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
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
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
Parents were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal 51.5 Those that spring from corrupt Parents cannot be clean Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one and 15.14 What is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous It is impossible that he should Parents by propagation can only convey Sin to their Posterity not Grace but all the hope that they can have of their Sanctification is lodg'd in a Covenant of Grace where there are Provisions of cleansing and Sanctification treasur'd up and unless Infants be sanctified they cannot be saved nor inherit the Kingdom of God Eph. 5.5 But the Covenant of Grace is eminently adorned with excellent Promises of cleansing and Purification And for this our Lord Jesus poured out his Immaculate Blood which is the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant this he did for his Church which Children are a numerous part of Eph. 5.25 26 27. And all the washing and cleansing of Souls is promised in and transmitted through the Covenant so that for Children to be excluded from it they must be bereav'd and depriv'd of all this great Covenant blessing without which they must be lost eternally and be concluded with the abominable and filthy to be the Fuel of inextinguishable Flames of Revenging Wrath. But Parents may encourage themselves from the good Inducements that are administred to them in reference to their little Children from this Heart-supporting and Soul-reviving Covenant Jer. 31.33 Viz. This is one great Branch and Blessing of my Covenant Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean 〈◊〉 from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you Infants must be included in these Promises 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 This is a blessed Encouragement vouchsaft by the Covenant of Grace but deny Infants a Title to this and then you have no room left to expect in an ordinary way their Purification and Holiness So that still it appears to be dangerous to exclude them this Covenant 9. They cannot enjoy the Lords gracious Presence without partaking of the Covenant it is his Covenant-Presence that is his peculiar and gracious Presence that he doth enrich his People withal The Church and the Covenant-People of the Lord did partake of this Presence before Christ came it was with them and with their Children 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell with them and walk with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Viz. My peculiar and my Covenant-People for unto such doth this Special Presence appertain God pitcheth his Tabernacle and fixeth his Presence and Residence among his that are in this Happy Compact with him Lev. 26.11 12. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and I will walk among you and ye shall be my people To turn Children out of this Covenant is the next way to send them from all the Beatifical Shines of this Mercy and to dismiss them from the gracious Presence of the Lord and to make them wandring and perpetually expos'd Vagabonds like unto Cain yea this is the way to bring the Children of Believers under that direful Imprecation Psal 109.10 Let his children be continually vagabonds The worst Vagabonds in the World are those that be stigmatiz'd with the infamous Brand of being Excluded the Covenant and the gracious Presence of the Lord. We see then that Men had need be careful how in respect of the Covenant they deal with poor Infants 10. They cannot be gathered to Christ nor brought under the Wings of his Mercy It is an Excellent Promise of Christ That the gathering of the People viz. of all the Elect shall be unto him Gen. 49.10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come viz. Christ and unto him shall the gathering of the people be But still the gathering of Christ is a Covenant-gathering Psal 50.5 Gather my saints together that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice The Wings of Christ underneath which the gathering must be are lifted up in this Covenant though his gracious Wings be never so receptive and large yet the only way to creep under them is by getting within the Bond of the Covenant Those that be not within the Inclosure of it are not said to be gathered but to be remote and distant from Christ Eph. 2.12 13. That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus ye that were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ You be called and brought into the Covenant though you were afar off yet now are brought nigh by the Blood of the Covenant so that all that are not in the Covenant are still afar off and remote from Christ This is the condition that Children of pious Parents must be unavoidably cast into that are banished the Covenant of grace by which a people are brought nigh and gathered into and unto Christ 11. They be by this way of dealing shut out of in a word all Covenant-Blessings and Priviledges and so are represented to be in a most deplorable and miserable condition this strips them naked of all the covenant-blessings they be cloathed and invested with It is the promise of the Lord and it is a promise full of grace that he will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments Viz. To many generations of their Seed and posterity I shall here inlarge no further Thus by what hath been said you may see that by excluding Infants out of the Covenant of grace they be shut out of all the ordinary ways and means of Salvation For a full confirmation of all these particulars we see our friends the Anabaptists deny to the Infant-Seed of Believers the token of the Covenant which Seals up all the Covenant-mercys that God hath promised and graciously provided For it is to be observed that when the Lord did establish his Covenant with Abraham and his Seed Gen. 17.7 in the 10. ver He instituted and appointed Circumcision the Seal of the Covenant to assure Abraham of the performance of all the gracious promises of it is To deny the Seal then is to break the Covenant and as far as man can to deprive the Seed of all priviledges and benefits of it 4. The next absurdity from the Doctrine of turning Infants out of Covenant is this It doth not only hinder them from being Members of Christ but makes them the miserable off-spring and Members of Satan Those that deny Childrens Covenantship by which they be Foederally holy pretend some kindness unto them in as much as they would not have
