i A Preface to the Reader. difrefpe6i, I fuppofe without a diffenting voice ; I fhall be cleared from calumny or detraftion; by all thole that either were agents in it, or witneffes of it : His refufal to take the place of an Opponent, that we might hear his arguments a- gainft us,when ours would not fatisfie,.is by himfelf confeft, Apol. pag. I Í I . And I muft not conceal his reafon, Becaufe the argument (faih he) wouldprefently lead them to oppofe,this being all my argument again Infant- Baptifyn,that I could well urge in dlute, that ii is not appointed by God, and foprefently, upon one or two fyllogifines,they muff become opponents againe, fäth Affirmanti incumbit probatio. Where by the way we may take up this from him, byway of conceffion, That there are no other arguments ro be urgedagainft this pradice,but fuch that are negative; no Scripture-text can then be urged, but only Scripture- filence preft; And in cafe he had refted here in his difpute againft uI fuppofe that allthat know the rules of difputation well; know, that we fhould have been _put oft the opponents work, as foóne as in, when we had produced grounds, his work mutt have been by ftrength of argu- ment, to have overthrown them; upon this occafion I com- municated to force choice friends fomewhat that .I had preached to my people at Tamworth,relating to this bufines. viz. The birth prìviledge and Covenant- holinefle of the iffue of Beleevers, and was not only encouraged,but earneftly fo- licited to make them publike ; About half a yeer after Mr. Mart ball publiffied his Sermon of the Baptizing of Infants, which he preached inhis morning Lefture, at the Abby in Weflminfter. The firft that appeared in oppofition of us both, was Matter- ch. Blackwood, in a Treatife called , The Storming of Antichrifl,&c. A work which Matter Marfhall defervedly neglected (though principally bent againft him) as unworthy of confutation and it might havebeen let alone, iftht weakneffe of his ftilowers is the neighbour - .hood where it was vented, (led then by the novelty of it)had not
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