N00442:72
Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which…
Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which are most exposed unto assaults, from the modern teachers of the misled Quakers. : In a letter, which impartially discovers the manifold heresies and blasphemies, and the strong delusions of even the most refined Quakerism; and thereupon demonstrates the truth of those principles and assertions, which are most opposite thereunto. : With just reflections upon the extreme ignorance and wickedness, of George Keith, who is the seducer that now most ravines upon the churches in this wilderness. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; A character of the ring-leaders among the Quakers. ; [Four lines from Timothy]Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which are most exposed unto assaults, from the modern teachers of the misled Quakers. : In a letter, which impartially discovers the manifold haeresies and blasphemies, and the strong delusions of even the most refined Quakerism; and thereupon demonstrates the truth of those principles and assertions, which are most opposite thereunto. : With just reflections upon the extream ignorance and wickedness, of George Keith, who is the seducer that now most ravines upon the churches in this wilderness. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; A character of the ring-leaders among the Quakers. ; [Four lines from Timothy]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1691
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.
But this is not the thing which I intended. It […] this; He had said, The Baptizing of Infants, was not the practice of the Church, during the first Century, Upon this we rejoined, Origen and Cyprian tell us, that the ⟨p. 54⟩Apostles gave Order for the Baptizing of Infants; & Augustine tells us, The Baptism of Infants had been universally practised in the Church ever since the Apostles. And we thought that these had been as credible Reports about the First Century, as we could have when we had not many Writings of those that lived in it; except we could prove, which Keith would like, that the Mystical Dionysius was of that Century. But Keith, who makes a mighty Lerry with Quotations from the Ancients, resuming of this point, makes that Foolish Return, That Origen, Cyprian, and Augustin, be not Scripture; pray who said, they were? and he falsely insinuates as if we practised Infant Baptism upon their Authority; upon which he adds, Ye can give no Evidence in Church-History, that Infant Baptism, was practised until Cyprian's Time, past two hundred years from Christ's Resurrection. An Assertion to which there needs no Rejoinder, but what Calvin made upon them that uttered the like, In eo Foedissime Mentiuntur; siquidem nullus est Scriptor tam Vetustus, qui non ejus Originem ad Apostolorum Saeculum pro certo referat. You see, No less a man than Calvin, has called Keith, A most filthy Liar, for so speaking; and from Calvin let him take it. The poor man doubtless thought, that our young Libraries in America, had not yet got any of the Fathers in them; but he is mistaken. We can tell him, that Origen flourished a little before Cyprian; and ⟨p. 55⟩he says in his fourteenth Sermon on Luke, Little Ones [Parvuli] are Baptised for the Remission of Sins; with much more to that purpose. And in his 18th. Sermon on Leviticus, he says, Secundum Ecclesiae obsernantiam, etiam parvulis Baptismum dari; it had been a custom and usage in the Church of God. Nor is it any other than a Cavil, to object, That these and more such passages were the Interpolations of Ruffinus afterwards. But because Keith may tell us, That Origen died not very long before Cyprian, and he is not, such a Computer of Times, but that you may allow him a handful of Minutes to prevent or excuse the mistakes of his Chronology; I shall ask him, what Age Tertullian lived in? Whether he lived not in the Century before Cyprian?