A short instruction for to arm all good Christian people against the pestiferous errors…A short instruction for to arme all good Christian people agaynst the pestiferous errours…

These fantastical men, allege yet further for them, the use and practise of the Apostles. It is written in the second of the Acts, ⟨image 10⟩that the four thousand men of Jerusalem, after that they had heard saint Peter preach being touched in their hearts, did axe counsel what they ought to do: and that saint Peter answered them: repent you, and believe the Gospel. Furthermore, when the Eunuchus required to be baptised. Phillip answered him, that he might be baptised if so be that he believed with his whole heart. And out of this they conclude that the Apostles required that men should have faith and repentance, before they were baptised. I grant it to be true of such men which must be received a new into the communion of the Christian church: but touching those children which are of the church before they issue out of their mother bellies, I say there is an other reason. For their fathers & ancestors received the promise, upon which their Baptism is founded. It was therefore necessary, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, which were out of the christian church, and which consented unto the death of our Lord, should have true repentance, before they should have testimony through baptism, that the Lord Jesus did accept them into the number of his faithful. It was necessary that the Eunuchus should come unto the flock of Christ by true faith, before he should receive the sign thereof. But seeing this promise is made unto all faithful men: I am the God of thy offspring: the children which descend of them▪ have an other privilege: which is, that God doeth knowledge ⟨image 10⟩them for his, for their fathers sakes. And lest it should appear, that I do feign this as a dream, out of mine own head: you may see that God hath showed the ensample in Isaac. It is true as we have said that Abraham was instructed in the doctrine, of faith and of repentance, before he received the sign of Circumcision. But after that God had received him into his church, he ordained that his offspring should be partakers of that benefit. And so Isaac and all his other successors were Circumcised in their infancy. So now we have God for our author of this difference: upon the which dependeth all the difficulty of this question.

These phantasticall men, aledge yet further for them, the vse and practise of the Apostles. It is written in the secōd of the Actes,