promised on Gods part this holds forth more than a Legal Covenant Is there a more gracious and a more comprehensive Promise and fuller of the Grace of God in all the Book of God than this Here the Lord doth give and make over himself yea all his glorious Attributes Names Titles Grace Love all Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Blessings here God doth give himself the Father the Son the Holy Ghost the whole Nature of God and all the Persons the Godhead with all the Attributes of that Nature and all the Offices of those Persons Thus saith Judicious Cotton in his Treatise upon the Covenant The Lord through this Covenant gives himself and all his to his covenanted People through all the Generations of the World I would willingly understand what may be the reason if there can be any given when this Excellent Promise is repeated in many other places of Scripture that it is allow'd to be of Grace and not here notwithstanding if I mistake not when this Promise is inserted in other places it is often taken from this Jer. 24.7 and 31.33 and 32.38 Ezek. 11.20 and 34.24 31. and 36.38 and 37.27 Here we have the same Promise and full of Grace and why not in Gen. 17.7 Oh! there would be great ground of fear should this be granted for then the Seal of the Covenant must follow as we shall see in the close of this Discourse This is that Covenant that Believers and their Seed be under since the Ascension of the Messiah and that we may clearly discern it God is pleased to use the old Phrase and Form of the Promise 2 Cor. 6.18 Heb. 8.10 The same Language and Dialect we have speaking of the New Jerusalem Priviledges and Glorious State Rev. 21.3 And I heard a voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God There is the other Branch of the Promise here that we must by the Rule of Relatives understand If God doth give himself to Abraham and his Seed then he takes them and chuseth them to be his People and Portion for ever when the Lord is pleased to say I will be thy God and the God of thy seed this must reeds be involv'd thou and thy seed shall be my people for ever and so it is relatively exprest often in the Covenant-Language Now I pray is not all this of pure Grace 4. Reason This is a Covenant made in the Hands of Christ the Mediatour and it was confirmed in him the great Seed of the Covenant and the Head and Foundation of all those that God doth take into Covenant with him This Covenant was ratified and confirm'd by the Efficacy and Blood of the Mediatour otherwise neither Abraham nor Isaac could have been saved and hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 Now the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great sheperd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant c. God in making this Covenant had respect to the efficacious and meritorious Blood of his Son otherwise he could never have made such a Promise here of being such a gracious God to Abraham and his Seed for ever It is judiciously said of a Learned Authour that in this Covenant the Lord taketh the chiefest of the Seed of Abraham viz. the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Mediatour and Surety of it and so through him are all the Promises and Blessings of the Covenant convey'd unto Abraham and his Seed his faithful Seed all the World over therefore he is called the Mediatour of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 and 8.6 And as it was made with Abraham and his Seed in the Hands of Christ so when it was translated unto the Gentiles it was by and through him and confirmed unto them by him Gal. 3.14 That the blessing of Abraham may come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith The Blessing of Abraham viz. the Covenant of Abraham Rom. 15.8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers He was the Minister of Circumcision the great Instructer of the Jews and did first confirm the Covenant to them and then to the Gentiles Ver. 9. And that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy viz. for the Mercy of God through Christ by and through whom the blessed Covenant was confirmed unto them So that we may see that Christ was the Mediatour of this Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed witness those many Types of Christ which were annexed unto it viz. Their expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifices injoined the whole Congregation in case of Sin also the two Goats one for a Sin-offering for the whole Congregation and the other the Scape-goat over which all the Sins of the Children of Israel were to be confess'd by the Priests c. 5. Reason Because this is a Covenant that freely holds out and offers pardon of Sin without Works therefore then it cannot be a Covenant of Works It holds out pardon of Sin freely by believing in Christ The Covenant of Works we know holds forth no pardon of Sin no Mercy to Transgressors that violate and break the smallest point of it Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 I but this Covenant doth it holds out pardon of Sin to the vilest and worst of Sinners to those that did barbarously and maliciously pour out the Blood of the Mediator of this Covenant Exod. 2.37 38 39. This is a Covenant that did freely offer remission and pardon of Sin without the Works of the Law Abraham himself through this Covenant by believing in the Mediatour and Testator of it was justified and pardoned read Rom. 4.1 2 3 4 5 c. That must surely be a Covenant of Grace that brings in remission of Sin and Justification by Christ through Faith God did promise to be a God to him and his Seed a God to pardon 6. Reason Because of that Seal the Lord did command to be affixed to this Covenant which was Circumcision Who can deny but that the Lord did command this Seal Sign or Token to be set to the Covenant to confirm and establish it Gen. 17.10 This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee Every man-child among you shall be circumcised This God did Institute as the Initiating Ordinance by this they were to enter as visible Persons into this Covenant or to be visibly discovered and own'd such that were in covenant with God and in a covenant way devoted and given up unto him Let me here ask this Question Did not this Seal of the Covenant denote that that Covenant it did appertain unto to be a Covenant of Grace It is next to a
