generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Hence we collect it a Gospel-Covenant From 1. The language and expression of it 2. The continuance and duration of it 3. The blessings and benefits conveyed by it For the language and expression the voice is the voice of Jacob. The speech agreeth thereunto not to betray it as it did Peter to his shame and sorrow but to discover this covenant to its honour and our comfort to be an Evangelical Covenant That very phrase to be a God unto thee is a Gospel-phrase Otherwise how cometh he who upon the breach of the covenant of works was left our enemy our inraged judge to be a God unto us I see here Matthew in Moses the New couched in the Old Testament Parallel is the expression Mat. 1. 23. And they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us God with us and to be a God unto us differ something in sound nothing in sence Secondly for the continuance and duration of it An Everlasting Covenant that with Adam was but a short-lasting covenant Some conceive Adam never naturally slept in his Innocency accounting that caused deep sleep Gen. 2. 21. before Eve her creation supernatural but forfeited his Innocency before night As there be some kind of insects called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Naturalists say survive but a day so some conceive Adams integrity of no longer duration And though we dare not certainly close with their opinion the Scripture not acquainting us with the date of Adams perseverance in paradise we may be confident that covenant of works was of no long continuance before it was broken This short-liv'd covenant thus expired it was never reviv'd again on the same conditions but utterly extinguished Yea herein God magnified his mercy that upon any termes he would treat with mankind whom he might have condemned as incapable of any future contract for once breaking of Covenant Yet now he draweth up a second agreement with them being a covenant of grace and that everlasting such his goodnesse that though we if strictly examined break it with him he will not break it with us I confesse everlasting in Scripture is sometimes taken for long-lasting in which sense the Hebrew tongue accepteth of an ever after an ever but here it is taken truly for eternity seeing whom God loveth he loveth to the end without end The third argument to prove the evangelical nature of Gods covenant with Abraham is drawn from the blessings and benefits conveyed thereby whose size and measure is so great they are only of a Gospel proportion to be a God unto thee Could lesse be said then this so short the words yet could more be said then this so large the matter All things herein are comprized a promise to give repentance faith hope and charity patience in afflictions preservation from or in them competency of outward maintenance perseverance unto the end in a word grace and holinesse here glory and happinesse hereafter How tedious are the instruments of our age a span of ground being scarcely passed under a span of parchment in comparison of the concise Grants of our ancient Kings some of whose Charters contain not so many words as they convey Manours therein Yet even those Patents are prolix if compared with Gods Covenant in my text to be a God unto thee promising therein more then what man can ask or desire God hath set us a pattern therefore let thy words be few Eccles 5. 2. not to be babling to him in our prayers seeing he is so plain and pithy to us in his promises couching all things in so short an expression To put all out of doubt this Covenant of Circcumcision made with Abraham and his seed appears to be a Gospel Covenant because S Paul so expoundeth it If any scruple arise about the sence of a Law to whom should people repair for satisfaction but to the makers thereof if alive Thus on the emergency of doubts about the nature of this Covenant we may and must have recourse unto the Author thereof Now the same spirit who indited Genesis by Moses indited the Epistle to the Romans by S. Paul who plainly affirmeth Rom. 4. 11. that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision the seal of righteousness by faith Object It is strange to conceive how in that age there could be a Covenant of faith the word faith appearing properly but once Habac. 2. 4. in all the old Testament and once afterwards with a negation before it in reference to the Jews Deut. 32. 20. Children in whom is no faith Seeing therefore such silence of faith in the Old Testament so frequently resounded in the New this Covenant with Abraham seemeth suspicious to be an old Covenant of Works and to have nothing of Gospel therein Answ The word Faith only not the thing signified thereby is wanting in the old Testament What Christ and his Apostles call faith and believing that the Prophets and pen-men of the old Testament expresse by Trusting The Religion and Creed of the Ancient Patriarchs is briefly drawn up by David Psal 22. 