the Law there shall no Flesh be justified If not by the Deeds of the Law which were not only contrived by infinite Wisdom but bore the impress of God's terrible Majesty upon them and were dispensed and given from Mount Sinai in pure Goodness to Israel How much less shall Man be justified by Works devised by Men and founded upon no better warrant than humane Authority It is also certain that Man is become culpable and liable by Sin to the stroke of God's just Displeasure and therefore under an absolute necessity of being justified from Sin in order to his avoiding Misery and injoying Blessedness which Blessedness in the beginning progress and first steps of it stands in God's good Will towards sinners but more perfectly in his free and full discharging us from the imputation of Sin through the Righteousness which is in our Lord Jesus Christ And this was the received Opinion of the Men of God of old as well as of St. Paul in our words as is evident by his referring to the Prophet David's Testimony recorded in Psal 32.1 2. So that it 's no new Doctrin or novel thing but what hath been is and will be believed to the end of the World That the Man is Blessed unto whom the Lord imputes not Sin In the words we have these three things 1. A Blessedness pronounced Blessed is a Happiness consisting in a sure security from all Evil but more especially the evil of eternal Death and an assurance of all Good and eternal Life 2. You have the subject of this Blessedness the Man And that you may know who this Man is the Apostle describes him by his Privilege To whom the Lord will not impute Sin a privilege peculiar to those that are and shall be Happy Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin 3. The time when Man comes to be stated in this Blessedness and that is in the very instant that God ceases to impute Sin There is not any thing that Man injoys which can render him Blessed whilst God charges Sin upon him therefore Blessed is the Man mark he is Blessed not shall be but is in the present tense he is and therefore shall be Blessed We shall briefly enquire 1. What we are to understand by the Lord 's not imputing Sin 2. Who by the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin 1. By the Lord 's not imputing Sin we must understand a free Act of Grace in God which Man of himself neither hath nor ever could have deserved being utterly unable to satisfy that Justice he had by Sin offended or appease that Wrath which his Sin had kindled Never could Man by his own procurement have rescued himself from that Punishment and Misery he was involv'd by Sin therefore we say Not to impute is an act of Mercy in God exprest in his not charging Sin upon the sinners account so as to exact satisfaction of the Debt from the Trespasser nor to punish the sinner with eternal Misery in want of such satisfaction of his own procurement 2. By the Lord 's not imputing Sin we may understand a free Act of Love and Kindness in God in pardoning and forgiving Sin as to the eternal Punishment of it As when a Creditor is pleased of mere Mercy to forgive a poor Debtor his Debt justly due to him in such case he will not impute the Debt nor charge it to account or when a Governor forgives the fault of a Child or Servant he will not impute the Crime nor punish him for it 2. Who is this Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin I conceive it is 1. Believing Man 2. Infant Man 1. God will not impute Sin to Believing Man Every Man and Woman that in truth believes in the Lord Jesus Christ may rest with the greatest Confidence in this Grace of God who is said to be the Justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.26 4.3 4 5. To which you have the concurrent Testimony of all the Prophets in that summary Account given us by St. Peter which is that whoever believes in the name of Christ shall receive the Remission of Sin Acts 10.43 So that none as I know of in the least doubt the truth of this that believing Man is privileged by and interested in the Grace of God and that he is not the Man to whom the Lord will impute Sin But 2. By the Man to whom God will not impute Sin we may understand Infant Man The little Infant the new born Babe is stiled Man in Scripture Phrase and that truly because such a one partakes of the whole nature of Man tho unable to exert and put forth it self in such Actions by reason of its natural Weakness and Impotency as are proper to Men in a grown State who are capable of exercising their Understanding and Power in things they are imploy'd about But this incapacity of Infants being natural and common to all Men deprives them no more of the name than the nature of Man therefore Job speaking of the frailty of humane Life saith Chap. 14.1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Misery he cometh up and is cut down like a Flower signifying that all the days of Man from his Birth to his Death in number are but very few and as the Flower sometimes is no sooner blown but it 's cut down so Man sometimes no sooner breaths in the Air but he falls into the Dust is no sooner taken from the Womb but he is laid in the Grave But notwithstanding his continuance here is so very short yet in his Infant state he is truly stiled Man And so our Lord in John 16.21 saith A Woman in travail hath sorrow because her Hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the Child she remembreth no more her anguish for joy a Man is born