Secondly. The second inference concerneth the children of believing parents. If without faith it be impossible to please God, then children must have some kind of faith, else they can never be accepted to life.
1 know that the apostle doth principally speak of adult or grown per- sons, men of age, such as come to God, and seek him i but though, however, the rule is general, there is no salvation but by Christ, and there is no way of salvation by Christ but by faith ; and by the analogy of faith it concerns all that are accepted to salvation ; so that infants come under the rule, therefore some kind of faith they must have. It were uncharitable and contrary to the rich grace of the covenant to deny salvation and eternal glory to infants. The scripture showetli, that ' they are holy,' and dedicated to God, 1 Cor. vii. 14 ; and Clirist says, ' of such is the kingdom of God,' Mat. xix. 14. Now this faith of infants is a matter very intricate and difficult. Several opinions there have been about it, Origen held that infants were saved by virtue of those good works, the faith and obedience which they yielded to God in the bodies of other men before they were born, when their souls ani- mated other bodies. The Pelagians, against whom Austin disputes hard, that infants were saved out of the foresight of those good works which they would have performed, if God had suffered them to continue in the world. Against this Austin disputes, proving every man is to be judged, not according to what he would do, or might have done, but ' According to what he hath done in the body, whether good or bad,'
2 Cor. V. 10. And if this pretence were allowable, and a ground of salvation, then the men of Tyre and Sidon would be in a capacity of
VOL. XIV. F
82 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXV.
life 'without repentance ; for if they had had the means, saith Christ, ' Tliey would have repented long since,' Mat. xi. 21. Ambrose saith, They are saved by the faith of the church : Mark ii. 5, when Jesus saw ' their faith,' that is, the faith of the sick man that was healed of the palsy, and of those that brought him. But that seemeth improper by their being in the church ; they have a right to visible ordinances ; but grace is Grod's gift, and must be dispensed in his way. Beza saith, They are saved by the faith of their parents imputed to them. As they were infected by the sin of Adam by natural generation ; so by virtue of the covenant of grace tliey are saved by the faith of tlieir parents, but the child is not concerned in the acts of the father.
It is true, the faith of the parents makes way for the interest of the children in the covenant ; but every one is saved by his own faith — ' The just shall live by his own faith,' Rom. i. 17. It is not in the j^ower of another to damn or save me; for the immediate parents are not representatives and common persons, as Adam was. Though Adam be a means to transfuse and bring sin, yet the faith of the parents could not involve and put into a state of salvation and acceptance with God, The Lutherans, they say, that children have an actual faith, though, say they, the act be to us unconceivable. But this were to oflfer violence not only to our reason, but our very senses. Children are everywhere described to be those in scripture that ' Know not their right hand from their left,' Jonah iv. ult. We see they have not the use of reason, there- fore they have no knowledge of Christ .and the mysteries of i-eligion, and cannot have such an actual faith.
What faith, then, is left for infants, by virtue of which we may establish their acceptation with God ? Some think that this question is altogether unnecessary, and say, that the scriptures are so sparing in this matter, that grown persons may be more careful of their own faith rather than of the faitli of infants, who must be left, say they, to the free grace and pleasure of God, For my part I should think so too, and should not start this controversy were it not already agitated ; and were not the comfort of parents very much concerned in it, I should leave them to the grace of God. But upon those reasons, I think it necessary to be determined ; and I doubt not but it will make much for the glory of God and your own consolation. What is then to be said in this matter ?
1. Let it be premised, that the question is concerning the infants of believing parents; as for others, we leave them to the judgment of God. Some indeed think that all infants, as they peri^^hed in Adam, without knowledge of him, so they are redeemed by Christ without knowledge of Christ. As the Arminians say, that of infants there is neither election nor reprobation, and that no infant can be condemned for original sin ; both which assertions are false. For we find that the predestination of God hath plainly made a difference between infant and infant: Rom. ix. 11-13, 'The children being not yet born, and having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was said, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.' Jacob in his mother's womb was in a state of election ; and it is notable, that in many other places the scripture speaks as if God's decrees were