The Dippers Dipped, Frontispiece – Dedication 1
The Discription of the severall … OF ANABAPTISTS With th…re manner of Rebaptizing
Cyprian de Habitu Virg: Sordidat i…ta Lavatia non abluit n…c emundat membra Sed commaculat.
W. M. sculpsit.
foreign. The Dippers dipt. OR, THE ANABAPTISTS DVCK'D AND PLVNG'D Over Head and Eares, at a Disputation in Southwark.
TOGETHER WITH A large and full DISCOURSE of
Their
1. Originall.
2. Severall sorts.
3. Peculiar Errours.
4. High Attempts against the State.
5. Capitall punishments: with an Application to these times.
By DANIEL FEATLEY, D. D.
Válens & Gratianus ad Florianum Vicarium Asiae.
Antistitem qui sanctitatem baptismatis illicita usurpatione geminaverit, sacerdotio indignum esse censemus. Eorum enim damnamus errorem qui Apostolorum praecepta calcantes Christiani nominis sacramenta sortitos alio rursus baptismate non purificant, sed incestant sacramenti nomine polluentes.
LONDON, Printed for Nicholas Bourne, at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange: And Richard Royston, in Ivie-Lane. 1645.
TO THE MOST NOBLE LORDS, WITH THE HONORABLE KNIGHTS, CITIZENS and BURGESSES Now Assembled in PARLIAMENT.
THe bright burning Taper of Geneva, Cal. praef. ad Reg. Gal. Est hic divini verb… quasi quidam genius, ut nun quam emerga quieto & dorm… ente Satana.as warme in his Devotions, as cleare and lightsome in his Disputes, truly observeth, that the pure doctrine of the Gospel never appeares as it were above the water, but Satans watchful eye is upon it, and he casts an envious gloate at it, and hath his Tobiases and Sanballats either to jeere or fright the sincere Professors out of the powerfull preaching thereof. In which regard it is, that as the Jewes in their edifying the materiall Temple, so you in the repairing of the Spirituall,Neh. 4. 17. Wi…h one of his hands he wrought in the work, with the other he held a weapon, have a weapon in the one hand, and a toole in the other; and you have hitherto more imployed the Sword then the Mattock or Spade, by reason of the great opposition on all hands: and after you shall (through Gods blessing) have laid the roofe on this sacred building, and gratefull posterity put a garland of glory upon your heads for it, yet still there will be use of an arming sword, not of War, but of Justice, to cut off Superstition and Idolatry on the one side, and Profanenesse and Sacriledge on the other: Heretiques with one edge, and Schismatiques with the other. For as in the beginning of the Reformation, so now in the endeavoured perfection thereof, the mortall enemie of our immortall soules sets on work all sorts of Heretiques and Schismatiques to hinder, disturbe, and (if it were possible) destroy this excellent work. The Heretiques he employeth to pervert the Catholique doctrine, the Schismatiques to subvert the Apostolike discipline of the Church: the Heretiques endeavour to shake the foundations, the Schismatiques to make breaches in the walls: the Heretiques to rot the maine timber, the Schismatiques to pull in sunder the rafters of this sacred structure.
Now of all Heretiques and Schismatiques the Anabaptist in three regards ought to be most carefully looked unto, and severely punished, if not utterly exterminated and banished out of the Church and Kingdome.
First, In regard of their affinity with many other damnable Heretiques, both Ancient and Later; for they are allyed unto, and may claime kindred with, 1. The Millenarians in the first Age, proclaiming Christs Temporal Kingdome upon earth for a thousand yeares, before the day of Judgment. 2. With the Marcionites in the second Age, who denyed the substance of Christs humane body made of a woman. Gal. 4. 4.3. The Catharists or Novatians in the third Age, who denyed Repentance and restitution to the Church thereupon, to those that fell in time of persecution. 4. With the Donatists in the fourth Age, who re-baptized all those that had received Baptisme before in the Catholique Church. Lastly, with a rabble of Heretiques in the latter Ages, namely, the Apostolici, the Adamites, the Enthusiasts, the Psycopannychists, the Polygamists, the Iesuits, the Arminians, and the Brownists; of all which and their Errours, I have set downe a particular Catalogue, Chap. 2. As it was said of Caius Caesar, In uno Caesare multi Marii; and as Cicero saith of the Familie of the Bruti, that it had in it multorum insitam at que illuminatam virtutem: so in one Anabaptist you have many Heretiques, and in this one Sect as it were one stock, many erroneous and schismaticall positions, and practices ingraffed, and as it were inoculated.