into the World And that all Infants living or dying whilst such are the Subjects of the Blessedness in our Text will I trust no less appear if void of all prejudice we will consider 1. That Man in his Infant State is a Sinner only by imputation not by any choice consent or act of his own whereby he transgrest any Law of God For all Sin is the transgression of a Law 1 John 3.4 But in that sense dying Infants are not Sinners God never assigning them a Law whereto they should have regard by any Command of his that I know of And certain I am where there is no Law Sin is not imputed as our Apostle saith Rom. 5.13 That Sin is imputed to Infants so far as to bring them under the power of Death I confess and even so Sin is imputed unto Believers for they die as well as others But since there is no Law given to Infants we soberly affirm Sin is not imputed to them to condemn them eternally to the torments of Hell Fire and that is what we propose to clear
upon this Occasion Which is further evident if we consider 2. That the degree to which God has exalted his Grace and Mercy in Christ the Second Adam is not inferior but rather above the pitch and degree whereto he exalted his Justice in condemning all in the first Adam Justice makes no more than All Sinners in the first Adam upon his transgression and Grace makes no less than All righteous in Christ Jesus or through his Righteousness imputed For Rom. 5.18 as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all Men to justification of Life If upon all that believe who have sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression then much more upon them who have not so sinned because the preheminence is given to the free Gift of Grace by Christ as Rom. 5.14 15. intimating that if Adam's Sin was efficacious enough to make all men Sinners the Righteousness of Christ which is God's own Righteousness is much more efficacious to make them righteous And truly with reverence we may demand How can God himself express the extent of his Kindness in terms more positive and intelligible than he doth here And I am very certain we neither have nor ever had any reason to suspect him as insincere or to call in question the truth of his Allegation No his Word is an exact draught of his Mind and what he says he means As we all believe Infants were condemned in Adam there 's as good reason to believe 'em justified in Christ and such to whom the Lord will not impute Sin Which will further appear if we consider 3. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in becoming a Propitiation for the Sin of Infants not only for actual but original Sin not only for the Sins of the Adult and Believer but of the Infant also Had Christ been said to be a Propitiation for the Sins of Believers only it might have struck our hopes into a staggering posture with reference to the eternal State of our dying Babes unless Foederal Holiness so much talked or by some or the Faith of immediate Parents could have reliev'd them against the condemning Sin of our remote Parents But if that were so the greatest part of Infants are and must be unavoidably miserable as they are the Off-spring of Unbelievers which the greatest part of the World are Nay it may on good ground be conjectur'd that one half of those who profess themselves Church-Members are but little better since our blessed Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven to ten Virgins of whom five were wise and five were foolish Mat. 25.1 But blessed be God we have a better Bottom to build our hopes upon as to the eternal State of dying Babes than such sandy Foundations as those viz. Christ's expiating and doing away the Sins of the World by the Sacrifice of himself And this John Baptist had an eye to when he saw Christ coming and pointed at him saying Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sin of the World enough sure to resolve all Doubts and to stop every mouth for ever from contradicting what we have alledged That God imputes not Sin to the eternal condemnation of dying Infants since Christ died for them for them indefinitely and without exception May we not as warrantably question whether Christ died at all as to scruple much less to deny that he took away the condemning guilt of Original Sin by the Oblation of himself since he is said thereby to take away the Sin of the World Is there any one actual Sin in the World that so generally and universally extends it self as to deprave and corrupt all Flesh Old and Young Saint and Sinner Christian and Pagan I confess with grief and sorrow profane Swearing is very rife Lying and Dissimulation is very common Pride Covetousness Envy and Hatred Whoredom and Uncleanness Violence Murder and profaning the Sabbath of the Lord is very predominant yet none of these things are universal that which is common with one is abhor'd by another as the covetous Man cannot endure the approach of Pride Luxury and Prodigality But were any or all of these Sins of a universal Extent so as to corrupt all capable of committing them of what Sex and of what Nation soever yet our Infant Race is safe and out of all possibility of being stained by them or being brought under the power of any of them from their utter incapacity to commit any of those things by which the Wrath of God is brought upon the Children of Disobedience and them only For if no Sin can be intended by the Sin of the World but Original Corruption then