the Promise of Life annexed to it Seek ye Me and ye shall Live Amos 5.4 5 6.2 Chron. 15.2 Exod. 20.24 Matth. 18.20 That the Ordinances therefore in general and one with another are appointed to be the Means of Grace I think a Man should believe as his Creed And why any good Men that will consider should be moved at our Inviting All and Letting in the Willing having first heard and received the Gospel unto the Participation of these External Appointments so long as we press upon them the Necessity of the same Faith and Repentance that the most strictest Ministers do for the obtaining the Spiritual Benefits thereof I apprehend no such Cause as they For here is Holiness and here is Peace joyned together Neither am I taken off with that worn-out Arguing That because the Sacraments are not Administred as the Word without the Church unto Heathens to convert such to the Faith therefore they cannot tend within the Church to any Vnregen rate Member's Edification Joh. 3.14 15. Joh. 4.22 It is a more Generous Spirit methinks St. Paul shews when the Corinthians seem to value themselves upon their External Christianity without Care of a Holy Life I would not have you ignorant says he that all our Fathers were Baptized in the Cloud and passed through the Sea and eat of the same Spiritual Meat and drank of the same Spiritual Drink But with many of them God was not well pleased The Apostle appears here to make but very little of the admitting Men unto Baptism and the Supper when he makes no more of their Coming to it than the Israelites passing through the Sea and eating of the Mannah and drinking of the Rock which things yet he declares to be Symbolical or Types even of the Blood of Christ as our Sacraments He could hardly have had a Heart to have spoken thus if his Thoughts had been cast in the Mould as many of our good Men's now are I will add Had the Apostles been so strict about admitting Persons to Baptism in their Days as they were after when they kept Men so long upon Tryal as Catechumens upon peculiar Reasons then and had look't on Baptism as so great and chief Work of the Ministry and Exercise of the Keys wherein so singular Care was to be taken I wonder that this Zealous Doctor of the Gentiles should profess himself to be no more concern'd about it when he tells us how few some Three or Four or so were all that he ever Baptized and that God sent him Not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel Not but I fear God and reverence his Institutions and the Panting and Breathings of the Hearts of good Men after more pure Communion even on Earth hath been to me of deep Consideration But we must not for all that make the same Conditions unto Coming into the Church as unto the Getting into Heaven In actione Coenae Dominicae non debemus says Cyprian attendere quid aliqui ante nos faciendum putaverint sed quid ille qui ante omnes est prior fecerit faciendum mandaverit In these Actions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper we are not to attend what some before us have thought fit to be dome but what He who is before all hath Himself first done and commanded us to do The Author THE Cause of our Mixt Churches AGAINST SEPARATION SECT I. IT is in vain to write Books for the Satisfaction of People concerning the Lawfulness of the Liturgy and Ceremonies and coming to Church To think of Terms for Von and Concord or to endeavour any the like good things which many Considerate Ministers about London have lately done if the Churches unto which We Go and would Bring Others cannot be maintained to be True Churches or Churches agreeable to the Institution of Christ It is This is the First Stone to be Laid It is This is the Cause must be made Good For the doing hereof I shall offer some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Stating or Building it Vp some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Confirming it some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Refutation of Objections And the Discourse shall contain Three Sections To begin with the First The Building Vp our Cause in This and to fetch the Matter from the Bottom I must lay my Thoughts together in these Theses and Method following As God made all things so is He universal Governour of his Creatures The Government of God over his Creatures that are Reasonable must be a Moral Government requiring Obedience from them upon Motives of Reward and Punishment The Insirument of this Government must be his Law The Law of God is either the Law of Nature or his Revealed and Positive Laws The Government of God is likewise double Natural or Conventional The Natural Government of God over Men and Women which He hath by Right of Creation is over all the World as they are particular Persons giving them the Law of Nature to live by that they may please Him and be saved This Law of Nature is either the Law of Innocent or Lapsed Nature The Law of Innocent Nature is that perfect Rule of Righteousness that was writ in Adam's Heart when created requiring him to preserve his Innocency and Integraty upon Pain of Death and it is called the Law of Works The Law of Lapsed Nature is the same Law with mitigation requiring the same Duty but not as the Condition of Life accepting of the imperfect Service of Man according to his present State so long as it is performed in Sincerity of Heart towards God and this is called the Law of Grace As Man in Innocency had the Notices of the most Holy God and his Duty writ in his Heart or could gather it from the Light of his Reason being to live perfectly in that State So must the World after Man's Fall and the Loss of his Innocency have some the like Notices implanted there or arising naturally from the Exercise of his Faculties That God is Good and Merciful and will not punish him if he Repent but consider him according to his frail Condition and consequently that he must now have no Government at all over him for Life and Salvation or else that he must be under another Law than that of Innocency or under other Conditions in obeying it for else must every Man on the Earth everlastingly perish Upon what Account or upon what Ground or Foundation the Righteousness of God could stand in dealing with Man when faln by another Law than that at first implanted in him in Innocency was a Mystery hidden from the Foundation of the World and not revealed but darkly till the Times of the Gospel But the Belief that God was Good and would pardon the Sinner upon his Repentance though they could not tell how or upon what ground it was the way of Reconciliation through Christ being beyond the Ken of all Human Understanding was general in the World
as does appear in particular by the Ninevites as also by the Sacrifices for the Atonement of the Deity which have been in use in all Nations Not but all the World is under the same Law as Adam was the Law that was for our Nature cannot be altered but we are not under it on the same terms We are under it as a Rule of Life but we are not under it as a Rule of Judgment We are under it so as we are bound to live according to it but we are not under it so that if we do not we shall be justified or condemned by it There is one Religion therefore Law or Rule for all Mankind to obtain Life by which being the Law of our Lapsed Nature or Remedying Law containing God's Grace administred to all the Earth in a threefold State of such as were or are without the Law or before it and under the Law and under the Gospel as this Administration is threefold so hath the Faith which is the Condition thereof been diversified But now is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of this Law which hath ever been afoot in the World And though a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian under the Third Edition of it or that which was required of the Jew under the Second yet hath he such a Faith as belongs to the First such as the Antients before Abraham had and so long as that Faith he hath does work by Love or by Sincere Obedience to God according to his Light it will justifie him as well as that which is now further required of us under the Gospel It follows that this Law being that which is given for Life and so the one only true Measure of Religion to all the World must belong to the Government of God which is Vniversal and that is the Natural Government of God The Government of God which is Conventional is that Government which He hath taken over some certain Persons as they are gather'd or joyned together into Societies unto which they are called out of the World for the Glorifying his Name in that Worship and Service of Him which He hath Instituted by his Positive Law Precepts or Ordinances I mean such as He hath any way revealed to be his Will whether they be such as belong to the Law of Nature also or such as do not in order to the taking owning and acknowledging Him for their God in a peculiar manner that is in opposition to the Worship of any other God or Idols and the serving Him the true God in any other way but what He hath appointed and their becoming thereby a peculiar People to Him and so being under his Favour and Blessing in regard to all the good things of this Life and that which is to come I do observe here the Government of God which is Natural is over all the World this Government which is Conventional is over some Persons only called out of the World into a peculiar Relation to God That the One is over All but consider'd as Single Persons taking in every Individual in the World the Other is over some and so over Singulars also but consider'd as Incorporated for the Publick Service of God That the One Government is by the Law of Nature I mean both of Lapsed and Innocent Nature the Other is by his Positive or Revealed Laws That these Laws and Ordinances of God therefore which He hath revealed as they are more and as they are revealed otherwise or farther than by the Light of Nature or Natural Reason only are a high Priviledge to such as they are vouchsafed to What Advantage thâ—n bath the Jew above the Gentile Much every way chiefly because that unto them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.1 2. That this giving to a People his Oracles or Positive Institutions are advantageous upon this Account that they are Means for obtaining his blessing or else there could be no such Advantage in them That this Blessing of God must not be look'd on only to concern Temporal Things but Spiritual and Eternal For seeing Man consists of a Body and a Soul and that Soul is Immortal he cannot be happy but in Both. That the great and principal Advantage therefore that we have by these Ordinances or Government of God which is Conventional must and does lie in being Means for the bringing Men up to the Performance of the Terms of that Law which God by his Government which is Natural and Vniversal hath made to be the Rule of Judgment to all Men for Everlasting Life or Condemnation There are some