2. But what Authority have you to affirm, Gospel-Baptism was but the continuance of a Jewish Custom, or was a Legal Rite, or rather indeed a human Tradition? for 'tis evident the Jews were not required, or commanded of God to baptize their Proselytes, or others; for Circumcision was the only Rite by which Proselytes (who were Males) were added to the Jewish Church, as we find God commanded Abraham. And if Baptism had been so frequently practised amongst the Jews, as you assert, wherefore did the Pharisees say to John, Why dost thou baptize, if thou art not that Christ, nor Elijah? John 1. 25. Moreover, Baptism is directly called a Principle of the Doctrine of Christ, Heb. 6. 1, 2. which Doctrine our Saviour saith he received from his Father. If it be a Principle of the Doctrine of Christ, it follows undeniably, he instituted it, and gave it forth. Furthermore, if Baptism was practised all along among the Jews, I argue, Either they practised it as a Mosaical Rite, or else as a Tradition of their own: not, say I, as a Mosaical Rite, because Moses never commanded them so to do; for he speaks nothing of it, and yet declared all things God commanded him; and did every thing according to the Pattern showed him in the Mount. And if it was a human Jewish Tradition, what is become of one of the great Sacraments of the New Testament? Must it be looked upon from henceforth to be nothing else than the continuance of a Jewish Tradition taken out of their fabulous and erroneous Talmud? What kind of poisonous Stuff is this you trouble the World with? What tho the Jews, who had made the Commandments of God void through their Traditions, did practise some such thing; Must you affirm Gospel-Baptism in its Rise and Original sprung from their Custom? And because they baptized Proselytes both Men, Women and Children, must Christians do so too? Sure the Custom of the Romish Church in baptizing of Infants, as a human Tradition, is every way of as good ⟨p. 3⟩Authority to warrant us so to do, as the Custom of the unbelieving Jews. But pray take what a Learned Pedo-Baptist, and a Son of the Church of England, hath said in answer to this vain Conceit; 'tis Sir Norton Knatchbull, in his Animadversiones in lib. Novi Testamenti, pag. 313. A• cum videam summi judicii viros in his temporibus ex Rabbinis fundamenta petere veritatis, &c.
2. But what Authority have you to affirm, Gospel-Baptism was but the continuance of a Jewish Custom, or was a Legal Rite, or rather indeed a human Tradition? for 'tis evident the Jews were not required, or commanded of God to baptize their Proselytes, or others; for Circumcision was the only Rite by which Proselytes (who were Males) were added to the Jewish Church, as we find God commanded Abraham. And if Baptism had been so frequently practised amongst the Jews, as you assert, wherefore did the Pharisees say to John, Why dost thou baptize, if thou art not that Christ, nor Elias? John 1. 25. Moreover, Baptism is directly called a Principle of the Doctrine of Christ, Heb. 6. 1, 2. which Doctrine our Saviour saith he received from his Father. If it be a Principle of the Doctrine of Christ, it follows undeniably, he instituted it, and gave it forth. Furthermore, if Baptism was practised all along among the Jews, I argue, Either they practised it as a Mosaical Rite, or else as a Tradition of their own: not, say I, as a Mosaical Rite, because Moses never commanded them so to do; for he speaks nothing of it, and yet declared all things God commanded him; and did every thing according to the Pattern shewed him in the Mount. And if it was a human Jewish Tradition, what is become of one of the great Sacraments of the New Testament? Must it be look'd upon from henceforth to be nothing else than the continuance of a Jewish Tradition taken out of their fabulous and erronious Talmud? What kind of poisonous Stuff is this you trouble the World with? What tho the Jews, who had made the Commandments of God void through their Traditions, did practise some such thing; Must you affirm Gospel-Baptism in its Rise and Original sprung from their Custom? And because they baptized Proselytes both Men, Women and Children, must Christians do so too? Sure the Custom of the Romish Church in baptizing of Infants, as a human Tradition, is every way of as good ⟨p. 3⟩Authority to warrant us so to do, as the Custom of the unbelieving Jews. But pray take what a Learned Pedo-Baptist, and a Son of the Church of England, hath said in answer to this vain Conceit; 'tis Sir Norton Knatchbull, in his Animadversiones in lib. Novi Testamenti, pag. 313. A• cum videam summi judicii viros in his temporibus ex Rabbinis fundamenta petere veritatis, &c.
