appeared all in their White Garments: of this, Dionysius is the Recorder. 
S. Dionys. ubi supra & alii ex eo.   
And then at their putting off these white Garments, Divine Sermons were preached to them, in the which they were exhorted to retain inward whiteness and purity, of which the outward purity and whiteness was but a white Mark. Hence we have most Heavenly Sermons 
In Bibliotheca Patrum.  amongst the Primitive Records, entitled De retinenda Puritate, Of retaining Purity.  
Fourthly: Milk and Honey was given into their Mouths, to be 
Tertul. l. 1. contra Marcionem, cap. 14. S. Hieron. in D●alogo contra Luciferianos: vide eundem, Comment in Is. 55. 1. ubi vini & Lactis mention●m facit.  tasted by them: of which Tertulliaen; and afterwards, St Hierom, who interprets it to have been done in sign of our new Infancy in Christ. Wherefore on the Dominica in Albis, in the Roman Church, with reference to the Neophyts; part of the Epistle of St Peter is read which containeth, Quasi modò geniti Infantes lac concupiscite, etc. As newborn Babes desire the sincere Milk of 
Missale R●manum Dominica in Albis, in Epistola. 1 Pet. 2. 2, 3. Dr Taylor Sect. 18.  the word, that ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.  
But I see not, how Dr Tailor thumbing this Baptismal Ceremony in his tailoring, and cutting it out against the Baptism of Infants; can hence piece it up, that because Men who were Baptised, were to be as Babes, therefore Babes must not be Baptised until they be Men. Yea rather, Babes should be Baptised, because their Innocency is the Scripture Measure and Rule, by which, Men are made Baptizable; and to which, they are now pleasantly and sweetly directed by the Ceremonious tasting of Milk and Hony.  
This expression, as new born Babes, or, as little Children, hath an express 
Mat. 18. 3▪  Confirmation from Heaven, in the Name, Perfection, and Adumbration of the Cherubims: In their Name: the Word Rub in the Hebrew Language, (as also Rabe in the Chaldee,) signifying a Child; and I signifying as: In their Perfection, their fullness of knowledge, according to their other derivation, being Charactered and compendiously delineated in the Faith of initiated and Baptised children; because Faith here answereth to Vision or Face-Knowledge hereafter: In their Adumbration, the Cherubims having chief been effigiated as and in the shape of Children or Babes in respect of their Faces.   

CHAP. LXXXXII.  
THE fifth Result is. The Senses of Scripture, accepted by the Primitive Church, and all venerable Antiquity, being so violently and obstinately rejected in this our obstinate and violent Age: we should give our Assent to the Senses of Scripture, not rashly, but secundùm Regulas Prudentiae, according to the Rules of Prudence.  
There is a Thing, almost in every Text of Scripture beckening to Practise, like that which the Painters call the Air in every Face, For: if all the parts of the Face, be taken in their proper feature, and right Proportions, and this Air be not thus taken, (which Air is a special kind of Centre, wherein all the consents of Similitude have a general Meeting;) the want of this Air, is in the reason, that the Judgements of Men give a different Air and sound; and that while one strongly affirms, the face to be like, another denies it as strongly.  
And if the words of any Text be taken or understood, according to the partial and particular Acception of those Words, in common use, or in other places of Scripture: And the general Air, (which is the Scope of the whole Text, and coincidence of it cum Antecedentibus & Consequentibus, with the Things going before and the Things following: Yea: which is the Relation it beareth to Persons and their Conditions, and the interest it hath in Places; and, as it were, a sudden cast of the Look upon Times and Customs; and so forth:) be not understood and taken according to the several aims and ey-turning of the Text: the Judgements of Interpreters, will be various: although they shall pretend to Interpret by divine Inspiration.  
S. Hilary turns us upon another Turn of the Eye in a Text: Intelligentia Dictorum ex Causis est assumenda 
S. Hilar. l. 4 de Trinitate  dicendi; quia non Sermoni, Res, sed Rei Sermo est Subjectus: The Understanding of Things said or Sayings, is to be taken from the Causes of their being said; because the Thing is not subjected to the Speech or Saying, but the Saying or Speech to the Thing.  
Is it probable now, that ordinary People can take this Air in a difficult and controverted place of Scripture? It is not probable. My Reason is: Because there are ordinarily required to an Understander of Scripture, first, Godliness, Peace of mind, (which excludes overbearing Affection,) and a good Wit; in the wise, peaceable, and godly Judgement of St Austin: Si tamen bono Ingenio 
S. Aug. de utilit. Credendi, c. 18.  Pietas, & Pax quaedam Mentis accedat, sine qua de sanctis Rebus nihil prorsus intelligipotest: To a good Wit there must be added Godliness, and a certain Peace of the Mind, without which, nothing at all of Heavenly Things can be understood: Secondly: great Wisdom and Learning; by the which, the Reader may judge of the circumferential References which the Text hath, caused by Languages and Uses of Speech, Times, Places, Customs, Persons, precedent Precepts, Causes, Natures of Things and their Effects, etc.  
Thirdly: when we have done what Man can do: If the Interpreters of Scripture, be not spirited with the same Spirit, with which, the writers of it were spirited; they shall never give Spiritual and secure Judgement, proportionably to the Prophetical and Apostolical Spirit.  
Infallibly▪ If it be not moreover, infallibly known to us that they are divinely spirited; they cannot imbreathe into us Cognitionem quietativam, Knowledge that shall qivet and allay our exasperated and troubled Hearts.  
And the Doctor Subtilis binds it up with an infallible Reason: Nemo 
Scotus 2. D. 23. q. unica:  perfectè credit, & omninò firmitèr, ei quem scit posse fallere & falli: No Man perfectly, and altogether firmly believes him, (let him be Interpreter of the Words or Sense,) of whom he knows that he can deceive & be deceived, in such Things and Occasions; as having no security of Direction, from the gracious and manifest Promise of God.   

CHAP. LXXXXIII.  
THE last Result is. There is a strong necessity of an Overseer, whom God (the Overseer from Heaven) hath promised to direct according to his Place and Office.  
Feed the flock of God (saith Saint Peter 
1 Pet. 5. 2.  to the Elders that were Elders as he, being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, was an 
Text. Graec. V. 1. Edit. vulg.  Elder,) which is among you taking the oversight thereof. The Vulgar divulges it: Pascite, qui in vobis est, Gregem Dei, providentes: Feed ye the flock of God which is among you, foreseeing, and most vigilantly providing for it: or, as the Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Superspecu●antes, supervigilantes, looking carefully and watchfully from above it, on every 
Syrus Interp. Pagn. Leo Hebraeus in Editione Tigurina. S. Hieron. ep. 85. ad Evagrium.  side and all ways: or, as the Syriack, Pagninus, and the Tigurine Edition; curam illius agentes, exercising care over it: or, as St Hierom St Austin, and other Fathers uncase it, Superintendentes, intending and bending the whole study of your Minds, from your high Seat and Place, to prevent Error, Schism, and abuse of divine Mysteries amongst the People.  
This was the duty of Bishops; and this their Office or Duty, gave their Name to them. And the want of this oversight, inclined the People to Schism: the Ordination of Bishops being directed to the prevention of it. Episcopi enim est superintendere Gregi, 
S. Aug. lib. 19 de Civit. Dei, cap. 19  saith St Austin; For, it is the Duty of a Bishop to superintend, or intentively watch over his Flock, that it be not scattered by the Wolf, which first scatters the flock, and then preyeth upon the Scattred-ones.  
St Ambrose understands by the 
S. Ambros. lib. 1. de dignit. Sacerdotali, c. 6.  Word Bishop, Superinspectorem, a Superinspector, or a Seer into the Behaviours of Men from above them.  
From hence Isidor Pelusiot derives his Allusion, when writing to Eusebius the Bishop, he writes; a 
Isid. Pelus. l. 1. Epist. 151.  Bishop doing as he ought, and closing with his Duty, to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all Eye.  
For this cause, there were sublime Thrones erected in Churches for Bishops, by Primitive Institution; that they might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from their Illustrious and high Seats behold the People and their demeanour more accurately: which is Zonaras his Animadversion upon 
Zonar. in Canon's Apostolicos, Can. 58.  the Apostolical Canons.  
St Bernard found Pope Eugenius (once his Scholar) set upon his Episcopal Throne; and he leaves him sitting upon it, while he pulls him down inwardly with humble Considerations: Blanditur Cathedra? 
S. Bern. l. 2. de Consideratione ad Eugenium Papam, cap. 6.  Specula est unde superintendis, sonans tibi non Dominium, sed Officium. Quidni loceris in eminenti, unde prospectes omnia, qui Speculator super omnia Constitueris? Enimverò prospectus ille procinctum parit, non otium. Nec locus est otio, ubi sedula urget solicitudo Ecclesiarum. Does your high Chair flatter you? It is a Watchtower, from whence you superintend; while it sounds to you, not Dominion, but Office. Why should not you be placed on high, from whence you may foresee all Things; who are set a Watchman over all Things? Forsooth, that prospect should beget readiness, as of Men provided for Battle, not Idleness. Neither is there place for Idleness, where there urgeth a diligent Care of the Churches.  
St Paul was pulled several ways with such a Care: as he testifieth: that 
2 Cor. 11. 28.  which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches. Where the Vulgar Interpreter interprets: Instantia 
Interp. vulg.  mea quotidiana, solicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum: that which presses daily upon me, is the diversely and many ways pulling and te … ng care of all the Churches. Which Care is in the 
Text. Graec.  Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The word is brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its parting or cutting asunder the Mind.  
By which it is intimated: that such Care pulls the caring Person with adhibition of great force, divers ways at the same time; and that it divided St Paul's Heart amongst many Churches.  
This cutting and dividing Care, stops the way to the divisions & Cuttings of Schism: the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Schism: coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I 
Isid. Hispalensis in Etym.  cut. Whence Isidor: Scisma à Scissura Animorum nomen accepit: Scism is a Cutter, and cut its Name from the Scissure or Cutting of Minds.   

CHAP. LXXXXIV.  
NOthing is more often repeated in the royal Spouse-Treasures of Antiquity, than Pastoralis Vigilantia, Pastoral Vigilancy.  
Yea: the staff of the Pastoral Dignity belonging to Bishops, had from of old, the shape and fashion of a Shepherd's Hook: to design their Authority, by the which, they were designed for the pulling of the diseased Sheep to them.  
And though we read of St Peter 
Chronicon Alexandrinum.  Bishop of Alexandria & a Successor to St Mark; that he would never sit in St Mark's Chair, but humbly sat all his days on the Footstooll; even until, after his death, the devout people of Alexandria, having dressed & adorned his unmould Body with the Pontifical Habit, set it above the Footstool in the Pontifical Chair: yet his Pastoral Watching, unto which the high place in the Chair directed him, was eminent even from the Footstool, though the Footstool was not preeminent.  
This Care and Vigilancy from on high, hath two extremes, as all virtues have; the one growing from excess, and the other from defect. The excess looks from on high, too highly; and seeks highly, caringly, and pragmatically, the temporal and unjust profit of the Bishop, (being unjust in itself, or unjust because unjustly sought;) not the just and spiritual profit of the people; for which profit of the People, the Bishop is a Bishop.  
Wherefore the Apostle St Peter prosecuting his Matter, saith: not for 
1 Pet. 5. V 2, 3, 4.  filthy lucre, but of a ready Mind: Neither: as being Lords over God's Heritage: but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away. For our lording it, the Vulgar taketh dominantes, 
Versio Vulgata. Text. Graec.  exercising sovereignty: the Original interweaveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mastering it over God's Heritage.  
The Text wils and commands, that the Mastership or Sovereignty, and the Profit thence arising, be not the chief Things which the Over-lookers actively look after in their looking over or overlooking.  
A notorious Example of this Excess, we have in Paulus Samosatenus; 
Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26.  who affected secular Honours, piliaged the People, moved from place to place with expressions of Luciferain Pride and Pomp, and commanded that he should be called an Angel, and that Psalms should be sung in the Praise, not of Christ, but of him.  
Hither I may throw with scorn, the Bishops, that in their Processions, were carried in Chairs upon the backs of the Clergy: which, a grave Council was troubled to forbid by a 
Concil. Bracarens. 3. Can. 5.  Canon.  
The Defect, is a Dormouse-Life, and a negligent giving of the Bridle of Government; by the which, the Bishop permits all things to the people.  
This was the fault of Ars●cius, who succeeding to St John Chrysostom in the Arch Bishopric of Constantinople, was supinely negligent, gave broad way to the Monstrous Vanities of the Empress Eudoxia, and lived as if he had been dead while he lived And therefore Nicephorus bewailing the Matter, elegantly 
Niceph. Eccle. Hist. l. 13. cap. 28:  calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an old and unprofitable stump, stock, or Blockhead.  
In the middle Point betwixt these two, sits the Godly, wise, and learned Bishop or Overseer, on a high Seat, from which there is less Deceptio Visûs, deception of his Sight, and as more overseeing, so less Oversight; and from which he draws more Power and splendour, (which beget fear, awe, and veneration) and therefore more ability to correct and amend the Things, that in his Overseeing he sees to be against or under the Law.  
For: Although this reverential fear and awe in the People, should be godly, and therefore generated of a like Cause, namely, Godliness in the Bishop: Yet: whereas the Bishop, in the consequents of his overseeing, deals more with ungodly, than with godly Persons; the ungodly being the more numerous; the just Acts of his Godliness, must be freed from contempt and maintained by Power, and Splendour, or their Influence upon the ungodly will be small and contemptible.  
Splendour without Power, will be vain, idle, and a mere splendid show. And a Beggar or other poor Man, having Power, and wanting Splendour, will be ridicuously powerful; and his Power will prove a poor and begging Power.   

CHAP. LXXXXV.  
THAT Episcopacy is de Jure divino, of divine Right; and consequently that Bishops were instituted by Christ himself, and that the Apostles were Bishops: I believe, I hope, with divine Faith.  
For: When St Hierom let fall 
S. Hieron. in c. 1: ad Tit●●.  from his Pen, that by common consent and Custom, Bishops were first preferred before Presbyters: he wrote, though his words may seem to resist this Interpretation, of the Custom and Common Consent which supposed the divine Ordinance, and was radicated and grounded upon it; and of Prelation, not in itself, (as Nature hath preferred Gold in itself, before other Metals,) but with respect to public and Universal knowledge and acceptation.  
Because the same St Hierom contends 
Idem ep ad Heliodorum ● ep. ad Marcellam.  the Bishop to sit above the Presbyter, and to be empowered before him, tum potestate Ordinis, tum potestate Jurisdictionis, by the Power of order, & by the power of Jurisdiction.  
Yea: St Hierom defineth as a Truth of God: Ubi non est Sacerdos, 
Idem in Dialago advers. Luciferian.  non est Ecclesi●: Where there is no Priest, there is no Church. And most certainly, he understands by a Priest here, a Bishop: for, the word Sacerdos was applied to both, and he speaks of the Priest, qui potestatem habet Ordinandi, who hath Power to give Ordination; which, even in the Judgement of St Hierom though 
Vide ejusdem Epistolam ad Euagrium.  a Presbyter, a mere Priest or Presbyter hath not, but a Bishop only.  
Add, that the Church of God, being the Spouse of Christ, is Acies Ordinata, A well-ordered Army; 
Cant. 6. 10. Edit vulg. S. Ignat. in Epist. ad. Trallianos● Idem inculcat in Epist. ad Smyrn●●ses.  which is visible and uncapable of a general Parity: And that St Ignatius, the third Bishop of Antioch from St Peter admonishes the Presbyters or Priests accordingly: Presbyteri, subjecti estote Episcopo: O ye Presbyters, be ye subject to your Bishop.  
In good deed; the Bishops did at the first, sweetly and humbly consort and companion with the Presbyters, as their Fellow-labourers; until the 
Vide S. Hieron. in c. 1. ad Titum.  Presbyters abused their humble demission and sweetness, and began to be insolent, and, equallizing themselves with the Bishops, to break away into Scisms.  
But, we know that a Child is a reasonable Creature, although the Chief Signs of Distinction betwixt the reasonable and the sensitive Soul, and their divided Actions, appear not in a Child.  
The Church in her Childhood, was in Statu perturbato, in a troubled State, and could not step so publicly forth in her Pontificalibus.  
This Overseeing then, we see, is of Divine Right; and therefore, God assisteth and supporteth it by divine Direction; as he doth support and assist every one settled by divine Right, and rightly performing his part, in the dispensing of divine Matters belonging to his Office.  
For me: I cannot fly cryingly from the Honey▪ comb; because I have been stung by the Bee. And I know, that Abusus non tollit Usum, The Abuse of a Thing doth not make void the Use thereof.  
Behold: I have only made public and common my private and particular Judgement.  
Before I descend to my Inferences; I crave leave▪ of my Reader, that I may here go aside with two Chapters; and have them at my own disposing, for Excursion.   

