nominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper signification of the words Infants and that they were carried to Christ and also that he took them into his arms when he blessed them must be kept But I may have an opportunity to meet with my Adversary in a more suitable place Thus we see what little things the Seed of Believers be that are Members of the Church visible for by Kingdom of Heaven is by all judicious Divines taken to be the visible Church Now because they be declared by Christ himself to be such Members with their Parents they must also with them be in Covenant with God 5. Demonst The Parents by Covenant do ingage themselves and their Children unto God When Parents do enter into Covenant with the Lord they do by the Bonds of the same oblige themselves and theirs unto the Lord and to be the Lords for ever Every Covenant-Parent does oblige himself and his Seed to God to walk according to the Covenant of Grace to which the Initiating Seal of the Covenant is annext and God doth promise to be his God and the God of his Seed Gen. 17.7 Parents when they do dedicate their Children to God by the Seal of the Covenant then they do ingage to the utmost of their power that they shall observe the Duties of the same So Children when they are Adult ought by Faith to lay a firm hold upon the Covenant and answer the Obligation of their Parents In a Federal Consideration when Parents do ingage for their Children this as it hath always been is accounted among the Judicious the Act of the Children in and by their Parents and they are obliged strictly to the performance of the same That Parents have thus ingaged for their Children in covenant with God might be easily proved Deut. 26.17 18. In which place Parents and their children are comprehended as is more fully and specifically expressed in Chap. 29.10 11 12 13 14. There we have the little ones expressed which are involved with their Parents in the former place Some that are Adversaries herein pretend to wonder how this can be but what is more common among Men In a Mans Covenant do not Men put their Childrens Names in their Writings Obligatory And their Little Ones and those unborn shall stand firmly obliged thereby and the Law doth take it as firm as if the Child had actually bound himself A little to Illustrate and Invigorate this We are to consider that the Children when grown up and prove sinful walking contrary to the Covenant yea and those that never did receive the Token of the Covenant by Circumcision stand accused of the high Charge of breaking the Covenant which is an Evident Proof of their being when but Infants in covenant otherwise this Charge could not be so clearly exhibited against them Deut. 29.25 The men shall say Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers Viz. the Covenant which the Lord God made with their Fathers This you have but a few Verses before to demonstrate that it was that Covenant the Lord made with the Parents and their Little Ones that stood before him to covenant with him 1 Kings 19.10 14. You may see what Covenant this was 2 Kings 13.23 And the Lord was gracious unto them and had compassion on them and had respect unto them because of his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them neither cast he them from his presence Yet they had broken this Covenant and for the Covenant's sake they descending from the Fathers and being the Seed of those with whom he had made this Covenant he would not enter upon them for the breach they made upon it to extinguish or to destroy them as yet It was the Covenant that did bind up and restrain the Hands of Justice from casting off the Jews the Children of the Fathers and of the Covenant therefore the Lord is said Psal 111.5 He will ever be mindful of his covenant Gen. 17.14 And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my covenant Surely if the Seed of Parents in covenant are accused for the breaking of the Covenant they themselves must be in covenant and obliged by their Parents to keep it 6. Demonst Such as God is pleased to account and accept as holy are in covenant Those that have a Foederal Holiness must be Foederates and such that be in covenant with the Lord but this is the great Blessing of those that are the Children of believing Parents there is a Holiness attributed to them that is not to the Seed of Pagans and Infidels and it is a Covenant-Holiness therefore it must follow by undeniable consequence That they are in covenant with their Parents What makes Israel and his Seed more holy than the Egyptians or Canaanites and their Seed but God's taking one into covenant and not the other Thus Israel and his Seed are said to be holy Deut. 14.2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God If but one Parent be in covenant the Children be accepted as holy with the Lord 1 Cor. 7.14 Because of this the Children are not unclean as the Canaanites but holy like the Israelites I have spoke something to this in the Explication of this Point therefore shall hasten over it it would be to small purpose to enter into the Miry Labyrinth wherein some have lodg'd this precious Scripture I shall only say this with an Acute Person That commonly Reasons of Positions are brought à notiori to prove a thing doubtful by a thing known yeilded or confest this I judge to be a granted and a well-known Truth as one of the Jews Divine Axioms But that none but Believers Children are Legitimate and that none but Believers have a lawful use of their Children which are the two usual Expositions of the Adversaries on that Text which to me seems very jeiune and spurious those will hardly pass for unquestionable Truths among the wisest of Men And to make the Apostle argue thence to prove the lawful continuance of the Believer in conjugal Society with the Unbeliever would make the Apostle guilty of proving obscurum per obscurius an obscure thing by that which is more dark and obscure But to take Holiness there for that which is Foederal that is a clear Medium to prove that and whosoever shall stand up and oppose it there is the Dispensation of the Covenant with Isaac all along and that continued in the Christian Churches to prove it Your Children are holy Viz. Heirs to the Covenant a known Truth then granted and allow'd by all even like unto our Text That the Covenant was to the Parents and their Children How can the Children of Believers be said to be holy if they be not in covenant with their Parents From whence all the Seed of Believers do receive the denomination Rom. 11.16 For if the