Learned Men that will not have Adam nor any in the World to have been in Covenant with God before Abraham understanding it of a Covenant of Life But so long as God had a Government in the World before Abraham and that Government must be by a Law and that Law to Adam fallen to Seth Enoch Melchisedeck must be a Law of Grace or else no Man of them could have been saved it is but a Matter of Words whether they call this Law of Grace and Life a Covenant or not This we must have a Care of that we distinguish this Law of Grace or Law for Life and Salvation which is contained in these Words Walk before Me and be Vpright belonging out of question to Adam Seth Enoch as much as to Abraham and the Covenant which God made with Abraham hereupon being such an upright Person in regard to himself and Posterity I will make my Covenant between Me and Thee and I will multiply thee exceedingly I I will establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations to be a God to Thee and thy Seed after Thee This is my Covenant Every Man-child among you shall be Circumcised There is the Covenant of Life therefore and Covenant of Advantage The Covenant of Life I scruple not to call it Law or Covenant was made with faln Adam and in him with all the World and is all one with the Law of Grace I say that belongs to God's Natural Government which is Vniversal and according to this Law or Covenant must every Man be judged at the last Day The Covenant of Advantage is the Covenant which God made with Abraham and with the Israelites for his sake beginning it with him by Circumcision unto which were added other Rites and Ordinances by Moses together with the Declaration of the Moral Law and in regard hereunto that People are said to be a holy People a peculiar People and preferred before all the Nations in the World Among all the Multitude of People Thou hast gotten Thee one People and unto this People whom Thou lovedst Thou gavest a Law that is approved of all says Esdras 2 Esd 5.27 Ye stand this Day all of you before the Lord to enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God Deut. 29. Thou art
First-Born which are enrolled in Heaven Heb. 12.23 the Church that is so washed in Christ's Blood as to be without Spot or Wrinkle which none are but those that enter into Glory Ephes 5.27 So we read of that Chain of the Apostle Whom he did Predestinate them he also Called and whom he Called them he also Justified and whom he Justified them he also Glorified Rom. 8.30 Nevertheless when the Scripture speaks of the Church to the Purpose which concerns us which is as it is that Corporation of Christians unto which the World is to be brought in by Preaching of the Gospel it must consist of Regenerate and Vnregenerate that is of Multitudes whereof the Elect are but few only The whole Body of the Israelites brought out of Egypt are expresly called the Church The Church in the Wilderness Act. 7.38 The whole Body of them Man Woman and Child enter into that Covenant which denominated them God's peculiar People Deut. 29.10 11 12 13. It is yet more significant with me that it was the Outward Jew and not the Inward only unto whom belong'd that Advantage which the Jew is accounted to have above the Gentile Rom. 3.1 that is the Advantage of the Oracles of God and consequently those Ordinances whereby that People were distinguished as by Tokens from other People There is the Mystical Church then and Congregate Church or Church Political It is not the Regenerate and Elect but the Congregate Church which according to the Contexture of this Discourse is and must be the immediate Recipient of the Outward Ordinances It is in regard to his Voluntary Government which I call Conventional that God did institute any or give any Laws at all but what are of Nature And those Persons who are the Subjects of that Government must be the Recipients of these Appointments Neither is it a Man's being Born again but his Willingness to come under this Government that is a Willingness to come in and joine with the Church that gives him title to the Institutions thereof This Priviledge of the Congregate Church is One thing and the Priviledge of the Regenerate or the Church Mystical is Another The External Ordinances are the Privilege of all Christians as they were of all the Jews the Outward Jew and Christian as well as the Inward unto whom they belong in opposition to the Gentile and Heathen But the Privilege of the Inward Christian and Mystical Church is not the Ordinances being common to them with the Vnregenerate but the saving Benefits of the Ordinances which I say is another Matter There is the General and Special Grace of the Gospel The Church of Christians in the first Notion of it should not be defined by the Participation of the Special but the General Grace of the Gospel And it is the Number of the Called into Christ's Kingdom or under the Conventional Government of God to the Participation of those Ordinances which He hath appointed as Means of Grace and Exercises of Piety by way of Advantage above others as the Jew is said to have above the Gentile in order to their obtaining or farthering their Eternal Salvation That there is the General Grace of God and of the Gospel as well as Special is received by Eminent Divines But how this General Grace accordingly is also to be defined I find not many that can tell That Christ died for All as for his Sheep and that God would have All to be saved as well as his Elect is express in