violence is offered to this Text to destroy that federal holiness that shines forth in it The Anabaptists one would think are put greatly to their shifts in shifting off the force of this Text from them when all that they will allow Believers from this Text is that if one Parent be but a Believer then they will free their Children from the foul charge and scandalous imputation of being Bastards Thus they comment upon the words else were your Children Bastards but now they be Legitimate lawfully begotten what must be the consequence of this but that the Children of those Parents neither of which is a Believer must tho' they be never so lawfully Married and live never so chastly together be Bastards what a multitude of the off-spring of this our Nation must after this interpretation be illegitimate and a spurious bastardly Brood This hath been so often confuted that I will say no more to it the very naming of it may be a sufficient confutation of it 2. A peculiar people a people set a part from others the Covenant is for an enclosure and so for a separation of some from the rest of the World to be distinct and peculiar from others Deut. 14.2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth The Lord hath a visible people that are to him a peculiar people they are his Church those that are in a peculiar Covenant-appropriation unto Him We have this Title and that before of Holy ascribed to those that are under the Administration of the Covenant in new Testament times 1 Pet. 2.9 But ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people 3 They be called Gods Houshold or Family the worship of God and the blessing of the Covenant first took place in Families and those were the Families of the Lord since the more open publick and diffusive dispencing of the Covenant those that are the Lords Covenant ones retain still the Title of a Family and Houshold and so this is brought down unto the time of the Gospel Gal. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith Viz. Gods Covenant-houshold Eph. 2.19 Now therefore we are no more strangers and foreiners but fellow Citizens and of the houshold of God those Gentiles that were not in Covenant and so not of the Houshold of God Now saith the Apostle you are made partakers of the Covenant which was the peculiar Blessing of the Jews and ye are become now of the Houshold of Faith and of God or of the Houshold of Faith and so of God you are grafted into the Olive and this is some of the sweet and precious fat and juice of it 4. Such be called Gods Vineyard or the garden of the Lords surely it is a Singular Priviledge to be planted in the Lords Vineyard and not to have a standing without in the Wilderness of the World which the Lord hath little regard for or care of Isa 5.1 7. Now I will sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his Vineyard My well beloved hath a Vineyard in a very fruitful hill For the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant The Church of God in Covenant with Him is by the Lord Jesus the Husband and Bridegroom of it delightfully called a garden it being the sweetest the most pleasant and fertilest spot in all the World Cant. 4.12 16. A garden enclosed is my Sister my Spouse Awake Oh north-wind and come thou south and blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out Cant. 5.1 I am come into my garden my Sister my Spouse Cant. 6.2 My beloved is gone down into his garden to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens and to gather Lilies Thus was the Church of the Jews that was the Lords Covenant-inclosure stiled Zach. 2.5 Thereâ—ore particular Churches that make up the Church Catholick are called golden Candlesticks Rev. 1.20 The mystery of the seven Stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden Candlesticks are the seven Churches The Lord Jesus walks in the midst of them they are the place of his feet and his delightful walks Rev. 2.1 He walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks to shew his delight that he hath in them the peculiar watch of his Providence about them and his plentiful and his inexhaustible supplying of them Oh how good is it to dwell where Christ hath his continual residence and his perpetual walks 't is a comfortable thing to have the Lord of infinite grace to walk constantly to and fro by ones door how soon may he open the door and come in and bring his Blessed retinue of peace mercy grace and love along with him 6. The Church of Christ involv'd in this Covenant is called Heaven this is Heaven upon Earth where the Throne of the blessed God is fixt when the Lord takes Believers and their Children into Covenant with himself he takes them into Heaven those that be out of Covenant do inhabit such darkness as to represent those that are even in Hell I but the Church of God that hath the light of the Word and grace of God shining upon it is Gods heaven below Rev. 12.1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman cloathed with the Sun This wonder was seen in the Church of God below I but here called Heaven for her trampling upon the World having the righteousness of Christ begirt about her and living in the Starry Region of Evangelical and Divine light Thus I have in some Particulars endeavoured to discover something of the Priviledges of those that be in Covenant with the Lord from this head I come to another Priviledge which is this that many of them that