A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. II. Twelve Questions for the stating Children's Covenant-right resolved.

§. 1. HAving thus far carried on the Proof of the Doctrine, let us now come to the Explication thereof, and that shall be in answer to these Questions. (1) Whether all children of confederate parents be taken into their Covenant, or only some, God putting a distinction between their seed, as we see he did between the seed of Abraham, when he said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called? (2) Into what of the Covenant the children of Believers are taken? whether into the regenerating and converting Grace of it, or only into the external parts of it, the outward privileges? (3) If only into external parts, what advantage that is to them, and what they gain by it? (4) What this federal Right or children's Holiness is, wherein it does consist? (5) What it is in the parents that give this right unto the child, whether grace and the power of godliness in the parents, or else their profession, God taking them and their seed into a visible Church? (6) What Right this is, whether it be only a right before men, or whether it be a right before God unto the visible Privileges of the Church? (7) From what parents this right is derived, whether from those that are immediate only, or whether from them that are more remote, and where we must stay? (8) Why God will have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward privileges of it, and not for the inward? seeing in the first covenant Adam was to convey the image that he had received, and the children of Adam were taken into his covenant for the spiritual part, the grace of the covenant, as well as for the privileges of it; for the internal as well as for the external. Now the grace of the covenant is not conveyed from parents to children, it is no more ex traduce than the reasonable soul is, they that believe are born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God: why will the Lord have the same conveyance still continue for the externals and the privileges of it, when for the graces of it the intail is cut off forever? (9) How far the administration of the old Covenant should as a rule determine the administration of God under the new? that we may be able to reason from one to the other: he did so with Abraham and his posterity, therefore he will do so with the Saints now; and whether in Abraham there were not something personal and peculiar to him and his seed according to the flesh, that they only that come in by a claim to the faith of Abraham cannot take unto themselves? For Abraham in reference to the covenant is set forth two ways, either as a begetting Abraham, or as a believing Abraham; and whether the privileges of both the children of Abraham according to the flesh, or by promise be the same? (10) How far the Jews by virtue of Abraham's Covenant as being his seed, and as being taken into a Church-covenant in their parents, being the only visible Church unto God on Earth, could pretend to a right unto the ordinances and privileges of the Church of God under the New Testament? For if the parents were in covenant, so were their children taken in, at least, into the externals of the covenant. (11) How children can be said to be taken into Covenant, when they cannot restipulate, nor be said to be obliged by their Covenant? (12) Seeing there is so much dispute about it, were it not much better to leave children out of this claim? For if they be elected we may rest quietly in that state, and leave them in the arms of God's electing love, and resting upon that foundation for their eternal salvation, the Lord knows who are his, and to defer their claim to the covenant, till they themselves are able to take hold of the covenant, and to give their consent thereunto, to give the hand unto the Lord, and then they may claim it with comfort, children from their parents right, and parents for their children, and then we may with comfort seal up that which we have good ground upon judgment to conclude to be a man's title and interest; and then the parents covenant-interest will come in at second hand, and a man having himself first taken hold and consented to the covenant in his own person, it will be a good argument for a man to plead with God for the mercies and blessings of the covenant: Lord thou art my God, and my fathers God; as Moses did, Lord I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid: and so the Church, For thy servant David's sake turn not away, &c. Remember the covenant that thou hast made with Abraham, and Isaac, &c. And so did Austin after his conversion take a great deal of comfort in his mothers covenant-interest, and in all the prayers that she did put up to God for him: Salutem meam sempiternam chariùs parturibat cord casto, &c. till the Lord in a dream gave her great hopes concerning his salvation: but till then a man can have little comfort in it.

[Quest. 1] Are all the children of parents in covenant taken into covenant with their parents; or only some selected by God himself, as he did in the children of Abraham, when he said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called?

[Answ.] The parents covenant takes in all their seed, and they are all in covenant with God till they be ejected. Cain was in covenant as well as Abel, till cast out of the presence of the Lord, and Ishmael as well as Isaac, till the sentence upon his mocking, cast out the bondwoman and her son; and the Jews not only for their children immediately, but those for many ages to come. 1. If we look into Abraham's posterity, we read that they were of two sorts; a seed according to the flesh, a carnal generation, which the Jews stood so much upon, and gloried in, Mat. 3.9. We have Abraham to our father: and there is a seed of Abraham that walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham; and in this respect Abraham is called the father of us all: here is a double paternity from begetting Abraham, and believing Abraham, and here is a double sonship, children according to the flesh, and the heirs of promise, Rom. 9.6, 7, 8. They are not all Israel who are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they that are the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for his seed; and because they are the seed of Abraham, they are not therefore all children: and this is more fully set forth in that Allegory of the Apostle, Gal. 4.22, 23. where we have Abraham's family set forth as a pattern and a resemblance of the visible Church of God, in which there are two sorts of sons, and two sorts of mothers; there is the bond and the free woman; and so the Apostle says it was then, and so it should continue in the Church of God while its militant state did last; and yet both these seeds are taken into their parents covenant; and therefore all the posterity of Seth are called the sons of God, Gen. 6.1. and all without the Church, the daughters of men; all the Israelites were Jews outwardly: Ye are the children of the Lord your God, says Moses, his peculiar people and treasure; called also the children of the Kingdom, and the children of the Covenant, Act. 3.25. And this is not only so of the Jews, but the Gentiles also, Gal. 3.26. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; and yet I suppose no man will say, that all in the Church of the Galatians were truly, really, and savingly so; therefore all their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents faith and holiness.

2. The sentence of Excommunication hath passed upon such, and they have been ejected and cast out of the Church and from all the visible Communion and Privileges of it. Now Church-censures are to extend to none but Church-members, 1 Cor. 5.12, 13. We judge them that be within, what have we to do to judge those that are without? We see (1) That Church-government is an authoritative thing, a power of judgment, and so the Authority of Christ is called, Joh. 5.25. (2) There is a distinction of men, some are without, and some within; and this is a rule, Differentia divisiva est etiam constitutiva, there is something therefore that makes them to be without, and something that makes them to be within; and this can be nothing but their own personal consent, or their coming in by their fathers covenant. (3) This authority is not exercised upon them without; they are left to the judgment of God, as a man is that is wholly cast off from all care of the Church, let him be Anathema maranatha; to show that the Church had done their utmost, used all means that were possible for them to do, and they did avail nothing, and therefore they did now cast him off as incurable, and left him to the judgment of the Lord at his coming; so they that are without, are left to God's judgment; but they that are within, are under the Churches care and judgment. Now that Cain was cast out is plain, Gen. 4.14. Thou hast cast me out from the face of the earth, and from thy face, &c. and so the meaning is, a vagabond I shall be on the earth, from thy face shall I be hid. Of this there's a double interpretation that's commonly given, answerable to a twofold acceptation of the face of God: [1] By God's face is meant God's favor, love, protection, and all the fruits of favor, as all men seek the face of the Ruler, and God says, I will show thee the back and not the face in the day of their calamity. [2] Others by the face of God do understand locum patefactionis divinae, &c. the place of God's manifestation; and so it's put for the visible Church, where the Lord in a special manner doth reveal himself; and therefore are the Jews called Jesuron, or the seeing people, and Jerusalem called the valley of Vision, &c. and so to be hid from the face of God, est ab Ecclesia parentum ubi cultum Deo praestabant, &c. is to be cast out of the parents Church, &c. and this is the interpretation that most of our Divines give of it. [3] It's said, That whoever did find him would slay him. Cain was therefore a man taken into a Church-covenant together with his parents, though he was but the seed according to the flesh, and so he continued, till, for the just desert of his own sin, he was cast out, and had an immediate sentence of Excommunication past upon him by God himself, the first example that we read of in Scripture of a Church-censure; and the same is true also of Ishmael, Cast out the bondwoman and her son; she did speak, it may be, sensu suo de haereditate facultatum; but the Lord did carry it higher, as Pareus hath observed; and he expounds it de haereditate spirituali. Abraham's family was a resemblance of the visible Church, and the ejection was a casting out of the visible Church, and is to be understood of a visible casting out; therefore while Ishmael and his mother were in Abraham's family they were members, and came under Abraham's covenant; but when they were cast out, then they were to be looked upon as people in covenant with God no longer, they could lay no claim to the covenant of Abraham. The same may be said of the whole Nation of the Jews, who were all taken into a Church-covenant, they and their children, Deut. 29.12, 14. and yet but a remnant, a very few of them were saved and taken into the spiritual benefit of the covenant; and those that were not taken in, they and their posterity were also ejected, and the Lord called them Loammi, and gave them a bill of divorce to be such as he would own in way of Church-fellowship and Communion no longer; and the same course the Lord takes with the Gentiles also, when he removes the Candlestick, Rev. 2.5. By the Candlestick is meant not only the preaching of the Gospel and the Ordinances thereof, but the Church itself, for so Rev. 1.20. the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches; and the Lord would take away his Ordinances, and they and their posterity should be no more owned by God as his Church and people in covenant with him; so that they were broken off as the Jews were. Now they that are spiritually and savingly in the covenant can never be cast out of any part of the covenant, it's everlasting, and they never can be broken off; therefore it's meant of the carnal seed, those that are externally in covenant, but not spiritually and savingly.

3. As for that place Gen. 21.12. For in Isaac shall thy seed be called, which is made so much use of to overthrow this Doctrine, and that none are taken into covenant with God but the • that do truly believe and be the sons of Abraham's faith; the meaning seems plainly to be this: (1) It is to be understood, that the Messiah the promised seed should not come from Ishmael but from Isaac: (2) Of the spiritual Seed, and that in a double sense; [1] Of the peculiar and electing Love of God, which should run in Isaac and his posterity; [2] De privilegio foederis; for all his Posterity were not elected, and spiritually holy, and in covenant with God, but in his seed the visible Church of God should be continued, and they should be those amongst whom the Lord would hold forth his Name, and set up his Worship, and this must be chiefly the meaning; for it's a comfort to Abraham against casting out of Ishmael out of his Family, which had a resemblance of the visible Church, and in the execution of this Church-censure to be done by Abraham the Priest of the Family, he must excommunicate one Son, as he was as a Priest to offer the other; and now the Lord comforts him in this affliction, that the seed that should be accounted his and should be continued as the blessed seed amongst the Nations, should be the Posterity of Isaac, and they should be reckoned for his Seed; an expression answerable unto that of Eve, Gen. 4.15. God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew; that is, in whom and in whose posterity the Church of God should be continued unto the end of the world; though Cain were excommunicated, and Abel slain, yet the Covenant of God should be made good unto the Woman and her seed; and so by thy seed shall be called in Isaac, is meant the continuance of the visible Church in the Posterity of Isaac, when Ishmael was cast out; and therefore this makes nothing to prove that none of Abraham's seed were taken into the Covenant but those that were elected, and did walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham.

[Quest. 2] §. 2. Into what of the Covenant are they taken, and in what respect can they be said to be under the Covenant of Grace who are in a state of nature in the old Adam? and therefore as you have shown us under a Covenant of works, and we have heard from Gal. 4. that it's as impossible for a man to be under two Covenants at one and the same time, as it is for a man to be born of two Mothers; and when the son of the bondwoman shall be born of the free-woman; then can a man that is under the Covenant of works, while he does so remain unbroken off, be also under the Covenant of grace?

[Answ. 1] 1. Of the Covenant of Grace there are two parts, answerable to the two sorts of Promises that belong unto it; as there are the Promises of this life and that which is to come, so there are in the Covenant spiritual Privileges, and there are saving Graces; and a man may be in the Covenant for the one and not for the other. All that are truly converted, they come under the Covenant in both respects; but they that are only so by Profession, and outwardly, they have it for the external Privileges of the Covenant only. And this is clear from two places, Rom. 3.1. he had shown before, that nothing but true faith and holiness gave a man an interest in the spiritual part of the Covenant; it was not those outward things that a man's eternal happiness did consist in, he is not a Jew that is one outwardly; and although they be members of the Church of God, as they are visible Professors, yet they are not partes sed pestes, non membra sed ulcera, &c. as our Divines generally maintain it against the Popish Doctrine, Ut Ecclesia catholica quam credimus ex solis constat electis: And therefore these outward things avail nothing to the inward and spiritual part of the Covenant, as before God, but thy circumcision will be uncircumcision; and the Lord saith, he will join them all together, the circumcised with the uncircumcised; for one is uncircumcised in flesh, and another in his heart; and therefore the Lord called them Rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrhae; and their outward privileges will serve to increase their condemnation, ripen their sins, and hasten their ruin; for he only is in God's account a Jew that is one inwardly, in the spirit not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Now he comes to propound this very question, Rom. 3.1. What advantage then has the Jew, or what excellency has the Jew more than others? for so the word is used Math. 5. What excellent thing do you? now he adds; that unto them did belong the external privileges of the Covenant, who had nothing to do with the spiritual graces of the Covenant; and he makes it not a small matter, to be under, or have a right unto these outward privileges, but much every way, chiefly in that unto them is committed the Oracles of God, that the Law of God was written unto them, Hos. 8.12. and that it should be called, Your Law; they had a peculiar interest in it above all other people of the world, it was a Law written unto them, and as a Depositum committed unto them to keep, and so I conceive the word used 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 notes, namely, credita vel concredita sunt, not only as Beza saith, ut proprium ipsorum thesaurum notat, As it notes their proper treasure, but also as that which they were to be Stewards of, and to convey and transmit unto other people; for the Law was to come out of Zion, and the Word of God from Jerusalem; and in the latter days, the water shall issue out of the Sanctuary also, and from thence shall go into the East country, into the desert, and shall go forth into the Sea, and thereby the waters shall be healed: so Rom. 9.4. he doth recount the external privileges of the Jewish Church and Members thereof, and he doth reckon up eight very remarkable ones: whose is the adoption; not spiritual adoption, but the honor to be called the Sons of God, and to be separated from all other people, and Nations under Heaven, by a Marriage-covenant, Exod. 19.5. the glory; the Ark was the special token of God's presence; and to them was given the Law, the Worship of God, the Promises; of whom were the Fathers, and of whom according to the flesh Christ came. Now all these did belong to the body of the Nation, as being taken into a Marriage-covenant, and the external privileges of it, which did belong to them that should never have any spiritual and saving benefit by it. It's one thing to have an interest in the Covenant in reference to the spiritual and eternal mercies of it, called the sure mercies of David, by the Prophet; and by the Apostle, the holy things of David; and another to have interest in the Covenant only in reference unto the temporal Promises and outward privileges thereof; and there is many a man that has interest in the one, that neither hath, nor ever shall have benefit by the other. Therefore those that are the Elect of God, when converted, they are taken into the Covenant for both; but all the seed of Parents in Covenant are taken into the outward Court, the external part of the covenant, the temporal Promises and outward privileges of it, and are to enjoy them, and may claim them as their privilege and right, till by their sin they do deserve to be ejected and cast out of the Church, and excluded from this privilege; which as a kind of a birth-right by grace does belong unto them .

