Anabaptism, the true fountaine of Independency, Brownisme, [double brace] Antinomy, Familisme, and the most of the other errours, which for the time doe trouble the Church of England, unsealed. Also the questions of pædobaptisme and dipping handled from Scripture. In a second part of the Disswasive from the errors of the time. / By Robert Baillie minister at Glasgow.

THE CONTENTS OF the Treatise.

The PREFACE.

• SLothfulnesse is fatall when unseasonable.
• Men are most carelesse when their dangers be grea∣test.
• The present danger of the Protestant Churches: of France, Holland, of Germany, of Zuitserland, of Britain, by the Malignants, by the Sectaries.
• Our dangers from the Malignants are not yet past.
• The unexcusable obstinacy of the Episcopall Divines.
• Its blindnesse and dementation to misprize the danger from France.
• Antichrist is possibly neare to swallow down the whole Reformed Churches.
• A floud of Errors and Heresies is like to overwhelm the Church of England.
• A liberty for all Errors is the great aim of some.
• They spoil the Parliament of all power to reform or meddle with Religion.
• Who now are the persecutors. How great is the monster of Liberti∣nism.
• The Sectaries having done with the Church, proceed to the over∣throw of the State.
• The Parliament must be abolished.

• The best remedy of our dangers from the Malignants, is the return of the King to his Parliament in just tearms.
• The zealous diligence of Ministers might do much to cure the evill of our errors.
• The sedulous activity of the Sectaries doth shame our slothfulnesse.
• The caveats of zeal.
• Presbyterians are far from opposing the least degree of true piety.
• Charity and compassion are to be extended to our enemies.
• Presbyterians were never persecutors.
• The dignity and power of the Magistrate must be carefully preserved.
• The scope of the Treatise.

CAP. I. The Originall and Progresse of the Anabaptists.

• BErengarius no Anabaptist. The Albigenses knew not Anabap∣tisme. p. 1.
• Neither Melancthō nor Carolostadius did favour Antipaedobaptism. p. 2
• The true originall of the Anabaptists. The malignity of their spirit. Their singular hypocrisie. p. 3
• The preposterous pity and charity of good men towards them was the cause of their strength.
• Their wicked doctrines and practises. Luther did justly stir up the Magistrate against them. p. 5
• Great numbers of them were slain. The unhappy end of their Au∣thor Muncer. ib.
• Zuinglius did oppose their gathering of Churches in Zuitserland. The reason of their banishment thence. p. 6
• Their intolerable practises. The tragedy of Munster. p. 7
• The ordinary custome of Hereticks is not to labour, but to spoil the labours of others.
• King Becold enters Munster. Some of the prime Ministers are gained to Anabaptisme.
• The slacknesse of the Magistrate, though orthodoxe, did ruine the City.
• The Sectaries though fewer and weaker, yet by wit and industry did master their opposites.
• By the stirrup of Toleration the Sectaries ascended to the saddle of Soveraignty. p. 8

• Being once masters of the City, they presently changed the govern∣ment.
• They seized on the goods of all, and killed whom they would.
• The peoples mindes being ensnared by their errors, their tyranny be∣came irremediable.
• They proclaimed Polygamy. p. 9
• A faint and unsuccessefull resistance did hasten and confirm Becolds Kingdome.
• The splendour of Becolds Court. His barbarous cruelty and hypo∣crisie. His unhappy end. p. 10
• Amsterdam in hazard to be a second Munster. A woman Messias.
• Division and Schismes were the Anabaptists ruine. p. 11
• The difference betwixt the Monasterians and the Battenburgicks. The Sect of the Hophmanists. p. 12
• Who were the Mennonists.
• A Synod for union did divide them amongst themselves more then ever. David Georgius labours for union. p. 13
• Divers Sects of Anabaptists evanished. David George had a great shew of zeal and piety. p. 14
• Yet his absurdities were horrible. The extraordinary zeal of his fol∣lowers. His strange end. p. 15
• The increase of the Mennonists. The errors of the Mennonists. Their Schismes. p. 16
• For a light cause four late separations among them. The state of the Anabaptists in England. p. 17
• Independency the cause of their increase and boldnesse. p. 18
• Their late Confession is neither a full nor a clear declaration of their tenets.

CAP. II. The tenets of the old Anabaptists.