are thus in Covenant shall be saved a multitude of them are Elected for here chiefly lyes the secret Mine of Election where many shall be called and Effectually brought home to God the great Bulk and Mass of the Elect are taken and dug out of the Loins of Believers that are brought under Covenant many of those that be in Covenant shall be sure be to saved therefore surely 't is a great priviledge to have a standing among those that shall be saved how is it the duty of those that do enjoy this mercy to bless the Lord for it and to improve it for their own Childrens advantage 'T is good to have a footing and dwelling in that Body out of which the Lord doth call many to saving grace and glory to be in the best capacity and the most hopeful disposition as to Externals for life and Salvation The Soveraign Grace of God calls whom he pleaseth but most frequently the lot of Salvation falls upon the Children
Ones the Children that the Lord hath graciously given thee to be with thee That thou and thine are become the Children of the Covenant and of the Promise magnifie God for so inestimable an injoyment and improve it to the utmost advantage of thy self and thine but be not ignorantly gull'd and trapan'd out of it as many are in this day 4. Exhortation Teach and instruct your Children so soon as they be capable of it in the right knowledge and understanding of the Covenant As the Lord hath honoured you in taking you and your Children into Covenant you ought to be much in explaining and unfolding the Priviledges and Duties of it to your Children This is one of the Magnalia the great things that God hath written in his Word viz. that we our selves and off-spring should be well versed in and acquainted with This is one great way to discover the high esteem that you have of the Covenant for your selves and Children when you take delight to study to arrive unto a good understanding of it and carefully to instruct and teach your Children the knowledge of it Timothy had Conscientious Parents or Parent that did so teach and instruct him that when he was very little he was well acquainted with the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.15 Many there be that are very desirous to have their Children to be Baptized and to partake of the Seal of the Covenant but little make it their work and business to admonish and instruct their Children suitable to that Relative Duty which they stand under the obligation of to their poor Children One great reason why many as I find do renounce and reject the Seal of the Covenant is because they were never well instructed into the knowledge of it nor the Duties they were bound unto the performance of by the Seal of it Few Parents no not some that have the root of the matter in them do take that care as they are bound to do to inform their Children into the Gospel-administration of the Covenant since the time of the Incarnation and Ascension of the Messiah and to shew the parallel that there is between the Covenant first openly establish'd with the Jews and their Seed and now with the Gentiles and their Seed Wheresoever the Gospel is sent by Divine Conduct unto any place and Preach'd that never had the Beams of its Glorious Light shining before there those that believe and repent must be Baptized and their Children with them and enter into the Covenant together for saith the Apostle The promise is to you and your children and to those that are afar off and even to as many as the Lord shall cast The promise viz. the Covenant is to you and your children ay and so it shall be with those that are afar off even the poor Children of the Gentiles so many as the Lord shall call they with their believing Parents shall be received into Covenant with the Lord Acts 2.38 39. I shall conclude all with one word of Exhortation unto ungodly and unconverted Sinners It is to exhort them in the name and fear of the Lord that they would convert repent and turn unto the Lord. To Repent is one of the great Doctrines that is charged upon us in our Commissions to Preach to and urge severely upon Men. John the Baptist did much fill up his Ministry in calling upon those that did at any time attend upon it to repent Our blessed Lord began his Ministry in sounding out the same Doctrine This is a Doctrine that we that Preach the Gospel ought to be solemn and instant in How happy would it be if there were no other contention among Ministers than this for every one to strive to bring most Souls to Faith and Repentance It may be matter of lamentation to see how many take upon them the Work of the Ministry such that I fear though they make nothing to condemn and disannul the Ministry of others are scarce able to prove their own Call thereunto how they labour abundantly more to proselyte their followers to their Opinions than to obtain Converts to Christ But to close all I do here intreat and beg all that hear me that be yet out of Christ impenitent Sinners to repent and turn to God and take hold upon the Covenant and the rare Blessings and Promises of it and for your encouragement The promise shall be unto you and your children You and yours will be taken into this Covenant If you are not in it already what will you stand and stout it out against God under the precious means of Grace and the rich tenders of the Gospel proposed unto you and to labour to ruine your selves and Children for ever â—o far as you can After all the terrible threatnings of the Word that have been defeated by you oh let not this be rejected but let it melt your Hearts into Repentance This I say of my Text The promise is to you and your children Amen FINIS