promoters of the riches of Divine grace but so long as they do Eclipse and obscure the glory and the brightness of it in the Covenant so long they are but empty Pretenders like unto sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbal The great way that the fountain of Grace hath alwayes taken to diffuse and to convey it self ever since the miserable state of Man stood in need of it hath been thro' the Covenant of grace out of which to exclude Infants is the ready way to contract abbreviate and to confine it in straighter Channels then ever God intended it for What a wonderful restraint is here fixt upon the grace of God when Parents must only be taken in and all their Infants must be thrust out when Parents must be the Children of the Covenant and of the Promise and their Seed must be the Children of the Pagans and Heathens and in no better a capacity as to any Spiritual priviledges then they when much of the Lustration and admired beauty of it is by every unprejudiced Eye clearly to be seen from the gracious extent of it to the Seed of those that are taken into it Thus with Abraham and all along and thus in our Text the Promise is to you and your Seed Nay this is to make an essential violation upon and alteration of the Covenant without any colour of pretence or shadow of reason in the least For we never read since the institution of it that ever Children were shut out 2. This makes the case and condition of Children far worse than they were before the Incarnation and ascension of Christ and it makes the Covenant-State of believing Parents to be worse for before they were not only themselves in the happy compass of the Covenant but they had their Children with them also to thee and to thy seed Here ran the Glory the Grace and the Promises of the Covenant to incourage the convinced Jews to believe and repent The Apostle in my Text doth assure them that the Promise is not only to them but to their Children likewise Methinks what a bloody Knife is here at the Throat of all the gracious Covenant-promises made to Infants or poor Children By this opinion they have small ground of rejoycing at the appearance of Christ in the flesh that did immediately abandon them out of the Covenant We read Mat. 21.15 of Children crying in the Temple and saying Hosanna to the son of David But this Doctrine of shutting them out of the Covenant gives them but little ground of those acclamations But their sounding out of the praises of the Redeemer is a clear Indication that it was for their sake that he was come to impart unto and to inrich them with all the redemption-blessings wrapt up in the Covenant Doubtless their amazing Hosannah's they poured out to their Mediatour of that Covenant they did partake of were by a Supernatural instinct and influence Mat. 21.16 Have ye never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise The Lord Jesus never came into the World to contract but to inlarge the Covenant he was so far from turning Children out of the Covenant as that he hath extended it unto the Gentiles and all the nations of the World and their Seed upon their believing 3. This shuts out and deprives them of the ordinary way of Salvation as to extraordinary wayes we have no Rule to walk by what a prejudice is here offered to Infants And what a Soul-destructive Tenent is that which deprives little ones of all ordinary wayes and means of eternal Salvation They have as precious Souls as any and by nature thro' the guilt and filth of sin as miserable and obnoxious to Divine wrath as others They have equal necessity of the grace of God and the blood of Christ with their first Parents they descended from And I know no ordinary appointed way for their help relief and recovery but by and thro' the Covenant of grace How slenderly do many consider of this cruel absurdity that they cannot free their opinion from How helpless doth this reader all children of pious Parents to be I might illustrate and amplifie this by many particulars some of which I shall just propound 1. This doth deprive them of being Members of the visible Church of Christ for this Church is inclosed within the Covenant to shut them out of this inclosure is directly opposite to Christs own and open assertion Mat. 19.14 Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven So that to exclude Believers Infants being part of th visible Church in general is to exclude them from any ordinary State and way of Salvation this hath been a long received saying that extra Ecclesiam non est salus no Salvation in an ordinary way To exclude all Infants of Believers from a notion of Abrahams Spiritual Seed from a Covenant and Church State is to put them into the same State of the Children of Infidels and Pagan Gentiles who are strangers from the Promise and Covenants and in a godless Christless and hopeless State Eph. 2.11 12. This the Apostle sets out to be the deplorable condition of all such making no distinction of potentia remota aut propinqua let this be well considered 2. They cannot be judged to be the Elect of God to Eternal life all that shall saved are the chosen to Salvation before all time Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself 2 Thess 2.13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth The line of Election doth usually and for the most part runs thro' the Lines of the inchurched incovenanted Parents there the greatest part of the golden Veins are plac'd So it was amongst the Jews in the duration of their Church and Covenant-State Rom. 11.5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace Now for men to turn them out of the Covenant of Grace is to render them in a very unpromising Station of the Election of God to appertain unto them This is as to Gods eternal choice to make them altogether as hopeless as the Seed of Pagans and Infidels Tho' I readly grant that secret things belong unto God yet from what is revealed we have little ground to judge that any considerable quantity of the Elect are to be concluded to be amongst the Heathen world where the Covenant is not on foot where Christ is neither preached or known where Souls be not converted nor called nor any saving signes by the fruits and effects of Election discovered nor
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
in this matter but how poorly and weakly is easie to be apprehended by any competently endowed with Covenant-Knowledge 3. That by this means the ordinary way and dispensation of conveying and communicating the Fruits of Christs Death to Children even to all the Infant part of his Church is cut off How can they partake of the Blood of Christ for their renewing cleansing sanctification justification and remission of Sins These be some of the great and singular Blessings of the Covenant of Grace through which the Blood of Christ which is the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant doth in an ordinary way run 4. By this means Men do undermine and labour to destroy the validity and efficacy of all that God hath been pleased graciously to determine and hath done in a Covenant for Babes Indeed the foundation of God stands sure and God knows who are his Though Men may labour to cut off the Seed of Gods People from the Covenant yet the Lord is more merciful to them than men are I make no question but the infinite Grace of God doth through a Covenant save many of those poor Children that their cruel Parents do indeavour to shut out 5. This cuts off the hopes that Parents from this Covenant may and ought to have concerning their dying Children this being the ground for their anchor hope to be cast out into and this cuts off their hopes as to the Sanctification and Regeneration of those that are living 6. This is the way to render the Prayers of Parents and of the Church of God for Little Ones to be altogether insignificant and vain this doth pass a Sentence of condemnation upon them all There ought always to be poured out a