Secondly, in regard of their audacious attempts upon Church and State, and their insolent acts committed in the face of the Sun, and in the eye of the high Court of Parliament. Whereas other depravers of the Doctrine, or disturbers of the Peace of the Church, whether Papists, Socinians, or Arminians, who in the later times have braved it and set up their top and top-gallant, yet since Argus with his hundred eyes hath pryed into every corner of this Kingdome, and severall roomes in the great Ship of the Church, have bestowed themselves under the hatches, and layne close in obscurity: these with the forwardest of the Brownists strut in the upper deck, and discover themselves with open face, foreign, and upbraid the State with their merit in hazarding their estate and persons in this present War, and boast with swelling words of vanity that they expect somewhat more then a toleration.See The compassionate Samaritane, p. 75, 76. that the Parl. will stop all proceedings against them, and for the future provide that as well particular and private congregations as publike, may have publike protection; that all Statures against the Separatists be reviewed, and repealed; that the Presse may be free for any man that writes nothing scandalous or dangerous to the State; that this Parliament prove themselves loving Fathers to all sorts of good men, bearing respect unto all, and so inviting an equall assistance and affection from all. They preach, and print, and practise their Hereticall impieties openly; they hold their Conventicles weekly in our chiefe Cities, and Suburbs thereof, and there prophesie by turnes; and (that I may use the phrase of Tertullian) aedificantur in ruinam, they build one another in the faith of their Sect, to the ruine of their soules; they flock in great multitudes to their Iordans, and both Sexes enter into the River, and are dipt after their manner with a kind of spell containing the heads of their erroneous tenets, and their engaging themselves in their schismaticall Covenants, and (if I may so speak) combination of separation. And as they defile our Rivers with their impure washings, and our Pulpits with their false prophecies and phanaticall enthusiasmes, so the Presses sweat and groane under the load of their blasphemies. For they print not onelyonly Anabaptisme, from whence they take their name; but many other most damnable doctrines, tending to carnall liberty, Familisme, and a medley and hodg-podge of all Religions. Witnesse the Book printed 1644.Pref. p. … called The Bloodie Tenet, which the Author affirmeth he wrote in Milke; and if he did so, he hath put much Rats bane into it, as namely, That it is the will and command of God, that since the comming of his Sonne the Lord Iesus, a permission of the most Paganish, Iewish, Turkish, or Antichristian Consciences and Worships be granted to all men in all Nations and Countryes; That Civill States with their Officers of Iustice are not Governours or Defenders of the Spirituall and Christian state and worship; That the doctrine of Persecution in case of Conscience (maintained by Master Calvin, Beza, Cotton, and the Ministers of the New English Churches) is guilty of all the blood of the soules crying for vengeance under the Altar: Witnesse a Tractate of Divorce, in which the bonds of marriage are let loose to inordinate lust, and putting away wives for many other causes besides that which our Saviour only approveth, namely, in case of Adultery. Witnesse a Pamphlet newly come forth, intituled, Mans Mortality, in which the soule is cast into an Endymion sleep, from the houre of death to the day of Judgement. Witnesse a bold Libell offered to hundreds, and to some at the doore of the house of Commons, called The Vindication of the Royall Commission of King Iesus, wherein the brazen fac'd Author blusheth not to brand all the Reformed Churches, and the whole Christian world at this day, which christen their children, & sign them with the seale of the Covenant, with the odious name of an Antichristian faction.
Thirdly, In regard of the peculiar malignity this heresie hath to Magistracie; other heresies are stricken by Authority, this strikes at Authority it selfe, undermineth the powers that are ordained of God, and endeavoureth to wrest the sword out of the Magistrates hand, to whom God hath given it for the cutting off of all heresie, and impiety; and if this Sect prevaile, we shall have no Monarchie in the State, nor Hierarchie in the Church, but an Anarchie in both. It grieveth a Religious eye to see other vermine corrupting other Flowers of Paradise, as our sweet Violets, and fragrant Roses, and fairest Lillies, and various Iulyflowers, and blushing Emmenies, and beautifull Tulips: but most of all to see this heresie, like a venemous serpent, lying at the root of the Crown-Imperiall, which if it be not killed, will so poyson it, that the leaves will fall off by degrees, and the stalke it selfe shortly wither. We read in the Prophecie of Zacharie of two staves, the staffe of beauty, and the staffe of bonds, which supported the State and Church of Israel. By the staffe of beauty or comlinesse, the Lawes of every Kingdome and Common-wealth may be understood, which beare up the State, and preserve decent order and comlinesse among men; By the staffe of bonds the covenants and oathes whereby the members are firmly tyed to their head, and one to another. If the staffe of beauty be broken, there will be a down-fall of all good order and government: if the staffe of bonds be broken, all things will be at a loose end. Me thinks I see these two staves shining in the golden Maces borne before you; the staffe of beauty in that borne before the House of Commons, in which the Legislative power and the beautifull order of the severall Estates of this Kingdome are conspicuous; the staffe of bonds in that which is carryed before the House of Peers, in which the power of Iudicature, even to bonds and death, principally resideth. Now because these heretiques alone professedly teach the exautorating all Christian Magistrates,… Bloody …net, p. 2. and in expresse termes deny both the Legislative power in the Commons to propound or enact Lawes in matter of Religion, and all coercive power in the house of Peeres, or any other, to inflict civill punishment for the violation of them, and so as much as in them lyeth, they endeavour to break both these staves of the Prophet, they deserve the smartest stroak from both.…dec. 1. l. 10. …irius cum …ates Sam…n galeas …os que insig… armorum tratus vi…t, multa de …enti hosti…vana magis …e quam ef…i ad even… disseruit: …nim cri…vulnera fa-… & per pi… & aurata … transire anum pi… & cando…tanicarum …tem que a…ubi res geratur, …tari.