CHAP. LXXXXVI.  
THE Species that are Visible and the audible Species, do specifically differ. And moreover they have this Kinde-following Note of Diversity: The Visible Species are not mingled in the Medium: the audible are there mingled. We see at the same Time, Stars, and some thinner Parts of the Firmament; yea, Mountains, Trees, Men and Beasts: and the Species (by which, the Object is United with the Sense) of the one, stands apart from the other, in the little Round of the Eye; they being inconfused. But if many sounds are sound sent at once unto our Ears, through the Air, from the Circumjacent Parts of the Orb; they presently confound one another. Even so: Men may quietly understand within themselves, many Truths of Heaven and Earth: Which, if they be sounded forth to the Understandings of others, are soon dashed against, and soon clash with their Opinions.  
Two Answerers especially, have made some attempts upon my last Book, entitled, The perfect Law of God.  
The one composed a Latin Answer to my Latin Difficulty there: And because I was not called to a fair perusal of it, before it was made alieni, licèt haùd publici Juris; I was a little scruple-galled. But the Author, being (as his friend charactered him to me) a solid and deserving Member of the good old Protestant Church; hath unscrupled me, by discovering fairly to me, the fairness and singleness of his Intention. If I make a farther Discovery, I may discover farther.  
The other, to gratify the tickling Itch of a rich Presbyterian wearing my Name, in his Parish; on whom he depended upon a Tythe-Account; himself being of a much-alienated Judgement: answered in a word, in a single Term (it was Terminus diminuens) from a double Heart; and (animo decipiendi) wrote upon the Book, Spalatensis.  
But honest men say: He that should have seen the late Renegado Bishop of Spalleto, and impartially compared him with our Answerer; would have answerably judged them, not much unlike in their Paunches; and that the Motto on the Paunch of this Answerer, is, Spalatensis, Cujus Deus Venter est▪ A Spalatensian, whose God is his Belly; and whose Religion his Tithes.  
And some bruit him to be more like the fat Belly-mountained Bishop, than he that once acted him on the stage.  
I say: The Apostles of God, were not Pleasers of Men.  
Great Man: let me teach you a little. The Kingdom of Heaven doth not consist in eating and drinking. There will be another World after this. The works of God, confess God and his Providence; though your works deny his Providence and Him. And if God be Provident; 
Vide Salvianum in Libris de Providentia, vel de Gubernation Dei; & Lactantium, Divina●um Institutionun l. 1. c. 1. etc.  nihil inordinatè facit, he does nothing inordinately. And if God doth nothing inordinately: the condition of Men and the condition of Beasts, cannot be equal after this Life. For: If these conditions should be levelled and equalied by Death; Inordination would be seen to break the Ranks of Things: and Man, the noblest Creature of all that are Visible, would be the most miserable of all other.  
And this will visibly appear, if we survey the present and apparent privileges of Beasts.  
Nature hath provided and made teady for Beasts, Meat, Clothes, Houseroom, and other Things necessary to the Conservation of Life; which, Men acquire with great labour, (and sometimes, with great, and sometimes with your sins.)  
Beasts are contented with present Things, and are not solicitous concerning Things to come: Men have an insatiable desire of after-enjoyments▪ & are often storm-tossed in the consideration of the future Bias of Things; (and purchase them as you do, with Men-pleasing.)  
Beasts are pleased with few Things, and their desires are filled and satiated with a little of those few, and their Hearts many times and greatly rest in those little-few: but the Heart of Man is restless, unquiet and unsatisfyed, (as your Belly.)  
Beasts fear not death nor danger, but in the near approaches of them; nor think in meditation, that a Time will come wherein they shall not be, or not be in vivis: but Men are commonly gored and lancinated with such Thoughts, (though you are not.)  
O Man of the Belly: Humane Rest in Summo & divino Bono, is the Pearl of the other World: and there will be a Resurrection of the Body, and Life everlasting. Amen.  
We are condemned to labours, as Offenders to the Mines; that our labours in the acquisition of all necesaries, may be laboriously measured and squared by the divine Rule. Enough of his Belly-Marke.  
His Mouth Mark is: that he hath always the Fathers in his Mouth; and throws Learning, dressed in swelling and haughty Language, before Swine.  
These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symptoms, are sharply censured in Mystical Divinity.  
But: I shall oppose two Fathers to this Father mouthed Man of puff-past, and his Tythe-Father: a Father of the Greek Church, and a Latin Father. St Chrysostom, a Greek Father, 
S. Chrysost. Hom. 17. in 1 ad Tim.  speaks thus from his Golden mouth: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: We say not that a swelling Body or Part, is in health or sound. And St 
S. Aug. in Psal. 38.  Austin, a Latin Father, accords: Inflatio & tumour imitantur magnitudinem, sed non habent sanitatem: Inflation and swelling imitate Greatness, but have not soundness.  
And again, (that his Humour may be Unfathered and unfeathered,) two Fathers more: Father James an Apostle-Father; and Father Solomon, a wise Father of Israel: who join in saying: God resisteth the Proud; or, as 
Ja. 4. 6. Prov. 3. 34. Text. Graec.  the Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Lord sets himself in Battle ray, or, puts his Armies in order against those who lift up themselves.  
O my dear Thrasonical backfriend: adime tibi Cothurnos: off with thy Buskins or Pantofles, that set thee up so high and portly.  
Alas! How long may the deluded World expect, until this proud thunder-jawed, sour, sullen and grim Sir, shall be pleased vacare Deo, to be vacant for God, and bend his Abilities (within the Circle of which, he sits conceitedly sweltering and swelling) against the Presbyterian or Anabaptist, (against both whom, he can sufficiently rail by a good Fire?)  
But therein he supposeth Danger: and he fears Hunger, cold, nakedness; and lest being hungerstarved, he should be Tenasmo constrictus, belly-bound. Warm Broth is comfortable: and a long Spit, turned round and round before a good Fire, with an oven heating; are comely Ornaments in a fair Personage-House of our own.  
These paltry Fears, and this ugly disproportion betwixt Profession and Practice, in the Clergy; have unsainted it in the just opinion of the Anabaptists.  
For my part: I cherish no base or low Thoughts of Persons in Authority: and I shall be fearful, only, to give just Offence.  
When I first embraced England; I discovered in her, neither Anabaptista nor Presbyterians: and therefore be it known to Heaven and Earth, that I will not own either of them.  
Now this Answerer Epicuri de Grege, considers me, as one against whom he may plausibly rave and rail: and when he does bepope me, and bedash me with the Sink-Dirt of Rome; then, he knows, he sits in the midst of two Cradles, and Cradlerocks the Presbyterian & Anabaptist, sings a merry song to them, & makes them laugh, and reach over him, and hug one the other. Abi Lutun●.  
Other Answerers like to the last here, I hear of. But: the Night-Noddy Ranter; the bezling, bestial and effeminate Person; the Person that withers beyond a Name, and is enslaved to the manifold wind and turn of dissembling, lying, cozenage: are beneath my Pen; when they are beneath and under all worth.   

CHAP. LXXXXVII.  
A Paumphlet (it is lawful to interpose a Letter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for good sound sake) came lately to my Hands, written against me by William Hartly, a squintey'd-professioned and Linsy-Wolsy-Brother of Stony-Stratford: containing mingled Stuff, and yoking the Ox and the Ass together: The Author being more able to walk under a Pack of Holland and Scotch-Cloth, or, caricas clamitare, to cry rotten Figs about the streets; than to write sound Books.  
The Naturalists observe; that 
Weckerus in Secretis.  poison being in its natural and proper place, carries always its Antidote along with it. If any sound Man be desirous to unbend his Bow and be merry; let him view the Book-Poison of William Hartly, otherwise called Infant Baptism none A Christ's; and the Nonsense, Non-English, and abundant folly it bears about it, will abundantly answer it.  
If the Votaries of his own Sect set a price upon it, the Famine of Samaria 
See 2 Kin. 6. 25.  is come upon them: they so dearly prising the Head of an Ass.  
His Reader shall find high, good, and unctions Words, (lest the Speech should be Sermo Redestris, foot-language,) but those importunely misapplied and daubed on.  
I fear: the Author hath gone amongst the Beggars, as a Spy, to the Door of some plundered Minister: who having naught else to give, gives good Words to the Beggars.  
He is much taken (though mistaken) with the word, Calculated; (it stands in the Front, it comes in the Rear:) either, because he lives in a Stony Place; or, because he lives by a stony Heart; or, because he is often troubled with extraordinary fits of the Stone, (for such may be the Kidney of the Saint;) or, because he accounts himself one of Account, or, because he hath taken it up (and redeemed it from the superstitiously-red letters) in the painted porch of an Almanac.  
He uses a word or two of Latin, but falsely, & below the Schooll-Boy, and timorously, and as it were stammeringly, and as if he would Cant or deliver Pedlars French under his Hand.  
His Matter, and the poor, forbidden, creeping and crawling Spirit of it; is the mere some, scum, froth of one in a deep Fit of the Falling▪ Sickness.  
Thus, weak, feeble and epileptical Brains will needs be opening their Packs and showing themselves (as it happened also in the late Astrological Concertation at Newport, betwixt the Star-travelling Physician Mr Culpepper, and a venturous Apothecary that in the mean time stays below, and cures both Men and Beasts;) who would seem fairer, and more able in the concealment, and with an Irish blanket over them; than they do in the Show.  
He defiles the Names of three Ministers, as his use is in his Paumphlets: whom the Ditch Frog impudently calls his Antagonists, as he doth me: and having no good Thing worthy of humane observation in himself, he desires to make himself known to others by lackeying after us.  
The Gentlemen I know not. Yet, I believe there is worth in them; because they are molested by so prodigious a Rhapsody of unworthiness, and haunted by such a Will of the Wisp.  
He is a cruell-thoughted and exenterated Person: For: being unable to quell and suppress the mounting Flames of their Discourses and Reasons; he would entangle them wrongfully in some Hook or Wire of State-Offence: as if his pretended Christian Freedom, were nothing but an extended Net, Snare, or Gin, unchristianly to slave us.  
The like false-dealing, I have observed with grief of Heart, in Mr Tombs against Mr Baxter.  
Which uncharitable and exitial Kind of Heartburning or Heartlying, I never found, but amongst the very Garbage and Off all of People utterly nescient of true Religion.  
He rails against an old raggedbehaviourd Minister of Stony-Stratford; and by objecting him, (as if he had the sleight of slaying many with the Jawbone of an Ass,) rejects the whole Militia of divinely-called Clergymen: therein. objecting Judas against the Apostles; and behaving himself like the hungry Sow in Franzius; that broke into a garden, 
Franzius in Sue.  and carelessly passed by the Lilies, Roses, Violets, and other gay Flowers, and all the sweet Herbs; and made great haste to a little dark place under the Hedge, where the Gardener's man (a lusty Knave) had laid his last load of Excrements; and there she put her bold nose and unclean Mouth greedily to what she found.  
If Ministers would stoop to be advised by me; they should let this arid, naked and empty Scull, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone, and not answer him according to his Foolishness, or mark every Puddle-Bubble of his Brain, and Tayl-wagging of his noisome Pen: but only stand patiently by him, until he and some of his private Complices break and shatter into pieces; and then, they may hear publicly of him; I will not say, of his dark and fetid Nightworks.  
When the Italian had lost out of his Memory, many great sins committed the past year, and Easter was now approaching, which enjoined him to Confession: he angered his Wife: and she quickly disgorged, and vomited all up that he had done many a day.  
Let Ministers bung up their Mouths, and wait a while as remote Spectators only: and perhaps, there will be matter enough in the latter Acts to throng a Chronicle; and public Shows of all that hath been contrived in secret.  
But I have honoured this vile Relic of the Owl, or Cuckow-Eggshell too much, in taking so much notice of him. I will not hereafter, glorify him in this manner.  
Now, I commend to the wise and serious consideration of Ministers, and of all Understanding and judicious Persons; a Question.  
Are these; who, as the Goats go before the Herd of Cattles, in the presumption of some thin Hairs under their Chin; so thrust themselves before others: Are these, I pray, fit Preachers of God's deep and holy Word, and able Determiners of Controversies in Divinity; who, when a divine Matter is discussed, as it ought to be, with due enquiry made into liberal Arts and Sciences, as Handmaids to Divinity; into the secret Orders of Grace and Glory; into the natural and Supernatural Acts and Habits of the Soul, being a Spiritual Substance marked with the Trinity-Seal; into the recluse and hidden Natures, Properties, Inclinations, Motions, Effects and Ends of Things; into their Definitions, whereby their Natures are fairly Charactered; into the Differences of Things, cleared and opened as the Day, by proper Divisions and Distinctions; which take Things asunder, and, as God in the Creation, divide betwixt Light and Darkness; into the weight and strength of Illations, Collations, Relations; into deep and intricate Questions; into the Nonultras of a Question, when a discourse comes to the Bottom-Puncto, and the last Exit; into the Grounds of Truth, and the Reduction of every Proposition and Inference to their Ground-truths'; into Denominations, Derivations and Languages, and into all their Figures and Dialects; into the Resolution of Conscience-Cases, upon all Casual and Emergent occasions; into the rich and wondrously various Closets and the Spiritual Magazine of Mystical Divinity; into Councils, Fathers, Statutes of Emperors, Records Utriusque Juris, and Manuscripts; into all Annals and Histories, Ecclesiastical and profane; into the old Liturgies of the Oriental and Occidental Churches; into Things nova & vetera, new and old; and indeed, into all the discovered and revealed Treasures of God, Nature and Art; yea all the dismembered Monuments of the ancient Archives: without all which, divine Truth cannot be honourably, majestically; and according to the Crown, Dignity, and Splendour of it, presented and illustrated; and the Gainsayers convinced: who. I say, when a divine Matter is justly discussed after this profound, bottom-searching, and righteous Manner; are not able with all their might, to utter the  Atom of a wise word; but stand amazed as at the sight of a strange Messenger from the other World, appearing in an Air-borrowed Body; and after long amazement and wonder, coming back to themselves, retreat unto Texts of Scripture, which in the Authentical and Original Copy they Understand not; and which, if they could interpret the words, require oftentimes, as Helps from Humane Industry, (which, ordinary Graces require and suppose) the Knowledge of Antiquity concerning the Sense of the ancient Church; and the Knowledge of natural Sciences; to the Interpretation of their Sense: (Extraordinary Graces of this kind, being never given without their Mark or Witness, which is Gratia Miraculorum, the Grace of Miracles▪ and public Exercises answering only to public Vocations in the same Order?)  
I conclude here: Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem: Science hath no Enemy but the Ignorant Man. And the Ignorant Man is an Enemy to Science: because he is ignorant how useful, weighty, and worthy Science is: and as Ignoti nulla Cupido, we desire not the Thing we know not so neither do we judge of the unknown Thing: and: quemadmodum caecus non judicat de Coloribus, ita nemo judicat de Artificio, vel Artifice, nisi Artifex; as the blind Man judgeth not of Colours, so no man judgeth of Workmanship or of a Workman, but a Workman.  
Note: Let no man deceive you with vain Philosophy: that is: with Philosophy, which vainly exalts itself against Divinity, or, against God and the Sacred Mysteries; as the Philosophy of the old Philosophers exalted itself in the Primitive Ages. But Learning in her proper place, is an Attendant upon Divinity, and brings the various Goods and richest Materials of Egypt, to the building of the Tabernacle, and the framing of the Vessels and Utensils belonging to it; and there, deceives us not, as being, in a manner, Divine.  
And when Mahomet threw sound Learning out of his unsound Religion; he threw his Religion beyond all ordinary means of Truth-Discovery, and set God back to his Principles, and first manner of Working by Miracles.   