everlasting covenant and there can be no Interest in it nor in himself but by way of Covenant as there can be no Redemption no Reconciliation no Justification no Sanctification nor Salvation but by and through his Blood and that Blood is the Blood of the everlasting covenant Zech. 9.11 As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit where there is no water Some do understand this of a temporal deliverance out of some great and grievous Affliction which the Lord did deliver his People if so then certainly it must be by the blood of the covenant by and through which the Elect are delivered out of all their Pits and Miseries into which their Sins have cast them The Lord Jesus Christ is the Mediatour of the New Covenant and if Infants be not in this Covenant they can have no Interest in him as Mediatour for he is no Mediatour but of such a Covenant His great Business is to confirm a Covenant to all such to whom he is a Mediatour Therefore to deny Infants being in covenant is to shut them out of all hopes of partaking of one Drop of the Precious Blood of Christ which is Covenant-Blood And thus here is a dreadful Rock in the midst of that Ocean of Misery that Sin hath brought them in which poor Infants dying in their Infancy must unavoidably split upon for ever moreover here we may see them all to have suffered Shipwrack without the least part of a Wreck left them to swim to shore on If it be so that the Infints of Believers are excluded from Right in the Covenant and the Promise of the Holy Ghost and Remission of Sin unless they do personally profess their Faith and Repentance as our Challenger would have it then they are out of all the ordinary way of Salvation and desperately exposed to be lost for ever 3. Demonst This hath been the way that a holy and just God hath observed in ejecting and casting out of the Covenant When Parents by their sin have been disinherited and cast out their Children also have been turned out with them we read of the breaking and taking in Rom. 11.17 19. The one must expound the other and one must be commensurate and responsible to the other otherwise the parallel of the Holy Ghost and the harmony of the matter will be broke They which were broken off were called natural branches they and their natural Seed did grow upon this root and both were broken off not only the Parents but the Children God wrote upon them and their Children a Loammi So when the Lord thro' rich grace did fill up their vacancy and inserted the Gentiles in their Room in graffing them into the same Stock making of them to partake of the root and fatness of the Olive tree it was they the adult Parents that did believe and all their Sprigs their Children that sprang from them that were graffed in Here we must observe a meet Similitude in the rejection of the Jews and the implantation of the Gentiles look how the One was by unbelief broken off so the others were taken in by Faith but the one both Parents and Children were broken off thro' the stubborn rejection of the Covenant not submitting to the new Administration of it when it was offered by the Apostles after the ascension of the Messiah which was expressed by the Parents only therefore the Gentiles are inserted with their Children notwithstanding the Parents only express a Beleiving embracement of the Covenant and the Promises thereof 4. Demonst Children are Members of the visible Church where their Parents be in Covenant with God they be initiated by Baptism and admitted into visible Membership the breaking off was the casting out of a visible Church Mat. 19.14 But Jesus said Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Our great Champion will not have these to be little in respect of the smalness of their growth or littleness of their age tho' it be never so ridiculous and absurd to deny it what will not rash men obtrude upon to uphold their crude indigested notions Observe a little here these be not only called Children but little Children Luke calls them Infants Chap. 18.15 And they brought unto him also Infants that he would touch them viz. that he would bless them they were such that were brought or born to Christ they could not come themselves then were there brought unto him little Children nay they were so small and little that the Disciples that attended upon their Lord thought that they could only be a trouble to him therefore they rebuked them that brought them yea and further 't is said that Jesus took them up into his arms when he laid his hands upon them and blessed them he took them out of their Parents arms or the arms of them that brought them when he blessed them Mar. 10.16 Yea one thing more fully to prove that Children are to be taken literally and not allegorically and that from the Greek word that the Evangelist Luke makes use of where 't is said that they brought unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a very little child Infants puer recens natus 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby The very same word we have for a Babe yet unborn and not injoying any habitation but the Womb Luke 1 41. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the Salutation of Mary the Babe leaped in her womb and so ver 44. the Babe leaped for joy Oh how did our Neighbour lately abuse this precious Text in his endeavouring to prove that which Christ will never thank him for Viz. that Children are not capable of Habitual Faith He would be thought a very great Scholar tho' we well understand what University he was brought up in but had he or could he but have consulted the Original text he would scarce have been so bold with Christ as to have attempted to destroy his Love to Infants and to have vented his cruelty to those that he took up into his arms to bless those that did hang upon the Brest and were also brought in the arms of godly Mothers that brought them forth unto Christ to receive some Spiritual blessing I do prefer the judgment of Learned and Critical Beza before a thousand such Doctors as ours is I will give you his sense of the words in Luke ch 18.5 and how he opens the words There he tells us what these Infants are these are his words Teneri nimirum et adhuc ab uberibus pendentes pueruli very little Children that hang upon the Brest sucking Babes which are carried in the arms Beza adds something more and saith thus Est enim adversus hostes Paedo-baptismi servanda propria significatio verbi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et
less Priviledges now under the New than under the Old Testament Hath Grace contracted the Covenant more now than before Hath Grace no Covenant-Blessings for the Children of Believers now And must their poor Off-spring suffer a cutting off of the Entail of the Covenant Hath Jacob carried away all the Blessing and none left for the Children of the inchurched and incovenanted Gentiles Surely Grace is not now straitned Our dear Lord and Saviour hath the same Bowels of Mercy to poor tender Babes that ever he had and as he had then when he said Suffer them to come unto me and forbid them not and declared that of such are the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.13 14. He took them up into his Arms and put them into his Bosom as we may well suppose when he laid his Hands upon them and blessed them Hath not Grace the same effects as to Children as when he sent his Apostle to tell the poor awaken'd and bleeding Sinners that the Promise was to them and their children As when it graffed in the Gentiles among the Jews to partake with them of the Juice and Fatness of the Olive-tree it hath not spent all its Fatness upon them but if there be any Fatness Nourishment Satisfaction and Comfort to have hope in God from the Covenant for poor Little Ones we have it and the Apostle comforts trembling Creatures in our Text with it and so the Apostle Paul in telling the Gentiles that they be inserted in this Covenant among the Jews and are Partakers of the same Fatness with them This therefore doth Answer them that demand and question How natural generation can entitle a Man to Covenant-Priviledges I demand How doth natural generation entitle a Man to the Curse A corrupt Man under the Curse of the First Covenant begets a Child in his own likeness as corrupt and as accursed as himself How comes this to pass but through the Justice of God in imputing to Children the Curse of that Covenant under which they were born So é contra a Believer under the Covenant of Grace begets a Child though corrupt as from him yet by vertue of the Grace of the New Covenant under which he is born he hath a Foederal Holiness and is a Partaker of the Priviledges of the same Covenant So Grace in the appointed time shall re-assume the Jews that be cast out and graff them again into their Old Stock and they shall be a Glorious People 2. Reason Shall be taken from the final Cause there is a double final Cause of it 1. That the Lord may have and reap the Glory of his Grace of this high expression and signification of his grace Viz. in taking Infants into Covenant with their Parents which they do rob him of that deny this grace to Infants they do greatly abbreviate extenuate and vail the grace of God that will only admit the Adult believing and repenting Parent into Covenant but by no means will their Seed and Little Ones This is the way to congeal the divine bowels that be full of inward yearnings to inclosed Little Ones That the Apostle in my Text might administer the best and so the most expedient Cordial to the broken and afflicted Jews who were greatly concerned not only about their own but the safety and Salvation of their Children tells them That the promise was to them and their children The belief and exercise of faith about this matter is the ready way to promote an excellent Revenue of praise and honour for the grace of God What wrong and indignity is offered to the grace of God by shutting of poor Infants that cannot plead for themselves for whom the grace of God and blood of the Covenant of the eternal Son will effectually plead out of this Covenant Let men talk what they will of the Spiritual Seed of the grace of God in Christ yet so long as they labour to abandon an innumerable multitude of the Subjects of it they are great Prevaricators from and perverters of that grace and so become grand obstructers of that Crop and harvest of praise and honour that he expects from his Covenant-transactions of grace with Parents and their Children 2. That so by this means he might allure and graciously intiee men and women to accept of and to come under this Covenant This is indeed a sweet decoy that a gracious God is