With these Heretiques I enter into Lists in the ensuing Tractate, and without any flourish of Rhetorick at all fall upon them with Logicall and Theologicall weapons, weilded after a Scholasticall manner; for it is most true which Papirius Cursor sometimes spake in the head of his Troops, advancing on in their march against the Armie of the Samnites, more glorious in shew then formidable, as consisting of men more sumptuously then strongly armed, encouraging his souldiers after this manner: Feare not this Pageant rather then Armie; their large feathers and imbroydered scarfes give no wounds; their rich belts, and painted targets, and thin gilt breast-plates will not endure the push of the Roman pike. It is not beauty, and gorgeous apparell, but strength, and valour, and Armour of proof makes a Warriour. And therefore that brave Commander of the Trojans, Hector, deservedly checkt his brother Paris, a Paragon of beauty, and an excellent Carpet Knight, in the flower of his age,…er. Il. for undertaking a single combat with Menclaus, saying,
foreign,
foreign,
Pickt phrases and witty conceits and ornaments of Rhetorick doe well in Panegyricks, & Paraeneticks, but they are of little or no use in Polemicks, in which thus Ennius informs us, Vi geritur res: Spernitur orator bonus, horridu' miles amatur.
But why doe I trouble my selfe with these new upstart Sectaries? There is a learned and reverend Assembly of Divines attending on you, who will take care nequid Ecclesia detrimenti capiat. Who prest me for this service? My Answer hereunto is as ready as true, That though I were not pressed, yet I was challenged to it. And if I had declined this Combat, as others did, the Adversary would have growne most insolent,Theod. hist. l. Gast. de Ana… l. 1. Quoties … ve publice, s… privatim congrederemur cu… Anabaptistis, semper vict… abibat verit… quae a nobis stat. and all the City and Borough rung of their vaunting brags, and confidence in their cause, and our diffidence in ours; therefore I gave them a meeting at the time and place appointed. And though I were but one, and they many, yet they were not able to withstand foreign, the irresistible and all-conquering force of truth: neither did they after that send any more challenges. And I had then pursued the combat with my pen, had not the more necessary functions of my Pastorall chargeSee Romarue… hindered me. But now being discharged against my will,Solin. pol. his… c. 9. Fons est i… Sardin. qui con…tra venenum S… lifugae (est eni… animantis ej… morsus mortifer) a summo omnium opific in remedium conditus est; u… oritur malum ibi quo que invenitur prompt… remedium. of preaching at my Cures, and having lately published an Answer to a Popish Challenge: I could not think of any fitter employment for the present, then to perfect the notes taken long since in that Disputation, and to supply whatsoever might seeme lacking to the fuller confutation of those erroneous tenets, & to commend both to the publike view, that the Antidote might be there ready, where the infection first brake out. As Solinus writeth, that in Sardinia where there is a venemous Serpent called Solifuga, (whose biting is present death) there is also at hand a Fountaine, in which they who wash themselves after they are bit, are presently cured. This venemous Serpent (verè Solifuga) flying from, and shunning the light of Gods Word, is the Anabaptist, who in these later times first shewed his shining head, and speckled skin, and thrust out his sting neere the place of my residence, for more then twenty yeeres: And if these Disputations and Writings of mine may prove like the Waters of the Fountaine in Sardinia, …etron. Arbit. …nde datum est …ulnus, contigit …de salus.soveraigne against the sting and teeth of this Serpent, I shall account my paines well spent; and whilst I endeavour to free others from spirituall thraldome, forget the tediousnesse of my corporall, and possesse my soule in patience, till God shall send deliverance; to whose gracious direction, and powerfull protection, I commend you, beseeching God to crowne your sincere intentions, and religious endeavours, for the Reformation of Church and State, with such successe, that this your meeting may be like to that in the 25. yeare of Edw. 3. which is known to posterity by the name of Benedictum Parliamentum, the blessed Parliament.
Yours in the Lord Iesus, DAN: FEATLEY. From Prison in the Lo: Peters house in Aldersgate-street, Ian. 10. 1644.