their great Comfort they being in Covenant that they can cast them upon the Promise How much better is it to leave them possest with the Covenant than with the greatest Kingdoms in the World I marvel with what Peace and Comfort they can leave their Children when they come to dye that shut them out of the Covenant Next to a Man 's own interest in the Covenant must be the interest of his Children in it I know not what a good Man should prize more than the Covenant for himself and Family How should this be valuable to a pious Parent When he cannot say I can leave my Children in the enjoyment or an assurance of any great matters of the World yet I can comfortably part with them leaving them in the Arms and in the Conjugal Embracement of this Covenant I would have your estimation of this comfortably to remain and continue with you notwithstanding the contempt reproach and dirt that is cast upon it Our Adversury is behind but very few in pouring Odiums upon it I shall at present mention a very few of his opprobrious sayings not being willing as yet to expose him very much until he doth necessarily oblige me unto it Take a few of his invidious and foul Speeches He saith That those that Baptize Infants Baptize Heathens Here he calls all the Infants of Believers Heathens he cannot keep off from his Infant-damning Doctrine I wonder in a common ordinary way of Salvation what assurance he can give us of the Salvation of Heathens I know not that there is Salvation in any but in Christ nor that there is any Name given us under Heaven by which Men Women or Children can be saved but the Name of Jesus The Covenant was and still is a distinction between the Children of Believers and Heathens Let such a one turn his own Children out of Covenant and Heathenize and Paganize them if he please through Mercy we know better things It is worth while to consider his great Reason that he gives to prove that the Children that are Baptized be Heathens because all are the Children of Wrath before born again If this be a Reason then it stands in as full strength against Baptizing Believers as he calls it because the very best of them were Children of Wrath by Nature so the Apostle saith to the Ephesians to whom he wrote Thus I might argue with the same parity of Reason They that baptize adult Believers Baptize Heathens for they were Children of Wrath by Nature and how can he know that all of them be born again I am sure many of those that he Baptizeth both in their Knowledge and Conversation give but small proof of their being born again But yet every one may see here is a vile suggestion that Infants cannot be born again This doth agree with what he saith furthermore Believers Baptism confirms unto them Justification Remission and Salvation but Infants have none of them confirmed to them in their Baptism and that the Baptism of Infants cannot be a sign of Regeneration to them Did ever Man speak with more Confidence and lesser Sense in this World Is the Seal of the Covenant of no use or benefit to the Covenant Seed It is little matter what rash Mer. say God hath made it the Seal of the Righteousness of Faith and sealeth up all Covenant Blessings by it Ay but he saith Infant-Baptism never was sealed by God This is a sad doom upon Infants and upon all that are for their Baptism By the Sealing of Baptism I suppose he must mean the partaking of the Covenant Blessings that be sealed up by Baptism These Blessings are either conveyed when Baptism is administer'd or after as John did baptize unto repentance Matth. 3.11 But who hath made this Author a Judge to pass such a furious Sentence The best of it is we have but his say so without the smallest attempt of Proof I doubt not but the experience of many thousands of Infants in Heaven and others and many now upon the Earth will testifie against such an abominable Assertion He addeth further That Infants weep when they are Baptized as if they did dissent What a Childish Expression is this What think you had they not as much cause of weeping when they were Circumcised which put them to the greatest sense and pain and gave the greatest occasion of weeping Oh that ever such stuff should shew its face in the World Pray consider is there not as great a sign of dissent in many that he doth Baptize as a little weeping in some Infants Do they not go into the Water trembling and quaking and overwhelm'd with fears when they are plung'd over Head and Ears So that though he speaks of their joy a great number of them are otherwise possest with dismal frights and want the best Cordial that he can administer unto them again Again he saith That Infants-Baptism hath not one Promise Confidently said still without any Proof I doubt not but my Text is a sufficient confutation of this where 't is said The promise is to you and your children and many more places that have been mentioned Now we shall come to a swinging piece of his Divinity I think saith he Transubstantiation Habitual Faith and the Infant-Seed of Believers in Covenant are terms equally allowable and probably equally understood among their various Professors Now this is to speak through and to disgorge his Stomach at once Pray consider what things or Doctrines he ranks together to be equal with him by this he gives us to understand that the odious Doctrine of Transubstantiation is as grateful to his Palate as Habitual Faith in Infants and their being in Covenant with their Parents Papists breaden God which by gross Idolatry they adore is of the same estimation with him as the two others Oh! let not my Soul enter into his secrets what Malice and Envy doth this import and if Infants are not capable of Habitual Faith which is one blessed branch of the New Creature and if they are not in Covenant I know not how they can be saved If it be so I must confess that I can discry no ground of hope of the Salvation of my dear deceased Children but blessed be God I am better acquainted with the Covenant and precious Graces of the Spirit than that such froth and spittle should in the least degree affect my Hopes I never read or heard of any Man that professed any Sobriety in Principles and Moderation to those that in lesser matters were not of his size and measure to speak after this desperate rate thus to rank us with Papists and that in one of their most detestable Principles which have caused the effusion of Rivers of the Blood of Martyrs and to render our Children as we cannot but judge uncapable of being sayed dying in their Infancy There is something follows close unto this which is a new invented way of Saving of Infants though they be not in the
Prodigy to me that any should Assert that the Covenant that God made with Abraham was a Covenant of Works and yet Circumcision was the Seal of it for so it is expresly commanded of God to be as we have seen Did we ever read of this Seal amx'd to the Covenant of Works No in the perfect state that Man was in when God enter'd into a Covenant of Works there was no need of nor occasion for this Sacrament or Seal Let us but a little consider the Uses and Words of this Seal and we may see that that must be a Covenant of Grace to which it is affix'd as a Seal for either it holds forth our need of Grace or the merciful provision of Grace prepared for us I shall only mention a very few Particulars 1. This doth intimate unto us that vile polluted State of Sin that we were conceived and transmitted into the World in This may give us the knowledge of our undone State by Nature how God may loath and abhor us for ever The cutting off of the Fore-skin of the Flesh discovers the filthiness of our Flesh and how by Sin we have forfeited our selves and all into the hands of Justice that we be filthy and guilty Sinners 2. This sets forth the gracious Purposes and Intentions of a merciful God to wash and to cleanse and to sanctifie us by his Grace and by the Blood of Sprinkling The Blood that did follow the circumcising Instrument did clearly signifie that therefore cleansing and sanctification are set forth by Spiritual Circumcision When God doth graciously