• THe most applauded tenets of our modern Anabaptists are the self-same with what the old Anabaptists did invent. p. 29
• Their first prime tenet was a necessity of gathering Churches out of Churches, and of separation from the best reformed in their time, because of mixt communion. ib.
• Antipaedobaptisme, became at last their greatest d••rling.

• They were the authors of the prophecying and questioning of private men in the face of the Church.
• Women preachers are from them. p. 30
• Their Pastors must renounce all former Ordination, and their full call of new must come from the hands of their people. They re∣quired no letters in their Preachers.
• The crying down of Tithes and all set Stipends, is from them.
• Independency of Congregations, and the peoples power in Church censures, is their invention.
• The Seekers who deny all Churches are their Disciples. After the overthrow of the Church they fell next upon the State. p. 31
• First, they cryed down the Magistrates power in matters of Religi∣on. Next in all matters even Civill.
• Yet they took to themselves an absolute Civill power; first, over all them in their own Churches.
• Next, over all Princes and people in the whole world. They were strong Millenaries. p. 32
• They made adulteries and murders lawfull. Robberies also. 33
• Their hypocrisie ended in the open practise of crimes extreamely contrary to their first professions.
• Their abominable uncleannesse. They deny both Old and New Te∣stament. p. 34
• They deny angels, and devils, and souls. They deny heaven and hell, and eternall life.
• They cast away all the Ordinances of God. p. 35
• David George to them was spirituall Christ, much more excellent then Christ crucified.
• Many people were ready to seal with their bloud all these abo∣minations.
• The monster David George did live and die in plenty and peace.
• The best of the Anabaptists have very grosse errors. The Menno∣nists deny originall sinne. p. 36
• In the points of election, redemption, grace, free-will, perseverance, justification, perfection, they are grosser then the Arminians or Iesuites. They are yet more absurd.
• They deny the omnipresence of God. They deny the Trinity. And the truth of Christs humanity. p. 37
• They refuse all consequences from Scripture. They refuse reaso∣ning from the Old Testament.

• The covenant with Abraham they make carnall. They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace.

CAP. III. The modern tenets of the Anabaptists in England.

• THe spirit of Anabaptisme clearly devillish. p. 47
• The fair profession of many English Anabaptists not to bee trusted.
• What errours may be charged upon all, what onely upon some of them. p. 48
• The confession of the seven Churches is a very imperfect and am∣biguous declaration of their judgement.
• Let no errour be charged upon any man, which he truly disclaims.
• A brief sum of all the Anabaptists errors. Every Anabaptist is at least a rigid Separatist. p. 49
• Though the Independents offer to collude with the Anabaptists, yet they separate from the Independents no lesse then from the Brow∣nists as antichristian. p. 50
• They avow all their members to be holy and elect, and some of them are for their perfection. p. 51
• After they have separate from all other Churches, they run next away from their own selves.
• They charge one another with Antichristianisme. They are Inde∣pendents.
• They put all Church power in the hand of the people.
• They give the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments to any of their gifted members out of all office. p. 52
• Even unto women. They must not preach in a Steeple-house. p. 53
• All Tithes and all set Stipends are unlawfull, their Preachers must work with theit own hands, and may not goe in blacke cloathes.
• They celebrate the Lords Supper in any common Innes, after a∣nother feast.
• All the new light of the Independents and Brownists is borrowed from the Anabaptists.
• The anointing of the sick with oyle, the rejecting of the Lords Prayer, of all set Psalms, of Vniversities, and humane learn∣ing, are the Anabaptists inventions.

• The Independent Apologists are for liberty to most of the Sects. 54
• And some of their prime friends are for a generall liberty to all. 55
• The Anabaptists deny all power to Magistrates in any thing which concerns Religion.
• Turkisme, Popery, Atheisme, the greatest blasphemies they would not have punished with so much as a discountenance. They presse a liberty for preaching and propagating openly all errours ima∣ginable.
• Yet they grant that errour is a soul-murder, and a greater crime then the destruction of a King, of a Parliament, of a whole Na∣tion. p. 56
• They hate the Covenant. They are injurious to the Scots. p. 57
• All punishing of errour with them is persecution. They presse li∣berty of conscience much out of policy. p. 58
• The granting of all this liberty will not assure the Magistrates of the Sectaries civill obedience. p. 59
• The tenets and practise of the Sectaries destroy Magistracy.
• They professe their design to overturn from the ground the govern∣ment of our State as now it stands.
• Kings and Lords are no more tolerable: Neither is the House of Lords any longer to be endured. p. 60
• The poorest begger in the land has a share of the Soveraignty, a∣bove the King and Parliament.
• All former Laws and Acts of Parliament must be abolished. p. 61
• The will of the multitude must stand for the Soveraign Law hereafter. p. 62
• The three fundamentall Laws of our new Vtopian Republick. p. 63
• According to reason and experience the present distemper of the Sectaries is posting on fast to a Dictatorship and absolute Tyranny in the hand of one. The State in danger by the Sectaries prin∣ciples. p. 64
• The greatest purchase which the overturners of States usually make, is a late repentance. p. 65

