More Proofs of Infants Church Membership and Right to Baptism, Chapter 1
CHAP. I. The frightful Aſpect of his Reply.
§. 1. MY Anſwer to Mr. Tombes and Mr. Danvers being written about the ſame time as my Epiſtle to Mr. Wills his book, hath ſince then been detained in the Printers hand, whoſe delay hath allowed me the ſight of Mr. Danvers Reply to Mr. Wills, and the opportunity of animadverting on it, before mine is come abroad. And upon my moſt impartial conſideration it reneweth the grief of my heart to think of theſe evils which it ſets before me.
§. 2. 1. That the ſouls of poor Chriſtians ſhould be under the Temptations of ſuch writings and teaching as here we find: Where ſuch untruths in matter of fact are ſtill juſtified with ſuch a face of confidence, and divulged as for God, and for the ſouls of men, that moſt ignorant perſons may be tempted to think that Modeſty and Charity require them to believe, that they are real truths, it being a harſh unmanly thing to judge that ſuch a perſon can poſſibly be ſo hardened, as to ſtand ſo boldly to all theſe things, which have ſuch publick hiſtorical evidence, if they were all downright falſhoods.
And it is a hard task for a writer to be put to anſwer a Chriſtian and a Gentleman as Mr. Danvers doth Mr. Wills, Repl. pag. 120. [Know that hence you have a further diſcovery of the great unfaithfulneſs and want of conſcience in the Author, for daring thus to abuſe the world with a Cheat, and that which he knoweth to be a meer forgery of his own] And pag. 122. [Let it be judged whether he hath not injuriouſly belied Oſiander, belied Cluniacenſis, belied Peter Bruis, belied the truth, which by this forgery he would cover and hide; abuſed the world, belied and abuſed me—But much more fear his own conſcience by this piece of folly and falſhood.] To be thus at [Thou lieſt] and [Thou lieſt] is an unſavoury work; Yea in ſo few lines to give the Lie five times at leaſt. But for an ignorant Reader to believe what this Author hath done till he needs muſt, is yet far harder. Though we ſay, He that will ſwear, will lie, and therefore we hardly believe a ſwearer; yet if a man with many hundred bloody oaths ſhould aſſert many particulars of publick cogniſance, we are ready to think it inhumane to ſuſpect that the man is ſo inhumane as thus to ſwear if ſome of them were not true. Alas for the poor Church of Chriſt, that muſt have ſuch ſore temptations! How ſhall they be withſtood!
§. 3. 2. And how ſad is it that a Chriſtian man profeſſing not only Truth and Godlineſs, but ſo much of theſe as to be above Communion with ſuch as we, ſhould ever degenerate into ſuch a thing as his preſent writing doth diſcover! O what need have we to lay to heart that of Paul, Rom. 11. be not high-minded but fear? and to learn over and over, Jam. 3. and Chriſt's words to the Sons of Thunder, ye know not what manner of ſpirit ye are of?
§. 4. And alas, that ever the bitter voluminous Reproaches of the zeal of the preſent age, ſhould have ſuch a ſcandal or ſtumbling block laid in their way, to harden them in the juſtification of their reproaches! as if our Zeal were the Cauſe or Cover of ſuch heinous ſins: Woe to the world becauſe of offences, and woe to them by whom they come!
§. 5. 4. But what a tremendous warning is this againſt the ſpirit of unwarrantable ſeparation, or true Schiſm, when the ſame perſon ſhall venture upon all that is here written by him, who yet taketh our Infant Baptiſm for a meer Nullity, and the Chriſtian world that hath no other to be uncapable of the Church-Communion of ſuch as he? Me-think this is a Pillar of Salt. I well remember that one of the means of keeping my ancient Flock in Concord, was the terror of theſe horrid opinions and wayes which the two or three that deſerted us, fell into.