nominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper signification of the words Infants and that they were carried to Christ and also that he took them into his arms when he blessed them must be kept But I may have an opportunity to meet with my Adversary in a more suitable place Thus we see what little things the Seed of Believers be that are Members of the Church visible for by Kingdom of Heaven is by all judicious Divines taken to be the visible Church Now because they be declared by Christ himself to be such Members with their Parents they must also with them be in Covenant with God 5. Demonst The Parents by Covenant do ingage themselves and their Children unto God When Parents do enter into Covenant with the Lord they do by the Bonds of the same oblige themselves and theirs unto the Lord and to be the Lords for ever Every Covenant-Parent does oblige himself and his Seed to God to walk according to the Covenant of Grace to which the Initiating Seal of the Covenant is annext and God doth promise to be his God and the God of his Seed Gen. 17.7 Parents when they do dedicate their Children to God by the Seal of the Covenant then they do ingage to the utmost of their power that they shall observe the Duties of the same So Children when they are Adult ought by Faith to lay a firm hold upon the Covenant and answer the Obligation of their Parents In a Federal Consideration when Parents do ingage for their Children this as it hath always been is accounted among the Judicious the Act of the Children in and by their Parents and they are obliged strictly to the performance of the same That Parents have thus ingaged for their Children in covenant with God might be easily proved Deut. 26.17 18. In which place Parents and their children are comprehended as is more fully and specifically expressed in Chap. 29.10 11 12 13 14. There we have the little ones expressed which are involved with their Parents in the former place Some that are Adversaries herein pretend to wonder how this can be but what is more common among Men In a Mans Covenant do not Men put their Childrens Names in their Writings Obligatory And their Little Ones and those unborn shall stand firmly obliged thereby and the Law doth take it as firm as if the Child had actually bound himself A little to Illustrate and Invigorate this We are to consider that the Children when grown up and prove sinful walking contrary to the Covenant yea and those that never did receive the Token of the Covenant by Circumcision stand accused of the high Charge of breaking the Covenant which is an Evident Proof of their being when but Infants in covenant otherwise this Charge could not be so clearly exhibited against them Deut. 29.25 The men shall say Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers Viz. the Covenant which the Lord God made with their Fathers This you have but a few Verses before to demonstrate that it was that Covenant the Lord made with the Parents and their Little Ones that stood before him to covenant with him 1 Kings 19.10 14. You may see what Covenant this was 2 Kings 13.23 And the Lord was gracious unto them and had compassion on them and had respect unto them because of his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them neither cast he them from his presence Yet they had broken this Covenant and for the Covenant's sake they descending from the Fathers and being the Seed of those with whom he had made this Covenant he would not enter upon them for the breach they made upon it to extinguish or to destroy them as yet It was the Covenant that did bind up and restrain the Hands of Justice from casting off the Jews the Children of the Fathers and of the Covenant therefore the Lord is said Psal 111.5 He will ever be mindful of his covenant Gen. 17.14 And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my covenant Surely if the Seed of Parents in covenant are accused for the breaking of the Covenant they themselves must be in covenant and obliged by their Parents to keep it 6. Demonst Such as God is pleased to account and accept as holy are in covenant Those that have a Foederal Holiness must be Foederates and such that be in covenant with the Lord but this is the great Blessing of those that are the Children of believing Parents there is a Holiness attributed to them that is not to the Seed of Pagans and Infidels and it is a Covenant-Holiness therefore it must follow by undeniable consequence That they are in covenant with their Parents What makes Israel and his Seed more holy than the Egyptians or Canaanites and their Seed but God's taking one into covenant and not the other Thus Israel and his Seed are said to be holy Deut. 14.2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God If but one Parent be in covenant the Children be accepted as holy with the Lord 1 Cor. 7.14 Because of this the Children are not unclean as the Canaanites but holy like the Israelites I have spoke something to this in the Explication of this Point therefore shall hasten over it it would be to small purpose to enter into the Miry Labyrinth wherein some have lodg'd this precious Scripture I shall only say this with an Acute Person That commonly Reasons of Positions are brought à notiori to prove a thing doubtful by a thing known yeilded or confest this I judge to be a granted and a well-known Truth as one of the Jews Divine Axioms But that none but Believers Children are Legitimate and that none but Believers have a lawful use of their Children which are the two usual Expositions of the Adversaries on that Text which to me seems very jeiune and spurious those will hardly pass for unquestionable Truths among the wisest of Men And to make the Apostle argue thence to prove the lawful continuance of the Believer in conjugal Society with the Unbeliever would make the Apostle guilty of proving obscurum per obscurius an obscure thing by that which is more dark and obscure But to take Holiness there for that which is Foederal that is a clear Medium to prove that and whosoever shall stand up and oppose it there is the Dispensation of the Covenant with Isaac all along and that continued in the Christian Churches to prove it Your Children are holy Viz. Heirs to the Covenant a known Truth then granted and allow'd by all even like unto our Text That the Covenant was to the Parents and their Children How can the Children of Believers be said to be holy if they be not in covenant with their Parents From whence all the Seed of Believers do receive the denomination Rom. 11.16 For if the