2. I do not only grant, but teach, that as there are two Covenants, so all Mankind for the state of their persons come under one of these, they are all of them children and sons of a covenant, answerably to their union with the heads of the Covenants, the first and the second Adam. Therefore, 1 Cor. 15.47. the Apostle Paul makes but two men in the world, Adam and Christ, for both of them are Heads of a Covenant; they that are in the first Adam, not yet translated, who do yet bear his Image, they stand under his covenant; and they that are in the second Adam, bear his Image, they stand under his covenant, Gal. 3.29. and if you be Christ's, you be Abraham's seed, &c. and it's as impossible for a man for the state of his person to be under both covenants, as it is for a plant to grow upon two roots, or for a man to be born of two Mothers; the heads of the covenants are so expressly contrary, and the terms of these covenants so directly opposite, that it can never be, that a man can belong to them both: he that is admitted into the covenant of Grace, must of necessity first be cut off from the covenant of Works; for he cannot live by a Righteousness in himself, and in another also. But yet this is true also, that a man who for the state of his person is under the Covenant of Works, may yet have a title unto many temporal promises, and outward privileges of the covenant of grace, and receive many benefits thereby; for the benefits of the Covenant of Grace are of three sorts: (1) Universal, which all the creatures have thereby, even the whole creation; it is by this covenant that the Government of the World is changed, and put into the hand of the Mediator; and so by this Covenant the World is established, the creatures are preserved in their being, which else for the sin of man, by the curse of the first covenant, should have been destroyed; and by this means the patience of God is exercised towards wicked men, and he doth spare them, and even the Devils themselves by reason of the Dominion of Christ, and the Covenant of Grace, and the employments the Lord hath to use them in, as Vessels of dishonor in this great house the Church; therefore they have not the fullness of their Torment, but there is a time of greater torment by them expected, and at which they tremble; by this means the Sun does rise, and the Rain does fall upon the just and unjust. (2) T •• re are some spiritual and eternal privileges, as Grace and Glory, which belong only to the Saints, who are the only proper heirs of the Covenant, and for whose sake the Lord brought Light and Immortality to light through the Gospel. (3) There are some evangelical privileges, or external Church-privileges only which belong unto some people whom God has by the calling of the Gospel separated unto himself, where he will set up his Ordinances, and make known his Name; and many a man may have these, who for the state of his person is under the Covenant of Works.

[Quest. 3] §. 3. But if we should grant, that children are with their parents taken into covenant, yet you confess it's but to the external privileges of the Covenant, and that many of them are never made partakers of the spiritual blessings thereof; and therefore what do they gain by it, seeing he is not a Jew, that is one outwardly, nor that circumcision that's outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew that is so inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter, whose praise is not of man but of God? What did Ishmael gain by being circumcised, or Esau? for if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision, Rom. 2.25. and therefore it will but bring a further Judgment upon them: Jer. 9.25. I will punish all that are circumcised with the uncircumcised; and it's observed by the Learned, that the Nations there mentioned with Judah, did use Circumcision, but yet being out of Covenant with God, their circumcision is made uncircumcision; and so it was with the Jews also, that did break the Covenant, and behave themselves unfaithfully therein; therefore, as the Gentiles converted are called Jews, and said to be born in Zion, and to be the Israel of God, Gal. 6.16. so the Jews though circumcised, yet living impenitently, are called Gentiles, Canaanites, Amorites, Ethiopians, Sodomites, Isa. 1.10, &c. therefore those outward privileges may do them much hurt, and may heighten their Judgment; for there are none cast out with so great indignation, as the children of the Kingdom; and there are no men's Judgments that come up to that height as theirs; and this is all the fruit that the greatest part of them have; and for those that shall be saved, they can have no spiritual and saving benefit in an ordinary and rational way till they be converted, and do themselves consent unto the Covenant; and therefore, it's a small matter that will be granted, if this should be granted, that Children are for the outward privileges taken into Covenant with their Parents; for whoever doth plead it, that doth not himself consent to the Covenant, doth but bring forth, as it were, Uriah’s letters against himself.

[Answ.] Unto all this that has been objected, I shall answer under two heads: (1) That it's a Privilege both unto parents and children, that they should be taken into their parents covenant: (2) I will show you the particulars wherein this great privilege doth consist, and in what respect the children are gainers by it, that never have any spiritual and saving benefit by the Covenant.

1. That it is a special privilege for parents and children, that they are taken into their Parents Covenant, will appear by these Arguments and Demonstrations.

1. It will aggravate their sin if they abuse it; therefore it's a mercy and a privilege in itself; for what is not a mercy and a privilege in itself, that cannot add to a man's sin and Judgment. Now as it is in Riches and Honors, and all the Blessings in this Life, they will be unto a man Judgments if they are abused; therefore they are blessings in themselves, blessings in the thing, though a snare to the man: so this very argument that's brought to prove that they are no blessings, and give no benefit, doth clearly prove, that the thing itself is a privilege and a blessing.

2. For a Child to be disinherited and cast out of his Fathers Covenant is a very great Judgment, and the forest of all outward afflictions that can befall a man; as we see it in Cain, Thou hast cast me out from the face of the Earth, and from thy face I shall be hid; it's the Sentence of Excommunication that the Lord passeth upon Cain: and so upon Ishmael, Cast out the bondwoman and her son: It's sad for children to be cast out of their Parents inheritance, but it's a far greater Judgment to be cast out of their Parents Covenant, and they to be deprived of that Birth-right which doth belong unto them by the second Covenant, as being born of confederate Parents; now if it be a great judgment to be cast out, surely it's a great Privilege to be taken into their Parents Covenant.

3. It's promised as a special Blessing for the visible Church of God to continue in any man's Posterity; and therefore we are to look upon it so, Gen. 4.25. it was so in Seth, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew; and so it was promised to Shem, that the Church of God should be in his Posterity continued, and that in due time the Lord should enlarge Japheth to dwell also in the tents of Sem; that is, either of the Gentiles that should become a surrogated Israel when the Posterity of Sem were cast off, and should be engrafted in their room; or else of the fullness of the Gentiles that should in the last days come in unto the Jews, and so make up but one Church with them, when the Lord shall make the Church of the Jews the Mother-Church, and should give them unto the Jews f •• daughters, &c. so in Abraham and his Posterity, and that they might still lay claim unto the Covenant and the Promise made unto their Fathers, being born the Sons of the Covenant. To have any particular office prescribed by God in a Family, is looked upon and promised as a great mercy; to have a Priesthood continued in the Family of Aaron, and afterwards of Phineas as a reward of that great act of his in being zealous for the Lord in executing Judgment, for the Lord gave him an everlasting Priesthood; and to have the Kingdom continued unto David and his Posterity, as he takes notice, Thou hast spoken of my house for a great while to come; there shall not want a man of his loins to sit upon the Throne of Israel; and it's looked upon as a great Judgment for a Family and a Posterity to be disinherited; as for the family of Esau to be cast out of the Priesthood, and the Family of Saul to be cast out of the Kingdom; how much more then is it a mercy to have the visible Church of God continued in any man's Posterity? for all blessings descend according unto this, as it appears in the Sons of Noah, there is a blessing upon Shem and Japheth, and their Posterity, but it is in reference to a Church-state; but there is no blessing upon Cham, but cursed be Canan; God would never take a Church out of his loins, it should never be continued in his posterity: There shall not be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord forever; and therefore a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren; the curse and blessing is answerable unto the respect men have to a Church-state.

4. It's the greatest wrath that God doth pour out upon men in this life, to cast them out of external Church-privileges. The Jews, as when they were taken into covenant, it was for themselves and their posterity that God would own their seed as his, and would avouch them to be his people; so when God did cast them out, and gave them a bill of divorce, called them Loammi, and did remove the Candlestick, he did cast them out and their seed; the natural branches were broken off: if it be not a blessing to enjoy it, surely it's no great judgment to be deprived of it; but the Apostle saith, Wrath i • come upon them to the uttermost, or to the end; therefore it the wrath be so great in a casting out, surely there is a great deal of mercy shown in the taking in.

5. The Apostle speaks even of an interest in the external privileges of the covenant as a very great matter; having shown that all men by nature are in the same condition, and in a man's spiritual estate outward and Church-privileges make no difference, he doth demand, Then what advantage a man hath by Church-privileges, and what good there is in them? if they make not men to differ, what excellency hath the Jew above any other men or any other people? The Apostle says, Much every way; therefore though they may not differ in reference to a spiritual state, yet there is a great excellency and advantage; and the Apostle speaking of the grafting in of the Gentiles into the same Church-covenant, them and the posterity, when the Jews were disinherited, he says, That they did partake of the root and the fatness of the olive-tree; therefore in Scripture it's commended as a great advantage and privilege unto a man to be brought into the external rights, and to have an interest in outward privileges of the Church of God.

2. But what are those privileges and those particular benefits that come upon a person and his posterity thereby? (1) Many of them shall be saved, elected, and converted to God; for the Lord doth take the number of his Elect out of the loins of his own, the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven is hid in the visible Church here as wheat in a heap of chaff. (2) It's the only ground of hope that parents have for the salvation of their children dying in their infancy; David did hope it, though he might say with Austin, Ego in illo puero nihil habui praeter delictum; yet he saith, I shall go to him, and his heart was quieted concerning his eternal state, by virtue of the Covenant made with him. We have no other promise but this, I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed; and this is Gospel, a man is as truly bound to lay hold of the promise, and cast himself upon it, for his seed, as for himself. (3) There is no ordinary way of salvation but it is amongst them that are taken into Covenant, salvation is of the Jews: there was in an ordinary way salvation to be had nowhere else; and therefore by being taken into the outward privileges of the Church, a man is brought into the ordinary way of salvation. (4) It's a special honor to be the vineyard of the Lord, the garden of the Lord hedged in from the rest of the world, his wall, a wine press, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, to be called the Sons of God, the people of God, and the Lord to avouch them such publicly before all the world to be his peculiar treasure, the Lord to be their God, and they his people, above all people of the earth, theirs is the Adoption; it's spoken of this federal external sonship. (5) By this you have special privileges: Jerusalem is the valley of Vision, and Jesuron the seeing people; it is Ariel, the Altar of the Lord: chiefly to them are committed the Oracles of God, which they are to keep and to transmit unto posterity; it's a depositum laid up and concredited to them: In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel; he hath not dealt so with other nations; they are a people near unto him, and the Lord hath promised, that he will give them his special presence: I will dwell in the midst of them; Christ walks in the middle of the golden Candlesticks, though he be in glory. (6) By coming under the outward privileges of this Covenant they have very glorious operations, mighty works upon them that other men have never experience of; and all this, even in them that perish; and they have this as a fruit of their external interest; for Hos. 6.5. there is hewing and slaying, there is sowing and planting, when the rest of the common fields lie untilled, and there are great gifts bestowed, such as the Lord doth not bestow on any other sort of people in the world; for the great gifts that come from Christ as ascended are upon the visible Church of God; yea the thorns and briars in the Church have the rain and influences, great and many common works of the Spirit raising and elevating and improving nature, the least of which works and motions is more worth than the world, it is so in the things, though it prove at last a curse to the man. (7) They by this means come under the care of the Church, and under the power of the Keys, under the prayers and under the censures of the Church, which do restrain them, and are many times blessed to bring men in; as the Apostle says, We judge them that are within. (8) They attain many temporal blessings, and are delivered from many temporal afflictions thereby; Ishmael had many outward blessings by Abraham's Covenant; the external blessings of the Covenant are made good to them; God will not destroy Jerusalem, and the judgment came not upon King Hezekiah, for David my servants sake; and, I will not rent from Rehoboam, because I will not put out the light in Israel.

There are two arguments that I would insist on: (1) A visible Membership is promised as a very special mercy. (2) The contrary, to be cast out of it, is threatened as a great judgment. 1. A visible Membership is promised as a special mercy, Gen. 9.27. God shall persuade Japheth, &c. Noah's family was the Church of God, but he did foresee a defection, or an Apostasy, that should befall the posterity of Cham and Japheth, and that the visible Church of God should only be continued a long time in the posterity of Shem; but yet he doth foretell, that, though Chams posterity should be forever cast off, yet there should come a time when the posterity of Japheth tandem redirent ad unitatem Ecclesiae, should at length return to the unity of the Church. Now we read Gen. 10.5. that by the posterity of Japheth the Isles of the Gentiles were overspread; this is therefore a Prophecy of the bringing in of the Gentiles into the number of God's people, and they shall become a visible Church unto God: for coming into the Tents of Shem, is being made members of the visible Church. There is a double conversion of the Gentiles which the Apostle speaks of, Rom. 11.12. If the fall and diminishing of the Jews be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more shall their fullness be? If upon their breaking off the Gentiles were gathered in, and enriched with their Church privileges, how much more when they shall be called and come in in their national fullness, shall the Gentiles be enriched by them? This is prophesied, Rev. 7.3, 4. Hurt not the earth, &c. and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the Tribes of the children of Israel, &c. It cannot be spoken of the Church of the Jews, for it is set after the seals, as a Prophecy that ushers in the Trumpets; and as the seals refer unto Rome Pagan, so do the Trumpets unto Rome Christian. Now there were four winds that were to blow upon the earth, and by their blasts they would hurt the earth and the Sea; for there was power given to them by God unto that end: the winds do signify motus bellicos and impetus hostiles, &c. warlike commotions, as we read in Jer. 49.36. Upon Elam I will bring the four winds, and I will scatter them, and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. Dan. 7.2, 3. The four winds contended upon the great sea; so that hereby is meant the incursion of all the barbarous People and Nations, with their power and might upon the Roman Empire; but in this general invasion there are some that the Lord would specially protect, upon whom these destroying winds should have no power; and that is meant by sealing of them, Amoris & singularis curae symbolum sigillum est, The sealing is a symbol of singular love and care: and yet when it is spoken of the Church of God, of the Gentiles in the Roman Empire, upon whom these storms should fall, and over whom these winds should have power, they are said to be of the Tribes of Israel: There were sealed 144000 of all the Tribes of Israel: whereas Israel was cast off and dispersed upon all the four winds long before, and God had wholly cast off the care of them, and reputed them as a people to himself no more; why then are the Gentiles called the Tribes of Israel? The reason is this, Quia in Israelis vicem successerit, fuit{que} Israel surrogatus, They were surrogated Israel, they are Japheth brought into the Tents of Shem, that is, become the Church of God, and had all the Privileges of the Church stated upon them instead of the Jews; and therefore their sealing is called the sealing of the Tribes of Israel. But there is yet another call of the Gentiles spoken of, Rev. 7.9. And after this I beheld, and lo a great multitude which no man could number, out of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, &c. that is, afflicto Ecclesiae statui succedit amplissimus & foelicissimus ejusdem status. This is to be referred unto the time of the seventh Trumpet, when the Jews shall be called, and new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of Heaven, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains, and all Nations flow in unto it, when the Gentile Churches shall be given unto the Church of the Jews for daughters, and they exalted as the Mother-Church over all the world; when the Nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the Kings of the Earth shall bring their glory and honor to it: and I conceive it's to be understood of taking of both Jews and Gentiles into a visible Church by a first and second conversion, and it is unto both promised as a special mercy: it's made also a special mercy by the Apostle, Rom. 11.17, 24. and that both in reference unto Jews and Gentiles.