pleased to make us of in this affair this is to insinuate the minds of men into a well liking of and acceptation of the Covenant and the Gospel administration of it This is the scope of the Apostle in my Text. Here the Apostle was alluring his pensive and weeping Auditory to accept of this therefore he milks out of this breast of Consolation that which might taste sweet upon the Palates of them whose Sins were now bitter as Wormwood and Gall and were under Soul-sinking fears about their own and their Childrens eternal welfare and condition Well said the Apostle I discern your trembling and aking hearts your overwhelming doubts and fears but be still sedate and compose your minds and thoughts accept of the Gospel dispensation and for your comprehensive encouragement and compleat satisfaction I say unto you The promise is to you and your children Oh! methinks how did this revive their disconsolate and dejected hearts and drooping sinking spirits quickly melting their wills into a ready complyance with the Apostles Exhortation as we find presently after our Text. If this priviledge were cut off the Jews would have little incouragement to leave Moses to follow Christ to forsake the Old and to cleave to the New Dispensation of the Covenant which was then setting on foot and which they were exhorted unto They well knew before that they themselves and also their Children were in Covenant with God and the Apostle speaks unto them as so instructed and established therefore said he The promise is to you and your children As if he had said I know that this is an Article of your Faith that which all the Jews do very tenaciously adhere unto and this shall be continued unto you This the Apostle doth firmly assure them of to win them over telling them that they should be no losers by coming under this Dispensation seeing the priviledge of having the Promise to them and their Children should not be taken from but confirmed unto them This removed all impediments out of their way and so they did readily and unanimously fall in with the Apostles Exhortation 3. Reason Because the Lord would discover his peculiar love to and care of the Children of his own People This is a peculiar priviledge and it is to demonstrate peculiar love and affection It is also as I shall shew you presently that the Lord may discover his peculiar love to the believing Parents Here is the distinguishing love and kindness of God to them both God hath such a love for pious Parents and their Children that he hath not for the rest of the World
therefore he takes them both into Covenant with himself Covenant Love is alwayes exprest in the Scriptures to be peculiar Love that God might shew even to the face of all the World that distinct and special Love which out of infinite and special Grace and Favour he had lodg'd in his heart to Abraham and his Seed he was pleased to take them both into Covenant with himself and so they came under a blessed Marriage Bond which doth not only denote a near Relation but also Conjugal Affection God hath a peculiar Love for them will make them his Church and People therefore brings them under a Covenant Bond and Compact and Engagement Deut. 4.37 And because he loved thy fathers therefore he chose their seed after them This hath been the way of the Lord to express his peculiar love that he hath to and care over a People to enter into Covenant with them which is of a distinguishing and of a discriminating nature from the rest of the World and their Seed Ezek. 16.8 I entered into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Mine and Covenant do alwayes go together 4. Reason Because the Lord may lay a good and sure foundation for the hope comfort and joy of pious Parents concerning their Children God knows how much the hearts of good men are concerned about their little ones the Lord is pleased to bestow upon them how much and how deeply they be taken up in their considerate and studious minds about their Eternal State Religious Parents know what immortal and never dying Souls their Children are inspired withal that must be everlastingly happy or miserable that must live with Saints and Angels or Devils for ever they know not how soon it may please the Lord to demand them back again from them and consign them to an unalterable station they know that they have conveyed and communicated to them a sinful Nature and as they are descended from them they be plunged in the filthy labyrinth of Sin and that they be born under the guilt of Sin by Nature Children of Wrath These and such like matters cannot but oftentimes sink and overwhelm the thoughts of good Parents and occasion pensive meditations about their little ones Now for them to sit down and contemplate what grounds of hope God hath been pleased to give them in relation to the Souls of their Children oh how comfortable is it And they find that all their hopes must center in this blessed Covenant which the Lord hath been graciously pleased to make with Parents and their Children A Covenant abundantly inriched with all Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and Priviledges which may give full solace and acquiescing content and satisfaction to godly Parents that are thus concerned about their Children There is enough in that promise of the Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed By reason of the Covenant of Grace Believers may look upon their Children to be the