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
the Spirit of the Lord which is a Spirit of might and strength that did animate and support him One would think that this bloody Congress that were skilful in and scarce cool from the effusion of blood yea of the best of blood would immediately have dispatched him and emptied his Veins That the Apostle might fasten their execrable sin upon their consciences in murdering the Messiah he doth from the Word of God prove him to be so He did not only propound his assertion but he proved it that so he might involve his hearers into a full and through conviction This doth evidently instruct those that take upon them to preach the truths of Christ to prove them and to be able to defend them The Suitable mediums and arguments the Apostle insists upon to prove this his Doctrine concerning Christ as how God raised him from the dead and concerning David a tipe of him I must not stand to shew but must come to the next general part I observe in this Chapter Thirdly The good effects and gracious fruits of this the Apostles Sermon After he had fixed the charge he drew up against the Jews for murdering the Messiah whom he proved to be so then he comes with a sharp arrow of application and strikes it deep by the efficacy of the holy Spirit into the hearts of his sinful Auditors ver 36. therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ He told them how eminently he was exalted by God whom they had vilified and abased unto the greatest contempt and shame and had put him to the most painful shameful and cursed death that ever could be Oh! to deal thus with the Son of God the Lord of all the only Messiah so highly exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high and made both Lord and Christ what a cut might this be to those that heard the Apostle being guilty of so great sin of such Scarlet impieties Tunc ingens est stimulus quo Petrus mirâ libertate et sinceritate pupugit corda Judaeorum See and behold what wickedness ye have committed the guilt of what blood you have contracted what maliciously and cruelly to murder the Lord Jesus the Saviour of the world who is the Lord of all who is over all God blessed for over This had by the blessing of the most high gracious effects and fruits upon those that heard him First They were pricked at the heart they were troubled and grieved at their heart because of their horrid sin they had committed in their detestable murder of Christ Doluerunt animis quod crucifixissent Christum Pisca Ver. 37. Secondly They ask Peter and the rest of the Apostles what they should do ver 37. Now they were brought into a miserable plunge the bloudy colour of their sin and their Consciences boiling hot within them pronouncing fiery Sentences against them the very sting of the damned was crucifying them this might well make them as amazed and confounded rebels to cry out what shall we do what course shall we take to get free from the charge of this crying sin no sooner were these poor wretches convinced and begged councell of the Apostles as to their escaping that dreadful wrath that was due unto them for their greatly meritorious sin but Peter gives them suitable advice directing them how they might obtain eternal Salvation by the bloud of him whom they had wickedly crucified and slain as in ver 38. he doth exhort and direct them to repent to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ that they might receive remission of sin and the gift of the holy Ghost then they may be well assured that through him whom they crucified they should obtain a discharge from their foul-confounding guilt and eternal Salvation I shall proceed no further in the parts of this Chapter neither shall I add any thing more as to the happy effects and events of the Apostle's most excellent Sermon in the hearts and lives of these wonderful converts that heard him who though never so wicked before were the prinitiae evangelij shewing the glorious efficacy of the sufferings of Christ that those that were his inveterate enemies and did so insatiably thirst for his pure and spotless bloud that nothing could satisfie but their washing their hands in the same by a violent effusion should partake of the first fruits of it The Apostle discerning what a miserable condition they saw themselves to be in and into what a direful abiss of divine wrath they apprehended themselves to be swallowed up he does not only nakedly call upon them to repent and turn to God and to fly unto him for mercy but gives unto them one of the most gracious Motives and incouragements thereunto telling them the promise is unto them and their Children He did well understand that their horrible sin did not only extend unto them but also unto their off-spring for they had not only poured out the sacred bloud of Christ themselves but also had involved their Children in the guilt of it Mat. 27.25 When Pilate had said I am innocent of the bloud of this Person see ye to it then answered all the people and said his bloud be on us and our Children Surely a lively sense of this made a deep wound in their Consciences To relieve and support them in this miserable plunge when they could not but see the wrath of a just revenging God ready to invade both them and their Children they could not but be in a deplorable case saying we have eternally destroyed and ruined both our selves and posterity The Apostle presents them with a Plaister broad enough for their Sore q. d. well though your sin be so grievous and damnable as to your selves and little ones yet repent and turn to God and it shall be happy both with you and your Children also for said he the promise is to both and will reach you and your dying infants you shall not be cast out of Covenant but you and your little ones shall continue in the same that you were in before the actual exhibition and death of your Saviour whom ye did impiously crucifie and slay Oh what a full breast of consolation was here from the infinite grace of God exposed for these miserable creatures to suck and hang upon the very marrow and quintessence of the Gospel is proposed to them for their effectual inducement to repent and believe Here was the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness in which these poor trembling sinners might wash and bathe their guilty and filthy Souls these were those that now look upon him whom they had pierced and did mourn over him as one mourneth for his only Son and they were in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born Zech. 12.10 Peter gave them such a Cordial that could not but greatly refresh and comfort them here he