1. For the Gentiles, Thou being a wild olive-branch (for that must be the meaning, as Beza observes) art made partaker of the root and fatness of the olive-tree, &c. By the Olive-tree is meant the Church of Israel, the visible Church, Jer. 11.16. The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit; and the Lord did thus honor it, because this is one of the most excellent of all the trees, the Fig-tree, the Olive, and the Vine, and that (1) for its greenness, for it doth flourish and is always green, (2) for its fruitfulness. And that it's not spoken of the invisible Church, the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven, is plain for these two reasons. [1] Because the Jews are said to be the natural branches of the good Olive-tree, and the Gentiles are said to be branches of the Olive-tree that is wild by nature, and were grafted in contrary to nature. Now to Jews and Gentiles grace and regeneration are alike contrary by nature; so that there are no natural branches, neither is there any grace derived from parents unto children, We are born again not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, Joh. 1.13. for amongst Jews and Gentiles there is no difference, All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Rom. 3. but this is spoken of a birth-right privilege, which doth descend and come upon a man as he grows upon such a root; therefore this is meant only of a visible Church-state. [2] It's spoken of an Olive-tree which hath two sorts of branches, some remain in their own Olive-tree, and are never broken off, but some there are that are broken off; for as Christ spreading himself as a Vine into a visible Church, hath both fruitful and unfruitful branches, some are in him that bear no fruit, Joh. 15.2. so hath the Church of God as an Olive-tree some branches that abide, and some that are broken off. Now in the invisible Church there are no branches to be broken off, for ex solis constat electis, it's the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven; therefore this Olive-tree is a visible Church, and the branches growing in it are visible members; they that are grafted in are taken into visible membership; and they that are broken off, are cast out from a visible membership: the root of this Olive-tree is Abraham the father of the Faithful, with whom as it were the Church-covenant did begin; for there was not a covenant made with him only for himself, That the Lord would be his God, but also the God of his seed; and therefore it's mercy to Abraham, but it's truth to Jacob, and the benefit of their grafting in is this, they partake of the root and of the fatness of the Olive-tree; the root is Abraham, and that in reference unto the Church-covenant made with him and his seed; wherefore they are the children of Abraham and of the Israel of God, and they partake of the fatness of Church-blessings, privileges, and ordinances; for that must be meant; for it's such a fatness that the Jews did partake of that were broken off, and such a fatness from which they also might be cut off, if they continued not in his goodness; therefore it must be meant of Church-ordinances and privileges only, and not of the saving graces of the Spirit, which flow immediately from Christ, and not from the Olive-tree the Church.

2. It is made a special mercy to the Jews, when they shall be grafted in again into their own Olive-tree, that is, become a Church of God, and be taken into Abraham's Church-covenant, and be made partakers of Church-privileges and ordinances; and this shall be the new Jerusalem that is to come down from God out of Heaven; and this Church shall enjoy communion by outward privileges and ordinances, as the Churches of the Gentiles do; for there shall be a gathering of men to the Lord by them, there shall fishers in abundance stand upon the waters, and the fish, which is the persons that shall be taken and converted by them, shall be as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many; for the great harvest of the Church is reserved for the latter days, and the Ministry must continue so long as there are any of the body to be gathered in, or to be perfected, till we come to the unity of the faith, and to be perfect men; and there shall be Church-censures administered in their glory and in the highest majesty and authority; there shall no unclean thing enter there; without shall be dogs, and everyone that loves and makes a lie; and it's that this Church shall bewail as the great want in those rising Gentiles, we have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: by breasts she means the ordinances and the ministry of the word wherein milk for babes is laid up; therefore this Church that she complains had no breasts was the Gentiles; as afterwards the Gentile Churches do with joy and triumph relate of themselves, verse. 10. That their breasts were like towers, &c. and as formerly the children of the Jews were taken into the Church-covenant with their parents, and made members of the visible Church, which no man can deny; so it shall be with them again; as they were broken off with their parents, so with their parents they shall be grafted in, and those promises made good unto them; their children were Church-members, and so shall they again be, Esa. 65.23. they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them, the promise is, Their children shall be as afore-time, and their congregation shall be established before me; which latter words do refer unto their Church-state, they shall be sons of the Church as they were in former times; and the Lord says, that the ordinance of Baptism shall be very fruitful even unto those infants of the Church, and very efficacious, though now it's dark, and we find little benefit by it, being an ordinance of God appointed by him to convey secretly gracious influences tending unto infants spiritual welfare, so some expound that place Cant. 7.2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, &c. The Church is here compared unto a mother conceiving and bringing forth: now here is the way of nourishment for children in the womb not yet brought forth, which is ministered by the navel; as to children brought forth it is taken in by the mouth. Now there being no ordinance of which children in the womb of the Church while infants are capable, but Baptism; therefore it's conceived by some to be meant here by the navel of the Church: and thus we see it shall be a special mercy to the Jews, when they shall be engrafted in again into the external form of a visible Church.

2. To be cast out from being a visible member is the greatest judgment that can befall a person or a people in this life; God doth then cut them up by the roots, (1) Upon a person; such a man is delivered to Satan, left under his power and kingdom: a man without the Church is under the care and inspection of the Church no more, but even left to the Devil to hurry him into all manner of wickedness or despair, as he did endeavor to do the incestuous person; and there was none of the Saints that might bear the burden with him; such a person is said to be Anathema maranatha; a man delivered by the Church of God as incorrigible, until the coming of the Lord; we can do no more with him, and therefore hereby he is bound over to answer it before the Judgment-seat of Christ. (2) It's the highest degree of temporal wrath upon a people, Hos. 1.7. there is a pedigree of judgments set down, but yet the highest is Loammi, and this breaking off of the Jews, the natural branches, and saying of your mother she is not my wife, is wrath that comes upon them to the uttermost; and then a people may be truly said to be utterly destroyed or brought unto an end; this is the last hour, the end of all things is at hand; the end of your Worship, and Temple, and Ordinances, and Services, and so the end of your Church and Common-wealth doth now draw near; it's not meant of the end of the world; and that's the end that Christ speaks of, Luk. 21.9. Ye shall hear of wars and commotions, but the end is not by and by: Therefore when the Lord doth once unchurch a people, the end of all things is at hand with them, there is nothing but utter destruction remaining for such; I say when the Lord doth thus, he doth cut them off by the root; as we see in the Churches of Asia, What a miserable condition have they been in ever since the Lord removed the Candlestick from them? and of all the enemies of God the Antichristian Church is the greatest, and is reserved unto the greatest judgments; and though it is true it doth fall by degrees, yet as soon as it became a mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of Harlots, and spiritual Egypt, and Sodom, ever since the Lord hath been pouring out vials of wrath upon her by degrees, which will at last sink her as a mill-stone into the Sea, and her plagues shall come upon her in one day, suddenly and irresistibly, and the Lord will deal with her as a Harlot, and one to whom he hath given a bill of divorce, to the amazement of all the Christian Churches; and it will be easier for her by all her art to weigh the fire, to measure the winds, to call back the day that's past, and to restore the verdure of the withered grass, than to reverse the sentence that's written against Babylon, She is fallen, is fallen, it is become a habitation of devils, and a cage of all unclean and hateful birds.

2. Now the particulars wherein this great Privilege consists, are many.

1. They have by this means the offers of the highest mercies, they are the children of the Kingdom, and the guests that were first invited unto the wedding, and therefore it was necessary, says the Apostle, that the word of God should be first preached unto you, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . There was a double privilege that the Jews had before Christ's coming, they were soli, alone, there was a partition-wall between them and all other people; but this being taken away, yet being the people of God to whom belonged the adoption, it's necessary that they should be primi, the first to whom the Gospel was offered. And the great mercies of our lives be offers of grace, and they are such, as being neglected, all the world cannot redeem; and these many an ungodly man hath in a glorious manner made unto him that he doth never accept, but doth, as the Jews did, put it from him, and thereby judge himself unworthy of eternal life, and the grace that is offered him in such offers of the Gospel.

2. They have the most glorious presence of God of any people in the earth; they are a people near to God, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he dwells with them, he has promised, I will dwell in them, and walk amongst them; the Lord walks in the middle of the golden Candlesticks, he goes down to the gardens to gather lilies: Jehovah Shammah: Jer. 13. Even as a girdle doth cleave to the loins of a man, so have I caused this people to cleave unto me, even the whole house of Israel; the Lord is in the middle of her; Christ sits there upon a glorious Throne, and they are all gathered together round about him, after the manner of their pitching in the Wilderness, where all the Tribes did pitch and incamp round about the Tabernacle, and therefore they are said to encompass the Lord about.

3. They have the most glorious influences: it's true, that Christ as Mediator hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual; a Kingdom of Providence as well as of Grace, and both are administered by the Spirit, They have quieted my Spirit, Zac. 6.8. but he hath a spiritual Kingdom in the Church, which is therefore called the Kingdom of Heaven, and all the members of it, whether they be regenerate or unregenerate, are called Children of the Kingdom, and upon those the Spirit of Christ hath great works, for the foolish Virgins have oil as well as the wise; and they have many excellent gifts, the unclean Spirit goes out of the man, when he returns he finds the house swept and garnished, for there is a great diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit: and what is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of those gifts? only the Church, for they are all for the body, and therefore they fall from them, when they depart this life, as Elijah's mantle did, when he went to Heaven; for then Prophecy shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away; and they have glorious common graces restraining sin, and are Virgins that have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ; and the house is swept, and the Devil is gone out, and thereby men are restrained from those lusts which they dearly love, and forced to an external conformity, when they have no inward principles to support them; and common graces elevating, improving, and sublimating nature, as we see, Heb. 6.7. The ground that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it: there is a rain of Influences as well as Ordinances; and by this means nature is strangely raised and improved, and yet the man continues in a state of unregeneracy still, and is nearer to cursing for it in the end.

4. They have very great temporal blessings; when Israel was taken into a marriage-covenant with God, the Lord says, I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine: then I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers skins, and girded thee with fine linen, and covered thee with silk, I decked thee with ornaments of gold, and put bracelets upon thy hands, &c. Upon the removal of the Candlestick, if the Lord unchurch a people, all other blessings go away with it: They shall take away thy eminent place, and they shall strip thee of all thy clothes: and 2 Chron. 7.20. this house will I cast out of my sight, and I will pluck them up by the root out of the land which I have given them.

5. They have a special patience and longsuffering attending them, and the Lord doth bear with them far for his people's sake, he lets the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers, Gather the tares in bundles to burn: we know that the patience and longsuffering of God is salvation.

6. They are delivered from many temporal judgments that others fall into; there is a special preservation and protection over them in the time of common danger, there is a sealing for the Church, the Lord sets a special mark upon them, and wicked men receive much by this, and so even a Cham may be saved in a common deluge, where many a better man may be drowned. There are privileges belonging to the society that a man joins himself unto, that a man enjoys for their sakes, but not for his own; as many a man, saith Austin, in the Invasion of the Goths, did scape by joining themselves unto the Christians. And Rehoboam shall be a Prince all the days of his life, for David my servants sake, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem. Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, a wicked man walking in the ways of Ahab and the Kings of Israel, and one who at the entrance of his Raign had practiced that ordinary devilish policy in use amongst Princes, to slay all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the Princes of Israel, thereby to strengthen himself; and yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the Covenant that he had made with him, to give him a light forever; and when Jerusalem was besieged in the days of Hezekiah by a mighty Army, the Lord says, They shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, but I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

7. There is a holiness that comes to them thereby; 1 Cor. 7.14. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy. (1) An inward holiness and sanctification it cannot be, for it's a holiness that is conveyed from the parents, but so the graces of the Spirit cannot be, which are not of blood nor of the will of the flesh. (2) Neither can it be meant of legitimation, that they are legitimate; for there is a lawful marriage between one man and one woman out of the Church as well as in the Church; so that they are lawfully man and wife, and their children lawfully begotten; for the truth of those relations are not founded in grace, a father is as truly a father, a Magistrate a Magistrate, a husband a husband in wicked men; and grace adds nothing to the truth of them, though it doth to the comfort and right use of them. (3) It's such a holiness as is derived from the faith of the parent; for it doth not come unto the child through the unbelieving parent; for if they were both unbelievers the children were unclean; but it's a holiness that comes upon the child from the faith of the parent, which can be nothing else but a federal holiness, being taken into the parents covenant, which is either from father or mother derived unto the posterity. Now all these are great blessings in themselves, though they do ripen a man's sins, and bring a greater curse upon him in the end; for the marish places shall be given to salt; there be no men in the world delivered over to such fearful spiritual plagues, as they are, and if any men prove Devils they do, the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out, and the Lord will say unto them, I know you not, &c.

§. 4. But what is this foederal holiness, and wherein doth it consist?

This I shall speak to, (1) Negatively, and show you what it is not: (2) Positively, and show you what it is; and both are very necessary in the present business, both that the false glosses fastened upon this place may be removed, and also the true nature of this Holiness cleared and established.

1. Negatively, what it is not: and here I find three interpretations as false and corrupt glosses given of it.

1. Of a Holiness of Regeneration: but that cannot be the meaning of it, for the gracious qualifications of the Soul are no more ex traduce than the Soul itself; no man is regenerated from his Parents, that he proceeds from; though they be themselves regenerate, yet the New-birth is not by Propagation. In this sense it is true, and to be understood, what Tertullian saith, None were born Christians. Here is a case propounded to the Apostle by some of the converted Corinthians, 1 Cor. 7.12. whether from the example of the Jews and the Law in force amongst them, and their practice in Ezra, to put away their strange Wives; or whether it were really the fear and jealousy of their own spirits, lest they might be corrupted by them, and lest their converse with them should be displeasing to God, and bring a Curse of God upon them; for it's spoken non de matrimoniis contrahendis sed retinendis, not of contracting but continuing marriage, Calvin. for else the command holds, be not unequally yoked together with Unbelievers; and marry only in the Lord; but being married, when they both continued in infidelity, whether now one party being converted and the other continuing in Idolatry, it be not the duty of the party converted to depart from such a yoke-fellow, because of the danger of being defiled by such constant and intimate society? In answer to this case, the Apostle says, if the unbelieving will continue, let not the believing husband put away his unbelieving wife, &c. and the Apostle gives the reason drawn from the powerful influence that a state of Grace hath upon those that are brought into it; for the privileges of the Covenant of Grace are not like unto Conclusions in Logic, which do follow in deteriorem partem; the same grace that doth sanctify the man, hath a powerful and a gracious influence to sanctify all things unto the use of the man; and as Calvin says, pluris est pietas unius ad conjugium sanctificandum, quàm alterius impietas ad inquinandum. There is a great deal of difference between jus natural & evangelicum, a man may have a natural right unto the creatures, and that lawful and before God; even unregenerate men may have so, which Christ bestows upon them as servants, as a reward of their laboring in a lawful way, and this is a right of Providence; but there is a right by virtue of union with Christ, when a man comes to take every creature as part of the Inheritance of Christ, as the Dowry that follows upon the Marriage with him; and this is a right of Promise: and answerable to this twofold right there is a great difference in the use of anything, between legitimum, legitime, and sanctum, holy; a lawful use unregenerate men may have, who have according to the Law of God and Nature a lawful right; and so a Heathen may have a lawful use of Meat, Drink and Apparel, and Marriage, &c. but a holy use none have but Believers. There is a double curse come upon all the creatures, and all relations by the fall: (1) They are deceiving; (2) They are defiling; they draw out a man's lusts, and they ensnare the man, and add unto the inward pollution of his spirit the more, for to the unclean all things are unclean; the uncleanness of a man does pollute all things unto him, because the Curse is not taken off from them; and so doth the holiness of the man sanctify all things unto him, all creatures and relations; the curse being taken off from the person, it's taken off from all the creatures, and relations for his use, that it shall not be a snare to him to defile his Conscience and improve his lust, and thereby destroy his Soul.

