Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the ancient…Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the antient…

You are not to devise new Signs or Symbols of Spiritual Mysteries, of which God speaks nothing in his Word, nor ever instituted to such Ends. I affirm he has appointed no Rite or Ordinance in the Gospel to represent the sprinkling or pouring forth of the holy Spirit. The Papists have (you know) seven Sacraments, and they tell us of the Use and End of them, and how wonderfully significant they are, and yet all the Use and Signification of them were the Contrivances of their own wicked Hearts: And I must tell you that they prove what they do and say for their Sacraments as well as you do. As to what you speak of pouring or sprinkling, take what Tho. Aquinas most excellently hath said on this account. It belongs to the Signifier (says he) to determine what Sign is to be used for the Signification: But God it is, who by things sensible, signifies spiritual things in the Sacrament.

You are not to devise new Signs or Symbols of Spiritual Mysteries, of which God speaks nothing in his VVord, nor ever instituted to such Ends. I affirm he has appointed no Rite or Ordinance in the Gospel to represent the sprinkling or pouring forth of the holy Spirit. The Papists have (you know) seven Sacraments, and they tell us of the Use and End of them, and how wonderfully significant they are, and yet all the Use and Signification of them were the Contrivances of their own wicked Hearts: And I must tell you that they prove what they do and say for their Sacraments as well as you do. As to what you speak of pouring or sprinkling, take what Tho. Aquinas most excellently hath said on this account. It belongs to the Signifier (says he) to determine what Sign is to be used for the Signification: But God it is, who by things sensible, signifies spiritual things in the Sacrament.

Christ hath ordained Baptism to be a Sign, Symbol, or lively Representation of his own Death, Burial and Resurrection, as I have proved and confirmed by a Cloud of Witnesses. Will God endure or suffer Men (think you) to invent out of their own Brains, new Signs and Symbols of Divine Gospel-Mysteries, and then father them upon him, and call them his Ordinances? Nay, more, be so bold as to say, these are more useful, and answer better the End of God, than those which he himself instituted? For thus you and other Pedo-baptists speak of Sprinkling, viz. 'tis not only lawful, but more expedient than Dipping. And hereby you seem to teach God Wisdom, or to magnify yours above his. Be astonished, O Heavens! Be thou horribly amazed, O Earth! Were ever any Men thus bold before? First, You contrive a new Rite, and new Significations of it, which God never appointed to represent such things, and then say, 'tis more expedient than Christ's Ordinance of dipping, which was instituted by him for other Ends and Significations; whereas the whole Body of all learned Men and Christians, witness to and testify the contrary.