CHAP. LXXXXVIII.  
I Return: and tie a knot upon the Posy of my whole Matter, with Inferences. Whereof the first is. Let all Apostates be ashamed, that have not repent of their Apostasy.  
The Prophet meets us opportunely: Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my 
Psal. 25. 1, 2, 3.  Soul. O my God, I trust in thee, let me not be ashamed: let not mine Enemy's Triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed, let them be ashamed which Transgress without Cause: For, let them be ashamed which Transgress: the Vulgar Edition 
Edit. vulg.  brings forth, Confundantur omnes ●niqua agentes, Let all be confounded with shame (Confusion is the overflow of shame) who do unjust and unequal Things. The fifth Edition of the Septuagint, digs it up out of the Hebrew: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
V Editio 70. Seniorun.  Let all that Apostatise be ashamed. (Rabbi Saadias' is within 
R. Saadias' in version Arabica.  sight.) Let them be ashamed of their vicissitudinary and interchangeable Courses; and of their swerving from the divine Rule and Law.  
There be many Hebrew Words, which signify a Thing sometimes, whereof sometimes they signify the contrary: yet, we have Rules and Observations, by the which we are heart-led to the right understanding of these Words in their places.  
But when a Man does now signify a Baptizer of Children, and now again, an Anabaptist: we are only taught by Rule, that he moves irregularly.  
It is undeniably true in Philosophy, of natural Motions: In omni ordinat â Motione oportet virtutem secundi Movent is, à Movente primo deduci. In every ordinate Motion, the virtue of the second Mover, must be deduced from the first Mover.  
In religious Motions; wherein we have, besides our first Mover, an Exemplar: we should be moved by divine Grace, (which is the virtus motrix, divinely moving virtue of the first Mover;) & according to divine Direction.  
Now although divine Grace be invisible; yet the rule of divine Direction is extant, and sensible: from which the Anabaptists (it is already made sure and sinew-strong by proof) swerve and deviate: as, I fear, many of them do also from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their own Hearts.  
And as the Anabaptists, even so let the Presbyterians be ashamed; who have led them in the Dance.  
Some noise it, (I am dumb in this) that when the Presbyterians had pared, rounded, and brought the Baptising of Infants from the settled and  Font to the movable and unsettled 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 dancing in a Mask, with his Pue-Dish in his Hands; and our Gib-Anabaptist (as round as a Hoop) dancing to him, grappling with him, pulling it from him, and furiously dashing it against the Ground.  
But, ●è videar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, lest I should seem to sell Dreams; 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 unfathered & renounced the Fathers: The Presbyterians have unprayered & 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 Eternal Wisdom, gathered and borrowed (as represented to him by divine Light and Infusion) out of the old Elders and Rabbins; that he might commend and dignify the Authority of Ecclesiastical 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 natural End and the Law of Nature corresponding with it, hath a supernatural End, and a supernatural Law, by which the Law that is natural is perfected, and to which he should be conformable in natural and Supernatural Things: and whereas humane Laws 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 rendering 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 threatened his People then living Harlot-like: and will 
Osee. 2. 9  recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. The Vulgar 
Interp. vulgat.  Latin Adopts: Et liberabo lanam meam & linum meum; and I will set free my wool 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 men's Ends; falls besides this divine End, and is detained in Captivity: And God will, in his Time set it free: in which Time, the nakedness and selfe-ends of Heretics shall be discovered, to the shame of such as cover their known Ignorance and miserable nakedness 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 Heretics: because they are perverted to heretical 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, etc. Where the Original sanctifieth: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
Text. Glac.  that is: such an expectation as Men express by standing upright, holding up the Head, stretching out the neck, and looking earnestly and anxiously for the Thing expected. So, in a manner, do the Scriptures expect the coming of Christ: looking, as it were towards the East, and crying: Come O blessed Author of Scriptures; glorify thyself, 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 essential Form: the Matter being incomplete and imperfect, and perfected by the Form.  
The Reason is: Forma dat esse Rei: the Form 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 material Things.  
If the Souls of these Anabaptists, immersed into their Bodies; were extracted from the lees, and set upright, and could, as an active Mistress, lady it over their Bodies, and over external Things attending upon them; as, the favour and applause of Ignorant Men, etc. They would walk more innocently, sincerely, perfectly; and not unsoul and dispirit Scripture and the Law of God as they do.  
Who, if they expect to discover the pure will of God, by making and hewing their own wilful 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 until the Air be found navigable; and they be able to sail 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, rejoice 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 help 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 help for him in his God. The Hebrew Text senses it: non emnimodò salus ei: There is no 
Text. Hebr.  help for him, though he should search all manner of ways.  
It was then a Proverb, say the Rabbins, amongst David's Enemies; Ei qui furatus est ovem, & occidit 
Rabbini in hunc locum.  Pastorem, poterit esse Salvatio? Can there be any Salvation for him that hath stolen away the Sheep, (Bethsabe,) and killed the Shepherd, (Uriah?)  
And so the Vulgar Anabaptists have exclaimed: Can he be saved that hath stolen away the Sheep, and outsputed the Shepherd, and worried him out of Breath? They should have said: fairly disputed down the Shepherd.  
The intermingling of earnest and zealous Expressions, which the conquered, Commanded, Captive-led, and Duke-devoted Sisters have called worrying, was an Act of compliance with the Apostle, saying, warn them that are unruly: or, as the Vulgar, Corripite inquietoes, use Corruption 
1 The●. 5. 1●. V●rs●● Vulgat. Text. Grac.  towards them that are unquiet: or, as the Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sharply reprehend them that are inordinate or disorderly.  
And Selah justly takes up the middle Place in the Prophet. For: it is a Matter of high Meditation: And therefore, the Singers in the Temple, stayed upon the word by quavering it, that they and the Hearers might there meditate: or: if we take up the word from a Root, signifying 
Marinus in Lexico.  exaltavit, elevavit, he hath lifted up, because in the Sentence to which, Selah was added, the Singers exalted and lifted up their voices; I shall exalt and lift up my voice and Heart, and Sing to God in whom I rejoice and Triumph, (the Music answering to me;) Many there be which say of my Soul, etc. And recover my Spirit, and sing a new Song; mine eyes being fixed upon Heaven: By this I 
Psal. 41. 11.  know that thou favourest me: Because mine Enemy doth not Triumph over me: yea: Sing it over again in the Vulgar Interpretation: In hoc cognovi 
Interp. vulgat.  quoniam voluisti me, etc. In this I know that thou hast willed me with a good and bene volent will towards me, etc.  
The proud Boasters are thrown to the Ground, and God hath wrought a Change: Let there be therefore, a Change of the Song, and an interchange in the Singing: as there was amongst the Jews: (which is the Reason that Selah is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint, Symmachus and Theodotion; 
Vide S. Hieron. in Hab. 3. 3. Sept. Sym. Theodo●. in Psalmis. Suid. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and that Suidas interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vicissitudinem Canendi, the vicissitude of singing.)  
And rightly may I sing and rejoice in Spirit: because, had God laid me under this Man of the Tub; it had begot such a festival Day and rejoicing in the Flesh, amongst his Brethren and Sisters, that the very Barn-Birds of the Night, would have come abroad in the Day, and sung to them in their merry Cups, Hoop-Holiday.  
But as, When the Sun rises here, the Earth is fairly shown, while the Stars are hidden from us; and in the setting of the Sun, when the Earth is hidden, the Stars appear to us: So let the God of Heaven speak peace to my Soul in the Way of his Saints; howsoever these dismal people upon Earth, shall noise it in my Ears,   

CHAP. CI.  
YET, I shall never desire to Triumph over them in their Destruction: though Anabaptists have been severely punished by the most religious and most honourable Courts of Judicature: As, at Vienna: Where 
Gastius, l. 1. de Anabaptistarum Erroribus.  they were made sure, one to another, with the obligation of Ropes, and forced to pull, the one the other after him, into the Water, Until they were all drowned: that as the one had secretly drawn the other with the Cords of Vanity, and with sin as with Cartropes, to a rebaptising; so the one should likewise draw publicly the other, by the Ropes of Justice, to a drowning: The wise Magistrate reflecting upon the old Maxim of Justice, Quo quis peccat, eo puniatur, In what one Sins, let him be punished▪ that his punishment may fall square to his Sin:  
And at Munster, where the Bodies of John of Leyden, a Tailor, (who was fifteen-strong in wives,) and of Cnipperdoling the Tailor's Prophet, and one more of their Complotters, after their Execution, were suspended in the Air, in Iron Cages, upon the steeple of the Church, called by the Name of St Lambert, being the highest in Munster: (these Examples are both recounted by Dr Featly:) which perhaps, 
Dr Featly in his Dipper dipped.  is the Reason of their calling Churches steeple-Houses.  
But I am no Man of Bloods, as the Hebrew Phrase is: neither will I be-bloody my Heart with such Thoughts; lest I should, in respect of desire, be a Member of the City, which the Hebrew Text calls the City of Bloods; and to the which, a 
See Nahum 3. 1. Text. Hebr.  Woe is pronounced, as to a grievous Offender.  
Intruth: I find it chequered in my Ordination, that I may not yield any Concurrence to the shedding of Blood; and I find it inessentiated into God, that he delighteth in Mercy: 
Mic. 7. 18.  And when I read the Histories of these Children of Cain and Men of Bloods; I find that the final Result, is Horror and horrible Desperation.  
One Example is like the Pillar of Salt, and able to season a reasonable Man. Charles the ninth King of France, after the Parisian Massacre, 
Thuanus in Hist.  was infested with ghastly and horrible Apparitions, and with the waking and working of his troubled Fancy; insomuch that his Musicians could not play him asleep, nor his Physicians ease him, nor his Divines appease him.  
And therefore, I shall not help, remotè aut proximè, remotely, or nearly, to the Destruction of any Man; or take the way whither all the ways role in Arnoldus Meshovius: Indignè 
Vide Arnoldum M●shovium in Historia Anabaptista●um.  Baptizatur quise Baptizat secundò, Baptismo Fluminis: Indignissine a Deo facit; nec ab eo Baptizatur Baptismo Flaminis: Et dignus est qui ab Homine Baptizetur tertiò, Baptismo Sanguinis. The mere English Man shall not understand it by me, as being, in this Turn of the Face, a pure Independent.  
My Conglobation, is this only: The Anabaptists were first washed, when they were Baptised being Infants; They were washed again, when being well-Aged, they were ill-Baptized the second Time; And I humbly conceive, that I have here, well and throughly washed them once more, in their latter Age. And there is the last gripe of my Rigour: Though (I am sorry to say it) the ordinary Anabaptists speak nothing but Fire, Halters and Puniards, to all them that endeavour, in the trying of all Things, to try them and their Opinions.  
Thus I only desire, that they be fairly convinced of their foul Errors by Argument: and that we may rejoice in God over them as he is the Teacher and Converter of Souls.  
Yet we seldom hear of any converted, and received into the Church Jure postliminio, after their heretical Absence and Captivity.  
Because the pertinacious and obstinate Person, or, the Person possessed with prejudice; may take the deaf Man by the Hand, and go with him to a Sermon or Disputation; and they shall profit alike.  
(And I now chief rejoice in God, as he is the blessed Conserver of others from falling.)  
The Anabaptist hath a resolute mind to sleep in his erroneous opinion: and Thunder shall not wake him. He is like the Lethargic Person in St Austin: Recedite à me, 
S. Aug. Serm. 59 de verbis Domini secundùm Joannem:  ait lethargicus Quare? dormire volo. Sed illi: Morieris. Ind ille amore Somni, Mori volo respondet: Depart ye from me, says he that is sick of a Lethargy. Why? I will sleep. His Friends answer him: Then you will die. He for the love of sleep, replies, I will die. Nihil enim facilè persuadetur invitis, 
Cicero Orat. pro Quinctio.  as the Orator: Nothing is easily dropped by persuasion, into them that are unwilling.  
This ordinarily is the Fault of dull and gross Natures; in which the understanding is weak, and unfurnished of Knowledge: and therefore, the Will strong, and unknowingly determined.   