Now as for that interpretation that is given by some, viz. The unbelieving is sanctified, that is, by living with them they may be sanctified; for how knowest thou, O man, but thou mayst gain thy wife, &c. It's true, that the believer living with the unbeliever may be a means of conveying Grace; for grace is as fire that will turn all things into itself; but that I cannot conceive to be the meaning here; for the sanctification of the unbeliever is an uncertain thing, and many times does not fall out so, but the unbeliever is made the worse, and the more enraged against godliness thereby; but the Apostle does not say, shall be sanctified, as of a thing uncertain, but is sanctified, as of a thing past: thence it cannot be meant of true Grace; for this sanctification nihil point in infideli, he is an unbeliever still, and in himself still unclean; in themselves they are not holy, but yet they are sanctified, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which Beza will not render per uxorem as we do, by the wife, and by the husband, but in uxore, in the wife, and in the husband; that is, uxoris respectu, in reference to the believer either husband or wife: if I may present to you my own thoughts, I would here take 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pro 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as it's usually put in Scripture, 1 Cor. 7.15. For God has called us unto peace, it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pro 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Thess. 4.7. God has not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness; the Gospel is said to be preached unto every creature under Heaven, a place that has been lately abused much by some, upon which they would found that Doctrine, That men may come to salvation and to the knowledge of the Gospel without the Word, because they say every creature does preach the Gospel, the Gospel is preached in every creature; and so here, sanctified 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pro 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is unto the believer; though there be no holiness at all in the Unbeliever, but uncleanness, yet it is sanctified unto the Believer, that it shall not defile him. And this the Apostle doth further clear in another relation; for if Grace in you cannot sanctify your Conjugal relation, then it can never make your Parental relation holy and sanctified unto the Children; for there is the same power in Grace to sanctify one relation, as another; for if the worse party, the unbeliever, had a power to make the husband or wife unclean, then had he a power also to make the children unclean: but there is not such a power in the Believer, but it is sanctified to the other by Grace; and therefore are their children holy; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , alioquin certe, else truly were your children unclean, but now are they holy: for if your wives were to you only as other Pagans wives, and such of whom you have only a lawful use, as Pagans have, and not a holy use, then your Children also were in the same condition with other Pagans children, that is, unclean and profane; but your children are not so, they are not in the same condition with other Pagans children, for God has made a Covenant with Abraham, and with his spiritual seed amongst the Gentiles, as well as with his natural seed amongst the Jews; and the course of that Covenant the unbelief of a Pagan wife, so remaining, shall not hinder, if the father be a Believer, and taken into the Church of God; as we see in the example of the son of Moses, and in the example of Timothy, his mother Eunice being a Believer, though it is expressly noted that his father was a Greek, and nothing spoken of him, but as if he were a stranger unto the faith. And if it be objected, that the Child is holy as the Wife is, who is an unbeliever; for the wife is said to be sanctified as well as the child, and this is but a holiness of use, as you have interpreted, as all other things are by Grace sanctified unto the Saints, and all of them tend to their spiritual good: In answer hereto here we are to consider, that the Apostle does not say, that the child is sanctified unto the Parents, but 'tis said positively of their children, that they are holy. There is a double holiness, statûs & usus, of state and use, the wife is sanctified unto his use, as all other things are by virtue of the covenant of Grace, a blessing to him, and shall not be a snare unto his soul, nor a means to pollute and defile his inward man; and so is his honor sanctified, and his estate sanctified, and all things that belong to him; which cannot be said to be holy in themselves, but sanctified unto the man: but this of Children is the holiness of their state; that they are holy without respect unto their Parents use, they are so counted by God and are to be so reputed by men.

Now what is this holiness? I answer first Negatively, what it is not: 1. It's not spoken of a Holiness of Conversion and Regeneration; for, (1) The Sin of Adam came alike upon all Mankind, and by Nature all are alike polluted; and therefore the Apostle speaking of Jews and Gentiles, he says in this respect there is no difference, but even the Elect of God are the children of wrath as well as others; and if the Election of God have not that power upon a man to sanctify him, much less any relation else in the world can have in reference unto Regeneration, till the Spirit of God put forth upon him a work of his Almighty power. (2) This is not spoken of Regeneration; for it is a holiness that comes upon the Child through the Faith of the Parent, whether he be a Believer in verity or in visibility only; but the holiness of Regeneration doth not come upon the child any such way; if neither of the Parents do believe, the child is unholy, but if either of them be a Believer, there is from the faith of the believing Parent a holiness comes upon the Child; but that is not of Regeneration. (3) It's a Holiness that may be lost; for these branches may be broken off, that is, either cast out with their Parents, as the Church of the Jews were; when the Lord was pleased to unchurch them and call them Loammi, he did with their Parents cast out their Children, and they were holy unto God no more; or else they may be cast out and justly deprived of their own privileges by their own personal offenses, and so be cast off from this estate of holiness: but this cannot be said of the holiness of Regeneration and Conversion, for there a man's holiness is everlasting, because a man receives a seed of holiness and sanctification, which shall never die, which can never be broken off; for he receives a spirit of sanctification within him, and has not only an outward respect to holiness put upon him, &c. but there is many a man in Christ as he is a Vine that spreads himself into a visible Church on Earth that may be cut off from him, and may be cast out as a branch and wither; and yet if we look upon Christ as he is a head in Heaven, so he has no dead members; but as a Vine upon Earth, so he has many a withered branch, that may be cut off, and be cast out, and men gather them, and they may be cast into the fire and burn, that is, they burn hotter because they prove more wicked than other men, and their privileges do but add to their sins and quicken their destruction.

2. It's not meant of Legitimation, that is, a civil holiness (as some will call it) as if the meaning were, else were your children bastards; but now they are holy; that is, lawfully begotten: (1) Because the Legitimation of the child does not depend upon the faith of the Parent either one, or both; for we know that there were lawful marriages among the Heathen, and where the marriage is lawful by the consent of one man and one woman, there the seed is legitimate, though neither of them be a Believer; as on the other side, a child may be a Bastard and illegitimate though both Parents be believers, if not begotten in lawful marriage, by the mutual consent of both parties, giving up themselves each to other in such a relation; as we see it in the child of David begotten in Adultery, which was illegitimate, though both the Parents were Saints; for so we have good ground to conceive of Bathsheba; Solomon the Son of my Vowes; now the holiness here spoken of is such as depends upon and flows from the faith of the Parents, one or both, and which only faith can give, and nothing else. (2) The Holiness that is here spoken of, is such as may be lost; there is a holiness that is derived from the root unto the branches, and the branches may be broken off, and others may be grafted in; now a man that is legitimate cannot be made illegitimate, and a man that is illegitimate, cannot be made legitimate; there is no way in the thing itself to make him so, whatever may be done in the account and repute of men to civil ends. (3) It has been well observed by some of our Divines, that this doth wholly take away the strength of the Apostles answer, and make it to be nothing to the purpose; for when once the Corinthians were converted, they did scruple in point of Conscience whether they might lawfully live with their Pagan yoke-fellows, for fear of being corrupted by them: Now the Apostle answers this case thus, You may lawfully live with them, for ye are lawfully Man and Wife, your marriage is lawful; if your Marriage were not lawful, your children were bastards, but your Marriage is lawful, and therefore your children are legitimate, which makes the Apostle speak that which is nothing in itself; for who did not well know, that the legitimation of the Child did flow from the lawfulness of the Marriage, and that if the Marriage be not lawful, the Child cannot be legitimate? This makes the Apostle speak nothing to the purpose, or to the case that is propounded to him.

3. There is yet another interpretation given of it by Estius, which also I find Jerome in one of his Epistles to Paulinus to give as the sense that Tertullian did put upon these words, asking, How the Children of believing Parents are holy? He answers, Because they are as it were in a way unto Faith and to Conversion, and brought under the power and blessing of a Christian Education, and have the example of the Saints before their eyes, which may be powerful to Conversion; and so say they, Sanctification is such a preparation, one deputed and prepared for such an end; the Medes and Persians are called God's sanctified ones, that is, such as he has set apart and prepared for such a work; and so do these seem to be set apart by holy Education, and as it were prepared unto holiness and conversion; and this is a sense also that some do catch after, to avoid the true sense of the holiness that is here spoken of by the Apostle: But this cannot be the meaning here, (1) Because the Apostle does not here speak, as Chamier hath well observed, de re incerta & futura, of a thing uncertain and future, but of something which was already actually in being; not only they were in a way or preparation to holiness, but they are holy, and the wife is sanctified, as that which all the Believers in the Church of Corinth that were thus unequally yoke'd might build upon, though many of their Children should never be converted by their holy and religious Conversation. (2) This is a holiness that is derived from the root to the branches, and doth come upon the Children through the faith of the Parents; but for Religious Education, that may as well befall the Child of a Pagan, he may be taken into a Christian family, as men were bought by Christians of old, and had religious education; and in this respect any Pagans Child taken into a godly family to be educated, may as truly be said to be holy as the child of a Believer; so a Turks Child taken here to be educated, is as truly holy as the Child of any godly man in the world: but this cannot be, for it is a holiness that doth proceed from the faith of the parent, that if one of them be not a Believer, their children are unclean, and if they be, then they are holy; however they are educated afterwards, yet there is a holiness that by grace comes upon them, and if the child of a Christian should be taken away by a Turk (as we have known many children have been, as Skanderbeg was, &c. ) yet there is a holiness comes upon the child from the faith of the parents, though he should be deprived of holy and religious education, which good parents, if it had been in their power, would have given him.

2. Let us now come and speak unto it positively, What is this holiness that doth come upon children by the faith of their parents and by their coming under their parents Covenant? You say, that it is neither Regeneration, nor Legitimation, nor Preparation unto Grace by a religious education, what is it then by which they are said to be made holy?

This holiness is a special privilege which the Lord hath annexed unto the Covenant of Grace, taking in the children of believing parents into Covenant with themselves, making the promises of the Covenant to run to them and their seed; that as natural parents in a natural way convey sin, so believing parents in a federal way may also convey holiness to their seed.

1. There is an Adoption belongs to them, Rom. 9.4. As there is an Adoption of God that is grounded upon regeneration by men's being begotten and born of God, so there is an Adoption that consists in the external reputation only, when the Lord will honor men and visibly own them for his before the world, as Exod. 19.5. Israel is my son, my first-born. (1) They are separated from the rest of the world to be a visible Church unto God, and by virtue of this separation or partition-wall the Jews were commonly called the holy people, because they were taken by God into the holy Covenant; for it's a holiness that flows from the covenant, it's the holy Covenant that makes them to be accounted the holy people. There are two sorts of men in the world, some are said to be within, and some without. Now they that are brought into a visible Church are said to be within, separated from all other people to be a Church unto God, and out of which number God will in an ordinary way gather all those that shall be saved, Joh. 4. Salvation is of the Jews, and unto which number all that shall be saved shall surely be added; Act. 2.47. And the Lord added unto the Church daily those that should be saved; for a person to have a hedge so made about him, and for God to separate him from other men of the world, that are made of the same dust with him, and that are no more polluted with sin from Adam than he, and yet for the Lord to take one into such a society, and separate him from the common rank of the men of the earth, this is a special privilege and favor; as doth appear by the contrary judgment, when the Lord doth unchurch a people or a person, and call them Loammi, it is a fruit of the highest and greatest wrath, when he doth break down the hedge, and remove the Candlestick, and deliver a man unto Satan as they are that are without. (2) The Name of God is called upon them, and they are children born of God, and he doth own them for his, and he is not ashamed to be called their God, they are a peculiar people and a holy nation; which, as all Interpreters agree, is taken from Exod. 19.5. which related unto them, not as an invisible, but as a visible Church; such a Church as had Officers over it, which the Church invisible cannot have; and therefore God is called the God of Israel, and they are called the Israel of God; and that's the highest honor that can be put upon a creature, that the Lord should be called their God, to have the number of his Name, as 'tis said of Antichrist, Rev. 13.17. he hath four things, the mark, the image, the name, and the number of his name; and the Saints are said to get victory over all these: I do not take number here to be arithmetical, a man consisting of numeral letters, as generally it hath been conceived to be, but I take number for the common account and esteem that is had of men, and so it is taken in several languages, as in the Greek Homer hath it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a man of great account in war, a man numbered, that is, generally known to be a skillful and expert soldier; and in Latin we say, vir nullius numeri, a man of no account and esteem, and Act. 1.26. He was numbered with the Apostles, that is, he was generally taken, accounted, and esteemed as an Apostle, and to be added unto the Apostles order; so that the number of his name is that common esteem and repute of men belonging to Antichrist, to favor and to carry on his design, though under fair and specious shows to the contrary, when men do not seem to declare it, but yet all their actings tend that way; as many a man doth oppose Christ under the profession of Christ so there is many a man that doth exalt Antichrist under the detestation of Antichrist; such men whatever their profession and great out-cries are, commonly are esteemed and reputed to be of that number, and that they do labor to build that which they would fain make the world believe, they endeavor to pluck down. Now if it be so great a dishonor to have the name of the beast, or the number of his name, what an honor on the contrary must it be to have the Name of God called upon a man? And if getting victory over the name of the Beast, and the number of his name be so great a mercy and glory, what an infinite shame and reproach will it be for a man to have the Name of God taken off from him which was formerly called upon him?

2. The Ordinances of God do of right belong to them; and God hath therefore separated them from other people, that he might set his Tabernacle in the middle of them, and they have his presence with them; there the worship of God is, there is a glorious Throne, by which is meant the Lord Christ in the presence of his people, and it is of a visible Church; for there are Beasts and Elders, there are Believers, and there are Officers, which cannot be in the Church invisible; therefore this presence of God in Ordinances, and the Ordinances themselves do belong unto this visible Church, and the members of it have a right unto them all, as being born of believing parents; and they have not only jus haereditarium, an hereditary right, but jus actual, an actual right, which is called jus in re, when they shall be made fit for them, and are capable of them: it was the great honor of Israel that it was the valley of Vision, and that because of the presence of God there, it is called the holy City, Ariel the Altar of God; and the great honor of the new Jerusalem is, Rev. 21.3. That the tabernacle of the Lord shall be with men: it is not meant of Heaven, for it is a Tabernacle, there shall be Ordinances therein; and the same is spoken of, Ezech. 48.35. Jehovah shammah.

3. There is a special Providence that doth watch over them: though it is true, not the same peculiar Providence that doth watch over those that are really Saints and by union members of Christ, but yet there is a special Providence towards the visible Church in reference unto all the works of God; and therefore, Zac. 2.5. to hurt them is as touching the apple of his eye, and he will be a wall of fire about Jerusalem; theirs is such a protection as other men have not; and therefore when the Lord did unchurch them, he says, he will take away the wall and the hedge, and they shall be trodden down; that is, that peculiar Providence that the Lord did before exercise towards them, now he will remove and give them up into the hands of men to devour them; as it is in Deut. 32.30. said, that their rock had sold them, God did put them into the hands of their enemies, Thou sellest thy people for naught: and we know amongst men what it is for an out-law, a proscribed man to be put out of the protection of the Law; and so when the Lord doth cast any man out of the Church, he doth put him out of protection also.

