A14461:1128
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wiseThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take great pleasure in the reading thereof. Translated out of French into English, by John Brooke of AsheThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take greate pleasure in the reading thereoff. Translated out of French into English, by Iohn Brooke of Ashe
London: printed by Thomas East, 1579
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Wherefore there is no doubt, but that those which do shut up the kingdom of heaven unto the infants for want and lack of the sign, do unto them great wrong, and do belly the promises of God, which by them have pronounced them to be his, before y• they were borne, saying: that he is our God and the God of our children. And therefore those which do make that outward baptism 1so necessary unto salvation, what other thing do they make of it but a witchcraft and Magical enchantments, attributing unto the material & corruptible elements that which appertaineth unto the only virtue of God, & whereto serveth it? Wherefore we may well know the error and ignorance of the scholastical doctors, which have judged that baptism 2necessary unto salvation. For which cause they have also permitted and established, that the women might and ought to baptise in time of necessity. ⟨p. 229⟩But the ancient Patriarchs an holy Prophets were not in that superstition: and were not ignorant of the virtue and efficacy of gods promise and alliance, nor of the reasons by me alleged: or otherwise the Israelites should have greatly failed, and chiefly Moses, which was the Prophet and conductor of the people of God, to 3have dwelled at the least, the space of forty years, sithens the departing from Egypt, until the entering into the land of Canaan, without circumcising y• children. Yet it is to be believed, that during that time, many dyed, without being circumcised: and although none had dyed, did it not seem rightly, that Moses, and all the other Israelites did against the ordinance of god: sith that they executed it not at the day appointed?
Wherfore there is no doubt, but that those which do shut vp the kingdome of heauen vnto the infants for want and lack of the signe, do vnto them great wrong, and do béely the promises of God, which by them haue pronounced them to be his, before y• they were borne, saying: that he is our God and the God of our children. And therfore those which do make that outward baptisme