CAP. IV. Their Antipaedobaptisme, Arminianisme, Arrianisme, Fa∣milisme, and other wicked errours.

• ALL Anabaptists are for Antipaedobaptisme. They avow the nullity of our Baptisme. p. 89
• They presse on us a re-baptization.
• They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace, and make Cir∣cumcision a seal onely of carnall promises.
• Many of them deny originall sin, and assert all the articles of Ar∣minius. p. 90
• They separate from all who renounce not Paedobaptisme.
• Yet they admit into their Churches many much worse then these from whom they separate. p. 91
• Sprinkling to them nullifies Baptisme. M. Tombes new way.
• He is a rigid Antipaedobaptist, yet not against sprinkling.
• He spoils all infants of all interest in the covenant of grace. p. 92
• He is a friend to the worst Anabaptists, and injurious to all who op∣pose them.
• He makes Baptisme a rite needlesse either to young or old. He ad∣mits of a frequent re-baptization.
• He admits unbaptized persons to the Lords Table. He is a grosse Erastian.
• The most of the Anabaptists are Arminians. p. 93
• The second Edition of their confession is not so free of Arminianism as the first.
• The chief Churches of the Anabaptists are grosse Arminians. p. 94
• Many of them are Antinomians, laying aside all care of morall du∣ties.
• Making all grief for sin unlawfull. p. 95
• Denying Christs satisfaction and reconciliation of God to men.
• The best of them are inclineable to Libertinisme.
• The Antinomian controversies are not as the prime Independents doe make them, onely about words and methods of preaching. p. 96
• Many of the Anabaptists are become Seekers, denying all Churches, all Officers, all Ordinances.
• Many of the Anabaptists are become Antitrinitarians. p. 97

• Richardson one of their prime leaders, a blasphemer of the Trinity. p. 98
• Divers of them are abominable bl sphemers of Christs Person.
• Others of them are become perfect Atheists. They evert and reject the whole Scripture. p. 99
• Many of them are turned Familists, denying the immortality of the soul.
• Denying Heaven and Hell, Angels and Devils.
• Some of them make the world eternall: others all creatures to pe∣rish. p. 100
• Some deny all resurrection, others make the beasts rise to glory.
• They teach abominable obscenities. They follow David George in his greatest absurdities.
• The divine light of their new Prophet. The fall of Adam, and the clearest Scriptures are but allegories.
• The whole Divinity suffered in the Person of Christs humanity. p. 101
• The great light which this Prophet brings from heaven, is, that all the Devils and all the Reprobates shall be saved by his Gospel. Randall his grosse Familisme. p. 102
• No resurrection, no heaven, no hell after this life. The Saints in this life become as perfect as God.
• The clearest Scriptures are false in a literall sense.
• That God is formally the life and subsistence of all creatures. p. 103
• That Christ had not a particular soul, nor a particular body.
• Creatures in their very sins are acted onely by the Spirit of God.
• There is no such spirits as Angels, Devils, or Souls. Nothing re∣mains for ever but God.
• Scripture is but a false shadow, and no ground of faith.
• They deny both the first and second comming of Christ. They cast a∣way all Ordinances.
• The certain truth of these imputations. p. 104
• The English Anabaptists are generally more erroneous then the Dutch.
• Amongst the English Secta••••es there is no zeal at all against any errour.

CAP. V. The lawfulnesse of Infants Baptisme.