CHAP. CII.  
THE third Inference is. Their Holds being daily beaten down, and their Holes digged up: let them fall down before God, and yield themselves up into the Hands of his Church.  
It is in the minds of some People, as it is in our Eyes, (and Ears.) We learn in our Optics, that the Thing which the Eye discerneth by a refracted Beam, it apprehends to be in a different place from that wherein it is. The Understandings of People broken from the Vine, behold the Truths of God, as it were with refractions: because they do not look by a direct and proper Light upon them; but with a Beam of Nature, even refracted with Self-conceit, Passion, and Obstinacy; and such will never yield.  
If all the ordinary Conveyances of Light in a Room, be stopped and obstructed, and Light hath no entrance but through a small Glass; all that is, or is done abroad in the view or Eye of that Glass, will appear in the Room, after a strange and singular Manner.  
He that would see the Truths of God, being now hid from him; must shut his earthy Senses, and open his Understanding towards Heaven. Si exterior Evagatio Sensûs 
S. Greg. l. 30. Moral. cap. 9  clauditur, interior Sensus aperitur; saith Gregory the great: If the outward Sense be shut and wander not abroad, the inward Sense is opened.  
Now the Hearts of Selfe-moving and Selfe-determined People, are so infixed and immudded into received Doctrines; that although they hear them evacuated by Reason, yet still they fancy themselves to hear some Voice from Heaven speaking for them above what hath or can be said against them by Men upon Earth.  
Which voice I cannot compare more fitly to any Thing, than to the feigned Music and Pythagorean Harmony of the Spheres: Of the which, Plutarch descants, that if a 
Plut. in Symposio.  Man were an Inhabitant in the Moon, he might conveniently hear it: And concerning which, Philo the 
Philo Judaeus in l. de Somni●s.  Jew soberly proposes, that if we could be privileged to hear it, we should need neither Meat nor Drink, but live easily by feeding at the still Organs of our Ears: and that Moses in the Mount▪ received no Sustenting and alimental Substance, forty days and forty Nights, by the Mouth; because he was Ear-fed with the Melody of the Heavens: Some People fancying a noise from Heaven, beyond the Note-reach of what can be said by Mortals.  
Prostratus aliquandò, aliquandò de genu pugno: I fight sometimes, being Prostrated on the Ground; and sometimes upon my knees.  
May God in Mercy come down, and speak to their Souls, and break down this idle Card-Fabrick of their Fancy, as their Clay-Castle Arguments are daily beaten down.  
(I should grant, if I were urged to it, that if we could hear and see the best Things; the Senses of Smelling, Tasting, & Touching, being the more gross and Earthy; which God hath provided to be seen and heard: we should bewondrously transported by them; because the Senses of Seeing & Hearing are most proportioned to accidental Blessedness: yet, these Things would be real not imaginary, as Blessedness is not imaginary, but real.)  
And why are these infatuated, and Ignis-Fatuus▪ led People so Fancystrong in their Thoughts? Because they were Sin-strong in their Actions.  
These new-Baptized and blanched Persons, do not remember the Primitive tasting of Milk in the Ceremonies of Baptism: Neither do they know, that blind Homer seeingly named, according to the report of Clemens Alexandrinus, innocent 
S Clem. Alex. lib. 1 Paedag. 6  and just Men, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Eaters of Milk. Their lives are not like those ancient Lamps, that were called perpetual, because they were found continually burning.  
They talk too much of white Powder, and of doing mischief without noise, and in the dark.  
Three Jewels I wish I could have transported with me, from Rome into England, and our Universities: School Divinity, Mystical Divinity, and Case-of Conscience-Doctrine: the Defect of which, hath rendered the Leaders of these wretched & leaden People, wretchedly deficient, and altogether sinking within themselves.  
They should make better and stronger use of their strong Imagination; as the Mystical Divines have taught, after these presentments of 
Theologi Mystici.  School-Divinity.  
The Cognoscitive Powers, are in us threefold: the external Senses, the internal Senses, and the intellective Power. With our external Senses, we gather and gain the Knowledge of Singulars only; and those must also be both sensible and present: these Senses not intermeddling either in absent Things, or Spiritual Things, or Things Universal. With our internal Senses, we attain to the Knowledge even of Things absent; if they be neither Universal nor Spiritual, but singular and sensible. With our intellective Power▪ we reap the Knowledge of Universals and Singulars, of Things absent and present; be they material and sersible, or spiritual and purely intelligible. Only: the Understanding Understands not without help. For, in the Body; it knows not a Spiritual Thing by a Proper Species, but by a strange-one, taken from a Thing that is material and sensible: And it. Understands not Universals reduced to Singulars, but by the succour and help of the interior Senses; nor present Things, as really present: but helped from the Senses without. Moreover: Amongst the internal Senses, there is a Sense commonly called Sensus Communis, Common Sense; which discerns the Objects of all the five outward Senses; and aided by which, our Imagination can Imagine that it sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches, even absent Things, and make them present many ways.  
Let these Fancy-walkers, besides their pretended understanding of Spirit-Affairs; behold the Actions of Christ, described in Scripture, and translated out of Scripture into this Treatise; let them hear him speak as he speaks in Scripture, and here: let their inward Imaginations set him exactly before their outward Senses; that their Senses, both inward and outward may help, according to their Offices, in the conveyance of him to their Souls; and he may be strong and lively, both in their Souls and Senses.   

CHAP. CIII.  
BUT let us all be silent while Scripture speaks. Ephraim also is 
Osee 7. 11.  like a silly Dove without Heart. The Vulgar: Et factus est Ephraim 
Lectio vulg.  quasi Columba seducta non habens Cor: And Ephraim is made as a seduced Dove not having a Heart: that is: not having Prudence, or Understanding. For silly and seduced, the Hebrew Text alloweth Potha, which 
Text. Hebr.  is, easy to be bend, Seduced, wried, turned any way. The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Sept.  unwise; or, as Isidor Pelusiot distils it, mad. Aquila and Symmachus: decepta, 
Isid. Pelus. Aq Sym. Editio. Tigurina.  deceived. Leo Hebraeus, or the tigurin Bibles: stolida, foolish: because the Dove foolishly suffers herself to be deceived, and her young to be taken. The Syriack Interpreter: 
Syrus Interp.  Factus est Ephraim, quasi Columba Puella; as a Girl Dove. The Arabic 
Arab. Alex.  of Alexandria: Factus est Ephraim ut Aves insipientes, & non est illi Intelligentia: Ephraim is become as the unwise Birds, and there is no Understanding in Ephraim. The Arabic of Antioch: 
Arab. Antioch.  Factus est Ephraim sicut Columbae; non habens intellectum neque Cor: Ephraim is made as the Doves; not having understanding nor Heart.  
Now the Heart and Understanding of the Matter, lies in the Reason why Ephraim was like a silly Dove, a seduced Dove, a Dove easily bend any way, a● unwise Dove, a mad Dove, a deceived Dove, a foolish Dove, a girl Dove; like the unwise Birds▪ and like the Doves; insomuch, that if any Dove or Bird be more Unwise than the other Birds or Doves, Ephraim is like it.  
This Reason is: The Ephramites did offer their Children to Moloch: and though they saw them destroyed, yet because they were diverted by Music from hearing their outcries in their Consumption by fire; still they came with their laughing Children to Moloch. And the silly tame Dove, filled with a prolifical Virtue, lays her Eggs, and brings up her young in a known place; and though she finds them taken away, and finds that they cannot be found; yet still she lays her other Eggs, and hatches her other Young, in the same place.  
And the Parents of Children amongst the Anabaptists, hear from the Pulpit-Raven, a noise of words devoutly champed; and themselves whiningly produced before God, and called poor Creature's; with which they are so minstrel-foolled and Taber-catched by the Ears, that they neglect their miserable Children, though they see them die every day without Baptism, which Christ so vehemently commends and lays home to us; and though they see their Babell-Towred Arguments demolished.  
(Let not our Presbyterian mint it in his Thoughts, that he is the only Tongue-Man, the only Singing-Master of the Pulpit. The Anabaptist can tone it exactly, and utter his Impurities to a Tune as pure and heavenly, as the most tinkling-toned Presbyters.)  
It is not exempted from sacred Mystery: that these are set & sorted together as unclean Creatures, or Creature's: The little Owl and the Cormorant, 
Leu. 11. 17.  and the great Owl. The little Owl resembles the Unbaptized Child: the great Owl is the Anabaptist-Parent: And Corvus Marinus, the Cormorant betwixt them, is the wide-throated Preacher, that hath divided the Child from the Parent, dives into them, and swallows their Souls.  
You question it: What shall become of Children dying without Baptism? I answer: I cannot either damn them or save them: and therefore, I refer them to the Divine Providence, and to the necessary Consequences of Scripture-Sentences.  
But it will not be refractory to the Matter here; if I relate the Opinions of Catharinus and Salmeron. 
2 Pet. 3. 13. Catharinus & Salmeron in hunc Petri locum.  These Authors in their Comments upon the Text: We according to his promise, look for new Heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness: give their Cogitations blended into one, after this manner: That, after the Judgement-Day, these Children shall inhabit this new Earth, refined, and flourishing as the old terrestrial Paradise; and there, have the fullest and most vivid natural Use of humane Reason, and of their Senses▪ with all Perfections inward and outward, agreeable to the Nature of Man in a refined Condition: and be perfected in the Knowledge of natural Things; and enjoy the Visitations and Revelations of Angels; and love God above all Things, as found, by natural indagation, in his Creatures, and admire, and praise him: and that the loss of the Beatifical Vision, shall not afflict or molest them; because they did not lose it by their own fault and offence of God. Thus these: and more tolerably than the Chiliasts.   

CHAP. CIIII  
IN God's Name; O ye Anabaptist-Parents, presume not upon the new direction of your private Illuminations in the public Matters of Faith: but be better taught.  
The English Bible exalteth: for I 
Psal. 71. v. 15, 16.  know not the numbers thereof▪ (thereof, if we look into the Original, is not thereof.) I will go in the strength of the Lord God. The Vulgar: 
Edit. vulg.  Quoniam non cognovi literaturam, 
Sept.  (the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,) introibo in potentias Domini: Because I have not known literature, letters, or learning, I will enter into the strengths of God.  
This Text, if there were not an Original Text above and beyond it; would frustrate or impair Learning, and all ordinary Means and Helps; and urge an extraordinary Suppliance of them in ordinary and quotidian Vocations and Matters, from the Strength of God.  
The Hebrew Word, from which the Seventy Interpreters and the Author of the Vulgar Edition have extracted Learning or Literature; is 
Text. Hebr.  siphrot: that is: numbers, or cyphers, (which being added to numbers in Arithmetic, make them grow;) as the Rabbins and Symmachus unbind 
Rabbini. Symmach. S. Aug. S Chrysost. Arnob. in in Psalmos. Psalteriu● Romanum▪  and open the word. Saint Austin, St Chrysostom, and Arnobius read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, negotiationem, (this Word is retained in the Roman Psalter▪) negotiation; which requires numbers and cyphers to the casting of Accounts.  
And such Literature or Learning, as involving the continual employment and business of the World; is a grand impediment to the manuduction and carrying on of our Soul in the Strength of God, or, in our Spiritual Commerce and traffic with God, wherein his Strength is most excellently manifested to us.  
Circumcise therefore the foreskin 
Deut. ●●. 16. Sept.  of your Heart, and be no more stiffnecked. The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the hardness of your Heart: these aim at the Circumcision of the obdurate will. The Chaldee Paraphrast; 
Chaldaeus Paraphrastes.  insipientiam Cordis vestri, the foolishness of your Heart: he wisely directs his arrow towards the Circumcision of the imperfect Understanding: Perfection & imperfection, wisdom and Folly, as Contraries, attending upon the same Power.  
And if, O Parent, thou dost acknowledge thy weakness; and thereby open the Door: the Lord thy God will Circumcise thine Heart. 
Deut. 30. 6. Sept.  The Septuagint: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, will purge it about: that is: purge it of intellectual Errors and Imperfections, and ●f all vicious and carnal Affections of the Will: He will dig about it, and dung it; even he will do it, that appeared, after his resurrection, to Mary Magdalen, like a Gardener. 
Jo. 20. 15.   
Come to their Souls, O thou Heavenly Gardener; that being risen with thee, they may raise their Infants to thee, by thine Ordinance,  
I have not tempted God by this Prayer. Because Christ delights in the Innocency of Children; as exhorting us to the Imitation of them in respect of their Innocency, that he might delight in us. And if he delights in the lesser Perfection, he would much more delight in the greater.  
I will not omit here, that the Innocency of Children is the most lively representation upon Earth, of Adam's Innocency: and that if Adam had continued in his Innocency, and remained harmless as Children; Christ even then, as many Choice-ones amongst the Fathers and Divines have left recorded, would have been incarnate:  
First: because as according to the present Order of Things, he was principally intended in the Creation of the World, he being the most noble and principal Thing in the whole Order as it issues and slows from God; so in a different Condition of this present Order; Love which was the Motive of his actual Coming, might, and, it is most Likely, would have moved him to Humanation, though his Passion should have been incompatible and inconsistent with the Circumstances.  
Secondly: because deliciaeejus esse cum Filiis Hominum, it is his delight to be with the Sons of Men; when they are holy as he is holy; and when they are as Children, innocent: And he feedeth among the Lilies: and 
Cant. 6. 3  Mankind should then have been Lilie-white:  
Thirdly: because as it was now requisite, that the Chiefe-Head and Captain should be, after some manner, Visible, in respect of the Visible and militant Church; and in respect of the Triumphant and invisible Church, after some manner, invisible: So likewise would it then have been as requisite.  
And doth not Christ now delight to dwell Spiritually in little Infants?   

CHAP. CV.  
THE fourth Inference is. Let them begin with a good and moral Deportment.  
The Physicians give amongst us, out of Hypocrates, Galen, and others, Morbos complicatos dissicillime Curari, that of complicated Diseases the Cure is most difficult: And then they say, that if we break the Knot, and subdue the malignity of one, or some; the rest will not be subdued uneasily.  
There is a bed of Snakes in corrupt Hearts, the complication whereof is wonderful: these must be unbound, unfolded, and unbedded. If this be done by bruising the heads of some, and the combination be dissolved; they will be soon all dispersed, and put to slight: And the disposlessed and freed Persons will then be like the Serpent, in Wisdom, not in carrying and concealing Poison under the fair Picture of a speckled skin; and like the Sun, in heating and giving light, not in producing contraries, as, in hardening and melting, generating and corrupting, producing sweetness and sourness; though it is admirable in the Sun, that it doth all these Uno eodémque modo, by heating, not by cooling and heating. They will not produce contraries, or a contrary appearance.  
Pa●lus Fagius, a Proselyte from 
Paulus Fagius Not. ad Paraph. Chald. Deut. 17.  the Jews to us, relates of them, that they delight only in the bark and outside of Religion; which he plains to us, in some particulars: asserting, that they set their Bible above all their other Books; that they touch it not with unwashed hands; that they kiss it, as often as they open it, or shut it; that they sit not upon any form or seat, whereon the Bible is laid; that if they see the Bible fail to the ground, they devote a day of Expiation to fasting; (Of this also Joannes Isaac.) 
Joannes Isaac in Responsione ad Libros Lindani de Optimo Génere interpretandi Scripturas.   
But, saith Fagius, they little mind a serious application of their Hearts and Minds to the Things which the Bible chief teacheth; as, to Faith, Charity, Justice, Truth, Meekness, Innocency of Life, and the other Things wherein Solid Piety consisteth; concerning which they are not anxious or troubled; but stick still in the bark or Ceremony. Thus he, of the Jews, from which he came: and thus I, of the People, to which: Caetera puduit scribere.  
Now let the Anabaptists (Men and Women) cleanse their profane Mouths of uncharitable Words and Wishes, and of Unchristian Accusations; and wash their hands in Innocency and then, all modest appearances in Religion, will grow well, If well roo●ed.  
The School-Divines lesson us, 
Scholastici. Vide D. Tho. 1. 2. q. 73. a. 1. ad 1.  that although one imperfect Virtue may have place in us, without an other; yet Virtues in statu perfecto, being wholly and perfectly had, are connexed: and that he who hath one whole Vice with all its additaments, hath all vices; and if he doth not act them, the reason is couchant in the defect of Circumstances.  
These Professors must therefore endeavour, that Virtues be rooted in them, and that Vices be supplanted and extirpated.  
The Authors that writ of Husbandry 
Varro & Columella.  and Planting, Plant in their Books, that if one engrave a word or Character upon a sound Almond, and return it into the shell, closing and binding it up, and then setting it: all the fruit which the Tree produceth, will show the same Character or word engraven on it.  
They do not observe the best Method who begin only with the exterior Man, and the superscription of Carriage.  
We should regulate ourselves according to the Method observed 
Gal. 2. 20.  by Saint Paul, who saith: Vivit in me Christ us, Christ liveth in me: and, the Heart being the Fountain of Life and Motion, our Carriage will be carried on by Christ, and live by the Life of Christ living in us.  
And because Rectum est Norma sui & obliqui, A right Thing is the Rule of itself, and of that which is crooked: the right Heart will regulate us both inwardly and outwardly; and the outward Face of Prevarication, acquired by Evil Habits and Customs, and left by them; now laid to this inward Rule, will appear crooked, and be quickly defaced by Prudence, as being the Majordomo in God's Building; and the Virtue, that pulls forth omnes Radicum fibras, all the Root-threds of Vices, and picks the Thorn out of the Conscience.   

