merely by the Profeffion of the Name of Jefus: For furely he had not then the Gift of difcerning between fincere and rotten Profeffors. Acts 26. 10. Many of the Saints did I fhut up in Prison; and who they were is clear: Acts 9. 2. All that were of that Way, that is, who profeffed the Name of Chrift Jefus. Some are said to be redeemed, who yet certainly were never better than Ecclefiaftical Saints, for after it is spoken of them, that they denied the Lord who bought them, 2 Pet. 2. 1. And fome are faid to be fanctified, who yet are supposed to fin unpardonably; Hebr. 10. 29. accounting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was fanctified an unholy Thing. Thefe Places do irrefragably prove, that in Scripture Language thofe are called Saints, and fanctified, who were Members of the Church of Chrift, and thereby federally or relatively holy.

Again, they are called the Children of God, and the Sons of God. So Gen. 6. 2. The Sons of God faw the Daughters of Men that is, they who were of the Church, and made Profeffion of the true Service and Worship of God, faw the Daughters of thofe who were of the World profane and wicked Idolaters, by marrying of whom they were also perverted and drawn from the true Worship of God.

So

So Deut. 14. 1. it is fpoken to the Ifraelites in general, Te are the Children of the Lord your God. And yet with many of them, faith the Apostle, God was not well pleafed, but flew them in the Wilderness : There were among them Murmurers, Schifmaticks, and Rebels, and they were an hard-hearted and a stiff-neck'd People under all the miraculous Difpenfations of God towards them, as their Guide and Governour Mofes often complains. And the Apostle St. Paul, alluding to this Place of Deuteronomy, tells the Galatians, Chap. 3. 26. Te are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus: And yet the Herefy of holding the Neceffity of Judaical Obfervations, wofully prevailed among them, so that they were generally infected, nay, bewitched with it: And yet an external Profeffion of the Name and Doctrine of Chrift, is, in the Apoftle's Judgment, fufficient to give them all the honourable Stile of the Children of God. So again, Rom. 9. 4. the Apostle tells us, that to the Ifraelites, as they were a Church, pertained the Adoption. Now Adoption is making Men Sons of God; yet certainly they did not all of them enjoy the heavenly and effectual Adoption, which would bring them all to the heavenly and glorious Inheritance: But only they

were

were the Children of God, being separated from the World, and brought under an Ecclefiaftical Oeconomy, and Difpenfation of Holy Ordinances.

Again, to be Members of the Church visible, is fufficient to style Men, Members of Chrift: So our Saviour himself speaks of fome Branches in him that bear not Fruit, John 15. 2. And fo Rom. 11. 17. the Branches of the true Olive are said to have been broken off, and others ingraffed in their stead. Certainly this Vine, and this Olive, is Chrift; and these barren, and therefore broken Branches are Members of his Body; not indeed living Members united unto him by the Band of a Saving Faith, whereby they might draw Sap and Nourishment from him, for fuch fhall never be broken off, nor burnt; but yet they are in Chrift, and belong unto Christ, as his Members by an Ecclefiaftical or Political Infition, as they are Parts and Members of the vifible Church.

And thus, I fupofe, I have made it fufficiently clear unto you, that all who are taken out of the World into the vifible Church of Chrift, may, according to the Phrase and Expreffions of Scripture, be called Saints, the Children and People of God, and Members of Christ.

But

But now, Thirdly, To bring this home to our present Subject of Baptifm, from all this it evidently follows, that those who are baptized, may in this Ecclefiaftical and Relative Senfe be truly called Saints, the Children of God, and Members of Chrift, and thereupon Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Doubtless, fo far forth Baptifm is a Means of Sanctification, as it is the folemn Admission of Perfons into the vifible Church, as it feparates them from the World, and from all false Religions in it, and brings them out of the visible Kingdom of the Devil into the visible Kingdom of Jefus Christ. For if all that are admitted into the visible Church, are thereby (as I have proved to you) dignified with the Title of Saints, and the Children of God, then by Baptism, which is the folemn Way of admitting them into the Church, they may, with very good Reason, be faid to be made Saints, the Children of God, and Members of Christ. But this is only a Relative Sanctity, not a Real; and many fuch Saints and fanctified Men there are who fhall never enter into Heaven, but by their wicked Lives forfeit and lofe that bleffed Inheritance to which they were called. Many there are who are Saints by their Separation from Paganism and Judaism into Fellow

ship with the vifible Church; but they are not Saints by their Separation from wicked and ungodly Men into a Spiritual Fellowship with Chrift. And yet to fuch Saints as these, all the Ordinances of the Church are due, 'till for their notorious Wickedness they be cut off from that Body, by the due Execution of the Sentence of Excommunication. Such a Baptismal Regeneration as this is, muft needs be acknowledged by all that will not wilfully fhut their Eyes against the clear Evidence of Scripture: From which I have before brought plentiful Proofs to confirm it: Yet let me add one more, and that shall be Gal. 3. 26. 27. You are all the Children of God by Faith in Chrift Jefus, i. e. by believing and profeffing his Doctrine. For as many (faith the Apostle) as have been baptized into Chrift, i. e. baptized into the Religion of Christ, and in his Name, have put on Chrift, i. e. have profeffed him, and thereby put upon your felves his Name, being called Chriftians. And this putting on of Christ in Baptifm, the Apostle makes a Ground to affert them to be all the Children of God. But still it must be remembred, that this Sanctification, Regeneration and Adoption, conferr'd upon us at our Admission into the vifible Church, is Ex

ternal