to adult-baptism; and at feverál times, certain perfons rofe up, and oppofed infant-baptifm; which brings me, III. To confider what our author affirms, that it cannot be pretended that this practice was called in queftion, or made matter of debate in the church, until the madmen of Munfter fet themselves against it, p. 7. Let us examine this matter, and, 1. It should be observed, that the disturbances in Germany, which our Pædobaptift writers fo often refer to in this controverfy about baptifm, and fo frequently reproach us with, were firft begun in the wars of the boors, by fuch as were Pædobaptifts, and them only; firft by the Papifts, fome few years before the reformation; and after that, both by Lutherans and Papifts, on account of civil liberties; among whom, in procefs of time, fome few of the people called Anabaptifts mingled themselves; a people that scarce in any thing agree with us, neither in their civil, nor religious principles; nor even in baptifm itself; for if we can depend on thofe that wrote the hiftory of them, and against them; they were for repeating adult-baptifm, not performed among them; yea, that which was adminiftered among themfelves, when they removed their communion to another fociety; nay, even in the fame community, when an excommunicated perfon was received again; befides, if what is reported of them is true, as it may be, their baptifm was performed by sprinkling, which we cannot allow to be true baptifm; it is faid, that when a community of them was fatisfied with the person's faith and conversation, who propofed for baptifm, the paftor took water into his hand, and sprinkled it on the head of him that was to be baptized, ufing thefe words, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the holy Ghost: And even the disturbances in Munster, a famous city in Weftphalia, were firft begun by Bernard Rotman, a Pædobaptist minister of the Lutheran perfuafion, affifted by other minifters of the reformation, in oppofition to the Papifts in the year 1532; and it was not till the year 1533, that John Matthias of Harlem, and John Bocoldus of Leyden came to this place; who, with Knipperdolling and others, are, I fuppose, the madmen of Munster this writer means; and he may call them madmen, if he pleases; I fhall not contend with him about it; they were mad notions which they held, and mad actions they performed; and both dif avowed by the people who are now called Anabaptifts; though it is not reafonable to fuppofe, that these were the only men concerned in that affair, or that the number of their followers fhould increase to fuch a degree in fo fmall a P Cloppenburg. Gangræna, p. 366. Spanhem. Diatribe Hift. Sect. 27. time, • Budneus apud Meshov. Hift. Anabapt. 1. 4. p. 96. Sleidan. Comment..l.10. p. 267, 269. Spanhem. Diatribe Hiftor. de Origine Anabaptift: Sect. 18. time, as to make fuch a revolution in fo large a city: However, certain it is, that it was not their principle about baptifm, that led them into fuch extravagant notions and actions: But what I take notice of all this for, is chiefly to obferve the date of the confufions and diftractions, in which these madmen were concerned; which were from the year 1533 to 1536: And our next inquiry therefore is, whether there was any debate about the practice of infant-baptifm before this time. And, 2. It will appear, that it was frequently debated, before these men fet themselves against it, or acted the mad part they did: In the years 1532 and 1528, there were public difputations at Berne in Switzerland, between the minifters of the church there and fome Anabaptift teachers'; in the years 1529, 1527 and 1525, Oecolampadius had various difputes with people of this name at Bafil in the fame country; in the year 1525, there was a difpute at Zurich in the fame country about Pædobaptifm, between Zwinglius, one of the first reformers, and Dr Balthafar Hubmeierus, who afterwards was burnt, and his wife drowned at Vienna, in the year 1528; of whom Mefhovius", though a Papift, gives this character; that he was from his childhood brought up in learning; and for his fingular erudition was honoured with a degree in divinity; was a very eloquent man, and read in the fcriptures, and fathers of the church. Hoornbeck calls him a famous and eloquent preacher, and fays he was the firit of the reformed preachers at Waldshut: There were feveral difputations with others in the fame year at this place; upon which an edict was made by the fenate at Zurich, forbidding rebaptization, under the penalty of being fined a filver mark, and of being imprisoned, and even drowned, according to the nature of the offence. And in the year 1526, or 1527, according to Hoornbeck, Felix Mans, or Mentz, was drowned at Zurich; this