86 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XXV.
[3.] That it is so I shall prove from the promise of God ; for God being faithful and true, his promise is as good as a positive assertion : God promiseth grace and glory to infants. Grace, Isa. xliv. 3, ' I will jiour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.' In the original, upon thy ' buds;' where the Spirit is promised to be poured out upon infants, not only on their seed in general, as implying persons of age, but on their ' buds,' ere they come to grow up to stalk and flower. Then for glory, Christ saith. Mat. xix 14, ' Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven ; ' heaven is theirs by grant and promise. Elect infants in general ]\a.vejus ad rem, a right to heaven ; but there is no jus in re, no actual right or interest, but by faith. But what need we argue, when we have a ])lain assertion ? Luke xviii. 17, ' Whosoever shall not receive the kingtlom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein ; ' they have not only a right to the kingdom of God, but they receive the kingdom of God 'as a little child receiveth it,' The sense carrieth it so ; that is, receiveth it by faith, accompanied with humility. But more plainly yet : Mat. xviii. 6, ' Whosoever shall otfend one of these little ones whicli believe in me,' &c ; there is the very word — ' which believe in me ; these little ones.' Christ speaks not meta- phorically, but literally ; ' these/ such as were then before him, and of them he saith, ' which believe in me.' Some make exception against this, and say, The child to which Christ alluded was then grown. I answer, that cannot be : for in Luke it is called /3pe^o?, an ' infant,' Luke xviii. 15 ; in Matthew iraihiov, a ' little child ; ' and Mark ix. 36. it is said, 'Christ took him in his arms.' And besides, in chil- dren that are more grown, pride, fierceness, and other ill qualities are bewrayed ; therefore such an one would not have been so fit for Christ's purpose to be propounded to the apostles for a pattern of meekness and humility. As they are called rational before they had the use of reason, so we have found that infants may, must, and have a principle of i'aith, from whence they may be said to be believers.
[4.] How is it so. What is the faith which children have ? I proved before that actual faith they have not, which begins in knowledge and ends in ajSfiance. It remains therefore that they have the seed of faith, or some principle of grace conveyed into their souls by the hidden operation of the Spirit of God, which gives them an interest in Christ, and so a right to his merit for their salvation. I confess among the orthodox there are different expressions about this matter, but they all agree in the thing. Some call it a habit of faith, some a prin- ciple, some an inclination, some the first-fruits of the Spirit, others the gift of the Spirit, which answers to actual faith. All agree in this, that it is some work of the Holy Gliost, which gives them a relation to Christ, and by virtue of this relation, they have an intei-est in his merit for the remission of sins and acceptance with God. The more usual terms are principle and habit. Some dislike the word habit, because the word is not scriptural, and because it seems more proper to faith that is grown and actually exercised, and because the habit of grace is not the condition of the covenant. More properly, it may be called the principle, or the seed of faith ; for so the work of the Holy Ghost is expressed, 1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
VeR. C] sermons upon HEBREWS XI. 87
sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God ; ' where the grace of regeneration is called the seed of God, which is cast into their hearts by the Spirit of God in a way unknown to us. In short, it is the work of grace, whereby the heart is quickened with spiritual life, and made a sanctified vessel to receive Christ. By the sanctifying Spirit all outward means are supplied, and infants are enabled unto that, which Dr Ames calls 'a passive reception,' by which they are in Christ, and united to him. It is not altogether without act, though it be such an act as is proper to their age.
OhJ. But you will say, Do all elect infants receive this sancti- fying work of the Holy Ghost, or seed of faith ? We see many infants of believers, whom in charity we judge to be elect, because the promise is made to them and their seed ; yet, when they are grown up we see they show themselves to be never regenerated in their infancy.
I answer, in this case we do not speak universally, but indefinitely ; we do not say that all infants do believe in Christ, but infants — and in the judgment of charity we presume it of all infants, that die in their inlaucy. We must leave God to the liberty of his coun.sel.'^. lest the freedom of grace should seem to be prejudiced by the merit of any family. God will take one and leave another, take Jacob and leave Esau ; only we say this in the general, that we have more cause to hope well of all the children of believing parents. Why ? because the grace of election runs and flows most kindly in the channel of the cov- enant, and therefore there is greater hope of such. Eom. xi. 24, the apostle calls them, ' The natural branches,' so as that they were more easily grafted in. The apostle puts a ' how much more,' upon them ; ' How much more shall the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree ? ' God may suffer the branches of the covenant to grow wild, and may graft in a strange slip, but it is most kindly to the nat- ural branches ; they have a greater sufficiency of means, an external right, as soon as born. Certainly it is a great advantage to be born of parents within the covenant ; they have an excellent inheritance, till they disinherit themselves by their own unthankfulness and rebellion. Look, as we judge of the graft by the stock from whence it is taken, imtil it bring forth other fruit, by which it may be discerned ; so for children, we judge of them by their parents until they come to years of discretion and choose their own way, and so do actually choose or refuse the grace of God.