promise to wash and to sanctifie he doth promise to circumcise the Heart Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ viz. By the Sanctification of the Blood and Spirit of Christ Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit We have the inward Spiritual Circumcision of the Heart which was graciously signified by that Seal of the Grace of God belonging to that Covenant of Grace the Lord was pleas'd to make with Abraham and his Seed 3. To denote and set forth the need we have of the Blood of Christ to justifie us and that God would justifie us through his Blood And this Abraham had a special eye unto and his Faith was firmly fix'd upon after God had made this Covenant with him and his Seed and fix'd this significant Seal unto it This might be evidenced by many Scriptures Rom. 14.1 2. In many Verses in that Chapter therefore it is that Circumcision is called a seal of the righteousness of faith of that righteousness that is apprehended received and applied by faith certainly then that Covenant that hath such a significant gracious Seal added unto it can be nothing less or else than a Covenant of Grace 7. Reason To prove that this was a Covenant of Grace may be the great Result and Period of it which is no less than Heaven this is obviously implied in the comprehensiveness of this Promise we have here Gen. 17.7 I will be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee I will be a God unto thee and all thine Elect Seed for ever I will be a God to love thee to provide for thee to be with thee and with my self eternally to reward thee How vain and frivolous is our Challenger in Asserting that this Covenant made with Abraham was not a Covenant of Grace Because the great Promises of it were outward Blessings and the greatest of all was the Land of Promise Canaan What is not that a greater Promise for God to promise himself to be a God to Abraham and his Seed Is not an Infinitely Glorious and Blessed God better than Canaan than all the Canaans and Paradises in the World yea than thousands of Worlds But further to see the ignorance of this Man in the Scripture and in such Expressions which denote a higher good intended by God than what they themselves may import as this Promise is explained in the New Testament When God did make the Promise of an Earthly Canaan to Abraham and his Seed he did ultimately intend a better Land than this viz. an Heavenly one when the Lord doth promise this Canaan he doth promise Heaven which this was a Type of the main thing and good that the Lord design'd for his People by this Promise was Heaven and that they should be eternally saved Abraham did so understand it and others of the Fathers and so set their Hearts upon and rais'd up an Expectation of that blessed City and Country that was above that what they had here were but dark Shadows and cloudy Representations of what was to come Heb. 11.10 13 14 15 16. 8. Reason To prove that the Covenant made here with Abraham was a Covenant of Grace is viz. Because of that Obedience the Lord did both require and accept at the hands of Abraham in this Covenant There was Obedience and there was Service that the Lord did command and expected from Abraham this will determine whether this be a Covenant of Works or of Grace If it be a Covenant of Works it requires nothing less than perfect Obedience nothing short of it will or can be accepted therein as it was in the Covenant made with Adam Do this and live I but now here in Abraham's Covenant the Lord doth call for and accept of sincere and upright Obedience as in Gen. 17.1 2. And when Abram was ninety years old and nine the Lord appeared to him and said I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect viz. right or sincere And I will make my covenant betwixt me and thee Every one knows that though Abraham for Grace and walking with and obeying God was an excellent Man yet he was not a sinless perfect Man he had the perfection of sincerity but not a sinless perfection such an one as Adam had in Innocency In this Covenant Abraham did walk before God he did please God and he was accepted by God in vertue of this Covenant which could never have been had it not been a Covenant of Grace that had Christ to be the Mediatour of it in whom he believed and found acceptance Thus Beloved I promise my self that I have given you such Reasons to prove that this Covenant was of Grace which the Lord made with Abraham and his Seed for an Everlasting Covenant as cannot well be denied 2. Quest Whether some only or all the Children of Believers are in this Covenant of Grace with their Parents Whether this Covenant doth inclose and impale them all or not Answ All they that are the Seed of the Faithful the Lord takes into this Covenant with their Parents
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
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
doth abundantly testifie of this in many Scriptures we have the Old Testament Phrase and Way Mat. 8.11 Many shall come from the east and from the west and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven By the Faith of the Centurion Christ takes an occasion to touch by way of prediction of the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews and the bringing of the Gentiles into the Covenant made with those Fathers and Patriarchs I do not know how to forbear the inserting of an excellent Observation that a Judicious Man makes upon this Text thus Quare non sine admiratione hoc additum fuit domesticos regni Dei haeredes fore qui tunc extranei erant neque id solum sed foedus salutis mox publicandum esse ut totus orbis in unum Ecclesiae corpus coalesceret dum Gentiles qui ad fidem accedunt ejusdem cum Abram Isaac Jacob salutis participes fore dicit Luke 19.9 And Jesus said unto him This day is salvation come to this house forasmuch as he also is the son of Abraham Here our Lord Jesus did preach the Covenant and upon the Faith of this good Man Abraham's Covenant entred into his House himself and whole Family were taken into covenant Exod. 16.31 32 33. This was the happy State of this Man so soon as he did believe God took him into covenant and his whole House and all of them in the same Hour of the Night did partake of the Seal of the Covenant after this Example we practice v. 14 15. This was the case of Lydia upon her believing she and all her House were Baptized 'T is strange if that in all these houses there might not be one Child there might be children in several of them however children be a part and a choice part of housholds So that here is a Rule for us to walk by that when the Master or head of the house doth imbrace the Faith that was never Baptized before both he and his are to receive the token of the Covenant as upon their believing they do enter into it with God This is the right way to be observed that Parents entertaining the Gospel that were never under the bond of the Covenant neither partakers of the Seal of it must be baptized and their Children that are Foederally received with them by God must be also with them Rom. 4.16 Therefore 't is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise or the Covenant might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all Viz. He is the Father of all that do believe both Jew and Gentile Eph. 2.13 14. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition Now by the blood of Christ the parting Wall that was between the Jew and the Gentile is taken away and both of them that believe are inclosed in one Covenant The Gentile that was afar off being out of Covenant and the Jew that was nigh being in Covenant Now in the New Covenant all our Spiritual and Eternal blessings come swimming to us upon the blood of Christ which blood for ever runs thro' the Covenant We have no other way of remission of Sin of renovation and Regeneration or of Eternal life then Abraham had in the Old Testament John 8.56 Neither doth the Lord require any other obedience from us then he did from Abraham therefore we are to walk in the steps of our Father Abraham 10. Demonst God doth challenge the Children of his people that be in Covenant with him to be his Children There is a special Interest and propriety that God layes claim to have in the Seed of his they be more his children then their's they are brought forth for him and by the Seal of the Covenant are and ought to be devoted and dedicated to God Ezek. 16.20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured That thou hast slain my children This is brought in as a great aggravation of their sin in their cruel and wicked Idolatry because their Children were those that God had a propriety in tho' they were their Parents children by generation yet they were his by Adoption and Federal assumption To offer any Creature to an Idol is a great sin but to offer Children is far worse and to offer Gods Children that is worst of all What greater Sacriledge can there be than this to rob God of his Covenant-Seed brought forth unto him and to cast them away upon Idols May not they be said to rob God that endeavour to rend and tear his Children out of the Covenant and refuse by the Administration of the Seal to give them up unto God 11. Demonst Shall be taken from many gross I wish I might not say wicked absurdities that follow the denying Infants interest in the Covenant of grace with their Parents That Doctrine cannot be of God that is cloathed with or attended upon with many absurdities I do find that those that are great zealots in casting Children out of their hold which the great Lord Proprietor hath given them in the Covenant are not apprehensive what absurd things do attend them The Livery of this Doctrine discovers it to be of no good Family its retinue may render it very questionable yea very unsound The truths of Christ admit of no absurdities of no gross Inferences you can infer nothing from any Doctrine of the Gospel but what is pure and precious Men to support their Errors may endeavour to extort and wrest the holy Scriptures to speak their filthy Language and to give countenance to their odious Tenents This is one of the Worst abuses and hellish Rapes that can be offered to the word of God Satan himself hath an exquisite skill herein and he hath taught many of his Disciples a dextrous knack in this black Art Did but the Adversaries of this my Doctrine consider into what absurdities they chase their Game and how the pretended beautiful face of their opinion is scratcht and torn it would make them a little more modest and moderate in their assertions and conclusions I shall touch upon some few of that multitude of absurdities that do inevitably follow shutting Infants out of the Covenant of grace they are included in with their Parents 1. This doth impose a great restraint upon the blessed Covenant contracting the large and copious grace of God that is involv'd in it This clips the wings of the love grace and mercy of God that doth dilate and amplifie themselves in a Covenant way Men may boast and vaunt that they are the great admirers and
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
upon the Word of the Lord and his Ministry but also blasphemy upon the Spirit Let men take heed of being too bold in fathering their passionate Sallies and Invectives against their Betters upon the Holy Ghost Oh! that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for these things To compleat all the high place in the Congregation is not sufficient to discharge the conception of the stomach against us but the Press must also groan to bring forth that there may nothing appear but dung and filth upon our faces and all the beauty of Religion and Evangelical Order of the Gospel we walk in may be totally defac'd From the Press hath been sent into the midst of us two Pamphlets like unto Sampson's Foxes that were join'd in the Tail with fire-brands betwixt them to burn down all our Field as if nothing less than the total destruction of our Vineyard could suffice With what care must these Prints immediately be disperst into all quarters not only at the publick Meeting House the Booksellers Shops but some of them must be sent up and down in blank Papers to several Persons by the Penny-Post and others carry'd to Coffee-Houses and openly laid upon the Tables that every one that comes to take a Pipe and drink a Dish might feast upon and admire this none-such Author and not only the sober but the wet Drinkers should be baptized into his opinion These Books such as they are must be diligently in all places scatter'd that if it be possible every hand might be furnisht with a tool and weapon to beat and cut us all into pieces what a spirit is this man possest withal as if he would be a common troublesome Ghost to haunt every house and heart near unto him Surely we are greatly ingag'd for our peace and quiet by all lawful means to do all that we can to lay him for it is he that hath been the great troubles of our Israel I do sincerely desire him in the cool time of his spirit provided when his eyes are opened he doth ever enjoy such a season solemnly to consider the description that the wisest of men doth give of a publick annoyer Prov. 26.18 When I first cast mine eyes upon his Books I could not but admire them for Pride Ignorance and Confidence never yet saw I any thing since I was able to hold a book in my hand for these qualifications so excellent this hath been the opinion of many that have been much more able to judge than ever he will be to write I shall briefly tell you what was my vehement provocation and prevailing inducement to preach the following Sermons vid. his audacious cruelty in his Book offer'd to our Children to the Seed of all that have the singular priviledge of being in Covenant with the Lord. He could not in his writings content himself as many of his Brethren do only to exclude them from their right to Baptism but must proceed upon such wayes and means that do inevitably shut them out of the Kingdom of Heaven if so be they expire in their infancy Hinc illae Lachrymae What pious and tender Parent that hath a serious concernment upon his heart for the eternal state of his Child can hear such Doctrine and his ears not to tingle and his heart not to tremble I confess to have such wild and cruel Doctrine to be not only deliver'd but lick'd up and admir'd amongst us as if it was one of the choicest Truths of Grace that our Lord and Master sends his Ambassadors to proclaim did