CHAP. CVI  
WHEN Fire is put to the Wood, it first works upon it, and strives against the moisture and hardness of it, until having conquered the radical resistance which the wood can make, it ascends in a tall and great Flame; as it the Fire would leave the wood, and be joined with its Element: this being the only chief Reason, that leads us to believe 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 struggling for a while; & the aim of the Spirit, is, that the Soul now inflamed, 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 its Spirit altogether towards Heaven, as waiting for a blessed Change and Separation.  
O most Unchangeable God, work this Work of Charge, upon the Hearts of the Anabaptists: that they being Conquered by thy Spirit, their Spirits may look upwards, and ascend to thee in the bright flames of perfect Charity.  
Gideon gave to his Soldiers, 
judg. 7.  Trumpets, Pitchers, and Lamps within the Pitchers: who, when they came to the Camp of their Enemies, blew the Trumpets, broke the Pitchers, and held the Lamps in their Hands.  
If we profess 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-Bodies are broken by death; our Lamps (our Souls) appear burning with true Charity, (Faith being evacuated:) we shall go conquerors.  
Men are diseased in their Bodies: and they presently send in all haste for the most expert Physician. Men are disquieted in the Possession of their Goods: and themselves presently run in all haste to the most cunning Lawyers. Men are troubled and to●n in their Souls, and their Consciences are discomposed: and no Man runs or sends, that unerring Science may be brought and applied 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 deaf to Goodness, and almost irrecoverably and implacably wicked: A kind of scatter-brained. phrenetical, scandalouslived, 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 Apostolical 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 days in jollity and wantonness, and repent in Sack, and not in Sackcloth.)  
These two sorts often revoke Alexander 
Crinitus l. de … sta Disciplina.  into my mind: 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 lege, ut abriperet tertiam, I would give two to the Devil, on condition, that he would come and fetch away the third. But I will not be so merry in a Tragical Business, nor so vainly witty in Earnest.  
Yet I earnestly and in earnest, desire of God, the removal of the Devil's sworn Instruments, even by Justice, if they have sinned away all Mercy. No Man pities the Devil as no Man pities a wounded Dragon, though he groans. 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 Signs 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 remarkable, extraordinary, and heroical Acts of Virtue: If we are purged and purified by Afflictions; and rejoice 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 w●rd after our wills: the Contraries whereof, if not contraried by us, are the Signs 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 chrysostom, St Gregory Nazianzen, St Hilary, St Prosper, Optatus Milevitanus, Saint 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 Heretics 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 steadfastness 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. H●braicis.  witnesseth, is in strict Sense, Expandere, distendere, & distendendo Firm●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. C● jet. P●g●. 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 Firmament, 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 adjoining to it.  
The Negroes that are Divers for Pearls in the West-Indies, and walk under Water, feel no weight or Burden: because Grave non gravidat in suo Centro, Heavy is not Heavy in its proper and Original place. The Sea-Waters take their tumultuous Courses, and rebound above and about them; whilst 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 upon the face of the Waters: which, for the honour of the Spirit, were not said to be Cursed. The Vulgar: Spiritus Domini 
Interp. vulgat.  ferebatur super aquas, the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters. So also the Septuagint: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, was 
Sept. Text. Hebr.  born or carried. The Original Word is, Mo●akepheth, incubabat more Avis, sat brooding as a Dove or Bird 
S. Hieron. in qq. H●br. in Gem sin. Cilix Diodor. in Cent.  upon her Eggs: to the which, Cilix Diodorus accords, attesting that the Hebrew word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
And this holy Spirit, though he brooded upon the Waters, did not Effect, that the World should be altogether uncrring in its Productions; but sometimes Monsters, being the 
Vide Arist. 2. Physic. Text. 82.  Sins of Nature, are produced, against the particular Course and rightness of Nature: which Monsters notwithstanding, do not so prevail, that Nature is Universally deficient: she indefatagably working agreeably to kinds and Species, and according to Particulars for the most part ordinately and successively.  
And in the beginning of our Recreation the same Holy Ghost was Heaven sent unto us; who taught all Things in order to Spiritual Generations, and a Spiritual End; as before, he wrought in his brooding, chief and more amply, for a material End. Yet: Many false Prophets 
Mat. 24. 11.  shall rise, and shall deceive many: And, oportet Hereses esse: there must be also 
1 Cor. 11. 19  Heresies among you, that they which are approved, may be made manifest among you. And yet again: God will preserve the ways of Life; and Spiritual Generation shall remain successively and ordinately in the true Church of God.  
For: as God is not deficient in his Concourse with respect to necessaries in natural Things: so neither is he deficient in his Concourse, as proportioned to necessaries, in Supernatural Things: and the divine Promiser in his Promise to the true Church, intends Necessaries.  
My Council therefore to all well-affected People, is: Waver not; with reference to Sects and Heresies: neither be ye of doubtful Mind. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Lu. 12. 29. ●●xt. G●ac. Theophylact. in Lu. cant.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the Greek Text: Which, Theophylact regives, nolite esse animo instabili, be not of an unstable Mind; as if an Heretic or Schismatic, è Cochlea prorepens, creeping forward, like an obscure Snail, one of a vile shell under our Feet; had some thing of divine Truth to tell us, above all that the Councils and Fathers in all Ages have said, and above all that we yet know.  
(Some Truths are indeed unknown to many; but the Schismatic and Heretic know not all these, nor any of them with Sanctified Knowledge.)  
Vatablus interprets it: Nè animo 
Vatabl.  pendeatis: do not hang in Mind or Judgement, as if your Hearts hung in the Air.  
The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is in Latin Words, animi dubius, suspensus, nedum ment fixus; in English, doubtful in Mind, of a suspended Heart, not yet fixed in Judgement. Gaza let's it fall pensilis, hanging 
Gaza in Grammatica G●aeca.  down towards something beneath us.  
Oromazes in Plutarch was Master of an Egg; and he boasted that 
Plut. in Parall.  there was included in it, all the Happiness of the world: Which Egg being broken, proved a Winde-Egg: & nothing came forth, but a corrupted Air.  
Likewise: it is in the general Cry of Heretics; that their Doctrines are saving Truths, and write the Receivers of them happy: But if we break them open, and search throughly into them; there only fumes out an ill sent: caused by a noxious vapour, first issuing from the corrupted and putrified Brains of their Authors.  
In such a Case; if ye need a Perfumer, do not entertain a Popishont, that hath learned the Perfuming sleight of Italy.   

CHAP. CVIII.  
THE sixth Inference is. Let us carefully seek and serve God that had mercy on us, and received us being Infants, in Baptism; when we could not ask his Mercy.  
By which there is, according to my former intimation, a sweet Conveniency and most divine Oeconomy and Order, apparent in gods Household.  
For: As in Original Sin, we sinned by Proxy, and by our first Parents, without us; so in Baptism, were we admitted to Grace by Proxy, and by the presentation of our after-Parents, without us: And as Original Sin encroached upon us, without our Act and exercise of sin; so are we washed from it, ordinarily, and in a settled Church, without our Act and exercise of Faith.  
(This Conveniency is as ancient as Circumcision; if not older, with relation to something which God accepted in that kind before it.)  
Which way of divine Ordination, answers also to our Election, and Creation; these being without us, and our consent or knowledge; and the divine Record of St Austin, being 
S Aug. Serm. 15. de verbis. Apostoli.  Understood the Adultis, of grown Persons: Qui fecit te sine te, non justificat te sine ●e: fecit nescientem, justificat volentem: He that made thee without thee: doth not justify thee without thee: He made thee, when thou wert ignorant that he made thee, but he justifies thee, having first prepared thy will to consent thereunto.  
And here we may borrow authorized by the analogy of Scripture, the Saying of Esaias and St Paul melted 
Rom. 10. 20.  into one: Esaias is very bold▪ and saith, I was found of them that sought me not: I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.  
Hence: As the Eucharist is Sacramentum Vivorum, the Sacrament of the Living, (nourishment being given to the Living only, and the End of nourishment being the maintenance of Life:) So Baptism is Sacramentum Mortuorum, the Sacrament of the dead; we being dead in sin, until we are washed from it in Baptism.  
And hence: The Scripture calls 
Heb. 6. 4. Text. Graec. Vide Concil. Neocaesar. can. 6 S. Jo. Damase. Orthod. Fid. lib 4. c. 10. etc.  the Baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the illustrated or illuminated; and Baptism is called by the Ancients, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, illumination: because the Habit of Faith is infused, in Baptism.  
Live therefore, O dear Christians, as illuminated Persons: and labour (with a labour becoming the Gospel of Christ and everlasting Life,) that God may adopt you: and being adopted; pull not yourselves away again, from under the Shield-Canopy of his Vocation, special Protection, Adoption; as many do that are called, specially protected, adopted.  
Vulnerum Animi, tanquam Sanguis 
S. Greg. Nyss. orat. suneb●i de Placilla.  Lacrymae sunt: It is the voice of St Gregory Nyssen. Tears are the Blood, that gushes out by the Eyes from the wounded Mind or Soul.  
I have often wept, (he that wept over Jerusalem knows it,) in consideration, that, although there are more Stars under the Northern than under the Southern Pole; yet I have seen more People-Stars in the Southern Parts, than I ever saw in these of the North: and that in those parts, I have seen religious Unity; irreligious Divisions, in these: and whereas, after the coming of the holy Spirit, the multitude of them that believed, 
Act. 4. 32.  were of one Heart, and of one Soul; the pretended holy Spirit amongst these, brings divisions and separations to a multitude of Hearts and Souls.  
And I cannot believe, that sic cecidit Alea, it falls out so by chance, as in the throwing of Dice.  
The Novelties therefore, that shall be said plausibly and acutely by schismatics and Heretics; shall be in your estimation, Lepores illepidi, Sales insulsi, Acute say unacutely said.  
When sound Learning is repudiated; and fair words rendered ominous with foul faces, introduced: beware of an Heresy.   

CHAP. CIX.  
WE might, had the divine Providence smiled upon it, have been born of & amongst Unbaptized Insidels, as, Jews, Turks, or the wild and Barbarous Indians. But the good pleasure of God, was otherwise of us.  
Therefore, let us seek him, love him, serve him. Let us seek him prudently and earnestly, not imprudently and furiously. Zeal without knowledge, is like a blind Horse well-metalled; his courage being inservient only, to endanger him into pits and Precipices.  
Gravely, not apishly. They who seek God with sought Mouths and Faces, do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, disguise themselves, and mock God with Apish Imitation.  
Let us Love him solidly and inwardly, not vainly and in show only: As a great part of the Puritan-Papists called Jesuits; who profess much Holiness, and utter denial of the World; and yet, are more learnedly covetous, and more exactly exacting, than the profane Rabble. And therefore the Spaniards wittily, and with a Sarcasm, call them Los Teatinos', Y los Padres Teatinos', the Teatines, and the Teatine Fathers: from this Account.  
A Spanish Painter being Scandal-struck by the Covetousness of the Jesuits, drew a Picture after this manner. He hung in the uppermost part of his Table, a vast purse of money. He set round about it, in the lower Parts; one of every sort of Mendicant Friars; who looked upwards willingly and devoutly upon it, but durst not touch it; as being forbidden by the Rules of their several Orders. He painted a Jesuit in some distance, armed with a Bow and Arrows and looking over (and indeed overreaching) the poor Mendicants. For: he held up his Bow, & had let his Arrow fly, which had struck the Mark, (the purse;) and now stuck in it; he still keeping a fierce and eager eye upon the Mark. And the Painter had learnedly derived these Latin words from his mouth, hanging as if the cold air had frozen them into a Record: Te attingo: O, Purse, I reach thee, I hit thee, I have thee.  
Whence the Spaniards, being edified by the devotion of the Painter and holiness of the Picture, presently called the Jesuits, Los ●eatinos: the Spanish Word coming up as nearly as it may, to the Latin▪ from which, the Spanish Language hath deviated.  
(A word while the Matter is warm. I have posied up, after my long gathering of Universe-Flowers: that all the cruel exploits of the Jesuits, were Faux led by Covetousness.)  
The Husbandmen say: the Trees which are double-blossomed, seldom bear: and, such Trees often blossom themselves to Death.  
And let us serve God wholly and entirely. He cannot be a true-built-Christian; in whom one grievous evil of sin, habitually revels, and actually reigns and Commands.  
Let me state a Case or two: If a Man pleads for himself at the Bar, that he is well-esteemed, and respected as an honest Man in his Country: and it be pleaded and proved on the contrary side, that he sits usually bezzling in a Tavern, (the Master whereof is a Professor,) all the night going before the Lord's Day, until, the Cocks being quiet, his Brains begin to crow; and until the Sexton, calling to Church, rings his passing-Bell: the judge will readily pronounce, that such a Man is beloved of Men, because he is a debonier and good fellow, as they call him; and will add as readily, that he is ha●ed of God, and belongs not unto the everlasting Sabbath; as being a denier of the temporary Sabbath, and of Christian Religion in the Power thereof.  
If a Man have defrauded his Brother by false and evil suggestions, causing unjust fears; and by working deceitfully upon his Ignorance of Law-Matters: though he shall multiply Prayers, and Sermons in his Family, and engross the grosser people. Understanding persons will believe of him according to the sound and old Case-Rules, which will meet him before the Judgement-Seat of Christ: Quod injuste acquiritur, injustiùs detinetur: That which is acquired unjustly and by indirect means, is more unjustly detained: And: Invalidus est Contractus, si ei Dolus causam dedit; ut, in metu injustè incusso, aut in re penitùs ignoratâ: The Contract is invalid, of which, Deceit was the Cause: as, when one is unjustly terrified, or ensnared in a Matter whereof he was utterly ignorant: And: He that builds his house upon unrighteousness and injustice, declaratively such in Foro Dei, in God's Court, being the inward Court of the Spirit: will perish at last, how fairly soever he shall far in Foro externo, in the Court that is outward, wherein the Judge, as being a Man, looks not beyond outward Things.  
To Men of wrong, this I rightly offer, (besides the former strowings of the Casuists,) from the Gold-Mine of Divinity: Commutative Justice prohibits all wrong in the Commutation of Goods: And every good Action is tutored by some Virtue: and the lawful Change of the Dominion which every one hath over his own, lawfully made his own; must be regulated and informed by Justice.  
Moreover: Let such Men read and judiciously ponder Aquinas his 
D Tho. 2. 2. quaest. 62. art. 2.  Article, thus inscribed: Utrùm sit necessarium ad Salutem, quòd fiat restitutio ●jus quod ablatum est? Whether it be necessary to Salvation, that there be Restitution made of the Thing Unjustly taken away?  
From Humanity, I offer this: The 
X●noph. l. 1. Cyropaed.  old Persians an Ignorant and heathenish Generation, did send their Children to Shool, to learn Justice: as the Grecians, theirs▪▪ that they might be bettered in Letters.  
And this particularly, from Universal Law: No Law will permit us (especially being blinded with Covetousness as the divine Collier was) to be judges in our own Causes.   

