The Life of Faith, Part 3 · Chapter 23
CHAP. XXIII. How to live by Faith towards Children, and other Relations.
Direct. 1. BElieve Gods Promiſes made to Believers and their ſeed: (of which I have written at large in my treatiſe of Infant-baptiſm.) And labour to underſtand how far tho…e promiſes extend, both as to the perſons and the bleſſings. There was never an age of the world, in which God did not diſtinguiſh the holy ſeed, even Believers and their Children, from the reſt of the world, and take them as thoſe that were ſpecially in his Covenant.
Direct. 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge, make you omit your ſerious, ſolemn and believing Dedication of them unto God, and entering them into his Covenant.
For the reaſon why your ſeed is called Holy, and in a better caſe than the ſeed of Infidels, is not meerly becauſe they are the off-ſpring of your bodies, and have their natures from you; much leſs as deriving any grace or vertue from you by generation: But becauſe you are perſons your ſelves who have dedicated your ſelves with all that you have, abſolutely to God by Chriſt: And they being your own, and therefore at your diſpoſal, your wills are taken for their wills, ſo far as you act in their names, and on their behalf: And therefore when you dedicate them to God, you do but that which you have both power and command to do: And therefore God accepteth what you ſo dedicate to him. And Baptiſm is the regular way in which this dedication ſhould be ſolemnly made: But if through the want of a Miniſter, or water, or time, this be not done, your believing dedication of your child to God, without Baptiſm ſhall be accepted. For it is the ſubſtance, and not the ſign, the will, and not the water, which God requireth in this caſe.
Queſt. But what then ſhall we think of the children of godly Anabaptiſts, whoſe Judgement is againſt ſuch dedication?
Anſw. Many whoſe Judgement is againſt baptizing them, is not againſt an offering or dedicating them to God. And thoſe who think that they are not allowed ſolemnly to enter them into Covenant with God, yet really do that which is the ſame thing: For they cannot be imagined, to be unwilling, to dedicate them to God, to the utmoſt of that intereſt and power, which they underſtand that God hath given them: and doubtleſs they moſt earneſtly deſire that according to their capacity, they may be the children of God, and God will be their God in Chriſt. And this vertual dedication ſeemeth to be the principal requiſite condition.
But yet as the unbaptized are (ordinarily) without the viſible Church and its priviledges; ſo if any be ſo blind, as neither explicitely nor vertually to dedicate their ſeed to God; I know no promiſe of their childrens ſalvation, any more than of the ſeed of Infidels.
Direct. 3. If the children of true Chriſtians dedicated by the Parents will to God, through Chriſt, ſhall die before they come to the uſe of reaſon, the Parents have no cauſe to doubt of their ſalvation.
It is the concluſion of the Synod of Dort in Artic. 1. And the reaſon is this.
If the Parent and child be in the ſame Covenant, then if that Covenant pardon and adopt the Parent, it doth pardon and adopt the child: But the Parent and child are in the ſame Covenant: Therefore, &c.
God hath but one Covenant on his part, which is ſealed by baptiſm (as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake.) Indeed ſome are only externally in Covenant with him on their part, that is, they did covenant only with the tongue, and not the heart: And conſequently God is no further in covenant with them, than to allow and command his Miniſters to receive them into the Viſible Church, and give them its priviledges; and is not as a Promiſer in Covenant with them at all himſelf, either for inward, or for outward bleſſings. He hath not one Covenant which giveth outward, and another which giveth inward bleſſings.
And it is here ſuppoſed, that the only condition prerequiſite on the Infants part, that he may have right to this Covenant, and its bleſſings, is that he be the ſeed of a true Believer, and dedicated in Covenant to God by the Parents will or act. Actual Faith is not prerequired: Seminal grace may be inherent, but 1. Not known to the Baptizer: 2. Nor prerequired as a condition; but liker to be given by vertue of the Covenant. Nothing elſe therefore being prerequiſite as a condition, it followeth, that as the Parents dedicating themſelves to God, if baptized at age, is the condition of their certain title to the preſent bleſſings of the Covenant (viz. that God be their Father, Chriſt their Saviour, and the Spirit in Covenant to operate in them to ſanctification, and their ſins are all pardoned, and they are heirs of Heaven) even ſo upon the Parents dedication of their children to God, they have right to the ſame bleſſings; elſe why do we baptize them, ſeeing Baptiſm in the true nature and uſe of it, is a ſolemn dedicating them to God, in that ſame Covenant, and a ſolemn inveſting them in the relations and rights of that ſame pardoning Covenant, and not in any other.
I do not ſay that all baptized Infants, ſo dying, are ſaved, be they the children of Infidels, or Heathens, and remaining their true propriety; nor thoſe that are offered and baptized never ſo wrongfully, or hypocritically; nor will I ſtay to diſpute for what I have aſſerted. But 1. I exhort Chriſtians believingly to dedicate their children in Covenant with God in Chriſt: And 2. To believe that if they ſo dye, that Covenant of Chriſt forbiddeth them to doubt of their ſalvation.