• THe extream malignity of the Anabaptistick spirit. Its enmity to the salvation of men. p. 129
• Its dishonouring of God by setting up a liberty, first, for all errours; and next for all vice. p. 130
• Their Brownistick and Arminian tenets I have refuted in other Treatises. p. 131
• Their Antipaedobaptisme and dipping shall here be briefly and plain∣ly considered.
• The state of the first question. The first reason for the affirmative. p. 132
• Who have right to the chief promises, have right to some of the seals which God has appointed to be a means of assurance of these pro∣mises, unlesse the Lord himself hath made a speciall exception.
• Infants have good right to the promises of the covenant of grace. p. 133
• The infants of the Iews had reall interest in the covenant of grace before the comming of Christ. Gen. 17.12, 13. Also after Christ comming under the New Testament, Heb. 7.27.8.6.
• The infants of proselyte Gentiles under the Old Testament had right in the covenant of grace, Gen. 17.12. Exod. 12.48 49. p. 135
• The infants of beleeving Gentiles under the New Testament have right in the covenant of grace, Rom. 11.24. How infants are holy, 1 Cor. 7.14. p. 13
• The second argument is from the Circumcision of Infants. p. 138
• It is safe to reason from Scripturall consequences, yea, proportions. p. 139
• Baptisme succeeds to Circumcision, Col. 2.11, 12. Circumcision did seal the covenant of grace, Gen. 17.11. p. 140
• The covenant of grace has been diversly administred, but ever the same, and never mixed. p. 141
• Both Circumcision and Baptisme are initiating seals. p. 142
• There needs not a particular comman•• for application of a Sacra∣ment to the diverse ages, and sexes, and conditions of persons. Infants Baptisme under the Law.
• The third argument from Matth. 28.19. p. 143

• The promises of the Gospel belong to Infants. p. 144
• Infants are not in a worse condition under the Gospel then under the Law.
• All who are baptized need not be capable of teaching. ibid.
• Infants are Disciples. p. 145
• Infants have interest in the Trinity. ibid.
• Infants may be lawfully baptized. p. 146
• The fourth argument from the baptisme of whole families. ib.
• The fifth argument from Christ laying of his hands on infants and blessing them. p. 147
• The sixth argument, Infants under the Law were baptized. p. 149
• The seventh argument, Infants are partakers of remission, of rege∣neration, of life eternall. p. 150
• M^r Coxe, M^r Tombes, M^r L. Objections. p. 152
• They are in effect but few, and all invented by the old Anabap∣tists. ib.
• M^r Coxe first argument makes examples alone a full rule. ib.
• The second makes one and the same man to differ from himself essen∣tially. p. 153
• The third ties God in the revelation of his will to precepts and ex∣amples alone. p. 154
• It everts the principles of all reasoning, and turns men into stones. p. 155
• The fourth makes it an heresie to make any use of any thing in the Old Testament to clear any thing in the New. p. 156
• The fifth argument making the actions done by, or to Christ, the full rule of our practise, is a wilde phansie. p. 157
• The sixth argument, will have none baptized but who beleeve and are elect. p. 158
• The seventh, eighth and ninth arguments, are but repetitions. p. 160
• The absurdities of every one of the nine arguments. ib.
• M. Tombes 8. arguments answered by others: there is no truth in any of them. p. 161
• M. L. Treatise of Baptisme needs no answer. p. 162
• The pressing of dipping and exploding of sprinkling is but an ye∣sterday conceit of the English Anabaptists. p. 163
• Sprinkling is sufficient, and dipping is not necessary in Baptisme. p. 164
• The first arg. for the affirmative: Baptisme in many Scriptures signifies

• sprinkling and not dipping: as Mark 7.4.8. Heb. 9.10. 1 Cor. 10.1. Rev. 19.13. Mat. 3.11. p. 164
• The second arg. The thing signified by Baptisme is oftner expressed in Scripture by sprinkling then dipping. p. 167
• In Scripture sprinkling is made a sign of the application of Christs bloud to the soul. p. 167
• Also of Christs Spirit. p. 168
• Sprinkling under the Law a figure of the thing signified in Bap∣tisme. ibid.
• Sprinkling serves as much for purging as dipping can doe. p. 169
• A third arg. In many Scripturall Baptismes there was no dip∣ping. ib.
• A fourth arg. Dipping is hurtfull to the life of man. p. 171
• Also to his chastity. ib.
• A fifth arg. Dipping makes Baptisme insupportable. No Preacher will be able to baptize. p. 172
• Dipping brings in Se-baptisme. p. 173
• The first Object. That the originall word Baptizing does signifie always dipping and never sprinkling, removed. ib.
• The second Object. No evidence in Scripture that any were ever dipped over head and ears in Baptisme. p. 175
• The third Object. That Baptisme is a sign of the Buriall of Christ, hath no reference at all to Immersion.
• A generall answer to the testimonies for dipping. p. 178