the Immaculate Lamb of God hath atoned for that and taken it away so that it shall never be of efficacy and power to condemn a dying Infant any more than it shall be of force to condemn a true Believer the same reason being rendred for the one as for the other by the Apostle John who speaking of Christ saith 1 John 2.2 He is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World Mark not only for ours in which term he includes with himself all true Believers of what Rank soever high or low rich or poor respected or despised in the World whose Sins are done away by Christ's atoning for them But the Apostle adds for the Sins of the whole World Not of the whole World as it consists of habitual and voluntary Sinners as Swearers Drunkards Idolaters Adulterers and the like for such lie under the heavy charge and imputation of Sin until by Faith in Christ repentance from dead Works and obedience to the Gospel they shall by the Grace of God obtain Impunity Therefore the whole World consider'd in an Infant state and no other can be intended by the Apostle whereby the eternal blessedness of dying Infants is secured since God according to the Law of Grace through the Righteousness and Death of his Son hath acquitted and discharged Infant Man from the imputation of Adam's Sin so as that he shall not perish eternally for it But in case Man survives his Infant state and contracts Guilt by voluntary transgression in his own Person as you and I have done and be not renewed by Repentance from dead Works and justified by Faith in our Lord Jesus according to the Tenour of the Gospel then we must perish unavoidably and eternally not for Adam's Sin but for superadded Sins Sins of our own against the Law of Grace and the Love of a Redeemer Thus God is clear from the death of his Creatures and Sinners the alone Authors of their own destruction according to the Scriptures But for such Infants as survive not their Infant-state we conclude they are blessed because God will not impute Sin unto them as appears not only from the Law of Grace but 4. From the Law of Equity and Righteousness
Dying Infants SAV'D BY GRACE PROVED And the Blessed Man with his Blessedness Described In a SERMON preached near Namptwich in Cheshire at the Burial of a deceased Infant July 25. 1695. By S. A. Matth. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 13.7 Charity hopeth all things LONDON Printed for the Author and sold by M. Fabian at Mercers Chappel in Cheapside 1699. To the READER AMong all things knowable I think nothing more necessary for you to endeavour the sound knowledg of than this That you and yours are and shall be blessed as a means thereunto this is intended But What entertainment these Lines may meet with in the World I know not neither am I over-thoughtful being resolved chearfully to undergo whatever Censures shall be my lot to meet with from the differing Sentiments of my Readers But since I have satisfaction that my good meaning will be acceptable with many I shall under their favourable acceptance take repose and shelter from the sharp and undue reflections of others For as the most ingenious Cook cannot prepare a Dish to the good liking of all but some or other from the weakness of a vitiated Palat or something contrary to their affection will disgust the same So 't is believ'd the most learned Man that ever wrote could not so temper his Matter as to obtain universal Approbation but either the ignorant or prejudiced would quarrel with it Yet this advantage the Learned have if judicious that their known Learning and acquired Aptitude carries an Authority sufficient to still the Noise of the simple and to command the Minds of all first to read and then to judg Whereas the Illiterate have not any thing to render their Labours acceptable but the Goodness of their Design and the Blessing of God which I sincerely wish may attend thee in reading these Papers in order to thy Blessedness This Sermon was preached more than three Years since at the Funeral of my Friend's Infant Child and at his request and from this Text by the intreaty of another of my Friends and with design to administer comfort to some sorrowful Women who through the weakness of their Faith had long grieved under tormenting Fears not knowing what the State of their deceased Babes is after Death From hence I took occasion to display according to my measure and time the Immensity of Divine Goodness and to free it from those Restraints that cast dishonour upon it and are no way coherent with Immensity The Arguments as now presented are the same I then offered tho a little inlarged in transcribing with some small Additions in other parts of the Discourse The Salvation of all dying Infants is a Subject innocent in it self and consistent with Nature And were the vilest of Men free from the Obligation of Divine Laws they would not out of their mad fits and in a sedate mind do any thing injurious to their natural Issue but foster tenderly and minister all they could to the advantage of their Young I therefore believe my self under the advantage of all Mens wishing me good luck from the desirableness of the thing and if in this undertaking it be not cleared to general satisfaction it arises not from any doubtfulness of the Matter but from want of skill in the management of it and might my inability excite fitter Instruments to hit the Mark I have aimed at and offer Evidence as undeniable as the Fact is I should be glad In the mean time let none suppose that God in his Nature is more cruel and less tender of his Offspring than Man and the manest Animal is of theirs who as our blessed Saviour teacheth Matth. 