of Covenant Ones they are the most hopeful to partake of that great blessing of the Covenant of effectual calling and of having the Law of God to be ingraven upon their hearts Isa 54.13 And all thy Children shall be taught of the Lord. Those that are not in Covenant with the Lord as they do not regard so neither are they under such a hopeful expectation of the accomplishment of such a promise as those are that are themselves the Children of the Promise who have good right to approach unto the gracious Throne and plead such a promise with him that sits there with the Rain-bow of the Covenant about his head 10. This is the great ground that is administred unto pious Parents greatly concerned about the external good of the Souls of their little Ones to build their hopes upon godly Parents would cast out the Anchor of hope upon a firm ground such that may hold and this is the great if not the only one those the Lord is pleased to bereave them of and demand out of their tender bosoms this may quiet their hearts about their death and their eternal State So that upon this account a Parent may say more then what one said of a dead Child Ego in illo puero nihil habeo praeter dilectum he may compose and sedate his Spirit with David who while his Child was sick did fast and weep refusing to eat I but when the pleasure of the Lord was signified by his death he could arise wash and eat and go to the house of the Lord and calmly pour out his sincere devotions unto the most high saying unto them that were struck into stupendous admiration of his great change I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Surely David had a further prospect than the grave that prevailed upon him to this Sedate composure and Serenity of mind he did intimate that his heart was at rest as to his felicity above that his Soul that he was most concerned about had made its escape from the sick and painful Body into Abrahams bosom the great Covenant Father he having this heart-supporting promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed This is Gospel and a man interested in this promise may nay is bound to lay hold upon it and to cast himself upon the promise as well for his little Ones as for himself Wherefore hath the Lord as an Instance of his unsearchable grace given such a promise if not in our great and close afflictions to be choice and suitable food for our faith 〈…〉 but this can support Parents when they see their tender Infants in the bitter bonds of death reclining their heads upon their dissolving Pillows and having their Bowels to be sounding and yearning within them Now this I would humbly demand what they can build their hopes upon to make them readily to comply with Divine Pleasure When the Souls of their Little Ones sit upon their Lips to take their flight into an Eternal Ocean that excludeâ— them out of that Covenant they be confident they themselves be in and upon which they bottom and center all their trust and confidence as to their own Salvation for the ordinary way of Salvation is by and through the Covenant 11. Those that be in covenant thus have many great and temporal Blessings bestow'd upon them which others fall short of they share in the peculiar Providential Care and Watch of God there is the general Providential Care of God which as he is an Omnipresent Majesty filling all Places Persons and Things with his Essential Presence out of which there can be no departing or absconding he doth extend unto all Psal 139.7 8 9 10. But moreover there is the peculiar Transmission of the Providential Care Observation and Tuition of God and this is that which every Moment doth environ and encircle the Church and Covenant-Ones round about and all that are interested in the same stand possest with the free fruition of they are the proper Objects of the peculiar and special Providential Watch of God Psal 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep This denotes the careful and the diligent keeping of the Church the Lord is ever in the exercise of as one saith Curam solicitudinem diligentiam connot at nec dormit nec dormitat He neither sleeps nor slumbers The Lord sets a peculiar Fence about his Church Isa 5. â—2 And he fenced it After he planted it he set the Fence of his peculiar Providence round about it to preserve it Isa 27.3 I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day Thus we see what a peculiar Vigilancy the Divine Eye doth exhibit unto the Covenant-People This is no small Priviledge to have a Place with those that are thus beautify'd I might have added that such have many outward Favours of Peace Plenty and Prosperity and that People Places and Nations do enjoy many rare Mercies for their sake the Old World sped the better for Noah's sake Sodom for Lot's Pharaoh for Joseph's as Obed-edom for the Arks sake and Laban was greatly blessed for the sake of Jacob. A Nation speeds the better for the Gospels sake most fare the better for the Elect the greatest Body of which descend from Covenant-Ones Temporal Blessings are the Appendices of that Covenant made with Abraham Gen. 17. where the Land of Promise was inserted though a far greater in that was intended as hath been shewn More Priviledges might have been convened unto these but let what hath been said suffice and I think what hath been insisted upon may satisfie as to this Question We have seen that those that are in covenant have advantage and that much every way But before we dismiss this let us a little distinctly apply the Matter suitable to the distinction that I have laid down concerning the way of being in covenant as to those that be Externally and those that be Internally in it Observe heedfully here that the same Promises that are to the Parents are to the Children I will be their God and the God of thy Seed Those that the Lord is pleased to take into covenant with himself some are Elect and some not Elect so amongst the Children some are Elect and some not Elect and here I chiefly mean those that arrive unto the Years of the Adult 1. Those that be the Elect of the Natural Seed they do partake both of the external and internal part of the Covenant for they do partake of the Promise in the extent of it such peculiar salvificable Blessings as Justification Adoption Sanctification c. and Eternal Glorification in a Word they do partake of Temporal Spiritual and External Priviledges 2. The Non-elect they do partake of the external part of the Promises and of the Covenant-Priviledges as have been mentioned which be exceeding great though not saving therefore not to be relied and