The Best Entail, Discourse · Chapter 3
CHAP. III. What this Covenant is, and what is in it to ſupport the Chriſtian.
IT would be ſuperfluous to ſay much of the nature of a Covenant, yet take this ſhort deſcription of it.
A Covenant is a voluntary mutual compact between two parties, containing benefits to be injoyed, and duties to be performed.
1. It's a compact between two parties, for though a ſingle perſon may make a promiſe, yet a covenant is betwixt two or more, and of parties formerly at diſtance; this is the caſe betwixt God and Man, ſo Gen. 26.28.
2. It's a mutual reciprocal compact, both parties muſt be ingaged, therefore it's called the Bond of the Covenant, Ezek. 20.87. becauſe though they were free before yet now they are become bond.
3. It's a voluntary compact, both parties were free before they were obliged by covenant, covenanting is an Elective act, God is a free Agent: nothing but pure love induced him to covenant with Man, Deut. 77, 8. and though man was not abſolutely free, being Gods Creature, and ſo bound to his Creator, yet his actual entring into Covenant is a voluntary act, Pſal. 110.3. Thy People ſhall be willing [or Volunteers] in the day of thy Power.
4. Betwixt Covenanters there is mutual obligation to conferring of benefits, and performing of duties [called the habenda and the agenda] things to be conferred by God, and received by man, and duties on mans part if he expect any benefits from God, Iſa. 1.19. If you be willing and obedient, you ſhall eat the good of the Land.
Yet in the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man, there are two things peculiar.
1. That there is an interpoſing Mediator, our bleſſed Jeſus, the days-man that lays his hand upon both: now ſaith the Apoſtle, a mediator, is not of one, but God is one,Job 9.55. Gal. 3.20. i. e. his buſineſs is to reconcile parties not only diſtinct, but different.
2. This Mediator is alſo ſurety or ſponſor, to be a ſuſceptor or undertaker for both parties, i. e. to perform what is neceſſary, both what concerns conferring of benefits on Gods part, not formally, and performing conditions on mans part, as though Chriſt believes and repents for us, to ſave us a labour of repenting or believing, but meritoriouſly, purchaſing theſe Graces for us, and efficiently working them in us, thus Jeſus is made a ſurety of a better Teſtament, Heb. 7.22 on Gods part, he brings in everlaſting righteouſneſs, and makes God friends with us, and all his attributes amicable to us, imploy'd for us: on our part working gracious diſpoſitions and actings, which are the conditions of the Covenant, ſo the whole lyes upon Chriſt:Col. 3.11. and he is all in all: he is reſponſible for God and Man, being only able and capable, as God and Man, to fulfill neceſſary terms on both parts: thus God promiſeth what he requires, and gives what he promiſeth, Jer. 3.19. But I ſaid, how ſhall I put thee among the Children, and give thee a pleaſant land, a goodly heritage of the Hoſt of Nations? And I ſaid thou ſhalt call me my Father, and ſhalt not turn away from me. [Thou ſhalt] there's Gods undertaking, to give filial diſpoſition and perſeverance: Oh infinite contrivance of Divine Wiſdom and Free grace!
Mr. Baxter's Directory.An Eminent Divine obſerves, that 1. The Goſpel relating matters of fact, is an hiſtory. 2. Declaring terms on which God will be ſerved, is a law of Grace. 3. Diſcovering promiſes of Life conditionally, it is Gods Covenant. 4. As accepted by Man, it is a mutual Covenant betwixt God and Man: this Law and Covenant of Grace, which was purchaſed by Chriſts Death, is that legacy he left to the World, diſpenſed by his Ambaſſadours, and effectually conveyed to the Legatees, or Heirs of Promiſe, by his grand Executor the Holy Ghoſt. This then is the great ſecurity of mans Salvation, That God worketh in us, Phil. 2.13. 1 Pet. 1.5.both to will and to do, that we are kept by the mighty power of God through Faith unto Salvation. This is the excellency of the Goſpel diſpenſation of the New-Covenant, the Old-Covenant laid all the ſtreſs on the ſhoulders of mutable man, and therefore it is judged, that the Covenant of God made with Adam in innocency, was peculiar to him in that eſtate and went no farther, is not at all continued in any force ſince the Fall, for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, then righteouſneſs had been by the Law, Gal. 3.21. but it is by the Goſpel-Covenant that we are juſtified and ſaved.
Queſt. What's all this to the purpoſe? All this ſeems to be perſonal not relating to poſterity, but you told us of grounds of hope for Children from the Covenant: how come Children concerned in this Covenant?
This leads me to the
4th Thing premiſed, viz. What is there in the Goſpel-covenant, that is ground of ſupport to Parents on the behalf of their Children?
I anſwer, in general, Parents and Children are legally one party, and in civil contracts are uſually involved in the ſame bottom, ſo in the firſt Covenant Adam being a publick perſon, repreſented all his Poſterity, for judgment was by one to condemnation, Rom. 5.16, 18.yea upon all men: we ſmart for Adam's ſin. And in the Old Teſtament-diſpenſation of the Covenant, Gen. 17.7. I will eſtabliſh my Covenant between Me and Thee, and thy Seed after thee in their Generations. And afterwards in Moſes days, when God renewed the Covenant, he ſaith Deut. 29.14, 15. Neither with you only do I make this Covenant, and this Oath, with him that ſtandeth here with us this before the Lord our God, and alſo with him that is not here with us this day, i. e. With their Poſterity, and ſo the People did underſtand it, Deut. 5.3. The Lord made not (i. e. only) this Covenant with our Fathers, but with us, even us who are all of us here alive this day. And in the New Teſtament, the Apoſtle ſaith, Act. 2.39. For the promiſe is unto you, and to your Children: this is a [faedus ad ſucceſſores tranſiens] a Covenant that paſſeth to ſucceſſors. Bargains, Leaſes, Legacies may paſs to Children, yea Children may ſuffer for their Parents faults, Traitors Sons loſe their Fathers inheritance.