4. The great and special workings of the Spirit of Christ do belong unto such: it is true, that Christ hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual, and the Spirit is the Viceroy and Prorex in both; the Spirit rules for him, and therefore there are mighty workings of the Spirit of God raising up the spirits of men, and fitting and preparing of them for to accomplish the Lord's work, and to bring about his ends, but yet in the spiritual Kingdom there are the chief operations of the Spirit; the Apostle counts three things as works of the Spirit: (1) Gifts of the Spirit. (2) There are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , administrations, functions, and offices, and they are divers, which these gifts qualify men for. (3) There are different fruits and effects, works and successes that the Spirit doth give unto these gifts in different offices and administrations: but unto whom doth all this belong? they do all of them belong to the Church: he hath set in the Church offices, and given them gifts, and his saving gifts are amongst these, and many very glorious common works, by which even unregenerate men are sanctified; for the Blood of Christ by which they are sanctified they may despise as an unholy thing; and in this privilege of being a member of the visible Church of God, and having the Name of God called upon him, and the services of God pertaining to him, in this doth this holiness consist, and a man thereby is separated from all other people in the world.

[Quest. 5] §. 5. Is this federal right to the children only the privilege of parents, and so conveyed unto the child from the parents, one or both of them being Believers? or is there any other way of conveyance? We read Gen. 17.12. how not only they came under Abraham's Covenant that were of his seed, but he that was born in his house, that was not of his seed, or bought with his money, or any stranger, he was to come under Abraham's Covenant, and was to be circumcised as well as any that did come out of Abraham's loins; and we find that the Church of God did therefore ordain Sureties, which were to take upon them the care of the education of such children, answerable unto that Religion into which they were baptized; and they were admitted thereunto by their proparentes right, which otherwise had no right thereunto by their natural parents; and this is so ancient, that I find in the second Century Hyginus; Susceptores ad baptismum Christianorum adjecit, &c. Magdeb. And Tertullian has a hint of it, as in use in his time also, which hath been justified by Divines since, and therefore practiced in the Church of God in succeeding ages to this day: Aliquando filiis infidelium per statum haec gratia ut baptizentur, cùm occulta Dei providentia in manu piorum qumodocun{que} perveniunt, Aug. de Grat. & lib. And hence our Divines generally have concluded, that as there is a spiritualis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which Christ doth convey unto the Saints, a sonship before God, so there is a privilege that belongs to Christians of those that are taken by them into their care and charge, they have a privilege to convey a kind of sonship unto them by a spiritual Adoption. And Mr. Calvin in an Epistle to Farel about the baptizing of a child of a Papist by father and mother, the Grandmother being a Protestant, and desiring the child might be baptized, Calvin inquires, if she would engage to the Church for the education of the child, the child then might be baptized, and had an interest in the Covenant by her right, undertaking for its education, though it had no intetest nor right by the immediate parents. And Mr. Perkins and many others, though they look upon sureties as not of divine institution, and only for a civil use, testifying the abundant care of the Church, of the education of those that were received by them, and not as simply necessary unto the Sacrament of Baptism; yet they conceive them lawful, and not to be rejected, so as they be qualified for so great a trust, and do faithfully discharge it in the fear of God. By this it will appear our Divines generally judge, that there is a kind of spiritual Adoption, that a godly man may convey a right by, and give an interest in the Covenant, and the privileges of the Covenant unto those that are not his seed, and • hose that from their natural parents have no right at all.

Now to cross the judgment of so many reverent and holy men, both ancient and modern, hath been a very great trouble to me, and upon the most serious debate I did desire, • hat the balance might have been cast the contrary way; but at last considering that the • cripture is unto them and us the Rule of Doctrines, and the Judge of Controversies, unto which they bind themselves, and that if an Apostle, or an Angel from Heaven do speak the contrary, it's because there is no light in them; and because we have learnt from themselves, •• at they were not satisfied with their own light in many things, but writ according to their • resent apprehensions, with a desire still to a further and clearer discovery: Mihi prope semper • rmo meus displicet & melioris avidus sum; and therefore our Divines generally forsake them • n many things, as not walking with a right foot towards the truths of the Gospel; and Luther professes of his works, If the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to give an account of his do • trine when he asked, Quanto magìs ego faex, non nisi errare potens, &c. and therefore he doth • eseech men by the mercy of God, That if any man could convince him of his errors he would, for he was ready to retract them. This hath encouraged me with all submission to speak my • pprehensions out of the word, though they are contrary unto that doctrine that hath been • o anciently taught, and so commonly received.

Herein I would speak unto three things. (1) I would lay this for a ground, That only •• rents can give the child a federal right. (2) I would answer the instance given of the circumcising of servants born in Abraham's house, or bought with his money, though they were not of his seed, and how far they had their right from Abraham. (3) I would speak something to the ancient custom of Sureties or Godfathers in the primitive times.

1. Only parents can give their children a federal right, and none else; and that I shall endeavor to make manifest to you by these arguments, 1. From the nature of the Covenant, which doth only take in his seed, Abraham and his seed, Noah and his seed, the woman and her seed, David and his seed; the holiness of branches, it's spoken of a federal holiness, because it is applied to branches that were broken off, therefore it is meant of a child's holiness, and it doth proceed from the holiness of the root, upon which they grew, and such a holiness as the converted Gentiles had for their seed, by virtue of the same Covenant; and therefore the children of believing parents are called the children of the Covenant, as being a birthright that belongs to them; and as we may not with some, deny them that which is their right, so we are not of our own authority to appoint them coheirs, some that shall share with them therein. Mr. Calvin indeed saith, Hîc certe locum habet regula vulgaris, favores sunt ampliandi; yet we should not limit the grace of the Covenant, and stretch it beyond the rule of the Word, and our grace in receiving men must not be larger than God's grace manifested in the Covenant that he hath established, wherein we do learn that the child's federal right is the confederate parents privilege, but never that a person in covenant hath a power, having no seed, to adopt any unto himself for spiritual privileges, or that he may extend them to any but those that God hath taken into covenant with him, which is his seed; an adoption in things temporal is allowed by the Law of God and man, but that there should be in men adoption in things that are spiritual in reference to a covenant-right, that is to extend the terms of the covenant beyond the line that God hath in his Word stretched forth. It's true, Abraham was a public person in the covenant of grace with whom as it were the covenant eminently began, and he was (as one hath well observed) therein a type of Christ, as David, Psal. 89.34. and therefore Abraham is said to be the father of us all, Rom. 4.16. the father of many Nations; but this is only in respect of the spiritual grace of the covenant, and not the external spiritual privileges of the covenant, for the children of the promise are accounted for his seed; though they were not of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, yet they did walk in the steps of Abraham, and were the children of his faith, though not of his flesh: but other Christians are not made public persons in this respect, as Adam, Abraham, and David were; and therefore in reference to these outward spiritual privileges they can convey them unto none but unto their seed, whom the Lord takes into covenant with himself, as appears in the Text; and our grace must not be larger than God's.

2. The Apostle, 1 Cor. 7.14. lays down the rule plainly, That the holiness of the child comes from the holiness of the immediate parent, one or both; and on the contrary, the uncleanness of the child comes from the uncleanness of the parent, else were they unclean, but now are they holy; it's spoken here of a federal holiness, as we have before proved, and the Divines before quoted do grant, if one of the parents be not in this respect holy, the Apostle pronounceth their children unclean; that is, they have no federal holiness; and if the Lord say, that they are unclean, who is it that can by his undertaking for their education make them holy, till God by a work of conversion make them so? It would make federal holiness, which is one of the great privileges of the second Covenant, and an expression of the free grace of the Gospel, to be a thing of small account, if any man might say of the children of a Heathen, It's true, neither of their parents was a Believer, and the children are unclean by their birth, but I will make them holy, for I will undertake for their education; this seems to be a way of holiness that was never appointed by the Spirit of God, and was unknown to the Apostles and to the Church of God in the times of the Apostles; for he puts the holiness or the uncleanness of the child upon the holiness or uncleanness of the parents only, either one or both.

3. It would make this title to be a vain thing in the sight of God, and all administrations of the Church grounded thereupon to no purpose; as if a Jew should have taken the child of a Heathen and circumcised it, it had not been an Ordinance of God, neither should that child have been looked upon as circumcised; as it's observed by Cyprian: De ration circumcisionis. Non tantùm in Hebraeos, sed etiam in Phoenices & Arabes haec traditio inolevit. So Jerome in Jerem. 9.25. and yet the Lord says, I will punish them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised; and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their heart; they did use Circumcision, but it was not an Ordinance of God to them, neither did he count them circumcised, being out of covenant with him; whatever Church-administrations are used towards men, not as an Ordinance of God to them, are in God's account of none effect. Now there are but two ways that we read of in Scripture of bringing men into covenant, either by a personal right from the parties by conversion, or by parental right, which by the grace of the covenant is extended from the parents unto the children in a way of federal sanctification.

4. This Doctrine of federal right by Sponsors lays three absurdities inevitably, which I conceive those very Divines cannot admit. (1) It puts the child's federal right upon his education, and a persons undertaking for it to the Church, which the Scripture doth put upon a man's generation, making it a birth-privilege; whatever his education be, that cannot take away the right of a child, till by his sin through the Ordinance of Excommunication he be as a branch broken off from the root upon which he did formerly grow. (2) It makes that which is an act of God's free grace, to be man's free gift; no man is bound to adopt or to undertake the education of the child of another man; whereas it is of free grace that God only takes parents into covenant with their children also; and to put this upon the act of man as an act of his grace, I cannot but look upon it as derogatory to the grace of God. (3) This will justify that which generally our Divines condemn, namely the Papists stealing of the children of the Heathen to baptize them, there being some sureties that will undertake to the Church for their education. It's true that it doth not justify the theft, but yet as to the baptizing of them it doth, which our Divines generally and many of the Popish Divines themselves condemn.

2. For the instance out of Gen. 17.12. That all the males in Abraham's house were to be circumcised, whence it's inferred, That Christians have the same privilege upon those that are per media legitima brought into their power, whether they be born in their house, or bought with their money, or taken in war, and that they undertaking for their education, they are to be looked upon as having a federal right by adoption conveyed to them, and may therefore be baptized; it is answered, There are two ways by which men come to have a federal right, either personal, or parental; all the men grown being in Abraham's family were instructed in the knowledge of the true God, and the ways of his will and worship, as we see his servant Eleazar of Damascus was; and therefore they are called, Gen. 14.14. his catechized servants, and so the word will bear, and God gave that testimony of him, Gen. 18.19. That he did command his children and his household: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 disciplinâ & pietate imbutos: therefore those were circumcised in their own right, that is, by their own consent; and it's the observation of a learned Jesuit, Menoch. de Reg. Hebrae. l. 3. c. 170.9. Ad circumcisionem nullus invitus adigi poterat. Non poterant Hebraei habere domi servos incircumcisos, and either they ought not to buy them, or not to retain them; therefore they that were men in Abraham's family were circumcised by their own right, as a visible Church by their own consent, and for the children of such they were not circumcised in Abraham's right, as is supposed, though they were taken into his Covenant, but in the right of their own immediate parents, who were themselves circumcised and Church members, as all the children of the Jewish Proselytes were, their fathers being circumcised and admitted into the Church of the Jews; which the Prophet doth call being joined to the Lord, their children were also taken into the same Covenant in the right of their parents, they being Proselytae foederis, and had an interest in it, being received into it by their own consent, they and their seed as well as the Jews themselves had.

3. For that ancient custom of Sponsors or Sureties in the Church, I think Austin gives the ground of it, when he saith, There were many that were converted from Paganism that were not well instructed in the principles of Religion; and therefore to testify their great care of those that by Baptism they received into the Church, in reference to their education, though their parents were Christian, and so their children had a right, yet some able and faithful men of known integrity and authority in the Church were as sureties together with the parents to engage themselves to take care that they were instructed and educated according to the principles of that Religion into which they were baptized. Yet this was no institution of God, but a prudential act of the Church to a holy and a good end; neither doth it make anything for the giving of the children a right by any but the immediate parents; neither were such sureties used in the baptizing of the children of Pagans, or any but those that were Christians and themselves converted to the faith.

[Quest. 6] §. 6. If only parents can give the children a federal right, is this right from the immediate parents only, or from those that are more remote also? For answer to it our Divines commonly say, that the right is from either the immediate or the remote parents. There is an Epistle of Mr. Farells that he wrote unto Calvin in this case. There was one of the Church had married her daughter to a Papist, and the Grandmother desired that their child might be baptized, which Mr. Farel refused, Ego respondi non admittendum quod in foedere non sit, cùm neuter parens sit fidelis, and this caused some difference between him and his Colleague or Fellow-laborer in the work of the Ministry. And to decide this controversy he writes to Mr. Calvin, and in answer to it he laid down two positions. (1) That it's unlawful for us to baptize the children of Papists: Absurdum est ut eos baptizemus, qui corporis nostri membra censeri nequeunt; & cùm in hoc ordine sint Papistarum liberi, quomodo baptismum illis administrare liceat non videmus, &c. (2) The Grandmother desires it, and there's the difficulty, upon that he answers, Cùm Dominus gratiam suam in multas aetates extendat, eam astringere non est nostrum, &c. Calv. Epist. pag. 174, 175. And it's the ordinary answer of our Divines, That the infant is not to be debarred from the privileges of the Covenant for the sins of the immediate parents; for those that descended from Abraham and David had a right to Circumcision, and were within the Covenant, though the immediate parents for some foregoing generations were wicked, as Psal. 106.35. they were mixed among the Heathen, and had learned their works, and served their Idols, yet he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry, and remembered for them his Covenant, even the Covenant that he made with Abraham, &c. The promise is to you and your children; and yet it's clear, that their immediate parents were a wicked generation, that had killed the Prophets, as they themselves had a hand in crucifying the Lord of glory; concerning the Gospel it's said of the Jews, That they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election they are beloved for their fathers sake; their immediate fathers were wicked and enemies to the Gospel, and yet is there a holiness that comes from Abraham the root unto the Jews, when they shall be converted; for God shows mercy unto them that love him to a thousand generations; and Joshua had little reason to have circumcised the people at Gilgal for the holiness of their immediate parents, whose carcasses fell in the Wilderness, and yet he did circumcise them there as being within the Covenant, and did thereby roll away from them the reproach of Egypt: and hence they do say, that the children of Papists and excommunicated Protestants born within the visible Church are to be baptized, if any of their forefathers have been found in the faith.