Flood of Prayers for the Seed of the Church It is a very dangerous thing to condemn the Prayers of pious Parents and of the whole Church daily pour'd out upon this account for those Children of the Covenant that have pass'd under the Seal of it and by the same have been devoted and dedicated in a solemn manner unto God Let some think as contemptuously of it as they please and reproach it with never so much scurrility and contempt I would humbly advise such to consider what is said Rev. 13.6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven viz. them that dwell in the Church Infants they dwell in the Church they be a Multitude of the blessed Inhabitants of it 7. By this means how do Men undermine all the Churches of Christ that adhere to this Doctrine of Infants and for their Baptism Many of the Anabaptists do Found their Churches in renouncing Infant-Baptism accounting it no better than Antichristian and imposing another Baptism which they make to be an essential part of the Foundation that their Church Structure is built upon and the only Door to admit into the same nay many of them do say that ours are no True Churches of Christ and all because we differ with them as to the Subject of Baptism and that we are but as Heaps or Herds of uncircumcised Philistines 8. By this means there is a great Stumbling-block laid in the way of the Jews in coming over unto the Messiah and accepting of the New and Gospel-Administration of the Covenant They viz. the Jews are for the Old Testament in the latitude and full extent of it therefore they are for the Seal of the Covenant to be fixt still unto the Infant which accordingly in their way they do strictly observe and practice to this very day but to Assert another Covenant which excludes all their Infant-Seed this will never go down with them neither would it with these here in the Text had the Apostle mentioned to them a Covenant without their Children This would have been but faint and cold Encouragement to them to have accepted of the Apostles Exhortation Thoughts of the Exclusion of their Children would have made them to hang back 9. This makes the Case of the Jews worse since the owning of the Messiah than it was before and this in the Days of the Gospel greatly contracts and narrows the Grace of God as to Believers 10. This bereaves the Church of God of a Multitude of its Members for Children are the declared Members of the Visible Church by Christ himself as I have shewn Oh! what a cruelty is here offered to and an Invasion made upon the Church of God If Infants be not in this Covenant they cannot be in the Church this is to make such a Church that God never planted one that is only constituted and made up with Adult Members I am apt to believe that the greatest number of the Church is comprehended in the Infant-Seed of it The Body of Christ is but small respectively but this is the way to make it small indeed Many more things might have been here added but I have said something before in this Affair and shall therefore at present say no more 4. This Doctrine doth inform us how cruel they may be lookt upon to be that exclude themselves and Children out of this great Priviledge I mean all wicked and ungodly Parents for by their sin and wickedness they deprive themselves and Children of the Blessings of the Covenant the only ordinary way of their Welfare and Happiness Wicked and ungodly Parents do not only labour to ruine themselves but also their Children by cutting off themselves and Little Ones so far as they can by their Sins from all the Grace and Mercy of the Covenant It may well be said of such They are not Parentes sed Peremptores they have not the Love the Bowels and Care of Parents that they may be Instruments of their Childrens Salvation which they are bound by all Bonds and Obligations unto but they labour to destroy themselves and theirs for ever Ungodly Parents are more savage and cruel to their Little Ones than the most unnatural and cruel Brutes or Beasts in the World All that they do in their wicked ways and practices hath not only a tendency to their own but also to their Childrens eternal misery and destruction such declare that they themselves are not in covenant with God and they endeavour by this means to exclude their Children for ever 5. This informs us of the great Sin of those that were the Seed of the Godly and are become Adult but do not walk in the Steps of their Parents nor observe the Covenant-Obligations that they be under to serve to fear to honour and to walk with God that do not observe their dedication to the Lord and to be the Lords by their baptismal Vow What Parents did ingage to endeavour that they should do they have no regard of or respect unto but violate the Sacred Bonds of the Covenant by a wilful perpetrating of and a voluntary giving up of themselves unto all Sin and Impieties all that they do is effectually to accomplish their Exclusion by the
visibly declare and set them out to be such Christ hath declared them to be of the Kingdom of Heaven that is of his Church and Parents ought by this Ordinance to represent and openly to declare them to be such This is a visible incorporating of them into this body and a listing them under the Banner of Christ to serve and to cleave unto him They must be put into Christ's List and brought under his Banner though they do him at present but little service Thus we find in the Scripture when God hath called his People solemnly to enter into covenant with him to love him to serve him to obey him they have appeared before the Lord with their Little Ones with them Deut. 29.10 11 12 13. Children that are brought under the Bonds of the Covenant and Listed for the Lord it is their Duty when they attain to understanding to be very sensible of the same and to do and manage themselves accordingly for God will require their dedication and Parental obligation at their Hands 4. By this way Parents do shew their right understanding of and do give a good testimony unto the covenant which the Lord has been pleas'd to gratifie them withal Thus did Abraham by his immediate complying with the Lord in the Seal of it by this they do openly declare their well liking of and their great pleasure they take in the covenant and how joyful and ready they are that their Children should obtain and be made the happy partakers of the Blessings and Priviledges of it and be the open and visible Proprietors with them in it methinks Parents should commend and set out the excellency of this covenant and what sweetness and comfort they have had in it by being very willing and desirous that their children should be within the compass of it and as they have done partake of the rich and eminent Blessings of it Pious Parents do not know how to live in any condition without the covenant and the suitable and seasonable Promises of it and how can they chuse then but be very solicitous and desirous that their children should succeed them in such an Enjoyment and Tenour 5. By this they do testifie their belief of the Truth and of the Faithfulness of God and the Veracity of all the gracious Promises comprehended and lodg'd in the Covenant Indeed the Seal and Token is to assure and to confirm all therefore when the Lord was