cause a little zeal for Truth to wax warm within me and engaged me to draw up some cautions against and make some mild reflections upon such Infant-destroying matter therefore when I preach'd as the Lord did inable me concerning a sound and saving knowledge of Christ in the use of this truth I did blame some that were chiefly concern'd about other knowledge little respecting this adding That there was such a knowledge of Christ as to the object of it but was not that which was most necessary to Salvation as for instance that of Baptism as to the subject of it Thus I gently deliver'd my self saying that there be some Pulpits that reek with a blind Zeal against Infant-baptism but pray take notice that what I am going to speak is neither for nor against the baptizing of Infants only I cannot but take notice of a Pamphlet lately risen up in the midst of us that in its decrying Infants-baptism does proceed upon such Mediums that must unavoidably shut those that dye in their Infancy out of Heaven and so a terrible sentence of condemnation is denounc'd against them all this bold Writer doth presume to lay it down as one of his infallible positions that no Infants are in Covenant with their Parents that are Believers nor capable of habitual Faith one great branch of Sanctification and the new Creature indispensably necessary to Salvation This he is so confident of that in a scornful way he doth rank that odious Doctrine of Antichrist Transubstantiation with Infants being in Covenant with their Parents and their being capable of habitual Faith it seems they be all of the same import with him He being sensible what a foundation he hath laid to build the perdition of Infants upon that he might lick this ill-shapen Monster into some pleasing shape acquaints us that he hath found out a way to save Children notwithstanding One would wonder what this curious invention should be it is this vid. those Children that shall be saved shall so be by an imputed righteousness thus we see what it is to be a sagacious Divine I believe all the brains of the dull Schoolmen could never find out such an exquisite notion as this topping Preacher hath not only to send our poor Infants by swarms to Hell but also can recall them and reverse the doom that he hath denounc'd against them as if the power of Life and Death were in his hands The worst of it is here is nothing to prevail upon us to imbibe his new invented way but his own Authority his ipse dixit will not satisfie thinking men tho' it may go smoothly down with his own admirers That Caution given to us about false Teachers Gal. 1.8 cannot but stick with me I am certain here is another Gospel and that in a substantial point of our Religion and Articles of Faith I confess in the hearing of many of you I did say upon this unscriptural Notion what I see no reason as yet to retract that to talk of an imputed Righteousness without a Covenant of Grace without an imparted Righteousness was but Mountebank Divinity I understand it to be the judgment of all our Divines that Justification and Sanctification tho' different in their Nature and use yet are never separate as to their subject for those whom God doth justifie them also he doth sanctifie neither do I understand
highly from Our Brethren the Anabaptists affirm That Abraham's natural Seed had only a Covenant of temporal Promises that the natural Seed had no part in the Covenant of Grace but only the Spiritual the Followers of Abraham's Faith But we affirm That by Children here are meant the natural Seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such as were begotten of you and did spring and proceed from your Loyns As when the Covenant was renewed at first with Abraham God would be a God to him and to his Seed that Seed that was to be circumcised so the terms of the same Covenant are here repeated by the Apostle The promise is to you and your children Christ would make good his Promise to all Believers This is that which I hope I shall evidently prove in its proper place 3. Quest But if the natural Seed be here meant as having an Interest in the Covenant with their Paâ—â—â—ts whether is not their Right and Title limited and restrained by the following Expression The time of their calling as many as the Lord our God shall call and none but such and never till then Answ There have been so many Learned Divines that have gone before with such clearness of Light in this Controversie that little can be added or need to be spoken something consonant to what they have said and agreeable to their Answers I shall offer We are to distinguish about Calling for Calling is either effectual and saving or only external Calling 1. There is an effectual and saving Calling that which appertains to the Elect of God by which by the external Call of the Word and the inward efficacy of the Spirit they be throughly Called out of all Sin unto God To urge a necessity of this without which no Benefits of the blessed Covenant of Promise can be obtained or challenged is a palpable Error against which there may be many Clouds of Witnesses produced to testifie In every Age of the Church and propagation of the Covenant there have been many Hypocrites and formal Professors that have had a standing in the Church which is a Priviledge of the Covenant yet had no effectual Calling so it is now and will be at the coming of Christ when he shall find amongst the Virgins as many foolish as wise Mat. 8.12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Isa 33.14 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Hypocrites that are in the Church and externally in Covenant shall possess the hottest place in Hell Will our Adversaries that apply the Seal and take into Covenant their way be so bold as to say that all those they admit to Baptism are true Believers and Gospel-penitents Do not many of them prove Apostates And are not many of them cast out of their Churches and delivered over to Satan And may they not have cunning Hypocrites among them that enjoy many Priviledges with them and such as they thought to be effectually Called 2. If they say that an outward Call be urged as necessary to the obtaining an Interest in the Promise then the natural Seed of Believers enjoy this Calling virtually in and with their Parents with whom they are confederate which they are Called to do as Deut. 29.10 11 12. Where we have a solemn way of the People visibly standing before the Lord to enter into Covenant with him and they had their little ones with them as confederates with their Parents and so part of those that were separated and Called to be the distinct People of the Lord Members of the Church in covenant with him 2. Answ And what I judge the fullest That that Restriction As many as the Lord shall call pertains only to those that are afar off and hath no respect to these here spoken unto or to their children If we consider the Apostle doth add this partly to discover the glorious Intention of the Grace of God in carrying over the Promise and the Covenant of Grace under the new administration unto the Gentiles who were accounted afar off and also to give those he spake unto the greater and the more ample encouragement to accept of and close in with