6 religion to us; I say, utterly to fay by, and wholly to forget all these things, and to come immediately to the pure unerring word of God, and to the voice of Jesus Christ himself, by his spirit, wherein all things are true, sincere, and perfect; and not bring hearts to the word that are prepossessed with doctrines and opinions learned of men, but to come thither with hearts and consciences free and unengaged; and in all meekness, uprightness, and simplicity of heart, to hear what Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness, will say by his Spirit, which also is the Spirit of Truth; and to receive and believe that alone, though never so differing from the opinions and doctrines of this present age, as well as of the former, and though perhaps the whole nation would be offended with it. And this is the course that I have observed, to come to some clear and certain knowledge in the doctrine of baptism: for, having read much, and discoursed with many, touching this point, and having seriously considered what they say, as one that searched after the truth, for itself only, and for the satisfaction of my own soul; I do profess, I could not find any thing almost, spoken for my spirit boldly and safely to lean on, as perceiving most of what they said, to be but the apprehensions and thoughts of men, and that they spake very much by con- jecturc, and at uncertainty in this matter; and thereupon I resolved wholly to withdraw from such discourse, and to lay down whatever opinions I had before entertained touching this point, and to come to the plain and manifest scriptures, and from thence (after much seeking God) to learn whatever the Lord should please to teach me ; choosing rather to build on the clear word, though alone, than on any uncertain inferences and blind conjectures of men, though embraced and magnified by all the world. Now, in this inquiry from the word, I met with that place, Heb. vi. 2. where the apostle, speaking of some of the first and initial points of the Christian religion, names “ the doctrine of baptisms whence I perceived, that in the primitive church they had the doctrine of baptism in the plural number; and therefore did apply myself to search from the word, what these bap-
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