pleased to establish his Covenant with Abraham and his Seed there was Circumcision as the Seal affixt to be a great Incouragement unto the Faith of Abraham to believe and expect the Accomplishment of all the Covenant-Promises that God had made with him and his Seed for ever Now when Parents that be in covenant do suddenly by this Seal devote and give up their Children to God they do signifie and declare their firm and unboubted Faith in all that God hath promised to them and their Children and in this Matter they put up their Requests to God exercising Faith in the Promises for their Children and so also after in their frequent Requests for Covenant-Mercies for them 6. By this means Parents do as they ought to do lay great Obligations upon themselves unto the greatest care and diligence that may be that their Children may partake of the Internal Part and saving Blessings of the Covenant What a strict Tye and Bond must this be to Parents to be greatly concerned for the Souls and Eternal Salvation of them They have given them up unto God as his Children in a Covenant-Obligation and have ingag'd for them now they must look to their Charge and Trust that the Souls of their Little Ones do not perish through their default by their carelesness and negligence in their discharge of their weighty and incumbent Duty that the Living God in this gracious Covenant hath imposed upon and injoined them Abraham had a great respect unto this which caused the Lord to give him this commendation Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment It was but in the Chapter before this that he did enter into covenant with the Lord for himself and his Oh! said God I know that he hath a sence of his Covenant-Obligation upon him that he hath lately received from me and he will observe it being careful of his Houshold that they may perform the Duties and injoy the Blessings of the Covenant What a close and strict Engagement is this to Parents that they bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord How doth this call upon us to prayer to educate carefully and to instruct our Children in the knowledge and fear of the Lord 3. Improve this great Blessing of the Covenant for the Encouragement of your Hopes as to the Spiritual Birth of your Children This is the great Concern of pious Parents about their Children so soon as they see that they be once born that they may be born again that they may not only be born of the Flesh but also of the Spirit that they may not only have a Natural but also a Spiritual Birth It is for this that godly Parents do groan and travail You that are thus concerned for your Children 't is the Covenant of Grace that must be your great Encouragement in besieging the Throne of Grace for them your Fangs for the New Birth in your Children must be covenant Ones it is the Covenant and the Mediatour and Blood of it that must animate quicken and support your Hopes in this great Affair you must put the Promise in suit and plead them with that God of Infinite Grace Love and Faithfulness that hath put you and yours into this Feederal Compact You may humbly go to God and tell him that he hath promised to be your God and the God of your Seed to teach you and your Children and to circumcise your Heart and the Heart of your Children to love and to fear him that he hath promised to pour out his Spirit upon your Off-spring and that your Children shall be taught of God Gen. 17.7 Deut. 30.6 Ezek. 36.26 27. Isa 44.3 and 59.21 and 54.13 And many such Golden Promises of rich Grace comprehended in the Covenant as Food for the Faith of Parents that make conscience daily to pursue and wrestle with God for the renewing and sanctifying of their Children Wherefore go to God and plead his Covenant after this manner Hast thou not promised to be a God to me and mine Is not the Promise to me and my Children Thou hast shewn abundance of Mercy in giving them all Natural Parts of the Body and Endowments of Mind Ay but Blessed Lord thou hast confer'd greater Mercy than this upon them Thou hast put them in thy Covenant and hast planted them in thy House and Family they have a Standing in thy Church Lord be pleased
only induce and sweetly entice them with a promise which upon their accepting of his counsel they might be certain to enjoy It was indeed a most gracious promise such an one that would make them eternally happy and more necessary than the gifts of Miracles 3. Because the promise here meant is of a perpetual duration at least to be in force in all Ages for it is extended to as many as the Lord shall call which doth reach to all Ages and Generations and so is a promise that is not limited and restrained to some Ages and to some Christians but toucheth and belongeth unto all Wheresoever God shall be pleased to call any the promise shall be extended to them and their children this laid down as a ground-work for the proceedings of grace in encouraging to believe and repent to the end of times even unto the calling in of all the Elect. 2. There is another acceptation of the Words which I shall take up withal such a one that I think is built upon better grounds let us observe well the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is set before the word promise and that may give us a clear light herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This must denote some great and eminent promise that was made to the Jews and such a promise that they were well acquainted withal The promise is to you and to your children the promise that was made to you and that is well known to you This can be looked upon as nothing less then the Covenant of Grace or one of the uppermost or top-branches of it for to them did pertain the Covenant of promise Rom. 9.4 Who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving the law and the service of God and the promises Let us see what they be called in Acts 3.25 Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham And in thy seed shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed But what was that say you or what Covenant was that You may see it in Gen. 17.4 7. As for me my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be the father of many nations or as the words may be read of multitudes of Nations He was then but the Father of one Nation I but God doth here promise unto him that he shall be a Father of a multitude of Nations This must needs look unto the Gentiles and the many Nations of them after the Incarnation Suffering and Ascension of the Messiah when the Wall of partition was to be broken down and the Covenant of Abraham carried over unto them And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee This is the Covenant-promise the Apostle urgeth upon these convinced and awaken'd Sinners that he might overcome them to repent and accept of the new administration of the Covenant for the promise was to them and to their Children Quod illis filios adjungit pendet ex verbis promissionis ero Deus tuus seminis tui post te Gen. 17.17 Vbi Deus filios patribus accenset in adoptionis gratiâ Saith a Learned Expositor and he addeth Hic locus abundè refellit Anabaptistas qui infantes ex fidelibus genitos à baptismo arcent quasi non sint Ecclesiae membra This place saith he doth abundantly confute the Anabaptists who drive away the Infants born of godly Parents as if they were not Members of the Church 2. The Promise here spoke of must be such an one which gives remission of sins and the Gift of the Holy Ghost such an one that to drooping disconsolate Souls assures of pardoning and sanctifying Grace Ver. 38. Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost This is that Promise that he tells them doth appertain to them and not to them only but to their Children also The same Promise we have Jer. 31.33 34 and Ezek. 36.25 26 27. It must be such a Promise as carries in the womb of it the offer of pardoning and sanctifying Mercy which is in the Covenant of Grace 3. The Scope of the Apostle is to shew what an Obligation there was lying upon them to accept of and to believe in Christ freely offered unto them and not to stand out and be shy of coming under his new administration From hence he argues for the promise is to you and your children We may sum it up thus q. d. You are the Posterity of such whom God accepted and took into Covenant with himself promising to be a God to them and their Seed to whom he also promised to send his Son by whom this Blessing should be confirmed accordingly this promised Seed the great Promise of the Covenant is come for this very end Rom. 15.8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promise made unto the fathers To confirm the Covenant not to dissolve it confirm it to whom To the Jews and also to the Gentiles I but how is this confirmed by Christ if the Children must since the coming of Christ be shut out of the Covenant Oh! what a sweet allurement was here to hasten their acceptance of the Apostles Exhortation Oh! said he do not you by your infidelity and distrust of the Grace and Mercy of God deprive your selves of such an inconceivable and inestimable Blessing and Priviledge Thus saith an Excellent Author So that the Apostle lays before them a good encouragement to come to Christ and a firm bottom of hope to found pardon upon their Repentance because in their Church-estate which was going also to be carried over unto the Gentiles they and their Children were under being in covenant with God and stood firmly possessed of the same which God would make good to them and confirm them in if by their unbelief they did not cut themselves and their children off So the Promise is the Covenant of Grace made to Abraham and his Seed continued hitherto to them and their Children Here we may evidently see that the Apostle does not undertake to dissolve the Covenant nor to cut off the gracious Entail thereof as to the Children nor shut them out of this great Blessing he would establish them in but acquaints these vile and trembling Sinners that the Promise is to them and their Children 2. Quest What is meant by Children Answ By Children is meant the natural Seed Children after the Flesh for the Covenant here is the Covenant made with Abraham and his natural Seed This is that Covenant the Apostle mentions when he saith The promise is to you and your children Viz. That Covenant which they were well acquainted withal and valued themselves
Spirit When our Lord and Saviour was in the Flesh he had much to do with such Jews that boasted themselves of their outward Priviledges which were great but neglected the internal part of the Covenant which he did caution them against but did not shut them out of the Covenant but left them as he found them This I know is a distinction though never so solid and sound yet the Anabaptists will not take it down Notwithstanding I know not how they themselves can subsist without it in their Covenant-way They take into the Covenant and affix the Seal of the Covenant to those that be Adult profess their Faith in and Obedience to Christ and their repentance and renouncing their Infant-baptism if they have had any I but here is the Question Are all that do so internally and savingly in covenant with the Lord Dare they be so bold as to say so If they dare I shall offer two things unto them 1. This is against the plain and evident Truth of the Word of God Is not the Visible Church otherwise represented in the Scriptures unto us what are all their Israel of the peculiar Seed of Isaac Is this agreeable to the Parables of the Tares of the Net of the Wedding of the Virgins and of the variety of the Vessels in the Church Visible and in the House of God These things are so well known to all that read and consider what they read that I need not stand upon them The Lord Jesus in his little Church and Family had one Devil They be happy Churches indeed in whom there are no Hypocrites and from which never any do fall off and prove Apostates Oh how many out of the purest Churches shall encrease the number of the Damn'd 2. This is against too great experiences How many have we seen to turn out of the way of Truth into Errour Many that after they have seemed to be washt from their Sins and have escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust by the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are again intangled and turn'd with the Dog unto the Vomit 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. How many be there that the unclean Spirit doth but go out of and after returns again and takes a greater possession than ever So that the last end is worse than the beginning Mat. 12.43 44 45. Let me apply my self unto you my Brethren of the Anabaptist Perswasion Have you no Revolters among you None that fall from Truth to Errour from Strictness to Looseness from an outward holy Conversation to Profaneness Have you never any occasion to exert your Authority in Excommunication Have you never any rotten Members to cut off I am misinformed if my good Neighbour be not something good and frequent at this Work after he hath laid his Hands upon his Converts and rebaptized Proselytes no wonder when we consider his numerous and easie Admissions But what I do speak of one that is but the Head of an overgrown Schisme his Church as it is called declared to be so not only by Congegrational but also by Anabaptistical Elders When the Anti-paedobaptists admit any to the Seals of Church and Covenant-Fellowship is it not possible that some false Brethren may creep in unawares Jude 4. Some Wolves get into Sheeps-cloathing and they be lookt upon to be the covenant-People of God this is undeniable and their revolt proves themselves to have none of the saving special Gifts and Graces of the same but at best were only externally in covenant You will not pretend to put Seals to Blanks but you will say They did appear to us to be so and so and to be in the Covenant of Grace For my part I must say though I desire to be very careful in my Admissions yet I have as great a hope and as much confidence about the Salvation of Infants in covenant with God dying in their Infancy as I have in any that I do admit Here I may retoâ—â—… upon my Brethren because many of your Members that you have taken into covenant unto whom you have affixed the Seal do fall off Do you hold falling from Grace So that this may be as well objected against you in your Adult Persons as against us in our Infants 4. Quest If it be granted That Children with their Parents be taken into