CHAP. CX.  
THE last Inference is plain and common and shall be ●et before you in a most common and plain Manner: Because Friends when they are in parting, use neither cleanpic'kt Language, nor long-packed Expressions.  
Let all people devoutly consider, that they must die.  
I find nothing taught so very home, as this assiduous Doctrine of dying.  
The Body of Man, being all his visible part, was made of contemptible Grave-threatning Earth.  
The name of the first Man, was given to him, from Earth: Adama signifying red Earth.  
His Garments were by divine Institution, a sign to him of death: Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did 
Gen. 3. 21.  the Lord God make Coats of skins, and clothed them: by the which, he was advertised in the Garments carried always about him, that he should die like the Beast: as wearing the skins of dead Beasts.  
His employment was a daily digging in the Earth; that in his daily digging, he might say within himself daily, as Job said: the Graves 
Job 17. 1.  are ready for me; wheresoever I am, there a Grave gapes for me: or, as the Vulgar: Solum mihi superest 
Edit. vulg:  Sepulchrum: Nothing remains for me but the Grave.  
All Men, Women, and Children teach this Doctrine by Example: We must needs die, (or, as the Vulgar juterpreter, 
2 Sam. 14. 14.  omnes Morimur, we all 
Interp. vulgat.  die,) and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. And, as St Paul: It is appointed 
Heb. 9 27.  unto Men once to die.  
Yea: Christians are apprehended by the Wisdom of God in their best Devotions; and put in mind of their dying, in a wonderful manner, by the Eucharistical Mystery: For as 
1 Cor. 11. 26.  often as ye eat this bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. And the Mystery mystericusly tells to us; The Lord and Master of the Mystery and of the Family, died; and shall the Servant escape Death?  
And as the Thing is most certain: so the Time and Manner are most uncertain. Latet ultimus Dies, as St Austin reasoneth, ut ●bserventur omnes 
S. A●g. Hom●l 13 ex ●●.  Dies: Our last Day is hidden from us, that we may observe and keep every Day, as we would keep and observe our last Day.  
Yet, wretched Fools as we are; we look, every day, upon our last Day, as removed far from us.  
My observation is: No Men have been less injured and more esteemed these Times than Physicians: because the more wicked Men grow, the greater care they have of their Healths, and the more willing they are to prolong their Lives.  
O beloved Christians: If the Lives of all the Creatures that have lived upon Earth, that live now, and that shall hereafter live, were knit up into one Life; this one Life, considered in itself, would be a long Life: but this long Life would be a very short Life, if compared with Eternity.  
And when I shall be graved, and keep my rottenness, and the stink of it about me; or, the relics of it, shall remain to testify my former Being: What benefit shall I reap by the preferments of the World?  
Then ought we to be divinely careful, how we live, how we shall die: what we teach, what we hear: what we receive, what we reject.  
For: when we die, we shall be ax-hewed from all our Friends▪ and shall departed out of this World, every one by himself: and no Man or Woman shall go hence with us, to speak for us, or to comfort us.  
And when we have done all, we must all die.    

A needful Advertisement to the Reader.  
Christian Reader:  
AMongst the many grievous Excrescencies, Redundancies, and Ple●nasms of this Age; one is: That People being heated seething-hot, and having the Spirit of Commotion in their Hearts, quickly run over at their Mouths with most merciless and most unreasonable Sentences of rash Judgement. As if it were a Classical and godly Matter forsooth, to be the cruel Homicides of our Brother in his good Name and reputation.  
And my Reader: Did not these unhallowed Sentences breaking into pious and judicious Ears, presently discover themselves to be spuriousborn, and false Alarms; and had they not the fortune of the Arrow which Acestes in Virgil dispatched 
Virg. Aeneid. l. 5.  from his Bow, that kindled in the Motion, flew in the Air like a Meteor, and was, at the last: self-consumed: One Neighbour should not, without the torture of a Perpetual Martyrdom; or, his being arrested by false Report, and held continually in confinio Vitae ao Mortis; subsist by another  
I have gleaned after the Christian Masters of refined Philosophy: Sicut omne Agens naturale in agendo repatitur; ita & omne Patiens in patiendo reagit: As every natural Agent suffers again, in its Action; so also every Patient doth re-act in its Passion. And we know, that even Divinity is benign and assenting to regular and measured Re action. Allow me freedom therefore, benevolous Reader, to Re-act according to Rule and Measure, in the Agony of my sufferings; and to build Obstructions, and royal Forts, against these following Objections which concern myself.  

OBJECTION I.  
FIrst: It is objected by some (not many) and those who have Opiniones alias wag as & volaticas, other wand'ring and flying Opinions; That I was, and am still a Jesuit, I answer; as in the sight of the most high God, my Judge; and before the glorious Courtiers of Heaven, his Attendants▪ and before Men, whereof many are my witnesses: That I am not a Jesuit, that I never was a Jesuit; and that my Heart is, and ever was, extremely averted from the Practices and opinions of the (Pragmatical) Jesuits.  
Concerning the Practices and opinions of whom, as of such, I verily believe that they are Doctrinae & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lolium, the very kill Tares of Doctrine and Practice.  
The Devil is called malus absolutè, 
Mat. 12. 19 Text. Graec.  absolutely evil, (in the Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,) or, the wicked one: First, because he is superlatively evil; there being no creature as bad or evil as the Devil: (The Reason whereof is: By how much every Nature is more excellent, by so much it becomes more evil and vile, if it prevaricates: and the Angels were, as the first, so the most excellent of all Creatures:) Secondly, because the Devil is not only evil, but also confirmed in evil, and set beyond the possibility of being good: (as the good Angels are confirmed in Good:) Thirdly, because the Devil is not only evil, but also his whole Trade, Occupation, and Work is, to make others evil.  
This Jesuit (whom I call so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by contrary Speech) is not as evil as the Devil, because he was not founded in the Angelical Nature, and because he is convertible and may be afterwards good: but certainly he makes his Approaches towards him in the third Angle; a great part of this Jesuits Work being, to make others Children of the Devil, and like himself. Wherefore I discliam and renounce all cohesion and conversation with him.  
This Objection having a Repulse here, makes forward again by another inlet or passage, thus: That although I am not a Jesuit, yet I am a Priest. I answer: If there be meant by a Priest, one who hath received the order of Priesthood; this I confessed eighteen years ago in a Sermon of Recantation at Paul's; and assuredly, I am no Lay-Levite: but if we mean by a Priest, one who saith Mass; I am no Priest in this Sense, I truly, humbly, and, I trust, with a penitent Heart, declare before the Chief and High Priest Jesus Christ the righteous.  
When there is a personal mutation of Place, in the concurring and monstrous troubles of a Nation and Family: can we conscientiously mould the Lump into a By-Construction of our own? Know we not, that the sweet Application of the best and most Charitable Construction, in a doubtful and manifoldly-Circumstanced Case, is a fair and separating Mark of a Child of God? And: would a reasonable Man have sought that abroad, which always waited his leisure and pleasure at his own Door? When the Papists know that I am peaceably theirs to have and to hold, they will have so much Wit as to hold their Peace.  
Now therefore: Why do the Heathen rage, and the People imagine a 
Psal. 2. 1.  vain Thing? or, as the Vulgar: Quare 
Edit. vulg.  fremuerunt Gentes, & Popule meditati sunt inan●a? Why have the Nations made a noise, and the People meditated vain Things? The Septuagint 
Sept.  led the way: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Why have the Nations noised it like enraged Horses? the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being thus interpreted by 
Suid. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Text. Hebr.  Suidas. The Original saith plainly: Quare tumultuantur Gentes? Why do the Nations or Heathenish People make a confused noise as in a Tumult? as if it pointed at the Manners of these few truculent and turbulent People in my Case.   

OBJECT. II.  
SEcondly: It is objected: That the Difficulty which I clothed in Latin and proposed in my last Book (The perfect Law of God,) is jointly proposed by the Church of Rome. I answer: I never found or heard it proposed by any Church or person in such a Manner, and as making such an Assault. And as the Church of Rome hath enforced a like Difficulty; so have the greatest and most conspicuous Independents amongst us, reinforced the very same with the same Church.  
Besides: I proposed it ex composito, & ex praeparato. I composed it into Latin and prepared the way before it, with many an humble and hearty Prayer, Acknowledgement, and Groan, expressed by the weight of my Burden: that I might not cast a shadow of the least Offence or Occasion of Error. And if after all the sweet Moans, that humane Providence and Circumspection can preassume; One will fancy to himself Unsavoury Scents: I will not say, that such a Man obtusae erassaeque naris est, is of a dull and gross Nose or Nostril; but I will affirm with Reverence, that the Mistake and Evil comes of the corrupt Defluxion, per Caput Vermiculans, from his Brain into his Nose.  
Had I deliberated and plotted with myself, to have disordered the Soul-Harmony of weak Persons; (against which I also protested in my prolocutory and first Address:) I should have proposed the Difficulty, according to Serpentine, Prudence, in the Language only known to such Persons. And surely, the Examination of the secondary Foundation, (of the which kind a Translation is,) is included primarily, when the Apostle exhorts us to try all Things.  
Again: The very Names and Memories of Pherecides, Diagoras, Protagoras, Lucian, etc. are odious to me. Credo in Deum Patrem Omnipotentem, Creatorem Cali ac Terrae: & in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus Unicum, etc. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth: and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, etc. And my Difficulty cannot induce to Atheism: because in the dislocation and removal of one Bottom-Stone, it actually subministers and infers another as the more firm. And therefore a famous Doctor unscrued the Difficulty like a Doctor, and like a Divine; by answering that the Proposition of the Church is not human but divine: Only: the proportionable squaring of the Result, waits the Doctor's leisure. And, I pray: If the Difficulty induceth to Atheism, how doth it pull for the Church of Rome? If it pulls for the Church of Rome, howdoth it induce to Atheism, which denies both God and Church? What foul and uncouth ways this will-strong Objecter takes, to gain the wind and the ●●gher Ground; and that he may be-gual and be-choler me? Facessat igitur impexus omnis, illotus, inquinatusque Sermo. I am as freeborn as others, and may therefore, as freely propose and answer; especially when I neither challenge first, nor give the first Insult.  
And I am secure, that in my Proposal of this Difficulty, as the Action was good, and advanced beyond Indifferency; so it was directed to the the Glory of Him that is most good. Now that an Act is not referred unto God as unto its last End; I know, it may happen, first, exparte Actûs, on the part of the Act, and secondly, ex parte Agentis, on the part of the Agent. On the part of the Act, when the Act is not Ordinable to a good End; in which consideration, inordinate Acts or Sins are not referible to the last End. For: an inordinate Act, as being Evil, is not a convenient Mean or Middle, by the which we may come safe to a good End: as a false Proposition is not a Convenient Medium, by the which we may safely come to sound and true Knowledge. And, that the Proposal of this Difficulty, is an ordinate Act; is without Difficulty, and exempted from it by the Premises. On the part of the Agent, when the mind of the Agent, is not directed in Act or Habit to God or a good End ending in God. From whence it follows, that, an End being necessarily required, an Act proceeding from such a Mind, makes its direction to some strange and vain Thing as to it's last End; and then, the humane Act is Evil. Of the 
V●d●atur Arist. in Rani●, & Felix Plat. Obs●rvat. lib. 1. Psal. 78 57 Versio Illyrica. Vide C●rd●n l. 12. de R●●um Variet cap 56 & Claudidianum in Panegyr. Theodosii Imp.  which there is no Coalition here.  
To this Objecter▪ with his old Friend always in his Mouth (and as not unlike him with Aristophanes his Frogs in his Belly;) it may be rightly and worthily applied: they were turned aside like a deceitful Bow: Where it is turned by the Illyrican Version, Converterunt se in Arcum inversum, they have turned themselves into an inverted Bow: this Bow being so turned, that it shoots the shooter.   

OBJECT. III.  
THirdly: This manifold Objecter objecteth: That the said Difficulty, according to the present Proposal, is not so difficult, nor so regularly proposed, as is pretended. And first: That the Syriack is the same Language with the Chaldee. I answer:  
Ecquis Mortalium Nepos audebit, erectus in Caelum, negare, Linguam Syriacam ex Hebraica & Chaldaica, complicatis lenirèr fibris, in Captivitate Babylonica, paulatim const●tam, coaluisse? An non omnes Undiqueversùm Scriptorum Calamos, vectigales habeam? Quin igitur totus ad litem nunc denuò glorio●è dirimendam circumfluat Orbis per Summa Capita signatus contextúsque.  
Secondly: That no part of God's Word was primogenially delivered in Latin. I answer:  
Res agatur apud Authores illos magni profectò Nominis, à Bellarmino 
Bellarm. de Verbo Dei, l. 2. cap. 7.  consultissimè, sed fasciatim, productos in Aciem: quippè qui rem omnem diligentèr evoluit, inqúe sublimi statuit evolutam. Prasta puer, Muscarium: Nec tamen proloquar; quamvis & hic me vehemenièr exacuit, admotisque saepiculè Facibus atrociter inflammavit in Vindictam: quae frigidâ repentè suffusa subsidens, in Preces ab●it arde●tissimas.  
Thirdly: There is no need that the Translators of Scripture, should be securely directed. I answer.  
Fides infall b●lis non atting it Objectum suum, quod ettam est infallibile, nisi Mediis proportional●èr oblatis, infall bilibus, & e●usdem penitùs Ordinis: Ut Virtus ●heologica, quae quidem & ipsa ●mmediatè in Deum fertur, & nos transfert in Deum Dcóque tradit; ex omni sit Parte d●vina, Donumque De●. Objectum (ne fo●san & hic haereamus velut in Salebris aut confragoso) ●st illud quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 objicitur Fide● sub ratione Cred●b●lis. Objectum Sc●ent●ae est Materia circa quam versatur Scientia: Sicuti Theologiae Objectum est Fn● revelatum; vel Deus, habito resp●ctu 
Ita Suarez in p. 1. circa Princip.  ad al●a sub Ratione formali Revelationis cadentia in ordine ad Deum. Eodem plane modo de Objecto Potentiae, servato Rei tenore, Philosophandum est. Nos autem non de Objecto Scientiae▪ vel Potentiae, sed de Virtutis Objecto Verba facimus hac in Re.  
Fourthly: the Approbation of the Church is not necessary. I answer:  
Transeat quod in Regulam Juris 
Lex Civilis.  jamdudùm transiit: N●mirùm: Non crescit ex postfacto Praeteriti (vel Rei) aestimatio. Sed instat Sensus, qui sempèr appenditur. Is est. St Dignitas & Certitudo Rei considereniur in se. Etenim nostra aestimatio qualiscunque tandem sit illa, non addit quicquam, nec aliquid subtrahit subduci●que Sacrarum Scripturarum Dignitati vel Certitudini, scilicet intrins●cis & essentialibus. Si verò considerentur quoad nos, & c●m respectuad Propositionem & nostros indè secutos Amplexus; Dignitas & Certitudo Scripturae divinae divinitùs innotescunt n●bis ex pòst natâ vel post modùm ortâ Ecclesiae Approbatione.  
Fiftly: the Children of the Interpreters are not mutable, and susceptive of impressions. I answer:  
Frustràhîc subsultat impatiens Oneris Animus. Quamobrem si dixero, graviùs errâsse jampridèm, uti fatuos quosdam ac palustres Igniculos per Amnes, Foveas, & Praecipitia: Imò si confidentèr astitisse dixero Victoribus Utrinsecùs, oculis subindè placidé que mobilibus ad omnes omnium nutus renutúsque: quis adeo saxe● fuerit Pectoris, orisque turpitèr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ut Erroris vel simulatè insimulet dicentem? Libentèr in me recipio quicquid obmurmurat Sublicium Caput.  
Sixthly: the Hebrew Roots are not appliable to various Senses. I answer:  
Vocabula multa & apprimè Varia, Variósque induentia Sensus, ex una cadémque peti Radice, prudens & sciens, vivus vidénsque Verborum aestimator haùd ibit inficias. Praetereà: 
Vide Pamelium in vita Cypriani.  Radices id haursunt à punctis; ut quadantenùs, plen●ùs imprimis atque affa●im, deincèps pa●ciùs & moderatiùs, concisè denique fluan● & attenuatè. Taceo quòd Rabbini ●orúmque Discipuli Rabbinismum sptrantes, eadem ipsa Vocabula ex Radicibus exprimunt variis atque expromunt, & in vartos proindè distribuunt Sensus.  
last: Divine Providence is the Guide of Interpreters. I answer: Nequaquàm sanè omnium: si de Providentia loquamur infallibilitèr dirigente né Sacra Profanis commisceat. Certè: Divina Providentia quosdam certò dirigit Interpretes insignioris Notae, Notisque quibusdam qu●si Gemmulis interstinctos; de quibus certos nos fecit: & hos insupèr impigrè, pic, & ut par est, se gerentes, vereque Deum Colentium numero ascriptos. Eheu alii mnlti mul●otiès manifesto Scelere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constriguntur. Caeteraomniae, ut omni●ò aberrantia à Sco●o, & assumenta mera, seda●è rejicio.  
Let this Objecter therefore cease, tanquam Pharmacopola pauperculus inanes ostentare Copsulas, as a poor Apothecary to show with vain Ostentation vain and empty Coffers or Pots. Praeclarus est isthîc Verborum Tinnitus: Here is a famous Tinkling of Words; but the sound is empty of soundness.  
Franzius notes, that the Dog barks 
Franzius in Cau●.  vehemently and with a most angry Note, at the poor Beggar: because the Beggar's Arrant is for Crusts and Bones; which otherwise fall to the Dog, ignoble for his Envy. And he plants upon it: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Those who live by the same Trade, exercise their Trades and Abilities to the prejudice one of the other. It is much under me, to verefy, as the first and frenzie-moved Mover, this Note of wise Franzius.  
I have here, all the Matter of the Forest of Arden before me. Of the which, perhaps afterwards. I now teach you, Reader, to walk in the dark, and am no Teller of Tales.   

