The Dippers Dipped, Preface – Quotation
The Preface to the Reader.
IN nova fert animus mutatas discere formas Corpora. I am to tel thee (Christian Reader) this New yeare of new changes never heard of in former Ages, namely, of Haras turned nito Aras, Stables into Temples, Stalls into Quires, Shopboards into Communion Tables, Tubs into Pulpits, Aprons into Linnen Ephods, and Mechanicks of the lowest ranke into Priests of the high places. Thou shalt heare in this Treatise not of a line drawne after Protogenes, nor of an Iliad after Homer, but of a Metamorphosis after Ovid: not made by Poeticall license, but by Propheticall liberty: not of men into beasts,…tus 1. 12. but of S. Pauls foreign, evill beasts, shall I say, into men? nay into men of God, and Prophets of the New Law.
If ever Saint Ieroms Complaint were in season,p. ad Paulin. …uod medico…m est promit…nt medici, …actant fab…lla fabri: sola …cripturarum…rs est quam si…i passimo…es …ndicant, …ane ga…rula nus, …an delia sen…x, hane …ophista …bo…us, ha…c universi praesununt, do…ent …riusquam discunt. it is now: Physitians keep within the bounds of their Science; Smiths meddle with the Hammer and Anvill; the Linnen Draper deales not in Woollen cloth, nor the Woollen Draper in Linnen; the Carpenter takes not the Ioyners work out of his hand, nor the Ioyner the Carpenters; the Shoomaker goes not beyond his Last, nor the Tailor beyond his Measure; onelyonly the trade of expounding Scripture is a Mysterie which every Artizan arrogateth to himselfe. The Physitian here wil be prescribing receipts, the Lawyer will be demurring upon dubia Evangelica, and every handy-crafts man will b… handling the pure Word of God with impure and unwashed hands. This the pratling huswife, this the old dotard, this the wrangling sophister, in a word, this men of a… professions, and men of no prof…ssion, take upon them to have skill in, readily teaching that they never learned, and abundantly pouring out that which was never infused into them.
The Apostle comparing the dignity of the ministerial function with the indignity and insufficiencie of most mens gifts for it, cryes out, Who is sufficient for these things? Bern. in Cant. I'antae coa…tatis sunt pe… quos nobis fluenca coelestia cinanant, ut antea effundere quam infundi velint, laqui quam audi…e paratio…es, prompti doc…re quod no… didicerunt. 2 Cor. 2. 16. Bellar. l. 2. de verb. D… i▪ c 15. Quod obsecro nunc diceret Basilius, … Pharmacapolas, sutures, caeteros que opifiees etiam a pu…p…ts sacra eloquia tractare apud Lutheranos & Calvinistas videret?But if we consider mens opinions of their owne gifts, and their practice at this day, we may say, Who is not sufficient for these things? Not the meanest Artizan, not the illiteratest Day-labour…r, but holds himselfe sufficient to be a Master-builder in Christs Church. When the Jesuite heretofore cast this in our dish, we alwayes flung it back into his face, with a confident denyall, answering him in the words of the Arch-angel, Iude 9. The Lord rebuke thee, thou false tongue. But now those whose Religion, if they have any, is a negative one, and stands in a meere opposition to Popery, notwithstanding herein strengthen the Papists hands against us, and put us to that miserable Apologie of the Poet,
—Pudet haec opprobria nobis,
Et dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.