covenant even the natural Seed of believing Parents yet you say they are but External Priviledges and Benefits that many of them do partake of and a great number of them fall short of the Spiritual and Eternal Advantages of the same Therefore what do they obtain thereby seeing he is not a Jew that is one outwardly c. What profit did Cain reap by being circumcised or Ishmael For as the Apostle saith circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision Rom. 2.25 Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised Isa 9.25 Answ They have great Advantages more than others have that are not so much as externally in covenant I will refer you to the Apostle who propounded and answered this Question for us Rom. 3.1 2 c. He had said in the close of the Chapter before to cut off the vain confidence of those that did securely repose themselves in their External Priviledges that he was not a Jew that was one outwardly c. He was very sensible what Objection some would make at that time therefore he propounds this Question and returns a free Answer What advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision I Answer with the Apostle first generally Much every way and then particularly chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God c. Thus say some You stand stifly to this that Children be in covenant with their Parents and God hath taken them into covenant with them but what are they the better for it What advantage doth accrue unto them from thence I Answer Much every way Methinks the Spirit of God foreseeing how the Covenant and the Infant-right in it would be infringed and invaded in the Times of the Gospel did inspire the Apostle here to contradict and oppose those bold Usurpers that should attempt to make Breaches upon the Lords sacred Inclosure I could shew in many particulars the wonderful advantage that those have that are but externally in covenant above those that are not and what an inestimable Favour and Blessing it is to be within the Pale of the Covenant I shall mention some of the chief Priviledges that such do enjoy 1. They have the Excellent Oracles of God reposited among them and committed unto them this was the Priviledge of the Jews in propatulo and their great advantage which did distinguish them from the rest of the World and represented them to all Nations to be a peculiarly happy and dignified People Rom. 3.2 Much every way
rested upon I shall here lay down Two Positions that shall conclude this present Matter in hand 1. That as God by the Election of Grace doth make the distinction among the Natural Seed of Covenanters with God accordingly is their Childrens participation of the Promise The Elect have the Promise in the extent the other in the external part only which in it self is a Priviledge and a great Advantage There might have been given great Instances of this in Abraham's Family and others but I forbear and shall not need to stand upon it There is the Elect Isaac the Covenant was establisht with him in all its Spiritual and External parts and Ishmael the Son of a Bond-woman in covenant and must be circumcised too and participate of the Seal and become a great Nation and have a Standing till his time come to be cast out 2. That there is great ground and very good foundation for a Parent in covenant with God to pray and to hope for the accomplishment of the Covenant in the extent of it Pious Parents in covenant with God should labour to lay hold upon the gracious Promises thereof and put them daily in suit at the Throne of Grace pleading of them for their poor Children with God Ay and this should be done with a great deal of hope and that partly because the Purpose of God is secret and not to be the Rule of our Covenant-Duties and the Promise is open in the full and ample Extent of it and also because Gods gracious Promise is so full copious and comprehensive as to be the God of the Seed of those Parents he hath highly gratified and graced in taking them into covenant with himself which Faith ought in the largest sence to take hold upon and swallow down and to be warmly and comfortably exercised about the inward spiritual and eternal Blessings of the Covenant for Children But somewhat more of this if the Lord please in the Use of this Doctrine Thus much for the first General Thing Viz. The opening of this Point Now we come unto the II. General Head proposed in my Method which is to offer some Demonstrations to Evince the Truth of my Doctrine and so we shall insist upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Great Truth 1. This hath ever been Gods way in covenanting with his People this way God hath observed ever since the Fall yea this was the way that he took in the first Covenant that ever was concluded between him and Man viz. The Covenant of Works that he made with Adam in innocency in his perfect State Adam and all his Posterity were strictly included in that Covenant so that as it fared with him it was to be with all that were to descend from his Loyns or all his Seed he falling all fell in him and with him Upon his Fall the blessed Covenant of Grace that was eternally provided through Christ the great Channel of the Grace of God took place and was published with Gods own Lips Gen. 3.15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Here we have the Seed immediately comprehended this I take to be the very same Covenant for substance that was made and more fully explicated confirmed and established with Abraham where was the first emanation and springing forth of the inexhaustible Fountain of Grace through a Covenant for apostate and trembling Adam who was capable of no other Covenant in that his miserable State It was only naked and pure Grace that could support him from sinking into eternal desperation and destruction Ever since the Fall of Man God hath been pleased to gather a Church and People to himself by covenant and he evermore hath taken in the Children with the Parents when ever he hath made a Covenant with a Family with a People and with a Nation he never excluded and shut out the Children and Seed accounting the Children to be of that Family People or Kingdom This might be abundantly proved were it needful We have fully seen it in the Lords covenanting with Abraham taking in all his Natural Seed with him a famous and obvious Instance hereof we have in Deut. 29.9 10 11 12. One would think that this should for ever silence the Opposers of this Truth Here we have the Adult and all their Little Ones standing before the Lord to enter into covenant with him the Little Ones were confederate with their Parents and entered into covenant in and with them thus when the Covenant was carried over to the Gentiles Children were still involved as in our Text Acts 2.39 For the promise is to you and your children And so it shall be unto all that are afar off when they shall be called and brought home unto God they shall come with their Children with them and enter into covenant with the Lord Rom. 11.17 19. If here Children of the Gentiles be not taken into the Covenant with the Jews in the place of those that were broken off then there would be no Analogy or Proportion between the rejection of one and the acceptation of the other 2. Demonst