promoters of the riches of Divine grace but so long as they do Eclipse and obscure the glory and the brightness of it in the Covenant so long they are but empty Pretenders like unto sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbal The great way that the fountain of Grace hath alwayes taken to diffuse and to convey it self ever since the miserable state of Man stood in need of it hath been thro' the Covenant of grace out of which to exclude Infants is the ready way to contract abbreviate and to confine it in straighter Channels then ever God intended it for What a wonderful restraint is here fixt upon the grace of God when Parents must only be taken in and all their Infants must be thrust out when Parents must be the Children of the Covenant and of the Promise and their Seed must be the Children of the Pagans and Heathens and in no better a capacity as to any Spiritual priviledges then they when much of the Lustration and admired beauty of it is by every unprejudiced Eye clearly to be seen from the gracious extent of it to the Seed of those that are taken into it Thus with Abraham and all along and thus in our Text the Promise is to you and your Seed Nay this is to make an essential violation upon and alteration of the Covenant without any colour of pretence or shadow of reason in the least For we never read since the institution of it that ever Children were shut out 2. This makes the case and condition of Children far worse than they were before the Incarnation and ascension of Christ and it makes the Covenant-State of believing Parents to be worse for before they were not only themselves in the happy compass of the Covenant but they had their Children with them also to thee and to thy seed Here ran the Glory the Grace and the Promises of the Covenant to incourage the convinced Jews to believe and repent The Apostle in my Text doth assure them that the Promise is not only to them but to their Children likewise Methinks what a bloody Knife is here at the Throat of all the gracious Covenant-promises made to Infants or poor Children By this opinion they have small ground of rejoycing at the appearance of Christ in the flesh that did immediately abandon them out of the Covenant We read Mat. 21.15 of Children crying in the Temple and saying Hosanna to the son of David But this Doctrine of shutting them out of the Covenant gives them but little ground of those acclamations But their sounding out of the praises of the Redeemer is a clear Indication that it was for their sake that he was come to impart unto and to inrich them with all the redemption-blessings wrapt up in the Covenant Doubtless their amazing Hosannah's they poured out to their Mediatour of that Covenant they did partake of were by a Supernatural instinct and influence Mat. 21.16 Have ye never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise The Lord Jesus never came into the World to contract but to inlarge the Covenant he was so far from turning Children out of the Covenant as that he hath extended it unto the Gentiles and all the nations of the World and their Seed upon their believing 3. This shuts out and deprives them of the ordinary way of Salvation as to extraordinary wayes we have no Rule to walk by what a prejudice is here offered to Infants And what a Soul-destructive Tenent is that which deprives little ones of all ordinary wayes and means of eternal Salvation They have as precious Souls as any and by nature thro' the guilt and filth of sin as miserable and obnoxious to Divine wrath as others They have equal necessity of the grace of God and the blood of Christ with their first Parents they descended from And I know no ordinary appointed way for their help relief and recovery but by and thro' the Covenant of grace How slenderly do many consider of this cruel absurdity that they cannot free their opinion from How helpless doth this reader all children of pious Parents to be I might illustrate and amplifie this by many particulars some of which I shall just propound 1. This doth deprive them of being Members of the visible Church of Christ for this Church is inclosed within the Covenant to shut them out of this inclosure is directly opposite to Christs own and open assertion Mat. 19.14 Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven So that to exclude Believers Infants being part of th visible Church in general is to exclude them from any ordinary State and way of Salvation this hath been a long received saying that extra Ecclesiam non est salus no Salvation in an ordinary way To exclude all Infants of Believers from a notion of Abrahams Spiritual Seed from a Covenant and Church State is to put them into the same State of the Children of Infidels and Pagan Gentiles who are strangers from the Promise and Covenants and in a godless Christless and hopeless State Eph. 2.11 12. This the Apostle sets out to be the deplorable condition of all such making no distinction of potentia remota aut propinqua let this be well considered 2. They cannot be judged to be the Elect of God to Eternal life all that shall saved are the chosen to Salvation before all time Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself 2 Thess 2.13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth The line of Election doth usually and for the most part runs thro' the Lines of the inchurched incovenanted Parents there the greatest part of the golden Veins are plac'd So it was amongst the Jews in the duration of their Church and Covenant-State Rom. 11.5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace Now for men to turn them out of the Covenant of Grace is to render them in a very unpromising Station of the Election of God to appertain unto them This is as to Gods eternal choice to make them altogether as hopeless as the Seed of Pagans and Infidels Tho' I readly grant that secret things belong unto God yet from what is revealed we have little ground to judge that any considerable quantity of the Elect are to be concluded to be amongst the Heathen world where the Covenant is not on foot where Christ is neither preached or known where Souls be not converted nor called nor any saving signes by the fruits and effects of Election discovered nor
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
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
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
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
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
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