The Works of John Donne (Volume 3); With a Memoir of His Life (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1839. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... upon confession of that faith ho received his baptism: and this, says Melanchthon (a man freest of any from contention) is Interpretatio simplex, nativa, et vera, The plain, the natural, and the true signification of the place. Neither is this interpretation subject to that calumny, which our adversaries use to object, that in any interpretation of Luther's, or MelanchthonX the rest who profess them their disciples, follow as sheep, but others, though of the Reformation too, do not so: for we have another10, esteemed in his division, a learned and narrow searcher into the literal sense of Scripture, who though he be very far from communion (in opinion) with them, whom, for distinction, the world calls Lutherans, though he be none of those sheep, which run after Luther, yet out of a holy ingenuity, and inclination to truth, he professes this interpretation of the place, to be omnium simplicissimam, the most sincere and natural interpretation, and that it doth not wound, nor violate the purpose aiid intention of the apostle, as, says he, all the other interpretations, which Beza produces, do. And yet Beza himself, as well as Piscator, in their translations, retain the super, which is in Luther, and make it so, a baptism upon the dead, and not for the dead. To be baptized then for the dead, or upon the dead, is, in their understanding, an expectation of a resurrection for themselves, together with them, in sight of whose dead bodies they were baptized. Here is no figurative speech, but the words taken in their proper, and present, and first signification. And this is not of a general baptism, common to all, but of a custom taken up by some in the church of Corinth, out of special devotion, and testification of the resurrection. And lastly, this had reference, not only ...