7.11 from his superabounding Goodness is much more ready to shew kindness than the most tender Parents on Earth can be Neither is there any thing in all the Sacred Records that I know of which looks like an instance of Severity in God to the damning of one dying Infant in the World It there be 't is surely that of the Infants that perished in the flames of Sodom and Gomorrah which Jude stiles the Vengeance of Eternal Fire v. 7. Yet I think none will imagine that Fire was Eternal whereby those wicked Persons were punished from Heaven but rather a Figure and Representation of the astonishing Misery they must suffer in the other World as 't is often compared to Fire from the sharpness and violence of it Neither can any conclude hence that the Infants which perished in Sodom for their Fathers Wickedness shall so perish in Hell for ever To say so as the Learned * In his Sermon on Ames 4.11 Dr. Stillingfleet has it would be a harsh term no way sutable to the nature and proceedings of God who is so far from punishing Children eternally for the Sins of their impious Parents that sometimes he spares them and their Cities from the flames and ruins of temporal Judgments for sake of their innocent Babes as in the case of Ninive Jonah 4.10 11. I had contented my self in taking a view of these Lines and therein have pleased my self had it not been for the importunity of Friends dear to me to yield them a revival of that pleasure in reading which they had in hearing of ' em And that they and all into whose hands they shall come may have them blessed to their present and eternal Happiness is the unfeigned desire of S. A. ROM 4.8 Blessed is the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin THIS Epistle of which our words are a part was written by St. Paul to the Church at Rome the greatest part of which is spent in labouring the decision of many considerable points of Doctrin to clear up the Truth of things which lay disputable among them and for the settling of the Saints there in a stedfast belief of the truth of things necessary to be received and believed by them one of which Doctrins if not the most considerable is that of Justification the knowledg of which is necessary to our cherishing right Sentiments of it in our own Souls for the yielding us hope and strong Confidence of a sure and certain security from Sin and Wrath being thereby encompast with a Wall invincible not to be shaken by the most furious Efforts that Men or Devils the Flesh or the World can make against us In this and the foregoing Chapter the Apostle shews by many Arguments that Man guilty of Sin and justly condemned by the righteous Law of God to death is justified by Faith in Jesus Christ and by Faith only as Chap. 3. from verse 20 to the end where the Apostle is refuting the Error of every Justiciary in the World whether Pharisaical Papal or others who plead for Justification by Works but it 's certain that by Works no Flesh can be justified no tho they be the Works of the Law Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of
our Fourth Consideration is taken from the capacity and fitness of little Children for Heaven and Glory Our Lord Jesus Christ had so high an opinion of them and their fitness that he sets them before his Disciples as a Copy to write after an Example to imitate and as Persons not only worthy but necessary for them to resemble as appears by his taking and setting a little Child in the midst of them and with a solemn asseveration asserting That except they be converted and become as little Children they should not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If little Children dying such do not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven is it not most absurd that our Lord should so solemnly and expresly injoin his Disciples to become like them in order to their entring into his Kingdom Were it not so that little Children have a sitness for Heaven Disciples and Christians in becoming like them whereunto they are most strictly obliged would thereby become unfit for Heaven and Glory But Fifthly and lastly That dying Infants are blessed appears from as good Reason as we have to believe any thing for truth that is contain'd in all the Sacred Records for more plain and positive proof we have not for the belief of any Article of the Christian Faith The Evidence I here offer you is Christ's own Testimony who without scruple tells us they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.14 Suffer them says Christ to come unto me they are the undoubted Heirs of it they have an unquestionable Right to it by the Grace of God their 's it is and into it they enter when they die If we will not believe Christ who shall we believe Take away the credit of his Evidence and what shall we receive for Truth Had we no other Testimony in all God's Book asserting the blessedness of dying Infants this is sufficient to resolve all Doubts about it they being such as is apparent from what hath been said to whom the Lord will not impute Sin I once more say to their Eternal Condemnation And if so to conclude I account it highly unreasonable that Man should attribute the Salvation of dying Infants to any person or thing short