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded I will not say the Triplication of the word Trust denotes their belief in the Trinity Father Son and holy Spirit but here it plainly appears they had their confidence in and dependence on God though then not so clearly revealed unto them which sheweth the sameness in substance of their belief with ours Vse This serveth to confute such who account the Jews a meer husk shell and shadow of Gods people as if all the promises made unto them meerly terminated in temporal happinesses Thus they feed the Jews bodies with milk and fill their bellies with hony even to a surfeit flowing from the fruitfulnesse of the land of Canaan whilest in the mean time they starve and famish their souls excluding them as incapable of heavenly and spiritual blessings Their uncharitable errour is grounded on this argument because when their blessings are reckoned up Deut. 28. 3. it extendeth only to the city field fruit of their bodie ground cattle kine sheep c. but no mention of their eternal beatitude hereafter in heaven Yea when Isaac cordially blessed Jacob desiring no doubt to make the same as compleat as he could bestow and Jacob receive his expressions Gen. 27. 28. amount no higher then to the dew of heaven the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine On the other side when the Jews curses are solemnly pronounced Deut. 28. 16. they are confined to city field basket store fruit of the body land kine sheep c. Here a deep silence of hell and damnation so that the smiles or frowns of God to the Jews seem to reach no farther then to their well or ill being in this life To this it
of the State is by the courtesie of the camp enrolled in the souldiers list on his birth-day and by the allowance of the State receives pay from the time of his nativity In the Christian warfare though Christ alone be our Captain every common souldier male or female enlisted under him derives this priviledge to all his children that from their very births they are thus far entred into the muster-roll of the Church as to receive pay I mean the right and title to the Sacrament of Baptism as being by their very extraction not unclean but Sacramently holy CHAP. XI The third Reason taken from the Holy Spirit which is given to little Infants THe Third Reason out of Scripture is thus framed Such who receive the Spirit of God may and ought to be Baptized but infants receive the Spirit of God therefore they may and ought to be Baptized The Major hereof is in effect the words of the Text Peter saith Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized which have received the holy Ghost as wel as we Can he that is can he justly can he lawfully can he so do it as to avouch it to God and man when he hath done it Though I confesse too many de facto do it now adayes Can any man we can do nothing saith the Apostle against the Truth but for the Truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. It is not strength but weaknesse for one to be able to do that which he ought not to do Can any man Be he an Apostle or even Peter himself MAN He must be either worse then a man for his Envy or lesse then a man by his Ignorance The Minor remains to be proved that Infants receive the Spirit of God whereof we have two pregnant proofs one in the old Testament Jer. 1. 5. Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee and ordained thee to be a Prophet unto the Nations Object This sanctification of Jeremy intends not such as accompanieth the salvation of the soul but meerly importeth a designation of him to the Prophetical function with qualification for the discharge thereof It is therefore impertinently alledged to prove that Infants have the saving Spirit of God Answ It is confessed that Jeremy his destination to be a Prophet was a principal part of his sanctifying here mentioned Yet was it not the total thereof as being but a sprig and branch of the same which extended to Gods forming him according to his knowledge of approbation and hallowing him as yet unborn to be his Saint and servant The second instance in the new Testament is that of John the Baptist Luke 1. 41. Leaping in his mothers womb at the salutation of the virgin Mary Not that as some have mistaken it that then his Mother was first sensible that she quickned of him seeing it was said before vers 36. This is the sixth moneth with her which was called barren but as it is vers 44. the babe leaped in my womb for joy knowing and acknowledging Christ the Saviour of mankind and transported with transcendent gladnesse for the same Object But Jeremy and John the Baptist were Jeremy and John the Baptist I mean signal persons of extraordinary stature of grace above the size of common Christians Your Logick is but bad if from the induction of two instances you infer a general conclusion As soundly you might prove that all Davids worthies were equal in valour and atchivements 2 Sam. 23. 19. unto the first three as that al infants of Gods children may for their abilities be matched with these two by you alledged Answ I grant no lesse That these two instances were extraordinary However thus much advantage we gain thereby that they plainly prove the state of Infancy to be receptive of grace and of ability to entertain the same Let none look on Infants as so indisposed and unorganized by reason of their weaknesse but that the lownesse of their age is capable of the elevation to sanctity Secondly though we acknowledge such redundancy of the Spirit in the extraordinary and miraculous proportion thereof confined to a few persons in Christs and the Apostles time yet we may no lesse truly then confidently maintain that a sufficiency thereof as to salvation is conferr'd on all Gods servants now adays as well as before Nor is Gods Spirit super-annuated with aged Naomy Ruth 1. 