This hath been Gods way in his conveying all saving Good unto the Elect this is Gods ordinary way of communicating unto the Salvation of the Infants of Believers they being actually in the Visible Church and in covenant with God out of which ordinarily no Salvation can be expected and hoped for All the Promises that be made to Infants of any Spiritual Blessing conducting to their Eternal Happiness are lodged in the Covenant and the Promises are the Instruments of the Spirit of God in its great Covenant-work of distilling and infusing Grace into the Hearts of the Elect dying Infants Even before the World began God ordained and instituted all Good to be conveyed to us in a way and by vertue of a Covenant therefore 't is called the everlasting covenant and the everlasting gospel Heb. 13.20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Rev. 14.6 And I saw another angel flie in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people This everlasting gospel I think may here be though not exclusively yet eminently meant the Everlasting Covenant of Grace through which in the preaching of it is transmitted all saving Good to all the Elect in all the Nations Kingdoms Kindreds and Languages in the World Nay Christ himself that unspeakable Gift is all the Elects both Infants and Adult in a way of a Covenant Isa 42.6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people and for a light of the Gentiles His Blood is the Blood of the
80.15 Isa 5.1 7. Matth 21.33 Cant. 4.12 16. and 5.1 and 6.2 11. now we know that those that have the care of Orchards Vineyards and Gardens one principal thing that they have in their eye and endeavour is a succession either of Trees Plants Herbs or Flowers therefore they have their Nurseries and their Seeds Oh! so it is here the great God that takes care of his Orchard Vineyard or Garden hath a curious regard of and respect to a constant succession and the Infants and Children of his inclosed and impal'd Covenant ones are his Nursery and his Seed to secure a perpetual supply for all vacancies that frequently by Death are incident to his Church and Kingdom though the Lord doth not so confine himself but that he doth sometimes take a wild Plant and set in his Garden such a one as he may find in the Wilderness or Forest of the World but we speak of his usual way of provision in this matter and because of this Parents in Covenant with the Lord must be careful in their educating and admonishing of their Children which are the Lords Nursery that they may be a visible and hopeful provision for a succession in the Church of God For this very end they ought to have a singular respect unto and a careful and diligent complyance with that holy command Eph. 6.4 And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath buâ— bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Thus they must endeavour to do that and when they shall have finisht their work and course in the World that then their Children may stand up in their room and place as the immediate successors to them in the Church in the work and service of the Lord in their Generation So much for the Third General Head propounded in my Discourse and for the Doctrinal part of it now we approach unto the Use of this Point which is the last thing I promised and propounded in this matter IV. The Fourth General Thing to conclude this Point is to make some useful improvement of it by way of Application I did not neither do I intend to be large in this particular only I thought it was pity that such a Truth should be wholly overlook'd without some though but little Application 1. Vse By way of Information This Doctrine doth inform us of many precious Truths it is a Field out of which we may gather most rare and excellent Flowers it is a full Fountain from whence doth issue variety of Streams Some of those things that may be deduced and inferred from it I shall set before you 1. This doth inform us of the exceeding Riches of the Grace of God both as to Believers and their Seed The Grace of God hath alwayes been exprest in a Covenant way here is Grace abounding and running over to Parents those that God hath taken into Covenant with himself here it is intended to all sorts and degrees of the Children of Men here is help to the poor helpless Infant even to him that sucketh upon the breast and a ground of hope administered to tender and concerned Parents to their dying Little Ones In this Covenant is lodged a blessed plethory of Grace a full provision made for the smallest as well as for the greatest not only for electing but for calling justifying and sanctifying Mercies here is that which is sufficient to supply the least twig with liquor to fill all sorts of vessels There was a fullness of Oyl poured out in a Covenant way upon the head of our great High Priest that ran down and extended it self to the uttermost skirts of the garments Psal 133.2 It was of wonderful Grace that God was pleased to single out Abraham to establish his Covenant with and that it might appear in its clearest beauty and be most transparent it did comprehend his Seed for ever So in our Text when the Apostle would give his awakened and almost succumbing Hearers the most suitable and supporting relief he opens the bosom of Grace in the Covenant extent of it telling them The promise is to them and their children 2. This doth instruct us into the high honour that the Lord is pleased to confer upon his People It was not only an Act of Grace but also of Honour that God was pleased to admit Abraham unto when he took him and his Seed into this Covenant with him This is that which made the Nation of the Jews so honourable as it was above all the Nations of the World besides they and theirs were the Lords inclosure and Covenant People and so were discriminated and distinguished from all the rest of the World I may allude to that place Psal 149.9 This honour have all the saints praise ye the Lord. Oh I Christians you that do injoy this high preferment though you have never so small a proportion of the matters of the World yet God hath gratified you with greater honour than if your Families had appertained to Crowned Heads and Sceptred Hands Ezek. 16.8 And I entered into covenant with thee saith the Lord God Then did the Lord deck her with all manner of rich and noble Ornaments and ver 14. it is said Thy renown went forth among the heathens for thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness which I put upon thee 3. This doth inform us of the great mistake of those that deny the Children of Believers as such to have any interest in the Covenant of Grace This is the Doctrine of our Friends the Anabaptists but we have I hope sufficiently proved that God is so gracious as to take them into Covenant with their Parents They be not left out till they be so adult as to make profession of their Faith Repentance and Obedience and until then to be looked upon as the miserable off-spring of Heathens Infidels and Pagans They that oppose this Truth shut out the Natural and talk of a Spiritual Seed and so out of a pretence to magnifie the Grace of God they do greatly eclipse and restrain it I might have insisted upon the many evils and the dangers of this but I must not inlarge or distinctly stand upon particulars I might have told you and proved 1. That our Adversaries herein make another Covenant than what the Lord hath made a Covenant of Grace excluding all the Children of those that are taken into it It would be easie to shew that from the Lords making of a Covenant at first and so all along both in the Old and New Testament he never made one leaving out of the Children 2. That by this means there is very great and apparent wrong done unto the Infant Children which are the Seed and Embryo of the Church of God It 's sad for those that take upon them the power and exercise of the Keyes to exclude and shut them all out together Into what a miserable state and condition must they be east into Our great Champion and Challenger hath laboured extreamly