Scripture But is this General Grace What if a Man Repent not and Believe not will God have such to be saved Not so certainly There is thus much more therefore must come into the Definition if they Repent if they Believe Christ hath died and God would have Christ to die for All so that if they Believe and Repent they shall be Saved Well! Is this the Definition then of General Grace No it is not this is not yet enough Dr. Twisse indeed and all Men grant This but it is short by Two Steps For as God is said to will all Men's Salvation so is He said that He would have all Men to Repent and come to the Knowledge of the Truth This then is also to be taken in But hath He given Christ to die for All that they may Repent By no means This would bring in Origen's Vniversal Grace that All at last must be Saved When God then is said to Will that any should Repent it must be understood without doubt as to the Means which He offers them for Repentance And thus does the Lord expostulate with his People What could I have done more for my Vineyard than I have done There is one Mr. Cottier a French Protestant seems to have studied this Point of General Grace more accurately than others who thus defines it Gratia Vniversalis est nobis actus liberrimus quo eligendo eos quos praecognovit simul alios respexit uti Creaturas suas Sathanae malignitate seductas quousque fas jura tulêre pari jure seu invitandos seu vocandos ad Dei cultum consequentiâ cultus Here is One Step farther then towards the Definition of Vniversal Grace That God does not only Will the Salvation of All in giving Christ to die for them upon condition but that He does also vouchsafe the Means to All so far as is meet for their Performance of that Condition The Other Step is To lay down the Specifical Difference it self wherein this Vniversal Grace does consist as it is distinguished from Special for without the Specifical Difference of any thing there can be no exact Definition I will therefore humbly offer this full Definition The Vniversal Grace of God is that free Act Love or Favour of his whereby together with his Elâ—cting some to be infallibly saved by Him He does respect all others as his Creatures with the Vouchsafement of the same Means of Salvation so far as Right and Equity requires Quousque fas jura tulère says that cautious Divine which I must therefore six and establish as that alone which is wanting to compleat the Definition and that is so far as they will Behold When there are no Means of Salvation which God does vouchsafe his Elect but He vouchsafes the same to the Non-Elect and so to All according to the State they are in if or as they will who can deny this Grace to be indeed Vniversal If Christ hath Died for all Men if God would have all Mâ—n Return and Live and if according to the State they are in they have their Means of Return and if any Know and Desire more they are not Refused who can deny I say this Grace to be Vniversal And when this Grace is adjusted according to Men's Will who does not see the true Difference between that Grace which is Special and This Vniversal Grace is God's vouchsafing the same Means to All Hâ—ct and Reprobaâ—â— so far as they Will Special Grace is
and to Build wisely nay if he seem'd Remiss in Self-Examination I should be like to Advise him to Forbear a while yet till he were better Fitted for his Baptism But if I should find that by this means he were like to go Away and mind his being Baptized no more and perhaps to fall in with some Sect that is against Water-Baptism or to a Regardlesness of his Duty of Walking with any in Christian Communion being not capable of it till This is done nay if I should but be Convinced that I should do him more Hurt than Good by Putting him off I should beware of Refusing him supposing he hath a Competent Vnderstanding of the Creed and no Scandal lies upon him for want of Signs of Regeneration I cannot but think the Bringing Men into the Church rather than their Abiding out to be the Means of Saving Conversion In the Last place It does appear that the Lord Jesus since the Jews Partition-Wall is Broken down and the Gentiles Called hath given his Ordinances to the World as God gave his Statutes to Israel Go Preach the Gospel to all Nations to Every Creature Baptizing them Here is the Gospel and Baptism which are Two of his chief Ordinances and which consequently draws on the rest vouchsafed unto the whole Earth and whosoever will Receive them the Apostles are commissionated to Administer them without any Exception their Actual Interest depending only upon That Under the Old Testament we know how God's Institutions were so much the Priviledge and Peculiarity of the Jews that the Apostles were at first very doubtful whether they might Preach to Any but that Nation But now is that Difference decided the Gentiles Engrafted into their Olive and the Ordinances of the Kingdom made common by Christ's own Charter This is the Fruit of General Grace bringing Salvation to every Man's Door and leaving it upon their own Will It is true indeed before a Man Believes he cannot be Willing but a Willingness to Come in after the Gospel Heard supposes a Belief of it so far at least as That reaches and if it reaches no farther than to produce a Willingness to Be of the Church and to Joyn in the Ordinances so Far as he Will according to God's General Grace he must be Admitted We do read accordingly of John the Baptist when Jerusalem and all Judaea and the Region round