11. or grown so barren or effete but that it is still procreative and produceth the effects thereof in Gods servants now as vigorously as ever before Otherwise most doleful yea indeed desperate were the conditions of Gods servants now adays if devoid of the Spirit of God as to the essentials thereof having now a fiercer foe and worse weapons to encounter him then the Christians had in former ages A fiercer foe Satan himself growing subtiler with the addition of fifteen hundred years experience and crueller Rev. 12. 12. because the shorter his reign the sharper his rage Worse weapons if we be left altogether naked of the offencive and defencive armor of the Spirit of God And here I cannot but admire at the practice of some persons now adayes boasting of strange measures of the Spirit bestowed upon them and we must needs believe them for they say so themselves yea such prodigious proportions thereof whereby per saltum they conceive themselves enabled for such offices for which they were never fitted by their education And yet the self-same persons who are thus prodigal in the praise of their own perfections assuming so much of the Spirit to themselves are most miserably nigardly to others and especialy to Infants denying the least degree of the Spirit unto them Whereas let matters be beheld with an unpartial eye and it will appear that it is more probable children should partake of the company of the Spirit then men now adayes May it not justly be suspected that the spiritual pride uncharitablenesse self-interest sinister respects cruelty and oppression of many men do fright away the spirit from them how highly soever pretending to holinesse whereas the mildnesse meeknesse silence humility and patience of a childe may invite the society of the spirit the sooner unto it and the Dove converse rather with Doves then with Vultures To put all out of doubt we can plainly demonstrate the fruits of Gods Spirit and Sanctification in Infants dying Infants and therefore the root therof must be granted to be in their hearts which we thus prove Whatsoever is saved is fully sanctified for Ephes 5. 5. no unclean person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ But many children especially of Godly parents dying children are saved Therefore they are fully sanctified He wants judgement that denies the Major or former part of the syllogism And he lacks as much charity who questions the Minor hereof otherwise Herod the cruel Tyrant who killed only the bodies of the babes in and about Bethlehem
which were admitted unto it before his is a less excellent Ministry he the Mediator of a worse Covenant upon worse promises seeing the same is not extended now as formerly to all ages Sexes and conditions of people children included under the Law being omitted therein Now though many Infants of Bethlehem and the coasts thereabouts Mat. â— suffered for him surely none suffered by him But he continued their condition as good yea and bettered the same by his Incarnation He who himself was a childe as well as a man and a childe before he was a man did tender and improve the condition of children as wel as of men and leaving this we now proceed to a second Reason out of Scripture CHAP. X. The Second Reason drawn from the birth-holinesse of Christian Infants OUr Second Reason out of Scripture is bottomed on S. Pauls expression 1 Cor. 7. 14. for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy Now because there is some difficulty about the meaning of the words we will be the larger in explaining the same It appears by the first verse in this chapter that the Corinthians by letter had requested from S. Paul solution and satisfaction to sundry Queries by them propounded Wonder not that they who 1 Cor. 1. 5. were commended by S. Paul to be enriched in all knowledge should now desire further instruction For first they had all knowledge but not all the degrees of knowledge Secondly they had all knowledge in fundamental necessaries to salvation not in all cases of occasional emergency such as their questions were Thirdly grant that even in these they had information before they now sue for further confirmation from the infallible spirit of the Apostle Alas will some say for the losse of this letter of the Corinthians to S. Paul Pitty it was that providence did not transmit the same to posterity How useful had it been for us if it had come into our hands Let such know first this their letter was no part of Canonical Scripture pen'd by a fallible Spirit Secondly we have still this letter in effect because we have Saint Pauls answers to the questions therein Thirdly men generally are more curious to enquire about those parts of Scripture which they suspect to have miscarried then careful to improve those which remain and are sufficient for our salvation Amongst these Questions this was not the easiest whether a believing husband or wife were to continue in wedlock with an unbelieving wife or husband if by providence it so came to passe that one was an Infidel the other a Christian The Negative no doubt seem'd probable to some and on this account that if he who is joyned to an Harlot is one body then by the same consequence Idolatry being spirituall whoredom Copulation with an infidel is unlawful and infectious