It is a thousand pitties, that not in the dawning of the day from the night of Popery, and first glimmering of the light of Reformation, as in Luthers first standing up for the Truth; but now in the noone tide of the Gospel, such owles and bats should fly abroad every where,See Sleid. Com. l. 5. and flutter in our Churches, and sile upon our Fonts, Pulpits, and Commnnion Tables, and not either be caught, and confined to their nests in barnes, or rotten trees, or put in Cages fit for such night-birds. I wonder that our doores, posts, and walls sweat not, upon which such Notes as these have been of late affixed, On such a day such a Brewers Clerk Exerciseth, Such a Taylor Expoundeth, Such a Waterman Teacheth. If we haveaPers. pro… Sat. 1. Corvo… Poetas & Po… tridas picas. Crow-Poets, and Pye-Poetesses; if Turners turn Bezaliels, and Aholiabs to mend the polished works of the Temple; if Cooks, with Demosthenes, (deservedly reproved bybTheod. his li. 4. c. 17. foreign, & S. Basil) instead of mincing of their meat fall upon dividing of the Word; if Taylors leap up from the Shop-board to the Pulpit, and patch up Sermons out of stolne shreds; if not onelyonly of the lowest of the people, as in Ieroboams time, Priests are consecrated to the most high God; but if like as Novatus consecrated himselfe a Bishop, so these ordaine themselves Priests and Deacons; if they enter not …nto the Church, but break into it; if they take not holy Orders, but snatch them to themselves: doe we marvaile to see such confusion in the Church as there is? As Christ sometimes spake, Si lumen tenebrae, quantae tenebrae? If the light that is in thee be darknesse, Mat. 6. 23.how great is that darknesse? So may we truly say, If in Order it selfe there be Confusion, how great is the confusion? What are all the Prophets become mad, 2 Pet. 2. 16.that the asses mouth must needs be opened by miracle to reprove them? Though some would be content to have it thought so, and we must not refuse to weare our masters cognizance, who was said by some of his ki…red to be besides himselfe: Mar. 3. 21.yet we must tell them the case is far different; for there the Asse saw the Angel in his way,Nun. 16. 23. but here the Angels see the Asses in their places; there the Asse spake once, because he was twice struck, but here the Asses speak often, because they are not so much as once struck for their presumption. Now if any man desires to know from whence this Clergie of Laicks, come, that he may not think that these Russet Rabbies, and Mechanick Enthusiasts, and profou…d Watermen, and Sublime Coachmen, and Illuminated Tradesmen of almost all sorts are dropt from the clouds: Let him peruse the Catalogues of Heretiques written by Alfonsus à Castro, Pontanus, Slussenburgius, and Ambrosius de Rusconibus, together with the Historie of Sleiden, Bullenger, and Gabriel Abres, and others, and he shall find that they all proceeded Doctors out of the Schoole of one Stock the *Johan. Gast. de exord. Anab. …. 35. Anav ap…ist…e su…unt …ioi omnes prae…dicandi officium, at que de ali…s qu… legitime a Christiani; Ecclesits …an…iorati sunt …ciscitantur Quis te …legit cum isti ne a sua quidem …aeco-Eccl …ia …nittantur. See the Hist. of …he Anab. prin…ed at London, …641.Ana…. Of whom we may say, as Irenaeus sometime spake of the Heretike Ebion, the father of the Ebionites, His name in the Hebrew signifieth silly, or simple and such God wot was he: So we may say, the name of the father of the Anabaptists signifieth in English a senslesse piece of wood, or block, and a very blockhead was he: yet out of this block were cut those chips that kindled such a fire in Germany, Holsatia, and Suevia, that could not be fully quenched, no not with the blood of 150000. of them killed in war, or put to death in severall places by the Magistrates.
The fire in the reignes of Queene Elizabeth, Et Joh. Gast l. …e exord. Ana. p. 247. Ego vi…i Nicol. Stock …ui primus in Germ. videtu… barsisse vene…um illud imiorum dogmaum. Hunc au…ierunt Monearius & Phi…rus quibus elut emissari… usus totam …erturbavi… …ermaniam. …ont. cata. haer. …ommota sedione rustica per…erman. Alsat. Sueviam ad 50000. fi…e…nt trucidaeti.and King Iames, and our gracious Soveraigne, till now, was covered in England under the ashes; or if it brake out at any time, by the care of the Ecclesiastical and Civill Magistrates it was soone put out. But of late, since the unhappy distractions which our sinnes have brought upon us, the Temporall sword being other wayes imployed, and the Spirituall locked up …ast in the scabberd, this Sect, among others, hath so far presumed upon the patience of the State, that it hath held weekly Conventicles, re-baptized hundreds of men and women together in the twilight in Rivelets, and some armes of the Thames, and elsewhere, dipping them over head and eares. It hath printed divers Pamphlets in defence of their Heresie, yea and challenged some of our Preachers to disputation. Now although my bent hath been alwayes hitherto against the most dangerous enemie of our Church and State, the Jesuite, to extinguish such balls of wild-fire as they have cast in the bosome of our Church, yet seeing this strange fire kindled in the neighbouring parishes, and many Nadabs & Abinu's offering it on Gods Altar, I thought it my duty to cast the waters of Siloam upon it, to extinguish it.
