capable of any other ordinance, why fhould I not believe them regenerate in baptifm? If this opinion may be thought of any favour to the Papacy, that holds the facrament to be effectual, ex opere operato: He answers folidly, that this opinion ftands at a great distance from theirs; for that by their doctrine they make no difference between good and bad, elect or non-elect, in the participation of thofe benefits; They hold that in baptifm all infants that receive it are actually regenerate, whereas he restrains the efficacy of that ordinance, only to the elect; and he admits not all of them neither, for he excludes thofe of the elect that afterwards live to come under the means of regeneration; only he supposeth a poffibility and probability, that in fome elect infants (viz. thofe that die in infancy) the feafon of God's doing that, which all Chriftians acknowlege, is done at one time or other before the feparation of foul and body, c. their renovation, justification and fanctification) is ra ther the time of baptifm, than any other time

If any demand, how can infants in the womb, of in their infancy, be juftified and fanctified? Is not justificati on bestowed on believing? and is not fanctification convey. ed to us in the attendance upon the outward and ordinary means? The answer is, that God juftifies them upon and ther account, and fanctifies them in another way, than those that are of age: And for this my author cites and ther faying, As in the bodily life, one organ is the instrüment of nourishment to the child in the womb, another when born; fo in the conveyance of fpiritual life, it's one way to a child, another to one of years. For this is not the most univerfal propofition of the gospel, (he that be liveth fhall be faved) but this, (he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life:) Now God gives his Son by the Spirit, and we receive him by faith; but God can fupply the want of that hand in a child, by dropping into his mouth what he cannot receive with his hand, as I may fay,

All this I have faid of infants dying in the womb or in their infancy, but as for fuch, whofe life God prolongs til they come to years of age and difcretion, I have already delivered my mind, in the former fections.

SECT. IV.

SECT. IV.

Of the Privileges of elect Infants living beyond that time, but for the prefent under Satan's power.

7E fee it may be well with elect infants dying in their

infancy; but what fay we of them who may live longer, and are for the prefent under Satan's power? Have they no privilege above those children that are not elect?

I anfwer, Yes; and I may inftance in thefe particulars:

1. They have God's love. Jacob have I loved, faid God to Jacob before he was born: Which must needs be as true of Jacob when he was born. There is in God a love of benevolence, and that is afforded to the elect infants whilst yet carnal and dead in fin: As a woman lately conceiving loves her future fruit, fo the Lord loves thofe whom he purpofeth for himself. Indeed his love of complacency is not till their change and converfion, but his love of benevolence is from eternity.

2. They have a right to the covenant of fore fathers. This difference the apoftle makes between Jews and Jews, The election have obtained it, and the election are beloved for the father's fake,' Rom. xi. 7, 28. I fpeak here of the covenant of God with fore-fathers, as it undergoes an abstracted confideration from the perfonal covenant with us by faith. Infants of believers are far from actual faith, and yet they have this privilege, that the an tient covenant betwixt God and their fore fathers hath run (as it were) down in a line to them; and upon this ace count godly fathers many times fpeak for their tender babes, before they are able to speak for themselves; they plead a covenant entailed, and put it in fuit for them, while they are not yet but a fpan long, as every fuch a one fhould fay, Lord, here is a child conceived in fin, and born in fin; the very guilt and pollution of his pativity renders him obnoxious to eternal fire; and yet thou haft faid, I will be thy God, and the God of thy feed; and the promise is to you, and to your children; and thou haft ftiled thyfelf a God, fhewing mercy to thousands of generations of them that love thee; and thy word is clear, that the election is

beloved

beloved for the father's fake; now therefore be merciful to my poor child that comes of fuch and fuch a race, even for the covenant fake.

3. They have a right to the inward part of baptifm, as to regeneration, renovation, remiffion of fins, &c. You will fay, If infants were then regenerated, they could not be under Satan's power, I grant the improbability of their being actually regenerate until years of difcretion, and yet by baptifm they have jus ad rem, a remote right to thofe initial graces. Sacraments were never intended by God to exert their virtue only in, or during the adminiftration. As in the Lord's fupper, Chriftians by their experiences can teftify, that the benefit is moft-what after the receiving of it: So in baptifm it may be many years after the receiving of it; for otherwife it would follow, that baptifm would be altogether a barren facrament all our lives long, except only during the little time of its adminiftration: Oh what a bleffed privilege is this! the nonelect may indeed be baptized, and have the washing of water; but the elect fooner or later are baptized with the Holy Ghoft, and with fire: They have that initial facrament for the bestowing of initial graces upon them in the Lord's own time.