about Jordan came to Him for Baptism He Baptizes all Comers It is said indeed They confessed their Sins but I read not of any He Refused whatsoever Confession they Made Nor do I read what Confession it was that served It may be this Confession is recorded in regard only of the Notoriety of some Sinners that came in to Him We read certainly that He Admonished them after Baptism to Bring forth the Fruits of Repentance as the Vse of that Ordinance I conceive it and consonantly we read not that it is said They Repented unto Baptism but They were Baptized unto Repentance And I do apprehend truly that his Ministry is called a Ministry of Repentance in this Sense to wit as intended to lead Men to Repentance and not to Gather the Penitent alone into a Corporation I think the same of the Apostles afterward in their Discipling all Nations who when they are Discipled and Baptized were to be taught to Do what Christ commanded as I before noted And what are Those things think we I have thought sometimes that those Commands sure must be or were some peculiar Ordinances after Baptism belonging only to the Regenerate but it was a narrow Apprehension The Commands of Christ in this Text are but the same likely with Those where He says If you love Me keep my Commandments and those are the Vniversal Precepts of God which according to the Law of Nature and Christ's Law are obligatory both to the Disciples and all the World Let us look forward into the Acts and we find Peter Preaching a Sermon and Exhorting them to Baptism and Three thousand receive the Word gladly at one Time and are Baptized I observe here that it is this Glad Receiving the Word which so far as comes to Human Sight can be only their being so Wrought upon by it as to be Willing to come in was the Ground of their Admission If there were such a Profession necessary to Baptism as the Congregationalists stand upon a solemn examined Profession how could so many be Admitted into the Church in one Day after Sermon How could the Jaylor and his House be Baptized in one and the Same Hour We have yet an Instance in Philip that exceeds This who Preaching to those in Samaria it is said They All who had gave heed before to Simon that is even the whole City Believed and were Baptized both Men and Women And what was this Faith now of Simon and his Followers as I have also before enquired Why it is expressed They believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of the Lord Jesus That is they believed Him and These things so as to be made Willing to come in upon his Preaching and this Willingness upon such a Belief as Simon 's was or as this Whole City had at once is that which gives them Title to Baptism As for the Words of the same Philip to the Eunuch at the End of the Chapter If thou believest with all thy Heart which is as much as to say If thou believest in Earnest so as Indeed to be Willing to be Baptized Thou mayst They must be conceived as spoken in reference to the Receiver or the Eunuch's own Part unto whom the Belief of so much as he Declared to wit That Christ was the Son of God must indeed be necessary seeing it is into His Name we are Baptized When as to the Part of the Admitter or Philip himself it is the Eunuch's Willingness upon his Preaching Christ to him which would suppose such a Belief as This if he had not proposed the Question which came to occasion that Profession as it was before with them of Samaria that would warrant his Administring the Ordinance Neither may the questioning of a Person in the Case of this Æthiopian whether he be In Earnest and Believes Indeed or of some Notorious Sinner in the Case of such as came to the Baptist whether they do Repent or no be any Obstacle to this Conclusion but that notwithstanding so much as This the Willingness of a Person after Christ is Preached to him which supposes his Belief of what is Preached and that the Minister knows not of any open Sin he lives in which would cast him out of the Church again if he were in is to be maintained upon the Account of God's General Grace at first defined to be the â—round of Church-Admission Before I conclude these Arguments or Considerations of mine which I bring against the common Doctrine choosing hitherto such mainly as have arose in my Thoughts de Proprio and aiming at
that Righteousness of Innocent Nature from whence we are fallen and it is called also the Righteousness of Faith whereby we are Justified in opposition to the Works of the Law that is both of the Law of Nature because no Man hath those Works and therefore cannot be Justified by them and of the Law of Moses because if a Man had them he could not be Justified thereby as hath been now said So that here being a Righteousness of One Covenant which is Justifying for Jesus Christ by his Merits procured this Covenant that we might be Justified by it but He died not for the Redemption of Israel out of Aegypt or the Procuring Moses's Covenant and the Righteous of Another that is Not Justifying it does appear that these Covenants must be Distinguished and that So as a Faith Short of Saving must be made to suffice for a Man to enter One when a Saving One is necessary to the Other and consequently that the Vnregenerate as well as the Regenerate may be brought in to be Members of the Charch or Subjects of God's and Christ's Kingdom by being capable of Entring this Covenant belonging thereunto a Covenant of Allegiance when none can be Members of Christ's Myspical Body by