But S. Paul in the foregoing verse determines the contrary That in case the Infidel is pleased to dwel with the believer they ought so to continue rendring a reason thereof in the words afore alledged for the believing husband c. The words contain 1. A Proposition 2. The proof thereof The Proposition is reciprocal it turneth and windeth backwards and forwards the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband the proof thereof is in the ensuing words else were your children unclean but now are they holy In the proposition the Cardinal word Sanctifie as being the main Hinge whereon the same turneth deserves our serious examination Sanctified here is not taken quoad personam to enholy the party so as to procure his or her eternal salvation If the holy Triumvirate of Noah Daniel and Job Ezek. 14. 20. could save neither son nor daughter but their sole selves from a temporal destruction much lesse can the sanctity of a Christian husband or wife operate so effectually on his or her Pagan Partner as to estate them in a saving condition Indeed the wives holy conversation may be instrumental to her husbands conversion 1 Pet. 3. 1. But it is God alone who sanctifies in this high acception thereof Sanctified then here is taken quoad usum that is eousque they are made holy so far in relation to Marriage that the christian may have a lawful and comfortable converse and cohabitation in bed and board with the counter-Pagan Thus all meats though some of them formerly forbidden as unlawful by the Levitical Law 1 Tim. 4. 5. are sanctified by the word of God and prayer that is the use of them is legitimated and they made healthful to the bodies and lawful to the souls of such praying Christians as feed upon them See we here first Grace where it came did not always take one and all in a family God in dispensing thereof dealeth as Jacob did in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh Gen. 48. 14. He crosseth his hands wittingly taking a husband out of one house a wife out of another a wife out of one house a husband out of another The reason hereof Mat. 11. 26. even so father because it pleaseth thee John 3. 8. the Spirit bloweth where it listeth Thus Amos 4. 7. the earth is often chequered with moisture and drought with barrennesse and fruitfulnesse the effects thereof I cause it to rain upon one city and not upon another Secondly Hence we may learn that Dominion is not founded in Grace Had it been so then the believing wives to unbelieving husbands had a just title to deny any obedience pleading that their husbands by their Paganism had forfeited all power over them yet the Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 1. enjoyneth subjection even to such husbands who did not obey the word and who as yet were without the word Lastly and chiefly hence we observe Mixt mariages made against Gods will do defile the Religious but continued according to Gods will do sanctifie the profane person Solomon may be a proof of the first 1 Kin. 11. 4. not converting his Idolatrous wives but perverted by them Namely because he crossed Gods commandment Deut. 7. 3. Neither shalt thou make Mariages with them and the reason is added for they will turn thee away from following me And although the husband was doubly advantaged both with his marital authority and a good cause on his side rather to prevail on his wife then to be imposed on by her yet because there was Laesum principium a fault in his first Match the edge was taken off from all his arguments to her and added to her arguments against him making them by Gods just judgement twice more piercing and powerful to seduce him Should then a Christian Man wilfully take a Heathen wife he could not pretend that his Christianity should sanctifie her Infidelity so far as to make his bed and board comfortable and lawful unto him because he crost a positive precept which enjoyns the believing party if
at liberty 1 Cor. 7. 39. to Marry only in the Lord The Physitians observe that faults committed in the first concoction are seldom amended in the second such men had small hopes to better their condition by converting their wives after Marriage who before Marriage ran so desperate a hazard against Gods will in his word On the other side when mixt Marriages are continued according to Gods will they do sanctifie the profane person I mean when both parties at Marriage were originally Pagan and one of them afterwards converted to Christianity In such a case a separation is not to be made as was done Nehemiah 13. 30. when he cleansed the Jews from all their strange wives but the Christian may continue in wedlock with the Pagan without fear of infection and with a double comfort 1. That hereafter his or her Pagan partner probably may be made Christian verse 16. for what knowest thou O wife whether thou shalt save thy husband c. 2. That for the present the Pagan company is so sanctified unto him or her that all conjugal acts qua-conjugal may be performed betwixt them without the least suspition of sinfulnesse therein Come we now to the proof of the proposition else were your children unclean but now are they holy Not to speak of natural uncleannesse as alien from the purpose We will principally insist upon a threefold uncleanness mentioned in Scripture with a holinesse parallel thereunto 1. A Ceremonial uncleanness Common or unclean Act. 10. 