TO THE READER. The doctrine of baptisms hath been dark and obscure in the church from the very primitive times, and hath had more of human notion than of divine truth in it; and therefore Zuinglius, writing touching this point, speaks thus in the beginning of his book, entitled De Bapt. Tom. 2. F. 57. “ Illud mihi ingenue circa libri in- itium dicendum est^fere omnes eos, quotquot ab ipsis apos- tolorum temporibus, de baptismo scribere instituerunt, non in paucis (quod pace omnium hominum dictum esse velim J a scopo aberravisse that is, “ In the beginning of my book,” saith he, “ I must ingenuously profess, that almost all those that have undertaken to write of baptism, even from the very times of the apostles, have (which I desire may be spoken with the favour of all) not in a few things erred from the scope.” And as he affirms, that almost all before him had erred in many things touching baptism, so did he himself also err, as well as they, not in a few: and it is as free for me or any body else to differ from him, and other late writers ; especially if that be true, which godly and learned Chemnitius affirms out of Augustine, that these things arc not “ Tanquam arti- culi jidei, a quibus diversum sentire piacidum sit anathe- mate dignum” Chemnit. Examen Concil. Trident, lib. de Bapt.
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