Entring the Covenant of Life but the Regenerate only If our Church then instead of the Three Questions at Baptism letting the First stand supposing a Dogmatical Faith sufficient for Answer to That should for the other Two ask Do You renounce the Heathenism Idolatry Mahometism or This or That False Religion which you Separate from when you Joyn with us And do you intend to live such a Christian Life in your whole Conversation as not to Leven the Society by your Being of it I must confess the Answer to these Questions supposing we doubt of the Persons when else there is no necessity of any in the Affirmative were a Qualification plainly necessary to a Man's being Admitted and proper to a Covenant of this Nature which is made for Receiving Men into such a Society But when these Covenants are confounded and the Baptismal Covenant advanced into the Covenant of Life so that there are no less Conditions required of a Person unto his Coming into the Church and being Baptized than unto his Entrance into Everlasting Blessedness What shall we say to these things but that for a through Satisfaction to the whole Objection these Interrogatories therefore and Responses of the Church which have been brought into Baptism by Men I will suppose for good Reason at the time but not by Christ's Commandment are to be lookt on by none I hope as Essential or Necessary to the Institution but may be Omitted Altered or Relaxed at her Will at least when better Reason appears for it And they were Omitted we know of late at Home under the Directory and are I suppose in most of the Reformed Churches Abroad Nevertheless if the Church when She can require no more of a Person but what is necessary to the Conventional Government of God and Covenant of Peculiarity I mean can require of him to do no more than Consent to the Terms Thereof so as to Refuse his Admittance Without It shall in regard to the Complex Consideration of God's Government and Covenant require an Engagement further unto the Terms that are necessary even to Life and Salvation also so long as it be not made by a Profession de praesenti which must draw Regeneration along with it but by a Covenant-Engagement understood aright and Authenticated by an Interpretation of the Church I shall humbly give way Thereunto both out of Reverence to what She hath hitherto prescribed as also and rather for the Good Vse which Is especially in our Catechistical Divinity and May still be made of it Only as for the Abrenuncio in the Liturgy I must lodge my Opinion That either the Engagement should be declared to be Conditional or the Question only be imposed and the Baptized left to make his own Answer If after This you be not satisfied as judging that no Person Vnregenerate can say I Engage into which I confess I would have the word chang'd but it is a Lie as much as if he said Abrenuncio Let the Church make her Interpretation with the Change of the Word and I am not of your Mind Nevertheless I will Answer you also otherwise If the Church were willing to turn her Abrenuncio to a Polliceor and That Won't serve then may She turn it into some other Words God grant I may as Will serve And I doubt not but if the Person that is tender of the Form imposed makes his Answer in such Words as he can with a good Conscience and without Doubting it were better than in those Prescribed seeing it is not Words nor Works but a Man's Will as I humbly understand or a Man's Consent a Believing Consent or a Consent upon Believing that is Believing the Gospel Preached and Consent to come in and be Baptized that no Body may mistake my Meaning upon the Account of General Grace is the Gospel's Christ's and his Apostle's Rule of Admission Suffer them to come unto Me and forbid them not In the Going Off I cannot but take notice how the Want of a more Timely or more Through Consideration of what I have Insisted upon to wit this Distinction of the Covenants and Government of God and the Necessity thereof hath led some Eminent Divines into the Particular Opinion That Children are to be held in the Same State with their Parents in regard to Salvation as well as in regard to their Outward Priviledges as they were Jews or Christians But I will humbly offer it to their Consideration whether there be any Places in Scripture that speak of the Parents entring Covenant for their Children or of the Covenant being made With them or To them and their Children after them but it is to be understood of the Covenant of Peculiarity and not of the Covenant for Salvation The Covenant God Establishes between Him and Abraham and his Seed after him is manifestly the Covenant of Circumcision Gen. 17. v. 7. with v. 10. And that Covenant He Enters with the Jews for Posterity Deut. 29.9 15. is but the same Covenant enlarged and expresly Distinguished from the New Covenant which is the Covenant of Grace or Covenant for Life in Heb. 8. v. 9 10. When therefore a Right to the Priviledges of that Covenant is soundly argued for Children from their Parents being in it and the Baptizing our Children as Christians as the Jews Circumcised theirs stands firm on the same Bottom because the Covenant of Peculiarity takes in the Children with the Parent by God's Ordination I will Establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee it follows not that we may argue the same thing as to the Covenant for Life In Ezek. 18. All Souls are Mine says God as the Soul of the Father so the Soul of the Son The Son shall not bear the