And I could gladly have rested in this so received a judgment of godly and learned men, but that some considerations have put me upon a further inquiry; for I find in the administration of the seals of the Covenant as well as in the application of the promises of the Covenant, that they are to be administered with judgment in the parties that do administer them, and that there is a great trust and a special charge committed to them therein, Mat. 7. Give not that which is holy unto dogs; It's a dangerous evil for a man either wittingly or negligently to dispense the Ordinances of God and the privileges of the Covenant to those unto whom God did never intend them, as it is to deny them unto those whose right they are. As to apply the promises unto wicked men, and make glad the souls of the unrighteous, and to sew a pillow under every arm-hole, and provide a kerchief for every head, is as bad as it is to deny the promises unto men whose right they are; so to make glad the souls of the wicked by applying the seals to their seed, is as bad as to make sad the souls of the righteous by denying them. It was that Chrysostom stood much upon in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, he would rather suffer his own blood to be poured out, than to give the blood of Christ to be profaned by an unworthy receiver; and surely if so much care and diligence be to be used in Church-Officers in dispensing of one Sacrament, the other is not to be so carelessly and promiscuously administered as it is; and therefore it was the great offense that Mr. Farel took at the Colleague joined with him in the Ministry: Quod omnia profanare & improbissimos velle admittere non-vereretur, That he feared not to profane all things, and admit the most wicked. These thoughts have put me upon farther inquiry concerning the persons unto whom the Sacrament of Baptism is to be administered, and to whom the privileges of the Covenant do belong, and the apprehensions that I have of it out of the word I shall desire with all submission to propose to you. (1) I will lay down in several propositions what. I conceive to be the truth. (2) I shall answer the objections that are commonly made against them; and so I hope the truth may be cleared, or at least hereby an occasion given to them that are better able to judge, of further inquiry.

1. I conceive that federal right comes to the children only from the immediate parents; and the Reasons that induce me to conceive so are these.

1. In Scripture I find that when God took parents into Covenant, he also took in their children with them, and whensoever God cast parents out, the immediate parents, he did cast out their children also. When he took the Jews into Covenant, he made this Covenant also with their seed; and because the root was holy, from thence came also an holiness upon the branches: and when he did cast off the immediate parents and called them Loammi, he did also cast off their seed; and it would have been in vain to the Jews to have said, We have Abraham for our father, and therefore have still a federal right, when God had given unto their immediate parents a bill of divorce, and looked upon them as a people in Covenant with him no more: as therefore, though none of their predecessors were holy and in Covenant, yet the faith of the immediate parents and their interest in the Covenant does make the children holy, and brings them under the privileges of the Covenant; so though many of their predecessors were holy, yet if the immediate parents reject and cast off the Covenant, and be rejected of God, the children also are cast out with them; there is the same reason of rejection by immediate parents, that there is of reception; but the rejection may be in the one without respect unto Ancestors, therefore it must be so in the reception also.

1. There are some Ordinances that are purely so, and may be dispensed to all that will partake in them; but there are some Ordinances that are such as carry also privileges with them, and belong not unto all men that will receive them, but in Scripture are appointed to some only; and amongst these chiefly are the seals of the Covenant which are not to be administered to all men; for Christ did never appoint his Ministers to baptize all mankind, but Believers only, and their seed whom he takes into Covenant with himself.

2. I look upon Baptism as a great Ordinance: (1) As being one of the first Institutions of the New Testament, and which the Lord Jesus Christ himself subjected unto by the hand of a servant. (2) In respect of the things signified and sealed thereby, which are our first union with Christ, the great promise of the Spirit of Sanctification, our Redemption by Christ, and communion with him in his Death and Resurrection. (3) It being the Ordinance of public admission into the visible Church; for as under the Old Testament the admission was by Circumcision, so under the New it has always been by Baptism: They were baptized and added to the Church.

3. It being an admission into the visible Church, it is a power committed unto men, unto whom the power of the Keys is committed; for as admission into the Church invisible is an immediate act of Christ, so admission into the Church visible is committed unto the Officers under Christ: I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: in Scripture a Key is symbolum potestatis, a symbol of power, as Esa. 22.22. and this power is twofold. (1) Supreme and absolute, which is in the hand of Christ, who is said to have a double power, the Keys of Hell and Death, and the Key of the Church, called the Key of David; and this is by some called the Key of Royalty, he being the Head and King of the Church: but there is also (2) A power subordinate and limited, potestas oeconomi, the power of a steward, as Beza does expound it, a power of Ministry, by which all the affairs in his house as visible may be acted and ordered according to his mind for the ends that he has proposed; and this is a Key of Ministry, which some do call a Key of Charity; and these Keys are for opening and shutting the doors of the visible Church; and therefore the persons to whom they are committed, whether they be committed to the Church first, as the first subject, or to the Officers, we need not now dispute; they both have an authority to open the Kingdom of Heaven unto some, and to shut it unto others.

4. Christ owns their acts no further than in them they walk by his rule and observe his order; as it is in Excommunications and Ejections, if they be clave errante, they do not bind in Heaven; as we see in the putting out of the Synagogue by the Pharisees, and by Diotrephes his usurped power; as also by that of Antichrist, who ordains, That no man must buy or sell save he that had the mark; anathematis Ecclesiastici censura innuitur. Now as such Ejections are not owned by Christ, so neither are Admissions that are not according to the same rule; because they are exercised errante clave, and therefore all that labor is in vain, and is a mere abuse of the power of the Keys, and so a dishonor put upon the Ordinance of Christ in the one, as well as in the other, because the rule is transgressed in both; for he has in his Word given rules for the one as well as for the other.

5. The trust committed unto Officers in this kind is exceeding great, and therefore the account will be dreadful; for what is a particular visible Church, but a golden Candlestick, and the Sponse of Christ, and the Body of Christ? Now how great a trust is it to be employed in things of so high concernment, and how dangerous must the error needs be to espouse a soul to Christ that he neither can nor will own for his? How great a wrong is it? Now the nearer the relation, the greater the transgression; and so it is to place a member in the body of Christ that he abhors: and therefore Admissions and Ejections of Church-members are some of the greatest acts of men's lives, and should be done with greatest heed and the greatest solemnity; and how shall that Officer appear before the Lord at the last day, who through ignorance knows not, or through carelessness or custom regards not the rules of Christ in either of them? which Tertullian says, was the greatest mischief that could befall the Heathen: Hoc solum sufficit neutra ultioni, quod vacua exinde possessio immundis spiritibus pateret: To leave men out of the Church as a possession of Satan, to leave a man to Satan, and to deliver him to Satan, admits not much difference; and so for their receptions, they were solemn things; for what can be greater than to receive a man into the Kingdom of Heaven, or to deliver a man unto Satan, and bind his sins upon his conscience until the coming of the Lord?

6. There ought to be as great care in one Sacrament, that it be not misapplied, as there is in the other. It is granted, that to administer the Supper of the Lord in a promiscuous manner to all without distinction were a great evil, a giving of the children's bread to dogs, a great means to harden the hearts of profane men in an evil way, looking upon themselves as having a right to all the privileges of the Saints, though they be such as hate holiness; and by this means great breach of trust in them that do administer it: and therefore the Church in ancient times did proceed with much wariness and tenderness in it, as appears by the instance of Chrysostom; and they took the same care for Baptism also, they must be audientes, and afterwards competentes before they were admitted unto Baptism; and therefore the rule in the Nicene Council, as it is recorded by Balsam. is this: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , That no unbeliever be baptized without sufficient instruction and trial, &c. They were first to be instructed in the Principles of Religion, and if well catechized, yet not by and by to be admitted unto Baptism, because the trial of those things do require time: and if a man had scandalously sinned, there was a great deal of care taken of readmission; as we see how much there was of the incestuous Corinthian, before he was received; at first they did too little chastise, and then afterwards they did too much; the Church had much ado to observe the order of God in it; and so it was in Austin's time, for some sins per triennium erant inter catechumenos, and in some sins quin{que} annos exigant inter catechumenos, nay sometimes it is poenitentes erant cum catechumenis septem vel decem annos, the Penitents were with the Catechumen seven or ten years, and for some sins they were not admitted all their life time. Now if there be so much to do about Readmissions, surely there should be a great care had of the first Admissions. As therefore in admission to deny it to those to whom Christ by a Legacy hath bequeathed it, would seem highly derogatory to the goodness and rich grace of the Testator (as the Anabaptists do) so also to misplace it upon those that by divine warrant have no right to it, is as great a breach of trust, and a dishonor unto him that did institute this mysterious Ordinance, and bestow it as a privilege upon the Church, as I fear we too commonly have done. These considerations have put me upon a further inquiry into it, as desirous to see divine warrant for the persons to whom I do administer one Sacrament as well as the other, and not to take up a tradition which has deceived many.

And herein, though I grant, that there is unto children a federal holiness, and they have a parental right unto Baptism, and I say with Nazianzen, Let him be sanctified and offered unto God in his infancy; yet I say, that this being by a parental, and not by personal right, we are to inquire into this right, whether it does lawfully descend from the parents or no; and if it do, it must be from the remote or immediate parents, or both, or either. Now upon consideration I conceive, that the Scripture wholly carries it unto immediate parents only, and that there is no other title to Baptism, or to any federal holiness but this only, and that upon these reasons.

1. Wheresoever God has taken parents into Covenant, he has taken their children also; and when he has cast out the immediate parents, he has cast out their children with them, as before.

2. If there be such an ascending as this is, where shall we stay? for if we go upwards, one parent has no more privilege to give a child a right than another, and so by this means we shall take in the children of Turks, and Jews, and all, for some of their predecessors were holy, and men in Covenant, and that in far less than a thousand generations; and therefore there will be no way to stop, but by this rule we must baptize all mankind: and whereas this Ordinance as well as the other is to be administered with judgment by him that administers it, that it may be done in faith, in this federal right from remote parents there is nothing but uncertainty; so that no man is able to conclude anything from it. I confess that man's judgment is not to be the rule, but the application of the rule is to be by him as well in one Sacrament (I conceive) as in another; as he that shall say he does not conceive such a man fit to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and such a man he does, this does not make his judgment the rule, but leaves unto him the application of the rule in reference to the trust committed unto him; and this will make all to go upon doubtful and uncertain grounds all their days, that a man knows no holiness by his immediate parents, and yet he can suppose some of his remote parents were holy; and by this means he knows not how to administer it upon the known unholiness of his immediate parents, and yet he knows not how to withhold it from the supposed holiness of the remote parents; and this has brought in, I say, the promiscuous baptizing of all amongst us without distinction.

3. The Apostles expression argues as much, Else were your children unclean; it had been in vain to have said that they were unclean, if one of the parents be not a Believer; for it may be said, that the Grandfather and the Grandmother might be so, and who can give that testimony? it puts men upon impossibilities to search: but the Apostles argument is from the immediate parents; if neither of them were a Believer, their children were unclean, but if either so, then they are holy: now the word in the Greek implies, that there is no other way to make the children holy but by a federal holiness; for else it may be replied, though neither parent be a Believer, yet their children may be holy by the Covenant interest of their Ancestors, and therefore it matters not what the immediate parents are in reference to the holiness of the child, but if any of his Ancestors were ever Believers, the child doth never lose his right, the Covenant-right does lineally descend upon their posterity unto succeeding generations; but this doth quite cross the Apostles reason, taking it from the immediate parents.

4. There is much said to this purpose by our Divines touching the children of parents that are profane, Papists, or excommunicated persons. Calvin, as you have heard in his Epistle to Mr. Farel, speaks of the children of Papists, and the same was the judgment of Mr. Hildersham in Joh. 4. pag. 128. It's a great contempt done unto God's public Worship when all without difference are admitted into the privileges of the Church, as if they had equal interest in them with the people of God, when such as are known to the Congregation to have committed whoredom, have their children instantly admitted unto Baptism, before themselves have given satisfaction to the Congregation by their repentance; and so for children whose immediate parents are excommunicated, which was not fit to be done, as Ames has it; therefore in his judgment, if the immediate parents were cut off, so were the children also cut off with them; and they that have no actual right unto Church privileges themselves, cannot convey an actual right to others; and that is also Mr. Calvin's rule, Epist. 16. Persona quae Ecclesiae communion indigna est, multo minùs potest aliis in eam aditum patefacere, Epist. ibid.

The Objections that I meet with against it are mainly three, the first taken out of the second Commandment, Exod. 20.5. He shows mercy to thousands in them that love him and keep his commandments. Thus God extends Covenant-mercy not only to parents, but to their children also, and that to succeeding generations; and we must not limit the grace of God, for that were to limit the holy One of Israel. For Answer hereto, (1) if the meaning here be of the privileges of the Covenant which are conveyed by the parents unto the child, then if any of them were godly from the beginning of the world, this Scripture will intail Church-privileges upon them by a lineal descent unto the end of the world; for it's likely there shall not be a thousand generations from the beginning of the world to the end thereof, because these are called the latter times; wherefore this is but a certain for an uncertain number, and therefore in this case we must know where to stop; there must be a period put, that a man may be able to say, none of them was holy in the second, third, or fourth generation, and therefore now the federal holiness that was this man's or this child's is expired. (2) If it should be understood of Church-privileges and a federal holiness that descends upon the child from the parents, then how shall this promise and threatening be both made good? for it may be some of the Ancestors have been godly, but the immediate parents are wicked and profane, why may we not as well and much rather say, that God will visit the iniquity of the immediate parents upon the children, as that he will show mercy unto the children for the grace and holiness of their remote parents? (3) Of what mercy soever it's thus understood, whether of saving mercies, or of outward blessings, it's plain, that it's only unto those children which walk in the same ways of holiness with their parents; for God will visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children, and if his hatred to children to the third and fourth generation be of them that walk in the ways and wickedness of the fathers, then his mercy to thousands is upon them that walk in the ways of their fathers obedience. So much I conceive the last words imply, verse. 6. Showing mercy to them that love me and that keep my commandments: if this be the meaning, it will be easily granted, that the children of godly parents, who walk in the same ways of holiness with their parents, shall obtain mercy from God unto many succeeding generations; but that is nothing to the thing in hand, which does suppose children to grow wicked, and to degenerate from the holiness of their parents, and yet men would infer, that their fathers privileges do unto many generations descend unto them, which I conceive is far from the scope and intent of the Holy Ghost.

[Object. 2] But the Israelites were circumcised, though their immediate parents were wicked, of which the instances before given are many, and therefore our children should be baptized, though the immediate parents be wicked; and if the profaneness of a Jew did not prejudice the child's right, why then should the profaneness of a Christian take away the child's title? are not our privileges as large as theirs?

In answer hereto, [Answ.] (1) of Circumcision there was no set Officer appointed by God to administer it, and therefore commonly the parents did it, and it's plain by those that write their stories, that women did it commonly: now there being no set Officer to administer it, there was no set Officer to suspend it. But in the Christians Baptism it's not so, there is a set Officer, who is to administer it with judgment, and as he is to deny it to none to whom it belongs, so he is to dispense it to none, but such to whom it belongs. (2) The Lord took the whole Nation of the Jews into a Church-covenant, and they became a peculiar people unto him, and whoever was born of that Nation, was therefore born a Church-member, and had right unto the privileges of the Church; it is not so with any other people under Heaven, there is something more required to make a man a Church-member than barely to be born of such a Nation; and therefore while they continued Church-members, though they were never so profane and wicked, this could not prejudice the privilege of the Church. And though such deserve to be cast out, yet as long as the Church doth through negligence or connivence continue such in a state of membership, they cannot deny them the privilege of members; but yet it doth appear, that now under the Gospel many men that live in the Church are not true members of the Church; or if they be cast out, then they and their children are justly deprived of the privileges of members, because it doth not belong unto them; and though the posterity of Ishmael and Esau did use Circumcision after they were separated from the Church of God, yet it was unto them only a vain and an empty sign, and no Church-ordinance, neither was it unto them a Church-privilege any longer than they continued Church-members. (3) This seems to be demonstrative, that none are to be looked upon as within the Covenant, and to have right unto the seals but Church-members, and that the Church-membership of children is a privilege that they receive from their immediate parents only, and that it's not barely a parents being baptized, and making a profession of Christ, that doth de jure give him a right to membership; and therefore if parents profess Christ, and yet are not to be looked upon as members of the Church, then Calvin's rule I think will hold, He that is not a Church-member himself cannot convey a right of membership unto his children.