gracious gifts of God unto them So did Jacob Gen. 33.5 said he unto Esau These are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant and by reason of this Covenant they may hope and believe that God will graciously take care of and provide for them If Parents did believe that their Children were not in Covenant with the Lord and that the promises and priviledges did no more appertain unto them than unto the Children of Pagans and Infidels as some do too impiously assert I know not what joy and comfort they can conceive in their minds about their Children nor what can feed their Faith in crying unto and wrestling with God for them What comfort can poor grieved Parents take concerning that miserable state they receive their Children into the World in unless they find sweet and comfortable support and relief from the everlastingly gracious Covenant which doth wonderfully magnifie the Grace of God to Parents in that he hath taken their Children with them into it and makes abundantly for their peace and consolation This was that which satisfied and even ravished the heart of David with joy concerning his Family and Children 2 Sam. 12.23 when his Child was dead he was greatly comforted and satisfied saying I shall go to him but he shall not come to me which words as I apprehend denote the good hopes that quieted his mind through the thoughts he had of the eternal happiness of his Child and that he should shortly go to him and injoy the same happiness with him This good man David did meet with great disappointment in his House and Family but from the consideration of the Covenant he had a never-failing spring of joy and comfort which did exhilarate his Spirits in their depressing sinkings 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow This is a full breast of consolation upon which all godly Parents may hang and suck and draw a fullness of peace and comfort for themselves and Family in their most discouraging and dying dispensations 5. Reason Because by this means the Lord may provide for a perpetual and an uninterrupted succession for his Church and Kingdom in the World That God will have a Church unto the end of the World is founded upon his Eternal Purpose the Mediatory Transactions of his ever blessed Son and upon the infallible Promises of the never-failing Word But this is the way and expedient that he is pleased to pitch and fix upon for the preservation and perpetual propagation of it he hath taken his Church into Covenant with himself the Parents and their Children the latter of which are to promote and to provide for its continual succession that so when Parents have finisht the work of their generation and shall descend the stage of the World their Children may take place and fill up the vacancy in the Church of God This was one great reason why the Lord did take Adam Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob into Covenant with their Children that out of their Loins might issue a Seed to populate and to secure the Church as to a perpetual succession in Gods Family House and Kingdom So the Covenant in the new Dispensation of it takes in the Parents and their Seed for the same end and purpose For the great built of the Elect and body for the future provision of the Church are provided from the Covenanâ— Seed Therefore as it hath before been proved that Children are Members of the Kingdom and Church of God this is one great end why the Lord hath instituted Marriage for Covenant Parents that he might provide a constant Seed for his Church The Metaphors by which the Church is illustrated described and lively represented do abundantly demonstrate this sometimes the Church is compared to a Vineyard sometimes to an Orchard and sometimes to a Garden see Cant. 4.13 Psal
Baptized are not tanght of God nor made Disciples of Christ This is directly against the express Word of God Isa 54.13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord Is not this giving God the lye so in saying They be not the Disciples of Christ is also directly opposite to the Word of God Acts 15.10 Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which Disciples are evidently Children Here still you may see what fatal Doctrine this bold Asserter delivereth about poor Infants can they be saved without their being taught of God Though they be not capable of the teaching of Men yet they are of Gods and must be taught of him otherwise I understand not how there can be any possibility of their Salvation Thus I have given you a few hints of many that might be brought out of this Authors Works I think such sanguine sayings as these are about Infants in Covenant with God do loudly call for trembling from me and Repentance from him 8. This Doctrine doth inform us that a great part of the Scripture was written for the good and sake of Children God did greatly design and intend them in the choicest part of his Word The Covenant of Grace doth comprehend the most precious and gracious part of the Word of God though our late Author and my Confuter tells us That they were writ for the Adult and not for the Infants His Reason I suppose is because of their present ignorance This is some of this excellent Divines New Doctrine We may as well say that their Mothers Womb and Breasts that the Heavens and the Earth and all the Elements that Meat Drink and Rayment do not belong unto them that Eating Drinking and Sleeping do not belong unto them