his Exhortation to repent and to believe As thus If God will be so gracious to them that are afar off as upon their repentance to admit them and their children into covenant with him why do ye doubt and fear Both you and your children are in covenant with him already They that trouble us with the Dust of their false Glosses to blind the Eyes of the Simple and to darken clear Scriptures by all means would have that Clause to be applied to all the three Subjects viz. They their children and those afar off when Called then the Promise is theirs but that the Apostle meaneth and restraineth this only to those that are afar off I shall evince by several Reasons which if ponderously thought upon may give good satisfaction herein 1. Calling of Persons supposeth such that are at a distance off therefore it must peculiarly and only belong to them that were afar off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this Channel runs the Stream of Expositors those that be afar off they mean the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews that were nigh Thus the Scripture doth distinguish between the Jews and the Gentiles Isa 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near Here is a blessed Promise of the Grace of God in reference unto the Calling of the Gentiles that were said to be afar off in opposition to the Jews that were nigh They were nigh to God and they and their children were in covenant I but said the Lord I will create the fruit of the lips peace to those that are afar off viz. the Gentiles Eph. 2.11 12 13 17. Wherefore remember that ye being in time passed 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 common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ This was the state of the Gentiles they were far off I but the Jews at that time were nigh And came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh viz. the Jews Children of the Covenant God was their God and the God of their Children I but the Gentiles were Strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel not in covenant with God and afar off they be called as we see in the Scripture those that be remote and distant and must be meant in this Text. 2. What rational account can be assigned or can any give why
chiefly because unto them were commited the oracles of God This the Lord himself declares to be one of their singular Prerogatives Deut. 4.8 And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgements so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any nation as for his judgements they have not known them Therefore from the sense of this wonderful Blessing the Psalmist cries out Praise ye the Lord. To have the custody of Gods Ordinances and the use of them the Word Sacraments Worship Ministry Pastors after Gods own Heart and all the Service of God Who can express or declare how happy the People are that have such Depositions and are so distinguish'd and magnify'd as to have the Means of Grace in and by which they may come to know and learn the Mind of God to have Ordinances wherein they may draw nigh to God to have a Membership and visible Standing in that Society where Salvation is ordinarily dispensed John 4.22 For salvation is of the Jews There were the Means and no where else not among the Samaritans hence the Law was called the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob Deut. 33.4 Certainly those that understand in any competent measure the Excellency of this Priviledge cannot but adore and admire God in it and magnifie his Name for it 2. Such that be but outwardly in covenant are part of and go to make up the Vineyard of the Lord they be planted in the Lords Vineyard they be part of the Garden of the Lord hedg'd in and separated from the rest of the World and God doth own them to be so It is no small benefit to be within the Pale of the Church and to have a fix'd Standing in Zion Isa 5.7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant 3. They have the Proposals and the Offers of the highest Mercy they live under the Overtures of the richest Grace they be in the Kingdom and are the Children of the Kingdom therefore have the highest Tenders and the choicest Invitations to the best of Mercies They are in the Kingdom and Salvation is nigh unto them the Bosom and the Arms of Grace and Love are always before their Eyes and ready to receive and embrace them After the Days of the Messiah the Jews being in covenant with God their happy Estate was not to be overlook'd but to be honourably respected therefore they had the first offer of Life and Salvation by Christ after his Ascension So it was in Acts 2. and in other places Acts 3.25 26. 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 kindreds of the earth be blessed Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities They were yet in covenant and the Lords Vineyard and had this precious Tender of Christ and Salvation by him sent unto them to bring them to Faith and Repentance before it was sent unto the poor out-cast Gentiles Acts 13.46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said It was necessary that the word of God should have first been spoken unto you but seeing ye put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles did not betake himself to them till his Embassy was rejected by the Jews unto whom he was to make his Application Our gracious Lord when he gave Commission to his Apostles to Preach Repentance and Remission of Sins in his Name directed that they should begin at Jerusalem Oh! how was his Heart upon his Covenant-people and how unwilling was he that their Covenant-State should expire therefore he waited upon them to the utmost period of the time set for the Patience of God to attend them Oh! Go said he break up and execute your Commission in that bloody City see if they will Repent and Believe that I may not lay them wast The Jews as is well observed by one had a double Priviledge before Christ came they were Soli they were alone they were the only Church and People of the Lord and inclosed from all the Nations of the World there was a Partition-wall erected between them and the spurious part of the World And at the Ascension of Christ and the Tenders and Exhibitions of the Grace of Life and Salvation they were Primi they had the first Effort of Mercy sent and directed unto them 4. Such have their dwelling and residence where the gracious and peculiar Presence of the Lord is to be enjoy'd such have an Habitation where God hath fixt his Throne of Grace and where are his delightful Walks the gracious presence of the Lord is with his Church and People those that are his Covenant-Ones they have the Signs and the Symbols of his residence in the midst of them His general Presence by a glorious Extension diffuseth and disposeth it self every where but This is the alone Happiness of his select People to enjoy Deut. 4.7 For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them Great because nigh Psal 76.1 2. In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel In Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling-place in Zion Viz. His peculiar place of residence Rev. 21.3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God Where the Tabernacle of God is himself is and there he will dwell How happy are they that dwell where God in a distinct manner doth dwell And this is the Happiness of all those that dwell within the Bounds of the Covenant 5. Those that be in covenant and are Members of the Church are always comprehended in and have the benefit of having a share in the Prayers that are continually ascending up unto God for all Israel As it is the Duty of every sincere and true Believer to make Supplications for himself and to offer up this Sacrifice to God with the publick Assembly so to be sure to be very mindful of Zion and to be very importunate with the Lord for all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Psal 122.6 7. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces There is a continual Cloud of Prayers going up to Heaven for those that are the Lords Inclosure for all that are the Dwellers therein every one that is internally in covenant will be sure to pray for all that are any way in Federal Relation to God Psal 137.5 6. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my
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
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
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 Foederal Mercy not only to wash away the Filth but also to remove the guilt of Sin Pardon of Sin is one of the most desirable Branches of this Covenant there can be no obtaining the pardon of one Sin without it all the Promises of pardon are founded upon the Grace of God and satisfaction made to Divine Justice by the Blood of the Son of God whose Blood is the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant I shall not stand to mind you of the many Promises that we have of Remission the Word of God doth abound with them and wheresoever you find any of them you may conclude that they do relate to the Covenant of Grace Now the Covenant-Seed of those that be Believing Parents have a share in those Promises that hold out a Free and Full pardon of Sin Acts 2.38 39. Repent and be baptized every one c. for the remission of sins For the promise is to you and your Seed Viz. That Promise and Covenant that hath made provision for the Remission of your Sin and the Sin of your Children for they had involved their Children into the guilt of their Sin but in the Covenant there is pardon for both Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and glory The rich Provisions of the Covenant of Grace have laid up for the Justification and Remission for the Seed of Israel 6. Such to whom God is pleased to promise Blessedness theirs is the Promise and the Covenant of Grace But the Children of those that are in covenant are promised Blessedness Such that be under such a Promise as this is have right to be lookt upon to be in the Covenant of Grace In the Covenant of Works there are the terrible Cursings of a Just and Righteously angry God But in the Covenant of Grace there you may hear the Soul-comforting Voice that pronounceth all Blessings yea Blessedness it self and this Blessed Voice is sounded out to the Little Ones of those Parents that are in covenant Psal 37.25 26. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed shall be blessed What Blessedness is there which is not in and from that Covenant Psal 3.8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord thy blessing is upon thy people Thus I have done with this Demonstration of the Doctrine by which I have endeavoured to shew that the Seed of those that are in covenant must be so because the precious Promises do belong unto them 8. Demonst To Evidence the Truth of this Point those from whom God demands Covenant-Duty and doth challenge the same from them to them the Promise and the Covenant doth appertain The same Covenant that saith You shall be my people saith I will be your God Now the Covenant requires of the Children of Gods People that they be Gods People too therefore they be in covenant Look as the Parents do covenant for their Children in their Infancy so 't is their Duty so soon as may be to counsel and to instruct them as Covenant-children to know to love to fear to serve and obey God These are Covenant-Obligations Those that the Lord is pleased to take into Foederal-relation with himself to be his People it is that they may be found in the constant and persevering discharge of Relative Duties Thou shalt be my people What only to partake of Priviledge No but also to perform Duty Abraham was very sensible of this and therefore did command and oblige all of his what he could to be conversant in all necessary and incumbent Covenant Duties See what observation the Lord did make of him and what a Commendation he fastens upon him 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 All Parents in covenant ought to see to this they are ingag'd in covenant with and for their Children and are under an indispensable Obligation to see that their Children walk and act suitably to the Priviledges and Duties of it God expects a Revenue of Honour from covenant Children therefore he doth command their Parents to bring them up in the Fear and Admonition of the Lord Eph. 6.4 And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Thus Timothy was educated and brought up from a little child Children are to be dedicated unto God by the Seal of the Covenant by which they be bound to fear God to serve to obey him to keep his Word and to walk in his Way as Abraham did instruct and command his to do Believers Children must be under Gods discipline bound to Gods Worship kept in Gods Way they be the Lords People Must this be and no Covenant-priviledge belong unto them and be what Pagans and Heathens only be This is the Covenant-Dispensation first Priviledge and then Duty therefore Children that are in covenant with the Lord are called Disciples Acts 15.10 Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples They are in a peculiar manner to be instructed and taught as those from whom God expects early Service 9. Demonst The same Covenant is transferr'd unto the Times of the Gospel since the Actual Exhibition and Ascension of the Messiah the same for Essence and Substance though in the Administration of it it may vary in some circumstances the believing and the covenanted Gentiles stand in the very same Condition by Faith and in the very same Kingdom-state for the Essentials of it out of which the Jews through unbelief were broken and cast off for they were graffed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the place and room of those broken Branches as Beza hath it Rom. 11.17 And it hath its first rise from that seasonable and never-failing Promise Gen. 3.15 which will run through all the Ages of the World wheresoever God hath his Elect by the preaching of the Gospel to call into and to inclose within the limits of the Covenant It was the Saying of a great Man that Adam and Eve when they entred upon a new Covenant bottom were seminally a Visible Church for by them the World as well as the Church as to be built Here when the Lord did reveal his Grace and gracious Covenant he took in the Seed also in the very downing and first day-spring of the Gospel God takes in the Seed of the Woman so afterwards to Abraham and so all along until the Time of the calling of the Gentiles Now in the Times of the Gospel those that be called be the Children of Abraham they and their Seed have a happy admittance into the Covenant of Abraham and are Heirs according to promise and blessed with that ever-living Father The New Testament