14. Such uncleannesse was now quite grown out of fashion under the Gospel Ceremonial holiness whereby things were legally purified from pollution which holinesse was quite out of date with the Jews and never in date with the Gentiles when S. Paul wrote this Epistle Such as understand uncleanness or holiness in the Text in this low acception of the word under-shoot by much the true meaning thereof 2. A Spiritual uncleanness putting the person into Gods displeasure and a damnable condition Spiritual holinesse which mounteth a man into the favour of God and setleth him in the state of salvation Now we have over-shot the mark and are as much above the meaning of the Text. For no good parents can make their children thus holy many of them being humbled in Scripture as Eli and Samuel with a profane issue which lived and died impenitent It is an impudent slander wherewith the Rhemists in their notes on this text charge us to maintain that from these words we collect the children of pious parents to be so holy as that they need no Baptism Whereas indeed hence we gather such children to be so holy that they have a lawful right to Baptism Which hath brought us to the third and last acception of the word 3. Sacramental uncleanness rendering the â— person unfit to partake thereof and receive any benefit thereby Sacramental holiness which entitles a childe to a true right to participate of those Initiating Ordinances of God wherby he is made a member of the Church and admitted to the means of Salvation Now are we just level and even to the sence of the words and conceive our selves to have hit the mark or meaning thereof And thus it is expounded by all our Protestant Divines Musculus alone excepted who though otherwise a stiff Champion for Infants Baptism accounts the argument drawn from these words not cogent thereunto Quest If you call this Sacramental holiness why do you confine the effect thereof to Baptism alone why are not the children of pious parents admitted also on their parents account without any further examination to the Lords supper by the vertue of this which you terme Sacramental holinesse Answ It is the method of the Church not to intrust a member therein with this second Sacrament of confirmation until first he hath given testimony of his good improving of his first Sacrament of Initiation Besides a child while a child is more properly a part of the parent and may be said to trade under him Whereas when grown a man he sets up for himself and takes up a new stock on his own account This Sacramental holinesse therefore estates a childe in a real right to Baptism and only in a capability of the Lords Supper in due time except excluded thence by his own wilful unworthinesse Thus amongst the Jews every childe descended from Abraham might challenge Circumcision as due unto him but could not so lay claim to the Passeover of which some of his own intervening uncleannesse might make him uncapable except he was adjudged fit by such whose place was to search into peoples purity who were to partake of the same The main observation is this Such as are christianly extracted though but by the half bloud have a whole right to the Sacrament of Baptism Rom. 11. 16. If the Root be holy so are the Branches Say not in such mungrel matches the root is but half holy and therefore but semi-sanctity is as much as comes to the share of the branches thereof For herein the mercy of God is magnified that whereas he might have made the childe as the conclusion to follow what was worst in the premises of either Parent his mercy interpreteth all according to the better part thereof What result could be expected from the joyning of hot and cold but lukewarm What product from the blending of white and black but a motley What amounts from the mixture of light and darkness but twy-light but such is Gods goodness to pass over and take no notice of the Paganism in one parent whiles the child shall solely succeed to the purity in the other Now if Christian children by the half-bloud be holy how clear is those Infants title Religiously descended on both sides when Deus est in utroque parente Let none be so cruel as to question their title to the Sacrament IF any then ask what advantage then hath a Christian and what profit is there of pious parentage We answer much every way chiefly because extraction from them entitles to the Sacrament of Baptism They have also the benefit of their parents dry and wet prayers even before their conception petitioning to God importunately to make them be instruments not to People Hell but Plant Heaven When growing up capable to learn they have advantage of precepts Abraham will teach his children of good precedents whiles the children of wicked parents see daily what they should flie these see what they should follow the advantage of correction moderately and seasonably used All these are the sap which the root of holy parentage sends up into the branches thereof though all of them too often prove ineffectual and God who finally saveth not children for their parents sake but parents and children for Christs sake justly condemneth many children of good parents for neglecting all these precious advantages to salvation To conclude In the Low Countries the eldest son of a Commission Captain being born there whilest his father is in the service