OBJECT. FOUR  
FOurthly: It is Objected; That I am violent in my writing. I answer: I writ against Presbyterians and Anabaptists. And I am verily believing, (and am ready to carry this Belief with me to the other World,) that if our Master were now upon Earth, he would himself cry against these, with the same Wo-denouncing words and Accents, with which he cried against the Scribes and Pharisees. The Matters in controversy, are not Adiaphorous: the meanest & most despicable thereof, having its dangerous Climax.  
Leading-Sinners and People hardened in Sin, are led, moved & fashioned with like Instruments. Iron is wrought upon, with Fire and Iron Hammers: when Wax, as of an yielding Nature, is made pliant and fashionable betwixt the soft and warm fingers. Wherefore St Paul writeth to the stiff-souled, and errour-shackeled Corinthians: What will 
1 Cor. 4. 21.  ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the Spirit of meekness? inferring secretly, that a public Rod is proportionably due to self-willed, obstinate and public Sinners.  
But, loving Reader: Vin' tu jam nunc, ut liberè detrahamus (excidit hîc mihi Nomen) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? What is the Reason that our Objecter is pained and galled beyond all mean and measure, and more than kickingripe, in the Cause of the Presbyterians: against whom he is likewise a violent Professor, Under Hatches? Expediam tibi paucis. There hath been an ambidextrous Trick on foot, these Tumbling Times. Which is: That many Families have cunningly dispersed their Ends and Interests: to the end, that, which side soever prevailed, one of the Family might stand upright, and be able to gather up, support, and cherish the rest in a languishing Condition. Now the Presbyterian Spirit (like the Natural Spirits as flowing of the Liver) runs in his Blood: Or: As the Animal Spirits have their Origin from the Brain, reside in the Nerves, and effect Motion and Sensation: So he, a cunning Animal shall I say, or Natural? extracting his Brain, and consequently Sensation and Motion, from a stiff-hearted and refractory Presbyterian, (who is, yo● must believe, non infimae Classis Vir, O the Vain and Luciferian Folly of humane Ostentation!) and being therefore an Extract of Presbytery, because he was born somewhat like to Minerva; hath for his Device a Contrary Profession.  
Reader, If I be called afterwards to unriddle these enigmatical Expressions, and to produce a certain concealed Description which I have in S●nu: you will, and you shall, and you must laugh, if you be not planè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I had rather go a wand'ring after Erra Pater in the Firmament; than to walk Genius-bound upon a most unfirm and rotten Foundation of yielding Dirt.  
If Presbyterians have been hurtful and injurous to me, and were so as Presbyterians; I may consider them sub Praeeisione Objectiuâ; and let fall the murderous Attempts and Injuries as moving towards me, and yet righteously retain the Consideration that Presbyterians were the Movers or Actors, because this Action or Motion had another chief tendency, and was primarily noxious, injurious, and offensive to God and his Church.  
And I am not altogether ignorant of the difference betwixt our loving a Friend and our loving an Enemy, and of our Obligations in both respects. Neither is the Distinction hidden from me, that our Dilection of a Friend and of an Enemy, may be considered either ex parte Proximi qui diligitur, on the part of our Neighbour who is loved, or, ex parte Rationis propter quam diligitur, on the part of the Reason for which he is loved. In the first respect, the loving of our Friend is better than the loving of our Enemy, quia est super Materiam magis debitam, because it pitcheth upon a Matter which in itself is more suitable, congruous, du●, and proper. In the second respect, the loving of our Enemy is more excellent, for two Reasons: First: because we may be moved to love our Friend, by a natural or moral Cause, as, by natural instinct, by conversation and the sight of his Manners, or by benefit: but we cannot unfeignedly love our Enemy, except for God's Cause: Secondly: because although both our Friend 
Vide D. Tho. Quaestionibus de Amicitia, in secunda parte, quae est de Actibus humanis; & Caje●anum, al●ó que Scholasticos ibidèm.  and our Enemy be loved by us for God's Cause or Sake; it is apparent, that our Love of God is greater by the which we are moved to love our Enemy, than our Love by the which we are moved to love our Friend: quia fortiòr est virius quae se extendit ad remotiora, the Power or Virtue being the stronger, which extends itself to Things that are more remote: as the heat of the Fire which burns things that are farther off, is more intense. Yet hence it falls not, that our Acts of loving our Enemy, should be more intense, than our Acts with which we love our Friend. For▪ Although the Fire be more strong which burns farthest, it nevertheless burns the things that are near, more intensely and strongly, than the like Things removed farther. In like manner: Although we need more heat and Charity to the loving of our Enemy, than we need to the loving of our Friend; yet we love our Friend more intensely, and with more heat.  
In friendly Truth: I love all Presbyterians and Anabaptists, as they are my Enemies, & as they have abstracted me from the Goods which, after St Austin, we call Bona Scabelli, the Goods of the World and Footstool: But I hate them Odio perfecto, with a perfect Hatred, as they 
Psal. 139. 22.  are God's Enemies, and as they would abstract from me Bona Throni, the Goods of Heaven and of the Throne. And, as such, I will never treat them gently, or handle them mollibus & sericis Verbis, with soft and silken Words.   

OBJECT V.  
FIftly: It is Objected: That I have obstinately set myself against learned Men, and against my own Friends. I answer: My Quarrel is not with the Learning of the Learned, nor with the Friendship of my Friends: but with the Unfriendly and Ungodly opinions of both. In Sensu diviso & separato, I most hearty honour Learning and love my Friends: But in Sensu conjuncto & composito, wherein the Learned and my Friends are presented to me, not in a separate Sense, yet as joined with Separatists, and as God's Enemies, and Complotters with the Devil (all friendly Communication with whom I ought continually to defy and abominate) against the Lord of Lords, and him that made, redeemed, sanctifies, and preserves me; and as Homines latifoli●, People having broad leaves, and little good Fruit: I consider my Friends as mine Enemies, and the Learned as illiterate.  
I am Lesson led by ●ur blessed Lord and Saviour first, and afterwards, 
S. Hieron. ep. ad Heliodorum. Vide Taci●▪ lib. 5. Hist.  by St Hierom: (little regarding that Cornelius Tacitus fetches up his throat and stomach against Christians in this, as in many other misrepresented Respects.) Licèt parvulus ex Collo pendeat Nepos, it is the Religious advice of St Hierom to Heliodor; licèt ubera quibus te nutricrat Mater ●stendat, licèt in limine Pater jaceat, per calcatum perge Patrem, siccis Oculis ad Vexillum Crucis evola: Although thy little Nephew shall hang to thee by thy neck, though thy Mother shall show thee the naked Breasts wherewith she suckled thee: though thy good old Father should lie before thee on the threshold: turn off thy Nephew, and let him fall; turn from thy Mother and her deceitful Breasts; tread upon thy Father, and fly presently with dry and cheerful Eyes to the royal Standard of the Cross.  
Here therefore: I Richard Carpenter, Sacerdos Dei Summi, but a 
Psal. 51. 1. Psal. 119. 176.  miserable Sinner, (Miserere mei Deus, etc.) and a sinful wanderer; (Erravi sicut O vis quae per●it; &c) yea, in very deed and truth, the very last and least of all the Servants of God: denounce Bellum Sanctum, Scholasticum, & Literarium, a Holy, Scholastical, and Literary War; against all pragmatical Jesuits, engendered, like imperfect Animals betwixt violent Heat and Corruption; against all factious Geneva-Jesuits; &, as drawn irresistibly to it by their own tedious Provocations, against Anabaptists; yea, against all their levitical Defenders and Flatterers whomsoever. Vivat Christus Deus & Homo, Christique Veritas vivat: Let Christ, God and Man, and his Truth, live for over. Reader: Pause, before you censure. Divinus Amor, saith Dionysius the Areopagite, ecstasim 
S. Diony s. divin. Nom. cap. 4.  facit.  
In the Interval of Time before actual Opposition, let the Opponent whosoever he shall be, be entreated as a Candidate of Learning, that he will not aggravate the grievous Evil of Antichristian Falsehood, by offering to the Press and a Million of  Eyes, seu majora Vero, seu minora; nor appear in public, 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 mere Stop-Gap in great penury of Matter; by others, quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like an efficacious Bugbear, 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 designs, 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 Evil Thoughts of me, before he well knows me.  
But although I bind up the Anabaptists into this heterodox Fardel: yet, the great Aim which my soul hath in this World, being to be a perfect Lover and Advancer of Truth: I engage myself 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 harmless 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 embraced and hugged with much joyful 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 behalf of injured Truth; how ungrateful 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 think me to know and than some would have me to know) I faithfully believe, 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 certain, that Signior Con died many years ago, 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 Darkness: deceiving and being deceived. Pure Religion and Undefiled, is this: To believe the Truth of God rightly, to speak it boldly, to build upon this Truth and not upon Lies, and to perform religiously towards God and Man, well-ordered Love and Obedience.  
The Vindication of one Truth, extrudes another. Let the World take special notice, that I bleed in my Spirit, and am ashamed of my Company; when I hear 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 Protestant's the more conveniently to his Religion: That the Common Prayer is Mass in English: That the Papists believe 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 Venial Sins: That no Professors of Chastity, live Chastely amongst them: That all of that Religion, are bloodily minded: and the like: And conclude, that these Fancy-framed Pictures of Doctrines, falling foul with my clear Knowledge; may pass along with other A●ntick Shapes. It is infallibly certain: That there are amongst Papists, Corruptions both of Doctrine and Manners: But he that objects Falsehood against them, will, after a while, manifest his own Falsehood, and set them free: yea, will appear in the number of the greatest Tyrants; as tyrannising over Souls and weak understandings. The Man is not well settled in his Wits, who blames my reviewing and revising the Secrets of Truth; when I am a sad Spectator of Soul-Alterations, evil in their Terminations; and a mournful Hearer of Blasphemies; every day, on every side.  
Perhaps, Reader, it is troublesome to you, that I writ myself 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 falls, it is pointed towards me, sharp, hurtful, and Caltrap-like. Whereas Heretics and scismatics give me Names at their pleasure; I presume that I may have leave to Name myself by what Name or Title soever, I shall desire to be modestly called. It matters not, how I am called by myself; but what in myself I am. Indeed: The chief 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 Theatrical 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 fear 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 Original is wonderfully big, and breeding: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Text. Graec.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In which Versicle there are five Negatives: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And the Original meaning affirms: I will never, never leave thee; I will never, never, never forsake thee. Then If the Presbyterian comes to by't, if the Anabaptist; God will never, never leave me: If the wicked Liver comes, if Jesuit, if Devil; God will never, never, never forsake me.   

OBJECT. VI  

LAstly: It is objected: That I understand not all the Languages which I use. I answer: I submissly confess, that I do 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 College, know that I was there a Babbler in Greek and Latin. I have picked up some odd Ends of Languages abroad. And I have taken some pains in the Oriental Languages. In the which notwithstanding I go not the rough and tedious way of the Character; but apply myself to Books, wherein the proper Characters of these Languages are alienated and Italianated. St Hierom is my Cynosura. Hence I writ only towards the place of the right Hand: and altogether use European Characters, not Asian, not African; not Hebrew Characters, not Samaritan, not Syriac, not Arabic; nor indeed  Characters, although this Language be written from the left to the right, as Greek, Latin, and the other Languages of Europe. And whereas a Divine should carry in a full Body, all Knowledges before him, and chief, 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 compass his Design, except he shall now and then ●e succinct, and gain Ground by a compendiary way, and by over-stepping the less needful Things.  
Reader: You have in this Washing of the Anabaptist, the sound Truth both of Divinity and Language. And whosoever shall Object Schism or Heresy to this Book, having first well-poised the Words against which the Objection shall aculeos exercre: is himself Ignorant, or Malicious. Be not like the Women affected with the Pica, or the Malacia: who neglect solid and proper Meats▪ and greedily devour and seek after Coals, Ashes, Meal, Tar, Chalk, Raw-flesh, Man's-Flesh, and the like disagreeing stuff.  
As we grow in years, we do, or should increase in divine Knowledge. In the Generation of Natural 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 she 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 Propertie●; Which are; that the Child is risible, and that he is disciplinable: then come on the common Accidents, being quantity, colour, figure, etc. Which are Posteriores Ordine Naturae: Then the Child increases, and Ejects superfluous Things which are obstacles to perfect Operation: Lastly: He moves more forcibly towards the End of his Creation.  
So in Spiritual 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 Original steers 
Text. Grae●.  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 Tears; 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 Wickedness or Malice; and be joined to Jesus (the Saviour of washed and Baptised 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 defiance 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 plentiful nourishment; and this as a Sweat from inward Heat and Motion, bringing blood 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 Covetousness; 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 Slothfulness 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 thoroughly 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 Lab●is, invite an able Answerer. Let him come. He shall be entertained as he behaves himself It is easy to catch or snarl at, yea to misinterpret and corrupt witsi a cursed Gloss, any Doing or Saying: as the Jews and old Heathens misinterpreted the Say and Do even of our Lord and Saviour Christ: infinitely beneath whom, we all are. My former Wander and Aberrations from the Truth, I humbly confess and hearty 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 hearty and humbly desire the Prayers of all good and growing Christians, and such as are familiar with God in Prayer; on the behalf of an intimous and inward Friend, who came with me from the Church of Rome, and hath been (I am certain) 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 Tears, 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 Tears. 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 nomine, quòd inter ultima (prima non est animus revoluere) minimè ultimum, imò quidem primum sit atque optimum. Enimverò, Socii, cum Sinceritatibus promissioribus, & egregiis virtutum Crepitaculis, cúmque adipatâ Religione, Res haùd agitur nostra: Neque profectò (quicquid intemperantiùs effuderint Homines paralyticae Linguae Labiique multiplicis ac subiti) sub Hast â positi sumus. Commodè potiùs anhelamus ad Libertatem Liberis accommodam, & Morum Amorúmque nunc anxiè quaerimus Delicias inter Arma, si non ex Condicto, ex Praedicto certè, Misericordiâ suavissimâ condîtas & sociali. Quin itaque Cogitationum reprimanous immoderatos Impetus; obsignatisque fidelissimè Labiis, aures arrigamus, advertamus animos. Nullibi jàm nunc securiùs inveniemus Depositum. De catenato dein Event●● videant hi prorsùs imperuti, penitusque occlusi Rebus ingloriis, & impuris Fraterculorum praecipuè, minorúmque Gentium, in misellos & exanctoratos Fratres Conjurationibus Animi, qui in sacro Fermento jam sunt, ut Negotium ferveat sacrosanctum, & caelestis continnò Panis emergat.     