But we may ascend a great deal higher if the Scripture was not wrote for their sakes what will become of these poor Creatures for ever Can God can Christ can any special Grace be theirs What are the Scriptures relating to the Covenant the Blood of it and the gracious Promises of Remission Union with Christ Adoption and Sanctification not appertaining to them Were not the Scriptures wrote for their sake when there are so many Directions and Commands abounding concerning their Parents Duty to them in all things and all for the good of them and to demonstrate the great concernedness of a gracious God for them and the value he hath of them Surely if we do but confider what is wrote of Children in the Word we may easily see that God did greatly intend them in writing of it I will name a few places Psal 78.6 That the generation to come might know him even the children which shall be born Psal 127.3 Lo children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Prov. 20.7 The just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him Deut. 4.37 And because he loved their fathers he chose their seed after them Isa 61.9 Psal 18.50 A multitude of Scriptures might be brought to show how that in many Predictions and Promises and other wayes the Scripture was eminently wrote for the sake of Infants and Children and the Seed of Gods People What doth not those precious Scriptures of Christ taking little children up into his arms and blessing of them appertain unto Children Is it not left upon Divine Record for their sake But that which is beyond all may make us all to be amazed which is this If the Scriptures were not wrote for the sake of Infants what shall we say of all those Blessed Scriptures that were wrote about the Holy Child Jesus of his Conception Birth and Infancy If it be as this bold Asserter would have it then all Scriptures relating to the same must not be the subject matter of our Faith and Hope but all of them should be expunged out of the Word of God or stand upon its record as idle insignificant Stories It is clear that if the Scriptures were not wrote for the sake of Infants then our Lord Jesus Christ must come in for a share in this Doctrine which well may be called the Doctrine of Devils This Man is greatly skilled in propounding such Doctrine that hath a direct tendency to exclude poor Children and Infants out of the Kingdom of God not only out of the Kingdom of Grace here but also the Kingdom of Glory hereafter If the Scripture be not wrote for their sake I know not the Duties that are incumbent upon Parents concerning them neither any hopes of any good here and hereafter can be conceived about them But one would think the very naming of this should be more than sufficient to baffle it and its Author from the stage of his Presumption and Confidence 2. Vse of the Doctrine and all that furthermore I shall make of it shall be of solemn and serious Exhortation and that to those Pious and Godly Parents who are inriched and honoured with this transcendent priviledge of being in Covenant with God they and their Children also As your Mercy is great so those Duties that do refult from hence are very great God hath bestowed much upon you and he doth expect much from you Where much is given from thence much is expected The Lord hath done more for you than he hath for others therefore he doth expect more from you than he doth from others A few of these many Duties that this Covenant and your Interest in it do call for from you I would set before you and exhort you to a diligent observation and practise of 1. Make a great account of the priviledge of this Covenant State esteem it very high tho' some and that too many reproach and trample upon it yet let it be a matter of wonderful valuation with you God hath revealed much unto you if he hath but revealed unto you a right understanding of his Covenant Psal 25.14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his covenant or he will make them to know to understand the Covenant in its Nature and Latitude this is a secret that God reveals All those that enjoy this Blessing had need to esteem it very highly What a blessed entail is here upon your Children Those look upon themselves to be very happy that be the Heirs of great Estates in the World though they have not a present possession yet there is a sure and certain entail upon them and theirs But what is this to the entail of the Covenant and unto the being Heirs to the Promise How glad would some be should they be assured that such a great Lordship was continued to them and their Children Ay but here is the incomparable and for ever to be esteemed dignity viz. The promise is to you and your children Some good Parents when they shall come to dye are like to have but little of the World to leave their Children but this is