of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus upon which Foundation alone the Salvation and Blessedness of dying Infants standeth and that most fure Most unworthy therefore of God and Christ do they speak who talk of a Foederal Holiness making the Faith and Holiness of Parents the Basis on which they build the Blessedness of their Infants What is this less than to set themselves up for Saviours or at least to make themselves Partners with Christ in the Work of Salvation Is not this apparently to charge the Grace of God as deficient to save dying Infants without the Faith and Piety of Parents concurring At this rate of arguing what must become of those Children who have not the advantage of the Faith and Holiness of Parents who may either be taken away by Death leaving their little ones behind them or else if they live they may be wholly void and destitute of Saving-faith and manifest Slaves to Sin and the Devil as too many in this professing Nation are And in either of these cases which be very common what must become of their poor dying Infants if the Grace of God in Christ be not sufficient to save them without the Holiness of Parents But as this Pretence reflects unworthily on God so it is very false in it self as we could shew were that our business We confess that the Children of Believers have a great advantage of others in point of a pious Education but not one jot in point of Salvation their Infants dying before they come to reap the advantage of such Education to say otherwise is to assert that which is not many degrees short of Blasphemy But Secondly If dying Infants are blessed upon God's not imputing Sin unto them then how vain and fruitless is that pretence and practice of Baptizing Infants as they call it in order to their making them Members of the Church Children of God and Heirs or Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But if before they be baptized they are in truth the Children of God what doth their Baptism avail them are they afterwards any more the Heirs of God's Kingdom than they were before Or can it be rationally supposed that God hath left it to the liberty choice and within the power of a Priest to save or damn Souls by complying or refusing upon every Summons given him on the weakness of a languishing and dying Infant to come and baptize it O no their Salvation is secured upon a better Bottom altho the generality believe that if their Infants die before they be baptized or sprinkled they be not much if one whit better than Beasts in their death nor must by any means have a Christian Burial with our Parson's Vote but be cast into a Hole behind the Church or some other place where they bury the Excommunicated Self-murderers and the like without the usual Solemnities appointed for the burial of the dead and therefore when a weak Child is midwif'd into the World what running and scouring there is to call the Parson as if a few drops of Water out of his hand were enough to quench the Flames of Hell This well considered must be judg'd highly ridiculous in the Sentiment of every wise Man ten thousand pities it is that God's Ordinance is so changed that poor people are so amused and that our Learned and pious Doctors of the Church do not rectify this prevaling Mistake the People are under by their sincere and devout labours to restore Sacred Baptism to its Primitive Purity at whose door it lies that their Priests in administring of that Ordinance may in point of practice as apparently agree with that of the Apostles as 't is evident they desire to be accounted their Successors But Thirdly and to conclude If dying Infants are blessed upon God's not imputing Sin unto them then here is comfort to sorrowful Mothers who have been long afflicted refusing with Rachel to be comforted for their Children If this will not relieve you under your Distresses what will Here 's enough to remove all your Fears and to satisfy your Minds with reference to the Eternal State of your deceased Babes Let this stop the Springs that have been opened and wipe away all those trickling Tears which have been as so many Evidences of your compassion and passionate concern to and for your beloved tho deceased Infants Fear not dear Souls God who hath a better right to them than you had has more tender compassion of them than you can have If you have who are evil Mat. 7.9 10 11. so much goodness as to wish them Heaven God is much more good and will give them Heaven Therefore give no longer way to needless scrupulosity and fear on their account whose happiness renders them capable of exhorting you to spend your Cares Fears and Tears on some other Subject saying as Christ to the Daughters of Jerusalem Luke 23.28 Weep not for me but weep for your selves and your Children that is your sinful and miserable Posterity nay rather rejoice and comfort your selves for 't is better with us than you have imagined being such unto whom the Lord imputes no Sin Nothing remains now but that we who survive our deceased Babes do give all diligence in the practice of Vertue whereunto we are called to make our own Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 11. that so an abundant entrance may be given us into Glory there to rejoice not only in our own Blessedness but in a more certain assurance of our Childrens also if such a thing can be since our Apostle so expresly says Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin FINIS