Infants Baptism Disproved and Believers Baptism Proved, Title page – To the reader
INFANTS-BAPTISM Diſproved: AND Believers Baptiſm proved. OR, An ANSWER To ſeveral Arguments propounded in a paper by Mr. Alexander Kellie, Miniſter at Giles Criple-Gate London, and ſent to Mr. Jeremiah Ives of the ſaid PARISH. And is now publiſhed for the general information of all, but particularly for the ſatifaction of many of the Inhabitants of the ſaid PARISH, who have deſired it. Wherein The ARGUMENTS for Infant-Baptiſm are examined and diſproved.
By the ſaid Jeremiah Ives.
Prov. 18.17.
He that is firſt in his own cauſe ſeemeth juſt, but his neighbour comes and ſearcheth him.
Job 6.25.
How forcible are right words? but what do your arguings reprove?
Prov. 23.23.
Buy the truth, but ſell it not.
Luke 7.30.
But the Phariſees and Lawyers rejected the counſel of God againſt themſelves, not being baptized of him.
Printed at London for Richard Moone, and are to be ſold at the ſeven Stars in Paul's Church-yard neer the great North door, 1655.
To the READER.
Reader,
IF thoſe men of Berea, Act. 17.11. were counted more noble then they of Theſſalonica, becauſe they would take nothing upon truſt that the Apoſtles ſaid, but ſearched the Scripture dayly to ſee if what They ſaid were ſo; How ignoble ſhould we be in this Age, (wherein men are much more divided in matters of Religion, then they were in the Apostles times, and wherein our Teachers themſelves are contradictious one to another, in many of the great concernments of Religion) if we ſhould receive any thing from them without diligent ſearch into the Word of God, to ſee if it be true or no? ſith Solomon makes this a diſtinguiſhing Character between a wiſe Man and a Fool, Prov. 14.15. The ſimple believeth every word, but the wiſe man looks well to his goings. Neither let a man think that his looking back to the ancient Fathers, and his ſearching of them, and reading them, will much help in the midſt of theſe Religious diſorders, becauſe they were in many things as much contradictory to the Truth and one another, as any in theſe times, as for inſtance: Hierome and Chriſoſtome deny Original-ſin in the ſence it is now maintained. Auguſtine taught, That the Lord's Supper ſhould be given to Infants, in his fifth Book of Hpognoſticks. Juſtin Martyr againſt Triphon, ſaith, God at firſt gave the Sun to be adored. Origen held the Salvation of all both wicked men and devils. The Biſhops of the Eaſt and Weſt Churches oppoſed one another in the Doctrine of the Deity of Chriſt, in the time of Conſtantius Son to Conſtatinus Magius. And long after, Socrates, Lib. 1. Chap. 29. and Chriſoſtome, ſaid, That Saint Paul ſpake againſt Truth and Reaſon in allowing ſecond Marriages. See Moulin's Defence, p. 137, 138. By all this you may ſee that we have great cauſe to ſearch the Scripture, and not to follow the Fathers, or any, but wherein they followed Chriſt. And we may likewiſe underſtand, that that which the World now calls, The Chriſtian Religion, is like the Weather-beaten Bark at Athens, that had been ſo often mended and riged, that it was hard to ſay, whether it retained any of its old materials, onelyonly it retained its old Name. The like may be ſaid of Religion, as it is commonly profeſs'd in the world by the generality of men, that it hath been ſo often mended with the new ſtate of …ens own inventions that if we look into the Word of God, and compare the ſtate of the Chriſtian Religion in the Apoſtles times, to the common Religion that is profeſs'd now in the Nation, and we ſhall finde nothing but the name of it; the name of Believing, the name of Churches, the name of Baptiſm, the name of Miniſters of the Goſpel, the name of the Lord's Supper, the name of Chriſtians, &c. How mightily then doth it concern us all, to ſearch the Word of God which is a Light to us in this dark Day, and is able to lead us through all the Miſts of the Myſtery of Iniquity, and to ſet our fee… in a fair path, where we may walk without ſtumbling?
But if you ſhall ſay, Have not our learned Men undertaken to reform Religion by the Word of God, and cannot they as ſoon hit the right way through theſe many wayes, as we?
I anſwer, Tis one thing, what they can do; and another thing, what they will do: conſidering, how much the moſt part of them are taken with the love of this preſent World, and the pride of life, which ſtops them from laying aſide any error that they have preached & practiſed, leſt it ſhould reflect either upon their profit on the one hand, or their credit and learning on the other, as ſome of the Biſhops ſaid in the Council of Trent, That the School men were like Aſtronomers, which did feigh Eccentricks, and Epicycles to ſave the Phenomina, though they knew there were no ſuch thing. In like manner, as Sir Francis Bacon well obſerves in his Eſſaies of Superſtition, p. 97, 98. The School-men (ſaith he) have framed a number of ſubtil and intricate Axioms and Theorems to ſave the practiſe of the Church. I ſhall therefore intreat the Reader, to ſee if the Profit of this World, and the Credit of the Learned, doth not engage them to do ſo in the preſent controverſie of Infants. Baptiſm, and whether it doth not ſavour more of the ſpirit of the forenamed Biſhops in the Council of Trent, then of the ſelf-denying ſpirit that was Chriſt and his Apoſtles. For this end, that thou maiſt try all things, and hold faſt the beſt, I have put forth that enſuing Controverſie, which at firſt was in private at Mr. Kellie's own Houſe, and afterward, according to a promiſe then made, he did ſend me in a Paper, (not onelyonly the Arguments that he laid down then, but alſo ſome others that he had not then time to propoſe) all which are particularly examined, and the Scriptures relating to them, ſeriouſly weighed and conſidered: and therefore, if by what is herein written, there be any diſcovery of the Truth on either ſide, receive it and embrace it with readineſs of minde; and with the like readineſs let thy heart be lifed to give God the Glory: which is all that is deſired from him that is ready to ſerve thee in the Goſpel of Chriſt,
Jer. Ives. From my Houſe in Red-Croſs. Street, at the corner of the New. Street, this 16 of Auguſt, 1655.