4. They have the tutelage of angels. Are not they all miniftring fpirits, fent forth to minifter for them who thall be heirs of falvation? Heb. i. 14. It is true, they are under Satan's power; devils move in them, dwell in them, reign in them; they keep the houfe of poor infant's fouls, and they are in quiet and peaceable poffeffion; yet notwithftanding all this, the holy angels have a charge from God to fee to thofe infants, and to preferve them warily as chofen veffels (maugre the dominion of Satan) against the time he fhall manifelt himself unto them. But of this privilege more fully in another discourse.

SECT. V.

Of the duty of Wrestling that concerns parents in this re

T

Spect.

HE duties that concern us in wrestling with Satan as to his first affaults, are either parents childrens...

duties or

1. For the parents, they are to perform fome duties before, and fome after their children's birth.

1. The duties before they are born are these,

1. Let the parents be humbled for that fin which they transmit to their children. Oh how should this pierce their hearts, that in Adam all finned, and by reafon of that fin, both they and theirs are defiled. Good Lord!, may they fay, is not this, lamentable, that we should derive fin from our parents, and that we should convey the fame fin to our children? that we should make our little ones fo foon as they live, vaffals of Satan, and objects of God's wrath? Oh the woe of this fin! did we but rightly confider it, what is this original fin but in fome fense all fin, and universal guilt? it makes the understanding guilty, the will guilty, the affections guilty, even guilt all over; there is no part of man, no not his mind, nor his confcience, but it is all over defiled with this fin; this is the fin that is the root and fountain of all the actual evils we commit every day: Is not every one tempted and drawn afide of his own lufts? O wretched babes, whom we have. begotten after his own image! how just were it now that God should turn you out of your mother's womb into hell flames? and are we the inftruments of your damnation, except the mercy of God prevent it? O deplorable condition! O wretched men that we are! Here's matter of humiliation.

2. Let parents call to remembrance, and improve the free and gracious covenant which God hath made with them and their pofterity; Iam thy God, and the Godef thy feed, Gen. xvii 7, 9. For the promife is to you and to your chil dren, Acts ii. 39. It is true, that by natural generation the children of believing parents are defiled with fin, and so under wrath; and yet they are holy by covenant and free acceptation. We fee the promife is not only to the pa rents, but allò to the children. Oh then that this promife might come into remembrance! Oh that parents would improve this promife, and make fure as much as in them. lies, that their children are indeed under the promife! But what can they do to make this hopefully fure? I anfwer,

1. Let them make fure that they themselves are under the promife; if their evidences are but clear, that they have an intereft in the covenant of grace, and that God is their God in Chrift; then may they have a comfortable hope that God will be the God even of their feed alfo.

2. Let them give themselves unto a God by a renewed Covenant. Let them again refign up themselves in all things to be guided by his word. Surely they that would give their children up unto God, muft firft give up them.. felves. As the promise-is made to the faithful, fo that faith which truly acts in dedication of children to God, must first draw the parties therafelves to yield up their fouls and bodies as a living facrifice unto the fame God.

3. Let them offer their children up unto God by hearty prayer. God's promise to accept our children calls for prayer on our part, that he would be pleased to make good his promife. Thus David reafoned, Thou, O Lord of holts, God of Ifrael, haft revealed to thy fervant, fay ing, I will build thee an houfe; therefore hath thy fer vant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee,' 2 Sam. ii. 27. And fo fhould every parent fay unto God, O Lord of hofts, God of Ifrael, thou haft covenanted to be my God, and the God of my feed; therefore I am bold to intreat thy fatherly acceptance of my poor infant: Haft thon not faid, that children are an heritage of the Lord, and that the fruit of the womb is thy reward,' Pfal. cxxvii. 3. Oh that this child may be one of thy heritage, of the fociety of faints, and that thou wouldst be to it a God and Father in the Lord Jefus Chrift; I press thee with thy promife, and I rely on thy promife; why, Lord, P believe, help thou my unbelief.

2. The duties after they are born are thefe:

1. Let the parents give up their children again to God. We read in Chrift's time, that fome devout perfons brought their children to Chrift, putting them into his hands and arms, Luke x. 13, 16. And thus fhould pa rents deal with their children; no fooner they are born and received by their parents from God, but they should again by prayer and thanksgiving be offered up to God. Parents fhould put them into his hands, and caft them in

to.