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
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
that here might be some Women Ay but that must be drawn by consequence Certainly we must not doubt but that in the Churches of Ephesus Philippi Coloss and all the Churches of Asia had Baptism among them yet this must be concluded by consequences or no way as I understand According to the Analogy of Faith Evangelical Duties are not alwayes grounded upon Express Commands either in Old or New Testament but from consequences drawn from either as the Duties of praying Morning and Evening in the Family and also in the Closet alone daily reading of the Scriptures and prefix'd time of Meditation setting apart a Time or Day to seek God by Prayer in a more than ordinary manner Many more things might have been mentioned and improved in this Affair How can any Man that is so prove himself to be a Minister of Christ Or any serious and pious Christian that he hath an Interest in Christ that he hath Saving and Special Grace and is an Heir of Heaven but by consequence How many Arguments do the Anabaptists found upon consequences to prove their Believers Baptism When they make for them then they can cleave to them and make the utmost Improvement but when they make against them then they be of no use or validity but they cry out Give us plain and positive Proofs and an absolute Command for such Infant-sprinkling as reproachfully they phrase it which my Antagonist is wonderfully subject to One great Reason why many well-minded Christians run away with their Notion of rejecting Infants Baptism is their not wisely considering and pondering upon what I have though in much weakness said of the Covenant and of the new Administration of it in the Times of the Gospel An Excellent Specimen we have of it in our Text where the Gospel that never was before in its recent Administration is preached and believed by those that never were before baptized there the Adult do enter into covenant with their Children and both ought to be baptized and afterwards this is confirmed by whole Families that were so Alas it followeth not that because we read that those that were never under the Gospel Administration were never baptized before but many were Heathens and Gentiles and were upon their Faith and Repentance admitted into covenant and received the Seal of it that therefore their Children that enter into the same Covenant must be excluded the same Token or Seal of the Covenant but the quite contrary is true for still the Promise runs to you and your Children 7. This Doctrine doth inform us that Children are capable of sundry Blessings of Baptism and that because they are with their Parents graciously taken into Covenant most certainly the God of Grace would never have conferred this priviledge in vain this Seal is not for blanks God hath great Grace and Mercy to bestow upon them therefore he is pleased to impale them in this inclosure that he may be gracious unto them I need not stand upon this for I have largely discovered to you what singular Blessings of the Covenant they be capable of and what exceeding great and precious Promises are made unto them of which if they are not capable then God hath promised in vain and deluded the faith and hopes of good Parents that are built upon them But who dare be so bold as thus to accuse God I have shewn you how that to Infants God hath made Promises of the Gift of the Holy Ghost of Remission of Sin of Renovation and Regeneration of being taught of God of having the Law of God wrote in their Hearts though they be not capable of Mans teaching yet what cannot the Lord do for them He can as easily by his Spirit frame and fashion the New Creature in them as he could curiously form and fashion them in their Mothers Womb and so it must be otherwise dying Infants can never be saved We have a late confident Writer Mr. H. C. who hath transmitted such things into the World that plainly declare that Infants are not capable of the Blessings of this Ordinance and so by consequence not of the Kingdom of Heaven I will give a few of his bold Sayings very fatal to poor Infants He saith This Ordinance speaking of Baptism cannot concern Infants but Believers because it is a testisication of the Remission of Sins and Salvation to the worthy Receiver and Subject of it What doth he mean by his testification but a Sign and Seal of it then it must inevitably follow that Children are not capable of Habitual Faith nor of the Pardon of Sin for here Believers and Remission of Sin are set in opposition to Infants if what he saith should be true as not capable of either Again he saith That Baptism is a lively representation of Regeneration therefore can only affect Believers meaning adult Believers that he is pleading for to be the only subject of Baptism The Apostle said he alludes to Baptism when he speaks of the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 his meaning is that the Ordinance is a lively body symbol and sign of Regeneration It is very true 't is so but mark how this is brought in and upon what account it is viz. to prove that Believers that is adult ones that profess their Faith Baptism can only affect them it is such a sign body and symbol of Regeneration and the New Birth only So that here Infants are shut out of Regeneration and the New Birth they must not be Baptized because they are not capable of them which is the unavoidable consequence of this desperate Doctrine Again he tells us that in Luke 18. where we read of Infants that were brought to Christ which he took up into his Arms and blessed that the Greek word signifieth a Child capable of teaching Surely if he notwithstanding his flourish of Learning had been able to have examined the Greek word he would not have been so confident as to have spoke thus It is great pride for Men to pretend to have such Learning they never had any Education nor Opportunity to attain unto I have shewed before the proper and true meaning of the Greek word in that place and that from good Authority unto which I refer you and the same that we have in Timothy Let this Man talk of his Learning among those that are not acquainted with his Education and from what his immediate access was to the Pulpit Again he saith If it be their Duty who believe to be Baptized then I infer that those that are not capable of this Grace of Faith are under no Divine Obligation nor their Parents neither to Baptize them it is only a piece of Will-Worship which God never required He speaks of the Grace of Faith in general and denies that any Infants are capable of it no not so much as Habitual Faith if so then I understand no hopes given to their Parents of their Union with Christ Justification Remission and Salvation Again he saith That Infants
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
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