Authoris ad Classes quasdam lunaticas, vel in Orbe lunatico; vel certè Chimaericas & Utopianas, Epistola: scripta Anno 1648.  
VIri Classiarii: Ad Classiculam Vestram in me multa nequitèr, & immodestè, nec non gloriosè Crocitantem, & quasi Classicantem, legavi denuo Nunciolum hunc Epistolarem.  
De viro verè pio ut Oeconomo singularitèr Classico & prudente, 
Psal. 111. 5. apud Interp. vulg. Sept.  regalitèr canit Chorista Regius idémque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Disponet sermones suos in Judicio. Accinunt Septuginta: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Ubi per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, uti pensiculatiùs 
Euthym. in hunc locum.  insinuat Euthymius, non sermones modo, verùm etiam Rationes modique Administrationis, quibus Res nostras dissimili velut effictas Metallo, Mosaico Opere componimus; in una quasi Classe, cautiùs ad Exemplum reponuntur.  
O Faces Ministrorum gregariae; pro Facibus egregiis, vobis Pace vestrâ praeferam, ex veteri Testamento Abrahamun; de quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno Veronensis: 
Zeno Veron. Serm. 3.  Cujus Conversatio Lex fuit: Ex novo quidem, Dominum Jesum; quem Nazianzenus ille Theologus ait, iccirco 
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 31.  loca subindè mu●âsse, ut nimirùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Ad Politiam Beatorum, Christiani per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accedunt, ut 
S. Dionys. lib. 2. Eccl. Hi●r. c. 2.  loquitur Areopagita; nempè quam servare piè, sanctè pollicebantur Catechumeni,  
Ni fallor; Haùd patientèr tolerabitis, à Feris Hominem discerpi, Reverà; Minimè tolerantèr patiemini; Presbyterculos amputari, quamvis inutilia prorsùs in Sambuceto sarmenta. Sed interea nobis estis authores quodammopo Classici, praecipitisque publicitùs & cumulatè per stomachum, ut quisque Fratris Honori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 petulantèr ac mulicbritèr objiciat. O Effatum, O Mandatum Propylaeo Delphico non indignum! O Christianam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉!  
Emissarii vestri saepiculè Vocantur ab Hesychio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ego 
Hesych in Bib. Aristot. l. 3. Eibicor.  planè dicerem cum Aristotele, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: quippè qui Naturae Genio praefracti cùm sint, & obstipâ Mente atque Obstreperâ; tamen formident ex Officinâ Veritatis elimata proferre Verba & librata: tandémque quasi re confectâ (cùm conficta,) redeant è Pulvere Victores Olympiaco.  
Nae vos Aedilitatem nequaquam versatis ac voluitis animo, cùm Populares Vestri primulùm depeculentur Ecclesias; demumque per Epitasin turbulentam, in Ecclesiasticos Viros virus expuant & exonerent; evomantque in Chartulas, ut pestem Lectoribus inhalent.  
Neronis operâ conflagravit aliquando Septicollis Urbs quaquaversùs incendio: quo tempore cùm infiniti propemodùm Homines, Bonis 
Sutt. c. 3. 8  exuti penitùs everlique, velut ad incitas redigerentur; ipse Tyrannus è Turri Maecenatianâ prospectans, & raptus incensúsque flammae, ut aiebat, bellâ pulchritudine, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ilii, Scenico velatus Habitu decantavit.  
Inflexo poplite, saluere vos jubeo, Maecenates, iidémque facilè principes & palmares; praesertim considentes pro Tribunali.  
Hem: Dicite, quid in Aere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & Plant-Animal in Terra, quid? quis, ex Homero Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? quis itidem, indiès ambulans in Petauro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉?  
Audi, Viator candide. Quicquid suae peringeniosè praetexant Inscitiae Ministri Classici ex Arabico Nido scilicèt in Praestegâ Classiariâ: in eosdem ipsos (Homines Veteratorios,) eorúmque Mores Vernaculos, apprimè quadrant haec omnia.  
O Fulmen Dionysianum! 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
S. Dionys. Arcop. de divin. Nom. p. 2. ca●. 13.   
Jam tandem Classicum velut ab alto canimus.  
Anglia, Campus est; in quo, uno eodémque ferè temporis momentillo, ut argutè Pindarus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Pind. Olymp. od. 7. in fine.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Imo, ut elegantèr Aristides (cùm lachrymas excuteret 
Aristid. in Orat. ad Antoninum.  Antonino) de collapsâ Terrae motu Smyrnâ, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Induit se nuperadmodùm in Florem Hyacinthum; nempè qui facie Caeli mutatâ, mutatur facie; serena sive sit, sive nubila. Isidorum 
Isid. lib. 16. cap. 9  percontamini.  
Decumbit Anglia▪ Advocate (precor, O, precor) undique Medicos: non eos qui magno cum sudore Nugas agunt ingentes, quósque alloquitur Jobus, (cùm vos etiam latentèr indigitet,) 
Job 13. 4. ex Sept.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Vocamini planiùs in Linguâ primigeniâ, Medici Elil; quae vox appositè redditur Fraus, Mendacium, Inanitas, Idolum.  
Deducunt enim plerumque Doctores, Elil ab al, quod negationem pertinacem strenuámque, hoc est, Non, imprimis ac directè significat. Eóque Res cadit; Ut innuat Spirirus s●ist jusmodi Empiricos instar Nihili esse: quemadmodum & S. Paulus Idolu, 
1 Cor. 8. 4.  Nihil esse proclamat.  
Symmacho estis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: id est, ficti, sed infecti ac impoliti Medici, & ad Amussim Asini, Asinique CLassici.  
De Caelo properè Veniat Astraea, falcato potentiùs invecta Curru, praecinénsque Taratantara: & fumosas has Imagunculas Medicorum, de Subselliis deturbet dejiciátque. Praecoferalis non diù desiderabitur.  
Ist haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Jam, si lubet, Res nostras, collatis ut cunque Signis, discutiamus paululùm.  
Primo: Ineruditè, perinscitè, ac illiberalitèr inquiritis in Ordines. Profecto: quantuluscunqúe sum, Obsequentior Honori modo sum vestro, quàm ut arrogantèr in publico blaterem, Inquisitionem hanc (ulteriorem Hispanicâ,) evidens Indicium esse Animi necdum Ignorantiae Crassae faecibus eliquati.  
Haùd peragito Controversias, jamdudùm à Classicis accisas. Nolim Quaestionem, tot jam annis consopitā, confectámque Senio, exurgere nuc in pedes, ac repubescere; vos ut divexet. Nec velim sanè vestros Ordines (ulcerosos illos & squalidos, multorumque manibus allevatos, id est, Ordines Elil) in meorum locum surrogari. Deindè: Castilia perperè numeratis, ac tortuosa Negotia de Rebus cum Regio Milite consutis. Vigilantium Somnia. Sed: Quid haec ad Candorem Nominis offuscandum paritèr minuendûmque?  
Tandem: Picturas eleganti formâ, clamitatis defossas, effossásque. Nihil uspiàm profecto luctuosius: nimirùm si vivae spirantésque defossae fuerint. Denique: Producuntur in meridianam lucem lucu●enta Testimonia, quibus illuminatiùs evincitur, me neutiquàm Officiosè liberis operam dare; (Nam à Juramentis, Carnisque Ludibriis abhorruit sempèr Animus: habeóque nunc exploratissimum, esse apud Vos in Udo Mendacium.) Ergo: Si, vobis arbitris, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuissē ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: hinc nihil tenebrarum aut labeculae Retiarius offudisset. Ovestros Oculos emissitios!  
En ut fidelis Eclogarius, Accusationis Apices ones adipales sigillatim attigi; è quorum semilunari Cumulo Tumuloque Nomen meum hostis ille pharetratus veluti sagittis appetiit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vel, ut Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
Psal. 10. 2. ex Sept.  in tenebris Scoticis.  
Longū esset hujus Fallaciae modo telam (Exitii vestri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) retexere, & omnia Conscribere Solis Radio.  
Prov. 28. 6. Ubi Septuaginta transferunt, 
Sept.  Ambulans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Latinus dat 
Edit. vulg.  Interpres, in Simplicitate. Nec Injuria; cùm in idem prorsus cadant aliquando Simplicitas & Veritas. Versus ita Vertitur: Melior est Pauper Ambulans in Simplicitate suâ, quàm Dives in pravis itineribus. Quippini? Etenim simplicitas, Innocentia, perfectio unum volunt aliquotiès idémque.  
Psal. 25. 1. Quoniam ego in Innocentia 
Lect. vulg.  mea ingressus sum. Pro Innocentia, subministrat, licèt altum alibi Spirans, Aquila Simplicitatem. Itaque Sanctus immutat Hieronymus; 
Aquila. S. Hieron.  Quia ego in Simplicitate meâ ambulavi: C●jetanus; in Perfectione meâ.  
Quinimo & Gen. 17. 1. Ambula coram me, & esto perfectus. Simplicitèr 
Text. Hebr.  & Candidè Fons Hebraeus effundit; Et esto Simplex.  
Nazianzenus hanc Morum Simplicitatem 
S Greg. Naz. Orat. 19  niveam, suis illustrius depingit coloribus: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  
In hilce persto.  
Vanherum in imis atque infimis habeo, quamvis in Classe vestrâ, ut Idiotarum utar Idiotismo, Magistellù Sanctissimum: Scilicèt qui non solùm Pecunias mutuo comparatas & corrasas importunissimè, sed & Utensilia (Vir bonus) persanctè deflexit in melius, ut nimirùm famelicus enutriret Pellearium.  
Tookhooro, Homini glirio, (nempè de Somno certanti cum gliribus,) jamjámque rhoncho Suorum aures everberanti, molestus non ero.  
Nighellum, filium Gad, (ludibundu Animal, & Scenae Delicias;) ad pedes comicè in Salutationibus accidentem, ac tanquam Cuniculos agentem cum nocturnâ Facie, resaluto comitèr.  
In uno subticuit Adversarius. Haudquaquàm in faciem audactèr mihi dixit, me clàm, aliquot ante annos, in vestra confugisse Latibula & subterraneas Voragines; stomach óque sic ebuliisse protinùs, ut veram Dignitatem, & omne Peculium Sapientiae projecerim.  
Proindè non sum Frontis adeo inverecundae, tam funesti Oris, aut Fidei subleslae; ut his Malorum fragoribus fulgetrisque me penitùs eximā: quasi manus auxiliatrices impuris eorum Causis promovendis neutiquàm porrexerim.  
D●us Adonai, miserere.  
(Nam perillustres Hebraeorum 
Paul. Burgens. 1. part. Scrutin.  Theologi, serio literis tradiderunt; Dei Justitiam inferri per Elohim, Misericordiam per Adonai.  
S. Fulgentius Oraculum Isaiae perpendens, 
Is. 55. 7. S. Fulgen. ep. 7. ad Venant.  de Deo miseris accurrente discurrentis: Multus est ad ignoscendum: magnus est in exponendo. In hoc multo, inquit, nihil deest, in quo est Omnipotens Misericordia, & Omnipotentia Misericors. Tanta est autem Benignitas Omnipotentiae, & Omnipotentia Benignitatis in Deo, ut nihil sit quod nolit, aut non possit relaxare converso.  
Huic Sanctus adglutinetur Ambrose, 
Psal. 114. 5.  illustrans illud ab Psalmo 114. Misericors Dominus, & justus, & Deus noster miseretur. Bis Misericordiam posuit, semel Justitiam. In 
S. Ambr. de Obitu T●xodos.  medio Justitia est, gemino Septo inclusa Misericordiae.  
Isthoc o quantum lenior malagmamate! In Misericordiam divinam, Laurum & Oleam quatientem, figo equidèm oculos.  
Valete, Clas●es, cum inani vestro Antesignano Multitono (sonante cum Naso:) qui, ni Frons in aes occalluis●et, non, o●septus nigro Satellite, Vanheri Mendacium Sanctitatis Elogio splendido praenitidè texisset; intereà Vultu quoque in Dolum ficto.  
Instructus ad Palaestram hîc inter miros Voluptatis Opifices, Artifices, Architectos; abeo peregrè militatum, luto eluto, rerúmque pertaesus vestrarum. Nec tamen abreptus improvisae subitaeque Tempestatis quasi turbine,  
Enimveró: Ex Ethicae Mammil lis à puero suxi: Eum qui virtutes meditatur, meditatè agere, atque ex Electione; non temerè, non motu Praecipiti: atque adeó laudabilem Finem honestúmque omninó sibi proponere.  
Vósque Sectae Calvinisticae, sectae, dissectae, subsectae, resectaeque, & etiamnum sectiles in infinitum, (o & quot in unaquaque in unum coeunt Monstra!) vobis unà precor sanam Mentem, & Elleboro perpurgata Capita.  
Prov. 14. 34. Justitia elevat Gentem: miseros autem facit populos peccatum. Quod apud Septuaginta, versum obtinet 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In Hebraicâ Veritate, Verbis aliud sonantibus haec ultima vestiuntur; Sensus idem subest. Quocirca regerit Arias Montanus; Misericordia populorum 
Arias. Mont.  Peccatum: hoc est: Scelus ante omnia miserationem flagitat, cùm sit miserorum miserrimum, efficiátque miserrimos. Symmachus ex Origine; 
Sym. Chald. Paraph.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chaldaeus offert in Paraphrasi; Opprobrium Populi Peccatum.  
Cujus in Umbraculis temporariis, vos, uti Faunos Satyrósque, prae quàm oportet jocularitèr lusitantes, palpitantésque juvenilitèr, lubens ouánsque jám nunc expansis Velis, adflante Aurâ, praetereo; próque plumis habeo variis pictisque, delatis ex Orbe novo, ut in Orbem novum subindè vos referat rapiátque Turbo novus omnis Anglicanus.  1 Tim. 1. 17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
FINIS.