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
Baptized are not tanght of God nor made Disciples of Christ This is directly against the express Word of God Isa 54.13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord Is not this giving God the lye so in saying They be not the Disciples of Christ is also directly opposite to the Word of God Acts 15.10 Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which Disciples are evidently Children Here still you may see what fatal Doctrine this bold Asserter delivereth about poor Infants can they be saved without their being taught of God Though they be not capable of the teaching of Men yet they are of Gods and must be taught of him otherwise I understand not how there can be any possibility of their Salvation Thus I have given you a few hints of many that might be brought out of this Authors Works I think such sanguine sayings as these are about Infants in Covenant with God do loudly call for trembling from me and Repentance from him 8. This Doctrine doth inform us that a great part of the Scripture was written for the good and sake of Children God did greatly design and intend them in the choicest part of his Word The Covenant of Grace doth comprehend the most precious and gracious part of the Word of God though our late Author and my Confuter tells us That they were writ for the Adult and not for the Infants His Reason I suppose is because of their present ignorance This is some of this excellent Divines New Doctrine We may as well say that their Mothers Womb and Breasts that the Heavens and the Earth and all the Elements that Meat Drink and Rayment do not belong unto them that Eating Drinking and Sleeping do not belong unto them But we may ascend a great deal higher if the Scripture was not wrote for their sakes what will become of these poor Creatures for ever Can God can Christ can any special Grace be theirs What are the Scriptures relating to the Covenant the Blood of it and the gracious Promises of Remission Union with Christ Adoption and Sanctification not appertaining to them Were not the Scriptures wrote for their sake when there are so many Directions and Commands abounding concerning their Parents Duty to them in all things and all for the good of them and to demonstrate the great concernedness of a gracious God for them and the value he hath of them Surely if we do but confider what is wrote of Children in the Word we may easily see that God did greatly intend them in writing of it I will name a few places Psal 78.6 That the generation to come might know him even the children which shall be born Psal 127.3 Lo children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Prov. 20.7 The just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him Deut. 4.37 And because he loved their fathers he chose their seed after them Isa 61.9 Psal 18.50 A multitude of Scriptures might be brought to show how that in many Predictions and Promises and other wayes the Scripture was eminently wrote for the sake of Infants and Children and the Seed of Gods People What doth not those precious Scriptures of Christ taking little children up into his arms and blessing of them appertain unto Children Is it not left upon Divine Record for their sake But that which is beyond all may make us all to be amazed which is this If the Scriptures were not wrote for the sake of Infants what shall we say of all those Blessed Scriptures that were wrote about the Holy Child Jesus of his Conception Birth and Infancy If it be as this bold Asserter would have it then all Scriptures relating to the same must not be the subject matter of our Faith and Hope but all of them should be expunged out of the Word of God or stand upon its record as idle insignificant Stories It is clear that if the Scriptures were not wrote for the sake of Infants then our Lord Jesus Christ must come in for a share in this Doctrine which well may be called the Doctrine of Devils This Man is greatly skilled in propounding such Doctrine that hath a direct tendency to exclude poor Children and Infants out of the Kingdom of God not only out of the Kingdom of Grace here but also the Kingdom of Glory hereafter If the Scripture be not wrote for their sake I know not the Duties that are incumbent upon Parents concerning them neither any hopes of any good here and hereafter can be conceived about them But one would think the very naming of this should be more than sufficient to baffle it and its Author from the stage of his Presumption and Confidence 2. Vse of the Doctrine and all that furthermore I shall make of it shall be of solemn and serious Exhortation and that to those Pious and Godly Parents who are inriched and honoured with this transcendent priviledge of being in Covenant with God they and their Children also As your Mercy is great so those Duties that do refult from hence are very great God hath bestowed much upon you and he doth expect much from you Where much is given from thence much is expected The Lord hath done more for you than he hath for others therefore he doth expect more from you than he doth from others A few of these many Duties that this Covenant and your Interest in it do call for from you I would set before you and exhort you to a diligent observation and practise of 1. Make a great account of the priviledge of this Covenant State esteem it very high tho' some and that too many reproach and trample upon it yet let it be a matter of wonderful valuation with you God hath revealed much unto you if he hath but revealed unto you a right understanding of his Covenant Psal 25.14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his covenant or he will make them to know to understand the Covenant in its Nature and Latitude this is a secret that God reveals All those that enjoy this Blessing had need to esteem it very highly What a blessed entail is here upon your Children Those look upon themselves to be very happy that be the Heirs of great Estates in the World though they have not a present possession yet there is a sure and certain entail upon them and theirs But what is this to the entail of the Covenant and unto the being Heirs to the Promise How glad would some be should they be assured that such a great Lordship was continued to them and their Children Ay but here is the incomparable and for ever to be esteemed dignity viz. The promise is to you and your children Some good Parents when they shall come to dye are like to have but little of the World to leave their Children but this is