N00149:178
A discourse concerning the subject of baptism wherein the present controversies, that are agitated…A discourse concerning the subject of baptisme wherein the present controversies, that are agitated…
A discourse concerning the subject of baptism wherein the present controversies, that are agitated in the New English churches are from Scripture and reason modestly enquired into / by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Sixteen lines of quotations]A discourse concerning the subject of baptisme wherein the present controversies, that are agitated in the New English churches are from Scripture and reason modestly enquired into / by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Sixteen lines of quotations]
printed by Samuel Green, 1675
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.
CHAP. XIV.
Humane Testimony no demonstration in this Case, Promiscuous Administration of Baptism is Popish and Anti-Christian. Sundry Protestant writers have testified against it. The Conclusion.
HUmane Testimony no demonstration in this Case, Promiscuous Administration of Baptisme is Popish and Anti-Christian. Sundry Protestant writers have testified against it. The Conclusion.
As for humane Testimony in this Case, as it is true, that it doth Conclude nothing in matters of this nature, where we must to the Law, and to the (divine) Testimony, and if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no true Light in them, so we shall not greatly insist thereon. The Truth is, that Protestants generally have been extremely lox and large, in their Principles and practices as to the Subject of Baptism, which I will also confess, ⟨p. 73⟩hath in part come to pass, by reason that the Church hath been in Babylon, and hath not yet fully shaken off the dust thereof, Let not the Anabaptist Triumph without a Cause in this Concession. It was before acknowledged, that overmuch Rigidity as to the Subject of Baptism is Anti-Christianism. For that Error prevailed when Anti-Christ first began to rise. Let it now likewise be owned as a Truth, that when the Anti-Christian Apostasy was come to its height, an Error on the other hand prevailed, even a Catholic promiscuous baptizing of all Sorts, nay a compelling of men to receive Baptism against their wills. Bellarmine