Covenant nor have any Habitual Faith and that is to have their Sins done away by an imputed Righteousness This would be something had he given us any Proof of his New Invention but not a word of this Indeed I think he must have a New Gospel to prove this I did say when I Preach'd these Sermons in my Congregations That to talk of a Righteousness of Imputation without a Covenant Interest and inherent Sanctification was Mountebank Divinity And so I say still not doubting but in a short time I shall not only say as he hath but prove what I say as he hath not I am sure the Scripture is abundantly on my side I pass it by at present because I intend if the Lord please suddenly to demonstrate this matter I am a weary of this pitiful trash therefore shall say no more till I shall Epitomize his Books provided I have a further Challenge and Provocation Only I shall give you one branch of his Charity to us that sometimes pretendedly he calls Brethren the Wounds he gives us and the Darts he would strike into our Hearts and the Hearts of our Children discover him to be more like an inveterate Enemy than a kind Brother for his Pen and Pulpit as to us are filled with little less than Wormwood and Gall yea I may add from what I have here discovered even with Poyson But pray take one touch of his Charity to his Brethren as he calls them He saith without the least Proof That not only the Conformists but also the Nonconformists have lost the Door and the Subject that should enter the Door So that we have lost the very Essence of the Ordinance viz. of Baptism we have neither right Form nor right Subject and who are they that enter not in by the Door but climb up and come in some other way We know the Scripture you refer to and apply unto us John 10.7 8 9. 'T is easie here to see your judgment of us that we are the Thieves and Robbers that come not in at the right Door I shall say but little to this now for 't is but the proud and empty sound of a Man that seemeth little to consider what he saith only I do humbly in the Name of the great Shepherd Challenge my bold Challenger to answer this Censure he hath put upon all his faithful Servants that are for Baptizing of Infants at the great Day Here he doth discernably enough Unchurch us Unminister us and Inordinance us the Lord lay not this Sin to his door We have little reason to wonder that he should give us such foul play when he ventures at the same time to deal no more kindly with the Church of England that is guarded by the strong Walls and Fences of the Laws of the Nation for he saith That the Conformists also have lost the Door and the Subject that should enter the Door and the very Essence of the Ordinance and they their Ministers enter not in at the Door Here is a Man that will not only tread over the low Hedge but will venture upon the sharps of the Piltes to vent his Unchristian and Censorious Opinion Christians I hope such pitiful raw spurious and jejune Allegations as these I have presented you withal will rather turn your Stomachs against them than open your Throats to swallow them Alas I have given you but a little to what I might have presented you withal let not such empty Assertions without the least shadow of probation lessen your esteem of this Blessed Doctrine I have been upon Truth is never the less precious because it is calumniated by opprobrious and dirty Pens Look upon this choice Truth by the Light of the Word of God and you cannot but see such a lustrious beauty in it as to cause an inconceivable estimation and value in you for it 2. Word of Exhortation I would press upon you is that you would improve this Doctrine in the best ways and unto the best advantages that you can You and your Children being in covenant ought to be made the best use of that may be There be several ways by which you ought to improve this Doctrine I shall propound some of them unto you begging you to put them into practice 1. By giving up your Children to God in the use of the Seal of the Covenant I mean Baptism When God did make this Covenant with Abraham and his Seed he did so and so it was all along when there was opportunity for it the Covenant is the same still for the Substance of it and the Seal ought to be affixt to the Subjects Let Men never so much vilifie and reproach it calling it Baby-baptism and Sprinkling of Infants without the least soundness of Mind or Judgment That is a pretty Saying for Children to laugh at which our Neighbour in one of his Books brings in thus That it may be very much questioned whether the Jaylor we read of Acts 16. that was baptized and all his House had any Children seeing it hath been observed some Years agoe that for very many Years together not one Child was born to all the Jayl-keepers in all the County of Essex This is a pretty Observation it seems it was some Years agoe I believe he knows not when however he is not minded to acquaint us of the Authour of this Excellent Story Let Men talk their fill pray do you mind your Duty God requires that your Children that be his by covenant should be given up to him by the Seal of the Covenant Christians have many Inducements lying upon them thus in this Ordinance to devote their Children unto God 1. By this they do manifestly own and set forth their Belief of the Doctrine of the Covenant It is Practice that is the best Indication of the Belief of Divine Truth we must not only be Knowers and Professors of the Will of God but must be Doers also that Man discovers but a slender Manifestation of his Knowledge of the Covenant whose Actions are not something comporting with the same 'T is observed by some that the reason why God met with Moses and threatned to kill him when he was sending him for the deliverance of his Brethren into Egypt was because he had not circumcised his Son Exod. 4.24 25. 2. By this means we do openly shew forth the Grace and Goodness of God unto us in making such a Covenant and the wonderful Love and Kindness of Christ in dying for us which Blood is the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant as in the other Seal of the Covenant the Lords Supper Christians do shew forth the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do openly declare preach and publish it so by the affixing the Seal to your Children you do set out and declare the Infinite Grace Love and Goodness of God in taking you and your Seed into the Covenant 3. By this you do enter your Children visibly into the Church of God or