Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

N. B. There was another Secret Confiftory the 19th of February, the fame Year, 1703, for the like, or more vehement Earthquake at Rome, with the like Oration, for the Feaft of Purification, when the Earthquake happened.

Extracts out of a Letter written to myself, by the Rev. Mr. Henry Heywood, a Baptift Bishop in South Carolina, dated at Charles-Town, April 2, 1750.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Dear and Rev. Sir,

Laft Christmas was Twelvemonth I received from the Rev. Mr. Matthew Randal, [a Baptift Bifhop in London] your friendly Address to the Baptifts, which was very acceptable. acceptable. The Thoughts of your having fled from the horrible. Athanafian Creed, and left the establish'd Church, and feeming inclined to join with the baptized 'Churches, gave me, and the reft of my Bre thren, a fenfible Pleasure. We were likewife pleafed to find you exprefs an Approbation of feveral of our Principles and Practices; and were far from being diffatisfied with the Concern you fhew for the Amendment of our Defects.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

When I came to this Country, our fmall Church was in the Practice of reading the Scriptures every Lord's Day, and laying on of Hands after Baptifm; and although, before my coming, I found finging of Pfalms and the Lord's Prayer were difufed, I found no Difficulty in introducing

• the

the first; and about a Year and an Half fince, or fomething better, I have likewife begun to ufe the Conftitution Liturgy, in the eighth Book, the Lord's Prayer, and the mixed Cup at the • Communion. I have alfo informed our People, that Trine Immerfion was the antient and apoftolical Practice, and doubt not it will be our con• ftant Practice for the future. So that the Defects

6

you complain of are in a fair Way of being 'amended among us.-I have, fince I wrote this

[ocr errors]

Letter, received your Life, written by yourself; for which I thank you heartily, and should have • fent you this sooner, but that I waited to fend my • Catechifm therewith; which you will find to be an • Extract out of yours, only more fuited to our prefent Settlement and Conftitution."

N. B. I do not here fet down what is afterward added by Mr, Heywood, in a very zealous Manner, to perfuade me to be re-baptized, because my Father, not in the leaft dreaming but Infant-Baptifm, without Immersion, was allowed by our Saviour, baptized me in my Infancy, and without dipping; although I have been confirmed in my grown Years, have been in holy Orders 56 Years, have all that Time baptized, and given the Communion, as Occafion served; (only thefe laft 35 Years, fince I was fatisfied that Baptifm ought to be performed by Trine Immersion, and in grown Years only, I have acted all accordingly.

This naturally puts me in Mind of a much longer and more zealous Letter, written to me laft Q 3

May

May was Twelvemonth, from Norwich, by my good Friend Mr. Killingworth, to the fame Purpofe; but this upon Suppofition that it was not certain that our Saviour or his Apoftles appointed the Trine Immersion, contrary to Mr. Heywood's Declaration. This rigorous Procedure in many of our prefent Baptifts, which I have fhewn to be against the Old and New Testament, in my Argument, Pag. 485, 486, priùs, and appears to be against the Apoftolical Conftitutions, which are severe against Re-baptization. [See Pag. 486, priùs, [against the Determination of Cyprian, and Dionyfius Alexandrinus,] Pag. 487, and 542, prius.] I now add, against the Rule of Christ himself, in the Conftitutions, v. 15. For the Chriftian Gentiles complying with the Chriftian Jews, as to the Obfervation of Eafter, for the Sake of Uniformity, even where they knew them to be erroneous; against the Opinion of Irenæus, and the fober Part of the Church in his Time, in condemning Victor for excommunicating the Afiaticks, though they owned Victor went by the true Rule, and the Afiaticks by the falfe one; and against the Practice of the Apoftolical Polycarp himself, who, in the Case of Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome, and his Church, when they had entirely omitted the Ante-pafchal Faft, (always obferved by the Apoftles, and by Polycarp with them,) for feveral Succeffions; yet would not Polycarp refufe to communicate with Anicetus, and his grofly erroneous Church, in the holy Eucharift itfelt, on that Account. Eufeb. Hist. Eccl. v. 24. Which is the fame that I have

done

done in receiving the Communion with the Diffent'ing Congregations, who do not mix Wine and Water, according to the known Law of Chriftianity, both in the Constitutions, all the old Liturgies, and the known Books of the New Testament. [See Pag. 483, 484, prius.]

But above all, I appeal to what has not been diftinctly enough fet down before, I mean one of the moft folemn Remains of Primitive Chriftianity, the Catholick Didafcaly itself, in the Constitutions VI. 17. where the Body of the Apostles charge the Chriftians "To be contented with one Baptifm

alone, that which is into the Death of the Lord, "not that which is conferred by wicked Hereticks,' "but that which is conferred by unblameable "Priests, unto the Name of the Father, and of "the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. And let not "that which comes from the Ungodly be received

[ocr errors]

by you. Nor let that which is done by the Godly "be difannull'd by a Second. For as there is but "one God, one Chrift, and one Comforter, and "one Death of the Lord in the Body; fo let that

[ocr errors]

Baptifm which is unto him be but one. But those "that receive polluted Baptifm from the Ungodly, "will become Partners in their Opinions; for they "are not Priests. For God fays to them. [Hof. "iv. 6.] Because thou hast rejected Knowledge, I "will also reject thee from the Office of a Priest to 66 me. Nor indeed are thofe that are baptized by "them initiated, but are polluted; not receiving "Remiffion of Sins, but the Bond of Impiety. "And befides, they that attempt to baptize thofe "already

Q4

66

already baptized, crucify the Lord afresh, slay "him a fecond Time, laugh at divine, and ridi"cule holy Things, affront the Spirit, difhonour "the facred Blood of Chrift, as common Blood; έξ are impious againft him that fent, him that fuf"fered, and him that witneffed." Or, as the fame Law is abridged in the XLVIIth Canon of the Apoftles, "If a Bishop or Prefbyter re-bap"tizes him who has had true Baptifm, or does not "baptize him who is polluted by the Ungodly, let

him be deprived, as ridiculing the Crofs and the "Death of Chrift, as not diftinguishing between "real Priefts and counterfeit ones."

t

For the Trine Immersion I appeal to the Lth Canon: "If any Bifhop or Prefbyter does not per"form the three Immerfions of the one Admiffion, "but one Immerfion, which is given unto the "Death of Chrift, let him be deprived: For the "Lord did not fay, Baptize unto my Death; but,

Go ye and make Difciples of all Nations, baptizing "them unto the Name of the Father, and of the "Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. Do ye therefore, O Bishops, baptize thrice, into one Father, and "one Son, and one Holy Ghoft, according to the "Will of Chrift, and our Conftitution by the Spirit."

66

This rigorous Procedure of the Baptifts feems to me fo dishonourable to the Chriftian Religion, as if involuntary Mistakes about a ritual, fhould quite invalidate a facred Ordinance of the Gofpel; and fo fatally pernicious to any Hopes of the general Recovery

« AnteriorContinuar »