only inftrument that the Lord put in the hand of his ministers to make difciples with; and it prevailed against all the wif dom and power of man, and the cuftoms of all countries, to raise a profeffion of the name of Chrift in the world, and to make vifible fubjects of his kingdom. The word is not powerful even unto this end without the Spirit concurring in fome way or other. But you contend for a profeffion of Christianity that does no way appear to flow from the power of the word of God; and it makes no odds as to your profeffion, though the man that makes it be wholly a stranger to the inward workings of the Holy Ghoft; the profeffion of which the fcripture fpeaks intitled the profeffors unto the charitable designations of faints, and faithful in Christ Jesus; and, while they continued in the confeffion of the faith, love, and hope that is in Chrift Jefus, they were fo defigned by the apoftles themselves, and the churches were churches of the faints.

But the profeffion you contend for is fuch as does no way warrant us to afcribe these titles to the profeffors, and your moft fpecious profeffion has no claim to these. So keen are you on this point to gain it, that, for the fake of it, you part with another, which, on other occafions, feems very dear to you: for, p. 111. your words are, "And it is to be ob "ferved, that that which our Lord had in design in giving "officers unto his church, was not for the perfecting and "building up of a mere visible church, but that which was "invifible; namely, the perfecting of the faints, and edifying "the body of Chrift, till they fhould all come to the unity "of the faith, and the measure of the ftature of the ful"nefs of Chrift," Eph. iv. 11. 12." I hope you will remem❤ ber this when you shall again bring that text, to prove your catholic vifible body, for the perfecting and edification of which Chrift hath given the gofpel-miniftry. When you al ledge, that, where the vifible church is called the kingdom of heaven, and by the name of faints and faithful, it can only be understood of the more valuable and better part, I want to know, how that more valuable and better part can be known by any man, fo as he may call the church whereof, these are members by defignations proper to it. And, feeing faith and holinefs are no way fhewed forth to man's eye in your right profeffion of Chriftianity, what ground has any man to fay, that there are faints and faithful in any particular church whereof he happens to fpeak? And, fuppofe a particular church made up of members upon fuch a profeffion as no

way

way fhews forth faith and holinefs, and one perfon in that church that is a believer, and holy in the fight of God only, which is a fuppofeable cafe, will you fay, that fuch a church may be denominated faithful and holy because of that perfon? And may you not as well fay, that the family, or the city, or kingdom, where fuch a perfon lives may be called holy and faithful on his account, seeing faith and holiness are as little visible in the church and its profeffion unto the eye of man, as in any other fociety of this world, according to your doctrine?

Faith and holiness may appear to the eye of man, who can look no further than the outward appearance, where they are not really in the eye of the fearcher of the hearts: and hence is the difference betwixt the invifible church and the visible; which is the outward appearance or reprefentation of that which is not visible but in that representation; but if faith and holiness do not appear to man's eye in the profeffion of Chriftianity, then God has no vifible church, no visible kingdom in the world. And if these be visible to man's eye in the true profeffion of Chriftianity, then must not those who fhew them forth in their profeffion, be called by us the faints and faithful, unless we think evil, and judge their hearts? You make the members of the visible church, and their profeffion, fuch as to have no title from God to partake of the feals of the new covenant, but in fo far as he is their God, and they his juftified and fanctified ones: and for this, and alfo to prove, that the vifible church as fuch is not within the new covenant, you cite Jer. xxxi. 33. 34. p. 111.

Here you eftablish a difference very confiderable betwixt that church where Mofes, and the prophets, and John Baptist, and the Lord, in the days of his flesh, exercised their ministry, even the Old-Teftament church, and the church of the New Teftament. For, 1. All that church was within the covenant the Lord made with them when he brought them out of Egypt, whether they were juftified and fanctified truly or not; but none but they who are truly justified and fanctified, and inviolably fecured against apoftafy, are within the new covenant. 2. That visible church had from God, by his exprefs law, a right to the feals of that covenant within which they were; and they that neglected thefe feals in that church were appointed to be cut off from among the people: but, according to you, the members of the visible church under the New Teftament have not any right from God to the feals

of

of the new covenant. Are not here, now, two covenants, two churches, the old and the new, extremely different?

Is not here a vaft difference by you made between the old visible church, and the vifible church of the New Testament? And yet you reafon from the old vifible church as the fame thing with the new, p. 119. 120. But has not God required a profeffion of the new covenant (of which we read Jer. xxxi. and Heb. viii.) to be made in the world, that it may be fome way visible among men? Has he not called us to a charitable judgment of them that make the profeffion of it, which he requires, that they are within that covenant, and his people, his juftified and fanctified ones, referring the judgment of their hearts unto him, and forbidden us to think evil? Has he not, by his law in the New Testament, annexed the outward feals of that covenant, which he hath committed to men to difpenfe, unto that outward profeffion of the covenant, which he hath fubjected to man's judgment of charity? Who are they then that have a right from God to these feals; they that are known only to him to be his juftified and fanctified ones, and within the new covenant, or they that are fo, according to the rules of a profeffion laid down in his word, in the fight

of men ?

