More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second…

His proof against Bruis is Peter Cluniacensis, of whom I have said enough to Mr. Tombs which I will not recite.

His proof against Bruis is Peter Cluniacensis, of whom I have said enough to Mr. Tombes which I will not recite.

§. 5. It is true that some Papists do rail at the Waldenses with abominable calumnies, as guilty of the most odious heresies, [denying the resurrection, and the salvation of Infants, asserting the common use of women, and abundance such:] Insomuch that it is become a hard question whether really there were any such people, or whether all were slanders: and among other things they charge them with denying Infant-baptism. And the Authors go so much on fame, and show so much falsehood, that many think that all are fictions. But Bishop Usher (de succes. Eccl.) and some others bring many testimonies to prove that ⟨p. 383⟩in that age there were abundance of Manichees that came into Lombardy, and from thence came into the country of the Waldenses; and that for their sakes the Papists accused the Waldenses of all these villainies and heresies with Anabaptism, as if they had been all of a mind. And though I confess that the horrid lies of abundance of Papists of Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius and other such, and some experiments in this age, have given men occasion to question whether all were not mere forgeries, and that nothing is to be believed that they said of those times; yet I am ready to think that there were some such persons as they describe that were against the Resurrection, and for common uncleanness, and denied Infants salvation and baptism, even such Manichees and Arians as aforesaid: Not that I think it any whit strange that fame among such worldly persecutors should belie others as much as this comes to; but because of the historical reports of such Manichees recited by Usher ubi sup. pag. 225, 226, &c. cap. 8. & Vignier Hist. Eccles. an. 1023. And that they falsely took the Waldenses to have been of the Manichees mind, as living among them, is all the cloak that any reasonable charity can afford to those old ones that falsely accused them: And to the later slanderers (Coussordus, Gretser, &c.) this will be no cloak, much less to Mr. Danvers if in his zeal for his Sect and way, he will own the slanders of blinded Papists, when he crieth them down himself, and hath had time and means to know their calumniation.