Here are three things to be proved.

1. That none have a right to the seals of the Covenant, but those that are members of the Church. This Calvin in an Epistle to Mr. Knox clearly asserts: Semper attente cavendum est, ne profanetur hujus mysterii sanctitas, quod fieri certum est, si promiscue alicui conceditur, vel quispiam recipitur, qui inter legitimos Ecclesiae cives numerari nequeat. Therefore they that are baptized must be Cives Ecclesiae, those that have a title to membership; for the Ordinance of Baptism is profaned, if it be applied unto any other, and the clear grounds of it are these. The scals are the privileges of Church-members only, and if they be administered unto any whose privilege they are not, they are certainly profaned; for Christ admitted none but Disciples, and his Disciples afterward admitted none but Disciples: They that believed were of one heart, and they continued in breaking of bread, and prayer, &c. and afterwards when the Church grew more corrupt and more remiss, that such were admitted who did manifest they had no right unto this privilege, they were looked upon as spots in their feasts, and it was judged a dishonor unto that Church. And for this cause in the primitive times, though the Catechumen were admitted to hear, and were called Audientes and Orantes, yet those that they did excommunicate they did allow those Ordinances to, and therefore they did use to sentence them, Orent per triennium inter Catechumenos, or sometimes more years, according to the nature of the fact; but yet they still did deprive them of the seals, as being a privilege of members only. (2) Baptism is a Sacrament of initiation, and the Ordinance of visible admission into the Church; and that must not be done promiscuously, and without discrimination; for, as it's a sin to keep out those whose right it is, so it's a sin also to admit them that have no right, because thereby the Ordinances of Christ are abused and misplaced where he never intended them, and for whom he never instituted them. Now a person must have a right to membership before ever he is to be admitted a member, and he has no right to claim admission of those who have the power of the Keys, unless it be upon this ground, that a right of membership does belong unto him; and therefore he does upon this desire admission as a member, that so he be not defrauded of his right. And Calvin professes in another Epistle, Nisi inter vos vigeat discrimen aliquod, ut prohibeantur, qui sine crassa Dei injuria admitti nequeunt, pro confesso sumo, tam baptismum, quam coenam profanari. To whom is this spoken? It was not to Jews and Turks, and the admission of Heathens, but unto Christians and Professors; and yet he says, that there must be among them discriminatio quaedam, a certain discrimination; though they were Christians in profession, yet that did not give them all a title, if it had, there needed no difference to be put: and observe, he will have this difference to be put in reference to the Sacrament of Baptism, as well as the Supper of the Lord; and he complaineth of this disorder of administering the Sacrament promiscuously, and exhorteth the Ministers to endeavor the reforming it; if they could not say how it was lawful for them to hold their places, certe ubi rogando & hortando nihil proficitur, ac frustra etiam conquesti sumus, nos religione constringi, ne pergamus scientes & volentes sacra Dei mysteria profanare; in tam confusa ordinis perturbatione quomodo stare nobis liceat, nescio.

2. Right of membership conveyed unto children from the immediate parents is a truth that the whole Scripture seems to hold forth. [1] When-ever the immediate parents were taken into Covenant, whatever their Ancestors have been, their posterity were taken into Covenant also, and had a right to membership together with their parents; Abraham's father was Terah, And he with his father served other gods beyond the river, Josh. 24.2. and yet as soon as the Lord took Abraham into Covenant, he took in his posterity also with him immediately; and therefore the children of those that are Church-members are called the children of the Covenant, so as their interest in the Covenant comes upon them as their birth-right. For it is true, that there are but two ways of conveying a Covenant-right unto men, either personal by their own faith, or parental; and this is not of nature, for by nature one man's child has as much right as another's, none are born Christians, but it's a gift of grace, and which doth follow upon the child by virtue of the parents Covenant; and though none of his Ancestors were Believers, but served other gods, yet the immediate parents being Believers can give a right without respect unto the condition of their Ancestors: and so it was with the Proselytes among the Jews, their children were taken into Covenant with their immediate parents, though their Ancestors were for many generations wicked. Many instances of this have been given before. [2] Children taken into Covenant have with their immediate parents been cast out; Ishmael was taken into Covenant, and received the seal of the Covenant; but when he was cast out, though Abraham was alive, yet Ishmael's family was never after looked upon as in Covenant, or as members of the visible Church of God: so it was with Esau and his posterity the Edomites, their father being put out of Covenant, though they did attain Circumcision, which was a seal of the Covenant, yet it was not Circumcision in God's account; for they were never by God accounted a Church unto him. But that's a remarkable instance amongst the Jews, when the Church of God had continued in that Nation for many generations, and though God had there a greater income of holiness once, than he had in all the world beside, and was not ashamed to be called their God, and to call them of all the nations of the earth his peculiar people; yet when the Lord cast off their immediate parents, and gave them a bill of divorce, he did also cast off their children, who can never claim a right from their Ancestors; neither would any man by this claim (I conceive) admit a Jew unto the seals of the Covenant. And yet after this long interruption, wherein wrath is come upon them to the uttermost; when the immediate parents shall be converted, and taken into Covenant with God again, then also shall their children be gathered in together with them; and this, as far as I understand, is the whole tenor of the Scripture, and I know no instance that children were taken into Covenant, whatever their Ancestors were, unless their immediate parents were Church-members.

3. The right of membership does not consist barely in being baptized, and making a profession of the name of Christ; and therefore parents may have both these, and yet not be judged Church-members. (1) Being baptized doth not give a man a right unto Church-membership, and the grounds of it are these. [1] That which is the seal of our admission into the visible Church, cannot give a man a right to it, so as to make a man a member; that is, if a man ought to have the right of membership before he be baptized, then his Baptism does not give him this right, but seal it only, and gives a visible confirmation thereunto; but Baptism is a seal of a man's admission; therefore it's not Baptism that gives him a right of admission, but the promise, Act. 2.39. For the promise is to you and your children, therefore says the Apostle, Be baptized; therefore it's something before Baptism that gives a right of membership, by virtue of which a man lays claim to Baptism; for the seals belong to Church-members only. [2] If Baptism make a man a member of the visible Church, then while the Baptism remains firm, the membership remains; for forma dat esse rei; but we see that is not so in a double case, 1. In the case of willful Apostasy, when men withdraw themselves from the Church, They went out from us, because they were not of us; these were baptized, and their Baptism did remain, and yet they did willfully separate from the Church of God; wherefore according to this opinion they are to be looked upon still as Church members; because Baptism which gave them a right does remain, and there is nothing can take away their right but that which does null their Baptism and makes it void. 2. In the case of Excommunication; as the former does cast off the Church, so is the latter cast off by the Church; and as the one renounceth fellowship with the Church, so does the Church renounce fellowship with this man. Now if there be a power of the Keys, as 'tis commonly granted, then as there is a power of admission, so there is also a power of ejection; and therefore Christ says of such a man, You are to account him a Heathen and a Publican, that is, no Church-member; and yet this man's Baptism remains, and the man may be truly godly, and a member of the Church invisible, as the incestuous Corinthian was, and yet justly cast out of the Church visible, and to be looked upon, according to the rules of Christ, as one that had no right unto visible membership, nor to be reckoned among that number. [3] This will evidence the Church of Rome to be a true Church, and the Papists among us to be true members; for all the members of the Church of Rome have received true Baptism, and therefore they are members of the true Church; and yet we know that the Scripture calls Rome, Babylon the great, the mother of Harlots, and that she is spiritually Egypt and Sodom; the Lord has given her a bill of divorce; and our Divines generally will not acknowledge Rome to be a true Church, and therefore the members thereof not to be true members; and yet it is as generally acknowledged, that their Baptism is true Baptism, therefore 'tis not Baptism that gives a man a right unto Church-membership. (2) It's not an outward profession in a Christian Church that gives a man a right of membership: now by a profession I mean an assent unto the Doctrine of Faith and life, as it is in the Word of God delivered unto us, as it stands in opposition unto practice, and so we usually oppose it; for if profession and practice go together, as far as man can judge, then there is something to judge of such a man's membership by besides profession only; but profession only will not suffice, [1] Because the members of a visible Church must be visible Saints; for the matter of the Church visible and invisible is the same, that is, Saints only; the one are Saints in God's account, who discerns them by the judgment of certainty and infallibility, because it's God that admits into the Church invisible; and the other are Saints in the account of those to whom the power of the Keys is committed, who judge only by the judgment of charity; and therefore what there is in the one in truth, must be in the other in show and appearance, for it must be a judicious, and not a blind charity. Now our Divines generally say, that there are three things that do concur to make a man a visible Saint. (1) They must be men instructed in the Principles of Religion, and able in some measure to give an account of the reason of the hope that is in them. (2) They must yield a willing subjection to the Gospel, 2 Cor. 9.13. and they that gladly receive the word, as Act. 2. (3) They must walk unblameably in their conversation; but the foolish Virgins as well as the wise had oil in their lamps, and made a show, a profession before men, and did seem to shine as lights in the world, and yet their hearts were not upright and sound with God. It's true, that some there are that grow higher in the qualification of members, but we will content ourselves with these in reference to the thing in hand; and if a visible Saintship doth make a man a member, and that visible Saint must be in this manner qualified, then it's not barely profession will do it; but many a man amongst us holds forth the profession of Christ, who is ignorant even in the Principles of Religion, and knows little more of the Religion that he professes, than if he were a mere Pagan, yea is so far from subjection unto the duties of Holiness, that he is a professed enemy and scorner of them, and whose life is full of nothing else but profaneness and the most profligate wickedness. Now I cannot conceive, that a man's profession of the name of Christ, and calling himself a Christian, can give him a right of membership, because it cannot constitute him a visible Saint, which is acknowledged by all to be the matter of a visible Church. [2] It will appear that profession will not do it, by this, because persons who are Church-members may scandalously fall, as the incestuous Corinthian did, and may by the scandal of their fall justly deserve Excommunication, and thereby be cut off from the Church, and yet the man's profession still remain. And being cast out, profession is not enough to restore a man to the right of membership; for there must be a humiliation and an answerable conversation upon trial, proving that humiliation to be true, or else all the profession in the world will never be a ground unto them that have the power of the Keys to restore such a man, as in the incestuous Corinthian it doth appear: neither was mere profession a ground of admission in the primitive times; and therefore, though men had embraced the Christian Faith, and made a profession of it, yet they were not admitted Church-members, till they were baptized; and they were Catechumen some of them a great while, to be instructed in the Principles of Religion, and that an exact account might be taken of their conversation, before they were baptized. Now if this be true, that the children's right of membership is from parents that are members, and that none are members but visible Saints, and visible Saints are such only as are instructed in the Principles of Religion, and profess to subject themselves to the Ordinances of Christ, and walk outwardly answerably thereunto; then surely many of them who are counted Church-members, really are not so, and if in their visible standing they be yet so, because not cast out, yet de jure they ought not to be so reputed, for they ought to be cast out. Calvin confesseth, Nullam esse legem quae coenae & baptismi sanctitatem custodiat, ne utrum{que} mysterium contemptui & ludibrio expositum sit, remissio est minime excusabilis, &c. And truly if the parents have no right, what can they convey unto their children? Nil dat quod in se non habet, That which hath nothing can give nothing. And if the generality of men be such as de jure have no right, then they can derive no right unto those that come from them: and as Calvin saith of the woman that lived in the Church, and married her daughter to a Papist, and afterward did demand Baptism for the child in her own name, because she was a member of the Church, he says, the question might have been easily answered: Si vigeret legitima disciplina, excommunicatione digna erat, quae Ecclesiam unâ re fraudaverat, &c. and if it had been done, there had been an end put to the controversy; and so I say it is here; for if they be without the Church, they are not to be admitted, being not qualified for members; and if any man will say, that they are within, they are to be cast out, because they walk so unanswerably unto the profession of members; and so which way soever it be, they can convey but a mean right unto their children, who have none at least de jure according to the rules of the word themselves.

2. That only immediate Parents can give a right, will appear by the great Inconveniencies of the contrary doctrine, which must needs follow upon it. (1) This does make way for the Baptizing of all promiscuously that live amongst us; for if we acknowledge, that by their immediate Parents they have no right, yet in the judgment of Charity it's said, that we are to conceive, that some of their Ancestors were Believers, and therefore we may upon this judgment baptize them, which Divines do commonly say, is a Profanation of the Ordinance, as Calvin, and Ames, Cas. Consc. p. 232. Distinctio aliqua inter puros & impuros debet observari in omnibus sacris; Instituta Dei non aliter possunt ab omni pollutione conservari. It's spoken in the case of Baptism, and putting a difference between persons that are received thereunto; and Hildersham makes it a contempt done to the Ordinance. (2) By this means they that are Officers are put to act upon great uncertainties, as having no Rule to admit by; for there is certainly a time when the federal Right of Ancestors will cease, it doth not last in all succeeding Generations; and how shall a man be able to judge of this? Now I conceive we had need be as careful in Admissions as in Ejections, and have as sure a Rule, and as clear for the one as for the other, if we look upon it as an Ordinance, and an Institution of Christ. And truly were we as careful of Admissions as we ought to be, we should have less need of Ejections than now we have. (3) By this means we put a great deal of difference between the Seals of the same Covenant, as if one were far more honorable than the other; therefore we must have such Rules to satisfy us for admission to the one, but we may go upon any uncertainty, which we will call the Judgment of Charity, for the other. (4) By this means ungodly men are nourished in an evil way, and are born up with a good conceit of themselves, of their estates, that they are in as good a condition as any, and their Children have as good a right unto all Church-privileges as any other men, though they be never so wicked and profane, nay though they deserve to be cast out; and by this means men's hearts are strangely hardened in a way of sinning; for they say, all the Lord's people are holy, everyone of them, Color omnibus unus; and therefore the world have ever been great enemies to all differencing ways whatsoever; because all must go under the common notion of Christians and of Protestants, though it be in opprobrium Christi. (5) I find that in the ancient Church there was a great deal of care and exactness this way, touching him who was admitted unto Baptism, as well as to the Supper of the Lord; and so great was the strictness, that Calvin says, Nimia fuit austeritas in veteribus, non permittere indignos, qui arceri legitimo judicio nequeunt; speaking unto this very case, thinking it unlawful to deprive such of what he did conceive to be their right: but yet such was the strictness and exactness of the Ancients in this Ordinance, and the administration of it, that he looks upon it as too great severity.

And for that Objection of the Jews, [Object.] That the wickedness of the immediate Parents could not prejudice the Child of a Jew in his federal right, and therefore (say they) it cannot the right of a Christian; for we are gathered into the same Covenant, and do enjoy the same Privileges, for ourselves, and our Posterity, and the Covenant-grace of God is so far from being restrained under the New Testament, that it is enlarged; and therefore Calvin saith, Ubicunque non prorsus extincta est christianismi Professio, fraudantur suo jure infantes, si à communi Symbolo arceantur; Epist. p. 442.

