A Great Leap In The Dark

From What Cause The Rite Of Baptism First Proceeded Is Not Expressed Formally In The Scripture, But It May Be Probably Thought To Be An Imitation Of The Law Of Moses Concerning Leprosy, Wherein The Leprous Man Was Commanded To Be Kept Out Of The Camp Of Israel For A Certain Time, After Which Time Being Judged By The Priest To Be Clean, He Was Admitted Into The Camp After A Solemn Washing. And This May Therefore Be A Type Of The Washing In Baptism, Wherein Such Men As Are Cleansed Of The Leprosy Of Sin By Faith, Are Received Into The Church With The Solemnity Of Baptism.

And Therefore, As When There Is A Controversy In An Account, The Parties Must By Their Own Accord, Set Up For Right Reason, The Reason Of Some Arbitrator, Or Judge, To Whose Sentence, They Will Both Stand, Or Their Controversy Must Either Come To Blows, Or Be Undecided, For Want Of A Right Reason Constituted By Nature; So Is It Also In All Debates Of What Kind Soever.

And Therefore In Geometry (which Is The Only Science That It Hath Pleased God Hitherto To Bestow On Mankind), Men Begin At Settling The Significations Of Their Words; Which Settling Of Significations, They Call Definitions, And Place Them In The Beginning Of Their Reckoning.

The Reputation Of Power Is Power.

But All This Language Gotten, And Augmented By Adam And His Posterity, Was Again Lost At The Tower Of Babel , When By The Hand Of God, Every Man Was Stricken For His Rebellion, With An Oblivion Of His Former Language.