We find he has commanded his minifters to baptize all them that are made difciples by the influence of the word of the New Teftament; all and every one of them that believe, with all their heart, that Jefus, who was crucified, and raised again, is the Son of God, and that gladly receive the word of the gospel teftimony and exhortation, or the new covenant : and he hath warranted them to baptize the infant feed of fuch, whom he calls holy, and of whom he fays the kingdom of heaven is, and to whom the promise of the new covenant, whereof baptifm is the feal, is, as it is to their parent; and he has not commanded them to baptize any other. Now, if this command refpect fuch only as appearing in his eye, his ministers can never obey it; but if it refpect them whom he warrants his minifters to account fuch by his word, then the feal of baptifm belongs, by his law, to every one of them, and none else but them, that, unto man's eye looking chari tably on them according to the word of God, are within the bond of the new covenant, and God's juftified and fanctified ones, whatever they be in the eye of God; who hath never appointed this feal to be difpenfed according to the rule of his omnifcience, but according to the rules he has laid down in his word, for a profeffion of the new covenant, and judg

ment

ment of charity thereupon, touching them that profess it, and their infant feed; who are to be judged of according to the parents profeffion while infants, but according to their own profeffion when come to years.

Every person that has a right to baptism, then, is visibly, whatever he be really, within the new covenant, and one of God's juftified and fanctified people; and every one that is thus vifibly within the new covenant, and visibly a member of the true New-Teftament church, the body myftical, has a right, by the law of Chrift, to the feal of baptism, and none else; and we have no manner of concern with what men are invisibly and in the fight of God.

Again, we find the outward feal of the Lord's fupper delivered to the difciples in the churches of the faints, where the ordinance of difcipline is placed, 1 Cor. xi. 20. 22. 23. in every one of which churches, partaking together in this ordinance, the union and communion of the catholic church, the mystical body, is vifible, 1 Cor. x. 15. 16. 17. 18. The first of these churches was that with which the Lord himself affembled after his refurrection, and from which he was taken up into heaven, and upon which he poured down the Holy Ghoft, Luke xxiv. 33. 36. 49.-53. compare Acts i. 3. 8.-15. Acts ii. 1. 2. 3. 4. 41. 42. 46. 47. Thefe churches are made up of visible members of the New-Teftament church, the body myftical, that are visibly within the new covenant, and are visibly God's justified and fanctified people; that is, them that appear to the eye of man, according to the rule of the word, to be fuch, by their own profeffion of

the new covenant.

The first church was made up of them that, being pricked in their hearts by the word, and by the word influenced to receive the gospel teftimony and exhortation gladly, and be. ing thereupon baptized, did join themselves to, and were received by the hundred and twenty, to continue ftedfastly with them, with one accord, and as one foul, in the doctrine and fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers; and this in obedience to that call," Save yourselves from this un. "toward generation." If these perfons were fuch in the eye of God as they are described, then they were really within the new covenant, and members of the invisible church. But feeing this cannot be affirmed, if they were visibly in the eye of men fuch as they are defcribed, then they were visibly members of the New-Teftament church of the first-born, and vifibly within the covenant; and that church, as a

church,

church, was visible in their visible union together as a church. This vifible church, and every member of it, had a title from God to that visible seal of the new covenant, the Lord's fupper; and fo has every fuch visible church to the end of the world. The church at Antioch was the first of the Gentiles; and it confifted of them that, by the hand of the Lord going along with his gospel, were influenced to believe, and turn to the Lord, and in whom Barnabas faw the grace of God; and they were added to the Lord in becoming a church, by the influence of his exhortation, "That, with " purpose of heart, they would cleave to the Lord," Acts xi. 20. 26. Now, did not these, whatever they were in the eye of God, appear to be within the new covenant, and to be God's juftified and fanctified ones? And did not the Lord's supper belong to them by right, when joined together vi fibly, to partake of it as one body? Or, unto whom did it belong?

The invifible church, as fuch, cannot partake of the fup. per, nor can all they that appear to be members of it, partake of it either. Infants of believing parents cannot, nor can visible members of it, who, by their own profeffion, have right to baptifm, partake of it by any fcripture-warrant, without being joined to a visible church: fo that it is only the members of a visible church, as fuch, that have a scripturetitle to that feal of the new covenant, the Lord's fupper. Thus you see how, under your correction, I take upon me to differ from your confident affertion, that the members of the visible church, as fuch, have not any title from God to partake of the fcals of the new covenant: and when you correct me in this point, I hope you will fhew me how the members of the invifible church, as fuch, and as diftinguished from the visible, can partake of, and be admitted to these feals.

As the profeffion you contend for is a thing altogether fo. reign to the new covenant, and gives no man any title to the feals of it, and altogether foreign to faith and holiness; fo it is fuch a thing as makes no man that has it an object of that peculiar love which Chrift requires us to have to his brethren, his redeemed, the members of his body. Your profeffion, that you plead for, can never exhibit fuch a perfon to you. For while, on the one hand, a perfon known to be rebellious against the Lord, ought, according to your ar gument, p. 120. to be admitted a member of the visible church, without any positive signs of grace; on the other VOL. I.

band