PREFACE.

...the highly necessary Reformation of the so-called Christian world. For certainly, if Baptism were not administered except to those for whom there is reason to testify that they share in the things signified to them by baptism, would that not open the eyes of many people who now consider themselves to be Christians simply because they are baptized? Such people are found not only among the Roman-minded Those adhering to the Roman Catholic Church., or among those called Lutherans, who explicitly establish this as a doctrine; but there are also many among the ReformedThe Dutch Reformed Church (Gereformeerde Kerk), which followed Calvinist theology., as D. KoelmanJacobus Koelman (1632–1695), a prominent Dutch minister and critic of the Labadist movement. himself admits, who hold the same thoughts, whether through ignorance and lack of knowledge of the true Reformed Doctrine, or through superstition—which is only too natural to the sinful man, empty of the truth and the light of grace.

What we propose in this book can serve to help and heal them, if it pleases the Lord to pour out His Divine blessing upon it. And we believe that the embracing of the truth contained therein would greatly restore the holiness of this Sacrament, and make its practice much more useful and beneficial than it is and can be now, when it is practiced according to the ordinary custom original: "ordinaren fleur"; referring to the common, fashionable practice of the state church rather than a strict biblical one.. Several Treatises that follow will, if the Lord wills, explain various other matters in the same way, and show, as I hope, that we are better grounded in them than D. Koelman thinks and wishes to make those believe into whose minds and hearts he would like to instill all his prejudices and groundless thoughts.

In the meantime, following the Doctrine of Baptism, one will find general Remarks on his book, where one will see in few words the explanation and clarification of many things that he has seen fit to confuse and obscure, as well as the proper answer to those points that seemed most to require it. And just as he, in this battle he wages against us, has wished to take D. BrakelLikely Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711), a major figure in the Dutch Second Reformation (Nadere Reformatie) who, despite sharing some pietist goals, opposed the Labadists' separation from the state church. as a help and companion, by the addition...