2. Do not cut off" your children by a contempt or neglect of baptism. Parents are guilty of more sin than they are aware of in depriving their children of this privilege ; it is a wrong to God, a wrong to their children, a wrong to the church, a wrong to themselves, and it gratifies none but the devil. It is a great wrong to God, for we veil the glory of his preventing grace. It is the grace of God that he began to us in this external way ; he chose us to be a portion to himself, and took us to be a seed to himself, before we knew or sought after him ; and we rob him of his portion. God challengeth an interest in the children that were born of covenanted parents : Ezek. xvi. 20, 21, ' Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born to me, and these thou hast sacrificed. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my childi-en ? ' God takes our children to be his children, he hath an interest in them. As he is a God to us and our seed, so we and our seed are to be his people. And then it is a wrong to your childfen ; partly, in that you begrudge God's bounty to them. God hath bestowed a privilege upon them, and you rob them of this privilege. And partly, in not engaging them in their infancy, but leaving them at large. The people of God have many times blessed God that they came under this obligation by baptism in infancy, before they had liberty to choose their own way. Sure it will be brought as an aggravation at the day of judgment against all those that have not walked answerable to their baptismal vow. Then you rob the church of a great part of their members, of the children of the kingdom, Mat. viii. 12, of the most innocent part of the church, those that dishonour God least ; but chiefly in this respect you do as much as in you lies seek to cut off" the succession of churches, and their con- tinuance. It is a mighty comfort to the people of God that they see a stock of little ones that are in covenant with God : Ps. cii. 28, ' The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be estab- lished before thee.' And then you wrong yourselves. God hath put this honour upon his saints, that ' their children are holy,' 1 Cor. vii. 14 Whatever his secret counsel be (for there God will take a liberty).
394 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI, [SeR. LIV.
they are under the visible, ordinary administration of the covenant of grace, which is entailed upon them. You know Abraham fell upon his face when God came to tender him this privilege ; Gen. xvii. 3, 7, ' I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.' The people of God have thankfully taken hold of such a privilege and mercy as tliis is. And so David : 2 Sam. vii. 19, ' And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, 0 Lord God, for thou hast s])oken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.' And you gratify none but the devil, who ever hath had a spite at the holy seed. As Amalek smote Israel in the rear, where there were litile ones, so the devil would fain crush Christ's kingdom in the egg. At first, when God accepted Abel's sacrifice, and fire came down from heaven, then Abel was chosen to be the holy seed, and the devil stirs up Cain to murder him, that in Abel he might de- stroy all the race of the church. After, when they were multiplied, still he seeks either to corrupt them when they are grown, or cause their parents to cut them off from God, and to dedicate them to Moloch,
3. Strive to keep up religion in your families by the education of your children. It is an excellent thing to see religion preserved, to run downward from father to son, and have those born of our loins that may worship and serve the Lord. I remember it is spoken of Abraham, Heb. xi. 9, that ' he dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.' This is sweet, when father, and son, and grandson are all heirs of the same promise. Pliny reports, it was counted a great honour and height of felicity, that in one family of the Fabii there were three presidents of the senate one after another, and in one house of Curio's were three excellent orators one after another ; but what honour is tliis when there is a constant succession of the power of godliness from father to son, and from son to grandchild ! In the third descent you count men gentlemen of a new and opulent family. Here is Jacob the grandson of Abraham. This is true nobility, to have a holy kindred ; there is no gentility like to this. It is a high honour to be father of such a race. Whereas otherwise omnis savgiiis corvcolor, all blood is of a colour. Take care then that this succession be not cut off. Great persons are careful to entail their lands and estates upon their children, but for religion they are not careful for them. It is much better to be heir of our father's faith and religion than to be heir of our father's lands and demesnes. It is a high hon- our when we can say, My God, my father's God, and my grandfather's God, 2 Tim. i. 5. My father, my grandfather, and my great gi-and- father feared the Lord : Prov. xxvii. 10, ' Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not.' When we can look upon the God of our progenitors, surely then we must not forsake our father's God. There- fore let not your blood be stained in this kind, but teach your children, that this honour may be kept up in your line and family. None stain their blood so much as they that forsake the faith. Treasons and mis- demeanours are a stain to noble ancestors ; so is also apostasy, and loss of church privileges.