Now we muſt look upon Children under a double capacity. 1. Children of Heathens, or Jews; Turks, or Infidels. 2. Children of Chriſtian Parents: concerning the former we have little to ſay. 'Tis the latter we treat of, and of theſe alſo, 1. Some are only by an external profeſſion in Covenant. 2. Others are ſincerely, ſavingly in Covenant with God: we can ſay little concerning the former, we inſiſt chiefly on the latter: and of both or all theſe, 1. Some Children dye, in Infancy, 2. Others live to years of maturity: I ſhall hint a word or two of the former, though it be the latter that I principally deſign.
1. For Children dying in Infancy, if we had any Scripture diſcovery concerning the Election of all Infants, or that Chriſt had expiated the guilt of ſuch Infants, or that effectual ſaving Grace doth always attend the Ordinance of Baptiſm, though they be brought under it (which yet many are not) the queſtion were quickly determined, but what God doth with the Souls of ſuch Infants, we have not ſufficient means to underſtand, and therefore leave them to Gods good pleaſure. But concerning the Seed of thoſe that truly fear God, of one or both the Parents, we have ground of hope for their Salvation: for
1. They are Holy, 1 Cor. 7.14. and though it be faederally or relatively holy yet may be really, and ſo be ſaved.
2. Our Saviour ſaith,Mark 10.14. of ſuch is the Kingdom of God, or of Heaven, Mat. 19.14. not only ſuch as have the diſpoſition of Children, but Infants themſelves, may be Church-members here, and glorify'd hereafter.
3. Children of Godly Parents are in Covenant with God, Now to Abraham and to his Seed were the promiſes made, Gal. 3.16. natural as well as ſpiritual: it's true there was a Covenant of peculiarity to give his Seed the land of Canaan, and it's as true, the text ſpeaks not of Seeds but one Seed, that is Chriſt, but the Scripture affirms, that in his Seed, Chriſt, yea in thee, ſaith God, ſhall all the Families of the Earth be bleſſed, Gen. 12.3. for ſo doth the Apoſtle interpret, and apply it, Act. 3.25. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant, which God hath made with our Fathers.
4. David had good hopes that his Child was gone to Heaven, 2 Sam. 12.25. I ſhall go to him, but he ſhall not return to me. Obſ. 1. He doth not only mean into the ſtate of the dead, where the child is, but into Heaven where I ſhall find him, for his Carcaſs was but part of him, and the leaſt part. 2. This hope he had of him, though the Child was begot in Adultery. 3. Though the Child was ſtruck with death, as a puniſhment of David's ſin. 4. Though the Child had not yet circumciſion the Seal of the Covenant, for he died on the ſeventh day, ver. 18. and we know that Circumciſion was not to be till the eighth day.Gen. 17.12. So that it ſeems the ſtreſs is not laid on the Seal, but on the Covenant: ſo that we ſee grounds of hope for the Eternal Salvation of the Infants, of believing Parents. But how and whence this comes to paſs, that ſuch Infants become capable of Eternal Salvation, that's a great Queſtion.
Luther thinks that Infants have actual Faith, from Mat. 18.6. Whoſo ſhall offend one of theſe little ones which believe in me. So reaſon is in Infants [tanquam in principio & Radice] in its principle, root, habit, virtually though not yet actually produced.
2. Others ſay they are ſaved by ſome peculiar, unknown, unſpeakable way without Faith, but the text ſaith, Mark 16.16. He that believeth and is baptized, ſhall be ſaved, but he that believeth not ſhall be damned: how far this extends with reference to Infants I know not.
3. Others ſay that Parents Faith is alſo Childrens, according to the Tenour of the Covenant; [I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed] thus Children have faith after a ſort. So the text ſaith, Rom. 11.16. If the Root be holy, the Branches are alſo holy. So in humane Laws the Father and the Heir are but one Perſon: of this opinion is Mr. Perkin's, and produceth the teſtimony of the Antients, as St. Auguſtin and Bernard, ſaying it is meet, and for the honour of God, that to whom age denies their own Faith, Grace ſhould grant to them, a benefit by the Faith of another. Perk vol. 1. fol. 486. where he anſwers Bellarmine's objection, That by this means Children ſhall be born Believers, and ſo be conceived and born without original ſin.
Anſw. Believing Parents ſuſtain two perſons, one whereby they are men, and thus they bring forth Children, having Mans Nature with all the corruptions of nature: the other as they are holy men, and Believers, and thus they bring forth Infants, that are not ſo much their Children, as the Children of God; and Infants are Gods Children, not by vertue of their birth, but by means of Parents Faith, which intitles them to all the bleſſings of the Covenant. Thus he.
But this is not the ſubject of our preſent deſign, and conſideration.