Direct. 4. Let your Duty be anſwerable to your hope: And do not only pray for your childrens ſanctification, but if they live, endeavour it by all poſſible care, in a wiſe and godly education:
Remember that nature, and your dedicating them to God, do both oblige you to this care for their ſalvation. And that the education of children, is one of the greateſt duties in the world, for the ſervice of Chriſt, and the proſperity of Church and State: And the neglect of it, not the ſmalleſt cauſe of the ruine of both, and of the worlds calamity.
Many a poor, ſottiſh, lazy Profeſſor have I known, who cry out againſt ignorant, dumb and unfaithful Miniſters, as guilty of the blood of ſouls, and are ſo religious, as to ſeparate from the Aſſemblies that have Miniſters that are but partly ſuch; when as their own children are almoſt as ignorant as Heathens, and they only uſe them to a few cuſtomary formal duties (while they think they are enough againſt forms) and turn over the chief care of their inſtruction to the Schoolmaſter. And are themſelves ſo ignorant, dumb and idle; unfaithful and unnatural to their poor childrens ſouls, as that it is a doubt whether in a well-ordered Church they ought not to be denyed communion themſelves. They ſo little practiſe, Deut. 11.18, 19. & 6.7. Epheſ. 6.4, &c.
Direct. 5. If your children live to the fleſh in an ungodly courſe of life, contrary to the Covenant which by you they made, they forfeit all the benefits of the Covenant: And you can have no aſſurance by any thing that you can do for them, that ever they ſhall be converted (though it is not paſt hope.) And if they be converted at age, their pardon and adoption will be the effect of Gods Covenant, as then it was newly entered with themſelves, and not as it was made before for them in infancy.
Direct 6. Y…t becauſe that ſtill while there is life, there is hope, you ought not by deſpair or negligence to omit prayer, exhortation, or any other duty which you can perform in order to their recovery: And though now they have wills of their own, their ſalvation is not laid ſo much upon you, as it was in Infancy, at their firſt covenanting with God; yet ſtill God will ſhew his love to his ſervants in their ſeed; and faithful endeavours are not vain nor hopeleſs; and therefore it is ſtill one of your greateſt duties in the world, to ſeek their true recovery to Chriſt.
Direct. 7. If God make your children a ſcourge, or a heartbreaking to you, bear and improve it as becomes Believers: That is;
1. Repent of your own former ſin, your own youthfull luſts; your diſobedience to your Parents; your carnal fondneſs on your children; your loving them too much, and God too little; the evil examples you have given them; and your manifold neglect of a prudent, ſeaſonable, earneſt, unwearied inſtructing them in godlineſs; your bearing with their ſin, and giving them their own wills, till they were maſterleſs, &c, Renew your Repentance, and you have got ſome benefit.
2. Think how unkindly and unthankfully you have dealt with a gracious Saviour, and a heavenly Father.
3. Let it take off your affections from all things under the Sun, and call them up the more to God: For who would love a world, where none are to be truſted, and where all things are vexatious, even the children of your love and bowels.
Direct. 8. If they die impenitently, and periſh, mourn for them, but with the moderation of Believers: That is, 1. Conſider that God is more the owner of your children, than you are; and may do with his own as he liſt. 2. And he is more wiſe and merciful than you; and therefore not to be murmured at as wanting either. 3. And it is an unvaluable mercy that your own ſoul is ſanctified, and ſhall be ſaved. 4. And the moſt godly have had ungodly children before you. Adam had a Cain, Noah had a Cham, Iſaac had an Eſau, David had an Abſalom, &c. 5. And if all the godly that pray for their childrens ſalvation muſt be therein gratified, all the world would then have been ſaved. For Noah would have prayed for all his children, and they for theirs, and ſo to the worlds end.
Object. Oh but my conſcience telleth me, that it is my own ſin which hath had a hand in their undoing.
Anſw. Suppoſe it be ſo; it is certainly a pardonable ſin. Do you then repent of it, or not? If you repent; as you mourn for your relations; ſo you ſhould rejoyce that God hath forgiven you. For repented ſin is certainly pardoned to you, and pardoned ſin to you, is as great cauſe of joy, as unpardoned ſin in your relations is cauſe of ſorrow. Therefore mourn with ſuch moderation, and mixed comfort and thankſgiving, as becometh one that liveth by faith. The affliction indeed is neer and great; and heavier than any calamity that could have befallen their bodies, and is not to be ſlighted by an unnatural inſenſibility: But yet you have a God who is better to you than a thouſand children; and your croſs is but as a feather, if you ſet it in the ballance againſt your bleſſings, even the Love of God, and your part in Chriſt, and life eternal.