to bedew them with all those Heavenly Blessings thou hast promised those whom thou hast placed and planted in such a capacity so near unto thee These Natural Endowments be great Mercies but hast thou not promised a New Heart a New Spirit also to write thy Law and to put thy fear into their Hearts Oh! be a God to me and mine in the communication of all Covenant precious Blessings in the greatest Latitude of them When God had said he will be a God why may not we hope for the accomplishment of the fullest Sense thereof Say to God Hast thou not made with me an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all my salvation and all my desire 2 Sam. 23.5 We ought to understand believe and plead the Covenant in the greatest Latitude of it for our selves and ours 4. Improve the Covenant to Duty and Obedience let the Promises of the Covenant strictly and for ever bind us to Obedience where there is the greatest Grace dispenced there is the greatest Inducement and Obligation to Duty and Obedience The Covenant that saith God will be our God requires us and ours to be his People there is a Covenant-engagement upon us and ours to be the Lords But alas how little is this thought upon Most covet to have their Children to be baptized and glory in their Baptism but seldom make this to be any part of their care and endeavour that their Children be the Lords How little care have many Parents about the holy Education of their Children How they bring them up in the Fear Nurture and Admonition of the Lord How few command their Children and Houshold to walk in the ways of the Lord What Falsehood and Breach of Covenant is here That Charge may be drawn up and Exhibited against such careless and treacherous Parents Psal 78.36 37. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto them with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant How many Parents do flatter God and his Ministers Promising great Things at the baptizing of their Children but soon forget all never taking any care according to their Covenant of the Souls of their Children that they may partake of the Blessings of the Covenant they are very earnest for the Outward Seal but little concerned for the Inward Grace What will Baptism avail for you and your Children if you are contented only with the outward Badge and Mark of the Disciples and Followers of Christ Rom. 2.28 29. For he is not a Jow that is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew that is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Outward Priviledges and Ordinances will never prove you to be good Christians you and yours must have the Inward Circumcision of the Heart Regeneration the New Birth and Sanctification short of which nothing will avail to Salvation Gal. 5.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature We are said to be baptized into Christ and to put on Christ we must see that we have an Union with Christ and are renewed by the Spirit of Christ if ever we hope or desire to be inriched with the Saving Benefits of Baptism 3. Exhortation is to those that are the happy Possessors of the Incomparable Mercy of the Covenant admire and magnifie the Grace of God herein that he should not be content to ingage his Grace to and for you but to yours with you You and yours were all Rebels and Traitors to God and he hath received both into Favour and Grace with himself God might have taken you into covenant and have left out your Children and that would have been an high Expression of his Grace and Favour unto you but this is confer'd upon you and your Seed too this gives you the fullest occasion and obligation to magnifie him above the Heavens and to cause his Praise to be continually in your Hearts and Mouths How should this alwayes affect and ravish your Hearts To consider many of you that the Lord should be pleased to pass by you when you were polluted in your Blood and should say unto you Live that when you were in your Blood and Filth through your pollution and contamination fit for nothing but to be abhorr'd by God that that should be a Time of Love to you that he should then spread a Skirt of Grace and Favour over you and cover your Nakedness and swear unto you and enter into Covenant with you and not only you but also yours should be taken into the Bonds of the same and become his Ezek. 16.6 8 9 10 c. What Grace is this that we should be taken poor Gentiles and cut off the Wild Olive-tree and graffed into the Good Olive-tree which is contrary to Nature That some of the natural branches should be broken off and we should be taken and grafted in in their place and partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-Tree What matter of perpetual Thanksgiving to God is here administred to us Rom. 11.17 c. Remember oftentimes what you were by Nature into what a miserable plunge of all infelicity you were cast how remote and distant from God many of you before Conversion were without the Covenant having no Promise This might be the condition of sundry of you born out of the Covenant and every way in a desperate condition as to the concerns of your Souls and Eternal Life I cannot present you with a fuller and a clearer description of your former state before the Lord brought you under the means of Grace and effectually called you then you have in Eph. 2.11 12 13. Wherefore remember that being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus ye who some times were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ The poor Gentiles of whom we were part were afar off because not within the pale of the Covenant This was the opposition that was between the Jew and the Gentile the former was nigh being in Covenant but the other afar off not being taken into that inclosure ver 17. Oh! magnifie God that thou that wert afar off art brought nigh by the Blood of Christ The Blessing of Abraham is come to the Gentiles and come unto thee and thy Family through Christ Gal. 3.14 What cause hast thou to wonder that art yet within the bonds of the Covenant and thy Little