man, Mehovius fays, whom he calls Felix Mantfcher, was of a noble family; and both he, and Conrad Grebel, whom he calls Cunrad Grebbe, who are faid to give the first rife to Anabaptifm at Zurich, were very learned men, and well skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. And the fame writer affirms, that Anabaptism was fet on foot at Wittenberg, in the year 1522, by Nicholas Pelargus, or Stork, who had companions with him of very great learning, as Caroloftadius, Philip MelanƐthon, and others; this, he fays, was done, whilft Luther was lurking as an exile in the caftle of Wartpurg in Thuringia; and that when he returned from thence to Wittenberg, he banished Caroloftadius, Pelargus, More, Didymus, and others, and only received • Spanhem. ibid Sect. 14. Meshov. Anabaptist. Hiftor. 1. 3. c. 16, 18. Spanhem. Sect. 13. Mefhovius, ibid. c. 2. u Spanhem. Sect. 11. Mehov. 1. 2. c. 4. y Meshov. 1. 2. c. I. Ibid. c. 15. ceived Melanchon again. This carries the oppofition to Pædobaptism within five years of the reformation, begun by Luther; and certain it is, there were many and great debates about infant-baptifm at the firft of the reformation, years before the affair of Munster: And evident it is, that some of the first reformers were inclined to have attempted a reformation in this ordinance, though they, for reasons best known to themselves, dropped it; and even Zuinglius himself, who was a bitter perfecutor of the people called Anabaptists afterwards, was once of the fame mind himself, and against Pædobaptifm. But, 66 3. It will appear, that this was a matter of debate, and was oppofed before the time of the reformation. There was a fet of people in Bohemia, near a hundred years before that, who appear to be of the fame perfuafion with the people, called Anabaptists; for in a letter, written by Coftelecius out of Bohemia to Erafmus, dated October 10, 1519, among other things faid of them, which agree with the faid people, this is one; "fuch as come oyer to their feet, muft every one be baptized anew in meer water;" the writer of the letter calls them Pygbards; fo named, he fays, from a certain refugee, that came thither ninety-feven years before the date of the letter. Pope Innocent the third, under whom was the Lateran council, A. D. 1215, has, in the decretals, a letter, in answer to a letter from the bishop of Arles in Provence, which had reprefented to him, that "fome Heretics there had taught, that it was to no purpose to "baptize children, fince they could have no forgiveness of fins thereby, as "having no faith, charity, &c." So that it is a clear point, that there were some that fet themselves against infant-baptifm in the thirteenth century, three hundred years before the reformation; yea, in the twelfth century there were some that opposed Pædobaptifm. Mr Fox, the martyrologist, relates from the history of Robert Guifburne, that two men, Gerhardus and Dulcinus, in the reign of Henry the fecond, about the year of our Lord 1158; who, he supposes, had received fome light of knowledge of the Waldenfes, brought thirty with them into England; who, by the king and the prelates, were all burnt in the forehead, and fo driven out of the realm; and after were flain by the Pope. Rapin calls them German Heretics, and places their coming into England at the year 1166: But William of Newbury calls them Publicans, and only mentions Gerhardus, as at the head of them; and whom he allows to be fomewhat learned, but all the reft very illiterate, and fays they came from Gascoigne; and being convened before a council, held at Oxford for that purpose, and interrogated conVOL. II. d N N * Inter Colomes. Collect. apud Wall's Hiftory of Infant-Baptifm, part II. p. zoo. b Opera Innocent. tertii, tom. II. p. 776. apud Wall, ibid. p. 178. cerning 66 66 cerning articles of faith, said perverse things concerning the divine facraments, de testing holy baptism, the eucharist and marriage: And his annotator, out of a manufcript of Radulph Picardus, the monk, fhews, that the Heretics, called Publicans, affirm, that we must not pray for the dead; that the fuffrages of the faints were not to be afked; that they believe not purgatory; with many other things; and particularly, afferunt ifti parvulos non baptifandos donec ad intelligibilem perveniant ætatem; they affert that infants are not to be baptized, till they come to the age of understanding." In the year 1147, St Bernard wrote a letter to the earl of St Gyles, complaining of his harbouring Henry, an Heretic; and among other things he is charged with by him, are these; "the "infants of chriftians are hindered from the life of Chrift, the grace of bap"tifm being denied them; nor are they fuffered to come to their salvation, though our Saviour compaffionately cries out in their behalf, Suffer little "children to come unto me, &c." and, about the fame time, writing upon the Canticles, in his 65th and 66th fermons, he takes notice of a fort of people, he calls Apoftolici; and who, perhaps, were the followers of Henry; who, says he, laugh at us for baptizing infants; and among the tenets which he afcribes to them, and attempts to confute, this is the firft, "Infants are not to be bap"tized :" In oppofition to which, he affirms, that infants are to be baptized in the faith of the church; and endeavours, by inftances, to fhow, that the faith of one is profitable to others; which he attempts from Matt. ix. 2. and xv. 28. 