1. This is but asserted, [Answ.] That a wicked Parent amongst the Jews could not prejudice the child's Covenant-right, and therefore all their Children were circumcised; but this is but gratis dictum; for that there were Church-censures amongst the Jews is commonly granted, and that these censures did in some cases reach not only to the Persons but unto their Posterity also; and we are told by men judged to be very skillful in the Antiquities, as Buxtorf, Godwin, and Gillespie in Aaron's rod blossoming, p. 64. that persons excommunicated, if they remained impenitent, their punishment was to be increased according to the pleasure of the Judge, and in the mean time their male-children were not circumcised; and if that the Profaneness of an immediate Parent might so far prejudice the Covenant-right of a child amongst the Jews, it may also amongst the Christians; but I build not much upon this, because it is a human testimony, without the Word, eâdem facilitate quâ asseritur, rejicitur.

2. There is a great deal of difference in the constitution of the Jewish Church, and of the Churches under the Gospel; theirs was National; which is plain, because they are National Officers, and National Ordinances, and a set place for the Church-meeting of the whole Nation, to which by the command of God the Nation was to repair three times a year; and therefore all that were of that Nation were to be admitted Church-members, and to receive the Seal of admission, and no man might live among them if they were uncircumcised. Non poterant Hebraei habere domi servos incircumcisos, The Hebrews might not have servants uncircumcised; but if they were such as would not subject themselves unto the Ordinance of Admission, which was Circumcision, either they ought not to buy them, or they might not lawfully retain them: but it is not thus with the Gentile-Churches under the New Testament, the Lord doth not take in Nations into Covenant with him, but he takes them in man by man; and therefore even in the same Nation, some may be within, and some without; neither is there any necessity, that all that are born in the Nation should therefore be members of the Churches of God in that Nation; hence the Lord when he did cast them off, did cast off the whole Nation, and the ejection was not of particular persons, and God will convert the Nation again, and they shall have national Ordinances and a national Covenant, and therein they are distinguished from all other Churches, and shall be; but seeing our taking in is personal, and our ejection personal, it's not so with us, but the father may be taken in with the children, and the father cast out with the children, and yet the Covenant be continued to the rest of the people, and the Churches of Christ amongst them.

3. The Jews continued in a Church-state though they were profane, till the Nation was cast off, and cut off from being a Church unto God; now the question is not, Whether an ungodly man living in the Church, while he keeps his visible standing there, and is not cast out, may not claim a visible right unto all the Ordinances, for himself and his Posterity, for certainly, while he keeps his visible standing, though he be a wicked-man, yet it cannot be denied him; and so it was amongst the Jews: But if any amongst us, through the negligence of the Church, be continued in our Churches so profane, and we do not bear them as burdens, and cast them off, as judging that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump; it is the sin of the Church, that such men should have a visible standing, therefore they ought to be cast out; and so de jure they have no right, and if they be once cast out and excommunicated, then they that are judged themselves to have no right unto Church-Ordinances, cannot give this right unto others. And it is that which we must look upon as the great sin of this Nation, that we will entitle the whole Nation to a Church-state, and every particular person a Church-member; and yet no care is taken that either they walk as does become Members, or else that they be excluded from such a pretended right; and the Reformation of this Nation will never be thorough, according to the Rules of the Gospel, till this be done in all Privileges, Ordinances, one as well as another.

There are two more questions have been propounded to me concerning this case; (1) By this means what difference will be put between the Children of Christians, and the Children of Pagans? (2) If that they were baptized, their Parents having no federal right, whether is their Baptism null, and must they then be rebaptized?

1. To the first I answer, that though it be a thing that may sound harsh, and carry an Odium with it, yet the Scripture does commonly call them Heathens, even those that were wicked within the Church; Rulers of Sodom, and People of Gomorrhah, Saul is called Cush; the Ethiopians, and the Ziphims, though they were Jews, David calls Strangers or Aliens, &c. and the Papists, though they profess Christ, and take upon themselves the title of Churches, yet they are called Gentiles. And we must know this, that all men are either without, or within; if without, though some are nearer, and some are further off, and therefore have greater opportunity of entrance than others, yet they are still without; and if they are within, they must be visible Saints, or else they ought not to be within, and it will be judged by God the sin and profaneness of the Church, and the Officers thereof, if they are suffered to continue within as Members. Now if we lay aside the hateful name of Turks and Pagans, and if we say, that the Parents either are not within, or ought not to be within, then I conceive he being unto me by Christ's rule as a Heathen man and a Publican, I cannot think his Children in a better condition in reference unto a Covenant-right, than they can receive from their Father, which I am well assured he has not to give.

And as for the Second Question, it has been generally concluded by Divines ancient and modern, that they are not to be rebaptized, but that when they come to believe and repent, they then reap the benefit of that Baptism which before they had no fruit of, because they had no right to it; yet when once they come by Faith to have a right to it, then their Baptism availeth, and so is not null to them; nor need there a second Baptism; but this would be entering into a new controversy, which I shall have a fitter place in this discourse to handle, where it will more directly fall in; and therefore I must beg your patience in whose minds this does raise any scruple, that you will spare me for a full answer unto it till then. And so much shall serve to be spoken to the sixth Question.

[Quest. 7] §. 7. If the Childs federal right be only by the confederate Parents privilege, what is it in the Parent that gives the Child a right? Is it converting and regenerating Grace? or is it an external Profession only? When the Apostle says, the Unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband, else were your Children unclean, doth he mean there justifying Faith, which the Scripture calls the Faith of the Elect? and is the holiness of the Child so from the faith of the Parent? or is it from an outward Profession of faith only? It's affirmed by some, that it's only regenerating Grace, saving Faith, that does bring the father within the Covenant, and therefore it's this in the father, and nothing else, that can entitle the child to it, which is proved from Rom. 4.16. Abraham is the Father of us all, not only of the Jews, but of the Gentiles also; because the Covenant-right after a sort began in him, he is the root upon which they all did grow that came after; now that brings us under Abraham's Covenant, which gives us a title to be called Abraham's seed. And it's plain, that there were two sorts of seed or children, and so in Abraham a double Paternity; there was Abraham begetting, and there was Abraham believing; and answerably to these two there are children according to the flesh, and children of the faith of Abraham; and though while the Jews continued, they might claim Circumcision as belonging to them by generation, because they did descend from the loins of Abraham, yet we can claim no title by carnal generation, and therefore our title must be from our faith, walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham; andso the Apostle, writing to the Galatians that were Gentiles, tells them, there is no way of being sons of Abraham, and entering into his Covenant, but by believing; Know you therefore that they which are of faith, &c. And if it be only the faith of the Parent, that doth entitle unto the Covenant of Abraham, surely then if the Children's right come from the Parent, it must be from the faith of the Parent, which only gives himself a right thereunto.

Here are four things to be spoken of: [Answ.] (1) That it's not the Grace and saving faith of the Parents that gives either them or their children right unto external Church-Privileges: (2) That it's a visible Profession of faith that does it. (3) Yet it is not a bare Profession, and a bare living in a Christian Church, that is sufficient either for the Person to claim a title, or for the Church to admit of it. (4) I will give an answer to the Objections that are before mentioned, of the entrance into Abraham's Covenant, and having a title to be called Abraham's Children.

1. I say, it is not Grace regenerating and sanctifying, that gives a title either to the Parent or to his seed; and that I shall prove by these particulars:

1. If men that have no Grace, that were never regenerated, never new-born to God, may have a Covenant-title; then that which gives a man a title is not Grace; but a man that has no Grace, that was never born from above, may have a true title; therefore, it's not their Grace that gives them this title. Here consider, (1) That the Church of God is either Invisible, or Visible; the Invisible Church is the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in Heaven, and consists only of regenerate, and Believers in truth; this is the body of Christ, the Spouse of Christ, and the fullness of him that filleth all in all: But as for the Visible Church, it is made up of visible Saints, and it does enjoy visible Ordinances, as we see in the Church of the Jews, and in all the converted Churches of the Gentiles, they did all imbody for the public Worship of God. (2) This visible Church has visible Members, and visible Privileges; as the Church invisible has invisible members, and invisible Privileges: Indeed it is unto these that all the spiritual Promises of the Covenant do belong, and all the saving Graces of the Covenant are confer'd; but yet there are many visible Privileges of the visible Church, which none but the visible members, according to the Rules of the Word, are to partake of; we have these summed up in eight particulars, Rom. 9.4, 5, 6. These are the visible Privileges of the visible Church. (3) Unto these a man that has no saving Grace may have a right, according to the Rules of the Word; and being looked upon by the Word as a visible member of a Church, he has by the same Rule a right to the visible Privileges which belong unto a Church-member. A man may be a true member of the visible Church without Grace; for the Net gathers of every kind, some good, and some bad; and into this Society many are called that are not chosen; there be foolish as well as wise Builders, and Virgins; unclean, as well as clean Beasts; branches in Christ, as he spreads himself upon Earth into a visible Church, that bear no fruit, and yet are truly said to be members, and grow as members of the Church; and therefore the Jews are said to be broken off, that the Gentiles might be grafted in; now what were the Gentiles grafted into? not into the Church invisible, for many of them have no saving Grace, never were regenerated, therefore they were grafted into Christ spreading himself into a visible Church upon Earth; and what were the Jews cast off from? not from being members of the Church Invisible, for there the calling and election of God is without repentance, he knows who are his, and he never casts out whom he knows to be his: All the Jews were called Loammi, they are not my people, they were once owned by God as a peculiar people, and as a holy Nation unto him; but now he will be no more styled their God: and as men may have a visible standing in the Church, and a visible right of membership, without Grace, so a man may partake in and have a right to the visible privileges of a member, though he have no Grace, Rom. 11.17. Thou being a wild Olive Tree, wast grafted in amongst them; and to what end were they engrafted? it was, that they might with them partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-tree; this root and fatness cannot be meant of saving grace; for if they had partaken of them, they had never been broken off, therefore it's meant of outward privileges only; therefore the Gentiles have their privileges into which they are engrafted, that is, installed, as well as the Jews had, and yet it's not saving grace in them that entitles them unto this privilege, because he says, Let them also take heed for all this, lest they also be broken off, as the Jews the natural branches were.

2. These external privileges are such as belong to the visible Church, into which men must admit, and they cannot judge of the truth of grace and regeneration by an infallible judgment, and therefore there must be some visible signs which, as rules, they are to act by in things of so high a nature. As the Church is distinguished into visible and invisible, so there is a double power of the Keys answerable. (1) The Lord Christ has a Key of Royalty, as you have heard, the Key of David, which I conceive to have respect to the Church only; and he admits into the Church invisible, and it's by vocation and union with Christ, which is the end or terminus of vocation. (2) There is a Key of charity, as some call it, though improperly, yet true in this respect, because it's only the judgment of charity, that they can proceed by, and not of infallibility; and this is an act belonging properly to Church-officers, by virtue of an institution of Christ unto that end, and they that are employed in this work cannot judge infallibly of the truth of grace in any they admit. Though it's true, that the tree is much known by the fruit, yet we find that Peter did baptize Simon Magus, and the Church admitted Ananias and Sapphira, and those mentioned in 1 Joh. 2.19. they were admitted amongst them, though afterwards they appeared not to be of them; and that which was said of Israel, is true still of the visible Church, They are not all Israel that are of Israel. The Church invisible has no Officer but Christ alone, and he admits by a judgment of infallibility; but the visible Church has visible Officers, who are to proceed by a known rule, and Baptism being the ordinance of admission, is by them to be administered to persons as visible, and not as invisible members of the Church; all these therefore that are to be admitted by them, must be admitted by a known rule, which they can judge of, which is not truth of grace, for that they cannot know, it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ only, who knows both the counsels of God, and the hearts of men; and therefore they must admit such as in appearance and in the judgment of charity are so, though it may be in truth and verity afterwards they prove not so to be.

3. Excommunication breaks a man off from the visible Church and the visible privileges thereof, but it cannot cut a man off from the Church invisible and the truth of grace in the heart, which the Lord has promised to continue to the end; for into what a man is admitted by the Keys, out of that by the Keys he may be ejected; but no man is admitted for grace, neither can he be ejected for want of grace, if visibly a member, Mat. 18.15. Let him be unto thee as a Publican: it's not spoken of one without, but of one within, for it's an offending brother; and he says, he should be put into the same condition with a Heathen and Publican. Amongst the Jews they did not hold communion with Heathens and Publicans; Heathens were not admitted into Ordinances as Church-members, till they became circumcised Proselytes; so that the meaning is, count them unworthy to be admitted to public Ordinances and the public privileges of the Church, which other Church-members may challenge a right unto, and they themselves had a right before their scandal and ejection: 1 Cor. 5.5. Deliver such a man unto Satan, which I conceive cannot be meant of any miraculous work, because the Apostle commits it to the Church to do it in the Name of God, and by virtue of the authority committed to them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and therefore I conceive it to be nothing else but casting a man out of the society of the Church, and leaving him amongst the society of ungodly men, over whom Satan rules; and being put out of the Kingdom of Christ, which is the Church, and the care of the Church, he is truly delivered to Satan to carry him whither he will, as ungodly men are called by the Father 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. and yet the incestuous Corinthian was a godly man, and he was not cast out from the promises of grace and the workings of the Spirit, but from the external privileges of the Church; and so may a godly man for scandalous falls justly be, and yet his grace continue an immortal seed, and he remain a member of the invisible Church still, even when he is cast out of the visible Church; as Job and many of the Saints were members of the invisible Church, and yet had not opportunity to join themselves unto any visible Church any further than their own family were such. The Church then can cast a man out of what he was by them admitted to; but that was not grace, but outward privileges, and they can only cast men out of these. It is not grace gives a man a right to external admission; for then a man that had grace, what offense soever he committed, could not be ejected; but a man that has true grace may, for a scandalous offense, be according to the rules of the word, lawfully ejected, therefore it was not his grace that gave him his admission; neither is it grace that in his ejection he can be deprived of; that being an act of God, but they can only hinder him from visible communion.

2. A visible profession will give unto a man in foro Ecclesiae, a right of membership. (1) Men can go upon no other ground; for if the matter of a Church must be Saints, they can judge no further of Saintship than by the visibility of it; and because they cannot have certitudinem fidei; ergo Deus judicium charitatis eis substitute; for the Key of Ministry committed unto Officers doth but open and shut in reference unto the external privileges and benefits of the Church, into which a visible profession will give unto a man a visible right, and is proper and proportionable thereunto. (2) Upon this ground admissions have always been: it was so that the Jews admitted Proselytes; called Proselytae foederis, upon their profession of the Jewish Religion, and a subjection unto the Ordinances of God there; and yet many of them were the children of Hell after they were made Proselytes, as Christ himself tells us; and so John the Baptist admitted unto Baptism, they were baptized of him after they had confessed their sins, &c. and Peter, Simon Magus, and Philip the Eunuch on his confession of the Faith; and we read, 2 Cor. 9.13. of a professed subjection to the Gospel, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it's in the Original a subjection, or confession of the Gospel; and all their after-obedience is but a manifestation of the truth of that profession of theirs: and therefore I conclude, that it's but outward profession will give a man a right in the external court of the Church.

3. Yet I conceive it's not a bare profession, how unanswerable soever a man's conversation be, that will bring in a man being without, or being within keep him from being cast out; and this will appear in these particulars.

(1) The Lord in his Word requires that they should be visible Saints, which we heard before a bare profession would not entitle them unto; therefore Esa. 54.12. He will lay their foundations with precious stones, &c. it's not to be interpreted