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…

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 ^[x]and others of the Popish Faction, have taught that Baptism doth sanctify the unclean, and therefore that it is not profaned, though it be Administered to unclean persons. Histories tell us what wild work the men of that Religion have made of it, when they have pretended to Christianize the poor miserable Indians in some places of America, It is reported that in the Kingdom of Mexico ^[y]sundry of their Preachers did in a few years time baptize each one of them above one hundred thousand. It is to be found amongst the Records of Charles the fifth, that ^[z]an old Priest had baptized seven hundred thousand and another three hundred thousand, and certain others very great multitudes, and yet their own writers Oviedo, Benzo, &c. do confess that scarce one of them willingly became a Christian, and that they remembered not any thing of the Christian Religion, only that they had been baptized, we know what was done in England after that ^[a]Austin the Monk arrived there, and how it was usual in those Popish times either by force or by