1 Tim. ii. 15. ર In the year 1146, Peter Bruis, and Henry his follower, fet themselves against infant-baptifm. Petrus Cluniacenfis, or Peter the Abbot of Clugny, wrote against them; and among other errors he imputes to them, are thefe: "That infants "are not baptized, or faved by the faith of another, but ought to be baptized "and faved by their own faith; or, that baptifm without their own faith does "not fave; and that thofe, that are baptized in infancy, when grown up, "should be baptized again; nor are they then rebaptized, but rather rightly baptized" And that these men did deny infant-baptism, and pleaded for adult-baptifm, Mr Stennett has proved from Caffander and Prateolus, both Pædobaptifts And Dr Wall allows these two men to be Antipædobaptists; and fays, they were "the first Antipædobaptift preachers that ever fet up a church, "or fociety of men, holding that opinion against infant-baptism, and rebaptizing fuch as had been baptized in infancy;" and who also obferves', that the 66 • Not. in ibid. p. 720—723. Hift. Eccl. Magdeburg. Cent, XII. c. 5. p. 338, 339. 1 Ibid. p. 179. the Lateran council, under Innocent the II, 1139, did condemn Peter Bruis, and Arnold of Brescia, who seems to have been a follower of Bruis, for rejecting infant-baptifm: Moreover, in the year 1140, or a little before it, Evervinus, of the diocese of Cologn, wrote a letter to St Bernard; in which he gives him an account of fome heretics, lately discovered in that country; of whom he fays, "they condemn the facraments, except baptifm only; and this only in "those who are come to age; who, they fay, are baptized by Christ himself, "whoever be the minister of the facraments; they do not believe infant-bap"tifm; alledging that place of the gofpel, be that believeth, and is baptized, Shall be faved" Thefe feem alfo to be the difciples of Peter Bruis, who be-gan to preach about the year 1126; fo that it is out of all doubt, that this was a matter of debate, four hundred years before the madmen of Munster fet themfelves against it: And a hundred years before thefe, there were two men, Bruno, bishop of Angiers, and Berengarius, archdeacon of the same church, who began to spread their particular notions about the year 1035; which chiefly refpected the facraments of Baptism and the Lord's-Supper. What they said about the former, may be learned from the letter fent by Deodwinus, bishop of Liege, to Henry I. King of France; in which are the following words ": " There is a re 66 m port come out of France, and which goes through all Germany, that these "two (Bruno and Berengarius) do maintain, that the Lord's body (the Hoft) is "not the body, but a fhadow and figure of the Lord's body; and that they do "difannul lawful marriages; and, as far as in them lies, overthrow the bap tifm of infants :" And from Guimundus, bishop of Averfa, who wrote against Berengarius, who fays, "that he did not teach rightly concerning the baptifm "of infants, and concerning marriage "." Mr Stennett relates from Dr Allix, a paffage concerning one Gundulphus and his followers, in Italy; divers of whom, Gerard, bishop of Cambray and Arras, interrogated upon feveral heads in the year 1025. And, among other things, that bishop mentions the following reason, which they gave against infant-baptifm; "because to an infant, that "neither wills, nor runs, that knows nothing of faith, is ignorant of its own "falvation and welfare; in whom there can be no defire of regeneration, or "confeffion; the will, faith and confeffion of another feem not in the least to appertain." Dr Wall, indeed, reprefents these men, the difciples of Gundulphus, as Quakers and Manichees in the point of baptifm; holding that waterbaptifm is of no use to any: But it must be affirmed, whatever their principles were, that their argument against infant-baptifm was very ftrong. So then we have teftimonies, that Pædobaptifm was oppofed five hundred years before the 1 Wall, ibid. p. 172. NN 2 m Apud Wall, ibid. p. 159. Hift. Eccl. Magdeburg, Cent. XI. c. 5. p. 116. affair • Answer to Ruffen, p. 84, 85. |