Thine in the Lord Iesus, D. F. Prisoner in Peter-house. Calend. Ian. 1645.
A TABLE of the especiall Contents.
I. A True Relation of a Disputation in Southwark, with foure Anabaptists. page 1.
II. Aaditions to the former Disputation: In which, to cleere Texts of Scripture before alledged, are adjoyned divers Arguments drawn from the testimony of the Fathers, and consent of the Church, and reasons for Childrens Baptisme. 18
III. A Tractate of the names and severall sorts of Anabaptists. 23
IV. Of the Errours of the Anabaptists both common to other Sects, and those which are peculiarly th…ir owne. 28
V. A particular confutation of six of their erronerus tenets:
1. Concerning Dipping, and the pretended necessity thereof.
2. Concerning the baptizing of Children, p. 39. To which is added, A censure of Master Cornwell his Booke, intituled, The Vindication of the Commission of King Jesus, p. 64. As also of A. R. his Tractate, intituled, The vanity of childish Baptisme. 69
3. Concerning Set-formes of Prayer. 84
4. Concerning the d…stinction of the Clergie and Laitie. 129
5. Concerning taking oathes before the Magistrate, especially the Oath Ex Officio. 157
6. Concerning the office of the Civill Magistrate. 178
VI. Remarkable Stories of the Anabaptists; wherein it is proved experimentally,
1. That they are an illiterate and sottish Sect. 199
2. That they are a lying and a blasphemous Sect, falsely pretending to divine Visions and Revelations. 204
3. That they are an impure and carnall Sect. 207
4. That they are a cruell and bloody Sect. 210
5. That they are a profane and sacrilegious Sect. 212
VII. The fearfull judgements of God inflicted upon the ring-leaders of that Sect. 217
VIII. Animadversions upon the Anabaptists Confession, printed at London, Anno Dom. 1644. 219
IX. The conclusion of all. 227
Errata, sic corrige.
Page 1. line 15. read end. p. 4. l. 8. r. a visible Church. p. 23. l. 24. r. reiteration. p. 36. l. penult. r. 1. Cor. 14. 19. p. 41. l. 22. r. sexes. p. 44. l. penult. r. and they are no where prohibited. p. 48. l. 3. r. And. p. 51. l. 15. r. or a legitimate wife. p. 53. l. 33. r. from. p. 57. l. 27. r. in the principles of. p. 67. in marg. ad lin. 19. r. Valentinian. p. 70. l. 9. r. that they. & lin. 25. r. rue it by. p. 89. l. 17 r. propounded. p. 120. l. 24. r, Prayer himselfe. p. 125. lin. 18 r. hebetetur, p. 185. lin. 6. dele to. page 189. l. 8. r. Scepter. p. 195. l. 4. r. abjiciunt. p 198. l. 13. r. the man. p. 207. l. 14. r instance. p. 211. l. 21. r. reliquo, p. 215. l. 31. r. habet. p. 216. l. 17. r. stagello. p 218. l. ult. r. as well as an Arrian. p. 219. in marg. l. 5. r. bini. p. 225. l. 35. r. evident. p. 226. l. 37. dele of.
Greg. Naz. Theol. Orat. 40.
foreign.
What wilt thou say of Infants that neither experimentally know the grace of Baptisme, nor the losse by want thereof? Shall we baptize them? Yes, by all meanes, if there be any danger; For it were better that they should be sanctified, though they be not sensible thereof, then to goe out of this world without the seal and badge of their initiation into Christianity.